Addict (Hunter #2)(78)

He sighed, the sound heavy to my ears. “Listen to him, Kelsey. Hugo doesn’t have as much experience training Hunters as I do, but he’s quite good at it. Do what he advises you to do.”

Oh, that wasn’t what I’d meant at all. “I meant sexually, Marcus. I know you like it rough. I was wondering if Hugo does, too. Or should I play the sweet innocent? Some guys like that. Is he as possessive as you are? I hope not. I thought I’d give Casey a try, too. Liv seemed to like his bite. He’s a baby. I could train him.”

That got him moving. Super fast, actually. One minute he was at the window, the next he was right in front of me. His eyes were obsidian and his fangs long. I had to hold my ground because I wanted to take a step back.

“Casey? Really, my dear, that is sad. I rather thought you would go after that wolf who keeps sniffing around what belongs to me.” His accent was thicker. I appreciated him keeping it in English though. Sometimes when he gets upset, he forgets that I don’t speak Italian.

I knew who he was talking about. It was ridiculous, but I would use it. “I don’t belong to you anymore. I’m free to do what I want, who I want. You know, he did ask me out. It didn’t take him long. Trent heard you dumped me, and now we’re going out next Saturday. I’ve never f*cked a werewolf before. Do you think Trent will want to do me doggy-style?”

Marcus growled. His hand tangled in my hair, pulling my head back so I was forced to look up at him. That bite of pain sizzled through my body. Marcus ran his nose along my neck. He was more vampire than man now. He was on the edge of losing control. And I kept pushing.

“I’ve heard the wolf packs can get crazy on a full moon.” I gasped as his teeth dragged against my skin. I wondered if he was planning on getting one last feed in. I would fight him on that. He pulled me flush against his body. One hand held my head to the side while the other traced the line of my spine. “Do you think they’ll invite me to join in on their orgy?”

“Not if they wish to live, bella.”

I laughed. I also moved against his body. I loved the way he felt. I wanted more than anything to throw down with him one last time. “It’s going to be hard to defend my honor from across the Atlantic.”

He stopped, seeming to come back to his senses. His head came up and that awful blank look was back on his face. “Go to bed. I can’t promise you I’ll stay in control. I seem to have lost it tonight, in every way possible.”

“You’re really going to leave me.” I knew I sounded pathetic, but I already missed the feel of him against my skin. My vision blurred, tears nearly blinding me.

Marcus stared at me as though trying to make up his mind. He reached out and brushed a tear off my cheek. “Yes, Kelsey. I’m going to do what I should have done long ago. I’m going to shut myself up in my villa on Poveglia. I’m going to be alone. I should have done it ten years ago. I was an idiot not to do it four years ago.”

“Why? What happened four years ago?” I knew what happened ten years past. Marcus had aided the king in taking down the old Council. There was a piece of Marcus that thought he should have died with them.

Marcus slumped onto the couch. It was the first time I’d seen him move in an inelegant fashion. “Four years ago, the queen gave birth to her daughter.”

God, my rival was a toddler. The thought made my heart clench. “Well, Vorenus, if it’s any consolation, Donovan is ready to marry her off to you as soon as she’s legal. I hope to hell you’re both happy. I’m sure you’ll find some other idiot to fill in the time between now and then.”

“You don’t understand. I don’t want her. I will never be able to want her. She’ll always be a child to me.”

“You’re right. I don’t understand.” I sank down across from him. I felt tired, but I wanted to hear this story.

“She was promised to me.”

“By Donovan?”

He shook his head. “No. By a prophet named Jacob, though you would know him as Apollo.”

I felt my eyes widen because I hadn’t gotten that memo. There should be an Idiot’s Guide to Supernatural Creatures given to me with my Nex Apparatus training binder. “Damn. Are you telling me the Greek gods still roam the Earth?”

He shook his head ruefully. “Many of the beings who pretended to be gods still roam this plane. Have you ever heard the term sympathetic transference? No? It’s a condition in which a vampire bonds so fully with a companion that when she dies, she takes him with her. It’s the only natural way a vampire can die.”

I felt my heart break a little. “You want it.”

“I want to love a woman so much that I die with her, yes. I stare eternity in the face and it seems so long. Do you know how many I have loved and watched grow old and perish? You grow selfish after a while because you truly understand how insignificant you are. I always believed that if I found that woman, I would enjoy a lifetime knowing that my time was almost over. It would lend it a sweetness, an urgency. It would make me feel alive.”

He wanted to die. It was so much more complex than that, but at the heart of it was an end to Marcus’s long life. “And this prophet told you that Evan would be the woman for you?”

“I was told that one of the queen’s line would be the woman I would die with. I feel nothing for her beyond an almost fatherly affection. She’s a sweet girl.” His eyes caught mine. “I know you won’t believe this, but I do love you, Kelsey. I have passion for you.”