Voracious - (Claire Point Vampire 5)

by V. K. Forrest

  “I told you I would only be in town a few months,” Aedan ventured, quietly.

  “Hear that, Tat? A few months and he’ll be out of our hair.”

  “I told you,” Tat said testily. “It’s your business what you do.” He lifted the rack of glasses and headed for the kitchen, the tattooed muscles of his arms bulging with anger and effort. “I just don’t . . . I don’t fucking want . . .”

  He couldn’t seem to get out what he wanted to say, so Aedan said it for him. “He doesn’t want me to hurt you. And that’s nice, Dallas. That he’s looking out for you.”

  Tat went through the door and into the kitchen.

  “You shouldn’t encourage him,” Dallas said. “I don’t need him to look after me.”

  “You don’t need anyone, right?” Aedan said, half-teasing, half-serious. “Just you against the world.”

  She eyed him. “What can I say? My ex did a number on me. I found out my friends weren’t really my friends. I’ve got no family. I’ve got no one to rely on but myself.”

  “You’ve got Kenzie.”

  “Who needs to rely on me,” she pointed out, moving a bottle of single malt from the group of Scotch whiskey blends to its proper place.

  “She’s one smart cookie.” He walked around behind the bar to rinse out the rag. It was that easy. One minute he was at the bar, the next minute cleaning up behind it. “You might be surprised what she has to offer.”

  “You’ve never been a parent. You don’t understand.”

  He stuck the bar mop under the running water and thought of the infant son he had lost. He thought of all the people he had lost over the years, vampire and human. He didn’t say anything. He took the clean rag and went to wipe down the tables. Without any more serious talk, he and Tat and Dallas closed down the bar. It wasn’t until Dallas was locking the front door behind Tat that she spoke again directly to Aedan.

  “You coming upstairs?” She checked the double bolt a second time.

  “That depends.”

  “On what?” She strolled across the dim barroom, keys jingling on her finger.

  “Am I invited?”

  She leaned against a wooden support beam in the middle of the barroom. “I wouldn’t be asking if you weren’t invited.”

  He stepped in front of her, caught both of her wrists, and pressed his mouth roughly to hers. “You’re not afraid of me, are you?” he asked, as he drew his lips across her cheek to her earlobe.

  She relaxed against the wooden beam. “No.”

  Her smell was intoxicating. Her neck throbbed where blood rushed through the carotid artery. He thought about what Peigi had said about the fact that their desire for human blood never went away. He couldn’t deny that he wanted her blood, but he felt . . . in control. “Why aren’t you afraid of me, Dallas? You know what I am. You saw what I could do. What I do. With those two guys.”

  “You won’t hurt me,” she whispered, breathing hard. She pulled one hand away from his, used it to guide his mouth to hers. Her kiss was hungry, aggressive for an HF.

  “You don’t know that,” he panted when their lips parted again. “I’ve hurt people before. People I didn’t want to hurt.”

  “But I have the sight,” she whispered, then nipped at his earlobe.

  “But not the ability to see into the future.”

  She teased his upper lip with the tip of her tongue. “What I have is better,” she told him, still speaking softly. She rested her hand over his left breast. “I can see what’s in your heart.”

  Then, before he could respond, she ducked under his arm and escaped. “I’ll send Ashley down. You mind walking her to her car? Then come up.” She headed into the kitchen.

  Aedan waited in the semi-darkness of the barroom and wondered what he was doing there.

  Chapter 14

  I stand in the shadows of the inky night and watch the young woman walk out of the bar. It is late, and she should not be unescorted. But she is young and stupid. Someone closes the door behind her. Locks it. Locks her out and she walks down the sidewalk. She is on her cell phone and pays little attention to what is happening around her. She does not see the car pass and the three young men inside look at her with lasciviousness in their eyes. She does not feel my presence.

  I am fascinated by cell phones, one of the many technologies that did not exist when last I walked this earth. I watch her for a moment and then fall into step behind her. She is pretty: tall, slender, with a certain sashay of her hips that emotes a young and tender age, but not so young that she cannot be plucked.

  At first, it makes me happy to merely follow her. To watch. But then the anger comes. It comes almost out of nowhere, so intense that I feel my muscles clench. She makes me angry.

  I wish I had my blade. If I had my blade, I could plunge it into her. Carve her flesh. I could taste the freshness of her cunny.

  But, alas, it is too soon. I must be careful. Be smart. And sadly, I must pace myself. My initial desire somewhat satiated, I can take a step back.

  I am in a new country, a place I have never been before. So much to experience in so short a period of time. And what better way to taunt the vampire than to keep him off-balance, keep him guessing what I will do next?

  That Statue of Liberty, of all things, interests me. Maybe I will go sightseeing.

  Aedan and Dallas made it to the bed this time. She didn’t like doing it on the couch. It was bad on her back and made her feel cheap. Maybe she was cheap; so far, all he’d bought her was brunch and an ice cream cone. But this was no ordinary relationship under any circumstances. The witch and the vampire. Maybe HBO would make a series about them, and her money worries would be over.

  Dallas had her T-shirt off by the time they made it into her dark bedroom. Her bra came off right after. She couldn’t get enough of the feel of his hands, his mouth. She couldn’t get enough of the feeling of not having to worry about what she saw because, when they touched, she saw nothing. Nothing but sweet darkness, almost like a wall.

  Logic told her this was crazy. Even warned her that it was dangerous. Sex with a vampire? The logical portion of her brain, which was quickly growing numb, warned her of the danger.

  But he didn’t feel dangerous. He felt . . . safe. And Dallas needed so desperately to feel safe.

  Aedan pushed her T-shirt aside with his foot and took her in his arms, kissing her mouth as he cupped her breast with his big, warm hand. The room was cold, and her nipple hardened even before he touched it with his fingertips.

  When she pulled back a little, needing to catch her breath, she leaned against a set of plastic shelves on the wall inside the doorway. He kissed a path from the tip of her chin, along her jawline, to her earlobe. He tugged on her earring with his teeth, and she smiled. He’d unbuttoned his shirt, and she could feel his chest hair against her bare breasts, rough, but not too much so. It was just the right amount of sensation to make her heart beat faster and her breath come in little short bursts.

  “How about the bed?” she suggested.

  He pulled off his shirt and threw it on the floor. “I can accommodate that.”

  He crushed his mouth against hers; he tasted of Guinness. She liked the way he was playful when he made love to her. He wasn’t too macho, keeping the testosterone at a reasonable level. He knew very well this was just a fling.

  She almost laughed aloud at the thought. She was having a fling with a vampire? Had she known they were as well-endowed as Aedan was, maybe she’d have sought one out sooner.

  She did laugh.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked in her ear. Then he looked down at her. Looked into her eyes.

  “Me. Us. I was thinking that I’m in my bedroom about to have sex with a vampire. Do you know how crazy that sounds? Even to me, who has seen some pretty crazy things.”

  “Technically, I think you’re already having sex with a vampire,” he teased, unbuttoning her jeans.

  She pushed him gently, both hands on his bare chest. “You know what
I mean.” She narrowed her gaze. “How do I know you’re really a vampire? What if that’s just your line?”

  He closed the bedroom door, locked it, then caught her hand and led her to the bed. It was almost pitch-dark in the room without the glow of the hallway light, yet he seemed to have no problem navigating his way. “You know I’m a vampire, Dallas. You saw me that night.”

  “I saw what you think you saw,” she challenged him.

  He spun her around and pushed her back. Her calves caught on the mattress and she tumbled back, enjoying the momentary feel of weightlessness.

  “An air mattress?” he teased. “Lawn furniture in your living room, patio furniture in your kitchen, and you don’t have a real bed?”

  She laughed with him. “What can I say? I left Rhode Island in a bit of a hurry. I haven’t had time to shop.”

  “Fair enough.” He flopped down beside her, kicking off his shoes, then sitting up to pull off her sneakers. “So back to this notion of yours that I’m not really a vampire,” he said. “I’m intrigued. What would make you say that?”

  “I don’t know. What if you’re crazy?” she said. “What if that was all in your head, literally? What if you just think you’re a vampire, so those are the memories I saw?”

  He stretched out beside her again, up on one elbow. She couldn’t see him, but she could feel the warmth of his body next to hers and the weight of his body on the air bed. He drew the palm of his hand across her hips, hip bone to hip bone, and she shuddered with the pleasure of his touch.

  “I cannot believe I actually confessed to a human that I’m a vampire and she challenges me as to the truth of it.”

  She reached out in the darkness and touched her hand to his cheek. He had a couple days of beard growth. “Do you have fangs?”

  “Yes.”

  She dared to touch her index finger to his lips. “Will you show them to me?”

  He leaned over her and she instinctively flinched, realizing she’d practically invited him to take a bite out of her. Instead, he gently kissed her chastely. “No. I will not.” He stroked her thigh less chastely.

  “Why not?”

  He leaned over farther and kissed the swell of her breast. “Because it’s a bad idea.”

  She ran her fingers through his hair. It was thick and soft, not wiry like some red hair. “Why?”

  “Because . . .” He caught her nipple between his teeth and tugged. She moaned.

  “Because,” he repeated, “it makes me want to—”

  “Bite me?”

  He lathed her nipple with his tongue, his hand moving to her inner thigh. She could feel herself already wet for him. Truth was, she’d been wet since he had walked into the bar tonight.

  “Something like that,” he said.

  “Would it hurt?”

  “It depends how it’s done. Why?” he said, resting his cheek on her hip.

  He was playing with the pale tuft of hair between her thighs, making it difficult for her to think. “I don’t understand.”

  “If I drink out of anger . . . or as a defense mechanism, there is pain for the victim. But . . . among vampires, when we . . . have sex, it becomes pleasurable in the act.”

  “With vampires?”

  “We’re only supposed to do it with other vampires. Willing vampires, of course.”

  “And it’s pleasurable for them? For you, when you bite them and suck their blood?”

  “Definitely.”

  “Could you make it pleasurable for me?” she asked with genuine curiosity.

  He kissed the place where his hand had been, and she moaned again. His tongue darted out.

  “I know other ways to give you pleasure,” he said.

  Which was completely true. By the time she climbed onto his lap, hot and sweaty, and stretched out over him, she’d come twice. She took him fully inside her.

  Dallas reveled not just in the physical act as she rose and fell over him, but in the emotional pleasure of a connection that didn’t scare her or make her sad. How ironic that it took someone not human to give her the human connection she had craved for so long. She certainly wasn’t naïve enough to think this was love that she and Aedan were sharing on her air mattress, but it felt so damned good. So good, that she didn’t want it to end.

  Twice, when Dallas sensed that Aedan was coming too close to his grand finale, she slowed the pace. She moved fast enough, hard enough to bring herself pleasure, but not quite enough to give him his. Not that he wasn’t having a good time. The way he groaned made her thankful for Kenzie’s nature-sounds machine beside her bed and the fact that she slept like a log.

  “What are you trying to do to me?” Aedan panted as she sat perfectly still on his lap, giving his pounding heart, which she could feel beneath her palm, a chance to slow.

  “Trying to be a good partner,” she whispered, brushing her love-swollen lips against his.

  “Trying to get greedy is what you’re doing!”

  Aedan grabbed her so quickly that she couldn’t put up much of a fight. Not that she really wanted to. She was all for trying different positions, but there was nothing better than the good old man on top scenario. He was good at maneuvering without losing ground. One second she was king of the mountain; the next she was flat on her back and he was penetrating her.

  She cried out, sinking her nails into his back. He pushed harder, faster, and she literally saw sparks of white light as she came one last time as he enthusiastically crossed the finish line.

  Lack of oxygen to her brain, maybe? Vampire voodoo? All Dallas knew, as Aedan rolled off her onto the mattress beside her, was that this was the best sex she’d ever had in her life.

  “Sweet Mary, it’s hot in here,” she panted, resting her hand on her forehead. “I need water, but I think I’m too tired to get up. You wore me out.”

  He rose, crossed the room, and opened the door. He was back a minute later with a glass of cold water.

  “That’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for me,” Dallas said, sitting up as he offered the glass.

  “I find that hard to believe.”

  “You’ve never met any of the losers I dated.” She drank half of it before she gave the glass back to him and he finished it. Then he set the glass on the bedside table, which was definitely a moving box covered by a sheet, and drew her into his arms.

  Dallas knew she needed to tell Aedan to go. She was so sleepy all of a sudden that she couldn’t keep her eyes open. “I don’t want Kenzie to see you here,” she murmured, her eyes drifting shut.

  “I understand.” He kissed her temple.

  She just couldn’t keep her eyes open. She snuggled against him, feeling completely satiated; she couldn’t move a muscle. “I’m serious, Aedan.”

  “So am I. I totally get it. We don’t want Kenzie getting the wrong idea. Thinking I like you or anything.”

  “It’s more complicated than that, and you know it.” She rested her cheek on his bare chest. He smelled so good, even better now than before.

  “Go to sleep,” he whispered, kissing her again, as if she was special. As if she was loved. “I’ll stay a while, and then I’ll let myself out.”

  “Promise?” Her voice came out as nothing more than an exhalation.

  “I swear it on sweet Madeleine’s grave.”

  She wanted to ask who Madeleine was, but she fell asleep in his arms before she could get the words out.

  The next morning, Dallas poured some Cheerios into Kenzie’s plastic cereal bowl.

  “Where is he?” Kenzie asked.

  “Where’s who?”

  “Aedan.”

  Kenzie was wearing her favorite Batman T-shirt. This was the third appearance of the shirt this week, but at least she’d let Dallas wash it. “Aedan’s not here.”

  “He was.” She straightened her spoon up where it rested beside her bowl. She then sat back, looked at it, and moved it again, trying to get it just so.

  “Sorry.” Dallas reached over her daughter
’s shoulder and lined the spoon up parallel with the Spider Man placemat.

  Kenzie liked certain things certain ways, and Dallas was learning to comply with some of her idiosyncrasies, those that were harmless, while not reinforcing others, those that were repetitive or antisocial. It was a subject being explored in the weekly parenting class she was attending at her daughter’s school.

  “Aedan wasn’t here last night,” Dallas lied, though why, she didn’t know. It was nearly impossible to keep things from her daughter. Dallas never knew what Kenzie would pick up on and what she wouldn’t.

  At last satisfied with the spoon’s position, Kenzie picked it up and dug into her Cheerios, which she ate with vanilla soy milk. Dallas poured herself a cup of coffee. She wanted to question Kenzie as to why she thought Aedan had been there, but she didn’t dare. What if her daughter had heard the sex?

  Dallas cringed at the thought. Kenzie knew nothing about sex. Her daughter didn’t even understand relationships. The child had no relationship with anyone but Dallas, and sometimes Dallas feared that was an illusion, based on her need to see Kenzie as normal. But things seemed to be improving on that front; these morning conversations were proof of that, weren’t they?

  Seeing that Kenzie was almost done with the little bit of cereal Dallas had put in her bowl, she held up the box. “More?”

  “I don’t like the bad man.” Kenzie put her spoon down, in precisely the right place.

  “We’ve been over this. Aedan is not a bad man.”

  “Not Aedan. The bad man.” Kenzie stared off into space, using her mechanical “robot voice,” as Dallas called it. She wasn’t really talking to Dallas; she wasn’t talking to anyone.

  “What—”

  “Tell Aedan,” Kenzie interrupted, suddenly sounding angry.

  “I don’t understand—”

  “Tell him!” the little girl screeched. Then she picked up her bowl and hurled it through the air, spraying the table and floor with soy milk.

  Chapter 15