5

Cadan could barely contain his shout of triumph as he felt her run. He turned, watching her

flee through the doorway, and sprinted after her. He was faster. He was stronger. Besides that,

his symbiot was damned powerful.

Stop her, he ordered the male creature that resided calmly inside him.

Immediately he felt the surge of power that began to flow through the apartment, sealing it off,

blocking her from the doors through which she had tried so desperately to escape.

“You son of a bitch!” she screamed as his arm wrapped around her waist and he threw her

to the bed.

She bounced against the mattress, gasping for breath as he shackled her wrists to the bed,

rising above her, his legs straddling her thighs as he laughed down at her triumphantly.

Her creamy skin was flushed a delicious pink, her sea green eyes filled with fury as she

cursed him, struggling weakly to escape. Her delicate hands were clenched into fists as he

released her wrists. Immediately they slammed into his chest ineffectually, more amusing than

harmful, but she wouldn’t be pleased to know that. Above all things, he did want to please her at

the moment.

He winced in false pain as one little fist struck his chin.

“Now, Bliss, you’re going to hurt yourself.” He frowned as he caught her wrists once again,

pretending to struggle to hold her still.

“I’m going to hurt you,” she raged, slapping at his head as he let go of her.

The leather strip holding his hair back broke free then, causing a flare of frustration to spark

inside his loins.

“Stay still,” he growled, as he leaned over her, his long hair sliding over his shoulders to

curtain her surprised face. “Look what you have done, Bliss,” he whispered. “You’re going to

make me get all rough and bad with you. Is that what you were after, baby?”

He knew many ways to get to Bliss St. Claire. She was a sensualist, a wild woman parading

as a good girl. But he had seen her fantasies, had felt them, watched them as they played out

within her imagination each time he was near. Cadan had little compunction against using the

powers the symbiot gave him. He never killed while feeding, he didn’t cheat, he didn’t steal. But he

did so enjoy many of the other little side benefits. Although, to be honest, he had rarely used the

ability to peek inside a female’s fantasies as he had with Bliss’s. There was just something about

her eyes. Something untamed, something that had always called to him, made him hard and

reckless.

He watched her eyes widen at his question, felt her body tremble in response.

“This is a nightmare,” she suddenly moaned. “I’m trapped in a nightmare and no one will

wake me up.”

He had to laugh at her exaggeration. She was amazingly cute, feisty, and handling what she

had seen much better than he had expected her to. She should have been screaming, crying,

completely hysterical. Instead, she was angry and aroused.

Some females do know how to conduct themselves, unlike certain males I am becoming

acquainted with, the female symbiot injected sarcastically.

Shut her up, Cadan ordered the male counterpart. So help me, if she bothers me right now I’ll

leave her in there to torment you forever. Do you understand me?

There was silence, blessed silence within his head then.

“Now, where was I?” he whispered as he leaned over her slowly, smiling wickedly as her

eyes widened. “Ah yes, I was seriously considering kissing you, Bliss St. Claire. What do you

think of that?”

Her eyes narrowed again. She looked so damned cute when she did that.

“Did you wash your dick before you came here, at least?” she snapped.

“Of course I did,” he murmured as his head lowered, his lips stroking over the soft shell of her

ear. “Don’t worry, baby, I would never fuck you with the leavings of another woman on me. Even I

am not so inconsiderate as that.”

She growled furiously. He loved that little sound. The vibration in the back of her throat made

his cock harden, made him wonder what she would sound like as she became more heated, as

she began to lose herself in the pleasure that would grow between them.

At that moment, though, he regretted the episode with Marissa more than he regretted

anything within recent memory. Had he any clue what tonight’s outcome would be, he would have

never touched the other woman. But it had been fuck Marissa, or rape Bliss. That was not a crime

he wanted to carry on his conscience, but his lust for her was becoming nearly as overwhelming

as the physical hungers the symbiots caused within his body. Driving, desperate, a need rather

than a mere desire.

“I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?” she finally asked him with a small groan. “I know I am. I can

feel it.”

“Hmm, are you certain that is what you feel, or is it this?” He moved quickly, spreading her

thighs as he pressed against her. “This hunger, Bliss. I would have spared you from it if I could

have. But it will not go away, nor can another assuage it, as I learned last night. I don’t want to

fight it any longer. I won’t fight it any longer. Today, Bliss St. Claire, I will make you mine.”

As he said the words, he knew the truth of them. For three centuries he had roamed the

earth, fighting against the demonic Knights, doing all he could to preserve the honor and the life

forms that he had found so long ago. Through it all, he had searched and never realized what he

had searched for. Now he knew. He had searched for this.

She was watching him curiously, instead of with the fear he had first expected.

“You’re going to bite me, aren’t you?” She sighed. “Really, Cadan, I don’t like being bitten. I

need to keep all my blood. And that’s just gross. Do you have any idea how gross sucking blood

is? It’s just going to make me sick, I swear it will.”

He wanted to laugh in sheer pleasure. She was unlike any woman he had ever known. How

could he have known that his mission to this small town would bring him such an amazing

woman?

But he had no illusions that this would be easy. When she learned what he was about to do,

she would be furious. She might well kill him the moment she realized.

You are certain she is strong enough for this? He asked the female symbiot. She will not be

pleased.

She is the one I have searched for all these ages, Cadan, Cerise assured him, her thought

ringing with her conviction. She’s strong, and she will accept. I’m not wrong, I swear this.

He lowered his head, resting it against Bliss’s forehead as he stared down at her. He would

take her. There would be no chance of losing her should the Knights find her. They would destroy

her, turn her into a pale copy of the woman she truly was, and he couldn’t allow that.

“Are you going to deny me?” he asked Bliss then, his body throbbing with desire.

He hadn’t expected this. He had avoided her all these weeks, knowing that his response to

her was too deep, too intense to ever let her go once he had her. He had no desire to fight against

the incredible response. He had fought alone for many years, knowing instinctively that the

women he had met, both with and without the sentient life forms that inhabited his own body, did

not possess the temperament and the love of life he knew his woman would require.

Bliss St. Clair was different. She had that love for life, but she also had an innocence, an

energy, that enchanted him.

“I should.” She sighed. “I really should. Because I just know you’re going to do something

really weird to me. I mean it, Cadan, I don’t want you doing any weird shit.”

“And what would you classify as weird shit, Bliss?” he asked her suggestively, smiling down

at her, knowing her fears, yet seeing the adventurous streak that shimmered in her gaze.

“I don’t want to have to suck blood, Cadan. If fucking you requires sucking your blood, then I

don’t think it’s going to be worth it.”

“Hmm, what would you consider sucking then?” he asked her, pressing his lips to her

forehead before trailing them to her cheek, her jaw.

Her breathing began to quicken, the smell of her arousal grew thicker. She was getting hot for

him, the touch of his body doing the same to her that the touch of hers was doing to him. Making

him go up in flames.

He was burning for her. His cock was already fully erect, the blood pumping hard and heavy

through the thick flesh. He shouldn’t have been so hard, so aroused after taking Marissa the night

before, but he admitted that since meeting Bliss, no other woman had satisfied the strong sex

drive that filled him.

“Oh, I could be convinced to do many things, Cadan,” she told him suggestively. “But I draw

the line at sucking blood.”

“Perhaps, then, you would allow me a small taste of yours?” he whispered as his lips moved

to her neck, his tongue caressing the throbbing vein there.

He felt her still beneath him. He licked at her neck once again before allowing his teeth to

scrape over the tender flesh there. His body tightened; he could feel the hunger of the creatures

growing inside him, both sexual and otherwise.

Finally, Bliss shivered and moaned roughly as his hands skimmed down her side, drawing

her thighs apart as he settled more firmly against her. He pressed his hips tighter into the cradle

he found there, grinding the length of his cock against the tender pad of her pussy.

She lifted to him, hot and sweet, a low moan sounding from her throat.

“This neck biting thing is really weird, Cadan,” she moaned as his fingers moved to the

buttons of her blouse, flicking them open as his head raised to watch the incredible green of her

eyes darken with her lust.

“It is more erotic than you could ever know,” he told her. “It will bring you to a peak you could

never experience otherwise, Bliss. I can give you paradise, if you will but allow me to.”

She watched him as he flipped open the last button of her shirt and pushed the edges slowly

aside.

She wore no bra. Cadan swallowed tightly as he tried to hold onto his control. Her breasts

were exquisite. High and round, with perfect delicate pink nipples that hardened as he watched

them.

“And I see something besides your pretty neck that I long to suckle, Bliss,” he told her

roughly. “Your sweet pretty nipples beckon to my mouth.”

She moaned with a low, soft sound of female hunger. He loved that sound from her throat.

Loved what it did to his own excitement as he heard it.

“You’re dangerous,” she told him roughly as her head twisted against the bed. “You’re using

that funky vampire voodoo, Cadan. I know you are.”

He smiled down at her. “No funky voodoo, sweetheart, I promise you this. Only you and me,

Bliss, and the heat growing between us. Nothing more.”