She met his golden eyes and tried again to regain the upper hand, scowling when her mental attempt slid away from the edges of his mind like droplets of water on an orange peel. “You’re blocking me somehow.”
Eris’ look of faux-innocence wouldn’t have fooled the most credulous of onlookers. One moment, she was lying on top of him, taking a mental measure of the very promising bulge nestled against the crease of her hip. A heartbeat later, she was pinned beneath him on the pile of cushions, held effortlessly in place by a careful strength that far outstripped hers, even now that she’d been turned.
Trynn didn’t really need a mind-whammy of horniness at this point; her body had that angle taken care of, all on its own. She wriggled in his grip, not yet ready to throw in the towel in whatever game they were playing.
Right. Shit. So, maybe she didn’t need the mind-whammy… but it looked like she was getting it again, ready or not. A wave of hot lust swept over her and ebbed, dragging an undignified noise from her throat. Somehow, Eris was still able to press desire into her mind, even though he was blocking her from doing the same to him.
“Definitely not fair,” she groaned, her head falling back against the cushions as the next wave came.
“Nonsense,” he said, though the hint of gravel under his voice betrayed his own dwindling control. “There ought to be some advantage to being as old and experienced as I am. It’s perfectly fair.”
She writhed, wanting to feel that strength holding her in place… loving the way it ratcheted her raging desire even higher than before. Trynn redoubled her efforts to shove the molten ball of lust back across the link, and was rewarded by a sharp intake of breath as he thrust against her hip. The one-way shield strengthened a moment later, and he made a tisking noise.
Trynn felt like a volcano about to erupt, all pent up, with nowhere to go.
“Touch me, damn it,” she demanded. “God! You’re driving me mad, Eris!”
He smirked. “I am touching you,” he said, squeezing her wrists and thrusting against her hip again to demonstrate.
She groaned aloud. “Argh! Not like that. Touch. Me.”
He still looked inordinately smug. “Hmm… not yet, I don’t think. For one thing, I’m quite enjoying you like this.” He rolled his hips, and she bit off a frustrated curse—which he ignored. “And for another, I don’t think we’ve really explored the mind-whammy in sufficient depth, yet. I did promise to educate you in the use of our powers, after all.”
Trynn made a desperate noise as the tide of want rose even higher, building impossibly within her with no outlet for release. Sex had always been a casual game for her in the past—a harmless amusement. It was a game she was used to winning. She had always been a champion at getting what she wanted in the bedroom.
Right now, she was definitely not getting what she wanted. She had a suspicion, though, that by the end of the night, she was going to get exactly what she needed. A new wash of lust washed over her, stealing her breath. Her body shuddered as she tried to hang onto control, but it lasted for only a moment before the thread snapped.
She went limp and heavy, surrendering to the overwhelming feelings coursing through her. Satisfaction rumbled through Eris’ chest, her mild-mannered lover transforming into a growling, possessive panther before her eyes.
“So beautiful,” he said, releasing her wrists to run his thumb over the seam of her lips. “And mine.”
The touch ignited every nerve as she lay beneath him, pliant and waiting. “Please,” she whispered against his callused fingertip. “Eris, please.”
His thumb slid past her lips, the skin tasting of salt and musk as he pressed in deep. Her body balanced on the knife-edge of orgasm, aching and untouched.
“Yes,” he said. “You’re so close, aren’t you? I want to feel you come merely from the touch of my mind against yours.”
She whimpered around him. He stroked over her tongue and pressed an image into her thoughts of his cock sliding inside her with a single smooth thrust. Trynn cried out around the flesh in her mouth and came hard—still fully dressed, and without him having come within six inches of her clit, or even her breasts.
“Jesus fuck,” she whispered after he slid his thumb free, and the aftershocks had died down to tremors. “I can see already that I’m going to have to up my game in the bedroom.”
He stroked the backs of his knuckles over her cheek tenderly. “Your game is magnificent,” he said, his tone sounding nearly reverent. “But, right now, I think it would be even more magnificent if you were naked.”
Coming untouched might sound like serious fantasy material, but the reality was that it only left her wanting more, with a deep, empty ache that longed—no, demanded—to be filled.
“Naked is absolutely a plan I can get behind,” she agreed. “As long as it’s mutual, anyway.”
“Very, very mutual,” he said, sliding the soft cotton pajama bottoms he was wearing down and off without ceremony.
And… yup. The bulge had not lied, earlier. He was hung. And she was staring, to his evident amusement.
“No wonder you and Phaidra fucked constantly,” she said. The words emerged sounding a bit faint.
That startled a bark of unrestrained laughter from him. “Should I even ask?”
She shook her head, trying to clear it. “Uh… I may or may not have had a whole series of extremely raunchy sex dreams about us in the past, those first few nights after we met.”
His expression grew far away, and she ached for him in a new way as he looked down, breaking eye contact for a moment before peering through the tangle of his messy hair at her.
“I have tried for a long time… not to think about that part of the past,” he said, all hints of teasing gone.
She smiled up at him sadly, and lifted a hand to stroke his jaw. Mirroring his earlier action, she brushed her thumb over his full lower lip. He grasped her wrist, holding her in place as he pressed a kiss to the pad.
“The time for sadness is past,” she said. “I’m here. You’re here. There’s no reason to be sad any more, is there?”
His eyes closed, and she felt a fine tremor run through his body. When he opened them again, they were wet, but gold glowed behind his gaze.
“Trynn,” he whispered hoarsely.
She smiled, and reached down to grasp the hem of her shirt so she could pull it off. She watched him watching her as she removed the rest of her clothing, piece by piece. She knew her body was fit, but not classically beautiful—she was a bit angular, a bit boyish.
But one glance was enough to tell her that in Eris’ eyes, she was perfect. Part of her wondered if she resembled Phaidra physically. She guessed not, since he hadn’t seemed to recognize her when they first met. Apparently, it didn’t matter to him in the least. He was watching her avidly, hunger in his golden gaze.
“No more games,” she breathed.
“No more games,” he agreed. And then, he was stalking up the length of her body, pressing closed-mouth kisses along her inner thigh.
Oh, thank god, she thought, as he nuzzled between her legs and breathed in, rubbing his stubbled cheek against her, openly wallowing in her scent. Watching him like this… it was… fuck… it was the sexiest damn thing she’d ever seen in her life.
She could feel arousal not her own resonating along their bond again as his tongue darted out to taste her folds. This time, though, it wasn’t a tease or a contest of wills, she knew. He just couldn’t stop himself. Somehow, that realization made it even sweeter. Trynn felt the echo of desire flow freely back and forth, growing as they fed off each other’s lust.
There was no reason to hold back.
It took almost no time at all for the touch of his mind and his delving tongue to bring her to the edge and push her over. She came, gasping, feeling him struggle not to follow her down into release.
A torrent of deliciously filthy images flashed in front of her mind’s eye, a movie reel of her dreams and fantasies from the past few days. She ve
ry clearly saw herself masturbating in the Merit Lefkosa’s decadent bathtub, to thoughts of Eris sinking his fangs into her neck.
Just as clearly, she felt Eris go still between her thighs, shock and uncertainty echoing through the connection. It took a minute for her to gather her wits after her orgasm. When she did, Eris was looking up the length of her body, his brow furrowed.
“What?” she asked.
He blinked. “You… want such a thing? After what I did to you, all those centuries ago?”
Understanding dawned, and the breath left her lungs in a slow exhale. “Oh, Eris.” She swallowed. “Not everything has to be about the past, does it?”
He was still watching her intently. “The past defines us.”
She shook her head. “Only if we let it,” she argued. “Is it so difficult to accept that maybe, just maybe, I have an untapped vampire fetish that doesn’t have deep, dark implications from millennia in the past? Especially given the fact that I’m a vampire now.”
The crease between his brows deepened. “But—”
“But nothing,” she insisted. “It was just a passing thought. I’m not asking you to do anything you don’t want to do. I trust you, though. I trust you with that completely. And I want that kind of bond with you. It’s the same bond you share with the others, isn’t it? The bond of blood?”
His expression softened into desperate longing, but she was relieved to see a hint of humor underneath. “Well,” he said, pressing a kiss to her mons, “perhaps not quite the same.”
She laughed, breathless. He kissed his way further up her body until he was poised above her. When his mouth closed over hers, she tasted herself, and moaned into the kiss. Her legs circled his hips, urging him forward. His hard length slid into her, stretching her passage deliciously. Filling her to perfection.
She gathered him close to her body and held him tight as they rocked together. She might have expected urgency from him during this, their first coupling. Instead, it was sweet beyond measure… slow and tender. Exquisite.
The world fell away, and for the first time she understood what he had said about having time. There was no hurry. They had forever.
She could feel what he felt; he could feel what she felt. It was the same. It was love.
When the sharp slide of his fangs pierced her neck, it was painless—the most natural thing in the world. When the deep pulling sensation as he drank from her joined the feel of him moving inside of her, a profound, all-consuming release washed through her body. He followed, filling her up even as he drew from her, the connection between them whiting out with ecstasy.
When he was finished, he kissed the fast-healing twin wounds left by his fangs, and buried his face against her neck. She felt the warm wetness of his silent tears, and held him close, cradling him to her.
“So long,” he whispered against her skin, his arms clutching her. “It’s been so long, beloved.”
“I know, my heart,” she soothed, stroking his messy hair. Feeling wise and strong. Cherished and protected. “I know. It’s all right, now.”
*
Some considerable time later, Trynn pushed open the door and the two of them emerged, turning left down the darkening hallway. Eris led the way, moving expertly through the maze-like corridors, and Trynn understood that he must be receiving directions from another vampire.
His large hand clasped her slender one. She could feel the power pulsing between them as their life force intermingled, tangled together after the hours of lovemaking. Adoration swelled in Trynn’s chest, filling up the unpleasant empty place in her soul that had plagued her after her turning, until it overflowed. It seemed that being reunited with her mate bridged the gap between the Light and the Dark within her. She wondered if it had done the same for Eris, but she wasn’t sure how to ask.
Apparently, they had reached their destination. He gestured towards a door and ushered her inside.
Trynn had a sneaky suspicion that she’d spent the last couple of hours projecting ecstasy to every vampire within mental listening distance. In the dwindling light of the room, she felt a hot blush creep over her cheeks as the others looked up. Della smiled, having pity on her.
“Yeah, I’m afraid you did, a bit,” the other woman said, her eyes crinkling. “Don’t worry, though. Anyone who didn’t want to hear it shielded their minds against you. You’ll get used to it, and it’ll be easier to control next time.”
Della’s gaze flickered involuntarily to Tré, and Trynn spared a brief moment of embarrassed curiosity over the idea that certain people might not have shielded. She cleared her throat to cover it. Yup… none of her business.
“Yes,” Xander said. “You, uh, really might want to work on that. Before some of us have to leave the country for some peace and quiet.”
Trynn blushed harder, and Eris gave Xander a look that was thoroughly unimpressed.
“Hey!” Xander raised his hands defensively. “Don’t give me that glare. You don’t understand how it is, being celibate while having to listen to the happy couples sneaking around.”
“Goodness. Celibate and sober at the same time?” Eris asked. “The horror.”
“Well… sober-ish,” Xander clarified, making a waggling, half-and-half motion with one hand.
“My heart bleeds for you,” Eris said, dry as dust. “Oh! Wait. No, I was wrong. I think it was just a moment of indigestion.”
Xander slapped a palm over his chest, playing at being wounded. “Ouch. I feel like you’re not fully appreciating my suffering, here.”
“From the hangover, you mean?” Eris mused. “Or the existential angst?”
“As entertaining as this is,” Duchess interrupted, “I think everyone is looking forward to leaving this run-down shithole as soon as it can be arranged.”
“Yes, the whole bombed out war zone thing is getting kind of old,” Oksana agreed. Her gaze settled on Eris. “Also, the whole people I care about nearly getting themselves killed thing.”
Eris had the grace to at least look regretful. “I’m sorry, Oksana. Not least because my misjudgment put the rest of you in jeopardy. But there were nuclear bombs involved, and an unknown timeline regarding when they might detonate. You weren’t here, and I had to leave Snag behind to guard Trynn. I regret the way it turned out, but I’m very much afraid that under the same circumstances, I’d do it again.”
The others were quiet. A lump rose in Trynn’s throat, but she swallowed it down. “And would you lie to me again, about what you were doing?” she asked, remembering the way he’d looked when she’d first arrived here with Tré and Della. Broken. Half dead.
Eris’ face softened. “No. No, I wouldn’t lie. Tré told me what you did, with the email to the Russians. If I’d talked to you first, the whole thing might have been avoided.”
Honesty compelled her to say, “I don’t know. Maybe not. I only came up with the plan because I was so desperate to save you after Snag showed me what that fucking bastard Kovac had done to you.”
Tré had been silent, but he spoke up at that. “At least now we know the truth about Bastian Kovac. We know what kind of power we’re facing. A power almost equal to Snag’s, even though Kovac was turned only a short time ago.”
Trynn looked towards Snag, who was standing still and silent in the corner of the room. As she gazed at him, she felt a surge of affection stir in her heart. Perhaps it was because they were connected now—bound by blood. Maybe it was due to that newly fledged bond, or maybe becoming a vampire had adjusted her eyesight, but he appeared less like a spectral monster to her now. His burns were healed, and his face seemed less gaunt than before. She could detect a hint of warmth in his pale skin, and light in his eyes, which moved to rest on her.
As their gazes connected, Trynn felt the corner of her mouth lift up in a smile.
Thank you, she sent. She felt fairly sure that she’d managed to keep that message for him alone.
Snag tipped his head towards her in a tiny gesture of acknowledgement, befo
re turning his gaze back towards the window.
“So. Where should we go next?” Oksana asked, brushing dust off her dark trousers.
“I need a vacation after this,” Xander answered, looking aggrieved. “This has been one gigantic clusterfuck from start to finish.”
“Yeah, it has, at that,” Eris agreed, abandoning their earlier sniping. “Let’s just be happy that it’s over and—”
Without warning, the entire building rocked on its foundation. Trynn and Della staggered and fell to their knees. A wall of sound crashed against their ears, and dust rained down on their heads as beams and chunks of plaster fell from the ceiling.
Trynn felt herself being dragged sideways just as something heavy smashed where she had been crouching. Eris flung his body across hers and shielded their heads with his arms.
As more debris rained down, Trynn heard a scream from somewhere to her right. It sounded like Della.
With a final quake, the building grew still. The only sound was the clatter of falling masonry. Trynn coughed and pushed Eris off of her.
“I’m all right,” she croaked. “Is everyone else okay? What the hell just happened?”
The others stirred, pushing debris aside, seemingly unhurt.
“I’ve no idea,” Eris said, wiping dust from his face. “Anyone?”
Listen. The silent order echoed across the mental connection between the vampires, and after a moment’s confusion, Trynn realized it came from Snag.
“Listen to what?” Tré demanded. Through the gloom, Trynn could see him helping Della to her feet. They both looked shaken.
Snag was the only one of them who had remained standing through the shock wave. He stood before the window, clutching the windowsill with tension radiating through his slender body.
“Mon dieu.” It was Duchess. She had gone pale, her china blue eyes wide and unseeing. “Merde. The screaming. Can’t you hear it? It’s coming from the city…”
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