He released my lips and whispered in my ear, “Come for me.”
Shit. That was all I needed, and I was falling into the abyss, the only thing holding me together was his lips and his body as my orgasm took over me. Gasping over and over, I writhed in ecstasy, and he kissed every inch of my neck while I came down. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t think.
Best. Orgasm. Ever.
He took his hand from my panties and held me close for another breathtaking kiss. My fingers moved down to his pants and I managed to slide my palm up the hardness I found there before he stopped me.
“No, we shouldn’t do that,” he cautioned, and kissed me again feverishly, making sure I knew he still wanted me. “If we become lovers, James will smell it. You know the scent of our kind changes when we have a lover. It’s safer to wait until we’re out of here.” He kissed my forehead gently. “Lis.” I looked up at him and stared into his deep brown eyes. “If there was ever a time to break free from him, now is the time to do it.”
My eyes started stinging in defeat. “I don’t know how. I barely knew this type of control existed, I have no idea how to get free.”
“So you spent all your time walled up in that castle and you didn’t bother to learn anything about how your own kind work?” he snapped in irritation, shutting his eyes and sighing to calm himself down. “Sorry, I’m sorry.” His lips kissed me gently.
“It’s forbidden,” I said feebly once he’d let my lips go. It was the excuse I’d been saying for a long time, over a lot of different things.
“Being informed shouldn’t be forbidden, Lis. You have to know how to combat what’s not allowed instead of just ignoring it.”
I kissed him this time and wrapped my arms around his neck. “Hunters know. Olivier would know.”
He looked hopeful. Much more hopeful than I was. “Can you contact her?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. “It’d be dangerous, for me at least. Maybe Sara could help.”
We made a plan and got to work.
I slept with dreams of the French Revolution and woke up to Olivier sitting at the end of the bed wearing Hunter gear. Knight was sleeping beside me and she was eyeing him like he’d gotten dirt on her shoes. I gasped and sat up, looking around for Arthur.
“He’s not here,” she said in a weary tone. “I’m alone. Which is good news for the dog. I think. I got your message.” Sara had left a message with Renard, who then got in touch with Olivier and told her we needed to meet with her. “Lisbeth, you can’t stay in this town. We’re so close to catching you, and if you stay still, we’ll find you. Arthur will take you back to the castle.” To execute me, most likely. It pained me, but I had to tell her.
“I can’t.”
“What are you talking about? Did you not hear me?”
I pulled my shirt aside to show the bite. Her reaction was worse than Sara’s. She brought her hands to her mouth in utter horror and then worried her fingers around the bite like a mother trying to make a skinned knee feel better. Worse still, she hugged me so tightly I could feel my chest creak. When she pulled back she had tears in her eyes, and she touched the bite again with a mournful look. Then she breathed deeply to shake it off and took my shoulders.
“You have to fight back.”
“I don’t know how. That’s why we contacted you.”
She shook me a little. “Focus. You can break free. But...”
I gave her a questioning look. “But what?”
“It means breaking some rules. But you’re already on the run, so what the hell. Let’s go crazy.” She looked over at Knight’s sleeping form on the bed, then back at me. “Are you drinking from him regularly? I can smell you on him.” I shrugged one shoulder, non-committal, almost ashamed. She leaned forward to whisper in my ear, “Was it gross?” I playfully shoved her away and thought I heard a noise coming from Knight’s pillow. “Okay, business talk. Whether you drink from the dog, eww, or from a human, you need to be drinking several times per day. Four at the least.”
“Four? The side effects will be monstrous.”
“I know the side effects. I’ve lived the side effects. It has to be done. Unless you feel like being captured by us, or staying here to be this James’ lady friend until you die. Or both.”
“Not really.”
“Good girl.” She glanced at Knight again and reached out with one heavily buckled boot to lightly kick his leg. “You. Get up. I know you’re not sleeping.” He rolled over and sat up, wide awake.
“She can drink from me,” he affirmed, without any prompting. He locked eyes with me. That would mean helping me in a way he had only done once, and that time had been an emergency. At least we were kind-of lovers now. Right?
“I didn’t ask,” Olivier said back, even though she’d definitely not excluded his blood as a possibility a mere moment ago.
His eyes narrowed at her. “And I wasn’t offering. I’m telling.”
Olivier’s nails started to grow from where they sat on her shorts, scratching her dark brown legs slightly. With a measured sigh, she looked back at me. “I don’t like your mutt.” This made Knight growl loudly and I was worried he might get a boot to the face. But, Olivier stood, her nails retracted, and she gave me another hug with a slight glance towards the bite. “Do what I said. I’ll do what I can to deter Arthur until you can break free. And when you do, keep running. Next time you see me, I hope you’re not in trouble anymore.” She jumped into the windowsill, then she turned back and grinned. “Oh. I almost forgot. Your evasion methods are impeccable. If I wasn’t the one hunting you, they’d be chasing their tails for a century.” Then she was gone.
“Nice friend,” Knight commented dryly.
“She’s an acquired taste.”
“I have a feeling it takes a few centuries to acquire that particular taste.” He sat up, popped his shoulders, and ran a hand through his long locks. “First things first.” Smiling, he leaned in and stroked my cheek before kissing me slowly, like he was memorizing every inch of my mouth. Fuck, he was a good kisser. “And now…” No, more kisses. I pushed him back against the headboard, sat on his lap, and kissed him again, and again. “We should,” he got out between kisses. “Lis, we should focus.” I moved to his ear and I nibbled at the lobe before licking up the side while my fingers danced over the scars on his chest. “God damn it, woman. I am going to go insane.”
Back to his lips, and I kissed him like he was the only man, or woman, I’d ever kissed. I adjusted my spot on his cock until both of us gasped with pleasure.
“No sex,” I breathed against his mouth. “I just want to hear you moan.”
“God,” he gasped, his hot breath only fueling my flame. Rocking ever so slowly, my clit bumped against his cock with every thrust of my hips. My panties and his shorts were the only things between us, and I wanted so badly to remove any barrier that stopped my skin from touching his. He was right, though. If we became lovers, our scent would change, and James would know.
A few orgasms wouldn’t make a difference, and as much as Knight had teased me, it was my turn to tease him.
Clit against cock, bumping over and over. His hands found my hips and he increased my rhythm until I couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. His moans were the hottest thing I’d ever heard. I wanted to listen to them for as long as possible. Every moan made me wetter, and every bump brought me closer.
Growling, he pushed us down until he was on top of me, and he picked up speed against my clit until I was breathless with need, and he kissed me, taking the breath from my lungs so I gasped for more.
“Oh god,” I moaned. “More, faster.” I didn’t think he could go faster, but he did, and my clit throbbed against him until I knew I was going to explode. “I’m going to…” He cut me off with a bruising kiss and brought his hands to my nipples, and I was gone. Waves of pleasure hit me and his screams announced his own orgasm, his hips moving slower and slower as we both came down. Wet, and sweaty, all I could think was how much more I wante
d from him. Our ragged breathing was the only sound in the room now, where moments before it was screams and moans.
“You think,” I puffed against his neck. “You think Sara heard us?”
He laughed and rested his head against my shoulder. “We were pretty loud. She might’ve.” Lifting his head, he stared at me with that brown puppy-eyed stare and kissed my bruised lips tenderly. “Fuck James and his fucking fuck face. He’s keeping me from having you, and I hate him.” He gathered me in his arms and sat us against the headboard again. “Sex is over, it’s time to drink. I’ll need some breakfast afterward. Not because I need it to grow new blood, I’m just hungry enough to eat my blanket. And maybe yours too.” He moved his head to the side, exposing his neck.
I wanted to refuse his offer. I really did. I’d seen what the extra blood did to James, and it scared me. I didn’t want to lose myself, but I was almost beyond caring. I was tired of being James’s puppet. And drinking from Knight was the only way to be free.
“I’m scared,” I told him. No use in hiding it. “You saw James. That’s what happens when we drink more than once a day. We become like addicts. Except it’s the power we crave. I’ll become uncontrollable. And weird.”
He kissed me and stroked my hair. “I won’t let that happen.”
I stared at his face, saw the determination he was trying to convey to me, and wished that it was true. “It will happen. It doesn’t matter how much you try.”
His eyes traveled around the room in thought and a muscle ticked in his jaw. “Okay. Then I’ll monitor you. If I say you’ve had enough, then we stop. Agreed?” I nodded. As long as he could keep me in check, I could do this. “Are you starting, or are we going to sit here while my stomach rumbles? As much as I love having you in my lap.”
I bit into his neck quickly and his arms came up to cradle me like he’d done mere seconds before as he brought me to climax. I drank for a long time. Normal feedings only took about two minutes. I stayed on Knight’s neck until my stomach started hurting from being so full, and my stomach can hold a lot of blood. He never pulled away. As soon as my teeth retracted, he slumped his head against my shoulder and brought his arms closer around me to hold me in place.
A knock at the door made us both jump.
20. Gaining strength
“BREAKFAST!” Sara shouted in a sing-song tone. I got up from Knight’s lap and he fell forward onto the comforter. When I opened the door, Sara had a cute look on her face like we’d been up to something during the night and she knew all about it.
She’d definitely heard us.
She was pushing a cart with a large tray full of food, enough food to feed a Lycan and a vampire, and then some. “Morning guests!” She pushed past me with the cart and rolled it over to the round table by my bed. The tray looked heavy, but she did her best to try and lift it until I had to go help her.
She’d literally cooked every kind of breakfast food there was, including the custard croissants I loved, and a few dishes I didn’t recognize.
I smelled curry.
“There’s plenty for both of you,” she said with a cheerful smile. “He needs to keep up his strength. I mean both of you do. Silly me. Ta ta!” She waltzed out of the room, pushing the cart and humming something off-key.
“Well, she’s cheerful today,” Knight said with a chuckle.
“Get over here or I’m eating everything,” I told him.
We ate. Well, I ate. He inhaled. He let me get my own food first, and after I filled my plate, he gobbled up everything else, including whatever smelled like curry. I felt slightly bad because I’d drunk so much from him. Though, I’d seen him eat this much before when he still had all of his blood.
He caught me staring at him. “Do you feel weird?” he inquired. I shook my head and leaned in for a kiss. If anything, I just felt more alert. Everything smelled crisper. I could hear better without pushing my senses out. I’d easily drunk three times more blood than I usually had every morning. “You can drink again before lunch, and you’ll tell me if you start to feel different, right?” He was trying to help, but he was being a bit bossy.
“Okay, dad.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I am not nearly old enough to be your dad, missy. Plus, that would be awkward considering I plan on seeing you naked in the near future.” I chuckled and took another bite of the hash brown I’d been working on. “Speaking of which,” he started. “Who are your parents? Aren’t they going crazy with worry?”
“I don’t know who they are,” I said simply, my fork hovering in front of me. “Balthazar knows who my mother is, not that he’ll ever tell me her name. My father is a nameless mystery. I don’t even think about it.”
Knight stared at me for a minute before putting some egg in his mouth. “Yes. I can see that you don’t,” he said around his food. “That’s not normal, by the way.”
“Fuck that. I’m a Born vampire. I don’t have to be normal.”
He snorted and blew a few pieces of egg onto the table. “Well,” he continued after chewing and swallowing. “You’re right about that.” He sipped his second glass of orange juice. “Things like that tend to fade after a while, don’t they?”
“It’s not like I don’t want to know who my father is,” I admitted, though I’d never said that out loud to anyone. I never talked about my parents. Not even to Olivier. “It’s just something I’ll never get an answer for.” He nodded like he understood. “Are other Lycans like you?” I regretted asking such a question, but I’d been wondering.
He looked hesitant. “You mean freaky with the moon or really, really old?”
“Immortal.”
He almost didn’t want to answer. I could see it on his face. “No. They aren’t. Because I’m not like them. I was born human.”
I was almost surprised to hear that, but I remembered that he was a werewolf. Werewolves were born human. “The scratches on your chest, they were from the Succubus.”
“Yeah. They’ve never gone away. I spent time with a Lycan pack at first, just to learn about being one of them, until it was clear I wasn’t one of them. I’ve been on my own ever since. I’ve never... seen another man like me. Not ever.” I got up from my chair and sat on his lap to put my arms around him.
“It’s because the Bicus are banned from changing or impregnating humans,” I told him, and he rubbed my back with his free hand. “No one knows why, or those that do don’t talk about it. If there were others like you, they’d be very old. Older than me.”
This upset him greatly, though he tried to not show it. I tried to imagine what it would be like to have not a single soul that knew what it felt like to be what I am. I didn’t like that mental image. And Knight was a pack animal. He’d never have a pack. Like an ant without a colony. A bee without a beehive.
Maybe I could be his beehive.
After Knight and I made out for a long time in the tub and we made sure I didn’t smell like him, I went to my usual feeding at James’s mansion. He didn’t mention his proposal, probably trying to respect that I hadn’t made up my mind yet. I drank from the human he provided, the extra blood only helping my cause. He wanted to talk about the merits of Napoleon, so I sat through that for over an hour.
Yawn.
He finally let me go before lunch. Drake took me home, and I fed from Knight again before Sara served us stewed duck. As I breathed in the smell of the food, I noticed everything smelled better. The colors of the 1950’s kitchen were brighter like someone had turned up the graphics setting. I could hear every part of the hotel without having to focus my ears.
That night, with our underwear still on, Knight and I shared several life-shattering climaxes. With the extra blood in my system, I was almost afraid I would hurt him. I’d have to be very careful not to do so.
The next day came. I drank from Knight before breakfast. I drank at James’s house. When I came back, I had a lovely craving to take a walk. Knight’s presence wasn’t sitting well with the local populous, which was why
we had been spending most of our time in the hotel before now, among other reasons. The humans had either never seen a Lycan, or had and didn’t enjoy the memory. The vampires were no better.
“If they keep hissing at me, I’m going to be soaked in saliva by the end of the day,” Knight complained after the fifth vampire had flashed their fangs in his direction.
In order for them to not tell James about us, we couldn’t touch each other in public, and it was torturous. Still, I patted his arm like I would a puppy and sighed with happiness. I was so happy. Happy, happy, happy. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you from the big bad vampires.”
He glared at me frostily. “I can’t tell if that’s my blood talking or if you’re just always like this. Oh, wait. You are.” I stuck my tongue out at him and imagined kissing him against a telephone pole. “They say age makes you more mature, but in your case, they lied.”
“Who said age makes you more mature?” I retorted. “I’ve never heard that. And I’ve been friends with plenty of philosophers.”
“Like who, Friedrich Nietzsche?”
This time I glared. “Galileo, smarty pants.”
He actually looked surprised. “Really? Wow. That’s cool. I mean, I’ve known a few influential people too, but Galileo? What was he like?”
“And that is the question everyone asks me about everyone. What was Tolkien like? Was Jane Austen cool? Did the pilgrims like music?”
He was trying not to laugh. “Did they?”
I shrugged and smiled. “I didn’t know the pilgrims. The one person who asked me that, I lied and said no.” He’d gone on to create an entire religion based around that fact, but let’s not dredge up the past.
Knight was still on the topic of famous friends, and he just barely brushed his fingertips against mine, making flames flick up my arm. “Knowing someone who became famous isn’t a frame of reference. You just knew them as a friend. You didn’t know them as their public image.”
The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition) Page 14
