Immortals After Dark 03 - No Rest for the Wicked

the warmth of her blood, in the richness that was unique to her taste. He was lost in how tight her flesh was around his aching fangs—until he felt her body tensing around his fingers in a sudden orgasm.
    From his bite.
    He barely remembered to put his hand over her mouth, muffling her screams.
    Her sex continued to tighten around his fingers so furiously he snarled against her skin, sucking her hard. The feel of drinking her was perfect. As if instinct was rewarding him for doing something that was unavoidable anyway.
    But he stopped himself from drinking too deeply. Later, when he had her in his bed, he was going to take his release from her body while he drank her blood.
    He slowly withdrew his fangs, licking the marks on her neck as he removed his fingers. When she shuddered as if with loss, he realized the bite he’d despised had made her his—even if only for a moment.
    Eyes wide, lips parted, she brushed his mark with her fingertips. He’d shocked her. Good.
    Then she seemed to wake up, drawing back from him. She hurriedly pulled her hair around to cover her neck, then yanked her skirt down.
    When she gazed up at him, her eyes passed over his face as if she’d never seen him before. Her expression told him she was disgusted with what she found. “I don’t care if you’ll turn or not. You had no right to take my blood.”
    “Ah, Kaderin, you didn’t seem to mind.”
    “ Thank you, ” she murmured.
    He scowled. “For what?”
    Her tone was quiet, grave. “For making this so easy. For making me see that there is nothing about you to tempt me to accept a vampire.”
    “You wanted to know why I desired to die?” he grated. “Because I saw myself as you see me. You hate me for reasons I can’t control. Reasons I’d hated myself for. But now, seeing your reaction to me makes it clear I was wrong. At least, you’ve saved me from my own self-loathing.” After tonight, he would no longer be ashamed to walk down the street. He refused to look at himself the way she saw him.
    “Do you think this is only about your thirst for blood? Give me one reason that I should choose you over every other man I’ve met in millennia and every one I’ll meet in the eternity to come? You can’t.” She caught his eyes. “It’s more than your being a vampire.”
    This struck home. Why would she see him any differently than other women had throughout his mortal life?
    Because she was his Bride, he would be seduced into wanting her again and again, seeing things in her that didn’t exist. Then her true nature would betray his hopes like this in an endless cycle.
    He could not win her.
    I’ll be fighting with her for eternity. That’s what faced him. The thought exhausted him.
    “I’m weary of this. Of you.” He put his hand above her against the wall, leaning over her. “You’re right. About everything. There’s no reason for you to accept me. And you were right in saying that I’ve been compelled to want you simply because you’re my Bride. My desire for you has been forced on me. I’ve had no choice in the matter.”
    “You act as if I gave you reason to think differently,” she said. “I told you all along that you shouldn’t bother with me.”
    He clutched the back of her neck, forcing her face up to him. “You also told me on more than one occasion that you never wanted to see me again. I’ll oblige you. I was the first vampire to trace to a person—and I’ll be the first to forsake my Bride.” Human females had begun gazing at him with open yearning, a marked contrast to the revulsion currently obvious on his Bride’s face. He would take one of them. Or several.
    He gave her a harsh, scalding kiss. “I will forget you, if I have to fuck a thousand women to do it.” When he released her, there was nothing in her expression, infuriating him even more. “Perhaps I’ll start with a female in the Lore.”
    Did he imagine the flicker of silver in her eyes? “Have fun with that.”
    “If you leave with the human, I won’t leave alone, either.”

    As Kaderin marched back to the booth, she pulled her collar higher, feeling Sebastian’s eyes on her. He’d bitten her. Not by accident. Not gently. Worse, in her position, she hadn’t exactly been able to disguise her intense reaction to it.
    Sebastian had bitten her.
    And she’d delighted in it, coming with an intensity that staggered her.
    She hated him for that. For her entire long life, she’d gone without being bitten, and he’d