Kelsey rose off the ground like some sort of specter, and Eunice’s heart kicked into high gear before he realized Etta was levitating the weaker vampire up to him.
“Fuck. Warn me next time.”
Kelsey held onto the mongoose and soaked in his heat. There was no lust, and considering her positioning, that was a little disappointing, and yet, she was thankful she didn’t have to deal with the whole accidentally-draining-and-killing him thing.
He was so warm, and so strong. Also, she kind of liked that he was only a few inches taller than her. She was five-seven, and she figured he was probably five-ten. He didn’t seem small, but she figured that had to do with his energy signature, which was large and powerful.
And his muscled arms holding her made her feel safe.
She noted when they left the trail and hoped they didn’t have much farther to go. Twenty meters later, she heard the Jeep’s engine approaching and then pulling over to stop. Her best guess was they were — what the fuck was four hundred to eight hundred meters? She did the math in her head as an exercise to get her mind off her pain — more than a quarter mile, and less than a half mile.
She telepathed to Etta. Please tell him I’m sorry he’s having to carry me.
You can tell him yourself once you’ve healed your scalp.
Kelsey was starving, and Eunice smelled so damned good, but he hadn’t offered to feed her, so she kept her mouth closed. She’d been tested for just this sort of thing — starving with an unwilling bleeder’s neck right there. It’d seem ludicrous during testing, and yet, here she was, ignoring her hunger, her need, and fighting not to drink the mongoose down.
She reached her mind out to James. I’m going to need to feed. Please tell me you’ll agree? It will have to be done without lust.
Of course I’ll feed you. If you want it without lust, you’ll need to feed from my forearm, and you’ll need to make it hurt.
I don’t want to hurt you.
Without the pain, your lips sucking on my flesh will bring lust.
Well, when he put it that way.
She wanted to huff out a sigh, but that was the human parts of her she hadn’t been able to get rid of. Humans use their breath to express emotions and to vent energy. Vampires do it with intent when around humans, but not usually around each other.
James had the passenger door opened when they arrived, and Eunice scooted her onto it without fanfare. The next thing she knew, a grizzly’s arm was touching her lips, and she reached for it to hold it still, opened her mouth, and sank her fangs into the heated flesh with savory blood just below the surface.
Take what you need, James’ voice came into her head. I can change and replenish.
She aimed her intentions towards Etta and asked, Can you handle any humans who happen along?
I have it covered. Drink.
She drank, and drank, and drank some more. Eunice stepped forward to stop her at one point, but James assured him it was fine. She paid attention to the grizzly’s heart, and it beat strongly. He was a huge man with plenty of blood to give. It was probably good Eunice hadn’t offered. She’d have still needed to feed from someone else once he’d given all he could safely give.
She had to make her heart beat to push the blood through her system, and she felt the blood flowing down her head, but it couldn’t be helped. As quickly as possible, Kelsey focused energies to her scalp and felt the skin knitting back together.
When she was as healed as she could manage, and was topped up nicely, Kelsey carefully slid her teeth out and sealed the holes with her tongue and saliva before she let go of the grizzly shifter’s arm and pulled him into a hug. “Thank you, James.”
“You’re most welcome.” He stepped back and gave her a randy grin. “My biggest regret is that I can’t go into the shower with you to help you clean up.”
Eunice got into the driver’s seat. “Get in the back, asshole. I’m driving us home.”
Etta was already in the back seat, and when James joined her, Eunice pulled the jeep back onto the road.
Thank you for handling the humans, she told Etta. I sensed you making sure they only saw an empty Jeep, and no people.
You’re most welcome. I’m impressed you had the presence of mind to check in with me before you drank. You were in dire need by the time the mongoose got you to the bear.
You seem to be friends with the Slayer. Perhaps you can put a good word in for me.
Etta closed her mind without responding, so Kelsey leaned her head back and closed her eyes.
“I feel like a clumsy idiot. I was running too fast and didn’t know the trail.”
“Agreed, on both parts,” Eunice said from behind her. “And yet, my irritation around it has more to do with the fact you injured yourself than with your clumsiness.” He touched her arm a brief moment before pulling his hand back. “Your visible bruises and abrasions are mostly healed. It’s too bad you won’t be able to go to the D&D game with me.”
“She will,” Etta said from the back seat. “I’ll need the address of the home, so I can observe from outside. Based on Kelsey’s control of her hunger while you carried her, and the fact she checked in with me to be certain I’d cloud the minds of any humans who drove by, I believe we need to see how she does in a room full of humans. She’s made of stronger stuff than appears at first glance.”
Kelsey opened her eyes and turned to look at Etta. “You think I’m ready?”
“There’s only one way to find out. If you begin draining the humans, or the mongoose, I’ll step in.”
15
Etta contacted Eunice to let the deer shifter in shortly before the time Kelsey would wake. His mongoose didn’t like it when Kelsey smelled like prey, but he understood why it was important she didn’t have the energy of a predator in her while she worked through learning to control this new skill.
He’d always assumed the rumors about vampires being able to feed off of lust, anger, fear, or whatever were mere myths, but now they had a vampire in their home who could feed from lust. It was really too bad the Master Vampire’s NDA was ironclad, because Eunice badly wanted to share the information with his Drake coworkers. However, the vampires had the luxury of centuries to perfect the wording, so it was unlikely he’d find a way around it.
Tonight, he was happy to say, was about fantasy. Role playing. Nerdy, geeky fun. He grabbed his t-shirt with a huge, beautiful dragon flying while holding a twenty-sided die in its claws.
The deer shifter left hours before sunset, which told him Kelsey was up and likely getting ready. With two feedings since her injuries, he hoped the abrasions at least were healed. He figured she’d be able to cover the bruises with makeup.
Kelsey came upstairs a few minutes after sunset, wearing a hot pink shirt that proclaimed, “We apologize for the inconvenience.” Which was — according to Douglas Adams — God’s final message to his creation.
Was this an apology for her tumble down the ridge that morning? He looked closer, and noted her injuries were no longer visible, but the damned shirt hugged every fucking curve of her luscious body, and only came down to about two inches above her low-cut jeans, which also hugged every motherfucking curve.
And she wore silver sneakers. Silver.
He shook his head. “You’re too pretty for a D&D game. I can’t take you in there looking like this, especially when you aren’t supposed to be feeding on lust.”
Etta nodded as if in agreement, but said, “Yes, but if she wants a test, this’ll do it. I’ve looked over the area via satellite photos and maps. If you’ll drive me and let me out when you turn onto the destination’s road, I can make my way to the domicile and monitor the game from the back of the roof. Kelsey hacked into their alarm system and assures me there are no cameras or monitors to detect movement on the roof. She disabled the window security on the room you told us the game will take place, so I can enter without detection should the alarm be engaged while company is on the premises, though it’s doubtful the owners wi
ll do so.”
Eunice frowned at Kelsey. “You hacked into JB’s system?”
“Etta needed me to, so yeah.”
Eunice crossed his arms. He wanted to be upset with her, but couldn’t come up with a logical reason to bitch about it. From a security standpoint, she’d done the exactly right thing.
“How’s the agoraphobia? You don’t seem anxious about leaving the house, even though you just left it and something bad happened.”
“My former master required me to run a set number of nights, and he required I leave the building for two social occasions per week. It’s my understanding that having to leave the safety of home for work five nights a week is supposed to help, but that I’ll still be required to attend one social function per week.”
Suddenly, he understood her a little better. She wasn’t completely comfortable in her new home yet, so she was branching out as much as possible before she was afraid to leave. The D&D game was a social gathering she didn’t mind, since there were other socially inept people there. If he were honest, it was one of the reasons he enjoyed going. Sure, the game was fun, but it was the people he enjoyed, and he didn’t often have a big need to be around humans.
He’d watched his uncle self-destruct because he didn’t understand the human world. Eunice was never going to get so out-of-touch he had to be put down by the Concilio. This weekly game reminded him of how fragile humans are, but also how creative, happy, and resilient they can be. It grounded him, which was ironic since they were engaged in a role-playing fantasy game.
Kelsey didn’t think she’d ever get used to driving on the right side of the road. Even from the passenger seat, it caught her off guard at the oddest moments. To take her mind off it, she asked, “Tell me about the night’s DM. Anything I need to know?”
“JB’s running it tonight, and he’s quite good. He frequently has the leading role in local plays, and he does the voice work for many of the regional commercials. He really gets into creating the non-playing-characters for the quest.”
“I have a favor to ask.”
He cut his eyes to her and then back to the road. “Ask.”
“I’d like for my character to be from Australia. I’ll throw a few Australian words and phrases in. That way, if I fuck up and say something Australian, it won’t be obvious.”
“You haven’t fucked up in days.”
“I’m nervous, Eunice. Help me out here.”
He shook his head. “I shouldn’t allow it.”
“Please. My personal backstory will be that I dated an Australian for a while and picked up some phrases. I’ve lived here all my life, of course.” She switched to Australian. “My character was born in the outback of Straya, but she was raised on the outskirts of Melbourne. She’s here to do a job, not here to fuck spiders. She’s dry as a dead dingo’s donger, so she’ll just blow the froth off a few and get to work.”
Eunice shook his head. “And you?”
She shrugged and did her best impression of an American. “Kelsey grew up in bumfuck fly-over country. Graduated from MIT and recently moved to Chattanooga to harden the network for a security company.”
“And you know enough about MIT to pull that off?”
“Yeah. I did a semester there a dozen years ago, during Australia’s summer, so I know the area. A vampire went into the minds of the professors and students at the end of last year to put longer term memories of me in. I paid extra for an identity with a degree from MIT. The vampire who worked it made notes of things in the students’ heads. Random stuff about professors, favorite hangouts, parking, dorms.”
The people who make new identities for vampires had offered her a job, since it requires a good bit of hacking to pull it off, but she’d been happier with the offer from Drake Security. A big part of that was the choice between America or Italy. One look at the tax rates had told her all she needed to know. Also, she knew English, French, Mandarin, and enough Spanish to pick up the high points — but very little Italian.
They dropped Etta off, and about a half-mile later, pulled into a modest home in a beautiful neighborhood with the forest coming up to the backyard. “I didn’t expect so many Americans to live with the forest in their backyard. I assumed you did because the three of you are shapeshifters, but you said this man is human?”
“He happens to live right outside a national park — the Chickamauga Battlefield. We’ve dipped down into Georgia, just a few miles over the line. I’m not actually sure how common it is. Probably isn’t.” He took his seatbelt off and turned to her. “I have a compromise for you. Go with the Australian character, but try to only speak Australian intentionally. If you do it by accident, you’ll be honest and tell me, and there will be consequences.”
As compromises went, it wasn’t terrible. This kept her or Etta from having to rearrange anyone’s memories, which took some pressure off her. It didn’t take it all, but she understood why he didn’t want to give her an excuse to let it drop. Still, she’d wanted to be able to forget about it more.
“I’m going to have to work to be personable, and not to eat their lust, and to speak American. It’s a lot.”
“I can see that it would be. Lucky for you, this group will be fine with social ineptness. You only need to focus on the lust and the speech.”
“Thank you for the compromise.”
Eunice had known these geeks were going to lust after her, but he’d had no idea how motherfucking intense it would be. Within thirty seconds of entering, the room smelled like a strip bar.
Thankfully, when JB wrapped his arm around her to walk her to the food layout, Kelsey froze. It gave Eunice the perfect excuse to implement a no-touching-the-hot-girl rule.
“JB, you’re scaring Kelsey.”
JB immediately realized Eunice was right, and he let go of her and took two steps back.
Eunice rolled his eyes at his human friend. “Look, just consider her a geeky Jessica Rabbit, okay? It isn’t her fault she looks like that. Back off a little.”
He heard two of the mega-geeks whispering. “She looks like that and she’s one of us?” and then “I don’t know, maybe. Look past her tits and read the shirt.”
Another geek had apparently read her shirt despite the fact they were on some impressive boobs, and he stepped to within a yard of her, introduced himself, and told her he looked forward to a night with someone new, to liven things up a little. He told her he was an elven ranger, and asked about her character.
JB stepped to Eunice, clearly annoyed. “You told me you were bringing someone, but neglected to mention she’s a shy-as-fuck supermodel? What gives?”
“New housemate. Just hired in and needed a place.”
“How old is she?”
“Eighteen. Graduated MIT last year. Seriously, asshole, go easy on her.”
With makeup along with hair and wardrobe to dress as someone older later, the vampires said she’d be able to stay in one place until her mid to late thirties, so she could possibly be here around twenty years. She easily pulled off eighteen. She could’ve possibly pulled off sixteen, but then she’d have needed a legal guardian.
“So, is she fair game? You got a problem with me taking a piece of her?”
“Yeah, I do, actually. She’s only been here a few days and I don’t know if things will go anywhere, but she speaks my language, so back the fuck off.”
Eunice was horrified to hear himself making her off limits — especially since Etta and Kelsey would easily hear him, but he couldn’t help himself. He didn’t want anyone else touching her.
He wasn’t entirely happy when Collosa and Fabio did, but he wasn’t pissed at them, at least.
JB held his hands out to the side and backed away from him. “Wow, okay. I didn’t figure her for your type.”
Right. JB was well aware Eunice’s type was a full-on submissive sex slave.
“I don’t know that she is, and I’m not ready to talk about it yet.”
Eunice stepped away from him because he di
dn’t want to answer any more questions. He liked JB, enjoyed spending time with the human, but he wasn’t prepared to analyze his feelings. Not only wasn’t Kelsey the kind of sex slave he demanded, but she was a bloodsucking vampire.
He’d walked in with a case of beer under his arm, and he went to the kitchen to put it in the fridge. He wouldn’t drink any, but it was easier than bringing food. Someone had made a pot of chili, and there were cubes of cheese to put in it, along with sour cream, nachos, and tons of sweets. He walked back into the main room with his chili, a bottle of water, and a piece of chess pie — and saw Kelsey sitting uncomfortably between two nerds.
“Oh no. The hot chick came with me, and the hot chick sits with me. You motherfuckers need to find your own hot chick.”
Kelsey’s look told him she was grateful, and he sat beside one of the other girls, but with enough room for Kelsey to comfortable sit between them. “C’mere Kels. It’s safer over here.”
She gave the geek-boys an apologetic look, but quickly rose and made her way to Eunice. She introduced herself to the woman on her left, asked about her character, and the conversation seemed to flow from there, as he’d hoped. The woman was a librarian who worked for a suburban high school. She’d see Kelsey as no older than her kids, at first. It wouldn’t take her long to see there was a lot more to her, but by then, they’d have a rapport.
Usually, when you take someone new to an established D&D game, you worry about whether they’ll fit. As soon as Kelsey had told him about her character, he’d known she’d be a perfect fit for this group. A bard with healing powers to act as backup to the main fighters was exactly the kind of personality they needed. Halfway through the night, he was pleased to see he’d been right. Kelsey fit into their group as if she’d been tailor made for it.
He picked up on one accidental use of an Australian phrase — when she proclaimed her character to be knackered after she’d overused her feather-fall spell to save everyone who fell off a cliff.
Present Tense: Pleasure Times Four (Out of the Fire Book 3) Page 12