by Diana Graves
Mato walked to me, though his eyes were uncertain. He walked into my embrace, but left his arms at his sides. His eyes remained guarded even as I kissed him. I held him close to me, but his body was motionless in mine. Had I really hurt him that much simply by not talking to him?
“Mato,” I whispered into the warm curve of his neck. “We should go somewhere more private.” He nodded and I followed him away from the crowd. Others were leaving too, but not many. Was this Olathia now, calling to all lovers to give into their passions?
Mato led me up a dark corridor. There were a few twists and turns before I found myself in front of a small wooden door. He opened the door and a rush of anticipation ran through me. The floor was covered in furs, as was the large bed. His desk was stacked with papers and books.
“This is my chamber,” he said. His voice sounded strange to me, almost like he was scared. “Please, sit.”
I did. The fur on his bed felt soft and I stroked it like it was a kitty-cat. I usually didn’t care much for fur, because I’m an elf in part, and we don’t use animal products if we can avoid it. Mato stood over me for only a moment before kneeling in front of me. With the bed’s height being what it was, we had perfect eye contact.
“I’m sorry,” I said, and I touched his face. Somehow, I knew I could never truly appreciate how he felt about me. He saw something inside me that I couldn’t see. It was his talent, his gift. He saw the inner most self of people, and what he saw in me made him love me. What I saw in him was simply a beautiful person, a cop, a man from antiquity infected with a deadly disease. I held his face in my hands and looked into his honey eyes. I tried to kiss away the pain of rejection that I saw there. He knew—he knew that I didn’t love him, and it hurt him. I couldn’t force myself to love him, but I cared for him. I was attracted to him, and I tried to put that knowledge in my eyes. He looked down and I knew that wasn’t enough for him.
I thought he was going to pull away from me, but instead his hands slid up my thighs, hiking up my green dress to reveal my panties. I sat up a little to let the dress come up around my waist, and he pulled it over my head and threw it on the floor. My bra came off next and my breasts fell heavy against my chest. Mato caressed his hands down my breasts and finally kissed me. I had been craving the touch of his lips since the moment I saw him, and I wanted a fierce kiss, but he held back.
He was still fully dressed and I was only in my white panties. I snuggled into him, running my hands down his back until I found the end of his shirt, and then I pulled it up and over his head. His long black hair fell in a soft wave over my nearly naked body. He gently pushed it to the side to keep eye contact with me as he untied the string that was keeping his pants up. I let his shirt fall to the floor and watched in thick silence as he wiggled out of his pants. Finally, he was nude and breathtaking before me, and I was the overdressed one. He was strong and fit and tan for a vampire, still darker skinned than me. I ran my hand down his chest and stomach and found him hard and wanting. He kissed me gently on my lips and pressed himself against my panties. I cupped his ass with both hands and his kiss became harder, more passionate. With his hands on the bed on either side of me, he pressed himself against me, hard and harder as he explored my mouth with his tongue.
My hands travelled up his back, and I took pleasure in the smooth curves. I gyrated my hips against the length of him, and as if that was the cue Mato had been waiting for, he stood and brought me up with him. I felt a bit dizzy, but he held onto me as he slid my panties off and threw them to the floor with the rest of our clothes.
I put my arms around his neck and kissed him. “Mato,” I spoke against his soft lips, barely audible, but I knew he heard me. “Please, take me.”
He turned me around, so that my back was against him and I felt him hard against my ass. He turned my head to kiss me while one hand held a breast firm and the other travelled down my body to find me wet. He slid a finger into me and I gasped. His finger was deep inside me and it was too much. My knees went weak and it was all I could do to keep myself standing. He held onto me and spoke into my ear as his finger found a rhythm inside me.
“I want to bite you,” he said.
I whispered, “Yes,” and his rhythm quickened, almost bringing a scream from me. He nuzzled his mouth against my neck and bit down. It wasn’t pleasant, but it didn’t completely destroy the mood either. He pulled his teeth out of my neck and turned me back around to face him. He licked his lips clean, but I kissed him then and I could still taste my bitter sweet blood in his mouth.
It was then that Melvern and Olathia chose to let us go. Suddenly all my worries came crashing down on me, all my pain and heartache. I could tell by the look in Mato’s eyes that it was the same for him. Our bliss had ended at the most inconvenient time. I no longer felt sexy. I felt embarrassed and uncertain.
“Why now?” I asked. I tried to pull away, but he held onto me.
“If they had stayed with us, Raina, it would have been little more than rape. It is to be our choice if we make love.” His last words sounded so hushed and full of precious value. His unasked question hung in the air. His eyes asked what he would not; will you make love to me?
I was naked and in the arms of a beautiful man and I couldn’t stop thinking! That was my problem. I dwelled on my troubles, and I contemplated what our relationship would become. I compared myself to all the other women I knew and I found myself lacking in a big way. I wasn’t thin enough, tall enough or smart enough. I averted my eyes. “I don’t feel very sexy right now, Mato.”
He held my face up to his and I blinked out a tear, just one. It belonged to my anger. I was angry at myself for never letting me be happy in the moment. I was angry at myself for hating myself, if that made sense.
“Then you are blind to it,” Mato said, and he kissed me then, and it was just us; just me and my nonstop thinking, and him and his eager passions. I had my arms around his neck and he had his wrapped around my waist as he guided us to the bed.
I lay back on the thick fur and Mato crawled up my body, kissing and nibbling his way along my milky flesh. His long silky black hair glided over my nakedness. I wanted so badly to grab great big handfuls of it. When he reached my breasts he licked and nibbled and sucked at my nipples until I gasped and moaned his name. Then he came up to my mouth and ate the moans from my lips. I wrapped my legs around him and I could feel him hard against me, but not in me. I wanted him in me.
“Please, Mato. Make love to me, please,” I begged when he finally rose from the kiss. I so didn’t need Olathia’s lust riding me hard to want him in the worst way.
He leaned in to kiss me again while one of his fingers entered me. It didn’t go in as easily as last time.
“Not yet. You are wet, but you are too tight,” Mato whispered into our kiss.
“Don’t make me wait, Mato. I want you in me now.” He began a rhythm with his finger but I didn’t want his finger, as amazing as it felt, I wanted him!
“I do not want to hurt you. I want you to be ready for me,” he said. And, he kissed away whatever argument I might have made. His finger slid in and out of me quickly and then a second finger entered me and I moved my hips to the rhythm.
“Mato, please,” I begged, and he took his fingers out of me. I watched as he gently spread my legs farther apart. He was so hard. I wanted to watch as he entered me, but the feel of him pushing in, pass my innocence, sent my head back with a scream of pleasure and pain. He pulled my hips toward him, digging deeper inside of me until he reached as deep as he could go. He moved his hips, grinding them into mine and I moaned. He pulled almost all the way out and then back in, creating a slow but deep pace. I moved my hips to meet his, and kept my hands in my hair for fear that I might rake them down his back. He was so thick. Even wet and ready, every thrust hurt just a little. I liked it.
Mato bent down to me. “Raina, I want more,” was all he said before he slammed himself inside me hard. I gasped and swallowed a scream. I licked my lips, try
ing to cope, but I had no time to regain composure before he pushed himself inside me again, one fast long thrust after the other, harder and harder with no end in sight. I screamed wordlessly with pleasure as he pounded inside me, filling me with all of him. He watched my breasts dance with the ferocity of his efforts and he smiled with satisfaction. The smile did me in. That look of pure delight mixed with hunger on his face sent a shiver down my spine and my body bucked and squirmed under him as I came. He held me down and fucked me hard and deep until he spilled himself inside me. His last thrusts were the deepest and they brought me again.
NEW PEARLS
I SPED THE whole way home, still full of adrenaline from my night with Mato. After we made love we stayed in his bed, wrapped in furs, and talked. He laid his head on my breasts and I played with his hair, caressing the silky length of it. I was falling in love with him, and it should have scared me. Loving someone gives them power over you, and I had issues with trust. But, somehow, I felt I could trust him.
Melvern never asked me to join his collective, but I had to leave for home anyway. It was getting late and I had a headache, a mouth-ache to be more accurate. My whole mouth felt swollen and tasted metallic. But, when I arrived at my aunt’s, I sat in my car for a while longer. I didn’t want to go inside just yet. If someone was awake they’d want to know why I was coming home so late, and I didn’t feel like explaining myself. I wrapped my arms around the steering wheel and listened to the clanking noises of my car cooling down. I sat there long enough for the car to get cold and I regretted wearing only a green summer dress to Darkness. The cold forced me out of the car and into the house.
Katie was asleep on the couch. She was snoring loud enough that I couldn’t hear my own footsteps, and after a quick stop at my bedroom for some clothes, I headed to the bathroom for a long shower.
I set my clothes on the toilet seat and went to the mirror, but when I opened my mouth to brush my teeth I found them covered in blood! I jumped back and muffle a scream into my hands. ‘Deep breaths, Raina, deep breaths,’ I told myself as I crept back up to the mirror. With my hands still covering my mouth, I ran my tongue over my teeth. Sharp pain made my tongue dart away from them. I held my jaw open, keeping the top teeth from touching the bottoms.
“Shit,” I gurgled around the blood that was filling my mouth. Tears trailed down my face. I had to spit the blood out or swallow it. I bent over the pristine sink made of white porcelain and released my hands. Blood flowed thick and candy apple red from my mouth. There was something small and white riding in it—a tooth. I picked up the tooth, and blood ran down my hand as I examined one of my canine teeth, small and dull.
Blood was dripping down my chin as my mind raced for reason, but I couldn’t think well enough past the shock. I looked back at myself in the mirror and took in the horror of it. My mouth was a red ruin and my teeth seemed too long and too loose. I dropped the tooth from my fingers and brought my hand to my mouth. With my pointer finger I traced my front teeth and they wobbled in my gums. I screamed then, a shallow cry that would have been so much louder if Katie and Fauna weren’t asleep. My jaw ached, but I had to keep it open. I held back my lips, as though I were an animal bearing teeth to an enemy.
Something in me snapped just then. A small cry, too ragged and desperate, escaped me and I found myself bringing my hand up to my mouth once again. I leaned closer to the mirror and pulled out a tooth at random with a sharp snap and a small crunch. The tooth came out with very little effort. It was a molar with a gold filling in it. I dropped it in the sink and closed my mouth. The moment my teeth touched one another unbearable pain, tiny crunching and snapping sounds filled my mouth. I spit the blood out and most of my teeth went with it. I started jumping up and down in panic as I leaned against the counter, crying harder and drooling thick blood and saliva down my chin. Desperate to be rid of the pain, I reached my hand into my mouth and tore out the few remaining teeth. My face was covered in blood. With my teeth all in the sink, I let myself fall to the floor and held a towel to my mouth and cried softly. The blood stopped coming after a short time. The once pink towel was stained beyond repair. I rested my head against the wall, trying to regain sane, productive thought. My teeth were gone! What the hell?
I closed my mouth. My gums were swollen and sore, but beyond the pain was something else, something sharp? I opened my mouth and ran a finger along my naked gums until something sharp snagged it. My finger came away with blood, not from my mouth but from a tiny cut. I wiped the blood on the towel and used a different finger to do it again in a different spot and it happened again.
I stood up and my legs were hardly strong enough to support my weight. Looking at myself in the mirror, I opened my mouth and I could see little white teeth coming in. They were pushing their way through even as I watched them. My neck was cramping and my back hurt from leaning over the sink, but I watched the teeth as they came in, larger and whiter than my teeth before them. The canines were longer than the others, and razor sharp. They were meant for puncturing holes for blood, no doubt. The rest of the teeth were a smidge larger than those before them, but in no other way did they look different.
I remembered only then that Mato had warned me about this the day I was infected. He said that my teeth would fall out and stronger teeth would grow in their place. I leaned over the counter, my face inches from the mirror, and smiled with a very sore mouth full of pearly whites and two long, sharp canines. Yippy, vampire teeth.
BROTHERS
I FINALLY GOT in the shower, and I let the hot water fall down around me for a good long time. I rinsed my mouth out with the hot water, opening and closing my mouth in a biting motion. Running my tongue over my teeth without cutting it was going to take some time to learn. Once I was out of the shower and dressed, I admired the whiteness of my new teeth in the mirror. It was a shame that I was addicted to coffee. Though, that thought actually made me smile. I didn’t think it would be possible so soon after what just happened, but I didn’t argue with it. Smiling felt good and I continued to do so as I cleaned the bathroom before heading back to my room.
In my room I sashayed around stacks of boxes to get to my desk, which sat in the far corner. I actually agreed with Ruy. I did need to learn how to protect myself better. That’s why there was a new book about Defensive Magic sitting on my desk. I ordered it online a week ago with the last of my funds in the bank, but it was a total waste. It was supposed to have a spell that could kill a demon, thus freeing me of Raphael’s threat, but it sucked out loud. It was more of a concept book on defensive magic, very disappointing. It listed maneuvers and spells and gave terrific stories about people who’d used the techniques mentioned, but there was no explanation of the mechanics or the ingredients. I hadn’t realized how regulated material on magic was in this country until I started looking for material that most God fearing Christians wouldn’t want us knowing…like how to defend ourselves.
I heard a loud clank and jumped where I stood. Something had hit the window. I slowly peeled back the thick blue curtains and found Michael, Katie’s vamp brother, staring up at me from the ground outside the window. I was surprised to see him out and about on Tristan’s day off. After leaving the care of Darkness’s vampire care center or VCC, Tristan took him in. Tristan was such a self-righteous downer; I could never live with him. Poor Michael. He kept him on a rather short leash, and I knew why. Tristan was scared for Michael, scared that he was losing his child-like innocence to vampirism. Before Michael became infected he was a grown child of twenty-two. Cartoons and video games were all consuming. Afterward he became a bit of a punk. I stared down at Michael and couldn’t believe that just a few short weeks ago he was a Brady Bunch type nerd with a comic book collection. But, Michael of the Brady Bunch was no more; no more sweater vests, no more slacks and no more neat wavy sandy brown hair parted down the side. No, the man standing outside my window had wild hair, jelled up into a mini Mohawk with bleached tips. He was shirtless, leaving his surprisingly hairy
chest bare to the elements and glowing white in the moonlight. He smiled up at me with a mouth full of white chompers, much like my own.
“Hey,” I said with a smile as I slid the window open.
“Open the front door?” he asked by way of greeting.
“Okay,” I said with a raised eyebrow, and shut the window.
I opened the front door ever so quietly. I smiled in anticipation of hanging with Michael, but my smile vanished when I found Tristan standing beside him. I hadn’t seen my oldest brother since he denounced me as his sister for killing Admetus. Admetus, the fucker who had killed so many innocent people, who kidnapped me and was planning to torture and murder our mother…but, yeah, I’m the bad guy. Tristan thought that because we were part elf that we were supposed to be morally superior, above murder and revenge and all that jazz. Yeah and purple monkeys fly from my ass at dawn.
Tristan looked down at me. He looked so much like Uncle Seth that it was a little eerie. His long black and gold hair was tied back in a complex braid that left his black eyes the main feature on his overly masculine face. He was wearing a black Asian inspired dress shirt and black pants. He looked strange standing beside Michael. They were so much the opposite of each other.
