Into the Darkness

by Delilah Devlin

  Rene’s arms crept up to close around her—but it was gratitude, not anything deeper, urging her closer. He moaned into her mouth, not liking the needy sound tearing from his throat. Unfortunately, he figured he’d be whole lot noisier by the time she finished with him.

  Chessa sucked on his tongue, her lips promising heaven if she ever used them on his dick.

  His fingers threaded through her soft hair, and he pushed her away and down.

  She let him guide her mouth, licking his skin as he shoved her toward his cock, until her hot breath blew over his sex. But she ducked lower and opened her mouth to suck his balls.

  He shouted something incoherent and dug his heels into the mattress, bucking against her, knowing she could take his rough strokes and not be unseated.

  She mouthed him, her tongue flicking his balls, tugging so strong he was coming unglued. Her hands closed around his dick and squeezed hard, just shy of agony, ringing him and shutting off his building orgasm. “Cheech! Let me fuckin’ come,” he gasped.

  But she had other ideas. Her mouth sank over his cock, her throat opening to let him slide deep.

  No gurgling or choking, she swallowed hard and the back of her throat constricted around him like a cunt—hot, wet, massaging his shaft.

  His hips stroked upward—sharp, frantic thrusts. If she’d let go of the base of his cock for even a second he’d explode like a bottle rocket.

  Fingers rooted below his balls, sliding between his buttocks, caressing his asshole, making him so crazy his head thrashed on the mattress and his whole body shuddered so hard the bed shook.

  Still, she didn’t let him get off.

  When one slender finger breached his ass, he roared, his hips bucking, pistoning upward, his hands clutching sheets, his breaths so jagged he felt like he’d run a marathon.

  “Chrissake, Cheech! Let me come!”

  At last, as her finger stroked inside his ass and her mouth slid up and down his shaft. She eased her tight hold around the base.

  His instant orgasm sucked the air from his lungs, and he heaved his hips upward, spearing relentlessly into her hot mouth. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” he chanted.

  When at last the tremors racking him faded, he dropped his ass to the mattress and lay sprawled, weak as a rag doll while Chessa licked him, her tongue soothing him now, lulling him.

  “Tell me you’ve had better,” she said, her voice thick.

  “You know I haven’t.”

  “Then why?”

  “I don’t love you.”

  “Do you love her?”

  The automatic denial stuck in his throat.

  Chessa raised her head from his belly. Her lips were reddened, swollen, but all color drained from her cheeks. A hollow, haunted sadness filled her eyes.

  “Doesn’t change a damn thing, Cheech. I gotta get out of here.” He raised his head to capture her gaze. “You still gonna take me?”

  A pain-filled grimace crossed her face as she pressed a kiss to his belly and the head of his cock. Then she was on her feet beside the bed—the movement too quick for him to see. “I promised. I won’t go back on my word.”

  Rene held her gaze for a long moment. “Thanks.”

  She shrugged and gave him a tight smile. “What are friends for?”

  He shut his eyes rather than watch her leave. He’d fucked up—more ways than one. Broken another of his cardinal rules. He’d gotten too close to Cheech. Cared about her. He hurt because he knew he’d caused her pain.

  Worse, he’d betrayed Natalie. Not that he’d made any promises. Tomorrow, he’d compound the wrong by leaving her behind.

  “This is awkward.”

  Natalie gave Erika a sideways glance. The situation was beyond awkward and nothing like she’d envisioned when she originally set out to find her mother.

  For one thing, her mother was a vampire. Had caught her having sex in front of an avidly watching audience.

  Erika had handled it all in stride, leading her to a bathroom to clean up and acting like this sort of thing happened all the time. Which apparently it did at Ardeal.

  That was the name of this place—Inanna’s home. And her mother’s. Unlike the ghouls who came and went that Simon had mentioned, her mother had stayed.

  They strolled in a courtyard with a rock wall that only partially blocked the fierce wind whistling past. The furious storm echoed the one brewing inside her.

  She’d found her mother, but not the family she’d lost. This vapid creature held no welcoming warmth in her curious gaze. Yet she’d given her birth.

  Disappointment tasted like a bitter pill in Natalie’s mouth. “Who was my father?”

  Erika sighed and glanced away, looking as though the question had drawn her far, far away. “Just some man. I was brought here when I was much younger than you. When my time came, I wasn’t given a choice. Inanna chose my mate and locked us up together until she was sure I was pregnant. Robert was his name. He was very handsome.”

  She’d been confined, too? “What happened to him?”

  Her soft snort of laughter held the edge of a sob.

  “You killed him, didn’t you?” Natalie couldn’t help her bitchy tone.

  Erika didn’t seem to notice. She shrugged. “I didn’t mean to,” she said softly. “But I don’t seem to have much control. I’m weak that way. It’s why I stay here.”

  “You’re afraid to leave?”

  Erika sat on the edge of a stone fountain and trailed her fingers in the water, watching the swirling waters. “I’m afraid I’ll do harm if my hungers aren’t fed in strictly controlled conditions. I do get out, though.” She glanced up at Natalie. “I’m part of the security team.”

  “Were you one of the goons that kidnapped Rene and me?”

  “I’m sorry about that.” Only her expression held no true remorse. Only emptiness.

  Natalie’s glance swept her from head to foot. Her frame was petite, hardly what she’d consider suitable for a…commando-SWAT-whatever their “security force” really was. “I know I’m staring, but you seem so frail.”

  “I’m not. You have a ways to go yet. The full moon cycle has only started. By the time it ends, you’ll be fully transformed. Stronger than you can even imagine.”

  The strength she wouldn’t mind. But something else did bother her. “Will I feel different?” she asked, pulling her hair from her face as the wind whipped it wildly.

  “How do you mean?”

  Natalie looked away. “Will I be the same person—inside?”

  “Change is inevitable,” Erika said, her voice sounding dreamy. “The power you’ll gain, the things your body can do—you can’t be the same person you were before.”

  Natalie sat beside her and folded her arms over her chest. A chill worked its way down her spine. She wanted to know more, but even Erika, her mother, couldn’t just spit everything out. This game of twenty questions was wearing thin—and she missed Rene. “I don’t know anything about vampires other than what I’ve seen in movies and on TV,” she said, trying a less direct tack.

  “Then you know our secret handshake.”

  Natalie glanced sideways and caught Erika’s little smile. Oh, she was joking. “I just want to know if I’m going to become a soulless bitch like Inanna.”

  Erika’s wide blue eyes saddened. “Oh, Natalie. You misjudge Inanna. I know she seems harsh, but she has her reasons.”

  Natalie snorted. “Whatever.”

  “I’m not sure what made Inanna the way she is, but she’s incredibly powerful and very, very old. If she’s not among the first, she’s very close to the first generation of vampires.”

  “You don’t know?”

  “She doesn’t talk much about her past before the Dacian kingdom.”

  “That’s supposed to mean something to me?”

  Another shrug. “What did you study at Tulane, anyway?”

  Natalie’s lips curved ruefully. “Would you believe journalism?”

  “You wanted to be a reporter?�
��

  She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter now.”

  “No, I guess not.” Her mother’s smile was a vapid stretch of lips. “This certainly isn’t anything you can write home about.”

  Like she had a home anymore. Did the woman have a clue? “It would make a helluva fiction book, though.”

  “Want to be a novelist?”

  “No. I just want this to be over.” Enough circling the tiger. “Can you tell me about the people who killed my parents?”

  Erika’s lips tightened and her gaze slid away. “Were they good to you? Your parents?”

  A direct hit and still she evaded. Natalie’s frustration was quickly nearing her limit. “They were the best. They were always there for me. They didn’t deserve to die that way.”

  “They weren’t the first to be attacked, you know.”

  “And there I thought I was special,” Natalie mumbled.

  “We’ve been fostering children out since the first known attack. Putting them with human families to hide them.”

  “Who wants us dead?”

  Erika shrugged, her expression unconcerned. “Who doesn’t? Most of the world’s religions consider us demons, a plague. They hunt us.”

  “Knowing what I do now, I can’t believe humans did that to my mom and dad.”

  “Probably not. Chessa thinks it might be rogue Revenants.”

  That word again. “What’s a Revenant?”

  “One of the walking dead. We make them, but they aren’t like us—born into it.” Her mother’s words held a note of condescension.

  “How’d you piss them off?”

  “By not sharing power. Inanna and the other ancients, all Born vampires, hold all the seats on the council. They govern as they see fit, negotiate for territory with other…communities. They also set the rules and police accordingly. Some folks resent the fact they have no voice.”

  “But why go after the Born children?”

  “Genocide.” Erika’s lips tightened. “They figure they might win influence and power through attrition as our ranks diminish.”

  “Are there many of us?”

  “Born? No. We are the source. The death givers. We made the first Revenants to serve us. They’re forbidden to procreate and make more of their kind.”

  “What happens when they do?”

  “We destroy the newly raised and the Revenants who made them. That’s my job, actually. I troll the blood banks to make sure everyone’s playing nice.”

  “Blood banks?”

  “They’re safe places we can go to feed. Humans come for the pleasure we give.”

  “The gift,” Natalie murmured.

  “Right. Kind of like what you gave Pasqual,” she said, her sly smile making her relationship to Inanna all the more apparent.

  Natalie hoped like hell she hadn’t inherited the “bitch” gene.

  “He looked very satisfied with the transaction.”

  Natalie stood, feeling sick to her stomach. “I need to get back.”

  “To Rene?” Natalie didn’t answer, but Erika nodded anyway. “There’s some talk about your stud.”

  Natalie turned back at the note of caution in her mother’s tone.

  “He may be leaving soon.”

  All sound seemed to grow fainter around her as her heart beat quickened, thudding dully against her temples. “When?”

  “The morning. Prepare yourself. He’s done his part and doesn’t want to stay. Inanna’s giving him the choice.”

  “Done his part?”

  “Made you pregnant.”

  Her mouth grew dry, and her hand went to her belly. Pregnant? “How can you know that? It’s only been a day.”

  “Inanna knows. She says if he can resist your allure, he may leave.”

  “What if I don’t want to stay?”

  Erika’s eyes widened. “But you must. You need us to protect you.”

  “And the baby.” Natalie was surprised by the bitterness in her tone.

  “Especially the baby. She’s precious to us. Our future.”

  “And I’m not?”

  “Of course you are,” she said, her answer coming too quickly to be sincere, “but you will only have this one child. Once you complete your transformation, you won’t be able to have another.”

  “So I’m to stay until the baby comes? What then?” She was almost afraid to ask, because she knew she wasn’t going to like the answer.

  “She will be fostered out—just like you were. In a safer place.”

  No wonder Natalie didn’t feel an ounce of connection. Erika wasn’t family—wasn’t anything approaching human. Despite the dryness and the lump forming at the back of her throat, she asked, “And I won’t ever see her?”

  Erika shrugged, her expression free of all remorse. “It’s too dangerous. You’d draw attention to her. You must give her up—for her sake.”

  “You’re so sure it’ll be a girl?”

  “We only bear girls. A male would be the equivalent to the second coming and that’s never going to happen.”

  The nonchalant way she said the last—like she had the inside scoop—had hairs prickling on the back of Natalie’s neck. She turned away. “I have to get back.”

  “Savor your time with him. If you want him, try to make it impossible for him to say good-bye.”

  CHAPTER 14

  Chessa tracked Nic down to his quarters in the barracks. From the looks she was given by the members of the team she passed, either it was unusual for him to be there at this time of night or someone had already broadcast the news of what she’d done with Rene.

  Not bothering to knock, she opened his door a crack and slipped inside the darkened room. Sparse as a monk’s cell, she didn’t waste a glance on the contents. Her gaze went straight to Nicolas, who sat on his cot with his back to the wall, a sheet draped over his lap. Lit only by moonlight filtering through his narrow window, his hair was a soulless black against his naked silvered shoulders.

  “Chessa, get out.”

  So, he knew. If his voice had been rough with anger, she would have brazened it out. However, his tone was flat.

  Hesitant to approach, she leaned against the door and searched for something to say to fill the silence that stretched between them. “The storm’s nearing landfall.”

  His legs shifted, one knee coming up under the sheet. “You came to give me a weather report? Thanks. Now leave.”

  Feeling inexplicably anxious, she blurted, “Erika said you’d be departing after it hits to check the river beside the graveyard.” Damn, she sounded inane, but she had to keep the conversation going or her ass would be tossed out the door.

  He blew out a long breath. “That’s my job.” He rested an elbow on his knee and pushed back his long hair. “And not something everyone here doesn’t already know. Now, will you get out?”

  The last sentence held a hint of irritation—something she could work with. “I came to tell you I’m leaving before dawn.”

  “With your partner.”

  “I’m taking Rene to his home.”

  “Is that all the taking you’ll be doing?”

  His silky tone sent a melting shiver down her spine. He didn’t like the thought of her with Rene. “I don’t know,” she drawled. “Depends on him, I suppose. But he doesn’t love me.”

  “Isn’t that what you wanted?”

  Despite the fact she recognized her words were at odds with her actions, she said, “Sure. It’s exactly what I want.”

  “Then why are you here?” he asked, his voice dropping to a graveled bass.

  Chessa’s breath hitched as she fought the urge to leap at him again. “I just wanted to say good-bye.”

  His lips thinned. “At least have the courtesy not to lie to me.”

  She held up a hand. “All right. I was hoping…” She bit her lip, not wanting to say it.

  “What? That we could fuck? Since your policeman didn’t seem so inclined?”

  Anger, fresh and cleansing, swept through her. She
stood away from the door and put her hands on her hips. “Oh, he was ‘inclined,’ all right. I didn’t want to take advantage.”

  “But you would take advantage of me?” Again, that nasty edge crept into his voice.

  Chessa quit trying to figure him out. She lifted one eyebrow. “Do we have to talk?”

  “No,” he said, pointing toward the door, “you may leave.”

  She resisted the urge to stomp her foot—just. “I’m here because I want you.”

  “Not good enough, Chessa.”

  This time she did stomp her foot. “Dammit, Nic. So, I had sex with him—”

  “You gave him a blow job,” he bit out.

  “All right, I went down on him!” She took a deep breath and glanced away. It looked like she wasn’t going to break through his anger without anything less than the truth. “The whole time I was doing it…I realized I was only there because I didn’t want to lose.”

  “What was the prize?”

  She blinked ruthlessly at the moisture welling in her eyes. “There’s not any. I wanted someone in my life who couldn’t really touch me. I like him—even love him a little—but I’m not obsessed with him.”

  “Then why take him home?”

  She brought her face around slowly, lifting her gaze to let him see…more than she was comfortable admitting. “Because he doesn’t want to be like us. I’m taking him back to his life—that’s all.”

  “So, we are back to why you are here. You wanted to say good-bye.”

  “You know damn well I want more than that.” Her voice shook and Chessa clamped shut her mouth.

  There followed a long, pregnant silence and she had just decided she’d been an idiot to come, when Nicolas shifted.

  “Then why are you still clothed?” he asked softly. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

  Chessa’s breath hitched. He’d been waiting for her? Even after he knew where she’d been—whom she’d just left?

  Her whole body suffused with heat and tremors of excitement. Her nipples beaded into sharp, tight points that scraped against her shirt.

  She stripped, leaving her clothes in a puddle on the floor next to the bed. Her eagerness had her wet before her knee touched the mattress.