by Eros, Marata
“And what was that?” I asked softly, beginning to make a lather with shampoo for my hair, so glad to be in a position of getting clean my modesty at his intimate presence didn't faze me. Even if the subject discussed was so sad.
“He was her guard. She had become close to him. When he made an advance, she thought nothing of it, but when she realized it was not a casual overture...”
“What?” I asked, my hair a soapy turban on my head.
“She tried to break away, but he was consumed by blood lust and lust for her body, of course. She struggled and he broke her body to keep her still. It was not until we pulled him off that he realized that in his fervor to have her, he had killed her.”
“What was her name, Zach?” The soap stilled in my slick hands.
He bent over the tub, taking the soap from me and dipping it beneath the steaming water then lathering. He began to move the soap over my bare back and I almost moaned with pleasure. Hands so strong, capable of so much damage, moving softly over my body.
I thought he would not answer but when he was behind me he said, “Jasmine.”
“Like the flower,” I clarified.
I could almost feel him nod, although no sound escaped his lips.
He moved around my body and I let him, our silence had its own rhythm. He washed my toes, then my ankles, when he reached my sweet spot he gently lathered and took his time, moving a finger along the folds and swirling the soap and water around it with an erotic pull. It was exquisite torture and he knew it. Just when I thought I would scream from the sexual tension, he moved on, working his way up my body, ending with a gentle kiss on my lips.
“I will not let it end like it did for my sister... with you.”
He had not forgotten what we'd been talking about, he had just taken a break from the gravity of it all.
I rinsed the soap off my body and he stood, a plush towel in his arms. He opened it for me and I stepped out of the tub and into the towel.
Into his arms.
CHAPTER 5
Cole
Cole's eyes snapped open. Disorientation slipped away on the wind. He could feel the pressure of the moon, on the wane but still ripe, an insistent pressure against his mind. Velvet reassurance that night had fallen. He thought briefly of feeding, then dismissed it. He would have to press forward, getting by on his last feed.
He exited the old mining shaft and scented the air around him, stretching his limbs, feeling himself again after the horrible sedative that human had shot him with.
He would die. Cole remembered that Rachel had seemed to know the human. He did not like knowing that she was possibly in his care. He had watched her quite closely and in the brief time that it had taken the rogue to acquire her he was more anxious about the Intimate's involvement than the rogue. The other may damage her. Zach of the rogue would not.
He sighed. Finally, after a few minutes of tracking, he caught the slightest trace of her fragrance, vaguely like fruit and spice.
He ran toward it.
The scent.
Rachel.
*
Nathan had been released, healing from the beating he had received at his leader's fist. He had never been a supporter of Alexander. But it was his rage over losing a breeder that he wished for himself that had caused him to become unhinged, beating one of his best Reapers because she was not within his grasp. And Nathan had abetted her escape. Not initially, but letting Cole go and not alerting the coven of Rachel's escape and Nathan taking her had been an unpardonable error.
He had been punished. Now, starvation and the need to feed was a burning blood lust in his body, every nerve ending on fire. He struggled outside, on the prowl for the first poor soul that he could find.
Alexander had all but thrown him outside the coven doors. Nathan remembered his directive, “Do not return until you have something worthy of this coven. A Druid, Reaper. Keep in mind what we have lost, what we may never have. That the rogue now take pleasure in.”
Nathan had gone. Alexander's resentment tasted like bitter ash upon his tongue.
He roamed the back alleys, getting closer to the university campus. Normally, he would have cruised the seedier sections of town, finding a male to ravage, one that was about to commit nefarious deeds. That is exactly what he preferred. Now he would be forced to bleed a female while burying his shaft to the hilt inside of her. Alexander had thrown him out and made many vulnerable because of his blood lust. It had turned into a beast of its own, now sexual need combined inexorably with the blood lust.
Neither easily separated.
His ears pricked at the sound of feminine voices coming his way. Two females, his nose told him. His blood roared to be satiated. He came out of the alleyway into full view of the females, his huge body tense and ready to spring.
*
Holly laughed at what Jill said, throwing her scarf around her neck. Damn thing kept coming forward. The smile melted off Holly's face as she watched Jill's face fall, filling with fear.
What the hell? Holly whipped her head in the direction Jill was staring, her feet pegged to the ground and a dazed expression on her stunned face.
In front of Holly stood the biggest man she had ever laid eyes on. Forget WWE, this guy made them look puny. Holly's heart raced, he stood stock-still, all black menace and grace. He was coming at them in a jog, intent on his face.
Holly wasn't gonna stick around to see what he planned. She screamed at Jill, “Run!”
Holly turned and in one moment, her scarf that she had secured more tightly around her neck was the thing he used to jerk her back against him.
Ah hell, she thought, her vision growing dim, as the scarf became a noose.
Holly collapsed against Nathan, her airway constricted by the scarf, fear choking her into unconsciousness.
Jill fought him as he dragged her off into the alley. The other human female was tucked safely underneath his arm, she was so small it was simple.
Too simple, really.
He set the unconscious female down on the ground, careful not to let her hit her head as the other kicked and fought, screaming.
Nathan could not have that. He looked into her eyes. “Be silent.”
She stopped mid-scream. His pupils dilated and he licked his lips, the fragrance of her blood enticing a clamor he could not deny.
He did not need to kill this one. After all, he had two.
He gave the command, the chill of the air making fog of his breath, “Spread your legs, female.”
Jill did, her mind roaring to stop, her body mechanically doing what he asked.
He tore off her tights that she wore for warmth underneath her skirt and she felt his fingers prob the hot recesses of her pussy. Missing nothing he pushed a finger inside her and a moan escaped.
Nathan smiled, the human females were so easy. He just willed their compliance and they were instantly aroused. Spread and ready for the vampires use. He pumped his fingers inside the female until her pussy was slick with her honey and looking around for others, seeing the alley was empty, he positioned his throbbing shaft above her. Pressing inside her he rocked forward then back, his face a mask of tenseness, relief not in sight yet. The female moved her hips up to capture his rod, forcing herself higher upon him.
He tore her blouse open, exposing her throat, the tearing material the only sound in the alley. Ice dripped from the hot roofs in the background while he rutted on top of her. He tensed then said, very close to release, “Turn your head.” She did, even as she rose to meet his hard thrusts. He was burying himself to the root inside her, she was taking all his hard length inside. She would be very sore tomorrow, he thought, shoving himself in her tight snatch harder. As he fought orgasm just a moment longer, Nathan felt his fangs elongate, readying him for ejaculation.
They punched out of his mouth and the hand he had cupped underneath the female's neck forced her close to his face as he struck, his cock spurting hot jets of seed deep inside her slick channel as his fangs
penetrated the tender flesh of her throat.
He orgasmed and bled her simultaneously. Her body writhed underneath him, even as she slipped into unconsciousness, her pussy milked him, throbbing around him like a pulsating fist. He threw his head back, blood dripping from his fangs. With a groan he pulled out of the female. He arranged her closed and licked the wounds he had made. He did not like killing females. It had been a near thing because his control was precarious at best.
He looked around the alley, the female in his arms. Seeing the first door he could find, a quick glance at the second female, laying there. He frowned, the cold of the ground would be leeching through her clothing. Time to hurry. He kicked open the door and laid the female he had used inside the door of the warm dwelling.
Good. He arranged her so when she awoke she would not be vulnerable.
Nathan felt better. He did not like to use the human females but he could not impregnate them and that one had been no virgin, her pussy accepting his girth like she was meant for it, key to lock. He smiled, moving toward the other female.
Her smell assaulted him.
He stopped in his tracks. How he had missed it when it was right underneath his nose he did not know. But the siege of blood lust had been upon him when he captured and bled the first victim he had found.
The other female was Druid. He could smell it like a fine wine on his tongue. He sprinted to her side, lifting her off the cold ground. Her stillness worried him. He cocked his head, listening for her heartbeat.
It was strong, she lived. He cradled her small body against him and sprinted for a location of privacy.
As he passed underneath a streetlight he caught sight of her face and stopped in his tracks. The female looked exactly like another Druid.
Exactly.
Rachel.
He had Rachel.
CHAPTER 6
Holly
Holly came awake and her vision was instantly filled by a huge form, his silhouette overwhelming her.
The memories of the attack flooded her mind in a slipping sludge and she screamed, her voice box going hoarse with it. A large, cold hand covered her mouth, the size so large it cupped her face. Her scream died against his flesh.
She looked up at him, her bladder clenching uncomfortably and knew she would die. Instinctively, Holly knew that they were alone, Jill gone. Fat tears ran down her face. She would die here with a lunatic. He might do things to her. Holly thought of how young she was, inexperienced. She was just a freshman in college.
A virgin. Her wide blue eyes flicked to his, glittering marbles of deep inky black fire stared back.
Then he spoke, “Be still. I mean you no harm, Druid.”
Holly listened in confusion. What was a Druid? She was a woman, she didn't know what he was talking about. And she didn't believe him on the no harm thing, either.
“If I remove my hand, will you stay quiet?” his brows lifted.
She nodded her head. He was huge. If he wanted to subdue her, he sure could.
He slowly lifted his palm away and sat crouched back, ready. She crawled away until her back met something solid.
They regarded each other and after a moment he said, “You are safe with me.”
Holly shook her head and asked, “Where's Jill?”
His eyes shifted away then came back to her gaze. “She is safe.”
Holly's voice trembled and she asked, “What are you going to do with me?”
Nathan thought about softening the blow but thought that her knowing may secure her compliance... or not. “Breed you. I will breed you.”
Holly was stunned into silence. Then she looked at him, her eyes taking in everything. There was something otherworldly about him. His eyes had looked black but with the moonlight coming through a dirty pane of glass they had silvered, reflective in the strange bluish-white light.
“What are you?” she whispered, her voice quaking.
“I am a Reaper,” he said, his eyes never leaving hers.
“What... what is that?”
“I am Vampire,” Nathan said.
Holly made a move to leap from her perch and he was there in a blur of gray, her eyes unable to track his speed.
Her breath came in a hitching gasp and he held her while she squirmed against him, his shaft growing against her with her movements, arousing him.
“Please...” Holly begged, “please don't rape me.”
Nathan kept her against him and as she struggled to get away, he captured her chin and easily forced her gaze to lock with his. “I did not say I would rape you.”
Holly stopped struggling, his erection straining between them. “If you aren't going to rape me then what are you going to do?”
Nathan smiled, his path clear. “Keep you, protect you... breed you. Maybe, eventually, you will come to care for me.”
Holly sagged in his huge arms, she felt the heat climb her body beginning at her feet and knew that she was in the first stage of shock.
Being captured by a mythological vampire that wanted to have babies with her would do it.
Nathan gathered the small Druid in his arms as she fainted for the second time that night. He clasped her against his chest protectively and studied her face. He had been wrong. She was not the Druid that Cole had rescued. But she was a relation. Of that he had no doubt.
Their features were uncannily similar, except for the size. This Druid was built like a doll, and very young.
Untried.
He would be her first.
Very soon.
****
I stretched my arms above me, feeling Zach beside me. He had not pressed me for more, sensing my conflicting feelings about Cole, about my circumstances, about my internal emotions of escape. I didn't know what to think.
What to do.
If I escaped I would have to find shelter, with not a cent. I sighed and Zach's eyes snapped open, instantly alert and ready.
For anything.
He wrapped a muscular arm around me and pulled me close, kissing me softly and I stiffened. Too confused to even pretend to know what to do.
He pulled away with a frown. “You will warm to me eventually,” he said.
Zach got out of the bed and dressed, his ass clenching and flexing deliciously as he put on some soft pants and turned, catching me admiring him.
I watched as his cock grew in the pants and met his gaze uneasily.
“Do not worry, we will go at your pace. But my body grows impatient. And that, I cannot help.”
With a sigh, he threw on a tight T-shirt and strode to the door. His hand clenched the door frame until the knuckles bled white. “I will return in one half-hour to escort you for breakfast.”
I looked at the night sky out the window. “But it's...”
He nodded. “It is breakfast for us. It will be something you grow accustomed to as well.” His face grew wistful. “Maybe one day, the night will not be my prison.”
I pulled the sheets up to my chin.
Because of me. The Druid mates could supposedly tolerate daylight. Because of me. Because of my blood.
He smiled, seeing my internal machinations and strode out the door.
I exhaled in a rush, my thoughts a distracted tangle of two men, my life and escape.
I began to dress when I heard the doorknob rattle. What was he doing back so soon, I wondered? He'd said one half-hour.
I put my pants in front of me, shielding the view of my panties. My bra was half exposed through the shirt I'd thrown on and I met Erik's hungry gaze.
Oh fuck, I lamented and turned to run, slamming the bathroom door behind me. I turned the lock just as his shoulder slammed into it, the wood giving and splintering against the lock.
He came through the door, slamming it against the wall and I ran behind the tub, my hair still damp from the bath chilling against my skin, damp with stress and fright.
“Get over here you uppity bitch!” he hissed at me, his hands balled into fists. “You're gonna give me what I n
eed and that stupid vamp isn't around to stop me.” He grabbed his crotch with one hand and my stomach fell. All this talk of not raping Druids and how important they were to the Vampires and this loser human was going to rape me. It didn't matter how precious I was to them, he didn't care. I was just another woman to abuse to him. My importance to them became lost in the face of his perversion.
*
Cole
Cole came upon the house easily enough. The scent of the rogue was thick in his nostrils. The lair was within reach. But he mustn’t just charge in. There would be too many guards. He would watch and see the perfect time to infiltrate their hideaway. He looked up at the place, maybe at one time an old hospital from the war, built stout and large, it looked like it was the right size to hold a coven the size of the rogue.
Cole chose his perch carefully and began his grim watch. All the while knowing that Rachel was within those walls. His nose told him so.
It also told him she was near her fertile time.
He sat for a moment or two and heard a high keening noise. It was a sound that made him leap to his feet. He would know it anywhere.
The sound of a female in distress and under attack.
He moved with a speed he did not know he possessed.
*
I struck Erik in the face with the back brush that was located beside the tub I'd just relaxed in. His nose opened cooperatively and blood fountained out of it like a fire hydrant.
He swung with his body and backhanded me, sending me careening into the wall. My head struck first and I saw stars. He was on me that fast, wrapping his hand in my long hair and crushing his mouth to mine, blood and spit mixed in with his assault. He dragged my panties down and grabbed my sex roughly, hurting me. I moaned in pain with the last little bit of consciousness I had as I clamped down on his lip with my teeth, nearly meeting them together. He howled, staggering backward and I slid down the wall until my bare butt hit the cold tile, panties at my ankles. My bell had been rung by the blow and I didn't have the strength to pull them up.
