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  size and take over double her normal space for its own. She was

  growing, morphing into the monster of her childhood books. Teeth

  grew, jutting over her lip in wait for a good drink. She tried to move

  her mouth but the teeth changed everything.

  "What the–f?" Helena's eyes ripped open and her mouth tried to

  form words from the air sibilating up her throat.

  The cretin Constantine lay on the floor a distance from her

  genuflecting. Okay, that pissed her off even more. The respect she

  deserved, but it made it a bit harder to want to bite his head off. Not

  too much harder, she seemed to have an endless desire to kick his ass

  and disembowel him. The problem was she also seemed to have an

  endless need to have him pump her ass and to have his scent all over

  her. Having such diametrically opposed wants infuriated her and her

  fists clenched easily this time.

  Sure he was good enough looking to serve as a model for the Gods

  of night, but why did she want to both slay him and feel him pump

  45

  inside her? Her brain reasserted dominance long enough to fill her in

  on what had transpired during her mental vacation, making her wince.

  Helena found the wherewithal to scream despite the new shape of

  her mouth. She wasn't going to let anyone get in the way of

  expressing herself. "I'm going to kill you."

  Constantine raised his head to address her. "You will find yourself

  a little late. You and I are dead. And I am not the first to attack your

  line. One before me clearly failed in an attempt to kill or change a

  female ancestor while she was pregnant. Consider me simply

  finishing what needed to be done for you to gain your rightful lineage

  with more power than you can begin to imagine. L.A. and Palmer are

  child's play compared to what can be awaiting you."

  Helena jump kicked the pillows and landed on her tiptoes. She

  didn't have to think about her actions, her body knew what it could do

  and how to pull it off. Pain existed but it didn't faze her or fill her

  with dread.

  Constantine slowly extended himself to standing, his knees slightly

  bent to move quickly. "Nice isn't it, knowing pain is a temporary

  thing and damage is behind you?"

  She eyed him, watching him make miniscule steps in her direction,

  but still outside her reach.

  "What do you want?" She curled her lip up at him, and tracked

  every twitch of muscle giving away his next step.

  "It's what you want that matters." Threads of the rope twist and fray

  as she half squatted, letting her hair come loose from her scalp.

  "I could tear myself free. You know that." She reached up and

  began slicing through the braid with her talons.

  "I know, but I think you should hear me out before you try

  anything." Constantine puffed up his chest, the top button popping

  open to show off more of his body. He stroked his pecks, twirling his

  golden hair, oil glands scenting the hair from the arousal.

  Helena stopped what she was doing with the rope and raised an

  eyebrow, her mouth parting to taste the air and lick her lips.

  46

  "Humans want the best sex of their lives every day, an orgasm to

  redefine space and time, at least most do." Constantine ran a finger

  down his chest, disappearing under his shirt to tug on his waistline.

  Helena rubbed the back of her neck and shifted her shoulders.

  "But you're different. You want that and more." He took a step

  closer to her, into her danger range.

  Helena bent at the waist, ready to leap.

  "You want power." Constantine stopped moving.

  She waited, watching.

  "You've lived antsy, feeling what you want is outside your reach no

  matter what you do, a wish that will never be fulfilled." He freed the

  next button hanging on by taking the sides of his shirt and pulling

  them apart.

  Her toes and fingers curled but her legs remained cocked for action.

  "You've been half asleep, denied the part of you that could really

  take charge and control everything and everyone around you, living

  behind a mask that now is shattered. You can have it all, sex, power,

  eternity." He got through the last button and let his shirt slip down his

  back and fall behind him, the v of his waist dipping down below his

  pants where her eyes could not follow.

  Helena pulled on the rope with both hands, contorting the metal

  tracks hugging the hook. She watched the buckle form, the hook

  barely on the tracks. "So what do you think?" She nodded to the hook

  grappling to stay connected to the ceiling rails.

  "I think you could get yourself loose without much effort."

  Constantine hooked two fingers in his waistband and pulled, his

  stomach sucked in so a hand could be slipped inside.

  Metal screeched and clanged. The hook lost the task of staying on

  the ceiling, falling to the ground in a thud that nicked the cement.

  "Appears there is nothing holding me back from breaking you next."

  She started to prowl. They both circled keeping a body length

  between them, eyes on each other and backs curled to jump.

  "Not in your interest to destroy me. The offer for endless power

  necessitates me being semi-alive." Constantine mirrored her moves,

  slinking sideways. "Sorry if that disappoints you."

  47

  She stopped the dance and folded her arms over her chest. "You

  kidnapped me."

  "Yes and no." Constantine folded his arms behind his head and

  jutted his groin forward. He looked down at his waist then up at her.

  "I stopped an idiot from kidnapping you and used his own ploy to get

  you away from humans. It was a win-win situation. If I hadn't

  pretended to work for him some nitwit with ideas of grandeur would

  have you chained up for an idiotic ransom demand."

  "Really?" Helena narrowed her eyes and looked straight into his

  pupils.

  "Test me if you want." Constantine widened his stance creasing the

  leather along his thighs.

  Helena decreased the distance between them, stopping when a

  human man's breath would have ruffled her hair. She slipped her

  hand between his stomach and pants, her fingers reaching down until

  she could scrape nails against balls and hold one in her hand as a

  squeeze toy. "You tried to kill me." She kneaded his ball until his

  stomach clenched and his pants cut into the back of her hand.

  "Succeeded actually, but you're putting the wrong spin on it." His

  ball squirmed in her hand, trying to slip out through her fingers.

  Helena forced a second hand in and caught the other ball trying to

  burrow inside him. She tugged them both towards her, making him

  lean into her. "And what spin is that? You could have killed me dead-

  dead."

  "Not likely. I smelled you all the way back when you travelled to

  Rome on business. I tracked you by your smell. Only a soul mate

  could smell that good, and your blood screamed to be released, to

  surge up and take over control of the weak human invading the skin

  and brain.

  "I gave you your birthright, what you knew you wanted down in the

&nb
sp; dark recesses of your subconscious but never explored. Now you are

  the living dead, and the very creature of power you drooled over from

  fantasy books, except this is far better than fiction could ever

  encompass." His hips stretched down to curve his pelvis into her and

  lessen the space she could yank.

  48

  Helena pressed his chin to the side with her cheek and smelled his

  hair and neck.

  "You smell it don't you? The smell that tells you everything you

  thought was wrong and what you want is so close. You want me,

  even if you don't want to. That's what's killing you, not me."

  Constantine sniffed her, a grunt rolling out of the chest that pressed

  into her.

  "You think you know me. That's a dangerous thing to claim to the

  person that can snip the manhood off you with a sneeze. I'd hate to

  lose control, but there is mildew and maybe I'm allergic." Helena head

  butted him away from her, but kept his sack. She looked up and down

  his gold dusted chest and sighed angrily. Bending her head forward,

  she bit off a few strands and swirled them around in her mouth before

  swallowing the hair and the smile together, trying to keep her face

  free of emotion.

  "You can't lie to me anymore. You're already under my skin. I've

  felt you during sex, seen you lose control. Now all that remains is the

  last step." He reached his arms around her back and tore off what

  clothes remained.

  Helena pierced his balls, releasing blood into the air; she spasmed

  from the smell, her teeth skimmed his neck and she growled.

  "Your body can only deny so long. I can make you happier than

  you've ever known." Constantine walked her backwards towards the

  pillows. "You can feel what destiny is, what it feels like to be whole

  and get your dreams handed to you."

  She released his balls and clamped onto his cock, using her wrists

  to split open the leather.

  Constantine swelled in her hands, and squirmed, toppling them both

  over onto the pillows. He fell hard onto her, his cock bending up

  between them, her fists still keeping some air between them as she

  held on.

  "So you think that much of your prowess?" She raised her hips to

  get her fists closer to his intestines and show his cock who remained

  in control.

  49

  "Yes, and I think that much of what I can offer you." Constantine

  pushed down, fighting her hips and stretching her legs apart so he was

  between her, his pants shredded and scrunched down at his knees.

  Helena clenched her legs around him. "And what is that?"

  Constantine pressed their knees together, forcing her further open.

  "The council is unseating the Roman Vampire Lord. I'm a contender,

  but once I show a soul mate when no others have succeeded, the seat

  is mine, ours. All of Europe under you, and with my knowledge of

  vampires and yours of humans the Roman Empire will loom again.

  Isn't that the kind of power you want?" He got hold of her fists and

  pried her fingers open, pulling her arms out to the side then over her

  head where he clasped them together at the wrists.

  He took one of her breasts into his mouth, holding the areola

  between his teeth and licking until her body stuttered under him. Her

  nipples pebbled, refusing to play at charades, and he drove himself

  inside her, letting her warmth and wetness guide him towards her

  darkest need.

  Helena tried to knee him in the ribs, but that made him thrust harder

  and faster until he had buried himself up to the hilt of his sword, his

  balls pressed flat against her pussy. She screamed bloody murder and

  between blasts of cussing hissed and mewled to the ceiling, seething

  over with anger tinged ecstasy.

  She swore his cock grew barbs, which sunk into her walls,

  anchoring deep into her nerves and arteries until she wasn't sure

  whose sensations blared through her senses. The sounds of fury in her

  head had his tone, but echoed in her ears and came out of her mouth in

  howls.

  Constantine let go of her breast and went for the abandoned one,

  sucking it into his mouth as deep as he could. Helena felt like he was

  sucking her dry, her nerves springing to life under the ministrations of

  his tongue as he nibbled, his love bites sinking past skin and making

  her bleed straight down his throat.

  She moaned, spine arching to squeeze more of her breast into him,

  not caring if his sounds muted into a gagging reflex. She slipped

  more of her mound into him, until his teeth pierced her through.

  50

  Constantine impaled her, refusing to slip out to thrust again, and

  forced her ass to contort the pillows into a cocoon that left her trapped

  with him on top. He lashed at her breast with the tip of his tongue,

  popping it out of his mouth and making her whimper. Yanking her

  wrists, her boobs sprung up and hit him in the face, and he snapped

  the tip of his tongue back and forth between them.

  Helena bucked, her breasts trying to get away from the slaughter

  and her hips aimed for his balls.

  Constantine released her hands and stroked down her face, thumb

  nails landing on either side of her jugular and his hands wrapped

  around her shoulder. He pressed in enough to immobilize her. "I like

  you this way, quiet and still."

  "And I like me this way." Helena raked her nails down his spine,

  leaving bloody trails with each nail.

  He sliced a line on either side of her jugular and licked up his mess.

  Helena shifted under his tongue, forgetting to remove her nails

  from residing in his flesh and dug in to feel his tail bone, nail against

  bone.

  Constantine bent into her nails then barged back into her pussy,

  tickling her clit with his hair then burnishing it raw with his thrust.

  Helena's hand flew out and clutched his hair, pulling his head hard

  into her breasts where any living man would have been smothered.

  "Say it," Constantine ordered by withdrawing to the tip of his cock

  then boring a new diameter into her pussy.

  "Not yet," she squealed, thrashing into him in an undulating wave

  of hair and body.

  "I can't hold out much longer. You're driving me crazy."

  Constantine rode in and out of her, the shank of his cock contorting to

  stroke her before the brunt of his balls rubbed over her clit in friction.

  Helena felt the heat start in her clit then spread out, washing over

  her in a sweat drenching wave that whited out her mind and tuned her

  in to her blood. Redness blotted out her sight and her body shook as

  she slipped over into screaming ecstasy that rattled her bones and

  nearly cracked her jaw and she clenched between yells, holding onto

  his cock with tightened muscles until he started to ejaculate in her.

  51

  Bouncing her hips into him until she wasn't sure whose skin was

  whose; she pounded the back of his head.

  Constantine inhaled her screams and echoed them back at her as he

  fought her back into the pillow, sending her cresting over a second

  wave of orgasms as he came inside her.

  S
he clutched his chest by the pecks and twisted her neck to the said

  as he pumped himself dry. "Bite me."

  Constantine opened his mouth and bit into her neck. The strength

  of his orgasm exploded in her, sending her out of her body and into

  his where they shared his last shudder together and fell onto her, his

  knowledge of what was about to happen when they returned to Rome

  now moving through her mind and becoming her own.

  Years of mergers, acquisitions, plans, and manipulations

  culminated with his semen bursting into her. Together, Rome

  wouldn't know what had hit them, she felt the peons gathering before

  her already, giving allegiance to them as one, not a couple, but one

  towering entity. Different smiles vied for her lips, and she grabbed

  his neck, sinking her nails in to keep him locked onto her for as long

  as possible.

  52

  A SECRET TO KEEP

  53

  CHAPTER ONE

  Clarity came from topaz points of light. Grey fog layered over

  obsidian night and turned rosy where fog met lights, separating water

  from sky. A piece of the black stood out as darker than the rest and

  shifted, moving in the brush that crept up on the boardwalk and grew

  through piercings in the wood.

  If movement caused sound, the creaking of piers on the shore

  erased proof of living restlessness. Sprinkled in the sighs of wood and

  water, a lone seagull made a plea for survival, an incantation for fish

  to float up into the murky waves and follow the pathway down its

  throat.

  Out in the harbor, humans and wares ferried along demarcated

  lines, keeping bow lights on full blast to light up the city skyline and

  proclaim existence from wet dark that enshrouded everything it

  touched. The city's lights held on tenaciously to the distant shore,

  never invading the lapping waters tossing sand into dunes beneath the

  elevated path.

  Gillian tightened the collar of her jacket. The early winter air was

  too heavy to be cold, but she snapped the collar shut anyway and

  wished she had a scarf to wind around her face so only her eyes were

  exposed.

  She squeezed her thumbs tight in her fists and willed her head to

  point straight forward, eyes locked on where the boardwalk ended and