The pace quickened as soon as they both felt that everything was in order. He was relentless, swift, and powerful with every movement. Although she had stifled that first scream to avoid drawing anyone’s attention, Raina made very little effort to hold back the sounds that now escaped her – probably not loud enough to be heard outside of the study, but genuine and graphic enough to be embarrassing. She was vulgar, lewd, and breathless with her words of encouragement, as she often was. She loved to “let go” when she had sex. Raina never gave much thought to it when she was in the heat of the moment, but the things that she said and how she said them were very unlike her everyday self. If someone were to record these things and play them back to her later, she would have sworn that the words and sounds had come from someone else.
She endured the hammering for as long as he gave it. Abruptly, he stopped and grabbed both of her wrists, pulling her upright. When he withdrew, she gasped and actually moved to try to return him to his rightful place, until he spoke.
“Stand up,” he told her. “Hurry.”
Raina did not mind letting him take charge in times like this. She was not submissive, and in all actuality he was doing more to serve her than she was doing to pleasure him. She desperately needed this, and if it required her to follow a few small commands from a lower-ranking vampire, well, then so be it. Had she been Duvessa, she would have taken issue with it and chosen to do something terrible to Loki in response, punishing him for his subtle indiscretion. As she saw it, though, this act was something a bit less sweet than lovemaking, but not quite as simple as raw sex. As far as she cared, official titles and the like went out the window in times like this. Indeed, she was nothing at all like Duvessa, at least in this regard.
Her legs were so shaky that Loki actually had to help her stand upright, but soon enough, he turned her around and allowed her to lay her upper body down upon the desk. A moment later, he was back inside, and she felt him much more deeply than before, deep enough that it hardly even seemed safe. The sounds of flesh upon flesh, the slick sounds of sodden reciprocation, and their unsynchronized, labored breathing seemed to fill the room with an invisible aura of passion. She closed her eyes and, for awhile, she continued to do nothing more than take it, savor it, and wish that it would never end. However, her hands again became motivated by thoughts unknown, and one found its way down past the hemline of her skirt to where they joined, adding an additional measure of stimulation … as if it was even necessary.
As her right hand was busied, she did manage to take conscious control of her left to slightly open the main desk drawer that was to her left. She grabbed the two remaining full tubes of blood, shut the drawer, popped the cap on one, and rather awkwardly tried to drink it. She was not as quick about it as she needed to be, and so she managed to sloppily spill a bit of it from her lips, feeling the warm, thin fluid spill over her chin and slowly down the side of her throat. Oh well. She emptied the rest of the tube as best she could, tapping it with her fingertips as though she could shake out every last drop of it, and then she slapped it down upon the desk’s surface, immediately picking up the last tube and popping the top.
This one she downed more cleanly, and as she held it between her teeth for a few moments and flicked her tongue at its opening to catch every last bit she could extract from it, she slowly melted down upon the desk as the intoxicating effects of this dose began to join with that of the prior tubes in taking hold of her body. She let the tube fall from her lips, not caring if it dripped upon the desk – too late for that, anyway, for there were other fluids already upon its surface – and she swished a bit of that sacred elixir about in her mouth once more before swallowing it. Within seconds, she was as high as she could be, the “buzz” of blood making the intoxication of even the best alcohol seem quite mild by comparison. For awhile, the world consisted of nothing more than the delicious warmth that spread throughout her body from one end and the warmth that was pummeling her from the opposite direction.
It went very quickly from there. Perhaps not even five minutes from the time they began, she felt his climax arriving far in advance of its actual occurrence. As always, in that she sensed his feelings as her own and vise-versa, they climaxed as one, feeding off one another’s ultimate height of passion, hers triggering his and his making hers all the more intense. He held her fiercely by her hips and ground himself against her as he filled her, his fingers digging into her flesh so harshly that there would surely be some bruising afterward … and she did not bruise easily. Raina’s back was arched so severely that it, too, was a cause for pain, but she was virtually numb to everything else but the totality of orgasm. Her eyes closed, she saw odd, silent bursts of color in her vision, and her gasps were ragged as she shuddered with the waves of her spasms. The finish seemed to last for almost as long as the main event, itself. At last, Raina collapsed upon the desk, sprawling her upper body out upon it lazily as Loki all but fell atop her from behind. They remained like that for perhaps a full minute before Raina could even manage to remember how to speak.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “Oh … God … I needed that.”
Slowly, Loki withdrew, causing her to gasp and shudder once more with a fresh aftershock. She very nearly fell off the desk and onto the floor, but Loki kept a hand upon her at the base of her spine, pinning her safely in place. She probably would need a change of clothes now – they both would – but she had no regrets. She didn’t even care if the stains would never come out. She could buy more. She wasn’t foolish with spending her wealth, but she was also aware that she was at no risk of being short on money anytime soon. If having to replace stained clothes on a regular basis was her worst financial indulgence, then the odds were fairly good that her vast fortune would last almost indefinitely.
When Raina finally could manage to support herself with her legs and push herself up from the desk, Loki took his hand away from her and stepped back. Before she even turned around, he had put himself back in order and zipped up. Aside from a few beads of sweat upon his brow and the remaining bulge in his pants, there was hardly anything about him to show for their coupling; Raina, on the other hand, was sure that she looked a total mess … and she loved it. He had ravished her. The sex was always good, and it was usually longer and had more variety to it than this, but she could hardly recall a time before then where it had been so brutally intense. Perhaps only their first time together had been that hardcore … perhaps, although everything about that night was still an alcohol-blurred memory. If sex on the edge of bloodlust was always this good, then there was a good chance that she might develop a dangerous habit of trying to replicate this experience in the future.
“So … how do I look?” she asked with a smile, holding open her arms.
Strangely, Loki’s face seemed utterly blank as he said, “I’ll get Svetlana.”
Surprised by his bland response and strange attitude in the aftermath, Raina watched him turn and head towards the hallway door.
“Hey,” she called, halting him with that one word. He turned to face her, wiping the sweat from his brow but otherwise looking almost … bored. “What’s wrong?”
He shrugged in reply.
“You enjoyed it, right?”
Again, he said nothing, but he did at least nod in agreement. She could sense it, something that had been in him all along, the entire time they had been doing it, although she had been so caught up in everything else in the experience that she hadn’t been able to focus on it until then. There was an undeniable sadness, deep and sure, and a hurt that seemed to come from nowhere. Was it something she had said? Had he taken to heart the words she had spoken earlier in her brash anger? Or had she been overlooking something for some time before that?
After a few seconds of silence between them, she finally said, “Love you.”
“I love you, too, your grace,” he replied. He opened the door and stepped out into the hallway before closing it a bit firmly, leaving her alone, bloodied, wet, disheveled, a
nd surrounded by hundreds of volumes of books that held no answers to the questions that now haunted her.
* * * *
Chapter Five
After a long, uncomfortable bout of silence in the back of the limousine, Raina finally asked, “Did I miss something?”
Lady Svetlana had been lost in her own thoughts moments before then, staring blankly out the window. She turned to Raina with one of her thin blonde eyebrows slightly raised in silent question. Svetlana had been acting every bit as strangely as Loki in the past few days, perhaps even more so, though she was as skilled as ever at masking any outward sign that anything at all was bothering her. She could sense within Svetlana a terrible dread, a constant stress that seemed all the more intense when Raina spoke with her.
She could think of nothing that she had said or done to Svetlana, however, to warrant such feelings. As far as she was concerned, Svetlana was one of the few dear friends she had in this world, someone in whom she could confide without guilt or without fear of judgment. Svetlana was a no-nonsense, straightforward, bluntly honest source of advice in all of the things about which Raina had never felt comfortable discussing with Olivia … which meant pretty much everything outside of High Court politics, really and even a bit of that, as well.
“Does everyone think I’m committing suicide tonight, or what?” she asked, nervously clasping the hilt of the sword in her lap.
Svetlana shook her head lightly. “No. We are afraid for you, but we do not say this is suicide.”
Svetlana had been working to expand her English vocabulary over the past few months, and while her grammar was not exactly horrible, her Russian accent and her sometimes odd way of phrasing things still presented a significant language barrier at times. It was sometimes only through Raina’s High Court sensitivities that she was able to discern what Svetlana truly meant to say when her words failed her. Actually, it was more of an endearing trait than an annoyance.
“What’s the problem, then?”
Hesitantly, Svetlana admitted, “Is not about the Elders … but is about … other thing.”
“What other thing?” Raina persisted. “You mean the stuff in the cellar?”
“No … but yes, maybe.” Svetlana shrugged, looking down. “I am afraid of you.”
“You mean, you’re afraid for me,” Raina suggested.
“No,” she insisted, “I am afraid of you. I … I do not know how to say. My English is shit.”
Raina smiled. “Forget it. My Russian is way, way worse than your English ever will be. I can’t even order a drink in Russian.”
Her beautiful Commoner servant was not smiling, though. If anything, her blank expression had been replaced with something of a frown. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good. Unlike Raina, Svetlana was not prone to exhibiting any strong emotions. Even when her friend, Noriko, had been killed by Countess Wilhelmina months ago, she had shown almost no visible sign of anger. Instead, the more emotionally charged a situation became, the colder, calmer, and more detached Svetlana would act, practically as devoid of emotion as a machine. If he had even been half as emotionless and aloof as Svetlana so often appeared, Loki would have simply been too creepy for Raina to have found attractive in the first place.
Loki was with Simon and the others in the second vehicle, a Jaguar sedan, as it had become common practice, and they were far enough ahead that they were likely already at their destination. He had insisted upon this routine of transportation, sometimes switching places in the lead vehicle with Raina. Loki did not think it wise to present their enemies with an opportunity to wipe out the entire Fallamhain bloodline with a single car bomb.
Thus, Raina was the only true Fallamhain in the vehicle, accompanied by two Commoners and two Sabertooths. Ethan was ignoring the conversation, instead looking out one of the darkly tinted side windows as small streams of rainwater trailed across them. Sophie and Thomas were listening in, though. Thomas seemed quite indifferent, but Sophie was actually nibbling nervously upon her lower lip. Meeting Raina’s gaze for just an instant, she quickly looked away. The unspoken topic at hand was making her uneasy. Sophie knew exactly what this was all about, but she wasn’t about to volunteer any information unless Raina demanded it.
“Would someone please just come out and say what the big deal is?” Raina asked, slightly annoyed now. “Apparently, I’m the only one here that isn’t seeing a big pink elephant sitting in here with us.”
Sophie looked to Svetlana for a moment and then appeared to be ready to speak before Svetlana cut her off by merely raising her hand and then wagging a finger at her. Though they were both Commoners and technically both servants to the Grand Duchess, Svetlana outranked her by House seniority. Sophie slumped in her seat a bit, not so much miffed as concerned.
“Svetlana…”
“I can say to you after big meeting,” she offered gently. “Is not a good time for you now … not before big meeting. I do not want you mad. I am sorry.”
Raina eyed her for a moment, moving her lips to one side for a moment in thought. “This isn’t something that’s going to come up and bite me in the ass and make me look stupid in front of the whole world tonight, is it? I mean, if you know something about one of the Elders or someone in the High Court, or if someone’s planning to do or say something tonight, then I need to know. I don’t want to walk into this thing unprepared and look any more stupid than I’m going to, already.”
“It’s nothing, really,” Sophie blurted with a forced smile. She looked at Svetlana for a moment with an almost nervous glance. “I mean … it’s not a life-or-death kind of thing.”
“Then what’s wrong with telling me right now? What’s with all of the secrecy?” Raina pressed impatiently. “Is it about the way I’m dressed? Is it my hair, my makeup, or … or what?”
“Loki…” Sophie blurted.
Svetlana again silenced her with a raised hand, shaking her head adamantly. Once more, Sophie seemed to shrink back slightly in submission, this time folding her arms and looking away with a sigh.
“You have much stress now, and we are not good to make more,” Svetlana informed Raina. “We love you, Raina. We do not want to make this night bad. We want to help.”
Raina met Svetlana’s clear blue eyes and smiled, patting her knee gently before taking her hand affectionately. “I appreciate that, Svetlana. I’m glad that you’re all here with me. I just—…”
“Get down!” Thomas suddenly yelled.
There was a pop and a crash, accompanied by a loud mechanical sputtering sound that came from outside the left-hand side of the limousine. Tiny bits of shattered safety glass sprayed into the interior of the limo as Ethan slumped forward while Thomas simultaneously shoved Sophie down and aside. In the same instant, just as Raina turned and saw a couple of strobe-like flashing lights to their left, Svetlana lunged at her and threw her arms about her upper body in a sort of sideways seated tackle. It was only as several other windows began to shatter and the entire limousine began to lurch about with sudden braking and swerving that Raina realized their vehicle was being struck with machine gun fire.
Raina tucked herself down as best she could into the floorboard area of the interior, with Svetlana covering her body with her own while Thomas did much the same with Sophie. The hail of gunfire seemed to last forever, though perhaps in reality it was only ten seconds. The limo driver let off the brakes, swerved the vehicle to the right and then quickly to the left, and then the engine could be heard racing as he floored the throttle again. A second later, after the gunfire had ceased, there was a jarring impact that make Sophie shriek and shoved everyone to the left abruptly. Raina managed to raise her head enough to see the large silver SUV pulling away from the side of the limo for a few moments before swooping back in to ram into their side once more. Thomas cursed loudly in English and Svetlana hissed something bitter in Russian.
After the second impact, the limo driver slammed on the brakes again, seeming to stand on the pedal for all he had. She did not p
ersonally know the driver because they had hired him only for this night along with the limo rental – Olivia had insisted Raina arrive in a limo for this night, just for the sake of ceremony – and so she had no idea whether or not the driver had any real sort of security-related training. She was not sure whether stopping the car completely was a prelude to the driver bailing out and running, or if the driver had some logical, legitimately helpful reason for doing so. Raina would have much preferred an attempt to outrun their attackers. Tires howled outside the vehicle as others skidded to a halt around. Behind them, there was a sound outside of at least one vehicle impacting another – crumpling metal, crunching plastic, shattering glass, and honking horns. They felt the limo come to an abrupt and total halt just an instant before more gunfire began to sound – first one automatic weapon, then another.
“Oh my God! What’s happening?” Sophie screamed at the top of her lungs as bullets played a staccato rhythm of destruction toward the front of the limo. The slugs sounded like someone with a pair of hammers banging out a drum solo up and down the frame as they tore through the vehicle, shattering glass and sending bits of material all about the interior.
As soon as the gunfire stopped again, this next volley not lasting quite as long, Raina propped herself up with one elbow and began to force Svetlana off of her by prying one of her arms away from her. Svetlana offered no resistance. In fact, she was almost completely limp, save for a soft groaning sound that escaped her as she weakly clung to Raina, still trying to protect her.
Raina glanced about the interior. The scene had become much brighter now that the tinted glass had been thoroughly shattered and perforated. The glow of streetlights and the flashes and sounds the surrounding traffic was less obstructed. The situation was quite different, and yet it was horribly similar to another scene from her distant past. The initial shock of it was terribly difficult to overcome with any swiftness in spite of the urgency of her need to act quickly.
The Darkest Colors- Exsanguinations Page 9