Only when she felt the burn, the ache of unused tissues pinging her nerve endings with a silent warning, did she come.
And this time, when she did, she passed out.
Fingers still deep inside her pussy.
It was stupid of her to come here.
Night had barely broken, and she’d awoken moments before dusk had fallen. Readying herself, she’d decided tonight was the night.
Georgios had been coming to the café for over three weeks now. It had been another ten days since they’d had the conversation about his and her parents, and though she knew the stirring was affecting both of them, it was starting to drive her mad.
If she woke up one more time with her fingers between her legs, a veritable geyser of… hell, she didn’t know what to call it. Female cum?
Ewww.
But it was the truth.
Think a whole tube of KY jelly squirted on a body’s private parts. That was how wet she was.
And regardless of how many times she came in her dreams, it was never enough. She woke up hungry. Empty.
She needed him. Both physically and emotionally. She needed his blood on her tongue, and she feared she’d made it worse by having supped from him.
She’d only done it the once, though she knew if she asked he’d extend the invitation with ease. But the dreams, they were driving her batshit. And Lara was already two parts batshit. She couldn’t afford to get even crazier.
Insanity by over stimulation of the sexual organs...
It was like a diagnosis from the eighteen hundreds, when she’d known poor human females who’d been jacked off by their doctors to reduce hysteria. Or had been sent to the asylum for having Pre-Menstrual Tension.
She refused to go fully mad just because her mate wouldn’t claim her. This was all easily resolved, and if she had to take matters into her own hands, then that was her decision.
She had to do something.
He would be content to let the pair of them suffer with this half-life. Feeding off their meetings together, but without the satisfaction of the whole claiming out of fear over what might happen. But they weren’t their parents, and she refused to believe they were.
Lara was also one hundred percent certain that he didn’t suffer through the dreams like she did. If he woke up as many times as a teenage boy with wet sheets and an explanation for his mother come morning, then she figured he’d make no bones about letting the link between them take hold of them both.
And so, she was at the portal.
Remy had brought her to this place many moons ago, back before she’d known that Dragons mated with Sanguens and Sanguennas, and in the times of innocence past where Lara didn’t dream of the Dragon’s tongue deep inside her cunt, on the hunt for ‘female cum’ like a prospector sought out gold.
Well, he’d hit upon a streak of gold. That was for damn certain.
She was ready to make sure he put a claim on that streak.
The portal was strange. She’d walked past it a thousand times and could pass it another thousand without it really shouting out at her.
Only because she knew it was there could she see it. The waves of energy were only visible because it was dark, and the moon radiated a different kind of light to the sun.
In the courtyard behind the Space Needle, the grassy banks of Seattle Center, where the lawn was loaded with leaves thanks to the recent passing of Fall, and the tufted lawn was slick from a recent shower of rain, she approached the portal.
Her enemy’s coffee shop was on one side and a cinema on the other, but with the tower soaring overhead, the famed patchwork mural was raised on a low platform, which had ramp access on either side and a step up in front.
The myriad colors of the glass mosaic were famous in the city. Paul Horiuchi had created the signature piece back in the sixties, and she could remember the revealing like it was yesterday.
The backdrop to the amphitheater was far more than just a stunning work of art, one that made her long for the return of the chilled vibe back in that particular era, it was also home to the portal.
There had to be a reason why regular folk weren’t dragged inside, but Remy hadn’t spoken an incantation. Had made no uttering as they’d passed through.
All she’d seen was the sudden whirring of waves, which had never been there in all the years she’d admired this piece of work.
She’d seen something similar in movies. Where heat rose above an asphalted surface, in the desert for example, the quivery lines of energy were visible to the human eye.
Maybe these waves were visible to her because she had inhuman eyes, but they were remarkably similar. Except, there was no sun. There was no heat, and if anything, it was cold, slick, and uncomfortably damp.
Not for the first time, she was grateful she didn’t suffer the pitfalls of human body temperatures. If she did, she’d undoubtedly have been shivering.
Daylight savings meant her nights were longer now, and it meant more people were scurrying home before darkness fell and the cold took over. She figured she was well in time to study this place. To even listen in as the portal opened, revealing its entryway to another world, another time. This was especially important, because if Georgios refused, which she knew he would, she could try to cross over by herself tomorrow.
One more night of empty orgasms, one more night of wet sheets and delirious pleasure was more than she could stand.
Just the prospect of enduring tonight, anticipating his refusal, made her feel like she could pull her hair out.
It had her blood surging through her veins, throbbing with a heavy beat at her pulse points until she felt a little dizzy in response.
She couldn’t be breathless, because she didn’t breathe, but at that moment, she knew how humans felt when they hyperventilated.
Insanity was approaching.
She knew it.
She felt it.
The notion should have been impossible. Vampires didn’t turn insane. Not even the ancients. Not without being frozen, at any rate. The passage of time didn’t take them down the road to madness; they just got grumpier, dammit.
Yet, she, a relative adolescent, was close to turning feral thanks to her arrogant and bull-headed mate.
Remy had told her the connection only stirred when the Sanguenna met the Dragon.
She called bullshit.
The connection between her and Georgios was there. It wasn’t imagined. It was fully formed, without a heartbeat at the moment, and it was ready to leap wholly into action. Ready to start pumping the lifeblood their bond required.
She refused to let him back away from this. Refused to let him keep her at arms’ length, because her sanity was on the line, yes, but more than that. She needed him in ways she’d never needed anyone.
Remy’s appearance in her world had shaken things up, in more ways than one. She’d not only come to learn that it was highly likely she’d never bind herself to another Vampire because female Sanguen usually found links with Dragons, but then, she’d saved Max and had brought a whole shit storm down around her ears. Then, Georgios had appeared, and it had all spiraled until she reached this point.
The point of utter desperation.
She quivered as a dull breeze whipped around her legs, stirring her coat to flapping about her calves. She didn’t need the coat, but the humans would question why she wasn’t wearing one, and as always, blending in was the highest priority.
Around her, there were few people to take note of her, but still, the image had to be portrayed that she felt the cold.
Maybe she didn’t hear them because her thoughts were turned inward. Her senses, so overwhelmed by the last few weeks of bombardment, were on overload. She wasn’t being a wimp when she truly couldn’t calculate how much more she could take. Sensory overload was imminent, but her weakness only hit home when arms grabbed her. When hands mauled and teeth struck.
She never saw her attackers, but she knew they were Vampires.
“Shifter slut,
” they whispered as their fangs ripped into her, tearing flesh. Cutting her to shreds.
There were a dozen of them. At least. They pinned her there, frozen in time, unable to move. Her strength was immense, her power impossible to quantify. Had the attackers been human, she’d have left them for dead in the dusk. But these were daywalkers, for they could be nothing else as a nightwalker’s bite was loaded with healing serum that would revive them in an emergency. The group was also too strong in their too few number.
She could feel her lifeblood seeping away. Already in short supply thanks to not feeding today, weakness sapped at her will as the pain of their bites ricocheted through her body.
She was held, pinned in place, like Jesus on the cross. They grappled hold of her legs, trapped her arms akimbo. Lara had no choice but to take the attack until the female at her left leg relaxed her hold a fraction. She took her chance, knowing it was futile, knowing it was too late. She aimed for the man in front of her. His face was covered with a balaclava, but she targeted his cock and struck, enjoying his howl of agony.
It stirred attention in the clearing. She felt the prickles of human awareness as they looked at the attack.
She heard shouts. Cries that demanded the assailants stop what they were doing. That they left her alone.
Humans, she thought on a soft, dazed smile, always so brave.
The troop of daywalkers froze in place. Three were sucking the last sluggish drops of blood that were coursing through her veins, and they tore their teeth from her shoulders, making her cry out in distress at the agony the move caused.
They left, running wildly in all directions. Their loss of support had her crumbling to the ground. Staggering to her knees, she used her shaky arms to stop herself from faceplanting on the lawn.
The sun’s rays killed a nightwalker. Like the legends and the many human movies described, they got that part right. Even Shifters, witches, goblins, hell, all paranormals knew that a nightwalker’s weakness was daylight. What they didn’t know was that a daywalker’s bite held venom.
It was a well-guarded secret.
For the daywalker’s protection, she thought on a weak huff as she fell onto her back, tumbling down into the wet fronds of grass, the dewy spears prickling into her hair. The daywalker’s venom ensured that they could defend themselves against the nightwalkers they nourished, but she knew no one had ever contemplated them using it against a nightwalker.
Arrogant, maybe, but that was her kind… bullheaded to the max.
Overhead, the moon’s rays bathed her in its powerful, unique chill, but the calm didn’t ease the venom’s crawl through her system.
Her muscles seized. Agony had her twitching with cramps as every part of her was suddenly under siege. Cries were heard as she felt the humans approach, and then, she scented him.
Georgios.
Her weakened senses knew it was her mate but also knew it was a Shifter. She could hear his heart, as she could hear the humans’, but it was pumping with terror. Adrenaline. Fury.
Around her, she heard the mutterings. “Attacked.”
“Twelve of them.”
“It was crazy.”
None of it mattered now that Georgios was here.
He gathered her in his arms, not stopping in his tracks when the humans tried to get him to leave her alone. Insisting on calling an ambulance, on putting her in the recovery position.
She scented him again, knew his touch as her head flopped against his chest. He nearly dropped her, when her limbs flailed as the venom began to overwhelm her, but he wrapped her tighter in his embrace.
Before she could register the astonished gasps of the crowd that had gathered around her, who had watched the stranger stride off with her in his hold, suddenly there was silence.
A vortex swirled around her. One she remembered dimly. She’d experienced it before.
The portal.
It hurt, but that hurt was nothing like the venom.
She laughed, amused by the notion that dying had been the singular way to get him to bring her over to the other realm. Oh, the irony that her death was the trigger to what should have been their new life together.
The stillness stirred her. Her eyes fluttered open and refused to shut as rigor came next. She stared blankly at him, saw the terror in his eyes as he realized her muscles were freezing in place.
Before she could register anything, he shifted. Her eyes saw it, watched it happen, but then, a different kind of agony hit her, and she truly questioned if she could take much more.
This would have had pleasurable connotations, but with the venom, it just amplified her sensitivity until she couldn’t take anymore.
She felt the bond snap in place, but it wasn’t something she could even begin to process. The silent scream in her skull was ceaseless as she tried and failed to register what the fuck was happening to her.
In the moon’s rays, a sudden glint caught her attention. She didn’t know why. Why a sharp glitter would draw her awareness when nothing else would, not even the shifting of her mate, but she saw the tear form in the beast’s eye, saw it fall, fall… Into human hands?
She registered nothing again. Only knew she was dangling. She felt her limbs flailing in the air. The seizures having returned. Agony rushed through her again as her shredded shoulders were held in a pincher grip. Talons dug into the wounds, drawing her to the brink of unconsciousness, only to let her fall once again into the abyss of distress that had become her world.
She saw everything. This whole crazy new realm, but she saw nothing.
The endless mountain range, the bright green ocean, none of it took hold in her memory banks. She looked at it but couldn’t register it.
The huge castle, perched on a mountaintop, came into her line of sight. It could have been a dream. Endless turrets, endless stone walls.
A scream escaped her as the wind changed. It had buffeted her, making the crazy shaking of her limbs seem normal, but as the gusts altered, the directional pull took control of her arms and legs away from her.
But that was the least of her worries. The ground rushed up at her. At least, it felt like it did. Then, she was being gathered up again, and a different kind of wind battered her.
Was she running? Lara asked herself, confusion adding to the overwhelming gamut of terrifying emotions and sensations swirling around her brain.
No, she couldn’t be. How could she? Her legs weren’t working.
They couldn’t move.
More terror came, and the wind changed. For the first time in her life, she realized she felt the cold. Knew it was warmer where they’d gone now, but still, they were running…running. Georgios was, she realized dumbly.
He was taking her somewhere.
He placed her on the ground, and she heard words once more.
“Let me in,” came his demand.
Refusals. Rejections of his command.
He let out a scream that was pure beast. It shattered her nerve endings, made her cry out in agony as her ear drums were pierced by that shriek. She heard dull thuds of flesh against flesh, then heard more odd sounds as heavy weights thudded against the ground.
A door scraped. Chatter came next, and then, she heard her mate’s roar, “Remy, my Sanguenna. She’s dying!”
Five
Terror. He’d thought he’d known it before, but that was nothing like now.
He’d lost his mother to his father’s wrath. Had lost his father to his jealousy. He knew grief. Knew pain.
It was nothing compared to this.
The court froze in its tracks as they stared at him.
His expensive suit was covered in blood, his mate’s blood.
Whether he wanted it or not, he’d claimed her now. She was his by the Mother’s right. He couldn’t protect her from him, but he could protect her from death.
He didn’t understand. Couldn’t comprehend.
Only the sun’s rays should have made her this weak, should have brought her to the brink
of death. And she was dying, of that he had no doubt. Her heart, always a slow, dull thud, was weak.
Like a whisper.
As audible to him as the endless whispers of court gossip, as noisy as Remy’s thudding feet, as evident as the shushing sounds from Mia’s slippers against the solid stone flags.
He saw the Queen. Saw her confused irritation. It was an expression he was used to seeing. She was patient with him, surprisingly so, considering what his father had done. Arista didn’t blame him, unlike most of her people. The court wasn’t rushing to help him after all. Just his House Head and his leman.
And the Queen.
Her pace was slower, but she was approaching. Even slapped one of her guards who appeared out of nowhere and tried to block her.
He focused on Remy’s confusion as he fell to his knees. About to gather Lara’s terrifyingly limp form in his arms, he froze when Remy grabbed his shoulder and turned to look at Mia. His mate was close. She was stumbling and weak, but she’d made it.
Through sheer willpower.
That was Mia.
He’d only met her once, but the little spitfire had felt at ease in controlling two bickering Dragons. The mate bond had robbed her of her feet until it had settled into being, and he could tell she was still shaky on her legs.
She quivered, half stumbled, half fell beside Lara’s bloody form.
“Daywalker venom,” she gasped, not looking at Georgios, turning to Remy. “I need you to carry me to a private chamber,” she demanded. “Bring her, Georgios. We need to act fast.”
He’d known she’d help. Had known his best friend, Remy, would too. That was why he’d brought her here.
He’d spent days avoiding Remy, as well as the nanny he’d placed on Georgios’s tail, but even though he’d avoided his best friend, he knew Remy’s plan for tonight’s court. Had known the House Head would be here, and that was why he’d brought Lara to him and his leman.
It had been the only thought on his mind.
A single-minded directive that appeared out of nowhere.
Remy gathered his leman in his arms as Georgios did the same. Before they could even question where to take Lara, Arista appeared. The Queen strode ahead, taking charge of the situation even though she had to be as bloody confused as all the Shifters here. She led them to a room twenty feet away, and Mia called out, “Put her on the bed, Georgios.”
Leman Page 6
