Hunger Embraced (The Hunger Series) (30 page)

Their magic surrounded and supported me, Daniel’s unique magic invoking the ocean, Gregory’s calling up the sensuous glide of thick fur on bare skin, the heat of a lover in the cold of winter, the freedom of wandering in wild places. I smelled pine needles, fresh dirt, and falling leaves.

My power cared only about feeding and saw the men not as friends or lovers, but as great big all-you-can-eat buffets. Their auras glowed so bright that if I tried to focus on the energy around us, all I saw were white spots.

I came again and again, their fangs buried in my flesh, Gregory’s hands stroking my breasts. Daniel moved in slow deliberate slides, and I knew through our bond he was concerned he or Gregory would slip and tear my flesh with their fangs.

I opened my eyes, not knowing when they’d closed or why. My neck and wrist were cold. The men had stopped feeding and carefully licked the wounds until the blood slowed to a trickle. Gregory was hard and long against my belly. Daniel was still buried deep inside. But I no longer had the energy to grasp Gregory tightly enough to hold on by myself. Daniel had one hand on my left thigh, Gregory one hand on my right.

“You must use your blade now lass and drink from us.” Gregory removed my hand from his thick length and guided it around his neck. I made a sound of protest, and he chuckled deep in his throat.

“It’s not going anywhere.” The blade was still in my right hand, and he helped me put it against Daniel’s neck and make a shallow wound. When the blood welled up, I shifted around until I could reach, clamped my lips around it, and dug in with my teeth. My nails sank into the back of Gregory’s neck, and I knew the wounds would scar. He would forever bear five half moons in his nape below the hairline, and my Hunger reveled in the idea that he was marked as our conquest.

I bit down harder on Daniel’s neck, sucking and swallowing, beginning to feel better, lighter, new energy zinging through my body. One again I found myself dragged into the sea of his memories, but they were not of the distant past. They all focused on me, what I looked like the day he saw me on the street, my face in the midst of an orgasm, all the times he had been staring at my ass when I wasn’t aware. I smiled and flexed my legs so that he thrust once, long and slow, before Gregory detached me.

“Now Gregory, Miri. You need the blood.” Daniel nuzzled my ear and the pride in his tone warmed me. I sliced Gregory’s neck on my own and transferred the knife to my left hand so I could grab him with my right and continue to stroke his cock when I began to pull at his neck. He groaned and his hand flexed on my thigh with enough pressure to bruise. I took it as encouragement and bit down harder, grasping him firmer.

Daniel began to fuck me again, slowly at first but then in earnest as I fed from Gregory. His blood and energy held different notes than Daniel’s, darker and more animalistic. I’d felt it when he fed from me, and tasting it made the impressions even stronger. It brought stealth and hunting ability with it, the thrill of taking down prey, and the gush of blood and flesh in my teeth. Daniel felt like walking in the sun or floating in the sea on my back, the ability to change events with a wink and a smile. Gregory was brute force and violence. I drank it down, and Daniel’s rhythm begin to falter and change.

He yanked me from Gregory’s neck and kissed me roughly, pulling me back against his chest and going to his knees on the floor. I fell onto my hands, tossing my head back as he pounded into me. Gregory stroked himself, watching from a few feet away. He was so impossibly large and thick, but I wanted to wrap my lips around him, take him into my mouth and let my tongue explore every reachable inch.

“Gregory, please.”

He looked at me with darkened eyes and then over my head at Daniel.

I held one hand out to him, and he came to his knees in front of me.

I grasped him again as I had before, squeezing at the base, before I took him as deeply as I could into my mouth, groaning at the delicious pressure building inside. Daniel slowed his thrusts, and I found I could concentrate better on the beautiful cock between my lips. Gregory shuddered when my tongue circled the tip, dipped into the slit, and then back around. I nipped him, laving the sting away, sucking on as much length as I could while stroking the rest with my hand. There was no taking all of him by mouth, but he seemed to be enjoying it anyway, thrusting slightly down my throat.

I withdrew for a moment when Daniel rolled his hips in a slow circle and slid out completely to rub himself over my clit. The heat of his cock flared through me, and I moaned when Gregory reached under my body to cup one breast in his palm.

Daniel entered me again and slapped his testicles into my clit. I screamed and fell back on Gregory with abandon until an orgasm took us all. They came inside me, and my body sucked energy and life from their fluids. The Hunger burst free and blanketed over all of us, prolonging the orgasm. I swallowed each jet of Gregory’s cum, not spilling even a drop, the life force contained in the fluid as important as his blood. My pussy milked Daniel, dragged on his shaft until his balls emptied.

Power burst in a great flare through the room. Surely people miles away would have seen a laser beam of light erupting from the windows.

I collapsed to the floor, my limbs turned to jelly. My head rested on a warm muscular thigh I was pretty sure belonged to Gregory, but I didn’t care. Sleep was what I wanted most.

The Hunger waited for me in a strange white space in my head as I began to doze. She smiled at me and held out her hand. This time I wasn’t afraid to take it in my own.

She began to disappear from view, and tingles warmed my skin. It centered on the small of my back until it burned then faded into a throbbing ache.

She was gone. I spun in a circle, looking around, wondering what the fuck I had done wrong now.

Husky laughter reverberated in my head.

“I’m still here, dumbass. I’m just where I’m supposed to be. Inside you.”

“Ah, well then you must know you’re talking way too loudly. Care to turn down the volume?”

“Sorry, years of screaming for attention will make you forget things like that.”

I rolled my eyes and began tapping my foot.
“So, where are we?”

“Oh, the Goddess wants a visit.”

“Who? The lady from that beachy vision? She was really a goddess?”
Chagrin burned in my gut. Somehow I’d still been hoping that hadn’t been true.

“Yes. Don’t you know anything about Celtic mythology? Never mind, I can see you don’t right over here.”

“Wait a second; are you messing around going through my brain?”

“Yes. If I’m not helping you eat someone or doing a fertility rite, what am I going to do for fun? Besides, it’s all right here on the surface. You really wear your heart on your sleeve. Going to have to work on that if we’re going to survive for more than a few months.”

“Few months! Few months! What the fuck did I just have a threesome for then? I thought—”

“Yeah, I know what you thought. Obviously you didn’t bother to remember that now that you’re online you’re even more attractive to certain people.”

The bitch.
“You tricked me!”

“I did not! You were toast inside of a month if you kept on going around the way you had been. At least now you have a weapon they don’t.”

I snorted.
“Oh, what? You?”

“Yep. And don’t act like you didn’t enjoy yourself. You know you did.”

Criminey, this was ridiculous. I was having an argument with myself. Sort of.
“Well, don’t get all smug Your Highness. Adrian knows how to make me his meat puppet if he chooses, and I have a feeling he’s gonna be back.”

“Just take us to the Goddess already. She’ll be pissed we’re late as it is.”

Shit. More drama.
“How do I do that?”

“Oh, what, don’t know how to do that? Right, I can see, right over here in the section titled ‘Miranda is a stubborn bitch who doesn’t like to admit when she’s wrong.’ Just concentrate on her, and we’ll be taken to her.”

“That’s it? Think hard and poof! There we are?”

She didn’t respond so I took that as a yes. The image of the Goddess was so vivid in my head that it was easy to think of her down to the pearls sewn on the bodice of her gown. The endless white expanse all around me began to darken with shadows and outlines. Trees took shape, materializing right next to where I stood. The ground became a dirt path through a dense wood.

I walked about four steps before pine needles stabbed my feet and I remembered I could visualize clothes for myself. Jeans, a hoodie, and a pair of hiking boots seemed to make the most sense. When my hair snagged on a low branch, I materialized a hair elastic and put it in a ponytail.

The trail went on forever, but I kept walking. The last time I had seen the Goddess she had approached me, so maybe my magic was right and she was angry. A derisive snort echoed through my head. I decided to stop walking and apologize.

“Might help if you got down on your knees.”

I rolled my eyes but sank to the ground. I wasn’t all that sorry about being late for a meeting I didn’t know about.

“Goddess? I am sorry I am late for our…audience…today. Please accept my sincere apology.”

The trees rustled with wind, and the birds fell silent. A tall, dark-haired woman emerged from the trees in front of me wearing bloody leather armor and blue body paint. A quiver of arrows peeked over one shoulder, and a huge sword hung from her hip. She tossed a severed head over her shoulder into the bushes, and I fought down a wave of panic.

“You are a perplexing creature, but as you are of my bloodline, I will forgive your transgression. This time. Next time there will be punishment.”

I tried to stand up and found I couldn’t. Shit.

“Miranda, I need to you to do something for me.” Pine needles crunched beneath her boots as she paced back and forth. A long-bladed knife appeared in her hand. She tapped it against the opposite palm—
smack, smack, smack
—the rhythm making my stomach clench.

“Excuse me, Goddess?” I fought an urge to raise my hand. Criminey, this wasn’t kindergarten. She looked at me in obvious annoyance and glared down her nose. Guess interrupting was a bad idea. Duly noted. “Uh, um, I-I was, uh…just wondering, whattocallyou?”

Cause you sure as hell aren’t Macha.

“You will address me as Goddess in my presence, if you need my assistance when invoking a spell you may call for me as Babd.” She crouched down in front of me, drew the blade down my cheek, the tip rasping the skin. A thin line of blood trickled out, hot and slow. She stuck a finger in it and then popped it in her mouth. “This will do for a sacrifice today. But do not come before me again without something proper.”

And I guess not even knowing about the audience makes no difference, right? Where is the pregnant mother-type Goddess when you need her?

The Hunger chimed in.
“You’d better keep those thoughts off your face before she decides to chop your head off with that sword of hers and dance around in the blood.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

OK, so maybe my Hunger had a point. Babd looked at me like she was considering sticking an arrow through my eye or pinning me to a board like a butterfly and slicing open my belly to see if there was a prize inside.

“I have a job for you, Miranda. The nest that has taken up residence in your father’s old home needs to be exterminated. Take whomever you want with you to help, but I want them killed before the week is out. All of them. No exceptions.”

“Ah, OK. Yeah, sure. I can do that.” A frown pulled the corners of her mouth down, and she slid the dagger into a sheath I hadn’t seen before on her thigh. She gripped my chin and angled my head back until my neck muscles began to scream in protest.

“Do not mock me, child. One of the Chosen or not, I will not hesitate to take your head if it will suit my purpose. I am a goddess of sex and fertility, but also war and death. Both sides of the coin. You will learn to appreciate the joys of bloodshed and war as much as I. Blood makes the grass grow as much as sex.” She let go of my face, and I managed to keep my hands at my sides. It was hard not to rub where her fingers had dug in.

“Clear out the nest. Make it rain with their blood. I will not be pleased if you fail.”

“Yes.” I stared at her boots as they passed from left to right in front of me.

“Yes, what?”

“Yes, Goddess.”

“Good, you can be taught. Now then, why did you have your mate burn the sacrifice I employed my follower to procure for you?”

I frowned and made the mistake of glancing at her. Holy crap. My stomach clenched and I started. “Sacrifice?” Fuck my ignorance.

“The head and the hands left on your doorstep.”

I swore under my breath. “Please accept my deepest apologies, Goddess, I didn’t kno—”

Her bloody knees came into view. “Listen to your Hunger. Ignorance gets you nowhere but dead. Now then, kill the Empaths and gather each and every one of their heads.” She tapped me on the cheek with the back of her hand. “Oh, and gather up those of the Incubi as well. It’s been much too long since I had a proper ritual.”

“Yes, Goddess.” Where the fuck was I going to learn how to do this ritual she was talking about? Fuckfuckfuck!

I chanced a look up and she was gone.

Chapter Eighteen

Something prickly dug into my cheek. I moved my face around, trying to get more comfortable, but it kept poking me. I rolled over and was rewarded with a loud grunt and more pointy things digging into my hip and thigh. Daniel lay about a foot away, sound asleep. Trying to sleep this way was proving impossible, so I lay there and stared at him for a moment. Every time I saw him sleeping, he looked like the embodiment of sin wrapped up with a bow and a note that said, “Please, fuck me. Feel free to lick me from head to toe. I’m delicious.”