by Sofia Daniel
I shook my head. Zarah hadn’t been innocent for a long time. She had chosen her side the moment she’d set me up for Micalla’s ambush.
After finding a pair of slingbacks, I slipped them on, strolled to the mirror, and straightened my mahogany locks. My skin glowed with new vitality, stolen from Zarah, Kat, and whoever else Zarah had consumed during her time as a hunter.
“Bloody hell,” I muttered to myself.
Pulling my lips back, I examined my teeth for points. They were the same as usual and didn’t change, even when I thought about the time I’d lapped blood from Nero’s finger. Maybe I was still a frumosi but with extra powers.
I walked into the reception area where Captain Tanar used to force me to give Miss Margolyes lessons on how to develop her frumosi magic. Back then, I had been frightened, but at least I had been myself.
The door opened, and Renée strolled in. As soon as she met my eyes, her smile widened. “Welcome into the fold, sister. Are you leaving us already?”
“I need food.”
“Food?” She smirked.
My stomach rumbled, and a spasm of hunger rippled through my insides. “I need to eat.”
Renée pushed the door open. “We’ll go down to the kitchens. What do you fancy, male or female?”
“What?” I frowned.
“White, black, or Asian?” she said, as though we were ordering takeout.
I clapped a hand over my mouth. “You’re talking about vampires.”
“It’s not like you can eat solids.” She raised a leather-covered shoulder. “When you find someone you like, your teeth will sharpen to fangs, and then we’ll feed together.”
“I’m not a—” I shook my head. “Can I be alone for a bit, please?”
Renée shrugged. “Whatever you say. Don’t let your thirst linger for too long, or you’ll feed on any old rubbish.”
“Right,” I muttered.
She strolled out of the room, leaving me leaning with a shoulder against the wall and contemplating my predicament.
There was a movie I once saw — one of Mom’s favorites from the eighties. A bunch of vampires moved into town and befriended a single Mom. They managed to turn the woman’s son into a vampire, but he wouldn’t completely turn until he had fed.
I rubbed my temple. Wasn’t there another one starring Eddie Murphy and Angela Basset where she got rescued by a policeman because she wouldn’t feed and complete the transformation?
“Why the hell am I learning everything from movies?” I muttered.
Besides, I wasn’t a vampire. And there was nothing on TV about creatures that fed on them. I crossed the room and opened the door to find all the hunters had left, presumably to eat. After checking for signs of oversized chakras in my third eye and finding none, I rushed into the hallway, down the dark staircase, and into the basement.
I needed the onion woman. She might be able to tell the truth about what absorbing Zarah’s life-force had done to me. I continued through the dark, my stomach aching with hunger.
A soul-star chakra shone in the distance like the north star. It rushed toward me, and strong arms pulled me into a hard chest. The scent of cedar filled my nostrils, and anger simmered through my veins. In the blink of an eye, he raced through the hallways into a place that smelled of damp earth.
This had to be Raphael.
Raphael, the vampire who had rifled through my past and made me think I had been unloved. Raphael, the vampire who had stood by and joined in while his brothers treated me like a whore. Raphael, whose blood didn’t smell in the slightest bit delicious.
“Alicia.” He drew back and pushed strands of hair out of my face. “You smell different.”
“Really,” I said, my voice dry. “Maybe that’s because I spent the past few hours in Lord Radu’s bed.”
Raphael stilled. “Did he hurt you?”
“Quite the opposite.” I pulled out of his embrace. “There was an exercise in class where he helped to remove all the vampire mesmerism suppressing our energy fields.”
Raphael’s chakra dimmed. Vindication surged through my veins, and I straightened. He knew what he had done.
“Alicia,” he whispered. “I—”
“How long were you going to keep me living a lie to save you and your worthless brothers? Did it occur to you that I might have wanted to keep my memories of my family intact?”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?” I snapped.
“Everything happened so quickly on the night of the ball,” Raphael said. “Nero worked out that you were going to offer yourself to Micalla because she’d threatened the life of your family. Showing you their dead bodies was the only way to stop you from handing yourself to Lord Lilin.”
I folded my arms across my chest. It was dark where we stood, and I could only see his chakras. “Go on.”
“You begged me to remove the memory.” Raphael placed an arm on my shoulder. “Don’t you remember?”
I shrugged him off. “There’s a huge difference between wanting to forget the images of their dead bodies and suppressing memories of familial love.”
Raphael’s heart chakra flared a fluorescent green. “I wanted to help. When I replaced the pictures with a newspaper report of a gas leak, you were still just as horrified. The only way to restore your mind was to push forward all those memories of you on the outside.”
A lump formed in my throat, and tears sprang to my eyes. Raphael had twisted so much. When Mom had gone to the hospital while she was in labor with Daniel, I had been at a neighbor’s house, fretting about her and the baby.
Raphael had made me believe that they’d left me with strangers, but Steve had asked the neighbor to drive me over to meet my new baby brother. I sniffed at the memory of being handed a tiny bundle and helping to choose Daniel’s name. It must have taken hours, but Raphael had suppressed all those sweet, familial memories.
“You made me think my mother had abandoned me,” I said.
He paused. “It was the only way to get you to stop feeling so much pain. I’m so sorry.”
My stomach growled, and my mouth craved something spicy. “Where’s Nero?”
“Back at the hideout. Are you going to ask him about the memory he erased?”
I rolled my eyes. “Throwing your injured brother under the bus?”
“Telling you the truth.”
“I don’t care about that stupid baggie of ashes.” My mouth watered, and warmth surged between my legs. I needed to taste Nero. Now.
Raphael took hold of my hand. “He’s not far.”
Resisting the urge to snatch my arm away, I grinned in the dark, remembering the time Nero had made me sit on his lap and kiss him. He had pulled my towel open and ran those gorgeous hands over my body. A pleasant shudder ran down my spine. It was my turn to savor him. And if I was still hungry, I would treat myself to a sip of Dante for dessert.
Raphael sniffed the air. “Do you think you’ll be able to give them some nectar?”
“I’m certainly in the mood for something.”
He squeezed my hand. “Thank you. They’re much better. As soon as you heal their wounds, they’ll be able to get out and about.”
“Sure.”
We continued through the burrows, the damp air making my skin itch. Or maybe that was a bone-deep hunger that had permeated every cell in my new body. Saliva gathered in my mouth, and I swallowed it back, my heart racing for a delicious meal.
After several moments, we rounded a corner and stepped into the boys’ lair. Dante and Nero lay side-by-side, their nudity covered by a thin blanket. A bucket of aloe vera leaves sat in the corner, some of them already peeled and ready to apply on their wounds.
“You’re back,” said Gates from behind. “I told Raph the hunters had taken you.”
I turned around and gave him a sweet smile. “They released me after I recovered from my fainting spell.”
The scent of vampire blood filled my nostrils, and I glided to the side of the lai
r where the boys slept. Nero was the closest, his gorgeous, dark skin looking duller than usual in the candlelight. My instincts told me he would need fattening, a little building up before he was ripe for consumption, but the emptiness in my belly rumbled at me to take a small bite.
My teeth lengthened and sharpened, and saliva filled my mouth. I knelt beside Nero and ran a hand down his smooth skin. As soon as I’d drunk my fill, I would keep him and Dante safe, well-fed, and powerless to do anything but supply me with nourishment.
I leaned forward and parted my lips, but a lasso of magic looped around my neck, jerked me back, and crushed my windpipe.
“What—” A huff of air caught in my chest, not able to escape through my throat.
I wrapped my fingers around the magic, trying to get it loose. When that didn’t work, I poured magic into my hands and burned it around the edges, but the wretched thing kept repairing itself.
“Stay away from those vampires,” snapped a familiar voice.
“What are you doing?” cried Raphael. “You’re hurting Alicia!”
“That’s a Radite about to drink your brother,” said the onion woman.
“Let go of me,” I snarled.
She loosened her grip on my neck, allowing me to exhale. Before I could shout at her, she stiffened. “Someone’s coming. Raphael, you take your brothers.” She turned to Gates. “And you take Alicia.”
Gates flung his arms wide. “Where?”
“Away from here.” She sprinted out of the hideout.
The werewolf rushed toward me, scooped me into his arms, and raced in the direction the onion woman went. A moment later, he paused, sniffed the air, and darted away.
“Gates, let go of me.”
The werewolf ignored my words and continued running.
Slapping my palm on his hard chest, I snarled, “I’ll hurt you.”
He didn’t reply.
I squeezed my eyes shut, tried to reach out to his chakras, and stopped. There was no way I could hurt Gates. He had risked everything to save me that last time at the wards. I wrapped my arms around his neck and rested my head on his chest.
“Thanks,” I murmured.
“What for?”
My hand slid over his muscular shoulder. “For being a good friend.”
Gates raised his nose to the air and sniffed. “I think we’ve lost them, but it won’t hurt to keep running.”
“Right.”
He continued down a darkened passageway, which smelled of long-dry earth. I’d been an idiot to come down here. The other hunters had wanted me to confront Raphael for tampering with my memories. Learning about what he had done had tainted my love for him and his brothers, and turning into a hunter had given me the taste for vampire blood.
Of course, the first person I’d want to feed on would be one of the Stryx brothers. All the hunters had needed to do was set me free and follow me to their lair.
My stomach growled.
Gates stiffened. “Are you going to bite my neck?”
“You don’t smell appetizing.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” With a nervous laugh, he leaped through the air and landed in a patch of woods so thick, it was hard to tell the time of day.
Gates set me on my feet and stepped back. “I bumped into one of my former pack mates. He told me that a hunter turned three of the wolves into blocks of meat. He also said you helped.”
“Do you believe that?” I stretched my arms and legs.
“Not the part about you joining in.”
“The alpha had me abducted, and Justine was already on her way to the cabin. She rescued me from being forced to open the wards.”
Gates scratched his head. “It’s a good thing you didn’t open them.”
“Why?”
“They’ve set up four camps around the perimeter of the hill. All hunters. One of them would have noticed someone messing with the wards and captured you.”
I shuddered at the thought of being punished by Radu or Justine.
Gates placed a hand on the small of my back and steered me toward a tall bush. He grabbed a handful of fruit. “Do you want to try the blueberries?”
The fruit no longer looked succulent, but I picked one from the palm of his hand and popped it in my mouth. An explosion of sugar burst across my tongue.
“Ugh!” It so sweet, it made me gag. I spat out the blueberry, grabbed the hem of my borrowed dress, and rubbed the foul taste off my tongue.
“Something savory, then?” he asked.
“Bloodroot.”
Gates glanced around the patch of woods. “What’s that, then?”
I ran my hands through my hair. “I don’t know!”
“What about animal blood?”
A spasm gripped my empty stomach, making me double over and clutch my middle. “I’m not sure that will work. The only blood I want is Nero’s or Dante’s.”
Gates’ sacral chakra flared a bright orange, and my gaze dropped down to his pants, which bulged with a huge erection.
My mouth watered, and I licked my trembling lips. “There is something.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “Biting my neck?”
“Not your neck.” My mouth watered. “And not biting, either.”
He followed my gaze down to his crotch and rocked forward. “What, then?”
“Maybe I can survive on sucking you off,” I murmured.
Gates’ breaths turned heavy and deep. “Are you sure, Stephens?”
I cupped his crotch, enjoying how the hot, thick organ swelled under my touch. “Call me Alicia.”
“Alright,” he whispered. “Alicia.”
Gates didn’t need to tell me twice.
I fumbled with the buttons of his pants, which strained even further as his erection lengthened and expanded. The pulse between my legs pounded with arousal, and the spasms of my stomach urged me to hurry.
My mouth watered, and the tiniest pang of guilt twanged on my heartstrings. I wasn’t unfaithful. Raphael had allowed Gates to milk me of nectar when it suited his needs. Besides, my relationship with the Stryx brothers had been built on a lie.
Gates’ hot hard dick jumped into my hand, its slit already dribbling pre-cum. Every nerve ending roared at me to take a lick.
“Oh, shit,” he said between panting breaths. “If you keep staring at my cock like you want to gobble it whole, I’ll erupt.”
“That’s the plan.” I lowered my knees into the damp leaf litter and lapped up the pre-cum. Its rich taste exploded across my tongue, making me hum with approval.
“Like that, do you?” he rasped.
I parted my mouth and slipped his erection between my lips. Gates’ cock-head was large and bulbous, a good mouthful with a thick shaft that I pumped up and down with my right hand. He groaned, and the sound reverberated between my legs.
Ignoring my arousal, I focussed on the hunger that roared in my empty belly. I bobbed my head up and down, lashing my tongue on the underside of his dick. Right now, I needed Gates to fill my mouth with seed. I needed him to hurry up and spurt.
“Fuck,” he growled. “You’re such a good cock-sucker. I can tell you’ve practiced.”
I drew in my cheeks and applied a little suction to hurry things along. If only he knew.
My clit ached, needing attention. I slipped my fingers under my dress, between my folds, and rubbed tight circles over my swollen flesh. Now that Radu had broken the concubine bond, I no longer needed the brothers’ permission to climax.
“Are you playing with yourself?” asked Gates. “Touching your clit and pussy while you’re sucking me?”
I nodded around my mouthful of werewolf dick.
“Fuck! That’s the sexiest thing—” His erection swelled, and jets of delicious, warm fluid filled the back of my throat. I clamped my mouth around his cock-head, not wanting to spill a drop.
Gates rocked back and moaned. “Anytime you need feeding. I’ll be there, prick in hand.”
I swallowed my wonderfu
l mouthful, feeling his warm essence travel down to my stomach. Two more loads and I’d be a very happy hunter. I pulled back and gave him my widest grin. “Want to go again?”
He gave me a growl of approval.
“Alicia?” said a small voice. I turned around to find Raphael standing by the blueberry bush with wide, hurt eyes.
Chapter 12
From where Raphael stood, tiny streams of setting sun hit his copper hair, making the ends shine like newly minted pennies. His forest green eyes glistened with unshed tears, and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down.
I pulled myself to my feet, eyes hardening, and dusted the dried leaf litter off my dress. What right did Raphael have to be hurt when he had stolen nearly a decade of my happiness?
All the years I’d spent cradling Daniel, watching my little brother grow up, reading the little boy stories, and teaching him to read had been suppressed, leaving me watching the family from the outside.
Gates pulled up his jeans and shuffled on his feet. “Sorry, Raph—”
“No,” I snapped. “He doesn’t get the apology. You were feeding me because I was hungry.”
Raphael stepped forward. “Couldn’t you have fed on me? I thought we were mates.”
“Day-walker blood isn’t appetizing, and don’t change the subject.” I clenched my fists. “You three asked me to form mating bonds with you under false pretenses.” A surge of emotion thickened my throat.
Raphael’s face fell. “We didn’t mean—”
“Don’t tell me you meant to restore my memories,” I snapped. “Because you didn’t.”
He lowered his gaze. “I thought making you feel distant from your family would help.”
The two memories of the Yule ball warred in my mind. My mind was accustomed to the one where Nero showed me a newspaper report of the gas leak that had killed my family, but every time I skimmed over the images of Mom, Steve, and Daniel lying on the ground with their throats slashed, I wanted to be sick.
A fresh surge of grief squeezed my lungs and forced out a sob. “How could you have thought it was alright to suppress my love for my family? How could you have sex with me after violating my mind?”
