"Go with them," Leandro said to an amply curved redhead.
"Yes, my lord," the woman answered with an inviting smile. He watched as Jiri led the two women up the stairs, his arm about the slender blonde"s narrow waist.
Then, turning, Leandro said, "You three, stay with me."
The unchosen women turned to go, leaving the way they came. Leandro let a slow smile curl his lips in invitation. He spread his arms and the three women he"d picked rushed to him with feminine pants of excitement. Their hands grabbed hold of his body, willingly touching and caressing him as if he were a G.o.d. He did not lead them from the hall, knowing they wouldn"t be disturbed.
One very pretty girl wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her b.r.e.a.s.t.s firmly against him. Feeling his arousal, she moaned and settled her hips into it. With a twist she offered her neck.
"Take what you need, my lord," she whispered in a sultry vixen"s tone. "I offer it to you freely."
Leandro bit into her neck and she moaned, loud and long. His fingers tore the gown from her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, baring them. His cool fingers curled around the globes, feeling their weight, ma.s.saging pa.s.sion into her blood so that he may taste of it. The second woman moved along his back, hugging herself to him as she ran her fingers over his shoulders, chest, into hair. The third servant knelt, moving herself between Leandro and his meal. Her hands ran up his thighs to his waistband only to free his long erection to view. She instantly took it into her mouth, sucking her master with pleasure. Leandro groaned, euphoric, drinking deeper.
"Did you miss me at all?" Tatiana stared at Marcello, wondering where the question had come from. She did not mean to say the words aloud, but now that they were out, she couldn"t take them back.
Marcello looked at her, eyeing her pale face, so changed, so beautiful still. Slowly, he turned his back to her and whispered, "Yes."
Tatiana felt as if her heart was about to fall from her chest. There was so much she wanted to say, to know from him. At the moment, she couldn"t force the words past her lips. None of it mattered. Not her death and rebirth, not the past between them. She needed him as he needed her. They were connected. She felt his blood within her, stirring her pa.s.sion, her longing.
"Marcello," she whispered, going to him. She took his arm and pulled. His eyes met hers in a locked embrace. "I am glad it wasn"t you who killed me."
He started to pull away, but Tatiana refused to let him go. She rose up on her toes, thrusting forward so hard that she knocked him back across the floor. He remained on his feet, skidding over the hard stone as she kissed him with fiery longing. Her fangs nicked his lips and she deepened her a.s.sault with a moan of pleasure.
"I love your taste," she whispered pa.s.sionately into his mouth. "I want more of it. I want all of it. Give it to me."
Marcello growled and pushed her roughly back. He glared at her, the red of blood filling his gaze. She could see that he wanted her, but was torn. "You taste of my brother"s blood. You reek of him!"
"It was destiny for the three of us to join. Leandro has taken my mortal life. You have everything else of me," Tatiana said. Her lips trembled and she would"ve cried if her eyes had been able to tear. They stayed steady and dry, though there was sadness in them when she looked at him. "I have nothing left for myself."
Marcello looked at her. Her body was slender, stronger. Her black hair had grown longer, falling down over her hips. Her jade eyes sparkled with their power--more power than before. He wondered how she wasn"t mad with it.
"I am mad," Tatiana said, answering his thought. "I can feel it in me, the insanity, just at the corner waiting for me to stumble. I hear the voices of the past knocking in my brain. They want to show me what it is they have done. They want to show me their deaths. I dreamt of them last night--so many, so much, too much. I don"t want them there. I don"t want to see them. I want to go home again. I want to go to a party in my green silk dress and I want to come home to find Alice sitting in my room waiting for me to tell her all about it. I want...." She stopped talking to look him over. Quietly, her heart breaking because she loved him and couldn"t have him, she asked, "But, I can"t have what I want, can I, Marcello?"
"There will be parties," he said quietly. "But, they will not be the same. You will not glean the same simple pleasure from them. There will be as many green silk dresses as you wish, changing in make and style as the time changes around you. But, they will not give you the same feeling they once did. There will be Alice to whom to speak, but she is now dead and lingering.
She is lost, trapped, because you wished it of her that night we buried her. That thought will drive you to distraction, eating at you. As to home, you are home,bella mia . There will be many more homes for you. Many crypts and coffins, countries and places--much more than you could ever image now."
Tatiana screamed, hating him for his words, knowing them to be truths. Her expression changed from sadness to anger. Her eyes darted around. Seeing a knife on the wall, she grabbed it and rushed at him. Her eyes bled with tears and her lips quivered as the sound of the beast surged forth in her words, "Why did you have to come that night? Why did Henry have to kill her? I want my life back. I don"t want any of this. Give me back my life!"
Tatiana slammed into him, wielding the blade near his heart. Marcello didn"t fight. She shoved him into the stone wall, knocking the tapestry loose with the force. It fell on them. Tatiana jerked him forward, pulling free of the heavy material so she could see his face. She slammed him into the wall again and again, threatening him with the knife, as she yelled, "Give it back. Give it back."
"Do it," Marcello growled. He ripped open his jacket, waistcoat, and shirt in one pull. b.u.t.tons flew, but they didn"t care, didn"t hear them. Their eyes warred. Growling, he ordered her, "If my death will bring you peace, then do it. Finish me!"
Tatiana screamed again, loud and piercing, shaking the furniture with the force of her torment. With a slash, she cut him, ripping into his flesh so that it bled deep. Marcello flinched, but did not move to stop her. His eyes closed as he waited for death.
"Into the heart," he said. "Then drag me into the sun. That is how you will kill me. Do it,bella mia . Do it!"
With a low grumble coming from deep within her, Tatiana dropped the knife and licked his wound instead. His chest tensed and his eyes opened in pleasure to watch her tongue flicking across him.
"I can"t," she whispered, moaning in pleasure to feel him inside her mouth, next to her sensitive skin. "To kill you would be to kill myself."
"What are you saying?" Marcello tensed. She shivered as she stood before him, his crimson blood staining her lips. The wound on his chest healed.
"I"m saying I need you," she whispered. Her hand rose to his face, rubbing in long strokes over his cheek. "I"m saying I want you. Will you not kiss me now? It is your taste on me, not Leandro"s."
Marcello leaned forward, kissing her gently as he pulled her to him. Tatiana moaned against his lips and he could feel her pleasure rushing inside of him. He"d been heartbroken to discover that he"d been too late to save her from this fate. He never wished for her to carry the burden of an eternity. But the choice had not been his to make. It was beyond them. She believed this to be her fate, so he knew he must believe it too.
"I am sorry,bella mia ," he whispered to her mouth. "I should"ve let you marry Thomas."
"No, I wouldn"t have let myself marry him. I know that now. I didn"t love him, could never love him. My fate was sealed long ago." Tatiana"s fingers wound up into his hair. "Make love to me, Marcello. I have been so cold without you. The months have been too long."
"What of my brother?" he asked.
"Nothing happened between us. Nothing ever happened between Leandro and me. He just wanted you to believe--"
Marcello didn"t let her finish as he pulled her forward to his mouth. He groaned into her, letting her fall hard into his arousal.
He wanted her, needed her. Without her, he had not been whole.
Their fangs tangled as they kissed, nicking the tender tissue of their lips. Neither vampire cared, for the wounds healed as soon as they were made. Their pa.s.sion welled between them, almost desperate for fulfillment. The gown was ripped from her body, the corset torn away until she was naked before him. His hands touched her, remembering her feel, the texture of her skin.
Tatiana"s flesh tingled, so sensitive in her new state. Each stroke was like fire to her soul and she burned for him like never before. It was too much. Her vampiric blood boiled in a way that shouldn"t have been possible. When she looked at Marcello, her eyes glowed with her strength. His pa.s.sion matched hers as they joined with their minds.
Soon he too was freed from the restraints of his clothing. The tapestry was crushed beneath their feet as he spun her to the stone wall. Tatiana pushed up, reveling in her newfound strength as she wrapped her legs about his hips. Her heat called to him, warmed him. Her mouth opened wide. Her lungs did not seek breath. She watched him intently as he thrust up into her body.
When he was embedded deep, she stopped. "This is our eternity. You belong to me."
Marcello was stunned by her possessive statement, but he couldn"t deny it. It was true. From that first night, she"d controlled him--made him want her, need her, thirst for her. It was her power that brought them together, enslaved him. It was her power that allowed him to bind her, control her. And it was her power that enslaved him once more.
"You are mine, vampire," she whispered, keeping her body still on his. The ache was almost unbearable, the need torturous and strong. "And I am yours, whether you wish it or not. Fate has chosen you to help carry my burden."
Tatiana kissed him again. Only this time, she poured her energy into him, letting him take the burden of her soul into himself.
He could"ve stopped the kiss, stopped her accursed gift, but he accepted it, accepted her. He felt what she felt--the voices, the pain of the past. As his torment grew, hers lessened. He weakened slightly as she pulled back. Her eyes cleared by small degrees.
"I am sorry, Marcello," she whispered. "It is I who has cursed you--more so than your vampiric father. Can you forgive me?"
His answer was a hard thrust of his body into hers. He continued to pull out only to push back in, hard and ramming. She screamed in pleasure. His hips moved in a frantic pace and she met him eagerly. Their desire had been put off too long.
It didn"t take long for their bodies to build as they writhed and thrust against each other. Tatiana trembled, clenching him in every possible way, urging him to hurry his release to join hers. The bodies quaked in the violent outburst of their climax.
A slow clapping sounded over the bedchamber. Tatiana"s eyes narrowed as she hugged Marcello to her, keeping him embedded deep. Her eyes found the door as she glared at Leandro. Her vampire maker watched them with hooded eyes that glimmered, a testament to the fact that he had not just arrived, but had seen all of it.
"My turn,bella donna ?" Leandro asked with a small smile pasted cruelly on his lips.
Marcello hissed as he turned to look at his brother, craning his neck as he pulled Tatiana possessively against his chest.
"I"d curse you to h.e.l.l," Tatiana answered. "But we already live here. You took my human life. Marcello has what is left of my human body--all of it."
"So I see," Leandro smirked, though she could feel he wasn"t amused.
"Take your jealousy elsewhere, brother," Marcello said. "We have no wish for it here."