Vampire Elite (28 page)

With Simone in his arms, Oberon exited the wormhole in Tuscany, at one of the Order’s many estates. The Order maintained a number of estates all over the world, each occupied by Amiti caretakers and used as accommodations for Order members or as temporary safehouses for Amiti on the run, in limbo between human identities. Having these estates helped provide home bases for Amiti and ensured the survival of his people, but they still had to be bought and sold regularly to avoid detection by vampires.
 

Oberon shifted from his human form to his Amiti one and alerted the villa’s current occupants, an Amiti couple, to his presence. He took Simone to a spare bedroom, where he laid her down on the king-sized bed before opening the window to let in the cool air from the fields. Pulling off his shirt, he dropped it to the floor, and then sat on the bed to unbuckle the sheath he always kept strapped on his ankle and remove the dagger it held.
 

He lifted Simone’s limp body onto his lap, arranging her so that her head rested on his shoulder. With a quick flick of the dagger, he opened the vein in his neck.
 

* * *

Simone felt her body spring to life with a sharp jolt, her lips parting and fangs springing hungrily from her gums. Holding the back of her prey’s head and neck with both hands she pushed her fangs into his vein, sucking eagerly, mindlessly
.

The blood slid down her throat like warm, liquid honey, soothing the excruciating pangs in her belly. A flavor like a mountain meadow—herbal and grassy, like lavender and sage—filled her senses. Her strength was returning, but it was more than that: it was her vitality, her desire to live and enjoy life.
 

Wait—who was feeding her? She allowed her hands to move freely across a large, muscular torso.
 

Dear Sekhmet!
It was a male Amiti, his naked skin like velvet, tightly stretched across the planes of his body.
 

Simone ran her fingers through the thick mass of his silky hair and a powerful wave of possessive arousal overtook her. This male’s body
belonged
to her. She owned him; he was hers to feed on and to satisfy her every need. And right now what she needed was blood. And sex.

Without breaking contact with Oberon’s neck, she pulled all her clothes off and then reached for his pants, unbuckling his belt. He didn’t mind at all; in fact, he, seemed to welcome Simone’s actions. She pushed him onto his back, climbed on top of him, and kept drinking.
 

Finally satiated, she broke contact with his neck, opened her eyes, and sat up to take a look at who she’d just fed from.
 

She must be dreaming. But whatever; it was going really well.
 

All Amiti were astonishingly good-looking, but Goddess, this was one of the most attractive males she’d ever seen, with long, layered hair the color of wheat and deeply tanned skin—both of which, she already knew, felt as good as they looked. Looking down, she could see the dramatic contrast between the milky-white skin of her thighs and his golden torso, and it occurred to her that together, they must look like the sun and the moon. But his most remarkable feature was his eyes, which were a pale, almost translucent turquoise that made her think of surfing in the tube.
 

“Who are you?”
 

“My name is Oberon.”
 

“Oberon. What an extraordinary name. Where did you come from?”
 

“Let’s talk about it later, beautiful. I can’t focus with a magnificent naked female on top of me. If you’re not going to do something about it, then I will ... “
 

“Absolutely,” Simone murmured, smiling, as she slid her palm down his chest. Skipping the preliminaries—she’d had enough of preliminaries—she lifted her hips, grasped his thick, heavy erection, and lowered herself back down, letting his cock fill her.
 

She arched her back and slipped back and forth on his hips, letting his cock move slowly in and out, crying out with each motion. She leaned into him and licked the blood that had trickled down his chest and smeared across his exquisite body.
 

Oberon put his palms on Simone’s breasts. She grabbed his hands and roughly clamped her fangs into his wrists, not caring how much she was hurting him. Then, with a wicked smile, she placed both of his bleeding hands back on her breasts, watching as the deep maroon liquid streamed down her abdominal muscles and disappeared between her legs.

With one swift movement, he swung her on to her back and pressed his mouth to one nipple, then the other, caressing them with his tongue. Simone melted under his attentive mouth, but her inner predator demanded dominance, so she wrapped her legs around his waist and rolled him on to his back. That wasn’t enough, though, so she attacked, biting into his chest, nipples, ribs, tearing his skin. She allowed the blood to flow freely, licking it as it streamed along his skin. She was challenging him, daring him to object, digging her fingers into the muscles of his buttocks, demanding both his blood and his cock.
 

The first orgasm hit her with the force of a tide rushing in. Drowning in it, she realized that Oberon was drowning with her ...

Chapter 39

The Order’s residence, Tuscany

Simone was afloat in a shimmering mist that constantly changed colors, alive with energy. She somehow knew that it was trying to communicate with her and tentatively tried opening her mind to hear what it had to say. Three doors hovered in the air in front of her. Drifting to the first one, she touched it; when it opened, she glided through it. Her mind cleared as if a powerful wind had swept through it, scattering all the clouds and shadows away. Suddenly, she felt knowledge explode within her.

The revelations blossomed in her mind like fireworks. They told her that having been named by her mother, Queen Istara, to be one of the Keepers of the Key, she was now on a quest to claim her powers as Keeper of the Mystery of Life. She’d taken her first step when she called Antar and offered to reveal Arianna’s location, sacrificing her dream of life with him and saving her sister’s life.

Knowledge continued to pour into her consciousness, and she learned about the Keepers and their mission, about the Mysteries they were chosen to keep. She was the Keeper of the Mystery of Life; three others Kept the Mysteries of Death, the Hidden, and the Revealed, and the Amiti Queen Kept the Mystery of Balance. The five Keepers couldn’t know everything about the Mysteries of the universe. But each Keeper had special knowledge and powers related to his or her Mystery. Once Simone completed her quest, she would join the rest of the Keepers and become one of the most powerful of the immortals.
 

Simone’s heart rejoiced—but then was swept into a shock of despair as the revelations kept coming. The price of her powers was too high. She was reminded that, as a Keeper, she also had the power to join with the other Keepers to turn the Key, the Ankh, which would unleash the powers of the Egyptian gods. No one knew exactly what that would do, but it was assumed that at the very least it would allow the Amiti to secure the elimination of all vampires.

And worse, she was trapped in a blood-bond with her father’s sworn enemy, Oberon, who would use their bond to control her and direct her Keeper’s powers, forcing her to turn the Key. If she refused, he would kill her and another Keeper would be named.
 

Going through with the quest and claiming her Keeper’s powers meant that she would have to choose whether to die or to betray her father, her pride, and her people by turning the Key that would kill them all.
 

Simone opened her eyes just enough to take in her surroundings. Oberon was sleeping peacefully next to her. She kept her breathing soft so he wouldn’t realize that she was awake, her mind searching for a way out of the trap he’d set.
 

Lying on the floor next to the bed was the dagger he’d used to pierce his vein. Her odds were slim, but what other options did she have? She’d die before she betrayed her family.
 

Like a flash she leaned over and grabbed the dagger. But before she even turned to attack Oberon, she found herself on the floor convulsing in pain. Her breath was stuck in her throat, and her lungs felt as if they were boiling like lava. Her head was splitting apart; her brain was on fire. Grabbing her head with both hands, she screamed and rolled violently on the floor, trying to extinguish the invisible flames that consumed her.
 

* * *

Oberon stood above her, watching her in anguish.
What am I doing? She’s just a girl; she’s afraid.
He stopped the torture and knelt down beside her. “Never,
ever
again attack your blood-bond.”
 

He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and lifted her up to press her head against his shoulder. “You’ll feel better now.”
 

Oberon sent a wave of warm, healing energy sweeping through her, cleansing her of the pain. Simone took a great gulping inhale like someone who’d been revived after drowning. He sent a second healing wave, and a third, and felt lightness and peace settle into her body. Good.

Oberon picked her up, put her back on the bed, and covered her with the blanket. He reached out through the blood-bond to sense her thoughts and emotions. She was at ease physically now, but mentally she was still in turmoil. And she was not going to cooperate. There was no question about it.
 

What were his options? Kill her now and get it over with?
 

“Why’d you stop?” Simone asked him from where she lay on the bed, her voice thick, drowsy from the pain and the healing. “What are you waiting for? Go ahead; kill me. You have all the power. That’s what you want to do to me, isn’t it?” She’d picked up steam as she spoke, sitting up and raising her voice.
 

That’s what I
must
do, but I can’t.
“I’m not going to kill you, Simone.”
 

“Why? I’m of no use to you. You may as well get rid of me now; your amazing plan has failed. I’ll never go against my family.”
 

“Your family? You
are
half Amiti; we’re your family, too.”
 

“No. I’m Sekhmi and that’s final. Go ahead, Oberon. Kill me.”
 

He stood there silently studying her face. As her blood-bond he was required to kill her. And it wasn’t like there was wiggle-room for interpretation of that mandate; Oberon himself had personally issued death warrants on all Amiti who refused to execute their Sekhmi blood-bonds. So what was stopping him now?

It was crazy, but the fact was that somewhere deep within his heart, he wanted to at least give their relationship a chance. He’d made enough sacrifices for his race. Maybe he finally deserved some personal happiness.

“We need to go.” He lifted her off the bed.
 

“Go where?” Simone twisted her body, trying to free herself from his grip.
 

“Back to the laboratory.”
 

“Fuck you. I won’t be a lab rat. Just kill me now.”
 

“Simone, don’t be so crude. You’re a lady, a princess. Ladies don’t use vulgar language. They behave with dignity.”
 

He opened a wormhole and stepped into it with Simone in his arms.

Chapter 40

The Project research station
One month later
 

“Can you imagine, Odji? Dr. Orlov allowed me to call my mother. His only condition was that I not tell her where I am,” Zlata called as she came back into their room. Odji was stretched lazily across a pile of pillows on the bed, channel-surfing to distract himself while he waited for her return. He clicked the TV off and beamed at her.

Zlata tossed aside her gorgeous hair and pulled off the hospital-style v-neck top and drawstring pants that the humans made them wear, dropping them to the floor. “I hate these clothes.”
 

He caught her in his arms as she jumped back onto the bed. “I hate them, too. You look much better without them.”
 

With Zlata on top, Odji slid down the pillows and caught her lips with his. He’d never have imagined that his involuntary confinement could become such a paradise. His dreams had come true. His Amiti was with him, sharing one room, one bed, with nowhere to hurry to and nothing to do but to explore and enjoy each other.
 

He flipped her onto her stomach, supporting himself on his elbows above her. Zlata turned her head to the side, giving Odji easy access to her vein. She seemed to enjoy feeding him.
 

Odji was losing his mind. Never in his life had he fed so much. It was ongoing, several times a day, as much as he wanted, and from any vein on her luscious body he chose. What surprised him most was that Zlata never seemed depleted afterward. Quite the contrary; she grew stronger and more vibrant every day. So did Odji.
 

“So how’d the conversation go?” He slowly moved his tongue along her spine, taking in the subtle lemon-blossom scent of the blood flowing beneath her velvet skin. Zlata sighed with pleasure. “And by the way, you’ve never told me about your family. Do you have a father or siblings?”
 

Zlata turned around, wrapped her legs around his torso, and began slowly rocking beneath him. “I will not talk to you about my family, Odji.”
 

“Why not? You still don’t trust me?”
 

“I do,” she moaned. “I trust you with my life, unconditionally. I’m yours. But I can’t trust you with my family.”
 

Odji pushed himself up onto his elbows. She was so exquisite with her golden halo of hair covering the pillow. He brushed her lips with his. “Listen, Zlata. I am your mate. There should be total trust between us.”
 

“You’ve never told me about your family, either.” She brushed his lips in return.