She did, loving the sound of his sensual tension building higher and higher. With one hand she reached between his legs and stroked his balls. His hands tightened in her hair. The sac of flesh in her palm drew up closer to his body. He shouted, his cock jerking in her mouth, and his release streamed into her throat in hot, heavy jets. He thrust against her with a final panting growl, and she swallowed one last time. As he pulled away, she gave the tip of his cock another loving lick. She could do this for him every day and never get tired of it. To show him that his pleasure mattered to her, pleased her in a primal way. She guessed it set something off in her inner cavewoman.
He let go of her hair and stroked his fingers against her scalp where his hands had been fisted tightly. Then he bent and wrapped his hands around her upper arms, lifting her up to rest on top of him as he lay back on the bed. “That was amazing. Thank you, mo chroí.” He rubbed his hands up and down her bare back. With a slight growl, he rolled over, caging her beneath him. He pressed his groin against hers. “Give me a few minutes, and we’ll find out if your pussy is as tight around my cock as I think it’s going to be.”
“You’re such a sweet talker, Aodhán. I don’t know why you’re still single.” She tried to keep a straight face, but at his put-on look, his over-the-top wounded expression, she laughed. Bending her knees, she cradled him against her pelvis. “But I’m glad you are. That means you’re available to me.”
“Only to you, Natalie. Always.” He brought his head down to hers and gave her such a sweet, slow kiss it brought tears to her eyes.
She cupped his dear face in her hands and returned the caress. As their tongues twined together, she wrapped her legs around his hips and pulled him closer, her heels pressing against the backs of his thighs. She felt a twitch of interest from his cock, but before she could do much about it, she heard knocking at the front door.
He reared up, frowning down at her when she showed no indication of moving. “Aren’t you going to see who that is?” he asked.
“Nope.” She trailed her fingers across his shoulders, squeezing here and there, testing the firmness of those bulging muscles. He was so big and brawny, and she knew his strength would only be used to protect her, never to harm her. The knowledge filled her with delight.
“It might be important,” he said. She could tell by the look in his eyes his attention was beginning to focus on her once more and he wasn’t overly concerned about who might be at the door.
“This is important,” she responded. She started to draw him down to her. The person at the door knocked again, louder this time, and it sounded like whoever it was also gave the door a few kicks. Natalie sighed and closed her eyes. “It’s Kimber.”
“I figured. She’s the only one I know who’s that impatient.” After pressing a kiss to her forehead, Aodhán rolled off her and got to his feet in a single, fluid movement that made her gasp. God, he was so beautiful it hurt to look at him sometimes. “You’d better get dressed and answer the door before she has someone let her in.”
The pounding came again. “Oh, for crying out loud.” Natalie got up and pulled on a blouse and jeans, buttoning the shirt as she stalked through the living room. “This had better be good.” She yanked open the door.
“Hello to you, too,” Kimber responded with a frown. When Aodhán came out of the bedroom, tucking his shirt into his leather pants, her mouth formed an O of surprise before tilting into a broad smile. “Well, well, well. It’s about dayum time, people.”
“Oh, shut up.” Natalie tried unsuccessfully to fight back a blush. “What do you want?”
Kimber didn’t say anything right away, just looked from Natalie to Aodhán and back again. Then her eyes went big and round. “Oh my God. I interrupted you right in the middle of…I’m the definition of coitus interruptus. I’m so sorry. Look, I’ll just go and you two can get back to…things. Things that I don’t want to hear about, because, you know, TMI and all that.”
“Kimber, stop.” Natalie knew her friend sometimes rambled on when she got embarrassed, and this was clearly one of those times. She wasn’t sure which one of them was redder in the face.
“It’s all right, mo chara.” Aodhán stopped beside Kimber and curved his hand over her shoulder. “You didn’t interrupt anything that Natalie and I can’t get back to with equally satisfying results.”
Kimber’s eyes closed and she let out a small groan. “Okay, fine. Just shut up about it already.”
Natalie laughed. When Aodhán bent and placed a gentle and too-brief kiss against her mouth, she sighed and leaned against him for a moment.
“I’m going to check in with Brigid, see how she’s feeling,” he said. “I’ll be back later, all right?”
“You’d better be.” She watched him go through the door, then turned her attention on her friend. “Okay, what’s up? And it had better be good, because we were just about to, you know.”
Kimber grimaced. “I know. Sorry. My timing sucks.”
Natalie went into the living room. “So, what’s so important you practically beat down my door?” she asked as she sat down on the couch.
Kimber plopped down beside her with a long, loud sigh. “Duncan thinks it would be better for necromancers to use vamps instead of zombies to push the Unseen back.”
“Really?” Natalie frowned. “That’s quite a turnaround.”
“Tell me about it.” Kimber’s laugh held more than a dollop of misery. “But I don’t think he’ll let me test the theory unless I agree to use him. And that’s not gonna happen, no matter what the king of the vampires says.”
Oh, boy. Natalie knew her friend had always kicked against authority, especially those who tried to keep her from doing something she believed she should. “And?”
Kimber gave a snort. “He really can’t stop me.”
Natalie pursed her lips. “Ah, but yes he could. He could lock you in your quarters, post more guards, any number of things. You know the only way this is going to happen is if he lets you.” She tilted her head to one side. “But am I missing something? I know he’d like to stop the apocalypse, and you just told me he said you could use him, so why wouldn’t he let you?”
Red streaked across Kimber’s cheeks. “Oh, right. I haven’t told you yet.” Her gaze met Natalie’s. “I’m pregnant,” Kimber said.
“What!” Natalie stared at her, her mouth open and eyes wide. “Oh my God! You’re just full of surprises lately. First about being able to draw energy from vampires—Atticus and Duncan—and now this.” She leaned over and hugged her friend. “I’m so happy for you.” As she pulled back, she saw the look on Kimber’s face and realized the other woman wasn’t exactly overjoyed. “Wait. Maybe I shouldn’t be happy for you?”
Kimber shook her head. “No, no. You can be happy for me. I’m happy for me. Mostly. It’s just…” She swiped at a tear. “I have some of the Unseen in me, and when I drained energy from Atticus and then again from Duncan, there was some part of me, some small, gleeful part that wanted more, that wanted to take all they had.” Her hazel eyes took on a green cast as her emotions grew. “I could kill him.”
“And it’s possible you could not.” Natalie covered Kimber’s hand with hers. “You don’t want to raise a child in this environment. What other choice do you have but to try to put down all zombies once and for all?”
“I could refuse to use him, make him let me use someone else.”
“Who else? Atticus?” At the repulsed expression on Kimber’s face, Natalie knew the idea of sacrificing anyone else was repugnant to her friend. But Natalie kept pushing. “Or maybe Leon?”
“Stop. I know what you’re doing.” Kimber scowled. “There was a difference in the level of power. It’s…muted, for want of a better description, in the zombies. In vampires it’s unfiltered. Much more potent. If I were to do this, do you think it would work?”
Natalie thought about it for a few minutes. While she wasn’t a necromancer herself, she’d worked with Kimber for a few years and had
observed her at work. She was good. The best, in Natalie’s admittedly biased opinion. But thankfully it wasn’t just her who thought that. Others had commented on Kimber’s amazing ability as well. If anyone could do this, it was Kimberly Treat.
“If the difference in power is what you say it is,” Natalie said slowly, “then, yes, I think you could do it. Especially if you use more necromancers and have Brigid act as your focus.” She began to get excited at the prospect. “You could set up a domino effect, so that the power to push out the Unseen goes from zombie to zombie. You start with just a few and the effect cascades from there.” She paused and tapped her chin. “I don’t know if it would travel across the oceans, but we could at least take care of this continent.”
“Continent.” Kimber sighed. Closing her eyes, she leaned her head back against the sofa. “Would you listen to yourself? ‘We could take care of a continent.’ Do you have any idea how daunting that sounds?” She rolled her head back and forth. “Continent. Crap.”
And there it was. This was so much bigger than their little corner of the world. It had always been, of course, but survival had necessitated focusing things homeward. But to truly make the situation better, they couldn’t merely take care of themselves and call it quits. They had to look at the whole world, beginning with the Americas.
“I don’t think I can use Duncan.” Kimber’s voice was reed-thin and the raw look of misery in her eyes was heart wrenching. “I love him too much. But I know he won’t put any of his people in danger. Oh, God. What am I going to do?”
Natalie shivered. She didn’t have an answer. She was a spectator in this; she had no special powers to offer. It would be up to Kimber and Duncan, and those like them, to make things right.
She only hoped they survived.
Chapter Thirteen
After talking things over with Natalie, Kimber went back to her suite, feeling torn. But at least she had the beginnings of a plan in place, and the more she thought about it the more excited she became. To start with just a few zombies and have the effects branch out from there would be like imploding a building upon itself. The apocalypse would pretty much take care of itself.
She needed to bounce this idea off Duncan, because if it worked the way she hoped it would, whoever she used to draw energy from would be put at risk for a very short period of time. Much shorter a time than when she’d used Atticus to put down that batch on the way back from the drug store. When she entered the suite, Duncan glanced up from where he was looking over some papers at the head of the dining room table.
“Work never stops, huh?” She went over and pulled out a chair to sit at the spot on his left.
“Unfortunately, no. I’ve sent a runner to Xavier Vachon asking him to send down a necromancer, if he has one, to replace Jason. Just in case we go through with this. I’ve also asked for any food he can spare.” He shoved the documents away and scrubbed a big hand across his jaw. “We’re clearing out some land to plant a good-sized garden, but quite honestly I think we’re going to have to start rationing food before anything’s ready to be harvested. I’ve told Atticus to hold off on bringing more humans here until our foodstuffs are restocked.”
Kimber frowned. She didn’t like the idea of barring admittance to anyone who needed shelter. “But if we know of humans out there, we can’t just leave them. It’s not safe.”
“We can’t feed them, Kimber. In another month we’ll barely be able to feed the ones we already are housing here.” He scowled. “This is what I get for allowing a human to keep track of inventory.”
Anger started a slow boil inside her. “You know, you keep referring to us like we’re stupid. Worse than stupid, even.”
His scowl deepened. “What’re you talking about?”
“Just now, when you said ‘this is what I get for allowing a human to keep track of inventory,’ and a couple of weeks ago you were equally condescending about me and my little friends wanting to play with zombies. Oh, and let’s not forget your crack about ‘you humans’ wanting to go waltzing around in the park.” Hurt rose to join the anger. She pointed a finger at him. “Be honest. You don’t like us very much, do you? We’re nothing more to you than a meal ticket. Literally.”
He turned to face her more fully. “Kimber, you know that’s not true.”
“Isn’t it?” She pushed to her feet so violently she knocked over the chair. It clattered to the floor and with a snarl she shoved it aside. The rage built, roiling through her like a boiling tide of red-hot magma. Even as she was aware of the anger and knew it was out of proportion to the conversation, she wanted to be even more furious, wanted to feed that hungry darkness inside her. “It’s always ‘you humans this’ and ‘you humans that.’”
He slowly stood. His face impassive, he said, “And you’ve never once spoken disparagingly about vampires?”
She snapped her mouth closed on a reply. She had, damn it. Some of the rage fizzled as if ice water had doused it. “That’s not the point. Stop trying to distract me.”
“Not trying to distract you, sweetheart. I’m just saying the spaghetti sauce shouldn’t call the ketchup a son of a tomato.”
Ooh, he was infuriating. How like a vampire to use an analogy with foods that were red. “So you respect us, then? Humans, I mean.”
“I don’t respect all humans, nor do I respect all vampires.” He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “ His serious gaze held hers. “I respect you. I respect Natalie. And Maggie, I suppose, though I don’t know her very well.”
Yeah, right. He said that now, but in a few minutes she wouldn’t be surprised if he started spouting off about humans again. He’d told her he loved her, but did he really? How could he? She was a danger to him. To his people, which he’d made very clear didn’t include humans. Humans were necessary to vampires’ survival, but they were clearly a nuisance to him, and she didn’t see him making friends with any of them except for Natalie. And he was only friends with her because of her relationship with Kimber. Kind of a twofer.
“It’s not the species that dictates my respect. It’s how a person uses their intelligence. You know that.” He moved closer and wrapped his hands gently around her upper arms. “Kimber, tell me where the hell all of this is coming from.”
Gah. She was going crazy. The Unseen inside her was making her insane. She pulled away from him. “Nowhere. It’s nothing. Never mind.” She walked into the living room and stood in front of the empty fireplace. “I think I have a plan to stop the apocalypse.”
As he joined her in the living room, she heard a barely imperceptible sigh from him. Good grief, she was only two months pregnant, emotional, and hyped up because of the Unseen inside her, and he was already losing his patience with her. What would he be like when she was eight months pregnant, felt as huge as a house, ate everything in sight, and was even crankier than she was now?
“What’s the plan?” he asked as he sat down on the sofa. Apparently he was going to let her earlier attitude—and really lame response to him calling her out on it—slide for now.
After she explained about her notion of a domino effect, his expression indicated his intrigue with the idea. “You really think it would work?”
“Yeah, I think it could work.” She sat beside him on the couch. “We’d be using the Unseen that is in you, which is pure Unseen, untainted by Eduardo, to push the corrupt Unseen out of the zombies.”
His brows furrowed. “But won’t that corrupt the Unseen?”
She shook her head. “The Unseen itself is neither good nor bad. It just is. It’s the netherworld where all life begins and where souls return after death. It’s where Eduardo’s essence was to begin with.” She settled back into the corner of the sofa, sitting cross-legged to face Duncan on the other end.
He stared at her a few moments; then his shoulders slumped slightly as if he’d been holding himself in a rigid posture he just couldn’t maintain any longer. “When do you want to do this?”
“We’ll need a few days to pre
pare. This is assuming we get a third necromancer.” She bit her lip. “I really don’t think it’ll work with just two. Especially since Maggie and I are both pregnant.” When his mouth opened, she held up one hand. “Don’t, Duncan. I’ll do everything I can to not risk the baby, but I have to do this. And you know it.”
His chin dipped. “Yes.” His voice was low. Quiet. Sad. For the first time since she’d known him, his eyes glittered with tears. “I don’t want to lose you, Kimber. Either one of you.”
Her own eyes went a little misty. “I don’t want to lose you, either. It’s not just me and the baby that will be in danger, you know. I’ll be drawing energy from you. You’ll be the source of the Unseen to push out to all the zombies. What if I take it too far? Hold on too long?” The last word came out on a wail, and she brought her hands up to her face, bowing over as grief and fear assailed her. She wanted to stop the zombie apocalypse, but not with Duncan’s life. That cost was too high.
But she didn’t want to try to raise her baby while fighting for survival surrounded by a bunch of flesh eaters, either.
Duncan’s arms came around her, and he lifted her to place her on his lap, pressing her head to his shoulder. She clasped her hands around his neck and held on through the storm of tears. Vaguely she heard him murmuring to her, words she couldn’t discern over the sounds of her weeping and her pulse whooshing in her ears.
Her body shook, her sobs breaking loose in heaving waves, coming from somewhere very deep within her. For nine months she’d believed she’d been the cause of the Outbreak. Now she knew she wasn’t. But it looked like she could end it, but at what cost?
Kimber turned her face into Duncan’s neck and after a few minutes they began to abate and finally subsided. All the tension left her, leaving her limp in his arms. With his fingers beneath her chin, he tilted her face up to look down at her. She made eye contact with him but said nothing.
“We’ll get through this, sweetheart,” he said. “You have to believe that.”
Vampire's Thirst (The Awakening Series) Page 13
