Scion's Freedom (Siren Publishing Classic) (7 page)

“I’m not going to talk about him. I want to know why she didn’t think I could trust the police,” Cassy demanded. “You said it yourself. Only you and your captain know I’m here. Why? What’s the big secret? Cops are a tight-knit group as thick as thieves, unless they have good reason not to be.”

He sat staring at her. Stubborn silence filled the room. It was clear. He was not going to answer her. Her response was to sit back, crossing her legs. She folded her arms over her chest and worked on keeping her face smooth and expressionless. He stayed stonewalled.

“Fine,” Cassy said in her best even tone, “don’t tell me. I have an eternity to wait. Do you?”

After a solid half hour passed, they were still staring at each other. Cassy had not moved. David had begun to shift slightly in his seat. Humans could not be as stock-still as vampires. The statuesque pose was wearing on his nerves.

He broke. “I am a part of a new unit. We specialize in the supernatural. There isn’t a real hierarchy yet as to whom we answer, but so far, we work independently out of local precincts, usually in big cities. Over the last year, a number of supers have gone missing or been found dead. They were all over the country. There seemed to be randomness to it. Different ages, genders, and species were targets. There were even different MOs. It was hard to link together, at first. They were all politicians, economists, bankers, or journalists. The only thing they had in common was The Fall. Some were outspoken prior to its occurrence. Others predicted it but were hushed up in some way. They were all passing as humans at the time. Crime wasn’t limited to the individuals. Whole families have disappeared or been murdered. Then, six months ago, humans with ties to these victims started being targeted. You have been the sole survivor. That makes you very valuable real estate.” He stopped and waited.

“Why can’t I trust the police?”

“Most of the details aren’t on the news, and the links have been hidden. It means we have insiders, moles. The information doesn’t just get leaked. It flows like a river. No one person is responsible for this much. It takes a team or group. Maybe even an organization. Whoever this is stays ahead of us and has a lot of resources. Now, I need you to help me. Tell me what you know,” he demanded. After a moment, he changed his tone. “I can’t help you, or Erica, if you don’t.”

Cassy gave him an appraising eye. His reactions were right. There was no sudden adrenaline rush she could pick up on and no unusual muscle movements. He didn’t even blink more than he should have. She was sure he was telling her the truth. Instinct told her to trust him. She held eye contact and started talking.

“Halloween Eve Erica came home with a package containing a disk and a thumb drive. She said IT scanned the disk but not the drive for viruses. The disk held documents and photos. She didn’t tell me what they were. A sticky note attached to the disk cover told her to go to an abandoned burned-out shell. She took her camera guy and found a box of documents in the doorway. She brought them home, too. For nearly three weeks, she pored over them every waking minute. The night before she…” Cassy could not bring herself to say the word.

“It’s okay. Take your time,” David reassured. He patted her hand. She found it comforting.

“The night before…you know…she must have found something big. She told me the documents were related to a story she did prior to The Fall her then-editor didn’t want published. She told me The Fall had been orchestrated by both humans and supers. Someone wanted to reorder society.”

“Did she say who?”

“No. It was almost sunrise. She wished me happy dreams and went to bed. I woke up late. She had unplugged my clock. The rest you know or were there.” Cassy looked down at her lap.

“None of the other victims were vampires. Erica was the first. We assumed it was because most vampires live in a kiss or coven of some form. They’re not as easy to make into targets. Can you tell me why you two were alone?” David was mining for information. Cassy could not tell if it was for work or personal.

“I’m not going to talk about that now,” she snapped. There was no need to tack on “And that’s final!” The firm deliverance said it all.

“Okay. It’s personal. I get it.” He put his hands up in front of him palms out. It reminded Cassy of the night they met. He did the same thing in Trysts. She let a small giggle and let a smile escape.

“What is so funny?” He dropped his hands.

“You seem to do that thing with your hands when you’re trying to back off.” She laughed.

“Sorry. I didn’t know it was that humorous.” He sulked. She had bruised his ego.

“Yes…I mean…No…I mean it is the first thing I’ve seen you do that’s unique to you. You don’t talk with your hands like some. But you have a hand signal for backing off. It’s cute.”

“You mean the bar. You remember me doing this in the bar.” He shook his head and grimaced. He reached over and turned off the recorder. “Can I ask you about that night?”

She thought for a minute before giving him an answer. “I suppose so. Can I ask you what you were doing there? You don’t seem the type to be a bite junkie.” David Ashe seemed like the sort of guy every dad in the country hoped his daughter would meet. Being in a vampire bar on Halloween night would be out of character.

“I’m not. I was working surveillance. My shift ended at eleven. I thought, since I was already there and in costume, I would see what all the hype was about. It was my first time.” He shrugged.

Cassy was speechless. She had not fed from a healthy, living person in many years, much less tapped a vein virgin. Maybe he meant more. The horror at what she had done subsided enough to speak. “Your first time doing what? You didn’t come on like it was your first time.”

“Oh, no! I’ve been with women before, just not a vampire. I wasn’t sure you were one at first. Your eyes aren’t quite the right color, but I wanted to try,” he admitted. Cassy gave a sigh of relief. “I thought maybe it was the lights making them seem more silver than gray. Those orange parking deck lights didn’t help. And I was disoriented by then anyway.”

Cassy exclaimed, “Thank the stars! You had me worried for a minute. I thought…Don’t get me wrong. It’s still bad. Why didn’t you say? I could have been much gentler. I feel like a real heel.”

“You thought I was a real virgin? No, sorry. I wanted a real experience, not one of those manufactured moments you buy. I wanted you to be you, and you were. I didn’t know you would take it from me,” he stated without inflection.

“I didn’t know I was taking something special. I lost control. Sex and bloodlust are so close together, it can be hard to separate one from another. I meant to seduce you but not feed on you. I wasn’t raised that way. I took the memory, and I’m sorry. What I really took was your free-willed choice. That was inexcusable,” she apologized.

“You said you could give it back. How? I was taught that once a memory was gone, it was gone forever.” He seemed sad. Cassy’s heart gave a little squeeze. She wasn’t ready for him to know everything about her, but maybe she could give him just enough to ease his pain.

“I wasn’t created a vampire. I was born one. The eyes are the giveaway. We have silvery gray instead of the darker steel. I’m not surprised you haven’t seen one of us. It’s rare, but it does happen. There are very few families left. Most are created and belong to one of the magical lineages. Made vampires have everything we have with a few exceptions,” she explained.

“Like what?” David’s professional curiosity was piqued. His eyes brightened at the prospect of new information. It made him over eager.

“Like I can command and compel a made vampire, but they can’t do those things to me. I can dream. They start burning in the sun immediately. I have more time. I can suppress your memory instead of taking it away. It gives me the option of letting you have it back. Once one of them takes it, it really is gone.”

A look of resolve filled his eyes. “Would you give it back to me? It drives me crazy to think I have been with you and don’t remember it.” He took her hands in his. “Please?”

“If I do, you will relive the experience as if it were happening for the first time. You may do things, say things you regret. There is nothing I can say to prepare you and nothing I can do to make it easier. Do you understand?” There were consequences for what he had asked.

“What do you mean do things?” Unease filled his face. Unknown factors unsettled him in her opinion.

“We had sex, raw lustful sex. You may need an outlet for that much energy. Are you willing to risk needing to have sex again? Or suffering with the need because you don’t want me now?” It was a lot for him to think about. She wanted to give him all the time he needed. He looked lost in thought for a few minutes, nodded, and was ready to answer.

“Yes. I don’t know what it is, but something about you speaks to me. It pulled me in the first time I saw you. Will we have time tonight?” He looked at a neon clock beer sign over the pool table. It was a few minutes after midnight.

“I believe so. Find a comfortable position and relax.” David lay back on the sofa and closed his eyes. Cassy sat astride him, leaning in until their noses almost touched. “No, I need to look into your eyes. Don’t close them until the memory starts.” He opened them wide with nervous anticipation. “This shouldn’t hurt. You may find it easier to concentrate if you close them in a minute.”

“Okay,” he whispered, “I’m ready.”

She stared into his dark liquid-brown eyes. For a moment the rest of his face melted away, leaving her alone in those deep pools. She felt the block she had used and tugged at it with her will. It recognized her and spooled loose, freeing the memory it held captive.

He gasped, squeezing his eyes shut. The deep inhale turned into heavy panting. She knew he was getting a flood of information and sat up. Between her legs, she could feel his dick growing, straining the denim. His hands fumbled at the button. Cassy moved the flexing fingers away and undid his jeans. He was remembering fingering her. Her pussy contracted as she watched him. She, too, remembered being finger-fucked. With almost no effort, she freed him. The throaty, deep humming noises mimicked the ones he had made against her breasts. He was lost in his own mind. He reached down, gripping the base of his shaft, offering it up for a second time. Her nipples reacted to the sounds. They ached to be sucked. Heat began rising in her groin. She wanted to accept his offering. A quick image of sliding down his hard cock and riding him came to mind. Lapping the clear, dripping pre-cum would have been satisfying. In control of herself, as she was now, she wanted to swirl her tongue around the smooth head, to feel the veins against her lips when she slid her mouth over his thick shaft, and nuzzle her nose into the soft curly hair at the base as she took his cock down her throat. There would be little danger of nicking him with her fangs. The thought of sucking both of his soft balls into her mouth one at a time made her pussy flood with heat. She took a deep breath and held it. She could not, would not, not like this.

Cassy moved out of the way. She did not want to intrude or use him in such a vulnerable state. If he thrust against her jeans, he might chafe. If she gave him something softer to press against, he might feel she was taking advantage. Having usurped his choice once, she was not eager to repeat the mistake. She sat on the floor at the end of the sofa with her knees to her chest, chewing her lower lip. Would he be angry? Sad? Full of regret?

David bucked his hips in a steady, yet increasing, rhythm. He turned his head to expose his throat. At the moment he should have found release, his eyes popped open in shocked surprise. A hand flew to his neck as if to press an open, bleeding wound. For a moment, he did not seem to know where he was. A few quick blinks told Cassy the memory had ended. He was coming back to the present. He looked to his open fly. The unrelieved cock stood waiting for something more. David’s eyes darted around until he found Cassy’s hiding place.

“I am so very sorry,” she whispered. “It shouldn’t have been like that your first time.” She didn’t move. He scrambled down on all fours in front of her. “It should have been…” He cut her off with a hard, desperate kiss. She remembered the taste of him, the feel of him. Her needs boiled up from her core, and she returned the kiss.

David rocked her back onto the floor, pressing his weight into her. She tugged at his pants, pulling them below his hips. One hand twisted in her hair to maintain the kiss while the other undid and pushed down her jeans. He propped a foot against the waistband at her ankles as she removed one leg at a time. A nudge against her knees with one of his invited her to spread her legs. She obliged, and he slid down between them. She was ready to take whatever he gave her. His thick flesh pressed against her clit. The anticipation of having his dick in her again made her impatient, but she held it in check.

Cassy’s hands slipped beneath his shirt to rub his well-muscled back. He broke the kiss long enough to remove his shirt. She held onto his narrow waist. Balancing himself on one hand, he began unbuttoning her shirt. As each one opened, her breaths became harder, more ragged. Heat was building within her, dropping down to her pussy. She lifted her hips to press them tighter to his body. She could feel herself becoming wetter, making his shaft slippery with her nectar. He lost patience with the buttons. As it was torn open, shirt buttons exploded to every corner of the room. The tiny tinkling sound they made added to her excitement. The room’s air was full of adrenaline and the sweet musky scent of sex. He was going to take her, and she wanted to be taken. It was more than she could stand. Fangs dropped into place.