The Telepathic Clans (The Telepathic Clans Saga, Books 1 and 2)

by Kingsolver, BR

  “So, you’ll still respect me if I sell myself?”

  “Yes,” he smiled. “I understand your curiosity. One thing Siobhan told me is she meets a better quality of man by setting her price high, men who treat her with respect, take her to dinner and can hold an interesting conversation. The difference between that and draining men she picks up in a bar, well, if it were me, I’d prefer the finer gentleman.”

  “Irina wants to try it, and the more I think about it, the more curious I get.”

  “Well, I can tell you those pictures you sent have Margriet salivating. If you give the go ahead, she plans on offering you as a special, one night only, experience-of-a-lifetime deal to select customers. The prices she’s talking about are astronomical.”

  “How much?”

  “Twenty-five thousand euros for an hour.”

  Brenna was shocked. “Men will pay that kind of money to screw me?”

  “So she says.”

  “Jesus, that’s incredible.”

  “We’re talking about the kind of men who think nothing of spending five hundred euros on a bottle of wine, or fifty million on a yacht. They have so much money that they measure their enjoyment by how much they spend.”

  “You have our itinerary, set it up.”

  They went back to the hotel and made love, with her feeding him his energy back. In a passionate hurry, he bent her over the back of the couch in his suite. She asked to change positions and they finished with her sitting on the back of the couch with her arms and legs wrapped around him.

  Some time later, they came together again in a slow and gentle horizontal dance on the bed. Their third time, she mounted him and teased him with her muscles, barely moving on top of him while he worshiped her breasts with his hands and his mouth. She kept him just short of his climax for a very long time and when he finally exploded, the moment was delicious for both of them.

  ~~~

  Collin and Pia came in the next morning early while Brenna was eating breakfast. He looked satisfied and relaxed. She was happy and smiling until she saw Brenna, her smile fading. Brenna waved at them, and Collin, not seeing Pia’s reaction, steered them to where she sat with Rebecca.

  “Good morning, I hope you’re doing well,” she greeted them.

  “It’s a lovely day,” he replied, “what are your plans today?”

  “We’re going out to see Windsor Castle this morning, then Oxford this afternoon. I’m having dinner with Noel this evening.” She turned to Pia, “Do you have to work today?”

  Startled, Pia answered, “No, I was planning on taking the day off.”

  “Is Seamus cutting you loose today?” she asked Collin.

  “Yes, he and Callie are teleporting to Ireland to visit Lord O’Neill, so I have the day free.”

  “My great-uncle,” Brenna mused, “I’m supposed to meet him while I’m there. Well, that’s nice, isn’t it? What are your plans? Are you going anywhere?”

  “Pia and I are going riding and then dinner at a place she likes.”

  “What time do you want to meet up tomorrow?”

  “Breakfast, about this time?”

  Pia stood there, uncomfortably listening to this pleasant conversation and aware of so many people watching her. Brenna reached out and touched her hand. Meeting the tall blonde’s eyes, she said, “It’s okay, Pia. Have a good time, okay? I don’t own him.”

  When they moved off to a table of their own, Rebecca said in a low voice, “It’s never going to be okay. She loves him, head over heels in love, and sharing isn’t on her agenda.”

  “Yes, I know. You can see it in her eyes. I’m going to try and catch her before I leave and talk with her, but I don’t know if there’s anything I can say to make her feel any better.”

  After four days of boring meetings, Brenna enjoyed getting out in the English countryside and she approached her first trip to a castle with the enthusiasm of a child. Their itinerary was tight, and they didn’t get to spend as much time at Windsor as she would have liked. She took pictures with the camera Callie had loaned her for the trip and vowed that the next time she would schedule a whole day to enjoy the castle.

  Again, their time in Oxford was too short, and traveling with so many people was a bit uncomfortable on the narrow, crowded streets. She could have spent a whole day in Blackstone’s bookstore alone.

  “I hope you’re enjoying yourself,” Brenna told Rebecca.

  Startled, Rebecca said, “Yeah, I am. Aren’t you?”

  Brenna grinned, “Just checking, because I want to do this all again, only slower.”

  Relaxing, Rebecca returned her grin. “Not a problem. I could spend a week here in Oxford. I wonder if there are tours of the libraries at the colleges.”

  Giving her a small puff of pheromones and watching her nostrils dilate, Brenna walked away with an exaggerated swish of her butt. “I’m sure we can get into any library you want to.”

  Laughing, Rebecca followed her.

  Arriving back in London, she had to hurry to shower and dress for her date with Noel. He took her to a Russian restaurant, a new cuisine experience for her. Irina, sitting at a table across the room with Rebecca, Antonia and Siobhan, was happily explaining the menu to the other women.

  “You don’t have a lot of privacy, do you?” Noel observed.

  “With fifty Protectors covering this restaurant, no, not really. After being alone for so long, it’s quite an adjustment. But I’m discovering that I’m a bit of an exhibitionist, so it doesn’t interfere with what I want to do.”

  As much as she liked Nigel and enjoyed him the previous evening, her attraction to Noel Campbell was much stronger and her feelings for him more complex. Born in Scotland to a family of telepaths, educated at Edinburgh and the Sorbonne, Callie said some in the Clan felt he was a candidate to succeed her as President of O’Donnell Group.

  Going back to the hotel after dinner, she realized she was falling a little bit in love with him. Their lovemaking was as passionate as hers with Collin, but with more of an edge. He wasn’t as tender as Collin, but not as rough as Kallen. She had lightly brushed his soul in West Virginia and they didn’t resonate. She wondered if he was destined to be her Pia, someone she loved but to whom she could never commit.

  He pulled her close and a pulse began between her legs. Placing her hands on his shoulders, she brushed her lips against his eyelids, touched his nose and met his lips. While they kissed, she ran her hand down his chest, past his belt and over the hard bulge in his pants. He kissed her face, her throat, parting her bodice with his fingers, following them with his mouth until he popped the clasp on her bra. Taking her breast in his hand, he ringed her nipple with his tongue, nipped it with his teeth, and sucked it. She squeezed him, her head thrown back as she pushed her breast into him, feeling electrical charges leap from her nipple to her clit.

  Warmth flowed down to her stomach and lower between her legs. The ache to have him built and she tightened her grip around his waist, rubbing against him. She felt so empty and needed him inside.

  Leaning her head back, he released her breast, his lips nibbling up her body until they found hers. She sucked his tongue into her mouth, hand entwined in his hair. Fumbling, she managed to free his erection. He wrapped his arms around her and pushed her to the wall, bracing her back against it. Pressed against his body, his hands holding her bottom, she wrapped her legs around his waist. Taking his hard erection in her hand, she nudged aside her panties and moved it into her opening. He pushed inside her, filling her.

  She cried out, clinging tight with her legs as he thrust hard and deep. His hard chest rubbed over her breasts and his rhythm increased, his hands cupped under her as he drove deeply. Losing all reason, bursting him with pheromones, crying for him to go harder and deeper, their minds merged and they lost themselves in shared sensation. It seemed as though a bright light exploded in her head as he shuddered and pumped his seed into her body. They soared, sharing their pleasure and energy.

  Leavi
ng their clothes strewn across the floor, they didn’t make it to the bed before their passion brought them together again. She sat on the arm of the overstuffed couch, and he held her by the ankles with her legs in the air. He pushed into her slowly and deeply, setting a rhythm that teased as much as satisfied. Moaning, she felt as though she was drowning in the pleasure she shared in his mind. Savoring the slow, tantalizing feeling of him filling her, she gasped at his slow withdrawal and quivered as he hesitated before filling her again. She thought he’d drive her out of her mind, her climax temptingly just out of reach for a very long time. Then he quickened his pace and sent her over the edge into a shaking, screaming orgasm.

  ~~~

  Collin took Brenna out on Saturday. It was a very romantic day, just the two of them with a couple of dozen Protectors. She finally got to tour the Tower of London, rode the Big Eye, took pictures of Westminster and Parliament, and ate fish and chips and oysters in an Irish pub off Trafalgar Square. That evening he took her to dinner and they saw The Lion King in the West End. Walking back to the hotel afterward, she hung on his arm and leaned against him.

  “Do you know what I want more than anything?” she asked.

  “Ice cream?”

  “No, silly, I want to take a vacation with you. Go and see all the things I’ve only read about, just you and me, no Protectors, no succubi, no Rebecca. Take a couple of weeks, maybe even a month. Doesn’t that sound great?”

  He stopped on the street, pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “That sounds like the best idea I’ve ever heard. You know what your most attractive talent is? You build dreams for people. Now I finally have a goal in life.”

  “Don’t laugh at me, Collin,” she pouted.

  “I’m not laughing, my love, that sounded like heaven to me. I’ll see what I can do to make it happen, I promise.” He kissed her again, and she forgot they weren’t alone.

  ~~~

  Brenna kissed Collin goodbye and walked with him to the van. Seamus and Callie rode in a limo with vans in front and behind them. Most of the Clan who had gathered for the Council meeting were headed to the airport.

  "Take care, my love. Write me if you can." He took her in his arms and kissed her again.

  "Collin, is Pia all right? I mean, does she understand about you and me?"

  He shook his head, "I think she understands, but she's not really all right with it. I do love her, but, it's different with us, and I don't think she accepts that. She wants the white picket fence and all of me, and I only have so much I can give her."

  "And are you all right with things, with me?" Brenna searched his face.

  "My love, my heart, you make me happy. You give me so much, and really ask so little. I can't imagine another woman who would understand about Pia, who wouldn't feel threatened. But you know there's no threat. I wish she could see that. Be safe, and have a good time."

  He kissed her again and got in the van.

  She went back into the hotel, and shortly thereafter said her goodbyes to Jill, Aislinn and Noel as well. Brenna's group would fly out the following day. Rebecca and a small team of Protectors would take a small corporate jet to Dublin at four the next morning, and then a larger plane with the rest of their party would follow, leaving at seven.

  She returned to her room to pack, and found Pia standing at her door waiting for her. "Can I talk to you?" the tall blonde asked.

  "Sure, come in." Brenna offered her a seat, then went to the wet bar and poured each of them a glass of wine. Sitting down, she said, "I was hoping we'd have a chance to talk."

  "I know he loves you," Pia began, "but he says he loves me, too. I can't understand how he can say that, but when we're together, he almost makes me believe it. Do you love him? It seems you don't care sometimes, and yet you hold him. If you don't love him, can't you let him go?"

  Brenna searched the other woman's face, seeing the pain in her eyes. "I'm not holding him, Pia. He’s chosen to be with me, and I do love him very much. Our souls have merged and they resonate. We understand each other, our relationship and our needs. It's not a very conventional relationship, but we're not very conventional people. That in no way diminishes our love and commitment to each other. What we have is very special, I think.

  "I do know he loves you, just as I love other people. I know being with you makes him happy, and I like to see him happy. But there's nothing I can do or say that will help you with what you're feeling."

  A tear rolled down Pia's cheek. "I hoped he would be the one. I want to have a child with him."

  "If you do, he or she will always be welcome in my home. I would do nothing to interfere with his relationship with any children he might have with other women."

  "Don't you want children?"

  "Oh, yes, I plan on having a number of children, and first with Collin. But I'm not ready for that yet."

  "And would I be welcome in your home?"

  "Yes, but I don't want you moving in. I hope we might become friends, but I'm not willing to let you into my relationship with Collin. You two need to define your own relationship, and if you can't agree on what that will be, I'm sorry, but it's not something I can help you with."

  Pia stood. "Succubus," it was an epithet. "You just want all the men, don't you?"

  "There’s only one I'm willing to fight for. I'm sorry you don't understand, but don't mistake the freedom he and I give each other as not caring. Don't try to change my relationship with Collin. That will only drive him away and you'll have nothing of him. You can have his child, spend time with him and have him warm your bed, but don't stretch too far. Don’t try and force more from him than he has to give."

  Sadly, Brenna watched Pia go.

  ~~~

  Rebecca stopped by her room at midnight, finding Brenna just coming in from hunting. "I see you have a fresh Glow on," she commented. "I would have thought you received enough attention this week to at least last you through the day."

  Laughing, Brenna told her, "I didn't drain any of our men, well, one, but tonight I felt like I needed an energy boost. I just picked up a couple of guys at the hotel down the street and let them refresh me a little."

  "God, you're turning into a real predator," Rebecca grinned. "Are you sure you collapsed that Samantha construct? Or did you decide you liked her better and dye your hair black to fool all of us?"

  Sobering a bit, Brenna reached out and touched her friend on the arm. "Rebecca, I've never felt so comfortable in my life. For the first time, I feel as though I really know who I am and it's not at all who I thought I was. I don't know if everyone would think it's an improvement. I'm not conflicted anymore about being a predator. My morality has changed, not just my attitude and not just about sex.”

  Brenna went to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of juice. “I had a conversation with Pia today, and I knew for certain that if she crossed a line I would hurt her. I would dominate her and impose my will because she wants something I have. The old Brenna would be appalled."

  Rebecca pulled her into a hug. "I love you, girl, don't ever forget that. I think we're going to need that attitude the way things have been going."

  She pushed Brenna out to arm's length and studied her face, "When I first came to the Clan, when I decided to become a Protector, they told me the Clan has survived through the millennia by being stronger and faster than the people that want to kill us. Our continued survival depends on our willingness to fight.

  "You're kind and gentle and sweet. That hasn't changed. But if a few men get sleepy and miss a couple of days out of their lives, you're not doing them any permanent damage. It's pretty obvious what they want when they look at you. I consider it a fair exchange if they give you what you want. "

  Rebecca took her leave, and Brenna went to bed.

  ~~~

  When Seamus prepared to leave on Saturday, he gave Brenna an envelope and told her to read it on the plane to Ireland. Once the plane took off, she retrieved it from her purse and opened it.

  Bre
nna,

  When I was a young boy, my great-grandmother gave me her Death Gift. It's unusual for such a gift to skip so many generations, but she was a succubus and a seer, precognitive, and I believe she wanted me to have that knowledge because the events she foresaw would happen in my lifetime.

  The special Gift you have, called the Kashani or Succubus Gift, is the greatest Gift the Goddess gives to Her people. It is the Gift of Herself. In our past, those with this Gift were Her priestesses, Her link with Her people. In recent centuries, its meaning and importance have been misunderstood, even lost by many. I believe Siobhan has called it a curse.

  The Goddess is a huntress, a predator, but also the Mother from whose womb all the blessings of the earth come to us. Her essence and Her power is what you hold. In our long-forgotten past, men made their obeisance by offering themselves to Her priestesses, who took the offering in Her name.

  You need to understand this. You’re not draining men of their life force because you're something evil. You’re not a bad person. Sex with you is a holy sacrament, not an unholy debauch as the Christian Church would have you believe. The men who come to you in their moment of offering are held in the mind of the Goddess and She blesses them and enhances their souls. Even those who don't believe, the head-blind normal humans, are blessed by Her in that moment.

  During the Middle Ages, the Church relentlessly hunted us and persecuted none so mercilessly as Her priestesses. As a result, what was once a fairly common Gift among our women has become a Rare Gift. But what my great-granddam foresaw was a rebirth, when our people would once again rise to strength through the love of the Goddess. She felt that a large amount of knowledge had been lost but that someday that knowledge would be relearned. She believed the number of women endowed with Her holy Gift would increase and lead us back into knowledge of Her.