by Emily Bex
“Did you talk to him, Luca? When he came in?”
"No, my lady. I knew when he was in the house, and when he was in your room, I left my post. We did not speak."
“He didn't speak to me either. He showered and went immediately into his death slumber. When I got up, I went to the bathroom; his leathers...his boots. There was blood everywhere. I don't think it was his. None of it was his. He didn't appear injured...he is just, shut off. He’s closed off from me.”
Luca shifted his eyes to the floor as she described the blood. Kate could already tell he knew something, and she could tell he wouldn’t share what he knew.
"He just needs some time, my lady, be patient."
With a tremble in her voice, Kate responded, “This has nothing to do with a business call, Luca. This had nothing to do with an upsetting business call.”
Against her best efforts, the tears started to flow down her cheeks. She hated that she was crying, and she could see Luca struggle with how he should respond to those tears.
"My lady, you understand I cannot speak of anything I might know or overhear as it relates to master's business. All I can say to reassure you is his anger isn’t directed at you. He’s not mad at you. Be patient with him, please. He’s fighting his own battles."
So, this was it. This would be the extent of what she knew unless Shade chose to share more later, which she already knew in her heart would be a closed subject. She nodded her head at Luca and stood to leave.
"Trust me, my lady.”
“I do, Luca...I do. It just doesn't make this any easier.”
Kate left his quarters and returned to their bedroom where she removed her robe and climbed in bed beside Shade in his death slumber.
58
Waking very late, Shade lay in bed for a moment getting his bearings. As he awakened fully, everything hit him full force. This wasn’t something he could fix. He could feel her in the house, moving downstairs, and he swallowed hard, needing to feed. But he knew a small feeding wouldn’t do, he was even weaker now after the rampage of last night. What the fucking hell was he thinking?
The thought of Luca's offer rang through his head and he knew Luca was the only source of survival for him now, and if he didn’t feed soon, he could kill her, drain her, and his hunger was progressing. Throwing his legs over the side of the bed, he sat there wondering where the hell his leathers were and then remembered last night.
Walking to the bathroom, he saw the mess and knew she’d probably seen this as well. Sticking his hand in the pocket of his leathers, he grappled around until he found the small red gems she’d given him. Holding the heart shaped rubies in his hand, he rolled them around, staring at them. Her love was right here in his hand. Bringing the biggest gemstone to his lips, he kissed it and grabbed some jeans. Sliding the gems into his pocket, he headed downstairs. The closer he got, the worse the hunger roared, and her scent was like a stab at his gut, his craving ripped through him. He saw her and stopped dead in his tracks, he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t swallow as his mouth was so dry. She turned to him and he had to muster every ounce of control to stop from feeding from her.
Kate heard him on the stairs and her heart skipped a beat. After his sudden departure last night, his night-long absence, and the blood-soaked clothes, she had no idea what to anticipate. But she was almost weak with relief that he was up, and home. She walked slowly toward the stairs. Did he want to see her? Luca had said she wasn’t the source of his anger, but he’d blocked her from his thoughts and she felt lost from him. As she entered the hallway to the stairs, he was stepping down from the last step and stopped and stared at her. She wanted to run to him, but something was warning her off. She stopped and locked eyes with him.
“Shade, what is it? Please tell me how I can help you.”
He held up a hand as if to push her back. “It is not you, mi amore.” He closed his eyes. “Don’t come any closer.” His breathing was labored. “I just need Luca, and everything will be all right, I promise. Please don’t come after me. I am going to Luca's suite.”
Before she could say a word, he rushed to Luca’s suite.
Kate felt only confusion. He is sick? What could Luca do for him that she couldn’t? She wanted to run after him, but the pleading look in his eyes, the raised hand, had kept her planted where she stood as she watched Luca’s door close behind him.
Shade stood with his back against the door, trying to remain calm. Luca already knew why he was here. Luca stood before him, bare-chested, in loose drawstring pants that hung low on his hips. As Luca’s eyes locked with his, there was something deep in his eyes that spoke to his beast, and it settled Shade. There were no words spoken between them, they both knew what this meant.
Luca locked the door behind him and padded in his bare feet to his bedroom door and looked back at him. Shade could see the vein in his neck pulsing, and his mouth filled with saliva, and his fangs ached. Shade scanned the warrior’s body, tight and hardened from years of training.
He followed Luca to his bedroom, stepping up to him, reaching his arm around his broad bare back and pulling Luca hard against his chest. Luca tilted his head back, exposing his neck, inviting his master to feed. As Shade sank his fangs deep, Luca moaned and Shade grabbed his hair and yanked his head back, gulping down his blood.
Luca’s young warrior’s blood whistled through him. Shade felt his veins pop and crackle, and he drew deeper. His head was spinning, and his body began to respond to the feeding, his cock hard, sliding against Luca’s hard abs as Luca’s own hot steel was nudging against his balls, teasing. He couldn’t stop the desire that came with feeding, but he couldn’t do this with him, he couldn’t let it go that far, and Shade struggled for control.
He felt Luca’s hips begin to grind into him. Shade held him in a tight grip and kept drawing deep. Luca moaned so loud Shade could feel the vibrations in his body. Shade willed the music to play, hoping it would block out the sounds of their mutual pleasure.
The room was filled with the sound of Carol Tatum’s Primitive Kiss, a seductive, primal beat that drifted out through the house.
The pressure of Luca’s hips pressed hard against him, drove Shade like a freight train. He finally unlatched and threw back his head and roared, his body filled with young, sweet warrior blood, but his cock aching now as well. He spun Luca in his arms, so his back was against his chest, and Shade’s hand slid slowly up Luca’s thigh, over his hip, across his rock-hard abdomen and chest as Shade’s lips sought out his neck again, pulling Luca’s head back on his shoulder, he whispered huskily into his ear, “Luca, I cannot take release from you, but I will give you release, relax, master will give you pleasure. Close your eyes.”
Sliding his hand down Luca’s side, he slid it under his hard ass, and squeezed before moving his hand over his hip, around his hard, flat abs and down to his steeled cock. Shade stroked him slowly at first, and then faster, reading Luca’s response to set the pace and knowing he would cum soon, but they were both drowning in the sensation. Shade pulled Luca’s head back on his shoulder once more and kissed his neck, sinking his fangs in again, drinking deep as he jerked his dick harder and harder until he felt Luca’s body tense then shudder before relaxing back into him.
They stood silent and unmoving, still in their embrace as their breathing returned to normal, and their heart rates slowed.
Picking him up, Shade put him on the bed, and drew the blankets around him. Shade had drunk deeply and knew Luca would sleep for a while as his body recovered. Going into the bathroom, Shade washed his hands, splashed cold water on his face and now must face the most difficult part of this whole ordeal...bel.
59
As she stood in the hallway outside Luca's living quarters, it didn’t take long to figure out Shade had gone there to feed. He wasn’t sick. He was starving for blood, the blood she couldn’t give to him. Relief flooded through her at the realization he could feed from Luca. But that realization was quickly followed by those intimate
sounds she knew so well, the noises that accompanied those sweet erotic sensations that came with feeding, and it felt like more than she could bear. She ran to their room to try and escape the sounds, only to hear music. Her tears started to flow. It wasn’t long before she heard him on the stairs. She looked up as he entered their room and sat beside her on the bed, his hand in her hair, pleading with her to listen to his words.
“Kate, I need to talk to you. Give me a chance to explain. I am pleading with all my heart, because I love you and without you...I am nothing.”
She looked up at him, placed her hand on his thigh. “Shade, why would you think I wouldn’t listen to what you have to say?”
She reached up and pulled him to her, kissing that mouth, those lips, and that tongue. All the pain of the last twenty-four hours, his sudden absence from her bed, the bloody clothes, the feeding with Luca, she’d erase it all. She’d bring him back to her with a single kiss. She felt him respond to her, grab her hair, and hold her in his grip. He returned the kiss with such passion, and she felt his pain flow through her. “We will fix this, lover. Whatever it is, we will fix this.”
With her lips on his, she was drawing every ounce of pain from him. He needed her more than life, he couldn’t breathe without her. His heart took flight knowing she hadn’t rejected him. His hands were tangled in her crimson, clinging to her as though he was drowning, and she was the only one who could save him. Breaking the kiss, he pulled her to his chest.
“Kate, I love you. I want a chance to explain to you what I have been through, why I am like this. I can only ask that you try to understand. I can’t hold this inside me any longer.”
“Lover, come lie next to me, I missed you in our bed last night. Hold me and tell me whatever you need to share. You left me confused and hurt, and I know that’s not your intention. So, please, talk to me.”
He laid beside her, holding her tight, his nose in her hair. “Mi amore, mio dolce amore.”
He inhaled her, and it felt like a cleansing of his soul. “It began with the bambino, and the doctor. I don’t like this, this not knowing. Things could go wrong. I don’t know if they will or not, but it tears me apart. I got you pregnant, and my guilt is tearing me apart. I did not feed when you were ill, and I was starving. I’m angry at myself. I was angry at Alec and his ridiculous suggestions for what to do for blood. It pushed me over the edge. I did something last night I have never done. Something a true warrior never does. I killed for no reason. I kill to protect. I kill to defend. I never kill without provocation. I was consumed with guilt. I was in raging need of you, and blood, yet I cannot feed from you now. I could hurt you and take away the precious food our bambino needs. I am terrified of having sex with you. Will I hurt our bambino? Will my beast emerge? It was all too much. I needed to feed the hunger. There is a solution in my world of which you are aware, a feeder. I know how you feel about it, I know you see it as betrayal, and I won’t do that, I owe you that. But I must feed or I die. Luca offered to let me feed. I trust him. I love him, bel, as a warrior loves his brother. His blood is clean. He has only fed from feeders. His blood is not tainted with disease. Of all my options, going to Luca seemed like the only path that made sense. I know you heard the sounds, the music...the pleasure that comes with feeding, it comes unbidden.”
“Lover, why do we do this? We leave so much unsaid, and we both end up in our own personal hell and torment. I understand you must feed. I’ve been worrying about that for some time, and I know you were downplaying your need. And given the option between a feeder and Luca, I choose Luca. So, let that go. I’m grateful to him that he offered himself to you, it was just… It was hard to hear, knowing the intimacy it brings, but I can deal with that. What happened that pushed you that far?”
He held her to his chest. “I felt guilt, mi amore. I wanted a bambino, but after a time, after you were immortal, once you were strong. But you are mortal, and our bambino will only be part vampire, like Cory. I don’t know what could go wrong. What if something happens and I can’t save the bambino? So many things I can’t control, I can’t fix, and that tears me apart. I carried guilt for getting you this way. This is my fault. I should have known to make sure it was safe to make love to you and I didn’t. Now I carry that with me. My anger consumed me, and I had to let the beast go, I couldn’t let him go around you, I could hurt you.
“And now, Luca. I don’t know what I would have done without him. You asked I not feed from another, and I told you I would not. I thought we would have more time for you to understand my world. That you would be immortal and understand the bloodlust, and that I would need to go elsewhere to feed whenever you were with child. I was not prepared for this now. I did not seek out a feeder, even though their blood is pure. Please, understand.”
“Lover, you can’t feel guilt over this baby. That judgment lies as much with me as it does with you. In fact, in my eyes, it lies more with me. But we can't change that. It happened, and we’ll deal with it together. It’s not within your power to control the outcome for this baby, nor is it in mine. We’ll just do what the doctor directs us to do. We’ll be fine, all three of us.”
She took his hand and placed it on her abdomen. “All three of us. In the meantime, I need you. Please, don't leave me like last night with no answers, Shade.”
“I didn’t want to leave you. I had to protect you from me.”
He kissed her tummy, laying his head on her, sighing as he closed his eyes. “I love you both so much, so damn much. I am so tired mi amore, so tired. I just want to lay here with you. I want the world to go away and leave us alone.”
She lay on her back, his head resting on her belly, as she ran her hand through his hair. “Hmmm, I, too, want the world to go away. It seems to just dump problems at our door. But I know you. Your warrior spirit would be quickly bored. But tonight, we’ll shut out the rest of the world.”
Shifting his position on the bed, he situated them comfortably, taking her in his arms, her head on his chest, her hair surrounding them both as he held her.
“Deal. Now we both need to rest, no more talk. I just want to be here, with you.”
60
As Alec entered the house, she heard him call out to her, “Rissa, are you home?”
She quickly rushed from her home office to the stairs. “Yes, Alec, coming!”
Walking into the study, she could already sense his aggravation and took a seat. “Something is wrong, what do you need me to do?”
He was pacing the floor of the study. “I just talked to Shade on the phone. Are you aware of this situation with his mate?”
She watched as his agitation increased. “Well, I’m aware she was sick, but when last I talked to them, she wasn’t sure what was wrong. I sent over my doctor. I jokingly blurted out that perhaps Kate was pregnant. Tell me she isn’t pregnant?”
He sat down across from her, lit a cigarette, and took a long drag before passing it to her. “I’d love to tell you she isn't pregnant, but that’s not the case. You know how this goes, don't you? You know this can't possibly have a good outcome. And in the meantime, I’ll have one fucked up warrior. Your doctor confirmed the pregnancy, but then said it was out of his league since she was a mortal, so they need a specialist, and I have just the specialist in mind, my devious darling.”
She put the cigarette to her mouth and inhaled deeply. “Alec, I know it means this thing, whatever it is inside her, probably won’t survive, and if it does, it has to go. No one wants a half-breed. Shade will be preoccupied with her and this thing. He’s already showing signs of neglect to you. What an irresponsible and selfish act!”
As a wicked grin spreads across her lips, she looked him in the eyes and saw he was already making plans. Her heart raced, knowing he’d give her a task and when she executed it perfectly, she’d get her reward.
“Tell me the plan, Alec. What are you thinking?”
“What I want, Rissa…” He took the cigarette back from her and took a drag, leaning his head b
ack and slowly exhaling the smoke into the air. “What I want...is for you to find one of your actor friends, who can successfully pull off the role of doctor. That's who will make the next house call. And our doctor will proceed to prescribe a nutritional supplement. You may need to make these, my darling. Just empty out some over-the-counter gel capsules and fill them with crushed white snake root. Have our ‘doctor’ prescribe them for her three times a day. They’ll make her sick, he needs to tell her that, but she’ll need to take them anyway, and this ridiculous mortal will do as she’s told. In about a week or so, our problems will be over, at least, as far as that baby is concerned. Oh, and he must inform Shade under no circumstances is he to feed from her. I doubt he would, but the last thing I need is to poison my own warrior.” He handed the cigarette back to her. “Can you do that for me, my darling?”
As she listened to his plan, her heart was pounding, the sound of his voice made her moist between the legs. She loved when he was scheming, and needed her help to implement his plan.
“Of course, I can do this. I have all the resources at hand, and I already have someone in mind. He’s currently playing a doctor in a stage production, and he’s a vampire of course.”
She laid her hand on his knee, letting it slide slowly up his thigh, looking deep into his eyes and smiling, lowering her eyelids seductively. “And you know, my wicked vampire, we could always get a feeder in to help him along with his hunger.”
He smiled that wicked, crooked grin. “My darling Rissa, great minds think alike. That was the second part of my plan. I offered, tonight, to help Shade get rid of both of his problems, the baby, and the mortal, but he has some silly notion of being in love with her. She’s so beneath him. I want you to make a house call yourself, Rissa, the day after the doctor's call. I want you to find the hottest, horniest most sought-after feeder. Bring her here from Europe if you have to and take her with you. Shade has always been a player. All he needs is some strong temptation. And he probably hasn't fed from the mortal since learning of her pregnancy, so he has to be getting weak. That will make the temptation even harder to resist. There is more than one way to get that mortal out of his life. Let Shade get a taste of what sex is like with his own kind again. And make sure that little mortal is aware that being with a feeder involves sex. Be very graphic. Use that naughty imagination to paint her a picture she’ll never get out of her head. Be sure she knows that every time she gets pregnant in the future, he’ll have a multitude of feeders to satisfy his every need. Let's see how eager she is to stick around then. Mortals, and their ridiculous ideas about fidelity and romantic love.” He shook his head. “Now, be a good girl and bring daddy a glass of Midnight.”