by Mila Young
With Rog heading off back in the house, all I could do was wander back out to the village.
"Of course I'll help," Bram answered after I laid the whole proposition out for him. "It wouldn't even take me too long in the day to concoct the fermentation herbs."
"I guess you would want something out of it, somehow?" I asked, taking a sip from the tea that he offered me.
"Just one of the casks that are left over. Not one with your blood in it, of course, but if I know that damned dryad, she'll have you producing more than what you'll need. That demon is a crafty one too. He's lived on that vineyard for long enough to know how to make the wine on his own if he wanted to. Chances are he made and improved the process used to make it."
"Right," I said, lowering my gaze into the mug. "Can I ask you a question about him?"
"Of course."
"Is it wrong that... well, there is an attraction there between us?"
Bram sat down again with Dracul coming along and sitting at his side.
"No. Witches and demons have always shared an intense attraction. I think it is because your powers stem from the same source, although that is beyond my actual knowledge of how magic comes into being. Even so, you would find yourself drawn to him, although in differing ways. Each witch is unique, and so is every demon. This is a physical attraction, I take it?"
I nodded, scowling, half blushing.
"Then yours is a physical connection," he stated matter-of-fact like.
"But I'm supposed to hate him. He tricked me into this. It's his fault that I'm still here."
"Hate and love are closely intertwined, as both bring about the most intense feelings from a person. I have felt hate and love for the same person myself at a time in my life. Many, many years ago."
That wasn't that foreign a concept, although I didn't really know much about it. "I never said I loved him."
"Well, you know what I mean. Physically attracted to him as you are, you can hate him as well, if you like."
On that we could agree. Maybe things didn't need to be complicated.
Or maybe I would figure out how I wanted things along the way.
Chapter 15
There was little to say other than that things were moving along.
Cretu was as good as her word, and after a few days of sitting out in the vineyard, it looked like the place had been freshly tilled by some of the finest machinery that money could buy. The idea of using the roots of trees to turn the earth around and fill it with needed nutrients was fairly inventive, although not something new for her, I imagined.
There was enough work to go around. Rog was taking care of the presser, but as Cretu started bringing the seedlings in to be planted, she needed my help in resetting the posts that the vines would grow around.
Still no word from the dryad on the price that she would charge for the plants, although I doubted that it would be cheap. Even for a creature as powerful as she, turning the whole place into a productive vineyard once more had to be an exhausting experience for her. Not that she showed it at all. Cretu was a diligent worker, expecting the both of us to be up by sunrise and not quitting on work until she needed to head back to the village to sell her produce. She would return later in the day and continue working until nightfall.
There would be no telling her not to come on the weekends. I didn't even need to have an idea of how long she would work. Like the plants that she tended to, she was up with the sun, and down with it too.
I did find myself enjoying it, as well as the quiet work ethic of the dryad. I never did want to have her glare at me anymore, not after the first few times. She didn't yell, snap, or say much of anything. Just the glare of her green-blue eyes was enough to set me on the right course, although she would occasionally step in and tell me where to set the posts, how to set them, and how deep they needed to go.
When asked how she knew what would work, she would shrug and mutter something about how the vines knew best what they wanted. The first couple of days of work had my whole body sore to the point where sex was the last thing on my mind. All I wanted was a good meal and a night's sleep. Rog never seemed to press, always ready with the evening meal like clockwork. I didn't even know how he found the time.
But as my body started becoming more accustomed to the hard labor, there was a certain revitalization, and the evening visits became more and more frequent. Almost every night, although I couldn't count on waking with him in bed with me.
There was still some hatred there, but the man knew what he was doing in the sack. There was no point in turning it down when I needed something to relax with by the end of the day. And as much as I refused to admit it, he was growing on me.
I emerged from my room and he was there, grinning. Before either of us said a word, he closed the distance between us. The hunger was in his eyes again, and I grabbed him by the shirt, bringing him to me.
“Missed you,” I whispered against his mouth, words I hadn’t meant to say, but in the state of arousal, thinking straight was never my strong suit.
He pulled the buttons of my top until I was finally free of it. I reached back, but his hands were already there, deftly undoing my bra and tossing it to wherever my shirt had gone.
I was right in assuming that the feelings would be that much more intense as his hands moved over my stomach, climbing up to cup my breasts. Tentatively at first before callused digits lightly glided over my nipples.
Natural and mystical mixed, and I sucked in a deep breath, letting it out slowly, feeling my whole body shuddering as I started to pull his shirt away. I didn't need it all the way off, just enough so that I could feel the hard planes of his chest with no incumbrances. His hands moved away from my chest, prompting a soft noise of complaint from me, even though it was quickly cut off as he curled his fingers into the elastic of my skirt and underwear, pulling them both off. I stepped out of them. In no time, he grasped my hips and had me off my feet. My insides burned up at the growing need. I snapped my legs around his hips, my arms looped around his neck.
I thought for a moment that he was taking us back into my room, to my bed or maybe a couch, but I grunted as he pressed my bare back into the wall, still on the terrace, feeling the chilly breeze cutting through the open windows from the rooms. I shivered and not from the cold. There was too much heat between us for that.
He growled softly in my ear, an inhuman sound, and he dipped his head down, pressing his lips to my neck. One hand moved up, around me, enveloping me and rushing through my long, red hair before gripping the back of my head, pulling me in closer to him.
With one hand, he reached down and unbuckled himself, then he traced the tip of his hardness against my heat.
I moaned and tucked my head in the curve of his neck as he pushed into me.
I held on.
He pumped into me, fingers digging into my side, his erection spearing into me harder, faster.
Breaths raced, we both groaned, sweating, and this was everything I started looking forward to each day. I didn’t fully understand the feelings blossoming inside me for him. I didn’t want to when so much was still left complicated. But these moments when he claimed me, I felt more connected to him, more like I belonged here, more reason to smile.
I really shouldn’t be encouraging him, but I craved him just as much.
I clung to him, and whispered in his ear, "Rog, I’m so close, but I don’t want it to end."
He looked at me, a deep sincere expression flared over his face. And our mouths clashed as he walked us to my room, kicking the door behind us. We fell onto the bed, lost in each other and I smiled like I was drunk on this demon.
If this was what living out here brought, I embraced what he offered me, feeling more like myself than I ever have.
The first grape clusters started appearing in the third week, but it would still take a few days for them to mature enough to be picked. Rog and Cretu were both ecstatic at the progress that was being made, but I couldn't hide the fact that ev
ery day that we still weren't making wine was one more until the vampires decided that they wanted to get wasted on my blood and weren't going to wait around anymore.
The fact that we had forty casks ready for them, blood and everything, was almost no comfort, considering that I had been working nonstop to make sure that I had the rest of it. I doubted that the vampires would take the forty and give me more time. There was nothing about them that said that they would be patient.
A few days after the first grape clusters appeared, Bram found himself at the vineyard as well to inspect the fermentation system that Rog was setting up, making sure that everything that he needed was there, with Rog inviting both the old man and Cretu to remain for the evening.
He'd been preparing some dinner for all of us, and it would be nice to have company.
I didn't even need to check to know that Cretu would not be staying. As much as she loved being with the plants, she was gone as the sun was setting, leaving only Bram, Dracul, myself, and Rog to enjoy the meal that the demon had prepared.
There was little doubt that Bram didn't do much cooking for himself, and openly enjoyed the pork shanks that Rog had been braising all day.
He was leaving almost nothing for Dracul, although the hound didn't much mind just being with company, lying down next to the table. Neither Rog nor Bram appeared to have anything to say to each other, although I felt no sense that they were tense. They were both ancient beings, comfortable in each other's presence, but had little to add to their relationship except for a hot meal.
It was Dracul that noticed it first, rising up from his comfortable position, the hairs on his back standing on end as he turned around and stared at the door, although it was the first time I'd seen him tuck his tail between his legs. The dog did not retreat, despite the fear that was apparently taking over him, standing his ground and growling at the door.
"What's got you in a fuss, Dracul?" Bram asked, not looking up from his plate. "I'll get you the bones when we're finished, no need to be angry about it.”
"I don't think he's hungry," I noted, looking around to pet him, scratching behind his ears to try and calm the beast down.
And that was when it hit me, the sickly sweet scent that had been haunting my nightmares, or at least, the few that I'd had when I was rested enough to dream.
I was out of my seat in a second, sending the chair flying across the room as I turned to see the vampire standing in the doorway.
She was staring at me, her black eyes reflecting none of the light coming from inside the common room of the farmhouse. There was absolutely no movement in her limbs, except for the wind limply moving her dark hair around. She looked a little like a corpse, I realized. Even the stillness felt like it was just a corpse that had been propped up to stand right there and do absolutely nothing.
My heart drummed and fear gripped my spine. She’s arrived.
"Hello again, Ms. Kane," the vampire said as Rog and Bram jumped to their feet as well, although neither knocked their chairs down.
"What are you doing here?" Rog asked, taking a step forward. "She is doing as you asked. You will receive your payment when it is ready."
The vampire laughed. It was an unsettling sound, like rocks grinding on rocks before an avalanche came.
"Yes, we know that you have been helping the demon witch to fulfill her debt to us. It is most amusing to watch, all things considered, and we feel that, with the help, she should find herself with what is owed more quickly than usual, and I am here to collect."
Demon witch? Did she mean that because I was living in the same house as a demon? That made sense, I supposed, although it was an odd way of saying it.
"I don't have it," I admitted, taking a step forward even as I felt Dracul biting at my back pocket and trying to pull me away. "Even with the help, there is no time to have the hundred casks ready."
"And that sounds like it is not our problem," the vampire sneered, looking down at Dracul and narrowing her eyes.
"We have forty casks, ready and with the blood in it that you wanted," Rog pointed out. "That should suffice as payment until we have the rest ready for you."
"I fear you do not understand how these deals are handled, demon," the vampire snapped, still not moving anything but her jaw and her chest as it sucked in the air needed to make her words hard. "Why don't you bury your face in the witch's pussy and allow those adults among us to have a conversation uninterrupted by your idiocy?"
I felt a surge of rage rushing through my body. The power made my whole body tingle, and I took a step forward.
"Say that again," I hissed, letting the power crackle between my fingertips like electricity. "I dare you."
"Adorable." The vampire smiled, like she was genuinely amused by my display of power. "You owe us a hundred tainted casks of Cloris wine, and I have come to collect. I will not be returning with forty, fifty, sixty, or even ninety-nine casks. If you do not have what is owed, you will suffer the consequences."
"Why?" I asked, daring to move even closer to the menacing vampire. "If you kill me, you'll get no wine at all."
"Maybe what we wanted all along was not your wine after all. You need not understand our thinking, witch, only abide by the terms of our agreement. Fail, and you'll be meeting my hounds instead of this harmless pup."
Dracul snapped his teeth at her, like he could understand that she was talking about him.
"No wine, then?" the vampire asked. "Well then, I have no choice but to release the hellhounds on this place. Goodbye."
Once again, it was like she was there one moment and gone the next, without so much as a whipping of wind to account for the sheer speed. It was like she hadn't even been there at all, or it was some kind of apparition.
Ice filled my veins and I trembled. "Hellhounds?"
"Yes." Rog was at my side, wrapping an arm around my waist, drawing me to his side. But could he really stop the vampires if he couldn’t protect my auntie?
"As in hounds..."
"From hell, yes," Bram answered, his cheeks blanching as he looked at me with a sorrowful expression. He was in shock and well, so the hell was I.
It was all a little too much to take in, and I shook my head, taking a deep breath. "When are the hellhounds getting here?"
"Dracul will warn us when they are close," Bram said. "I will keep watch. You can rest if it pleases you."
"How can I rest?"
Rog guided me upstairs, and my knees buckled out from under me. He caught me and swept me into his arms. "I’ve got you."
"But can you save me?"
“I’ll do everything I can.”
Except, dread wormed through me that it wouldn’t be enough. I curled in against his chest and wanted to vanish from the world.
Chapter 16
Sweat was coating my skin. A delicious burning filled the lower half of my body as I settled down over Rog, straddling his hips and sinking down until he was as deep inside me as he would go.
A hot gasp escaped my lips as I slowly ground myself over him, reaching down to grab at his hands that were gripping my hips and dragging them up over my waist, pushing them into my breasts as I leaned my head back, enjoying the feel of my hair dancing over my shoulders as I continued to move, filling myself with him over and over again.
"Nilsa," he whispered, his voice taut, filled with need and contained lust as he drove himself up to meet me, stroke for stroke.
"Yeah?" I asked, struggling to find any breath to spare. But this is where I wanted to remain… lost in my desire. It was the only way to stop myself from the panic of Hellhounds coming for me.
He didn't answer, rising up from the bed, burying his face in my neck, letting me feel his lips and tongue, both hotter than my own skin was. A jolt rushed from where he was biting me gently in the shoulder all the way down between my thighs, only made better by the way his fingers were tugging and toying with my sensitive nipples. I shuddered against him, feeling the sensation building to the point where goosebumps wer
e rising up all over my body, making me speed my body up, working over him and biting my bottom lip.
I almost didn't realize that he was moving until I found myself landing face-first into the bed, unable to contain a giggle as I felt him straddling my ass, pushing me down into the bed and himself inside me again, driving in deeper than before.
"Oh gods," I growled, feeling my voice muffled by the mattress as he started pumping himself into me hard enough to rock the bed again.
We were going to break it eventually; I just knew it. I was actually looking forward to that day.
But it was not this day. My moans grew throatier as he gripped a handful of my hair at the base, dragging my head backwards and making me arc my back into him as the sensation pooling between my legs was starting to reach its limit. My whole body was tense as he leaned down to kiss my lips, a tender contrast to how he was treating the rest of me. I pushed myself into him, trying to raise myself up to meet him, but his pace was impossible to match. When his right hand wrapped around my throat—almost possessively, I thought—it all came to a head.
I felt myself screaming into his lips, reaching up to grab at any part of him, holding him to me as my inner walls gripped at him, exacerbating his own situation. He was bucking into me, driving me down harder into the bed, leaving me practically helpless in his grasp.
Everything tightened up as wave after wave coursed through me, like the shockwaves after an explosion, feeling him twitching inside me, a wet, delicious feeling running over me as my body finally released, letting me drop down into the bed, although his grip on my hair and throat kept me from dropping too far.
Soon, even he started to come down, letting me go and only trying to keep himself up on the bed, still poised over me as I brought my forearms around to pillow my head, watching him as he dropped down onto the sheets next to me, sucking in deep breaths, slowly recovering.
I smiled, turning onto my side and reaching over to run my fingers over his chest, watching the scratch marks slowly disappearing, leaving his skin as pristine as it had been before.
