The Beast In The Castle

by Daniella Wright

  She laughed. “I guess I’ll find out.”

  “You might,” I told her. We watched each other for a long moment; her face reflected my interest back to me, letting me know that she was on board with the conversation. She really wanted to learn.

  “Do you do this every night?” she asked, scooping her legs up so that she was sitting cross-legged in the booth across from me.

  “No,” I told her. “A few nights a week. I frequent other bars as well, but I spend a lot of my time alone.”

  “Do most vampires prefer to be alone?”

  I chuckled. “Most vampires I’ve met prefer to be in the company of others.”

  “So you’re just weird,” she teased. My lips curved into a small smile that I couldn’t control.

  “I suppose that’s true,” I told her. We continued to talk. She asked me more questions about the bar, about what I did when I wasn’t here. I didn’t go into all the details but I did answer her questions as honestly as I could. I found I enjoyed her company. I found, too, that I was curious about her as well. Any human woman who could boldly walk into a BDSM vamp bar without participating and let her guard down around a vampire she didn’t really know was one who was braver and bolder than most. She sat with her head held high, even when other vampires and humans walked by our table and gave her distinctly confused and alarmed looks. I noticed Roderick, the bartender, who was several thousand years younger than me but almost as deadly, was staring at her with a hungry look in his eyes. I caught his gaze and gave him a firm shake of the head. He knew who I was, what I was capable of, and quickly shifted his gaze away from the girl.

  “Why are you so interested in vampires?” I asked her. She shrugged.

  “I just find them fascinating.”

  It must have been true. She didn’t demonstrate the awe that most humans who were into vampires did. She wasn’t giving off the vibe that she wanted to be taken and used by one of them like so many human women did when they came in here. She was just interested, her fascination almost clinical and detached. She simply wanted to know about vampires. It was a rare thing, strange to me, who had seen the whole history of humans and vampires coexisting and had hardly come across anybody with the same level of interest in getting to know the other species purely for the sake of knowledge.

  We talked as the night passed until it was about an hour away from sunrise and time for me to leave and go home. We had grown comfortable over the course of the night, laughing with each other, answering each other’s questions as earnestly as each of us was willing.

  Before she left, she turned to me, gave me a look that was almost shy.

  “Would you consider doing this again?” she asked. “More privately?”

  I raised my eyebrows. If there was one thing that I was good at with women, it was sensing when they wanted something. Emilia wanted me, I could tell, and I wanted her the same. It might be a bad idea for us to get together again, but I wanted nothing more than to do so.

  “I can do that,” I said, then took her hand with mine and kissed the backs of her fingers. She trembled but gave me a little grin as she made to leave. To be careful, I stood up and walked her out to her car. It was still dark outside, and we had just enough time to say goodnight before I had to retire.

  Chapter 2: Emilia

  I couldn’t stop thinking about the vampire I had met at the bar that night. When I closed my eyes to go to sleep, his piercing red ones were there, studying my face with interest. He had been so sexy, so tempting to me even while I tried to close off my feelings and make my curiosity objective and emotionally distant. But there was something about him, that long, dark hair, those red eyes and heavy brow that made him look intense and sexy and brooding. The bar, too, had gotten to me. Though I’d tried not to show it, seeing the people performing their sex games, the BDSM rituals, made me hotter than anything I had experienced before. It had been an interesting night, for sure, and was one that I wanted to repeat.

  I went back the next night, hoping to run into Eli there. He said he frequented the place a few times a week, and though we hadn’t made set plans to meet up there today, I figured I would go in and try to find him anyway. He was where I had found him the day before, and he gave me one of those low, seductive smiles when he saw me. My body reacted by flushing from top to bottom, and I bit my lip to try to suppress the feeling of desire that flowed through me just having met his eye.

  “Hello, Emilia,” he said, gesturing for me to sit down. I didn’t, instead just looking at him.

  “Is there somewhere else we can go?” I asked, lowering my voice and leaning into his ear. “A private room?”

  He cast a look at me, his red eyes swirling with heat, then nodded. I followed him into a side room that was dark and unlocked. He flipped the light on, though it was just a dim pale glow that barely illuminated anything. What I did see, however, was a wall covered in various toys and implements of pleasure or pain. I looked at him and raised my eyebrows, but he just chuckled and gestured for me to have a seat on one of the overstuffed chairs in the room.

  “I have a plan for you,” he said.

  “Yeah?” I asked, my heart pounding steadily in my chest. Just being in the same room with him, alone, surrounded by sex toys in a dark bar, was making my body respond distractingly.

  “I’ll answer your questions,” he said, then leaned forward to brush his lips over my cheek. “But in exchange for answers, you have to let me do what I want to you.”

  I almost couldn’t speak with his proximity. He had leaned in and was just inches away from my face, from my lips. I could have kissed him had I just moved forward a couple of inches. Instead, I pulled back to look him in his eyes.

  “What kinds of things?”

  He smiled wickedly, then shrugged. “A touch,” he said, bringing his hand to my throat and tracing it with his finger. “Or a kiss. A bite if I’m lucky.”

  I felt my heart race in my chest. Interviewing him was one thing, letting him touch me, alone, in the dark, was dangerous in more ways than one. Still, the feeling of his skin on my neck had sent a whole shock through my body, and if I was honest with myself, I wanted more of his touch. I also wanted his answers. It only took me a second to consider it before I nodded, swallowing.

  “Okay,” I said. He grinned at me, giving me a hot look through half-lidded eyes. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he wanted to devour me whole. And maybe he did. I closed my eyes when he moved closer to me, kneeling in front of me while I sat in my chair.

  “Go on then,” he said softly, “ask away.”

  “Okay,” I said breathlessly, looking down at his face, at his wolfish grin and those hypnotizing eyes. I was squirming in the chair and he knew it. I could tell this was going to be interesting, to say the least. “How old are you?”

  He thought about it for a moment, then decided to reach his hand up to touch my face, barely touching my lip with his thumb. He stroked it fully again and I parted my lips for him automatically. He leaned in to kiss me but stopped an inch or so away, looking into my eyes instead.

  “I am over seven-thousand years old,” he said, brushing his lips over mine. Then he pulled back and looked at me with a soft smirk on his face. I knew my mouth was still open, still waiting, and I closed my lips and held his eye. “Next question.”

  “Where are you originally from?” I asked. He dipped his hand from my face to my neck, then to my shoulder, which he traced with his finger as he spoke.

  “I am a Native,” he said, and even those words, just the way he spoke them, seduced me. “My people were from many places.”

  “I see,” I said, my voice trembling. He brought his lips to my neck then and pressed a hot, open-mouthed kiss to it, then sank just the tips of his long fangs into the sensitive skin there, just enough so that I could feel it. My heart sped up with something between fear and desire, the second overpowering the first. Instead of biting into me though, he brought his lips to my ear.

  “I want to tas
te you,” he growled softly, sending a shiver through my body. “Your mouth, your sex, your blood…”

  My reply was a deep sigh that I could feel in every part of my body. I was squirming, hot and wet and swollen between the legs. I was desperate for him to kiss me, to touch me further. But that wasn’t the game we were playing. He got to do what he wanted while I got the answers to my questions. I got no say in what he did.

  “Do you have any other questions?” he asked, looking at me and grinning. “Or are you going to let me do this for free?”

  I licked my lips, gazing into his eyes.

  “How old were you when you became a vampire?” I asked. He kissed me softly then, barely touching his lips to mine.

  “I was twenty-eight,” he said. “Another question. Quickly.”

  “Who turned you?” I asked. He pressed his mouth to mine, then, kissing me slowly but with fervor. I allowed his tongue in to taste mine, to tease my mouth while I kissed him back. I wrapped my hands in his long, dark hair and held him close to me while he ravaged my mouth. He pulled away after a long moment, smiling at me.

  “An old friend,” he said, but that was the only answer he gave to that question. I decided to ask him about it again another time. For now, I wanted more of his mouth on mine. I lifted my face to captured his lips again and he kissed me hotly before moving back, crouching in front of me again so that his face was just above my lap.

  “Pull your dress up,” he commanded, and my first instinct was to tell him no, to say that this was going too far. But I did what he said, unable to help myself, and shifted my body so that I could lift the dress above my hips.

  “Next question,” he prompted, looking into my eyes. His fangs were bared, sticking down over his bottom lip. He looked completely sexy and somehow monstrous at the same time. I wondered what he was going to do to me. His voice was in my head, telling me he wanted to taste me, my sex, my blood.

  “Do you ever--” I had to pause, losing my voice when he parted my legs and brushed his lips just on the inside of my knee. When my voice faltered, he looked up at me and raised an eyebrow, smirking.

  “Do you ever do this? When you come here?” I asked, suddenly wanting to know. “How many women have you played this game with?”

  “This game in particular?” he said, nipping at my inner thigh. “Just you, Emilia. I wish I would have known how fun this was.”

  I shivered, because at that moment he nuzzled his face between my thighs, spreading them wider open. His mouth was near my mound; all he had to do was turn his head and he’d be able to kiss me there. Instead, he licked the inside of my thigh just a couple of inches below the juncture between my legs. Then he sank his teeth into it, and there was only a pinch of delicious pain before I couldn’t feel anything but pleasure coursing toward me. It didn’t feel like being drained, like being fed from. It felt more like he was doing the opposite, releasing energy into my body that tingled my skin from head to toe. When he was finished, he lapped at the small wounds he had made with his teeth, then stood up slowly.

  “I think that’s all for the questions tonight,” he said, smiling at me, a gleam in his eye. I felt breathless and on edge and was close to begging for more from him, but my pride wouldn’t let me.

  “Okay,” I breathed. “Thank you for answering my questions.”

  He grinned at me irresistibly and I wanted to kiss him again. I was so full of desire I thought I’d erupt with it.

  “No, Emilia, thank you,” he said. I cast one last glance at him before leaving the room, knowing I was walking out of the bar flushed and red and obviously agitated. I got to my car before anybody noticed me, and pulled away still shaking, wondering when and if I’d see the vampire again, and wondering if it was a good idea.

  Chapter 3: Eli

  I waited for a few days before contacting Emilia. She had thoroughly enjoyed our little game, I could tell. If I had wanted to turn my mouth to her sex, to taste her through her panties, she would have been more than eager to let me. Instead, I had teased her. It made everything that much sweeter—her blood had been hot and her pulse strong. Drinking from her inner thigh had been an erotic experience for me all on its own, and I wanted to repeat it over and over. I wondered how she was feeling after our meeting, if she had any regrets at all about what we’d done. She certainly hadn’t shown any when she left that evening, instead giving me a look like she wanted to be underneath me with her legs spread, taking my cock like a good girl. Just the thought of it made me hard, and I was feeling pretty wired when I called her.

  “Hello?” she answered, her voice clear as a bell, sensual.

  “Hello, Emilia,” I said. “This is Eli.”

  “Oh,” she said, almost breathless on the other end of the phone. “Hi.”

  “I was wondering if you’d like to meet me at one of the night cafes,” I asked. “I’d like to talk to you further.”

  Emilia didn’t hesitate to agree. I smirked; she really had enjoyed our time together and was eager for more, I could tell. Her voice was full of longing, and I stirred in my seat with my body’s reaction to the sound of it.

  “Good,” I said. “Tonight?”

  “Yes,” she said. We made plans to meet at a café not far from where I lived. I looked forward to it all evening, thinking about the way her lips had parted beneath mine, the scent of her wet flower through the front of her soaked panties.

  I got to the café early and took a seat at one of the tables in the corner, waiting for her to arrive. She showed up looking radiant in a blue dress that brought out her eyes. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her as she moved toward the table, her every step graceful and delicate. She sat down across from me and held my eye for a long time before speaking.

  “Hello, Eli,” she said. “How are you?”

  “I’m well,” I told her. “Better now. How are you?”

  “I’m, um, fine,” she said. I could tell her body was already reacting to mine. She was squirming in her chair just being near me. The idea of her being wet already, being ready for my cock, was a lot to bear. “Why did you want to meet here? It’s so different from last time.”

  I smiled. “Do I detect a hint of disappointment in your voice, Emilia?” I asked, leaning forward so that I was close to her face. She looked at my lips and then met my eyes, staring at me through her lashes. “Did you enjoy our little interview?”

  Emilia blushed a deep red and bit her lip, then looked away. “Yes,” she admitted in a small voice. “I did.”

  I thought about it for a minute.

  “Let’s do it again,” I said, and she looked at me again, her eyes bright. “We’ll meet for these interviews at the bar and play a game or two while we’re at it.”

  She nodded, agreeing. She was on edge, I could tell from the way she shifted in her seat, rubbing her thighs together just thinking about that night. The sight of her so aroused got me hard immediately.

  “I love to tease you, you know,” I said in a low voice. “You get so wet for me. I’m dying to taste you.”

  She gazed at my face in wonder, her lips parted. I wanted to lean in and kiss her, but that wasn’t part of the game. I would have to wait until I had her in that room again, her body hot and ripe for whatever I was willing to do to her. It drove me crazy to be near her and not able to touch her; I wanted to take her to the bar that night, and that’s exactly what I did. She didn’t hesitate when I suggested she get in my car and we go to the club together.

  Once there, I made her stand in front of me so that I could examine every inch of her body in that dress. I wanted to peel it off of her, and I could tell she wanted the same. Instead, I stood in front of her, our faces inches apart.

  “Ask me a question,” I commanded softly. She looked at me straight in the eye, opening her mouth to speak.

  “What was your family like?”

  I pulled her against me, taking a slow step forward. My hands toyed with the hem of her dress as she stared at me, wide-eyed and hungry.

&n
bsp; “My family was very important,” I told her, leaving out the part about my being the vampire king. I wasn’t sure I was ready for her to know yet. “My mother was beautiful and my father, was, well… he was my father. A strange man.” In truth, thinking about my father pained me. He had been a stern man, near abusive to all of us, and at that point I wasn’t strong enough to fight against him. It had been hard growing up.

  “Did you have any siblings?” she asked, and I took a step back, letting her go. She had a bereft look on her face that made me want to take her into my arms again, but I wanted her to be patient.

  “Take off that dress,” I told her. “Now.”

  She peered at me for a moment, biting her lip. Then she pulled her dress over her head, leaving her in nothing but a pair of sheer pink panties that I could tell were wet even from where I was standing. I gave a low growl and resisted the urge to drop to my knees. She was so tempting, so perfect that I found it hard to keep up our game, to take it slow instead of bending her over the chair and taking her roughly from behind like I wanted. But I also wanted to hear her beg for it eventually, and I wanted to build up to the ultimate prize of her body until she was good and ready.