Chapter 7
Rachel
O kay, so the irritating trill wasn’t a dream and was, in fact, my burner phone ringing. I rarely carried it with me, but I brought it when I went into town yesterday. I only used it to check for messages from my mother if we needed to meet for training. Even when I called Lucy last month, I used the phone I kept stored away in my closet. We had an agreement for her safety that we would only call each other on the first and twentieth of every month. Until then, keep the phone hidden and powered off. It was too risky.
“Who the hell calls this early?” I groaned as I rolled over on the mattress, slamming my hand over the phone and dragging it to my sleepy eyes.
It was a U.S. phone number, and the area code was in Louisiana. My stomach iced over.
I knew I couldn’t stay this far from home without talking to Lucy. She had promised to keep anyone from getting both my numbers, but I knew they would, eventually. She even had them saved on the phone as “Matt” to throw them off.
Not that they could track it—my number’s area code belonged to a completely different country.
Still, I hoped Andrei had better things to do than call and beg for my location. He wasn’t getting it. I buried my face in the pillow and groaned. At least he took four months to try. Privacy was fun while it lasted.
God fucking dammit.
I clicked the answer button, pulled my face from the downy fabric, and pressed the receiver to my ear.
There was only silence for a moment, and then it sounded like he was running his tongue over his lips. A tingle of nerves danced down my spine. “What the fuck do you want?”
I should hang up now.
There was another beat of silence before he replied, “You know what I want.”
I swallowed. “You do realize it’s six in the morning here, right? It’s too early for this nonsense, Andrei. I need my beauty sleep.”
Andrei chuckled, and I could hear him shift in a chair. “And you do realize I’m a vampire and don’t sleep. It’s not even midnight.”
“Hmm. Sounds to me like you’re bored and lonely,” I said. “It was better this way.”
“I miss you,” he murmured, and my stomach clenched again. I never expected an admission like that. Nor did I believe it.
“Do you actually miss me, or does your dick miss his plaything now that it’s gone … or the ring?”
I flipped to my left side, waiting.
I really should hang up.
“Maybe both. I thought you could just come home and save us the trouble of me hopping on a plane and making my way to Venice to take you back. Trust me, it would be far more pleasurable for me … though I do enjoy chasing you.”
My eyes widened, sleep no longer clinging to my brain. Even if Andrei had gotten my number from Lucy, there’s no way he’d know my exact location. The guardian bond didn’t work like that.
And even if it did, I, unfortunately, haven’t found a way to break that magic. He has to agree to revoke the bond.
“How?” I asked, not even bothering with a lie. “I mean, I figured you’d learn my whereabouts at some point, but not this soon. What did you do?”
I was met with silence and airwaves, more drawn out than before.
“Do you miss me ?”
I laughed out loud and fell onto my back, staring at the ceiling. There was no way I could answer that truthfully. Sure, there were parts of Andrei I missed, but after he tried to kill my mother in the church and threw me aside for power, that snuffed out the good I thought I saw in him. But then again, given the horror Valentina inflicted on him and his family, was he justified?
What I felt for Andrei was confusing. It was very much lust-driven, but that kiss in the station bathroom … I couldn’t get it out of my mind.
I wish I hadn’t fucking done it.
“Now, now. Surely, you didn’t call me to discuss your feelings .”
“Answer the question, love,” he hummed. “Do you miss me?”
“Not really, no,” I replied, yawning. “I’m finally free after two hundred years of lies, of being leashed and used. If you truly cared about me, you’d let me enjoy this freedom a bit longer before fucking it all up and taking it away from me.”
No response. Just empty air.
“Right. That concludes the talk about feelings.” I didn’t know why I was still entertaining this phone call, but something stuck with me. “Did you actually care about me?” I asked. “Was I more than just an assignment or a good fuck to you?”
Andrei moaned that time. Truthfully, it was more like a growl.
This fucking man. Jesus Christ.
“Of course, you’re more than that,” he answered. “But what’s wrong with craving you in the most filthy, diabolical ways? The result was the same despite whatever we call this, whether love or lust. You wanted me, I wanted you, and we were damn good at it.”
“That’s because you had all the control over me. You forced me to sign a contract to work with you and manipulated a deal to become my guardian. You wanted to have a firm grasp on me at all times.” I paused. “Not to mention there’s something else you want from me now.” My right thumb rubbed the underside of my index finger, delicately circling the bronze metal of Valentina’s ring. The obsidian glinted in the light, and while I could still see the veins of red within, they weren’t as bright as they were in the church.
Like it’s sleeping, the eerie thought clanged in my head. I tapped the speaker icon on the phone and put it on the nightstand, closing my eyes.
“That’s where you’re wrong, little dhampy. There are a few things I want from you,” he replied. “What I want most right now is to bend you over and fuck that disobedient attitude right out of you.”
Oh fuck.
It felt like something pulled my breath from my lungs, drying out my throat in the process. Suddenly, my body flooded with heat, and a tingling sensation rippled through my core.
“I want to remind you how good I can make you feel.…” he purred. “And now that I can hear your voice and you hear mine, our bond just got a lot more interesting. You see … Black Onyx ensured I knew all the ins and outs of the guardian bond. It seems there’s more to it that the others didn’t take advantage of. I thought I’d play around with it to see if it works.”
Even more intense arousal burned through me like a cage of passionate flame.
What … what the fuck is going on?
My legs clenched together, and I slid my hand down my belly to in between my thighs. I began to caress myself in lazy circles above the fabric of my linen pajama shorts. It was like my body separated itself from my mind and acted of its own accord. It was doing what it wanted, what it needed.
The logical part of my mind realized what was happening.
No, that’s not possible.
“What are you doing?” I stammered, my hand now sliding under the waistband and resting on the thin lace of my panties. My fingers were itching to go further, to touch my growing wetness. My pussy was practically aching at that point. “How the fuck are you doing that?”
My breath grew heavy as my stomach twisted into something else. Andrei’s deep, smoky voice, laced with those damned hedonistic purrs, was driving me over the edge. He was conjuring a dark storm of lust inside me, taking away my control over anything.
“Tony was a damn fool not to use this bond’s power with you,” he whispered. “I can feel your desire so much better now. My guess is that this contingency was set in place if you decided to go rogue and they needed your guardian to reel you back in.”
“Bullshit. That’s not how the bond works,” I said. “It has a limited power range and can’t work at this far away … not like this.”
Or could it? With every guardian they’d assign to me, I tested those limits. The only time we felt each other was if we were in the same city.
This should be impossible.
Not only that, but I hadn’t felt Andrei once since we left the train station. Not fucking once.
But what he was doing now was something I never thought possible. Our voices somehow linked our emotions together, as if he was right beside me.
Even as I pondered if this was real or just a dream, a sense of peace swallowed me whole, and my desire to be fucked by Andrei overtook any sense of morality.
“Fascinating, isn’t it?” he asked, as if he’d read my thoughts. “I can push through the bond just by hearing your voice. Maybe it comes more natural for us because your mother is my maker, and you are her daughter, along with the fact that you and I have shared blood. It enhanced the power of the bond altogether. Your feelings are mine, and mine are yours. You just have to tap into it and give yourself to me.”
I didn’t want to believe it, but Andrei could have been right. Tony and other guardians in the past had only ever been able to know my location but never my emotional state. Tony would have felt my terror when Andrei attacked me in the alley and came running if we were emotionally bound. Anger swept through me. Those damned witches only cared about where I was, never about how I was feeling. They didn’t care that their little experiment was drowning.
“Focus on me, Rachel,” Andrei hissed. “Ignore those witches and obey me. Go on, love. I know you want to.…” His voice melted like honey, smothering my anger with more desire. Dangerous. Inviting.
“Fuck. You.” I gritted my teeth. He was right. No matter how wrong it felt, I wanted to do it, and I wasn’t strong enough to resist his urging. Slowly, I moved my fingers beneath my panties and between my legs. I prodded between my folds but resisted entering. Not yet.
“That’s my good, needy girl,” Andrei hummed. “Now, tell me, how wet are you for me?”
I squirmed, drawing my bottom lip into my teeth as I finally slid one finger inside of me. Slowly, at first, but the second thrust was more forceful. The pleasure that surged through me was so intense I wanted it to stop. But I couldn’t—until I found my release.
My thumb pressed against my clit, and my hips bucked up with the sharp shock of pleasure.
“I want an answer,” he demanded. “Tell me how wet you are for me.”
The rational part of me wanted to tell him to go fuck himself and hang up, but when I opened my mouth, all that came out was a breathy, “So fucking wet.”
I could hear the snick of a button coming free and a zipper being dragged down. A groan echoed through the speaker. “Fuck yourself for me harder,” he ordered low in his throat. “I want to hear you whimper my name as you touch that perfect pussy.”
I knew he was stroking his cock, imagining himself thrusting inside of me and filling me up with his length. What was worse was that I was imagining the same, too. In my mind, he was on top of me, pinning me down with his muscular body. He had my legs thrown over his shoulders, and his chest pressed against mine as he slammed himself into me—again and again.
My breathing hitched on the image, and I bit my lower lip harder to keep the moans from escaping. I wouldn’t give Andrei the satisfaction of hearing them. My rational side kept shouting for me to hang up. I needed to shut this call down and destroy the phone. But this arousal, this … feeling was too good to sever. Not yet, at least. Not until I got what I wanted, too.
My fingers were no longer sufficient to bring me release, so with my free hand, I opened the drawer of my nightstand and pulled out a small vibrator. I’d purchased it for moments of loneliness that inevitably came, but I didn’t think I’d be using it for this.
I clicked on the device, and a soft hum filled my ears. A low chuckle floated through the phone speaker. “What did I tell you? Only I can satisfy you, darling. Put that thing away.”
I didn’t deign to give him a response. Instead, I slid my hand away and replaced it with the vibrating silicone. My entire body shuddered at the increased intensity, my back arching as I closed my eyes.
“Oh God,” I moaned, letting myself drown in the intensity of pleasure that rippled in waves. The image in my mind’s eye became more real, and I swore I felt his body on top of mine.
“Your moans are going to make me come undone right here in my office,” Andrei said. It seemed like he was getting close, too. “Fuck, Rachel. Fuck that tight pussy for me. I want to hear you come for me.”
“I hate you,” I said, but my voice lost its fierceness; it was only breathy and light. I was drowning in the pleasure and the sound of his voice in my head. The bond was pouring his feelings into mine, overtaking me. I was on the brink.
“You’re such a liar, baby. Quit pretending like you don’t crave my cock sliding into you and pounding you as I claim you as mine. Every single time.”
“I don’t. I will never be yours. The first chance I get, I’m ripping your goddamn head off. Then I’ll finally be free of you,” I retorted. The image became solidified, connecting us as he fucked me, and neither of us would last much longer. My body was shaking beneath his, and I felt him throbbing with each thrust.
“As long as I get to bury myself inside of you first, I don’t mind dying,” Andrei muttered between heavy breaths.
That was what tipped me over the edge, and my orgasm ripped through me so strongly that I dropped the toy, pressing my ass into the bunched-up blankets. The waves of pleasure dragged on and on. I decided to see if whatever the fuck was going on would allow me to do the same to him, drawing up an image in my own mind. Now, I was on top, riding his face as I came a second time, and it was his tongue that took me past the point of no return. I no longer held back my groans.
“Fuck,” Andrei cursed, followed by a slight groan. He found his release as well, his sharp nails digging into my arm until I winced. “I need my hands wrapped around your throat, love. I need to watch you come the next time I take you.”
“There will never be a next time. We are done.” I blinked, and the vision began to dwindle. “Leave me alone, leave my mother alone, and let it go.” I sighed and ended the call, but looked at the call log before I sat it down.
Shit. Lucy called me three times on this phone. She never does that. Well, I have a pretty good idea of why she’s calling.
It was too risky to call her back now. Fuck. I dropped myself onto the mattress and looked up. That was when I felt the sting on my arm, and I looked over. The scratch marks from my vision were still there, slowly healing, as if Andrei had really done it.
I must have done that myself.
My breath felt heavy, and I lifted my shirt, suddenly feeling my stomach burn.
I placed my hand on the rune that had etched itself onto my stomach shortly after we fled Boston. I hadn’t told my mother about it yet, not until I could figure out what the hell it meant.
Sighing, I shut my eyes, as if they would shield me from the reality of what had happened. The bond was stronger now, especially when we talked. That was fucking clear. Andrei knew I was at least in Venice, but did he know exactly where? His image was still in my mind, but it shifted as my fingers gingerly traced the rune symbol on my stomach. Andrei’s dark brown eyes blurred, and sparkling emerald-green ones replaced them.
Someone else replaced Andrei.
Jase.
Ugh, not again.