Page 66 of Auctioned for Her Blood
Stopping near the fountain, I reach up to draw Ryker’s lips down to mine. He hesitates, looking past me toward the police, and so I slide my hand between us to stroke his hard bulge.
Groaning deep in his throat, he kisses me, encasing my head with one strong hand, my butt cheek with the other, and I press my full body against him.
“Fuck, Ember,” he says between kisses. “Never mind getting staked, you’re going to get us arrested for public indecency.”
With a smile, I look into his eyes. “I thought you weren’t afraid of the police?”
He chuckles. “I’m not.” He kisses me again, this time with more fervor, and he hardens against me, his sex pulsing through his leather pants and coming alive with the promise of pleasure.
I almost forget that we’re outdoors—in a park, in public—and his hand parts my legs from behind. He drops my overnight bag and his leather coat slides off my arm onto the wet pavement. I tip my pelvis, my heat seeking his hardness.
“Get away from her!” a familiar voice yells, and I turn to see Zuben stalking across the wet paving stones.
Hewasfollowing us.
I wave at Zuben, trying to reassure him, to help him see I’m okay, that everything between me and Ryker is consensual.
“Let’s go,” Ryker says against my ear.
I smile up into his eyes, but then searing pain envelops my body. The scent of burning flesh fills my nostrils and something metallic clangs against the paving stones around us.
Ryker cries out in pain as we both fall to the ground, and he wraps his body around mine as if he can shield me.
What is happening?
“Silver.” Ryker’s voice is strained against my ear. “Where’s…my…leather…coat?”
I try to move my arm to where I think the coat fell, but the pain is too much. Every part of my body that’s exposed to silver is burning. Why?
I’ve never had any reaction to silver before, but then I remember the sunlight this morning. Ryker claims that I’m not a vampire, but something has certainly changed.
“Not her!” Zuben’s voice cries out. “Just him. You’re only supposed to take him!”
“We’ve got our orders,” another voice says. “Boss was clear. Any vampire found with him comes too.”
“But she’s not a vampire!” Zuben says.
“Sure as fuck burns like one,” a voice says, and laughter rises.
Ryker shifts to put more of his body over mine. “Get under me.” His voice is tight, full of pain.
Shifting, I see that Zuben is arguing with one of the police officers.
“You’re drawing attention,” the cop says to Zuben. “People are going to realize we aren’t cops.”
Not cops? Whoarethey? Fear and pain are so entwined in my mind I can’t fully think.
“I don’t care about anyone else in this park,” Zuben says. “You can’t take her. I forbid it. Leave her with me.”
“Forbidit?” One of the cops grabs Zuben’s arm, and then snaps a handcuff onto his wrist. Zuben cries out in pain, and smoke rises. Do they make handcuffs in silver too?
Shouting in pain, Zuben struggles to get away, and the cuff sears his flesh, so fully I wonder if it might burn through his wrist.
“Our orders are to grab any vampire found with the pirate,” a cop says. “Seems to me,youfit that criteria.”
A cop wraps a silver chain around Zuben’s neck. His skin burning, Zuben drops to his knees, not far from where I’m trapped on the pavement. He lifts his free hand, reaching for his throat, but another cop grabs his arm and then locks his wrist into the cuffs.
Another cop injects something into Zuben’s burned neck, and he collapses against the stone ground.
