The Scientific Method: A Vampire Queen Novel (Vampire Queen Series Book 10)

by Joey W. Hill

Copyright 2014

Storywitch Press
Charlotte, NC

My great thanks to Helen and Gina, my science advisors. I am not a science person at all, so their assistance was invaluable to better reflect the world and thought processes so familiar to Brian and Debra. My gratitude also goes out to Mindy for coming to my rescue during the "erotic anatomy lesson" - love you, darling! My additional fervent thanks to Erin for her proofing abilities. Back-to-back edits fried my brain, such that I desperately needed another set of eyes in the three days before deadline. She came to the plate and delivered wonderfully.

Any remaining shortcomings are entirely the fault of this author, who hopes you enjoy Brian and Debra regardless. Hugs to everyone who has waited for their story for so long. I hope I did it justice!

Author's Note: While this book is a novella of the
Vampire Queen series
, happening somewhere after the time frame of Book VIII,
Bound by the Vampire Queen
, it can be read as a standalone. However, a familiarity with my vampire world will certainly enhance your enjoyment. You can read blurbs and excerpts for all the books in this series at
http://www.storywitch.com/series-vqs
.

Debra. I'm hungry
.

Two words that always meant something much more than blood to vampires.

She found him in Lady Lyssa's gardens. The old stone bench under an arbor weighted down by Confederate jasmine was his favored place to work when he didn't have to be in the lab. He was studying his laptop now, which provided her time to look at him as she approached.

The moonlight limned his hair, giving the lighter strands a golden-silver luster. The sculpted planes of his face were etched by shadow. With the preternatural vampire stillness that could take him when he was deep in thought, he could have been another marble statue in the maze of gardens.

Though he often came out of his work as if emerging from the bottom of a still ocean, she felt the moment his focus sharpened on her. It was a transition that never failed to weaken her knees. The awareness in his eyes, a mixture of blood hunger, sexual need and...

No, that was all there was. That was all she could let herself think about. For her part, it was so much more, but that was her problem to handle. She was the human in the relationship. A servant to his needs.

Setting aside his laptop, he brought her between his knees, banded his arms around her and nuzzled her throat. No words. They didn't need them, did they? She wound her arms around his shoulders, taking advantage of those first few seconds to slide her fingers through his thick hair, her pulse tripping as he slipped the buttons of her blouse and licked the valley between her breasts, tracing the curves. The man could use his tongue, the way a master painter used a fine brush. The pressure, stroke, timing... Totally controlled and excruciatingly perfect.

If a vampire wanted to fuck his servant in plain view of everyone on the Council estate, no one thought a thing about it. But right now, they were blissfully alone. Brian slid a hand up under her skirt to cup her buttock. When he found his way beneath her panties to stimulate her rim with long fingers, she moaned, rubbing her mound against his chest. The look he lifted to her was full of heat and pleasure, reflecting that dangerous edge that left no doubt — at least in this moment — that he considered her totally his.

His other hand slid along the curve of her breast, up to her throat, stroking so she lifted her chin, drawing in her breath at the whisper of his own there, the brush of his fangs. Those vibrant hazel eyes watched her every reaction.

"Stay still," he said, and she didn't move a muscle, even though inside all of her nerve endings were dancing. He pressed his mouth against her throat again and, as his fangs penetrated, he slowly slid his fingers into her wet pussy.

Clasp your hands behind your back
. He spoke to her mind to mind, but it didn't lessen the command. When she obeyed, the thrust of her breasts put her tight nipples against his upper chest, an excruciating friction.

My bad girl. Already so hot and wet. You're going to come without my permission
.

No, my lord
.

You're saying no to me?

He took a particular delight in befuddling her usually organized mind like that. She could tell it in the gleam of his gaze, the erotic set of his irresistible mouth as he briefly lifted his head, gave her a look. She gave a desperate half laugh. "No, my lord. I mean, yes. Oh..."

He scissored and thrust his fingers in a rhythm with his drinking that elicited tiny moans, made her lose her train of thought.

You're going to come for me
.

"Yes." She breathed it, shut her eyes and pressed her jaw against his head as the climax rose up inside her, an irresistible wave. She'd do anything for him.

He locked his arm around her, holding her fast so her sensual writhings worked her against his body. As he took his nourishment from her throat again, he kept stroking and teasing her until she wanted nothing more than to grip his shoulders, hold on forever.

But she wasn't allowed to touch him until he said she could.

§

That had been a couple hours before dawn, quite a few hours ago, but her body still vibrated with need. Debra opened her eyes, staring at rows of clean test tubes, mounted in the stainless steel drying rack on the wall across from her. The light thrown in from the west window gleamed off the glass. The rack kept them equidistant, allowing them to dry evenly and completely. Such order usually soothed her, centering her mind, but today she had an absurd urge to make the tubes fall. Make them touch, shatter against one another. Their rigid order felt like a mockery, a flimsy screen over a world making less and less sense to her.

She knew recalling her Master's latest feeding was a double-edged form of self-comfort, but it didn't stop her from recalling every ounce of sensory input. His hair against her skin. The thick strands scattered over his forehead and brushing his collar were the color of sunbaked golden sand, mixed with the darker bronze of it close to the shoreline. He'd had a scattering of Confederate jasmine blooms on his shoulders. Then there was his scent. The sharp cleanliness of the lab had been integrated with the smell of cut grass and old stone.

She thought of his eyes, focused and sharp. His firm mouth, commanding her to sink to her trembling knees after her climax and his feeding. He'd unbuckled the belt of his slacks, opened them to reach in and grip his steel length. He'd stretched his cock out over the snug fit of his underwear, fed it between her parted lips, her moan of eagerness to serve him vibrating against the broad head.

In the vampire world, Lord Brian might be thought unassuming because he was more interested in gaining scientific knowledge than political power, but the inherent Dominant nature all vampires carried was just as full-blown in him as in a member of the Vampire Council.

Unfortunately, it tended to show itself only in short bursts; during feedings or at social events. If he was present for the event, that is. All too often he sent Debra by herself, because it was required that a lower-ranking vampire would make his servant available for such formal occasions. Here on Lady Lyssa's estate, where high-ranking vampires regularly came to petition the Council, most vampires wouldn't get away with sending their servant but not making an appearance themselves. However, if Brian wasn't there, he was in the research wing of the estate, his quarters, or the gardens, his brilliant mind employed with vital issues that affected the wellbeing of vampire kind.

Performing sexual acts with other servants for the pleasure of watching vampires was part of being in their very carnal world. She'd learned to embrace the sensuality of it, realizing she was honoring her Master by performing well, handling those things so he could spend time on his work. Even so, being at those events without him was never easy. She was indebted to the kindness of other servants who'd helped her grow more comfortable with it. By going to a place in her mind where she imagined him in the group of watching vampires, speaking in her head, ordering her every move, she could sometimes even make it pleasurable.

Since Lady Lyssa had taken over the Council leadership, she'd pretty much excused Debra from any formal vampire dinner requirements if Brian wasn't going to be present. It was a significant change from when the Council had been under Belizar's leadership. Though she suspected Jacob, Lyssa's servant, had been behind that decision, Debra was grateful for it.

When she'd met Brian at the university-affiliated research facility where she was working, he'd recognized she was a bone-deep submissive, one who had never articulated her needs. Instead, she'd channeled all of it into who she was as a scientist, serving the greater good, always asking more of herself, pushing harder. The bar was always rising, every breakthrough only a step toward the next one. She was an extreme overachiever with a dazzling mind, responsible for the acquisition of several key grants for the facility and, despite her age, in line for a fellowship.

Yet after only a short period of time in Brian's company, she'd left the world of human research and committed her life to him as his third marked servant. For one thing, he'd offered her an incomparable professional opportunity. She managed the day-to-day operations of the multiple wings of the research facility here at the Council headquarters. That also included management of the human staff of sixteen second marked servants who worked in those wings.

Working side by side with Brian, they'd made outstanding breakthroughs on the Delilah virus and vampire fertility issues that had made a difference to the species as a whole. Some of those breakthroughs had led to discoveries related to human disease. She'd forwarded those findings to a trusted contact at her old research facility and allowed her to take the credit, Debra remaining anonymous. Which was fine. The real reward was working with Brian himself.

The way her and Brian's minds meshed when they solved problems created a synergy so profound, it was no different from the exhilaration of shooting down the water slide in the amusement park of her youth.

She hadn't wanted to go to that amusement park, but her grandfather had said she was too serious, that she needed to get out and live life as much as study it. When she hit the pool at the bottom of the slide, the rush of the water, the pleasure of turning somersaults and getting a buoyant sense of herself different from what she'd ever known, had in fact been liberating. It made her a better scientist.

Her grandfather had taught her to seek different ways of looking at things.
There's always one perfect angle to see everything that's important. But remember the sun shines on a different world every day. Getting trapped into one way of thinking is quicksand
.

She could tell herself she'd left her old life for the science, but when Brian had unlocked the sexual side of her submission, he'd shown her it went down to her soul. When he held her, looked at her like he had in the garden, that was the perfect angle. It was the key to everything she needed from him and wanted to be for him. He was her Master, that one word the beginning and end of all of it. Which explained not only the main reason she'd followed him into his world, but why she was still with him, even during times like these, when the emptiness of her soul ached to be filled by things he could never offer her.

She glanced down at her tablet. The email she'd received several days ago was only a couple of taps away, but she already knew it by heart. Reading it again didn't change anything. Lack of change was the real problem, wasn't it?