Second Blood: A Reverse Harem Tale (Lovin' the Coven Book 2)

by Jacquelyn Faye

  I smiled as I caught him staring at me, smiling. My heart might have skipped a beat or two until his breathing quickened and he closed his eyes, his hips undulating beneath me.

  "Dot…" He was warning me, and I didn't care. I wanted to feel his heat on my skin. I pumped faster and began grinding my hips harder.

  He erupted, painting my flesh white. It ran over my chest and down between my breasts, a channel flowing between us.

  As soon as it touched my already wet flesh, I shuddered and cried out, too. Unable to support myself, I leaned forward against him. One thing was for certain, we needed a shower and I needed to reassess my feelings for Chief. I saw the look he had been giving me while we'd been fooling around, and it wasn't just lust.

  I'm sure he saw the same thing on my face.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  I waved goodbye one last time and shut the door behind me, leaning against it for support. Thankfully I had dressed in my terrycloth robe after we got out of the shower or I'd have been frozen solid by the gust of arctic wind blowing in through the door. It had started snowing again and didn't show any signs of slowing.

  "Is he gone?"

  "Yep." I went to the kitchen and poured a couple glasses of wine, handing one to Josie as she came out of her room.

  "Dot…"

  I held up my hand, not really wanting to talk about it.

  "You mad?"

  I shook my head.

  "You are mad."

  "No, Josie. I'm not mad. Don't worry about it. Just kind of uncomfortable. If we could never talk about it, I would appreciate it."

  "Okay." She took a sip of her wine. "It was hot though."

  "Josie!"

  "What? It was. I couldn't help myself."

  "I was going to let you watch again, too. But now you ruined it," I said and shook my head, draining half of my glass in one gulp.

  "Really?"

  "No."

  "You suck."

  "Actually, I didn't."

  "I know…"

  I nearly choked on my wine. "You were watching then, too?"

  She sheepishly nodded, laughing into her glass. "I just didn't do it in the middle of the kitchen this time."

  I was speechless. I guess I was partially to blame. If I wanted privacy, I shouldn't have made out with my boyfriend in the living room. That, and I truly liked it, but I wasn't going to tell her that. I'd never have privacy again.

  "You promise you're not mad?"

  "I promise," I reiterated.

  "Okay. Can I ask you a question?"

  "You just did."

  "Seriously, are you twelve?"

  "What is your question?"

  "Do you think I should tell Candace I was watching the two of you?"

  "I think if you didn't and she ever found out, you would break her little heart."

  "Yeah. I'll tell her."

  "Good girl. You really like her don't you." I could tell. I just wanted to hear it from her.

  "Yes! I really do. And not just when we–"

  "Too much information." I laughed as I cringed.

  "Sorry."

  "No, you're not."

  "I can draw you pictures…"

  "I can turn you into hamburger…" I mimicked her tone perfectly. I'd perfected it over the years.

  She chuckled and took another drink. "So yeah. That was pretty hot."

  "Thanks. He is…"

  "Yeah. And a bag of chips. That thing is pretty amazing."

  "Shut up!" I threw a pillow at her and gasped when I forgot she had a glass of wine.

  "Confuto," she said and held out her hand, giving me a dirty look.

  I breathed again when the pillow floated harmlessly to the floor. "Thanks."

  The doorbell rang. "Candace?"

  "Too early and she has a key."

  "Maybe it's Jimmy?"

  "Lady help you if it is. You gonna be sore."

  "Shut up!" I set my wine down, got up, and padded to the door, twisting the lock and pulling it open without looking through the peephole.

  I gasped.

  Amir held a beautiful blonde covered in gaping wounds. He panted heavily as he swayed back and forth in my doorway. "Help us, please, " he croaked and passed out on my floor.

  CHAPTER 6

  "What do we do? Can we even heal a vampire?"

  We had dragged them into the spare bedroom and gotten them onto the bed. We put Amir closest to the wall, he didn't look half as bad as the female vampire he'd been carrying. "I don't know, but we can try…"

  "You try it. I'm not gonna try it. And Mikey ain't here."

  "Shut up! Let me think."

  I ran my finger of one of the heavier wounds on her arm. She wore a sleeveless leather jerkin, a heavy leather skirt, and boots that laced up all the way to her knees. She looked like an escapee from a renaissance fair. At least she didn't move when I touched her. She was completely dead to the world. I just didn't have any way to tell if she was truly dead. Vampires didn't breathe, nor did they have a pulse. I could only try and hope for the best.

  I poured a bit of power into the wound and called out, "Leigheas an comhlacht, é a dhéanamh go hiomlán." I knew it hadn't worked even before I moved my fingers. When I used magic, the power went somewhere, changing my intent into reality. When I tried to heal the vampire, the power came back. "Shit."

  "Maybe don't heal her?"

  "What?"

  "Fix her, don't heal her."

  "That doesn't make any sense."

  "Think about it. Would you heal a car? No. You'd fix it. Use that as your intent and see what happens."

  I rolled my eyes and did what she said. "Dún."

  I could almost hear her flesh sizzle as the wound bubbled and closed. I watched her face, seeing no signs of pain or discomfort. I looked up at Josie. "You're almost brilliant."

  "Thanks. I think."

  "Help me."

  "You want me to touch her?"

  "Yes! Close the wounds on her legs. I'll do the rest."

  It took over an hour, but we finally did it. She wouldn't lose any more blood, but if she woke up, that would be a different story. Amir had far fewer wounds. How the hell he had carried her all the way from Canada blew my mind.

  I collapsed to the floor against the wall by the door. "Holy hell, I'm tired."

  "What time is it?"

  "Beats the hell out of me. The sun isn't up yet."

  "Um…"

  "Shit!"

  "Is that even true?"

  "Do you want to chance it?"

  "Not after all the work we did."

  I got up and walked over to the window, leaning in and whispering to the glass, "Bí i do chloch." The glass became opaque, then brownish-gray as it rearranged its molecules into granite. "There. That should do it. No sunlight getting through there."

  "You're so…handy."

  I sat back down on the ground, thinking about our new guests. "The sun's not up. They should be awake. Maybe they need to feed?"

  "Maybe you're off your rocker. Where you gonna get a bear this time of night? Think they might miss one at the zoo if that's what you're thinking."

  "No. Not…exactly," I muttered, avoiding Josie's gaze.

  "Oh, hell no."

  "Just a nibble."

  "Dot. If you do this, I will call your mother."

  "If you call my mother, I'll call yours."

  "And tell her what?"

  "Everything."

  "As I said, be careful," she said curtly.

  "Hit 'em with a binding spell if this goes south. They might not be with it when they wake up. Don't hurt them. They did come to us for help."

  "Yeah, yeah. But if you sprout fangs, I'm staking you."

  "Perv."

  "Seriously, I am against this. Be careful."

  "Yolo."

  "Yeah, pretty sure nobody says that anymore. Ever."

  I looked at my wrist and sighed. Standing up, I walked over to the female vampire. I'm pretty sure Amir had mentioned her name, but I coul
dn't remember what it was.

  Yvonne? Yvette? Something like that.

  "Alright, Yvonnette… I hope this helps. Gearr." I winced as a cut opened up across my wrist.

  "That's so gross I may barf."

  Ignoring her, I let the first few drops fall onto the vampire's lips. Immediately her tongue darted out and wiped the crimson liquid off. Going for broke, I carefully put my wrist to her mouth, not wanting to get blood on the comforter.

  She suckled like a newborn at first and then her arms reached up faster than my eyes could follow and pressed my arm to her open mouth. Her fangs pierced my skin and I yelped.

  Josie surged forward, spell upon her lips, but I held out my hand. "Oh. Oh wow."

  "Does it hurt a lot?"

  "No. It feels…um. Josie. It feels like sex."

  "What? Ew."

  "Yes." I tried to ignore it, but it got stronger the longer she fed. After a couple of minutes, I was panting heavy and trying to stand upright. Any more and I'd be writhing on the floor. "Okay, that's enough," I said and pulled my arm away from her mouth.

  Reluctantly, she let me go. "Thank the Lady." Josie sounded relieved.

  "Woah," I sat down on the bed and shook my head.

  The vampire's eyes opened and darted around the room as she did a vampire sit up. She didn't struggle, she didn't use her arms for leverage, the top half of her body just sort of floated up in a ninety-degree angle.

  "Relax. You're okay. Amir brought you here earlier. I closed your wounds."

  She looked down at her arms, turning them over and inspecting. "You fed me?"

  "Um…yeah. You weren't waking up so…"

  She turned and looked down at Amir. She gently caressed his cheek and looked him over. "I must hunt to find him food."

  "Josie, go see what time it is."

  "Be right back."

  "It's pretty late. I don't know when the sun will be up."

  She nodded.

  "Do you really burn in sunlight?"

  She nodded again.

  "Bummer."

  "Bummer?"

  "Yeah. That sucks."

  "What sucks? Me?"

  "You haven't been around people much have you."

  She shook her head.

  "They're colloquialisms. Bummer and that sucks means…that's horrible."

  "Ahh. I see."

  "It's almost four in the morning," Josie said. "Candace gets off shortly. Want me to see if she can snag some vampire juice pouches from the hospital?"

  "Vampire juice pouches?"

  "Bags of human blood."

  "Pardon?" The vampire blinked in utter confusion.

  "Yes, Josie. Please. Tell her not to get in trouble, but if she can… Tell her I'll make her cookies for dinner."

  "Ha. You're trying to fatten up my girlfriend. Lady knows she needs it," she mumbled and walked off to call her.

  "Thank you," the vampire humbly said and bowed her head to me.

  "You're welcome. What is your name?"

  "Yvette."

  Ha! I was close.

  "Yvette, I'm Dot. Where is the rest of your clan?"

  Her face darkened. "Gone. Amir had returned to us to tell us your proposal for moving here and living in sanctuary. Many did not find this…appealing. But he argued for the merits of safety. The coven of witches became bold, attacking our village. They took six of us. Only Amir and I were able to escape."

  "They are not witches, they are rogues practicing black magic forbidden to us by the Lady herself." I let the anger into my voice. Yvette backed up as much as she could in the bed and Amir woke. She placed her hand on his arm.

  "We are safe," she spoke softly. "You saved us."

  "Your wounds."

  She nodded at me and he bowed his thanks.

  "Well, get some rest. I'll let you know if our friend was able to get some blood from the hospital."

  "Like you spoke to me of before? The blood bank?"

  "Yes."

  He nodded his head. "Thank you."

  "You're welcome. Let me know if you need anything. Help yourself to a shower."

  They looked at each other in confusion.

  This was going to be harder than I thought.

  I left them to rest and found Josie in the living room, sitting on the couch. "You're in deep shit, you know that, right?"

  "How am I in trouble?"

  "How do you think everybody is going to react when they find out you just rented a room to a couple of vampires?"

  "They can get over it. What the hell else was I supposed to do?"

  "Rent a room at Farrell's? Let Bill set them up a room at the police station where they have–I don't know–guns?"

  "He'll bitch, but he'll come around."

  "Not just referring to Chief here, Dot. You should have talked to everybody. Even Candace doubts the sanity of your decision."

  "What did she say?"

  "Was that wise?"

  "That sounds like Candace."

  "I know. Right?"

  The front door lock clicked. "Speaking of the little devil."

  We were both staring when she walked in, big fluffy pink jacket bundled around her leaving her purple surgical scrub pants visible from the knees down. She stopped in the doorway and blinked. "What?"

  "We were just talking about you."

  Her eyes got really big and she looked like she was going to cry. "Oh, sweetie. We were saying nice things about you. And how you think Dot is insane for having the vampires stay here."

  "I did not!"

  Josie startled laughing.

  "You're mean." I slapped her leg.

  Candace narrowed her eyes at her as she walked around the sofa, not taking her jacket off. She started pulling bags of blood out of the pockets and handing them to me one by one. "I did not know how much they would need, so I brought lots."

  "And nobody is going to miss these?"

  She shook her head. "I took them from the storage unit in the ER. They go through a lot and forget to fill out paperwork all the time. I figured that was the safest."

  "Bless you, Candace. And thank you."

  She nodded and smiled brightly. Only when I had a stack of pouches in my hands did she remove her coat. Her scrubs, since she worked in the pediatric ward, had little pink and blue animal shapes on a purple background that matched the pants. She was adorable.

  "How was work?" Josie asked her.

  "Sad. I hate seeing sick children. I heal when I can, but I think Doctor Shapiro is watching me."

  "Be careful," I said. I trusted the good doctor, but only so far. He knew Josie and I were witches, but I didn't think it was safe to out the whole coven to him…yet.

  "Yeah. Don't let the human doctor know you have superpowers, but go ahead and sleep next to a couple of vampires that Dot just met." Josie nodded her head emphatically.

  "Leave the sarcasm to the professionals, Josie. Don't want you to hurt yourself."

  "Oh, you're funny."

  "Candace thinks so."

  She was covering her mouth and snickering.

  "Well, until we know for sure, you just earned a couple more bunk mates. We're sleeping in your room."

  I sighed. It was a small price to pay. At least Candace didn't snore. "Fine. I'm going to take some blood to our guests."

  "I'm going to take a shower." Candace headed off to her and Josie's room.

  "I'm going to sit here and have another glass of wine and contemplate my best friend's sanity," Josie quipped snottily.

  If I wasn't holding ten bags of blood, I would have flipped her off over my shoulder. I headed for the guest room and lightly tapped the door with my foot.

  A moment later and Yvette opened the door, eyes widening at the contents of my hands. "Surely…"

  "Yep. How much do you need?"

  "One should be more than enough. I hate to see the rest turn rancid…"

  "It's okay. I'll put it in the… Fuck. My fridge is broken."

  "Fridge?"

  "It keep
s things cold. Stops them from spoiling."

  "I do not understand but shall take your word for it."

  I handed her two of the bags, thought about it, and handed her a third. "Split the third one or give it to Amir. He might need a little more. I'm going to run this…to a friend's house."

  She nodded. "Thank you."

  "You can lock the door from the inside. If you need anything else, just ask Josie."

  "The one who is against us staying here."

  "Yeah. That one." I felt bad. She wasn't upset, but she was a vampire. She probably heard every word Josie said. "Don't worry, you are welcome here."

  "I understand her distrust. We were being hunted by witches and asked witches for help. It is hard to know who to trust, and who not to. We chose those not seeking our lives."

  "Good choice."

  Yvette laughed, sending shivers down my spine just as Amir's had when I first met him. I doubted I would ever get used to it.

  "Well, I better get going. Have a good rest."

  She leaned forward and kissed me on my forehead. "Night's blessings on you."

  "Lady's blessings on you." I said, not knowing what else to say to her. I hoped she wasn't offended by my invocation of our goddess.

  She seemed surprised but nodded her thanks before slowly closing the door. I heard the lock click and nodded.

  "Josie, grab me a bag, I gotta take the rest of this to… Shit!"

  "What?"

  "I was going to take it to Jimmy's, but his mother is there. If I start pounding on the door at five in the morning with bags of blood…"

  "Gosh. I guess you're going to have to take it to Chief's then, huh?"

  "Oh, my Lady, you can be such a bitch."

  "Pot, this is Mrs. Kettle. Mrs. Kettle, let me introduce you to Pot."

  "Oh, shut up. I'm not dealing with Bill right now."

  "Somebody's scared." She said the words in the creepiest voice you could imagine.

  "What about Candace's apartment? Is it far? I mean seriously, the appliances will be here tomorrow. They couldn't have come a day early?"

  "My apartment isn't far. Why? Do you want me to go home?" She was standing outside the bathroom, dripping wet, and wearing a towel.

  "No! I want to borrow your fridge. Would that be okay?"

  "Yes. Give me a minute to put on some clothes."

  She retreated into the bedroom.