by HP Mallory
I sighed, long and hard. “You are a riddle.”
“I believe you enjoy that side of me.”
“You think everyone likes every side of you. It’s called narcissism.”
He chuckled. “You failed to respond to my question.”
“If you were asking me if I was asleep…”
“I was.”
“Then I would tell you that I was trying to fall asleep, but you’ve just made that task infinitely harder.” I sat up and watched him step out from the darkness of the trees and into my line of sight. “If I didn’t know better, I would have said your vampirism was returned to you, because you didn’t make a sound.”
“If only such were the case,” he said in a sad tone.
“Everyone else is sleeping. You should be, too.”
He sighed, and I remembered he’d been having trouble sleeping. It was the only part of his human condition that continued to elude him.
“I wish I could.”
“I understand,” I said quickly.
“Forgive me for interrupting you,” he apologized, starting to turn around. “You need your sleep as much as anyone does.”
“Well, it wasn’t like I was having any success falling asleep, anyway,” I pointed out. “So you should stay.”
“Perhaps I will.”
He sat down next to me and wrapped his arms around his legs, looking up into the night sky. His profile was silhouetted in the moonlight, and I nearly caught my breath at how intoxicatingly handsome he was. He was a creature of the night and, looking at him now, I could understand why. He seemed to blend right in, as if it and he were one and the same.
I didn’t know what prompted me to do it, Before I could catch myself, I watched my hand extend and I brushed my fingers across his jaw, reveling in the feel of his stubble.
A look of confusion spread across his stunning face as he turned to face me. But he didn’t say anything, and neither did I. I looked into his blue eyes and he returned the gaze, staring at me so intently it felt as if he could see into the deepest parts of my being.
My heart was racing, beating faster than ever before.
I thought about our shared history, how so many things had changed between us over the years. In the beginning, Sinjin had harbored strong romantic feelings for my sister. That’s part of what had prevented me from falling into his arms in the first place, even though I couldn’t help but fantasize about it sometimes. He was an odd one—he was hard to understand, and always had been.
“What occupies your thoughts, my pet?” he asked.
I smiled and shook my head, because I knew he wouldn’t like my answer. “I’m wondering if you’re still in love with my sister.”
“The Queen?”
“No, my other sister,” I quipped. “Or maybe, my brother?”
“I was not aware you had a brother,” he grumbled.
“I don’t.”
He cleared his throat and appeared altogether uncomfortable. “I may have loved her at one point, my warrior princess. That does not matter now. The simple fact remains: you are now the woman I want—the only woman who fills my thoughts, day and night. Make of that what you will.” Then he was silent for a moment. “Or, you could put me to the test.”
“The test?”
He nodded. “Now that I have been reduced to a most regrettable human form, you should be able to read me, correct?”
“You really want me poking around in your head?” I asked, surprised. By rule, Sinjin wasn’t a person who enjoyed having his privacy stripped away from him. In fact, he seemed to revel in the mystery that always surrounded him.
“I have nothing to hide.” He extended his hand and raised his eyebrows at me comically.
I decided to take him up on his offer. Mainly out of astonishment that he’d even allow me. But I also had to admit that I was curious as to how he felt about my sister. Part of me believed that he’d moved on, but another part of me wasn’t so sure.
I reached out and encircled his hand in mine, closing my eyes as I established a telepathic link between us. A white glow emanated from the point where his skin touched mine.
Sensations and emotions began to flow through me. They didn’t register so much as words, like what I was accustomed to when touching other people, but they existed more as feelings. Sinjin didn’t think in words, but in emotions—or, that was what I gathered. Either way, I learned a lot in those few seconds of reading him.
He still felt something for my sister, but it was a love that was more brotherly than anything else. For me, though, he felt something stronger. His romantic feelings towards me were passionate and undeniable, more intense than anything he’d felt before. They consumed me in a rush of heat mixed with other feelings—awe, pride, frustration… jealousy.
I cut the telepathic link; I’d felt enough. I was surprised to find myself panting when I released him. My heart was thundering. Sweat was beading along my forehead, and my hands felt clammy.
“Do you understand now?” he asked in a low voice.
I nodded dumbly, unable to break his gaze.
“I felt like I was… inside you,” I told him.
“A statement that no woman has ever made to me before,” he answered, chuckling.
I smiled, but the feeling of being one with him was still so intense, I was having trouble catching my breath. “I felt like I was part of you, Sinjin.”
“And… did you enjoy being part of me?”
“I… I don’t know.”
“Not the answer I was hoping for,” he admitted with another little laugh.
“Usually, people think in words,” I offered, not wanting him to be offended. “But everything I got from you came in feelings, not words.”
“You cannot seem to catch your breath, my dear.”
“I feel like I just ran a marathon.”
“Perhaps trying to understand my feelings is akin to running a significant distance?” He smiled down at me and I wanted so badly to touch him again, to experience the warmth of his feelings flooding over me.
“Why do you look as though you want,” he started, then tsked and shook his head, that devilish smile in full effect. “Rather… that you need me to kiss you?”
“Because… I do?” I asked and then, surprised by my own boldness, I reached out and gripped his neck. His eyes went wide for a fraction of a second before I brought his face down to mine.
Our lips met. His lips, while soft, pushed firmly against mine, forcing my lips apart. Then, his tongue was in my mouth, and I eagerly met it with my own. He held the back of my head with his other hand as he deepened the kiss, and my heart started pounding again. He felt natural. He felt right, And all those feelings I’d just experienced started coursing through me again.
It took me a second to realize I wasn’t reading him. Which meant they weren’t his feelings, at all—they were my own.
When he pulled away, I wished he hadn’t.
“Did you like what you read within my mind, Joan of Arc?” he whispered into my ear, just before he began nibbling on my ear lobe.
Sinjin might be the lover he claims to be, I thought, and the excitement of the thought translated into butterflies swarming my stomach.
I tightened my hold around his neck and closed my eyes. I couldn’t help but briefly probe his mind one more time as he brought his lips back down to mine, and was suddenly overcome with the understanding that he’d dreamt of fathering a child with me. That was a bit shocking, to say the least. But it was a realization that caused heat to rise deep within my core.
I couldn’t shake the image of a family—a family with Sinjin. And, even though I realized how ridiculous the idea was, it felt warm and good all the same—like one of those happy dreams you never want to wake from.
When I opened my eyes, I glanced back at the camp to make sure we didn’t have an audience. Everyone was passed out. Besides, we were bathed in darkness underneath the dense foliage of the tree above us. We were basically alone.
/> “Sinjin,” I groaned, impressed by the way he moved his hands over my body.
“Yes, bête noire?” he growled, running his mouth along my neck.
“Sinjin, I… I want you.” It was as if my body was speaking for me, ignoring all the reasons I’d given myself that this should never and could never happen. But I realized with firm conviction that what I’d just said was true. I did want him. And I had wanted him for… a long time.
“I want you, too, my pet.”
“I’m ready,” I told him, putting weight behind my words.
“Ready?” he repeated blankly, as though he were at a loss.
“Really?” I asked, trying to stifle a laugh. “I’m ready.”
Realization dawned on his handsome face and he took a deep breath. Then we just sat there, continuing to stare at each other.
“Tonight is not the night for our full union,” he announced, finally.
“It’s not?” Surprise and confusion washed over me in turns.
“No, bête noire. Not here, in the woods. Not with the others so close.”
“They’re asleep,” I pointed out, rather stupidly.
“This is not how I want to claim you, my pet,” Sinjin said and firmly shook his head.
“I… I don’t understand.”
“When you fully become mine, everything will be as it should.”
“You’re impossible sometimes.” But I laughed as I said it and Sinjin smiled down at me. I could see the hunger in his eyes, and had to imagine this was as difficult on him as it was on me.
“Besides,” he continued, “you still need to figure out what you want with that loathsome dandy. I have no interest in sharing you, my little tempest.” He paused for a moment or two. “When I am inside you, it will be when you are fully mine.”
I held back a sigh. “I understand.”
He smiled, even more broadly. “But that is not to say…” he began, then trailed off.
I felt my eyebrows furrow. “What’s not to say?”
“Shh,” he said. I started to sit up, but he pushed me back down again. “You must remain quiet, my pet.”
“Quiet?”
Nodding, he reached for the waistline of my pants. He pulled them slowly down my legs, his eyes immediately settling on the V between my thighs.
“No knickers?”
I felt myself blush. “I don’t like wedgies when I’m fighting,” I explained.
He chuckled and shook his head, amused.
“What are you doing, anyway?” I demanded, trying to drag my pants back up. He wouldn’t allow me.
“Stop asking questions and try following directions for once, would you?”
I eyed him for a few seconds, then released a pent-up breath as I nodded and allowed him to pull my pants all the way off. When he pushed my legs apart and settled himself between my thighs, I looked down at him, my heartbeat blaring through my ears.
“What are you doing?”
“No questions. Close your eyes.”
I stared at him for another few seconds, feeling heat stealing over my cheeks. Finally, I nodded and closed my eyes. That’s when I felt his finger tracing me up and down. He hesitated over my opening, then gently pushed.
I bucked and opened my eyes. “Sinjin,” I protested.
“Shhh, just enjoy it.”
“I thought you said we weren’t going to have sex.”
“Not all the way, no.”
“Then—”
“Good God, woman. Will you stop talking?”
So I stopped talking. And when I felt his finger pausing once again over my opening, I really stopped talking. Instead, a slight moan escaped my lips and I could feel myself beginning to grow wetter.
“Shh, my pet, must not alert the others.”
I had to clamp my mouth shut when he started rubbing his finger over my sensitive nub. I wanted nothing more than to open my mouth and moan as loudly as I could, but I knew that wasn’t an option. Instead, I resolved to keep my mouth shut and felt my hips start rocking. My eyes fluttered closed of their own accord.
“Yes, very good, my dear,” Sinjin said. “Allow your body to be free.”
I felt my legs fall further apart and, in response, Sinjin pushed his finger deeper into me. I moved beneath him, loving the feel of him inside me. When I opened my eyes, I found him leaning over me, his eyes riveted to my face.
“Do you like it?” he asked.
“Yes,” I could barely answer.
“Would you like more of my finger?”
“Yesss,” I whispered back.
He smiled and pushed the rest of his finger into me as I rocked onto him, feeling like I was suddenly drowning in my own ecstacy.
He pushed my legs as far apart as they would go and then rolled over, situating himself between them. I opened my eyes and found his face at eye level with my… special place.
“What?” I started.
He tsked and gave me a faux glare before he spread my lips apart and lowered his head. With his eyes on mine, he began licking me up and down before he took my nub into his mouth and began sucking on it. I moved against him, grinding my pelvis as I held his head in place. The torture of not having his penis inside me was almost enough to kill me right then and there.
He slid his finger inside of me again and it was all I could do to keep myself quiet. As an orgasm seized me, I began to tremble. Sinjin sucked on me harder as he pushed his finger even deeper.
Chapter Five
Sinjin
What a lovely evening! As the dawn sunshine began to flood the forest, the memories returned anew: Bete noire’s beautiful eyes, the expression upon her face, the curve of her lips and their plump softness, my hands trailing through her hair. The feel of her body as she climaxed around my finger. The taste of her upon my tongue. It was a wonder and an absolute boon to my sense of self-assuredness that I had been able to refrain from fully knowing her carnally. Even now, I pondered how such was possible.
I sat beneath the tree where I had sampled the princess’ body, but she was nowhere to be seen. At first, I had been consumed with worry but, after a few seconds, I caught the sound of her voice on the wind and realized she was in the camp proper and tending to our group.
For my own part, I was not yet ready to confront them. I was still enjoying the memories of the previous evening, recalling each one to savor as if it were a glass of fine red wine. Yes, the encounter had gone swimmingly. Any doubt I possessed regarding the Lady Bryn’s feelings towards me had completely dissolved. When she’d reached out to kiss me (and what a kiss it was), I believed I had finally won the warrior princess.
One concern continually plagued me, however—what of the foppish frog? Did my pet still bear feelings for Chevalier? Even after she was willing to be my bed-mate, to consummate our already complicated relationship? Was that sign enough that her heart belonged only to me?
I allowed my fears to sit alone for a moment as my mind traveled back to the lady’s delectable body. Her large breasts and perky bottom made me wish I had sampled them, but I would not have altered the order of events, had I been given the chance to rework them. And now, the time for such musings was over, as we had things to do and magical lands to visit. I planned to make the lady mine—in every sense of the word—once we returned to Kinloch Kirk.
My feelings for Lady Bryn still felt strangely foreign to me, I had to admit. Every woman I had known throughout my long life had eventually grown dull to me. My obsession with the little tempest was a bizarre and new development.
And the fact that I still fantasized about filling her with my seed was… unlike me, to say the least. Never before had I been even remotely interested in children, let alone spawning my own. And yet the warrior princess stimulated my mind with thoughts and ideas that would never otherwise have occurred to me. I could not say whether I admired her for engendering such ideas within me, or whether I resented her for them. Perhaps time would tell.
My reverie would have continued, if
not for an interruption by my surrogate son. I had spent many an hour teaching the man-child manners but, apparently, had failed in my duties.
“Hi, Sinjin!” he said, far too excitedly for the time of morning. It was a wonder the bloody oaf was even awake. “What’s for breakfast?”
“We did not all sleep as well as you did, sweet boy,” I said, desperately wishing there would be a time when sleep would not elude me. As the days passed, I began to feel more and more like the walking dead. There were moments when I would find myself disappearing into a vegetative state when the quiet allowed or when someone, usually Chevalier, intoned about a subject wholly uninteresting.
“We do need to get you back to the portal,” said the frog from across the camp, taking me by surprise. I had not realized the dandy was awake and would have preferred him to remain silent—not just at that moment, but in perpetuity.
“Yes, yes, yes,” I answered and could not keep my irritation from my tone.
Chevalier eyed me narrowly. “You do want to return to your vampiric form, Sinjin? Or would you rather remain human?” His voice dripped with more than a trace of mockery.
“I do not believe there is any situation in which I would choose to remain human,” I grumbled. Chevalier frowned at me, simultaneously elevating his eyebrows in a patronizing expression. I then wondered if perhaps he had been implying that I preferred to remain human so I could thusly avoid my duties as Lord Protector, using the excuse that I lacked my vampiric speed and strength? Surely the frog would not be so bold as to imply such cowardice on my part?
I certainly preferred myself in vampire form. I was stronger, faster, and better able to defend the princess, the kingdom, the queen, and her own. That being said, I was near certain that even my human form could still outfight Chevalier at his full power. Yes, I may have preferred myself in vampire form, but perhaps Chevalier preferred a more human Sinjin Sinclair. Perhaps the frog wished to handicap his contender in the battle for the affections of Lady Bryn. If so, such a man was not worthy of her affections in the first place.
I walked toward the middle of our camp and established firm eye contact with the dandy. “Yes, Chevalier, we do need to return to the portal, and I certainly do intend on regaining my vampiric strength, speed, and… of course, the pull a vampire has over damsels,” I said, keeping my eyes locked on the frog.
