Accidentally Married To...A Vampire? (5 page)

“Year?” he asked.

Maybe he was mad and she’d gone mad too? Or, when she fell in the jungle, she’d hit her noggin on a rock. Head injury. Yep, that had to be it.

Again, Niccolo appeared to be amused by her reaction to him.

“Year?” he repeated.

Helena squirmed, sliding sideways against the rough wall to put space between her and the naked tower of muscles with the giant throbbing man-gear she so wanted to inappropriately grope.

“Twenty-twelve,” she answered.

A blaze of fury engulfed his face. He slammed his fist into the stone wall behind her, causing the entire temple to quake. Dust and small chunks of stone rained down.

“Three hundred years? Three hundred bloody years!
Bloody inferno
!” he roared at the ceiling.

Terrified, she dropped to the floor and covered her head as the structure shook. The mental tug-of-war between her dreamlike-lust and survival instincts finally ended. He must be mad. She had to run before he killed her.

***

When Niccolo awoke, he couldn’t have been more confused. He had no clue how he had ended up in that dark, musty chamber with odd-looking objects and priceless treasures, but he knew whom to blame.

Cimil.

He recalled her pointy little hand waving in his face.

Next thing he knew, he could sense the human woman. She had entered his dreams like a bolt of lightning. And when she smeared that delicious, floral-scented blood on his lips and kissed him, the world burst to life again. He sensed the pulse of every living creature for miles. And the smells—every leaf, fleck of dirt, drop of rain, and…her—he could smell them all. It was as though he’d been dormant for centuries, suddenly brought back to life by an angel of carnal temptation. The most gorgeous, sensuous female creature he’d ever laid eyes on. Her feminine scent, her warmth, everything about her filled his mind with erotic bliss.

Bravo, buffoon!
That is because you have been dormant for centuries, three of them, if anyone is counting. And she is the first warm-blooded creature you have encountered.
His body felt famished. She was food. Breathtaking, female food with silky golden spirals that framed her delicate sun-kissed face, and a curvy, juicy little body that made his cock harder than the stones which entombed him; but nonetheless, food.

But why put me to sleep for three hundred years?
he wondered.
Cristo sacro! Cimil must be mad.
Who had been keeping the population of Obscuros at bay? What had happened to his men?
Bloody Cristo sacro.

And surely there would be no chance of freedom now. While dormant vampires were like the dead and did not emit any energy, once awake their blood served as a beacon to their makers. The queen would use their bond to hunt and then disembowel him. Afterward, she would put him back together and haul him off to her dungeon where she’d deprive him of blood so he would not heal, leaving him in agony for eternity. Death was the only sanctuary for him now. Maybe the female would assist him.

He gathered himself together and looked down at the woman crumpled on the floor.
So weak. Yet, so enticing. Just as Cimil had foretold.

Unexpectedly, something inside him shifted. He could…
feel
her fear. He could taste the acid churning in her stomach and the adrenaline catapulting through her veins. An overwhelming urge to protect her surged deep within.

“What have you done to me?” he whispered.

Her sapphire blue eyes flashed up at him. “What have I done to
you?”

“
Sì
. I feel—I feel…you.” His mind simply couldn’t process the inundation of emotions. Was this some absurd joke? Or could she be…?
Impossible! Mates do not exist.

“I didn’t
do
anything,” she responded.

Bloody inferno! There it is again.
He could feel her confusion.

He quickly reassessed the situation. If the slightest possibility existed that this mate nonsense was factual, then perhaps Cimil was not so mad after all. Cimil had cautioned he would not so easily accept a human.

True.

But if the prophecy was playing out as she had foreseen, then he still had a chance. Twelve weeks. Could he seduce the female into being turned by then?

Idiota! Of course you can. You are a goddamned vampire. And a handsome one at that—so you’ve been told.
And yes, he agreed.

In any case, he would certainly enjoy conquering her.

Just look at the female. She will make an enjoyable little pet, to be sure.
He would not enjoy, however, resisting bedding her or drinking from her. That, he could see, would be a thorn in his side.

He slowly kneeled and placed his hand on her shoulder, trying not to frighten her further. “Tell me, what is your name?”

“Helena,” she answered. “But you knew that already.”

I did? Why would she think that? She is confused.
He mentally shrugged and then repeated her name. Heavens, she was gorgeous. By far the loveliest creature he’d ever seen.

“Let me go. Please,” she whimpered.

He swept away the dust from her forehead and then brushed his thumb over her full bottom lip—delicious, pink, supple, and meant for kissing. Just like her golden smooth-as-satin skin radiating with life.

“I cannot do that,” he said.

Slowly she rose from the ground, still trembling. Her eyes nervously flashed to his swollen manhood, which would only prolong its present state. It aroused him beyond belief when she looked at him with such lust.

“Why not?” she asked with a nervous whisper.

Because I haven’t bedded you yet. Would not want to deprive you of such a luxury.

“Apparently,” he said, “I have waited three hundred years for you. So I have no intention of letting you go.”

He cupped her face and leaned to kiss her.

Chapter 3

Helena’s tense body swooned when the force of his lips met hers. He pulled her greedily into to his hard frame and moved his strong hands to grip her waist. It felt like he had claimed her as his personal prize. It felt euphoric.
Owned by a sex god!

Wait!
What the hell am I doing?
She broke the kiss and pushed him away again. “This is insane. I don’t know who you are or how I got here, but you have to let me go. You have the wrong person.”

He smiled devilishly. “Afraid not, my dear Helena. Fate has united us.”

Helena raised her brow in question.

“However, you are correct,
bella.
This is insanity. And as much as I would like to show you the depths of my lunacy—and the things it is asking me to do to your succulent body at this very moment—we must go. Before
they
come for me.”

That sounded ominous. “Who are ‘they?’” Wait. Did she want to know?

“It is forbidden to speak of such things to a human, but I vow the day will come when there will be no secrets between us.” The naked warrior held out his hand. “Come,
mio cuore
.”

Helena shivered. Something about that explanation left her feeling substantially more terrified. Why couldn’t humans know? And what exactly was he? If the scientist in her had no answers, then better not stick around to find out.

Helena nodded. She took his hand—it was cool to the touch, yet heated her skin at the same time—and followed him through the chamber toward the doorway. As they reached the passage, Helena nonchalantly dipped down and grabbed a golden statue. It reminded her of an Oscar. In fact, she could swear there was an inscription on its base.

Sally Fields?
Too dark to know for certain.

She quickly jumped and struck Niccolo in the back of his head with all her strength. He stumbled to the side. She squeezed past him down the passage.

The moment she burst from the temple into the night, the stupidity of her plan hit home. How far could she get?

At least he was barefoot, bare everything—
sigh
—and she still had on her low tops. That might give her the advantage. Question was, would she find her way back to civilization? She had to try.

Helena’s hands pushed frantically through rough branches and vines. They lashed at her face and scratched her arms and legs. She ran straight into a tree trunk.

She cupped her nose.
Ow! That hurt!

Thankfully, it wasn’t broken.

She slid around the enormous tree, panting and sweating. She continued on with her hands extended, wondering if running through the jungle, unable to see a goddamned thing, was actually more dangerous than trying her luck with that man. Were there any cliffs around here?

Helena tripped and landed on her knees, reopening the cut. “Son of a—” She cupped her hands over her mouth. She quickly picked herself up and slammed right into something hard again.
Another tree?
Her hesitant hands probed.
Nope. Not a tree.

“Well, well...What have we here?” said a deep, unfamiliar voice.

Helena screamed.

Two steel hands grasped her shoulders. “Hush, hush, now...” The voice was low and menacing.

She couldn’t see so much as an outline of a body or face. “Who the hell are you?”

“I go by Rodrigo. You may call me ‘Lucky.’ It’s been eons since I’ve dined on such a pure Forbidden, and your fresh blood smells…” he paused and inhaled deeply, “divine.”

Yes. Running away
had
been a bad choice. Helena kicked and fought, but whatever held her was a thousand times stronger. She suddenly felt his hot tongue run down her neck, and then, “Ummm. Delicious.”

He tasted her?
Holy shit!
“Let me go!” Helena shrieked. The man wrapped his unyielding arms around her waist and crushed her into his body.

“Release her, Rodrigo,” Niccolo’s deep voice sliced through the night like a welcome knife. “Or I will rip out your entrails and force you to swallow them. Repeatedly.”

Rodrigo froze but did not loosen his painful grip on her body.
Like a caveman trying to hold on to a drumstick,
she thought.

“So, the anonymous tip was right,” Rodrigo’s voice was filled with arrogance. “You’re just the vampire we’ve been looking for.”

Vampire? Did he just say “vampire?”
Helena’s frazzled body took what little energy it had left to resist fainting. She shook her head.

“And, let me compliment your fashionable attire, my friend. Is naked the new black?” said Rodrigo.

Apparently, the two men could see each other.
That figures; all monsters can see in dark.

“I am uncertain of what happened to the old black while I have been indisposed,” Niccolo replied flatly. “But I have no interest in indulging your urges to discuss my legendary body. I do, however, want you to let my woman go.”

My woman?

Slowly, the man eased his grip. Helena felt Niccolo reach out and sweep her behind him. She tried not to think about how she was pressed against his bare, perfect bottom.

“Oh, I see,” said Rodrigo. “She is
your
meal. I’m shocked. First, abandoning our queen for three centuries, and now, hunting a Forbidden. And this one is about as forbidden as they come. So innocent.” He sniffed loudly. “Just why is that, Niccolo? Perhaps you are unable to perform? Or, perhaps, she has rejected you, and you are too honorable to take her anyway.”

“What the hell?” Helena objected. “And would someone please flick a Bic or rub two sticks together? I want to die knowing exactly what killed me.”

Niccolo ignored her. “What I do with my woman is my business, you dishonorable pile of
merda.
But, I am not like you. Nor shall I ever be.”

Rodrigo clicked his tongue. “Nobody's perfect.”

“
Sì
. You should know,” Niccolo jabbed. “After all, you are a shame to both species you have claimed as your own throughout your existence. The queen should never have turned you after I so nearly ended your pathetic human life.”

Rodrigo hissed. “I have not forgotten the circumstances of my demise, and you should not forget my vow to make you pay. I’ve waited a very long time for this opportunity. I don't care what that whore of a queen says, you'll not be brought back alive.”