by Lynsay Sands
“Oh,” Allie said nonplussed.
“Here you are.” Elvi returned, carrying a white cotton nightgown. “This is something I haven’t worn since before I was turned. My old granny gown,” she said wryly, and held it out. “I won’t be sorry to see it go. The only reason it wasn’t sent off to the Salvation Army ages ago was that I thought I should keep it in case a situation like this came up. And it has,” she ended brightly.
“Thank you,” Allie murmured, accepting the gown and heading for the bathroom. She didn’t dally. She didn’t want the opportunity to think or worry, so Allie stripped off the lovely blue dress, hung it carefully from a hook on the door, and then slid the granny gown on over her panties and bra. She knew it meant her underwear would most likely need to be tossed after the turn, but she wasn’t getting chained to that bed pantiless and risking flashing the room if she was thrashing about during the turn.
Finished, Allie reached for the doorknob to exit, but then stopped as Stella’s locket moved against her skin. She’d forgotten all about it. But it wasn’t a good idea to wear it during the turn. Lifting it off over her head, she set it on the bathroom counter and then reached for the doorknob again.
Everyone gave Allie reassuring smiles when she walked back out in the voluminous white gown, but it didn’t hide their anxiety. It seemed obvious she wasn’t the only one worried about what was to come. Pushing that thought down to join the other worries trying to overwhelm her, Allie climbed onto the bed, laid on her back, and spread her arms and legs out toward the sides.
“Go ahead. Chain me up and let’s get this party started,” she said with more bravado than real courage. God, she was scared.
“Are you sure?” Magnus asked with a frown. “We can leave the chains off until the turn actually starts if you wish.”
Allie didn’t miss the dismay that crossed Elvi’s face at those words and shook her head firmly. “Go on. Chain me down and let’s go. The sooner we start, the sooner it’ll be done.”
Alessandro and Leonora moved to the chains at the foot of the bed, while Magnus and Tricia chained her wrists. Tricia did it standing, but Magnus settled on the side of the bed to do up his and she swallowed and avoided looking at him while he worked.
Once they were done, Allie tugged on her arms and legs, managing a brave smile when she couldn’t move them at all. They’d trussed her up good. “Okay,” she said, and then paused to clear her throat when her voice came out a squeak. Much to her relief it sounded almost normal when she tried again. “Okay, so . . . Now what?” Allie peered uncertainly around the group that had now gathered around the bed. They looked like devil worshippers at a virginal sacrifice. Her gaze landed last on Magnus, who still sat next to her, and she asked, “I suppose Leonora uses a needle to withdraw your blood and give it to me?”
“No, honey,” Mabel said when everyone else remained silent. “He has to give you his blood himself. Needles don’t work with this.”
“What?” she asked with disbelief. “Then how is he going to—” The words died abruptly and her jaw dropped in shock when Magnus suddenly raised his arm, allowed his fangs to slide out, and then ripped into his wrist with a violence that was both startling and really quite disgusting, she thought with dismay as he lowered his arm and she saw the blood smearing his face. Then she saw the damage he’d done to his wrist. He hadn’t just sunk his teeth in and bit, he’d torn his wrist open and blood was squirting out like a geyser as he turned it toward her.
Her mouth hanging open in shock came in handy. Magnus was able to place his wrist quickly across her open mouth so the blood gushed in. But Allie just laid there for a heartbeat, gaping at him over his arm, and then she struggled to raise her hands to force it away, but they, of course, were chained.
“Swallow,” Magnus instructed.
If looks could kill, Magnus would have been incinerated on the spot, but that didn’t happen. Allie had to swallow to keep from choking on the thick fluid pouring into her mouth and hitting the back of her throat. It was disgusting—warm, salty, with a hint of rusty metal—and she wanted nothing more than to spit it out, but didn’t have that option with his arm across her mouth. They stayed like that for what seemed to Allie to be a long time, but she knew that was a function of the unpleasantness of the situation.
Stuck there glaring at him as she swallowed his blood, Allie came up with quite a few inventive words she wanted to call him once her mouth was free. She never got the chance to use them. When he finally removed his wrist, she’d barely opened her mouth to spit out some of those invectives when a large clawed talon ripped across her stomach. At least, that’s what it felt like. A great winged dragon had clawed her stomach open and the wizard riding it had poured acid into the gaping hole.
Gasping in pain, she tried to curl up to protect her stomach, but, chained down as she was, could only lift her head. Allie saw that she wasn’t injured, but that wasn’t what the pain was telling her. And then that pain intensified a thousandfold and Allie began to shriek.
“Well . . . That was different.” Katricia’s comment filled the silence left when Allie passed out after nearly an hour of thrashing and screaming.
Magnus glanced at the woman in question. “How so?”
“It usually starts in the head. You see the metallic glitter in their eyes, or . . .” She shrugged. “But with Allie it seemed to be her stomach.”
“Yeah,” Mabel said with amazement. “Her stomach was jumping like one of Sigourney Weaver’s Alien babies was about to burst out of it.”
“It must be where she needed the most work,” Magnus said, glancing at her stomach now. He’d kept his gaze on her face until then. She’d looked at him with such anger and betrayal when he’d forced his wrist to her mouth . . .
“Probably ulcers from all her worry,” Elvi said solemnly. “Tybo said she was running and hiding from Abaddon for years. That must have been stressful.”
There were grunts of agreement from everyone around the bed and then they were all silent again until Mabel shifted restlessly, and asked, “How long do you think she’ll be unconscious before the pain wakes her up again and—”
Her question died abruptly as Allie’s eyes shot open and she began to shriek again.
It was going to be a long night, Magnus thought grimly as he watched Allie, helpless to do anything to end her agony. He’d take it for her if he could. She was his life mate. His wife . . . and this was their wedding night. Every prospective bride and groom no doubt hoped their wedding night would be unforgettable, and his certainly would be . . . Just not in the way one would expect.
I woke up feeling like I’d been dunked in a vat of slimy grease. And the stink . . . Woo-ee.
Those words ran through Allie’s head as she woke up. Probably because they described perfectly what she was experiencing. The first thing she became aware of, even before she opened her eyes, was the smell surrounding her. Wrinkling her nose, she opened her eyes and shifted restlessly on the bed, grimacing when her legs slid together with a squelching sound and a slimy feel.
Lifting her head, she looked down her body, noting that the chains were gone. So was the IV stand. She didn’t see any of the gear they’d set up for her. The nightgown was still on her, though, and she was on the same old sheet Katricia had put on the bed, but both the gown and sheet were now soaked with liquid the same color as the ear wax she’d once removed from the infected ear of a dog she’d had as a child.
Oh, God, the smell was unbearable, Allie thought with disgust, and shifted her attention to the room. At first, she thought she was alone, and then her gaze landed on a chair that had been set next to the bed. Magnus sat slumped in it, eyes closed and mouth open, sound asleep. Allie stared at him for a minute, wondering how long he’d been there, but then she couldn’t stand her own smell anymore and sat up on the bed. Much to her amazement, she managed the move without any difficulty at all. She wasn’t experiencing any weakness, or pain. No aftereffects at all from the turn. In fact, other than
the slimy feel and smell, she felt pretty great.
That fact made Allie curious about how she was different now, and she raised a hand to poke at her teeth with her fingers. It was a bit of a disappointment when her teeth didn’t feel any different than they had. There were no pointy incisors or anything. She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised. Liam’s teeth looked normal until he got hungry, or when he was feeding. She supposed that meant she’d get them too when she was hungry.
Another odiferous cloud of stink wafted up to her nose, turning her stomach, and Allie lost interest in anything but getting rid of the aroma presently enshrouding her. Sliding off the bed, she moved quickly to the bathroom door, a little startled when she moved at double speed like a film in fast-forward. Pausing at the bathroom door, she glanced back to be sure Magnus was still sleeping, and then slid into the room and quietly closed the door.
Allie turned on the shower and then stripped off the ruined nightgown, bra, and panties. She then stood there, shifting from one bare foot to the other as she waited for the water to be warm enough to use. In the end, she stepped into the bath and pulled the curtain closed before the temperature was really where she wanted it, but it was good enough.
Grabbing up the unicorn soap, Allie quickly started to clean herself, but her hair was slimy too, and swung down into her face as she bent to clean her legs, so she gave up on that for now and switched her attention to her hair. She washed it using Sunita’s shampoo, something that had a friendly-looking monster on the front and smelled of coconut, apple, and some other fruit that Allie couldn’t name at the moment. There was no conditioner, and she had to wash her hair three times to completely rid it of the other smell, but after the third shampoo and rinse she pressed her nose into a handful of the wet hair and sighed with relief and pleasure. She smelled like a tropical fruit salad, and she liked it.
Chuckling to herself, Allie reached again for the unicorn bar soap, noticing this time that it too had a coconut smell to it. But instead of apple, here the coconut was mixed with citrus. Still a tropical fruit salad, though, she thought, and grinned as she cleaned herself everywhere, twice. Lathering and scrubbing to remove any hint of the previous odor that had clung to her.
Allie was much happier when she was done. She felt clean and . . . a little hungry actually, now that that awful smell wasn’t turning her stomach, she thought as she turned off the taps, wrung out her hair, and then stepped out on the bath mat. She was just looking around for the towel she’d used that morning when the door opened. Turning to look over her shoulder in surprise, she stared at Magnus, who had frozen with the door half-open.
Eyes wide, he stared at her standing there naked and then gave his head a shake, cleared his throat, and muttered, “Sorry. I woke up and you were gone.”
As explanations went, Allie supposed that was as good as any. She expected him to back out and close the door then, but he seemed rooted to the spot, his eyes locked on her naked back and behind and swimming all over both. Knowing he was seeing the scars there, she was embarrassed for about three seconds, and then his scent hit her and Allie’s embarrassment was pushed aside by something else. Nothing could have stopped her from turning and following that delicious scent to stand in front of him. But even she was shocked when she slid her hands up his chest, clasped the collars of his shirt, and used them to pull his head down toward her until she could nuzzle his neck and inhale that lovely aroma that had her stomach quivering with excitement.
After a brief start of surprise, Magnus relaxed and let his own hands slide up to clasp her waist on either side. He turned his head to nuzzle her hair and chuckled softly. “You smell like a fruit salad. Good enough to eat.”
Allie released the breath she’d been savoring and breathed in again, squirming against him as her nose was filled with his spicy bouquet. The movement rubbed her breasts over his chest, sending tingles of excitement running through her, and she gasped breathlessly, “You smell good enough to eat too. Like steak.”
She was vaguely aware of Magnus stiffening at that description, but was too desperate to breathe in more of his scent to pay it much attention. Burying her nose in his neck, she inhaled deeply and squirmed again with pleasure, sending another burst of excitement shooting through her.
Magnus groaned as if he were the one experiencing that excitement and clasped her behind, urging her lower body against him as well.
Allie gasped as her excitement ratcheted up several notches and then sighed as his scent filled her lungs. “Yes. Magnus,” she moaned, nuzzling closer still. “Please. I need you. Let me—” She licked his throat, desperate to see if he tasted as good as he smelled and moaned again as his salty goodness exploded on her tongue. She was so close to what she wanted. If she could just— Allie felt an odd shifting sensation in her mouth and opened it, but in the next moment, Magnus had used his hold on her waist to spin her in his arms so her back was to him. Catching her wrists in his hands, he then whirled them both to face the mirror.
“That’s what I was afraid of,” he said on a sigh, peering at their reflection. “Honey. You need blood.”
Allie stared at their reflection. She saw the fangs poking out from between her lips, but his arms were around her and she was surrounded by his smell. All she could think was that she wanted to rub herself all over his body until his smell was all over her, and then she wanted to lick every inch of him and she wanted to sink her teeth into him and—
Groaning with frustration because she couldn’t do any of that with him holding her as he was, Allie pressed her bottom back and rubbed against the hardness she could feel there, sending another bolt of excitement through her own body. “Magnus. Please.”
Cursing, he stepped back, released the hold he had on one wrist, and used the hold he had on the other to drag her behind him as he opened the bathroom door and headed out.
Allie’s gaze landed on the bed as they crossed the room and she was surprised to see that the stained bedsheet and plastic had been stripped away, leaving just the sheet set that they had protected. She assumed Magnus had done it until he muttered, “Leonora must have stripped the bed. Her arrival is what woke me and made me come check on you.”
Allie didn’t comment, but couldn’t help thinking it was a relief not to have the stained sheets there stinking up the room.
“Here.”
Allie glanced around with a start when he stopped and urged her to sit on the bed, and then watched as he bent over in front of her to open a cooler. Her gaze traced the curve of his behind as he did, and she found herself licking her lips and wondering if it was as firm as it looked and if a little nip at it would answer the question. Before she could do it, though, he straightened and turned with two bags of blood in hand.
Allie peered at them with curiosity, but they had no smell at all, and then her nose quivered as his scent drifted to her again, this time more earthy. She didn’t even think, just followed the scent to his groin and pressed her face to it as she inhaled.
Fourteen
Magnus had turned toward Allie and then paused to hold an inner debate over whether two bags would be enough or he should grab two more when Allie suddenly pressed her face to his crotch. He damned near squawked in surprise and dropped the bags he held, but managed to avoid both reactions and simply gaped at her. She started out poking him with her nose and sniffing him like a dog, and then she inhaled deeply and held the breath as she turned her head and rubbed her cheek over the bulge like a cat marking something with their scent.
Even more shocking to him was the fact that even those ridiculous gestures had him hardening further in his dress pants. Or perhaps that was understandable, he thought in the next moment as her hands slid up his legs to clasp his butt cheeks and urge him closer. The woman was his life mate, after all . . . and naked . . . and God, she had beautiful breasts, he thought faintly, and let one of the bags fall to the bed so that he could reach for one of the enticing globes. The first brush of his fingertips over the excited nipple brou
ght a moan from Allie even as it sent shocks of excitement through him. Magnus couldn’t resist palming the breast and squeezing eagerly.
The action made them both gasp, and then Allie turned her face and nipped at the bulge in his pants, recalling him to the issue here. She didn’t really want him. She was confusing the hunger for blood for sexual hunger, if she was even capable of thinking at this moment. He suspected she was just following her body’s urgings and it was sending her after what she wanted, but she was inexperienced and had no clue what she wanted or how to get it.
His thoughts were sent flying when she brought one hand around to squeeze his bulge, sending a jolt of need shooting through him . . . and probably herself, he realized as she squirmed on the bed and licked his bulge.
“Right,” he said firmly, and caught her chin to force her face up. “Open your mouth.”
Much to his surprise, while she appeared confused at the order, she did obey. The moment she did, he popped the bag he still held onto her fangs, and then knelt in front of her to hold it there so she didn’t pull it away.
He didn’t speak then, but simply watched her, his eyes first focused on her face as she stared at him over the bag, and then his gaze lowered, following its own course down to her breasts. One nipple was just inches from his face. It was also erect and seemed to harden even further as he peered at it. That made his mouth water and he unconsciously licked his lips.
Magnus didn’t think he was the one to move, but it suddenly swayed closer and brushed against his lips. He didn’t even think, he just opened his mouth, and when it pressed inside he suckled the eager nipple, clasping it with his lips and rasping it with his tongue. Magnus was vaguely aware of Allie moaning and her hands gliding around his head to urge him on, but he was experiencing the pleasure he was giving her and that muffled everything else. He had heard of the shared pleasure life mates enjoyed, but this was the first time he’d experienced it . . . and it was glorious. Every suckle, nip, and lap sent shivers of pleasure and excitement through him, urging him on to do more.
