Chapter 14 #2
Maia’s world spiraled into a red blaze that was nothing like her dreams, but just as sensual and compelling. Blood coursed through her veins and she felt it swelling and surging, pouring forth. She couldn’t catch her breath. Everything became him.
She wanted him.
Then all at once, he stilled. Some guttural curse erupted from his throat as he tore his face from her shoulder, his fingers tight as he shoved her back, his movements violent and sharp, his breathing loud and labored in the room.
“You blasted fool,” he snapped, pushing her from his lap as if she were an unwanted cat. His eyes blazed like coals and his lips were full and slick, the very tip of a fang caught against one.
Maia, startled from the lull, stumbled as she tried to catch her balance.
A hand whipped out and grabbed her arm just in time, but with the force of it, she knocked into the table and tipped it over.
Her knees buckled and she sagged in his grip, weak and confused, her eyes rolling back into her head.
“Maia,” he said, urgent now, furious. “Look at me, blast it.”
She opened her eyes with great effort and tried to focus on the dark figure looming over her.
“Damned bones of Satan, I told you to use the damned rubies.” He was fairly shouting, yet his hands were gentle as he eased her into the chair he had just vacated. “Why didn’t you use the rubies?”
She noted vaguely he seemed to have fully recovered, although when he bumped gracelessly against her chair and nearly fell on top of her, she was forced to revise that conclusion.
Other than that, she could hardly capture her whirlwind of thoughts and emotions. The fluttering heat still swirled in her belly and she felt the slow ooze of blood from her shoulder. Warm. The wound on her wrist seemed to have stopped; all that was left were four dainty red marks.
She forced herself to focus now, and she let her head tilt against the back of the chair, looking up at him. He leaned over her, bracing himself with a hand on each side, his muscular arms bracketing her in.
“Maia,” he said, a bit more gently now—which was to say, at a lower volume, though no less tense—and there was an odd note in his tone. “You…” His voice trailed off and their eyes locked.
Everything stopped. Maia could hardly draw a breath. Inside, everything exploded into hot fluttering. “Are you going to kiss me now?” she whispered.
His lips formed a silent “Can’t. No.”
But then he did.
She met his mouth as it crashed down on hers, hungry and warm with the residual of her own rich blood.
His lips were hard and demanding, forcing her mouth open as he thrust his tongue deep.
A powerful thigh wedged into the seat next to her and Maia found she couldn’t move; she was pinned down into the chair by his hands and mouth, his dark, powerful body rising over her.
Grasping at the tails of his shirt, she pulled, tugging him closer, her hands sliding over the planes of his chest. His muscles shifted and trembled beneath her palms, the hair soft and prickly, skin hot and smooth.
At last, at last…was all she could think.
He had her face cupped in his big hands, fingers curling behind, thumbs pressing into her jaw as he drank from her mouth now, then pulled away with a soft, deep groan to cover the wound on her shoulder again.
This time, he didn’t penetrate, but instead, slicked his tongue over the curve of her shoulder, down into the little soft hollow of skin.
Maia shivered and tried to shrug him away, for the sensation was intense, but he delved deeper, his tongue dipping and sliding, sipping from the last bit of her blood, his lashes tickling her neck.
She felt her pulse coursing against his mouth, pounding against his lips, her heartbeat matching his as her hands found it through his chest.
“Please,” she whispered, not quite certain what she needed, rolling her head against the back of the chair as she tried to find it, shifting her hips. She was hot and damp everywhere, tight and tingling, and she wanted his hands and mouth in places they had no business going.
All at once, he went still and then pulled away. Before she could even gasp in surprise or disappointment, he clapped a hand over her mouth. His chest heaved as he cocked his head and sniffed the air.
“Satan’s bones,” he muttered, and vaulted off the chair, half stumbling yet somehow perfectly silent. He yanked her up with him, his hand still over her mouth, his eyes suddenly blazing darkly into hers. “Don’t make a sound. Don’t say a word. Don’t argue,” he hissed into her face.
Maia managed a brief nod of acknowledgment, her brain still foggy from the sudden change of sensual assault to this frightening intensity.
And then she heard them: voices. The sounds of people below.
Corvindale said something vile under his breath, looking around the room.
The rubies had fallen to the floor when she knocked over the table, still contributing to his sluggish movements.
Their proximity was likely the only reason she was able to pull out of his grip, but she did, darting toward the pile of blood-red stones glittering amid gold.
Without a word or even a glance at him, she scooped them up and dashed to the window, then flung a thousand pounds of jewelry out into the night. When she turned, she saw a flash of approval on his face, and then he gestured sharply toward the door.
But Maia knew there were more gems just beyond, a larger cache, and if they met up with whoever was downstairs when he was in the proximity, they could be in trouble.
“Stay here,” she hissed in the same way he’d done. “Don’t argue. Don’t say a word. Trust me.” Despite her weak knees, she made it to the door before he did and slipped out as he lunged for her.
In the dark corridor, she heard voices below and recognized that of Mrs. Throckmullins and two masculine ones. They were moving through what Maia had realized was an abandoned or closed-up house, and one would assume that they would soon be coming to check on their prisoners.
The rubies she’d dumped there earlier still rested in a little pile, and Maia picked them up, started back toward the room she’d just vacated and saw Corvindale coming out after her, his face ablaze with fury. So much for listening.
She hesitated, then spun and went light-footed down the hall to the room in which she’d been imprisoned, the rubies dangling from her hand. She couldn’t stomach throwing them out the window, as well, but at least she could hide them far from the earl.
By the time she found a place deep in a drawer, far from the door, after stubbing her toe in the dim light, the voices were rising in volume.
Corvindale had whipped the chamber door open silently.
His face was black with fury, but Maia ignored it and dashed over to him.
“Out of here,” she mouthed, pointing toward the chest where she’d put the jewels.
They went out into the hall just as the tops of several heads appeared, coming up the shadowy stairs.
Corvindale shoved her behind him and backed her roughly into a different chamber from the one in which he’d been imprisoned.
But by that time, Mrs. Throckmullins had appeared at the top of the stairs and her furious shrieks filled the air.
Inside this new chamber, Corvindale grabbed Maia and pushed her behind him, then reached for a chair. It splintered on the floor just as the door slammed open to show a red-eyed, fanged Mrs. Throckmullins.
Oh. Maia realized she already should have realized the woman was a vampire, but then, there’d been other things on her mind. Then all of her thoughts evaporated as she realized Corvindale had a broken chair leg in his hand and he was facing their abductor.
“Back so soon, Lerina?” Corvindale said. His voice was calm and cold, but Maia, who was held in place behind him, felt the tension rippling through his muscles.
The broken chair next to their feet reminded her of the stake she’d dropped when she found Corvindale, along with the metal poker, which, of course, would be of little use now. She needed a weapon of her own, but knew better than to dodge down and snatch one up, distracting the man in front of her.
Mrs. Throckmullins—or Lerina, for, apparently, they knew each other—was speechless with fury.
But Maia noticed that she wore several ruby rings, and that more hairpins glinted like blood in her dark hair.
She felt the shimmering in Corvindale’s body as their effect slowed him.
And she was not certain how much feeding from her had restored him.
From behind Lerina emerged another figure with burning red eyes and fangs, pushing past her into the room.
“I don’t think I’m quite ready for you to leave yet, Dimitri darling,” Lerina said. “Especially until you properly introduce me to your companion.”
The tone in her voice, the way her eyes settled on Corvindale with a mixture of heat and fury, told Maia all she needed to know about their relationship. And who had put the marks on the earl’s shoulders and arm.
Maia eased away from Corvindale, despite his blind attempt to keep her in place while watching the two at the door. She kept a hand on his back so he knew where she was, and, using him as a shield to block her movements from sight, crouched slowly to the floor.
“I believe you two have already met,” he replied to Lerina.
As Maia picked up a piece of wood, the second vampire edged into the room and started to move along the perimeter.
Corvindale tensed and shifted his body so he could watch both Lerina and the man as they separated.
Maia stood, and he immediately curved his hand around to hold her behind him, giving her a hard, angry squeeze that clearly said, Don’t move.
A noise behind them had Maia spinning to see a third vampire, climbing through the window.
He was holding a glittering red necklace.