Last Vamp Standing Read Free

Francisco.
    If he’d done his job, she might’ve been able to do hers.
    Now, because he’d been distracted by velvet words and the jerk of a tiny hand, a vampire from the elder black market had piggybacked on Ariana’s projection.
    He’d gotten too close to their haven, to her.
    Ariana could still feel the heat from his liquid gold eyes scorching across her skin. And even though she hadn’t gotten more than five minutes with him—at the black market when he’d caught her eye, then the forest when she’d told him never to think of her again—he was permanently etched into her memory. He had disheveled, chestnut-brown hair that she longed to graze her fingers through. A hard, set jaw that showed every strain of his body, and broad, warrior shoulders that could bear the weight of the world.
    She’d never met anyone like him.
    Everything Ariana had learned about vampire elders didn’t prepare her for what had happened back there, with him. Elders had mawares—powers bestowed upon them when they transitioned into the ethereal Ever After—and Ariana thought she’d seen them all: orbs of protection, wicked cool time warping skills, control over the weather or elements . . . but she’d never seen a run-of-the-mill vamp teleport.
    But that was exactly what her vamp had done.
    Except instead of teleporting them to his destination of choice, wherever that might’ve been, Ariana’s astral-projection had snapped them back into Black Moon’s range like a rubber band returning to form.
    She thanked her lucky stars that the stranger was on his way to Darkly Meadow. She was finally free from his penetrating gaze. He looked at her with ravenous hunger, yet remained tense and fiercely in control, with tight white lips she wanted to soften with a slow swipe of her tongue.
    He wasn’t wrong for looking at her that way. He was a hormonal vamp male, after all.
    Ariana was wrong for liking it, especially as much as she did. Her skin flushed merely thinking about the way his eyes had devoured her body.
    A percussion of horses’ hooves and hollering men dragged her down to reality with a thud. The warmth blooming through her body iced over as she remembered her Primus had raised the flag—sent out the first wave of Seekers. Someone had breached the invisible umbrella that kept their peaceful world hidden from the tainted one beyond it.
    Not wanting to be seen by the goon squad, Ariana slinked behind the shadow of a fir tree and eyed Black Moon’s back access gate. Echo and his wood nymph didn’t seem to hear the thunder of hooves. Or maybe they didn’t care.
    Echo shoved the girl against a post and hiked her legs around his waist.
    Ariana couldn’t help but think about the burning desire in her vamp’s eyes when he’d pressed her up against that tree in the forest. It’d sparked a fire in her core unlike anything she’d ever experienced.
    For a split, crazy second, Ariana had thought about welcoming him in to her haven. Surely Black Moon could use a vampire who could teleport! But she’d been rattled back to reality, had followed her orders to allow only elders in, and had turned him away.
    Coming close to Black Moon and the powers it possessed wouldn’t be enough for him. If she showed him their haven—welcomed him in—he’d never leave.
    He’d be trapped in Black Moon . . . just like the others.
    But there’d been no time to think things through anyway, she reminded herself as she dodged beneath the low-hanging branch of a cypress tree. The Seekers were coming. And if they caught him within Black Moon’s borders, they’d killed him on sight. On second thought, though, he didn’t look like he’d go quietly into the ground.
    No, the clench of his jaw, the way it pulsed when he became infuriated with her, made her think that when he got worked up enough to fight, he’d fight to the death.
    Would his jaw clench and pulse when he got worked up in other ways?
    Seekers’ hooves rumbled across the western ridge,