Endless Days (The Firsts) (19 page)

He thought it was right to say that she made the sun rise in the morning and the moon grace the night sky.  For him, it was love at a level so
deep, he thought he might not survive if he lost her.   Well, it’s just that she was his everything. 

The household knew they were together, except for
the  visiting vampire, David’s friend Bryn.  No one would tell David, they were all equally loyal to Gunnar and Katerine. 

Gunnar placed his semi-auto rifle on the table top as he checked diagnostics to verify all vid cameras were up and running.  Check.  When he reached back for it, he smelled the
most heavenly scent.  Katerine had to be nearby.  He started out of the room to look for her when he was smashed hard against the back wall.  She’d vampire-shoved him so hard the wall panel exploded.

“Ow.  You’re going to have to change me if you want to play that rough, doll.”

“That’ll come.  Right now, I want you to ravish me.  Take me like it’s the last time.”

He pushed her back gently.  “What?”  His eyes were shining now with unshed tears.  “Has something happened?  Did he find out?”

Katerine took his face in her hands and pushed his long bangs back away from his green eyes.  How had this human enchanted her so?

“God, Gunnar, you’re such a girl.”

He grimaced.  “I won’t disagree.  When it comes to you, no promises.  I love you too much to be complacent about this.  Katerine, I won’t give you up.  I hoped he might want the empath now…that he would be okay with us.”

While he was talking to her, she was dropping her clothes.

“You’re
not
giving me up.  I wouldn’t let you.  He
does
love her.  So, if you still want me, I’m free to a good home.”

Now he crushed her against the same broken wall.

He felt her hands on his belt and his pants dropped, gravity assisted, so he kicked them away.  He had his tongue buried in her mouth as he pulled her skirt loose and kicked it away, too, then lifted her up and mounted her.  She gasped and threw her head back against the cracked plaster.  There was a pipe running across the top of the wall and she wrapped her hands around it to support herself as he lifted her up and down against him.  Gunnar was now almost as big as a vampire, and he filled her completely.  Everything in her body was sexually engaged when they were together, and when their orgasms hit moments later, he grabbed her and they fell together onto the heavy carpeting beneath them.  He rolled over to avoid crushing her.  Even though he was human and she was a first blood vampire, she was smaller than he was by a hundred pounds.  He wouldn’t hurt her for anything in this world.  They stayed wrapped together, legs and arms entangled for another five or so minutes.  When he pulled back and looked in her eyes, he tilted his head and touched her forehead with his.

“You’re crying, too,” he whispered.

“I just…I couldn’t give you up, either.  God, I hope this works out.  I don’t want to hurt David, but I won’t go through my life without you.  It isn’t possible.”

He moved
back and then kissed her deeply, letting her know how much he loved her
.  As if she didn’t know
.  She was right, he was a lot like a girl…he’d made it clear every time they made love how much she meant to him.

Gunnar pulled her up and reached for her skirt, then helped her step back into it.  He fed it up her long gorgeous legs and then dragged his hands across her buttocks as he turned her to snap it.  The finest ass he had ever seen.  Once it was in place, he slipped his hands back under it and fingered the place between her legs, massaging the highly sensitive lips.  He kissed her as he brought her to another orgasm. 

“I could do this all night,” she gasped. 

“I’d like to apply for the position,” he whispered.  “For now, though, I need to get to a security meeting.”

She sighed deeply, wrapped her arms around him.

“Baby, be careful.   Cherise has me spooked.  I would ordinarily not be worried, but this possible attack is by the people who took and kept a first blood for three decades.  Please don’t be a hero.  If there are any problems, send for me.”

“Yes, because I really want to be rescued by my petite lover.”

“Don’t be stupid, baby.  You know I’m more powerful than you are and a hell of a lot more durable.  So, promise you’ll call me.”

“Sure.  I have to go,” he said, and she knew he probably wouldn’t.  Because he would think he was protecting
her
.  Damn humans!  Just so fragile! 

As she watched him go, she knew what she had to do.  As soon as this threat was over, and things were finally settled with David, she would have to bring him over.  Her blood made him bigger, healthier, stronger, than normal humans, but as vampire, her blood would take him very nearly to the power of an original
vampire.  As long as things went well, and he survived the change (
and he must!
) they could be together forever.

             
Katerine finished dressing, letting her fingers linger on her thighs, her thoughts linger on their lovemaking, and then headed towards David’s chambers to see if Cherise needed anything from her to help David’s session.  He
had
to be well, and soon, so that everyone could begin their lives again.

             
The surveillance team was in place, and he was already receiving video back from them.  Armel shot out of his chair after he saw the first images.  Cherise was here.  With him.  And while it pissed him off enormously, it also presented him with his only good option.

             
He’d considered everything from every angle on the flight over here.  There was only one way he was going to get David Patric back under his control without being slaughtered instantly by the vampire… who
did
have a very good reason to kill him.

             
It all depended on two things…did Patric love Cherise enough to come for her, and was Patric noble enough to risk his own safety to save her?  Because abducting the beautiful empath was the only way to get what he wanted…Patric’s head at least twelve inches from his body.  Armel knew he couldn’t take Patric again with
two hundred
men, but he could with
one
woman.

             
So, his strategy at this point…patience and opportunity.  He knew the stronghold was expecting an attack.  His asshole boss, Didier, had texted him that Cherise knew everything.  That meant everyone in that building did, too.  That meant they were waiting for him.  And he would be stupid to try it.  So.  Wait.  See.  Do, when no one expected it.  He didn’t care how long it took.

             
Home base was a small local house they’d rented under a name no one would ever recognize.  There was room for all of his team and any equipment they needed for an extended stay.  He’d kept a private room underground as the holding cell when they got her.  No one would be allowed there but himself.  God, he was tired of playing second to an inhuman monster for the woman he wanted more than any other woman he’d ever known.  Whatever happened, he would get what he wanted from her.  Even if he had to risk death himself. 

He killed the rest of a bottle of
whisky.  Liquid courage.  This was going to be the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life.  Because, before it was over,
she
would have to die, too.   It broke his heart a little to take the life of such a lovely woman, because if things had been different, they might have had a life together.  He would have to kill their possible destiny.  Well.  Life gets messy.  Most of the time, its fucking chaos. 
That
was his real destiny. 

Little cock-up!  
Like Didier didn’t have eyes on him every moment.  Like he didn’t know what the asshole was planning.  Armel wasn’t half as clever as he thought he was.  When Didier hired him to manage the catalog and research project for his supernatuals, he’d been a good choice.  Things had changed. 

However, he would make good bait!   Didier did agree that the vampire had to die.  No one in the project would ever be safe if he recovered his memories and came for them.  And he
would
recover his memories.   Because his fucking sister was on site.   And she was the best in the world at reaching her subjects.  And she was in love with the fucking vampire!  That gave them a connection that was unbreakable.      Also, if Cherise had bonded with him…all bets were off.  No telling what her abilities would do to him.  Plus, there was the other thing…

He’d begun to suspect a few decades ago.  Just never had any solid evidence it was true.  One of the things he’d wanted a chance to study.  But…he thought that Cherise had the ability to bond with vampires more than sexually…he thought she could bond with their power…further
expanding her own.  It would give her empathic connections deeper than anything anyone had ever known in his world.  She
was
human.  But infused with such strong supernatural power he couldn’t help but think of her as…other.  He loved his sister, god knew he did, but it made it easier to disconnect himself from someone who left the family, and who was sleeping with a vampire.

He wouldn’t hurt her.  But he could not let her contact the family.  There was only one place for her, and eventually he hoped she would understand.   Cherise was his sister, he’d take good care of her, while they check
ed out her skills.  Back at the compound.  In her own nicely dressed private cell in his facility. 

Cherise would be his next test subject.

It was time.  Cherise was ready, and Gunnar let her know, so was David.  Katerine was with him now, so she slipped a light long
sweater over her jeans and turtleneck and headed down.  She was breathing deeply, trying to instill calm internally so she could guide David on this quest.  It was going to be very, very painful.

As she entered the hallway leading to his room, she slowed her step.  This outcome would affect many lives.  Stopping, she leaned against the wall and closed her eyes.  A hand on her shoulder made her look around. 
Katerine.

“Come on, baby.  Let’s find out what’s really in David’s heart.  You may have noticed
, I have strong empathic skills, as well.  I plan to journey with both of you, help you where I can.”

“Three minds merged?  I’ve never done that before.  But, since he’s a first blood, and I’m not, that might be a good thing.  You can do things I cannot.”

“That’s very true.  But you are a true empath, and you’re in love with him.  I can’t imagine a stronger power.   Come on, it will be okay.”

Katerine wrapped her arms around Cherise and they entered the bedchamber together.

David was sitting on the plush couch that lined one edge of an alcove.  It was a lovely little sitting area with soft candles for illumination.  He had a huge stemmed glass in his hand and smiled up at her foggily.

“You’re drunk,” Cherise said as she approached him.

“Damn right.  You’re going to lead me to a nightmare that made me bury my life.  I knew I needed anesthesia.  Come on, Cherise, please, let’s get this over with.”

“I agree.  Okay, well, we all need to be close to each other.  I need to be able to touch you. 
The floor?”

Katerine nodded and easily slid a huge glass table aside and took a seat.  David rolled his eyes, downed the remaining half of the glass and slid onto the floor, too.  Cherise took her place in the triangle.

“Okay.  I’ll do all the work. All you two need to do is clear your minds.  I can help, but you’ll both have to relax completely and let me in.”

She reached for them
, her palms facing up, then closed her eyes.  They placed their hands in hers, and did the same.

“Try to see a white room. 
Nothing but white, nothing in there, nothing moving, no sound.  Just…nothing.”

Cherise had never worked like this with two powerful minds connected to hers, but she felt them blow into hers like hurricanes from two directions.  They nearly overwhelmed her, but she reached deep inside, and pulled from a power she had never known she had. 
  She could no longer feel her own body.  Her mind had jumped completely to David’s and journeyed deep into his past, to when he was…a child.  He had been born vampire. He sat crying, waiting for someone to come, and then she saw what had happened.  His mother was dead, killed in some kind of attack.  His mother was human.  The toddler was filthy, no way to know how long he’d been alone.  Vampire David would never have remembered this moment from so young in his life…except now that it had been shown to him.  They’d moved too far from where she wanted them…further than she’d ever taken a subject.  It had to be Katerine’s influence…her power, that carried their minds beyond their goal.

Cheri
se took control and moved them forward, past years, past decades, past centuries, until the point where she found his fracture begin.  With a real world moan, she swept them up with her and journeyed to the moment he was abducted.  Images flew by too quickly, they couldn’t really focus on anything, but then they began to rotate, swirling around in the center of their mind’s eyes, and they landed, in a dream-like world where David was attached to a huge solid metal cross, so heavy he couldn’t pull loose.  It was positioned in the middle of a room, but one wall faced a rising sun and there were no doors between him and the cool air…and the light from the sun that was only minutes away.  Six people waited in the back of the room while David begged them to close the doors and pull the heavy curtains he saw on each side of the opening.