The New Night Novels (Book 2): Revelations (A New Night Novella)

by Hawley, Ashlei D.

  “Well done. I knew we could count on you, Sreya.”

  As ever, praise from my maker warms me. “Thank you for your trust,” I say, and I mean it. There are better fighters , and faster runners in our organization. That he sends me on these important missions makes me feel I haven’t let him down yet. I’m grateful to Seth, and I never want him to regret his decision to bring me into the vampire world.

  “I’m sure there will be something else to do later on. Until then, you’re free to go. Kaiser has been looking for you.” After that nonchalant comment, he waves me off and opens the little box. I am hungry, and a bag of blood substitute doesn’t really sound appealing.

  Though it’s got everything we vampires need to be sustained, it tastes fake. Not nearly as wonderful as the real thing. Finding Kaiser sounds like a great way to spend part of the night.

  Ramses catches my gaze with his as I move for the exit. The pull from those sapphire blues is magnetic.

  “Sreya, I really want to talk.”

  I stop walking toward the door to Seth’s office. “Maybe later.” I don’t know if I put off our conversation out of cowardice or because I want to annoy him.

  The fire in his eyes convinces me it’s cowardice. I certainly have enough self-preservation not to blatantly try to piss Ramses off.

  I make my escape as Ramses turns back to his father. The last thing I hear before I’m out of earshot is, “Who is Kaiser?”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Kaiser, my only donor, is working in our communications center. When I find him, he’s leaning over the shoulder of a frustrated brunette vampire.

  “We can’t boost the signal any further. You’re not going to be able to reach anything beyond the U.S. with the system the way it is. We can’t even reach the cities near us, Kaiser.” The vampire’s tone is full of disdain. Kaiser smiles at him and I admire his strong profile with friendly appreciation. He’s not fazed by the other male’s irritation. I’ve found nothing fazes Kaiser, not even Rippers. Maybe that’s because he hasn’t been out of the compound in nearly a decade.

  “We’ll get it figured out,” Kaiser insists as he claps the vampire radio operator on the shoulder. He doesn’t catch the distasteful look that claims the vampire’s dark brown eyes, but I do. “I want to contact someone in China,” Kaiser continues. “My bet’s still on them for a cure.”

  Kaiser turns, as though he’s sensed my presence. His smile is infectious and I return it.

  “Sreya, glad you made it back in one piece,” he says.

  “That makes two of us,” I agree.

  The radio equipment and its handler are forgotten. Kaiser follows me out of the communications center and down the hall toward an exit.

  “We need to get the signal towers near us up and running again,” Kaiser explains to me. We walk without discussing our destination. Both of us know where we’re heading.

  “Have you talked to Seth about sending a team out?”

  “Of course,” Kaiser replies as he holds the door open for me. The guards are two female vampires we recognize. They nod at us, familiar with our common routine, as Kaiser continues. “He says he won’t waste anyone on something that probably couldn’t help, anyway.”

  He scoffs and shakes his head. “Couldn’t help?! If they’ve developed a cure, they could send the formula to us. We could duplicate, experiment here. Those signal towers could be all that stands between us and finally pushing the tide back against the Rippers.”

  We stand on a wooden pier, nearer to the shore than the water. The half-moon and about a billion stars light up the night for us. We still have electricity in the safe zones, but for the most part, human cities have all gone dark. It makes for a lonely world, but it also gives us gorgeous nights.

  “Do you miss it?”

  Kaiser knows what I’m asking. Does he miss humanity, being a part of cities and populations that throbbed like the beating heart of a seemingly infallible machine? Does he miss being one microscopic speck, one droplet of blood in the veins of that giant that once was mankind?

  “Hell yes, I do,” he answers in a gruff and pensive tone. He sits on the edge of the pier and swings his long legs over the side. His normally placid blue eyes shimmer with a torrent of underlying turmoil. I shouldn’t have asked . It , it was inconsiderate and almost cruel.

  “I didn’t mean to...” I trail off and sit beside him, searching for the words of apology among the cold burn of the uncountable stars. “It was a stupid thing to ask.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” But he knows I will. “It’s been a while since you’ve taken actual blood. Couple weeks, right?”

  The sudden topic shift disorients me for a moment. I swallow around an invisible obstruction in my throat.

  “Yeah, about that.” I attempt to sound nonchalant, but I can almost give him down to the minute how long it’s been. The blood substitute is great, really. It keeps us alive, has no adverse effects, is plentiful, and easy to manufacture. Without it, the vampire population would have hunted down and drained all the remaining humans by now. And we’d still be starving even if we got every last one of them.

  Having humans willing to give themselves up for occasional feedings is equivalent to having a golden ticket to the chocolate factory in our current climate. I’m lucky enough to be one of two vampires Kaiser regularly agrees to donate to. Seth is the other.

  “Well, I told Seth I was looking forward to letting you feed when you got back. I’m ready if you are.”

  As my donor, Kaiser holds a place of respect and near-reverence in my heart. He gives me an irreplaceable gift, and I appreciate him for it.

  I always try to make the feedings enjoyable for him. As our most prized assets, our humans are protected like the valued treasures they are. A vampire who mistreats a human nowadays will face exile or death, depending on the severity of the abuse.

  Kaiser knows he had nothing of the sort to fear from me. I handle him like a glass sculpture, taking great care not to damage him.

  Sweeping the soft curls from the middle of his neck, I bend Kaiser’s head away from me, toward the far end of the pier. The heavy, fresh scent of the water plays along the edge of the fragrance I seek. The sweeter, thicker liquid smells like heaven even through the skin that keeps it trapped. We always come here, not for privacy, but for the mélange of delectable scents that accompany the meal: wood imbued with the clean smell of the lake water, healthy soil on the water’s edge, the here and quickly gone perfume of little prey animals, and whatever else the night wind brings to me.

  I’m drunk before my first taste, just from the smells around us.

  “Sreya...” Kaiser whispers. The hesitation in his tone tells me he thinks I’ve reconsidered. Truth is, I’m savoring the moment. I run my nails over the skin, following the path of the throbbing vein that is mine to claim.

  Before his neck begins to cramp, I lower my face to the offered flesh. I open my mouth wide to accommodate my fully-elongated fangs. The thin incisors, sharper than any knife, plunge into Kaiser’s neck. The released flow of crimson erupts into my mouth and I moan, shuddering with the orgasmic joy of the taste.

  I kneel between Kaiser’s legs, both of mine straddling his firm, muscled right thigh. My breasts press into his chest, and tingle with the same rush of anticipation I feel beneath my gums. The tingle is almost a burn in the two spots where my fangs descend.

  The instant my fangs pierce his skin, Kaiser’s body droops in perfect submission. Low hums of pleasure roll around beneath my tightly-fastened lips.

  Kaiser is in the daze all humans fall into when being fed on. I notice him growing hard, but don’t take it personally. I’ve never known a human that didn’t experience some kind of aroused arousal during a feeding.

  Before I run the risk of taking too much, I break the seal of my mouth and back away. I want to lick up the blood that still hovers around the tiny wounds already closing up, but I don’t have a chance.

  Something hits me from behind Kaiser. T
he form breaks my contact with my donor and sends me hurtling off the pier. Before I even resurface from the feeding haze, I’m in the water with a large weight on top of me.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  I splutter, spitting cold lake water from my mouth. With it goes the last remnants of Kaiser’s blood. The cold water soaks me to the skin, adding pounds of weight to my outfit. Luckily, the lake isn’t very deep here. It would be a bitch to swim in such water-logged clothes.

  “Ramses?” I ask in shock as I recognize the form straddling my hips. He has his hands on my shoulders as he glares down at me. Even in the dark, his eyes burn like precious jewels in a statue of some god of war.

  “Is this why you won’t talk to me?” he snarls. “Are you with this human now?”

  A thousand different responses demand I toss them at Ramses, but I’m still a little too stunned. He thinks I’ve been doing what? And with who?

  “Answer me, Sreya, or I’ll head back to Minneapolis tonight. I didn’t come back here just to find out you’ve forgotten about me. About us.”

  “Of course not, you idiot,” I growl at him. “I thought you were the one who forgot about me.”

  Relief wars with the anger in his blue eyes for a moment. Ramses doesn’t have much of a temper, but when he gets riled, it’s a scary sight to see.

  My neck is starting to hurt from keeping my head out of the water. I’m not going to drown if I go under, but I can’t imagine I’d like the feeling of inhaling lake water while being pinned down. It sounds a little bit too claustrophobic to me.

  “Can I get up now?” I ask in a tone meant to be calm. My words instead come out breathy and a little shaky. I don’t like it, but the press of hard dick against my lower navel tells me Ramses does.

  “No,” he says, and bends down toward me.

  He slides his tongue into my mouth and licks along the edges of my fangs, like he’s trying to take the last microscopic droplets of Kaiser’s blood from within my mouth. The movement presses my head under the water. I feel the softness of the sand beneath my hair and close my eyes against the cold liquid now surrounding me entirely.

  Ramses kisses me like he’ll breathe life into me. All at once he drowns, destroys, revitalizes, and renews me. I couldn’t have described in words how much I missed him these past three years, so I try to pour it all wordlessly into the kiss I give him back.

  His breath is in my mouth, and I don’t fear being under the water at all. I push up against him with all my strength, pushing my lower body into his and my mouth against his lips. My fangs nick his tongue, and his blood mixes with whatever might have been left of Kaiser’s. I moan, but the sound is swallowed up by Ramses’ mouth. If it hadn’t been lost in his lips, it would have been drowned by the water around us.

  He backs away and pulls me up out of the water. Kaiser looks down on us from the pier, trying to decide if he could be any help at all if he came down to try to get Ramses off of me. He knows all about the other vampire, though, and how much I’ve yearned for him since he’s been gone.

  “I guess I’ll see you around, Sreya,” Kaiser says. His awkward tone hangs over me, heavier than the water that soaks my clothes.

  “Ramses is sorry, Kaiser,” I tell him. “He can kind of be a possessive ass.”

  “He has a right to be,” Kaiser says with a quick smile. Ramses’ arm tightens around my waist as he lifts me to my feet.

  “Don’t you have a female you could feed from?” Ramses asks as we watch Kaiser walk back toward the compound.

  “Don’t push it, mister,” I warn him. I make for the shoreline, ready to get out of these wet clothes. “If I could think about anything else besides getting you naked, I’d be pissed at you right now.”

  Ramses smirks at me as I pull him along behind me. “How did I go so long without you?” he asks.

  “Don’t ask me . , I was wondering the same thing.”

  I tug on his large hand and feel like a kid pulling along a much larger, much stronger adult. Ramses has always had over a foot and at least eighty pounds on me. The man is huge, and I’m fairly short and tiny. Being next to him makes me feel even more delicate and fun-sized.

  Though I’d like him to think I’m pulling him along so anxiously because I can’t wait to get him in bed, I want to make sure Kaiser gets into the building all right. Humans aren’t supposed to be alone without a vampire escort, ever. Plus, he’s my donor . , I feel an obligation to protect him.

  We make it up the side of the hill the lake rests against before Kaiser has even made it halfway back to the compound. I breathe a little easier seeing him walking easily and unmolested.

  “Do you want to talk now?” I ask Ramses. My whole demeanor has changed. I feel calmer, more relaxed. I swing his hand in mine, and the years apart seem to melt away. I squeeze his hand tighter and smile.

  “It can wait until later,” Ramses says as he squeezes me back. “I don’t want to spoil that smile. It’s been too long since I’ve seen it.”

  We enter the building behind Kaiser and I wave to him as we go separate ways. He’ll head back to the communal human hall, and I plan to return to my room within the compound. For the first time in three years, I won’t be going back alone. The thought makes all of my skin tighten up.

  “Still in the same place?” Ramses asks, wondering if my room arrangements have changed. No doubt he wants to know if I’ve gotten myself a roommate or shacked up with someone.

  “Same place, same lack of company since you left,” I assure him.

  “I want to apologize for seeming like a possessive jerk,” he says as we come to my door. I open it with a key. “But I can’t apologize for that. I’ve missed you, Sreya.”

  I pull him inside and shut the door. After relocking it, I pull him to me and wrap my arms around his waist. He hugs me close and squeezes me with all his impressive strength. It leaves me breathless, but I want him to hold me even tighter, be even closer.

  I bury my face in his chest and inhale his scent, a scent which was once all over my clothes, my things, my space, and my body. It’s a scent I still hold close to my heart, and it arouses me more than the scent of blood ever has. It’s been too long since I was able to enjoy it.

  “I missed you so much,” I tell him in a soft voice.

  “I wish I could tell you I won’t have to leave you again,” Ramses says against my still-dripping hair. I back away and glare at him.

  “Don’t tell me you’re just stopping by for a visit and then you’re going to leave me again!” I exclaim. “I can’t do another three years without you, Ramses. I don’t want to be alone anymore, especially with the world the way it is. Even immortals have to worry about today being the last day now.”

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, sugar,” he tells me in a scolding voice. “But let’s get you out of these wet clothes first. You don’t want to catch a cold.”

  Like vampires catch colds. I smirk at his silly ploy and shake my head. “Just because I feel a chill coming on, I’ll let this one slide. Let’s get naked and then we can talk.”

  Those bottomless blue eyes fill up with heat. Ramses slides one hand down my neck and along my collarbone. “Once I get you naked, there won’t be any talking.”

  “Not even dirty talking?” Though I mean to tease him, the words come out as anything but teasing. My tone is soft and breathy, and I shiver at his hands on me. Dirty talking or not, I know what he means. I don’t want him using his mouth for words, either.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Ramses moves his hand lower and finds the button of my black pants. He unfastens it and pulls the zipper down almost in the same movement. The electricity I feel from his hand hums along my skin as though he’s touching it directly, though two layers of fabric still stand in his way.

  I reach around behind him and drag the fastener from the end of his long braid. I toss it away and loose the strands with my hands, rising up on my tip toes so I can kiss him again. How have I gone without it so long? The taste of
him is better than blood, more vital to my survival. He tries to make the kiss languorous and slow, but I nip at his tongue and press my mouth harder into his.

  He breaks away and his breathlessness sends a thrill through me. I love the heady power we work over each other.

  “Don’t you want to savor the moment?” he asks while he slides a teasing hand into my wet panties. He grabs a handful of my ass and pulls me closer to him. His erection presses into me through his pants.

  The ache I feel to have his cock touching any part of my bare flesh is impossible to ignore. I thrust my hands into the waistband of his jeans and tug on them in frustration.

  Ramses chuckles and unbuckles his belt for me. The fastener and zipper of his pants follow. He’s given me the access I want, so I yank his pants down.

  “Don’t go slow,” I order as I grab him by the shirtfront. I pull him toward my bed while working my way out of my wet jacket and shirt. The material is heavy and hard to deal with as it’s all still saturated. Ramses tries to help me, and we end up tearing my shirt. Oh, well. It wasn’t exactly one of my favorites.

  Ramses lifts his shirt over his head and I spare a few seconds to kiss my way down his solid chest and toned stomach. His tan skin glows with warmth, even after being in the lake with me, and feels hot under my lips. I lick along his hip bone and sit on my bed. His erect cock is right at eye level, and I greedily drink in the sight of him.

  Finally getting my hands on him, I grip the hard, veined shaft and give him a few quick strokes. Leaning forward, I twirl my tongue around his sac. I make sure to get his balls nice and wet while I jerk his throbbing cock.

  I back off before I make him too sensitive. I still know the ways of his body. It isn’t something I’m likely to forget.

  Ramses leans over me and claims my mouth for more feverish kissing. He places a hand one either side of me on the bed and for a moment, only our mouths touch. He keeps leaning me back until I have to lay down on the bed.

  Though I still have my damp bra on, Ramses slides my underwear down and off my legs. He throws them to the side and spreads my legs. Bending over me, he kisses around my belly button and along my left hip.