Chapter Thirty-Four
It had come over him. The full force of his inner being was taking control, and the night was about to get scary. He could feel it snaking through his veins, coiling its wispy way out of him, insipid and horrifying, and this time there was no way to hold it at bay.
Not with her in his arms, not with her scent wrapping around him, not with her small sounds and parted lips and flushed cheeks, not with who and what she was to him, and not with who and what he was – not now.
The room in the center of the Carousel was more than a room. It was a dimension all its own, creating within its darkness all he could ever need or want. It had been made for him, given to him, and he had controlled it for thousands of years. And now, what he needed and what it made was a bed.
Its sheets were satin black, its bed posts thick and strong, and as he took her down upon the mattress, the walls of that magic room rumbled, the ceiling shook, and thunder rolled low and loud over the Carousel. The glass animals shook in their casings, the music of the night was drowned out, and Nicholas bared his fangs for the dark world to see.
Wings exploded from his back, painful and wonderful, freed at last in their true form, their tremendous span filling the space of the room from wall to wall. His skin darkened, taking on the hues of the night, his hair lengthened, pitch blue-black like the feathers of a raven, and his body grew, its musculature expanding into that of one of the strongest beasts to hunt the night.
Color shifted before his changing eyes, bringing the world around him into sharp focus. And that wasn’t all that came into focus. Suddenly, he knew what needed to be done – and wanted to do it as he’d never wanted anything in his long life.
She was laid out before him like a sacrifice, and little did she realize that was exactly what she was going to become for him. He could feel her desire radiating off her like heat, smell it in the air like an elixir perfume, and hear it in the soft, shallow breathing emitting from between her flushed lips. She stared up at him through glazed eyes, and he knew that her yearning and his need had finally done her in.
He lodged one knee firmly between her legs and leaned over her until his lips were inches from her own. He watched her gaze up at him, watched the shifting of emotions cross her lovely features. He grew painfully hard at the depth of both fear and desire in her eyes. She was afraid. But she was too undone by the magic of her longing to pay heed to the warning bells that were no doubt sounding in her head at the sight of him.
Terrifying to behold, beautiful beyond reason, he was well aware he commanded the night in that moment, and everything that moved and breathed within it, especially her. “This is going to hurt,” he told her honestly as he used a clawed fist to rip open jeans that had grown far too tight around his crotch. “And it won’t be over quickly,” he continued, still being honest. “But…” He leaned in and gently, so gently, brushed his lips across hers.
She moaned as his magic flooded her, forcing more moisture between her legs, creating a longing inside her so strong that she would have dealt with whips and chains just then if only to have release. He saw her nipples outlined hard and beautiful against the thin material of her tee-shirt. He wanted to rip her clothes off, tearing them to shreds to lay her bare, but he needed her to know this first. He needed to warn her.
And then she would be his.
“I will take the pain away,” he promised. And he would replace it with a pleasure like she’d never dreamed. It just had to hurt first… because for her to join him as his Nightmare Queen, she had to be changed. And that change would require a rather rough exchange. A blood exchange.
And he was no sissy vampire. This one was going to take more than a single sinking of the fangs. He had to consume her. He had to possess her in every possible way.
At the thought of what he was going to have to do to her, a gasoline of burning, raging need was tossed onto the fire already ravaging his soul, and he could barely contain himself long enough to make certain she understood – to make certain she accepted – what had to happen. Whatever type of monster he was, he was not that kind.
Yet.
“Adelaide,” he said, his voice different, deeper, and laced with menace. His muscles strained and her eyes grew wide at the sight of him. “Do you understand?” he asked. Did she understand that there would be pain? Did she care?
Did he?
Oh, I care, he thought sadistically. And he smiled.
Addie’s eyes fixed on his fangs, and bless her brave soul, the woman actually nodded. It was small, but it was there. She nodded – and her pulse quickened, and her breathing became more rapid, and Nicholas spared just a second to memorize the sight of her and the heat of this moment.
And then he gently took her arms in his clawed hands and raised them above her head. With a mere thought, the bindings appeared. There were four of them, each fastened securely around the base of a bed post. He took the first thick, black leather strap and wrapped it taut around Addie’s right wrist, locking it down with the strong metal fastener attached. It shone in the faint light of candles placed in sconces along the walls. It was the same light he knew glowed in his blood red eyes and sealed her doom as she was slowly rendered defenseless.
Adelaide eyed the restraint warily, but her body writhed, unable to keep still under the intense need coursing through her. He wasn’t going easy with the magic; his monster was in control now, seducing her down to her core. His power wrapped around her with an iron fist, a grip meant to hold on tight, hopefully forever.
He was as gentle as he could be when he took her other wrist and did the same with it that he’d done with the first. Her chest rose and fell with a near panicked anticipation, and he could tell dizziness was sweeping over her. She flexed her muscles in her bindings, testing their strength, and the sight caused a low growl to rise slowly through his throat. It reverberated in the air, not unlike thunder, and Addie’s attention was back on him.
Once both arms were secured, he moved to her legs. At the prospect of being spread-eagled on his bed, some kind of sensible fear must have lodged in Addie’s heart, because she began to struggle. It was slow, and half-hearted, and she moaned under the pressure of her desire, but she pulled against him all the same.
Nicholas just smiled and shook his head; she’d given in to him already. He could smell her. He could feel the heat coursing through her veins; it fevered her skin under his none-too-gentle touch. She was lost and she knew it. And so did he.
She was still fully clothed, but he was going to make fun work of dealing with that once she was immobile. He firmly wrapped his hands around each of her ankles, then used his body to hold down one long leg while he deftly tied the other to one of the lower posts. Now she really began fighting, but there was a glint in her eyes, and a curve to her lips that betrayed her eagerness.
She liked it rough.
He already knew that. He knew everything about her now. He was the Incubus King, with a spirit that made its way inside her, delved deep, and dug out all of her secrets. He knew it all – and he relished in it.
Because he was about to use it very much against her.