Aurora's Triangle

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eBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work. This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd. 2932 Ross Clark Circle, #384 Dothan, AL 36301 Aurora’s Triangle Copyright © 2006 by Titania Ladley Cover by Scott Carpenter ISBN:1-59998-374-5 www.samhainpublishing.com All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: December 2006

Aurora’s Triangle Titania Ladley

Dedication To my wonderful editor, Jewell Mason. Thanks for believing in me and for your sharp 20/20. I couldn’t have done it without you. And to the talented author Arianna Hart, who helped my vampires to see the light of day. Thanks for always being there for me.

Aurora’s Triangle

Chapter One Hartford Science Research Station and Mining Center Svalvik Island off the northern coast of Greenland March, present day “Dead bodies?” Aurora Seagress’s pulse palpitated, skipping a beat. She swallowed the thick lump of fear wedged in her throat. The chill of the underground laboratory freezer blasted against her face, though she noted it wasn’t quite as cold as it should be. With her hand on the door latch, she stared across the space at the long tubes of ice. The scent of cold metal and harsh chemicals assaulted her nostrils as she stepped inside, her legs trembling in protest. Peering through the white plumes of fog, she scanned the glassy cylinders laid out on the metal slab and blinked several times. Her mouth went dry. She shouldn’t have come in here, she admitted, brushing aside the guilt as she halted her approach. But Professor Kendall’s request to stay away from the coolers had stirred her curiosity. She heaped on more shame, recalling the pallor of his skin and the fogged oxygen mask right before they’d flown him out by chopper after he’d exhibited cardiac symptoms. Only moments ago, he’d demanded she go with him, not for his own comfort and moral support, he’d confessed, but to prevent her from nosing into his private experiments during his absence. Claustrophobic, she’d resisted climbing into that little propellercapped bubble, and the more she’d refused, the more his garbled pleas had evolved into a snarling, irrational state of panic. Ultimately, she’d talked him into allowing her to stay behind to man the center temporarily until his return.

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Better that than to lose her mind, cause a helicopter crash and see them all dead. So in his reluctant state of agreement, he’d presented one firm condition. She had to swear she wouldn’t gain entry to the underground space, and Aurora had assured him of her trustworthiness. But she always had been a good liar. Not long after the helicopter had risen into the crimson and neon green mural of the northern lights, she’d had one foot in the laboratory door. Alone now on the island, she snorted aloud. Like anyone’s curiosity could withstand that much temptation. Kind of like telling a child, “Don’t you dare eat that candy,” while waving a giant lollipop right beneath their nose. Ignoring the guilt, she stared agog at the frozen bodies and wondered if Theodore Kendall’s so-called mining and research of minerals here in northern Greenland had all been a front of some sort. And if so, what had been her purpose here as far as he was concerned? Why had Theodore chosen her out of all the scientists who’d applied for the assistant miner’s position? True, she had her own very personal reasons for pursuing the job, and may never have taken it if not for the secret connection with Kendall she intended to explore. Momentary worry edged under her skin. She hoped to God, regardless of whatever he was hiding, it didn’t interfere with her selfish reasons for coming here. Aurora moved closer, her breath churning out in white puffs of anticipation. Her heart thumped with both fear and excitement at her unbelievable find. She approached the large slab table, gaining her courage by fixing her eyes on the wall beyond rather than on the subjects. Suspicious now of the professor’s inconsistencies, she played back one particular statement in her head. “Stay upstairs—and whatever you do, don’t alter the thermostats. Please, I beg you to do as I say.” With his thin hand clutching hers, he’d said it in desperation. The chopper blades had whirred overhead, stirring the frigid Arctic air and sending the snow up in a powdery cloud of dust. The EMT attendants had barked the need for Theodore to relax as they hurriedly slapped EKG leads on his chest. 6


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Right, don’t turn up the heat, she’d mused incredulously, even with subzero temperatures outside? Why? The questions had plagued her, and doubts had begun to crystallize in her brain. Aurora inhaled, then exhaled on a lengthy release. She slowly lowered her gaze to the corpses. “Well, now we know why, don’t we? We’ve got ourselves two handsome, naked men—dead men, at that,” she reminded herself. A tremor wormed its way up her spine. I’m alone on a remote island, completely by myself, with two creepy cadavers. She forced the thought from her mind, but morbid curiosity—or scientific inquisitiveness, she wasn’t sure which—had her eyes flitting from one striking face to the other. She avoided sliding her gaze down the length of them and instead willed the wheels in her distrustful mind to turn. Of course, now she understood why she wasn’t to alter the thermostats. He’d obviously meant the freezer’s settings rather than the laboratory facility itself. To raise the temperatures would risk thawing, which in turn would leave them with rotting bodies and nowhere but aboveground in a snowdrift to bury them. “But…but wait.” Aurora skimmed a hand over the ice tube closest to her. She couldn’t help gawking at the face of the oblivious hunk. Beads of frigid water coated her palm. “Oh shit, the ice is melting.” She’d thought the cooler hadn’t felt quite cold enough when she’d entered, and once again, her sharp senses had been correct. Well, she’d definitely have to defy Theodore’s order regarding the altering of the thermostat as well. No way she’d be letting these men thaw just to obey her boss. Her stomach clenched. Lord, she prayed there wasn’t some sort of mechanical malfunction in the coolant unit. Alone at the facility, and possessing minimal knowledge or skill in machinery of this sort, it wouldn’t be the ideal situation to find herself in. She could radio for help, although depending on the nature of the emergency, response could take hours, days, even weeks. Theodore had been lucky the station had


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happened to be in the chopper’s current flight path when she’d radioed out a mayday distress call following his chest pains an hour ago. “Better get right to it and check that refrigeration unit.” Aurora pressed a palm to her belly and groaned. She could hear the Arctic winds howling aboveground. “I wouldn’t want to have to drag two dead bodies upstairs all by myself, and bury them in the snow, now would I?” She started to turn, but halted. How long had these lifeless bodies been here? She wondered if Kendall had frozen them on purpose, keeping them preserved belowground the entire month she’d been here apprenticing. And if so, why would he hide them from her? What in the hell had the professor intended to do with them? Goose bumps prickled up her back. She laughed hollowly, the sound of it eerie to her own ears as it reverberated in the fluorescent, blueglowing room. “Maybe the professor’s a serial murderer?” She suppressed another nervous giggle, trying to picture the quirky, skinny scientist wielding an axe. Okay, so she was attempting to find humor in the situation to ease her nerves. It did help somewhat, she admitted, yet her stomach swirled with some sort of odd thrill she could only attribute to being a scientist. The sight that lay before her drew her closer, like a moth to a flame, a scholar to an irresistible discovery. She leaned over the first body, knowing she had only a few minutes to indulge her morbid curiosity. Aurora perused the specimen, her heart pounding in fascination as her hot breath swirled out in a misty fog around her face. In its thawing state, the ice shone as clear as glass, the room’s lighting glinting off the cylinder’s surface. The solid tube outlined the subject as if he were the stick within a frozen pop treat. She continued to study the one closest to her, a ruggedly handsome man with short-cropped, thick black hair and sharp features. The eyes were closed above the straight nose, and she suddenly found herself wishing he would open them. Would they be brown? Hazel? Green?

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“Uh, he’s dead, Aurora.” She chuckled even while she honed her gaze and mentally recorded the data of every pore, every striking plane and angle. Unable to resist the urge, she dragged her fingers over the ice just above his scalp, as if to stroke the thick head of hair. “The thermostat,” she murmured to herself. “Go check the thermostat.” She planted her hand above Ice Man Number One’s face with perhaps two inches of ice thickness between them. Aurora stared down at him, her fingers spread, her gaze sliding lower across the high cheekbones, full lips, and the cleft in the strong chin. “Damn, but you were one hot guy.” She gawked at the wide, musclepacked shoulders, the thick chest with just a smattering of sable fur, the nice, rippled abs. And…the impressive cock and full sac nestled atop a bed of dark, curly hair. “Hmm, must have been quite the stud in your day.” She was just about to withdraw her hand and do a quick study of the other subject when an odd wave of energy flushed through her. Aurora gasped as sudden, explicit, sexual images flashed in her mind. Three people, a dozen limbs entwined, moans and screams. Arousal slithered into her bloodstream and hummed deep in her loins. She couldn’t stop the mental pictures running through her head. She tried to pull her hand from the surface of the ice, but it was stuck. Panic bubbled up behind her breastbone. “Oh, God, please don’t—” Before she could finish the mumbled plea, her hand came free. She stared at the redness in her palm, then her gaze shifted to the man as a movement caught her eye. Did his body just twitch? She stood there for several seconds listening to the quiet whir of the cooling unit’s fan. Her pulse pounded and her eyes narrowed…watching, waiting, for what? For a corpse to come to life? “Ridiculous.” She chuckled uneasily. “Of course he didn’t move. He’s dead, you idiot.” Aurora let out a long breath and shook off the terror that threatened to choke her. To prove to herself she wasn’t some skittish, brainless twit,


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she walked around the large table to study the other man. This time, she held her hands clasped behind her back while she bent over the ice and considered the second cadaver. He wasn’t quite as muscle-bound as the other, but his long, lean body certainly appealed to her just as much. Sandy blond hair slightly longer than the other’s framed a face she could only describe as beautiful. Thick brown eyebrows and lashes that fanned over sculpted cheeks were the first facial features that drew her attention. “Let’s see, I bet your eyes are blue. And the other guy…” She shot a quick glance across the ice humps. “His are brown.” Pleased with the fantasy of two pairs of sultry male eyes gazing at her, she continued her perusal of Ice Man Number Two. He’d definitely taken care of his body just as much as Ice Man Number One. But where the first had a bodybuilder’s physique, the second had more of an athlete’s build, like a cross-country biker or a rock climber. She stepped to her right and took in the nicely formed, smooth chest, the flat abdomen and the narrow hips. Unable to resist, she unclasped her hands and set them on the damp table next to the ice, leaning closer to get a more detailed look. Her gaze flitted lower. “Wow, would you look at—” Aurora gasped, cutting off her own rambling comment when her hand brushed a cold, fleshy object. She felt something wrap around her wrist making her gaze jerk down the length of her right arm. The sensation of ice wound tight over her pulse point was confirmed to be a hand—the dead man’s hand. She’d been so fascinated with his striking looks, she hadn’t noticed the ice had melted around his lower arm leaving it completely exposed on the table’s edge. Her head swam with dizziness. The surrealism of the unexpected, frightening moment made her world wobble. Her wrist tingled like it might after an insect had dined on the tissue near her erratically beating pulse. “Oh—oh, God…” She swallowed audibly. Her heart leapt into her throat making it impossible to scream. 10


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Before she could attempt to yank her wrist free and run, she heard the crack of splitting ice. Aurora’s legs trembled, suddenly feeling like limp taffy. She fell to her knees at the slab’s edge and a shriek of terror finally tore from her chest. Looking up, she watched, spellbound, as the man rose slowly to a sitting position, chunks of ice splattering around him. The broken pieces made a song of clinks and zings as they bounced and slid off the table and onto the concrete floor. All the while, he bent forward, his enormous hand remaining wrapped about her arm, steely firm and unbelievably strong—for a dead man. Her knees seemed to be frozen to the floor. She gaped up at him for eons, mesmerized by his eyes. Finally, she snatched in a lungful of air and caught the subtle scent of man mixed with a perplexing tropical aroma. Emotions and fears all seemed to scatter as one thought echoed in her mind. I was wrong about the eyes. They’re not blue. They’re shimmering golden brown…just like the fires of hell. *** Endre Boldizsar gazed down into orbs the very color of violets. The striking irises were ringed by a thin green circle, like leaves framing purple blooms. Ah, and those pupils…damn, they were dilated like the eyes of a female Vencelze vampire in heat! She didn’t so much as blink, but instead, took on the expression of a human already enspelled by one of his nearly extinct Vencelze kin. He hadn’t yet invaded her thoughts to perform such a spell, so the very sight of her free-willed response to him awakened long-buried sensations within his soul. To finally face her flesh-to-flesh did strange things to his insides. He took one quick downward sweep of her from head to knees, and it nearly made him shift into his falcon state of being and whisk her off to his home on Balitori Island. The honey-toned hair hung over a slim shoulder and draped across the large swell of one breast. It appeared to be drawn into a low ponytail at the nape of her appetizing neck. He could


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well imagine releasing the shimmering tresses and entangling his hands in the thickness as he took her with robust passion…as he sank his fangs into that smooth, blood-engorged nook above her collarbone. Endre shook the tempting thoughts from his mind and tightened his hold on her wrist. He withdrew his talons from her flesh, already having drawn from her blood source through their hollow hooks. Thank the Vencelze vampire god that she’d placed her hand within reach. Another hour and the melting ice would have left him thawed and permanently deceased before he had the chance to seek a warm drop of lifeblood. “What’s your name?” Because of his many out-of-body trips, he already knew the answer to that, but there was no need to frighten her more than she already was. Her eyes widened. She swayed against his grip. “A-Aurora.” He watched, almost entranced himself, when her small Adam’s apple rose and fell against the silky skin of her neck. It drew a swift intake of breath from him. Holy ancient vampires of Hungary, that truly was sexual desire he felt stirring within his loins. “How fitting. Aurora, like the northern lights of this region and the southern ones of mine. Well, Aurora…” Damn, it was good to finally speak her name, to feel it roll off his tongue. He leaped off the table revved to get this show rolling. “I’m in your debt. I’d like to thank you for giving me a lifeline.” “Lifeline?” He drew her up clutching her arm against his chest. She hissed in a lungful of air, her gaze devouring him, seeming to wrap around his vampire’s heart and suck the very life from him. “You know, if you keep looking at me that way, I’m going to have to have my way with you before awakening Tabor.” “T-Tabor?” He chuckled at her adorable, stammering confusion. “Yes, my big, icy friend there. I can assure you he’s as eager as I was to be freed from that cold prison. He may appear to be dead, but he’s very much alive. His physical body’s frozen, however, his vampire soul isn’t.” 12


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“V-v-vampire?” Endre’s gaze fell to her quivering, plump pink lips. He shook his head, bewildered by the overwhelming need that assailed him to simply kiss her. Amazingly, just a few drops of her blood through his talons had seemed to satisfy his normally robust appetite for the warm, rich human wine. “Do you always repeat what people say and turn it into a question? Yes, I said vampire—we’re both Vencelze vampires. Ah, but let me make the introductions.” He smiled thinly and led her over to Tabor’s side. “I’m Endre Boldizsar, and this frozen block of fucking ice is my good friend, Tabor Firenzka. I’m sure you’re wondering why we were placed ‘on the rocks’, so to speak.” She nodded, curiosity nearly edging the fear from her eyes. “Mmm, well you see, Professor Kendall lured us here decades ago from our home on Balitori Island. He used some clever bait he’d invented for our feathered forms of being and drew us irresistibly north. He then captured us and froze us into near extinction.” He sneered. “It seemed the man had an unfounded fear of our immortality and what our fangs’ venom could mean for mankind.” “What? I-I can’t believe this. Theodore froze you and your friend alive?” “Friends—plural. There are more of us here. And believe me, it’s been colder than a fucking five-hundred-meter-deep iceberg. Vencelzes always have despised the cold.” He shuddered. “So your boss will pay for putting us through that agony.” “B-but he’s… He’s—” She snapped her jaw shut as if she realized she’d given away a secret. Endre leaned down, his mouth a breath’s space from hers. Her warmth and the energy that suffused into him made him sigh. He inhaled, drawing in the intoxicating scent of something he hadn’t indulged in in ages: Warm woman and wild perfume. “He’s what?” When she didn’t answer, he replied for her. “Ill and in the hospital?” www.samhainpublishing.com

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When her mouth fell open, he let out a chopped laugh and went on. “Yes, I know this already. I’m very aware of what’s been going on here. We’re like spies once you freeze us. Our souls can leave our bodies if and when we choose. The day you arrived? I remember that night well.” Mmm, you can bet I recall that first night when you masturbated in your private quarters with that buzzing contraption. The suppressed moans, the flush of your skin, the way your neck bowed back and made me hunger to sink my fangs into your vital flesh. With her eyes wide, her tongue flicked out and raked over her top lip. She angled her face away from him offering neither a confirmation to his original question, nor a taste of her luscious lips. It drove Endre mad, and made him wonder how she could so easily fire up his system and make him forget the hell of more than two decades of cold. He knew the urge to feed was understandable after so long in a frozen state, but noshing didn’t always accompany fucking for those of the Vencelze race. Yet somehow when he looked upon this woman, he couldn’t seem to untangle the two. Irritated with his thoughts, he brushed them aside. There wasn’t time to analyze this strange sexual attraction for this human woman or to explain everything to her. Instead, he shrugged and flipped out his claws, scraping the ice at Tabor’s left hand until he had it completely exposed. The room had warmed enough to thaw the ice down to a thin layer. Even now, it melted to dangerous levels around Tabor’s lifeless body. Luckily, Aurora had come when they’d mentally called to her, and had arrived before full thaw and death had set in. Endre placed her hand down next to Tabor’s. “Tabor, take life, my man.” As an afterthought, he jerked his gaze up and penetrated Aurora’s eyes once again. He loved how—if he chose to accept the mental bond— her brainwaves could so easily be connected to his by a simple thought or stare. “It won’t hurt any more than the stinging sensation you felt when I clawed you. But he must have your blood or he’ll die.”

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She flinched. “No, you can’t—” Her eyes glistened with unease, yet he detected an edge of fascination. “Please tell me I’m not… Am I going to become a vampire now that you—you stung my wrist?” He couldn’t help smiling. With his free hand, he reached up and traced the curve of her jaw. The warmth of her flesh flooded his palm, chasing away the last traces of cold and causing his vampire’s heart to pump faster, hotter. “No, our falcon’s talons can’t taint a human.” He revealed his fangs to her, delighted when her eyes rounded in fascination. “Only if you’re infected by the venom within our fangs will you become one of us. And right now, that’s the furthest thing from my mind,” he lied. “So may I allow Tabor to…?” He wouldn’t force her. Endre could simply offer Tabor his own blood, which now swam and multiplied with Aurora’s lifesaving elixir. But it would take longer and weaken Endre enough to delay his mission. He’d honor her wishes if it frightened her that much, though he wouldn’t like having to take the extra time to allow his own strength to build following the transfer of blood. Offering a few drops of her vital fluid to Tabor at this very moment would simply speed up the process of revenge. And he would get revenge on the professor if it were the last thing he ever did on this earth. She narrowed those bright eyes. “You promise me I won’t turn into a vampire, or get sick or anything?” “I promise with my immortal life. I wouldn’t lie to you. I owe you—we do. We’re very grateful you came along when you did.” She blew out a breath, the shade of her heart-shaped face nearly matching the white of her lab coat. “I…I don’t know.” With the exception of subtly calling Aurora to the freezer, Endre hadn’t used his telepathic powers in decades. He hated to do it, but there was no choice. He could feel the temperatures rising in the cooler. Minute by minute, the ice thawed around Tabor’s stiff body. Time, rather than the professor, had become the current enemy—that and the


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possibility he might not be able to convince Aurora to offer up just one drop of her blood to Tabor. Look at me, Aurora. Listen to everything I’m about to tell you… He called to her over and over until she finally stared up at him with the glazed, blank expression that denoted enspelling had occurred. Coupled with a kiss, it was the most effective, rapid way he knew to impart truths and information to a subject outside of random transmissions during out-of-body phases. Endre didn’t have time to waste. He drew her into his arms and molded her lithe, warm form to his. Her swift intake of breath against his lips surprised him. Most humans were sedated enough during the enspell process that they barely had the energy to breathe or return the kiss. Nevertheless, she continued to astonish him with her strength and defiance. She was able to release a groan, and though she stood with her arms down at her sides, she leaned into the kiss and accepted his mouth on hers. Holy vamp, but she tasted of decadent passion. Her lips skated over his in a wisp of silk and wet honey. Her tongue plunged into his mouth like a ribbon of sweet satin, stroking, giving, taking. His cock engorged with hot, swift arousal, and helpless to resist, he ground it against her soft abdomen. He could feel his balls tighten while his loins ached deep into his anus. It had been so long, such an eternity since he’d held a woman this way. Endre couldn’t get enough, and he skimmed his hands up her body, molding his palms to the swell of ass, the peak of ripe breasts, imagining what it might feel like to sink his erect penis into her dripping, wet vagina. He moaned at the mental picture that conjured up, and in a maddened flurry of need, his lips found that spot in the crook of her neck where blood coursed like liquid fire and flesh tasted of some long forgotten, delectable Vencelze dessert. The slam of desire made his fangs tingle and elongate, made him hunger to sink them into that warm, succulent column. Just a taste, just one tiny taste… He heard the subtle shift of Tabor at his left, his limited way of reminding Endre to focus on the matter at hand. It seemed he’d nearly allowed Aurora to turn the tables and enspell him instead. Endre 16


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snapped himself out of the fog of passion she’d wrapped him in and got right to work. He imparted the information to her making her see the necessary truths of the dire predicament the professor had put them in. Now that he had her lifeblood multiplying in his system, he used its power and the energy of the kiss to build her trust and educate her on the facts of how her boss had lured his people here and trapped them with the intent to kill. He didn’t send all the information to her. No, too much at once could endanger her mental status and risk permanent madness. The rest would come later, but for now, he continued to transmit the details to her, repeating them until he was sure she comprehended and accepted it all as truth. With her lips still pressed to his, her eyelids finally fluttered open, the liquid pools of amethyst now clear and lucid. It was at that moment his world shifted out of orbit. He knew she understood, sensed her genuine sympathy. And he saw something there in her soul, something he couldn’t quite define. Endre shook the bewilderment from his head. His breath clogged in his lungs and he fought to speak. Her beauty left him breathless. “So now you see you won’t turn into a vampire, and Tabor needs one crucial drop of your blood to live.” She eased back, inhaled, and her gaze fell to Tabor. “Yes,” she finally whispered, her voice tinged with the last drugged traces of enspelling. “Let him…let him do his thing.” “Thank you.” Endre sighed and pressed a kiss to her forehead, charmed when her lashes fluttered coquettishly down against her high cheekbones. He detected the sturdy thump of her heart, much stronger than it had been before the kiss, as it pumped delicious blood through the curves and planes of her gorgeous body. His gaze dipped to the V of the tight black sweater beneath the lab coat, making his legs quiver at the sight of that luscious cavern. He shook his head to clear would kill him if he didn’t get would be time later to explore woman. Endre filed that thought

the tempting thoughts, knowing Tabor on with the resurrection. Later…there the strange connection he felt to this away and set her hand near Tabor’s.


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“Tabor, take the hand offered. Use your talons now so we can be on our way. It’s time to travel to Balitori Island and recuperate. Later we will return here and see what damage has been done to our species.” Seconds passed. Finally, Tabor’s fingers flexed and straightened. His hooked claws emerged one by one from beneath the human-like fingernails. “That’s it, close your fingers around her arm.” Tabor’s hand curled around Aurora’s wrist eliciting a hiss of dread from her. To her credit, she held her blood source voluntarily within reach, only flinching slightly when he penetrated her flesh. It didn’t take long to drink the single drop he required from her. Tabor’s ice shell cracked and he rose, releasing his hold on her while retracting his talons. “Son of a vamp bitch, that was one damn long twenty-five-year nap.” Tabor stretched and contracted his muscles, his skin already returning to its normally tanned tone. “Fucking right.” Endre laced his hand into Aurora’s and started for the door. “Now let’s get the hell out of here.” “Wait!” Aurora dug her booted heels into the floor. “Where are you going? And why are you dragging me with you?” Tabor strode up and took her other hand. “I think Endre already enspelled the information to you. But let’s try it again. We have to go home to replenish our Vencelze energy, then return here to free the rest of them.” “No, I-I…” She pulled frantically against their hands. “Let go of me. Please. I gave you what you wanted. If you must leave, fine, I totally understand now, but why are you…?” They ushered her to the door. Endre led them through the laboratory, shoved against the metal bar, and moved out into the dimly lit hallway. “Why are we dragging you with us?” “Yes, exactly,” she bit out, stumbling against their pull. “I’m not preventing either one of you from leaving. In fact, I helped bring you back to life…or whatever. I-I can’t leave. I…see, I—goddamn it, let go of me!” 18


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Her stern tone rather than the tug of her hands had them stopping just long enough to arch their brows at her. “Sorry to say, sweet Aurora, but you’re coming with us,” Endre informed her. Her golden brows drew together as one. “Oh, no I’m not!” Tabor simply nodded. Her narrowed gaze shot flames from one to the other. “You’re both crazy. And even though I get what you somehow made me understand— however it was you did that—I must be losing my mind right along with you if I’m allowing my sleep-deprived brain to believe all this ridiculous crap.” “Aurora, you already know the truth. I enspelled it all to you.” “Enspelled? How absurd,” she scoffed, her nose raising a notch. “Like there are really dead frozen men rising up and claiming to be vampires, pricking me with their claws, accusing the professor of murder. It’s all a bunch of bullshit, and I’m going to wake up any second from this fucking nightmare and zap you both out of my freaking mind.” “Look, we don’t have time for—” Endre’s words were cut short by Tabor. “No, darling, we don’t have a second to spare,” Tabor said, dragging a finger along her lower lip. “So we’ll have to talk about it later.” He tugged. She tugged back. “Why? Why do you seem to think I have to go with you? I have work to do here. Theo’s in the hospital and I need to stay here to welcome him back. I can’t just drop everything and run off and abandon the station.” Tabor’s voice came out on a raspy whisper, his crystal blue eyes twinkling. “Why, you ask? Because, you’re ours now, forever. We’ve mutually chosen you, our human. The triangle forms even as we speak. Whether in love or friendship, the bond is now sealed no matter if you’re on one side of the universe and we on the other. When and if the day comes that you decide to surrender completely to us and take our venom into your blood by bite, the three of us will be an integral Vencelze Triangle. However, if you should deny us this wedded, eternal bliss, a www.samhainpublishing.com

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covenant of friendship and devotion will always remain between us because you’ve been chosen. If we leave without you, you’ll ache as if we’d torn your heart from that luscious chest of yours. Better to be in close proximity to alleviate that inevitable pain.” When she only stared at him in stunned disbelief, he went on. “Once we’ve had the opportunity to finish briefing you in your dreams during the trip home, you’ll further understand. Then, I believe that of your own free will, you’ll have no ambivalence about leaving your post here.” “We can’t safely remain here any longer, Aurora. We have to hurry now, and we need to be given the opportunity to complete the briefing process.” “But—” Endre spared not a moment longer. He knew the plan. With a nod to Tabor, they led her outside, embraced her, and shifted into partial-falcon form. Together, they rose into the emerald and scarlet night of the aurora borealis sky with Aurora tucked between them.

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Chapter Two Aurora awoke to the melody of surf and parrots. The aroma of salt and tropical blooms hung heavy on the sultry breeze. Propping herself up on one hand, her gaze scanned the room. She lay in a king-size bed, red silk sheets tangled about her naked body. It didn’t surprise her to see that she’d been stripped. Images of two strong, handsome men filled her mind. One dark and dangerous with the build of a serious weightlifter, eyes as cool and pale blue as ice. The other a shade lighter in coloring, his body tough and lean, his face startlingly beautiful. At the station, they had shifted into half-man half-falcon form, their long wings wrapping her in feathery warmth, and had whisked her into the night sky. The brilliant blood reds and greens of the northern lights had blinded her, and the sharp cold of the dry air had cut through her lungs like a knife. She recalled the rhythmic swish and flap of wings, the eerie song of the blustery winds, and the pungent odor of smoke from the station below. From there, things were fuzzy. She’d slipped into that state of oblivion she’d been in when Endre had kissed her at the station. But even as knowledge had poured into her dazed mind, she’d sensed the change of climates from deathly cold to hot and humid. There’d been the occasional blast of an ocean liner’s horn, the caw of a seagull soaring nearby, the grand rush of the ocean beneath them. It moved through her memory in a blur, in soft dream flashes, yet she knew it had all been real. Aurora scanned the richly furnished bedroom, saw that the white wispy curtain panels over the patio door fluttered almost romantically on the breeze that wafted in. She rose, drawing the sheet with her, and


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knotted the fabric between her breasts. As she crossed to the open glass slider, brilliant sunlight blinded her. She stepped out onto a large cedar deck into the soothing warmth. The view stunned her into dazed silence. Across a sparkling, half-moon-shaped lagoon, smoky-gray hills skirted an enormous mountain, which in turn cut into the crisp azure sky. The peak’s proud jut spoke of ruthless command and the volatile petulance of Mother Nature. Halfway down the summit, a castle perched on a wide cliff and overlooked a tier of homes below. The cluster of dwellings and their castle reigned majestic over the turquoise cove arcing back into the hills. She glanced down, her gaze following a succession of stairs that stopped at a landing, turned and fell to another. And that’s when she saw them floating naked in an enormous pool at the bottom of the steps. The inlet had been formed by a circle of random rocks and ledges just below the foot of the stairs. The bright aqua water reflected the highnoon sunlight, scattering twinkles of diamonds across the surface. The light of the sun, she’d learned in her enspelling, wasn’t deadly to Vencelzes as it was portrayed in classic literature. Rather, it energized the vampire’s body and soul, much the opposite of ice. Aurora saw the confirmation of this as they floated in the pool, lounging in the sun’s rays, and knew why their race had migrated here centuries ago to this island off the coast of Australia. “Ah, she has risen,” Tabor shouted, his deep voice echoing across the bay. “Good morning, princess.” Endre added his own warm greeting from his place near a natural waterfall tumbling down the rocky hillside and into the swimming hole. Its musical tune sang in the background, drawing her to the paradise below. Together the men splashed, working their way toward the stairs. Reaching their destination, they planted their feet on the sandy bottom, penetrating her with bold stares, one icy-cool, but no less hot than the fiery one. Aurora shivered, though the punch of desire that blasted through her loins had nothing whatsoever to do with cold. She clutched the sheet to 22


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her breasts with one hand, set her other on the warm wooden rail. Her clitoris engorged with blood, her pussy dampened, spilling juices onto her naked inner thighs as she watched them eagerly await her approach. “What a delicious sight,” she whispered to herself, certain now her vow of celibacy after the break-up of her marriage last year had been a self-defeating mistake. They grinned up at her, and she caught the glint of fangs in the slash of a golden sunbeam. Vampires. They’d informed her they were vampires, and surprisingly, she felt not the slightest trace of fear or doubt any longer. Her practical, scientific mind had never been the typical, disbelieving type anyway, the kind that tested and retested, despite the evidence before her. She’d always believed in the unseen, the unproven, and had always been somewhat of an unconventional scientist. No one could ever tell her that a hypothesis wasn’t fact unless proven by hordes of statistics. She knew things in her heart and had forever been driven by instinct instead of data…as she had been driven to the underground, makeshift morgue the professor had kept hidden from her. “Come join us, Aurora,” Endre called up to her. He lifted a hand as if to wait for her to take it. “We’ve much to do once Tabor and I’ve recovered and built up our blood supply. You believe it all—don’t you?— now that we’ve planted the knowledge into your sleeping mind.” “Yes.” She spoke softly, the simple yet power-packed word carrying on the ocean breeze. Aurora believed their tale of vampires, of the professor discovering them over twenty years ago and attempting to exterminate them from Earth. She knew they’d been frozen with the intent to kill, and she knew other Vencelzes were trapped somewhere back at the Greenland station. Others that would have to be freed. She glanced down at the puncture marks on first one wrist, then the other. “Yes, you’re right,” she repeated as she pushed off from the railing. Aurora glided to the stairs as if in a trance, following each set to its


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landing as she spoke. “I understand it all now. I know what must be done.” The wind blew the sheet, making it flap around her legs so that when she descended the stairs, the red silk parted, revealing the long length of pale thighs and calves. She saw the rabid glaze in the two pairs of eyes that devoured her, and she knew a sense of female power like never before. “I’m aware and very eager to mate with you…both of you, to become your bonded human partner within our Vencelze Triangle. But only under one condition.” She thought of Theodore, and despite the danger he posed to their race, she couldn’t allow them to kill him. They looked up at her when she approached. Their eyebrows, one pair dark, the other, darker still, winged up in question. “And what condition would that be?” Tabor asked, his tone wary. She stood on the flat stone ledge staring down at them, wanting to throw out her demands, yet knowing she needed to become one of them first. It was the professor’s only chance at life. She had to go through with the bonding in order to save him from them, from what she herself would become. “Later. We can discuss it later. For now, I have a decision to make regarding that triangle…” “You’ve been mentally briefed on everything, babe, but it’s still your choice. You’re not required to mate with us, nor will you be forced to join us into eternity through feeding.” Endre reached up and trailed a wet finger down her shin, across her foot and toes. She let out a whimper, fighting like mad to keep her eyes open as fire rose to lick her womb. “However,” Tabor added, exploring her other leg, “it’s our biggest desire that you do choose to be with us forever. You know you can never break the bond of friendship already formed by our mutual acceptance of you?” Aurora nodded. “The telepathic briefing on the journey here to your island explained it all in succinct terms.”

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Which made me realize I had to do something for Theo’s sake. So I will… Her irreversible decision would serve three purposes. First, it would preserve her boss’s life, and second, it would satisfy her lifelong fascination with vampires, once and for all scientifically proving their existence. What better way to support her data than to become one herself? The final reason for offering up her life and soul to become the eternal mate in a Vencelze Triangle was simple: The fire and lust that boiled within her blood could at last be slaked. Endre hissed in on a whistle. “Bloody hell, you have the most gorgeous body I’ve ever laid eyes on.” “Ah, I most definitely agree,” Tabor rasped, his gaze clouding with desire. He and Endre both offered her a hand. “So, will you join us for a swim, Rora?” Aurora nodded. “But first, answer one thing for me.” She filled her hand with the globe of one breast, pinching the nipple, enjoying the glaze of yearning in their eyes. Her other hand slid down her flat belly. She ached, needed some sort of stimulation this very second. Knowing what words were about to come out of her own mouth, it drove her hand lower. She parted the swollen labia, slid her finger over the engorged clitoris, and found the sticky pool of cum. “Holy underworld, get in the water now,” Endre demanded almost angrily as he tugged on her leg. “Let her ask her question.” Tabor’s tone came out just as strained. He plunged his free hand below the water and found his erection. She could see he stroked it slow and purposeful as he kept his eyes on her. Mimicking him in female form, Aurora finger-fucked herself while she watched Tabor. She growled her pleasure and fought the urge to dive in, to take that cock in her mouth and devour it. But first she had to know one thing. “This triangle you spoke of…?” “Yes?” Endre prompted through clenched fangs, unable to hold off on fondling his own shaft.


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“Is it a triangle as in, you men take turns with me? Or is it a triangle as in, you ravish me at the same time—an actual sort of ‘three-way’ connection between our bodies?” “Gargoyle hell,” Endre groaned out, yanking on her calf until she teetered on the edge of the pool. “It’s however you want it. Now damn it, get in.” Tabor waited, watching as Endre caught her in his arms and cradled her. Gentleman-like, he held her up so her ass slowly sank below the cool water. She thought she heard a sizzle and delighted in the cold wetness that enveloped her. The breeze fluttered over her damp skin making her shiver even as the sun and man warmed her flesh. With her heart pounding in her ears, she gazed at Tabor across the short distance. He reminded her of a tame wolf ready to pounce on a hunk of meat once given permission by his master. Knowing she had become that piece of meat—and a master of sorts—made desire spiral into her womb and caused her clitoris to throb with delicious pain. “Yes, it depends. How do you want this triangle of yours to be, Aurora?” Tabor asked, his chiseled chest heaving with his restraint. “It’s your option.” She slid her arm around Endre’s neck and reached out to Tabor with the other. Her blood beat a rapid thrum in every artery in her body. The stony rod of Endre’s cock pressed against her hip, making her all too aware that soon it would be inside her—and so would Tabor’s. Hot anticipation oozed between her legs as she tugged Tabor nearer so that she had a male torso on either side of her. “My option…” Thinking on it for a moment, she finally replied, “Well, I do have a secret fantasy. But unless you invaded my privacy at the station as I wrote in my diary, you wouldn’t know it.” Endre’s hand dipped beneath the water and found her tingling lips. She cried out when he slowly buried a long finger into her cunt. “I didn’t go that far with my out-of-body searching. Maybe I should have…” His eyelids fluttered. He picked up the rhythm and added another finger. “Tabor?” he breathed raggedly. “How about you?” 26


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Tabor leaned in and nuzzled her so that she bowed her head back. Erotic goose bumps prickled from her ear—where he now explored with his hot tongue—down to her aching pussy. His right arm hooked around her right leg drawing her thighs apart to allow Endre more room to explore. Tabor’s left hand skimmed her buttocks under the water, scraping with his short fingernails, massaging the fleshy cheeks of her rear. In a swirling dance, he found her tailbone, rubbing it until she moaned with pleasure. “I-I want you both,” she whispered through pursed lips. Carnal sensations bombarded Aurora, making her lift her gaze to the cerulean sky in abandonment. The wind blew her hair and tossed the leaves about on the limbs of the ucalyptus trees at the pool’s edge. The soft clicking song played in harmony with the high-pitched ballad of a group of colorful parrots. She watched as they flew low overhead, heard the flap of wings—so like that of her falcons—as they soared over the distant rushing surf before fluttering back around to perch upon a limb. Yes, she’d been waiting all her life for this, and neither man, vampire, nor beast would deter her. “I want you both at the same time. Forever, into eternity.” They stilled their movements and stared at her. “Are…are you sure?” Endre’s fiery eyes blazed with need and hope at the same time. “Forever? You mean you want to be bitten?” Tabor blinked, his fangs lengthening at mention of the vampiric word of fleshly penetration. Aurora twisted, splashing until she straddled Tabor with Endre now at her back. “Mmm, yes. I’ve always been fascinated by vampires, and always fantasized about being one—even though a part of me doubted their existence. This is a dream come true for me. I willingly surrender to you and Endre. At the same time, I give both of you my blood and my body.” They gaped at her, speechless. She went on. “Please, fuck me now. You in my pussy,” she suggested, dragging her mouth over Tabor’s. She tasted a sweet burst of flavor on www.samhainpublishing.com

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his tongue, and loved the way his fangs scraped against her bottom lip. “And this first time, I want to have Endre in my ass.” Still, they didn’t respond. At first, she wondered if she’d assumed too much. Then she glanced over her shoulder and caught Endre’s heated gaze. Tabor snared her with those crystal eyes, and there was no mistaking the hope she saw there. Encouraged, she continued. “Now I can combine my doublepenetration fantasy and my captivation with vampires.” She wiggled until her slit found the head of Tabor’s stiff cock, silky smooth against her moist folds. “Please, I beg you both. Do it. Give me what I long for and make me your lifemate.” “I don’t need anymore convincing.” Endre reached around and filled his palms with her breasts. He tweaked, pinched, and rolled the hardened knots between his fingers. It seemed trickles of smoking lava poured into her canal. The warm shaft of his cock nestled between her ass cheeks, making her anus tingle in anticipation. With his nose, he dragged her hair away from her neck and nipped at the flesh from shoulder to earlobe. Aurora’s breath shuddered in her lungs. “Yes, oh yes. That’s a good start.” “Mmm, you look delicious enough to eat,” Tabor growled, diving into the other side of her neck. “Then please just eat.” She didn’t know where this animal need had come from. True, it’d been ages since she’d had sex, but to suddenly have two fantasies being fulfilled at once was enough to bring out the beast in an angel. Endre reached below her pussy until he found Tabor’s cock. He shifted its position, edging her down so that just the head of it penetrated her juicy pussy. Just knowing Endre gripped Tabor’s erection and guided it into her wetness nearly brought her to the brink of release. “You want to be eaten, you got it. You’ll get devoured front, neck and back.” Endre hooked a hand on her shoulder and jammed her down, impaling her on Tabor’s shaft. 28


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“Oh, God!” she cried out, her head falling back as the tip of Tabor’s cock dragged over her G-spot. Aurora’s eyes crossed. Pleasure swam through her veins in a race of pure, wanton lust. The cool pool water lapped around her waist, sloshed up onto her breasts. She could smell the musky male scent in double-dose, along with a faint whiff of pineapple in the distance. It made her hungry, made her ravenous to eat and be eaten. “Holy viscount of vampires, you’re so tight.” Tabor forced it through clenched teeth, his fangs exposed and glistening. God, she wanted those sharp teeth sunk into her neck. She was just dying to give of her life’s blood to them both. “Ah, really? Well, let’s see if her ass is just as tight…” Endre snaked his arm around her waist, molding her spine against his solid chest. His free hand returned to the task of massaging her buttocks, bringing the blood flow to that area and making her melt into the water in bliss. She gasped when his fingertip circled her anus. Fire raced to her pussy, dampening her vagina. Her muscles clamped around Tabor’s cock. He groaned, rocking his hips so that he could rub over her magic spot in short, maddening strokes. Endre trailed kisses up her neck. She shivered, inhaling the faint aroma of sea salt and male flesh. Aurora heard the splash of water behind her as Tabor reached up and pressed her closer. “Hold still, gorgeous. Hold real still for Endre…” His deep, raspy whisper eased seductively into her ears. Her head spun with excitement and her cunt secreted a new wash of elixir around Tabor’s cock. She yearned to be taken by them both simultaneously, and the anticipation caused her to rock impatiently, grinding her clit against Tabor’s pubic bone. But no one could have prepared her for what followed. Endre’s arm released her. She heard the slosh and felt his free hand spread her ass cheeks. Her heart skipped a beat as he plunged his head beneath the water. She didn’t know what he’d do next, but she had faith he’d deliver the bliss she sought.


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“Endre, Tabor.” She forced the words out on a groan of ecstasy as Endre’s tongue found her anus below the water’s surface. The tickle of bubbles gurgled up at the small of her back when he let out air and dove in deeper, spearing his long tongue into her tight hole. A frisson of nerve endings fired in rapid succession. Her pussy tightened its hold on Tabor’s rod. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rocked her hips, savoring the myriad sensations that bombarded her. The movements caused Tabor to force out an unintelligible curse. He stilled her by clamping his hands on her hips. “No, don’t come, not yet. Wait. Wait until he…” Endre sputtered water and gasped as he surfaced. “I can’t take this torture any longer. I’m going to fuck you. Fuck you right up your ass.” She lifted an arm behind her and wound it around Endre’s neck. He shifted, settling against her, his cock between them like a steel bar. “Mmm, yes, now kiss me.” He cupped her jaw and turned her mouth toward his. As she held onto Tabor with one arm and moved her hips in time with his thrusts, she stabbed her fingers into Endre’s hair and forced his mouth to hers. She tasted crisp, salty seawater as droplets trailed down his face and into their mouths. Fire blazed in her groin, threatening to combust. After a long maddening moment of feeding on his delicious kiss, she tore her mouth from his. “Now…” Aurora could barely talk. Her lungs burned with winded breaths. “Please, give it to me now.” “Goddamn it, yes, Endre,” Tabor growled. “Now. Now, or I’ll be shooting off in her way ahead of you both.” “Don’t have to twist my arm,” Endre muttered, and he angled his pelvis back just enough to grasp his cock and align the head with her anus. The slight brush made her whimper as a hot flood of need soaked her pussy. Waiting, wanting, she drew in the wild fragrance of man, of vampire, both men so different yet so alike. With measured control, Endre pushed into her, maddeningly slow, until half of his long, thick shaft became sheathed by her ass. 30


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Once the initial reflex to bear down passed, she came totally unhinged. Fireworks of pleasure snapped off inside her forcing her to push backward and beg for more. He gave it to her leisurely and gentle, inch by savory inch. A rush of need engulfed her when he reached a point of no return and buried himself to the hilt. The orgasm lured her from afar, lifting her higher, then plunging her into madness. “Oh—” Her voice came out as a ragged whisper. “I-I’m going to come. I’m—oh, please, harder, deeper—both of you!” At her plea, Tabor reached out and drew Endre in closer so she became completely sandwiched by them. Endre did the same, encircling Aurora and Tabor in his strong embrace. They withdrew and plunged their shafts, riding her in opposite rhythms, as if she were the teetertotter fulcrum and they the up-and-down riders. Small explosions of fire and heat burst in turn, the vivid sparks of pleasure building into a smoking flame of desire. First it centered at her clitoris and spread from there, moving deep into that shallow spot of sensitive nerve endings just past her anal sphincter. She relaxed, opening herself to their full girths and lengths. It seemed she couldn’t get enough, couldn’t get them deep enough to satisfy that feral urge that overtook her. She feasted on the salty flesh near Tabor’s jugular, and it made her think once again of their need to feed on her. Aurora didn’t waste time. She wanted the firsthand vampire knowledge that could only be hers by becoming one, and knew this feeding she was about to encourage would serve its purpose. It would give her enough status within the Vencelze ranks to enable her to protect Theo. But foremost at the moment, she knew it was too late to turn back. The compulsion to be bitten sped through her system making her rabid and hungry to become one with them. Her carotid pulse hammered in her throat, calling to them, stirring up their animal instincts to feed. “I’m about to explode. It’s…it’s coming. Bite me now, both of you.” She tossed her head back so that her hair fell away from her neck. “Feed on my soul at the very same moment you’re feasting on my body.”


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“Oh, Aurora…” Endre said with a groan. He wasted no time and went straight for her right pulse point, licking, sucking, making her shiver all over. “You sure, babe?” Tabor managed to ask even as he nipped the left side of her neck. “Yes, just do it!” The note of impatience staccatoed down into a sob. The orgasms were starting to fire off, to plunge her over a crest of bliss. Spasms of lust overtook her as she rode on the surf of them and clamped her eyes shut. Hot male cum shot simultaneously into her cunt and ass. She curved her arms around their necks holding them to her as her head fell back onto Endre’s shoulder. Water swirled around them; the winds blew in on a sudden blast of sweltering air. Her eyelids fluttered open when their fangs finally penetrated her flesh—first Endre’s, then Tabor’s a split second later. Stark, pinching pain ripped through her neck, but it didn’t last long. It seemed to shift into ecstasy, intensifying every sensation in her entire body. She heard them gulp on long, drawn-out moans, even as her blood flowed out of her human body and transformed her to Vencelze. It stunned her, made her dizzy and giddy all at once. The second orgasm ripped through her tenfold while the ebbing ache in her neck choked her with paradise. Aurora’s soul embraced a bath of pain, pleasure and a mind-boggling level of rapture she had never, ever experienced before now. Her arms remained hooked about their necks as they drank of her endorphin-laced blood. She leaned back and watched in fascination as ghostly versions of their bodies rose above her and shifted into beautiful feathered falcons. She heard their call, watched as their misty forms fluttered their wings, as if they held hands and beckoned to her to join them. The final release plowed through her system in a long, relentless upsurge, and she kept her gaze fixed on the birds, amazed when a third falcon materialized between them. She hit the orgasmic summit head-on and let out a scream of final pleasure when the three birds dove back down, the center one heading straight for her. That was when she knew 32


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this was her Vencelze counterpart. The middle falcon was her new soul, the missing third angle in Aurora’s Vencelze Triangle. She had become a vampire. Now, she would have the power, the power to thwart their plan of murder.


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Chapter Three In the weeks that followed, Endre and Tabor’s souls gradually recovered from the effects of twenty-five years of frozen hell. They planned their return to Greenland to free the remaining Vencelzes from Theodore’s trap. While they plotted the professor’s murder, Aurora absorbed more knowledge of her new race. She learned Vencelzes had migrated from Hungary centuries ago, having settled here on the remote Australian island following a major vampire hunt much like the one implemented by Theodore. Balitori Island, she now knew, had once been a thriving haven for all Vencelze vampires. This was where they’d lived, mated, loved and prospered, where the prince had reigned over their island nation and wooed his priestess-to-be. Even now, she could gaze across the lagoon and see the majestic palace perched atop the cliff. Where the land tumbled down toward the sea and inland beyond, homes of various styles sat tucked within coconut groves and palms. Like a scatter of steps leading out from the castle, the houses tiered downhill. The rocky overhangs and terraces with their rich green and blooming foliage gradually blended down toward homes that had been built along the sea. Grand homes, she thought, like this one that Endre and Tabor had erected in preparation for finding the third partner in their Vencelze Triangle. Aurora. These triangles were the way of their people, a sort of strengthening formation to further their race. Some, she’d learned, were of three women, while others consisted of three men, or two women and one man. Or like Aurora’s Triangle, one woman and two men.

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But always there were three, or there were two in search of the mate to complete their lifelong triad. And by Aurora’s way of thinking, there was something so very comforting and almost romantic about that encompassing goal. Why didn’t the human race practice this sort of loving, three-way connection more? It seemed she no longer had humanlike answers to logic or anything in life. Ever since that initial feeding, her mind had been transformed into “Vencelze think”, as she liked to call it. As she’d explored the island during Tabor and Endre’s period of recuperation from their lengthy freeze, she’d took it all in and absorbed her new life like a dry sponge soaking up the sea. Further inland, Aurora had visited the quaint little town of Oszkar. Neatly laid streets with lampposts and shops lined its unique grid. Palm trees soared over the stores’ thatched roofs where huge nests had been built for any citizen in their falcon form in need of leisure time while visiting Oszkar. One thing had struck Aurora as eerie and sent a chill up her spine. The ghostly quiet. It made her think of a western ghost town, and further emphasized her dilemma. She had stood on the barren streets and listened to the silence, watched and waited for someone— anyone—to emerge from the many establishments or homes perched on the hillside below. She knew that would never happen unless they were able to free all the Vencelzes now held captive by a dangerous professor…her father. Guilt plagued her like a fatal disease. Torn between her birth father and her new race, she often sought solace in Oszkar so she could be alone to think and make plans of her own. She cried, she brainstormed, she fretted over the inevitable day to come. Aurora often shifted into her falcon form just to soar over the island and its sea to meditate and form a solution, or at best, a compromise for them all. On this particular day, she partook of her meal with her two husbands. She knew the time had come. They had both regained their strength and were prepared to return to Greenland to dispose of her father and subsequently free their people—her people.


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Tomorrow would be the day, and she hadn’t yet revealed her secret to them. She had to do something—but what? “I want to help,” Aurora insisted from her place at the head of the long dining table. “I will go back to Greenland with you.” “No.” Endre speared his asparagus and wagged it at her, candlelight dancing on the handsome planes of his face. “You’ll stay here, and that’s final.” “I don’t want to stay here alone. It’s eerie. I’ve seen firsthand that the whole island is deserted because your people—our people—were lured away by the professor’s bait.” “All the more reason for you to stay behind here in safety,” Tabor countered, tossing back the wine left in his goblet. He rose, went to the heavy oak side table, and poured himself another glassful. As he spoke, Aurora studied his powerful build, amazed that desire swirled once again in her loins. Tabor stepped over and refilled Endre and Aurora’s glasses. “We’ve now got three Vencelzes—including you, Rora—and that’s a start to rebuilding our species. But there’s hope for more. We know what we’re up against now. We now know how to avoid his bait, how to free our people…and we know exactly what to do with the professor.” She slammed her cup onto the table, sloshing red wine across the crisp white tablecloth. Leaping to her feet, she snapped, “For the last time, you can’t kill Professor Kendall!” Endre dropped his fork with a clank and clasped his hand around hers. His grip felt warm, dominant, resolute. Slowly, firmly, he tugged her down so she sat back in her seat. “For the last time, we can and we will. He’s a danger to our whole species, our whole life—even to you, for falcon’s sake. Aurora, why in vampire hell would you want that man to live knowing he tried to kill us and our people? And knowing that he’ll most likely see that you’re frozen to death, too?” She bit her lip and stared into his gleaming gold eyes. “I… Well, because…” 36


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Tabor took his place at her right. “Spit it out, hon. Because what?” Endre curled his fingers into hers encouraging her to speak her mind. “Go ahead, it’s okay.” “B-because he’s…he’s my real father.” The grandfather clock in the entryway ticked and tocked, mocking the long silence as both Endre and Tabor gaped at her. “Your what?” Tabor’s booming voice echoed throughout the Spanishstyle, adobe mansion. His eyes widened in a striking show against the bronze of his rugged face. Endre inhaled sharply. “No. It can’t be. Your father tried to murder us and our entire bloodline? How could we not know this about you?” “I—” “Neither you nor the professor provided any hint of this during our out-of-body visits at the station. Aurora, this is a very crucial fact—and, goddamn it, you didn’t bother telling us until now?” “How could I tell you? I knew what horrible thing you had planned.” When a flicker of guilt lit their eyes, she went on, emboldened with conviction. “As far as your not gaining knowledge of it at the station, I wondered that, too, but it’s really very simple. As you know, our Vencelze mind-invasion skills are selective, not constant. They’re only in use at those times we choose to breach privacy. I can only assume I did my best to focus on my job and not the adoption, which gave you little opportunity to learn he’s my father. At those times I did ponder my human lineage, it seems neither of your spirits happened upon me when my thoughts ran in that direction. And Theodore didn’t offer you the information because apparently he doesn’t know—and I didn’t broadcast it because I didn’t want him to find out. Since we’ve been here, I just wasn’t sure how or when—or if—to tell you. All I know is, I-I can’t be a party in helping you kill my own flesh and blood.” “What about you, your vampire flesh, your vampire blood? Would this be the time to remind you you’re now Vencelze?” Tabor replied pointedly. “And with your enthusiastic blessing, I might add.”


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Aurora tore her hand from Endre’s as the edge of trepidation sliced through her heart. She leaned into the high-backed dining chair and sighed. “I know. I know it’s hard to swallow. But let me explain. Theo and his ex-wife put me up for adoption when I was a baby. I found him after doing an Internet search a few months ago and had it confirmed by a private investigator. I went to the station under the guise that I had an insatiable interest in minerals—which I really do, but that wasn’t the priority in this case. I used my credentials and experience as a research scientist to secure the position. While it would have been my dream job under any other circumstance, I took it more to get to know him, to see if I wanted to reveal to him who I really was…and it didn’t hurt knowing he has a reputation as a world-renowned professor any scientist would be proud to add as a reference on a résumé. So remember, I went there first as a person who happened to be a scientist curious about her father. The unplanned vampire part came second.” “Fires of hell,” Tabor cursed, slumping in his seat. Her throat burned. She could see the shock, disappointment, and confusion on both their faces. “I’m…I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before now, before entering into the triangle with you both.” Endre raked a hand through his thick head of hair, leaving the longish sandy tresses mussed in his frustration. “Sorry don’t cut it, hon. Now what the fuck do we do? Sit back and let him carry out his murder plot of a whole species—including you, his own daughter—just because he’s your long-lost dad?” Hope bloomed in her chest. “That’s exactly my point. Maybe if I tell him who I am—and what I’ve become—he’ll stop the extermination experiment and release them all. Which obviously means I need to be there.” “Aurora—” “Look, you’re both energized now and ready to return, but you’ll still need the extra aid. I must be there to give my blood to bring them all back to life, just like I did you.”

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Endre raised a skeptical brow at Tabor. His gaze swung back to her. “Rora, we can offer them our renewed blood—or they can feed on the professor for really fast rejuvenation. Which means there’s no need for you to be there.” “No. I won’t allow that.” She stood and slapped her hands on the table. Her stare moved slowly and deliberately between them. She didn’t bare her fangs often, however, this was the time to show the depth of her ire. The tingling in her gums assured her they lengthened, proving the passion of her words. On a vampire’s snarl, she said, “You think I don’t understand how it works? You think I’m some idiot zombie eager to chant ‘Yes master, no master’? I insist that you do not let them feed on him, forcing him into Vencelze status. If anything at all, just let our people draw life from my father through their talons, for Prince Viktor’s sake, not by feeding. Like when you both drew energy and blood from me with your talons as opposed to your fangs. Look, I’m no fool. I know it can be performed safely without turning him into a vampire, and I demand it be done that way for my father’s sake.” “Ah, my good man,” Endre announced affably to Tabor, though a vague note of unease hovered beneath the surface. “Not only has complete Vencelze wisdom been imparted to our new vampiress, but she’s become aware of our High Prince Viktor.” His gaze darkened. He snared Aurora with an ominous look that sent her heart tumbling into dread. “Since you brought it up, my love, you do realize the prince and his priestess mate are most likely captured by your father, too? And that he has the most antagonistic, vindictive nature when crossed?” “Yes,” she choked out on a hitched tone. “I’ve been learning those very facts. But in spite of what wrath I might face when I get there, I refuse to be left behind—and I refuse to allow you to kill my father.” She crossed her arms. “I will deal with the prince and his temper when the time comes…and I will go with you.” Later, she would realize that, had she not been in such a state of determined recklessness, she might have caught the calculating look that passed between Tabor and Endre. www.samhainpublishing.com

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*** “Grant us one more round of your passion before we all depart in the morning,” Endre purred in her ear as they stood on the cliff overlooking the beach. A massive eucalyptus limb had been strung with rope. She heard the force of his breath as he jerked on the cord, and at the sudden movement, she inhaled a burst of salt-misted air. Below, the night ocean churned, white-tipped waves punching the surface as they fought the pull of the tide and pounded against rock. Her bound arms rose above her head leaving her dangling…like a slab of dead meat suspended in a malfunctioning freezer, she mused. Her feet barely touched the soft carpeting of grass. Stark naked, the sultry air grazed her warm flesh, and the glow of the full moon glittered off her perspiring skin. Despite—no, because of—the eerie mood of her surroundings and the strange look in Tabor and Endre’s eyes, lust washed over her, nearly drowning her in its power. Aurora knew what would come, welcoming the sticky cream that dribbled from her pussy. Her nipples tightened into painful pebbles, aching to be touched, sucked, bit. The hum of her skin’s heightened sensations during mating made her head spin and the roar in her ears erupt to maddening, delicious octaves. The now familiar crazed vibrations of vampire sex, accompanied by the sting of her fangs lengthening, overtook her, soul, mind and body. She panted and thrashed against the restraints, her eyes glazing over with rabid need. Aurora knew what would come, and had learned to receive the continued coming together of their Vencelze Triangle with eager obsession. “The larger the store of energy we gain following decades of being frozen, the better our chances of succeeding in this mission,” Tabor added to Endre’s impassioned plea, as if they needed to convince her of their reasons for this last mating before they all departed in the morning. The pain about her wrists seemed to blur with the pleasure of their hands now exploring her body. “No arguments from me. I gladly give both of you all the power you need for us to make the journey to Greenland.” 40


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Endre stood behind her, his hands spanning her waist. He skimmed them down her sides until he squatted on his haunches, his face at ass level. “Us? Well, that’s…” He scraped his fangs over one cheek making her shudder. “Mmm, you’re so delicious,” he growled, his tongue snaking out to swipe up the crack of her ass. Aurora gasped, her head falling back. A gust of wind blew in, tossing her long hair in an angry tangle above Endre’s head. “Oh, prince above, that feels so good.” “That’s only the beginning, Rora.” Tabor’s voice came out deep, almost ominous in its pitch. Her breath caught as he stripped down in front of her, his short, dark hair breeze-tossed. Moonbeams glinted off his chiseled body casting shadows along the striation of defined, bulging muscles. But nothing could take her breath away like the sight of his enormous cock jutting up past his navel, engorged with the ache of desire. Strung up as she was, the perilous cliff only footsteps away, while at the mercy of two alpha vampires preparing to devour her, Aurora didn’t think her heart could withstand the anticipation any longer. “Now. Just do it now.” “Shh…” Tabor sauntered forward, his icy eyes scorching her skin as his gaze traveled every inch of her body from tied wrists to toes skimming the earth. She could feel his stare, as if he touched and probed every cell of her flesh with a hot laser beam. His gaze met hers and she thought she’d been struck by lightning. “Endre, my man, her pupils are fully dilated. She’s in full heat. She’s ready.” “Doesn’t surprise me,” Endre murmured against her ass, his breath fanning over the fleshy meat of it while he kneaded her thighs. Aurora shuddered, yanking against the rope. She didn’t know quite what they had planned yet the lack of knowledge only heightened the desire that simmered in her womb. She’d never engaged in BDSM of any sort before now. There was something empowering, almost euphoric, about submitting, while at the same time, knowing she had control over them, knowing she’d pushed them to this point of kinkiness.


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While Endre continued to nip and bite her ass cheeks, Tabor spread his legs and slammed her body against his, the head of his shaft striking her labia. He drew her closer for an explosive kiss. His tongue traced her lips, delved into her mouth, scorching and wet. Her fangs scraped against his, and she knew the same craze she’d felt moments ago now boiled within Tabor, making his canines grow. She detected the intoxicating flavor of the wine they’d just drank at dinner, and it made her hungry, made her thrash and beg. “I…I want to taste you,” she murmured against his mouth. “Please. Now.” “Oh, you will, babe, believe me. But first, it’s my turn.” He traveled down the length of her neck, and she arched for him, giving him all the flesh she could offer. She heard him hiss, and cried out when he sank his fangs into her neck at the precise moment Endre bit her right ass cheek. The biting always started with unbearable yet brief pain. What followed rivaled any orgasm she’d ever had. Pleasure ripped through her, so fine, so precise, it bathed and tapped every cell in her body. The double orgasm brought on by the feeding made her twitch against the restraints, and she pulled on them until she could lift her legs and wrap them around Tabor’s hips. She wept as they withdrew their fangs and the blissful sensations ebbed. “Again. I want more. Please.” Endre chuckled behind her. “Eager, so eager, my little vampiress.” He rose and smacked her ass across the very spot where he’d just bitten her. Her head snapped back on a gasp, her eyelids flew open. She panted, her vision blurring as she stared up at the fat yellow moon and tried to acclimate herself to the new sensations. The sting of the spanking was excruciating at first, but soon, the reddened cheek of her ass warmed and she felt the blood tingle and pool there. Desire eased out from that blistering spot and oozed into her pussy. The breeze blew over the offended flesh soothing the fire, stirring up the scent of her arousal. Strangely, she longed for Endre to do it again, mentally begged him as he kissed the nape of her neck. “More…” she panted. 42


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Endre obeyed, and it invigorated her, making her feel dominant despite her bound position. He spanked her again, this time on the opposite side, and much, much harder. “Oh!” Aurora jolted against the rope. It bit into her wrists, yet all her mind’s focus centered on her buttocks. She’d never been spanked before, but it didn’t take long to realize she liked it, enjoyed being tied and at his mercy as he inflicted the pain-pleasure sensations on her. The more he smacked, the hotter she became, and her cunt dripped honey onto her inner thighs. She shivered and heard him inhale, knowing he drew in the musky fragrance of her excitement mixed with the blood left behind by their sexfeeding bites. “You’ll get more, Aurora, believe me, you’ll get a lot more…” Tabor drew her close, his lips skimming down over the swell of her breast. He untangled her legs from around his hips and bent to cup each globe, alternating sucking with licking each taut berry. It caused a wicked pull from nipples to groin, and her pussy spasmed, releasing another gush of cream. She dangled between them, and knew a sudden urge to be freed, to attack and be attacked. But that wouldn’t be happening. Not yet. Endre pressed his naked body against her back, his rock-hard arousal cradled between her buttocks. He slid a hand around and held up the weight of one breast for Tabor, while the fingers of his other hand snaked down to slither into the folds of her swollen lips. “Ah, you two are bad, evil.” Her cat’s meow carried out across the ocean, echoing in the moonlit night, morphing into a growl from deep in her throat. “Let’s just see how evil we can get, huh, Endre?” Tabor rasped. “I’m with you, Tabor, always with you,” he said, the tip of his cock probing between her legs, becoming coated by the juices that dribbled from her quim. Aurora’s eyelids had clamped shut to further savor the ecstasy Endre’s fingers gave her as he found her clitoris and flickered his


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fingertip over its small bulk. When she heard the swoosh of emerging wings, her eyes flew open to see Tabor still in man form, but he’d shifted his falcon wings out in order to assist in his leap upward. He hovered above her, a naked angel, his eyes gleaming as only a vampire’s could. The moonlight glinted off his fangs while his wings flapped behind him. Lunar light radiated in a halo around his form making him appear ethereal, god-like. “You said you wanted to taste me. Now’s your chance.” Tabor moved closer, his cock at her lip level. She understood now, and her mouth watered. Behind her, Endre pressed just the head of his rod into her vagina. “Oh my God.” She licked her lips and groped forward with her mouth as far as her restrained arms would allow. Her hands tightened around the rope, which gave her the leverage she needed to thrust her ass back in an attempt to take Endre’s cock into her pussy. But she couldn’t quite reach. “Closer. Come closer, both of you. Mmm, Tabor, you look so damn scrumptious.” She heard the flap of Tabor’s wings as he maneuvered himself, floating nearer. A gust of salt-scented sea wind blew in, circling around them. A white drop of pre-cum glistened from his slit. At the very moment she closed her mouth over Tabor’s penis, Endre slipped inside her from behind. The salty, slightly bitter flavor of the pearl of juice burst in her mouth. She hungered for more, and swirled her tongue around the satiny head. Aurora delighted in the power she wielded over Tabor, and knew a moment of sheer dominance, despite her position of complete submission. His fingers raked through her hair, guiding her head, plunging his long silky rod down her throat. She opened, giving him all of her, just as she did for Endre. Pushing back, using her tied arms as support, she thrust time and time again, stroking Endre’s long cock with her slick canal, devouring Tabor’s with her mouth. The trio’s moans and muffled cries carried out across the bay. Seagulls of the night cawed, their screams of excitement echoing on the 44


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cliffs and drifting inland toward the abandoned town of Oszkar. Below, the surf pounded against rock and sand, its tide receding and flowing in time with their frantic dance of sex and vampire need. It didn’t take long from there. Aurora rose on the summit of ecstasy as the orgasm burst through her body. It burned like lava, scorching her veins and incinerating her pussy. Tabor’s wings flapped faster, louder, as he emptied himself inside her mouth, his cock now so hard it felt like a hot, silk-covered stone in her mouth. Aurora drank of his semen, gulping it down as she would his blood, thirsty, hungry for all of him. Endre grunted his release, his arms clutching her to him while he sent her clitoris on one last spasm of elation. Tabor eased his cock from her mouth and fell in a heap at her feet, his wings now gone. “Bloody feast, that was the best yet.” His barrelthick chest rose and fell as he gasped for air. “Holy hell, I love having her at our mercy like that.” Endre collapsed on the ground at her left, his head falling back and sinking onto the grassy patch of earth next to Tabor. Their bodies made an inverted “V”, and Aurora thought how they should cut her down now so she could complete that triangle. “I’ll be the first to agree I love being at your mercy,” she panted, yanking on the rope. “So how about letting me down now? We should probably get some rest in preparation for our trip in the morning.” Tabor slid a look at Endre. Endre flicked his gaze at Tabor. Aurora tried to ignore the wary misgivings that slid into her stomach. “What? Why are you two looking at each other like that?” Aurora hung there, her shoulder joints starting to ache. And the longer they avoided her stare, the more her heart thudded with distrust. “Endre, Tabor, what the fuck’s going on here?” She jerked against the rope. For the first time since they’d lured her here and tied her up, her gaze rose and took in the enormous knotted mess around the tree limb above her. “Get me down from here—now.” They sat up in unison and got to their feet in all their naked, vampire magnificence.


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“Rora,” Tabor murmured, crossing to fetch her pile of clothes. “Sorry to say, but you’re not going with us to Greenland.” “What?” No, this couldn’t be. It seemed she’d been duped. Her lovers had deliberately blocked their thoughts, keeping her from picking up on their deceitful travel plans…plans that didn’t include Aurora. Her eyes widened in fear. She no longer enjoyed the playful sensation of captivity. Panicked, she yanked against the rope. Bitter betrayal and a strange sensation that felt much like claustrophobia closed in on her as the reality of their manipulative plan finally sank in. The rotten pricks had seduced her into imprisonment. “We’re sorry, babe,” Endre said, slipping socks on her feet and a pair of soft cotton pants over her legs. “But we can’t take the chance. He could kill you. We love you too much to risk it.” “Oh!” Endre stepped back just in time to avoid a swift kick to the balls. “Theo would never do that to me. You idiots, he’s my father. Don’t you realize you need me there, if not for negotiations with him, then as an additional blood source to revive them all? There could be hundreds, even thousands of them. It could take you days or weeks to free them all!” “We’re not going to allow you to get caught in the professor’s trap,” Tabor insisted, tossing Endre his clothes. “Trap?” Her voice squeaked with incredulity. “What the hell do you think this is?” She rattled the rope so the limb shook and leaves rained down on them. “Don’t be silly, doll,” Endre teased, flicking a leaf off his shoulder. His eyes glittered like two coins of gold in the moonlight. He located a cape and nodded to Tabor, who bent behind her and wrapped his arms around her legs to prevent her from flailing them. Endre then tied the cloak around her neck to block the night chill from her naked torso. “We’ll be back in no time to release you.”

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“No time?” She wrenched against the ties and kicked haphazardly, attempting to make contact with meaty male flesh. The two backed easily out of reach. “It’s thousands and thousands of miles away, you morons!” Tabor chuckled, pulling a T-shirt over his head. “Don’t act as if you haven’t learned that in our semi-falcon forms, we can fly that far in only a few hours.” “Whatever.” She huffed out a breath of defeat. “Damn it, you promised me we’d be leaving tomorrow morning.” “That was a ruse to keep you off track. We’d always intended to leave tonight.” “Great. Even though she’s a scholarly scientist, Aurora’s idiocy strikes again. Okay,” she sighed, “so you’re going to depart tonight instead of in the morning, and you’re just going to leave me here hanging by my bloodied, raw wrists while you fly off into the moonlight?” “Nope.” Tabor located his jeans, donned them, and dug a knife from a back pocket. He sauntered up to saw the rope. “We’re going to cut you free from the tree, but we’re not going to untie your wrists. And we’ll be putting you in a cage for safe keeping.” “A cage?” Panic bubbled up to choke her. “No, please, not a cage. I’m begging you, I get—” “Easy, love. We’re only doing this because we love you and we don’t want to see you captured and frozen by your own boss—and father. You’ll be fine. You’ll be afforded all the luxuries of any stubborn Vencelze vampiress who’s threatened to disobey her husband masters. The cage is all set up like a pampered mistress’s suite.” “Disobey? Oh, you—” She tumbled into Endre’s arms when Tabor slashed through the last twines of the rope. Endre hoisted her up. Thrashing and kicking, she hissed, “Let me go, you big oaf!” They both threw their heads back in unison and laughed deep tones of amusement. Tabor took her legs while Endre carried her upper body. With her wrists still tied, she had no freedom of arm movement, a range of motion required in order to morph into falcon and escape. It enraged her to the point of madness making her fangs grow to record lengths. www.samhainpublishing.com

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She attempted to bite, to kick, to scream, but it was no use. They had her completely overpowered. “Please,” she finally begged, dissolving into tears as they carried her across the yard and through a basement door she hadn’t known existed. “Don’t do this to me. I get claustro—” Before she could finish her statement, they’d tossed her into a large twenty-by-twenty pen set up just inside the cellar door. It was cool and candlelit inside, and beams of lunar light spilled through the open portal and slanted across the stone floor. The pleasant aroma of pineapple and coconut filled her nostrils, but she didn’t take time to peruse her accommodations. She stood there gaping at her untrustworthy lovers, watching helplessly as they locked the bars against her escape and shifted to half-falcon. “No, wait!” she shrieked, gripping the bars between her pressed palms and rattling the cage. “Endre, Tabor, goddamn it, let me out of here!” In two second’s time, they had slipped through the outer door and disappeared from her line of vision. She heard the flapping rhythm of their retreating wings fade away into the moonlit night. Aurora squeezed the bars so tightly, her fingernails dug into her palms. Anger boiled in her Vencelze blood at what they had done to her. She let out a bitter laugh. Had they really assumed she’d hunker down in their stupid cage and just wait for them to return? Was it a trap, or did they really forget she was now just as much Vencelze as they were and fully capable of shifting to falcon form too…that is, if she could somehow get her wrists free in order to do so. Foremost, did they really think she’d allow them to fly off and go kill her father? She was a vampire now, but that didn’t change the facts of her human birth. Tabor and Endre had another think coming if they arrogantly assumed they could carry out their plan of murder without a fight from her. Determined to outwit them and make it to the laboratory center in time, she made a mad dash around the cage. Suddenly, her gaze

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snapped to the candlelit table in the corner set with enough fruit, cheese, dried meat, and wine to last her several days. Aurora raced across the space, her bare feet padding over cold stone. “A knife. There has to be at least a damn butter knife somewhere in this feast.” With her bound hands, she fumbled and searched through the elegant spread of food-laden China, bowls, and stemware. “Damn, no silverware.” Perusing the confinement yet again, she zoned in on the wrought-iron bed. The intricate headboard twisted and turned in a fancy filigree of roses and ivy. Any other time, she would have been drawn to the inviting plush bedding, imagining herself there being ravished by Endre and Tabor. But instead, her gaze riveted to the arrow-shaped posts. The elegant twists rose upward on either side of the bed, blending into black iron points fashioned to look like large leaves. “Bingo.” She crossed to the headboard. Holding her bound wrists over the top of one sharp post, she moved her hands forward and back, sawing the thin rope thread by thread. Within three minutes, she was free. Full shift now, Aurora. None of that graceful half-woman, half-falcon look you love. This time, you must change into complete falcon in order to be small enough to get through the bars. As the rage continued to simmer like acid in her gut, she inhaled to gain focus. It took a lot more energy to perform full shift, so she concentrated with an intensity like never before. Fanning her arms in an arc, she forced her body to morph from human shape into true, complete falcon. The transformation gave her a vaguely unpleasant sensation of compression, but she ignored it. With her wings tucked along her sides, she waddled between the bars into freedom. Making her way across the floor and through the cellar door they’d left ajar, Aurora then rose and hovered near the tree they’d lured her to. Flapping her wings, she spread them wide, shifting forms yet again. She let out a hushed caw of triumph and soared on the gusty winds. Ahead, just out to sea off the shores of Balitori Island, she could scarcely see the


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dark forms of Endre and Tabor silhouetted against the starlit, moonbathed sky. Slowing her speed, she decided to hang back the entire journey until they’d all reached the mining facility. And this time, they wouldn’t be able to stop her. Just as they’d informed her, it didn’t take long for a vampire in semifalcon mode to travel the distance. Within hours, the air had cooled, changing from tropical to Arctic. She became mesmerized once again by the northern lights as she approached Greenland. Scarlet and emerald gave way to an occasional topaz or diamond-white glimmer. Only now the stark colors of the sky seemed to shimmer more, to finally embrace her as one with the light. As a raptor, she felt more a part of the world and nature than she ever had as a human. Animal needs raged in her system, a reminder that she now had a purpose in her new immortality. She had become a true vampire, one who would assist in saving her people. She suppressed a caw of fulfillment for fear of giving away her location to her mates. Mates intent on killing her father. Aurora tucked that morbid thought away for the moment and scanned the horizon. Straits snaked through the archipelagos, but the one island that could be used as a definite landmark was the one where she’d come months ago to apprentice. Awe-inspiring, the domed research structure finally came into view, its mass set on the endless white carpet of snow. Icebergs, glaciers, and fjords dotted the expanse, the northern lights reflecting and glimmering off their irregular surfaces. Whiffs of smoke carried on the wind, and she heaved a sigh, hoping upon hope that it meant Theodore was back from the hospital and well. If he were there, he’d have the small wood-burning stove in the living quarters chugging to give the area a supplemental boost of toasty warmth. The freezer units would be far from that heat, she knew now. But where had he put the other Vencelzes—if he still had them? She’d happened upon only Tabor and Endre that night weeks ago, but there hadn’t been evidence of others. Of course, if the professor had been sly enough to hide one laboratory freezer from her, she was certain there were others somewhere in the bowels of the huge facility. 50


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It seemed ages since she’d been whisked away by Tabor and Endre, yet the station appeared outwardly unchanged. She circled an ice-capped mountain just south of the mining center while she waited for Endre and Tabor to shift to human form in order to enter the building. It didn’t take them long. Eager on their mission, their majestic bird shapes faded quickly, almost ghostlike. They floated down, landing at the main entrance as humans, and promptly disappeared inside. Aurora repeated the move and followed after them. Catching Theo’s warm human scent, she knew that her father had indeed returned in her absence. She drew in a deeper breath and followed the mixed-scent trail of Endre, Tabor, and Theo. Careful not to alert her husbands, she tracked them, huntress-like, down several staircases and through doors she hadn’t known existed. Finally, she pushed her way through a large iron portal just accessed by Endre and Tabor. Theo glanced up just in time to see first Tabor and Endre, followed by Aurora, step into the laboratory. “Aurora! What…?” Theo stammered and stumbled backward. Tabor whirled at her name, as did Endre. They both flanked her, their eyes blazing with anger and genuine shock. “Aurora.” Tabor’s lips thinned. He crossed his arms over his massive chest. His gorgeous eyes narrowed, and even in the volatile moment, Aurora felt as if she’d been punched in the heart. Something behind her breastbone tumbled out of control. “How in the hell…?” he muttered. “Hmm,” Endre replied, hands on hips. He made a face and a lock of sandy hair fell over his brow. She longed to swipe it away, to kiss that mouth that twisted in disbelief, but it was hardly the time to express tender sentiments. “It appears we failed to realize our Aurora is just as clever as we are.” Tabor swore under his breath. He shot a look at Endre. “What now?” “Nothing now,” Aurora tossed back. “I’m here, and you can’t change it. Did you really think I’d just huddle in your damned cage and let you come here and kill him?”


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“Kill him?” Theo swallowed audibly, his thin body trembling as he continued to back away. “Kill who?” Aurora let her attention shift to him, though she kept a wary eye on her mates. “Hello, Professor.” She sauntered toward him, seeing a vague reflection of herself in him, the violet eyes ringed by emerald, the thick hair. “It’s good to see you back and looking healthy. I was very worried about you.” He fidgeted, retreated another step. “They…they ruled out heart failure. It was nothing more than stress coupled with severe indigestion.” His gaze flicked over her shoulder to where Endre and Tabor stood. Theo rubbed the heel of his hand over his sternum and sidestepped to place a laboratory bench between them. His eyes fell to her neck, shifted from one side to the other. She knew he saw the bite-mark scars, more solid evidence of what she had become. “Oh, God…just as I suspected, y-you did revive them. And you…you’re a…a vampire?” He gulped again. His face went pale and his body trembled uncontrollably. He steadied himself by planting his palms on the surface of the lab table. “God help me, you’ve become one of them.” “Yes, one of them by choice. But I’m also partly…partly you.” His silver eyebrows arched. Sweat trickled down his temples and into his sideburns. “Partly me?” Although it seemed for now, Endre and Tabor held onto control, Aurora kept her gaze on Theo in the event she had to make a sudden move to protect him. Tabor sneered, moving to stand at the professor’s left. “Aurora came here to meet her real father, the man who blindly gave her up for adoption over twenty-five years ago.” Endre perched himself on the table at Theodore’s right. “That man being you, the one responsible for attempting to extinguish our race.” “No…” He shook his head, backed into the next lab table. “It can’t be.” 52


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“Yes, it can.” Aurora rounded the first counter. “I’d been searching for you for years, and finally I found you here. I applied for this job and accepted it in hopes of getting to know my real father.” His eyes filled with tears. He hung his head and let out a gusty sigh. “I-I knew who you were all this time—I did. I’d been searching for you, too. It’s why I hired you, why I had the job notification sent to you. But I could never admit to you what I’d done.” Theo’s nostrils flared. His glassy stare reflected mixed emotions, those of fear, sadness, guilt. She longed to take his tall, thin form in her arms and comfort him, but there were other things to iron out first. “I had you here with me. That was all that mattered. I was proud of you, and wanted to make things up to you. Your mother and I…we made a mistake. We…we—she decided she couldn’t live with an eccentric, obsessed man of science such as myself. She left me shortly after you were born, and too late I learned she’d put you up for adoption without my consent. I was such a fool. At the time, I’d been so buried in my research, I didn’t even realize or…or care to fight it until it was too late. II’m sorry, Aurora, so sorry. I’ve searched for you over the years, and wanted you in my life.” His gaze fell, his shoulders slumped. “I’ve felt so very guilty.” The brief explanation did serve to soothe her pain somewhat, but there were other matters at hand now—life or death of a species, and the safety of her father. “Theo, it’s okay. I led a good life, and was loved and provided well for by my adoptive parents. It no longer matters to me. I searched for you, accepted the job because I’d needed to appease my curiosity about who my real parents were. What’s over is over. What does matter, though, is what you’ve done here.” “What I’ve done?” “Baiting our people here in order to extinguish us,” Endre growled, leaping from the table. Theo shrunk away only to bump into Tabor. His voice shook as he spoke. “I-I’m s-sorry. B-but I feared what you would do. Kill us all, take


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over the world. I—oh, please don’t kill me! Aurora, you’re my daughter. You can’t allow them to kill your own father.” Aurora’s heart stirred with pity. “We only want to free them.” She reached for his arm, shook him gently. “Tabor and Endre have vowed not to hurt you in any way—haven’t you?” she asked firmly, raising her brows at them. They cursed in unison. Tabor huffed out a breath. Endre kicked the table. “Haven’t you?” She repeated the question, and in her passionate anger, her fangs began to tingle and lengthen…as did Tabor and Endre’s. Theo gasped. “Oh, God, help me,” he mumbled, burying his face in his hands. Aurora kept him in place, her hand remaining curled around his upper arm. “Aurora, damn it,” Tabor swore, “he froze us all. He intended to thaw us without allowing us the opportunity to feed first and be resuscitated. He tried to kill our whole race—your race now.” Theo let out a sob and collapsed at Aurora’s feet. “Oh, God, my daughter’s become a murderous vampire.” “Murderous? I haven’t murdered so much as a roach. I’m sorry my becoming a vampire is so hard for you. It happened, and it can’t be reversed. Just…just cooperate and I’ll see to it that your life is spared.” She shot a hard look at Endre and Tabor then swung her stare back to Theo. “But, you have to free them all.” At his frantic nod, she went on. “We expect you to assist us and to never do such a cruel thing again. Do you understand?” Theo sighed, the gleam of apprehension in his eyes finally dimming. “It seems I have no choice.” “No, you don’t,” Tabor put in, starting for the door. Endre followed. “And there’s another thing you’ll have no choice in. You’ll offer up your blood to them, Kendall,” he threw over his wide shoulder. “You owe it to them all. Now come with us so we can get this done and over.” 54


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Theodore gasped, hitching in a staccato of high-pitched breaths. “Mmy blood? No, please, no.” “It’s all right, Theo. You won’t become one of us. All they each need is one minute drop of your blood through their talons for rejuvenation. Our talons’ penetrations are no more toxic than a mosquito bite. It’s our venomous fangs you better steer clear of.” She bared hers to demonstrate what he should avoid. He stared at her for a long moment, as if he pondered her trustworthiness. “Aurora,” Endre barked from his place at the door. “If you want him to live, we must move now.” She set a firm hand on her father’s arm. “Dad…” His gaze snapped up to hers. Tears flooded the brilliant orbs set in his worn leathery face. “Oh…” He pressed a hand to his chest. “You called me ‘Dad’.” “Yes, because you are my dad. Look, I won’t hurt you—and I won’t let them hurt you, either. But you must show us where the rest of the Vencelzes are. There are a lot more, aren’t there?” One lone droplet slid down his pale cheek. “Yes, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands. And your real mother…she is one of them.”


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Chapter Four Aurora stood in the massive warehouse-like cooler and shivered uncontrollably. A jumble of scientific awe, sadness, and nausea roiled in her gut at the sight that met her eyes. Hundreds of upright, glassencased cylinders glistened in the florescent lighting. Inside them, bodies were frozen immobile and wax-like, held prisoner by a cold, hard frost. She could see by the chutes above them that Theo’s scientific concoction must have lured them in from aboveground and sucked them down to be captured in vats of water. Some containers were large enough to hold several Vencelzes in a single container, while others were small and enclosed only one vampire. Sealed lids over the top of each cylinder had trapped them inside until the temperatures plummeted to below freezing. Her heart ached for these people—her people. A vague sense of guilt assailed her at being related to the man who did this to them. Endre and Tabor paced from one end to the other naming each and every Vencelze. They’d been frozen in various stages. Some had shifted after being drawn through the chutes, while others remained in full or partial falcon form. She stumbled forward on rubbery legs and pressed her palms to one of the icy containers. How had she been so blinded to this massive undertaking? The entire month she’d been here at the station, these people had been here, vulnerable and in need as she’d gone about her clinical business. And one of them was her biological mother. She heard sobs and glanced over her shoulder. Across the space, Theodore knelt before one body, that of a woman. Aurora turned and approached him from behind. Her gaze rose to study the woman Theo appeared to worship. She had hair the shade of honey and a body much 56


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like Aurora’s. It was as if Aurora looked upon herself in death, eyes closed, body limp and lifeless. “I loved her—I still do,” Theo choked out. “I’d planned to rid the world of this vampire breed I’d discovered…until I walked in here one day and found her among the captured. I didn’t know what to do.” He held his head in his hands and wept uncontrollably as he struggled to explain. “I suddenly understood why she’d given you up and hidden you away from me, from her. I believe she’d been bitten after you were born, and loved you enough to see that you were safe. In her eyes, I’m sure she’d assumed I wasn’t fit to care for you, mad, irrational scientist that I was. Oh, Aurora, my heart has been broken for more than twenty years now. I’ve worked diligently to discover a way to save her, which is why I had your two men in the freezer lab. Experimenting with thawing, hoping to revive them somehow, to undo this whole damn mess.” He flung a hand up and gestured across the room. “God help me, she’d become a vampire. What was I to do? Yet my love for her only grew stronger. I-I miss her so damn much,” he sobbed. Aurora bit back her own tears, and sent pained looks at Tabor and Endre. She saw the hesitation, then slow acceptance, and finally understanding in their eyes. She relaxed a bit, knowing they might not be a threat to her father after all. She set a firm hand on Theo’s shuddering shoulder. “Please don’t cry. It’s okay now. You see, they can all be revived. I know this, because when you were at the hospital, I disobeyed your orders. I went into the freezer unit where I discovered Tabor and Endre in a state of thaw. All they’d needed was a drop of my blood through their talons before completely thawing. You—we—can save them. The process can be repeated for them all. You can offer Mother your blood at the right stage and she’ll live, I promise.” “Yes, but she’ll still be a vampire feeding on humans…and I’m old now while she’s obviously been given the gift of youth and immortality.” Tabor stepped up and studied the chute next to Aurora’s mother, his thick arms folded over his chest. “You have it wrong, Professor. We feed,


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yes, but mostly on those we hope to have as mates. We are part human, too, not simply carnivores as you perceive us to be. We need very little blood over eternity’s time to sustain us. Sex is our immortal souls’ main fuel. To an extent, your youth will be restored once bitten—that is, if you choose to be fed on by your wife’s fangs in addition to offering your blood via her talons.” He glanced down and winked at Theodore. “If your wife can forgive you, so can we, and we’ll rejoice with you in your newfound sexual stamina.” Endre crossed to a cylinder at the end of the row. He stared at a frozen woman with billowing pale hair, her falcon’s wings spread behind her. She looked, Aurora thought, like an ethereal angel. “Yes,” Endre said on a sigh. “We love and we live very much like you and your human counterparts, Theodore. See this beautiful woman here? She’s my little sister, Aurelia. And she’s also Prince Viktor’s priestess bride-to-be.” Endre continued, gesturing to a cylinder at his left. It encapsulated a strikingly handsome, bronze-skinned man with wings as black as midnight. “She’d been about to offer her blood, the common way our breed binds Vencelze to Vencelze in marriage. They were looking forward to forming their own triangle, to searching for a human to join them in eternity. That is, until you tore her from Prince Viktor’s arms and broke hearts with your damned ‘experiment’. But, you can most certainly make amends. You have it within your power to restore all the lives frozen here, as well as your own.” Prince Viktor’s fiancée was Endre’s sister—and therefore, Aurora’s future sister-in-law? This was serious business. Aurora had suspected Tabor and Endre had withheld crucial knowledge from her. They’d warned her of the prince’s coming wrath, and now she understood why Prince Viktor could be vengeful. Her own father had prevented their marriage and their love from living on, a love she’d underestimated and foolishly discounted. Holy shit, Theo had done this to the ruler of the Vencelzes, of all people, and to Aurora’s mate’s sister! And here she’d campaigned to save Theo’s life. She could only hope the prince and Aurelia would pardon her for her role in this tragedy. 58


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“Oh, God, I’m so sorry.” Theodore got to his feet, his thin form trembling like a shaky tree branch in the wind. “Yes, yes. I will make it my life’s mission to undo all the damage I’ve done. I can only pray that all of your people—most especially my beloved Clara, Aurora, and your prince and his bride—can find it in their hearts to forgive me.” Aurora knew her father had suffered a broken heart, as well. He’d once been a tall, attractive man, she could see that now somewhere within the neglect. But he’d become fixated on his plot to kill all of the Vencelze race. Once he’d found his wife among them, he’d become obsessed with experimentation and finding ways to free her. In the process, he’d let himself go to the point of poor health and near starvation. Love swelled in her heart for him. She took him in her arms and allowed him to express his remorseful emotions. Aurora patted his bony back. “It’s okay, Dad, I forgive you. And I’m almost certain Mom will live. We’ll bring her to the state of half-thaw, along with everyone else here, and try to mimic the process Endre and Tabor underwent when the freezer unit failed. You can make it up to her by offering up your blood to her through her talons, a transmission that won’t harm or infect you in any way. The rest is up to the both of you.” “No, it’s up to her,” he murmured, pulling free of the embrace. He took a moment to swipe his trembling hand over his face and through his graying hair. “Well, let’s get to it, daughter.” “We have to begin with Prince Viktor,” Endre announced, searching around the prince’s chute. “Professor, how do these damn tubes work?” Theo shuffled over to Viktor’s chamber. “Here, behind each unit, there’s a panel of switches. The second from the top—flip it down,” he demonstrated, “and it will move the cylinder from a vertical to a horizontal position. Then follow with the third switch to remove the outer shell. After that, we can de-ice the entire body with a portable thawing device I have.” The hum of the unit’s engine sounded in the large room as Prince Victor’s body shifted from an upright to a flat position. The outer


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covering retracted into the device leaving him exposed in a tube of ice upon a slab, precisely the way she’d discovered Tabor and Endre. “It’ll have to be just a hand,” Tabor put in, crossing to stand above Viktor. “De-icing the entire body before providing the blood source will kill them all.” Theodore nodded his understanding and located the apparatus, rolling it back to where Viktor lay in waiting. Fear of the unknown smothered Aurora as she assisted Theo. Her hands shook while she engaged the machine and adjusted dials. As she worked, she studied Viktor out of the corner of her eye, her stomach in painful knots. He was a ruggedly handsome man, tall and lean with long locks of sleek black hair. His skin was the color of caramel, his features sharp and hawk-like. He wore clothing much like a warrior of centuries ago, and it molded perfectly to his powerful body. This was a man who would make enemies pay with their lives, she thought, trembling so hard now, she could barely complete the tasks at hand. What would Viktor do once he awakened? Would he punish Aurora and her father for their part in this catastrophe that nearly caused the extinction of Vencelze vampires from the planet? “You’re doing fine, my love,” Endre whispered in her right ear. “Take it easy, babe, calm and steady,” Tabor rasped in her left. She nodded and directed the heat source, much like a giant blow dryer, up and down Viktor’s arm. Gradually, water dripped over the slab’s edge and his limp hand was bared. “Theodore,” Endre said ominously. “Offer up your wrist to him now.” Sweat beaded over Theo’s brow. He gulped and shifted his stare from Aurora to the corpse-like hand. “It’s okay, I promise,” she said to him as gently as she could. Aurora took his clammy hand in hers and set it on the table. Next, she took Viktor’s hand and wrapped it around Theodore’s wrist. “Prince Viktor, we offer you life. Arise.” Theodore groaned, his entire body twitching. The prince’s claws emerged and penetrated his flesh. “Oh, God. Oh, God…” 60


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“You’ll be fine,” Aurora assured him, rubbing his shoulder. “It’s almost over.” Just as it had with her lovers, the ice cracked and Viktor sat upright. He withdrew his talons and rolled his shoulders. His neck cracked and he leaped from the table, his long damp hair streaming down his back. Aurora gasped at the look in his penetrating green eyes. The claws of panic choked her. Her feet seemed frozen to the floor yet her mind tried to flee from his damning gaze. “Aurora…” “Y-yes?” “Your role in our rescue is to be commended.” He pinched her chin and tipped her face up so he could bore his fiery gaze into hers. At his words, she released a pent-up breath. Her heart beat thready and erratic. “I-it is?” “Yes, but your father…he is a different story.” His hot stare shifted to Theodore. “No, please.” Theo collapsed to his knees. “I’m so sorry. I—” “Quiet!” Theodore’s sobs echoed in the room. Aurora fought the urge to go to him and take him in her arms. “Prince Viktor,” she said, despite Endre and Tabor’s glares of warning, “please, you must understand that—” His gaze left Theodore and flicked back to Aurora, the ink-black brows drawn together in anger. She flinched, and could swear he’d driven a stake right through her heart. “I said quiet!” “Y-yes, sir,” she whispered, lowering her gaze. Those piercing orbs slid back to Theodore. “Now, Mr. Kendall, you will rise and offer them each a drop of your lifeblood, and you will free every last one of them, starting with my beloved Aurelia.” Theodore got to his feet, his hands clutching the table Viktor had just vacated. “Yes, yes, every last one of them.”


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“Excellent. Now, while you held me in your iced prison these many years, I’ve had plenty of time to think…our island could use an intelligent scientist for various reasons.” Theodore’s face went from white to pasty gray. “Perhaps you could develop a serum to prevent our bodies from freezing if we’re ever in a dire situation such as this one again? Hmm, yes, then our species would be completely immortal.” Aurora saw the flash of defiance in her father’s expression. She prayed he’d keep his mouth shut. “So once they’ve all been revived, Professor,” Viktor went on as he wandered to Aurelia’s ice tube and studied her still form, “you will then receive your wife’s venom and become the very thing you plotted to kill— a Vencelze vampire. If you refuse, my good man, it is simple. You will die.”

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Epilogue Balitori Island One month later “Ah, yes,” Aurora hissed, bearing her fangs. “Just like that.” “You’re the most insatiable Vencelze I’ve ever tasted.” Tabor moaned and buried his tongue past the tight ring of her cunt. He never seemed to tire of the salty-sweet flavor of her flesh and juices. On her knees in the sand, her ass thrusting toward him, Tabor came up for air and watched as she swirled her tongue around Endre’s massive shaft. The sun glistened on the faintly purple, mushroomed head, a tiny white pearl of juice oozing from its slit. Tabor groaned at the exact moment Endre let out a tortured growl. “Mmm, yes, Rora,” Endre said through clenched teeth, his hands tangled in her long honey-colored hair. “Eat me alive. Scrape those fangs up and down my cock.” Tabor’s own rod twitched when he detected the mixed scents of candles burning upon the deck above them, soaked pussy and male precum. There was only one thing that would make this triangle marriage more complete, and that was their contribution to the procreation of a species that had been delayed in its expansion. But there would be plenty of time for a family later, and many long years of working to that end in their immortal lives. The entire clan of Vencelzes trapped at the Greenland station had been resurrected. Oszkar thrived once again, its streets bustling with life after more than two decades of abandonment. The many homes scattered


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up and down the hills and cliffs, glowed from within. Falcons could be seen soaring against the blaze of the dawning sun as it rose above the ocean’s horizon. As it would through eternity. The prince had returned to his castle on the high cliff to reign over the island with his new bride at his side. Even now, they planned and plotted to depart on an expedition to search for the perfect human mate to complete their Vencelze Triangle. Aurora’s father had been spared, and with Viktor’s blessing, he was building his own research center on the opposite side of the island and planning to develop that vaccine Viktor had suggested. Aurora would assist him, and together, they’d delve into research like never before. Theo had reunited with Aurora’s mother after he’d not only given Clara a minute amount of blood for her talons, but also offered up his lifeblood. The venom from Clara’s fangs had imparted to him immortality and youth. He’d gained weight, his hair had transformed from gray to a dark blond shade, and he now strode with the purpose and strength of a healthy young man. In return, he’d wholeheartedly pledged his undying love, devotion and repentance to his wife, and they’d decided to search for a third partner to form a triangle of their own. Clara had begged Aurora’s forgiveness for giving her up for adoption, and the three of them actively worked on building a parent-child relationship that would never have developed if it weren’t for Aurora rescuing Tabor and Endre that fateful night in Greenland. Aurora had never been happier. Her reactions to Tabor and Endre’s constant, insatiable lovemaking further supported Tabor’s theory. Tabor shook off the pleasant thoughts and brought himself back to the matter at hand. He worked his palms over the globes of her tanned ass, pulling them apart so that her moist holes glistened in the sunlight. His groin ached heavy with sexual hunger. He could feel his own fangs lengthening already, despite the fact he hadn’t yet touched his penis to her pussy. His pulse points quickened, thrumming with anticipation as he gripped his dick and pressed the head against the tight ring of her 64


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womanhood. She screamed a muffled cry of pleasure, and he thought he’d spill his vamp’s seed right then and there. Yes, he and Endre couldn’t get enough of her. She loved to be joined in a triangle of many forms and combinations. But it looked as if she’d become orally fixated, for the moment, on Endre’s cock. Tabor’s nerve endings tingled as he hunched over her like an animal mounting his she-wolf and eased one maddening inch into her snug hole. The tightness of her vagina met him with resistance, and he heard her muffled groan of satisfaction. But he wouldn’t have long to wait before she’d open to him and take the entire length of his shaft into her canal. Aurora swallowed, slurped. “Endre, Tabor, I…” “Shh,” Endre murmured as an ocean wave washed inland to soak his naked, glistening body. “Take and be taken, love.” She swirled her tongue around the head and deep-throated Endre’s penis. His muscles flexed in euphoric reaction. Tabor pushed in another inch, adoring the animal song it forced from deep in her throat, loving the snug slickness as her channel clamped down on him. She encircled the base of Endre’s cock with one hand, massaged the marbled sac with the other. She’d draped her hair over one shoulder, and it fell in a cascading fan across Endre’s right hip. Sunlight bathed their entwined bodies, beating down to warm Tabor’s backside as he reached around to play with her clit. The surf pounded in behind them, a roaring, wet rush, like her pussy juices, he thought, cresting out of her folds and onto his hand. Aurora pulled back and murmured a string of unintelligible cries when he swirled his fingertip over the swollen bud, pushing yet another inch inside her cunt. “Ready, hon?” he rasped in her ear, drawing in the wild floral scent of her perfume. “Mmm,” she moaned, and raised her head making a popping sound as the suction broke.


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Endre sighed out his disappointment. His head fell back onto the sand. “No, please don’t stop, love.” She panted, her ass dancing in small little backward jerks and slapping against Tabor’s pelvis. “Just…just for a second. I have to tell you—tell you both…” Tabor heard the urgency in her husky voice and wondered how he had lived all those centuries without this woman, without this primal, complete emotion he felt for both she and Endre. He kissed her neck, scraping his fangs across the twin-pricked scar of her first bite. “What is it, sweetheart? Would you like to go in away from the prying eyes of all our people?” He knew many of the rescued Vencelzes watched on from their seaside homes all around the half-moon bay. Many others engaged in lovemaking too, some upon their balconies, others in their boats, some while rolling around in the green grass of their sloped, ocean-side yards. It was merely the way of Vencelzes, not necessarily to be voyeurs but to have no inhibitions or need for privacy during the grand act of mating. “No…” She sucked Endre’s member deep down in her throat and rammed her rear back against Tabor, fully impaling herself on his aching cock. It nearly brought him to vampire heaven and back again, made him gasp and clamp his teeth in an attempt to stave off the wicked orgasm. He could see that Endre clamored for control himself, and savored the pre-tremors of Aurora’s body that always foretold her coming release. She continued to devour Endre while she pounded a rhythm against Tabor’s groin. He slid two fingers behind her and thrust them into her damp and sticky asshole. With ecstasy racing nearer, she released Endre’s rod and said breathily, “I love you. I love you both!” Tabor stilled his movements, the words like a gentle, soothing hymn to his ears. Endre lifted her head and cupped her jaw, his shaft plopping moist and stiff onto his flat belly. “Would you mind repeating that?”

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She giggled and managed to keep Tabor’s cock inside her pussy while she slowly climbed up Endre’s body and straddled him. Tabor followed, knowing what position she sought. “I said I love you both.” She murmured it huskily, her fangs fully elongated. Tabor withdrew from her cunt and she slid down onto Endre’s cock, taking him completely into her creamy hole. Tabor aligned his shaft with her soaking hole and inhaled the perfume of her arousal. Vamps alive, he couldn’t wait to bury himself in that gorgeous ass. “Oh…” Endre swallowed, straining to assimilate his sex to hers without blowing. Shock and unbearable pleasure glittered in his gold eyes just before they crossed in bliss. “Thank the Vencelze vamp prince, she’s finally admitted it. Aurora, I love you too, babe.” He cradled her face in his hands and drew her down for a kiss. Tabor slid into her rectum, slow and gentle, his eyes clamping shut at the snug fit. Her cry of pleasure followed. The pressure of Endre’s stiff shaft coupled with her soft inner wall between them made Tabor’s heart still. Joy at her words burst in his chest and took precedence over the multitude of sensations now bombarding him. He and Endre had longed to hear those words from her ever since she’d freed them from captivity. Anxious now for bliss, he circled her moist clit with his fingertip, eliciting a sharp intake of breath from her. “I love you, too. I’m bound forever to our Vencelze Triangle.” “Triangle…yes.” She rocked and bucked, reaching for climax, something it seemed none of them could get enough of. “Oh, I’m going to…” Tabor was beyond control. To hear those words of love and devotion, to feel the sudden spasms around his cock as the orgasm ripped through her canals, to drink her wild fragrance into his lungs…ah, heaven! He spilled his seed deep inside her ass, the head of his cock separated from Endre’s only by the silky-moist partition within her core.


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Endre threw his head back and arched, howling out his release. He twitched as if Aurora had struck him with high voltage. His long fangs glittered in the sunlight as he bared them on a hiss of pleasure. “Yes, my love. Fuck me!” They floated back down to the beach in a trio of intertwined limbs and sweat. Tabor withdrew and collapsed at Endre’s side. He lay there staring up at the swaying palm fronds and listening to the swish and flow of the surf. The warm afterglow of sex sedated him, making his eyelids heavy. Ah, life couldn’t get any better, he thought as he stretched and a Pacific breeze blew in, cooling his perspiring flesh. “You vamp hunks are so irresistible, I didn’t get to finish,” Aurora purred, still straddling Endre. “Finish?” Bloody hell, she had the nicest breasts he’d ever seen, Tabor decided. He reached up and cupped one heavy, creamy globe, playing lazily with the nipple. “Yes, finish.” Tabor released the mound and twined a finger around one strand of her honey-toned hair. He drew it to his nose and inhaled its fresh scent. “You mean telling us you love us? Wow, what a pleasant surprise that was.” “Well, yes, that and…” “And?” Endre managed sleepily, his sherry eyes glassy with bliss. “The triangle—our triangle. It seems we’ll all have to make room for two more.” Tabor shot to a sitting position, heedless of the gritty sand grinding into his asshole. “Two more? No fucking way.” Endre propped himself up on an elbow and slid her a wary look. “Aurora, forget it. It’s not going to happen. You’re not going to invite two more people into our triangle.” He narrowed his gaze on her. “Hell, don’t we satisfy you enough?” Her laughter, so melodious and innocent, carried out across the ocean. “No, you idiots—I mean yes, you more than satisfy me. But it 68


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looks like we’re going to have to enlarge our triangle to include our children.” Silence ensued. Tabor and Endre bounced their confused gazes between Aurora and each other. Aurora sighed. “I’m pregnant, you dopes—with your twins.” Endre gaped, speechless. His slack-jaw mouth gradually transformed into a wide grin. Tabor quickly recovered as joy burst in his vampire’s heart. “Well, why the hell didn’t you say so in the first damn place?” Endre and Tabor didn’t spare one moment longer. They shifted into full falcon form and rose into the sky. Their cries of ecstatic delight could be heard echoing across Balitori Island.


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About the Author Titania Ladley is a multi-published, award-winning author of erotic romances spanning many genres. She spins her hot and sexy tales from her cabin in the wilds of northern Wisconsin, USA. Married to her own hunky hero, she's the mother of three wonderful kids…and is living proof that twins don't skip generations. How so? Because she's the daughter of a twin, is a twin herself, and she's the mother of twins! She's also a registered nurse, avid romance reader and former reviewer. To learn more about her books, where you can chat with Titania or how to join her newsletter featuring monthly prizes, please visit: www.titanialadley.com.

Can she heal lifetimes of pain and make him believe salvation is possible?

The Daystar © 2006 Rene Lyons Always feeling different from the world around her, a power grows within Lexine Parker. In the light is where she belongs—even as she finds herself thrust into the nocturnal realm of the Templar vampires. Scarred by a brutal past, Constantine is a creature consumed with rage. He knows only darkness and sin. Believing he fights a losing battle of redemption, heaven is something he doesn’t dare hope for—until Lexine makes him believe salvation is possible. Locked away in an ancient castle, they come together in body and spirit, searching for love to chase away the darkness. With Constantine’s soul at stake and Lex’s life on the line, the nights tick down to a cataclysmic event that could tear them apart forever. Enjoy the following excerpt for The Daystar: At the sharp knock at her door, Lex didn’t even bother to get up. Her muffled “come in” was said into her pillow. She assumed it was Allie coming in to give her the usual “older sister spiel”, which was why, when the door opened and no Allie was forthcoming, Lex sat up to see who it was. Her heart slammed against her ribcage at the sight of Constantine filling the doorway. As much as her mortification reached epic heights while he stood silently staring at her, she was glad he’d followed her. It meant he cared. Didn’t it? Or was she just reading more into his recent behavior than was healthy? Whichever it was, Lex was still glad he was here. “What are you doing here? Come to point and laugh at the silly girl who just made an ass out of herself with her wayward thoughts?” He shook his head, his expression, for once, not unreadable. In fact, the shock on Constantine’s was almost comical. “You can’t mean it.”

“Oh Lord, I don’t want to talk about this.” “Neither do I.” That surprised the hell out of Lex. She stood cautiously, as if trapped in a room with a wild animal. By the look on Constantine’s face, she had the feeling she wasn’t too off the mark. One sudden move and she had the distinct impression he’d pounce on her. Not that she’d have any problem with Constantine doing some pouncing. Given how pissed he looked, she didn’t know if it would be the good kind of pouncing or the sort that would make her wish she’d locked her door to keep him out. “If you don’t want to make fun of me and you don’t want to talk about my little bomb, then what are you doing here?” Though Lex thought it impossible for him to frown any deeper, Constantine proved her wrong. “I don’t bloody know why the fuck I’m here.” Like the demanding, and sometimes annoyingly arrogant, warrior he was, Constantine walked right up to her and yanked her into his arms. When she slammed against him, Lex knew what it meant to be manhandled. She didn’t have a chance to protest—not that she would—before he brought his face close to hers. For a moment she thought Constantine was going to kiss her, but he didn’t and a momentary stab of regret pierced her. “I’m not leaving.” His tone suggested that was a warning and not an announcement. Warning or no, it left Lex was a bit breathless. “I’m glad.” He bared his fangs. This close, Lex saw just how lethal they were. Yet every time he kissed her, never once had he hurt her with them. His control astounded her. But then, everything about Constantine was tightly controlled rage and power. His body was a work of art, from his tattoos to his scars. They were marks of his life—and his death. The thick cords of muscle that moved under his pale flesh were a testimony to his discipline as a

warrior. She couldn’t begin to imagine what it had taken to hone his body into the fine weapon it was. “I can’t be around you without wanting to bury myself in you.” That healthy does of honesty ignited a fire in Lex that burned its way through her entire being. “Then stop denying us both. I can’t make it any clearer, or easier on you than that.” Pride be damned, Lex laid herself out for his taking. Now—she just hoped he'd take it and stop torturing them both. “You’ve no bloody idea what you’ll be inviting into your body.” That statement spoke volumes to Lex and it broke her heart. How could Constantine think so lowly of himself? No matter what’d done in his life, or what he’d done after, God loved him enough to give him a second chance. Didn’t that mean anything to him? Didn’t it mean anything that she loved him? And, oh God, how she loved him. Lex placed her hands on his cheeks. “Don’t I?” She dropped her hands and placed them on his chest. It was high time she gave him back that same raw honesty. “I think it’s you who doesn’t know me. I’m not the delicate flower you all treat me as. I’m a woman, Constantine, and I know what I want. And what I want is you.” The expression of shock Constantine had worn before was replaced by a beautiful play of emotions as he fought a battle with himself to either leave or take what she so blatantly offered him. For a moment Lex expected Constantine to leave and a stab of disappointment pierced her. She knew that if he left her, he wouldn’t just be leaving her chamber. He’d be leaving her. When his mouth came down on hers, there wasn’t a shred of tenderness in his kiss. Instead, it was a brutal, almost punishing, joining of their mouths as he showed her exactly what manner of man he was. Not that Lex needed the reminder. She knew Constantine wasn’t a gentle man. She expected things to be a bit—rough—with him. Given who he was, she didn’t think otherwise.

Stepping up on her tiptoes, Lex pressed her body against Constantine’s as her hands ran over his back. His lips were unyielding, demanding, and when she sighed into his mouth she felt him inhale it. There was something extremely erotic about that. His tongue moved over hers hesitantly and Lex realized he was struggling to be careful with his fangs. When he brought them into play, they added a certain amount of danger to his kiss. Hoping Constantine wasn’t going to bring this to an abrupt end, Lex melted into him. She wanted to touch all of him, know every inch of his body, but there was so much of him she didn’t know where to start. His size scared her just a little and she prayed he couldn’t sense it since she knew he’d probably stop if he did. When she trailed her hands down his back and came to settle on his ass, he hissed. She squeezed and he growled. She pulled him closer and he tore his mouth away. That was definitely not the reaction Lex was expecting. “I shouldn’t have come here.” Was he joking? He wasn’t going to start that again. He wanted to be here. She wanted him here and she was going to fight to make him realize he was being foolish in resisting what was between them. He set her aside and went to leave. By a will of its own, her hand settled on his arm. He stopped dead, his gaze fixed on the door. “You can’t keep doing this to me, Constantine. You can’t keep playing me like this. One second you want me, the next you can’t wait to be rid of me. I mean, my God, my pride can only take so much.” Cursing, Constantine turned and pinned her with a glare. “You’ve no idea of the things I want to do to you.” “No, I don’t.” She ran her hand through his hair, not an easy task given their height differences. “But I can’t make it any clearer that I’m not afraid to find out.” Something warned her he still might flee, which was why Lex decided to play dirty. “Besides, they can’t be half as nasty as the things I imagine you doing to me.” Right then Lex knew she had him.

The look that darkened Constantine’s eyes caused her heart to race. Liquid heat poured through her when he brought his mouth close to her ear and whispered the most wicked things. Heat settled between her legs. In the wake of the warmth came wetness, which brought the ache of emptiness. “I won’t give you a gentle ride.” God, she hoped not. “If I wanted gentle I wouldn’t be here with you.” The intensity in the silvery depths of his eyes cut Lex right to her core. “If I stay I’m taking this to the end.” She smiled at the thought of him being the one to show her the wonders of her body. “You’d better.” “You’re mine, Lexine” he gritted out between his fangs. “No other man will ever put his hands on you but me.” He fisted his hand in her hair and pulled it so she was forced to arch her neck. “Say it. Tell me you’re mine.”

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