by Marata Eros
“Am I so repugnant?” he asks. His voice is so soft.
It should put her at ease, yet Seraphina only hears the menace.
She shakes her head.
“What is it then, black sparrow?”
Seraphina blinks and takes a breath. Lets it out. “I do not want to be raped.”
His brows fall like a brick. He grabs her around the neck and hauls her against him. His massive hand almost meets around it.
“I do not rape.”
Seraphina cannot breathe. Spots dance before her eyes.
Altho releases her, and she stumbles away. Her hand finds the chair, and his robe beneath her fingers is scratchy and unpleasant.
“And what is that?” she asks.
Altho smiles. “Mercy.”
Seraphina backs away.
“You will beg, my Druid. For my attentions. Beg,” he emphasizes in a clipped one-syllable hammer.
Seraphina straightens. “I am Druid. It is not in my nature to beg for sex. It is in a male's nature to grovel for what my sex offers.”
She smiles back, though his rough treatment has given her pause.
She feels a game has been called.
A challenge.
Altho has declared his intent to make her want him, and she will do everything within her power to resist him. Her gaze latches onto his scarred face. His hot temper and arrogance simmer like a pot come to boil.
Seraphina decides he needs a lesson.
He laughs.
“I do not grovel.”
It is Seraphina's turn to narrow her eyes. “You shall.”
His smile fades, replaced by a look she has seen on many before.
Determination.
CHAPTER FIVE
Baird
He and the mixed-blood move fast. Tired, desperate and blood weakened, they find themselves barely able to race to the Sacred Stone.
Siana will not be in the same condition. Though exhaustion may play a part in her tiredness, her need for blood will be less than their own.
Pure-blood Exotics drink infrequently. However, the zombie priests offer nothing to feed from. Contact with the zombies can poison a vampire.
Baird redoubles his speed.
Kael sounds like a wind tunnel beside him.
They slow as the great oaks whistle their leaves in greeting. Baird and Kael bend over, palms on their knees, sucking lungfuls of air.
“Weak,” Kael said.
Baird nods. “We need blood.”
Kael shakes his head, and his lips twitch. “The undead make a poor meal.”
Baird gives a tired laugh. “Yes. Perhaps Siana can provide if we can save her.”
Kael nods, straightening. “Let us make our way.”
Baird shares a moment's stare with Kael, their thoughts the same. After a nod, they bleed through the forest like a scent on the air.
Baird hates how weak they are. He loathes they might be too late.
When he catches sight of Siana, his battle for stealth is lost.
Her chained and spread-eagled body slides back and forth on the stone as a zombie mouth-fucks her. Another has his hand in her pussy.
Kael's hiss echoes Baird's.
They spring, taking the undead by surprise.
*
Baird moves in a blur of vampiric speed. He believes he is too tired to move at that quickly, yet faced with the terrible vision of Siana's degradation, he does.
He slams into the undead fuck so hard, he knocks the zombie’s teeth loose. They fly out his mouth and ping off the stone. Siana gives a full-throated scream, her mouth free of cock.
Baird rolls with the zombie, grabbing his head as he attempts to tear it off.
The zombie reaches around Baird's waist and squeezes.
Breath leaves him.
So strong.
There is only one thing left for Baird to do. His fangs burst out of his gums, and he swipes against the new dead's neck. The head comes off but for a string of sinew.
The zombie’s arms release, grappling for his own head. Baird takes a shaky step backward, whirling to catch sight of Kael.
The zombie who had his fingers buried inside Siana has lost the offending limb. His hand lies twitching at the foot of the stone slab.
Kael twirls the rest of the zombie’s arm above his head. He slams the ball joint into the zombie's jaw in an uppercut so expertly placed, the head tips until the back of his skull falls between his shoulder blades.
Kael flat-palms the undead in the chest, and he flies off the stone, landing against his comrades.
They fall, and Baird runs, leaping into the throng.
Kael joins, and the minutes fill with the black blood of the undead. They save the prick-less priest for last and do him slow.
When he is nothing but a jerking mass of undead flesh too disconnected to move as a unit, they go to Siana.
Kael and Baird's eyes meet above her body.
Siana lies dying.
*
“It is the disease of the undead,” Kael says, his misery permeating every word.
Baird nods. He has heard of such things, but to see it up close, in the woman he hoped to have, is untenable.
Kael brushes the damp curls from Siana’s face.
Her wild eyes meet theirs.
“I feel strange.” Her veins pulsate beneath her skin. Veins once bluish-green with pure blood are deepening to a bruised plum.
Soon they’ll be like ink.
“The zombies’ touch has poisoned you,” Kael explains.
Siana swallows, and Baird sees her tongue is turning from pink to black.
Death by zombie cock.
That she would live through so much, only to be degraded by the undead and die from zombie rot… it is not an end he will allow.
“What can be done?” Baird asks Kael.
Kael closes his eyes for a long moment. When they open, they are sad.
“All we can hope is that a fucking will purge the undead poison.”
Baird staggers back.
“We must take turns rutting with Siana for her to be well?”
Kael nods. “It is all I know that could work. Of course, you must be aware we could also be similarly infected.”
It is hopeless.
Baird glowers.
Siana's feverish eyes latch on to his. “Let me die. I do not want my first time with a man to be on the Sacred Stone after being subjected to”—she coughs—“undead pillage.”
“Your first time?” Baird asks, shocked.
She nods, turning her face away to look in Kael's direction.
Baird gently moves her face back toward his. The rot spreads underneath her skin as they look. “Why did you not tell me?”
Siana sighs, closing her eyes. “You did not listen.”
Kael jumps on top of the stone and jerks down his breeches, his cock springing free. “You ruminate about decisions. I’ll fuck this breeder and hope to save her life while you worry about your precious ego.”
Siana looks away from Baird.
“Siana,” Kael says.
Baird hears her whispered affirmative.
“Let me lay with you, breeder. Let me take this pain away.”
“I am pure.”
“It matters not.” Kael shoots Baird a look of pure disdain.
Baird backs away.
What if he tries to save her and she dies anyway? Baird cannot stand the thought that in fucking her, he could kill her.
He cannot allow Kael to do it either.
But Kael does not waste time. His prick is poised outside her spread entrance.
And goddess help him, Baird’s dick hardens at the sight of those pink folds, helpless and wet—spread for their taking.
Only the edges are black.
Kael's gaze glitters at Baird. “If one zombie had fucked her, she would be gone even now. There is no time. Do not interrupt if you have even a seed of care for our queen.” With that, he shoves his cock to the hilt in Siana.
&nb
sp; She bellows into the still air. Birds fly off in a startled swarm.
Kael's head is thrown back in frozen ecstasy. “Good... so good.”
His hips move, and Baird is helpless to turn away. The beautiful Druid he is supposed to fuck, to mate with, is spread beneath another.
Siana's legs and arms are bound by the chains, but she manages to lift her hips, meeting each stab of Kael's meat.
Siana moans.
It does not sound like sickness but pleasure.
Kael gasps, “Baird, her mouth. Fuck it so that the rot is expunged.”
Baird stays where he is.
“Baird!”
His feet robotically plod forward.
He hops to the head of the stone, Siana in the throes of sexual frenzy.
Baird watches him work toward his own release.
Siana's eyes widen as Baird takes a hold of his cock, taking in the erotic image of Siana's consumption by a vampire he hates.
A vampire that now owns her virginity.
Baird beats his cock, punishing himself with each stroke. When he cannot stand it any longer, he grasps Siana's head and plows inside her soft mouth.
Once, twice... three strokes, and cum explodes inside her. Kael shouts as his own release blows.
Her shouts are muffled as they finish within the deep trenches of her cunt and mouth.
Kael withdraws and sits back on his haunches.
Baird crawls from Siana's head to where Kael sits.
With a rough shove, Baird pushes him aside.
Cum runs out of her sweet cunt.
Raw and pink, blood laces the cream.
Her virginity.
And still he wants her. Siana's eyes lock on his. Condemnation and disdain meet his glare.
His prick hardens and moves unerringly to her entrance.
He enters her, and it feels as if he has come home.
Nothing else matters: her feelings, the circumstance, his assumptions.
His hips move as he buries himself inside her again and again.
CHAPTER SIX
Siana
Baird grunts above her, hammering inside her sore pussy with no regard to anything.
Siana turns her face away, letting him have her.
She has no choice.
Kael moves into her line of sight. His eyes flick to Baird above her. Kael cups her head, and she turns her cheek inside it.
Baird finishes with a lustful grunt. He hangs above her, and Siana lies there, letting him do whatever he needs to.
Kael maintains eye contact with her.
Baird climbs off, and her chains rattle with the movement.
Kael says, “Let us unbind Siana.”
The vampires work to free her.
When the last chain falls away, Siana remains still.
“What is wrong with her?” Baird asks.
“She was kidnapped by her former assailants, recaptured, and sexually abused by zombies. Then…” Kael’s sarcasm is thick in Siana's ears, though Siana does not bother looking at either of them. “Her virginity was torn from her in a bid to save her life from a death by disease and agony.”
Silence.
“She might be suffering some shock, Baird.”
Kael gathers her from the stone. She looks up into eyes that mimic a Reaper’s, though he has very little blood of their blood. Genetics are a bizarre combination.
His eyes are kind, but his words are hard. “We need blood. We are powerless to protect you without it.”
Siana understands. She does. She gives the barest nod of assent.
But as they feed from her, tears collect in the hollows of her ears and collarbone. The river of her sadness eventually travels between her breasts and touches their lips as they suckle from her wrists.
Baird lifts his mouth from her wrist as Kael mirrors him on the other side.
“This has not gone well,” Kael says.
Baird nods.
They have done nothing but treat a queen as a whore.
Siana wonders about Baird's feelings. His is expression blank. Does he feel vindicated?
Remorseful? No—never that. He will justify everything while not apologizing for his part in her degradation.
Baird asks, “Siana, open your mouth.”
She does.
Kael whistles in relief. “It is normal again.”
Baird asks, “Should we look at her pussy?”
Siana finds strength to laugh. “Of course! Why not? Look at my cunt, the very one you just plundered like you were a rabid dog.”
Baird's face appears above hers, bright red from her blood. “I did not take you to hurt you, but to help you so you would not perish.”
Siana nods. “Sure. Kael fucking me while I was chained was not enough assurance, Baird.”
“It was not!” he screams.
His breath tastes of her as it caresses her face.
She closes her eyes against his rage. “Just look at me and be done with it.”
She feels fingers probe her gently.
“Nothing,” Kael says with relief.
“I hope your prick rots off, Baird,” Siana says quietly.
There is no rebuttal for that. One of them picks her up, and she is in motion.
No one comments on her fresh tears.
*
Baird
Baird has never, in the many centuries of his existence, felt so bereft.
I should not have fucked her.
But if he had not impaled Siana, she might even now be dead. Kael's rut alone was not enough assurance of her wellness for Baird, but because of his earlier skepticism, he would not be seen in any light but that of opportunistic rapist.
The final insult was taking her blood.
It would be a difficult hole to climb out of.
They travel to the Druid temple once more. The pale white of dawn spreads over the treetops like melting ice as they move through the beaten front door.
Baird makes haste depositing the door inside the hole. He will not make any repairs this day. He will get Siana bathed and tucked inside a chamber so she can rest and heal.
Baird runs the bathwater, depositing lavender crystals in the heated stream.
He waits outside of the bedroom where Kael speaks softly with her.
“It is ready,” Baird says in a clear voice.
“Get out, Baird,” Siana says when she sees him.
But Baird does not leave. He notes her clinging weakly to Kael as he gently lowers her into the bathwater.
Kael’s eyes meet Baird’s.
“I will stay with her. Perhaps... you can find sustenance?”
Baird glares, pivoting on his heel, and stomps out.
He flies down the curving staircase, his nose easily finding the food.
Much of what lies inside the icebox is spoiled. He drains the pan of melted water at the bottom, sighing.
Some dried goods remain whole and fresh, and Baird assembles an assortment.
He blurs upstairs. Siana is already in Imogen's old bed chamber.
“This will not be permanent,” Baird says, looking around at the compromised temple.
“That is fine. Leave,” Siana says.
He sets the plate of food beside her. Siana tears into the bread lathered in butter.
“No fresh food? Just day-old bread?”
Baird shakes his head, setting his teeth.
“Baird speaks true. We must take you into the shelter of the rogue until we can find and secure the rest of the Druid females.”
“Reaper.” Baird can feel the hardness of the glance he gives Kael.
“Really, Baird?” Kael asks.
Siana nods.
Baird's hands become fists. “Really. Maghnus, Carrig and Quinn would be awaiting word of what has become of us? If we have found Siana. We are fifteen Reapers strong. And what of the rogue, Kael?”
“Our numbers are similar.”
Baird frowns as Kael grins.
“I don't need either one of you. I w
ill find my Druid sisters on my own. We will begin again somewhere new.” Siana gazes around sadly. “A place without the terrible memories I now hold of this temple.”
“You need male protection...”
Siana swivels to look at Kael. “No. I appreciate your sacrifice in saving me.” Her gold-green eyes flash like peridots. “However, I am Exotic—a warrior. I cannot hide behind the swords of men. I must make my own way, take up where the traitor Jessamine left us.”
Kael's hands take Siana's. “Let us protect you, please.”
Her chin lowers to her chest, teeth clench. When she finally looks up, her eyes are resolute.
“No, Kael. I have learned many things these past hours, but the greatest lesson is everyone needs to use everyone.”
She does not look at Baird as she says those words, yet he knows they are for him and him alone.
“I was dying from zombie rot. You both fucked me.”
Baird watches a tear bathe her cheek. His chest becomes unbearably tight.
“Then after the progression of the disease was arrested—you needed blood. I gave it.” She shrugs as though the events of the last twenty-four hours were not so horrific.
“Now I have been returned to my original home. I shall eat then sleep. Then I will return here no more.”
“We cannot force you,” were Baird's first words to her.
She swings her face toward his, her eyes hard with anger. “That is true. You cannot force me.”
So much goes unsaid.
Baird leans forward and she retreats. Instead of giving her the gentle kiss he intends, he stands.
“I will do as you wish, Siana—and I wish you well.” Baird's breath sticks in his throat with the words.
He hates how convoluted the situation has become. His role is clear to him: he is taken with the Druid queen. He has tasted of her sweet flesh and found it fine.
But Siana has spit him out.
Her hand is laced with Kael’s, and Baird turns away without a word.
She does not want him.
Baird fucked her to save her. His normal care and finesse was buried underneath his desperation to finish so she might live.
Now he must leave her behind because he is a pariah in her eyes. Really, he has been acting for her benefit from the beginning.
He keeps moving, blocking out everything but the thoughts won't leave his mind.
