“Jesus…Please Fangs.” Bri cried as his knuckles slid against her flesh. Her fingers twisted until she could claw at his hands needing to touch him in some way.
“Stop me Bri…” He chocked the words, his cock twitching in defiance at his not getting inside of her already. “For fucks sake stop me…please.”
“Take me Fangs.” No sooner were her words free from her lips than he drove himself inside of her, deep and grinding as they both cried out in ecstasy.
He wasn’t in control any longer, her need drove him on, each pull of his hips had her begging for more, and exposing her neck she tried to pull free of his grip.
Fangs was drawn to the rapid pulse beating beneath the fair skin on her neck, his fangs throbbed with the desire to mark her, to own her. He refused to bite down on that skin, knowing full well that he was a nasty bastard for not stopping this train wreck the minute she climbed on top of him.
By the time his mind caught up to his body; Fangs looked down at the princess beneath him, saw the love inside of her, love for him. Wanting nothing more than to bury her secrets and mistakes and hold him forever. The man inside won over the monster.
Fangs pulled free from her body and frantically did his jeans up before leaving the room without a fucking word, hating himself because he just evened their score by doing exactly what she did to him all those months ago.
*
Chapter Thirteen
Briar woke alone in the King size bed and was not surprised. After that moment with Fangs last night, the sexual tension was rigged to explode if she so much as leaned to close. To say she had been tempted would have been an understatement. She attacked him until he caved into what she wanted and needed.
She was both thankful and pissed off that he pulled out of her and ran. She didn’t know if he was trying to get back at her or if he hated himself as much as she did right now. For fucks sake stop me…please. His words were branded in her memory and she could still hear his raspy voice, shaking with need as he begged her to stop him. What it did to other parts of her body was pointless because it was so not happening again. Bri and Fangs were masters of pretending and last night would be no exception.
She didn’t want to think about Fangs, hell she didn’t want him here. Not like this. Not as her bodyguard. Now she had an entirely different nightmare to deal with. Fangs had claimed her, and with said claim came a whole new mess of distraction and wants she didn’t have the patience for. She could feel his emotions and didn’t buy his bullshit excuse that they were no more than repressed memory.
Repressed memory didn’t kind of fuck her last night.
She was overwhelmed by the emotive presence in the bed last night. He was wired with lust and anger and an overwhelming sense of compassion where she was concerned. He may have been angry about the secrets she kept but he no longer gave a shit.
Knowing that the claiming would only grow more intense as the search for the knife went on came with an enormous fear of falling completely in love with him again... or more, hell she didn’t know.
With a sigh she rose from the bed and headed for the shower. The alarm clock on the night table read seven-forty-eight over an hour passed sundown. Fangs had let her sleep knowing the rest was well needed. God why did he have to be understanding and all protective? Didn’t he know that he was making the keep the distance stance she was taking severely harder on her? She figured that, yeah he probably did know and distance wasn’t an option after they both crossed that line last night.
She rolled through her reflex routine of getting ready, skipping, with a sigh, the glamour that would hide the hideous scars. Her memory threatening to take her back to that night so many centuries ago. She left the bathroom after switching the light off and came to a halt when she saw Fangs leaning against the giant oak dresser closest to the closet.
The man was complete devastation to her mental health, and her physical because the sight of him stopped her heart. His sallow skin was smooth satin tight against stone. Vampires are dead, the skins loss of constant blood flow creating an ashen tone, but on Fangs it was angelic. His lips she knew were moist and soft as silken pillows, but it was the black of his eyes that stopped her heart, so dark that slate and soot would never compare. Looking at her now she could see the soft purple glow that he got whenever he looked too long at her.
She lost her train of thought when his eyes followed the fragile curve of her neck to her ass, his mouth parting as if to sigh. Nervous Bri lifted a hand to her scars in shame wishing like hell he had something better to look at. Knowing he was remembering every inch of her skin that he touched, tasted, last night.
"What?" She asked and moved to the bed to sit and put her heels on.
"Just never saw you wear anything besides those damn black tank tops, it’s shocking to see you in color." He kicked his foot off and stood from being propped on the edge of the dresser.
She looked at the skin tight stretch t shirt that was a little too low cut for her taste. She agreed that the dark red, though colorful was a bit of a change. Celeste had made sure that she had a few long sleeved shirts to wear for the next few days knowing she would want to hide her bruises. How she got the clothes so fast was beyond Bri but she certainly appreciated it. "I guess this is what you look like when you’re not in fighting gear."
His tone made Bri feel like shit. Had she been so closed off that the only memories he had of her were the ones of her killing?
“I’m always in fighting gear.” She said with a false smile. "Yeah, Haynes undershirt tank tops are the way to go. I get like five for ten bucks and there is an endless supply. I used to wear white ones until the Haynes gods got brilliant and started to make them in black." She looked up from her perch on the end of the bed after tugging the bottoms of her faded worn jeans over the back of her heels. "At least now I can get one or two wears out of them before they hit the trash."
He smiled. God that smile.
"Well I'm sure Haynes appreciates the business. New slogan: "Great for hiding blood stains.'" The moment was light but the laughter was forced.
"So what’s the plan? Should I pack up now or will we be staying another day?" She headed for the little mini coffee pot the room offered and ripped open the Clarion Inn's own brand of caffeinated coffee and knew on instinct alone it was going to taste better than the tar over at Denny's. She filled the pot and hit start but stayed put as if watching the pot do its brewing best she could make it go faster.
"No, pack up. I have most everything loaded in the Cruiser already but left your overnight bag and clothes until we were ready to head out." Fangs said stopping at the small counter in the kitchenette of the suite. He had her overnight bag in one hand and the handle of her Louie Vouton in the other. "We meet Delkon at eleven so we have a little over two hours, I figured you would need to eat."
"Not Denny's."
He smiled again. "No Princess not Denny's." The vibe his emotions were throwing said he would give her anything she wanted.
Leaving him all those months ago had been torture. Just how in the hell was she supposed to walk away now? The thought that she didn’t have to crossed her mind. He had said she could reject the claim when the fight was over and move on with her life. Would she despise herself if she didn’t let him go? Would he hate her for wanting to keep him? To deprive herself the one thing she wanted was about as effective as a crack head without their rock. It would bring a whole new meaning to the word suffer.
"What about you?" She mumbled over the faint gurgle of the coffee pot. "You need to...eat...right?" With nothing more than a simple gesture she flipped her hair from her shoulder in offering. Like it was the most natural response to her question.
"I'll need to yes." He stated as fact not in the least bothered by the fact that she was the meal.
"Now?"
"I'll finish loading the car first and let you have your coffee. I have a few calls to make and I'm sure Ash and the girls are wondering what’s going on. By now I'm sure they ha
ve spoken to your father and know that Fil..." He stopped and the freezing temperature that entered the room had any indication to the memory they both had.
"Can I call from the cell dad gave me?"
He nodded and said nothing more as he walked from the room. How had they gone from an all too normal conversation about him feeding from her to nothing when the memories of Fil entered the scene? Jesus if she didn’t hate him enough already she despised Fil now for robbing her from a moment that may have been a door to something more on the level of last night.
She sat back on the couch and flipped on the news while she drank her coffee. Only problem was the news wasn’t on at eight thirty at night so she settled on an old Friends episode, the one where Chandler and Joey try to help Phoebe name one of the triplets. The comedy was sharp and the characters intriguing but she couldn’t get her mind off the feeding.
Wondering how it would take place she let her mind roll when Peter's words came back. She forgot that they were supposed to meet Pete at sundown the day before so he could quiz Fangs on the Vampire named Crave who was killing humans. The lack of souls looking for Bri bothered her. She wasn’t so far from Seattle that they wouldn’t be drawn to her, something was keeping the souls from going to her and these people had taken their own lives. She didn’t have a hand in suicides too much but usually they didn’t know they were dead and she was the one to reveal the truth and send them on their way.
She flipped the phone open and dialed Peters number and was sent strait to voicemail. She left a quick message and let him know she would talk to Fangs about the Crave character and let him know. She hit end and dialed Ashess number and waited all but one ring before she answered.
"Sleeping Beauty's awake I take it? Tell me how were the last two nights with the former lover?" Ash's voice had a tinge of annoyance in it and Briar knew she wasn’t aware of Fil abducting her.
"Well my first night was spent with Fil beating the ever loving hell out of me, last night however was spent mostly in dads office where Fangs claimed me and forced me to drink his blood. By the time we made it back to the hotel I all but begged him to please have sex with me, when he did he decided we weren’t to that place yet, pulled out and ran. How about you?”
The intake of breath from Ash was all the emotion that Bri would get and it was welcomed. Winter would have cried and babied her, which was good from time to time. Everyone needed to be comforted and Winter owned stock in affection but for the most part Ash was a fighter just like Bri so the lack of compassion was taken as respect.
"Well when you all but begged, tell me Sleeping Beauty was it at least worth it for the few strokes he got in?" The ability to skip entirely over the abduction was another smooth move Bri appreciated. Ash didn’t need the details that Bri didn’t want to give so they met eye to eye on that as well. As for kind of sleeping with Fangs she was more than willing to divvy out the details.
"Yes."
The laughter that came from the other end of the line made Bri smile. "And the claiming Ash, what do you know about it."
"Whoa Princess this is some serious stuff here, not to be taken lightly. Vamps are extremely territorial of their mates. By claiming you he tells the world that anyone or anything that dares harm you will face war and absolute death and by no means do they not go the extra mile. Did you accept the claim? How did this even happen?"
As Bri told the tale of the none to romantic proposal Ash listened providing a few uh huh's and ok's. "He said I can reject the claiming when this was all over with and not to worry but asked me to feed from him while we searched for the knife."
"Wait he told you that you can reject him?" Ash asked her tone taking a serious edge.
"Yeah, he said that it was my choice because he forced it on me and that I could reject at anytime but he wants me to wait till the fights over. He said Fil can’t touch me as long as his blood is inside of me."
"He's right. Fil would be a fool, and I’m not arguing that that’s already been established, but an even bigger fool to try and harm you while under Fangs protection." She sighed and said nothing for a few long seconds. "This is huge Bri. Are you going to accept him?"
The loaded question, Bri thought and sipped from her coffee, that was by the way, better than Denny's midnight brew and stopped avoiding the one thought she had from the minute he claimed her last night. "He didn’t say I could accept it either Ash. He only talked about my rejecting it. I don’t think he wants me to have a choice. I think..." She sighed and knew that what she was about to say was the right thing. "I think rejections the only option."
"For you maybe." Ashess said and Briar wanted to elaborate on that but Fangs walked back in the room right then.
"So I think we head off for the Chaos demon tonight and head home from there?" She said to Ash but her eyes were asking Fangs if that was the plan.
Ash said nothing as Fangs spoke and Briar hoped she was getting the hint. "Yeah, I have a few things I need to handle with my posse of Vamps and research the demon in Kentucky."
"Did you hear that?" She asked Ash. The responding "Tomorrow then." Sealed the deal and Briar knew there would be a lot more talk about the claiming when she got home.
She asked about Winter and Belle and things were same old Seattle with the Fairy Tale girls. Winter was still on the engagement high and Belle was still sc Bring the hell out of any man in her path and barely registering on cordial level with the rest of the world. Briar couldn’t figure Belle out. She understood the miserable feeling Belle sported, hell she had long ago lost Beast and still suffered the loss. Bri went seven months without Fangs and understood all too well the hell Belle was in. Lately though it seemed as if they were losing Belle. The fights that had once sustained her seemed to give less and less these days. Making a mental note to sit down and see if Belle was willing to open up when she got home she hung up with Ash and turned to see Fangs eyeing her from the other side of the small room.
He didn’t so much as take up space as command it. The room felt small with him in it and she actually cringed because she knew how the room felt. She felt small and detached whenever Fangs was around, he not only commanded space he commanded attention.
"We're all set to go after I feed." He stepped closer to her but kept talking, not an ounce of nervous energy in him, where Briar felt like she was a twisted cable of nerves about to break from the tension. "I would like it if you fed off me again, it would keep you safe but it will also keep you sharp on your feet and less likely to be affected by Delkon."
"Sure." She croaked and stood from the couch to get two glasses from the mini bar by the sink, when Fangs caught her hand.
"What are you doing?"
Just the feel of his fingers on her skin had her gasping at the touch. Stopping herself before she went down that road again she looked into his black gaze, seeing once again, that hint of amethyst.
"Getting glasses, or do we...." She didn’t finish as he nodded.
"Taking from the vein is the most reliable way, for you anyway. For me I need it fresh. The colder the blood the weaker it is. And right now I need strength. I can feed from the wrist again though so it’s less personal."
Barking a laugh Briar ran her fingers through her hair. "I think we passed personal a long time ago Fangs, if not last night." She stepped close and decided to throw caution to the wind. If she was going to be the cocktail and the straw then she wanted the personal too. "I think that if I am feeding from your wrist it would be easiest to feed from my neck." It may sound logical but this was all about her getting another hit from her proverbial crack pipe.
She lifted his wrist with one hand and tossed her hair to the side with the other. Bringing his wrist to her mouth Fangs laughed, a sound laced with erotic intent as those purple black peepers locked on her. "Think you’re strong enough to bite me?"
To say she had butterflies at the obvious threat would be a blatant lie but she wasn’t about to back down. She would go with this and let it take her wherever it went
. Using a small hint of magic, she forced her eye teeth to grow, lengthen until they were two white pointed fangs intended for his flesh. Smiling so the tiny daggers could be seen she pulled his wrist to her lips, kissed the skin gently and then struck with the lust of a woman and the gentleness of a lover.
*
Fangs was blown away. Never in a million years would have predicted that Briar would have grown fangs just so she could feed….from his vein.
Fangs cursed and palmed the back of her neck, letting his fingers knot in the supple strands of her hair.
He gave as well as he got and as Bri took the first succulent pull off his wrist he struck, just as gentle, his need just as strong.
“Fuck.” He snarled and went back to the small punctures in her neck. He had spent so many nights thinking about how she would taste, tortured by the knowledge of it last night. She was a potent cocktail of sex and desire and need. He could feel the suction on his wrist from her mouth, working him in ways he had felt before.
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