Roman"s head pounded as he stared in Mikhail"s eyes. "You had better be telling me the truth," he rasped as he shifted Julianna"s inert body in his lap. He flexed one hand, released the smallest sliver of power, and his hand shifted, elongating, deadly claws forming. Roman raked one of the claws across his other wrist, watching as his blood welled. His hand melted back into human form as he slid his forearm under her head, lifting her slightly.
Blood ran down her chin as he held his wrist to her slack mouth. Mikhail moved, reaching over and tipping her head up more, forcing her jaws open. "She could hate me for this," Roman said bleakly. If it worked...
"She won"t. She would have become vampire at some point-she would have had no choice, Roman," Mikhail said gently. "Better now than when she is aged."
Roman"s lids flickered as he saw her throat move. Swallowing. Again. A shaky breath escaped him, and he looked up at Mikhail with wide, disbelieving eyes. "She"s drinking."
She didn"t open her eyes, even as Mikhail finally forced Roman"s wrist away from her throat. "That will do it, Roman," he said, his fingers going white at the knuckle with the force it took to pull Roman"s wrist away. "You want to bleed out? It would take longer, but even werewolves can bleed to death."
Roman clenched his wrist into a tight fist, watching as fat, sullen drops of blood flowed down his arm. Mikhail took his hand, gripping it and forcing his arm to straighten, taking a ragged strip of cloth he had gotten from somewhere and wrapping it around Roman"s wrist as a makeshift bandage.
When it was done, Roman shifted his arms under her, lifting her slowly, carefully in his arms as he stood. Mikhail flicked a glance at Eduard and said softly, "Don"t. He"s not worth it."
Roman moved to the edge of the roof, staring down at the woman who had stabbed Julianna. Isabeta was huddled on the ground, cowering from the three oversized wolves who circled around her. "She"s ours," he said shortly, not even looking at Mikhail as he spoke.
"Indeed," Mikhail said, an odd note in his voice. "At least I know werewolves are hotheaded enough to be swift in their punishments. Vampires prefer to take their time, torture-"
With a snarl, Roman bit out, "Don"t give me any ideas, man." He clenched his jaw as he looked from the roof to the ground. He could jump it, no problem. But that would jar Julianna"s body too badly.
"Give her to me."
Roman slid Mikhail a dark glance, but he finally slid her into his arms, watching closely as Mikhail levitated down to the ground. Roman jumped, landing on the b.a.l.l.s of his feet. Eduard came flying down to the ground, landing in a b.l.o.o.d.y pile of limbs as his guards threw him to the ground. The other two men leaped down, taking position once more at his side.
Sliding Isabeta a narrow glance, Roman ordered, "Put her in the lowest room in the tower. She tried to kill my mate."
Growls tore through the gathered werewolves, and the three pacing around her started to tear at the ground with their claws, dropping low, prepared to lunge. "Enough!" Roman bellowed, silencing the howls and the protests. "I"ll deal with her."
With that, he turned and carried Julianna into the sanctuary, striding up the stone staircase at the far end of the room, taking her to his room. Her pale skin gleamed like ivory against the dull, burnished gold of the tapestry quilt.
He hunkered down by the side of the bed, staring at her face with intense eyes. "Why doesn"t she open her eyes?"
"She won"t. Not until the next moonrise... although normally a vampire"s first meal is another vampire," Mikhail said from the doorway. "I"ve never seen what happens to a blood child if the first meal is a child of the sun, not the night."
Roman lay down gently on the bed, curling his body around hers, the coldness of her flesh chilling him. Placing a hand on her belly, he rubbed in slow, small circles. From time to time, her heart beat, a slow, irregular sound he heard maybe five times a minute. No air stirred in her lungs. Hoa.r.s.ely, he whispered, "I love you." She didn"t move. She made no sign she had heard him.
Closing his eyes, he settled down, prepared to wait.
Through the long night, Roman waited for her to rise. As dawn crept closer to the horizon, he paced the room, fury and sorrow mingling inside him, tightening his throat, tying his belly in knots.
Mikhail had left. His wolves, the ones who could stay, were gathered in the great room. They took turns watching Isabeta through the narrow slit of her window. There was silver at every entrance and bowls of garlic water placed throughout the room-enough to restrict her from using vampire magick to try to escape. And to make her just miserable enough that she could find no rest, no peace.
And Roman was alone. Alone to pace the room and wonder if he could have done something different, something that might have saved Julianna. He removed the bloodied clothes she wore, washing the traces of blood from her back, his mouth tight and grim, rage pulsing red in his mind. Isabeta ... a growl escaped his throat as he smoothed down Julianna"s hair, easing her back onto the bed. He couldn"t think of a way painful enough for him to use to kill the woman who had stabbed Julianna.
Julianna wouldn"t wake from her vampire sleep. Many new ones did not. Roman had to deal with that, had to deal with the fact that he might have lost the love of his life.
In the farthest corner of the room, he brushed aside the thick, heavy cloths that had been fastened to the wall to keep out the darkness. Through the thick burgundy of the curtains and the added protection of the black velvet, no light could penetrate the room.
With the heavy velvet held aside by his shoulder, he stared broodingly out into the lightening darkness, his eyes tracking the moon as it moved through the sky. One by one, the stars were lost to view as the sky brightened. The eastern sky gleamed gold as the sun started to creep onto the horizon. Staring into the golden brilliance of it, Roman felt one hot tear trickle down his face.
She would not wake.
Forcing a breath into his tight lungs, he stepped away from the window. Soon, tonight... tomorrow... soon, her heart would stop beating altogether and she would be gone, lost to him.
With a roar, he spun away from the bed and drove his fist into the unmoving stone wall, feeling stone split and flesh rip. Sinking to his knees, he stared at the jagged break in the stone, his mind going blank.
"Roman..."
For a long moment, he didn"t move. Then he slowly turned his head, looking over his shoulder to stare at the bed. Julianna. With his heart in his throat, he watched as her eyelids lifted.
"Sweet heaven," he whispered, surging to his feet and crossing the room in long, loping strides. Sinking to his knees beside the bed, Roman reached out, touching one hand to her face.
A slow smile curved her lips as she stared at him, her eyes puzzled. "What happened?" she whispered.
"You"re awake," he breathed, stroking his thumb across her mouth.
Her brows dropped low over her eyes as she asked weakly, "Why do I get the feeling that surprises you?"
In a stilted voice, he said, "Isabeta stabbed you, in the heart. The knife was silver."
Her lids flickered as he watched memory pour into her eyes. One hand came to rest on her naked breast, pushing against the resilient flesh with a shaking hand. "I remember something hurting-it burned like fire, but it felt so cold."
He swallowed, his tongue feeling thick and awkward as he brushed a gleaming ribbon of black hair back from her face. "You took the Blood Kiss, Julie. I fed you." Roman waited, blanking his face, as she stared at him with dark eyes.
Julianna"s tongue slid out, dragging across her dry lips. He heard her swallow as she lowered her lashes, reaching up with one hand to touch her mouth, probing where fangs would soon break through. "I was dying, wasn"t I?" she asked, her voice soft.
Roman flinched, the image of her crumpling to the ground flashing before his eyes. Gutturally, he answered, "Yes."
Julianna"s face paled as she pushed herself to a sitting position, running her tongue over the surface of her teeth. "I don"t feel any different." Her blue eyes moved around the room before landing on Roman"s face. She sighed, a deep shuddering breath, and Roman watched as she squared her shoulders. "Has the moon risen?"
"Hours ago," he murmured, some of the tension that squeezed around his heart relaxing a little when she didn"t stare at him with hatred in her eyes. "It"s dawn."
Julianna"s eyes widened. "Dawn? That can"t be. They rise at night, with the moon"s rising."
As she spoke, though, Roman glimpsed the pearly white of her teeth, seeing the elongated tips of dainty fangs. He grabbed at her arm as she swung out of bed, her eyes on the windows across from her. "You can"t," he whispered harshly.
She shrugged off his hand. "I don"t feel any different, Roman. You feel it inside when you are vampire. I don"t feel any different," she said, her voice urgent.
His hand fell away as she slid from bed, her eyes grim and determined. One hand caught the blanket, and Roman clenched his jaw, rising to take the blanket and help tuck it around her nude form.
He followed at her heels, ready to jerk her away from the window when the sun burned her flesh. She moved slowly, the erratic beat of her heart picking up, her mouth tight with strain. As she reached the window, Roman saw the weariness that was overtaking her. "Let me take you back to the bed," he insisted.
"I have to see." Her voice brooked no argument as she reached out with a shaking hand to draw the protective drapes away from the window. Roman watched as the sun painted her skin gold and a smile curved her lips. Those diminutive fangs flashed at him as she looked back at him, smiling. "It doesn"t hurt," she said, her eyes sparkling.
Roman stared at her, confused as h.e.l.l. She flung herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck, laughter bubbling out of her throat. "It doesn"t hurt!" she repeated, hugging his neck as he closed his arms around her, nuzzling his face into the thick black curtain of her hair.
Hunger tore through him as she pressed against him, the soft curves of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s against the wall of his chest, her soft belly cuddling the aching length of his c.o.c.k.
Gathering her hair in his hands, he pulled her head back, taking her mouth greedily and plunging his tongue deep inside. With savage jerks of his hand, he tore open the blanket, revealing the long, pale lines of her body, falling to his knees to capture one beaded nipple in his mouth, worrying it with his tongue and teeth as his fingers stroked the other, milking it, tugging it with slow, thorough strokes.
Her fingers buried in his hair as he lifted his face to stare at her. "I love you, Julie," he whispered thickly, his fingers curving around the soft flare of her hips.
Her lips parted on a gasp, and Roman watched as tears leaked from her eyes, rolling down her cheeks and splashing on his face. "I love you, too," she murmured, wrapping her arms around him and bending down to cover his mouth with hers.
Julianna"s tears flowed, dampening his face as well as hers as they kissed. Roman eased her down into his lap, spreading her legs so she straddled his hips, her naked b.r.e.a.s.t.s pressing against his bare chest. Through the fragile barrier of her ribs, he felt the slow, steady beating of her heart. His head swam with the hot, musky scent of her body, and his hands burned as he ran them over her sleekly curved body.
He shifted, moving onto his knees and spilling her onto her back. He laid his hands on her knees and ran them up the silken skin of her inner thighs, spreading her legs, his hands moving up until his thumbs met in the middle, at the apex of her thighs. He stroked one thumb down the glistening, dew-slicked flesh of her p.u.s.s.y, a hungry growl trickling from his throat. Roman sprawled between her thighs, holding open her folds as he pressed his mouth against her, driving his tongue into the tight well of her p.u.s.s.y. He alternated between stabbing his tongue inside and shifting so he could suckle on her c.l.i.t.
Her hands fisted in his hair, and she screamed out his name as her heels dug into his back. Roman rose up, tearing open his jeans. Covering her, he arched his c.o.c.k against her, sliding back and forth across the slick lips of her s.e.x, groaning as she arched up against him, trying to take him inside. "d.a.m.n it, Roman, please!" she sobbed out.
He chuckled, shifting his angle and driving into her with one, breath-stealing thrust. Roman thought he"d die from the pleasure as she closed over him, the snug silk of her tissues rippling around him as her body tried to accommodate his.
"I thought I"d lost you," he rasped, cupping her head in his hands and angling up her mouth. He pressed his lips against her eyes, her nose, the elegant curve of her chin, sliding his mouth against hers, licking at her lips, teasingly sliding his tongue inside her mouth and then retreating.
"Nothing could keep me away from you." Her scream echoed off the walls as he pulled out and surged back inside her. "Roman!"
With hard, short thrusts of his hips, he pumped into her, staring down into her face. Her eyes stared up into his as she bucked under the onslaught of his thrusts. As she started to scream again, Roman covered her mouth, swallowing the soft cry as she exploded around him.
His control was shot. Too much had happened. He"d almost lost her. He reared back, planting his hands on the ground beside her face and driving into her hungrily, all thought gone, as she convulsed and shuddered around him. He howled out her name as he exploded, coming inside her with hot, vicious jerks of his c.o.c.k.
Then he collapsed down and lay against her, his head pillowed between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Her fingers laced behind his neck, and he felt her satisfaction as she sighed.
"I was so d.a.m.ned afraid," he muttered, watching as the soft flesh of her nipple puckered and drew tight as he spoke, the air from his mouth caressing over the stiffening peak. "I thought I"d lost you-and I just found you."
Julianna hugged him tight. "I won"t ever leave you, if I have a choice," she whispered.
"If you do... I"ll follow you."
Mikhail studied her teeth with a thoughtful frown on his face. "Those aren"t vampire fangs, darling," he finally said, lifting one shoulder in a shrug, his face as confused as the rest of them felt. "And you stood in sunlight. The newly changed cannot do that."
Julianna scowled at him as he continued to pace around her, stroking his chin thoughtfully, his eyes watching her carefully. "I took the Blood Kiss. I was dying, and Roman"s blood saved me. If they aren"t vampire fangs, then what are they?"
Roman lay sprawled on the bed, his eyes heavy with exhaustion as he listened to them. He hadn"t slept. She"d tried to make him, but she had been wasting her time and she knew it. He wouldn"t sleep until she did.
Mikhail laughed, a deep chuckle that echoed through the room as he slid Roman a glance. "I told him. I did not know what would happen if a child of the night took her first meal as a full vampin from a child of the day. We take so much more than blood within when we feed-hopes, dreams, desires... even power. A vampire can gain much from those he feeds upon. Witches were once nearly hunted to extinction because the vampires discovered what they could gain by feeding from a witch. And the first meal helps forge you into what you will be. And your first... was werewolf. Not vampire, as it has always been among us. But werewolf."
Juhanna"s eyes narrowed as she stared at Mikhail. It was Roman who spoke first. "So you are saying she"s more like me than a vam pire?" he asked doubtfully.
"I"d say she is more like herself," Mikhail said with a wide grin "As she has always been. She is unique. Hmmm. I do have to won der what vou"ll be capable of."
She sneered at him, turning to go to Roman, sinking down on the bed, and cuddling against him. The moon had risen. Her eyes were heavy.
She"d always feared when she became vampire, she"d want nothing more than to be like her father. Blood-thirsty, power-hungry evil.
It wasn"t the vampirism that had made him that way, though Meeting Mikhail had proved that.
Eduard Capiet was just evil.
Julianna was herself. And all she wanted was to wrap herself around her lover and sleep the night away.
His eyes gleamed down at hers, and he muttered, "Mikhail-go away."
As Roman"s mouth came down on hers, she had to admit, Well, maybe that"s not all I want...
end.