Trapped in the dark, can two lost souls find their way back to the light?

 

Tempting Darkness

© 2007 Rene Lyons

 

Templar Vampire, Book 3

Once a proud Templar Knight, Lucian of Penwick lost his faith when God damned him as a vampire. Tormented by guilt, he is dragged back to his ancestral home and forced to confront the sins of his past. As he struggles to uphold his oath, Lucian knows if he falters, it’s not just his own soul on the line…

Ripped from life as she knew it, Jessica Vargo is held prisoner in a world of darkness and torment. Deep in the bowels of a medieval castle, the line between myth and reality blurs and the only one she can trust is the seven-hundred-year-old vampire.

But as darkness tempts, can Lucian and Jessica find their light?

 

Enjoy the following excerpt for Tempting Darkness:

Jessica dropped to the floor and drew her knees up the moment he let go of her hand. It was what she did when she was afraid. She made herself as small as possible. Sitting beside her, Lucian put an arm around her. She smiled as she scooted closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. He didn’t understand why she trusted him now, and hadn’t in the dungeon. Nor did he take too much time analyzing it. Not when he’d much rather enjoy the feel of her against him.

“What happens if someone comes here and finds us?”

He hugged her even closer. “Let’s not think about that, shall we?”

He’d do whatever was necessary to ensure her safety and his continued existence. Basically, the rules governing Templars were simple. They had to guard the relic, protect Tristan at all costs, and kill only if their existence was threatened. If even one of them deviated from those rules, all of their souls would be sent to Hell. That was something every Templar fought to avoid since the night they’d woken as vampires.

The stab in his stomach and the dryness of his mouth reminded him again that he needed to feed. With the hunger upon him, it would only continue to grow until he fed, making him more dangerous to Jessica as the day wore on. They couldn’t leave Malmesbury until he fed.

Jessica must have sensed his body stiffening in his effort to hold onto his control because she leaned away from him. Her gaze was searching, causing Lucian to shift under the weight of it. “Are you okay?”

She looked too serious by half, which given their situation, he couldn’t blame her for. “I’m fine.”

She cocked a brow at him. “No you’re not.” Her eyes narrowed on him, like she saw through him to the hunger gnawing at him. “You need blood, don’t you?”

Lucian couldn’t deny his shame at his body’s need. “I said I’m fine.”

“You don’t have to lie to me about it. You seem to forget we’ve spent the last three months together.”

Forget? Never would he forget one moment of their captivity.

Raking a hand through his hair, Lucian sensed the rising sun, an added agitation to his already growing unease. He didn’t dare glance around the boxes to see how much of the sun spilled in through the missing windowpane and the cracks between the boards that covered the remaining windows.

Lucian shrugged with false indifference. “You don’t need to be reminded of what I am.”

Jessica raised her brows, regarding him in astonishment. “Do you think I need a reminder?”

“No. I’m sure you don’t.”

Lucian pulled back slightly when she shimmied out of his arms. She ran her hands through his hair, the gentle caress a touch upon his heart. “I don’t see you as a monster, Lucian. Not anymore, anyway.”

He found it ironic she’d say that because of his devious thoughts about her. “You should, Jessie. If you knew the things I want to do to you…”

“Stop it. Stop trying to make me afraid of you.” Her hands came to rest on his cheeks. Her touch was warm—gentle—bringing to life tender emotions in him he was only now realizing he possessed. “Haven’t I spent enough time being afraid? Can’t I just enjoy this moment with you?”

Her whispered questions caused an ache in his heart. A low growl rumbled within him as he struggled with himself not to mislead her, but to be as frank and honest with her as he could. “I’m a monster.”

She shook her head and trailed her hands down to his shoulders. Her thin arms settled around his neck. Her face was so close all he had to do was lean forward and he’d be able to capture her lips. He closed his eyes and swallowed a groan when she hugged him. Her breath fanned his cheek and her breasts, small and firm, pressed against his chest. His body reacted instantly to her, hardening and pressing painfully against the fabric of the too-tight pants.

“You had a million opportunities to hurt me and you never did.” Her heartbeat hammered against his chest as her lips touched his cheek in a whisper of a kiss. “A monster wouldn’t have held back or protected me as selflessly as you have.”

Lucian wished he could hold on to this moment for eternity. But as it always did, life—or rather his death—managed to intrude.

The stab of hunger forced his eyes open as everything about Jessica drove him mad with need. She made him hurt in ways he never knew possible. Back in the dungeon, her fear helped him to fight the hunger. But now, with her fear gone, the way she opened herself to him was a new kind of torture for Lucian. One he’d never known before. He’d never allowed himself to get close to any human, which made resisting Jessica a difficult battle to fight. It raised the pain of hunger to new and brutal heights. There was nothing keeping him from refraining, save his own will, which right now was tenuous at best.

Nevertheless, Lucian drew Jessica even closer, until he no longer knew where he ended and she began. He buried his face in the rich fall of her hair and inhaled her clean scent. She rested her head on his shoulder and relaxed into him. Lucian felt as if the world came to a dead stop and nothing and no one but the two of them mattered.

With desire ripping through him and the bloodlust steadily growing, Lucian wanted more than to simply hold Jessica. He ached to push her to the floor and take her and sate his body’s sexual desire for her. Lucian could almost imagine Constantine’s gruff approval that his resolve had finally begun to crack after lifetimes of abstinence. Hell, Raphael would probably clap him on the back and remark that it was about damn time. That nosy bastard had tried everything over the centuries to break Lucian’s control. Somehow Lucian had managed to tamp down his sexual needs. He’d stood back and watched Raphael and Constantine cut a sexual path through the ages, using women to sate their every need. Tristan had as well, only he was more discreet about it. But then, he needed to keep a low profile so as not to attract the attention of the Obyri.

Lucian had watched Sebastian struggle with his self-imposed celibacy for three hundred years, never understanding why the fight was so tough—until now. Lucian finally understood Sebastian’s torment.

“You’ve no idea how badly I want you.”

The words tumbled from Lucian unbidden.

Jessica pulled away from him. In the span of a single moment she’d gone from soft and warm in his arms to hard and cold—as she’d been in the dungeon. “I won’t let you feed from me.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Though that wasn’t exactly true, Jessica didn’t need to know how he struggled against that particular craving.