Riding the Storm (24 page)

Kendra froze, and Eric immediately knew Abbott hadn’t turned
her, and Eric had brought up horrible memories.

He kissed the top of her head, leaned his face down to
nuzzle her cheek. “You don’t have to answer now. When you’re ready, I’ll
listen. It was a long time ago, nothing says we have to talk about it today.”

“I killed the vampire who turned me, and if the power
structure had an inkling it was me, they’d destroy me before the sun set
another single time. It took me over two hundred years to find the strength to
stand up to him, and there’s no way I should’ve been able to kill him. He was
stronger than Abbott is today, and I was a babe who’d never been taught how to
harness my power.”

“Then how did you manage?”

“Ironically, in part because he’d never taught me anything
about being a vampire. I figured some of the mental stuff out on my own, by
trial and error. Later, another vampire taught me properly, and he saw into my
memories, knew the truth of what happened, but he also saw the horror of my
first two hundred years, and he never told anyone what I’d done. The power
structure still assumes I was his victim — a helpless vampire who had to
be given to another powerful Master to be taken care of, because I wasn’t
capable of surviving on my own. Unfortunately, they handed me over to another
monster.”

“How did you escape him?”

“I didn’t have to. He may have been a monster, but he
did
assign someone to train me, and that man helped me file paperwork fifty years
later, so I could be free. I’d met a Master Vampire I’d liked at a party
several times, and I travelled to his territory with permission, and then asked
if he’d accept me as one of his.”

“Abbott?”

She shook her head. “No. My third Vampire Master was, in
some ways, more of a monster than the first two, and yet in others, he cared
for me and kept me safe. I was used to being treated as something lower than a
sex slave, but I wasn’t used to being cared for, defended, and protected by the
same man when others tried to treat me in a humiliating fashion.” She rolled a
little more on her side, buried her head in his chest, and he stroked her
scalp, her silky hair sliding on the back of his hand.

“Eventually, the man who trained me under the second Master
joined forces with Abbott, and the two worked together to take over the
territory. Once they were in control, they invited me back, I accepted, and
I’ve been with Abbott ever since. He’s never once made me have sex with him, or
with anyone else, though I’ve done so on my own a few times, when I knew it
would benefit him politically.”

“So, submitting to another, being asked to surrender your
will, brings up bad memories for you?”

She shook her head. “It’s been around a thousand years since
I’ve submitted to anyone, but that’s in large part because I’m so powerful, and
there are only a handful of male vampires with enough juice to force me to my
knees. What you and I did, playing around with power exchange when there are
safewords, and when the Top wants it to be good for the bottom, was night and
day to what I went through so long ago.”

Eric sighed, held her tighter, snuggled her into his body
better, and then relaxed his hold once more, with Kendra comfortably cradled
against him, his arms loose around her. “They had me for twenty-one hours. You
were held captive, probably under a lot worse conditions, for centuries.”

“Doesn’t lessen the horror of your experience. It isn’t a
competition, and I’ve long since dealt with what happened to me. If you’re
still dealing with your experience a hundred years from now, that’ll be a
problem, but it’s normal for you to be all over the map with what you’re
thinking and feeling, now.”

“Why would you be killed, if it came out you killed the
vampire who turned you?”

“It’s supposed to be impossible. A creator has so much
control over those they make — total control of their mind, to the extent
the child vampire can be controlled as a puppet. If I were cruel, I could force
those I’ve made to walk into a room and murder loved ones, much as a marionette
or robot can be controlled.”

“Could Abbott force you to that?”

“Probably not, though he’s strong enough to do it to most of
the vampires in his territory, even the ones he hasn’t made. He could override
my will, and has a few times, but it’s been a really long time, and it was
while we were still figuring out where we stood. We’re friends most of the
time, but I’m careful to show him the respect a Vampire Master is accorded when
it comes to areas of politics and specific governing topics. He expects me to
have an opinion and voice it, he doesn’t want brainless followers, but he also
demands the respect his position entitles him. I don’t envy him his position,
and I’m grateful to be under a Master Vampire who lets me live my life as I
wish, and who doesn’t throw his weight around just because he can. I have no
issues with showing him respect and gratitude, when it’s called for.”

“He told me you could be Master of your own territory, if
you chose.”

“I don’t want it. If there weren’t a Master I wanted to
follow, I’d do it just for the autonomy, but I believe in Abbott’s rules and methods,
and I’ll support and follow him, and do everything in my power to keep him in
power.”

“The stronger he is, the safer you are?”

“Not just me, but the people who are important to me.”

“Ranger hinted Abbott’s as powerful as he is because has
uses you as an enforcer.”

She tilted her head up, met his gaze. “He doesn’t use me, Eric.
I gladly act as his enforcer when it’s needed. Rarely does he ask it of me. I
usually volunteer.”

He stroked some stray tresses away from her face, traced her
eyebrows. “Do you enjoy it? Do you look forward to the next time you can hurt
someone? Destroy them?”

“If they’ve hurt me or mine and I’m in a rage, I don’t hate
it, but I don’t enjoy it, either. My brain is more concerned with the correct
order of torture, to best way to dole out the most pain in the least amount of
time, and in the most secure fashion. Vampires who can fly must be tortured
different than those who can’t, and the few with the ability to teleport or
turn to smoke, must be killed as fast as possible, with no chance for torture.”
She put her head back on his chest, breaking eye contact. “If they haven’t hurt
someone close to me, I dislike the process, and I’ve been known to rush through
the torture and then spend time doing nothing, so people will think I took
longer. We left dozens of living witnesses who saw exactly how the people who
hurt you were tortured. I also left enough physical evidence of the order of
things, but it wasn’t entirely necessary, with the eyewitness accounts.”

Eric didn’t want to focus on the bad tonight. He’d had some
questions, but now, he just wanted to spend the evening with her in his arms,
relaxed. He stroked over the top of her hair, down her arm. “After days and
days of hiking, I’d be content to just lie here with you, maybe watch a movie?
Did you have anything planned?”

“Mmmm, no. It’s a smart TV, though, and I’ve already signed
on to my accounts, so feel free to find something. I’m happy lying here in your
arms, and you seem warm enough, but if I take too much of your heat we’ll need
to put a blanket between us.”

“You never have,” he told her. “I don’t mind warming you.
I’ve been sleeping nights for a while, though, so I’m not sure how much longer
you’ll have my company. I’ll try to sleep in tomorrow, so I can stay awake
later tomorrow night.”

Eric woke in bed, under the covers. He’d fallen asleep while
they watched a movie, and she’d awakened him long enough to walk him to bed and
help him undress. He’d tried to wake up for her, but he was more tired than
he’d realized.

It was a little before ten in the morning, though, and he’d
awakened at around five yesterday morning, and then hiked seven miles before
shopping for clothes, shoes, toiletries, and everything else he’d brought with
him — even the bikes.

He spent the morning catching up on email, and the afternoon
refreshing his memory on where he left things with the game, so he could dive
back into work.

Eric kept an eye on the time, and fixed his steak and
veggies about an hour before he figured Kendra would wake. He was back to work
on his computer when he heard her in his head, and he went through the false
back of the closet to the spiral staircase leading to the finished basement.

There was a bedroom down here, but Kendra said she’d rest
for the day in a hidden compartment and not the bed. He hadn’t asked why, he
already knew vampires went overboard on precautions while they were so
vulnerable during the day.

Kendra was standing by a deep, mahogany bar wearing only a
robe, tantalizingly open in the front. He could see bare skin from her head to
her toes, but the shadows played just right so he couldn’t see details.

“Step forward and let it drop to the floor.”

She held his gaze as she followed orders, and as the silky
fabric landed in a puddle behind her, she said, “I’m hungry, Eric.”

He pulled his shirt off as he walked to her, his cock
granite-hard by the time he traversed the dozen steps.

Her cheek was so soft, so supple, and he ran his hand to the
back of her head as he brought his lips to hers, and her groan sent heat to his
cock as she spread for him, let him possess her.

He nibbled her bottom lip, pulled it between his lips, and
then let it go as he bent and picked her up. She didn’t protest as he carried
her to the windowless bedroom, settled her on the bed, and then stepped back to
remove his jeans and underwear.

“Want to be inside you when you bite me today. Sometime this
week I want you to drink from my groin, but today, I want the intimacy of
making love.”

Whatever you want, Eric. God, you’re so beautiful.

Men aren’t supposed to be beautiful.
He could hear
his laughter in his own mental voice as he climbed on top of her, kissed her
neck, her cheek, and then once again possessed her mouth. Kendra’s legs wrapped
around his waist and she positioned her moist heat so it cradled his cock, and
he pulled back, pushed forward carefully, and felt it almost go in without his
having to use his hands.

They both groaned, and Kendra reached down to guide him into
her.

He closed his hand over the curvy mound of her breast,
tugged and squeezed her nipple, and growled deep in his throat as her pussy
flexed and jerked around his cock.

He pulled out, pressed in, watched her eyes flutter back in
her head, and found his rhythm, enough to drive them both crazy, not enough to
get either of them off just yet. He wanted to take his time and enjoy her,
tonight.

He alternated kissing her mouth, her neck, her breasts, and
lifting up to watch her face as his hips moved faster, then slower. While he
was over her, his arms straight, she traced the lines of muscles in his
stomach, and he felt it flex under her light touch. He lowered himself again,
letting her take more of his weight as he kissed her senseless and picked up
speed. He wasn’t going to last forever the first time, but that was okay. They
had all night.

He expected her to flip him over, bite him as they came
together, but she stayed beneath him, let him pound her until he was out of
control, and came with him, writhing under him in her own ecstasy when he
finally growled through his release.

Now
, she flipped him over, kissed his jawline, his
ear, and made her way down his neck. She pulled his head to the side and he
only momentarily remembered he didn’t have hair on his head, and why, before
her teeth were sinking into him, bliss flooded his veins, and all rational
thoughts fled.

She didn’t drink from him long, but he couldn’t form words
to accuse her of not taking enough, because he had another hard on and she was
riding him now, her torso rippling and undulating as she worked her hips and
rode his cock for all she was worth.

Kendra came three times as she rode his iron hard cock, and
then Eric pulled her to his chest and rolled them over. His cheek still
touching hers, he pounded her through another three or four orgasms before
finally emptying into her, bellowing an almost roar as his body succumbed to
the pleasure.

The two lay together, not wanting to separate long enough to
go clean up. Eric rolled to his back and brought Kendra with him, so she was
mostly on top of him, and he ran his hands over her back and arms, stroked her
cheek, and was surprised at the strength of the possessiveness he felt towards
her. He would have to find a way to accept all of her — the soft, loving,
partner of tonight, the bloodsucking vampire, and the monster who could tear
people apart and dole out tortures he hadn’t imagined. If he was going to love
her, he’d have to love all of her. He couldn’t pick and choose.

He finally went to the bathroom, cleaned himself a little,
and brought a towel back to clean her. “Sorry I flaked out on you last night.”

“Don’t apologize. You were tired and you needed your rest.
Besides, I enjoyed our evening, reconnecting without it getting sexual.” She
grinned, sat up, and kissed his chest, ran her tongue around his nipple, and he
jerked back before his cock decided to awaken again.

“Of course,” she added, “I enjoyed this evening a whole
helluva lot, too.”

Eric looked at her, tried to gauge her hunger, and realized
he’d been right about how much she’d drank. “You didn’t take enough from me.”

“You aren’t back to one hundred percent yet, Eric, and you
need to build your strength back. The five ounces I took won’t affect you, but
ten or twelve ounces would’ve been too much. I’ll supplement with the bags if I
need, but if we’re just going to sit around the house, I probably won’t need to.”

Eric traced her lips with his fingers. “I want to feed you,
I want to be your sustenance. It’s true I probably lost weight on the trail
while covering more than ten miles most days, trekking up and down mountains,
but it doesn’t mean I’m not capable of giving you what you need.”

She opened her mouth, let one of his fingers slide into her
mouth, sucked it while holding his gaze, and pulled it out with a small pop.
“Trust me to not take enough to make you feel the loss, okay? I don’t want you
lightheaded or unstable from blood loss.” She kissed his cheek and changed the
conversation by asking, “How much work did you get accomplished today?”

He started to go back to the discussion about wanting to be
her source of nourishment, but decided he’d bring it up again later, so he
answered her question.