Richard: Blood Brotherhood – Erotic Paranormal Dark Fantasy Romance (7 page)

~~~

Rick watched Ryiah. They’d gone back to their room over an hour ago and he’d been afraid to touch her. She still held her father’s sword, hers now, he supposed, in her hand. He knew that she couldn’t harm him, but accidents could happen and she was stressing enough without adding him being stupid and getting hurt to the list. He wanted to ask her what else she’d come across in reading the marks on their bodies and if she knew how to use them. Remy and Skylar were out now playing with the ones she had read of theirs, and having a grand time of it.

“Do you have a mark as well?” Rick told her that he did, in the same place as hers. “My mother didn’t. I’m not sure why, but she didn’t. At least, I never saw it. And had she had one, I’m sure she would have been showing everyone.”

“Hunter said that the sword would have come to you, but the fact that you could take it out to use means that it feels you’re worthy of it and safe. Perhaps it didn’t think your mother was.” Ryiah snorted. “Were you mistreated by her as well?”

“In an indirect way, I guess. She would have others say things to me, get them to harm me. Mostly it was through Lucia.” Ryiah turned and looked at him. “Hunter told me that I have an army larger than my father’s was. That there are more faeries willing to come and help me than she’d ever seen.”

“Before she came to talk to you, she told us how you would sit at the woods and give them treats. That you’d warn them when Lucia was coming for them. You even devised a way for them to get out of the house before you came here.” Ryiah nodded. “Did you really think that you would be killed coming here?”

“I did. I even hoped for it. She’d sent a few people to come for you before it occurred to her that I might die when I did it. When she was told that they couldn’t cross over the barrier with the idea to kidnap you, she told them to simply not think about it. Like that was supposed to work. Twice that I’m aware of the people simply stopped coming back. I believe they’re here. Where they can be safe.” He nodded, thinking that she more than likely had told them to do that. “What happens now?”

“What do you mean?” She told him her thoughts. “You and I are a couple. And you stay here with me. Unless you wish to move elsewhere. But wherever you go, that’s where I’ll go as well.”

“Chris and Kate are going to live among the humans for a few weeks at a time. Can you tell me why?”

“Yes. Remy wanted to make sure that when this is over with Benton and the monsters, we can slide into living with people again without standing out. It’s also a way to see if we can be out there being as marked up as we are. But I guess you cleared that up for us now, so I’m not sure what will happen. I believe that they have already purchased a home and are currently moving things into it.” She nodded. “Would you like to do that as well?”

“No. I don’t care for people for the most part. I mean, I can get along with them, but I’m not terribly trusting. I don’t have a real skill other than to be afraid all the time.” He thought that wasn’t quite true but said nothing as she continued. “You’ve taken my blood. I mean, I have yours as well. But it doesn’t seem to have any ill effects on you. I mean, as you have pointed out, I’m a faerie and you’re a vampire.”

“I actually thought of that while we were in the shower this morning. Drinking from a faerie should make me nuts. At least a little nuttier than I am usually. But while I can feel the power of it, the way it makes me feel like I can lift buildings, I don’t feel as if I have to drain you every time I’m close to you. I do, however, want to lay you out and feast on some of your other very tasty parts.”

“I’d like that as well.” She lay back on the bed and he stood up. “Did you know that we can be naked should we want? With just a thought?”

He had, but when she was naked for him, like she was now, all he could think about was how much of her he wanted to taste. How he’d like nothing better than to start at one end of her and not stop until he was at the other, tasting and touching every part of her as he went.

Dropping to his knees where her hips were just hanging over the bed, he touched his fingers to her flesh just above the juncture at her thighs.

“I can taste the difference in your skin when you’re aroused. Like right now, if I were to bite you here I know that the blood would be hot, spiced just enough for me to get a buzz from it, because you’re ready for me.” He kissed the area before moving to the pulse at her thigh. “Here I know that I could feed well. The blood would be hotter still, taste like you’re ready to come, and when you do, I will be able to not just smell you, but I could actually taste where your body gives off the endorphins that taste only of you.”

“Touch me again, Rick.” He did so now, kissing her first then sinking his fangs into the warm vein that lay just at the surface of her skin. When she cried out, he slid his finger into her sheath and fucked her slowly as he drank deeply from her. And when she came again, he tasted her pussy with his tongue after sealing the small wounds.

She rode his mouth, giving him so much of her cream that he knew that no matter how fast he drank from her, he was missing a great deal. And when she came a third and fourth time, he lifted his head up but continued fucking her with his fingers. She was beautiful. A tame word, he thought, but that was all he could think of at the moment.

Willing his clothing away, he wrapped his hand tightly around his cock and fisted himself while he watched her. He thought her to have the most perfect body he’d ever had the pleasure of seeing. And it was all his.

“Come here to me, Rick. I want to ride your cock.” He moved to the bed, making sure to lick any part of her that he could reach. Her nipples, her navel. He even touched his tongue to her hip and ribs. Nothing about her was off-limits, and when he lay back on the bed, he held his cock in his hand while she slid down over him. The look of pleasure on her face was nearly his undoing. He rose up into her twice before she told him to be still.

“What do I do? I have thought of nothing but having your cock inside of me for hours, but I don’t know what to do now.” He put his hands on her hips and rolled her forward slightly. “Oh yes. More of that. I love the way you feel. So deep and hard.”

He let her pick the pace, but feeling her slowly ride him was almost as painful as it was when she slid over him fast. Each time that she was close to coming she’d stop, holding herself as still as she could while her body milked him. As her juices ran down his body and over his balls, Rick had to grab the sheets so as not to flip her to her back and take her hard enough to empty himself deep within her.

Her hands were on her breasts, pulling and pinching her nipples. Then she would tug at his, nearly making him beg her to finish him. When she leaned down, crying out when she came, in her excitement she bit down hard on his nipple and drew blood. Rick held her there while she fed from him, lifting his hips up to fuck her while she did so.

“Take me.”

He didn’t have to be told twice. Rolling her to her back, her legs wrapped around his waist, Rick fucked her as hard as he could, pounding her hard enough to move her up over the bed until he had to hold her there. When he was close, feeling his impending climax roll over him, he leaned into her throat and bit down. His release had him howling against her skin, the power of it nearly making him black out as everything he had seemed to spill from his cock into her.

Blood flooded his mouth, spilling over his lips and making him swallow twice as he felt his body ready for a second powerful climax. Lifting her to him by cupping her firm ass, holding her body as close to him as he could, he begged her to bite him and offered his throat. But instead of biting him there, she slashed her hand over his heart and laid her mouth over the open wound. This type of bonding, he knew, was what changed humans to vampires, and he wondered briefly what it would do to her, if anything. Rick took her wrist to his mouth and bit down on her even as his climax took him under.

He woke only seconds later, her body still beneath his, and Rick rolled to his back, taking her with him until he could catch his breath. When he was able to, a good ten minutes had passed and he sat on the side of the bed and stretched out his beaten muscles. Christ, if they kept this up, he’d be dead within a week. Going to the bathroom, leaving her to rest, he looked in the mirror at the man staring back at him.

He’d been tatted before she’d come into his life, but he could see that he’d had more art added in the last few hours. In addition to the sword that had been on his forearm, there were more glyphs than there had been, as well as a few words that had been added to the one at his throat. He could read them now. Not just the old language, but he could also make out the drawings and what they meant as well. He was staring at one particular sentence when Remy touched his mind.

The marking that I have on my chest, the one that you said was a dragon, did you know what it meant when you said I could call it to me?
He told him no, he’d only been able to tell him what it said.
Well, you should come and see what I’ve discovered. Or what we’ve discovered. I’m telling you, Rick, that someday I’m going to look at this and go, yes, I know just what that means. I don’t think I’ve ever been so frustrated in my life.

You’re sounding a little like that now.
Leaving the bathroom, he looked down at Ryiah as she slept.
Do you suppose that when she calls to the army, as Hunter said she could, we can defeat Benton once and for all?

I’ve been thinking on that as well. And I’ve a feeling that we cannot do that, defeat him that is, until we are twelve.
He asked him what he meant.
I think we’re only biding our time, getting more and more powerful all the time, until Nate’s love gets here. I’ve a feeling, as does my Skylar, that we’re going to be at our best when she gets here. I can only imagine what she’ll bring to our brotherhood.

For some reason Rick didn’t think it would be that easy. That even as strong as they’d be at twelve, Benton would still be something hard to bring down. Even as beaten as he was, they still hadn’t been able to kill the monster. They’d been trying for a long time and had only, in all this time, managed to hurt him off and on. Things had to change soon. Rick wanted to play at being a mate to his faerie.

Letting Ryiah sleep, he went to find Remy and the others. He was both surprised and pleased to see Nate there. He was getting…well, stronger might be the wrong word to use with him, but he was getting better. Rick hoped that when his mate did come to him that she wasn’t going to be afraid of the big man.

Chapter 6

Benton buried his tail and decided at that moment that he was going to go and kill Rembrandt. He’d been fooling with him long enough. Pulling his shovel out of the soil, he watched as the ground bubbled up first, then spit out the acidic liquid that had been leaking out of the end of the tail when he’d brought it here. Then he watched as the dirt surrounding the grave blackened and burned, as if poison had been put in it.

“Serves you right for what you’ve done to me. And should you wish to blame someone, ‘tis not me. I have nothing to do with this poison you have. You must blame Rembrandt and those men of his. They’re the ones that never listen to me and die. What should you do if I were to plant his dead body into your belly?” He thought it more than likely the soil would grow strong trees and pretty flowers. “You would to, wouldn’t you?”

As he made his way back to his cave, he could feel his body getting stronger. He wasn’t sure what it was that had brought about this change, but he was going to make plans and carry them out. It was time for this to end. As he put his things away, having cleaned his entire cave well this morning, he looked around his dwelling and smiled.

“’Tis fit for a king, I think.”

He’d tried living in the houses below, the large buildings that had so many nice things in them that he wanted to own them all. But his size and his body had kept him from entering the dwellings, both taking out walls and collapsing floors. In one home he’d even fallen through the yard and into a kind of sublevel compartment. He’d been so angry about someone hiding things from him that he’d destroyed the house as well as the three on either side of it. That was when he found the box.

At first his only thought was to toss it aside. But when it rattled, much like his medicine box had when Randall had shown him the wonders of the drugs that he’d drank, he decided to see what it was about. Picking it up carefully the second time, he opened it up and found all sorts of wonders. But the stones had startled him.

There were perhaps fifty of them, all in different colors and sizes. Most were as big as his palm, their richness so wonderful that he’d nearly taken them all to the chamber in his heart. The few that were smaller, but not by much, were plentiful too. Setting it aside, as one would a great treasure, he began looking for other such boxes of stones.

The house was filled with them. Some of them were behind glass that had light shining over them. Some had been made into things to wear. He had no idea why someone would do such a thing to something so precious, but he laid them with the others, putting them down and arranging them until he had them just right. But he found more and more as he began to search, and when he’d exhausted what was there, he moved to the next house, then the next. That was when he came upon a large building that looked much like the lab in the other realm.

He couldn’t read. He had an idea that someone had tried to show him his letters long ago, but that memory, like a great deal of other things in his head, was muddled around. But he found papers that had pictures of the stones that he wanted. When he made his way into the big building, being careful where he walked, he found more stones than he’d ever seen in all his life. And not just the magical ones that would serve him, but brightly colored ones that were all the colors of the earth as well. And they were displayed as if they knew he was coming. Someone, he thought, knew how to treat a man such as himself.

It had taken him the better part of the day to gather them all. Some of them had been crushed in his haste to get them all, but he knew that even the dust of them could bring him such happiness. Getting things to carry them in with his one good arm had been difficult as well, but he managed. And when he’d come across some bags made of some material that he’d never encountered before, he was able to load a great many of them into these and hang them from his spikes at his back and what was left of his tail. Taking them back to his dwelling, he had laid all the bags in a neat row and looked around. The place hadn’t been fit for such a man, he’d thought.

He’d been living in a dump. Master had decided that the mess did not suit his newfound wealth either, and he began piling the trash that he’d just tossed anywhere into the pit he’d been using as a fire. Setting a flame to it, he’d been so warm for the first time in weeks that he’d had to leave his home for a few moments to cool down. That, too, was so gratifying, beginning to feel so alive.

When he’d had it cleaned to his standards, hating that he’d had to do it all on his own but loving that he was getting somewhere, Master sat down and looked at the bounty that he’d found. And there was so much of it too. Dumping them out on the ground, he started to separate them into piles of the same size, and had to pause several times to think they were really his.

“I shall only limit myself to one or two a day.” He knew that he’d already used over a dozen of the smaller ones, but that was all right, he told himself. He’d been without for so long, it was a treat. “But no more treats. I must kill Rembrandt, then have his men find me more such stones. I will make a few adherents to help me with this, but I won’t be making hundreds. A few very strong good men will get me more than five hundred that cannot think for themselves.”

He felt like he’d gained some of his planning skills back as well. He could think out complete thoughts without losing where he’d been. Mary wasn’t bothering him now either, not as much anyway. He’d been strong enough to cut her out of his life and to call for Dolin and Ward. They were going to be helpful where Mary had only been mean and hurtful to him. Putting the stones back into the bags now by size, he knew that he was going to win this war against Rembrandt and his brotherhood of fools.

Master wanted to lay out the treasures and look at them again, but didn’t. He was fearful that someone would come and see them and try to take them from him. It would be like Rembrandt to do such a thing to him. The man had been most unhelpful in letting him rule, but things were going to change and soon.

“He was never your friend. You know that now, don’t you?” He nodded at Dolin when he spoke to him. “If you were smart, and I know that you are, you’d spread the treasures all around your home so that if he should come here he’d not find them all.”

“But what if I have a darkness take me? What should I do if I cannot remember where I have stashed them? My memory is getting stronger, but I should hate to lose such a gift. I need to be much better before I do such a thing as that.” Ward said that was a good point. That was why he was in charge. “Yes, I am in charge now. You are a good man to finally admit to me being the superior of the three of you.”

“I had always thought you to be in charge, Benton. It was Mary that made it so that you were not.” Master had always thought that but said nothing. He was going to be kinder in his newfound wealth. “When do you go and get him? I should like to see his face when he realizes that you have bested him yet again.”

“It will be a very wonderful day indeed.”

Master looked at the bags of stones. Not all of them were ones that had been coveted on the other realm. There were a few diamonds, as well as some red and green stones that he’d mixed with the others. He had wanted to try these out, put them in the chamber of his heart made to hold magic, but he was actually afraid. What if it were to deplete his newly found strength? He looked at his still useless arm and wondered how he would repair it.

“You might be able to cut it off, as you did your tail. It is not any good anyway.” He started to point out that he needed it to fly when Ward answered Dolin for him. “Oh yes. But since I do not fly, that might not have occurred to me right away. Yes, I believe him right to have you leave it there. You will need to fly at times.”

“Yes, as you said, I can fly so I will just leave it where it is for now. Weak as it is, it still keeps me above the man I wish to kill.” And he wanted Rembrandt dead. And that woman of his. “She has caused me much damage in recent weeks. And for what reason, I ask you? I did nothing to her other than try to kill her. That is no reason for her to harm me. If she, like the rest of them, would just do as I have asked, nicely, I might point that out too. But they keep trying and trying to harm me, and now I must make them pay the price.”

He pulled one of the bags toward him and dumped the contents on the ground again. They were so lovely, he thought. The colors were brilliant, like someone had polished them just for him. He picked up a green one that had a long white stripe in the middle of it. As he looked closer at it, he plucked two more from the ground at random and put them in his chamber.

“Just in case.” He laid the green one down again and made his way out of his dwelling. Taking to the skies, he was amazed at how much power he seemed to have. He could think better too, feeling like he was in control of what was going on in his head. Landing near the building that had given him so much, he went inside again to find if he might have left any behind. It was then that he saw the man.

“You will come with me.” The man moved back from him and told him no. “I did not ask should you like to. I said that you will. You will enjoy what I have in mind for you. Serving me will give you the greatest pleasure. You must know this.”

When he reached out to grab him, he was thwarted in his efforts when something hit him in the face. As he looked in the direction that it had come from, he saw creatures. Many, many of them. He put out his hand to grab them too. Instead, they parted like the water did when he stepped into it, as if he were nothing more than a pebble to them.

He looked to the man again, to tell him to make them come to him, and noticed that he was gone. Master peered closer to where he’d been and found a pit in the floor, one with a large door. Tearing it away, he was shocked to see more treasures there, none of them stones like he needed, but things he might use anyway. Everyone knew that if it was hidden away like these things were, they were of value. A value that might come in handy soon when he was master of this realm.

He was looking for more of the nice bags when he heard Dolin tell him he was losing ground again. Master looked to the creatures in the corner.

“Come to me so that I might be able to kill you.” The one in front only shook her head. It wasn’t until he reached for her that he saw that she had wings. “What are you?”

“Faerie. And we know what you are too. You’re a monster.” He thought her to be calling him names, but he realized that she might not know any better than to insult him. Her brain would be so small there wasn’t any way that she’d be as smart as he was. His brain, he knew, was considerably larger. “What are you doing here?”

“Why, I’m going to rule here. And very soon too. I’m to kill Rembrandt and his men. Then I will use his women to cater to my whims. Dolin and Ward, they came up with that idea and I thought it excellent. When I am—” Ward cut him off. “Oh yes. I’m to focus. Ward is very good at keeping me on track.”

She looked around and then at him. “There is no one with you. Are you addled as well?” When she flew closer to him, not enough so that he could touch her but enough that he could see her better, he realized how beautiful she was.

“I’m going to rule all creatures here. I was thinking that I have enough stone dust to perhaps change you into some of the creatures that will serve me. Come closer to me so that I can capture you and try it out. If you die, well, I guess we’ll both know that it won’t work.”

“I’m not going to come to you, you idiot. You’re not right in the head.” Again he wanted to cut her some slack, a term that while he didn’t really understand it, he’d heard Randall say a great deal. “If you seriously think that any of us are going to go to you willingly so that you can kill us, you’re nuttier than Lucia is. And she’s fucking nuts.”

“Such language.” He tisked at her and when she laughed, Master felt his temper get the better of him. “Come to me now so that I can kill you. I’ve decided that I’ve no use for something so small as you. Rembrandt has made me hurt so I cannot be as quick as I had been. Come here now so that I can end your life and get on with what I was doing before you rudely interrupted me.”

“No.” He watched her fly around the room and him several times as he tried to swat her. She was like a fly on the ass end of a horse. A fly and a horse. His mind stopped working as he thought of a memory, a long ago one. There had been horses, and he remembered thinking them dirty, so much so that even a fly would not land on them for long.

“Rembrandt wanted me to help him care for his ponies. Ponies, he called them, when everyone knew them to be horses. He was a stupid man. Forever giving things away when he could have bettered himself with them instead. I was always telling him that he should keep his things and not....” He looked at the creature. “Did you know that I murdered his wife and children? I had thought that he’d find it painful when I told him, but he only called me names and shoved me away. Is that any way to treat a friend?”

“Friend? You’re not a friend if you murdered his wife and children. And I don’t blame him for calling you names. You should have died instead of them. But I was right, you’re a monster.” He lunged after her, forgetting that he was still recovering, and his footing got tangled up. When he fell, his big body falling through the floor of the building, he felt a pain near his chamber that had him crying out just before the darkness took him.

~~~

“Is this the last of them?” Rick nodded at Chris and hefted the bag into the back of the truck. To think that had he not walked by the cameras at that moment, they might have had a war on their hands. As it was now, they had no idea how many agates Benton had already taken. Remy was standing in front of the opening of the cave when Rick went back to it.