Reborn Vampire Romance: Blood Courtesans (16 page)

Kristos licked and stroked me until I trembled. When he thrust his tongue deep inside my wet passage, my knees started to buckle and he had to hold me up, pinning me against the counter by my hips. Then he returned to the sensitive nub and worked it over until I keened with the pleasure. The orgasm swelled hot and wet inside me and then burst as he lashed my core with rapid flicks back and forth. I moaned and all strength fled my body until the only thing keeping me upright was Kristos’ hands at my hips.

“How do you do this to me?” I asked. “I can never get enough of you. You’re like a drug.”

“It’s the blood bond,” he said rising to his feet and steadying me with his hands.

I leaned into him, still weak from my climax. “The second you touch me, I want you. Every time.”

“And I you.” He kissed me, sharing the salty flavor of my desire.

“You feel like that too?”

“Oh yes, Myra. I want you too. Any way and every way.” He lifted my shirt over my head and dropped it to the floor while I shrugged out of my bra. Then he turned me until I faced the counter, and with gentle insistence, bent me over it. “I want you always, even after we’ve just made love. It’s unlike any other binding I’ve experienced.” He nudged my feet apart and pressed on the small of my back  into an expectant arch.

I heard him unzip his pants and then his hard length pressed between my legs. He slowly sank himself into my slick wetness with a guttural groan. I sighed in satisfaction. With Kristos inside me, I felt complete.

At first he set a slow, teasing pace that had me pushing back trying to take more of him faster. He ignored me and forced me to accept his pace, one that reduced me to begging.

“Faster, Kristos. Please.”

“Not yet, love. I want to savor you.”

I wiggled my hips in frustration and his hands grabbed an ass cheek each, giving me a firm squeeze until I stilled. The pleasure rose in shallow eddies as he pumped in and out of me, lacking the stimulation to crest. It felt good, oh so good, but it wasn’t enough. I mewled in frustration.

Kristos ran his hand along my back pushing me down so that my ass rose up even higher for him. My chest had slipped off the counter by then and I hung onto the edge with my hands, head bent down toward the floor. It reminded me of a yoga pose except that had been awkward, and this felt so good I wanted it to hurry up and never stop at the same time.

When he stopped and pulled out, I almost cried, but he quickly helped me upright and around to set me on the counter. With one quick thrust he was inside me again and sucking my nipples, one after the other. His tongue on my breasts was impatient and merciless. He didn’t feed from me, but his teeth scraped my sensitive skin anyway and I gasped at the sensation.

“You like it rough, don’t you, Myra?” he asked with a knowing smile. To prove his point he took my nipple in his mouth, whipped it into a frenzy with his tongue and then bit down none-too-gently.

I yelped and put a hand to his head, threading my fingers through his hair and holding him in place so he wouldn’t stop. The most delicious sensations throbbed in my body. The sweet pleasure of his cock inside me and the tortured bliss of his mouth and teeth on my breasts.

Yes, I liked it rough.

I bucked against him as I spun out of control. He started to slam into me with punishing strokes and I exploded with a scream. He came with me. Kristos wasn’t one to make much noise during sex, but the way he clenched his jaw when he climaxed gave it away. That and he stopped moving inside me.

We shuddered into one another as the aftershocks of our shared pleasure rolled through us and then Kristos slowly moved away, breaking contact. I missed the feel of him against my skin immediately. I wanted to say, ‘let’s do that again’ but instead I went to my luggage, found another pair of underwear, and got dressed.

Not wanting to wear the dagger where people could see it, I strapped the sheath around my calf and slipped the dagger inside. My tight designer jeans had just enough give in them to cover the whole thing, although you could see the shape of it through the cloth. I hoped the dark indigo blue would camouflage it enough to prevent questions. What I couldn’t figure out was how I would draw the dagger without wrestling with my jeans for five minutes. Having a weapon was progress, but not being able to access it quickly made it moot.

Kristos, ever observant, silently came over with a kitchen knife. Squatting down he hacked a slit just above the sheath and wide enough for my hand to pass through. I winced as he did it, thinking of Jacques, the stylist who’d chosen my clothes back when all I had to worry about was having sex with a vampire.

Kristos returned the knife to its drawer. “Check and see if you can draw like that.”

I pulled the knife out and then put it back in. “Seems fine. Although Jacques will kill me if he finds out.” The stylist would have a fit. He didn’t care if I lived or died, it was all about the clothes with him and I’d just committed an act of fashion blasphemy. He would never forgive me.

“Jacques is the least of your worries, love,” Kristos murmured. He went into the bedroom and emerged a second later wearing a crisp white dress shirt paired with navy dress pants. Slung over his shoulder was the black leather duffel bag he used as luggage. “Ready to go, love?”

I grabbed the little rolling suitcase one of Kristos’ men had bought for me when we first went into hiding. “I guess. I wish you would tell me the plan.”

“You’ll know soon enough,” came his enigmatic response.

W
e left the Brownstone, the air now cold enough with impending winter to make my breath fog. Kristos led the way down a few blocks and then over a few more. His rapid gait made it so I had to hustle to keep up with him.

“This is not the Olympic power walking race,” I said to him after I had to actually break into a run or risk being left behind at a crosswalk.

He slowed down for a moment. “Sorry. I’m just edgy.” And then he sped up again, forcing me into a light jog. For a second I had a little flashback to the night we first met and the way his goons had swept me along at such a pace that I’d tripped and fallen. I grimaced at the memory, which seemed to delight in taunting me.

By the time we arrived at the subway station, my heart pounded in my ears and I was flushed and out of breath. Kristos bought two tickets and a few minutes later we were on a train destined for the Grand Central stop in Manhattan. Kristos remained silent but alert, his eyes constantly scanning the people around us. The train jostled us against each other in a not unpleasant rhythm and I watched the world stream by outside the window, trying to bite back anxiety about what would happen next.

At Grand Central, Kristos guided me out to the street and flagged a taxi. He gave the driver an address that made no sense to me and I found myself wishing I knew the terrain of New York City better. All I caught was something tower followed by a bunch of street numbers. Knowing he wouldn’t tell me, I didn’t ask.

Kristos leaned back in the seat next to me and reached out to squeeze my knee. “So far, so good. We’re almost home free.”

I opened my mouth to say something about how I couldn’t wait, but before I could utter a word, a black SUV squealed around the corner at the cross street in front of us. Its engine roaring, it zeroed in on our vehicle.

The cab driver screamed. “We’re going to crash. Brace yourselves!”

I looked at Kristos as I gripped the ‘oh shit’ handle with both hands. There was no time to do anything else before the SUV smashed into the front end of our taxi. The impact slammed me back into my seat with such force that I rebounded forward, my head hitting the plastic partition dividing the front of the taxi from the back. Pain split my skull and while my eyes were open, I couldn’t see anything but darkness and weird little sparkles. Reaching out my hand I felt for Kristos, relieved when I found his shoulder.

“Myra, are you okay?” he asked, sounding surprisingly unaffected by the accident. Super vamp probably didn’t have a scratch on him.

“I think so,” I managed to whisper, my words slurring together like I was drunk. “My head hurts.”

“I’m going to get out and come around to your side. Don’t move, okay?”

I heard the sound of his car door opening and waited for him to open mine, trying to stay as still as possible because movement was painful. The cab driver groaned in his seat and a blinker clicked incessantly. I hoped the guy was okay and I really wished someone would shut off the damn blinker, it made my head hurt even more. My eyesight was beginning to clear now, revealing splashes of colors alternated with shadows. I could see parts of the taxi, but blackout spots kept my vision from being whole.

My door opened and hands grabbed me, hauling me out into the street. I looked up expecting to see Kristos, but the man above me was not him. While I was processing that fact, a gun shot rang out and someone made a loud ‘oof’ sound as the bullet connected. I tracked the noise and stopped breathing when I saw Kristos flat on the ground in the middle of the street, his eyes dead and staring up at nothing.

“Kristos!” I screamed, fighting to break free and go to him, but whoever had me was stronger than I would ever be. Vampire strong. The thought hit me and I went still. They’d found us and I’d just lost my only protector. My heart convulsed and tears streamed down my cheeks. Was he dead or just incapacitated? Would I ever see him again? I couldn’t bear the idea of not having Kristos at my back. He’d been amazing from day one. The thought of being without him made grief close my throat, choking me on my own sobs.

I didn’t even fight when the vampire dragged me away from the scene. A black limo pulled up alongside us. When the door opened, I was unceremoniously stuffed inside.

I sprawled on the floor of the limo. It took me a minute to recover because the rapid movement had sloshed my already scrambled brain. It felt like there was a huge bruise inside my skull and it throbbed in pulses of sharp agony. With a groan, I pulled myself into an empty seat and tried to take stock of my surroundings.

There were three of them sitting on the bench seat across from me. All men. All vampires. I could tell by their pallor and the lack of small movements. Vampires were still as statues when they stopped moving.

One of the trio was the guy who had grabbed me. He was built like a prizefighter with a shiny bald head, bulging arm muscles and large, ham hands that could probably wrap all the way around my neck.

The second was dressed in a meticulous three-piece suit with fancy Italian leather shoes. He had brown hair and unremarkable features. He looked like a corporate middle manager and reminded me of one of my professors in school.

The third vampire was Abe Lincoln tall, his knees rising high up past the seat level. His arms were long and thin and he wore black trousers with a black dress shirt and black shoes. The expression on his face gave me a start as he watched me with the intensity of a lion stalking its prey. His dark eyes reminded me of Arlo and made me feel like I was staring down a black hole of nothingness.

He smiled at me, his thin lips making the expression a threat full of malice. “Hello, my daughter.”

I
stared at the man across from me, taking in his narrow face and high cheek bones that were eerily similar to mine. My mouth dropped open in shock and my eyes went so wide I thought for sure they would pop out of my head. “D-d-dad?” The word sounded wrong on my tongue. This was my Dad?
Oh God I hope not
. Because that would mean my dad hadn’t just missed my entire life to date, he’d also shot Kristos. My stomach clenched. This wasn’t going to be a happy reunion.

His smile widened, revealing pointed fangs. “Yes, it’s me, your sire.” He waved to the vampires next to him. “These are my associates. Say hello to my daughter.”

The two vampires gave slight nods of their heads.

Ignoring the introductions, I kept my focus on what mattered. “Kristos?” I couldn’t keep myself from sounding hopeful. The idea of him gone was killing me.

At the mention of Kristos’ name Devon’s expression soured and his dark eyes flashed. “He will no longer trouble you, daughter. You are mine. You will always be mine.” His gaze pinned me down then and I froze as the power of his eyes hit me.

Somehow he was inside my head, rummaging through it like so many dresser drawers. Arlo had invaded me with his thoughts and Kristos had been able to create a common link between us, but we had all exchanged blood. This vampire, my father, was inside my mind easy as a knife cutting butter. I had no resistance to him.

He caught my thought process and gave a satisfied smile. “You were blood bound to me at birth, dear one. I chose not to invoke it until you were old enough to be useful to me.” He paused for a second and then asked, “But what is this about Arlo? You knew him?”

He poked around my memories and brought back the night I’d first met Arlo. He winced at the picture of the decapitation.

“Did you send him after me?” I asked. It took enormous effort for me to speak, the weight of him in my head was suffocating and banging my skull around like a piñata hadn’t done me any favors either.

Devon shook his head. “No, I set him loose some time ago. He’s no longer mine. Pity he had to die like that, but if you hadn’t killed him I would have.” He leaned forward and rested a long bony finger on my knee. “No one touches what’s mine, daughter. No one.” The pressure of his finger intensified until it dug into my thigh like a hard rock.

My spine crawled at his touch and all sorts of alarms went off in my head. Devon may be my father but he was no doting parent. In my fantasies, I’d always imagined meeting my Dad to be a joyous moment, but in reality, I was filled with a gnawing fear. The guy was a creep.

The good thing about our conversation, Devon’s focus on me had lessened. I took advantage of the lull to send out a panicky thought toward the bond I had shared with Kristos.
Are you okay? Can you feel me?
Normally I would have sensed the connection between us but this time there was only emptiness. The place in my soul that had held Kristos was vacant. My heart sank.