Chapter 12
Kat
Every day I sleep on his arm as night turns to day in this weird existence. Every night he wrings pleasures out of my body, feelings I hadn’t imagined existed. My heart pounds and my pussy burns as he prepares me, the same ritual every night: a bath where he sponges me, a trip out, breakfast. Our walks get longer as I regain strength and I have a thousand questions that he is happy to answer. He has been to every part of the world. He has seen regimes rise and fall. He has taken part in wars I didn’t even know of. He’s a brilliant well of information. I was never much interested in history, but maybe it was due to the limited content in the curriculum? Also, I had my sights set on science from an early age. Lou makes me want to see the seven wonders of the world, trek the Himalayas, visit the holy Shinto shrines of Japan, sit at a café in Paris. I want to listen to a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London, a gospel choir in South Africa, and to sitars by a campfire on a beach by the Indian Ocean.
I’ve fallen hopelessly in love with this man, this vampire, my Lou with no last name. He might not know who he was, but the man he is, is breathtakingly beautiful, on the outside as well as on the inside.
We have been out for breakfast and now sit on the couch in the dungeon. Only a few couples have arrived and are still in the warm-up phases of their games. I nurture a cup of black coffee. Lou sips on blood from a tap they have installed in the bar. I still haven’t gotten used to the shockingly indecent sight of human blood in a jug. As if it was beer. It’s a thrilling reminder of what he really is, but I see past that. It doesn't define him. He is so much more.
I haven’t dared mention it again, vampirism, turning, but our nights together bring with them a feeling of proximity that even he can’t deny and finally I can’t keep my mouth shut.
“I want to stay with you.”
“You are staying with me. You are not going anywhere.”
“I mean… forever.”
“I will keep you by my side for the rest of your natural life. This is the right thing to do in a world with so many wrongs. I’m keeping you for selfish reasons, I’m depriving you of so many things, but I’m not going to deprive you your death.”
“But I want to be with you!”
“You are with me, dear. We have many beautiful years ahead.”
“I have maybe fifty years, sixty at most, and the last of those I will be old and sick, and maybe demented. I won’t be me anymore.”
“You will still be you. Don’t worry about that. I will be here to take care of you.”
“Yeah,” I scoff bitterly and put down the cup of coffee on the table, “looking like thirty, while I’ll be a wrinkled old lady.”
“Katarina Donovan. Do you think I care about sagging skin and wrinkles? I fell for you before I even saw you, when I only heard your voice, smelled you.”
“But—”
“And I may look like thirty, but dear, I am old. I am really old, and I’m feeling it. You make me feel young again. Don’t ever mistake a face preserved in youth by vampirism for actual youth. Vampires are some of the most conservative creatures I’ve met. They’re frozen in fear of change. They are narrow minded, bigoted, territorial creatures, always bickering and plotting.”
“You always try to make it sound so bad, but I can’t see it as bad.”
“Kat. I have killed. Plenty. I have hurt people, ripped mothers from their children, sated my thirst with no regard to what pain I caused. Is that the kind of life you want to live?”
“You’re not like that now. You have changed. You can teach me.”
“We are inherent monsters. Demons. It’s built into our very core. There is no humanity left in us at all. That is what you dream of?”
“I don’t see it. I don’t believe you.”
His nostrils flare and his eyes darken. “You are out of line, Kat,” he growls. “You will never be my equal. I will always be your Master, your Dom. You will always be my slave. My human slave. You will do as I say. I cannot let you take a place by my side.”
My heart sinks. “One day I will grow old. Then you’ll have no use for me.”
“That is the natural course of life.”
“Not for you.”
“I am not natural.”
“Would you think differently of me if I was a vampire too?”
“That is moot to discuss.”
“You won’t ever turn me?”
“Correct.”
“But why?”
“Katarina. This life is a lonely one. It is violent, filled with death, pain, betrayal and loss. I have never turned a human, and I never will.”
“You only want me to stay human so I can stay your fucking ‘sweetblood’,” I spit.
His eyes darken infinitely and I shrink back as my heart shoots to my throat. I shouldn’t have said that. He is right. There is nothing equal in our relationship. I’m his captive, his slave. That’s all there is.
Lou stands. “On all fours. Hands and knees. Wiggle that sweet, round ass of yours. Tonight it will burn. Then I will feast on you, my sweetblood. It is time.”
I shake as I obey. His gaze scorches me as I crawl toward the back of the club, toward our room. My pussy heats and I know he smells it. He knows how truly hooked I am. The endorphins that flood my body when he ties me up and uses me is a rush like nothing I’ve experienced before.
He’s never fed on me, apart from a couple of tiny drops that doesn't count. The thought makes me nauseous with fear. Does it hurt? Will I die?
The door slams shut behind us with a finality that makes me dart to my feet.
“Turn around, put your hands on the bed.”
I back a step. “Lou, I—”
“Now!”
“I didn’t mean—” A flutter of fear ripples through me and tightens my chest, but it’s not only fear, his dominance makes me vibrate with life and shoots bolts of heat to my pussy.
He steps close. Too close. Towering over me. “Are you challenging me?” His eyes glint in the semi-dark.
I swallow hard. “No.” The word comes out as a whimper. I turn, stumbling to the bed and lean forward. In the next moment he has ripped the dress in two, baring my back. My panties meet the same destiny and bunch around my ankles, shredded. I want to plead with him to be careful. I wonder if the safewords are still in place. I want to scream red at the top of my lungs, but at the same time I want him, fully and completely. He said he’ll drink from me tonight. He has said that the moment he drinks from me will also be the moment he finally stops teasing me and makes me his.
I flinch when he strokes my butt, but it’s a caress, warm and tender.
“Mmm, you react so beautifully, Kat. There is nothing that will stop me tonight. No one will bother us. I will take you, mark you, drink from you.”
“Will it hurt?” I whisper, my voice trembling.
“At first. But it will be nothing like what you remember from that night.”
“I trust you.”
“Good girl.”
The slap comes without warning and catapults me forward. I moan and grip the sheet. Lou secures a grip around my hips and slaps me again, and again, the skin on my ass turning warm, then hot, and finally it’s all I feel. My senses numb and sharpen. It’s him, his hand, the rhythm of his hand meeting my flesh. I soar and my whole body sizzles. When he stops, all I hear are my own harsh breaths and I shake. He spreads my ass cheeks and his tongue finds my slit, his teeth my clit. I scream from the sharp sting that turns into a furnace of desperate need.
“Please,” I cry.
“Please what, Kat?”
“Please, Master. I can’t take any more. I need you. All of you.”
Lou grabs my hips and shoves me up on the bed. I bury my face in the mattress and pray. I pray for release, for him to fill me, that his bite won’t hurt. The mattress sinks down as he is suddenly on me, covering my body with his. A hard length pushes against the apex of my thighs, sliding in to settle against my opening, but not entering. I s
quirm beneath him, trying to get him inside me.
“Lou!” I gasp, almost weeping.
He nuzzles my neck, pushing my hair to one side, kisses along my jawline. My heart speeds up almost impossibly and a heady tingle spreads through my body. It’s time. It’s happening now.
“You’re not the only one with needs,” he mumbles, his lips moving against my skin, then he thrusts inside me in one move.
The sudden razor sharp sting in the side of my neck makes arrows of pain shoot to my scalp and down along my spine. I have no resistance, no leverage, no chance to defend myself as the deep pulling begins, the awful and amazing feeling of him feeding from me. Every muscle in my body tenses, and as he moves in me, his cock stretching my inner walls, I clutch the sheet, harder and harder, my insides liquefying.
It’s profoundly erotic, and like nothing I have ever experienced. He is heavy on me, holding my hair, keeping my head still as he keeps swallowing. Waves of an eerie calm wash over me, as if this was always meant to be. If everything ends with this, it seems perfectly fine. The rhythm of his thrusts matches his pulling of blood. Tension builds in me, my moans breaking the silence, building, brought out of me with his every push, his every pull. He bites down again and as renewed pain makes my neck explode, he moves in me harder, faster and I crash, convulsing, spasms wracking my pussy, my whole body. I think I scream, but the high pitched noise in my ears drowns out every sound.
When I come to, I lie cradled in his arms, held like I’ve never been held before, as if his life depends on it. I touch my neck. I have phantom pains, but there’s no wound. Lou flashes his fangs, then they disappear just as fast.
“Did I taste good?” My words are slurred, a messy mumble.
He raises an eyebrow. “That was never a question. Are you okay?”
I look around us and then snuggle even closer. “I’m very okay.”
“I hurt you.”
“I—”
“I want your honesty.”
“Yes. It hurt.”
“Badly?”
“Does it matter?”
“I wasn’t on my best behaviour. I’ll be gentler next time.”
That’s all it takes. Those words. The promise. Next time. My female parts clearly have a life of their own and I’m ready to go again despite my exhaustion. Lou widens his eyes and a grin spreads on his face. He freaking smells my rising arousal the moment it happens.
“Do you know everything?” I mutter.
His hand slides along my back, down to my butt, pulling me to him. His cock thickens, pushing against my stomach. Lifting my thigh, he drapes it over his hip and then repositions himself, pushing inside me again. I cry out and lose all ability to think, as he fills me, his thick cock ravaging my tender flesh. Pushing me over on my back, he slams inside me harder, faster, making me soar as he takes me at a brutal vampire speed and when I scream out my release, he buries his teeth in my neck for the second time. This time it almost doesn't hurt at all. I hold on for dear life, dancing with death, pulling this demon close, needing him more than air, more than life, my whole being weeping with joy.
“I love you,” I cry against his neck.
Chapter 13
Kat
The next night he disappears after our breakfast round without our usual walk along the river. He doesn't tell me where he’s going. Selene isn’t around and the club is still fairly empty. A giant guard, a vampire with the very old fashioned name Maximus is keeping an eye on me. I don’t know if it’s to keep me safe, or to prevent me from escaping.
I’m still high from our lovemaking and my insides buzz.
“Want something, honey?” says a husky voice behind me, sounding like she lives off whiskey and cigarettes. A vampire bartender, a short, curvy girl in a tight black dress and donning a leather collar, leans against the bar, cocking her head for me to come over. She’s got piercings and chains everywhere, tattoos, and thick, black eyeliner.
I perch myself on a stool and cross my legs. I’m not dressed for the dungeon. I have on wide-legged beige pants and a black polo. I don’t know how long Lou will stay away or what he has planned, but no one has forbidden me to hang out here.
“I’m Kat,” I say.
“Oh, I know who you are. You’re quite the celebrity around here.”
I frown. “Why?”
“Oh, come on. You live here. Your sweet smell permeates the whole place. Frankly, it’s fucking distracting.”
My hand flies to my throat, as if I could protect myself if anyone decided to take a sip. Or more. “I’m— I’m sorry.”
She waves dismissively. “I’ve got my man. I’m good. But you should watch your back. People have begun to take notice. Being noticed by vampires is never a good thing.”
I swallow hard. She flashes a wide grin, showing fangs. “Let me get you something.” She blurs and a few moments later she puts a tumbler with whiskey before me.
“I think you can keep those coming,” I say and take a too-large swallow, coughing as the liquid burns in my chest. I gesture to her collar. “Are you… a submissive?”
She fingers the leather then gives me a crooked smile. “I top from the bottom.”
I frown. “I don’t understand.”
The girl barks out a loud laugh. “I get what I want, let’s leave it at that.”
“Are— are you happy being a vampire?” My cheeks burn. Maybe that is something one shouldn’t ask? I have no idea of what counts as etiquette in the supernatural world. “I mean… I’m sorry.”
She grabs a glass and pours blood from the tap, filling half the glass before she lets go of the lever. “You don’t know anything, do you?” Clinking the glass against mine, she takes a long sip as she holds my gaze.
I drain the last of the whiskey and get an immediate refill. “I don’t know anything. He’s keeping me here. I don’t know what I’m doing, what I’ve gotten myself into.”
“Know what I think? Sit here tonight. I’ll keep an eye on you. I work the whole night. Just watch, listen, observe. Don’t cower in that room. Put on something classy but more… suitable and come hang with the vamps. They’re a fun bunch. Well, some of them.”
“Lou wouldn’t—”
“Fuck Lou. He can’t keep you in there all the time. You’ll get depressed. Chill with us tonight. It’ll give you some perspective. You’re curious, I get it, and Mr. Lou is a grumpy old man who has forgotten what a girl needs to do to have some fun.”
”He’s not grumpy.”
She gives me her best deadpanned glare and it makes me giggle. ”Fine. Maybe he could use some lightening up.” I drain the rest of the whiskey and hop off the chair, already feeling the buzz. I’ll be a cheap drunk tonight. “I’ll be right back!”
“Hey, I’m Alaya.”
I smile at her, excitement bubbling in me. Yes, I’d love to just hang for one night. Quickly changing into a loose black dress that shows my whole back through an intricately patterned lace, and that ends on the upper thigh, I match it with thigh-high black suede boots, and then I’m back out by the bar in no time.
Alaya whistles as she sees me and even Maximus gives me an appreciative glance. The dungeon is still sparsely populated and I sit back up on my chair. I get another glass of whiskey and spin the contents as I contemplate how to get as much information out of this vampire girl as possible.
The hours go by. Slow at first, but from around eleven, things start happening. That mysterious black door at the top of the stairs keeps opening and closing. Couple after couple saunter down the stairs. I can tell those who are new to the place by the shock on their faces as they take in the room. It seems the humans are mostly new, while the vampires are frequent visitors. I’ve seen most of them before. So I gather most aren’t attached to one human, but prefer to hunt new prey every night. I squirm, the sights and sounds around me getting me hotter by the minute.
“Hey.”
I spin the stool and look in the direction of the voice, a young man with curly blond hair a
nd big, blue eyes. He is clean shaven and has a young, innocent face. I have seen him here before and always with the same vampire. They came down a little while ago, with yet another human man in tow. I look for them and find them on the couch, the vampire pushing his hand inside the front of the pants of the human. My cheeks heat and I quickly turn back toward the bar.
“Hi,” I say back.
“I’m Sean. I’ve seen you here before.”
“Kat,” I say and give him my hand. “And ditto.”
“So…” Sean looks around us and then back at me. “Where’s your vamp?”
“He’s, uhm… He’ll be here shortly.” I have no idea when Lou will be back, but it makes me feel vulnerable to be here without him and it’s not something I care to admit.
“You’re not compelled?” he asks.
I shake my head. “Neither are you.”
“Nah. I’m here because I want to. Bass is my master.”
I glance at the couple on the couch. Bass nuzzles the neck of another human man. “Not only yours?”
His gaze flickers and for a moment he looks uncomfortable. “He likes variety.”
“Where does that leave you?”
He gestures dismissively. “Oh, it’ll be my turn eventually.”
“What do you get out of this? Are you two… an item?”
Sean laughs. “Nah. It’s a mutual agreement. I’m his sweetblood. He gets me off.”
“On kink?”
He nods and points his beer bottle toward me. “And you? Why are you here?”
I’m not sure how much I should tell, but Lou has never forbidden me to say anything. “I was… taken, I guess.”
“Really? You’re not here on your own free will?”
I manage to both shake my head and nod at the same time. It matches well with how I feel. I’m not sure anymore that I’d run if that door opened for me.
“But I’ve seen the way you look at him. You adore him. You’re saying he’s holding you as his captive?”
I chew on my lip, meeting Alaya’s gaze as she replaces my almost empty glass with a new one. “I like him.”
Her Vampire Hero (Midnight Doms Book 4) Page 10
