His sire was Vivi’s father. The truth of this stunned him. Knowing what a vile monster Nikolai was, learning the truth must be killing Vivi. How could her good heart and her capacity for love withstand learning she was the child of a purely evil vampire? He had to get her out of here.
But Nikolai had slid his arm around her shoulders, in a sickening parody of the way a parent would hold a child.
“You are so strong, Vivienne. See your strength in his pain.”
“Stop!” she cried. “I don’t want to hurt anyone. And stop forcing his brother to hit him. It’s cruel and vicious. Heath won’t hit back. He loves his brother.”
“And that is what makes it so amusing.”
“Amusing?” she cried.
Nikolai grasped her chin and stared into her eyes. “You are not what I thought you would be,” he mused. “There is much work to be done. I thought you would be hungry for power. Haven’t you learned, Vivienne, that you need power or you will be a victim, just as you once were in the slums?”
“Not this kind of power. What you want to do is mad. Vicious. How can you turn either of these men into a demon?”
“And can you look me in the eyes and truthfully tell me you believe I should spare mortal men? By destroying them, I am making them pay for their brutality and cruelty. You should embrace what I am going to do.”
“I—I won’t,” she whispered. “Let Heath go. Let all of us go.”
“This is your destiny, Vivienne. You are the first of the most perfect succubi. You are stronger than any female demon there has ever been. Of course I am not just going to let you go.”
She pulled away from Nikolai just as Raine hit Heath in the gut. That was enough. Heath grabbed his brother’s arm and swung it behind Raine’s back, pinning it there. He could taste the coppery tang of his own blood. “Let her go,” he growled.
“No, she is mine.” Nikolai’s black eyes flashed red. “I created her, and now you have fallen in love with her. But you are far stronger than your brother. Much stronger than I expected you to be. But now, let me show you how powerful I could make her, if I wished.”
Foreign words flew out of Nikolai’s mouth and suddenly Heath was overpowered by Vivi’s unique, feminine scent. The lush smell of her skin, the ripe earthy aroma of her cunny. Her scents called to him as though he were a wolf ready to mate. His cock thickened and stood upright. His fangs exploded. Lust hit him like a wave.
No. He had to fight this.
Nikolai snapped his fingers and a frightened-looking man in grubby clothes stepped out of the shadows. “Ye want ‘er now? Am I supposed to give ‘er to ‘im? Like I gave the others to ye?” The man pushed a woman forward. A bedraggled-looking woman who wore a dirty gown and a fussy bonnet. Nikolai grasped the woman’s arm.
Heath could smell the mortal woman’s blood. His hunger was swamping his head. He shoved Raine aside so hard, his brother sprawled onto the floor. The woman screamed and she tried to run, but she crashed into the locked door. Realizing she was trapped, she pounded on it.
“Look at him.” He heard Nikolai triumphantly shout to Vivienne. “You are turning him into that. It is your scent that has brought out the beast in him. You made love to him once, and that has given the curse more power over him.”
Dimly, Heath saw Nikolai grasp Vivi’s arms and force her to look at him. “He never feeds from mortals. Never. He has denied himself blood for months at a time. But because of you, he will become the very thing he has fought against. A mindless animal. He will act like the demon he is destined to be.”
“No, stop it. Please.”
Heath could not stop prowling toward the terrified woman. Her blood lured him. His body throbbed with the desire to feed.
“Stop it!” Vivienne screamed.
“That is what you want?” Nikolai asked, and the conscious part of Heath’s mind heard the triumph. What in hell was his sire doing?
“Yes. Please, yes,” Vivi desperately answered. Her blue eyes were huge with fear. And—hell, and guilt.
Laughing happily, Nikolai pulled a long wooden stake from a pocket in his flowing cloak. “This is the only way to stop him.” Heath knew he had to regain control, but the scent of blood was flooding his head.
Think. Think like a damn man, not a beast
.
Nikolai stalked toward him. He couldn’t turn away from the terrified woman, even to protect himself. He wanted to take her—
So he did. He scooped her into his arms, like a rescuer, and the motion seemed to snap his senses free for a moment. Long
enough that he was in control and ran straight toward Nikolai. He jumped over his stunned sire and ran to Vivienne.
She was swaying on her feet. And she shut her eyes as he came near her. “No,” she mumbled. “No. I want to wake up.”
Hell, Nikolai had brought her here through a dream, the way succubi went to men in the night. Could he take control? He had to get them out of there. He knew now what Nikolai wanted: to drive that stake through his heart and destroy him, then force Vivienne to make love to Raine and trigger his curse.
Vivi
, he shouted into her thoughts.
Take control. Dream that we are outside, that we are at my carriage. We are going to escape.
The room suddenly swirled around them. Vivi screamed, and the woman in his arms did the same. Surrounded by women’s cries, Heath felt himself hurtled forward into darkness. And in the next instant, hard cobbles were beneath his feet, snorting horses stood in front of him. Dimitri’s coachman held the door open. He still held the mortal woman. And Vivienne faced him with wide, startled eyes.
“You did it, Flower.” He hugged Vivi tight. “You saved us all.”
17
H
er father was the vampire who had made and cursed Heath.
Heath wrapped his arms around her, but Vivienne pulled away. Shame and horror brewed inside her, making a caustic mix of acid and bile. She slid into the shadows by the carriage wall and pressed her shoulder hard against paneled wood, filled with ruthless anger and despair.
Her father was not just a demon; he was a brutal, unconscionable killer, and she had seen the proof of it with her own eyes. He had planned to drive a stake into Heath’s heart. He wanted Heath to bite and kill an innocent woman. They had taken that poor woman to her home, and Heath had soothed her with a handful of sovereigns.
Nikolai had told her he was going to destroy Heath to protect her, because Heath would make love to her and change, then kill her. She didn’t believe Nikolai. Her
father
had been delighted by the prospect of killing the man she loved in front of her eyes. Never would she believe he was doing that for her.
How could Heath look at her without thinking of what a
vile monster her father was? Vivienne jumped from the carriage, slipping her hand free as Heath tried to clasp her wrist.
“Vivi, love, wait—”
But she didn’t. Stones skittered from beneath her feet as she rushed up the steps, passed the footmen who stood as guards at Dimitri’s door, and plunged into the cool darkness.
She stumbled through the house, winding blindly through the corridors. Dimitri’s guests halted their conversations and turned to stare at her. One couple even paused in the middle of a fierce session of lovemaking against a wall, stunned, apparently, by the sight of a tearstained woman running as though for her life. She reached her room and slammed the door behind her.
Her father was a monster. What did that make her?
She knew what she was. A horrible, destructive demon, like Nikolai. She would destroy Heath just by making him care about her. Her father had created her for that very reason. In her, he had wanted to create an irresistible evil intended to destroy human men. She was to have been the first of an army of succubi.
Tears dropped to her cheeks. This was the exact same torment Sarah was going through—
“It’s all right, love.”
She knew it was Heath, and his deep, throaty voice made her throat tighten. His lips slid over the back of her neck. At once she shivered with heat and awareness.
“How can you bear to touch me?” she cried. Guilt dragged at her shoulders, pulled at her as though trying to swallow her up in the depths of hell. “The vampire who ruined your life is my father. He has taken the one thing that you’ve wanted. The promise of love.”
Heath only hugged her tighter. He pulled her back against his wide chest, and rested his chin on top of her head. No one
had ever held her like this. No lover. Certainly not her vicious father. No one but Heath.
“It’s not entirely his fault, Flower. When I went to the Carpathians and tried to live in a constant drunken stupor, I was looking to destroy my life. Your father merely helped a man find the eternal damnation he wanted. It has nothing to do with you, Vivi. You didn’t control what he did. You didn’t even know who he was.”
Heath undid the fastenings of her gown. His breath teased her ear as he peeled her dress from her, his touch gentle. Not like a hot, lusty lover, but like someone who could love her.
He deserved to love someone, and not the person who could destroy him. “No, you cannot do this.”
“Vivi, you are no more like your father than Sarah is like hers.”
“But I’m destroying you! My father explained everything to me. I am the reason you aren’t healing anymore, why you almost attacked the woman to drink her blood. My very presence is destroying you. Just by making love to you once, I’ve given the curse more power over you. And it’s killing you.”
She covered her face with her hands. “My father tried to kill you. And I am so terrified that he will use me to do it.”
“Angel …” His voice was so soft. “You don’t have to be afraid of what you are.”
She half-turned and met his silvery gaze through the veil of her fingers. “Yes, I do. I am a demon. It’s my fault those men are dead. I didn’t mean to do anything—I didn’t know—but it doesn’t change what happened. Wouldn’t the world be better if I was destroyed? But then I think about Sarah; I can’t leave her alone.”
Heath’s hand cupped her chin. His eyes flashed sparks at her, like flecks of gold leaping off a roaring fire. “No. Don’t ever say you should be destroyed.”
“But it’s true. I told my father I would never take a man’s
soul again.” She flushed. She had shouted it at Nikolai and he had given a sardonic, infuriating laugh in return. “He told me I will become worse. The pain I feel will get stronger. He told me I won’t age; I’ll stay like this so I can be pretty enough to lure men into making love to me. I don’t want to do that! I won’t ever do it again.” And her father had not told her she was immortal.
But then, she guessed Nikolai intended to destroy her when he was finished using her.
Heath stroked her trembling arms, then cradled her. “You won’t have to.”
“But don’t you see? I’ve only survived because you have given me pleasure. But that is destroying you.”
“You are shivering.” With brisk efficiency, Heath peeled her gown down to her ankles. She had to step out of it. And before she could blink, he returned with a thick velvet robe from her wardrobe.
He drew it on her, and just as she was about to protest, he slanted his mouth over hers. She tried to pull free because she had no right to kiss him. But his grip on her waist was far too tight. And the kiss turned her shivers into ripples of desire.
I want to prove to you how lovable you are
, he whispered in her head.
“You—you can’t make love to me.”
“No. But I can do this—”
His tongue traced the line of her neck, along the back. His tongue was so warm, so firm, trailing hot and moist over her tingling skin. The tip ran up and down, making her quiver, and ache, and need.
She tried to pull away, but his hands locked tight around her waist. “You have to stop,” she whispered. “The more you do this, the more you are turning yourself into a demon. These kisses mean my father is winning.”
But he shook his head. “There is no way I could stop touching
you now, Vivi.” His palms skimmed up along her side, following the now wrinkled silk of her velvet robe. She had to moan at the firm, delicious pressure. “I need this,” he murmured, and cupped her breasts.
Her breasts almost seemed to swell and plump at his touch. His palms brushed her soft bosom inside the robe, rubbed over her nipples. Her cunny ached for him.
“Stop,” she gasped. She shoved at his broad, heavily muscled chest, trying to push him away. But he didn’t budge. “I can’t do this. It only proves my father was right. I’m a monster. I just vowed I would never bed a man again, yet here I am, on fire for you. You only have to touch my nipples and I’m burning for you. I can’t resist you—”
“Then don’t. I know exactly what I’m doing, Vivi. This is about love. You don’t believe you should be loved. And I intend to show you how much you are.”
He bent his head, held her breasts up, and flicked his tongue over her nipples. Deeply, intensely, he sucked in her right nipple. Pleasure shot through her, leaving her weak in the knees. Then he let her nipple slide out, reddened to a happy scarlet. And it no longer looked like a plump little thimble; it stood up higher, fuller, harder. Her nipples adored him.
And her heart …
Love.
Another four-letter word. Very similar to hope, yet even
more
dangerous.
She clutched his shoulders. Pleaded with him through her thoughts.
Stop. Stop. Stop
. But he didn’t obey. And she wasn’t strong enough to push him away—because he was big, and as immovable as a brick wall. And she wasn’t strong enough in her heart.
From nipple to nipple, Heath moved. Licking. Caressing. Suckling hard. She let her head drop back. And sobbed with the
sheer agonizing pleasure of it. “It’s hopeless. I don’t want you to stop.”
“I’ve only started, Vivi.”
He dropped to one knee in front of her. He lifted her foot, balancing it on his palm. The position opened her cunny to him, parting her nether lips with a sticky little tug.
Smiling, he arched up and pressed his mouth to her dark gold curls. He kissed her there, between her thighs.