Mine, Bitten

Chapter Thirty-Three

            His arm reached beneath her and with a simple fastening of her bra, tugged it free, exposing the soft mounds of her breasts to his hungry gaze. A fiery flame flared hungrily in the velvety dark stare that seared the length of her. He reached down and cupped one breast in his hand, squeezing lightly, pulling a soft sigh from her lips.

            He grinned, revealing a tip of his fang.

            She arched invitingly into his hand, forcing a low growl from his throat.

            He leaned forward and pressed a fevered kiss to the arch of her throat and his hunger intensified, growing precariously intolerable.

            "Lily-" he murmured heatedly, "-you need to feed."

            Her body squirmed achingly beneath him as she shook her head. "No-" she hissed.

            "I want you-" he growled harshly, "-if you don't feed, this can't happen."

            She inhaled a sharp breath through her nose and flattened her hands against his naked chest, a look of letdown producing a frown upon her enticing mouth. "I'm sorry-" she said solemnly, "-I just can't be what you are."

            She pushed him away and grabbed her shirt. She felt his eyes boring into her as she tugged it harshly over her head.

"You feel a certain kind of way about me." He growled, "Just as I feel for you. It's in our nature. You are mine as I am yours. The thread between us will only thicken; no matter how much you fight it will only grow stronger." She winced as he stood abruptly, the size of him forcing a tremor through her as he crossed the room to the door, slamming it forcefully behind him.

Ruby

It felt as though she was awakening from a long-drawn coma. Her eyes fluttered and the impact of the surprisingly faint light struck her eyes full-force, rendering her blind for a few startling moments until her eyes adjusted to her surroundings. Her mind shuddered alarmingly with a dull ache and a fleeting panic as to how she ended up contained to a cell? Her head began to buzz a little louder. She felt an unusual prickling alongside her tongue and the sensation that her insides were ablaze.

            She moaned something nasty beneath her breath and remained slumped on the floor. Her head hummed with a thudding, a terrible thudding with sounds that were growing increasingly louder with her awareness. She blinked and her vision cleared and with that she blanched. Her sight most certainly wasn't 20-20 but damn if she couldn't see every intricate line and crevice of the room. Her brows pulled together in awe-was it just her imagining but was her vision more pronounced?

            The burning sensation in her stomach flared to the magnitude of excruciating. Her teeth gritted against the agonizing wrenching of her stomach as she rolled to the floor and curled into a ball. What was happening to her? Her body was cringing and burning all at once it was almost unfathomable.

            Despite the immense pain gripping her insides, she pushed herself to her feet and lunged for the bars. The unexpected burning that singed her hands produced a nasty growl from her throat, one that was clearly inhuman and she released them abruptly, leaping away from them.

            "I wouldn't touch those again if I were you."

            Ruby lifted her head to see a man with dark, unruly hair and wry-cobalt eyes strolling toward her. His handsome face revealed a wickedly, charming grin that portrayed a sinfully attractive appeal that tugged at her feminine strings.

            "Who the hell are you?" she snapped angrily.

            To her surprise, the man curtsied, "Talon Beaux, ma'am, you can call me T or ah-" he paused, "-judging by that prettily brooding glower of yours, son-of-a-bitch?"

            She laughed coldly, "I suppose that means you're the bastard that brought me here?"

            A grin broadened his mouth, "I like you."

            Her eyes narrowed heatedly, "Wish I could say the same." She motioned to her accommodations. "If you let me out now I won't report you for kidnapping?"

            He laughed, "Ah, I think a tigress such as you should remain as such."

            Her green eyes flared with her anger, "Listen creep, I'm not the 'damsel-in-distress' type. I'll kick your ass without a second thought, and I'll do it Angelina Jolie style, capiche? "

            He stepped closer to the bars, "I'm the least of your worries, Ruby."

            Her eyes widened with surprise, "How do you know me?" she stiffened as the subtle sounds of footsteps permeated from the top of the stairs and then produced a familiar face. "Lily?" she gasped in disbelief.

            "Ruby-" her friend's face was almost grief-stricken.

            "You want to tell me what's going on?" Ruby demanded, her eyes wavering warily to the blue-eyed man peering at her amusingly.

            Lily stepped hesitantly toward the bars, "I don't know how to tell you-"

            "You can start by telling me how I ended up like this?" she gestured to the bars surrounding her. "Damn I'm hungry." She said this lastly almost to herself, surprised by the unexpected wave of hunger that seized her.

            Lily stiffened, paling slightly at the remark. "You're a –" she felt silent as Ruby's dark, evergreen stare connected sharply with hers.

            "What?" she growled.

            "Do you remember anything before you blacked out?" Lily asked gently.

            Ruby's brows knitted together as she tried piecing the last fragments before losing consciousness. "No-" she snapped, "-I can't remember a thing."

            "I asked you to go to my apartment?"

            She weighed this a moment and nodded slowly, recognition dawning. "Yes, I think I remember."

            "What happened after that?"

            Growing frustrated, Ruby shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "What?" she demanded, "What is it?"

            Lily sighed and then said very warily, "You're a vampire."

            Both she and Talon grew tense, anticipating horror and perhaps a hysterical shriek of disbelief but what followed equally stunned them both.

            She burst violently into a fit of laughter.

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