“It’s him!” She cried as Ladia pulled the baby out of her. “It’s Eliss!” She panted and fell backward, crying both bitterly and joyfully as she did so. “It is Eliss…”
Ladia looked down at the baby in her arms and smiled. She rubbed the sticky, messy boy on the nose, and he wiggled in her arms and let out a cry. When Sarasin heard the baby’s voice, she sat up and reached her arms out.
“Give him to me!” She urged Ladia, “Let me see him!” Gently, Ladia stepped forward and laid the baby into his mother’s arms. Sarasin wept and held Eliss close to her chest. He whined and nuzzled into her, opening and closing his mouth as he searched for her breast.
“You came back!” Sarasin whispered at her boy, laughing and crying as she did so. “You came back to me Eliss.” The baby looked just as she remembered him. It was as if things had been set right, as if they had gotten a second chance at life.
“He is beautiful,” Emerald gushed as she kissed Sarasin on top of the head. Amaria shifted her attention away from all the blood and smiled at her sister in law.
“He is,” She nodded, “I cannot wait for him to meet Roc!”
Ladia walked up to Sarasin’s side, and as she brushed her fingers through her daughter’s hair, her face went from a smile to a frown. She shook her head and sighed.
“We will clean… Eliss up,” Ladia assured her daughter, “You need to rest… we will bring him back shortly for you to feed him. We… we still need to figure out what to do with you.”
Sarasin, though weak, looked up at her mother and nodded. The fact that she was a prisoner had not left her; she knew that she was headed for a jail cell if not death. She took one last look at her son and then placed him into her mother’s arms.
“Mommy…” Sarasin called out as Ladia started walking away with the child. Ladia turned around and raised her eyebrows at her daughter.
“Yes, Sayraa?”
“I love you.”
Chapter Eleven
Ema’as II
23rd of Ramlia - 346AG
11:00 - Canruusi Wastes
“Hey not so hard!” Camber whined as Ema’as dug her fangs into his wrist. It was their first official “friendly” feeding, and even though they had already made love… twice, it was awkward for both of them.
“Oh, don’t be a baby, baby,” Ema’as teased as she momentarily pulled her lips away from his arm. She was acting strangely as if she were in some kind of trance. Camber noticed, but didn’t dare say anything about it, “And don’t you forget, lovey, you’re still my slave. Just relax, remember you’re mine and know I’ll take care of you.”
Camber groaned and leaned back in his seat as Ema’as continued sucking from his arm. He could feel the blood being pulled from his veins and into her mouth, it was a strange sensation for sure, but one that he knew he had to get used to.
“So, how many times a day do you need to feed?” He asked, not bothering to look down at his wrist. The sight of it made him feel a bit squeamish. He could only surmise that it was due to the very recent memories of methodically being ripped apart and consumed. In his time as a Marauder, he had picked the bones of other people clean and had both seen and taken part in the butchering of whole caravans, but had never until then been on the receiving end.
“I don’t know,” Ema’as shrugged, and blood dripped from her mouth, “From what I can tell so far I think just one or two…” Ema’as looked up at him and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. He frowned at the sight of his blood smeared on her dark skin and swallowed a lump in his throat, nodding his head as he did so.
“I guess I can live with that,” he turned to look out the window of the truck and into the Canruusi Wastes outside. There was nothing to be seen for miles, only dry orange ground and bright shining sunslight. His mind raced as he thought about the terrible decisions he had made that led him to such an unfortunate existence, but Camber knew that there was nothing he could do about it. He knew, at least for the moment, that he was nothing more than fuckable cattle.
“Okay,” Ema’as sat up, gently rested her head on the seat behind her and smiled. The blood was warm in her belly; it felt very much like a flagon of mead. She sat and indulged in the post-feeding euphoria and released Camber’s hand. He quickly snatched it over to him and immediately put pressure on his bleeding wrist.
“Can I…” Camber grunted as he spoke because he didn’t want to upset his new master, “I mean, can you heal me?”
“Right,” Ema’as slowly turned her head toward Camber and formed a stupid looking smile. She dizzily reached a finger up to her mouth and pricked it with one of her fangs. Gently giggling, she extended her hand and wiped her bloodied digit against Camber’s lips.
“Whoa!” Camber reeled back and turned his head away, “Just a second, I wasn’t ready!”
“Oh just drink you little bitch,” Ema’as smiled and bit her lower lip as she continued to smear the blood on his lips, laughing as she did. He groaned and instinctively sealed his lips and shook his head back and forth to avoid her for a moment, but finally, he opened his mouth. She shoved her finger inside, and his eyes grew wide.
“This is gross,” Her finger rested against his tongue, and she smiled and raised her eyebrows as he spoke, “Your blood tastes like shit.” Ema'as laughed playfully and wiped her bleeding finger around the inside of his mouth. The wound on his wrist promptly closed and when she was finished playing, she pulled it out.
"All better!" Ema'as sang as she slouched down in her seat. She rested her filthy bare feet on the dash and laughed as she took deep, euphoric breaths. With her head leaning against the seat once again, she looked over at Camber.
"You know if you're going to be my boyfriend, you're going to have to loosen up a little," She smiled and gave him a wink. Camber started the truck and glanced over at his companion; he was at a loss by her words.
"Boyfriend?" He choked, "What makes you think I'm going to be your boyfriend? I barely know you."
"You don't have a choice, baby," Ema'as chirped, "You're stuck with me. Forever. You might as well learn to love me."
Camber's heart sank for the hundredth time that day, and he rested his forehead against the steering wheel. Ema'as giggled and rubbed his back, not moving from the comfortable position she had found.
"Look, Ema’as I'd at least like to get to know you a little more before..."
Ema'as' hand crept up his back and rested on his neck. As Camber turned his head and gave her a confused expression, she squeezed. A sharp pain knifed through his body and he straightened his back and sat upright, yelping as he did so.
"I'm not asking, you little shit!" Ema'as snarled as she squeezed tighter and tighter. She was in a strange and sudden rage, one that she could not explain, “You are going to love me. You are going to protect me and take care of me. You got it?"
"Fine!" Camber shouted, content with doing whatever he had to survive, "Whatever you want!"
"Tell me you love me," She commanded as she bore her fangs, “Tell me!”
"I... I love you!" He cried out, desperate for her to let go. She released his neck and gently nuzzled up beside him and rested her dirt and blood matted head on his shoulder. Camber gasped once he was free, and panted as he fell backward against the seat. Ema'as reached her arm around his chest and hugged him.
"I love you too baby," She sweetly sang as she let out a little lovestruck moan. She caressed his ribs with her hand and planted a kiss on his neck, smelling him as she did, "Promise that you'll be mine forever?"
"Y... yes," Camber wondered if the feeding did something to her mind. She had gone completely psycho since drinking from him, before she had been level headed and for the most part, kind, "Forever."
At that, Ema'as belted out an airy laugh and jumped up. She crawled over and straddled the frightened Faire, locking him between her abnormally strong thighs. As she reached down and shoved her hand inside his pants, Camber reeled back but knew he shouldn't fight. She growled and moaned as s
he licked her lips and began kissing his neck wildly, and as quickly as she started to grind against him, she suddenly stopped.
"Someone is coming," She whispered. She had seen something out the driver side window. Camber turned to look and saw a cloud of dust in the distance, a convoy truck very much like their own was heading toward them. Ema'as sighed, but did not stop, in fact, she rubbed against him harder.
"We have a minute baby,” she reached up and grabbed his blonde hair and breathed erotically into his ear. "Give me what I want baby."
"You have to stop!" Camber shouted as he pushed her away. She fell back into the steering wheel and hissed at him, once again baring her fangs as she did. Camber held up his trembling hands just as she slapped him across his face.
"I... love you, baby!" He cried out, desperate to reach some kind of sensibility in her, "B... but more Marauders are coming our way. They might even be a part of Eon's army. I'll give you what you want, but first, we have to get away from them!" he punctuated them with a jab in the direction of the oncoming truck.
Ema'as face twisted with confusion and she abruptly shook her head. For a moment she looked around as if she were lost and then without notice, an expression of clarity spread across her face.
"What have I done..." She whispered as her eyes grew wide. She looked mournfully at Camber, realizing how evil she must have seemed to him and began shaking her head violently, "I'm sorry, I... I don't know what came over me."
Camber observed her as she moved back over to her own seat. She wrapped herself up in her tarp and began to cry softly. "I can't control myself," She whimpered, "The blood makes me… I mean, these urges, they are so strong."
"We will have to worry about that later..." he said, not taking his eyes off her. He felt pity for her but had no idea how he was going to live with her and her moments of psychosis, "For now, we have to get the Hells out of here!" Ema'as nodded, and Camber threw the truck into gear and stomped on the gas.
In his side mirror, he could see that the other truck was much closer and had turned to pursue them. He cursed and gave his vehicle more gas, hoping to put some distance between them. As he drove, however, he worried that it was all in vain. Fuel didn’t last forever, and there was nowhere for them to hide as far as he could see. Not only that, but he had no weapons to fight if he needed to. He felt like he was completely fucked.
The truck was gaining on them quickly, and they were low on gas. Camber gave the pedal everything he had, but it ended up not being near enough. He cursed as he saw the Marauder truck roll up beside them. In the cab, he saw three marauders, each wearing bone armor and helmets made from Gaian skulls. They taunted him as they drove by and the Marauder in the passenger seat aimed a pistol down at one of Camber’s tires. Camber swore and bit his lip, expecting the worst.
Strangely, the Marauder did not fire. He turned his cackling head to his companions next to him, and after a few seconds, he adjusted his aim and pulled the trigger wildly. Ema'as could hear them laughing maniacally as bullets tore through Camber's skull, painting the inside of the cabin red with blood and brain. Ema'as screamed, and Camber's body fell over dead. His hands jerked the wheel, and the truck lost control, promptly flipping onto its side.
Ema'as tumbled violently around the cabin as the truck skidded on the dead ground. Her body collided with Camber's multiple times and when the truck finally came to a stop, she found herself laying on top of his corpse.
The left side of Camber's skull had two bullet holes in it and had mostly collapsed. His blood and brains leaked out onto the seat, and his tongue poked out of his open mouth. Ema'as groaned and pushed herself off of him, remorseful that he had left her so quickly and saddened that she had mistreated him just before he died. She didn’t have time to worry about that though.
Smoke rose from the engine compartment and quickly began to fill the cabin. She swore as another wave of adrenaline crashed over her. As she took hold of her tarp, her protection from the Brothers light, she kicked at the passenger door, and it flew open, nearly breaking off its hinges due to her new Vampre strength.
Ema'as quickly crawled out of the truck and onto the orange ground only to be met by the toe of a boot cracking against her cheek. She tumbled to the side and crashed into the ground, hearing the horrifying sound of three Marauders laughing maniacally.
"Oh, this one's a pretty one!" One of them yelped with excitement, "We're gonna have a bit of fun with ‘er aren’t we!" She felt someone grab each of her arms and flip her over, slamming her onto her back. Her tarp fell to the side, and her skin immediately began to feel like it was burning. She groaned at the pain, and one of the Marauders fell on top of her and thrust his hand up her soiled shirt, whooping with joy as he did.
"Perky girl!" He salivated and growled like a dog as he laughed. He reached up and wiped the spit away from his mouth and then bent over so that his face was only inches from hers. He smelled her neck and licked the side of her cheek, she reeled back and whined in response. Finally, he grabbed each side of her head and planted his blistered lips on hers, forcing his tongue into her mouth and grinding his crotch against her. The other two Marauders howled at the entertainment and cheered him on.
"No!" She whispered, turning her head as the assaulting Marauder reached down and took hold of her pants. Her skin felt like it was about to burst into flame from the Brother’s light and her mind was racing. She was terrified and angry. The pain from the sunslight was increasing by the second, and when she felt the Marauders hand pass by the hem of her pants everything suddenly went silent and she snapped.
"No!" With her new strength, she hurled one of her arms to the side. The Marauder that held her down went flying, and she snarled and repeated the action with her other arm. The third marauder quickly jumped back and reached for his weapon, but Ema'as was much faster.
With lightning speed and a scream that sounded like it was born in the deepest Hells, the Vampress pounced on him and began to rip the hair from his head with her hands. He cried out in terror and pain as she attacked him. Desperately, he tried to wrap his hands around her throat, but she was quick to take hold of his wrists and squeeze.
"Stop!" The Marauder painfully begged, “Please!"
Her eyes burned red like hot coals, and as the power surged through her, she realized that she had more brute strength than she had ever seen before, save for Eon. She jerked one of his arms and felt his shoulder pop out of place. He cried in agony, and she gritted her teeth and yanked one more time. The arm ripped free from his body, and she tossed it aside. As the Marauder slipped into shock, Ema'as planted her fangs into his neck and jerked her head, ripping his throat out. Blood sprayed onto her face, and she quickly grabbed her tarp and draped it over her body as she stood.
She reeled back at the sudden impact of the bullets tearing through her torso but quickly realized that there was no pain. She turned to see one of the Marauders unconscious on the ground and the other standing and aiming a pistol at her. She hissed at him and lunged forward with a speed she had never imagined possible. He screamed and tried to run, but she was on top of him before he could take a step.
With the free hand that wasn't holding onto the tarp, she took hold of the Marauder's hair and pulled his head back so that his throat was open to her. As he screamed and begged her to stop, she dug into him, drinking and eating every morsel that was visible.
For nearly thirty minutes she devoured every piece of the Marauders that she could. Her rage fueled her hunger, and as she craved more flesh the anger intensified. The hangry Vampress tore into the three Marauders, and as she consumed more and more of them, she felt an increasingly more profound sense of euphoria come over her. Finally, with a swollen belly and a drunken high like she had never felt before, she collapsed onto the ground and draped the tarp over herself.
"This..." She delighted as she felt pleasure in every cell of her body, "so much better than sex..." the world spun around her as her entire body tingled and convulsed in a sort of ext
reme orgasmic sensation that would not leave her. Beneath the tarp, she experienced vivid, delightful hallucinations and pondered every curiosity of the universe in a level of mental detail that she never knew possible. She felt as if she had spent an eternity beneath the tarp when she finally began to come down.
Her pulse slowed, and her breathing eased up. The tingling pleasure faded and her world stopped spinning. Ema'as laid silently for a moment as sobriety hit her and listened to her breath. She thought over her life, her situation and everything that led her to where she was. Finally, with her tarp draped around her like a hooded cloak, she pushed herself up off the ground and looked around.
The unmoving bodies of the Marauders were not much more than gore and bone. She stared at them in contemplative silence and found herself feeling both disgusted and in awe at what she had become and with what she was capable of. The power was more than she had ever experienced, but so was the hunger.
As she turned to look at her truck, she saw that the engine compartment continued to emit thick black clouds of smoke. She could just barely see Camber's corpse inside the cab and felt a sense of regret. He had seemed to be a good person or at least good for a Marauder, and her actions had led to his death. As the engine burst into flames and spread to the cabin, she compelled herself to watch.
The inferno tore through the truck and consumed everything inside. Tongues of fire flicked out of every opening, giving the vehicle a hellish appearance. Ema'as gripped her tarp tighter and stepped toward the Marauder's truck.
As she took a seat in her new truck, she adjusted her tarp and flipped her visor down. She was afraid of the coming journey for she knew she had no food, no blood to keep her alive. The Marauders were dead; there was no bringing them back with her own blood.
She cursed at what she perceived was her own stupidity and pounded on the steering wheel. She did not want to lose her mind again; she did not want to feel the thirst. Finally, she realized nothing would change if she sat there and so she threw the truck into gear and pushed on the gas pedal. The vehicle chugged forward but Ema’as was quick to slam her foot on the brakes for somehow, she was no longer alone.
The Black Knight Box Set Page 68