by M. R. Kelly
When she questioned how he came to be able to walk in the sun, the conversation became a little stilted, and he changed the subject to ask about her. Charlie had very little to tell. She was a lawyer and had met Tami during their third year at university, and they had become fast friends. She had him laughing at some of the Tami antics. After a steady hum of waiters and patrons coming and going, the room had become quiet. Glancing around, she noticed they were the only ones left in the dining room.
Flushing, she leaned toward Nikolas. “I think we’d better leave. The maître d’ keeps looking in our direction.” Nikolas followed her gaze and gave a nod. The maître d’ approached the table and with a dash of his pen, Nikolas signed the dinner check before leading Charlie out into the hallway.
“Where to now, my lady?” Nikolas whispered close to her ear, his warm breath causing an instant reaction in her body.
“I thought maybe dancing.”
“Dancing it is then.”
Taking her elbow, Nikolas led her to the lift and pressed the button to the promenade deck.
Chapter Nine
Charlie preceded Nikolas into the smoky lounge two floors below. The low thrumming beat of the music vibrated the walls around them as the DJ turned up the beat. The multicolored flashing laser lights shot around the dance floor in various patterns as people of all ages danced on pedestals high above the dance floor. Charlie found it difficult to maneuver past the swaying bodies that crowded around her and grasped Nikolas’s hand as she was jostled from behind. Nikolas led her toward the back of the room to what she now saw was a vacant booth. After they reached the table, Nikolas moved, blocking the crowd from pushing against her as she slid into the booth.
The noise was too loud for a conversation, so Charlie leaned back against faux leather as Nikolas ordered their drinks. The music and the undulating bodies of the crowd were contagious, and soon Charlie wanted to join the mix. Grabbing Nikolas’s hand, she pulled him onto the dance floor. Nikolas turned out to be a very good dancer, mirroring her steps as she moved to the beat. They saw Tami dancing with Nikolas’s friend Itzac. Instead of smiling and waving, Nikolas cast a killing look at the man.
“I need to speak with my old friend for a minute,” Nikolas said and smiled at Charlie, his white teeth standing out against his tanned face. “It will only take a minute.”
After the two men left together, Tami swung Charlie around and continued dancing as if the men had never been there. Charlie and Tami danced until Charlie’s muscles screamed from the strain. Beckoning Tami with her head, Charlie moved back to the booth Nikolas had procured for them. Her drink was still there. She picked up the white frothy liquid and took a long sip, relishing the coolness of the coconut-and-rum-laced liquid as it slid down her throat.
“Where did our guys go?” Tami yelled trying to be heard above the music.
“Don’t know. I honestly think we may have been deserted.”
“Nah! My guy was really into me, and I intend for him to realllly be in to me... if you know what I mean.” She waggled her brows.
Charlie burst out laughing. “Yeah, I know. I had planned a different ending for the night too, but mine was more like having a long walk along the deck. The moon is full and beautiful tonight.”
“Well, girlfriend, if the guys don’t show up, I’ll walk with you under the moonlight and who knows, you might get lucky.” Tami winked, smiling suggestively.
Charlie couldn’t help herself as she burst out laughing. A few moments later, Nikolas returned without Itzac. Tami shrugged, and giving her friend a tiny wave, started back onto the floor and was immediately swamped by college frat boy types. Nikolas’s face was set, his mouth clamped, and his eyes fixed on the exit near the bar. With powerful hands, he yanked her to her feet and pulled her along behind him.
Their footsteps thundered down the hall as they continued to walk. Nikolas’s walk was stiff and determined.
“What is going on, Nikolas?” Charlie asked yanking away from him. “One minute we’re out having a good time. Next thing I know you’re acting like some Neanderthal dragging me away.”
Nikolas moved closer to her, leaving no room at all between them. “I’m frustrated, that’s all. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to end our evening on such a sour note. But I find I must return to Spain. A helicopter will be landing soon to pick me up... and Charlie, it may be a while before I can get away to see you again.”
Nikolas put his hand under her chin, turning her face up to him, searching her eyes intently. His gaze dropped from her eyes to her shoulder and finally to her breasts. Charlie’s breath came raggedly.
“I need you, Charlie. Come with me. I can show you a part of Spain that you have never seen. Please come with me. I’ll take care of you.”
“But that’s just the thing, Nikolas. I don’t need someone to take care of me. I can and have been doing that myself for some time now. I wish you a safe trip, but I’m not going with you. If this is goodbye then, safe journey.” Charlie swallowed hard, lifted her chin, and boldly met his gaze.
Nikolas’s hand dropped to his side, a shadow crossing his face as if he were making some sort of decision.
Charlie heard a crack of bone just before Nikolas grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into the elevator, slamming the button for her floor. She gasped when Nikolas’s eyes turned black, and his skin bubbled as he dragged her out of the elevator and down the hall to her room. Charlie opened her mouth to scream, but his thick hands covered her mouth and jerked her against him.
“If you scream, little human, I will finish it here.”
Charlie began to shake as frightening images built in her mind. Stopping in front of her door, Nikolas held his hand out for the key. Charlie remembered lesson one from defense class. Do not allow them to get you alone.
“I don’t have it,” she stammered. “I gave it to Tami. She lost her key yesterday.”
He shoved her against the wall beside the door. His nails had become sharpened claws, and they ripped into the metal of the door.
“Oh shit oh shit...” Charlie stammered in panic.
She was going to be raped or worse, and no one would even know. She groaned. The door swung open, and Nikolas pushed her into the room, closing the door and turning the bolt lock. Charlie took advantage of his distraction and ran for the balcony, coming to a stop when she looked down into the black depths of the ocean.
“Go ahead, human, jump, but know I will be right behind you, and we will be alone in the vast ocean. The only difference is that I can survive out there. Can you?”
“Nikolas, why are you doing this? I thought we had something that night in Spain.” Charlie backed away from the balcony, tracking Nikolas, whose stare never left her.
“What did Nikolas say to you, Charlie?” he snarled. “Did he promise you forever after screwing you... as he has done with every human female from those tours his Aluka gathers?”
“Why do you keep saying, Nikolas? You are Nikolas.”
“Oh sweet. How wrong you are. I am Darik.”
The creature made a furious charge toward her and Charlie ducked, inching toward the bathroom. Before she could make her move, Darik slammed across the room, landing in front of Charlie. He swung her around so fast Charlie landed on the bed face up. He followed, trapping her under him, his face bubbling again, and Charlie stared up at the most hideous being she had ever seen. The olive black of his eyes had spread to envelop the white. The pupils were ringed with red, and gold flecks spread out from the center. Darik’s face dissolved, yes dissolved, and in its place was a beast with black horns on a face that was distorted, gray, and wrinkled. Moisture pooled under each eye and leaked down to join the green mucous under his nose. His mouth was a hole with large fangs and tusks. Charlie screamed, her breath coming in shallow, quick gasps. The thing that had looked like Nikolas moved his thigh, pressing it between hers. Charlie resisted, squeezing her knees together trying to keep him out.
&n
bsp; “It will do you no good. I will have a taste of you. I need your essence, and then, little human, you will have an unfortunate accident in the ocean out there, and finally, Nikolas will pay for destroying my brother.”
Charlie struggled to get air into her lungs as his fingers tightened around her throat. She clawed at the beast’s arm, hearing the monster curse as she tore at his skin, making him bleed green goo from the four long cuts she had opened with her just-manicured nails. With his other hand, the monster pushed up her black dress and, with a snap, ripped off her panties. Charlie tried to bring her knee up but was blocked as the monster used her momentum to grab her and spread her legs. In one motion his mouth opened and Charlie found she could not utter a word as a light began to emanate between them. Charlie felt as if all her energy was being drained from her a little at a time. The monster’s eyes began to glow as he continued to draw the white light from her.
The door to the room suddenly burst open. Charlie stared in desperation and relief as the other Nikolas stormed into the room.
“Get the hell away from her!” Nikolas yelled.
He gave Charlie a cursory glance before glaring at the monster holding her down. The monster turned his head, his mouth closed, the iridescent light sparking before sizzling out. Charlie couldn’t move, but she felt the monster being lifted off her before the sounds of fighting seeped into her consciousness.
From under semi-closed lids, she watched as the two circled in the small room, scanning for weaknesses, striking out with fists and claws. Charlie winced as Nikolas’s claws connected with the monster, sending him reeling into the wall next to the bathroom. Both charged over the bed, just barely missing Charlie before her ankle was grabbed and she was pulled along with the bedclothes toward Itzac, who had suddenly appeared.
In a tangle of fists and claws, they razed the desk and tables, the impact knocking pictures and the television to the floor. In one final surge, Nikolas turned so swiftly the monster had no chance at defense, his claws going so deep the monster gurgled, blood spewing from his mouth as he stumbled out of the balcony doors and fell over the railing. Charlie waited for the splash, which came moments later, muffled by the waves thrashing against the ship. Nikolas moved swiftly across the room and swung Charlie into his arms.
“I thought I wouldn’t get to you in time.” He moaned, holding her tightly against his chest. Charlie leaned back, lifted a trembling hand, pushed a finger into his skin and watched it bounce back.
“Just checking,” she whispered before collapsing in his arms.
Charlie awoke to the sounds of seagulls from the deck outside the penthouse suite. Nikolas had wrapped her up and carried her there after the destruction of her and Tami’s room. Behind her, she felt the warmth of a muscular body as it molded itself to her. A thick arm draped around her waist, and Charlie peeked under the sheets, glad to see she was dressed if you could call a tiny sheer black nighty dressed.
The ocean breeze caressed the gauzy curtains as the stars glittered. Charlie mused over the events of the last twenty-four hours. Nikolas had explained Darik was a daemon who had the ability to take on the appearance of any person, human or otherwise. After seeing Nikolas and Charlie together at the concert, the daemon had decided to use Charlie to exact revenge on Nikolas for killing his brother.
Darik had followed them to the ship, spied on them in the parking lot and hatched his plan. Charlie had indeed had dinner and danced with the real Nikolas the night before as he had managed to arrive at her door before Darik. But Nikolas was still concerned about what the daemon might be up to, so he and Itzak had left Charlie and Tami in the nightclub to search for Darik. They had picked up his scent in several rooms but never located the daemon. By the time Nikolas realized the daemon had set a trap to lure him away from Charlie, it was too late. He returned to the nightclub to find she had already left with the daemon. If Nikolas had not reached Charlie in time, he had told her, the daemon would have drained her of her spirit’s essence, leaving a dead husk behind.
The thought made Charlie shudder. She was safe now, in the arms of the man who loved her. As she lay against Nikolas’s chest, she smiled.
“What are you smiling about, mate?” Nikolas growled sleepily, his rough hand sliding up and down her arm.
“You and me and... just everything.” She sighed, wiggling back against him.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
“And why not?” she asked, giving another wiggle of her hips.
“I did warn you.” He groaned leaning forward to kiss the side of her neck. Charlie found herself easing onto her back as he moved his firm weight over to slightly cover hers. Licking her lips, he shivered against her, settling between her thighs. Lifting the bottom of the gown, he pulled it over her arms and head. Charlie gasped as she felt Nikolas’s lips move slowly down her body, pressing open-mouthed kisses against her navel, and his tongue dipping into her folds. Charlie arched her back, threading her fingers through his hair, groaning harshly as she felt the wetness seeping from her body.
“I have dreamed of tasting you... feeling you... loving you... since that first night,” he said, his breath hot and moist against her. Nikolas crawled up her body, and as his fingers pressed inside her sheath, she dug her nails into his arm, trying to ease the agony. Finally, he was where she wanted him... in the cradle of her thighs. The head of his cock slid intimately up and down her moist opening. Charlie slipped her hand between their bodies, feeling the throbbing of his thick cock as he jerked in reaction.
“Inside me... now!” Charlie moaned as he gently cupped her breasts. Slowly he began working the head of his cock inside her and Charlie squirmed, trying to take more. “Deeper,” she demanded. “Deeper, Nikolas. Now... please.” She panted, undulating her hips, trying to impale herself on him. Charlie could feel the heat of his body course down her entire length as her impatience grew.
But finally, Charlie felt him give in to her demands, rocking into her damp heat, filling her to the hilt. She could sense his control slipping as he pounded into her. Charlie opened her legs wider to accept all of him.
“Nikolas! I’m coming,” she screamed, feeling her body pulse, squeezing him greedily, taking all he had to give. Nikolas threw his head back, roaring, every muscle in his neck straining and red. Charlie could feel the vibration within her as he joined her in ecstasy. Holding her tightly to him, he emptied his soul into her. Shuddering, he kissed her neck, his tongue tracing along her vein.
When he pierced her skin and sucked, Charlie cried out. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she tensed as she groaned into another orgasm.
Withdrawing his fangs, she watched as Nikolas threw back his head as her blood raced through him. She could sense the warmth of her blood as it traveled through his skin, burning and pulsating through his veins. He smiled down at her and spoke the ritual for mating. “From your blood to mine, from my heart to yours through all eternity.”
A fog seemed to lift from him as he held her close against him, she knew he was really content, maybe for the first time in his long life. And she smiled at his warm Spanish caresses.
Epilogue
Charlie sat in the audience on the lower level of the Cortijo Flamenco as the tourists from the cruise ship were escorted to their seats. She had come a long way from attorney to the wife of Nikolas of Spanish Guitar.
The lights were dimmed as the curtains were drawn and the spotlight shone down on the blue-black hair of her husband. Charlie watched as Nicholas lifted his head, scanning the room, his gaze coming to rest on her as she stroked her gently rounded stomach.
Their child would be born in a few months and, according to the physician, was healthy. Charlie was grateful their child would not carry its father’s disease but would inherit his longevity. Nicholas had been feeding her a little of his blood over the year to ensure a healthy offspring on the advice of his people’s doctor. Their child would be a new breed, a stronger breed with none of the weak
ness and all the knowledge of the Aluka.
At the appointed time, the people around Charlie climbed up to the balcony to feed as they did every time the tourists came. Charlie headed toward the stage, and when she reached her husband, he lifted her wrist to his lips. Shaking his head, he gave her a mischievous smile before pulling her to him. Charlie shivered in anticipation as Nikolas seated her on his lap, nuzzling her neck, licking the vein before his teeth pierced her skin.
About the Author
M.R. Kelly keeps an iPad beside her bed, and every morning writes her vivid yet erotic dreams. Her stories are about women of substance, women like herself who are “big, beautiful, educated, strong and sexy as hell!” Women who are confident in their skin and know what they want and go for it.
A multi-published e-book author, member of Writer’s Digest, Romance Writers of America, and an admitted hopeful romantic, the Texas transplant writes from her near-perfect corner in her home overlooking the Franklin Mountains. Her muse is her husband, who keeps the flames burning and provides a wealth of material for her novels.
I want to welcome my readers to a world of Sidhé, Demons, Space Pirates, and Adventurers from between worlds and throughout the Universe. I hope you fall in love with the women and men of my novellas. Please follow me at my website: http://melliar7.wix.com/mrkelly-1 to check out my other works and sign up for a free copy of my newest novella, Demonbruen: Dark Warrior.
Thanks for taking the time to read my book! Stay tuned for the second book in the series, Cauldbearer Series: BloodStone
Other novellas by M.R. Kelly
Demonbruen Series 1:
Demons Lust
Demonbruen Series 2: Dark Warrior (Coming soon)
Storms Capture
Spanish Guitar
Caress Series: