by Nora Ash
Nicklaus made an amused sound in his throat and planted a light kiss on my lips. “Perhaps we best pull out then, hm? Necrophilia never was my thing.”
“You’re such a funny guy,” I mumbled. If I’d had more energy, I’m sure it would have succeeded in coming off as sarcastic as I’d meant it.
“He’s got his moments.” Eliath sounded way more amused than I was. He planted a kiss at the top of my spine and then gently raised up so he could slide out of my swollen opening.
I winced, and scrunched up my face at the sensation of semen flooding out of me when first he, and then Nicklaus, pulled out of my sore body.
Nicklaus rolled me gently off his chest so I was sprawled out in my best imitation of a starfish on the bed next to him. Eliath collapsed on my other side with a deep groan.
Silence spread once more as we all fell back into quiet contemplation of what had just happened. Or, that was what I assumed we were all doing, up until I realized Nicklaus was snoring faintly.
The outrage gave me enough strength to slap an arm across his chest, startling him back awake. “Oi!”
“You realize I haven’t slept in over twenty-four hours, right?” he grumbled.
I gave him a reproachful glare before closing my eyes again. “You can sleep after you two explain to me what the hell just happened.”
“We fucked,” Eliath said with a content sigh. “A lot.” Helpful, as always.
“Yes, thank you, I got that part. What I’m slightly more fuzzy on is why you two decided to, ah…” My mind did its best to come up with a delicate description of what we’d just done, but failed miserably. “Cross swords.”
Nicklaus gave a grunt of laughter and rested an arm across his eyes, shielding them from the light. The other he scooped under my neck so I could rest in the crook of his elbow. “I think you should take this one, Shade.”
Eliath rolled over halfway so he was resting on his side. I could feel his eyes on my face, but didn’t have the energy to open mine and return his gaze. “It was a magic-thing. Or a mark-thing, if you will. We both claimed you, but we’ve been fighting each other for you all along. When our semen mixed inside of you, so did our magic—our essence. It’s something we needed to do to help settle our anger and frustration with each other.”
“Really?” I managed to crack an eyelid at him. “All you needed to do was mix sperm, and now you no longer hate each other?”
“Well, it’s not quite that simple.” The corner of his mouth twitched at my crude explanation. “We still have our history, but being that intimate… it’s surprisingly healing.”
“Mmhm,” Nicklaus agreed from underneath the shelter of his arm. “Just a few dozen rounds of double vaginal to go and we’re sure to become BFFs. Hopefully, we didn’t kill you so bad you won’t want to do it again once you’ve had a bit of a break. You know, for our relationship’s sake.”
I blinked. Repeatedly. “He’s joking, right?” I asked Eliath, whose smile had grown exponentially at Nicklaus’ words.
“Eh, I doubt we’ll ever paint teach other’s toenails or anything, even if you do have quite the magical cunt, but I’m sure it wouldn’t be a bad idea if we revisited this ‘sword crossing’ thing a few times a month.”
I was fairly sure they were both screwing with me, but the sight of Eliath’s teasing smirk made me give up arguing and close my eyes again. I was way too tired to make any sort of headway with either stubborn male, and besides—despite my nether region’s weak protests at the idea—I was pretty sure I wouldn’t mind “revisiting” the morning’s playtime once I’d had some time to rest.
Yawning, I reached out a hand to grab Eliath by the wrist, pulling him with me as I twisted against Nicklaus’ warm body. Eliath came willingly and shielded my body with his, curling up behind me so I was once again completely sandwiched between my two lovers.
Who knew, maybe they were telling the truth—maybe being together like this would actually help heal their relationship, and if that’s the case I was certainly a willing participant. There wasn’t anything in this world I wouldn’t do for either of them. Especially not if it came with as many orgasms as this one had.
“I love you,” I mumbled, already halfway drifting off into the arms of sleep. “So much.”
“We love you too, Kathryn. Always and forever.”
Epilogue
6 Months Later
“I still don’t understand how you two did this to me. I was on the pill, for Chrissake!”
Nicklaus slid both arms around me from behind and rested his hands on my swollen belly, peering at us in the mirror over my shoulder. We were both dressed to the nines, and despite my gloomy mood, I couldn’t help but appreciate how handsome he was in his designer suit.
“It kind of comes with the territory of being a supe, I suppose,” he said and placed a kiss on the side of my neck in that way that always caused shivers to travel down the length of my spine. I frowned at him in the mirror for his obvious attempt at distracting me. “Superhumans have super sperm—it makes sense, doesn’t it?”
“That’s not how birth control works,” I growled. “Look at me! I can barely get off the couch on my own these days! Not to mention stay awake for more than three hours at a time. How am I meant to make the President consider implementing any sort of pro-supe changes to the Superhuman Bill when all I can think about is having another nap?”
An amused chuckle warned of Eliath’s arrival in the dressing room in the well-concealed apartment my two betrothed had bought for us. He slid in front of the mirror, blocking off my view of my own, round shape and embracing me gently so I was sandwiched between the two of them. “You’ll do fine, Kitten. We’ll dance and be seen by all the media, and then you’ll have a casual chat with him in view of everyone. The world knows what’s at stake if the supes take offense to the legislation, my love, and they know you’re our ambassador. He will listen.”
I frowned and pressed my face into his expensive shirt. Being held like this, between the two of them, always calmed me down—at least some. Especially now that any lingering animosity between them had died with the revelation of my pregnancy shortly after the battle for St. Anthony. I had no proof, but I was pretty sure my bulging belly was a result of the first time they shared my body. Even first-class birth control might have to cave at the onslaught of a double dose of superhuman seed. “You make it sound like it’s a walk in the park. Do you have any idea how draining the two little monsters you planted in my uterus are?”
Both men laughed, though they quickly quieted down when I gave them each an elbow to the stomach.
“Yeah, we know. The fact that you keep falling asleep mid-sex is a bit of a giveaway,” Eliath said with a smirk. Nicklaus grasped my arms and held them to my body before I could use my elbows again.
“I’d like to see you juggle being ambassador-slash-Secret Keeper for a bunch of bloodthirsty dragon descendants, while being pregnant with not one, but two of your little devil spawn! I bet you’d need a bit of rest from the sex-marathon that is my life every once in a while, too.”
Nicklaus kissed the back of my neck gently, sending another tendril of excitement down my spine. “We know, baby. You’ve been working non-stop since the battle for St. Anthony, and we don’t give you much rest when we’re alone, either. If you need a break, then you’ll get one.”
“I don’t think there’s such a thing as maternity leave in my job,” I muttered. They were both stroking my body now—not to arouse, but to soothe. It worked, as it always did, and I relaxed between them.
“Perhaps not, but if you need it… we can take a break from the sex.” Eliath sounded almost pained as he said it, but it still made me jerk my head back up with renewed anger.
“Don’t you dare even say that! You know how horny this pregnancy makes me.”
Nicklaus grunted behind me with suppressed laughter. “Yeah… yeah, we do. But you know we’ll do anything for you, Kittykat, and if you need rest…”
“No,�
� I said, aware that my tone was still on the grumpy side. “I’ll get through it. The little cretins can’t stay in my womb forever, anyway.” A cold shock went through me the second after the words were out of my mouth. “Oh, God, they can’t, can they? How long are superhuman pregnancies?” I searched frantically through the onslaught of images I pulled from the place in my mind reserved for Dragon Secrets, only to draw a relieved sigh when the right one popped to the forefront.
“Just nine months,” Nicklaus said, his hands slipping back to my belly.
Eliath shifted his grip so he too could encase my round stomach in his hands. “Are you happy, Kathryn?”
I frowned again at the question. “You know I am. Why would you even ask that?”
“With them?” Nicklaus said, his thumbs grazing my silk dress just above my navel. “Our babies?”
“You’ve been through so much, and everything’s happened very fast,” Eliath rumbled. “We never talked about this, before they were here.”
There was unmistakable worry in both men’s voices.
I swallowed the suddenly forming lump in my throat and blinked until the pesky tears in my eyes dispersed. Damn hormones were completely out of control these days. Carefully, I placed a hand on top of theirs. The little ones within seemed to sense our combined attention and pressed back, making my belly bubble with their movements.
“I never thought I would have this,” I said, my voice breaking. I cleared my throat and swallowed again, ensuring I could continue without breaking into a weeping mess of emotions. I knew from experience that that didn’t exactly help reassure my lovers. “Love so strong it almost hurts to think about, a purpose that goes beyond myself, and so much joy I can hardly contain it. You’ve given that to me, both of you. You’ve put your past behind you to give this life to me, painful as it was. And you have given me these two little terrors. Two manifestations of our love for each other. Two little souls. Yes, it happened very fast, and yes, it’s a lot to deal with right now, but I…”
I breathed deeply to control my swirling emotions that threatened to well up and consume me, as they so often did when I thought about my new little family.
“Yes, I am happy with them. They are the reason I work so hard, because I want them to grow up in a world where they are safe and protected. Just like you have both protected me since the day we met.”
Soft lips kissed my forehead and the back of my neck, traveled down my face to my lips and from my neck to my shoulder, showering me with affection.
The world might still be a dark and dangerous place, but with the help of my lovers—the fathers of my children—I would fight to change that.
Yes, I was happy.
Bonus Epilogue
The Darkness Christmas Special
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BONUS EPILOGUE!
* * *
Life as the mate to two superhumans with an unquenchable sexual appetite is sometimes tough on a human woman.
Christmas is a busy season for everyone, and once her twins are born Kathryn struggles with finding enough time for all her duties as a Secret Keeper, mother and wife.
Good thing her two mates know just how to help her relieve all that stress…
Wicked Soul
More delicious Paranormal Romance by Nora Ash
True Blood meets Twilight
* * *
He saved me… And then he blood-bonded me. Now I’m his.
My first meeting with a Chicago vampire went better than expected. Up until that night, all I knew about vampires was limited to a few common facts: they drink blood, they get a mean sunburn and if you find yourself alone with one, you’re dead.
Except he didn’t kill me.
Sexy, broody Warin clearly had his own reasons for sparing my life and tying me with his blood, but if he’d known how much trouble I’d attract, I bet he wouldn’t have bothered. When he blood-bonded me, secrets even I didn’t know about myself came to light. Secrets that will pull us both deep into the eternal war between vampires and the witches determined to rid the world of their evil.
We have only one choice now: fight the forces hell-bent on breaking our bond…
Or die.
CHAPTER 1
Liv
“Ow, what’s wrong with you?” I aimed a futile kick at the burly guy manhandling me out of the back of the white van he’d tossed me in a good twenty minutes earlier.
A smarter girl would probably have been terrified at being kidnapped off the street, but I was mainly just furious.
“Let go of me, you goddamn fanatic!”
Then again, most girls didn’t get tossed into the back of cross-riddled vans for their choice in reading material. Somehow, even as the big goon wrenched my bound hands up high behind my back and shoved me through the door of a house somewhere in the bad part of Chicago’s suburbs, part of me still thought it was all some horrible joke. Any minute now, an over-excited TV host would jump out with a bunch of cameras and tell me I’d been pranked. Haha.
I looked around the inside of the house. There wasn’t any light apart from the little that managed to seep in through the dirty windows, but from what I could see of the room we were in, no one had lived here for a very long time. There was no furniture, apart from a broken couch and a tipped-over coffee table in the far corner of the room, and both walls and flooring looked like they were rotting away.
“Time to learn what happens to filthy little vamp sluts,” the guy who’d been driving the van sneered as he closed the door behind us.
“Jesus, the state of public education is as bad as the Internet says, huh? I swear to you, reading a paranormal romance novel is not the same as actually banging a vampire.”
Yup, that was what had gotten me kidnapped
Reading a sexy vampire book at a cafe, minding my own business. I swear, this sort of thing could only happen to me.
“Shut your mouth, bitch,” the goon behind me growled, giving me a hard shove that had me stumbling across the floor and face-planting against a heavy, wooden door. “Don’t you dare take the Lord’s name in vain!”
Okay, so not a game show then. I swallowed a whimper of pain when he yanked me away from the door by my ponytail so he could unlock and open it.
I was pretty sure, despite the sorry state of American TV these days, that no candid camera would get away with physically abusing its unsuspecting contestants. The acrid taste of true fear burned in my throat when realization of how bad my situation truly was finally set in.
I gritted my teeth against the swell of panic in my chest when the newly opened door revealed a dark, narrow staircase leading down below ground level. I tried to throw myself back and away from the gaping chasm of darkness in front of me, but it was useless. My kidnappers simply gave me a shove between the shoulder blades, and thanks to my bound wrists, I didn’t have any means of resisting.
Squealing, I stumbled down the stairs, only narrowly managing to keep on my feet, until I smacked up against another door, this one made of solid metal. Face first. Again.
The goon and his accomplice were right behind me, and a second later, I was shoved through yet another door. Pale light illuminated the walls of a large, concrete room. I stared open-mouthed at the many odd-looking weapons lining the walls—wooden stakes, crossbows, scary-looking knives. And among them, crosses and long metal chains of varying thicknesses. Just what the hell sort of place was this?
“The sun sets in two hours, deadwhore. If I were you, I’d spend that time praying for forgiveness,” my kidnapper sneered. He pulled a knife and sliced through the zip-ties binding my wrists, then pointed at the far end of the room. “Get in.”
I followed his finger with my eyes and saw a large, metal cage half-hidden behind a pile of junk. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Who the fuck had a cage in their basement? Just how many girls did they force into their little rape-cave because of their taste
in smutty literature?
My frozen silence was met with a gentle, yet unmistakably threatening poke of a knife’s point against the back of my neck.
“In.”
Slowly, I forced my feet to move toward the cage where the other guy was holding the cell door open for me. How fucking gallant.
I glared at him as he swung the gate shut with a clang, locking it behind me and taking a step back.
“How long do you plan on keeping me in here?” I demanded, feeling oddly relieved to have bars between us. It was an illusion of safety, of course, since they held the keys, but it was enough for me to find some of my anger again. And anger felt a lot better than fear.
“Oh, just for a couple of hours,” the driver said, a cruel smirk on his face. “If you get bored, you can always see if you can wake up your new friend.”
He nodded at something behind me, and I turned halfway around to see what the hell the crazy old goat was referring to.
And that was when I realized I wasn’t alone in the cage.
A dark-haired young man who looked like he was in his early twenties sat cross-legged at the back of the cage on the bare concrete floor. His eyes were closed and he wasn’t moving a muscle, a serene look on his face as if he was meditating or something.
Outraged, I spun back around to my kidnappers. “Great, so now you kidnap college kids? What did he do, watch Van Helsing? You sick fucks!”
Both men laughed, and I felt like I was missing some twisted joke. “Start begging God for forgiveness. You don’t have much time left.”