The thoughts were getting out of hand, and I knew I had to do something about it. So, I let any rational part of myself go on the way home Friday night, exactly one week after Maurice had taken out three men who had meant to do me harm. I took the most dangerous route home possible with no protection of any kind on me. I was wearing some of the most expensive jewelry I owned under my uniform. It wasn’t much, but it might have been enough to attract more of the same trouble I had encountered just a week ago. The human side of me knew I was being crazy and possibly suicidal, but the part of me that desperately needed to know Maurice was out there waiting and watching had been much stronger.
For the first time since being on my own in this desert city of debauchery, I wanted someone to attack me. I was counting on it.
I braced myself as I felt myself fly up against the side of a building. I was sure a bad man had me in his grasp and would pull a gun to try and get me to give him all my money and jewelry. I closed my eyes and braced for the blows that would come if Maurice really had abandoned me or didn’t exist. Instead, I heard a familiar voice in my ear. It was furious.
"What the hell do you think you are doing, Rhea?" he growled. I opened my eyes to make sure I hadn’t imagined it to find myself pinned against an old building by Maurice. His green eyes were blazing with fury, and he looked like he might be mad enough to take me as his prey. I couldn’t care less.
"You're real," I wondered out loud. "You're here."
"Rhea, this is why I wanted to erase your memory; why humans are not supposed to know about us. Your brain can’t fathom a thing like me. You'll go crazy." He shook me in anger before pulling me tight to his chest.
"I think it's my heart that can't take this," I breathed as he held me there under the cover of night.
Maurice pulled back and looked at me, a new wonderment in his eyes that matched mine. "You are the most interesting human I have ever met, and that includes those I met when I was human myself," he admitted, a drop of blood cropping up in his left eye like a tear drop. I reached up to wipe it off and examined the drop of blood on my hand. I knew where the blood came from; the blood he needed to survive. He was a dangerous thing, and yet I wanted to get that much closer.
"What does it feel like to have a vampire drink from you?" I asked, looking right into his eyes. He looked like he was debating something before he moved my blonde hair away from the right side of my neck, bringing his lips down to touch it. Maurice kissed the skin gently before sucking on it. I felt a surge of electricity shoot through my body at the sensation, and then, his razor sharp teeth dug into my skin. It was like needles that went way too deep, but then the pain was replaced by something else. I felt a pure ecstasy in my body that was similar to having an orgasm. When Maurice pulled away, I found that I was disappointed that the feeling had ended. I realized that Maurice could make people die in pure pleasure the whole time, begging for more, but he had stopped. I knew that I couldn’t let him leave me again after that.
Chapter 5
***Maurice***
I was on a high I couldn’t explain as I returned to my clan. I had Rhea's blood running through my veins, its sweet taste and scent keeping my body going strong in the undead life. What I felt for her was perplexing, even as one of the least vicious of my kind. Vampires did not truly love, not very often. Obsession was a strong and common feeling, and so was attraction, but that didn’t keep a vampire from killing someone whose blood they had a taste of. Yet, I had no desire to drain Rhea. Instead, I wanted to know everything about her. I wanted to please her and give her the world. It was so human that it scared me.
My boots clanked against the concrete as I made my way through the underground tunnels and pipes that my vampire clan called home. But I was stopped in my tracks when our leader, Lawrence, appeared in front of me. I bowed to him with respect, even though I had little for him. It was often that a vampire would be stuck serving another he or she didn’t get along with every couple of decades. But it was safer to be part of the community and follow the rules, so that’s what I had done.
"I heard about that little toy you acquired," he said in his snake-like voice. As far as vampires went, Lawrence was probably the most selfish and reckless one I had ever met. I didn’t like the fact that he had seen me with Rhea. Nothing good was going to come from this conversation.
"She's not a toy to me, Lawrence," I said as calmly as I could muster. I didn’t want to anger him, but I also wanted to make it clear that I would keep her safe.
"Yes, I suppose we don’t often let toys in on our little secret." He rubbed his hands together and bared his fangs, making me take a step back in shock and worry. Lawrence didn’t know Rhea, and neither did the clan. If he let it slip to anyone there was a human out there running around with intimate knowledge of our kind, they would surely hunt her down and kill her.
"Now, calm down, Lawrence. We can trust her. She’s different. Let me handle it." I was in a panic, wanting to save her life at all costs.
"Calm down, Maurice. I don’t want to kill her. Interestingly enough, I find her about as interesting as you do. I have seen these differences in her that you speak of. I have grown weary of my current bride and would like a new one. I want you to get her for me."
I felt the order come down on me like a weight. Unfortunately, when you made a pledge to a clan, it was with blood. The blood of the clan leader could glamour even the strongest and oldest of his subjects into doing his bidding. The only way out was for his reign to end somehow or for me to die, unless he agreed to release me form the contract. As long as he wanted Rhea, he wasn’t going to do that.
"No!" I begged, grabbing my stomach and trying to fight against the impossible order. "I love her. You can’t have her. Take anyone else, please. I'll get you three brides just as beautiful by next nightfall. Just don’t take her." I knew that as his bride, Rhea would be hopelessly addicted to his presence, his blood, his body....It was the way Lawrence made it. And then his brides lived in utter torture once he discarded them. I couldn’t let that be her fate.
"You will obey me, Maurice. It is in your blood to do so. But I will grant you this one reprieve, since you say you love her. We can all be together; the three of us, so that you can still have a piece of her. Otherwise, I will have the clan seek her out and kill her for what she knows." Tears of blood flowed freely from my eyes. The only way to keep Rhea's life from being cut short was to surrender her to Lawrence.
Chapter 6
***Rhea***
My dreams were filled with images of a world that was wholly changed. If vampires existed, what else was out there? My brain ran liberally with the idea and filled my nighttime wanderings with images of werewolves and vampires locked in an epic battle. Witches and warlocks, trained dragons. It was both frightening and amazing at the same time.
I was soon startled out of my dream by the sound of knocking. I shot up out of bed with a start and looked at the time on my alarm clock. It was around four in the morning, and I had no idea who would be at my door or why. I didn’t live in the nicest of neighborhoods and was wary about a visitor at such a strange hour.
I went into my closet and dug out an aluminum baseball bat I had bought the minute I moved out here, before approaching my door with caution.
I opened it and immediately dropped the bat, seeing Maurice covered in water droplets that made his bright red hair and pale skin dance and shine like precious stones.
He let me pull him inside, and I gave him a strong embrace. I wasn't sure what had brought him to me for the second time that night, but I was grateful to have him in my home and arms again. His presence had enchanted me and made me feel a need for him immediately, and my world felt strange and cold when he wasn’t there. Could he be feeling the same for me?
I got up on my tip toes and kissed him, but his response wasn’t as I expected. His hand stroked my hair, but the kiss felt almost sad. I pulled away and looked at him. That was when I saw the stains of bloody tears he had been crying a
t some point before the rain washed some away.
"Maurice, what's going on? Why are you here?" I backed away slowly, not sure what to expect. My life had been thrown into a tornado of sorts from the moment he stepped into it, and I knew anything could come out of his mouth.
"I wish I could tell you I was here of my own free will," he cried, sitting down and dripping on my sad excuse for a chair. "But I am here on an order from my clan leader; an order I cannot resist."
I kneeled next to him, unsure of what he could mean or why he was so upset by it. "What do you mean you can’t resist an order?"
"When you're a vampire who joins a clan, you make a blood promise to the leader. He can glamour me in a way and make me do his bidding, even if I don’t want to," he explained with his head in his hands.
"What is it he ordered you to do?" I felt myself shaking. Surely Maurice wouldn’t hurt me, would he? But then again, I only knew about vampires the things I had asked about. This clan leader stuff was new to me.
"He ordered me to bring you to the clan so you can be his bride. He told me that the only way I’d ever be with you again is if it was with the both of you. You need to run so that I can’t take you there. It’s not a life you want; being under his influence."
My mind was reeling, thinking of a way to get out of this. It wasn't the worst news. It didn’t mean death. "Maurice, I have nowhere to go. Besides, it may be a good thing in the long run.”
"What in the world do you mean by that, Rhea? You cannot possibly want to be basically a slave to another man; another vampire." I shook my head at him. He wasn’t understanding.
"Maurice, if I become his bride, it means eventually, he will turn me. It also means he won’t kill me and neither will any other vampire. In the short term I'll be safe. Once I’m turned, I am sure we can find a way to escape him and be together. There must be a way. It’s better than staying like this and getting old and just dying in your arms one day." That was something that had been a feature of my deepest darkest nightmares as of late. Maurice would surely leave before he watched me rot.
"Rhea, that is a beautiful way to think of things," he told me, looking at me in the eyes. I loved how his green eyes danced in the dim light when he looked at me. "It won’t be like that, though. It’s not so simple. He'll keep you under lock and key and under his seductive spell. Escaping may not be so easy."
"I don’t care what you say. I believe in my strength and love and in yours. I'm coming with you willingly, and I will endure whatever I have to in order to be around you. Nothing can be as bad as struggling every single day to put food in my fridge and pay for a place to live." It was the truth.
Maurice nodded, succumbing to my will, though I could tell he still wasn’t convinced. I would just have to show him how strong I could be.
Chapter 7
***Rhea***
I stood before Lawrence, the leader of the vampire clan that Maurice was bound to, and I had conflicting feelings. In his human life, Lawrence had probably been a good looking man. His leather jacket exposed his perfect abs, and he had short-cropped, black hair. His eyes were a light brown, and his lashes were long and desirable. But his face looked sickly and evil. His brows stayed in a permanent state of anger, and he had black circles under his eyes like he did not sleep. He did not look like a man I wanted to give my body to, but as he circled around me, surveying me, I couldn’t help but feel something else growing in my core. This was the influence, the glamour, that Maurice had spoken of. He was going to make me want his body regardless of what I actually wanted.
"I can see why you like her, Maurice," he hissed in a voice that reminded me of a cartoon lizard. "She is exceptionally beautiful for a human and quite unique. She does not seem to fear either of us."
I didn’t like the way he was speaking as if I was not there, but as soon as I opened my mouth to say something about it, Lawrence reached out to caress my face. I instantly felt as if I had had too much to drink. It was the feeling of a drunk woman in a club, willing to dance with whoever crossed her path. I looked upon Lawrence with new eyes; eyes of lust. Though, I found looking at Maurice had a similar effect, if not even stronger. I didn’t think Lawrence was removing my entire will, only bending it.
"Aren't you going to turn her first?" Maurice asked on my behalf as I was led into Laurence’s arms by an invisible force.
"I am so bored with my wives, Maurice. I want something fresh, something unique. I want to taste her as a human first. Then, I will turn her." I idly noticed that Maurice looked furious at the words Lawrence was saying, but all I could do was look at Lawrence and want to worship his body as I began to remove his clothing. I took his leather jacket off and then his leather pants, revealing a cold and pale body with a rock hard member just for me.
Laurence leaned down and growled into my ear before grabbing a bit of my hair and breathing in my scent. His arm went around me, and I quickly melted into his strength. I knew somehow that this was going to be nothing like any experience I’d ever had with a man before.
I looked over my shoulder at Maurice as he stood there watching us. I beckoned him with my eyes, knowing being a part of this was the only way he would be with me right now.
He looked as if he was having a mental debate, and then he came over to us, helping Lawrence as he began to strip me of my clothes. They fell to the floor like pieces of paper, and soon both vampires had their hands snaking all over my body.
Maurice was behind me, kissing up and down my shoulders as he slid his fingertips across my spine. I knew the moment his clothes came off as well as I felt his long, hard member against my skin. I gasped at the sensation and knew how badly I wanted him that way. I remembered how he had bitten me and drank my blood before, and I wanted him to do it again.
But it was Lawrence that bared his fangs first, looking deadly and fearsome as he looked me over with his predatory stare. For a moment, I felt a fear in my heart that he would kill me, but as he sank his teeth just below my collarbone, I stopped caring. I moaned out loud at the mix of pain and pleasure my body felt, plunged into a dark world of ecstasy where there was no more pain or worries, only my two vampires as they lapped their tongues against me and fed on my life's essence like it was chocolate.
Lawrence began to massage my breasts before kissing and sucking down toward them, nipping at the left one once he descended. Maurice rubbed his long shaft up against the outside of my center, making me wet and throbbing, desiring him to plunge himself inside.
The two eventually lay me down on my side in a tangle of velvet. Lawrence devoured me like a predator would the first prey of the spring as Maurice worked his way inside of me, penetrating me deeper than any human man ever had.
I could not contain my moans of pleasure as I rocked back and forth up against them both as Lawrence's hard member also found me, spreading my legs from the front as he rubbed up against my clit before working his way down.
Maurice was prepping me for an experience like no other, slamming into me so that my flesh would spread and give way to another member; Lawrence's cock snaking its way into me. Somewhere in my mind I knew that this would be pain for me when the spell wore off. I was a mere human being sexed by two thick, juicy vampires, but for now, all I cared about what how they both found my G-spot, sliding in and out of me with ease as I began to quiver in their arms. It was a new high I had never experienced as I pulsed again and again, the two of them continuing to milk pleasure out of me even after my body had exhausted itself.
I didn’t know how long I had been there as I lay there in the dark between two men; one I had become subject to and the other that I loved with every fiber of my being. But I could feel the spell slowly wearing off, and I tried to hold back the tears when the glamour fully lifted. Maurice cradled me as I shook as if he knew exactly what I was feeling; the immense guilt over what I was putting him through by becoming Lawrence’s bride as well as the physical pain that was rocking my body like nothing else.
After some time,
the two of us were taken to a room unknown to me and locked inside. Maurice was bound, but I was left alone and given a robe to cover myself with. I supposed they hadn’t bothered to tie me up because I would be of no threat. I could not hope to stand up against a vampire while I was still human.
I curled up into a ball on the floor and hugged myself close, beginning to sob. What had I done and how was I going to get us out of this?
But as I lay there, my distress turned to anger. In anger, I knew there was power. I was going to figure this out for me and for Maurice, even if it meant killing Lawrence.
Chapter 8
***Maurice***
Every time I saw Lawrence, I felt a pull like no other. Because I had been a vampire so long, I knew what was going on. He was making me a slave to him sexually just like he was to her. He was making my body respond to the both of them, when they were in the same room, and it was the most sick and twisted thing I had known a clan leader to do. I had once thought of Lawrence as mild in comparison to some of the vampires I had come across in my more than one hundred years, but now I knew there was something dark and broken inside of him.
Vampires were not good with time. So, the only way I could determine how long we might have been subject to his games was by the number of times he had forced us into a mind-blowing and confusing threesome. It had been enough times that even my strong and perfect body was getting exhausted and extremely hungry. I needed to get out and feed if I was going to continue, but I had qualms about the idea of leaving Rhea alone there to do that. I had no guarantee that she would survive if I left or if I would ever be allowed to be with her again if I asked to go hunt.
Dedicated: MF Priest and Single Mother Page 39