Nightfall (Nightmare Dragons Book 2) Read online

  Sasha hadn’t even fully come down yet when Dare picked her up off the counter and headed upstairs toward the bedroom.

  A quickie in the kitchen was just good fun. But Dare had so much more in mind for Sasha tonight.

  She’d be fully marked when they went to the club again.

  He listened as Sasha squeaked with excitement as he took her to the bed and set her on it. With her help, he undid the dress and tossed it aside, glad to be rid of all scent of her dancing partner and the club. And then the rest of her undergarments were gone, too, leaving her silky, sumptuous body completely bare to him.

  Dare wanted to memorize every inch of her. Wanted to mark her so completely she’d be invisible to everyone, man and shifter alike. So that nobody could ever look at her the way he wanted to look at her every day of the rest of his life.

  But when he went to spread her legs, more eager to taste her than anything else right now, he saw Sasha looking up at him, mouth half open as if to say something.

  “What is it?” Dare asked, curious.

  “Sorry. It’s just… I was wondering. What’s going to happen when you find the person you’re looking for?”

  Her expression was so earnest. So vulnerable. Dare propped himself over her as if he could put himself between Sasha and the rest of the world and its accompanying problems.

  “I… I don’t know.” It was the best he could muster. The major possibilities he’d thus far explored were “kill them” or “be utterly destroyed by them.”

  Both sounded terrible right now.

  Sasha didn’t prod further. Instead, she reached a hand up, stroking the back of it along his cheek, then reversing to place her palm as it moved down his jaw.

  The touch, so sweet and understanding, was like scorching-hot fire, branding his soul with her kindness.

  He didn’t deserve. He never had. He never would.

  Yet he couldn’t stop. Not now, at least.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to stop the moment,” Sasha said, studying his features.

  “No, just a pause. Unless you wanted to stop.”

  Sasha scoffed playfully. “As if I’d let you. I remember exactly what you were about to do.”

  “Yes. Now back to that.” The nerves in Dare’s neck zipped with anticipation as he lowered himself down her delightful body, admiring every dip and curve as he kissed his way down. With even the lightest touch, she squirmed beneath him, the sheets twisting around her like some sensual arrangement only sex could summon.

  For now, the best he could do was try not to think about anything beyond the moment, beyond feeling the best he’d ever felt in his entire life. And trying to make her feel as good as he felt.

  It was only fair.

  Then, when he’d finally reached his favorite place on his favorite person, kissing directly onto her clit and using his tongue to thrust up against it, Sasha arched against the bed, making the frame wobble from the strength of it.

  Amazing.

  He licked over her again and again, consuming her with his tongue as her slick wetness worked him into a frenzy. She came. He waited. He continued. She came again. He waited.

  As he worked her toward another orgasm, fueling the soul-deep hunger that only Sasha’s pleasure seemed to satiate, Dare watched her. Every little movement, every reaction, big or tiny, burned into his mind.

  The very real possibility he might not be able to do this again hovered like a knife over his heart. And the memory of a thousand feedings spread over a century hammered at his chest, a harsh remembrance of what he really was, in spite of himself.

  Tomorrow he would be more honorable. Come to his senses. Realize there was no point to this. He had promised Sasha someone different, not the ultimate monster who couldn’t even give her a regular life.

  He existed to kill and to find the one who made him that way.

  But in the meantime, he couldn’t resist just this one more moment of hope.

  Dare licked one more time down Sasha’s center, and she came.

  Chapter 17

  Sudden, sharp sensation crashed through Sasha’s being all at once as her senses exploded with pleasure. She writhed, having nowhere to run or hide from such powerful release.

  She was just glad that Dare held her there as her hands grasped at anything within reach. Her hair, her pillow, the sheets. Her bed, on its last leg, groaned from the effort.

  Even as her orgasm ebbed, she could still feel his tongue on her clit, the memory of it so real she felt she could come again just thinking about it.

  Dare was relentless. As much an animal in bed as he was without.

  Heady relaxation trickled down her spine as afterglow coursed through her. She stretched out, fingers and toes still tingling, and looked up at Dare.

  A stray lock of hair had fallen over his forehead, and she reached up to brush it aside so she could see his face. The blue in his eyes was so dark now, his gaze so intense as he watched her. Not like a predator, like before, but like she was air. Like he could look nowhere else, frozen in place.

  He’d thought she would run from him. Be disgusted by him. Leave him.

  But she couldn’t. Not now, probably not ever.

  “Are you going to finish marking me, or do you want me to take over from here?” Sasha said, pleased with herself when his lips turned down in a mock frown. Immediately, he jumped off the bed and pulled his jeans off.

  “Like hell,” he exclaimed, pulling off the black boxer briefs he wore.

  Damn. Sasha knew he was big from the other night. But picturing so much man inside of her seemed an entirely different prospect.

  He pulled a foil packet from the back pocket of his discarded jeans and tore it, swiftly putting a condom on as he crawled onto the bed. For some reason, his ripped, muscled body only seemed to fill the room more when he was naked. The walls, the ceiling all seemed to close around him, her surroundings melting away as a rush of excitement made her heart leap.

  Maybe her eyesight was just going whacky, though. It was hard to not get tunnel vision when there were so many muscle groups to admire.

  “You ready?” Dare asked, positioning himself between her legs.

  “What kind of question is that?” If she wasn’t ready after almost a half dozen mind-blowing orgasms, then she’d never be. “Of course I am,” she exclaimed, incredulous. He was so thick she could taste him on her lips while she imagined him inside.

  “Haste makes waste,” Dare said, grinning mischievously down at her, teasing her with his stalling. Everything about him put her entire body at the ready.

  “I beg to disagree.” Sasha was getting impatient. Ever since last night, ever since they’d met, Sasha had been fantasizing about this.

  “Okay. You win.” He followed his clearly fake concession with a heated kiss, holding their lips together, every second of it burning her lips.

  Then, while still holding their kiss, he slid inside her, so slowly she wasn’t even aware of the motion, just an incredible filling sensation that surpassed anything else.

  Dare parted their mouths, and Sasha took a gasp of air as he finally came all the way in. For a prolonged moment, she had to just relax her body’s incredible reaction to so much thickness, so much stimulation going right through her very core.

  When tightness finally shifted into white-hot pleasure, Sasha swore.

  Fantasy didn’t hold a candle to the real thing.

  Dare’s mouth quirked up at one corner, the depths of his irises swirling like a bottomless ocean as he watched her intently. And when Sasha nodded, he moved at her request, sliding out slowly, then thrusting in ever so slightly faster.

  At that, her body jumped in its own skin, and she bit down on her tongue accidentally. But Sasha couldn’t feel the pain of it when compared to the furnace of pleasure that felt about to boil over into a maelstrom at any second.

  True to his namesake, Dare didn’t hold back, moving inside her with a rhythm that seemed to match her own unspoken desire. Sasha reached for him
, holding his shoulders, and he just moved faster, slick friction pushing her so close it felt like she’d come if they stopped.

  Before Sasha could try to outthink her own physical reaction to Dare, he thrust all the way, reaching a hand between them both and flicking one finger against her clit. Against her own better judgment, she came, hard.

  Her sight expanded into fuzzy blackness, a void where only pulsing physical sensation flowed through and out of her all at once. She was vaguely aware of Dare leaning over her, but it only made the sparks shooting inside her body shoot farther and faster.

  It was a good while before she was done. And even as she reacclimated to her surroundings, Dare’s cock still inside her was already making her come close.

  One thing was for sure. She only had one left.

  And it was going to be a good one.

  Before Dare could even make the first move, she pulled her hips away from him, then thrust herself to meet him. Dare’s cocky gaze flinched for a second, and he cursed, the ironclad muscles in his shoulders shuddering unmistakably.

  Then, as she moved a second time, he came into her as she rocked, matching and doubling their friction. Sasha felt her eyes widen at the erotic intensity of it but held her ground.

  You’re coming with me this time. Whether you like it or not, Dare.

  She balled her hands into fists, and Dare thrust harder. Her entire body rocked from the motion of it. The bed creaked desperately in dismay, the light above her flickering. Through it all, she held on, thinking of the most random things she could muster to keep the slick sounds of their lovemaking and the feel of Dare pushing into her from kicking her over the edge.

  She held on valiantly until mind and body screamed for release, and she clutched onto Dare’s back, freezing for a second while her muscles processed what the hell was about to happen.

  White-hot orgasm felt as if it were going to split her in two, and as she screamed out Dare’s name over and over, she felt him jerk inside her at the same time.

  This, of course, only exacerbated her own release, the throbbing sensation of his member deep within her only setting off more fireworks behind her eyes and inside her everywhere.

  She lost herself completely in the depths of pure feeling. She held on to Dare, riding it out, until there was nothing left to wring from so much pent-up energy.

  Dare gasped, his body glowing from sweat, which only further added to his hotness, and waited for a moment before withdrawing. When he did, he went slow, being careful, then got up and went to the bathroom to quickly clean up.

  For what felt like could have been a long time, Sasha just lay there like a melted puddle, unable to recover whatever shape she normally had.

  “You’re amazing, Sasha,” Dare exclaimed, still catching his breath as he came back into the room like the manifestation of some bronze statue sculpted by a master artist.

  Sasha’s heart skipped a beat, and she propped herself on her elbows.

  “Don’t. Don’t do that.” Hadn’t she learned her lesson? Her brain was setting off tiny alarms while her heart was ready to leap out of her own chest for him.

  “Do what?” He lay on the bed next to her, head held up by one hand as he looked at her.

  “Give me ideas, Dare. This is supposed to be marking. Not something more.”

  Dare looked down at the sheets, thinking for a moment. “What if I’m getting them, too?”

  Sasha’s throat tightened, going dry.

  To her surprise, he wrapped an arm around her, and before she could resist, she was nestled closely, the feel of warm skin and molded muscle soothing against her.

  “So I don’t transform later,” he exclaimed.

  She wanted to call bull. Wanted to say what he was really thinking. But it was hard enough as it was, not knowing what really was going on between them and trying not to hope for more.

  If he said what she suspected his feelings were, it would only get harder. For the both of them.

  He pulled the blankets over them, and to her surprise, Dare grabbed a quarter lying on the nightstand and tossed it at the light switch. The dim yellow hue went off, bathing them in cool blue moonlight.

  Somehow, Dare was always right by her side when she needed him most. It was difficult not to believe he cared much more than he would ever say out loud.

  Earlier, she’d seen the look in his eyes. The calculating menace bracing itself for her to reject him, call him a monster.

  But she hadn’t. All she could see was Dare, the man she was falling for.

  Maybe the people at the club could really help him with what he wanted. And then maybe afterward, they could see if there was more between them than simple happenstance and physical attraction.

  Because based on the way he’d followed her around relentlessly, and by the way his arm held her so tight it was like he didn’t want her escaping, it seemed Dare didn’t want to let go.

  Maybe there was hope…

  Sasha pulled the nearby pillow and hugged it tightly. Dare moved a little, letting her adjust, but otherwise remained silent, his smooth breathing not asleep but maintaining a quiet vigil over the little place she called home.

  She was an idiot, and she knew it. But she couldn’t ever seem to not hope.

  Ten-year-old Dare looked up at the dark glass in front of him, wondering what was going on behind it.

  There were still dark smears on the floor of the lab in front of him, and Nathan was crying in the corner, held by Theo.

  Dare was standing strong, clenching his small fists as he prepared to meet their attackers the best way he knew how.

  The taste of blood still lingered on his tongue. The darkness in the air around that had nearly been choking him had dissipated the second he’d sucked the life out of the guard’s body, and Dare didn’t regret anything at all.

  If anything, between this and the other time, he felt he’d discovered a vital piece of who he was.

  And if anyone else needed killing or wanted to come near his brothers, he would take care of them as well.

  A door to the side of the glass slowly opened, and a woman walked in, wearing a white lab coat and holding a clipboard.

  Her faced was aged but cruel to his eyes, and he glared at her in defiance as a man came in behind her.

  “We’re sorry, but they just aren’t coming out right. I think we will have to abort the project.”

  The woman looked at them with hard eyes, surveying each of them as Theo held Nate tighter and Dare crossed the room to stand in front of the other boys.

  His arms were covered in needle marks from experiments, but Dare was positive he wasn’t going to let anyone stab him again.

  “They attacked a guard,” the scientist said, looking at Dare. “This one attacked, and the others helped eat him. They are monsters. My God, what have we done?”

  The woman looked at all three of them, her mouth pressed into a line. “I don’t know.”

  “Perhaps if we just released them, they could disappear and no one would know.”

  Dare cocked his head and peered at them, not knowing what they were talking about. Release them? That could be nice. No more experiments. But where would they go? He shoved his hands into the pockets of the white gown he wore. The same gown all of them had worn since they knew what it was to be conscious.

  “I don’t think we can do that,” the woman said. “They aren’t right. If anyone knew what I did…”

  “Right,” the scientist said. “Your sister.”

  “I know,” the woman said, nodding. “I never should have done this, but I had the best intentions, after all.” She crouched in front of Dare, looking in his eyes.

  If he looked hard enough, could he see her as kind?

  She reached out and took his hands in hers, not allowing him to flinch away. “That’s the second guard you’ve killed now, isn’t it?”

  Dare nodded slowly.

  “You see, you can’t keep doing that. But then again, you can’t stop either. You liked it,
didn’t you?”

  Dare nodded again, not sure what she meant by it. He did know the world had felt better, easier to breath in, once the men they had killed weren’t around.

  After all, they’d been hurting people.

  She pressed something into his hand. A small notebook. “Listen, I’m going to give you and your brothers one of these, and I’m going to tell you how to keep track.”

  Dare turned the book over, wondering about it. Then he looked into her eyes. “I don’t understand.”

  “You can’t stay here,” she said quietly. “You can’t be part of this world. Not right now, at least. But there’s still hope for you. If you stay undetected, if you do what I say… I’ll come back for you.”

  Dare didn’t know how to feel about that and looked to his brothers for support. Each of them appeared small and terrified. Just as he felt.

  But he was determined not to let her see his heart.

  “Okay.”

  She squeezed his hand and left the book with him. “Good boy. And remember, you can’t get close to anyone. If anyone discovers you, you’re going to be killed. I’m doing you a favor. I don’t want you to be destroyed.”

  “We can’t even be with humans?” Theo said, his voice no more than a squeak.

  “We’re going to be alone,” Nate said in a wail, holding on to his brother.

  Dare’s expression tightened, and he felt an ache in his chest. “We don’t need anyone.”

  The woman took him by the arms, forcing him to look into her eyes. “Listen, Dare. You have everything you need inside you. Listen to your instincts. Don’t trust anyone but your brothers. Make sure to always stay alone.”

  “And then what?”

  “And then we’ll come back for you, and you’ll have a real purpose. We’ll know where you truly belong.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Because of the book?”

  “Because of what you do and what you write there. Come over here with your brothers, and I’ll do my best to explain.”

  So Dare followed her hesitantly, wondering about this woman who had created him. Wondering if he was finally done with the scientists, with the creepy guards that tried to touch them.