Burning Days (The Firsts Book 17)

by C. L. Quinn

  When she started to pull her fangs, he felt them sliding out, her tongue sealing the punctures.

  Crawling on top of him, Ife rode him hard, ferocious, and their orgasms exploded so fast, so suddenly, they both screamed out, Jack pumping into Ife while she spasmed and held him tight to her until she collapsed against his chest, her hair covering his face.

  Later, he didn’t know how long, when he could move, when he could think, he spoke in low tones while he gathered her hair in his hand. “We’re not in Kansas anymore.”

  Ife laughed, breathy, because she too had been rung out by the intensity of the orgasm. “No, Jack, I think you’re over the rainbow now.”

  “That was…wow. I guess we do have a lot to learn about vampires.”

  “That was your first official lesson. If you would like to sign on for the advanced class, I think I can fit you in.”

  Minutes later, Jack’s answer was cryptic. “We’ll see how it goes with the flying monkeys.”

  Ah, Ife thought, we’re back to the yellow brick road.

  Rolling into Jack, exhausted, not only because of all the emotional trauma tonight, and the unexpected miraculous orgasm, but daylight had fully arrived, hopeful that she and Jack might be okay in the end, Ife fell asleep in his arms.

  Lying with a woman he’d been surprised to find he was falling for, shocked to discover that she was the very thing he’d spent his life hunting and killing, a sick feeling in Jack’s gut kept him awake far after he heard her soft breathing when she fell into a deep sleep.

  What had they been doing all these years? Had they been wrong? Was she a monster; clever, treacherous, telling him what he wanted to hear? Or was she going to reveal to him that they’d murdered innocent people for nearly a century. He felt like he was going to throw up that splendid sandwich she’d made him.

  Getting out of the bed, he wandered around the room, pretty sure that whatever she’d done to the door would keep him inside. If it was true, if hunters had been wrong, how would they ever live with their legacy? They wouldn’t.

  “Death by a thousand cuts,” he murmured.

  Eventually, too tired to even think about what this new truth might mean, he slid back into bed beside Ife, prayed for forgiveness, and finally, finally rested.

  In glorious colors, the Pacific sunset tonight held magentas and pinks overlaid with marmalade, magic from the setting sun painted on layered clouds.

  Jack sipped coffee laced with whisky as he waited for Ife. Ben hadn’t wakened yet, but when he saw him twenty minutes earlier, the wounds were nearly gone. It was proof of a vampire’s inhumanly quick healing ability, further evidence that his brother was no longer human.

  “He’ll waken soon,” Ife had assured him.

  Jack took a healthy gulp of the Irish coffee.

  “Good evening, Mr. Remington.”

  He turned around to face the doorway. The beautiful friend, Cairine, from Colorado.

  “Hi.” Jack’s simple go-to greeting. He’d never been good at socializing, and now, in the company of vampires, any attempt at social normality was irrelevant. The night held surprises he was sure he could never guess.

  She walked up to the balcony railing and leaned over.

  “I do love the ocean. I was raised by the sea in southern France, and although I can go back whenever I want, I rarely make it. So it’s really nice to linger by the ocean for a few weeks. Jack, how are you feeling this morning? Compulsion can leave a nasty headache.”

  “Then I guess I’m feeling normal, because I certainly have one. Ife is making me some kind of hot toddy she says will help.”

  “We can use our skills…”

  “No. No vampire stuff. I can’t take that right now. For the moment, I don’t want anything supernatural or shit. Sorry, you understand.”

  “I really do. Okay, well, I checked in on Ben and he’s beginning to rouse. Once you get your drink, we should go down and make sure he understands where he is and that he is with friends. He’s been through a great deal more than you have, and I’m not being insensitive, it’s just a fact.”

  Jack nodded. He knew that Ben had been through hell, he had no idea what he faced, the future an unknown for both of them. “I’m there for him, no matter what. He’s my brother.”

  “I know he is. I doubt Ife has had a chance to tell you this yet, but Ben will have a wonderful community to help him. Of course, he’ll be happier if you are supportive.”

  “I’m supportive. I’ll be there for him.”

  “Good. We weren’t certain of that, and again, I’m not judging, I just know that you were raised to distrust vampires.”

  For fucking good reason!

  “I know how I’ve been raised. I’m not incapable of adapting to changing realities.”

  Cairine gave him a single nod of approval. “Great to hear. We’ll be testing that statement quite soon.”

  “Here you go,” Ife announced, hurrying onto the balcony. She handed a tall slim glass to Jack. “Cari. Good evening. You and Jack getting along?”

  “Famously. We’re going to go get Ben in a few minutes. Once he gets that toddy down. What did you put in it?”

  “Several natural herbs from my gardens in Brazil. They work for either vampires or humans. You get a headache, let me know.”

  “Luckily, never a problem. I don’t have time for headaches.”

  “Things are going well with Yellowstone?”

  “Better than expected. We’ve repaired most of the damage and will be ready to reopen the park within the month.”

  “How’s Dani doing?”

  “She’s bored. I think she got too much excitement in Brazil with you guys and the homicidal vampire. Now, I think normal geologic research is too dull for her.”

  “Perhaps I can find something for her with the crystal caverns. We’re moving ahead with research there when I return.”

  “That’s probably a good idea. She’s too powerful to sit around waiting for the latest geological numbers.”

  “I’d love to have her. When we’re finished tonight, I’ll text her. How’s it taste, Jack?”

  “Like sweat.”

  “Oh. Well, it works. Get it down.”

  Turning the glass up, Jack chugged the remainder of the chalky looking liquid and popped the glass onto a tabletop.

  “Let’s go see how Ben is doing,” Ife said and led both Jack and Cairine toward Ben’s room.

  He was naked. Standing in front of a wall-sized mirror, Ben looked over his body, fingers sliding across nearly closed holes in his chest, six of them, and then the one still apparent over his left eye. He remembered everything clearly.

  His father, pain in his face, as bullets raced into him, the ones in his chest first, taking him to his knees, then the final one as it slammed into his forehead. The pain, knowing he was shutting down, that this body was dying, partially pissed, feeling betrayed, and partially relieved that it was all over.

  From the moment Saul had started the conversion and he realized what was happening, knew nothing would change his fate, Ben had prayed for release from this world that had held so much death and pain. Over the past few months after he’d fallen in love with Polly, and knew he could never be with her, he’d wondered what it was all about anyway.

  When Saul and his men ambushed him and Jack, when it appeared that they couldn’t be safe as hunters anymore, when he thought he might be free to live his life, he’d had hope.

  It had died when vampire blood started to change his body.

  Now, though, looking at wounds that should have killed him, his eyes truly taking in the physical changes for the first time, Ben felt grateful that he hadn’t died.

  He just didn’t know where he went from here. And where the hell was he?

  Clicks behind him drew him around to watch two stunning women enter the room with Jack behind them.

  “Jack,” he said in surprise, thrilled to see his brother, to see anything familiar.

  Sliding his pants back on, he m
oved to intercept Jack as he came forward to hug him. His arms around his brother, it didn’t escape him that he was now several inches taller than Jack, who had towered over him before.

  “Hey, bro,” Jack said into Ben’s ear. As they pushed back, he watched to see his brother’s reaction to him, relieved when he seemed to be happy to see him alive.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Pretty good, bro, considering I think I just got shot to death by our father.”

  Silence for a moment told Ben all he needed to know. Jack knew that and he hadn’t been part of it. Thank God.

  “All that matters now is that you’re okay and you’re safe. These women helped rescue you.”

  His gaze moved past Jack to one woman, who he didn’t recognize, and another who he did. “Ife. Hey.”

  From the moment they’d come into the room, he’d felt an odd sensation, indescribable, but it seemed to emanate from the two of them.

  “We’re vampire, Ben. You probably feel the unmistakable sense that we’re different.” Ife joined Jack beside him. “Do you feel any residual damage from your injuries?”

  “I feel some pain, in my chest. My head hurts pretty much like someone shot me in it.”

  “You need blood to help heal. You need to feed.”

  “I know. I feel it.”

  “Human blood is most helpful following injury and death, but vampire blood will do. Especially mine.”

  Ife faced Jack. “You might not want to see this.”

  Jack’s eyes went from Ben to Ife, remembering the intense sexual connection created when she fed from him last night.

  “Yes, I do.” If his brother was going to take Ife’s blood, he was going to be here for it.

  Cairine laughed. “I’ll get some towels. It can be messy at first, but he’ll get the hang of it. Ife, I can feed him if you want.”

  “No, it’s okay.”

  Jack thought that was a better idea. When his eyes shot to Ife, she put a hand on his chest. “It’ll be all right. We’ll all be here, and we’ll do it on the balcony. With Ben’s weakened state, there won’t be a sexual response. Well, there shouldn’t be. He is new.”

  “So he might not be able to control it.”

  “But I can. I can help him to do so as well. Jack, it’s fine. I’m going to change my dress.”

  Both women gone now, Ben pitched his dirty shirt into a trash bin.

  Ben had watched their interaction, Jack’s hand on Ife’s, his eyes burning into hers, Ife’s kind amusement that it might bother Jack if Ife turned him on while feeding him. He remembered that response as he’d fed from Saul.

  Was Jack jealous? Wait, his brother had been dating a vampire. Had he known that? No, more than that. Jack was upset when she said she’d feed him. She was more than a date. Was he in love? With a vampire?

  Ben couldn’t stop a smile sneaking onto his face.

  Jack shook his head, then noticed the shit-eating grin on Ben’s face. He punched Ben in the arm, the resulting injury immediately apparent. None.

  “What?” Jack barked.

  “I just can’t believe what’s going on. I’m a vampire, and you’re in love with one.”

  “Fuck, Ben, yeah, you’re a vampire, and me…hell I don’t know what’s going on with me. All I know right now is that I’m grateful we got to you before Barnaby and his goons fried you.”

  “Dad.”

  “Yeah. Dad.”

  The unspoken betrayal.

  “Ben. About Dad. He cares about us. He didn’t make that choice because he wanted to, you know that, right? He made it because he thought he had to. To Dad, he was saving your soul. I don’t know if I could ever use the word love when referring to Elias Remington, but if there’s one person he’s ever loved, it’s you.”

  “I can’t believe that after today.”

  “When he brought that skinny kid to me all those years ago, he said, ‘This is your brother. Protect him, because he doesn’t have anyone else to watch over him. He’s an innocent, a child that should have escaped all this. He’s your blood, boy, just as he is mine, so take care of him.’ I remember every word like it was yesterday. He told me that he wasn’t sure he’d ever forgive himself for bringing you here, but that he couldn’t leave you with your mother either. I really believe he loves his sons, he just never knew how to show it. I know that because I struggle with it too. Neither you or I, Ben, has ever learned how to show love. For us, it’s always been the fight. So you can be pissed, but don’t hate him.”

  Quiet, Ben walked away from Jack. “Um, are you sure he wasn’t right to do what he did? I still don’t know what I am or what I’ll become.”

  “I think I do.”

  “What? How would you know?”

  “Those women, the ones who saved your life. Do they seem like monsters to you?”

  “No, they don’t.”

  “Yet they’re vampires. Ife has promised to tell us who and what they are. So let’s get to it, get you well, and listen to what they have to say.”

  “I want a shower, Jack. I smell awful and I look worse.”

  Cairine poked her head around the corner, waving her hand. “After you feed. Come with me.”

  Ben looked at Jack. Jack shrugged. “Let’s go.”

  Twenty minutes later Jack sat on a cozy cushion on the elegantly decorated balcony where he’d sat with Ife days ago, and watched his brother drink blood from the throat of the woman he was pretty certain he had fallen in love with. How this night could have been more bizarre he didn’t know.

  Ben had latched on hungrily, drawing on her hard while Ife kept her gaze on Jack.

  “Is he hurting her?” Jack asked Cairine, who sat nearby.

  “Not at all. Feeding is pleasant for both parties. Surely Ife has fed from you.”

  Because it had been so sexual, Jack didn’t answer, but Cairine had already known she had.

  “By that I mean, you understand that it isn’t necessary for a vampire to hurt anyone to feed. Ever. Remember that, it’s central to our message tonight. For all hunters.”

  That, he was finally getting. Vampires were not the mindless creatures who drained human blood and left a corpse. It was time to shut down his training and listen to people who obviously knew far more than he did about the vampire world. The sick feeling in his gut welled up again, but he tamped it down. There would be a lot of blame to go around when all of this got sorted out in the future.

  “That’s enough, Ben. Pull out. Slowly. Good. Now lick the wounds to close them. Perfect. Why don’t you go get your shower and we’ll have first meal when you get back. You have to be starving.”

  “I am.” Ben had nearly left the balcony when he stopped and spun around. “Holy fuck I feel good.”

  “Of course you do. Blood is life, for vampires more so. We maintain our health through it, we bond sexually through it, and it helps us to heal when we draw it into a damaged body. Hurry, Ben, we’re all hungry.”

  Rushing off the deck, Ben went down to the room he’d awakened in and reveled in the most luxurious shower he’d ever used. Strong jets from all sides pulsated hard warm water against aching skin. He washed off dirt, soot, and blood.

  But he felt it. The blood. The healing. It surged through his body, passing stiff joints, swollen from inactivity so long. He felt it move through him, as Ife told him, repairing that which had been broken and torn.

  “I’m vampire,” he said into streaming water, pronouncing it the way Ife had. Stronger, faster, bigger, healthier, better. If he stopped long enough to let himself breathe and hear his inner voice, he knew he wasn’t evil or monstrous and he never would be.

  His muscles were tight as he lifted arms to work them, amazed at the size of his body now. A vampire body was the penultimate. His penis, fuck, that too had benefited. His mind went right to where it should as he caressed the length. Polly. Good God, he’d love to show himself to Polly with this body. And because of what he was, he never could.

  “The Lord giveth and
he takes it the fuck away too.”

  Finishing his shower, Ben slid on clean loose-fitting pants made from the modern material that reformed itself to the wearer’s size and a tee shirt made of the same fabric. It was comfortable, softer than anything he’d ever worn, and completely devoid of style.

  But grateful to be clean, to be healing, to be alive and with people who could help him understand what he was, and that his brother stayed and accepted him, Ben bowed his head to say a little prayer to whatever powers might guide this crazy fucked-up mess of his life. A simple “Thank you” said aloud as he joined the others on the balcony where a table laden with masses of food waited.

  Jack, looking up from a plate filled with a variety of breads and meats, smiled a welcome to Ben.

  “Thank you,” he whispered again, and took the seat Ife offered him next to Jack.

  The smorgasbord of food gone, Ben and Jack sat across from Ife and Cairine, perched on the identical bench to the one they sat on.

  Relaxed, Ife pulled her feet up under her, a wine glass in her hand the size of three of any normal wine glass.

  “All right. You two need an introduction to vampires, and when I say that, I mean I will hold nothing back. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Cairine and I discussed this, and we believe that both of you can be trusted with our secrets.”

  Cairine nodded and lifted an unadorned, unmarked bottle. “Before we begin, would you two like to try a special wine? Ife is drinking something called MoonShine. It is made by her people in Zambia, unique only to her vampire clan and there is nothing on this world that compares to it.”

  Both men agreed and settled back with normal-sized wine glasses as Cairine spoke.

  “Okay, here goes. Jack, Ben, you have been raised to hunt vampires, and I assume it is because you think they are all monsters who kill people.”

  Jack nodded after taking a large sip of the wine.

  “They are, Cari, at least the ones we come into contact with. I don’t know if there are different types of vampires, but we’ve seen people literally torn apart at the neck by vampires. God this shit is incredible.”