Chapter 11

Kayla

Icouldn’t stop thinking about him, about the way my body lit up when he touched me, about how I grew soft and warm and so hungry for more when he kissed me.

I should be horrified. Terrified. He’d bitten me… more than once.

Then why was I still so wet? Why was my heart still thundering against my ribs, even though I’d run away and was tucked safely in my home?

I closed my eyes and breathed out, but doing so had my mind conjuring up how hard his erection had been as he pressed against me, rubbed it, ground all that male flesh into my belly.

God, even the prick of pain from that kiss made me needier, igniting that darker side of me, the part I’d always thought of as depraved… wrong. But it didn’t feel like that when I was with him. It felt like that”s exactly what I was supposed to be doing. Who I was supposed to be doing it with.

One word kept bouncing around in my head after I’d asked him what he was. But it was so unrealistic, so fantastical, that I felt like a complete moron for even thinking about it.

But the biting. The blood. His massive size, and the way his eyes seemed to glow in the dusky nightclub. And then of course the magnetism that pulled me in like a whirlpool.

Vampire.

A small, almost hysterical laugh bubbled out of me, and I shook my head, feeling ridiculous as I opened my eyes and let my vision clear. To even consider that he was some supernatural creature out of a book or a movie was preposterous.

The realistic option was that he was probably a sadist, into blood play and hard-core biting. And I should’ve been concerned that even thinking that had me growing warm and soft and… wet.

Pushing those thoughts out of my head was easier said than done, but I tried in vain to do that as I headed out of my bedroom and into the kitchen. I’d already taken a cold shower, which had done nothing to alleviate the heat moving through me.

I stood by the kitchen sink and stared out the large window above it that gave a scenic view of the wooded property behind the house. I found myself touching my bottom lip, the tender wound there.

My breasts felt heavy and sensitive, and I forced myself to drop my hand, curling my fingers around the edge of the sink and exhaling roughly.

“I’m losing my damn mind,” I muttered and shook my head as I grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water. I drank deeply from the glass, the cold water doing nothing to quench my thirst. Because it’s not water I want.

I poured the rest of the water out in the sink and set the glass aside. Just as I was about to turn and head to bed, a large, dark shape moved across the yard in between the trees. I froze and leaned forward, narrowing my eyes.

It was probably nothing at all, just shadows from the night, an animal moving in the forest. I straightened, but something felt off, my body tight as if instinct told me it wasn’t nothing.

“I really am losing my mind.” I turned away from the window and shut off the kitchen light, making my way into my bedroom. Although I was exhausted, I knew sleep wasn’t going to come.

I was too wired after the kiss, my body alight with unrestrained pleasure. I felt achy and heavy between my thighs, still drenched. No matter how many times I changed my panties, they were still uncomfortably damp.

It was when I made it into my bedroom that I heard something coming from the back of the house. I was midstep when I froze, my hand tightening around the edge of my door as I looked over my shoulder and into the darkened hallway to where the steps led downstairs.

I could feel and hear my heart starting to beat a faster tempo, my throat feeling a little tight, my mouth drying as the flight-or-fight instinct rose within me. I didn’t move, listening, feeling like my hearing was amplified, getting drowned out at the same time by my pulse.

When I heard nothing else, I tried to tell myself it was an overactive imagination. But seeing the shadow outside, coupled with the feelings I was still fighting after all the things I’d done at the nightclub, it was understandable that I was shaken up.

So even though it was probably nothing, I still found myself stepping into my bedroom, going into my closet, and grabbing a baseball bat I had resting against the wall. I kept it pressed to my chest as I turned and stared at my partially opened door, not stupid enough to head out there and investigate. Hell, I’d seen enough damn horror movies to know when someone did that, they were the first to get killed.

And as the seconds turned into minutes, I felt that tension start to leave me, feeling even more like a fool for reacting this way. It was right when I loosened my hold of the bat against my chest that I heard glass breaking, followed by the heavy thump of feet hitting the floor.

And then I heard footsteps, faint and distant at first, but with each passing second they came clearer and closer. I was rushing toward my door, slamming it shut, and turning the lock in place before I could think about it. I took several steps back and clutched the bat tightly to my chest again, keeping it up and getting ready to swing.

I reached out and turned my bedroom light off, plunging the room into darkness. All I could hear was my heart racing in my ears and my rapid breathing filling the interior of the bedroom. I stared at that closed door, listening, trying to hear who was coming closer.

And once that initial shock wore off, I realized I needed to get to my phone. I needed to call for help. I was rushing toward my bedside table where my cell was charging and ripping the cord out just as something heavy and hard slammed against the door. I screamed out, my hand fumbling with the cell, the phone falling from my grasp and bouncing off the bedside table before hitting the hardwood floor.

I scrambled to grab the cell again, and when it was in hand, I quickly punched in 9-1-1. With the phone pressed to my ear, I stared in horror at my bedroom door that was being splintered in two.

“9-1-1. What’s your emergency?”

I opened my mouth to let out a rush of words, but my mind was jumbled, my tongue thick as I watched in horror when my bedroom door was all but broken in half from the big body that kept slamming itself against it.

“9-1-1, please state your emergency.”

“Oh God, someone broke into my house. They’re trying to get into my bedroom.” Not trying. They were in my room now.

I could hear the operator talking, but it sounded like I was underwater, everything muffled and unintelligible. The person, who was clearly a male, judging by what I could see of his size through the broken wood, reached in the shattered opening with a black-clad arm and a glove covering his hand as he searched for the lock.

I didn’t think, just reacted as I charged forward, let the phone drop out of my grasp so I could curl my fingers tightly around the baseball bat, and brought it down as hard as I could on his hand.

He made a harsh bark of sound, but the pleasure I got from hurting him was short-lived when I heard someone shouting from downstairs.

Oh God. There was more than one inside. This was a home invasion, and I was going to be raped or tortured or killed right in my bedroom.

He laughed, and I took a step back at how terrifying that sounded. He didn’t curse at me, didn’t threaten me. He just laughed through his pain. His black ski-mask face came into view through the broken door. His eyes were as dark as the clothing he wore, his mouth a snarl, showing a flash of teeth. I could see his mouth moving, knew he was talking, but his voice was suddenly distorted, as if the words were trying to penetrate my ears, but my pulse was running so hard and fast that nothing sounded normal.

He used my frozen panic to reach his hand through the broken door once more.

I swung the bat, tears streaking down my cheeks and causing my vision to blur. The bat connected with the door and missed his arm. He was fast as he found the lock and disengaged it, pulling his arm out fast just as I swung again. I was screaming, saying words that I was pretty sure were unintelligible.

I scrambled backward and searched for the cell on the ground as the door swung open, but God help me, I couldn’t find it. I prayed it was still connected to the 911 operator and she was hearing all of this.

I heard the growl come from the man before I felt his big body tackle me to the ground so hard the air left my lungs. My feet came out from under me, the back of my head cracking against the floor so hard I felt it rattle, like my brain was being shaken around in my skull.

I groaned, blinked over and over again to try to keep my eyes open, but my vision was blurry, and I knew I wouldn’t stay conscious for long. But I’d fight going under. I’d fight the darkness and this asshole until I couldn’t fight anymore.

The man stood above me with a malicious grin on his face, one that felt weird. But then I saw his body tense just as a loud shout sounded close, and he glanced over his shoulder. The man in black turned fully around, no longer focused on me.

A red glow filled the hallway and wove its way into my bedroom, brighter… redder.

And then I heard it. A low, rhythmic purring, a hum that filled the entire house, seemed to shake the walls, vibrate the floors.

No, not a purr, not a hum. A growl. An animal was in the house, a predator, and the man in black was terrified. I knew that by the way he took a step back. I felt it in the rippling tension emanating from his body.

I forced my upper body off the ground, my palms flat on the cold, hardwood floor as I stared at the bedroom door that hung from its hinges. I moved backward, crab walking until the wall stopped my retreat. I was panting, hyperventilating. I knew I should be afraid just by the glow, the sound… the way the man before me took a fighting stance.

But I wasn’t. Because I knew, God, I knew who was here and that he wasn”t here to hurt me.

But that alone should have scared the shit out of me. Especially when the man from the club stepped into my room.

He was larger than life, with the glowing red eyes that had nothing to do with the club lights, the twin canines that were too similar to fangs… and the fact that before, he’d lapped at my blood like it nourished him.

He was here, for me, and I knew he brought death with him.