“Close your eyes, Ben.”
He swallowed. His breath was all but gone. It was hard to speak. Still, he felt no fear, not of Ruthie, not of what would happen. “Why?”
“I don’t want you to watch you me to do this.”
He touched her lips with his finger, feeling her fangs. They were sharp on the end. “I want to. These are my last moments. Let me go out knowing what’s happening.”
Tears filled her eyes but didn’t fall. Climbing on top of him, her breasts pressed against his chest, he knew he should be turned on. His body was too weak for the sensation. His mind, however, liked the idea of dying like this. Ruthie’s strong, hot body pressed next to his.
Using her tongue, she licked the side of his neck.
He shivered. “Do you do it like this every time you feed?” “No.” Her whispered reply sounded husky. “Clearly, you’re special, Ben.”
“Just checking.”
She kissed his neck, right on top of what he knew was his weak pulse. “Goodnight, Ben.”
As her fangs pierced his skin, he jerked beneath her. Unable to stop himself, he grabbed the back of her hair as if to pull her off. Ruthie was strong; she didn’t even budge.
He cried out. She had told him it would hurt. God, she hadn’t lied. He swore. Then the pain passed. He could feel his heart slow down. It was happening. The end was on its way…
Looking out into the hospital room, he saw something he hadn’t noticed before. Someone had lit a menorah. It was the fifth night. As the room around him grew foggy, he could still see the dancing lights calling him, reminding him of home.
Soon he would be with Ruthie with eternity stretched out before them. She stopped sucking on his neck, pulling back to look at him.
“Any minute now, Ben.”
Using her fingernail, she sliced open her wrist. Vaguely, with what vision he had left, he saw a red crimson line form as Ruthie’s blood slipped out of the open vein.
She pressed it up to his mouth. “Drink, Ben.” He did.
Chapter Six
Ruth waited until they’d all but finished the funeral. She stood a distance away. Any closer and the whole group of Ben’s mourners would become enthralled. She was going to make that happen, just not yet. He deserved a proper send off.
But she wasn’t going to let them put him in the ground. No way, no how. She’d stood in the room keeping the coroner enthralled, as she made sure he found none of her Vampire venom in Ben’s body. Then she spent the day hidden in one of the refrigerators where they stored the dead bodies to avoid the sun.
The rabbi was finishing up his speech. It had been a lovely service. His mother and father had cried. Jenny’s kids had picked out pretty rocks to leave on his grave. All in all, if he ever asked, she’d be able to tell Ben that his funeral had been a nice a send off made by people who loved him.
She stepped forward, coming out of the shadows, and the Rabbi immediately stopped speaking.
She spoke. It felt awkward, even though she knew none of them would remember what she said or even that she was here at all.
“Thank you, everyone. It’s time to go home. The
funeral is over. Benjamin was well buried.” She cleared her throat. “Go. Now.”
Like zombies moving with instructions, the group took off for their cars. A small spray of rain hit Ruth in the face as she approached the coffin. Thanking her lucky stars for the hundredth time that Ben’s will hadn’t stated he wanted to be cremated, she opened the lid to the box that held her love inside.
He appeared to be sleeping and would look this way for several more days before he rose. Ruth had opened her eyes on the side of the road face down in the mud. It was war, and no one had bothered to do anything with one more dead body strewn around. Most Vampires reported having to claw their way out of the coffin and through the dirt, terrified the whole time.
The Vampire who’d made Ruth had at least sought her out, showing up about an hour after she’d awakened.
Ben wouldn’t have that. She’d be there when he opened his eyes. Picking him up in her arms, she swung him very ungracefully over her shoulder. Looking at the gravediggers, who had stood quietly to the side toward the end the service, she instructed them to bury Ben’s coffin.
With that instruction, she walked quietly out into the night, hoping that when Ben did awaken, it wasn’t to curse her for doing this to him. She swallowed that thought.
In sixty-five years she’d not thought to walk out into the sun and end her days, but if Ben cursed her, the sun would finally look inviting.
Opening his eyes, Ben looked around the room and almost laughed. He was in Ruthie’s terrible mausoleum. It really was too awful for words.
On his left, he saw the subject of his thoughts pacing back and forth in front of an enthralled man who stared off blankly into space.
He sat up, and she gasped, her eyes filling with joy and then terror. He liked the first reaction, not the second.
“Hey, Ruthie.” Just because he knew he’d be able to without pain, he leapt up, not realizing just how far he’d be able to jump He cursed as he cracked his head against the ceiling.
Laughing as he tumbled back down to the floor, he grinned at the woman he hadn’t expected to show up but who had made his life better in just a few days. “My first act of as a Vampire and I crack the hell out of my head.”
He rubbed his head, glad in a strange way that it hurt. Some things were still the same.
Ruthie threw her arms around him. “Oh Ben, I’m so relieved. You should have woken up hours ago. I thought maybe it hadn’t worked and that you were really gone.”
He held her close, loving how warm she felt, loving that he could squeeze her as closely as he wanted to. His groin jumped to attention, and his already wide grin got even bigger.
A loud buzzing in his ears altered his attention, and Ben’s attention darted to the man enthralled in the side of the room.
“Um… babe, who is that man, and why am I so preoccupied with him?”
His gaze narrowed to the fellow as the teeth in his mouth elongated. He snarled at the feeling, suddenly knowing a fierce desire to puncture the man’s skin and suck until he was full.
Ruthie’s hand pushed on his chest bringing his attention back to her. “Because you need to feed right away. I brought him here for you.”
He wanted the other’s man blood, and he wanted him right now. “Ruthie, I really want to take his blood, and I’m a little concerned about it. You don’t kill people, right?”
“I don’t.” Ruthie’s strong hands held him back. “It’s hard not to. The first few times I was alone and I did take their lives. I’m going to help you not to, but if it happens I won’t judge you, okay?”
He shook, and he didn’t care for the feeling, not at all. “I’ll judge me, and you’ll never forgive yourself for bringing this guy to me. Let’s work really hard to make sure I don’t screw this up. We’ll start as we mean to go on.” “Alright, come with me.”
She took his hand and led him to the man. “He’s enthralled. He’s not going to feel any pain.”
She looked away from him to speak to the man she’d brought him to eat. Really, it was incredible she’d gone out and brought this person to him. He wanted to thank her, but it was going to have to wait until after he ate.
Sating his hunger was all he could think about.
Feed. Feed. Feed.
Through gritted teeth he managed to speak. “Is it always this bad?”
“No. You’ll get better at controlling it.”
“Now.” She walked to the man. “I instruct them to turn their neck in a way that I’m comfortable with. You’re significantly taller than I am, so you may actually want to pick him up in your arms until you get the right angle.”
“Pick him up?”
She nodded. “Remember how you hit the ceiling?
You’re really strong. He’s nothing to you. Pick him up.”
Ben crossed to the poor man be
ing enthralled by two Vampires and lifted him up. “Now what?”
“Use your fangs, it should be natural, take his blood. But listen to me very closely, you can hear his heart. You, of all people, should be able to hear when it starts to work too hard. That means it’s time to stop.”
God this was going to be hard. He’d underestimated the passion he would feel for the blood. He wanted it, needed it. Looking at Ruthie’s concerned eyes, he had a thought that might save him. “Put your hand on my arm. Don’t let me lose myself to this. Keep me grounded here.” “I can do that.”
Ruthie put her arm around him. “I’ve got you.”
“Great.” Now if only he could get control of himself.
Closing his eyes, he bit down awkwardly on the man’s neck. The skin broke easily, shocking in the simplicity of the act. Sucking upward, he let the spicy, life giving essence of this man invade his body. Wow, no bottle of wine had ever tasted this delicious. He lost himself to the thick, coppery flavor and the sense of heat entering his body.
He heard the man’s heartbeat as if it happened inside his own body. It would be so easy, he realized, so simple to take all of his blood and this soul’s existence. It would be his blood then, his soul to take, his eternal existence.
The feel of Ruth’s warm hand on his harm jarred him from his dark thoughts, and he pulled back, instinctually licking the wound to close it on the man’s neck. He looked down at Ruth whose small smile was like a million sighs coming over his body to soothe him.
There was only one problem. “I’m still hungry.”
“You always will be if you don’t kill. Even if we enthrall a hundred people tonight you will feel unfinished if we don’t end their lives.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And you’ve lived this way for sixty-five years all alone without anyone to share the burden with?”
“Yes. Although I have met other Vampires who feel as I do and stay hungry to prevent the killing.”
“What do we do with him now?”
Ruthie turned the man toward her. She patted him once on the head. “Thank you for feeding him tonight. Go home now, drink some water, and go to bed. Tomorrow do something nice for yourself.”
As the man turned to walk up the stairs of the mausoleum, Ben cracked up. “Do you do that with all the people you feed off of?”
She shrugged looking away for a minute as she bit her lip. “A variation on it.”
He moved forward, faster than he ever had before.
Stroking her cheeks in his hands, he kissed her. “You’re adorable.”
He felt her shiver beneath his touch, and a new heat filled his body. “I think I know what we can do to get the hunger under control.”
Her eyes glowed in the soft candlelight of the mausoleum. “What’s that?”
He stroked the length of her small nose, noticing for the first time that she had freckles. He’d never been able to see them before. They’d always been obscured in the darkness, or he’d been too sick to notice in the hospital.
“Transference.”
She bit down on her lip again before she pinched his chin lightly. “Are you suggesting we take one kind of hunger and replace it with another?”
Ruthie really was a woman after his own heart.
“Exactly.”
Arching her neck back as she pressed up against him, she kissed him lightly and bit down on his lower lip as she pulled away. “What did you have in mind?”
“I’m thinking I want to start by getting that shirt off you. Then the rest of your clothes while we both find out what this functioning body of mine is capable of handling.”
Her voice sounded husky when she spoke. “Pick me up.”
Placing his hands under her arms, he lifted her up. Ruthie put her arms around his neck, wrapping her arms around his waist.
“You can’t hurt me, and I can’t hurt you, not seriously anyway.”
“Which means what?”
She pressed her lips to his neck. “Feel free to do your worst.”
With a growl he’d never imagined he could make, he ran forward until he pressed her against the wall. With one tug, he ripped the shirt from her body exposing her pale, freckled skin and a white cotton bra.
“Do you have a lot of lingerie?”
Ruth laughed. “What is a lot? I have a few bra and panties. If you could manage not to destroy them, I’d be thrilled.”
“I’ll buy you new ones.”
“You don’t have money anymore, you’re dead.” She wiggled against him, and his hard length jumped to life. He groaned and closed his eyes.
“Trust me, Ruthie, my love, if there is one thing I can do really well, even when I was dying, it was make a lot of money. I’ll get some my own back or make new.”
“Is this your way of telling me you want to rip off my bra?”
He grinned and knew he must look like fool. “How do you understand me so well?”
“I guess I’m just good that way.” She sighed, a mock display of temper. “Rip it off.”
He did, pleased with the feel of it under his hands and the sound of tearing fabric. He felt strong, and Ruthie felt like his. He kissed his way down her neck, down to the spot between her breasts. Oh god, her breasts. With her back supported by the wall, he used his hands to squeeze her breasts. She gasped followed by a sigh.
Using his fingertips, he rolled her pert, pink nipples. Ruth banged her head against the wall. “Oh god.”
“Like that?”
“God, yes.”
“Want me to do it again?”
She squeezed the back of his neck. “If you don’t I might have to resort to violence.”
He was the happiest he could ever remember being.
Ruth was hot, so damn hot she thought she might explode from his. Her insides were dripping pools of lava, and the only thing that could relieve her pain was Ben. He didn’t, however, seem to be in any hurry to give her the release she wanted. No, he acted perfectly content to continue to torment her.
A naughty thought entered her mind. He’d never had Vampire sex before. He didn’t know all the things they could do together. Letting her fangs elongate in her mouth, she leaned over to his neck. His fingers still played havoc with her nipples, and she thought she might actually come with no penetration, just from his ministrations to her breasts alone.
Not that she was complaining. No. But it was time to give him some stimulation of his own. Leaning over, she bit down hard on his neck.
He gasped and grabbed her head before leaning his forehead against hers. His erection jerked beneath his pants. Vampire bites from other Vampires were a huge aphrodisiac.
“Shit…” Ben’s rough voice sent chills up her back. Pulling her tighter up against his chest, he held her close before he turned around and threw her across the room.
One second she was embraced, the next airborne and landing on the bed. She had time to blink before Ben was over her. Reaching up, she pulled off his pants, ripping them from behind.
Now all she wanted to do was touch his legs.
Running her hands from his feet all the way up the thick hair of his calf and thigh muscles, she shivered as she felt him respond. He fell to his knees, pulling her up against him.
He spoke on a snarl. “I just threw you across the room.”
“I liked it.”
She pulled down his briefs, giving herself access to his most sensitive spot. With a quick smile she licked his hard length, getting excited when she saw some pre-cum immediately form on the top.
“You’ve got to be careful or this will be over too soon.”
She arched an eyebrow as she took him in her mouth. “What’s too soon?”
Ben pulled her neck to bring them face-to-face.
“You want it fast.”
“I want all of you. We have eternity for slow.”
His eyes were hard. “Damn it, Ruthie, I feel like an animal. You’re killing all my best intentions.”
“Give into the feeling. I don�
��t want you to hold back. We’re both Vampires. I can handle what’s inside of you now.”
With a roar, he ripped off her pants and underwear, dropping her down on the bed again. Pushing open her legs with his hand, his mouth was on her, licking her sensitive bundle of nerves. She screeched as he devoured her core. Her legs tried to close around too much sensation, but he’d have none of it. Holding her even tighter, he spread her even further open.
“No more, Ben.” She panted. She could barely speak. “I want you inside of me, damn it.”
He laughed, and she lost control. Seeing colors before her eyes as the vibration from his laughter sent her over the edge, a pressure unlike any she’d ever known exploded inside of her. Her body shook as her back arched.
She heard herself screaming his name.
Ben pulled back, and Ruth opened her eyes to regard him. “Now, I’ll come inside of you.”
With one swift penetration, he filled her up. He was long, hard, and thick and she wasn’t sure she could take another inch of him when finally he was all the way inside.
“God, Ruthie, you are so tight, baby. You are made for me. It’s never been this good.”
She ran her hand down his chest muscles as Ben moved inside of her. Over and over he pushed in and out. She closed her eyes and held on tight until the pressure built up inside her as if she hadn’t already had an orgasm.
Scraping her nails against his chest as she came, she felt Ben go over the edge moments after she did.
They panted like they’d run three marathons as he
collapsed on top of her. Ruth wasn’t sure what happened next. She might have fallen into an oblivious sleep. The next thing she knew, Ben kissed her face, gently murmuring her name.
His voice was a caress. “Did I kill you?
“No.” She laughed as she kissed the end of his nose.
“But I think I did pass out there for a minute.”
His eyes were serious. “Is it always like that between Vampires?”
“No. It’s like human sex, I guess. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not good. That was fantastic.”
Light Me Up Page 6
