Africa was half the world away, but Ramirez still felt the last assassin die.
He swore viciously. Beth’s wretched sister and her whoreson husband had proven more formidable than he expected.
Restlessly, he began to pace the bedroom, anger eating at him. Wrapped up in his furious thoughts, he was barely aware of the terrified stare of the bound woman watching from the bed.
He’d made a mistake in sending his spawn so far away. Though Ramirez could sense when they died, he couldn’t control them over distances so great.
Which meant that the little cocksuckers had probably spilled their guts to this Cade McKinnon, if he’d bothered to torture them at all.
Ramirez paused his restless steps to gaze out the bay window at the mountains that surrounded the last of his homes. Hell, perhaps they hadn’t even needed torture. They hated him, the ungrateful bastards, hated the way he’d been forced to sacrifice their brothers in his battle with Elena’s spawn.
He had only four thralls left, nowhere near enough. Not considering that McKinnon’s little puta would no doubt tell the cousins where he was holed up. The McKinnons and the Axtons would probably join forces to storm his mountain headquarters. And soon.
Luckily, he’d already hired a team of mercenaries to defend him if it became necessary. One phone call and they’d be here, armed to the teeth. They were only human, of course, but enough men with enough automatic weapons would tip the odds firmly in his favor.
It might even be possible to capture Elena’s cocksucking spawn. And then…
His dick hardening at the thought, Ramirez turned toward the captive who still lay huddled on his bed. Grinning into her big green eyes, he started toward her.
* * *
When Beth woke, her mouth felt cottony with thirst. She moaned, the sound emerging as a croak.
“Welcome back.” Without being asked, Garret sat down on the bed next to her and presented a squeeze bottle of water to her mouth. She sucked at it with greedy desperation as he pumped a cool stream into her mouth.
“That’s enough,” he said finally, and pulled the bottle away. “We don’t want you getting sick.”
“Thanks,” she managed, as the dryness receded a little.
Morgan walked over to join them. Both men were dressed again -- jeans and a black T- shirt for him, Garret in chinos and a golf shirt. They looked so neat and clean Beth was instantly aware of her own sweaty body.
“Gah. I feel nasty.” Not to mention hung-over. Her head ached, and when she tried to move, every muscle protested as if she’d just run a marathon. “May I have some more water? I’m still thirsty.”
Morgan exchanged a significant glance with Garret. “I’m afraid it’s not water you need.”
Good God, she realized, it’s the Hunger. The idea felt so huge and frightening, she had to joke. “I feel more like a three-day old kitten than a super-powered creature of the night.” She managed a sickly smile. “I want my money back.”
“Give it time,” Morgan told her. “Once you… eat, you’ll feel better.”
“Thanks for saying ‘eat’ instead of ‘feed.’”
“Actually,” Garret pointed out, “you’ve drunk from us before. Several times.”
“Yeah, but that seemed more like kinky sex than… this.” She reached for the bottle again. He handed it over without further comment.
But as she put it in her mouth, the nozzle hit one of her canines. Pain stabbed her gums, and the tooth gave way. “Dammit!” she lisped, slapping a hand over her mouth as it tried to roll down her throat. Choking, she scrambled out of bed and headed for the bathroom, blood flooding her mouth.
Bending over the sink, she spat hastily. A crimson blob of blood hit the basin, along with the white wedge of a canine. Pain jabbed her again as another tooth came loose. She spat that one out too.
With a moan of disgust, Beth turned the taps on full and scooped handful of water into her mouth. Spitting it out, she looked into the mirror and found the men standing behind her, watching sympathetically. “I guess this means I’ve got fangs now.” She cringed. Her sibilants had acquired a distinct “th” sound. “Great. Now I’m lisping.” Reluctantly, she looked in the mirror and opened her jaws. Her canines had been replaced by inch-long fangs.
“Oh, God,” Beth whispered. “I’m really a vampire.” Her eyes began to sting, and she ducked her head, turning away from the mirror.
Garret pulled her into his arms. “I know,” he soothed, gathering her close. “It’s always tough at first.”
Tears rolling down her cheeks, she wrapped her arms around his warm waist. “I feel like such an idiot. I asked for this. I did. But…”
“You feel as if you’ve lost your humanity.” Morgan rested a comforting hand on her shoulder. “You haven’t. You’re still the same woman you always were.”
She lifted her head and gave him a watery smile. “I don’t know about that. I can hear both your hearts beating.” The double thump sounded like a distant music.
Morgan smiled slightly. “So a few things are different.”
“Too many things.” Pulling back from Garret, Beth licked at the blood on her lips. It tasted far too good for her peace of mind. “I need a shower.” She turned toward the tub and felt her knees give way.
Before she could fall on her face, a strong hand clamped around her elbow, supporting her. “Take it slow,” Morgan said. “Your body has been through a lot.”
“Maybe you should go for a bath instead,” Garret suggested. “They’ve got a huge tub. Big enough for all three of us.”
“Yeah?” Intrigued, she hobbled around the corner, feeling like an old woman with Morgan’s supporting hand under her arm.
He was right, the tub was huge. Made of cream marble veined with pink, it was a good five feet across and seven feet long. The fixtures were gold, and the faucet was shaped like a swan, its neck an elegant curve. “That’s not a tub, that’s a swimming pool. Somebody has way too much money.”
“Maybe.” Garret bent to turn on the taps, then flicked a switch, sending jets of water thundering into the tub. “But you’ve got to admit, it’s got possibilities.” Straightening, he pulled his shirt off over his head.
The sight of his lean, elegant torso made Beth’s mouth feel even dryer than it was already. “Possibilities,” she repeated. “Oh, yeah. Definitely.”
Morgan chuckled in her ear, the sound wickedly suggestive. “Why don’t you get in? We’ll start exploring them right now.”
As the tub filled, Garret toed off his shoes and stripped out of his pants and underwear, then helped her down into the water while Morgan undressed. It was deliciously warm, and the jets beat gently against her aching body. She settled down on the low seat and closed her eyes with a tired sigh. She felt so rotten, she wasn’t sure even her own private pantheon of sex gods could rev her up.
Water splashed as the men sank down in the huge tub on either side of her. Strong male hands caught her by the shoulders and pulled her upright. “I’m going to wet your hair,” Garret murmured. He eased her back until only her face remained over the bubbling water. When she sat up again, her hair clung to her back in long, wet strands.
She sat slumped as he spread something deliciously cool over her head, then started working it into a lather. A second set of soapy fingers caught her breasts and began stroking over her skin.
Beth surrendered herself, eyes sliding shut, content to let them wash her. Distantly, she was aware of building arousal. It took her a moment to realize not all of it was her own. Her eyes popped open. “I’m feeling you,” she whispered. “I’m feeling what you feel.”
“Yes.” Morgan knelt in front of her on the bottom of the tub. His soapy fingers found her nipples, pinched gently. Stroked. The pleasure made her catch her breath. “And we feel what you feel.” This time when he spoke, his lips didn’t move. She’d heard his thoughts. “We’re linked.”
“Yes.” Now she could feel the anticipation thrumming in Garret’s mind. “And as sweet as it was making love to you before, it’s going to be even better now.” He drew her back against his chest and slid one hand down between her thighs. She moaned as he found her clit and circled it with just the right pressure.
Morgan’s hot eyes half-closed like a purring cat’s. “I feel it when he touches you.”
“Yeah? How about this?” Beth reached below the bubbling water and found the jutting length of Morgan’s cock. She closed her fingers around it. Both men inhaled sharply.
So did Beth. It felt as if her clit had suddenly grown incredibly long and thick. Delicate fingers brushed along it -- her own. “Wow,” she breathed. Gently, she began to explore, stroking her hand up and down Morgan’s thick shaft. It bucked under her fingers, the echo of his pleasure making her groan.
With her other hand, she found his heavy balls and cupped them. It seemed she could feel them there between her own legs, as delicately sensitive as her breasts. The pleasure was dazzling.
Fascinated, Beth cuddled his balls in one hand while she caressed the length of his shaft with the other. Running a thumb across his glans made them all gasp.
“Stand up,” she said hoarsely. “I want to taste you.”
Beth heard Morgan swallow as he obeyed. Water streamed from his powerful body, rolling down his braced thighs to drip from his flushed and eager cock. She leaned forward. Through the link, she felt the two men tense in anticipation as she opened her mouth.
When she sucked him in, she felt wet heat and the caress of lips and tongue around that huge, phantom clit. Beth paused, absorbing the sensation. Morgan murmured in incoherent demand.
Gently, carefully, she began to suck, swirling her tongue over the velvet head as she closed her lips snugly around his shaft. The sensations echoing up the link seemed to burn with white-hot intensity, and she moaned. Even the movement of her own lips felt delicious, a tender humming around her phantom clit.
And beneath that, coming through the link, she could feel the men’s enjoyment of both Morgan’s pleasure and her own. Each lick, each nibble, each movement of her head caused a wicked jolt of erotic feedback. Each built on the one before, the pleasure intensifying, increasing with dizzying speed.
The orgasm hammered into them without warning. Morgan threw back his head and roared, Beth crying out around his cock as he shot into her mouth, the sounds blending with Garret’s hoarse shout.
Morgan’s knees gave, and he fell back in the water with a splash, pulling his softening cock from Beth’s lax grip.
For a long moment, they just sat there, dazed.
“Damn, I’ve missed that.” The thought came from one of the men, but Beth wasn’t sure which.
Morgan sprawled against the rear of the tub, both massive arms flung wide across its marble lip. His head was thrown back, and a thick vein throbbed beneath his jaw. In the silence, she could hear his heartbeat. Beth wanted to press her mouth to that banging pulse, hungered to feel it throb against her lips just as his cock had. She moved through the water toward him as if in a trance.
Lifting his head, Morgan watched her come, his dark eyes knowing. He opened his arms.
She went into them, her attention fixed helplessly on his pulse. But as she started to bend toward his throat, a thought pierced the hypnotic haze. “What am I doing?”
“You know exactly what you’re doing.” It was Garret, moving up behind her as she straddled Morgan’s thighs. “You’re taking what you need.”
Blood, she thought. He means blood.
Something in her recoiled at the thought, but the rest was lost in the first rise of the Hunger. As she lowered her head to Morgan’s throat, she felt the men’s anticipation rise. They wanted this as much as she did.
I’m about to drink his blood. She looked down at his throbbing pulse as the Hunger coiled in hot knots in her belly, demanding and fiercely alien.
Morgan tilted his head back and closed his eyes. “Now, Beth.”
She swallowed as saliva flooded her mouth. “What if I hurt you?”
“You won’t.” Garret caught the back of her head and gently pressed her face against his cousin’s neck. The Hunger clamored, demanding she bite. Her fangs ached savagely, sliding to full length in her mouth. She could taste her own blood. Hesitantly, she licked his throat. He tasted delicious.
Unable to hold back any longer, Beth bit down. Morgan gasped, his body arching under hers. She’d never heard anything as erotic as his groan of surrender.
He liked the sting of her fangs in his skin.
Encouraged, Beth began to suck, but only a trace of blood rewarded her Hunger.
Frustrated, she drew harder. Garret laughed softly and used his hold on her head to turn her back and forth a fraction. Morgan moaned. “You’ve got to widen the openings, or you won’t be able to get anything past your fangs.”
Sure enough, blood began to flood her mouth as the cuts widened. It tasted delicious -- burning and sweet, more like some dark liquor than the familiar salt and copper she’d known as a mortal.
With a low groan of pleasure, she stretched out along his hard body, loving the way he felt, loving the way he tasted. As she drank in hungry swallows, Morgan reached up to caress her breasts with skilled fingers, teasing her nipples, tugging and twisting.
Arousal spilled out of nowhere like a gout of flame, still fierce despite the mind-searing orgasm they’d just enjoyed. Beth ground her hips against his hardening cock, hungry to feel it thrusting deep inside her.
Something slick and hard touched the lips of her cunt from behind. “Will this do?” Garret asked in a velvet purr as he began working his way inside.
Fangs buried in Morgan’s throat, she could only groan.
“I think that’s a yes.” There was laughter in Morgan’s voice.
“Sounded that way to me too.” Garret began to thrust in slow, seductive digs. Beth gasped against Morgan’s pulse, loving both the hot pleasure of his cousin’s cock and the way her slick inner sheath gripped him.
The delight was so intense, she felt seared. It poured into her from every side -- the hot taste of Morgan’s blood, the steady plunges of Garret’s cock, the tight, slick heat of her own cunt. And each sweet sensation made the pulses in her core strengthen and pick up speed.
Until…
The climax hit like a fireball, flinging her out into a long, endless tumble, the men roaring with her, so tangled she couldn’t tell where she left off and they began.
She’d never known anything so exquisite in her life.