by Terry Spear
He realized she would probably have felt that way no matter what she'd gone through. She was still half huntress, not full vampire. She hadn't lived like this as long as he had.
He sank his teeth in gently, and then sucked. He meant to lick the wound sealed, her blood like an aphrodisiac to him. He had full control of his senses, so he could stop anytime, and would never harm her intentionally or accidentally.
She held his head in place, wanting the pleasure from his sucking from her, the cosmic connection they felt, and she cried out. He thought he'd hurt her, though he couldn't believe he would be able to, but then he realized his sucking at her had made her come.
He smiled, realizing she was really getting into their ways and he sealed the wound, then moved over her and she spread her legs, welcoming him in. He didn't ask if she was ready. Everything she did told him she was ready and willing.
And then he was surging into her, slowing down the pace, and thrusting again, their mouths seeking each other's out, kissing, licking, her tongue running over his teeth in a seductive caress and then he did the same with hers.
He couldn't get enough of her and wanted to spend the rest of the time with her wrapped in her arms. He was still pumping into her when she sighed and lifted her pelvis to make a deeper connection, wanting to participate in pleasuring him. He leaned down and licked her neck on the other side and she cupped his head, arching her neck so she could bite him again. Now she got it.
Then she was biting him, but he had to turn his head so she could do it, and he stilled his cock in her, wanting to thrust, but not wanting to mess up her concentration and end up with a torn neck. Though her teeth were small so she wouldn't be able to make too bad a wound. But he didn't want to upset her either, should she make a mistake. He could imagine what a setback that would be.
She sucked a little harder and this time, it was as though he were thrusting, the sucking motion creating a surge of need through his blood. He was ready to come when she licked his wound, and he began to push deeply into her again. He lifted her legs around his hips and surged deeper.
She groaned with pleasure, her hands on his shoulders, rubbing, kneading, and then before he could delay the inevitable any further, he exploded deep inside her. He thrust until he was finished, feeling satiated and ready to sleep with the huntress, but he wanted to do more. He moved beside her and with a leg propped over hers, he kissed her again. He moved his hand down to reach her clit and he began to stroke, wanting to bring her to fruition once more.
Selena had never imagined what it would be like with a vampire making love and she'd always wondered what the draw was for blood bonds and hosts. Now she knew. It was amazing, and having an orgasm from Atreides sucking off her neck? Instant orgasm. Remarkable, wonderful. Now he was pleasuring her again and she couldn't love him more.
Love. Yeah, she loved him. She'd been in lust with him before, but she felt an even deeper connection with him now.
He was so eager to please her, and she felt the same way about him as she fell under his trance, not the vampiric gaze like he could do with humans, but just the way he mesmerized her with his need and love and want. She dug her heels into his buttocks, feeling like the end was coming soon as she licked his cheek, and then he thrust his tongue into her mouth. She sucked on it and kissed him again, nibbling on his lower lip in a gentle way, then kissing his mouth again when she felt the leap into the solar system and cried out, not meaning to.
Not with a whole house of vampires who could hear their lovemaking. Oh, she hadn't thought of that either. Certainly, if they didn't hear the rest of it, they had to have heard her cry of pleasure as she sank into the mattress, feeling like she'd touched a bit of heaven. She'd been so lucky to capture Atreides's eye. He was the maker of dreams when it came to pleasuring her.
He smiled at her and moved his hand from her clit to her breast, stroking her nipple before pulling her into his arms and covering them with the light comforter.
For a long time, they just rested in each other's arms like that, and then she did what she hadn't planned to do for a while, at least. "I love you, Atreides."
"I hoped you would. There's no getting rid of me. I love you too."
"Well, you're stuck with me too. You're just too hot to let get away. The other vampiresses lost out."
He snorted. "None of them ever felt the way you do about me. And I've never made a long-term commitment to any of them for the same reason. When you came along, I was lost."
She laughed. "I'm glad I found you and claimed you. Even though I was fighting the inclination."
"So was I, but it was a losing battle. Even if I'd managed to leave you off at your apartment, I wouldn't have left you alone."
"You worried about my safety."
"It was more than that. I wanted to be with you in the worst way. Now I know how Daemon felt about Tezra."
"She wanted to be turned so she could fight the rogue vampire who was trying to claim her, and she knew she would have more of a chance against him that way."
"She did. We were all worried about it because Daemon was so reluctant to turn her and she was going behind his back to ask the rest of us to turn her instead."
Selena smiled. "I bet that didn't go over well with Daemon."
"No. He was incensed. He told us if any of us turned her, we would be dead by his hand. And we knew he was serious. I hated what had happened to you, but I have to admit I was glad I didn't have to turn you."
"I'm glad it was taken off your shoulders too. We might never have gotten to this point otherwise." Though Selena suspected if she'd gotten to know Atreides better, she might have been ensnared by his charm and given in. They would never know. It didn't matter. She was happier than she'd ever been.
"We won't tell the others we're together as a couple," Atreides said.
She scoffed. "As if anyone would think otherwise." But she hoped he didn't feel he would be ostracized for taking her as his mate.
"I just want to let Daemon know before anyone else tells him."
So tell him already!
"I'm afraid if I explain what has happened to you, to us, he will return with Tezra to straighten things out," Atreides said.
"Oh, sure." She understood how he felt about that. He wanted to prove he could handle managing the clan. So it wasn't that he was afraid to tell the rest of the clan what was going on between him and her. She still figured they would all assume it. Yet, it wasn't the same as just coming out and saying it. She just hoped Daemon wouldn't cause Atreides too much grief when he returned home. She assumed he wouldn't with her because she couldn't help what she'd become. "Well, I can't be happier to be with you."
Atreides stroked her arm with a soft caress. "You are the light of my life, Selena. Since the moment you walked into it, I knew my world had changed. I think that's why Iconia was all over your case. I'm sure she realizes this isn't just some wild infatuation I have for you and it will end soon."
"It better not be," Selena said. "I don't often declare my love for another person."
Smiling, Atreides raised a brow.
"I did twice, but the hunters weren't ready to settle down and felt I was a little too borderline rogue to deal with. Most hunters stay with the same mate for life, but I could see getting dumped by a mate if the heat was on me and he ended up in a negative spotlight."
He kissed her cheek. "Many vampires mate for life and if you end up getting yourself in trouble, I'll back you all the way."
"Okay, it's a deal." She cast him a devilish smile. "If you turn rogue, I promise you a quick and painless death—the huntress in me coming to bear."
He laughed. "It's a deal."
But she didn't really know what would happen in a case like that. All she knew was she didn't want to lose Atreides for any reason.
She snuggled against him and tried to get her mind off the business with the wolf, the murdered vampiresses, Cliff and his buddies gunning for her, and Daemon's take on what his brother had done in declarin
g to her that he wanted her forever. She breathed in Atreides's scent and licked his chest. "Night, Atreides.
"Night, Selena." He smiled at her. “I love you.”
After making love to Atreides, Selena finally managed to doze off, heard what she thought was a whispered thought in her head, but she couldn't catch the words, and saw the wolf in her mind's eye again. The same wolf she saw when they were coming back from her apartment. The vampire knew she was staying with Atreides. Did he know she could even be staying with him for good if it worked out between them? Had he thought he could tempt fate in this way to make it happen?
The fog surrounded her, swallowed her up, made her see beings in the mist, not anything she thought she could recognize, then one form came to her out of the fog. Iconia, her simpering smile telling her that all was not well with Selena's conquest of her boyfriend. Then Iconia's fangs were exposed, and she hissed at Selena.
Selena thought she was above that. She thought she could control her anger better. But as soon as Iconia hissed at her, Selena hissed back, extending her canines, furious with the vampiress. Selena hadn't intended to. She had planned to keep her cool, look superior, that she wouldn't resort to scare tactics, but she couldn’t help herself. The fangs extended and the hiss followed.
And then she woke. Atreides was smiling at her.
"What?"
"You were fighting with someone in your sleep."
Selena ran her fingers through her hair. "Iconia. She bared her fangs first."
"Let me see." He looked at Selena’s small fangs. "Baby fangs. They'll get longer in a few days. But when you're newly turned, they have to work their way out and then they'll come out with ease. Practice a while before you bare them at another vampire. They're bound to just laugh when they see them if you’re angry with any vampire."
She smiled. But then she leapt out of bed and raced to the bathroom. She wanted to see them before they disappeared. Atreides was with her in the next instant as she peered at her enhanced canines.
He ran his hand over her back as if in trying to reassure her, and she suspected then he thought she was going to be upset, but she thought this was the coolest thing ever.
"Baby teeth. But I can't just extend them unless I'm angry?"
"Or hungry. We have sustenance in the fridge. You don't ever have to suck on somebody unless it's for the pleasure and they're mutually interested in it."
They heard a noise in the kitchen, and he said, "I'll meet you in the kitchen. Catherine is preparing breakfast but might not realize we still have a whole houseful of guests right now." Then he vanished.
It was so different now for her. Before when a vampire appeared and vanished, it would fill her with momentary alarm, worried the vampire would reappear somewhere else and attack.
Now she could do that. But she wouldn't be as arrogant with rogue hunters or rogue vampires. If she was in a confrontation with one and she was losing, she would vanish in retreat.
She dressed, transported herself and ended up in the kitchen nearly on top of Colt.
He stepped back in alarm, then realizing it was just her, he smiled. “You'll get the hang of transporting so that you can feel objects close to you, like the sonar in bats."
"What about shifting into other animals?"
"That takes more time," Atreides said. "Coffee?"
"Tea."
"I've got it, and everyone get out of my kitchen, please," Catherine said, shooing them out. "I'm glad you joined the clan," she said to Selena.
"Thanks. I guess I didn't have much of a choice."
"You could join the fringe groups," Catherine said.
There was a resounding “no” from Atreides and his friends.
"I'm really not a rule breaker so I think I'll be fine with the clan, but I'll have to learn the rules first."
"He's in charge," Catherine said, "when Daemon and Tezra are away. Tezra is still learning the ropes and there are still some who are having trouble accepting a huntress turned as our co-leader."
The same would happen if they learned Selena had mated Atreides, she figured. If she had ended up with a vampire who didn't have such a high status in the clan, she probably wouldn’t have as much difficulty being accepted.
"I still say things might be different for Selena," Atreides said, ushering everyone into the dining room. "Since she was turned against her will by a rogue vampire. Some will sympathize with her cause, and she did try to protect one of our own before that happened."
"I totally accept her," Colt said.
"Me too," Catherine said.
"And me. Basil says he does too," Renault said.
"But it's all the others who would have to," Selena said as Catherine served up the food, then left the dining room. Selena’s stomach was grumbling, and she couldn't believe she was just as hungry as she normally would be when she hadn’t eaten in some time in her pre-vampiric state. She served up some of the hash browns, passed the platter to Atreides, forked up several slices of bacon, three servings full of scrambled eggs and two slices of toast.
"I think we ought to go with you to the border towns," Colt said to Atreides.
"No, they're used to seeing me going into the border towns. If a bunch of clan vampires arrived in their towns, they would be sure to think we were coming for a fight,” Atreides said. “If one of you went, it would have been fine.”
After breakfast, Atreides and Selena went to the first of the fringe towns to see if they could learn anything about the vampire who had turned her. She was afraid that they wouldn't talk to them and give up one of their own. But Atreides knew a lot of them and greeted several vampire men and women and no one seemed to have any animosity for him. At least with the ones who came out to talk to him. Those who wouldn't? Who knew? Maybe they couldn't be bothered with the prince when they didn't care about the rules of the clan. Or maybe they didn't like him interfering.
She thought he was mostly going to ask about the vampire who might have bitten her, but instead he asked, "We're looking to determine if anyone living outside the clan has lost anyone due to rogue hunters killing their loved ones."
That was a good in. Rather than focus on a rogue vampire, concentrate on someone they might have lost.
A vampire suddenly appeared, and she thought she'd seen him watching them from a second-story shop window. He was black-haired and eyed, and his anger was directed at Atreides. She was glad the man was leaving her out of it for the moment. But she realized if he took an angry step toward Atreides, she would be showing her baby fangs to him. When here she thought she would flee in the face of imminent danger that she knew she couldn't win at.
"What do you care about those of us in the border towns?" the man asked.
They didn't call themselves fringe vampires, but border town vamps. The hunters who didn't live by League rules weren't allowed to hunt, and they considered themselves free hunters. But if they hunted a vampire down, they were considered rogues by the League.
"We've had word that possibly a vampiress living in a border region was murdered by a rogue hunter. Some of ours have been too. We're searching for the hunters who have done this," Atreides said.
"And what does the League say about his?" the man asked, motioning to Selena.
"She's a huntress and protected one of our own."
The man finally turned his attention to Selena. "The one who killed the hunter?"
"Yeah, and one of our kind turned Selena, and in a vicious way," Atreides said. "It would have been one thing if she hadn't protected one of our own and was even in alliance with the rogue hunters who are killing our people. But what the rogue vampire did to her was unconscionable."
"Maybe she asked for it," a vampiress said, that Selena hadn't seen until now.
"Maybe you know who did it and are in collusion with him," Selena said, when she hadn't planned on speaking a word! What was wrong with her? But both her huntress and vampiress strengths were influencing her and she wouldn't be cowed by some snip of a vampiress.
The vampiress smiled, her canines on full display, but Selena didn't advance on her. Now wasn't the time.
"So why do you want to know if we have lost any vampiresses to the rogue hunter threat?" the man asked.
"Like I said," Atreides reiterated, "they have already killed some that we know of. Selena and her sister and brother and his friends are helping us to locate the hunters. We'll—"
"Kill them?" the man asked. "A rogue hunter should be dead at our hands if he murdered our kind without provocation."
"I agree," Selena said. "And if I can't turn them over to the League for their disposition, because believe me, they don't want to have a civil war between our people and yours—"
"She's still a huntress," the one woman sneered.
"I am both. But I've been a huntress for a lot longer than I've been a vampire so it's hard for me to think in terms of being one of you. But rest assured, I would never allow a hunter to kill a vampire who isn't a rogue," Selena said.
"What about the one who bit you?"
"I could have died. I made it to the club where Atreides and his friends saved my life, no thanks to the vampire who savagely tore into me. There was a wolf at first. I thought I'd hit him with my car. Well, I wasn't sure what I had hit. But I couldn't leave a wounded animal, or person, on the side of the road. He stalked me. And then I was attacked. That's not right in any way you want to think of it."
The other vampires seemed to agree, a few nodding, no one speaking for a moment.
"Atreides, you have always been welcome. You've always cared about our welfare. We know you have always wanted us to join you, but you've reported back to Daemon, letting him know we're fine as we are and living in a peaceful existence. Selena, you are right. No vampire would be considered anything other than a rogue who had bitten you and left you to die. There's no call for it. If we determine he is one of us, we'll deal with him ourselves. We will speak among ourselves and learn if any of our women are missing. No one has reported anything about it, so I'm not sure if any of them are," one of the men said.