Darkness In The Flames

by Kelly, Sahara

  They had spirited exchanges, Verity’s ideas clashing at times with Nick’s, leading to arguments that probably would have ended in bed had Nick permitted it. But he insisted, over her increasingly wanton objections, that she was still not strong enough.

  She believed otherwise.

  Their first feeding came soon, of necessity. “Nick, tonight. We need to feed. I can sense a deep sort of hungry feeling…here…” She placed her hand over her belly. “It’s tonight. It has to be tonight. Please?”

  Nick was pale, paler than normal. He looked at her for a long moment, then nodded. “Very well.”

  They’d ridden toward a nearby village, silently following paths only they could see, guiding their horses carefully through the darkness.

  Finally Verity spoke. “Nick—does it hurt? Hurt those from whom we feed?”

  “I cannot tell. But they seem to recover. In the early days I checked. I would return to ensure that my—victims—still survived. They did.” He shrugged. “More than that I can’t say.” He glanced at her. “You remember my instructions? No more than absolutely necessary. They will lapse into unconsciousness as you begin to drink and that protects us, granting them forgetfulness. It’s how I wiped Cooper’s mind clean of you and your fellow highwaymen the night we met at the inn. The urge to devour will be strong, Verity. You must be aware of how much you are taking.”

  She simply raised an eyebrow. “I remember. Don’t worry.”

  “How can I not worry? I’ve turned you into the thing I despise most—a copy of myself. I’ve condemned you to this inhuman existence and now I’m taking you out to drink blood from the neck of some innocent farmer. You ask me not to worry?”

  She chuckled. “You’re my lover, Nick. Not my mother. Don’t overprotect me, or underestimate me.” Her eyes turned hot. “And speaking of being my lover…”

  Deliberately Verity drawled the word, promises of erotic delights in her tone.

  Nick shifted in his saddle. “Yes. Well…perhaps if tonight goes well…”

  She pursed her lips. “Promises, promises. I hunger for more than blood, my love. And that hunger is growing stronger too.”

  “Shh…” Nick held a finger to his lips. “Do you hear that?”

  Verity stilled, listening. Soft murmurs were coming from a small glade, almost indistinguishable amidst the sounds of the night, but clear to her extra-sensitive ears. She nodded.

  “Come.”

  Nick dismounted and Verity followed suit. They moved through the trees, finally stopping short of a little clearing where two people lay naked on a hastily tumbled cloak.

  A man and a woman, fucking enthusiastically, moaning their pleasure as his hips pummeled between her thighs. Verity risked a quick grin at Nick. He grinned back then frowned at her and shook his head. A motion from his hand told her to wait quietly.

  She did, finding a strange and alluring fascination in this chance to observe the simplicity inherent in a straightforward act of passion. How different from Isolde’s warped desires.

  The man’s buttocks clenched and relaxed and clenched again, his grunts of need echoed by his woman’s sighs and little whimpers. Her legs were around his back, holding him tightly where she wanted him most.

  Their bodies clashed, her breasts revealed as he reared up and plunged again. Taut dusky nipples topped full swells, rocking gently beneath the onslaught of her lover. She raised her hips, meeting each thrust, welcoming him.

  This was a couple lost in each other, drowning as Verity wanted to drown. Giving and taking what Verity wanted to give and take. With Nick.

  Moisture began to dew Verity’s pussy and she fidgeted, torn between the knowledge that she was about to feed for the first time and a heightened desire to rip Nick’s clothes off and fuck him senseless. And herself, while she was at it.

  The man found a breast and suckled it, never stopping his rhythm. When he released it, the woman’s hands replaced his mouth, teasing herself, obviously adding to her arousal.

  Nick and Verity watched and waited. Before long, Nick leaned close. “When they are done—we move. It will have to be quickly. We must catch them just as they part and are still unaware of their surroundings.” His words barely reached her ear, but she heard them and nodded her understanding.

  The couple neared their peaks. Heedless of the silence, the woman was crying out, urging her lover on, tensing her body around him and writhing as she began to come.

  He groaned—a long drawn-out sob of pleasure—and then thrust a final time, deeply and violently into her. Shaking, his back arched and his head fell back. Entranced, Verity watched him come. It was quite beautiful.

  But Nick touched her arm and motioned. The time had come to lay the beauty aside and feed.

  Following her instructions, Verity moved rapidly and silently across the space to the couple, remembering to relax her body, to ease the tension binding the cells together. Or at least that’s what Nick had told her. She had not quite mastered the art of turning herself into a shadow, but it would come—with time and patience.

  The couple was tumbling limply onto the cloak, the man’s cock sliding from his lover as he crashed to the ground beside her.

  “Now.” A short whisper and Nick was on them. “Take him.”

  Verity obeyed. With lightning movements she reached for the man, catching his head and stretching it to reveal his neck before he had any notion she was even there.

  Fangs free and lying eagerly over her lips, Verity leaned in—and fed.

  Dizzily, she drank, the sweetness and heat of his blood flowing in a gush over her tongue to be eagerly swallowed. She gulped, surprised at the flavor of him, the warmth and flavor that filled her. He was unmoving now, just a living pulse that vibrated beneath her lips.

  Her fangs were deep, sharply penetrating his skin without a check. How sweet this was—using life to sustain life. To feed on the fundamental essence of humans. She swallowed again, great hungry swigs of a mead no brewer could ever duplicate.

  Sensations poured through her—the man’s heartbeat thudded in her ears, his arousal still a tangy undertaste within his blood. She felt—energized, filled, aware on a level that she’d never experienced before. Thirstily she sucked, drawing strength and power with each mouthful.

  Finally, she became aware of Nick tugging at her shoulder. “Enough, Verity.”

  “No…” The denial was a mumble. She could not stop. Not now. There was so much more to take…

  “Verity. Stop.” It was a command followed by a wrenching pull that tore her fangs from her victim’s neck.

  Stunned, she stared, watching the small wounds as they slowly dissipated into no more than scratches. “I wasn’t done with him…”

  “Yes you were. Any more—any more and you’d have killed him.” Nick’s voice was somber.

  For the first time, Verity realized the magnitude of what she now was. And it scared her. That her hunger could kill another—it had been a theory up until this moment. Now it was real.

  She moved clumsily away, trying to keep silent, but awkward as her nourishment flooded energy through her body.

  “Don’t worry. They will sleep now. They cannot hear us or see us and if they’re lucky they will remember only their loving.”

  Verity stood and let Nick take her arm. “I feel—I feel—filled. As if somebody has poured strength into me.”

  “Yes.” It was a brief word, but it told her Nick understood.

  They mounted and turned their horses quickly away, heading back to their little hiding place.

  The night sang loudly around Verity. Sounds were enhanced, she felt as if she could see for miles and although her heart did not pound as mortals did, there was a level of excitement pulsing through her she’d not expected.

  Taking blood apparently fed more than the body. It fed the vampire part of her that she had yet to fully understand.

  It also did something else. As they slid from their saddles and unharnessed their horses, Verity realized she
was aware of Nick in a new and exciting way.

  She could sense him. She knew when his body moved, the scent of the leather as it lingered on his hands from the reins. She heard the silky swish as he tugged the tie from his hair and let it brush his jacket.

  A new hunger burgeoned inside her that had nothing to do with blood.

  And everything to do with Nick.

  He knew she was aroused. He could scent her—had been scenting her since they’d watched the lovers. He wanted her fiercely but still worried that her strength was not yet all that it could be. They had endless time to enjoy each other. It didn’t have to begin at this moment. He could wait.

  Verity, apparently, had other ideas.

  “Nick. Now.”

  As soon as they entered their cave, Verity spun around and pushed him up against the wall. She ground her pussy into his crotch, rubbing herself against his cock. He was hard in an instant.

  So much for waiting.

  “I need you, Nick. I need you on top of me, inside me, around me, all over me. Any way, every way there is. Dear God, don’t make me wait.” Her fingers were tearing at his clothing even as his lifted to free her from her shirt. It happened to be one of his shirts, so he was a little more circumspect as he stripped her bare.

  Fleetingly he recalled his own arousal after he’d fed those first times. He remembered the burning need and he remembered that he’d only had his hand to ease the frustration.

  It would be different for Verity. Better. As good as he could make it.

  And it would ease his own need at the same time.

  Their lips met, a clashing of tongues that only stoked the furnace higher. Fumbling with the remains of their clothes they stripped, Nick eager for the touch of her breasts against his skin.

  The soft globes were already hardened at their tips, nipples budded and ripe for his pleasure. He eased himself down to his knees, pulling her breeches and boots away, grazing his body across hers as he dipped his head to her belly and lower.

  Two hands fisted in his hair. “Don’t be gentle. I don’t want gentle, Nick. I want you.”

  He could not resist her urgency. With a growl, Nick thrust his face between her thighs, finding her pussy with fierce and almost savage licks of his tongue. He parted her swollen folds, thrusting his mouth against her clit, sucking strongly, demanding she show him how aroused she was.

  Her hips pushed back, grinding her body into his face, meeting desire with desire, fire with fire.

  He pushed two fingers inside her sex—she was wet, so wet he slid inside with ease. Truly she wanted him, was ready for his possession.

  He sucked hard, knowing a mortal woman would feel pain should he treat this delicate pearl of flesh in such a way.

  But Verity lapped it up, crying out with delight, urging him on. “More, Nick. Yes…there, oh God, more…”

  She trembled as he moved his fingers inside her, coaxing her pussy into weeping tears of pleasure, soaking his hand with her juices and whimpering as he nipped her pussy lips.

  “Yes, oh…yesssss…” She convulsed around him, an orgasm that was a mere prelude to their night to come.

  It was not enough for either of them. Nick released her and stood, lifting her, watching as her thighs wrapped around him.

  He positioned her above his cock and plunged upward with his hips as he lowered her.

  “Aaahhhh…” She sighed and choked out the small cry, his cock seating itself deep inside.

  They shifted, stumbled and ended up with Verity’s back against the hard wall of the cave. He was drowning now, drowning in her scent and the velvet feel of her around his cock. He thrust, hard, driving her against the rock, delighting in the way her inner muscles held on to him, dragging the skin tightly down the length of muscle that penetrated her.

  Again and again he buried himself to the balls in her sweetness, frantically pounding into her, driving all that he had, all that he was into her soul.

  This was no gentle loving. This was a fuck that they both needed—badly. He sensed the shimmer of his own climax building. His control disappeared, his desires swamped him.

  With violent force he fucked her, knowing she was with him every step of the way. When he broke she was there, her sheath clasping him in a vise grip of hunger, milking him, drawing everything she needed from him.

  They paused, breathless, black eyes meeting black eyes, both seeing the flames flickering behind the darkness.

  And their fangs emerged.

  A part of Verity’s mind was astounded. But that part was quickly silenced by the still-present hunger. She and Nick fell to their makeshift bed, still linked, still aroused.

  “More. I want it all. Tonight. Here. Now.”

  Simple words were all she could manage around her fangs, but she got her point across.

  “All right.” Still hard, Nick pulled out of her and flipped her onto her stomach. Instinctively she raised herself onto all fours, pushing her ass toward him in an urgent plea.

  He thrust into her once more, finding new places to touch, to excite. Verity licked her lips and felt the hard length of her fangs as they emerged fully, stimulated by the erotic and uninhibited sex.

  She was operating on sheer animal instinct at this point, but trusted Nick to guide her, to take her where she needed to be.

  His penetration was deep from this angle, grazing places that made her gasp and push back, needing more, always more.

  Verity found she was more linked to him than she realized. There was a bond here, an answering of demands before they were voiced. He surprised her with a hard slap to her buttocks, but she found it was what she most needed—most desired.

  “Yes, oh yes…”

  More slaps followed, punctuated by sharp deep thrusts of his wonderful cock. She whirled onto a cloud of sensation, her backside burning now from the heat of his blows.

  Greed flooded her. “Nick…more…something…please—more?”

  He pulled out with a wet and soft sound that made her whimper. Then she felt his hands roughly part her cheeks and she knew. Yes, this was the more she was so desperate to feel.

  His cock nudged at her ass, gently pushing past the tight ring of muscles and into her body—a new experience that fueled the arousal, the savage need that made her shudder. He stretched her, eased her then stretched her once more, gently rocking at first, finding her clit with strong fingers and opening her to his possession.

  She had no shame, no inhibitions. She wanted him in her ass, wanted him strumming her clit, if there had been two of him she’d have been welcoming another cock at the same time.

  There were no limits to what she desired—sex. To be fucked by her lover, claimed in all the ways he could claim her. It was amazing, incredible, this feeling of fullness, of being dominated and yet loved.

  She moved with him, learning how to pull and to push in the best way possible to stimulate the nerve endings that were awakening to new sensations. Her fangs dripped with hunger and her orgasm grew, refusing to break, to release her, simply driving her higher into a place where there was only a savage and violent need to be fucked and fulfilled.

  Nick leaned over her, one hand still playing with her clit as his cock fucked her ass. She felt his arm near her face.

  “Come, Verity. Come. And bite me. ‘Tis the best thing…” He pinched her clit hard. “I shall bite you, sweetheart. Come with me. Together.”

  The scent of his skin so close to her fangs drove her wild. The pain of his touch, the sensation of his cock deep in her darkest places—Verity cried out and let go, sinking her mouth into the vein at his wrist.

  At that moment his mouth touched the back of her neck and she felt his fangs slide past the tiny check of muscles and into her own body.

  She came—massive spasms shaking her whole being.

  Nick’s blood gushed into her mouth even as hers gushed into his. His cock swelled and pumped his come into her ass, a climax that she felt to her soul.

  Locked, tooth, blood, cock an
d ass, they fell, sliding rapidly into a whirlpool that was beyond anything Verity could name. She simply hung on and rode the waves, wanting to scream, to cry out, to tell Nick…

  The sensation of his fangs drawing her blood sucked at her nipples and her sex like wraiths of mouths, overloading her brain with erotic impulses. It was coupled with the taste of him, sweet and rich, flooding along the same pathways, swelling her breasts and making every part of her body an erotically charged target.

  This was loving. This was sex, heightened by the strength, power and need of an immortal vampire.

  And this was why they could not die, because had she been anything less than she was, Verity knew she could not have survived her orgasm.

  But by God she would have died a happy woman.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Nick was in another world.

  The darkness, which had surrounded him for so long, was now brilliantly lit by the flashes of a need so great he was almost humbled by it. And those flashes were sustained by Verity’s eager response and equally eager body.

  He sated himself, claimed her again and again, thrusting his cock almost blindly into her ass and relishing the sensation of her buttocks under his hand as he spanked her. He drowned in this experience that lifted his mind from his head and threw it up against the wall of the chamber, where it spattered, shattered and reformed into something new.

  The fucking was beyond anything imaginable. He’d had women before—fed from women before. But this was the first time he’d taken a woman on equal terms—lover to lover, as well as vampire to vampire.

  To orgasm, to climax at the same moment his lover’s blood roared across his tongue just as his gushed into her mouth—well, it was outside even his vast realm of experience.

  Verity’s bite sucked so much more from his wrist than just his life’s essence. The feel of her lips—her fangs—drew at his cock and his balls, a wrenching sensation in his gut that had him spewing his seed for endless moments, a release that astounded him with its ferocity and duration.

  It took a tiny portion of his mind back to that instant when he was transformed—that moment when he first experienced the touch of vampire fangs against his skin.