“I’m not sure, honey. I … just feel so … so strange all of a sudden.”
Paloma swallowed hard as she looked across the room at the dildo she had hastily removed when she noticed there was something wrong with Inger.
“Was … Was I too rough?” she asked softly, guilt making her unable to meet Inger’s eyes.
“No … never.” This time it was Inger who turned Paloma’s face so she could look into her eyes and Paloma was relieved to see the blue eyes were clear now. “You would never hurt me in that way, Vampire.”
“Talk to me then, Inger. What happened?”
Inger’s dark head lifted, her sapphire gaze meeting the quicksilver ones of her anxious wife. With that one gaze she opened her heart and mind, allowing Paloma to see right through her. Paloma gulped in shock at what she saw.
Her eyes narrowed dangerously.
†
“Please, calm down, Trinity.” Gabriella said softly, as she watched her partner agitatedly trying to get dressed. “I told you it’s nothing serious. It may just be a result of …”
“… our lovemaking. You see, I told you it must be that. You only started acting strange after we … you know.”
Gabriella rolled her eyes. Trinity was buttoning up her shirt, skipping a few buttonholes in her haste. Gabriella bit her lower lip to keep herself from bursting out with laughter, as her usually stoic partner stood before her looking completely disheveled, but very cute.
“Come over here, sweetheart.” She patted the space on the bed next to her. “I want to talk to you.”
Trinity looked like she was going to cry any moment as she stared back at her.
“Nooooo,” Trinity wailed. “You need to get dressed so I can take you to a hospital.”
Gabriella shook her head, a look of pure frustration on her face. Why was the woman so stubborn? She gave Trinity a stern look.
“Now you listen here, Slayer, if you ever want to have sex with me again, you will get your butt over here now. I said I want to talk to you.” She had to look away, fearful that she was going to break down and laugh at the look of absolute horror on Trinity’s face. The ultimatum worked. Trinity quickly made her way over to the bed and sat down, her emerald gaze raking over Gabriella’s body like an x-ray.
“What do you want to talk about?” she asked carefully.
“I’m not entirely sure what happened, but I think …”
†
Still shaking from the massive orgasm, Jemima pushed her hand between their bodies. The sweat they had worked up during their energetic session eased her way. She closed her eyes when her hand came to rest on her flat tummy. What just happened? She felt Tahlia stir and quickly threw her other arm over her wife, not ready yet to lose the skin on skin contact she so much enjoyed.
“Are you okay, my love?” came the soft inquiry and Jemima nodded.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“Liar,” Tahlia purred softly in Jemima’s ear. “You forget that you cannot keep anything from me.”
Jemima sighed softly and rubbed Tahlia’s sweaty back soothingly.
“I don’t really know what happened, Tahlia.”
At her confirmation that something was indeed wrong, Tahlia slowly lifted her head from where she was nuzzling Jemima’s neck. The black eyes studied Jemima intently, before she lifted herself off Jemima, carefully pulling out of her wife. She quickly divested herself of the harness and placed it on the bed next to her. She leaned back into Jemima’s arms, her eyes sharp as they probed her wife’s eyes.
Tahlia suddenly growled deep in her throat. Jemima, was startled when Tahlia flung herself from the bed, her long, naked frame coming to a halt on all fours in the center of the chamber. Tahlia slowly straightened up, her eyes sparkling with fury.
“What did you see, baby? What is happ … Oh, my …” Jemima got off the bed, her hands splayed over her abdomen.
“Tahlia …?” She sounded anxious. “Am I …”
“Pregnant? It would seem so,” Tahlia said quietly, her eyes distant.
Jemima shook her head in disbelief, her hand still stroking her tummy. “But I’m a vampire, I can’t be pregnant.”
Tahlia walked over to Jemima and took her in her arms.
“It will be okay, my love. I will sort this out very soon, I promise.”
Jemima looked into Tahlia’s dark eyes and watched them softening the longer she looked into them. Jemima felt her anxiety dissipate gradually. Tahlia brushed her lips gently over her mate’s, before she swung Jemima into her arms and lay her back to the bed. There they cuddled together, each caught up in their own thoughts.
Jemima’s thoughts were cluttered, filled with both trepidation and anticipation.
Tahlia’s were filled with murderous intent.
†
There was a loud knock on the door. Irritated by the interruption, Leo threw the door open, a goblet in her hand. Her eyes narrowed with rage when they fell on her visitor.
“I thought I told …”
Molan held a glowing crystal ball out to her, his eyes bright with child-like excitement.
“It worked,” he exclaimed. “We did it.”
Leo stepped closer, looking from the crystal ball to Molan and back again.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am sure. We have fulfilled the prophecy, Warrior.”
A small smile tugged on Leo’s lips. We did it. The smile broadened. We did it and I wasn’t killed in the process.
She slapped Molan on the back.
“Congratulations, Molan. Do not leave the village.”
Molan frowned, slightly miffed at the warrior’s gall.
“You change your mind fast, Warrior. Am I to assume that I am back in your good graces, Prime?”
Leo smiled faintly.
“No. I just want you to be here when the Queen returns. Believe me, she will be back.” With that Leo stepped back into her room and slammed the door shut behind her.
†
Molan swallowed hard as he looked at the closed door. Yes, she will definitely be back. A shiver ran down his spine as he recalled the black unblinking stare of the Vampire Queen. Best to start preparing for her arrival now.
THE END
About the Author
Stein Willard
Stein started writing at the age of thirteen after feeling cheated by the ending of a novel she was reading. She took the novel and rewrote it from the ending back to the front, adding 200 more pages to it. Up until then she's only written in her native language, Afrikaans, a derivation of the Dutch language.
In 2007 she decided to experiment by writing a few short stories in English. By pure accident, she came across platforms on the internet to publish her work and was encouraged by a friend to try and post some of her stories.
Stein resides in Windhoek.
Connect with Stein online:
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: www.facebook.com/stein.willard
BOOKS IN THE GUARDIAN SERIES
Book One: A Guardian's Touch
For two thousand years, Tahlia had lived on the fringes of humanity as one of the most powerful and feared Royal Vampires in existence. The only ray of light in her endless brutal existence is the reincarnation of her human love, Aurora. For the past twenty centuries, the blue-eyed beauty’s love added a gentle touch to the otherwise deadly veneer of the Vampire Queen. As protector and lover, Tahlia passionately loved her mortal partner and jealously guarded her existence. But all that changes when her lover’s birth coincides with the resurfacing of a cunning and elusive enemy set on upsetting the Vampire Hierarchy. This time is target is not Tahlia –directly. It does however; threaten the Vampire Queen’s very existence.
Book Two: A Guardian's Love
Her name is synonymous with death. Paloma. As the Assassin of the Royal Vampire Clan, Paloma had followed orders without question. But the killing became too much even for her. At the risk of losing the last sliver of humanity she stil
l possessed, the deadly Enforcer went to ground only to resurface five centuries later. Nevertheless, in her absence the world had changed, as would her life.
Meanwhile, the daughter of two powerful vampires, twenty-year-old Inger Marsden was a free spirit who frequented pubs and nightclubs for two reasons: to hunt and destroy renegades hiding amongst humans and to find gorgeous women for no-strings attached liaisons. Life couldn’t get any better for the young slayer—or so she thought.
Book Three: A Guardian's Passion
Converted four hundred years ago, Trinity O’Riordan went through the mechanics of life, carrying an extremely painful past with her. Then one night, while hunting renegades, she saved a beautiful girl from a band of vicious vampires and suddenly life didn't look so bleak any more. She wasn't alone any longer and for a while she was blissfully happy. But her past eventually caught up with her and this time Trinity knew she only had this one chance to finally lay it to rest.
Orphaned twice, Gabriella Talos had made the best of a bad situation. She'd risen above all odds to become a well-known and respected expert in her field. She had it made…or so she thought. One night in a dark alley, she was confronted by a past she'd thought she'd successfully buried eighteen years ago.
A Guardian's Salvation Page 22