A Blood Seduction (Vamp City #1)(61)

Quinn shivered, but the wolves made no move to attack, and the vampire procession passed them without incident. She ought to feel relieved, she supposed. Instead, she felt beaten and bruised from the magic's attack, and cold in the pit of her soul at the thought that her love for her brother might end up destroying them both.

The one vampire who could possibly help her would never do so. He'd turn his back on her, betraying the strange connection between them all over again.

Chapter Thirteen

Arturo's temper simmered the entire ride back from the Crux, frustration like an itch beneath his skin he couldn't scratch. When they reached Gonzaga Castle's courtyard, he swung the sorceress off her mount, gripped her arm, and hauled her inside and downstairs, back to her room before Cristoff demanded her attendance . . . and subjugation. Before he himself lost control and began railing at her for all to see and hear.

She quaked beneath his hand, her fear not a sweet bright burst in his mouth but a cold, tasteless misery he wanted nothing to do with because the fear wasn't for herself. Not an ounce of it. It was all for that damnable brother of hers.

He unlocked her door and shoved her inside, keeping hold of her so she wouldn't fall. Honey hair swung, sending sunshine warmth into the air even as frosty green eyes turned to glare at him, accusatory. Hurt.

He rued the day he'd found her. No, he didn't. If he hadn't shown up when he did, Quinn Lennox would be dead, and he didn't wish that. But he could heartily regret that he'd been the one to save her, to become entangled in her fate. To become enchanted by her beauty and strength, and heartily exasperated by her obstinate, unbending, single-minded insistence on finding her brother.

Slamming the door behind him, he grabbed her by the shoulders, resisting . . . barely . . . the urge to shake her. "You are strong, cara. Strong as steel, yet you allow your feelings for another to make you weak."

"He's my brother!"

"He has no future!" The words were harsh, but she had to understand. "He is dead, Quinn. Perhaps already. Perhaps in the Games this week. Both would be a blessing, for if Cristoff brings him here to use against you, he will suffer more than you can possibly imagine. And it will destroy you."

Her face paled. Her trembling grew worse, and he hated it.

His fingers tightened, then gentled on her shoulders. "You must let him go, cara. Say good-bye to him in your heart."

"Never!"

Arturo released her. Just as he urged her to cease to care about her brother's fate, so, too, he must cease to care about hers. She was nothing to him but his charge and the potential savior of Vamp City. A thorn in his side, for all that she intrigued him. But that was the way of a sorceress, was it not? To enchant and enthrall, even if she did so unintentionally with her spirit, with her smile, which appeared all too rarely, and with the unaccountable sunshine that lived in her hair, her touch, her kiss. Were she just a human, he would keep her for his slave, but this sorceress was becoming far too much trouble. Cristoff had made him responsible for the woman's safety, but once the magic was renewed, he was done with her. What became of her then was not his concern.

His mind told him to turn away, to leave her to her obsessive thoughts of freeing her brother, but his own obsession reared its head, and he was helpless to deny himself one more taste. He took her face in his hands, her skin like silk beneath his palms, warm, fragrant, seductive. Green eyes snapped, but within the temper rose tendrils of a need that matched his own. Lush lips parted in an invitation he'd no intention of denying.

The moment his lips touched hers, he warmed, feeling the sun on his shoulders and back, and he sighed with pleasure at the way she met his kiss, at the way her arms slipped around his neck. He hauled her into his arms until their bodies molded together, a perfect fit - hard and soft, cool and warm, male and female - as his tongue swept inside her mouth, deepening the kiss, tasting sun-warmed peaches.

He longed to take her. His body throbbed with the need to part her thighs and make them one. His fangs ached to drop, to lengthen, to prepare for penetration of a different kind. His hand cupped her derriere, pulling her against his erection, arching against her as he fought the hunger tugging at his fangs. They still frightened her, as adept as she was at hiding it. And he hated that fear. He would not take her so long as she feared him. But his hunger for her was becoming more and more fierce, more and more difficult to control.

Wrenching away from her, from the temptation he was nearly helpless to resist, he released her and stepped back, his fangs and c**k throbbing in equal measure. Her lips were damp and swollen from his kiss, her eyes dark with desire, and he had to fist his hands to keep from reaching for her and finishing what they'd begun. Would she welcome him without fear this time? Was she ready to take him into her body?

With Herculean effort, he turned away. The last thing he needed was to fall even further under the sorceress's spell. And he had a very bad feeling that once they'd become one, he'd find it impossible ever to turn away from her again.

Quinn stared at the door Arturo had just closed, feeling hot and chilled, such a tangle of conflicting emotions. His kiss melted and soothed even as it made her tense and trembling with wanting, a desire that was far from gone. But she was so angry with him, so disappointed that he refused to help her against Cristoff.

Dear God, what have I done? She should never have told them about her brother, never told any of them. Her only remaining hope was that Arturo had been telling her the truth when he'd claimed that snatching Zack from a rival vamp master could lead to war. That alone might give Cristoff pause. Then again, she got the strong feeling that Cristoff wouldn't let anything hold him back if he wanted something. And if he thought snatching Zack would force her to give him what he wanted, he wouldn't hesitate.