Charming the Beast
Page 26

Olivia’s hand fell away from Chloe. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “So sorry. “
Connor leaned over Chloe. “I love you so much, baby. Please, please, come back to me.” Because I don’t think I can live without you. “Just open your eyes and come back to me.” She’d come back before—twice—within moments.
The first time she’d died, when her own father had killed her.
And the second time….when Keegan had broken her neck.
She’d come back so quickly.
“Why isn’t she back yet?” Connor asked. The pain inside was growing worse. Spreading. Destroying. He needed Chloe. Needed her to open her eyes. Needed her to see him. If she would just open her eyes, just smile, then everything would be all right.
The minutes passed in painful silence. Eric’s hand curled around Connor’s shoulder. “You may have to let her go.”
No. He shook his head. He wouldn’t give up on Chloe.
She hadn’t given up on him.
“She should have come back by now,” Eric said, voice gruff. “Let’s get her back to the base. Back to the lab there. Let’s—”
Chloe’s eyes flew open.
Connor nearly hit the ground. He grabbed for the gurney. Grabbed for Chloe. He yanked her into his arms and held her as tightly as he could.
Her arms were around him. Holding him. Squeezing him just as fiercely as he squeezed her. He could feel her heart beating. He could hear her breathing.
She’d come back.
Tears stung his eyes and he didn’t f**king care. He had Chloe.
He had his life back.
He kissed her. Wildly. Desperately.
“I’ll be damned,” he heard Eric say.
Yeah, the guy would be—but that wasn’t a problem Connor needed to deal with right then.
He stood up, holding Chloe in his arms. He didn’t think he’d be letting her go anytime soon. But he pulled his lips from hers, just long enough to whisper, “I love you.”
She smiled at him. “And I love you.”
He kissed her again and Connor knew that he would never, ever let Chloe go. She was more than just his mate. She was his soul and without her…
He was a beast.
She made him a man.
***
Something was wrong.
Chloe stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something just seemed off.
Probably a side effect of dying…and coming back. Again.
But…she felt different. Kind of hungry.
Kind of horny, too.
Hmmm…where’s Connor?
She turned off the light and headed back to her little room at the base. They would be getting better accommodations, ASAP, but for the moment…
Connor stretched in the bed, and he smiled at her. He was naked. His hair was tousled, and he was so sexy.
She smiled at him.
Connor blinked. “Um, baby…”
She slid into the bed with him. Put her body against his. The guy was so amazingly, deliciously warm. And he was all hers! No more fears, no more bad guys…they were safe.
She kissed his neck. She could feel his pulse pounding beneath her lips. Such a fast, strong beat.
Her teeth scraped lightly over his neck. He growled his pleasure.
She was naked. So was he. Why bother with foreplay? She wanted him.
Right then. Right there.
Chloe straddled him. His fingers slid between her legs. Pushed into her. Had her gasping against his neck.
Her teeth raked him again.
He thrust into her.
Yes!
Pleasure spiraled inside of her as he thrust and thrust, and she bit down on his neck. The move of her mouth was instinctive.
His blood spilled onto her tongue. Heaven, paradise, wine. Connor.
She drank from him and the pleasure nearly tore her apart. So strong she couldn’t breathe. So powerful it overwhelmed her. She shuddered. She quaked. She came until she thought her body would collapse.
And Connor was with her, roaring out his pleasure. Riding that endless wave with her.
She licked his throat.
Chloe felt the drumbeat of his heart against her.
She felt him getting thick and long as his c**k stretched inside of her once more.
Oh, yes, please…
“Baby…” Connor’s voice was a growl. “Something you should know…”
She wanted to f**k and she wanted to bite.
She also wanted to love him. Forever.
“I don’t think…you’re just a werewolf anymore.”
Her head lifted.
He touched her fang. “Baby, you’re a vampire.”
Her jaw dropped. Chloe shook her head.
He nodded. “You are.”
Her hands clamped over her mouth. I took his blood. I drank it—definitely vampire-style. She stared at him in rising horror.
“Olivia and that other vampiress…they tried to give you blood at the scene. You weren’t waking fast enough,” Connor shook his head. “They changed you. I didn’t think it was possible. I mean, normally, a vampire has to take the blood and give it—” He broke off as his eyes widened. “I took your blood. Several times. Oh, Chloe, baby, I’m sorry!”
I’m a vampire?
Her hands slowly lowered. If she was a vampire, then she’d have to worry a whole lot less about the dying and coming back routine. “Do you mind?”
Connor cupped her cheek in his hand. “I love you. Vampire. Werewolf. Djinn. I wouldn’t care what you are, baby. The only thing that matters to me is that you’re mine.”
And the only thing that mattered to her…still being with Connor. Actually having a chance to be happy with him.
If she truly was a vampire, then they wouldn’t have just a chance together. They’d have forever.
He pulled her back down toward him. Connor kissed her lips. “I’ll be with you,” he said softly, “by your side, no matter what comes.”
That was exactly where she wanted him to be. “And I’ll be by your side.” She pressed a kiss to the line of his jaw. “Always.”
When she slept later, Chloe didn’t have nightmares, but she did have dreams.
Dreams of her new life, with Connor.
I’ll always choose to stay with him.
Epilogue
“Let’s go over this one more time,” Eric said as he rubbed his chin. “Tell me exactly what you wished, word for word.”
Olivia squirmed a bit in her chair. “My wishes don’t matter. You said that. I-I’m a vampire now, so—”
“Humor me,” he said, forcing a smile.
Olivia glanced over her shoulder at Shane. Eric knew he had to tread carefully when Shane was around. The vamp wouldn’t like it if he jumped across the desk and shook Olivia in order to make her talk.
Not that he would do that.
Yet.
Chloe shouldn’t have become a vampire. That’s not the way the transformation worked. Only, she had. Holly had conducted the tests to prove that fact.
“The words were actually Chloe’s,” Olivia said as she shifted some more in her seat. “She said something like…‘Are you sure you don’t have another wish in you?’”
He waited.
“I didn’t think I had another wish in me,” Olivia mumbled.
His fingers tapped on the table.
Olivia bit her lip. “She asked… ‘Maybe one that makes me indestructible and lets me live forever with the man I love?’”
Hell. That would do it. “And you said…?”
Olivia looked down at her hands. “I told her that I wished I could do that for her.”
Oh, I think you did, Olivia.
He glanced over at Shane and found the vampire glaring at him.
“Did I do it?” Olivia asked, voice hushed.
“Either you did with your wish or with your blood.” And that vampiress had helped, too. He currently had the mystery vamp in containment, but that would be ending soon. He needed to talk more with her, but every time he got near the woman…
There is something about her. She puts me on edge.
He would study her more. Learn her secrets. Figure out how the hell she’d wound up—according to Connor—chained in Keegan’s hell.
But, he’d take things one at a time. For the moment, he had another victory, of sorts, to savor.
Shane and Olivia slipped from the office. He’d have to watch Olivia very carefully. If another wish came true, then they could truly be screwed.
A djinn had too much power, and there was no way he could let one run unchecked in the world.
He turned on his laptop. Keyed up the security feed. And there she was. The vampire they’d found. The woman with the light blue eyes and the face that was eerily perfect. The woman who—
She stared up at the video camera. Looked into it as if she could see him.
Impossible, of course. She had no idea who was watching her.
But then…that vampiress lifted her hand. She pointed at the camera—at me?—and said, “Come to me.”
He started to rise, but Eric caught himself. What the hell? He danced to no one’s tune.
No one.
He would uncover that woman’s secrets. Every single one of them.