I thought it through silently. Contemplating and evaluating.
“One of the problems is, we don’t technically need to rule the humans. We practically already do. We are the predators, and they’re the prey. Even if they don’t know it,” I said. “We don’t hunt. We order up a fresh meal.”
“All someone would have to do is ensure a breeding program for the vampires, and then they could destroy the rest of the humans.” A glance in my direction with a teasing smile. “No hunting for you then.”
I pressed the pedal a little harder.
I didn’t know what was going on in my father’s head, but I knew I didn’t like it.
* * *
Haley’s panic rushed through our bond, just as I had a bonus orgasm from her halfway to the house. Mere minutes before we could be there, her panic had taken over.
As soon as I slid the car into the driveway, I knew we were too late. The lights were on in too many rooms, and the two security guards at the front were face down on the stairs, bleeding out. Utter waste.
I ran up the stairs without even turning off the car. I followed the panic that plowed through my brain, grateful for the massive amounts of blood I’d taken. I wouldn’t have been able to hold back the emotion from the connection otherwise.
But this was helpful as I was able to find her in the house right away.
It wasn’t what I wanted to discover, though.
The vampire was already there and had Ginter by the neck with his fangs buried deep into his neck. Eyes rolled back, blood dripping out of the vein, sucking every last drop of life out of the man. Haley was frozen in terror on the bed, covered in the blood of a fight between Ginter and this vampire.
My claws unleashed, and I drove them into the vampire’s spine.
His high shriek pierced the night air as he let go of Ginter’s neck, dropping the man to the floor, not quite dead.
The vampire turned to me…and it was a female.
A female vampire I didn’t know. One I had never seen before. She smelled new.
Hissing at me, she tried to spin away off my claws.
I shoved them in harder and drove my fangs into her neck, ripping the flesh open.
She screamed and desperately tried to crawl away from me.
I pulled on her blood, trying to pry her memories from her. If she were new, it wouldn’t be hard, but I couldn’t find them. She was holding onto them desperately, pushing them back from her blood again and again.
If she wasn’t going to let me have them, she wasn’t going to live.
I was going to be hungover from all the blood I’d taken tonight. But I didn’t mind. I drained her, using a single claw from my other hand to slice the matching vein on the other side. I didn’t even care if it was wasteful at this point. She just needed to die.
The last of her blood crossed my tongue, but she wasn’t dead yet. With her fresh intake of blood, she could still survive. I reached behind me and yanked out my sword.
My blood-red lips pressed against her ear. “Keep your memories then. Your life is mine.”
In an easy move, I stepped back, retracting my claws from her back as my other hand, wielding the sword, swung in an easy arc. Her head hit the floor and rolled a half dozen times before her body joined it. I snarled and turned to where Ginter lay dying at my feet.
Nial was in the doorway. I motioned to the terrified woman on the bed. “Take her. She’s yours.”
He struck instantly, grabbing her in Thrall.
Much to my chagrin, she had yet another orgasm as he drained her.
I was going to turn to jelly with all this climaxing and feeding.
Kneeling next to Ginter, he was just as handsome as his picture. A shame. I would have liked to keep him awhile to drink from before killing him or sending him to the dungeons for others to use.
“This will be fast. If I had known using you against Cato’s plan was an option, I would have. Your little machinations in your human arena mean nothing—not when it comes to the vampires. But we will not let him wipe you out. You’re too much fun to taste and chase.”
I yanked him into Thrall and took the last of his blood, which wasn’t much really.
A quart, maybe. He had been very close to dead.
I stood and looked over at the bed where Nial was letting the woman’s body fall back to the bed. He stared at me a moment, his druid eyes shining yellow in sated delight.
“Innocent.” He managed the word as his eyes slowly turned back to their real green. “You knew. That’s why you gave her to me. She knew nothing.”
“Nothing. But thanks for that last orgasm. That was nice.”
“You are a bitch.”
I grinned then looked around the room. “I learned a few things tonight. Cato’s Challenge has too many layers to peel back. He wanted a hired hand to do his dirty work. He’s up to something, because that,” I pointed to the female’s body, “was a newly made vampire. She knew almost nothing except how to keep her memories. And Ginter was an innocent as well. Strong principles. He was offered a lot of money to walk away from his politics.”
Nial stared at the beheaded body. “No one makes a vampire without the approval of the Council.”
“Yeah, and?”
“None have been approved.” His head cocked in hesitant thought. “Not that I know of anyway.”
“What about when the one who is making them is a Council member?”
He raised an eyebrow but stayed silent.
I put a hand on my hip. “I won the Challenge as it was issued.”
“Monitor of—”
I held up a finger. “I’m not done with the Challenge yet. Give me an hour before you call it closed.”
Nial’s eyes roamed my face, considering my request. Then he nodded. “I’ll be outside. Probably with a bottle of some foul liquid I can find in the cabinets downstairs.”
He walked out, and I got to work.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
~ KIMBER ~
I tossed another ancient volume on the desk in frustration. Jallina had mentioned the Breaker of the Spine, and I had never heard of it.
My newest question was, how had I never heard of it?
Books upon books were here, in the library, in the public section, about the Breaker of the Spine.
I had never heard this part of our legends.
I put a hand to my head and stared at the desktop.
“Tymon told me you’d be here.”
My head jerked up to find Elex standing over the desk. “I asked him to let me in. I’d hope he knew where I was.”
Elex pulled a few of the books toward him and flipped through the pages. “What are you looking for?”
“Jallina—”
His head snapped up this time. “You talked to her?”
“Yes, yesterday after I walked out on Dorian. I ran into her at a coffee shop in the market. We talked and caught up and…”
Pulling a chair out, he sat next to me and moved the books closer. “And what?”
“It seems we have enemies. And we should have known about them all along. As much as it pains me to say, Dorian was right. We don’t know everything there is to know about this world. Not by a long shot.”
He rested his head on his fist, letting out a breath. “How could we have known we had enemies when we didn’t even know what or who we were supposed to be.”
The oldest book of the lot sat closest to me, and I flipped it open, turning the pages carefully. “Does that mean you’ve heard of the Breaker of the Spine?”
“Yes. You haven’t?”
“No.”
“How…”
“Don’t know.”
Elex was thoughtful as he turned the pages in the book in front of him. “The Breaker of the Spine is the one who must not only mind the spine as it falls back to the earth but mind all of S’Kir as it does. There’s a lot of magic in that, and it’s not an easy thing to be in charge of.”
“Jallina called me the Breaker.”
With his finger tracing the drawings on the page, Elex was preoccupied with the designs on the page for a quiet minute.
After several false starts, he finally found his voice. “I suspected you were the Breaker when the mountain called you. I was nearly sure when we entered the cave. And after the kidnapping attempt, I’m not the only one who thinks you are.”
A deep sigh left me. Suddenly, I felt resigned to this fate. “You think that I’m going to break the spine?”
He pursed his lips, trying not to answer the question, but eventually, Elex gave in. “Yes. I do.”
The slam of the book echoed through the empty library hall. “Shit. Dorian was right.”
The laugh that bubbled up in Elex wasn’t as full of mirth as he wanted it to be. “That pains you?”
“Elex, he’s an asshole.”
“We’ve established that, yes.”
“I don’t want him to be right.”
His fingers caressed my chin and turned me to look at him. “He’s so much older than everyone else. He’s going to be right more than you can possibly imagine.”
His beautiful black eyes sparkled in the dim light of the library.
“Jallina is going to spy for us.”
“You asked her to do that?”
“No. She offered. She’s part of the Outlier Temple in the market, and Milgran is a big mouth who hasn’t realized she’s not on his side.”
A pleasant chuckle passed between us as he studied my face. The dark olive tones of his skin were softer than I remembered from our interlude the other night.
I could feel the heat between us rising. In a move to deflect the growing sexual tension, I tried to ask a question. “If I’m the Breaker, who are you?”
He drew in close. “The man who gets to fuck you.”
My resolve to stop this got up and left the room, abandoning me, happily, to his advances. “Does that have an official title?” I teased.
“Mm. We’ll have to come up with one.”
My hand found the rising shaft in his pants. “You have no trouble coming up, do you?”
He lost his voice for a moment and then grabbed my hand to still my motions over his erection. “I wanted to show you that last night, Kimber. But you never came to my apartment.”
“You could have come to mine.”
Cocking his head, he considered me a moment. “Oh, can I?”
Leaning in close, I let my breath dust over his ear with a suggestion. “I don’t care to sleep apart from you, Lord Everettson. Why don’t you move into my apartments?”
“Does this mean that I get to fuck you every night?”
“And every morning.”
At the same time, we turned, and our lips found each other. The kiss that ensued was pure fire. His tongue sought mine, and curled around, stroking and sucking, teasing and finally leading me into his mouth.
It was only our need for air that broke us apart, and I grasped his cock again.
I pulled him to standing, and I tried to lead him away. “Let go—”
“No.” His grip was strong as he yanked back, leaning my whole body against his.
His fierce erection pressed against my stomach.
My knees were weak. So was my will. “No?”
Shaking his head, and again moving my hand from his erection, he confirmed his statement. “No. Right here. Right now.”
“In a library?” I was actually scandalized.
“There’s no one here.” A heated hand found my breast through my shirt and squeezed just this side of softly.
My nipples hardened and answered his call. A second more and they were aching for his touch.
We were not going to make it anywhere.
His lips seared another kiss across mine. Those black eyes grew even darker with the heat of lust and damned if my thighs weren’t already soaked and ready for him.
“You are mine, aren’t you, Kimber.”
“Yes.” The word was drawn out as his hand found and rolled my nipple through the fabric.
“I’m going to fuck you right here, right now.”
“Oh, gods and stars, yes.”
Hands were at the neck of the tunic I was wearing, and before I could utter a word, he ripped the top down the center to my waist, revealing the bra I was wearing.
“Kimber, oh Kimber. If I do move into your apartments, I don’t want you wearing these around the house. I want your tits natural so I can enjoy them anytime.”
Why did this dominant play make me so wet for him?
The magic gathered at the front of my bra. My momentary confusion was gone when Elex used it to snip the front of it open, and my breasts spilled into his waiting hands.
“So wonderful, my sweet. So ripe.”
The same tongue that had seared my lips now tortured my nipples as he suckled and sucked and nipped at me.
I shoved my hands into his hair and held on as he ravaged them. Lust spiked through me, and nothing could have stopped the moan that snuck out of me.
“Elex, shit.” That was as much as my mind could muster for words.
“One day, when I don’t need to be inside you right away, I’m going to spend a long time just sucking on your nipples, and I’m going to make you come.”
My legs were shaking now.
What a wonderful threat that was, but I needed something else, and soon.
“Elex.” I glanced down and what a magnificent view of his lips on my skin I had. His dark, dusky complexion was a perfect complement to my pale pink cream.
“Not today, sweetness. Not today.”
Trailing his lips up my chest to my throat, he nibbled on the column of my throat.
I couldn’t take much more. Elex knew it.
I felt his hand pushing its way up my thigh, gathering the bottom of my tunic, moving it up and up, until it was at my thigh.
His hand wrapped around my arm. I didn’t have a moment to protest or even realize what was going on before I found myself pressed onto the table with the books on it.
The move was smooth and calculated, lifting my tunic skirt up over my ass.
The moan that escaped me as he caressed the naked globes of my ass echoed in the library.
I couldn’t even bother to be embarrassed.
He had a cock, and I wanted to be on it.
Now.
To encourage him a bit, I lifted one leg to rest on the tabletop, opening me wide for him.
“Oh, that’s nice. So very nice.” Fingers dipped into my pussy and ran circles, tracing the walls of my sex.
I drew a hard breath, trying to slow my heartbeat. He was going to kill me. I wanted to die without him inside me.
He offered no warning. His cock slammed deep into my channel, stealing my breath and mind at the same time. He seated himself deep inside my pussy, pushing my whole body into the table with his.
It was fucking hot.
He leaned forward, trying to press even deeper. Again, the moan filled the library, and I still didn’t care.
“Move, Elex, oh, shit move.”
He didn’t speak. Instead, he withdrew slowly until he was just barely inside of me and slammed back inside.
“Fuck!” He forced the word out of me.
“Mmm, yes.” Sliding his hands under me, he found my breasts and lifted me just enough to wrap his greedy hands around the tender flesh.
“Beg for it, Kimber.”
I gasped as he made his demand and withdrew again. I waited for him.
When he didn’t take my pussy hard again, I knew he wasn’t kidding. He wanted me to beg for it.
“Please, Elex,” I managed. “Please.”
“No. Beg me for it, lovely woman. Beg me.”
“Elex, please give me your cock.”
He pinched a nipple. “Not good enough.”
One hand left my breast and found my clit very quickly. His finger dusted over me, enough to torture me, but no more.
“Beg, Kimber.”
“Please fuck me.�
�
Each time I begged, he barely touched my bundled, excited nerves. It was enough to keep me enthralled, but not enough to take me closer to my climax.
I needed to come.
He was driving me mad.
“Beg, Kimber. Beg me to fuck you.”
“Fuck me, please.”
“No.”
“Fuck me, Elex.”
“Try harder.”
His wicked finger danced and danced over my clit. I couldn’t deal with it. My mind was gone. I wanted him deep inside, and I wanted him to come too.
“Elex, please!”
“No.”
“Fuck me, Elex! Fuck me! Drive your cock into me!”
His answer was the piercing of his cock into my pussy again. Harder this time, relentless, driving in and in again and again as Elex commanded me.
I was wound so tight—too tight!—I was sure that I was going to pass to the next world before I could actually come.
I didn’t need to worry about that after all.
Elex’s finger left my pussy for just a moment and returned with a slap.
It broke me.
I screamed my orgasm to the empty library hall. There was no mistaking the sexual delight as it echoed through the room or the slap of his balls against my heated flesh.
Following my climax, his was upon him, and he yelled it into the same space as mine. Pumping himself once, twice, three times, I lost count, his cock exploding with his cum, painting my channel with his release.
He collapsed on top of me, his heart hammering against his ribs. His weight pressed me harder against the table, but I didn’t mind.
His body felt so good, so hot against mine.
We breathed together, and after just a few seconds, he realized he was on top of me, and lifted himself up.
Dragging a chair close, he collapsed into it and pulled me onto his lap. Exhausted and still recovering from my massive orgasm, my eyelids fluttered trying to stay open. Gentle fingers brushed the hair from my eyes.
“I was going to hesitate about moving in with you.”
I managed to make a questioning noise. I was curious what he was going to say.
“Yeah, I think I need to. I can’t fuck you in the library like this.”
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