by C. G. Powell
“I will get you for that!” Beck yelled, taking off after her.
Mae was halfway down the hall by the time he made it out of the room. She turned the corner to a small hall that Beck knew was a dead end. Running full speed, he turned the corner only to run face first into one of Mae’s rubber walls. He lay naked on the floor, trying to catch the breath that had just been knocked out of him.
Mae ran over to where Beck lay and offered her hand to help him get up, instead he pulled her down on top of him, rolled over and pinned her to the floor. “That was very naughty, Mae; now I am going to punish you,” he threatened playfully.
“And how do you plan on doing that? I’m as strong as you, fast as you and obviously smarter than you,” she smiled.
Beck laughed at her remark, with her witch’s powers, she certainly had the upper hand, something he would have to keep in mind in the future. He let his hard body settle on top of her, his lips gently touching hers. She raised her head to meet his kiss and he pulled away from her, just far enough so she could still feel his warm breath on her skin, but too far to touch. She just fed and he knew her sexual libido was running high, his torture would be to tease her. He moved his tongue up her neck ‘til he reached the lobe of her ear, where he bit and tugged gently, then whispered. “Do you like that, Mae?” Then he began moving his hips so that his hard shaft was rubbing just the right spot, but not entering. “Do you want more?” he cooed with his lips lightly kissing her neck as she moaned. He sucked on her neck using his mouth, bringing the blood to the surface, she struggled to move her hips to meet his. He released his mouth from her neck leaving a large purple mark that started to heal itself. “I know you can feel my hardness against you. You want me to fuck you so hard, that I make you shudder all the way to your womb,” he whispered in her ear.
Mae screamed out, “Yes!” she yelled, struggling to get out of his grasp.
All of a sudden, Beck stopped what he was doing, got up, and walked away. Mae yelled at him down the hall as she ran towards him. “Oh no you don’t, Beckett Worthington! You are going to finish what you started.” Right before she got to him he disappeared, then reappeared behind her, pulling her arm behind her back and bending her over the rail by the stairs. He grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her head back. She could feel his hardness grinding into her backside.
“Is this what you want, Mae? For me to fuck you like some wild animal?” he said through gritted teeth.
She cried, “Yes! God yes! Fuck me!”
Once again, he let go of her and walked away. She’d enough of his games; she followed him down the hall until he got to the doors of his room where she set a veil that would prevent him from passing through.
When he got to the doorway, her magic stopped him from walking through. He looked back at her and smiled. Then, right before she caught up with him, he materialized into the room and she let out a scream in utter frustration. She walked up to where he stood at the foot of his bed; her eyes dilated as she attempted to bewitch him.
He looked at her and gave a loud laugh. “My love, you have a lot to learn about being a vampire.”
Fangs were showing, she hissed like some wild animal at him and started to walk away.
He clasped her hand and drew her close. “Do not let the monster overtake Mae, I was just kidding.”
Mae sat at the edge of the bed and took a couple of deep breaths before she said anything. “I don’t know what got into me. I’m sorry,” she whispered, hanging her head down in shame.
“This is part of what we are. When we feed, our primal urge to have sex takes over and sometimes it can be overwhelming. I should not have taken my game so far.” He sat on the bed and put his arm around her, kissing her cheek. “Now if you are done snapping me with towels and trying to break my neck with those damn rubber walls of yours, would you mind crawling into bed next to me, so I can make love to you the rest of the night?”
“As you wish,” Mae smiled and kissed him, before climbing into bed.
~~~***~~~
It was morning, Gemma could feel Nikola stirring beside her so she laid her arm and leg across his body hoping he would realize she was awake too. She didn’t want him to get up just yet. For now, she wanted to revel in what they had shared the previous night.
Nikola gave a small laugh, “My pet, this is no way to try and keep a vampire from leaving.”
Gemma threw the covers back and ran her tongue down the entire length of his torso, stopping at the inside of his thigh long enough to make a hickey. “Are you sure about that?” she purred.
“Okay, I could be mistaken,” he moaned as she grazed the tip of his shaft with her lips. “Stop your teasing, woman, I have business to attend to and you are making me want to spend my time in bed instead of tending to what needs to be done.” Nikola kissed the top of Gemma’s head before he crawled out from under her and headed to the bathroom.
Gemma followed Nikola to the bathroom. They both stood in the doorway stunned at the amount of damage that was done. “Oh my fucking God, Beck is going to kill us.” All of the mirrors were broken; but thankfully they were also glued to their frames, keeping the glass contained. The shower door was ripped off the hinges and broken on the cracked floor tiles. Most of the fixtures were torn from the walls and sinks, and water leaked down the broken pipes on to the floor. All of Beck’s decorative antiques were in pieces as were most of the light fixtures. The whole mess was covered in enough blood to make it look like a slaughter house.
“Don’t worry about this mess, my sweet. I will settle it with Beck. Maybe we should use your bathroom, this one seems to be a little out of sorts.” Nikola let out a deep breath and ran his fingers through his hair. It would not be the broken items that concerned Beck as much as the bloody mess. It was not something he could send the housekeepers in to clean up.
They went to Gemma’s room and got ready to start their morning. It would be her first day as a vampire and she had a lot to learn. First thing on the list was self-control; she could not see spending the rest of her life destroying bathrooms. Holding hands, they walked downstairs to the kitchen together.
Chapter 15
Io stared out a large observation window, her eyes fixated on the single yellow star in front of her. It glowed brighter as they approached the edge of the solar system. She and Nilus had made this trip not so long ago, when they hid their only child. They didn’t plan on return so soon, but after sensing their daughter’s confused panic and then utter silence, Io could not sit idly, doing nothing. To Io, it was not a good sign. It meant that the safety modifications they made to her brain at her birth had worn off and her guardians, evidently, were no longer able to put them back in place. Their careful plans to keep her safe would fail if the Veshtu or Nauss ever became aware of her existence. She was living proof that the two races were more alike than either would ever admit and a testament of the love between herself, a Nauss, and Nilus, a Veshtu. It was a pairing that was destined to cause much strife between the two races.
Nilus walked into the room and put his arm around Io, they both gazing out into space. “It will be okay, my love. From what I sense, she is very well at the moment and will soon be back with us.” He squeezed Io’s shoulder to reassure her that all would be well.
Nilus had lived many lives during his existence. He was once a beloved prince of his home world, then a revered scientist abandoned on a primitive planet, a god of gods, and even a father to a son whom he had to leave behind with his human mother. Now he was known only as a renegade. His crime? Simply falling in love with the wrong person. Among the Veshtu, marital unions were only made for power and/or prestige, not love. Love had no place in their world of logic, nor any other emotion for that matter.
Everything in Nilus’ life had been determined by a calculated plan, programmed at his birth. But his plan was sabotaged the day he met Io. Not long after the Nauss first arrived on earth, Nilus met her at a banquet in honor of the leaders of her people. She was the mos
t beautiful creature he had ever seen and the daughter of the Nauss chieftain. After their union was discovered, Zeus, the Veshtu’s leader and his wife Hera tried to dissolve the relationship, but it was too late. So they ran away together.
Io looked up at Nilus and sighed, “I wish we’d never left her there.”
Nilus kissed her forehead, “It broke my heart too. But, this is no way to raise a child, always running…never knowing if this day will be your last.”
She leaned against his chest, “I know we did the right thing, it doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
They had already spent more than six thousand earth years in hiding. Their marriage was considered an abomination in the laws of both races and upon being discovered, a price was placed on their heads. During the last millennia, the political climate of the two races had changed and a certain tolerance towards the intermixing of the races had prevailed. Io and Nilus hoped they could finally live their lives in peace. They were living the nomadic life of Io’s people, moving from planet to planet. Although it made it easier for them to hide, it was not what Nilus’ chose, and he soon became restless.
Feeding off the blood of indigenous animals was unsatisfying and a far cry from what he was accustomed to; he longed to feed on something more human-like. When they arrived on a planet that contained a primitive human population, he convinced Io to settle there permanently…or so they thought. Before long and to their amazement, Io found herself with child. They had become so blinded with joy that they never saw or even imagined the attack that was coming. Even though the races, in general, had become more tolerant of their union, there were still some vocal members of the community who were not. Hence, once again, they were relegated to searching for other planets to find their peace.
It was with heavy hearts that the decision was made to leave their daughter on earth. She was entrusted to the hands of two friends who had grown weary of the Nauss’ nomadic ways and intended to settle on Earth.
Just then, the large vessel landed on the surface of Eris, a dwarf planet on the edge of the solar system. Io and Nilus did not want to be detected by earth’s ever-alert scientist, so they switched to a smaller, less obvious craft for the remainder of their long journey.
~~~***~~~
In London, Saran LaPierre sat behind her massive desk, staring at the two men in front of her. It had been a little over a month since Mozenrath’s unfortunate death, but all was still going as planned. Soon, she would be voted into the Council and before long, she’d have the other Council members questioning Calcifer’s ability to remain head of the Witches Council. Howard and Mozenrath had only been disposable pawns in her elaborate game to rid the Council of vampire sympathizers. After witnessing the display of power by Nikola and his fellow vampire’s at the Council meeting, it would not be hard for her to sway the others to join her cause.
“John, have you made any progress in urging the Council to speed up the process of my election?” Saran asked, in a condescending manner. She was annoyed with his obvious inability to move things along in a pace that suited her.
John Williams sat nervously in his seat. His deliberate loss of Howard’s case had tarnished an already questionable reputation, leaving him nearly powerless when it came to swaying the Council members. “It looks like the only hold-up is Calcifer. He’s still trying to convince Aidan Fitz Thomas to take the seat.”
Saran banged her fist on the table in angry disgust. To her, Aidan was the biggest traitor of them all. He’d been led around by the balls all his life by a vampire, yet he was the one person capable of destroying her well planned strategy. To make things worse, he held a strong influence on many of the Council members, especially Meredith Spencer. Until recently, she had been little more than a minor Council member with no clout. “I want you to put pressure on the other Council members to push that vote through,” Saran ordered, “We are losing time. We need the Council to end Mr. Worthington’s research for political reasons. It is obvious now that burning everything to ground and wiping his database clean did little more than annoy him.”
Charles Gordon leaned back in his chair, listening to Saran’s rant. “Our problem is not the lab, but the subject of their experiments,” he was quick to point out. Charles had a certain arrogance about him, something he learned after years of being a business man and it bothered him that Saran treated him as if her were nothing more than a hired thug.
Saran rolled her eyes at Charles, “Thank you Captain Obvious, for your grasp of the situation. Perhaps I need to rephrase my question. What plans have you in mind to take care of this little problem?”
Charles tightened his jaw, he didn’t like taking orders from Saran, much less being humiliated. If not for the promise of a place on the Council after her election, as well as her expulsion of Calcifer from power, he would have walked right out of the room. He had no quarrel with the vampire’s and to him, Saran was just a means to an end. “Right now they are still barred in at Lough Currane. Security is so tight, it would not only be impossible to get through, it’s suicidal. Even the staff is screened every day on their way to work. We’re simply going to have to wait for them to leave, before we can make another attempt.”
“Well, you better make sure you don’t botch the job this time,” she said sarcastically. According to her, their first attempt should have been their last. Mae’s survival was testament that her blood was too dangerous for either side to possess. It upset the balance of power and would eventually cause worldwide over-population, a problem they had been trying to solve for years, most recently by introducing the AIDS virus.
“Saran you need to calm down and let things progress naturally. If you keep interfering, you’re going to end up like Mozenrath. We already have a mole in place at the new lab, preventing any progress from being made. Another team is all ready to take out the target once they become more accessible. For now you need to exercise patience,” Charles explained. Of late, Saran had left his patience running pretty thin. Suddenly, he stood up. “So, if you’ll excuse me. I have much to do,” exiting the room, leaving Saran to vent her frustrations on poor John.
Charles headed back to Killarney. His team was already there keeping track of their target, waiting for the first opportunity to finish the job for which they were hired. It was a dangerous game they played and being caught meant death, just as Howard and Mozenrath discovered. Unlike Saran, Charles had all the patience in the world, and had no problem waiting for the right moment to arise.
~~~***~~~
“Beck can you hand me those wire cutters?” Mae yelled, pointing to the toolbox on the floor next to the ladder on which she perched.
Beck got up from his desk and peeked into the maintenance closet. Mae was at it again for the third time this week, he’d found her working on the network. Had it been broken, Beck would have applauded his wife’s effort, but she was rerouting everything out of boredom. She needed something to do besides endless lessons, of which she had soon grown bored. “Mae, I thought we agreed that the network was running fine. You do not need to keep tweaking it.”
Mae looked down at Beck and stuck her hand out, waiting for him to place the strippers in her hand, completely ignoring his last statement. “I’m almost done. Just a couple more wires and the network should be running faster than it ever has,” she predicted with giddiness.
He handed her the strippers and waited at the bottom of the ladder with his arms folded across his chest. As much as he tried to expect it, Mae’s stubbornness was starting to wear on him. She turned out to be a far cry from the mousey girl he met just a few months earlier. He was comfortable giving orders and having them followed, her persistent independence would take some adjusting. “You should be kicking back and enjoying a life of leisure, not spending your day camped out in the maintenance cabinet.”
Mae rolled her eyes as she continued to crimp the ends of the newly stripped wires. “I need something to do, Beck. I’m going stir crazy just sitting around every day doing nothing.�
�� She plugged the wires into the switch and climbed down the ladder, tossing the strippers back into the toolbox.
“You are now the lady of the manor and running this place is your job,” he bellowed.
“I’d love to, but your estate manager already runs this place like a well-oiled machine. I need to get out of here,” she sighed, squeezing her way past Beck and plopping into one of the beanbag chairs on the floor.
“I am sorry you feel so unhappy,” he did not know what else to say, sitting in a beanbag chair next to her.
She smiled at him, “I’m not unhappy, just feeling a bit useless,” she confided, clasping his hand, leaning over, and kissing him.
“Well Mrs. Worthington, you are far from useless. I saw the garden you started, it looks wonderful. I also noticed how well you dealt with the contractor on the bathroom repairs…Not to mention our wedding. Which, by the way, was enchanting,” he reminded her.
She nuzzled next to him. “I guess I was so busy before the wedding, I didn’t have time to think about anything else. Now that the wedding is over, I feel like I have cabin fever.”
Beck brushed his hand over her hair. “I hope that things will get back to normal soon. I hate this as much as you do.” He had been working out of his game room for the last two months. He needed to go back to Dublin and at least show his employees that he was still in charge.
“I guess I should go spend some time with Gemma. She told me she and Nikola were leaving in a couple of days.” Mae said, getting up then helped Beck to his feet.
He sat back down behind his desk. “I have a few more things I have to do before I call it quits for the day. I will meet you out back later and we can watch the sunset together.”