Jaden had been so wrapped up in his own thoughts, he hadn’t noticed the heat. He recalled that the temperature normally dropped rapidly after sunset. She slipped her parka off and then tied the sleeves around her waist.
“Is this…normal?” he asked.
“Heat in late autumn in the Andes? About as normal as not ever.”
He strode up closer to her, worried now that Val was out somewhere in the dark with a new plan of attack. His mother, whom he must now sadly accept as having already embraced her inner demon. She would be lost to him soon, and he would grieve that loss.
“Well, we know who’s behind it,” Delaney said. “And I’m sure she didn’t do it as a favor.”
“Maybe she’s trying to reinvent the place as a new Los Angeles and open a shopping mall.”
“Yeah, right.”
“What’s her game, do you think?”
“If she makes it hot enough, all the snow will melt.”
“And if the snow melts?”
“We’ll have flooding like you’ve never seen or could even imagine. This is no spring thaw where the snow melts gradually. We’ll get sheets of water twenty feet high. Everyone will be washed off the mountain.”
“How long do we have before it blows?”
“I don’t know exactly, but at this rate? Probably less than three days.”
Jaden ran one hand through his hair and forced himself not to worry. Nothing must interfere with the ritual. If Delaney sensed he was distracted and upset, she would be too.
“Try not to think about it,” he said. “I’ll find a way to stop it from happening, I promise. Let’s just get you to the temple.”
* * *
Delaney half expected the temple to have been blown to smithereens, compliments of Val and her destructive alliances with ancient Peruvian gods. Everything seemed to be fine, maybe even suspiciously so. The great vaulted room with the light-filled oculus at its peak was as silent as a tomb. Yet did she detect a sense of expectation? There was an energy to this place that even her mortal flesh could feel.
“This way,” Jaden said.
She followed him across the chamber to a set of stairs leading up. The stairwell was dank and smelled of mold, but there seemed to be a separate chamber at the top. He led her through the arched doorway and smiled, anticipating her surprise.
“How did you know this was here?” she asked, blinking in wonder. “It’s beautiful.”
The chamber was itself a smaller version of the Great Room, a pyramid with an oculus. But a mirror of polished metal had been installed on one wall, and beneath it was a makeshift dressing table, a stone that was flat on the top, laden with combs and brushes and painted earthenware.
Inca tapestries in brilliant colors were pinned to a canopy bed made of woven tree branches. A pillow, also Peruvian, sat on a low stool in front of the mirror. Delaney realized this had all been done for her, a space in which to prepare for the carnal sacrifice. “Do you like it?” Jaden asked her. “I know it’s not Rodeo Drive, but—”
“I love it. But how did this happen? I know you didn’t smuggle a mirror in your backpack. And I don’t remember seeing you scavenging for material to make a bed.”
If she hadn’t known him so well, she might not have seen his face cloud briefly before he replied, “We’re not alone here. I’m sure you know that.”
“Here?” she said. “As in here here? Why haven’t I seen anyone else?”
“They’ve been waiting…well, for me, actually, to familiarize you with the idea of…”
“Oh.” She set down her backpack. “So the men are here, then. They helped to do this.”
“Not just men. Women too, There are many who have chosen not to feed off humans and who have grown disillusioned with immortality.”
“Women?” Delaney swallowed hard. “I’m not supposed to, you know, sleep with them, am I?”
Jaden gave her a wicked smile. “Not unless you want to. No, these women are here to assist you, to help you get ready for the ceremony. They will serve in the capacity of handmaidens.”
Delaney shed her flannel overshirt, grateful for the heat but mindful of what it signified. “This is so crazy. All of it, crazy. Your mother, and now this madness. Some part of it really bothers you, though, apart from what you’ve said so far. When are you going to tell me what that is?”
He hesitated. In an obvious bid to buy time, he set down his backpack and the guitar case. She waited.
“The ceremony is tomorrow night. In order to have you, I must share you. So far, I’ve done a good job of keeping you for myself.”
“So? It’s what I want too, you know.”
Jaden shook his head. “I must make a sacrifice as well. Like it or not, the root of love is possession. It goes against everything I want personally, these terms and conditions. I really wish it had been some groupie who had been chosen by fate to be the means of our deliverance. But it was you.”
“Why was it me? I’ve wondered.” Delaney sat in front of the dressing table and studied her face, wavy in the polished metal mirror, like something from long ago. “There are plenty of women more beautiful, more skilled at lovemaking.”
Jaden came up behind her. He placed his hands on her shoulders and smiled at her in the mirror. “I disagree with both statements. No one knows why you were chosen, but you are the One. And now I’ll say that the time has come for you to realize your potential, and for me to stop being selfish.”
“Why does that sound so ominous?”
“Not ominous. There’s an encampment out near the watershed. Three of your four lovers await you there. A Native American named Wolf. A blond man named Lucan. And a tall dark-haired man named Roark. We decided to start with three. Your fourth lover, Cade, had to sit this one out, and for all I know, he won’t ever talk to me again. But we’re determined to initiate you slowly. You won’t need to introduce yourself or even explain anything. They’ll know. For them, Christmas comes early this year.”
She turned and then wrapped her arms around his waist. His hands automatically went to her hair. “I don’t want to do this,” she whispered. “I don’t want to do anything that might hurt you.”
“We can’t afford to see it that way. You have a sacred birthright. And as you’ll see, sleeping with one vampire or a hundred won’t affect your love for me or mine for you. It’s a different thing entirely. This is simply carnal.”
With visible reluctance, he pulled away and headed toward the door. He faced her there. “The moon is almost full. Good light to see by.”
“Yes,” she said, still troubled.
“Your beautiful hair. Wear it long. I know they’ll love that.”
* * *
As she walked toward the watershed, Delaney forced herself not to think about anything other than the greater good of their mission. She wasn’t cheating on the man she loved; she was liberating him.
But this meant liberating herself from old beliefs about fidelity. When she did, her body came alive like a cat anticipating the next stroke of a hand. When she didn’t, she shrank before the enormity of what she was about to do.
The truth was, she was nervous. Guilty, nervous and, if she had to own it, more than a little curious. She was about to do something she had never thought herself capable of. Sex with strangers. As she’d stood in her dressing chamber and washed from an old stone water basin someone had mysteriously provided, her thoughts had circled around little else. These men were here for no other purpose than to pleasure her. No, not men: vampires. Vampires who could just as easily devour her if they chose to.
To honor Jaden’s suggestion, she wore her hair long, and felt it cascading down her bare arms, warm, soft, abundant. The night was suspiciously balmy, so she’d left her parka behind. Instead, she settled on shorts and the sleeveless tee she usually wore under warmer clothes. It was odd even to sit in
front of a mirror and attend to something as frivolous as her appearance.
She had to stop obsessing about the strange weather and its implications. Thoughts about impending doom were hardly helpful to the cause. Instead, she wondered about the men who were going to make love to her. Jaden had said they were handsome and skilled at lovemaking. He’d also told her she’d be double penetrated. Her sex tingled as she imagined what that felt like.
It shouldn’t have surprised her to find that she’d worked up a sweat. As she hiked up the embankment, beads of it ran down her back. The ground leveled off, and there, not thirty meters away, were three of the most beautiful men, besides Jaden, that she’d ever set eyes on. Her heart did a double thump. Now she felt practically giddy.
The long-haired man, clearly Native American, was named Wolf, if she remembered correctly. Bare-chested like the rest of them, he carried firewood to their campfire.
The one with the biggest muscles was a blond man named Lucan. He had the classical triangular symmetry of the well-built. He too carried wood to the fire. When he leaned over, she could see the perfect contours of his backside and felt her mouth go dry.
The man tending the fire was dark-haired like Jaden—Roark, wasn’t it?—and might at first glance have resembled him. When he straightened, she could see that Roark was less chiseled, lean like a runner. He was also the first to see her.
Delaney froze. The other two had seen her now too. All three stood, illuminated by the flames from their campfire. The light bathed their naked torsos, delineating each carved ab and the smoothness of their chests. Even if she had just happened to spot them on the street somewhere, she would have wanted any one of them. The way they looked at her, their obvious desire, made her nipples pucker in anticipation.
Petrified, aroused, she walked toward them, feeling their gazes on every part of her body. “For them, Christmas will have come early this year,” Jaden had said. She felt as though it were Christmas, although whether hers or theirs, she wasn’t sure.
But she also felt drugged as she stood before them, her limbs weighted with need that had a bright sharp edge to it. Wolf came to her first. With a kind of reverence, he lifted his hand and traced the lines of her face, then cupped it, bringing her lips to his own. Her body responded hotly. It was a traitor, she realized, an all too willing participant, even while her heart was reserved for Jaden. But they didn’t want her heart. They wanted her.
Words weren’t necessary, and they didn’t use any. While Wolf continued to plunder her mouth, he broke contact only long enough to peel off her shirt and toss it away. Roark divested her of her shorts. She stood naked now, too turned on to be self-conscious. Within seconds, they were naked too.
Her pussy throbbed with desire. They were here for her, just her. They were here to bring unspeakable pleasure to her. Whatever she needed or wanted, they would do.
Roark replaced Wolf, who now focused his attentions on her breasts. She felt his tongue and teeth and lips on one while his fingers teased and pinched the other. The kinkiness of three tongues, thirty fingers, and three rampant cocks had the power to melt her brain. Jaden was clearly right about one thing: sexual ecstasy this extreme could truly drive a woman mad.
She felt strong hands urging her legs apart, and then Lucan’s tongue. He had unerring instincts about where to put it. Using feather-light flicks, he brought her swollen nub to peak attention. With Lucan kneeling in front of her, Roark standing over him, and Wolf to her side, the onslaught of sensations proved to be too much. Lucan pulled her labia apart and flicked his tongue across her clitoris again and again, an expert violinist drawing his bow across her taut, wet strings. Suddenly, her legs buckled. Roark kept her from falling while the orgasm surged through her. She cried out.
Lucan refused to let up. The moment her first climax set her down again, he added two fingers, twisting and penetrating, while his tongue continued its practiced assault. Wolf squeezed her nipples when she came this time, using pain to drive her higher.
Leaving her dizzy and shaken, Lucan got up to spread out their sleeping bags, forming a soft bed. Delaney couldn’t speak, couldn’t walk. Wolf swept her up effortlessly, and then placed her in the center. This time, he lay facedown between her thighs, and the others took point at each breast. Her back arched. She couldn’t take much more. Some part of her mind was about to snap. How was this possible, she thought dimly. What would happen when her circuits overloaded?
Wolf circled her clit with his tongue, taking his time. The sensation produced an even more potent orgasm. It came roaring up like an earthquake. He licked her cream with his tongue, swirling it in and around the opening. It was so out of the ordinary, feeling a tongue there. Forbidden, even. She could sense another orgasm building and fought against it. It scared her, not being able to pace herself or control the course of her pleasure. Ecstasy was a wild horse that bit and bucked and galloped. Beyond it another dimension seemed to lie, somewhere past her understanding. But still she feared it, as she might fear any unknown thing.
With an “at last” kind of smile, Roark took his turn lapping at her clit. He used the flat side of his tongue, and then followed up by burrowing in with the tip. She clawed at the sleeping bags, but Wolf pinned her hands above her head while Lucan and Roark grabbed her feet. She came hard, half sobbing, while they held her down. Roark made sure she came again by wetting one finger and penetrating her ass. The war between her mind and her body threatened to engulf her. The tension was too much. Either she let go and let them drive her relentlessly from one mind-blowing orgasm to the next, or she tried to control it, pace it, which was impossible and would surely lead to doom.
Roark spread her thighs wider. All three men lay facedown and ministered to her clit, their combined tongues teasing, probing, licking, sending her higher than she’d ever been before. A wave of crushing orgasms overwhelmed her. Her clit was so engorged and acutely sensitive, it felt as thick as a finger. They barely had to touch her now. Then Lucan inserted one digit into her ass, Wolf slid two inside her pussy, and by synchronizing their movements, one penetrating while the other withdrew, they fanned the flames of her volcanic need.
“She’s ready,” Roark said. In her delirium, she realized it was the first time anyone had spoken. She herself was without words. Lucan picked her up and set her on his lap, facing away from him. Then he lay back with her mattressed on top. With his left hand, he teased her left nipple. With his right hand, he had easy access to her clit. Wolf mounted her and penetrated her slick channel with a look of barely concealed lust. His skin glowed red in the light of the campfire. His long hair swayed as he rutted.
Lucan kept his fingers busy tormenting her clit. Roark expertly manipulated her nipples. With so many pleasure points ravished at the same time, Delaney found herself making that treacherous climb to orgasm again. Their desire for her was palpable. It fed her and found her and shook her to the roots. The pressure created by Wolf’s heavy cock and Lucan’s talented fingers drove her over the edge. She cried out as Wolf pumped her furiously and those fingers went mad on her clit. Then Roark took over, working his magic on her clit while Lucan held her thighs open. Being forced to take Wolf even deeper sent her over again. The eroticism of submission reached her deep, a layer to her sexuality she had never known existed until recently.
Wolf ached to come, she could tell. But Roark and Lucan clearly wanted a turn. She both wanted and feared what they might do to her next.
With his great strength, Lucan flipped her over and then groaned as he lowered her onto his thick shaft. Her walls had to stretch to accommodate him. This time, Roark moved behind her. He had something in his hand. A bottle, perhaps. She heard him squeeze it, then coat his tool with what she thought must be a lubricant they brought with them. Which meant…
“I’m not sure I can do this,” she said, almost as though she were pleading.
“It will hurt,” Roark said. “But I suspect tha
t Jaden has been preparing you. I think you will learn to crave it.”
It shocked her to hear the same words out of their mouths that had been in Jaden’s. What he’d said was true. She did crave it.
With barely concealed excitement, Roark anointed her asshole with lubricant. Lucan put his thumb on her clit again and found her sweet spot. She knew they were conditioning her to take two cocks at the same time, much in the same way Jaden had conditioned her to crave anal penetration. She closed her eyes and focused on the pleasure, not the fear.
“Spread her ass,” Roark muttered to Wolf. She felt strong hands parting her cheeks. Roark positioned himself and, with a growl of satisfaction, breached her. She cried out. Their size was too much. Both men added their deep groans of pleasure to her whimpers of pain.
Lucan increased the pressure of his thumb to help push her past the resistance. “Breathe,” he said. “I know it takes getting used to. You’ve got two huge cocks inside you right now.”
“It hurts so much,” she gasped.
“You’ve never done this before.”
Delaney did as he told her. She took a shaky breath, and then another. Roark penetrated her a little deeper, moaning. Then Lucan. Now Roark. They took their time, but within a few minutes, both were thrusting in and out of her ass and pussy. Lucan let Wolf rub her clit while he worked her up and down on his cock. When she was fully impaled, Roark pulled halfway out and let Lucan take point. The friction was the unbearably hot. Her eyelids grew heavy. She found herself craving the grind of two cocks separated by a thin membrane. When this orgasm came, it was going to wreck her.
Wolf knew she no longer needed his assistance. Instead, he stood in front of her, clasped her face in both hands, and pumped her willing mouth. With the bulbous head of Roark’s cock ramrodding her narrow channel, and Lucan forcing her to accept his full length, Delaney’s climax ripped through her. All at once, they both went deep. She was lost, floating somewhere above her body, suspended in ecstasy. Dimly, she heard them groaning as they simultaneously filled her with come. Then Wolf erupted, and she drank spurt after spurt of his hot sweet juice. The rawness of four simultaneous orgasms swept them up all at once, blew the walls off, held them and crushed them and made them new again.
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