Blood and Forest: A Vampire Novel

by Raven Stone

  Gabriel’s blood wasn’t like a human’s.

  It was a thousand times better. It was like pure energy, pure power, and pure sex. And feeling him thrusting into me, hitting my most pleasurable spot while feeding from me, was my undoing. The human part of me and my vampire orgasmed at the same time, sending shooting stars behind my eyelids and giving me wave after wave of aftershocks.

  And when he came, it sent me over the edge all over again.

  For a moment, we were both quiet, our fangs still inside of each other. Then he removed his fangs, I removed mine, and he slipped out of me altogether.

  He stretched his body across mine and licked my wound closed. I did the same with him, and he smiled. He rolled off of me, then pressed his chest against my back and cupped my breasts.

  “That was amazing.” He kissed the back of my neck. “Fee, you’re such a wonderful surprise.”

  “So are you, Gabriel,” I said, and I meant it.

  I had no idea when he picked me up that night by the roadside that this would happen. I had no idea that he would bring me such happiness. That I would like being a vampire. Because he did. And I was.

  Happy. Joyful. Pleased.

  Lucky.

  I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

  Chapter 136

  Gabriel

  The next night she stood in front of the sink, wearing cut-off shorts and a simple t-shirt. She was washing out mugs so we could have something to eat. I came up behind her, cupped her breasts, and nipped at her neck.

  “I want to spend all night in bed with you,” I said.

  She arched under my hands, reaching back with one arm and putting her hand on the back of my neck. “Mmmm. We can’t.”

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “It’s New Year’s Eve. I have plans,” she replied. Then her phone rang, and she slipped out of my arms to answer it.

  “Julie,” she said. “Happy New Year’s Eve!”

  I walked up behind her again, slipping my hands under her shirt.

  “Hang up the phone,” I whispered into her ear.

  “Yeah, he’s here.” She put the phone on the countertop and hit a button. I used the distraction to unhook her bra.

  “You’re on speaker,” she said.

  “Hi Gabriel!” Julie said cheerfully.

  “Hi Julie,” I replied, smiling.

  “We’re going to a big party up in the hills tonight. What are you two doing?”

  “I already have plans,” Fiona said.

  I ran my hands up under her bra and pinched her nipples. She gasped, her hands grabbing the countertop for support.

  “We’re discussing that.” I countered. “My lovely here wants to leave the house, I’m assuming?”

  She nodded. I ran my hands down her breasts, then over her arms and up her neck. She leaned into my touch.

  “And I’d rather stay in.” I dipped my head and nibbled at her neck. Fiona gasped again, and Julie laughed softly.

  “Fiona, I’d give that man what he wants. I’ll call you another time, girl.” Then she hung up.

  I bit into her without breaking the skin, and Fiona moaned out loud. Then I picked her up and put her on the countertop. Her eyes were smoky with desire. I was about to kiss her when that damned phone rang again.

  This time she picked it up and held it to her ear. “Hi Mel. Yeah, we’ll pick you up at eight. Did you find a date?”

  I ran my hands up her thighs.

  “Great. No, we as in Gabriel and I. Yeah, he flew into town last night. I know, it was a great surprise.” She smiled at me. Then she linked a finger though one of the loops of my jeans and pulled me closer. “Hey Mel, let’s make it eight-thirty, okay?”

  Then she hung up and kissed me.

  Chapter 136

  Fiona

  Somehow I got him out of bed and dressed on time. Fortunately he’d brought a black suit with him.

  I changed into my dress for the night. It was black and fell to mid-calf. When I twirled, the skirt flared and floated around me without revealing anything.

  “Fiona, you look beautiful,” Gabriel said.

  “Thank you.”

  “There’s just one more thing I want to add.” He crossed the room with his hands behind his back. “This.” He held out a black jewelry box.

  “Gabriel,” I said softly.

  I took the box out of his hand and opened it. It held a blood-red ruby in the shape of a teardrop, surrounded by diamonds, and hanging from a necklace.

  “It’s beautiful,” I breathed. “But it’s way too expensive.”

  “It’s not. May I?” He held out his hand, and I reluctantly handed the necklace over.

  He unhooked the clasp and draped the necklace around my neck. He closed it shut and kissed me in that little dip between my throat and chest. Then he rested the jewel on that little dip.

  “I want you to think of me every time you breathe in,” he said, his warm eyes on mine.

  I brushed my lips against his. “Thank you, Gabriel.”

  He smiled in response.

  I squeezed his arm. “I have something for you too. It’s not like this, but it’s something.”

  I slipped out of his arms and got the small present from my chest of drawers. I held it out to him. He smiled and tore off the wrapping paper.

  “Fiona,” he said softly, nestling the gift in his hand.

  “It’s carved out of one single piece of wood,” I said. It was a replica of a small sailing ship. “I figured you might not get to sail very much, but you should still have a ship of your own.”

  “It’s magnificent,” he said, running his finger over the wood. “Thank you.” He gave me a quick kiss and put it away in his bag.

  “Now, let’s go celebrate the turning of the year, so I can bring you home and get you out of that dress.” He winked at me and held out his hand.

  Chapter 137

  Gabriel

  We picked up Mel and her date for the night. His name was Brad, and he was blond, tall, and damn young. I swear he gulped when he saw me. Mel elbowed him in the ribs and rolled her eyes.

  I drove to the address that Fiona gave me and got in line for valet parking.

  “Why didn’t you tell me this was where you wanted to go?” I asked Fiona. We were at the Art and History museum.

  She shrugged. “It didn’t matter where. What mattered was that I already had plans.”

  Mel leaned forward. “We saved up for a year to go to this. No way would I have let Fiona back out, especially after we got the ticket back from her jackass of an ex-boyfriend.”

  The valet opened my door, and we all got out. I took the ticket from him and followed Fiona, Mel, and her date into the museum.

  We went through a long line, and a security screening, then followed the crowd into a large open hall. Guests gathered at tall tables and chatted in small groups. Waiters walked by, carrying flutes of champagne and appetizers.

  Fiona weaved through the crowd, and I followed her. She stopped at a small table in the middle of the room that had the number sixty on a small card.

  “This is it. This is our table.”

  We clustered around it for a few minutes. I snagged champagne for each of us.

  “I propose a toast,” Fiona said. “To new friends and old.” We clinked glasses and drank.

  “We’re almost there, Mel. One more semester and we’ll both have our degrees,” she said, after drinking half of her champagne.

  “We got this, Fiona.” Mel smiled.

  “Yes, we do.” Fiona finished her champagne. “Now, who’s ready to tour the museum with me?”

  “Let’s all go,” Mel replied, elbowing her date. “Right?”

  “Right,” he said, even though his attention had been elsewhere.

  “Great.” Fiona linked her arm in mine and led us into the relative quiet of the museum.

  “All of the exhibits are open tonight.” She told us in a hushed voice. “Docents and lecturers are standing by to answer questions
until 11:30. For tonight, the museum’s ours.”

  She led us into the first exhibit. The docents and lecturers were obvious, standing by with folded hands and open expressions. Fewer people than I would have expected were ahead of us, walking through the room and talking quietly.

  “Fiona, should we let Gabriel in on our little game?” Mel asked.

  “Sure.” She smiled shyly.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “We pick out the item that we think is someone else’s favorite. Fiona will choose yours, you’ll pick out hers, I’ll pick out Brad’s, and he’ll pick out mine. Sound fair?” Mel asked.

  “I’m game.” Brad shrugged.

  “Sounds fun.” I slipped my hand into Fiona’s.

  “Uh huh,” she whispered into my ear. “No cheating. No listening to my heartbeat, no feeling my pulse.” Her hand slipped out of mine.

  I grinned. “Okay.”

  We walked through the rooms, and it became very apparent that Mel and Brad were on a second date. He was playful with her, and she flirted with him. He picked poorly, though, failing twice at picking her favorite. Finally he stopped in front of a painting of three women posed in colorful dresses.

  “This,” he said.

  “Good,” she replied, and gave him a quick kiss. I didn’t think he’d really picked the right one; I figured she was just tired of the game. She quickly chose a painting of a racing car as his favorite.

  “Babe, you’re right,” he said, his hand a few inches away from the piece. A docent moved forward, and she pulled him away from it.

  “You can’t touch anything,” she said.

  “Right,” he replied.

  We continued our walk through the museum, with Fiona occasionally pausing in front of paintings and looking at me coquettishly from beneath her eyelashes.

  “Are you trying to trick me?” I asked.

  “Nooo,” she said.

  “Yesss,” I replied in the same tone of voice.

  “It’s just, you haven’t picked anything yet. You haven’t said any of these.”

  “Because we haven’t come across the right one yet.” I smiled. “I’ll know it when I see it.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me. “No cheating.”

  “Then no trying to trick me.” I replied, and she grinned.

  “Come on, you two,” Mel called over her shoulder.

  We caught up to Mel and Brad, walking into the next exhibit. These pieces were more recent, from the last decade or so. They ranged from sculptures to photographs, and even a few paintings.

  We followed the curve of the exhibit. It turned to the right and then opened onto a large square room filled with all three types of pieces.

  That’s when I saw it.

  In the very far corner was Fiona’s favorite. It had to be.

  It was a massive painting of the Wild Hunt. Fae warriors on horseback covered the canvas. Humans were everywhere too; some of them running in fear, and some of them smiling and gently reaching towards the Fae. Wolves prowled and howled, beautiful underneath the shining full moon, while the dark black night around it gleamed wetly.

  And there was something else. Something the art installation on that hilltop had been missing.

  Vampires.

  They were here too. Emerging from the darkness, their eyes glowing, with humans by their side or in their arms. A view of the world as it had once been, and at the same time had never existed.

  “This one,” I said softly. “This is your favorite, Fee.”

  “Goddamn,” Mel said. “You went straight to it. Jackass circled this whole building three times and never saw it.” Her eyes narrowed, examining the painting. “You remind me of him.”

  “Jackass?” I asked, offended.

  “No.” She smiled and shook her head. She carefully pointed at the painting, far away enough from the surface that she wouldn’t get the attention of the docent. “Him.”

  He was a vampire, emerging from the darkness of the forest alone. His eyes glowed red, but he wasn’t scary. Not at all. He was passionate. Burning for someone, looking for someone. Hunting.

  “Yeah,” Mel said, glancing between Fiona and I. “Now I see why she likes you.”

  Fiona smiled shyly and slipped her hand into mine. “Come on. I need to show you your favorite.”

  She led me across the room to a large painting. “This one.”

  It was a painting of a sailing ship caught in a storm. It was done so well that I could feel the pitch of the deck beneath my feet and hear the roaring of the wind in my ears.

  “Yes,” I said simply. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her back to my chest.

  “Hey, Mel, we’ll meet up with you two back at the table, okay?” She said over her shoulder.

  “Sure. You’ve got fifteen minutes before they close the exhibits,” Mel said. Her date took her hand and let her out of the room. Fiona relaxed against me, putting her hands on my arms.

  “We crossed to the New World in ships like that,” I said, quietly enough that the docent couldn’t hear.

  “What was it like?” she asked in the same low tone.

  “Wild. Chaotic. Exhilarating. I’d just promised everything to a few hundred souls, without knowing if I could really deliver. I loved being back on the seas again, but when we hit a calm I realized how irresponsible I’d been. That I’d promised them safety and life.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I used every bit of knowledge I had to get us going again, and prayed to every god I could think of. Then we got lucky and our sails filled again. We reached shore a week before our humans would have starved to death.”

  “You crossed with humans and vampires?” she asked.

  “Yes. They sailed during the day, and we sailed at night. It was a good arrangement.”

  “So, is this what your very first ship looked like?” Fiona asked.

  “No.”

  She glanced up at me. This wasn’t the first time she’d asked how old I was, and I knew it wouldn’t be the last. She’d keep asking. She was my noven, and curiosity about me was natural.

  “I’ll show you, as long as you don’t tell anyone else.”

  “Your secrets are safe with me, Gabriel. Always.”

  “Thank you.” I brushed her lips with mine and took her hand.

  I led her quickly back through the exhibits since we were running low on time. I found the area I was looking for and stopped in front of a small model encased in glass and lit with a spotlight.

  “This,” I said, “this is the closest thing that this museum has. I never served on one, but I did board a few.”

  Surprise blossomed in her eyes. “Gabriel, this is a Roman ship.”

  I smiled. “Yes, I know. It’s a warship. You can see where the men rowed here. And contrary to popular belief, they were usually citizens, not slaves.”

  “I see someone knows his history.” A docent in his mid-seventies approached us. “The Roman navy was one of its strengths, and ships like these played a part. Can I answer any questions for you folks?”

  “What timeframe is this ship from?” Fiona asked.

  The docent smiled. “The Pax Romana, young lady. The Roman peace that we’d call their Golden Age. Now, the Romans had warships well before then, but this is the earliest model that we have in the museum. We’re expecting an exhibit focused entirely on Roman history next summer, if I could interest you both in a visit?”

  “Definitely,” she replied, her eyes on me.

  “Great. Then if I could ask you folks to head back to the main room? It’s time for us to shut down the exhibits for the year.” He winked.

  “Of course.” Fiona took my hand in hers and led us back to the ballroom.

  Chapter 136

  Fiona

  The Roman freaking empire?

  A few centuries, he’d said.

  And he’d simply called himself old when he talked about the creation of bloodwine in the fifteenth century.

  Not millennia
.

  Not, hey Fiona, I’m almost two thousand years old. Or more.

  He’d just called himself old.

  How freaking old was he?

  “Stop staring at me,” he whispered into my ear.

  We were back at the table in the main room with Mel and Brad.

  “Here, drink this.” He snagged a flute of champagne and handed it to me. I drank it straight down without pausing for air.

  He drew me to his chest and wrapped his arms around me. “Relax. We’re here to celebrate the turning of another year.”

  He grabbed a flute of his own, draining it and putting it on the table next to mine. Then he gave me a quick kiss on the neck and rubbed my arms.

  Two thousand years old. Likely more.

  How much more?

  Chapter 137

  Gabriel

  This was one of the many reasons I didn’t tell people my age.

  They usually freaked out, whether they were a human or a vampire. And the vampires actually reacted worse. They assumed I also had the power level to match those years.

  They were right.

  I glanced around and saw that everyone was focused on the stage in the front of the room where a giant clock was counting down as a group of humans played music.

  I moved her hair away from her neck and bit her. Not enough to break the skin, but enough to feel her pulse beneath my tongue. She melted in my arms, sighing against me, and I knew I had her back in the present. I lifted my mouth just as the band stopped playing and the clock reached ten seconds.

  “Fiona, this is it!” Mel cried.

  Everyone started counting down with the clock, and the room exploded with cheers and confetti once it reached zero. Fiona turned in my arms and crushed her lips against mine. The entire world faded away as her soft tongue slipped into my mouth and she kissed me deeply.

  Then she was gone, stepping out of my arms and hugging her friend while balloons dropped from the ceiling. Brad reached across the table and shook my hand as he wished me a happy New Year. I wished him the same.

  I caught Fiona’s eyes again and smiled at her. A smile spread across her face and lit her eyes.