Taken by Darkness

She was perfect.

Juliet moaned as he fed from her throat, her hands impatiently lowering to tug at his pants, her body arching in silent need. A need that Victor was quite eager to sate.

Reaching down, he ripped off the pants with one vicious jerk and tugged open her robe until there was nothing left between them. They were skin to skin, her delectable heat wrapping around him.

Allowing himself one precious moment to savor the anticipation, Victor chuckled softly as Juliet wrapped her legs around his hips with obvious impatience.

“Victor…please.”

Victor reluctantly tugged his fangs from her neck, using his tongue to close the bleeding wounds. He could not afford to be greedy. Not when Juliet was determined to rescue the ridiculous gargoyle. Any loss of blood might weaken her.

Besides, there was more than one means of being a part of her.

“Yes, little one,” he husked, settling between her spread legs and entering her with a slow, steady thrust.

Closing his eyes in pure bliss, Victor sent up a prayer of thanks to whatever god had seen fit to bless him with this beautiful, magnificent woman.





Chapter Seven





After a hot bath, Juliet pulled on a clean smock and pants that Victor had borrowed from the son of one of his vast stable of human servants. Like all vampires, he considered any sort of manual labor as being beneath him.

Unfortunately, he also possessed the vampire habit of forbidding any mirrors to be brought into their lair.

Brushing out her tangled curls, she awkwardly pulled her hair into a braid and tied it off with a thin strip of leather. No doubt she could have requested Victor to assist her, but she sensed that such an intimate act would soon have led them to the wide bed just behind her.

It was not that she wasn’t eager to feel Victor’s arms around her. Or to experience the intoxicating pleasure of having him feed from her vein. Good lord, if she had a choice she would keep the delectable vampire in this private lair for the next century.

Unfortunately, the same bonds that allowed her to sense Victor’s unwavering love and commitment for her also revealed his heavy sense of duty.

He was clan chief. And that meant ridding London of the Jinn before the powerful demon could bring harm to Victor’s vampires.

“Juliet.”

The sound of Levet’s voice whispering through her head had Juliet on her feet, her heart slamming against her ribs in startled surprise.

“Levet,” she breathed, ignoring his rude intrusion as a wave of relief rushed through her. “Oh, thank God. I have been so worried.”

“Indeed?” the gargoyle said peevishly. “If you were so excessively worried then why have you not yet rescued me?”

“You might have mentioned that your captor is a full-blooded Jinn,” she snapped, stung by his unfair accusation.

“Ah…well, I…” He coughed in embarrassment. “Does it truly matter?”

“Does it matter? I very nearly was skewered by a bolt of lightning. If it had not been for Victor I would not have survived to rescue you.”

“Sacre bleu. Why would you tell the bloodsucker that I was captured?” Levet demanded in a horrified voice.

“It was not as if I had a choice. He followed me to the docks.”

“That is no excuse for revealing my very private business. I thought our trust was sacred.”

“Do you wish to be rescued or not, Levet?”

“Oui, but I do not desire to be made the source of mockery throughout London.”

Juliet thrust aside her annoyance, reminding herself that the tiny gargoyle was inordinately sensitive when it came to his manly reputation.

“I can promise you that Victor will tell no one you were captured by the Jinn,” she soothed.

There was a moment of startled silence. “Since when do you speak for the vampires, ma belle?” Levet at last demanded.

“Just be patient. I am coming for you,” she said, in no mood to endure her friend’s outrage when he discovered her recent mating.

Levet detested vampires.

“Please hurry,” he said, then without warning his scream of pain echoed through Juliet’s mind.

“Levet?” She grasped her head, her ears ringing. “Levet?”

“That bastard just destroyed my wing,” Levet panted, clearly in considerable agony. “When I get free I am going to turn him into a pile of steaming fairy dung. No…wait. Let us be reasonable—”

There was another scream and with an unpleasant wrench the sensation of the gargoyle was abruptly gone from her mind.

“Levet?”

She was distracted as the door to the lair was shoved open with enough force to make it snap off the heavy iron hinges, revealing Victor with his eyes glowing and his fangs fully extended.

“What has happened?” he growled. “I felt your distress.”

Juliet shivered, caught between a terrified awe at Victor’s power and a smug pleasure at the knowledge he would battle through the fires of hell to protect her.