Into the Darkness Read online

  When the upper part was coated, she leaned down and licked him, from base to head—long luscious laps, eating the cheese from him, curling her tongue around the ridged head so as not to miss a spot.

  When she tongued the tiny opening at the center, she opened her eyes and glanced up into his face.

  He stared back, rage and naked lust warring in his gaze.

  She tilted her head and used her teeth to strafe his length, letting him see her fangs. She wanted him worried, although she was careful not the draw blood with the razor-sharp tips.

  When she reached his soft crown again, she chewed it, causing him to jerk in alarm. She drew slightly away, letting her hair fall against his balls to tease. “You know, you really are going to need a bath,” she said, keeping her tone lazy. “Would you like me to do that for you, Rene?”

  “Get away,” he said, his voice ragged.

  “Is that really what you want?” she asked, reaching between his legs to cup his balls.

  Air hissed between his teeth, again. She painted his taut testicles with the cheese then drew them into her mouth and suckled until his thighs trembled.

  When she’d finished her snack, she released his sac and grasped his shaft in her hand, pumping slowly up and down. The heat of his skin and the humid moistness she’d left behind created friction that burned and had his hips rolling to stroke his cock inside her curved palm.

  Keeping her grip firm, she leaned closer to his cock, breathing in his musky scent, letting it build her hunger. “You know you aren’t being fair to me. I’m not here willingly either. That’s your fault. You gave me to them.” She paused to lick the crease between his thigh and scrotum. “I think you’re lying to yourself. I think you want this.”

  “Let go of me and get away,” he said from between clenched teeth, only this time his command lacked any real fury.

  She tongued his inner thigh, finding a throbbing pulse beat. She knew precisely where to bite.

  When her teeth pierced his skin, his hips reared off the bed. “Merde! God, sweet, fuck…”

  She gripped his cock hard in her hand and continued to slide up and down his shaft as cum spurted to stripe his belly and her hand.

  When he finished, she crawled up his body and lay over him like a blanket, embracing his heat and his wet lies. She wrinkled her nose. “You know, you really need that bath now.”

  Rene eyed this Natalie with suspicion. The scared, lonely woman he’d comforted the night before had disappeared. Now, a woman with a feral expression stalked him.

  To her, he was nothing more than a rare steak with a dick. He desperately needed her to remember who she was, lose whatever power trip she was on, or he was toast. “I don’t understand how this is happening,” he said, as she kissed his chin and rubbed her face against his sprouting beard. “I thought vamps were made by bein’ bitten, but you’re transformin’ into one. Do you think it’s possible to halt the process?”

  She paused and her eyebrows rose. “Why would I want to? I’m stronger than I was.”

  “There are consequences. Do you wanna be a parasite? You’ll have to live off blood—fresh blood. You won’t be able to walk in daylight without the risk of fryin’.”

  She shrugged and ran a finger along his lower lip. “So I’ll learn to love moonlight. I’m stronger. I’m in control.”

  The frown he aimed at her could have stripped paint, but she smiled, confounding him.

  How could he make her understand? “You control nothing, Natalie. You can’t even keep a handle on your desire. You fuckin’ raped me.”

  “Raped?” Soft laughter gusted against his lips. Her smile was easy, not the least ashamed. “Maybe at the start, but you wanted it. You came for me.” Her eyes narrowed, and she inserted a hand between their bodies, pushing it down between her legs. Moist, succulent sounds followed before she brought her fingers up to paint his lips. “Wanna taste how hard you came?”

  The scent of their sex nearly undid him. However, the stubborn tilt of her chin kept him on task. “If I’d had a choice, I never would have fucked you,” he ground out, hoping to wound her—anything to get her off him before his dick recovered. “From the first moment I touched you, something drew me to you. But it wasn’t natural. I’d never have chosen to be with you.”

  She flinched. He could tell his words pelted her like tiny stones. Her eyes lost a little of their flinty spark.

  “Natalie, don’t play their game,” he pleaded his case. “We need to get out of here. I need your help to do it.”

  Along with her shoulders, her gaze dropped. “Why should I help you?”

  “I saved your life.”

  She blinked, as though rousing from a dream. “It’s strange. But I almost forgot about that…I’m forgetting about anything…before.”

  “It’s this place. It’s us in here together. But we have to fight it. We have to get out.”

  Her eyebrows drew together, and she shook her head. When she rose to straddle his hips, his heart pounded. Was she going to take him again—because dammit, he wouldn’t be able to fight her allure.

  Instead, she slid off his body, still not meeting his gaze. “I need a bath.”

  Rene gripped the chain and pulled with all his might, but it didn’t budge.

  Watching Natalie withdraw, first inside herself, then into the bathroom ate at his gut. Not that he hadn’t meant every word he’d said. He just wished he hadn’t hurt her.

  She’d started this journey as an innocent. Even now, after everything she’d done to him, he knew instinctively she hadn’t any more choice than he did.

  However, time was running against him. The longer he spent in her company, the more certain he became that he was a dead man if he didn’t find a way out.

  First, he had to get out of these cuffs. Trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey, he was at a decided disadvantage every time Natalie’s libido kicked into high gear.

  He had to figure out a way to keep her far away.

  The sound of running water slowed, and he could imagine her lying in the tub, water covering her body to her shoulders, the scent of perfumed bubble bath hanging in the air. His body hardened, as he imagined how sweet she’d smell, warm and moist coming from the water.

  Lord, he couldn’t seem to veer from the topic of sex any more than she could. Only, she didn’t have any incentive not to follow her hunger. He did. He didn’t want to die.

  Maybe they intended for her to turn him like the poor bastards who hung out in the blood banks just outside the French Quarter. He’d watched Chessa stop for a bite on a couple of occasions when her hunger made her too grumpy and edgy to be safe to be around.

  She’d disappear into one of the seedy backrooms for a while, only to return with a haunted look on her face.

  For the first time, he wondered how Chessa had become one of the walking dead. Funny, he’d never thought to ask. Had she been like Natalie? Alone and confused? Hunted by unnatural creatures and not understanding the changes occurring inside her?

  If he ever got out of here, he’d make damn sure he knew.

  Natalie sank below the surface of the water and stared through the water at the ceiling. Maybe if she held her breath long enough, she’d just fade away.

  She’d forgone the array of bath salts that lined the ledge next to the large claw-foot tub. She didn’t want cloying scents to lead her thoughts down another tempting path.

  All the changes occurring inside her hadn’t made a damn bit of difference in her life. She was still alone.

  Rene was right. She needed to get out of here. Return to the French Quarter and her search for her mother.

  When she’d first discovered evidence of her adoption amid the papers in her father’s lock box, she’d felt betrayed somehow. Like her whole life had been a lie. Neither her birth mother’s nor her father’s name appeared on the document. However, she knew where the adoption had been recorded—New Orleans. She also knew her true birth date. With those clues to work with, she’d come here
determined to find her family.

  But now, knowing what little she did about herself, she realized the Lamberts had likely protected her all along. The mother she thought had abandoned her at birth might actually have done her a favor.

  The menace stalking her in Memphis had followed her here. How much sooner might it have found her if she hadn’t been hidden amid the normal trappings of a human family?

  Her lungs burned and finally she gripped the curved edge of the tub and hauled herself up. She didn’t want to die. She still had a purpose. Two actually, if she counted thwarting her stalker.

  She’d like to forget him. For long periods over the last twenty hours, she almost had. The muzziness that had followed the blonde woman’s suggestions dissipated, and she realized she might have been under some hypnotic spell—the same as she’d received the night she’d been taken by the dark Frenchman from Rene’s bedroom.

  Their low, seductive urgings had fed right into her fantasy of having Rene for her own.

  With Rene, she felt safe. Even chained, he radiated strength of will and a steely confidence. She’d like to aspire to an ounce of his courage.

  But he didn’t want her—didn’t want the trouble that having her would entail. He thought her a freak of nature. A parasite, he’d said.

  Well, he needn’t worry again that she’d drain him dry. If she had to suck on steak for the rest of their imprisonment, she’d give him what he wanted—his freedom and his life.

  She owed him that much.

  Rene didn’t realize he’d dozed until the mattress sank beside him. He jerked awake to find Natalie kneeling beside him, a basin of steaming water held between her hands.

  One glance and he knew something had changed.

  Gone was the sly, sensuous creature that had tempted him beyond his ability to resist.

  A subdued aura of sadness clung to Natalie, as her glance met his then darted away. “I know you’re going to object, but let me do this for you. Afterward, I’ll see about someone helping you relieve yourself.”

  Her blush confirmed that whatever had had a grip on her was gone, at least for now.

  “I’d like that,” he said softly. “Whatever was in that cheese is still burning my skin.”

  Her lips curved at the corners. “Cayenne pepper.”

  Relieved to see that hint of smile, he drawled, “That wasn’t very nice of you.”

  “At the time, I thought you deserved it.”

  He relaxed, sensing no imminent threat to his manhood, and gave Natalie a reassuring smile. “Don’t be shy now. It’s not like you haven’t touched everything I have already.”

  She blinked. “I can think of a couple of places…”

  His lips stretched wider into a rueful grin. “Don’t go there.”

  Her cheeks bloomed with color. “I won’t. I promise.”

  He liked the light teasing and relaxed a little further against the mattress. “My arms are killin’ me. Is that water as hot as it looks?”

  She nodded and waited for his response.

  “Start with my arms and shoulders then, before it cools. Wring out the cloth and just lay it on the muscle.”

  She did precisely that, following his direction, letting him take the lead. In a way, giving him back a measure of control.

  As heat penetrated his sore muscles, he studied Natalie. Her pose was non-threatening, submissive even, but there were clues her body wasn’t truly subdued.

  As she reached over him to lay another cloth on the opposite shoulder, he noted her nipples had spiked, the areolas a bright, hectic pink—a sure sign of sexual excitement.

  She swallowed, the sound audible as she stretched the fabric to cover as much of his shoulder and upper chest as possible. When she sat back again, her breaths were shallow. A pink blush flooded her forehead and cheeks.

  Her smell was the clearest indication of her growing arousal. Beneath the fresh soap and water scent that clung to her skin, the faint, lush smell of her musk rose to tease his nostrils.

  His groin tightened, his balls drawing up hard as hockey pucks, his cock jerked in time with his heartbeat—filling so rapidly his teeth ground against the urge to rut upward.

  Natalie swallowed, holding his gaze for a long moment. “Remind me…often…why we shouldn’t do this. I’m starting to shake.”

  “Because I want to live, Natalie.”

  She closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. “It’s not working.”

  “Put a cloth between your legs.”

  She blinked again and reached for one of the cloths draped across his skin and plunged it into the water. She didn’t even wring it dry before she balled it up and stuck it between her legs. Her breath hissed and as her lips drew back, he saw her teeth glide into place.

  When she opened her eyes, the feral hunger was back.

  Rene made a quick choice, knowing things were going to get out of hand in a heartbeat. “Put the cloth in your mouth and straddle me, baby. Fuck me—but bite the cloth.”

  Natalie pulled it from her crotch and opened wide, biting down so hard water gushed onto his belly. She swept away the basin to the floor with a splash and climbed over him.

  Her fist closed around his cock and pointed it right at her entrance. Emitting a strange, breathless wail, she sank, circling her hips to work him quickly all the way inside.

  Surrounded by heat and her strong, clasping muscles, his cock felt moments from explosion. He wished he could grip her hips and force her hard against him. He wanted to fuck her deep and hard, pound away at her pussy. Natural or not, he’d never been so far gone. He didn’t care about the why—he needed release. Now. “I’m gonna come fast, baby. Move!”

  He didn’t wait for her to adjust, he arched his back, seeking as much leverage as he could manage, pressing shoulders and feet into the mattress. He pulsed against her, driving shallow thrusts to aid her movements.

  She planted her hands on either side of his shoulders and worked her hips, pumping up and down, grinding hard when their pubic bones met, clamping her inner muscles so tight that when his orgasm did begin to jet cum inside, she milked him, dragging her pussy along his dick, squeezing so hard he gritted his teeth against the need to shout.

  “Fuck!” he gasped, almost blinded by the strength of his orgasm. His whole body convulsed, shuddering as he spurted inside her again and again.

  She spat out the cloth and rubbed her tongue across the tips of her teeth. Red tinged her teeth, and he realized she’d cut herself rather than feed off him. She swallowed hard and closed her eyes as she circled her hips, grinding down. At last, finding her own release.

  When she slumped against his chest, he wished he could have folded his arms around her and hugged her close. “Thanks.”

  She nodded, dragging deep breaths into her lungs. “You were there, too, weren’t you?”

  “Yeah, I get it now.”

  “It’s not that I want to hurt you,” she said, a hint of tears in her voice.

  “I get it.” He really did. This time their furious coupling had been mutual—evenly desperate. “We have to try to fight it. We’re in this together.”

  She nodded and her hands slid along his chest and side to hug him.

  Rene knew their fates were somehow bound to one another now. That knowledge scared the shit out of him.

  CHAPTER 9

  Natalie finished bathing him and pulled the sheet up over his body—less tempting that way.

  Rene had dozed while she quietly tended to him, and she’d been careful not linger over parts that would have aroused them both.

  At the last, he’d confessed he needed to relieve himself.

  Deciding to find out whether the woman had told her the truth, she wrapped the lacy throw around herself and approached the door. She knocked softly.

  It swung inward almost immediately. The young man on the opposite side smiled politely. His gaze remained on her face rather than trailing down her scantily clad body. She appreciated his manners.

  “I
’d like someone to unlock Rene’s handcuffs. He needs to go to the bathroom.”

  He nodded, the sides of his eyes crinkling in the beginning of a smile. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  Seeing as he looked far from intimidating, she stuck her head out the door and peered to the left and right, curious about the rest of her prison. Just like her bedroom, soft colors—decidedly feminine ones—made up the décor. It looked like any other well-heeled Southern home. Hardly the kind of place to have a prison cell.

  “Someone will be sent to help you,” the young man said, a polite way to tell her to get back inside.

  Natalie wrinkled her nose, but he just grinned. He was kind of cute—lean, tall, broad shoulders almost too wide for his slender hips. His hair was light brown, straight, curling at the ends where it met the top of his shoulders. Almost feminine. His nose helped tremendously to dispel any effeminacy—it was a little wide, with a bump at the top.

  She wondered why she’d even noticed. Or why his scent, so different from Rene’s, appealed.

  “I’m not one of them,” he said, “if you’re wondering.”

  A blush heated her cheeks when she realized she’d been staring. “One of them?”

  “A Revenant. I haven’t been turned. The others like to nap during the afternoon.”

  “A Revenant? That’s a kind of vampire?” She had so much to learn, but already her stomach burbled, distracting her again.

  “Yeah.” His head canted and his gaze sharpened. “If you’re hungry,” he said, his voice lowering to just above a whisper, “I can feed you. I haven’t been tapped in a while.”

  “Tapped? You mean, like…bitten? You’d do that willingly?”

  “Sure.” He flashed a quick smile. His teeth were a little large and very white. “It’s pleasurable…for both of us.”

  It dawned on her that he was so comfortable flirting because no one was likely to check on him. Could she somehow catch him unaware and arrange an escape? Excitement kicked up her pulse rate speeding warmth south. She pushed her hair behind her ear and leaned indolently against the doorframe. “Are you supposed to do that?” she asked, giving him a slow smile.