Val pulled her sweater closer over her shoulders. “When your father was sick…” Val seemed to hesitate, as though sunk by the memory of it. She looked so incongruous in this space, all pressed and coiffed, while the damp stone walls sent her words spinning up to the pyramid high above. “When he lay dying of cancer, I offered to turn him, to make him like me. He refused. Do you know why?”
Despite her dislike of Val, Delaney found herself unable to look away. “It was because of you,” Val said in a voice dripping with venom. “He said you would be destroyed by it, that you would consider it an abomination.”
“You fought about it, didn’t you?” Jaden said in apparent amazement. “I heard you. About a week before he died.”
“I loved him,” Val said bitterly. “Loved him enough to watch him age and die while I remained unchanged.” Her gaze, diffuse with remembered grief, zeroed in on Delaney. “Everything he did, he did for you. Always you. I railed at him about his stubbornness and stupidity. I could have cured him, made him immortal. But his sainted daughter might not approve, and now he’s as dead as those poor bastards on that tour bus.”
“And you blame me,” Delaney said tonelessly.
“You are to blame, don’t you see? You had his heart, the man I loved till his last breath, and you have Jaden. It’s a bit more than flesh can bear.”
Delaney looked up at Jaden, and Jaden looked at her. He was the handsomest, most talented man she had ever set eyes on, and possibly the kindest. She remembered the time her beloved cat, a three-legged relic from her childhood, had gotten stuck in a drain pipe on the estate. Jaden had stayed up until four in the morning coaxing the creature out while Delaney fretted inside with pneumonia. She would never forget the sight of them, drenched from a cold miserable rain, dripping in the mud room. Val was there too, screeching at Jaden to come in and not catch his death of cold. Which, given the circumstances, was pretty ironic.
“I want to talk to Jaden,” she told Val. “Alone.”
“Why, so he can seduce you again? Don’t be a fool. You aren’t cut out for this, and you know it.”
Delaney took up her pocketknife once more and continued to slice potatoes into the pan. “Where will you go, Val? There aren’t many Hiltons up here.”
Val gave a snort of disgust. “Tell me you aren’t for one minute considering this. Vampires are vampires. Humans are humans. You would be changing the course of history.”
“I think she told you what she wanted,” Jaden said. “If you leave now, you might make it to Cusco before daybreak.”
“Unless vampires have the ability to fly, she’s stuck here with the rest of us,” Delaney said. “The earthquake knocked out a big chunk of the road. We’re all essentially stranded here until they fix it, but that could take weeks.”
“Earthquake?” Jaden whipped his gaze toward Val. “You did that, didn’t you? My God. Was that to prevent my coming, or were you trying to kill…?” The color drained from his face.
“I do what is necessary to survive,” Val said with an air of injured virtue. “That’s how the game is played. Winners, losers. The eaters and the eaten.”
“Get out!” Jaden said, his voice hoarse with emotion. “How could you? What kind of person could do such a thing? Even if you hated Delaney, how could you try to murder the only daughter of a man you claimed to love?”
Delaney set down the knife and rose slowly. She felt sick. The earthquake could have killed more than just her. She still had no idea what might have happened in her village. How was Val able to cause a natural disaster? It was as though this was still earth, sure, reality was reality, but all the rules had changed.
Val slipped her purse over her shoulder. “You’ll regret this. Mark my words. Ask Jaden what the consequences are of you going through with this ridiculous ceremony. Ask what will happen to him.”
She left a cloud of floral perfume in her wake, her heels an angry staccato. Delaney stared after her in stunned disbelief.
“What is she talking about, Jaden? What consequences? How did she trigger an earthquake? And why were you unable to stop her?”
Jaden took her in his arms. He was warm, and her cheek rested comfortably against his chest. “Pachacamac, the Inca god of earthquakes. The fate of vampires has been entwined with that of Pachacamac for centuries. Female vampires have the power to summon him, to do earth magics. Male vampires do not.”
“She means to kill me,” she said.
His embrace tightened. “I will never let that happen.”
“So what will happen if I undergo the ritual? What consequences was she talking about?”
For a moment, Jaden seemed to hesitate. Then he said, “To channel that much sexual energy… I have no way of predicting what might happen. I’m not going to tell you it isn’t dangerous.”
“Will I be…?” Was there a word for what a vampire did to his victims? She remembered the shriveled remains of the guinea pigs she’d buried. “Will you drink from me?”
“Never. We’re here to cure our blood lust, not to indulge it.”
“What will happen to you if I agree to go through with the ritual?”
“Vampires don’t age as fast as humans do. For every ten human years, vampires can add on another ninety. But once human, I’ll live out the rest of my life like anyone else. I will die, like any other mortal.”
* * *
Jaden felt her startle in his arms. He knew she would need persuading. He knew she would need answers. And he knew in the end, she would agree to do the ritual, but that he would be the one making the sacrifice.
He loved her. Coveted her. And he would have to share her with four other vampires, all of whom had been handpicked to bring her to the greatest sexual ecstasy experienced by a human female.
“Why would you ever want that?” she said. “Why be mortal when you have the chance to live forever?”
He sighed. “I’m over two hundred years old, Delaney. I’ve done damn near everything. And there’ve been losses. Painful losses. There’s no natural progression to a vampire’s existence. Nothing to strive for. If you could be immortal, would you really want to?”
She turned away and went back to the fire. The smell of potatoes frying filled the air. “Maybe… No, I suppose not.”
“Being a rock star… Sometimes it’s just sad.”
The look she gave him betrayed her skepticism.
“I’m serious. You know how much I love the music. Can’t say that I love the business, though.”
“Is it worth dying for?”
“You’re worth dying for. And when you go someday, I see no reason to stay here without you.”
She looked up at him, her eyes full of love and also remorse. “I was wrong to leave you, Jaden.”
The scab was still there to be picked at. He kissed her upturned mouth, remembering that terrible night when Val had found them in the boathouse, and reminded himself why it was Delaney felt she’d had to run. He had long ago forgiven her, if there had been anything to forgive. She was his destiny. In two hundred and sixty-six years, she was the only woman he had ever truly loved.
Now, it was possible that she loved him too, despite knowing his true nature. The need for it burned inside him, as insistent as his need for her. She responded hotly to his kisses. She came alive in his arms. It was all that mattered—not Hollywood, not the ego-driven madhouse of being a celebrity, none of it. Just the moments like these, when he held the one thing that mattered: her.
When she drew away, she seemed to take a part of his heart with her, but he willed himself to be patient.
“I assume you still eat food?” she said with a glint of her old humor. “It’s not much, and it’s not what your chef makes you… You do have a chef, right?”
He felt a trifle embarrassed about the spoils of victory. If his frequent house parties were up to him, the only things to eat wo
uld have been pretzels and beer. “A chef, a housekeeper, a driver, a dog walker, a personal trainer, a personal assistant, a landscape architect, a pool boy, a PR agent and a manager.”
She blinked. “Wow.”
They ate out of the pan. Blue potatoes. He was surprised by how tasty they were. She painted a picture of her life there, her occasional clashes with the villagers. Many Andean men, seeking a better life for their families, went to Cusco to find work. Unable to navigate the strange new world of a big city, many got hooked on drugs, drink, gambling. She spoke of a woman named Amaru, of the difficulty in getting medical supplies, of finally understanding what had happened to all the guinea pigs.
“It’s tradition to keep garlic knots by the door,” she said. “They don’t work, do they?”
He smiled. “Just be thankful they ate guinea pigs and not people. It’s not as though they’re incapable. These are vampires, like me, who simply want to live out their years without the demon bloodlust.”
“Some, but not all?”
“Not all, but enough.”
She appeared to digest this. “Jaden, if I agree to the ceremony…”
“Yes?”
“What would happen if I couldn’t go through with it? All those men. I’ve never been with anyone I didn’t know well.”
With effort, he banked down the flare of jealousy and sexual possessiveness. “You’ll have to let go of the idea of being a ‘good girl’. You’ll have to give in to your purely animal nature. To bring you to that level of sexual ecstasy, they’ll need to do things to you that you’ve never done before, not even in your dreams. No part of your body will be off limits. They must work you into such a sexual frenzy, you don’t care who does what so long as they bring you to your next orgasm, and the one after that.”
He saw, and understood, the fear in her eyes. Saw too that beneath that fear lay a flicker of curiosity.
“I’m not… I’m not used to it. To sex… Up here, all I do is work. There hasn’t been time for anything else.”
“If you decide to go through with it, you’ll need to prepare. Physically.”
“How?”
She’d asked it so innocently, her lips slightly parted, her hair streaming over her shoulders, as dark as the velvet inside a jeweler’s box. He was all too ready to show her. Even now, his cock was hardening, but he didn’t want to scare her off or rush her into something she wasn’t prepared to handle.
“Let’s not talk about it now,” he said. “There’s plenty of time.”
Her gaze dropped to the bulge in his jeans. “Does it turn you on, the thought of doing those things to me?”
He didn’t move but could feel the blood thickening. “Yes.”
Her smile, while coquettish, was not without gravity. “Will you show me a little of…what to expect? If I go through with it?”
“What if it hurts?”
“A lot of things do at first.”
He reached for her. There was no telling what would happen once he breached certain pleasure centers, certain thresholds. Some women hated it. But some women weren’t Delaney.
“You must understand a few things,” he whispered into her ear. “You must understand that when a man who loves you takes you in a way that hurts, he does it only to heighten the pleasure that will eventually come.”
She closed her eyes and shuddered. “Yes.”
“You’ll have to trust me,” he said, slowly drawing her T-shirt over her head, getting her out of her shorts, and then feasting his eyes on her soft breasts and puckered nipples. “You must learn to surrender, to accept, to allow me in places I’ve never been inside before. Do you understand?”
She nodded and then watched as he peeled down his zipper and kicked his jeans away. He stood in front of her, fully rampant, and guided himself slowly inside her mouth. She looked up at him meekly. Instinctively, she used her tongue to lick the head while her long, cool fingers stroked and massaged his balls. He let her have her way for a minute, but then grabbed a handful of her thick hair, pushing himself deeper.
“That’s it,” he said. “Relax your throat.”
He felt her gag a little on his size, but could tell by how eagerly she returned to sucking it that it turned her on. This was just the beginning, he reminded himself. He had to teach her how to completely let go of thought and let sensation take over. But then, Delaney had always been an excellent student.
“Turn around and get on your hands and knees,” he said sternly. He recognized the flicker in her eyes. Obediently, she did as she was told, and he let his gaze travel over the curves of her body before resting on her wet, pink opening. In one forceful thrust, he sheathed himself, feeling her slick walls close around him. The sensation was so unbearably erotic, he almost came right there, but there were lessons to administer.
The first was to teach her to accept various forms of domination. The second was to receive pleasure without question. He held her hips still while working himself in and out, twisting, going deep, then shallow, fast, then slow, until she was panting with the need to climax. He watched her carefully, refusing the mind link for now. This had to be strictly physical.
“Jaden,” she gasped. “Please.”
To heighten the torture, he reached down and ran one finger across her taut, wet clit. She trembled in anticipation, waiting for him to finish it, and when he didn’t, she tried to do it herself.
“No,” he said, pushing her hand away. “You must learn to do as I say or accept the consequences for disobedience.” His hard cock throbbed in response to that prospect, not of hurting for her the sake of hurting her, but to whet her appetite for what might come.
She was writhing now in her desperation to find release. Her long hair trailed the ground and jerked with every thrust of his hips. The rush of holding her hostage to his cock made more of a demon of him than being one ever did. He was ruthless with need and determination.
Now was the time to show her what being mastered was all about.
He gazed down at her virgin asshole, saw that it was too small to admit him, and decided to coax it open first. First, he slid two fingers in her wet pussy, and then moved to her side so he was perpendicular to her. With his left arm wrapped around her hips and tight under her stomach, he held her as close as possible. With his right, he smeared her own wetness around the tiny rosebud and then inserted one finger up to the first knuckle. She tried to squirm away, but he refused to let go.
“No one has ever had you there, have they?” he said with dark satisfaction.
She shook her head.
“I must prepare you for what lies ahead. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Their sole purpose is to pleasure you. In every way. In every hole. The ecstasy could drive you mad.” He slid his finger in deeper, to the second knuckle. She moaned and bucked a little, trying to get away.
“No use fighting it. Once you get past your fear, there are no limits to what your body can do.”
“It hurts.”
“How better to learn to trust?”
Delaney took a jagged breath and closed her eyes. She would learn to crave this, of that he was certain. Using his left hand, he found her swollen clit and gave it a few light taps, while the one finger of his right hand continued twisting in and out of her ass. Her body trembled as she neared climax, but it wasn’t time yet. He had to make her so crazy for it, she would do anything to come.
When he squeezed in a second finger, she gasped and went still. He watched as her eyes flew open, then glazed with the deep primal pleasure of enforced submission.
“You’re responding quite well,” he said. “You might be ready to take my cock in there.”
“I want to…”
“Want to what?” He had to make her say it. Saying it meant she had moved past any guilt or shame. He pulled his fingers out, saw the relief
on her face, and then felt her pull her knees up a little to invite him back in. “Say it, Delaney. What do you want?”
“I want to come like this.”
“Like what?”
“I want your cock in my ass. Please.”
His cock twitched in violent response. Carnal ritual aside, he had wanted to do this to her, to be her first, for as long as he could remember. How many nights had he stroked himself into a frenzy thinking about it? That forbidden fruit held powerful allure for him. And here it was, all ready to be violated.
“Lie down on your stomach,” he said, trying to disguise the harsh urgency in his voice. He slid his cock inside her wet hole for a moment, just to coat it with her hot slippery honey, and then positioned the head at her other entrance. “Do you trust me?”
Her fists were clenched, but she nodded. He rimmed her for a moment to lubricate the outside, took a steadying breath and then breached her. The tightness was exquisite. He could barely move. She cried out, pedaling her feet feebly. “Just relax, let it happen,” he said.
Already he could feel himself swelling and wondered if he’d be able to hold on. He eased it in deeper, held still, and then deeper.
“Reach down and play with yourself,” he said. “It will condition you to want this.”
Moaning, she slid both hands beneath her, and while she was distracted, Jaden took advantage of the opportunity to pump in and out, slowly, sweat pouring down his chest from the effort to maintain control. In all his years, he had never been so turned on. Having her this way was everything he had imagined it would be, and more. She fit him like a fist.
“I’m going to go deep,” he said.
He could tell that Delaney hadn’t even heard him, that her whole focus was on riding the knife edge between pleasure and pain. Her hands were busy underneath her. He moved shallowly again, waiting for the right moment. The sight of his oiled cock sliding in and out of her tight hole brought out every animal instinct he had, yet still he waited.
When she cried out and her whole body convulsed, he penetrated her as deeply as he could. Delaney’s orgasm rocked her. He established the mind-link so he too could take the journey with her, but the feeling was so intense, he lost control. His own orgasm jolted through him, pulse after pulse, flooding her, gushing inside her, streaming hot juice. By staying deep, he let the final contractions of her climax squeeze the head until it was completely empty.
Carnal Sacrifice Page 6
