by C. L. Quinn
This was the crazy shit that her life had come to. Unbelievable sex with a man who probably should be behind locked doors in a psychiatric ward. Or jail, since he had abducted a police officer.
On a moan, she closed her mind off. This needed to be attended, all of her attention on what he was doing to her. Time later to reflect on what and why and how. No one had ever made her feel this good. And probably never would again.
Mal opened her legs wider and Ahmose smiled up at her as he moved closer and lifted her buttocks higher.
“There, my lady, now I can show you my best work.”
His tongue was hot and fast, then slow and deliberate, dipping deep where she needed him to be. He pushed her to just the edge, his tongue tickling the sensitive button, then moved away to bite at her thighs, all the while his fingers caressed the hyper-sensitive skin along the bottom of her buttocks, then back again to nip and lick her.
When it came, finally, when she came, the orgasm forced her body up and Ahmose held her, his face buried against her taunt belly, both of her hands now twisted in his hair.
Moments later, her eyes opened slowly, and she smiled at him.
“Okay, you get a pass for...oh, fuck, everything.”
Ahmose lifted her body and perched her on his lap.
“Then may I do that again before I go?”
“You may do that again anytime anywhere, public indecency be-damned. That’s magic, crazy-man.”
“Oh, no, Detective. I haven’t used magic yet. When I do, you’ll never get out of my bed again.”
Mal stared at this man that, in spite of the evidence that he was insane or deeply confused, she was beginning to get attached to, to have feelings for. Uh, oh, Stockholm syndrome.
“You’re an incredibly charming man, Ahmose. Let me help you. I want to help you through this.”
“You’re kind. Beautiful, smart, sexy, with a generous heart. I’d take you home with me and keep you forever. But you don’t belong to my world, and I don’t belong in yours. I will never forget you, though.” He paused, soul-deep dark eyes to clear greens. “You’ve already helped me. This is the best vampire vacation ever, I think.”
With a long sigh, Mal pushed herself off his lap. “You make me sad.”
“I’m fine. In fact, once I take a second blood meal, I need to release you and go. I’m in danger, and because of that, I fear you may be too. So the sooner I’m out of your life, the better. Please, come back to the bed with me.”
“No. Ahmose, come back to L.A. with me. There are good doctors there. I will stay with you and help you understand why you seem to insist you’re a mythical monster.”
Damn, that was the most disarming smile in the world. Ahmose lifted her in his arms, Mal felt a head-rush, and was lying in the center of the bed again, the shirt gone now.
“I need one more blood meal, and I would like to be inside of you one time more before you have to forget that I exist. I won’t use compulsion. Please agree. I know that you want me.”
Mal looked at his body poised above her, as perfect as he possibly could be. She knew she would never have sex with any other man as beautiful or as skilled as this one. In all her experiences, she’d never had the response she did with him last night.
He was ill. More than that, he was the victim of a terrible crime, so he was her duty. Her eyes went to the center of his forehead, which was nearly unmarked. How this had happened, she was sure she would never know, but in all of this, all that she knew, the overwhelming fact was that she couldn’t say no to him. One thing that he said that was true, was that she likely would never see him again after she got out of here.
So she pulled his head down and began a kiss. Ahmose took over when he lowered his body down to cover hers. His tongue glided through her mouth as if it had always been there and knew exactly what to do. Slowly, he drifted down and nuzzled under her hair. She knew what he wanted. It was fucking crazy. Still, she arched her neck towards him, he moaned and then she felt the already familiar pricks that heated and excited her right down to her center. Her clitoris swelled, and waited.
Ahmose drew her blood in, for healing, he thought. But if he was honest, he needed to taste her again. Something about her blood…he didn’t know what, but it did things to him. It made him almost euphoric in a way he’d never felt before. And it made him want her, worse than any other feeding in his life. He didn’t understand it, but he decided that it must be his body telling him how desperately he needed her blood and sex in order to heal.
That must be it. What else would it be? She was beautiful, and compellingly attractive, but she wasn’t anything that would cause this reaction in a first blood vampire. Was she?
This brave, lovely woman was human, and that was all.
And yet as he drank from her, his cock already swollen and ready to enter her, he knew she was much more. Somehow, she’d gotten inside of him.
He felt her hands on him, her fingers reaching for him, and he pulled his fangs from her as he lifted his head.
“You want me? You need me inside you?”
“What do you think?” Her voice was raw.
“Say it, so that you may know I did not compel you, say what you really want.”
“I want every amazing inch of you moving inside of me right now, you crazy vampire,” she said quietly, calmly, as if she was ordering from a menu. “Now.”
“Now,” Ahmose repeated as he fitted himself to her and pushed, his fangs popping again. This time, Mal saw them come, and her eyes opened wide in shock before he sunk them back into her neck, and the heat tore through her body. Somewhere in the back of her mind, the idea that he really was a vampire tried to push forward, but all Mal could think of right now was what his body was doing on top of hers. The thick cock that glided in and out of her stroked and teased. A thought shoved into her mind that this is what she’d needed, that he belonged inside of her.
It couldn’t be true, he was just a stranger to her, and would always be. Her body didn’t care, it accepted him one hundred percent. Once the orgasm began, grew, intensified to its final explosion, she grabbed him and held onto him for fear he would evaporate into the night like some erotic dream.
But he didn’t.
His orgasm hit, hard, she could feel him pump into her, and his body locked against hers, forced now into the third most satisfying orgasm of her life. If he kept his promise, she would be gone soon and would forget he existed.
“I don’t want to,” she whispered, her arms still tight around his shoulders.
“What? What don’t you want, my lady?”
He’d pulled away from her neck just as the orgasm peaked, and now lay beside her, stroking her hair.
Mal rolled her head to her side, away from him. God, this was humiliating.
“You’re lovely, my detective. I will miss you terribly,” he said. “You won’t remember, but I want to say this anyway. Thank you. For saving me. For healing me. For giving me the best orgasms in ten centuries.”
Mal almost choked. “Funny,” she said, quietly, then she was the one who sought his gaze. “I saw something, this time, when you…before you… Do you have fangs, Ahmose?”
He pulled his gum back and Mal stared, wordlessly, as sharp teeth, currently seated back higher in his gums, proved she wasn’t hallucinating.
“You’re serious. You aren’t human.” This time, Mal couldn’t get any volume. Every word came out in a whisper, because she couldn’t believe she was saying them.
“I’m human, Mal. Mostly. But much more.”
“Tell me about you.”
“It won’t matter. Once you leave, once you walk out that door, you will not remember me. I will leave you with a sense of a good memory, a sensual one, but you won’t remember me or any details of what we’ve done together. It has to be that way, for your protection and mine. You are an officer of the law, you understand practical duty.”
“Tell me anyway.”
Ahmose stretched out comfortably beside Mal, w
ho still lay on her back, and began to draw circles on her skin, starting at her shoulders, and worked down.
“We’re powerful. The most powerful animal on the planet. We’re smart, and built to be the best and fastest of the human race. I’m not bragging, it is just so. I was born vampire. We are called first bloods, self-explanatory, and all vampires who are made since come from our blood.”
“So…” Mal was trying to wrap her mind around the implications, heavily distracted by Ahmose’s skilled fingers on her skin. “People can be turned into vampires, instead of being born one like you.”
“Yes. Not often. Siring a vampire is an important decision. It usually involves someone a vampire wants to spend their life with. Most often, it’s for love.”
“But you have to die.”
“No. Vampires are not dead. But we are extraordinarily long-lived and heal extremely quickly.”
He tapped his forehead, which was perfect now.
Mal’s eyes lingered on the unmarked skin, then her fingers smoothed across it. “Wow,” she whispered.
“You see why we stay unknown. There are very few of us and we guard and protect our families and friends passionately. Our lives depend on it.”
“I’ve seen the worst in people, I understand. You would be targets everywhere you went. People are frightened of what they do not know. Or what they can’t control. You would be used.”
Ahmose shook his head. This woman had incredible intuition and a brilliant mind. He wanted to take her home so badly. “But you’re not a puppy,” he whispered.
“What?” Mal asked. “I didn’t understand that.”
“Nothing. Just a lament. Anyway, I live in South Africa, in a village protected just as I have protected this house, with first blood magic, so that it doesn’t exist to those not allowed to see. That’s how your partner could look right at you and not know you were there. I’m sorry.”
“I am too. But, I understand. God, look at me, accepting fairytales as fact. The next thing you know, I’ll be waiting for a prince to ride up on a white horse.”
“I would love to be your prince. But you have your own kingdom and it’s not mine.”
“I know. Still, thank you, for this, for sex like I’ve never experienced. Even if I won’t be able to remember it.”
“I’ll leave the sensation. You’ll see what I mean when you go home.”
“I’d like to remember this. Remember you,” she requested quietly.
“That would make me happy, as well. But it isn’t wise, not only for my people’s security, but for you, so that you can move forward in your life without memories of something unattainable.”
Mal pushed up onto her elbows, one of her hands stilling his, which had been circling a nipple.
“You were good, but not life-changing.” Actually, she thought he might be, but she wasn’t one for letting arrogance slide.
He sat up higher. “Would you like me to give you another illustration?”
Mal smiled into his mirror-bright eyes. “No. You’re right, you’re the best I’ve ever had, and I’m certain no one will likely exceed this night.” She covered his hand with hers, and held his gaze. “But isn’t it time for you to let me go? I’m really worried about my partner.”
“It is. You must go, and so must I. Would you like a shower first?”
Mal nodded. She didn’t want to go back to Luka, and potentially half of her division’s force, smelling like sex.
“Would you like to shower with me?”
She rolled off the bed quickly. “No. If we get under a shower head, naked, we won’t be clean, if you know what I mean.”
Ahmose grinned and looked down at his cock, once again ready for action.
“That thing is…wow.”
Mal turned away and slammed the bathroom door before she took him up on his offer.
Luka had finished packing all of his and Mal’s things and had her SUV ready to go. But he just stood and looked at the sea pounding the shore tonight. The surf was up, along with the winds. A storm might be coming in, but he didn’t know. It was time to head back to L.A. As hard as he tried to get behind the wheel and get on the highway, he couldn’t.
Instead, Luka hopped on his bike and headed back to the beach where he’d found the thing abandoned last night with no trace of his partner.
One last look around, one last check. Maybe someone had seen something. Maybe they’d missed something.
Maybe. It was all he had to go on, and he’d take any chance that he might find her, safe and well, if he went back.
The bike came to a smooth stop in front of the high-dollar piece of beach that, for now, had no home.
Cheeto had the weapons, including the cursed ax, ready to go again.
“No phones. No anything that makes noise or distracts you.” He told his partner-in-crime. “This time, we go into the house and repeat the attack on the beach the other night. Only this time, no witnesses, and no interruptions. We take his head.”
“Ooh, shit! You take it, I already told you. That is serious shit beyond my job description!” Moonpie’s face was twisted in an expression so nasty, Cheeto nodded.
“Sure, just, don’t do that with your face again. You remind me of my 98-year old grandmother when she’s been drinking her homemade moonshine for three days.”
Moonpie’s eyes went big. “What the fuck? You have a grandma nearly a hundred years old who makes moonshine?”
“Yeah. I’m from Hazard, Kentucky. You can’t kill those old broads, and you can’t take their whisky away. My great grandmother lived to a hundred and five and drank a big glass each day until her final day.”
“Fuck, yeah.”
“Well, if I want to make it anywhere near the family record, I need to kill this man. Tonight.”
“We’ll get him. Let’s pony up.”
“I want to park three houses down and walk up. We gotta surprise him and this has gotta be fast and mean.”
“You’re the boss.”
Cheeto liked the sound of that. Yeah, Claude had hired him for several small jobs lately, and all were very well paid, and he thought maybe it might lead to something bigger. Claude was a big dick, but that didn’t matter, he’d always worked for pricks. But this one had big money written all over it. Cheeto was ready to move up.
Jinx rolled his eyes. He had just been ready to snatch the cop inside of the fancy beach house, when Luka took off on the motorcycle.
“Fuck me,” he said softly as he maintained his distance and followed him. Only minutes later, the bike pulled off the road, and the cop left it to wander down towards the beach. A partially-full moon reflecting off puffy white clouds and the pale sand made it easy to spot the dark figure.
Grabbing his automatic rifle, Jinx slid out of his car carefully and slowly followed on foot. He couldn’t mess this up. Even if he had to take the shot without questioning him, the cop couldn’t get away. The orders were to kill him to send the girl a message. Why the fuck Canzone had a thing for her, he didn’t know. But Canzone wasn’t somebody you questioned.
Clean, back in her own clothes, Mal joined Ahmose in the living room, where he sat wearing only loose fitting gray sweatpants. He even made those look good, as they rode low on his hips and highlighted the contours of his tight belly and abs. He was polishing off the bag of barbecue potato chips.
“Those will make you fat,” she said, entering the room quickly, scanning for her shoes.
He lowered his head and looked up at her to make a point. “Vampire, remember? We need to eat thousands of calories a day just to maintain our body weight.”
“Oh, right. Carry on. I think there was a can of lard in the cupboard.”
“Splendid.” Ahmose stood and walked towards her.
“Stop that,” Mal said.
Still several feet away from her, he hesitated. “What?”
“Looking so sexy. I have to leave and I don’t want to. You’ve set me up with an impossible choice.”
Ahmose reached
for her and pulled her against him.
“I already miss this. And your sharp tongue. I am master in my village, so no one dare speak to me as you do.” Grabbing a handful of her hair, he used it to pull her head back to kiss her deeply. He sighed when he released her mouth, but he held on to her head. “I find I like it. From you, anyway.”
“That’s…maybe, I don’t know, but maybe the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me,” Mal laughed. She pulled his chin down to look into his eyes.
“Come back with me. To the city. Look, I rescued you, so I’m kind of responsible for you.”
Before she even knew it, he’d swept her off her feet and carried her to the door that led to the balcony off the back of the house. The sliding glass door was open to let fresh ocean air into the house.
“I wish I could. But I must go home now. Our vampire community has a great enemy and they have found me, so I must return to gather forces to stop this threat.” He paused. “And there are other responsibilities I must attend. I won’t forget you.”
Lifting a hand, he closed his eyes and chanted something brief that she could not understand. “The house is unspelled. You may go now, little detective. Do me a favor and have a glorious life.”
An unexpected and overwhelming sadness pervaded Mal, almost unbearable. For a stranger?
“It’s been weird. And incredible. I hope the same for you. You know, that your life will be happy. I know you weren’t, I could feel it when we were together.”
“I was. I am. It’s just that something is missing and I’ve been feeling sorry for myself. It is unacceptable for a man with my blessings to be ungrateful. Damn, I wish you were vampire.”
“I should go.” Mal felt moisture behind her eyes and had no idea why she was feeling so emotional. “If you ever need me, you know where to find me.”
Luka had just left his bike up near the road when the weirdest thing that had ever happened in his life made him stagger backwards. He'd glanced towards the ocean when, with no warning, a house appeared in his line of sight. It had not been there and suddenly it was!