by Eros, Marata
He latched onto her wrist and ground the bones together as she bit the inside of her mouth to keep from crying out, the blood filling it as she did.
Con's fangs punched out in an involuntary leap of bone against flesh. He moved his face away so he wouldn't stab the Druid when she simultaneously surprised him with a brutal knee to the crotch as she spit blood into his face.
He went instantly animalistic, as the fragrant spatter of her blood slapped his face. Con was engulfed with a blood lust more acute than any he'd ever known.
And something else, a searing need to pin her hips to the ground with his cock. Not that it was possible at that precise moment, his balls feeling like earrings as she drove them up with the hardest part of her knee.
Like she knew what she was doing.
Aubree scuttled backward even as he whipped his lower leg out, scissor-like, to halt her backward progress and she fell, slapping her hands out behind her to brace her fall. She flipped herself over and leaped to her feet in one graceful movement. Seeing that he'd left the door to her cell ajar she raced for it and slammed it behind her, turning to see where he was.
Aubree wished she hadn't, his nose was pressed to the bars. As she watched, his arm tore through the bar like soft butter and she squealed like a girl, pinwheeling backward and spinning as she raced for the steps that led from the underground prison she was being kept in.
Beau heard Aubree's frightened yelp through the muddied mental waters which lie between true wakefulness and the sleep of the injured, his eyes springing open at her cry of distress.
Bright sunlight streamed through the window, the shutters not closed. A sliver slanted across the skin of his hand and a slow spiral of smoke began, the heat of it slowly coalescing inside his hand like a slow burning fire. Beau snatched it out of the sunlight and looked at his hand again. Slowly, hearing the racing footsteps of the female, he stood and watched as talons slid out of the tips of his fingers.
He turned in the direction of the noise of her escape and his nostrils flared. It was then that he knew he was a different creature entirely.
Not that the claws on his hand hadn't given that shit away right off. But he could smell her. Her pussy, full of his cum... that she was somehow his.
And in danger.
Beau leapt forward, swiping his newfound claws at the meager offering of protection the bars had allowed the outside, cutting them apart like rotting meat. They clattered to the stone floor in a shower of broken metal shards as he bounded through the opening and met the two vampire guards.
Beau never hesitated. At a dead run he threw himself the several feet that separated him from the enemy and landed a punching blow to each of them. A talon speared their foreheads even as the vampire on the left planted a slicing claw inside Beau's guts that exited his back in a meaty whisper.
Beau twisted the talon in the skull of the one that had impaled him and grunted as the talon tore out of his belly, causing a bigger hole than when it entered. The wound began bleeding freely and with an instinctive lunge, Beau swept the neck and buried his mouth into the throat of the vampire he'd just killed.
The wound of his body knitted as he took greedy gulps from the dying vampire on the ground at his feet.
It was fully closed when he stood, his head swiveling in the direction of the escaping girl.
“Fuck!” Russel roared, the scent of Druid blood and the ripe Druid female laying in a thick layer throughout the entire coven, the males in a frenzy of blood lust, their cocks at attention, they made their way toward the holding cell where the female was located.
He'd never be able to stop them, they'd fuck her to death. Russel needed to get to her first.
How had she been released to begin with? Russel ran and as he did, one name floated as the answer:
Constantine.
Con ran after the female, the pain in his groin dissipating as he did, his recuperative powers online. That bitch would spread her legs for him and he'd fuck her until she begged for him to stop.
Then he'd fuck her some more.
He sped to the spot where her scent was the strongest and came to a skidding halt when he saw who had her.
Fine, fuck it... he'd kill him then rape his mate as he bled out.
He could watch.
Con smiled at that solitary thought.
Beau caught Aubree as she rounded the corner, his face a mask of the vampire's blood he'd consumed. She smacked into him in a full panic and he drew her against himself just as another vampire rounded the corner on her heels. Beau put Aubree behind himself and crouched in front of her.
This prick was going to suffer. Beau knew by scent alone that he was the one that had bludgeoned him then hauled them both off to wherever the fuck they were now.
Aubree shuddered inside the shelter of Beau's arms, allowing herself a heartbeat of safety then she felt the vampire enter the hallway where they stood and Beau put her behind him and faced her attacker.
Russel entered the narrow hall behind Con and saw the mess as he did.
“Don't!” he bellowed behind Con and he hesitated. “Let them go!”
Beau's eyes flicked to the vampire behind the one named Con and saw frustration. Beau didn't give a tin shit, he wanted to get himself and Aubree out of here. A new scent filled the room and the males groaned as Aubree shivered.
Russel raked a hand through his hair as the first of the males entered the crowded hallway and Con gave him a full look, baring his fangs.
“She can't bear him a Druid!” he yelled, coming for Beau.
Aubree backed up against a rough wood door, a large brass ring as a knob pressed uncomfortably against her back and watched Beau gulp a huge lungful of air and with a smooth punch, he struck the encroaching vampire in the solar plexus, causing him to fly backward in a graceful arc. Her eyes followed the one that stood in front of Beau.
“Do you smell that?” he yelled in Beau's direction.
Beau did. He couldn't take his eyes off of the vampires that poured through the door. He needed to get Aubree out more than ever.
Their young was implanted inside her fertile womb.
It was no accident, but destiny. A true breeding pair matched by fate, threatened by providence.
Russel screamed over the vampires as they made their way to Aubree, “Take her and get out!”
Beau launched himself at Aubree, her shocked expression all over her limp body, the color draining from her face as he swooped in to catch her, bashing the door open with his shoulder as he did. Hot sunlight speared the interior as he flung himself into the daylight.
Beau would never forget the smell of burning vampires as long as he lived.
Which would be quite a long time.
****
Fuck, Beau thought as he stumbled against the damp wall and his skin did a slow smoke. It stung like a bitch but he wasn't bursting into flames like those vamps he'd left back in the palace of pleasure. He sprinted into a pool of unlikely shade cast by an overhead stoop, gasping for breath, the sunlight like an allergy to his skin, siphoning the energy from him.
He gazed down at his fragile burden. Aubree lay in the cradle of his arms, unconscious. Probably okay she wasn't awake for the fun of all this. Beau's eyes scanned the immediate area and finding absolutely no shelter in the middle of the city, he looked at where he'd come from and his eyes flicked up to a sign which read:
Tour the Underground of Seattle! The original city before the Big One in 1907!
Effing marvelous. The vampires had their own city beneath the feet of humans, like blind sheep, they walked over their heads like livestock, never knowing what lay in wait in the bowels of the city.
Beau looked behind him at the locked door of the shop and kicked in the door, never more thankful for his new strength than he was in that moment. He slid through the wreckage of the door. Beau's mind turned over his options. It was really a war of time. He could survive in the sunlight but not without damage, even now, with the fresh blood fueling his
system, he was healing the damage caused by the sunlight, sloughing it off moment by moment. But for true escape, he'd have to wait until nightfall. And then what? They'd be after Aubree again. He shuddered, drawing her small body closer.
His eyes slid over her face, his hand moving the hair away from her pale skin. He ran a finger along her jawbone, his eyes roving to her still-flat stomach. That weird smell he'd scented, was her womb closing for entry.
His child lay within it. Beau felt a special protection for her rise inside him. They'd had sex one time, to save her in the throes of certain death and here she was, pregnant with his child.
Beau didn't know what he was, who he was. Hell, he didn't understand all this Druid shit.
But one thing he was certain about: they weren't going to lay a finger on Aubree. He'd keep her safe with his last breath.
He tucked her against himself and allowed his eyes to close in the vacant shop. Beau slid into a deep healing sleep, his Druid mate, clutched loosely against him.
As they slept the two groups made plans to acquire them.
Each with an entirely different motivation.
*
“Where are they?” Cole growled, Josiah pinned by Cole's fist by the collar of his shirt and slammed against the wall. He leaned in, giving a deep sniff at the clothing that Josiah wore and grunted in disgust, giving him a hard shake.
“You smell of sex, not war. Explain,” he ground out.
Elias came from behind and said, “The faction took the Druid pair.”
Cole's face swiveled to face him. “Pair?”
Elias nodded. “Hell yeah, they're mated for sure. She smells of him and he of her.”
Cole hung his head. It was the worst of news.
“What?” Andrew asked as Cole released Josiah.
“If they're genuinely mated... she's in terrible danger.”
“Why?” Andrew asked, then amended, “I mean, I got it, we don't want her fucked to death by the faction, beyond that... what?”
Cole looked into their eyes and said the worst, “They'll tear her womb apart trying to get the Druid's seed out.”
“What are you saying, Cole?” Rachel asked in a whisper. He gave her a sad look. “They won't show mercy, Rachel. Desperate vampires execute desperation.” He shrugged. “They would inadvertently kill her while trying to rape the Druid young out of her in the hopes of impregnating her with their own.”
Holly had entered the room and shuddered, her arms tightly wound around herself. “They're monsters!” she said in a disgusted hiss.
“Yes,” Cole said.
“No,” Zach said and Holly glared at him and he clarified, “just cruelly practical.” He looked at her for a moment then added, “We are not human, we are animals at our basest level.”
“How can that be at all... God!” Rachel said, slapping her leg for emphasis. “Those morons can't be serious? Not even the Reaper stronghold was treating the Druids that way. Abortion? Re-impregnation?” She shook her head like clearing cobwebs away. “No, they're fucking touched in the head,” she tapped her temple, “crazy-ass vampires, not regular vampires.”
Holly gave Rachel an incredulous look.
“Okay, vampires aren't really 'normal',” Rachel began and winked at Cole, “but... this is just...”
“Sick,” Holly finished.
“Yeah,” Rachel said.
Zach prowled toward the women and Rachel tried not to respond with nervousness.
It wasn't pretty.
“What do you think they'd do if they got their hands on you?” he bored his gaze into Rachel, then leveled it against Holly, who put her face in her hands and began crying.
“That wasn't really necessary was it?” Rachel asked in a low voice.
Zach nodded slowly. “Yes, it was. You and her,” he swung his finger between her and Holly, “think you need to get out of the house... shop,” he gave a disgusted snort, “not when the faction roams about, looking to catch plump Druid fish in their net.”
“I'm not a fucking fish!” Holly said in a distraught wail.
Zach got a pained expression and pulled his Queen into his arms and she beat her fists against him. “Don't!”
He pulled away and looked down at her.
“You're a shit heel! You didn't have to tell me awful stuff like that!” she said, crossing her arms under her breasts.
“Calm down, Holly. Sometimes there are hard truths that need to be told. It is the way of it.” Zach said in a voice tempered by tenderness.
Holly pouted, pissed. Rachel figured he'd spend some time in the vampire doghouse. A smile curled her lips. It was amusing to her that the Reapers could be so damn old and stick their foot in a pile of shit so expertly.
Zach frowned.
They were slow learners about relationships with women, Rachel thought.
Holly walked over to her sister and taking her hand, pulled her out of the room of vampires.
Cole shook his head and looked at Zach.
“What? She needed to be told where the danger lies,” Zach said.
“Maybe not so forcibly, my brother,” Cole said with a trace of mirth.
“Shit,” Zach said after a full minute of silence.
“Yes.”
“That didn't go very well,” Andrew said, stating the obvious.
“Argh!” Zach gave a disgusted grunt and tensing the muscles in his considerably large forearms he stormed out of the room and Cole smiled after his retreating back.
“It will work out in time,” Cole commented.
Glancing at the Reapers he said the one thing he needed most, “Report.”
They did.
As the story grew, arced and culminated, Cole's trepidation increased. Things were looking more grave than was typical. They had traded one enemy for another.
The faction would not stop until they had the true Druid pair... and the Druid Queen.
Who at present, was a nineteen-year old, slightly immature female that but a few days prior, was nothing more than a virginal college student with no plan.
Now she was the prophesied Queen of Vampire. A new order stretching before her. Holly's biological network set to fire off with whoever got her pregnant first.
Let it not be the faction, Cole thought.
CHAPTER 10
Holly let the breeze run over her body, the city smell and sights soothing her raw nerves. That whole twisted mess about the Druid female running around unprotected? And with the faction? Holly shuddered and hung her head until her chin nearly touched her breastbone. She was so overwhelmed. She was sure there'd been some mistake made. Holly just couldn't be the Druid Queen. She didn't know anything, she wasn't even political. She had to ask others who was running for the most basic offices of government.
Who gave a shit, really?
Now she'd have to. She wasn't government but some strange hierarchy of vampire royalty.
Maybe she didn't want the job.
She felt large hands cup her shoulders and turn her from the cold metal of the railing that jutted from the master suite she shared with Zach. She was still pissed as hell at him. Could he have delivered the horrible news of another Breeder, one just like her and Rachel, that was in grave danger... just a little bit more sensitively? Why'd he have to drop it like a bomb on her head. It scared the hell out of her.
Zach looked at a sullen Holly and knew he'd have some explaining to do. He sighed. He'd only fucked females, taken the soft pleasures their ripe bodies afforded the vampire. He'd believed in the Book of Blood, but not really. If he had, he'd have been more prepared for this eventuality. To be mated with the Druid Queen? He hadn't thought it even a vague possibility.
Now it was his new reality.
Holly opened her full mouth and he sucked her words into his own mouth with lips... and fangs.
She moaned, wanting to talk, to hash over what had happened but she couldn't think with his prick pressing stiffly against the length of her belly. Holly unconsciously moved closer and l
eaped on Zach as he gripped her small thighs with hands that wrapped half her leg. His stiff rod pressed firmly against her engorged clit, she was already so ready for him. It was always this way. Zach would touch her, then her pussy would bloom like a flower following the sun.
Zach heard Holly gasp, her core growing moist between them. He could feel her heat, smell her readiness.
He breathed into her ear, “Let me finger you with my claws.” It was an erotic feeling, to be finger-fucked by a vampire talon. It needed to be executed perfectly and with care. But when it was, it was beyond compare.
Or so Zach had been told.
“No!” Holly stiffened, thinking of the six inch claws... so sharp, so scary in battle.
She squirmed, her pussy opening further against his prick, their flimsy garments the only barrier.
“Let me show you. I can reach... places that are not so easy with my cock. Trust me.”
Holly thought about it. They hadn't come all this way for him to hurt her. The thought of the danger involved was titillating to say the least. A quick flick and she'd be hurt. But he promised pleasure.
Zach smelled her arousal at his dangerously exciting proposal and gave a soft hiss of barely contained lust. He ran with Holly pressed against the front of him and laid her on their bed, spreading her legs, covered in linen pants with only a drawstring for closure.
He sliced them at the crotch, perforating a hole that was perfectly sized for penetration.
Holly gasped when she felt the jerk of his talon against the material of her pants, the cool air flowing over her hot snatch. Zach slid the blunt back of his talon against her ripe clit and she shivered, an orgasm floating just out of reach as he moved, with vampire speed, over her pleasure bud again and again and when she wanted to scream for him to stop or go even faster he plunged the talon into her waiting cunt at an angle that tapped the fabled G-spot like that was its sole purpose and Holly cried out at the sharp but expertly positioned talon, its dullest edge scraping across the spot as she threw her hips against his claw and he chuckled at her wanton enthusiasm.