Immortals After Dark 03 - No Rest for the Wicked

“You need this?” he grated.
    “Yes!”
    “You need me?”
    “Oh, yes, yes!” She stretched her arm back, offering her wrist to drink from as he continued to buck against her. When he pierced her flesh again, she instantly came with an anguished cry. He could no longer resist the pressure welling inside him, so he took as he gave, drawing her blood from her body as he emptied his seed hotly into it.
    Once he could come no more, he stretched over her, still thrusting slowly.
    His breaths ragged, he rasped at her ear, “ You’re mine now, Katja. And I will never let you go. ”

40
    T he first Lore battle Sebastian would ever experience would be a clash that had occurred a millennium in the past, and was one of the most notoriously brutal ever seen.
    Tonight he and Kaderin would retrieve her sisters, fully expecting to land in the middle of that war.
    They’d strategized about where to use the key, deciding on the flat, mainly because the coven would try to kill him at Val Hall. She wasn’t too keen on being in the city, though, in case the two didn’t “travel forward well.”
    Kaderin was nervous about seeing them after so long and had endeavored for an hour to find clothing that didn’t look too modern. As he’d waited, he’d sat back against the headboard, watching her dress, thinking over the last two days while his arm had healed.
    “We’re going to need more time,” she’d told him after the first night.
    He’d grinned. “I trust my nurse.”
    During that time, when he hadn’t been inside her, they’d talked about everything. She’d told him what her sisters had been like, and he’d revealed what had happened with his family. He felt he could tell her anything, and that she had completely opened up to him as well.
    He was learning all about her—and learning how satisfying it was simply to live with her. At his leisure, he got to kiss her ears just to make them twitch. He could study her delicate hands for what seemed like hours, enclosing them completely with his own and running the pads of his fingers over them. He got to watch her sleep—that is, when he wasn’t exhausted beside her. His Bride was as insatiable as he was.
    She was abandoned, free with her body, and gave him anything he wanted, anything he’d ever fantasized about. When he’d admitted how little experience he had, she’d seemed determined to give him everything he’d missed.
    In the end, their time together confirmed what he’d known from the beginning. He never wanted to part from her.
    The only obstacle to his happiness was the knowledge that the key did, in fact, work.
    Of course, he was relieved that Kaderin would have her sisters, but he couldn’t help thinking about what it would have been like to go back for his own family and see them once more. Maybe if he had done things differently, he and Kaderin both could have had the opportunity...
    “Are you ready?” she asked, finally dressed in jeans and a longer jacket, with her sword strapped over her shoulder.
    He nodded and rose to collect his own sword. When he crossed to her, she held up the key with raised eyebrows. “You sure you want to go? It’s going to be intense.”
    He put his shoulders back. “I was on a battlefront for a decade, remember?” He tucked her braid behind her ear.
    She didn’t look convinced. “Don’t trace in front of my sisters, please. And try not to open your mouth much.” When he raised his brows, she said, “Your fangs. I don’t want them to see your fangs. They really will try to kill you.”
    “You’re beautiful when you’re nervous.” He gave her a brief, deep kiss.
    In a breathy voice, she said, “You’ve got your sword ready?”
    His lips curled into a grin.
    “Just... just don’t get killed, Bastian.” She swallowed. “Okay?”
    He took her free hand, pressed his lips to her palm. “I’ll endeavor not to.”
    As he’d done before, she offered up the key. A portal opened. They met eyes, then stepped through, hand in hand.
    Into hell.
    As though in a quaking black dome, thunder like cannon fire shook the earth. He’d seen it in her dreams, but nothing could prepare him for the reality. Lightning slashed across the sky. All around them, Valkyrie shrieked and pried heads from vampires. Vampires ripped the throats out of any they could overpower.
    He’d never seen a Horde vampire in person. They were worse than her dreams. Red-eyed, insane.
    “I see them!” she yelled, starting for them in the