Page 68 of Visions in Blood
I could feel the blood drain from my face, my voice barely a whisper.“And I took it.”
He hooked a finger under my chin and lifted my face.“If the other vampires had gotten there first, they would have taken it.Then we’d have nothing but a mystery.I have no doubt he’d given advanced notice of his absence and was most likely vague on how long he’d be gone.He might have mentioned where he was off to, but it wouldn’t have been the truth.”
His thumb rubbed a trail along my jaw, and a sizzle ran through me.I inched closer.His lips were so close.His breaths came in shorter rasps.
“You were gone a long time.”His words brushed the air.
I smirked.“Four days.”
“It seemed longer.”His eyes simmered with that glow I’d seen so many times in our dreams and so rarely in reality.
I touched the hand that was now caressing my face.One of us leaned in.I thought it was him, but it could have been me.
His lips were soft, eager, gentle.
Mine were anything but.
I pushed against him with a hunger that had been building for days.There’d been no safe dreams, no closeness since the dreams before the ball.
He hesitated.I should have pulled back, but I ran a hand along his thigh, and any second thoughts vanished as his arm came around me.He tugged me close until I was almost in his lap.All thoughts disappeared, and I gave in to the sensations that burst through me when his hand slipped past the robe.He pulled down a strap of my swimsuit, trapping an arm as he uncovered a breast.
He traced a finger across my nipple as his tongue explored my mouth.I might have whimpered.With one arm locked in my suit, I could only hold on with the other as his mouth left mine and trailed a path along my jaw and down my neck, pausing at the vein that had to be calling to him.
For an instant, all I could think about was how it would feel, the pierce of his fangs, the touch of his tongue as he drank from me.Would my blood taste as sweet to him as his had to me?
His palm covered my breast, a gentle squeeze, and I waited for his mouth to move lower.But the strap was pulled back up, and though his mouth moved back to mine, he pulled the robe closed.The kiss turned from heated passion to a gentle touch on my lips before he sat back.
My head dropped against his chest.The pent-up frustration burned deep, and I wanted to beat my fists against him.His willpower was greater than mine.We’d gone so much further in the dreams.Why was reality so different?
I pushed away, needing the space.What I wanted was an explanation.
He moved back to his side of the bench, desire still smoldering in his gaze that forced me to look away.
“I don’t understand you.”I barely spit the words out and had to clear my throat.“I didn’t realize vamps ran so hot and cold.”
If my words stung, he didn’t show it.Instead, his gaze turned neutral, the way he and the other vamps got when they did their stare thing.Then I understood.There was something else he hadn’t told me.
“Is Ginger all right?”
“She’s fine.In fact, she’ll be arriving soon and will be staying here for a few days.”
At first, I was thrilled.Someone to fill my lonely hours, but that didn’t answer the real question.“What happened?”
“A shifter pack outside of Los Angeles was slaughtered.”
Bells rang, and the stab of a piercing headache shook me.He didn’t pull any punches when he shared news.And it didn’t stop there.
“From the way it was described, it mirrored our dream of the northern pack.”
If there was any blood left in my upper region, it was enough to keep my heart beating but did nothing to supply much-needed air.I ran a hand over my chest.Could I beat on it to get the air circulating?I closed my eyes and focused on Devon.Not from that dream, but an earlier one.The burn of his lips on mine and the excitement of his fangs trailing a course down my neck.Just keep the nightmare away.
“I have a meeting with The Wolf tomorrow evening to discuss the problem.”
I couldn’t seem to get my brain to think.The heat I’d built with memories of Devon’s lips had dulled the images of that grotesque scene.I blew out a breath and opened my eyes to the bright sunshine streaming through the window.His words finally sank in, and I caught up.
“The problem?”
“Whether this was shifter on shifter or…”
