by Marata Eros
And he had a freakin' tail. Brandon scrubbed his face thinking maybe his eyes were playing tricks on him but it was Constantine that opened the conversation as Brandon tried to think of fucking nuns or whatever would quell his wood.
“You are far from your oven, eh?” Constantine asked and Brandon noticed he no longer had the gills of the Mer on his neck like the other warriors.
Ember stepped forward and Madden blocked her progress. “No, Ember... we do not know if he abides by the treaty or if he is a renegade.”
Ember stared at the male that held a pale girl against him. She was naked and clasped loosely against the front of him.
She was also of Maiden blood.
Ember spoke through the heat which separated the supernaturals, “Warlord of Hades, release the Maiden to our charge,” Ember said.
Nice greeting, Brandon thought, holding in a snicker and grateful he had won the war with his dick. Nothing like a battle about ready to ensue to get over the momentary naked girl situation.
The male's tail, thick and black, flicked like an agitated cat behind him and his hand moved down the girl's flat stomach, her pale skin holding some of that same glow that Ember's did, but more muted.
He dipped a finger into the slit of her sex and Brandon's arousal came back to life again in a rush and she whimpered.
It was cold water on his cock.
Brandon didn't know if she wanted him fingering her, it stirred the Druid part of him to life instantly. The instinct to protect roared to life.
“No,” he said to Ember in a flat voice, spreading the girl's parts a little, practically peeing in the corners to stake his ownership of her. Everywhere he touched her, the skin reddened, just shy of blistering.
Holy fuck, this guy was burning her, Brandon realized.
“Take your hands away from her, fire pimp,” Madden growled, taking his dagger-sized trident out of its sheath.
The smell of the sea surrounded Brandon and his neck ached. He surmised that if he'd been closer to the sea, gills would have burst from his throat, the presence of the Mer bringing their shared blood to the surface of his being.
Instead, it made him sense the blood of the maidens and the male who held her took the finger that had been rubbing her small nub, as her breathing increased and he placed it in his mouth as he sucked her juices off his digging digit.
Smoke came out of his mouth as if he'd put the fire of that dipping finger out.
Ruby let him have his way with her pussy in front of the weirdos. Just like her entire life had been lived on instinct; escaping with the barest fraction of safety, she let that moment rule her. Deep inside her she knew this beast did not mean to harm her, that somehow she was allowing something pivotal to happen.
Brolach had every opportunity to hurt her, yet he did not. He'd saved her from a fate worse than death.
Brolach put up that finger and every male's eyes tracked it, they scented the delicious maiden, their restraint at the smell of a female of rare lineage a tease to their senses.
Ember watched the males struggle and repeated, “Stand by the treaty, Fire Lord. If there be a maiden with blood of the Mer she is to be returned to the Sirens. You know this,” Ember said, disgusted with his unabashed branding of the girl.
He looked at Ember, knowing who she was.
Brolach knew what she was as well, though she did not. He saved that morsel of information for later. “And if she be demon? Then what shall we do?” he asked in that voice of roaring flames and Ruby whimpered again, she wanted his tongue on her parts, she wanted the flaming rod of his cock piercing her secret passage.
She'd well and truly lost her mind.
Brolach chuckled at the innocent and tender waves of desire that came off the girl. His cock throbbed and burned to plunder her, yet he held back. There were simply too many of the sea for him to fight this night. They would put out his heat as surely as he stood smoldering before them.
However, he would give this princess of the Mer something to think about. Brolach had achieved his goal: he had tasted of the girl, protected her from males who would defile a rare female demon. She was not a full-blood, yet she had enough to be mated.
Brolach had tasted of her fire.
It was good.
He would return and impregnate the female, she would spread her pale legs and he would burn inside her ripe wetness, her Mer blood putting out the fire as it scorched her flesh.
Ruby would pass out from his attentions and he would fuck her without tiring.
But not this night. Brolach looked at the mongrel vampire in front of him and recognized him as the most dangerous supernatural present. He had a look about him of profound indifference.
He did not fear death. And in not fearing death, he was dangerous.
Brolach and Constantine faced off.
“Don't hurt the girl,” Ember warned him.
Constantine snorted, “You would be well aware of my violence toward a female, Ember,” he said slowly, as if she were stupid and Brolach cocked a brow.
Interesting interaction between the Mer princess and the dangerous guard, Brolach thought, amused.
Brolach hit upon a truth: they but used him for his mixed heritage. Brilliant.
“Leave the female or I shall kill you, demon.” Con's talons slid out and Brolach smiled. “You shall try, half-breed.”
“Sticks and stones, fire dick,” Constantine said and with a move too fast to see, he took a chunk out of Brolach's tail.
Brolach gave a grunting howl that was a hoarse bellow to the Mer who grimaced at the heated sound, the spray of warmth coating Constantine in a heat so fierce, so raw, that he gasped for oxygen.
When his gills burst he needed every bit of what they gave him because Brolach had wrapped that bleeding tail around his waist and had yanked him closer.
It burned his vampire flesh in a branded circle and Constantine fought screaming by the slimmest of margins.
The other Mer moved in and Constantine growled, “Get the girl!”
Brolach was unprepared for Constantine's utter lack of fighting strategy, he was brutal and spontaneous, using his fangs and talons in tandem, grabbing Brolach's tail like a rope, burning his hand as he did. Con jerked Brolach to him as he tore his throat out with his razor-sharp talons.
Brolach fell, gurgling low in the flesh of his neck that swam with his black steaming blood.
“No!” Ruby cried softly. “Don't kill him... he saved me!” she cried, running to his side as he went down.
Fucking please, Constantine thought, pushing the trembling female away with a soft thwack and she tumbled onto the grass as the young Druid picked her up.
Constantine arced his wrist in a move he'd done thousands of times if he'd executed it once and moved in to take the head of the fire demon who lay at his feet when the sharpened tip of the tail pierced Con's gut, the barbs jerking Con forward then whipping him against the tree in a flying spin, chunks of his torso dislodging when the tail released him.
He flew into the unforgiving bark, snapping the trunk and flying through to the tree that stood behind it.
Fuck that was a nifty trick, Con thought with grudging admiration, his vision swimming as he slid down the trunk.
Constantine growled, standing in an unsteady stagger. That fire fucker, Con thought, one of his talons broken off at the quick, he'll suffer now.
Con blurred to the demon who even then healed the worst of the wounds Con had laid on him and suddenly the girl wiggled out of the young Druid's hands, landing on the demon and he wrapped her against him.
“I will be back for you,” Brolach whispered and whipped his tail around to the small of her back.
Ruby cried out when she felt the fire brand her skin. The pain was so intense she lost her grip on consciousness and slipped out of his arms.
Constantine flew at Brolach and he slid away, the heat of his escape was vapor and fire.
“Fuck!” Constantine roared to the sky as that black heat misted a
way and out of their reach. “Were you fucking clowns going to help me in this battle?” he seethed, his black eyes striking each Mer warrior in turn.
Madden said in a dry voice as Brandon picked up the naked girl, carefully not touching her scorched back, “You were doing it all yourself you arrogant prick, you asked for no one, just went after a Fire Lord half-cocked without answers.”
Con blurred to Madden, their noses nearly touching. “There is no need for answers, fish man. What we needed was action,” Constantine pounded his words in Madden's face.
But it was Ember's voice that broke through the confrontation. “Madden is right, rash Constantine. Ask yourself this: why was a demon so close to the sea, eh?” The warriors of the Mer all nodded their agreement.
“What the hell was it?” Brandon asked, the girl tucked in against his chest, Ember's cloak wrapped around her nakedness.
Constantine walked it off, pacing his anger with his footsteps. He knew that his own inner demon raged for release, raged for recompense. Normally, this would have been when his former coven leader, Russel, would have brought a willing girl to abuse. To submit to him. One that he could take and plunder. His bones ached with the old need to finish what had been started. When he could not get what he needed in battle, he could get very near with the right type of sex.
Sadistic sex.
His guts screamed as they healed. He was in dire need of blood, Con ground his teeth in frustration. Ember approached him as if she knew.
Con shook his head even as his fangs elongated. “No,” he said, whistling his restraint through fangs grown long, shaking his head. He did not wish to alienate himself yet again with a new group. For if he took blood from Ember he did not know if he could restrain himself from choking her on his cock.
He squeezed his eyes shut at the thought. Wanting it.
Hating himself for wanting it.
Hating that he could not have what would make him whole. Those desires all mixed together in the swamp of his thoughts.
Brandon looked at the mixed-blood warrior of the Faction, gills like a Siren, body of a Druid vampire.
But always, the heart of a Faction, his leader's words... hell, his father- Beau. Their words rang in Brandon's head. Every red flag waved about this guy. Caution wasn't even a choice or speculation, it was an absolute.
He opened his eyes and a Siren's obsidian gaze met Brandon's.
Brandon decided then, that no matter what, he'd keep this dangerous fuck in his sights. There was something unstable about him. And his fighting! Brandon remembered the passionate savagery of his attack on the weird fire male in perfect slow-motion recall.
Yes, he bore watching.
Constantine lost his internal battle to blood lust, snaking out a hand and wrapping both palms around Ember's upper arms. His fangs were at her neck before she could draw breath. He mewled as he gulped, tears of sheer gratefulness stung the back of his eyelids, her blood sung to his, knitting the damage that had been wrought in a neat, sucking reverse pop of healing that made his body itch with heat and then Madden was tearing her out of Con's brutal hold.
“You'll kill her!” he hissed. “She is your blood source, and you are her guard. But know this,” Madden said in a low voice full of righteous anger, the slits at his throat flaring with his rage, “you do not harm your food, Faction. And she is so much more than a meal.”
Con knew that, he had a raging boner that pulsed for release. It was simple. He may have Mer blood, but he was also vampire with a pesky dose of Druid and a kicker of Exotic. Sharing a blood meal with a female of like blood made that Druid part of his genetic make-up rear its ugly, uncompromising head in a heart-stopping moment of compulsive mating that he resisted by choice.
By fear.
Constantine would never mate. He would never love a female. It was an abhorrent thing to consider.
He backed away from Ember as her head lolled against the warrior of the Mer whose eyes held Con's death.
“Why do you still call me Faction, Mer?” Constantine asked. He had been the one to fight the demon fire lord. Could they not see it was he that had saved the maiden? That had battled a creature renowned for murdering handfuls of supernaturals...
“When you cease to act as a Faction, you will no longer be looked at as one,” he replied simply, gathering Ember close as she gave Constantine drowsy eyes that were hooded by the blood-share.
His former coven of criminal vampires followed him wherever he went. If only he could escape what his life had been. Yet he couldn't, he was the sum of those experiences. If he was not as he was now, he would never have survived it. As he gazed at the lovely Ember held so securely in the arms of a fellow Mer, Con cast his gaze to the ground.
It was better that they not see what played in his eyes.
Her sexual subjugation preyed on Con's mind like a cloud full of rain that did not fall, images of his dominance of her, mingling inextricably with the blood that fueled his body. It healed him, setting Constantine back to rights.
He was too damaged for normal. Constantine knew this. That others expected normalcy showed they did not understand the depths of his depravity.
Con breathed through the temptation to tear the maiden out of Madden's arms, beating him until he stopped breathing so he could fall upon her, fucking her until she begged.
Then fucking her more.
When Con regained a semblance that passed for calm for him, his gaze rose and he met first the eyes of the young Druid and those eyes knew him, perhaps seeing the hint of the shadow that lurked within himself.
When his gaze shifted down he found the deep gaze of the girl he had rescued.
Her eyes were black opal.
It sparked Constantine to move.
She was as Ember.
Yet more.
Like a moth to a flame he moved, those deep eyes sucking him under like quicksand on fire.
For once, Constantine became oblivious to his surroundings and when the blunt bite sung on the back of his head, he slumped to the ground.
As he fell he vowed retaliation.
It was the Faction way.
It was Constantine's as well.
CHAPTER 7
Ruby
Ruby awoke, the room she lay in the strangest of her life. She immediately tried to place her surroundings. Gone was the dive she lived in on the pier.
A strange, stone-like ceiling greeted her, seeming to suck in the ambient light of the day through its multi-colored and translucent surface. She sat up and realized she had a case of Ass Mouth. She was terribly thirsty and if she hadn't known better, hung over.
Then her pussy gave a soft pulse and the memories of the night before came roaring back.
Gawd, she thought, putting her palm over her face, blinding herself momentarily, I let that demon guy... ugh.
Wait a sec, Ruby thought. What were those people? Were they people? Where was she?
She looked down at where she lay and realized she was in bathwater in some kind of strange tub.
Ruby clutched the sides and rose.
Just then a built hottie came into the room and got a great view of the whole tamale.
He didn't seem shy about checking her out either.
Ruby tried to do the naked statue thing and cover her slit and tits with her hands. She was doing a Walt Disney and didn't know whether to sink back into the crazy bathtub or stand there with her parts flagging a guy that was a stranger.
Ruby sank, the water pebbling her nipples at the change of temperature.
He laughed.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Ruby's face burned with heat and she realized her traitor's skin had flared like a fire engine, relaying her embarrassment and discomfort perfectly.
Ruby watched his arrogant expression and wanted to kick his ass but figured he could take her. Easily. He was so smug standing there with that lopsided grin.
Fuck. Ruby felt stupid. Then she felt scared.
She'd been attacked the night before, nearly raped
, saved by a demon dude who licked her till she came and then the supernatural cavalry had showed up and saved the day.
Or had they?
She sunk deeper into the tub as he strolled over. Ruby cringed away and he frowned.
“What? I'm not going to hurt you. I'm not that fire guy,” he said, then added, “I'm Brandon.”
“He didn't hurt me,” Ruby said softly, remembering his hot tongue, its laboriously torturous scalding movement over her parts and swallowed.
Brandon scented her arousal and his frown turned to a scowl. Ruby sank until only her deep chocolate eyes met his over the rim of her sleeping chamber.
Huh... this wasn't going well. Brandon had made fast friends with Ember and the rest of the Mer gang. And he'd thought the maiden would be all over seeing him as a great prospect.
Of course, he supposed that her being raised amongst humans didn't help the transition along. He'd kick it into gear and see how that went.
“What's your name?”
Ruby looked at him. She didn't answer for so long his gaze became hard. She finally replied, “Ruby.”
Ruby, Brandon thought, remembering her pearlescent skin, looking at eyes that sparkled back at him like deep garnet jewels. He fought another erection with difficulty.
“We saved you from the fire demon,” he explained for a second time as introduction.
“Uh-huh,” Ruby said doubtfully.
She didn't act very grateful, Brandon thought.
“I don't want to be here. Please... just let me go,” Ruby said, barely keeping the tears that threatened at bay. She just knew, knew, that if she could get some clothes and get the hell out of this... Ruby looked around, cave, she'd be able to escape this city and go to the next. She already knew were: Astoria. She'd jump borders and high tail it to Oregon. Ruby would be okay if it was coastal.
It didn't take a brain surgeon to get a load of what she was thinking. Ruby's large expressive eyes held her thoughts and Brandon couldn't help but think of how vulnerable she would have been amongst humans. Her fragility was obvious to him and what experience did he have? Two years in his sheltered coven learning the ways of Druid vampire and vicarious human existence through a mother that had lived amongst humans... very much like Ruby had.