Feral: Part One

by Arisa Baumann

  He nodded and pressed a kiss to the top of my head before reluctantly making his way to the bedroom door, where he glanced back at me hesitantly.

  “I’m okay,” I insisted softly.

  I had just turned my back to him, when suddenly the Earth spun and his lips were against mine, an unusual and soft growl coming from his throat. "Make me," he rumbled harshly, his voice filled with pleading. "I don't want to leave you. Tell me to go."

  I exhaled quietly, feeling my heart ache for him, and stroked his back. "You, Simon Treviso, need to feed and come back to me fast." I hugged him tightly and cooed in his ear, "I promise, Simon. I'm okay. I won’t lie to you and say I understand, and that everything’s sunshine and roses. This is a lot to take in, but I'm a big girl. I can handle it. As long as you are mine, everything is okay."

  My own statement seemed to blindside me, and I came to the conclusion there were many more questions I needed to ask Simon.

  "I am yours forever, cara mia."

  "And I'm yours. Always."

  Again, my words flowed so freely, so naturally that they took me completely by surprise. Regardless of my lack of understanding, it was like my world—a world that had been tipped on its axis by Colton, Madison, and everyone whom I allowed to drive me from my home—was suddenly righted, and that balance seemed far better than it had previously been. It felt like I’d just recovered some missing piece of an invisible puzzle. I stepped back and stared intently at him.

  "I want you to go hunt. I'll be waiting downstairs for you. Okay?"

  He inhaled deeply, as if drawing all his strength, turned faster than I could comprehend, and disappeared.

  I picked up my jeans and shirt and draped them over the foot of the bed. I briefly considered searching for some pants or something to wear under Simon's shirt, but decided that it was long enough and covered my underwear appropriately.

  I took my time walking down the stairs.

  Maymūna, while clearly loud and forthright, seemed nice enough, as did Grace, but that still didn’t mean I was overly comfortable being left alone with two succubi. It wasn’t because I thought they would hurt me—I had a strong feeling Simon would do something rather drastic if they did—but more that these two women were the epitome of poise and beauty. It would take some adjustment knowing I would be seeing more of these two goddess-like creatures.

  When my feet hit the ground floor, I heard a chuckle and glanced over to see Maymūna and Grace both smirking and dressed in similar pant suits, one in black and one in chocolate. Now that it was daylight and I wasn’t so drowsy or in as much pain, I could see them more clearly.

  Grace’s hair was a completely different shade of red from my friend’s. Where Brie’s hair was a deep auburn color, this woman’s hair was a lighter, brighter shade of red. It could have easily given Lucille Ball a run for her money in the brilliant red-head department.

  The exotic succubus appeared to be in her early thirties, which, if my memory was correct, was about ten years younger than her husband looked, while Grace appeared to be closer to my age. I couldn’t help but wonder how old both really were, given Simon was just over six hundred.

  It was apparent from their matching expressions that they had overheard my conversation with Simon, but then again, they were vampires, so I shouldn’t have been so surprised. It occurred to me then that privacy was something I may never have again, and I found that a little disturbing.

  As I started across the room, Grace vanished in a flash while Maymūna blurred to stand in front of me, holding out a glass of chocolate milk. "How are you?" she asked sagely.

  I inhaled deeply, my eyes drifting shut for a moment, before they snapped open. "I'm okay, I think. I’m confused about a few things, and it hasn’t all fully settled in, but overall, I’m okay." I let her lead me to the kitchen where Grace stood, adding some butter to the large stack of pancakes on the table. "I mean, I can’t lie. It's a lot to deal with, vampires and mates.”

  I sat down and beamed at the blind succubus, even if she couldn’t see it. “Thank you, Grace.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  To my mild surprise, both women seemed incredibly kind. I found my discomfort fading rapidly as I dug into the pancakes, occasionally using the food and the delicious chocolaty beverage as a temporary distraction while I asked and answered questions.

  “He was my boyfriend before, and prior to college, before I started growing up, certainly before I walked through y’all’s door, I thought I knew love. I thought I understood being in love. I thought I loved Cole until I started maturing, and then I realized that wasn’t love. That was poisonous.

  “And when I started seeing Simon, when I started developing feelings for him, I thought that was what falling in love felt like, at least to an extent. I suppose for a human that is supposed to be what falling in love feels like. Well, except for maybe the jealousy those first couple of weeks. I thought that was a little odd for having just met someone. Actually, I thought I was going crazy. I guess that’s a vampire-inspired-mate-thing?” I looked up for confirmation and was relieved to see both nodding. “Oh, well, that’s good. I thought I needed to call a therapist,” I commented, much to their amusement.

  I ate a few more bites of my warm breakfast before I continued. “This feels different. When I first started seeing Simon a few months ago, I said I wanted things to go slowly, but this feels okay. It feels… nice. It feels surprisingly natural, and that, well, surprises me.”

  I took a large gulp of milk and nearly choked on it when my phone buzzed and a box appeared proclaiming I had a text message from Cole. I put the glass down and sighed. “Then there’s this.”

  I held up my cell phone for Maymūna to see who was calling. “After what happened with Cole, after everything he put me through when I broke up with him, I can’t feel sorry for him, not really. I’m sure it hurts knowing the person you can’t let go of belongs to another, but I can’t deny my feelings for Simon. Even without the whole vampire-incubus-mate-stuff, I’ve been seeing Simon for months now. Even without some… intense connection… I’d still be attracted to him. We have mutual interests, and I’ve been falling slowly in love with him. So mate or not, Cole was always going to be out of the picture. Hell, he’s been out of the picture, at least for me.

  “What if Cole can’t deal with this? I mean, when y’all sire a new vampire—is that the word y’all use or is that a media thing?—oh well. Isn’t that like creating a child or something for y’all? Aren’t clans or whatever like family? Because even though I can’t really bring myself to feel sorry for Cole, I’ll feel horrible if I’m ripping a kid from its parent. I don’t want that to happen.”

  Grace simply moved around the counter to hug me.

  "That is not exactly how it works, Sofia," Maymūna said patiently. “Honestly, it is not that complicated. There are no familial bonds, no psychic connection. The only connections that remotely resemble those of your human fantasies are the bonds between mates. So do not worry that you will be causing any sort of parental trauma where Kendal or the clan is concerned. You will not be taking, as you say, a kid away from its parent. And before you start developing any foolish feelings of emotional martyrdom, I should probably remind you of your own words, or at least similar ones.”

  Her smirk held no condescension. “Despite being a relatively new vampire, Colton Malver is a grown adult. You are not his mother, nor are you his keeper. His choices, behavior and actions are not your fault. It was explained firmly and without any malice, as Grace can attest to, that you are Simon’s mate. Yes, it was rather sudden for him, but at twenty-three years old, incubus or human, he should be mature enough to accept something that, apparently, has long since been finished.

  “He not only chose to ignore the fact that you are Simon's mate, he plainly refused to accept the orders of his leader to cease attempts to pursue. If that was not enough, after you were caught in the crossfire, as it were, and were rendered unconscious, he then refused to follow th
e direct commands his creator gave him and proceeded to fight his sire.”

  “Sofia,” Grace spoke patiently as she released me and slid onto the stool next to mine. “What Cole did was wrong, and now he has to face the consequences. I’m sure it won't be easy, but hopefully in time, he will get over it.”

  I knew Cole. He wouldn’t.

  I was certain that a few of my friends would laugh if they knew I was guzzling down chocolate milk, but it was my comfort beverage, and by George, after the recent insights, I felt I damn well deserved several ounces of comfort!

  I finished my pancakes and was starting on my second glass of milk, eyes taking in the deep red of the kitchen, when another thought came to me. I voiced my concern, or rather my curiosity, about something that had been niggling at the back of my subconscious to Grace and Maymūna.

  While it was true I’d become more and more involved with Simon over the passing months, I was still a bit surprised to have also had such a change of emotions in the span of only a few hours. Fortunately, they both calmly explained more of the intricacies of “vampiric mating habits” to me.

  The term had my lips twitching, and I had the sneaking suspicion Maymūna used it on purpose to try to get a reaction from me. It almost worked.

  Between two vampires, the pull was apparently instantaneous and almost entirely irresistible. Under normal circumstances, the draw between a vampire and a human was almost as equally intense. That Simon struggled to resist his own nature for so long had put a strain on the spiritual thread that connected us, and the natural emotions evoked in both parties when one found their mate was, in our case, only intensified by the awakening sensations Simon felt. In short, where I would’ve been drawn to him and fallen for him quite quickly under regular circumstances, his heightened emotions were directly effecting my own, progressing them more rapidly than normal.

  When I questioned them about what would’ve happened had Simon ignored the pull, Maymūna's expression turned grave. All she would say was it would have ended disastrously. The look in Grace's unseeing eyes told me 'disastrously' was the other’s tactful way of saying Simon would have died, and I could only presume that a broken heart would’ve led to him having someone take his life.

  I went to voice my opinion on this, but just as I opened my mouth, the sound of a door opening and slamming shut stopped me. I turned to see him blur to a stop only a few feet from me, where he then took in my relaxed appearance and bright smile. I watched as he made to step forward, but froze. He didn’t pause like a human, but genuinely froze. He was totally immobilized, as solid and as unmoving as a statue, and that made me nervous.

  When I started to stand, Grace heard my movements and stopped me with a hiss. "Don’t move."

  "What's wrong?" I questioned. "Is he okay?"

  "He is in shock," Maymūna supplied in hushed tones as she ever-so-slowly turned her head to look at me. Her eyes cut toward my mate, regarding him silently, then darted back to me, catching my incredulous expression. "Yes, Sofia, vampires can go into shock. It does not occur often. It only happens during times when they are just overcome with too many emotions. Emotions are more intense for vampires, and when they are overwhelmed, they go into a type of sensory overload. I personally have never seen any vampire shut down before though."

  "Shut down?" I could feel the panic growing inside me. "What's going to happen to him?"

  "Nothing is going to happen, Sofia,” she assured me with a shake of her head. “When a vampire goes into shock, it is in essence our body's way of forcing us to stop and let our mind have time to comprehend and absorb everything.

  “Vampires have an eidetic memory. Every single thing we do, say, think, see, smell, feel—any input we encounter—we remember forever. Normally, our brains can keep up, but sometimes when you add to all that stimuli enormous waves of emotions, it becomes too much. Our bodies just shut down temporarily to keep us from doing much of anything while it sorts through all the input. We cannot speak. We cannot move. We cannot breathe. The only thing we have left is our hearing and vision.

  "However," she drawled, "instinct is the strongest force within a vampire. If you were to make any sudden movements, his distracted brain would see it as a threat. Because you are his mate, he cannot directly hurt you, but that unfortunately does not mean that he cannot hurt himself or anyone else indirectly by pulling the house down around our ears."

  I glanced at Simon, still frozen like a statue. "So he can see us and hear us?"

  "Yes," Grace replied. "They're protective measures. If we lost all our senses during shock, we’d be vulnerable to attack."

  "What triggered it?"

  “You,” Maymūna answered bluntly. “His instincts have been building and building, then after you were attacked… You are not the only one this situation is overwhelming for, Sofia. Despite being a vampire and the leader of this clan, Simon has never really experienced life as a vampire.”

  She shrugged. “All night he was fretting about how you will handle this entire situation, and that has pretty much been the only reason he has not gone into shock in the past twenty-four hours. He was previously concerned about telling you, so I can only surmise the strain of the attack and your state of mind put so much stress on his systems they overloaded. And I can tell you that while he knows you are safe with us, he still was not entirely comfortable with the decision to leave you in order to hunt.

  “I imagine seeing you relaxed and unharmed was a trigger in his mind that you are okay. In knowing you are both physically and emotionally well, for the largest part at least, his mind gave his body permission to shut itself down to compute all of the sensations he has had to deal with this past day."

  I let my eyes drift back to Simon, who had obviously dressed before coming downstairs. The black slacks hung low on his hips and a perfectly tailored, periwinkle, button-down shirt hugged his chest and mouth-wateringly broad shoulders. I thanked every god and goddess I had ever read about that the sleeves were rolled up, revealing his powerful forearms.

  God, he was gorgeous. Then again, given what he was, I guess it came with the territory.

  I resisted the temptation to look up into his eyes, because I felt a bit guilty sitting there discussing and ogling him, especially since he could see us and hear every single word. Not that it would’ve really mattered, I guess. There probably was no place in the house we could go and not be heard. "It’s probably rude to talk about him when he's like this."

  "Probably," Maymūna commented with no small amount of glee, "but it is not as if we can go anywhere if we do not want him to destroy this part of the mansion. Of course, even if we could leave, we can hear for a good mile or two. And what were we supposed to do, Sofia? Not tell you what is happening and let you sit there and panic?"

  I sighed. "Good point. But, well, it's got to be uncomfortable, don't you think? I mean—" I barely waved my hand in his direction "—look at him! He can see and hear everything we do. It's got to be awkward."

  "I know! It is quite hilarious, is it not?" she chuckled.

  I looked to Grace for support, but her lips were twitching with a suppressed smile. "Grace!"

  "Oh, c'mon, Sofia! It's funny, you’ve gotta admit,” she said with a wink. “He's stuck there. He can't move. We could tell the most embarrassing stories we know about him, and he can't do anything about it." She laughed before cutting the sound short, throwing a bemusedly apologetic glance up to my mate. "I'm sorry, Simon, but it is kind of funny."

  "Oh my god!" I stared at them both, trying desperately to keep my expression under control. "You two are terrible!"

  Maymūna gave me a big smirk. "Then why are your lips twitching?" When I mumbled ‘are not’, she burst out laughing. "You know that you want to laugh, Sofia!"

  I could feel my face turning bright red. I felt bad, really I did, but they were right… kind of. However, I couldn’t let my mate see me laughing, so I dropped my head into my hands as my lips curled into a grin.

  "I know you ar
e not laughing at my expense, cara mia," he whispered in my ear.

  I let out a blood-curdling scream and jumped from the stool, nearly losing my footing when my feet touched the slippery wood floor. I glared at the two succubi who practically rolled with laughter and wadded up my napkin, throwing it at Grace as she was the closest. "That was not funny.”

  EIGHT

  It wasn’t until after I finished my breakfast, when Simon went to kiss me, that I realized something very important. I had come straight down to breakfast without taking a shower or even brushing my teeth, so when he leaned in to kiss my lips, I smirked and kept them tightly pressed together, ignoring his arched eyebrow.

  He seemed thoroughly baffled for a moment, but when I continued to grin, my lips firmly shut, he shook his head at me with a heavy chuckle. "Gioia mia, my joy, certainly you are not denying your mate the pleasure of your divine lips simply because you are worried about a little morning breath?"

  My eyes went wide at his humorous words, probably comically so from one of the other’s perspectives, and I struggled to control my smile. I lifted my hand to shoo him away, but he only shook his head. I rolled my eyes, and deciding to rectify my mistake, slid off my stool but was bemused at finding the doorway blocked. I growled as menacingly as a human possibly could at him, and he growled right back, grinning the entire time.

  I stared at him for a few moments, before coming up with an idea.

  With a bright smile, I turned on my heel and took two steps toward the dining room entrance, watching him blur by to block me from leaving. I instantly spun and dashed for the main entryway, only to be caught firmly around the waist.

  I shrieked in protest when I went soaring through the air in his grasp and huffed when his lips came down on my mine, parting them with ease. I noticed as I held his gaze that his eyes twinkling with the laughter that vibrated in his chest and that he was very careful how close he pressed his face close to mine. I figured he was being careful not to touch the bruising, and was grateful.