by Myles, Jill
His fingers slid down the wet folds again, one fingertip dipping into the damp heat of my core. I bit back a moan of frustration at that, my hips rising involuntarily again, but he was too heavy atop of me. Instead, he touched me, stroking my clit and brushing his fingers along my sex in ticklish motions while I lay pinned beneath him, helpless to do anything but enjoy.
“You’re very sensitive here, Olivia,” he said softly. “I remember that.”
“Of course I am,” I gritted. “I’m a succubus.” His fingers were circling my wet heat again.
“No,” he said, voice husky. “When we were last together. I remember…you screamed when I put my mouth there. It was mere hours ago for me. The memory still burns hot in my mind.”
I began to pant. I couldn’t remember – those days were so far away they seemed like someone else’s lifetime. Mine had only been pain and Aloysius. But his words heated my body, and I began to play with my nipples, thinking of his mouth on my sex, licking me with the same languid, attentive strokes that his fingers were giving my clit.
As if he could sense what I was thinking, he bent over me and his tongue dipped into the wet well of my sex. My body went rigid and I swallowed the cry of pleasure that threatened to erupt. He gave my sex a long, slow lick that made my toes curl and I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood. I would not scream my pleasure. I would not scream my pleasure.
His tongue stroked against my clit at the same time that his finger slid within me, stretching me. A second slid home, sinking into my wet depths.
I screamed his name, arching my hips to push against him, my body quivering with the force of my sudden orgasm. The Itch spiraled through me, ebbing away with the aftershocks of pleasure, even as David thrust his fingers deep within me again, his tongue flashing over my clit over and over again. My hips quivered with each stroke, until the orgasm ebbed and I was left weak and gasping.
He moved off of me, and I thought he would roll off the bed, get away from the needy, weak creature that I was, but he surprised me again. When I turned to look over at him, David’s mouth moved to mine.
He kissed me.
I didn’t kiss the men I slept with. Aloysius kissed me only to punish me, and the lovers I’d taken since I ran away from him understood my quirk. Kissing was personal, and I didn’t like to do it. But when David’s lips met mine – still tasting of my orgasm — something within me shattered and broke.
His mouth on mine, his fingers buried in my sex, I came again in David’s arms. My need was wild, and my emotions were in turmoil, and it only made his kiss deepen. Each stroke of his tongue was a claim, reminding me that I belonged to him fully.
In one fluid motion, his fingers left my wet heat and he moved his body over mine, his weight bearing down on me. I stretched my long legs wide, welcoming the cradle of his hips into my own. His cock stroked into my welcoming body, and I sighed with relief. I wrapped my legs around his waist and pulled him down over me, my hands on his smooth, muscled back.
His mouth sought mine out, kissing and tasting me over and over again with each long, hard stroke, until my body throbbed with a need as great as his.
And when he climaxed, I was not far behind. One quick brush of his fingers to drive me over the edge, and I moaned my new release against his lips.
We lay there for a moment, spent. My breathing eventually slowed, and I relaxed in the languor that followed the abatement of the Itch. Aloysius and the constant fear receded to the back of my mind. My thoughts were entirely of David and his warm scent. David, whose weight still pressed against me in the bed, and who I still cradled between my legs.
David, who hadn’t abandoned me after all.
As if sensing my warming thoughts, David’s eyes met mine and he leaned in for another slow, sensual kiss. “Why now, Olivia?”
I immediately felt defensive. “Why what now?”
He shook his head. “No, I meant…why now? After a hundred and twenty years? Why only now did you seek me out?”
Oh. Reality came crashing back down, reminding me that even in this moment, I couldn’t escape my master. I’d never be free of him, not while he lived. So I looked David straight in the eye and said, “I need you to kill Aloysius for me.”
Chapter Three
“You want me to kill Aloysius?”
I closed my eyes, waiting for him to fling me away from him. To command me to leave. To banish me from his presence for even daring to speak of destroying another immortal.
He was silent.
I waited, and when he still did not speak, I opened my eyes a slit, looking at his face. There was pain there, and regret. But not anger directed at me. Not hate. Almost as if I’d said something that he knew had to happen as well, but had never voiced it aloud.
I didn’t understand this man.
Aloysius I knew. I knew him back and forth so well that I’d learned to manipulate him in my own little ways. Suggesting lesser punishments that sounded worse than what he’d think up for me, but punishments I could handle. Forcing his hand sometimes. And finally, knowing how his mind worked so I could escape. Though one might argue that Aloysius had let me run away – yet another level to our endless mind games that we played.
He leaned in to me and I instinctively flinched, but David only began to kiss my shoulder softly, pressing light kisses along the bare skin. “Tell me what I have missed in the last hundred and twenty years.”
I found his touch oddly comforting, and I stroked the golden curls of his hair as I stared up at the ceiling, thinking. I could tell him about the endless years of depravities. The years that Aloysius had punished me for David’s supposed betrayal and disappearance, letting me think that I’d somehow been responsible, when it had been him all along. The years that I fought back, and eventually gave in. The years he let his friends take their turns with me. The years I spent in a cage, locked in the basement of a vampire stronghold, blood slave to a dozen vampires.
I swallowed hard. I didn’t like thinking about those years. They belonged to the past. So I only said, “He is not who you think he is.”
“On the contrary,” David said, his voice soft and sad. “I think he is exactly who I think he is. Aloysius is miserable here on the mortal plain, and strives to make others miserable with him. He cares nothing of the feelings of others – only himself. He is selfish, petulant, and bores easily.” David leaned in and kissed my shoulder again. “You have known him for a hundred years, but I have known him for eons. And I did not see the darkness until it was too late.”
“He is a vampire now,” I said. “His soul is blacker than ever.”
He thought for a moment, then sighed. “I wonder that his soul has always been black, and I was too blind to see it.”
David seemed so sad about it that I didn’t have the heart to tell him I had no sympathy for Aloysius. Anything I might have felt for my vampire master – other than revulsion – had long ago disappeared.
“And you want to kill him?” David asked me. “That is a grievous crime amongst immortals, unless much has changed while I slept.”
“I don’t care if they condemn me,” I said. “It’s the only way I’ll ever be free of him. As long as he’s alive, he’s going to call me back to him. Continue torturing me. Make me suffer. And I can’t deal with it anymore.” My voice hardened and I stopped stroking the curls of David’s blonde hair. “Either kill him, or kill me, but it ends one way or another.”
He said nothing, but I could feel the sorrow hanging over him.
I got up and left the room, leaving David to dress and come to terms with what I’d asked him.
* * *
I ate breakfast in silence, my body a bundle of nerves. Noah Gideon was in his study, working. I could hear the quiet clicking of the keyboard as he typed. David had not emerged from the bedroom, and I continued to eat, ravenous despite the anxious churning of my stomach.
What if David said no to me? What options did I have? I was asking him to kill his best friend – the man he had
been a companion to for millennia. Longer than that – they’d fallen together. Who was I to come between them? A liability. A plaything. A sexual toy with no feelings or needs of her own. This falling out between them could be nothing more than a spat between friends. Like David had said, I had known Aloysius for a mere hundred years. David had known him for four thousand.
The pancakes I had made tasted like ashes in my mouth.
David emerged from the bedroom and I froze in place. He glanced around the room, no doubt noting the wealth of unfamiliar objects, or the small size of Noah’s apartment in comparison to the manor houses of Victorian England. His gaze surveyed the room, and then came to rest on me, where I sat at the breakfast bar.
His silver eyes were flat with pain. “Tell me one thing, Olivia,” he said, not moving toward me. “One thing that will convince me to destroy the friend I have stood alongside for centuries. Tell me one thing that will make me realize that he is too far gone.”
I had anticipated such a question, and I was ready. I took a small piece of metal and slid it across the counter, gesturing for him to pick it up.
He picked up the square and looked at the blood welling on his fingertips in surprise.
“That is a razor blade,” I explained. “The razors of today’s time are smaller than what you are familiar with. You place that inside the razor and glide it across your face. The edges are quite sharp.”
David licked the blood off his fingers, an unconscious act that made me panic, thinking of vampires. But then he gave me a rueful smile – no fangs. “I see that. Very sharp.”
I picked up the razor-blade, careful to avoid the edges. “One of Aloysius’s favorite punishments is to make me eat them. Usually about five or six, one after the other.” My gaze was steady on his. “He cannot kill me, you see. So he thinks of interesting ways to test my immortality. Swallowing razors is the one I hate the most. When they go down your throat, you feel them…slicing.” My hand touched my breastbone, thinking of the painful memories. “You cough blood for hours, and your insides burn, and everything hurts worse than you can ever imagine. But the worst part of all is when it makes it to your stomach, because then you know that your options—“
“Enough,” he said, raising a hand. His eyes glittered as he looked at me. “Tell me…is that truth or a lie?”
“It is the truth,” I said softly, compelled to answer him.
He nodded, exhaling sharply. “I knew it was. Yet, I hoped…” he shook his head and then looked at me, face grim with resolve. “I will help you destroy him.”
“Thank you,” I said quietly. It should have felt like a victory, but it felt hollow instead. David’s face was bleak with pain, his normally present smile a thing of the past. My brittleness was spreading to him.
For some reason, that bothered me.
* * *
Noah opted to join us on our quest, determined to give us backup. I had assured the men that Aloysius was likely alone – the other vampires had tired of his violent mood swings a while back and he tended to live on the fringes of their society, spending most of his time alone or surrounded by a few worshipful humans. He had many hideouts in the city and I knew them all. I normally avoided them, but today I had to confront my fears. It was summer, the days long and the weather hot. That meant that he was spending the daylight hours in one of his many basement apartments. He had several in the city, but his favorite was under a popular city sports bar. He liked hiding under the noses of so many people – it amused him.
It was there I decided we should strike first. We went that afternoon, Noah and David disguised in jeans and casual clothing, baseball caps stuffed over their heads. They ordered beers and sat down at the bar to watch the game while I scoped out the room. I was in disguise as well – I wore a short blonde wig over my dark hair, glasses, and a sweater-set with my jeans, all gifts of Noah’s personal shopper who had delivered the items, questions unasked. The disguise made me look like a tall librarian with bad hair, nothing like my usual self. In the bag at my shoulder I carried blessed wooden stakes, holy water, two crosses, a butcher knife, and a flask of gasoline.
Vampires were almost impossible to kill – ditto for Serim. When we referred to ourselves as immortal – we meant it. As a succubus, I couldn’t be killed except by two ways – either destroy both my masters and I instantly cease to exist, or kill me by sexual starvation. Serim and vampires could also be destroyed by neglecting the needs their curses placed upon them. But if you had to take matters into your hands, it was a more involved process. Holy water and crosses would burn a vampire, and a stake (blessed by a priest) would paralyze it in place. I planned on staking Aloysius, then cutting off his head. And after that, I’d have to burn his body to ashes, or else he’d regenerate.
And if I couldn’t kill my master because he commanded me otherwise, David and Noah would step in and finish it for me.
It was late afternoon, so the bar was fairly empty. It would be a few hours before any vampire awoke – the perfect time to ambush Aloysius and disable him before he could strike back at us. I looked around the bar for Aloysius’s pet humans and blood servants – idiots that willingly served him for the promise of being turned to vampires. They didn’t know that his promises were lies. Aloysius could no more turn a mortal into a vampire than he could turn me into a fairy princess. But they dreamed of sharing his world, and so they served him like fools, hoping that he’d one day bestow the greatest honor they could imagine.
I didn’t recognize any of his lackeys in the room, however. I frowned. I’d been away for ten years, so perhaps there was an influx of new human pets to play with. That made this dangerous. If I attacked Aloysius, I might be going in blind.
The waiter put a beer in front of me, and I reached for it and deliberately knocked it over, the contents splashing into my lap. “Oops,” I said loudly. “That was stupid of me. Where’s your restroom?”
The bartender pointed toward the back, and I grabbed my bag and hopped off the barstool, heading that direction. I knew perfectly well where the restroom was, of course. I passed by it without stopping in, heading to a back room instead. My spill had been a signal for Noah and David to wait a minute, and then follow me in. In the storage room, I found the familiar trap door behind a shelf and opened it. Stairs descended into darkness, and I bolstered my courage. I wish I had thought to bring a flashlight, but I knew that there was a light-switch at the base of the stairs.
I sucked in a breath and moved down the steps, painfully aware of every creak of the wooden boards in the deafening silence. Was I walking into a trap? Would I see Aloysius when I clicked the light on? What if he’d been sleeping lightly and had already awakened? What if we timed it wrong?
When I got to the bottom, I clicked the switch and stared at the room in surprise.
It was empty.
Not just empty of people – completely empty. The room was devoid of furniture of all kinds, the scuffed wood floors bare. I remembered seeing this room covered in lush draperies, with divans for Aloysius’s attendants to perch upon. None of that remained. Even the fixtures had been stripped – one lonely naked light bulb hung overhead from a cord.
There was a maze of rooms in the back, but I guessed they would be empty as well. I moved forward, opening the doors and checking. A lonely scrap of trash was left in the corner of one, but every door I opened showed me the same thing – an empty room.
Aloysius had picked up and left.
The last room down the hall was the one that had been mine. My skin prickled and my hand went to the doorknob. I paused, not able to bring myself to open the door without fear prickling through me. After a moment’s hesitation, I closed my eyes and flung the door wide. Silence. I squeezed one eye open and saw it was almost as empty as the others. A small round wooden table sat in the center of the room, and I could make out a silver oblong shape on the table. I moved forward and picked it up.
A cellphone. I didn’t have to be a genius to realize that he’d left
it for me. It was an invitation and a mocking gesture all at once.
Aloysius knew what I was up to. He was inviting me to another level of games with him. And fuck me, but he still had control of the situation. I picked up the phone, gripping it hard, and flicked it open. The screen lit, and the battery bar flashed. Still almost full. It hadn’t been sitting here for long. A day or two, tops.
Footsteps sounded in the hall. My body clenched with fear and I whirled, bracing myself for the worst. That I’d walked into a trap somehow.
But it was just David and Noah, their faces grim as they stared at the empty surroundings.
“He’s not here,” I said softly and showed them the phone. “But he knows I’m coming after him.”
David stared at the phone, uncomprehending what I meant. He didn’t know what a cell-phone was.
“It’s a message,” I said in a bitter voice. “That he is expecting me to contact him. That even now, he controls the game.”
“He controls nothing unless we let him. We should leave,” David said. He moved toward me, his fingers on my arms in a gentle but firm grasp. “Get you somewhere safe, and check out his other hideaways in the city. We can find him. Surely someone has seen him.”
A broken laugh bubbled in my throat and I jerked away from his touch. “We won’t find him.” My fingers locked around the phone and I shook it in David’s face. “You don’t get it. He knows I am looking for him. He’s telling me that the game is played by his rules, not mine. Somewhere safe? I’m not safe anywhere.”
I flung the phone down to the ground and turned away, wrapping my arms around my chest and trembling with a mixture of rage and fear. Aloysius knew. He knew I was coming after him. He’d guessed something was up when I didn’t come crawling back to him last night for my need.
He knew, and he was going to win. Again. And this time, when he caught me, I’d never be able to escape. The full-on body tremble made my teeth clack together, and I clenched my jaw. I would figure something out. Somehow. Somehow.