Cuinn…
Aye, aye, I know, he grumbled. During vampire cuddling time, bugger off.
His words were enough to make me chuckle aloud. Renata drew back enough to look at me.
“You seem to be in good spirits, considering.”
“Well, it is vampire cuddling time, according to Cuinn.”
Iliaria snorted behind me while Renata smiled lazily and traced the line of my jaw with her fingertip. “We’ll have all day to do this, cara mia.”
I slipped my arm over her waist and began to trace tiny circles at the small of her back. “That sounds lovely.”
“Mayhap we’ll do more than cuddle, if your Dracule does not find it disagreeable?” Renata said with a baiting tone.
“I was upset with your timing, Queen.”
“How is my timing now?” Renata asked. “Would today be a good time for you? Or would you prefer for us to spend the entire day bored and doing nothing more than waiting for an attack from your kinsmen?”
Iliaria’s tail thumped the mattress as I sensed her agitation rise.
“Renata,” I said softly.
“Hmm?”
“I think we should establish a rule that the bed is a quarrel free zone.” Iliaria’s tail twitched again and I added, “As much as either of you may dislike it.”
“Perhaps that is a good idea,” Iliaria said, her voice low and threatening.
“Do you think you can accomplish that, Dracule?”
“Renata,” I said again.
“What, Epiphany? I am merely asking a question.”
“You are baiting her, my lady.”
This time, Iliaria’s tail actually thumped my leg.
“If you keep your mouth closed, perhaps,” Iliaria grumbled.
Renata laughed. “Perhaps if I find something to put in it, I will.”
I blushed, though I was not certain why. I didn’t think either of them realized they argued not so much because of their differences, but because of the ways in which they were very much alike. They were both proud and dominant, and neither was readily willing to submit or cede to the other.
Of course, I did not say such thoughts aloud. I didn’t have to.
“I will not argue that,” Renata said. “Your Dracule tries to impose her will on me by presuming I should think and act as she does.”
Iliaria sat up, carefully drawing her wings back so that she didn’t hit either of us with them. “And you are constantly testing me and trying to see how far you can push before you get a rise out of me.”
I worked myself out from between them and started climbing out of bed.
“Epiphany, where are you going?”
“I’m going to take a bath whilst you two settle your differences.”
Renata let me go. I left them both in her bed, arguing in hushed voices with each other about who started what and how they started it.
Women, Cuinn said, sounding as exasperated as I felt.
I really couldn’t disagree with him.
*
When I rose from the bath wrapped in a heavy linen towel, Iliaria and Renata had finally stopped arguing. I found Iliaria still in bed, reclining against the mound of pillows and seeming at ease next to Renata.
Renata’s gorgeous features were slack and unmoving, dead as she was due to the time of day. I made to retrieve the fox blade and Iliaria brought me to a halt. “Wait.”
“Yes?”
“Come here.”
She’d removed the long coat she had been wearing earlier to reveal the fitted blouse and breeches underneath.
“It must be very difficult dressing,” I said, making idle note of it.
Iliaria rose from the bed. As if she was not already tall enough, the slightly heeled boots made her even taller. She towered a good head above me.
“Dressing does take some assistance at times.”
I moved behind her and found that tiny buttons traveled in two vertical lines down her back, beneath each of the openings for her wings.
She peered over her shoulder at me. “Many of the Dracule do not bother with much more than a cloak.”
“Why do you?”
“I am not like many.”
I touched the base of her tail and the seamed opening with a fingertip. She shuddered slightly under my touch.
“I need to wake Renata.”
“Do you remember this morning when I told you I would ask you to do something you would not enjoy?”
I sensed a trap in her words, but failed to see what it was.
“Yes?” I asked, openly suspicious.
Iliaria was fast, mayhap faster than any vampire I’d known. She grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled me in tight against her body. The breath caught in my throat at the sudden contact.
“I want to take you while she sleeps.” Her mouth slid hot across my cheek to whisper in my ear, “I want her to smell me on you when she wakes.”
She held me pinned so tightly against her body that I felt the Dragoste between her legs stiffen in arousal against my belly. I breathed her name, but she did not release me.
“I told you I would find something you would not like and that I would ask it of you. You do not like the idea of disrespecting or angering your queen, do you?”
“No.”
“But you will do it,” she said and it was more of a statement than a question. She raised the linen sheet at my thighs. “You will do it for me, for our bargain?”
Piph, Cuinn said, your queen’s like to get her hackles up at this…
Would she? Perhaps, but I did not think she would harm either of us for such a trespass. She would be heated, oh yes, but it was doubtful she would be angry enough to risk our alliance with the Dracule.
“Your answer, Epiphany? Will you consent or be forsworn?”
She put me in quite the predicament. On one hand, I had given her my word. What she asked of me was within my reach to give. On the other, she was true to hers and had found something that was not easy for me to give, for the consequences would swiftly follow. Renata did not have to cross the Dracule to punish me.
If I renege on my word, she will never forgive me.
Cuinn sighed heavily. You’re the one with the shovel.
“I will not be forsworn,” I said aloud.
Iliaria smiled widely enough to reveal the fangs on both her upper and lower jaw. Her obsidian-stroked gold eyes filled with lust and dark promise.
She pulled the towel off me, forcing me to stand nude before her. The warm candlelit air kissed my skin as my hair slapped in wet strands against my back. Iliaria unfastened her breeches and pushed me roughly to my knees on the stone floor.
“It took me a while to truly understand that you do not feign pleasure solely for another’s enjoyment; you really do relish a firm hand.”
Her grip in my hair twined tight, her nails digging into my scalp.
“I have held back,” she said, her tone serious. “I will be no imitation of your queen, Epiphany, but I am Dracule, the first of your kind, and from henceforth, I will require the same courtesy and respect that you show to her. Pull them down.”
I understood what she asked of me. I gripped the band of her pants and worked them down her tail and legs. She did not have to speak the orders to make her second request known. I had played such games with Renata for centuries and understood all too well what was expected of me.
Iliaria used the grip she had to hold me up high on my knees. I kissed the knot between her legs and flicked my tongue against her hard tip. She spaced her legs apart as much as the breeches around her ankles would allow. I licked her sex. The muscles in her arms tensed, echoing in the grip that held my hair.
Iliaria let out a groan when I took her into my mouth. She relied on the grip she had in my hair to control my movement, pushing and pulling me ever so slightly above her sex.
When she climaxed, she blessedly released my hair to avoid ripping it out with the force of her orgasm. Her hips twitched as she gripped my shoulders. T
he taste of her coated my mouth like sweet honey.
I started to move away when she hauled me up as if I weighed nothing.
“I did not say I was done,” she growled.
Iliaria kicked off her boots and the material at her ankles and lay me down on the bed next to Renata. She nestled her lower body between my legs and rolled her hips forward to glide her sex across mine. She teased me with her body until she pressed herself more solidly against me and I struggled to remain passive and not roll my own hips with hers. Iliaria raised up on her hands and drew back slowly. Her sex clung to mine like a mouth. She rocked her hips lightly and I writhed beneath her.
Her hips rose and fell, gradually picking up the tempo. She clawed at the pillows behind me and slammed her body against mine in a way that was almost too much pleasure, almost too much pain. I screamed and she covered my mouth with hers, her tongue sliding hot and wet past my lips. Somewhere during the kiss and the harsh dance of her hips, she brought me to orgasm.
She spent herself and collapsed on top of me. Her wings fell flat, their span nearly wide enough to blanket the bed. Slowly, she raised back on her hands and arched her spine in a way that disconnected the union of our flesh. Her skin clung to mine, and as she eased off me, another noise escaped me and I clawed at her shoulders.
She rose to her knees and drew her wings in close. She made to climb off me and I touched her hip, tracing the sculpted curve.
“Wait.” This time, I was the one that made the request.
She waited, watching me with those strange black and gold eyes. Without the tide of pleasure to overwhelm me, her mark at my wrist tingled when I touched her. I touched her anyway, tracing the smoothly muscled plain of her stomach and the skin that stretched perfectly over her hips. I lowered my hand to play in the velvety fur above her groin.
Iliaria’s lashes fluttered in pleasure. “Did I hurt you?” she asked.
I laughed lightly. Renata would have never asked me such a question. She knew me well enough and how to read my body so adeptly that she did not have to.
“No,” I said. “No, you did not hurt me, Iliaria. When will you realize that you do not have to hide from me?”
I slid my hands up her body until my palms were flat against her ribcage, beneath the swell of her breasts.
“I do not want to be her,” she said, her voice hushed.
I knew what she meant. “You are not.”
“I do not want to be your master.”
“I did not ask you to come to my bed as my master.”
“Then what do you want, Epiphany?”
“For you to be yourself.”
“That is all?”
“What else would I want?” At that, she did not respond. She climbed off me, ignoring my hands on her body. She stood and wrapped her wings around her like a cloak.
“Wake your queen.”
I retrieved the fox blade and cut a long wound in the open palm of my hand. I ignored the fiery rush of pain and went to Renata’s still form on the bed. Iliaria helped open her mouth and I curled my hand into a fist.
The touch of Cuinn’s magic unfurled within me like a tiny star, suffusing my limbs with warm energy. That warm glow dripped with every drop of blood that fell from my clenched fist.
Renata gasped the breath of life, her pupils nearly drowning in the topaz and sapphire flecks of her eyes. She sat up as Iliaria moved away from the bed. I waited patiently for Renata to gather herself and to come to her senses. It didn’t take her long.
When her pupils returned to a normal size, I started to move away and Renata caught me by the wrist. “Epiphany?”
“I delayed her,” Iliaria said before Renata could ask anything else.
I daresay Renata surprised us both with her reaction.
“Why?” she asked. “If it was only to have time alone together, you could have made a simple request for it.”
“Epiphany struck a bargain with me earlier this day.”
Renata turned to me. “Is that true, Epiphany?”
“Aye, it’s true.”
Renata appeared most interested. “And what was this bargain?”
I wasn’t too keen on telling her, but she had asked, and she was my lover, so I did. If revealing our act in the bedchamber bothered her, not only did she not show it, she seemed to find it hard to believe.
“You would not allow her to pleasure you with her mouth?” Renata seemed as confused as I had been.
Since Iliaria did not bother to reply, I did. “That was the bargain,” I said. “In order for me to please her with my mouth, she told me she would find something I would not like and ask me to do it.”
Renata pulled me into her lap and snaked a long arm around my waist. Her dark expression made my pulse speed.
“Mmm, but you enjoyed being delayed, didn’t you? And now I shall have to punish you for your insolence and for taking such great pleasure in going against my orders.” Her lips moved against the sensitive skin of my neck and I shivered visibly.
“I’ll leave,” Iliaria said.
“On the contrary, I think you should stay, considering the role you played in her rebellion.”
Renata buried a hand in my hair, but where Iliaria had held back, Renata pulled my head back roughly to expose the line of my neck. I gasped.
“Did you dominate her?”
“Yes.”
“And she delighted in it?”
“Yes.”
“So.” Renata tugged harder on my hair, gradually bowing my spine until my breasts rose and fell like offerings with every breath I took. “Now you see that I do not abuse her. I do not do anything to her that she does not enjoy.”
My body tightened with the need to feel her. Renata’s breath was warm against my breast. She kissed me lightly and then sucked, taking me into the hot cavern of her mouth and teasing me on the cusps of her fangs. I groaned and she bit down, piercing my skin. She drew back to watch the blood as it trickled in a steady stream down my body.
“Correct, cara mia?”
“Yes.”
If Renata hadn’t had such a grip on my hair, I would have looked at Iliaria to see what expression she wore. As it was, I couldn’t move.
Renata smiled darkly and used the arm she had around me and the hand she had in my hair to lift me. For a moment, I thought she was carrying me toward the bath, and then I realized, it was not so. Renata yanked a tapestry down from the wall and pushed my back up against it. Her smile was both cruel and sweet.
“Raise your arms.”
I did, without question or hesitation, and Renata clamped the silver shackles she kept hidden by the tapestry about my wrists. When she drew away, I was not left suspended, for which I was grateful. Though the shackles held my arms up high, my bare feet pressed against the floor.
Renata went to the armoire, pausing before opening it. “You should stay, Dracule.”
Iliaria looked at me, desire and hunger in her gaze. She may not have wanted to be like Renata, but I saw in her the same dark craving. Chained to the wall, I was helpless, and something within her, I knew, enjoyed the sight of it.
And for the first time in the bedroom in what seemed ages, I felt a genuine flicker of fear.
It was not being shackled to the wall that brought about those stirrings. Renata would strip me of any guard I had before Iliaria, and I did not know how the Great Siren, who battled herself, would react. Was I afraid of Iliaria? In certain ways, I was afraid of them both.
Renata returned from the armoire with a dainty knife in her hand. She pressed the line of hard steel flat against my cheek.
“Do you remember this?”
I did, for it was the same blade that she used to cut me when we played even darker games, before she had cast me out for such a long time. Fear fluttered like tiny moths in my belly. She had cut me only once since I had returned to her bed. Once, and then only to erase the scar Lucrezia had carved into my flesh.
I shut my eyes, reminding myself that the game we were abo
ut to play was one of trust and consent. My voice trembled slightly, “Yes, my lady.”
Iliaria said, “She is afraid.”
“That is the point, Dracule.”
Renata turned the knife in her hand, the sharp point of it tracing an invisible line down my cheek and following the curve of my jaw.
“Why would you subject her to this if you know she is afraid?”
Renata leaned in close and her breath was hot against my cheek. Her knife continued its steady descent, whispering softly across my skin, down over the beat of my pulse and neck.
“Are you afraid, Epiphany?”
“Yes, my lady.”
It was true, I felt fear, but with it came the steady rush and hum of desire. The two feelings mingled inside of me, until I could not tell where one began and the other ended. They swam together in my veins like two leviathans in the deep, twisting and gliding, rippling and twining in an eternal dance.
Fear or desire? I could not discern which I felt more strongly.
Renata’s blade danced over my chest, pricking my skin and making my nipples taut. The tip of it bit into the tender skin on the side of my breast and I gasped, jerking my arms involuntarily and making the shackles above me clink and sway. The pain was immediate and stinging. The area flooded suddenly with warmth. She cut me slowly, carefully, assuring that I felt every parting of skin. Blood trickled steadily in a descent toward my navel.
The candlelight blurred like a flickering star in my vision. I did not fight the pain. I exhaled and gave myself to it. The mastery of pain is not in the fighting of it, but in the acceptance of it, the surrender.
“I suggest you watch carefully, Dracule. As hard as you may try to understand her, you do not.”
Renata took my nipple into her mouth. Her tongue played against me in lazy circles. She sucked gently, working me exquisitely and forcing my limbs and muscles to slacken as my body melted and surrendered to the pleasure she invoked. I felt the blade against my other breast. The flat steel slid back and forth to shadow the movement of her tongue.
“Please.”
In perfect synchronicity, Renata bit down, catching me between her teeth, and the tip of the knife pricked me again. I cried out, falling even deeper into the wet darkness she summoned.
Summoning Shadows: A Rosso Lussuria Vampire Novel Page 8
