Darkness Unleashed (Guardians of Eternity #5)(12)
Author: Alexandra Ivy

With a flutter, she lifted her thick tangle of lashes, revealing the emerald eyes that were still clouded by sleep.

There was a moment as she struggled to recall why she was lying in a strange cave in the arms of a vampire, a renegade hint of sensual awareness darkening her gaze before reality crashed through her fog, and she was angrily shoving her hands against his chest.

“What the hell…let me go.”

Jagr was caught off guard by the force of her blow, nearly losing his grip before he could roll on top of her and use his considerable weight to control her attempts to escape.

Her strength had returned with a vengeance.

Along with her temper.

A pity, since he could think of far better means of passing the next few minutes than fighting with the beautiful Were.

Ignoring the stirring of his body, Jagr met Regan’s furious glare with a stoic determination.

“Not until the sun has completely set. I won’t allow you to leave the cave until I can accompany you.”

She sucked in a sharp breath. “You let me sleep the entire day?”

“Your mind is too strong. I can’t control your sleep patterns. You were obviously in need of the rest.”

“Dammit.” She wriggled beneath him. Jagr swallowed a groan at the delicious friction. “Let me go. Culligan could be miles away by now.”

It took his endless years of self-discipline and restraint to ignore the firm, deliciously female body beneath him. For now his biting need was secondary to keeping Regan safe.

Something he couldn’t ensure if she bolted from the cave and into the lingering sunset.

“Then a few minutes won’t matter,” he pointed out with the cool tones that seemed to set Regan’s teeth on edge. So long as she was contemplating the best means to stick a stake in his heart, she wasn’t plotting the means to escape him.

Predictably her face flushed with fury. “I’ll never forgive my sister for inflicting you on me. I bet she sent you to get you out of her…”

Before he could leash the impulse, his head was dipping down to capture her mouth in a silencing kiss. How else could he halt the angry tirade without physical harm? A noble goal that was swiftly undermined by the intoxicating heat that flared through his body.

This kiss had nothing to do with silencing Regan, and everything to do with the ravenous hunger that flared through him with a painful force.

He wanted this woman.

He wanted to stroke his lips over every inch of her pure, ivory skin. He wanted to kiss and lick and nibble over every delectable curve. He wanted to be buried deep inside her as he sank his fangs into her neck and drank of her potent blood.

More than anything, he wanted to hear those low, husky cries as she reached her climax.

Her fingers dug into his chest as he deepened the kiss, her lips softening. The scent of arousal bloomed on her skin, lengthening his fangs and making his heavy erection twitch in anticipation.

This was…right.

She fit perfectly beneath him, her feminine body soft and yet strong enough to handle an ancient vampire’s passion. Her scent was exactly blended to stir his deepest hungers. And her blood. Hell, his body still trembled with the power from his feeding.

Shifting his hands, Jagr tangled his fingers in the satin smoothness of her hair, drowning in sensations that were familiar, and yet completely unknown in their intensity.

After an eternity of hell, this was…paradise. There was no other word.

He teased at her lips, lightly nipping and stroking before exploring the stubborn line of her jaw. Her nails dug through the thin T-shirt, causing sharp darts of delicious pain, but his senses were too keen to miss the tiny moan of distress that was wrenched from her throat.

Regan’s body might respond with intoxicating urgency to his touch, but her mind didn’t trust him.

At this point, he doubted she was capable of trusting anyone.

Jagr lifted his head to regard her with a cool composure that disguised the frustration howling through his body.

“I did warn you not to insult my queen,” he murmured.

Her face was flushed with a combination of embarrassment and anger at having responded so readily to his touch.

“I wasn’t insulting my sister, I was insulting you.”

A hint of a smile touched his lips. “My mistake.”

She glared at him for a long moment, infuriated at her inability to toss aside his large body and flee as she desired. Then, with obvious effort, she wrapped herself in a brittle dignity.

“Where’s the gargoyle?”

Jagr’s smile faded at the mention of the tiny demon. He hadn’t been pleased when he’d returned from disposing of the curs’ bodies to discover Regan and Levet chatting as if they were old friends. He wasn’t certain why he was angered by the sight of the two of them together. Not even a reclusive vampire who spent more time with books than other demons would believe that Regan could be sexually attracted to the ugly little beast.

It was only now that he could acknowledge the truth. He’d been jealous that the stupid gargoyle had made Regan smile.

“Still in statue form,” he muttered. “Luckily for him.”

“He did find us these caves,” she countered, managing to keep her expression aloof, as if she were lying on the hard cave floor by choice, rather than being pinned by his heavy body.

Jagr felt a stirring deep inside him. He’d never encountered a woman with such extraordinary courage.

“I’m a vampire. There isn’t a cave I can’t sense.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Then why did you allow him to come with us?”

“Because my clansmen have several mates who are pecu-lairly attached to the pest.”

She blinked, caught off guard by his blunt confession.

“Surely big bad Jagr is not afraid of a few women?”

“I’m wise enough to fear a goddess, a Shalott demon, an Oracle, and even a pureblooded Were when she is enraged,” he said dryly, his gaze lowering to the lush temptation of her mouth. “Besides, there are few creatures more dangerous in the world than a woman.”

“You sound as if you have personal experience. Did some vamp babe break your heart?” she mocked.

With one fluid motion Jagr was on his feet, his features cold and unreadable. Regan couldn’t know his past, or the female vampire who had tortured him for centuries, but her taunt released the flood of nightmares that never truly left him in peace.

“It’s nearly dark. Do you need to feed?”

Regan scrambled to her feet, warily backing away as his icy power swirled through the cave.