Redemption: A Custos Novel

by Emjay Soren

  “Preacher!” I hear Cash in the distance, his voice a demand to pull back and finish. “We need to bail fucking now!”

  “Won’t help…” Angelo gasped and I had no clue what he meant.

  “Nothing will help you.”

  “I beg …for my life… for the chance to find redemption…forgiveness” He was gasping, blood spittle splashing from his mouth.

  It was funny to me how such evil feared the end and begged for a second chance. Begging for his life, when I knew he had denied many the same request. “As a former priest, you have to heed my plea. I beg…for my life.”

  I was at a loss for words. He was begging, pleading with me to let him live, as if I had any desire to see him leave his own yard. I didn’t need the sob story or the ‘I’m sorry’. This was the killer of my wife and children. There was no compassion or sympathy inside of me for this man. “You beg the wrong man.”

  My cross fell into his chest, true to its mark, I watched as he faded to dust, his sins forever his own.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Tavern

  It had been hours since he’d left. London had gone to sleep in her old room and Stupor was out on the couch watching Fashion Police. Cain was asleep in the hall outside of London’s room, while Able was sitting and reading outside of mine.

  I couldn’t sleep though. I needed my man to come home to me. I needed his body above mine and his lips against my ear telling me how much he loved me and needed me. I wanted to beg him to turn me and make me his forever.

  I owed my newfound strength and peace to him. I had been so weak when I met Preacher. I was scared, horny and obsessed with a drug I couldn’t get my hands on. Now I had a job I loved, a condo that my closest girlfriend let me live in, and stability. I had bills to pay and even got a headache from time to time. I had a normal life with an extraordinarily different family and man backing me up.

  The loud roar of Cash’s voice from the front of the condo brought me out of my thoughts and had me rushing out the door. Everything in me told me Bas was in danger. Our bond had me fighting to get to him, calling out and hoping for an answer from him or Leushus. Both were silent.

  “Baby?” I gasped when I saw Preacher and Cash covered in blood and cuts and soaking wet from the rain. In their arms was Bastian, his neck at an unhealthy angle, his lips turning blue.

  Oh fuck no!

  “What happened, Baby?!!!” I screamed, trying to get to Bas, who lay lifeless on the kitchen table. Able grabbed me and is holding on to me, keeping me from launching toward them.

  “Stay back, Bird.” Preacher’s voice was calm. It comforted me hearing him so soft.

  “Bastian? C’mon Bas answer me? Leushus? God dammit!!” I called out telepathically, but got nothing but empty silence in return. Bastian had heard me calling to him in his sleep before. His lack of response set me right back on edge. This was bad.

  “Is he dead, Preach?” Stupor asked, and walked over to where Cash and Preacher were stripping Bastian of his clothes. Stupor immediately opened a vein in his wrist and tipped Bastian’s head back. His neck looked sickly and it was then I knew what I was looking at.

  “His neck is broken.” I stated the blaringly obvious. Preacher nodded, a look of sadness on his face before he turns back to Cash.

  “Stupor… he’s dying man.” Cash speaks softly and places his hand on Stupors shoulder. “You’re wasting blood that we need.”

  Not understanding what he meant I ask, “Why?”

  “Oh my God!” London shrieked and rushed to the front door where Cain and Able are hovering over another body.

  “Yo, boys. This chick’s about to flat line, too.” Cain said as he stepped back from the young woman who was beaten and bloody and slumped in a heap on the floor.

  “Cash, go man, I got this.” Stupor motioned toward the group forming at the front door. I rushed to Preacher.

  “Can you turn him?” I asked with tears and desperation in my voice.

  “I don’t bleedin’ know.” He said, sounding defeated. He looks as bad as Cash and the poor girl at the door.

  “Tavern, can you try and call out to Leushus with that freaky ass bond?” Stupor asked, reopening his vein because it keeps closing.

  “I keep trying to get Leushus and Bastian to answer me, but it’s silence all around.”

  “He won’t answer, Bird. Leushus is gone for a while. I don’t know why or for what, but he told me before he left. We’re alone on this one.”

  “What about you guys?” I asked Cain and Able. “Do you know if Bastian can be turned?”

  Both Cain and Able were focused on the girl but stopped briefly to look at one another before Cain replied. “He’s dead in about two minutes anyway, so I say fuck the rules and try.”

  There is a concession of manly grunts of approval from all the men in the room. Before I can say anything, Cash is yelling for Preacher to come take over. “I need stronger blood for Bas. Stupor and I we can work on Bastian. I need you to turn this girl now.”

  “I have never turned anyone, Cash.” Preacher said, his voice laced with nervous energy and sadness. I know he won’t relish watching this girl die before she can live again.

  Cash gives Preacher a calming smile and talks to him in that ‘all knowing Sire’ way. “You can’t go wrong Preach. Stop flowing blood to her when her heart stops, and sit back and wait. You can’t fuck this up more than it is already. She’s dead either way, but at least you give her a fighting chance.”

  “And if she comes through mad as hell about the choice we made for her?”

  “Then she can meet the sun and end it. You need to do this.” Cash was stern as he spoke, and he didn’t wait for a reply as he made his way to Bastian. I watched in fascinating horror as Cash ripped off his shirt and exposed an unbelievable chest covered in a large tattoo of a cross that looked to be smoking. “Stup?” Cash asked, and as if Stupor knew the answer to the unspoken question, he drew out a blade from his Gucci bag and slashed Cash across his chest. I gasped in horror as blood poured out in rivers and he leaned over Bastian’s mouth. “Princess, I need you baby.” He called out, calm as could be.

  London, completely calm now, rushed to his side. “I’m here my vamp.” She soothingly stroked her hand down his spine.

  “Baby girl, when he needs to feed you be ready, feel me?” Stupor said and I realized why Cash needed London.

  “I understand.” She said calmly, still stroking his spine as Stupor made another slash across Cash’s chest. I glanced over to Preacher who was now missing. I could hear voices coming from the kitchen and made my way back there.

  I wasn’t prepared for what I saw when I stepped beyond the counter to the giant marble Island in the center of the kitchen.

  Feet dangled from the side of the island and Preacher had his shirt off as well, a red angry slash across his chest as he leaned over the girl. Able stood on his opposite side and Cain across from him. Able held the knife that had slashed Preacher in his hand, waiting to slice him open again.

  All of this was going on in front of me, but I didn’t care about any of it. The girl laid out on the island had a shredded pair of fishnet stockings on. Through one of the many holes was a tattoo. A tattoo I recognized. The same tattoo I’d witnessed her getting.

  We had gone to a local Vegas tattoo shop after we finished our first year at UNLV. We were finally sophomores and that called for a celebration. Jezzi said there was a cute guy that worked at a shop called ‘Prick of the Needle’ and he had told her if she really wanted a tattoo to come see him and he would hook her up. From that night forward they had been a couple.

  It was a tattoo of the UNLV emblem, A cowboy in an extremely large hat with a crazy mustache.

  “Jezzi…” I gasped and gripped my chest unable to fathom what I was seeing.

  “What Bird?” Preacher asked just as another swipe of the knife across his chest.

  I didn’t get a chance to tell him.

  I passed the fuck out.


  *

  Preacher

  She had been out for three hours. Jezzi was still on the dead side and hadn’t come through yet. Bastian was also still out. We were all waiting and hoping for the best. I had been with them as long as I could. I stayed for hours blessing them both, praying for their strength. My rosary had gotten some use tonight. Now I was with Tavern, watching her sleep knowing that if both Bastain and Jezzi died it would be a hit of magnanimous proportions.

  All I cared about was my Bird. She went down like a sack of rocks when she’d said the name ‘Jezzi’. If this girl was in fact the Jezzi we all knew so much about, then it made sense she’d dropped like she did.

  Darcallion’ s words played through my mind. He knew what he was doing, knew how to get me to bend. He found the one thing my girl loved besides me and our crew, and he twisted and broke it until we were left with just one option.

  I bent, just like he knew I would. He knew I wouldn’t kill the girl, knew I would try and save her. That right there told me that she was definitely Jezzi.

  Tavern stirred and I immediately made my way to the bed and slipped in beside her. I had long ago showered and changed. All of my wounds from earlier were still raw because I needed to feed. I curled into her and held her close thankful that she was safe. Angelo was dead, and hopefully I’d been able to give her Jezzi back.

  “Jezzi?” She asked, her voice like gravel. I reached for the glass of water on the nightstand and handed it to her before making my way in close to her again.

  “There’s no word yet. If she comes through we’ll know at sunset.”

  She took a deep breath and started to cry. I wanted to take her pain and hated that I couldn’t. “S’okay Bird.”

  “Thank you for trying to save her, Baby.”

  “Ssshhh.” I made the sound against her neck and wished I could breathe her in. She was my safe place, my happy place…she was my home. “Let’s just try and not think too much on it, Bird. There’s no guarantee with Sireing, and until we know if it worked I want you to rest.”

  Much to my excitement she rolled until she straddled me. In one seriously sexy and fluid movement she removed her shirt. She took my hand in hers and drew it against her chest until I was cupping her breast in my palm. I was immediately hard and straining. I wanted to bury my dick so far inside that she would feel me in her throat. “I need you, Baby.” She cried, tears flowing from her beautiful eyes. Her lashes spiked from her tears, I leaned up and kissed the path they’d made stopping below her ear.

  “You should rest.” My voice is low and she trembles. It made my dick flinch in my jeans and I knew my cock was on board for a bout of rough versus gentle fucking.

  She shook her head and placed her hands on my shoulders. Gripping me she rocked her hidden pussy against me. “I need to feel alive Preacher, and I am most alive when you’re inside of me. We have been together only once since you came back to me.” She dropped her mouth to mine and slipped her tongue inside claiming me in slow, sensual swipes. “You are my lifeline Baby, and I need you.” She spoke between kisses and kept on rocking. Her hands were on my cheeks as she cupped my face in her tiny palms. “Please…” Her words trailed off and then she stopped moving, taking in my features. “You need to feed, Baby.”

  I fucking needed to feed for sure, but not if the other option I had was to be deep in her cunt thrusting away my remaining energy. I would take fucking my Bird any and every time. She rolled off of my

  trapped cock and fell to her back on the bed. Her hand on my wrist she pulled me until I was leaning over her. She spread her legs in a selfless invitation for me to touch and see and taste.

  “Feed from me Preacher, let me be your lifeline.”

  I crushed my mouth to hers, my tongue pushing in and tasting her mouth. She was glorious, the way she let me invade her. Everything about her tasted divine. Her pussy was like chocolate to me. At least what I can remember chocolate tasting like. She was rich and sweet and addictive. One taste of her was never enough. Now she was offering me her vein, and asking that she be my lifeline. “You don’t get it yet, Bird.”

  “Get what my love?”

  Fuck, that did me in. I was a fucking sap and I knew it, but I loved when she spoke with such tenderness to me. “Get that you are and will always be my lifeline. It isn’t about feeding from you or protecting you. It is all about how deeply I love you, Tavern. My life from here out, starts and ends with you, my love.”

  Her tears fell at my confession. Her fingers tangled in my hair and pulled me back to her mouth, opening to me and letting me take my fill.

  I kissed her as long as I could until she was gasping for air and riding her pussy against my thigh. “Feed from me and take me Preacher, please…”

  I was never a man who excelled in the face of temptation. I slipped my hand around the crotch of her panties and tugged, feeling them rip apart and expose the heart of her. Her pussy wet and glistening, it teased me as I pulled the scraps down her smooth soft legs. I wanted to taste every inch of her skin. I started at her instep…

  *

  Tavern

  His lips started at my instep…and then he worked his way up. His lips were so soft as they trailed a scorching path along my skin. He placed special attention behind my knee and further up as his lips found purchase against the crease of my thigh.

  “I want just a taste, babe.” He said and spread my labia with his thumbs. My wet flesh was exposed to his gaze just seconds before the soft flesh of his tongue swiped along my pussy.

  “Yes!” I whispered loudly, not wanting the whole house to hear us. They may not think this seemed like the time for fucking, and it wasn’t. This was about connection and love. Preacher was making love to me, to my body.

  He tsk’d me for my cry, moving from my pussy and dropping slow luxurious kisses along my pelvis and up to my breast. “Suck on me, Baby?” I asked, needing his wet mouth against me in some way.

  He takes both nipples between his thumb and finger and begins rolling them in pinching twists that make my body arch into him. Resting between the cradle of my thighs with his stomach against my wet flesh, he feels so good I can’t help but rock my pussy against him. The sensation of his stomach against me is soft and smooth and only ratchets my arousal higher.

  “Are you gonna make yourself come, Bird?” He pressed his weight against me intensifying the pressure on my clit.

  I nod and bite my lip, my eyes never leaving his.

  He drops his head between my breasts and groans. It is the sexiest sound in the world and just what I needed to push me over the edge. “Now!” I gasp and grab his back holding him against me as I slide my pussy against his now wet stomach.

  I feel the explosion hit and cry out as Preacher starts ranting his filthy promises in my ear. “I am gonna fuck you so hard, Bird… fill you up with my hot come then fuck you again, just so I can keep a piece of me inside you.”

  “Yes!” I moan into his neck.

  “Finish up Bird and then roll over and let me have your ass.”

  I knew what he meant and I was totally on board. I wanted him somewhere that I had never allowed any man to be. I had been taken there when I was at Bliss, but I had never offered myself to another in that way.

  Throbbing sensations coursed through my body. My pussy hungry for his cock as every pulse of my clit stroked the fire hotter. I pressed myself against him wishing he was inside, filling me with his thick, meaty cock.

  His mouth was on mine as I finished, his moans making the orgasm draw out because I knew how hard he was. I knew exactly how bad he wanted me. “That was the sexiest thing I ever witnessed, Bird.” His lips dropped to mine again and I was smiling with his lips on mine.

  “I want you so bad.”

  “You’re about to get your wish.” He pulled back and I watched in fascination as he stripped bare before me. His muscles were defined to the point he looked airbrushed. Excited for the moment that our bodies join I roll to my knees, stretching and arching as I go
.

  I hear another of his erotic groans and I know I am pushing a very desperate man. I feel his fingers as he strokes the lips of my pussy. I have no choice but to stay perched on all fours as he fondles my clit with two fingers inside me.

  His free hand slides through my wetness and he coats his fingers generously with my orgasm. “I love how you taste after I’ve made you come. It’s bleedin’ heavenly, Tavern.”

  His voice had gone low and dark the way he gets before unleashing the rabid monster inside. I feel the blunt tips of his fingers as he slides them slowly along the seam of my pussy and back, back, back to the only place he has never been with me. “I want this Bird, as much as you want your next breath. I won’t do this if you’re not ready, and I don’t need it, but fuck Bird, I want it so fuckin’ badly.”

  “Then take it, Baby.”

  He didn’t wait, I don’t know what I expected, but I felt him pull from my pussy and lather my orgasm over my back entrance. He stroked his cock along the crease of me, gliding himself over the puckered hole before pressing up and slipping inside my pussy. “I am going to come Bird, all over this pretty ass. Then I will use it to lube my dick and take you again.”

  Before I could scream at the sensation of his stroking and random drives inside me, I felt his come as he erupted, shouting out. “Fuck yes!” He roared and drenched me in his semen.

  I wanted to come just listening to his orgasm, could have come when he started rubbing his still hard cock against the wetness. “So wet now Bird. Are you ready for me here?” He asked and pressed his finger against my passage. I moaned in delight at the pressure he was building. “Shall I stroke that perfect cunt and get you good and riled for me?”