After The End (18 page)

After only a couple of sips, Daemon released
his lips and ran the tip of his tongue down my neck. He trailed his
mouth slowly down to my breasts. I moaned and writhed against him
as he began to roll and flick my protruding nipples with his supple
tongue. Colors flashed against my closed eyelids as he languorously
suckled me, again taking a tiny drink of my blood in the
process.

This is definitely a better
way to donate.

I pulled his face to meet mine and kissed him
fully as we pressed close, my hardened areolas rubbing against his
chest. Daemon unbuttoned my jeans and slid his hand inside as his
pants dropped to the floor. His nimble fingers made waves in the
warm waters within, brought me to the brink of ecstasy, and
gradually tapered me back down to sustained anticipation. As my
lover grinned and licked his moist finger, I slid out of my
dampened Levis.

He teased me with a flurry of butterfly
kisses and nibbles along my belly button and inner thigh;
periodically using the very tip of his long tongue to lap up the
results of his titillation. I grabbed handfuls of his hair,
desperate for him to continue. I arched my back while Daemon
simultaneously thrust his fangs into my thigh and repeated his show
of digital dexterity. The combination of blood loss and near
orgasmic tantalization made me lightheaded. His mouth shifted over
and my entire body shook with rapture.

I found myself staring into the vampire’s
shining green eyes; he held me tightly to him as he slid inside me.
I wrapped my legs around his waist. With each slow thrust, my
climax was extended and heightened.

Daemon moaned into my ear, “Oh God, this is
so worth the wait…” while my eyes rolled back. I found myself
biting his earlobe as he neared his peak. I tilted my hips with
each stroke. Daemon’s eyelids fluttered and his eyes took on a red
tint.

“Nnffhh…yesss.”

He sighed and he drove his teeth back into my
neck, this time with a yearning I hadn’t felt since that first
feeding. I was floating now, my every pore vibrated and bones
tingled. He drank deeply as our passion crested together. The cabin
went black as I drifted into the fireworks my senses cascaded over
me. His loving arms suddenly felt worlds away.

What’s happening? Why does
Daemon sound alarmed?

Someone was snoring on my chest; and
drooling, if the feel of the blanket was any indication. As I
hoisted my heavy lids and squinted into the dim cabin, images and
sounds tumbled through my memory banks like an inebriated dream.
The pieces pulled themselves together as I brushed the hair from
Daemon’s face.

I must have blacked out
from the blood loss.

I sat for a time just watching his eyelids
flutter and nose crinkle while he slept.

“You gave us quite a fright, Squirrel.”

I turned to find the elder vampire sitting
rigidly against the wall staring at me. He seemed livid. For a
moment I flinched, noticing he wore the expression my Dad used
whenever I let him down.

“It’s clear you didn’t listen to my advice,
perhaps you will be less selfish in the future. If you are weary of
living, be done with it in a manner that will not destroy that boy
or tear apart this small society we have built.”

Small spots still floated in my vision and I
felt faint, but his snarled words made the sensation worse.

“You’re right,” I whispered through my dry
throat “it was a dick move. I wanted to be with him, so that’s what
I did. I stopped worrying about how everything could get screwed up
and I didn’t consider how he’d feel if he killed me in the process.
But I’m not sorry.”

His eyebrow arched as he reclined on his left
side, his right palm gesturing me to proceed. Daemon mumbled
something about kilts and Wookies before his snoring resumed. My
fingers stroked his head while I drew my argument together.

“We love each other.” I sighed softly. “It’s
not a good argument for potentially ruining or ending lives, but
it’s what I’ve got. I’ve no intentions of having him turn me
or…”

“I wouldn’t allow that.”

Cal stood as he spoke. My startled recoil
stirred my sleeping lover.

“Whaa, what happened? Are you okay?” He sat
up and rubbed the sleep sand from his eyes. I nodded and he kissed
me gently before I could speak. “Good. Sorry about all the biting,
I got kind of caught up in the moment.”

He looked over at his mentor. Then down at
the covers he’d just shaken off. Promptly, we both turned bright
red as we reached the same conclusion: we were still nude and Cal
was very much dressed and not blind.

Thank goodness I’m still
under the blanket.

In a blink, Daemon had clothed himself and my
garments were delivered to me with a sheepish grin.

“Um, forgot the naked thing. Sorry again.
Cal, can you give us a second please?”

I knew his answer before he said it.

“No. I saw her nude earlier when I helped you
put her into bed and elevate her legs so her heart wouldn’t stop.
Or have you forgotten?”

“No, I didn’t. I just, well, I forgot I about
the nakedness at the time.”

“Nearly killing a lover does that.”

The room seemed unbearably warm in the
following silence. I dressed under the blanket and dropped my numb
legs over the side of the bed. Pins, needles, and steak skewers
jabbed through every cell as the blood flowed more freely to my
limbs. I became weak and woozy, finding myself held upright by the
Roman. He handed me a glass of juice and a plate.

“The juice is warm and the liver cold, but
eat it anyway. It’s too soon for you to stand, you haven’t built up
your blood yet.” Daemon rubbed my legs while Cal forced me to take
the meal. “For the next day or two, you’ll need to rest here and
consume large amounts of fluids and meat. If Daemon hadn’t already
fed, we would be burying you right now.”

I focused on the food. The rubbing had
stopped and I couldn’t bring my eyes to meet either of theirs. I
slowly drank the juice only to have Daemon replace the empty glass
with one full of water.

“Thanks.” I murmured awkwardly between bites.
The liver was chilly and rare. I choked it down past the guilt that
was welling up in my chest. It was like swallowing blood-drizzled
silly putty.

Daemon spoke first. His green eyes softened
as he cleared my dishes.

“Was it at least good?”

I laughed at his smirk as he attempted to
lighten the mood. Cal smacked him in the back of his head and
stormed out of the cabin.

“Yes, actually. It was amazing.” I responded,
giving him a playful kiss on the cheek. “It’s just that too much of
a good thing can kill you.”

The seriousness returned to his face.

“I know. At least we got to make love once.
Besides, I finally got laid, so that’s nice.”

I pinched his arm before cupping his hand. As
our fingers interlaced, I forced everything I yearned for into a
tiny shoebox in the basement of my heart and hefted my
responsibilities back onto my fragile shoulders. I thought of Cal’s
face, etched with concern and sadness; then of Daemon’s, full of
love and the knowledge that this was the closest we could be.

“We have to get back to the real world now.
Time to clean up my mess.”

The elder vampire barged back into the room;
Sunny trailing behind him, his blighted hope mirrored in her
distressed glare.

What new hell is
this?

“Are you seriously this stupid? You almost
died.” Sunny stormed past Cal and stood so close I could taste the
stewed tomatoes on her breath. “And you,” she pointed at Daemon
“you keep your fangs and anything else that grows to yourself. We
have a deal for survival, not screwing around.”

“Uhhh, okay. I kinda think this is our
business though. Squirrel and I already agreed that this was a
one-time thing; I don’t want to hurt the woman I love.”

He squeezed my hand and lowered his eyes.

“I get it; you two are pissed. Daemon and I
can handle this on our own. We appreciate the concern…”

“You could’ve been killed. If you die at the
hands of one of these two, none of the others will agree to keep
donating and things will get real messy real fast. This fling was
idiotic and selfish.”

Caelinus stood like a statue, his eyes
following the verbal volleys.

I straightened up and pushed aside the guilt
I felt.

“We aren’t arguing that fact. I accept that
it’s true. We’re going to keep our emotions in check and maintain
the status quo here. So forget last night and let’s focus on
today’s new pile of crap to deal with.”

Three silent stares.

“Has anyone been told anything or asked about
me staying here last night?”

Cal spoke haltingly, “Actually, no. We told
the visitors that the camp was weighing our options and separated
them to aid with the gardens and burning any Dead we found in the
pits.”

He looked past me, his diminished rebuke
shrinking his stance. Sunny just shook her head and crossed her
arms.

“So the chewing out was for nothing? I’m
fine, lesson learned. There isn’t an issue here.”

Daemon beamed that our nocturnal activities
had been without consequence. (Or possibly he was just excited to
have lost his virginity.)

“Just tell the others, I took ill and am in
quarantine in the coffin cabin for a couple of days; it’s already
our standard procedure. Then we set up the Q&A of the strangers
for tonight before dinner. Cal puts the guys under one at a time,
asks the questions we write up today, and we go from there. Problem
solved.”

Sunny tilted her head and raised an
eyebrow.

What the fuck
now?

I waited for the question to wind its way out
of her.

“Why should Cal ask one by one instead of
just ask all five at once and have them nod or raise hands to
signal a yes answer? It would be faster and let us handle any of
the ones who fail without a struggle.”

“Trust. We need them to trust us and we need
everyone to trust that they will never be set up like that if Cal
or Daemon ever need to Glamour them.”

“But…” She started.

“No.” I forced my aching body to hold my
weight and stood. Daemon held my arm to steady me. “If any of these
newcomers get to stay, our lives will depend on them; for that, we
need trust. I want these dudes to know the answers their
compatriots give and why we take any actions. They have to be
willing to accept this camp as their community, otherwise they may
opt to kill us while we sleep instead of sitting a guard
shift.”

Caelinus smiled and gave a small nod of
approval. Wordlessly, he picked up a pen and paper and sat by the
mussed bed. Daemon rose while his mentor scribbled some questions
on the notepad

“Coolies. No harm, no foul works for me. I’ll
go deliver the messages before everyone starts cooking dinner.” He
gave me a kiss on the cheek before disappearing.

As I sat back on the bunk, Sunny remained
stern-faced. After a minute, she threw her hands up and joined us
to pen the big questions for Nova Nocte’s new entrance exam.

Twenty minutes later, the residents of Nova
Nocte — minus the younger kids — were assembled around the cooking
fire. I sat on a bench with the Nurse and Sindbad, watching our
five newcomers and trying to look vaguely sick as opposed to merely
anemic and over-sexed. My light jacket hid the only visible bite
marks without being as obvious as a turtleneck.

Cal stood to my side; he held the crumpled
list of questions as though it was a scroll announcing a new
emperor. The small village was silent except for the occasional
laughter of the children playing and the shuffling of chairs. I
checked the clouds for any sign of Daemon before confirming that
each sentry was in place and watching beyond the wall instead of
the inquiry taking place within.

“Okay, let’s get these interviews started so
we can get on to dinner and sleep. Cal will be using his vamp
abilities to put each new guy under individually. Then he will ask
them the questions we agreed would be pertinent. Please do not
interrupt the process, because it will make this whole thing take
longer.”

The elder vampire gave me a small nod and
began. The first two dudes answered all of the questions so that no
red flags were raised. The third guy, the one wielding a butcher
knife taped to a broom handle, explained that he left his previous
group during the first winter when they turned to eating their sick
and recently deceased. He found Troy when he was half-starved and
near delirious with hunger; it explained his dedication and
obedience to the bowman. It was the fourth man who made the crowd
antsy.

“Have you ever forced anyone to engage in
sexual acts or been arrested for doing so?” Cal asked
nonchalantly.

“Yes, I’ve been arrested for rape once, but
I’ve taken women at least a dozen times.”

The man smiled as though drifting in a fond
memory while disgust oozed off everyone in the community like bad
cologne. I caught Cal’s eye and gestured for him to draw out more
information.

“Elaborate on that.”

The man’s eyes burned as his words poured out
with a fervor.

“I like it when the girls struggle. Mostly,
I’d take them home and wrestle them down until they’d surrender; it
doesn’t matter if they say ‘no’ because I know they really like it.
On occasion, I would just find a lady so pretty and the setting was
so perfect, I’d just grab them and toss them against a wall or
behind a bush and … gururgghh…”

His gushing of filth was halted by the knife
jammed through the base of his skull and up through his open mouth.
The predator slumped into a heap with the tip of the hunting knife
still glistening in the firelight. Troy reached his crimson hand
down and withdrew the weapon; it made a squelching noise as the
serrated edge was pulled free. Bone flecks and gray matter clung to
the blade. With a sneer, Troy wiped the gore and blood on his
victim’s shirt, placed the knife in its sheath, and stood tall.