by Noella Royce
Adin's lips claimed mine and we kissed as if drowning. My legs and arms wrapped around him of their own accord, and I reveled in the feel of his body beneath mine, and his lips, god, that kiss was everything, sexier than any kiss I'd ever had before.
And yet I thought that about all of his kisses—each one was better than the last. I bit his lower lip and could practically feel his growl through my body. I did it again just to see what happened and felt him harden underneath my ass.
I squirmed in response, and then gasped as he moved with his unnatural speed. "Oh!" He lifted me as if I was weightless and then my back was on the bed, him above me and our hips pressed together. The candles threw shadows on his features and the red of his eyes gleamed, and I was transfixed.
This was a predator, his glare full of something inhuman and old, a sense that was underscored by the glint of fangs in the low light. "You have a singular gift for provoking me."
There was no hint if that was a good or bad thing, but in that moment it made me feel powerful. "It's not my fault you keep kissing me and then telling me you don't want to." Pressing my palms into his abs, I pushed up his shirt, needing to touch as much of his skin as I could reach. "But don't stop kissing me, is what I'm saying."
"You are," he flung his shirt off then ripped off mine, the violence of the move making me start, an answering wetness gathering against where his cock pressed against the boxers still between us, "ridiculous." A smile played on his lips as he touched me and I moaned. "Interesting." He practically purred as he lowered himself above me, a hand kneading my breast and tweaking a nipple. I made another embarrassing noise and writhed in response, digging my hands into his shoulders. "You don't seem the type to enjoy violence, Miss Geroux."
"It reminds me how strong you are." I ran my nails down his chest, feeling the sculpted muscles before digging them into the divot of his perfectly formed hips as I ran myself against his length. God, I'd never thought of myself as a size queen, but the solidness of him had me fighting the urge to beg. "And you have no idea what I like, Mr. Nieren. If that's your real name."
This was a bluff—I'd been a serial monogamist in the past, having long relationships that I'd hoped would turn into something more, despite having subconsciously already lost interest in my partner. Only one man, a very rare one-night stand, had turned me on to the point where I teased and pushed like this, and that guy hadn't been the type I'd wanted to see again.
Adin was different. Adin drove me wild and turned me on with his personality changes, his red eyes, his insane strength.
Something in my gaze must have spoken of my desire, for his lip curled and he was kissing me again, his tongue claiming me and mine sparring in return, pressing me into the bed and pressing my hand into the mattress. The other molded itself around the curves of my ass and we began to move together.
I pulled back and laughed into his mouth, and in response he kissed down my neck, his fangs brushing against my skin. Fear was the natural response to a bloodsucker moving his deadly teeth near my carotid artery, but instead, it thrilled me.
Adin used those same teeth on my breasts, and I pressed forward, running my hands through his soft hair. His red eyes watched me. "Why are you laughing, silly minx?"
"Minx? Really?" He gently bit my nipple and I groaned. "I thought this didn't happen with humans like me," I said, tousling his hair. "Us dirty, filthy, short-lived things."
"I did not say all that." His hand slipped beneath the waistband of my boxers and teased along my slit, caressing.
"No, but that was the insinuation." This was somewhat a serious question—why had he changed his mind?
Instead of answering, he slipped his finger inside me and kissed me again at the same time, my cry of pleasure lost in his mouth.
I could feel Adin's smile on my skin as he fucked me with his finger, and I felt my pleasure kicked higher at the knowledge that he was enjoying this, that he wasn't just a sarcastic, out of touch immortal.
"Adin, please," I begged, and then my voice ended as I cried out, his movements filling me and pushing me over the edge and me clutching him, his mouth moving down to my shoulder and his free hand caressing the curves of my back down to my thighs.
As I came, I buried my mouth in his neck and bit, burying my ecstasy in his skin. I swore he laughed, as if amused that it was me biting him.
"Oh god." I couldn't say anything more, spent and yet still tingling, a sense that I wanted more from him. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." We lay there for the moment, and I reveled in the sense of being alive, no longer blocked by whatever had poisoned me, and coming down from sexual bliss.
Don't go," Adin said quietly into my hair, his breath dancing and making me squirm. Fingers dancing, he kissed my collarbone and I lifted my hips into his cock, which was still hard. I wanted to touch him desperately, to feel him completely. God, I wanted him inside me. "Stay here with me." His lips met mine, teasingly, and his voice was a purr. "I'll make you forget silly, suicidal ideas." His tone worried me, so unlike the other times we'd been together. There was a note there, something smooth and different.
And yet I needed him so very badly, all of him.
His hand trailed down my breast to my hip, burning a path of fire, and his eyes were hot. "Give up your plan and I'll make a very rare exception."
My eyes widened as I understood exactly what he was offering. "You're trying to seduce me out of going!" I accused him, suddenly angry. I pulled away, although my body protested mightily.
"And you were trying to seduce me into helping you," Adin countered, but there wasn't much heat in his voice. My accusation had been correct.
"No, I was trying to seduce you because you're annoyingly sexy, you ancient asshole!" I flung my feet off the bed. "And you didn't respond because you like me, or find my ass irresistible; it's because you're trying to distract me!"
Adin's lips pursed and his brow furrowed. "It's not that simple."
"Is that a denial?"
He turned away from me, the hair I'd tousled falling around his face. His lack of response got me right in the gut. Somewhere along the line, and within the fifty gazillion times he'd rescued my sorry ass, I'd started to develop feelings for this stupidly handsome literal monster, and the acknowledgement that the same wasn't happening to him hurt like hell.
But why would he care about me? I was a blip in his endless life.
'Not that simple'. Oh, I'm sure he wouldn't turn down a chance to make out with me, but that didn't mean he didn't have an ulterior motive.
"You're going to get yourself killed." His voice was low and angry. "Your powers aren't fully developed, and you need more time. Let the vampires fight this."
"Didn't you just tell me they're seriously outclassed?" He was silent. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Screw that; they're as fucking lost and useless as everyone else." I pushed myself off the bed and grabbed the T-shirt and pants he'd put out for me and yanked them on. "I'm going to go find a working sewing machine if it kills me, damn it, and create something and go find those jerks." I wasn't going to let being alone stop me.
"Veda!" Adin stood, and I quelled as he strode towards me and took my arm, radiating angry power. "If you survive, they will make you their toy. There are horrors far worse than death."
I looked up into his beautiful face and gave him a wry smile, my anger melting. He really was trying to save me. "The way things are going, Professor, I'm going to be dead or enslaved either way. This way I'll at least feel like I'll tried." I stood on my toes and gave him a soft kiss on the lips, and his eyes searched my face. "Thanks again. Because of you, I'm alive, and I owe you my life several times over. I know you can't love us fragile, annoying humans, but I'm really glad to know you." I touched his chest, gave a small smile without looking at his face, and turned and walked out of the bedroom.
If I survived this craziness, I was going to put some serious effort into getting to know Erica better—her and I had a few things to bond over that were
more than enough basis for a strong friendship.
When I reached the living room, I stopped, stunned at the scene that greeted me: Amari was laying on the couch, a blanket over his legs, reading a book on ancient Rome.
He saw me and he grinned, swinging his legs down to the floor. His usually impeccable clothing was rumpled, and his hair stuck out all over the place. "Oh, thank god; you're done. I've been up for a while, but I heard some, um, noises from inside the room and wanted to give you two however long you needed."
"What are you doing here?"
"Waiting for you, duh." He rolled his eyes and stood up, then engulfed me in a big hug. "God, when I saw you running by, chased by that snake thing, I was so scared. And then when you jumped in the river, holy shit, I thought my heart had stopped. It was such a relief when Adin showed up, but I didn't trust him alone with you, so I forced him to bring me here."
Now I was truly speechless. Amari had followed Adin to watch over me? He was terrified of the vampire, but he'd done it anyway.
Maybe I wasn't so alone after all.
I hugged him back, and the wheels of my mind began to turn. "Thank you, Amari. You're the best. Do you have your car with you?"
"I do. Why?" He furrowed his brow. "Are you sure you're okay, Veda? Maybe you should rest more. You're looking dangerously pale."
The real answer was no, I wasn't sure I was okay, but then the ground shook and the lights flickered, and I shook my head. "I don't think we have time for rest. Do you know where Kristen lives, and if she has power?" Since she technically was in the next town over, there was a chance the power outage hadn't hit her. I'd prefer to work in a lighted space away from zombie snakes.
"Yes, and maybe?"
"Excellent. Let's go!"
In the car, trying not to pay too much attention to the streetlight-free, somewhat terrifying drive, I told him everything I knew except for Adin's own story. Much of it Amari was already aware of. I was relieved to hear the snake did not eat Leslie or any of his vampire friends, but the bloodsucker council was now frustrated and divided. Some wanted to attack the Ashers and some didn't, and they were nowhere near making a decision.
"I'm scared, Veda. I want to leave town, but it seems cowardly." Amari sighed, fingers tapping the steering wheel. "You're new, so you're just learning all this, but us locals just always saw everything as a balance between the necros and the vamps, and that we could use each to keep the other in check. Hell, the students pick up that complacency as well—they all love the fun magical weirdness here—but we've all forgotten this place is built on a foundation of death and war."
"Well, you do have roughly twenty trillion independent coffee shops. How can a town with that much charm and caffeine be deadly? It's hard to imagine." I was mostly kidding, but I'd certainly had trouble with the thought at first.
"Ha. Yeah, but then you find out that most of 'em are run by witches, some of them real big into demon worship, and the whole thought gets a lot less cute. What are we going to do?"
"I actually have a thought about that." I then gave him a quick overview, and by the time we passed into the town next to Maywen, which blessedly had power, he had called me insane about ten different ways.
"Of course I'll design a dress for you; I already have tons of ideas. How's a ballgown sound? Also, yes, according to Frank, the more fabric you use the more protection it creates. But come on, Veda, you've never done this before!"
"Yes, I have. I mean, sorta. I made a skirt and it saved my life. Who knows what a whole dress can do?"
"It probably can't fight off dozens of mages!"
"Who knows until I try, right?"
"You're batshit, girl."
We were still arguing when we got to Kristen's parents' house, a cute ranch with flamingos on the lawn. We knocked on the door. Kristen answered our knock almost instantly and I practically collapsed in relief. To my surprise, Hal was behind her, and I noted they both looked a bit rumpled, to the point Hal's shirt was showing a healthy amount of ab.
At first, I lifted an eyebrow—wasn't he a werewolf?—and then I remembered what I'd been doing with Adin and my own fixation on his supernaturally hot chest, and I clamped down on any judgements.
"Veda, Amari!" She grinned and pulled us into the house. "Oh my god, I'm so glad you two are all right! Amari, you know Hal; Veda—"
"We've met," the floppy haired guy said, adjusting his shirt.
I nodded at him. "Thought you had to go to some gathering of your fuzzy friends or something."
"That was a while ago." He shrugged. "The leaders are too busy to keep an eye on all of us, so I made sure everyone was okay and snuck out." He looked me over and gave a small smile. "Heard you almost gotten eaten by a snake and jumped in the river." Kristen gasped and looked between us, shocked.
"Yeah, well, neither managed to kill me, so here we are. Kristen," I looked at her. "I need a couple of favors from you."
"Of course, anything you need! What's this about a snake? What's going on downtown?" She whirled to Hal, and I was startled to see that an annoyed Kristen was a lot less childlike than a happy or scared one. "Why didn't you tell me anything other than 'everyone's freaking out'? That's no help!"
His feet shuffled and he scratched the back of his head. "I didn't want to worry you."
She shook her head. "Boys," she muttered. Then her bright smile was back. "Okay, how can I help you?"
"She wants to get herself killed," Amari said dryly. "Let's start there."
I flicked my hand at him in dismissal. "Ignore him. First things first: Do you have a sewing machine and a crapload of fabric?"
16
Roughly an hour later, I was standing in the door to Kristen's sewing room, sketches from Amari in my hand and a bolt of turquoise satin and other supporting fabrics over my arm. He and Hal were now gone, off to try to gather some more troops for my ridiculous plan.
And yes, I knew it was ridiculous and would probably get me killed. Sure, I'd taken the river's words to heart about my value, and I really appreciated the unexpected self-esteem boost, but the truth was I still felt useless. At heart, I was an all-or-nothing kind of gal—see my flight from LA and utter burning of my old life—and this was an effective way to give my all.
"You okay?" Kristen asked behind me.
I took a deep breath, then exhaled shakily. "I am, I think." God, I hoped this would work, and the belief my powers were back wasn't just a pipe dream. "Will your mom really be okay that I'm using her fancy silk satins for this?"
"Nope, she'd murder us both." Her tone was disturbingly cheerful. "That's for a promised dress for my aunt to wear for my cousin's wedding, and she was going to start sewing this weekend. We're both dead. But you said you can pay for it through your trust, right? I'll explain it; we'll be fine."
'Fine' wasn't how I felt, 'horrible' was. Kristen patted me on the back. "It's the best fabric we have around here, and according to Frank, the better the ingredients, the stronger the magic. You need to make something expensive, voluminous, and pretty, and this satin will let you do just that. I'll be out here the whole time." The ground shook, just a bit, but enough to remind me why I was doing this and to steel my resolve.
I stepped forward, opened the door to the dim basement room, and everything went black, except for an undulating ceiling of stars entwined with a purple light. I could hear myself talking, and flashes of turquoise filled my thoughts and then my lungs.
This was mine to create and thus I had to give it my everything—
"Veda?" There was a violent knocking at the door and I opened my eyes to find myself lying on the carpeted floor in my underwear, a bunch of turquoise fabric over my face and body.
There was also a warm glowing presence, something that created almost a hum at several frequencies at the back of my consciousness. I moved the fabric and Kristen's head appeared around the door frame. "Just wanted to check on you. It suddenly went silent in here after sounding like a storm, and—wow."
I sat up
on my elbows and saw that, once again, I'd pretty much gone nuclear on the little sewing room. Drawers open, fabric scraps thrown everywhere, and somehow a spool of black thread had become unraveled and lay on the floor. Goddamn, did I turn into a rabid animal or something when I sewed? And why didn't I have clothes on?
She inched into the room. "So, uh, I'm guessing you blacked out again, then?"
"I'm pretty sure I did, yeah. Damn, Kristen, I'm so sorry for the mess." I stood up, holding the fabric, then covered myself because I wasn't wearing a bra. "Also for flashing you."
"Nothing I haven't seen before, but oh! Is that the dress? It is, isn't it? Show me, show me!"
Taking the fabric from me, she squealed and held it out at arm's length, holding it up to compensate for our sizeable height difference. "Oh, Veda, this is amazing! It looks exactly like the picture that Amari drew." She came forward to fluff the skirt and beamed. The layering and volume of the skirt was perfectly balanced, and the dress would twirl like a dream. The turquoise satin shimmered under the bright lamps of the sewing room, and I was proud to note that I'd created complex darts for the bodice that would allow the fabric to sit snuggly against my skin without being too tight. Man, I was a veritable genius when in Star Seamstress mode. "Maybe you were trying it on?"
"Maybe?" Who knew. I felt drained and light-headed, and yet also energized and jittery, like I was on some sort of euphoric drug that still flowed in my veins. I started to put on my regular clothes, which were all over the room. "How long was I out?"
"Almost three hours."
Damn, it must be in the middle of the night. "Amari and Hal return?"
"Um, yes. And he's not alone."
"He bring some beefy friends?"
"And Thalia." She started to squash the dress and caught herself. "All of them together makes me nervous, I won't lie, even with Frank here. Actually, I'm going to take this up to my room and add some pretty embroidery while we wait for the vampires. Is it okay if I do that? The bodice and hems just beg for flourishes, and I can put some magic into them too, although probably not as powerful as yours."