Authors: Michelle Marquis
Krysis grabbed a canvas duffel bag from one of his companions and tossed it over the fence. It hit the ground with a muffled thud and a clang of metal. Then he scaled the ten-foot-tall wrought-iron fence with as much ease as a cat does climbing a thick oak tree. He jumped to the bottom and glared ahead, his bloodlust quickening like a fever under his skin. His three companions, Blackjack, Razor, and Kat, followed him over and gave him a curious look. If anyone wanted to question him, no one would dare. Krysis was well known for being dangerously unpredictable, a reputation he earned and cultivated with care.
That newest grave was the one he was looking for.
His beloved might even be awake already.
Krysis moved across the cemetery toward the new gravesite with long, commanding strides. He didn't want his 13
The Supplicant
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new mate locked in her coffin too long. She'd be traumatized enough as it was from the accident.
It had been a long time since he'd had a fresh supplicant, and he was looking forward to coaxing this one into the fold.
If she agreed, she would be a good addition to their small group. He could tell, he could feel it, and he was never wrong.
As he drew closer, their bond grew, and his hunger for her became more primal, more savage. He moved his tongue over his canine teeth and felt their long, curved menace, and immediately, he thought about the police woman's unique taste. Like ripe fruit on a hot summer day.
Finally, he reached her grave.
* * * *
Oh my good God, I'm in a coffin! I've been buried alive!
Now, fueled by new and building terror, she raked her hands down the front and sides of her enclosure. "Hello?" she screamed. "Can anyone hear me?
Hello!
"
Everywhere she touched was silken fabric. The whole thing was so surreal, like a dream that quickly turns into a nightmare. Frantic to escape, Sin moved her legs, bumping her knees over and over against the narrow sides. The surprise that she could even
move
her legs at all was quickly overshadowed by her current predicament. She could have 14
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sworn that both legs had been badly broken in the crash.
"Someone help me,
please!
" she called, pounding her fist against the coffin lid as hard as she could.
Sin heard scraping on the roof of the casket. It sounded like shovels, and relief flooded over her.
Oh, thank Jesus!
Someone must have heard me!
With a new sense of purpose, she banged harder on the lid praying whoever it was wouldn't stop digging her out. Within minutes, the top was lifted, and the damp night air greeted her. Hands reached in and grabbed her arms, lifting her up and onto the casket edge.
Sin was so happy she wanted to cry. Dirt fell onto her face and chest as she scrambled to climb out. The hands let go.
Gripping the side of the grave, Sin hoisted herself out as if emerging from the edge of a swimming pool. Exhausted from the ordeal, she rolled onto her back and blinked at the sky as ghostly clouds moved across the full moon. Then she realized her benefactors were staring at her.
"Thank God you came when you did," Sin said, panting and trying to calm her racing heart. "I thought I was a goner."
"God had nothing to do with your rescue," someone with a deep voice said.
It belonged to a tall, commanding white man who Sin was sure she recognized. Getting to her feet, she carefully studied his face. Then there was a white-hot minute of recognition, and she trembled. She lifted a finger and pointed at him. "You were the man at the crash."
"Yeah," he said. And he was just plain drop-dead sexy. His handsome face was the model of masculine perfection: wide 15
The Supplicant
by Michelle Marquis
cheekbones, a well-proportioned, curved nose, and a subtle hint of cruelty around the lips. His skin was a warm parchment white, and his blue eyes seemed to glow with a cool intelligence. Sin's palms started to sweat, but she resisted the urge to break eye contact with the attractive stranger.
She looked down at the grave as a creeping sense of dread overtook her. Then the hunger came. Like a violent storm, it darkened her soul and tore the reason from her mind. Any hint of fear blew away, and in an instant, Sin could smell the salty sweetness of the stranger's blood. She moved her tongue out and stroked it along her lower lip. "Who are you?"
she said softly.
"I am Krysis," the pale man replied, his eyes sweeping boldly down her body in a naked show of lust.
Like a rope tied around her waist dragging her in, Sin was pulled closer to him. Every step heightened the hunger a little more until it pounded a savage rhythm inside her head.
"Krysis." She said his name like a guilty secret. "You're so familiar to me."
"He saved your life," a woman said. "By giving you a new one." She was a startling beauty with long, wavy, dark hair and reddish-brown eyes. The woman was dressed in a black blouse and faded blue jeans. She was standing a few feet back watching Sin's exchange with Krysis.
"I don't understand," Sin replied. Krysis was so close, so close. The exquisite scent of rushing blood was intoxicating, inviting. She stared at the thick artery pulsing in his neck and fought the urge to pounce. "Why am I so groggy?"
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"You're hungry," Krysis said. "You need to feed. But first you must know the truth of what you are." He smiled, showing two impressively long canine teeth. Then his companions did the same. Sin stared, wondering if this was all just a horrible dream and she was really in a coma somewhere.
Sin tried to speak, but all she could do was shake her head in disbelief.
"At the crash, you were dying. You asked me to help you, and I did. I gave you a second life so you could choose. Do you want to die, or do you want to live?"
She swallowed. "And if I choose to live, I become a vampire. Is that right?"
The woman with the dark hair laughed. "You're already a vampire."
"So what happens if I choose to die?" Sin asked.
Krysis unsheathed a silver saber from a scabbard hidden in his long black trench coat. "Then I will release you, and you can rest in peace."
"Just like that?" Sin asked.
Krysis gave her a grim look. "Just like that."
"Don't I get some time to think about it?" she asked.
"There is no more time. In order for you to continue the change, you must become my supplicant and take the second bite. Then I can finish your transformation," he said.
"And I'll never see the sunlight again," Sin whispered, more to herself than anyone.
"No matter what you choose, Sin," Krysis said, "you saw your last sunrise yesterday morning."
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That realization hit her hard, like someone had kicked her in the chest. So much was happening so fast that she didn't even pause to wonder how he knew her name. After a few seconds for the shock to sink in, Sin reached a decision. She was surprised it hadn't been a more difficult one. "I want to live."
Krysis held his arms out to her in welcome. His eyes became as light blue as a glacier. "Then come and let me kiss you."
Sin melted into his arms and inhaled his rich, manly scent.
Krysis squeezed her, nuzzling the soft flesh of her throat.
Then he struck, plunging his long white teeth into her. Her entire body shuddered as a lightning bolt of pain flashed from the site. His fangs pushed deeper, sparking every nerve with searing agony, and then it all changed.
Blessed euphoria came over her and, rushing away the suffering, bathed her in sweet pleasure. The sensation started from the wound, flowed down her chest and arms, and warmed her all over. Overcome with a million tiny joys, Sin wrapped her arms around the vampire and clutched his large frame against her. A gasp followed by a desperate moan escaped her lips, and she was suddenly aware she was no longer standing but being held up by Krysis.
"I'm getting cold," Sin complained. Her mind was fading, slipping away into a growing darkness. A sharp pinch and Krysis withdrew. Sin blinked, trying to stop the darkness in her brain from completely taking over.
Krysis removed a dagger from a sheath on his hip. Then he tore his black T-shirt open and cut a long wound into the 18
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thick meat of his pectoral. Dark red blood flowed from the injury, and Sin's stomach twisted in hungry knots. Then the vampire placed his hand on the back of her head and pushed her mouth to the wound.
Like a baby sucking at her mother's breast, Sin pulled the lifesaving blood into her body. Time slowed and disappeared as she drank, all the while listening to the tender, seductive words Krysis whispered in her ear. And just as Sin's body began to warm, he pulled her away and let her collapse to the ground, where she landed on her butt.
Sin fought to catch her breath. She wanted this man more than anything she'd every wanted in her whole life. She wanted to feed off him, fuck him, and spend all eternity with him. "I want more," she said, wiping a trickle of blood from her lips.
Krysis slipped his trench coat off his massive shoulders and let it fall. Blood still ran from the wound in his chest. He crouched down and smiled at her. "Beg me."
Sin had never begged for
anything
in her whole life, and she sure as hell wasn't going to start now. "Fuck that." Faster than she thought she could move, she rushed at him, only to be restrained by one of the other vamps.
"Let go of me!" she shouted angrily.
Krysis dug his nail into the wound, making it bleed faster.
"Hungry, my beautiful Sin?" he taunted.
Sin lunged at him, but the vampire held her firm. She fought him and was surprised she managed to break free. But just before she could fasten her lips to Krysis, he grabbed her by the throat and held her back.
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"Let me drink," she snarled, trying to pry his fingers from around her neck. But Krysis proved to be a stronger adversary than the other vamp who'd tried to hold her back.
"Beg for it," he commanded.
Sin's stomach cramped with hunger. "Please, Krysis.
Please let me have more."
But instead of letting her have her wish, he flung her back into the arms of the two other vamps. "Later."
Sin glared at him. "You're a bastard."
Krysis only laughed at the insult. "If you think that now, wait until I get you in the bedroom." Then he threw Sin over his shoulder and carried her out into the night.
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Glamorous, sexy, cool.
For over two hundred forty years, Krysis had heard those words used to describe his kind, and it always made him laugh. They were spoken by people who had no idea what it was like to outlive family, children, and friends. All most people knew about vampires was what they saw at the movies or read in fiction books. No one could know the profound suffering and loneliness that came with the dubious gift of a prolonged life. No, that you only learned once you had begun your second life.
Krysis looked down at Sin's lovely head sleeping in his lap.
He was grateful she'd fallen asleep in the car and was now resting peacefully. Her lips were pale, but her cheeks had that familiar dark blush of a first feeding. He stared out the car window and watched as the city's darkened buildings rolled by. Absently he stroked her dark hair and wondered if he had done the right thing by her. There was so much about this new life she didn't yet know, and he was worried she might have trouble adapting. Some did and had to be destroyed.
But then he reminded himself she was a policewoman. She was tough. And she
had
agreed to the change. He hadn't deceived her. He'd just given her the choice, a choice he'd never had when he was turned so very long ago.
Would she learn to accept him? Could she someday come to love him? Those thoughts were almost too difficult to 21
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entertain. It had been too long since he'd had someone to share his life with, much too long.
Sin stirred. "Where am I?"
"You're in the back of my car being driven to my home."
She sat up, her brow wrinkling with concern. "How bad was the accident, Krysis?"
"What good does it do to be reminded of it? That life is over now."
"Please. I need to know."
"It was bad. You were smashed up and dying. You begged me. . . ." Her lovely face paled even more, and he let the rest of his words die on his lips. "I don't want to talk about this."
"
Please.
Tell me everything," she insisted. "I can barely remember any of it."
He shook his head. "It's better you don't remember."
Her dark eyes flashed in rage. "It was
my
death, damn it! I have a right to know what happened."
A chord of emotional agony sounded in his heart. "Why?
So you can relive it over and over again until you go insane?
What do you want to know exactly, Sin? Do you want to know about the way your legs were crushed under the mangled dashboard or the way your spine was twisted into the compressed seat? What part of that harrowing vehicular crash would you like me to spin for you?" But right when the last words left his mouth, he knew he'd made a terrible mistake.
Her face was slack with the horror. Krysis tried to put his arm around her, but she pulled away violently. "I'm sorry, Sin," he said. "But it wasn't any picnic for me either seeing you like that."