by Mlyn Hurn
“It’s none of your business really, and I’m sorry I bothered you. If you will just leave, I’ll take care of this by myself.” AnnaBelle took a deep breath, but it didn’t seem to help as her breathing continued to speed up. The last thing she needed to do right now was start hyperventilating and end up breathing in and out of a damned paper sack. “Please! Just leave, Iain!”
AnnaBelle watched his face closely, but her senses seemed to have shut down once again. Other than overriding fear, she didn’t seem to be able to feel, or think.
“Damn it, AnnaBelle, take a deep breath before you pass out.”
AnnaBelle dragged one deep breath into her lungs, but immediately fear, doubt and unbelievable pain drove her back to panting. She rationalized that pleading once again might help.
“Iain, please! Leave me…”
Iain shook his head decisively. “It’s too late for me to walk away and pretend we never met, AnnaBelle.”
Tears started to fall once again and AnnaBelle cursed herself for this weakness. It was so unexpected and, she wanted to think, inexplicable. Her heart knew differently. She cursed fate for having her screw up and fall for a vampire!
“AnnaBelle!”
She lifted her eyes to Iain’s after he called her name. She saw that he was holding out his cellular phone. When she didn’t take the phone, Iain spoke quickly, and a little roughly.
“Just take the phone and call your parents! Perhaps they’ve heard from your uncle.”
AnnaBelle took the phone but she didn’t dial right away. “What do you want from me?”
Iain folded his arms across his chest, and AnnaBelle saw the disgusted look cross his face quickly. “You came to me, AnnaBelle, for help.”
AnnaBelle lowered her hand that held the phone until it rested on the sofa beside her. “Why are you teaching that stupid class, denying vampires when you are one?” She couldn’t hide her anger as she almost yelled at him.
“Most humans can’t see what you put right in front of them.”
“I think I should feel insulted,” AnnaBelle told him carefully.
Iain smiled slightly. “But I sense that you are more than human, AnnaBelle. I am more than a little disgusted with myself for not knowing you belong to the infamous Blue family of vampire hunters. I’ve certainly heard of him, but I didn’t know he had moved to the U.S. Foster, right?”
AnnaBelle could feel that she was relaxing a little. “Not Foster, but Fauster, like faucet. You aren’t recorded anywhere, are you?” AnnaBelle saw Iain stiffen suddenly, and she assumed it was due to her question.
Iain shook his head. “No, I am not. I have managed to miss detection by the so-called new society of vampire hunters. I protect my privacy strenuously.”
AnnaBelle nodded slowly. On one level she knew that the future she had been daydreaming and erotically night dreaming of with Iain could never be. She was a vampire hunter, and he was a vampire. So simple and yet so complex her mind boggled at what it might mean.
“I won’t record you. I promise.” AnnaBelle spoke intently, wanting to desperately convince Iain. Their gazes met and held. Something in his eyes pierced her heart before he even spoke.
“I never suspected that you were a hunter, AnnaBelle. Perhaps this is a sign that I am turning into an old ‘fogy.’ All the hunters I’ve met were men, and usually a wild bunch.”
AnnaBelle had to smile at his disparaging words. “Women’s lib, remember? To be honest, I was raised to hunt. My earliest memories are learning about vampires and how to recognize them. My father’s family goes back at least five generations of hunters.”
Iain nodded. “I knew they went back for quite some time, but I didn’t realize it went back that far. But we are transgressing. What was your uncle working on? Did it have anything to do with these photos?”
AnnaBelle paused, not sure what she should reveal or not. After all, Iain was on the other side. Iain’s voice interrupted her thoughts.
“Forget about sides for now, AnnaBelle. Let’s focus on finding your uncle. Now, tell me about the photos?”
AnnaBelle shook her head as she realized how close Iain’s words were to her actual thoughts. There was very little research on the telepathic powers of certain vampires. Rather like it was suspected, but no one had ever really encountered it. Giving herself a mental shake to concentrate on the present, and deal with the vampire in her home, and her heart, AnnaBelle reached out for the pictures and Iain passed them to her.
“I got a call from Fauster, practically begging me to come here,” AnnaBelle told him quietly, speaking slowly and trying to remember to breathe. “He wanted my help. I’d only been here an hour or so, and he was rushing me off to attend your class. No explanations. My uncle just told me to leave the lecture a little early and take photos for him of the students. I didn’t really take him seriously and only took a few pictures that first night.”
She paused and fished out the photos from the first night. Passing those back to Iain, she went on. “My uncle wasn’t real pleased with those and sent me back again. I took all of these the second night.”
Iain picked out the photo that had first caught his attention in the dark room. “Why did your uncle call you, AnnaBelle, and not your father, or even do it himself?”
“This will sound silly now, but I assumed it was because I have become known for my ability to sense a vampire. If you look at the pictures with just one person, you’ll see the aura. I knew as I snapped the photo that the aura, or the glow, would show up on the negative.” She gave a soft, scoffing laugh. “But obviously my skill is lacking because I didn’t sense you.”
“Belle, don’t knock yourself down over this. There are reasons why you couldn’t sense me. Hell, honey, I didn’t know you were a hunter. This is a first for me as well…the fact that I did not recognize you as a slayer, or a hunter. Let’s leave that for now. Obviously your uncle has gone and invented a film that captures a vampire on film. I should imagine there would be a lot of humans and hunters very happy to hear about this invention.”
“As well as a fairly large number of vampires who will be equally unhappy?” AnnaBelle asked carefully.
“Most vampires, the minor ones, are relatively complacent about the status quo. They don’t mind that the new society, which was created last decade, is doing its best to catalog and pigeonhole them. There are also a few major vampires who have never been recorded and are equally as fervent about their privacy as I have been. It is possible that the rumors circulating about this film have been taken seriously by someone.”
“You’re saying that my uncle’s work might have been stolen to keep him from producing the film?”
Iain laid the photos on the coffee table and reached out for AnnaBelle’s hands. “I think someone may have decided to do more than just destroy your uncle’s work. They quite possibly decided to stop your uncle from ever reproducing his work.”
“You think someone killed him, don’t you?” AnnaBelle asked in tones barely above a whisper.
Iain pulled AnnaBelle into his arms, holding her tightly. AnnaBelle couldn’t resist being held so close to him once again. She feared that her heart had already been lost, so any further struggle was futile. Growing up she had heard many stories about humans who lost their heart to a vampire. Once that happened you had two options. One alternative was to turn away, deny the love and live with a broken heart the rest of your life.
The second choice, and the one most frequently chosen, was to love for the time you had, even if it was for only an hour, a week or rarely, for eternity. How she could have ever fallen in love with a vampire was beyond her comprehension. Her family would of course be shamed by her actions. Suddenly she pushed against Iain, putting a few inches of distance between them. The look of surprise on Iain’s face prompted her to speak quickly.
“I want you, Iain. If you will help find out what’s happened to my uncle, I will give myself to you freely.”
Iain’s eyes moved over her face and she could s
ee that he was a little bewildered by her offer. His words surprised her though. “You are willing to sacrifice your virginal body to my lustful vampiric needs so long as I help your uncle. Isn’t that a little too melodramatic?”
AnnaBelle shoved angrily against Iain, jumping to her feet. In her haste she knocked against the coffee table, spilling the photos to the floor once again. Before she turned to face him again, she rubbed the tears from her cheeks. “Not really. I want you to take me, Iain. I want to feel the same wildness I did last night when you touched me. The truth is that if you chose to reach out and take me, I doubt that I could resist you. I only said that in the hope that you would help me first.”
Iain moved so fast that he blurred as he swept her into his arms. His mouth captured hers, kissing her wildly. AnnaBelle surrendered to the wildness and barely controlled passion.
Chapter 8
AnnaBelle didn’t give a damn that the guest room was a mess and the bed was unmade as Iain laid her down. His hands carefully unsnapped her jeans and dragged them down past her hips and off her feet. Her sneakers fell to the floor, tangled in the jeans. The thinnest of material concealed her crotch from his gaze as Iain began pulling the T-shirt upwards. Since she didn’t have a bra on, her breasts were instantly revealed to him. When his fingers moved to tease her distended nipples, AnnaBelle sighed and arched her back. Iain’s response was to cover her full breasts with his hands.
She closed her eyes, savoring the feel of his hands on her body. A few seconds later, she lifted her eyelids and raised her hands to Iain’s shirt. Eagerly her hands began unfastening the buttons. Reluctantly, Iain deserted her breasts. AnnaBelle’s fingers weren’t progressing too well. Iain undid the cuffs and dragged the shirt and T-shirt up over his head and tossed them to a far corner. Standing beside the bed, he speedily unfastened his belt and trousers. Naked less than a second later, Iain lay on the bed beside her.
AnnaBelle lifted her head and met Iain’s mouth eagerly. Her hands caressed his shoulders and then lowered over his chest. She paused to tease and toy with his nipples. His groan told her how much he enjoyed the gentle tugging she gave each nipple. When she flicked her nails over the nipples, they tightened more and he shifted on the bed. Instantly, AnnaBelle felt his hard erection pressing insistently against her hip and thigh.
Her hand moved down Iain’s chest and enclosed his cock in her hand. She pulled on his hardness, letting the skin slide up and down beneath her fingers. The tension she felt in his body, followed by the wetness now on her fingers told her without words that her touches were as seductive as his. Her foremost thought was simple.
“Take me, Iain! I want you. I want to feel you inside me.”
Iain lifted his mouth from the side of her neck to look into her eyes. AnnaBelle smiled slightly, waiting and sensing that something held him back.
“Please, Iain! Fuck me!”
Silence followed her words. AnnaBelle had surprised herself in using that word. Yet she wouldn’t take it back for anything. Breathing in deeply, she repeated it. “Fuck me, Iain. Do whatever else you need, or want to do to me. But I need to feel your body in me. I want…no, I need to be one with you, joined. I am begging you…”
* * * * *
Iain pressed his fingers over AnnaBelle’s lips. “Hush, my sweet. There is so much you don’t know, AnnaBelle.”
“I don’t care. I need you. I have dreamt of being with you since I first saw you. I need more than what you gave me last night. I want to give pleasure to you as well. I just need you to tell me how. Show me how to love you.”
Iain felt like a knife was stabbing him through the heart. He had avoided becoming “attached” through the centuries because he was not a bloodthirsty killer. Many times he had been asked to bring some over, or awaken them to the life of the vampire. Only rarely had he given into the lust and the need. He lived a lonely life, but this way he didn’t have to watch people he cared about dying around him.
Lifting his finger from her lips, he gently smoothed the hair back off her face. Slowly he trailed his hand down the side of her face and onto her neck. Lightly, he pressed his fingers to her pulse. “AnnaBelle, you don’t know what you are asking of me.”
AnnaBelle shook her head quickly. “I do know. I’ve studied vampires all my life. Who could possibly know better?”
Iain slid his hand down over her breastbone until his hand rested over her pounding heart. “My love, you only think you know all about vampires. Believe me when I say that you know very little.”
AnnaBelle reacted instinctively to his words. Hearing him say “my love,” even if he was only using it like a common phrase, affected her deeply. Suddenly she knew what she wanted, and needed. Quickly she had made her decision and shoved at his shoulders, which toppled him backwards because she caught him off-guard. Without pause, she straddled his thighs. Curling her hands around his hard cock, she stroked him eagerly. With her eyes focused on her goal she rose up on her knees. His cock pressed against her wet pussy lips, and AnnaBelle didn’t wait another second.
Iain lifted his gaze to her face, thinking she would stop in a moment. He was no sexual virgin, but he had never had a woman practically raping him before. Of course, it wasn’t really rape because he wanted AnnaBelle probably as much, if not more, than she wanted him. Her eyes met his the moment his flesh slid into her soft cunt.
Iain slid his hands to her waist, not completely sure if he was going to assist her or push her away. Looking into her eyes, he saw a desire that matched his own. Or perhaps it truly was love. His hands tightened and pulled her body down to meet the upward thrust of his hips. In the quiet of the room, his voice echoed loudly.
“Yes!”
Iain felt the flesh of her body enclosing his cock. Her cunt muscles squeezed in around him, sucking him in even more deeply. A long undulating motion from within her body forced him to groan again. His voice was broken as he told her, “God, AnnaBelle! You feel so hot and sexy on the inside!”
* * * * *
AnnaBelle pressed her hands down over his chest, his nipples caught beneath her palms. They burned like two hot coals into her flesh, but the overriding sensation of fullness and heat was buried inside her body. Feeling his body, so intimately joined to hers, was too much. Her arms relaxed and she fell forward to lie on his chest. She nuzzled her face into the side of his neck and her lips kissed his flesh. She felt his hands at her waist for a moment longer and then they slid further down and cupped her ass cheeks. As his hips began moving and thrusting upwards, Iain’s hands began shifting and moving over her body.
It felt so wonderful with his heat inside her and her mouth on his warm flesh. She began grinding her body down and side to side, stimulating her clit between their pelvic bones. Opening her mouth, she sucked the skin on his neck. The orgasm inside her was spiraling upwards as she opened her mouth and bit the side of Iain’s neck. She felt his surprise instantly, and lifted her head to smile at him. As their eyes met, AnnaBelle moved, shifted and finally ground her pelvis against Iain.
“Tell me how to please you, Iain. What can I do to make you feel the same things I am?” AnnaBelle stopped suddenly, biting her lip. She nearly told him that she loved him. Was a man still a man once he was a vampire? Would a vampire turn tail and run just as quickly as his human counterpart upon hearing the dreaded four-letter word? She’d never thought about whether a vampire would react to love.
* * * * *
Iain groaned as AnnaBelle shifted her body. Each time she did that she also flexed her muscles that held his cock so firmly inside her body. Another one of those and he was going to lose control. He moved one hand from her hip to AnnaBelle’s head, pushing her wildly flowing locks back from her face.
“AnnaBelle!”
Iain saw the smile curving her lips upwards. This woman was not what he had expected. A light dalliance had seemed just what he needed to shake the doldrums he’d been feeling of late. When he had first seen her, the sexual attraction had been nearly instant, a
nd rather overwhelming. Seeing Simon talking to her, though, had stirred up feelings and thoughts he’d not experienced in several centuries.
And now, joined so intimately with AnnaBelle, he wasn’t sure this was the right thing to be doing. Still, there was no way in hell he could stop. It didn’t bode well that she was a member of a famous hunter family. He doubted her parents were going to be very happy with this development. Even deeper was his concern over the fact that her uncle’s name was Fauster.
“Damn! AnnaBelle!” Iain cried out as AnnaBelle squeezed her muscles down tightly around his hard cock again, drawing him inside her even more deeply.
“Iain, my love, I’m not an impatient or demanding person, normally.”
Iain listened to her words, and his head told him to ignore the word love. It didn’t mean anything really. A sociology professor had told him that in modern society, many people used the word so casually it could almost be interchanged with hello or hi. Most Americans didn’t even know the difference between love, lust and friendship. Suddenly, the feel of AnnaBelle’s body clamping down on his cock was more than even a stoic, well-controlled vampire could handle. Without a word of warning, Iain flipped them in the bed. The next moment he was above AnnaBelle, looking into her surprised face. And then he began moving inside her.
He watched as AnnaBelle’s eyes closed and she bit her lower lip. Iain couldn’t hold back. His climax had waited too long, and he began thrusting in and out of her body, savoring each tight, dragging motion caused by her flesh clamping on to him. Without warning his spine stiffened, and his hips jerked hard against her body. His fluid shot forward into AnnaBelle’s eager body.
Lowering his body to rest on hers but still joined intimately, Iain regretted for the first time in his Vampiric life the fact that his kind could not reproduce. There had been a few, vary rare circumstances. Lost in his thoughts and very much aware of the small contractions her body was still experiencing, Iain felt AnnaBelle’s lips kissing his jaw line and down towards his pulse. He wasn’t surprised when he felt her teeth lightly biting his flesh, just over the pulse that pounded beneath his flesh.
