Claiming Emerald (2 page)

Rory shrugged. “It has been so long since I drove, I honestly don’t know.”

Em stroked back a wayward strand of Rory’s beautiful black hair. It sparkled with blue shimmers, his sky-blue eyes glowing in the darkness of the bedroom. They kept the lights off because of the lack of power. Russell didn’t really need them either. He had the vision of an owl.

Rory smiled and took her hand, kissing her fingers. “From what the humans said, the last time they went to the orchard, the trucks weren’t running so well. I think the gas is getting really stale.”

“You’re lucky the sonic didn’t happen fifty years ago. The gas back then didn’t have the compounds to keep it fresh for more than six months. At least what we have now keeps longer. What are we going to do when the gas is too old to use in the backup generators? That day is coming all too quickly,” commented Russell. He gave her a small shrug as if she should have the answer.

Luckily, she might. “We should talk to Adrial and Holden about that. They were the ones that fixed the generator that broke last month. Maybe they have some ideas. What about a windmill?”

“There used to be a field of them about twenty miles from here,” mumbled Salt. “If they are still usable, they are probably stuck in snow.”

Em turned to him. Salt usually didn’t wake up during the day at all. He rolled, cuddling up to her side. He put his arm around her and then realized that Russell was there. Salt slid his arm down and took her hand instead. “Do you know about windmills?”

“I know some shit. I thought they were cool when I was in school, so I took a class on them. It would be a bitch to get them back here, though.”

“The snow and ice might actually work in our favor. We run so fast, we don’t sink in. If we could make up some kind of sled, we could just pull the stuff back. There are six of us, seven if we can convince Wesley to go.”

Salt stared at her, obviously considering her comment. “Possibly. The three of us could take a run out there tonight and see what we can find.”

“Can we go back to sleep for now?” asked Rory.

Salt snuggled tighter into her body. “I think that’s a stellar idea.”

Em felt slightly claustrophobic as Rory shifted over to be closer to her. With Russell on her chest, she was completely encased in male muscle and unable to move herself. Em was glad that she didn’t need to breathe, because it would be impossible.

She was lying awake when she felt the sun completely disappear from the sky. The sensation had been muted all day and she had a feeling that it was still snowing. The seasons had been changing over the years. The spring had brought torrential rains. The summer had been hotter and wetter than the last. The fall had been slow to come, but when it had, it had raced in like a lion.

Her patience with being encased was up. Em pushed Russell over onto Salt and flashed out of bed. She stood stretching her body as the three men glared at her. “What?” she asked with a supreme amount of attitude in the word. “I love you, but I was getting claustrophobic.”

“I’ll give you claustrophobic.” Rory flashed out of bed, grabbing her by the wrists and dragging her back over to the bed. Salt was up a second later. As Rory shackled her wrists to the bed, Salt had her ankles. He wrapped them with leather and then attached the chains to them. A second later, her feet were being raised into the air.

A knock at the door shattered the silence. Rory grunted and stormed over to answer it.

Em admired his naked ass for a second and then said, “Blanket, Rory.”

He grabbed the throw off the sofa and tied it around his waist, throwing her a perturbed expression. He had obviously woken up in a less than good mood. He cracked the door, his head rolling on his shoulders in frustration. “What happened?”

Em heard John reply. “Solomon and Ralph were trying to clear the pathway. Solomon slipped and hit Ralph with the shovel on the way down. I’m really sorry to bother you.”

Rory turned to look at Salt and he immediately took Em down. She grabbed her robe as Salt wrapped a blanket around his waist. Russell was curled up in the quilts and simply shrugged. Rory showed the five humans in. John and Nick were carrying Ralph, and they laid him down on the sofa. Francis was helping Solomon, who was obviously in no condition to walk by himself. She went to Ralph and bit into her wrist, putting it to his mouth. Rory did the same to Solomon and the two humans sucked until the wounds healed. Solomon slowly straightened his back, flexing first his neck and then his knees. Ralph was a bit slower to heal. He had a large gash in his side and his clothing was bloody. Em turned to Salt. He hadn’t eaten and the scent of blood was probably driving him crazy. She was right. He was feeding off John, the man appearing absolutely euphoric. Christy was in for a big surprise when he got home. For some unknown reason that had to be linked to Rory, when the three of them fed from the humans, it left sexual undertones behind.

Salt pulled back. “I feel so much better. Thank you, John. I appreciate it as always.”

John smiled. “I really need to go home.”

Em giggled as he hurried past them and down the hall. Ralph grunted as he got to his feet. He tugged his coat and shirt up, revealing the mostly healed remains of a huge slice. He lifted his arm and twisted his head to look at it. “Damn, I knew that hurt.”

“What the hell shovel did that?” asked Em.

Ralph lowed his gaze guiltily. “It’s been so icy. We sharpened our straight edge shovels so they would cut it better. I guess it wasn’t such a good idea.”

“They cut well. Hopefully they worked as well on the ice.”

“Not really. The edges were actually too thin and they bent. That’s why I had stopped. I was standing in the path trying to bang it straight again. When Solomon fell, his shovel was flung up into the air and it cut through my clothing.”

It seemed like a completely unlikely accident, but Ralph was living proof. “Can you do us a favor and pass word that we are thinking about going to look for some windmills? We need to know if anyone has any experience with them.”

“I don’t, but I can relay your message. That’s a great idea.”

“Thank you.”

The four remaining men walked out, but as Rory started to shut the door, he stopped and tilted his head to look down the hall. “What the hell is Jessica doing inside? She is knocking on Adrial’s door.”

Em shrugged. Adrial had already taken up with a human named Samantha. Samantha was none too big on the idea of sharing her vampire with anyone. Rory groaned and shut the door. “Another one of the generators just went down.”

“Lovely. What about the backup for the refrigerators and the kitchen?”

Rory opened the door back up, just as Adrial walked by. “Adrial. Can you check the one that runs the kitchen when you are finished? We can’t afford to have all the food going bad.”

“I will. I think Holden and I are going to check them all. We think they are getting clogged up because the gas is too old. Some of them didn’t get used over the summer and that made matters worse.”

“Do you know anything about windmills?”

“Some.”

“Good, because we were talking about going on an expedition to see if we can find any.”

“Let us know how we can help.”

“Thanks. We’ll be up a little later. We were in the middle of something.”

Em heard Adrial chuckle. “Have a good time.”

Rory shut the door and rolled his eyes in reference to the interruption. As if their brains were synchronized, Rory and Salt both flashed on her. Within seconds, she was again suspended with her back to the floor. Her wrists were bound to the bedposts, her feet hanging against the shackles on her ankles. Salt slid the spacer bar between the chains. It spread her legs and brought her up to the right height. If her men spent as much time on helpful pursuits as they did inventing different ways to confine her, the community would probably be in better shape.

Em hung her head back to look at Russell. “You in?”

“Yeah, when they take you down and you can climb under the covers with me. It’s cold as hell in here.”

“If I remember correctly, the common concept was that hell was hot.”

Russell flared his nostrils and lowered his eyelids to glare at her with his beautiful amber eyes. He sat up, adjusting the pillows as a backrest and then tugging the blankets up under his neck. “Okay. It’s as cold as the North Pole in here. I’ll watch.”

“Are all three of you in a mood tonight?” She glanced up at Rory and Salt.

Salt was standing with the hard leather cattail in his hand. He had spent nights curing and cutting the individual strands from cowhide. He had braided them to make fifteen long strands before slicing the tips into multiple layers. A thin tree branch covered with layers of cooked sap added strength to the center of the handle. It was slightly flexible to give Salt more action when he chose to torment her with it. Rory had the flat wooden paddle that he had made. The surface was layered with ridges that he had meticulously sanded into rows of small barbs. It could either tickle her skin with a light snap or draw blood with a hard one.

Rory tilted his head. “Why do you think we are in a mood?”

“I don’t know. You and Russell seem to have an attitude. Your choice of torment toys adds to my theory. Do the two of you really intend to use those on me at the same time?”

Salt narrowed his eyes, his grin filled with anticipation. “Why not? Before we even finish fucking you, the marks will be gone.”

It was an unusually odd thing for Salt to say. He typically wasn’t so brash. They were going to slam the hell out of her. Em closed her eyes, resigning herself to her fate. If she really wanted to, she could snap the chains and be free. She wouldn’t because she always enjoyed the sex in the end. She preferred slightly gentler implements of arousal, but they were in charge.

Rory tapped her ass with the paddle, making her jump. The strike was slightly prickly, but when Salt hit her ass with the cattail, it was forgotten. They were both assaulting the same skin, whack with the paddle, crack with the cattail. Her ass was on fire, the flesh slowly rising to a brilliant burn.

Rory hit her across the stomach and Salt followed. Her ass was cooling, healing, her stomach sizzling with each strike. They returned to her ass, back and forth, ten hits each and then switched. Her thighs were next, the synchronized rhythm between them obviously planned. It was overwhelming, the pain receding as the fluid in her body shifted to each new patch of skin. Back and forth, wood, leather, nine hits each and then back to her ass.

Em was counting, the split-end cattail hitting, spreading out to fry her flesh. The paddle prickled against her skin. They weren’t increasing the power in the strikes. They were just unrelenting. Eight strikes each, sixteen in all. Her pussy was slick with fluid, the growing throb within getting stronger, more demanding. Whack the barbs biting into her nipples, flattening her breasts.
Snap
, the cattail sang as he flipped it, the leather licking into her flesh, making her jump.

Seven, this assault would be seven each. Her mind ticked off each one, Rory and then Salt, back to Rory. Five, six, seven. Back to her ass, the cattail first, making her jump, the skin not completely healed from the last time. Stinging, burning skin. Her ass was throbbing incessantly, her nipples on fire. Her hips were rolling, her body jarred as they continued.

Six, she needed to get to six each. Back to her stomach. Her clit was throbbing, one of them had moved up between her legs. She could feel naked male skin rubbing against her pussy lips. It was cool, either Salt or Rory. Em opened her eyes. It was Rory, his intense sky blue orbs watching her, evaluating her reaction. He had his arm under her thigh, the paddle held between his fingers. He brought it up with a slight flick of his wrist and then let it drop. Em realized that he was putting no real energy into the hit. It was simply gravity, or at least on the top of her body it was.

Salt was to her left. He flashed the leather in the air to create the noise and then let it drop onto her skin. Somewhere in her mind, she had gotten it into her head that they were in a mood to hurt her. She had been so wrong. They were simply toying with her, knowing that she would close her eyes. On how many occasions had they blindfolded her? It was normal for her to keep her eyes closed.

Rory ran his fingers up the fold of her pussy. “I win.”

Salt glared at him. “You cheated. She opened her eyes because you pressed yourself against her twat. She would have kept them closed for at least another two rounds if you hadn’t.”

“Did I cheat, Em?”

“I wasn’t aware that you had a bet on me. If I may ask, what exactly was the bet?”

“I said that you would open your eyes before we got to five each. Salt said it would be longer if you opened them at all before we started to fuck you. The winner gets you, the loser gets his palm.”

Em considered how to reply. If she said that Rory had cheated then he wouldn’t be the one fucking her. If she said that he hadn’t, then Salt would be fucked. She was greedy. She wanted them both. “No matter how I reply, I will be deprived.” Her skin had completely healed, but her pussy was still on fire. Having Rory standing flush against her groin certainly wasn’t helping anything. She wanted them to do something and wasn’t particular about which one of them did what. She was a true creature of vampire imprint and needed at least two men in her life to be happy. Maybe now she needed three, but Em wasn’t sure. “One of you needs to do something. My pussy is cooling off to match my flesh.”

Rory flipped the paddle, catching it on the downward swing. He cracked it across her ass, the tines biting into her skin to draw blood. Em shivered, the concussion catching her completely by surprise. He bent forward and kissed her, his lips delicately soft as he enticed her mouth open with his tongue. He gyrated his lower body against her outer cunt, her throbbing pussy singing his praise even as the flesh of her ass continued to burn angrily.

Rory stepped back and was gone. Em turned to the side and he was on the sofa. He shrugged. “He’s right. I cheated. I know you like to know who has taken what position.”