Cake: A Blood Nation Novel (Volume 1)

by Derekica Snake

  Thankfully Shade was quiet, returning no snide remark to my comment. But that was probably due to her profound hunger. I could feel her desperation as she licked frantically at my wrist. She needed essence as much as I did, though she couldn’t do anything about it, unlike me.

  I’m sorry.

  Patting her back gently, I closed my eyes and rested against the vibrating wall. It was a trance-inducing thing, her lapping and the music playing. I don’t know how long I sat there, or if I even fell asleep, but I did know that someone was hissing my name.

  Xavier!

  “Uh?”

  I’m done. Heal your wound.

  Opening my eyes, I immediately discovered that I had my crystal vision back, meaning I was in Flame. I brought my wrist up to my mouth and sucked on it, the sweet taste of blood and essence mixing on my tongue. I delighted in the tangy flavor for a moment before I began licking the wound closed. Where was Marcus?

  I stilled, trying to focus. I’d meant Claudius. Where was Claudius?

  Xavier?

  I’m in Flame, Shade. Can you see Claudius? I can’t go back downstairs now. It would not be safe.

  What is he doing here?

  Nightshade might have been a female, but she was also a Hellcat, and she extended her powerful claws to back up the disdain she felt at seeing her least favorite vampire coming up the stairs towards us.

  I looked up to see what had unsettled her and saw familiar sable brown tresses. If my skin had been tingling before, my flesh burned like fire now. I heard myself start panting and growling. I was growling? I heard it again. Yes…I was growling

  Xavier, don’t lose it. There are too many humans around.

  Shade was trying to be the voice of reason, but I was in Flame. And you can’t reason with Flame, especially when any willpower I had was now gone at the mere sight of him. I dug my fingers into the metal grating that made up the floor of the upper level and watched as Marcus continued climbing up the stairs.

  My Marcus. My Pretty. My breaker of promises. My rapist of mind and body…And yet still the holder of my heart. No wonder Claudius was so worried about me. Apparently, I was still out of my fucking mind where Marcus was concerned.

  He was about twenty feet away from me, and I could smell that special scent of his…apple orchard. Climbing to my feet, I watched as he looked around upon reaching the top of the landing, feeling a brush of awareness against my shield. And then he slowly turned his head towards us.

  What a sight the Hellcat and I must have made. My crystal vision allowed me to see a blue glow that was dancing on my skin while Shade, still in her little housecat form, was standing in front of me and doing her best impression of a Halloween kitty. Her fur bristled, she hissed, and she growled. But my own growl drowned hers out as I swayed on my feet, a flare of desire ripping through me. Oh God, I wanted him so badly.

  Marcus began to approach, then glancing down at Shade he noted her hostile stance and stopped a respectable distance away, looking at me. I forced my hands to curl up into fists at my side to prevent me from grabbing him and dragging him forward, knowing if I did, I would push him down on his back and climb on him to ride his…Stop it. Stop it.

  “You are in Flame, Xavier.”

  Thank you, Mr. Obvious.

  Shade snickered at my snide remark to Marcus, while I just silently nodded. I didn’t trust using my voice.

  The bass music was vibrating the walkway. My whole body was so sensitive. I couldn’t stand still, and I began swaying to the beat that seemed to envelop me. I saw Marcus’s eyes flare up in the dim light, and then he blinked, and the red hue was gone. But I knew he still wanted me.

  “Does Claudius know?” he asked. I nodded again. “Then I shall leave you to it.” He turned away, but I wasn’t going to stand there and watch him walk from me this time, not without saying what needed to be said.

  “That’s it? ‘You’re in Flame, see ya’,” I challenged. “I know you’re fucked up, but you fucked me up bad too when you first took me. And you left me twisting in Flame the last time I saw you. I thought I meant something to you, somewhere in that perverse heart of yours!”

  Oh, go, Xavier.

  Shut up, Shade!

  “I never meant…You will always own my heart, Little One.” He didn’t turn around to look at me as he spoke, but I heard every word.

  “You made me this way,” I called to him, my hands stroking down my body. Every second that passed was making my Flame burn with a bit more intensity. “Quit walking away, Marcus. Take responsibility.”

  He turned his head a little, and my eyes greedily drank in his profile. “You do not belong to me anymore,” he said sadly. “I walked away and gave up any right to you.”

  “What?”

  He finally turned to look at me, resting his hands on the metal guard rail at the top of the stairs. “Claudius is your Father now,” he told me. “He has the power to decide with whom you…mate. No matter how much it pains me to see your Flame getting stronger even as we talk, I do not have the right to ease it anymore.”

  “Bullshit.”

  I took three steps forward, and he took three steps back away from me. I stopped moving, but he still backed away from me. Tears of anger and frustration burned at my eyes, and I let them fall. I didn’t care if he watched or not. He had backed away from me. He had rejected me…again.

  Sitting back down on the walkway, I drew my knees up to my chest. “Please find Claudius for me. This is starting to hurt me.” In more ways than just the Flame, I thought morosely.

  “I am here, Xavier.”

  Claudius was standing behind Marcus. His hand came up, and he caught the taller vampire’s shoulder. And when Marcus made to turn away from his father, the hand tightened, and Claudius held on tighter to his son.

  “Marcus, do not turn away, not from me,” he said, looking down at my hunched-up figure. “Do you finally understand now why I took him from you? Did you see his beauty and skills downstairs? No one there could deny him. Is that not part of his birthright as a vampire, as our Emperor?” Marcus remained silent. “You could not have given him that, my son. You are skilled, talented, and formidable as Master of the Territory, granted. But you cannot see beyond him. Xavier is your Achilles’ heel, and you are his. You both had to separate so that he could get stronger. He cannot lean on you forever, Marcus. And you cannot protect him from the world.”

  I hugged my knees tighter to myself, feeling those warm chocolate brown eyes of his playing on me.

  “He does have a subtle touch,” Marcus conceded. “I brushed those he drank from. He left no trail.”

  “Could you have taught him that?” Claudius asked.

  “No,” Marcus admitted. “You know I have no patience for training.”

  “You should see Xavier soar on his wings, especially during a full moon,” Claudius spoke with obvious admiration. “It is a sight to behold, though he crashed so many times before he mastered it. It hurt to watch him suffer through broken bones, but he would insist on getting up and trying again. I know you would not have let him do that. You would have mollycoddled him up in the Manor.”

  “I only wanted to protect him. But I ended up being the one causing him the most harm,” Marcus said, his voice tight with emotion.

  Claudius caught Marcus by the chin, turning his head to make him look at him. “You are both my sons, and you are equal in my eyes, though I know that I myself have been a poor substitute as a lover to Xavier. You did it, Marcus. You went out and built your perfect mate.” He nodded toward me, a light of disapproval shining bright in his eyes. “I have no doubt he will match you need for need, but he also has a gentle side that you had better nurture, that you should find in yourself. Nightshade and I have armed him with the skills needed to stand against you if necessary. I hope you let him stand with you and that you will protect him in these upcoming days of turmoil. I had hoped to keep Xavier with his Hunter family for another three months, but it seems other plans have been set in m
otion.”

  That sounded to me like I was in danger. “Claudius?” My voice sounded my anxiety.

  “Someone knows the Royal Blood Line has been rediscovered. More of the known Blues are being killed.” I could see Claudius’s blue eyes flare with anger and maybe a little fear.

  “What? I thought you said there had only been one,” I cried, standing up on shaky legs,

  “No. There has been another assassination,” Claudius sighed heavily. He caught up our hands, placing them on one another and laying his own on top. “Look after your little brother, Marcus, I give you leave. Xavier, I give you leave also. Cherish each other, my sons. Cherish each other while you can. And watch out for him, Marcus…If you ever hurt him like that again, I will rip your throat out. Is that understood?”

  “Yes, Father.”

  “See to his Flame. I will secure the area.”

  I could feel the heat of Marcus’s hand under my fingers, and I watched as his warm chocolate brown eyes burst into that familiar red glow. He tightened his hold on me and let a smile cross his lips, his fangs dropping into view. I shivered, and he smiled even wider.

  Shade, go find your Tom.

  What about you?

  Oh, I’ve got my Tom.

  Vampires. Humph. I ate too much. I can feel a turkey coma coming on. I’ll be in the car waiting for you.

  Marcus leaned in towards me. Once, I would have called it looming, but now I wanted him plastered tight to me. He was so close that I heard his whispered words, even though the music was so loud.

  “I cannot feel you anymore. I saw Claudius come in, then I saw this…” He lifted a strand of my hair and brought it to his face, inhaling deeply. “But I could not feel you,” he stated.

  It was hard to tamp down the urgency of my body. I wanted to jump on him, to have him hump me raw. But I knew this was important. I knew I had to think with the right head here and answer him.

  “You’ll never feel me again,” I told him. “I’m not letting you fuck with my head anymore, Marcus. You made a promise to me, but you couldn’t keep it. So it’s up to me to protect myself, even from you.”

  “I am truly sorry.”

  “Sorry is a board game,” I snapped at him. “I can’t trust you. I mean, I can trust you with the outside stuff, stakes and assassins, but…I can’t trust you with me.”

  He dropped my hair and made a half step back. I immediately brought his hand up to my lips, kissing each of his knuckles in turn. He wasn’t walking away from me tonight. In fact, he wasn’t walking away from me ever again. I let my tongue sweep across his fingers, pushing wetly, suggestively, between them, and Marcus grabbed me, dragging me up close to his chest.

  “It’s flattering, really, that I can drive you so stupid,” I said, smiling with a small amount of triumph.

  “Xavier…”

  “Marcus?”

  “Shut the hell up,” he hissed through his fangs. And then he proceeded to help me do so, by shoving his tongue down my throat.

  I bit him. He hadn’t expected that and instinctively made to pull away, but I held him fast, gently running my tongue along the wound, taking my time, tasting my private apple orchard. His blood seemed richer to my taste buds, or maybe it was simply mixing with the overabundance of essence I had in me now. Whatever the reason for it, I closed my eyes and sucked on his tongue, relishing the flavor.

  “I cannot do gentle right now, Sex,” he breathed heavily when I released him. “I am trying, but I cannot. I want to warn you now before it gets out of hand.”

  “Did I ask you to be gentle with me?” I asked cockily.

  He rammed me backwards, hard against the wall, and my feet lost their touch with the walkway. That was okay, I didn’t need my legs to stand. I locked my ankles behind him and offered up my throat.

  His lips trailed from my mouth, kissing along my jaw and down to the pulse that throbbed in my neck. I felt the scrape of a fang, and then nothing. I opened my eyes and saw him looking down at me.

  “I need your consent,” he said softly.

  I humped my groin against his. How much more consent did he need?

  Consent my brains out!

  Marcus pressed his forehead to mine. “I need to hear it from you, my Little One. I’ve done so much wrong to you. I need to know at least I can do one thing right.”

  “Consent me, Marcus,” I cried wantonly. “Consent me hard.”

  “Turn around…and assume the position, Sex.”

  I lowered my legs and turned around, placing my hands on the wall, the bass music pounding through it and into my fingers, racing with my blood. I couldn’t stand still, and my hips swayed in time with the music.

  “You’ve been planning this,” I gasped, shuddering as Marcus’s massive hands skimmed expertly over my body, making me tremble.

  “I have missed you every day for the past four months. But I knew I could not look for you. I had given up my claim on you.”

  His mouth was at my ear. I thought that it should have been busy doing something else other than talking.

  “What did you tell me?” I said. “Oh, yeah…Shut the hell up.”

  I soon realized that I was going to have to change his name from Pretty to Octopus. While his teeth nibbled at the back of my neck, his hands were everywhere, touching and reclaiming each and every inch of my yearning body. The bronze halter I wore was skintight, so he had no trouble plucking my nipples to life with his teasing fingers. I arched into him and dropped a hand off the wall in an attempt to touch him, but he caught my wrist and pressed it back to the wall while his free hand unbuttoned my leather pants and pulled the zipper down. He stilled when he discovered I was bare underneath.

  “Naughty, naughty,” he chided playfully.

  “They were too tight,” I tried explaining.

  “Good,” he answered, his hand circling around my cock, pumping as he buried his nose in my hair. “I’ve missed your scent so much. I thought I would never smell it again. I actually had Chesterton go out to a bakery and buy pastries that smelled just like you,” he confessed.

  What? I couldn’t concentrate on what he was saying, not while his hand was administering such pleasure to my body. A bakery? Who cared about some bakery?

  Flipping my hair sideways, I bared my neck to him, and this time Marcus took the bait. I cried out loud as his fangs sank deep. He knew how to bite. He also knew how to move, and somewhere between the first suck and the third, I found my pants pushed down to my knees.

  “Keep your hands on the wall,” he instructed, squeezing with the hand that was pumping me, pushing at my portal with his other, his fingers tenderly opening me up to his touch before leaving my body.

  I heard the sound of his own zipper, and then something blunt and slightly wet and slick and oh so good was pushing at my entrance.

  “You have the right to remain silent…but I do not think you will manage it,” Marcus challenged as he slid home, pushing himself inside me.

  He was right. I couldn’t. I groaned and whimpered as Marcus rocked hard, thrusting and sucking, sometimes using a fast rhythm that almost drove me to my knees and then other times moving his hips tortuously slowly. He alternated between the two, driving up my volume even higher.

  As far as I was concerned, there were just Marcus and me in that club, the rasping gasps of our heavy breathing the only sound to be heard, apart from the smacking of our bodies that were slamming against each other.

  But apparently we were being too loud, making far too much noise, and possibly attracting attention, because all of a sudden, we weren’t able to make any sound at all.

  Claudius sat at the top of the stairs, looking a little disgusted and amused at the same time by our antics. Marcus ignored him, giving me a couple of strokes and angling his thrusts to hit my prostate at the same time.

  I exploded.

  Pulling his fangs free, Marcus began to take me hard and fast until I felt him thrust one final time and then hold still as his cum surged into me. My body be
gan to collapse, and as I dropped to my knees, he fell on top of me, still connected deep within, still continuing to thrust into me slowly as I lay pinned under him, working out his orgasm.

  Too much…Oh God…Too fucking much.

  The blue flames might have faded from my vision, but the natural, overwhelming sensations I was experiencing were making me shudder. I did a semi push-up, and Marcus drew himself out of me so I could kneel. Then I turned, pulling away from him until I could face him.

  Start out as you mean to go on, I thought to myself as I reached up and wrapped a fist into his hair. And when I knew I had him secure in my grasp, I hauled back my other fist…and hit him as hard as I could.

  Claudius saw my punch, and he dropped the binding he’d had on us, watching silently as Marcus toppled over, one hand at his jaw, staring at me, stunned, because he was still in that post-coital state. I must have looked quite a sight—naked from the waist down, dressed in a skintight bronze halter, wearing gold tinted sunglasses, and my mess of red hair flying in all directions. I reached out and brushed my fingers softly over where I’d hit.

  “I did that because I love you,” I said to him calmly. “And if you ever need to get that whip of yours out, you come to me. Is that clear?”

  His eyes melted, and I melted. And if Claudius wasn’t standing so far away, he’d probably have melted too. There would have been little vampire puddles all over the place.

  “You have to spell things out for me, Marcus,” I told him, laying close up against him. “You’ve survived some really dark places, and you’ve dragged both Claudius and me down that road. But Claudius shouldn’t have to go any farther with you. I’m willing to walk a little bit more, but you’re going to have to come out of the darkness and meet me halfway.”

  “What do you want me to do?” he asked.

  “Treat me as your equal.”

  “You have always been my equal,” he said, his voice slightly put out.

  “No, I was weak and beneath you,” I said, shifting position and pulling my pants back up around my hips, not feeling confident enough yet to have a lover’s quarrel almost buck naked and oozing cum. “You were right to treat me with contempt,” I told him.