“What?” she asked him.
“The photo.” He nodded to the dresser. “When the girls started to ask questions, I gave them the photo.”
“Oh.”
Julian rolled his shoulders in a tired manner and pushed his hand into his wet hair again. The movements caused the muscles to move, bunch, and bulge out.
“God, I’m tired.” He groaned, rubbing his face.
“A bit too hard on you?” she asked with a humorous glare in her eyes.
Julian looked at her and laughed. “Ah, now I know why you are here. Come to gloat more.”
“Well, I could hear you moaning like a wounded animal in my room,” she told him, looking down at her bare feet. “Had to come make sure you were still going to be able to function and all.”
“Well, I assure you I will be at my best when the time comes.” He grinned back.
Carissa nodded her head and pushed away from the dresser. She walked to the door and almost touched it but stopped. “Thanks.”
“For what?”
Carissa turned around, and all the playfulness was gone from her face. She took a deep breath. “For last week. Seems that when I think no one is hearing me or seeing the pain, you are. I’ve never told anyone this before, mostly, because I never knew it.”
Julian frowned at her, not understanding. “What are you talking about?”
“I was so scared to let anyone in. Thought it was safe that way. For me to stand here now; knowing that after all this time I need someone just like everyone else is hard.” She moved away from the door and avoided his eyes. She moved back to the dresser but kept her back to him. “I used to lie in my bed and pray that someone would hear my pain. Just once for someone to come and save me from everything. To show me that there was more to fighting.” She turned around showing him the pain as tears fell from her eyes. “Last week you showed me that I am not as strong as I thought. That I can’t do any of this alone and that I never should have tried.” More tears fell from her eyes, and her lower lip started to shake. “I did want to come back. Don’t think that I didn’t.”
“All you had to do was call me,” he told her with his soft, caring voice. “I would have been there for you in a heartbeat.”
Carissa wiped her face and gave him a shaky smile. “I know.” She nodded her head at him, walking back to the door. “I know that now.”
“Carissa,” he called to her softly and waited for her to turn around. “You never have to ask for anything. I am here if and when you need me.”
Carissa turned back to the door but stalled for a few moments. She heard Julian walk back into the bathroom and brush his teeth. For whatever reason, she could not walk out that door. Her breathing increased, and her hand suddenly locked the door. She waited until she heard Julian rinse before she turned and walked back.
Julian shut the light off in the bathroom and with the towel still around his waist came out to find Carissa still in his room. “You okay?”
Carissa walked up to him, looking deep into his eyes. “Yes,” she replied so soft that Julian thought he didn’t hear her.
Her hand reached up and touched his face softly, watching closely as Julian closed his eyes. With her free hand, she worked the knot to her robe, letting the thin material fall open. The hand she was using to touch his face grazed down his throat to his chest. Julian opened his eyes and locked them with hers as her hand continued to travel down to the towel around his waist.
Julian sucked his breath in sharply when she yanked it away from his waist. He said nothing while she pushed him over to the bed and forced him to sit down.
Words were no longer needed. Julian watched her stand between his legs and slip the robe off to pool around her feet. The urge to touch her was powerful, but somehow Julian managed to hold back. He looked up at her and waited for Carissa. His wait wasn’t long.
Carissa knelt down on her knees between his legs. Her eyes never left his as she moved. Softly she leaned forward and kissed him. It wasn’t anything demanding or urgent, just a soft, gentle kiss.
She flattened both of her hands on his shoulders to move them slowly down his chest, to his flat stomach, and then to his legs. Julian sucked his breath in sharply when he felt her hot breath touch his heated cock.
His eyes closed the second her hands closed over the hard flesh, and her lips closed over the sensitive head. Julian found that breathing was suddenly the hardest thing he ever had to do. Carissa sucked the length of him as fast as he would go into her mouth then let her sharp teeth graze the underside of him as she pulled him out.
It was a torturous pleasure that he knew he would hold with him until the last days of his life. A memory that would never fade.
Julian had his head back, hands digging into the soft quilt on his bed, and his breath was coming in ragged gasps as Carissa bobbed up and down on him. She sucked his ridged flesh hard, sucking not only his orgasm from his body, but his soul as well. His breathing suddenly became hard. Knuckles turned white and hips began to buck under her sucking. Julian opened his eyes and his mouth. Eyes were silver and fangs long as she pulled him closer and closer to the pleasure that was just slightly out of reach.
“Oh shit!” Julian moaned in a crying manner. “I…can’t!” He finished with a sharp cry as his cock exploded in her mouth.
Julian ended up dropping his body on the bed, covering his face with his hands as he breathed harshly. Carissa was still sucking on him, bringing his cock back to the hard stance that it was.
Julian didn’t move as she kissed her way back up his body. He was still coming down from the high of his orgasm. Yet, when he felt the wet heat touch the head of his cock, Julian’s eyes snapped open.
Silver met purple as two bodies suddenly became one. Carissa kept her lips a mere inch from Julian’s as she sank herself down on top of him. Inch by slow agonizing inch, she took him into her body. Julian wrapped his arms around her waist as her eyes closed. He felt her tight cunt stretch to the max for his size, yet still she impaled herself onto him until he was touching her womb.
Julian sat back up and held her tightly as she moved her hips hard. Bodies slapped into each other as his lips kissed and sucked her neck. He was dying to sink his teeth deep into her. To drink the sweetness that called to him many lonely nights, but held off. Carissa was still healing and needed blood. She didn’t need him to take any this time.
Her sudden cry of pleasure was sweet music to his ears. Julian wrapped his arms even tighter around her body, forcing her to fuck him harder and to ride out the pleasure.
“Bite me,” he told her, kissing her neck and throat.
Carissa didn’t need to be asked a second time. She opened her mouth and closed her eyes as another wave was about to hit her. She waited until it started before she sank her teeth deep into his shoulder.
Julian moaned and came at the same time. The pull from her mouth was all he needed. His orgasm exploded hot and heavy, leaving stars behind his eyes.
When it was over, Julian laid back in the bed with his legs dangling over the side. His arms were still wrapped tightly around Carissa, and he found there was no way he could let her go. Deep down, he was too afraid that if he did, she would be gone.
However, he found that tonight was different. Tonight Carissa let him hold her in his arms as they slept the day away. It was the most peaceful sleep he had in over five years.
Chapter 12
“Ambrose, are you sure about this?” Carissa asked the man who for years was dear to her as a father. A worried expression was all over her face as she watched him closely.
“It is for our protection,” he informed her, closing the deep wound to his wrist. He pushed a rubber tip into the top of the antique style wine bottle with a gold base around the bottom.
“I don’t feel comfortable about this!” she hissed at him in a hushed voice, taking the bottle from him. “We need to find another way to do this!”
“Do what?”
Both Carissa and Ambrose jum
ped and turned around to see Julian standing in Ambrose’s bedroom. They were standing in his closet, and quickly Carissa shoved the bottle back in Ambrose’s hands.
“Nothing,” she said dryly, keeping her eyes on Ambrose. “We were doing nothing.”
Julian didn’t say anything to her as she walked out of the bedroom and into her own room, slamming the door closed. He looked hard at Ambrose, watching as much as he could as the old man placed a wine bottle in an old wooden box. He heard the click of a lock and waited.
“You know how dangerous this is going to be?” Ambrose finally asked, keeping his back to Julian.
Julian took a deep breath, choosing his words carefully. “I know what you have asked of us, Ambrose.” He kept his voice free of any kind of emotion as he spoke to the man. “But it doesn’t mean I have to agree with you.”
“No, it doesn’t.” Ambrose sighed. He slowly turned around, facing Julian. “I have placed a lot of my trust in you. Don’t make me regret it.”
“I have regretted many things in my time, Ambrose, but this is not one of them.” Julian turned and walked away but stopped at the door. “This is the last time she is going to head into a fight that isn’t hers.” He looked over his shoulder, making sure that he had Ambrose’s attention. “It’s time for you to let her go for good.”
“I already have,” Ambrose said very softly to himself with sadness in his eyes.
* * * *
Carissa stood outside leaning against a tree, hugging herself. It was late, and she should have been downstairs resting like everyone else, preparing herself for the fight that was about to come. The fight that suddenly left a bad taste in her mouth. Her gut kept telling her something very bad was about to happen. Something that would leave its mark on every one of them.
“You should be resting.” Ambrose walked up to her, standing a few inches behind and to the side. “We have a big night ahead of us.”
“You don’t have to do it that way,” she told him in a dead voice.
Ambrose sighed heavily as he leaned on his cane. “It is the only way I can preserve our race. When the times comes, you will give it to the right one.”
Carissa looked at him, and a single tear fell from her face. “Don’t make me do this,” she whispered.
Ambrose walked in front of her and took her face in his hands. He smiled tenderly at her. “I trust no other as I trust you,” he told her softly. “I know that if this goes this way, then you will pick the right one.” Ambrose pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly and closing his own eyes. “I love you as the daughter I never had. Deep down, we both know that you are the one who must do this.” Ambrose pulled her away from him and smiled. “I have complete faith.”
Carissa nodded her head. “I will do this. For you, when the time comes.”
Ambrose smiled even brighter. “That’s my girl.”
* * * *
“I swear he started it!” Paris whined to Julian.
Julian looked down at Paris with an angry look in his eyes but said nothing. Alina was crying her eyes out as he dragged both girls back into their yard. This was the tenth time he got a call from the neighbor telling him to come get his children for fighting. This time Paris jumped the ten year old brother of the girl they used to play with.
“He pushed Alina down,” Paris went on. “What was I supposed to do?”
“I have told both of you time after time to stop going over there,” Julian snapped, dragging them into the house. “Every time you do, you get in a fight with either Tracy or her brother.”
Paris yanked her arm away from Julian and placed both hands on her waist to glare up at her father. “That is because he is a bully!”
Julian picked Alina up and sat her on the counter. He saw a small cut on her lip along with the scrape and cut to her knee. “I don’t care what he is. You can’t solve everything with fighting.”
“I wasn’t solving anything,” Paris defended herself. “I was only showing him how it felt to be hit and pushed.” Her little arms went up in the air, and she gave Julian an innocent look. “It’s not my fault if he landed hard.”
Julian sighed heavily as he pressed a wet rag to Alina’s lip. “Paris, I have told you over and over again. You are only five. You need to start acting like it.” He looked at her young face. The face that was so much like her mother’s. “I know you are stronger. I know you are different than the other girls your age. But the two of you need to try harder to control yourselves.” He went back to work at cleaning up the knee with another deep sigh. “You could have hurt him worse than last time.”
“Now, I think the new nose is an improvement,” she replied with a smile on her tiny face. “The old one made his face look funny.” Julian gave her another dark, dirty look. “Okay, okay.” Paris backed down, wiping the smile off of her face quickly. “I’ll stay away.”
“And no more fighting,” he snapped.
Paris shrugged her shoulders as both brows went up. “I can promise nothing.”
Julian rolled his eyes. “If your uncle doesn’t get back soon, I am going to kill him!”
“He said that we killed mommy,” Alina sniffed out. “She died because we came out.”
Julian looked at Alina and found he was speechless. How could a child say something so cruel to another child?
“What?” Julian breathed out, stunned.
“He told me that you are hurting because mommy was dead, and we were alive.” Tears fell from her face, and her lower lip shook as she talked. “So, I kicked him in the knee, and he slapped me.” She sniffed, and her eyes went down to the ground. “He then told me that nobody would want to be our mommy, so I pushed him.”
Julian looked at Paris. “Did you know he said that?”
Paris tried to avoid looking at Julian. Whenever she looked him in the eyes, he somehow made her tell the whole truth. “Not this time,” she answered softly.
“What do you mean, not this time?”
Paris looked up at Julian and put her strongest face together. “He said awhile ago that I was too mean to ever have a mommy and that as soon as I was old enough, you would get rid of me.”
Julian pulled a chair out and sat down. “Then, you broke his nose, right?”
Paris shrugged her shoulders and looked down at the ground. Julian rubbed his face then the back of his neck. Deep down, he was hoping he wouldn’t have to have this talk until the girls were much older, but looking at them he knew differently. Even though they were five, they were so much wiser.
“Listen, you two.” He looked up at them both, pulling Alina onto his lap and reaching out for Paris to join them. “You two had nothing to do with your mother dying. Her father was the one responsible for that. If he didn’t take her and steal Alina, then your mother would be here right now.”
“I wish we got to know her,” Paris said, resting her head on Julian’s shoulder.
“It’s not fair.” Alina pouted also putting her head on his shoulder.
“No, it isn’t,” Julian agreed. “She shouldn’t have had to die like that. No one should have.”
Carissa was standing by the backdoor, outside, listening to what Julian said to his children. She felt the loss within him deep in her soul.
“Do you miss her?” Alina asked.
“Yeah,” Julian answered with a regretful sigh. “I still miss her.”
Carissa forced herself to walk away from the door, not wanting to hear anymore of what was said between them. The need to feed came upon her, and instead of Carissa going in and seeking Julian out, she went in search for herself. In the morning hours she walked into the kitchen, dressed in her leather ninja outfit. She was covered from head to toe with weapons on her hips as she joined the men.
Julian was holding the mask in his hand, and his head was down to the ground. He waited until Lucian and Ambrose both had their masks on before he looked up at Carissa. He couldn’t see her eyes but knew she was watching him. He also felt as if something wasn’t right. That with
all the steps they took forward something now caused them to take more back.
“Ready?” Carissa asked the group with a dead voice.
“Let’s finish this,” Lucian answered, following the group out into the dying sun. “Once and for all.”
Chapter 13
The nasty lair was a fifty miles from the town. Four lone fighters stood at the entrance, enduring the heat from the setting sun. Steam came off each and every one of them, but they never once showed the pain from it.
All of them knew the moment the sun was completely down, the breeds would be rushing out. Tonight would be the end of this war. One way or another, it ends tonight.
The last fighter on the right looked over to the one on the left. Faces were covered, yet both seemed to be able to say words that were unspoken. A slight nod from the one on the left had the one on the right raise a gold tip arrow up.
With the sudden explosion, a large army of breeds came rushing out. Some got hit by the setting sun while others were cut down by the fighters. The way the fighters moved had all of the breeds confused. None could tell who or which one they were fighting. Only one of the fighters was able to pick up who was who.
Cutting down a nasty breed with an arrow in her hand, Carissa quickly raised her bow up and shot an arrow across the yard to a breed that was about to stab one of the fighters in the back.
With only one arrow left, Carissa ended up dropping her bow and retrieving her staffs. She gave both a sharp jerk, extending the steel rods at the end. She walked up to the first breed and quickly loaded several hard blows to his body before she finished him off with a deadly hit to the face. She looked like a ninja fighting with a pair of nunchakus. Her body moved with the weapons, giving her extra power and strength with each blow.
“We need the master!” Ambrose yelled. “Killing him will put an end to this!”
Carissa turned around to call something out but stopped dead in her tracks. Fear gripped her unlike anything she ever felt in her whole life. She watched in slow motion as a cruel looking vampire shot out of the ground behind Ambrose.
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