Rising Son (The Juliana Lucio Series)

by L. C. DeCarlo

  “Let me feed you.” It came out in a strained sort of tension that was being pulled from him.

  “What?”

  I was confused. I didn’t know what he meant, why he was still here. He quickly made his way back to me taking both of my hands into his own, and I was momentarily distracted how the size of his dwarfed my own.

  He lifted his hand trailing his knuckles gently down the line of my cheek, “let me feed you, Jules. Let me ease your hunger.”

  It was one of those rare moments when he let me look into his eyes and truly see him. I could see, just as much as feel, the pain and sorrow and love radiating out of him; and I knew this would be just as much for him as it would be for me. That was what had me slowly nodding my head yes. Our eyes never lost contact with one another as he slowly brought my hand to his lips as he kissed my inner wrist. He walked us backward to the bed where he sat on the edge still holding my eyes firmly with his. Our contact only broke for an instant when he let go of my hand to pull his shirt off over his head letting it fall to the floor by our feet.

  “I know how messy you can be,” he said with a quirk to the half-smile he was so good at giving.

  “I am not. Not anymore at least.” We were both laughing quietly, but my eyes were traveling the expanse of his now naked chest and stomach, showing off the tight muscles that were earned not from hours in a gym, but from years of hard labor. He was incredibly sexy, but it wasn’t just his muscular body and gorgeous face, it was him. It was all of him that I loved. That he was willing to sacrifice himself for me was the greatest gift I could ever be given. As if sensing my thoughts and my rising lust at seeing him half naked on my bed he spoke up.

  “Come here, Jules.”

  William grabbed my hand pulling me in to stand between his parted thighs. He looked up at me as he slid my loose tee-shirt up and over my head letting it fall to the floor next to his own. Slowly sliding his hand up the bare expanse of my back and letting his other outstretched palm glide up my stomach he held me gently in place as if to keep me from disappearing.

  He dropped his head letting it rest on my sternum as he took a shaky breath, “I need you too, Juliana.”

  “You need blood too?”

  “No, I just need you. I have from the moment I laid eyes on you.”

  His hand slid up to my chest taking the heavy weight of my breast into his hand rubbing my nipple back and forth with the bottom of his thumb. He turned his mouth giving my other breast his attention as he continued massaging the first. Becoming surer of himself as my moans escaped me, he pressed me more firmly against him as he pulled harder at my nipple. I let my head fall back enjoying the feel of my hair brushing along my back combined with the sureness of his fingers as they burned a path up and down my spine. Winding my fingers into William’s perpetually messy hair, I enjoyed the contradicting softness of it compared to the hardness of the man it belonged to. He began lavishing my chest and neck with gentle kisses as his hands found the clasp on the pants I still wore from the night before. He slowly slid them down my smooth legs, along with my barely there panties, lifting his eyes once again to meet my own.

  What I saw looking back at me was lust, awe and love. Mostly love.

  “Will . . .” My voice was huskier than I had ever heard it, full of a need that ran deeper than the blood I was desperately lacking.

  I stood there before him, naked, willing to give myself over to him in any way that he would have me. His eyes took me in, seemed to soak me up so they would have something to save for later, as he slowly pulled off the black work out pants he had on. The proud length of his maleness stood straight and hard leaving no doubt to how much he did in fact want me--need me.

  Every time we had been intimate together William had been rough and demanding, but already I could tell this time was different. There was a tenderness about him I hadn’t yet seen before. He slowly drew my mouth down to his and kissed me deeply, searchingly as his mouth probed my own, and his hands tangled in my hair. I wound my arms around his neck moving as close to him as I could manage placing my knees on either side of him on the bed straddling him. The hardness of his sex was pushed tightly between us as we grabbed hold of one another. We couldn’t get close enough no matter how hard he pulled my chest into his own, nor how beseechingly he searched my mouth with his. I pulled away and tilted my head back once again as William lightly ran his fangs down the length of my neck drawing out a low moan of pleasure from me at the mere thought of him sinking his fangs into the tender flesh.

  “Let me feed you, Jules. Please let me be the one that helps ease you.”

  There was a desperation to his voice I had never heard before; it pained me to hear it.

  “I thought we couldn’t feed off each other that we had to use humans.”

  “Long term we do, but for now my blood will strengthen you. I can help you.”

  My eyes trailed to the corded muscles in his neck and pulsing vein that lied in between. I leaned in to him taking in his scent; it was full of a dark spice that sang of lust and something sweeter. Love. My entire being was filled with a joy at being with him that I only wanted to be closer to him. So I slowly lifted up on my knees and brought my lips close to his throat. The same moment I slid my fangs into his neck I lowered myself onto the length of his manhood feeling him all the way to my core.

  William yelled out in a cry of ecstasy that only helped to drive me further. I began taking deep pulls of his blood as his hands found their way to my hips guiding me up and down the length of him. When I wanted to move faster, harder, William slowed me by pulling me closer to him, and whispering something I couldn’t understand under his breath, but still sounded so loving.

  I was afraid of taking too much blood from him and began to pull away when I felt his hand on the back of my head holding me to him.

  “No. I can still feel your hunger. Take more, Love, you won’t hurt me.”

  I hesitated for just a moment then began a slow pull on his neck again, letting the sweet richness of his blood fill me. William stilled my hips and took over as he started pushing himself into me, thrusting at a more regular rhythm that I hadn’t been able to manage while drinking from him. Each thrust was wedging him further in my heart, just as it was propelling me closer to the edge of my release. I could no longer focus on what I was doing at his neck so I pulled away sealing the bite closed with a lick. Not that it wouldn’t heal in an instant on its own anyway. I held tightly to William’s shoulders, his thrusts becoming stronger he looked up into my eyes and then stopped his movements.

  “Wh-what’s wrong?” I asked him a little dazed.

  The next thing I knew he had us flat on the bed with me underneath him. He held himself up with the strength of his arms and guided himself back to me. His movements were slower than they had been before, but still he pushed the full length of himself into me and pulled almost completely out again. The entire time he made love to me he was looking into my eyes, running his fingers across my lips--no doubt looking at my fangs. I couldn’t stop staring at him either. He was so strong, so beautiful.

  “You are so beautiful,” he told me while driving himself harder into me causing me to arch my back and push myself into him. His thrusting was becoming irregular and I could tell he was holding himself back.

  “William.”

  “Yes, Jules?” There was a tension radiating off of him.

  “William.” He didn’t say anything this time and I could see that it was taking all of his concentration not to let loose.

  “William.” This time he met my eyes, his had gone completely black with the potency of his desire and the need he was holding back.

  “Take me, Will, I want you to take me however you want.”

  His eyes just widened at my declaration and his fangs lengthened even further if that was possible. Suddenly he was up on his knees looking down at me and then was lowering his mouth to my inner thigh running rough kisses on the tender skin. Seeing his head between my legs was just a
bout enough to set me off, but then he plunged his tongue deep inside me forcing me to lift my hips off the bed. He slipped one hand under me to the small of my back while he put the other on my abdomen holding me in place, he took me just as thoroughly with his tongue as he had with his sex. I tried not to make too much noise. I didn’t know who all was in the house and I bit down on my lip trying to stifle my cries of pleasure. I drew my own blood in the process. Every muscle in William’s broad back tightened as my blood trickled down my lip.

  His eyes were glued to that one tiny drop. Instantly he was up and lunging into me harder and faster than he ever had before. He didn’t take his eyes off my lips as he forced himself further into me and took me harder with each lunge. I couldn’t wait any longer, I yelled out my pleasure not caring who heard me, at the same moment feeling William shuddering his own release into me. As soon as he stopped moving he collapsed down beside me pulling me into a deep kiss, licking my lip clean in the process.

  We just laid there looking at each other for a few minutes. William had this adoring look on his face as I brushed the hair out of his eyes.

  “Why do you look at me like that?”

  “Like what?” He had his hand on the side of my neck massaging my pulse. It was relaxing and comforting and I snuggled in closer to him. I closed my eyes as I laid as close to him as I could get.

  “Like you adore me,” I said sleepily.

  “I thought it was obvious. I look at you like that because it’s how I feel. Now rest.”

  “I need to get to work.”

  “Just rest for a few minutes, Jules, let me hold you.”

  I mumbled my acquiescence becoming lost in the hypnotic feel of the circles he was now tracing on my back.

  The next thing I knew there was a loud pounding on the door with Ana yelling on the other side.

  “What are you doing? Let me in right now!”

  “Ana? What’s wrong?” I yelled out to her sitting up abruptly.

  I pulled the sheet off the bed and wrapped it around me going to the door as quickly as I could. The instant I had it unlocked she had opened it and was charging through it.

  “What are you doing? Do you think you are on some kind of vacation? In case you have forgotten we are supposed to be fending off Michael and the rest of the Coven,” she said pointedly to William who was sitting unabashedly naked in the middle of my bed.

  Just how well did they know each other?

  “And you,” she said turning on me, “I thought you had a top secret project you were working on to keep Christian protected. Does that get forgotten just because he drops his pants?” Now that ticked me off.

  “We have only been in here for a few minutes, thirty minutes tops. I just closed my eyes for a second.”

  Ana just stared back at me looking dumbfounded.

  “What?” I asked her a little more than irritated.

  “Half the night is gone it is almost 1:00. You two have been in here for six hours.”

  “That’s impossible.”

  She just pointed to the clock not wanting to argue with me anymore. There was something else, this was eerie enough that I slept at night, but something else was upsetting her.

  “What else, Ana?”

  “Martin called he wants us at Michael’s house tonight. He doesn’t know why Sebastian said it could wait until tomorrow.”

  “No! I’m not ready. I haven’t finished the silver for Christian.” I was almost frantic as I tried to argue with her.

  “Then you should have spent your time more wisely.”

  She just shot a scathing look at William then turned and left room.

  Chapter Twenty

  It wasn’t too long after we were abruptly woken up that the five of us had crammed into Victoria’s car and headed over to the newest location Michael and his crew were ‘borrowing’. There was an uncomfortable silence in the car as we drove, almost to the point of becoming stifling. There was no hiding from Christian any longer what was going on between William and me after spending six hours locked in my room together. He didn’t mention it but I could almost taste his sorrow as it intermingled with his scent of a forest pine. I was sorry for the pain that he was feeling, but I couldn’t be sorry for being with Will. I could no longer be with Christian’s father, my former husband, and I now loved William. I wouldn’t apologize for that.

  We were all sort of lost in our own thoughts as to what the night might hold for us. I hoped it was nothing like the last time we saw the Coven; I really didn’t want Christian to see any limb amputations tonight.

  William broke the silence by taking charge.

  “Remember, Christian’s cover is going to be that he is Juliana’s personal feeder. She likes to keep him close so he is coming along. Christian, you must stay next to one of us at all times. Do not stray away no matter what.”

  “Yeah, sure whatever,” Christian said a bit distractedly as he continued staring at the passing cars and buildings out the side window.

  “No, not whatever! You will do as you are told,” William yelled at Christian his fangs lengthened completely and his eyes as black as night from the sudden anger. “I understand you are upset, but you can take that out on me later. Tonight you will keep yourself alive by doing what I have trained you to do. Stay next to one of us at all times. If you sense that someone is attempting to compel you, you will act like it is working. Regardless of the command.”

  Christian just stared back at William. He was obviously surprised at the sudden outburst, but there was no trace of fear in him. He trusted William wouldn’t hurt him even if he was angry. He didn’t say anything in return just gave him a firm nod of the head acknowledging the order. William closed his eyes and let out a slow exhale when he opened his eyes they had returned to his deep brown.

  “I will not lose you Christian. I will protect you as my own even at the risk of destroying our cover, but you must do everything in your power to protect yourself as well.”

  “I understand, but you are not my father.” Christian turned back to look out the window ignoring us all.

  After a brief painful silence William started speaking again as if Christian’s rebuff had never happened.

  “Our purpose is to gather any information regarding the Coven’s plan to reveal vampire existence. We know they are planning the reveal soon, but we don’t know where or exactly when. Hell they might not even know yet, which is what we need to find out. Other sects of Sub-Rosa have been reporting an increase of blatant vampire attacks, often in full view of the human populace. This suggests that they are getting closer to revealing our existence.”

  “Why can’t I just compel Michael to find out? He obviously knows their plans, as well as who the mole is.”

  “You’re good Juliana and I saw what you did to Nathaniel, but I don’t think you can compel Michael, and manage complete control over him. He is stronger than Nathaniel was and if you lost control of Michael for even an instant he would kill you,” Victoria told me meeting my eyes in the rearview mirror.

  “If we can discover the plans for their end game the Council and Sub-Rosa can work in unison to take down all the remaining sects of the Coven and stop the reveal. Protecting vampire and humankind in the process. We just can’t kill or compel Michael to find out what they are planning.”

  “Yet,” William added darkly.

  “If I separate from you guys I’ll be more likely to overhear something. Like Martin said they won’t even care that I am there, they will see me as nothing more than a pet,” Christian spoke up breaking his silence.

  “No. You are not going off on your own.”

  “Mom, it might be the only way we find out anything useful. Let me help. I’ll make sure to stay within eyesight of one of you at all times alright.”

  “Damn it I hate this, but you’re right. If you can find anything out then the sooner we can be done with all of this.”

  Everyone looked back at me a little shocked that I had agreed to let him do a little recon
naissance of his own.

  “What? I want to be done with this as much as all of you. I trust him to use good judgment. Even though there is no predicting any of the monsters we are about to go see.”

  Just then Victoria slowly pulled into a long narrow drive of a slightly modern two story townhome. The driveway was lined with a tall privacy hedge making everything feel a little more ominous. Ana, Victoria and Christian practically fell out of the little car we were crammed in so tightly. We really needed to get this car situation figured out. Just as William started to lean forward to disentangle his long body I put my hand on his thigh stopping him.

  “William?” My voice cracked betraying the nervousness coursing through me.

  “What’s the matter Jules?” he asked with obvious concern etched into the lines on his face.

  “Did you . . . did you do something to me tonight to make me fall asleep?”

  Oh, God I hoped he said no. Please let it be no and that he didn’t manipulate me.

  “No, why would you think that?”

  “Because I’ve never fallen asleep at night before, and I know you don’t want me to,” my eyes shifting over to Victoria standing outside the car, “finish what I was working on. I thought maybe what happened was just something you did to keep me from working on it.”

  “Jules, love, I have not tricked you or manipulated you. What we did was for the exact reason I gave you; I wanted to ease your hunger. I wanted to make love to you. As for you falling asleep, well, vampire blood is stronger and more potent than human blood it can have a euphoric effect sometimes. Combine the euphoria with the comfort you felt laying together, and sleep just happened.”

  William’s focus landed on Christian standing a little off from the car with his back to us arms crossed over his chest. We could both sense his hurt mingled with determination to get the job done.