by D. C. Gambel
With the exception of our connected naked bodies, it might have felt like a good old-fashioned make out session.
I gasped when his hips thrust again. His mouth absorbed the sound as his tongue slid against mine. My nipples stood at attention begging for his touch, but other than the gentle rub of his bare chest against mine, I made no demands for more. What we were doing was utter perfection.
I threaded my fingers into his dark locks clinging to him like he’d vanish and I’d discover this was nothing more than a dream. He groaned slammed into me again. Nipping at my bottom lip, he began thrusting more vigorously. They were deep slowly thrust dragging out every ounce of pleasure the move could offer. We’d been at our slow tempo for well over an hour, ever since we stepped out of the shower. And as much as I was enjoying it, I craved the release I knew only he could offer me.
Palming my breast, Cam flicked his tongue at my lip before divulging back into my mouth. I arched off the bed loving the feel his thumb swirling over my nipple. Lifting my leg over his hip, Cam pressed harder into me.
Rolling us over so I was on top, Cam’s hands slid over my body palming both my breasts. I broke away from his lips throwing my head back with pleasure. Hand on either side of my face he drew me back to his mouth where I kissed him hungrily grinding my hips against his loving that he was allowing me control of our pleasure.
It didn’t last long before he rolled me on to my back pressing into me with more intensity. His thrusts were quick, but hard and deep as he found a steady rhythm. I could feel my body slickening his with each thrust. My toes curled into the sheets. I tried to grip his shoulders but he pinned my hands above my head never breaking his rhythm.
My back arched as euphoria covered me in a warm rush. My body tightened around his. Cam briefly teased both my nipples, claiming them each in quick succession with his mouth, before his own body erupted inside of me. My eyes shot open just in time to see the look of pure bliss on his face and I almost orgasmed again knowing I put it there.
I thought after months of having sex with Cam that the intensity would dilute or that he would grow bored having never been with the same partner more than once, but it didn’t. Each time seemed better than the last although I wasn’t sure how we’d ever beat the session we just shared.
“Wow,” Cam chuckled placing a chaste kiss on the corner of my mouth. He knew better than to kiss me the way I craved unless he was up for an immediate round two. I was grateful for the chaste kiss, because I was nowhere near ready to go again. My body was still quivering with the residual pleasure. If anything I needed a nap and maybe some Chapstick.
“Right?” I giggled right back hearing his groan as my walls clamped down around him. “Sorry,” I smirked trying to keep from doing it again.
“It’s okay.” He withdrew from me before slipping out of the bed. When he returned it was with a warm washcloth that he used to clean me. It had taken me some time to get use to him doing this. Even though I was comfortable being naked around him and having sex with him, having him clean me after our lovemaking seemed more intimate. Smiling, I parted my legs for him. “Maybe it’s a little caveman of me, but I love seeing my cum in you.”
I scoffed, but smirked. “Because you’re marking me.”
He grunted a response that I interpreted as an affirmation. “You know its only you that I’ve been like this with. Wanting to mark you, to taste you.” He nipped at my knee causing me to close my legs.
Tossing the rag in the hamper, Cam crawled into bed beside me.
“You fought an incubus’s thrall tonight.”
“You say that like it’s impressive,” I mumbled curling into his side where he wrapped his arm around my shoulders.
“It is.” I tiled my head to see him better thinking I heard him wrong. “I know you’re still learning, Evie, but having an incubus or succubus thrall you is almost impossible to ignore.”
My brow pinched as I remembered my first run-in with a succubus. “But you did, at the fraternity party.”
He shook his head. “She tried, but I already knew what she was. It made the… potency not as strong. Did you know he wasn’t me?”
“Not at first. I thought it was strange that you were leading me to the back of the club. Once we were inside the stock room he hit me with lust then put his hands on me.” Feeling Cam tense, I quickly added. “It was nothing. Just on my waist.”
“How’d you know?”
I shrugged. “He just didn’t feel like you.” To accentuate I grabbed Cam’s hand tracing it with my thumb. “I know your touch, Cam. You can’t touch me and I not feel the need to melt into a puddle at your feet.”
“Is that so?” he asked humorously, but there was an edge, a hunger to his voice. I nodded.
That night, sleep wasn’t important. Connecting with the man I love, who had a claim to half my soul, was. It wasn’t long after our talk that he rolled over and took me again. He woke me twice in the night for a repeat. And that morning he took me once more. I’d been pleasured so thoroughly that I was a little rocky on my legs for the first half of the morning. My other horsemen could do nothing more than smile.
Chapter 9
I glared at the phone that sat across from me as if waiting for it to do something wicked so I had an excuse to smash it. The night I received it I had handed it off to Ty.
“No more secrets,” I demanded of all of us. He’d checked it over to make sure that it contained no tracking device and wasn’t doing anything other than being a phone, like have a bug in it where Shane was able to hear everything we were saying.
“There’s only one number on it,” Tyler explained as we sat in the dining room having just finished dinner.
“Shane’s,” I stated.
Ty shrugged. “I assume, but I tried tracking it. Looks like it’s a burner too.”
“So,” Derek began, eyeing the phone too. “He expects you to call it? Why?”
I sighed knowingly. I wasn’t sure how much Cam had already shared, but knew they were my team and needed to be informed about everything. “I made a deal with him and he wants to make sure I follow through.
“Evie,” Both he and Ty groaned. Cam tensed at the mention of it.
“I know,” I threw my hands up. “I’m an idiot. I didn’t know he was a demon. I shouldn’t have been trying to keep my discovery of him from you, but I just couldn’t find it in me to share that information.”
“Because he was poisoning you,” Cam spat angrily. “Doctor Sanchez called back with your blood work. Sometimes it’s nice to have a supernatural healthcare provider, even if she is a vampire,” he said begrudgingly. “Looks like you had strong traces of Tinctus in your blood. It’s a magical agent that can make you paranoid and skeptical of those closest to you.”
“Fuck me,” Derek mumbled running his palm over his face. Ty was pinching the bridge of his nose like he should have seen it coming.
“It’s the main ingredient in a potion that warps your mind. You wanted to tell us, but the drug demanded you didn’t. I doubt he could have infected it without you knowing,” Cam stated. “Did you ever eat in front of him?” I shook my head my mind racing with the news I just been delivered. “Drank?” I was about to shake my head before I remembered the drink at the bar and again when I’d been sliced to hell by the dragon shifter. “Evie,” Cam groaned seeing the realization in my expression. “I know Charlie taught you to never take a drink from a strange guy.
“I didn’t. It was a waitress that brought the drink and at Charlie’s, it was her bottle.”
“Bar? What Bar?”
Leading the horsemen into yet another bar made me wonder if there was something about the institutions that drew all the seedy deeds. The place was just as empty as it had been the one and only night I had been there. There was a single bartender behind the counter. He seemed to enthralled with the game playing on the TV behind him to give us any notice. The same waitress that worked the night I first met Shane was on duty tonight. I wondered if the
y attained any other staff.
“That’s her,” I whispered.
She noticed us the moment we entered. It was hard not to. My entourage was full of extremely good-looking men. Ty with his caramel skin and green eyes. Derek pulling his classic all-American boy look with his blonde hair and blue eyes. Then there was Cam that was a walking orgasm. The waitress’s gaze raked over each of the horsemen appreciatively, but she made no move to come to us. Instead, when we took up at the bar she pretended to busy herself behind it. Ty and I both pulled out a stool, while Derek and Cam remained standing behind us.
We weren’t anticipating trouble, but that didn’t mean we weren’t prepared for it. There was no sign that this was a supernatural institute, so we didn’t arrive armed to the T. We weren’t weaponless either, but chose to go for a more concealed route.
“Peggy will be with y’all in a moment,” the bartender called out without every breaking his gaze from the game. Peggy, who I assumed was the waitress, was busy on the phone, having picked up an incoming call just as we took our seats.
I glanced at each of the guys. Tyler feigned relaxed, looking at ease leaning back with his elbows against the top of the bar chair. Derek pretended to watch the game. Cam’s blue eyes locked with my brown ones and I could see the worry in them, not that anyone else would notice if they looked at him. I could see behind his mask.
“You’re Shane’s friend,” Peggy asked appearing in front of us on our side of the bar.
“I am,” I agreed. “Do you expect him tonight?” We needed to discover how the poison got in my drink the night I met Shane. I hadn’t turned away from the drink as far as I could remember. Was Peggy working with him? She seemed to know him. What if it wasn’t just her?
She didn’t respond. Instead she handed me a piece of paper before walking off to a door at the back. My brow furrowed at the oddness of the situation. Cam stepped forward to examine the note. Unfolding it, a hand written script read:
You should have called.
-S
“What the…” Before I could finish my sentence, air whipped around us. The once empty bar was suddenly filled to the brim with…
“Vampires,” Cam hissed.
Determined this battle wouldn’t go the same as my first in a bar, I slipped from my barstool. Where I had been hesitant at Hair of the Dog to use my gift, here in this dive bar, I wished it were an option. I glanced at all the beings who stood eerily still.
As a unit, they rushed us. We barely had time to withdraw our weapons. Unsheathing a knife, I threw it, sinking it in the nearest vampire’s chest. I doubted it was deep enough to hit his heart, but it was enough to stun him and give us time to prepare. Cam didn’t bother with a weapon. Instead he used his horseman strength that was even superior to the vampires. I knew he was strong, but until I saw him rip an arm off one vampire only to smack another one with it, I never realized how much.
Our efforts seemed futile. The more vampires we neutralized, the more that seemed to rush in.
I was jolted from behind as our fight moved further from the bar. I didn’t know if we were subconsciously moving towards the exit or if the vampires were wrangling us. When I stumbled, Cam barely caught me before I hit the floor. The moment his bare hand touched my arm, a crackle of magic danced across my skin. He seemed just as surprised as me. Shimmering red tendrils spilled out of his chest and struck into every vampires’ chest. They all seemed connected to Cam for one brief moment before the vines recoiled back to Cam sending him staggering back. The moment the connection was broken, all the vampires fell into a heap to the ground.
We all stood stunned for an instant, absorbing the magnitude of the situation before Derek broke the mounting silence.
“Well, it looks like we know what your secondary gift is.”
Under the blazing spray with Cam, I diligently washed the blood from his body. His lack of weapon made his appearance more gruesome than the rest of us. He hadn’t spoken a word since he used his new gift. I didn’t understand his silence. He not only saved us from a lingering battle but perhaps even more.
His body wasn’t responding to my touch, not that it was my intent, it just seemed to be his case normally. In that one cessation, I knew something was truly wrong.
“Cam,” I whispered almost afraid to startle him from his thoughts. “Talk to me.”
The tension in his shoulders didn’t relax, but I noticed the slight rise and fall of them as he took a breath. “I don’t want to taint you.”
“Cam,” I breathed, laying my cheek against his back. Slowly, under the spray of the showerhead, he turned to face me.
“I stole their rage, Evie. It’s still there. I can’t—” he groaned running his fingers through his damp hair. “Normally your touch soothes the beast within me.” I reached out to offer him comfort but he recoiled. “I’m sorry,” he replied seeing the hurt on my face from his rejection. “As cliché as it sounds, it’s not you. It’s me. I feel nothing but this anger. Not even your touch is chasing it away.” His eyes searched my face. I don’t know what he was looking for, but a moment later he sighed. Throwing back the shower curtain he headed to our room.
I thought about what he said about holding on to their rage and wondered how Derek did it when he absorbed others’ feelings. Turing off the shower, I slipped into my robe. I didn’t dare go to our room deciding that Cam needed some time to himself, instead I went in search for Famine.
I found him in the kitchen leaning over the counter absorbed in a book while he absentmindedly stirred a cup of tea.
“Hey,” he replied once he noticed my presence. His eyes did a quick sweep over my body, taking in my attire, but they didn’t linger before returning to his book.
“Hey, can I talk to you about something?”
“Is it about Cam’s secondary gift?” he asked. When I didn’t respond he gave me a quick glance. “Don’t look so surprised. We just got home from a battle. If history is any indication, you two should be busy with one another. So unless, Cam is having some issues in that department, not that I need to know,” he quickly added. “You wouldn’t be making an appearance until morning. So one can deduct that something is bothering one of you. And since he just displayed, for the first time, his secondary gift, I figured that must be it.”
“Right,” I drew out unsure if I followed him completely, but got the general gist. “He absorbed their rage.”
Derek nodded. “Makes sense. He can expel it. He should, in theory, be able to reabsorb it.” When I continued looking grim, he narrowed his eyes. “There’s more. What?”
This was the reason I sought Derek out, I told myself. Part of me felt like I was betraying Cam’s trust. He hadn’t sought fit to share this with them, but I needed answers so I could help him. “What do you do with the sins you absorb?”
His brow furrowed. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You take away someone’s hunger. Do you suddenly become hungry?”
He face lit up with enlightenment. “Cam still feels the rage,” he stated. “Our gifts are different Evie. I’m meant to starve people. Cam’s gift is rage. He didn’t starve them of it. He took back what was his to begin with. Is he okay?”
Worrying my lip, I debated on confiding in Derek. We had been close before he’d begun interfering in Cam’s and my relationship. “I don’t know.”
“I think he’ll need to expel the rage. Although that may not be a good idea. He took it away from dozens of vampires. That’s a lot of rage to put back into the world.”
“It’s eating away at him. He’s got to do something.”
I found Cam sitting on the edge of the bed in nothing but a towel wrapped around his hips. His head hung between his shoulders. Besides his body tensing the moment I entered, he gave no acknowledgement of my presence.
Before I left Derek, he mentioned that Cam might have been too in his own head, too absorbed in what he was feeling to even allow anything else in. A distraction was needed.
Enteri
ng the closet, I grabbed yoga pants and cami with a built in bra. Sliding my robe over my shoulders, I quickly dressed before grabbing clothes for Cam too. Padding my way across the gray carpet until I stood in front of him, I dropped the clothes beside him.
“Evie,” he groaned in frustration.
“Let me try to help Cam,” I whispered feeling the weight of the situation. “The only other option is releasing the rage you’re holding out into the world. Let me try this first. Get dressed and let’s head down to the barn.” I was nervous, not that I showed it. I wouldn’t give Cam a reason to deny me this. I didn’t know what to expect, but I knew that he’d never hurt me.
When he didn’t move, I tugged at the towel from where he had it tucked against his hip. He gripped my hand halting me from revealing him. Instead he let out a frustrated huff. He stood letting the towel fall away before grabbing at his clothes with more annoyance than I thought was necessary, but he dressed all the same.
Once he was fully clothed, he headed towards the bedroom door letting out an irritated growl, “Are you coming?” He didn’t wait for a reply before storming out the room.
We passed Derek who still lingered in the kitchen. He smirked briefly at me when he saw my plan in motion.
Once in the barn, Cam stood in the dark having bypassed the lights. When I made a move to flip the switch, he growled, “Leave them off.”
With my heart pounding in my chest, knowing the most important sense I needed for sparing with Cam was taken away, I did as he asked.