I didn’t insist on eye contact because the spicy sweet scent of her arousal filled the room, and I inhaled my own personal aphrodisiac. As her excitement ramped higher and higher, I pulled out and put the head of my cock at her asshole. She looked at me in shock, but then relaxed and nodded.
“I don’t know why you’re nodding. I’m making the decisions right now.”
“I know, Sir.”
I smiled at the honorific. Bran had made her use it with him in the beginning, and had advised Viper and I to require it as well. Viper hadn’t, but I had, and I’d been able to tell a difference in her attitude once I insisted on it. She hadn’t been required to use it in a while, and I liked hearing it from her lips when she had a choice.
I pressed into her ass with only her natural juices on my cock, and maybe there’s a touch of masochism in me because I loved the way her ass muscles grabbed and squeezed as I drove into her. She yelped and moaned, but her hands stayed put and she didn’t ask me to stop. I smelled her pain and discomfort layered with her arousal, so I kept to an unrelenting pace until I was buried balls-deep in her ass.
“Open your eyes.” It wasn’t a request.
When our gazes met, I pulsed my cock wider, then wider, and then a whole lot thicker. She gasped at the first two increases, and then yelped and lost control of her hands at the third.
“Ten strikes of the belt. Put them back.”
She quickly returned them as she begged, “Please, Sir! Give me a minute to get used to you!”
“Since you begged so pretty, we’ll get the belt taken care of while you get used to me.”
I wrapped the buckle around my fist, and kept wrapping until about sixteen inches of thick leather was free. She squeezed her eyes closed as I took aim at her left breast, and I waited to swing until she opened them.
Her hands stayed behind her head, but she had to fight to keep them there. I hadn’t hit her hard, but had focused on the nipple — and her ass squeezed my cock in magnificent spasms as she tried to manage the pain.
It felt so good, I took aim at her right nipple without giving her time to fully recover, and this time she screamed and begged as her ass muscles gripped and massaged my cock.
I hit the outside of both breasts, the inside, and the top. Her nipples had given me the best reaction, so I took aim again and warned, “One after the other without a break between. Make sure your hands stay put.”
Chapter 26
Hailey
Three hours later we were both naked and in the most fantastic sixty-nine ever. I was on bottom while he fucked my face and licked me to orgasm after orgasm, and all I had to do was lie still and enjoy.
Hey, I’m an ex-whore — I know how to take a cock down my throat, and that whole breathing thing isn’t as important now that I’m a vampire.
He hadn’t let me come for at least two hours, and then for the past hour he’d given me orgasms until I’d have begged for a respite if his cock hadn’t been down my throat.
My clit was so damned sensitive from all his attention, and every once in a while he’d lift the hood and lick it directly — and I’d come unglued, but I couldn’t do anything about it. God, talk about sensory overload, I couldn’t take it, and yet there was no choice because his tongue wouldn’t fucking stop.
As he pulled yet another orgasm from me, for the first time in days I felt the snake trying to rise to the surface. Maybe it was the lack of oxygen, maybe it was the feeling of helplessness, but I was suddenly focused on nothing besides staying human as I fought the snake for control. My skin changed to scales in a few places and I forced them back as I wiggled my fingers and toes and focused on the multiplication tables so I’d stay in my human brain.
“You have this,” Dare told me as he pulled out of my mouth and turned around. I leaned my face into the warmth of his palm on my cheek. “You’re Hailey, and if you stay in control you can have all the barbecue, slaw, potato salad, and beans you want from our favorite barbecue joint.”
Food. I focused on the way the beans and slaw tasted together, and my snake slowly faded into the background. She’s always there, always sniffing and observing, but we’ve worked out a deal where she just lets me know when she’s bothered and — usually — no longer tries to burst forth and handle it.
“Sorry,” I told him. “Everything was hypersensitive and I couldn’t deal, so I guess she figured it was time for her to do something.”
“To be honest? I’m not sure my wolf would’ve handled it as long as your snake did. I’m impressed.”
I looked down at his cock, saw it was only at half-mast, and looked back up to meet his gaze.
“I came three times,” he told me. “A fourth isn’t necessary. I’m good.”
“Okay then, where’s my barbecue?”
He made a phone call to a prospect, and thirty minutes later we had enough food to feed a dozen humans. What we didn’t eat right away was consumed as a snack a few hours later.
* * *
Ghost
We fucked, ate, napped, fucked some more, ate some more — before I knew it, we’d made it to the next night. Gonzo’d had this crazy tent-room in his basement. Someone had put soundproofing on the walls and ceiling, and then added layers and layers of fabric draping to give the effect of an exotic royal tent from a previous century. I’d kept the tent-room door closed when Bran and his people had checked out the cage in the basement, so as far as I knew, no one was aware of it.
Tonight, we went down and had some fun in the garage — I bent her over a sawhorse a while, and then balanced her on my bike and went to town on her. I waited until I thought she was sated, and lifted her in my arms. “I think perhaps it’s time for another nap.”
We’d napped on and off since we arrived, so it’d seem plausible to our guards. I’d turned music on out here before we fucked, and a television just outside the soundproof room was cued to play every Die Hard movie, and then every Fast and Furious movie. We had some time.
Hailey looked around as I pulled the door closed, and I put my finger to my lips. “If we talk softly, we should have some privacy in here.” I nodded to the bed and she followed me.
“If we’re going to do the relationship ceremony with just the two of us, this is our chance. If you don’t want to, you shouldn’t. I think I explained it well enough, but if you have questions — now’s the time to ask.”
“I get it. You see it as the wolf version of marriage. We can’t cheat on each other, or even really think about cheating, without the other knowing.”
“It isn’t about the cheating, it’s about the magical bond it creates. Lugat aren’t magical, but you’ve felt the magic around us through your snake, haven’t you?”
She nodded. “I’ve felt it as a human throughout my life, but usually only during ceremony, or sometimes in a sweat. Now, I feel it through the snake.” She sighed. “It feels like we should ask someone about the ramifications of mixing our specific energies, but I doubt anyone would have the answers.”
“Wolves and cats do this all the time, and I know a wolf and deer who have. It’s okay to mix species.”
She moved into my arms and snuggled into me. “I’ve had lots of your blood, but you’ve never had mine. Do we know how the whole Lugat thing will play into it, with you taking in my blood? Or the fact I can be Lugat and snake? Most wolves don’t exchange blood with beings who can be two things.”
“It’s a tiny bit. Nowhere near enough to turn me.” I sighed as I caressed her back. “If you don’t want to, we won’t. I just wanted to ask while we had the chance to do it in private.”
“I want to, Dare. God, everything’s changed and you’re still here.” She pulled her head back to meet my gaze. “I know this is important to you and your wolf, and I want it, too. I’m just worried about unseen complications.”
I pulled her to me and kissed the top of her head as I considered her concerns. “We’re mixing blood while I do one of the few magical ceremonies a lone wolf is allowed to do, but
we’re allowed to do it because it’s a straightforward ceremony. Also, there are no restrictions about who we can do it with. If we weren’t supposed to do it with snakes, we’d all know about it. If we weren’t supposed to do it with Lugat, we’d all know about it.”
“And what about the fact you’re going to die in a hundred or so years? Do we have to undo it, or am I going to be forever bound to you?”
“Death breaks it. You need both souls powering the bond or it dies.” I sighed. “We haven’t talked about that. It kills me that I’m not always going to be here for you, but I’ll do my best to make sure you’re in good shape physically and financially, so you’ll be okay without me.”
“I can’t think about that, Dare! Life without you? Maybe centuries of life without you? Should we put that into our wording? Don’t you usually promise to always be faithful? I know if I live hundreds of years after you die — I won’t be faithful. I can’t make that promise.”
If I hadn’t already worked all this out in my head, I’d have needed to walk out of the room to talk my wolf down. He still wasn’t happy, but thank goodness I’d already realized I didn’t want her to be miserable without me. Well, maybe for a year or so, but not forever.
“I’m not asking you to never fall in love again once I’m gone. I love you and I want you to be happy. I’m going to insist whoever you pick after me be worthy of you, though. If he doesn’t respect, love, and adore you? Kick his ass to the curb.”
She was close to tears and I snuggled her in closer to me and held her tighter. “I’m not gone yet. We have a long time together and I want us to have the relationship bond. If you aren’t ready for it today, I hope you’ll consider doing it soon. It’s important to me.”
“It’s important to me, too. Maybe Bran has done his job too well, because it feels like I should check in with him for everything… but you’re right about this being between the two of us.” She took a breath, sat up and away from me, and nodded. “Let’s do it. I want to be magically bonded to you. If something freaky happens, we’ll deal with it.”
Neither of us needed to hide the blood in wine for this. I’d brought wine bottles to make it feel ceremonial, but we used bottled water. Also, I used my claws to open both of us up for the blood, since there was no danger of my turning her into a wolf. You can only be one animal at a time, and she was already a snake.
Of course, you can’t be animal and vampire at the same time, so she’d already broken those rules.
We talked about the wording before we started, and she agreed to what I wanted without batting an eyelash.
We looked into each other eyes, drank each other’s blood, and said in unison:
Two souls, many bodies — fused into one. We are strong. We are a unit, and no one shall intrude without all knowing.
I knew I was supposed to keep us in a good place, and I focused on how wonderful it felt to hold her in my arms. The relationship bond slid into place, pulled, tugged, and then relaxed. I breathed easy when it settled — firm but relaxed without any strain.
Hailey’s snake breathed with me, and I sensed it in a way I’d never dreamed, as if her snake was my snake. I sensed the bloodlust of her vampire, under the surface and in control, but still there.
I opened my eyes to look at her, and saw wolf eyes looking back at me.
My wolf came to the surface, but I kept him under control.
“Talk to me, Hailey. What are you feeling?”
“At first, I felt your wolf, but now I think I’m feeling myself as one?”
“Yeah, I think I might be the same with your snake. Stay absolutely quiet because nothing outside this room is soundproof, but we need to put me in the cage and let me see if I can turn to snake and come back.”
“I can’t bring you back if you don’t. I don’t know how.” Her voice was still soft, but I sensed too much worry.
“Okay then, do you want to try to change to wolf?”
She shook her head and I said, “Then I’m the guinea pig. Let’s go.”
I waited until she locked the cell door before I let the snake I felt come up.
It was much too easy to slide into the snake’s skin, and it felt perfectly normal to have no limbs. My entire body was a single limb — strong, lithe, agile. And did I mention strong? The muscular system was so damned simple, and yet the possibilities of what I could do seemed endless. Moving was fun, freeing. I wanted to be in the woods, but the box in the corner with earth, pine needles, and a few large logs was enough to settle me.
“Can you come back to me, Dare?”
It took me a moment to remember I could decipher the sound, and another moment to figure out how. As soon as I put meaning to her words, I remembered I had a human body. Coming back to human seemed easier than it does when I come back from wolf. The snake doesn’t want to hold on. He’s fine no matter which body I’m in, as long as there’s no danger. The snake isn’t as much of an asshole as my wolf.
I stepped out of the dirt and onto the cement floor as I shook and tried to reorient myself with limbs. She unlocked the cell and I said, “Sorry about that. Let’s go up and get some food, maybe bring it back down to eat before we nap some more? I don’t think we’ve had enough sleep.”
We left the door to the soundproof room open while we ate and talked about inconsequential things, and I pulled it closed as we made it sound as if we were preparing to sleep some more.
“My wolf needs to come out,” I told her, “and I kind of need to let him. Do you think you have a wolf?”
“You knew who you were. When you were the snake — you remembered the human.”
I nodded. “You had to remind me, but then it was easy. Either it’s because I’ve already learned it with the wolf, or it’s because I took on part of your snake, so the learning curve wasn’t there.”
“I’d like to go to wolf with you. We can’t get out of here, right?”
“Not as wolves. You need thumbs to unlock the door.”
I talked her through going to hands and knees and imagining the wolf, and smiled when she changed as if she were an old hand at it. “Look at me, Hailey. Let me know you’re in there.”
It took her a few seconds, but she jumped on the bed and got comfortable on her side of the bed.
“Yeah, okay. Hang on and I’ll join you.”
We slept on the bed as wolves, and when we awakened, we shifted back to human, hugged, and went upstairs to cook every steak I’d moved into the refrigerator. I wasn’t sure we could go back to the room again without making our guards suspicious. I was smart enough to know they’d report anything odd to Bran, and we didn’t need him here until we figured this out for ourselves.
When we finished eating we went to my bed with my laptop, and I told her if she needed to get some thoughts down for the song I could see her working on in her head, I didn’t mind just lying with her a while.
She looked at me in question, and I typed, This is how we can talk to each other without them hearing us, but I needed an excuse for all the typing. We need to talk about this before we see Bran and Viper. We need to figure it out for ourselves.
I can feel you now. All the time. Even when you went to the bathroom and weren’t in the room, I knew you were happy and satisfied. You aren’t freaking out about being a snake?
I can feel you, too. I’m not sure where I end and where you start. Am I feeling your snake and your bloodlust, or mine? I can’t tell.
She sighed. Yeah. I like your wolf, but I think he’s only behaving because you have him under control.
Chapter 27
Hailey
As soon as we stepped out the door to get into the vehicle to go back to Bran’s, the Lugat guards knew. Dare said they probably would, but I’d hoped to be able to keep it to ourselves at least until we arrived.
I’d known Bran would know as soon as he saw us, but I didn’t want him to know ahead of time. So much for what I wanted.
No one said anything on the drive up the mountain. They still
let me drive, which I hoped was a good sign.
Bran wasn’t waiting for us outside with his whip, as I’d almost expected. However, we were escorted inside to the living room, where he sat alone with a glass of wine — and his whip draped over the arm of the chair.
“Tell me.”
Dare walked me to a sofa and sat as if he didn’t have a care in the world. We’d already agreed I’d let him talk, so I sat quietly as he explained why it was important to his wolf to do a relationship ceremony with me.
He explained how he’d felt as a snake, the parts of my blood lust he could feel, told him we’d slept as wolves and I’d shown the same control he’d felt as a snake, and almost seemed to be bragging as he told Bran how easily I changed back to human when it was time.
“You’ll both need to be caged until I can address this with the Concilio.”
I don’t know why I expected Dare to do anything other than obey Bran. I mean, I’ve known him since I was eight, and I’m not sure he’d have gone into a cage even for his dad when he was eleven. I have no idea how he managed to get into the cage with me when I’ve needed him, but I could always sense his relief when the guards let him out.
There was no way he’d handle being locked in a cage he couldn’t get out of with a simple request.
Still, I’d always assumed Bran was more powerful than Dare, so my heart dropped to my stomach when Dare jumped from the sofa and attacked Bran.
Lugat are supposed to be stronger, and yet Dare ripped into Bran and broke his limbs in seconds. He nearly tore one arm off, and the others were broken and so misshapen, there was no way Bran could fight back.
We heard guards coming from other areas of the house, and I heard Dare in my head as if he were screaming.
Wolf, Hailey. Follow me and run for your life.
I didn’t ask questions. I’ve learned to quickly disrobe as I change to snake, so I pulled my dress over my head as I let the wolf surface and come out. Dare threw the piano bench through the largest window, and the two of us jumped out of it as wolves.
Ghost: The Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club, Book 8 Page 17
