by Eden Bradley
He stepped back, and the two girls were back, one taking her to the cross, the other leading Calam to the opposite side. They were facing each other, and she tilted her chin to see his eyes. They were glazed, glittering silver, watching her carefully through the haze of subspace as the girls fit their ankles into the leather shackles, then raised their arms to fasten their wrists into the cuffs.
The cross was one of her favorite things—being bound and stretched out this way made her feel open. Vulnerable. But beautifully so. Having Calam this close, in this same state of excitement and submission, was doubly thrilling. She could feel his panting breath on her face, he was so near.
Konstantine stepped in close behind her, wrapped his fist in her hair and pulled, just hard enough to hurt. She moaned softly.
“Ah, you love this,” he said. “Both of you.”
She could see that Luka was behind Calam, his hand clasped on the back of his broad neck.
“Luka will play you both for my pleasure,” Konstantine told them, his voice low, his accent heavy. “I cannot do so myself or I would kill you. It is my one weakness. I cannot hold back. But my Luka will do this for me, as he so often does. And I will love watching. Feeling your desire as he whips you. It will have to suffice for me, and it will. Until, and unless, you both take the Turning Kiss.” He paused, while her heart thundered wildly. “Yes, this means we are offering this gift to you both. But we will give you time to think, to choose. Meanwhile, we will have a night of great pleasures, all of us.”
He laid a kiss on the back of her neck, scraping her skin a little with his sharp teeth, before letting her hair go, moving away. Luka reached from behind Calam and gave one of her nipples a hard pinch, smiling at her over Calam’s shoulder as she jumped, pleasure shimmering through her. Then Luka did something to Calam that made him groan, but she couldn’t see what it was. Still, the lust rose in her body, knowing something had happened, that Calam liked it.
Luka disappeared from view and she focused on Calam’s face once more, his gaze on hers. So beautiful, the masculine lines of his face. The dark auburn goatee surrounding his lush lips. Lips that had been on hers, on her pussy, only a little while earlier. Her sex clenched.
“Keep your eyes on him,” Luka instructed her, his mouth close to her ear. “Watch each other.”
She felt him step away, and had time to take in a breath before she heard the whistle of the whip, felt it bite into her flesh.
“Oh!”
It was something narrow. Sharp. A cat-o-nine-tails, she thought vaguely. Then he hit her again, and she couldn’t think any longer. Pain shivered over her skin, then endorphins flooded her mind, her body, filling her with pleasure. She heard the whip again, but this time it landed on Calam’s flesh. She watched him wince, his eyes fluttering closed for one moment before focusing on her once more.
“Yes, perfect,” Luka murmured. “Take in each other’s sensation. Each other’s pain. Let it feed you both.”
Luka whipped her again, and her body bowed with the pain, the need it brought with it. She pressed into the cross, her nipples grazing the wood.
Yes…
“Ilana,” Calam whispered, his gaze boring into hers. She saw the pleasure on his face, felt his need multiply her own. “Stay with me.”
Luka smacked her again, then again. Pain and pleasure melded, became one as her body went loose all over, the last of her resistance gone. His hand stroked over her skin—her neck, down her spine—creating a lovely contrast. He hit her again, hard this time, the pain biting into her, as sharp as a knife, as the vampire’s teeth. She loved it. The whip. His cool touch. Calam experiencing it all with her.
The tempo built, the pain rising, becoming harder to manage. But all the time her body burned with need.
More…
As soon as she thought the word, he stopped. She heard Konstantine’s wicked chuckle. Her body was writhing. With need. With the aftermath of the pain. She couldn’t help it.
“Luka, whip Calam for me now, my love,” Konstantine said quietly.
She was panting, her breath hard and rasping. Calam started to smile at her. Then Luka began to whip him.
The whip cracked onto his flesh, and she knew Luka would hit him harder than he had her. She could feel the wooden cross reverberate with it, could hear the repeated smacks of leather on Calam’s skin. Her body surged with desire, stronger the more Luka whipped Calam. His face grew nearly rigid with pleasure, with the pain. His breath was as hard and guttural as hers.
She heard Luka say, “Kiss her, Calam. We know you want to.”
Calam leaned in and took her mouth with his. She was startled by it. With them both bound, under the vampires’ command, with Luka whipping him in a terrible, driving rhythm, his mouth on hers was demanding, pure authority. His lips pressed hard against hers, his tongue thrusting in. She breathed him in, sucking on his tongue, then retreating as he crushed his mouth against hers, hard and hurting.
Need rose higher, her sex aching and wet. Her nipples were two stiff ridges of flesh against the smooth wood. She was burning up with need.
The whip came down harder on Calam, the cross shaking with the impact, with the weight of Calam’s big body. He was panting, gasping into her mouth. Then suddenly, he was gone.
She didn’t have time to figure out what was happening. All she knew was Konstantine’s hands, impossibly nimble on her ankles, then her wrists, releasing her. Then Clam’s human hands rough on her waist as he turned her around, shoving her back against the cross. He kicked her leg wide, slamming his body against hers, lifting her. And with a savage roar, he thrust inside her.
“Ah God… Calam!”
He began to fuck her in a driving frenzy, pumping into her in painful strokes. But she needed it. Loved it. Even more when, moments later, Luka and Konstantine had her chained to the cross once more, her arms and legs spreads wide. She loved the helplessness of it. That she was powerless to do anything but accept Calam’s cock ramming into her. Powerless over her own desire, making her pussy hot, wet, tight with the need to come again.
Calam bent his head, his teeth going into her neck. And she wanted it, that bite of pain. She didn’t care that he was merely human. That he couldn’t drink from her as the vampires did. It was Calam. That was all that mattered. That and the searing pleasure burning through her.
“Just…need to fuck you, Ilana. My love. To fuck you,” Calam muttered. “Gods…”
She tilted her hips, trying to take him deeper. His body was so hard against hers, pressing her back against the sturdy wood of the cross, but even that did nothing but heighten her pleasure. And Calam’s thick cock was impossibly hard, driving deep. His hips slammed into hers, their bones crashing. Faster and faster. Until the pleasure built inside her, something dark and primal. In her aching breasts. In her soaking wet sex. When she came, it was as though she was torn apart by a pleasure so intense she screamed. Stars flashed behind her eyes, dazzling her, blinding her. And still Calam surged into her, over and over.
“Just fucking you…” He gasped. “Gods, you feel better than… Ah, Ilana!”
“Calam, yes!”
His entire body stiffened, and he kissed her hard as he came. His come was hot inside her, his cock pulsing. And his tongue drove into her mouth. He was eating her up, swallowing her moans of pleasure as her pussy swallowed his still-rigid cock, his come.
His hands moved up to grip her wrists beneath the leather band of the cuffs. His breath was rasping against her lips. Then he lowered his head, kissed her throat gently. Tenderly.
She wanted to cry. At the sheer beauty of the two of them together. Her chest ached with it.
Eventually she because vaguely aware of Luka and Konstantine watching them, standing naked together a foot or two away, their hands stroking each other’s cocks. And as she and Calam panted together, their minds beginning to recover, she saw Luka come into Konstantine’s fist. Then Konstantine pushing Luka down on the hard marble floor, bending over him and i
mpaling him with his enormous, beautiful cock.
Their fucking was fast and fierce, as it could be only between two vampires. Their bodies were so perfect together. Flawless. But Calam was kissing her throat softly, and it was hard to keep her focus on the vampire pair.
“Calam,” she whispered.
He pulled away, his silvery-gray gaze on her face. “My love,” he answered, his tone low. Reverent.
She did cry then, the tears pouring down her cheeks.
“Calam, is this true?”
“Aye. You are my love.”
His brows were drawn together. He was waiting for her to answer. But she needed a moment to breathe. Because it struck her only then that she loved him. Calam. That fact was undeniable. Inescapable. She didn’t want to escape it. She wanted only to be with him.
“Tell me why you cry, Ilana,” he said. His voice was low still, yet it was as much a command as any of the vampires had ever given her. “Is it because you don’t want to love me? Because I’m human, and can’t give you eternal life?”
“Calam, I don’t know. I don’t know that…I want it. Not enough. Not enough to give up being with you. I love you. I do.”
He buried his face in her neck then, his arms wrapping around her waist. She heard Konstantine’s roar as he came into Luka’s body. But she couldn’t look at them. Instead, she closed her eyes, breathing in Calam’s scent.
She never wanted to know what a day was like without him. His scent. His body. His presence.
But for the moment, they belonged to Luka and Konstantine. They had agreed to the rules of the club. Had, by entering this place the very first time, agreed to accept all the vampires had to offer. And now, it might be that the only way they could be together was to reject them. To reject the one thing that had drawn them together in the first place. The idea of living forever. The power of the vampires. Because it was possible they would, in the end, choose only one of them. And even if both were chosen, they would be as bound to Luka and Konstantine as they would be to each other. More so.
She wasn’t sure she could stand that. To share Calam with anyone. To be shared herself.
She loved him. And he loved her. Impossible. Amazing.
But what were they going to do? She didn’t have an answer.
Chapter Six
It was Luka who came to pull Calam off her. Who gently released her from the cuffs. The chains fell at her sides with a dull clink. He rubbed her wrists, checking to make certain her circulation was good. He was sweet with her, as he so often was, and a part of her heart cried out for him. But that cry was not nearly as sharp, as keen, as her need for Calam.
Luka picked her up and carried her to one of the couches, laid her down so that her head was in Calam’s lap. He laid a blanket over them both.
“Luka…”
“What is it, beauty?”
“You are so kind.”
He smiled, his sharp eyeteeth glinting. “That is because I have a great love for you, Ilana. For you both. I want only what is best for you.”
The tears were starting again.
“Luka…” But her throat was too tight with emotion to finish her sentence.
“It’s all right.” He reached down, stroked her hair from her face. “We know, and we understand. We will talk of this, all of us. But you must rest first.”
He got down on his knees, and as he pulled her wrist to his mouth, she felt Calam’s strong arms tighten around her, holding her close as Luka bit and began to drink.
Konstantine was leaning close. “Sleep now, our princess, who is made of ice no longer. And when you wake, we will come to a decision. All of us, together.”
His voice was fading fast as she saw once more Luka and Konstantine through Luka’s mind. Traveling by horseback through a dark countryside. Felt their great joy in each other as they flew through the night, the sound of hooves hammering the earth beneath them.
They had been to the Midnight Playground clubs in Paris, Vienna, Prague. Had seen humans and vampires of every description. Beauty beyond any ability to take it in. And yet, their love had endured for a century and a half. It would endure still. With or without her. Calam.
As she sank into the dark and dreamless sleep the Seeking Kiss brought, she didn’t know if that frightened or comforted her.
She came awake to find herself on the small couch in their room, wrapped in a silk robe. Ever was bent over her. His face was so beautiful it made her ache. An ache that went beyond physical desire, or even any emotion as she’d ever known it. Pale as fine china, his cheekbones high, his mouth lush. His eyes were that silent jet black. Bottomless. Unreadable, except for the pain that always lurked there, like a shadow.
“Ever…” She rubbed her eyes, trying to wake up. But her mind was filled with a misty grogginess.
“I woke you before your body was ready. I want to talk with you, Ilana.”
“With me?”
“There is something I see in you…”
He turned from her for a moment. She followed his gaze to the high windows. Outside, the sun was setting, the darkening sky ablaze with the orange and pink caused by clouds of smoke from a fire or a bomb somewhere nearby.
She glanced at the bed where Calam lay, deeply asleep.
“Ilana…” Ever was watching her, a strange expression on his exquisite face, his pale brows drawn together. “I need to tell you something I know.”
“What is it?”
If only she could really wake up. She knew it must be something important, for him to have come to her like this. She couldn’t figure out why he’d do such a thing, the old and powerful vampire who ran the Midnight Playground.
“I know something of pain. Too much, perhaps. As you do. As Calam does. This is part of what binds the two of you. Yes, I know. Of course I do.”
He smiled then, an odd sort of grimace, almost, that made her heart hurt.
He laid his hand on her arm. “Do not run too much from your pain, Ilana. As I have done. As Calam has done.”
“Ever…I’m trying to understand. But why are you telling me this?”
He shrugged. “Times change. And even the oldest of us must change as well. Learn to think differently. It has occurred to me that perhaps living forever isn’t truly an escape after all. It can bring its own pain, of a different kind. And I am telling you because…I know that I can. That I can say these things to you.”
She sat up. “Ever, are you all right?”
“I always am,” he answered, but she felt for some reason it wasn’t entirely true. “Just remember that it’s all right to feel. Remember before it’s too late.”
She shook her head, trying to figure out what he was trying to tell her. But before she could say anything, Konstantine came into the room. Ever looked up, and as Konstantine laid a hand on Ever’s shoulder, Ever nodded at some silent exchange between them.
“Let the girl sleep now,” Konstantine said. “All will be well. All will be as it should.”
Ever stood, lifting Ilana, laid her down in the big bed next to Calam’s warm body.
“Remember what I said,” he told her, his voice soft.
The two vampires left. Her mind was spinning. She tried to figure out what the conversation was supposed to mean for her. But she was so tired, her mind going dark. She slept.
Calam sat on the settee in their rooms in the Midnight Playground, watching Ilana sleep. He’d woken himself only an hour earlier. He’d wanted her to wake too badly. He’d left the bed so he would allow her to rest.
It was dark outside, and he knew a day had passed since their evening in the dungeon. The moon was high outside the windows tonight, casting blue-washed light over everything. She lay on her side, the sheets pooled around her slim waist, her bare skin pale and silvery in the moonlight. Her breasts were two miraculous curves of flesh, the nipples hard and pink even as she slept.
She was perfect. Perfect for him. How could any other woman ever understand him the way she did? His desire for pain. Hi
s search for immortality. The suffering and loss of his past. She felt it, even though he hadn’t told her the details.
He’d never told anyone. He’d left Edinburgh after that one terrible night. He couldn’t face telling anyone, not when the ones he truly cared for were gone. There was no one left he wanted to talk to.
Until Ilana.
He sipped the wine that had been left there for them, letting the crystal glass rest against his lip as he watched her. Her breathing was shallow, making her shoulders, her lovely breasts, rise and fall in a gentle rhythm.
This woman made him ache. To hold her. Kiss her mouth. No one had ever done that to him before. It was something powerful. Special. Something he didn’t want to let go.
They had decisions to make. And they had to make them together. He prayed he would be able to live with the outcome. But before they could decide, he had things to tell her. About his past, who he’d been before coming to the Midnight Playground. His real reasons for being there.
He couldn’t wait suddenly. He wrapped the silk robe tighter around his body and went to the bed, sat on the edge. He reached for her, stroked his palm over her shoulder. Skin like pure satin. That sleek. That smooth.
“Ilana,” he said quietly. “Ilana, wake up, love.”
She stirred, smiled even before she opened her eyes.
“Calam. You’re here.”
“Where else would I be?”
Why did that thought make his chest go tight?
“I’m glad,” she said simply, reaching for him. He leaned in, brushed a kiss across her sweet mouth, then pulled back.
“Here, drink some wine. Restore yourself.”
She sat up, leaning against the pillows. He held the cup to her lips, helped her to drink until she was able to hold the glass herself.
“Calam, you look worried.”
He nodded. “Aren’t you?”
“Yes. I don’t want to be but…everything has changed.” She paused, pushed her heavy blonde hair from her face. “Everything is…complicated. It all used to be so clear to me.”
