Even in Death

by Eden Wildblood

  “Now, each of you are to wait in your seats to be summoned by my assistant Bryn. Two names will be called at a time, and the person you are ushered forwards with is your fellow Supervisor. He will inform you which location you are to serve in, and will offer information to the new employees before sending you back to your seats together,” he informed the large group, and then turned to Wynter with a smile. “And I will see you all later, when dinner will be served.”

  ***

  Damn, he was good. Marcus sure had everyone wrapped around his little finger, and Wynter knew that included her. She was pleased he had responded so well to her having effectively interrupted his little speech, and was also glad to hear that he wasn’t only going to take a step back from micromanaging the entire operation, but that he was also planning to stay at the mansion with her. In spite of everything, she still wanted the two of them to stay there. She also still felt desperate to have him hold her close and make love to her again, and actually realised just how much she had indeed missed him.

  Without another word, he led her off the stage, out of the hall, and into his office.

  There, she perched against the solid wooden desk and watched him with a smile.

  “I know what you want,” she then whispered, watching as he delicately removed his jacket and tie, while she simply watched him, devouring the sight. Marcus was an older man, that much was true on many levels, but he was still well in his prime, and as he looked her up and down with those ice-blue eyes, Wynter knew she had been right.

  After her break and the self-imposed solitary confinement of the tree, she had awoken a new woman. She was strong enough to be everything she needed to be, and more. And that included giving herself to her husband in far more ways than just physically. The witch’s heart within her beat for him, and against all Wynter’s previous promises to both him and herself, her own was slowly starting to follow suit.

  “And what is it that I want?” he answered her, and then hissed when she transformed to her misty form for a second and then returned dressed in nothing but her high heels and a smile.

  Marcus fell to his knees before her, and as he shuffled towards her on them, he continued to undress himself. When he reached the floor by her feet, the vampire lunged for her, kissing and lapping his way up her thigh, and soon Wynter was grabbing at him, pulling him harder against her core while crying out with the pleasure he readily gave.

  When she came, he didn’t stop, and soon Marcus had her screaming for him. He then pushed her back onto the desk and was inside her within seconds, pounding into her hard and at speeds no human could ever handle, and she adored it.

  Their lovemaking was full of raw emotion and was the hardest he’d ever taken her, but it felt exactly what they both needed. And when they were eventually spent, he kissed her tenderly and then closed his eyes.

  Wynter was about to ask what was wrong, when Marcus whispered something she never thought she would hear. “I’m sorry…”

  Damn. She hadn’t expected that.

  “Thank you,” was all she could reply while forcing back her tears.

  In all their time together and all the things Marcus had done, he had never once shown her any remorse for them. And yet, he wanted to say this now? It was almost too little too late, but she didn’t want to make light of what it must have taken for him to finally say the words, and so she didn’t tell him to shove his apology up his backside. Part of her wanted to, but instead Wynter bit her tongue.

  “I mean it,” Marcus continued, and she opened her eyes, his bright blue irises shining like lamps from behind. His soul was calling to her again, reaching out, and while she still wasn’t used to accepting it, she didn’t retreat like normal. She instead held his gaze and smiled. “Jealousy is an ugly trait, and on me it turns to violence and cruelty. I will stop it from ruling me, or I will at least try.”

  Wynter simply nodded. She would believe that when she saw it, but was willing to take his words not as a promise, but a gesture. A sign that meant he was beginning to care properly. He was learning, just as she was, what it would take for them to finally make this marriage work.

  All she had to learn for herself was how to truly stop hating him.

  Ten

  The next few weeks were like hell. Hundreds of humans were all milling around Marcus’s home. His Priestess was locked away in her room. His wife was doing what she could to assist him, when all he wanted was to shut himself away with her in their bedroom and bolt the door. But it appeared Wynter had other ideas. She was talking to everyone. Every single person she could, like she was gathering some kind of insight on the new members of his team. Creating a sort of knowledge base for herself, and then it was as if she was using that knowledge to exert control over the humans he had employed for his uses only. Wynter befriended them, and he often saw her congratulating them on a job well done.

  She had to be playing at something.

  Not once had she praised him for completing his work at last. Or for not taking just a few specially chosen Managers to feed on like before, but having added to his team by more than ten-times what he’d had previously. Never had she confided her feelings in him.

  But with those strangers filling every spare room in their house? Oh, they got nothing but her openness and honesty. She counselled them relentlessly. Listened to their worries and settled their fears.

  They loved her.

  They fucking loved her.

  His wife. His love. His one and only.

  How dare they.

  “You’re letting your jealousy get the better of you again, Marcus. It is possible to share me, you know?” she chided him when he pressed the issue one night when they were finally alone. He’d outright demanded to know what she was up to, and instead she’d turned things around on him? Well, two could play that game.

  “So, if I found myself a young, sexy, delicious new Blood Slave and doted on her like I did you, would you not feel jealous? Would you not seethe at the sight of her?” he tried, and didn’t believe it when Wynter shook her head no. “You would snap her neck the moment you got her alone,” he replied with a sneer, and noticed as his wife stood taller and regarded him with stoicism she was clearly forcing.

  “I’d simply wish her well,” she lied, and Marcus could see he was slowly getting under her skin.

  She cared, it was obvious.

  Was this the reason for her having insisted on his new Supervisors staying at the mansion longer than the few days he’d initially planned? He had never been so well fed, and yet, it appeared there was some kind of system to his feeding schedule. Only those she had vetted herself were sent to him. Only those she had met and gotten an insight of were allowed to be alone with her husband, and Marcus suddenly got it. Wynter was scared he might replace her.

  She did love him, and couldn’t hide it. He was onto her, and so, Marcus being the same old deviant he’d always been, he decided to tease her some more. Even though he had secrets of his own and was being careful to keep things purely business too. A simple transaction, rather than an intimate exchange. She didn’t need to know how he was no longer taking his feeds directly from the vein, but from a blood bag hooked up to an IV. Yep, he was one of those. Like some kind of hipster drinking cold blood through a straw, he was acting just as any other monogamous male was more than willing to do. And it was all so that the love of his life didn’t have to share him with those smitten by his bite. Not that she knew that, of course.

  “Even if I kissed her? Or took the vein at the apex of her thighs while she writhed against me…”

  Wynter was on him in a flash, and she pinned him down on the bed, her hands wrapped around his throat while she straddled him.

  Marcus grinned and arched up against her. “You wouldn’t care?”

  “No,” she hissed, and then tore away his clothes so she could sink down upon him, taking him inside her molten core. She could lie to herself all she wanted, but he knew the truth. The thought of him taking another woman the way
he had taken her so very many times when she was human made her see red.

  Was she jealous? Or was it simply that she couldn’t bear to let him dare replace her? No matter her reasons, Wynter was his, and he was hers—and it appeared she was no longer against showing it.

  ***

  She wasn’t jealous. No fucking way. Not at all.

  Nope.

  She was just being clever. Making sure she figured them all out before sending them to her husband for dinner. Doing her due diligence, like any clever creature should.

  After all, if he fell for someone new and turned them so that he could merge his soul with theirs, where would that leave her? With a witch’s heart that beat solely for him, but a husband who no longer doted on her. That would be a hundred times worse than him loving her so intensely.

  He had a funny way of showing it, but he still had his moments, and even though there might always be part of her that hated him, she couldn’t help but hate the idea of his head ever being turned. Not that she felt like showing it right now.

  She continued to choke him as she rode, thrusting harder and harder against him while being rough and taking her orgasms while enjoying the power it gave her to own him.

  Wynter was screaming and bucking against him when she finally released her grip, and of course Marcus saw it as an invitation. He reached up and gripped her throat before wrenching her down for a kiss, and as their mouths tussled she could feel the razor sharp tip of his tongue doing its dance. His instincts were to drink and kill, and even with her—a jinni whom he could draw no blood from—he was still trying.

  And fuck, what a turn on that was. He still wanted to taste her. Could he close his eyes and remember the flavour of her blood with ease? Could he pick it out among all the others and readily leave all the rest?

  “Do you still taste me on your lips, Marcus?” she groaned, “do you wish I was still your slave?”

  “Some days,” he whispered against her lips, “but I like the new you. The one I can properly enjoy.” He then crushed her to him and Wynter knew what he was getting at. The pair of them were far from perfect, but there were two things they knew how to do all too well.

  “Fucking and fighting. Who knew we could find such common ground doing either,” she replied, and then came again with a loud cry.

  Marcus was close behind her, and when they were finally done, he peered into her eyes and shook his head.

  “I love you, my sweet. I always will. We don’t fuck, we make love. But yeah, we do still like a bit of a fight, don’t we?” he teased, and he watched her with a smile as she dismounted him and then straightened and dressed herself with a mere blink of an eye.

  “Whatever do you mean?” she joked, and then unlocked the door of his office and left before he could banter with her some more. She had work to do and needed to get on with it, and was all for getting down to business, when her darling husband threw yet another spanner in the works. It appeared he was ready for his next feed, and had summoned someone in particular rather than let Wynter continue sending him her chosen slaves.

  Her old friend Phoebe was standing outside in the hallway. She was dressed in her usual relaxed gear, her hair a pastel shade of pink that suited her, and Wynter noticed right away how she had a new piercing in her nose. It looked nice, and while things felt a little awkward, when the two of them locked eyes, it was a relief when a wide smile spread across Phoebe’s face.

  “Hey, Wynter,” she chimed, “I’d been hoping to get a chance to see you. Every time I’ve had a spare minute and came to find you there’s always been such a huge group hanging around I couldn’t get a look in.”

  Wynter couldn’t deny she was right. The new members of Marcus’s merry team had needed far more guidance and nurturing than she’d imagined and being there to help them had filled her days and nights more than enough. So much so that she too had kept on thinking about catching up with Phoebe but failing miserably.

  However, it wasn’t like she was now here for a catch up.

  Wynter looked over her shoulder to the open doorway behind, where Marcus was dressed again and was stood watching them both expectantly.

  “And it appears you’re needed elsewhere too,” she conceded before he even had to make a comment about her holding up his next meal. But this one was harder for her to accept. Marcus was going to bite Phoebe, and when he did she would fall head over heels for him. She would try and touch him, or touch herself, and even though Wynter desperately wanted not to feel jealous because of it, she couldn’t deny she was struggling.

  And it wasn’t like Phoebe would put her at ease afterwards. She had tried to counsel the others after their feeds too but they’d told her nothing about their time with Marcus, and she knew he’d exerted his magical control over each of them to ensure it remained their secret. Regardless of them being friends, Phoebe would be no different.

  Wynter simply stepped over to her and gave the poor girl a hug. “I’ll catch up with you later. I’ll make sure of it,” she promised, and then walked away without looking back. She didn’t need to see her vampire husband invite his chosen slave inside his office before closing the door behind her. Didn’t want to imagine what was going to happen. Didn’t need to remind herself how it felt to have his tongue lapping at her vein.

  So why was that all she could bloody think about?

  Eleven

  Brodie couldn’t remember ever being this happy. He was finally over his issues and had fallen in love. Given every part of himself to another after all this time. He’d let go of his grief and learned to let Archie in, and it felt amazing. Like he was free for the first time in over a thousand years.

  And Archie truly was like a breath of fresh air. Brodie had learned a lot from Wynter and her outlook on life, but since being without her in his head he’d stopped and smelled the flowers, as it were, and had slowly come to terms with the new ways of the world in his own time.

  His new boyfriend was the epitome of this generation’s ethics. He was good and honest, but openly enjoyed his little quirks and showed them to all who cared to look without apology. Like his love of movies and lazing while binge watching TV shows, while on the flip side being a keen runner and climber, as well as being determined to get his pilot licence. Archie was modest about his toned body too, but when they were alone Brodie could see he was growing more and more buff as the days went by. Plus he was strong. Strong enough to playfully subdue even the all-powerful jinni when it came to their bedroom antics. Well, that was due to him allowing it of course, but Archie certainly wasn’t the delicate young man Brodie had imagined he’d be. Quite the contrary, he was a dominative and intense lover, and what once had scared him was now exciting and alluring.

  They were mid-throes early one morning when a small tap on their bedroom door halted their antics. Rosalie had seemingly figured it was okay for her to intrude any time she liked, and while Brodie still found the practice rude, he was sure never to say so. She was still delicate, after all, and the two of them had promised to take care of her and the baby. If that meant not being selfish with their time together then Brodie knew he would just have to accept it.

  He transformed into his black smoke and then reappeared across the room, dressed and styled to perfection like always, and he saw something flash behind Archie’s eyes. He was pissed off that the jinni had once again panicked and effectively run off, and he was proven right when Archie outright called him out on the instinct he had to hide whenever they were interrupted.

  “Come in, Rosa,” he called, and she appeared around the doorway a few seconds later. She crept inside and smiled at them both.

  “Morning,” she greeted.

  “Hey, can I ask you something? Does it bother you that Brodie and I are together?” Archie replied, and she shook her head no.

  “Of course not. Why would it?”

  “Just proving a point,” he answered, and offered Brodie a quick raise of his eyebrows before he then patted the bed so that she knew she was
welcome to come and sit. “How are you feeling?”

  “Good, and at least my sickness has passed now,” she told him as she joined Archie on the bed, and Brodie stood and watched them. Like always, he wasn’t sure what to say or do, and had a feeling it was just one of those things with him. He wondered if he would ever truly fit in with the humans he now lived with, and suddenly found himself missing Wynter. She was the only jinni he had ever sired and he had failed her. She’d needed protecting and nurturing like any fledgling and they had only just scratched the surface thanks to him having been so preoccupied with avenging his past love rather than teach her. She had things she still needed to learn about herself and might never get to now that she was gone, and it was all thanks to him and his selfishness.

  Well, he wasn’t going to let the same thing happen again. Their circumstances were different, but Rosalie needed him. In just a few months she would give birth to a baby. And not just any baby, but the child of a werewolf. Archie was just a young man and he wouldn’t know how to help should anything go wrong, and that was where Brodie was determined to step in. He could make the hard decisions. He could be strong when she might need it.

  All he needed to do now was get over his damn awkward anxiety and learn to let the poor girl in.

  Brodie started by taking a seat back down on his side of the bed beside Archie, who actually did a double take and grinned at him. He took Brodie’s hand and the jinni let him, and then he turned to Rosalie with a smile.

  “You’re glowing,” he told her, and was rewarded with a coy grin. “But you are going to need to make a decision on where you want us to take you when the baby comes. And you’ll be needing some supplies soon.”

  “Yeah, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about that too. I know I should really go and see a doctor but I don’t want to. I just want to stay here where it’s safe,” she replied resolutely, and Brodie could tell she had indeed been giving this a lot of thought. “I have no close family or anyone who would take us in if we went back to the mainland, plus I have no money. I wouldn’t be able to survive on my own.”