Blood of the Nile Read online

  Maliyah’s eyes widened as he approached. The thick vein on the side of her neck pulsed erratically as he set the bucket down atop the nightstand and crawled onto the bed, straddling her thighs. She licked her lips and cocked her head to the left. “Now you want to play?” she asked tongue and cheek.

  “I always want to play Maliyah, especially with you. Since we’ve gotten a bit of business out of the way, I’m ready to relax and blow off some steam.” Ramses reached out, using his fingers to sweep a few stray strands of hair away from her face. As he did so, his fingers inadvertently brushed against bare flesh, which caused his cool skin to burn hot. Jerking back for a moment, he recognized the hungry look reflected in Maliyah’s gaze. The same lustful anticipation had already blindsided him like the crest of a momentous wave.

  For a brief period of time, they both froze - their faces only inches apart. Ramses felt her heated breath roll over him, the sensation forcing the fine, black hairs at the base of his skull to stand on edge. Beads of sweat had gathered there too. Suddenly, Maliyah wasn’t the only one that needed to cool off. If Ramses didn’t tamp down his libido, he’d turn her over, fuck her, and drain her blood in ten minutes flat. But that’s not what he imagined for the first time they’d make love. Maliyah deserved better.

  Ramses took a depth breath, holding off the flames of desire that flickered and burned inside him. Ice might help calm me down. It could also serve as a form of sensual foreplay, he chuckled to himself. Fondling a frigid chunk of ice between his fingers, he let the object partially melt in his palm. Still, the slight chill did nothing to diminish the hunger that gnawed at him. His hormones roared with the need to touch her, taste her.

  The temptation his lover possessed soon proved impossible to resist. His fingers reached out to graze her skin. He slid the icy shard up and down her arms, over the slender column of her throat, and below the valley that separated her swelled bosom. Already, her nipples had grown taut, peeking through the thin white garment that covered her breasts.

  At the moment of contact, Maliyah visibly flinched. Goose bumps broke out on her flawless skin. But in no time, she settled back against the pillows and sighed. “Hmm. That feels good.”

  “It’ll feel a whole lot better once you get those pesky clothes off. Let me help you.” Ramses’ hand cupped Maliyah’s neck and untied the halter-top of her bathing suit. Her cleavage sprang from the silky material, free and ready to frolic. Then, Ramses undid the swath of fabric fettered at her slender waist, leaving her almost nude.

  With the ice cube hinged between his thumb and index finger, he traced the contours of Maliyah’s body from head to foot. His hand trembled with need, memorizing each one of her luscious curves, while his eyes focused on her beautifully flushed face. Ramses watched the myriad of expressions reflected in her gaze – everything from shy, self-consciousness to fiery lust.

  The more he touched her, the more excited he became. His cock throbbed inside the thin gym shorts he wore. Ya Allah! He wanted her more than life itself. But he knew, too, that the monster inhabiting his soul would eventually make its presence known. In the heat of passion, there was no way for Ramses to hide the fact that he was a vampire. Everything in his being yearned to make Maliyah scream in pleasure, but with unbridled desire came fear and self-doubt. What if the woman in his arms rejected him once she learned the truth?

  He could try to force her mind to forget what she’d see - haunting, crimson-colored eyes and fangs as sharp as knives. Although deep down, that’s not what Ramses wanted. Besides, it may not even work. The last time he attempted to compel her thoughts, he failed miserably. Her will was too strong. Regardless, he cared about Maliyah and if the chemistry they shared proved any indication, this would be the first of many nights they’d make love. He refused to erase her memory each and every time. Sooner or later, she’d find out who and what he was. Why prolong the inevitable?

  Ramses’ right hand gripped her hip, while his left one pushed aside the scrap of white cloth that still shielded her sex. With two fingers, he parted her pussy lips. Cold ice collided with the heat that radiated from Maliyah’s core. His digits delved deep, ice cubes and all. They pumped inside her womb until a rainstorm of moisture coated the palm of his hand. Ramses wasn’t sure whether the ice cube had melted or she’d simply come. Maybe it was a combination of both.

  “Oh, yes!” Maliyah’s ass bucked off the mattress as she tried to quicken the pace of Ramses’ thrusts. Then she screamed out loud, indicating that an orgasm had surely been achieved.

  Slowly, he removed his fingers. But Maliyah’s breathing continued to intensify. Air escaped her lungs in short, labored breaths evidenced by the rise and fall of her chest. Her gaze pierced Ramses - a desperate, needy plea. At the same time, she rose to her knees and let the last remnants of her clothing fall away.

  Maliyah quivered as Ramses’ tongue flicked out to taste the tip of one perky nipple. He lashed at her with bold strokes, then captured the tight rosebud between his puckered lips and sucked with all his might. His lover gasped. She used her arms to draw him closer to her breast. But soon Maliyah’s hands began to wander. Her fingers kneaded the coiled muscles that gathered along the ridge of his spine. They explored even lower, tracing the wall of Ramses’ abdomen and the slight indentation of his navel. Eventually, her delicate appendages settled on the thick band of elastic at his waist.

  The tips of her fingers delved below the surface of his gym shorts, teasing and torturing him all at the same time. Ramses’ cock pulsed wildly as it thrust against his lover’s inner thigh. Maliyah giggled softly, then tugged on his shorts until his fierce erection had been released. Already a drop of creamy semen coated its crest.

  With one hand, she took hold of his shaft, squeezing the base in her firm grip. With the other, she used an index finger to scoop a drop of the potent elixir onto the tip. “So good,” Maliyah said, licking her lips. “I want more.” Clearly, she enjoyed oral sex.

  The first swipe of her tongue against the head of his cock nearly forced Ramses to spill his seed. He ground his teeth and fisted his hands in Maliyah’s hair as her mouth moved over the wide girth of his shaft. Up and down. Deep and deliciously sinful. She worked her tongue and lips masterfully like a maestro plucking the strings of a violin. With painstaking precision, she massaged his cock until its beveled edge reached the back of her throat. She groaned the sound reverberating through Ramses’ body and sent a fireball of white-hot heat up from his scrotum, ready to explode.

  “Whoa! Slow down, habibti,” Ramses’ whispered, rearing back. A loud pop sounded as the suction from her lips finally released his cock.

  Gently, Ramses pushed Maliyah back until her head rested on a mound of pillows. He spread her thighs apart with his knees and crawled down her naked body. The lower he moved, the more fragrant the scent of her sex became. The pungent aroma assailed his senses, awakening the slumbering beast.

  Staring into the depths of Maliyah’s green-gold gaze, he watched the reflection of his own eyes as they began to swirl. Their color shifted from warm amber to deep, blood-infused red. The hands that clutched her hips became elongated. Ten razor sharp claws emerged, digging into the grooves of her pelvis.

  Suddenly, Maliyah’s eyes widened. The look of horror that emerged on her angelic face caused Ramses to cringe. The moment of truth was upon him. The time had come to reveal his true self. He hoped like hell that the two of them had built up enough trust for her to accept both the man and the beast.

  “Everything’s alright. Please,” Ramses pleaded. He took a step back, giving his lover time and space to process the monstrosity before her. Still his intense stare never wavered. It bore into Maliyah, branding her as his mate. “Don’t be afraid.”

  Chapter Twelve

  The Beast

  “What are you?” Maliyah asked. All of a sudden, her limbs felt like gelatin. She was paralyzed in place. One minute, she was in the arms of the man of her dreams. The next, he’d turned into a frightening apparitio
n with red, beady eyes and talons like that of an inescapable fiend.

  “I meant to tell you long ago. But the time never seemed right. All I ever wanted to do was protect you. Please you. The same way any mortal man would care for his mate.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question. What are you?” Maliyah swallowed hard. On the outside, fear and trepidation kept her immobile. Yet inside, her pulse raced wildly and her heart pounded in her ears. With two simple words, Ramses had claimed her as “his mate.” For that reason her body had reacted in kind.

  “Maliyah, I’m a vampire. I drink blood in order to survive,” Ramses confessed, his gaze averted as he muttered the words under his breath. Intuition told her that shame had shattered her lover’s impenetrable resolve.

  “So what…were you planning to kill me too?”

  “You too? What the hell does that mean?” The vampire shook his head vigorously. “I had nothing to do with your father’s death, if that’s what you’re trying to imply. I cared for Anwar like a brother. Besides, I value humanity too much. In fact, I’ve done everything in my power to honor and preserve it.”

  With one startling declaration, all of Ramses’ strange idiosyncrasies instantly made sense. The way he kept his body covered from head to toe, even in one hundred degree temperatures. His sensitivity to sunlight and the fact that he slept during the day and rarely ventured out before nightfall. How could she not have known? All these years, she’d been in love with a vampire.

  Reality struck hard and fast. Maliyah’s mind screamed at her to jump out of bed, throw some clothes on, and run away as fast as she could. Although in the deep recesses of her soul, she recognized the sincerity of the man who’d captured her heart both now and long ago. That fact in and of itself kept her seated on the bed.

  Ramses sat a few feet away, hunched on the edge of the mattress waiting for judgment to be passed down; the task seemed unavoidable. As seconds ticked by, Maliyah continued to procrastinate. She couldn’t do it. Not after his haunting eyes had regained their softer hue. His claws also disappeared, retracting back into his hands.

  Ramses turned his head to one side and squinted as if trying to gauge her reaction to the shocking revelation. His dark, wispy hair hung low over his eyes. He looked sad and lost, and Maliyah wanted to go to him and wrap him in her comforting embrace. Like a leaf blown from the branch of a tree, she felt scattered and torn. She had no clue what to do.

  In the grand scheme of things, Maliyah knew that finding her father’s killer needed to remain at the forefront of her mind. A little mindless sex with her teenage crush would have been nice, if only that had turned out to be the case. But sleeping with a bloodsucking vampire? That seemed a bit too much for her psyche to bear especially while she was still grieving.

  “Did my father know the truth?” Maliyah shrunk back against the headboard, almost afraid to hear his response.

  “Yes, he knew. In fact, he’s the one that saved me from meeting the dawn. I would have burned my body to oblivion had it not been for Anwar’s compassion and friendship.”

  Ramses stood and began to pace the confines of the hotel room. It was a good thing, too. It gave Maliyah time to hop off the bed and put some clothes on. The vampire’s deceit had already left her feeling raw and exposed. Her nakedness only made matters worse.

  Striding across the room with both arms covering her breasts, Maliyah made her way to the closet. There she found the soft cotton robe she’d hung shortly after they’d arrived. As she closed the mirrored door, she peered through it, and watched Ramses’ powerful physique and dark, penetrating eyes stare back at her. His reflection cast a shadow over the already dim lit space. The man’s striking reflection could be seen in the mirror, which could only mean one thing - somewhere deep down, his soul remained intact.

  Maliyah inhaled deeply to help steel her nerves, then turned toward her lover, rejection the intent. “I’m sorry, Ramses. With my father’s killer still gunning for me, I can’t handle any distractions. I was hoping we’d spent one night together to make us forget. But this is all too much.”

  “Understandable,” Ramses said as he pulled on a pair of jeans and a plain white t-shirt. Then he covered his head and shoulders with a thin swath of cotton material. “I’m headed down to the bar for a drink. The time apart will give us both some time to think.”

  “But the sun’s still out. Your skin might burn.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’ll survive.” The vampire swung open the door to the suite, then slammed it shut, leaving Maliyah alone to wallow in guilt and regret.

  ***

  Ramses couldn’t blame her. He knew that revealing his true nature would result in Maliyah’s not-so-subtle rebuff. Nonetheless, the sting from her rejection still hurt like hell. Alcohol seemed to be the most efficient way to douse the flames of his battered ego. After his third scotch, Ramses began to feel a bit numb. The blow Maliyah had delivered hadn’t fully healed, but at least it wasn’t bloody and festering any longer.

  An hour into his pity party, a petite brunette sat down next to him at the bar. The woman was slim and attractive. She wore stretchy black jeans and a loose-fitting sequined top. Her arms and legs were trim and well defined. Obviously, she took great care to ensure her physical appearance.

  “Can I order food from here? My dinner reservations aren’t until nine and I’m in dire need of a snack,” she asked the bartender who stood behind the counter. Ramses heard an indistinct grumbling sound. Then, the woman rubbed her slightly round belly. The purposeful gesture forced Ramses to look down, recognizing that her abdomen bulged out a bit as if she were with child.

  The stranger peered up at him sheepishly, then giggled softly. “Sorry about that. The baby’s a bit temperamental like his father. When it’s time to feed, he gets impatient,” she said as she rattled off a list of appetizers for the bartender to order from the kitchen. Just as he was about to take another sip of scotch, the woman stuck out a hand and waited for Ramses to greet her. “You’re Ramses, right? We haven’t officially met. I’m Eva, Andreas’s wife.”

  Eva’s revelation nearly caused him to choke. If nothing else, it forced alcohol to the back of his throat, and burned his esophagus before it shot up through his nostrils. He’d heard rumors that the prophecy of Thy One had been fulfilled, but he sure as hell didn’t believe them. What were the odds that a passage in a thousand-year-old tome would ever come true? In terms of the entire vampire population throughout history, it seemed a statistical impossibility.

  Nonetheless, the folktale first printed in Vampyre: A History of Our People had prophesized the birth of a half-breed child, a biological anomaly. As it was, procreation proved rare amongst his kind. Only purebloods, those who were born instead of made, were able to produce offspring. Even then, a child had to be conceived under a very specific set of circumstances; a perfect storm of sexual pheromones spawned by two individuals who shared a similar genetic code. One born half-human, half-immortal had never existed before.

  “Forgive me, Eva. I don’t mean to be rude.” Ramses said as he reached out to accept the woman’s hand. “It appears the gossipmongers were telling the truth. When are you due?”

  Once more, Eva patted her protruding belly. Her cheeks flushed a bright red. “I’m five months along. The prophecy of Thy One right here in the flesh.”

  Ramses’ eyes widened in surprise. The Prophecy of Thy One was a legend passed down from generation to generation among his people. It promised to unite his kind with mortals after thousands of years of hatred and bloodshed. Could it truly be fulfilled? Was she carrying the offspring of a pureblood in her womb? Impossible! Vampires and humans were not meant to procreate. If Eva really was pregnant with Andreas’s child, Ramses was staring at a living, breathing miracle.

  “I’m in awe of you, my lady. I suppose congratulations are in order.” Ramses lifted his shot glass to her in salute. “By the way, how’d you know it was me?”

  Eva waited until the bartender had gone about his
business before she leaned in. “I’m sort of an expert when it comes to your kind. Besides, bloodsuckers don’t generally frequent beachfront bars before sundown. I spotted you from a mile away.”

  “You’re a huntress?” Eva’s chosen profession suddenly dawned on him. She killed vampires for a living. “Andreas mentioned that you worked in law enforcement, but I never would have guessed. So how on earth did you end up pregnant and married to a vampire?”

  “You want the long or the short version?” While Eva’s tone came out as a tad sarcastic, the wide grin and sparkling green tint of her eyes radiated pure joy and contentment.

  “How about the short version? I’m fairly well-sauced and I not sure my stomach could swallow a long, drawn out tale.”

  “Bottom line is that you can’t choose who you love. Somewhere up there,” Eva pointed toward the open sky. “The gods have a plan. All we can do is accept and embrace what life has in store.”

  “What wisdom from a woman so young and beautiful!” Ramses meant it too. The words she spoke not only seemed to ring true for her and Andreas, it also made a lot of sense in terms of his relationship with Maliyah. From the moment he’d laid eyes on the doe-eyed adolescent, he knew they were destined to be together. If only he could get her to let her guard down long enough to see past his least attractive character trait – his immortality.

  “Well, I’m heading to my room to freshen up before dinner.” Ramses said as he slung back the last swig of scotch in his glass. Then he stood. His knees were wobbly from intoxication. “Here’s to hoping you can impart some of your astute knowledge to my dinner companion later this evening.”

  Luckily, once he made it back to his suite, Maliyah was in the shower. All for the best. I’m not ready to face her just yet.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The Altercation