Declan stood at the bottom of the stairs as he gazed up them to the hallway at the top. Cheryl took Willow up there twenty minutes ago and returned nineteen minutes ago. Willow remained behind to shower and change.
Gus and Cheryl sat in the living room—Gus in his recliner and Cheryl on the couch. He flipped through the TV channels while Cheryl told him about the preparations for the bake sale next week at the library.
“Karen insists on bringing her lemon squares,” Cheryl said.
“Uh-huh,” Gus replied with the bored tone of a man who’d endured many inane conversations with his wife over the years.
“Her lemon squares are awful, Gus, and you know it.”
“Worst I’ve ever had.”
Declan knew these were the mundane things humans dealt with every day. They had no idea about the war raging outside their doors or that their lives hung in the balance. If the Alliance was successful, they would never know.
However, while Gus was used to these conversations, Declan wanted to bang his head against the wall. When the water turned off upstairs, Declan glanced into the living room before taking the steps two at a time to the top of the stairs.
The humans didn’t notice his departure as Gus was seated with his back to him, and Cheryl was focused on the blanket she knitted. When he arrived at the top of the stairs, he took in the pictures hanging on the walls and the sun streaming through the window at the end of the hall.
His boots didn’t make a sound on the carpeted floor as he strode to the window and peered out at the neighborhood. One of the neighbors was mowing their lawn while another swung on a porch swing and read a book.
It was all so quaint and unnerving. This was the human world. Yes, he’d moved about the fringes of the human world his whole life; he’d been to dances and balls, in their clubs and buildings. He’d watched them evolve and create and destroy for centuries, but he’d never stood in the middle of suburbia and observed their simple lives.
It was all so… so… strange. Yet something was comforting about it all. He could almost picture himself pushing that mower while Willow sat and read. They’d both be going out of their minds with boredom after a week, but it would be a peaceful week.
He stared at it for a minute more before pacing away from the window and down the hall to stand outside of the bathroom. Leaning against the wall across from the door, he crossed his arms over his chest while he waited. He was eager to get out of here.
He tried not to picture Willow naked while he listened to her moving about the room. However, he would have a better chance of sprouting wings and flying to the moon than he did of not imagining water running down her supple body.
Unwrapping a lollipop, he slid it in his mouth and grimaced when the blue raspberry flavor hit his tongue. He walked toward the stairs as laughter floated up from the TV. He stopped to listen to the comedy before pacing back to the window. From there, he turned and strode back to the stairs.
When the bathroom door opened, he turned as Willow emerged. A cloud of steam followed her out the door. Still damp, the water had turned her hair a darker blonde as it fell to just beneath her shoulders.
A pair of black socks covered the space between her boots and where the jeans ended above her ankles. The form-fitting, black shirt cleaving to her lean figure emphasized the swell of her breasts and round hips.
Declan chomped on the lollipop and almost spit it all over the floor when the hideous flavor seared his tongue. However, that taste did nothing to dim his visceral reaction to her as the demon inside him burst to the forefront. It clawed and roared as it tried to break free to get at her, to claim her.
Willow stopped dead when she spotted Declan standing in the middle of the hall with his gaze riveted on her like she was the snake charmer and he was the snake. Red glimmered in his eyes as the lollipop crunched. Removing the stick from his mouth, he crushed it in his hand before sliding it into his pocket.
Feeling trapped by his ravenous gaze, Willow tried to decide if she should bolt or go to him. The sane part of her told her to stay clear, he wasn’t in complete control, but she’d stopped listening to the rational part of her when she joined the Alliance.
When he came toward her, she briefly debated running, but there was nowhere for her to go. She couldn’t hide in the bathroom. And then he was standing in front of her.
Her head tilted back, and sorrow filled her when she saw the anguish etched onto his face. She had no idea what it was about her that tormented him so, but she would do anything to ease it.
“Declan—”
Before she could say anything more, he pulled her close, and his lips smothered her words. He tasted like something she’d never experienced before, human candy; it was sweet and different, and she liked it. When his tongue touched her lips, she opened her mouth to his invasion.
And the world ceased to exist.
She stopped caring about broken phone lines, too-small jeans, Savages, or anything beyond this man. The taste of him, the feel of him, everything about him etched itself onto every molecule of her being. She barely recalled the details of the other men she’d been with, but she’d never forget anything about him.
At first, his tongue was demanding, but it eased into something more tender as his arms encircled her and his palms flattened against her back. The lollipop flavor faded away. It left her with the taste of him, which was wild and earthy like the man.
She didn’t realize he was edging her backward until the distant click of a door closing pierced through the foggy desire coating her brain. The sink pressed against her spine as his hands settled on her hips and his fingers slid beneath the shirt to caress her skin.
Fire burned through her, but this fire hurt in the most delicious way possible. She’d never known she could feel so alive. Her head spun with the sensations he evoked in her.
She couldn’t think, could barely breathe, and she wanted more. She didn’t realize her fangs had extended until she nipped his lip, and by then, she was too far gone in him to care enough to regain control of herself.
The last thin thread of restraint Declan retained over himself broke when Willow’s fangs scratched his lip. He’d worked for centuries to lock away the most malicious part of himself, but all that work unraveled in less than a second, and the pitiless beast broke free. The scent of her, the feel of her, and his overwhelming need to be inside her ruled him.
She was his, and he was going to mark her as such.
With deft hands, he undid the button of her jeans and pulled the zipper down. He didn’t care they were in the bathroom of a home in perfect suburbia Vermont as he pulled the jeans over her hips and down her thighs. Her emotions mingled with his until he couldn’t separate her desire from his.
Willow was suddenly thrilled she wasn’t wearing any underwear. Beyond saving, she’d buried hers in the bathroom trash can with the rest of her clothes and her belt, which was nearly torn through at some point.
She was aware that what was happening between them was out of her control and a horrible idea. But no matter how much the annoying voice in the back of her head told her that getting mixed up with someone in the Alliance was a terrible decision, her body ached for him so bad that she didn’t care.
When his hand slid between her legs, Willow nipped his lip again, and this time, she drew blood. Not even with her past lovers had she drawn blood. The idea of feeding on humans who didn’t know it was happening always seemed wrong to her. She mainly survived on blood bags, and occasionally she would hunt animals too. However, she was so far gone that she didn’t care.
The single drop of blood that hit her tongue did something she’d never experienced before. It woke something ancient, primal, and so voracious she almost broke the kiss to sink her fangs into his throat. But his hand was in her hair, holding her close as he kissed her like he was never going to let her go.
And she hoped he never did as his blood suffused her with strength while his finger brushed her clit in a teasing caress that almost caused her to jump out of her skin. His hand moving between her legs was so slow she wanted to scream at him to end her torment.
A throaty, pleading moan sounded in the back of her throat. Maybe, when she came to her senses, she’d be embarrassed about the desperation in that sound, but right now, she was impatient to have him put her out of her misery.
And then his finger was inside her as his hand tightened on her hair, and he pulled her head back to give him better access to her mouth. He moved his finger within her in such a way that he was rubbing against her clit, and with every thrust, he demanded more from her; she gave it to him.
When her bite closed, she almost bit him again, but he did something with his hand that made her forget all about his blood. She’d never been touched with such confidence before, never known her body could be this aroused and aching for release.
And then, she came so hard that bursts of white flared behind her closed eyes, and his kiss muffled her cry.
The scent of her release, the feel of her sheath clenching around his finger, and the ecstasy she emitted all made him crave more. He needed inside her, and she must feel the same way as her hands were almost frantic when they fell on the front of his jeans.
She undid his button, slid his zipper down, and pulled his dick free. When her hand encircled his shaft and stroked him, he almost drove his fist into the wall to keep from coming.
A loud bang barely penetrated the all-consuming urgency gripping him. He had to be inside her, claiming her, and marking her as his. He couldn’t wait any longer.
Releasing her hair and pulling his hand out from between her legs, he grasped the edge of his jeans and went to push them him down when someone shouted downstairs. Willow tore her mouth away from his and gasped for breath.
When another shout sounded, Declan snarled and nearly tore the sink from the wall. Willow stiffened, and ever so slowly, her head turned back to his. Whatever she saw on his face caused her eyebrows to shoot up, and her mouth parted.
His breath rattled in and out as he struggled to regain control, but now that there was a crack in his armor, the demon wouldn’t be so easily caged. He pictured it crawling up from inside him and tearing at the walls he’d constructed with eviscerating claws.
Every part of him demanded he finish what they’d started even as another shout sounded from downstairs. That shout slammed the walls back in place around the demon more than anything he did. No matter how badly he wanted Willow, her safety came first.
Tugging his jeans up, he forced his cock back inside them as he willed his erection to subside; the continued shouts and the idea that Willow was in danger helped with this. He buttoned his jeans and spun toward the door. He welcomed the opportunity to unleash the violence boiling inside him.
Willow wasn’t as fast to recover as Declan. She sat, gaping after him as he opened the door and stalked into the hall. He was lethal, but he was also usually calm and patient with his reactions to others. The fiery rage in his eyes before he left the room was neither of those things.
She’d been shaken many times in her life. What he made her experience was one of those times, but that look in his eyes rattled her so much she couldn’t move.
And then, another shout sounded; except this time, she understood the words and realized she had to stop Declan.