by Zandria West
I try to respond but the words seem to get stuck in my throat. Lana leans back, exposing the full length of her milky-pale neck to me. Fucking Jesus, I can hardly bear it. It takes every bit of strength I possess to hold myself steady.
‘You’ll need all your energy and more tomorrow,’ I say. ‘I can’t feed on you.’
‘Not just on me, no,’ Lana agrees. ‘But there are three other powerful, sturdy men here too. Surely between us we can satisfy a hungry vampire…’
‘Lana…’ Reuben says, frowning. The revulsion werewolves feel for vampires is well known. It has taken years of Reuben and I working together, of trusting one another with each other’s lives, for us to overcome it. I can more easily imagine Jamie offering his throat to me than Reuben.
‘Gabriel has fed Alex before,’ Lana says lightly.
Gabriel gives me a cornered look, as Reuben and Grayson turn and stare at him with open surprise.
‘It was necessary at the time,’ he says.
‘Are you suggesting this isn’t?’ Lana has taken hold of one of my hands and placed it on her chest, just where the curve of her breast starts to rise. I take a sudden, desperate intake of breath.
‘We all need to be prepared for tomorrow. We need to be strong. Do you want Alex to go and drink pig’s blood?’
I see Gabriel frowning.
‘Or, no wait, I’ve got a better idea,’ Lana continues. ‘Why not let him loose on the villagers? That’ll work out well.’
‘I’ll do it,’ Reuben growls, suddenly rising from the floor to standing.
‘You’ll do it?’ I can’t keep the incredulity out of my voice.
He glares at me, then at Gabriel and Grayson. ‘I’ve got lots of blood. You can have some. No harm done.’
I’m so stunned I can’t even find the words to respond.
‘Thank you,’ Lana says calmly. ‘Me first, though.’
In a blur of movement that’s so fast I hardly know what’s happening, she’s up and straddling me. Her hands fist my hair and she pulls my mouth to her neck.
The sudden change rocks me: my senses become sharp, my desire fierce. I burn with longing. After only a moment’s pause, I plunge my newly protruded fangs into the delicate skin of her neck. A shudder of ecstasy moves through my whole body as the first hit of her blood touches my tongue and begins to trickle down my throat. I feel my eyes roll back in my head. So sweet. So rich. So powerful. The words are true but do nothing to convey the intensity of what I feel in this moment. To be a vampire is to be damned to endless longing. That is the worst of it. Not the fact that you are undead. Not that you are a monster. But that the Hunger you feel can never be satisfied, not even slightly, no matter how many people you kill or how much blood you drink, or what pleasures you take in human flesh, willing or unwilling.
In this moment, I do not feel like a vampire but like a man. I want for nothing. I could die, here, now, with Lana’s blood on my lips and know that my life had meaning. It is obscene I know, but it is the truth.
‘Don’t take too much,’ I hear Gabriel’s voice coming from somewhere far away. It’s like a tiny tickle on the furthest reaches of my consciousness. Lana is making noises, gentle moans of longing and release that only increase the intensity of my pleasure. I pause for a moment and pull back, watching the dark trickle of blood marking her pale skin. She shifts her hips, moving against me, rubbing her sex against my cock. Too many clothes, I think. She should be naked. I tear at the buttons of the shirt she’s wearing and struggle to get her arms out of the sleeves. I understand the principle. I’ve had nearly a century to become accomplished at removing a woman’s clothing but somehow on this occasion it feels like an almost impossible task. The white shirt is splattered with dark blood. I finally manage to get her free. Lana reaches behind herself and unhooks her bra, which falls to the bed. I reach for her incredible breasts, massaging and stroking them, teasing her nipples to hardness. She leans forward and kisses me, and a powerful jolt of energy directed straight to my cock. I need her. Now.
Like he’s reading my mind, I see Gabriel pulling off Lana’s pants. She wriggles free and, in a moment, she is exactly as I want her to be. Naked and more beautiful than my limited brain can conceive. So confident in her own being that she glows with the energy of pure existence. She wraps her legs around my waist and straddles me once more, her fingers working quickly to undo the buttons of my jeans. I am more than ready for her. She takes a hold of me and shifts around until she’s able to direct my aching hardness into the softest, warmest, most welcoming part of her. I groan with the pleasure as she lowers herself onto me and I feel my cock swelling with the blood I’ve drunk and the pure delicious sensuality of her body against and around mine.
‘Alex,’ she kisses me, murmuring my name even as she opens her mouth, her tongue seeking my own.
‘Fuck…’ is the only word I can manage. I see from the corner of my eye that Reuben is watching us intently. He’s pulled his dick out and is rubbing it rhythmically. I try not to worry about his size. He’s hung like a fucking ox, which always seemed like a source of amusement until we started sharing the same woman. Lana certainly doesn’t seem to have any complaints when I’m inside her, I remind myself. Anyway, we’re not competing. There’s no comparison. No winning or losing. So long as we give Lana pleasure, take away her worries and fears, make her feel alive and adored, everything is fucking dandy.
While Lana moves against me, jolting her hips harder so that with each movement I’m pushed up so deep inside her that I can barely breathe, Gabriel kneels behind her. He shifts my hands down to her waist and places his own hands over her breasts. Lana leans back into him, and I watch as he traces the line of her jaw with his lips. She turns and kisses him, mouth open, nothing held back.
Fuck.
‘Reuben,’ Lana says as she pulls away from Gabriel, her voice stern and demanding. ‘We need you here. Now.’
I feel the bed quaking under me as the huge Shifter takes his place beside us, looking at Lana like he’s waiting for her command, his cock still huge and throbbing in one of his hands.
‘Alex needs to drink,’ she says. ‘And I want to see it. Take off your top.’
I expect him to hesitate, perhaps even to argue, but instead he just pulls his t-shirt off in one easy movement. Lana stills for a moment but keeps me inside her. I ache to keep moving; holding myself steady is a strangely delicious agony.
Reuben approaches tentatively and I feel a sudden tingle of something close to apprehension in the pit of my stomach. Is this really happening? After everything we’ve done together, everything we’ve been through, this is one line I never thought we would cross.
‘For Lana,’ he murmurs as he meets my eyes, and I feel a jolt of recognition at the desire I see there.
He leans in close, offering his neck. At least, with Reuben, I don’t need to worry about breaking him or draining him. He’s no delicate flower, no priceless china. The scars that already mark his body are proof enough of that. I lunge forward, sinking my teeth into him with a deep shudder. I feel shocked, like I’m outside of my own body watching myself. Lana starts fucking me again, wrapping her legs more tightly around my waist and rubbing herself against me. I hear her moaning with renewed pleasure. I let the taste of Reuben’s blood flood my senses. It is the essence of him, on my tongue. Strength. Loyalty. Courage. Dogged determination. I find myself running my fingers through his hair, tracing the powerful muscles of his chest as I drink deeply. To my surprise he doesn’t pull away. And as strange as this is, it also feels like the most natural thing I can imagine. Reuben is my brother. I would trust him with my life – with Lana’s life, which is even more precious. I take one more deep swallow then pull free of his neck, run my fingers over his face. Harsh stubble. Hard jawline. Soft lips.
‘What are you doing to me?’ he groans, his voice little more than a rasp of longing.
‘Just warming you up…’ I say. I want to keep enjoying Lana forever. I want to keep moving ins
ide her until I come. But in this moment, my own pleasure feels secondary. There’s something else happening. Something more important. I grasp her hips and lift her off me.
‘I want to see Reuben’s cock in your beautiful cunt,’ I say, a shiver of desire moving through me. ‘Lay down and spread your legs, Lana. Let me watch him fuck you.’
Reuben casts a look at me that’s confused, wild and desperate. I nod to him, then look back to Lana. Her pupils are huge, like she’s drugged. The smile that creeps across her mouth is some kind of spell, designed to trap men and lead them to their deaths. Slowly, she lies back. She bends her knees up, then lets them drop apart.
‘Ahhh…’ Reuben murmurs, then scrambles across to kneel over her.
I watch as Reuben strokes his cock a few more times, then slowly sinks deep into Lana. Her folds stretch to accommodate him. Her eyes widen and roll back as the powerful sensations overwhelm her.
Part of me wants to look away. There’s some deep-seated seed of possessiveness inside me that tells me this should hurt. That I should feel angry or broken or defeated to see the woman I love to the core of my being with another man. I ignore it. It’s bullshit. This is the most perfect thing I could imagine. We are all here, together. This is as close as I could ever be with anyone. Reuben’s and Lana’s blood hums in my veins, strengthening the bond, connecting me to them in a powerful, deep way.
‘Grayson,’ Lana manages to gasp. ‘Your turn. Feed… Alex…’
I turn and see Grayson watching me from the other side of the room. I can read nothing from the icy hardness of his eyes. Even before he left us to work as a torturer at the demon prison, he kept himself apart. For a long time, I thought it was because he felt like he was better than us. He was an angel. We were various versions of fucked up. More recently, I’ve begun to realise that of all of us, he’s probably the most damaged, and he’s known it all along.
How far did he have to fall to become the creature he is today?
He doesn’t say anything, but stands and walks across the room towards me. ‘She’s right,’ he says. ‘You’ll need your strength tomorrow. Take whatever you need.’ He kneels before me on the floor and I feel a sudden wave of confusion. Reuben offering his blood threw me off balance; this is upending me completely.
I frown at Grayson. Is this a trick of some kind?
He’s an angel, I’m a vampire. Maybe his blood will be like poison, burning me from the inside, the ultimate form of torture?
‘Do you trust me?’ he asks finally, his eyes meeting mine. I flinch at his words. Truth is, I don’t really trust him. Not completely. Not the way Gabriel does. I never have.
‘It’s alright,’ he says, looking away, a flicker of pain passing over his stony features. ‘I understand.’
‘I…’ My voice doesn’t want to come out. I feel the blood I’ve already drunk surging through me, renewing me, energising me. I haven’t had a drink in days, and I’m riding the wild high that comes from fresh blood, especially blood with this kind of power. I feel Lana watching us from the bed.
I reach across, grab Grayson’s shoulders and pull him closer. I kneel too, so our heights are more or less level. I look into his eyes and see nothing but pain. I wonder if I’m making a terrible mistake, but this is what Lana wants and every part of me aches to give her what she wants – anything she wants. I lower my mouth to Grayson’s throat, press just hard enough for the sharp points of my fangs to push through the taut resistance of his skin, and feel the first trickle of his blood touch my lips.
I expect it to feel cold but in fact it’s the opposite. His blood is searing. Heat moves through my veins, throbbing and aching with barely restrained power. My first instinct is to pull away, but I force myself to hold steady. I drink slowly, taking it all in. The fierce pain. The anger of despair. The way he’s broken and yet remained strong. The weight that he carried for so long, obeying orders that shattered his soul. I never understood Grayson, I could never make sense of him, but now, as the power of his blood diffuses through me, I do. Finally, I pull free. He has his eyes closed. The blood continues to flow for a few long moments, then slows to a tiny trickle.
‘Thank you,’ I whisper, the words not feeling adequate to the trust that he has shown me.
We both look across to where Reuben and Lana are writhing on the bed. Lana has turned her face and is watching us. She gives us a blissful smile. Reuben’s hair is slicked to his forehead by sweat; his cheeks are flushed with exertion. Lana’s breasts sway with every thrust he makes. Dried blood is dark against one side of her neck and its shadow is smeared across her collar bones.
Even as I watch, I see a blush of colour spreading up her neck and into her cheeks. Her lips part wider, her panting grows deeper. I watch, fascinated, as Lana comes. It is one thing coming with her, the glorious joy of a shared moment of utter fulfilment. It is something else again, something equally precious, witnessing her unguarded pleasure, seeing that moment of utter vulnerability where the joy of release takes her outside of herself.
‘Beautiful…’ Grayson murmurs. I had forgotten he was still beside me. ‘So fucking beautiful.’
‘Gabriel,’ Lana says, her voice warm with the pleasure she’s received. ‘Your turn now, my darling…’
I see him startle at the use of such an affectionate word. He looks across to me, uncertainly.
‘It’s okay if you don’t want to, I should be fine now –’ I begin.
‘No,’ Lana says sharply. ‘It’s not okay. Don’t you feel it? The connection between us? The power? It needs Gabriel’s blood too…’
‘She is right,’ he says. His eyes are deep with darkness, and in the low light of the room, his face looks shadowed and chiselled, like some ancient sculpture.
If he’s offering, I’m not arguing.
I sit back and wait as he makes his way to me across the room. Lana smiles contentedly, then shifts from where she’s lying beside Reuben. He appears to have passed out from the exertion. She comes to join us, naked still, sitting beside the two of us on the bed.
‘I’m ready,’ Gabriel says. I sense him tensing up, as though preparing for the pain. Something in the movement triggers my vampire pride. Sharing blood should not be an unpleasant chore that you gird yourself for, wishing it to be over as quickly as possible. It is intimate, pleasurable and exquisitely sensual.
I catch Gabriel’s eye and give him a smile as dripping with vampiric allure as I can muster. I see the shock move across his features. His expression softens, and he smiles back.
‘Better,’ I say. I move forward and take hold of his shoulders, running my fingers down the length of his neck, moving his long dark hair out of the way.
Time seems to slow as I ready myself and then lean in, teeth bared. The first contact is a moment of extreme pleasure, like the spark of a match flaring in the darkness. Then, I begin to take his blood. My head throbs with the power of it, my body aches with the pure energy. Last time I’d fed on Gabriel we’d both been exhausted. I had taken only a little, just enough to allow me to do what I had to do. This time I am already replete from feeding on the others. This is pure hedonism, and if I am honest there is nothing that a vampire likes more. I feel Gabriel relaxing now under the slow pulse of my sucking. A moment later, I startle as I feel hands at my chest and then my stomach. Not his hands, though for a moment I am not sure. Gabriel shifts and moans. A sudden start of pleasure shocks me as Lana begins to stroke my cock, firmly and rhythmically. Gabriel moans again. Fucking Jesus. She’s pleasuring both of us as I drink from him. Something in me almost crumbles from the joy of it. The exquisite silken texture of Gabriel’s blood. The warmth of Lana’s touch. The rising desire that we are sharing. The sense of closeness, of connection…
Gabriel comes first. He cries out as every muscle in his body tenses and then releases. I feel the warm spurting of his cum as it splashes against me, so close I am to him. I taste the salty sweetness of his blood filling my mouth. Blood and cum, the two essential fluids of li
fe. Power and energy. Night and day. I give myself over to Lana’s touch, pulling my fangs free from Gabriel and dropping my head back, incoherent with pleasure. Finally, the orgasm rocks through me like an earthquake, shaking my very foundations. Lana releases me and I pull her close, then let myself fall backwards onto the bed, panting still with exertion, buzzing with the mingling flavours of each of their blood.
‘There you go,’ Lana says cheerfully, nuzzling in closer to me as I run a hand down her side and over her hip. ‘Now you’re not hungry anymore.’
‘I don’t know if I’ll ever be hungry again,’ I breathe, closing my eyes. Satiated.
‘It wasn’t just about you,’ she whispers in my ear. ‘It was for all of us. We need to be close, closer than even Gabriel’s magic can bind us. We need to be strong…’
I nod and smile, her words washing gently over me. Then my smile falters. I feel it before I hear it or see it. Lana’s crying.
‘My angel,’ I say, rolling onto my side and pulling her closer, squeezing her so tightly I’m worried that I might break her.
‘It’s okay,’ she says. ‘I’m just tired.’
‘Talk to me,’ I beg.
She looks away. I brush a tear from her cheek and reach for a moment for the delicate weave of her thoughts, only to be rebuffed. It’s subtle but certain – she has created a barrier, something that stands between us and guards her mind from mine. I frown. The separation is made more intense, more devastating, by the feeling of connection that preceded it.
Was this all a show, I wonder?
It is the first time I’ve doubted her. The first time I’ve questioned her intentions.
Was this all a way of distracting us, keeping us occupied?
And if it was, what does Lana have to hide?
23
LANA
‘They must be your words,’ Graciela says sternly.
Graciela called for me. I didn’t want to leave my men, but I knew there were things I needed to talk through with my mother before the sun rises tomorrow.
