Page 36 of Vampire Sins
“Hellhounds,” Xavier informed me.
My blood ran cold. “Excuse me?”
Luke stepped between us, his armor from the Arena having morphed into a more traditional shirt and pants that he so often wore. “You never said anything about hellhounds. If this circle of hell is all about envy, what do hellhounds have to do with it?”
Xavier pressed his lips into a thin line before replying. “They’re what Nate believes he deserves. Hellhounds feast on the weakest of souls. They are one of the few creatures capable of entirely erasing someone from existence. Instead of eternal damnation he’ll just… cease to exist.” He crossed his arms, his armor having morphed into a tailored Italian suit. It seemed once my guys overcame their sin, they had a measure of control when it came to hell’s tricks.
I whirled back to Nate and grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him violently. “Nate! Snap out of it! You are not going to get eaten by hellhounds, you hear me? Not over my dead body!”
“Careful what you wish for,” Nate murmured just before he opened his eyes. I’d forgotten how blue they were. Not like Luke’s with an ethereal sky-blue that could be as translucent as ice. Nate’s eyes were a deep, midnight blue that reminded me of an ocean during sunset.
I smiled and took his face in mine before giving him a deep kiss. Of course, my Nate wouldn’t miss an opportunity to score, and forced my mouth open with his tongue and deepened the kiss, making heat flare at my core.
Breathless, I eased away from him. “If wishing you to remain in existence brings hellhounds to gobble me up, then it’s worth it.”
That seemed to trigger something in Nate and the mischief fled from his eyes, replaced with confusion and fear. He sat up and surveyed our surroundings. His eyes widened and he swallowed hard. “Sonya, where are we?”
Xavier answered, causing Nate to jolt. “Hell, and if you want to help us get on with it, then you’ll stop feeling so sorry for yourself and realize being human isn’t the end of the world.”
Nate blinked at the vampire, his eyes growing wide as Xavier hissed at him—all vampire like—and his ruby eyes blazed with warning.
“That’s not helping,” I grumbled.
Nate’s gaze swept to me, then past me and to Luke who leaned against one of the statues. “Hey. I know you.”
Luke gave him a slow nod, even though his skin flushed. The last time the two had been in the same room had been when Luke had recharged my Blood Stone… “Yep, it’s me. One of Sonya’s bond, just like you.” He indicated Nate’s rune with his chin.
Nate’s fingers explored the tattoo on his chest, wincing when he touched it.
This was a lot for him to take in. It took me a while to come to terms that Nate was in my bond, but he probably had no idea what that meant. His whole life supernaturals had dictated his life, and here I was, trapping him with yet another supernatural’s destiny. “Hey, Nate?” I asked, kneeling and resting my hand on his arm. The hellhounds barked again, this time definitely closer. “When we made love in the library, do you remember what you told me?”
He blinked at me, his blue eyes glancing to Xavier and Luke. He wasn’t an idiot. He knew what they meant to me, as well as what I might have done with them. Of course my guys would have known that I might have been intimate with Nate, so they didn’t even flinch. “Uh, not really,” Nate said, his words distant. The hellhounds yipped again, as if sensing Nate’s distraction.
I grabbed his chin and forced him to look at me. His eyes were wild with fear, but also another emotion I recognized, only because I’d seen it a thousand times in the mirror.
Doubt.
Crippling self-doubt that he was worthy of my attention. Doubt that he deserved even a sliver of happiness. He wasn’t what his father wanted him to be. He was mortal, which made him useless, or so he’d allowed himself to believe. There was a reason that Derek kept Nate around, why he’d tasked him over watching me. Nate had his own strengths and skills, ones that no one else had. I needed to remind him of that.
I eased in closer and lowered my voice, allowing seduction to seep into my words. “You told me that I was accustomed to being the seductress. You revealed to me my own desires, my desires to be taken, to be seduced.” I grinned, my fangs slipping free of their sheath, making Nate’s eyes go wide. “You gave me that, and now that I’m a vampire, you can give it to me as many times as you’d like.”
I kissed him before he had a chance to protest. I wasn’t as skilled as Xavier when it came to kissing with fangs, and I winced when I accidentally pricked him and the sweet, metallic tang of his blood blossomed in my mouth. My fangs were still wet with my poison, having subdued an entire army of fake-Lukes with it, and he moaned with pleasure. I grinned against his teeth.
The first of the statues cracked, sending the ground trembling beneath our feet. I snapped my gaze up just in time to see the statue of the vampire crumbling to dust.
“It’s working,” Luke said, surprise making his eyebrows raise.
I turned back to Nate and stroked his cheek. His eyelids fluttered open at my touch. “You see?” I asked. “You have power even over a vampire. I want you. I need you. You have seduced me and you have given me what no one else ever could.”
He stroked my cheek in return, his thumb running down one of my fangs. He didn’t ask me how I’d managed to become a vampire. Instead, he indulged me. “What have I given you that makes you look at me like that?” His gaze swept over me, mesmerized, as if what he was seeing was impossible. I realized that it had nothing to do with what I was, but that I adored him, that I spoke the truth when I said I needed him.
“You’ve given me what I desire most,” I said. “You’re a human who doesn’t fear what I am. A mortal who can still want me, even after knowing exactly how deep my sins run.” Wrapping my arms around his neck, I straddled him as desire thundered through me. The hardening arousal of him pressed at the thin layer of my underwear. Apparently, when my armor had transformed to clothing that represented how I felt most comfortable, it left me with revealing lingerie. Appropriate for a succubus turned vampire.
He kissed me and moaned into my mouth, careless of my fangs with his tongue. I forced myself to retract them as he kissed me again.
“Tell me more,” he said between kisses and his hands ran over my thighs and under my thin gown, his thumbs rubbing circles dangerously close to where I wanted him to be.
“You’re more intoxicating than a siren,” I whispered. Shortly after I’d uttered the words the statue of a siren crumbled. “Stronger than anyone I know, even a dragon.” In spirit, Nate could even put Jet to shame after all he’d endured and still survived. Another statue crumbled. He pressed a thumb hard over my clit and I tried to squeeze my legs closed, but he was in the way. He grinned against my teeth and drank in my moans. “I want you more than I want any supernatural, Nate.” The other statues disintegrated, leaving only his father, Derek, looming over us. I blinked up at it and threaded my fingers through Nate’s hair as I rolled my hips against his touch. “I want you more than the King of Sex.”
