Crimson Hungers

by Alecia Monaco

  Katya barely managed to suppress a shudder. “So, what do we do now?”

  He rose to his feet, offering his hands to pull her up as well. “What’s your favorite food?”

  She couldn’t help the smile that stole over her face. “I could really go for a cheeseburger and fries, extra mustard, hold the mayo.”

  “I’ve always wondered what those things taste like,” he sighed. “Too bad they don’t make a Big Mac flavor of fake blood.” His gaze swept the floor, where their clothing lay scattered, as if a tornado had blown through the room. “I’ll call Mr. Charles and put in an order for your dinner and a few bottles of Vlad’s for me. And then…” He bent down and retrieved her tiger print bra from the floor, “… unless you enjoy eating naked --”

  “I don’t,” she interrupted.

  “Didn’t think so.” He grinned. “After I make the call, we have to figure out a way to get dressed.”

  Chapter 6

  “We certainly do have a problem here.” Mr. Charles shook his silver head, looking most perturbed indeed.

  Katya took another lusty bite of her cheeseburger and followed it with a thick slurp from the chocolate shake Mr. Charles had thrown in. Had any meal every tasted so good? It was as if her appreciation for food had reached an entirely new level. She liked to eat as much as the next girl but, Good Lord, the food was damn near as incredible as the sex had been… and that was saying something.

  Rex sat at her side on the fainting couch, working his way through his third bottle of Vlad’s, this one a spicy raspberry-chipotle flavor he seemed to favor. Accepting the limitations of their current situation, Katya had consented to letting him keep one hand firmly stationed on her inner thigh while they dined.

  Thankfully, he’d had the inspired idea for them to dress each other. It helped them to maintain contact while dressing, something that would’ve been impossible otherwise. Being back in her own clothes made her feel as if she were back on at least semi-sure footing.

  “What kind of problem is this, exactly?”

  “This isn’t my area of expertise,” Mr. Charles replied.

  “You’ve forgotten more about vampires than most people on the Texas Slayer Squad ever knew, and that’s saying something.” She took another drink from her shake. “If you don’t know, who would?”

  “Master Cain,” Rex answered. “This seems like more of a Psionic issue than a vampire problem.”

  “Precisely.” Mr. Charles sighed. “And I know terribly little about the subject.”

  “Tiger, you’re a Psion.” Rex drained the last drops from his bottle of synthetic blood. “What do you make of it?”

  Katya blotted her lips with a paper napkin. “I’ve been a Psion my entire life, and I’ve never seen anything like this.” She looked down at her half-finished cheeseburger. “Maybe food will help. Could be we just depleted our energies when we collided.”

  “Could be,” Rex said, reaching into the portable warmer Mr. Charles had brought along for another bottle of Vlad’s -- this one bearing a cowboy vampire that looked suspiciously like Rex himself on the label and the words “Original Texas Barbeque Flavor!” in letters made to look like a branding iron. “But that doesn’t explain the continual need for contact.”

  “I suppose my incredible good looks aren’t a plausible explanation?” She flashed Rex a teasing smile. Good lord, she was flirting with a vampire. Of course, having had absolutely earth shattering sex with him twice probably rendered the flirting a minor offense.

  Rex let out a laugh, a silky sound that made her body tighten every time she heard it. “As irresistible as you are, I don’t think that’s the answer we’re looking for.”

  “Perhaps you two could try separating again, after you’ve finished your meals.” Mr. Charles extracted a gold watch from the pocket of his gray tweed pants. “We still have several hours before dawn.”

  “Maybe we should wait one hour.” Katya polished off the last of her shake. “You know, they always say to wait an hour after a meal before swimming.”

  “And you think this is like swimming?” Rex laughed again.

  Katya’s stomach twisted. “I think I’m really scared of going through that pain again.” She didn’t finish her thought out loud. No need to tell Rex how much she feared having to spend the entire day holding on to his lifeless body, which was exactly where the entire mess was probably headed, unless they got a solution before dawn.

  “I think it’s time we called in someone with more expertise,” Mr. Charles said. “Rex, do you suppose Mother Rachel would make a house call, given the circumstances?”

  “Mother Rachel?” Katya would’ve sprung from her seat if not for Rex’s restraining hand. “The Mother Rachel? High priestess of the Church of St. Germain Mother Rachel?”

  “That would be the one,” Rex said with his customary dryness.

  Katya sank back onto the couch, thankful for the reassuring strength of Rex’s body beside her. “Is that really necessary?” Her voice sounded small and fearful, making her wince.

  “Mother Rachel is sometimes able to diagnose problems of a… er, metaphysical nature where all the other experts have failed.” Mr. Charles handed her a bottle of chilled water from the cooler at his feet.

  Good Lord, did the man think of everything? No wonder he was a legend.

  Speaking of legends, Mother Rachel was one in her own time. Katya had never seen the vampire priestess in person, but everyone in the slayer community had heard of her. Surely she couldn’t be as powerful as they said… could she?

  Katya had the sinking feeling that she was about to find out the answer to that particular question, for better or worse.

  * * *

  “Don’t be nervous.” Rex squeezed her hand, a gesture that had become all too familiar and comforting in the short time they’d known each other.

  Katya bit her bottom lip. They’d moved from the club level of the building to Rex’s private underground quarters. He was safer from the sun’s punishing rays down there, she reasoned. But with dawn flying in from the east, she knew they were running out of time.

  “It’s not every day I get to meet a vampire priestess. I hardly know the proper etiquette for it. I mean, how do I address her? Calling her Your Holiness just seems all kinds of wrong.” She aimed for a lighter tone and failed.

  “She wasn’t born a priestess, you know.” He twined his fingers through hers. “She was a human once, same as you. Don’t fear her.” He lowered his head and brushed his lips against her cheek. “I’ll always keep you safe, Katya.”

  His kiss felt much better than it should. Why did she find it so easy to let him comfort her?

  She shrugged the thought off like a buzzing insect. Her brain was addled by the sex. That was the only logical explanation… because there was no way Katya Stern, vampire slayer supreme, was falling for the fanged hottie sitting beside her. It didn’t matter how many mind blowing orgasms he’d given her, how sexually free she felt with him, or how the touch and taste of him acted like the world’s most potent aphrodisiac times ten on her. He was a vampire, she was a slayer. End of story, period, finis.

  Time to move into safer conversational territory. “So, this is your living room, huh?” She glanced around the dimly lit space. Huge camel back sofas with carved lions’ paws for feet filled the room. Their deep gold velvet upholstery gleamed from what seemed like a hundred beeswax candles burning on every flat surface in the room.

  The walls were hung with mirrors in heavy gilt frames, further reflecting the candlelight. A massive stone fireplace occupied the far side of the room, with a painting of a majestic lion standing guard over the mantle. A thick bearskin rug graced the floor in front of the hearth, completing a scene that could’ve been culled from the brochure of one of the world’s most exclusive hunting lodges.

  “You like it?” He grinned down at her. “Cozy, isn’t it?”

  Too cozy, she thought, trying to banish the mental image of Rex naked on the bearskin rug with her i
mpaled on his cock, riding her way to another orgasm. “You have good taste.” She inhaled deeply, drinking in the scent of warm beeswax. Somehow, it was as if she could smell the honey and hear the hum of the hive, just from the smell of the candles. “And you share my love of candles, always a plus.”

  “I have a special affinity for candles.” He leaned forward toward the mahogany coffee table at their feet, keeping her hand locked in his. “Fire is my element to conjure.” With those words, he ran his hand through the dancing flame of the nearest candle.

  A jolt shot through Katya, electrifying her from head to toe. She blinked, momentarily speechless. “What the hell was that?”

  “I fed on the flame.” He turned wide eyes toward her. “You felt it, too?”

  “How can you feed on a flame? And hell yes, I felt it, like biting down on a livewire.” She winced.

  “Fire is just another form of energy. If you can feed from human energy, you can teach yourself to feed on other sources.” He shrugged. “Fire, lightning, anything with a strong charge can feed a Psi-vamp.” His eyes darkened. “But that doesn’t explain why you felt it.”

  “What else can you do?” She stood, using their joined hands to pull him up with her. “What about this?” She pointed to the fireplace.

  “You up for it?” He grinned, pushing the brim of his black cowboy hat back with his free hand.

  “I can feel it when you feed from fire… let’s see if I can feel you make fire.”

  “It takes energy to conjure an element,” he warned her. “It might drain me a little, and who knows how that will affect you.”

  “I’d rather find out now, than when Mother you-know-who arrives.” She took a deep breath. “Let’s go for it.”

  “All right, then.” He held his right hand out, palm up, and grew still as a piece of carved stone.

  She watched a shimmer of energy form seemingly from nowhere, hovering in the air just above his palm. It swirled, gathering strength like the eye of a storm, until it began to glow with the deep orange of a flame.

  Power poured off him and onto her, but rather than repelling her the way free-floating vampiric power usually did, it seemed to flow into her, warming her with the personal signature she’d come to know as his.

  The flame danced above his hand. With the precise aim of a seasoned pro throwing a fastball, he pitched the flame into the fireplace. The logs inside it burst instantly into a crackling blaze.

  “How did that make you feel?” He turned back to her, tension lining his face.

  “I feel…” She felt the pulse of heat radiating from him, and searched for the right words. “Strangely energized.”

  “That’s because you are both more powerful together than apart.”

  Katya turned at the sound of the velvety female voice.

  Mother Rachel had arrived.

  Chapter 7

  “My son.” Mother Rachel approached them, and Rex dropped to his knees before her.

  Katya swallowed back a choking desire to flee. Mother Rachel drew closer with each passing second, and Katya had no idea how to respond. Should she drop to her knees too? Or was that only for committed followers of St. Germain? What did a nice Jewish girl from North Houston do when confronted with the closest thing the local vampires had to a… er… pope? Popette?

  Eh, to hell with it. She’d gotten herself into this mess with a vampire, the least she could do was follow the protocol. When in Transylvania… With a sigh, she dropped to her knees beside Rex.

  “Daughter.” That velvety voice addressed her. “You are not of the blood.”

  Katya raised her eyes, then almost wished she hadn’t. She could see why Mother Rachel had rarely been seen outside of the vampire community. She was almost too beautiful for a mortal to behold.

  Tall and statuesque, her flawless figure was draped in a gown of amethyst velvet embroidered with countless silver stars. It hung on her with the perfection of Greek sculpture. The toes of a pair of silver slippers peeked out from beneath the hem of her gown. Katya wouldn’t have been surprised if those heels could click together three times and carry them all away to Oz.

  The priestess had the same alabaster skin Katya had learned to associate with the older vampires, but hers had the gleam of a priceless pearl. Her hair hung in thick blue-black waves to her knees, and a pair of violet eyes that would’ve made Elizabeth Taylor weep with envy gazed down at Katya.

  Before she could respond to the obvious statement that she wasn’t a vampire, Rex jumped in. “She’s with me, honored mother.” He punctuated his words with another warm squeeze of Katya’s hand.

  Why did he have to make her feel so safe? The last thing she needed was to find comfort and security with a vampire, of all things. What the hell was she thinking?

  “Mr. Charles has told me of your problem,” Mother Rachel said. “I believe I may be of some assistance.”

  “We would be honored to have your guidance,” Rex answered.

  Katya watched as Mother Rachel removed a long crystal wand from somewhere within the folds of her gown. The priestess held the wand up to the light, letting an entire rainbow of colors light up the prism.

  Katya gasped. She’d never seen anything quite like it.

  “A gift.” Mother Rachel looked at Katya. “From my maker.”

  Katya managed to find her voice. “What… what is it?”

  “A chakra crystal.” The priestess smiled, and the entire room seemed to warm from the radiance of it. “My maker was one of the true ancients, a servant of the goddess Kali.” She extended it toward Rex. “It will tell us many interesting things about the nature of your new connection.”

  Connection? That sounded awfully… intimate, Katya thought, her stomach tightening with something akin to panic.

  “Move in closer to each other,” Mother Rachel said. “I cannot do the reading unless I can touch both of you with the wand at the same time.”

  Katya scooted on her knees until she met Rex shoulder to shoulder. He glanced down at her and their eyes met. She could see a look of reassurance in their blue depths.

  “Now, let’s see what happened to the two of you.” Mother Rachel smiled, and lowered the wand until it touched the space where their shoulders touched.

  The wand instantly pulsated, the entire spectrum of colors flaring, flinging rainbows around the room in wild arcs. A shower of sparks flew up from it, momentarily blinding Katya.

  Then the vibrating stopped, replaced by a low, rhythmic hum. Cautiously, Katya opened her eyes.

  The wand had filled the room with a deep ruby glow.

  “It turned red.” Rex’s voice held a note of awe.

  “Ruby,” Mother Rachel confirmed.

  “As in…” Katya prompted.

  “Ruby swan.” Rex snared her with his gaze.

  Swan? Katya Stern, a swan? “No fucking way.” Realizing that she’d just dropped the f-bomb in front of a high priestess, Katya clamped her free hand over her mouth. “Sorry, Mother Rachel,” she said, her voice muffled.

  But that would explain her heightened senses. Still, it couldn’t be true… could it?

  A glint of amusement lurked in Mother Rachel’s eyes. “I assure you, dear, I’ve heard it before.” She removed the wand from their shoulders and it vanished to wherever it had come from.

  “How did this happen?” Rex adjusted his hat brim with his free hand, neatly avoiding eye contact, Katya noted.

  “Before we get into all that,” Katya interrupted, “I’d like to know what a ruby swan is. I mean, I know that swans are human donors bonded to their vampires, but what does the ruby designation mean exactly?”

  “A ruby swan is bound to her vampire through the sacral chakra.” Mother Rachel’s voice dropped.

  “I know about chakras. I’m a Psion.” A suspicion formed in Katya’s mind. “And the sacral chakra is the seat of sexual energy.”

  “Exactly.” Mother Rachel raised her eyebrows. “Rex is a Psionic Vampire. He can feed on the type of energy y
ou use in your psychic work. You both process the same form of energy, so to speak.”

  Katya shook her head. “I still don’t see how this connects to the sacral chakra.”

  “As his swan, you have become his natural source of sustenance. And somehow, because of his own Psionic abilities, Rex has become fuel for your own powers.” The priestess paused. “Sex has become the medium of transfer, hence the ruby designation.”

  “So when we’re having sex, we’re essentially feeding on each other,” Rex said.

  “Which explains the need for continual physical contact.” Mother Rachel nodded. “Of course, that will lessen over time.”

  Katya’s head swam from the overload of information. “Are you saying that I’m basically stuck in a sexual relationship with him?”

  The priestess sighed. “Unless you want your Psionic powers to turn inward and feed on you… yes.”

  Katya sank back on her heels, suddenly deflated. “How long is this going to last?”

  “Maybe days.” Mother Rachel shrugged. “Maybe years. But there’s always the chance that the condition could reverse itself as suddenly as it appeared. You two were not bound in the traditional way, but rather by accident. As such, the intensity of your need for contact is much stronger, but the bond could possibly be undone much more easily.”

  The reality of it all slammed into Katya’s mind like a wrecking ball. She could be tied to Rex for decades, in terrible pain and agony without his touch. How could she continue her career? How could she explain this to her family? And what about…

  A dreadful question welled up inside her. “What happens when he falls to the dawn?”

  Mother Rachel’s answer was concise and to the point. “You will fall as well.”

  Katya rose to her feet. “I’m sorry, Rex. I’ve got to get out of here for a few minutes.”

  He stood up and tightened his grip on her hand. “I’ll come with you.” He began his litany of thanks to Mother Rachel.