I lapped up and down her folds, darting in and out of her. I growled uncontrollably when the creamy evidence of her excitement coated my tongue.
She was perfect. Her sweet taste drove me insane. I licked my way up her stomach, kissing her breasts, sucking each nipple, then covered her mouth with mine, slipping my tongue between her parted lips, giving her a taste of her sweet nectar that I didn’t think I’d ever get enough of.
“No restraints this time?” she huffed.
“Not this time, baby. I want to feel your hands on me.”
Then she grabbed my ass, digging her nails in just enough to make my balls twitch. As we kissed, I took my cock in my hand and slid it along her folds to find the entrance I so badly needed to penetrate. She was so wet, I slipped inside very easily, and when her tight walls surrounded me, wrapping me with pleasure, I groaned into her mouth. I slid in and out, reaching down to pleasure her clit with my thumb until my hand became completely wet from her juices. Her legs tangled around my waist and squeezed as she bucked under me, with me. Perching myself on both of my arms, I pumped hard as she tugged on my ass, urging me in harder and harder against her. I came as she yelled out my name. The sound, beautiful music to my ears.
I didn’t know what demons had visited her in her dreams, but man, if this was the aftermath of her nightmares, I definitely wanted to be there for her every time she woke from one.
I lay beside her, my arms wrapped tightly around her, her face nuzzled into my chest. I glanced down as moisture dripped onto my torso.
“Baby, tell me. Tell me about your nightmare.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chelle
I swallowed, still half high on the euphoria of sex yet completely horrified by what my nightmare had revealed. Had it really happened that way?
“They killed my parents.” I closed my eyes, wanting the vision of the dream to go away. Making love to Josh had helped ease the pain, made the horror subside some, but it wasn’t a permanent fix.
“Why, baby? Who killed them?” he asked softly, his fingers skimming over my temple and through my hair. This was real. Josh was real. What I dreamed couldn’t possibly be real.
“What I saw in my dream,” I shook my head. “It can’t be what happened. It just can’t.” But even as I said the words, I knew it was. Hell, I knew what I was. And I knew I wasn’t the only one out there.
“Maybe it didn’t. Maybe it was just a nightmare. Have you been thinking about your parents lately?”
“Yes. I have. But the problem is, I’d completely blocked their deaths out of my memory. Alan and his wife took me in; they kept me safe, They became my family. My mom and dad. They hid my identity. I know this only because my mom, my new mom, told me. They gave me a new name. I tried to tell them what happened, but I couldn’t. The words just never came. Then the words were gone. I became Chelle. I don’t even remember my real name.”
“Does Charlotte sound familiar?”
“Maybe.” It was the name my parents called me in the dream I’d just had, but I wasn’t ready to talk about that, yet. “Is that the name you discovered when you were investigating me?”
“Yes.” He nodded with a soft, kind smile.
“And the last name?”
“Ferguson.”
“Charlotte Ferguson? Funny, that just sounds so strange. I’ve been Chelle Masterson for so long.”
“Where did they come up with Masterson?” Josh asked.
“I don’t know. It wasn’t their last name. I knew that. I remember asking about it one day. My mom, I mean my foster mom, said it was my real mom and dad’s last name.”
“They probably didn’t want you to know your real last name since you were a child and under their protection. I completely understand that.”
That made sense. Josh was smart, and I liked the way he listened to me.
“I had a dream. A very brief dream about something, and my friends…” Josh knew about my parents, he knew I must have seen what happened. He could have turned me in to his boss and Alan. But he hadn’t. Josh had proven his loyalty to me, and I believed him when he said he wouldn’t reveal my whereabouts. Could I trust him with my most important secret? I had to take that chance. Like Lane had said, I could just erase his memory if he couldn’t accept it, but I didn’t need to erase myself completely from his mind, did I?
“My friends thought it would be a good idea to have…” I stopped. I was about to reveal something, that up until a few months ago, I wouldn’t have believed.
“I have a friend,” I began again. “She’s a…witch.” I waited for the scoff that I thought would follow the witch word, and when it didn’t come and his eyes studied me with nothing more than affection, I continued. “Tonight she gave me a spell to help bring back the memory of what happened that day. I blacked out shortly afterward, and had the same dream as now, except not as complete. This nightmare I just had was the most revealing, and, quite frankly, the worst.”
“I can relate,” Josh calmly admitted, and I wondered what nightmares haunted him. They couldn’t possibly be as horrible as what I’d just dreamt.
“You didn’t flinch when I mentioned the witch. Do you believe in witches?”
“Maybe. Why not? Who am I to say witches don’t exist when I know there are plenty of other horrifying demons in this world?”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Josh
Chelle was a mess, and truly horrified of what she’d remembered or dreamed. I hated that she had to go through that.
With a witch’s help or not. I certainly wasn’t going to question the reality of witches when I knew there were far worse creatures in the world. Monsters so frightening, it took half a bottle of whiskey, sometimes more, every night just to manage a few hours of sleep.
She hadn’t told me what it was that she’d seen yet, and I knew she needed to. She’d need to face those demons head-on if she were ever to become whole again. Listen to me. The expert. Fuck. I couldn’t even get through one night without alcohol. A lot of alcohol. Maybe I needed to open up a little myself. I hadn’t talked about what happened that night in years. Chelle had just opened up to me a little, and maybe if I told her—or tried to tell her—what had happened to me, what haunted my dreams every night, we could help each other.
We lay there in bed. Silent, adrift in our own thoughts. Still holding each other. I glanced out the window; the clouds covered most of the stars, making it very dark. I had no idea what time it was, but like the other nights, I knew Chelle would be leaving me eventually. Though I still didn’t know why.
“Tell me what happened to you?” she whispered in the dark.
Maybe it was the darkness that made it seem okay to talk, maybe I just needed to, or maybe it was the fact that I wanted to open up to Chelle and give her all of my secrets, demons included, in hopes that by telling her, they might go away. No. I knew they would never go away. Real or not, what I’d seen was beyond comprehension. The monsters would always be out there.
“We’d been arguing, Emily and I. My girlfriend at the time.” I shook my head and cleared the boulder clogging my throat. Chelle’s soft hand rested on my hip. “Over some stupid guy she’d been talking to at a party. I’d come out from the kitchen with drinks for us and saw her standing against the wall, talking to a guy named Blake. Blake and I…well, let’s just say we weren’t the best of friends. I’d made first-string quarterback our senior year, taking the position away from him, and he’d been out for revenge ever since. Stealing my girlfriend would have been a great conquest for him. He stood close to her. Too close, with his hand on the wall beside her head. He said something that made her giggle. And I lost it. I stormed over to the two of them, telling him to get away from my girl. He threw up his hands, walking backwards. He said something, I don’t know what. Something like, ‘Hey man, she’s all yours.’ But I punched him anyway, and we started brawling in the middle of the living room. The guy who owned the house got mad and he and a few of his buddies threw us out.<
br />
“Emily lashed out at me, calling me a jealous fool and insisting that nothing was going on between them, that I was being ridiculous. I knew that Blake meant nothing to her, but I had to badger her about it, because regardless of whether or not I knew he didn’t mean anything to her and I knew she loved me, I was jealous anyway. I told her I was sorry, I said that I loved her, but I never asked her to stay. She took off, ran towards the woods, and I didn’t stop her. Her house was a mile or so away in the direction she’d run. I just stood there and watched her go because I didn’t care. I was still so angry.”
I stopped for a minute. Reflecting on the words I’d never said, the words I wished I’d said.
“If I had just said, ‘Don’t go.’”
My eyes filled with moisture and a tear escaped. I quickly wiped it away. Talking about this was so fucking painful.
“After a few minutes, I heard Emily scream. I took off in the direction she’d gone. But after a few seconds into the woods, everything went silent, and I couldn’t tell in which direction she was. I stood, surrounded by trees, and listened. But I heard nothing but the soft breeze blowing through leaves and branches. I headed in the direction of her house, and then I heard it. A slurping sound. A low growl. I thought it was an animal. I had no idea what kind. I thought maybe a bear, or wolf. I only knew it had to be ferocious. I thought if it saw me, it would do to me what it was doing to Emily. I quietly snuck up closer and hid behind a large tree, hoping I could distract whatever it was so it would leave my girlfriend alone, but the horror of what I saw had me stunned, frozen and unable to move. It wasn’t an animal. Not in the sense of what I knew, anyway. It was a man, but no man would be doing what he was doing. I couldn’t reconcile what I was seeing. His face was buried against Emily’s neck. When he lifted his head up, blood dripped from his mouth. I’ll never forget his horrific, monstrous face. It haunts me almost every night. I knew Emily was already gone. There was too much blood. But then he unsheathed a dagger that had been attached to his thigh and slid the blade across her throat.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chelle
I became rigid as a board in Josh’s arms. I didn’t know whether to get up and run or just lay there and act all surprised at what he’d just said. He hadn’t said the word “vampire,” but what he’d just described sure sounded like one to me. A real monster. He’d witnessed a vampire attack that had killed his girlfriend, traumatizing him for life, and just minutes ago, I’d been ready to reveal to him that I was a vampire. A monster, I’m sure, in his eyes.
“The slit he made with his knife made it appear like her throat had simply been slashed,” Josh continued. “So no one believed me when I told them my story. Everyone thought I was high or something. I got kicked off the football team because I couldn’t take my mind off what happened long enough to concentrate on throwing a pass. I stopped making practices because I’d started drowning my visions in beer, whiskey, and drugs. Whatever I could get my hands on. I was lucky I never came across any hard drugs, or I probably would have ended up an addict.”
I stayed quiet while he told his story. I didn’t want to interject anything for fear he would stop. I felt his need to tell me deep within my core.
“I barely graduated. My dad was a saint. I don’t think he really believed my story, but he sided with me whenever anyone joked about what I said happened. He stuck up for me until the day he died. He got lung cancer and passed away a year later. He made me promise to do something with my life. I managed to pull myself together for short periods of time and went to a junior college, then on to a university to get my degree, getting by semi-sober during the day. Up until that happened, in high school, I’d been a straight-A student and studying had always come naturally to me, easily, plus I was a whiz at taking tests. My dad told me there was a shitload of wrong in the world, and I needed to do whatever it was I could to make my way, no matter what demons I encountered.”
I twitched beside him, an uncontrollable shudder I think he must have mistaken as fear or something since he looped his arm tightly around my waist, pulling me close to him. Even if I’d wanted to get up and leave, I didn’t think he’d let me.
“I did what my dad asked,” he went on. “But only because I’d promised him. Because nothing really mattered. Emily was dead, and all I’d needed to do was say two little words. If I had, I know she wouldn’t have run into those woods. If I’d just said ‘Don’t go,’ she would have stayed with me. I’m sure of it.”
My heart was breaking. Not only for Josh, but also for me. Because I was one of those monsters that drove him to drink every night. Not only that, I had to accept the fact that a fiend like me had killed my parents. But I wasn’t ready to speak of that yet.
There was no way I could reveal what I was to Josh now. He’d never be able to accept me. Or love me. I wasn’t saying I was in love with him, or that he was in love with me. It was too soon for that, but I cared about him, and thought maybe, one day, we’d make a great couple, despite our differences. But now that I knew a vampire had ripped his girlfriend’s throat out, all hope of that was gone. There had to be a way to let him know that not all vampires were monsters.
I sat up and looked down at the broken man beside me. Whether he still loved that girl or not, it didn’t matter, he’d seen what I’d seen in my dream. In that way, at least, we were connected.
“I’m sorry, Josh. I’m so, so very sorry you had to witness that.”
“Sweetheart, I’m fine. You’ve seen far worse. Watching your parents’ murders tops everything. And maybe now, if I could get through that horrible story, as unbelievable as it may be, maybe you can trust me enough to tell me yours.”
I smiled. “Maybe. But not right now.” I just wasn’t ready for that. I wanted to change the subject. Hell, I wanted to change our moods entirely. And I knew just the thing.
“Will you come out with me tonight?”
My question took him by surprise and his eyes widened. “Out where?”
“To a club. A club where my friends perform. It’s Saturday, and their band plays on Saturday nights.”
He ran his tongue over his lips, and I thought of taking it between my teeth and sucking on it. Having sex one more time might get us both into a better mood, but it also might keep us in the rest of the night and I wanted him to see the club. Meet the band. That way, when or if I did reveal what I was, what they were, he would see how almost human and good some vampires could be.
“So now you want to date?” he laughed.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Josh
I held Chelle’s hand as we walked past a long line of people waiting to get inside the club. I’d driven by this nightclub many times, but I’d never gone in. From the looks of the line to get inside, it was a popular place. The large words Club Royal illuminated the neon sign above the entrance in bright red letters, and underneath, in smaller black script, it said, Classic Rock for the soul where The Lost Boys perform every Saturday night.
“This is Ari,” Chelle said as we stepped up to the bouncer manning the door.
“Hi,” I said as the muscled guy nodded and waved us through. She had said she was friends with the band; I guess that meant the bouncer, too.
Dim lights cast the large room in shadows, lending a somewhat romantic feel to the space. Small candles flickered in the center of each of the small, round tables. The walls were dark, maybe even black. We walked to the front of the room by the stage and past a hardwood floor where some people were already dancing to music pumping out of speakers mounted high in each corner. There were additional speakers on stage, which I figured belonged to the band. I had a pretty good feeling about the group. I’d read about them, and kept telling myself to stop in sometime, but that sometime had never happened. Until tonight.
Chelle led me over to a table by the side of the dance floor. A “Reserved” sign sat in the middle of it. “They keep this table for me and some of the band members’ girlfriends. Have a seat,” Che
lle said, pulling out a chair for herself to sit facing the stage. I took the seat next to her.
A few minutes later, a waitress stopped by and we ordered drinks. I had my usual scotch, and Chelle joined me with one of her own. “Chelle, you came. And you brought a…a date.” A guy with an English accent, tight, black leather pants, and a shirt unbuttoned to his navel kissed her on the cheek before taking a seat on the other side of her. Using his multi-ringed right hand, he tucked the strands of his long, dark hair back behind his ear. He seemed a bit too familiar with her for my taste, and my instinctive possessive nature went instantly on high alert.
“Lane, this is Josh. I told you about him.”
“Right. How’s it going?”
“Good,” I found myself saying, though I already wanted to pummel his ass for kissing my…my what? What exactly was Chelle to me? We weren’t girlfriend-boyfriend, we were more like fuck buddies than anything else.
“Lane is my—”
“Cousin,” Lane finished for her. I knew that couldn’t be possible since she was technically a missing person with no family to speak of, and she knew that I knew that.
“Cousin?” I looked at Chelle.
She glared at Lane and smiled at me. “He’s not really my cousin. He just likes to tell people that. We’re just really good friends.”
“I take care of her,” Lane said with a pragmatic undertone that said don’t-fuck-with-her. Sounding very much like he owned her. Possessive much? And I thought I was the one who had the disposition for obsessive behavior. He made my covetous streak seem mild compared to his.
Maybe I was just reading him wrong, but then I caught Chelle send another glare in his direction. There was something going on between them, but I didn’t think it was romantic, which made me feel a little better. I found myself strumming my fingers on the table in thought until Chelle slipped her hand under mine and laced our digits.
Captivated by a Vampire: Billionaire, Rock Stars, Vampires in San Francisco (Immortal Hearts of San Francisco Book 2) Page 12
