The calliope, as the breathing horses galloped around the carousel and snapped their sharp hooves at the beasts in front and rear of them, played magical music that mesmerized the milling crowd of rubes. It made a person think of days gone by and nights never seen before. It made certain people, the evil of heart or the wicked, listen to the persuasive voices in the night beckoning them to their well-deserved deaths.
I’d walked from our tent, trailed by the ghostly remnants of these same victims, the souls of those I’d drained of their blood over the last years, as they chattered, schemed and whispered in the shadows. They couldn’t hurt me; they couldn’t hurt anyone anymore, trapped and helpless as they were in the afterlife. They were with me always. They trailed me, unseen by all eyes but mine as I entered the big top, and flew up high to huddle and hide in the murky crevices of the tent.
The show was on. The colored lights kaleidoscoped through the air and tinted the people in muted colors. Popcorn, cotton candy and fried foods’ sweet aromas filled the air. Clowns fashioned balloon animals for the children and the music rose and fell.
I saw some of the shape shifters in the shadows changing into their animal forms. The massive lions, tigers and elephants I’d seen that first night. I smiled at a few, and waved, as they charged into the ring and began their acts. I’d become good friends with some of them.
Outside the sheltering tent a soft rain could be heard tapping on the canvas. A normal night.
I stood outside the main ring, in my sexy glittering costume that showed off my shiny long hair, marble white skin and perfect figure, waiting for my cue to enter. For a second or two I watched the high wire performers as they twirled above the audience; the jugglers with their faultless skills, and the incredible magicians who performed, making not one mistake in their acts. Not one.
Dominic, my lover, in his clown guise was out there spellbinding the crowd. His painted face reflecting a smiling façade, as did mine, these days. The sorrowful one was gone.
I’d picked out my prey for the evening, a middle-aged man in the second row, a serial killer whose vicious thoughts I’d already picked up on. He’d be dead by the end of the night and the world would be rid of his evil; my thirst quenched in the same flash of my fangs.
I’d been surprised how easily the killing had come to me. Being a vampire. The traveling carnival life with Dominic and the other vampires. They’d welcomed me with open arms and my life was full. Complete and happy in a way I’d never experienced before. I had a family.
I loved being a creature of the night. Never growing old. Never feeling pain, cold or heat. Sleeping each night besides a man I knew adored me as much as I adored him. Someone who would kill or die for me. A powerful leader who commanded respect and obedience. It was a strange life but not a hard one. I enjoyed the performing and traveling. A new country and town every few days.
Dominic gestured to me and held out this hand. I ran to him and, with him, faced the boisterous crowd. My blood hummed.
My eyes smiled at him and his smiled in return.
Our act was perfect. Appreciated. Applauded. As it always was…and would always be…forever.
To Love Again
by Allie Ritch
One of the problems with being reincarnated is that you don’t always remember your enemies from a previous life. And when you’re as powerful a sorceress as I am, you make a lot of enemies. The warlock I’d run into earlier tonight must have been one of them, and now I had a pack of reapers on my tail.
Reapers are nasty creatures: a solid ton of muscle topped by snapping jaws and the scythe-like appendages that gave them their name. With their armor, they look like giant insects, and they’re damn hard to kill. I had half a dozen after me at the moment.
Their pursuit was nearly silent as they followed me down littered alleys, around the corners of dirty brick buildings, and into the shadowy recesses of the city park. Only the click-clack of their pointy feet told me how close they were at my back. Although I ran like a track star, eating up the ground with my pounding boots, they were just as fast. I barely ducked and spun in time to see a sharp sickle slice through the air right where my neck should have been. A lock of my hair drifted down after it, letting me know I was a bit slow.
Thankfully there was one thing I’d never forgotten, not in any of my reincarnations. I always remembered my magic. The words of a defense spell tripped easily off my tongue, calling forth a swirl of blue flame along my arms. This fire did not burn, at least not me, but felt like hot dishwater dribbling down into my palms. With a quick flick of my wrists, I sent it barreling into the nearest reaper. The creature’s breastplate sizzled and caved in, and its innards were already dissolving before its body dropped to the ground.
Other beings might have been intimidated by this show of power. Not these guys. Although they were fickle about following orders, reapers were relentless when hunting someone who’d cheated death. Everyone was supposed to go when their time came. Permanently. Reincarnations and the other supernaturals who thwarted death were considered an abomination.
The remaining reapers stalked me as a pack. I had to mix magic with brute force when they closed in tight. Repellant spells and blasts of magic fire bought me room, but I was sorely outgunned when it came to the muscle. I kicked hard, heard the satisfying crunch of a mandible breaking, and leapt out of reach of those blade-like arms. In return, I took a thwack to the gut that stole my breath and was tossed like a rag doll. It looked like my latest life was about to end.
Still huffing for air, I forced myself to my feet, determined to go out fighting. A pair of reapers came at me in tandem while their twins circled around behind me. I’d only managed to take down two, curse it. I must be losing my touch.
With an underhand pitch, I threw a fireball at the slavering attacker on my right. The missile left a hole clean through the creature’s torso, but I didn’t have time to admire my handiwork. I was already punching the underside of another’s arm to deflect a killing blow and kicking its two buddies back. Then I was flying again, only I could have sworn I’d felt human hands throw me.
I landed in an undignified heap a good twenty feet away, sliding to a stop on the dewy grass. As soon as my head cleared, I sprang back up, ready for attack. None came. There in the distance, the reapers had a new foe to contend with, and this newcomer was packing a sword and a whole lot more muscle.
A man had come to my rescue. He had hair like midnight, eyes of steel, and skin the color of milky moonlight. The way he moved was poetry, lethal grace and strength turned into art. Within minutes, he had the reapers chopped into little bloody pieces, and he didn’t even look winded.
His gaze found mine. Wiping his sword clean, he returned it to the sheath on his back and strode closer. He was only average height for a man, but he seemed much bigger. The thought came out of nowhere that he’d been very tall for his generation. How the hell did I know that?
When I got a better look at his face, my heart stuttered. I knew this man. Not just his looks, but the feel of his skin, the weight of his body over mine, the silky glide of his cock between my legs. We’d been lovers once.
“Are you all right, love?” The deep timbre of his voice sent a sensual shiver all the way to my toes.
“I am now.” I didn’t bother trying to fake my way through this one. “Who are you?”
He didn’t answer in words. Instead, he grabbed the back of my neck, pulled me flush against his body, and claimed my mouth. His demeanor was aggressive, tinged by something like desperation, but his lips were gentle. And as he molded them to mine and swept his tongue behind my teeth, a dam seemed to burst inside my mind.
I saw images, a cascade of memories from my previous lives: making love with him by the river, dancing with him in a grand ballroom, kissing him beneath glittering city lights.
“Griffin.” The name came to me without thought, accompanied by a love so deep and bittersweet the emotion almost choked me.
“You remember,” he
whispered.
He still held me so close our breath mingled—close enough for me to feel the hard length of his erection behind his leather pants. My sex responded with a welcoming rush of cream. Then he was kissing me again, drinking me in like he couldn’t get enough. I gave everything I had and took more this time. Slipping my tongue past the seam of his lips, I tried to devour him. Which was how I felt the sharp prick of his fangs.
I jerked back. “You’re a vampire.”
With my hands flat against his solid chest, I gave a shove and added a pulse of magic to it when he didn’t step back. He finally released me.
Griffin looked amused. “Of course I’m a vampire. I was a vampire the first time we met.”
My memories were still fuzzy regarding him. My past lives tended to return to me in bits and pieces, although lately I’d been retrieving larger and larger chunks. I didn’t know whether to worry about that development or not.
“I don’t like being manhandled,” I told him.
He just smiled, flashing those pearly fangs. “I know. You like to be in control.” His grin faded. “But you’re in trouble again, Kara. You need to come with me now so I can keep you safe.”
The sound of my name, my original name, resonated deep inside me. I was known as Carol in this life, but that name had never felt quite right. Kara. Yes, I was Kara, or had been a long, long time ago.
Again I felt a sliver of memory slip into place. “You haven’t kept me safe before. You tried, but you couldn’t.”
“No.” The shadows deepened across Griffin’s face. “I was young and foolish the first time, Kara. A fledging vampire without the strength to protect you. But I have dedicated my existence to growing stronger, to gaining enough power to defend what’s mine. This time will be different.”
What he said made sense to me, yet I had no clear memory of what he was talking about. I trusted him, though. And I loved him with a passion so fierce it brought tears to my eyes.
In the distance, I heard sounds of pursuit. Someone was coming—more reapers or something worse, I couldn’t say. Griffin didn’t even turn his head at the noise. He just held out his hand to me.
“Come with me. Please.”
My hand was in his before I even realized I’d moved.
He remained visibly alert, scanning the bushes and parked cars as he led me out of the park and along side streets into the historic part of downtown. Even after he let me into one of the dark, empty brick houses set back from the street, he still held my hand. The place was clean, but unfurnished except for the bedroom in back.
I lit the candles in the room with no more than a thought. There were dozens of them set on the floor and in every niche of the walls. The only other décor was the thick drapery covering the window and the low bed turned out in jewel tones and silk.
“Planning to seduce me?” I asked playfully.
Griffin stared at me like he’d eat me up. “Yes.”
Just like that, heat exploded across my skin, more powerful than any magic I’d ever wielded. My nipples tightened, and I almost felt giddy when I realized my panties were damp. I knew I should wait. There were so many things I didn’t know, didn’t remember about him. I should be asking a million questions.
Instead, I stepped into him when he took me in his arms and turned my face up for his kiss. There was no gentleness in him this time. Urgency consumed him, overcame both of us, and it felt amazing. His sword hit the hardwood floor with a loud thunk. I shoved his shirt off his broad shoulders and lifted my arms so he could peel off my top. His skin felt warm and alive where I kissed his neck and chest and paused to flick one male nipple with my tongue.
A giggle escaped me when he tossed me on the bed. The sound instantly turned into a moan when he stripped off the rest of my clothes and slid his body over mine.
“I didn’t think I’d reach you in time.” Griffin whispered the words against my naked skin between kisses. “I thought I’d lost you again. Oh, Kara, it’s been too long.”
His hair was silky between my fingers as I grasped the back of his head. I forced him to hold a kiss while he unbuckled his belt and discarded his pants. When he lowered himself again, my sigh was one of relief and joy. His hips shoved my thighs wide apart. The blunt head of his erection circled my opening until the dusky tip was slick and shiny, and then he pushed it inside me with one hard, steady thrust. It felt like he was coming home.
The hot length of his cock stretching me was familiar, yet new enough to feel special and exciting. It was like going back and making love for the first time with all the knowledge of each other we’d gained over the years. He knew just how to caress me, how to angle his hips to hit that sweet spot deep inside. As he rocked into me, he chanted words of love in several different languages.
I found myself saying them back. A keening noise escaped me when he slid one fang over my nipple and began to suckle. His strokes grew shorter and deeper, creating a firestorm of pleasure in my womb. Then he sank his fangs into the swell of my breast.
Tears seeped from my eyes, and I cried out in ecstasy as he brought me to climax with a final lunge. He held tight over me, drinking and spending his seed until he’d drained me of rapture and filled me with his warmth. With a last lick, he sealed the small wounds. He rolled to my side and tucked me close, and I was pleased to feel him breathing hard—something vampires rarely do.
“I missed you,” I said. And I had. I’d missed him this entire life without knowing why I felt empty.
Griffin kissed my forehead and turned onto his side so he could look at me. “We don’t have to be apart. Let me turn you, Kara. We can be together forever.”
A drizzle of cold snuck through me. He’d asked me that before. The first time, I think, and several times since then.
I swore I heard an echo as I responded the same way I had in the past. “I’ll lose my powers. I’ll be nothing but a fledgling vampire. Defenseless.”
“You don’t know that you’ll lose your powers.” His voice took on an edge now. “You’ve escaped death. You’re extremely powerful. Every time you’ve been reincarnated, you’ve even grown to look the same as you did the first time. You may be strong enough to keep your powers through the transition. Even if you don’t, you won’t be defenseless. I’ll always protect you.”
Except he hadn’t kept me safe. The first time, we’d just finished making love, and Griffin had drunk deeply from me. I always liked when he bit me and took my blood during sex. It raised my pleasure to another level and made me feel like I was a part of him. But he’d been young and inexperienced, and he’d taken enough to weaken me. There would have been no danger if I’d had time to recuperate and regain my strength, but our enemies had chosen that moment to strike.
“The other vampires were afraid.” I could remember now. “Your relationship with me worried them. They thought you were making an alliance, trying to grow powerful enough to challenge them. There were four of them, and they came at us while we were vulnerable.”
Griffin’s gaze turned haunted. “I should have sensed them. I should have been more careful with you. We were outnumbered, and they were older, stronger. I fought as hard as I could.”
“You won. You killed them.”
“Only after I saw what they did to you.” He touched my breast where the sword blade had pierced it. “They spitted you, love. Madness gave me the strength to finish them off, but I was too late.”
I could still feel the agony of the blade inside me. “I was dying. You offered to turn me.”
“You said no.” Tears glittered in his eyes. “I should have turned you anyhow. I shouldn’t have asked. How could you choose death over me?”
“I chose death over undeath,” I answered. “And I came back to you.”
He rested his forehead against mine. “Yes, you came back. You’ve come back again and again, and so we’re trapped in this endless hell. This is the anniversary of your death, Kara. For centuries, I have loved you. And for centuries, you’ve died on
me, always on this day. A drowning, a carriage accident, disease—death always comes for you, and I can’t stop it. Sometimes I find you early so that we have years together. Other times I’m too late, and all I can do is visit your grave. You come back to me, but you leave me over and over again. Damn you.”
His mouth crashed into mine, carrying several lifetimes’ worth of pain and longing. Through every life, he was with me. My one. My only.
He shuddered and came up for air. “Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me this time. I’m not that weak fool who first dared to love you. I can keep you safe, and I can teach you to be strong. Do this for us, Kara. Let me turn you.”
Could I do it? Could I learn to exist as something else—a vampire, the undead? The thought terrified me. Yet when I tried to picture an eternity carrying on as we were now, it broke my heart. He deserved so much more.
“Choose me,” he pleaded, laying his heart bare.
“Griffin, I—”
The words died in my throat. Very slowly, I looked down and stared dumbly at the sword point protruding from my chest. For one stupid moment, I thought I was experiencing a memory from the distant past. Then the blade retracted, and I saw the blood staining the sheets.
“No.” Griffin whispered the word. “Noooo!”
He was out of the bed so fast I never saw him move. Turning my head was awkward and painful, but I had to see. Griffin was like a madman, punching and clawing and kicking the warlock who’d snuck up on us. Either my enemy hadn’t realized I had company, or he was arrogant to the point of stupidity. The fight was ill matched from the outset.
Within minutes, the warlock had bled out too badly to fight anymore. Regaining his sword, Griffin lopped off his opponent’s head with a single stroke and sent it spinning to a stop in the corner of the room.
He hurried back to the bed and leaned over me with the most wrenching agony I’d ever seen on anyone’s face. Except I had seen it before, stamped into his handsome features every time I’d died. I remembered now, each and every instance spanning the hundreds of years our souls had been intertwined.
Just One Bite Volume 4 Page 7