Affliction ab-22

by Laurell K. Hamilton

  Dev’s face showed a conflict of emotions, but finally he smiled and said, ‘Who am I to argue with the Queen of Tigers?’

  ‘Still not sure I like that title,’ I said.

  ‘You hated Mother of Tigers more,’ Nicky reminded me.

  ‘True.’

  ‘But I don’t think we’ll be fucking right away,’ he said.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Too much talking, not enough sex,’ he said, and motioned that he wasn’t hard anymore.

  I glanced at Dev and found similar deflation. ‘I can fix that,’ I said, and knelt between them on the shower tiles, the water rushing around my knees.

  ‘So we get oral and intercourse; seems unfair,’ Dev said.

  ‘I like and can orgasm from both,’ I said, looking up at him from my knees.

  ‘I’ve had women orgasm from intercourse, but you’re a first for oral,’ he said.

  ‘Anita, will you please shut him up?’ Nicky asked.

  I went down on Dev while he was still talking, stopping him in midsyllable. The feel of him in my mouth was, as always, amazing. I liked the sensation of men when they were small and soft and it was easy to take them all in my mouth, roll them around with my tongue, and bury my mouth against their bodies as close and tight as I wanted without choking or fighting my gag reflex, and as long as I kept him deep in my mouth he’d stay smaller. It was only as I began to draw back off him and suck him back into my mouth that he began to grow longer and thicker.

  Nicky ran his hand through my wet hair and turned me to him. He wasn’t as small as he had been; just watching me go down on Dev and anticipating his turn had made him grow bigger, so that he filled my mouth more, and I had to fight a little around the beginnings of my gag reflex to bury my mouth against his body as far and tight as I could.

  Nicky put his hand on the back of my head, holding me on him, but moved my hand from his thigh to wrap it around Dev so I could feel that the other man was thick and hard in my hand. The double sensation of my hand and mouth filled up with that eager hardness … They were both so warm, skin soft like muscled velvet to suck and stroke, so that it made me suck harder and faster on Nicky and stroke my hand up and down Dev’s shaft to curve over the round, thick silk of him.

  Nicky wrapped his hand in my hair and pulled me away from his body. ‘I want inside you first,’ he said, his voice breathless. He used his handhold on my hair to push me toward Dev. I slid my mouth onto Dev but kept my hand on him, too, so that I was stroking the shaft and sucking and licking the head and first few inches.

  He whispered, ‘Oh, my God.’

  I felt Nicky’s hands on my waist and hips as he pulled me into place. I started to turn and say something, or look, but he pushed his hand into the back of my head, holding me down on Dev for a second. Without words he was clear what he wanted, me to go on Dev while he … I felt the head of him brush against my opening, but being in the water, even just a shower, had made me tighter even than normal, so that I felt the brush of his hand as he guided himself in place and then began to push the head of him against the tightness of my opening. Just feeling him do that made me begin to suck faster and deeper on Dev, my hand wrapped around the base of him against his body.

  ‘I won’t last long,’ Dev said.

  Nicky pushed his way inside me, fighting for every inch against the tightness from the water. It made him feel even bigger, thicker than I knew he was, and the sensation of him pushing his way inside made me cry out around Dev.

  He made an inarticulate sound. I could taste salt from the precome now; he was close, but I didn’t care as Nicky finally found enough room to shove himself into me, and my body finally opened for him so that he pulled himself almost out, put his hands on my hips to hold me in place or move me with him, like leading on a dance floor, except this was the water-slick tiles of a shower. Then Nicky pushed his way in again and found a fast, deep rhythm that made me scream as I buried my mouth down the length of Dev’s body.

  ‘Close,’ Dev said, his voice strained as he fought to last.

  Nicky picked up his rhythm, fast and deep so that his body smacked against mine in a sharp, repetitive sound of flesh on flesh, and between one quick deep thrust and the next he spilled me over and I screamed my orgasm around Dev’s body. It was too much for Dev, and he thrust into my mouth rather than waiting for me to suck, but with Nicky’s orgasm riding my body I wanted as much of both inside me in that moment. Dev responded to my eagerness by grabbing the back of my head and forcing me down as he thrust up, and it was almost too much down my throat even with orgasm. I had to fight not to try to breathe, because I couldn’t have. It isn’t always a gag reflex; sometimes it’s a suffocation reflex. I relaxed my throat as much as I could while I was still trying to scream my own orgasm, but Dev had shoved himself so far down my throat that there was no sound possible. I felt him pulse inside my throat all the way along his shaft where it lay in my mouth and knew that he was going, before I felt that moment of hot as he spilled himself inside me and I fought to swallow. If I’d let the ardeur loose there would have been no problem, because when that rode me I had no gag reflex, it was like magic and took away all the issues; but I’d fed already and I was trying to do certain things without the ardeur’s help, because if I could do it just as me, then I could do things more frequently without risking draining my lovers to death. Such a mood killer.

  It was while I was struggling to take all of Dev in that Nicky intensified his rhythm and let me know he’d been aiming for that sweet spot nearer the opening, because now he searched for the deeper spot that he could hit from behind. Most women will go from the G-spot being caressed long enough, but not all women go from the two deeper spots; for the longest time I thought I enjoyed having my cervix bumped until I learned that wasn’t what the men were hitting, not at all. From behind, Nicky slid the head of himself into the spot deep and high within me, and the orgasm that had been fading spilled into a second one from deeper within me, so that when Dev drew himself out of my mouth I screamed loud and deep-throated. Nicky drove himself one last time deep inside me, his hands pulling me backward against his body at the same time, so that he thrust as deep into me as he could in that last moment as his body convulsed inside mine. That last thrust was almost too deep, almost hurt, but in the middle of the orgasm, topped by the sensation of him going inside me, the almost-pain translated into a bigger pleasure.

  ‘I’ll go,’ Dev said, and stepped out of the shower on slightly unsteady legs. The water that he’d been blocking suddenly cascaded down on me. I hung my head down so it wouldn’t get in my eyes and mouth. I wanted to ask where Dev was going, but I couldn’t figure out how to say words yet. I was still quivering happily from the orgasm; coherent speech was a few minutes away.

  Nicky was still buried as deep as he could be, hands still holding my hips in place, so that even if I’d wanted to, I couldn’t have moved. He leaned over me and laid a kiss on my back and said in a voice growling deep, ‘You’d think they’d get used to the fact that you’re a screamer.’

  Apparently, Nicky and Dev had heard the other guards pounding on the door. I tried to be embarrassed that they’d all heard me screaming, but Nicky chose that moment to lean over me and growl. The sound of it seemed to vibrate through my body as if as long as he was buried inside me I would resonate with the growling depth of him.

  I shivered for him.

  He leaned his face close to mine, so that the water splashed over us both. ‘If Dev hadn’t been here I would have set my teeth into your shoulders and marked you as mine, but mustn’t scare the tigers.’ And he growled again with his chest curved over me, his face touching mine. I made a small, helpless noise of happiness, and he laughed so deep a sound that it should have had teeth and claws around it.

  54

  I woke blinking into a bar of golden sunlight, made more gold by the blond hair that was spilling across my face. The sunlight was a slit in the curtains. The bed was moving, and I blinked through the hair
and sunlight to see Nicky sliding out of the bed. That meant the very warm and softly muscled someone wrapped around the back of me was Dev. I tried to sweep the hair out of my face and realized my arms were pinned by his arm. He snuggled closer, arm flexing as I tried to move. Apparently Dev was a serious snuggler.

  I heard deep voices soft and low at the door. I was able to turn my head and see around Dev’s head enough to see Nicky naked at the partially open door, but couldn’t see who he was talking to. Then he opened the door, and Edward walked in, which made me suddenly look down to see how much of me was covered with sheet. It hadn’t seemed that important a minute ago.

  Dev had not only my arms pinned, but the sheet trapped at about my waist level between us. At the moment his arm covered some of my breasts, but some is not enough when the person who just walked into the room isn’t a lover. Yes, Edward was one of my best friends, but it wasn’t the same as having a best girlfriend.

  I could reach my sheets with my hands pinned, but I couldn’t actually get any more sheet to cover me because it was caught between Dev’s body and mine. Crap! I did the only thing I could: I hid behind Dev and said, ‘Just a minute, Edward.’ I planned on my voice being calm and matter of fact. I failed.

  Edward laughed, that rare real laughter for him, and the fact that he did it in front of Nicky meant he approved of him in some way. ‘I’ll turn my back until you cover up.’ His voice was made up mostly of laughter. I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard him sound quite that pleased. It wasn’t just this moment of embarrassment for me, as I poked Dev and made him blink awake so I could grab covers; I thought it was Donna and her working her issues, so that there would be a wedding. Maybe I was being all girly and projecting, but Edward was happy. When we met years ago we were both pretty miserable; I just didn’t know it.

  ‘I’m moving, I’m moving,’ Dev said, as I pushed at him a little furiously.

  Edward was standing with his back to the bed like he’d said, but his shoulders were shaking with laughter. Nicky stood beside him totally nude and totally comfortable, as he watched me struggle to hide my nakedness and drag all the covers off Dev. He didn’t care any more than Nicky did – stupid wereanimals and their lack of modesty, and stupid me still caring this much.

  Edward was bent almost double, laughing so hard it sounded like he was having trouble breathing. ‘Glad I could lighten your morning,’ I said, grumpily.

  It made Dev grin, and then Nicky chuckled.

  I pointed a finger at Dev. ‘Don’t you dare.’

  Dev’s mouth quirked as he fought not to laugh. Nicky’s face was alight with suppressed laughter. I fled to the bathroom with the king-size sheet wrapped around me like the most oversized robe in the world, grabbing my overnight bag as I moved, so that I actually tripped over the sheet and fell in the doorway to the bathroom.

  ‘Motherfucking son of a bitch!’

  That was it; both of them laughed out loud. I gathered my sheet and what was left of my dignity and closed the door to the bathroom to the sounds of masculine laughter. I rolled my eyes at myself in the mirror and realized that I had no idea why Edward was in our room. I was betting it was business, which meant crime to solve, bad guys to catch, and a mysterious master vampire to find. That took the smile off my face, but I realized not entirely. Yeah, things were bad, and last night had been brutal, but I could still hear the men laughing to themselves. It was a good sound, and not a bad way to start the day.

  55

  Marshal Hatfield sat in Deputy Marshal Chapman’s office on the edge of her chair with the warrant of execution spread on the edge of his desk. She wanted to sign it over to me. There was precedent for it, but for some reason Chapman didn’t want her to do it.

  Hatfield gazed up at him with hollow eyes. I wondered if she’d slept at all. Her hair was coming loose in strands as her ponytail sagged at the nape of her neck. She’d looked so crisp and together yesterday; now she looked like she needed a hug. I wondered if she had anyone in her life who could give her one.

  ‘I don’t understand, sir. It would have been Marshal Blake’s warrant in the first place, if she hadn’t been shot.’

  ‘The warrant was assigned to you, Hatfield, and we expect you to fulfill it.’

  A look of near pain came over her face; lines that hadn’t been there before showed sharp and harsh. I’d have put her under thirty, but in that moment I put her over, but it wasn’t age it was just stress. It’ll mark you up. Sometimes the marks fade and sometimes they don’t. Just as smile lines are the mark of every happiness you’ve ever had, so some lines are the mark of every disappointment carved into your flesh as surely as any scar.

  ‘Technically, sir, Hatfield is a part of the Preternatural Branch of the service just like we are,’ Edward said.

  ‘I’m aware of that, Marshal Forrester.’

  ‘Well then, sir, you are aware that we are not in your direct line of command because you’re regular service and we’re preternatural service.’

  Hatfield blinked at Edward, as if she weren’t tracking everything, but she’d heard something that seemed important.

  ‘Hatfield was in my direct command for several years, Forrester; she knows her duty.’

  ‘I thought our duty was to execute each warrant in the most efficient way with the least loss of life,’ I said.

  Chapman frowned at me. ‘Of course,’ he said.

  ‘Then Blake should take this warrant,’ Hatfield said. ‘I’ll still work with her and Forrester to complete it, but I’d feel more comfortable with her in charge of the overall investigation.’

  ‘You have been a law enforcement officer longer than Blake. You have five years more experience than she does,’ Chapman said.

  ‘I do, and there are men on the force who are ex-military and she’s never been that either, but none of us have her background in dealing with the undead, sir. I believe that my lack of experience in that area led directly to the five deaths yesterday.’

  ‘You can’t blame yourself because Blake and Forrester here didn’t share information.’

  I pushed away from the wall. ‘I was unconscious in the hospital, Chapman. How was I supposed to share information?’

  He looked at me, then gave a little nod. ‘Perhaps that was unfair; if so, my apologies.’

  ‘I didn’t arrive in the state until after Marshal Blake was shot,’ said Edward. ‘I didn’t know the facts of the case until dark the next night; in what way did I conceal information that would have prevented the deaths yesterday?’ His voice was quiet, calm, but held enough suppressed anger to set fire to something. I’d never heard Edward sound this angry as Ted.

  Chapman shifted on the balls of his feet, hands clasped behind his back like an echo of being at ease in the military. His gray hair was cut high and tight. I’d have said Marines, but it felt more like Army. Marines fucked about a little less and were less likely to rise as high in rank as Army, due to a certain cussedness that seemed to go with being a nonpracticing Marine. You had Marines who rose to high rank, and you had ex-Army who were as stubborn as a Marine, but it was usually the other way around.

  ‘Sir,’ Hatfield said, ‘I knew about the rotting vampires in Atlanta. I read the same information that Blake and Forrester did, but I failed to make the logic leap that these vampires might need fire just like the ones in Atlanta did. I’d never seen anything like them, and I thought … heads blown up, spines damaged, hearts … I could see through their chests, sir. I thought that was dead enough; I was wrong.’

  Hatfield’s willingness to fall on the grenade for what had happened made me like her better, and it was even true. She should have erred on the side of caution, and she hadn’t, and people were dead because of it, but … she was letting the guilt tear her up.

  ‘They were missing civilians, Marshal Hatfield. We owed it to their families to identify them before the bodies were burned,’ Chapman said.

  ‘Are you saying it’s become acceptable practice to not burn vampires once we’ve taken t
heir heads and hearts?’ I asked.

  ‘Outside of special circumstances, it has worked very well. We’ve closed missing-person cases that were decades old.’

  Huh. ‘I honestly hadn’t thought about that, sir, that some of the vampires that go bad would be filed missing persons from decades and probably cities away.’

  ‘It’s given closure to families who had given up on ever hearing news.’

  ‘But you need an intact head for dental records, so only decapitations, not blowing the face away with an AR or shotgun, right?’ Edward asked. His voice was a little less hostile, but not much.

  Chapman nodded. ‘Exactly; many people don’t have their fingerprints on file.’

  ‘If you’re looking at people missing for decades, then dental records don’t always help either,’ Edward said. ‘It’s routine that when a dentist retires, old patient records aren’t kept track of if the patient isn’t being referred to another dentist.’

  ‘That is true.’

  ‘How are you identifying the dead vampires then?’ I asked.

  ‘DNA of surviving family members, female in particular.’

  ‘Because the maternal line carries the most direct DNA,’ I said.

  He nodded. ‘Yes, most people don’t know that.’

  ‘In my misspent youth I got a BS in biology,’ I said.

  ‘I read that in your file. There’s been some discussion that your science background is part of what makes you so effective at this job; do you believe that’s true?’

  I thought about it, then nodded. ‘I actually took preternatural biology classes and classes on myth and folklore beasts and beings that exist in the real world, so yeah, it gave me a jump on knowing what I was supposed to be up against.’

  ‘You had no police background, no military, nothing but the biology, and yet new marshals who have come straight from the classroom to the Preternatural Branch aren’t doing as well as you did at the beginning of your career.’