Vamped Up

by Kristin Miller

  “This is not a whim!” She threw herself at him then, her arms around his neck, her lips to his. The moment their mouths moved against one another, Eve knew she’d give up any part of her soul to be with him. She’d follow him to the depths of hell if it meant they could have one more minute together like this. One perfectly heavenly moment, untouched by the dreariness of the world around them.

  Eve couldn’t tell if her heart began to tremor or if it was the amulet, but by the time Ruan deepened what he thought was their last kiss, her chest was aflame. Her whole body shuddered as pure white heat surged through her body and into Ruan’s, binding them together from lips to palms to hips. Waves of energy undulated beneath her skin, slowly at first, then faster and faster, until she didn’t think the pressure could build in her core any hotter. Rippling cords of energy blasted between them, joining them together.

  Eve pinched her eyes shut. For a moment, she couldn’t tell which heartbeat was hers and which was his. Or which set of lungs she controlled. Or which stomach the butterflies were released in. Perhaps it was both. Together as one.

  When the pressure released its grip on her core, and the light dimmed to bearable, Eve opened her eyes. She was still kissing Ruan. His emerald eyes were closed. His eyelashes rested on the soft curve of his cheek. And behind him was the jagged skyline of San Francisco.

  Eve had never been happier to see the red-brown tinge of the Golden Gate in all her life. It was glorious. They’d made it out of Fort Point’s chamber and through the Ever After . . . alive.

  She kissed Ruan again, deeper, only pulling back when she felt a familiar pair of eyes creeping on the back of her neck. Ruan held her gaze and smiled, lighting up the pre-sunrise sky.

  “What just happened?” Eve asked, happy to still be wrapped in Ruan’s arms, thrust back into the reality of her jeans or not.

  Lilith stepped beside them, right up to the ledge of the Sausalito lookout point. The worn leather edges of the Grimorium Verum peeked from beneath her folded arms. “Seems the purity of your soul, when sacrificed for another, was rich enough to split into two.”

  “You mean . . . ?” Ruan began, too scared to speak the hope aloud.

  “Thanks to Eve, you have the entirety of your soul back. You owe nothing to the Ever After.”

  Ruan lifted Eve into his arms and spun her around. Her feet flew behind her as free as her heart felt. Then just as quickly, he put her down. “What does that mean for us?”

  “You have been joined in Valcdana.” Lilith sat on the knee-high stone ledge that guarded from a dangerous fall into the bay and dangled her feet over the side. “She is your life mate and you are hers.” When Eve opened her mouth to refute Lilith’s words with vampire tradition, she said, “Contrary to what some members of the vampire race would have you believe, the Valcdana ceremony began not with the draining and passing of blood from partner to partner, but with sacrificing the physical body in the most extreme way possible. One life for another, dead in the other’s stead, and brought back, each in turn. That is the true meaning of Valcdana, which you two have completed.”

  Ruan squeezed Eve tightly against him, until there was no space left between their bodies. Eve wanted to be closer still. She could never be close enough. Could never love him more than she did this moment.

  “Do not forget,” Lilith continued, stroking the cover of the Grimorium Verum that had settled into the soft folds of her crimson gown. “She must do her duty, as discussed.” She looked to Eve and nodded, expecting compliance that Eve wouldn’t deny. “Along with the obligation to pass elders to the Ever After comes the privilege of passing through as often as you’d like. With that blessing, you will age much more slowly than any other mundane on earth and live as long as a normal, healthy vampire. You will also be able to use the mawares of the elders in your presence.”

  Savage had said something about the elders in her presence back at the fort. He’d said . . .

  “Yes,” Lilith whispered. “You can mystify elders, but only so they cannot involuntarily harm you as they pass into the Ever After. In your presence, their mawares transfer to you to use as you wish.”

  “If what you’re saying is true, why can’t I . . .” Eve blushed, realizing how harsh her words could come off if she didn’t tread lightly. She was about to challenge the oldest vampire on record, after all . . . “What I mean is, if I can mystify elders in my presence, why do you still have an effect on me?”

  “You are still so young.” Lilith smiled secretively. “And still so stupid.” She picked a loose pebble off the wall and flipped it into the bay. “You’ll soon learn that not everything is as it appears to be. But for now, you owe me a talk . . . Ruan?” She patted the stone next to her.

  Ruan’s heart clenched. Eve felt it slow to a murmur, not because Ruan’s body was pressed so closely against hers, but because it felt like her heart was the one that stilled. They were still connected, body and soul. She wondered if they’d always be this way. God, she hoped so.

  Ruan took his place at Lilith’s right and tugged Eve right onto his lap. He held her close, draped her legs over his. They peered out, together, to where the great span of crystal blue bent over the horizon.

  Lilith sighed. “My dear, sweet Ruan . . . it is my honor to inform you that you’ve successfully transitioned.”

  “What do you mean, transitioned?” Ruan asked.

  “You were fully committed to leaving all other worldly things behind. That included Eve. You’ve been the appropriate age to transition into elder status since the beginning of this century, but we’ve been waiting for you to have Eve’s true best interest at heart. You had to be willing to give your life to leave her behind. And you did.”

  He struggled to take a full breath as he shifted his attention to Eve. He eyed her lips, then let his gaze trail lower, slowing on her neck. “I can still hear your blood rushing beneath your skin.” He rubbed his cheek across hers; coarse stubble brushed her skin, leaving a blush of chills behind. He dipped down to her collar, breathed her in. “I can smell that your blood would be sugary sweet . . . perfection, as always . . . but I could resist the pull if I wanted to. How is this possible?” His breath was hot and moist on her neck. He shifted his hips beneath her, until she could feel his desire pressing between her legs.

  “Simple. When you became an elder, thereby giving up worldly things, you gave up worldly urges,” Lilith spoke up, severing the naughty mental image Eve had created about Ruan freely pulling from her vein now that the threat to drain her had vanished. She was ready to take all of him in . . . right here, right now. He must’ve sensed her urgency because he gripped her hips tighter, his fingers gouging flesh. She swallowed hard, struggling to hear the rest of Lilith’s words.

  “Of course you’ll need blood to survive,” Lilith droned. “And you’ll find things are just as pleasurable as they were before. But the level of restraint is more powerful than a normal vamp. You’ve ascended, Ruan. You’ll even be able to resist the pull to the purest blood source on the planet.” She gave Eve a slow wink. “You see, as elders we are above the others. As such we have a higher level of responsibility. Especially now that Savage will have a hoard of death shades at his disposal.”

  Hesitantly, Eve tapped her fingers against the raised marks on her neck. It was tender to the touch. Ruan growled, looked away. Eve wondered how much blood Savage had taken from her and what the consequences of that draw would be. She’d almost completely forgotten about Savage and the elders. Being in the Ever After for such a short time made everything that happened at Fort Point seem like an eternity ago.

  “But I freed them.” Eve clutched the amulet against her chest. Remnants of energy still tingled against her skin. “The death shades Savage took control over . . . they belong to the elders we saw in the Ever After, right? You said I bound their shades and freed them.”

  “Yes, my dear, but we weren’t able to rescue
the rest of the elders in the fort. Some of their mawares are intellectually or emotionally driven. Those won’t give them a fighting shot against him. If Savage drains them while the purity of your blood is still coursing through his veins, their death shades will bind to him. We’re talking no limits now.”

  “But for now it’s over.” Ruan said, nuzzling into Eve’s neck. “We deal with Savage another day.”

  Eve closed her eyes, pinched them tight, tried not to imagine a future with the threat of Savage in it. “And then what?”

  “We gather our forces,” Lilith continued. “Find out what Savage’s next move is. If he does bind the death shades to himself, we need to figure out what he plans to use them for.” Lilith hopped off the barrier wall. “Dylan and Slade are waiting for you at ReVamp and Dante should be making his way there as we speak. You’ll need to bond to defeat him. Remember that.” They watched Lilith stride down the narrow path leading back toward the freeway. “Oh, and Ruan,” she called, turning back, just before the path curved around a boulder and out of sight. “Just a little advice . . . the maware we bestowed upon you . . . be careful with it at first, will you? That one can be a bit touchy. We don’t gift it to just anyone.”

  Without another word, she was out of sight.

  Ruan caught Eve’s chin with his fingers and kissed her, hurriedly at first, then more gently when he must’ve realized, as she did, that they had all the time in the world. He slid his hand along the gentle slope of her neck, settled over her heart to feel its heavy pounding, and moaned against her lips. Even though Eve felt Ruan’s heart and soul behind their kiss, she could almost hear his head reel.

  “You’re dying to know what maware you have, aren’t you?” she asked with a little smile, a breath away from his mouth.

  “We have time to figure all the details out later. All that matters is that you know how much I love you. With everything I am.” He kissed her again, more gently, sparking a desire in her core that could never be squelched.

  As stars faded from the sky and the golden California sun breached the horizon, Ruan didn’t shield his eyes. For the first time since he’d transitioned into a vampire, he met the sunrise head on. Eve had a sneaking suspicion that’s how they were going to be meeting a lot of things in the months to come.

  “If I die tomorrow,” she sighed, basking in the warmth of Ruan’s love. “It’ll be because I love—”

  He shushed her by kissing her forehead, the tip of her nose, her cheek. “There’ll be no more talk of death.” He settled into her mouth and languidly worked her lips. “From now on we focus on the life ahead of us.”

  “I love you so much.” Eve rested her head on his shoulder. Her heart lulled into a peaceful, steady rhythm. “More than life itself.”

  “Clearly.” With the softest of touches, Ruan brushed a strand of honey-blonde hair over her shoulder. He growled possessively, the tips of his fangs gleaming in the first rays of dawn, then grazed them against the side of her throat. “After all we’ve been though you’re still with me, aren’t you?”

  Oh God yes. “Forever.” Eve’s eyes fluttered closed as she tilted her head, allowing him everything he desired. She shivered beneath his touch. Fought for air in his arms.

  “Forever then.” He dipped his fangs just beneath her skin and moaned. As he pulled the first stream of blood through his lips, the connection between them spiked. Passion unleashed in her core. She quivered with each erotic draw from his mouth, each aching tug of her heart against her rib cage. Just as smoothly as he dipped into her vein, Ruan pulled back, letting the long stroke of his fangs massage her skin on their way out. His restraint seemed effortless. “Though I doubt forever’s going to be long enough.”

  Her breath hitched as his thumb stroked small circles beneath her chin. “Long enough for what?”

  “To pleasure you the way you deserve.” He licked a slow, thick line beneath her jaw and nipped at her ear, scattering chills to her toes. “Because from now on that’s all I’m living for.”

  “What about your pleasure?” she asked, and brushed over the love marks that had begun to tingle on her neck. She swiped two blood-tipped fingers across her lips, leaving a glossed trail of crimson behind.

  “The elders who wrote the scrolls were wrong, you know,” Ruan said, his emerald eyes boring into hers. “The best things don’t await us in heaven.”

  “No?”

  “No.” He kissed her, slow and tender, sucked her lower lip into his mouth and licked off the blood. Eve shivered, though she felt her skin flush. “Heaven is here,” Ruan whispered against her lips. “Right here, with you in my arms.”

  As he squeezed her tightly, cradling her in the warmth and safety of his embrace, Eve realized that for the first time in her life, she didn’t care about the past or the future. Now was all she had.

  And now was absolutely perfect.

  Epilogue

  “WELL, THIS IS it.” Slade propped himself on the edge of Dylan’s desk and pawed at the hard line of his jaw. He looked like he’d aged a hundred years since returning from the haven not twenty minutes ago. He needed a shave. His skin looked rougher. His eyes blacker than black. “I brought as much of your stuff as I could carry, but there’s still a ton I had to leave behind. There just wasn’t time to snatch everything.”

  Dylan swiveled in her chair, her usual all-business frown painted on her face. She unzipped the duffel he’d tossed at her feet and began digging through it. “You brought all my research,” she said flatly, though still managing to show gratitude. “Thanks, love.”

  “You’re welcome.” He kissed her forehead. “Everything’s going to be okay, you know. We can rebuild the haven to what it was before.”

  She nodded slowly, her gaze not meeting his.

  The night had been hard on all of them, Ruan realized, even though Slade and Dylan hadn’t come anywhere near Fort Point. From Slade’s report, it seemed the death shades wreaked total havoc on their haven. Their security was compromised. Flattened. Khissmates dead. Fled. Disappeared. And the Crimson Council was no more. Ruan wouldn’t have believed the horrors if they hadn’t come directly from Slade’s mouth.

  “I figured you could replace your possessions, but these . . .” Slade nicked the strap of the duffel with the toe of his boot and lifted his chin at Ruan. “She gonna be all right?”

  He meant Eve. Ruan nodded and took another sip of the O+ and bourbon Slade had poured when he walked in. It had defrosted the worry niggling in his gut, filling him instead with the warm promise for a new day. A long-awaited dawn. A promising future with Eve. Far from Savage’s evil scope. Ruan may not be able to protect all the vampires in Crimson Bay, but at least he could protect the most important woman in his life. “She’s sleeping in my office.”

  Ruan eyed the door as if he could see Eve stretched out on his lounge beyond it. He wanted nothing more than to slip behind her and mold himself to her perfect body. She’d be warm. Inviting. Irresistible. But she needed rest. If he nestled next to her, sleep was the last thing she’d get.

  “She’s been through a lot tonight. And she’s handling everything surprisingly well.” Dylan’s fingers flashed over the keyboard, tap-tip-tapping at lightning-quick speed. “I still can’t believe you’re an elder, Ruan. Your head must be spinning. Damn it.”

  “What is it?” Ruan asked, stepping behind her chair.

  With a sigh, Slade shifted from one leather-clad hip to the other. “Systems are down. She can’t contact any haven within a hundred mile radius. It’s like the entire network was wiped off the radar.”

  Savage.

  “No, it’s worse than I thought. It’s not only their systems.” Dylan pointed to a highly detailed image of Northern California, courtesy of the U.S. Vampire Security Council’s satellites. “Take a look at this.” She copied an address from a window behind the map and pasted it into the Search field. When the map zoomed
to an area Ruan used to know well—Petaluma’s haven—he leaned over the desk. Slade did the same. “It’s gone,” she whispered as if speaking solemnly over a gravestone. “Just like the others. They‘re all the same.”

  Thanks to the up-to-the-minute imagery, Ruan could see the exact layout of the haven. Or, rather, the black-scorched earth where the haven used to stand. Pieces of outbuildings could be spotted behind an octagonal-shaped main hall that had its sides and roof blown off. But the rest of the land was destroyed. Nearly unrecognizable. No trees. No . . . life.

  “Lilith was right. Savage bound the shades left in the fort to himself.” Ruan grit his teeth. “That‘s the only way he could‘ve destroyed the haven that fast. Who knows what kind of mawares he’s got flowing through his veins by now.”

  “He’s making his way across the state,” Dylan said, thinking aloud.

  Slade hissed, his skin paling. He knew what his damned half-brother was capable of. “How many others are gone?”

  “The only way I can know for sure is to tap into the main database and count how many havens are off-line.” Dylan’s fingers went wild again. Ruan rested his hands on the narrow curve of her shoulders, feeling her go rigid beneath him. “I’ll have to make contact with each Primus individually. But right now, from the Google images alone, I’d say we’re looking at twenty havens. More or less.”