The Glittering Halo

by Liddie Cain

  His body pressed against me as he thrust, and her expression was amazing to watch. I cradled her face in my hands and kissed her, because I couldn’t not touch her. Our bodies moved together as Jason’s hips drove into her. She kissed me back hungrily, but held back enough that I wasn’t cut on her extended fangs. When her hands stroked back through my hair and she angled our faces to the sides where Jason could watch us kiss, he let out a deep moan and moved faster inside of her.

  When he pulled out of her and entered me, he did it much more gently. His hands tilted my hips with care as he slid inside of me. I gasped from the feel of him, and moaned against Song’s mouth. She was looking past me and up at him. Her lips pulled away from mine for her to whisper, “He’s so gentle with you.”

  “Yes,” I replied.

  Then she reached down and dug her fingers into my ass cheeks. It brought a surprised cry from my lips, but a moan quickly followed it. “Then be rough with him.”

  She used her own body to move me, making me ride Jason harder than he would have done on his own. The sound of our skin slapping together filled the car.. Jason’s grip on my hips grew tighter and tighter until he forced himself to release me and gripped the car seats instead. He held himself mostly still and let Song thrust me onto him harder and harder. Something about the way she was doing it really turned me on. Maybe it was letting her take the control of it, but it only took another moment before I was crying out and she was kissing me to swallow down the sounds of my climax.

  Jason sucked in his breath, fighting for control. He pulled himself out of me and rammed back into Song, then lifted us. She straddled his lap while I was caught between them with my legs around her waist. They both pressed into me, her breasts against mine, as they kissed around me and she up and down the length of him, easily lifting my body with her own. He wrapped his arms around the both of us and held us steady, taking over the movement and thrusting himself up into her. Song kissed me just as both of them got close. They moved so fast I could hardly see it anymore.

  When Song cried out, Jason followed right behind her. He spilled himself inside of her while he buried his face into my neck. They pressed into me so close as their bodies shuddered together. I moaned with them, feeling my own aftershocks as I shared that moment with them. I wrapped my arms around Song’s neck and laid my face against the side of Jason’s. Song shivered and let me pull her closer. I waited for her to make a quipped remark, but even Song simply laid there in our arms and basked in the afterglow.

  Jason turned to kiss me, then we took turns laying a soft kiss on Song’s mouth. She finally smiled for us again, and I watched that sweet transformation spread across her face again.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  “Our pleasure,” Jason replied, kissing us both again before rearranging us and tucking both of us into his arms on either side of his chest. Song met my gaze across his body and we shared a very satisfied smile.

  Song was content to stay in the crook of Jason’s arm even after we got dressed again and I drove us the rest of the way home. Once we had pulled up in the driveway though, she had withdrawn and put her usual guarded distance between herself and everyone else. Jason let her push back away without comment, something I couldn’t help but notice since he was always so physically affectionate with me. They both looked like they could easily pretend it never happened. I watched both of them walked into the house in front of me and frowned at the back of their heads. I liked the side of Jason we had just shared with Song, and I wanted to see them together more.

  He must have realized I was thinking pretty hard behind him because he waited after he stepped through the front door and took my hand in his. I smiled at the affectionate look on his face.

  “I need to find a donor. You and Song took all my energy.”

  Song scoffed since she was still in hearing range, but I could see she was also heading toward the back door where the donors were arranged. I gave Jason a grin and a swift kiss before they both walked out and pulled out my phone to check the donor schedule to make sure someone would be available for them. Joletta would understandably be occupied with Hugh’s arrest right now, but the schedule had been set weeks ahead of time. I walked upstairs while I scanned the schedule and ran into Arthur in the hallway.

  “Would you like for me to send a meal up to your room?” he asked. It wasn’t a stretch to assume that I would appreciate food. I could almost always eat.

  “If you don’t mind, that would be great,” I responded with a smile. “Mac in our room?”

  “He is. He is in repose since the altercation with the visiting vampire took his energy. I was on my way to arrange a donor for him.”

  “That’s okay, I’ll be his donor. He could probably use the extra power punch while he’s dealing with all this.”

  “That is probably wise. I’ll have your food sent up soon.”

  “Thanks,” I said pleasantly, letting him pat me on the shoulder in a fatherly way before he went back downstairs again. The bedroom was dark and cool with Mac tucked into the covers on his stomach. Being in repose was a lot like a vampire dying for the day in the movies. I took off my shoes and shorts and eased onto the bed beside him, feeling the cool stillness of his skin. There was no life in his frame. He didn’t breathe or move with dreams, yet his aura throbbed around him as it recharged. Mac had been elevated in power by Devina long ago and did not need more than an hour or two every few days. Weaker vampires would spend half of the day in repose.

  Even Mac would come out of repose driven by pure instinct to feed, but he would recover quickly when he smelled my skin. My stomach fluttered because that moment of feral energy made me nervous. I liked the excitement of it though. With shaking hands, I lifted my shirt off and unhooked my bra, and slid the covers off of his naked back. I laid against him, my body burning in comparison to his ice. I felt his aura go still and focused.

  A wildness crept around the edges. It sunk into me, triggering that breath stealing fight-or-flight response. He captured me in a bruising grip, standing on the bed and pulling me up with him where my feet didn’t even touch the mattress. His green eyes glowed brightly in the dim room as his power rode over them. Awareness didn’t seep into that glowing gaze until he had already made a strike for my neck. I knew that he knew it was me when his lips caressed instead of his fangs sinking into me.

  I let out a shaky, thrilled breath, and swept my fingers through his hair. His hands released their death grip on my arms as he pulled me into an embrace and sank down on the bed with me. “Hey Dove,” he whispered.

  “My Mac,” I whispered back.

  “Being my donor?” he asked, kissing his way down to my breasts and lazily circling his tongue over my nipple.

  “Yes,” I replied before sucking a breath as he tugged my nipple into his mouth. He shifted me to straddle his lap, and I felt the long, hard length of him pressed up against me. I still wore panties, but Mac liked it that way. He loved to run his fingers under them and along where the fabric laid on my ass cheeks. The scrape of his fang across my breast made me grip his hair into my fist and pull his mouth off of my breast. He smiled up at me, his fangs flashing in his handsome face.

  “Take me inside of you so I can feed, then.” His eyes had stopped their feral glow as his voice dropped with desire. I did as he asked, moving the fabric of my undies aside and grasping him firmly. His body tensed when I tightened my grip. Slowly, making sure it drove him a little crazy, my body moved down onto his. He made a growl in the back of his throat but didn’t rush me. His long, inky eyelashes fluttered closed once I had the full length of him inside, stretching me to his girth and making me shudder.

  “Why is the way you feel so good it’s a surprise every time?” he asked me, his eyes still closed. I kissed him in response. Lush, demanding lips matched mine as we explored each other’s mouths. He brought his hands up and stroked my hair again and again, lovingly pulling it to one side and leaving one side of my neck bare.

  Vampire
bites were seductive. It was part of their power, a pleasurable feeding to make sure that you would want to do it again and again. For some it was relaxing or euphoric. For Mac, it was orgasmic. His power swept over me and fused with mine, leaving my body humming. The moment that his fangs broke my skin made me wince, but it was a small pain I was willing to give for what came next. He sucked me.

  It always felt as if his mouth was pulling on things lower in my body. Like his lips were attached to the most sensitive part of me. He drank, and I immediately cried out my pleasure. It rolled over me in relentless surges. His mouth pulled the blood from my skin while his hips drove his hardness up into my body with determined thrusts. I gripped my fingers into his shoulders and let myself become lost in the sensations he gave me.

  When he jerked his blood stained mouth from my neck with a loud moan, he pumped his hips a few more times before spilling himself inside of me. Our powers flowed around us. I saw the glittering light of my halo pierce the dimness of the room. For a moment, I didn’t realize why Mac had grown so tense and still. Then I realized that he was afraid I would lose control of it. Still reeling from the orgasm and fighting to get my breath under control, it took me a few tries to make the halo go away again.

  His body relaxed again, and we shared another kiss. He scooped me into his arms and walked on his knees to the head of the bed, laying down and spooning me up against him. “Thank you,” he said.

  “Always happy to make a donation.”

  My immortal essence rode in that mortal blood I possessed. Any time Mac or Conall drank my blood, their power would temporarily increase. I could feel the huge boost in his aura as we held each other. At first, he had become power drunk when he had drank from me. Now, after all this time and multiple feedings, he had better control over himself. His fingertips traced over the bare skin over my ribs, down across my hip and along my thigh. I heard him inhale as he pressed his face against my hair, smiling because he had no reason to breathe. It was just him taking in the scent of me.

  I turned to face him so that we could kiss, relaxing some of that tight hold we used to keep each other from tripping over each other’s thoughts. I wanted him to know what I was feeling. His lips paused as he sensed the soul drenching love that saturated my thoughts, then he hugged me tight. I didn’t want to be away from him for a second at any point in the near future. My thoughts echoed it over and over where he could hear.

  “I’m not going anywhere, Dove.” His voice was low and warm, with affection threaded through it as he spoke against my ear and made me shiver.

  “Well, just not going anyway from me, we do need to go speak to Meredith.”

  “Okay. Conall took her to your house.”

  “Can you go now?”

  “I’ll let Lawrence know I will be out, but he went to the police station to be present while Hugh was being questioned and hasn’t returned yet.”

  “I’ll get ready,” I said as I was already getting out of bed. I got some fresh clothes out of the closet and went into the bathroom to clean up. Mac’s voice filtered through the door softly as he spoke on the phone a few times. When I came back out, he was dressed and ready and Jason was standing in the room waiting on us. We managed to make it out of the house without being stopped by anyone needing anything. Lear and Rose were left in charge while Mac and Jason were gone. Sylvia had gone to the police station to look out after Hugh if it was needed because Mac didn’t trust Lawrence to update us.

  “Will Sylvia break Hugh out if they get an execution order for Hugh?” I asked as Mac drove his truck down the driveway.

  “I don’t think it will come to that, but yes. I told Sylvia to get him out if she needed to.”

  Town was busy as we drove through it. Both me and Mac had grown up here, so people recognized his truck and we got a few waves. “If these people only knew,” I said quietly. There were so many people here that I loved dearly. Knowing that any of them could be a victim of an attack like what happened to Emma made me uneasy. I felt at fault. My thoughts strayed over to Mac, who frowned deeply.

  “Rozalyn, it was going to be someone else colonizing this district if it wasn’t me. Felix is a popular archdemon to work under. Then Steiner would have been at the mercy of a vampire none of us had ever met.”

  “You’re right. I just can’t help feeling like I’ve put them in danger by bringing the vampire world more solidly into their lives.”

  “You’ve kept them safe, Roz baby,” Jason said from the backseat. “It’s the best donation program I’ve been a part of. Only one human attack after all this time? That’s a lot safer than most districts. The Imperium just covers up most of the stories about it.”

  “So that’s why they are here?”

  “Definitely,” Mac replied. “They are only here to make sure this doesn’t make national news.”

  “Would they let Hugh take the fall if it meant they could keep it quiet?”

  “Yes.” Mac and Jason both answered at the same time.

  “How did they find Hugh’s fingerprints?”

  “He has touched Emma’s car several times loading things into it after her pageant coaching sessions with Joletta,” Mac explained.

  I leaned toward him and took his hand, sighing as we turned onto my street. “Poor Hugh.”

  “He will be okay, Dove,” Mac assured me.

  As we got out of the truck, I found myself nervous to walk in and see Conall. We hadn’t spent much time together since our night at the Gloaming Court. He was in the kitchen as we walked in and his spring-time-green gaze raked over my body as I walked up to him.

  “Roz,” he said, his voice gentle.

  “Hi, Conall,” I responded, hesitating in front of him. He took two strides to close the distance between us and cupped my face in his hands. He watched me so intently as he brought our lips together. A sweet caress of lips turned into a deeper kiss that had my hands sinking into his soft white hair.

  “Wow.” Maeve’s voice snapped me out of the moment. She might have been somewhat on our side now, but I still didn’t appreciate being in her presence. I looked over my shoulder at her for a moment before Mac cleared his throat and spoke to her.

  “We need Meredith to locate her Vegas district vampires. It’s possible they have the girl that was taken.”

  “Sure,” Maeve said. “She’s upstairs. Give me a couple minutes.”

  I leaned back against the front of Conall’s body. He laid his hands on my shoulders, one of his fingers caressing the side of my neck. Mac and Jason stood across from us.

  “Is the enchantment still holding well?” Mac asked.

  “Yes. There has been no disruption in the power Maeve draws from the underworld,” Conall responded.

  A familiar laugh came from around the corner. I stepped away from Conall and walked into the living room to find Darby and Song sitting on the couch. I froze. The woman who I had just participated in a threesome with was sitting there and being all friendly with my best friend who also happened to be a lesbian that I had sworn to that I had no attraction to girls. Darby saw my hesitation and her expression became concerned. “Are you okay, Roz?”

  “She’s fine, she’s just worried you’re going to be jealous that she let me join her and Jason during sex,” Song interjected with a sweet voice that made me glare at her.

  “Song—” I started, irritation apparent in my tone.

  But she stood up and interrupted, saying, “I’ve seen enough and talked to Sylvia enough that I know that the two of you feed off of each other so much sometimes you let each other’s emotions bleed over from the other one and you don’t even notice. You’re going to come in here feeling guilty, and she’s gonna think you have a reason to be guilty when you don’t.”

  She turned and looked at Darby with her small hands fisted on her hips. “She might have included me in sex, but it wasn’t about me. It was about her being with Jason, who wanted to be with me.”

  Darby blinked a couple times before rubbing her hands ac
ross her face and groaning out, “Ugh. You’re right. I was letting Roz’s anxiety get in my head and just thinking it was what I was feeling.”

  She stood up and walked over, throwing her arms around me in a big hug. “Roz. You’re too much like my sister for me to think of you that way. I might have thought it when we were a lot younger, but not now.”

  I hugged her back, pressing a kiss against her cheek, and watched Song from over Darby’s shoulder. She gave me an impish smile and sat back down, crossing one leg over the other and somehow making them seem a lot longer than they really were. To Darby, I said, “You’re my family, Darbs. Always going to be.” We pulled back and looked at each other. I shook my head a little with a half smile. “Sorry you found out about it so, abruptly.” I shot Song another glare, to which she only grinned again.

  Darby chuckled and took my hands, giving them an affectionate squeeze. “She kept us from getting wrapped up in it. I think she might be a genius, actually.”

  Song acted like she was dropping a mic, then sat back on the couch looking extremely pleased with herself.

  “Almost like watching a female version of Felix,” Mac said from behind us.

  Song glanced at him and smiled, her dimples beaming across the room. “I’d like a shot at something meaningful with Jason. That’s not going to happen if Roz isn’t comfortable with me, which is understandable. Roz isn’t going to be comfortable with me if she thinks Darby is going to have her feelings hurt by the idea. And I don’t want Darby to feel like she’s missing out on something when what she has with Roz already means so much more. So, I fixed it.”

  Despite her bold sounding voice, I felt like Song was still worried that I would be irritated at her for telling. But her instincts had been right and she had kept Darby from having her feelings hurt. I gave Darby’s hands another squeeze before releasing them and walking over to Song. I caught Jason’s eye and beckoned him to come with me. I sat down on one side of her while Jason sat on the other.