Samuel grunted, but I frowned and answered, “I feel fine.”
“You were shaking earlier,” Sam argued.
“I know, but I’m not now.” And that was the God’s honest truth. Whatever reason for my earlier weakness was no longer there. Was this what I needed to feel revitalized? Because I seriously felt as though I could climb a damn mountain and not get tired.
“Come here, mate,” he grated out, his pain sounding clearer now that he had my assurance, I was well. His hand was on his cock and he was holding it upright. Was I supposed to sit on it?
I licked my lips and decided that if there was some kind of research material that would make me better at this, I was going to spend a few hours gorging on it and learning every single thing I could. Cosmo and Wikipedia weren’t enough.
Even as I wondered if there was video material that might be more informative, he rasped, “Come here,” and with his other hands, he urged me forward. My hands slammed onto his chest to keep me from collapsing against him.
When his cock brushed my softness for the first time in this position, my eyes shuttered closed. How couldn’t they? It felt different. Like it was harder, like that nub was being directly ‘prodded,’ but in the best possible way.
Shivering, I whispered, “That feels so good.” My words ended on a moan when he did it again, rubbing me over and over until I could feel slick juices run down my inner thighs. Reed reappeared halfway through and began teasing my nipples once more, and sucking on my throat as though he were the Vampire and not Samuel.
When his teeth scraped against the tender flesh, however, I shot off like a rocket, because just thinking about Samuel’s teeth burrowing through my skin and sucking down my blood made me want to come.
“Now,” Reed bit off, and even as the fireworks that were igniting behind my eyes carried on, I felt the blunt tip of Samuel’s cock penetrate my slickness.
He was so thick, so hot. So damn right inside me. My hands began to burn, raging with a heat I knew Samuel had to feel against his pecs. Even though I felt weak with pleasure, I bowed lower over him so he could access my throat when he was ready because that was all I wanted—his fangs inside me.
When the soul of a Vampire became the dominant one, and after he crossed through Caelum’s portal, the creature’s fangs were supposed to erupt in the tiniest of shifts. Were Samuel’s there now? Even if he hadn’t crossed the portal? I hadn’t noticed before, and I wished I had. I wanted them against my skin more than I wanted Reed’s fingers on my breasts—and that was saying something.
With a whimper, I felt Reed’s and Samuel’s hands drop down to my butt and they began to rock me without me having to do anything. They… I knew the word from movies but felt hot and shaky inside for even thinking it. They fucked me. Over and over again.
Samuel was hot and slippery with sweat, but my hands stayed on his pecs, where a burning heat seemed to send fire through our veins. I whimpered as the fireworks began to sizzle in my blood again, and the shadows and light began to play behind my eyes, and just when I knew I was about to fall over the edge into nothingness, he bit.
His fangs—they were there, and I didn’t even have it in me to question it—raked against my skin as I’d known they would. He tested the flesh for a second, then like a knife through butter on a summer’s day, he penetrated me twice over.
A whimper escaped me as he took from my vein, as he fed and nourished himself from my lifeblood. Then, as the heat from my palms grew to the temperature of an inferno, we both reached the summit. It wasn’t like before. Wasn’t as blissful, as delicious as the last time I’d experienced this, instead, it hurt with how good it was. As he took from me and gave to me, it was beyond anything I’d ever known, could ever think to know, and I was overcome with how ecstatic I felt.
Even as we came down from that high and as his cock slipped from me, I felt another thick shaft at my entrance. With the slick seed that Samuel had granted me, Reed slid deep inside my core from behind with an ease that had tears falling from my eyes. I relaxed my back against his muscled chest as he moved inside me, and I let Samuel drink his fill.
That exquisite pain was still there, still tormenting me, torturing me as I was hurtled back up the summit once more. Never allowed to rest, only allowed to endure. As Reed fucked me, Samuel moaned into my neck as he hit his satiation point. I felt the click inside him as he went from hungry to satisfied, and the joy that whirled inside me from knowing that I’d done that to him added to the agonizing pleasure Reed was forcing me to endure.
When Reed slipped his fingers between Samuel and me, when he brushed the nub that made me take off like a rocket, I wasn’t sure if I could take it, if I could last much longer. Then he pinched me with those fingers, and with his other hand, the one pressed firmly between my breasts, holding me tightly against him, he raked his nails down my sides. The sensation was a trigger, and as I’d done earlier with Samuel, I sought the soul inside me that purred at Reed’s touch. Dragging that soul forward was no hardship since she was in charge today, but when I urged her to seek Reed’s? She leaped with eagerness into the fray.
The heavy thrusts into my body became short and choppy, and hoarse groans and grunts escaped Reed as I forced his Hell Hound to the surface, forced the beast to battle the others, to take command over what was his.
Though my Hell Hound recognized when it happened, my body was made fully aware of the change in my Chosen. The nails that had dragged down my sides? They were now claws. Reed could shift. Blood poured from the wounds as he tore into my side, but though the pain was there, it had me shutting down, had me hitting another stratosphere as the joy of the moment had me wide open.
This time, the climax had me sobbing as, spent from blood loss and weak with pleasure, I collapsed onto Samuel’s chest, and was embraced in his loving arms as Reed’s beast sought his own ecstasy in my body, before finding his release and toppling onto me.
Seconds, minutes, hours later, we lay like that, and I began to ache from the weight on my back. Surprisingly, the wounds on my side and neck, where blood still steadily dripped down, was a pleasurable pain I enjoyed. However, Reed was a heavy presence atop my back, and God only knew how badly Samuel’s body was aching with the two of his on top of him.
I began to shuffle in place, my body urging me to move from the awkward position, and started to move my hands from his pecs, where they’d remained planted all this time—I had the pins and needles to prove it. He yelped as my fingers drifted from his skin and Reed jolted upright, his body falling to the side as he swiftly rolled to his feet. Even in his still sleepy haze, he was ready to defend us against whatever had made us cry out.
“It’s nothing, Reed,” Samuel managed to grate out, but when I stared down at him, stared down at his chest, I realized why he hurt.
On his chest were my fingerprints. Branded into his flesh. It wasn't like the others’ ink, nor was it like mine. It looked like his blood had been seared into his skin in the shape of my prints. As I peered down, I saw that each tiny line that made up my unique identifying marker, was forged of words. Tiny, tiny words I could only see because my vision was so good.
Even as I tilted my head to look at him, to declare that he was my Chosen, Reed grunted, “Well, that’s it for you, Samuel. You’re definitely Chosen now.”
I wasn’t sure why I found that hilarious, just that I did, and as laughter had me curling into a tight ball, I fell back onto the floor—ignoring the rug quickly growing saturated with my blood—and let my joy rush through me.
Who knew how many moments like these we’d get?
How many instances we’d be allowed to just be?
We needed to embrace each of them, hold them firmly in our grasp, and celebrate that we were, in truth, Pack.
❖
Samuel
“Come on, Eve. Please. Try.”
She squinted at me, then sought out the others for help. Of course, there was no helping her more than we were already doing. We wer
en’t about to let her weasel out of this, no matter how long she made puppy eyes at us. For a second, her teeth raked against my shoulder before she pushed me away in an explosive movement that jerked me in place.
“I don’t want to.”
My new fangs scraped against the inside of my lip as I gritted my teeth, trying not to lose my patience. “Your Vampire needs blood.”
“She can cope without it. I’ll just go nap again—”
“No!” I burst out, not letting her finish. “She can’t. Not after all the blood you’ve lost recently,” I retorted, just remembering the state of the rug we’d been fucking on was enough to make me cringe.
And the state of her sides after Reed’s Hound had Claimed her in turn? I didn’t even want to go there.
Though the fact she was Vampire today reassured me that the wounds would be disappearing soon, they’d heal even faster if she’d just fucking feed from me.
Normally, a Vampire would feed from his Chosen and only her, but because she’d lost so much blood and was weak from the markings’ effect on her, I’d been relying on the Pack for sustenance. I needed her stronger, needed her to feed from me, just so that we could find an equilibrium.
After glowering at me, she spun around, and I saw her head tip and rock as she took in the scene before her and the very lack of support she had from her Chosen.
It was five days after she’d Chosen and Claimed me, and she was still weakened by the markings that glowed at random moments. Each burst of light had her shutting down like a faulty laptop while simultaneously scaring the shit out of us.
Every single time.
Still, this was the longest she’d gone without the marks glowing, and I was trying to teach her how to call on the Vampire. Something that could only happen if she took my damn blood.
Her other lessons, though she was weaker than any of us would like, had been a mixed bag. Stefan had managed to make her Succubus leak pheromones—a feat at any other time, but one that had us all walking around with hard-ons that wouldn’t quit for a couple of agonizing hours. Seriously, taking Viagra would have strained our hearts less—and the songs she and Eren had sung while her Lorelei was in charge, had put us back a day’s travel.
After accidentally lulling the crew into sleeping for a full eighteen hours, we’d had a hell of a time explaining that. Only the promise of another ten grand for the rental of the yacht had stopped the captain’s threats of dumping us at the nearest port for daring to ‘endanger’ his crew.
She was getting nowhere with Dre because he was being a dick, and her Hell Hound was more temperamental than even Reed’s, which was truly saying something. Today was her Vampire’s turn, and it looked set to be an epic failure. With the gouille on track for tomorrow, I could only hope Nestor would succeed in teaching her something where the rest of us, save for Stefan and Eren, had failed.
But though she was weak in some ways, she was strong in others, and through her lesson with Stefan, she’d drawn out his Incubus, had helped him dominate the other souls, cannibalizing them and making him a true Incubus as I was now a true Vampire. Tomorrow, we were hoping she’d do the same with Nestor, meaning she’d have drawn all of us into the natural evolution of graduation.
Years ahead of schedule.
Describing her as ‘strong’ felt like a gross understatement sometimes.
She was incredible.
And she was ours.
I watched her glance around the indoor sitting room we’d claimed as ours while she’d been knocked out, and with her Chosen dotted around, I knew she found a glimmer of peace from them as the tension in her back lessened, and she stopped standing there like a soldier on parade.
Frazer was lolling against an armchair. Incapable of sitting in it the proper way, he had his legs over the armrest, a drawing pad on his lap as he sketched with a pencil. He was always private as hell with his drawings, but he guarded these like a miser would his treasure. Yesterday, when Eve had asked to look at them, she’d blushed bright red, and I had a feeling they were related to their Claiming—a thought that had my lips curving in amusement.
Eren and Dre were bickering as they played a game of chess. Almost on the mend now, Nestor was still taking it easy from his beating and near-miss with the Ghouls, so he was slouched against the sofa watching a documentary that I was fighting Eve’s focus over because she wanted to watch it too. Stefan, legs crossed at the ankle, had a knife in his hand and he was carving apples, so they looked like pinecones. He had a pile of them on the coffee table in front of him, each in various stages of turning brown after exposure to the air. Why he was doing that was a question I wasn’t willing to ask.
Some people watched TV or played chess; others whittled fucking fruit.
Whatever floated your boat.
Reed was in some bizarre position that kind of look as though he was giving himself head—he was on his back, his feet hooked behind his head, and he’d slotted himself through the gap so he could bring his hands together in a prayer pose.
“How is that even comfortable?” Eve muttered, and I realized she was staring at him too, except her head was tilted as she took in all the bewildering angles of Reed’s body.
“He says it helps him calm down.”
She looked over her shoulder to blink at me. “Does it work?”
I shrugged. “It seems to.”
“Works even better if you don’t talk about me when I’m nearby,” the man himself muttered without opening his eyes.
Eve’s ears turned pink, but she mumbled, “Sorry, Reed.”
His lips twitched. “It’s okay, Eve. You should try it sometime. It might help you.”
“Help me, what? Break a leg?” She shook her head. “It’s okay. I think I’ll—”
I cocked a brow at her. “Think you’ll…, what?”
“Nothing.”
“You won’t learn control if you don’t try things out.”
She sniffed. “I’d prefer to try yoga than bite you.”
“Why, though?” I demanded, aware that I was huffing and not giving a damn about it either.
“Because it’s weird.”
Dre snorted. “Eve, you epitomize weird. It should be right up your street.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re just as weird as I am.”
“Yeah?” He took his attention off the game after he placed his rook down in a square that had Eren grumbling and studiously glowering at the chessboard. “Like to explain that?”
“You grow cacti for fun,” she retorted.
“Not anymore,” he returned, baring his teeth at her. “Someone had me leaving my cacti behind.”
Her eyes flared wide and she staggered back. “I-I did.” The sorrow in her tone had everyone breaking off from what they were doing and staring over at her, before instantly shooting Dre glares. When she saw them, though, she shook her head. “No. He’s right. I-I shouldn’t have mentioned it. It was wrong of me. I’m sorry, Dre. Not just for using your hobby against you but for making you leave them behind.”
Dre rolled his eyes—did I mention he was a prick?—but he raised my perception of him by dipping his chin. “It’s okay, Eve. I can grow some more when we eventually get settled somewhere.”
When he averted his attention to the board, I knew it was because her sincerity had surprised him. Eve, though she made many mistakes and had a tendency to allow her emotions to guide her, was a kind woman. She was gentle, too, in the grand scheme of things. Hurting someone for the sake of it wasn’t like her, and I knew Dre brought that out in her, me too if I were being honest though I was trying to quell my sarcasm around her. It was hard. Being a Brit, my sense of humor was dark.
I reached over and cupped her shoulder. “It’s okay, Eve. You didn’t mean to hurt his feelings.”
“Doesn’t mean I didn’t.” She reached up and rubbed her temple. “I’m going to go and lie down.”
I hadn’t seen her arms glimmer with light, so I knew she was escaping to get some qu
iet, which was a shame because being around us as a Pack would ease her.
I didn’t argue, though, just let her head out to the stateroom I’d claimed her in. Before she crossed the threshold, I did call out, “I’ll be in later to change your bandages.”
Her cheeks were pale and her eyes wet as she turned to nod at me. Spying her tears, I released a sigh.
“She’s too soft for her own good,” Dre commented, his tone harsh enough to make me narrow my eyes at him.
“That softness will be our savior,” I retorted. “And don’t bitch about her when she was so quick to apologize. Eve didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. It wasn’t intentional.”
He shrugged. “She didn’t hurt my feelings.”
“Bullshit. Unless you intentionally wanted her to feel like shit?” I cocked a brow at him, unsure why he was fighting this so hard. She’d Chosen him, and after having been out in the cold, the only one not Chosen for a time, I knew how crap that felt and how lucky Dre was.
The wanker.
Stefan sighed as he placed his whittled apple on the coffee table in front of him. “Dre, why you have to be so antagonistic toward her is beyond me.”
“She doesn’t fart perfume and breathe glitter,” Dre retorted. “She isn’t perfect, and you treating her like she is will do no good.”
“Being mean will do the opposite?” Eren countered. “She isn’t perfect. We know that without you ramming the point home. But she’s the softness we need to counter all the shit we’ve been through. If you think that’s bad, then you don’t deserve her.” His words rang out around the sitting room, echoing in a silence that was only disturbed by the documentary Nestor was watching.
None of us said another word because Eren had hit the nail on the head.
Dre didn’t deserve her softness, not without an attitude check. Eve wasn’t perfect, she had flaws, but for us? She was ours. We’d accept those flaws because they were a part of her makeup, just as she’d accept ours.
Nine Lives: The Caelum Academy Trilogy: Part THREE Page 6