CHAPTER TWO
Bleu was standing at the edge of the stage, grateful that Forsaken’s security hadn’t given her grief about wanting to get a backstage view of the show. For the first three weeks, they hadn’t let anyone who wasn’t part of Forsaken’s personal staff in that area during their performance. Only recently Umberto gave Wolf, the head of security, the okay to let her through.
Now, her plan was to make herself as visible as possible. Let Umberto know she was there and waiting for him to get offstage at the end of the show. She only wished keeping her eyes on him wasn’t so pleasurable. If the dreams would stop, maybe her attraction to him would go away. But how could she stop herself from dreaming?
She was shivering in the backless, red latex dress she’d squeezed into after showering. Latex was good because it was sexy enough to ensure Umberto would remain focused on her, but she also had her full range of motion. She’d need to be able to move—and fast—come morning. She’d left her hair loose and could feel her curls brushing against her bare shoulders. Though she would have preferred to wear it up, Umberto liked it down. Tonight was all about keeping Umberto’s focus on her, by any means necessary.
She was scared…and excited.
Her first slaying.
But could she kill Umberto? Could she drive a stake through his heart? She’d spent so much time with him these last weeks. Maybe too much time.
“Get off your ass!”
Pulled from her musings, Bleu looked toward the stage. Umberto stood at the center of everything, fist raised in the air, his lips pulled into a snarl. To the left of him, Dario, the lead guitarist, whipped his sable mane back and let his fingers dance up the neck of his guitar.
It was watching Dario that had convinced her that indeed, the members of Forsaken weren’t human. Dario, the golden-skinned, South American vampire whose fingers moved over the guitar fretboard faster than even the most talented human hands could manage. Dario wore his vampirism boldly. Unlike the others, he made no attempt to hide what he was. His hair was black as midnight and it glimmered with an unnatural luminescence no human hair could attain. Like an actor playing the part of vampire, he painted his nails a deep shade of ebony. He even let his fangs show when he was onstage. Fans thought he was a Goth kid, an eccentric that fell into character whenever given the chance. Nobody realized he wasn’t playing a role. The fangs weren’t pretend, and he’d killed countless people with them.
On the far right of the stage was Erik, the bass player—another vamp. As pale as Dario was dark and brooding, Erik was the opposite of Dario. He seemed more an elfin figure, a character from a Tolkien story. Save his pale complexion, he looked too gentle to be what he was … and what he was, was a killer. His serene, elfin features were rounded and prettily made. As she watched him he crouched on his knees and bent forward, toward the crowd. His pale blond hair swept the jet-black stage like a thousand strands of platinum silk. Erik was beautiful. Disarmingly beautiful, yet he was deadlier than Dario, had killed more people. Erik was young, barely a hundred years old, so the blood lust was strong in him.
The youngest of Forsaken, and the most human to the eye, was the drummer, Mathias. He was the only American. The file she’d read on the band said he’d been made in 1957 in—of all places—New Jersey. His short, spiky hair was pure white in color. Mathias had been a tall man when he was alive. His six-and-a-half-foot frame towered over her five-foot-four-inch body. In addition to being tall, he was mean. Mathias had the disposition of an alligator shark. And although his blood lust was strong, reports showed that he didn’t take as much pleasure in the kill as Erik.
Then there was Umberto.
She closed her eyes and exhaled.
Umberto was the oldest, but had experienced the shortest human existence. He’d only had twenty-nine human years when he’d been made into a bloodsucker. No one knew when he was made, only that he had been born centuries ago. Umberto had disarmingly handsome features. He was tall, slender, and artfully unkempt. His wavy, shoulder-length, brown hair was as prettily disheveled as any other disgustingly rich lead singer’s hair would have been half way through a performance. There was nothing remarkable in the jeans he chose to wear onstage, or the faded Harley Davidson T-shirts he seemed to favor. From the sterling silver ring on the middle finger of his left hand to the simple pendant he kept dangling from his neck, Umberto seemed very ordinary. But Bleu was willing to wager that more than the others, Umberto’s look was the most contrived. Though she’d never heard him say it, she knew enough about Umberto to know he’d more than likely spent days creating the most unremarkable look he could manage. And he’d failed miserably. Unexceptional clothes, rumpled hair, there was nothing in his façade that could hide what he was. At least not to her eyes. His finely muscled frame was too extraordinary to be hidden under clothes. His hair shone with the same vampiric luminescence as Dario’s raven locks. And Umberto’s eyes…
A low moan escaped her pursed lips, surprising her. She suddenly needed to see him, needed to watch him stalk the stage like the predator he was. Slowly, she opened her eyes … then jumped back a step. Her heart swelled and she yelped. “You!”
“What were you dreaming about?”
Standing so close that she could crush her lips against the taut nipples tenting his Harley T-shirt, Umberto gazed down at her. His maple brown eyes were fixed to her face and one brow was arched in question.
He was anything but ordinary. He was the most extraordinary man—vampire—she’d ever seen.
“Were you dreaming of me?” The edge of his lip rose into a smile. It was a smile that said Bleu didn’t have to answer the question because he already knew the truth.
“I wasn’t dreaming. I was watching the show.” She took a cautious step back. Did he know of her dreams? Was he taunting her?
“With your eyes closed?” His voice was like vanilla cream, richly decadent and deliciously intoxicating. If she didn’t put her guard up, and fast, she could easily be seduced by the soft Spanish lilt of his voice and the slight moistening of his lips that happened whenever he spoke.
“Umberto, you should be on stage.” Damn, she sounded as breathless as she felt.
He stepped forward, closing the distance she’d put between them. “Guitar solo. If Dario didn’t need Erik and Mathias to keep the beat for him, they’d have to leave the stage too. You know how Dario is.”
Her mouth was dry. A potent cocktail of lust and desire surged through her, accompanied by a betraying warmth on the skin. Heat gathered between her thighs. Nevertheless, she worked her lips until she could make them form words. “Guitar solo, that’s right,” she agreed. “His time to shine.”
“Spoken with the honesty of a true guitar player.”
“Guess I can relate.”
He moved forward again, advancing until her bare back was flush against the warm, dry surface of a pocked, plywood wall. Her breath spilled free on a gasp of surprise. She suddenly felt like she was being stalked.
He lifted his arms, set his palms against the wooden wall, and caged her within the cold chill of his vampire’s body. She quickly clamped down her impulse to fall into his arms, and then had to fight a nearly overwhelming urge to fall into battle stance to fight him off.
He was a vampire, a bloodsucker, a murderer.
He nuzzled her neck, her cheek, her ear. “I’ve spoken with Nick.” His lips glided over the sensitive skin of her lobe.
She shivered. “Oh?”
“I’ve told him to be ready to leave the arena after the show. My band and I will shower, dress, and then make our leave. I’ve reserved a spot in the bus for you at my side.”
“With your groupies?”
“I don’t entertain groupies. I never have. They’re too young, too tedious, and too desperate to draw my attention. They’re boring. But if you’re asking if Dario, Erik, and Mathias are bringing friends tonight, the answer is no. It’ll be the six of us.” He ticked off names, accenting each was a luscious suck on her earlobe. “Dario, Erik, Mathias, Nick, you, and me.”
Moving slowly enough to make her tremble, he licked the inside of her ear, letting his tongue dip within, then glide out. He panted against her, his breath peppering her cheek.
Umberto was too good at stimulating her.
When she felt the edge of a sharpened tooth, she jolted.
Umberto stood back, gazed at her. His face was flushed pink, his lips blood red even though she knew he hadn’t drunk in days. She knew this because they’d spent every night together for the last nine days. They hadn’t had sex, but they’d come as close to having sex as two people could.
And damn her treacherous heart, she’d enjoyed it.
The thought that she shouldn’t have been assigned to watch the band came to her. Staying close to the band should have been Nick’s job. She should have gotten surveillance, but nobody listened to her.
Umberto let his hands fall to his sides. She couldn’t see if his fangs had extended because his lips were pressed into a firm line. “Are you all right?” she asked.
He looked toward the floor. Immediately his face was cast in shadow. When he spoke, all she could see of him were his eyes. “I’m preoccupied with thoughts of the evening to come, considering various sacrifices I could make to ensure you won’t change your mind.”
To distract Umberto from the night’s true events, she’d promised to give herself to him. “I won’t change my mind.”
“You’ve mesmerized me, Bleu, do you know that? I’ve been enchanted, enthralled, made helpless, and put at your mercy. Never has a woman been more aptly named. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. Do you believe that?”
She moistened her lips. “I … I don’t know.”
“You were made for me. You’ve always been mine; does it frighten you to hear me say so?”
Frighten wasn’t the word she’d use. To her considerable shame, desire and need were running rampant in her. Lust, pure and simple. Clearly, she’d spent too much time with the alluring vampire. “No one’s ever said anything like this to me before.”
He tilted his head to one side, looking for all the world like an innocent, instead of the deadly fiend he was. “I find that hard to believe.”
“You’re just being nice because I’ve agreed to sleep with you.”
“Perhaps so, or perhaps I’ve waited centuries to find you again.”
“Centuries? I didn’t know you were so old.”
Here merely smiled.
Then something he’d said struck her. “Find me again?”
“What does Gary Oldman say in that movie? ‘I’ve crossed oceans of time for you.’ I lost you once, Bleu, never again.”
“Oceans of time? What are you saying?”
“I’ve no time to say a thing here, now. I’ll save it for later.” Moving gracefully, he glided close again and slid his arms around her waist.
His lips traced a path along the crown of her head, and she could hear him inhaling the scent of her hair as though it were the best aroma he’d known in his three hundred years.
An unexpected and disturbing realization came to her. She couldn’t be the one to stake Umberto. She’d always thought she’d have the strength of character for such an action against any vampire, but she wasn’t so sure now. Worse, she couldn’t say if she could stand by and watch someone else stake him.
This night was to be the last of Umberto’s life. In twenty-four hours, he would no longer exist. He’d be a pile of ash and a memory, and nothing more. At least that’s what would happen if she didn’t step in, didn’t do something to save him.
But saving him, protecting him would go against her training. It would go against who she was.
“My love,” he murmured against her ear.
She shivered and another wave of doubt washed over her.
Being assigned to Umberto on this first job was more than likely the true test for her on this mission. No doubt the council was aware of the old vampire’s charms, knew how seductive he could be. No doubt Kyle and Nick were prepared for her to act on the sensual vampire’s behalf. And if she did, she’d fail this assignment and be cast away from the Talhari forever.
If she were being honest with herself she’d admit that being cast out of the council wasn’t the worst that would happen. She’d be viewed as a traitor and a threat. She’d have to be dispatched. She knew too much for them to let her live if she betrayed them. Already she’d had a CU implanted. She could open an internal channel with anyone on Kyle’s team at any time, day or night, and not be overheard by non-team members. And she’d received her physical enhancements. She was inhumanly strong now, could heal from nearly any injury, and was five times faster than she’d been a year ago. While she wouldn’t get her psychic enhancement embeds until this assignment was complete, she was still too much of a threat to be allowed to walk away.
She’d come too far.
Either Umberto died, or she did.
Sharp pain caught her by surprise. Her throat was on fire. An inferno blazed inside of her, pulling at her. In reflex, she tried to scream, but a hand closed over her mouth, effectively muffling her. She tried to jerk away, but was unable to move. There was a vice around her middle, keeping her stationary.
Umberto, she thought, knowing she was close to panicking. Umberto was drinking from her, was killing her.
She beat her fists against his back, darted looks over his shoulder in search of someone, anyone to help her. But even as she took in the murky forms of men moving about behind the stage in the distance, she knew they wouldn’t help. They were part of Forsaken’s staff. They knew what Forsaken were and served them willingly.
The fire at her throat, the pain of it began to dull and transform into something thick and carnal. It pulled at her, lengthened until a searing shudder vibrated through her breasts, distending her nipples until they were hard and sensitive.
She sighed at the sudden pleasure.
Umberto rocked against her. He moved his hips in a sexy cadence, rubbing against her and moaning as he drank.
He drew on her and the pull deepened. Her chest tightened, her stomach tingled, and the flesh between her thighs began to perspire. She closed her eyes against the erotic onslaught, but couldn’t escape it. Need, unlike anything she’d ever known, descended on her, blanking out everything but that delicious tug.
She sagged against him, too weak to fight and steadily becoming too aroused to want to fight.
“Yes,” Umberto murmured, then lifted his head to look at her. “You like that, don’t you?”
She blinked at him. There was no stain of blood on his teeth or lips, no visible sign of what he’d just done.
Out of breath and suddenly too weak to stand much longer, she braced her hands against the wall and tried to remain steady. If not for his arm around her waist, she probably would have slid to the floor.
“What have you done to me?”
His arm flexed as he drew her away from the wall, leaving her no choice but to rest her weight against him. Umberto’s eyes had always been mysterious, but just now, seeing them narrowed, and hazy with lust, she didn’t have to wonder what he was thinking. And if she’d had a doubt, the hardening bulge flush against her stomach would have assured her. Umberto was as aroused as she was.
He gazed into her eyes, licked his lips. “I’ve put my mark on you.”
Onstage, Dario began the final phrase of his solo. The audience was cheering, but the sound was distant to Bleu, as though it were happening in another world. “You’re out of time, Umberto. You have to get back onstage.”
He lifted her effortlessly, cradling her in his arms. His smile was one the devil himself would have envied.
“Bonus song. For the next five minutes, I’ve nothing but time on my hands.”
She opened her mouth to reply, but found she couldn’t muster the desire to protest. To her shame, she wanted to be alone with the vampire, longed for him to do the things he’d only ever whispered of.
He carried her deeper into their shadowy nook and away from the eyes of security. Holding her in one arm, he pulled the heavy, black stage curtain around them, effectively shutting out the rest of the world.
“I feel drunk, Umberto. What have you done to me?”
“Pheromones. We vampires secrete pleasure enhancing pheromones in our saliva. It helps our victims to be more accommodating during a feeding.”
Had he just admitted what he was? “You’ve drugged me?”
“I have.” His skin was warm; the chill of his body was gone now that he’d sated himself with her blood. His palms were hot against her bare back, searing a slow path up and down her spine wherever he touched. He slid his hand under her dress, cupped a buttock in his palm, and squeezed.
“I can’t do this.”
“But you will.” He repositioned her, releasing her legs while crushing her breasts against his chest. “Wrap your legs around me.”
She was moving to obey even as she fought to regain her common sense. Pheromones. They were the only reason why she was responding to him. If not for his trickery she would have been able to stave off the hunger that had weakened her will. She would have been able to control herself instead of encircling him in her thighs, panting for him to carry out all the perverse things he’d promised he’d do to her on their long nights together. Perverse things she’d often fantasized about.
“That’s it,” he crooned into her ear. “I’m going to fuck you, right here, right now. What do you have to say about that?”
“I…” When he captured her mouth, she let her words trail off. The touch of his tongue was nearly too much for her. She opened for him, greedily welcomed his heat into her. She tasted him, reveled in the thrill of feeling his lips on hers, his mouth swallowing down her moans.
His knuckles brushed against her inner thighs as he fumbled with the fastening of his jeans. Then all at once, he was there, hot and hard and ready. “From this night on, you belong to me. As you always have.”
She sucked in a breath, tightened her hold around his neck, and then allowed herself to be lowered inch by wonderful inch.
She was gloriously stretched to her limits, deliciously filled as no man had ever filled her. In the distance, she could hear the cheers of the audience, feel the rumble of bass, guitar, and drums, but it didn’t touch her here in her secret hideaway with Umberto.
He set her back against the wall, tucked one hand under her thigh, braced himself with his other hand on the wall, then moved inside of her.
She whimpered, and then smiled when he pulled nearly out of her then thrust up. The breath came out of her in a rush. She barely had time to suck in air when he eased out, then thrust again.
“Feels good?”
“Yes.”
“Sex with three-hundred-year-old vampires has its perks.”
Her entire body was alive with sensation; she was slick and tingly with the lush feeling of being so thoroughly filled. The vibrations radiated through her stomach, making her tremble. She threw her head back, lost herself to him.
Every thrust had her bare back rubbing roughly against the wall, but the slight stinging wasn’t unpleasant. Seemed every sensation added to her pleasure, every touch had her mindless for the consummation of this joining.
“This is good,” he murmured against her open mouth.
She clung to his arm with one hand while keeping pace with every frantic possession. She was nearing her breaking point, was steadily coming closer to her climax.
He pounded into her, drawing her release closer. When he spread his lips wide, let her see the flash of fangs, she knew what was coming, but was powerless to prevent it.
The moment his teeth broke flesh, the very instant he began to suckle from her, the dam within broke.
She came hard, bucking in his arms and crying out his name. Ecstasy washed over her in waves as he continued to thrust and suck. She was dizzy with the thrill, heady with the sensation.
When the pleasure began to dissipate and Umberto slowly pulled free of her, she felt herself slipping into an abyss. Darkness played at the edges of her consciousness. Umberto cradled her in his arms.
He had lowered her dress discreetly and was carrying her back through the curtains. “What’s happening?”
Umberto glanced over her shoulder and flicked his head in a “come here” gesture to someone in the distance. When he focused on her again, she knew he was about to return to the stage. It was just as well, she was suddenly tired; too tired to stay awake a minute more.
“You’re mine now, Bleu,” he said, then stepped back so a new set of arms could enfold her. “You’re weak. You need to sleep.”
He was right. Though she fought to stay alert, fatigue was heavy on her. Her eyes seemed to close of their own will. “Release me.” She’d meant the order to come out powerful and commanding, but the wispy voice coming from her was neither powerful nor commanding.
It was her first assignment, but already she’d failed the Talhari.
“When you wake, Bleu, I’ll be there to welcome you to your new life.”
Her last thought was of Kyle, of the mission, and then all was dark.