by Jeya Jenson
Cassie reached out, touching the freshest addition to his flesh. He flinched but did not draw back. It’d always seemed to her eyes that the cuts were not the product of accident, but deliberation. Now she knew.
“Would you have to do that to me?” she asked. The thought did not disturb her. Quite the opposite. It excited her.
He nodded. “We make the cuts to feed.” He paused, then hurried to say, “But blood is only a small part of the hunger. We only drink it to make a connection, to tap into other energies your body emits.”
Her brow wrinkled. “Other energies?”
“Sexual energy—the energy of creation.” He took her hand. Turning up her palm, he made small circles on her skin. “When the Kynn make love to a person, we take those energies into our own bodies. Afterward, the victim is left feeling weakened, literally drained. It feels like the flu—a healthy person can recover in a day or two.”
She laughed lightly with comprehension. “Ah, so that’s why you wouldn’t make love to me?”
“Yes,” he admitted. “I would be feeding off you.” He cast his gaze to the floor. “You were more to me, not just another victim.” His eyes came up. “I’ve taken hundreds of women, nameless, faceless women to feed my hunger. You would have to do that, too. Make love to strange men to sate your needs.”
She considered the implications of his words; more complicated than she’d thought.
“I won’t be making love to them,” she said. “I’ll be having sex. That’s what you do. You have sex with those women, right? They mean nothing to you, like eating another meal.”
“I think of it that way,” he admitted.
“But you can still make love to me?”
“Two Kynn can not draw off each other. We’d be safe, yes.” For the first time a faint smile traced his lips. He took both her hands in his. “Do you still want to cross?”
She smiled as she lifted one of his hands to her heart. “I want to share this life with you, make love to you and with you.” She searched his eyes. “Do you want the same thing? If not, speak your piece now. I won’t try to hold you to me, Adrien. Ever. It has to be your decision, too.”
For an answer, he nodded, then pressed a kiss onto her lips.
Cassie drew back, butterflies taking flight in her stomach. “What should I do?”
“Take a bath,” he said.
“A bath?” she repeated with a laugh.
A wicked gleam came into his eyes. “I want the chance to touch you all over—and I’m not exactly the nicest smelling guy in the world right now.”
Adrien stepped back and pulled off his boots, then unbuttoned his jeans. Ten minutes later, they were both stripped naked and in the shower. Steamy hot water poured down on both their bodies. There was nothing but the water between them and yearnings of the most primitive kind. Slicking his hands with soap, he began to wash her, his hands making slow slippery circles across her skin. She felt a strange prickle go up her spine when he started to knead her firm ass cheeks. Drawing her buttocks apart, he slid his cock along the crevice even as he trailed his lips along her neck. She could feel the hard wall of his thighs against hers, felt the steely strength of him coiled like a cobra ready to strike.
“I’ve needed you, Cassie,” he murmured in a velvet whisper. “I wish I could take you now, but it would weaken you too much.” He bent his head to nibble at the sensitive flesh beneath her right ear. Hips positioned between his commanding hands, he pressed his erection harder against her, the beginning of a slow gentle rhythm. His teeth nipped at the soft slope between her shoulder and neck.
Bracing her hands against the wall of the shower, Cassie bit down on her lower lip to keep from crying out for him to take her. She understood his frustrations, his need to relieve himself through masturbation. If he wanted to use her body to do it, that was all the more wonderful. She pressed her ass back against him, and the motion dragged a long fevered groan from him. When the friction became too intense to be borne any longer, Adrien dug his fingers into her hips. In one ferocious movement, his forceful body tensed. His fevered groan spilled into her ears even as his seed spurted from his cock.
For a long time, they stood under the water, the steam billowing around them in a gentle cloud. When he’d regained his composure, he guided her around to face him, giving the tip of her nose a quick kiss.
“Thank you,” he murmured. “I had to do that. Holding out, waiting to have you is driving me crazy.”
“I hope you don’t have to wait much longer.”
“Your energies have to be at the peak for the crossing,” he said. He circled one nipple with the tip of his finger. The little bead tightened and Cassie stiffened as fresh desire knifed through her. All her reason was beginning fade, as lost as a wraith in the fog. Fingers digging into his shoulders, she dragged in a ragged breath when he bent to taste one of her nipples. Flicking his tongue lightly over the tip, he teased her a minute before closing his lips over the distended bud. He pinched the other nipple, twisting it lightly until she cried out.
“What’s the matter?” he teased.
“Your touch,” she gasped. “It’s like no other…you touch my skin and I feel you so deep inside…” The need of him was a pouncing ache, penetrating to a place she could not physically reach. But he could.
He gave a low chuckle in his throat.” Oh, you’ll feel me deep inside, all right.” His hand slid down over her flat belly. He parted her legs with his hand. Finding her clit, he caressed until she was warm, wet and twisting. He was hitting all the right spots, hands and lips following well-traveled and well-explored paths. He’d memorized every inch of her, knew how she liked to be fondled and stroked.
Just as she was about to hit her peak, Adrien drew back, giving her a long slow kiss. “Don’t come yet,” he warned.
“Awful hard not to when you’re doing what you’re doing,” she breathed, gritting her teeth against that ache deep in her loins. Her clit was afire. The need to climax—and soon—was building inside her, threatening to erupt like a volcano disgorging a rush of hot lava.
Turning off the water, Adrien grabbed a thick towel. He dried her body with long, loving strokes, missing not an inch of her. As squeaky and clean as a virgin on Sunday morning, she felt pure, cleansed.
She was ready when Adrien took her hand in his and led her back into the bedroom.
Chapter Nineteen
Cassie pressed a hand to her stomach. Nerves and nausea clashed. Now that the time was so close, the jitters were beginning to hit her hard. “How do we do this?” she asked. “How does one become Kynn?”
Adrien drew an unsteady breath. “I have to kill you…Your human life must be shed.”
She imagined wriggling out of her life the way a snake wriggled out of its skin. “How do I come back?”
His features were oddly stark in the half-light. “My blood will take your life,” he said gravely. “My breath will bring you back.” He shook his head. “But, I’ve never tried it, never made one like me. I’ve only seen it done…to me.”
Cassie reached up to stroke his cheek. “Then whatever was done to you, do it to me.” She thought she saw a blush darken his cheeks.
He seemed to think a moment, then nodded. “It won’t be easy on you, but I’ll do my best to try. I’ll need to tie you up—so you won’t injure yourself during the crossing. It can get violent.”
“Sounds kinky.” Cassie looked around the room, considering the bed, then a nearby chair. The bed was a canopied one, with four sturdy posts to the front and rear. She walked over to it, stretching her arms across the two rear posts to test the width. Pressing both her wrists against the hard wood, she found the perfect spot. “Here. Tie me to these posts.”
“Standing or sitting?” he asked.
“Sitting. Facing you.”
“All right.” Adrien started to reach for his belt, but realized that would not be enough to securely lash both hands.
“My stockings,” Cassie suggested, nodding toward th
eir discarded clothing.
Adrien retrieved the stockings. Stretching them taut, he bound her wrists to the posts. The mattress was level with the back of her knees, not uncomfortable at all. She tugged at the ties and found she could not free her hands. She bounced on the bed, testing the comfort of the mattress on her bare ass. A nervous laugh escaped her. “I think we’re a go,” she giggled. The way she was trussed up gave him perfect access to every bit of her body.
His gaze grew serious. “I can stop, anytime you say. If you get scared—or change your mind—just tell me.”
She shook her head. “I’m going all the way.” The enormity of what she was about to do was a weight around her neck. She was grasping at straws, hoping against hope that the decision she’d made was the right one. She thought again about what she’d seen and heard. How to distinguish reality from fantasy when there was a malicious tumor growing in her brain? Was her desperation and fear of death leading her to believe in things that weren’t true at all?
It’s a chance I have to take, she thought. Would dying now really make much difference? As with the hairs on her head, her days were numbered. Each day that passed was one less to look forward to. The grave would be cold and dark and she’d be alone. That thought frightened her more than the idea of perishing at the hands of a madman. At least she’d die reaching for hope.
“I want to do this right,” he said, seeming more than a little nervous himself.
Cassie watched him move in the shadows. Naked, he was a magnificent man, tall and lean. When he looked at her, there was a new fire in his eyes, a look she recognized. He wanted her before, but had not dared take her. Now he was free to do just that and the inner animal inside him was unleashed and ready to feast. His cock was again half-erect in anticipation. The shadows were his only clothing, his eyes touching her as surely as his hands soon would.
Still, there was resistance in the set of his jaw. It was as though she were drawing him to her against his will.
“Cassie,” he said, a hoarse whisper conveying both his need and his hunger.
She said nothing. She simply waited.
After what seemed to be an eternity, Adrien came to her. A desperate, angry moan broke from deep in his throat. Falling to his knees, his hands slipped around her slender waist and he drew her body to his, claiming her lips in a single long kiss of pent up desire. Her lips parted willingly for the searing invasion of his tongue. Her back arched as one of his hands sought, then closed over her breast. The tips of her nipples were hard, pulsing buttons aching to be pinched and suckled.
Cassie groaned with her need. Between her legs she felt the moistness of her desire all over again. Her entire being was focused on the undeniable need to be taken by Adrien, fucked until she screamed in pleasure.
“Please,” she begged. “Take me all the way. Nothing else matters.”
Adrien’s eyes flashed with violent passion.
“There’s no stopping now,” he said, the voice of a stranger in his words. Adrien had gone, stepping aside as the creature in him emerged. His hands closed over her full breasts. Kneading them gently, his fingers chafed the pink rosebuds until they throbbed. Then, as a tease, he drew his fingertips over her ribcage, down to her belly, then back up again. With a wicked grin, he dipped his head and traced the circumference of one rosy nipple. Beams of intense pleasure radiated through her body. She gasped aloud.
Adrien only laughed low in his throat. His lips closed over the aching button again and he suckled as if taking in long denied nourishment. He pulled away briefly to kiss the valley between her breasts, then turned his attention to her other nipple. As he nipped at the bud, Cassie flexed her fingers, arms pulling to escape the tight binds. She longed to run her fingers through his hair, hold him close.
A low moan of frustration escaped her. She shivered.
“Cold?” he teased. His hands settled possessively on the supple flesh rounding her hips. The sensation was spellbinding, sending a new flood of warmth through her loins.
“Far from it,” she breathed, voice filled with the wondrous fury of desire.
Adrien’s mouth seared Cassie’s stomach as he nibbled at the vulnerable skin above the line of her Venus mound. Her head fell back in utter surrender when his hand slid up between her thighs to caress the rosebud hidden between silken nether lips. Making her widen her legs, his searching fingers found her pulsing clit. He rubbed back and forth against the little nub, using her own cream to heighten her sensitivity to his touch.
“Let me know when you’re nearing climax,” he said, fighting to keep his own control. “That’s when your energies will be at their strongest. “That’s when I will start your change.”
“Mmmmm…don’t keep me hanging,” she countered with a laugh. She groaned with helpless pleasure when he added the warm pressure of his mouth. He slid two fingers deep into her sopping pussy and the practiced motions of his hand grew faster.
Head thrashing from side to side in delirium, Cassie ground her cunt shamelessly against his face. Her arms ached from being bound up at the level of her head, but she did not care. That pain only added to the exquisite torment Adrien was so expertly inflicting on her body. Her back arched. The pressure of pleasure was too great, so much so that she almost couldn’t bear it. Her orgasm was building.
Like a prowling tiger springing onto a gazelle, Adrien suddenly reared back. His hand flew to his neck, jerking the charm from round his neck. His eyes glowed from the depths of his skull, blazing with a hunger that went beyond the physical. “I’ll only have this once chance to know you as a human woman,” he breathed. With one edge of the charm, he made a tiny cut at the hollow of her throat. A brief agony lanced through her before he leaned forward, pressing his lips to it as blood welled. She could feel his tongue rasping against her sensitive skin, soothing away the dull ache.
Hands cupping her ass cheeks, he half pulled her off the bed so that she was sitting on his lap, her knees on either side of his hips. The stretch of her arms was painful, but in an exciting, erotic way. He pressed the tip of his throbbing erection to her downy slit. He plunged a little further into her and Cassie began to whimper, filled with the need for a thing she could not even begin to imagine or define. Unable to hold back a moment longer, he thrust hard.
Cassie felt the wonder of delight as he pumped his hips against hers with a rhythmic ferocity that made his skin deliciously slick with sweat. She could feel the ripple of her inner muscles around him, grasping at him, drawing him ever deeper. Then, as though some beast were latching onto her, she felt an unfamiliar ice-laced darkness flowing through her. Out of the maelstrom came the bubbling whorl of uncountable dark twisted shapes, menacing half seen faces with gnashing teeth. The teeth bit hard and deep, thousands of tongues beginning to suck away the essences of the sexual energy Adrien aroused in her. Her flesh seemed to crawl with an animation all its own, and she tensed, knowing that she must break the hold Adrien had on her. She sensed that even as she was growing weaker, he was growing stronger.
She felt herself bleeding, freezing, withering. “You’re taking too much from me…” she warned through blurring eyes. She gasped painfully, twisting her arms against her bindings, feeling—relishing—the gratifying burn at her tender wrists.
Giving a strangled cry of frustrated desire, Adrien pulled out of her. Climbing to his feet, he used the charm on himself, making a deep slash across his stomach, just below his ribcage. Catching a handful of her hair, he pushed her forward, forcing her mouth to the drizzling wound.
“Drink of me, Cassie,” he said, eyes glittering with an otherworldly fire. “Drink of me and live.”
She tasted his blood, a saccharine nectar sliding like liquid fire down her throat. Immediately a burn like acid settled in the pit of her stomach and her heart raced with comprehension. Her body felt like it was shriveling, as some dark creature latched onto and began to slurp away the very blood in her veins. It felt like the hand of a giant crushing her, squeezing her so hard th
at the very marrow would seep from her bones. Pain was her master and it lashed at her again and again, going past the physical to her core. Her body convulsed in a series of violent spasms. Fear overcame her and she began to recede into unconsciousness; Adrien had betrayed her. She was going to die.
Oh, God, she thought wildly. What’s happening to me? Her eyes fluttered shut, her soul aching with intense fear.
All of a sudden, the pain ceased, blinking out the way an overheated light bulb would. In another instant a dazzling light abruptly smacked her full in the face as her soul seemed to take flight on the wings of some unknown force. She cringed at first, but something about its warmth welcomed her into its infinite embrace. She sensed, rather than physically felt, the relaxing of her muscles as her body lost breath and went limp. For an instant she heard the beating of her heart. Then there was nothing except an ever expanding pool of silence.
Eyes beyond the physical opened and focused. Consciousness bloomed afresh. When she could think again, she saw that she was looking down at her own body. Her physical shell did not move, not even to breathe. For all intents and purposes she was dead—yet all too aware of the fact. With a brief tingling shock, she realized that she was no more than a wraith, floating dreamily over the room. With a certain ironic detachment, she stared down on her slumped form. She moved, gliding around the room, visiting it from various angles. She felt stronger, filled with an energy no human mind could ever imagine or comprehend. The freedom of being formless and shapeless was amazing. She was tempted to follow the white pulsing light hovering at the edges of the room. It called like a siren’s song, urging her to join it, merge with it.
The light was death— Instinct told her to stay away, stay focused on her physical form. There was still a very thin thread attaching her to it. Break that and she’d be lost.
