Riding the Storm

by Candace Blevins

  “Yeah. I have the burner, and all the numbers.”

  They hugged again, and then Eric walked in the house without looking back. Kendra watched until Ranger’s vehicle went out of site around a curve, and then followed Eric in.

  “Have you been feeding off humans, or bagged blood?”

  She hadn’t expected the question right off the bat, but didn’t hesitate to tell him, “Both. Abbott provided humans my first couple of days, while I stayed at his house. I brought enough bagged blood to last nine days, if I’m relatively inactive.”

  “Does Abbott regularly provide humans to the vampires in his territory?” he asked, his voice casual, his eyes sharp.

  She wasn’t sure where he was going with the line of questioning, but she answered, “No, but during times of war, it’s customary for vampires to be given sustenance when it can be arranged. Also, you know Abbott and I are friends. He has room to house up to a dozen humans, and currently has nine living on the premises. When people visit, it’s polite for the Master Vampire to offer to feed them. He had people who hadn’t been fed from in a while, and I needed… Eric, why are you asking?”

  He shook his head. “I guess I have a bit of an ego, and I like knowing I can take care of whoever I’m seeing. I’ve had to face the fact it’s you taking care of me, and the only thing I can offer you, really, is my blood, and eventually my love, if we get there. You can take care of yourself physically, and you aren’t interested in my money. You enjoy the adventures I’ve given you, but if you wanted to do them on your own, you could — or you could hire someone to take you, if you needed a guide. You don’t need me. Not really.”

  Kendra sat on the sofa, so she was looking farther up at him. He’d seen her as a monster, and she wanted to make him feel at ease and comfortable. Wanted him to see her as a woman, his girlfriend. Not a monster. “I want you, Eric. And truth be told, I need the sunshine you’ve brought into my life.” She searched her brain for something else to tell him, because that clearly wasn’t enough. “Even before bagged blood, I never relied completely on a single human for my needs. I can supplement what you give me with bagged blood now, and if you want, I’ll promise that — unless it’s an emergency — if I need to drink from someone else, I’ll keep it to women, so you’ll be the only man I drink from.”

  “Are you bisexual?”

  “I’ve had sex with women, but it isn’t really my thing. I can enjoy it, but I don’t seek it out. I prefer men, and I much prefer you.”

  He didn’t say anything, and she looked to the floor as she considered how much of herself she could offer, and decided she’d give as much of herself as she had to. Looking up, she told him, “I’ll submit to you again, if it’ll help? I can’t offer twenty-four / seven, but I’ll offer two whole nights. We’ll need to negotiate some things, but… whatever I can do to help us along? I don’t know what to do to fix things.”

  Eric shook his head, his eyes pained. “I won’t accept your submission again until I’m sure I can stick around for the long haul. I care about you, but I’m not sure I won’t flake out on you again, so I can’t accept your submission.” He took a breath. “Besides, I owe you my submission next. What happened didn’t change the fact you submitted to me and I turned my back on you. Abandoned you. I may’ve been captured, but you fought to find me as fast as you could, and to keep me as safe as possible until you could get to me.”

  “You don’t owe me anything, Eric. I can’t ask you to submit to me after you were captured and tortured only because you’re important to me.”

  “You may have been indirectly responsible for my capture, but you rescued me in a fantastic fashion. I, on the other hand, was directly responsible for the pain you felt when I pushed you away, and I didn’t even realize how badly I hurt you for weeks. I won’t accept your submission until you’ve given me a chance to offer myself to you.”

  Her stomach in her throat, she shook her head. “I don’t want to argue the point with you right now. Have you eaten?”

  He nodded. “Ranger and I had a huge meal before he dropped me off. I’m hoping you have beer stocked, though. I could use one.”

  She nodded and headed to the kitchen, and he followed as she said, “Make yourself at home. I’d like to think of this as our place while we’re here. Not mine, not yours. The kitchen’s stocked with plenty of food, so we won’t need to go out. We’re forty minutes from the nearest grocery store, and there isn’t even pizza delivery out here.”

  “Why do they have you so far out in the sticks?”

  She opened his beer and handed it to him. “Abbott wants Gavin and I in two places, so if something happens to one of us, the other will likely be safe. Gavin has more to do with the day to day running of the coterie house, and managing the vampires under us, while I have more to do with helping Abbott run his empire. He relies heavily on both of us, not to mention Josef handling security, and Fawne making sure the humans are happy and content.” She rolled her eyes. “I’d just as soon drive nails into my feet as do Fawne’s job.”

  “So, he’d rather Gavin be in danger than you?”

  “No, Eric. He doesn’t want his top four people staying in the same house while there is danger. Gavin runs the house, so it makes sense for him to stay there. I’m pretty sure Abbott wanted you and I to have some alone time, so he gave me this safe-house. If there’s an attack, I can put you in hiding downstairs so no one will find you, and then fly to help them, should they need me. However, they won’t call me in unless it’s dire, because they won’t want you left alone, no matter how safe we believe it to be.”

  “I still don’t know if you’ve fed yet, tonight.”

  She closed the distance between them, slow so she didn’t startle him, and cupped his cheek in her hand. “I misread the situation. I thought it would be ill-mannered to assume you’d feed me, so I fed before you arrived. I didn’t want it to look like I expected it of you.”

  He kissed her forehead, and her overstrung nerves relaxed a tiny bit.

  “I didn’t give you reason to think I’d be willing, the last two times I saw you. There’s no reason to apologize, but you’ll feed from me tomorrow night, not the bagged stuff. Understood?”

  She smiled and leaned into him. “Thank you, Eric.”

  His arms came around her, engulfing her in his warmth, and she relaxed in his embrace as she told him, “God, I’ve missed you.”

  “I’ve missed you, too. I don’t have any answers for us, but I love having you in my arms again. Whoever furnished this place did a kick ass job. What do you say we cuddle on that gigantic chaise in the front room?”

  “Oh wow, it’s so comfortable,” she said, reaching for her mug of hot tea she’d set aside earlier, wanting to have a little warmth in her body, for him. “It’s like being cradled by an ocean wave. I can’t wait to share it with you.”

  “What’s this?” he asked as he stopped at the small kitchen table and looked over the notebook the tech guy had left.

  “Aaron Drake sent someone to fix the internet so I can check email and stuff, but no one can trace me to this address. It’ll look like I’m hiding out in the basement of the coterie house. Apparently, he was told you’re a fellow geek, and he should leave instructions of how he set it up. He asked me to tell you he’d appreciate it if you don’t change anything without talking to him, first.”

  Eric grabbed the notebook and pulled her to the chaise. It took a few minutes for them to get settled and snuggled in, and then Eric looked over the lines of numbers and geek speak in the notebook.

  “I’m impressed. Aaron has people who know what they’re doing.”

  “Always. Aaron doesn’t mess around with talent. He finds the best, pays them well, and respects them enough to let them do their job.” She snuggled into his side a little more. “When I first met Ranger, and realized he must work for Aaron, I relaxed a little, knowing he was likely one of the good guys, if Aaron had hired him.”

  “Likely?”

  She shr
ugged. “If he has to hire a bad guy, and is certain he can control him so he won’t give the Drake name a black eye, he will. Doesn’t very often, though, so the odds were Ranger was one of the good guys.”

  “Ranger said something about Mitroff trying for a political solution?”

  “All the supernatural groups in South Carolina, including the Eagles, have agreed to free their human slaves in accordance with Abbott’s procedures, which makes sure they all have a road towards self-sufficiency and aren’t just kicked out on the street. Mitroff is now pretty much on his own, the only one still holding slaves, which was one of the main reasons Abbott wanted to take over the state. So, Mitroff is agreeing to treat humans as people instead of sheep and cattle, trying to negotiate his way out of war.”

  “Will Abbott accept? Or does he want control of the territory?”

  She shook her head. “There’s too much in flux right now to say for sure. My guess is he’ll draw the talks out, get a better feel for things, before deciding. I’ve advised him Mitroff is weakened and knows he’ll lose, and if we let him build his forces back up and he goes back on the treaty, we’ll be back at square one.”

  “So you’re advocating war over politics?”

  “Nope. I’m advocating we make sure he can’t build his forces back up, if we go the political route.”

  “Did Abbott turn you?”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Kendra froze, and Eric immediately knew Abbott hadn’t turned her, and Eric had brought up horrible memories.

  He kissed the top of her head, leaned his face down to nuzzle her cheek. “You don’t have to answer now. When you’re ready, I’ll listen. It was a long time ago, nothing says we have to talk about it today.”

  “I killed the vampire who turned me, and if the power structure had an inkling it was me, they’d destroy me before the sun set another single time. It took me over two hundred years to find the strength to stand up to him, and there’s no way I should’ve been able to kill him. He was stronger than Abbott is today, and I was a babe who’d never been taught how to harness my power.”

  “Then how did you manage?”

  “Ironically, in part because he’d never taught me anything about being a vampire. I figured some of the mental stuff out on my own, by trial and error. Later, another vampire taught me properly, and he saw into my memories, knew the truth of what happened, but he also saw the horror of my first two hundred years, and he never told anyone what I’d done. The power structure still assumes I was his victim — a helpless vampire who had to be given to another powerful Master to be taken care of, because I wasn’t capable of surviving on my own. Unfortunately, they handed me over to another monster.”

  “How did you escape him?”

  “I didn’t have to. He may have been a monster, but he did assign someone to train me, and that man helped me file paperwork fifty years later, so I could be free. I’d met a Master Vampire I’d liked at a party several times, and I travelled to his territory with permission, and then asked if he’d accept me as one of his.”

  “Abbott?”

  She shook her head. “No. My third Vampire Master was, in some ways, more of a monster than the first two, and yet in others, he cared for me and kept me safe. I was used to being treated as something lower than a sex slave, but I wasn’t used to being cared for, defended, and protected by the same man when others tried to treat me in a humiliating fashion.” She rolled a little more on her side, buried her head in his chest, and he stroked her scalp, her silky hair sliding on the back of his hand.

  “Eventually, the man who trained me under the second Master joined forces with Abbott, and the two worked together to take over the territory. Once they were in control, they invited me back, I accepted, and I’ve been with Abbott ever since. He’s never once made me have sex with him, or with anyone else, though I’ve done so on my own a few times, when I knew it would benefit him politically.”

  “So, submitting to another, being asked to surrender your will, brings up bad memories for you?”

  She shook her head. “It’s been around a thousand years since I’ve submitted to anyone, but that’s in large part because I’m so powerful, and there are only a handful of male vampires with enough juice to force me to my knees. What you and I did, playing around with power exchange when there are safewords, and when the Top wants it to be good for the bottom, was night and day to what I went through so long ago.”

  Eric sighed, held her tighter, snuggled her into his body better, and then relaxed his hold once more, with Kendra comfortably cradled against him, his arms loose around her. “They had me for twenty-one hours. You were held captive, probably under a lot worse conditions, for centuries.”

  “Doesn’t lessen the horror of your experience. It isn’t a competition, and I’ve long since dealt with what happened to me. If you’re still dealing with your experience a hundred years from now, that’ll be a problem, but it’s normal for you to be all over the map with what you’re thinking and feeling, now.”

  “Why would you be killed, if it came out you killed the vampire who turned you?”

  “It’s supposed to be impossible. A creator has so much control over those they make — total control of their mind, to the extent the child vampire can be controlled as a puppet. If I were cruel, I could force those I’ve made to walk into a room and murder loved ones, much as a marionette or robot can be controlled.”

  “Could Abbott force you to that?”

  “Probably not, though he’s strong enough to do it to most of the vampires in his territory, even the ones he hasn’t made. He could override my will, and has a few times, but it’s been a really long time, and it was while we were still figuring out where we stood. We’re friends most of the time, but I’m careful to show him the respect a Vampire Master is accorded when it comes to areas of politics and specific governing topics. He expects me to have an opinion and voice it, he doesn’t want brainless followers, but he also demands the respect his position entitles him. I don’t envy him his position, and I’m grateful to be under a Master Vampire who lets me live my life as I wish, and who doesn’t throw his weight around just because he can. I have no issues with showing him respect and gratitude, when it’s called for.”

  “He told me you could be Master of your own territory, if you chose.”

  “I don’t want it. If there weren’t a Master I wanted to follow, I’d do it just for the autonomy, but I believe in Abbott’s rules and methods, and I’ll support and follow him, and do everything in my power to keep him in power.”

  “The stronger he is, the safer you are?”

  “Not just me, but the people who are important to me.”

  “Ranger hinted Abbott’s as powerful as he is because has uses you as an enforcer.”

  She tilted her head up, met his gaze. “He doesn’t use me, Eric. I gladly act as his enforcer when it’s needed. Rarely does he ask it of me. I usually volunteer.”

  He stroked some stray tresses away from her face, traced her eyebrows. “Do you enjoy it? Do you look forward to the next time you can hurt someone? Destroy them?”

  “If they’ve hurt me or mine and I’m in a rage, I don’t hate it, but I don’t enjoy it, either. My brain is more concerned with the correct order of torture, to best way to dole out the most pain in the least amount of time, and in the most secure fashion. Vampires who can fly must be tortured different than those who can’t, and the few with the ability to teleport or turn to smoke, must be killed as fast as possible, with no chance for torture.” She put her head back on his chest, breaking eye contact. “If they haven’t hurt someone close to me, I dislike the process, and I’ve been known to rush through the torture and then spend time doing nothing, so people will think I took longer. We left dozens of living witnesses who saw exactly how the people who hurt you were tortured. I also left enough physical evidence of the order of things, but it wasn’t entirely necessary, with the eyewitness accounts.”

  Eric didn’t want to fo
cus on the bad tonight. He’d had some questions, but now, he just wanted to spend the evening with her in his arms, relaxed. He stroked over the top of her hair, down her arm. “After days and days of hiking, I’d be content to just lie here with you, maybe watch a movie? Did you have anything planned?”

  “Mmmm, no. It’s a smart TV, though, and I’ve already signed on to my accounts, so feel free to find something. I’m happy lying here in your arms, and you seem warm enough, but if I take too much of your heat we’ll need to put a blanket between us.”

  “You never have,” he told her. “I don’t mind warming you. I’ve been sleeping nights for a while, though, so I’m not sure how much longer you’ll have my company. I’ll try to sleep in tomorrow, so I can stay awake later tomorrow night.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Eric woke in bed, under the covers. He’d fallen asleep while they watched a movie, and she’d awakened him long enough to walk him to bed and help him undress. He’d tried to wake up for her, but he was more tired than he’d realized.

  It was a little before ten in the morning, though, and he’d awakened at around five yesterday morning, and then hiked seven miles before shopping for clothes, shoes, toiletries, and everything else he’d brought with him — even the bikes.

  He spent the morning catching up on email, and the afternoon refreshing his memory on where he left things with the game, so he could dive back into work.

  Eric kept an eye on the time, and fixed his steak and veggies about an hour before he figured Kendra would wake. He was back to work on his computer when he heard her in his head, and he went through the false back of the closet to the spiral staircase leading to the finished basement.

  There was a bedroom down here, but Kendra said she’d rest for the day in a hidden compartment and not the bed. He hadn’t asked why, he already knew vampires went overboard on precautions while they were so vulnerable during the day.