Present Tense: Pleasure Times Four (Out of the Fire Book 3)

by Candace Blevins

  “Collosa said your eyes were blue. Brilliant, glowing blue.”

  “But I was tired. Not energized. Eunice saw it. He asked me if I needed to feed before I went down for the day.”

  “I don’t doubt it. You were afraid you’d done something to them. I believe you took from them subconsciously, and then you likely gave it all back subconsciously as well. You’d fed from both men recently enough you still had their blood inside you. The sexual activity was enough to create a ceremony of three. A blood ceremony. You were the connection, and you jumped in power. You get one out-of-control freebie for a power jump, assuming no one’s hurt too badly, and now you’ve had it.”

  He looked at Fabio. “You’ve been with someone who fed from you in a similar way?”

  Fabio nodded. “Yes, but it felt different.”

  “Explain the difference.”

  “That vampire fed from the orgasm at the end, but not the sex part. Last night, I got rougher with Kelsey than I intended. Even for a vampire, looking back, I was too...” He ran his hand through his hair absentmindedly, pushing it away from his face. “I’m pretty sure I did the first time we had sex, too. I’m not known for being gentle, but even for me, I was... I don’t know. Brutal is too much, but rough doesn’t adequately describe it. Now that I think of it in the terms you suggest, I believe Kelsey was feeding from me the whole time, from my energy, and I also believe she somehow circumvented the part of me that holds back.”

  “An excellent assessment.” He looked to Kelsey. “We’ll need to do some experiments, but it is my belief you feed from lust more than sex. My Secundo holds an office at a local billiard club known as TBC, near Hamilton Place mall. The office includes a bedroom.” He looked to Fabio. “I believe it would be beneficial if at least one of you comes, but preferably all three, so you’ll understand what’s happening, and you’ll see how we train Kelsey to turn this off and on. She won’t get it exactly right until she’s had some practice, but I can teach her how to stop before things get as out of control as they did last night.”

  “I’m on the menu this morning. I’ll go,” Fabio said.

  “I’d like to observe,” Eunice said from the door.

  Marco turned to look behind him. “Excellent. Since you won’t be having sex with her, I was hoping you’d be able to step in as a referee, of sorts.”

  “Our contract says we can rescind her lease if she’s found to not be in control,” Eunice told him.

  “Do you wish to do so?” Marco asked.

  Kelsey had that weight in her stomach again, terrified she’d have to leave.

  “No,” said Fabio. He looked to James. “Are you going with us to TBC?”

  James leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, his hands relaxed in front of him. He met her gaze, his brilliant blue eyes focused on her as if no one else was in the room. “I like you, Kelsey. We both know we formed some kind of connection that first night. Not a sexual one, though that was there, but a human one, despite the fact neither of us are human. I don’t do vampires because I don’t want them in my head, but you could get into my head even without the transfer of blood, so that took away my reason for not feeding you.” He took a breath. “Now, I find out you’ve jumped up in power, and I know there’s always a learning curve when that happens. I’m going to trust you not to feed from me again until you have this under control. I’m not going to go today, because I don’t want to know what to look for. I want to be able to trust you.” He leaned back. “Trust is earned, in my world, and when it’s lost, it’s gone. Do you understand?”

  Kelsey wanted to reach out to him. It was as if her heart wanted to touch his, and she knew she could do it, even from this distance, but she held herself back. Her instincts told her that reaching out to him with vampire powers would be a bad sign.

  “I do. I’ll miss you while I figure this out, but I respect your decision, and I thank you for the trust.”

  Marco stood, walked to Eunice, and stopped three feet away. “I can guarantee you no one will touch you without your leave, nor will they drink from you. However, if you’re in the office during this lesson, I can’t guarantee no one will feed from you. If you don’t want someone to feed from your emotions, it’s important you not put them out to be fed from. Do you understand?”

  Eunice uncrossed his arms and looked at the Master Vampire a few moments before answering. “I do.”

  “Do you still wish to accompany us?”

  “I’ll follow in my own vehicle.”

  “If there’s room,” Fabio told Marco, “I’d like to ride with you and Kelsey. I feel as if she’ll do better with a friend by her side.”

  “That’s acceptable,” Marco said as he walked out the door.

  Kelsey followed, though it took effort to leave the safety of her basement room. How had it become home so soon?

  12

  Eunice considered what he knew of vampires as he followed the limo. The vampire had three werewolf guards as well as two vampires with him. Were the vampires guards, or had he brought them as part of the lesson?

  And had they gotten out of the lightproof bags used to get them into the limo, or were they still in them?

  He considered why the Master Vampire had entered their residence without his guards. They’d brought him in, helped him out of the light-proof bag, and gone back outside. Eunice wouldn’t have allowed his client to do so, though he acknowledged that sometimes clients went against direct orders designed to keep them safe. It was likely his guards weren’t happy with him going off on his own.

  Still, Marco had felt confident that the three shapeshifters didn’t present a danger to him. Was this due to politics, or his power?

  Likely a combination of both.

  Eunice and his housemates were under a tight NDA restricting them from sharing any details about vampires they learned as a result of Kelsey living with them, but Eunice had already known some of the strongest, oldest vampires could feed off of emotions. He didn’t know, however, how old they usually were when the ability came to them. Was it normal for it to show up so soon? Had it been there all along for Kelsey, but she’d been with other vampires more than shapeshifters, so no one had picked up on it?

  Or perhaps it’d been there in a small way, but this power jump made it a big enough deal it could finally be noticed.

  He parked, centered and grounded himself, and walked to the limo. The driver and another guard exited the front. The guard opened a door, the driver walked to the front-right corner of the limo and faced forward. The first guard out walked to the back-right corner and faced back. Other guards took up positions to watch the surroundings as well, and Eunice noticed two seemed to be watching the skies.

  Abbott had been able to fly, but he was in Alaska. Who else were they watching for? It was interesting to watch other security teams work, and in this case, reassuring, since the vampires had to be doubly protected during daylight hours.

  Three body bags were removed, and were carried inside the back door and down the steps.

  A slim, pale female vampire with dark hair climbed from her bag without help, and a chill went through him. This one needed watching.

  When Marco and Kelsey were out and standing, Eunice joined Fabio and their girl, walking with her between them. Kelsey was afraid, and Eunice wanted to help keep her fear at bay, but all he could do was offer his physical presence.

  It turned out the office was primarily used by Etta, the female vampire who’d set Eunice’s teeth on edge. She walked Kelsey into the adjoining bedroom, and closed and locked the door.

  Eunice stood at the entrance to the office, Fabio stood at the entrance to the bedroom. Marco sat behind the desk, and an eagle stood between Marco and Fabio.

  The wolves had stayed upstairs.

  Eunice felt power being thrown around in the other room. The hair on his arms stood up. His spine tingled.

  For an hour.

  No one spoke in the office. Marco seemed to be looking through invoices and comparing
them to something on the computer monitor while Eunice and Fabio stood as bodyguards — despite the fact there was nothing to guard except the doors.

  When the inner door finally opened, Etta came out, her arm around Kelsey, who had red eyes and a tear streaked face. The scent of decomposing flesh and death came to him out of the room, as well as the stench of fear and dread. Someone had been terrified in that room.

  “She’ll need to feed,” the female vampire said.

  Fabio scooped Kelsey up, walked to the sofa, and sat with her in his lap, her head in the crook of his neck. “Take what you need, Cupcake. I have you.”

  Marco didn’t seem to react to the nickname, but he was clearly interested in the power moving between the two of them.

  “I’m afraid that isn’t a good idea just yet,” he told them, and he motioned to the door.

  A duck shifter walked in, and Eunice immediately understood what they intended to do. The duck’s arm was held by the Slayer, and the energy between the two of them told him the larger duck was prisoner of the smaller Slayer.

  Ducks are the rapists of the animal kingdom, and duck shifters are... well, frequently in need of brutal punishment.

  Kelsey scented the Slayer and tried to run, but Fabio held her. “He’s okay. He isn’t here to hurt you.”

  Ryan’s grasp on the duck’s arm seemed to tighten, and he walked the shifter past them, into the bedroom. Marco stood and walked around the desk.

  “Come along, Kelsey. Now that you know how it feels, it’s time for you to do it to someone who deserves to die. If you don’t know your capabilities, you won’t know how important it is to harness them.”

  No one invited Eunice or Fabio into the bedroom. However, the eagle sat at the desk and engaged the keyboard tray. A half-dozen clicks later, and they could see what was happening on the wall screen.

  “The door is secure,” the eagle told them. “You won’t get through. She is going to kill him with sex. Marco feels you both need to understand what she can do with this power. She’ll drain him. She’s just been drained in a similar manner, and then been given enough energy from Marco to function. She’ll be allowed to keep the energy she takes from the man she murders. The Slayer is present because he’s sanctioned this activity as a quick-training tool.”

  “First, she has it done to her, and then she’s required to do it to others? But it didn’t hurt, when she...” Fabio’s voice trailed off. He didn’t want to admit she’d nearly drained him and then put it back. And then some, based on how weak she was.

  “It can be quite a pleasant way to die, or it can hurt. Vampire’s choice. In this case, Marco is choosing.”

  “She’ll be horrified when she knows we watched,” Fabio noted.

  The eagle didn’t respond, so Eunice told Fabio, “My guess is that Marco doesn’t want her to know we’re watching while it happens. I also believe he decided you aren’t afraid enough of what she can do.”

  “She won’t hurt me on purpose.”

  “Dead’s dead. Doesn’t matter if it was on purpose or accident,” the eagle noted.

  13

  Collosa reported to Nathan’s office to update him on what’d happened. He worked out using the Drake facilities, and then stood in the shower longer than necessary, second-guessing his decision not to go with them.

  And then went home and directly to bed, where he did the same thing.

  When sleep refused to come, he got up, put boxers on, went down two levels, and slipped between the sheets of the murphy bed. In his heart, it felt like he and Fabio had taken her out of herself, and her inner vampire took control so they’d be rougher with her. If she’d fed from them, she’d given it back, because she was weak at the end. Not strong. Fabio had fed her to be certain she’d rise. You have to be careful with baby vamps — if they go down without much juice, they stay down and never rise again.

  So, Collosa stayed behind to show her he trusted her. He didn’t need to see the training. He didn’t need to stay on top of her training. He only needed to not indulge her by taking her out of herself for sex until she was on top of it — and then, they’d need a spotter before they tried it again. Someone watching from far enough away she couldn’t get into their head, but close enough they could be here in a few minutes if things went wrong.

  He acknowledged the spotter might need to be a stronger vampire, just outside the room. It wouldn’t be his first choice, but it might be the only one. Marco would get to make that decision, probably.

  Collosa had analyzed his feelings for Kelsey backwards and forwards, and he was convinced they were real and not some kind of vampire trick. However, he was smart enough to keep that possibility open. He didn’t trust vampires, but he trusted her. This meant there might be a problem, no matter his feelings for her.

  He let his inner grizzly come to the forefront enough to help him drop off to sleep, and he woke at five twenty-four when a vehicle pulled up to the house. The garage door opened, then the downstairs door. He opted to stay in bed, and he acknowledged that he was making a statement by doing so. I’m welcome in her bed. I’ve slept here before. I’ve fucked her here. I’m part of her life and there’s nothing wrong with me waiting on her here.

  Five people entered — an eagle shifter wearing weapons, a female vampire he didn’t recognize, Fabio, Eunice, and Kelsey. Fabio had his arm around her. Eunice was on the other side of her, not touching her, but clearly protecting her.

  And then a sixth walked in. He hadn’t smelled him, and that scared the giant grizzly. He sat up and wished he was wearing jeans instead of boxers.

  “Slayer.”

  “Grizzly.”

  Collosa looked away from the Slayer and to Kelsey. “You okay?”

  “No. I may never be okay again.”

  “They made her kill someone,” Fabio told him.

  He was up and to her in less than two seconds. He lifted her in his arms, walked to a sofa, and sat. She was warm, but she smelled of deer, which told him they hadn’t let her drink from Fabio. He’d figured they wouldn’t want to strengthen the blood-bond between them until she was in control of whatever this was, so it wasn’t unexpected. She’d always be able to get into his and Fabio’s heads, but once their blood no longer flowed through her veins, it’d take an extra couple of steps for her to initiate a connection. And, since she’s a baby vamp, it was possible she couldn’t, once she’d fed from enough other people so it was their blood flowing through her body.

  Except she could, because she hacked brains like she did computers.

  Cradling Kelsey against his chest, one of her arms around his neck, he looked up to the vampire he didn’t know. Long, dark hair. Alabaster skin that nearly glowed. And she was thin. Almost too thin. That look was in style now, but wouldn’t have been when she was turned. Many of the older, powerful female vampires who were turned for their beauty were considered obese by current standards. So, this vampire was likely turned for either an ability she had as a human, or for things she’d done as a human that told her maker she’d be a good vampire to have in his line.

  “I’m Collosa, and you are?”

  “Etta. This is Evan.” She motioned to the eagle shifter. “Marco told me to introduce him as head of our security. Evan will need to interact with your people at some point, so it may as well be now.”

  “Our people?” Collosa asked.

  “Drake Security,” the eagle answered. “We handle our own security needs and won’t be contracting out for it, but I understand there are some joint functions, where we’ll need to work together to keep all parties safe.”

  “There are,” Eunice said from behind Collosa. Right behind him. Eunice didn’t trust these two strangers. Not a good sign.

  The Slayer had come in and taken a seat in one of the chairs. He looked terribly comfortable, which was kind of his thing, but it still rankled.

  “You approved of her being forced to kill someone?” Collosa asked the Slayer.

  “He was under a death sentence anywa
y. He had to die, and the vampires needed to teach her what she can do with this new ability of hers. Now that she knows, she’ll be much less likely to accidentally kill someone.”

  The skinny vampire pushed her hair behind her shoulder. “Her choice was to drain him of life, or for me to drain her of life. Anytime she stopped draining him, I drained her.” She put her hands on her hips. “I’d already drained her to just the point of death, and then given her a little of her own energy back. She understood I’d have to take her life if she didn’t do this. I didn’t give her an option.”

  His heart broke for the tiny vampire in his arms, but he understood why they’d had to do it. He touched his lips to Kelsey’s forehead in a gentle kiss. “Do you remember me telling you how grizzlies are taught to be careful with humans? That consequences are the same whether you meant to hurt a human or not? I’ve been beaten to the point of being nearly dead, and then assisted in a change to my bear form because I wasn’t strong enough to do it. Supernaturals have strengths we can’t fuck around with. Training has to be brutal, Kelsey. It has to be.”

  “It was bad,” Eunice said from behind him. “We watched on the security feed. If I’d been able to get into the room, I’d have stopped it. You’re right, training has to be brutal sometimes, but this was too much for me to watch. I can only imagine what this has done to our sweet girl.”

  Etta made a noise in her throat like she was being strangled. “Sweet?! There are no sweet vampires! I know she was turned for her mind, but she’s a fucking Strigorii Vampire from a warrior line! She’s going to have to buck up and deal. I’ve done worse than she did today without batting an eye. Much worse. If I have to make her kill someone every day for a month to give her some perspective, I fucking will.”

  The Slayer stood. “No. That won’t be necessary. She needed to do it once, so she’d see the results of losing control. Not everyone needs the kind of thick skin you’ve been forced into, Etta.”

  If looks could kill, the Slayer would’ve been dead on the floor, but he merely smiled softly at her angry glare. “You know I’m right.” He spoke so low, so soft, it felt as if they were speaking intimately, and Collosa looked back and forth between them, trying to figure out what he was seeing.