by Tilly Hart
The predator in me reared up as she lay in my arms, and I pushed her to the floor with an overwhelming need to connect with her, to claim her as mine.
‘I’m a mess,’ she muttered as I drove my fist into her hair and tipped her head back, slipping my tongue into her mouth and kissing her with fervour. The hair on my arms stood on end as she whimpered beneath my touch, a fresh tide of desire swamping my senses. I had to have her.
‘I don‘t care if you are a mess, you‘re still the most beautiful girl I’ve seen. Tell me if it’s too much. Okay?’
As my lips grazed her neck, I felt her tense beneath me. I could have moved away, but she needed to know that she was safe, that she had nothing to fear from me. I held her head back with the fistful of hair and slowly kissed and sucked and nipped at her neck.
‘Don’t worry,’ I said between agonisingly tempting kisses, the rush of her blood hot beneath the skin, ‘I will never hurt you. Yes, your blood sings to me, more strongly than before, but I can ignore its siren song, because what I feel for you is stronger.’
I placed a kiss right above the jugular and closed my eyes as the heady nearness enveloped me. ‘I want to know every part of you Rebecca, but I don’t want that.’
With barely a flex of my arms, I tore through her shirt like it was paper, severing it entirely down her torso. Her bra followed suit, and I lowered my head to her breasts, teasing them with my tongue as she writhed in my arms. Her chest pinked as she relaxed beneath my arms, and I let go of her hair and smiled down at her. ‘You are such a pretty thing, Rebecca.Especially like this. All airy breath and fuck me eyes. I’ll never tire of teasing you.’
Her jeans soon joined the rest of the ripped garments, and I didn’t stop until I had her naked on my bedroom floor. My fingers slipped easily into her as she arched her back, burying her face in my neck. Her mouth opened as she gasped, and I groaned as my pants tightened.
I leaned down above her, my fingers still exploring her, and whispered into her ear. ‘I love seeing you like this, open and bare, desperate and needy for me. I will never deny you the things that you need. I cannot give you babies or a suburban dream home, but you shall never wonder what it is to be desired, Rebecca. You will never have to beg for my touch. All of me, I give to you. Starting with these,’ I said, flexing my fingers within her, ‘And this.’
I moved lower, dragging my tongue across her engorged sex. With every twist of my tongue she trembled more, her muscles quivering with need.
‘And finally,’ I said after I could wait no longer, ‘This.’
I thrust into her with my jeans barely even pulled open, my cock springing free just in time to spear her upon it. My muscles tensed as I slowly pulled back, watching her pupils dilate as I thrust back in as far as she could take me.
Then pure animalistic lust took over as I claimed her body entirely.
Thirteen
rebecca
My body ached for more as Jed drove into me. No matter how much he gave me, I needed more of him. I clasped his shoulders as I trembled beneath him, craving the connection I’d so long written off in my life. My nails dragged the length of his back as I tilted my hips up to receive another thrust.
‘Oh god,’ I moaned as we kissed, the grinding of his hips as he buried himself sending waves of ecstasy shooting out from my core. Vampire or not, he knew what he was doing between my thighs. I guessed that hundreds of years of experience came in useful.
Then he buried his head in my shoulder, his fiery breath on my neck, and I tensed all over again. Whatever he said, having a vampire’s teeth beside my extended neck still sent fear scurrying through me. I had to trust him, no matter how unnatural it felt to let him kiss me there. But the fear only heightened my arousal, letting in someone so potentially dangerous was as thrilling as it was terrifying.
Instead of shrinking from him, I embraced his every touch.
I let the fear wash through me and used it to get closer to Jed. His denying his baser instincts for me was hot. Dangerous, but hot. He flipped me over onto my hands and knees, spreading me wide as he repositioned himself. The tenderness fled as his drive to fuck had taken over, and I closed my eyes, letting him take me there.
He thrust back in to me as he cupped my breasts, pulling my back up against his chest as he fucked me. Our bodies entwined in a pile of sweat and heat, sliding and slipping and groaning. His hand slid down to caress me as I leaned back onto his shoulder, my face buried into the side of his neck.
The pressure built until my muscles exploded in a sea of ecstasy, which Jed rode hard. It wasn’t until I collapsed forward that he gripped my hips in his fists and fucked me harder than I’d imagined possible. I was sure that he would burst right through me when in one guttural roar he came.
We lay entwined on the floor, our chests rising rapidly as we came too. For a long time we didn’t move, didn’t even speak as I marvelled in the heady after space of excellent fucking. More than that, I was safe in his arms and despite all the chaos surrounding us, for that scant time I was safe, and happy.
Eventually, Jed stirred beside me, turning my face and placing a gentle kiss on my reddened lips. ‘That was… just…’
I smiled and curled into his warm, tattooed chest and sighed happily. ‘It was. Almost as thrilling as your bike?’
‘Almost,’ he said with a grin as he rolled my onto my back and started kissing my torso once more. I closed my eyes and let him touch me everywhere, and anywhere, he pleased. Years had passed since I’d felt desirable, and if he was that enthralled with my body, there wasn’t a chance in hell that I’d be complaining.
Later, we’d moved to the comfort of the bed, and after a long - and steamy - shower, I was feeling more at ease. Jed brought us coffee and chocolate, and we sat companionably in bed beside one another. Eventually, we had sated ourselves in one another physically, and lovemaking made way for conversation. I still had a lot of questions.
‘So… You don’t bleed when you get hurt, right?’ I popped a piece of chocolate in my mouth and took a sip of the hot coffee, letting them mingle together on my tongue.
‘Yeah, there’s no blood.’
‘But you still have a heartbeat, and still get hard?’
Jed chuckled. ‘Surely you can’t be questioning whether I get hard.’
‘No.’ I blushed, I still ached from where he fucked me, there was no doubting his prowess. ‘But you rely on blood for both.’
‘The human body relies on blood for everything. I don’t know why we keep going, why our bodies still emulate our human ones, why we still taste and feel and hurt when we don’t age. I don’t know how we can suffer horrific injuries, but bar losing a limb, our bodies will heal. As long as we avoid a stake, decapitation or some sunbathing, we will just keep going. I don’t know how the first vampire was created, or whether we descend from something not at all human, all I know is that century after century, I keep going.’
‘Is it okay to ask how it happened?’
He nodded and put his coffee down on the side table. ‘I’d not long celebrated my thirtieth birthday, which wasn’t particularly young in those days, and my family were applying pressure for me to settle down. They needed me to have children so that when I aged, there would be someone to look after the family farm. I’d never craved that simple life, so despite there being plenty of homely local girls, I went after a stranger who had moved into town. She seemed interesting, and outgoing, and not at all like the dutiful girls who’d been raised to seek nothing but marriage. She was dark and sexy, and I fell for her. One night, while my parents were out at a wedding in the town, I invited her into my home. This was before the days of human-vampire pacts and vampires forming alliances. She was out to drain me of my blood and leave me for dead. The moment her teeth sunk into my neck was sheer bliss, like the most intense orgasm you could imagine. But the fangs hold a venom of their own, paralysing me from fighting back even had I wanted to. She drained me until my organs shut down. The room wavered before me
and I could hardly breathe, I could feel my heart straining to pump the last of my blood into her waiting mouth. Death grappled at me, willing me to sink into its touch. Then she slit her own wrist with an enchanted dagger and told me to drink if I wanted to live. In desperation, I did. I drank the thick liquid that oozed from the cut and as I did, I felt my faculties restore.
That was the moment my father returned. He broke an ash chair and drove the splintered leg into the vampire, killing her instantly. His face broke as he realised what I had done, before I’d realised it myself, and he told me to get out. He said that if I ever returned, he’d drive a stake through my heart himself. There’s been many times I’d wished he had.’
‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘It must have been hard to lose everyone you knew.’
‘At first, it was exciting, a grand adventure. I was faster and stronger than any human who lived and although I struggled with my desire for blood, I felt unstoppable. But the years passed, and everyone who had meant anything to me passed. I visited my parents’ grave and wept over the years I’d lost. I never saw them alive after the night I became a vampire. I never returned to tell them I was sorry. I entered years of depression before I found Abe, the president of our club. It’s only been in the past century we’ve come to a truce with the humans who know about us. Before then, we were all rogues, single entities living in the shadows. They still exist out there, moving from place to place and endangering us all, but the rest of us band together and avoid killing humans. The city provides blood for our cooperation, and despite the way we live, we have centuries’ worth of wealth. If there is one thing humans in power care more about than their people, it’s money.’
‘The city’s officials know about you?’
‘We’re a well kept secret.’ Jed grinned and leaned in to kiss the side of my mouth. ‘I’m so glad you came back, but I need you to understand what being with me will be like. I can’t give you children should you decide that it’s something you want later. There are ways it can be done, but it involves the help of a demon and some dark magic. I have no desire to owe a demon a favour, and this life isn’t a brilliant place for a kid.’
‘Kids are never something I’ve desired, and I’m infertile, the fact you can’t have children is more of a relief than a problem.’ A weight lifted as he took wanting children off of the table. It meant one of my biggest failings as a potential partner wasn’t something I had to worry about.
Jed continued. ‘I also can’t ever go out with you in the daylight, and that means there is a lot of things I’ll never be able to do with you. Waking at night is normal to me, but it will take a lot of adjusting for you, it goes against human nature.’
I nodded, it was a strange prospect never being able to watch a sunset, or walk hand in hand in the sunshine with my partner, but I’d take it as it came.
We spoke for what seemed like hours until at last we came to a place of quiet acceptance. We would try to make it work. Despite all the pitfalls, and the danger, we were both on the same page.
‘I better get you introduced to everyone properly, I guess,’ Jed said, ‘No time like the present. They may need a bit of time to come round.’
Great, I thought, not only are they vampires, they’re vampires who don’t want me here.
Bodies littered the clubroom, and I stared at each person anew. To look at, I’d never have known them as the undead. Their cheeks weren’t gaunt, and they weren’t the unnaturally pale beings that film portrayed. They just looked… human. How many times in the city had I walked past a vampire, or a werewolf, or some other supernatural creature without even knowing?
Jed wen’t around the room, pointing to individuals and naming them as he went. ‘Pres, he’s the boss, Emmeline, his daughter. Vance, our youngest member. Then we have Immanuel, Jacob and Chester.’ I smiled shyly as they all turned to face us. ‘Then we have Angus, our treasurer, and Len on the security. Everyone, this is Rebecca.’
I put my hand up in a small wave.
‘So she knows?’ Pres said, his gaze boring into me,
‘She does.’ Jed agreed, slipping his hand into mine and squeezing my fingers lightly.
‘And you’re staying?’ Pres directed the question at me, with no welcome in his voice.
‘Yes, if that’s okay.’
‘It’s far from okay. But if that’s what Jed wants, then I’ll let it run its course. You’ll either become a blood junkie or run as soon as the adventure gets boring.’
Jed bristled beside me, his voice dropping to a low tone. ‘She’s not a blood junkie, and she’s not going anywhere. She’s my girl and I expect you to treat her with respect.’
‘In my office,’ Pres said, narrowing his eyes at us. ‘Not her, just you.’
Jed kissed me lightly and smiled. ‘I’ll be back soon, you can go to our room.’
And then he left me there, amongst a den of vampires. I pushed back my shoulders and fought the urge to scurry back out of sight, crossing the room and smiling at the vampires I passed. Vance smirked at me and extended his fangs, the teeth coming out of his gums like cats claws appear out of their soft paws. It was terrifying and supposed to freak me out. Despite the bile that rose in my throat, I pressed onward towards the bar where Angus sat.
The female vampire, Emmeline, perched on one of the bar stools, sipping at a drink I hoped was more Bloody Mary than human blood. ‘Sounds like you two made up last night, you realise the rooms aren’t soundproof?’
Heat rushed to my cheeks as a series of snickers broke out around the room, and Emmeline grinned at me. I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me up, but I couldn’t let her win. Whether it was some weird phasing, or they just didn’t like me, if Jed and I were going to work out, I’d need some thick skin.
I forced a smile at Emmeline as I took the seat beside her. ‘Sorry, I didn’t realise we were being so loud. I’ll bite down on something next time he’s fucking me.’
Angus sniggered behind the bar while Emmeline’s mouth hung open for a moment before snapping shut. ‘Touche, human. Touche.’
She left us there with a wry smile on her face as Angus placed a beer in front of me. ‘Hungry?’
‘Famished. Jed gave me chocolate, but it’s been forever since I had actual food.’
‘I don’t have much behind here, but I can do sandwiches and chips.’
‘That would be great, thank you.’ I watched Angus as he prepared the food, seeing him with fresh eyes after the revelation that he was not only part of an underground vampire club, but that he was human too. ‘Why did you stay? When you found out they were vampires?’
‘As I told you before, they are my family. They took me in when I was young and lost and gave me a home. I help them and in exchange I have a brotherhood.’
‘And you can look past what they are?’
‘Yes. At first, it was tough, I was a teenager when I became a prospect, but I aged, and they didn’t. My health deteriorated as the years passed, I took injuries harder and I am so much weaker than they are. More than a few times my humanity has hindered me in keeping up with them. But I never hated them for it and I accepted them for who they are, not what they are. None of them chose this life, it was a matter of survival.’
I nodded and sipped my beer, his words churning through my head. He accepted them for who they were, not what they were. It must have meant that he’d seen enough redeeming qualities over the years to stay with them.
Angus continued to talk as I mulled. ‘So now that my bones ache and my night time rides grow harder and harder, I’ve taken on a more custodial role. I clean, I cook, I stitch them up when they get hurt. I’m their man for going between them and the governors, and I do anything that needs doing in the daytime.’
‘So it’s true that they vaporise when the sun hits them?’ Images from old horror movies filled my head as I imagined Jed bursting in the daylight. I shuddered.
‘Not exactly. They are just extremely sensitive to the sun. If you can imagine it’s like
sun exposure pushed to the extreme. They will dehydrate, they will burn, their skin will boil and blister. It’s not pleasant, but not immediately deadly. I’ve never seen one test out how long they can handle it for, but I’ve seen the burns after two or three minutes’ exposure. I’d guess at only ten minutes before the sunlight boiled them alive. There are some who can withstand the sunlight from what I’ve heard, a few of the rogues who have made soul bargains with demons.’
‘And none of the vampires here are rogues?’
‘No,’ Angus shook his head, his eyes sliding to the door. ‘Rogues are lone vampires, they don’t live in society. They are very much vampires of years gone by, who still feast on human blood taken unwillingly. They are not creatures you ever want to meet, or so I’m told.’
Angus pushed a plate teeming with sandwiches toward me, and I tucked in with relish. My new life was as far from my old one as it could be, and as much as I was apprehensive about living with vampires, I hoped that Jed and I could weather the storm, together.
Fourteen
jed
No matter how often I sated myself between Rebecca’s thighs, as each day passed the pressure inside me increased. The wolves constantly overshadowed the lazy hours spent in bed getting closer to Rebecca, talking about our pasts and making love. And no matter how close we grew in the short space of time, dealing with Greyson would be the only way I could really get to know Rebecca without threat ruling us.
Not only had they been spotted many times stalking around our compound, there had been no word from Calvin. Pres was on the verge of storming the Son’s of Cerberus club and brutalising a wolf until he gave us access and my assurances that Calvin had it in hand were becoming increasingly less effective.
I doubted him too.
As the full moon approached, the werewolves strength grew, and while they’d only be able to transform fully for a few hours, if they went unchecked their strength and complete loss of morals would be devastating. Not only did I have to track down Calvin and give him a final warning, but I had to worry about Rebecca’s safety too. If we had to go on an assassination mission, she wouldn’t be safe in the club. If we couldn’t take Greyson out in time, there wouldn’t be enough muscle left to ward off an attack. I couldn’t concentrate on the task in hand if I had to worry about Rebecca. I’d have to get her into one of the safe houses. Grisma’s place would do. The witch had always been sympathetic to the vampires. She’d be able to perform a protective spell which would keep the werewolves out of the building. And luckily, she could be bought for a trinket. Witches, much like dragons, like all things expensive and shiny. We kept a stash of ancient, expensive jewellery in the safe for when we needed a witch on our side.
