Micaela's Big Bad Read online

  I sat up, and the vehicle started to dip a little bit.

  A whole lot more.

  I was thinking back, remembering.

  He was the one who went into the store. I went with him, but he picked up the bottle. He took it to the counter. He paid for it, and he handed it off to the driver. There hadn’t been a second’s hesitation. He stepped back, motioned for me to walk with him, and we went to the vehicle.

  We rounded to my side.

  The door was opened.

  The driver had been coming around the front of the vehicle, and he handed off the bottle to Kieran.

  Kieran passed it to me.

  I got in and hadn’t thought about it. I just started drinking.

  A pair of white butt cheeks in mid-thrust was still on replay in my head. I was laser focused on that bad memory and keen to drink it out of me.

  I looked at the bottle. I’d only had a third of it.

  I shouldn’t be this drunk.

  I turned back to him. “You drugged me.”

  He grinned, and I wasn’t too drunk to notice how my entire body lit up at that sight. Damn, but he was really pretty. He shook his head, his tone wry. “It’s a spell to put you to sleep. Nothing else. As much as I’ve enjoyed your commentary and thoughts, I do need to do some work.”

  “What kind of work?”

  “You.”

  “Me?”

  My eyelids were getting a lot heavier.

  I was going to fall asleep, but he was talking. I needed more information.

  I also needed to come to terms with the fact that I’d been kidnapped.

  Why hadn’t I tried to run away?

  Right.

  Because of him.

  That’d be useless.

  I needed—I needed to stay awake. I was seeing a shimmer of his energy, the one that was tight against his skin, and I couldn’t help myself. A little bite, and I’d have enough energy to stay away.

  I reached for it, and I took a small strand, the thinnest, and I did what I told him I never did.

  I took a bite.

  Someone should’ve warned me about what would happen next.

  I was pulled back into that same dark place as the last time I touched his energy, but I was held suspended in the air. I felt his breath on the back of my neck, and my body warmed.

  Tingles traveled down my spine.

  I felt a caress around my throat, then the feel of him behind me.

  He fit his body to mine.

  A throbbing started inside of me.

  I wanted him.

  Badly.

  Arms encircled me, and he began moving against me. So slowly. So sensually.

  I gasped.

  Another caress started down my back, and I arched into it, wanting more. Needing more.

  I’d never experienced this with anyone else. Just tuning into him, and I was almost panting.

  Yearning and wanton desire crawled under my skin, exploring my body, pushing to all my extremities. My legs. My toes. Fingers. Nails.

  My heart was pounding.

  My vision was blurred.

  It was only the touch of him holding me captive.

  I would’ve done anything for him in that moment.

  I felt more of his touch rising up my legs, my calves, my knees, my thighs, and a slight pressure.

  I was rolled to my back, and my legs parted.

  He was above me, and moving over me, and I felt that same touch between my legs.

  I wanted him to sheath himself inside of me, thrusting in, all the way in, and then, just like that—I was yanked back, and out.

  I was brought back to the vehicle, and Kieran was watching me from across the seat, a shrewd look in his eyes. Cold blasted me, not from the air conditioner, and I began shivering.

  I was yearning again, but yearning to go back to what that was. I felt warm and desired.

  Was that what he meant about it being sexual for others? HO-LEE-SHIT.

  A carnal and primitive desire was lacing through me, and it was as if I’d been awakened. Every cell in my body was crying in protest.

  I tasted my tears before I realized I was crying.

  As I stared at him, he was merely watching me. That same look in his eyes.

  Waiting. He was waiting for something. For me?

  But not even a second later, I knew what he was waiting for.

  A new hunger was rising in me. I could feel everything in my body. How my foot curved. The ligaments connecting each of my bones. The muscles. The tendons. There was more. My power. It was so deeply entrenched.

  He’d been right.

  I could feel it now.

  And it was starving.

  I gaped, only able to open and close my mouth like a fish.

  I needed more. Just a little bit more.

  I didn’t know what, though. More. That was it.

  That power was its own creature. It was stirring, stretching. It needed to be fed.

  That was me. In me. I had the power to feed its every desire.

  He’d been dormant. He? No, she. My power was feminine, and she was hissing. I could feel her moving all my organs, seeking whatever she needed to be fed.

  I was moving on the seat without knowing my own body. Writhing around. Curling into a ball, stretching back out, my arms yanking over my head. My toes pointed downwards. My stomach levitated upward.

  My back with it, but hunching over in its own stretch.

  I felt like I was performing six different yoga poses all at the same time.

  “Please,” I gasped, my eyes watering as I stared at Kieran.

  I didn’t know what I was asking for, or why I was asking him, but she had started to take control of me. Not me. Her. I had another whole creature inside of me—from that one forbidden taste of his energy—and she wanted him.

  His eyes had darkened by now, molten.

  “Please,” I rasped again.

  “Your kind is only half human, and you’ve not been feeding your other side. Because of this, there’s a separation inside of you. You are almost two beings now. Human and her. You must feed to start merging again.”

  I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I was hungry.

  I wanted everything.

  His energy. His body. I wanted human food too. Everything and anything. I just needed this feeling to be sated.

  “What do I do?”

  He continued to watch me, and he didn’t respond.

  My body began moving toward him, but an invisible wall hit me back. No sounded loudly in my head. The voice didn’t sound like it came from him, though. It was a low roar, less powerful in its sound but equally as powerful in its determination to be fed.

  Please, I said to that voice.

  He is above your hunger. That’s like waking up as a child and being fed caviar for your first meal.

  Caviar isn’t even good as a human, buddy. She took over again, growling, whimpering, and my body was flailing on the seat.

  I need. Now.

  She was back to roaring too.

  I was starting to pant and sweat. The need for what she demanded was taking a toll on me. I was becoming blinded by the urgency of feeding the beast that I’d awakened.

  “You cannot overcome me.”

  “I’m not trying to. What do I need here?!”

  A strangled cry ripped from my throat.

  “You need to eat on energy, which you should’ve been schooled in when you were born. Your elders did not do their job for you, and now you must pay for the negligence.”

  “No one eats energy in my family.”

  “Bullshit. Every energist eats energy. If done properly, you can rid a human of their negative emotions. It can be a mutually beneficial relationship, but it’s too late for you to move into that type of relationship. I’ve never seen an energist so separated from their human form like I see in you. It’s fascinating.”

  She hissed, rearing back, and she shot forward, trying to break through his wall.

&nbs
p; NO!

  That male roar again, speaking from inside of him this time.

  I/she was slammed back, retracting as if I’d been burned.

  “Your kind used to be used as sexual servants. They would be starved until they didn’t care who they fed on. They could be used for days and days, and if properly handled, they could reach a high that they’d never want to come down from.”

  This was the warning I always knew could happen to my kind. I’d seen it happen. An uncle who never came home. A cousin who was whisked off by a vampire lord and we never heard from her again.

  A shudder went through me, dampening some of the hold my creature had on me.

  But she was still whispering in my head, Please, please, please. I knew he could hear her. She was speaking to him.

  It was working.

  He began looking over me, from head to toe, and I felt the same caresses that had happened when I touched his energy. They began again, touching the base of my spine. I gasped, pleasure coursing through me. They touched again, on the inside of my thigh, and I mewled in desire.

  That felt so good.

  What are you going to do with me?

  Give in to me, I added in my head.

  A tsking came from him, and it was mocking. If I give in to you, you will be addicted to me. You’ll follow me wherever I may go. The need will be too powerful for you to fight, and you’ll eventually die because you would have starved yourself. It would be my energy or no energy, and yes, this has happened to others of your kind. I had two energist lovers two centuries ago. Once I had my fill of them, they shriveled up and withered away because they wouldn’t touch another unless it was me.

  My word. Ego, much?

  He continued to watch me, but I felt his surprise, and his amusement. Even that seemed to surprise him.

  “I’ve never had one of you be this starved and give me sass at the same time. Perhaps your human is strong inside of you.”

  I stopped listening to him.

  I needed to get back in control.

  Images of him letting me loose on someone I didn’t want to be with horrified me.

  I knew where this would go. I’d start eating their energy, but it would turn sexual and there was no one I wanted to be intimate with. Not like this. That would haunt me if he turned me on someone else…yet eating solely on his energy sounded completely out of the picture.

  Though, I still wanted to, and just the thought was making me ache for him, but I was blaming those raging hormones on what he said. A starved creature was inside of me.

  I couldn’t believe this was happening to me.

  I’d never been helpless to my monster.

  It was something I prided myself on.

  Nikki had been at times. She gave into her demon and there’d been a few nights when we had to do something that we’d been ashamed about. It’s what happened when you were one of us. There were slip ups.

  Except me. I never slipped up, but watching him, panting for him, feeling those same caresses from him all over my body, I could see it happening. My power wanted his power. That’s what was going on. She was begging for it, and he was starting to give in. I could feel the weakening inside of him.

  I was in there, inside of him. That realization hit me.

  It shocked me.

  No one’s been in your head, have they?

  His eyelids started to drop, but at my voice, his gaze shot back to mine. I saw his alarm, but I also felt it too.

  I was right. I was in there, and no one had been in there.

  You are indeed more powerful than I thought.

  Please, a whispered plea in my head. It came from deep within me, but again, I didn’t know what I was asking for. It felt stronger, more focused, more important. It wasn’t sexual and it wasn’t hungry. There was more happening here, and none of it was making sense to me.

  So many emotions and vibrations were swimming around us in the back of his vehicle.

  A break inside of him. A small crack, and I felt some of his resistance crumble.

  I slipped inside, and he was there, waiting for me.

  He wrapped me up, holding me in the air.

  Our bodies were across from each other in his vehicle. I was still on my side, and he was frozen on his end, but our creatures were meeting each other in the unseen. I wasn’t in his head, but I was inside of him. Somehow.

  He was staring at me, his eyes dark with sensual promises as he enveloped me.

  He closed his eyes. So did I, and we were both in our creatures.

  His power was a strong beat of a drum, echoing around us and filling us both.

  This was what I had been asking for, to be sated by his power.

  All I had to do was be there, and I was basking in it. We both were, but his head lifted. His gaze found me. An awareness settled between us, pulling us both to each other as if we were on opposite ends of a rope.

  We came together, and as his power kept beating around us, spreading out in echoed ripples, he lowered his mouth to my neck. I moved my head aside, giving him better access, and his tongue touched my skin. A taste. I jumped from the sensations.

  Another lingering taste.

  My body leaned into his.

  He was holding me to him.

  His hands splaying down over my hips, keeping me anchored in place, and he continued tasting my throat.

  A low rumble began from inside of him.

  Its sound came from deep in the earth, from beneath us. I felt the ground move from the sound of it, and I knew that was his beast. He was waking.

  My hands came to his chest, my fingers splayed out. His heartbeat was there, in perfect rhythm from the beat spreading around us.

  That rumbling sensation from beneath us grew stronger, more insistent.

  His mouth moved more insistently over me, moving to the base of my neck and he explored down. Down. Between my breasts.

  I arched backwards, my head falling back. I was almost helpless to his hold. He could’ve done anything to me, and I would’ve ached for more. Always more.

  He tilted me in his arms, moving me to the side as one of his hands found my center and I gasped as he moved inside of me, filling me.

  My throbbing ache began its own drumbeat of sound. His. Mine, but smaller.

  His. Mine, but smaller.

  He moved inside of me, thrusting in the same staccato as our beats, and all the while the ground kept moving.

  I felt that beast moving under the surface, moving. Gliding. It was looking for an opening, and he was going to rise.

  Kieran clamped down on a growl, his arms holding me tight, as he dug deeper into me and he moved faster, at a more insistent pace. His mouth moved back up my chest, my throat, my jawline, over my cheek, to my ear, and he breathed there.

  “Come for me.”

  It was a guttural command in my ear, and I gritted my teeth, holding on as the sensations were building higher and higher.

  Another impatient growl from him as the earth’s shaking became more and more, almost nonstop. He bit out a curse word before moving, and his mouth clamped down on me, his fingers moving inside of me still.

  I exploded, hurdling over the edge, and my entire body came undone in his arms.

  He was panting over me, but the earth’s surface was still. The beast was settling back down.

  He hadn’t wanted him to rise up. The power of that feat alone was mind-numbing.

  Slowly, and reluctantly, our creature’s energies separated.

  She was filled so she settled back inside of me, and that’s when I opened my eyes, seeing him staring at me with such carnal need that I started to rise. I was going to go over to him.

  “Don’t!”

  His eyes burned at me.

  He needed a release, I could feel it from him.

  “Don’t touch me.”

  Well, then.

  I didn’t touch him.

  10

  Quesadilla

  “I can feel her.”

  I co
uld only handle two minutes of silence. It felt like twenty.

  Kieran expelled a ragged and annoyed-sounding breath of air. “Are you shitting me?”

  I peered at him, almost squinting. “That’s very progressive of you, Mr. Dire Straits and I Speak Like I’m Centuries Old Sire.”

  He snorted. “I am centuries old. You’re a child to me.”

  “Please.” My stomach rolled over. “You’ll only cheapen our relationship with that mindset.”

  A curse from him, and he raked a hand through his hair. “We don’t have a relationship.”

  “You woke my creature. We’ll always have a relationship.”

  There was a beep, and he raised his hand to touch a button. As he did, I caught his slight grin. It was small, but there. And why that made me feel good, I didn’t know. I didn’t want to know.

  “Yes?”

  The driver said through the intercom, “We’ve arrived.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Where are we?” The vehicle was slowing, turning onto a rough driveway. I could see gates opening, then we were going through and past tall pillars. There were vampires—well, not actual vampires, but marble ones—guarding the gate, and all of them watched our vehicle pull past them.

  “We’re here to see someone.”

  I was suddenly remembering that I was kidnapped, and that he said he had ‘plans’ for me. The history of my kind was flashing through my mind.

  “I think I’m good in the car. You go and have your visit. I’ll stay put.”

  “We’re in a vampire compound. You’ve awakened her, and they’ll smell her. A vehicle won’t stop them from coming in here, and I’d rather not have to declare war on an entire species. You’re coming with me.”

  The vehicle had stopped, and his door opened.

  He waited.

  I glanced out my door. A vampire was there, waiting to open it for me.

  I moved across my seat. “I think I’m good going inside with you.”

  He made no sound, but I could feel his amusement as he got out first.

  I was second, and he had stepped aside, waiting for me.

  The driver was standing outside the door, and as we moved ahead, he shut the door behind us.

  It was dark outside, but with my new inner creature, I was seeing in the dark as if it were light. The house in front of us looked like a place that’d be in a horror film, though. Vampires were all around us. On the front porch area, standing around the pillars built into the house. Behind us. I glanced around, and they were even on the gate and a wall that surrounded the compound.