by Zara Novak
Her wordless gasps of pleasure formed coherence, whispering his name as breathless gasps. “Wraith, Wraith, Wraith!” She looked down at the vampire between her legs, gasping loudly as his red eyes flicked up briefly to see her enjoyment. Her hands surrendered their break from him, and shot down to smooth over his head lovingly, holding it tight against her as the orgasm broke.
His throat purred a sound of deep enjoyment as her whimpering danced into full fledge moaning, making his lips vibrate softly over her clit.
This is it, she thought. I can’t hold it anymore. I’m coming.
Stars burst across her vision as the fire exploded inside of her. Pleasure leapt from her mouth in long and unbridled moans, calling his name into the dark room, shouting over and over again, clutching against the darkness as she came hard.
“Wraith! Yes. Fuck! Wraith!”
His finger slicked inside of her rapidly, his tongue flicked against her clit, his every move was perfection. Every sensation was heaven.
Her body relaxed again and returned to her after those few brief moments of ecstasy. Her muscles softened, her hips dropped back down to the bed and her hands released him. She melted into the bed, satisfied, breathless, not sure if she even remembered her own name.
The vampire sat back on his knees, resting a hand against her foot as he looked across the bed at her naked form. For a few minutes she simply lay like that, arm stretched across her forehead as she looked up at nothing, re-catching her breath and all semblance of what it meant to be human. After a few moments she sat half-up, looking at the vampire, her hair messed, eyes still drunk from lust. She was beautiful in that moment, just as she was in all moments. The softness in her expression fizzled away after a few seconds, her eyes glazing over with something colder.
“That wasn’t fair,” she said, her breath still panting. Sweat coated her sweet flesh. She sucked at her bottom lip for a second, squeezing her teeth against it. Wraith’s cock stiffened at the sight, though he wasn’t sure he could get much harder. It ached for some sort of release. It wanted nothing more than to bury deep in that lovely warm wetness of hers.
“Fair?” He chuckled, smoothed a hand over his head and brushed his tongue across his teeth. “Seems like you got a pretty good deal to me.”
Ellie pulled herself together, sat up on the bed and redressed herself, taking a second to try and straighten out her disheveled hair. “That’s… that’s not what I meant.” She looked up at him, her eyes seeming to glare with distrust now. Wraith sat back and studied the girl momentarily. Before he could say anything back she spoke again. “You… controlled me.”
He laughed. “Controlled you?”
Her gaze faltered. “Yes. You controlled me. I know what vampires are like. I know what you’re capable of. You can make people do things.”
He had to laugh again. It was true to an extent, but the girl was trying to find excuses where none existed. “That might be so, but what makes you so sure I was controlling you in anyway just now?”
“Are you kidding?” Ellie held her hands out over the bed where she had been naked and writhing only a few minutes ago. “Because of this! Do you think I just drop my panties and open my legs for anyone? You controlled me. You made me into some sort of sex slave with your Intent.”
“Intention,” he corrected her. Ellie turned her head.
“What?”
“It’s called Intention. That’s what vampires call it. The power we have to make humans do our bidding.”
Her eyes darted, and she flipped her hands as if it were beside the point. “Okay, whatever you call it. You took advantage of me, and it wasn’t fair.”
Wraith could only laugh again, which prompted further anger from the girl. “You’re delusional if you think what happened just now was because of mind control. That was all you my pretty butterfly.”
Ellie’s eyes hardened at the accusation. She sat up straight, pushed herself back, twisting her face into a picture of comical disbelief. “There’s no way, there’s absolutely no way I would voluntarily—”
“Silence,” Wraith growled, pushing the word from the depth of this throat as an iron clad command. The girl quietened immediately, looking surprised as she felt the true power of his control for the first time. The vampire pushed himself up from the bed and stood at the foot of it. He turned back to face her, his eyes glimmering with malice.
“I can show you what it feels like to be under the spell of a vampire’s control if you like,” he said, waving his hand through the air slowly, beckoning for her to crawl forward off the bed to follow his command. Her body answered, and she crawled, eyes widening with terror as her body followed his every instruction. He narrated as he demonstrated. Her body following his words like a robot.
“I could tell you to crawl onto your knees. I could tell you to place your hands on the hips of your master and suck me dry.”
She crawled to a stop in front of him and knelt before him, lifting her hands up to his side. Her eyes looked up at him, glazed over in the way that obedient eyes did. Her fingers curled around the waistband of his boxers, tugged down slowly and then he snapped his fingers.
“Stop.”
The spell broke, and Ellie shook her head, looking up at the vampire in confusion as she found herself in the room once more. Her mouth stammered open, trying to find the words as she attempted to process what had just happened. Wraith held out a hand and helped her up to her feet.
“Unusual isn’t it?” he said and took a step closer, leaving just an inch between their bodies, he took both of her hands in his. “It’s strange, how a voice can be so powerful, feel so irresistible. Tell me… how did it feel?”
“Like iron,” she whispered, staring into his bright red eyes. An undercurrent of fear swam through her as she fully realized for the first time what kind of strength he possessed.
“Like vines,” he suggested.
She nodded, realizing that was the perfect word. “Dark vines. Wrapping around my body, moving me and posing me. Unlike anything…”
“Anything you’ve felt before?” Wraith let go of her hands and stepped away, happy that his point had been proven. He stalked across the room to the bed on the opposite side and paused there. “Everything that happened between us just now was between us. I have no desire for a mindless sex slave, girl. I’ve lived a long enough life to already waste time on pursuits like that.”
“It was me…” she said to herself in realization. She’d had the power to say no, but she didn’t want to. She’d made the choice to be with him. She’d found the prospect of being under his control terrifying enough, but there was something even more intimidating in the fact that she’d acted on her own accord.
“That’s right,” the vampire said without looking back. “So, take your accusations and put them in the same box you keep your prejudices in. One day you’ll have to face the prospect of being honest with yourself. You lay with a vampire… and you loved it.”
A myriad of confusing emotions swirled inside of Ellie. Anger, confusion, rejection, shame. She stepped forward, her eyes locked down on the ground in front of her. “Jack… I mean… Wraith, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
Deep thunder echoed somewhere in the distance outside the window, breaking Ellie from her sentence. They both glanced over at the window, which rattled in its frame from the force of the sound. “What was that?” Ellie asked.
“I don’t know,” Wraith said as he marched over to the window. “But it didn’t sound good.” He threw the curtains back just as the second blast shook across the building. A huge ball of yellow fire filled the black sky, churning up through the night from the town below. Wraith turned back to face Ellie, his face now deadly serious. “Get dressed. We’re under attack.”
11
Another blast shook the night just as Ellie finished dressing. The deep roar of the thunderous sound was much louder this time, shaking the walls and floors, sending Ellie off balance.
“Wraith!” Ellie sh
outed as she stumbled back across the shaking floor. “Help!”
The vampire flashed across the room in an instant, catching Ellie in his arms. Another blast boomed in the distance, closer this time. Dust sprinkled from the walls and ceilings. Bright balls of fire bloomed across the black horizon outside. “What the hell is going on?!” Ellie asked.
Wraith released Ellie from his grasp and looked about the room. “I don’t know, but we need to get out of here.” He turned his eyes back on her. “Do we have any stuff?”
Ellie stared at the vampire quizzically. “Stuff?”
“Stuff!” he roared impatiently. “Did we have anything important with us?”
“You really don’t remember anything, do you?” Ellie scanned her eyes across the room. They were both wearing all their clothes now. The only thing remaining was Wraith’s satchel. “You had a bag with you back at the arena. The last time I saw it was before the fight.”
Wraith’s face screwed tight in confusion. “Fight?” He shook his head and grabbed Ellie by the hand. “The town below is a war zone, it’s far too dangerous to go back now. Follow me.”
They sprinted across the room. Wraith was just about to throw the door open when a knock came. He paused momentarily and glanced over at Ellie. “Are we expecting company?”
Not that Ellie could think of. She pressed her eye to the door’s peephole and saw Natalie standing on the other side. There was momentary relief at seeing the girl. She was a familiar face, she was trustworthy. She wasn’t a vampire. Ellie opened the door and breathed a sigh of relief. “Natalie! What’s happening?!”
“The Reds are attacking us,” Natalie said as she stepped to the side of the doorway. A couple of people ran past in the hallway behind her, screaming and crying in panic. “Rourke has ordered us to abandon the Northern border. We’re grabbing every vampire that’s still alive and heading north on bikes. I’m heading to the bike house now. Come with me.” Natalie turned to run down the hallway but stopped as Wraith stuck his hand out and grabbed her wrist.
“Hang on a second. Just who the hell are you, and who the hell is this Rourke figure?”
Confusion brewed on Natalie’s brow, her eyes flicking from Wraith’s to Natalie’s. “Is—Is he serious?”
Ellie sighed and forced Wraith to let go of Natalie. “It’s fine Wraith,” she sighed and then turned to Natalie. “He’s… having some problems with his memory. Everything that’s happened since we arrived is a blank to him.”
Natalie stared at Wraith momentarily, her eyes studying him intensely. “Wraith huh? Back to your old name then? I got the impression you were trying to travel undercover.”
Ellie looked at the vampire and the servant. “Hold on, what? You know him?”
Natalie nodded. “Recognized him as soon as I saw him. He was a lot more feral looking when you both first came in, but there was no mistaking it. Wraith Belmont. Most of the blood servants back at Belmont castle cross Wraith at one point or another during their tenure.”
Ellie’s hand slipped from Wraith’s. She stared at him with her mouth hanging open, shaking her head as she stepped back. “You’re that Wraith. Wraith Belmont?!” Her mouth couldn’t quite put into words what a curveball that was to her mind. The Belmont family were perhaps the most infamous vampire family to the White Order. She didn’t know every single thing about its mystery family tree, but the name Wraith Belmont meant something to most people within the valley.
The name had never been more than a passing horror story to her ears, but now that Natalie had placed the vampire’s origin, Ellie felt stupid that the idea hadn’t crossed her mind until just now. “But he died!” she stammered. “They said he was dead—”
Wraith stared back at Ellie and Natalie, utterly clueless to what was going on. Natalie stared over at them both too, slightly less confused but still clearly full of questions. Another blast boomed outside, rattling the foundations of the guest house building.
“Look,” Natalie said, “I sense you’ve got a lot of questions to ask, but if we stand here much longer this building might fall down! We need to get to the bike garage now. I’m getting out of here! You two are welcome to follow me if you want!”
“Come,” Wraith said with a growl, seizing his hand around Ellie’s wrist and pulling her out of the door to follow Natalie. They ran halfway down the length of the corridor, blasts shaking all around them every few seconds. Natalie skidded to an unexpected halt at a stairwell entrance and looked back at them both.
“By the way, I’d go back to using your old name for now if I were you,” she said as she looked at Wraith. “No one else here has recognized you as far as I can tell. I don’t know how the atmosphere might change if Monica realized she had a Belmont within her grasp.”
“Got it,” Wraith growled as they resumed their escape. “Jack, it is.”
The group made their way down to the ground floor of the building and burst into the open cold air of the fiery night. The world was a panorama of fire and chaos, mayhem stretching out in every direction as far as the eye can see. Walls of flame flickered up into the night on their right, as fire turned the town below into ash.
Screams filled the night, accompanied by the sounds of distant explosions and general chaos. Natalie turned back and shouted to them over the din as they ran in the direction of the gate’s exit. “The garages are just up ahead!” she said and pointed at a large grey building fifty feet in front of them. Streams of bikes poured out of the large garage one after another, engines churning into the air while vampires made their escape.
Wraith kept his hand held tight on Ellie’s, never letting go of her, not once. She ran as fast as she could alongside the vampire, trying to quell the fear that raced inside of her, trying to ignore the sounds of screaming in the town below.
“Get out Natalie!” a voice roared up ahead as they ran past a burning building. A roughed-up vampire backed onto the path in front of them, eyes wild with panic, looking up at some unknown terror. The group skidded to a halt just in front of the vampire, unsure what prompted his terror.
Seconds later, two streaks of red blurred down from the sky, crashing into the ground around the vampire’s feet. The air cleared to reveal two vampires dressed in red, beating the Valentine vampire around like he was nothing.
“Looks like we’ve got company,” Wraith growled under his breath.
One of the circle vampires jerked his head up at the sound of Wraith’s voice and looked over at him. A manic grin filled his face, and he lifted a hand to point at the vampire. “Another one there!” the soldier roared, shoving his friend on the shoulder who was still going to town on the downed valentine vampire. “A Super! Look!”
Wraith pulled Natalie and Ellie behind him, putting distance between them and the attacking vampires just ahead. He glanced back quickly, his eyes alight with fury. “Stay put while I deal with this!”
“Wraith!” Ellie screamed out as she watched the vampire launch forward. “No!” Terror spun through Ellie at the prospect of watching Wraith fight again. She’d never seen vampires so willing to destroy their own kind like the Circle vampires, and Wraith was jumping straight into the deep end once more, pitting himself in a fight where he was outnumbered and potentially outgunned. What if the Widow’s Draught still had some sort of effect on his body? What if he wasn’t back to his old strength?
The fears swimming through her were quickly dispelled as she watched Wraith come to clash with the two soldiers in red. The deliberate speed of his pre-emptive attack had worked in his favor, and he jumped straight for the soldier that was still distracted with his merciless beating, knocking him back to the ground instantly. In an instant he spun round and launched his attack at the other soldier, flying at him with a flurry of lightning fast strikes that defied her eyes.
“Am I glad I’m with you guys!” Natalie shouted while tugging Ellie close to her. Wraith was making quick work of the two soldiers blocking their path. It was a struggle to keep up with the speed, but E
llie swore he even looked as if he were enjoying himself.
“We’ll be fine,” she said back to Natalie in reassurance, only half believing the words herself. “Once the path is clear we can—"
“Watch out!” a voice cried out behind them.
Natalie and Ellie both spun around to see another Circle vampire flying through the air toward them. Ellie let out a cry as the Red vampire grabbed her around the waist, his claws biting into her skin and burning her flesh like fire. “Get off!” she cried.
“You’re coming with me, bitch!” the soldier roared back. Natalie and Ellie both swung at the vampire viciously, but their strength was no good. Ellie was just about to give in and surrender to the creature’s superior strength when another streak of black blurred across the air in front of her, crashing into the Circle vampire to send him tumbling back.
This fight was over nearly as soon as it began, ending as the blond-haired vampire plunged a stake through the heart of the red-uniformed soldier. They both froze for the briefest second as the vampire in black delivered the killing blow, holding the wooden point in the chest of the defeated attacker. Fire and ash erupted in a violent well. Rourke Valentine stood up and approached Ellie and Natalie, smoothing his hand back over his hair and winking as he arrived before them. “These circle vampires can’t fight for shit.”
“Rourke!” Natalie ran forward and threw her arms around the vampire in relief. “We need to get out of here! Where’s Monica?”
Rourke placed his hands on Natalie’s shoulders as she pulled back from him. “She’s already on her way to Skarvast with any other bastard that was lucky enough to get out. We should—" Rourke paused and his eyes flashed behind Ellie, seeing that Wraith was still entangled in his fight. “Stay right here girls. Our champion fighter is back to throwing punches and it looks like he could use some help!”
