Stray (23 page)

“And you’re sure you’re okay with this?”

“I’ve lived through the hell that sub’s going through now. I can help him. And so can you. What do you think?”

“We’d have to check with Marnie.”

“Check with me about what?” Marnie asked, joining us inside the ring along with Eric and four other Doms.

Looking at the stray sub, I realised I didn’t even know his name. “He’s a stray. He’ll need someplace to go.”

“Feel like helping a new sub?” Dylan asked once I’d finished.

“When do we get to take him home?” Marnie’s words came out in a whisper.

Dylan shrugged, then stepped over to the other Doms to discuss the details of our arrangement. The rest of us joined him.

As it turned out, the sub would probably be released from the hospital later in the week, which meant we would have more than enough time to get the house ready for another member of the family. And if I knew anything, he probably didn’t have a job. If he’d been confined to a crate for as long as I had been, he would have forgotten how to live a normal, healthy life. I hadn’t worked. Couldn’t have worked. This other sub was probably the same.

After helping him to his feet, I walked alongside him as we made our way back to the front of the building.

“What you did back there…” he began, bowing his head.

“You aren’t the only wolf that bastard’s broken.” I nodded when he looked at me. “You see the Doms walking behind us? They’re friends of mine. Well, except Marnie—she’s another sub. We’re going to help you.”

“I…I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything at all.” I perked my ears at him, and he tried to do the same. “Of course, it would make things a lot easier if I knew your name.”

“Markus.”

I grinned. “Well, Markus, I think you’re going to fit right in. Welcome to the family.”

Also available from Total-E-Bound Publishing:

Immortal Love: A Taste for Blood

Erin Lark

Excerpt

Chapter One

A scrawny man not worth a vampire’s bite, let alone a sip, sat at the desk in front of me, his head of brown curls shielding whatever it was he’d just written down. I focused on the back of his neck. His beating heart was easily drowned out by the thump of electronic music waiting beyond a set of double doors.

The music called to me almost as much as the sweet, salty and tangy tastes I was bound to find once I got inside. Vampire-friendly clubs such as this housed the best kind of porn available to man and vampire alike, but I wasn’t in it for the slender legs, curved breasts or delicious bloodbath that was vampire-on-human sex. Not all of it, anyway.

Just one.

Smells. Tastes. Even hearing the flow of blood from every sub in the room was enough to put me on edge, but there was only one human I wanted to see…taste.

I clenched my fists and studied the black duffel bag I’d brought along with me. Aside from the cuffs and collar I’d thrown in earlier this evening, its contents never changed. A few pints of blood, ointment, bandages, condoms and lube—everything a vampire could possibly need.

I closed my eyes and tried not to think of her bare neck. Of the deep bite I’d left her with the last time I’d been here. My stomach turned with guilt. I’d taken it too far too soon. I only hoped tonight she’d say yes and invite me in for seconds. Thirds.

“Welcome to Horizons. How may I help you?” the desk clerk asked, raising his eyebrows at me. The colour drained from his face, and he stood from his chair. “You again.”

I smiled at his surprise and waved a hand. “Please, sit down, uh…”

“Tyler,” he offered, signing me in on his slip of paper.

I bit my bottom lip. “Is she here?”

Tyler sat back down and gestured to the door to my left. “Try not to drain her this time, will you, Alex? She has a shift in the morning, and I’d rather she not be among the walking dead.”

I couldn’t be bothered with his tone just then. Not tonight. Anything that kept me from reaching Kassidy, especially when I was this close, would have to wait until morning.

For now, I focused on what was on the other side of the door.
Warm blood.
And with it, Kassidy’s submission. I wouldn’t be draining her tonight, but I couldn’t promise she wouldn’t look half alive tomorrow.

Steeling myself for what was ahead, promising I wouldn’t bite the first human with a heartbeat, I pushed through. It didn’t matter. I would’ve reacted the same way even if I’d been holding my breath.

A tremor ran over my spine as every nerve ending in my body tingled with the tell-tale signs of needing to feed. On someone.
Anyone.
I shook my head, walking past a mix of warm and cold bodies. They danced in the middle of the room and stank of blood. Of having had too much to drink. The humans out there were willing participants, but they weren’t protected by the clan or our laws.

Those outside private rooms were there for one reason only. To get high. To get so close to death they’d be left floating for days at a time. I wouldn’t be used as some kind of drug. Sadly, the same couldn’t be said for my brothers and sisters.

Vampires working off their high looked in my direction.

Thank God Kassidy has a private room.

Very few vampires fed on her, and those who did first needed her permission to enter the room. I’d been granted access months ago, but I always asked anyway. The first request was one of our unwritten laws. Those following were at my discretion.

Hanging a left, I walked down a long hallway. Away from the deafening music. Away from the vampire high. Away from temptation.

After passing the second door down the hall, I picked up my pace. Most of the rooms were empty, either by design or because the subs were away—I didn’t know which, nor did I care. The less chance I had of hearing a heartbeat on the other side of the wall, the better. I hadn’t fed on Kassidy in over a week, and the donors at the blood den were junk food compared to her.

Most of them, anyway.

With the donor blood, I never stayed sated for long.

Taking a deep breath, I stopped outside her room. I ran a hand through my black hair, which I’d slicked back before leaving the coven. As always, I’d worn a dark suit, complete with a white undershirt and grey tie. The more clothing Kassidy had to remove, the more orders she’d have to obey.

As I knelt in front of the door, I unzipped my duffel bag, rummaging through its contents for a pen and paper. With the items in hand, I wrote five simple words—
‘Does my pet miss me?’
After I’d folded the paper, I slipped it under the door and waited for a reply.

There was no noise on the other side. Not any kind a human could hear, that was. I imagined her heart skipping a beat as she opened the letter, her breath catching. And while I couldn’t see her, I could sense her anxiety.

I closed my bag and picked it up off the ground just as she was unlocking the door. Even when I was only at almost eye level with her, Kassidy’s presence never ceased to amaze me. Pale skin. Blue eyes. Strawberry blonde hair pulled back to expose that amazing neck of hers. The definition of beauty packaged in a five-foot-three frame.

“Hello, my pet,” I began, holding my hand up alongside one of her cheeks.

“Evening, Master.” She averted her eyes and leaned into my caress.

“May I come in? I was hoping we could play.” I nodded to my bag, which resulted in a smile and a nod from her.

Once Kassidy had stepped away so I could join her in the room, I went right to work emptying my bag of supplies onto one of the two tables inside the room. It was a simple room, but it had everything Kassidy needed, including a shower off to the side and a foldout couch to rest on. It might not have been anything like the other BDSM clubs in Boston, but then again, I wasn’t just any Dom. Nor was she just any sub.

She’d known who—what—I was well before we’d started playing. And after working up a contract between ourselves, she’d become my sub as often as time or energy would allow.

That, too, will change after tonight.

Giving her an immortal life was something I’d been wanting to do ever since I’d first bitten her, but I had to be sure. A vampire’s bite wasn’t for everyone, and getting turned could cause more problems than it was worth. But if that meant I’d have her forever, I had to try.

Keeping my back to her, I said, “Kneel with your hands behind you.”

Her meek voice floated up to my ear. “Where, Master?”

Ahh, good girl.
She’d learned a lot since our first meeting. “Wherever you are most comfortable. Get your towel out, too.”

Sorting through my tools on the table, I grabbed the leather cuffs and turned towards her. As ordered, she knelt in the middle of the room with a towel folded under her knees, but she wouldn’t be staying there for long. Tonight would be different.

She lifted her gaze, her eyes meeting mine as if to say, ‘
No flogger
?’

I smirked.

I have something even better in store for you.

Her gaze lowered when I didn’t speak, and I took a step forward. The beat of her heart was loud, its rhythm one I’d come to expect. Fast. Erratic.
Normal.
And as it lulled me into a trance, I bit back my hunger a little while longer. I would bite her, but not this soon. I wanted to be alert for this.

Vampires make mistakes when they’re drunk.

I had to be careful, regardless of what I’d planned for this evening.

Closing the remaining distance between us, I slowly lowered the silken white robe from her shoulders, paying close attention to her neck and the faint bite marks that were there. I didn’t have to ask her to know she hadn’t been bitten by anyone else. There were only two puncture wounds, and given how pale they were, they could’ve only belonged to me.

Obedient and loyal as ever.

I winced when I touched her raised skin. The criss-cross of marks along her back were the main reason why I hadn’t brought the flogger with me in the first place. In the end, I’d only used the flogger to show her not every Dom strikes with it using the full force of their arm.

It had taken time, but eventually she’d learned to hate the deerskin a little less. Some nights she even liked it. As for the scars, they were all that were left from an inexperienced Dom, but they couldn’t compare to the emotional damage her estranged family had left behind owing to his hold on her.

In a perfect world, I would’ve turned her the moment I saw her, but gaining her trust and trusting in myself to look after her forced me to hold back. Now, months later, I knew she was ready.

And so am I.

“Doing okay?” I squeezed her hand.

She shivered. “Yes, Master.”

“Are you scared?”

“No, Master.”

“Nervous?”

“Yes, Master.”

I leaned in and smiled against her ear. “As you should be. I have something very special planned for tonight.”

Another shiver. She swallowed. I did the same.

Damn it, Alex, it isn’t like you haven’t done this before!

I could be her Dom awake or asleep, but becoming her creator? That would take some getting used to.

In all honesty, I hadn’t turned someone in centuries. And while it wasn’t a skill I could forget, it
was
something I could potentially screw up if I wasn’t in the right frame of mind. Around Kassidy, that was close to ninety-nine point eight per cent of the time.

“Untie your robe and let it fall to the floor,” I ordered, trailing my fingertips along her neck. Her collarbone. Her shoulders. She let the cool fabric tumble in a pool around her knees and awaited my next order. “Good girl.”

Opening one of the cuffs, I fastened it around her wrist. My thumb brushed the vein that was there and it took every bit of willpower I had not to bite her.

Not yet.

Sex with a hungry vampire could be very erotic…so long as I let it get that far. Every touch, every smell was as much a temptation as her smooth skin. Her beating heart.

Her warm blood.

With the first cuff in place, I added the second one with a little less effort. I pulled back on her hair, forcing her to look at me. And she did. Good God, she did. Blue eyes vibrant enough to break glass pierced my skin. My heart. My mind.

For a brief moment, I forgot what I was doing. Something tingled at the front of my mind. Down my arms. Into my fingertips.

Against her skin…

Here, I had this attractive young woman, probably in her late twenties, and I couldn’t for the life of me remember why she was almost naked. In a private room. With me.

My gaze fell to the side of her neck—to the fountain of blood flowing beneath a few layers of skin. I drew in a lungful of air, paying close attention to her breasts that were easily capable of filling my hands with flesh. The perfect handful.

Kassidy moaned when I pinched her nipple between a thumb and forefinger. I applied a little more pressure. Twisted it. She squirmed but held my gaze. She might have been a sub, but damn if she didn’t have the control and determination any Dom in their right mind would want.

Releasing her hair, I placed my hand at the base of her neck, monitoring her heartbeat as I lost myself within her eyes. The reflection I saw wasn’t one I recognised. My cheeks were flushed and I was pretty sure my eyes were dilated. My body was fighting between control and lust, and I was about to lose my fucking mind.

Bowing my head, I kissed her on the lips, tasting her. Sweet—just as I remembered.

All the more reason to move a little faster.

Gently caressing her breasts, I trailed my fingers between them, down her abdomen to the landing strip just below her navel.