Awakened (A Fairy Tales Novel)

by Melanie Walker

  She opened her eyes and Fangs was sitting beside her, his wrist to his mouth as blood trickled from his arm, her father’s voice behind him asking if she was awake. She sat up expecting the roar of pain in her arm and hip to plow her down but none came. "What did you do?" She asked astonished to see the bruises on her arms were slightly yellow as if they had been inflicted days ago. "How long was I asleep for?" She asked fearing that they lost valuable time searching the knife because of her nap from hell.

  "Six hours.” Fangs said and stood to let her father come closer. His face was composed and every detail showing him to be the lethal killer he was… his eyes however were shrouded in sadness and loss. Loss for her, for them. Feeding her had opened a gate of some sort to his feelings and thoughts. Fangs longed for her.

  "Do you remember anything Briar?" He asked his voice ever soothing but she didn’t track it. Her eyes were a blaze on Fangs because she was still stuck in the erotic memory and desperate to sleep again in hopes of more wet dreams about Fangs. But as the memories drifted through her mind, fading to a haze she realized they were not her memories but his, and that the blood on his arm connected to the wound and the fact that he had healed her. She was certain of it and as he stared her down his eyes just as focused on her she knew he was game and totally prepared to share more.

  "You fed me?" She asked her voice like gravel as she coughed to clear it.

  "Yes he did. Fil bit you so I couldn’t intervene Bri...I’m so sorry baby." Her father’s voice, and the pain in it, pulled her from the intense moment she and Fangs were having.

  "Dad, Fil is an asshole and he can claim all he wants but he will never own me." She said her voice stern. She would never break again, she had sworn it to her father the day she met him and every day since it was her mantra. The harder he hit the deeper her fight went.

  "I'll kill him." Fangs whispered and the low growl that came from deep in his chest was only the icing on this cake of pure undiluted hatred.

  She let her eyes drift back to Fangs whose back was turned from her. "Dad can I have a moment with Fangs alone please?" She didn’t let her eyes waver. This conversation was happening and she wanted answers. The longer she sat in his presence she swore she could feel his rage, his lust she could feel ... him and she wanted answers.

  Her father left after pulling her close and telling her repeatedly how much he loved her and yeah of course she loved him but that would have to wait because if the look Fangs was giving her was any indication to what he felt then she was pretty damn sure he loved her still.

  *

  Fangs knew the instant that Briar fed from him, the first swallow and his immortal soul drifted to her like blood through a vein. He tried to hold back his emotions but to feed the one you love is a powerful aphrodisiac, and to say he loved Briar was an under- statement. The connection he severed between them that night was back and alive and in Hi-Def. There was nothing he could hide from her at this point and the distance he so desperately wanted to maintain would be nothing if not a miracle if he pulled it off.

  She rose from the couch, a slight twinge of pain as she rested her weight on her healthy hip. He couldn’t heal her completely because she was a different species but his blood was powerful and he was a Sire Vampire and by this time tomorrow she wouldn’t have a hair out of place.

  As she walked towards him he could hear the blood rushing in her veins, the beat of her heart was like a classic tune, a secret song that was for him only. "Why do I feel like I woke up in an X rated movie that both you and I are the main stars?" She asked, the satin in her voice was a promise of pleasure if he would only touch her.

  He took a step back.

  She halted mid step.

  "Fangs don’t shut me out now." She gasped as if his retreat was a knife in the back.

  "It's not real, what you’re feeling." He said and cursed the crack in his voice. "A lot of the emotions are old, like smoke in mirrors. They are my memories of us, but it’s like a CD with a scratch. Distorted. By feeding you those images along with others that came to mind, the reason you caught them is because of all the emotion I have for you those were the strongest."

  Bastard… lying bastard… lying pussy bastard.

  He wanted to stake himself at the pain that lanced the smile she had only seconds before.

  "I see." She said and he watched as the flush spotted her cheeks. He hated making her feel this way but he needed to keep on his course. She would never trust him, never let him in and though the sexual chemistry between them was beyond explanation, beyond words, the reality was it just wasn’t enough. He had given her everything and she ran for the door.

  "And now some thoughts may come to you, if I am close by and you need to filter them." He hated doing this to her but he had to be strong. He could not appear weak for even a second. They had one too many enemies to face on this journey and the last thing he needed was a song and dance for unrequited love. "You can ask me and I will help you filter."

  Dick.

  "So okay then, thanks for not letting me ramble on about that." She lowered her head and unlocked the hair from behind her ear and though it was probably a natural thing for her, he hated knowing it was a defense to hide herself, her scars. It had been a move he knew well when they had been together, never knowing that the soft flesh beneath the glamour had been a thick ropelike knot of poorly healed flesh. Letting her hair fall over the red lines she looked at him again. "I'm relieved actually; it would make for an awkward couple of weeks together."

  Bullshit.

  She was lying.

  "Yep." Was all he said.

  "Well thank you for the blood and healing me. My father would have gone crazy this time had you not been here." She rubbed at her inner thigh and he felt his fangs throb in attention. He was a mess of fury and lust.

  "Of course." He said and cupped her cheek unable to avoid touching her, not like he could have stopped himself anyway. "Why don’t you shower while I go talk with Ezek and let him know what the plan is."

  Fangs turned to leave when she caught his wrist. "What is the plan?"

  A blast of barely contained rage shot through him because he knew damn well what the plan was. Fighting for his last shred of control he smiled. "Back to the knife Princess." He said and flashed himself from the room.

  *

  Ezek sent Briar and Fangs back to Ontario and placed them safely in the hotel room. The Hellgates are used only in emergencies and Ezek had to be with them as they traveled the three hour trip back to Ontario, and like the night before they made it in the nick of time. Ezek made sure they were settled and created a hellgate portal in the room so he could get back to Seattle.

  "Why didn’t we use one of those things in the first place?" Fangs asked after her father left. Not a whole lot was beyond his mind of possibilities but he felt a little jealous knowing that demons could travel similarly to the ways Vamps flash. Not a big deal but being able to shift from place to place wasn’t as cool now that the demons could kind of do the same. At least a Vampires way of shifting was faster.

  "Only the Arch and Leaders can, the rest of us do it the old fashioned way." Briar said as she pulled the sheets back from the bed and crawled in. "Fangs..." She asked in a small voice as if what was on her mind took a lot of courage and strength to say. It gutted him to hear that tone in her voice.

  He looked at her in response. "Yeah." He was making a nice little bed on the reclining chair next to a small table and lamp at the end of the bed.

  "I know... I know that... I know it would be extremely inappropriate for me to ask but..." She said nothing more and the nasty bastard inside of him wanted to hear something along the line of fuck me and he almost cursed out loud for the thought.

  "What is it Bri." His voice was deep and husky and had an inner cringe at the sound.

  She was still silent and he stood from the chair and sat beside her on the bed. "There is nothing you can’t say to me Bri, I don’t have any secrets with you remember?" He meant
to reassure her but in hindsight he knew why she flinched.

  "I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I understand your secrets now all too well. I just meant you know my thoughts and feelings courtesy of my Vampire cocktail so there is nothing you should fear from me." He squatted at the side of the bed and cupped her cheek in his palm, his thumb gently stroking over the scars she despised. He wished he could heal them for her, but he knew that the scars she wore on her skin, were nothing more than a physical vision of what scarred her on the inside.

  "I’m scared to sleep but I’m exhausted and I know he can’t take me if you are holding on to me, physical touch would ground me safely in my sleep." She took a deep breath after the run on request that damn near landed him on his ass. He wanted to hold her, fuck yes he did but he took the man’s way out and not the pirates way.

  " Briar he can’t touch you, not while my blood is in your veins. If he even senses that I have fed you which I doubt he can, he wouldn’t dare fuck with me or my seethe. No demon would."

  The look of absolute give-me-a-break he had on his face was sexy as hell. He was the Big Bad that all creatures were scared of and he was at the bed beside her. "How do you know?"

  She wanted to believe him he could see it in her big eyes but she wasn’t about to go for it just yet.

  He lay back on the bed, above the covers and did the only natural thing he could and pulled her into his arms using his mind to shut off the lights as the room plunged into darkness courtesy of the retractable panels over the windows. He felt her relax against his chest and allowed himself this one small moment where the world was outside and she was in his arms, safe because he was there to protect her. "I know because I claimed you tonight."

  He felt her tense in his arms and slammed his eyes shut and hoped she would stay there, just a little longer. "We needed you to heal and I knew that by giving you my blood by all Vampire rights you would become mine just like the rest of my seethe. Blood of my blood sort of thing but not as cult as it sounds. By drinking from me you have my protection, my seethes and my allies. Fil can’t come close to the power inside of me regardless the power backing me up. Your father knows it and so does every damn demon out there. No offense Princess but in strength and numbers Vampires are the superior being. Hell my blood is strong enough that he shouldn’t even be able to remember what you look like let alone track you, but stranger things have happened and we take no chances right?" He asked and kissed the top of her head in reassurance before leaning forward to make sure she agreed.

  "And when this is over and you leave again, what then? Will I still be yours?"

  Always.

  "Because I claimed you without your consent you can reject me at any time, though I would wait till this is over." God even saying those words killed him. He wanted her to accept him even though it was the absolute worst thing they could do.

  "How long will it last?" She rested her head back against his chest and had he been a breather he'd have sighed right then, but he just stroked his hand up and down her side.

  "A few days but I would like to keep feeding you while we work together. You can drink without permission and reject it when we have the knife." God he was weak because those words made him want to cry. Box of Kleenex and sad songs type of tears. Christ he was so going to grow some balls, he so was.

  "Ok." She said on a yawn and it wasn’t very long until he thought she was asleep. Shifting to get from underneath her and into the shower where he could wash her scent from his body and relieve the erection that had been a throbbing nuisance since he fed her.

  As he shifted from the bed she jackknifed up and caught his wrist. "Wait... please Kuyper." And those three words sealed his fucking fate. Never in all the time had he known her had she called him by his birth name. It was lame and he knew it but the sound of it on her lips was a kick in the gut. "Please I know he can’t get me but I feel safe with you here."

  He didn’t hesitate or think about telling her no. She asked and he caved and kicked off his shoes. He was about to climb back on top of the covers when she flipped the blankets and sheet back and scooted to the side making room for him. The smell of night blooming roses was a wave of pleasure in his nose and he gritted his teeth and climbed in beside her. Keeping his eyes from focusing on the simple tank top and boy shorts panties she was we Bring, he slid in close as she tossed the covers over him and laid back down on her side and curled into the pillow.

  They were both silent, neither one moving as they lay in the dark side by side. Bri readjusted her pillow a few times then pulled the blankets higher and sighed peacefully. Then again with the same routine to sigh again, this time only not as softly by the third round Fangs scooted closer and caught her arm on the stuff and fluff workout she was giving the pillow and pulled her across his chest.

  In a moment so thick with sexual tension that you would need a surgeon to sever the tie, their eyes locked and for half a second he thought fuck it, he was going to kiss her. But she nuzzled her head against his chest and wrapped her arm around his waist.

  “Fangs…” she asked moments later when he thought she was asleep.

  “Yeah.” He whispered, desperate to know if she wanted…what he wanted.

  “Why didn’t you ever try… or ask to feed off me?” She wasn’t looking at him and he was glad. She would have seen his desire had she looked at him, seen that he always wanted to.

  “It wasn’t without discipline.”

  “Did you ever want to?” She asked and lifted her gaze to his. He slammed his eyes shut and tried to seem relaxed even though he was as electrified as a livewire.

  He was silent, not sure how to answer a question like that. Did he want to? Every damned night. Why he didn’t? She had been a human in his eyes and one taste would never have been enough…too much could have killed her. Finally he settled on what he knew, always knew deep down inside. “You knew what I was and never asked. I never feed without consent.”

  “Did you want to?” She asked again, her voice hitching. He could feel her heartbeat against his ribs, could hear it like an echo in the room.

  “Yes Bri I wanted to.” There was no point in lying to her, with his blood in her system she would have known.

  Bri did what he didn’t think she would have done in a million years. She rolled her weight until her thighs straddled him and she sat upon his groin shifting slightly. His body reacted on its own and his hips shifted up to meet her body as he groaned. There was no hiding the hard on that she was sitting upon. This was his blood in her system and nothing more. He didn’t know if he believed it or not but he was definitely going with it.

  “You want it still right?” She asked rocking against him forcing another ragged groan from his lips.

  “To the point of distraction.” He propped himself on his elbows and looked at her, cupping her neck in his hand pulling her toward him until their foreheads rested against one another. “You don’t want this though Bri.”

  He watched her wrestle with what he said. “Don’t I?” She asked huskily and rocked harder against him, her fingers sliding down his chest slowly dancing towards the waist of his jeans.

  Like a snake in the grass he snapped and rolled them both, trapping Bri beneath him clasping her wrists in his hands and pulling them over her head. He thrust his hips against the aching moist center of her, her scent a roar to his senses. With his free hand he lifted the tight cotton of her tank top up and over her head, releasing her hands only long enough to free her of the top.

  He looked at her body like a dying man looks for forgiveness. He worshiped her with his eyes, desperate to feel every inch of her royal skin, skin he knew was softer than satin. He burned for Bri, ached in every sense of the word for the chance to touch her. Touching her now he could see the eager want in her eyes.

  “Touch me Fangs.” She wasn’t struggling in his hold, she was desperate for him to touch her, to drive into her with all the aggression he had rushing madly through his veins. “This can be casual,
we can be casual.”

  He had the single minded intent to possess her. He dropped his mouth to her skin, peppering kisses along her side, his lips brushing frantically along the barely there bruises he had seen on her skin only hours before.

  When she let out a staggering moan Fangs thrust against her again, dropping his hand to his jeans and working the fastened jeans apart with the speed of all his Sire years. With his teeth he drew on the hardened nipple before him, slipping his cock free she gasped as the heat of his rigid flesh touched her thigh, the wetness at the tip coating her flesh.

  Fangs slid her panties to the side and slipped his knuckle through her secret flesh. Feeling her wet, knowing it wasn’t what he was doing to her body but what he was doing to her, he paused and struggled because the monster inside told him to take and the man told him to worship.