I curled my arm up, holding my bra over my breasts. I wouldn’t say shyness came over me. Just a feeling of vulnerability. A hint of shock creeping in.
A little over an hour ago, I’d been cleaning a tub as quickly as possible because I was afraid of monsters hiding in the dark.
Now I’d fed on two men. We were vampires. And I was about to have sex for the first time.
I wanted them, no doubt or hesitation at all. In fact, I was relieved to finally feel desire. My body was ready to jump right in, but my mind wanted a moment to catch up.
“Is it sex that brings the power?”
“No.” Alrik handled each of my feet gently, stripping off my socks and helping me step out of my jeans. “It’s blood. That’s where the power lies. Sex is just a bonus that makes it even better. Now that you’ve fed from us, your power will rise. The more blood you take, the greater the power. It might be tonight, or days from now, but it will come, and sometimes it’s like a bomb going off. And when you feed us, our power will rise as well.”
“Good sex flavors the blood and makes it all the more powerful,” Daire added. “It’s possible to share blood but not sex, or sex but not blood, but most of us can’t resist the combination.”
I didn’t feel powerful. How could someone who’d been scared most of their life feel powerful? But it did make sense in a way. I knew the monsters hunted me because of my blood.
“You’re Isis’s daughter, so the power will be great,” Daire said. “I hope there’s no cemetery close by.”
I searched his eyes, confused. “Why?”
“She was known for bringing people back from the dead.”
Oh. Crap. “Really? Mom never said anything like that.”
If she’d had that kind of power, why didn’t she save Dad? She’d run from the house and down the street to help us, screaming like a mad woman. Dad had thrown me up on his shoulders, keeping me out of reach of the two monsters that had ambushed us. It wasn’t dark yet, but the risky pink and lavender time of dusk. We’d lost track of time, playing softball in the park.
The monsters cut his legs and knees until he fell. They tried for me, but I was able to bash one in the skull with my bat. But the other one ripped out Dad’s throat.
Mom had wailed like something from a horror movie. But without hesitation, she’d picked me up and raced for the house.
Leaving Dad bleeding on the street.
“Every queen’s power is different, even in the same line, though similar,” Alrik said. “The goddesses decide what gifts to give, but each line has its own unique…” He hesitated, either trying to find the right word, or afraid to say it.
“Flavor,” Daire finished for him.
“True, but that wasn’t quite the word I was searching for.”
“Curse?”
Alrik grimaced. “I don’t want to scare her.”
I wanted to say that I didn’t scare easily, but I knew that wasn’t true. Not with those monsters running around the woods hunting me everywhere I went.
I shivered, tightening my arms over my front.
Several moments went by before I realized something very important.
Both men simply knelt there. Waiting.
They didn’t touch me, even though they wanted me. I’d just had Alrik’s dick in my fist. I’d had as much of their blood as I’d wanted, and I stood here, nearly naked, and they didn’t press their advantage.
I met Alrik’s gaze but didn’t say anything. I didn’t have to.
“You’re our queen, Shara. Our life. Our blood is yours to command. If you want our blood and nothing else, that is how it will be.”
“I don’t want that,” I whispered, letting my bra fall away. “I want it all. It’s just… I’ve never done this before.”
Alrik’s eyes narrowed and he looked angry again, like when he’d seen my room. Which was damned near a palace compared to some of the dumps I stayed in. Then he looked at Daire, and this time, I heard his words in my head.
:Unfucking believable. A virgin queen at her age.:
:A travesty.: Daire winked at me. Evidently he knew I was eavesdropping.
“Um,” I said aloud, not wanting to betray a confidence. “I can hear you.”
“Of course,” Alrik replied, each word short and bit off. “You’ve had our blood. You can access our thoughts now.”
“Why are you angry?”
Even on his knees, he looked up at me and somehow managed to glare and look intimidating. “My queen does not suffer in silence with no one to ease her need. My queen is not alone. My queen is not hungry, sad, hurting, or scared. My queen will have as much pleasure as you can stand. And for that reason, I suggest you allow Daire to entertain you with his mouth. None’s as good as he, and that will ensure the rest is just as enjoyable for you.”
My eyes met Daire’s and he leaned forward slightly, but didn’t touch me.
Power. I was starting to understand what they meant, but this power had nothing to do with blood or magical vampire shit. I could stand here, topless, and Daire wouldn’t touch me until I gave him permission. Even if he desperately wanted to do so.
Both men had let me take their blood and touch them as I wanted, intimately, in Alrik’s case. Yet they had barely touched me at all.
I felt a surge of confidence, not just in myself, but in them, too. I might not know them well yet, but I could trust them implicitly. They proved that every moment that they waited for my permission.
It was like throwing back heavy drapes in a room that had been closed off from the sunlight for decades. I hadn’t even realized how dark and gloomy my life had been. I’d gotten used to being alone, unable to trust anyone.
I tangled fingers in his hair and pulled his face against my chest. His lips touched my skin, dancing across the tops of my breasts in soft, light kisses. The rasp of his tongue on my nipple made me jolt in his arms. He looked up at me, checking my reaction. Or maybe he just wanted to watch the way my head rolled back when he took my breast into the heat of his mouth. His tongue curled and stroked over my nipple and I shivered as sensation poured through me. Nerves flared to life, a cascading pleasure circuit that coursed through my veins. He switched to my other breast and my knees quivered. He licked a path down my stomach with small, teasing nips on my flanks and hipbones.
He nudged his face against my crotch, a playful bump that still made me groan. His tongue stroked over the top of my panties and I suddenly couldn’t get them off fast enough. As soon as I pushed them down my hips, he took over and pulled them down to my feet.
Alrik swept me up against him and took me down to my bed. Startling hot skin pressed against mine and I wanted to stretch out between them and just soak them in, front to back. My skin felt starved for contact, as if it’d withered and died for this, never knowing this was exactly what I needed so desperately.
I forced my eyes open and lifted my head enough to see Daire. I drank in the powerful lines of his body. He wasn’t as bulky and ripped as Alrik, his muscles more sleek and lithe yet still promising danger and strength. He shucked his pants and then planted a knee on the mattress to join us. The bed frame creaked and he shot a worried look at Alrik. “This rickety bed might not hold us all.”
Alrik brushed his mouth against mine, drawing my attention to him, even as Daire kissed my calf. “We must provide our queen with a better, hardier bed.”
I tried to picture a dozen men like him all standing around, either watching or joining or… I had no idea, not really. But it made my mouth quirk against his. “Big enough for a dozen Blood?”
“Yes, if that’s what you want.”
Daire made a slow path up my legs, lingering on my knees, his fingers gliding up and down my calves, massaging my muscles. Rubbing the arches of my feet. Then back up above my knee, loosening my quadriceps. The strength in his hands made me melt with pleasure. Years of fighting, running, struggling to survive relaxed inch by inch as he made his way up my body.
“Let us take care of
you,” Alrik whispered against my mouth. His fingers trailed across my collarbone and down my arm, bringing my skin to life. “Let us love you.”
I think he meant make love to you, not love you, but right now, luxuriating in their gentle, slow touch, it felt one and the same to me.
Their hands. Their mouths. So soft and tender and gentle. They didn’t rush or push me along, but lingered on every hollow as if determined to taste and stroke every inch of me from the curve of my ear to the smallest toe and find the spots that pleased me the most.
When Daire finally stroked his tongue across my pussy delicately, it made me shudder with need. I opened my legs more, pulling my knees up to open for him as much as possible. He nibbled with his lips, gently sucking on my folds. His tongue traced around my clit, sending ripples through my body. Pressure built and I could almost feel their blood rushing inside me, a hot bubbling pool of lava. I pushed up against his mouth, asking for more, and he obliged, flattening his tongue more firmly against me. Alrik sucked my nipple into the heat of his mouth, while he gently pinched the other, and suddenly the dam inside me broke. I quivered beneath them, trying not to cry out too loudly for the hotel rooms were paper thin. My mouth throbbed again and I ran my tongue around the roof of my mouth, but no fangs. Just a rising hunger.
:Again?: Daire asked, though whether he meant the question for me or for Alrik I wasn’t sure. That single word vibrated with tension, raw with desperate hunger. He still touched me gently, slowly, though his own need pounded like a jackhammer in his skull. Need for my body. Need for my blood. I wasn’t sure which he wanted the most.
I tightened my arm around Alrik’s neck and felt for his emotions. He was more closed and contained, like a warrior who’d locked his emotions down deeply during a time of war. But he must have felt me reaching for him mentally as well as physically. He threw open that door, welcoming me in. His emotions poured through me: vicious hunger, pounding need, the same as Daire. But also protectiveness. Like a sworn knight of old, he had a stoic, almost fatalistic determination to stand guard at the door. I felt years of history and waiting in those emotions. He’d been waiting for this, waiting for me, his entire life. An agony of waiting, so many years I couldn’t begin to count them. Watching others have love, watching others have their queen, sharing her blood, confidence, and trust, while he had none. For him, it was more than blood and sex. He wanted to be the one. The one to trust, the one to lead, my closest confidante, the one I needed the most.
I ran my hand down the planes of his back and looked into his eyes. “I need you.”
He quivered against me. “Then you shall have me.”
Daire didn’t need an order to back up and let Alrik slide between my thighs. I was afraid for a moment that I’d upset him, made him jealous, and he’d leave, but he came up beside us, basically taking Alrik’s place at my side so I could kiss and touch them both. Alrik was so big, so heavy, so strong. I thought I might panic. Maybe I should have, given my lack of experience. But his manner was so controlled, entirely focused on me and my pleasure, that I wasn’t afraid. Even though I knew how much he wanted me, he didn’t rush or force his way into my body. He stroked his dick against me, letting me feel his size, but using that size purely to make me feel good. And it did—he rubbed himself on my clit, a back and forth glide that made me arch beneath him, begging for more. Only then did he slowly ease inside me.
I’d always thought it would hurt, but with Daire kissing me, and Alrik moving so slowly, I didn’t feel pain at all. Maybe a bit of a burn, some pressure, but it only added to the need building inside me. It felt like it took an eternity for him to slide all the way inside me, for him to lower his body down on his elbows above me. He didn’t thrust at all, not yet. He just looked at me, and a faint shudder rocked his body. As if he couldn’t believe he was here with me, either.
Daire stroked my cheek, turning my attention to him. “My queen, I will leave you now, but only to stand guard over you while you’re both at risk. On my very life, no thrall will get past my blades tonight while you take your first Blood.”
“You can’t both drink from me at the same time?”
He made a low, vicious sound beneath his breath that made my inner muscles clench hard enough on Alrik that he grunted and shifted inside me. “Not until you have other Blood to stand guard over us, or you have a nest established that we know is safe. The master thrall is still out there to the north.”
I’d forgotten about the watcher on the hill. The monster who’d taken my mother from me. I didn’t want to feel that evil taint in my mind, the tendrils of fear that always crawled through my head when I felt that stain in the night. Especially this night.
Just thinking about that monster was enough for my subconscious to pinpoint where he was, even though I had terrible direction sense. I had no idea where “north” was, but I could feel the taint off to my left. I pushed that thought away, determined to ignore him. I threaded my fingers in Alrik’s hair and focused on him.
Only then did he grind deeper against me, slowly at first, testing my tolerance. My response. His big hand slid down my hip, shifting me slightly, tipping me up against him. My breath caught in my throat. That pressure sent a throb through my core. My inner muscles clenched on that hard dick inside me and I couldn’t help but shudder.
He made a low, hungry noise and slowly pulled out of me. Stars above, so slowly, I swear he felt a mile long. I grabbed at his back, trying to pull him closer, to stop that inexorably torturous glide. Just as slowly, he pushed back in to the hilt, pausing to grind his pelvis against my clit.
My heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest. I couldn’t stop tugging on him, clawing at his back, his hair, trying to pull him down to me. His mouth. I wanted his mouth. On my skin, my throat, and then it dawned on me.
I wanted his teeth.
“Please,” I whispered against his lips.
His gentle control cracked. A sliver at first, with a harder, quicker thrust. Again. It was natural to arch my back, my throat, turning my head aside in invitation. He slid his palm around my nape, supporting my head, and sank his fangs into me. I gasped, shocked at the sudden white flash of pain, riding the line of pleasure that hurt so good it was almost agony. He was inside me, dick and teeth and blood. And now my blood was inside him.
He growled out a deep, vicious cry against my throat, his body plunging harder. I could feel climax building again, but this wasn’t going to be gentle, swirling pleasure, but an earthquake of clenching muscle and straining flesh. I convulsed, everything inside me detonating with the force of a nuclear explosion. I forgot about trying to keep quiet so I didn’t disturb the handful of guests. I even forgot about the watcher. Alrik’s shoulders heaved beneath my hands, his muscles straining. I felt his climax, a flood of warmth at my core. But the pressure filling me didn’t end. It was like a black hurricane filled me, swirling waters that continued to fill me, rushing in from all directions. I saw Daire, standing to my right, his eyes glowing oddly. Like the gleam of a large animal caught watching from the woods. But then even he was gone.
Shadowed winds swirled inside me, spiraling higher. I could taste Alrik’s blood on my tongue again, the memory of that rich, warm blood in my mouth. I smelled sand, dry, baked earth heated for centuries by merciless suns.
“Shara.”
My mother’s voice. Crying, I went to her, my hands seeking her in the darkness. As soon as I touched her, I could see her clearly, as though a full moon had broken through thick clouds. I’d forgotten how beautiful she was. Her hair was dark like mine, though with more curl and shape. I had her eyes, too. Inky midnight eyes, glittering with stars.
“My daughter.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Shara
Mom’s arms wrapped around me, squeezing so hard I couldn’t breathe. It felt good, though. Many a night, she’d held me against her like this, assuring me that we were safe, even though there were monsters creeping around. She smelled like I remembered, a
sweet vanilla that made my heart ache.
“I’ve got so much to tell you,” she whispered. “But first, I’m sorry. So sorry.” Her voice broke and she shook against me.
“It’s all right, Mom. I’m okay, and now, two men found me. They say they’re Blood. My Blood. Do you know what that means?”
She blew out a long, soft breath. “Yes. That’s why you’re here. Why I’m allowed to see you again. You’re claiming the Isador legacy.”
Daire and Alrik had mentioned a legacy too, but they’d been more excited about it. Mom sounded resigned, though maybe that was my imagination. She sat down, legs crossed, so I joined her, facing her. I glanced around, trying to place where we were. Rolling hills of sand went off in all directions and a night sky gleamed with stars overhead. A crescent moon hung over a tall mountain. No, not a mountain. The sides were too perfect and steep.
A pyramid.
“I never wanted the legacy. It was a heavy burden for me. I hope the goddess takes pity on you and gives you different gifts than mine. Gifts that will be more… bearable.”
I had so many questions. What kinds of gifts? How could a gift be a bad thing? Goddess? She’d never mentioned a goddess before. But I was afraid to distract her. She’d never talked to me so openly before, and deep down, I felt an urge to hurry. I sensed that time here was precious, trickling away like sands through an hourglass. I wanted her to tell me what was most important.
“When I fell in love with Alan, I thought it was an answer to my prayers. She heard my plea and gave me a way out, a life I could enjoy without the need for blood and power. The Triune even agreed to let me leave, as long as I never spoke of my heritage and never attempted to use my powers. They placed a geas upon me, so I couldn’t speak of my old life at all.
“It was easy to walk away. We lived a normal life. I had a job, a husband I loved, and there wasn’t the constant struggle of deciding who to award with blood. Who to punish by withholding my blood. Who to feed me, to gain the most power. Who to ally with. Who only wanted a taste of blood to use me as their weapon. I could finally live and breathe and it was wonderful.
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