not give them lightly.” He leaned down to kiss her again, searing, tender and passionate all at once. It made her want to beg him for more. To kiss her harder—rougher—to not be so gentle with her. As he broke away, he whispered, “I gave my true name to you the moment we met. You pulled it from me. I could not bear to think of you crying out any other.”
This creature over her said she belonged here with him. But it was wrong. “I can’t…”
“I want you for my bride. I have never mated another. I have never made another soul to match mine. But I feel you—I need you, Bella. Be mine. Say it…I beg you.”
An incubus wanted her for his mate? Oh, God above, how she wanted him to sink into her depths and release her from this suffering.
She wanted him.
She wanted the simplicity he offered.
All other concerns fell away in the face of the simple, easy truth.
“Do you really want me?” She could barely breathe.
“More than you can imagine. Do you want me?” He never faltered in his slow, unwavering strokes, but not yet ending her torment and driving himself inside. “Do you want to come home?”
Yes.
She did.
Something in her crumbled and surrendered. She couldn’t fight it anymore.
She arched herself up into him. “Take me.”
6
Maxine awoke and rubbed her hand over her face with a small grunt She had never had so many visions in such a short span of time in her life, all thanks to the Vampire King. It was an exhausting thing to suffer before the nature of the dreams came into play, let alone after taking into consideration that he was an intense individual at the best of times.
But something told her she would not have any opportunity for real rest anytime soon. Not until she was dead.
“Bad dream?”
She jumped at the closeness of the voice. Bella was sitting on the edge of the sofa next to her, smiling down at her. Glancing over, she noticed both Eddie and Alfonzo were asleep elsewhere in the room.
Something instantly felt odd.
Maxine pulled herself up, edging away from Bella to sit at the far end of the sofa. “I’m all right.” She watched the other woman silently for a moment. There was definitely something…awry. Something that did not feel right. Then, it hit her. Her eyes went wide.
“There it is.” Bella lifted a finger to her lips and shushed her. For a split second, her eyes flickered yellow before they returned to her normal tone. “I wondered how long it would take you to figure it out.” She smiled again, although this time a bit more wolfishly than before. “You’re certainly not a disappointment.”
She went to stand, and “Bella’s” hand caught her gloved wrist and pulled her back down. “Now, now, don’t be so hasty.”
“Zadok, let me go! Alfonzo—Eddie—”
“Oh, shush.” She—he?—laughed. “I’m not going to hurt you, silly girl. They are trapped inside my illusion, so don’t bother screaming. They can’t hear us right now.” The other woman’s hand tightened around Maxine’s wrist. “Stop making a fuss, or I will have to rethink how nice I’m being right now.”
Maxine watched Bella’s form in wary fear. She knew the feeling of the soul beneath her hand, even through her gloves. She pulled her wrist away from him but obeyed and stayed seated. There was no point in running. She was useless in a fight with something like an elder vampire. “What have you done?”
“Hm? Me? I’ve done nothing.”
“If Alfonzo and Eddie cannot wake, please drop the illusion. This is extremely unsettling.”
“As you wish.” Bella’s form melted and shifted, changing into that of the smirking yellow-eyed vampire. He placed a hand to his chest in mock insult, crossing one ankle over his knee casually as he reclined next to her. “And I’m hurt you think I have done anything to dear Bella.”
“Where is she? How did you get past the wards they placed to protect the house?”
“So many questions!” Zadok laughed and leaned his head back on the wood frame of the sofa to watch her through lidded eyes. “She is not here. She was taken by another for safe keeping. As for the wards? Simplistic mortals. They do not think holistically. Bar me from the doors and windows all you like, but they did not place wards beneath the ground.”
She pondered his riddle for a moment before she made a face. “The sewers?”
“Mm. Not exactly the most…elegant way to travel.” He grimaced. “But effective. I grew