Faerie Godmother: Mythic Series, Book 1 (16 page)

Get away from him, Ana
, Vlane commanded.

Ana looked at him, her face wet with tears.
I must save him.
She allowed her thoughts to flow into his, strong on the waves of her emotion.

If you give him your blood, I will lose you forever.

Ana looked down, her tears falling on Matt’s face, cutting through his blood like diamonds in a red river. She met Derrick’s eyes, saw his desperate plea there. Those few seconds lasted an eternity, but Ana knew what she had to do. She shared her thoughts with Vlane, who looked uncertain, but nodded.

Vlane flashed out of sight as she brought her wrist up to her mouth and tore into her own flesh. But instead of pouring her blood over Matt’s wounds, she thrust her wrist in Derrick’s face. Derrick turned his head in horrified disgust, but Vlane appeared behind him. He held the adolescent Were easily with one arm, using the other to pry open Derrick’s jaw.

Ana sealed the opening with her wrist and pinched Derrick’s nose shut, forcing him to swallow or risk suffocation. He struggled for a moment before his eyes grew heavy with unwanted pleasure. No longer fighting, he grabbed Ana and pulled her closer. After several strong pulls, his body went lax. Vlane released him and scooped Ana into his arms.

* * *

M
atthew woke, feeling groggy and sore. It took him a few minutes to realize he was in Ana’s room back at the Sanctuary. An immense sense of relief filled him when he saw Ana speaking quietly with Derrick. Surprisingly, Derrick didn’t even look his way. Ana went up on her tiptoes and kissed Derrick on the cheek, stroking his hair fondly. With a goofy, awkward smile, Derrick left with stars in his eyes.

Matt knew instantly what she had done. “You made him forget.”

Ana turned at the sound of his voice, offering him a sad smile. “Not everything, but some, yes.”

“Will you make me forget, too, Ana?”

Ana came and sat beside him, taking his much larger hand in hers. “Do you want me to?” she asked softly.

Matt closed his eyes, knowing, in that moment, he had already lost her.

“It wasn’t meant to be, Matt,” she told him, stroking his hair back from his face. Her touch was so gentle, so loving. It hurt like hell.

“I would be a good mate for you, Ana.”

She smiled. “Yes, you would,” she agreed. “But I would not have been a good mate for you.”

Matt opened his mouth to disagree, but the pads of her fingers touched his lips lightly. “You know it is true, Matt. You need a woman worthy of an Alpha. A woman strong of body and heart who can give you what you need. With me, you would always know fear. Fear of what others might do to me if they learned my secrets. Fear of what you might do in a moment of passion.”

“I can change you.”

“You could, but then I would lose who I am, and I’m not willing to do that.”

Matt’s throat constricted, knowing she was right. But she had to know. He had to say the words at least once. “I love you, Ana.”

Her eyes softened, yet still glittered like fine, pale gems. “I love you, too, Matt, and I always will. No matter what, I will always be here for you, and your pack. But one day, your true mate will come along, and make what you feel for me pale in comparison. She is out there, Matt. I know she is.”

He nodded and Ana leaned over, kissing his eyes, his nose, then his mouth, murmuring softly in a language he did not understand. It sounded like beautiful music, wrapping around his heart and filling him with a sense of profound peace and light and love as he drifted back into a healing sleep.

* * *

“A
re you all right?” Vlane asked, taking Ana’s elbow as they walked down the cobbled walkway to where his car awaited them.

“I will be,” she said with a brave smile.

Leaving those she cared for with little or no memory of her was always hard, yet she took some comfort in the fact that it made it easier on them. Most of those involved in the attack had been healed; those few who could not be saved through normal means were given the option of becoming vampire. Vlane and his brood assisted in altering the memories of the pack, which had helped tremendously.

Vlane opened the car door for her and saw her in, then rounded to the driver’s side and slid behind the wheel. “What now?”

She touched his arm and his heart filled with light. “Now, we go home.”

––––––––

“I
t was brilliant, giving your blood to Derrick like that,” Vlane said as he slipped off his black leather shoes inside his private suite and loosened the topmost buttons of his shirt.

“I knew he would wish for Matt to make a full recovery.” She smirked. “I have been doing this a while, you know.”

Vlane stalked silently over to Ana. Grabbing the hem of her shirt, he lifted it over her head, sucking a breath through his teeth when he saw the sexy black lace covering her lush breasts.

He swore in an ancient, beautiful language and fell to his knees before her. His fingers traced the lace as he undid the button on her jeans and began to peel them from her body. Ana had chosen him. Willingly. And he wasn’t wasting a moment more.

“Do you know what my most heartfelt wish is in this moment?” he asked, his voice barely audible as he pressed reverent kisses to her tender flesh. Her fingers curled into his hair, releasing it from its leather tie to fall in shiny, black silk waves around his face.

“No.”

“It is to pleasure you, Ana. Will you grant my wish?”

She said nothing, but snaked her arms around his neck in silent affirmation. He lifted her effortlessly onto the bed and positioned himself over her, then pressed her back against the pillows and began to kiss her. She became lost in the feel of his tongue on her body, his hands kneading and caressing with the expertise of a man who had been pleasuring women for half a millennium.

He worked his way down her body. Gently, but firmly, opened her to him. Kissed her where no man had ever touched her before. Her hands clutched at his hair as a tidal wave of sensations crashed over her, pulled her under, then did it all again. And again. Cresting higher each time until she begged him for mercy.

When he finally gave her that blessed release, she screamed his name.

* * *

V
lane had never heard anything sweeter. He did it twice more before she fell into an exhausted, but satisfied slumber.

He watched her sleep. It had been a traumatic time for her and his attentions drained the last of the fight out of her. That was all right with him. He would gladly devote the rest of his life to such matters if it would keep her in his bed, screaming his name.

He licked his lips, tasting her. The sweet nectar she had spilled for him was every bit as rich and decadent as her blood. Of course, he wanted that, too.

She was an innocent. Untouched by any man. He would be her first. Her last. Her only. The knowledge filled him with more satisfaction than his eternal youth, superior power, and ungodly wealth combined.

His
mate
.

The idea still boggled his mind. He hadn’t exactly been alone the last five hundred years; his progenies were his family, and their blood bonds were as strong as, if not stronger than, those of a traditional human family. But the relationship between a man and his mate was something else entirely. Having a true mate, one fashioned by the Fates, meant that they would share their lives with a level of intimacy beyond compare. Forevermore, this amazing woman, this beautiful Faerie, would be by his side. The other half of his soul. 

* * *

H
er dreams were even more realistic than usual. This time, she knew the skill of those fingers, the things he could do with that mouth, the erotic scrape of his fangs along the most feminine parts of her — teasing, warning,
possessing
. But as wonderful as those things were, she needed more.

Vlane slipped into her thoughts, into her dreams where she began to grow increasingly unsettled. Through their special connection, he had heard her soulful plea.

He slid over the top of her body, the heavy weight of him betwixt her thighs. He groaned when he slid his fingers along the wet, swollen flesh of her sex.

“Ana,” he murmured. “Wake up. Wake up and let me grant your most heartfelt wish.”

She opened her eyes as her dream slid into reality. Vlane was on top of her here, too. His hard body weighed solidly on hers; black eyes glittered with a fierce hunger and a desire to please. He held himself, poised at her entrance, yet he did not force himself upon her as he so easily could have.

“Say yes. Say yes and I will ease that unbearable ache inside you. Want this, Ana. Want
me
.”

In that moment, Ana knew there was absolutely nothing she wanted more than to join with him fully, and it was purely her own thought. She’d felt what it was like to have him inside of her mind. Already knew his intimate kiss on the most feminine part of her. Now, she felt achingly empty — and she didn’t like it.

“Yes.” She drew out the word, a long, slow hiss.

His black eyes flashed with triumph. He rolled his hips forward and penetrated her, piercing through her innocence even as his fangs pierced her neck. He grew thicker, harder inside of her with each pull of her blood into him, and she knew what he wanted more than anything else: to please her.

And, like the powerful faerie she was, his wish was granted. Tenfold.

Vlane took her all night. Loved her. Possessed her in every possible way, fulfilling her every fantasy, over and over again. As each new desire took form, he was there in her mind, growling with approval, turning it into reality.

By the time he thrust deep and emptied inside her, again, she was well past coherent thought. There was only Vlane. He was inside her, and she in him. No longer two separate souls, but one.

And nothing had ever felt so right.

* * *

“D
o you not worry what wish may cross my mind as I take your blood into me?” Vlane asked, nuzzling the delicate skin along her neck. He would never again know the taste of another; there was only his Ana. She alone would sustain him, as he would sustain her. Forever.

“No, not anymore.”

He propped himself up on his elbows and looked down at her. “Why not?”

She smirked at him. “You don’t know?”

He shook his head, bemused.

“Because we are now one.”

He still looked confused, so she took pity on him. “And the two shall become one? In the case of true soul mates, that’s
really
true.”

Vlane blinked. “So, I’m a faerie now?”

She laughed. “In a manner of speaking, yes. My blood now runs through your veins, which means you can no longer wish anything for yourself, only others.”

She allowed that to sink in, playing with his hair while he processed that. She knew he was testing her theory, trying to wish for something, anything. He smiled when he realized she was right.

“Does it stand to reason, then, if you took some of my blood you would become vampire?”

Ana grinned, showing him the tiny fangs now gracing the upper tier of her teeth where her regular incisors had been. “Yes.”

“When did you—?”

Ana blushed furiously and shuttered her eyes. “I got a little carried away when you made me climax that seventh time.”

A smile of pure male arrogance lit his features as he remembered the way she had screamed, how her nails had scored his back, how her teeth had clamped onto his shoulder as she seized with ecstasy.

“So you did.” He nuzzled her again, taking the opportunity to slide into her.

“Ana,” he breathed, his strokes long and thorough.

“Hmm?”

“Would you do me the honor of becoming Mrs. Vlane Masterson?”

“You picked a heck of a time to propose. How can I possibly say no when you’re...doing...
that
?” Ana forced the last few words out as Vlane did something particularly wicked with a twist and thrust of those talented hips.

“You’re not supposed to say no,” he said, nipping beneath her jaw.

“Are all vampires as devious and arrogant as you?”

“No. I am by far the most devious and arrogant of all vampires.”

Ana laughed, flexing her sheath possessively around him. “In that case, I would be honored to be your wife, Mr. Masterson.”

T
he entire town of Mythic was invited to witness the vows between one of its most prestigious citizens and his beloved during an elegant twilight service.

Matthew sat with his youngest sister and the rest of his pack.

“Do you know the bride?” Dani whispered, her brow furrowing slightly as she watched the small figure escorted up the red-velvet runner between the chairs. “She looks awfully familiar.”

He had been thinking the same thing, but he couldn’t remember where he might have seen her before. Surely, he would remember a woman as beautiful as Vlane’s bride.

Later, during the reception, he would find himself wondering again when he took his turn during the traditional bridal dance. Something sad and poignant flashed in the bride’s eyes as he held her.

“Do I know you?” he blurted out before he could stop himself.

“My name is Ana,” she said, her voice soft and musical. “I’m a vet. Sascha lets me help out at the Sanctuary on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”

“Oh. That must be where I’ve seen you. Thanks. For helping out, I mean.”

She flashed him another smile tinged with what could only be described as sadness before he was touched on the shoulder by another guest wishing to dance with the bride. As he released her, he heard a ghostly echo in his head, like some long ago memory.
I will always be here for you
.

Matt shook his head. Clearly, he’d partaken a little too heavily of the open bar.

“Matthew,” said a deep voice, “thank you for coming and sharing this day with us.”

Matt turned around to find Vlane Masterson. Funny how just a few months ago he could have sworn Masterson hated him and his pack with a vengeance, but he couldn’t have said why. Tonight, however, there was no hint of hostility between the Weres and the vamps. Vlane and his people — for lack of a better word — had been nothing but gracious and excellent hosts.