Had someone gotten the job already?
A loud crash from the room behind the secretary’s desk startled Jon. Curious, but also apprehensive as every horror movie he had ever watched flashed through his mind, he took a hesitant step closer, then another and another until he could peer around the edge of the doorway.
His eyes widened and his jaw dropped as he took in the destruction of what must have once been a beautiful office. Chairs lay overturned or broken into pieces all over the floor. A large, wooden desk sat on its side near one wall. Shattered picture frames, torn books, and shredded papers littered the room.
Terrified he might have walked in on a break-in, Jon started to back out the door. A deep rumbled growl behind him froze Jon in his tracks. Low and menacing, the sound made Jon’s blood run cold.
He’d only heard that type of growl once before in his life, right before a rabid dog tried to attack him. He’d fought for his life then, and he felt pretty sure he would be fighting for it once again, only this time he didn’t think the growl came from a rabid dog.
He just wasn’t sure what it came from.
As slowly as he could, Jon turned to face whatever was behind him. He had just enough time to see red glowing eyes devouring him before a blur of motion took him to the floor with a loud painful thud.
The agony exploding in Jon’s back as he hit the hard floor was nothing compared to the pain ripping through his throat. He tried to fight back, hitting and scratching, biting at the body pinning him down, but the thing holding him in a death grip was too strong to fight off.
As Jon’s vision began to blur around the edges, he absently wondered at the strange taste in his mouth. Blood, obviously, based on the coppery tint, but somehow sweeter, less metallic.
How weird was that?
Chapter Four
Nikolas raised his head and stared down at the pliant body beneath him. He licked his lips, a growl of satisfaction rumbling through his chest at the delicious flavor exploding across his tongue.
So sweet, so succulent, so…
Nikolas frowned as the red haze of bloodlust enveloping him started to clear and he realized where he really was—in his office. He tasted blood on his lips, coating the inside of his mouth. He had fed.
The ripped skin and blood trickling down the neck of the man lying unconscious on the floor testified to the fact Nikolas fed and fed well. His breath caught in his throat as he realized he might have killed the man.
His hand trembled as he reached down to check the man’s pulse. A deep sigh of gratitude and relief fell from his lips when he felt a slow but steady pulse beneath his finger and realized the man still lived. Unfortunately, the slow heartbeat told Nikolas the man lived but by a miracle.
Nikolas hadn’t killed during feeding in over five hundred years. He took great pride in that fact. So why had he attacked this man in such a brutal fashion? His control was absolute, always there, always strong—at least, until now. From the look of the injuries he’d inflicted on the poor man, his control had flown right out the window.
Nikolas bent down and ran his tongue over the deep gash in the man’s neck, hoping his saliva would close the wound as it usually did. The sweet flavor of the man’s blood burst across his tongue again. Nikolas groaned and licked again, then again and again. His cock hardened and he had the insane urge to sink it into the man’s tight body.
Disturbed by the lurid thoughts floating through his mind while the man lay injured and unconscious on the floor, his life’s blood dripping down onto the hard tiled floor, Nikolas sat up and stared down at him, studying him carefully.
He had a full head of brown, curly hair, a straight nose, high cheekbones, and a square jaw. His face was glorious to look at, and he had the most luscious lips Nikolas ever saw, but…
A small, red drop of blood marred the man’s plush lips. Nikolas inhaled sharply. He quickly leaned down and licked at the small drop, his eyes closing in anguish when he tasted his own blood.
“Bloody hell!” Nikolas whispered as he pushed his trembling hand through his hair.
And he was in hell.
Despite what Hollywood portrayed in the movies, a human could not be converted by exchanging blood with a vampire. A human could, however, become bonded to a vampire by exchanging blood. It just depended on the amount of blood exchanged, and Nikolas had no idea how much the man had ingested.
A noise outside of his office door made Nikolas tense. He turned and crouched protectively over the man on the floor, his claws extending, and a low growl rumbling through his chest, a warning to whoever was coming toward him.
“Nikolas?”
Nikolas sniffed the air, recognizing the scent of his mother. Some of the tension in his body faded, but he remained alert and guarded. He felt an insane need to stay hovered over the man beneath him.
“Mother,” he said simply, frowning when she appeared in the doorway a moment later and the desperate urge to protect the man beneath him swept through him again. Nikolas never felt anything like it in his life.
“Oh, my—oh, Nikolas, what have you done?” Bella whispered as she tried to rush past him to get to the man on the floor. “Is he alive?”
Nikolas turned to watch Bella run her hands over the unconscious man. He barely suppressed the growl building in his throat. Just the very sight of his mother touching the stranger made Nikolas want to rip something apart, starting with Bella.
Damned odd.
“Mother,” Nikolas spit out through gritted teeth, “you need to step away from him.”
“Nikolas, don’t be ridiculous,” Bella said as she continued to check the man for injuries. “Jon is injured. He needs our help.”
“Jon?” Was that his name? Nikolas wanted to strangle Bella when she rolled her eyes.
“His name is Jon Brighten,” she said. “He came here to interview for the personal assistant position.” Bella glanced around the destroyed room and frowned. “I gave you his résumé, but I doubt you could find it in this mess.”
Nikolas could feel the weight of her displeasure as Bella glanced back up at him.
“Have you totally lost your mind, Nikolas?” She waved her hand at the injuries on Jon’s neck. “You could have killed him.”
“Mother, you really need to step away from him,” Nikolas said as the desire to attack her grew stronger. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep from hurting you if you keep touching him.”
Bella’s eyes widened. She slowly scooted away from Jon, watching Nikolas carefully the entire time. The moment she was away from Jon, Nikolas dropped to his knees and gathered the man into his arms.
“Nikolas?”
He shook his head as he gently cradled Jon’s body to his. “I don’t know what happened, Mother. One minute I was going over résumés and the next Jon lay on the floor with blood all over him. I don’t know what I did.”
“I wonder…” Bella started crawling across the floor, lifting paper after paper to read over them. Suddenly, she let out a small cry and crawled back to kneel a few feet from Nikolas, holding out a piece of paper.
“This one?” Bella asked. “Were you reading this résumé?”
Frowning, Nikolas took the paper and started reading over it. A sweet odor floating on the air caught his attention, a scent so wonderful, Nikolas had to close his eyes for a moment as rampant desire stormed his body.
“Nikolas.”
He opened his eyes and tried to focus on his mother. All he really wanted to do was sink his teeth back into Jon’s neck and drink his sweet flavor…and then he wanted to sink his cock into the man’s body. He’d never been so aroused in his life.
“Smell the edge of the paper, Nikolas, the upper left corner.”
He frowned, his gaze darting over to the dark smudge on the corner of the paper. He brought it to his nose and inhaled. Nikolas’s heart pounded as the sweet scent of Jon’s blood filled his lungs.
“What the hell—”
“Jon cut his finger when he handed his résumé to me. When I gave the résumé to you, you ordered everyone out. You said no more interviews. I cleared out the office and went to file some papers.” Bella shrugged. “I found you and Jon when I came back.”
“So, I didn’t lose control…it was the scent of his blood?” Nikolas turned to stare at the man in his arms as understanding filled him, followed almost instantly with a low burning heat in the pit of his stomach. “Do you know what this means, Mother?”
“He is your rajaaka.”
* * * *
Jon’s head felt like it was about to explode with pain. His neck was even worse. His entire body was heavy like it was weighed down with lead weights. He couldn’t even lift his hands. But then warm liquid dripped over his lips and slid down his throat, and he moaned softly in delight. His throat was dry as a desert, and whatever was being fed to him tasted like ambrosia.
He wanted to thank whoever cared for him but he couldn’t even lift his eyelids to see them. What happened? Why did he hurt so much? A ripple of terror coursed through him until someone whispered soft words in his ear and a warm body cuddled next to him, calming his fears.
“Shhh, Jon, you’re going to be fine,” a strong male voice crooned in his ear. “Just rest. I’ll take care of you, keep you safe.”