He circled her clit and Claire’s legs gave out. With his free hand he encircled her waist, holding her against him. “You are a Vessel, Claire. Unique. You can bear the weight of the Collective. Your blood is the only thing I need to sustain me. To sustain us all. You’re meant to be the mother of the vampire race. They can feel you. They know your strength, and even from great distances they can feed upon your life force.”
She rolled her head against his shoulder and a sheet of her silken hair cascaded over his arm. “Who?”#p#分页标题#e#
“The dhampirs,” he murmured against her ear. “Concentrate, Claire. Can you feel their pull?”
* * *
Claire shuddered in his embrace. His long fingers stroked her with artful precision while his voice, dark and decadent, served only to seduce her further. As if she could ever deny him anything.
“Concentrate, Claire. Can you feel their pull?”
The days of exhaustion. Constant, gnawing hunger that she’d been too nauseous to satisfy. Falling into bed fully clothed, only to pass into a deep, dreamless sleep until she had no choice but to drag herself out of bed for her shift at the diner. All this time she’d thought it had been the pregnancy. The baby taking what he needed from her.
“I feel it,” she whispered. “They’re taking more than I have to give.”
“They need you.” Mikhail slipped one finger and then another into her pussy and Claire cried out. “I need you. Your blood will save us all.”
Claire came in a violent spasm that rocked her from the tip of her head and rippled to the base of her toes. “Oh, god, Mikhail!”
“You might not think that I can love you, but I’m going to prove you wrong, Claire. And you’re going to love me, too.”
He sealed his mouth over her throat and bit down. Another orgasm came immediately on the heels of the first and Claire bucked in his grasp, holding on to him as though her life depended on it. Wave after wave of pleasure crested over her as he fed from her vein, and Mikhail brought her down slowly, each pull of his mouth thrumming through her while he stroked her with soft, languid passes of his fingers.
Years sped by in the span of seconds and Claire remained still in his embrace until he’d had his fill. The heat of his tongue soothed his bite and his lips brushed the sensitive skin at her jawline, under her ear, and at the hairline at her temple. “You will love me, Claire. I promise you that.”
She couldn’t help but think that with his many gifts—supernatural speed, good looks, and the ability to bend others to his will—Mikhail Aristov would’ve made one hell of a hustler.
* * *
Claire stuffed the rest of her clothes into a duffel bag and took a last look around her bedroom. Her next-door neighbor was throwing another rager that was just a notch below blow-your-eardrums-out loud. She definitely wouldn’t miss having to put up with that bullshit.
Sunrise was only a few hours off, and Mikhail was pacing the confines of the apartment like a caged beast. The thought of returning home with him was bittersweet and filled her with a crippling guilt. There was a name for that feeling. Survivor’s remorse?
How could she possibly run away with Mikhail to live in his castle and leave Vanessa behind to fend for herself? Who would make sure there was food in the fridge and that she had everything she needed for school? Leaving like this, just packing a bag and walking out on the life Claire’d carved out for herself, made her feel like a total asshole. She didn’t have any obligations to Vanessa. She wasn’t Claire’s daughter. But didn’t the kid deserve an explanation and a proper good-bye?
Claire deposited her bag on the couch and crossed the room to where Mikhail continued to pace, a dagger clutched tight in his right hand. His brow furrowed as he searched her face. “What’s wrong?”
The fact that he could sense her emotions was going to take some getting used to. Claire offered him a reassuring smile and let out a measured breath. “I need to go say good-bye to Vanessa before I go.” Unless Carlene was having a bad night, as Vanessa called them, she’d more than likely be asleep. Still, Claire couldn’t disappear without a word. Even if she had to wake the kiddo up, she was going to give Vanessa a proper good-bye.#p#分页标题#e#
“All right, love.” Mikhail spun the dagger in his large hand, a blur of motion that ended in a flash of steel. “We’ll go together.”
Overprotective with a violent streak. Her first impression of Mikhail had been spot-on. “I don’t think I need an armed guard to go across the hall with me. Do you?”