Her Vampire Ward

by Britten Thorne

  But God, how I wanted him to.

  He brushed away some stray strands of hair and wiped my neck. I could feel his fingertips, cool, calloused. He cleaned the blood off slowly, as if afraid of frightening me away.

  A small smile appeared on his face. I thought he was going to speak. My mouth was too dry to say anything.

  He kissed my forehead. No, no, no. "I'm glad that I met you," he whispered, and kissed the bridge of my nose. "You're the toughest human I've ever known." He kissed the tip of my nose. Wrong. So wrong. He was so close. I breathed him in, the scents of the woods we'd just trudged to together, the soap from the motel, the masculine smell that was distinctly him. My heart beat in my ears. The washcloth was gone, he was caressing my neck, and I was leaning into it like a cat. So, so wrong.

  Then his lips met mine. The professional in me wanted to recoil and finally end this, but they were so soft and cool, the contact so gentle. Nothing like what I was used to or ever expected. It was... sweet.

  I returned the kiss, entwining my hands behind his neck. He put a hand on my waist and pulled me towards him - I uncrossed my legs and planted my feet on the floor, and he positioned himself between my knees. Trouble. It was like I was hearing alarms in my head again. Evacuate. I was struck by a morbid thought and pushed him back.

  "You aren't going to die, here." I said it with force. I'd seen it many times before; clients thinking they were close to death, unconsciously searching for comfort in any way they could. I held his head in my hands, stared into his eyes as if I could force him to believe it. I repeated myself, "You aren't going to die."

  “I’m already dead.”

  “You know what I mean.” His face was grim, but he nodded. “Believe it.”

  “I believe you.” I pulled him back to me, kissed him hard. I had little patience for denial. I knew myself - my fight against him in my head was so feeble; I hadn’t even pushed him away once. Time to stop pretending I was going to stop this.

  He sensed the change. His tongue plunged into my mouth as he pulled me closer, exploring, wrestling with mine. His fangs extracted, and he brushed them across my bottom lip. I shivered.

  Having him so close, finally kissing him after the interruption back at the motel, it drove me a little crazy. I pressed into the sharp points, feeling the tiniest of punctures, just two droplets of blood rising free.

  He hissed, shocked, and sucked on the tiny wounds a moment before abruptly pulling away.

  "You'll drive me mad, woman," he growled. He yanked me forward on the cot so I was barely sitting on the edge. "Take your shirt off." I grabbed the bottom and pulled it up, but before I could get it over my head, he grasped my arms, trapping me blind behind the material. He pushed my bra up with his other hand, freeing my breasts, and latched his mouth onto a nipple before I could react. All I could do was gasp.

  He played me like a harp. One hand kneaded, tweaked, pulled; his mouth attacked with tongue and teeth. Heat and need throbbed between my legs, and I writhed. He paused and switched sides, his lips giving attention to the other hardened nipple. He paused and didn't switch sides, just picked up where he left off, leaving me shaking. I didn't know what to expect from one moment to the next, and every inch of skin hummed with anticipation. When his hand wandered down and cupped my mound through my pants, I nearly jumped from the cot. Why did I still have pants on? I moved against his palm, and he groaned.

  I ached. "Alek," I moaned, "please." He let me loose. I tore free from the confines of my shirt, and he helped me wrench the bra off over my head and arms, in too much of a rush to bother with the clasp.

  "Yours," I said as soon as I was loose, tearing at his t-shirt. He swept it off over his head in one swift motion, baring his deliciously muscled chest beneath those painful, puckered scars. Part of me wanted to touch them, talk about them. The other part of me took charge. I wanted him, couldn't wait to feel him even long enough to get our pants off. I pulled him to me, but he pulled back and away, in more control than I.

  "You've still got pants on." His voice was so low, so hungry. It made my pussy ache with such need, I could barely stop from touching myself. Instead I took hold on my emotions and locked eyes with his as I unbuttoned my pants. His lips parted as he watched, giving me a glimpse of those sharp fangs. They looked so much larger than I'd imagined when I’d felt them. He must have been holding back.

  I lifted my ass from the cot and pulled the remainder of my clothes off, panties and all.

  I kicked them away and spread my knees, on display before him. I'd never done anything like that for anyone, never felt so bared.

  But I'd never felt so wanted. He looked at me as though he didn't know whether to kiss or bite, to caress or devour. I didn't care, I just needed him to touch me.

  "Alek," I said. I could feel the fluids of my arousal on my thighs.

  The contact was electric. He kissed my neck as his fingers wandered inwards from my hips, found my wetness, tentatively prodded just a touch inside before trailing upwards and brushing across my clit. My heart beat so hard, I was sure he could hear it, could feel it through the veins in my neck. I leaned into his hand, but he continued teasing me with light, gentle strokes.

  He wasn't going to just play me like an instrument again - I had my arms free. I ran my hands down his sides. He was as firm as he looked, his skin cool and smooth where it wasn't scarred. Suddenly curious, I needed to feel his cock, see if it was as cool as the rest of him, or as hot as his mouth, as searing as the look in his eyes. I tugged at his pants, undid the button and slid my hand inside.

  Definitely hot. He groaned as I wrapped my hand around the hard length of it. "Your pants are in the way," I whispered. He responded by plunging a finger inside me. My pussy clenched around him and I took a shuddering breath. He added a second finger and thrust hard enough to drive the air from my lungs. I grabbed his shoulder with my free hand, dug my nails in.

  He stilled. He twisted his fingers around inside, rubbing against my g-spot, but giving me none of the motion or friction my body demanded.

  I squeezed his cock. "Don't toy with me. Get your pants off and get up on this cot." He bared his fangs in a wicked grin. He touched my clit with his thumb. Barely a tap. Then again. I wanted to scream, and still he grinned, watching my face flush, waiting for me to beg, to lose control.

  I'd get him first. I pulled his face to mine and kissed him hard. His tongue ran across the tiny wounds on my lip again, and I felt his cock twitch in my hand. There was the key.

  I plunged my tongue into his mouth drew it across the sharp tip of one of his fangs. It was a very shallow cut, but it bled. It gave him another taste.

  He growled into my mouth, the sound deep and animalistic. He withdrew his fingers and grabbed both of my wrists. With strength that I realized I had underestimated, he stood and bent me back, pinning my hands to either side of me on the cot. He sucked on my tongue, wrestling it with his. I shrank below him; I'd surely provoked him into action now, and all I could do was hang on. He attacked my mouth until my toes curled. I didn't realize I'd been whining until he pulled away.

  "Get on your back." I scrambled. It wasn't very dignified, but my pussy throbbed and I couldn't wait another minute to have him inside me. I spread my legs, spotting his long, hard cock for the first time as he kicked his pants away. The swollen, purple head glistened with pre-cum, and I hungered for it. If I wasn't so frantic for him to fuck me, I would have wrapped my lips around it right then.

  He knelt between my legs. His eyes blazed down at me as he licked his lips, cleaning drops of blood.

  "Close your eyes." He wasn't done with his games. I obeyed, ready to do anything to get what I so badly needed.

  I braced myself for his cock, and instead felt his tongue, hot and wet, sweep my pussy from bottom to top. I moaned and bucked my hips. He didn't lose contact - just licked from bottom to top again, tongue flattened and stiff. He focused on my clit, up and down, slowly, with increasing pressure. My climax approached at a frighteni
ng pace. He'd had me so worked up already, there was no way it was going to take very long. Not with a man as skilled as he.

  He didn't vary his speed at all, just pressed a little harder, a little firmer, until a wave of heat and pleasure overtook me. I came against his mouth, throbbing in time with the slow rhythm he'd built, incoherent words and his name spilling from my lips, "Alek, I'm, oh god, Alek."

  When I came back to earth, his face was hovering above mine, dark and intense. "A few more of those and I might learn this new name of mine."

  "Alek," I said, staring into his eyes, "Fuck me, Alek."

  "Always calling the shots, aren't you." He positioned himself at my entrance. The soft head of his dick stretched me open, and I groaned.

  "Yes," I hissed.

  "No." He wrapped an arm around my middle and flipped me into my stomach on one swift motion.

  My whole world rocked as he entered me from behind. He lifted my hips so I was on my knees, and I held the edge of the cot in a white-knuckled grip. My inner walls stretched to accommodate him - it bordered just on the good side of painful. He was definitely bigger than anyone I'd known before. And it felt good. I tensed the muscles between my legs and he groaned, then growled.

  He wrapped his hand around my throat. His fingers probed until they found my pulse, and locked themselves there. "Fuck," he breathed, "You have no idea how amazing you are."

  "Stop talking." I didn't tolerate pillow-talk flattery.

  "You're a real bitch, too." He said it low, like a sneer. The sudden change in his voice, the derogatory word, sent a surprising thrill right through me and I moaned at the sound of it. I angled my hips as he pumped in and out, until his cock was sliding hard against my g-spot. I cried out as he drove against it. "You like that?"

  "Yes," I hissed, "Just like that. Keep going."

  He grip on my throat tightened, pulling my head back, and I choked out a small gasp. "Now you stop talking."

  He was playing me again, and I'd given right in. I grew light-headed as he held my neck tight, blocking the passage of oxygen just enough to start a panic response in my body. I jerked against his chest, muscles clenching everywhere. I gripped his cock tighter inside, and he gasped. Still he filled me, over and over, at just the right angle. Dizziness descended but it did nothing to diminish my arousal. If anything, I was more aware of every inch of him as my nerves were hyper-alert with adrenaline. I was running out of air. I made a mewling sound as instinctive fear crept into my brain.

  He let up his grip and I took a deep breath. Blood rushed to my head, and I started to cry out, but he cut me off again. And still I writhed below him, tried to take him deeper.

  He seemed to know when I couldn't handle any more. He cut off my airway, induced dizziness and panic and had me bucking wildly beneath him. And then release, and I'd call his name and come back to earth. I'd never experienced anything like it; it was scary, and intense. How he played me so easily was a mystery.

  Then, while he held my throat tight, his other hand traveled lower and circled my clit. I went stiff and shook all over, my orgasm crashing through me so hard, I wondered if I'd had a stroke. Every other sense but the feel of my pulsing core went utterly blank.

  When I came to my senses, I was on my back again. His face hovered above mine. "Welcome back," he said with a smirk. I was still so overwhelmed, I couldn't conjure up a clever response.

  I kissed him instead. He stroked my hair and moved inside me once again. He entered easily this time - I was positively dripping after that earth-shattering orgasm.

  "That was unbelievable," I whispered.

  "We pick up a few tricks over the centuries." He held me tight against him and rocked us slowly, his cock rubbing against every sensitive part of me. "Teach me my name again. I've almost got it."

  "Alek," I purred. I moaned his name again and again as he rolled his hips. I was quickly, unbelievably, growing closer to the edge again. He stoked a fire in me that I didn't even know I had, a passion that I'd buried long ago in the name of the job.

  "Don't come until I've learned it," he breathed. I held his face in my hands and said it again. He closed his eyes and furrowed his brow. As if he was taking it all in, committing the moment, the name, to his memory forever. As if placing me there as well. I trembled beneath him, whispered his name again.

  "You're close."

  "Yes."

  "I am, too. Call it for me."

  I turned my head and bared my neck to him, an unspoken offering. A growl rose in his throat. He suddenly thrust into me, hard, once, twice, then sank his teeth in. I cried out his name as I came once more, screamed it, "Alek, oh God," overtaken by a wave of pleasure that bordered on painful after so much of it.

  He came with me. He released my neck, and a shaky cry emerged from his lips. I could feel his cock throbbing as he spurted inside me, and I whispered his new name once more.

  It was a moment before either of us regained our bearings. He laughed weakly when he did, dropping his weight next to me. I didn’t get to ask him what was so funny - I dozed right off, still entwined in his arms.

  -

  The shaking woke us before the sounds could. Faraway concussions made the cans on the shelves dance in place. Dust rose and fell all around us.

  Alek’s arms grew stiff around me. “What’s going on?”

  Another boom. Our little concrete bunker shook again. This one sounded closer.

  “The warlock,” he said.

  “Be still.” I strained my ears. I heard another explosion, far away, and then another nearly right on top of us. Our lone lightbulb flickered, and a few water bottles rolled free. Alek squeezed my arm.

  “Give me one of your knives. I can cast again if I have to.”

  “No!” I had never seen blood magic performed. I didn’t want to, ever, and I especially didn’t want to see him do that to himself. “Wait. Just listen.” Another hit, further away in a different direction. It sounded like thunder, but the storm wasn’t coming from one area or staying in one spot. “He doesn’t know where we are.”

  “If this whole thing caves in, it won’t matter.” I sat up, and he closed his eyes.

  “Stop thinking like that. I can see it on your face.” I listened to the thunderous booms for a time, one after another, some close, some far. The hits became more frequent, but the distance more erratic. I laughed.

  “What's funny?” I lay back down, my head on his chest, and he wrapped his arms around me once again. Still I laughed. “Stop. Please. Don't lose it now.”

  “He has no idea where we are,” I choked out, “He’s lashing out. He’s having a tantrum, Alek. We’re in the home stretch.” My laughter drove tears from my eyes, and I wiped them away. I didn’t know why I couldn’t stop laughing. Maybe because I hadn’t even realized how afraid I was until the fear was gone. Maybe I hadn’t truly believed we would make it.

  “Shh,” Alek said, caressing my arms with his fingertips, “See? You were right. You kept us safe.”

  -

  Daniel finally came for us four hours later. We slept some, and spent the rest of that time going over the rules that would keep him hidden and safe under his new identity. He had the hang of his name - he didn’t need to review that any longer.

  It was a tense few moments when we heard the door unlocking above us, but Daniel called down as soon as it swung open. It was night when we climbed out - a relief for Alek.

  We were separated immediately - me to go back to the motel to debrief, he to his new life.

  They took me off his case. I couldn’t lie to my brother.

  “I’m sorry,” I told him, “I’m emotionally compromised on this one.”

  “It happens,” he said. It did; more than the company liked to discuss. But it never had to me. Not before Alek.

  I had to close my eyes to ask. I hated that I’d let the job get so far out of control. “Can I see him one more time? Before we pull out?”

  “It will have to be brief.”

  -


  Alek Yerzov was a new vampire in a new town. He didn’t know anyone who lived there. He didn’t have any family. He became a vampire only eighty years ago. Sometimes he worked as a bartender. Sometimes he worked as a nighttime security officer. Sometimes he drove a taxi. Alek was a vampire drifter with no real ties. No sister. No vampire murderers or warlocks after him. No witness protection agent falling for him, fast and hard, anywhere in the world. Alek would blend in until it was time to move on.

  “I don’t know when the trial is happening,” he said, “Not yet. It’s all very up in the air.”

  “I know.” We stood in the entryway of his new apartment. My brother and the other agents waited downstairs. I only had a few minutes before he came up and bodily dragged me home.

  “How will I find you? Once it’s over?” He held my hand. We hadn’t seen each other since emerging from the bunker. I’d wondered if it was only the intensity of the situation that had drawn us together, fanned the flames between us. I thought maybe the magic would be gone.

  I leaned back against the door. It was all still there. Only my waiting brother kept me from wrapping myself around Alek right there. “I’ll see you at the trial,” I said, “I’ve got a couple contacts to keep me updated. I’ll be waiting for it.”

  He nodded, and kissed me, one last time before who-knew-when. My phone beeped - a text from my brother, certainly, telling me to hurry the hell up.

  “Be safe,” I said, “Follow the rules. Contact no one.”

  “I know. I’ve got it.” I believed him. The defeated expression that he’d worn when I met him was gone, now. One last look at him, and I forced my feet to carry me out the door and down the stairs. The bad feeling had disappeared, the one where I was sure we’d lose the client. Still, just to be certain - I took out my phone and tapped through the security feeds I normally watched back at the motel. I’d added the camera from the bank across the street from Alek’s new apartment. The one with magical detection. The one the area’s field agents would be watching, that I shouldn’t be bothering with, that wasn’t part of my job or responsibility. Just to keep an eye out. Maybe it was over-cautious, but this was one client I wasn’t going to lose.