Authors: Maya DeLeina
Anya, get Rhys and Eilian here now! I can’t control myself! I am going to kill him.
They’re coming, Steffan. Hold on! You can’t get yourself into any more trouble with the council.
I can claim it was self-defense. He’s intruding in my home!
Steffan, you’re much stronger than Ryan. They’ll never believe you!
Anya, he watched us make love!
Steffan struggled within himself but found the willpower to stop and released Ryan. Ryan fell to the ground. His blood dripped from his face. His repair mechanisms were working overtime to fix the breaks and fractures in his face while he used his saliva to close his wounds. Ryan started laughing on the ground as Steffan paced the hall outside the master bedroom, tying to regain his composure.
“I can’t say I blame you. Her skin is so soft. Her touch is consuming. If you hadn’t stirred in bed that morning while Anya and I were exploring each other’s flesh, I could’ve had her writhing to an orgasm with just my fingers in no time.”
“Damnit!” Steffan let out a roar and picked Ryan up off the floor by his neck. Ryan’s body dangled in the air as Steffan squeezed.
“Steffan. No!” Rhys screamed as he and Eilian made their way up the grand staircase to the hall that led to Steffan and Anya’s master bedroom. Eilian grabbed Steffan around the chest, trying to pull at his arms to lower Ryan. Rhys worked on prying open Steffan’s fingers from around Ryan’s neck.
“Let go, Steffan! Don’t do this!” Rhys yelled.
Steffan released his hold, and Ryan came crashing down to the ground, gasping for air.
“You both saw it. He tried to kill me. I was just here to talk this out, and he went crazy. You saw it. You have to witness in front of the council tonight.”
“I didn’t see a goddamn thing. Did you, Eilian?” Rhys asked.
“Nope,” Eilian responded quickly.
“All I see is you here, intruding in Steffan’s home. I say his reaction was just one of self-defense,” Rhys said angrily.
“Get him out of here and change all of the tunnel codes now!” Steffan ordered as he headed back to the room to Anya.
“It’s not over, Steffan. I will be seeing you tonight. You will pay!” Ryan screamed as Eilian and Rhys hurried him out of the home.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“My love, show me what you learned,” Steffan said as Anya guided her leg over the motorcycle and settled into a seated position.
“My right hand is to accelerate and apply the front brake. I twist my wrist toward me to apply throttle.”
“And?”
“A little twist goes a long way. Be delicate with the control,” Anya stated in a monotone voice as if reciting the lines straight from an instructional manual.
“Good. Continue.”
“This lever here applies the front brakes.”
“And?”
Anya rolled her eyes. “Be very smooth and gentle with the application, if you pull on it too hard, you can skid,” Anya mimicked Steffan’s accent and voice.
“Very Good. The accent, not so good.” Steffan shook his head. “Keep going.”
“This is my clutch that connects and disconnects the engine from the transmission. When I squeeze, the bike is in neutral. When I let go, I enable the engine to turn the transmission.” Anya applied her weight and pitched the bike to the opposite side. “My foot controls the shift. I nudge the shifter upwards to upshift and push it down to downshift.”
“Show me how you shift with the clutch.”
“Disengage, shift, engage,” Anya said as she followed with the correct movements on the control.
“Yup, that’s it.”
“Here is my kill switch, key, and start button.” Anya stopped and spoke with a tinge of irritation, “We’ve been through this all morning and afternoon. Can we go now?”
“All right, All right. I’m only letting you do this because your new vampire abilities allow you to acquire skills and learn things rapidly and you can repair yourself if something goes wrong. Otherwise, you would be with me on the cruiser again.”
“You promised that once I turned, I could ride one of the bad boys.”
“And of course you chose the Ducati.”
“Hey, blame your dream for that one!”
“Well, what are you waiting for? Start that bad boy up!” Steffan said with gusto.
The engine roared, and Anya grinned as the bike vibrated beneath her.
Steffan shook his head and smiled at her as he started his sleek black and gray Ninja. “Let it idle to warm up for about forty-five seconds,” Steffan yelled over the engines at Anya.
Anya nodded in response.
As they sat waiting, Anya looked over at Steffan, admiring the way he looked straddling the bike. She whistled in his direction.
Steffan laughed. “You ready?”
“Yup!”
“We’ll do test runs on the street first.”
“No! Just go, Steffan. I got this!”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“Listen, when we hit the gravel portion of the road up on the peak, slow it down, all right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And keep pace with me, don’t be hotdoggin’ it out there.”
“I won’t.” Anya smiled as she engaged the engine and took off out of the garage.
This woman will be the death of me!
Steffan said to himself as he followed her lead.
* * * *
It was dusk, and the brilliant sunset left traces of pink and purple to linger in the darkening sky.
The summer-evening ride to the top of the peak had a much different feel and look to the rides Steffan and Anya took along the same path during spring. This time, the scent of lilacs permeated the air. The breeze still held a delicate crispness, but a warming sensation was noticeably heavy in the air. The aspen leaves shimmered like coins in the evening breeze.
In the distance, dark clouds painted the sky.
* * * *
Steffan laid out a blanket in the outcropping of rocks and took a seat. Anya took her usual place and snuggled between his legs. Masterfully, Steffan rounded his hands to the front of Anya’s jacket. With the rasp of the zipper, he made quick work of removing the bulky leather jacket that hindered his ability to get as close as he possibly could to Anya.
“I must say, you looked absolutely sexy on the Ducati. I could barely keep my eyes on the road at times,” Steffan whispered in Anya’s ear. His low timbre and velvety accent sent a shiver down her spine and caused the delicate traces of hair on her arms and neck to stand on edge.
“You were looking mighty sexy there too, Mr. Matthews. So what do I do, breathe in deeply?”
“Just breathe normally. Let the oxygen-level shift in our bodies do all the work to revitalize us,” Steffan responded as he brushed the length of her hair back, exposing her neck and shoulders. He ran his hands up and down each side of her upper arms and shoulders.
“Steffan, what do you think about tonight?”
“I have a good feeling about it.”
“But I attacked him in front of everyone!”
“Don’t worry. We can make a case for that. I mean, you were only one day old and hadn’t been able to harness all of your innate reactions. The only thing I’m hoping for is that Rhys and Eilian can find Alex. I need to know what’s going on with Madeline and what she told Ryan that would make him flip out like this,” Steffan responded, a hint of concerned laced in his words. “But first…”
The inflection of Steffan’s voice was seductive. From her ear down to her shoulder, he planted wet kisses randomly on her exposed flesh.
Anya leaned back into Steffan, silently signaling for more. More kisses, more whispers in her ear, more caressing, more everything. Her ability to respond to just the mere sound of his voice or slightest touch was astounding. And while the introduction of his kisses would’ve have already robbed her of her ability to form a single coherent thought, one unforgiving notion resurfaced in her mind, dampening the good mood she was in.
“I can’t believe he watched us, Steffan! That was a private moment between us. A moment that was only to be shared by us!”
Thunder rumbled above in the sky as if projecting the turbulent anger swirling in her body.
Anya and Steffan jumped with the deafening sound.
“Shit, I didn’t think the storm was going to be very bad. Quick, there is an overhang in the cliff that we can get under!” Steffan said.
Anya looked up in the direction Steffan was pointing and quickly recognized what he was referring to. All at once, the rain began to fall. Big droplets came crashing down, stinging their skin and turning the chalky, pink mountainside into shining pieces of red and maroon granite below their feet. And just as the rain was sudden, the change in the air around them was abrupt. The smell was thick and heavy, with a hint of moss and metal. It had an old character to it, but not unpleasing. It was clean and grounding, the smell of earth.
“Hurry!” Steffan demanded.
Anya was confused by Steffan’s sudden panic.
So it was a little rain. Surely vampires didn’t melt. She smiled as the scene from
The Wizard of Oz
popped into her mind. And surely it wasn’t because Steffan was overly concerned about ruining his sexy wind-swept look. In fact, a little rain could probably wash away the definite helmet hair they were both sporting. Still, without fully understanding, Anya made haste upon Steffan’s demand. As she drew closer to the makeshift shelter, the formation of the mountainside was revealed.
“Steffan! It looks like more than just an overhang shelter. It looks like a cave!”
“Get in as far as you can!”
Anya crouched and ducked her head through the entrance, slipping into the deep crevice that was naturally carved into the mountainside. Steffan was at her heels, shaking the rain from his hair. Anya stood up against the wall, watching as Steffan laid out the blanket on the dirt floor and took off his rain-soaked jacket. She looked around at their surroundings. They were protected in the confines of the cave as the rain continued to come down hard just outside the entrance. She could also feel Steffan’s demeanor change. He was calmer, with a definite sense of relief. Steffan sat on the blanket, leaning back slightly and propped himself up on his arms. He nodded at Anya, motioning between his outstretched legs, and she took her usual spot, curling her legs in. They faced the cave’s entrance, quietly watching the patterns of the rain shift with the wind as it intensified.
A bolt of lightning lit up the sky.
“One one-hundred, two one-hundred,” Anya counted as the sky cracked above them. “It’s close! Do you want to play in the rain?”
“What do you mean by
play
?
”
Anya smiled as she projected a scene in her mind that Steffan was sure to pick up on.
Not able to see her facial expression, Steffan traced her mind and caught the image of them making love in the standing position. They were outside on the rocks, mist curling around their feet as the rain came down all around them. Above, the black-ink sky lit up with the electrical storm, highlighting Anya’s breasts as they traced along his rippled abdomen.