Sins of the Undead Patriot

by A. C. Mason

  Her nipples hardened into peaks. The longer Rowley took to decide, the more she couldn’t wait to get away from this strange situation and the less she thought he should father her child. In the last few moments, Devin had showered her with more affection than Rowley had since he’d claimed he loved her a few weeks ago.

  “Cron sceimhiuil.” He lowered his voice. Hunger laced his tone.

  “You used those words the other day in the bathroom. What do they mean?” What game was Devin playing? Had Rowley put him up to it to test her loyalty?

  “I’ve never been with a woman of your complexion. You may take my words the wrong way.” He shifted upright, pushing his back to the seat.

  Her heart thumped. “What do they mean?” She pressed her lips together, swallowed and pulled back.

  “Don’t be angry. When I think of what we shared the other night, I remember the folds between your thighs are tipped dark and grow pink toward your opening.” Hunger flushed his face.

  What was he dancing around, some kind of degrading sexual term? “The words, Devin, what do they mean?”

  “Dark beautiful. I mean it with great fondness. The words don’t translate well but I’m taken by you.” He trailed his thumb along her jaw line to her lips. “The softest I’ve had the pleasure of tasting.”

  Her mouth tingled with flickering flames. “Devin.” Leera retreated.

  “I understand if you took part in the threesome because of your feelings for Rowley–to please him.” He leaned away, into his spot on the seat. “I enjoyed what we shared, those moments I had with you, a cron sceimhiuil. And I hope I brought you pleasure too.” He stared out the window, a vacantness hollowing his usually warm eyes. “If you have no further interest in me than the threesomes to enhance your and Rowley’s sex life, I will respect that.”

  “I won’t betray him.” Devin or Rowley or both, could be testing her loyalties.

  “And you think us touching and exploring each other would be a betrayal to him when he watched us have sex?” He angled his upper body toward her.

  Put that way, her point didn’t make sense. “I don’t know, maybe I’m not as comfortable as both of you are.”

  “Did you not enjoy what we shared?” His gaze met hers. “Was that why you were crying then, afterward? Did you feel obligated to include me? Is that why you were sick to your stomach and needed to clean yourself?”

  Everything she said tonight turned into a put down aimed at him. “Devin.”

  “I have the right to know. I know how Rowley can be. He gets what he wants. So if you can’t turn down his request for me to join the two of you, for God’s sake, if you tell me it’s not what you want, I can spare us both.” He gripped the leather steering wheel and the fabric squealed beneath his hands.

  Of course she’d done it for Rowley, and she couldn’t turn him down. Maybe she hadn’t wanted his touch to begin with, but she did enjoy it. “Spare us both?”

  “You think men have no feelings, Leera.” He pointed to his heart. “I can’t sleep with a woman who isn’t into it–they call that rape where I come from.”

  If only that night’s events were that simple. “It’s not like that.” She slid to the passenger door.

  He scooted toward her. “What is it like, then?”

  “I can’t tell you.” If she admitted that one on one with him had been enjoyable, even pleasurable, but both of them–Rowley joining in had taken away the intimacy between them, and Devin would think she didn’t care for Rowley. “You’ll think I’m horrible.”

  “So you’d rather I think being with me made you sick–or that I was forcing myself on you.” He gathered her up by the shoulders.

  Why was he pushing this? “God, no.”

  “Then what?” The streetlight lit his face, tight with an expression of determination.

  She jerked her shoulders. “Let this go.”

  “I need to know.” He pressed his forehead to her temple.

  “When you were touching me, I wanted you–only you.” She grabbed the car door handle.

  Devin reached over and held onto the door. “Stay in the car and lock the doors.”

  “What, why?”

  “None of our people have come out. I’ve been monitoring the street. A bunch went in, but none have exited. An undead just came out the other side and hurried off. Something is wrong. Don’t open the door for anyone. I’ll have the key with me.” He slammed her door shut, locked it and backed away. “No one. You hear me?”

  “Yes.”

  Devin got out, went to the trunk, got a gasoline container and ran across the street.

  Oh, shit. Leera couldn’t let Devin set the building on fire. Didn’t that make her an accessory to the crime? She opened the door and ran up behind him. A screech like a train whistle pierced the night. Devin turned, grabbed her, ran back toward the car, opened the door, shoved her in and blanketed her with his body.

  Vibrations shook the ground around them and bright yellow and orange lit the sky. The windows of the car shattered. Glass fell like hail. Cold air filled the space.

  “Stay down.” Concern laced his tone. “You should have remained in the car. Something could have happened to you, a cron sceimhiuil.”

  He started the car, backed up and peeled onto the street, as neighbors ran out of their houses.

  “Get down,” he ordered, pushing her head down.

  “What happened to the others?” Leera huddled between the dash and the seat.

  “Taken or dead. Either way, gone.” He hit the steering wheel with the heel of his hand. “Fuck, they were kids.”

  Of the four who went in, the oldest might have been in her twenties.

  “The question is, was the bomb for us or the den?” Devin pulled up to the warehouse.

  “Why would someone want us dead?”

  “Not you, Leera.” Devin held out his hand for her to take. “Me or Rowley.”

  Meaning him, since Rowley wasn’t there. Devin didn’t add up. “Why do you follow him? You aren’t anything like him.”

  “That’s where you are wrong. I’m so much like him it scares me.” He glanced over his shoulder at her. “Let me ask you this. What are you doing with him, cron sceimhiuil? You’re an attractive and intelligent woman.” He gazed into her face. Behind those light green eyes, she could nearly see the wheels turning.

  Better she not give him time to think, and suspect her. “It’s complicated.” Her best guess as to how she got involved with Rowley to begin with was that she was screwed up.

  They pulled up to the COTL warehouse by the river. The garage’s freight door opened.

  Chapter 36

  Vaihan pulled up to the compound. Snow fell on the hood of the car. Leera slept in the passenger seat next to him. Was this an indication that despite what had happened, she felt safe with him? Given the bags under her eyes and the scent of the two males on her, sleep wasn’t high on her list of priorities lately.

  “We are here.” He turned off the car.

  As she sat up, her eyelids flew open. “I can’t believe I dozed off like that.”

  “Marty is waiting for us inside.” He stepped out into the snowy afternoon.

  She slammed shut the door. “This is some place.”

  The large cement building towered over them. Why had Marty wanted to bring her there? Nonmilitary or civilian government personnel didn’t get access.

  “Follow me.” He removed his badge and swiped it in the machine to open the door.

  “You work here.” She wrinkled her brow and overlapped the sides of her jacket. “I’m confused.”

  “Contract-type work for the government.” The less she knew about that part of his world, the better. Soon he’d need to walk away from it all. “This way.”

  No further questions relayed to him her lack of interest or concern. Her heels tapped against the metal grill floor. The door at the end of the hall opened, and Marty held the handle. “I’m the only one in. My staff is off for the holidays and won’t be back
until after the New Year.”

  A centered table with six monitors back to back stood vacant. Leera set her handbag down, removed her jacket and set it over the back of a chair. The soft blue cashmere wraparound dress lay snug on her curves. Beige thigh high boots left a small gap below the hem.

  Vaihan swallowed his desire.

  “I’ve set up the back room,” Marty said. “Leera, you can wait here with me. I’ve labeled the container.”

  “If you don’t mind, Doc, I’d like to be in the room while he fulfills the deed. If you know what I mean.”

  Marty’s gaze met Vaihan’s. “If he is comfortable with having an audience, I don’t have any objections, as long as you don’t have contact with the fluid being collected.”

  “I learned that lesson the hard way. So no worries, I won’t have any contact with his cum.” Leera crossed her arms.

  Without her, he wouldn’t be able to deliver the goods. The question was, could he deliver with her watching. “I wouldn’t mind the company.”

  “Last door on your left. I did put in a selection of movies and magazines for you.” Marty’s brow wrinkled as he sat down.

  The entire situation was complicated, and that was understating it a tad.

  Leera held the door open for him. “I can’t wait to see what he got you for motivation.”

  She didn’t need to know that was what she was there for. Vaihan locked up and sat in the chair. Next to him was a clear container labeled with his name and the date.

  “Ebony does Avery, LushAss, Hood Hos Gone Wild... I’m sensing a theme.” She flipped through the DVDs and mags, her back toward him. Her hands shook.

  Was she nervous or was this a game? “Thank you.”

  “For?” She spun to face him.

  “Not putting me in the situation where I had to ask again for you to be in the room or request Marty’s permission.”

  “Given everything that’s happened, I’m not sure why you’d want me in here, but I’m humbled you agreed to do this for me.”

  How could she know that love wasn’t a word Vaihan tossed around? He couldn’t just stop the way his heart felt about her, despite the pain of her betrayal. And his personal weakness in relation to her.

  “I can only assume you want more than for me to just sit here while you get off?”

  Truthfully, that was all he needed. Couldn’t hurt for him to explore what she had in mind, though. “Like what, Leera?”

  “I don’t know. Hence, the reason I’m asking. You didn’t say, and I didn’t have the mind to question you at the time.” She rubbed her upper arms.

  “What else do you think I want from you?” Vaihan unbuttoned then lowered the zipper to his pants.

  Leera took a seat across from him. “For me to remove my clothing?”

  At her words, he grew fully erect. “And would you refuse?”

  She shook her head, pulled the bow undone, opened the front of her dress and rested the material on the chair. Both hands vanished behind her back, reappearing with the straps of her bra as she peeled the white lacy fabric from her breasts. Her nipples were hard peaks centered on her mounds.

  Just as he remembered. He stroked the length of his cock.

  Bottom lifted, she slipped the lace panties down her thigh-high boots.

  “Would I request more of you?” Precum coated his tip.

  She nodded. “You want me to get off for you?”

  “And will you deny me?”

  She shook her head, thighs parted as her hand slid between her legs. Her wet labia spread as two fingers vanished inside her. A soft moan echoed from her. She arched her back, and her breasts jutted.

  He pumped his shaft faster, lightning coursing through him at the memory of being buried inside her.

  Her fingers slid from inside and rubbed her clit in a quick motion. She gazed at his hand and cock then fixed on his stare. Fire burned in the darkness of her eyes.

  With her bottom angled upward, she pumped her digits deep, dropped her head back. “Holy fuck.” Her thighs pressed together.

  The sweet scent of her orgasm mixed with female bounding endorphins reached him. Vaihan grabbed the container to receive his seed, held it ready as the first of his fluid gushed from the tip. Inside, he quivered. He emptied into the clear receptacle then screwed on the cap. With a wet nap, he tidied himself then did up his pants. How could she now feel an emotional connection to him, but not when they had been together?

  Leera sat dressed, legs and arms crossed.

  He was not closer to understanding women. “Ready to go?”

  “Yes.” She smiled.

  Vaihan rose and followed her, jar in hand. She picked up her jacket and purse then headed past Marty into the hall.

  The door slammed shut.

  Vaihan held up the container. “Where would you like this?” For the first time since the incident on her birthday, he had hope that they could be together.

  “On her file at the corner of the desk.” Marty pointed off to the side. “I didn’t want to say anything in front of Leera. Remember how you asked me to speak to the scientist I went to Yale with over at Homeland Security?”

  “Yeah.” Vaihan nodded. “And?”

  “Seems the Director of Homeland Security and Vice President Jose Torrez go way back. The two have been meeting on a weekly basis.”

  Not good news for the undead, since the vice president was against the Bill since day one. “Thanks, for speaking to your friend.” The scenario was getting more and more complicated by the day.

  “I wouldn’t really call him a friend. The man is nuts, even spouting conspiracy theories. Paranoid like you wouldn’t believe.”

  No, he could believe plenty. The folder was flipped open. Patient information. Leera Waltz. Next of kin crossed out from Jean Denoix to Peter Waltz. The man Vaihan had killed with his car.

  “Who was Jean to Leera?”

  “Her late husband. The French don’t give their wives their surname.”

  He’d killed her husband. All hope drained from him. She’d hate him.

  Chapter 37

  Leera paced in front of the door to the lab. What was taking Vaihan so long with the Marty? She’d already have a hard time accounting for her disappearance to Rowley. And Devin. She hoped Devin wouldn’t be in trouble with Rowley because she’d slipped out on him. She could think of no other way to get away. It wasn’t like she could say, “Hey, I know you guys hate zombies, but I’m heading over to see Vaihan, so he can give me his sperm–the same undead you believe nearly killed me less than four weeks ago.” That would not have gone over well. She leaned on the cement wall.

  Red from the Exit sign lit the dark corner of the hall. One down, and one more of these to go before Marty could start her treatment. The experience hadn’t been bad. How or why she’d climaxed she would leave for a shrink to figure out one day. Vaihan would know by the scent that she’d had an orgasm. She didn’t feel degraded by the exchange. Not that she would have turned down his request of her; she was going to see this through. Each of the times she’d been intimate with him, he climaxed only after she had, and seeing and smelling his release left her shaky for the ecstasy she’d known under the influence of the toxin.

  “Leera, are you ready?” Vaihan stood next to her.

  “Is everything okay? Was there a problem with the sample?”

  “The sample is fine.” He huffed.

  “Thank you.” She could think of no reason why he would do this for her, given what she’d done.

  “We should head back.” He held the door for her then, and at the car, opened the passenger side door.

  Cold wind blew through to her bones. She slid into her seat. Vaihan slipped in and started the car. He reached over and checked her seat belt then tugged again.

  It had to be a condition. “Asperger’s?”

  “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, OCD.” He pressed the button for the seat warmers.

  “Ah, checking the locks. As in, did-I-turn-the-stove-off type of
thing.” When she was tired and was closing up the restaurant, she had moments of questioning if she’d turned off the stoves.

  “More like a need to be reassured that the women in my life are safe and secure.” He turned onto the interstate.

  Because of his sister and what happened with her, he needed to ensure he wasn’t careless with the women around him ever again. What guilt he must carry with him, for what happened. Tears blurred her vision as the snow-covered landscape rolled by.

  Vaihan glanced her way, once, twice, three times. “Does McKie know you are seeing another man sexually? A younger male?”

  Was he bothered by this? “Please don’t call him McKie. His name is Rowley.” His thugs and the feds called him McKie. To her, he was Rowley, the sad little boy who’d played alone next door. Peter had only bothered with him when no one else was around. Kids had called him weird.

  Vaihan’s jaw tightened. “Is Rowley aware? Or does he care, since the other male is human?”

  If she answered his question vaguely he’d suspect something far worse than what was going on. She had nothing to feel ashamed of. “He watched.”

  “What the fuck did you just say?” Vaihan veered back into the lane.

  That was a first. He didn’t use profanity–at least, not around her, he hadn’t. And he’d lost his cool, swerved the car. “Rowley was there in the room while I was with the other man.”

  “I see.” He gripped the steering wheel.

  Did he? “And what is that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing. I just didn’t get the impression you were into that. I got that you’re open–adventurous in bed–but not to that extent. Nor can I imagine allowing another man to touch the woman I love sexually, or otherwise, without wanting to kill him.”

  “How can you say that?” She frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. “You told me that you and the one who changed you, Gunari, shared women and men.”

  “And you think that was love? I can’t even remember their faces. What he and I shared was about power, control and the hunger–“the urge.” I could never watch the person I love being fulfilled by another.”