Die By the Drop: Shivers and Sins Volume 1

by Kaia Bennett

  Fucking original flavor instead of sour cream and onion. And a lukewarm bottle of tap water. Fabulous.

  I took off my jacket, found the spot with the fewest cobwebs and laid the thick leather down over my seat. This must have been the living room once upon a time, with a fireplace and huge bay windows to let the light in. Some of the panes had been boarded up. Jesse wiped a circle in the grime on a pane of glass, swept his hair over his shoulder, and stared out from his perch on the window seat.

  I stretched out, wiggled my weary feet and tore open the crinkly package. I shoved a handful of chips into my mouth, licking my fingers clean of the salt after every crunchy mouthful. I couldn’t stop the moan that escaped me. This was far from my best meal, and yet, the chips tasted like manna from heaven. When I’d finished upending the bag and shaking the last remnants into my mouth, I chugged the water.

  I gazed up to find Jesse staring at my legs. Between my legs. At my tongue swiping the crumbs from my lips. He looked hungry. I couldn’t tell if he wanted my blood or my body.

  I crossed my ankles and tugged down the hem of the dress. Then I lifted my chin and with a croaky yet resolute voice asked, “How many days? How long have I been gone?”

  Vaughn propped a leg up against the doorjamb separating the living room from the dining room. All three of us formed a triangle, our gazes converging and crossing through the center of the living room. Jesse ignored my question. Vaughn dragged the toe of his boot along the door jamb. Chunks of rotten wood and plaster crumbled to the floor. He lit up another cigarette and I wondered if vampires could have nicotine addiction. How many chain smokers had I passed in my life that could’ve been a Vaughn in disguise?

  I tried again.

  “Where are we? Are we still in Jersey?”

  “Why does it matter? You got somewhere to be?”

  Vaughn snorted at Jesse’s retort.

  Fuck you. Fuck you right to hell, you son of a bitch.

  Jesse grinned like he could hear my thoughts. I’m sure my hatred shone like a neon sign on my face.

  Fuck. Flash. You. Flash.

  “I have a family, a home. You took me from them. The least you can do—” My voice cracked. “The least you can do is tell me how far away I’ll be from them when I....”

  “Can’t you just read our minds and figure out where we are?” Vaughn grinned like he had glass crunching between his perfect teeth. Rage and pain shone from his eyes, invoking the moment I’d slid inside his head. The memory of his screams pierced the space between us.

  I didn’t owe them the truth, but lying would be pointless now. I gave them a half-truth instead.

  “I didn’t know I could whatever it is…. Until you took me.”

  I doubted I could read minds, since I never had before. Vaughn had a point. I had no idea where we were. Hell, they knew more about witches than I did.

  I’d read their emotions, though. I’d slid inside their skin, inside their memories. I'd bound myself to them with an intense sensory connection. Whenever I linked with them, I felt their intentions. Whenever they hurt me I lashed out, mining for pain to inflict with the same force they’d inflicted pain on me. This new skill—born of desperation—worked with Vaughn in the shower, and to a lesser extent, when Jesse slapped me.

  Solid knowledge, though? Information I could use to escape? Those things seemed harder, if not impossible, to come by without their help.

  “More witch tricks. More witch lies.” Vaughn blew smoke ring after smoke ring, making a wispy bull’s eye that floated overhead.

  “I’m not fucking lying! You think if I’d known what I was I’d have let you anywhere near me?”

  I wanted to say more, I wanted to tell them they disgusted me, but I bit my tongue. They seemed to be humoring me now to combat the boredom while they waited for the next leg of the trip. No telling what would set them off now that Jesse’d had his way with me.

  “But that’s what you did to me and Vaughn. Right?”

  “What?” I stared up at Jesse’s intent gaze.

  “Didn’t you read our minds when you got inside them?”

  I watched Jesse tuck his left foot behind his right knee and turn to face me straight on. His body language gave off a relaxed vibe, but his eyes betrayed how badly he wanted an answer. Curiosity made his face look almost child-like for a moment. The facade infuriated me. I didn’t want to see him as anything but a monster, but he had a mutable beauty to go with his viciousness.

  “No.”

  Vaughn said, “Three days. You’ve been our ball and fucking chain for three goddamn days and the only person who’s gotten to dip his wick is Jesse.” I swiveled my head to Vaughn, staring at him agape but he didn’t look at me. He kicked at more rotten wood like a petulant child. “Must be some kind of record for stinginess, chief.”

  Jesse made an inhuman noise, a growl that could never escape a normal man’s throat. The sound made the hairs on the back of my neck and my arms stand at attention. Vaughn shrugged, unfazed, and spoke out of one side of his mouth while the cigarette dangled from the other. “Who cares? Draw her a map, don’t matter. Unless you blindfold her she’s gonna see a fucking road sign, Jesse. And who’s she gonna tell?”

  “I’m not your chief, white boy. Don’t make me tell you again.” Vaughn snorted but turned away from the blaze in Jesse’s stare.

  For the first time, I wondered about Jesse, the details I hadn’t had a chance to ponder. The ‘chief’ dig bothered him. I wondered where he’d come from. He looked native, but did he have a tribe? Where did vampires come from, and how did such disparate types form a rag tag group like the one Jesse helmed?

  Focus. I’ll have time to wiggle around in his head and find something from Jesse’s past. It’s the present I need answers about.

  Three days. It had to be Tuesday.

  Eager to capitalize on Vaughn’s confidence I asked, “Where are we going? When are we stopping for more food and supplies?”

  Vaughn laughed, but Jesse stared at me, through me.

  “Supplies?” Jesse’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

  “Yes. Supplies. There’s things I need, things I need to keep track of, as a woman.”

  Jesse’s eyes narrowed as he thought through the baggage of keeping me alive.

  “Fucking priceless. Should we call Liam and tell him to pick up condoms? You worried Jesse’s gonna knock you up?” Vaughn’s hysterical laughter had him near tears. Jesse’s impassive face didn’t move a muscle.

  I swallowed audibly. The idea of getting pregnant by Jesse made me ill, as ill as the thought of him murdering me and dumping my body in a shallow grave between pit stops.

  “Can I? Get pregnant?”

  “Yes,” Jesse said with a glint in his eyes. “No. Maybe.”

  I clenched my teeth and my pussy echoed the reflexive action. I could still feel his seed inside me, the thickness of him.

  “No,” Vaughn said with a chuckle. “Not that it matters if you could.”

  “You wanna have my babies, witch? Or you just want more of my cock?”

  This isn’t the time for tears, Evie. They’re fucking with you. Fuck with them in return. Jesse doesn’t want a victim, not really. He wants a combatant. So fight.

  The beast stalked her cage, nodding in approval.

  Watch. Wait. Then show them.

  I wanted to live. I wanted to escape. Everything they said, however insignificant to them, gave me something I could use. They thought the pregnancy question had been a joke, so I stole what measure of relief I could from their amusement and regrouped.

  “I was talking about tampons. Lotion and deodorant would be nice, too. A comb. I’ve got a lot of hair and winter’s hell on the skin.” I flashed the weakest smile ever at my own joke. It hurt my lips, the action felt so unnatural on my face.

  Jesse’s lips broke into a smile far more genuine. He stole my breath, his face brightening like rays of sunshine broke through the clouds. He leaned forward. “Who says you’re gonna live long
enough to see winter, Evie?”

  So much for flirting.

  I dissolved my smile and pinned him with a hard glare.

  “Who says I won’t, Jesse?”

  Silence. I’d spoken without thinking. I shuddered, attacked by two different waves of hunger focused on me.

  "She’s got a mouth, right?" Jesse said to Vaughn with a chuckle.

  I licked my dry lips, my heart pounding. “I just… I know you liked the way my skin felt before. I could sense it. Takes a bit of maintenance to keep it this way. Can’t just wash and go like you guys do.”

  “What’s the matter, baby? Our road trip not up to your usual high standards?”

  “No, Vaughn, it’s not.” I gave Vaughn the same vindictive smile he gave me.

  “Funny. Sounded like you enjoyed yourself last night.” Vaughn adjusted his cock. “All that moaning and screaming.”

  I tracked a spider skittering across the floor so I wouldn’t have to see the truth in Vaughn’s eyes. But I couldn’t block out the sound of him mocking my orgasms, the shrill female gasps he loosed while Jesse laughed at his handiwork. I distracted myself with facts.

  Three days. Depending on how long I’d been out, and how many times we stopped, we could have been several states away by now. New Jersey had plenty of farm land, but it only took a few hours to get to Pennsylvania or Delaware from Guthridge. No telling where this farm resided, where the motel had been, or how many more vampire haunts we’d pass before—

  Before what? Before Jesse gets tired of me? Before they kill me?

  So. I just have to make sure he doesn’t get tired of me. He likes feisty. He won’t let Vaughn hurt me till he gets what he wants. Right?

  But what does he want?

  “You sound jealous, Vaughn. You talk a good game about butchery, but a lot less about making someone feel good. Guess that’s Jesse’s thing and not yours, huh?”

  I’d stepped out on a limb so steep with that comment, I felt wind on my face. I had to dangle something other than pain in front of Vaughn, though. As the number two man in the trio, I figured he butted up against Jesse, testing his boundaries, the way I had to now. Vaughn had done so in the woods, continuing to drink from me until Jesse put his foot down. That had to mean something, something I could use.

  Vaughn’s pupils absorbed his blue eyes and he focused on me with such intensity I scrambled to my feet and gripped the wall at my back. With careful steps, I inched toward Jesse.

  “You and I both know better.” Vaughn tracked my retreat with his glare, every muscle tensed like a cobra’s. “I saw you watching me and Liam last night. I bet you want a taste, Evie.”

  He said my name like a curse. I turned to Jesse’s impassive face. He held out his hand and I scuttled to his side with a strange mixture of relief and trepidation. The lesser of two evils had still raped and beaten me, would’ve killed me if I hadn’t ridden his mind and body like a wave.

  Jesse pulled my back against his chest. Vaughn stood and flicked his cigarette butt away. He stretched to his full height while Jesse lifted the hem of my dress to my hips.

  This was a mistake.

  I craned my neck to stare up at Vaughn as he approached. His blown pupils completely outpaced his irises. My reflection shimmered in the predatory pools. The swipe of his tongue over his lips reminded me of a big cat licking his chops. He kicked my feet apart, reached between my legs, and ripped a hole in my tights. With one explosive move he exposed my bare pussy and ass to the elements.

  Jesse’s broad smile caressed my ear. My stomach dropped to my cunt when his voice rumbled against my skin. Vaughn spit on his fingers.

  “What are we thinking now, witch?”

  I didn’t need intuition to know the answer.

  10

  Vaughn pressed wet fingers against the slick lips of my pussy. My knees buckled. I wanted to close my thighs, but Vaughn had kicked my feet too wide. Jesse twisted the hem of my dress around his fist and wrapped his other arm around my neck. The bulge of Jesse’s forearm pinned me to his chest. I strained to swallow against the swell. My hips jutted forward without my permission and I sucked in a breath at Vaughn’s gentle circles on my clit. The insistent caress over my throbbing nub felt wickedly good but frightened me, as did his black gaze holding mine.

  “If you wanna fuck her, you’ve gotta feed her first,” Jesse warned. “And no biting, not yet. Don’t want you breaking the merchandise.”

  “No need for that.” Vaughn licked his lips. “I’m gonna show this bitch who’s in charge the old fashioned way.”

  I balked at his words, but my body devolved again. Nothing more than traitorous nerve endings desperate to feel anything but pain. Vaughn slid his middle finger along my slit, collecting the dewy proof of my arousal and smeared the slickness over my clit. He pressed harder on the swollen nub, increasing the friction, weakening my resolve, if not my hatred, for him.

  I fluttered my eyelids closed, moaning before I knew what came over me.

  “You’re a good little slut, aren’t you?”

  Vaughn whispered against my lips. He didn’t kiss me, but instead made a mockery of the moment before a kiss, as if proving he knew every move to this dance.

  “Yeah, she is. Always wet and ready. Your boyfriend would be so jealous if he could see you now, Evie.” Jesse’s taunts humiliated me, aroused me, and at the same time my heart broke for Manny. Three days since Manny kissed and touched me, or told me he loved me. Three days since our fight. If he knew where I’d ended up, what I’d become, what Jesse made me do and feel. Days ago I couldn’t stand to feel Manny’s hands on me, and now—

  Vaughn slid his middle finger inside me, swirling the digit while he circled my clit with the broad pad of his thumb. Jesse nibbled my ear lobe. I cursed my mounting arousal. If one of them touching me had been overwhelming, two of them had fast become dangerous.

  My pussy became Vaughn’s toy, but Jesse dug his claws into my mind. He relished my responses even though Vaughn controlled them now. Jesse wouldn’t stand in Vaughn’s way this time, but only because this was a play in Jesse’s larger game plan.

  “I don’t want you to touch me.” I became desperate for escape from the building pleasure. I forced myself to recall the sparkle in Manny’s squinting eyes when he smiled at me.

  “I don’t give a fuck.” Vaughn’s voice turned husky with need, the tone thickening like the cock growing in his jeans. “This is just the beginning. I’m gonna fuck you raw, witch. You’ll be screaming my name and begging for more before I’m done.”

  Play the game. Moan and say yes. Tell the fucker what he wants to hear and get this over with.

  The beast had grown since the last time she stomped through the cage in my mind, blocking my sight of the girl I used to be. The beast snarled at Vaughn’s taunts and my plan to give him what he wanted so he’d stop touching me.

  No. He has to earn it. Make him play your game instead. Make him want something he can’t have.

  I bared my gritted my teeth at Vaughn and averted my gaze.

  Vaughn forced a second finger inside me, thick and deep, curving into a bundle of nerves that melted into his touch. My knees trembled at the powerful sensation. My nipples hardened when Jesse scraped my ear with his teeth. I pushed up on tiptoe, my pussy craving more friction even as I tried to escape.

  “Just a few strokes and you’re already sloppy wet.” Jesse’s calm voice held a malicious lilt. He leaned over my shoulder and stared down at Vaughn’s fingers penetrating me.

  “Fuck her harder,” Jesse ordered. “Make that little pussy gush all over your hand.”

  Jesse wrapped his fingers around my neck and squeezed. Lightheaded and panting for breath, I clawed at Jesse’s grip. He pulled me tight against his chest, his heavy breathing in my ear and the outline of his hard cock nuzzling my ass. Jesse pumped his hips and groaned while Vaughn wrenched smacking sounds of defeat from my swollen pussy. Crowding in, so he could follow in Jesse’s footsteps, Vaughn thrust his hard cock ag
ainst my hip. He dry humped and finger fucked me with such united precision, when my eyes drifted closed, I could imagine his cock replaced his fingers.

  Panic prickled my skin, turning into beads of sweat as my climax approached. I snapped my eyes open, refusing to fall into sinful surrender and failing.

  “Vaughn’s gonna make you squirt like the nasty little bitch you are. I bet you leave a puddle on the floor.”

  Jesse’s hand slid between my bare ass and his denim-caged hard on. He unzipped, freed his pulsating cock, and burrowed his girth between the cheeks of my ass. Hot, veined flesh stroked and parted my cleft, diving closer to the defenseless little star north of my sopping wet cunt. “Did the boyfriend fuck this tight ass, witch? You want my cock in here, too?”

  Jesse’s long, suggestive pump drove his shaft along the length of my crack. I scrambled to get away from what I feared would be a lunge into my ass, only to have Vaughn thrust a third finger into my pulsating channel.

  Vaughn’s smiled faded, his jaw clenching when he threw a passing glance over my shoulder. I wonder if Jesse saw Vaughn’s face, the furrow in his brow and the downward turn of his lips as he watched Jesse steal my attention and my fear with every hump.

  I wondered if Vaughn, who’d relished putting me in my place moments before, had been put back in his. Still the number two man. Still only allowed to touch me when it turned Jesse on to share.

  The head of Jesse’s cock nudged my virgin entrance, spreading my sensitive pucker open by tiny degrees while he jerked his shaft. I clenched my ass, but the motion made me clench Vaughn’s fingers as well. So tight. So full. Vaughn’s thrusting fingers stole a sob of pleasure from me, even as I began to ache from the relentless thrusts.

  Jesse’s pre-come slicked my crevice, while Vaughn used his free hand to grip one of my ass cheeks, spreading me wide for Jesse’s assault and hauling my hip tightly against his cock. Vaughn dry humped me for a moment, but a moment later unzipped in a hurry. He whipped out his cock, humping my hip with the silken heat while he smeared my bare skin with pre-come.

  Their breath in my ears, their fast pumping hips, my own groans for mercy. I couldn’t take the building pressure, their closeness, the fire raging under my skin. I couldn’t stop the gushing wetness, the clenching desperation. I tried, God knows, I tried. I used one hand to push away Jesse’s hips, the other to push at Vaughn’s chest, all in vain. They only crowded me tighter, smashing me between their bodies and their breath, their chests heaving against me, their cocks battling for supremacy over my fear. Vaughn would be running his victory lap soon. To celebrate, he pulled away enough to wrap a hand around his cock and began jerking the thick column in a frenzy.