Read Online OwnedbytheNight by Scarlett Sanderson - Free Book Online Page A

he’d been
watched. His arrogant self-belief was a potent aphrodisiac.
    Reaching out with her fingertips, she brushed them against
his cheek. Heat erupted across her skin. Saliva flooded her mouth, her incisors
throbbed. She swiped her tongue across her lips and swallowed. His show of
power, his burst of dominance, made her eyelids flutter shut. She let out a
low, throaty moan. For a vampire, food and sex were usually entwined but she
craved his body as much as his blood. Her pussy throbbed with the need to be
filled, to be fucked.
    She had to have him.
    “My name is Allegra. Now, druid, tell me yours.”
    “Why should I?”
    Insolence. She loved that in a man.
    “Because I can make you more powerful than you ever
dreamed.” She swept a lock of midnight hair from his forehead and gasped as his
fingers curled around her wrist.
    He jerked her forward until she almost stumbled. He was
powerful. For a human.
    “And why would you do that? What kind of power are you
offering, Allegra? One that takes my soul?” He snorted. “I don’t need what you
are offering, demon.”
    A smile twitched on the edge of her lips. The disdain in his
tone palpable in the air. He thought her a demon? He wouldn’t make a deal with
a demon? How noble. He’d been performing the dark arts for five nights, rituals
forbidden to any good druid. Yet he wouldn’t consider an offer of magic from a
vampire. If it hadn’t been so ironic, she would have laughed.
    “Although there are demons and gods and various other things
your mind cannot conceive of, druid, I’m no demon. We aren’t evil. We don’t
have blessings from hell. We have a soul. We have a beating heart.”
    Freeing herself from his grasp, she swirled her skirts and
cloak around her legs, sinking to her knees in front of him. “We are different
just like you.”
    She rested her hands on her thighs in a gesture of peace.
They sat eye to eye. Their different magics brushed against each other,
fighting for dominance—hers the power of the Revenant. The ability to heal
quickly, to live eternally, the power of strength and speed unknown to mortals.
She could feel his emotions and influence them within the blink of an eye. His
magic inherently more mystical, coming from the earth and the oceans. She let
her power wash over his body, forced it inside and battered his well-erected
barriers.
    A tic beat erratically in his jaw, the only visual sign he’d
been disturbed by her power.
    She continued her assault, using all the vampiric tricks her
Master had taught her over a thousand years ago. She homed in on his emotions,
on his need, on the craving he had for her abilities and her body. Latching on
to these emotions, she forced her will onto his, enhanced his need, shot
white-hot desire into his mind.
    The sensual heat she had shown him bowed his spine. How
beautiful he was—a body of lithe, toned grace. His robe gaped open revealing
dusky, caramel skin covered in a light mat of dark hair. But it was his face
she couldn’t stop looking at. A strong, masculine jaw, high cheekbones,
sculpted lips and dazzling blue eyes. He looked like a Roman god, only more
feral.
    “So powerful.” His words were a whisper on the wind, his
tone reverent, yet there was an undercurrent of need that made her smile. He
coveted her power.
    “Yes, and I can give you something you’ve been craving,
druid. Eternal life. Just think what you could achieve with immortality. All
the power of the ages is yours for the taking if only you will reach out and
touch it.”
    Yes, she could seduce him with the lure of power darker than
his own. He would be her immortal companion—strong, powerful, beautiful. He was
worthy of the dark gift.
    This time it was he who reached forward and brushed his
fingertips across her cheek. Such a tender gesture for one so primal. “And what
would I have to give you in return? Riches? My soul?”
    She turned her cheek into his touch. Power burst from his
fingertips and her body sizzled with