Lucifer (Vampires in America: The Vampire Wars Book 11)

by D. B. Reynolds

  “Good evening, bella.”

  “What are you—?” A gasp of shock cut off her words as he slid two thick fingers into her wet pussy. She tried to breathe, but then he scraped the rough pad of his thumb over her clit and pressed down hard. The climax hit with a rush, her body already as aroused as if he’d been priming her long before she’d been awake to enjoy it. On the one hand, she was pissed that she’d missed all that warm up. On the other . . . her nails dug into his arms as carnal pleasure rolled through her. Her skin shivered, her muscles contracted, and her sex pulsed with a frenzied bliss that rolled in waves up to her breasts, arousing her nipples to hard, little peaks that she simply had to pluck.

  “That’s a pretty picture,” Lucifer growled, his eyes glowing darkly gold as he stared at her hands on her breasts, her fingers pinching her nipples until they were bright red and engorged with blood. Lucifer was so fast that she was barely aware he’d moved, before his mouth closed over her nipple, biting her fingers, and pushing them away with his tongue, until he had her breasts all to himself. He sucked each nipple firmly, until they were swollen like ruby, ripe cherries, just waiting to be . . .

  Eleanor bit her lip again to keep from screaming as Lucifer’s teeth closed over her nipple. Blood filled his mouth and ran over her breasts, like bright, red juice, and he lapped it up. When he was done with the first nipple, he moved on to the second, his gaze locked on hers as he sucked the nipple into readiness and bit her. Knowing what was coming, knowing the shocking pain and the incredible pleasure, made it worse, not better. Worse being a euphemism for the fire of arousal burning its way through her veins as he sucked and licked her second breast clean, and then trailed his tongue up to her mouth, where he sucked on the lip she’d made bloody with her own teeth.

  “You’re delicious, bella. My pretty pink princess.”

  Eleanor knew she should reject the idea that she was anyone’s princess. She was a strong, capable woman. A vampire who could toss grown men aside like toys, and who was bodyguard to a vampire lord. And yet, some part of the old Eleanor remained. The human Eleanor who still wanted to be Lucifer’s treasure, his princess. And that part of her flushed with happiness at his words. But the other part of her wanted to be dirty tonight.

  So using some of her vampire strength, she shoved him to his back and ran her hands over his chest, stroking him, admiring the smooth stretch of muscle over bone. He hissed as she dug her fingernails into his skin, leaving raw-looking stripes of color as her fingers moved down over his ripped abdomen, his flat belly, to his hard, thick cock. Gripping the rigid shaft in one hand, she bent over and took him into her mouth, her eyes wide open and meeting his as her mouth slicked up and down, her tongue sliding around and grazing his length.

  Lucifer fisted her long hair, holding it away from her face so he could watch her suck his cock, tightening his hold almost painfully when she swallowed the full length of his cock into her throat. She held it there, her throat working around his thickness, caressing him as she fought against the urge to breathe. Finally, a moment before she would have lifted her head, Lucifer tugged her head up and she drew in a long breath, but then she sucked him deep again, reveling in the harsh groan that rolled from his throat as his hips began thrusting against her mouth, almost as if he couldn’t hold still any longer.

  Eleanor withdrew almost to the tip of his cock, her tongue swirling round and round as she looked up and met Lucifer’s hungry gaze. Gripping his cock at the base, she began pumping and sucking in unison, her head bobbing up and down, his cock hitting the back of her throat every time his hips thrust against her. She moaned with pleasure at the feel of his cock, the thick velvety skin over a steel-hard shaft, and the salty taste of his cum when her tongue dipped into the slit at its head.

  “Shit,” Lucifer hissed, and both of his hands fisted in her hair. “Baby . . .”

  It was all the warning she got before his cock grew impossibly harder, his balls tightened, and his release filled her mouth. Lucifer held her head down as she swallowed jet after jet, licking up every drop until he was dry and wrung out.

  “You have no idea how hot that is,” he groaned. “My pink princess sucking my dick, swallowing it all. Fuck me.”

  Eleanor sat up, licking her lips deliberately, as his eyes followed her tongue. “I’m not sure we have time for me to fuck you,” she whispered, suddenly wondering just how much of a show they’d been putting on for the guards. She blushed hotly, and Lucifer gave a low, masculine chuckle.

  “This chamber is reasonably soundproofed, bella.” He pulled her up his body, wrapping her in his arms. “But you’ve drained me dry. And we’ll need blood before we head to Sophia’s, just in case.”

  “There’s blood available on the estate,” she told him, but he shook his head.

  “That’s not the first impression I want to make. We have blood here on board the jet. We’ll feed, and then shower. Time to face the night.”

  “And Sophia,” he thought privately.

  ELEANOR FLICKED ON the TV, leaving it on mute, while she waited for Lucifer to shower. Normally, she’d have been in that shower with him. There was something very sensuous about lots of hot water and steam on smooth, wet skin. Especially when the wet skin covered a body as gorgeous as Lucifer’s. All those muscles made a vampire feel almost like a girl again.

  She smiled at the thought. The truth was that she didn’t miss being human, and wouldn’t choose to go back even if she could. She liked what she was now a hell of a lot more. And the virtual immortality didn’t hurt either. She’d never have to worry about wrinkles or hip replacements, or any of the other frailties of the human body.

  An image on the TV screen suddenly drew her notice, enough that she picked up the remote and clicked on the sound. It was one of those 24-hour news channels, with two separate ribbon scrolls running below the live feed of the current news anchor. Eleanor frowned, trying to figure out what had drawn her attention and why. It was a filler kind of story about a Canadian Army training camp, and a company of soldiers who’d been involved in a training exercise that had taken them away from camp for two weeks, and who were now a week overdue on their return. Eleanor didn’t know why that was even a story. They were soldiers, after all. They were the ones usually called to search for missing civilians, so who better to survive in the wild, right? Besides, the report was out of the Chilcotin, which was a wild area not exactly known for its cell phone reception. It wasn’t as if the troop could call home every night. She’d never been there herself, but several of her fellow bodyguards liked to spend their free time facing off with nature to see who was stronger. This wasn’t Eleanor’s idea of a good time, but she’d heard their stories. And that was all fine and good, but why—Shit! Shit, shit, shit! Was it possible?

  She rushed for the bathroom as the water turned off, shoving open the door and whacking Lucifer who was just stepping out of the shower, his head buried in a towel as he dried off.

  “Fuck!” He dropped the towel, all ready to demand an explanation, when he caught the look on her face. “What is it?” he asked sharply.

  “You’re not going to believe this,” she muttered, and grabbed his arm, dragging him out of the small, steamy room and into the passenger cabin. They had the plane to themselves for now. Cal and his team had all deployed outside to the hangar where the jet had parked for the day.

  “What’s going on, Elle?”

  “Listen.” She pushed buttons on the remote, rolling back the news story. She listened with half an ear, her attention focused on Lucifer’s reaction, wanting to know if she was making connections that didn’t exist, or if—

  “Fuck.” Lucifer’s soft curse answered that question.

  “So you think it’s something?”

  “You mean do I think Berkhard has caught himself a trained military unit and made some vampires? Fuck, yeah, I do. We need more information. Ho
w many newbie vamps could Berkhard handle at once?” he asked, mostly muttering to himself. “He’s had a couple weeks to turn them, and let’s suppose he’s managed to turn one or two fledgling masters who could help out a little. So, we’re probably looking two or three platoons, maybe a small company.”

  All of that went in one ear and out the other for Eleanor. She wouldn’t know a platoon from a company if they camped in her living room. If she had a living room, which she really didn’t. But what she did catch was the real likelihood that Berkhard would be attacking Sophia with an army of trained soldiers.

  “Soldier or not, they’ll still be new vamps, which will limit their effectiveness, right?” She followed Lucifer as he went back to the bedroom to dress.

  He didn’t answer her question, asking one of his own instead. “How many guards does Sophia have in Vancouver? How many can she trust?”

  “She has a solid core of around fifty. Like everything else, she’s had to build from scratch after Lucien’s death. He barely had a doorman at his headquarters. Colin’s been pushing her to recruit, but—”

  “How many are loyal?” he asked again, sitting down to pull on his boots.

  “Most of them,” she insisted. “I’ve worked with these guys night after night for more than a year. They’re good people.”

  “Uh huh. Like Yamanaka?”

  “No, not like him. Darren was always an asshole. He never got over the fact that Sophia won the territory.”

  “And he wasn’t alone. Montreal proved that. Get Colin on the phone,” he asked, as he rushed to finish dressing.

  Eleanor stared at him, startled by his abrupt manner. “You think they’re already here,” she whispered.

  “I think there’s someone inside your lady’s camp, someone she trusts, who’s betrayed her. And what better time to launch a surprise attack than Colin’s first night back? There’s not a vampire alive who doesn’t know what those two are doing right now, and it’s not getting ready for war.”

  Eleanor reached for her cell phone, her heart tripping with fear. Not for herself, but for her lady, and for Colin. If Lucifer was right, if Berkhard was planning an attack tonight, then Sophia needed to be warned. Her guards were good, but they couldn’t stand up to a vampire as powerful as Berkhard without Sophia to back them up. What if she and Colin had locked themselves away, turned off their phones? Someone would be able to reach them, someone Sophia trusted. But what if Lucifer was right, and that person couldn’t be trusted at all?

  Colin’s phone rang and rang, not even going to voicemail. She tried Sophia next. As the lady’s bodyguard, she was one of the few who had her private cell number. But it, too, went unanswered. And with every trilling ring, Eleanor’s fear grew.

  “Nothing,” she said, when Lucifer looked up and met her eyes. “No answer, no voicemail on either of their phones. Should I call—?”

  “No,” he said, cutting her off. “We don’t know who the traitor is. Better to keep our presence a secret until we can get to Sophia. Let’s go.”

  SOPHIA STOOD BACK while Colin entered the code that would open their private sleeping vault. No one had the code but the two of them, which was unusual. More typically, a lord’s lieutenant would have the code in the event of an emergency, but in Sophia’s case, she would never have trusted Darren Yamanaka that far. And besides, Colin was her lieutenant in all but name.

  Feeling more relaxed than she had in weeks, she strolled through into their private quarters, and then on to her formal office. She knew the feel-good buzz couldn’t last, but she clung to it with both hands, wanting to prolong the joy of Colin’s return as long as possible.

  “Anything from Eleanor?” she asked Colin, as she sat at her desk and pulled up the daily transition reports from her daylight and nighttime security teams.

  “Call log shows she called, but she didn’t leave a message. And I told them not to rush, that we’d be busy,” he said, absently. “Is this everything we have on Calgary?”

  She looked up. “I haven’t read any of the reports, since I was there. Why, is something missing?”

  “It’s probably nothing. I’ll let you know.” He dropped whatever he’d been reading, and crossed to the big gun safe, entered the code, and started pulling out weapons.

  Sophia watched him with a frown. If it was nothing, then why was he gearing up as if the gates of hell were about to open and spill forth its horde?

  “Colin?” She asked, coming to her feet. “Is there something—?”

  A huge explosion cut her off, rocking the compound and rattling walls, cracking the big window on the far side of her desk.

  “What the hell?”

  Colin’s phone rang, and she listened, furious and frustrated, to his terse replies.

  “Talk,” she demanded, the minute he disconnected.

  “An explosion at the back wall,” he said, as he finished arming himself, checking magazines, and stowing both ammo and a variety of offensive explosive devices in the various pockets of his black combat pants. “There’s a team checking it out now. They should be reporting in—” His cell rang again. “—right now. Sit-rep,” he said, answering the call.

  Sophia listened with half an ear as the caller provided what Colin called a “situation report,” or “sit-rep.” The rest of her attention was on the security screens she’d pulled up on her computer, showing the various video feeds scattered throughout the estate. She ignored the interior cameras, focusing instead on the perimeter. The camera closest to the back wall had been taken out by the explosion. The feed up to that point showed a huge flash, and then nothing but gray screen and static. Moving out from that camera, she picked a direction and checked each vid feed, noting the disciplined response of her people to the explosion, and not seeing anything that led her to believe any of them had been involved. They were all rushing to their crisis positions, beefing up the perimeter all around on the off-chance that the explosion itself was naught but a diversion.

  Colin’s phone rang again. He disconnected the first call and answered this one instead. He listened intently for several minutes, then swore viciously, “Fuck! All right, we’re on our way.”

  Sophia was already on her feet, having seen something on the main gate monitor that gave her a good idea of what Colin had just discovered. “Colin.” She said it softly enough, but something in her tone, or maybe it was the link they shared as mates that had him striding across the room to stare at the monitor with her.

  “What is it, babe?”

  “That one,” she said, pressing a finger to the monitor over the face of a dark-haired vampire who stood surrounded by an army just beyond her front gate. “That’s Berkhard.”

  Colin was bent over, staring at the image. “Are those . . . are those vampires wearing uniforms?”

  Sophia gripped Colin’s arm. “The something extra that Kasimir was hiding,” she whispered.

  “What?”

  “We have to get out there now.”

  THE FRONT GATE was down by the time Sophia reached it. It had never been meant to withstand a military attack. They’d always assumed the estate house itself would be their final stand, as it might end up being tonight. It could be hardened into a fortress in a matter of minutes, if necessary.

  Unfortunately, their enemy didn’t seem likely to give them those minutes. Berkhard had made himself a vampire army, a literal army of vampires. She didn’t know where he’d gotten them, but she could tell they were all newly turned. That disadvantage seemed to be nullified by their discipline and skill, however. They were used to working in concert, used to taking orders. And they were armed with rifles—Colin could have told her what kind, but it didn’t matter. You might not kill a vampire with a gun, but you could put him down long enough to chop off his head. Or, hell, the right kind of ammo, the kind Colin used, could kill a vampire by blowing his heart
to shreds. Not even the symbiote could recover from that.

  And that’s what she saw happening all around her. Vampires were dying. Some were hers. A lot more were Berkhard’s newbies, but he had plenty.

  Wanting a better view of the battlefield, she climbed a stable section of the wall and surveyed the scene. Small skirmishes were happening everywhere, with Berkhard’s people trying to overwhelm her smaller numbers. As she watched, ten soldier vamps swarmed one of her people, burying him under bodies as they clubbed him with their weapons. Were they so disoriented that they couldn’t even use their weapons to their best advantage? Good for her, bad for them. Focusing her power, she blew the newbie soldiers away, knocking them unconscious as they flew backward. At the same time, she fed her own vampire a concentrated dose of power, healing his injuries, and lending him strength. He sent her a mental thanks, rose to his feet, and rejoined the fray.

  She took a moment to let her power flow over the battlefield, bolstering all of her vamps just as she had the one who’d been down earlier. She was a good enough fighter, as focused as a bulldog, and vicious when she had to be. But the biggest weapon she had was her ability to bolster her vampires’ courage and strength.

  “Why didn’t they shoot him?” she asked Colin, who’d appeared on the wall at her side.

  “They’re out of ammo,” he said, drawing his own weapon and spraying the battlefield over the heads of her people, taking out some of Berkhard’s reserve troops. “Berkhard took the soldiers, but forgot the supplies.”

  A heavy truck rolled down the road and slid to a stop. Sophia groaned as twenty fresh troops jumped onto the road and raced into the battle.

  “How many could he have?” she asked.

  “Depends on where he got them, and how many he can handle. Could be an entire company of fighters. Let’s hope it’s a not a battalion.”