by Sophie Stern
“She wants nothing to do with me,” I said.
There was no doubt in my mind that Kimberly was aroused by me, but she didn’t want to fuck me. Who wanted to fuck a monster? That was insanity. I had a feeling that she still wanted to kill me and she was just biding her time.
“It doesn’t matter,” Helena said. “You know what happens when a vampire turns. The clock is running out. Stop wasting time.”
I looked over at Kimberly, who was talking quietly with Raven, and I knew that Helena was right. I didn’t want to do what I was about to do, but I also didn’t really have a choice. Kimberly was my mate, and if she was going to make it in the world of vampires, I needed to stop wasting time and start making better choices.
I was the Vampire Lord of Garnetia, after all.
How hard could this be?
7.
Kimberly
“YOU HAVE TO FUCK ME,” I whispered once we were alone.
“What?” He spun around, looking at me. “What are you talking about?”
“So, it’s true?” I could see it on his face. I’d had an entire day to spend with Liam, and it had been nothing like I expected. He’d been...polite. He’d been kind. Hell, he’d almost been gentlemanly.
Something was wrong, though. There was more to this man than met the eye. For the last five years, I’d been trying to find him. I’d been trying to catch him and to figure out where he lived. I’d been in the Grove plenty of times, but somehow, I’d never seen this house. Somehow, something had always happened to keep me away from him, and now I wondered whether that was because I sucked as a hunter or if someone was trying to keep me away.
Now I knew that he’d been searching for me for a very long time. He’d been waiting for the right moment to take me or kill me, and I didn’t know which he had actually planned on doing. In the end, it seemed as though he’d done both, although I’d kind of wandered right into his lair.
“Helena told me,” I said.
“When did you see Helena?”
“When you were getting the plates for dinner,” I said. At one point, he’d stepped out of the dining room, and Helena had grabbed me by the chin and told me to hurry up and fuck Liam. If I didn’t, she warned, I’d not only lose my vampire powers, but my life entirely. I’d die, and if I died a second death, there would be no coming back.
He sighed and sat down.
“I didn’t want to force you.”
“So, you were going to let me die?” I worried that if I’d been left to my own devices, that I wouldn’t fuck him for weeks or even months, if only out of spite.
“I was going to seduce you,” he said simply.
“The way you seduced me into becoming a vampire?” I asked quietly, licking my lips.
“Perhaps,” he said. “Although I don’t think I gave you a choice on that front.”
“So, what changed?”
“I’ve never taken a mate,” he said. “I don’t want to screw this up.”
“That’s sweet,” I said. “But it sounds like you’re scared.”
“You’re taunting me. It won’t work.”
“No?” I said. “I’m a huntress. I’ve taunted many vampires before.”
“Not like this.”
“No,” I said. “I never fucked them.”
I tried to sound sassy like I normally did, but the truth was that I was a little confused, and I was a little bit nervous. I really hadn’t slept with a vampire. In fact, I hadn’t slept with anyone since Hank broke up with me for another girl.
“And you want to fuck me.”
“Maybe,” I said. “I can’t decide whether I want to fuck you or fight you.”
“You’ve already fought me once,” he said, stepping closer. Liam towered over me. I hadn’t really noticed it before. Maybe being a vampire made me more scared than being human. I didn’t feel very different, to be honest. Mostly, I felt the same.
When he was close like this, though, my entire body felt like it was on fire, and suddenly, my fangs came out. I gasped and reached for them, touching them gently. Liam watched me. Amusement played on his face, but I wasn’t embarrassed.
“Liam,” I whispered. “I have fangs.”
“Yes, that does tend to happen with vampires,” he said.
“What can I do with them?”
“You can bite.”
“Liam, they feel...”
I rubbed one up and down, shocked at the way it felt. It felt good. It felt erotic. He watched as I touched one fang and then the other.
“Yes, a lot of people find them arousing,” he said.
“Do people ever...”
I blushed, suddenly not wanting to finish my sentence.
“Give each other fang jobs?”
“Yes.”
“All the time,” he said, nodding. He spoke as though it wasn’t a big deal, as though we were discussing the weather and not the mating practices of vampires. I touched my fangs again, but suddenly, I started to feel a little dizzy, and I sat down on the floor.
He came over to me, reached out, and touched my forehead.
“You’re hot,” he said.
“Thank you.”
“That’s not a good thing, love,” he said. He sighed, shaking his head. “Kimberly, I don’t want to force you into this, but you have to make a choice.”
“Fuck you or fight you?”
“Fuck me or die,” he said. “We’re mated, love. Even if we weren’t, there’s a reason that vampires only sire humans they’re sexually attracted to.”
“What do you mean?”
“When a human is turned into a vampire, they don’t just drink the blood of the person who turns them. They also need to make love to them.”
He spoke these words gently, as though he were talking to a child.
“It’s the final step in the ritual. Without it, the ritual fails.”
“You mean I turn back to human.”
“I mean you die,” he said. “You will turn back to human, but your human self is died. I killed you last night. Now you can either make love to me, sealing your induction into the world of vampires, or you can perish.”
“Seems like a hard choice,” I said, keeping my face straight.
His brow furrowed, and he looked worried. Who would have thought that the Vampire of Garnetia had a heart? Not me. I’d been hunting him for what seemed like an eternity and now...now I was toying with the idea of having sex with him.
Not that it would be a burden.
I was embarrassed to think that when I’d been human, I’d often masturbated thinking about him. He was handsome, for sure. He was good-looking and he was fierce. I’d seen the way he hunted. He prowled like a tiger, slinking through the jungle that was the Grove.
“It’s not much of a choice,” I whispered.
“Choose,” he said, but his eyes were sad. “But if it makes a difference, know that I don’t want to live without you.”
“You don’t even know me,” I whispered.
“I’ve known you for a long time,” he said.
Then something hit me: a realization of sorts. He’d known. He’d known on that night that I was supposed to be his mate, and that was why he let me go.
“You knew,” I said. “That night we sparred. You knew I was to be your mate, but you still released me instead of mating me then. Why?”
“It wouldn’t have made you happy?”
“And now?”
“Now you have nothing else to live for,” he said. “Being a vampire might not be the thing that will bring you joy, but it’s better than your never-ending quest for revenge. Besides, what’s a better revenge than keeping me under your thumb?” He joked.
Somehow, I didn’t think that anyone, not even his mate, would be able to keep Liam under their thumb.
“You knew I was dating Hank,” I said carefully.
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t stop it.”
“You are not mine to control,” he said.
“
Even now?”
“Even now,” he said.
“So, you’d let me be with another?” It didn’t seem to make sense to me. What was it he was offering me, exactly?
“I will give you whatever it takes to bring you happiness,” he whispered. “I need you to be happy.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re my mate,” he said for what seemed like the millionth time, and I couldn’t decide whether it was wonderful or horrible, but I also realized that I didn’t care. We’d danced long enough. I was ready for what came next.
I lifted my finger, beckoning him, and I let my fangs out once more.
I was ready.
If Liam had any hesitation within him at all, he didn’t show it. Instead, he came over, walking to me, and he lowered himself beside me. He sat next to me, and then he reached for me, cupping my cheek, and he kissed me.
It was soft at first, and gentle. It wasn’t the way I was used to being kissed. With Hank, kissing was something to be endured, and it was fast and sloppy. The kiss Liam had given me last night had been wild, but controlled.
This kiss was...
Well, it was tender.
Sweet.
Erotic.
My body felt hot from the changes it was going through, but now there was a new heat, and it was one that started between my legs. I was on fire for him. I wanted him. Needed him. I was craving him to the point where I thought I might lose my mind if he didn’t start fucking me. It was strange to know that if we didn’t move things along, I really would get sick. I really would die from not sleeping with him.
“Please,” I whispered, reaching for him. “Please don’t wait.”
“I won’t,” he said, laughing. “I’ve been waiting an eternity for you, Kimberly.”
“I need you inside of me,” I said. The yearning inside of my body was growing with every kiss. With every single touch, I found myself needing more.
Wanting more.
He reached for me and started pulling off my clothes. The dress came first, followed by the bra. He didn’t take off my panties right away. Instead, he kissed my neck and down to my breasts. He played with them, teasing my nipples and tantalizing me.
I’d never felt anything like it.
“Liam,” I whispered.
“You like this,” he said.
“Of course, I like it.”
He looked up at me and smiled.
“No one’s ever teased you like this.”
It was an observation: not an accusation. Still, it saddened me a little. He was right, after all. I’d never been with anyone who taunted me like this before.
“No,” I said.
“Vampires do things a little differently, love,” he said then, and he reached for my panties. He tugged them off. I was totally naked in front of him, then. I was completely bared to his whims: open to anything he wanted to offer me. He lifted me from the ground and carried me to the bed, and he sat me down.
“What do you mean?”
“We like teasing,” he said.
“And biting.”
“Ah, yes. I’d almost forgotten,” he winked. He was standing beside the bed, and he stepped forward so he was standing between my legs. He held out his wrist to me. “Drink,” he said.
“What?” I looked up at him sharply.
“Drink,” he said.
“Do vampires always drink each others’ blood during sex?”
“Sometimes,” he shrugged.
“I don’t know how.”
“Don’t think too hard about it,” he said. “Do what feels natural.”
I didn’t want to screw it up. I already felt like I’d failed as a huntress. After all, I had gotten caught by the vampires, and they’d turned me into one of them. Now I was supposed to do something else: something crazy. I was supposed to do something really weird and wild and terrible, and I didn’t know what to do. After all, “biting a vampire’s wrist during sex” wasn’t exactly part of sex ed for me.
Still, Liam looked like he believed in me. What was more was that he was exuding his classic never-ending patience. He seemed to be completely comfortable both with himself and with the situation we had found ourselves in.
I took his wrist, and I pressed my lips to it. Then I looked up at him. He nodded encouragingly, and I was reminded of a parent trying to convince their child to eat peas for the first time. He was silently telling me that I could do it, and somehow, that wholesome belief in me pushed me through. I closed my eyes and urged my fangs to come out, which they did. They pierced his soft skin, but he didn’t jolt away.
Then his blood hit my lips
I wasn’t sure if all blood tasted as good as vampire blood. Surely, it didn’t. There must have been a reason that vampires drank from humans and other living creatures, rather than the dead. Still, Liam’s blood was a delightful experience all on its own. I started sucking, letting the red liquid pour over my lips, and then I pulled away.
“Good girl,” he murmured. “Now seal the wound.”
I looked at his wrist, and then back at him.
“Use your tongue.”
I licked carefully, tenderly, cleaning up my mess. When I pulled away and looked down at his wrist, I noticed that not only was the blood gone, but the wound was sealed, too.
“Beautiful,” he murmured.
“What just happened?” I whispered.
“You don’t just have fangs.”
“I have something else,” I whispered.
“I sealed your wounds after I bit you and turned you. Now you’re a vampire, just about, and you can seal wounds up, too.”
“Just about?”
“You know there’s one last step,” he murmured.
“I’m ready,” I whispered.
I climbed higher up on the bed and he joined me. He pushed me down onto my back and hovered over me. He still had clothes on, and I was naked. It was a strange sort of entanglement, but I wrapped my legs around him and kissed him, pulling him closer to me.
“You’re more perfect than I imagined,” he whispered.
It was then that it really hit me just how long he had waited for me. He’d fought me, and he’d freed me, and then he’d waited patiently, watching for the right moment. He hadn’t grasped at me right away. He hadn’t slinked into my world and taken me without permission. He’d waited, and he’d been careful.
Then, when I’d been so damn brazen that I’d marched into the Grove looking for Raven, he’d changed me.
Now it was going to be solidified.
The decision to sleep with Liam or to die wasn’t really a hard one. I didn’t feel like I had much to live for anymore. I still wanted to kill him. I still had questions that needed answers, but the walls I’d built around myself as a means of protection had started to crumble just a little, and I was ready for my vampire.
I was ready for him.
“Please,” I whispered.
“I told you I’d make you beg.”
“I need you.”
I wanted him with everything that I had. I needed him. I craved him. I desired him. More than anything else, I needed him inside of me. My body felt even more hot, and I wondered how much time I had before it would be too late. His blood had been sweet, but now I wanted something else.
I wanted his cock.
“Please,” I begged again.
Before I knew what was happening, he was naked, and then he was inside of me. I cried out at the intrusion, but it felt so damn good. He growled as he fucked me on the bed. He wasn’t as romantic as I thought he was going to be. After all of the kissing and the teasing and the taunting, I thought our lovemaking was going to be sort of virginal.
Apparently, vampires liked it rough.
I liked that.
I liked it rough, too.
He pressed his hand around my throat, squeezing it as he slid into me. I looked up at him with wide eyes. Every inch of my body felt like it was on fire.
“Come for me,” he said.
&nbs
p; It seemed impossible, but I was already close, already ready. I was already aching for more of him. I closed my eyes, and when the orgasm washed over me, I cried out. He removed his hand and ran his tongue over my neck.
“I’m coming,” I said.
He bit my neck when I did, sliding his fangs into me, and somehow, that made the orgasm even more intense. I felt like I was going to faint or pass out, but I gripped him, holding him tightly to myself, running my nails down his back until he came apart for me, too.
“Kimberly,” he groaned as he came.
Then it was over.
It was done.
We were one, and I was...
A vampire.
Officially.
8.
Liam
THE FIRST FEW DAYS after she transitioned into the world of vampires were quiet ones. Kimberly didn’t cause any sort of ruckus or fuss about her new life, and that made me wildly uncomfortable. I wanted her to be happy. I desired a mate who was satisfied, and I thought that it I worked hard enough to please her, she would feel happy in the Grove.
Kimberly spent most of her time exploring the mansion with Raven. The two of them had been close long ago – lovers, even – and they now spent their time looking through books, talking about vampires, and even doing crafts. It was a quiet sort of life, at least while Kimberly became more and more comfortable with the way her world had been flipped upside down.
“They’re planning something,” Helena said, coming into the office one day. It had been nearly a week since Kimberly had come to live with us. We’d made love many times since that first day, and each time it had grown more and more passionate. Kimberly was funny and clever, and she was wildly uninhibited in bed. It was a welcome change from women I’d been with before.
“Who?” I looked up from my desk, not sure who Helena was talking about, and not sure whether I needed to be worried.
“The girls.”
“Kimberly and Raven?”
She nodded curtly.
“What makes you say that?”
“Raven has been awkward around me,” Helena said. “She’s never awkward.”
“Maybe she just wants to please you and she’s feeling shy about that.”