"Blood Bound"

2011 Copyright All Rights Reserved

Chapter 10

Ric watched with great interest from the top of the stairs the confrontation between Leo, Shelby and Tatiana.  He had hoped that once Leo had seen Tatiana for the first time in decades that he would finally come to his senses and stop this marriage foolishness with his little human pet.

Unfortunately, Leo seemed to be just as enamored with it as her as before.  Ric could not understand what in the hell Leo was thinking.  For ten years he has followed this disgusting human and stalked her like a measly peeping tom.  Year after year, Ric kept his thoughts to himself, believing that when the time came Leo would realize how insane the idea of taking a human bride would be.

"How wrong I was," he thought mundanely.  He should have figured that Leo would be stubborn in this.  He was always a man that got exactly what he wanted and would settle for nothing less.  Leo wanted the puny human so he took her, to hell with tradition and propriety.  A man with his credibility and power needed a strong blood born partner like Tatiana to stand by his side for eternity, not a feeble human that he turned.

He continued to watch as both Shelby and Leo disappear underneath the cloak of night.  He had not realized how tight he had been holding onto the banister until they were gone and the wood underneath his fingers began to crumble into sawdust in his hands. 

Tatiana looked up at him and for a moment their eyes met, understanding seemed to flash between them.  Something had to be done about this. 

Luckily, Ric had already started to put a plan in motion.  A plan that would eliminate their pesky little problem.  He made the call and the cavalry was coming.  Soon enough Shelby would be no more. 

A smile lifted at the corner of his lips. He was more than happy to rid the household of the likes of Shelby Tanner.  There was no way that he would ever serve the human female that Leo was so determined to consort with.  And whether she was turned or not, it made no difference to him.  She would always be nothing more than a stinking, filthy human.  A food source to be used and tossed aside. 

And he would taste her, he told himself with certainty.  He wanted to see the fear in her eyes as he drained the last seconds of life from her body dry.  That was a moment that he was looking forwards to with great pleasure. 

"Your thinking to hard up there Ric," Tatiana said from her place at the bottom of the stairs.

"Perhaps," he replied.  "You look like you have a thing or two on your mind as well."

Tatiana let a slow grin creep on her face.  She pursed her lips and glanced back over her shoulder at the spot where the new couple had just disappeared from before turning back to Ric.  "Perhaps," she responded in kind.  "Your master has seemed to have lowered his standards quite a bit."

"That he has," Ric agreed and finally released his tenuous grip from the railing, then began his descent down the stairs to the landing where Tatiana waited.  There was something about this woman that Ric felt drawn to.  Something in her eyes that was inexplicably beautiful and drew him to her like a magnet.  

He was but a step from her now and her spicy apple cider scent engulfed him.  He had to fight the incredible urge to take her in his arms and kiss her with all the hunger that he was feeling inside.

Tatiana could clearly see the need in his eyes.  She wanted this Vamp almost as bad as he wanted her but his social station was beneath her.  She could never publicly claim him for it would be almost as bad as Leo and his little pet.  The back lash in their paranormal society would be horrendous but she could play with him.  There was always time to play.

She stepped up to him so that their bodies were flush together and leaned in, letting her tongue softly glide over his pulse point where the blood flowed freely.  She smiled when he shivered in response.  "So, Ric-" she whispered with a hint of huskiness filling her tone, "What exactly are you going to do about it?" She let her teeth descend and nipped as his lobe, one single drop of blood welled up and she greedily lapped it up, savoring the taste that was so deliciously male.

Ric fought the moan that had built up in his chest.  With the quickness of a viper, his hand darted out and pulled her even closer to him.  Riding the edge and close to loosing all of his control, he leaned in and licked a trail of fire from the base of her neck, all the way to the sweet spot behind her ear.  He could feel the tiny points of her breasts pressing against his chest and a sense of male satisfaction filled him.  "My dear Tatiana, you know me all too well, he breathed out.  "I simply plan to eliminate our little problem," he stated with confidence and gently nipped at the silky skin at the base of her neck, feeling and incredible high cover over him when he was rewarded with a small sample of her sugary sweet essence.  The drops were minimal but a taste of heaven indeed. 

Pulling back just enough so that he could see the red circle of hunger rimming her dark eyes, Ric traced her jaw line with the tip of his finger and added, "Permanently."

Tatiana stared back at him for a moment, searching his face and then threw her head back and laughed.  "You, my friend, are a genius," she told him and tangling her hands in his hair, she pulled his mouth to hers and kissed him with ardor.  She may not ever be able to partner with Ric or even take him as a bridegroom, that was what Leo was for anyway as soon as the the waif was extinguished, but there was nothing stopping her from enjoying the hell out of his body and taking all of the pleasure that it promised.

Ric didn't need anyone to tell him what to do next.  He picked up Tatiana without once ever disengaging from her mouth.  He took the stairs two at a time and carried her to his room where for just a little while  he was going to do something for himself for once in his life.   Everything else could wait until tomorrow.  Tomorrow would be another day.

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Leo wanted to smile at his Bride.  She looked as mad as a hell cat and that was an incredible turn on for him.  Temper flared in her eyes as they narrowed into tiny slits.  He had thrown down the gauntlet and waited for her to accept his challenge.

"You can go screw yourself," she taunted him.  There was no way that she would go hunting as he so casually put it.  She would starve herself before she ever let herself drink another drop of blood again.  

Quicker than lightning, Leo was there, his arms around Shelby, restricting her from going any were.  "You will do no such thing," he warned her darkly after hearing her threat in her mind.  "And there is something that I do plan on screwing my sweet, and I can tell you one thing, it isn't myself."

He was so close to her, that for a moment, Shelby almost forgot who was holding her and what they had been discussing.  She was so inundated by his presence that she had this uncontrollable urge to touch this man who was so close to her.  This very sexy man that towered over her and smelled so good.  

In a very cat like motion she rubbed her cheek along side the crook of his neck.  Something in the back of her head was screaming all kinds of warning bells but all she could comprehend was the fact that the temptation so close to her was absolutely irresistible.  

Unable to stop herself, she pressed her mouth to the base of his neck and pressed the most tentative of kisses to his perfectly made skin.  One kiss led to another and before long her tongue had slithered out and was tasting him.  

"That's it my sweet," Leo cooed.  He held Shelby to him, keeping her totally intoxicated by him.  It was good to know that she was as lost as he was when they were this close together.  He felt the gentle scrape of her teeth as they feathered over the pulse point in his neck and held her tighter to him.  "Take it Shelby, take what it is that you need"  

Her teeth melted into his skin, causing a hiss of pleasure to escape his lips.  The gentle sucking of her small mouth started to arouse him hotter than he had ever been before.  No woman, had ever made him feel like this and oddly enough, he found that he liked it, liked it a lot..

But, he refused to take his bride for the first time in a trashy darkened alley and there was the other small fact that he would need to feed too before they returned home.  Pushing back his fierce arousal, Leo strained his senses until he picked up on a human that was nearing the alley entrance way.

Perfect, he thought to himself. 

It was an older female, mid thirties maybe and very convenient.  Stretching out his mind he called to the human female and beckoned her to him.  He would not leave his Shelby or interrupt her feeding. The devil knows how hard headed his female could be at times and he was more concerned with taking his nourishment and getting her back to his bed where they could finally consummate their marriage.  That was a prospect that he was highly anticipating.  

Come to me, he repeated his command when the female stopped at the entrance of the alleyway.  Come to me now.

The tall slender woman with the wavy shoulder length black hair didn't hesitate.  She headed straight for Leo and stopped when she reached his side.

Give me your wrist, Leo commanded.  He still had one arm wrapped tightly around Shelby's side as she continued to drink her fill but freed his other hand so that he could take the woman's wrist and bring it to his mouth.  His fangs had already extended in preparation.  His needs were already heightened with Shelby so close to him and his mouth was dry with a voracious hunger.

He took no time in sinking his teeth into her skin and took what it was that he needed.  The comatose woman just stood there during the process as Leo began to drain her of her life essence.  It wasn't nearly as sweet as Shelby was but he didn't dare take from her, not yet at least.  She needed to gain her full strength before he allowed himself that treat again.

Shelby pulled back from Leo's neck and instinctively licked along the two puncture wounds that she had made, sealing the wounds.  Dropping her head back, she breathed in some of the cool night air and some of the previous  haze that had fogged her brain began to clear.

The first realization that dawned on her was that she was entirely too close to Leo for her own comfort.  The second was the fact that blood coated the inside of her mouth.  With an unnatural speed that she had not realized that she possessed, she jumped back out of his arms and glared at him.  "You," she accused and pointer her finger at him, "You did it again!"

Leo lifted his mouth from his prey at the sudden loss of body heat.  He stared up at Shelby curiously who was glaring hard back at him.  "Shelby?"

Shelby saw Leo's fangs clear as day glistening in the moon light, she saw the red blood that trailed down his chin and then she saw the poor woman slumped by his side.  

Then it seemed as if everything else happened at once.  She charged Leo, knocking him several feet back so that he crashed into the metal dumpster behind them.  She was stunned by her new-found strength at first and then remembered the woman.

She dropped to her knees by the woman's side and checked for a heart beat.  It was faint but it was there.  She breathed out a sigh of relief.

Leo was back at her side in a second in the next second and placed both of his hands on Shelby's shoulders. He could sense her tumultuous emotions and wanted to let her know that everything was going to be okay.

"Sweet, this is the way of our life," he tried to tell her.  "We are the hunters, they are the prey.  It's kill or be killed.  Only the strongest will survive, you have to see this." he told her quietly, willing her to understand him.

Shelby shook her head wildly back and forth and covered the woman protectively, "NO!" she said with fierce determination, "You may be a killer but I am not.  I refuse to be what you are and I hate you for making me this way!"  She screamed at him.  

She heard Leo's sad sigh and fought the urge to go to him.  Tears were running down her cheeks freely now and they clouded her vision.  She didn't want to be a monster. She never asked to be like him.  Why couldn't he had just let her die that fateful day all those years ago when that car hit her.  Why did he have to be so noble?  "Why?," she cried out on a broken sob.

Leo closed his eyes at the sound of the pain in her voice.  Leaning in he pressed a kiss in her hair and breathed in her scent to give himself some measure of comfort that she was in fact here, here with him.  After several long minutes had passed he finally told her in a tone that brokered no arguments, "Because you are mine my sweet, as I am yours.  That is why."