- What if they were hunting in the area?
Alexander looked at Vadim perplexingly.
- We're limited to human means of transportation. I'll ask for all the reports and missing persons reports from the last month. But about the area, I doubt it. The villages are all in plain sight, the small towns, too. And riding somewhere when you have to get your team up in the saddle at any moment - oops. I would definitely try not to leave the city.
- Wonderful, - nodded Mechislav. - That's a good idea. Go ahead. If you're lucky, we'll catch something interesting.
- And if you're not lucky, we'll help the home police," I got in. - What else is there about Diego?
- He also tends to be sadistic. BS, BDSM... prefers an active role. And that's why they're werewolves. The more resilient ones.
I nodded. Something scratched with a claw. But come on... catch the thought behind your tail!
- What else is there about Diego? - Valentine asked me a question. And the mental awkwardness temporarily went sideways. But he promised to come back as soon as I had some free time.
- Works for Alfonso da Silva as an errand boy. Alfonso turned him. And he carried him everywhere, sometimes borrowing from friends. Alfonso has... peculiar tastes.
- Animals or corpses? - I asked when I saw that Alexander was taking his eyes off me. Right. Vampires are older than us. And I'm sure they remember times when certain topics were not discussed in front of women. Is that good or bad? You're not gonna guess.
- He prefers boys. He's also a sadist. He's been in constant passions for the last two hundred years, though. He's been constant.
- Who?
- Someone named Charles. Doesn't matter, Mechislav cut it off. - What else is there about Diego?
I have a bad question on my tongue. But it's better not to ask in front of your subordinates. I'll be healthier.
- The list of last places to live. Spain, Costa Brava; Brazil, Rio de Janeiro...
- It's not gonna help either. Is there any way to track down the vampires that were there at the same time as Diego?
- We could try. But I don't think it'll do any good. Then it's better to track Alfonso," Alexander understood me. - Diego's an errand boy. He could have just been borrowed.
- Oh, yes, that's a problem.
- Okay, - summed up Mechislav. - Alexander, you're wearing Diego and Alfonso. Full analysis. Vadim, take care of Raul. He needs to come to his senses as soon as possible. And you'd better not let anyone near him. If he's really as talented as Fluffy says he is, it's best to have him as a friend.
- Much better," I supported. - He and I will work on the problem of pregnancy in werewolves. We'll also work on it.
- We'll work on it later. Did everyone get the assignment? You'll report on your progress one hour before dawn. Everybody's free to go.
I took off the couch first. Home! Maybe Mecislav forgot... Dream on.
A low, hoarse voice came on my doorstep.
- And you, Kudryashka, I'll ask you to stay.
Your llama!
Stirlitz was easier, too. He wouldn't be raped if he failed.
* * *
The voice of the vampire was deceptively soft and neutral, like a silk thread. But I wasn't seduced. Silk is used to make handkerchiefs and gripes as well.
- Or maybe... - While I was trying to think of something, it was too late. The vampires disappeared first, followed by Leonidas, pulling Valentine, who had something to say.
And I could hear clearly behind the knock of a slammed door:
- They'll take care of themselves...
I'd love to postpone this for a couple hundred more years.
- Julia, why are you so afraid? - For some time now, Swordsman hasn't used my nickname. His voice was soft and soothing. That's how I would talk to a nervous animal myself, soothing and preparing the ground for attack. Well, once again, I took the fight. Hopeless? Well, so be it. But I always remembered two frogs in a pot of sour cream. The one that moved its legs survived.
And for starters, I moved so that the table would separate me from the vampire.
- I'm not afraid of anything. I just don't see the point...
- And I don't see the point in you running from me. Fluffy, you have to admit it. Sooner or later, anyway...
- It's better late and somehow different," I snapped immediately.
The vampire smiled without showing his fangs, got up from the table, and stretched his whole body like a huge jaguar. I couldn't help but admire the gleams of light on the copper skin, the rolling muscles under my thin shirt, the grace and consistency of movement...
He's so handsome.
But admiring this beauty, like the jaguars, is best through the bars.
The vampire came out of the table and slowly moved towards me.
- You promised me, Curly.
- What?! - I shrieked, hiding behind a chair.
Why the hell didn't I run away right away, you fool?
What's the point? Anyway, Mecislav will bring me back. He won't be shy to drag me all over the club.
The vampire was in no hurry to drive me to the sofa. But I won't!
- What did I promise you that would happen?!
- You promised me you'd restore the first seal.
- After you've swept Slava and his fall!
- At the time, I didn't think I was going to have such a fight with Tula.
- And that's not important anymore!
- And for vampires, there are no principles at all, right?! You don't have to keep your word?!
I bounced off another chair away from a vampire. Mecislav's a little frowned.
- Why are you fighting so hard? Nothing terrible or shameful happens between us, but you act like...
- Like who?!
It's uh-oh, it's very menacing. If my knees weren't shaking, too...
- Like a child, a vampire quietly killed.
- So don't seduce the little ones. Do you know what our time is for this?
- That's ridiculous. Fluffy, you can't hide from me all your life.
- Yes, I can! - I was willing to say anything. As long as it wasn't... late!
Mecislav threw his hand forward, cleverly caught me by the shoulder and pulled me up. I shrieked and started fighting back with my free hand... for five seconds until the vampire turned me around and pressed me against him. With his back, so I couldn't move his knee. Warm breath moved the hairs in the back of my head.
- You're not just my name," the vampire whispered to me. - You are my soul mate, my second self, my reflection in the mirror... I have eternity ahead of me, but you are the only woman I would like to share it with. You're like a perfect rapier: you can bend a ring under the pressure of circumstances, but you'll never break. You're not just as strong as a magician, you're also a very strong inner man. Spiritually.
- I don't care about your flattery! - I wriggled like a viper, very sorry for the lack of poisonous teeth. - I bet you haven't even come up with anything new in the last hundred years. Everybody's hanging on to you anyway! But I'm not going to sleep with you! You can't make me sleep with you!
The short laugh made me nervously twitch my whole body.
- You're like a wild horse, baby. You rip out, you hit me with your hoof... but you can't throw me off. I put up with your whims for a long time.
- Caprices?! - I woke up.
- Yeah. We're not going to be in the same bed tonight, but only because I don't want to hear rape charges for the rest of eternity.
- And what do you call that?!
- I'm just asking you to give me what you promised. And again, I promise you, we're not having sex. Not until you ask me to do it yourself.
Is it possible to rely on the word of a vampire?
No.
And my self-control?
Neither can I.
Then you have to resist to the last.
- That's how I believed it!
Strong hands wrapped around my waist, pressing my elbows tightly to my sides. I tr
ied in desperation to kick back, but I didn't get hit. You bet, I didn't even hit the pear sometimes, but that's how it was... I only achieved what Mechislav did a few steps back, a little shaken, and we collapsed on the sofa. I ended up on top, but that didn't comfort me. I couldn't move my arms before, and now my legs either. Why not? And you lie down on the couch and try to lie down. And the fact that I'm on top... I'm afraid it won't be long.
The vampire's whisper tickled my ear.
- You and I are connected forever. We're tied up now. You can scream, fight, fight, come out, baby, but I'm not letting you go anyway. You're not going anywhere. I'm not letting you go anywhere.
I twitched, but it wasn't there.
- The games are over. It's time to grow up. I gave you too much time as it is. It's time to put an end to all this repartee suffering.
Those words finally pissed me off. Showering misery?! He'd wake up every night like me! I took my last leap, but the vampire was quicker and stronger. We hung on the edge of the couch and fell to the floor with a rumble. I knocked my knee and elbow to the ground, and I could see stars in my eyes. And the vampire took advantage of my hitch. The dress was finally off, and I could feel it, hard and hot, bare skin on my buttocks.
What am I, stupid, wearing a thong? I should've worn knickers and a loyalty belt. And throw the key in the garbage chute.
Idiot.
A vampire slipped his hand on my thigh. Then he went up on his elbows a little bit. I tried to crawl out, but where is it? Acting with one hand, Mechislav cleverly turned me on my back - so that now I looked him right in the face. Once again, I was almost completely immobile. Only now Mieczyslaw was on top. The vampire was smiling at me darkly. I shrieked and tried to punch him in the eyes with my fingers. But all I got was for Mečislav to rake both my wrists and pull them over my head.
- Relax, girl, - a quiet whisper tickled my skin, caressed, stroked, tempted... Mieczyslaw's finger touched a raging vein on my neck, and I trembled. The games were over. Now I understood it clearly and distinctly. I was running away for a long time, but there's nowhere else to retreat. It's here and now... the first Seal... I hate it!
- Don't drag it out, I hoarsely asked. - Let's get it over with quicker...
- It's still early. The pleasure has to be stretched out.
Mecislav slowly slid his fingers on my leg, higher, then touched my chest ... His touches were soothing and passionate at the same time, and gradually I forgot about what I should not do. There were only bottomless green eyes without a pupil and a squirrel, only the furious desire that enslaved us...
I tried to close my eyes, but Mechislav wouldn't let me.
- Look at me, Curly," he whispered over my lips. - Look at me, Kudryashka," he whispered over my lips. I want to see your eyes every second.
- No..." I whispered, unable to fight further. And I squeezed it tight. For two whole seconds.
I heard him take a sharp breath. I didn't even hear him, I felt a vampire breath on my face. The smell of honey and exotic flowers circled my head. Mechislav whispered something on an unfamiliar tongue, and then his fingers slipped into my hair and slightly pulled my head up, making me look into his incredibly green eyes. Two emeralds on a gold mask. I helplessly cried out... what? I didn't get it myself. Mecislav muffled my exclamation with the crazy fire of his kiss.
The excitement was flowing through my body, the sensual sliding of his tongue in my mouth seduced me, his trembling body pressed on me. I unwittingly stretched out, clinging to a vampire.
My whole body was like a stretched string. The slightest touch made me shiver and wriggle in a hurricane of sensations. Drowning in the sensual Niagara, I once tried not to lose my head, but his excitement, the movement of his tongue, the touch of his entire strong body, which provocatively slipped, rubbed against me, excited, erasing the last remnants of the mind, made me lose control. I was dizzy, I felt weak and did not know how to fight it. Our bodies joined together in a passionate fight, so powerful that nothing could stop this madness.
- You're beautiful," whispered Mecislav, whispering for a moment from my lips. My dress has gone somewhere... - You are the most beautiful woman on earth. Sexy, sensual, open, my... woman... - He slowly stroked my skin, and my whole body trembled in response.
I moaned, and my lips opened in a silent plea for a new kiss. And Mecislav did not keep me waiting. I lost the sense of space and time. My heart raged, my body melted from the slightest touch of Mieczyslaw.
The vampire carried the tip of his tongue around my neck to my shoulder. I no longer pushed Mieczysław away, my hands were free at some point and now wandered on his back, burrowing into his hair, feeling its softness and silkiness. But that wasn't enough for me, so I ripped the vampire's shirt off. The buttons flew in different directions. Mecislav gently laughed and pressed his naked skin against me for a moment. Body to body, chest to chest... but only for a moment... His skilful hands meanwhile slid up the curve of my waist and stayed on my chest. The nipples hardened with excitement, and Mieczyslaw began to wrap his finger around them. Then he bent down and started to repeat the same path with his lips and tongue. I could no longer hold back the moans and screams. I wanted more and more... Crazy?! Let it be! I'll do anything! As long as it didn't stop!
But the vampire was in no hurry.
My body seemed to be on fire, and I moaned muffled when the pain at the bottom of my stomach became unbearable.
- You're so hot, so beautiful, so responsive... I love it madly that you respond to my every move, you're a passionate woman, even though you don't realize it to the end...
- Give me another kiss... please... I could hardly speak the words. Is that moaning my voice? I can't believe it.
- You are mine, - Mechislav gently whispered, - only mine, and I want you as no woman has ever wanted. But today we're going to have quite another one... You'll ask me to stay, but it'll be later, later, and now...
The vampire's eyes were burning with wild fire. His lips retreated, exposing his sharp white fangs. I should have been scared, but I wasn't. I wasn't afraid of anything.
The next second, Mecislav touched my most sensitive spot. And at the same time he slipped his tongue around his neck, groping for a raging artery.
I cried out in the paroxysm of orgasm, not even feeling how the vampire got into my neck with fangs. The stars were shining before my eyes. I was gone. Or wasn't it me? Doesn't matter. Nothing was important, except a glittering, delightful feeling of liberation.
And - unity. I knew that Mecislav felt the same way as I did. We shared both pleasure and pain. The once torn threads were woven again into a whimsical pattern. And now it was much harder to cut the nodes between us. Let them say that what's broken won't be better than the whole. But fire melts the broken metal and creates something completely new. And this new one had two faces, two bodies, two souls: mine and Mecislava's.
Or is it still one soul for two?
I didn't come to my senses very soon. I was lying on the floor like this. Mieczysław fell on me with all his weight, pressing into the carpet. And for some reason, I didn't want to shove it at all. The whole body was relaxed, as if all the bones had been pulled out of me. I was a little dizzy. And I couldn't move. I couldn't even breathe, either.
Well, you should.
I moved my hands a little bit. Turns out I'm still clinging to a vampire's shoulders as the only support in this world.
- Are you alive?
Is that a stupid question? So what?! I'm not a light of intelligence. Especially after this.
- Now I feel very rarely alive, - whispered Mechislav.
- Then do me a favor,
get off me
you're gonna crush it on the fuck!
The vampire rolled lazily on his back. I would definitely fit into the sofa, but the furniture even gave way to Mečislav.
Well, why did I get in so much trouble?!
* * *
The vampire was happy as... as a cat who ate sour cream and didn't
get a slipper on his face.
I couldn't say that about me.
- That's all," Mechislav blurted out, shoving himself on the sofa leg. - And you were afraid...
- And even the skirt didn't wrinkle... - I succumbed to the grimness of some obsessive dress. - Do you have a mirror?
- Behind the drapery in the left corner. But you don't need it. You look great, Curly.
- Yeah, I just got to the mirror. Oh, that's great. You can't pick up another word. The hair, the makeup all over the face, the dress is adorable. You can't stand up to die! The last idiot will know what the vampire and I were doing. It's not like we sang psalms!
- We don't have enough problems, now I'm going to scare the people with my looks.
- Bathroom's behind the door, the vampire nodded carelessly.
I nodded and went to wash and comb my hair. By the way, the bathroom is too strong a name. A toilet, a sink and a shower cubicle. And there's another mirror all over the wall.
Vampire's got a pretty big toothpick in all thirty-two teeth.
- Was everything so scary?
Scary? No, I wasn't scared at the time. It was...
I don't care if we keep making love. And even though... we didn't have an act... why, by the way?
The vampire answered the question directly:
- Because you'll never forgive me that.
I even slammed my eyes. I'm not gonna forgive him the whole list anyway. What's there to worry about that little thing? More at night, less at night...
- You'd think you cared.
- Yes, I do. - Mechislav got up from the sofa, fell down on the carpet next to me and gave me a gentle hug over his shoulders. - I don't want to spend the next fifteen or twenty years smoothing out your hatred and irritation. I don't want you betraying me and stabbing me in the back. And if I insist on mine, you might as well snap.
Mm-hmm. And you could snap.
- Those fears didn't stop you today.
- You promised me the first seal anyway. The day before, the day after - is there a difference?
For me, it did. I was quietly hoping that "a day later" would stretch into "a week later," and then we'd reach a year there. Oh, no. It didn't work out. But at least...
- So the first seal is in place?
Ring of Madness Page 116
