The Cursed by Blood Saga

by Marianne Morea

  As Carlos spoke, he kept his voice calm and an iron grip on his rage and regret. He spoke as if a narrator, retelling an event from history.

  “I was on a mission to procure passage to the east for a friend. His name had been reported to the inquisitor’s guard, it was only a matter of time before he, and his family were arrested. Passage of this nature was usually procured in places that were less than savory. I had my usual contacts in the various bars along the coast and made the customary inquiries. It wasn’t long before I had a lead on a ship willing to take on passengers of this kind. I met with the captain’s agent and handled the negotiations late one night in the port town of Cadiz.” Carlos closed his eyes.

  “The Captain asked about my accommodations for the night and I told him I would probably be spending the night with my horse. He asked if I would like to join him and his crew on the ship, and I welcomed the chance at sleeping in an actual bed. It was aboard this ship that I met the man who changed my life…who took my life.”

  Carlos recounted the events, speaking quickly and without emotion. Trina was riveted by the images he conjured, and though she knew the story wasn’t going to end well, she had asked him the question. That he was willing to tell her meant the world, and she knew it was something she needed to hear.

  “I awoke that first sunset to what I am. It’s taken centuries, but I have come to terms with who and what I am, trying to live this life by honoring the human one I once possessed. I know Isabel’s diaries told you what I did to her, so to spare us both the pain I won’t reiterate the story. But I’ve lived with that regret from sunset to sunset until she finally forgave me. For many years, I wandered, living on the fringe of humanity as well as on the fringe of my own kind. I drove myself to near insanity. If it hadn’t been for another immortal, I would never have found any peace. He gave me a way to live my life again.”

  “You’re talking about Dominic.”

  Carlos was astounded. “How do you know about that?”

  “Isabel’s diaries. Somehow, he and Jeffrey knew each other and became fast friends. He eventually told them about meeting this young nightwalker, as Isabel referred to your kind. As Dominic told them the story, they came to the realization it was you. Isabel wept for what happened to you, but wept more that you stayed true to the man she knew and loved. She wrote that she hoped you were happy and that she never held you responsible for what happened. She forgave you, Carlos, a very long time ago.”

  Carlos hung his head, drained. He looked weary. He’d kept his emotions in check as best he could, but she felt his pain regardless—his revulsion at his own lust, at his own cravings, and his overwhelming regret.

  Trina knew he had evolved in this life, in all the centuries that had ensued. The man he had been, the one who had been willing to risk death to save those suffering unjustly, was still there in the man sitting next to her today. The fate that had befallen him may have changed his body, but it hadn’t changed who he was, of that, she was sure—just as she was sure her feelings for him had somehow changed.

  She was falling for him.

  She lifted his bowed head so she could look into his eyes, then kissed him passionately, driving her hands into his hair, crushing his mouth to hers. Stunned, Carlos’s fingers gripped her shoulders. He hesitated for less than a moment, then held her fiercely, kissing her back. He felt his body harden with such need that he picked her up and carried her down the hall to the stairs without breaking their kiss. He took the stairs three and a time, kicking open the door to his quarters.

  He stripped off Trina’s clothes and climbed over her, crawling up her body sensuously, like a cat rubbing her sensitive skin and teasing her with light licks and tiny bites till he reached her mouth. He devoured her lips in another kiss.

  Trina’s hand wound around his neck and she arched back. Carlos trailed kisses down her throat and through the valley between her breasts. He cupped their heavy weight in his hand and suckled, teasing and biting one with his mouth as his thumb teased the other.

  She arched her back even more, moaning as his tongue teased her nipples into hard peaks. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she pushed wildly against him—trying for more friction, frantic for release.

  His hand drifted across her belly and worked his way down to the fluffy, dark curls at the juncture of her thighs. Trina parted her legs for him as she bucked up against his hand, urging him to enter her, but he pushed her hand aside.

  “Patience, my love. I’m not finished,” he said, lowering his head and blowing gently on her curls and sending little tingles down into her core. He continued to kiss her and play, as his fingers lightly brushed her sensitive, swollen bud in light, languorous strokes until Trina thought she would cry with need.

  “Is there something you want from me, Trina?” he asked as he continued to tease her. At the sound of her growled response, he plunged his fingers into her wet, slick sex, using his thumb to rub her taut nub in vigorous circles.

  Raising her hips, she bucked against his hand. He felt her stomach muscles bunch as the muscles of her inner walls began to squeeze and contract as she reached climax.

  Panting, she reveled for a moment in the aftershocks, then pushed his hand aside.

  “My turn,” she said, her eyes never leaving his as came up on all fours. Ordering him to strip, she straddled him, sliding her body over his torso, letting her sensitive breasts rub against the rough hair of his chest. She teased his nipples with her teeth and buried her face in his stomach, licking a trail down through his nest of black curls to the base of his member. Thick and swollen, the sight of his sex was just as intimidating as it was the very first time.

  Carlos was average height, about five feet, eleven inches, with a lean and well-muscled body. Strong thighs and a defined back supported his broad shoulders and solid abs, but when he stood in front of Trina, naked and aroused, the only thing she could see was his massive erection—long and thick with a bulging head that looked like it would tear her apart. She couldn’t keep her eyes from it. Luckily, for her, Carlos knew how to use it, wielding nothing but pleasure.

  Trina stroked and suckled, and Carlos’s body grew rigid. She licked the full length of his hard, silken shaft, sliding his head, swollen and pulsing, into her mouth. Carlos breathed in sharply and held his breath for a moment. He fisted the hair at the back of her head urging her to take more of him, deeper, faster. He made a noise between a moan and a snarl, and when Trina looked up, she saw his face had changed. He was close to climax. She pulled away from him and he roared in protest.

  “Do you want me, Carlos?” Trina asked her face intense and her voice breathless. Carlos flipped her onto her back and with one furious thrust, buried himself within her soft, swollen folds. He was fighting for control, holding back, and Trina could see him struggling with his darker side.

  “All of me, Carlos. Not just my body, my blood too. Take all of me now!”

  Carlos plunged into her body once again and sank his fangs deep into her neck.

  A flood of pleasure and pain mingled in a sweet rush and it pushed Trina over the edge. She cried out as she climaxed again, screaming Carlos’s name. He hissed at the sound of her cry, pumping his hips furiously one powerful thrust after another.

  The tension reached its peak with his body buried deep within her sex and his fangs buried deep within her neck. He released her throat and with a guttural roar reared up as he climaxed, his seed exploding hot and deep within her.

  As the last spasms shook them, he held Trina tight, closing her wounds with a flick of his tongue. They collapsed together, spent and happy, in a tangle of sheets that smelled of sex, sweat, and blood.

  ***

  Carlos ran a bath for them while Trina went to pour herself a glass of orange juice from a tray he had sent up to his bedroom. Chuckling, she walked back into the bathroom, carrying her glass.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked with a confused smile as he swirled scented herbs into the bath water.

  �
��This,” she said, raising the glass. “The Red Cross always makes you drink orange juice after you donate blood.” She took a large gulp and then set the glass down, perching herself on the edge of the vanity.

  “Oh,” he said regretfully. He looked at her, his face a little ashamed. “I’m sorry, Trina.”

  “I’m not,” she said emphatically. “That was one of the most wonderfully intense experiences of my life. So don’t you go and get all maudlin on me. I asked for it, remember?”

  He took a deep breath, then walked over and wrapped his arms around her. “I’ll try to remember that.” Kissing her gently, he took her by the hand and led her over to the tub. “Come on. The water is perfect.”

  They eased their way into the steaming, fragrant water. Trina loved the fact that the Jacuzzi was big enough for the two of them. They made love again amidst the churning bubbles of air, but slowly this time, languorously, making sure they enjoyed every delicious moment together.

  Trina lay back against his chest as he played with the bubbles, drawing lazy circles over her full breasts. “You never answered my question,” she teased, playing with his fingers as they swirled over her body.

  “What question?”

  “About the sun. Are you old enough yet to come out and play in the sunshine with me?”

  “You just love being the comedian, don’t you?” he said with an exasperated sigh, but Trina felt his lips curl into a smile as they grazed her cheek.

  “Well?”

  “Yes. I can walk in the sun, but only when it is not very strong.”

  “You mean like early morning or late afternoon? What about overcast days?”

  “Yes, to all of the above.”

  “That’s great! This means sometimes we can spend the night and the whole next day together!”

  “Let’s not get too carried away. It’s not as much time as you’d think. I still have to be very careful and make sure I have cover available to me at all times. Sunscreen is not going to help me one bit if the weather suddenly clears or we misjudge the time of day. So don’t go planning any picnics on the beach for us just yet,” he said, laughing at her enthusiasm.

  “I won’t, but don’t rain on my parade, okay?”

  “Rain on a parade day would be a good thing for us.”

  Trina went to splash him playfully but instead he grabbed her hand and kissed it. “I think maybe we should be getting out soon. Your hands are all pruned, and the water is getting cold.”

  They toweled off and slipped into a couple of thick terry robes hanging from the back of the bathroom door. Trina picked up her glass and walked over to the dresser to pour herself some more juice. Feeling a little lightheaded, she grabbed a couple of cookies too. God bless the Red Cross, she thought, munching her way through the sugar cookies.

  Trina sat down next to Carlos as he flipped through a DVD case looking for something for them to watch.

  “I think it’s time you met my family,” he said, suddenly but with complete nonchalance.

  Trina turned to look at him in utter surprise. “You have a family?” she asked incredulously.

  “Well, what did you think? That I’ve lived all these centuries alone like a hermit?”

  “No…yes…no…Oh, I don’t know. I know you mentioned it when you drove me home that night, but afterward…I guess I thought you only said that to be polite,” she said, embarrassed.

  “I have a house full of people who rely on me and on whom I rely. They are my family.”

  “Why haven’t you brought them up before?” she asked, a little perplexed and at the same time a little hurt. “Are they all vampires like you?”

  Carlos almost cringed at Trina’s last question. This was it. The moment he had been dreading almost as much as he had dreaded her finding out his true nature. “I didn’t mention it before because you really weren’t speaking to me, remember? However, to answer your question, no, they’re not all vampires, although the ones that are have been with me for many, many years. The others, well, they’re like…like…” He hesitated, not sure what to tell her. He couldn’t very well tell her that in his world they were referred to as pets. She’d never understand. To a vampire, pets were more like wards, not like dogs or cats. Maybe she’d understand if he put it to her that way.

  “Like what?” she asked, confused at his hesitation.

  “More like foster kids.”

  “Oh,” she said.

  Carlos knew by her tone, and how she chewed on her bottom lip, that she was turning his words over in her mind. He could almost hear those wheels spinning and the questions forming, but he beat her to the chase. “Why don’t we get dressed and you can see for yourself? I promise, no dungeons with chains, no coffins or large harpsichords playing eerie music.”

  Trina just smirked and slapped at his shoulder. She leaned against him and he put his arm around her shoulders. “No, not tonight. I’d rather stay here with you, just us. It’s too soon, anyway. Maybe in the next couple of weeks or so. I’m off on Sundays. We can do it at some point then. All right?”

  Carlos leaned over and kissed the top of her head. “Whatever you wish,” he said, brushing the side of her cheek and her ear with his index finger. His relief was palpable. At least now, he’d have the opportunity to prepare not only his family, but himself as well.

  “Carlos?”

  “Mmmmmm?”

  “Your foster kids, wards...or whatever… Do you and the other vampires feed from them?”

  Carlos’s body froze. Just when he thought he’d dodged a bullet for a couple of weeks, that damn mind of hers. He took a deep breath and told her the truth. “Yes, mi vida. We do. It’s a very common thing in my world.”

  “Is sex a part of it when you drink their blood as well?”

  He cringed. He should have known. There was no going back now. “At times, yes. But it is not something that is necessary, although the person…ah…donating their blood does get pleasure out of the experience.”

  “Oh.”

  Carlos turned so they were sitting face to face. He wanted to see her, to look into her eyes as he spoke. “Trina, I have shared many experiences with many different people, vampires and humans alike, over these many centuries. You can’t have expected that I was a celibate nomad for almost three centuries, could you? I have loved in the past, but there has been nothing, and no one, that has made me feel the way you do. Since we have been together I have shared blood with those in my family, but that is all. Blood is required for my life. Unfortunately, you are going to have to realize and accept that even though you are giving me your blood, it will not be enough. It would weaken you too much.”

  Trina began to protest, but Carlos interrupted her, placing a finger on her lips. “There is no other way. The only being with enough blood strength to sustain me would be another vampire, and I don’t think you are ready for that yet. Are you?”

  Trina shook her head. She looked sadly at Carlos and cuddled up next to him, resting her head on his silent chest. He stroked the back of her hair, whispering reassurances into her still-damp curls.

  “Come and meet my family, Trina. See the way we are together. I know then all your worries and apprehensions will be put to rest.” Carlos kissed her hair again. He sincerely hoped he was right.

  Chapter Eleven

  Trina stood in the spray of the shower letting the water cascade over her head and shoulders. It felt wonderful. She felt wonderful. These past three weeks had been the happiest of her life so far. With her iPod plugged into the speakers on her nightstand, music filtered into the bathroom behind the sound of the running water. She sighed contentedly, singing along to Faith Hill’s Breathe playing in the background as she finished rinsing the last of the shampoo from her hair.

  With her eyes closed, she smiled to herself as she pictured his face, his incredible mouth, his laughter. How his smell made her want to tear her clothes from her body, and how his kiss always made her forget where she was or what she had to do.

  Behin
d her lids, she could see Carlos clearly, remembering everything they had done and all the places they had been. How he looked in the candlelight at dinner as he kissed her hands across the table, or with the wind in his hair as they walked the beach just before sunset. Or how he had awakened her body like no other had before.

  She leaned against the shower’s tiled wall and out of the direct spray. The water from her hair fell in tiny rivulets between her breasts and she ran her thumbs gently over her nipples, picturing his mouth, when she heard the phone ringing.

  “Shit,” she said, exasperated, as she turned off the water and stepped out onto the bathmat. “Hang on. I’m coming!” she yelled to no one, grabbing a towel and running to answer it before it stopped ringing.

  “Hello?” She huffed, a little out of breath, and struggled to keep her towel in place.

  “Are you all right, mi amor? You sound a little winded.”

  “Carlos. Yeah, um, sorry. I was in the shower. Is everything okay?” Heat rose in her face like she’d been caught doing something she oughtn’t. “I thought we were meeting at the club tonight. I’m working, remember?”

  “We are. It’s an hour’s drive to the house, so I wanted to remind you I’m picking you up around ten.”

  Trina chewed on her bottom lip. Just the mention of meeting Carlos’s family sent her nerves into overdrive. Shit—and a minute ago she’d been so relaxed. “Ten o’clock. Got it,” she repeated.

  “Your enthusiasm is staggering. Are you still nervous about meeting everyone? Trina, how many times do I have to reassure you?”

  “Sorry, I can’t help it. This isn’t exactly your average come meet the family scenario.”

  He chuckled. “I’ll grant you that, but I promise you have nothing to worry about. Dress casually. Prozac optional. I’ll see you at ten.”

  Trina hung up the phone. “Can’t wait,” she muttered, heading back into the bathroom.

  ***

  The gates to the estate swung open as Carlos pulled into the drive. Trina had made small talk the whole ride out of the city, chatting nonchalantly as she tried to keep her mind off their destination. However, the farther north they traveled, the quieter she became, barely saying a word as they navigated the streets of the sleepy hamlet of Verplanck, New York.