Page 3 of Eternally Owned

Ilana was quiet a moment, watching her carefully. “No, I don’t think it will. You’ve dreamed of this as long as I have, but I’m required as your sponsor to make sure you’re clear on how things work. If one of them wants to drink from you, well, that’s now our entire purpose in life, isn’t it, love? To serve them in any capacity they ask of us, and to do it gracefully, and with the utter devotion they demand. But no, I don’t believe that will be a problem for you.”

“And the Turning Kiss? We’re allowed to choose if we want it from the one who offers, aren’t we?”

“Yes, we can choose who we want to accept immortality from, who we want to spend eternity with. But I don’t know that’s ever happened, a human turning down such a gift. I can’t imagine any vampire offering it without good reason. Why are you even thinking of such a thing?”

Nissa shrugged. She didn’t want to admit to the way her blood raced through her veins, her pulse hot and thready, but she had to make some explanation for asking again about things Ilana had already gone over with her. “Just nervous, I guess. I have to admit, my mind is spinning a bit.”

“That’s natural. You’d have to be completely mad not to be nervous your first time here, or maybe even your tenth. Just keep that shit to yourself, though, love. You can talk to me about it, but don’t bring it up with any ofthem. Come on, I’ll take you to the bar.”

She held back the heavy gold velvet drape and Nissa walked through, and into her deepest, darkest fantasy.

Chapter Two

He watched her walk into the club, all defiant bravado, but he could smell the sharp scent of fear beneath. The new ones were always a little scared, but this little one had only an edge of it. Maybe the bravado wasn’t all defiance.

Hex had been just like that when he’d entered the club in Paris ten years ago, when he’d met Aleron. He’d been so damned ready. He hadn’t regretted a moment of his decision. What could there possibly be to regret? Aleron was perfection.

He turned his attention back to the new girl. Sleek, long, dark hair like a curtain around her slender shoulders and nearly to her tiny waist. A tight little body with breasts perhaps just a bit too full for her small frame. Lovely. One of those pouting doll mouths that made the need to kiss her almost perverse—a sweet baby-mouth, pink and full. She would look innocent if it weren’t for her eyes. They were green, tilted at the corners. Feline. Fierce.

Pulling in a deep breath, he took in her fragrance from across the room, separating out the perfumes and sweat of the others, the alcohol, the cigarette smoke, the hash smoke. Yes, there she was, like honey, as sweet and innocent as her face, except that there was a dark musk underneath it that spoke very clearly of sex, of desire. Oh yes, this one wanted to be here, to be among the vampires. Wanted the bite of their razor sharp teeth, and everything else that went with it.

Have to show her to Aleron. Have to have this one.

She glanced up, and for one moment her gaze caught his. He kept her there for a long moment, until she stumbled, and he let her go. There would be time later, once Aleron arrived. Aleron would help him bring the girl to him. To them.

His groin tightened.

They’d taken many women together, he and Aleron, in the years since Aleron had Turned him in the club in Paris. They’d come to London together only last year, wanting a change of scene. They both loved the British girls—there was a certain hardness about them the French women seemed to lack. And the British boys were beautiful and tough and smart, which was some sort of odd thrill for them both. But the boys were almost too easy. He and Aleron fulfilled each other’s need for men anyway. It was the girls Hex wanted, that Aleron craved.

Yes, they would bring the girl tothem. Together. He could hardly wait.

The pulsing beat of the music seemed to push Nissa across the room as effectively as Ilana’s hand on her shoulder. She barely had time to take in the multilevel dance floor, the old balconies of the theatre hung with their golden scrollwork and life-sized cupids, paused as if about to take flight. The rest of the place went by in a blur: marble walls, enormous vases filled with exotic flowers she’d never seen before—it was all insanely lush. But her mind wasn’t on her surroundings—she could hardly think at all, her pulse was thrumming so hard, making her hot all over. Except it wasn’t her pulse causing the heat to shoot through her system like a small, delicious bomb going off inside her.

It was that man—that vampire—looking at her. Not just looking, butlooking. Into her.Seeingher.

She shivered as though he’d touched her skin, could almost feel the cool contact of his immortal flesh.

Ilana had been right—there was no mistaking them for human. His dark gaze glittered as though filled with the distant light of the stars, and it was searing, searching, in a way no human’s possibly could. Even in the dim, throbbing glow of the club lights, his skin was luminous, his lips impossibly lush, smooth and pink. He had one of those compact, muscular bodies, broad shoulders beneath his white T-shirt, narrow hips in his black leather pants. And he seemed impossibly clean, somehow, in a way she didn’t quite understand—she wasn’t even certain what she meant by the words as they filled her mind. All she really understood was that she wanted him, with a simmering desire she could barely contain.

But Ilana was gesturing her toward the long marble-topped bar at one end of the enormous room.

“Nissa, have a drink with me. It’ll calm you down.”

“What? All right. I’ll have a scotch, I guess.”

“You seem a bit… distracted.”

“No, I’m fine.”

“I saw him.”

“Who?”

“That dark one watching you—over there. You can’t miss the way they look at you when one of them zeros in on you, and he is laser focused on you right now, love.”

“Oh.” Nissa smoothed her hair from her face. She was always utterly confident when it came to men, but this was entirely different.Hewas different. He wasn’t a man, after all, but so much more. “It’s just… a lot to take in at first. I’ll be perfectly fine in a moment. Better after a drink.”

“Just don’t drink too much. They won’t let you here, you know.”

---