chapter Twenty
Ethan sent a call to Seamus for assistance, then bent to Alexis and whispered in her ear.
"It's going to hurt, love, I'm so sorry." Since he couldn't throwa glamour over her, or use pleasure to numb her senses, he was going to have to hope that she was in so much pain from her wound, a little more wouldn't matter.
He hadn't turned anyone since Seamus in the eighteenth century, and never had the outcome been so important to him. Closing his eyes, he lowered his head, while raising her limp body to meet him. Hovering over her shoulder and neck, he brushed his lips over her cold flesh and pulled the knife out of her side. The smell of death clung to her, her breathing a labored in and out, a soft rattling in the back of her throat.
"You'll suffer no more," he told her. "You'll be strong, powerful, my chosen one, my wife."
And he sank his fangs into her neck and drew what little remained of her lifeblood into him. She barely reacted to his invasion, giving only a slight shudder, and within a minute Ethan had drawn all that was necessary. Most of her blood had spilled on the carpet, down her side, over Ethan's hands.
Moving quickly, he punctured his wrist with his fang and sliced an inch-wide gash. Pushing her lips open, he let a few droplets touch her lips, pool on her tongue. Once she got the taste, she clamped on to him, her body going rigid as she sucked hard, drawing his life into her.
Ethan closed his eyes, felt the tug and yank throughout his body as she fed from him, a sexual flush rushing into his groin. It was an intimate act, one of joining, and while he'd certainly never felt it as a sexual desire with any of those he turned before, his feelings for Alexis were different. He loved her, lusted for her, feared for her, and with all of those emotions churning within, her eager sucking at him tugged at his soul, pleased and aroused him.
He cupped his hand over her breast, stroking her nipple, feeling it tighten for him, her mind flooding with pleasure. Locked together like this, her thoughts were flowing and mixing with his, the fear receding, while the pleasure grew and replaced the pain. Anticipation, excitement, love washed over him from her, and Ethan projected his own thoughts back to her.
Happiness that he'd found her, love, glimpses of his very long and lonely life were sent to her to show Alexis that she was special, the one, his only.
Knowing it was time?her grip strong, her body warm again, her eyes rolled back and dilated with pleasure?Ethan broke her suction on his wrist. She whimpered, but her eyes focused on him, and she smiled.
"I heard your thoughts."
"Yes." Ethan"checked her wound, saw that it was healing already. "How do you feel?"
"Much better.The pain is going away and I don't feel so weak. And everything feels sort of sharp and neon you know what I mean?"
He nodded, relief turning his stomach sour. He hadn't realized how fucking frightened he'd been until now, when it looked like she was okay. Ethan carefully hid those fears from her and gave her a smile. "I know exactly what you mean. You're going to have a few days of adjustment, but then I have a feeling you'll be enjoying your newfound vampire powers. Just think how fast you can karate kick me."
She gave a laugh, wiping at her mouth with her finger, catching a stray drop of his blood. The finger went into her mouth and she licked it, her eyes dilating with desire. " Mmm, I like the way you taste."
Ethan was shocked at how hard that made him. He'd never seen a mortal take to the change with such nonchalance.
"Later, after you've rested, you can taste all of me."
Her fingers marched down his chest. "You wanted to do me, didn't you? I could feel Chief here " She brushed over his erection."And could feel in your mind that you wanted to get nasty on me."
"That's the first time that's ever happened to me during a change. You have a strange effect on me." Ethan tried to work up some embarrassment, but it just wasn't there.Relief, pleasure held top spot, followed by lingering shock, growing excitement.
She was his.Forever.
Alexis smiled, her normally green eyes sharpening to a sparkling emerald. "Good. Let's take a shower together and explore that strange effect." She was still smiling, her fingers working on him, but she also gave a rattling cough.
"You need to rest," he told her, stilling her touch on his erection before he moaned. "Your body has been through a trauma and needs to recover."
Currently, his body was going through its own trauma of lust, but he could ignore that for now. Even if his whole being urged him to take her, mate, push out all of the fear, the agony he'd just suffered watching her bleed to death, and join in desperate sex.
"Fine," she said. "But after I take a little nap, you'd better be prepared to initiate me in the ways of vampire sex. I have a very healthy curiosity. Can you hear my thoughts now? I want to understand all things vampire."
Ethan kissed her forehead. "No, only while our blood was mingling. And I'll show you all things vampire, have no fear. But the very first thing we're going to do is get married." He wanted to claim her, let the world know she washis, move her into his apartment and his bed permanently. "I'm holding you to your words, you know."
Before any of that, on a much less pleasant note, he needed to take care of poor Kelsey, as soon as he could force himself to let go of Alexis.
She wiggled in his arms. "I don't plan on reneging." Then she ran her fingers over his mouth and sighed. "Thank you for saving me."
"Trust me, it was my pleasure." Ethan bent down, touched her mouth with his. Love, passion, devotion poured from him into her, and she gasped as they tasted each other, blending teeth and tongue, blood and desire.'
Vampire to vampire, mate to mate, this kiss was of tangled tongues, urgent relief, electric strength, and focused love.
"What the hell is going on?" Seamus asked in shock.
"It's about time you got here," Ethan said, turning to glance at his old friend.
Seamus ran his hand through his hair, his cell phone clutched in his grip as he took in the scene. "Oh, shit, I don't even want to know what happened here, doI? "
"Probably not," Ethan agreed. "But you have to know. Alexis had an appalling discovery." He gestured to Kelsey. "I need you to take care of Kelsey, please, and we need to know why she was put here like this. A vampire drained her."
"Oh, my God," Seamus said, his voice stunned. "Why?"
"And it was a vampire who stabbed me," Alexis said, sitting up and brushing her hair back off her shoulders.
Seamus made a choking noise.
Ethan took one look at the bra and panties Alexis was wearing and peeled off his suit jacket. Throwing it around her shoulders, he told her, "Why don't you go take a shower, love?"
"That's a great idea." She winced when she stood up, and shook out her ankle, but then she just clutched the jacket around her bloodied midsection and walked toward the bathroom as if she hadn't been injured at all.
"She was bleeding out," Ethan told Seamus. "There's no way EMTs could have saved her."
Seamus was glancing over Kelsey, checking her neck and shoulders for puncture wounds. "You don't have to justify yourself to me, Ethan." He locked his dark blue eyes on him."Seriously. I'm sure you did what you thought was right."
"Thanks, Seamus. That means a lot." Ethan thought about a life without Alexis. "I know I did the right thing. I'm sure of it."
He knelt down beside his old friend and rubbed his jaw. "How long do you think Kelsey's been without blood?"
"Eight hours, maybe more." Seamus shook his head in disgust. "Who the hell would do this? It only looks like one vampire. Only one set of teeth."
"I don't know. And I can't imagine why either. Kelsey was absolutely harmless." Death in mortals was hard to see, but Ethan was used to it. Butvampires death was rare, and it hit hard, especially when it was someone as young and vibrant and full of life as Kelsey had been.
The brutality of the crime was shocking and offensive. "Someone wants to put this on me."
"Not if I have anything to do with it." Seamus pressed a finger to Kelsey's neck. "Don't worry. You deal with guiding Alexis through the change. I'll take care of Kelsey."
Ethan got up todo just that , but he paused. "Have you seen the Frenchman?"
"No. Why?"
"Just wondering."Ethan reflected on the bites on Brittany .On Corbin's research for the cure.
On why Atelier had been banished in the first place, and what that might mean for now.