Kiss Me Before I Die

by Rena Marks

  “Yes,” I whispered.

  “We had no idea. She hid her pregnancy and your birth well. In fact, I remember the news about a child being taken from a mental patient to enroll at the Academy. That must have been you.”

  I said nothing. There wasn’t anything to say.

  “I could have prevented your upbringing, bella.” His voice was tortured.

  “And I wouldn’t be who I am today. Perhaps I would have been a weaker individual who would have slit her throat when she found out about her parentage. Because trust me, the urge is there. I’ll always wonder which of Ramon’s tendencies I carry.”

  “You’re nothing like him, sweet.”

  “Which is why I’m terrified of death. If I pass and return as a vampire, will my personality change?”

  Ethan stayed quiet. There was no way we’d ever know.

  “How long have you had the fear of dying?”

  “Thirteen. Since I slew him.”

  “Bella, they must know you’ll nourish me and I’ll be at my full strength. Do you really think they intend to let me survive?”

  I was surprised by his train of thought.

  “Of course.” But he didn’t know. No one knew their main objective except for me, because I had hacked into my own files. “Ethan, their primary focus is to create another me. Dr. Fokusovich knows of my vampire genes and has figured I’ll best be compatible with a vampire. He wants to breed me with you. Tonight, hopefully. But he won’t kill you unless he can find a rapist vampire elsewhere, because he knows I can’t be in vitro fertilized. No, he’ll keep you for me.”

  Ethan looked sick at what was merely a fact of life for me.

  “If I was able to have children, I’m sure I would have long before now,” I whispered. “With you. I’m pretty sure I’m sterile, much like Ramon was. I think it was a fluke that he impregnated Virginia.”

  “Come here.”

  I slid closer to him. He ran a fingertip down the side of my face, trailing it just under my jaw.

  “There’s something you need to know about the relationship of Ramon to my family.”

  I held my breath, trying not to let any emotion cross my face.

  “Ramon was the hardest justice I ever had to dole. Partly because it was not an unemotional punishment. Back then, leaders of a clan dealt with their own rather than shipping it off elsewhere. Ramon was on trial for the rape of my sister…after my mother’s death.”

  A flashback hit me, causing me to suck in my breath as if sucker-punched. The taunting of Ramon right before I killed him. The grating tones that intimated I too, would like my sex with violence.

  “What is it?” Ethan said, watching carefully.

  “I just thought of something. It happened long ago, before I killed him. He told me I would enjoy rape.”

  I’d closed my eyes briefly against the pain it caused.

  They were furiously wrenched open when Ethan gripped the back of my hair forcefully, elongating my neck.

  “You are not him, bella. Never let him convince you otherwise. You have overcome obstacles that would have killed anyone with lesser values.”

  There was a roaring in my ears. “Ethan,” I whispered. His emotions were running rampant. Apparently my blood had done its duty of nourishing him properly. His strength was up to full speed, though a little out of control.

  His eyes refocused and his grip lessened. The air became easier to breathe once more.

  “Don’t waste your strength,” I cautioned.

  “Too late,” he whispered.

  “I can’t give you more blood,” I warned. “Not without zapping my own strength.”

  “Just a good night’s rest,” he promised. “You’ll be able to give me more in the morning, before they arrive for us.”

  “They’ll arrive at six,” I said. “They have rigid timelines. Militaristic.”

  “We’ll awaken at five,” he said. “You’ll feed me and we’ll destroy this place before we leave.”

  I smiled. “Now we’re on the same plan, my love.”

  The air was still thick and heady. We stared at each other in silence, our breathing becoming heavier. I couldn’t help but think back to the slow and sensual sucking of my blood. The feelings that had coursed through my veins not ten minutes earlier.

  His eyes dropped to my lips, which felt like they’d plumped under his gaze. Leaning forward, he gently nipped my bottom lip.

  I reached up and cupped the back of his head, holding his mouth firmly to me. His lips slanted over mine, his tongue darting out to taste mine.

  I moaned. “Do we dare?”

  “Why not? You disabled the speakers and the monitors.”

  “Ethan. They’re hoping for this, planning on breeding me. Fokusovich is praying at this moment that the catalyst of vampire genes will finally impregnate me.”

  “Say the word and I’ll stop.”

  But I couldn’t. He nuzzled my neck, licking gently. My hand trembled as I cradled his face, bringing his gaze back up to mine. “I love you. I always have. I always will.”

  “I know, sweet. But thank you for finally admitting it.”

  My lips curled. Of course, he would act blasé.

  I pressed my lips to his neck and traced my tongue along his collarbone. I’d missed him so. The scent of his skin enticed me, triggering the recent hormones that had raced through my bloodstream. Wicked thoughts caressed my mind as surely as if he’d touched me already.

  I unzipped the silver clasp of the Extinguisher uniform I wore. The noise was loud with only the sound of our heavy breathing in the room. When the zipper reached the bottom, he pushed the top from my shoulders easily. The pants followed the removal of my shoes, leaving me completely bare while he was dressed.

  I kissed the corner of his mouth, then tilted my lips to his, deepening the kiss, licking his lips, tasting his tongue. His thumbs and forefingers found my nipples, rubbing them between his fingers. They tingled beneath his touch hardening to points. I couldn’t wait to have the heat of his mouth sucking them.

  “You have always been so beautiful, bella.”

  He leaned forward and licked a trail across my collarbone. Desire spread through my midsection, spiraling through my limbs. I was desperate for more of his touch.

  His lips burned down to my breasts, where he squeezed them together and licked first one nipple, then the other. He murmured against my wet flesh, his breath hot and tingly. “There are so many things I want to do to you.”

  His words heightened my desire. “Like what?”

  His eyes rolled up to stare into my own. “I want to lick you from head to toe. Every single spot in between. I want to find every delicious nook, every sensitive cranny. I want to thrust into you hard and plunge into you soft. I want to watch you make yourself come, because there is nothing more beautiful in the world.”

  “Baby,” I smiled. “I wouldn’t get that far. I’d be begging for you to finish me off before I ever got there. Or I’d be kneeling between your legs, sucking you into my mouth.”

  He shuddered at my words. “Keep talking,” he said huskily and licked his finger. When it was wet, he trailed it down my body. Then he sucked my nipple into his mouth.

  “I’d trace the tiny seam between your balls,” I said.

  I gasped when his finger plunged into my sheath. He stroked the swelling of my walls and I bore down, gripping him tightly. It was insanely erotic to have him deep within me.

  “Then?”

  I tried to continue, but his finger tickling the lip of my cervix was driving me crazy.

  “I’d lick straight up the seam to the base of your cock. I’d trace around it, then slowly alongside it, down to the head.”

  His thumb was gently pressing on my clitoris now.

  “I’d lick the opening on the head before I suck it into my mouth,” I gasped. His thumb pressed harder. “Then I’d taste the ridge on the head with my tongue pointed sharply.”

  His mouth stopped sucking my nipple and he moved lo
wer. Bending my legs at the knees, he spread them up and apart. I grabbed a pillow, propping it behind me so I could watch him better. My favorite position, to watch him.

  His eyelids were heavy as he studied his finger buried in my sex. Slowly he pulled it out and circled my swollen clitoris.

  Fire rolled from the point of contact upward. His fingertip was hot, slick and heavy. I craved it pushing directly on the nub again.

  He spread my labia with one hand. My clitoris stood proud and exposed, glistening with the juices that coated it. He bent his head and gave it a long lick which left it quivering.

  “Ethan,” I gasped. “Do it again.”

  He looked up at me. “I want you to be mine, bella. I want to be the only one who ever lies between your thighs.”

  “Anything,” I gasped when his wicked tongue traced an exotic spiral over my slit, ending on the tiny pearl.

  “Be sure, Afton. I want you to understand, I love you too much to ever let you go. I want you in all ways, body, mind, soul. I want marriage, I want devotion, I want the whole thing.”

  He was very serious, the lights in the room flickered slightly with his emotions. But his lips clamped down on my sensitive flesh and I moaned as he sucked it into his mouth. “Yes, Ethan. Of course I am yours. Always.”

  “Marriage?”

  “As soon as we can,” I assured him, then let my head drop back on the pillow as he pleasured me.

  Aching flames were licking deep inside my womb. I was insatiable with lust, my hips rocking back and forth against his mouth, bumping against his teeth. Suddenly, my climax burst from me in spirals of explosions.

  I collapsed backward, weak as a limp rag.

  I heard the rustling of fabric and knew he was pushing his pants down. His erection sprang out, strong and thick in a nest of dark curls trimmed short. He pulled his shirt over his head, exposing tight abs, a perfectly defined chest and biceps.

  My image over his heart.

  He was perfection. Wanton need stirred again in my body, lust from the mere sight of his physical beauty. As if that wasn’t enough, he grasped his cock within his strong hand. Deliberately, he stroked up and down its length, then guided it to where my legs were spread.

  It felt as gentle as a kiss where it touched me. It lay in the wetness of my body, right at the entrance of my cunt. He gripped my hips and rocked his pelvis against me, like an exotic dancer. The broad head pressed in with his circular rotations. I stretched my legs up, circling my ankles behind his neck.

  In one thrust, he filled me.

  I moaned and his thumbs rubbed at my hipbones as he danced within me.

  “Ethan, that’s it,” I murmured, barely able to express myself with the heightened feelings coursing through my veins. He reached high up inside me, triggering an insatiable hunger.

  One of his hands left my hip to rub my slit with his thumb. He massaged my clitoris, driving me wild in the new position of my legs closed together.

  “Harder,” I demanded, waves of lust rolling over me. The smell of sex permeated the air, thick and heady.

  He thrust harder, his heavy testicles slapping against my anus.

  “You drive me wild,” he muttered. “You are so sexy, I could take you over and over and never be tired.”

  “We’ll test that theory,” I assured him. “I can’t hold out, Ethan. I’m going to come hard.”

  “Come for me, my beauty. I love to watch.”

  I writhed around his cock. “Then watch me.”

  I separated my legs, curling one down and pushing on his shoulder with my hand to let him know I wanted him down. Without letting him slip from my pussy, he was suddenly flat on his back with me positioned on him, where I could ride freely.

  A wicked glint sparked in his eye. “My favorite,” he murmured.

  “Mine too,” I agreed, as I took his hands and sucked the fingers that had been in my sex.

  I rode freely, bearing down so he was buried to the hilt deep in the recesses of my cunt. I circled on him, making him groan. His thumbs and forefingers pinched my hard nipples, triggering sharp shocks of pleasure-pain.

  I tossed my head back when another explosion hit, ripping throughout my body. The walls of my sheath clenched him, gripping him tightly, milking his cock and forcing his climax also.

  “Bella,” he groaned, tangling his fingers in my hair when I collapsed onto his chest.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Being back in the environment thrust me right into old habits. At five a.m., even though safely ensconced in Ethan’s arms, I awoke.

  He was already awake and watching me. “It is time?”

  “Yes. They’ll be here in an hour.”

  It was when guards always made their rounds. We showered and dressed in twenty minutes. But way too early, before Ethan could feed, the electronic door swung open. Black-garbed guards entered, wearing guns. They looked warily at me at the same time they encircled Ethan.

  “We’ll need you both restrained to be escorted out.” The voice over the loudspeaker echoing from the hallway was undoubtedly Dr. Fokusovich.

  Ethan looked quickly at me. I cursed my stupidity. The entire camp felt Ethan’s loss of control last night and the doctors decided to stir up the usual routine, pouncing upon us earlier than usual.

  And he hadn’t fed enough for full strength.

  Ethan’s hands were handcuffed behind his back. He turned to me, pressing one last kiss to my lips. “I’ll wait for you at the nest.”

  I nodded, my stomach in knots. He was telling me we had to strike separately.

  But only half the guards escorted him out. The rest stayed behind with me. Something didn’t feel right. I shifted my weight and the guards inched a cautious circle around me.

  “What the hell is going on?” I called loudly to Fokusovich, who remained strangely silent on the loudspeaker outside. The guards had purposely left the door open, making it easy for him to listen in.

  “Now, Afton,” said the one in front. Hartley. One of the Originals, who was now a human guard. The bastard who had been set to impregnate me so long ago. “Surely you don’t blame us for escorting you to Dr. Fokusovich?”

  Then why would we be standing around uneasily, both sides waiting for the other to strike? I made a small motion to move for the door and the eight men around me reached for their guns. I froze as they drew, the heavy metal clicking as it scraped from the holsters they carried.

  “What is this, HB-8?” I asked softly. Just referring to his old name asserted my superiority. If it wasn’t for me, he’d still be a letter and a number. Just as they all had been.

  “I only want to make sure you stay peaceful,” he returned easily enough. He was a man now and skilled enough to no longer fight against the aggression the testosterone treatments had caused when we were younger.

  “You’d better be prepared. If any harm comes to Ethan, you’ll die,” I warned.

  The barest hint of something rolled across his face.

  Truth. Triumph. Satisfaction.

  They never had any intention of letting Ethan go. I was a fool to think I had the upper hand. I realized it almost instantly as I watched the different expressions roll over his face.

  I was faster than most Extinguishers but Hartley was an ex-Extinguisher. And an Original. He was good enough for the human guards but he’d never followed instructions well enough to be kept on our squad and therefore didn’t have full training.

  Personally, I believe he wanted to be one of the guards. He was stronger and able to bully the rest of the human men, whereas on the Extinguishing squad he was low man on the totem pole.

  He was the one I attacked. The strongest, the fastest.

  I attacked before any of the others were even aware of it. I morphed behind him, punched a hole in his back and grabbed his heart from between his shoulder blades. One guard shot at the spot where I had been standing, hitting empty air in the middle of the circle and taking out the man directly across from him. The rest froze, afraid to kill
each other in an accidental gunfire.

  It was a tricky move on my part, to continue with the element of surprise. To use the shock effect of Hartley’s death to terrify the human men who looked up to him as an ex-Extinguisher.

  Fear caused their next paranoia. I tossed the useless body into the middle of the circle unexpectedly and one foolish guard shot, triggering the chain reaction anyway. All men were focused on releasing a bullet on the already dead body, wasting their time and gunfire. From behind them, I was able to morph behind each one and break a neck, a spine, or rip out a vital organ, one on one, as I killed each of them. The guards were no match for my speed, though their higher training placed them a step up from human police.

  Before I knew it, I stood alone. I hoped Ethan fared as well.

  I grabbed a few guns from the fallen men, slipping them into my waistband and walked through my front door without pause. I looked up and down both ways. No footsteps sounded, signifying more Extinguishers.

  There was also no sign of Ethan or his guards in sight, no clue as to which direction they may have headed. I had two choices—left, to the underground lab or right, to the headquarters of Dr. Fokusovich.

  I strode farther down the hallway, aware that the cameras watched by the careful swivel of each lens before another took view. Purposefully, I headed to the main facility, where headquarters would be located. The echo of my heels on the polished stone floors were the only sound in the eerily silent facility.

  Until the loudspeakers overhead echoed.

  “Afton.”

  I ignored the voice, even though I knew who it was. Training had been enforced to respond always. Now, anger slightly colored his tone at my deliberate defiance of their rules.

  “A3!”

  I hadn’t been referred to that in years. It was a direct insult, which I would ignore for the time being. Until I could reach for his scrawny neck.

  The good doctor took a deep breath as he tried to calm his own emotions. His voice was a bit more placating when he spoke again.

  “Afton, where are you headed? Surely you don’t think to take on the entire compound single-handedly?”

  I didn’t bother to look upward at the voice emanating from the vicinity of the cameras. I knew he watched and wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of my respectful authoritative training.