Well, it turned out that Niven was immune to my gaze, but completely susceptible to the call of my knockers. I’d have to remember that. It might come in handy.
Okay, it appeared that Niven was physically there, and my psychic radar told me that he wasn’t lying about Jeran or about the mysterious arrival. As was my habit when dealing with something complex or confusing, I ignored it and turned my attention to primitive pleasure. There would be plenty of time to figure out the puzzle later. At that moment the vampire equivalent of hormones kicked in and all I could think about was riding Niven’s joy stick into the sunset.
I rose to my knees, leaned toward him, took his face in my hands, and stared into his dazzling blue eyes. I’m sure it was a trick of the light (although there really wasn’t much light in the room at the time), but I could have sworn his eyes shifted and sparkled, the colors bursting alive like the patterns in a child’s kaleidoscope. I caught my breath and had the odd sensation that I was forgetting something very important. Something I should remember.
I reached down and retrieved the hand that was hermetically sealed to my boob, claimed its mate, and guided them around to rest on my back. I wrapped my arms around his sweetly-scented neck, ran my tongue over his soft lips, and then kissed him thoroughly. He opened his mouth for me and I slid my tongue inside. He tasted of peppermint. His body was warm and alive, and it felt good against my skin. I could feel the blood pulsing through his veins and his heart beating fast, as he moaned into my mouth.
Never let it be said that I’m not accommodating. I scanned his mind to find out what his favorite scents and tastes were, and I manifested them with a thought.
Suddenly, I was overwhelmed with the smell of cinnamon buns and realized it was coming from me. Well, different strokes.
Breathless, I pulled back from him and ran my hands down his heaving chest and then ventured lower. I appreciated the obvious excitement expressed by both his pounding heartbeat and his impressive erection. His hands recaptured my twin peaks and he gently pushed me back onto the bed, crawling on top of me. His mouth covered my nipples, giving a few seconds to one and then switching to the other, his tongue perfecting its circling and sucking craft more with each performance.
I wrapped my legs around him, grabbed fistfuls of satin tresses and moaned loudly.
He slid up my body, brought his mouth to mine and whispered, “Let me get rid of these clothes.”
“Oh, allow me,” I cooed, and thought his clothes away.
Feeling his hot, naked flesh suddenly against my cool skin must have pleasantly startled him, because he barked out a laugh.
I couldn’t decide if I wanted to inhale him all in one gulp or nibble him slowly, but I finally chose to extend the exquisite torture and to drive him to divine madness.
We kissed passionately until the boundaries between our bodies dissolved and we fell into and through each other, metaphorically speaking, of course. (By the way, it would probably be lovely if you’d imagine your favorite kind of seduction music playing softly in the background for this part of the story. Or maybe something more dramatic, with lots of crashing symbols and delayed climaxes. Your choice.)
At this phase of the sexual frenzy it was easier to kiss with my fangs retracted, so I teased myself by not giving into the intense pressure to let them run amok. Instead, I built the need, savoring what was to come.
Niven was a talented and delicious kisser. It isn’t often that I get caught up in the mere act of pressing my lips against someone else’s, but I have to say I really got into it with Niven. It was as if he had knowledge and skills that transcended his age.
His hands slid over my body, hot and sweaty, arousing and delighting me. He worshipped at the dual goddesses for a while and then delved down lower into uncharted territory. His fingers explored the wet, fragrant landscape between my legs and I quickly began the trek up Orgasm Mountain. He left me hanging on the Plateau of Almost There and traded his finger for his tongue and laved me over the edge. I fisted my hands in his glorious mane and held his head in place, targeting the Yummy Spot on my clitoris. I came again and again, screaming his name, and finally lay there, limp, spent and thirsty. So thirsty that my fangs ached.
Niven crawled up my body, kissing his way between erogenous zones until he captured my swollen mouth with his very wet one. His erection was hard and thick against me and all I had to do was open my legs a few inches more and he would fill me. But I wanted him in my mouth first.
Using my dazzling speed, I switched positions with him and eased down his body, dragging my hair over him, stimulating every cell along the way. He moaned and instinctively moved his hips, almost ready to explode at the slightest touch. I used my tongue as only I can, and then took his entire cock and balls into my mouth, sucking and rolling them around as he gave me a running commentary about what he wanted to do to me. As I felt him begin his ascent up Ejaculation Ridge, I removed my mouth and crawled like a predator up his lean, muscular frame. My eyes wild (I assume, having heard all about my feral eyes from lovers in the past), I straddled his hips, took his painfully throbbing cock into myself and rode him to ecstasy.
He screamed his release and I joined him. A howling good time was had by all.
But I was so thirsty. I knew from having created hordes of Brain Sucked Lovers, that blending sex and blood drinking was a recipe for disaster. Or at least a recipe for having to find yet another disposal site for yet another cerebrally vacated bed partner. And, quite frankly, there was something about Niven that made me especially aware of my proclivities and equally sure that I didn’t want to lose him that way.
My fangs had finally said “fuck it,” and extended themselves of their own accord. I lay there on top of Niven, breathing heavy, luxuriating in the waves of orgasmic aftershocks vibrating through my body, and all I wanted to do was drink his blood. In fact, for my fangs it wasn’t a matter of if. It was only when.
I almost had myself distracted from the lure of his neck when he opened his luminous baby blues and pulled me in for a deep, wet kiss. His tongue encountered my fangs and they nipped him, allowing the tiniest drop of blood to flow into my mouth. I was overcome by the need to feed on him and I made growling noises as I turned his head roughly, positioning my mouth over his pulsing vein. Just as I was about to strike…
“Zara! Stop!”
My head snapped up and there he was. Just like in Niven’s dream. Jeran. Dead Jeran.
Shocked, my fangs retracted and I sat up, Niven forgotten.
The visitor looked solid. No wispy materialization or ghostly ectoplasm. His scrumptious features were as clearly defined as they’d ever been. He was wearing clothing from an earlier century – skin-hugging pants, high black boots, a brocade jacket, and a white shirt with lace at the neck and wrists.
“Jeran? Is it really you?”
He held out both hands and magically covered the distance between where he’d been standing and the bed.
“Yes. It is. Or at least an aspect of me.”
I reached out, took his hands and he pulled me up off the bed so that I was standing in front of him, our bodies touching.
“I have missed you, Zara.” He brought his lips down and pressed them against mine. The memory of the long-ago kisses we’d shared made my knees feel weak. The familiar scent of him tightened the muscles between my legs.
It was wonderful to touch him again. To run my hands over his strong, hard body, his baby-soft hair. To feel the special vibration that sparked between the two of us – creator and created. I hadn’t let myself fully feel the depth of the loss of him. Nor admitted to myself how much he mattered.
If this was a hallucination or a haunting, I was prepared to fully enjoy every minute of it.
Slowly easing our lips apart, I took his face in my hands, giving him the full purple treatment.
“Are you dead, Jeran?”
“Well,” he grinned. “That requires a rather lengthy explanation. I have discovered that dead is not what I though
t it was.”
Jeran turned his head to Niven, which shook me out of my befuddlement and reminded me that we weren’t alone. I shifted my attention back to the delightful eye candy sprawled on my bed.
My tall, pale, and handsome guest pulled out all the stops and sent Niven a potent burst of his goose-bump-raising, seductive, magnetic vocal talents.
“Hello, Niven. I have waited a long time for this moment. Sleep now.”
Niven’s eyes closed and his head flopped over onto his shoulder.
Still awash in the velvet embrace and I-might-swoon consequences of Jeran’s voice, I brought my eyes back to his.
“Okay. Now that you’ve put my evening’s entertainment out of commission, are you going to tell me what’s going on? How can you be here if you’re dead? How can you feel so real? And how do you know Niven?”
He leaned over and softly brushed my lips with his again, and cupped my fulsome breasts in his hands.
“It is impossible to speak coherently with you while you are naked. All I can think of is kissing you, licking you, tasting you – and causing you to scream my name in the midst of one of your supernatural orgasms.”
I palmed his firm ass and drew his hardness closer to me. “Well, that’s not a problem.” I pointed to the bed. “Let’s adjourn to my office and take the matter into consideration.”
He threw his head back and laughed, his emerald eyes sparkling.
“Ah, my delightful Zara. Ever the same. I have truly missed you. But what I wish to speak about is very important, so I would ask you to take pity on me and to cover up.”
I sighed dramatically, stepped back from him, and thought myself into my favorite sheer black negligee. The one with the plunging neckline and yards of see-through fabric, which was my favorite flying ensemble.
He shook his head, chuckling. “I suppose I should have been more specific, but I appreciate even this thin layer of distraction. Come. Let us retire to your roof where we might enjoy the night.”
He took my hand and thought us up to my deck. The moon was full and from our elevated vantage point all of Boulder was visible as twinkling lights. The cool air held the fragrance of sweet flowers.
He pulled two chairs together facing each other and we sat, knees almost touching.
He sighed, scanning me with his verdant orbs. “I hardly know where to begin. So much has happened. You probably remember that I was always interested in the unknown. I spent centuries seeking out those who had occult or metaphysical experiences so that I could learn from them. I read every book ever written on those subjects. I tracked down wise women, medicine men, and oracles. The more I uncovered, the more passionate I became about finding out for myself.”
Between the light of the moon and my enhanced vampiric night vision it was easy to watch the emotions flash across his face as he told his story.
“Yes. I certainly do remember your obsession with all things spooky.” I cradled my breasts in my hands. “Sometimes I actually had to stick the girls right in your face before you’d close your damn book and give me the attention I deserved.”
He smiled. “You always were impatient with my thirst for knowledge.”
I dropped my hands into my lap. “I have since found more interesting thirsts to quench. But please, continue with your tale.”
He nodded. “After we had our misunderstanding and you left me . . .”
“Ha! You mean the misunderstanding where I found you, yet again, exploring the anatomy between a woman’s legs with your tongue? That misunderstanding? Or maybe the one caused by my untimely interruption of coitus upheranus? Or maybe . . .”
“Yes, yes.” He stroked his finger along my lower lip. “You are right. I admit my appetites were often more than I could control.” He rose, pushed his chair out of the way and knelt in front of me. “I sincerely apologize for any pain I caused you. In the midst of it all, I dearly loved you. You are my true mate.”
His true mate?
The sincerity in his eyes tugged at my heart. I took a deep breath and shoved the ancient anger back down into its grave. No one was more surprised than me that he could still push my buttons to such an extreme degree.
“Hmm.” I shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “Apology accepted. It was centuries ago. Not worth rehashing at this point.”
He stood and paced, his energy manic.
“So, after you left, I threw myself body, mind and soul into a quest for answers to the big questions. I drank the blood of seers and prophets, shamans and wizards, witches and psychics. I began to have strange experiences, times when I walked in dimensions unknown to me as a vampire. Places I never could have imagined.
“I discovered a dimension filled with light. Light that was not sunlight. Light I could exist in. I met great teachers. It was there I began to learn about the different energy bodies we all have and how to send out parts of myself into other places, other times, other beings. I became adept at experiencing from a distance.”
He came and knelt in front of me again and laid a hand on my cheek, locking his eyes on mine.
“I did not face the dawn on purpose. It was a mistake. An accident.”
I raised my eyebrows. “An accident?” You’ve got to be kidding. How does one accidentally spontaneously combust? Jeran always was a creative storyteller.
He nodded, eased to his feet, and resumed pacing.
“I had gotten very good at splitting off parts of myself, of literally being in several places and times at once. It was just like moving through thought, except I left a vibrational portion of myself in every other location. As you well know, time is of little importance to a vampire so I made no effort to be aware of it.”
He walked over to the deck rail, held on to it, and let the wind blow his hair away from his beautiful face, remaining silent for several seconds.
“Is that it?” I got up and walked over to him. “That’s the end of the story?”
“No.” He turned to me, his lips curving gently. “I am simply enjoying the memory of having a physical body.”
He breathed in deeply. “As I said, time had no meaning. On the day that my physical body burned in the sun I had shifted from the dimension of light back to my corporeal existence on earth without awareness of the time. The moment I realized my error, I sent all the aspects of myself – except the physical – back into the light.
“I watched from that plane of reality as my body was reduced to less than ashes.”
His shoulders sagged and he lowered his head.
“Holy shit.” I took his face in my hands. “Are you serious? So if you sent the rest of you into the light, then I really am standing here with a ghost?”
“No. Not a ghost. Not as you commonly think of a ghost, in any case. What you see before you is a thoughtform – the result of all the willforce I could summon. All the etheric fragments of myself that I could gather, with the exception of one.”
“One?” I released his face. “One what?”
“One aspect of myself that has been held elsewhere. One that is carried by the young man in your bed.”
I stepped back from him, waiting for the punchline. “What are you talking about? Are you saying you’ve possessed Niven?”
He nodded. “In a manner of speaking, yes.”
Well, that would explain why Niven seemed unusually appealing to me, and why he gave off such a unique vibration.
Jeran cocked his head and brushed my cheek with the side of his finger. “Do you wish to hear the rest of the story?”
“Oh, yes.” I lifted myself onto the railing and sat. “Wild horses couldn’t drag me away. I’m all ears.”
He laughed, flicking a lock of his dark mane of hair back behind his shoulder.
“I knew you would appreciate what I have gone through to reach this point in my journey. You are the only one who ever understood me. Who accepted my eccentricities. As I accepted yours.”
“What eccentricities?” I arched a brow. “I’m just your standard, extraordinarily
sensual, beauteous vampire.”
He smiled and smoothed his hand over my hair. “Even though you were no longer willing to be with me, I never truly let go of you. One pleasant side effect of stumbling upon that dimension of light was that I could watch you from there.”
He stroked my hair with the tip of his finger. “Throughout the centuries, before and after the death of my physical body, I remained connected to you. You might say that you have had a master vampire perched on your shoulder since we parted. I know about the bizarre situation you have been dealing with. The one that caused you to spend so much time hiding dead bodies.”
Even though I knew that zapping him with my vampire gaze wouldn’t have much effect, I locked eyes with him anyway. I’ve always been suspicious by nature and hearing that he’d been symbolically “perched on my shoulder” didn’t answer any of my questions. I was just about to roll up my sleeves and begin the interrogation when he spoke again.
“It is because I am aware of the consequences for humans when you have sex with them and drink their blood that I intervened tonight with Niven. I could not allow you to destroy his mind. I intend to take over his body and I want it healthy, vibrant, and fully functional.”
I slid down off the railing and leveled the front of my body against his. “What the hell are you talking about? How can you take over his body?”
No matter what I thought about Jeran’s weird story, if it was even remotely possible that he could completely possess Niven, I definitely had opinions. I’d only begun to enjoy the succulent human and had no intention of giving him up so easily. Plus nobody – alive, dead or undead – was going to mess with me again.
Jeran’s lips spread in a wide smile. “I have been preparing Niven, in many disguises, during numerous lifetimes for this joining. He is actually a distant relative from my sister’s marriage. I attached an aspect of myself to his soul energy many centuries ago and have added to it as he moved through the wheel of birth and death. That is why he seems so compelling to you. I was sincere when I said you are my true mate. You share my soul’s song. I made sure he found you.”
Vampires! A Bundle of Bloodsuckers Page 5