by Dante Steel
Vampire Hunter
Superheroes Online Book Two
Dante Steel
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Other Books By Dante Steel
About the Author
Copyright © 2018 by Dante Steel
Cover Artist: curanmor166
https://www.deviantart.com/curanmor166
Typography: Dark Matter Book Covers
All rights reserved.
ISBN-13: 978-1727162493
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
To all real-life superheroes.
Chapter One
The sun was shining bright, the hour well past morning, but Gary didn’t want to get out of bed. What man would when there was such a beautiful woman lying on his chest. Elena. Elena…
“What’s your last name?” Gary blurted out.
“Elena Pompilii,” she said, tracing a lazy circle on his chest. Her touch was so feathery soft that it raised goose pimples on his flesh.
“Elena Pompilii,” he repeated.
She pulled back and stared down at him. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” He swallowed hard as he sat up. “What is wrong with you?”
“Wrong with me?” She pulled back even farther and pointed to her chest. Her naked chest. Her breasts bounced as she inhaled deeply, and it took everything in him to keep his gaze focused on her chest—er, face, on her face.
“You came. To me. Here. How could you?”
Elena gaped at him. “You know why already,” she said crossly. “I explained it to you, and you seemed fine with it then.”
“How could I be fine with you knowingly entering a video game? A dangerous one? One that has a psycho also inside of it? Elena, you—”
“You can’t tell me what I can and can’t do,” Elena said stiffly. She reached over and started to put her clothes back on.
He grabbed her hand, not so much to stop her but to feel a connection with her. Gary couldn’t explain it or understand why, but he had felt tethered to Elena from the first time he met her as an avatar in the game, Superheroes Online. Back then, Gary had been just an ordinary gamer like her, only he had been playing a superhero without any superpowers. Well, more like a player with the potential to become a superhero once enough quests were completed.
But now, Gary was trapped in Superheroes Online, had been trapped for some time now. He didn’t know for how long exactly, and he didn’t want to know. His entering the game had been an accident. A freak lightning strike had somehow zapped him into the RPG, on his twenty-fifth birthday no less.
The thing was, Gary didn’t just feel that connection with Elena. He felt it also with Nicoletta Rodriquez, the cousin of Gary’s coworker and good friend Jorge. As if that wasn’t enough, there was another girl too, Olivia. Gary didn’t know her last name either, but he did know that she wouldn’t mind being a part of his harem.
Harem. Gary never thought he would even consider having a threesome before, mostly because he had been single for so long that he didn’t think he could find two girls interested in him. But now? Now he was regularly having dreams about the girls, sometimes separately and sometimes together, and fuck, he was getting hard, which he really didn’t need right now.
“Gary, we aren’t right now,” she said, eyeing his prominent erection.
“I know we aren’t,” he said, embarrassed. “I just… You know how dangerous all of this is, right?”
“I know. That’s precisely why I’m here! It’s too dangerous for you to be here, so you need to be taken out of the game! Haru Sato said—”
“Haru Sato doesn’t know shit,” Gary grumbled. “I doubt he’s any closer to getting me out of the game now that you’re here.”
Elena shook her head stubbornly. “He assured me that he had figured out how to transfer a person into the game. He was right. He did it. I’m here. He also said that doing so would enable him to reverse it. He’ll get us out.”
“He hasn’t yet,” Gary pointed out.
“It’s not as if he could just snap his fingers and poof! we’ll be back in the real world,” she protested. “I knew it would take them time. Do you want them to rush this and you somehow go back with my boobs?”
“As long as I have my cock and you have your—”
“Gary!” She slapped his shoulder.
“Ow,” he said, and he wasn’t kidding. Elena’s power was that her arms and lower legs had turned into metal.
“Sorry,” she muttered. Her eyes widened, and she covered her mouth with her hand. “I’m really sorry. Did that really hurt you? I didn’t mean to.”
“I’m fine,” he grumbled.
“Seriously? You’re pissed at me because I wanted to help you? God, you’re such a guy! Give it up! You needed help. I was willing to step up to the plate and help rescue you. Doesn’t take your man card away, okay? Geez.”
“That is not what this is about,” he fumed.
“No? Then what is it about then? That you aren’t happy that I didn’t ask you first? Well, you better understand this, Gary. I don’t take orders from anyone, and—”
Gary gripped both of her hands and rubbed his thumbs over her knuckles. “Elena, didn’t you tell me about your hands in the real world?”
She swallowed hard and wouldn’t meet his gaze.
“About how you injured one a long time ago and couldn’t use it but was just now starting to get strength in your hand? Elena, you were going to open a bakery—”
“I don’t have the capital to do so. Not yet. I have to save up, and besides, I can always do that once I get back. No big deal.” She shrugged.
“It’s a huge deal, and you know it,” he said.
“You’re so stubborn,” she said, trying to jerk her hands free.
He wouldn’t let her pull away. “Elena, I do wish you would’ve talked to me before making this jump into the game.”
“So you could’ve talked me out of it? Fat chance of that!”
Gary shook his head. “So we could’ve talked period. You don’t realize how long I’ve been in here, in the game, listening to Haru’s empty promises night after night. Trust me. He isn’t close to getting me out, not even with what you did. I guarantee it. Honestly, I’m shocked he was able to get you into the game.”
“See? Maybe he’ll shock you again.”
“I would love for that to happen, but I wouldn’t count on it.” He tilted his head. “How exactly did he get you into the game anyhow?”
“How doesn’t matter,” she said, wincing and dropping her gaze to the floor. “I’m here. That’s what counts. Aren’t you happy to not be alone?”
He hugged her tight. “I don’t want you to get hurt,” he said, rubbing her back.
Fuck. His balls were beginning t
o ache from how hard he was. That her still-naked body was pressed against him was only making this all the more torturous.
“Even if we would’ve talked, you couldn’t make the decision for me. I had to. My body. My choice.”
“You just believed him, believed everything Haru told you? Just like that?” Gary asked incredulously.
“Well, yeah. It made a lot of sense, especially considering what Nicoletta let slip once.”
“She told you?” Gary swallowed hard. Of the three, he had confided only in Nicoletta. Her reaction—complete and utter disbelief—had been the biggest reason why he hadn’t told the other two. Although he guessed he couldn’t fault Nicoletta for not believing him. It was insane to think that a person could be trapped within a video game.
And now a supervillain was and Elena too.
“The point is, between the two of them, I believe it. I mean, you’re always here, playing. Your avatar just seemed more genuine than the others.”
“How so?”
She smirked. “Not as perfect.”
“Are you teasing me?” he demanded.
She burst out laughing. “It’s the truth.”
He snorted. “Yeah, yeah.”
“You have to shave,” she said touching a nick on his chin.
Gary captured her hand. “Yes.”
“And the way you play, it’s not a game to you. It’s life or death. When I realized you were in the game, I had to come. No doubt about it. There’s no way I would allow you to be in the game by yourself.”
“Technically not by myself. All of the players—”
“You and that psycho.” She shuddered. “I had to come. Can’t you accept that?”
“I don’t have a choice but to accept it,” he said sourly.
“That’s about right.” She released his hand and crossed her arms over her chest.
“I’ll never forgive you if anything happens to you.”
“You won’t have to because nothing will.”
“You can’t guarantee that.”
“Life isn’t a guarantee here in the game or in the real world,” she pointed out. “At least in here, we have superpowers.”
“Yeah, but there are so many more enemies here.”
“Shh. We don’t need to worry about enemies if we never get out of bed.” Her red hair fell over her shoulder as she leaned forward and bit her lip. She pushed him down onto the bed.
Gary let out a groan as she rubbed herself against him. “Elena…”
“Yeah?” she asked, hesitating, his tip right at the point of her entrance.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why come to me when you did?”
She pulled back, sitting on her heels, frowning. “What do you mean?”
“You came to me at night. You came to me, and we…” He trailed off, thinking about all of the sexual exercise they had partaken in.
“Gary, I thought…” She ran her fingers through her hair. “I thought I made it clear how I felt about you.”
He shook his head. Out of the three, he least understood where he stood with Elena. Nicoletta? He and her avatar had had sex several times. Olivia had point blank said she was fine with him and the others and the whole bit. Nicoletta didn’t seem ready to share him, and, fuck, when she found out about him and Elena, she was gonna be pissed.
But Elena, Gary hadn’t been sure what she thought of him or the others as far as sex went. He had been attracted to her from the start because even before most of her body had turned to powerful metal, she had already a strong, fierce woman. She was powerful in more ways than one.
He knew she at least appreciated him because he didn’t treat women as items or objects. He didn’t degrade them, and yet, he wanted three of them for himself. He loved three of them. He didn’t want to have to settle for only one.
Bottom line, he was selfish as hell.
Elena pulled away even more and sat on the edge of the bed, her back to him. She rubbed the back of her neck. “I don’t open up to a lot of people,” she said. “Telling you about my hand…”
It had been huge for her. It had been a bonding moment for her. It had almost served as her way of flirting with him. While Olivia’s was obvious and over the top at times, Elena’s was more personal.
He moved to sit beside her and guided her to put her head on his shoulder. “I know now how you feel,” he murmured.
She glanced up at him. “You do.” Her lips pressed against the hollow of his neck.
A spark went straight down to his cock, which jumped.
Elena laughed. “Oh, yeah? Did someone like that?” she teased.
“Very much,” he whispered.
She kissed him there and then on his bicep and elbow and hand, and then she took his cock into her mouth. Gary knew he should talk to her about the others, to see how she felt about him needing her but them too, but he couldn’t think, couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t worry about anything except that—
“If you don’t stop now, I’m gonna come in your mouth.”
And she didn’t stop.
So he came.
Elena swallowed.
Gary fell back onto the bed, spent but in the most delicious of ways.
Chapter Two
Gary and Elena didn’t do much at all that first day. If Nicoletta and Olivia entered the game, they didn’t find them. Instead, all Gary and Elena did was explore each other’s bodies and sleep. They didn’t even bother to eat much, a fact their bodies did not appreciate considering how many calories they were burning. All they did was make love in a whole host of ways and in all kinds of positions, some Gary didn’t even know the name of.
But one thing they definitely didn’t do was talk.
Gary was a lot of things, and in this instance, he was a coward. He had hunted dragons. He had fought against powerful supervillains. He had even faced the killer, the other human in the game. Smaug was his supervillain name, Samuel August his real-life name. He had killed in the real world, and he devastated players in Superheroes Online. Some had even quit the game because of him. Superhero groups had tried to bring him down only to fail again and again. When Smaug would kill them, they would lose ten levels at a time. Gary knew that if Smaug were to kill him, Gary would be dead dead.
And so would Elena if she were the one to fall.
Gary hated to even consider that, but he couldn’t ignore that fact even if he was able to push aside the need to talk to Elena about the other women he loved.
She curled up beside him and yawned. “Gary,” she murmured.
“Yes, Elena?” His stomach tightened with fear and worry. What if she wanted to talk now? He didn’t think he could handle that conversation. Not yet. Better to put it off until tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the next. Maybe next week or the week after.
“I’m tired.”
“We can sleep,” he promised her.
“Sleep sleep?”
He chuckled and kissed her temple. “Yes, sleep sleep.”
She settled against him, her head on his chest. “Goodnight,” she whispered.
“Goodnight.” He yawned and closed his eyes.
The door to their room opened. Gary muttered a curse, but Elena was already sitting up and then out of the bed, naked and glorious with her half silver body, fists raised, ready for a fight.
“Relax, Elena,” Gary said as he threw her the blanket so she could cover up. She caught it and immediately covered her body. “You’ll soon learn Haru has the craziest skill. He can and always will show up at the worst possible time.”
Elena glowered at the Japanese man. “How are you here? Why are you here?”
“He’s not actually here,” Gary explained. “Just an avatar.”
“I realize that,” she snapped. “You should be busy, Haru, working on getting us out of here.”
“We are trying. We’ve been trying.”
“And? How are your primary tests going?” Elena asked, crossing her arms and tapping a metal
foot impatiently.
“The initial test results have returned, and they are… I’m afraid that they are not promising,” Haru said. “We have other tests to run, do not worry. We will get you out of here, both of you, as soon as we can.”
“You’ve been saying that and saying that,” Gary grumbled. He took a step forward and reached out toward the man. “You haven’t been able to help me at all!”
“Now, Gary, that isn’t true,” Haru snipped. The Japanese man wiggled his nose. “We corrected the glitch so that you could have a power. Remember the Runed Ruby?”
“Yeah, that accursed piece of stone that caused us to fight against Smaug and that gave him a pet dragon!” Gary exploded.
“Gary,” Elena said, yanking on his arm.
But Gary was too incensed with anger to listen. “You haven’t been able to bring me out of the game, not even close. You know you’re not nearly ready, and what do you do? You brought someone else into the game! Why were you even trying to figure out how to bring someone into the game at all? Your sole focus should have been on getting me out! Hell, you should want to get Smaug out of the game as badly as you want me out if not more so! He needs to be thrown in jail for what he’s done. No. He needs to be executed!”
Gary paused to take a breath. He hadn’t thought much about the death penalty before. Most likely, if you would’ve asked him before he’d ever heard of Superheroes Online, he would’ve said that he was against the death penalty. Now, though, when he had faced so many life or death scenarios, when he saw how careless and calloused men could be against each other, when he considered that Smaug had fled to a video game in order to avoid facing the consequences of murdering his mother and then his tormenting and terrorizing the other players, how could Gary think anything else but that Smaug should die?