by M. Garnet
She held her breath, aware of the change as the eyes all looked at her. Rad stepped forward. He walked slowly over to her until his large frame blocked the room from her sight. He placed a hand on her neck, slipping it under her hair before turning around.
He faced the room. “Misty, these are some of my friends, and I am trying to decide if it is necessary to involve them in something that might hurt them in future relations with the Council. This is Misty.”
He kept his hand tightly on her neck, but she felt him move his thumb against the vein in her neck. She knew it was some kind of possessive statement, as all eyes were on his hand. By the pressure on her neck he moved her into the room and to a place on the couch. They both sat down, thighs touching.
Adal spoke—she evidently was recognized as some leader here. “We can feel that you are a strong person, Radames. We are just letting you know that we are willing to support you. If indeed the woman beside you has increased your powers, in the future you may be stronger than the Council. I personally want to be on the winning side. I think you will be the winning side. Seeing her here beside you, the smell of her, the feel of power that radiates, I think that the Council was right to worry. Remember, it probably was not all of the members of the Council. I believe that you still have a friend or two in Rome.”
There were a lot of nods in the room and low murmurs. She looked over at him. She leaned into him as if she were giving him a kiss and whispered. “Can we talk alone without you losing face in front of them?”
He smiled that crooked grin and pulled her up. “My lady wants a word in private with me.” He took her out and they walked down a hallway, into another room.
She turned on him in anger. Her anger had always been her shield with him. “First, quit calling me your lady. When this is all over and we save Alex, we need to talk about my future. Now as to saving Alex, you need to bury that huge ego of yours and accept help. I know you are strong and have some tricks up your sleeve, but you are outnumbered because that Vasa woman seems to know you, knows your weaknesses, because she used me, and now she is using Alex. So, okay, let your friends help you get to her, because I believe Adal—you are going to be something special if you survive, so goddamn it, give yourself a chance to survive.” She finally took a deep breath, aware that she had her hands on her hips and was facing off with legs spread, face forward against this tall muscular monster who was so hellishly handsome.
* * * *
He had her off the floor, moving backwards. He had her down on a couch, kneeling beside her and before she could say anything he had her mouth covered with his. He worked his tongue into her mouth and twisted with hers, pulling hers into his, but he was careful not to pierce her as much as he wanted to because he wanted her to recover in case he needed her for Alex. But her smell was driving him into a different need and the need was burning. He pushed his hand up between her legs. He rocked as he felt the heat and the knowledge she was naked under the dress.
He felt her grip his hand with both thighs but he continued to send his fingers into the warm depth of her womanhood. He had her and she could not resist as he rubbed the important single hot point. He placed his thumb on the nub, rotating it, and she moaned. He covered her mouth so no one would hear her. He put two fingers into her warm wet depth and pushed against the nub with his rough palm to take her over the brink into an orgasm.
He felt the tight muscles of her climax and it shot through him as his erection pushed against the tight leather he still wore. But the pleasure she was emoting as she laid her head back and exposed her neck almost drove him to a point he had to fight. He finally released her mouth as he knew she was fighting to draw more air into her lungs. As the moment passed she slid down in slow exhaustion.
She slowly got enough air to speak. “Rad, what are you doing?”
“I am sorry, Misty. I know you don’t understand Vampires and an enforcer like me. I needed the erection. It will make me—well, it is hard to explain. But it will help. I promise you there will come a time when you and I can be alone in a clean bed. We will have sex that pleases both of us. But I did hear your words and you are right, so I am going to take your advice. Now we have to go back in the other room.”
He helped her up and supported her to walk back down the hallway. By the time they got to the main room he could see she had herself together, so he replaced his hand on her neck, possessive again. They could hear the voices, but all talk stopped as they came in and all eyes again came to her and to him.
“Okay, my lady has convinced me to accept some help. So we know where they are, but we do not know how many. It would help me if all of Vasa’s soldiers, those who are on the street and on the first floor of the building, were to be subdued, so that I do not need to worry about my back once I clear an area. I wonder if I could have some volunteers?” He tempered his command voice and she was pleased that he gave the others a choice.
Everyone, including Adal, stood up. He was amazed.
“Okay.” He looked down at Misty. “Misty has to stay with me. She has already started the action. You know what needs to be done. I will give those who are going to help a five minute lead. Misty and I will follow.”
Adel looked over at Greg. “Greg, bring around the Audi for Rad. The rest of us can go out the rear. I have several SUVs that we can load into.” Greg left the room and she walked over to a large beautiful tapestry, then pulled it aside to reveal doors. The two doors opened to reveal a massive amount of weapons. The men went forward and started choosing what they wanted.
Rad picked out a large silver knife to match the one he had lost. He still had the small one in his boot. He watched his friends as they followed Adalbjorg out of her house, to basically commit a crime against the Council. He heard the vehicles leave but he kept his hand on Misty’s neck.
Chapter Fifteen
“Time to go.”
She and Rad went out the side entrance to find a shiny black Audi was sitting there with the engine running. “You drive.” Rad’s voice had very little tone now.
She got in behind the wheel. Following his instructions to head back downtown, she found the car easy to handle. It was late and there was no traffic and all the streetlights were on. He finally told her to pull over and they got out of the car.
“Misty, I want you to hang onto the back of my pants and don’t let go until I need to get into a fight.” His toneless voice was strange. She slide behind him and put fingers into his waistband to follow him.
They walked for a block and she said. “Rad, Vampires.” He stopped and waited. He moved out into a light and two of the men who had been at the house moved into another light down the street.
He moved faster and they met. They were told that the area was clear. The two men wanted to go in with him, but he said no, and thanked them. They said they would stay on the outside just in case any more arrived. She continued to hang onto him as he entered the lobby of a grand old hotel. There was no one present, not even a clerk behind the scarred counter. The faded velvet cushions on the couches were empty and the elevators were both on the main floor, just waiting.
“I am going to carry you up the stairs.” He lifted her and with a rush they were moving upward. She buried her face into his neck, hanging on until they reached a point where he stopped. He set her down and shocked her by dragging her hand over the front of his leather pants where his large erection pushed painfully forward.
He leaned down, kissed her, and he tilted her head and bit her neck. She felt the pain and the ecstasy. He took only a little and licked the two punctures before he lifted his head. He smiled his crooked smile and he disappeared. Virtually disappeared right in front of her eyes. She heard the noise but she was not sure what she was hearing and she was afraid to move. Either he was going to win and he would come back for her or they would come for her. So she found the railing of the stairwell to lean against and waited, barely breathing, not thinking, just listening.
There was a draft and he was
again in front of her. She had no feeling of the time involved—it could have been a few minutes or it could have been an hour. He pulled her to his hard chest and she wrapped her arms around him and hung on with what little strength she had, suddenly feeling extremely weak.
He turned and picked her up and carried her down the hall past several closed doors and into a large guest room. She took in several things at one time. There were a number of dust piles with wrinkled clothes in them. There was the lovely woman, Vasa, who sat on a couch with a silver knife pinning her hand to the wood in the armrest. But worst of all there was Alex, lying across a large desk. He was too tall for the desk so his knees were bent and his feet almost touched the floor. His chest was bare and he had terrible burns over his upper arms, across his pecs and on his stomach. She saw the small stud, like the one that had been in Rad. But the flesh around it was dark and discolored.
Rad set her down and he went over and carefully lifted Alex, carrying the beautiful blond over to place him on the carpet. Rad threw a coffee table across the room to have it out of the way and gently straightened Alex’s arms and legs. He glanced once with eyes that were on fire at Vasa. She showed no expression. He placed a hand, spreading his fingers open around the stud, and using his other hand he pulled the silver item from Alex. She heard Alex moan. She moved over to the two male Vampires she admired.
“Will he make it?” She did not know why she whispered.
Rad looked at her. “You will have to help him heal. He is younger and such a restraining item, along with the torture, is much worse on him than it was on me.” He rose up and walked over to Vasa. He reached over and taking her neckline in his hand, he ripped her top to her waist, leaving her naked. Then with one swift movement he jabbed the stud into her chest, just below the collarbone. He pulled out his knife, wiped it on her skirt and put it into his sheath, on the back of his jacket.
Misty watched some of this, but she was so worried about Alex, and he felt cold. She knew Vampires were cold but he felt too cold. The sores she could see looked horrible. She looked over at Vasa as Rad returned and noticed that Vasa looked like she was in pain as she still watched them. She was trying to move her lips.
“Why is she still able to see and talk?” Misty was still whispering.
Rad did not look at her. “She is older and stronger. She is not able to move. But the silver stud does not do the damage it does to someone like Alex.” He moved Alex’s head and opened Alex’s mouth a little bit, and put his finger in to make sure that the tongue was flat and not in the way.
“Misty, I need you to lie down next to Alex.” He did not look at her as he spoke, just continued to work on his friend.
She look at him, deciding that arguments and questions at this point were ridiculous, so she did as instructed. Rad bent over her and she was shocked when she felt the puncture as he bit into the vein of her neck. For her there was the pain and the sexual feeling that spread. He drew in a large amount of blood and held it in his mouth. He leaned across her and it looked like he was kissing Alex. When he rose up, she saw blood on Alex’s lips and she realized that Rad had given him her blood. He repeated the transfer one more time, he licked her neck to seal the bite, and helped her sit up.
They both watched Alex. First he coughed and swallowed and swallowed again and licked his lips. His color got better and his eyes fluttered open.
“Son of a bitch. That is the sweetest wine I have ever tasted.” He tried to sit up as Rad helped him.
Rad smiled his crooked smile and said. “Your first and last. Now we would like to get you out of here. Adal has a car waiting downstairs for you.”
Rad pulled a cell out, dialed and gave short instructions. Within what seemed seconds a couple Vampires appeared in the doorway.
“Take Alex and Misty down and put them in the Audi. Protect them until I come down.”
She started to argue, but there was a look in his eye as he glanced at the woman on the couch, so she decided she didn’t want to see what was going to happen in this room. One guy took Alex and the other one took her upper arm and they left. What was it with these guys and grabbing her upper arm? She decided she was going to start some serious arm exercises or look for metal armbands.
She and Alex waited in the car. He lay in the back seat and she leaned over the back of her seat to reach him. “How are you doing?”
He smiled, but it was not the old alluring one she had seen when he was taking her dancing. “They fucked me over good. But your medicine is working. I can feel it all through my body.”
She wished she had something to put over him but there was nothing in the car. She was not even sure if it would help a Vampire. Finally the driver’s door opened and Rad was in. He had the car moving down the dark streets. He turned down another wider street and they headed out into a boggy area. Turning down a long winding dirt road, they pulled up in front of a structure built up on pilings out over water. She could not see much in the dark, but it looked to be a lot of glass and steel or iron. Rad led the way, helping Alex, so she followed. The front door was reached by a set of steps as it was above the ground. The door was thrown open by a man who stepped back. The inside was lit up, so the glass was some type that did not let the light out or perhaps in.
She smiled and thought that it probably did not let direct sunlight inside, either. Inside it was ultra-modern, with low leather furniture and a strange fireplace in the center with stone and fire without wood—must have gas feeding it.
She followed them up a wide stairway that had no railing and a wide hallway opened up with glass on one side and bedrooms on the other. They took Alex into one of the bedrooms. Rad helped him lie down on a large bed. Then the servant undressed him and he brought out a large bowl of water. The servant came again with towels and various jars so she realized they were going to wash him.
Rad looked at her. “This is Marco, my most trusted servant but more important, an old friend. Marco, this is Misty.”
The man looked at her and nodded his head as he worked on Alex. Alex smiled. “She is so fucking sweet.” Alex spoke low and closed his eyes. She backed up to the door of the hallway to let them work. Even though she felt Alex was healing, it made her sick to her stomach to see the burns marring his strong body. After they had stripped him, she almost cried to see that he had burns and streaks on his groin, legs and lower stomach. What type of people where these? She shuddered—what was she thinking? They were not people.
She stepped to the window behind her, actually seeing the lights of a boat out on the water. She ran her hand along the polished rail that hung in front of the windows as she walked along the hall. She looked into the next open door as it turned out to be another large and comfortable looking bedroom. He must be prepared for guests.
The hallway ended in double doors that were closed but not fully latched. She pushed against one with her hand. It slid open without any sound. The bedroom was large and impressive. The walls were a light grey to match the thick carpet but the furniture was glossy black with a black satin comforter turned down on the bed to reveal black satin sheets and pillows.
The room was lit by hidden lights from around the wall at the ceiling. The light was very low so that the room was not in shadow, but it was so dark that no details were seen very clearly. There was some soft smell, like citrus and pine. She had only walked into the room a few steps but she decided she should leave, but she turned to find he was in the doorway.
“Hi.” She wondered why she was nervous now. “Sorry, I was just looking around. I need to go to the room next door and get cleaned up.” She stood there because he did not move and did not say anything. She did not want to approach him and she did not know what to do. “Rad, are you okay?”
He finally moved, with that strange walk she was beginning to recognize as his, stepping directly into her. She stood still, waiting, expecting—what? She raised her hands to ward him off and he did stop, leaving only an inch between them.
“Rad, we need
to talk.” Her voice was a whisper and she remembered that most of this night she had never talked aloud.
He had her up in the air and the next she knew, she was on her back on the large bed and he was kneeling over her. He pulled his jacket off and it went into the dimness of the room and he slid to the edge of the bed and sat sideways to take off his boots. She rose up and he pushed her back down as he threw his boots and stood and removed his pants. He was over her, naked.
She was frightened but she was also excited. In the dim light he was so beautiful. The pale eyes glowed and the dark hair was curled where it stuck to the sweat on his neck and face. She struggled as he pulled at the layers of the skirt. He found her legs and running his hands up them he was able to push the skirt over above her waist.
“Rad, wait.” She fought the material as it was pushed into her face.
She heard the deep voice but it was not the velvet, it was the rasp of the deep one in great need. “I can’t.” He pulled her knees further apart and upward. He put two fingers into her. She gasped and moved, feeling heat and her moisture form around his hand. He moved over her and he was pushing into her.
This was not gentle loving sex. This was the end for a warrior who had fought and killed. He had the need in his body to claim a woman and let go his release in a very male way. He had carried the erection to the battle to fuel his reaction to the attackers—now he claimed his reward, hard and heavy.
She groaned as the heavy pound of his male organ ground into her, deeper and deeper, but he needed more. He grasped the skirt material and tore it to pieces, ripping the skirt and finally the waistband away. She felt a burn on her skin as the fabric was torn and tossed away into the room. She felt him pull at her top at the neckline as it gave and ripped from top to bottom, but before she felt any cool air his hands were covering her breasts.
