her palms against his chest, finding the sudden will to fight. He was going to bite her—to drink her—perhaps to kill her. She couldn’t let that happen. “Please, no!”
He laughed, a low, dark sound that vibrated through her. He lifted his head to look down at her. His hair brushed against her in its soft, dark tendrils. “Still, you struggle against me. I am impressed. You know you cannot win.”
“I know, but…” It didn’t stop her from trying. “Please.” She could only beg him. There was nothing else she could do.
“You will feel my kiss this night, Maxine Parker.” Crimson eyes were lidded as they watched her, the desire in them undisguised and burning as bright as the red moon in the sky. “But I will reward you for your bravery—for your conviction.”
She was shivering in his grasp, trembling. She had no words.
His lips ghosted across her cheek. There was a sound from him then, something strange an inhuman—like an animalistic, bestial purr. Like a great predatory animal was before her, hungry for the kill. It was not a vague metaphor. It was the truth.
He hovered his lips by her ear. “I will have all of you in time, Miss Parker. You have sealed your fate with me this night. How I have delighted in you…how I know I will continue to do so. Do you fear my bite?”
“Yes.” It came out as little more than a terrified whisper.
“Then I will take my kiss from you another way instead.” He shifted to hover his lips over hers, a hair’s breadth between them. For that brief second, it seemed as though all of time stopped. Her heart hitched in her chest. “Let go, Miss Parker.”
Then the gap was closed.
He kissed her.
His skin was cold to the touch. He had no body warmth of his own, but the heat behind his embrace drove all discomfort out of her mind. One of his hands slipped to the back of her neck and held her, cradling her head in his grasp. The arm around her waist pulled her tighter against his chest. Even from this, she could tell how unbeatably strong he was.
A growl left him as he kissed her. He took from her all that he wanted, and he wanted it all.
Despite herself, despite what she should feel, she moaned against his lips.
It was her first kiss.
Her first real kiss.
And it belonged to a vampire.
Her mind reeled for purchase against the onslaught of what he was levying against her. She should be screaming in panic. Instead, her hands were against his chest, clinging to the lapels of his black peacoat. She could not find the strength to push him away.
She had never felt anything like it before in her life. She would have fallen if he was not holding her so effortlessly in his arm.
But then, it changed. Reeling from his embrace, her grasp of the reins of her power ripped from her fingers. More than the kiss rampaged through her.
He tore into her mind like a wildfire.
Like a stampede of wild beasts, her empathic gift linked them together without warning. She felt him there inside her mind. Felt his desire and his need for violence. Their souls touched, and in that moment, she saw the crimson moon above. She felt the spread of enormous dark wings upon the cold wind, blotting out the stars above.
The feeling of freedom—of the joy in the hunt.
But more than all the rest, she felt hunger.
She saw a mountain range. She saw miles and miles of trees that stretched up to stars that she did not recognize. She saw sand, burning in the blistering sun. The taste of blood in her mouth, bitter and poisoned. She saw death. Bodies in the mud, soldiers left to rot where they fell.
She felt the loneliness, the crushing emptiness that surrounded his heart that now felt like hers. She felt as that loneliness turned into ice. She felt the pain recede, and a cold like the grave took its place.
The years…
There were so many years.
She felt the loss—the grief. Tears streaked down her cheeks as a pain unlike any other seared through her like an iron brand and marked her soul for the rest of eternity.
Abandoned by God.
And now a god on Earth himself.
When he broke off the embrace, she was breathless. She felt the dampness on her cheeks and knew her tears were real. He looked down at her, his eyes narrowed in irritation and curiosity in equal measures. “Prying