“Of course they were. That way Heriolf could come to your rescue, become your protector, and make you loyal to him because he guarded you from all harm.”
Naya swayed suddenly, as if she might faint. Elisha was at her side in an instant, holding her tight to him to keep her on her feet. She stared up at him, her forest green eyes bright with tears, and he felt a wave of sympathy for the girl.
He couldn’t imagine the pain of discovering her life was nothing but a lie, that she’d felt affection, if not love, for the man who had wrecked her very existence.
“What else do I need to know about her?” Elisha asked.
“She’s partially immune to your powers. Vampire glamour doesn’t last long on us. And unless you stick your cock in someone else before you take her blood, you’ll find it hard to resist her sexually. Those of the Old Blood are bewitching to your kind. Sucking leads to fucking, whether you like her or not.” He leered at Naya, and Elisha wanted to punch him in the face. At least he now knew why he’d not been able to keep from ravishing the poor girl. Not that it lessened his shame for doing so.
Elisha said to no one, to everyone, “We’ve heard enough.”
The old man sighed. “Good. Go ahead and kill me now.”
Elisha shook his head. “You have been forthcoming with the information we need. I have no reason to take your life.”
The old man bent over, shoved some yellowed newspapers aside to reveal a plastic milk jug. He poured more rotgut into his glass. “It’s over anyway. Heriolf will track her here tonight or the next. He’ll know I told all. I’m a dead man.”
Sebastian stared at him. “Then leave. Run and hide until he is dead.”
“Heriolf won’t be destroyed unless you kill her. Only by making it so he can never drink from the girl again will you defeat him.”
This time the suggestion that he kill Naya made something in Elisha go sour. And not just because she was a victim, a pawn in Heriolf’s ruthless search for power. Elisha could feel her inside, as if her blood had made her a part of him. Everything in his soul rebelled at the thought of taking her life.
“How long before Heriolf’s power fades?” he asked, turning the discussion down another avenue.
“Five nights from the last time he drank from her. I see you have a soft place in your heart for the poor lass, but I assure you that unless you kill her now he will regain her. Heriolf is crafty. He’s without conscience and he is determined to rule forever. Now either kill me or get the hell out of my home.”
They left the old man to drink himself blind.
* * * *
Heriolf stood in Naya’s bedroom at the large open window from which she’d been taken. He looked over the moonlit landscape, an overgrown tangle of trees and kudzu that kept the mansion mostly hidden from the sight of the living.
Heriolf could sense her bright passage from the night before … as well as the passage of another. Someone that had tasted her blood and then taken her away.
He didn’t dare approach her bed. If he knew the other had enjoyed more than Naya’s blood, he would not be able to restrain the rage that even now threatened to make him blindly destroy everything and everyone near him. Because it was unthinkable the bastard had claimed the virginity Heriolf had coveted, had put off taking with anticipatory relish while he raped other victims to keep his Naya pure. The traitor didn’t dare.
But Heriolf couldn’t confirm that, couldn’t answer that question, not when he had to keep control so he could find Naya. He had to find her soon, because he could feel the strength she gave him fading already and minds were becoming more difficult to read.
Behind him, Lyndon spoke hesitantly. “We await your orders, my lord.”
Heriolf turned to face him and his five remaining guards. He looked at each, probing their thoughts and found their loyalty remained. It wasn’t so much loyalty to him personally that kept them faithful, but the knowledge that his fall would take them down too. Their actions on his behalf these past years had made them as vulnerable to being put to final death as he, should he be made weak enough to be put in that position.
Heriolf was satisfied well enough with that. As long as they would continue to fight for him, it mattered not why. It was enough to know there were no conspirators among their number. But standing framed in the open window, he believed he felt hostile eyes out there in the night, the stares of his enemies waiting to pounce on him.
To his men he vowed, “I will find her. Let those we discover who have taken her be destroyed. Tear their hearts out. Cut their heads from their bodies. Burn them to ashes so they may never rise again.”
“Yes, my lord.” They all bowed to him. The weight of the watching eyes outside mattered not. He would find Naya, bind her to him forever, and then destroy all who would take his throne away.
Heriolf lifted into the air and floated out the window, his aide and guards following close behind. They flew, dark birds of prey, chasing that bright trail only Heriolf could sense, the trail that would lead him to Naya.
* * * *
Elisha and Sebastian took Naya deep into the southern pine woods. They landed in a small clearing near a stretch of train tracks that gleamed in the bright moonlight. She’d kept quiet during the flight, trying to come to grips with the revelations of the old man in the swamp.
Heriolf had killed her parents to get to her. His protection was a lie. Her life was a lie.
She barely noticed the well loved pine-scented aroma mixing with the dry leaf smell of the vampires. The companionable groans of the boughs in the breeze, usually a sound that almost resembled friendly conversation to Naya, also made little impression. She was dimly grateful for the deep pile cushion of the pine needles beneath her slippered feet.
Sebastian gave her a glance that seemed sympathetic. To Elisha he said, “I should check on Heriolf to see if he’s following her trail.”
“Be careful, my friend. Don’t let him discover you.”
The dark vampire flew off into the night. Elisha turned to Naya, and he gently rubbed his palms over her arms.
“I can hear everyone’s thoughts but yours. Was Heriolf blocked from your mind as well?”
“Yes.” The single word was an effort, dropping heavily from her numbed lips.
“I am sorry you found out the truth this way. About your parents. About the man you trusted as your guardian killing them.”
Anger blazed, blessedly beating back the deadening horror that had seized her. “Are you? Does it really matter to you?” she spat.
“It does.” Elisha’s voice was as soft as the fingers now caressing her cheek.
Naya couldn’t help but lean into the touch, needing any kindness in the wake of the terrible revelation. “Why?”
His eyes were gentle, not trying to draw her into his spell for a change. “Maybe it’s because I’ve had your blood. Maybe because I know the pain of losing family too. I don’t know anything for sure when it comes to you, Naya. You muddle my thinking.”
Before she recognized what he was about to do, he kissed her. His strong arms closed around her slight body as if he was her protector, not abductor. In that wondrous embrace Naya’s nascent fury died and she melted against him. Her fists clutched beneath his cape, gathering handfuls of his shirt and pressing him close.
When it ended, Elisha’s face was a vision of tormented desire. “What are you doing to me? This wasn’t supposed to happen. Just one little taste to confirm you were the power behind Heriolf and to keep you from his possession. That’s all this was supposed to be. Why do I crave you so badly that it takes away all my sense?”
Naya was glad to know the overwhelming need wasn’t hers alone to suffer with. “I don’t know, but I’m glad I feel it too. It helps me forget the hurt. I’m in such pain, Elisha. He took my parents. I trusted him, the very monster who killed them!”
The dam broke, and she sobbed against his chest. The mourning that she thought had ended so many years ago was revived. It was fresh agony, reverting
her to the lost little girl whose parents never came home from a romantic jaunt taken while she spent the night at a friend’s house. She cried until her eyes ran dry, slowly becoming aware of Elisha stroking her hair, her face, her back, soothing her as best he could.
Naya touched him back. A need greater than sexual desire swept over her, and she grabbed his head bringing his lips to hers. Against his mouth she moaned, “Take away the hurt, if only for a moment. Please, Elisha. Make me forget.”
With mouth and hands she begged him to take her so she could lose herself in pleasure for just a little while.
She felt his response against her lower abdomen, the thick wanting of his body pressing against his clothing. But he resisted, grasping her wrists to stop her from fondling him. “Are you sure, Naya? I have control over my urges right now. I don’t want this unless you do.”
“Please, please. I need something good and honest right now.” She strained towards him, desperate.
Elisha’s mouth crushed down on hers, and she opened to his kiss. His tongue was velvet-soft, searching her mouth, claiming it with such thoroughness that Naya’s knees trembled. Knowing he would either have to hold her up or she would crash to the forest floor, she sank down, tugging him with her.
Elisha laid her down on the pine-strewn ground. The woodsy scent mingled with his mix of masculinity and the dried-leaf aroma of vampire. Naya unbuttoned his shirt with eager fingers, excited to finally feel his naked skin. As the shirt parted open, her hands slid over his smooth flesh, finding the lean musculature of his chest and abdomen a revelation. She’d never touched a man like this, and she wondered at the differences between him and the sensation of her own softness.
He was so firm, for one thing. A light sprinkling of crisp hair scattered over his chest. His pectoral muscles were developed but not overwhelming as Heriolf’s. Naya traced the slight hills of his abdomen. Vampires remained as they had been when they crossed over, and Elisha’s body bore testament to a life of hard labor.
She broke from the kiss. “Let me see you,” she gasped.
He sat up and shrugged the shirt from his broad shoulders. Moonlight through the trees gave her enough light to appreciate the ruggedness of his torso. Her hands moved all over him, seeking to devour him through touch alone. Elisha was beautiful.
Naya circled his nipples with her fingertips, feeling how they grew rigid under her attention. She rose to capture one in her mouth, sucking gently and flicking its tip with her tongue. A slight exhale from Elisha let her know he enjoyed the sensation.
Her hands slid down to tug at his belt. Then the snap of his jeans was pulled loose, his zipper lowered. Hooking his thumbs into his waistband, Elisha stood again and pushed his pants down, pausing to kick off his cowboy boots before finally revealing himself to her.
Naya’s gaze filled with the naked vampire standing over her. Like his upper body, his legs bore the muscles of someone who had known hard physical work. Between the thick thighs was a dark curly triangle of hair from which his manhood stood at eager attention. She shivered in anticipatory delight. He had filled her with it before, and she was eager for him to do so again.
Heriolf often strode about bare-chested, and his legs strained the fabric of his trousers. He was much more muscular than Elisha. Naya thought the vampire lord’s body looked almost comically exaggerated compared to the man who stood here in the moonlight. Elisha was not delicate by any means but he was more finely made, a feast for the eyes as well as the body.
“Perfect,” Naya breathed.
He smiled and kneeled next to her. “Your turn,” he said.
Elisha lifted her dress up and over her head. Naya was grateful the capricious southern weather had turned warm again, only the slightest coolness wafting across her skin to make her nipples pebble. Elisha’s calloused fingers tightened the sensitive nubs further.
“You are lovely, Naya,” he whispered. “Heriolf was mad to let you be.”
His head ducked down, and he filled his mouth with one soft mound. Naya couldn’t help but cry out to feel the rough silk of his tongue rub over her flesh. His fangs dimpled her pliant skin as he suckled, but he was careful to not bite.
Elisha pulled back as he sucked hard, drawing her breast taut as he slowly released it. Then his tongue flicked over the very tip several times, coaxing high-pitched whimpers from her throat. His attention moved to the other breast, teasing it as ruthlessly as the first.
He laid her flat to the ground once more, gathering her tiny wrists in one hand to pin over her head. Elisha’s weight settled over her, making her immobile as he continued the sweet assault on her breasts. While his mouth nipped and licked and sucked one, his free hand caressed and traced and gently pinched the other. Pleasure swirled wildly where his touch went, and Naya moaned her enjoyment. Being held down and made utterly vulnerable as he ravished her increased the thrill.
“Now that I have the time and senses to enjoy you properly, that is exactly what I’m going to do,” he said, a mischievous glint in his eyes as he looked up at her.
Naya could only shiver at the note of threat in his tone. She trembled as his hand left her breast to skate down her ribcage, over the tiny swell of her belly, and down to stroke the softness of her pubic curls.
There he paused, letting his fingertips swirl through the hair of her mound, close to where she was aching and wet. He neared trembling flesh without touching her where she wanted him most. She moved a little, trying to gain contact with that light, teasing touch.
“No, Naya. I want you to give yourself completely to me.” His gentle voice belied the command of his words.
“You can have me,” she promised. “All of me.”
“I don’t want just your body. I want your obedience. I want your surrender.”
His words were confusing her. Wasn’t she already his prisoner, subject to his demands? “I’m giving myself to you. What more can I offer?”
He smiled, her benevolent captor. “For this bit of time, while we are together like this, I want you to give up your will to me. I wish for you to forget your wants in deference to mine.”
“I don’t understand, Elisha.”
“Your only responsibility is to let go. You will submit to my authority and do all I ask. You do not have to think of how to please me, because your service will do that. Can you obey me, Naya?”
Naya considered his words carefully, a difficult task considering he was still stroking her mound, coming so teasingly close to her most sensitive flesh but denying that precious contact. She wanted him. Her body begged for him. And it really didn’t matter how it happened, as long as she could have him.
“Whatever you wish, Elisha. I’ll do what you tell me to,” she agreed.
He smiled, and the expression made his handsome face almost ethereal with beauty. Naya’s breath caught. His kiss warmed her from head to toe.
Elisha leaned away to fuss with his cloak. He drew out the rope he’d taken from the train museum. When he began to wrap a length of it around Naya’s wrists, she pulled back with a protest.
“Elisha, what—”
“I thought you would obey me, Naya. I wish to bind you to help you concede to my wishes.” He looked down at her patiently.
There was no threat in his posture or expression. Naya swallowed hard. “What if I don’t like what you’re doing? What if it’s something that really upsets me?” She couldn’t imagine what he might do to her that would get such a reaction, but giving herself over to the point where she was actually physically helpless made her nervous.
“Then tell me to stop. I won’t force anything on you that you don’t want.” He punctuated the promise with a tender kiss on her lips. “There’s been enough taking without your permission, Naya.”
She couldn’t deny how delicious sex with Elisha had been, and she’d been helpless in truth during those encounters. The first time he’d been overwhelmed by the potency of her blood; the second, it had been the insane hunger and need of a just-wakened
vampire. If Naya was honest, she had to admit the powerlessness she’d felt in his arms had been part of the attraction. Now he was offering her the opportunity to simulate that vulnerability while having the ability to stop the encounter.
“You’ll really stop if I say to?”
“You have my word.”
She shivered a little, realizing how much she wanted him. Enough to become utterly defenseless. But he could rape her or kill her at any time as it was. What difference would being tied up truly make?
“All right, Elisha.” She shivered again.
He kissed her again, as sweetly as one could hope from a solicitous lover. “You’ll be fine, Naya. I will not harm you.”
She held still as he bound her wrists together. Then he stretched the cord to a thin pine tree a foot away, tying it off around the trunk. Elisha came back and stood over her.
“You are beautiful, Naya, tied helpless for my pleasure.” His eyes on her were avid and bright in the light of the full moon. He knelt down, spreading her legs so they straddled his thighs.
Naya was suddenly very aware of her sex being open, that he was seeing her most intimate parts. She was utterly exposed to him, with no way to hide. She instinctively pulled at the rope, wanting to cover herself against the vampire sight she knew penetrated the shadows so well. Elisha could see at night as clearly as she did in the daylight.
“You will remain open to me,” he said quietly. “Stop trying to close your legs, Naya.”
She was pressing against his thighs she realized, attempting to shield her too vulnerable sex from his view. She drew a deep breath and made herself relax.
“Much better,” he said, and his approval warmed her as his kiss had. “Now remain absolutely still.”
Naya had never known how difficult remaining motionless could be until his fingers began tracing her nether lips with a light, teasing touch. She seized at the sensation, everything below the waist spasming in reaction. Her hips jerked.
“Naya,” came Elisha’s deep voice, the tone disapproving. “You said you’d obey. Now do not move.”
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