Chapter 19
It seemed to me like justice had been done, but the Law is not always the same as justice, and we had broken the Law in no uncertain terms.
With this in mind, Gage refused to be taken to a hospital, showing more fight than a man with a bullet hole in him ought to have been able to muster.
Both Milo and Kael were skilled in field medicine and they tended to their friend as I bedded Layla down in one of the rooms of the safe house.
"But your hand. Your face..."
"I'll deal with it in a minute, they've got a spray."
I sat with her until she fell asleep. For all that she wanted to spend time with me, talk to me, thank me over and over, she was too exhausted from her ordeal. I spent another minute just watching her sleep, almost disbelieving that I had her light back in my life, then went to fetch the anti-blessed silver spray, buried my face in a pillow, and applied it to my hand.
The pillow, I shredded with my teeth, but my hand looked better and felt a hundred times better, once the searing pain had died away. The spray on my face to help the wound left by Lafferty's cane was even worse.
Kael emerged from Gage's room.
"How is he?" I asked.
"I think he'll be okay. Milo is with him while he sleeps. How are you?"
"Not anxious to see blessed silver again. Are you going somewhere?"
"Things to do. Now. I'll be back." He looked at me and I turned away, not looking up until I heard him leave the room.
Well, what was I supposed to do? I loved them but they were human, I was a vampire and... Love wasn't me. Fuck what I said to Lafferty, the truth was that there was a darkness in me that love could never conquer and they didn't deserve that. What I wanted - what my body and soul cried out for - didn't matter; they were better off without me. Once Layla was well and safe, I would leave and never see them again.
Milo stuck his head in to see how I was doing and make sure that I was okay, but I was as cold and distant towards him as I had been with Kael, and he withdrew to sit with Gage, to make sure his wounded comrade pulled through.
It was for the best. I was doing them a favor, really.
A few hours later, I was channel-surfing and saw the news starting to come through, breaking on channel after channel, reporters struggling to get their shit together as updates came in faster than they could handle.
"Cosgrove Lafferty: dead..."
"...burned to the ground..."
"Marin Self..."
"...confessed to gross misconduct."
"Lawkeepers in tatters..."
"...massive internal investigation..."
"...systematic and institutional mistreatment of vampires...
So this was what Kael had gone out to do - throw shit at a fan. And he had done one hell of a job. The news spooled on, one revelation after another, development chasing development as what was left of Lawkeeper Central struggled to hold their organization together with both hands. I hoped they succeeded, for all that scandal and dirt into which Self had dragged them, the basic aim was decent and good. They needed a few more people like my guys, and a whole lot less like Marin Self. They were necessary to protect people from vampires, but the last few days had also proved that they were necessary to protect vampires from people. I wondered how many humans were now realizing that for the first time, as the hideous details of Lafferty's activities came out.
"What's going on?"
I had been so caught up in the news that I hadn't heard Layla come in. "Should you be up? You can sleep longer if you want."
She shook her head. "I'm good. Did we make the news?"
"We are the news."
"Does this mean..." She faltered on asking the question.
"That we're safe? Yeah. Yeah, I reckon it does."
We watched the news together for a while, comfortable in silence.
"It's not so bad, is it?" Layla said after awhile.
"What isn't?"
"Being a vampire. It's not so bad."
"No worse than being a human. Depends on the type of vampire you are."
Layla nodded. "It's taken me fifty years to get that."
"Nothing like meeting someone like Cosgrove Lafferty to make you appreciate being a blood-sucking monster."
Layla laughed. "I don't feel like a monster."
"I was kidding..."
"I know, I mean... I mean; for the first time, I don't feel like a monster."
I felt as if a tremendous weight had been lifted from my soul. Perhaps I had done the right thing in turning her all those years ago.
"You're not. Human or vampire, you're the best person I know."
Layla smiled. "Your new friends are pretty cool, too."
"They have their moments."
"I can tell that from your eyes."
I cringed. "Have I gone green again?"
"Who are they?" asked Layla.
"Lawkeepers. Or, were. May still be depending how all this shit works out. Just think of them as guys who wanted to do the right thing."
"That's a rare quality."
"I guess."
Layla looked me in the eyes. "Seems like you like them, Sonja. And more than a bit."
What was I supposed to do? Lie to my friend. "I guess. We had... there was kind of a connection."
"With all three of them?"
"Is that weird?"
"Sounds pretty lucky to me."
I snorted. "Fun while it lasted."
Layla tilted her head to one side. "I gotta say, it sounds like more than fun. 'Connection' sounds like more than fun."
"Depends where you're connected."
"Make all the jokes you want. These guys aren't just another hook up for you. I know you, Sonja."
She did, damn it. "I guess I owe them - they betrayed everything they had sworn to uphold to save you."
Layla shook her head. "No way. They did it to help you. Think about that."
I couldn't think about anything else.
"And now you're pulling away from them?" Layla went on.
"Who says I am?"
"I told you; I know you." She put a hand on my shoulder. "You should let your walls down a bit, Sonja. It sounds like you did that already, and look how well it turned out. Now, you're putting the walls back up? What the hell. Why? Take a chance on people who obviously like you as much as you like them. And from where I'm sitting, you like them a lot."
I put a hand over my face. "Damn green eyes."
"Your eyes aren't green, Sonja," said Layla softly. "They're pink. I've never seen that in you before and, frankly, I’m disappointed in you for being such a chicken shit."
Her uncharacteristically blunt words surprised a laugh out of me, but there was no question they’d hit home.
Pink…for love. I’d already known how I felt about them, but this affirmation from Layla made it so much more real.
My blood surged as a wave of terror mixed with joy washed over me.
We’d done it. We’d rescued the sister of my heart and, somehow, I’d managed to find three men I was wild about in the process.
No fucking way I was going to just throw it away.
Chapter 20
I opened my wardrobe for what had to be the ninth time that day, to look at what was hanging inside, just in case I had imagined it. No, there it was;
My Lawkeeper uniform.
A lot had happened in a short time. With the Lawkeepers anxious to put mistakes of the past behind them and deal with the future, they had placed Kael, Milo and Gage - once he was fully recovered from his injuries - in charge of a group of task forces charged with rooting out corruption from within the organization. The Lawkeepers would refocus on what had always been its prime directive: to deal with vampire crime fairly and without prejudice. With that lofty goal in mind, someone - and I suspected that that someone was Milo - had raised the question of swearing in the first vampire Lawkeeper.
Guess who he suggested.
I had picked up my uniform yesterday and my training would beg
in in a few nights’ time. I had begged a couple of days grace to settle into my new home and to come to terms with my new, and rather amazing, life.
Living with Kael, Milo and Gage would take some getting used to - I had lived with women for as long as I could remember - but it felt... good. Layla had been right - take a chance and see how things worked out. So far, they had worked out pretty damn well. The four of us made an unconventional 'couple', but it seemed to work, and when you find something that works, then you hang on to it.
I had plans to catch up with Layla tomorrow. She had moved back in with Max and the two of them were quite happy living together and were planning to turn my old bedroom into a games room.
"Heading out!" Kael called goodbye into the apartment and I hurried to kiss him and Milo farewell.
"Have a good day. Catch lots of bad guys."
"Will do," smiled Milo. "Love you."
The words still made me tingle with happiness. "I love you, too." I kissed Kael. "Love you."
"Love you, too."
Never thought I'd be one for the 'L' word, but I couldn't hear it often enough. It made me feel like a different person and I kind of liked her. It was hard to think back to that girl - the one who propped up bars getting wasted on Bulbous, scanning the room for someone to fuck the darkness out of her in an alley, the one who could never quite suppress the violence of her nature. I was still a vampire and damn proud of being one. But couldn't a vampire have a love story that wasn't tragic? I'd earned my happy ending over three hundred years.
"Have they gone, already?" Gage came in. The wound in his side was still visible but his bio-engineered body healed fast and he was itching to get back to work.
"You should be in bed."
"I feel fine. I can't believe that damn doctor put me on another week's bed rest."
I sidled up to him, drawing him to me and kissing him. "Does it have to be a bad thing."
"Well, when you put it like that..." I felt him stirring to life against me and kissed him again. "I was about to take a shower."
"Want some company?"
We left a trail of shed clothes behind us as we hurried to his shower and tumbled into the cubicle, naked and gasping at the sudden heat of the water. As soon as the cubicle door was closed behind us, Gage dropped to one knee and pushed me back against the glass, his tongue seeking and finding me with expert skill. I leaned back and let the hot water run down my body as hot pleasure shot up through it. Gage wasted no time in prying my firm clit from its hiding place and flicking it to sharp arousal with his tongue. One hand slid up my wet thigh to nestle against my heated core, then probing fingers entered me, circling, stretching my tunnel, locating every hot-spot until I was running with liquid desire. The other hand now made its way up the back of my leg, squeezing at the soft but resilient flesh of my ass cheeks before delving between them. I squirmed in delight as first one, then two, fingers pressed into my backside, stretching and filling me from behind.
"Gage..." I keened through clenched teeth as his tongue lapped relentlessly at my throbbing clit and he began to work his fingers in and out of me like a man on a mission to bring me to orgasm.
I clutched his head, dragging him tighter against my heat; I rotated my hips, trying in vain to match the deliberately irregular rhythm he had set up, fingering my front and back doors. The steam of the shower suddenly seemed all the hotter as I came, Gage working my body all the way. As my hips rocked and rolled against the glass of the shower wall, Gage kept hold of me, not letting up even as I came, wringing every last shred of hot pleasure from my exhausted body until I practically collapsed on top of him.
Now, he stood up and I got my first look at his huge cock rearing between us. I grabbed it and began flogging my hand up and down it hard, knowing that he could take this rough treatment without losing his load. I pulled him to me and we kissed as I continued to work his cock in long, sure strokes.
"I want you inside me," I whispered.
Gage's hands lingered on my hips, teasing across my erogenous zones. "Front or back?"
I grinned. "First one, then the other."
Well, I'd had a hard time recently and was starting a new job soon; wasn't I entitled to a bit of self-indulgence? I dipped my head to give Gage a long wet suck, lubing him up for the task ahead, then turned my back on him, sticking my ass out proud behind me and bracing myself against the walls.
I felt Gage's hands gently caressing my ass, then gasped in shock as he delivered two swift spanks, one to each cheek.
"Couldn't help myself," he confessed.
"Seems like you're very happy to help yourself." I smiled back at him as I felt the broad blunt head of his member nose between my cheeks and butt up against my back entrance.
“Uhhh,” I groaned in delightful discomfort as Gage's massive cock spread me wide and forged its way in. Fortunately, my saliva and Gage's early finger work eased his passage and, after initial discomfort, there was nothing but delirious pleasure as he worked himself on and on, deeper and deeper inside me.
When his hard, muscular hips finally touched me, squashing my ass cheeks, I laid my head against the wet glass and sighed in pleasure. Gage pulled me back against him, my back flat against the contours of his expansive chest, strong and comforting. He kissed me and I answered eagerly, stealing my tongue into his mouth. As he held me there, I was overtaken by a powerful and entirely unexpected orgasm that made my whole body spasm with sharp pleasure. It was an orgasm borne of intimacy, of the heat of the moment, and of the love between us.
I leaned forward again, and Gage needed no other instruction. He moaned in barely controlled ecstasy as he drew his cock back from the vise-like grip of my ass, then grunted in almost despair as he thrust back in again, making me wail in response. For the first few thrusts, each moment felt like the end of the world, both of us overwhelmed with pleasure and fighting back the need to come there and then. But as we found our rhythm, the sensations became more bearable, though no less beautiful. Gage fucked my ass with strong, slow strokes, savoring the feel of my constricted tunnel squeezing him, while I, in turn, savored the feel of his massive organ plowing into me. Each thrust put me on tip-toes, almost knocking me off my feet, even though Gage held me steady with one hand. The other hand now slipped beneath me and was playing games with my clit and my pussy, turning my whole body into a raw sexual nerve.
It was not a situation I could stand for long.
"Oh, Gage. I'm... I’m going to-” I broke off with a gasp, and then I did.
Gage held me tight and close as my body was wracked with orgasmic shuddering, still caressing my swollen clit, his hard cock buried in my ass.
When I came back to earth, I felt... I felt satisfied, I felt elated, I felt exhausted, I definitely felt up for more. But I also felt loved, safe, wanted. I had no idea that sensations like that could contribute to sex, but they surely could.
"You're incredible," I breathed.
"I'm nothing without you."
Gage eased his member out of my ass, the size of it making me wonder afresh how it had ever gotten up there.
We then turned off the shower, got out and dried each other, Gage taking delicate care around my private areas, me being wickedly rough with the towel on his raw and frustrated organ.
"Bed?"
"Bed."
I squealed in surprise as he swept me off my feet - I'm not really a squealing type of girl, but I guess it's never too late to become one. He carried me through to his bedroom and laid me on the bed.
"You are so beautiful."
I drew him down on top of me, enjoying the feel of his muscular weight crushing me to the mattress. I reached between us, grabbing hold of that lovely big dick and bringing it to my greedy pussy. Gage pushed in and we both sighed.
"Can we go slow?" I asked.
"We can do whatever you want."
As his cock continued to drive me to new heights of pleasure, Gage moved a stray hair from my face and kissed me, gently.
&nbs
p; I had found love. I had found it in three wonderful men who were the reason I was now able to look to the future - because that future contained them.
Whatever else the world might throw at me - and I'm still a vamp, which means that shit still happens - I knew I could handle it, because they weren't going anywhere.
And neither was I.
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That summer in Ireland was like a dream. Full of magic and mayhem I’d never quite managed to forget.
But when three males—far more than mere men—come to tell me they need my help to rescue their sister, present and past merge together, dragging me into a dark, underground world where fairies and mermaids are real, and they’re in grave danger…
Chapter One
I sometimes wonder if that family vacation to Ireland when I was a child was real or just a dream.
Which is silly, really, because there are photos of it, which my mom keeps in one of the big albums on the bottom shelf of the bureau in the living room. It was one of those idyllic periods of childhood that seem to last forever and linger on in your mind long after the event, when the days were long and the sunlight caught the sea like it does in a painting.
Maybe it wasn’t that the vacation itself radiated a dream-like aura, but that certain specific events did. In my mind's eye, I can still see the sandcastle I had been building while my parents dozed in the sun and my brother was off throwing rocks at other rocks.
I can still remember the shadow falling across the castle and looking up to see the face of a girl, about my own age, with red hair, green eyes and freckles, looking down at my castle and then up at me and giving me a smile.
I can still hear her voice.
"Do you want to play?"
I nodded without hesitation, like kids do, and we ran off together to splash around in the surf, laughing ourselves silly as the cold waves came in and we danced away from them.
Her name was Saorise - a name that, at the time, I couldn't have spelled if I’d had a gun to my head, and even now I'm still not clear how those letters give you a word pronounced 'Sersha'.
Her Deadly Harem Page 15