by Dara Nelson
I smiled and leaned back, arching my back and thrusting my breast into his mouth, then I groaned as I felt his teeth sink into me. Back and forth we went, keeping our climaxes going, passing the blood back and forth until I saw the first light of dawn creeping into the courtyard. By this point, neither of us had any thigh muscles worth a damn anymore, so my head was now down below his belly, between his legs when I felt the first rays of the morning sun on my back. I retracted my fangs and released him from my mouth, where I had (very gently) pierced him and drank blood from him as his climax had throbbed in my mouth. I kissed my way up his body and lay in his arms as we both gasped for air. Carlos visibly shivered, “Jesus, Sarah. No one has ever done that to me. Holy shit. That just about made me jump out of my skin. Scared the shit out of me at first and I almost stopped you, but the curious pervert in me quickly took over and boy am I glad that he did. That was fucking awesome. Promise me you’ll do that again. Please.”
I smiled and kissed him again, “Of course I will sweetheart. Any time.” I felt him shiver as he pulled me tight to him. I nuzzled into him. After a few minutes I whispered, “I should probably go shower, hun.”
“I know. Hey, maybe you can keep some of your things here so you can shower here sometimes? Oh, never mind. That’s probably not a good idea. I’m sure you’ll probably want to spend most of your nights in his room, which means you’ll shower there.”
I leaned over and kissed his cheek, “No, I want to spend equal time in both, so I think it’s a perfect idea, baby. Of course I’ll do that. I know that we still have some issues and logistics to work out with this whole thing. But I’d be happy to keep some of my everyday things here, as long as you’re not worried that it will scare off your lady friends. When we went into this I gave you free reign to be with anyone else because I know that I’ll have to give more of my time and attention to Matt and I don’t want you to get lonely. So I’ll do whatever you want,” I said, trying to sound cheerful about the whole thing when my insides were in turmoil, but I flinched at the hurt that I saw in his eyes.
“What? What’s wrong, Carlos?” I whispered.
“Do you really believe that I could ever be with anyone else now? Do you want me to be?” he whispered. I sat up, pulled Matt’s t-shirt back on and walked over to the window. He pulled on his sweats and came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and nuzzling into my neck. “Well, do you?”
“I can’t answer that without sounding selfish, Carlos. Please don’t ask me that.”
He turned me around and forced me to look into his eyes, “Be selfish, Sarah. It’s okay. You give both of us everything we need. Neither of us could ever ask for more.”
“You don’t want someone who can be here all the time? Someone who can sleep here every night? Someone you can have whenever you want them? Someone you can love always?” I whispered.
“Me? Mr. attention deficit disorder.? Mr. Boredom? You’re kidding me, right? This arrangement is perfect for me. And I do love you always.”
“But that’s why it’s okay for you to be with others, because I don’t want you to get bored with me.”
“Is it? Is it really okay, Sarah? Are you really okay with it?”
“Honestly? No I’m not, but that’s selfish of me. I’m with someone else, so I can’t very well ask you not to be, can I?”
“No, but you’re not asking, are you? I’m choosing this on my own. Right now, you more than give me everything I need. Everything I could ever want. More than I’ve ever had. Since the three of us made the decision to do this, my needs, sexually, have more than been met. I’ve never felt more satisfied in my life. Me, Mr. pervert, has finally found his sexual equal, I didn’t think that was ever possible. Why would I want to be with anyone else when I have this?’”
“Are you sure? You don’t have to do this.”
“I know I don’t have to, Sarah. I want to. That’s why it feels right. And, yes, I’m sure. I haven‘t even looked at another woman since you and I, well, since the first time we got freaky, in the limo.”
I raised my eyebrow, smiled at him and then threw my head back and laughed, “You? Haven’t looked at another woman? No way, darlin. Not possible. Not unless the sky is falling,” I looked out the window, “and it looks to me like it’s staying put.”
He grinned a mischievous grin, “Okay. Well, maybe I’ve looked. At a few. But I didn’t touch. And I most definitely didn’t want,” then he grinned his goofy Carlos grin and kissed me on the cheek.
“Don’t ever stop making me smile,” I laughed.
“You guys awake and decent?” Matt called from the other room.
“Yes, honey,” I called as I reached up and ran my fingers through my hair to smooth it down and make it look less like ‘just fucked’ hair. “We’re in here watching the sunrise.”
He hesitantly poked his head in the door then walked over to me when I held my hand out to him. “You stole my shirt,” he said into my neck as he kissed it.
“Had to. Bad night. This was the closest thing I could find.”
“Hunger? Carlos helped? He had some blood ready for you?”
“Yeah. But you knew he would, didn’t you?”
He nodded.
“And now Carlos was just giving me an IQ test, but I passed.” I said as I smiled at the confused look on both of their faces.
“An IQ test? What do you mean?” Matt said.
“Yeah, I’d like to hear this too,” Carlos mumbled.
“Oh, he was just telling me that he hasn’t looked at another woman since he and I got together. Pretty funny actually. And, of course, totally not true.”
“Him?” Matt gasped then he turned to Carlos, “Dude, you didn’t expect her to believe that, did you?”
“Oh shut up. Both of you,” Carlos said, an unsuccessful attempt at suppressing his grin.
“We have to go get ready to see, mmmm,” I hesitated, struggling with just saying his name. I took a deep breath and tried to summon some courage. I had to do this, for him, “Jason. We have to go see Jason. I’m gonna grab a quick shower. I’ll meet you in the kitchen?”
They both nodded and I watched as Carlos headed into his own bathroom, but I pushed down the feeling that I was abandoning him. I couldn’t do that every time we had to separate, if I did I’d never be able to survive this. It would rip me apart.
I jumped in the shower, a little sad that I was alone. But Matt’s voice broke through my sadness, “Sarah? Is it alright if I join you?”
I stared for a few seconds, totally perplexed. “Did you really just ask that? You’re kidding right? Matt, you never have to ask that. The answer is yes. The answer has always been yes. The answer will always be yes.” He shed his sweats, stepped in and I swallowed his hard body into my arms.
Chapter Three
Showered and dressed, the three of us headed to the kitchen to quickly eat. Then I heated five more pints and we headed up the mountain to meet Jason. He was awake and waiting for us just inside the entrance, hovering in the shadows.
“Good morning, Jason,” I said as I held out the blood for him.
“Good morning. Thank you for this,” he said as he began to drink.
I watched, fascinated, as he pierced a pint with one fang and then squeezed it into his mouth, drinking and swallowing it just like a human would a glass of water.
“Is there something wrong, female?” he asked when he was done. (seraphim’s rarely use names when addressing women, they simply use the term ‘female.’ I had spent several months exclusively with Aquila when I was pregnant with Jason, so I was used to this.)
“No, why?”
“I’ve never had someone stare at me so intently while I fed.”
“Oh. You just feed differently than we do. When we feed, it’s still a drinking/swallowing thing, but the blood flows through our fangs and into our throats, not into our mouths. It made me curious. I apologize for staring. I hope it didn’t make you feel uncomfortable.” I said.
He shook his head, “No. It just felt, mmmm, odd.”
I motioned to Matt and Carlos, “Jason, these are my mates Matt and Carlos. They want to help any way they can. Please, can you start by telling us what you know about what happened to your father?”
Jason started pacing as he began speaking, “He had been irritated and on edge for a few weeks. We used to go out at night to feed together, but he began telling me to stay home and he would go by himself and bring some back for me. He was acting paranoid. He would lock me in when he left. It was like he knew something was going to happen to him and he didn’t want me with him when it did. He told me a little bit about our history, but he had just begun studying it himself, so there wasn’t much he could tell me. Then he began telling me about you, a lot. He told me about you, your compassion, and how to find this place,” he said.
“And you think he did that because he knew something was going to happen to him?”
“Yes. He knew that you would help me. He knew that you would be able to find him. You can find him, right?”
I nodded, “I going to do everything I can. Tell me about the day he disappeared. Was anything different about it? About him?”
“No, not really. Well, actually, he did hug me before he went out that night. That’s not something he did every night,” he said, as his sad eyes stared at the ground. I started to reach for him, but stopped myself. I turned to Matt and Carlos, “He was saving him, wasn’t he? Someone had approached him and he negotiated to keep Jason safe, didn’t he?” I said.
Matt nodded, “Sounds like it to me. But for it to be someone that he wouldn’t fight, someone that he was afraid would hurt Jason….,”
“MY FATHER IS NOT AFRAID OF ANYTHING!” Jason yelled, making us all jump.
“Jason, we don’t mean that he was afraid. I know how strong your father is. We all know. We meant that he was worried that this was someone or something stronger than him who might hurt you. Something that was more powerful than even your father. And, believe me, that’s something that scares the hell out of me.”
Jason relaxed a little and even slightly smiled at my response.
“Look, there’s someone back at the compound that we should talk to. She’s a very wise Egyptian vampire. She knows a lot about Queen Sekhmet, she’s studied her and she was around the last time that Sekhmet was active, before she went into her self-imposed hibernation that she’s in now, or was anyways. Would you be willing to come back there with us to talk to her?”
Jason narrowed his eyes and studied us. Finally, he nodded his head slightly and stood up. I watched as he wandered out of the cave, and admired as he spread his wings. It really was a stunning sight. Seraphim’s were truly stunning creatures – imagine the most amazing sculpted Greek God-like body that you can, with chiseled abs, broad chest, powerful arms and legs, more than impressive other body parts, all on seven to eight foot tall, completely hairless creatures with hands shaped more like talons, feet more like claws and the most beautiful wings that I have ever seen that, when unfurled, reach to an impressive ten foot span. Truly breath-taking, I thought as I clasped Carlos and Matt’s hands in mine and we walked outside. We rose into the air and I felt the wind from his wings as Jason followed behind us. He landed silently behind us in the courtyard near the waterfall, folded his wings behind his back and followed us inside. Bahiti was waiting for us by the door. “I had a feeling you would be looking for me,” she said as we walked up. I smiled at her then made introductions. “Bahiti, this is Jason. Jason, meet my good friend Bahiti.”
I smiled again at the stupefied look on his face. Even as young as he was, he still knew beauty when he saw it. He was having the same reaction to her that I had the first time I met her. “Why don’t we go into your office, Bahiti? You have all of your maps, history and research in there, correct?”
She nodded, “I do. Please, follow me,” she said as she turned, opened the door and headed down the hall. After spending a minute or two figuring out which chair would work best for Jason - a low-back chair that he could put his wings over the back - we began, “Do you have any idea why she’s awake, Bahiti? You said she’s done this before since she shut down over a thousand years ago?”
“Yes, she has. Not on a regular basis. There’s no pattern to it that I can find. But every so often she rises. She acts like she’s searching for something or someone. She’ll summon one or several people into her chamber. But, but,” she trailed off as she broke eye contact with me, afraid to say more.
“But, what, Bahiti? Please, tell us everything.” I said.
“Well, whoever she summons into her chamber, I don’t know what she does with them. She can’t be feeding on them, because they’re vampires and wouldn’t provide her much sustenance. But they’re never seen or heard from again.”
“But, but, what about my father?” Jason whispered.
Bahiti saw his worry. “If he’s with her, there’s still time to find him. She’s been seen several times, in several places, over the last week, which means the chamber isn’t sealed.”
“Sealed? What do you mean sealed?” I said.
“When she’s summoned someone into her chamber, the door, well, it disappears. It seals itself and vanishes. It’s just solid rock. There’s no way in or out. And there’s no way to break through. We’ve tried. Even dynamite is ineffective.”
“Do you have any theories at all on what she’s doing?” Matt said.
She hesitated for a moment. Finally she took a deep breath, “Well, if I had to guess. My gut instinct tells me that she’s looking for her replacement.”
“Her replacement? As what? She doesn’t really hold a position anymore since she shut down, right? What would she be replacing? I mean,honesty, what does she really do other than scare the shit out of other vampire purely because of how old and powerful she is?”
“She holds the knowledge of our entire history inside of her. She keeps it. She protects it. My guess is that she’s ready to move on and she’s searching for someone to pass that knowledge to. My gut instinct is that she’s not the first of her kind who did this. I think that others came before her and each had to choose a replacement when they were tired of what there were doing. Most of our history is not written for a reason. Our history, if held in the wrong hands and used for the wrong reason, could be devastating to many – humans, vampires, you name it – we could all suffer. So it’s retained by someone with the strength of character to not pass it to anyone who doesn’t appear worthy, and who won’t use it to gain ultimate power. You can go to her and ask her anything you want, but whether you’ll get answers or not is entirely up to her. But whomever she chooses to try to replace her must have to endure some sort of test or something. And it appears that no one has ever successfully passed it.”
“You are correct,” said a grating voice behind us. We all jumped out of our chairs and turned around. Floating in the back of the room was the shadowy apparition of Queen Sekhmet. Not her physically, but her spirit or something. I had seen her once before, in her statute form in her hidden, underground pyramid in Egypt. She had terrified me then. This apparition, though not the same, still had the voice as if made from stone, still had the ‘I can crush you with a thought’ power to it, still scared the crap out of me. I felt Carlos and Matt’s arms close protectively around me. And I automatically reached my hand out to Jason and closed it over his arm, pulling him gently back towards us. He seemed a little shocked at first, glancing at my hand and then at my face, but then he seemed to understand. His eyes softened and he stepped backward to meet us.
“May I ask why you are here?” I whispered.
She nodded and said, “You may. I am here to summon someone.”
We all visibly cringed. My eyes immediately went to Bahiti as I thought, ‘No, please not her.’
“No, it is not her,” Sekhmet said.
‘Not Bahiti?’ I thought, ‘But she knows so much.’
Apparently, Sekhmet could hear what I was thinking, even tho
ugh I hadn’t felt her link minds with me. She responded, “Yes, she is very knowledgeable. But that’s not all that I am searching for. The one I need must have strength too.”
I tried not to react, but my heart started racing a mile a minute as I thought, ‘Dear God, please don’t let it be Matt or Carlos.’
Her head slowly shook back and forth. The figure floated a little closer to us. “No, child, it is not them that I seek either.”
My hand tightened on Jason’s arm. “But, but, he’s just a child,” I whispered.
“I know he’s just a child. The reason I’m here is because I have felt what is the best possible hope for success than I have ever felt in my four-thousand years of existence.” she said.