Illicit Hunger Read online

  He knelt beside her. So much blood everywhere. Spreading rapidly over her torso. She tried to sit up, but Jericho pressed a gentle hand to her shoulder. He eased her into his arms so he held her close. “Easy,” he murmured.

  Something was terribly wrong. An ordinary wound should have closed by now. Vampire metabolism should have begun repairing the damaged skin, sealed the bleeding vessels. Blood seeped from her, saturating her clothes and pooling on the ground beneath her.

  He scanned the gaping area, grimacing as he recognized the cauterized edges. The attacker used silver. By itself, the metal wouldn’t kill her, but it could slow down her recovery significantly. Perhaps slow enough she would bleed to death before the wound closed. If she stood even a slim chance of survival, she needed immediate help.

  “Oh, my gods, Lia!”

  Jericho’s head snapped up at the sound of Syler’s frantic scream. He’d come out of the VIP room and stared down on them. Syler paled in the fluorescent lighting someone had the sense to turn on. Only a few humans remained in the building, most of them heading for the exits.

  Without thinking, Jericho barked, “I need you to get her father’s healers. Bring them to her now!”

  For a moment he wasn’t sure Syler heard. His eyes were glazed as he watched her in Jericho’s arms. He focused after a few seconds and his eyes slanted in accusation. “Where were you? Where were her guards?”

  “Sire,” he said through rapidly rising anger. Biting back the words that came to him by instinct took his last measure of patience. “She needs her father’s healers. Will you bring them to her now?”

  Syler’s attention shifted from his friend to Jericho in rapid succession. “If she dies, were, I will have your furry hide strung up on my wall.”

  Jericho wanted to scream she won’t die if you get help! Wanted to lift the effeminate vampire by the scruff of his shirt and pin him to the wall. Maybe show him just who he dared to threaten, but he kept his silence. He released the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding when the vampire dematerialized.

  He looked down again on the prima lux—Lia, as Syler called her. So much blood. She needed to feed, to slow down the seepage by fortifying herself. He should have thought of that before sending Syler away.

  He glanced into her face and realized she stared back at him. She looked serene and he was grateful at least she didn’t seem to be in pain. “Prima lux?”

  “It doesn’t hurt,” she said. “I thought dying would hurt more than this.”

  The calm way she spoke, the lack of emotion disconcerted him. He’d seen men twice her size and a dozen years battle-weary cry like babies when their end came. “Save your strength, prima lux. Your father’s healers will be here soon.”

  Her cold hand clamped onto his. “No. I don’t want them near me, please!”

  “But—“

  “Please, guard?”

  He shook his head. This had to be a fear of death talking. Besides, her father would accept nothing less than his own death if she died. She’d been his charge and he failed her. “You need to feed, prima lux. You may not need them then.”

  She relaxed so suddenly, he thought she might have slipped away. But she nodded and eased his worry. He looked around and found a single wide-eyed human staring at them from across the room.

  “Human! She needs to feed!”

  The man in his early twenties froze for a minute, then took off at top speed for the exit. Not before Jericho saw the dark stain spreading across his crotch.

  Shit. Stupid virgin.

  What to do now? They were alone and she needed to feed. If there was any chance of saving her, she had to have blood. Already her skin paled to a shade of gray that swept cold fear down his spine. Her eyes dulled with each minute that passed. They’d lost perhaps only five minutes in time. She probably wouldn’t live to see the end of another five.

  Gods forgive him.

  “Prima lux, you must feed from me.”

  Her breathing picked up speed, her breath coming on ragged gasps for air. She shook her head. “No—”

  “You’ll die if you don’t!”

  “No.”

  Just saying the simple word seemed to take so much effort. He couldn’t let her die, not like this. A woman so young deserved better. If they had to break a taboo so she would live, he couldn’t hesitate to do it. His life was forfeit anyway.

  In a soothing tone, he pleaded, “Prima lux, L-Lia, please. Your father, your community needs you.”

  Her chest heaved as she struggled to breathe. The loose grip on his hand slackened. Her fingers slid away from his, leaving a red trail behind. Fierce determination still blazed in her eyes even as the light drifted away from them.

  “Mustn’t,” she mumbled. Her eyes slipped closed before her head lolled to the side.

  He didn’t stop to think. Jericho reached for the throwing knife in the side pocket of his pant leg. He used it to slice open the skin of his wrist. When he pressed the wound to her mouth, he prayed he wasn’t too late.

  Nothing happened at first and his heart sank. Maybe he let too much time pass. He’d hoped her natural survival instinct would cause her to draw from him. To do whatever was necessary to live.

  Just when he started to give up hope, her lips created suction on his wrist. A moment later, she reached up and gripped his arm, her hands cold and clammy to the touch. He winced as he felt her canines elongate and pierce his skin further. Then another sensation struck him like a fist.

  Jericho’s cock hardened almost to the point of pain as a wave of pleasure washed over him. He slammed his eyes shut, tried to breathe through the assault on his senses. He could feel every heart beat, hear every time his pulse emptied his life’s blood into her mouth. Her hot, moist tongue on his wrist teased him to distraction.

  His eyes rolled to the back of his head as the images he’d kept at bay before flooded his mind. She was beneath him, their bodies writhing as they sought pure unadulterated bliss together. Her soft moans encouraged him as he pumped into her body. Sought to fill her with his seed. Her nails raked his back, her hands traveling over his straining muscles.

  He held her close to him. Breathed in her jasmine scent, inhaling over her hair, down her neck. Stopped to taste the pulse at the base of her neck. She arched into him, her breasts pressing into the curls on his chest. He withdrew long enough to pull the taut bud of her nipple into his mouth, before missing the comfort of her warmth.

  “Lia,” he whispered as he pushed inside of her. She answered with a sigh that made his heart skip a beat. He couldn’t remember the last time a woman felt so good, so right next to him. Like he was meant to be with her on every level.

  “Gods, Lia,” he moaned. When she rolled her hips beneath him, it was his undoing.

  The orgasm rocketed through Jericho, seizing him until he could do nothing but give in to it. His body tensed as everything that he was poured out of him and into her. He could only shudder uncontrollably, each of her faint cries causing another wave of spasms to grip him. When he was finally drained, it was all he could do to press his lips against her cheek.

  He opened his eyes to the sight of Lia pulling away from his wrist, her mouth glistening. She licked the openings on his wrist, the skin mending as she did. A sheen of perspiration covered her brow, her breath coming on quick breaths.

  “What—what just happened?” she gasped.

  Jericho looked into her startled eyes, then glanced about the room. They were both still fully clothed, surrounded by the vast emptiness of the club. He also noticed the wound on her chest had almost sealed shut, thank the gods. He waited a moment longer for it to completely mend before reflecting on her reaction and the significance of the bite.

  Really, why was she so surprised? He didn’t know what to expect from her bite, but if this was what happened every time, sign him up for more.

  The last time he’d come in his clothes was probably in his adolescent years, but the little bit of sticky discomfort now was well w
orth it. Her cheeks were as flushed as his own heated skin, so he had a feeling the orgasm might not have been one-sided. That sent satisfaction through him in ways which wasn’t quite decent. Only the look on her face kept a grin from growing on his face.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  It struck him then. The reality of what just transpired. Not only had a vampire just fed from a werewolf, the second highest ranking vampire of their community had done so. The woman he was sworn to protect. On top of that, they exchanged something mere words could not express.

  He scrambled away from her, dropping to a knee in supplication. His face cast downward, he replied, “Jericho Taylor, prima lux.”

  *

  “You called me Lia before.” She watched his body stiffen, his hands curling into fists at his side. He started to lift his head, but must have thought better of it and it dropped again.

  “I meant no offense, prima lux. If I have offended…”

  “Don’t,” she interrupted softly. “Rise and look at me, Jericho.”

  For a moment, she didn’t think he would comply, but she gave him almost no choice. On a professional level, he was duty bound to obey her every command. Even if it went against everything he’d been ever taught. On a personal level, well, they were still trying to figure that part out now, weren’t they?

  In all the years of feeding—and that meant all of her twenty-seven years—she never before experienced something as intense as what just transpired. On a rare occasion she managed to derive a little erotic pleasure from feeding, but never, never to have it feel so tangible. To feel as if their two bodies were physically connected as they rushed toward ecstasy. When the orgasm struck, it was like a bolt of lightning hit her from the inside, spreading over every inch of her skin until she all but exploded from the crackling energy. Even now, she tingled from the remnants of their ethereal union.

  And whose idea again was it to never feed from a werewolf? To think she missed out on this all these years…

  He finally stood, but kept his gaze above her head. Gods, she’d been fortunate he’d been there. No one had to tell her how close to death she’d come. The cold darkness embraced her as she slipped away from this world. She shuddered just thinking about it.

  “Jericho, what happened? Did you do that?”

  His eyebrows knitted together. His gaze dropped to her before rising again. “Pri…”

  “I think we’ve made it past formality. Look at me. Talk to me.” She’d never get any answers out of him if he insisted on using her title and kept his distance. Besides, she wanted to look into his eyes when they talked. Just like when they’d made love, if she could call it that. No matter what, if the she could look into his eyes and they looked the same as that moment in time when they’d been intimate, she’d know, really know something special happened between them.

  He folded his arms across his chest. Although he no longer looked above her head, he kept his attention on the floor at his feet. “You felt it too? All of it, I mean?”

  The tips of his ears turned beet-red. So maybe it wasn’t formality keeping him aloof. Perhaps a bit of embarrassment had been tossed in for good measure. Lia smiled. “Oh yeah. I felt all of it, too.”

  “Doesn’t that happen every time?”

  She barked a nervous laugh. “No, it most certainly does not. I’ve never had anything like that happen to me before.”

  “What do you think it means?” he asked after a pause. He raised his eyes enough to study her face.

  It means we’ll be doing it again if I have my way, she thought. She said, “I don’t really know.”

  His face tightened. “Alright. But what will happen if anyone finds out?”

  That was the million-dollar question. He initiated feeding from his wrist to save her life. There was no denying that. But he did it against a rule generations old. Vampires did not drink from weres.

  Ever.

  She’d have to look at the law books to see when last the taboo had been broken and what might have been the consequences. It had to have been something dire, since no one dared risk it. Hell, no one even talked about risking it.

  Not until now.

  Chapter Three

  Jericho glanced past her, and then stiffened. He tilted his chin in the air, his attention now fixed above her head. Lia whirled to find Syler and her father standing a few feet behind her. Beyond them, one of the healers and a phalanx of vampire guards stood at the ready.

  “Lia!” Syler called. He ran toward them and wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug. “I thought you were a goner, girl. I mean, that’s what I told your father. She’s a goner, I said.”

  Crap. She looked past Syler at her father, then pulled away. She dipped in a curtsy, her head bowed.

  Jason Hampton stood as regal as ever. Long silver hair hung past his shoulders over the soft, silken material of his coat. Their faces so similar in features, no one could ever mistake her as the daughter of anyone else.

  She said, “I’m unharmed, Lugh. Thank you for seeing to my welfare.”

  He raked her over with his gaze. “So it would seem.” His attention shifted to Jericho. “Is it true that you were attacked because your guard left you vulnerable?”

  Straight to the point. She could expect nothing less.

  Jericho’s jaw clenched before he spoke. “My Lugh…”

  “Lugh, I am alive because my guard thought quickly. He found a human for me to feed from when I needed it the most.”

  Jason walked to where she stood and cupped her face in his hands. Blue eyes, similar to her own, stared back at her. She leaned into his touch, treasuring a rare moment of intimacy with her father. His gentle voice whispered in her mind.

  You are alright, truly, Aurelia?

  Yes, papa.

  You seem… different.

  She almost looked away. Could he tell? Perhaps a little shaken, but it’s fading. I’ll be fine.

  Have my healers look at you just in case.

  She nodded. Yes, papa. Thank you.

  Tell me. Were you left unattended? Is this why you were attacked?

  This time she did look away, shame burning through her. Please do not fault them. I left their care as you have so often advised against. The fault is solely mine, papa. The guard—he saved my life.

  “Then, I owe this guard a debt of gratitude, it seems.” Jason dropped his hands and walked to Jericho. He paused in front of him before saying anything. Loud enough for his words to be heard by all present, he said, “You are credited with saving the life of the prima lux. What reward would you have?”

  Lia exchanged a look with Syler. It would be interesting to see what he asked for. A reward from the Lugh meant he could request almost anything and know he would get it.

  Jericho remained at attention. A true credit to her father’s guardsmen. “I would humbly ask that my obligation to your service be satisfied in the time agreed upon and not extended for any reason. Other than that, my Lugh, the safety of the prima lux is all the reward I need.”

  Her eyebrows shot up at his statement. Of all the things he could have requested, this would have never crossed her mind.

  A hesitant smile crept onto her father’s face. He seemed as intrigued by the ‘reward’ as the rest of them. “Are you sure, guard? This is not the time to be humble.”

  “Yes, Lugh. It’s all I need.”

  “Then it is so.” He started to turn away, but turned back, resting his chin on two fingers. “But I will request a favor from you in the meanwhile.”

  “Lugh?”

  “Until my daughter marries a week from now, I would have you act as her personal guard…”

  The steady drum of Lia’s heart stopped for a fraction of time. She might have even blacked out for a second or two, but couldn’t be certain.

  “We’ll make other arrangements for her safety at that point,” the Lugh finished.

  Jericho lost his composure just long enough to glance at her. He remembered himself, his spine st
iffening. “It would be my honor, Lugh.”

  “Oh, girl!” Syler squeaked. Gods, she’d almost forgotten he stood by. “You’re moving up in the world! Your own personal hunk for a guard. My life should be so fortunate.”

  First, she lived in a station that allowed her almost no freedom. Then because of said station she would be auctioned off to the highest bidder to be his spouse. Finally, to top it all off, she earned her own private baby sitter until that time.

  Yeah. Fortunate wasn’t the word she would have picked.

  She looked at Jericho’s chiseled face again. This next week would prove to be very interesting.

  * * * *

  Shit. This was supposed to be an easy assignment. Just a bit of following the prima lux around and then he would be through. The duty to his family over. Duty to the Lugh over. After that, just a simple life alone with no responsibilities to weigh him down ever again.

  All he wanted was to be left in peace. He didn’t want fame. Didn’t want fortune. Just a simple life. Was that really too much to ask? Although, maybe this wouldn’t be too bad. Just a single week. One week of following her around. The original plan still maintained with just a slight twist.

  He could feel his inner wolf panting with excitement because it knew the truth as well as he did, no matter how much he didn’t want to face it.

  How could he effectively protect a woman whose bed he wanted to slip into? If being with her came even remotely close to what he imagined when she fed from him, staying out of her bed would be an impossible task. What if it wasn’t imagined? What if…

  Gods. No matter how he sliced it, he was screwed.

  Her father asked too much. He couldn’t do this. What gave him the right to ask this of him? The fact he wore the title Lugh like a second skin?

  Jericho’s shoulders slumped.

  Yep. That would do it.

  He stood inside her bedroom now, facing the closed door. The first time he stepped through the entrance and spotted the large bed, he almost whimpered. It seemed to take up all of the floor space. If any other piece of furniture occupied the room, he’d be damned if he could find it. All he could see was that bed. Just sitting there all dressed up and calling to him. Turning his back to it seemed the only way he could tolerate its presence.