Wait for Dusk

Chapter Twenty-Six

I stood in the shower for nearly an hour. Blood and dirt washed off me, but the gritty feeling of death and torture still lingered in my mind. I couldn’t escape it, couldn’t rinse it away no matter how long I stood in the steaming hot water. I washed my hair twice and scrubbed every inch of my body so that my flesh was rubbed red, but the memories and the pain stayed.

As the water finally started to chill, I turned off the spigot and towel-dried as much as I could. Wrapping a robe around me, I walked back into the bedroom as I rubbed a fresh towel through my wet hair. I paused just over the threshold, my hands growing instantly still. Danaus was in the hotel room with me. The door had just slammed shut and I could now sense him moving through the room.

My first instinct was to summon Stefan back to my side. He could take me away so I wouldn’t have to face Danaus and his scathing words regarding my murder of Sofia. But I couldn’t keep running from Danaus. I just wished I’d had enough time to become numb on the inside so that his words wouldn’t have the power to reach my heart.

Pulling the curtains closed, I lit a handful of candles around the room with a wave of my hand, casting the room in a soft glow. I started to walk over to the closet when the bedroom door swung open and slammed shut.

“Just give me a minute to get dressed,” I said softly.

“You left me,” he replied. His voice was rough and ragged, as if it had been dragged across the concrete.

A sigh escaped me before I could catch it. “I’m not ready to do this now, Danaus.”

I didn’t have a chance to argue. He roughly grabbed my upper arm and spun me around. His lips found mine in a violent kiss as the back of my head hit the wall. Both of his hands cupped my cheeks as he kissed me again and again until his ragged breathing danced across my face. My eyes fell shut and I kissed him back, not questioning whether this was an illusion or just a hallucination of my own fractured mind. I didn’t care. I would welcome death of this sort so long as he didn’t stop kissing me.

My hand drifted down to his chest and I could feel his beautiful heart pounding beneath my fingertips. I knew the beat as if it were my own heart. His smell swam around me, that distinct scent of some distant sea and the soft caress of the summer sun. I wanted to drown in the smell so that it washed away my own scent. I wanted to become a part of him for a little while, just enough so the world would slip by us both unnoticed.

Danaus deepened his kisses, tasting me. My hands slid up to his arms and I kissed him back with the same passion, getting swept up in everything I had dreamed about for too many lonely nights. But he suddenly pulled back. He had pricked his tongue on one of my fangs—we hadn’t had enough practice kissing each other to escape a little bloodletting.

“I’m sorry,” I said, hating to ruin the mood. I didn’t want to shatter it, didn’t want him pulling away from me already. “I’ll be more careful.”

A frail smile crossed his lips as his eyes danced over my face, as if trying to soak in the sight of me. “I think my eagerness was to blame,” he murmured before leaning in to kiss me again. I tried to pick up exactly where we had left off, but he pulled away again. His large hands caressed my cheeks and swept down my neck. “I thought I had lost you,” he whispered in a wavering voice. “I came back to the hotel as they were leaving. They shot me. It knocked me out and I lost a lot of blood. I wasn’t conscious again until you reached out to me. I had nightmares. I thought you were gone. Thought you were dead forever. I thought I had lost you.”

“I’m here,” I replied in a shaking voice, leaning my forehead against his. “I thought I had lost you too. Sofia . . . I . . .” I stammered. I didn’t want to say the words out loud.

“I knew you were telling the truth. She was careless tonight, not bothering to cloak her powers. She used me,” Danaus said, and I knew that I had been forgiven. Everything had been forgiven for tonight. Tomorrow there would be more words, and more arguments waited on that distant horizon, but not tonight.

“Kiss me again. I want to forget,” I murmured, brushing my lips against his. Danaus leaned into me again, pressing me harder against the wall. He exhaled and I inhaled, drawing just a little bit of his soul into my body as he kissed me. My hands roamed down along his hard chest until I finally found the edge of his shirt. A low groan escaped me as I finally touched bare flesh. How long had I dreamed of the satiny warm feel of his skin? I wanted to run my lips along every inch of his skin, tasting him, memorizing him, but for now my mouth was trapped by his.

“Mira,” he growled at me as my hands slid under his shirt, exploring the sides of his stomach as they slowly worked higher.

“I need you, Danaus,” I said as his lips slid down my jaw to my neck. The edge of his teeth scraped across my flesh, sending a shiver down my spine and lighting a fire deep inside of me that I knew I would never be able to put out. “Please say yes. Say you need me too.”

He grabbed both of my wrists and stretched them above my head, where he held them with one large hand. He reached between us with the other hand and untied my robe, spreading it open so he could see my pale skin against the black silk.

“You’re enough to break any man,” he said in a low voice.

I smiled as I lifted my right leg and wrapped it around his left leg, pulling him back against me. “I don’t want you broken,” I purred in return. “It’s more fun when you’ve still got some fight left in you.” I’d run the tip of my tongue along his jaw and down his neck when I felt him stiffen but not pull away. Pressing a kiss to his neck, I nuzzled him once, chuckling. “I promise, no matter what happens I will never bite you.”

“Thank you,” he murmured before capturing my mouth in yet another rough kiss. His free hand slid up from my waist to cup my breast, leaving me squirming beneath his touch as I struggled to get closer to him. His hand was strong and firm, caressing me and pulling at the nipple until he finally got a moan out of me as I arched my whole body against his.

“Release my hands,” I commanded, but he only laughed at me as his lips drifted down from my mouth to my neck. His hot breath trailed along my collarbone, lighting little fires down my body before he finally took my breast in his mouth. I jerked and groaned, my head falling back against the wall. He touched my hip bone before slipping around to cup my bottom, keeping me pressed tightly against him. I could feel his body growing harder beneath me, and the thought wrung another moan out of me.

“Release me, Danaus! I need to touch you!” I choked out as he switched from my left breast to my right.

“Are you not enjoying this?” he asked, sending his hot breath against my wet nipple. “It certainly sounds like you are.”

“Damn it, Danaus! You’re killing me. I want to touch you,” I said between clenched teeth as I struggled to hold onto a single thought amid the pleasure shooting through my frame. It was unfair. I was standing there completely naked and shivering in pleasure, while he was still fully clothed and completely in command. Closing my eyes, I arched against him again, pressing as close as I possibly could. “I’ve dreamed of touching you for so long,” I said, lowering my voice so it ran like a hand over his cheek. “I need to touch you.”

A groan escaped him as he released my hands. His lips crushed mine as one hand tightened on my ass and the other closed over my breast. I kissed him back while I brushed both hands away so I could push his coat off his shoulders and down his arms. My lips never wavered from his as I ripped his shirt down the front, giving me full access to his chest. My fingers slid down as if I were reading him. I could feel hard unyielding muscle and smooth skin. My fingers tripped over the occasional scar from a wound too deep for even the bori-bound Danaus to heal completely. While his skin was soft and ageless, I could feel the centuries of life flowing through him. His powers brushed over me and through me, binding us together so that our powers were a single force within the room.

I dropped my hands from his body with great reluctance and pressed my fingertips into the wall so I could push off. We stumbled blindly over to the bed, where I pushed him down and continued to strip him naked. Burying his hand in my hair, he pulled me on top of him. His kisses were hotter now and his body felt like it was on fire next to mine. I stretched out, pressing my entire length along his so I could feel all of him.

My fangs ached to enter his neck. Something inside of me craved his blood like a human craved air. The feeling crawled inside of me, burning away at my soul. I clenched my teeth and focused on his hands as they slid over my body, learning every curve and hollow. The craving finally subsided but the need to have him grew stronger.

“Please, Danaus, I need you,” I panted, pulling him on top of me. He rolled over, positioning himself between my thighs. I grabbed two fistfuls of his hair and pulled his mouth down to mine as he grabbed my hips and thrust into me. My back arched off the bed and I moaned.

Danaus swore softly once as he started to slowly move inside of me. I dropped my hands to the bedsheets and raked my long fingernails along the fabric, shredding it. I moved in time with him, following each wave of pleasure as it pulsed through me.

Smiling up at him as his long black hair crowded around his face, I wrapped my legs around his and pushed him over onto his back while he remained inside of me. Straddling him, I rode him slowly, running my fingers along his rib cage and over his flat nipples.

“I take it you want to be on top,” he murmured in a deep husky voice that sent a shiver down my spine. I wanted to take this slowly. I had waited too long to finally be able to touch him, to look down on his face wreathed in peace and pleasure. I wanted to savor this moment when the world wasn’t crashing in around us.

But the slow ride couldn’t last. I felt the orgasm rising within me, building so that muscles tightened and I could no longer form a coherent thought beyond the feeling of him moving in and out of my body. The need was on Danaus as well. He roughly grabbed my hips, forcing me to go at a faster pace as he pushed harder within me. I braced my hands on either side of his head and arched my back as the first wave rippled through me, tearing a scream from my throat in the form of his name. I rode him into mindless oblivion, where he joined me only seconds later. I felt the warm rush inside me as his own orgasm claimed his body. His arms tightened around my waist and he let out a low groan that seemed to have been torn from his very soul.

I collapsed on top of him, no longer able to hold myself up. My body was covered in his sweat and I rose and fell with each heavy breath he took. I felt at peace. There were no naturi or coven Elders waiting for us just around the corner. The world wasn’t going to Hell in a handbasket. We weren’t enemies sworn to fight until one or both of us died. We were just two people enjoying each other.

After several minutes I leaned up on one elbow and looked down on Danaus. His eyes were closed and his breathing had evened out at last. I brushed some of his long hair out of his eyes and smoothed it away from his sweaty brow.

“Feeling better?” I asked, unable to keep the contented purr from my voice.

“It’s a good start,” he said with a smile.

But to my dismay the smile faded almost as quickly as it formed and slight furrows appeared on his smooth brow. His look of peace and contentment crumbled before my eyes and I couldn’t understand why. Reluctantly, I dipped into his mind. I just wanted to see where his thoughts were going. Were worries of the naturi and Veyron seeping back in already?

How are we going to make this work?

Danaus’s words echoed through my brain, assaulting my heart. I could feel the doubt hanging in those heavy words and I felt paralyzed. I was losing him before we had ever really had a chance.

Sucking in a deep breath, I forced a smile on my face before pressing a brief kiss to his temple. “Don’t think about it too much. It was just sex,” I forced myself to say as I rolled off him. I briskly scooped up my robe from where I had dropped it on the floor and pulled it on while walking into the living room of the hotel suite.

I carefully erected a wall of stone around my heart, but it felt as if it were crumbling before the mortar had a chance to dry. I wanted Danaus. Not just in my bed, but in my life. I wanted him as my companion, my lover, and my friend. But I could feel the doubt rising within him. I was a nightwalker and he was a nightwalker hunter. He had spent centuries hating my kind. That was not going to be overcome with one night in bed.

Maybe he was right. How were we going to make this work?

I walked over to the desk and leaned my hands against the top, staring down at the piece of paper on which I’d written the names of the leaders of Budapest. Picking up my pen, I drew an X through Ferko’s name. One down, four to go.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Danaus walk into the room still completely naked and oblivious to the broken bit of furniture and glass that still littered the ground.

“Why did you leave?” he asked as he came to stand behind me. “I wasn’t done with you yet.”

“I thought I’d give you a chance to recover,” I said, not moving from where I stood leaning over the desk.

Danaus reached down and pulled up the edge of the robe so my backside was exposed. I started to stand upright when he placed a firm hand on my lower back, keeping me bent over. His other hand swept over my thighs before he reached between my legs. He inserted two fingers inside me, drawing a groan from my throat as my eyes drifted shut. “Why did you run from me?” he demanded as he drew his fingers in and out.

“I didn’t,” I croaked. My throat would no longer work and I was choking on the words. “I thought you needed to rest.”

“You’re wrong and you’re lying,” he said. He removed his fingers and immediately pushed his rock hard penis back inside of me. He slowly drew it out and then pushed it back inside. “So wet,” he murmured. “Just for me. So tight and so wet, just for me.”

His words sent a shiver through my body as I could feel his pleasure. He grew harder and thicker as he moved within me. From this angle he was deeper than he had been before, driving me insane with his slow movement when I wanted him hard and fast.

“It’s never just sex between us, Mira. It never could be,” he whispered in a rough voice. He leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to my shoulder that nearly brought tears to my eyes. “Does this feel like just sex to you? Do you think that’s even possible between us?”

“No,” I groaned as I tried to quicken the pace, but he held me still. He moved with a slow pace, driving me toward madness as he brought me to the edge of an orgasm, but I couldn’t quite reach it.

“Then why say it?”

“Because you have doubts. You don’t think we can work. I heard your thoughts,” I admitted. I tried to reach between my legs to touch myself, to finally push my body over the edge I was teetering on, but Danaus grabbed my hands and held them down on the desk and leaned forward.

“I have doubts, but I’m willing to try. It’s the best I can offer,” he said, growing still as his voice became deeper and huskier. “Will you try? I need you, Mira. Try for me.”

“I’ll try,” I whispered. I leaned over and pressed a kiss into his arm, loving the feel of him wrapped around me and pressed deep inside of me.

“Thank you,” he said. He reached down between my legs, pressing his fingers into my clitoris. My body jerked and hummed with a newfound tension as he pulled me back toward the edge. He picked up the pace, pounding his body inside of mine, earning a whimper from me as I hovered just short of an orgasm.

And then my world shattered. My bowstring taut body snapped and everything exploded as wave after wave of pleasure hammered through my frame, leaving me weak-kneed and shaking. Danaus held tight to my hips as he continued to pound into me until his body went stiff with the orgasm that swept through him.

Panting and covered in a fresh sheen of sweat, he leaned over me and bit my shoulder. “You’re mine, vampire, from here until the end. You are mine.”

I laughed at him. I was feeling light-headed and more than a little giddy. It had been too long since I’d last been touched, since I had last felt these warm feelings of concern and passion. It had been too long since either of us were happy.

“Then take me back to bed, hunter,” I commanded in a weary but contented voice. “Take me back to bed so you can be sure that I stay yours.”