The Font

by Tracy St. John

  She’d heard Heriolf utter profane phrases that she thought might fit this occasion just fine. Don’t move indeed! And how was she to accomplish that when his fingers were so talented? When he was touching places that brought darts of excruciating pleasure driving her insides to bubble and roil?

  Naya bit her lips together and concentrated on keeping her hips still. She couldn’t do anything about the trembling that suffused her body, not when Elisha was so carefully tracing every fold, every petal of her womanhood.

  She could feel honey flowing from her, making those tormenting fingers slide easily over her flesh. She peered at Elisha, wondering what he was thinking as he played with her.

  Their eyes met, and he deliberately withdrew his hand to slowly suck her juices from his fingers. The groan that came from Naya was embarrassingly loud.

  “I agree,” he said, one corner of his mouth lifting as he reached to fondle her anew. “It’s not just your blood that is delicious.”

  He dipped into her well to gather moisture, which he spread all over her sex. When his fingers brushed her clitoris, it took all her willpower to not writhe in response. But her trembling grew more powerful, especially as he continued to rub that eager bit of flesh. Pleasure curled in tight coils, reaching from where his fingers made contact to deep in her belly. Naya’s breath came quickly as the delight grew. Little whimpers escaped from between her clenched teeth.

  Elisha said nothing, just continued the sweet torment that had chills racing up and down Naya’s spine. Bliss billowed in ever greater swells within her lower body, fed by the hard calloused pads of his fingers on her swelling nub. Even as the gorgeous heat ballooned it also seemed to draw tight, spiraling into a taut strand until she could feel it fraying.

  The friction of his fingers and thumb was bringing the ecstasy closer. It was nearly there, drawing near, reaching for her, ready to snatch her into its un-gentle embrace. Naya welcomed it, strained for it while forcing herself to remain still for Elisha’s decadent attentions. The first lick of a small flame sparked, followed by a second. Oh, here it was, the beginning of that wondrous ravaging inferno, ready to devour her, on the verge of consuming her every sense…

  Elisha halted and withdrew, leaving her to hang helplessly on the pinnacle of release. She made a mewling sound and strained towards him. She was so close!

  “Elisha?” she gasped, panting as he sat so very still watching her.

  “Yes?”

  “Why are you stopping?”

  “I don’t want you to come yet.”

  She stared at him in shock. Her sex was clamoring for his touch. Just one last little brush and she’d drown in bliss. “But – but why not?”

  “It pleases me to deny you orgasm for now.”

  “But I want it! Please, Elisha.”

  “I know you want it.” He smiled, and it was a dark, forbidding smile. “You were almost there too. I could feel it. I want to make you wait. I want control over you in this.”

  “But … but…”

  “You said you’d obey. Now be still. I’ll give you pleasure when I’m ready. Not before.”

  She loosed a cry of pure need. Elisha only knelt there and waited patiently. Seeing he would not be moved, Naya made herself quiet and lay helpless and trembling. The impending climax drew away a bit at a time until she was no longer poised to explode.

  “Much better,” Elisha murmured.

  Naya moaned when his fingers returned to her secret flesh. He slid one thick digit inside her, and her breath caught. She remembered just in time to not move against him as he pumped carefully in and out of her. She didn’t dare move, not when he was touching her again. Naya thought she would go mad if he stopped.

  Her sheath clutched the finger slipping through her folds. She delighted in feeling any part of Elisha inside her. When his thumb whispered over her clitoris, her hands closed into fists. Her breath began to come faster again.

  “So wet,” Elisha whispered. His gaze was transfixed on his finger pumping in and out of her. “So swollen and pink. Do you like this, Naya?”

  “Yes,” she gasped. His words were adding to the sweet agony of his touch. “It feels good.”

  “And this feels even better, doesn’t it?” he asked, pushing a second finger into her.

  Naya’s high-pitched cry filled the woods. Her fingernails bit into her palms, so hard did she clench her fists. Another light brush from his thumb to her straining nub made her repeat the sound.

  Elisha’s fingers curled inside her, searching the front of her sleeve as he pressed into her. Naya’s senses galvanized when he found a spot that sent cascading warmth throughout her lower parts. The billowing was back in full force, forcing her to dig her heels into the ground in reaction.

  “Right there?” Elisha’s voice was thick with a deep-chested chuckle. He did it again.

  Naya’s mouth dropped open and she panted as her insides spasmed. Another flick on her clitoris brought a long wail from her.

  Elisha’s fingers moved faster and faster, and the held-off orgasm galloped towards her again. The friction against that bunch of nerves sent it barreling at her, and she opened herself to it, inviting it in, oh yes, oh yes, oh…

  Elisha stopped again, pulling free and sitting back to watch her.

  She shrieked at the denial. Then she sobbed insults as he simply sat and waited for her to calm once more.

  “Sadist!” she blubbered. “Cruel, hateful, tyrant! Why are you so mean?”

  Elisha didn’t answer, just watched her with a dreadful patience and gently brushed the frustrated tears that slid from the outer corners of her eyes. All he said was, “Naya,” in a reproachful voice.

  The disappointment settled her as anger and yelling wouldn’t have. She’d agreed to this, had given Elisha complete control over her. Now she was trying to insist on having her way rather than giving him the acquiescence he’d asked for. She was not keeping her end of the bargain.

  Naya drew a deep, shuddering breath. She made herself ignore the burning ache of her sex. “I’m sorry, Elisha. I surrender myself to you entirely. This body is yours to do as you will.” She whimpered that last bit. She was sure he’d torment her more than ever, if only to assure himself of her obedience.

  He smiled at her. “Good girl. There’s hope for you yet, Naya.”

  Her face heated at his amusement, but she said nothing. She made herself go soft all over and awaited his pleasure.

  Elisha again filled her with his talented, torturing fingers, immediately finding that spot that liked pressure so much. Once more, she was forced to endure the teasing friction of his thumb to her clitoris. And again, just as her body teetered on the edge of culmination, the vampire denied it.

  Naya shook all over, her eyes streaming from the refusal. But she said nothing, accepting his dictates without the slightest protest.

  Twice more, Elisha drove her to the brink. Twice more, he stopped before she could plunge into bliss. Naya was quaking from need, her whole existence centered on the riot of her sex as it clamored for release. Somehow, she managed to remain silent and open to him, accepting the torture to satisfy his wish for mastery over her.

  “Very good, Naya,” he breathed. “Thank you, sweet girl.”

  He crawled over her, his livid penis brushing her tender womanhood. A groan emitted from between Naya’s gritted teeth.

  “I know. I know,” Elisha soothed, his lips brushing hers. “I’ve been terrible to you. I’m ready to reward you now.”

  She whimpered an inarticulate plea, spreading her thighs apart for him as far as they would go. The head of his cock settled over her opening.

  “Yes. You’ve waited long enough.”

  Elisha pressed into her slowly, enclosing himself in her swollen sleeve. His teasing had left her engorged, and she groaned a little to take his thickness into herself. The swirl of combined pain and pleasure consumed her, leaving her gasping as she fought to accept him.

  Deeper and deeper he pressed into her relu
ctantly yielding flesh. Naya’s breath sobbed in and out, but just as she’d ultimately submitted to his wicked teasing, she surrendered to this new delightful torment. She now recognized herself as Elisha’s creature, his to command.

  Rather than dim her arousal, her compliance heightened it. Being helpless to deny her captor his requirements, being totally under his control made her more eager, more aroused. As his full length submerged within her, she felt only gratitude to be his this way.

  Naya had been a hostage to fortune, first as a helpless orphan, her destiny in the hands of others, then as Heriolf’s ward, terrorized by his warnings of what would happen should she leave the security of his protection. This was the first time she’d willingly given herself up to another, and she discovered a strange power in that surrender.

  Plus Elisha had given her an out. With but a word from her lips she could reclaim control, ending his dominance over her in an instant. But as Elisha reversed course, drawing free of her clinging sheath, the friction of the movement sending scalding heat through her body, she wanted no command. Being under the vampire’s sway was a delight.

  And now they were skin to skin, better than she’d imagined it would feel. His mouth covered hers, kissing as penetratingly deep as his cock in her vagina. Her breasts flattened against his chest, the nipples pebbling with reaction as they rubbed against his sprinkling of coarse hairs. Their bellies slid against each other. Elisha’s hands gripped her buttocks, angling her just so. His groin slapped against her, the sounds growing louder and faster as his control slipped and passion took over.

  Every thrust in sent shocks of elation through Naya, and each breath she exhaled contained a cry of rising excitement. The denied orgasm was approaching once more, making her toes curl in her still-slippered feet. Elisha’s movements stimulated her clitoris, making bright counterpoints of ticklish ecstasy to the deeper heat building in her passage. He grunted with effort as he took her, making her feel his strength, his power, his all-encompassing need.

  Tendrils of pleasure twisted her inside, double-knotting her guts. Naya was within reach of that peak again, climbing steadily to the top, the vampire inside her driving her mercilessly. She felt his fangs against her teeth, and she darted her tongue to lick them. A small intense pain added to the bliss of his possession as she nicked herself. With a gasp Elisha sucked her tongue into his mouth, drawing on the bit of blood the cut shed.

  He moaned and shuddered as he tasted her most precious fluid. Naya felt his cock jerk inside her, and his rhythm stuttered. Drinking her in. Filling her up.

  There was a moment of perfect equilibrium then, the moment of suspension as her body finally realized sublime nirvana. It was as if she went nova in a silent expansion of white-hot light, as if she was a star that had exploded and only the initial brightening could be discerned. Then the first mighty wave of shock blew out from her, shivering the very universe with its power, a final demonstration of immeasurable strength that destroyed as it was destroyed. Naya felt herself deliciously obliterated and gave herself to the carnage.

  In the destruction there was peace, a leaving behind of grief. All knowledge of betrayal and loss disappeared, forgotten in the wasteland of rapture.

  Chapter 6

  Heriolf alighted inches from the steps to the church’s door. His guards and Lyndon landed well behind him, cringing at the sight of the derelict building. He smirked at their cowardice.

  “Wait here.” He stomped up the stairs, yanking the rotted wooden door from its hinges and tossing it aside. Heriolf cared not for gods, not even the ones his people had bowed to when he stilled lived. Holy ground most vampires feared disturbed him none.

  He walked into the church and sensed Naya immediately. Her trail was bright here, signifying she’d spent several hours in this place and had quit it recently. He also scented the other vampire, the one who had taken her from her room. Fury nipped its rat teeth at his gut, and he followed their path to a small room where a coffin lay. Heriolf went to the casket, a modern one, its lid lying open.

  The scent that filled his senses, the one he’d hoped not to find on Naya’s bed back at the mansion, brought his rage full strength. “No. You don’t dare, you bastard,” he snarled through gritted teeth.

  But there was no denying the smell. The abductor had violated the woman to be Heriolf’s bride. Naya’s purity, a prize almost as sweet as her blood, had been claimed by another. The thrill of claiming her utterly as his own, one Heriolf had put off to heighten the anticipation, belonged to a common thief.

  Heriolf descended into darkness, a realm where he knew only the deafening crashes of great impacts and his own maddened howls. When he emerged from the furious black maelstrom, he discovered he had left behind a wake of destruction. The kidnapper’s casket was so much rubble; the altar and pews in the chapel, splintered hulks. His muscles burned and ached, yet another signal that the unmatched strength gained from Naya was fading.

  Heriolf reared back to bellow at the sky, seen here and there through holes in the roof. “You will die in such a way as to make other vampires weep in horror!”

  At last he recovered enough sanity to stalk outside to his waiting retinue. Lyndon approached nervously.

  Barely looking at his cringing underling, Heriolf said, “Have human servants come here and wait for their return.”

  “The abductor’s coffin is here, my lord?”

  “It was. The slaves are to stake him or die trying. They are not to deliver the final death. That privilege is mine.”

  “As you command, my lord.” Lyndon bowed before flying away to carry out Heriolf’s wishes.

  Heriolf forced himself to be calm so that he could pick up Naya’s trail once more. He couldn’t wait to catch the vampire who’d dare to steal what was his. He vowed when he did, he would feed the thieving bastard his own cock.

  * * * *

  Elisha lay on the pine needle-blanketed ground with Naya on top of him. He’d untied her wrists, and her face was snuggled against his chest. He thought she might be dozing in the post-coital glow that embraced them. All around, peepers sang in the woods and a far-off train’s horn cried out in the lonely night.

  He was quite still, enjoying her warmth and the sweet scent of her body. Contemplating the impossible. Like keeping her forever to bake himself within her hearth, to feel the softness of her skin against his. He could do it too; sharing his blood with her every night would make her as immortal as he.

  But as Mariel had noted, Naya could be too dangerous to live. If she was possessed again by Heriolf or another like him, the vampires would face ruin. Elisha had to acknowledge the possibility that destroying her might be their only recourse.

  No!

  His whole being denied the terrible thought. But it was foolishness to sacrifice hundreds for one human with elf blood. Hundreds? Perhaps thousands. How far did Heriolf’s ambitions go? Did he seek to be king over all vampires? Even if he did not, some vampire out there would. Then megalomania would lead to humans discovering their existence, and a full-on war between the living and undead would commence.

  Elisha couldn’t allow that to happen. The math was simple: one human-elf hybrid’s life for everyone else’s.

  If only that one life wasn’t Naya’s!

  “Get up, Naya. Daylight is less than an hour away, and I must prepare for it.” Elisha reluctantly pushed at her.

  She slowly rose from his body, a contented smile on her face. A smile I put there, Elisha thought with no small amount of pride.

  Could he really see her killed? Could he put an end to her life himself?

  They dressed. As if reading his thoughts, Naya spoke startling words. “You could keep me for yourself. I won’t mind, and I know you wouldn’t abuse the power.”

  Elisha froze. She was offering herself to him. Offering what he so desperately wanted to take.

  It’s her blood. That’s what truly draws you to her. Nothing else.

  If only that was true.

  Allowing n
one of his true feelings to escape, Elisha said, “The risk remains that another would try to have you. If I can find a way for you to live, I’ll take it. But no promises, Naya.”

  Her pleased expression disappeared, replaced by a hurt that made his heart heavy. “You feel nothing for me?”

  “I feel the corrupting draw of your blood.”

  Her lip trembled for an instant before she drew herself up and wiped all expression from her face. Elisha hated himself for wounding her, but with the circumstances they faced it was for the best. He must keep his distance, at least emotionally, and allow none of his attraction for her to distract him.

  He stiffened as he sensed the approach of another vampire, the telltale passage of a large body in the air, the brush of emotions, not belonging to him, filling his mind. A dark shadow descended from the sky into the clearing, and Elisha relaxed as he recognized Sebastian’s grim face.

  The other man’s thoughts let him know what had his brow creased so heavily, but Elisha believed it would be bad form to tell Sebastian he could clearly see what was in his head. Instead he pretended ignorance and asked, “What news?”

  “Heriolf discovered your resting place. You must not return.” Sebastian’s fists were clenched, and Elisha saw how hard it had been for him to not defend the coffin in the church. “He has his human slaves waiting with stakes. He started for the swamp but had to turn back because it’s so close to dawn.”

  Elisha looked at Naya, who watched them with seeming composure. “He’s tracking her, just as the old elf said.”

  “If you don’t kill her, you’ll have to play cat-and-mouse until he’s weak enough to defeat.”

  At Sebastian’s words there was a flicker of sweet vulnerability in Naya’s eyes. It made Elisha want to draw a line in the sand, to dare others to only try to harm her so he could destroy them all. He’d not been so protective of anyone in a very long time. “I’m a fool, but I just can’t take her life like that, Sebastian. She didn’t ask for any of this.”