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The ride into the city was surreal. No one was on the plethora of once busy streets but the Sforce. Buildings were dark, only a handful of dots lighting them. From the whispers of the other inmates who were bound for their own assignments, I’d found out the city had gone into lockdown after the attack last night. All humans were being sanctioned until the resistance surrendered. Marshall Law reigned until then. There’d be stricter rationing of the food supply, and all humans were warned to stay indoors at all hours, their jobs on hold until this came to an end. Theirs schools were shut down and only limited basic services remained. No one could get in or out of the fringe.
When I arrived at Veles’ Castle, it was a different place. The lights of the marquee gone and the lobby deserted. Sander met us at the side door instead of the big double doors next the revolving one. Signing for me like I was some package, Sander nodded and my handler removed my cuffs and bent down and somehow turned on my electronic shackle, the ankle bracelet. A tiny red light flashed on it now.
“What happens if I step out that door?”
“Boom,” Sander said in all seriousness.
I made a horrified face but followed him through the empty lobby and down the hall to a door with a picture of the stairs instead of the elevators. He explained as he held it open, “We’re cutting back until we catch the resistance.”
“Fifty-six flights of stairs?” I complained after the first set. We did it where I came from, but I’d gotten used to the conveniences of this city. Encouraged not to use my strength and agility in everyday life, I’d gotten used to not being very active at all. Therefore, my muscles ached from all the running I’d done the past few days. Never mind, I hadn’t eaten since my fabulous dinner with Quixon at the restaurant in this very building. Also, I didn’t have on shoes. Still in the ghastly gown, I had on the crap booties they’d given me at central.
Sander picked me up, and I huffed, relieved and frustrated as he conquered the stairs with ease. He lived in the penthouse apartment on the top floor, surrounded by windows except in his room, of course. The huge open floor plan displayed a museum of astounding art and artifacts. He’d told me once he was a collector. I was beginning to feel like an object in his collection as he handed me some fresh clothes and opened the door to his huge guest bathroom, telling me, “I’m sure you’ll feel better after a bath.”
True but I folded my arms and didn’t budge. “If you cared how I felt, you’d let me go.”
“Alright, I’ll not care how you feel.” His brow drew together and his lips tightened. “You’ll go bath because I’m starved and you stink.”
“Oh... Is that how it’s going to be?”
“I told you I would command you if I have to. Do not push me.” Sander wasn’t mad. He was tense, tenser than I’d ever seen him.
“I’m going to go take a bath because I want to,” I told him, disappearing behind the door.
Away from the irritating vampire, I took a breath. I went over and opened the blinds to look out over the city. It was so dark compared to normal, not the usual awe-inspiring scene. I closed the blinds, saddened by the change. The tub and I had a staring contest for a minute as I remembered the awful time I’d had in there before when Aubrey tried to kill me. Deciding to take pleasure in the luxury of Sander’s ridiculously rich bathroom, complete with potted plants and chandelier over the bathtub, I filled the deep bowl of a tub with hot water and sweet smelling oils. After I’d soaked as long as I could without turning into a raisin, I dried myself with the softest towel in the world and dressed in the sexy underthings and delicate red negligee he’d picked out for me. At least he’d also given me a robe. I blow-dried my hair, bushed my teeth, put on the lotion I found in the cabinet, anything I could do to stall.
When I’d taken as long as I felt I could, I left the bathroom to find the vampire waiting by the door in the exact same spot, in the exact pose. Sander seemed to wake up, blinking his eyes. He took my hand, bringing it to his lips, giving it a cold firm kiss. Brushing his thumb over the ring he’d given me, his eyes touched me everywhere he looked.
“There will be none of that,” I stopped him. “I’ll let you drink from me, but we won’t be having sex.”
He didn’t believe me. “If you say so.” Sander gestured toward his room.
“Can’t you just eat in the kitchen?”
“That’s not how I enjoy it.” He steered me into his room by the small of my back.
I spied Bijou, his large tuxedo cat curled on the end of his ginormous red covered bed. Missing the damn cat, I went to pet his head, wondering how Sander or any of the vamps change into their otherkind.
“I have a dog at home you know?”
“Lodi has lived for over a thousand years. He can take care of himself, I assure you.” He sat in the large high backed chair in the corner, away from his huge bed. Shit, I’d have to sit in his lap for him to feed. His long legs were stretched out in front of him. Sander was a big man if not bulky, and I could see him rub the very large bulge running down the leg of his pants. I thought of what he could do with that bulge and shuddered. The vampire looked deliciously sexy lounging there, beckoning me to come to him with one arm stretched out.
“Can’t we do this standing up?”
He shook his head, his blond hair moving a fraction of an inch. “We need to talk,” he confessed.
“Yes, we do.” He could tell me how to get into the sanatorium, and how to get Crow out. I made sure the robe covered me and gingerly sat on his thigh, the one without the lump. My legs dangled between his as I hugged my middle. As much as I’d felt better being clean, I felt the undeniable magnetism zip between us. It was taking all my strength to fight it.
Sanders hand petted my hair. “I need you to come to my side.”
“What?”
His other hand landed on my knee. “Come to my meetings, be part of the cloud.”
“Why? I’m not a vampire,” I said like he was crazy.
“You need to show your loyalty to me. Live with me here instead of out in the fringe.”
“I’m here. You made sure of that,” I grumbled.
His tenseness was back. “That is not what I mean. I cannot let someone else take over the city.”
“I knew Jameson was just a figure head, that you hold all the power now that your brother’s gone. Great job by the way.”
“If you think things are bad now, just wait until I do not have a say. Sigmund they would listen to but my cloud is not loyal... I have no idea why! My own wife is not even obedient. You make me look weak.”
“Then cut me loose.”
“It does not work that way. I would have to kill you publicly.”
I balked.
“We meet with Jameson next week, and you will be there on my arm.”
“I guess I will be.” I raised my foot and jiggled my ankle then complained, “I was at the wake. What’s the problem?”
“It is not enough. I have not made an announcement. You have yet to come to my side. My followers feel they are being left in the dark. Sigmund’s vampires will not stand with me.” More than tense, he was dropping contractions, a bad sign with the older vamps.
“So, you’ve got to make it public? Our marriage?” I didn’t like the sound of that.
“You understand.” Sander seemed relieved.
“So if I pretend I’m married to you, you’ll be able to get your shit under control?”
His nose against the hair hanging down my arm, he rubbed against it like a cat. “We are one, Love. There will be no pretending. Does this city not matter to you? Your friends...”
“I have no friends,” I interrupted him, but it wasn’t true. Tombs, Savy, Clare were some of my best friends. Hell, Jef had even been nice to me more times to count. I thought of Quixon. He was certainly a friend. Hundreds of faces of people, all kinds, ran through my mind. I might not let myself get close to a lot of folk but plenty of people were good to me, good people in general.
Sander was done talking. His hands clutched me to him as his fangs sunk into my shoulder almost giving me an orgasm. My own stomach gurgled, and I tried to think of real food instead of blood. The more he sucked, the more my own craving grew.
As if in a blood rage, I asked Sander in his mind, “How do I get in?”
“The keepers have a secret entrance. I don’t know where it is. I don’t want to know where it is,” he admitted involuntarily. His answers were honest.
I wondered why the place was even out of the city.
“If the zombies escape no one will care. They will eat the prisoners. We will burn the place to the ground.” Sander and I were still connected as he drew on my blood.
“And risk airborne infections?”
“Up until now vampires and bleeders wouldn’t be affected.”
“I need to leave and look for the entrance,” I told him by no fault of my own.
“You are going nowhere. I’m going to fuck you.” His voice rumbled through my head, his mouth still on my shoulder as his hand dipped between my legs, feeling the moisture between my folds. “You need me as much as I need you. Do you not feel what I feel when we are close?”
I surely did, but it didn’t matter. My heart belonged to Crow. I searched Sander’s brain, and he didn’t believe me. I watched what he had planned for me as his fingers rubbed me the right way. I bargained with him in my head, “I’ll do it. I’ll come to your side. Just don’t have sex with me.”
“Noir, I have your license. You are my food and fun. I can take you against your will at any time.”
“I know that.”
“Excellent. That’s also the rules of our marriage. So, I can’t agree to your deal and give up my rights.”
“For a week? Until your meeting, I’ll feed you but no sex.”
“And you’ll come to my side?”
“Yes.” He finally let me out of his head. With his fingers still stroking my walls, his thumb pressing my clit, he purred in my ear. “I can control myself but you better take precautions.”
“Do you have some?”
“I’d bought it for you, remember?” He removed his hand and licked his fingers clean. “It’s a deal, you will come to my side, be publically announced and no sex this week. Too bad. You’re getting ready to menstruate,” he told me, cocking an eyebrow.
Jumping off his lap, I grumbled, “Gross.”
“It’s not for me.”
“Please stop. I need to eat.”
Sander called down an order for me, and I ate and locked myself in the guest room to sleep, but before dawn, he needed another feeding.
The week passed slowly, I woke in the evening, ate something wonderful and fed Sander. Ate again, fed Sander, ate and went to sleep. A few times, I tried to stay up in the day but was far too sleepy. Twice a night, I sat on the authentic vampire’s lap and fought the urge to wiggle and satisfy myself. He blocked me from his mind, saying if he had to control himself, I’d have to too.
Sometimes Adela would stop by and hang out with me for an hour or two, but we never talked about anything important. It was actually kind of nice until she threatened me. “My father fancies you. You need to stop playing games and take your place or you will die.”
“This isn’t a game. I never wanted to be his wife. It was an accident.”
“Nothing is an accident. My father doesn’t want to kill you, but I will.”
Sander stayed far away when he wasn’t feeding, he said, so he could keep our deal, but I heard from Adela he was actually in meetings every night. I guessed preparing for the big one he’d invited me to. I snooped through Sanders things but anything I found appearing important was Greek to me, literally written in a different language.
I tried not to think about Crow. He wasn’t going anywhere. I’d tried calling Darius but calls were not being put through to the fringe. Instead, I called Tombs and Quixon, inviting them to the party, the meeting Sander mentioned. Adela had called it a party and with vampires everything was a party. They were both coming anyway, they’d told me. Tombs as Caesar’s plus one and Quixon as Saline’s. Fighting the jealousy I had no right to, I told myself it probably meant nothing, Quixon was probably just still spying for Zeus. But the thought of him feeding Saline made me uneasy. I tried to call Jef’s during the day to get a hold of Savy, not him, but was only getting the machine. With everything that was going on, I was afraid she’d taken the plunge and let Jef turn her into a vamp.
Even though Sander was being good, keeping our deal, I locked myself away in the guest room when I went to bed. Falling asleep had been easy enough, but I soon found myself tossing and turning. Although I hadn’t woken up, I was no longer peacefully asleep. My feet were freezing. Suddenly watching my feet, barefoot on a tile floor, my eyes traveled up my body to see a dress and an apron. Farther up, my red hair hung in curls on my shoulders. I hadn’t worn an apron since I’d lived on the reservation. Was this a dream? Looking around the strange kitchen fading away at the edges, I assumed it was... but what if? The door opened, answering my suspicions. In walked a man looking nothing like his normal self. Someone I thought I’d never see again.
“Honey, I’m home.” Aubrey had brought me into his strange, pre-End 1920’s dream before. It was a time way before my own, before he became a vampire. The man standing in front of me now only resembled the vampire I almost fell in love with. Sure, he had all the same features, his jet-black hair, cool blue grey eyes, his crooked grin that had charmed my pants off, but he could pass for a human, pulse and all, dressed in that tan brown suit complete with ridiculous hat.
My surprise morphed into the more appropriate rage. “You!” I spat for the lack of anything better.
He took off the hat and held it to his chest, bowing. Aubrey came toward me, tossing it on the table. My mouth opened automatically, and I hissed at him, showing all of my fangs before quickly covering my mouth. What the hell was wrong with me? I was acting like a fledgling, like a vampire. “I’m not becoming a vampire,” I calmed myself in my head. Even if over the top and unbecoming of a bleeder like me, my reaction was to him. The memory of our last meeting caused fear to sit in my belly. It tasted vile. “Fuck off,” I huffed.
Abruptly, Aubrey was in front of me. Brushing my cheek with his unusually warm hand, he moved my hair out of my face. “You’re still mad?”
“You try to rip me apart from the inside and think I’ll forget about in a few weeks?” I seethed, backing away from him as far as I could.
“You can’t blame a guy for trying. Admit it. You’ve had a lot on your mind.”
How’d he know? Was he spying on me again? “I didn’t think you could bother me anymore.”
“He has a lot on his mind.”
Fucking Sander’s problems, I didn’t want any part of them. “Thanks to you, I have my own shit to worry about.” Not only had Aubrey been pulling memories out of my nightmares, he’d figured out my secret, even before I had. It was the whole reason the mysterious Zeus could now blackmail me into being one of his minions. Worse than that, Aubrey had fooled me into thinking he cared for me, made me forget all vampires have an ulterior motive and can never truly be trusted. “Just spit it out. What do you want?”
“I’m here to make amends, doll.” He pulled a large bouquet of flowers out of nowhere. Of course, they were my favorite wild flowers mixed with some exotic ones I’ve only seen in books. If I thought hard enough, I could even make them change colors. This was, after all, still very much a dream. Letting my guard down, I smiled at the beautiful flowers, not the man. Now we were dancing, in a crowd. I’d lost the apron and wore a sparkly red gown. What was it with these men always wanting to dress me in red? As a red head, it wasn’t my first choice, but when Aubrey licked my neck, I remembered why. I could feel his hunger. Not only his sexual need but the deep emptiness in his own veins needing replenished. His yearnings amplified my own I’d been fighting to suppress. I hadn’t wanted to admit it but all week I’d been craving blood. No more than that, a longing for the sensation of sinking my fangs into soft flesh haunted me. Aubrey spun me around gracefully with a knowing chuckle. Shit, I knew nothing I thought here was private. Instinctively, I put up any mental guard I could find, searching to see if I was under any type of influence. Not knowing how these dreams worked, I could only try to stay in control.
“This is ridiculous! I’m not going to forgive you.” Yanking away from him, we were alone again sitting side by side. “You were deceiving me! Fucking around in my head and outing me in that fucking file. I searched for your missing ass —and you get jealous of Quixon.”
“I agree. He’s nothing to be jealous of, in reality, but your memories of him are quite enamored,” he said casually, leaning back with his legs crossed, not taking my anger seriously at all.
I made a noise of frustration. “You lied and tried to kill me.” If Sander didn’t need to break me from Aubrey, I’d be free of that aggravation as well. That was just the top of the list of things that might get me killed this week in which Aubrey had a hand. Crossing my arms, I squinted, concentrating, trying to wake up.
Aubrey seized my arms frantically, but his voice was steady. “I’m not in complete control in the dreams. My consciousness takes over... I never meant to harm you. Certainly was never going to kill you. I never should have come to you in my state.”
It was a classic man cop out, he didn’t mean to. I knew Aubrey said he’d been in some sort of prison, but his words meant nothing to me now. Since he was touching my arms, I tried to get in his memories like he could mine with no luck.
“I don’t care about an apology.” He wasn’t going to fool me again. “Just let me know what you want now.”
“I’m in a bad place again, Noir. I shouldn’t have come.” His grey eyes held darkness, a pain that wasn’t there earlier. “You may not believe a word I say, but I’m here, being held because of you.” I realized he was talking about where he’d said he was supposedly being imprisoned before. He was still there. “I’m not angry, just looking for some comfort. I wanted to make amends.” His dark hair fell over his eyes as he hung his head, seeming genuine.
Almost feeling sorry for him before I caught myself, I asked, “What’s the catch?”
“Nothing,” he said too quickly but lamented. “I came here with nothing, but now, after catching up with you.” Meaning, he’d riffled through my recent memories. “I do have something of interest to you.”
“In exchange for?” I pinched my arm, trying to wake up.
Aubrey’s finger ran down the curve of my neck. “An escape from this madness, this hell hole I’m trapped in, if only in my mind.” His tongue darted out, licking his lips before his fangs appeared.
“You want to bite me?” I chortled, “In a dream?”
“I wanted to make amends, Noir, I’m in a bad place,” he repeated oddly. He looked just fine. I knew the bad place he was talking about wasn’t just a cell but his hunger again, a starvation I concluded as his eyes bore a hole in my neck.
Grasping for my resolve, I heard my own stomach rumble.
“You can bite me too.” He bit his gorgeous bottom lip while moving his neck to one side. Squeezing my eyes shut, I didn’t want to be tempted. Why did Aubrey have to be so fucking hot? “No harm here in a dream. You can’t kill me.”
True, I’d already thought of it when he exposed his neck. However, him mentioning my secret only reminded me he exposed me. Remembering him trying to punish me that horrible night, I scooted away from his reach. He only came closer and touched my shoulder. “I won’t be able to hurt you either, no more mark.”
Maybe biting him, even in a dream would make the urge go away for a while. Maybe long enough for me to ask Tombs to find out what the hell was wrong with me. Hopefully, when he did, he’d know how to fix me, and I’d be back to normal. Not only the urge to feed but also an unrequited anger bubbled. A chunk of me wanted to bite Aubrey hard anyway, hurt him. I’d fantasied about being able to kill him when he was slashing my body remotely. There was no question, I was undeniably fucked up since Sander made me part of his cloud. “Information first,” I agreed, reluctantly succumbing to the void controlling me. “And you’ll answer my questions,” I added for good measure.
The heavy anguish on him seemed to lift. “As you wish.”
Like by magic, I instantaneously knew directions to the secret entrance. It just happened to be through the tiny morgue the two hapless humans led Savy and I into with hopes to impress us. Lined in silver, it was supposed to be their safe house, a bomb shelter if the bomb happened to be a mob of vampires. “So that’s how you get in?” I said to myself surprised.
Aubrey hovered over me instantly, his fangs seductively scraping my collarbone, causing another need to rumble through me. Fuck, I hadn’t thought of those consequences. “Wait.” I used all my strength to shove him away.
“Your questions.” Disappointment flashed on his face as he composed himself.
“You’ve been there all this time?” I asked as he showed me exactly where he was and how to break him out. The zombie sanatorium I wanted to break into didn’t only hold the infected yet important humans and other abominations that for some reason couldn’t be disposed of. It was being used as a vampire prison slash nut house. Anyone they wanted to protect or be protected from was locked away there.
“Yes, I was committed. I never planned to deliver that file. Once my weakness for you showed, they came for me.”
I snorted, “I heard you were hiding. Saline was hiding you.”
“Only for a day, before that bitch turned me over.” Aubrey looked livid.
I shook my head in disbelief. It couldn’t be true, it would mean Quixon had lied, I thought to myself, forgetting it wouldn’t matter.
“And why would that bleeder lie to you?” Aubrey voice dripped with poison. He clearly wasn’t over Quixon and I.
“What do you know?” I rose to my knees and poked a finger into his chest, wishing it was the gun I’d stole from Sander.
Aubrey’s laugh was unstable, boardering on crazy. It gave me great pause. “I know nothing, but I’ve been in this hell hole the whole time, not lounging around with the head of the Sforce. You fill in the blanks. I’m finished with questions.”
All of the sudden, I was straddling him by no fault of my own while his fangs surged into my neck. Gasping, I had agreed, but I wasn’t ready for the jolt of electricity that ran through me, flipping all my switches. The painful pleasure evaporated my lingering anger, and my unspoken questions vanished. He drew harder, dream or not, the pheromones rose, only strengthening my desire for more than a sip of blood. I liquefied against him wanting contact with every inch as his fingers dug into my back, heaving me into him with the same fever. Aubrey moved into me as well, grinding the bulge in his pants against my now vulnerable, sensitive center. It had only been a few weeks, but I knew what he could do to me if I let him.
Throwing off all my cares, I let him caress my unexpectedly naked breasts as he licked the final drips of blood from my skin. Feeling his cock hard beneath me sent tingles of anticipation, making my pink peaks harden under his thumbs and a soft moan escape me. His bite was finished, but the look in his eyes let me know he was only beginning to curb his hunger.
“Don’t fight it, Noir.” His hand gripped the back of my head, tangling in and clutching my hair as he brought me into a full kiss.
He’d read my mind. For the last couple of weeks, I’d been as good as I could be, fighting nature and controlling myself in so many ways to save the grip I had on humanity. And for the prospects my future held. Even tonight, with an important piece of the puzzle implanted in my mind, I thought of stopping. It would be the right thing to do, but damn it, I wanted this, one bite. Sex with Aubrey was just the icing on the cake, and fuck, with the week I’d had, I deserved a big slice of cake.
