Pure Ecstasy

by Aja James

  “Come for me one more time before we start our day.”

  With a sigh, he obliged, establishing a lazy rhythm in and out of her mouth, this time gentle and shallow, and she used both hands to give him the tunnel length he needed.

  At the same time, she transferred healing energy through his abused skin, making a soothing heat start at the root of him and spread through his tortured sex until only numbing pleasure remained.

  She looked up again to watch him when he was close.

  He was the most beautiful thing in the world when he came apart for her.

  His crisis took him slow and long, and she took in everything he gave her in greedy gulps. No fangs this time. Just soft mouth and lapping tongue.

  When the last shiver subsided from his body, she crawled up his torso, caressing and kneading as she went, to align their bodies like puzzle pieces that only fit with each other.

  “Good morning, husband,” she said with a shy, eager smile, and kissed his mouth.

  “Good morning, wife,” he returned with a smile of his own, making her feel as if her heart might burst.

  “Do you like the way I make love?” she fished for compliments with an impish gleam in her eyes.

  “Yes, my lady,” he replied solemnly, “I love…”

  She waited for him to finish his sentence, but he kissed her instead.

  And all thought went out of her head for the next hour or so while he made love back to her.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Where’s Seth?”

  Ayelet looked up from her research as Sophia entered the Great Hall, a large pile of books in her arms, almost obstructing her line of sight.

  The Guardian put her computer on screensaver to hide the evidence of her search for another Consul and gave Sophia her full attention.

  Honestly, Ayelet looked for any excuse not to search for replacements for the Dozen.

  Given their longevity, perhaps it shouldn’t hurt so much to lose a member of their extended family, but because of the amount of time they spent together, the pain of loss was actually much, much worse.

  “He’s tied up with the New England vampire hive,” Ayelet said. “We’ve been working with the Chosen to mitigate the threats to Jade Cicada’s rule.”

  Sophia put her books down on Ayelet’s desk and looked at the Guardian long and hard.

  “What are you not telling me?” she asked directly.

  “I’m no longer the twenty-year-old human girl you used to know. You and the rest of the Dozen don’t need to protect me from unpleasant truths anymore.”

  Ayelet sighed, taking Sophia’s hand in hers.

  “Seth is in the Decline.”

  The Pure queen took this news without discernable reaction for many moments.

  Then, she said, unsurprised and unruffled, “How long does he have left?”

  “Days,” was the shaky answer from Ayelet.

  Sophia nodded.

  “I don’t want him to be alone at the end,” she said. “Will he come home to say goodbye?”

  Ayelet shook her head.

  “I don’t know, Sophia. But I think he’d want to spend every moment he possible can with his love.”

  “Who’s too stupid to love him back,” the young queen ground out bitterly, the only sign of distress she’d shown thus far, though Ayelet wasn’t sure to whom was the statement directed.

  “Sophia?” Ayelet ventured when she seemed lost in her own head for a while.

  “Why is the punishment so cruel for a Pure One who loves but does not receive in kind?” she finally asked, but she didn’t seem to be asking Ayelet in particular.

  “Isn’t it bad enough for the love to be unrequited? But you have to suffer an excruciating Decline on top of it, and be rewarded with death at the end of all that suffering? I think the Goddess is a cold-hearted bitch. If she ever shows herself to me, I’m going to KO her ass.”

  “Sophia!”

  Ayelet was aghast at the vehemence coming out of the young queen’s mouth.

  Sophia’s expression remained neutral, even placid. But her tone was wrath and vengeance incarnate. There was a simmering darkness within her that hadn’t been there before.

  At least, not that any of her protectors could detect.

  Over the past several months since her Awakening, Sophia’s demeanor and attitude had changed so drastically Ayelet and the rest of the Dozen often didn’t recognize her. None of them had been with her during her previous incarnations. They’d only ever known her as Sophia, a baby girl they all raised together to adulthood.

  “What? Am I not supposed to have violent, bloodthirsty thoughts?” Sophia retorted, defiant.

  “Well, I do. The Goddess is only slightly higher on my blacklist than the idiot female who refuses to love Seth back.”

  “You don’t know—”

  “You’re right, I don’t,” she cut Ayelet off.

  “I have no right to judge. But I can’t help my fury. Seth is family and one of the best males I know. Any female who denies his love has to be incredibly stupid or afraid or weak, and I never thought those adjectives would describe the vampire queen.”

  “So you know who…”

  “I’d have to be deaf, blind and braindead not to know,” Sophia said with impatience.

  “Can you please stop tiptoeing around me with bad news? Tell Seth he needs to come home before the end. If I know him, he’d want to protect Jade Cicada from the truth. He won’t want her to know about his Decline. He won’t want her to feel responsible. So he’ll leave before it’s too late. I don’t want him to be alone. Tell him to come home.”

  Ayelet looked at Sophia as if she’d never seen the young woman before. And perhaps she hadn’t. Because this was not really Sophia any more.

  Not entirely.

  “I will,” she promised.

  Sophia nodded, then picked her heavy stack of books back up.

  “I’m leaving on a trip after…” she trailed off, not wanting to specify the ultimate conclusion of Seth’s Decline.

  So she finally amended, “After my graduation.”

  “A trip?” Ayelet blinked with confusion.

  “I need to find out who I was, who I am, and how I can prevent what happened in the past from repeating itself,” Sophia said.

  “I’m going to do some primary research, which I happen to be pretty good at, given my degree.”

  “But, you must—”

  “Cloud and Aella will come with me as escort, don’t worry,” Sophia cut in.

  “I’d like to bring Eveline as well, given her familiarity with the Zodiac Scrolls and Prophesies. I’m tired of waiting for Destiny to deal out her cards, and then sit uselessly trying to interpret the clues. Tired of being one of the Goddess’s pawns. If I’m really some prophesized queen of the Pure Ones, a critical spark in the Balance of the Universe, then I’m going to make it count.”

  “What exactly do you have in mind, Sophia?”

  “Don’t you ever wonder how we all came into being?” the millennia-old-soul spoke through Sophia’s twenty-year-old body.

  “The Pure Ones, the Dark Ones, humans and all other races? Was there some logic behind our creation, or was it pure madness and coincidence? The Dark nobles who threaten Jade’s rule want to enslave Pure Ones again. I know about the underground slave trade that’s been escalating in these areas. I can’t let our Kind be subjugated again. Not after everything we’ve fought for and sacrificed, as a race and as individuals.”

  Sophia’s expression took on a faraway look, as if she was remembering something from a long distant past.

  “I saw Tal and Ishtar the other day. I remember everything Tal sacrificed for our freedom, for his forbidden love. But why did it have to be that way? Do you know that he’s still blind? I wonder how many more scars, physical and emotional, he carries deep inside. And now there are Dark Ones who want to resurrect the past. And humans, who are much stronger, numerous and powerful than ever before, who are on the verge of finding
us all out.”

  She speared Ayelet with an unblinking stare, blazing with determination.

  “I refuse to let everything we’ve fought for disintegrate into dust. I refuse to be a pawn in the process, some weapon unleashed upon the world. I will take control of my own Destiny and carve my own path. This is what I must do as Queen of the Pure Ones.”

  She wasn’t asking for permission, Ayelet suddenly realized.

  This newly Awakened Sophia was issuing commands. She made decisions for herself. She was no longer Ayelet’s charge.

  As if sensing the Guardian’s conflicted emotions, Sophia took her hand and squeezed reassuringly.

  “I am still me, Ayelet,” she said softly. “I am still Sophia. I am all of my other incarnations too, but in my heart, I am still Sophia.”

  As she turned to exit the Great Hall, Sophia looked back and smiled.

  “One day, I will come back to you.”

  *** *** *** ***

  “Popcorn?”

  Seth shook his head as Jade took back her extra-large bucket of popcorn, which was drowning in at least two inches of melted butter, and popped a greasy handful into her mouth.

  This was a side of the vampire queen he’d rarely seen, though he recalled that she liked old Hollywood movies, and for that matter, modern blockbusters too.

  They were watching a matinee at the Film Forum on Houston Street, and they were the only two viewers at this early hour before lunch time.

  The special of the day was song and dance numbers, right now showing There’s No Business Like Show Business, followed by Singing in the Rain, apparently two of Jade’s favorite Hollywood classics.

  “When did you start liking these movies?” Seth whispered, even though there was no other audience to disturb by speaking more loudly.

  He didn’t want to disrupt Jade’s obvious enjoyment in the movie, however, even though she seemed to have every line memorized.

  “Since they first came out,” Jade answered, munching on more popcorn.

  “I used to escape to the theater whenever I could, though my guards usually found me before long. I knew all of the best places to duck in for a showing, so it usually took them a while to triangulate my location.”

  ‘Why do you like them so much?”

  Seth had never understood humans’ fascination with video entertainment and now artificial intelligence and virtual reality. He appreciated music and art, but he much preferred living life than watching other people live lives in movies and shows.

  And since he read too many official documents for his day job, he didn’t want to tire his eyes with reading when he had any leisure time, which was usually so limited it was almost nonexistent.

  “Everyone is so innocent and bright in these movies,” Jade replied.

  “When I think of the Golden Age of Hollywood, I literally envision a golden aura around all the movie stars, but not as they are off screen. As the immortal characters they portray onscreen. I feel like anything is possible when I watch them. All the good things in life are possible. But only in the movies.”

  “Not in real life?” Seth asked quietly, regarding her in the comfortable darkness of the theater.

  She didn’t look back at him, keeping her eyes on the big screen.

  “Reality isn’t for dreamers,” Jade said. “It’s for survivors. And we can only survive by killing all these mushy, soft feelings we’re all tempted to have once in a while.”

  “Like love,” she scoffed derisively.

  “Given what my ‘profession’ was, I needed to wield the concept like an expert. But I must never be fooled by it. That way lies folly, as I’ve seen and proven through experience countless times. What it really is, is a collection of other emotions and reactions that are temporary and chemically induced.”

  “Is there nothing permanent, then?” he asked low.

  She looked at him finally and held his searching gaze.

  “Nothing is forever. Even friends could become traitors. Family could turn against and reject you. Lust could cool to indifference. Pleasure could become pain.”

  She tilted her head and considered him, forgetting the movie altogether.

  “What did your human wife do after you sacrificed yourself for her and your kingdom?”

  Seth frowned a little, knowing where she was headed.

  But in all honesty, he answered, “She remarried and had many more children, providing my Masika with little brothers and sisters to dote on.”

  “See,” Jade said with something like satisfaction, but also simmering resentment, “your wife’s love for you did not outlast your life.”

  “Would you have her mourn me forever?” Seth retorted gently.

  “I would not. I was glad she found a man who appreciated her and protected her. I wanted her to be happy.”

  Her hand grasped his forearm firmly. He felt it like a hot brand through the wool of his sweater sleeve.

  “If I were your wife, I would have avenged your death and chased you into the afterlife. I would never have let you go. I would never have taken another male.”

  The breath whooshed out of Seth’s chest at her solemn declaration. He had no doubt that she meant every word she said.

  “Jade…”

  “But I am not your wife, not really,” she said casually, releasing his arm.

  “We are just pretending for this one day. Perhaps if you stayed with me longer, I would show you the depth of my devotion.”

  She slid him a gimlet glare.

  “But alas, Pure One, you are determined to prove my point. You are temporary and false like everything else in the world. And this…”

  She gestured between them.

  “This is just a pleasant fiction for one brief day in the lifetimes that we have lived.”

  She turned back to the movie and continued to make progress on her popcorn, shutting down any further attempts at conversation.

  Seth faced forward as well, but he didn’t pay attention to the songs and dances on the screen.

  His chest constricted with a fiery pain, his heart writhing in agony.

  He wished he had it in his power to stay with her. If for no other reason than to prove to her that there were permanent things in this world. Good, worthy things to look forward to, to depend upon.

  He wished he could show her that his love for her was one of these things, but because she didn’t feel the same for him, his love would die with him, even if the love itself was forever.

  As he sat there contemplating how to give her the comfort she needed long after he was gone, he felt her awkwardly lay her head upon his shoulder, her hands surreptitiously wrapping around his arm.

  Almost as if she couldn’t help herself, as if she tried to fight her need for him, but lost.

  “Even if what we have today is fiction,” she murmured close to his ear, “it is more real to me than anything else in my existence. I will remember today forever. I will remember you.”

  She leaned close and kissed his jaw.

  “My Seth.”

  He returned a kiss to the top of her head and grasped one of her hands with his, linking their fingers.

  She cared for him.

  He felt it as surely as if she’d wrapped a warm blanket around him as his body grew ever colder from the Decline.

  It was enough, he told his bleeding heart and swallowed back the sadness.

  He knew deep inside that this would be their last day together.

  His time had run out much sooner than he’d planned.

  *** *** *** ***

  “Are you sure?”

  Maximus threw the Sage an aggrieved look. This was the third time Ramses had asked the question.

  The answer hadn’t changed.

  Maximus had caught Ramses in the training center just as he was cooling down from a mock battle with a dozen Sentries from Jade’s security team.

  From the looks of it, Ramses was back to one hundred percent, because twelve highly trained vampire soldiers were no mat
ch for the ancient warrior in top form.

  “They’re gathering as we speak. All of the Dark noble houses will be present this time. The Great Lakes and Mid Atlantic hives will send emissaries as well.”

  “I will keep pressure on the Hives abroad. We don’t need their interference right now. And I don’t want any surprises,” Ramses growled.

  “Agreed,” Maximus said. “We need to marshal our troops and prepare for the worst. Jade could be Challenged for the throne on site.”

  “She isn’t a fighter.”

  “No.”

  They both mulled a bit on that one.

  Most Dark queens were trained warriors, because they took their positions by conquering others and waging war. They were also military experts for the same reason.

  Jade, on the other hand, came into power not by sheer strength and brutality but because she’d built a followership and was more or less elected as queen. Of all the Hives in the world, the New England vampire hive was the most democratic in that sense.

  Other queens would ruthlessly eliminate any threat to their thrones, kill would-be usurpers for so much as having a thought about changing the ruling party.

  But Jade allowed dissent to exist. She listened to all complaints and gave all requests due consideration.

  She was no pushover, not by any stretch of the imagination. Her laws were non-negotiable, and the Chosen was extremely effective in their enforcement of them. But she didn’t chop off the head of the first vampire who challenged her.

  Despite this, and perhaps because of this, her rule had been the most stable among all of the vampire hives. Her influence and power extended far beyond her borders.

  But when it came to formal Challenges in the vampire way, where a fight to the death might trump an election, Jade was at a significant disadvantage.

  She could only do damage if she touched her opponent. Yet, there were many ways to hurt and even kill her without ever getting close enough to feel her touch.

  “She could assign a Champion to fight for her. I’d readily volunteer,” Ramses said.

  “Those are the old ways,” Maximus returned.

  “One, I’m not sure having someone fight in her stead would be accepted today, and two, Jade herself is unlikely to choose that path.”