by Tara Brown
His tongue flicks my clit as his fingers work my G-spot. We are moving against each other, rotating and thrusting. His fingers pump in and out, each time making me groan and grip to his cock tighter. His thrusts slide his erection in my hand and in to my parted lips.
He sucks my clit, sending me over the edge. My body convulses on his massaging fingers. The moment I am done my orgasm, he rolls us and lifts me—flipping me with his great strength. He presses me into the floor, face down, and spreads my legs apart. He pushes his slippery cock into my quivering hole, thrusting all the way in at once. He lies atop me, thrusting in short bursts as his body covers mine, pinning me. His fangs pierce my shoulder, climaxing me again as he sucks and fucks to the pleasure-filled high where we both orgasm for several moments. He doesn't move. He breathes short rapid breaths, still pinning me to the hard floor of the room. The disco ball and the lights are gone. I couldn't hold the glamour and orgasm.
He shudders, licking my shoulder of the thick blood that is running down my back lazily. “Sometimes I think I might never actually love, not genuinely, and then a girl like you comes along and I wonder.”
I tap the floor lightly. “Uncle.”
He laughs and slides back onto his knees, kissing my back the entire way to my butt. He lifts me up and carries me to the bathroom. He runs the water, filling a massive tub. He pours in bath salts, making me cock an eyebrow. “Wow, really?”
His back stiffens. “It smells nice.” He looks back, surly again. “The lavender is good for you.”
I nod, not saying any of the sarcastic remarks that flit about in my mind. I climb into the water, wincing at how hot it is. He gets in, clearly not noticing. The bath is so large we don't have to touch, but he lifts one of my feet from the water and massages.
“On a scale of one to ten—”
“Seventy-five.” He cuts me off with a grin. “I never imagined you would finally fulfill the wager, firstly. Secondly, I never imagined you would actually do the one thing I told you I wanted. You’re always so obstinate.”
“I am not.”
He lifts a dark eyebrow. “Right. Well, let’s agree to disagree.” He looks up at me. “That wasn't the sex talking. I honestly don't know how to love anything, but I swear I could love you.”
I shake my head. “I don't think I could ever love anything, Marcus. I like you, a lot. I like you in ways that scare me sometimes. But I know my heart, and it won’t ever let go of the past.”
“Not ever?”
“No, not ever. I am stuck here, broken and bitter. I want sex and I want to forget. Every day is spent with witches and vampires and ghosts and pain. I don't know if I believe the world has any love left in it.”
“You are a girl after my own heart.” He nods slowly, his azure stare not leaving mine. “Promise that if you ever think it might be possible, you will let me know.”
“I swear it on my life.”
His eyes narrow. “Why do I get the impression that is not worth much to you?”
He makes me laugh.
I sigh, remembering something we can do together. “I know of a family that needs to be dealt with. They live near Lydia. I have to rescue the kids. You can eat the mom.”
His eyes twinkle. “Let’s go now.”
He’s going to love killing that bitch. I just can’t let the kids suffer. Not when they lived such amazing lives with Diane.
Chapter Twenty
I walk into the small house we share and lay my keys down on the desk. She closes the door behind me and scowls. “I think we might be the worst drivers ever.”
I nod. “Officially.”
Gwen sighs and strolls into the kitchen to make tea. She doesn't love it like she did when she was human, five hundred years ago, but she drinks it. I suppose she always has.
She makes me drink it too. I tried explaining sweet tea, but she won’t even give it a chance. So I am stuck drinking her hot, not-so-yummy tea.
I look out at the cute red car we bought and sigh. The driving lessons have been going for three weeks and neither of us is getting very good at it. Seeing the car reminds me of something. “Marcus offered to buy us a chauffer.”
She laughs and pulls out two mugs. “Did he actually say buy, like he might purchase us a servant?”
“He’s an animal.” I nod. A knock at the door draws my head back to the front entryway. I shove back from the table to get the door, making a face when I see Landry scowling at me. I look back at the kitchen. “It’s for you.”
“Actually, Lorelei, that coven you asked me about a couple weeks back, I found them again.”
The poor guy, he and Gwen have searched high and low for it after I told him I wanted it done immediately. He’s been searching since that day.
Gwen is beaming when she gets to the door. He holds a hand out. “I found it.”
Her eyes light up and her Scottish gets thick. “I’m gonna scalp your wee behind if you’re telling us lies, Landry. This won’t be funny.”
He crosses his heart. She squeals and runs into the kitchen to turn the tea off.
I smile at him genuinely. “I don't know what scalp a behind means, but you have perfect timing. She was making tea.”
He winces.
We grab his hand when he steps inside and we close the door. He lands us in a meadow. Dorian is there already. “How are the driving lessons going, ladies?” He smirks when he sees us. He’s so shady and evil sometimes.
I pull my hand from my jacket and lift my middle finger up for him. “Your mom.”
He cocks an eyebrow. I shrug. “In the 2000s you’ll get it.”
Landry points to the dark forest ahead of us. “They have a settlement of houses, small ones. They’re like shacks. They bring the children here and I don't want to know the rest.”
“Ditto.” I add and start to walk toward the dark trees. They’re eerie—so dark and black against the white snow on the ground. I crunch along, hating the snow but loving the boots Lorri got me. I imagined that when I moved to a place with snow I would be excited, Louisiana don't get much snow. I was wrong. Dead wrong.
I. Hate. Snow.
I dislike a lot of things but I hate the cold. I miss having the warmth against my skin. I miss the breeze being something I want to feel. The cold hateful wind and the way it blows the snow at you is something no human should experience, not on purpose.
This German forest is just the sort of place humans should avoid.
It reminds me of something from Hansel and Gretel. I expect we will stumble upon a gingerbread house at any second. But crunching along the woods we discover something much worse.
She must be a siren. To me the voice is soft and beautiful but my instant hate and dislike of her makes me wonder. I turn to see Landry and Dorian both letting the voice call to them.
Gwen grabs Landry by the arm, obviously forgetting about the one day spent on sirens and selkies. I shake my head. “Let them lead us, they can’t be killed.”
She gives me a hateful stare. I touch her head with my finger, pushing the song from her brain. She no longer hates the woman singing. She scowls. “Siren?”
I nod.
We turn and follow the two men into the snowy forest. They turn to the right when I would have kept going straight. We stay back, scared of the trap they’re walking into, but I say better them than us. Gwen grins at me. We both are clearly thinking the same thing.
A blonde woman in a white dress that nearly matches the snow, steps from behind a tree, singing and swaying as she calls to them. I flick a jolt of reality at Dorian as he gets close to her. It looks like blue lightning and strikes him in the back of the head. His head shakes, as he looks around, suddenly able to see her for what she is.
He vanishes, reappearing behind her, gripping to the throat.
She says something in German. He responds speaking through his teeth. It’s frightening to watch Dorian get angry. I flick the same jolt at Landry when Gwen gives me the look, letting me know it’s time to free him
too.
Landry does the same thing. I hear a voice behind us and stomp my foot as hard as I can. Pieces of earth shoot up in the shape of spikes. A woman screams causing Gwen to turn and run that way. She tackles a dark-haired woman in an old-fashioned brown dress. The woman jolts Gwen but Gwen subdues her, holding her in a headlock and hovering her fangs over the woman’s throat.
The lady in white is speaking with Dorian, regardless of being held at a very uncomfortable angle. “What is she saying?”
“The coven is trying to protect the children. She says they’re luring demons and evil to try to find out what’s killing the children.”
That doesn't sound too far-fetched but I rarely believe anyone anymore. “You think she’s lying?”
He shrugs. “I think everyone is lying, apart from about six people.”
Landry looks around. “We should search their homes.”
“No. Bring her to me.”
Dorian winks and the witch is standing in front of me. I step to the side as she bends forward and loses her last meal on the snow. It’s mostly dark blood. I point at it. “That's a bad sign.”
Dorian scowls. “Some people might just like blood.”
“Yeah, vampires.” I lift her beautiful face to mine, stabbing my fingernail into her skin. Her dark blood runs down in a slight trickle. I drag my finger across it and place it on my tongue. I wince at the sour taste. “She’s clean.” Good things rarely taste good. It’s sort of the opposite of how you would think it was. True evil tastes the best. “Someone who kills kids wouldn't taste this clean.” Her eyes dart about the forest. Landry’s eyes follow hers. “We’re surrounded.”
I turn, seeing women in dresses all slinking from behind trees and dead-looking bushes. When Dorian lets go of the one in the white dress, she instantly drops to her knees.
The others follow suit until every witch is on her knees, bowing before us.
“What is this?”
Dorian cracks a grin. “They know who you are.”
“Great,” I sigh.
Landry rolls his eyes. “Like you don't already have a swollen head.”
I lift my middle finger into the air, still looking around at the kneeling witches. “Tell them to stand. They’ll freeze.”
Gwen comes toward us. She waves. “You gotta see this.” We walk to where she is, coming the crest of a hill. In the valley below there is a clearing filled with small houses, shacks like Landry said. In the light of the pale dusk we can see the houses are scattered amongst the dark trees and a frozen creek. All of the people out in the snow are kneeling—hundreds of them.
I don't know what to say or do. Dorian comes and stands next to me. “You ever hear of the witch queen?”
I shake my head.
“Apparently, they have. She is the witch who will come into power when the world is getting close to ending. She will be the witch who ends the evil at the end of days.”
I turn and give him a look. “What end of days?”
“You ever even listen to one thing Lorri says?”
“Sometimes.”
“This is one of the bigger discussions she likes to have. The end of days, the rise of the antichrist.” He winks. “Don't worry, your part is only ‘girl who saves the world.’ No biggie.”
I shove him lightly. “Why you gotta be so mean? They’re mistaken.”
He looks around. “I don't know that this many witches would be wrong.”
“They are.” I turn and walk back to the siren. “Ask her where the kids are.”
Landry speaks softly, saying so many words I have to assume he’s adding his own flare. She shakes her head and says something in a very short sentence. He sighs. “She says they sent back five to the village that they had been stolen from. The rest are still missing—twelve children. They’re all special kids.”
Gwen crosses her arms across her chest. “Does she know where the children were seen last?”
The siren turns and points into the woods saying two words. Landry shrugs. “There’s a cave.”
“Of course there is.” I rub my hands over my eyes. ”There’s always a cave. Goddamn. Why can’t there just once be an orchard or a friggin’ beach or a lovely garden? Why does it always have to be the darkest, scariest place we have ever seen?” I start walking in that direction. Dorian grabs my arm, wink/running me until we reach a section of forest at the base of a mountainside. The sun is going to rise soon, meaning Gwen will have to return home or to a dark place.
The entrance to the mountain cave is not obvious but I point at it anyway. “It’s there.”
Dorian gives me a puzzled look. “How do you know that?”
“The dead kids walking out into the forest. They know I can see them. Now they’re staring at me from the bush right there. It’s pretty obvious they want me to go that way.
He nods. “I never envy you. Ever.”
I walk toward the ghosts, entering the thicker woods. A child with black eyes and a pale face stares up at me. She flickers in the moonlight and holds a hand out to me. I take it, shuddering from the cold of her dead skin.
“Say you aren’t holding its hand, just say that.”
I ignore Dorian and walk to the base of the mountainside where a dark spot sits amongst trees and ghosts of children. They line the dark spot, lighting the way almost, with their ethereal light. They all look similar in age and size. They’re all in pajamas and nightdresses.
“Whoever took them came in the night.”
Landry stands next to me, looking around and muttering, “Vampires.”
Dorian sighs. “Probably.”
I glance at Gwen as her face pales even more, making her ethereal like in the moonlight just as the children are. I don't want to think about the fact her brothers and father probably killed witch children. God knows what they did and he can keep that information to himself.
We enter the cave but the children don't come. They stay at the entrance, in a crowd of light.
Dorian walks close to me, his arm rubbing against mine. I imagine Landry is the same. It doesn't matter that we are all trained killers; they are men and they feel they must protect us.
I can’t lie, I enjoy that perks of being a girl.
Firelight dances at the end of the cave, showing us the way. I can’t smell anything beyond the smoke. The craggy cave is larger than it had appeared. The firelight reveals all the nooks and crannies and shadows.
I cast away my cloak around me, making the scent of the witch that much stronger, and slip into the cave ahead of them. “Let me be bait.”
As I round the corner I am stunned, still and silent. It isn’t A vampire. It isn’t several vampires. It’s hundreds of vampires, and as I round the corner at least half turn their faces toward me. They’re all down below in a huge opening in the cave.
Dorian comes just behind me. “Fuck!” And he’s gone.
Gwen steps in just behind me and whispers, “He’s left us here with this?”
But Landry shakes his head. “He’s gone for reinforcements.”
The vampires are all getting up, confused looking but licking their lips.
Landry holds his ring out, the ring I myself have only just received. It is silver with a thin red line that wraps around it, with a single red rose at the end of the line. One side of the ring is fatter, representing the people of the world. On the other side of the thin red line is a small strip of silver, representing the supernatural world. The red band in the middle, that’s us—the Devil’s Roses. We are the last line of defense against the dark and the evil, and the thing that mankind can never be aware of.
The massive cave opening where they are begins to move as they come forward, each with bloodshot eyes and a stain of wickedness. The little girl is suddenly at my side. She takes my hand again and squeezes my finger. Her voice is like an icy wind as she looks up at me and whispers. “My brother is still in there.”
I swallow hard, seeing the sea of them coming toward us. I have no plan but to fight
as hard as I can. I draw a line of electricity in the sand, rocks, and crags while I wait for them to get closer. They are slow and confused.
“What do the Roses want with us?” a man asks, as he gets closer.
Landry’s voice is dark and filled with things I haven’t ever heard from him. “You’re murdering children.”
“Witches. We heard it was open season on them. All the witches—we was supposed to kill them. That's what the king says.”
Oh God.
Landry shakes his head. “No. The king is wrong.”
This enrages them instantly. Fangs drop, mouths widen with hisses and shouts. They go from being a slithering line of curious evil, to a horde of undead monsters. I snap my fingers, lighting the line up with the fire Whit was scared of. They snarl at us, tempting the fire and then shrinking back from the wall of flames.
Gwen backs up from it. She turns and looks at me. “I heard that at the last brothel we took. That's what the men said. The king ordered the slaughter of witches.”
I swallow hard. “Why would Marcus order that?”
“I thought they were lying. Vampires are liars. But two vampires telling the same lie is one thing. Hundreds is another.” She shakes her head.
Dorian appears with Lorri and Marcus in hand. My blood boils. “Your people wish an audience with you.” He scowls at me but walks toward the fire. I part it like the sea, apparently once was and let the king walk through. I want to scald his ass but I don't. Lorri growls as Landry fills her in on what we’ve heard and seen.
When her eyes meet mine she shakes her head. “This isn’t Marcus. This is Jonathan and Oliver.”
I wince. Great, two of the other fallen, of the five that fell with Lorri. I don't know anything about them beyond hearing that they don't see humanity the way Lorri does. They don't value life or freedom for the masses.
A scream fills the air as movements begin behind the wall of flames. Something happens that we can’t see, but we can hear as other screams join them. Something dark and frightening is occurring. The flames reveal the shadows of the fight, but we can’t see the winner or the loser. I lift my hands to lower the flames but Lorri lowers them. She shakes her head. “He has this, trust me.”