Bitten By Magic (7 page)

“Say I’m responsible for whatever you’re accusing me of—what can you possibly do to punish me worse than I’ve already been punished by marrying you?” She crossed her arms over her chest, unaware the blanket, which had been covering her, was now resting on her lap.

“Do you really want to force my hand on this, Keeper?”

***

Alexa’s head snapped back, her tiny chin pointing up with a stubborn will that challenged him. She knew she was poking a rabid animal, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. Perhaps it was his rude way of demanding answers, maybe it was that rotten harem closet that held everything a woman would need to make herself clean and smell good for him, but all she wanted to do was make his night miserable!

“I am the Keeper still. My vows to the position are more important than any vows I was forced to make to you. At the risk of repeating myself, I answer to no one but the Treaty’s guidelines. So, you, my dear husband, can rant, rave, and show your fangs all you want. It won’t do you any good.” She saw his intention in the way his hands dropped to his sides and clenched as he took a step in her direction. Alexa rolled quickly to his side of the bed, her feet hitting the carpeted floor with a small thud as she headed for the bathroom.

She didn’t make it. A strong hand caught her hair, wrapped the length of it around his wrist as his other arm banded her waist and pulled her back against the solid wall of his bare chest. Her breath caught at the pain of her hair being pulled.

“Didn’t you ever learn not to run from a Vampire? We like the thrill of the chase, Keeper. It fills your blood with adrenaline, an aphrodisiac for our kind. If you hadn’t kept my guests here for the day I would have let you make it to the hallway. I’d let you run until that moment when you thought you’d escaped me. Then I’d show you how wrong you were. No one escapes me.” His breath was hot against her neck, his bare skin warm against her back. The pain in her gut eased where his arm held her with hard resistance.

“You are nothing but an animal!” Alexa dug her fingers into his arm and hissed as he used her hair to tilt her head to the side, baring the tender flesh of her neck.

“Well, this won’t surprise you, then.” Her eyes widened as she felt the sharp sting as his fangs scraped her neck, just over her jugular. This was it. He was going to bite her. She should have felt fear—swift and painful—but all she felt was relief that the wait was finally over. It stung for a mere second before a wave of heat stole her ability to do more than whimper in his arms. There was no denying the pleasure and need coursing through her body from where his fangs were sunk into her neck. A low groan escaped him as he hungrily drank her life’s essence from her with sweet pulls.

She should fight him, she thought hazily, but she could do nothing as her knees gave way. His strong arms held her up with an ease that should have scared the daylights out of her, but only made the ball of need low in her belly strengthen. She wanted him to take it all, all of her blood, all her fear, even all of her dreams. It was all his in this moment suspended in time. In the most basic sense she belonged to him and she knew it.

Chapter Four

Wilhelm was lost in his own blinding need to feed and conquer the strong-willed woman in his arms. For this one moment she was not a Witch, not his enemy, not even his wife. Here, in this haze of blinding need and hunger she was only the best thing he’d ever bitten in his damnably long existence. Power coursed through him as her blood, strong with life and magic, filled his aged veins, making him lightheaded as he drank from her fragrant neck. She smelled of the roses blooming in his conservatory.

The sharp nails digging into his forearm slowly released him as her arms fell to her sides. He raised his head to try to clear the dizziness as he felt like he was soaring far above his body. She sighed a soft breath as her head fell back to rest on his bare chest. Alarm abruptly cleared the fog as he realized how limp her slight body was in his arms. He knew with a feeling of dread that he’d drank far too long and too deeply from her. He moved quickly, licking the two small puncture wounds to close them and keep her from losing any more blood. Still, the taste of her skin and the sweet drops of blood left on his tongue urged him to take what was left, what was offered up to him. He cursed as he bent and picked her up to place her on the bed.

Her eyes were closed, her elfin face pale like the death that was trying to steal over her. Pale pink lips opened as she struggled weakly to inhale. He knelt beside the bed, pushing her hair off her cheek with a hand that strangely shook. He swore profoundly as he debated what he should do for her. If it wasn’t already sunrise he could get Grant Vernally, the Hive’s doctor, to come look after her, but Grant would be sleeping like the rest of the Hive, locked in his chambers until dark.

“Damn it!” He shoved his hand through his hair as he realized keeping her alive might mean turning her, something he should not do. Turning anyone was strictly forbidden without permission of the Council of Elders, carrying the harsh penalty of the Shining. The Shining was the strongest sentence for a Vampire. He’d be dragged out into the center of the Hive’s buildings and tied to a pole to wait for the sun to rise and turn him to a blistering mass of ash. Yeah, not something he wanted to chance, not even to save his Keeper and his one shot at redemption. No, there had to be another way. Standing abruptly, he left her lying motionless on the soft bed with the blankets pulled over her shivering body.

***

Alexa felt her body quake within as a heat spread through her like waves crashing up onto a sandy shore. What was he thinking to cover her with the thick blankets? She moaned as she tried to shove them off her arms and chest. She felt as weak as a kitten. The memory of the prophetic scene involving Wilhelm and her when he licked her palm that first time to seal their deal came back to her with a force that stole the breath from her already burning lungs.

She hungered to feel his hard body pushing hers into the mattress...this mattress. She gasped at the need pulsing unwanted through her lower belly and feminine core. Her pink shorts were soaked with her body’s response to his bite. She would have groaned in horror at the way her body was preparing her for his carnal possession, but she couldn’t spare the precious air it would take. His low voice came from the closet. She wanted to roll over to look at him, but she didn’t even have the strength to open her eyes.

“Get here as fast as you can, then. I don’t want to hear excuses, Grant. She hasn’t got much time.” His rumbled growl ended with a curse as he came back into the room. “Are you joking? How do you plan to do that?” There was a pause, then Wilhelm’s quick hiss. “No! Think of something else because that won’t work. I don’t want that priest anywhere near her. Do it, now!” He tossed the cell phone on the nightstand.

Alexa felt him watching her with those dark eyes. She wondered what he was waiting for. This was as weak as she was ever likely to be. The touch of his hand on her forehead was a surprise and a pleasure. He swore as he pulled the blankets off her sweating body.

“What is going on with you?” he demanded roughly as he felt her bare arms and legs. “This isn’t right.” She struggled to open one eye and peek up at him. His face was very close to hers as he knelt at the side of the bed. Shadows made his handsome face seem haggard. Was it possible that he was worried for her? Did he blame himself for draining her life with his hunger? She hoped so! Guilt might force the rake to keep his word to her. It might save her cousin’s life. It might make him take her hard and fast, just the way she was craving him.

“Will...” Alexa’s lips felt numb, forcing her to shorten his name as Jaxson did. “Will...?”

“Save your strength. I have help coming. Are you hot?” At her slight nod he was up and moving to the bathroom. A second later he was washing her face with a cool cloth. It was heaven.

“Keep your word, Will.” She felt his hand still with the cloth on her forehead. He was studying her face; she could feel his gaze upon her. What was he thinking? She wished she felt strong enough to look up at him, but she couldn’t. Why did she care what he was thinking of her? What else could he possibly do to her at this point? “Your word...”

***

“I always keep my word,” he grated as he ran the cloth down her arm. “Don’t worry. Don’t think at all, just rest for now.”

Wilhelm carefully ran the cool cloth down to her hand. She was a mess of contradictions, his wife. She might be dying for all she knew and here she was trying to make sure he would uphold his blood pact. He hated being maneuvered by anyone, but this small woman had easily tricked him into a pact he didn’t know if he could uphold without breaking his word to his people.

A firm rap on the door had him donning a pair of sweatpants before hurrying to answer. The quarrelsome voices raised in argument made him almost slam the door in the three males’ faces. Jaxson hissed at Grant and Levi Pierce with his back to the door.

“Enough! The last thing she needs is bickering between you two. Let the Elder decide who goes in to examine the Mistress.” Jaxson turned and rolled his eyes at Wilhelm.

“I don’t recall asking for your help, Priest.” Wilhelm gently shut the door behind him to keep the voices from disturbing Alexa. He didn’t like the little toad, who had been thrust upon him for his marriage. He would have been more than satisfied to have one of his men bind them in the Vampire tradition, but that was not what the High Priest of her Coven had in mind. Now, here he was being hounded by the man.

“Mistress Alexa is still the Keeper and an important member of our Coven. This...physician is hardly qualified to examine a Witch. I must see what I can do for the Keeper.” The arrogant confidence of the little man grated on Wilhelm’s nerves as he calmly measured the Witch’s bold declaration.

“Alexa is now my wife. I would prefer my own physician assess her condition—”

“He knows nothing of the Witch’s anatomy—”

“And you know nothing of a Vampire’s chemical makeup. Therefore, her care is in my hands. Jaxson will escort you back to your quarters, Pierce.”

“You can’t keep me from her, Chambers. She is our Keeper—”

“She is my wife.” Wilhelm’s words were final. He watched the little Witch step back with his mouth hanging open in surprise.

“I believe your room was this way, Priest.” Jaxson took a firm grasp of the man’s arm and pulled him along as he moved down the hall.

“That man is a pest. I hope you know the trouble you are putting yourself in, Elder.” Grant shook his head as he watched the other two men turn the corner and disappear.

“I’ve been in worse.” Wilhelm shrugged a bare shoulder as he looked back at his physician. Grant was a surgeon back in the days before he was turned by a renegade Vampiress who had a thing for professional types with lots of land and money. Grant had more than fit the bill. “You need to see her.” He opened the door and let Grant enter ahead of him.

“You drained her?” Wilhelm shrugged, feeling guilty as the doctor gave him a disapproving look. Grant turned on the overhead lights, hearing Alexa’s moan as she tried to cover herself and her eyes from the brightness. She was too pale and too weak for Wilhelm’s comfort. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants as he watched Grant take her pulse. He hated seeing the other man’s hands on his property. She was his. There was no doubt about it. He could still feel the power of her blood heating his body from the inside out. He felt strong enough to fight an army, yet all his physical body was interested in was sexual pleasure. Sex with a Witch!

His dark head jerked back as he was forced to face the fact that he wanted her regardless of who or what she was. He wanted nothing more than to claim her, mark her with his teeth and body, so that no other would dare look at her, much less touch what was his. His fangs throbbed as the doctor sat on the bed beside her and gently turned her head to examine the bite marks on her neck.

“You took far too much. Yet...” Grant moved to open her mouth to examine the color of her gums. His entire body jerked back as her moss green eyes flew open wide. They flashed to black as a hiss of warning preceded the arc of her hand. Only Grant’s Vampire speed prevented him from receiving the impact of a slap that would probably have knocked him from the bed. “A little help here, Elder!” Grant fought to keep her arms controlled as she tried to gouge his eyes out with her sharp nails.

“Get out!” Wilhelm moved to straddle her flailing legs as he thrust Grant away from her. A deep hiss of possession left him as he captured her wrists and held them over her head. Black eyes, eerie and beautiful, blinked up at him. Relief and peace washed over her as he felt her body relax beneath his. Her head stopped thrashing against the pillow as she focused on his face above her. “Will...”

“You are safe,
felesage
.” His words seemed to make her shiver in reaction. Her body surrendered beneath his iron control in a way that had him hardening in hunger. Black eyes turned to molten green as she stared transfixed at him.

“Damn.” Grant’s curse pulled Wilhelm’s attention from the soft body lying beneath his. Her eyes were bewitching him with their soft emotions. This was not the cool facade of the Keeper he was seeing. This was the wanton need of a female for her mate. The raw need in her pretty green eyes called to the beast within him. Pulling his gaze from that stark lust took real effort as he forced his mind from following his body’s urgings. He was master of his blood, not its Poppet for crying out loud!

“What is wrong with her?” He growled lowly at the stunned doctor. Grant crossed his arms over his chest and pinched his lower lip in his way of considering the problem before him.

“I would say from the way she fought me that she will be just fine. You’ll need to force her to drink a lot to replenish her blood levels, but a full recovery is conceivable. However, she seems possessed by you, my friend.” Grant let out a chuckle as Wilhelm glanced back at him. “I think the cure for what ails her is apparent.”

“What ails her? This isn’t the icy look of a Keeper.” Wilhelm felt pulled to her as he sank back into her ardent stare. Her little pink tongue slipped out between her lips to teasingly lick her bottom lip with a sensual flare that had a strong impact on his already painful erection.