by Scott, Talyn
“Of course,” Poison whispered and rolled a rock around under his foot. The rooftop was still hot, baking his feet. “I can’t believe you know its whereabouts.”
“Small island.” Rave exhaled slowly. “But it is protected. Even I haven’t penetrated their walls.”
“You’re so sure he’ll take her there?”
“Our shifters said the werewolves threatened to take her – strike one. Sixten conferred with the Coven Master and understands she’s a Donor – strike two.” He pointed to Salk. “So he understands that a Dynasty Vampyr and its hunter are hot on her trail – strike three.”
“Yeah, well, I’m ready to shift underground unless you need anything else tonight.”
“No. Nothing else.”
“You’re sure you want to do this to your brother. Spite him again. Take away what is his… permanently?”
Rave stared at the city lights, scouting out areas for future battles. “He made a choice, so did I. At least, I’m not killing her. And I’m sure her Vampyr will take good care of her. In a way, Donors are sacred.”
“You are soft where she is concerned, yes?”
“No. But I’m still soft-hearted where my brother is concerned.” He was shifting in and out with the river breeze. “Yes, since she is a Donor, I could easily take her for our vampires. I thought about it for a while. But I will spare her that life and wish her well. And my brother will learn the hard way. That he belongs with me and he picked the wrong side. Again.”
“Perhaps, he still will not see it that way.”
“He will when he loses her and finds that I’m the only who can get her back.”
Chapter 17
Sixten settled Blythe on the bed after explaining exactly what he was going to do to her in vivid details. Dark words she’d never heard strung along in any imaginable sentence. He held nothing back, and embarrassingly enough; Blythe grew wet before his first intriguing adjective left his panting mouth. The very mouth he promised to do truly naughty things with all over her body. And she was having a hard time remembering why she refused him in the first place.
“…and then I’m going to shove it up that sweet ass of yours.”
She tried to huff indignantly, but it came out as a needy groan, “You’ve never done that…”
“That was then. This is now.”
“Are those your fangs again?”
“Ignore...”
“How? Are you really a vampire? As in blood drinker?”
“I’ll be anything you want me to be.” He tossed his hair from his forehead, staring down at her with glittering, ice-green eyes.
“Any…thing?”
“I’ll show you my thing.” Metallic sparks flared within the ice-green, transforming them into a wild sea storm. He placed his open mouth over her throat and moaned - a purely hedonistic sound that torched her straining nipples.
“You’re doing something to me.” She writhed underneath him. “I recognize it now. You did the same thing to me in the bathroom, making me horny. How did you get my clothes off without me knowing it?” She demanded.
“Don’t worry. I’m just taking away some of the shock and replacing it with some of the ‘feel good’.” He spoke against her throat, lightly scraping sharp tips down the front. “And yes, I can do things quickly, like take off your clothes without your knowing about it. But I’ll go slowly…when I get to a point that’s worth going slow for.” He rose up again, clearly enjoying the view he had of her body. “You’re amazing. You always were…but, my, how you’ve grown in all the right places.” He curled his tongue around a stiff peak, tickling and licking until a raging brushfire of need burned her body to its bones. His strong fingers moved down, sliding around and around, never going inside, but gathering moisture and delivering it to her clitoris in deliberate circles. “What angel lies beneath me?”
Flames liquefied between her legs. Blythe could be dying right now. Vulnerable under his freaky fangs and she could not care less, as long as he kept touching her. “Six, please.” She thrust her hips forward, which only made him pull back, teasing her.
Sixten brought his fingers to her mouth, painting her full bottom lip with his slickened middle finger. “Please? I’ll please you all right.” Small white lines strained his mouth as he held himself back. “You’re positively glowing, moja láska.” A muscled arm slid up her back. An experienced hand tunneled through her hair before firmly grasping her nape. The other did some tunneling of its own as two strong fingers penetrated her instantly, spearing her to the top. She gasped at the intimate touch, feeling him so deep inside that her navel tingled strangely and her inner walls tightened and flexed under his expertise.
He brought his head down slowly, never taking his otherworldly eyes from hers. “You’re eyes are a burning like molten amber, Blythe, staring into mine as if I’m your entire world.” He licked his lips, wetting them purposely. “I’m going to stoke their fire. I am your entire world. No one else is mine. No one else is yours.”
“Wait.”
“Just try to stop me now.” For a moment, he held her eyes, and she knew she should be frightened, if only for his sexual pull alone. But she held his gaze, instantly forgetting what her protests were all about. And there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that he was playing her libido. But the decision barreling through her psyche, the one that said to take him back once and for all, was all her own and not any freaky mind trick on his part. It was such a relief to unbury those feelings, unburden her heart, knowing Sixten reciprocated each of her fragile emotions.
Even though she didn’t say the words he wanted to hear, his whole body jerked. Somehow, he felt her surprising acquiescence, and that’s when he collapsed atop her, suddenly moving in unexpected liquid strokes only something other than human could. Ones she couldn’t begin to keep up with. His lips crushed hers and then he thrust his tongue inside. He tasted like her everything. Hot razor-edged strength and warm comfort coupled with thoughts of a true home. She’d been cold without him for so long, she no longer wanted to walk away from this kind of heat, even though thoughts of what he was agonized her.
He moved down in a blur, licking the line between her breasts and pushing his tongue flat against the solid bone, before he brought his mouth back to hers. She pulled his head against her, thrusting her fingers through his golden hair while kissing him as if she never wanted to leave his bed.
Because she didn’t.
She felt him glide down, putting his head between her legs, scraping those tantalizing fangs all over her. She made all the room she could, nearly bringing her knees to her chin and he hissed roughly. Lick, tug, scrape, pull, suck. He stared up between her thighs and grinned wickedly.
“You’re as beautiful here as you are everywhere.” He opened his mouth wide, flashing his crazy teeth. “Where do you want my mouth to be, moja láska?”
“I hate the teasing, Six.”
“Do you now?”
He pushed his tongue deep inside, and she thrashed on the slippery duvet. Six caught her before she hit the floor. Her head was upside down, hanging over the side, when he unzipped himself and thrust inside. “Feel it, baby?”
“Not from here, but it looks like it feels good.”
She saw inverted, leather-encased legs and screamed, trying to right her body, but Six was still inside her.
“Out, Kash,” he thundered.
“Man, you’re the one that has to get out. Of her. Qudir’s picking up new chatter. Not the good kind. And do you smell anything?”
“Could you stop looking at her?”
“Why ask the impossible?”
The next thing Blythe knew, she was sitting and dressed in Sixten’s lap. “Oh, I can’t get used to that.” She rubbed her temples.
“Smell what?”
“Uh, your wife.”
“Wife?”
“Settle down, he’s referring to you,” he shushed her. “Again, smell what?”
Kash flushed a little and rubbed the back of his nec
k nervously. “Her cycle, maybe.”
“We aren’t werewolves. Menses does nothing to call vampires. Or are you telling me werewolves are circling and I’ve missed it in my… preoccupation.”
“Exactly. I’m telling you she’s stirred some pointed interest from the, uh, locals.” Kash was rock hard behind his zipper. “Shit, Six. Maybe you can’t smell it since you’re -”
“A Halfling?” He nodded.
“Oh, I cannot believe you’re talking about me in this way.” She buried her face in her hands. “You’re saying…I stink?”
“In a very good way,” Sixten said. “Yes, you’re attracting attention because of your womanly fragrance.” He ran his thumb over her cheekbone. “When you wanted all the chocolate in the store and Ryan was refusing you. We’re you craving it?”
“Yeah, I do that when I’m,” she stopped, glancing at Kash, “what he said…I’m premenstrual.”
Sixten licked his chin, tasting her essence from before. “Yeah, Kash. It’s nearing.”
“Sick and gross,” she groaned.
“Humans.” Kash rolled his lavender eyes.
“It’s natural, Blythe,” Sixten refuted. “Bad part is, you’re calling out dangerous creatures.”
“Let’s get her underground,” Kash said. “I’ve already summoned Dru to the sanctuary.”
“I’m not going underground…with vampires.” She made to leave, but Sixten held fast.
“A home Blythe, it’s a home. And you are going.”
“Is this what it’s going to be like every day…if I were to stay with you?”
“Don’t. No negative speak, Blythe.”
“For now,” she said, watching him elongate his fangs again.
“We travel by misting. Remember when you said Qudir poofed like a Jeanie? We can do that together. I have to bite you, swallow some blood, and only relinquish the hold when we arrive at our destination.”
He allowed her to pull away from him that time. During the sex, she enjoyed the funky burn his fangs stirred on her sensitive flesh. But the thought of being bitten? She wasn’t too keen on that. “Uh, why can’t we drive?”
“We could. However, right now, we’d be tailed,” Sixten explained. “Our sanctuary is private for a reason. Only certain members of our race can mist inside those sacred walls. And you would be safe misting with me, or I wouldn’t consider it.”
“I don’t want you to bite me.”
“I lubricated my fangs with endorphins. The bite will be pleasurable, Blythe. It’s so intimate when shared between those who love one another.”
“Yeah,” Kash interrupted, “you’ll have one hell of an orgasm.”
“Do you mind?” Sixten grumbled.
“Six, we have to hurry.” Kash adjusted his crotch. “I’m telling you seconds, not minutes.”
Six blew out a breath, encircled one bulging arm around her waist and the other hand secured her head. “Close your eyes.”
“No.”
“Take me this way,” he murmured, licking her jugular up and down, sensing a sweet vein he wanted to tap. “Want this from me.”
“No.”
He suckled her neck until it burned, lulling her, coaxing the vein to the surface. She knew it somehow, but didn’t understand why. Blythe watched Kash staring at them with his fangs growing and overhanging his bottom lip. Then a sharp pain struck before a blinding eroticism hit her squarely between the legs. “Oh, Six,” she panted.
“Don’t squirm, Blythe,” Kash said.
Sixten had flattened atop her, securing her body with his weight, groaning in her ear. She felt the rhythmic pull, the ebb and flow of her blood as it entered his body. It was sex. Sex in a wholly unique form. She managed to loosen one hand and cupped his jaw. The hard muscle flexed under her palm, just as his tongue flicked her neck. He’d bitten her again.
“Six.” Kash was standing above them. “Six, man, what are you doing?”
Sixten growled violently, but didn’t let go. She felt a tremor in his body. A change indicating something wasn’t quite right. Her hand slid away from his jaw as black dots mottled her vision. Another growl, followed by a long and lethal hiss, his mouth was suddenly manic.
Distantly she heard Kash say, “It was only supposed to be a bite, not feeding. You’re in a frenzy, Six. If I have to take you off, it’s going to rip her open. Fuck, man, just get up. Step back.” His words were jumbling, moving farther away while she landed in a soft cloud, shuddering under a paroxysmal orgasm and surrendering her life.
Kash kicked Six in the hip. “She’s dying!”
Only then did Sixten release her. The room distorted, pulling and stretching, and then a Florida Panther, a subspecies of cougar, was licking his lips, grinning in a feral way only very confident wildcats can pull off. It was huge, bigger than a Florida Panther ever thought to be - at least four hundred pounds, maybe more.
Kash instantly swung a thick, purely silver chain from his wrist. “Sometimes, it’s just so hard to be your friend.” A violent roar ripped through the room. Hot, copper-tanged breath blew Kash’s long spikes around his head. It’s eyes flashed between Kash and Blythe. “I’m not taking your wife, man. Hear me out. You’re hopped up on her blood, and you want it all. Pure and simple. You’re also feeling territorial after bonding in this momentous way. I get that. And it’s okay, I can understand that kind of need. We all can.”
He swung the chain again. “But we have to get out of here. Now. Things are closing in on us.” The cat stepped over Blythe, keeping her underneath him without dropping any weight that would hurt her. Her heartbeat had straightened its rhythm, but she couldn’t spare another drop of blood, and Sixten hadn’t sealed up his multiple bites. “Go down. Drive down your Habaline and take her home properly. You’re in charge, not your shifter. Turn it around for the good, man.” Another roar sounded, louder than the first.
“Six,” Blythe whispered, regaining consciousness, reaching up to feel her throat.
“Don’t touch it,” Kash warned.
“It hurts.”
“I’ll help you as soon as he settles down.” He kept his eyes on the cat. “Hang on for me.”
Fur tickled her face. “Oh…a,” she swallowed roughly, “p-panther.” She blinked several times, as if she wasn’t seeing what she really was seeing.
“Oh, you’re seeing it alright,” Kash assured her. “You haven’t gone crazy, Blythe. Take deep breaths, one after the other. I’m sending you a slight enthrallment to maintain a calm composure. You don’t want to get upset with him like that. Not at all. He thinks I’m trying to take you away, and I’m trying to convince him we have to leave.”
“I don’t feel right.”
“I’m sure you don’t.”
“Not just my throat.” She was amazingly calm. “That same sensation is back, the one that pulls me.”
“I only sense werewolves and a few vampires here and there. How would you feel any of that?”
“Who knows? But I feel something.”
“Maybe it’s just Sixten’s energy coupled with the others encircling us that’s firing you up.” Kash stayed focused on the panther. “Six, listen to me. I can summon everyone available to fight back these werewolves, but they’ll see you this way. And it would be easier and less messy if we get her out of here,” he placated. “If you can’t walk away from a territorial battle regarding your mate, especially in this form, then I’ll take her to safety. Thanks to you, she’s lost too much blood, so we’ve got to get her to the sanctuary now. Are you listening? Go out there.” Kash stabbed his finger at the window, though the hurricane shutters were down. “And do what you have to do to bring your Habaline down.”
Sixten snapped his jaws but Kash stayed put, not misting out. They stared each other down another minute before Sixten finally deferred and faded away.
“Thank God, he has better control than most Habalines.” Kash was over Blythe in a flash, examining her neck before putting his lips on her flesh.
“Stop
it!” She protested, but he wouldn’t let her push him away. “No more!”
“I have to seal it up with my tongue, or you’ll bleed-out. That’s all. And we have to hurry, Blythe. Have you been listening?”
“No fangs.”
“Whatever you say,” he lied.
She lifted her chin up and winced.
“That bad, huh?”
“Kash, it’s beyond bad.” She refused to cry, but she managed to whine, “I wanna go home.”
“You’re better off with us.” He licked her, stroking his skilled tongue over her bitten flesh. She jumped and trembled with every dragging pull. “Still that bad? I need another minute or so, he made a bit of a mess.”
“I’m dying, right?”
“Nope.”
I can’t believe you can keep me so calm through having my throat chewed and Six, my God, he just turned into an animal.”
“Everyone has their demons to fight, Blythe. Even humans.” He stroked the sensitive flesh behind her ear. “And you should be glad we have the abilities to keep you calm or many of you would have died from sheer terror from seeing us in action from time to time.”
“So you vampires use your machismo to control humans all the time. Practice makes perfect.” She snapped, “You get your way when and where you wouldn’t normally.”
“No.” He licked her again. “The machismo is strictly reserved for putting your libido into overdrive. What I’m giving you right now is the vampire equivalent to hardcore valium.” In the distance, he heard Sixten’s roars, followed by the sounds of ripping flesh and age-old, foreign curses. “Okay, we’re back to biting, sweetheart. I have no choice.” Before she could think to protest, Kash bit down, delivering aphrodisiac-laced endorphins to give her pleasure instead of pain, swallowed as little as he could, and misted them inside the sanctuary’s south entrance.
Kash didn’t want to remove his fangs. He fought within himself, back and forth. He wanted more, everything she had. Addictive. He reminded himself. She’s addictive to our kind. A hand gripped his shoulder.
“Seal her up,” Dru Holt said from behind him. “And carry her into the south parlor. I have some blood waiting. Not enough. So you and a few other Vojaks are going to have to donate.”
