by Ari Thatcher
She pounded on the door with both fists. “Baen, Enos, are you in there?”
The only sound she heard was the growling of the cats behind her. She had to reach the men. Covering her hand with her shirttail, she tried the handle again.
It was locked. Where was the key? Did she even have a key? She reached up and felt along the doorframe to see if it was stashed there. No luck.
Tears welled in her eyes as heat radiated through the door. “Aunt Absinthe, where are you when I need you? Help me, please.”
Thunk.
Something fell in the living room behind her. Turning to look, Sin saw Cleo facing the bookshelves, her tail twitching in a calm manner.
“Aunt Absinthe, is that you?”
Cleo looked at her and meowed.
With another dash and squeal, Sin passed through the mist. On the floor in front of the bookshelf lay a book that hadn’t been there before. She picked it up.
The cover was ancient leather, worn and on the verge of crumbling to dust. Gold lettering spelled out words in a language she didn’t understand. As she held it, the book opened to a page in the middle.
Her gut told her Great-Aunt Absinthe wanted her to read the passage. Turning toward the mist, Sin began to speak, her tongue stumbling over the odd combinations of consonants.
The mist rippled.
Encouraged, and fearful of the smoke filling the room, she continued, her voice growing stronger.
The mist darted about the room as if trying to escape. With each move it thinned. Sin read the final stanza, yelling to force the words out.
Kinetic energy filled the room, vibrating outward from the mist. The curtains stirred. Pictures rattled on the walls. Sin’s hair lifted as if she’d rubbed a balloon over it. The mist swelled and shrank, swelled and shrank again, then expanded outward until it vanished.
Instantly the room stilled and Sin began to cough. Smoke rolled in and surrounded her. Fighting the demands of her body, she crouched and ran to the basement door again, using her shirt to try the handle once more. When she found it still locked, she pounded and yelled until her throat hurt.
As she realized her vision was getting hazy, she slid to the floor.
* * * * *
A severe coughing fit gripped her and Sin came awake. Where was she? The walls around her were cold and sterile. She noticed she had a plastic mask over her mouth and reached for it.
“You’re awake.” The sweet female voice came from the shadowy corner of the room. Ana stood and came to the side of the bed. “Leave the oxygen mask on. You need it.”
“Where…? How…?” Her voice sounded like a pond full of frogs.
Pushing back her long, blonde hair, the woman smiled. “I’m Ana. We met at the MacDuirmads’ home. Do you remember what happened to you?”
“There was a fire in my basement.” Realization hit like a bullet to her chest. “The MacDuirmad brothers were there. Are they…?”
“They’re fine. I’ll let them tell you about it. I’m glad to see you’re all right, too.” Ana left then to find the nurse.
Later, a firefighter stopped by to let her know they had saved the house and the cats, but the basement had been a total loss.
Time blurred as she dozed often. On one of his visits to her hospital room, Baen told her she would stay with them until repairs were made to her house. After two days in bed at the tiny Whispering Valley Community Hospital, Sin was released. As Ana drove her to the MacDuirmad home, a mixture of relief and curiosity filled her. She was eager to talk to the brothers about the mist and the fire.
In the thin light of dusk, Sin looked out the window of Ana’s car, through the trees at the familiar building that seemed to have grown there in the forest. The house was a single story, a cross between a log cabin and an old English cottage with thatched roof. The overall effect was pleasant and unique. She more expected elves and fairies to live there than vampires.
The brothers came out to meet the car and each one hugged her, holding her slightly longer than a greeting required. Baen waved to Ana, saying, “Thanks for bringing her here.”
“My pleasure,” Ana said simply before driving away.
With his arm around her shoulders, Baen led her inside. She was pleased to see the three cats sitting in the doorway. They greeted her loudly.
“The cats aren’t too happy about being moved,” Gower explained. “They’ve been protesting hourly.”
Sin inhaled a calming breath of cinnamon and lemon cleaner while turning to face the three men. “So, are you going to tell me what happened? The people in this town are so secretive. No one will tell me how you survived. And then there’s the hospital staff. They didn’t say a thing about my nocturnal habits, and no one offered me food.”
“But they had a blood drip in your IV, right?” Enos asked.
He was right. No saline bags, only blood, two or three bags a day. They knew she was a vampire. While the guys had told her people in the village considered that normal, she still expected stares and whispers.
Baen led her to the overstuffed sofa and sat on one side, while Gower took the other. Baen spoke first. “This is a small, close-knit town, as you’ve seen. Everyone here has their own, well, uniqueness, and everyone watches out for each other.”
Sin thought she’d love to read the medical charts of the town. How did a doctor know how to treat all the different creatures the brothers claimed lived there? He’d have to go to vet school as well as med school. With a mental grimace, she stopped the crazy train of thought and focused on the important stuff. “Are you finally going to tell me what happened in the basement?”
Enos leaned forward in his wing chair and rested his elbows on his knees. “Yeah, and you can fill us in on what happened upstairs. We were working on the heater’s pilot light when the thing lit, then flared up and scorched the ceiling.”
“It was a huge flame,” Gower added. “Singed my eyebrows.”
“Somehow the ceiling caught and the flames spread as if someone had poured gasoline across the beams.” Baen stroked her arm as they talked. “We ran for the extinguisher that’s kept below the stairwell and it wouldn’t work. The gauge read empty, but I know we checked the extinguishers routinely for your aunt.”
Gower nodded. “I ran for the door to get the one from the kitchen, but the door was jammed. It wouldn’t open. I banged on it and yelled for you.”
Sin frowned. “I never heard. When I saw the smoke, I tried to open the door but it was locked. I couldn’t find a key. I kept pounding on the door and yelling for you guys. I even tried the outer door.”
“We couldn’t get to it. A wall of flames blocked it off.” Baen clasped her hand in his. “When we decided we couldn’t get out, we all crouched in the corner of the room and waited for you to find us.”
“I tried. There was this thing that didn’t want me to.”
The men exchanged glances. Baen squeezed her hand gently. “Thing?”
“Yeah. A black mist. Before the smoke escaped the door, a shadow came out around it and blocked my way. It kept moving in front of me when I stepped closer.”
Enos lifted an eyebrow. “You moved closer to the shadow?”
“Well, yeah. I had to get to you guys.”
“Did it hurt you?”
She shook her head. “I finally ran through it and ended up covered in goo. Slime. It smelled as if something died.”
All three men said, “Demon.”
“That’s what I figured. When I still couldn’t open the door, I called to my aunt for help. A book fell off a shelf and opened to a page, so I started reading. The shadow didn’t like it, apparently. It finally vanished.”
Gower ran a hand over her hair. “You destroyed it.”
“I did?”
Baen nodded. “That must be your gift.”
She laughed, dryly, almost a snort. “What? Demon slayer?”
Smiling, Baen said, “Yeah, pretty much. There must be spell books in the living room, as well as in the att
ic.”
“It did look a lot like the one you took from me up there. Come to think of it, the first day I arrived at the house, a book fell off the shelf. I wonder if my aunt tried to warn me then? But how can I be a demon slayer? I’m just me. My dad is a computer programmer and my mom sells cosmetics. We even went to church when I was a kid.”
“It’s inborn, like being psychic,” Enos explained.
“Huh,” was all she could respond. She realized she didn’t know how the brothers had escaped the fire, and asked.
“I’m guessing about the time you destroyed the demon, your great-aunt was able to reach us. Something put a bubble around us to keep the smoke and heat away until the fire department came.”
She released her breath, barely aware she’d been holding it. “Thank God someone saw the smoke and called it in.”
“Um, no, they didn’t.” Gower turned to face her. “We told you everyone around here has a gift. Well, the fire chief is clairvoyant. Come to think of it, maybe he created the bubble protecting us. No one has ever died in a fire as long as he’s been here.”
“It’s rare a fire can burn long enough to do major damage before Chief Yost becomes aware of it,” Enos added.
Sin shook her head. “Well, that’s handy, I guess.”
She wondered what other oddities she would find as she became better acquainted with the people. Her parents had never talked about the community. Did they even have a clue what the place was like?
It didn’t matter. Whispering Valley was her home now and she was beginning to feel as if she would enjoy living there. She looked at the three men sitting with her. They hadn’t gotten to talk about their relationship before the fire broke out. She really needed to be clear what was happening between them all. Squeezing Baen’s hand, she looked up into his eyes.
“We still need to talk. About us.”
“Sure. Is something wrong?”
“Not wrong, exactly. I’m just confused. And I want to make things clear before anyone gets hurt.”
“Sounds good to me, “Enos said.
She drew in a breath. Where to start? She hated talking relationships. She usually just let things happen and rode with it. But she’d never had such strong feelings for three men at one time. Such strong feelings for anyone at any time. “I didn’t know it was possible, but I’m falling for all three of you.”
There. She’d said it.
Baen tightened his hold on her hand. “And?”
“And? And I don’t know what to do about it. I don’t know how to be involved with more than one man at a time. I can’t play you guys against each other. What if I want to be with one of you one night, what will the others think?”
Baen lifted her chin and she met his gaze. “We’ll think we’ll have our time with you another night. You are our mate. Our mate. I thought we’d explained that to you. If that’s agreeable to you, the three of us will be with you always.”
The idea confused and excited her. “I don’t understand what you guys get out of it, but it sounds perfect to me.”
“We get you.” Baen smiled, then leaned in to kiss her. The gentle touch lingered, becoming more forceful. His tongue traced the seam of her lips and she opened to him. His groan of pleasure made her breasts tingle.
Sin met his tongue with hers and explored his mouth, tasting the sweetness of a mint he must have chewed recently. Her hands snaked around him, roaming the breadth of his back. The relief of so many dangers and worries drove her need for contact, for release.
Baen pulled away and stood, pulling her with him. “We need to do this right.”
As she rose, it hit her that she’d been in the hospital and hadn’t showered in two days. She smelled of smoke and a bit of the reek of the demon, even though Ana had brought her some clean clothes.
“If we’re going to do this right, I need a shower.” She looked at the other two men. What did “right” entail? She shivered as images raced through her mind.
“Let me show you your bathroom.” Baen led her toward the hallway.
Small lamps mounted high on the walls lit the way, looking like candles in sconces. Baen led her to the last door on the right and opened it for her.
The bedroom glowed, again as if by candlelight, bright enough to see without losing an old-fashioned ambience. In the center stood an antique four-poster with dark red curtains tied at each post. The mattress sat high above the floor, a downy comforter pulled back. Pillows were piled against the headboard.
Longing swept over her to climb in, snuggle down and sleep for a week. After she had sex. “It’s beautiful.”
“I’m glad you like it. You can redecorate, if you’d like. The bath is here.” He opened a door and turned on the light. A sunken tub surrounded by marble tile called to her.
“Did Ana bring my things over?”
“We brought some and bought others for you. You should find everything you need. I’ll leave you to relax, unless I can talk you into letting me wash your back?” He drew her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles.
Sin sighed. Having Baen lean over the edge of the tub and run a soft sponge over her would be beyond sensual. But she felt so grungy. There was no way any man was going to see her until she’d spent a good half-hour with a bar of soap. “Maybe next time.”
He smiled and bowed like the hero in a Jane Austen story. “Enjoy your bath.”
She did. When the water grew tepid and she was sure she’d be a prune if she weren’t undead, she dried off and went in search of a robe or nightgown.
Chapter Nine
Sin debated what to put on after her bath. Her bathrobe was a ratty, hot pink terry cloth rag that she’d be ashamed to be seen in. Her pajamas weren’t much better, since she preferred t-shirts and boxer shorts. How sexy. Not.
In addition to the bed, the room had a tall antique dresser, matching wardrobe, and several Queen Anne style chairs beside a small table. Sin dropped her towel and opened dresser drawers to see what she had to choose from. Next to a pile of her boxers lay some plain white cotton.
Lifting the garment, she held it up to the light. It was a long nightgown, but definitely not a granny-style flannel one. The cotton was so thin it was practically nonexistent. In the drawer she found a matching robe. Maybe with both layers she’d feel covered.
Looking at her reflection as she straightened the gown around her hips, she realized the attraction of the fabric. Only hints of shadow showed through. The dark blush of her nipples, the darker shadow of her bush. It seemed sexier than totally sheer would be, as if you were stealing a peek at something you weren’t supposed to see.
Her nipples hardened at the thought. How funny, she thought, to feel so virginal at her age and with her experience.
A knock sounded at the door and she quickly pulled on the robe and flipped her hair free, wishing she’d taken time to comb out the half-dry tangles. “Come in.”
Baen entered, followed by his brothers. Her pussy quivered, knowing they’d all be in the room together, making love. Watching, participating. At the flutter of butterflies in her stomach, she told herself to just let go and follow their lead.
One of the men whistled. Enos had somehow taken the lead and put his hand on her shoulder. “You are even more beautiful than I realized.”
“You smell heavenly.” Gower had come up behind her and nuzzled her hair.
She felt a warm glow at their words. “I used the body wash that was beside the tub.” It was an exotic scent of ylang-ylang and jasmine with a woody element blended in. Very sensual.
Enos traced a finger along the neckline of her gown, then stepped closer. He bent his head and devoured her lips. No gentle persuasion involved, he went straight for the passionate, demanding kiss of a lover in desperate need.
Her urgency was equal to his. She rose on her toes, cupped the nape of his neck and clung to him, battling with his tongue as it explored her mouth. She whimpered, unable to soothe whatever was growing inside her.
A hand stroked
over her hip, heating her skin. Another cupped her breast, kneaded the heavy flesh. She didn’t even think about whom the hands belonged to, just gave in to the ecstasy of the touches. Someone pulled her robe off her shoulders and she dropped her arms to let it fall.
Enos ended his kiss and tugged at his clothes. His brothers also undressed. Sin looked at the three men, the three look-alike Greek statues, and her breath caught. She must have pleased the goddess of sex, to have won this prize. Three throbbing erections pointing at their target—her.
She reached for the closest man, Baen. His pale golden skin glistened over defined muscle. Her tongue itched to trace the shadows delineating his torso, and maybe follow that arrow of dark hair that pointed to the ultimate prize. Shutting out images of the demon possession that seemed years in the past, she knelt in front of him.
His cock danced for her. She reached up and captured it in her hand, feeling the tremors of passion Baen held back. Finally she could taste him, tease him, maybe even torture him with a prolonged release.
A bit of salty liquid spilled free and she licked at it, then smiled at his growl. “Like that?”
“Exactly like that.”
The nearness of the other two men watching her private performance suddenly made her feel more desirable than she could recall. Testosterone flooded the air around her. This was her night to let herself go.
Her night of power. The power to please her men.
She licked the vein running his length, and bent to take his sac in her mouth. She ran the base of her tongue over the rough hair before freeing him and concentrating on his cock.
It continued to weep at her ministrations, the taste pleasing, ego-building. He obviously enjoyed her touch. Taking as much of him into her mouth as she could, she tightened her lips and sucked, drawing back slowly.
Sin listened to the rate of his breaths to guide her speed as she laved and savored him. When she knew he reached the breaking point, she let him go and stood up. “Don’t want to end this party too soon,” she teased.