by Scott, Helen
It wasn't that I'd never pleasured myself before, I mean, there was only so much sexual tension a girl could stand, and I didn't have the luxury of going to the closest city and hooking up with random guys. I knew what my orgasms felt like, but this was so much more. The cliff was so much higher.
I felt the bed shift as Cade leaned forward, and when his mouth latched onto my clit, I exploded around him.
The orgasm was so powerful that my whole body clenched, and it stole my breath. I couldn't even whimper because I couldn't breathe. I reached out and dug my fingers into his shoulders, his blood scenting the air before I'd even realized how hard I'd been grabbing him, stirring another kind of hunger within me. Wave after wave of pleasure rocked me against him, and it was only when he released my clit that I was able to relax and flop back on the bed.
My eyes fluttered open, and I looked down the length of my body at him, a satisfied smile graced his face, and somehow I knew he was only just getting started. When his fingers began moving inside me, I knew he could easily make me come again, as my body was almost overly sensitized at that point.
“Please, Cade . . .” The words slipped from my mouth while my hips rolled up to him. He seemed to know what I wanted without me having to spell it out and as he moved up my body, I saw the predator that lived inside him flash in his eyes. The blue draining to a gray color as his vampire came to the fore. I wanted to taste him, to fill myself on the fragrance of his blood that still hung in the air, even through the scent of my own arousal.
The thick head of his cock nudged against my entrance as my legs wrapped around his hips.
“Tell me to stop whenever,” he said. His tone let me know how serious he was, and although I appreciated it, I also wanted to be lost in the moment.
I reached up and pulled him down for a kiss, claiming his mouth as my nails dragged down his back, just reaching the globes of his ass. I squeezed and knew I'd broken skin again when the scent of his blood filled the air between us.
“I want to bite you,” I murmured. I didn't know what the protocol was, and I knew my lack of experience was showing, but I also didn't want to cross any lines, didn't want to taint this experience with anything negative.
“I thought you'd never fucking ask,” he growled before tilting his head to one side.
My own vampiric desires rushed forward, and I felt my teeth ache with the need to be coated in blood, to feel someone's life force enter me. There was nothing in the world like it.
Without second guessing myself, I struck, my fangs sinking deep into Cade's neck, his blood rushing to meet me. The spicy, smoky flavor of it surprised me. I was used to the deliveries of human blood the Academy received, which had all the flavor of a glass of water. Cade's blood was like dining on a perfectly-cooked steak.
Cade's cock slowly moved into me, a fraction at a time while I devoured him. Each mouthful seeming to feed my very soul. When I finally pulled away, he slid all the way in, and we both froze. It hadn't hurt as much as I'd expected, but it wasn't the most comfortable feeling, either. When he pulled back out, I looked up at him, his eyes were a swirling gray and blue as his vampire and walker blood fought for dominance in that moment. When he was completely out of me, I missed him and wanted him back, but he just paused, watching me.
“I've never seen anything sexier than you with my blood dripping down your chin,” he murmured, before kissing me senseless, the blood on my face smearing over both of us as he moved.
When he thrust back inside me, I groaned with pleasure. This was what I'd been craving, the piece that had been missing in my life for so long. Someone to care for and who would care about me. Now, hopefully, I'd found five of them in one go.
“Bite me,” I breathed as he began to rock back and forth. I wasn't sure what was driving the need, but all I knew was that I wanted him inside me in every way possible.
“Not yet, unless you want me to come right now,” he warned, raising one eyebrow.
“Wait,” I managed to say as he really began to move.
Cade's hips smacked against the backs of my thighs as his pace increased, and I felt more like I was being bounced against the bed than actually being able to meet him thrust for thrust.
Each time we connected, it drove my need ever higher. He leaned back, holding my legs in the air, so he was hitting me just right. When he released one, it flopped to the side, and he started playing with my clit once more. My orgasm rushed over me with barely any warning, my body clenching so hard in response to the delirious pleasure swarming through my veins that my body arched high off the bed.
Strong hands held me in place as I spasmed around his cock, feeling the entirety of its thick length within me. Cade maneuvered us back into a sitting position where he was leaning against the wall along one side of my bed, and I was sitting on his lap. His hands gripped my hips, and he showed me how he wanted me to move, in a rocking motion, which felt more like he was stirring my insides than thrusting in and out of me.
“I'm so fucking close,” he purred before grabbing a handful of my hair and pulling me in for a kiss. I didn't stop the motion of my hips for one second, and the longer I did it, the more confident I became, adding a little thrusting action that had him moaning into my mouth.
“Bite me,” I said again, trying not to command him, even though I craved his fangs in my throat more than I did another orgasm.
This time he didn't respond with words, his silver eyes told me everything I needed to know, and the hand that was in my hair pulled my head to one side, exposing my neck for him. My hips kept rolling, and he reached between us with his free hand, creating a ridge for my clit to rub against with each movement. A few strokes of my body against his hand and on his cock, and I was right there with him, ready to jump off the cliff.
When he struck, I wasn't expecting it, since I was too focused on my own pleasure, but it was enough to send me sailing over the edge of my orgasm, taking Cade with me. His hands moved to grip my hips, holding me in place while he surged up in to me, his cock twitching with his release while my blood poured into his mouth.
The noises he made were enough to make me want him all over again. I wasn’t sure how anyone ever got anything done, because all I could think about was doing this again as soon, and as often, as possible. When we both finally stopped moving, my forehead rested against his shoulder, and a thin sheen of sweat covered us both as I felt his blood pounding through my veins. I’d never felt so fucking invincible in my whole life.
* * *
Keiran
“Where the fuck did they go?”
I cast a glance at Raven, his anger wasn’t entirely unusual, but it was hotter than I was accustomed to from him. He was cold, by nature. Capable of cold logic and cooler reasoning. “It seems your theory was correct,” was all I said, thinking that affirmation would appease him. Not that he was so arrogant he constantly had to be right, but it was usually enough to put any of them in a good mood. My brothers didn't exactly have small egos.
Raven glowered at me. “Since when did being right matter?” He gritted his teeth at the sight of my surprised frown and bit off again, “Where the fuck did they go?”
“She’s obviously a shadow-weaver like you surmised,” Gideon soothed.
“An untrained one,” Barclay retorted, biting his bottom lip as he tilted his head back to stare at the night sky. As he did, I watched his eyes scan the stars for the sight of the moon. It provided a heavy luminescence, which affected both of us.
As a dream-walker, the moon’s waxing and waning could and did enhance my powers. Barclay’s shifter abilities weren’t strengthened and weakened as mine were, but he felt the call of the wolf more when the moon was full.
It was currently at a waning gibbous, the full moon having just left us. I felt the pall, the lack in my veins was like a stone that was stuck in my shoe. I often wondered what he experienced, but from the mournful light in his eyes, my question was silently answered.
“Meaning what?” I a
sked my shifter pal softly. “Why does it matter if she is untrained or not?”
“It means we don’t know where the shadows took her. And since she doesn’t exactly consider the Academy home, then only fuck knows where she’d feel safe.”
Gideon released a hissed breath, the sound belonging more to the Vampire than his druid half. I watched as his tattoos began to charge and deepen with color. Most humans might mistake it as a trick of the light, but it wasn’t. Whenever he called on the runes, more blood flowed to that particular area, darkening it and adding shadows to the patterns. “Dammit, you’re right, Barclay.”
“I don’t know why that comes as such a surprise to you,” Barclay replied, his tone drier than the situation warranted.
Raven grunted. “Now’s not the time to get a big head.”
“Bigger,” I added, but I was teasing, and when Barclay grimaced at me, I just winked. Then, I grimaced, too. Now wasn’t the time to be joking.
I hadn’t felt it before, that random ‘it’ that somehow had Marcella doing things to the others while I’d felt very little connection. But now? Yeah, it was there.
She’d triggered it.
I blew out a breath and mumbled, “Aren’t we going to discuss what just happened? She’s safe. Cade will protect her.”
“And we don’t have to?” Raven shot me a look. “You know as well as I do she’s our Sixth now.”
“Which is why I know she’s safe,” I responded, unoffended by the scorn in his glance. “We’d sense if she was in danger.”
“Maybe if we were bound deeper,” Gideon countered.
“No, we would. Trust me. Either Raven or I would feel it.”
Barclay scowled. “Why’s that?”
“Because of Cade,” Raven said on a sigh, nodding at me in agreement. “The walker in our soul is bound to the others. We’d know if he was in danger, and let’s face it, he’s going to stick to Marcella like glue,” he grumbled. “I bet that cherry’s popped by the time we get back to the Academy, too.”
My eyes flared at the jealousy in his voice, and then, I felt it, too. Cade was a lucky bastard. He'd take advantage of the situation, and wouldn’t hesitate to use his time alone with Marcella to his advantage.
Reaching up to grab the back of my neck, rubbing the tense muscles there as I tried to let go of the sudden need that had surged in my veins, I murmured, “He should have waited.”
Gideon snorted. “Since when do you know Cade to wait for anyone?”
I had to concede that. I loved Cade like the blood brother he wasn’t, but sometimes, he made Scrooge seem charming and generous.
“We should still hurry back just in case they were separated, and she isn’t there,” Barclay inserted. “Even if it’s just to be on the safe side.”
Because I didn’t disagree, I nodded, and the four of us began to trudge back through the forest at a faster pace than most humans would be comfortable with, but one that didn’t even have us breaking a proverbial sweat.
“What do you think this means?” Barclay murmured, his tone pensive. “Where the Academy is concerned, I mean? They won’t forgive Marcella for ‘accidentally’ triggering the link. We all know that. That’s without her being loathed by everyone there.”
“You’re right. This could mean. . . .” I bit my lip, not wanting to think of the repercussions of the very accidental happenstance tonight.
“It would mean something worse than expulsion,” Gideon stated grimly.
He wasn’t wrong.
It didn’t matter that it was a sign of Marcella’s strength that she’d started the ritual alone. It didn’t matter it was proof of our fated union as a brotherhood. They were so anal-retentive with the rules that I knew, period, there would be a punishment waiting for us on this score.
“They can’t tear us apart. That’s for damn certain,” Raven growled. “What she did tonight, it means we’re tied together for an eternity.”
“Doesn’t mean they can’t keep us apart and log us as a Beta unit for the rest of our careers,” Barclay replied, sounding anxious.
We were all eager to be promoted from a Beta unit to an Alpha unit. Betas worked without Sixths until they proved themselves ready for a link. Betas dealt with the more mundane cases, whereas the Alphas made a real difference.
No brotherhood wanted to remain a Beta. It just wasn’t what anyone who managed to become a brother would ever aim for.
It took blood, sweat, and tears to reach our position. Then even more of all three to hit Alpha status. We’d been Beta for close to three years. We were beyond ready for more, even if we didn't wholly deserve it.
The irony was that until this evening, I hadn’t felt a damn thing for her. Had recognized the fact that there was little point in knowing she was perfect for us, that it was futile to believe we had a choice . . . we never had a choice where our lives were concerned.
And while that had happened once more, Marcella having taken the choice from us, it had occurred for a reason. Because the six of us would create a unit so powerful that even our Enforcers had been bartering over us.
So, to go from apathy to the sudden wave of emotion filling me at the prospect of being separated from Marcella, was like a punch to the gut.
They would keep her from us.
I knew that like I knew my name was Keiran, and I could roam the dreamworld as easily as I did this one.
I staggered to a halt at the thought. The pain was worse than the punch to the gut I’d likened it to. I gasped for breath, staggering once more and dropping to my knees.
“Keiran?”
My brothers called my name, and, though I wasn’t deaf to them, I couldn’t reply. Didn't have the air to.
“What is it?” Barclay’s hand came to rest against the back of my neck. His presence, as always, grounded me.
His elemental nature was soothing to walkers whose spirits were flighty and, to put it bluntly, all over the place. Up, down, left, or right, we weren’t stable by nature. Eclectic and eccentric in no way described us.
“They will separate us from her,” I gasped out, pressing my hands to my knees as I tried to gather the air in my lungs, enough to breathe properly without passing out.
Gideon’s voice was grim. “They will.”
“We have to stop them,” Raven spat.
“How, though?” Barclay carefully rubbed my shoulders. “We’re powerless here. You know that.”
“We’ll use our abilities to shield her from them,” Gideon responded, his face furrowed in concentration.
“How?” I asked, seeking Gideon’s answer like I would a life raft in the depths of the ocean.
“We’ll have to confound the Masters,” he murmured slowly, softly, his eyes focused on something none of us could see as, once again, his runes flared to life.
Knowing he was calling on his powers, I watched as he whispered some words, silently mouthing them, so we couldn’t hear them—hearing them would hit us like the lash of a whip.
Only druids could process those sounds without being punished by the Maker.
“Confound them? But what about Barbie?” Barclay challenged.
“Her, too. We’re powerful enough. You know that.” He rubbed his chin and murmured, “We’ll have to force the selection process as well. Make certain Marcella wins.” He shot me a look. “You’ll need to walk the Masters’ dreams, Keiran.”
I nodded, more than eager to do what was required of me if it meant safeguarding Marcella as our Sixth.
With every passing moment, I felt the tightening of the cord that was the link between us, something that told me Cade was pulling some moves of his own. I stared at my brothers, studying their faces in turn and noticed they were as pained as I was.
Only Raven released a hiss as he mumbled, “Shit. I can feel the links tightening.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “It’s getting worse.”
Or better. Whichever way you looked at it.
“He’s claiming her,” Barclay said on a low, jealous g
rowl. “I wish we were there to witness it.”
I started at that. “You know we do that in privacy.”
A laugh escaped the shifter. “Wolves have no problem with sharing, dreamer.”
That had me narrowing my eyes at him, but I turned to Gideon and murmured, “What do you need me to do?”
“I need you to mess with their minds in conjunction with Raven.”
I frowned, then shot Raven a look. “How do we do that?”
“Fill their nights with bad dreams, while Raven fills their days with terrors, too.”
A dark smile crossed the mind-walker’s lips. “With pleasure.”
I’d find no pleasure in my task, but Raven was a darker soul than I. I was more restful, more at peace. It came with our powers. Mind walkers were capable of such acts that only a complete brotherhood could ground them, keep them from turning wholly evil—it was why we’d been given leave to find our Sixth after only a few years as a Beta unit.
Normally, it took over a quarter of a century.
“I can start now,” I told Gideon. “The moon is waning, and my power with it. Best to use this night to our advantage before my strength dies with the moon.”
Gideon peered around the forest and murmured, “If we stay here, I can connect with the earth, and funnel its energy to you.”
Barclay frowned. “Why would you do that?”
“We can call on the earth to twist into my creations,” I told him absentmindedly. “It’s easier to call on someone’s fears that way.”
Though he appeared surprised, Barclay just nodded and remained silent.
Raven peered around the clearing where I’d dropped to my knees like I’d been jabbed in the solar plexus. Finding a log, he headed to it and slouched down, patting his side and looking at Barclay, prompting him to move, too.
“Put your hands in the soil,” Gideon urged, and I looked at him disgustedly.
“I know the score, Gideon.”
He grunted. “We haven’t done this for at least five years, Keiran. Your memory isn’t the greatest.”
