When he opened his eyes, Sam recognized Philippe at once. The vampire’s pleasant smile and the look of sympathy in his eyes was obviously intended to put Sam at his ease, but Sam still didn’t like the idea of having another man’s hands handling his intimate flesh. He tensed when Philippe approached the bed, but managed to look him in the eye and express his gratitude. “I understand I owe you for my life.”
“Not me. Alina’s the one who changed you. I suggested she send me to prepare you and explain the ritual that will make you whole once more.”
“How would you know?”
“Because my master, Jacques, made me. Because I am the only made male vampire here today, the only one who has experienced the ritual as you will. Mostly because Jacques would never have allowed me to back away from a duty to our clan, no matter how painful it might be.” Philippe’s eyes glistened with unshed tears, and his lower lip quivered for a second before he schooled his features into an impersonal, professional mask.
“Does this involve pain?” When Sam glanced to his side and saw the array of tools and jewelry, he shuddered. Needles had always done that to him.
“No more than what you can bear. I am going to insert a sound, pierce your cock and thread a ring through the sound. Only your mate will be able to remove it.”
Sam shuddered. “And if I say no?”
“Then you’ll be impotent. Of little use to your mate. Is that what you want?”
“No!” Closing his eyes so tightly the lids hurt, he clenched his fists in anticipation of agony. “Do it.”
“First, I’ll do a thorough cleansing.” Philippe lifted Sam’s ass and placed a thick pad beneath his genitals. Then he donned latex gloves and picked up what looked like a baby wipe.
The feel of Philippe’s hands on Sam made him even harder, which he wouldn’t have thought possible. The initial embarrassment of lying helpless while another male manipulated his genitals eased with the other vampire’s impersonal touch. Even the internal cleansing of his bladder and anus wasn’t as bad as he’d feared. Philippe turned away for a moment, then came back with a set of urethral sounds and a jar of lubricant that he placed beside Sam’s hip. “What?”
“I will insert sounds until I find the largest one you can accept. At that point I will pierce your cock head and thread a captive bead ring through the eye of the sound.”
Sam had never gone for sex play that involved putting toys into his own orifices. The very idea made his erection start to subside, but when the sound slid down his cock and into his bladder it felt surprisingly good. “Hey, how long is that thing?” he asked when he felt the tip move through his scrotum and rest against his prostate gland.
“Does it hurt?”
No, it didn’t hurt. It felt—different but not painful. “Hell. It feels good,” Sam said, surprised that was true.
It felt better each time the other vampire replaced one sound with a larger one. “There. You took a thirteen-millimeter sound, fourteen centimeters long. Hang in there now. I’m drawing it out far enough that I can attach the eyelet and cap.”
“Cap? How the hell can I—”
“You are a vampire. The only uses for your cock and ass now are to give and receive sexual pleasure. There. I got it.” Philippe pushed the sound back inside Sam once again, and he felt himself harden once more at the stimulation to his insides.
“Hold still. This is the part that’s tricky.”
“What are you doing?” Sam wished he could see what Philippe was taking out of a square white envelope.
“Providing some insurance to be sure the sound stays where it belongs. I’m going to thread this needle through your cock, just behind your cock head. You’ll feel a little sting.”
A little sting, hell. He’d never hurt so much, but Sam was determined not to scream out loud. He bit down on his lower lip instead, drawing blood. “Damn, these fangs are a pain.”
Philippe looked up at Sam, his expression indulgent. “You’ll learn how to keep them retracted except when you feed. Now I’m stretching the hole I made so it will take an eleven-millimeter ring.”
Sam could tell. He felt as though he were on fire when Philippe threaded the ring through his cock, right behind the head. The icy metal sent sensations down the sound when the ring passed through the eyelet. When it emerged on the other side, Sam felt another sharp pain. “Are you finished?”
“Take a look,” Philippe said. “The piercing is called an ampellang. You may want to keep on wearing the ring after the ceremony. It looks delightful. Master Jacques liked to see me wear the sound. He even had a barbell made to secure it. My lady Alina may gift you with a similar piece.” Sam gasped at the sight of the thick ring that passed through his flesh horizontally, and the rounded metal cap of the sound that covered its tip.
His cock still hurt, but damn if he didn’t like the look of the hardware. And he liked the idea that Alina might choose some additional baubles for her greater pleasure. “Are you finished?”
“Almost.” Philippe picked up a large, well-lubricated anal plug and set it between Sam’s splayed legs. “Relax and this won’t be too uncomfortable.”
Strangely enough, the plug didn’t hurt at all once its thickest segment had passed through his anal sphincter. Having the plug stimulating his prostate from one end while the sound worked from the other side felt damn good. The pain from the piercing had already subsided, faster than he’d have imagined possible considering the weight and thickness of the ring Philippe had just forced through it. “The pain is almost gone.”
“It will be completely healed by the time the ritual begins. Vampires heal almost instantly from all but the most severe of injuries. One of the many benefits,” Philippe said. “I will leave you now. Rest, for you will need your strength for the ceremony. You will be one of the clan’s elite, so you may as well observe carefully so you’ll know what to do next time. We d’Argents are more civilized than most, but we do enjoy performing some of the clan’s ancient rituals. In a few hours we all will be winging our way to the d’Argent family castle.”
• • •
“It’s like floating through space, Daddy,” Julie said after she’d closed up Sam’s house. “We’ll be at Stefan’s castle in no time.”
Sam didn’t know about this, but his daughter had done it several times now, so he had no business being afraid. Of the trip, at least. He was glad Alina had taken pity on him and tossed his black evening cape over his shoulders. As long as he held it closed, the cape hid his permanent hard-on from Julie’s eyes and kept the ring from swaying in the breeze and driving him to the brink of insanity. His new fangs scraped his lower lip as Alina rose skyward, taking him with her. Once they were airborne, his cape fanned out, helping him stay aloft but exposing his cock to the night air, making the ring sway and the sound reverberate constantly through his vampire sex.
“Are you all right?” Alina asked when he began to moan from the overstimulation to his new jewelry.
He glanced around, saw none of the others in the immediate vicinity. “I want to make love with you until you can’t see straight. Until I come and relieve this—this monster hard-on.”
“Patience, mon cher. We will be home soon now.” Their small group moved through the night, eastward over America and the Atlantic to come to earth again on the other side. Waves crashed against the cliff below them.
“Welcome to the d’Argents’ ancestral home,” Stefan said, motioning toward a castle perched beside them on the cliff. “Come, let’s get inside out of the cold.”
• • •
Flickering candles lit the high table in the great hall, where Stefan’s servants had set out wineglasses for eight. Alina murmured her approval to the housekeeper, whose family had lived and worked here since the days of her grandfather and before. The distinctive smell of incense filled her nostrils. As she did every time she came to the great castle, Alina imagined she heard voices from those long gone, from d’Argents and from other allied warriors who had preserv
ed the vampire castle. The sounds continued, their tones eerie, muted whispers coming as if from a great distance.
“Alex. Claude and Marisa. Thank you so much for coming,” she said, crossing the drafty hall to the fireplace and embracing each of them in turn.
“Wouldn’t miss a restorative ritual. Marisa’s been pestering me to try doing one for her brother.”
“Be sure to invite us if you do it. I’ve often wondered how long it’s possible to wait and still achieve full restoration.” Alex paused, grinned. “I remember the last time we met here to welcome a new life to our world. That was when you were born, enfant.”
Claude shook a fist Alex’s way. “I’m no child now, nephew.” The two were close, almost like brothers despite the difference in their ages.
Alina held up a hand. “There will be no quarreling among ourselves this night, for we have a newly made vampire among us. Stefan, take Julie and go to bed. It’s not fitting for Sam’s daughter and son-in-law to take part in the ritual.”
“Come on, Noodles, you’ll just be in the way,” Stefan said, picking up the frisky pup and holding her in one arm while looping the other over Julie’s shoulder. “We will be with you in spirit.”
Alina wished they could have stayed. Particularly Stefan, who, along with her, had guided the d’Argent clan since their grandfather’s death. But it was time. Time for her to take Sam as her vampire mate. Time for Alexandre to lead the hunt for Louis Reynard. And time for Claude to be acknowledged as their equal, no longer a child to be cosseted. “Claude, you will lead the ritual.” Soon he would lead their clan, and Alina would be free to enjoy her time as a woman, no longer burdened with the cloak of leadership.
In slow motion Claude began removing his clothes. As sure of himself as he would have been if he had done this many times before, he stood naked at the head of the table and surveyed the crowd. At his instruction they all removed their clothes. “Marisa, love, disrobe the one most recently brought into our midst.”
Flickering candlelight from the wall sconces and at the high table lent a gilded tone to pale vampire flesh, caught highlights in the men’s dark hair. Marisa’s too. Alina wished she could allay the confusion in Sam’s eyes when Claude’s bride caught him by the ring that pierced his cock, led him behind the table and shackled him to a heavy wooden platform shaped like a giant X that held a place of honor against an age-darkened stone wall.
Neck, wrists, thighs, and ankles. The ominous sound of metal hitting metal sent a wave of excitement through Alina. A glance at the men told her Claude and Alex were not unaffected. Their cocks rose up against their bellies, displaying testicles drawn tightly to their groins.
“Alina, do you wish to service this vampire before the ritual begins?” Claude’s voice sounded darker, deeper than she recalled as he began the ritual.
“Yes.” When Marisa knelt before Claude and serviced him, Alina didn’t need to be told to kneel and taste Sam’s cock, deliberately letting her fangs scrape the tender flesh, catch and tug at the ring that held the sound in place within his body.
His thoughts came through clearly. The desire to be whole, to dominate her once more. The anger at being confined, helpless to do anything but accept the will of each participant. The stoic determination to go through with this even though the thought of being penetrated by another male repelled him. Alina almost called a halt. She loved Sam, would still love him if his potency were not restored.
But Sam’s virility was such a huge part of him. He wanted badly to restore it, or he wouldn’t have let Philippe go through with the preparation that had to have been beyond painful.
Alina stepped back, holding Sam’s gaze as Marisa moved beside her. Claude and Alex came forward and grasped Sam’s penis, at the same time leaning in to sip blood from the prominent veins in his thick neck. His puzzled look when the other two males touched him intimately reminded Alina once more that her lover was an American heterosexual as well as a newly made vampire. He must have been taken aback by his fellow vampires’ casual handling . . . and more so by the fact that their touches aroused him.
From somewhere in the distance a bell chimed twelve times, its tone piercing the silence of the night. A cool breeze rattled through the ancient castle walls, its rhythm caught in the flickering of the candlelight, the shifting shadows of another time, a time even before Alina had been born. “The ritual will now begin,” Claude declared, moving back from Marisa and helping Alex loosen Sam’s bonds.
“In the year of our Lord 935, Alain was born a vampire, son of Rolfe d’Argent and the lady Elaine. I am his last surviving son, born not even a year before he met an untimely end. The d’Argent clan has thrived, thanks to my older brothers and their children—Alina, Stefan and Alexandre. This night we gather to restore virility to Sam Quill so that, if the gods be with us, he may get a son on Alina to perpetuate our clan.
“Let the strength of all of us flow into him, make him whole and strong so he may serve his mistress well.” When Claude paused, Alina stood and led Sam to the spot where the brightest firelight reflected off the hardware in his cock. “Sam Quill, are you ready to become one with Alina?”
“Yes.” Though he sounded sure of his reply, Sam’s flesh quivered beneath Alina’s hand. She didn’t blame him. Rather, she admired him for accepting his state and bravely meeting every challenge with courage. He’d been a man to adore. He would soon become the vampire to make her wildest fantasies come true.
Alexandre moved behind them, ready for the lubricated condom Marisa supplied. Grasping Sam’s hips, Marisa removed the anal plug and stepped aside. Alex filled the void as Claude stepped forward and fed his cock into Sam’s mouth.
• • •
Alexandre moved in and out, burning Sam’s ass as his flesh stretched to take the other man’s sure, steady thrusts. Alex’s testicles bounced against Sam’s. He’d have protested because the ass fucking hurt like hell, but he couldn’t talk while he was servicing Claude with his mouth, making him swallow until his throat felt as though it would explode. Marisa tugged at his nipples while Alina knelt between his widely spread legs and stroked his penis. The sound reverberated inside him, its humming increasing each time Alina rotated the ring through its eye.
God, but he’d never felt so full in his life. So helpless yet so stimulated, as though his vampire family were pouring its collective sexuality into his empty shell. For the first time he understood a woman’s need to take a man as he experienced the incredible pleasure of feeling Alexandre’s hot flesh stretching him while he licked and sucked Claude the way he had often ordered female submissives to do to him. Tension built in him, more intense than anything he’d ever experienced. His balls drew up tight against his groin. His heart pounded in his chest the way it had when he was alive—but more so. The sound inside him thrummed wildly. It seemed to have grown. Fuck, he had to come. But he couldn’t.
Then Alina opened the captive bead and fed the ring through his cock, freeing the sound but sending waves of incredible sensation along its embedded length. “Come, Sam. Come for me now.”
“Can I?” He remembered her telling him she was his mistress now.
“You can and you may.” Her soft breath on his flesh sent him over the edge, and he came, great spurts of semen that shot the sound out of his cock and into his mistress’s hand.
“Now you can come inside me,” she told him after they retired alone to a guest chamber in the venerable castle. He blinked at the sight out the narrow window, as the dawn of a new day turned the eastern sky to pink and purple.
Sam was content . . . as content as a newly made vampire could be while the specter of Louis Reynard hung over his mate, his life . . . his love.
Epilogue
Alina’s luxurious town house in the Marais district of Paris, within easy reach of clubs and bistros that reminded him of the French Quarter back home, suited Sam much better than the clan’s elegant but somewhat spooky castle. Alina was glad, because the life in Paris suited her, as well. Wo
rd had it that Louis Reynard was up and about now, after several months’ hibernation in the Carpathian Mountains. And Philippe, whom Claude had put in charge of watching Louis’s movements, had told them Louis apparently had decided to bypass Alina for the moment, moving instead to the warm climes around Miami to resume his killing spree by stalking young women on the vacation mecca known as South Beach.
“Who is Claude sending to destroy Reynard?” Sam looked up from the newspaper he’d been reading and smiled at his mate. “Alexandre?”
“Alex . . . and Philippe. I doubt Philippe will leave the bastard’s trail until he can avenge Jacques’s untimely demise. You know, you took away the pleasure Philippe would have had by destroying Reynard’s lackey.”
Sam raised a gently arched brow. “You’d have wanted me to let him destroy you instead?”
“No, love, and I thank you. But if you had, you might still have been a mortal, going about your business in New Orleans.” When he pulled her down on her knees, she loved the dominant side of him that he always showed when they were alone in their rooms.
“It would please me if you’d service me, love.”
“With pleasure.” When she freed him from his clothes she took him in her mouth, rolling her tongue around his corona, over the eye made more sensitive since they’d been experimenting with different ways of using the sounds. She rolled his testicles between her palms, loving the silky feel of him. The drop of lubrication there tasted good. So good she hated to stop sucking him when he lifted her head and looked down into her eyes.
He rubbed his palm over Alina’s cheek, his touch full of tenderness. Of love. “I’ve found I enjoy being a vampire, much more than I ever dreamed I would.” He handed her the largest of the sounds he’d come to enjoy wearing and held the ring he often wore in his piercing in the crook of one finger. “Put these in for me before we dress and go downstairs. Your maman tells me she has planned another vampire orgy, and I’m anxious to watch the scene.”
Stalking the Dark Page 8