by Peter Dawes
I did not feel her unclasp my necklace and did not rouse when she slipped from the sheets. I might have been the biggest fool in the universe for falling for her tricks, but at the time, I sensed none of the trickery that should have been screaming at me. A strange premonition haunted me in my dreams, though, of the cold grip of dark magic dragging me into the depths.
The fact remained, my talisman had been stolen.
And another vixen laid in wait to stake the final purchase on my soul.
Chapter 19
“To be honest, your eyes were what first drew me to you, Flynn,” she said, her voice coaxing me from the chaotic embrace of unsettled dreams. My lids lifted without any thought, eyes settling on the figure facing away from me while seated on the bed. I furrowed my brow, still trying to ascend from the haze of sleep when she added, “I knew there was something more than a contemplative, young mortal behind them and you’ve proven me right.”
Her head turned, long, flowing red hair falling from her shoulder and revealing the contours of her face. The moment my foggy brain realized who sat in front of me, I drew a sharp breath inward, sliding up to a seated position while Sabrina shifted to face me. Her palms settled on the mattress, taking on her weight and allowing her to inch closer. “You’ve been misbehaving. Am I going to have to punish you now?” she asked.
“Sabrina,” I muttered. I could not bring myself to say anything further; not at first. She chuckled and I winced when she settled beside me, freeing a hand to stroke the side of my face. The lack of revulsion I experienced to her touch alarmed me even more than being exposed to her and when her nails raked down the side of my face, I gasped despite myself. She laughed and I trembled with equal parts fear and lust. “Rose,” I said, finally realizing what had happened.
“Rose, indeed.” Sabrina smirked, her expression laden with schadenfreude. Her weight shifted more to her hip, allowing her to lift her hand. As her fingers spread open, my pendant fell from them, the chain allowing it to dangle in front of me. “Are you missing something, darling Flynn? My seer vampire, who managed to let himself get taken in by a wolf in sheep’s clothing. When I sent her to you, I admit, I didn’t expect that to work as well. But then again, you have always underestimated her.”
“Sabrina, please…” What I was requesting, even I did not know for sure. She lifted her hand from me and made a show of unclasping the necklace, raising it to her throat and fastening it into place. Once freed, her palm returned to me again, this time settling on my leg and running over the thin layer of sheets separating her skin from mine. My gaze lowered, eyes following the northward trek toward my crotch. “Do not do this to me.”
“Why not? This is usually your favorite part, where I work you up until you practically slice my clothing off using one of your daggers.” She shifted around and while her settling on all fours granted me temporary reprieve, it was quickly lost when she caressed my already-hardening length. “Not to worry, Flynn. I’m not angry at you. In fact, I’m curious that you gained the second sight and managed to keep it from me. You’ve done my bidding, pretending everything was as it should be, but now I wonder… How long would you have kept up this ruse? Why have you been keeping up this ruse?”
Her face lit up with epiphany. “Oh, I know,” she said. “It’s because you intended to kill me, didn’t you?”
I shuddered, back arching as she wrapped her hand around me, squeezing my cock hard enough to send waves of erotic pain racing through my groin. My fangs ran down to full extension. When I focused on her again, through the haze of need beginning to glaze over my senses, I struggled to regain the gift of speech. “You are wicked,” I said. “You want to use my powers for your gain and if I gave in to assisting you, the suffering you wrought would be terrible.”
“You say that as though you bear a conscience. I know what kind of suffering you inflict. And you lie to yourself if you pretend not to relish it.” She released me enough to start a slow, teasing litany of strokes. “You have tied women up and slit their throats. You make them beg and you laugh in their faces when they do. Oh, I know all about it. I’ve been told by Rose and the others what a sadist you’ve become. You would let this little trinket of yours emasculate you?”
“Open my eyes to what has been in front of me the entire time.” I grimaced, in open defiance of the betrayal my own body exacted against me. “You have used me and would continue to use me.”
“I am giving us both what we want. You want to play in their blood. I want them gone. How is that using you?” Sabrina chuckled. Her body swayed as her eyes remained intent on me and for the first time, I noticed how tightly her clothing clung to her. Her backside made sultry motions, and as I followed the cut of her skirt up to her waist, my eyes jumped immediately to the sight of her breasts.
“You made me this way,” I said, shutting my eyes, lest they damn me further. “I am a monster of your design. That is how.”
“Please. I have fed the part of you crying out to be fed.” Her presence drew closer and though the stroking abated, her hand remained in place. My head tilted to the side, prompted by a nudge of her cheek, and as she spoke again, I felt her breath right below my ear. “You would trust the magic of that adulterous wench over me? She would have you half the man you are today. A pale shadow of the terror you have become. She whispered in your ear once and told you lies, and now, she wants to take away your edge.”
“You are… manipulating me.” I groaned when her fangs raked against my neck. My next words, I spoke with great difficulty. “You knew I would be a seer.”
“Yes, I did, and I have told you from the start that I saw such great things in you. I have not lied to you. The others have.” Her teeth cut superficial channels in my skin before her tongue dragged slowly to collect the blood she drew. I could not tell if the next sharp, sensual noises we made came from my lips or hers. “Remember what I made you,” she said. “I freed you from the wretched stench of decay and would make a god out of you.”
“If I would have known, I would never have wanted this.”
“Don’t lie to yourself. Yes, you would.” Her fangs raked harder, as if making a point. The scent of blood wafted in the air. I felt a rivulet of it run down toward my chest. “You begged me to be released from the burden of being mortal. You wanted death to embrace you in its arms and turn you from its vanquisher to its accomplice. Call it usury to sate your own conscience, but we both know the truth. I am giving you the keys to your deepest, darkest desires.”
I felt my resolve crumbling, brought about by her ministrations. As I silently cursed Rose, I struggled to open my eyes again, only to have them roll back when Sabrina sank her teeth into me. The images her mind played into mine interplayed with the feeling of her feeding on me, giving them erotic undertones. I saw the members of the other covens – the same people Robin’s thoughts painted as a grand tribunal – falling to their knees in front of me, one after the other perishing by my hand. ‘You have killed like a master,’ they seemed to say. ‘Now, they will tremble in terror and worship you.’ I moaned at the sheer thought of it, becoming enslaved to the part of me which so desperately wanted to embody evil and personify it.
The taste in my mouth was sinful. I knew it.
I also knew I had to fight it.
My hand slid to the side while Sabrina lifted her fangs from my neck. As she licked the wound closed, my fingers disappeared beneath my pillow, seeking out the knife I always kept concealed there. As she continued to stroke me, I felt the hilt and clutched onto it, stealing a moment to steady myself. “Don’t fight me,” she whispered in my ear again. “I will give you everything you desire.”
“I desire peace,” I said. “I will not be your assassin any longer.”
“And what makes you think peace is possible for any of your kind? Who told you that nonsense?”
Taking a deep breath, I moved quick, so as not to give Sabrina time to react. I produced the knife and flicked off its sheath, pressing the blade against her n
eck. She froze in place and I sneered while I pushed the sharp edge into her skin, drawing blood. “I did not need anyone to tell me that,” I said. “I determined it when I broke free of your enchantment. I have refused to play along with the witch’s desires and now refuse to be your killer. Nobody will make me into a slave. Not you. Not anyone else.”
“You fool yourself if you think you can have it any other way.” Hands extending to her sides in a form of surrender, the release of her grip eased the tension in my groin, a fact for which I was grateful. “The hunters who employ your kind would accept your neutrality as readily as I do. There isn’t any gray area in this, Flynn, only black and white. Either you’re a god amongst vampires or an angel of wrath, but you won’t be able to watch this war from the bench.”
“I would like to see anyone try to force my hand.”
“They will. The witch will hound you for the rest of her natural days and when she perishes, another will follow. Other hunters will come to collect you and if you refuse, or if they deem you difficult, they will seek to kill you. I offer you the only alternative.”
“No, you do not. Robin will make me his guard when you are dust.”
“Robin?” Sabrina risked further injury to laugh. “You must be joking.”
“Far from it. While you have sought your enemies from the other covens, you housed a conspirator under your own roof, sired by your own blood. Robin offered me the neutrality I desire and there is not a damn thing anyone will do to interfere with it, do you hear me? I would sooner do what I promised myself I would not do and be the one to murder you at last.”
At first, Sabrina remained quiet. She smiled within a few moments, though, and once more, I felt her influence crawl into my brain, with more force and persistence. “Did you hear what you said? ‘What I promised myself I would not do.’” Reaching up, she took hold of my hand and pushed the knife away. Somehow, I felt powerless to resist. “You still desire me, even after the witchcraft wrought against you,” she said, taking the weapon. “You could have already scattered my dust into the wind, yet you stepped aside and allowed your traitorous brother to find himself a killer. This is because Flynn knows where his loyalties lie. He knows his mistress’s call and listens to it. And he will surrender this pretense of peace right here and now, won’t he?”
She touched my neck, holding my head steady as she resumed her ministrations. This time, I felt the knife blade press against my chest and drag downward to start channels of blood running down my skin. I winced at the sensation, a shudder racing through me with my lips almost begging her to do it again. Sabrina laughed. “Tell me, Flynn,” she said as she gently pushed me back against the bed and straddled me. “Who else could make you feel this way? Could the wench you wanted to marry do these things to you?”
I groaned when her tongue slid across the cut she had inflicted. Her fangs scratched against my skin and my hands found the bed sheets, bunching them in my fists. Sabrina continued. “Would she send you to the height of pleasure, like I have? Would she make you into something beyond immortal; beyond a man into something far more than a killer? Would she promise you power beyond your wildest dreams? Answer me that, Flynn.”
“No,” I said, my voice a husky murmur. “No, she would not.”
“Why is this?”
A loud, drawn-out moan escaped my lips when the knife blade slid across the side of my neck. A fog settled through my brain and as it did, it brought a far deeper spell, making me long for darkness. I could not fight against it. The tips of my fingers clung onto the ledge from which I dangled, a chasm of wickedness beneath me which threatened to swallow me whole. “Because she was mortal,” I said. “An adulterous, inferior mortal.”
“And what are mortals?”
“They are weak and finite.”
“That’s right, Flynn.” Sabrina lifted her head. I felt her lips brush against mine. “I want you to conquer our enemies. I want you to reign in terror with me. I want the blood of the seven covens to fill the streets. I want power. I want you.”
My lids lifted and a slow, sinister grin crept across my face. My eyes danced with madness and a wild impulse shot poison into my veins as I regarded my venomous mistress. I nodded, the glint in my gaze bearing a form of sadism even I had never experienced before. Whatever she had done to me, it had swallowed my soul. “It will be done as you say, Sabrina.”
Sabrina laughed and kissed me in a passionate manner. I flipped her onto her back and ripped her shirt open, starting what would be a torrid and fevered coupling between us. Each stitch of clothing rent and each moan which rose between us pushed my humanity further away. I had come so close to grasping the mortal buried deep within and yet, in that moment, I hungered to be everything Sabrina desired. A cold-blooded killer. A vampire without a conscience. A demon personified. The Devil himself.
My green eyes blazed as the monster took over, shoving Peter into a cell and binding him with chains. I fell away from the ledge and the chasm loomed deep as I became a terror beyond a mere assassin.
I became evil incarnate.
Chapter 20
That night, I slaughtered like a newborn vampire, the selection of my victims more varied than rapists or other degenerates. For the first time in weeks, I killed out of sport, dropping corpses to the ground sometimes without drinking a drop from them. As much as I sneered at my conquests before, I discovered a newfound loathe for them. Had I been in my right mind, I would have questioned what had come over me.
As it was, I had become both apathetic and insatiable.
Sabrina ensured I remained spellbound, taking me into her bed countless times and hoarding me to herself. Amid our trysts, I found her glorying over the power I now possessed, basking in the afterglow of my subservience once it had been granted to her again. For as ambitious as she had been before, she seemed driven to megalomania. And I only wanted it to continue.
“When will we be rid of my traitorous brother?” I asked as I lay on my back one night, my Mistress straddling me again with her fingers raking down my chest. A hiss escaped my mouth, my eyes threatening to roll back.
She chuckled. “In the mood for a hunt, darling Flynn?” she asked. “I thought you wanted me to fuck you again first.” As she sprawled out on top of me, she wriggled and watched intently, looking for my reaction. “Don’t be hasty. I have a plan for them all to meet their ends. Once we’re finished, I will control the entire Delaware Valley.”
“What do you have in mind?” My hands settled on her hips, encouraging her.
“The meeting I have been summoned to attend. That is where we’ll strike.”
“You are deliciously conniving.”
When I tried to slide her downward, desiring the friction of her body against my cock, she snapped at me, her defiance against me inspiring me to smirk. Sabrina sat up and rocked on top of me, showing off her breasts while both hands held onto my wrists. “Beg for me,” she instructed. “We can talk conspiracies later. For now, I want you to tell me how much you crave me.”
My hips bucked and her hold on me tightened, her eyes wild as she pushed her thighs against my sides. “It should be obvious how much I crave you,” I said, trying to dislodge her and failing. Delicious thoughts of flinging her onto her back and entering her filled my mind. “I want you. God, how I want you. Do it, please.”
“Much better,” she said. As she slid downward, I received the contact I desired, and after releasing my wrists, she guided me inside her. I lost all concept of time to the feel of her undulating. Driven headlong into bliss, I spilled over with the first pulses of her around me. We laid together in the ocean of afterglow, spent and sated. As she spoke of a bloodbath, she demanded that I kill everyone present at her inquisition hearing.
Once more, I uttered the words. “It will be done as you say.”
With the setting of the sun, and its subsequent rising, I went about my normal tasks. It took until I left my room the following evening for the next phase of our plans to commence, and thoug
h I had set out with the intent of spilling more blood, Rose found me in the vestibule of our coven house. “Sabrina says we’re to meet her in her penthouse,” she instructed.
“Well, look who it is,” I said, approaching her. “The wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Stopping directly in front of her, I leaned closer, lowering my voice. “Do not think that my change of heart has caused me to forget your duplicity.”
Rose pushed me away, eyeing me with contempt. “The duplicity was yours first. You’ve earned what you receive.” She nodded in the direction of the stairs. “Now, stop ogling me like I’m some trinket in your pocket and come along.”
“Oh, but you are, Pet. You just do not know it yet.” We stared at each other, locked in a stalemate until I extended a hand to point at the stairs. “After you, sister. Though I warn you to hurry along.”
She pushed past me, bumping into my arm deliberately en route to the stairs. Covering the distance swiftly, she began a hasty ascent, leaving me to follow her. Only when I had made it to the stairs directly behind her did she speak again. “You think that acquiring some special, supernatural gifts is going to make me bow a knee to you? I was here first. The Mistress would punish you for trying anything against me.”
“Now that is where you are wrong, though I find it amusing you feel that way.” A cold smile traced across my lips. “I can read the secrets in your mind and lay out your innermost desires. Dare to think anything the Mistress might take exception with and you will discover quickly which one of us she favors.”
“You assume I would let you read such thoughts.”
“You assume it is beneath me to fabricate them.”
Rose increased the pace with which she ascended the stairs, not exchanging another word with me. Reaching in my pocket for my black gloves, I smoothed one over one hand before moving to the next. My gaze lingered on my immortal sister, the scent of her fear reaching me where I stood. ‘Only the beginning, Rose,’ I thought toward her. ‘If payback is a bitch, then revenge is a vampire named Flynn.’
