Two Kiss: An Apocalyptic Urban Fantasy (Transmissions from the International Council for the Exploration of the Universe Book 2)

by E. J. Kimelman

  "Shhh," I heard Megan say, her cool fingers on my cheek again. "Sleep."

  And I did.

  <<<<>>>>

  "How long did you sleep?" I asked, wanting to confirm our belief that they'd kept her there for days. That she'd slept for at least a week.

  She laughed. "You still measure time? I've let that go."

  <<<<>>>>

  CHAPTER FOUR

  When I woke my limbs felt heavy. I didn't open my eyes right away, just sunk into the lethargy that I felt. As my awareness broadened, disorientation set in. The question Where am I? floated across my consciousness. Wriggling my toes against the soft sheets, blinking my eyes open, seeing violet curtains, understanding bloomed. The whole truth of it vibrated in my cells. The whole world had gone mad. Making me normal.

  When I climbed out of the bed, my legs almost buckled under me. Using the bed for support I walked around it and stumbled toward the mirror. Sitting on the cushioned stool in front of it, I looked at myself. Bright eyes, long dark hair, lips: plump and rosy. Naked except for my panties. The site of my own flesh turned me on. My nipples hardened under my gaze.

  I tried to sense if I was under another being’s control. It felt as though there was a bind on me, like a tourniquet cutting off blood supply. A sense that there was more of me, but I couldn't reach it.

  Swiveling on the seat I looked around the room for my clothes. I stood up using the makeup table for support and reached out toward the bed. My vision darkened at the edges and I paused, regaining my balance. There was a robe on the couch. A silver carafe and white china cup sat on the low table. Steadier, I crossed the room, picking up the robe and shrugging into it. It was thin cotton, pure white, with a thick black tie.

  I headed for the door, wanting to find Megan, ready to leave this place. I needed to go home, shower, think about all this without their influence. Turning the knob on my door I found it locked. I dropped my hand from the brass. A subtle vibration of fear passed through me, raising goose bumps across my flesh but it faded, leaving me calm and thirsty.

  Walking back over to the small couch I sat down and picked up the silver carafe. Popping open the lid I confirmed it was coffee before pouring myself a cup. No milk or sugar was provided so I drank it black, waiting in the big room, my mind an almost pleasant blank... except for a small, persistent ache at my nipples and between my thighs.

  Hearing footsteps in the hall I put down my cup and looked at the door. The clinkety-click of a key opening a lock preceded the knob turning and Megan walking in. She was carrying a plate piled high with pastries. "I brought you some breakfast," she said, closing the door behind her.

  "Am I a prisoner?" I asked as she crossed the room.

  "No, of course not."

  "Then why is my door locked?"

  Megan put the plate on the table next to the carafe of coffee. "I just didn't want you wandering around while I was gone," she said, sitting down next to me.

  "You say that so casually," I pointed out.

  Silence filled the room. I felt like a kaleidoscope, my thoughts colorful and fragmented, parts of a whole I could not make out. "Can I go home?" I asked.

  "It's too dangerous," she said.

  "What if you came with me?"

  She shook her head. "I can't, Darling," she took one of my hands in hers. "I really think you should change," she said. "Become a vampire. You'll be safe."

  "What is it like to be fed on?" I asked.

  Megan dropped my hand and turned away from me. "I don't know exactly, no one ever fed on me."

  "What does it feel like to feed?"

  "It's the best feeling I've ever felt," Megan said, not looking at me.

  "Will you feed on me?"

  "It's like sex, Darling, really, it is," she looked up at me. "Dirtier than sex."

  "Dangerous?" I asked.

  "The closer to death I take a human, the better it feels," she said, her fangs descending.

  "What if you killed them?"

  "That's the ultimate."

  "Have you?"

  She nodded. "I didn't understand. At first."

  "Does your father?"

  "It's against our religion."

  "That sounds ridiculous."

  "I know."

  "Feed on me."

  "I want to," she said, her fangs fully descended, pushing into her lower lip.

  "Do it," I said, pushing my hair aside, exposing my neck to her, lowering my right ear to my shoulder. She looked at my pulse, I could feel her gaze on it.

  Then she was piercing me. Her hands inside my robe, holding my bare back, pressing my breast against her shirt, ravaging my neck. I could feel her taking from me. It was the most true our relationship had ever been. I was nourishing her. She was taking the excess in me and turning it into fuel. Into life.

  She broke away from my neck and looked down at me. I felt warm blood from the wound drip into the well of my clavicle, then slip down my chest, traveling between my exposed breasts. Megan's eyes burned into mine for a moment. Then she lowered her face, lapping at my clavicle, sucking up the blood caught there. Her lips cold against my fevered skin.

  She travelled down, nipping at my breasts, laving the blood between them. Megan continued lower, her hands pushing my thighs wide. I shuddered, pleasure and expectation humming inside me. I moaned and let my head fall back against the pillow, watching her was about to make me explode. I felt blood pumping out of the wound, winding down my chest, hot and fast.

  Megan stopped and I opened my eyes. She was looking at the door, her lips inches away from me. Her fingers tightened on my thighs, pushing my legs even wider. I whimpered. And she stood up quickly, releasing me. I could feel waves of want pulsing off of her. "Cover yourself," she said, her attention riveted on the closed door.

  My legs snapped shut and I sat up, pulling the robe back around me. The door opened and Pearl entered. She smiled when she saw me. "You look beautiful so bloody," she said, her voice warm. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but your father needs to see you, Megan."

  "I will be right down."

  "Don't keep him waiting, Megan."

  "I won't."

  "She's about to bleed to death," Pearl said, nodding her chin at me before stepping back into the hall, leaving the door ajar.

  Megan turned to me. "Oh, God, I'm so sorry," she said.

  I looked down at myself. The white robe was soaked with bright red blood. I lifted my hand to touch the wound but Megan stopped me, taking hold of my wrist. I felt my pulse against her strong, cold fingers. She leaned forward and licked the wound, it hurt and stung, and I felt the skin transforming, closing. It felt tight, like a scar.

  "Thank you," she whispered into my ear before standing up again. "I have to go."

  "Wait, Megan, please," I said, grabbing at her hand before she could walk away. "Please let me go home. I need to be alone, I need to think." I pleaded looking up at her.

  She pursed her lips and shook her head. "It's not safe."

  "Let Darling go home," came a voice from the door. I looked over and saw Megan's father leaning in the frame.

  "But if she is bitten..." Megan said.

  "Then her decision will be made," he answered. "Dimitri will take her. Megan come with me now."

  She stepped toward him but turned to me before continuing. "Please," she begged. "Don't go. For me."

  I'd never refused Megan anything. Our entire relationship I'd worshiped her, wanting only her happiness and comfort. To nourish her. "I can't Megan. I'm so sorry you died. I'm so sorry I couldn't save you."

  "Now," her father said, his voice pulling Megan away from me. She stumbled toward him and they left, the door still open to the hall.

  I don't know how long I sat there before Dimitri showed up. "She fed from you," he said from the door.

  I looked up at him, the world fuzzy.

  "Dimitri," I whispered.

  "She took too much," he said before blurring across the room, stopping in front of me.

  "I can
handle it," I said.

  "You can't. You are a human. Weak and fragile."

  I looked up at him, hardening my gaze. "You don't know me."

  A smile twisted his lips but it did not extend to his eyes. "Megan is young and does not know how to keep you. If you were mine I'd never let this happen."

  I tried to stand, to show him I wasn't some weak little human but I didn't get far. He caught me, his face suddenly close. He was looking at my neck. "She left a mark," he said, shaking his head. "Such a shame."

  "It's none of your concern," I said, feeling angry. Who was he to say my best friend wasn't a good vampire?

  "Calm down," he said, and I instantly felt numb again.

  "Boring," I said.

  His eyes leapt to mine, his brows raising. "Boring?" he asked.

  "This numbness you're giving me," I said, his lips close to mine. "It's boring."

  "What would you like?" he asked, that little smile crossing his lips. I didn't answer, just looked at his mouth, remembering how good it felt to suck on his lips. I felt his influence receding, seeming to flow out of me, and in its wake my own emotions tumbled out, tearing through me, too fast, too many. I squeezed my eyes shut feeling pain lance through my brain, my chest, my neck, everywhere. "Is that boring?" he asked, his voice laced with amusement.

  "It hurts," I said.

  "How very human of you."

  "Fuck you," I said, trying to push away from him but he held me tight, his fingers wrapped around my arms, keeping me in place.

  "You need a bath," he said and swung me up into his arms. I didn't have the strength to fight him. Hot tears pooled in my eyes and started down my cheeks. I turned my face into his chest and let the sobs come. "Shh," he said. "If you're going to cry like this, how will I trust you with your own emotions?" he asked. He shook his head. "If you were mine this would not be so."

  "I wish I was mine," I said into his chest, my fingers bunching in his shirt.

  He stopped walking and I felt him looking down at me. I peeked a glance at him, sniffling. His eyes flashed grey and he licked his lips. "What did you say?" he asked, his voice low. I didn't answer. "You wish you were mine?" he asked, his voice filled with something that sounded a lot like hope.

  "I wish I was mine," I said. "That I belonged to me."

  His lips tightened and his eyes shuttered. "This is the wrong world for that," he said.

  I reached up, running my fingers into his hair and pulling him toward me. Dimitri did not resist. His grip on me grew tighter as the kiss deepened. I felt that energy again. I broke free from him. Dimitri looked down at me, confusion and lust warring on his face. "What are you doing?" he asked. "You are Megan's."

  "No, Dimitri. I'm mine."

  He kissed me, squeezing me tight against his chest, so that I could barely breathe. I wondered for a moment if he would crush me. He could, I thought. Dimitri's strength was such that he could crack my bones, press the air out of my lungs, murder me with one embrace. That thought sent zings of lust through me. His influence seemed to be floating over my skin. Entering me, taking away the confusion and shame I usually felt while in the arms of a man. But he wasn't a man. Dimitri was totally different than a human. I couldn't suck the life out of him. It was already gone.

  He groaned against my lips and pulled away from me. "Take me back to the bed," I said. His hair floated around his head he moved so fast. The sensation of unnatural speed, in his arms, felt totally right.

  Dimitri laid me on the bed, his weight suspended above me. His eyes, so blue, so pale, so cold searched my face. I reached up and cupped his cheek again, pulling him closer. The vampire did not resist. And when our lips touched, I breathed in, and that current of energy flowed between us, strong and nourishing.

  His hands opened my robe and found my breasts. His low guttural groan was human in its desperation. "My God," he said, "you are not like any other woman I've ever touched." He spoke against my neck as he kissed down toward my breasts, following the trail of dried blood. Where Megan's lips had caressed me so recently.

  He pulled one of my nipples between his teeth, I felt his fangs scrape against the sensitive flesh and bowed up toward the wet, warm, incredible touch. His tongue swirled around, rough and tantalizing. With his left hand clamped around the breast he sucked on, his right traveled down my body, wrapping around my thigh. Then paused.

  Dimitri slowly, luxuriously let his fingers slide closer, so that I moaned and pressed myself against him. "Impatient?" he said against my breast.

  "I need you," I said. It was true. There was something I needed from him. I'd never known how much I'd need this touch, that taste.

  Dimitri moaned against my skin, his lips traveling down. The saliva on my breast caught the air, perking my nipple even harder, so that it almost hurt. His fingers crept closer to my center and I arched uncontrollably.

  Dimitri's palm flattened on my stomach and pushed me down. Frustration lanced through me as he blew gently between my thighs, sending desire spiking through me so that sweat broke out on my brow even as goose bumps raised across my sensitized flesh.

  I wanted him so badly. It felt like there would never be an end to this torture. And then his mouth was closer, his lips just touching me. So soft. His hands wrapped around my thighs and spread me. Then his tongue flattened against me, pressed and licked.

  I reached out with my mind, urging him on, urging him to take me harder, to end this ache inside of me and suddenly, almost as if I'd made it happen he was diving into me. Roughly two, then three fingers slammed into me, his tongue lapped at me. I cried out in shock and pleasure. His free hand reached up and bent my knee, pressing it away to provide him better access.

  I screamed out as an orgasm exploded through me. Then his mouth was on mine and I could taste myself and I felt out of control. I yanked at his shirt, wanting him naked, wanting his smooth, hard flesh pressing against me. Dimitri tore off his clothing and pulled me to the end of the bed.

  He spread my legs, positioning himself between them and then didn't even pause before slamming into me. I cried out from the mix of pain and pleasure. He was looking down at the connection between us, his face unreadable, a stone sculpture. I leaned my head back, closed my eyes.

  I wanted more, I wanted it faster and harder. It seemed like I could never get enough, that there was no amount of this that I could not take. That I could not absorb. Each thrust filled me with desire, filled me with energy, so that I felt totally alive.

  The connection between us wasn't just between our legs. I felt his influence, his mind, curling around mine, looking for ways in, for what I wanted. Would it be possible for me to control him? Keeping my eyes closed I pictured what I wanted. For him to pick me up, throw me up against a wall, and fuck me until there was nothing but the explosions of satisfaction that I knew would come.

  His arms were suddenly around me and then my back hit the wall. My head cradled by his strong hand. Dimitri pressed himself up against me, his body solid, perfect, hard and thrusting. My legs were wrapped around his waist and the speed at which he fucked me wasn't human. But he held me so tight, one hand around the back of my head the other holding onto my ass. Energy built in me and I reached forward, grabbing his lips into a kiss. I breathed him in and he let me. He let me take everything from him.

  My orgasm ripped through me and he broke the kiss. Looking at me, his eyes flashing grey and ice blue as he watch me come. The orgasm seemed to go on and on. The speed at which he'd brought me to it compared to the length of the experience making me feel as though time was no longer what I'd believed it to be. Nothing was as I believed it to be.

  He looked at me confused, pained, out of control... or under mine? His fangs out, pressing into his bottom lip he kept pounding into me, then reared back. I felt his influence as he tried to turn my head, expose my neck. But I didn't want him to bite me. "No," I whispered. "Come without it." His body shuddered, and with one final thrust he pushed himself so deep inside of me, and I felt his body shak
e. Dimitri pressed his lips to mine. That link between us was brighter than ever.

  He pulled back. There was a flush to his cheeks, his eyes grey, bright, human almost. My heart was beating in my chest, pounding against my ribs, pumping blood through my veins at incredible speed. I reached up and touched his face and I felt that beat, that thump, leap into him for a moment. Dimitri flinched away and when he looked back his eyes were cold again. Ice blue and empty.

  <<<<>>>>

  I was leaning forward on my seat, elbows on the table, hanging on every world she said, lost in the story when she caught my eye and I flushed, turning away. "Does my story turn you on?" Darling asked me, her smile small but knowing.

  "What happened next?" I asked.

  "Dimitri drove me home."

  <<<<>>>>

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The car rumbled to life. The wheels crunched over gravel and then we were on paved roads, the car humming along. I wrapped my arms around myself, closing my eyes behind the blindfold. Energy vibrated through my entire body.

  I wore a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt that Dimitri gave me. They were Megan's, I could smell her on them. And that wasn't the only thing I could smell. I could smell my sweat on Dimitri's skin. I'd showered but he just dressed in a pale blue collared shirt with a navy linen vest and matching pants. I thought he might be the most statuesque and elegant thing I'd ever seen.

  Dimitri laid a hand on my thigh and I instantly felt calmer and duller. "Stop it," I said through the hood.

  "But I like to touch you."

  I felt that sensation again, the one Pearl settled on me, that bell of truth. "How can Megan love me?" I asked.

  "What do you mean?" His voice was even but I could feel a tremor in it. Subtle, but, I thought, very much there.

  "She still loves me, but you can't love. Vampires can't love."

  "How do you know that?"

  "I could see it in her eyes," I said. "Feel it against my skin, sense it in the path of her tongue, divine it from the crushing pull of her fangs."