Neck Deep In Vampires (A BBW Urban Fantasy) (8 page)

             
His eyes met mine, boring into me, stabbing me with the deep, deep hurt I saw there.

             
“Why, Frankie? Why?” he said.

              I swallowed hard. “Why, what?”             

He looked at me. “
Why did you do it? You compelled me to break up with you. You compelled me to believe I was no longer in love with you. You tried, anyway.”

             
“What makes you think that?” I bluffed, but it was no use.

             
He shrugged. “We’re Eternal Consorts, Frankie. The bonding process between us has begun. Therefore, your powers don’t work on me. You can’t make me forget you. Why would you even try?” he stared at my face searchingly.

             
Oh, dear God.  I was not expecting this.

             
“I…I can’t tell you.” I choked on the words. “I really wish I could, more than you’ll ever know, but I simply can’t tell you why I did it.”

             
This was it. He’d leave me. He’d never love me again.

My heart felt like it was trying to rip itself in two.

              “All right.” His stare never wavered.

             
I almost fell over. “All right? Really?”

             
“I trust you, as crazy as it sounds. I assume that you had a good reason to take such drastic action, and you’ll tell me when you’re ready.”

             
“Really?” I said again, stunned.               He cupped my face in his hand, tipping it up to look at him, and I felt a wave of heat roll over my body.  I shivered with desire. It had been so long…okay, only a little over a month, but I’d been craving him every second that we’d been apart.

“Yes, really.
But know this.” He gave me a severe look. “You can’t get rid of me. I’m not leaving you, and I’m not letting you run away again. You’re up against something, and I’m not going to let you face it alone.”             

I felt as if a terrible crushing weight was lifted from my shoulders.  I suddenly felt light and free and able to breathe without pain again. Could I actually be this lucky?

              I nodded. “I’m sorry,” I said, my voice shaking. “I didn’t want to do it. I did it to protect you, and I can’t tell you any more than that.”

             
“Have your men been following me since I got here?” I asked.

             
“Of course. I had Thralls and some of my vampires watching you every time you left the house. I wanted to make sure that you were safe.  One night, we saw three humans try to attack you, but we knew you’d be able to take them, so they didn’t interfere. However, when we saw the half dozen people attacking you in your parking lot tonight, my men had to step in.”

             
“They did a very good job. I sensed I was being followed, but they never got close enough for me to spot them or pick up on their vampire energy.”

             
He shrugged. “Centuries of practice. We’re very good.”

             
At least now I knew who’d been following me. That was one less thing for me to worry about.  However, there was still the matter of my strange weakness.

             
“Do vampires ever get sick?” I asked Nicholas. “For the past few days, I’ve been getting these weird dizzy spells, where I literally nearly pass out, and I’m not as strong as I was. I feel as if my powers are fading. Could it be too much sun?”

             
“No, the sun doesn’t affect people that way,” Nicholas said, shaking his head. “I’ve never heard of anything like that happening. It could be because you left me. Seriously. Eternal consorts draw strength from each other.  The fact that you shut me out could have weakened you.”

             
“Does that kind of thing happen often?”

             
“I don’t know,” Nicholas said, narrowing his eyes. “I don’t know of any other cases of an Eternal Consort being stupid enough to leave their loved one.”

             
I sighed. “Okay. I deserved that.”

             
“Yes, you did. And more.” The anger in his gaze washed away, and he flashed me a wicked smile  that promised he’d repay me, in spades.  Nicholas loved to punish me, in the bedroom. I shuddered in pleasure as images from past days and nights with Nicholas flashed before me.

             
“How long are you planning on staying here?” Nicholas asked.

             
“I don’t really have a specific time in mind.” 
Until I either kill one of the most evil and powerful vampires in existence, or die trying.

             
“Well, we can’t get out much because it’s sunny all the damned time here…” a lazy smile curled his beautiful mouth. “So we’ll be have plenty of time to stay in and get re-acquainted.” He trailed his fingers lightly, teasingly, along my arm, and the hot desire that had been burning inside me flared up into a raging fire. “I know you missed me.”

             
I drew in my breath. “You’re still an arrogant S.O.B.”

             
“I’m not arrogant. I’m just always right.” He kept up the slow, feather-light caress, and I felt my nipples swelling and hardening with desire. 

              “By the way, any idea who those six lowlifes were?”

He moved his hand, caressing my neck.  I imagined him sinking his fangs into my neck, and stifled a whimper. When vampires sank their fangs in, it released a serum which sent intense pleasure rushing through the recipient of their bite, and always resulted in earth-shattering orgasms. It was one of the many reasons that Thralls were so eager to serve their vampire masters and mistresses.

I struggled to answer, then moaned again at his touch.

             
“What’s that you say? I couldn’t quite make it out.” He smiled politely, raising an enquiring eyebrow.

             
“You bastard.” He was enjoying the tease, enjoying watching me squirm. I wanted him to pounce on me and ravage me; he was going to draw this out, make me beg him for it.

             
I pulled my arm away, and slid away from him on the couch.

             
Taking a deep breath, I explained to him about the familiars and the witches. “One of them said something about interfering in the affairs of witches. I would assume that’s why they’re after me.”

             
“You’re helping witches.” He shook his head chidingly. “Oh, Frankie, my little social worker. Always have to rush in to the rescue, don’t you? And see where it’s gotten you. Someone’s made you a target. I’m definitely not letting you out of my sight.”

             
He started to move towards me,  but I jumped up quickly.

             
“Wait! Before you start distracting me again, I need to call up Mirabelle and tell her about what those thugs said. Maybe she can figure out who’s behind this.” I grabbed my phone and called her.

             
“Now, I need to call my Thralls and let them know I’m not coming home tonight, before I get too…distracted.”  I called my house, and Camille answered.

             
“Listen, long story. Nicholas is in town. I’m going to be here for the night.  Make sure Barney is fed, and tell him where I am, and make sure Peyton isn’t mean to him.”

             
“Ooh, the long lost lover is back? You are going to have some amazing sexy time!” Camille crowed.

             
“Tomorrow is the day you feed off me!” I could hear Peyton’s plaintive voice in the background. “You’re not going to skip it, are you? When are you coming back?”

             
“I’ll come back tomorrow evening. Camille’s set up a house showing with December at 9 p.m.”

             
“So you’ll come back before then?”

             
“Yes, yes. I’ll swing by at 8:30 for a quick snack, right after sundown.  I promise.”  I said impatiently, and hung up.

             
“Sounds like somebody has a little crush,” Nicholas said from right behind me. I jumped, letting out a startled squeak. Even after almost a year, I still wasn’t used to how fast vampires can move. I even startled myself when I did it.

             
“You think so?” I asked, as his arms wrapped around my ample waist. One of the wonderful things about Nicholas is that he loved my size. In the 18
th
century, when he’d turned, larger women were in vogue;  thin, starved women signaled poverty.

             
“It’s pretty obvious,” he murmured into my ear, his hot breath sending shivers through my body.

             
It wasn’t unusual for a Thrall to develop romantic feelings for the vampire they served.  After all, every time I fed off a Thrall, they had an orgasm. And now that I thought about it, Peyton hated Barney, and was a little on the standoffish side with Camille.  Not rude, but she was brisk and businesslike with her, whereas with me she was bubbly and funny and cheerful.   Maybe she disliked anybody who got close to me. I’d have to address that issue.

             
Normally, back in New York, I’d have rotated my feeding among dozens, even hundreds of Thralls, who flitted around among the three houses. Here in Florida, I only had the two of them. If Peyton was developing feelings for me, I needed to nip that in the bud before it got too far along. Maybe I should send Peyton back to New York, especially if Nicholas is here, I thought. He’d have bought a dozen Thralls with him, easily.

             
“I could be jealous,” Nicholas said.

             
“Oh, you have nothing to worry about.”

             
“I know, I was kidding. You’ll never cheat on me.” He sounded unbearably smug.

             
“Well, aren’t you the overly confident one.”

             
“Nope.” He grabbed me, picked me up, and slung me over his shoulder. I weigh 180 pounds; a normal man would have staggered and dropped me. Nicholas, with his vampire strength, made me feel as if I was light as helium.

             
He strolled across the massive living room, and brought me into a huge bedroom with a flagstone floor.

             
He dumped me on the bed, bent over me, and ripped my shirt off with both hands.

             
“Nicholas!” I gasped. I’d liked that shirt.

             
He ignored me, bent down, and began tearing at my pants as if they were tissue paper. He pulled the shreds of fabric off. 

             
I squirmed and struggled underneath him, laughing. Dimly, I realized that I was still weaker than I should be. If separation from Nicholas was my problem, shouldn’t I be stronger now that we were back together?

             
I quickly forgot about that, though, because Nicholas was dragging me up the bed, over that silken comforter.

             
He moved me to the headboard of the bed, and in shock, I realized that there was a leather strap, with cuffs attached to it, dangling from the bedpost.

             
“They have silver threads in them,” he said, and before I could protest, he moved in a blur of motion and secured my wrists in the cuffs. “You’ll be helpless.” Silver renders vampires helpless. A silver dagger to the heart was one of the few things that could kill us. If we wanted to take another vampire prisoner, we’d use silver-coated cuffs.

             
I was truly Nicholas’ love slave right now. He was going to have his way with me, and there would be nothing I could do to stop him. That knowledge almost made me come right there on the spot.

             
But wait. Why did he even have restraints already on his bed, in this rented house?

             
“How long have you been here?” I demanded. “Who are those straps for? Did you use them on somebody else?”

             
He shook his head at me. “Frankie, Frankie,” he chided. “I brought the straps with me for you, and only you. I was absolutely certain that I would bring you back here, and punish you all night long for leaving me.”

             
He bent over the side of the bed and grabbed a leather bag, which he dropped onto the bed next to us. His eyes gleamed as he surveyed the contents.

             
“Are you ready?” he asked.

             
Moving in a leisurely fashion, Nicholas began stripping off his clothing. He unbuttoned his shirt and dropped it on the floor. He unzipped his pants and let them slide to the ground, kicking off his shoes.