Department 57: Bloody Crystal (6 page)

He sucked it in greeting before he continued to explore the rest of her body. “So pretty,” he murmured against her as he moved inexorably down. He opened her softly with finger and thumb and eased his forefinger down the crease, gathering moisture and drawing it out. He slid just inside her, rimmed her, and heard her happy moan. His mind warmed, like dawn creeping over the horizon, a reflection of her relaxation. Keeping his mind open, caressing hers, he moved down, kissed from her navel to the cluster of curls protecting her femininity. Her delectable aroma reached him, and he breathed deep, relishing his own response, his cock hardening even more.

When he touched his tongue to her clit, she gasped and her back arched, thrusting it up into his mouth. He took it and then took more before he gave her the most intimate kiss of all. Sucking her clit in with a strong motion, he opened his mouth wide against her, sliding his tongue into her pussy, tasting her arousal. She gave a little cry, and from the muffled sound she made, he guessed she’d clutched the pillow and brought it around to stifle the sound.

She fed his mind with images, swirling, heated patterns that were uniquely her. He ate her, drank her down, took her as his own. Attending to her mental messages, he noted when he pulled on her clit a particular way, when he tongued her just so, and he did it more, teased her with it.

Her cries grew more frequent, more frantic. Squeaks and whimpers, and then she twisted her hips, but he held her down, made her take it.

Higher and higher until he held her right on the pinnacle, teetering on the edge for an unbearable moment until she tumbled into clear space and flooded him with her juices.

He rejoiced that he could do this for her. He’d do it again and again because he loved her taste. He wondered if it could be addictive and decided that it might be his particular drug. He lifted up—not bothering to wipe his mouth, still wet with her—and came over her, ready to fuck her once more.

His cock seemed to know its way now, but he shifted a little so it didn’t slide all the way in. He didn’t want that, not yet. Prolonging the wait was one of the best things about having sex like this. Sharing with someone instead of scratching an itch. There was nothing he wanted to scratch now, just to pleasure. To make it as good for her as he could.

He licked his lips, tasting her anew, watching her gaze up at him, her eyes hooded, her mouth partly open, and he sensed her mind slowly spinning down from its ecstatic high. Time to take her up again.

Smiling at her, he eased in slowly, keeping his mind locked with hers, so he felt her reactions when he entered her. No pressure, no pain, just effortless pleasure. He didn’t want to hurt her anymore, didn’t want to see any more tears today. Ignoring his needs—which were, as usual, to drive deep inside until he came—he concentrated on her reaction, working to push his to the back of his mind. He kissed her when he reached her sweet spot, just as she flinched when he moved past it. But he didn’t make the kiss lingering. He wanted to watch her eyes. Those amazingly expressive eyes, sky blue. They should contain joy all the time, not the melancholy he’d seen too much in them already.

He watched the blue warm and blur as he took her higher. And higher. He deliberately angled his thrusts to slide past her G-spot every time, watching and feeling to ensure he was doing it right, although it was getting increasingly harder to ignore his own excitement. He gritted his teeth, tried to think of something cold and rational.

Esti.

No, she didn’t belong here. Something else. Ah yes, ice. Just pure ice. That would work. He’d shivered his way through a few ice storms in his time. He concentrated on cold sleet driving past his face, saw the streaks, but her blue gaze penetrated the haze and he found her again.

She was peaking. The waves of ecstasy were growing stronger, taking over her body. This was the time he adored, when she had to give herself into his keeping, trust him absolutely, because she had lost control of her own arousal. He kept driving, increasing the depth of his strokes now, careful to remain in contact but powering into her. A cool bead of sweat ran down the furrow created by his backbone when he strained deep within her. Harder and deeper.

She paused, that sublime second when nothing mattered, when nothing outside the two of them even existed. Then she cried out, turning her head on the pillow, her pussy clenching around his cock in spontaneous convulsions.

There was no holding back now. Not a chance. He felt his own moment, the way his semen surged up the center of his cock before it exploded inside her, sending jets of his essence into her body.

Afterward he had just enough sense to roll to one side, although he didn’t let go.

They slept.

Chapter Four

“Know anything about this?” Dave tossed the day’s local paper at her. It came out once a week now, like most local rags, but this one at least had some news some of the time. Cerys had been too busy with Rhodri to notice. He’d seen her every day that week.

She stared at the paper. “No,” she managed. “I never saw anything.”

Dave grunted. “Good. I think they were the guys in here last weekend. The police think so too. Is your boyfriend coming in tonight?”

Despite her shock, she warmed at the suggestion, but she couldn’t accept it. “Boyfriend’s putting it a bit strong. Holiday romance, maybe. I doubt we’ll see each other once he goes back home.”

“Where does he live?”

“New York and London.” He hadn’t told her any more than that, and she’d tried not to care. He’d never given any indication that he wanted more of her than he’d had already. Yet he hadn’t let up, hadn’t drifted off. She’d half expected him to.

Every time they parted, she didn’t know if she’d see him again. He’d helped in the bar on Wednesday night, had taken her home afterward. Come to think of it, she hadn’t gone home alone once.

She’d even found him inside her flat, waiting for her. That was last night, and she was still mulling over the implications of that. She didn’t think he had any special skills, so that meant another night she might find her creepy neighbor waiting for her. She’d have to look into getting stronger locks. He’d said so himself.

She wouldn’t put it past Creepy Man to sneak in and handle her stuff. The more she thought about it, the more her skin crawled. She’d love to move, but she liked her flat and the view she had of the sea. Why should she have to be the one who moved? And the house provided her last link with her parents. She hung on to that and missed them every day.

It just piled up, didn’t it? She took another look at the paper. Front page, no less. A tourist, it said. The photo showed a group of men at some formal occasion, their off-the-peg tuxes shiny and badly fitting. But they looked happy. Happier than when she’d left them last Saturday night. But they’d attacked her, right?

And one of them was dead. The one she’d fed from.

She jumped back when a pair of hands appeared on either side of hers, and she landed heavily against a powerful body she’d come to know over the course of the last week. He grunted and waited for her to regain her balance. When she had, she pushed back and turned to face him. “Did you know about this?”

“It’s why I’m here,” he murmured. “I saw the paper about an hour ago. Did you know him?”

She shook her head. “Other than serving him last week, no.”

He leaned closer. To the observer, it looked as if he was nuzzling her ear. “Let that be your answer. The police will interview you. Tell them they were here, anything they want to know about him being here. Even me, if you want. After, we went to your place. Nothing else.”

Tears filled her eyes. “But I could have—”
“killed him,”
she finished in her mind.

“You didn’t
, cariad
. Think about it. You fed from him. He was alive then, wasn’t he? And you didn’t take enough to kill him. I’ve watched you feed every night since then, and not once did I see you lose control and take too much.”

He sounded so calm, so sure.

“Truly?”

“Really and truly.”

He bent and dropped a light kiss on her lips. “Now you’d better get to work before Dave ropes me in to work a shift.”

“Too late.” A tea towel appeared between them, clutched in Dave’s meaty fist.

Rhodri took it with a wry grin, but the resignation in his eyes didn’t fool her. He’d come prepared to help.

* * *

Four hours later, Rhodri stood in a sparsely populated room. This was a holiday town, so weekends were the most frantic. Even lunches were busy. Thank fuck they didn’t have to do more than stack the dishwashers with the glasses. Even those were plastic on Saturday nights, an indication that this relatively respectable place had seen trouble. The kitchen staff did the crockery, and the cleaners would take care of the rest.

He didn’t like her situation here. He didn’t like it at all. Without a community to support her, Cerys was in danger. These days, when abducting Talents to use in the laboratories was heading for epidemic proportions, Cerys was asking for it. Her best defense was that nobody knew what she was. Except for him, and although he hadn’t told her, it had taken his special training to spot her.

Not that he hadn’t suspected the presence of a Talent or two in the bar this week. They’d drifted in and drifted out. Unlike Cerys, he had no compunction in showing a glimpse of himself to them. They moved on. He’d never let on that he wasn’t the only Talent in this place.

They’d worked an afternoon shift for Dave after a member of the staff let him down. Dave finally let them go at three. Rhodri grabbed his jacket and slung it over his shoulder before heading for Cerys. “There’s something I need to do. You’re off tonight, aren’t you? Can I come fetch you?”

“You have plans?” She batted her lashes at him in a mock-seductive pose.

Only his response wasn’t mock at all. His cock shifted, already preparing itself for action.
Not right now, buddy
. Just as well he didn’t go in for skintight jeans. “Oh yes, I do. I won’t be more than an hour.”

“Good, because I need to collect a few groceries.”

Even that concerned him. Telling himself she’d managed perfectly well before his arrival didn’t help. Because he knew to his cost that the attack could come out of the blue. He’d helped to break up so many of those fucking illegal labs they’d made him edgy. He’d seen things no Talent should ever have to witness. But somebody had to.

He pushed away from the bar and strode out, only just remembering to smile back at her before he left. Hopefully the sun streaming in through the open doors helped obfuscate his grim expression.

He walked up the street, almost automatically turning right and heading for the bay. He passed under the covered wrought-iron walkway, his booted feet rapping on the boards. He didn’t stop until he’d turned the corner to face the bay.

The sea soothed him. He should have been a merman, not a vampire. He’d always loved the sea. He knew a few mermen, but he’d never asked them to take him down. They could breathe into his mouth and help him to stay down longer. A mermaid would be better. He could see a really sexy time being had by all. But the woman currently obsessing his mind wasn’t mer. She never gave him any indication that she even liked swimming, although like him, she loved looking at the sea. He crossed the road and headed for the rail that fronted the drop down to the beach.

He’d grown up here, and coming back was always bittersweet for him. Even more now that the last of his relatives had died. He’d hardly known Gareth, but he’d miss him all the same because he’d been the last Tryfanwy in Llandudno. Clearing out his house these last few weeks had shown him the clutter most mortals collected around themselves.

He’d employed cleaners to clear the place and stripped it of all but essential furniture. That was why he’d been staying at the Excalibur. At least, that was the plan. But he’d ended up going home with Cerys this last week. Her place was closer than the hotel, and by the time they got there, he was usually too horny to think about going any farther.

He’d have to rectify that. Give her a night of pure, pampered luxury before he left.

Thinking of Cerys reminded him of something he had to do. He pulled his cell out of his pocket and hit a number on speed dial. “Can you put me through to Will Grady, please?”

“Could I have your number, sir?”

He rattled off his security number. That was only the first layer. He had another check and another number to get through before he could talk to Grady. He wished the man would just give him a direct line, but he guessed if he did, Grady would spend his day taking phone calls. There were full-time agents like him and part-time ones, people who made a living doing something else as well as acting for Department 57 when it needed them. Lots of them.

It still riled him. But he was put through to Grady in four minutes. He stood facing the sea, spreading his senses to make sure nobody overheard him. “Hi. Listen, I’m edgy, and after all this time working, that accounts for something. I’ve made a—friend here in Llandudno.” He put in the pause deliberately, and he knew Grady would get it, that she was a bit more than a friend. “She’s alone, man. Completely alone.”

“There are vampires in Llandudno,” Grady said. “Other Talents.”

“Yeah, but she’s avoided them. Weird parents. That’s the other thing. She told me they were killed in London in one of the demos five years ago. You remember, when the government changed hands and they hoicked up the taxes. She said the Department took them in to one of the hospitals. Can you have that looked at for me?”

“No problem. Give me their names and the date of their deaths.”

He’d already anticipated that. He did so. He’d bet Grady was typing the names into his secure laptop as they spoke. He could hear the keys clicking just after he had the thought. “Something else. Nobody knows what she is. Not other Talents, nobody. Hear me?”

“And you want it to stay that way.”

He watched the little white crests on the waves. The tide was coming in. People sat on the beach, in deck chairs and on towels, watching it. The day might be bright, but Floridians would consider it cold. He preferred this. Hot places didn’t suit him. “Yeah. I do. It’s her best protection right now. I’m waiting for word about Wilkinson. It could come any day, but I don’t want to leave her unprotected.”