Vaewolf: Damn the Darkness: The Prophecy's Promise (Hearts of Darkness Book 3) (32 page)

Caitlin, tilted Dylan’s head and poured the packet in his mouth. She offered him the last of his beer to wash it down and shrugged at Jackson. “Can’t hurt, right?”

Dylan took the mug with a shit eating grin on his face the downed the last of the beer before he dropped head-first to the table. When his head hit the table, she let out a disgusted curse. This time Caitlin could have broken his fall, but the image of him with another female, a dark haired one, popped into her mind.

“Whoa! Remind me not to piss you off.”

“I should leave his sorry ass here,” she said with a mental eye-roll at Jackson. “But we have to get him out of here.”

Anywhere else, the fanged threat and the bloody tears on her cheeks would have exposed them for what they were. Good thing everyone in the place already knew. “Thank goodness this is one of those bars in the bayou where folks are used to
strange
.”

Caitlin mumbled a few choice curse words, and Jackson chuckled over her letting Dylan hit the table. He lifted Dylan, who was suddenly grinning like an idiot, to a standing position. Jackson paused evaluated Dylan’s condition, then laughed. He hefted him over his shoulder, as if the huge vampire weighed nothing, and when Dylan began singing an old naughty ditty, even Caitlin couldn’t help joining the contagious laughter.

“So I guess, alcohol brings all the mental blocks tumbling down,” Caitlin said through bouts of giggles. “Oh, God, my sides are aching.”

“Bring the car around. It’ll be easier than trying to sift a drunk his size,” Jackson said.

“Yes, I suppose you’re right. I’ll check on his bill and be right back with the car. And Jackson, don’t drop him.”

“Really? I saw you let him hit the table. What was that about?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t go there.”

“Stop worrying about him. He’s a freaking vampire. He’ll heal.”

“Just don’t.” Caitlin snarled through her teeth and stalked to the bartender. “He owe anything on his tab?”

The bartender shook his head. “Paid in advance—including the tip.”

He would, she thought. Dylan would orchestrate every situation if he could. He’d leave nothing to chance.

“Then what about me?”

Caitlin heard the mental question, regarded the female carefully, then ignored her and followed Jackson out the door.

Unfaithful bastard
, she thought of Dylan as she flopped to the car seat. Something about the woman’s thoughts didn’t sit right with her, and she wanted Dylan conscious when she confronted him with the image of him taking her blood, and the image of the other pretty vampire tied up and naked beneath him for his dining pleasure.

Jackson jammed the big vampire in the back and slammed the door against his head.

“Damn it, Jackson. I said, be careful.”

If anyone was going to hit Dylan in the head, it would be her.

Chapter Forty Two

Return from the Bayou Bar

“Let’s order pizza. I’m starving.” Jackson was thankful he’d inherited the ability to eat from his mother. He ate meat, needed blood once in awhile, but enjoyed a pizza and beer every now and then, thank the gods.

“Go ahead. I still need to feed properly. Do you want me to go out—?”

“No, I don’t want you going anywhere alone. I’ll be able to feed you, later. I think the worst of my madness and my mad is worn off after that laughing. It’s good having him back, even if he’s unconscious.”

“I’m going to take a cool shower and wash the bayou cooties off. Want to join me?”

“Honestly, yes.” He smiled for the first time since they left the bar. “But no. I’ll order my pizza and watch over Dylan. If I’m going to deal with him and feed you later, I’ll need all the strength I can dig up to stay in control. Take your cool shower.” He gave her his wicked grin. “If I join you we’ll steam it up all over again.”

“Ok-ay.” She took her time removing her clothes, exposing everything slow inch by slow inch while he watched and grew hard. Then she sashayed past him, naked and perfect—vampire perfect.

“Sorry, you’ll miss what I have in mind.”

He glanced at Dylan asleep on the bed, then reached out to stop her, grabbing her wrist gently, and groaned. “Pizza later.”

“Oh? Are you suddenly feeling...dirty?”

“Real dirty. I’ll join you, but make it hot.” He glanced over his shoulder and mumbled, “I hope the antidote doesn’t take effect while we’re in there. I’d rather Dylan not be conscious for this, yet.”

He pressed his lips to hers with a determination he felt all the way to his balls before gentling the kiss. Then he took the time to taste her lips, savor the inside of her mouth, and gently make his way to the tip of her nose, across her cheeks, then he softly kissed both eyelids. He enjoyed throwing her off balance with his firm, commanding side contrasted with this soft, sensitive attack. It kept her wondering.

Every spot where their skin touched, his flesh tingled, and her warm breath drifted across his skin, first to his chest, up his neck, and then to his ear. “I love you, Jackson.”

He returned the favor, spot by spot. “I love you too, Caitlin. And if we both didn’t love him, too, it wouldn’t be so hard.”

She trembled in his embrace when she whispered, “I know. But we do.”

Every nerve was on edge, and his wolf hungered. He nipped the rise of her breast, tempted to bite down, take her blood, and bind her to him—let the consequences be damned. It didn’t take much for him to lose control when he was with her like this. So instead of kissing her again, he slapped her ass and sent her on her way. “Go ahead. I’ll be right in.”

Jackson checked the locks on the doors and made sure Dylan was sleeping it off before he walked into the steam filled bathroom. “Need any help?”

“Come see for yourself.” She gestured for him to join her.

Bubbles covered everything except her tight beaded nipples jutting through the white foam.

“No need to ask twice. You’re a tempting morsel dressed in nothing but suds.” He stepped into the spray and allowed her to pull him closer until his erection nestled against her abdomen.

She forced him to watch while she soaped her whole body, including every single intimate place. He watched her touch her breasts and tweak her nipples to attention as his long length rose higher and tighter against his stomach. His eyes lowered, following her hands as they skimmed her body and moaned. Apparently, she enjoyed pleasuring herself for him. And he enjoyed watching her bring herself right to the edge, then he stopped her.

He grabbed her around the waist and dipped her beneath the spray preventing her from climaxing. Warm water drenched their bodies, and this time, he used his hands to soap her all over. His slick fingers slid smoothly over her breasts and tantalized her nipples. Her heart beat rapidly against his hand, and her chest rose and fell with her quick breaths. She was close, so close, but he wanted to draw out this pleasure for her.

Murmuring dirty words in her ear from behind, he washed beneath her arms, down her sides, and across her belly. He pressed himself against her ass while he lathered her lower abdomen, her bare mound, and spread her legs. She made soft little sounds of pleasure as he gently stroked her between her thighs, slipping one long soapy finger then two inside her. Her entire body vibrated. Her spasm clenched around his fingers, dragging out as he held her firmly against his body while she gasped and shuddered with her orgasm.

“You need to feed. Go ahead. I can handle it.”

She turned to face him, ran her soapy hand down his back, over his hips, and rubbed herself against his huge erection. His balls were flattened tight against his body as she, following all his ministrations, brushed soft kisses across his forehead and trailed them down, moaning as she came to his lips. “Oh, my naughty wolf. It’s your turn to suffer now.”

She made sure he was thoroughly washed and rinsed, then dropped to her knees in front of him.

“My neck.” He tried to pull her up, but she shook her head.

“I’m going to suck you dry first, big boy.”

His cock stopped him from arguing when it twitched in her hand like a beggar. He buried his hands in her thick hair just as she flicked her tongue across the tiny opening and then slowly devoured the crown between her plump lips. Her teasing tongue kept flicking across his sensitive tip until he was ready to shove her down over the length of him.

She sensed his limits well. Just when he thought he couldn’t take any more, she swirled her tongue over the mushroomed edge and took him as deep down her throat as she could. Her mouth was warm and wet and the sounds she made as she sucked his full length made him wild. The wolf tried breaking through Jackson’s barriers but he pushed it back. He wanted this experience with Caitlin as himself without sharing her with the wolf.

He held his breath as she moved over him, in and out. Cupping his balls in her hand and massaging until the tingling sensation built low in his groin, the sensation traveled up his balls, and erupted. Thick continuous streams jetted into her mouth. When he finished, she removed her lips from his cock and moved it to his groin, found the pulse point, and bit down. Heat shot through him, this time like a full body orgasm. Every inch of his skin, every organ inside him felt her touch, and then she touched his mind.

How had he ever lived without her?

She looked up at him and smiled, licking his blood off her lips like a cat finishing a bowl of cream. He thought he’d do anything if he could keep that look on her face every day for eternity.

By the gods, he had to
claim
her soon.

He gripped her shoulders, helping her up off the marble floor, and turned away unable to face her with his emotions so close to the surface. She had to know what he was feeling, they’d been too intimate for her not to read him if she wanted to.

“You want a towel?” he asked as he automatically took one off the shelf for her and one for himself.

“Yes, please. Put it on the counter. I’m going to condition my hair before I get out. You want to check on Dylan?”

“Sure, take your time. It could be hours before we get a straight answer out of him.”

Chapter Forty Three

Sobering Dylan

While Caitlin finished in the bathroom Jackson sprawled on the big bed next to Dylan watching TV between bouts of trying to pry into the vampire’s distracted mind. The drunken haze kept his thoughts disjointed, broken like an old reel movie. Scenes here and there, some unrelated. What he managed to decipher through the random thoughts was because his biological father was Dylan’s maker, and because Niccolai and Dylan shared so much blood over the years, they were more closely linked than most. Dylan inherited his psychic gifts from his Halfling mother, although she’d hidden her psychic abilities and her children’s as best she could, until his jealous uncle attacked the keep and his whole family had been killed. His sister Jennie and his mother were both burned as witches.

Jackson knew the history. Dylan’s father had berserker blood and, when mixed with Dylan’s psychic abilities, the gifts accounted for his great success in battle. Dylan’s psychic ability made him compatible with Caitlin, and was why Niccolai had been able to change Dylan. Of course, as they all suspected, it was Niccolai’s blood in all three of them that created their present conflict. The three of them were tied up nicely in an “untidy” Niccolai DNA package. They’d suspected as much before, but Jackson hoped their similarities were greater than their differences, and being together would be more important than the old rules.

He stared at the snoring vampire wishing there were other options. Dylan was not going to make this easy—Jackson sensed the vampire’s objections through his open mind. He should have been the one to change her and assume the sire bond with her, not the life mate bond. Jackson thought there was more to it. He had to find a way to convince Dylan the three of them could do this. Caitlin was key.

~~~~

The pizza came while Caitlin was still in the bathroom. She heard the delivery boy and Jackson’s deep voice through a mumbled haze as she turned of the water and stepped out of the shower. She picked up the towel Jackson left for her. After drying off she wrapped her hair in the towel and opened the door.

Jackson’s attention moved from the TV, and the slice of pizza he had half way to his open mouth, to her. Naked. She took in his wolfish gleam as his eyes glittered while they raked her from head to toe and paused a few places in between.

She stopped dead in her tracks when she encountered random thoughts spilling out all over the room.

“You found out something,” she said and threw her head back to stare incredulously at Jackson. “What?” She plopped down on the bed next to Dylan staring at the sleeping vampire.

“He’s open, still drunk, and his thoughts are pouring out,” Jackson said with a happy snort. “And I think I have a plan.”

“Tell me.” She pulled the sheet up and covered herself. When he frowned she said, “I don’t want you distracted.”

Caitlin fought back her frustration with both men, waiting for Jackson to admit he'd been in Dylan's thoughts.