by J. R. Ward
Chapter Seventeen
Xcor had not expected this.
As he and his soldiers materialized to the communal feeding's prearranged location, he had anticipated a property that was run-down or mayhap on the verge of condemnation, a place in such financial state that a female would be forced into selling her veins and her sex to stay afloat.
No such thing.
The environs of the estate were appointed to a glymera standard, the sprawling manor house up on the hill glowing with warm light, the grounds manicured to within an inch of their lives, the smaller retainer cottage just inside the gates in perfect condition despite its obvious age.
Mayhap she was a lesser cousin of some great lineage?
"Who is this female?" he asked Throe.
His second in command shrugged. "I know not of her family personally. But I did verify her affiliation with a bloodline of worth. "
All around, his fighters were antsy, their combat boots packing the snow beneath their feet as they paced in place, their breath leaving their nostrils as if they were racehorses at the gate.
"One wonders if she knows what she volunteered for," Xcor murmured, not particularly caring whether the female did or did not.
"Shall I?" Throe asked.
"Yes, afore the others burst free of their wills and break into that fair cottage of hers. "
Throe dematerialized over to a quaint front door, its arched top and little lantern something one would expect to find outfitting a dollhouse. His right-hand male was not persuaded by the charm, however. The overhead illumination was abruptly cut off, surely because Throe willed it so, and the soldier's knock was hard and quick, a demand, not an inquiry.
Moments later, the portal opened. Firelight spilled out into the night, the golden yellow beams so intense they appeared at least nominally capable of melting the snow cover - and right in the middle of that lovely illumination, the figure of a female cut a dark, curvy silhouette.
She was naked. And the scent that drifted over on the icy breeze indicated that she was very ready.
Zypher growled softly.
"Keep your wits about you," Xcor commanded. "Lest your hunger be used as a weapon against us. "
Throe spoke to her and then reached into his inner pocket to take out the cash. The female accepted what was given and then stretched one arm up high upon the jamb, angling her body so that one luscious breast was bathed in that soft light.
Throe glanced over his shoulder and nodded.
The others didn't wait for further invitation. Xcor's fighters converged upon the doorway, their male bodies so large, and in such number, that the female was instantly rendered invisible.
With a curse, he closed in on foot as well.
Zypher naturally went in first, taking her lips and cupping her breasts, but he wasn't alone. The three cousins fought for position, one going behind and arching his hips, as if he were rubbing his cock against her ass, the other two reaching for her nipples and her sex, their hands worming in as she was swarmed.
Throe spoke above the rising moans. "I shall stay outside on guard. "
Xcor opened his mouth to command otherwise, and then realized it would make him look like he was avoiding the scene, and that was hardly a masculine thing to do.
"Aye, you do that," he muttered. "I shall guard the interior. "
His males picked up the female, their dagger hands finding hold on her arms, her thighs, her waist, and en masse they carried her backward into the cozy confines. Xcor was the one who shut the door and made sure there was no locking device to pen them in. He was also the one to scope out the inside of the cottage. As his bastards carried their meal toward the fire, where a large fur rug had been laid flat upon the floor, he leaned into the closest window, lifted the drapery, and checked the panes of glass. Old and leaded, with wooden struts, not steel.
Not secure. Good.
"Someone get inside of me," the female moaned in a deep voice.
Xcor didn't bother to ascertain whether she was accommodated or not - although her rippling groan suggested she was. Instead, he looked around for any other doors or places from which an ambush could be staged. There appeared to be none. The cottage didn't have a second floor, the skeleton of its roof arching up above his head, and there was only a shallow bathroom, the door of which was open, a light left on revealing a claw-footed tub and an old-fashioned sink. The open kitchen was but a stretch of countertop and a few modest appliances.
Xcor glanced over at the action. The female was lying on her back, her arms T'd out from her torso, her neck exposed, her legs spread wide. Zypher had mounted her and was rhythmically thrusting into her, her head moving back and forth on the white fur as she absorbed the pounding. Two of the cousins had latched onto her wrists, and the other had taken out his cock and was fucking her mouth with it. Indeed, there was little of her that was not covered with male vampire, and her ecstasy at being used was obvious not only to the eye, but to the ear: Around the erection that was going in and out of her plump lips, her heavy breathing and erotic moans escaped into the balmy, sex-scented air.
Xcor walked over to the kitchen sink. There was nothing in the deep belly of it, no lingering remnants of a meal, no half-filled, abandoned glasses. There were dishes in the cupboards, however, and when he opened the European-size refrigerator, bottles of white wine were lined up horizontally on the shelves.
A male curse brought his eyes back to the fun and games. Zypher was just orgasming, his body bowing forward while his head kicked back - and in the midst of his release, one of the cousins was shoving him out of the way, taking his place, lifting the hips of the female and digging his arousal into her wet, pink sex. At least Zypher seemed entirely content to trade places; he beared his fangs, ducked his head under the now-heaving chest of his comrade, and nipped the breast of the female so he could feed close to her nipple.
The one at her mouth orgasmed as well, and she swallowed his release, sucking the head of the fighter's cock in desperate pulls, then letting go and licking at her slick mouth as if she were still hungry. Somebody else soon obliged, yet another arousal plunging in between her lips, the counterthrusting rhythm of what was going on at her head as well as between her legs bouncing her back and forth in a way she seemed to get off on.
Xcor went over and double-checked the bathroom, but his first assessment had been correct: There was nowhere to hide in its tight confines.
Having secured the interior, he had naught to do but lean back against the corner that offered the greatest visual access and witness the feeding. As things intensified, his fighters lost what semblance of civility they had, taking swipes at one another as lions would over a fresh kill, their fangs flashing, their eyes wild with aggression as they jockeyed for access. They did not completely lose their heads, however. And they took care of the female.
Soon enough, someone scored his vein and put it to her lips.
Xcor dropped his eyes to his boots and allowed his peripheral vision to monitor the environs.
There was a time when he would have become aroused at the sight - not because he was particularly interested in the sex, but more in the same manner that when he saw food, his stomach would grumble. And accordingly, in the past, when he had had the need to take a female, he had done just that. Usually in the dark, of course, so the dear girl wouldn't be offended or afeared.
He could well imagine the strained expressions males sported when they were in their erotic throes did little to improve his looks.
Now, though? He felt curiously unplugged from it all, as if he were watching a team of males move some heavy furniture or perhaps rake a lawn.
It was his Chosen, of course.
Having had his lips against her pure skin, having looked into her luminous green eyes, having smelled her delicate scent, he was utterly uninterested in the well-used charms of that female in front of the fire.
Oh, his Chosen. . . he had never known such gr
ace existed, and moreover, he could not have e'er surmised that he would be touched so completely by that which was antithetical to him. She was his opposite, kind and giving when he was brutal and unforgiving, beautiful to his ugliness, ethereal to his filth.
And she had marked him. Sure as if she had struck him and left a scar deep within his flesh, he was wounded and weakened by her.
There was naught to be done.
Lo, even the memory of the moments he had shared with her, when she had been fully clothed, and he had been so gravely injured, were enough to stir him at his hips, his sorry sex stiffening for no good reason a'tall: Even if they had not been on different sides of the war for the throne, she would never have let him come to her as a male does when he is enthralled with a female of worth. That breezy autumn night when they had met under that tree, she had been performing a valid service in her own mind. It had naught to do with him in particular.
But oh, he wanted her nonetheless. . . .
Abruptly, the female before the fire arched under the shifting, orgasming weights atop her, and he refocused on her. As if she sensed his sexual arousal, her blissed-out, fuzzy stare drifted over in his direction, and brief surprise flickered across her face - or what little he could see of it around the thick forearm offering her nourishment.
Shock widened her eyes. She evidently had failed to notice his presence - but now that she had, fear, not passion, clearly flared within her.
Unwilling to disrupt the action, he shook his head and flashed her his palm in a stop motion to reassure her that she was not going to have to bear his bite - or worse, his sex.
The messaging apparently worked, because the dread left her expression, and as one of his soldiers presented his cock for attention, she reached out and began stroking it over her head.
Xcor smiled to himself in a nasty way. This whore wouldn't have him, and yet his body, in all its biological stupidity, insisted on responding to that Chosen as if the sacred female would e'er look twice at him.
So silly.
Checking his watch, he was surprised to find that the feeding had been going on for an hour already. So be it. Provided his males complied with his two basic rules, he was content to let this continue: They had to remain substantially clothed, and their weapons had to be holstered with the safeties off.
That way, if the tenor changed, they could defend themselves quickly.
He was more than willing to give them the time.
After this interlude? The lot of them were going to be at their full strength - and with the way things were going with the Brotherhood. . . they were going to need to be.
