Vampire Mistress (13 page)

He didn’t understand why she’d known he could offer her that, when he hadn’t even known it himself. Yet he hadn’t questioned it when she said he needed to be here. He
felt
he did, and for more reasons than misplaced guilt.

Putting his hand to her face, he drew her gaze to him. “Tell me if I do anything you don’t want,” he said roughly. When she didn’t respond, gazing upon him with that hungry yearning, he put his other hand below the water, keeping the emotional connection with their held gazes. He stroked the opening of her pussy as he’d stroke a kitten, his knuckle teasing the lips, over the clit, sensual circles that had her hips lifting infinitesimally, a sweet whimper emitting from her lips that had Daegan’s eyes flashing in approval. He could use the lubricant, but he wanted to try it this way first. He was relieved to discover that the flesh was no longer torn, the injuries in that area obviously less severe, at least physically.

Still caressing her below the water, Gideon leaned forward to close his mouth, warm and wet, over her left nipple. Daegan’s hand still held the breast, and his grip tightened, rounding the generous curve farther, letting Gideon take the peak even deeper. As he did, Daegan’s knuckles inadvertently pressed into his throat. Gideon chose to ignore the fact he was completely defenseless, that the male could rip his head off. In all fairness, Anwyn had held a razor blade over his jugular earlier in the evening and he hadn’t flinched then.
Yeah, double standard for sure.

His knuckle slipped into her opening, and was rewarded by that slippery substance that tasted so tempting on a man’s tongue. He straightened the finger, went a bit deeper, stoked the heat so the fluid increased, the passage preparing to take him. Her hands were back on his shoulders, biting in once more as she arched back against Daegan, gasping at Gideon’s skill at her breast, augmented by Daegan’s clever kneading to give it even more friction. When the wetness increased noticeably, Gideon slowly drew his finger out. Lifting his head, he took his cock in his hand and seated it at the opening to her pussy.

“Yes,” she whispered, her eyes glazed with a delirious need for escape. “Gideon, come into me. Now.”

As he slid in, the channel was tight, pressure caused by the male vampire already so deep in her ass, their two organs separated by that thin wall of tissue, blood, muscle and all the other miraculous and yet far too fragile systems of a woman’s body. Unintended, his gaze met Daegan’s. The vampire’s fangs bared, his eyes firing, and Gideon felt an answering pulse in his own blood as they both filled the woman they cradled between them. Then male priorities brought both their gazes to her face, to see her reaction to their mutual possession.

“No . . . hands. No hands.” Her lip was curled back in a feral expression, a red glint in her eyes again. The blue-green still held sway, telling Gideon she was balanced on a precarious edge between what she was and what she was becoming, but the desire suffusing her face held his alarm at bay. Putting her hands over Daegan’s, she drew them away from her body, brought them out into the air on either side of her, just above her shoulders.

Squeezing hard, she left them suspended there for a brief second as she grasped Gideon’s hands where they were on her hips, taking them out as well to meet Daegan’s.

Incidental limb contact was bearable in this situation, but the intimacy of clasping hands had Gideon suffering a moment of rebellion. He tensed, but at her insistent pressure, the urgency in her face, he knew he’d do almost anything she needed. So when she brought his hand to Daegan’s left, pushing their fingers together in a knotted clasp, and then did the same with the right, he held the contact, forming a tense male circle of muscle. He eschewed eye contact with Daegan this time, though, making her the center of his aroused attention.

It was quite a focal point, her body arched, nipples tight and flushed with blood, the muscles of her upper body quivering with pleasure. At their joining point, he could see his cock moving in and out, stretching her labia, the hint of her ass cheeks compressing against the pressure of Daegan’s pelvis each time he thrust into her.

Gideon worked to follow her rhythm, timing his withdrawals with Daegan’s. Because of the precarious angles, they had to keep it slow, torturous. He couldn’t help but be aware of the slide of the male’s thigh beneath his, the brush of heavy testicles against his own as they began to come together, thrusting at once into her trembling body. They used the pressure of their palms, the grip of fingers, to withdraw, surge fo rward.

Her gaze clung to Gideon’s face as she reached back, curled her fingers in Daegan’s scalp. She scraped his neck when he put his fangs to her throat in reaction, lips peeling back in a way that had Gideon’s heart accelerating dangerously, seeing it this close.

She contracted on them both, distracting him, and her voice was hoarse, guttural. “Bite me, Daegan. Take my blood where he took it. Make it deep. I want it to look like your mark, not his.”

Gideon had a glimpse of Daegan’s powerful fangs lengthening. Right before they sunk in, he had to look away. He couldn’t handle seeing that shit, no matter how much some sadistic part of him wanted to look. Daegan’s fingers tightened on his in reaction to the blood that filled his mouth. Anwyn’s hands flailed out, seeking an anchor, and landed on each set of theirs, curling over them. Of one mind, both men loosened their grasp, let hers in between them. Now their hands emulated the state of their bodies, a protective circle around her, tangled together in the three-way give-and-take of tumultuous emotion, a need to release.

A drop of blood rolled down her throat. Gideon felt a terrible, inexplicable desire to lick it off her collarbone. He lost the battle. He didn’t want it to get into the water, after all, and he wasn’t going to let go of their hands. So he leaned forward, brought his lips to it, suckled the skin. Following it back from the high curve of her breast, up and up until he reached her throat, his brow brushed Daegan’s.

The vampire’s head lifted. Before Gideon could withdraw, the vampire made a quick pass over Gideon’s mouth, swiping that taste of blood off his lips. It left a feeling of wet male heat lingering there as the vampire leaned back, renewing his hard thrusts into Anwyn’s body, responding to her own violently spiraling arousal. It was over in a second, but shook Gideon to the core. Though he recovered quickly enough to catch up, restore the rhythm between their thrust and withdrawal into her, he almost pulled back from the male’s touch on his hands. Anwyn’s slim fingers were a touch of Heaven in between, though, caressing both their palms, the spaces separating their fingers. She trembled, on the cusp of climax and held in stasis, pinned between their two bodies.

In contrast, the water heaved with their motion, steam and fragrant soap and musky sex smell rising from the agitation. Her growl became an outright snarl. Her gaze locked on Gideon and she bared her fangs.

Fledgling or not, he never saw her move. One moment her face was a couple feet away. The next, her heated breath was feathering his bare shoulder, and he was staring into her fully red eyes where she’d come to a stop, inches from reaching his throat.

He would have been out of the tub in a heartbeat, if not for the fact Daegan moved faster than even that. He yanked her back against his chest, locking a hand around her throat as she struggled, yowled. Admirably, the vampire continued to stroke inside her, letting Gideon feel the contracting friction in her cunt that encouraged him to keep moving inside her.

“He’s mine,” she snarled. Though she tried to twist her head around and snap at her captor, Daegan held her fast.

“No. Not unless he consents.” Daegan’s gaze met Gideon’s. “Stay inside her. Bring her to completion. Help her.”

It was the last that summoned him back into the moment. Looking past her distress, he saw the maelstrom of need and desire fighting with the vampire blood inside of her. At Daegan’s barked command, Gideon understood. He began to pump into her again, being less careful now, meeting her need for animal lust. Putting his now-free hand down below the waterline, he teased her clit again, transforming the bloodlust in her gaze to something different, a sensual focus. She writhed and squirmed, but Daegan held her fast.

“Let us give you pleasure,
cher
, just as you demanded. We are following your desires. Just let us give this to you . . .”

Gideon’s own control was flagging, and from the rough note in Daegan’s voice, he thought the same was true for the vampire. Whether base male instinct or not, having her pinioned in between them, so desperately craving what they could give her, brought renewed lust surging forth.

“Wear her out,” Daegan growled. “Make her come hard, Gideon. Take her far past this.”

Gideon thrust, working his fingers over her swollen clit, using everything he knew about a woman’s body, her pleasure. He was rewarded, watching that vampire ferocity turn back into a woman’s passion, a needy woman who cried out at every stroke, whose eyes glazed and hand at last gripped Daegan’s forearm, her other flailing until Gideon caught it, held it against his thundering heartbeat. Her fingers curled, vulnerable and needy, into his chest hair, and then he felt victory at the telltale ripples along his length.

Daegan chose that moment to skillfully renew the energy of his thrusts. Her cry of release became a scream. Her fluids flooded over Gideon like a hot spring he could feel, despite the heat of the surrounding water. But then such rational thoughts were lost in his own release, his cock pumping hard jets into her, bathing her cervix as Daegan filled her with his seed from behind. The vampire’s face was pressed into the side of hers, his grip locked hard and fast on her delicate neck.

It wasn’t until Gideon finished and found his brain, minutes later, that he realized something else. Sometime during their climactic finale, their three sets of hands had come back together, fingers tangling anew. Glimpsing it through his post-climactic haze, he sensed those clasped hands had forged more than a temporal bond. They had the disturbing weight of a life-altering oath.

10

H
ER surge of vampire transition energy ebbed again, dying away with the aftershocks, until she was lying limp between them. Now she was tracing Daegan’s knuckles with her slim fingers, her face turned into his neck. Her other hand slid in a drifting rhythm up and down Gideon’s biceps. Gideon could still feel the thump of the blood where they were all joined, and though he was loath to end that bond, he could tell they needed to get her to a bed. The men slid free as she made a quiet sound of protest, but her head lifted, her eyes opening to focus on Gideon’s face.

“Bet this was more of a session than you bargained for.” Her voice was little more than a weak whisper. Reaching out, he tugged a lock of wet sable hair.

“I’ll be sure and put in a complaint to management. Or send her a giant bouquet of roses.”

“Men.” She closed her eyes, her face so weary that Gideon’s chest ached. “You think everything can be solved by rose petals and chocolate.”

“Well, they never hurt.”

“No. They don’t hurt.” Her lids tightened, her mouth becoming a hard line; then she opened her eyes and began to struggle to get up. “I need to get out. Dry my hair. Have a few minutes to myself. Then we’ll decide what comes next.”

“Of course,
cher
.” Daegan’s voice was neutral. Nodding at Gideon, they both helped her to her feet. Maneuvering her out of the tub, they brought her safely to her vanity with a couple towels wrapped around her. As they did, Gideon noted that, whereas she’d seemed so eager for their touch moments before, now her skin shuddered with every casual contact.

He took an extra pair of towels from the shelf and tossed one to Daegan, wrapping his own around his hips and tucking it in. Daegan held on to his, but, far less concerned with his modesty, knelt in front of her. He rested a hand on her knee, despite her attempt to pull it out of his reach.

“We will be just outside,
cher
. When you are ready to come out, call and we will help you.”

She nodded. Daegan didn’t move, however, even as she turned away from him toward the mirror. Gideon understood why when she made a startled noise in her throat. Reaching out, she touched the glass with trembling fingers. Seeing himself through her reflected image, her stricken face, his heart ached in his chest like a weight. Vampires couldn’t be seen in a mirror’s reflection, just as the lore said, but he hadn’t known that a vampire in transition appeared as a ghost, a transparent image in the glass. He guessed it would keep fading, more and more, until it was gone. She’d never see her own image again after that, unless she had an old picture or someone painted her portrait.

Daegan reached out to close his hand over hers, but she drew it back to her, shook her head. “Please don’t touch me right now.”

Tucking her chin down, she let her hair slide forward to cover her face. “He wanted to see fear. I hope I didn’t give it to him. I tried not to give them anything. I fought, Daegan. I
did
fight.”

“I know you did. I saw their flesh under your fingernails.” Daegan straightened behind her, and Gideon saw his powerful hands close, an obvious struggle not to touch her. When he spoke again, his voice had a harsh note. “You call,
cher
. If you need anything. I will respect your privacy, but I can hear you.”

Her jaw tightened. “Afraid I might decide to end it?”

“No. I know you are too strong for that. Too strong. You don’t call for help when you need it. They were here earlier tonight. James told me. You should have called me then. Could have done so instantly, if you’d ever . . .”

Anwyn jerked her gaze up to him, sparks in her eyes. The vampire stopped, his lips pressed together hard.

“Daegan.” Gideon spoke quietly. “Whatever this is, it’s not the time.”

The other male’s attention flickered to him dangerously, but after an apparent fierce internal battle, he inclined his head. Despite her stiff posture, he brushed a hand against Anwyn’s shoulder. “Right outside,
cher
.”

She didn’t acknowledge either of them further. Merely sat there, staring at her translucent image. Daegan looked as if he swallowed several creative oaths, and Gideon agreed entirely. But after they left the room and closed the door, Daegan jerked his head, indicating Gideon should follow him. He took him into the small TV and reading room off of the main sitting room, complete with two comfortable chairs and more shelves of books, as well as a portable furnace that emulated a flickering fire.

It wasn’t overly made up with female things, Gideon noticed, an indication that perhaps she was used to sharing her space with a male, or that Anwyn just had sparse taste in her decorating, choosing only the essential comforts. There was a Waterhouse on the wall, though.
A Mermaid
. The vintage look of the female mermaid, sitting amid lily pads, stroking her own hair, was oddly reminiscent of Anwyn, her unfathomable expression and yet intriguing, lush feminine appeal. Since he didn’t see Anwyn as especially narcissistic, he assumed Daegan had bought it, for exactly that reason.

“You will stay here with her while I go obtain the sire’s blood.”

Gideon turned from the painting. If he’d had his jeans and weapons on, he might have caught his thumbs in his belt loops and taken a hip-cocked aggressive stance that would tell Daegan Rei exactly how he responded to orders. Of course, wearing a towel made that a bit harder, but he still gave Daegan an eat-shit-and-die look. “Last time I checked, I don’t answer to a bloodsucker.”

As Daegan’s expression hardened, Gideon raised a brow. “You can throw down with me if you want, but a lot nastier things than you have tried to make me afraid of them. Think that’s what she wants right now, you and me tearing into each other?”

“You’re not listening.”

“No, you’re not being straight with me. Maybe if you do that, instead of trying to order me around, which will happen when hell freezes over twice on your ass, then we can figure out our best game plan.”

Daegan snarled. It was aggressive frustration, not an immediate threat, but it was still impressive. If Gideon gave enough of a shit to be scared of vamps anymore.

The vampire closed his eyes. “Put your clothes on. I feel like we’re in a fucking Roman bathhouse.”

Gideon shrugged, returning to the living area to retrieve the pile of clothes and weapons he’d left there when their remarkable interlude in the tub had begun. He waited to drop the towel until Daegan strode away from him, disappearing down one of the wide hallways. Since he heard a closet opening and closing, he assumed the vamp had gone to another bedroom. So she and Daegan didn’t always share a room. Though the fact he had one here was uncomfortably significant.

Third wheel, anyone?

Gideon pushed the ugly, useless feeling away, and finished zipping and fastening his jeans, threading the belt through the loops. When Daegan returned, he was wearing a pair of dark jeans, dark rubber-soled shoes and a close-fitting long-sleeved shirt. He was going hunting, shrugging into another duster, under which Gideon was sure he would stash a variety of weapons.

Most vamps that emanated this type of power had a few centuries under their belt. In this section of the country, Gideon should have heard some whisper about him. The way Daegan handled himself, like some kind of supernatural Special Ops, Gideon knew he had to be dealing with a vamp who had a trained purpose. Would Lyssa know who he was? She was still privy to a lot of Council secrets.

His T-shirt and weapons were still on the chair. Before he could reach for either, Daegan picked up the shirt with two fingers, staying away from the firearms and knives. When he held it out to Gideon, he was close enough the cotton slid across his bare sternum. Gideon snatched it away.

“You were wearing that inside out when you came into the alley,” Daegan observed.

“I was more concerned about getting here than offending your
GQ
fashion sense,” Gideon responded. “You’re not going after this guy without me. No matter what’s crawled up your ass you don’t want to share.”

He refused to step back, even though Daegan had crossed his personal space barrier. Which, given how he felt about vampires, was somewhere in the next state. This one in particular made him feel boxed in.

Daegan eyed him critically, as if evaluating his ability to chew food and tie his shoes. Therefore, it surprised Gideon when the vampire at last gestured to return to the reading room. After pulling on his shirt and jacket, Gideon followed him in there. Daegan closed the door, putting another sound barrier between them and the bathroom.

“Before long, she will be able to hear conversations anywhere in these rooms, but for now this should be sufficient. Can you detach yourself enough to do what needs to be done, vampire hunter, even when it’s something you cannot bear?”

“Believe me, when it comes to this piece of shit, I’ll take him out singing ‘Howdy Doody’ and go to Chuck E. Cheese afterward to celebrate. What, is this bastard some kind of friend of yours? If you think—”

Damn it, it was the second time the asshole had gotten the jump on him. This time, though, Gideon was flat on his back on the floor, Daegan’s rubber sole on his throat, before he even knew what hit him. He stared up into eyes that had gone bloodred. All right, this
was
the scariest vamp he’d ever seen. Perhaps even scarier than Lyssa in a temper, and that was saying a great deal.

“Shut up, human,” Daegan said with quiet menace. “Or I swear by all the Holy Relics I will rip out your tongue so it will cease annoying me.”

Gideon grabbed the shoe, twisted hard enough that Daegan was forced to pull back. When he rolled, reaching for his blade, Daegan spun with his movement, picked him up by the scruff and knocked him face forward into the chair. He held Gideon there, his body crowded up hard behind him. Personal space barrier completely eliminated. Gideon didn’t care to feel any man’s groin up against his own ass, particularly when it had been naked not too long before, but Daegan’s hiss of annoyance in his ear told him it wasn’t his virtue in danger.

He was being an idiot. He’d been captured by vamps before. Once they had you, you couldn’t go toe-to-toe with them. You had to wait for an opportunity. This was just a stupid, dumb-ass pissing contest, the two of them venting their frustration about what they couldn’t do for the woman behind the door. Who was probably going to come out at any moment and kick both their asses in that demeaning way that only women could, with a disappointed look and a sharp tongue.

As if coming to the same conclusion, Daegan let him go with a shove and a curse, and stepped back. “While I am gone, the whole time I am gone, she will have to be restrained. Heavily restrained. Chained.”

Gideon rose to his feet, gazing at him warily. “Why?”

“You know why. You’ve been through this with your brother, as you said.” Daegan gave him a grim look. “When I took her blood in the bathroom, I exercised the right of a sire. I gave her a locater mark, vampire to vampire. If she gets away, I can track her, but that’s just a safety net. Under no circumstances can we allow that to happen. She will kill during fits of bloodlust, and she won’t care if it’s a three-year-old or a drug dealer.”

Gideon did know that. Jacob’s bloodlust had lasted a good several months, but they’d learned to anticipate its cycles. Keeping him at Mason’s estate during the worst of it, away from people, had allowed him more freedom. They’d had to restrain him only periodically for the first couple weeks.

But restraining her, after what she’d been through . . . Realization dawned.
Something you cannot bear . . .

Daegan nodded, seeing Gideon’s comprehension. “It’s going to be far harder on her than it was on your brother. Not only because of what happened tonight. I have a bad feeling about this transition. It feels different from others I’ve witnessed. I can’t leave her alone during this. While you would not be my first choice, you are my only choice. Even that would not sway me, but she trusts you. Anwyn trusts no one lightly.”

“You’re giving me such a warm fuzzy feeling. Should we hug now?”

“Don’t push it,” Daegan warned. “One of us must go get the blood and one of us must stay. Someone must be here to reassure her. I’m best equipped to go get the blood.”

Gideon gave him an incredulous look. “Yeah, look under ‘nurturing’ in the dictionary and you’ll find my phone number.”

Daegan blew out a breath through his nostrils that should have billowed steam. “You are successful because you take time to plan your attacks. I will track them, find them and get that blood. That’s the extent of the plan, and it’s one only a vampire can execute, particularly when the odds are one against three.”

“Pretty confident, aren’t you?”

Daegan shook his head. “These vampires are not old. They are depraved, vicious and likely unstable. That fledgling I killed was young and his Master’s residual blood tasted weak. I can kill them as easily as you could decapitate three toddlers.”

“Thanks. The day hasn’t had enough disturbing images in it.”

“Will you stay with her?” Daegan said impatiently.

Gideon studied him a long moment. “It’s more than that. If something unexpected happens, I’m the only one who will know how to end her suffering the quickest way.”

“Yes.” Daegan held his gaze. “I also know, despite your feelings about my kind, you will make it as painless as possible. When you touch her, your hands are gentle, vampire hunter.”

Gideon cleared his throat, looked down at the carpet. “Okay,” he said at last.

“‘Okay’? You will no longer argue with me on this?”

“Your logic’s sound. You’re not making up bullshit to keep me out of harm’s way, the usual ‘humans don’t know how to fight vampires’ crap.”

“Believe me, I would not hesitate to put you in harm’s way.”

“Likewise.” Gideon shrugged tense shoulders. “And though I couldn’t care less about seeing you again, for her sake, come back. I don’t want to make that choice.”

“Nor do I. Though I almost prefer walking into a nest of vampires to what we are about to do.” Daegan looked toward the closed door. “She’ll agree to it to protect those she cares about, but few things are as sacred to her as her control. When we have to restrain her, the stress will certainly trigger another episode. A very bad one. We need to prepare.”