by Sofia Daniel
“Come on, then.” Nero gave my waist a little squeeze, sending a little jolt through my insides.
“Huh?” I drew back and gazed into his ebony eyes.
“Try connecting our chakras.” After positioning me to straddle his hips, Nero shuffled toward the wall and rested his back on the hardened earth.
“Alright.”
The last time we had tried this, I’d needed to press my hands on his chest. That was no longer necessary, as the tendrils of magic I used to absorb Zarah snaked out from my fingertips.
Wrapping my arms around Nero’s neck, I let those tendrils wander up and down to each of his chakras. Nero shivered as they rubbed around the balls of light and moaned as I eased themselves deep into the source of his life-force.
“Does it usually feel so good?” he whispered.
“No.” The feel of Radu’s energy brushing my crown chakra had made me feel sick, and Justine’s attack on my throat chakra had been agony. “It’s either uncomfortable or hurts like hell depending on how vicious the hunter wants to be.”
He chuckled. “I guess you’re not interested in hurting me.”
“Never.” I tilted my head up and gave him a quick peck on his strong jaw.
Nero lowered his lips onto mine in the gentlest of kisses. Warmth spread where our mouths touched, and I let out a happy sigh. He slipped his tongue between my lips in a series of gentle caresses that made my toes curl.
“Connect with me, Alicia,” Nero murmured into the kiss. “I want us all to stay together for an eternity.”
Love filled my heart to bursting. A different kind of affection to the one I had shared with my family and not one that could replace what I had lost. But Nero’s touch held the promise that he and his brothers would fill my life with joy… if only I could make that connection.
With a pleasured moan, I let Nero deepen the kiss. The green of our heart chakras flared and pulsed in sync.
“I want you all so much,” I said, but the words were muffled by Nero’s busy tongue.
As the kiss progressed, tendrils of magic emerged from each of my chakras—soul star, crown, throat, heart, solar plexus, sacral, and root. They wrapped around Nero’s chakras, as though they mirrored our physical bodies, and then brought our energies close.
I wanted to ask if it hurt, but Nero’s low, sexy moan was all the confirmation I needed that we were going in the right direction.
His hard dick pressed into my core, and I rubbed against it, wishing we had more time to have sex. But I still hadn’t transformed Dante into a day-walker, and I also needed to form this same connection with Raphael.
Our joined soul-star chakras flared, and we broke apart, both panting with the effort of our bonding. Instead of retracting into my chakras, the tendrils connecting our magic faded.
“Did it work?” he asked.
I pressed my palms on his pectoral muscles, feeling for the first time, his energy coursing under my fingertips. Triumph surged into my chest, making happy tears well in my eyes. “We’re connected. I’m not sure what that means for my power levels.”
“See if you have better energy vision,” he asked.
“Alright.” I cast my third eye upward through the soil and trees and beyond. About thirty feet away, a group of figures approached. Most had dark spots over their soul-star chakras and others shone like stars. “Hunters are approaching overhead. It looks like they’ve captured a group of vampires.”
Nero straightened his back and snarled. “Do you think we can defeat them?”
I shook my head. “There’s a Radite. I couldn’t begin to fight one of those.”
“What’s the difference?”
“The Radite’s energy stretches beyond their physical bodies,” I said. “And they’re the ones best at manipulating and absorbing chakra.”
Nero shuddered. “I don’t want to meet one of them.”
Watching the group march over our spot, I held still, hoping the Radite wasn’t looking through the soil. When they were several feet away, I gave Nero a nudge on the shoulder. “We’ll be able to save everyone after completing our bonds. Let’s head in the opposite direction and meet Dante and the others.”
As we pulled ourselves to our feet, my stomach growled.
Nero frowned. “You need to feed?”
I dragged my fingertips over his nipples. “It’s best that I eat before I take Dante’s blood.”
Nero took my wrist and pressed my hand into his hardening crotch. “Is day-walker semen nourishing?”
He lengthened and thickened under my touch, and the feel of his gorgeous dick made my core clench with need. But sex could wait. Licking my lips, I rubbed my hand up and down his erection. “There’s only one way to find out.”
Groaning, he pulled down his boxers and let his prick spring free. Even with the dim light of the oil lamp, I salivated at the sight of pre-cum glistening on his tip. Hunger squeezed my stomach in a tight spasm, which spread an ache through the rest of my torso and down to my core. I scrambled onto my knees and wrapped my mouth around that thick cock-head.
Nero moaned. “Alicia.”
Letting him slide to the back of my throat, I moved my tongue from side to side, enjoying the feel of the ridges and veins on the underside of his penis. Nero gasped, and the sound went straight between my legs. As much as I ached to prolong his pleasure, my growling stomach demanded food.
Tendrils of magic re-emerged from my throat chakra. They stroked Nero’s balls, and ran behind them to where I expected his prostate sat within his body. With a little squeeze, they made the orange light of his sacral chakra flare, making Nero cry out.
Warm fluid slid into my mouth and down my throat. It reminded me of the spiciness in Nero’s vampire blood.
His knees buckled, and he doubled over and grabbed my shoulders for balance. “What the hell was that?”
I swallowed and wrapped my fingers around the base of his erection, mentally ordering him not to soften.
“Brace yourself,” I muttered around my mouthful.
The tendrils wrapped around his balls, and one of them wriggled into his sacral chakra and squeezed out another orgasm, filling my mouth with his warm, delicious fluid. After swallowing, I squeezed out another.
“Fuck,” he snarled.
At the third load of cum, my stomach stopped cramping and warm satisfaction spread through my insides… at least for now. Besides, his semen now thinned and was no longer as nourishing as the first.
“F-feeling better?” Nero said through panting breaths.
“Thanks.” I raised my head and grinned. With four boys to feed me, I wouldn’t exhaust any of them. “That helped a lot. Let’s go to the werewolves’ storeroom.”
Still breathing hard, he offered me a trembling hand and helped me to my feet. “Right now, I just want to lie back and enjoy a whole bottle of claret.”
The vampire equivalent of a cigarette after sex, I supposed. “Come on. Dante and Raphael will be waiting.”
The sun had completely set, plunging the forest into darkness. Nero’s now imperfect night vision guided us through the trees until the burbling of running water mingled with the chirp of cicadas.
He cradled me in his arms. “This is the stream closest to the werewolves’ storeroom.”
A shudder ran down my spine. This had been where they had locked me in with an unconscious Lava, and where I had murdered the vampire for plunging a chair leg into Raphael’s chest.
The trees thinned as we approached the water, opening up the canopy. A cool, pine-scented breeze meandered through the trees, adding the sound of rustling leaves to the crunch of branches we broke underfoot. Moonlight streamed through the clouds and reflected off the water, helping me to see where we were going.
“This way.” Nero crossed the stream and set me to my feet.
The stone room stood a few feet ahead, but there we found no sign of Raphael or Dante. My stomach tightened with worry. Dante should have sensed us coming by now and met us halfway.
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I clutched Nero’s hand. “Do you think they left because we were late?”
“No,” he whispered. “They’ll be watching out for us from a hiding-place.”
A high-pitched cry pierced the air, making us both still.
“That sounded like a baby,” I whispered.
“That can’t be right,” Nero grabbed my hand, and we hurried through the trees around the storeroom.
One of those hybrid pigs from the kitchens lay on her side, nursing around six piglets the size of puppies. This one had a very human-like face with large, sad eyes and a down-turned mouth. A kitten-sized piglet crawled behind its siblings on bent legs, crying out at not getting to suckle at a teat.
I leaned against a tree trunk and gaped. “What the hell is that doing in the woods?”
“The werewolves’ food?” asked Nero from my side.
“That’s the main ingredient of sangria.” I turned to Nero, whose face hardened. “Didn’t they tell you?”
“Professor Proust said it came from a pig specially bred to produce blood.”
My lips tightened. “He forgot to say it was bred to produce blood suitable for vampire consumption.”
Nero shook his head. “If the pig is far away from the kitchens, what will the captured vampires eat?”
“There are lots more in the storerooms,” I said. “But it does look strange that this one should be out here on its own.”
The pig raised her head and stared us both in the eye. It might have been my imagination, but she gave her head a tiny shake. I wondered if she thought we were vampires hungry for her blood.
My gaze dropped down to the six piglets, and I remembered reading somewhere that pigs often gave birth to at least ten. Had someone stolen the other offspring, or did her human attributes cause her to have a smaller litter?
We continued toward the pig to get a closer look. Her neck glistened with tiny beads of blood.
“Hey.” I pointed at the fang marks. “Did you see—”
With a click, the entire space lit up with blinding, infrared light coming from a spotlight hidden within the trees. My hand shot up to shield my eyes. “What the hell?”
“Well, well, well,” drawled a female voice. “If it isn’t the harbinger of destruction.”
“What?” I said with a gasp.
Dark figures emerged from behind spotlights, and a bolt of panic shot through my heart. I shuffled close to Nero, who pulled me into his side. This had to be some kind of vampire trap.
“What’s this?” said the voice of the alpha werewolf. “Why isn’t your master writhing on the ground like the other one, blood whore?”
“What are you talking about?” Nero snarled.
“The blonde who was fucking her ass the other day,” the alpha replied to the snicker of rough, male voices.
My stomach dropped. Had Dante arrived at this spot before us and gotten caught trying to drink the pig’s blood?
“She’s lost count of the blood-suckers who’ve fucked her ass!” muttered one of the werewolves.
The other wolves burst into roars of drunken laughter. A few of them even clinked their bottles.
I clenched my teeth. Why hadn’t I exercised more caution? My hands balled into fists.
The werewolves had set traps for the runaway vampires and were rounding them up for the hunters. I had learned as much when Justine stormed their cabin, but all of that had escaped my mind after she mutilated three wolves into boneless joints.
The alpha wolf pointed at us. “Why did you come here?”
“Where’s Dante?” Nero snarled.
“Answer my question,” she snapped.
“Answer mine!” In the blink of an eye, Nero lurched in her direction. A heartbeat later, he returned to my side with both hands wrapped around her neck.
The dark figures rushed forward, some of them dropping their bottles to the ground.
“Stay back,” I shouted. “Unless you want us to kill your alpha.”
The werewolves stilled, their growls filling the air and causing the fine hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end. A male whose dark, shaggy beard covered most of his face growled, “You won’t get away with this, blood-whore!”
“What did you do to the blond vampire?” I asked.
“We handed him and the others we caught over to the hunters,” he replied. “Give us back our alpha.”
Nero tightened his grip around the alpha’s throat, making her gag. “Not until you tell us where they took those vampires.”
“Stop,” she croaked. Her eyes turned at me, pleading with tears running down her cheeks.
Hardening my heart, I turned my head back to the other werewolves. This was the female who had given Lady Mantis the information that had gotten the boys attacked. Then she had aroused Justine’s suspicious by having me abducted from the castle to open the wards.
Her rasping breaths made my insides shudder, and I shoved those feelings away. Even if she had been acting to protect her pack, she hadn’t given a shit about the impact it would have on me. My days of showing mercy to people who betrayed me were over.
One of the werewolves, a bald male with ebony skin, raised a hand holding a two-liter bottle of clear liquid. “There are storerooms leading off the kitchen. I’ve seen them put the runaways in there.”
“Fine.” Nero released the alpha werewolf, who collapsed on the ground wheezing.
“You won’t get away with this,” she snarled. “Vampire superiority has fallen.”
The black werewolf turned to Nero, his brows knitted together. “I understand why the blood-whore is still standing, but why isn’t the infrared light affecting you like it did your friend?”
Everybody stilled. My heart stopped beating, the werewolves stopped moving, and even the alpha stopped gasping for air.
The werewolves knew Nero’s secret.
And if they passed it onto the hunters, Radu would work out exactly what I had been doing with the Stryx brothers.
Without meaning to, tendrils of magic shot out from my throat chakra and pierced the soul-star chakras of every werewolf within the sphere of the infrared lights.
The black werewolf stiffened. “What are you—?”
My tendrils delved into their throat chakras, stealing their voices.
“Are you doing this?” whispered Nero.
Still holding them in my grip, I gave him a sharp nod. “They can’t tell the hunters what you’ve become.”
“Fuck,” he snarled. “Wait here a second.” Nero picked up the alpha and twisted her neck.
Horror contorted the features of the nearest werewolf. I stared straight ahead not flinching with the clicking sounds of necks being snapped and the thud of bodies falling to the floor as Nero moved from one werewolf to the next.
Bottles smashed, filling the air with the scent of strong alcohol. One of the infrared lights crashed to the ground in an explosion of sparks. Even if I wanted to leave them alive, I couldn’t trust them not to exchange this information for better conditions. They werewolves had to die.
As soon as the last soul-star chakra winked out of existence, I retracted my tendrils of magic and exhaled a long, shuddering breath.
We walked away from the hut, our hands intertwined.
“Did I kill all the wolves in that pack?” he asked.
“About half of them.”
“Gates won’t like this,” he muttered.
A sigh slid from my lips. “I know, but we’ll have to explain things to him later.”
“Let’s go and rescue Dante and see if we can’t find Raph on the way.”
Chapter 15
As we walked through the trees, the wind carried the scent of burning alcohol. I turned around to find flames racing across the clearing.
An ear-piercing shriek made my stomach flip, and my gaze jumped to the pig. She scrambled onto her long legs, squealing at her children to run. The stilt-like appendages trembled, and the pig flopped back onto the ground with the piglets crawling arou
nd her, screaming.
I squeezed Nero’s hand. “We have to help her.”
“Who?” he asked.
“The pig.”
With a frown, Nero glanced in the direction of the castle.
I tugged harder. “It’s not her fault she can’t move, and I’m not having them burned alive because of us.”
“Fine.” Nero walked back through the trees, gathered the pig under one arm, and grabbed a handful of squirming piglets.
I rushed forward and gathered the rest of the piglets, including the little runt who had been kicked out by its siblings. Together, we raced deeper into the forest, jumped over a small stream, and raced through knee-length mint plants to a clearing of wild cherry trees.
“Is this place okay?” he asked.
“Thanks.” I set the piglets down.
Nero placed the pig under the tree and arranged the piglets close to her teats. I put the runt in the middle, making sure it got a chance to feed.
Afterward, he scooped me into his arms and held me to his chest. “We have to get Dante.”
“He must have been in that group of captured vampires who passed over our tunnel.”
“Shit,” Nero snarled. “What the hell happened to Raph?”
Dread curdled the semen in my stomach, and I tried not to think about the Radite I had seen with the group. If he or she had captured Raphael and noticed that he hadn’t burned in the werewolves’ trap, he would probably be recognized as a day-walker and taken to Radu for inspection.
With as much confidence as I could muster, I said, “Hopefully, he got away.”
Nero sped us through the darkened forest, past sections of pine trees and oaks. Their scents mingled in my nostrils, causing my head to spin. It was great that he had maintained his vampire speed and strength, but how long would that last until he needed food?
I rested my head on his shoulder, making plans to seek out the onion woman. Perhaps she could make more of the mashed up, watered-down meals she had prepared for Raphael.