Waiting for Darkness (Blood Martyr) Read online

  WAITING FOR DARKNESS

  BY FIONN JAMESON

  FIONN JAMESON © 2007 - 2013

  Copyright © 2007 - 2013

  by Fionn Jameson

  Cover art © Sexy Book Covers 2012

  ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AS THE BLOOD MARTYR CHAPTER SERIES

  BY FREYA'S BOWER

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission from the writer, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, any place, events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The characters and story lines are created from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Warning:

  This book contains graphic sexual material and/or profanity and is not meant to be read by any person under the age of 18.

  DEDICATIONS

  .:.

  For Sandpresso,

  You don't exist anymore, but you had the best sandwiches and coffee.

  Quite frankly, your bathroom sucked, but you can't have it all, right?

  David,

  Well. Here is it.

  Just fifty more to go until I can buy you that beach house.

  PROLOGUE

  “And when the beginning of the end comes, tell me, my love. Will you still be there with me?”

  "Don't leave me. I love you. You make me feel things I never knew I could feel.

  Please..."

  His hands tugged at mine, and I had to push them, him, away.

  I hated it when things got like this.

  Why did humans feel this need to belong to someone, to have someone to call their own? What was the point? All it did was tie them down. Why did they have to feel this way?

  I was human too. Once.

  But even I never felt such a way.

  Or maybe I had.

  It's hard to remember five hundred years back.

  Either way, the boy was trying my patience, and I never had much of that to begin with.

  I didn't even know his name.

  But he was beautiful with his dyed black hair and a strangely appealing smile I couldn't seem to forget.

  I met him at Club Dragonne. He flashed plastic fangs at me, the darkness of his hair turning almost blue in the rave lights, and I knew I had to make him mine.

  Had to possess him.

  Had to have him.

  It was almost pathetic, how easy I ensnared him. All I had to do was hold out my hand, smile, let him see my real fangs, and he was lost. He reached out for my hand and I felt the warm throb of his pulse.

  I have to admit. I fell a bit in love with him.

  But that's how it is with every man.

  And in the end, they turn into sniveling worms without even an ounce of dignity or honor.

  The men of this century have grown terribly soft. Back when I was still a human, men were killed if they showed this sort of softness they so freely flaunt in the twenty-first century.

  Of course, things were different back then.

  Back then.

  When I wasn't...

  A vampire.

  CHAPTER ONE

  For even humans know the value of true love and that it cannot be sold, nor bought. Some might even argue it is far more precious than time. After all, everyone once had time...but not everyone had love...

  - St. Augustus the Third

  "Don't go yet."

  His eyes opened languorously, and once again, I found myself falling deeper into the cerulean blue of his eyes. Of all the human men I brought to my home, to my bed, he was easily one of the most enchanting. I was still trying to figure out why he was so intriguing. He was a mystery I wanted to solve. "It's still only an hour past sunset. It wouldn't hurt to spend just a little more time with me."

  Kieran.

  He said it was his name. I had doubts, but then again, it hadn't mattered twelve hours ago. I thought he'd be an easy catch, that by this time he would be completely gone from my mind. The fact he was still here...did not bode well.

  He traced the two neat puncture marks on his neck. "I know I can keep you satisfied."

  The pale blue silk sheets fell to his hips as he levered himself up to a sitting position in the monstrosity some open-minded people might call a bed. I had to force myself to look away. Rare was it for a human man to hold me under his spell for more than a few hours in the night. I'd just spent the last twelve hours with him. Jesus, it was disconcerting. I couldn't remember the last time such a thing had transpired.

  But I couldn't let him know that. After all, I had the power here. Not him. He was just a weak human. I was a vampire, older than most people could comprehend.

  He belonged to me.

  "Tanith?" he prompted. "I can, can't I?"

  "Perhaps." I clasped the tight-fitting collar around my neck and adjusted the leather jacket that clung in all the right places.

  It was time to reinstate the power here. I was dominant, he was submissive. I'd always been the top in any relationship, pseudo-relationship. Things were not about to change just because I found myself growing enthralled by a pair of sky blue eyes with a body any woman would kill to put in their bed.

  And between her legs.

  Grabbing his neck, I pulled him toward me, almost off the bed, and onto the hardwood floors.

  "You're mine. You do what I say. You listen only to me." I saw my reflection in those eyes, those eyes steadily driving me insane. "If I tell you to fuck me, then you fuck me. If I tell you to lick my shoes, then you do it. Don't forget it...if you care to see another sunrise."

  His pulse beat madly under my palm. I relished it. Fear was the most powerful aphrodisiac for me.

  But stupid bravery made me want to lash out.

  His smile cut into me like a serrated, poisoned blade.

  "Yeah," he whispered. "I know."

  Good god. Did he not understand the situation?

  "Shut up. Don't you know I could kill you right now?" I asked, lips on top of his. I wanted to kiss him, kiss his so badly my body shook from the urge.

  "I know," he repeated.

  Get away.

  I had to get away.

  Had to leave and clear my head before I did something I'd regret. "How would you like it if I laid you completely bare...if I gorged myself on your blood...and watched you die? Do you think you'll still be smiling?"

  I was being deliberately cruel. I didn't think I'd ever acted like this before. Then again, every other man would've started crying.

  But not Kieran.

  He matched my words, tempo for tempo, breath for breath.

  "So? If you're the one who kills me, then I won't mind. I have no other desire but to please you. If my death makes you happy, then do it." His hands closed around mine. "If you want to strangle me, then do it. I'm not going to stop you."

  This was a first. By this time, men would be running for the door.

  Where did he get his courage from?

  "Why aren't you afraid of me?" I asked, genuinely curious.

  What a silly question to ask, and certainly not one I asked before.

  Eyes closed, he leaned towards me, the scent of snow and evergreens wrapping around me like a mantle. "No. Should I be?"

  "I could kill you. But you make it sound like a reward."

  He couldn't possibly be serious.

  He laid his cheek against mine, breath warm on my ear, bringing forth shivers that rode down my back.

  "You won't." He laughed a bit and just that slight sound was enough to make me want to lay my body against his, just this one more time. "You see...I know you, Tanith. I've known you
for a very long time."

  Before I could react, he moved his hands away, only to clamp them around my waist, pulling me down to the bed with a strength a human man could not, should not possess.

  I struggled. Fought against his hold, but ended up getting more and more tangled in the sheets that had covered him five seconds ago. He threw me onto my back, and I gasped, the breath leaving my body, and when he stared down at me, panic begin to claw up my throat.

  He grinned, eyes glowing with a feral light I thought I recognized.

  "Who are you?" I sounded calm, almost ridiculously so, but on the inside, I was jumping, trying to fly in all directions at once.

  "I told you at the club. My name's Kieran. I wasn't lying about that, you know." His voice ran over my skin, almost as though he touched me, and it sped the pulse in my head, reminding me that I needed to feed. Soon.

  "That's not what I'm talking about and you know it." I stopped fighting. There was no point; clearly, I was the weaker one. I could knock over a thirty-foot tree with a single blow, but I couldn't throw him off.

  Whatever he was, he sure as hell wasn't human.

  Disgust coiled in the pit of my stomach.

  How had I been fooled?

  "Ah...wouldn't you like to know?" He ground himself against me, wrenching a cry from my throat. Even though I was wearing leather pants, I still felt the hardness of him as if I was completely bare.

  "I like that. I like that very much. I like it when you make that sound."

  One minute, the hunter.

  The next, the prey.

  My head whirled and bile rose in the back of my throat. I thought I was going to lose everything in my stomach.

  "I've been watching you for a very long time, Tanith."

  I closed my eyes, tried to distance myself from the man who made me want things I didn't want. Was this what it felt like, to be sexually violated? I was one of the lucky few women who had never been touched in such a manner, even five hundred years ago, but I began to get the feeling I would not be able to count myself so lucky. "If you let me go, I swear to God, I won't rip your head off. In fact, I'll be extra nice and let you walk out of here. With your clothes on, even."

  But the threat sounded empty, weak, and he laughed.

  "Always the feisty one, aren't you? If I hadn't seen you bring men here night after night, I would've bet my life savings you were a complete dyke. But you like men, don't you? Pretty boys, every single one of them."

  I didn't have an answer.

  "I knew you'd be there," he continued. "I knew you'd pick me. You thought you were choosing me for one night...too bad I'll have to spoil your plans."

  Cloth ripped, and there was a brief pain as the leather shredded like paper under his hands. Before I could come to my senses, his hands wrapped around my wrists, holding me completely under his power.

  Under his will.

  "What do you want?" It was amazing how calm I sounded.

  The corners of his eyes crinkled. "Now, do I have to dignify that with an answer?"

  His mouth, hot and insistent, settled on my neck, sucking, licking, kissing, and I convulsed, the pure pleasure almost making me black out. He pulled away and his kitty-cat eyes bored into me, as if he looked for the way into my soul.

  "What do I want?" His lips flickered into a mere semblance of a smile. "I think it's pretty obvious."

  His gaze traveled all the way down my bare chest, past the wide leather belt that kept my pants in place. And despite the fact we'd spent the entire night completely naked, a blush rose up my cheeks.

  Back then, he was mild, meek and I was in control.

  But now, I had control over nothing, and it felt as like I was with someone else, not the man from twelve hours ago.

  I swallowed a painfully dry throat. "We already did that."

  He tsked, shaking his head. "Correction. You did it. And you know...it was kind of fun. But I think I want my turn now."

  My body and my mind were at war.

  My body wanted him.

  A need deeper than anything I'd ever experienced thrummed through my body and made my blood run like quicksilver. We fucked before; no, according to him, I fucked him. I rode him until he cried out and spilled himself into me and it hadn't been satisfying, not completely.

  I saw now it was just an act. He fooled me, tricked me into thinking him completely malleable to my will. Now, my body was tensed up, like a drawn up piano wire, and I wanted to be taken.

  I wanted to be used.

  Hard.

  The candlelight danced over his skin, turning it shades of darkness that seemed to shift like patches of fur.

  I knew, then.

  I knew what he was.

  And he knew that I knew.

  He let his eyes…change.

  There were only three things that could change their appearance at will and he was neither a vampire lord or a witch.

  Shit!

  I couldn’t stop myself. My body jerked in shock and his smile deepened.

  “That’s right,” he all but purred. “Why don’t you say it?”

  I couldn’t look away from the eyes. Couldn’t look away from the amber eyes that should have belonged to a wolf, but somehow looked right.

  On him.

  “You’re a Shifter.”

  And he wasn’t just any Shifter.

  He was a King.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “Is love just another façade, another mask that deceit so willingly flaunts? I fear I shall never know…”

  -Unknown French Nobleman, 1796

  “You’re a Shifter King.” I hated how breathy I sounded, as though I was actually enjoying this whole affair.

  He blinked and I watched as his eyes changed back into the deep azure that lured me into his arms in the first place.

  “Not just any Shifter King, my dear Tanith.” The softness of his breath was like fingernails dragged over my bare skin. “I’m the only King. I know there's been some…arguments, but really, I am a King. The only King if I have anything to say about it."

  I didn’t know what to say.

  Was I even supposed to respond?

  His tongue flicked out along the line of my lower lip and I pushed up from the bed, hips sinking into the too-soft mattress.

  Not to get away, but to get closer. I still wanted so much more.

  But why? I’d been pushed into a position, into a rank I should not have derived any joy from, but here he was, making me cry out because I couldn’t seem to get enough.

  “You thought you could pick up some pathetic surfer boy you could just use, didn’t you?” His eyes half-closed as he watched me. He was almost daring me to make a move, almost waiting for me to escape. “You’re worse than a pimp, you know that? At least a pimp will, to some degree, actually take care of his girls. But you? You don’t care about the people you hurt. It’s just their body you want, and their feelings can go to hell, right?”

  “Are you actually scolding me?” I sounded normal. That was a start. “Did I fuck one of your lover boys? Is that why you’re doing this? To punish me?”

  He smiled, but there was no warmth in those blue eyes. In that instant, I knew it was not wise to make him my enemy. I was a vampire, made before America was even a splotch in some forgotten cartographer’s scrawlings, but he was the King.

  One did not just become the Shifter King. It wasn’t a title that was passed down in a family…not unless you killed all your family members to get the crown. I could break a human skull with my bare hands.

  Kieran could do the same to mine.

  “Anyone ever tell you what a bitch you are?” he whispered.

  Talking. This was something I could handle. It was his touching, his seducing that turned me into a worthless piece of shit.

  “Yeah, but they’re all dead now.” I flashed my fangs and he laughed softly.

  He was naked, body pale and pure like an alabaster statue come to life. I didn’t have to look down to see how much he wanted me,
this. The heat radiating from his body would’ve melted steel.

  He’d played the part of an innocent so damn well.

  What would it be like to be fucked by a Shifter King?

  “You play the seducer well enough,” I said quietly, only vaguely aware of the sounds of rush-hour traffic outside my studio window. “But you want to be fucked, just as much as I do.” I put my hands on my belt buckle. “Tell me I’m wrong. And I’ll stop.”

  His eyes narrowed and for a moment, just a moment, my movements halted as a small part of my mind questioned my sanity of testing the mental patience of a man who could tear me apart with his bare hands.

  Then again, I never had that much sanity to begin with.

  Being a vampire long enough can do that to a person.

  Abruptly, he pulled away and sat back on his haunches. “This is just a game to you, isn’t it?”

  I blinked at him, body still heavy with desire, not entirely sure what the hell was going on. “Excuse me?”

  He rose from the bed in one fluid motion and angrily started to pull on his pants, the dark jeans I could’ve practically eaten off of him, they looked that damn good. On him, at least.

  Feeling more than a little ridiculous, I spared a glance at my shredded top before hiding my torso with a fluffy pillow that still smelled like him. “What the hell are you doing?”

  Pulling up the zipper, he turned back to me, and his hand snaked out, wrapping around my hair. He brought me in so close that I smelled the peppermint on his breath. I wanted to kiss him. And this time, I wanted him to kiss me back. I wanted him to kiss me like the Shifter King he was, not the innocent boy he pretended to be.

  And why the fuck had he done that in the first place? I was a vampire, not a courtesan. He could’ve found a dozen others to appease his hunger, but he chose me.