Chilled to the Bone (10 page)

Kent was holding his shoulder, looking weak but conscious. He shook his head when Charles approached him. “Now that I don’t have to move,” he said, “I should be able to slow the blood flow. Make sure Brennan’s okay.”

“I’m fine.” Brennan chuckled. “That spell packed a hell of a wallop. I’ve never felt anything quite that cold. Fortunately
,
my shifting creates a great deal of heat, and one thing about werewolves
,
we recover really fast.”

Charles nodded slowly.
Vampires. Werewolves. Magic
. It was a lot to take in, and he’d always prided himself on being a very scientific thinker. He hadn’t believed in anything outré, because there wasn’t rock solid evidence for it, and it didn’t make sense. Now it was all right in front of his eyes, and he couldn’t deny it without deciding he was going mad.
Maybe I am. But one way or the other, I think this madness has its own rules.
He idly thumbed the bone wand he still had in his hand.

Doreen walked behind him. He knew the sound of her footsteps already. He glanced up and smiled. There was blood on her lips. She looked steadier. She knelt down in front of the rifleman, who was still unconscious.

“So,” she asked softly
,
“do we want to keep them alive, or do I drain this one dry?”

Charles gulped. “Uh, alive,” he said.

“Yes.” She paused, looked straight at him. “Yes, Master.”

Then she bent down and sunk her fangs into the man.

Brennan chuckled. “Nice little sub you’ve got there, bro.”

Kent spoke up. “You know it might be more convenient to have them dead. They did try to kill us. All of us. And they might very well do it again.”

“Then do it yourself.”

Kent frowned, and for a moment
,
Charles thought he might. But then he straightened. “Can you walk, Brennan?”

“Yeah
,
” Brennan said.

“Good. I need to get to a hospital. There’s nothing supernatural about my ability to heal. As soon as your girlfriend’s done feeding, Charles, let’s get out of here.”

Doreen straightened. “I’m done. And thank you, all of you, for rescuing me.”

From the look on Kent’s and Brennan’s faces, they still weren’t sure rescuing Doreen had been a very good idea.

Chapter Six

“This isn’t Dark Xanadu,” Doreen objected. They had pulled up a long driveway to an old house outside Upper Marlboro.

“No, it isn’t. This is my home.”

“Nice place you’ve got.”

“It’s secluded, and no one can complain if I turn the stereo up loud. The house was my grandma’s, and she let me have it cheap.”

“Where does she live now?”

“She died a few years back.” Charles closed his eyes for a moment and then took the keys out of the ignition.

Nice way to put your foot in it, Doreen.
Growing old, dying
,
she’d never get to do that. Or have grandchildren.

“Hey,” he said, touching under her chin. “None of that. Life is what we make of it, and everything changes and comes to an end eventually.”

“So what do you do for a living?” asked Doreen.

“I make records. Nothing you’ve likely heard of
,
mixing local bands, making demo CDs, that kind of thing. I have a studio out back. The building used to be a carriage house before Grandma was born, but it’s all fixed up and has excellent acoustics now. Cramped for a big band, but it works.”

Wow, thought Doreen. She hadn’t picked up a bow since Mario had changed her, but there was no reason, she supposed, she couldn’t still play. But she’d have to get a cello somehow, since going back for her own was bound to attract attention. Still, to make a quality recording would be wonderful. Something worth practicing for. Something worth living for, like Charles himself. There has been so little worth living for before she stumbled upon him at Dark Xanadu.

He got out of the car, closed his door, and walked around to the other side to open hers. “Come. You’re spending the night. What’s left of it, anyway.” A light drizzle had started up outside, not hard enough to bother with an umbrella.

“Are you sure that’s wise, Charles? I know I said those guys told me they had all the blood of mine they need for whatever it is they plan to do. But I’m not safe, Char—“

He put his finger to her lips, and she shushed. “I’ve never been one to object to a submissive using my name. But I think this time you’ve simply forgotten our arrangement. You agreed to obey. And I’m ordering you to spend the night. Are we clear?”

Doreen blinked. His steady gaze left no doubt he expected to be obeyed.
What will he do to me if I don’t? Yes, I’m physically stronger. But I don’t know where I am, don’t know where I’d find shelter from the dawn. I’m at his mercy. Stranger still, I wouldn’t have it other away.

“What do you say?”

“Yes, Master,” said Doreen meekly. She knew he wouldn’t leave her to the sun. In the end, she had control
,
but she wanted to give it to him.

“Very good.”

Still, as he led her up the flagstone walkway leading to his porch, she couldn’t resist warning him. “I’m still a vampire, you know, Master. I’d be a bad slave if I didn’t tell you that you’d be best off not inviting me into your home.”

He didn’t answer until they came to the door. He unlocked the deadbolt and the regular lock, turned the knob, and pushed it open. Then he turned to her.

“I don’t want a slave. Being a slave is a full
-
time thing, twenty
-
four hours a day and seven days a week, until released. We have an arrangement for only one week. And now that the violence is behind us, I intend to use this week to remind you that you are a woman as well as a vampire.”

A week had seemed like such a long time when she promised it. To obey every order for an entire week? She’d already blown that by going outside with Carla. That hadn’t worked well at all. But now a week seemed like such a short time. Her whole future stretched out before her, potentially forever, and she only got a week to be with this man?

“Doreen, come inside my home.” Charles walked across the threshold. She followed him.

“You may hang your dress up with the coats in the closet.”

But I’m not wearing anything else, she wanted to protest. But he knew that. That was probably the point. She half
-
lifted, half
-
peeled the stretchy fabric off of her body. His gaze felt hot on her body as she smoothed the dress out again and hung it up neatly on one of the hangers. The coat closet was big enough to hold a hundred coats if it had to.

She turned, naked, to face him, but he was already walking across the living room. A chandelier lit the room. No doubt expensive stereo equipment lined the one wall. Another held a collection of decorative china plates, all arranged in neat little rows. On the far side
,
a large picture window overlooked a spacious back yard. He sat down in a leather chair; she made for the sofa nearby.

“No. No furniture for you, at least not yet.” He tapped the floor with his foot to indicate where she was to go.

Her face felt warm for a moment at the thought of kneeling before him. But kneel she did, ever aware of his eyes on her naked body. The rug was plush and soft beneath her. She wondered if he’d designed it for the purpose and had a pang of jealousy for all the women she imagined had knelt for him before her.

“We have only a couple of hours before the dawn,” he told her. “And with the time so precious, I expect absolute obedience.”

“Yes, Master.”

He leaned forward and stroked her cheek. “Good girl.”

With his hand so close
,
she could hear the pulse in it. She had drunk well in the basement after having been drained almost to death. She wasn’t hungry, precisely. But his blood called to her and inflamed her with desire. The closeness of the vein in his wrist made her tingle all over and put her nerves on high alert, especially between her legs.
His blood is special. Does he know what he’s doing to me?

“Hungry, darling?” he asked.

Her eyes widened. Apparently he did know. “Yes. No. I want a taste.”

“You may not bite me unless I say so.”

“Yes, Master.”

He dragged his hand across her lips. She didn’t know what would happen to her self-control if she kissed it. Her tongue darted out to touch it, tasting a little sweat from it. She closed her eyes, trying to focus on something other than the blood coursing beneath his skin.

She opened them in time to see him smiling. “That’s hard for you, isn’t it?” he asked.

It was, in a way. And yet, she’d no sooner bite him without permission than she would walk out into the sun. She tried to put how she felt into words for him. “I can do it, Master. I think right now, I could do anything.”

He tugged her hair, lightly, and she scooted forward in response.
Closer to him. Why does that matter so much
? Even as a human, she’d never thought of herself as a submissive. She’d been a no-nonsense student, focusing on her degree and her music. She’d barely had time for boys, and when she did, she wasn’t going to let them get in the way.

“Rip off these slacks, love. Use your teeth for them. And then I’ll have a use for that lovely mouth of yours.”

Oh my god. Does he mean what I think he means?

She stretched forward more, aware of how taut her nipples had gotten as the brushed against his knees. She seized the black cotton between her teeth, careful to get nothing but fabric, and pulled back. She thought he was going to deny her physical strength, but no human woman could have caused the well-made cotton to tear so satisfyingly.

He wasn’t wearing any underwear. His cock jutted towards her. The large vein on the underside pulsed with blood. It was blood filling a man’s penis that made it hard and long, and now she could sense all of it. Alyssa, a vampire who she’d met once at a get
-
together of Pemberton’s, had bragged once about how she liked to make men think she was going to suck them off
,
before she sucked the blood from their manhood instead. Of course, they all remembered what they had expected, so what was the harm? Alyssa had laughed, a raspy, harsh sound.

“Suck on it, Doreen. But no biting.”

She slid her lips over the purple head and took as much of him in as she thought she could. She’d done this before, a couple times, when she was mortal. She could feel him pulsing against her tongue, and she could hear the sound of it through her teeth. Her heartbeat matched his in pace as she let him out again.

“That’s wonderful, Doreen.”

She wondered if being blown felt as good for a guy as drinking blood felt to her when she was hungry.
As drinking his blood feels. No, I can’t think that. Not now. Not with it so close.
The thought of biting him filled her brain, until it was almost all she could think of, but she tried to focus on his pleasure. She could make him feel good. She could make him feel wonderful. And if she made him feel good enough, she could taste him—not his blood, but the next best thing, maybe.

Then it hit her.
I don’t have to breathe. Choking comes from not being able to breathe, and the gag reflex exists only to stop choking.
She looked up at his eyes, and saw them shining in ecstasy.
You ain’t seen nothing yet.

Then she slid the whole delicious length of him all the way down.

His eyes widened. The look on his face gave her something to think about instead of his blood. She leaned back, slowly, letting his cock almost all the way out, and then sucked it all back into her mouth and down her throat.

After the third time
,
he put his hands on her shoulders and pushed to stop her from doing it again. He pulled back, his hard glistening cock an inch out of reach of her tongue. “You keep doing that and I’m going to come.”

“What’s wrong with that?” asked Doreen, marveling at herself. She’d never
wanted
to have a man come in her mouth before.

Charles smiled. “I need a hard cock for what I have in mind next. A spent one simply won’t do.”

Doreen grinned. “Well then. Whatever my Master wishes.”

He got out of the chair and moved behind her. “Put your arms on the arms of the chair, Doreen. And spread your legs.”

She did as he requested. The chair was wide enough that putting not only her hands but her forearms on it too was a stretch.
He probably knows that.
Her breasts pushed against the edge of the chair. As she widened her legs, she sank down and the chair pressed into her more. Keeping her arms up was even more of a stretch. She felt completely vulnerable.