Accidentally Married to…a Vampire?(Accidentally Yours #2)(67)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

***

Niccolo pulled her close to his warm body slick with sweat and Helena couldn’t think of a better place on Earth. If a comet struck her down at this very moment, she’d die with a dopey grin on her sated face.

Her fingers lazily rode the waves of his ripped stomach. Every inch of him drove her mad, but now his smell… “I can’t believe what you do to me. Right now, I want to f**k you, lick you, and drink your blood. All at the same time.”

His eyes opened wide. “You want to what?”

Helena, unable to believe what she’d just said—so…vulgar—clapped her hands over her mouth. “Oh my God. I’m so sorry. I don’t know why I just spoke to you like a dirty truck driver. It won’t happen again.”

“No! The dirty talk is great. But the drinking blood part…”

Oh. That. Did they really need to talk about it right now? The ache to have him inside her again was unbearable.

She stood up and began to pace at the foot of the bed. Niccolo was propped up on both elbows staring at her. “Answer me.”

There was no way around it; they had to have this conversation. She threw up her hands. “Viktor turned me while we were captured at the Demilord compound.”

“He did what!?” Niccolo sat up and looked like he was about to leave her again in order to go hunt and kill Viktor.

Not gonna happen! She jumped to his side and pushed him down.

Vampire strength was cool, but this new body of hers was going to take some serious getting used to. Luckily, she knew a few people who could help figure all this out.

“You’re not going anywhere until you hear me, Niccolo. I went through a lot to save you; it’s the least you can do.”

Niccolo huffed and then nodded.

“Good.” She sat next to him and relaxed. She told him all about the conversation with Cimil and how Helena was destined to die.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, clearly disapproving of her scheme.

Helena remembered her own snarky little thoughts about honesty when Andrus discovered Reyna’s dirty little mate-secret. “Stupidity, I guess,” she replied.

“I would have warned you not to take Cimil’s word. She has a way of telling the truth and lying at the same time.”

“Her skills at the art of manipulation put vampires to shame, but Cimil…” Helena paused. Should she tell Niccolo all about all of the phony rules Cimil had made up—no bedding Helena, no biting, etc.—just so Cimil could watch Niccolo suffer? Naah. Some other time. “I wonder about her,” Helena said. “If she hadn’t helped me, I really would have died. She was the one who told me to read the stories in that weird book.”

She could see that Niccolo was growing impatient. Was he still thinking about hunting down Viktor? Likely. She had to hurry while she still had his attention. “The pages were filled one second, empty the next. Hundreds of blank pages. Except for the last one—the ending to your story.”

“What did it say?” he asked.

“That your vampire bride saved your life, but it was her belief in your goodness, her love that made you the one man with the strength and conviction to save the world.”

She held back her tears as she thought about how those words humbled her. “I thought ‘what if.’ What if Cimil really had told you the truth about the prophecy, that I had to be turned on our three-month anniversary? Which was, in fact, the day of her visit. What if she’d also told me the truth—that I had to die to save you? Becoming a vampire is dying. Right?”

“So, I begged Viktor to turn me—what did I have to lose? When he refused, I jumped him—I was desperate—and tried to force him to bit me. I wouldn’t give up. Finally, he gave in when Sentin woke up and convinced him I was right.”

“But I didn’t sense any change in you when we made love at the hotel.”

Helena wasn’t sure why. “Too soon, maybe? Viktor had just given me his blood. He said it would take an hour or two for his blood to work its way through and then stop my heart.” She sat down at his side and brushed a stray lock of hair from his cheek. “He saved me. He saved you, too.”

Niccolo nodded solemnly. “I’m sorry you had to make this sacrifice for me, Helena. I didn’t want this life for you.”

“It was inevitable, Niccolo. Reyna told me vampires cannot be mated to humans; they go insane after a few months, and our time was up.” She gave his hand a consoling squeeze. “There was no other way.”

Several moments of silence passed while Niccolo stared at their joined hands. He made tiny circles with his thumb over hers. A look of aggravated acquiescence washed over his face.

That’s my warrior, she smiled inwardly. It was her latest observation about the General, Niccolo DiConti: sure he was physically strong, but his secret to being undefeated and thirteen hundred years old was that he never wasted time brooding over things he could not change.

Case in point, once Reyna had made him a vampire, he moved on and found another way to honor his beliefs; he became the fiercest warrior the world had ever known. He saved countless innocent lives from becoming an Obscuro meal. So while Niccolo was no doubt unhappy about Helena’s fate, what was done was done, and the alternative would have been death for both of them, possibly for the world, too.

His eyes gently lifted to meet her patient, loving gaze. “I guess that explains why I didn’t want to bite you when we made love at the hotel.”

“Huh?” she said.

Niccolo shrugged. “Vampires don’t crave vampire blood.”

“They don’t?”

He shook his head no.

“Then why are my fangs aching to make you my first snack?” she asked and then opened her mouth to reveal two gleaming-white fangs.

Niccolo’s expression soured.

“What?” Helena asked. “Is it my fangs?” She cupped her hand over her mouth. “Do I look that bad?”

Niccolo shook his head. “No. You look stunning and delectable. It’s just—Reyna is dead.”

Helena frowned, “So why didn’t you die?” She suddenly gasped and covered her mouth. “Oh my gods. Your eyes!”

“What about them?”

She was about to answer when he sprang from the bed. “Did you hear that?”

***

Helena and Niccolo cautiously walked through the enormous Spanish-style villa. As they followed the voices, Niccolo told her that this was his most recent acquisition. They entered the brightly lit modern kitchen—stainless steel appliances, polished granite countertops, and built in brick oven—and were shocked to find Niccolo’s team, including Viktor, Sentin, and Tomas sitting around a large table. Cimil sat at the head wearing a visor, dealing cards. An unlit cigarette hung from her mouth.