Chapter Eleven
Vlad took a seat at the council table and studied the faces around him. Angel sat to his right, along with Ember, Shon, and Laura.
“I am glad that you all could make it,” Declan began, taking his seat at the head of the giant table.
Vlad steepled his fingers beneath his chin. “It would seem that we didn’t have a choice.”
“There is always a choice, Vlad,” Declan gently admonished. “I am sorry that you feel you were forced.”
Vlad’s jaw tightened in response. “I think we both know that force doesn’t work with me. I was simply referring to the not so subtle coercion from the little one.”
“How dare you,” Atticus, sputtered, looking to Declan for backup. “I did not coerce anyone. I—”
“It is all right, Atticus. Please, take a seat.” Declan blew out a breath and propped his cane against the side of the table before addressing Vlad once more. “It was I who sent Atticus to your home. I wanted to be certain that you attended tonight’s meeting.”
“Well, I am here. Let us begin.”
A strange feeling overcame Vlad as he sat there listening to Declan inform the group of the shifters’ alleged alliance with the Seekers.
Nita was near. Vlad could feel her as surely as he could feel all eyes on him around the table.
Vlad cleared his throat. “It is true that the seekers sought out the shifter’s leader to garner her help in locating the council’s lair.”
“How do you know this?” Atticus asked, leaning back in his chair.
“The leader of the Kiana was shot on my property by an assassin of the Seekers.”
Declan held up a hand for silence as murmurs buzzed around the table. “Nita Franks is dead?”
Vlad shook his head. “She lives. The assassin, however, was not so fortunate.”
“She killed a Seeker?” The question came from Atticus.
“No. I did, before I gave the shifter my blood.”
Voices erupted in a fit of outrage.
Atticus jumped to his feet. “What have you done?”
Vlad shrugged a broad shoulder. “Repaid a debt. Nothing more.”
Nita’s anger and confusion suddenly poured through Vlad’s mind. He could feel her anxiety, unease…her fear. “I must go.”
“Now?” Declan’s face showed his surprise. “The meeting hasn’t even started.”
“There is something urgent that I must attend to. I trust Angelo can fill me in on anything I need to know once he returns to my home.”
Without waiting for a response, Vlad blurred from the room and burst out into the chilly night air.
What was the shifter doing back on his property? His dick hardened in anticipation of finding out.
Vlad arrived ten minutes later at the edge of his lands, his senses expanded, seeking the object of his desire. And he did desire her; that he had come to accept.
He found her in wolf form, pacing through the trees in obvious agitation.
She stopped as he approached, turning toward him with her mouth peeled back over her teeth.
Her iridescent eyes glowed in the darkness, tracking his every movement.
Vlad stood completely still, anticipating her attack. “Did you come here to try to kill me?” He hoped so.
For some reason he wanted her to fight him, to hamper the desire rapidly growing inside him.
She growled deep in her throat, her head tucked low before slowly circling him, stalking him as a wolf stalked its prey.
It was beautiful to watch, and had he not been a vampire, Vlad would have stood in complete awe of her magnificence. But he was a vampire, and the gorgeous creature now circling him wanted him dead.
She launched, taking Vlad down with the force of her weight.
His hands wrapped around her throat to prevent her teeth from ripping out his own.
“Is this your idea of foreplay?” he teased, enraging her even more, if the sounds coming from her were any indication.
Vlad had intentionally allowed her to knock him to the ground. As strong as she seemed to be, she was no match for the Impaler.
He flipped her over, holding her by the neck until he straddled her.
The snarls coming from her didn’t match the confusion swimming in her pearl-colored eyes.
Vlad eased up on his grip, staring down at the beast beneath him in a world of his own uncertainty. “What have you done to me?”
A howl wrenched from her as the fur receded and Nita’s beautiful face took shape. “Let me go,” she demanded between clenched teeth.
“I wish that I could.” Vlad crushed his mouth to hers, forcing her lips to part for his seeking tongue.
She tried to turn her head to the side, but his hands slid up to her face to hold her still. He’d wanted to taste her since the moment she’d first opened her smartass mouth and insulted him after he’d saved her life.
He wedged his knee between hers and parted her thighs, settling his weight against her.
His cock throbbed with an ache he hadn’t felt in two hundred years. If ever. He flexed his hips, pressing his erection against her bare pussy before slowly dragging it upward.
Nita stopped fighting. Her shuddering breath filled his mouth, and her arms came around his shoulders.
She moaned as he ground against her once more, lifting her hips in response to his next upward slide.
Images of her touching herself in her car, on her knees in the shower, crying out her pleasure slammed into his mind, threatening his control. Hell, he didn’t seem to have any control when it came to Nita Franks.
Vlad’s hips continued to pump, grinding his oversensitive dick against her hot, wet sex until he thought he’d go insane.
He broke off the kiss and rose up on his knees, discarding his cloak with vampiric speed.
Jerking his shirt over his head, he tossed it next to his cloak.
Nita’s trembling fingers were already on his jeans, popping the button and dragging down the zipper.
Vlad stood in one fluid motion, toeing off his boots and removing his jeans before bending to spread his cloak across the leaves.
He lifted Nita’s heated body and placed her on his cloak before coming down over her once more.
A small voice in the back of his mind told him to stop. He was about to cross a line there would be no coming back from.
And then she bit him.
Vlad lost control.