Escape To Vampire Dam (Dark Heart Heroes Book 1)

by S. N. McKibben

  I watched as Stumpy chin-crawled in the night.

  I couldn’t see what had Jason on edge. I could barely make out flat ground, no trees, no bushes, a clearing of a forty-meter circle.

  A shadow struck the zombie.

  The thing was so fast I couldn’t tell where it came from. Stubby got churned into chum. Itty bitty pieces fit for cod. Fleshy droppings rained from the sky.

  Jason held me tighter and I held in my squeaks of terror. When I got Yiran home, we were never leaving the dam again.

  The air felt thick and the silence came back. It was Jason that made the air go silent. Things started making sense. My ears never rang after I’d shot the zombie fifties mom with his gun. The reason why I couldn’t hear myself climb up the tree after being chased by Manny, Moe and Curly.

  He lifted me in his arms and ran.

  We retraced the ten miles we had come for all I knew. I closed my eyes after the first few seconds of nauseating tree blur. After a lifetime of motion, Jason finally stopped.

  "What was that thing?"

  He set me down, but I kept my arms around his neck.

  "Perennials." Ass-wad's arms encircled me. "I'm sorry, Noir, but if Yiran is down there..." He shook his head.

  I broke off the hug and he released me. "If my son is down there, I'm going to get him out."

  Jason smoothed over his short hair with a hand. "Perennials aren't just vampires, they're monsters. Something in between sentient and savage. They're like Tasmanian devils on crack."

  His assessment wasn't far off from what I'd seen. "If they're vampires they are still allergic to sunlight."

  He nodded. "True. But they don't exactly let their victims roam around in the sun either."

  I inhaled and closed my eyes. "Tell me what you know." I opened my eyes to a very sullen vampire.

  "They like to be deep underground. That hole is maybe twenty feet under." Jason dropped the pack off his shoulders. "They like to victimize their prey. They don't play nice."

  As he spoke, ire and resignation glowed off his face. "I can see none of this is getting through."

  The breeze lifted and his vampuric scent lingered in my nose, a combination of jasmine incense and sleepy-time tea.

  Jason's back stayed ram-rod straight as he crouched down to his pack and pulled out the sleeper bag. In minutes he had it strapped up and released the rope ladder.

  “Hey!” I grabbed the ladder.. “Did you know about this yesterday?” Was Ass-wad messing with me?

  "Come on." He waved. "Up."

  "Why?" But I was already stepping up the rope ladder.

  "We have to strategize."

  Meaning he would tell me his plan of action while I sat up in a tree...waiting.

  When I reached the top, he pointed at the bag. "In."

  "Why?"

  Jason frowned. "You would not make a good soldier."

  "I never said I was a soldier."

  "You need sleep and I need to think."

  "I'm not tired."

  "You're going to need all your strength starting sun up."

  Whatever.

  I got in the bag and took off my shoes and shimmied out of my pants. Jason stepped in the bag while I still had one leg out of my jeans.

  "Excuse me but I thought you needed to think." I held on to the zipper part of the bag.

  "I think best when I don't have to worry about the outside world."

  Feeling a tad bit exposed with half my pants on I said, "There's not enough room for the both of us."

  "I'll leave the bag open." He sat himself down and lay back in the reclining position the sleeper was made for.

  I huffed. But getting out was going to be a chore and despite what I'd said earlier, I was tired. I sat down and slipped my other leg out of my pants. Nekkid.

  Jason maneuvered himself behind me. Those muscles of his were perfect. I leaned up against him on my side.

  He sighed in a mournful way and wrapped his arms around me.

  "What's your plan?"

  He gripped me tighter. "Just before dawn, I go in, make a distraction while you get as many humans out. Hopefully Yiran will get pulled out."

  "That's it?" I raised myself to look at him. "Hopefully Yiran will get pulled out?"

  "I'll be looking for him. If he’s in there, I will get him out."

  I lay back down. This whole situation was all kinds of messed up. I didn't even know if Yiran was down there. Yes, it was ten miles north of Big Paw, but...

  "Yiran sent the note by water, what if we..." Did what? What options did we have?

  Jason stroked my hair. "My way is the only way you have a chance at getting back home."

  My heart skipped. "You say that like you don't expect to escort me back."

  "I don't."

  It took a moment to sink in. I pulled away and sat on my knees. I couldn't see much in the dark, but I could feel his bent knees and legs encircling me.

  "Why would you do that?"

  The faint pinprick of light gleaming off his eyes darted around. He acted like a smitten teenager. That promise he made me say on the boat sunk in. Swear to me. You will not manipulate a situation.

  "Jason, are you bonded to me?"

  I was blind. With Calif's rules none of them ever made advances. They wanted more humans. The best way to get more humans was to breed humans. Things started clicking in place.

  "Answer me."

  The heat in his eyes was both angry and yearning. "Yes."

  I swore. "I'm not totally comfortable with this."

  "When I thought you were zombie bait..." Jason's voice cracked. He leaned forward and crushed me to him. His lips were at my ear when he said, "I'll do anything."

  My lips parted and my heart fluttered. How could a girl say no to that?

  I tilted my head and his mouth found mine. The control Jason usually possessed evaporated. That tongue of his deserved a passport stamp for all the different places it traveled in my mouth. Under my tongue, up and down my teeth, down my throat. His affections didn't exclude licking my neck, nipping my ears or biting along my chin. He lifted and settled me over him so my clit hit the bulge in his pants just right.

  "Calif's rules been hard on you." I ground down on him.

  He paused for a moment, resting his tongue on the hollow of my throat. "Like being married and never able to consummate." Pushing his hips up made me want to grind down harder.

  "Jason." I had to caution him. "If Calif asks, I'm not a liar."

  He smoothed over a lock of hair. "He'd know anyway."

  That was disturbing.

  "Stop."

  Jason removed his hands and leaned away from me.

  I struggled in the bag but got turned around and leaned my back against him. "We need you to survive the trip back. If you're reluctant to return after we get Yiran then…”

  “I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Jason wrapped his arms around me. “I’m going up against a clutch of Perennial bastards. I’ll be in their turf. Because I’m half starved, I’ll probably wind up turning into one of them.”

  That gave me something to think about.

  Jason shifted, rocking the canvas a little, and continued, “And if I get satisfaction, I gain enough strength to hold them off, but leave you weak. And if I make it back, I have consequences to serve.” Jason dipped his nose in my hair and breathed in. “But it’d be worth it.”

  His words echoed Frazier’s. It was worth it.

  Geez.

  His hand slipped up my t-shirt and this time his inspection focused solely on getting under my bra. His lips planted tender kisses on my neck. Fingers skimmed along the lines of my underwear both top and bottom. Jason was an octopus. Even the bulge in his pants caressed me.

  It felt so good but I’d seen what Calif did to Frazier. “Jason, I don’t want you to die.”

  The fingers slipping just under the top of my pantie line had me bucking.

  He l
aughed in my ear. “Give a dead man his dying wish.”

  Jason curled his ankles around and under the inside of my knees and parted my legs, effectively pinning my thighs.

  “Jason.”

  “Please, Noir. Calif won’t hurt you. But I need this.”

  I’ve never been particularly strong. Especially when a guy whispers all the right things.

  His fingers traveled farther down my panties.

  Desire crashed all thought on the rocks of pleasure. Coherent sentences were no longer possible.

  His other hand dived into my bra, fondling a breast that spilled over in his hand.

  I felt him take in a breath and then—silence. It was like listening to the hum of a radio during those few seconds where there was no broadcast. Only nobody was coming back to the microphone.

  The hand rimming my panties pushed deeper. The other flicked my nipples.

  I arched my back, pulling away from him.

  Fingers danced up my neck and lightly gripped, pulling my back to his chest.

  Everything was silent, but I could feel his chest rumble. I reached behind me and put my palm just under his chin. He kissed the tips of my fingers, and I could feel vibrations moving over his throat. Jason was a screamer.

  Dexterous fingers reached my folds and teeth nipped at the top of my ear. His grip on my throat was light and unobtrusive.

  “Lower,” I said, forgetting he couldn’t hear me.

  But his hand slid down farther and a finger slid back and forth over my slit.

  “Yes. Inside.” My voice didn’t hit my ears. Yet a finger slipped in.

  My moist welcome clamped down on the invited guest and vibrations rasped from Jason’s throat that never made sound. His chest moved. From the feel of it, he was panting. Slow undulating turned into wild pounding. Tilting my pelvis, hoping to give better access, Jason followed my lead and stroked me deeper. I met every inch of his middle digit but it wasn’t enough.

  His ankles pushed outward forcing my legs wider. Tilting my pelvis, I angled so he could get me just right. A thumb stroked my clit and I exploded. Screaming the tension out but not being able to hear it created a sensation of relief.

  We wouldn’t be heard and I could scream as loud as I wanted. I knew from Jason’s heaves that he bellowed out along with me. Warmth spread through my body. My heart beat elevated. Both our hips bumped together in frantic attempts to grind on the other.

  Lost. In the moment. Not thinking about anything but the next stroke, the climb that rose higher, the end that I never wanted to come yet yearned for the wash of ecstasy.

  “Not enough.” I pumped, but his fingers could only bring me so far.

  Jason grabbed my waist and kept me aloft.

  I didn’t hear the zipper of his fly or anything he said for that matter.

  The head of his dick was cool against the overbearing heat of my slick pussy. Taking him in was like taking in a marble dildo. Human guys are warm and stiff, covered by velvety softness. Jason absorbed my heat and had a hardness that gave way to no woman’s vagina. He let me guide him and made sure my impaling was slow and gentle. My inner walls coated him once, twice, three times, and then Jason gripped my thighs and went deeper but slower.

  His hand wrapped around my neck again.

  “Jason.” I protested at the slow pace.

  He lifted himself up and pressed his lips inside my ear.

  “I’m a jackhammer.” He breathed—and I could hear only his words.

  “Yes!” I tried slamming into him but he still had a hold with his one hand around my hips, the other laid gently around my throat.

  He shuffled us in the crowded bag so I was on my elbows and knees. Slow at first, he kept increasing pace. The piece of granite that was his cock didn’t yield and struck deeper and deeper.

  I widened myself open. Not just my legs, but the inside of my chest. My reward came as overlapping spikes of pleasure crashed over me.

  Hard thrusts rocked our cocoon. Again and again Jason knocked on the end of my inside wall. My chest tingled. My stomach felt like I was free falling. My pussy convulsed and I screamed from the rush of orgasm.

  Jason slowed his pace and kissed the crook of my neck. He removed that granite cock and I moaned. Fast as rope burn, I was spun around in the canvas sleeper and Jason was sliding me down that flag pole of a dick, smooth and easy.

  Kisses along my breasts, collar bone, and my neck helped my descent. Jack hammering commenced. Facing each other, still not able to hear him, but able to feel his breath on my neck I none-the-less moaned.

  His mouth lay over my throat. That jaw of his spanned from one side of my jugular to the other. Teeth scraped my skin. Lips suckled, making a perfect suction. A shot of fear ran down my spine. Throughout this, he pumped no faster and no slower.

  I waited for him to sink his teeth into me and crush my windpipe. This vulnerable situation tapered down from fear, to un-nerving, to realization. Jason wasn’t sinking his teeth into me because he was waiting for my consent.

  His hand reached up to the back of my head and pressed me harder into him. A cord of muscle wrapped around my waist and Jason started breathing, breaking the suction he had on my throat. I couldn’t hear, but my guess was he was pleading my name for permission.

  “Yes,” I conceded.

  Jason pumped and took one last breath before I felt a slight pinch. He slammed into my pussy hard once, twice, and then remained still. I could feel his marble dick spurting cum in time with his mouth drawling in my blood. It didn’t hurt, more felt like the soreness you got from a needle in your arm.

  Breathing was exhausting. I caressed my lover’s short brown hair, while long strokes of his tongue chased dribbles weeping down my neck.

  “Sleep,” he said.

  He got no argument from me.

  I woke from the un-dead of unconsciousness to long wet strokes of a tongue across my neck.

  “Hey.” I smiled.

  Jason pulled back and helped me get my clothes on.

  I gently probed my neck and felt puncture wounds. “I thought vampires healed wounds with your super saliva.”

  Jason snorted. “We’re predators, Noir. A tiger shark doesn’t cauterize the wound after he’s bitten off your arm.”

  “Comforting and charming.” I stepped out of the tree sleeper. “Stand back girls, he’s all mine.”

  That faint near non-existent smirk made an appearance and then faded.

  I climbed down the rope ladder and when my feet hit dirt, the ladder came down in a heap.

  Jason jumped off the branch and when he landed, he didn’t make a sound. A new and beautiful kind of presence permeated from my vampire. Beautiful because he seemed more dangerous and new because I'd never seen him with such purpose before. This new Jason made the old tight wad look lethargic. And maybe that's what he was, starving from the different hungers of flesh.

  In record time I coiled the rope and stuffed it in my backpack. It barely fit with my flashlight and water.

  We walked in silence to edge where forest fell and the forty-meter circle began.

  Jason turned those cloud-blue eyes to me. “If he’s in there I will get him out.”

  “I don’t like this plan.” I looked over at the mountain horizon. Pink rays cast tentative shoots of light.

  “You don’t have to.” Jason crouched down, back straight, and removed some kind of fur coat out of his bag. “Promise you will leave before noon.”

  I smiled braver than I felt. “We’ll meet you at the raft. Like I promised.”

  Jason shook head. “Don’t wait.”

  From his own pack, Jason brought out and shook the longest tan rug I’d ever seen. It was the skin of some kind of cat. The head and tail was still attached. The rugs white teeth gleamed in the morning light. Real daylight was about to peak over the crest.

  “What are you going to do with that?”

  He wrapped the hide around him and wore it like some…Indian shaman.

  Jason put
his arms around me. “I need every advantage I can get.”

  I opened my mouth to voice a smart-ass comment. Jason’s tongue prevented me from saying anything. He frenched me, making another ‘round the Noir’s insides’ in eighty seconds. Then he was gone.

  Drama king.

  He was going to be fine. That was all I could believe.

  What I saw next made me question my eyes. Jason bolted toward the entrance to the perennial’s lair with the cougar skin flapping around his body. But as he ran, the strangest thing happened. He became a cougar. As I watched, the cougar skin expanded. It wasn’t a man wearing a cougar skin that jumped into the Perennial’s lair. It was the real deal. It was a cougar. Huh.

  I stood there dumbfounded. I wasn’t sure I’d seen it. Trick of the light maybe. Jason being a vampire skin-walker just didn’t register. The marble cat he placed next to the totem pole—I thought it was some kind of gesture. But now…was he praying to some kind of cat god?

  A roar, something a lion might make, exploded from underground. Right, my cue to make with the ladder.

  Full daylight crept over the hole. Knowing I was safe from vampires I peeked down the pit.

  A dirty face and desperate eyes surfaced through the hollow.

  I squeaked and scrambled back. Hand on my chest I breathed to calm my heart beat. I prepared to run from a man eating horde but nothing crawled out.

  Those eyes. That look. That was a person, not a vampire. Not a zombie.

  I leaned forward and the face was still there. It was not Yiran. But he was human.

  Having faith that Jason took care of any of the Perennials on watch, I leaned further over the underground entrance.

  Two watery eyes stared back at me.

  First-face stared back at me. The man was death cold over. Drawn cheeks, greasy hair and his desolate expression brought heart-ache. Those eyes were dulled from greatly suffered travesties.

  "Hello?"

  The man stared at me. I must have looked like a wish.

  "Hello?" I said again.

  Shit. How was I going to get him out?

  "I'll be right back." I pushed off and turned to solve this latest difficulty.

  A wail pulled on the deepest parts of my humanity and I ran back to the hole. "I'll be right back, I swear."

  If it wasn't for the acoustics of the narrow tunnel, I wouldn't have understood the rasp of syllables. "It will be too late."