I reached out to trace a particularly nasty ridge of scar tissue down Gregory’s right biceps that ended in the crook of his elbow.
We stared at each other for a few moments without speaking. The sparkle of laughter I’d already grown used to seeing in his eyes shuttered away, hidden behind a curtain that dropped into place in the space of a blink.
“Are they dead?” I took his hand in mine.
He nodded, once. “Most of them.”
“You killed them.” A tiny nod again. “The rest had better hide.”
Gregory smiled at me, his fangs extended, and I saw the predator that lived within, pacing the bars of its cage. “Aye.”
I stepped forward and kissed him with my eyes open. The kiss was an oath of sorts, my promise to help him reap vengeance for what had been done. I would help him rain destruction on those who had tortured him. The promise of bloodshed surprised me, but I felt it within my chest just the same.
Even if it was my new bond with Daniel that caused my instant affection and trust, I didn’t care. Gregory had stuck his neck out by admitting he wouldn’t help punish Daniel for bonding with me, and now he was here to help with my Blooding. A good man, to be sure.
“Daniel, this ceremony is going to call my Hunger with full force. You’ve only gotten a small taste of it to this point. Are you sure you and Gregory will not be harmed?” I stepped back and pivoted to face him.
“Yes. Of course. We will not be in danger. Our link with the Council also affords us a certain amount of protection along with our own personal strength. If you remember, I can shield against you if I wish.”
“Good. OK.” Butterflies tried to tear an escape route out of my body from somewhere near my solar plexus. I wanted to throw up. “And you’re sure you’re OK with Gregory being, uh, involved?”
“Miri, we will be here with you the entire time. Do not fear. The Blooding is meant to be a joyous occasion, the mark of a young vampire assuming adulthood.” He stroked my arms and kissed my forehead. “Gregory and I have been comrades at arms and friends for centuries. We truly do not mind sharing. With the right woman, we enjoy it quite a bit.”
“Right. If you happen to have sex with us, neither of us is going to complain.”
I chuckled and shook my head, using Daniel’s warm, heavy arms as a makeshift blanket. “A little bit sure of our self, are we Master Gregory?”
“Of course. Just look at me.” He held his arms out and spun in a slow circle. “If nothing else, the sight of this ragged hide should assure you that there doesn’t seem to be anything that can kill me. Even a girl with the ability to suck a man dry with sex.”
“Daniel, does the Council know yet? About us?”
The men exchanged a glance, and my mate shrugged. I snorted and crossed my arms.
“There is no way to know for certain. I am magically connected to them, but there has not been a Bloodsworn Guardian in centuries. They may not recognize the change in the energy patterns.”
Awesome. Totally unhelpful and disconcerting at the same time.
Daniel sighed and leaned down close to my ear. “Do not worry about it now, cara. One problem at a time.”
“Yeah, right. Sure. I won’t worry.” I crossed my fingers behind my back.
He bit my ear, chastising me, and continued, “Now, once you set the circle, follow your instincts. Gregory and I will bite you, and then you must drink from us. The legends are right on that account. If something happens to me, Gregory is the only other vampire on the planet I’d trust to keep you alive. Besides providing you with food, he will have a blood bond with you and in times of danger will be able to use it to track you. If I am incapacitated in some way, you must trust and listen to him.” I nodded and swallowed all the extra saliva that flooded my mouth.
“Aww, I’m touched.”
Daniel rolled his eyes at his friend and raised my hand to kiss it between my middle and third fingers, flicking the delicate skin with his tongue once. It drew a startled gasp from me, and he smiled with wicked intent in his eyes.
“When you are fully transitioned, I am going to show you just how many things I’ve learned in my long life, things you could not endure as you are now. We will lock ourselves away for months and feast on each other’s bodies.”
The tone of the words practically seared my brain, and I forgot all about being nervous. Gregory stood in front of me now at the head of the pentacle with the knife Lane had given me in his right hand. He smiled at me and then handed it to me handle first. Down to business.
“As the immature child we seek to bring into her full gifts as a vampire, you are charged with wielding this blade and setting the protective circle in which we will perform our rite this night. May the elements come to your call.” Then he winked at me. Typical.
Now this I could handle. By the time I had gotten to the third candle, I had lost my earlier nervousness and swayed to a beat that seemed to be only in my head. It was an ancient music, a driving, pounding beat that I gyrated to, spinning and humming to myself as I lit the candles and invoked the elements. At the top of the pentacle I invited Spirit to the circle and cut the palm of my hand, surprised to see some of my blood vanish into the metal of the blade. The runes lit up with blue light and glowed. I swung my arm in a broad arc above my head, knowing instinctively it would guide my Hunger back to me from the place I had banished it to.
The warm brush of wind lifted my hair, and a sigh reverberated through my head. I smiled. Everything seemed right—there was a click, or a pop, as she settled in. Then all hell broke loose. The warm gust became a gale that swirled through the room and blew everything off the shelves and walls outside the circle. The flames on the candles flared a foot high before being snuffed out. My skin burned from the inside out and sexual desire flooded through every inch of me. Coherent thought left, chased away by a need that clawed its way from my groin to my belly and latched onto the first person I saw.
Gregory and I grabbed each other. I captured the back of his neck and forced his face down to mine with the hand that held the blade, crushing our lips together, and gripping his cock in the other. Pure delight lit through me as I stroked his shaft, and he groaned against my lips. He picked me up off the floor so I could twine my legs around his waist. The hot, heavy weight of his dick became trapped between our bodies, and I tried to position myself higher to take it inside, but he resisted me.
I was ravenous, starved, and if I couldn’t feed on his orgasm, I’d take his blood. I nicked the side of his neck with the blade and drank the liquid in greedy slurps, laughing when he hissed in pain. He tasted rich, deep, sweet, and intoxicating. The flavor of his blood clouded everything else. I wrenched his head to the side to get to more, plunging my tongue into the wound.
A pair of hands reached between our bodies and grasped my breasts, pinching my nipples and rolling them. I knew those hands, and it distracted me enough that I retreated from Gregory’s neck and turned my head to see Daniel’s face right behind me. He leaned in and claimed my mouth, licking the blood from my lips, tongue, and teeth. He tried to pull me away from Gregory but I wrapped my legs around the other man even harder and gave his cock a few determined strokes until he clutched me even closer, away from Daniel.
Daniel increased the pressure of his kiss, biting my tongue, reaching between my legs from behind to find my clit with one finger while his thumb slid inside. The spirals of electric pleasure that stole up through my body from his attentions distracted me. I raised my self up and down on his hand as he teased me. Gregory growled, and I tore away from my mate to lean into him, biting and sucking on his neck and earlobes, lapping at the blood flowing from his wound. It healed as I watched, and I mewled in disappointment. I needed more.
I wanted to cut him again, both of them, and drink them dry while they fucked me. I could drain their blood and their energy, ride the wave of sex and death. I was a maiden goddess cresting new heights of magic, drunk on power and ancient blood. The Hunger demanded dominion over the men in my circl
e.
Daniel grabbed me by the hair and craned my head back until my neck was exposed in a long line of taut flesh. His gleaming white fangs were longer than I had ever seen them, and the lethally sharp points could tear through my exposed artery with little effort. They were the teeth of a great cat, the fangs of a lion or tiger. He slid them into me with careful precision. When his lips sealed down and he began to drink, he penetrated me with his engorged cock.
The fullness in my channel combined with the roaring of my pulse as he fed from me shoved me into orgasm. I bucked and screamed, frantically stroking Gregory’s length. His eyes flashed pure violet, and I caught a short glimpse of his fangs before he grabbed the arm that held the blade and sank his fangs into my wrist.
“Fuck! Ouch…” The pain from the bite faded, and the sensation of sun-warmed fur brushed up my arm to my breasts. “Oh, damn…ooohhh…yes…more.”
A rushing sound filled my head as they fed from my vessels in unison. Daniel’s scent rose and mixed with mine, taking on a new flavor as Gregory’s arousal filled the air too. The deep animal part of my brain was terrified to submit to them, knowing that if they continued to feed I would die. The Hunger quickly squashed that whiny little bugger flat and reveled in the sexual energy that swirled in the room and through my body. The pain of the bite and the orgasm had cleared my head enough that I knew my magic was mostly in the driver’s seat. I hoped Daniel and Gregory could keep things on track enough so that no one died.
Their magic surrounded and supported me, Daniel’s unique magic invoking the ocean, Gregory’s calling up the sensuous glide of thick fur on bare skin, the heat of a lover in the cold of winter, the freedom of wandering in wild places. I smelled pine needles, fresh dirt, and falling leaves.
My power cared only about feeding and saw the men not as friends or lovers, but as great big all-you-can-eat buffets. Their auras glowed so bright that if I tried to focus on the energy around us, all I saw were white spots.
I came again and again, their fangs buried in my flesh, Gregory’s hands stroking my breasts. Daniel moved in slow deliberate slides, and I knew through our bond he was concerned he or Gregory would slip and tear my flesh with their fangs.
I opened my eyes, not knowing when they’d closed or why. My neck and wrist were cold. The men had stopped feeding and carefully licked the wounds until the blood slowed to a trickle. Gregory was hard and long against my belly. Daniel was still buried deep inside. But I no longer had the energy to grasp Gregory tightly enough to hold on by myself. Daniel had one hand on my left thigh, Gregory one hand on my right.
“You must use your blade now lass and drink from us.” Gregory removed my hand from his thick length and guided it around his neck. I made a sound of protest, and he chuckled deep in his throat.
“It’s not going anywhere.” The blade was still in my right hand, and he helped me put it against Daniel’s neck and make a shallow wound. When the blood welled up, I shifted around until I could reach, clamped my lips around it, and dug in with my teeth. My nails sank into the back of Gregory’s neck, and I knew the wounds would scar. He would forever bear five half moons in his nape below the hairline, and my Hunger reveled in the idea that he was marked as our conquest.
I bit down harder on Daniel’s neck, sucking and swallowing, beginning to feel better, lighter, new energy zinging through my body. One again I found myself dragged into the sea of his memories, but they were not of the distant past. They all focused on me, what I looked like the day he saw me on the street, my face in the midst of an orgasm, all the times he had been staring at my ass when I wasn’t aware. I smiled and flexed my legs so that he thrust once, long and slow, before Gregory detached me.
“Now Gregory, Miri. You need the blood.” Daniel nuzzled my ear and the pride in his tone warmed me. I sliced Gregory’s neck on my own and transferred the knife to my left hand so I could grab him with my right and continue to stroke his cock when I began to pull at his neck. He groaned and his hand flexed on my thigh with enough pressure to bruise. I took it as encouragement and bit down harder, grasping him firmer.
Daniel began to fuck me again, slowly at first but then in earnest as I fed from Gregory. His blood and energy held different notes than Daniel’s, darker and more animalistic. I’d felt it when he fed from me, and tasting it made the impressions even stronger. It brought stealth and hunting ability with it, the thrill of taking down prey, and the gush of blood and flesh in my teeth. Daniel felt like walking in the sun or floating in the sea on my back, the ability to change events with a wink and a smile. Gregory was brute force and violence. I drank it down, and Daniel’s rhythm begin to falter and change.
He yanked me from Gregory’s neck and kissed me roughly, pulling me back against his chest and going to his knees on the floor. I fell onto my hands, tossing my head back as he pounded into me. Gregory stroked himself, watching from a few feet away. He was so impossibly large and thick, but I wanted to wrap my lips around him, take him into my mouth and let my tongue explore every reachable inch.
“Gregory, please.”
He looked at me with darkened eyes and then over my head at Daniel.
I held one hand out to him, and he came to his knees in front of me.
I grasped him again as I had before, squeezing at the base, before I took him as deeply as I could into my mouth, groaning at the delicious pressure building inside. Daniel slowed his thrusts, and I found I could concentrate better on the beautiful cock between my lips. Gregory shuddered when my tongue circled the tip, dipped into the slit, and then back around. I nipped him, laving the sting away, sucking on as much length as I could while stroking the rest with my hand. There was no taking all of him by mouth, but he seemed to be enjoying it anyway, thrusting slightly down my throat.
I withdrew for a moment when Daniel rolled his hips in a slow circle and slid out completely to rub himself over my clit. The heat of his cock flared through me, and I moaned when Gregory reached under my body to cup one breast in his palm.
Daniel entered me again and slapped his testicles into my clit. I screamed and fell back on Gregory with abandon until an orgasm took us all. They came inside me, and my body sucked energy and life from their fluids. The Hunger burst free and blanketed over all of us, prolonging the orgasm. I swallowed each jet of Gregory’s cum, not spilling even a drop, the life force contained in the fluid as important as his blood. My pussy milked Daniel, dragged on his shaft until his balls emptied.
Power burst in a great flare through the room. Surely people miles away would have seen a laser beam of light erupting from the windows.
I collapsed to the floor, my limbs turned to jelly. My head rested on a warm muscular thigh I was pretty sure belonged to Gregory, but I didn’t care. Sleep was what I wanted most.
The Hunger waited for me in a strange white space in my head as I began to doze. She smiled at me and held out her hand. This time I wasn’t afraid to take it in my own.
She began to disappear from view, and tingles warmed my skin. It centered on the small of my back until it burned then faded into a throbbing ache.
She was gone. I spun in a circle, looking around, wondering what the fuck I had done wrong now.
Husky laughter reverberated in my head.
“I’m still here, dumbass. I’m just where I’m supposed to be. Inside you.”
“Ah, well then you must know you’re talking way too loudly. Care to turn down the volume?”
“Sorry, years of screaming for attention will make you forget things like that.”
I rolled my eyes and began tapping my foot. “So, where are we?”
“Oh, the Goddess wants a visit.”
“Who? The lady from that beachy vision? She was really a goddess?” Chagrin burned in my gut. Somehow I’d still been hoping that hadn’t been true.
“Yes. Don’t you know anything about Celtic mythology? Never mind, I can see you don’t right over here.”
“Wait a second; are you messing around going through my br
ain?”
“Yes. If I’m not helping you eat someone or doing a fertility rite, what am I going to do for fun? Besides, it’s all right here on the surface. You really wear your heart on your sleeve. Going to have to work on that if we’re going to survive for more than a few months.”
“Few months! Few months! What the fuck did I just have a threesome for then? I thought—”
“Yeah, I know what you thought. Obviously you didn’t bother to remember that now that you’re online you’re even more attractive to certain people.”
The bitch. “You tricked me!”
“I did not! You were toast inside of a month if you kept on going around the way you had been. At least now you have a weapon they don’t.”
I snorted. “Oh, what? You?”
“Yep. And don’t act like you didn’t enjoy yourself. You know you did.”
Criminey, this was ridiculous. I was having an argument with myself. Sort of. “Well, don’t get all smug Your Highness. Adrian knows how to make me his meat puppet if he chooses, and I have a feeling he’s gonna be back.”
“Just take us to the Goddess already. She’ll be pissed we’re late as it is.”
Shit. More drama. “How do I do that?”
“Oh, what, don’t know how to do that? Right, I can see, right over here in the section titled ‘Miranda is a stubborn bitch who doesn’t like to admit when she’s wrong.’ Just concentrate on her, and we’ll be taken to her.”
“That’s it? Think hard and poof! There we are?”
She didn’t respond so I took that as a yes. The image of the Goddess was so vivid in my head that it was easy to think of her down to the pearls sewn on the bodice of her gown. The endless white expanse all around me began to darken with shadows and outlines. Trees took shape, materializing right next to where I stood. The ground became a dirt path through a dense wood.
I walked about four steps before pine needles stabbed my feet and I remembered I could visualize clothes for myself. Jeans, a hoodie, and a pair of hiking boots seemed to make the most sense. When my hair snagged on a low branch, I materialized a hair elastic and put it in a ponytail.
Hunger Embraced (The Hunger Series) Page 23