the same thing? Eternity paled when there was no hope for a better existence, no hope for the common dreams of man. Immortality seemed to suck the life out even as it granted forever.
He felt her thoughts, felt the horror and despair, her uncertainty. She sensed a malevolence approaching just as he did. Her gift of clairvoyance was fledgling but promising.
He could tell her the truth, but he was reluctant to. She was strong, her will great, but she'd been hit by too much, and she hadn't yet fully recovered from the first stages of her disease. She would not come into her powers until the virus had time to spread through her body like a cancer, mutating cells instead of devouring them.
The council had likely discovered by now that Zane had left a changing human at Danior's mercy. In the week since, he had not returned to dispel surfacing rumors. They would know what he'd done, and they would kill him for it. He wondered idly who they would send to do the deed.
The only way for the council to maintain control was to issue death to any who broke their rules. Among the long lived, death was the only thing they feared. Ostracism had never worked, for most were loners by nature. The new world orders had forgone the torture of the old world in favor of dealing swift, lethal justice. There were too many vampires to hide. If their numbers increased, they would be discovered. As advanced as this age was, they would still be destroyed for their way of life, for feeding from the living—or taken for secret experiments.
Danior had understood the rule, had agreed with it for as long as he'd lived here, since the signing of the Louisiana Purchase.
It would have been better to let her die. She wanted it, but he simply couldn't bring himself to destroy her, no matter how hard the devils of reason spurred him to.
It was too late now to make a difference one way or another.
This place of massacre would not shelter them long. Only reluctance and fear of the past had kept them away for this long. Time was not on his side. He had to get her out of the states, to the old world and their old traditions.
That meant negotiating passage to the old world, so that they were not killed on sight. He had his cell phone in his back pants pocket. He could make the arrangements tomorrow. There was bound to be a ship they could take from port.
It meant leaving all she knew behind, but he'd read enough of her thoughts to know that no family held her here. Fortunate enough, since she would have had to sever all life ties anyway.
Danior stroked her hair, enjoying the silk of it between his fingers. Though he couldn't see its color in the dark, he knew it was a burnt amber, threaded with gold. It would turn dark as she spent her years in the night, as it did for most of their kind. The fair-haired were rare.
He nuzzled her temple, breathing in the unique scent that was all her own. She was helpless, in need of his protection. For the first time in his life, he felt needed, whether she wished it or not. He'd selfishly indulged his whim, but he wouldn't change his decision. His rule of the city as vampire lord had been meaningless. He was not needed for control—because the council were the keepers of the law. The vampires in the region were aged, fully capable of defending themselves, and fully willing to start wars with rival factions and their natural enemies, the Lycans.
Danior felt more like a politician shuffling for favor rather than able to bring about change and prosperity for his kind.
They did not need him. Life would go on as it always had.
But for Maggie....
How long had it been since he'd comforted a woman, comforted anyone for that matter? He'd only ever thought of his needs before. Women were to be used only for carnal pleasures. Hadn't he been taught that lesson over and over again? Love was a weakness, a dangerous emotion—one that would get him killed.
He felt strangely calm holding her, soothed by the motions of soothing her as she slept to keep her terrors at bay.
He hadn't slept during the night in centuries, not since his turning, but he found that just this once, he wanted to engage in it, if only to imagine he was human for just a little while.
Chapter Six
The dream changed. There had been something in the darkness around her that terrified her. Like most nightmares, she wasn't certain of what it was, only that it was dark and evil and it would hurt her if she didn't escape. When she'd tried to run, though, she'd found she couldn't. She struggled as hard as she could, but it was all she could do to move at all. Her heart was pounding, suffocating her. She fought to drag a decent breath of air into her lungs even as she labored uselessly to run.
She had reached a point of despair, knowing that whatever it was that pursued her, it was going to catch her and something horrible would happen. And then, she wasn't alone anymore. She felt safety in the presence beside her.
His hands soothed her, easing the painful pounding of her heart. For many moments, peace settled over her. And then the dream changed once more. This time, she lay in a man's arms and, as with the dream before, she knew with certainty that he was her lover. Warmth flowed over her like mulled wine as he caressed her and her heart began to beat rapidly again, this time with desire as his caresses became more intimate.
She sighed in delicious anticipation as she felt him pull her thighs apart. Blood flooded into her labia, making them pulse with fevered longing. Moisture gathered there, as well, as he dragged his tongue slowly along her cleft from the mouth of her sex to her clit. A shiver skated through her. Her breath caught in her throat. She tensed, waiting, hoping to feel his touch again. And as he stroked her once more and the heat and tension built inside her, she felt a strange rise and fall of her senses as she moved slowly upwards through the layers of sleep into a hazy, almost drugged consciousness.
There was no abrupt awakening, jerking her away from arousing fulfillment. She surfaced to the certainty that her dream lover was, in fact, entirely real, but she was beyond caring about anything except the feel of his tongue as he stroked her.
Her cunt sizzled as his hot breath whispered over her wet nether lips, cooling and warming all at once.
He massaged the insides of her thighs, coaxing as he nudged them further apart. She moved them eagerly, moaning as he settled more deeply against her, opening his mouth and flicking his tongue across her clit. The heat swelled, roiled. The muscles in her belly tightened.
Her vaginal walls clenched on a spasm of pleasure, quivering at the rapid response of her body. She thought it couldn't feel better, but then his mouth closed over her clit and sucked it hard into his mouth, nibbling the tender flesh.
Maggie gasped, discovered she could no longer be still. She moved mindlessly, her senses drugged, her mind reeling with the exquisite torture of his mouth and tongue as he teased her on and on.
Abruptly he stopped, rolling from between her thighs, pulling her with him with unimaginable strength.
She rose over him, felt the power of his body between her legs as she straddled his chest. He looked up at her, barely discernible in the dark, and cupped each ass cheek in his hands, pulling her toward his face.
She trembled inside, afraid she'd crush him, but her pussy wept for the feel of his mouth again. Helpless to her raging arousal, she shifted higher on him, crying out as he swathed her cleft with his tongue.
She grasped the headboard for support, unconsciously tightening her thighs. His lips moved against her labia, feeling almost like a smile, and then his hands pulled at her cheeks, spreading her lips as he thrust his tongue deep inside her cunt.
Her womb convulsed on the blunt, liquid stab, jerking as if wounded, but with exquisite pain that made her ache for more. Her vaginal muscles tightened around him, as if gasping, drawing hard on a breath that wouldn't come. He tongue fucked her, wringing broken cries from her throat, devouring her. She ground herself against his face, biting her lip as he nibbled up to her clit.
Her heart pounded. Her blood sang through her veins, moving like an endorphin rush throughout her system. Her skin prickled with life, making her aware of the flex of his shoulders beneath her, the brush of his breath, his hair tickling the insides of her thighs. She couldn't hear past the roar in her ears, of her own harsh breathing. Nuances assaulted her, leaving her raggedly vulnerable.
