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Authors: Rena Marks

Born Again (13 page)

BOOK: Born Again
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“I’m working on it.”

The woman cackled. “Work on it harder, dearie.”

The tone in her voice made Sara grit her teeth. “I’m trying.”

“Then I’ll visit with ye later.”

* * * * *

The girls kept it hushed that Francesca flew in on a private
plane. Sara met her after avoiding Aric for a bit. Francesca glided down the
steps of the plane into the covered walkway that led to the limo beside which
Sara waited impatiently, tapping the heel of her new, expensive high heels
against the hard concrete.

Reaching for her friend as if she hadn’t seen her in months,
Sara squeezed her tightly.

“Oh, Serra, I am most happy to see you, but already I miss
my Raphael.” Once again, she said her name the old way it was pronounced, with
the slight accent. And Sara wondered why she had never caught the connection
previously.

“We have to sneak you into Aric’s,” Sara said, inhaling the
sweet, lavender scent of her hair. “Fortunately, he and Beau are tied up at the
moment. More negotiations, business this time.”

She held Francesca next to her and arm in arm they walked
quickly to the limo, where the driver waited with the door open.

“I still can’t believe those two let me believe I was
killed,” Sara muttered.

Francesca held on to her hand. “Sara, they did what they
thought best for you. They’re not perfect, they simply try their best.”

“Nay, not perfect, ‘tis why I’m here to help. As I promised
ye, back when ye were Seraphina.” Sara and Francesca turned their heads at the
voice coming from inside the limo and Francesca’s mouth dropped.

Sara was too used to the old hag dropping in and out
unannounced to be surprised.

What did surprise her was Francesca scooting close to the
old woman and throwing her arms around her, hugging her as if she’d never let
her go.

“Chessie, you know her?” Sara asked, confusion in her voice.

“Of course. Oh, but you would not remember. You don’t
remember being Seraphina. You just know you were.”

“She does not remember me,” the old woman said sorrowfully.
“I’ve done me best to guide her, but an untrusting soul she’s become.”

“Sara, back in the old days, before there were psychics, we
were called witches. We were healers, we helped people. You and I were from the
same village and Gwynneth trained us. Then the witch hunts started and she
talked us into entering the convent, though that ended disastrously,” she said
on a sharp note to Gwynneth.

“It did, but it was necessary,” Gwynneth said with a guilty
shrug. “That had to happen to keep worse from occurring.”

“Worse? What could be worse than Serra’s death?”

“In another reality ye both died. Serra knew that. Ye know
she had extraordinary abilities. She saw ye both being burned at the stake.”

Sara interrupted. “Mike Johnson, before Aric wiped his
memory, said he saw an alternate future for me. Are you saying that was real?”

The old woman nodded. “He saw one alternate, yes. One in
which ye chose one of ye lovers and he was kilt by the other. The werewolf was
hung for murder and ye and Francesca, me best students, were burned at the
stake afterward. This way, yes, Seraphina had to die, but she made that choice
at the time. She knew the decision would give her Sara’s lifetime in this
future to straighten the mess out.”

“Serra killed herself to keep me from burning?” Francesca
asked, her eyes huge.

“She had nothing else to live for but ye. She did not want
to leave ye alone, so she chose to leave herself instead, so ye would at least
have Raphael and Aric for all these centuries while she was gone.”

The car had rolled to a stop. Francesca and Sara stepped
from the limo and Sara turned back to give Gwynneth a hand from the car, but
the old woman had disappeared again.

* * * * *

They were finally in Francesca’s room when Sara’s cell phone
rang.

“Where are you?” Aric asked.

“I’m downstairs. Are you and Beau finished with your
conversations?” Her voice was short, she couldn’t control the anger that rode
through the phone.

Aric was wary of her mood. “Yes, we have finished. What is
wrong?”

“Oh, plenty. I’ll be right up for my own little talk with
the two of you. Get to the bedroom, it’ll be more private.” She could almost
hear him wince on the other side.

She flipped the phone shut and turned back to Francesca. “I’ll
be back. Get ready.”

Sara headed back upstairs, working herself into a lather and
was furious when she rounded the corner to find Aric and Beau sitting
uncomfortably on chairs in the master bedroom. She turned her blazing eyes to
them, the brown so startling against the paleness of her skin.

“What?” Beau asked, confusion coloring his voice. “What’s
wrong?”

“You guys led me to believe that I was killed in the
crossfire between you two.”

Both men were quiet, as if they were afraid to reveal
something she didn’t yet know.

“We never exactly said how you died,” Aric said.

“No, you didn’t,” she mocked. “By keeping this secret from
me, don’t you know what could have happened? I killed myself.” She turned and
looked directly at them, for the full effect for her words. “I killed myself,”
she said slowly, punctuating her words.

“Yes,” Aric soothed. “But you’re back now.”

They weren’t getting it. Of course, would they know the
consequences of suicide? Sara kept her voice even and flat as she explained. “To
die by your own hand doesn’t go unpunished. I forfeited my rights at
reincarnation.”

“But you’re here now. We found you again,” Aric said,
puzzled.

“Why do you think it took so long to find me? I have no
reincarnations left. Just this last one to correct the wrong I made for
committing suicide. That’s it.”

A muscle twitched in Aric’s jaw. “If this life had
paralleled last time’s, you would never have been able to be born again?”

“Exactly.”

“We would have lost you forever.” His voice was grim and he
looked at the suddenly paralyzed Beau, who seemed to know what was coming.

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. The three of us haven’t
learned to communicate, or to get along. We almost ruined everything,” she
said. “That’s our lesson. No more fighting. We learn to be together.”

“We are not a threesome. Beau and I cannot live together.”

“We’re not doing this,” Beau muttered, his face defiant,
like a spoiled schoolboy. “Not he and I.”

“We are doing this,” Sara confirmed, her voice firm. “You
two owe me. Big time. So pay up.”

Her hands slowly began to unbutton the soft pink silk
blouse, one button at a time, exposing a curve of breast before slipping a
sleeve off one slender shoulder. Off came her slacks and thong and it was only
then that she saw acknowledgement register in their eyes when they realized she’d
been braless under the silk.

She dropped the shirt and lay back on the bed. Her long legs
spread apart, exposing her tender region to the men that watched.

“Both of you need to undress. I feel a little silly being
the only naked one,” she said, but didn’t look embarrassed. She looked sultry,
a siren who’d just realized the power she could wield. A true witch, as she had
been centuries before. “Now, please.”

Sullenly, they looked at each other. Sara ran a hand over
the curve of her breast, down the indentation of her waist and along her hip.

“Neither of you gave me the whole truth. I killed myself. Over
this.”

The guilt returned to each handsome face on the men that
stood still, sullenly before her.

“You made me choose, didn’t you? You forced me to make a
choice and I couldn’t do it. I loved you both more than life itself. I chose to
forfeit that miserable life. Now, you owe me, because as surely as I took my
life, you both drove me to it.”

“Sara,” Aric said, his eyes looking every one of his
centuries of age. “I am so sorry.”

“Then undress, my love.” Her voice was soft. “Stand nude for
me and don’t force me to make the choice. Will you do the same thing to me in
this lifetime as you did before? Or will my guys learn to play nice?” she
purred.

Beau never broke eye contact with her before he whipped his
shirt over his head, standing with muscles that bulged in the night. Still, he
refused to look Aric’s direction.

Then Aric unbuckled his pants and, watching her from the
corner of his eye, fondled himself through the material.

She parted her thighs wider in response, allowing him a
glimpse of the treasure between them.

Finally, articles of clothing were dropped as each man stood
before her, nude at last.

“Now what?” Beau asked warily.

“Get onto the bed,” she whispered throatily. She cupped her
breasts into her hands. “You’ll each take one. It’s why a woman was given two.”

They crawled across the bed, one so tanned, one so pale. One,
with a long thin cock jutting from a nest of black curls, the other with a fat,
wide cock standing hard in a thatch of blond. They refused to look at or
acknowledge each other, but she hoped that would come in time.

One mouth latched onto her right breast and the other took
to her left. Double sucking ensued and each was so very different from the
other.

She tossed her red hair back, onto the silk of the pillows
behind her.

Everything felt different, from the feel of their mouths, to
the temperature of their breath. The style of the sucking, the tempo.

And she couldn’t get enough. She reached down to grasp at the
two stiff erections. She fondled until they grew harder, ramrod stiff in her
palms. “Oh, Lord,” she moaned. “You both feel so good to me. Different from
each other, but familiar to me. I love both of these.” She gave a gentle
squeeze, making each man catch his breath. Then, she slid the silky skin of
each cock, massaging upward and they grew even harder in her hand.

“See how much better it is when we all get along?” she
whispered. The male eyes that returned her gaze were slightly dazed, as her
hands still massaged their rods. “It’s going to take a while, but we’re going
to learn, my loves.”

Chapter Twelve

 

They’d take it slowly. Initiate Beau into sexual pleasures
as easily as Sara had been introduced.

She slowly inched her luscious rump toward Beau where he lay
on his back, impaling herself on his solid erection, one slim leg flung over
his waist and glanced enticingly at Aric. She opened her legs wide, her sex opened
and spread, aimed at the ceiling.

Beau instinctively started to thrust, but he stilled when
Aric bent his head to lave Sara’s sex. He lay frozen as Sara moaned her
enjoyment at the warmth of Aric’s mouth pleasuring her with Beau connected to
her.

Her deep-throated moans were incredibly sexy and so was the
way she was grasping at his cock, squeezing with her inner muscles. Slowly,
with tiny movements, he began to slide his thick, hard muscle within her again.

His movements became tentative when Aric left her clit to
lick down at her hole. His wet tongue swept tentatively alongside the cock
buried deep within her and he squeezed his tongue in, too.

Surprised, Beau nearly exploded. Panic flooded his senses
and Sara looked back, soothing him with gentle kisses. “Shhh, my love. Relax
and enjoy it. Please, just a couple of seconds and if you don’t like it we can
stop,” she cajoled.

Beau forced himself to visibly relax and Aric continued to
lick around the opening of her vagina, getting Beau’s thick stalk occasionally
in the process.

Beau began to enjoy it, although he couldn’t admit it out
loud. His movements started again, slow thrusts, almost seeming as if he
stroked to reach the tentative little licks of Aric’s tongue.

Sara looked behind her again and cupped his jaw with one
hand. He enclosed his mouth with hers. Her tongue entered his mouth and at the
same time, Aric cupped his balls.

 

Beau came on a crescendo of an explosion, the roaring in his
ears sounded like his eardrums burst, as the cum burst from his body. He
groaned, his hips thrusting frantically as his rod emptied itself.

When his flesh finally stopped quivering, Sara released his
cock by relaxing her inner muscles and Aric balanced himself on the strength of
his arms and plunged his own into her warm, sticky sheath. He groaned at the
sensation of the hot cum from another trickling out of her body.

Lying beneath her, Beau watched the sensual image of Aric
fucking Sara after him. Aric’s lean hips pressed into her rhythmically, his
face contorted as he fought to control his need to explode before her.

That was what they had in common, Beau realized. They both
wanted Sara’s happiness before their own.

Beau raised Sara slightly and slid his limp cock between her
buttocks where the string of her thongs usually lay.

He wrapped one arm around her, tweaking her nipple and then
brought his other hand down between the sweaty bodies to stroke her clitoris.

If he reached slightly lower, he could feel Aric’s cock
where it entered her syrupy flesh.

Aric’s eyes reached his, shocked, and then the orgasm raged
across his face. His expression froze as he tried to control it, but Beau felt
Aric’s cock pump its condom-covered seed into Sara. Beau gripped the other man’s
organ tightly within his thumb and forefinger and with his thumb, he flicked
against her clit, until he felt her tense and climax right along with Aric.

The two of them screamed together and collapsed, Aric’s
mouth on her neck.

And then, Beau felt Aric’s warm tongue on his own neck,
flicking and tasting. Testing, just once.

They were a tangle of arms and legs. They needed to soak in
a hot tub, but Beau never felt better than he did at that moment.

“Who’s showering first?” Aric asked.

“I’ll do it,” Sara volunteered and left them alone to talk.

There was an awkward silence after she rose from the bed and
Aric rolled onto his back, lying beside Beau.

Neither knew quite what to say.

They lay, silent and panting, for long moments while she
showered.

“You tasted me,” Beau said and then seemed to regret his
impulsive outburst. “My neck. When you licked Sara’s, you reached out for my
skin, too.”

“I was curious,” Aric admitted. “And when else would I have
ever had the chance to satisfy that curiosity?”

“Why would you be interested?” Beau asked incredulously.

“I have never had wolf blood.”

“Are you, um, hungry?”

“Yes.”

“Will you feed from Sara again?”

“She is human. I’m afraid to take too much and weaken her.”

Beau was quiet for a few heartbeats, before he said, “Feed,
then,” and thrust his arm at Aric, while not watching.

Aric’s laughter was repressed, rumbling the tiniest bit from
his chest. “Thank you, but next time I shall have your neck.”

He bit, the sound of his fangs crunching through Beau’s
inner forearm.

Beau felt the same connection he felt through Sara when Aric
had taken her blood. A sense of intimacy, of need, both feelings from Aric. And
then the regret at not offering his more sensitive neck, the feeling from him.

It didn’t seem like very long when Aric finished. He lapped
gently at the fang marks on Beau’s arm, sealing them shut and lay back on the
bed again, satiated.

“I know you love her as much as I do,” Beau said. It went
without saying—he felt it through the feeding.

“I love her more than my own life.”

“I’d do anything for her. Even be with you.”

“Obviously, me too.”

When Sara finished, she stood in the bathroom doorway,
looking at the image on the bed.

Beau and Aric were deep in conversation, seeming unconcerned
with their nakedness and the beauty of their perfect bodies. They had no idea
what this image did for her.

“Working things out?” she asked lightly and they looked up,
surprised that she was done.

“Yes. A schedule, I guess you could say. We think you should
give up your apartment permanently and spend your time between the two of us.”

“How?”

“It may take some working on, but maybe a week here, a week
there.”

Aric rose. “Talk to Beau about it, I’ll shower next.”

Sara lay next to Beau on the bed and cuddled with him, but Beau
waited until the water was running in the shower before he spoke.

“I don’t understand how you could have and still do now,
love two very different men, Sara. It’d be different if I at least got along
with the guy. But don’t get me wrong, we’re working on that.”

“Beau, I don’t know how love works. I only know what I feel.
I love you with a passion so intense it frightens me. And I love Aric with a
feeling so deep, I feel lost without it. Let me explain how being forced to
choose felt.”

She paused, wondering if she could go there.

“Go on,” Beau encouraged.

“You know the feeling you got when you found out I died in
that other lifetime?”

The horror invaded his eyes and he gave his head a quick
jerk. “I still can’t talk about it, much less think of it, baby.”

“That’s the exact feeling I get when I think about choosing
one of you.”

Beau finally understood and pulled her to him, where she
felt his body quiver against hers. “Okay. Then I guess we share. So now the
last thing left to sort out is what to do about your mortality.”

“My mortality?”

“You have to pick one of us to become. Either vampire or
werewolf. You can’t remain human, because you’ll die. Maybe tomorrow, maybe
next week, maybe in fifty years. But the fact remains, you’ll eventually die.”

Aric returned from the shower, catching the last of the
conversation and Beau rose from the bed to take his own turn.

“Hottest person here gets the coldest water,” Aric murmured,
a teasing lilt in his voice.

“Benefit of being a wolf. I always take cold showers,” Beau returned.

Sara and Aric made their way to the kitchen while Beau cleaned
up.

“He’s right, you know.”

“Don’t start with me.”

Aric caught her lower lip with his teeth, nipping lightly to
draw a bead of blood and then sucking the pain away. “Just think about it,
sweet. That’s all I’m asking. And don’t take too long. Humans age quickly.”

* * * * *

Sara made it back to Francesca’s room after a long while.

“About time.”

“Sorry. I was involved in a very satisfying threesome.”

“You’re kidding? Aric and Beau?”

Sara took a deep, satisfying breath and nodded, the pleasant
memories stole across her face as she relived the event.

Francesca was still amazed. “At the same time?”

“Yep. Hopefully they’ll get used to it. Because now I can’t
be Aric’s constant blood donor, so I’m hoping Beau will volunteer. That’d
certainly bring them closer.”

“Sharing you will bring them closer, although they’ll fight
about it still. Now, let’s get busy,” she said and lit several candles.

“I wish we could do this outside,” Sara said, breathing
deeply.

“Can’t help that, but we can let the moonlight in and we can
frolic in the nude, like we used to.”

Sara dropped her clothes and Francesca soon followed suit. They
sat cross-legged, facing each other and arranged the candles in a diamond shape
around them.

The wax began to drip down the smooth length of the candle.

“Okay, sweetie, now it’s time. Concentrate and whisper this
after me…”

Before Francesca could share the words they would whisper, a
wind blew through the room and a now familiar voice spoke.

“What are ye doing?”

Sara groaned at the interruption.

Francesca smiled. “Gwynneth. We could use some help to
simplify matters here. I’m out of practice and Sara doesn’t even remember the
ritual. We can’t go outside, Aric and Beau don’t know I’m here.”

“What are ye doing?”

“Making Aric thirsty. So thirsty that perhaps Beau will bail
him out, since Sara’s not around to feed him.”

“But we don’t want to accidentally hurt Aric,” Sara
mentioned, unnecessarily.

“Ye can use the blood of a pig.”

“Ugh.” Sara winced. “No thanks.”

“’Tis the safest way.”

“We don’t have pigs.”

“Aye, the future is difficult.”

“What else can we do?” Sara asked.

“Seraphina, all I needed was ye to ask for help and it shall
be done.”

She vanished, leaving a puff of smoke much like the candle
smoke that had filled the room.

“What was that?” Sara asked Francesca, puzzled. “Did she
perform something? Will she?”

Francesca shrugged a bare shoulder. “She is powerful, Sara. She
will handle matters. Now, watching is a simple feat that I can handle. Wait
here.”

She rose, gloriously nude and walked to the restroom,
grabbing a large glass bowl from the dresser. Sara sat, her knees folded up to
her chest and listened to the sound of running water in the bathroom.

Francesca returned, carrying the bowlful of water and set it
down between them.

She dimmed the lights and relit the candles. After
whispering a chanting rhythm for several minutes, she poured a drop of wax into
the water.

It swirled and formed shapes into the water. Sara wanted to
ask what she was doing, but she was afraid to interrupt the spell.

Suddenly, the image of Beau and Aric appeared in the
reflection of the water. Clear as a picture, like a modern-day television set
inside the bowl.

“Where is Sara?” Aric asked.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen her. What’s wrong, are you
sick?” Beau said, staring intently at him.

Sara panicked and nearly reached into the bowl of water.

“Shh,” Francesca said and clasped her fingers with her hand.
“Shh,” she whispered again.

“I feel odd,” Aric said. “Sick, as if I haven’t fed in a
while.”

“You are pale. But you took blood from me earlier,” Beau reminded
him.

Aric took blood from Beau? Sara’s eyes flew to Francesca’s
and the other woman returned her astonished gaze, motioning her finger to her
lips to remind Sara of the silence needed.

“Maybe the blood of a wolf didn’t agree with me,” Aric said,
his face pale.

“Your fangs are out. Are you sure you’re not just hungry? How
much did you take? I’ve never been bitten, I don’t know how much that was.”

“Just a taste. I didn’t want to scare you.”

“Dammit, I didn’t offer for nothing. Come feed for real, I
can’t have you dropping dead. Sara would never forgive me.”

Aric gave a wan smile and Beau sat on a stool in front of
him. Aric stepped around him, awkwardly, as if he was afraid of touching him.

Beau wore a collared dress shirt, making it difficult to get
at his neck. Without looking once behind him, Beau quickly unbuttoned the shirt
and whipped it from his torso.

Both women gasped at the sight of his muscular chest and
biceps.

“Goddess, he’s beautiful, isn’t he?” Francesca whispered,
breaking her own demand for silence.

“Mmm,” Sara agreed, watching the gorgeous cut of muscles
across his tight abdomen.

Aric leaned over Beau’s neck and they watched his breath
curl across Beau’s skin. “You are sure, wolf?”

“I am.”

Aric lowered his sensual lips to the tanned throat before
him and his fangs extended. His bite was swift and Beau closed his eyes,
ecstasy unknown to Aric stealing across his features.

Aric brought his arm across Beau’s wonderful chest, pulling
him tight while he sucked. Neither man complained at the contact.

Sara had to squeeze her thighs together at the sight of the
two men pressed so intimately, a muscular forearm across a tight chest.

Aric moaned while he fed and Sara wondered what he felt. Was
it sexual pleasure? Was he sharing the intimate feelings with Beau? Or were
they both too scared of the unknown to acknowledge it?

When Aric finally did pull away, it was to mutter, “Your
blood is so rich. Full-bodied. Blood of a supernatural.”

He leaned over Beau again and licked at the pinpricks to
seal them.

BOOK: Born Again
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