First Drop of Crimson (Night Huntress World #1)(19)
Author: Jeaniene Frost

Ah, darling, you taste just how I thought you would. Dark, lush, and sweet.

He continued to trail his mouth over her neck, searching out where she was the most sensitive. Not there, though that resulted in a delicious shiver running through her. Not there, but it made her uncurl her hands from the clenched fists she’d held at her sides. His tongue flicked out again, probing a new spot – and Denise gasped, arching against him. Yes. There.

Spade closed his eyes, absorbing her scent with another deep breath. Then he slid his fangs into her neck, relishing her shudder of pleasure as the venom they contained merged with her flesh, erasing the sting of breaking her skin and producing a false, pleasant sensation of heat.

As soon as he swallowed her blood, however, he knew something was wrong. But it was too late. As if he were a vampire rising undead for the first time, Spade couldn’t stop himself from swallowing again. And again, and again.

Chapter Ten

Denise wrapped her arms around Spade, lost in sensations she never expected. Each new, deep suction sent pleasure stabbing through her, followed by cascading waves of heat. Her earlier cold was only a memory. Now she burned from the inside out, her earlier reservations forgotten, twisting against Spade in a combination of need and bliss.

He yanked her closer, then rolled on top of her when even that proximity didn’t seem to be enough. Denise’s gasp turned into a moan at the feel of him pressing her down with a wonderful, hungry urgency. His hips aligned with hers at his next suction. Then he rubbed against her, the hard bulge in his pants sensually grinding between her legs.

The resulting heat in her loins exceeded the fire running through her veins. She dug her nails into his back at the next twist from his hips, rocking with him to feel more of that incredible friction. A sweet dizziness filled her as he drew more strongly on her neck, holding her in a grip she couldn’t break – and didn’t want to.

"Spade," she whispered, her eyes fluttering, the treetops and stars blinking in and out of her vision.

He tore his mouth from her throat, somehow crouched several feet from her in the next instant. The sudden absence of his weight and that luscious feel of his body pressing into hers left her confused. She reached out to him, only to have his growl stop her.

"Stay away."

His eyes were blazing green while blood dripped from his mouth. She reached for her neck. A slow trickle met her fingers. It throbbed with the same demanding ache she felt between her legs.

"Is something wrong…?"

He started toward her, and then flung himself backward so hard, he hit a tree. It tilted with an ominous creak.

"Run," Spade said tightly. "Run away from me right now, or I will drink you to death."

The feral hunger in his gaze finally penetrated through her haze of dizziness and lust. She managed to get to her feet, still holding her neck and feeling the wetness between her fingers. Spade’s eyes were transfixed there, his mouth pulling back in a snarl that revealed fangs so long and sharp, his face looked more animal than man.

"Go."

She turned and staggered away. Soon she was back on the path, heading in what she hoped was the same direction they’d entered from. The hotel was on the next street, Spade had said.

A crashing noise directed her gaze up. It was dark, but she could make out something big jumping impossibly high up from tree to tree. Was Spade following her? A sick fear lurched in her stomach, covering the sensual warmth that had so recently filled her. Was he hunting her?

"Faster," his unmistakable voice snarled.

Denise ignored her lingering dizziness and ran for all she was worth, bursting through the same part of the park she recognized as where they’d entered from. She glanced around wildly, hearing more branches snap above her. Then she ran toward what she hoped was the street Spade had pointed to earlier.

A dash across the street revealed the sign she’d been looking for. The Plaza. Denise fumbled in her skirt pocket, glad she’d stuck her room key in there instead of her coat at the beginning of the night, and ducked inside the ornate doors. She kept her head down, holding her hair over the bloodstained spot on her neck, and made it into the elevators without any of the employees calling the police. The early hour probably helped; the few people Denise passed looked sleepy when she glanced at them.

By the time the elevator opened on her floor, that previous, heated need was gone and she was disgusted with herself. She’d practically begged Spade to take her right there in the snow. Was that why he’d been thrown into a feeding frenzy? Had her lust-crazed reaction pushed him past the normal control a vampire had? And what was wrong with her, responding like some sort nympho from a vampire bite? Yes, it had been well over a year since she’d had sex, but that didn’t explain the intensity of her reaction.

Denise was still lashing herself when she closed the door to her room. She leaned against it in weariness – and then wrinkled her nose. What was that smell?

Raum rounded the corner of the bedroom. "Hello."

The demon was at the door before she could yank it back open, the sulfur scent emanating from him almost choking her.

Raum smiled. "Alone at last."

Spade used the last of his willpower to make sure Denise made it into the hotel. When he saw her stumble through the glass doors, he couldn’t hold back the effects of her blood anymore. The dark magic in it, instantly addictive, merged his reality with hallucinations and the present with the past.

Spade fell from the tree, barely registering the impact of the ground. Naked branches waved in the wind as he and Crispin rode past, following the grooves the carriage made in the dirty snow. They were from earlier that morning at the most. Spade leaned forward, urging his horse faster.

He rolled on the ground, hearing his own guttural moans as he tried to push the memories back. No. I don’t want to see that again. Not again.

He got to his feet and began to run. The trees morphed and seemed to reach for him, their branches turning into skeletons that bent down and swiped him as he passed. Then the trees grew thicker, transforming into the Argonne forest from that day a century and a half ago.

"No," Spade said, gritting his teeth. He ran faster, stumbling over the large rocks he somehow hadn’t seen that jutted out of the earth. This wasn’t real. It wasn’t real.

Or was it? What if he was back there? What if it wasn’t too late to save her?

"Giselda," he shouted. "I’m coming!"

Crispin spotted the wheel first, turned on its side off the lip of the road. For a moment Spade was relieved. Her carriage had suffered a mishap, that’s why Giselda had been delayed. But then he smelled it. The scent of blood and death.