Her heartbeat pounded so intensely that I could feel it where my chest was pressed against her back. It was almost like I could feel my own heart moving in response, driven on by the urge to be with hers. The heat of her body filled me with life and I was clinging to her like she was a raft in a sea of all that was wrong with this world.
Callie ground herself against me even more forcefully and I drove my fingers down harder, groaning as her body fell apart beneath my touch. She turned her head into the pillow and cried out as I finished her. I smiled as I withdrew my hand from her underwear and turned her in my arms so that I could kiss her.
She reached up, twisting her arms around my neck as I pushed her down into the soft mattress and kissed her fiercely.
I could feel her heart pounding as I pressed my weight down onto her warm body and she kissed me harder.
Her hands moved over my shoulders and skimmed along my back, leaving a line of fire in their wake. She reached the waistband of my boxers and tried to push them off.
I stopped kissing her for a moment and looked down at the beauty of her face. Her blue eyes were alight with desire and I was achingly tempted to give her what she wanted.
“I love you,” I breathed as I took in the heated look in her gaze.
Callie bit her bottom lip, holding back a smile and removed her hands from my back so that she could trail them down my chest. My body tensed beneath her touch and a mischievous grin lit her face.
“I think you’re getting too used to having me at your mercy,” she breathed, her eyes glimmering with promise as her fingertips carved a burning trail across my cool flesh.
She caught my arm and used her gifts to push me away suddenly so that I fell onto my back beside her. I laughed in surprise as she took control and climbed on top of me, smiling wickedly as she leaned down to kiss me. I pushed my hands into her golden hair and held her close, devouring the way her mouth moved against mine.
My fingers brushed along her neck and I could feel her pulse hammering beneath her skin, calling to me like a promise on the wind. I ached to take her blood but this moment of longing before I succumbed to it was the sweetest kind of pain.
She shifted her head and ran her lips along my jaw and down my neck, advancing slowly as my desire for her grew. She dragged her teeth across my throat, nipping at my flesh in an imitation of what I wanted to do to her. My muscles tensed in anticipation of each kiss that she placed on my skin as she dropped lower, her lips carving a line down the centre of my body.
I couldn’t believe that this girl was mine. She was everything I’d ever dreamed of having in all the darkest days of my past. She was light and laughter and the promise of a better life. It was like she’d found all the fractured pieces of my battered soul and had wound herself between them, fusing them together again and making me into a better man. Perhaps even a man who was deserving of a love like hers. And if I wasn’t, then I was going to be. I wanted to be worthy of her more than anything. And I’d spend every day of the rest of my life trying to prove that I could be just as soon as we’d broken this curse.
Callie shifted lower, her kisses lighting a fire of desire which flooded through me as her lips moved across my stomach and she hooked her fingers into the waistband of my underwear.
“Callie,” I breathed in protest and her name was like a prayer on my lips as I half warned her to stop and half begged her to continue.
“Shh,” she breathed with a laugh as she grazed my flesh with her teeth. “You’re supposed to be the quiet one.”
She didn’t stop and any protests I might have voiced died on their way to my lips as she pulled my underwear off of me and moved beneath the covers.
She took me in her mouth and my hands fisted in the sheets as every muscle in my body tensed in anticipation of the pleasure she was driving me toward.
“Holy shit,” I breathed as she took possession of my body and I had to battle against the urge to cry out.
I gave in to her, releasing all control as she drove me closer to the edge but I needed more from her and the fire in my throat was desperate to be sated too.
I caught her wrist with a growl of desire and dragged her back up to kiss me again. I flipped her beneath me, ripping the black t-shirt off of her so that I could see every inch of her flesh.
She reached for me and the heat of her skin almost burned against mine.
I leaned forward to kiss her, pulling her underwear off as I moved between her thighs.
Her lips were soft and compelling against mine and I lost myself to her kisses, holding back on taking that final pleasure from her flesh for just a few more moments.
Her hands trailed over my shoulders, running down my arms before gripping me tightly and urging me on.
My throat burned for her but the rest of my body did too and I wanted all of it. All of her.
I caught her wrists and pinned them above her head as I drove myself inside her.
She cried out as I pushed the full length of me into her body and she arched off of the bed, pressing her chest to mine.
Her hips moved in time with mine, begging me to keep going as her muscles tightened around me.
I kissed her again, devouring her desire as I drove myself into her again and again and my own release simmered on the horizon, drawing me against her more and more firmly.
She drew her lips away from mine, tilting her chin and giving me access to the pounding pulse in her neck.
I groaned as I ran my mouth across the flesh she was offering, inhaling deeply as her blood called to me and the thirst rose like an angry beast demanding to be satisfied.
She shuddered beneath me as I grazed my fangs along her skin and it was hard to believe she wanted me to do this as much as I did.
“Magnar,” she moaned and the last of my resistance crumbled to ash as I drove my fangs into her neck.
Her blood swept into me on a tide of pleasure and I tightened my grip on her wrists as I drove myself into her harder, faster, stealing everything from her body at once.
She cried out as I drew every inch of pleasure from her body and I kept going as she shuddered beneath me, arching into me as I drew closer to the edge myself.
She was everywhere, everything, her blood flooding my veins like it was my own and her scent overwhelming me as I drank more and more. I would never get enough, I could drink every last drop and I wasn’t sure if it would satisfy me.
I growled as I fell into my own climax and I forced my fangs from her flesh as my love for her drove aside the desire to take more than I needed.
I moved my mouth back to hers, releasing my grip on her wrists and running my fingers back along the soft skin of her arms.
She sighed in satisfaction as she kissed me, her lips soft and adoring as she reached up to brush her fingers across the stubble lining my jaw.
I looked down at her, my heart filled with love for this woman who was mine. There was no better place in the world than lying here in her arms.
“We should go,” she breathed though she made no move to leave. “The others will be looking for us soon.”
“Perhaps our luck will hold and they won’t find us,” I murmured and she laughed softly in response.
We'd agreed to get going as soon as possible this morning and I knew I was holding onto this brief window of peace before we had to press on and increase the gap between us and Valentina again. But I treasured every moment in her arms and relinquishing even one of them pained me.
She looked up at me with a knowing smile and I started toying with her golden hair.
“Maybe I should offer to feed the others again before we head off,” she said hesitantly and I stilled, releasing my hold on her hair.
“No. You’ve given them enough for now,” I growled.
“Well either way, we need to move,” she replied, pushing on my chest in an attempt to force me back.
She wasn’t strong enough to make me move even with her gifts and she frowned at me as I resisted. I sighed dramatically
and rolled aside so that she could get out of the bed.
I watched her dressing in the new outfit she’d gotten herself and reluctantly pulled my own clothes on too. The grey t-shirt strained a little across my muscles but it was a better fit than a lot of the clothes I’d worn since waking in this time.
I buckled my belt and retrieved my swords from the floor, following Callie out into the dim mall.
She led the way back to the food court where we found the others waiting for us.
They were sorting through a huge mound of things that they’d gathered from the various stores while Callie and Julius got some sleep. I moved towards my brother as he spooned food into his mouth from a packet. He had two neat cuts on his wrists which had almost healed over thanks to his gifts. I sighed as I took a seat beside him, wondering how the two greatest vampire hunters in history could have ended up in this situation. One of us feeding from the woman he loved and the other handing out blood to the monsters he’d pledged his life to destroying.
“We found a store filled with camping equipment,” Clarice explained as Callie drew closer to her, eyeing the stash they’d collected with interest. “There are sleeping bags and enough packets of dehydrated food for you and Julius to survive on for weeks.”
“That’s great,” Callie replied with a smile.
“Yes, it’s perfect that two members of our group are so well fed,” Fabian replied irritably. “Or should I say three?” he asked as his gaze travelled to me and I stilled under his scrutiny. I knew Callie had given me far more blood than she'd offered them last night but I couldn’t do much about that and I didn’t exactly feel bad about it either.
“Do you need more?” Callie asked, thumbing the bandage on her arm. “Already?”
Erik shifted uncomfortably and Clarice exchanged a glance with Chickoa. Montana was the only vampire who didn’t seem desperate to say yes.
Fabian eyed the bloody bandage on her arm, seeming to reconsider his request. She didn’t even have the gifts of my clan to help her heal from the injury and I ground my teeth at the idea of her doing that again.
“I don’t wish to harm you,” he murmured, looking at Callie in a way which made me want to rip his eyes from his face. “If you cut yourself every time you offer us your blood then you’re going to be covered in injuries before long.”
Callie’s gaze shifted to me uncomfortably. “The bites hurt too,” she said with a shrug. “Except when Magnar does it.”
Fabian rolled his eyes and Clarice smiled knowingly as Erik cleared his throat.
“Well if you want me to bite you like that then I won’t hurt you either,” Fabian said suggestively.
“What do you mean?” Montana asked with a frown.
Erik gave me an amused look before he replied. “We don’t release any venom when we bite if we’re in the middle of taking other kinds of pleasure at the time,” he explained.
Julius released a bark of laughter, thumping me on the arm and I couldn’t quite keep the smile from my face in response. Callie’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment and Montana started laughing as well.
“Oh well... I’ll just cut myself again then,” Callie said firmly, refusing to acknowledge what she’d just learned.
“Not today,” I said firmly and the vampires’ eyes all turned to me.
“My brother is right,” Julius agreed. “Our blood is meant to sustain our own bodies, if you expect it to sustain yours too then fine. But it will be on our terms. You can have more tomorrow when we stop to make camp. If that’s not good enough for you then you can try to take it from us.”
“And I’ll be standing beside them,” I growled in case that wasn’t clear.
The vampires nodded in agreement and some of the tension left my body as I moved to help them pack up the supplies they’d found. It wasn’t a perfect solution but it would have to do. I just hoped we would make it to the mountain before their hunger became too much.
“We still need to grab the tents,” Erik said, looking over at me as he started to move away.
I rose from my chair to join him, my gaze lingering on Fabian as Callie started to help him pack supplies into a bag.
I almost wanted to tell him to move away from her but I ground my teeth against the impulse and followed Erik into the dark corridors instead.
We walked along in silence for a while until the sound of the others talking was lost to us.
“You and Callie seem to have found a way to handle your transformation well,” Erik said.
“I owe her everything,” I replied. “If it wasn’t for her I would have taken my life when this curse was placed upon me but she makes it somehow... bearable.”
“Bearable? Is that what you call the way she feeds you?” he teased and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“She seduced me into it,” I protested weakly but it was obvious that I didn’t feel as much guilt over our situation as I should have.
“The things we do for love,” he murmured and I nodded in agreement. I wouldn’t have dealt with any of this well if it wasn’t for Callie but the effect she had on me was unlike anything I’d ever known before. It was hard for me to imagine the selfish way I’d lived my life before she’d come along.
“She has some objections to some of my behaviour since I was turned,” I said, voicing the issues that I’d been mulling over while she slept.
Erik raised an eyebrow at me, encouraging me to go on and I frowned as I realised I was opening up to the man who had been my enemy for most of my life. But I didn’t see him like that now; the time we’d spent together under Valentina’s spell had bonded us in a way I couldn’t quite describe and ever since then I’d found it impossible to summon any hatred towards him.
“I was never a jealous man before this. But now I find myself bordering on violence every time another man looks at her for too long and if they touch her…”
“Many of my people have taken mates over my lifetime and I saw that kind of behaviour time and again. Until recently I didn’t understand it; I didn’t think I could feel love like that in this form, but since I found Montana that changed. I would do anything to protect her, I’d die for her… When she left me to go with you after our wedding I felt like she’d ripped my heart out and taken it with her. And the idea of her spending nights with your brother and you out in the ruins-”
“You had nothing to fear there,” I replied. “Her heart was always yours and there was never any doubt in it.”
Erik looked up at me and I felt like he wanted to say something else but he released a heavy breath and led the way into the camping store instead.
“Just as you have nothing to fear from Fabian,” he said as he began to pass the tents to me, piling them into my arms. I frowned at the rolls of synthetic material which were nothing like the tents I’d slept in with my clan but kept my mind on the conversation at hand.
“I know that Callie has no interest in him,” I said. “But I was there at the wedding, I saw what that mark forced her to do. I know how the thoughts of him were sewn into her mind so that she was left struggling to understand her own feelings and I didn’t exactly react to that in the best way at the time. I made mistakes. I treated her badly and I regret it more than I can say but he didn’t even try to fight that mark. He made it harder for her, he pursued her and-” I could feel my anger building again as I thought back on it and I forced myself to take a deep breath before I let it take control of me.
“Fabian spent a thousand years as one of the most powerful creatures on Earth,” Erik replied. “He had his pick of any woman he wanted and he never really cared about any of them aside from Chickoa. I think he’d forgotten what love felt like and when Idun offered it to him, he wanted to take it. But now that Chickoa is here I think he’s realised that what he felt for Callie wasn’t real. Just as the things Valentina made us feel for her pale into insignificance next to the twins.”
My jaw ticked at that and I couldn’t help but admit that he was right. Callie didn’t hold me
accountable for what that bitch had made me do with that necklace and I guessed I should have tried to be more understanding about Fabian’s situation too.
“It is easier to think clearly when I’m well fed,” I admitted.
“The thirst makes everything harder,” Erik sighed, rubbing at his throat. “It makes us act more like beasts than men.”
I ran my tongue over my fangs as I was forced to admit that the evil I’d always seen in the vampires had never really been in them at all. It was the curse and the gods who had created it who were deserving of my hatred; not the people caught in its grasp.
“I have killed countless numbers of your kind,” I murmured. “I thought of you all as evil, undeserving of any form of life after death…”
Erik gripped my arm as he looked at me. “And I have done the same to your people. We demonised you as you demonised us but now we stand united against our true enemies and we will end this curse together.”
“The most powerful creatures in existence united at last,” I replied with a dark smile. “May the gods have mercy on anyone who dares stand against us now.”
We travelled on as quickly as we could for another few days until we reached the mountain range Andvari's ring had shown us. We'd finally left the ruins behind and the world was greener here, having escaped the onslaught of bombs in the Final War. In the past weeks, I'd seen more of the world than I ever had in my life. But nothing compared to seeing the expanse of nature before me now, lush and green and rolling on forever.
We still had a long way to go before we reached the holy mountain and we were constantly looking over our shoulders, expecting Valentina to catch up at any moment. But from what we could piece together from the ring and what the vampires knew of our destination, we were still a week or more away from it.
We headed off of the road, taking a direct path across rocky hills as we moved higher and higher into the mountains. Soon, we were forced to walk single file along a narrow track that wound between tall rock faces either side of us. The clouds were thickening and rain speckled my cheeks as we walked ever on.
Age of Vampires- The Complete Series Page 178
