Page 25 of Taken By the Vampires
At her feet, the men were limp and unmoving. Not breathing. Behind her, fire licked up a single pole, built on a pyre that set the surrounding trees awash with grotesque shadows.
She spoke, her voice low, husky and brimming with torment. “My pain is now yours.”
Behind her, a wall of flames and sparks rose and engulfed them all, until all I could see was a wall of red and yellow crackling flames.
I woke with a jolt, panting, my body bathed in sweat, staring into the flames glowing and alive, contained in the fireplace. I put my hands over my ears trying to block the sound of her laughter but even though I was awake, it still pierced my ears.
Chapter Seventeen
The door burst open and a shadowed figure strode inside. “Tu Ena. Ella. What’s the matter?”
My fingers tangled in my hair. My scream had died away, but the horror of my nightmare stayed with me, as vivid as though it had actually happened. I welcomed Davon’s arms as he sat next to me and pulled me into his embrace. I trembled, amazed that I was still scared.
I was never scared. I burrowed into his chest, concentrating on the steady thump of his heart, letting it soothe me. I slowly came back from the terror to discover one arm tightly bound around my chest and another sliding up and down my back.
Embarrassment had me pulling away from him, but his arm tightened and kept me where I was. “Let me comfort you. Take what I offer.”
I eased back into his embrace. It was clear he wasn’t going to let me go, and a part of me didn’t mind that at all. The other part, the part that was always in charge, always ready to fight, to be the dependable one, tried to resist, but his body was so warm. His touch so calming, so tempting, that the tension eased and I melted against him.
It was nice not to have to always be the strong one. Strangely, with Davon I didn’t feel the need. I curled around the strength he offered.
“I can’t remember the last time someone held me like this,” I gasped, covering my mouth with my fingers. I couldn’t believe I’d just said that. It’d slipped out and I’d hardly been aware.
I glanced up at him and was more than a little surprised to see his brow furrowed in concern. “Never?”
“I didn’t mean to say that. Forget I mentioned anything at all.” It made me sound pathetic. I drew the line at that. I was not a pathetic person.
“Then I shall remedy that and hold you as often as you’ll let me,” Davon said.
“You don’t have to, if you don’t want to,” I said, embarrassed I’d drawn attention to myself. I was a suck-it-up-and-get-on-with-it type of girl.
He traced my hair behind my ear and a shiver stole through me. “What makes you think I don’t want to hold you? I might like it.”
“And do you like it?”
“I do. Very much.”
I had to admit, he was very good at pretending, if he didn’t like holding me. He eased back against the headboard, taking me with him so that I was sprawled over his chest. I remembered the way he’d held me in the shower and a shiver of a different kind stole through me. A hotter, deeper kind.
He drew the blanket over my shoulders and then returned to continue his lazy tracing over my arms beneath the warmth of the covers, mistaking my movement for being cold. I wasn’t brave enough to tell him exactly what that particular shiver was all about.
“Are you comfortable?”
That was Davon. Always wanting to make sure I was comfortable and right at the moment, I was more than comfortable. The last thread of tension slid out of my body as his scent wove around my senses, pricking my awareness of the muscles beneath my cheek, the flex and play of his biceps, the lightness of a touch I knew could raise me to sexual climax.
I’d have to watch myself. It would be so easy to full under his spell, to let my guard down and fully accept the comfort he offered. So tempting.
“What upset you, Ella?”
Thank goodness he brought my attention back to the nightmare. The tempting spell dispersed and I was left with the stark horror of the nightmare again. I burrowed against him, seeking warmth where the nightmare wanted to chill. “Just a nightmare. Nothing serious.”
“Do you suffer from nightmares?’
“Not normally.” Normally I was so exhausted, I fell into a sleep so deep the next thing I knew was my alarm blaring, waking me to start the next day. There was something about this nightmare that was absolutely chilling, though. “It was just very…vivid.”
“Want to tell me about it?”
I scoffed. “You want to hear about it?”
