Page 1 of Eternally Theirs

Chapter One

Valencia, Spain, 2069

The roar of the ocean was a soothing, womblike white noise in the background as he took her in his arms, arms that felt strong to her, yet not as strong as her own were now. She wasn’t used to it—her strength, how powerful her hearing, her sight had become. The terrible driving needs of this changed body—nearly unendurable thirst, unbearable hunger. The need for sex. For blood.

Vampire.

Mercy knew the word. She heard the echo of it in his mind as he kissed her and discovered that she was… different.

Yes, but we are here together and I need…

Her hands went into his dark, curling hair, truly like silk under her fingertips. She’d never felt anything like it, but he was her first lover since she had been changed, and everything felt different.

As he parted his lips, inviting her tongue into his wet mouth despite the small trembling fear running through him, desire filled her, burned her, ate her up like some monstrous thing. Except that it felt better than anything had in her life, to be touched by this beautiful man.

Deo…

Broad shoulders and golden skin. She could see him even in the dark of night, lit only by the crescent moon hanging in the cloudy sky and that same light reflected off the water. She could even see the strange blue-green of his eyes that reminded her of the Mediterranean Sea.

His tongue sucked hers in, his hands closing around her waist, desire overtaking him as powerfully as it had her. The sound, the salt scent of the ocean faded away—that and the fainter scents and sounds of old stone and violence from the town. The only things she wanted to know were the sensations of hands and mouths and bodies pressed together, the soft sound of his thoughts that wasn’t really a sound at all but still spoke to her with the same lovely Greek accent as his voice in her head.

He sighed as she pressed her breasts against the solid wall of his chest. Her blood was moving, quickening. She breathed in his fragrant skin. Sweet. Precious.

Human.

She needed that. Craved it. She’d never thought of it before. She’d never had to.

But she’d been so alone these last days.

He pulled her down onto the sand, and she felt every tiny grain against her skin. The sand and the fine, fine texture of his flesh. Her need rose, spiraled. Inside her something growled, snarled to be set free. Her arms wound around his neck. Ah yes, there it was, that pulse at the base of his throat, beating, beating. She swore she could smell the blood running through his veins, and needed it even more than she needed him.

He seemed to sense her urgency as he tore her dress over her head, kicked his way out of his jeans, and then they were naked together on the sand. His hands went to her breasts, his fingers teasing her nipples, and they came up hard, pleasure intense, nearly hurting. His rigid cock pressed against her belly. Yes, that was what she wanted. She parted her thighs, pulling him in too hard—she heard his gasping surprise at the pain. She tried to rein it in, but it was too much for her as he entered her, his thick cock piercing her flesh, sinking deep.

“Ah…”

A wild keening seemed to grow in her chest, and in moments, as he plunged into her, it became a raw scream, as if some animal inhabited her body.

“God, Mercy,” he muttered as he thrust again, then again.

“There is no God,” she said between panting breaths, between one stab of pleasure and the next. She rolled him over, so that she straddled his beautiful body. “There is only this haunting between place. Come with me, Deo. I need you with me. I need someone…”

“Mercy?” Her name was a whisper on his lips. She sensed his confusion as she sucked the tender skin at the base of his throat into her mouth, as she pierced it with the sharp eyeteeth that had grown in the last days. “Ah, what are you doing to me?”

She tightened her inner muscles, grasping his cock inside her, and felt pleasure ripple through him, through her, as she ground down onto him. They both came in a torrent of indescribable pleasure. She drew her lips back, roared her pleasure and bit.

His blood was impossibly sweet—her first human blood. She was so thirsty. Unbearable. She sucked harder as he writhed, held on to his shoulders. She held him down as strange images flashed through her mind at a hundred miles an hour, but she was too lost in the moment to decipher what she was seeing.

Doesn’t matter—all that matters is this thirst.

He fought her as she drank, but soon he went limp, and she could feel his pulse slowing, slowing, and knew he was dying.

No.

She pulled away, listening to the fragile beating of his heart as she pushed him off her, and rolled him gently onto his back.

“Deo, I’m sorry.”

He stared up at her with hollow eyes, his brows drawn together. He was fading.

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