Undying Thirst (Crimson Coven #2)

14. Catalina

FOURTEEN

catalina

“I forget how fragile humans are.” Asher’s sweet breath ruffled my hair and caused it to tickle my ear.

With consciousness came a dull soreness at my torso. Groaning, I pressed my palm into my side. There was less room to stretch out, and peeking at the seat fabric behind Asher, it informed me it was because we were in the car.

Asher clicked his tongue like a disapproving parent. I didn’t have the energy to glare at him like I wanted.

“Don’t move too much, Pet. Here’s some more of my blood.” Soft skin pressed against my lips. I shook my head, smearing the blood across my cheek.

My mouth watered, but I pressed my lips together to not let any slip through. My head felt fuzzy, like I’d woken from a long nap instead of essentially being boa constricted into unconsciousness.

Asher cradled me in his arms, enveloping me completely. My cheek pressed into his pec and I drooped against him.

My ankle pinched from the position of my foot with my heel wedged between Asher and Jax’s thigh. I wiggled my leg and it sent shockwaves to my knee. I sank my teeth into my lip to hold back my whimper.

Jax, angry looking like always, gripped my calf and jerked my foot out from between them. My heel settled on his jean clad thigh. Tingles spread through my foot.

“You could be gentle,” I whimpered.

Jax looked at me like I was talking crazy. Must be such a foreign concept to him.

My attention lifted to the driver’s seat where an unrecognizable person sat there with an old fashioned driver’s suit on him. He didn’t even turn. As for the passenger, all I could see was her long hair. The bright red hair gave it away as the girl from the club. Asher’s Progeny.

“Pull up here,” Asher ordered.

The car slowed in front of their gate. The ornamental wrought iron fence rounded at the top. Roses intertwined with the black bars and both sides had a wall of red bricks stretching to surround the place with the black of the gate adorned around the top. Like spears embedded into the top.

Asher moved and the door popped open with a click. If he didn’t brace me I would have fallen.

“Hop off.” I gingerly slid off his lap and wobbled on my numb, still tingling feet. “Up to the manor, Pet.” Asher patted my ass.

I shot him a glare and he only smiled unrepentantly.

The flippant vampire was asking for a stake to the heart.

He slammed the door shut, cutting off Jax’s words and leaving me alone outside the car.

The cold breeze ruffled my loose waist length hair around my arms, and I hugged myself. Such silence. I should have been used to it considering I’d spent much of my time alone. The car detached from the sidewalk, moving forward at a crawling pace.

The long street was quiet except for the caw of a bird perched on the sill of the window. It almost blended in with the dark backdrop of the home.

Asher thought I was a mole, but he didn’t hold it against me. He’d offered me a semblance of a leash. I wouldn’t be fooled into taking all of it, though. They became obsessive and compulsive with what they considered theirs. That was where Asher was. He didn’t have to explain to me or take my feelings into account, but he did. Since they couldn’t be tempted into killing me. I’d remain at their side until I could escape, which meant settling into their home.

I unlatched the gate and swung it wide open, setting off a swarm of bats. The fluttering sound of their wings no longer sent my heart pounding. Once I reached halfway up the cement stairs, I could see the wide doors yards up. And the large metal upside down bat knocker.

Their home rested on the slightest incline, and rose bushes bloomed on both sides of the steps. The beautiful blooms coated the breeze with their scent. Growing them in this colder environment took skill.

Crows cawed from their perch on the iron welded into the brick. My foot slipped to the side of the shoe and bent my ankle again. With a huff, I crouched and jerked the little latch off out of the strap, shoving the skirt out of my way. I wiggled the heel off and hooked my finger in the strap and went to the other one.

A crow flapped its wings to my left. I followed the movement and to the . . . hair? It’d settled on the head of a dead woman. I gasped, falling backwards onto my ass.

Her heel rested on the edge of the stair, her body on its back within the tangle of rose bushes as if she’d fallen backwards. Her eyes were open, unseeing, and the raw open gash across her neck explained the ‘how’ of the dead girl. A pool of blood bloomed beneath her neck, painting the thorny vines.

A scream ripped out of my throat. I scrambled back, scraping my palms and ankles against cement. Crows and bats exploded from wherever they hid on the property, filling the night with their fluttering wings and blocking out the pale moonlight. My heart thundered in my ears. A hand yanked me back and I screamed, fighting to get away.

“It’s me!” Asher shouted.

In a blink, my face was buried in his chest, and I clung to him like a monkey.

“She’s still warm. This happened recently,” Jax said.

“No one knows where we live. How did this happen? Jag m?ste ringa , Jax.” They continued volleying words back and forth in their language. I breathed in deep and let out a steadying breath. The girl looked like me. I breathed in and out again. Nausea swirled in my stomach, but I needed the confirmation.

I lifted my head from its burrow against Asher’s chest. His arms that were banding around my back squeezed around me, but I still had room to turn my head to the side. She did look like me, eerily like me. Hispanic, with long black hair plastered to her bloody skin. Even her body type. Her shirt had been ripped and it hung off her shoulders in tattered strips. Across her belly were the ragged openings of skin peeled back. I could see the layers from where someone or something carved into her. “Whore” was written out in curving letters.

I gagged and pressed my hand to my mouth to stop the vomit from escaping. Had he found me? The Pale One?

Asher gripped under my elbows and hoisted me up to my unsteady feet, keeping me balanced. He caught my hands and pressed them to another chest. I gripped onto whoever he directed me toward. All I could see through my blurry sight was a wide chest, which meant it could be anyone.

Fear rode me hard, and I didn’t care who I held onto. I sniffled and dashed the back of my hand across my eyes. My cheek pressed against the hard chest, and I clasped my arms around his waist. It tapered too much for it to be Ren, and yet was too wide for it to be Tobias. Which left Jax. I blinked, clearing my vision to watch Asher swipe through his cell.

“Is Tobias with you?” Asher said. “He disappeared? Find him, we have an issue.” Asher paused to listen to the voice on the other end of his call.

Jax pressed his large palm into my lower back, then slid it around my waist. He pulled back so I was no longer plastered to his front. He prodded me up the rest of the stairs with me hobbling on one heel. The other pair likely fell within the rose bushes.

Although he didn’t stop me from gripping onto him, he didn’t help me keep my balance, so I clung onto him as he half dragged me.

He made a sound—a cross between a scoff and a sigh of exasperation—and lifted me into his arms. I swayed in his cradle until we reached Asher’s bedroom with dizzying speed.

He dumped me on the bed.

“Wait,” I gasped, bunching the bottom end of his shirt. My skirt tangled around my legs as I tried to get up.

He was going to leave me. I didn’t want to be alone for a second. My hands trembled.

“Don’t go.”

His sharp jawline bunched, but he gave me his back, easily sliding out of my grip. Panic bloomed into a ball in my stomach.

“I did it!” I shouted right as his large hand wrapped around the door knob. I repeated the admittance of guilt. The other three wouldn’t kill me, but this one . . . this one ached for my death. I untangled myself from the skirt and stood at the end of the bed oscillating my weight from foot to foot. He hadn’t left and that was what mattered.

He was suddenly in my face, hand wrapped around my throat. I choked on my next words.

“I know.” He leaned down so close his nose grazed mine. If it weren’t for his thumb digging into my trachea, it may have caused butterflies having him so close to me.

Even though he closed in to choke me, he wasn’t leaving and that was what I wanted.

I blinked up at him, silent.

The edges of his hair mussed at the top and his blue eyes, more of a blue lapis in color, and deeper than Asher’s, flashed with red before fading away.

I couldn’t erase the memory of the dead girl and how closely she resembled me. It couldn’t be a coincidence. Factor in ‘whore’ and then it was a given; someone targeted me. Someone other than the vampires currently holding me hostage.

I bunched my skirt in my fingers.

All I needed was to be held. Jax would never hold me, though. My second-best option was having him end this crippling fear nipping at my heels. But here we were, alone this time, after I told him I was guilty, and he still wouldn’t kill me. All he needed to do was squeeze a little harder. He was eerily still as if made of stone. He loomed over me intimidatingly, not moving a centimeter. As much as I struggled to breathe, I was still able to drag in a lungful.

Why wouldn’t they just kill me?

“You will not last here, pathetic human. Asher will grow bored of you.” He sneered and released me, straightening to his full height. He may as well have punched into my chest and taken my throbbing heart in hand.

He turned on his heel. Leaving again. He always turned his back to me. I understood I wouldn’t mean anything to him. His contempt didn’t surprise me, but I couldn’t help that it hurt.

My heart jumped into overdrive, the swelling balloon in my stomach preparing to pop.

“Not as pathetic as being hung up on some dead girl.”

Every muscle in his back tensed up.

I held my breath.

I’d crossed the line, but I couldn’t care. His quick move toward me caused my hair to flutter around my face then he dug his fingers into my throat.

I grabbed his wrists, holding onto them as I was pulled to my tip toes. I blinked up at him. If I was finally going to be snuffed out, I’d look him in the eyes the entire time.

Stupid tears welled to blur him. I blinked and they rolled down my numb face. His bowlike lips stiffened into a thin line. His hand around my neck flexed, then I went flying and landed on my back with a hard bounce, the mattress squealing with protest upon my landing. He sprang on top of me, sneering into my face.

Weight settled over me and I struggled to expand my chest. Jax took hold of my wrists, slamming them beside my head. I clenched my hands so hard that my fingernails dug into my palm. The furious vampire was so damn large. His wide torso hovered above me, and his chin was pointed down as he sneered at me.

Jax’s weight settled between my legs, so heavy that he forced them to splay apart. Pressure on my clit spiked lust through my veins. I gasped, my eyelids fluttering. Oh God, their violence was an aphrodisiac. Everything about them turned me on. It was a truth I couldn’t hide from after accepting my twisted desires.

He rose higher onto his hands, pinning me more securely as he rose over me. His movement rubbed against my core. A whine crawled up my throat, but I kept it contained. The desire flushing my face and body was embarrassing enough in the face of his demeaning expression. His nostrils flared and a muscle jumped in his jaw.

“You like that? Needy little human?” His teeth flashed, his perpetual fangs extending. “You’re sopping wet, aren’t you.” It was more of a statement. “I can smell you.” His eyelids lowered, blocking half of his deep blues. Ecstasy played over his expression.

His hips moved and the hard bulge at the apex of his thigh flared pleasure through my clit with each of his grinding thrusts. The pants needed to go. I whimpered, still trying to move against him, though it was pointless.

The gyrations curled through my limbs with delicious temptation. I moaned, trying to move, but he kept control of me.

I panted, arching my hips to push my aching clit against him. His sinfully strong body that could fuck me hard. Having his skin against mine—I craved it. I wanted to sink my fingers into his short hair, but he didn’t let me loose despite my attempts.

Submitting to his dominion, I lay limp under him.

“More,” I begged.

His eyes turned red in the blink of an eye. Jax struck his teeth into the swell of my breast with such violence that I screamed. Tears flooded my eyes, but they quickly turned into ones of pleasure. A long suck of my breast had me writhing for more, trying to arch my spine to get him to continue sucking. With him inched over my chest, his torso settled between my legs, my thighs wide.

He hummed, the vibration tingling to my nipple. His weight slightly shifted and he held my ribcage.

I panted and my breasts pushed against the curve of the whalebone adorning the top. One jostle would expose me completely. A shiver trembled up the large vampire’s body as a rush of feminine power heightened my lust. I made him feel that way, not Imogen. His tongue flicked across the bite, the warm lave inciting another gush of moisture. I lifted my hips, grazing my needy core against his hard abdomen. When he lifted, he no longer had the red irises.

“Never speak of Imogen.”

The threat sliced through me and nasty emotions surfaced. My face heated up and I curled my fingers into a fist, desperately trying to yank free from his shackle-like hands that had yet to release me. Unbelievable fucking vampire.

Despite my irritation, his hips slamming against my core flared lust to the forefront. I wanted him to want me like that. To only desire me.

The way he was with me before he thought I betrayed them. At this point, I may as well have done it. It was the cruelest of realities.

“Why?” I said between pants, grinding my wet core against him. The mix of frustration and jealousy melding together to create a perfect storm of I-should-have-kept-that-thought-in-my-head. “She’s dead.” My panties were a damp mess. If only I could get the clothes out from between us to feel his smooth shaft.

He bared his distended fangs then gripped my hips, turning me in a smooth motion. I landed face down on the mattress. My skirt pooled at my waist and in seconds my panties were gone.

I braced my forearms under me. There was a rustling sound behind me and then Jaxon grabbed my thighs, securing them around his hips, simultaneously lifting and spreading my legs to the point that it hurt. He held me suspended and poised.

“What—”

He slammed his cock into my channel and his thighs slapped against mine. I jolted forward, losing balance as my cheek flattened on the mattress. My core clasped onto him like she could keep him inside her forever. He never fucked me while looking me in the face.

The bed muffled my groan. He easily kept my hips high, and with a slow glide, he slid out until only the thick tip remained inside me. The walls of my pussy fluttered around the mushroom of his head. The shallow tease of his tip reinforced the overwhelming thickness of his cock.

He pounded forward and another slap rang through the room.

Breath left my lungs with a cry.

“Fuck. Jag kan inte motst? dig .” Whatever he said seemed to spur him on harder. The rhythmic thrusts turned disjointed and volatile. With every thrust, my cheek rubbed across the fabric of the red silk sheets.

I clawed my fingers into the bed, moving my hips to try to meet his rutting, but he kept me still, turning me into a whimpering mess.

“More!” I panted. “Jax!” No sense of self-preservation remained. He snarled and the sound caused my pussy to constrict around him as if in answer. The orgasm crashed into me with suffocating strength. My ears rang with my scream. He continued pounding into me with hard, claiming thrusts, dragging out my release.

I twitched to get away, to get a smidge of relief from the onslaught of his thrusts, but it was a fool’s attempt. His hands flexed around my waist, and he continued owning me.

My arms completely gave out and I slumped against the mattress, taking his attack. The wet smack of his glide in and out of me invaded the bedroom. I whimpered, my sensitive folds constricting around him. Jax angled my hips higher, and the tip of his cock shoved hard against something deep inside me—I could feel him in my throat. A gasp escaped and he continued pounding. Another swell built with a flurry. What was he doing to me? I was so close. So close.

His guttural groan sent me over the edge a second time. His cock throbbed in my core, and my pussy clasped onto him with repeated wrings. Gripping tighter and tighter. He thrust once more and then kept his hips flush against my ass, hands painfully clutching my hips. He gasped and my channel squeezed him. Another throb of his cock caused moisture to leak from around him and trickle onto my thigh.

Half his body settled over me, smushing me against the mattress. He curved over my back, his weight settling over me. As heavy as he was, the compression felt good.

His nose grazed against my ear. That felt so good. He’d tired me out.

He stiffened, stopping mid-nuzzle, cock still deep inside me.

“You can’t compare to Imogen.” It was like a bucket of ice-cold water was dumped over my head. The fogginess clinging to my thoughts ever since drinking from Asher faded.

Nothing Jax said could have hurt me more. He could have tossed me around and it would have stung less. His weight disappeared off me. I rolled to sit up. My chest still heaved with exertion. God, him choking me had hurt less. I hugged myself, my chin dipping to my chest. With ease, he ruptured the blissful cloud I’d floated on. This place could never be my true home. And I could never belong with them. I curled my legs to my chest, pushing my skirt down.

Jax stood at the end of the bed and efficiently buttoned his jeans, his jaw working as he stared at me with dead eyes. I watched the smooth glide of his fingers work through his short hair.

“Don’t expect anything from me.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” I almost choked on the words.

His eyes narrowed at me but I meant it. I honestly didn’t think he was capable of it.

With a final look, he turned. It spiked my pulse into action. Panic crawled up my throat. If that vampire that held me captive had found me, it meant the end of me. The remembered feel of insects crawling all over me forced nausea to the surface.

“Don’t leave!” I choked out and I hurried off the bed. My feet got tangled in the dress and I fell to my knees. Pain vibrated through my legs.

Jax stared at me on the ground. One beat, then two beats passed. He slammed the door.

My eyes stung. I wanted him. It was too late to save myself. That chance was gone and I’d embrace the darkness while I stayed put until the time came to escape or die, whichever came first.