The Vampires of Soldiers Cove (24 page)

“
Let go of me you bloodsucker.”

“You broke our agreement beast
,” Gavin screamed at him. He brought his sword up to Aries’ neck, “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you.”

“Because she wanted too.”

“That’s not the right answer.” Gavin was pressing the blade against his skin now.

“What is going on here?” Angus bellowed running toward us.

“Our friend here just broke his promise.  Isn’t that right you filthy fucking animal?”

“Did he touch you?” Angus asked me.
I shook my head no.

“I swear, I only breathed on her.”
He was pleading, “I’m sorry.”

“He needs to be punished,” Gavin hissed.

“I will deal with him.”

“But...”

“I said I’ll deal with him, you take the girl inside. Go take care of her.” Gavin nodded and shoved Aries down on the ground in front of Angus.

“Are you alright?”
Gavin asked as we walked past the mock battle that was still raging on.

“I think so,” I said.
I was having trouble thinking; everything still seemed to be happening through a thick fog as Gavin led me back to my room. The side effects were still very much intact because I was feeling overtly sexual.

“Ok, Rachel, you need to make yourself sleep.
You’ll be normal again when you wake up. It takes a few hours for it to wear off.”

“I don’t want to sleep.”
The only thing on my mind was seduction. I removed my clothes and pressed my body against him tightly. “Make love to me now,” I breathed.

“No,” he said firmly pushing me away.
“Sleep!” he pointed to the bed. I wasn’t going to give up so easily. I pressed against him again kissing him full and hard on the mouth. He hardened through his jeans and I stroked his strong length. He kissed me back for a small moment before pushing me away again.   “Do what I tell you Rachel.”

I was filled with a physical desire that I’d never felt before.
Simply put I felt like if I couldn’t get him to make love to me right now I’d die. Not metaphorically, but literally. My heart would stop and I’d cease to exist.

I tore his shirt off and drew out my fangs to full length.
“Rachel stop it, I don’t want to have to hurt you.” The words weren’t out of his mouth right when I plunged my fangs into his shoulder as hard and as deep as I could. I clenched my jaws closer together bunching up the flesh into my mouth taking a good chunk out of him as blood poured down his chest.

At the
same time I loosened his belt and gripped his length tightly. I tried to rub it gently, but he was attempting to grab my hands. I had no choice. If he had been a human male, I would have caused permanent damage to him I’m sure, but thankfully he wasn’t. I squeezed him as hard as I could, clamping him in the iron strength of my hand.

He
was much harder now, I could feel that he wanted me but something was holding him back. He managed to get my fangs out of his shoulder and was squeezing my head between his hands. I was going to take another chunk out of his chest if I had to. I tried to move forward to bite again but he held me firmly.

The bite I had already given him was huge and still bleeding.
I met his eyes and said, “I know you want to, what are you waiting for?” He was registering a look of fear and doubt. “Do it!” I screamed.

Finally the temptation seemed to be too much for him and he quickly drew his own fangs out and bit my neck.
A few seconds later we were on the bed and he was thrusting into me as hard as he could. It was pure ecstasy. I came hard, and he did too. His orgasm didn’t satisfy his massive erection, however, and he continued to thrust violently and deeply over and over. Biting and kissing and screaming. I climaxed a second and then a third time.

Finally about a half an hour later he let out a deafening cry, shuddered heavily, and filled me with warmth
again.

He laid his head on my stomach while gently and lovingly stroking my leg.
I still felt like I was in a drug induced fog, but it was beginning to subside a little.

“You bit me
,” he said sometime later, still resting his head on my stomach.

“I’m sorry.
I don’t know what came over me.”

“It was the pheromones,”
he said, “they went into your bloodstream and when you bit me, you transferred them.”

“I feel so stupid.
I should have let Hermes go look for my sword instead of going into the woods alone.”

“It’s not your fault.”
He picked his head up and gave my belly a gentile kiss. “They are extremely powerful.”

“What do you think Angus will do to Aries?”

“Hopefully ban him from the grounds at the very least. He’s lucky Angus got to him when he did because I was going to snap his fucking horns off. I should have been watching you more closely.”

“I don’t know how I got out from behind you.
It was all so confusing.” I felt like I had let him down.

“I’m going to ask Angus to keep you inside the
sanctuary when the time comes. Under the circumstances I think that would be the wisest course of action.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll stay with you.” Even I knew this was a bad idea.

“No, you can’t do that.
It’s obvious you’re one of the best swordsmen they have. You need to be out there defending us.” The thought of Samuel getting into the sanctuary at all filled me with fear.

“I’m your guardian and I’m going to stay with you.
I’ve failed you too many times already.” I could tell he really meant it, but I had to make him see reason.

“No, you need to be outside.
It’s what’s best for everybody, and maybe there’s something useful I can do by staying with Angus.”  Gavin pulled himself up on his elbows and looked me directly in the eye.

“My place is where you are, and I’ve not done a great job, I know that.
But this is serious business. You could be killed.”

“And a lot of other people could be killed if you’re not where you can do the most good.” I could tell by the conflicted look in his eyes that he knew I was telling the truth, even if he didn’t want to admit it to himself.
He brushed his lips against mine gently. Maybe it was the relaxing quality of the pheromones but my guard was completely down. I read his thoughts. He was absolutely terrified of my death even more than his own.

“Nothing bad is going to happen to me,” I said.
He lay his head back down on my stomach and rubbed it softly. My words had done nothing to stop his fears.

He was still
thinking I’d be in danger if he wasn’t there, and that was something he didn’t want to risk. I ran my fingers through his curly mass of hair, all tangled and damp, trying to comfort him, but his thoughts remained unchanged.

Chapter Twenty Four

“That is a pretty serious accusation,” Angus said when we told him about the blood influence, and that we figured it must have been Mariah. “Why would she use a blood influence to make you fight? To what end?”

“I’m not sure,” Gavin said, “but I’m anxious to find out.
Why don’t we call her in here and ask her?”

“She is at rest,” he said.
“I’ve ordered everyone to get sleep for a few hours today whether they need it or not. Which reminds me, did you two get any sleep last night?” Angus seemed to know the side effects of satyr pheromones a little too much for my comfort level right now.

“Not really,” Gavin said trying his hardest not to look embarrassed.
Angus smirked a little bit.

“Well I suggest you do, and between you and me Gavin I’m not one hundred percent confident in your sister’s ability to spot such things.
She’s been wrong before.”

“A long time ago,” he reminded him.

“Be that as it may, we have too much on our plate today to deal with that matter. If we fail to succeed against Samuel tonight we might be on the verge of a full scale war on this island. Vampire against human, and vampire against vampire. We need to focus.”

“Of course.”
I could tell Gavin was agitated with the dismissal of his concerns, but he also knew that Angus’ mind was made up and there was no point in arguing. “What will happen to Aries?”

“He has agreed to make
restitution toward us.”

“
Restitution? That’s it?” Gavin was trying not to yell now. “What kind of restitution could he possibly make for that? If Aries had his way this morning she would be carrying his child.”

“I’m aware of that,” Angus said.
“The seriousness of his actions doesn’t escape me, but you have to also understand their predicament Gavin. They could very well go extinct at some point in the next century. They’ve become a little desperate.”

“That’s no excuse Angus.
He agreed not to touch her and he went back on his word.”

“Did he touch you?” Angus said turning to me now.

“No.”

“He didn’t go back on his word then, there’s no need to make a bigger issue out of this than it already is.”
I was beginning to share in Gavin’s frustration. Sure Aries hadn’t physically touched me, but he was just about to when Gavin had toppled him over. Angus was splitting hairs.

“We need him and his men in this fight, you saw them last night, and we can’t afford to sully our relationship over something
satyrs do that’s perfectly within their nature. We’ll keep her separated from them while they are on the grounds; it won’t happen again.”

“Speaking of which,” Gavin said, “where are
you putting us? I want to make sure she is protected.”

“Gavin, we talked about this.”
He began to protest but I kept talking so that he couldn’t object. “Angus Gavin needs to be where he can do the most good, and that is with his sword. I obviously can’t be of use to you there, so if you can make good use of me somewhere else you will have to separate us. We need to do what’s best for everyone here.”

“Right you are,” Angus said.
“Gavin you know she speaks the truth. I need you on the outside ring. If we can keep Samuel and his army from getting inside we might stand a fighting chance.”

Gavin gave a solemn yet angry nod.

“As for you my dear, you’ll be with me. You’re going to be sitting in the council room sealed off from everything with me and the guards, you’ll be safest, and most useful there. You’ll be our ears and if we have to get out of the sanctuary we will be relying on you to give us the heads up.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Good. Alright now you two get out of here. Get some human food and blood feed if you need to, and get some actual sleep. It is critical that we focus on getting through this next day.”

Back in our own room again we sat on the bed silently.
I tried to think of something to say to ease the discomfort I knew we were both feeling, but nothing came.

“Do you feel like you need to blood feed?” he asked me.

“Not really.”

“Human food then?”

“Maybe later.”

“How about sleep?”
I did feel tired and I could tell he was feeling that way too.

“Eventually.”
I reached out and he held his hand in mine. “I’m afraid,” I said.

“Tell me why.”

“I’m afraid that something will happen to you and I’ll be alone. I’m afraid these next few hours will be the only hours we have left together, and I know we need to sleep, but I don’t want to.”

“I know
,” he said squeezing my hand.

“What’s it like to fly?” I said remembering seeing him change from vampire to crow.
It was a pretty significant revelation and it was strange we hadn’t talked about it. I wanted more than anything to know all about it now, seeing as how we might not have much time together.

“It’s like a dream.”
His eyes closed reliving the feeling. “It’s like you are a part of something bigger and older than you are, but at the same time, it’s like you’re part of nothing at all. You take off and nothing matters. It’s just air and sky and nothing can stop you.”

“That sounds amazing.”

“It really is Rachel.”

“How did you discover you could do that?”

“One day, not long after I was transformed, maybe it was a year.  I was upset, resentful and filled with hate for my father. I hadn’t spoken to him for any of that time; I hated him for what he’d done to me. I didn’t understand that it was out of love, I thought he should have just let me die.” Gavin opened his eyes just then and turned toward the window, looking but not seeing out into the world. His eyes focused on the memory.

“I was walking through the woods and saw a crow and I remember thinking how perfect it was, how beautiful.
How if something was bothering you, you could just fly away from it and be somewhere else. I watched the same crow for a long time, wishing I was like him. I wished so hard that all of a sudden I was close to the ground.”