by Riley Storm
“Everyone is scared of the unknown Victor. I don’t know what happened back there. Neither does Aaric. You need to come inside and talk to us. And you need to hold me tight. I can make that an order, if it helps?”
To her immense relief, Victor sighed, the ghost of a smile crossing his face. It wasn’t much, but it was a step in the right direction.
“Thank you,” he said in his typical rumble. “I don’t deserve to have someone like you around me.”
“Yes, you do,” she said. “Don’t say that.”
“I put you in danger,” he said, his voice stronger. “Aaric warned me, but I refused to listen. You could have died twice, Cheryl, and that’s my fault. I nearly got my m—someone I care about, killed.”
She frowned, wondering what he’d been about to say. “I’m safe though. Because of you. That matters for a lot. Now come inside. Please?” she asked quietly, squeezing his hand as hard as she could. “I still need you Victor.”
He shuddered but nodded. “Yes. I’ll be there for you, Cheryl. Whenever you need it. Just ask. Let’s go, the least I can do is give you some answers.”
Leaning over his seat, she kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you. You’re a good man. I know it. If you don’t believe that yourself, then ask yourself if you think you’re ready to accuse me of being a liar,” she said lightly, then kissed his cheek again, the stubble tickling her soft lips.
“That’s not fair,” he complained, but at last his grip on the steering wheel went limp and he moved his free hand off it.
“Neither is not believing me when I tell you something that I know to be true,” she said, patting his hand and lifting her door open. “Now come on. I need to know what that was.”
They got out of the car.
“Victor. What happened?” Aaric asked immediately.
“You were right,” Victor said, the three of them heading up the stairs.
Cheryl smiled to herself as Victor’s hand found hers and held it tight while he walked in the middle of the two of them. Instantly, she felt safer, more at ease.
That all changed with Victor’s next sentence.
“The vampires are back.”
Coming to an abrupt halt, Cheryl’s arm was yanked as Victor didn’t immediately stop as well.
“D-d-did you just say vampires?” she stammered, looking around wildly, as if they were going to come crawling out of every nook and cranny.
“Yes,” Victor said. “I did. Aaric warned me they were back, but I didn’t believe him. I thought he was…over-reacting.”
Aaric snorted, but remained silent, though a look that could only be described as ‘I told you so’ remained on his face.
“Vampires,” she said, taking a breath. “Okay. Dragons. Magic. Vampires. What else is out there that humans don’t know about?”
Victor and Aaric exchanged glances, then answered in unison. “A lot.”
“Do I want to know it all?” she asked, resuming their walk up the stairs.
Neither of the shifters replied as Aaric hauled open one of the giant bronze doors and held it open for both of them before following inside.
“Not at once,” Victor said. “You’re already having a hard time taking it in. Suffice to say, that you should start believing more of your legends. That will better help prepare you for the real world you live in.”
“Great,” she said quietly, more to herself than anyone else. “Okay. Vampires. What’s the story there? They died off?”
Aaric took up a scholarly tone. “Not willingly. Vampires were, or are, I suppose is now the correct term, the oldest known paranormal entity on the planet. As far as anyone knows, they’ve been here before the first shamans discovered magic, before the Fae-kind coalesced into being, and well before shifters. We’re the most recent, actually.”
“Hold on,” she said as Victor tried to turn them down one hallway. “Is this the way to the bar? Because I need a drink.”
Without hesitating, the two shifters reversed direction and went another. It was so coordinated she almost laughed. Almost. If it weren’t for all the new knowledge she was trying to process, Cheryl might have allowed herself to relax enough to do so.
Fae? Like Faeries? And Vampires too?
Fortified with a spicy Caesar in hand, courtesy of Aaric’s heretofore unknown bartending skills, she sat next to Victor on a plush leather loveseat and leaned into his arm. Now, externally and internally prepared, she nodded at Aaric to continue his lesson. Scared as she was, her curiosity wasn’t going to be dampened.
It was time to know what she was truly getting herself into if she was going to keep Victor in her life. Leaving him wasn’t even a thought that entered into her mind.
“Back around the end of the Roman Empire, the vampires were crushing human society beneath them. They ruled the Empire. Every one of their senate members and much of their partisan society were vampires. Those that weren’t, were enthralled by them.”
“Enthralled?” she asked, frowning. “What’s that?”
“A power the vampires have. While I can control fire,” Aaric explained, lifting a palm, where flame burst into being out of nothing. “And Victor, water.”
A miniature rainstorm erupted over the fire, extinguishing it.
“The vampires can control the human mind. The stronger they are, the more control they can exert and the more minds they can control. We call those taken by this Thralls. Only killing the vampire frees them.”
“Oh,” she said with a shudder.
“Exactly,” Aaric said. “While no shifter left alive was there, I have read the histories, and talked to those who were only a few generations removed. We dragons are the longest-lived of shifters. The memories are most recent with us.”
“What happened?” she asked, thoroughly engrossed.
“Shifters,” Victor said, taking up the story. “We appeared sometime around 350 AD. Nobody knows exactly when or how. That secret is something that only a few at the highest levels know, and they don’t discuss it with anyone.”
Aaric nodded, the two dragons shifting off one another as they spoke. “In small numbers at first in northern Europe, but we grew fast. The vampires mobilized their Legions to fight the barbarians. But we were too strong. We drove them back, in battle after battle. Thousands of shifters died, but always more stepped up.”
Horrified and fascinated, she sipped at her drink, trying to imagine what these men and their ancestors must have gone through. It was so different from the world she knew about.
“Then, at last, we made it to Rome itself,” Aaric explained. “A great battle took place. Tens of thousands of our kin—wolves, bears, lions, tigers, and others—backed up by thousands of dragons. It was terrible,” he said, speaking quietly, his eyes elsewhere, almost as if he’d been there.
“We fought not just the Thralls then,” Victor said when his brother remained silent, “but the vampires as well. The oldest, strongest vampires. Thousands of years old. Powerful beyond your imagining. Dragons fell from the sky like hail while entire legions of others were wiped from the earth. It was a bloodbath.”
“But we prevailed,” Aaric said, looking up at her sharply. “We killed them all. Every. Single. One.” He sighed. “Or so we’ve thought for the past fifteen hundred years. Until about six months ago, when I fought one.”
“They’re back,” she said. “Why? How? After so long? What are they after?”
Victor and Aaric exchanged looks.
“We don’t know,” Aaric admitted. “But we can only think of one thing.”
“What?” She looked back and forth, feeling panic bubble up inside her. This was serious.
“Revenge.”
Aaric uttered the one word, before getting to his feet. “I have to see to some things. Take care of her, Victor. Tell her anything she wants to know. We’ll talk later. Plan out what we’re going to do.” His eyes shifted to Cheryl. “I’m sorry you’re caught up in this, but I couldn’t think of a better person to have with Victor.”
She barely had a chance to return his smile before he was gone, leaving the two of them alone.
Biting her lip, she sipped on her drink, entirely unsure of what to talk about next. There was so much she just didn’t know, even with the brief history lesson the two had provided.
“I’m sorry,” Victor said at last. “I didn’t listen to Aaric’s warning, and you nearly paid the price. Yes, I got you out, but you should never have been there in the first place. For that, you have my apologies. I will do better.”
“I know,” she said, leaning into him, giving him her vocal and physical reassurance. “I know, Victor. You’re a good man. In here,” she said, placing a hand on his heart.
He reached up to lay his hand over hers. “I will do my best to live up to your faith.”
“I believe you.” She snuggled in closer, enjoying the warmth and firmness of the arm wrapped around her shoulders. It felt good.
After a moment, she reached forward, putting her drink down on the table in front of them, only half-finished. With both hands free, she curled up as close to Victor as possible, drinking in the heat flowing from his body and the solid physical presence.
“What do I do now?” Victor asked after a bit.
There was no self-loathing present that she could detect. No angst. Just a quiet question.
“Those people, they’re all in trouble now because I put them there. I hired them,” he explained at a questioning glance as she looked up at him, head still on his upper chest and shoulder. “I put them to work. I’m not going to sit around and let them come to harm, Cheryl. I have to help them. I’m just not sure how.”
“Easy,” she said. “You find the vampire. You kill him. Anyone who would use another person so callously is evil. They deserve to die. So, you will give it to him,” she said fiercely. “And you won’t hesitate.”
“Oh.”
She laughed at the shock writ on his face. “He tried to use people against me. Tried to kill me to get at you, Victor. Those people, they deserve better, like you said. If the only way to free them is to kill this vampire, then we kill it.”
Cheryl frowned. “How do you kill a vampire? Do the stories from the books work at all?”
Victor cracked the first smile she’d seen on him since before the attack. The first real smile. “Easy there, Van Helsing. One step at a time, shall we?”
“Thank you for coming back for me,” she said quietly, sobering once more. “I...I appreciate it.”
Cupping her chin, Victor leaned over and kissed her softly, lingering and questioning.
A hunger rose up in her, and she took him by the back of his head and pulled his mouth back to hers, arching into him as his tongue parted her lips. Hands slid between her and the couch and across her other side.
She yelped in pleasant surprise as Victor lifted her into his lap, her knees settling on either side of his waist. Biting her lip, she took both sides of his head in her hands and returned the kiss, taking slight control of everything.
Fingers dug into her ass through her dark, skin-tight jeans, squeezing tight.
“So, is this your step one?” she whispered into his ear.
“It is,” Victor said, teeth sinking gently into her neck with playful force. “Would you like to see step two?”
“Yes,” she all but moaned at him as his hands slid up her back.
“Yes, I would.”
31
Victor hadn’t realized how badly he wanted her permission to continue until he received it. He grabbed at her clothing with an almost frantic need, driven by urges beyond his complete understanding.
“Hey,” she whispered, placing her hands over his, pinning them to her sides. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”
He nodded, not trusting his voice.
“Were you worried about me?” Cheryl asked, stroking his face with long, gentle caresses.
Victor bobbed his head once again. Truthfully, he’d been terrified, not knowing where she was, then seeing her in the grips of the thralls. It had awoken a powerful feeling of possession in him, one that he didn’t fully understand, but knew was directed at her.
“You don’t need to be,” she said, releasing his hands to strip her shirt.
Victor was able to move more smoothly now, reassured by her touch, by her words. He got the shirt off without ripping it, same with her bra. She leaned into him, pressing her bare flesh against his clothing, reminding Victor of all the lush curves that she had underneath.
He stirred in response, jeans growing tighter. Cheryl looked down, sensing his heightened arousal and teasing it further with slow movements of her hips designed to increase the pressure against him.
“I’m going to show you that you don’t need to be worried,” she said.
Victor frowned internally. He had meant to be reassuring her, to make sure Cheryl understood he was here to keep her safe, to do whatever was needed. Yet somehow this astonishing woman had read beyond that, to figure out what he was doing, and provide what he needed.
“This isn’t just about me,” he growled, taking the initiative again with his hands and his mouth.
Cheryl moaned, throwing her head back, long silvery-blonde hair cascading down her back and over her shoulders, partially obscuring his view of her chest. His long fingers moved to delicately push the tresses out of the way so he could cover her upper body in heated kisses.
“Well it’s not just about me either,” she gasped as he took one nipple into his mouth with utmost tenderness.
“We seem to be at an impasse then,” he muttered a moment later, before returning to his ministrations.
“Perhaps,” she said, clutching at the back of his head, pulling him in tight while rocking back and forth, tiny hisses of air escaping her mouth as he swirled his tongue around the hard nub. “Or maybe, we just make it about us.”
Victor pulled back, unable to prevent a wide grin from spreading. “I can work with that,” he agreed.
“Me too. As long as you don’t stop what you were doing,” she ordered, bottom lip curling up under her teeth.
A low rumble escaped his mouth before he resumed his attention to her body, but Victor wasn’t content to stop there. At one point, he picked Cheryl up and flipped her around, pushing her down into the couch, settling on top of her.
She welcomed him, tugging at his neck to bring his mouth closer to kiss him some more.
Victor lost track of time after that, barely noting as the rest of their clothing wound up on the floor or nearby. His focus was less on what they were doing, and more on who he was doing it with.
That was a novelty to him, something he’d never experienced before, and the realization of it came to him slowly. In fact, it was only as he was about to enter her that it clued in.
“I like this,” he growled in her ear, hoping she would understand that he meant he enjoyed doing it with her, not just in general.
“Me too,” she said breathlessly, the words coming at the same instant he slid inside.
He leaned in to kiss her, both of them making sounds of extreme pleasure, unable to contain themselves. It just felt too unbelievable. His groans mixed with her softer, lighter cries as he went deeper.
Cheryl’s tremors as he entered her fully were the only warning he had before she dug her nails in deep into his back, her cries growing louder. Adjusting his position so he could support himself with one hand, he pushed a finger between their hips, his thumb finding her clit as fast as possible.
The sight of her eyes flying open, mouth forming a silent O-shape as he moved his finger in circles nearly resulted in Victor losing control and emptying himself into her then and there.
Squeezing his abs and arms and chest, he frantically fought back the impending orgasm, even as Cheryl’s body was wracked by the very contractions he was trying to avoid. It was an odd contradiction, but Victor wasn’t ready to give in just yet. He wanted to watch her face some more, to hear her moans. Those were the
things that truly pleasured him.
“Victor,” she gasped into his ear once she’d calmed. “I’d forgotten…”
Grinning to himself, he kissed her neck, gently sucking on it, then biting for a moment. She was just so fun to please. Everything Cheryl did or said made him throb with desire, with a need to climax. He fought it back.
“So wet,” he groaned into her ear instead, wanting her to know that he was as aroused as her, that it was her body that made his cock so hard, that he was fighting to restrain himself from going harder.
They stayed in each other’s embrace for some time, luxuriating in the shared experience of lovemaking. Several smaller climaxes wracked Cheryl’s body, each one pushing Victor closer to the edge.
“My turn to do some work,” Cheryl said abruptly, putting both hands on his chest and pushing him back.
Never one to complain about that, Victor sat back into the couch as ordered, watching with unabashed delight as Cheryl settled on top of him again, knees on either side, her entire body pressed into him. She reached back with one hand to grab his cock to position it properly, which had the wonderful effect of pushing her breasts out toward him.
Then he slid back inside her and his mind grew fuzzy. Cheryl’s hips ground back and forth against him in constant rhythm, slow at first as she adjusted to the motion, but then increasing with speed.
The pressure of her walls around him, combined with the visual and auditory stimulations was resulting in a sensory overload. Victor’s fingers tightened around her waist, but he never slowed her.
“It’s okay,” she whispered into his ear, sensing that he was almost done. “I want you.”
He shuddered and, backed by Cheryl’s urgings, Victor let himself lose control. Her name slipped from his mouth and he pulled her in tight, hips thrusting upward out of control.
Cheryl collapsed against him as he fell back into the couch, utterly spent, and it was only then that he realized she too was panting and breathing heavily, her body slumped happily against his broad chest.
“That was good,” she whispered. “I needed that. I needed you.”