Gypsy Nights Read online

  She was concerned about the amount of energy she’d used to confine Sebastian to her room. It took a great deal of her "juice" to call upon the spirits of the dead for assistance, but it was necessary for his protection. It hurt her heart to think that come morning he’d be gone. Normal, everyday people weren’t used to the power of the Roma Witches and of the supernatural creatures that surrounded them. She fought back the tears that were forming in the corners of her eyes and headed toward the banging noise.

  Something slammed around in her greenhouse. Aaron couldn’t get into the house if his intent was harmful. What could it be? Fear gripped her as she made her way through the house, through the shop, and finally into the greenhouse. A blast of cold air hit her, reminding her of Aaron’s cold heart. She shuddered.

  "Aaron?"

  Gitana took another step and her candle blew out, leaving her standing in the pitch-blackness of the night. Putting her hand out, she felt the edge of the long potting table that ran the length of the room. She moved down it, walking slowly to avoid tripping on any garden hoses, and listened for the sound of the wolf that she knew was near. Even with the wind blowing and the rain pounding hard against the glass enclosure, Gitana knew that a wolf was there watching her. Stalking her. Coming for her.

  "Aaron, stop it! I’ll talk with you, but this is ridiculous. It’s too close to the full moon for you to be running around like this. You of all people know how hard the beast is to control this time of the month."

  She wasn’t sure why she was bothering to talk to him. He only ever heard what he wanted to hear anyway, wolf form or not. Sliding her hand over one of her potting shovels, she picked it up and walked with it held out. It wasn’t the best weapon to have, but it was silver and would inflict damage if need be.

  She heard the growl a moment prior to seeing the wolf before her. Startled, she stepped backwards and raked her hand over a piece of broken glass. She grimaced. Suddenly, sound she’d heard only a few minutes before made sense. The wolf had broken into her greenhouse. She hadn’t thought to surround it with crystals as well.

  She debated between pulling the large shard of glass from her bleeding hand, or keeping her eye on the big white wolf that stood before her. The wolf won.

  "Who are you?" She quirked an eyebrow. "You’re not Aaron, he’s brown."

  The wolf growled, baring its teeth. She didn’t run or scream. She knew better then to let it sense her fear. Werewolves fed off fear. They enjoyed it more than the kill itself. Aaron must have sent one of his pack members for her. She should have known. Aaron was, after all, alpha male for the local pack. It would make sense that he wouldn’t want to get his hands dirty.

  Gitana glanced down at her hand and realized how much blood she was dripping. The wolf noticed too and crouched down, ready to strike. Another bolt of lightning flashed and a swooshing noise shot past her head. The greenhouse lit up as the storm’s pyrotechnics continued. Suddenly, Sebastian was there in front of her, blocking the wolf’s path. He stood tall, his large muscular frame filling the aisle easily. A gust of wind blew in through the broken window, lifting Sebastian’s hair and tugging on his clothing. For a second, she couldn’t breath, couldn’t think, couldn’t move.

  Protect him.

  "NO! Go, Sebastian! Go!" She tried to get him to move, but was too late. The wolf lunged at him. Sebastian’s hand flew up and he caught the wolf by the throat. He held it up in the air and glared into its eyes.

  "Go back to your master and tell him that Gitana is under my protection now. And if he tries to harm her again, he will have me to deal with. And I am not one to be crossed." He threw the wolf out the broken window. She watched as it scrambled to get to its feet and took off for the woods. Sebastian turned to her, his face looked hard, foreign, frightening.

  "Sebastian?"

  He brought his hand out to touch her cheek, but she backed away. The hard edges of his face softened as he glanced at the broken window. "S’il vous plait…ma amour …I could not let them harm you. I wanted to tell you the truth. I never wanted you to find out this way. I am sorry. I will go once I know that you are safe." His lip curled upwards before he turned away from her and she caught a glimpse of his fangs.

  He’s a vampire, a demon… a mullo.

  Gitana backed up, afraid of what he might do to her next. Living with a monster for so many years gave her insight into just how ruthless they could be. She stopped when her foot hit the entrance to her shop. Sebastian had been able to cross the threshold to her home with the crystals in place. That meant that his intent had never been to harm her.

  He turned his back to her and put his head down. She knew that whatever she decided next would determine her fate. If she let Sebastian walk away, then that would be one less demon to worry about in her life. Her heart raced. The thought of not seeing him again sickened her. She held firm to her spot, afraid that she’d throw herself into his arms and beg him to love her. The urge to go to him remained, did that mean he was the one that the prophecies foretold would come. Could he be her mullo, her mate, the future father of her child?

  * * * *

  Sebastian stood there struggling with the decision he’d made. It had been right. He would not have been able to go on "living" if he’d let anything happen to Gitana. But, now she knew he wasn’t human, that he wasn’t even alive. Her spell to keep him in the room had done nothing more than tickle when he walked out. It was only designed to hold the living captive, not the undead, like him.

  "Gitana, you are hurt. You should wash that out before it gets infected." He kept his back to her, unable to face her disapproval.

  "What? How’d you know...?"

  "I can smell your blood. The scent of it calls to me, taunting the demon within. I can hear it, your blood, pumping through your veins. It is like a drug for my kind--you should run before you become my addiction." His words were harsh, cold. It was more for his sake than hers. He’d fallen in love with her the moment he’d laid eyes on her, maybe even before that, and he wasn’t sure he could survive being cast aside.

  "Well, since you’re such an expert on me and my blood, come help me clean this cut out."

  Sebastian turned half-expecting to find her standing behind him with a stake. Gitana stood there holding her bleeding hand up to him with a hopeful look in her eyes. It was a remarkably brave move on her part. The Romas were well aware of vampires and the demons that they carried within, for Gitana to offer her hand up, full of fresh blood, said that she trusted him. But could she ever love him?

  He took her wrist and pulled her closer to him. A six-inch piece of glass was rammed into her olive flesh. "If I pull this out, it will bleed more. We should take you to the hospital. You require stitches."

  She moved closer to him and placed her other hand on his chest. "I need you. You can heal this. I’ve heard stories about a vampire’s bite, and how your saliva can close a wound."

  "I cannot take blood from you."

  "Why? I’m not good enough?"

  He sighed. "If only that were true."

  "Then why?"

  "Because, I do not want you to fear me come morning," he whispered, his eyebrow rising slightly.

  "Pretty presumptuous, don’t you think? What makes you think you’ll be staying the night?" The idea of having his body deep in hers sounded more and more appealing.

  He looked down into her dark eyes. "You invited me to sleep in the guest bedroom, remember?"

  I’m such an idiot. He heard Gitana’s thoughts as if they were his own. How could I ever fear you? You make me feel safer than I’ve ever felt in my life.

  That was all Sebastian needed to hear. Bending down, he wrapped his arms around her tiny waist, and lifted her up and onto the long table. Her face was so close to his that he had to fight to keep from drowning her in kisses. He lifted her hand to his face and gently removed the large shard of glass. She gasped and closed her eyes. He knew that she was in pain, and he wanted to punish the person responsible.

  "I wil
l kill him if he sends anyone else here."

  Gitana’s warm hand touched his cheek. "Don’t think about him. I just want you to think about me."

  Sebastian put his lips above her bleeding hand and let the coopery smell of her blood seep into him. "Thinking of you should not be a problem." Working his tongue into her cut, he slid it around, sucking gently as he went. He could taste her power, magic, and most of all her desire for him. Visions of Tawni’s last words and of Gitana talking with her grandmother hit him. In his mind, he saw a petite older woman who looked a little like Gitana smiling as she told a tiny dark-haired child of her future.

  "You will love a mullo, he will give you the gift of a child, and the two of you will raise a future ruler," the older woman said.

  The little girl smiled up at the woman. "Yes, grandma."

  Sebastian’s eyes flickered open, and he found that he was planting tiny kisses on Gitana’s healed hand. He looked up into her dark eyes and dreaded the fact that he had to clear something up for her. Lying to her was not an option.

  "I am not the mullo that your grandmother told you about. I can’t be. Vampires cannot reproduce, at least not vampires that are as old as I am."

  She put her finger to his lips. "Shh, don’t worry about things we can’t control. The attraction is here and it’s real. Forget about prophecies and make love to me."

  His cock instantly hardened. Of course, he would make love to her. He just didn’t want her to have false hopes about who he was. He wondered why Twani had told him that he was the one for Gitana when she knew he was a vampire and that vampires couldn’t reproduce. Gitana’s slid her hands into his shirt and he stopped caring about anything other than this moment.

  Gitana worked his shirt open and ran her warm fingers over his hard chest. He managed to ease her blouse off her and stood back for a moment to soak in her beauty. She was perfect, her breasts perfectly proportioned to her frame, her nipples dark and calling to him. Bending his head down, he drew one into his mouth. He rolled it around in his mouth, taking pleasure in her sweet tasting berry. Her fingers laced in his hair and then moved down his back, taking his shirt with them.

  Gitana lingered over the scars on his back. Her tiny fingers worked their way over each section of raised skin. "Who did this to you?"

  He didn’t want to answer her, wanting onlt to feel her smooth skin and be allowed to take pleasure in her warm body. Gitana leaned forward and pressed her mouth to his ear. "Who would do such a thing to you, and why?"

  Sebastian moved his hands up, cupping her breasts gently. Running his thumbs over her erect nipples, he took in the scent of her cream. Knowing that he was what made her wet only served as encouragement. Caught up in the moment, he gave into her questions. "My old master had me whipped for disobeying him."

  "What did you do?"

  "I saved an infant’s life and tried to save her mother’s, too."

  "I hardly think that deserves punishment."

  He didn’t want to talk about this with her. If she had any idea what other horrible tortures he’d been subject to, she would never touch him again. The horrors in the months surrounding her birth were too painful for him to think about.

  Gitana tugged at his earlobe and sent a wave of lust running through his body. "Saving an infant’s life entitles you to a reward," she said in a sultry voice. Her fingers slid into the top of his pants, caressing the line of black hair that ran from his navel to his groin. She freed him from the confines of his pants, letting them slide down his body. Her warm fingers wrapped around his cool cock and he tipped his head back, savoring the moment he’d always dreamed of.

  "Gitana."

  "What would take the pain out of your eyes?"

  Until Gitana had spoken, he’d never realized that he still carried the hurt of that night with him. The torture at the hands of his old master was secondary to the grief he felt for not staying with Tawni.

  "You," he said, kissing her dark hair out of her face. "You could make it all go away." He moved her long skirt up her silky legs.

  "What do you want?"

  "Je veux faire l’amour avec toi."

  He moved his hands up and found the center of her world. His fingers glided over the tiny patch of dark curls that hid the wonders of her body. He let his finger run over her swollen mound and felt her writhe under his delicate touch. He slid his middle finger into her wet entrance and found the hot paradise that he longed to be in. She contracted around his finger, almost virgin-like from not having sex with a man in over two years. He eased her open more with a second finger. Hot juice flowed over his hand, and he used it to wet his thumb as he stimulated her clit.

  * * * *

  Gitana grabbed onto Sebastian’s upper arms to stay upright. Her stomach tightened as he brought her within inches of her climax. As good as it felt, she wanted more. She wanted to feel what it was like to have the length of his pale rod deep within her. She tried to get Sebastian to stop, but his fingers started to swirl, working her to the point that she could stand it no longer. Her legs shook as the orgasm swept over her. She pulled her body closer to his and watched dreamily as he pulled his finger from her pussy to his mouth, taking with him a string of her cum.

  Sebastian licked his fingers clean, reached down, grasped his cock, and brought it to her entrance. The mushroom-shaped head of his shaft pushed against her but did not enter. His lips met hers, and she savored the taste of her sex on his mouth. She opened her mouth to him and, as his tongue dove in, so did he. She cried out as his girth spread her open. In one fluid movement he was sheathed deep inside her, tearing at her, pulling her to the point that pleasure and pain blurred, leaving only passion.

  Tugging on her hips, he brought her body to the edge of the table, allowing him to dig even deeper. She cried out and reached for anything that would help her focus on the pleasure instead of the pain. Sebastian’s hands found hers and their fingers intertwined. This simple act of holding hands was more intimate than any other level of sex, and it was just what she needed to be able to focus on him.

  Sebastian brought her hands up and put them behind his head. She laced her fingers together and held tight as he rode her body. The table shook, plants tipped over and off the high countertop. Gitana didn’t care. She’d give up anything to have Sebastian with her, even if that meant giving up her destiny, her mullo. Sebastian felt right--to hell with fate.

  Looking up into his blue eyes, she watched as another flash of lightning illuminated his pale face. His rhythm slowed almost to a complete stop, and he glanced past her. She tried to follow his gaze but he caught her chin in his hand and brought her lips to his.

  * * * *

  Sebastian kept Gitana’s mouth occupied while he looked out at the shadow that loomed in the distance, along the edge of the tree line. He could smell the scent of the wolf and sense the hatred coming from the figure. He had little doubt that the visitor was Aaron, Gitana’s ex-husband.

  "Bastian?" Gitana said his name, or the shortened version of it, with so much love and concern that he almost forgot about their visitor.

  Glancing back up, he sensed the alpha in the man, and wanted to show him who was truly the dominant male in this situation. Sebastian concentrated on his thrusts, easing his cock in and out of her tight silk binding. She felt so good, better than he could have ever dreamt. Each movement, each connection forged an even greater bond between them. Her channel fisted him, gripping his cock tightly.

  "Uhh…Se-bastian."

  Gitana’s body prepared to climax again. The feel of her legs tightening around him and her increased moans threatened to make him explode. He knew that he should stop making love to her, but every fiber of his being wanted to stay in her, rooted deep. In addition to that, their late-night visitor needed to know that Gitana was not only under his protection, but was also his mate.

  Gitana’s tossed her head back. "Do it," she said in a low sultry voice. He didn’t need to ask what she meant--he could read her thoughts. She wanted hi
m to make her into a vampire too.

  He kissed her neck softly and her pussy constricted around him, milking him. A sharp pain tore through his chest and lost his rhythm, his control. His balls moved up, his cock twitched, shooting forth his seed. Shaking, he filled her with his come, his essence, his love.

  "Bastian."

  He looked off into the distance and saw the shadowy figure receding into the night.

  * * * *

  Aaron watched from the edge of the property as the vampire fucked his wife. He didn’t care that the law said they were divorced. Gitana would always be his. He couldn’t believe that she’d let that corpse have his way with her. His fists burned for the change, but if he let himself shift this close to the full moon, then he wouldn’t be able to return to human form for several days, and he needed to be able to function to do what needed to be done.

  He wanted to leap on the vampire and tear his throat out, and he would when the time was right. It was bad enough that the vampire had threatened him through one of his people, but he had taken Gitana as well.

  "You will pay, vampire, and so will you, Gitana."

  Chapter 6

  Gitana picked up the last of the broken glass and placed it in the plastic trash bin. Glancing around her greenhouse, she smiled. Sure, she needed to get a window replaced and had smashed four flats of caraway during the night’s festivities, but being with Sebastian had made it all worth it.

  She scooped the tiny fern-like foliage up off the table and placed it in a small pile. She would use it in something, and at the rate she was going, she’d need it more than ever. Caraway worked great for soothing upset stomachs, and hers had been in a knot since she woke to find that Sebastian was gone. She’d been telling herself all morning that he probably had to go home before sunrise, but it seemed odd that he never said good-bye.