by Angela Foxxe
“You mean the Fade?”
That got a reaction.
“So you know what it’s called, but do you know what it is?”
Reign seemed to have piqued her curiosity; many people had a subconscious desire to teach, to show their superior knowledge. Reign ran into it a lot as a violinist, everyone older wants to believe they are smarter than those younger.
“Not really, I visited it once, in a dream, it left these on me.” She pulled up her shirt to her breasts and turned sideways, the long scars puckered white against her dark skin. The woman nodded as much as she could with Richard’s massive hand around her throat.
“It’s the mark of the Fade, we all have it, one way or another,” she said.
Reign pulled her shirt down. “We?”
“Fade Touched is what the vampires call us, mage is what we call ourselves, I’m not sure what your dog calls us, though.” She grinned until Richard squeezed. “Down boy,’ she said through clenched teeth.
“Are they dead?” he asked.
“No, one of them is ‘cured’ though, I don’t know what vampires do to enthrall people, but it has these hooks on them, and I removed them, so he,” she pointed at the unconscious black man, “should be fine. The other one, though, well, there was nothing left to save,” Reign explained.
“What do we do with her?”
“You are asking me?”
“It was your plan,” Richard responded with a shrug.
“I don’t suppose I could convince you to leave me alone,” she asked of the other mage.
“If it were up to me, I wouldn’t be here, but it’s not, so no.”
“That's what I thought.” She looked to Richard. “Can you knock her out without killing her?”
He squeezed, the woman tried to cough, to struggle, her hands shot out wildly, clawing at Richard's massive fist and wrists, but it only took seconds and she was limp. He laid her down carefully, head resting on Paul's torso.
Richard asked Reign, “Is she how they are their finding us?”
“I think so, let’s get out of here.”
*
The bus ride back to the city took forever. The vehicle was so crowded that Reign was forced to sit on Richard’s lap, not that she minded. She cuddled up to him with her face in his neck. Somewhere along the I-90 bridge, she started kissing him, long warm kisses that pushed all thoughts of vampires, thralls, and the Fade out of her mind. Her face was flushed and her body tingled from the attention, she hoped that they could always be like this. Despite the stress of the day, a few minutes of kissing him and she was ready to have sex with him.
She slipped a hand under his shirt to feel his warm skin. It tingled under her hand. His hand found its way under her shirt, to run along her back. Her scars itched but did not hurt as he traced the delicate lines with his hand.
“God, I need you, and I mean right fucking now,” she said breathlessly into his ear. He grabbed her by the hand and led her to the door. The bus stopped and the two of them got off. The neighborhood was residential, nowhere near downtown.
Richard raised his nose in the air and sniffed. Reign tried to focus on what he was doing, but the passion in her heart made everything dim and cloudy. Richard led her to a small house a half block from the street. He pushed the door open and pulled her through. The house was empty, no furniture, no paintings on the walls, nothing but bare carpet.
She lunged at him. She had to have him, to feel him, to be with him. Her soft lips found his and she moaned. His hands unbuttoned her pants, she pulled her shirt up and over her head exposing her hard nipples and large breasts. She couldn’t think, she was so overcome with desire.
“Fuck me, fuck me right now,” she pleaded. He spun her around, pinned her head to the wall so her torso was bent over, and in one swift motion freed his large dick from his pants and placed it at the entrance to her pussy.
She rolled her hips back to him, her whole body on fire, her heart and mind wanting, needing him to be inside her, she couldn’t wait, with one hand she reached back behind her and guided him in.
She moaned as he entered her, a low guttural sound of pure ecstasy.
“Ohmyfuckinggod,” she said in a rush as his full length was in her. Whether his passion spurred hers, or he simply needed her to, she couldn’t tell, but he was as hard as he had ever been. Holding her head in one hand, her waist with the other, Richard pounded her into the wall. She screamed and gasped with each thrust. Each time he pulled out, her body shuddered, and each thrust in, she nearly came.
“Harder,” she moaned. He obliged. The wall was in danger of collapsing as he thrust into her.
Her toes curled, her spine tingled, and her belly ached as each thrust sent waves of pleasure into her. After a few minutes of his ministrations, her stomach muscles tightened and she could feel the glow of an impending orgasm.
“Faster Richard, fuck me faster,” she moaned.
He grunted, unable to speak. Sweat poured off of both of them as they were one person, their hearts and bodies mingled together in a dance as old as time. With one massive push, Richard grabbed her hips with both his hands and thrust so deep into her she thought she would die. He jerked as his sperm exploded into her, she screamed as her own orgasm hit her. Her body quivered, her back arched, her eyes squeezed shut as wave after wave of pleasure rolled through her.
When she opened her eyes they were laying on the carpet, she was on top of him, her back to his front, her legs spread wide and his dick buried deep in her. With one hand, he held her around the waist, the other he massaged her pussy, breathing life into the fire of her passion.
“Oh god, Richard, yes,” she moaned.
They spent the night in that small house, wanting nothing but each other, and only needing each other.
Reign woke early, snuggled next to Richard. Their clothes lay scattered about the empty room. His body heat was more than enough to keep her warm, even in the chill morning. He lay breathing on the floor, her head on his chest. She watched his lungs fill, then deflate, then fill again. She felt fulfilled. She lost count of the orgasms they gave to each other; it was just one long night of passion.
She ran her hands down his taut stomach, watched as, even though he was asleep, his massive member stirred to life. She hoped he had nice dreams. But she was too sore to cash the check she was writing, so she let him sleep.
She stood in the empty house and explored a bit. She could smell the fresh paint, feel the new carpet between her toes. The place was recently made over, but with the housing market the way it was, she was not surprised he was able to find an empty place for them to spend the night.
Too empty. The kitchen had no food and she was famished. It was too early to order pizza, but she did recall seeing a gas station not too far from the house. As quietly as she could, she slipped into her clothes, and as she put each piece on, the memory of the night before gently swam in her head. It was something she would remember forever.
Without waking Richard, she slipped out the back door and headed for the gas station. It wasn’t too far away and while she knew the food would only taste mediocre, it would be food. Once inside, she found what she wanted -- soda, chips, some crackers, canned cheese, plus all the corn dogs they had cooked. Richard would be hungry when he woke up, and he would need the calories. That much bulk took a lot to maintain. While she was checking it out, a police cruiser pulled up, two men got out and looked around. She didn’t recognize either of them, but she could see in their aura they belonged to the vampires.
Shit, how are they finding us?
She had to be doing something wrong, some inadvertent broadcast that other mage could see? She paid the cashier and left. She took an immediate right, away from the market and in the opposite direction of the house.
She wasn’t sure she could get back there unseen, but she also was pretty sure they made some strong emotion last night. She closed her eyes and focused. She could see the inside of the house with perfect detail, her strong emo
tions labeling everything, every place her knee had been, where her feet touched, where her face rubbed against the carpet while he fucked her from behind, everywhere. She opened the door and she was there.
She was not alone.
Devado stood there, holding Richard by the neck this time. He was bound with some sort of slim silver chain and three policemen in riot gear flanked them both.
“Holy shit,” one of the cops yelled. He brought his gun up reflexively before Devado swore at him to freeze. Reign already had one hand up, lightning crackling about, sparking down her arm to swirl about her waist and leave little burn marks on the floor where she stood.
“Let him go.” She put as much threat into her voice as she could.
“This is a stalemate, you just don’t know it. Tell her dog, tell her!”
“Reign… do you trust me?” he asked.
Reign couldn’t stand to see him bound, on his knees, in obvious pain, the chain burning his skin as it moved back and forth. Tears welled in her eyes and she didn’t trust her voice to answer so she nodded.
“Go, Reign, leave me.” His last words came out as a scream as the chain squeezed him, melting his flesh with sizzling sounds and burning him to the bone.
Reign desperately wanted to save him, she wanted to free him, but she knew he was right, she could come back when the engagement was on her terms. She screamed, fell to her knees and imagined the one place she could be safe.
When she opened her eyes, she could see the midday sun peeking through the trees, smell the fresh pine, feel the dirt under her knees. The burned out remains of the lodge were before her, and the forest home she had loved for nearly a year surrounded her.
* * *
Richard's dreams were nightmares. He saw Reign before him, pregnant and dying as his baby clawed its way out of her womb. He saw her again, a whore on the street, selling her body for a hit of crack. Alone in the dark, she lay dying, whispering his name, begging for him to save her, but he didn’t come. Finally, as the dream began to fade, he saw her before him, dressed as she was when she vanished from the house.
I’m coming for you my love, and they better be ready, ‘cause I’m gonna fry everyone one of those bastards. He screamed her name, pleaded for her to leave him; they were too powerful, too many, too strong. But the dream was over, and he lay awake.
He was in a dungeon; he had been in enough to know. Stone floors, solid doors, eye hooks on the wall, just high enough that the average person would have to stand on their toes to not break their shoulders.
He was not the average person. His wrists were each bound to one of these rings, with the silver chain they had surprised him with at the house. It was thin, like a necklace, but he could not snap it with all his strength. His shoulders ached from the weight of his body leaning forward. They hadn’t dressed him, leaving him naked and alone in the dark. He smirked. However old they were, however many centuries they had, it didn’t matter. He was old enough.
There was no new torture under the sun that they could devise that he hadn’t already been through. The only thing he had to fear was them finding Reign, and even then, that would only mean his death.
The door clanked as a key was placed inside of it. Even with his exceptional vision, he couldn’t make out many details until the door opened and light shown into the room, enough that he had to squint for a moment.
“You're awake, good. I so love the screams people make, much better than the head thrashing moaning of the unconscious.”
Richard’s heart sank; behind the raven-haired woman who spoke was Reign, naked and bound as he was in the same silvery chain.
“I told you to run,” he roared, tears welling in his eyes.
“Ahh, love, what a useful tool, now watch, fool.” She snapped her fingers. Her two thralls, the ones she kept just for her, led Reign into the room. One stood in front of her and pulled on her long hair until she winced, forcing her head back and her mouth open so he could kiss her.
Richard tried to look away but the magical coil that held him forced his head forward. The raven-haired vampire was next to him, she rubbed her body to his. Under other circumstances, Richard would have found her beautiful, and perhaps, long ago, she had been, but now all he could see and smell was the stench of death.
She was tall, nearly six feet, with long black hair in an elaborate braid, her full breasts defied gravity and her narrow waist accented her large hips. She rubbed her whole body against him, played with his nipples, and let her hand run down to his crotch.
“I think I feel what she sees in you, a real man.” She smiled.
Reign was silent in her suffering as the two men sandwiched her now. One kissed her, fondling her ass, while the other roughly played with her tits, pulling on the nipples and squeezing them until she whimpered.
“Don’t worry though, we haven’t forgotten you, poor Richard.” She knelt down in front of him, taking his engorged cock into her mouth. Against his will, his body responded, he did not want this, and he certainly would not give her the satisfaction of thinking that he did. Whatever they used to knock him out had muted his senses, and the bindings clouded his mind, but her going down on him cleared it somewhat.
The physical pleasure kicked in his adrenal gland and it brought his wolf out in a hurry. His penis deflated almost instantly. The girl who was now getting fucked by two men was not Reign; she looked like her but did not smell like her, something Richard would have noticed instantly.
“You’re finished, I won’t give you the satisfaction, whatever you think,” Richard said, his voice thick with the wolf. Christina stood, her beautiful face marred by anger. She snapped her fingers, spun and left the room. The two servants immediately stopped their ministration and left. Only the girl who looked like Reign remained. Her appearance wavered and the pretty blond mage took her place. She did not look happy to be there, to have the chains on her.
“I’ve never tried that trick on a werewolf before, I should have known it wouldn’t work.” She touched his nose with the tip of her fingers.
“Let me go, and I promise I will protect you,” he said, the wolf still strong in his voice.
“Protect me? From what, I’m in the home of my mistress, I’m as well guarded as the president!”
“You’re a slave, to be used and discarded when you are of no more use. Help me, and you can be free.”
Richard could see the anxiety in the girl's face; he didn’t know how old she was, twenty five maybe, barely older than Reign, but she had been in this life too long, the scars of her decisions ran deep. She opened her mouth to speak, then stopped. She leaned forward and planted a tender kiss on his cheek.
“She’s lucky to have you,” she said as she left him alone. At least this time they left the lights on.
* * *
Reign leaned against the old pine tree that was directly in front of the lodge. The smell of burned timber still hung in the air, but this close to the tree it didn’t bother her nose. She was working on her second soda, and had already finished off two of the corn-dogs. It was the only saving grace of the whole morning. She had at least a day or two worth of food.
She knew the store a few miles away was open, but she didn’t know if the card she had would still work or not. She always just used it, never thinking about if Richard needed to put money on it, or if there was some account somewhere with her name on it.
She tipped the can back until it was empty and sighed. She genuinely had no idea; she rested her head against the tree, and let her thoughts drift. They drifted to Richard, to their last night, wonderful night together, to all the wonderful nights they shared before. She could almost see him, trapped in a cell, terrified she had been killed. She could almost imagine herself standing in front of him.
I’m coming for you my love, and they better be ready, ‘cause I’m gonna burn everyone one of those bastards.
His head snapped up, he mouthed words she could not hear. Her eyes popped open and she realized it wasn’t a drea
m, she had seen him, actually been there with him. She forced her eyes shut, but the memory faded like a dream; soon she had nothing to grasp at but the memory of him chained against the wall. They would torture him, which she knew, they would inflict pain on him that she could not imagine, and the only hope he had was her. She couldn’t even contact the pack, it would take days for them to get back from Brazil.
She had no gift for strategy, usually when she came up with a plan it was because the situation was there and she would just act.
Funny, how different am I?
She had a hard time imagining herself as the timid Reign of the year before, eager to get into music school, to be a violinist. In the last year, she had fallen in love with a werewolf, visited another dimension, had a baby, and been chased by vampires… all of it was too weird to classify.
