Bitten by the Vampire Read Online Free Page B

a gentle and meek doormat. People could easily hurt her.
    â€œI can’t live without my dark powers.”
    â€œI’ll protect you, Mara. This I promise. I will always be there to keep you safe. Think of it as a business arrangement.” He gave a slow smile, showing a hint of fang. Lucien glanced through the window at the snowy white bed. “Friends, with very pleasurable benefits. I will make it very, very pleasurable.”
    â€œThat’s what worries me.”
    She headed inside, intent on escape. But before she reached the door, he appeared behind her and slid a hand across her waist, pulling her tight against him. He bent his head, nuzzled her neck. Desire sang through her veins as his breath feathered against her ear. Lucien took the lobe gently between his teeth. “Think, Mara. You saw the future in the vision we shared. You cannot fight it. I will have you in my bed. Even now, your thighs tremble to open to me, to lie down. I’d fuck you very slowly, and make you scream, bring you to ecstasy. And when you think you cannot take it anymore, I’d push you harder, higher, until you begged me to come inside you.”
    He was no vampire, but a devil himself. Fighting this seduction would prove harder than tackling Jones. She bristled against his dark sensuality. “I don’t want or need your body, or your protection. I can do fine on my own.”
    Long fingers slid up her body beneath her breast. He did not touch her there, but his hand lingered a whisper away, the heat blazing through her shirt.
    â€œAs you’ve done so far? Did the darkness protect you from Jones?”
    A tiny doubt winked. “I wasn’t strong enough then. I am now. Stronger than I was when I stupidly thought Jones needed my help and I let him climb into my car. I did a good deed and was punished.”
    With a weary sigh, Lucien released her. Mara felt surprisingly bereft.
    â€œDoing a good turn for a stranger can turn badly. But tell me this, Mara. How did you escape the furnace? It wasn’t your demon’s power.”
    The memory stung like a blade across her skin. Flames, agonizing heat and then a blessed coolness.
    â€œThe white light,” she whispered. “It extinguished the flames before he threw me in.”
    â€œYour angelic half helped you escape. Twin natures, Mara. Good and evil exist inside you, but you must find balance.”
    â€œHow? My demon is stronger. My demon never would have allowed my helping Jones in the first place.”
    â€œI cannot argue with that.”
    Shadows danced across his face as she turned to face him. In his dark eyes she recognized a kindred spirit. Lucien was cold inside. So frozen, so empty, like an Arctic wasteland.
    Using her powers, she tunneled inside him to find what lingered in his soul.
    The blackness there made her gasp. It was hollow and vast, like staring into an endless void with no light to pierce the darkness.
    Mara pulled out.
    Lucien’s face became granite. Emotions crested over her in waves of anguish and tremendous loneliness. His emotions.
    â€œDo not fight the Society, Mara,” he said quietly. “Resisting them only causes further anguish.”
    â€œWhat did they do to you?”
    He said nothing. An odd connection forged between them. Compelled, she touched his angular cheek, feeling beard stubble beneath her fingers.
    â€œI know what they can do. I saw what their hunters did to my mother and father. They killed my parents, all because my father got a little…enthusiastic.”
    â€œHe killed a human.”
    Mara dropped her hand. “He had good reason. That human was a scumbag who was taking advantage of innocents. My mother asked Father to stop it. It was justice.”
    â€œYour mother should have notified the authorities.”
    â€œWhy, when my father did a more efficient job?”
    â€œHuman justice is left for humans. It’s the prime rule of the Society. We have powers