Raven Walks Read online

  “He means your choice to become a vampire,” Constantine filled in as he flopped on the antique sofa.

  “Who says I have made that choice?” she immediately wanted to know.

  Raven walked back around the bar to where she stood. Without saying a word he lifted her hair and exposed her wounded neck. “A little something you should know about vampires. We can read thoughts. I know what you felt when these wounds were made because I was there, thanks to my connection with Constantine.”

  The thought both thrilled and frightened her. “Kind of makes your Halloween episode to scare me away rather useless, don’t you think?”

  He chuckled. “Indeed.” He went over to join Constantine in a chair near the sofa. “But if you’re going to become one of us you should know that is what you eventually become. The only difference between us and that Creature is some muscle and skin.”

  “I don’t believe that,” she said as she stalked over to where they sat. “There’s a lot of humanity left in both of you, whether you choose to see it or not.” They both scoffed but she put her hands on her hips. “If that weren’t true, whether I became a vampire or not wouldn’t even be my choice.”

  Both Constantine and Raven leveled their dark eyes on her and said in unison, “What makes you think it is?”

  They both rose and approached her where she stood, one on either side, close enough she could feel both of their hot breath on her skin. Again she tipped her chin. “I’m not scared,” she tried to assert, but it came out as a breathless whisper.

  “You should be,” Raven told her in a firm, low voice. “This isn’t some act of revenge from a jealous sister.” Her eyes hardened as she stared up at him. “Yes, I read those thoughts, too.”

  “Fuck you,” she hissed as she tried to wrench away. He held her fast.

  “Will that help?” he asked softly, his eyes enveloping hers. “Will that ease the knowledge that the man you love is fucking your sister as we speak?”

  Her hand flew at his face, but he caught her wrist before it made contact. He chuckled softly and she changed tactics.

  “Still trying to scare me away, Raven?” she asked pointedly. “Didn’t you learn anything from last time?”

  He answered her question with a question. “Did you?” As he ran his hands up either of her arms, Constantine lifted up her hair and kissed every inch of her sensitive neck except for the two throbbing wounds. She stared into Raven’s eyes, unable to look away, even when she wanted to tip her head back and lose herself to the sensations. “This isn’t a game,” he told her, his finger trailing up her arm and over across her chest, up her neck and across her jaw. “We play for keeps.”

  “So do I,” she whispered as her arms slipped up around his neck and she kissed him hard on the mouth.

  He quickly bent her arms behind her back as he ravaged her mouth. “You really think they care?” he whispered against her mouth.

  “What makes you think I do?” she asked, defiantly.

  He placed his hand upon her chest, above her heart. It thundered up to meet his palm. “I can feel it.”

  Her eyebrow arched. “Then why do you still want me, Raven?”

  His mouth twisted into a satisfied smirk. “Like I told you. I always take what is offered.”

  They all crashed into a guest room decorated in blue satin and black lace, a tangle of arms, lips, hair and skin. There was no more discussion on what was right or wrong, good or bad – there was just blatant, raw, animal need. Constantine ripped off his shirt before he lifted Abi up by the waist and thrust her up on the four poster bed.

  He was quick to follow, crashing down on her with fevered kisses and hands that didn’t miss an inch of her already exposed skin, as her tiny halter dress left little to the imagination.

  Raven was slower to follow, stripping casually as he watched their passionate embrace. He felt every touch, every kiss. Adding to that the voyeur experience of looking on made it more deliciously erotic.

  Abi pushed Constantine on his back and straddled him, running her fingers along his bare chest and up into his long, silky hair. From behind she felt Raven as he knelt on the bed beside them, his hand in her hair, cupping her head as he guided her mouth down across Constantine’s shimmering skin. Her tongue burned tiny circles across his chest, over each nipple, across his ribcage and down over his trembling stomach.

  Her fingers deftly unbuttoned Constantine’s pants and his huge member strained up to meet her full lips. Her tongue slithered up the hardening shaft and danced across the satiny head. He gasped from the contact of her breath against him, and Raven’s hand grasped her hair. “Take it,” Raven commanded.

  She needed no further urging. Her mouth covered Constantine’s hard cock and slid down to take as much as she possibly could into her throat. Raven, who had unbuttoned his own pants before he knelt on the bed, grasped his own hard cock and jerked off slowly, savoring the sensation of her mouth on his skin through Constantine.

  Her bright red hair fell over his thighs and through Raven’s clenched fingers. She licked, she tasted, she savored and celebrated his cock with slow strokes, alternately sucking and slithering her tongue all around his stiff dick. Constantine’s hand disappeared between her creamy white thighs, slipping easily around her pussy, dripping wet with her own desire for the two men whose bed she shared. They were like a drug, and she was hopelessly addicted, even though she knew that each and every encounter threatened her very life. She was willing to give it all, just for one taste, to solve the mystery of what she needed, and wanted, at last.

  He gently teased her hard clitoris with his fingertip, slow at first, but increasing in pace with the rhythm of her mouth on his cock. Raven responded in kind, stroking himself faster as he watched her grind against Constantine’s fingers.

  The more of him she got in her mouth, the more urgent Constantine’s fingers on her cunt. When she reached the base, taking the whole thing deep into her mouth, he inserted two fingers deep inside her and caused her to groan against his skin.

  Raven urged her to go faster, to virtually fuck Constantine with her mouth while he in return fucked her with his fingers. Raven’s head tipped back, spilling his long black hair across his lean, muscled, bare back, as he furiously jacked off to the once removed sensations that still felt as intense as if he was being blown by or finger fucking Abi himself.

  Just as everyone was racing toward their first mind-blowing orgasm, Constantine withdrew his fingers and slid himself from her mouth. He lifted her up on her knees to face Raven. Now with Constantine’s hand in her hair, she began her intimate journey across Raven’s body at his neck.

  Constantine positioned himself behind her, and slid his free hand down in between her legs to resume his torturous teasing while she kissed her way down Raven’s rock hard body. She barely hesitated as she dove down on his cock, sucking Raven inside of her mouth while Constantine mimicked her actions with his fingers in her pussy.

  Constantine watched as Raven stroked himself in and out of her mouth, and he could not hold back anymore. He used both hands to push the fabric of her dress over her hips, and used both knees to spread her legs wide so that he could mount her from behind.

  The minute he shoved himself deep inside of her quivering cunt, Abi grunted against Raven’s thick cock shoved deep inside of her throat. Raven cupped her face in his hand as he fucked her mouth in the same rhythm that Constantine fucked her pussy. She lost control and bucked against Constantine with the force of her orgasm.

  Effortlessly Constantine lifted her up into his arms. She was still cumming the minute Constantine thrust her right down on Raven’s hard cock, which caused her to cry out.

  Though he had felt the sensations through Constantine, to feel her tight, hot pussy all around him was mind-boggling. He had dreamed of this moment from the very first moment he saw her, and now he was here, fucking her with a raw intensity that normally scared his partners – but one that Abi encouraged. His fingers dug into the soft skin of h
er ass as he drove inside of her with an urgency he hadn’t felt in a very long time. He couldn’t get close enough or deep enough, and all he wanted to do was to keep her cumming until she was ready to pass out from pleasure.

  Still slick from her well lubricated pussy, Constantine positioned himself right against her tight asshole. She shook her head, but only slightly, as she was reeling from the pleasure of Raven’s fucking her faster and harder.

  Constantine gently pushed the head of his cock into her ass, which prompted her to cry out again. She had a full body shudder that encouraged him in even further. While Raven was pumping into her, Constantine took his time, sliding in, opening her up to him, until he was balls deep inside of her.

  She was completely filled with vampire cock. She thought she’d black out from the pleasure they were giving her, but even as good as it felt it still wasn’t enough. There was still something she needed more than she needed to breathe.

  She bared her neck.

  Raven’s eyes burned red as his fangs grew, and though he wanted to resist he found himself unable to once he stared down at the clean side of her neck. He felt her pussy clutch at him, begging him, urging him for more. He bent forward and put his mouth on her neck, scraping his fangs against the virgin skin.

  Constantine lifted her hair from the side of her neck he’d already marked. He mirrored Raven’s actions by licking the skin and teasing her with the sharp tips of his own fangs.

  From the cocks plunged in both her pussy and ass, to the dangerous mouths that circled her veins, she couldn’t take it any longer. If the choice was hers, she was going to make it. “Please!” she begged breathlessly.

  Simultaneously four fangs penetrated her skin. Abi came harder and longer than she had ever come in her life, and the more blood they sucked the more exquisite the pleasure.

  Both vampires lost themselves in their own passion, and with raw animal power they drove themselves to the brink and beyond … each cumming inside of her while they felt her blood pour down their throats.

  Only when she started to slump against them did they regain their senses. Surprisingly, Constantine was the first to break his hold on her and stumble away. Raven was quick to follow, easing the pale, unconscious woman on the bed and checking her pulse to see how far they’d gone.

  It was weak, but a pulse was there.

  Raven collapsed on the bed next to Constantine as they both tried to catch their breath. “She’s alive.”

  Constantine sighed. “For now.”

  Raven said nothing, but his thoughts mirrored Constantine’s. No matter how hard they tried, Abi would likely die in the arms of a vampire.

  The only question was if she’d awake a vampire or be torn apart by a Creature determined to steal all of those Raven had marked.

  Chapter Seventeen: Stephen

  Raven stood on his terrace, watching how the moonlight glinted off of the pond behind his property. He sipped whiskey on the rocks, something strong to ease his troubled mind. Inside his home were those he had to protect, and he didn’t even know why. For someone who had made it a point not to get close to anyone, he’d let entirely too many people near.

  He sighed before he brought the crystal glass up to his lips and let the rest of the amber liquid burn down his throat. It was because of that nearness they were all at risk. There was Abi, a human who teetered precariously between the world of the living and the world of the damned. Despite their better intentions, Raven now knew neither he nor Constantine had the willpower any longer to resist taking her that final inch over to immortality. To complicate matters, he had allowed a couple of hunters into his secret lair. A couple of hunters who, a scant hundred years ago, he would have eliminated the moment he realized they posed any threat. And last but not least a vampire whom he had regretted turning from almost the moment he had done it; a continual thorn in his side for longer than he cared to remember.

  They were all his to protect now.

  How did that happen?

  “Are you all right?” a female voice asked from behind, and Raven turned to see Gina standing there, in loose-fitting pajama bottoms and an old concert T-shirt that clung to her body like a second skin. “Peachy,” he quipped. “For a dead guy.” He brushed past her and headed back to the bar to pour himself another drink. “Can I get you something?”

  She joined him and pulled another crystal glass from the shelf. “Make it a double.”

  He smirked as he filled her glass. “No Vampire-B-Gone? Are you sure you can trust me?”

  “Yes.”

  It was stated simply, and Raven glanced up into her endless green eyes. “That’s what your sister thought. Now she’s upstairs sleeping off four holes on her neck.”

  He went over to sit on his sofa. Gina took a sip before she followed. “I’m not my sister.”

  His eyes bored into hers. “I’m well aware.”

  His body still tingled at the thought of their kiss, a kiss that was doomed to destroy him had they not broken apart.

  Death by a kiss, he thought. What a fitting way to go. If they had sex, he might just explode in more ways than one.

  “So what are you doing up, Gina?” he asked. “I thought you’d be in bed with your husband.”

  She tucked her foot under her knee as she perched on a nearby chair. “Hunter is not my husband,” she admitted. Raven raised an eyebrow in an unspoken question. “He said that hoping it’d keep Abi away from the club and away from the Creature. We have a lot of history,” she confided.

  “I know,” he told her bluntly. “Jealous sister, ditched boyfriend. Classic somebody done somebody wrong song.”

  She nodded and took another drink.

  “So who is Hunter to you now?”

  “My partner,” she answered almost absently. “When he showed up in Europe, I was … well I wasn’t in the best situation. He got me out of it. He’s stayed by my side ever since.”

  “So you owe him?”

  “No,” she rejected immediately. “I love Hunter.”

  “But...?”

  She sighed. “I don’t know. But nothing, I guess. I just don’t think in terms of forever anymore.”

  He just laughed. “You mortals. As if you could think in terms of forever anyway.”

  She nodded. That was exactly the point. As vampire hunters they walked the line between life or death constantly, and it wasn’t fair to ask someone to risk their hearts in addition to their lives. She glanced at Raven to find him staring at her thoughtfully. “Looks like none of us own forever anymore... vampire or human.”

  He said nothing as he took another drink, but he never took his eyes from her face. Finally, “So how many vampires have you killed, Gina?”

  She looked away. “It’s not important.”

  “That’s a matter of perspective. To a vampire, it’s very important.”

  She looked him in the eye. “I’ve hunted more than I’ve killed. Let’s just leave it at that.”

  Raven sat up and placed his glass on the table. “I’m afraid I can’t.” He came over to stand in front of her. “If you won’t tell me where your limits are, I’ll be forced to test them.” He bent down to eye level. “Is that what you want?”

  She didn’t bat an eye. “I want you to trust me. I’m no threat to you.”

  He smirked. “No?” He leaned in, and though she knew she should have moved away she couldn’t. His lips touched hers, tentatively at first and then more urgently. His skin burned and electricity hummed between them as his tongue probed between her lips and brushed against her tongue. She heard his skin sizzle but he refused to pull away from her, and instead kissed her harder almost to punish her for the pain.

  When he pulled away, bits of his skin had burned away. “You see how dangerous you are to me?” he whispered, and she thought she might very well drown in his eyes.

  “Then save yourself,” she managed to eke out. “Stay away from me.”

  He chuckled as his eyes scanned her face, the curve of her jaw, the
fullness of her lips, the brightness of her eyes rimmed with dark lashes. “If only I could,” he whispered back. He leaned in again but this time she sprung from the chair sprinted from the room before he could kiss her again.

  She didn’t stop running until she reached the suite she now called home. Full of purple velvet, black satin and lace, it felt like movie set more than a bedroom. And with Hunter sprawled naked across the bed, an adult movie at that.

  She embraced herself as she stared down at him. She wasn’t lying to Raven when she said she loved Hunter. She had, in some way or another, since she was fifteen years old. And had it not been for Hunter, she’d be dead by now.

  Only not dead in a grave, dead... dead like Raven, dead.

  A tear rolled down her face as her thoughts returned to a time she had fought like hell to forget.

  But that was impossible to do. Her sister would soon learn that very painful lesson herself. Once you fall in love with a vampire, you never get over it.

  She sighed as she slipped into bed with Hunter, and he stirred and turned away. That suited her just fine. If Hunter knew how her thoughts betrayed her she’d never be able to forgive herself. He had saved her from an eternity of the undead – he could never, ever know how much she still thought about what might have been.

  She closed her eyes and she could see the glistening water that surrounded the Azores Islands of Portugal. She’d gone there right after the debacle with Abi and Hunter, seemingly a great place to escape from her troubles. A place to forget, and to be forgotten.

  So when the striking, older man with long black hair down to his waist passed her on the beach one moonless night, she had no idea her life was about to be irrevocably changed.

  His eyes were green like hers, and deep as the deepest sea. When he looked at her she felt like he could see every place she’d ever been or everything she’d ever seen. Never had she felt the way she felt just by looking into his eyes.

  It was like coming home.

  He’d spoken to her in Portuguese at first, and when she shook her head with an embarrassed smile he finally said, “I said your hair is lovely,” in perfect English with nary an accent.