It’s no fun being an unlicensed bleeder in the city of blood, especially one who happens to be the better half of a vampire god.
Trouble follows Noir as she escapes the vampire culture into The Fringe, where the most rebellious humans dwell. Well, at least she thought – other creatures of the night and day call the fringe home too. Among them, she might just find the witch to make her one wish come true, if he does not find her first.
Being juiced used to be her biggest fear until she finds out the alternative. Mandatory service sounds a lot like slavery to Noir. Good thing her sexy captor has a bigger problem, they all do… With the city on lockdown, trying to flush out the designers of the latest zombie virus, talk of a rebellion puts everyone on edge. The bleeders get caught in the middle, enforcing curfews and sanctions to punish all humans. Noir may be busy fighting her own battles with the men in her life but she can’t ignore her place in the upcoming conflict for long.
Even if she is more like a vampire than she ever thought, Noir tries to resist giving into the most basic of her desires as she struggles to free the man she truly loves. With demons reappearing, friends changing and her world crumbling down around her – how does someone who can not die cope? Is she a pawn in a more sinister plot or the key to saving the city? What will happen when Noir decides to seize the night?
Excerpt of Carpe Noctem (Sanguis City Book 2) Copyright © 2014 Morgan Jane Mitchell unedited and subject to change.
Although I hadn’t woken up, I was no longer sleeping peacefully. My feet were freezing. Blinking, my eyes opened revealing my bare feet on a tile floor. Confusion set in as I noticed the hem of a dress and an apron, not at all what I had worn to bed. Farther up, my red hair hung in luscious curls on my shoulders. Was this a dream? Looking around at the strange kitchen fading away at the edges, I assumed it was… but what if? The door opened answering my suspicions. In walked a man looking nothing like his normal self. Someone I thought I would never see again.
“Honey, I’m home.” Aubrey had brought me into his strange, pre-end, 1920’s dream before. It was a time way before my own, before he became a vampire. The man standing in front of me now only resembled the vampire I almost fell in love with. Sure, he had all the same features, his jet-black hair, cool blue grey eyes, the crooked grin that had charmed my pants off, but he could pass for a human, pulse and all, dressed in that brown suit complete with ridiculous hat.
My surprise morphed into the more appropriate rage. “You!” I spat for the lack of anything better.
He took off the hat and held it to his chest, bowing. Aubrey came toward me tossing it on the table. My mouth opened automatically, and I hissed at him, showing all of my fangs before quickly covering my mouth with both hands. What the hell was wrong with me? I was acting like a fledgling, like a vampire. “I’m not becoming a vampire,” I assured myself in my head. Even if over the top and unbecoming of a bleeder like me, my reaction was because of him. The memory of our last meeting caused fear to sit in my stomach making me sick. “Fuck off,” I huffed.
Abruptly, Aubrey was in front of me. Brushing my cheek with his unusually warm hand, he swept my hair out of my face. “You’re still mad?”
“You try to rip me apart from the inside and think I’ll forget about in a few weeks?” I seethed, backing away from him as far as I could.
“You can’t blame a guy for trying. Admit it… you’ve had a lot on your mind.”
How’d he know? Was he spying on me again? “I didn’t think you could bother me anymore.”
“He has a lot on his mind.”
Fucking Sander’s problems, I didn’t want any part of them. “Thanks to you, I have my own shit to worry about.” Not only had Aubrey been pulling memories out of my nightmares, he’d figured out my secret, even before I had -it was the whole reason the mysterious Zeus could now blackmail me into being one of his minions. Worse than that, Aubrey had fooled me into thinking he cared for me, made me forget all vampires have ulterior motives and can never truly be trusted. “Just spit it out. What do you want?”
“I’m here to make amends, doll.” He produced a large bouquet of flowers out of nowhere. Of course, they were my favorite wild flowers mixed with some exotic ones I’ve only seen in books. If I thought hard enough, I could even make them change colors. This was, after all, still very much a dream. Letting my guard down, I smiled at the beautiful flowers, not the man. Now we were dancing, I’d lost the apron and wore a sparkly red gown. What was it with these men always wanting to dress me in red? As a red head, it wasn’t my first choice, but when Aubrey licked my neck, I remembered why. I could feel his hunger, not his sexual needs but the deep emptiness in his own veins that needed replenished. His yearnings amplified my own I’ve been fighting to suppress. I hadn’t wanted to admit for weeks I’d been craving blood. More than that, a longing for the sensation of sinking my fangs into soft flesh haunted me. Aubrey spun me around gracefully with a knowing chuckle. Shit, I knew nothing I thought here was private. Instinctively, I put up any mental guard I could find, searching to see if I was under any type of influence. Not knowing how these dreams worked, I could only try to stay in control.
“This is ridiculous! I’m not going to forgive you.” Yanking away from him, we were alone again, sitting side by side. “You were deceiving me! Fucking around in my head and outing me in that fucking file. I searched for your missing ass -and you get jealous of Quixon.”
“I agree, he’s nothing to be jealous of, in reality, but your memories of him are quite enamored,” He said casually leaning back with his legs crossed, not taking my anger seriously at all.
I made a noise of frustration. “You lied and tried to kill me.” If Sander didn’t need to break me from Aubrey, I would be free of that aggravation as well. That was just the top of the list of things that might get me killed this week in which Aubrey had a hand. Crossing my arms, I squinted concentrating, trying to wake up.
Aubrey seized my arms frantically, but his voice was steady. “I’m not in complete control in the dreams. My consciousness takes over… I never meant to harm you. Certainly was never going to kill you. I never should have come to you in my state.”
It was a classic man cop out… he didn’t mean to. I knew Aubrey said he had been in some sort of prison, but his words meant nothing to me now. Since he was touching my arms, I tried to get into his memories like he could mine with no luck. “I don’t care about an apology.” He wasn’t going to fool me again. “Just let me know what you want now.”
“I’m in a bad place again, Noir. I shouldn’t have come.” His grey eyes held darkness, a pain that wasn’t there earlier. “You may not believe a word I say, but I’m here, being held because of you.” I realized he was talking about where he was supposedly being imprisoned. “I’m not angry, just looking for some comfort. I wanted to make amends.” His dark hair fell over his eyes as he looked down seeming genuine.
Almost feeling sorry for him before I caught myself, I asked, “What’s the catch?”
“Nothing,” he said too quickly but lamented. “I came here with nothing, but now, after catching up with you.” Meaning, he’d riffled through my recent memories. “I do have something of interest to you.”
“In exchange for?” I pinched my arm trying to wake up.
Aubrey’s finger ran down the curve of my neck. “An escape from this madness, this hell hole I’m trapped in, if only in my mind.” His tongue darted out licking his lips before his fangs appeared.
“You want to bite me?” I chortled, “In your dreams.”
“I wanted to make amends, Noir, I’m in a bad place,” he repeated oddly. He looked just fine. I knew the bad place he was talking about wasn’t a cell but his hunger again, a starvation as his eyes bore a hole in my neck.
Gasping for my resolve, I heard my own stomach rumble.
“You can bite me too,” he bit his gorgeous bottom lip moving his neck to one side. Squeezing my eyes shut, I didn’t want to be tempted. Why did Aubrey have to be so fucking hot? “No harm here in a dream. You can’t kill me.”
True, I’d already thought of it when he exposed his neck. However, him mentioning my secret only reminded me he exposed me. Recalling him trying to punish me that horrible night, I scooted away from his reach. He only came closer, touching my shoulder, “I won’t be able to hurt you either, no more mark.”
Maybe biting him, even in a dream, would make the urge go away for a while. Maybe long enough for Tombs to find out what the hell was wrong with me. Hopefully, when he did, he’d know how to fix me –I’d be back to normal. Not only the urge to feed but also an unrequited anger bubbled. Part of me wanted to bite Aubrey hard anyway, hurt him. I’d fantasied about being able to kill him when he was slashing my body remotely. There was no question, I was undeniably fucked up since Sander made me part of his cloud. “Information first,” I mouthed reluctantly, succumbing to the void controlling me. “And you’ll answer my questions,” I added for good measure.
The heavy anguish on him seemed to lift. “As you wish.”
Like by magic, I immediately knew directions to the secret entrance. It just happened to be through the tiny morgue the two hapless humans led Savy and I into with hopes to impress us. Lined in silver, it was supposed to be their safe house, a bomb shelter if the bomb happened to be a mob of vampires. “So that’s how you get in?” I said out loud to myself, surprised.
Aubrey hovered over me instantly, his fangs seductively scrapping my collarbone causing another need to rumble through me. Fuck, I hadn’t thought of those consequences. “Wait,” I used all my strength to shove him away.
“Your questions.” Disappointment flashed on his face as he composed himself.
“You’ve been there all this time?” The Zombie sanatorium I wanted to break into didn’t only hold the infected yet important humans and other abominations that for some reason couldn’t be disposed of -It was being used as a vampire nut house.
“Yes, I was committed. I never planned to deliver that file. Once my weaknesses for you showed, they came for me.”
I snorted, “I heard you were hiding. Saline was hiding you.”
“Only for a day, before that bitch turned me over.” Aubrey looked livid.
I shook my head in disbelief. It couldn’t be true, it would mean Quixon had lied, I thought to myself.
“And why would that bleeder lie to you?” Aubrey voice dripped with poison. He clearly wasn’t over Quixon and I.
“What do you know?” I rose to my knees and poked a finger into his chest wishing it was the gun I stole from Sander.
Aubrey’s laugh was unstable, boarding on crazy, it gave me pause. “I know nothing, but I’ve been in this hell hole the whole time, not lounging around with the head of Sforce. You fill in the blanks. I’m finished with questions.”
All of the sudden, I gaped when I was straddling him by no fault of my own. His fangs surged into my neck. I’d agreed, but I wasn’t ready for the jolt of electricity that ran through me, flipping all my switches. The painful pleasure evaporated my lingering anger, and my unspoken questions vanished. He drew harder, dream or not, the pheromones rose only strengthening my desire for more than a sip of blood. I melted against him wanting contact with every inch as his fingers dug into my back heaving me into him with the same fever. Aubrey moved into me as well, grinding the bulge in his pants against my now vulnerable, sensitive center. It had only been a few weeks; I knew what he could do to me if I let him.
Throwing off all my cares, I let him caress my unexpectedly naked breasts as he licked the final drips of blood from my skin. Feeling his cock hard beneath me sent tingles of anticipation, making my pink peaks harden under his thumbs and a soft moan escape me. His bite was finished, but the look in his eyes let me know he was only beginning to curb his appetite.
“Don’t fight it, Noir.” His hand gripped the back of my head, tangling in and clutching my hair as he brought me into a full kiss.
He’d read my mind. For the last couple of weeks, I’d been as good as I could be, fighting nature and controlling myself in so many ways to save the grip I had on humanity. And for the prospects my future held. Even tonight, with an important piece of the puzzle implanted in my mind, I thought of stopping. It would be the right thing to do, but damn it, the metallic taste on his lips convinced me I wanted this, one bite. Sex with Aubrey was just the icing on the cake, and fuck, with the week I had I deserved a big slice of cake.
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