Five
Still, quiet, because he had no words for how he was feeling right now, Saul sat on warm sand and watched waves rolling in under reflective white clouds. A growing crescent moon was under there somewhere, but it had been hidden for most of the time he’d rested here. Beside him, a full bottle of Scotch tilted from where he’d buried it into the sand.
“You have the right idea.” Jack dropped down beside Saul and looked at the bottle of Scotch. “May I?”
Saul nodded.
After taking a long sip from the bottle, his arms perched on his knees, the bottle hanging suspended from one hand, Jack mirrored Saul by staring out at the undulating water.
“So, uh, you and Dani. What’s the situation?”
“There’s no situation. No me and Dani.”
“Buddy, it didn’t look that way two nights ago at that bar.”
“I let my guard down, Jack. I’m struggling to avoid a complication. Okay, you’re right. I can’t stop thinking about her. The night she was abducted, when I came for her, we connected, but we can’t really have a relationship. Not like that. She isn’t interested anyway.”
“You need to clear the air before you can move past this. Both of you. Go talk to her.”
“Yeah.”
Waves broke against the shore as if dramatically punctuating Saul’s answer. “Yeah.”
After a few more moments of silent reflection, Saul continued. “But not tonight. Kwano gone yet?”
“Yep. Sophi Martin is finally back so he flew in to deal with her. That ties up the L.A. hunter’s team. Tomorrow night, we’ll all meet to discuss the new threat.”
Downtown Los Angeles
Kwano watched her as she worked with one of many patients in this crowded downtown clinic. The young boy had torn a hole in his knee, and while he wasn’t crying, he was scared. He could see Sophi Martin’s gentleness and empathy as she laughed with the worried child to let him know he was all right.
He’d found her right away, a slender, almost skinny, woman with the palest blonde hair he’d ever seen. Paired with porcelain skin and aquamarine eyes, it struck Kwano that, physically, she was his exact opposite, as light as he was dark.
As she worked, Kwano studied her face. She wouldn’t be considered pretty by classic standards, her nose was crooked, having obviously been broken once, and her lips too thin. Because she was underweight, her cheeks bulged over skin stretched too tight.
Yet he found her beautiful. Joy radiated from Sophi as she moved effortlessly from patient to patient to ensure they were properly cared for and to reassure them that they had nothing to worry about. Her smile to each and every patient was brilliant and genuine.
Surprisingly, he couldn’t wait to speak with her.
Being away from his protected community, Kwano had enjoyed the diversity of cultures, uniqueness of those who rode this planet with him. This slight woman had caught his imagination, and the idea of sitting with her and learning about her life fascinated him.
Partially hidden behind a support column, she hadn’t seen him. Still unnoticed, he slipped away and returned to his car to wait for her. When she finished her shift, he’d follow her home and do his job.
Since he’d secured several entrees from one of L.A.’s finest bistros, he would enjoy the wait.
Busy almost every second tonight, Sophi was thrilled to say goodnight to her crew and the few patients still waiting for care. The facility was open 24 hours, but thank God, she was finished for now. Food, crash and burn, then sleep, in that order.
Finagling the three bags she carried to and from work each night, she tossed them into her small city-car. She’d be home in twenty minutes if traffic complied.
“Play Barbra Streisand,” she said to the automated dashboard and a song from a Streisand movie over a century old started to play. Sophi’s smile widened. Barbra always relaxed her.
Slightly less than half an hour later, Sophi parked her car in the spiral parking space on the twelfth floor of her tower apartment building, groaned as she stepped from her car, grabbed her bags, and waited for the power lift to take her the remainder of the floors to twenty-five, to her little piece of personal heaven. Yes, she loved her job, but constant interaction with the sick and injured meant she treasured the quiet moments alone in her four small rooms.
Once inside, she popped her bags on a stand she’d placed there for just that reason. “Lock up.”
She heard the locks snap down and wandered into a living space that held everything she loved. Soft fuzzy blankets covered the white sofa set in front of her one extravagance. In the corner of the room, an 80 inch hi-tech vidscreen waited to be turned on to entertain her.
After sinking onto the couch, something heavy jumped onto her lap. “Odysseus! Hi, baby.”
Sophi pulled the large, white, long-haired cat into her arms and buried her face in his fluffiness. Best part of getting home. This big old boy had been her heart for eight years.
“How about something delicious and a marathon of our favorite sci-fi before I go unconscious?”
Sliding the cat off her lap, Sophi walked toward the galley, dropping her clinic shirt onto a chair on the way. She kept the apartment warm for Odysseus, but admitted she preferred it too.
A plate filled with hot nachos, cheese, and jalapeños in one hand, and a small bowl of cat food in the other, she headed back to the living room. Approaching the couch, she stopped, frozen, shocked.
A man sat beside her cat, petting him carefully, smiling, as he looked up. Her first instinct was to throw the hot food at him and try to reach the door, but she wouldn’t leave Odysseus behind.
“What the hell are you doing in my apartment? How the fuck did you get in?”
She’d read somewhere long ago that you never act the victim. Stay strong, demanding, don’t let them get the upper hand. Terrified, she tried to think of something she could use as a weapon, but there wasn’t anything in the place other than cooking knives that would come close to hurting him. He was perhaps the largest man she’d ever seen. Exotic rows of twisted hair and dark, tattooed skin were nothing she was accustomed to.
He stood, keeping the cat in his arms.
“Look into my eyes.”
Without thinking, Sophi did so, immediately rewarded with lightheadedness.
“Good. Relax. You are in no danger. I am here to ask you a few questions and that is all. Your cat is beautiful. What is his name?”
“Odysseus.”
“Ah. A Greek legend. It is fitting. Sophi, please come sit beside me on the sofa. I promise, you are not in any danger. You must remain calm. Come here, sit beside me, get comfortable.”
Without consciously deciding to do as this intruder asked her to do, Sophi followed him back to her couch and lowered herself slowly. It felt odd to suddenly feel relaxed sitting beside him because somewhere in her mind, in her gut, she was panicking. When she tried to get up and run from him, shock set back in again when she realized she actually could not do it. At all.
He smiled showing perfect white teeth as he lifted the plates from her and set them on the table behind her couch.
Trying not to panic, Sophi shook her head.
“Who are you? What have you done to me? Please, whatever you do, don’t hurt Odysseus.”
At least she could still say what she wanted to say.
Her eyes stayed on his hands, powerful arms pushing long dark fingers through white fur, his strokes easy and caressing.
“Never.”
It was his voice, Sophi realized. It was hypnotic. Mesmerizing. Deeply timbered. She thought she could easily always listen to it. If he wasn’t a psychotic asshole who had broken into her home.
“What do you want?”
“To ask you some questions. Sophi, my name is Kwano. When I ask you questions, you must answer me honestly. Only the complete truth.”
“I’m an honest woman. You can depend on that. I can’t imagine I know anything you would be willing to commit a crime to discover, but go ahead. Ask your questions and then please leave us.”
Sophi was startled when Kwano’s hand slid off Odysseus and wrapped around hers. “I can tell you are an honest woman. This is a sensitive subject. Sophi Martin, you dated a man named Raoul for two years. I need to know if you knew what he did for a living.”
What? Raoul? Sophi shook her head. “I…um…”
“Sorry. That wasn’t clear. Tell me what he did for a living.”
The lightheadedness came again and when it cleared, Sophi began to answer this man’s question by telling a secret she’d vowed never to reveal. “He hunted vampires. They’re real. They’re killers. Raoul manages a group of hunters who protect people from them.”
Hand to stomach, because she thought she might throw up, Sophi stared into dark eyes that seemed to hold the warmth of the brown earth. They couldn’t, though, because this creature, what he’d done to her, what she now realized was the skill Raoul had told her about, only a vampire could wield it.
What she said next would likely end her life, she was certain of it, but she said it anyway. “You’re one. You’re a vampire.”
His slow nod told her everything she knew about her future and how she was going to die. Still, she couldn’t shut her mouth. “You’ll rape me, you’ll drink from me until I am nearly dead, then you’ll kill me. I sense some kind of humanity in you. Some. Maybe. Will you spare Odysseus?”
If it was possible for a stranger to break his heart, and Kwano now thought it might be, Sophi Martin was breaking it. She truly thought him a monster who could do nothing other than brutalize her, use her, rip her throat out, kill her, and then kill her cat.
Things were unbelievably ugly in a hunter’s world.
He slid closer. “Sophi, I am vampire, but not a murderer. We are good people, most of us, just like you. I promise, you will not be harmed in any way, and this big ball of sweet fluffiness will continue to purr just as he is for a long time to come. I am only here to find out what you know. You have now verified that you are aware of vampire existence, so all I am going to do is remove that memory, re-sort others so that you’ll have no holes if you see Raoul again, and let you continue with a happy life.”
“I don’t want you to screw with my memories. Raoul says that your kind loves controlling us and using us for food and sex.”
“Raoul had good intentions, but he and all that worked with him are wrong. Before I do what I need to, I have one last question. Have you told anyone else in your life about the existence of vampires?”
She lowered her head. “I don’t have any close friends, no one I would confide in. I promised Raoul I wouldn’t tell anyone and I didn’t. It’s a burden most people don’t need.”
A sadness he hadn’t seen in her tonight came on suddenly. When all he had seen all night was sweetness and light, where did that come from? Humans lived such complicated lives out here in this unprotected world.
“Sophi.”
She lifted her head and her eyes found his again.
“Tell me your story. Who are you and how you’ve come through your days to where you are now.”
“Why?”
The question surprised him. She shouldn’t have been able to do anything other than answer him. “Because you fascinate me.”
Her head jerked back as if he’d struck her.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I fascinate you? Why?”
“As vampire, I can feel much of what you feel. Within you is the capacity of boundless joy, love, hope, selfless altruism. Yet I also feel sorrow and disappointment. Pain. Old pain? I’m not sure.”
His fingers had slipped around her wrist again.
Unexpectedly, Sophi admitted his touch felt good and she had no desire for him to stop. People rarely touched her.
“I don’t know how you can do that. I don’t know why you would. I’m nobody. I do what I do because it brings me so much pleasure to be able to help people. The people I see at the clinic are hurt and I’m able to stop it or give them hope that they’ll be well. We see a lot of terminal patients come through there, I don’t have the right to be sad.”
“You have the right to be anything you need to be. Why do I sense so much loss in you?”
Moments passed before she answered. When she finally began to speak, he watched the cat jump back into her lap and her other hand slide deep into the fur.
“My family wasn’t… Damn, I try so hard to forget my childhood, but it’s apparent I never will. My mother was abusive. Physically, emotionally. Criminally bad. She beat my older brother and me. Often. Badly. We had no one to turn to, so we just endured. Endured. That’s the word I use, but the truth is we just tried to survive. My brother Eddie couldn’t take it anymore, so he left when he was fifteen. My mother locked me in my room so I couldn’t.”
“Dear Gods.”
“It’s okay. I made it through. Eddie didn’t. When you’re told every day that you’re stupid and ugly, it’s pretty hard to come out well on the other side. Eddie took his life when he was twenty years old.”
She dropped her gaze. “I think he felt awful that he left me behind. It got worse afterward and I think he couldn’t live with that.”
“I’m sorry. Ah, Sophi, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay. I’m okay. I made it through and I have a good life now. You see, Raoul and I didn’t date. We were kind of a support group for each other. He came from the same neighborhood and while his parents weren’t as bad as my mother, he and his sisters had it rough too.”
“I’ve never been exposed to anyone who could do that to their children.”
Tears welled, and she lifted the hand curved into Odysseus to touch his cheek when she noticed Kwano’s eyes were wet. “Wow. Tears from a vampire. Now that’s something I bet Raoul never saw.”
Sophi took a deep breath. “Look, we all have our journeys and mine led me here to my own sanctuary where I can do what I want to do. I’m happy here.”
“You are a brave woman, Sophi Martin.”
“Yeah, I am.” Continuing to study Kwano’s face, emboldened by the odd feelings his compulsion had created, Sophi slid her hand down and cupped Kwano’s cheek, then lower, over thick muscles. She’d felt a man’s chest before, mostly in a clinical setting, never something so sensuous.
“Can I tell you that you’re spectacular? Vampire, huh? You’re not here to hurt me? To eat me?”
Kwano’s chuckle surprised her. “I’m really not. We do feed, but we don’t kill. Many times, we feed during sex to take an orgasm from incredible to intoxicating.”
An orgasm. Sex. Sophi wasn’t a puritan, she’d had sex. Six years ago she had dated a nice young man who worked in one of the labs at the clinic. Sex with him had been pleasant; the close connection to another human being had been nice. But it wasn’t anything that made her beg for more.
Since, then, she’d tried again at a romantic relationship two more times, her dates uninspiring and the one time she had intercourse with each of them, the experiences were what she always thought of as lukewarm when what she had been looking for was something hot.
Sophi scanned the mass of masculine perfection sitting on her couch, touching her hand, dark eyes showing sympathy for her messed-up childhood.
Vampire. Sexual animals, bloodletting, an intoxicating orgasm. She wanted an intoxicating orgasm. And girls like her rarely had a chance at a man like this.
Having just experienced compulsion when forced to say something she never would have, Sophi knew how it felt, and she knew that was she was going to say next was not compelled by Kwano. The twitching between her legs told her that it was all her own idea. Could she really ask something like this of him? Could she trust instincts that told her this man in front of her was no danger to her?
“Would you…”
My God, was she actually going to do this? Ask him?
Yes, she was. She had never had a truly satisfying sexual encounter like she saw in countless books and vids. She’d never be this close to such an erotic moment again.
“Would I what?”
“I’ve never been with someone like you. Life’s too short for missed opportunities, so…”
Gently pushing Odysseus off her lap, Sophi slid closer to her vampire intruder, well aware that this was all kinds of wrong. Heavens, he smelled like sex!
“You’ll find I’m not shy, but I am curious. I’m tired of living safe. Kwano, would you do what you just said that you can do? To me? Feed from me? Give me an intoxicating orgasm?”
He looked shocked. She could almost see his withdrawal from her.
Shooting off the couch, Sophi nearly tripped, her hands in the air as if trying to erase the request.
“Of course you won’t. It’s okay. I know I’m not pretty. Not sexy. I’ve made it clear I’m certainly not skilled. It was just a ridiculous idea.”
Kwano was in front of her, capturing her flying hands, using impression to calm her agitation. “Sophi. Sophi, stop. You just caught me off guard. That’s the last thing I would have expected you to ask. Sex and feeding with a vampire is incredibly intimate. Just moments ago you thought vampires were mindless killers. I just had to process this.”
“You’re right. But you understand what I mean? I’ve never had an orgasm, not with a man. I’d like to experience that. And, if you can’t give me one, it can’t be done. You are so damn beautiful.”
Kwano’s gaze slid over Sophi. She’d forgotten she was just wearing a bra and her uniform pants. Swallowing hard, she knew what he saw. A bony woman with tiny breasts that wouldn’t come close to filling his hand. Pale as a ghost. Nothing sexy at all. Nothing remarkable at all.
He probably couldn’t even get it up for her.
“Forget it.” Sophi walked away, but only made it a few steps when her head spun again, her balance lost again.
Held in Kwano’s arms, Sophi grabbed his neck.
“You just told me I am beautiful. So are you. I am going to make love to you thoroughly, and Sophi Martin, you will have that intoxicating orgasm.”
In her bedroom, Kwano stripped the ugly scrubs off her and let his eyes drink in every inch, few though they were. She was beautiful.
“You glow, Sophi. There is so much love and beauty in you, you know that don’t you?”
She couldn’t answer.
“Do you know what an aura is?”
“I know what they’re supposed to be.”
“Auras are real, too, and yours shines like the sun.”
Her smile made his desire surge when he used air-displacement to remove all his clothes. He started to lower himself to the bed when she pushed up onto her knees and crawled across it.
“Wait. Let me touch you.”
Sophi used both hands, and started at Kwano’s neck, slid them down his body, lingering, caressing, over muscled arms across a broad smooth chest, lower, lower, over hard-cut abdominals, a flat belly, to a long thick cock poking toward her. Her breathing quickened, closing one hand over the throbbing organ, she massaged and twisted her fingers until it wept from the tip.
That was all he could take. Kwano moved her to the mattress on her back and lifted up to capture her nipples in his teeth. As erect as his cock, they were ready to play. Teasing her breasts, he heard the moan that let him know she was ready for more. So was he.
His body lifted so he wouldn’t crush her, Kwano nipped all around her neck, just pinpricks.
“Will it hurt?” The question came out on a whisper.
His answer was a sharp bite, his teeth buried beneath her skin, her blood, sweet, delicious, flowing into his mouth.
“No, it doesn’t,” she murmured as her hand went to his chest and she spread her legs, waiting to feel him.
Pulling from the feed, Kwano used all the control he could muster and entered slowly, aware she hadn’t had sex in some time, his desire to plunge strong, but he wouldn’t hurt her for anything.
Sophi wrapped her hands around his buttocks and pushed him closer, pushed him in, and tightened her legs around him as he got the message and began to move in her.
Long minutes later, as she tightened down, waves of unbelievable pleasure, she came, her body finally understanding the joy of sexual connection to another human begin. “God! Yes!”
An hour later, before he closed the door to her apartment behind him, Kwano removed all memory of the vampire world from Sophi’s mind. The intoxicating orgasm, and him telling her how beautiful she was, he left.
At Hunter HQ
Everyone had arrived except Dani.
“She’s on her way,” Eva told them. “Be patient. This whole thing is strange enough as it is.”
Sanquinetta nursed an Irish coffee. “I still don’t quite understand what happened.”
Kwano, slicing apart an apple with a sharp blade not meant for food, looked at her. “First bloods. First bloods who announced their intention to attack us. This could be catastrophic.”
Dani’s voice preceded her as she entered the room.
“You bet your hard ass it will.”
Jack watched her storm into the break room where the others had been waiting. “Have they contacted you again?”
“No, but I had an interesting day. Once I fell asleep, I discovered an embedded message Quattro must have done with our proximity and shared magic. It came to me like a dream, but once I woke, I knew it for what it was.”
She had everyone’s attention now.
Gathered around their breakroom table, Kwano and Jack in the front, Eva and San on the sides across from each other, and Saul at the rear, Dani paced back and forth, finding her words.
Stopping and turning toward them, she began.
“While I slept, my memory unwound several moments with Quattro that I couldn’t access awake. While we danced, he implanted what seems to be an introductory and explanatory message.”
After pausing to define the statement, she began to relay the message. “There are four of them, but only two are first blood, the ones we met last night, Quattro and Felix. The other two were made by them, one each. They call themselves the Four Horsemen.”
Eva noticed everyone’s expressions of sudden concern and downright shock.
“Why the four horsemen? They ride horses? I don’t get it.”
“It’s an old legend,” Kwano explained. “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Originally, characters from the last book of the Old Testament in the Christian faith. They’ve named themselves after four soldiers known as War, Pestilence, Famine, and finally, Death. It isn’t good that they call themselves by that name.”
Dani shook her head. “No, guys, it isn’t. They’re guns for hire, have been for centuries, but only recently has Quattro become bored. He has been searching for a challenge and feels that he has found it in us. First blood to first blood. A battle between good and evil. Only I think he believes that his horsemen are the good ones in this case. He believes that vampires who kill vampires, for any reason, are assassins against the universal order. Humans are of little consequence.”
Her eyes moved to Sanquinetta and then Eva.
“Except for us, apparently, ladies. He is obsessed with our trio of feminine talent. Female warriors. Quattro believes the universe, that destiny, has pitted us, the Hunters, and them, the Horsemen, in one epic battle, winner take all.”
“Fu-u-u-c-c-k-k.”
Jack drew the word out because the single syllable spat out didn’t seem big enough for this crazy shit. The danger was clear. What they would face with this bizarre group wasn’t.
No one else had anything to say until Saul cleared his throat and spoke. “Dani, why has he chosen to reveal himself through you?”
Sharp eyes stabbed Saul. “How would I know?”
She’d taken offence, it was obvious, and he tried to step out of the hole he’d dug. “I only meant that he chose you and perhaps there’s a reason. A connection from your past, maybe? Did you recognize him or his companion at all?”
He knew he’d failed when she answered him one tight-lipped word at a time.
“No, Saul, I didn’t. If I had, I would have said so.”
Time to back down. “I’m sorry. Yes, of course you would have.”
Dani knew she’d overreacted. Her hypersensitivity to Saul wasn’t getting any better.
Releasing a frustrated sigh, she looked directly at Saul, then the others. “I really don’t know where they came from or what they plan for us. I told you exactly what this Quattro guy wanted us to know. I felt him in my head. He’s excited about this battle. They’re coming for us, but I’m pretty sure he’s going to play with us first. We have to be ready for anything.”
“Yup.” Sanquinetta rose and stood next to Dani.
“From here on out, we travel in teams. One human, one vampire. I get Jack. Kwano, you’re paired with Dani. Eva, you and Saul. We stay in touch at all times. Eva, see what the net might have on these guys.”
Evaleigh nodded. “Any idea where I should start?” Her gaze went to Dani.
No one had any answers.
“Okay, then. I’m going back over our last few missions. They came from somewhere, and it only makes sense that they came across us somewhere recently. They know we hunt vampires, so it’s likely during one of our own hunts.”
“You’re brilliant. Do it, Eva, and keep us apprised of any findings at once. Kwano, you were raised first blood. Saul’s still kind of new to it, so I’m going to rely on you to let me know what a first blood might try in order to win a battle with another first blood. I gotta know what we’re up against to plan our defense.”
“Of course.”
Evaleigh was already in front of her computer.
Sanquinetta turned toward the other hunters around the table. “Vampires.”
Jack stood at attention, Saul came up to stand beside Kwano, his eyes moving between Sanquinetta and Dani, who pretended to watch Evaleigh.
“Do a complete perimeter check. See if there’s any sign of surveillance. Have these assholes been watching us? Check all the way out to the end of our drive. Go.”
“Pushy,” commented Jack, but he hurried out the door.
One left, Sanquinetta faced her final crew member.
“Dani.”
“Yes, San?”
“Saul may have been a little over jealous, but he isn’t wrong. This Quattro guy has something for you. And you leaned into him without your usual caution, so something is going on. Can you go into a spirit meditation and see if you can discover anything else?”
“Absolutely. I’d like to do that at home. I feel kind of vulnerable when I go under.”
“I get it. Sure. If anything comes to light, you know where I’ll be. Either way, you need some sleep, so after you’re finished, hop in bed. If I’m right, you didn’t feel too rested after that weird dream message.”
“No, I did not. Wow. Evil first bloods. Who’d have thunk it? San, if they come for us, I think I should connect with some of the other earth warriors to see if they can help.”
“If we need to. Let’s see what the threat is first. Go home, Dani. I’ll see you tomorrow night unless you discover something helpful.”
“Goodnight. ‘Night, Eva.”
“Good luck, gal. We’re all on it now.”
As Dani moved through the entry door, she scanned the hillsides that surrounded their headquarters. The night she first stopped here after accepting the position, she remembered the ominous foreboding as a sharp wind tore at her. Had they been near that night? Was it possible they had been watching them for months? If so, that changed the timeline.
“Something wicked…” she whispered out loud as she climbed into her lift-car and headed back to try to find anything that could bring clarity to what they all faced now.
Half a bottle of wine and several sugary treats later, Dani, wearing only her favorite satin nightgown, sat on her bedroom balcony, the doors open, the sea calm, a growing moon peeking at her, and went into a spiritual meditation.
Not quite as far into the spirit realm as many vampires could travel, she could still access a place where events in her life became clearer, where memories were sharper, and where details were found before they were lost. Maybe there was something?
Breathing slowed, eyes closed, she scanned the past few months of memories focusing on that first night here, on their missions, specifically noticing anyone around them, any odd feelings, things or people out of place. Nothing tagged her as unusual, perhaps pertaining to any of the four men she now knew targeted herself and her friends.
Sometime later, how long she did not know, Dani pulled herself from her mind’s eye and slowly came awake again. The moon had moved quite a lot, so she knew she’d been under a while.
San would be disappointed, having become accustomed to magic offering extra help in their endeavors. In this case, Eva might be more effective in discovering information, although that was less likely than normal too, since vampires were exceptional at staying off grid.
Still, any and all information might be helpful, and research and surveillance was all they had right now.
Standing carefully, the spirit walks often left her unbalanced, Dani watched the shoreline. It was pretty during daylight, but she’d become accustomed to its moody nighttime personality. Taking a deep breath, she knew that San was right. Still exhausted, she’d try to sleep until tonight. Turning to head back into her bedroom, she jumped when she saw the silhouette of a man moving through her bedroom door.
“Dani, it’s me.”
“Saul?”
Saul was here?
“What the hell are you doing in my bedroom?”
“I wanted to check on you. Make sure you were okay.”
“You could have called.”
“No. I couldn’t.”
He moved through the darkened room and onto the balcony.
She noticed he paused, his eyes on her attire, the smooth satin fabric of her gown pressed by a light breeze against her, her nipples visible through the thin material. Unable to do any differently, her own eyes went to Saul’s enormous body so near her bed, and felt tickling between her legs, an erotic tug that she told herself wasn’t welcome.
“Um, I needed to see you. The threat may be against all of us, but that first blood, he definitely wants you. You’re in danger, Dani.”
“Not here.”
“Especially here. You don’t think he’s planning to end up in your bed? I’m certain he does.”
Dani rolled her eyes and moved closer to her unexpected visitor in spite of the fact that she knew it was a bad idea. She already wanted to touch him.
“Saul, I’m fine. You don’t have to babysit me.”
“That’s not exactly the right word for what I want to do.”
He’d said it. Dani almost pressed her hand between her legs to massage the throbbing space.
Saul searched the room behind him, shaking his head.
“It’s exactly as I dreamed it. Exactly. How is that possible? I’ve never seen this room before tonight.”
“What do you mean?”
“After I rescued you, I, uh, had a dream. About us.”
“Yes, you did. You mentioned it.”
He smiled. “The weird part is that this room, this balcony, are exactly like in my dream. How could I know that?”
Moving close, Dani wrapped her fingers around his arm, aware it was a mistake. “Saul, you’re a dreamwalker. Think about it. We had a conversation in the dream about this talent. I was there, Saul, in the dream. We shared it.”
“I do remember now, that in the dream, you called me that. Are you saying that what I dreamed, happened?”
“In a way. We shared the experience, yes, but not in the real world. On the dream plane, but it can feel just as real. We both remember it as if it happened.”
“That seems impossible. Dani, I’m sorry. It appears I invade your life every time I get near you.”
Dani didn’t know what to say.
Saul still had trouble understanding it. “So we were both there? The dream was real?”
“As real as a dream can be. We both remember everything we did and felt in a dreamwalker’s dream.”
It was apparent to both that they remembered the moment that Saul, naked, slipped between her legs and Dani let him.
Their eyes met again.
Dani backed up. “It’s a bad idea. We work together.”
His voice lower, deeper yet, Saul nodded. “I agree. It’s a bad idea.”
Continuing to move away from him, Dani’s back hit the deck railing and stopped her there. “Um. You’re a vampire, you have your pick of women.”
“That’s true.”
“So you should go get one. Find someone else.”
Dani struggled to breathe as Saul walked toward her.
“I don’t want someone else.”
In seconds, he’d blasted toward her and lifted her up to sit on the edge of the balcony railing, his hands curved around her bare buttocks. Afraid of falling over the side of the second story balcony, she pitched forward and grabbed Saul’s neck, his scent, so near, intoxicating.
Dani let her hands sneak up into that thick honeyed hair, knowing if she continued touching him, she wouldn’t stop. “I don’t want you with someone else,” she whispered, low enough to hope he hadn’t heard, but he had.
It was the permission he sought. Saul pushed between her legs, his mouth on hers, tentative until he felt her fingertips dig into his scalp as she yanked him to her, and then all restraint was gone. While Dani held him to her, Saul’s cock, filling, trapped in his pants, rubbed against her satin gown and what was trapped beneath.
Dani ground herself against him; he tasted like heaven on her tongue.
Saul knew he’d never get enough of her scent and flavor. Minutes passed as the kiss deepened and their desires flared, flamed so hot, Saul groaned, lifted her and used his talent to move them to her bed. Both naked, pressing her down, Saul left her mouth to kiss along her jawline, then to her neck, beneath her ear.
“You’re tasting me,” she whispered, amused.
“You’ve been tasting me.”
“I have. Saul, we have a monstrous fight ahead of us. I can’t keep fighting you too. You can’t keep fighting me. Let’s get this out of our system, once and for all. Fuck me. But make it good, you’re my first vampire. I expect a lot.”
“I won’t disappoint,” Saul promised, and thought I’m your last vampire too.
“I’m going to lick you and bite you from top to bottom, but right now, we’ve waited too long, I need to taste you, to pump into you.”
In answer, Dani closed her eyes and tilted her head back as she reached for Saul’s throbbing cock, fingertips gliding over the head. He was so big, so beautifully alive and hot and thick and she needed him in her as much as he needed to be there.
Beyond ready, Saul chose to bury his cock in Dani first, before his teeth, and, her legs wide, moving up to rest on his back, he played for moments at the slit, rubbing against her, as long as he could stand, and then plunged in, deep, the thickness, the heat, forcing a moan of pleasure she couldn’t have muffled for all the stars in the sky.
“Oh.” Try to breathe. “Gods…”
All she could think at that second was that he was made to fit inside her. He belongs in me…
When he punctured her to feed, the sharp stings fired erotic waves, and she clenched down on him as tight as she could, her calves riding his back, her core muscles pulsing along his cock.
Lifting from her neck, Saul nuzzled against her cheek, moaning. “You keep milking me like that, I won’t last.”
“Come, vampire. Pump into me.”
He didn’t need anything else, not in all the world, Saul pounded into Dani, her body lifting to meet him, thrust for thrust, the fast in and out fueling rising pleasure until he pulsed as he came, spilling into her as her own orgasm surged and she cried out.
Dani opened her eyes to see sparkles of light dance across the ceiling and walls, her hands gripping Saul’s shoulders, her legs collapsed against his back.
Detangling their limbs, Saul rolled to Dani’s side, burying his face into her neck, taking a moment to lick the wounds to seal them.
“Ye-e-e-a-a-h-h,” he breathed into her ear, his respiration still rapid.
“Yeah.” Dani couldn’t think of a better word for what the two of them had just experienced, because he had delivered exactly what he promised. A connection, sexual, yes, but deeper, he’d touched her core, reaching into parts of her that had never been awake.
Saul, lying beside her, both of them spent, felt right.
After long moments, Dani felt Saul’s teeth scrape along her neck, arousal flaring again.
His voice low, deeper than usual, sexier because of it, caused tugging between her legs.
“Dani. We failed. I don’t think I got you out of my system. Once is not enough.”
Gods, she wanted him! Dani rolled into him, her hands in his hair, her lips on his. She needed to taste him again.
Would she ever get enough?
The kiss softened from desperate to gentle, tongues pulled back, Saul gently nipping Dani’s lips.
“I have to go. Sun rises soon. All this glass makes for a crispy vampire.”
Rising from the bed, he went onto his knees and kissed her hand as she reached for him.
“This has only just started, you realize that.”
Nodding, Dani’s admission clear.
“I know. We work together.”
“It’s going to be all right. Work and this, us, we’ll keep separate. But I’m going to come inside you over and over, my beautiful huntress.”
He left her with that, dressed, and gone in a flash.
Dani rolled onto her back, the sheets tangled now, and moved a hand down to slide her fingers through the wetness he left behind. She had never expected to be with a vampire, had never wanted to, but with Saul, after tonight, it was apparent he was right…once with him would never be enough.