by Marata Eros
I scowled at him and he laughed. “It is true, I dare say. But with the Druid, it is our biological imperative to give pleasure. It is in the fabric of our very design.”
His lips lay a trail on my neck, then went to my collarbone and as he sat up, he moved to the dip at my waist. Finally, he landed at my hip, his lips spreading and kissing a hot circle where the bone met the roundness of the side.
“Stop,” I whispered, the heat flaring like an ember brought to life between us.
His eyes rolled to mine and in one fluid motion he carried me to the bath, giving the tap a viscous jerk to the left. The water sprayed out, steaming as it landed in the porcelain. His eyes grew dark as he said, “I have patience aplenty. But I do mean to have you. And do not think that Cole does not seek you even now.”
I looked around, naked in his arms, thinking Cole would come through a crevice in the house.
His eyes lightened and he chuckled. “He does not come through walls, even him.”
I looked into Zach's eyes. “We have shared this together, you know.”
I watched his face as the knowledge that Cole had tasted me also cloaked him. His expression grew fierce.
He drew me closer and said, “Has he buried his flesh in yours, Breeder?”
He scared me and the truth flew out of my mouth, “No!”
He relaxed his hold on me. “I will not rape you. But, know this, if I can have you when you are fertile, I may be able to bond you to me and me only, then Cole would be out of the race for you as mate.”
Wow, this was looking bad. I couldn't even think of when I had my period last or anything. The bonding thing seemed pretty permanent.
“Am I... ?”
He shook his head. “No... but soon.” He turned the spigot off and placed me in the tub slowly, the almost hot water moving in around me like a wet shroud of warmth.
He pinched one of my nipples and I shivered underneath his touch. My core blossomed for him, opening like a wet and ripe flower. My lip trembled. I was hating how weak I was to the vampires.
I had to get out of here. But first I had a question.
He saw it on my face. “What do you wish to ask?”
“So... I'll just lay there and spread my legs for any vampire because of having Druid blood? I have no protection against any of you?” A hot tear rolled out of my eye. I didn't care that he said it wasn't rape. I knew what I didn't want intellectually but my body chose for me.
Therefore, zero choice.
Zach shook his head. “No, vampires with Druid blood, Reapers. Those two groups. Lowly Vampire, no. We would, none of us, ever waste a Druid on degenerate Vampire stock. And,” he swiped the tears on my face away with the gentlest of strokes, “your blood knows which to choose. Those reactions you had to me while I …” a hot blush rode to my face and he sucked in his breath, watching that enticing blood bloom underneath the surface of my skin. He took a shuddering exhale and began again, “Were it me to take you. Take you then. Your blood knows which it calls to most. It will decide for you.”
“What of rape?” I asked, thinking of that vampire that had nearly torn my arm off.
He shrugged. “It can happen. Any vampire will want you more than any other female, vampire females included. Our blood knows which female will ripen when she takes our seed within her body.”
I slid down into the tub. I thought about being raped by one of them. It wasn't something I'd survive. I knew it.
He saw my barely concealed fear and spoke again, “You are well guarded, a treasure. The rogue understand your importance very well. Without the Druid, we will be no more.” He spread his hands wide as if defeated. “We need you, you are too important. Only the derelict would assault a Druid and live to tell about it.”
“Has it happened?”
He nodded, expression somber. “It has.”
“What... what happened?”
Zach didn't answer immediately, but slid a long, tapered finger along the rolled rim of the tub. Finally he looked up, his wine-colored eyes boring into mine. “He was rough with her... he shattered her pelvis and broke her jaw.”
I gasped in a breath, covering my mouth, my eyes widening.
“Why would he hurt her?”
“He held her face and used a hand on her hip to hold her still while he...” his eyes flicked to mine and when he saw I understood he went on, “We were unable to save her.”
“What about him!” I cried, the water lapping the edges of the tub with my movement.
He smiled. It wasn't a smile of pleasure but one of retribution. “The rogue pulled him apart while his heart still beat. The Druid female watched even as her life bled out of her,” he finished softly.
I realized he cared. He had cared about the female.
“Who was she? Who was she to you... ?”
His eyes never left hers.
“My sister.”
CHAPTER 4
Cole
Cole slowed his run to a jog. He was very near the coordinates that Nathan had given him but dawn was close. He must find shelter and resume his search, make it finer.
Looking around he spied a heap of rocks. After exploring it thoroughly, he saw that it was but a covering for an old mine shaft, plentiful in this area. They thought nothing of blasting whatever piece of the environment would yield a resource of value to exploit. Especially in the era he was most familiar with, post WWII. That is when he had been turned.
And needed for his task. The harvest of Druids.
There were few Reapers. Many recruited, few chosen. There was a certain component for successful acquisition. He had done very well. Alexander had been pleased.
Until Rachel.
He burrowed under the earth, dreamless sleep sucking him under, thoughts of finding her in the next twenty-four hours foremost on his mind.
*
Nathan paced back and forth in his cell, already his face healing from the damage Alexander had meted out through his low Vampire. Drones, really. But they were still effective when it was one against four. There was no way to warn Cole. They would drag him out to the place he had been forced to reveal. It was the true coordinates. Although the rogue was near, they would kill Cole. They would reacquire the Druid breeder, forcing her to breed with at least three of the Reapers. Their mission was clear.
He remembered Rachel's fire. The taste of her blood, the feel of her skin beneath his fingers. It was better that Cole have her than he. He had a debt to his warrior friend, and he intended to keep it.
*
I stared at him after that proclamation. I didn't know what to say but said what I could, “I'm so sorry.”
“It has been many years,” he looked up at me sharply and continued, “but I have not forgotten the lesson taught therein.”
“And what was that?” I asked softly, beginning to make a lather with shampoo for my hair, so glad to be in a position of getting clean my modesty at his intimate presence didn't faze me. Even if the subject discussed was so sad.
“He was her guard. She had become close to him. When he made an advance, she thought nothing of it, but when she realized it was not a casual overture...”
“What?” I asked, my hair a soapy turban on my head.
“She tried to break away, but he was consumed by blood lust and lust for her body, of course. She struggled and he broke her body to keep her still. It was not until we pulled him off that he realized that in his fervor to have her, he had killed her.”
“What was her name, Zach?” The soap stilled in my slick hands.
He bent over the tub, taking the soap from me and dipping it beneath the steaming water then lathering. He began to move the soap over my bare back and I almost moaned with pleasure. Hands so strong, capable of so much damage, moving softly over my body.
I thought he would not answer but when he was behind me he said, “Jasmine.”
“Like the flower,” I clarified.
I could almost feel him nod, although no sound escaped his lips.
He moved around my body and I let him, our silence had its own rhythm. He washed my toes, then my ankles, when he reached my sweet spot he gently lathered and took his time, moving a finger along the folds and swirling the soap and water around it with an erotic pull. It was exquisite torture and he knew it. Just when I thought I would scream from the sexual tension, he moved on, working his way up my body, ending with a gentle kiss on my lips.
“I will not let it end like it did for my sister... with you.”
He had not forgotten what we'd been talking about, he had just taken a break from the gravity of it all.
I rinsed the soap off my body and he stood, a plush towel in his arms. He opened it for me and I stepped out of the tub and into the towel.
Into his arms.
CHAPTER 5
Cole
Cole's eyes snapped open. Disorientation slipped away on the wind. He could feel the pressure of the moon, on the wane but still ripe, an insistent pressure against his mind. Velvet reassurance that night had fallen. He thought briefly of feeding, then dismissed it. He would have to press forward, getting by on his last feed.
He exited the old mining shaft and scented the air around him, stretching his limbs, feeling himself again after the horrible sedative that human had shot him with.
He would die. Cole remembered that Rachel had seemed to know the human. He did not like knowing that she was possibly in his care. He had watched her quite closely and in the brief time that it had taken the rogue to acquire her he was more anxious about the Intimate's involvement than the rogue. The other may damage her. Zach of the rogue would not.
He sighed. Finally, after a few minutes of tracking, he caught the slightest trace of her fragrance, vaguely like fruit and spice.
He ran toward it.
The scent.
Rachel.
*
Nathan had been released, healing from the beating he had received at his leader's fist. He had never been a supporter of Alexander. But it was his rage over losing a breeder that he wished for himself that had caused him to become unhinged, beating one of his best Reapers because she was not within his grasp. And Nathan had abetted her escape. Not initially, but letting Cole go and not alerting the coven of Rachel's escape and Nathan taking her had been an unpardonable error.
He had been punished. Now, starvation and the need to feed was a burning blood lust in his body, every nerve ending on fire. He struggled outside, on the prowl for the first poor soul that he could find.
Alexander had all but thrown him outside the coven doors. Nathan remembered his directive, “Do not return until you have something worthy of this coven. A Druid, Reaper. Keep in mind what we have lost, what we may never have. That the rogue now take pleasure in.”
Nathan had gone. Alexander's resentment tasted like bitter ash upon his tongue.
He roamed the back alleys, getting closer to the university campus. Normally, he would have cruised the seedier sections of town, finding a male to ravage, one that was about to commit nefarious deeds. That is exactly what he preferred. Now he would be forced to bleed a female while burying his shaft to the hilt inside of her. Alexander had thrown him out and made many vulnerable because of his blood lust. It had turned into a beast of its own, now sexual need combined inexorably with the blood lust.
Neither easily separated.
His ears pricked at the sound of feminine voices coming his way. Two females, his nose told him. His blood roared to be satiated. He came out of the alleyway into full view of the females, his huge body tense and ready to spring.
*
Holly laughed at what Jill said, throwing her scarf around her neck. Damn thing kept coming forward. The smile melted off Holly's face as she watched Jill's face fall, filling with fear.
What the hell? Holly whipped her head in the direction Jill was staring, her feet pegged to the ground and a dazed expression on her stunned face.
In front of Holly stood the biggest man she had ever laid eyes on. Forget WWE, this guy made them look puny. Holly's heart raced, he stood stock-still, all black menace and grace. He was coming at them in a jog, intent on his face.
Holly wasn't gonna stick around to see what he planned. She screamed at Jill, “Run!”
Holly turned and in one moment, her scarf that she had secured more tightly around her neck was the thing he used to jerk her back against him.
Ah hell, she thought, her vision growing dim, as the scarf became a noose.
Holly collapsed against Nathan, her airway constricted by the scarf, fear choking her into unconsciousness.
Jill fought him as he dragged her off into the alley. The other human female was tucked safely underneath his arm, she was so small it was simple.
Too simple, really.
He set the unconscious female down on the ground, careful not to let her hit her head as the other kicked and fought, screaming.
Nathan could not have that. He looked into her eyes. “Be silent.”
She stopped mid-scream. His pupils dilated and he licked his lips, the fragrance of her blood enticing a clamor he could not deny.
He did not need to kill this one. After all, he had two.
He gave the command, the chill of the air making fog of his breath, “Spread your legs, female.”
Jill did, her mind roaring to stop, her body mechanically doing what he asked.
He tore off her tights that she wore for warmth underneath her skirt and she felt his fingers prob the hot recesses of her pussy. Missing nothing he pushed a finger inside her and a moan escaped.
Nathan smiled, the human females were so easy. He just willed their compliance and they were instantly aroused. Spread and ready for the vampires use. He pumped his fingers inside the female until her pussy was slick with her honey and looking around for others, seeing the alley was empty, he positioned his throbbing shaft above her. Pressing inside her he rocked forward then back, his face a mask of tenseness, relief not in sight yet. The female moved her hips up to capture his rod, forcing herself higher upon him.
He tore her blouse open, exposing her throat, the tearing material the only sound in the alley. Ice dripped from the hot roofs in the background while he rutted on top of her. He tensed then said, very close to release, “Turn your head.” She did, even as she rose to meet his hard thrusts. He was burying himself to the root inside her, she was taking all his hard length inside. She would be very sore tomorrow, he thought, shoving himself in her tight snatch harder. As he fought orgasm just a moment longer, Nathan felt his fangs elongate, readying him for ejaculation.
They punched out of his mouth and the hand he had cupped underneath the female's neck forced her close to his face as he struck, his cock spurting hot jets of seed deep inside her slick channel as his fangs penetrated the tender flesh of her throat.
He orgasmed and bled her simultaneously. Her body writhed underneath him, even as she slipped into unconsciousness, her pussy milked him, throbbing around him like a pulsating fist. He threw his head back, blood dripping from his fangs. With a groan he pulled out of the female. He arranged her clothes and licked the wounds he had made. He did not like killing females. It had been a near thing because his control was precarious at best.
He looked around the alley, the female in his arms. Seeing the first door he could find, a quick glance at the second female, laying there. He frowned, the cold of the ground would be leeching through her clothing. Time to hurry. He kicked open the door and laid the female he had used inside the door of the warm dwelling.
Good. He arranged her so when she awoke she would not be vulnerable.
Nathan felt better. He did not like to use the human females but he could not impregnate them and that one had been no virgin, her pussy accepting his girth like she was meant for it, key to lock. He smiled, moving toward the other female.
Her smell assaulted him.
He stopped in his tracks. How he had missed it when it was right underneath his nose he did not know. But the siege of blood l
ust had been upon him when he captured and bled the first victim he had found.
The other female was Druid. He could smell it like a fine wine on his tongue. He sprinted to her side, lifting her off the cold ground. Her stillness worried him. He cocked his head, listening for her heartbeat.
It was strong, she lived. He cradled her small body against him and sprinted for a location of privacy.
As he passed underneath a streetlight he caught sight of her face and stopped in his tracks. The female looked exactly like another Druid.
Exactly.
Rachel.
He had Rachel.
CHAPTER 6
Holly
Holly came awake and her vision was instantly filled by a huge form, his silhouette overwhelming her.
The memories of the attack flooded her mind in a slipping sludge and she screamed, her voice box going hoarse with it. A large, cold hand covered her mouth, the size so large it cupped her face. Her scream died against his flesh.
She looked up at him, her bladder clenching uncomfortably and knew she would die. Instinctively, Holly knew that they were alone, Jill gone. Fat tears ran down her face. She would die here with a lunatic. He might do things to her. Holly thought of how young she was, inexperienced. She was just a freshman in college.
A virgin. Her wide blue eyes flicked to his, glittering marbles of deep inky black fire stared back.
Then he spoke, “Be still. I mean you no harm, Druid.”
Holly listened in confusion. What was a Druid? She was a woman, she didn't know what he was talking about. And she didn't believe him on the no harm thing, either.
“If I remove my hand, will you stay quiet?” his brows lifted.
She nodded her head. He was huge. If he wanted to subdue her, he sure could.
He slowly lifted his palm away and sat crouched back, ready. She crawled away until her back met something solid.
They regarded each other and after a moment he said, “You are safe with me.”