Urging her to her feet, he undressed her slowly, revealing each luscious curve. He paused to caress her generous b.r.e.a.s.t.s, which filled his hands, and the large, rosy peaks of her nipples. She moaned as he sucked at them, but with a little love bite, he moved lower down her body until he was the supplicant before her, peeling away her leather pants to reveal the nest of auburn curls between her thighs.
She gazed down at him then, her brown eyes dilated with pa.s.sion, her lips full, not that he would kiss her. He never kissed any of his conquests on the mouth.
Instead he grasped her hips and urged her forward. He nuzzled the curls with his nose and then slipped his hand around and parted her, eased one finger and then another into her while he licked the nub between her legs.
She gasped in delight and grabbed hold of his shoulders. Her soft moans drove him on, until he could wait no longer. Surging to his feet, he raised her off the floor and drove into her before walking them to the far wall of the room.
With her back against the rough plaster, she shifted her hips, moving on him, and he hammered into her again and again until she nearly screamed from the force of his thrusts and the pleasure they wrought in her.
The pulse at her neck beat rapidly. Violently. Blood called him to fulfill another need.
Diego bent his head and placed his lips there. He licked her skin, finding it slightly salty from the sweat of their lovemaking. Sweet beneath the sweat.
She shot him a look from the corner of her eye, and he whispered against the side of her face, "You know what I want."
At her nod, he surged upward into her one last time, liberating a climax that made her scream.
Then he finally freed the demon. His eyes bled out and fangs erupted from his mouth. Fangs that he drove deep into the skin at her neck.
Her body tightened around him, held him closer as the vampire"s kiss created a different kind of hunger within her. Within him.
He sucked, savoring her blood, singing with the pa.s.sion from their s.e.x. He felt filled with youthful energy. Her blood charged every inch of his vampire body with renewed strength.
He could have kept on feeding, as many did, until there was no choice but to turn the human or let her die. Instead, he took only enough to sate the night"s hunger, knowing that tomorrow there would be another willing human or a delicious libation at the Blood Bank.
Rearing back, he carried the nearly unconscious young woman to the bed. His hands trembled with the energy zipping through his veins from his feeding, but somehow he managed to rearrange her clothing and his.
As he gazed down at her, she seemed to be peacefully asleep. The bite marks on her neck were already healing. When she woke, she would feel as if she merely had a bad hangover, and remember little of their encounter.
And what will you feel when you wake? the voice inside his head asked. But Diego knew there was no waking from this eternal nightmare. From the endless days filled with only one certain thing. Death. No end to the loneliness that had returned with Esperanza"s death. Especially not with a human, he reminded himself. With a last look at the woman, he fled the Blood Bank.
Though hunger was abated, the encounter had left him unsatisfied. He dived into the night to find a different kind of delight.
With the energy of the young woman"s blood rushing through his veins, Diego leaped up to the rooftop of the adjacent building. A harvest moon filled the night sky, illuminating the city below, lighting the night for him, as if knowing of his intent.
A burst of vamp speed had him nearly flying over the rooftops, vaulting from one building to another in his haste to reach his destination. The air rushed against his body, but barely cooled the heat of the demon driving him. With one last, almost desperate jump, he was on the ledge of Ramona"s building, an old converted warehouse in a part of town that had yet to be gentrified. It was probably why she could afford to have the uppermost loft. It boasted skylights at various locations that flooded the s.p.a.ce with light so she could paint.
He imagined her down below, standing before one of her canvases, as he neared one skylight. Imagined her stroking the brush across the surface, and immediately the paintings she had completed came to mind, reawakening his earlier desire. A desire that taking the young woman hadn"t satisfied.
He suspected only one woman could slake his need tonight.
Slowly he crept to the skylight and glanced downward. The paintings were there, but that wasn"t what he wanted to see.
He shifted to the next skylight-smaller than the first, but still generous enough to provide a view.
She was there, below the gla.s.s, lying in bed, the sheets in disarray around her naked body.
Diego groaned and reared back from the sight, knowing how wrong it was, and yet unable to deny himself this. This was all he could allow himself with her-this distant pa.s.sion. Anything else would be wrong on so many levels. She was human.
He wasn"t.
She would die.
He wouldn"t.
He couldn"t keep her with him. He wouldn"t turn her and see her change. See all that he admired about her become twisted by the grief that would inevitably follow as the years pa.s.sed and life went on around them. As loved ones and familiar things were lost.
He had seen how it had affected Esperanza. How it had touched the lives of Ryder and all his other friends. He had encountered one too many vampires whose hearts had grown cold, or who had gone nearly insane from the loss of those for whom they cared, and all they held dear.
He wouldn"t visit that kind of distress on anyone else. But he wouldn"t deny himself satisfaction this night, he decided, as he inched back to the edge of the gla.s.s and peered down.
Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s were full and as beautiful as he had imagined, with dark coral nipples he hungered to taste. The sheet draped across her body just beneath her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, the dark maroon color highlighting the paleness of her skin and accenting the chestnut highlights in her hair.
She shifted in bed and her long dark hair fell against her breast. She brushed the errant lock away, but then paused, her hand lingering there.
Diego swallowed back a groan as she touched herself, cupping her breast and fingering her nipple until it peaked to a hard point.
She was awake.
With his vamp senses he could detect the rhythm of her heartbeat and breathing, which said she was conscious of what she was doing. He could hear the beat grow faster and see the pulse in her neck jump as she played with the tip, rotating it between thumb and forefinger. Pulling and pinching it as a lover might.
After their brief interlude earlier that night, was she imagining that it was him?
At the thought, his erection swelled painfully against his jeans, human desire overriding the demon. As wrong as he knew it was, he couldn"t pull away from the sight of her, couldn"t stop himself from reaching down and imagining it was her palm on him.
His mouth watered as she moved her other hand downward, past the rounded curve of her hip visible above the sheet. He stroked harder as her fingers found her center beneath the sheets, and the beat of her heart surged in response.
When her hips raised off the bed, he groaned and closed his eyes, imagining how he might grasp those hips and drive into her.
How he might stroke her to a release the way he now pulled at himself, harder and faster as his vamp senses picked up the erratic breaths spilling from her lips. He heard the soft moan of desire followed by a sharp gasp as fulfillment chased through her body.
He came then, violently and so swiftly he grew light-headed from the force of it.
Dropping away from the skylight, he sat at the edge, spent. Humiliated at how little control he had exhibited. Only it had been so long since he had felt such need. And it wasn"t just since Esperanza"s death nearly eighteen months earlier. Diego realized that it had been too long since life and pa.s.sion had filled his being. Since he had truly lived.
At that, he bent his legs and buried his head in his knees, tears threatening as he realized the emptiness of his life. Of all that had been his existence for five hundred years.
Just because one woman"s pa.s.sion had roused him as never before. A woman he could never have. With a rough breath, he forced himself to rise and put things to right, but as he did so, he allowed himself one quick look before he left.
One look too much, he realized, when he saw that she had curled up into a ball and was crying. Her tears tugged at his heart, but before he did something he would truly regret, Diego surged off the roof, the sight of her crying driving him away, since all he could do was bring her yet more tears.
Ramona dashed the tears from her face, chastising herself for her weakness. She should never have given in to the remnants of the dream-one filled with her and Diego making love.
But she had let her need guide her, and the physical satisfaction she had given herself had been gratifying at first. Then the realization had come of how empty it was. Much like her life. Much the way her life would end.
Empty and alone.
She had spent her early teen years struggling to survive in the barrio, joining a small street gang for protection and company. With her dad gone and her mother slowly losing her mind, there hadn"t been anyone else to turn to.
A bad mistake. Their petty thievery and rivalry with another gang had landed Ramona in juvie for a few difficult months. It wasn"t the time in the detention center that had been hard, it was worrying whether her mother was coping alone. Luckily, a caring counselor had helped her out and provided her mother with a visiting nurse.
That and an art cla.s.s during her incarceration had set Ramona on the path to a college scholarship. After, she had devoted much of her later teen years and early twenties to her art, perfecting it at the cost of a social life. Any time not in the studio was spent caring for her mother at home, until the Alzheimer"s worsened and her mom had to be inst.i.tutionalized.
Ramona had dated now and again during the last few years, but had found no man she could imagine spending the rest of her life with. No man as attractive as Diego, who had become her patron shortly after her graduation from college.
Now thirty was just a stone"s throw away, only she wasn"t sure she would reach that age. She had been battling the anemia robbing her of life for almost three years, since the diagnosis that had rocked her world.
Dying didn"t bother her as much as the thought of dying alone and unsatisfied. Of dying without ever knowing the kind of love she had seen her parents share before her father"s own untimely death and her mother"s illness.
Diego, she knew, was capable of a love like that. She had known of his devotion to Esperanza and had seen his pain after his lover had pa.s.sed.
What would it be like to love or be loved like that?
Sadness filled Ramona as she realized she could never explore her attraction to Diego. It wouldn"t be fair to him, because of her illness. Not to mention that they were from such different worlds, his one of wealth and hers of the streets.
Had she stayed in the old neighborhood, stealing would have been part of her life. A life possibly meant to end quickly by gang violence.
Her art had helped her escape the streets, but not her fate-a life cut short, and tainted now by the fact that her skills had helped someone steal from others.
She should have realized something had been odd about van Winter"s request and refused it, but she had been desperate for the money for her mother"s care. But maybe Ramona hadn"t been deceived. Maybe there was some rational explanation for why her paintings had been on display.
As she settled back against the pillows, she knew she had to find out and make things right.
Her stint in juvie had hurt her mother and dishonored her father"s name. She didn"t plan to die with people thinking that she was thief.
The facility Ramona had chosen for her mother supposedly provided the best care for patients with Alzheimer"s disease. But what had cinched the selection had been the wonderfully manicured grounds and almost parklike settings around the buildings.
Her mom loved the outdoors, and Ramona knew the lush gardens and lawns would give her joy even when she could no longer understand anything else.
It was the reason Ramona didn"t mind the long ride out on the railroad to the inst.i.tution, although she regretted that her own illness had cut back on her visits. Lately there were days when she didn"t even have the strength to get out of bed, much less spend several hours on the train. Beyond the physical demands was also the emotional drain of seeing her once loving and caring mother fade before her eyes. It was sometimes more than Ramona could bear.
She had been feeling physically stronger today and needed to visit, to talk with her mami about all that had happened. If it was a good day, her mother might actually be able to understand bits and pieces, and listen and nod. Ramona imagined those nods to be answers and not just twitches.
On a bad day, her mom would stare at her vacantly, as if she didn"t even know she was there, much less recognize her.
As the train chugged along, making stop after stop, Ramona prayed today would be a good day.
She arrived at the facility nearly two hours later, and was greeted by the receptionist.
"Ms. Escobar. So good to see you again. Dr. Cavanaugh wanted to speak with you if you have a moment," the woman said as she handed Ramona a visitor"s badge.
"Of course, Mabel." The older black lady had always been pleasant and helpful during her many visits. "I"d like to see my mother first, though."
With an efficient bob of her head, Mabel called down for an orderly to escort her to her room.
"I"ll let Dr. Cavanaugh know that you"re here."
Ramona nodded and followed the attendant down the hall to the first-floor room with a view of the grounds. He opened the door for her and she walked in.
Her mother was in a comfortable rocker by the windows facing the gardens, her back to the door. A nurse was at her side, patting her mom on the shoulder as she said, "That"s wonderful, Anita. Wonderful."
As the woman saw Ramona, she forced a smile, patted her again and said, "You have a visitor, Anita. Ramona is here."
It was a bad day, Ramona realized immediately.
She walked to her mother"s side and pulled up a chair. As she met the nurse"s gaze, she noted the kindness and concern there and mouthed a thank-you.
The woman nodded and left her alone with the sh.e.l.l of what had once been her lively and vivacious mother. Ramona slipped her hand over Anita"s where it rested on the arm of the rocker. Nothing hinted that she even sensed her touch. Anita just stared straight ahead at the gardens, a blank, distant look on her face.
Tears threatened and Ramona"s throat choked up from the emotion she suppressed. She wouldn"t allow sadness to intrude on their time together, so instead, she sat by the rocker and told her mother all about the new paintings she had done and the show Diego had arranged. She skipped possibly being part of an art fraud, and instead focused on her plans for the gallery opening in barely a week.
She even allowed herself to fantasize for a moment, describing what she might wear and how Diego would notice her, how he"d spend the night at her side and maybe even take her for a celebratory drink after. And then who knew?
Ramona talked until she was almost hoa.r.s.e, but she doubted her mother even heard a word.
When she looked at her watch, she realized she had been there for nearly two hours, and Dr. Cavanaugh might be waiting for her.
Rising, she dropped a kiss on her mother"s cheek. The skin was familiar against her lips, and her mami"s smell that of her youth.
Ramona had made a point of getting her mother"s favorite cologne and had requested the nurses use it as a way to try and keep her mind focused on familiar things.
It was the reason that many of the items that had once been in their Spanish Harlem apartment were now in her mother"s room.
Her parents" wedding pictures. School photos of Ramona at various ages. Some other photos of distant cousins, since both of Ramona"s parents had been only children, leaving her without much immediate family.
Near the door, Ramona stopped to call the front desk to find out if Dr. Cavanaugh was still available. Minutes later she entered his office, and the kindly older man smiled and stood. He walked over and hugged her hard, everything about his demeanor calm and soothing.
He guided her to a couch at the side of his office and he sat down beside her, holding her hand as he spoke.
"How are you, Ramona? You"re looking well today," he said, his gaze inquisitive as he examined her.
"I"m fine, Dr. Cavanaugh. How"s mami doing?" she asked, not that she needed to be told her condition was growing worse.
Despite that, his report still saddened her.
"Anita"s condition is deteriorating rapidly. Her moments of awareness and lucidity are fewer and fewer."
Ramona thought of her mom, vacantly sitting in the chair, her mind gone but her body alive. Quite the opposite of her own state.
Ironic.
"How long before..."