Sentinel (Vampire Conclave: Book 2)

by S. J. West

  “One of these days,” he says with an appreciative smile, “I hope to take advantage of you stripping for me in a more pleasurable way.”

  I sigh. “I know. I’m so tired I’ll probably end up falling asleep after you feed, which does neither of us any good in the sex department.”

  Julian chuckles as he begins to take off his ruined jacket and undershirt.

  “It’s just as well,” he says, tossing the damaged clothing onto the back of one of the wooden chairs by the small dining table. “I would rather wait until we’re back home to make love to you for the first time. I’m not sure what it is about this place that makes me feel so uncomfortable, but I can’t seem to shake it for some reason.”

  “We’ll be able to go back home soon,” I assure Julian. “Alden is doing his best to find out who’s trying to kill us. I have full faith that he’ll be able to find a solution to our predicament. He doesn’t seem like someone who fails at much in his life.”

  “I agree.”

  “Now, come,” I say, standing in front of Julian dressed in only my bra and panties. “I can see how hungry you are.”

  Julian slips his shiny black dress shoes off and accepts my hand.

  I walk us over to the bed and lie down on it. Still having a firm grip on Julian’s hand, I yank him down rather forcefully until he’s lying on top of me.

  “How about a little foreplay first?” I ask, or is it order? It can be hard to tell the difference sometimes. “I mean, I am giving you my blood, after all. It seems only right that I get a little something pleasurable in return.”

  Julian’s pleased smile tells me I’ve said exactly the right thing.

  “Will you always be this bossy during our life together?” he inquires.

  “Bossy?” I say in mock indignation. “I’m simply a woman who knows what she wants, and right now I want to feel the man I love kiss me until I can’t think straight. Is that so wrong?”

  “No,” he replies huskily, “it’s absolutely right.”

  Julian kisses me like a starving man, which isn’t far from the truth. The slight pressure of his mouth on mine speaks not only of the restraint he’s using to hold himself back from feeding, but also his carnal desire for me. I don’t know how he does it, but every stroke of his hand against my skin and every delectable movement of his mouth against mine makes me lose contact with the world around us. All I can feel, taste, smell, hear, and want is him.

  I lift my hands and bury my fingers in the thickness of his hair, sliding them through its silky softness and pressing his head ever so slightly closer to mine. I want Julian to know that he can kiss me harder if he wants. I’m not that breakable. He complies by deepening our kiss until I can barely draw air into my lungs, but I don’t want him to stop. I feel more alive in this moment than I ever have in my whole entire life.

  When I feel Julian’s hands cup my breasts, I curse myself for not having the forethought to take my bra off before we started our play. Although I quickly learn that the sheer material isn’t a fortified barrier that can’t be broken through. I feel Julian’s hands grip the top edges of each cup and give an effortless tug to rend the puny fabric in two and release my breasts for his further exploration.

  Julian’s mouth leaves mine, causing me to gasp in disappointment, but it gives me an opportunity to breathe in some much needed air. I moan in despair over the loss but soon discover Julian’s plans are simply to exchange one pleasurable experience for another. The moment he begins to suckle on one breast while continuing to tease its twin with his fingers, I forget how to breathe and have to remind myself that my body can’t survive on pleasure alone.

  With my fingers still buried in his thick mane, I grip his strands tightly as my breathing becomes more ragged. When he begins to tease my nipple between his teeth, I lose control of my voice and call out his name, begging him over and over again not to stop. I’ve only had one other lover in my life, but I can safely say that he never made me orgasm by kissing only my breasts. Perhaps it was lack of experience on my previous lover’s part. Julian has, after all, had four hundred years of practice to learn how to pleasure a woman’s body. I can’t say I like thinking about him being with those nameless women, but in their way, they helped make him into the man he is today. How can I complain about that?

  When Julian slides his mouth across the valley between my breasts to lavish my other one with the same adoration, he slides one of his hands down over my rib cage and across the sensitive flesh of my belly. The moment I feel his fingers touch the lacey edge of my panties, I smile because I know exactly what’s coming next. As his hand slips underneath the thin material, I hold my breath, waiting for his first touch. When he slides his middle finger between my folds to lay across the center of me, I begin to repeat his name like a litany. I expect to feel him glide his finger along the sensitive mound of flesh, but he does something totally unexpected. His finger begins to vibrate instead, causing ripples of pleasure to consume what modesty I have left.

  I begin to shout his name, God’s name, and a few choice expletives that I didn’t even realize were within my vocabulary at the top of my lungs. As the pleasure builds to a point where I can’t possibly take anymore without completely losing myself forever, my body involuntarily jerks as I feel myself dive headfirst into a lake of warm, eternal bliss that cascades over my body as it drifts languidly onto a sunbaked shore that warms my skin and breathes new life into my soul. Julian’s finger stops vibrating, but his gentle strokes help bring me down out of the clouds slowly.

  “How …” I begin, but find that my mouth is too dry to continue until I swallow “… did you do that?”

  “You’ve seen how fast I can move,” he whispers, kissing my chest as he slips his hand out of my panties. “I can move any part of my body fast enough to vibrate.”

  I clamp my hands on either side of Julian’s head and make him look up at me so I can see his eyes when I ask excitedly, “Any part of your body?”

  He smiles. “Any part, Sarah.”

  “You do realize I may never let you leave this bed until you prove it to me, right?”

  Julian raises up until his mouth covers mine. When his tongue darts in to touch my own, I feel him prove to me that he can, in fact, move any part of him fast enough for it to vibrate.

  “Oh …” I say when he stops kissing me. “My …” I exhale in utter shock. “God … How did any of your other lovers ever let you get out of their beds?”

  Julian continues to smile down at me and chuckles at what I can only assume is a look of complete and utter astonishment on my face.

  “Truthfully,” he says, “I did have to compel a few of them to forget having ever met me. Some of the women became obsessed to the point that they couldn’t function in their everyday lives.”

  “Can you blame them?” I ask. “I would stalk you too. You’re like every woman’s wet dream come to life!”

  Julian leans down and whispers in my ear, “Well, I certainly seem to be able to make you wet. You were ready for me even before I touched you there.”

  As he begins to kiss the edges of my ear lobe and work his way down the side of my neck, I reply, “Just one look from you seems to be enough to do the trick.”

  Julian moves his body until he’s straddling my hips with his. I feel his mouth venture to his favorite spot on the base of my neck.

  “I can’t wait any longer, Sarah,” he moans before testing the flesh with the edges of his teeth.

  “You don’t have to wait,” I tell him, sliding my fingers through his hair once again and pressing his mouth more firmly against my skin. “Drink, Julian. Take all of me that you need.”

  Julian doesn’t need a second invitation.

  I wince slightly as his jaw tightens and his teeth pierce my flesh. As he draws out my blood, I feel thankful that I’m able to repay him in this small way for saving my life earlier. Sure, he was saving his own life too, but that’s not why Julian jumped in front of me to block the fireball. Julian
’s motivation stemmed from love, not self-preservation. I’m not sure what those attending the farewell ceremony thought of his sacrifice, but hopefully they recognized his act as one of bravery and not just selfishness. If I’ve learned anything about my vampire companion, it’s the fact that Julian tends to place the needs of others above his own. Very few people, no matter what race they may be, can claim to possess such a noble characteristic.

  As Julian continues to drink my blood to replenish his wasted reserves, I begin to feel my tiredness consume what’s left of my energy. When I close my eyes, I feel my body drift off to the land of Nod and my mind looking forward to a bright and gloriously new day.

  When I wake up, I do so to the smell of freshly baked pancakes, bacon, and coffee. I open my eyes to a room filled with bright and cheery sunshine.

  “Good morning,” Nadia says to me a bit more merrily than I would have thought possible from her.

  I find her sitting alone at the small table in the room where a banquet of food can be found awaiting my consumption. Nadia is cutting up a stack of pancakes on her plate with a fork and knife. Apparently, she didn’t feel the need to wait for me to awaken before she started eating. It’s just as well. I’ll probably be through with my meal before she takes her last bite of breakfast.

  But first, I need to find some clothes to put on. I’m still only wearing my panties underneath the bedcovers.

  “The servants brought you some clothes to wear today and to the ball tonight,” she tells me, almost like she just read my mind. “They’re hanging in the closet.”

  I scoot over to the other side of the bed and walk as quickly into the closet as I can.

  I find a soft bone-colored asymmetrical sweater and slim black pants hanging next to a beautiful chiffon dress. The gown is maroon in color with a stitched-in crystalline belt around the waist. I pull the sweater and pants off their hangers and begin to open some of the built-in drawers to search for a new pair of underwear. Luckily, whoever brought in the clothes did indeed remember that I needed undergarments too. I pull out a white bra and pantie set and begin to dress. I find a pair of tan ankle boots to put on and walk out of the closet fully clothed.

  “You know,” Nadia says, sitting back in her chair as she watches me approach the table, “I had no clue you could yell so loudly.”

  I’m positive my cheeks turn a bright shade of red as I sit down in the chair directly across from her at the table. How exactly am I supposed to respond to her comment?

  “Well,” I say as I reach for a fluffy croissant, “maybe you should just be thankful I didn’t have to use our safety word last night.”

  Nadia lets out something between a snort and a laugh. “Yes, I am thankful for that small miracle.”

  After I down my first croissant, I reach for another. “So where is Julian this morning? Did you run him out of my room?”

  “No,” she replies, looking slightly offended by my question. “When I came in with the servants, he asked me if I wanted to go spar with him for some exercise. I told him I couldn’t leave you, but I suggested he go over to the academy. They normally do their physical combat classes during the morning session. One of the guards took him over. I told him we’d meet him there after you ate.”

  “Are you planning to give us a tour of the school grounds, or are we just going over there to look at the royal jewels and leave?”

  “I thought I would show you around a bit, if that’s all right with you. We don’t have much else to do until this evening.”

  “A tour would be nice, but right now, I’m starving, so don’t take offense if I don’t say much in the next few minutes. If you want to ask me something, make it a yes or no kind of question so all I have to do is move my head to answer.”

  Nadia holds up her hands. “Far be it from me to interrupt your eating ritual. The sooner you eat, the sooner we can start our day.”

  As I predicted earlier, I do indeed eat all the food on the table before Nadia finishes her plate of pancakes and two slices of bacon.

  With a full belly, I sigh in contentment and tell Nadia, “Let’s go. I don’t like being separated from Julian for too long.”

  She stands from her chair and waits for me to walk up to her side before leaving my suite.

  As we walk down the hallway toward the elevator, Nadia asks, “I got the feeling from Julian this morning that he needed to get rid of some pent-up energy. Considering the noise that came from your room last night, I would have thought he got plenty of exercise with you.”

  “Last night was a little one-sided,” I admit. Now that I think about it, I probably should have offered to return the pleasurable favor to Julian. Yet, taking into account how hungry he was, I don’t think he would have accepted my offer anyway.

  “Oh,” Nadia replies, looking confused. “I thought for sure the two of you finally consummated your relationship. It was nice of him to do that for you. To be frank, I can’t say any man I’ve been with has ever made me scream like that.”

  “Sister, me neither,” I say in wonder of all the unselfish pleasure Julian shared with me the night before. Just thinking about it is starting to make my heart beat two times faster.

  “We need to get off this subject,” I tell her as we step into the elevator and she presses the button to take us down to the bottom floor. “So, I presume the academy is within walking distance?”

  “Yes, it’s on the palace grounds.”

  “Is there a reason for that?” I ask, finding it odd that a school would be so close to the castle.

  “The early rulers of House Moonshade wisely decided that having the students so close to them would foster a healthy loyalty between this house and the future guardians of Alfheim. It’s a strategy that’s worked for many years. Shael herself goes there quite often to visit with the students. Almost every graduate from Valengard Academy vies for a position in House Moonshade. Shael only accepts five new guards a year. So to be selected by her is a great honor.”

  When we walk outside, I involuntarily raise my hand to shield myself from the sun’s brightness. We start out on the same pathway as Shael and I did the night before, but instead of keeping straight on the trail we’re on, Nadia veers off to the right down a branching path.

  “I assume being given the opportunity to become a sentinel for the next queen is an even harder thing to accomplish,” I say.

  “It wasn’t easy to get to where I am,” she admits. “I had to give up a lot in order to make it happen.”

  “Like what?”

  “A life of my own,” she replies, turning her head away from me slightly. I presume it’s so I can’t see her expression.

  “And if you could turn back time to do it all over again,” I say, “would you make the same decisions?”

  “If I was able to retain the knowledge that I have now, no. I would do things differently. But if I went back not having a clue how my life would turn out, I’m sure I would end up making the same choices. I was arrogant and foolish when I graduated from the academy. I thought I was honoring my father’s legacy when all I really did was make even worse mistakes than he did. At least he found a way to have a life and a family. I can’t seem to do either.”

  “Then why do you stay here, Nadia?” I ask in exasperation. “If you would be happier building a family of your own, shouldn’t you be working toward that goal instead?”

  “It would be pointless. I can’t have the man I love. He’s out of my reach now. Listen, I appreciate the fact that you’re trying to get to know me better, but I would rather change the subject. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

  “All right,” I say, not wishing to push Nadia to share more than she’s ready to.

  We walk in silence for a while, and I try to take in the scenery around us.

  The castle grounds have the greenest grass I’ve ever seen. As we pass by a small lake, I notice a tree growing smack dab in the center of it. The base of the trunk emerges from the water completely whole, but about five fe
et up, it splits into two equally large limbs that come back together a few feet up to form what looks like a heart shape in the middle of the trunk.

  “Do you have trees here that form shapes like that naturally?” I ask Nadia, nodding my head to the tree in the lake.

  “No,” she replies with a touch of sadness in her voice. “One of your ancestors cast a spell to make that tree.”

  “Any reason why?”

  “His daughter drowned in that lake. He erected it so that she would always be remembered.”

  “That’s so sad and sweet at the same time.”

  The story is a reminder that I don’t know anything about my family’s history or about the rulers who had to keep House Moonshade intact through various wars. I’m sure I can learn a great deal from their lives, and I hope to one day have the time to study how they all handled the pressure of ruling the people within their care.

  As we pass through a grove of trees with yellow and maroon-colored leaves, I get my first glimpse of Valengard Academy.

  “It’s as huge as the castle,” I say in surprise.

  For some reason, I had a regular Earth-type of school in mind when I pictured the academy, not something that rivaled Hogwarts in size and beauty. The building is basically shaped like a U with the center dominated by stone steps leading up to the entrance. The academy’s outer façade is composed of a mixture of light brown, verging on tan, bricks, while the various turrets and taller towers are constructed with roughhewn stone to act as accent points. The roof of the structure is composed of maroon ceramic tiles, for the most part, while the roofs of the various towers are constructed of sheets of brass with tall spires stretching toward the sky. In front of the academy is a large man-made pond with four evenly spaced spouting water fountains. It effectively splits the path leading up to the academy in two, forcing you to make a choice as to which side of the fountain you have to walk along.

  “It has to be large,” Nadia says as she gazes with pride at her alma mater, “since twenty-five children are brought here per year, and they all stay here for eleven years. That’s a minimum of 275 students at any given time. Plus, the heads of each house like to send their children here to study, so that number can reach upwards of 300. Then, if you add in the faculty who live on the premises, the classrooms, training rooms, kitchens, and dormitories, a lot of space is needed.”