Rick had managed to shake the knife free. Being silver it had caused a lot of damage since he is a shape shifter, if left now he would eventually recover, but I wouldn't let him. He hadn't let Bruno recover, he most certainly had every intention of finishing Michel off if he got the chance and he wouldn't offer me that consideration if I was the last person left alive on Earth.
I raised my sword in shaky but strong hands, I looked directly in his eyes and I took a deep breath in and ran towards him. He bayed to the moon, then braced his feet wide apart. When I leapt in the air, he rose on his back legs, lifting his claws up and not swiping at me as I had expected, but flinging his front legs wide and exposing his chest. I hesitated, I had my sword out, pointed towards him, I was ready to drive it home, but he was capitulating. I lowered it at the last second and he struck.
I felt his claws rip through my jacket, down my arm, over my chest, across my stomach and then free. The force of the strike spun me away. I felt my body twisting, my skin tearing apart at the gashes and blood soaking my clothes, even before I hit the ground. The air was pushed from my lungs, dirt ground into the wounds across my front and my head smashed down on hard packed earth. Stars began to burst in my vision, my head felt like it had been jammed in between the door of a car and the frame of the vehicle and then been slammed a few hundred times in its metal grip. I felt nausea roll up inside me and knew this was not good. It was not good at all.
I sensed, rather than saw, a form above me. His breath on my neck, his low growl at my ear. I didn't need to speak Taniwha to understand what he was saying.
Now you die.
Maybe he tagged an
old friend
on the end there, I can only think there was some of Rick left, some of the old Rick, my old best-friend, but I wasn't sure. I clenched my fists in preparation for the killing blow and found I was still grasping my dragon hilt. I let the feel of the raised pattern on my palm calm me, I managed to get a steadying breath in and just as I was sure he was ready to do the deed, that he was pulling back to strike, I used the last of my energy, the last of my consciousness, to roll over. Gritting my teeth through the pain and using the adrenaline like a weapon - just like the Dark had, but now there was only Light within - I sunk the sword hilt deep in his chest.
I don't remember anything else. My Light washed through me, it felt like it was bathing me and filling me up and then bursting from me. I wasn't sure, but it was too big to contain, too big for all of me. I'm only small and it felt enormous, bigger than the world, bigger than the universe. It felt like an explosion from deep within. I tried to hold on to it, I didn't want it to harm the vampires in the park, I tried, I really did, but it was strong and it was determined and it kept telling me softly:
it's OK, it's OK, it's OK.
Still, I fought it as best I could, even though it was comforting me, even though it was soothing me, I fought it.
And the last thing I heard was my voice in my head saying over and over again,
please don't hurt my vampires, please don't hurt my vampires, please don't hurt my vampires.
And then nothing.
Just white light and soft laughter, that after a while I thought might just belong to children.
I dreamt of happy things: children laughing, children playing, hopscotch, tag, jump rope. Butterfly kisses and fairy wishes. Candy floss and bouncy castles, cuddly toys and mud pies. Colourful dresses and Cowboys and Indians. Laughter. There was so much laughter. It left me smiling in my dreams. It left me happy, even though I knew deep down inside, there was a reason I shouldn't have felt happy at all.
When I woke it was day time, I knew this because the shutters were down. I couldn't remember going to bed, I couldn't remember much after dancing with Michel at
Sensations
. I reached out a hand and he was there, like he said he would be. Spending the day with me, in my bed.
I decided I'd wake him up, so I rolled over to throw my leg across him, to snuggle in against his hard thigh, to run my hand down his stomach, lower and lower, but instead of rolling over I screamed out in pain. I ached all over and with the pain came the memories and the scream turned to a whimper.
No. Please no, it didn't happen.
“
Ma douce
,
ma douce
, it is all right. I am here.” His voice so soothing, his fingers on my cheek, my neck, so soft, his breath against my face so warm. My eyes flickered open and his deep, deep blue eyes shone back. Reassuring, loving, here.
“Are you OK?” I whispered.
He smiled and laughed softly. “Only you would think of someone else when you are injured so.”
I did feel like shit, now that he mentioned it. I winced as I tried to shift my body slightly. Not a good idea.
“Do not move, you have stitches. Let me heal you. Lower your shields.”
I shook my head, relieved to notice it no longer hurt, the thumping headache subsided. “You're hurt too, don't waste your energy, I'll be fine.”
He smiled more broadly. “I have almost completely healed,
ma douce
. It has been over 48 hours since the battle.”
I just stared at him. Shit. Another couple of days vanished, lost to me forever. God dammit, this just had to stop.
Michel had started laughing next to me, making the bed shake slightly, not something I appreciated right now.
“OK. OK. Heal me before you really start going there.” I lowered my shields and the familiar feel of Michel's
Sanguis Vitam
came pouring in, filling my body with warmth and washing away the pain and aching. I could almost feel the skin knitting together, the bruises fading, the scraps and cuts disappearing. He didn't stop, but let his
Sanguis Vitam
continue to pour through me, wrapping around me, stroking my skin and heading lower and lower, until I started squirming beneath its touch. No longer able to keep eye contact with him, having to shut my eyes, breathe more deeply and ride the wave he had started.
I thought he'd just leave it at that, but with my shields down and his power flowing through me so deliciously, so beautifully, I had no way to ask, instead his lips found mine, his hand swept over my body and started joining in on the fun. I was being assailed by his power, by his lips and tongue, by his hand and fingers. It was amazing. I have had orgasms before from Michel's power. Before we joined he'd sometimes play havoc with my willpower, causing me to respond to him even when he hadn't laid a finger on my body. But this time, he was using both, his vampire mind and his vampire body.
I couldn't stop him, even if I wanted to, so I just chose to enjoy it, chalk it up to an early morning wake up call and let him do his thing. It was intense, it was out of this world and it didn't last nearly as long as I wanted it to. I came with a rush, it curled me up, made me cling to him and shout out in ecstasy as he made me ride it over and over again.
Finally he released me and let me lay back into his arms, wrapping himself around me and pulling the blankets up over us to make a cocoon.
“
That
, was for scaring me half to death,
ma douce
. Don't
ever
do that to me again. I could not bear it.”
“Then don't make the punishment so good,” I breathed against him. I felt his shoulders shake with laughter.
“Should I lay you across my lap and spank you then, would that be better?”
I laughed too. “You could try.”
He growled against me and shifted his hips. I felt his hard length press into my side.
“Do you have any idea the effect you have on my body,
ma douce
? I want you now, right this second, I am having to use all of my power to restrain myself. You need time to recover. Please do not push me.”
Oh, now that was an invitation to party.
He growled deeper even before I rolled on top of him. Obviously, still able to read my mind then.
“Yes.” The 's' was said long, lengthening the word, giving it a whole new meaning.
He tried to shift against me, but I had him pinned. My legs down on either side of his body, my hands holding his arms back against the pillows. I realised then we were both naked. He certainly liked putting my unconscious body to bed in the nude, didn't he? Handy though. I started shifting myself against his erection, he closed his eyes and stopped fighting me altogether.
“Giving up so soon, vampire?”
His eyes shot open and I was rewarded with magenta and indigo, with only a few splashes of amethyst left. Jumping right to the big boys there. Goody.
He held my gaze but raised his head towards me, his teeth taking one of my bandages and slowly tearing it away. The tape causing a slight stinging sensation, sharp and painful, but making me writhe against him all the same.
“I don't think we need these any more, do you?” His voice was husky and suddenly it wasn't me holding his arms, but him holding my wrists and he was making me come closer to his mouth. He moved me around until he was able to get at each bandage, slowly, painfully removing each one with his teeth, keeping eye contact, but making me squirm and moan and whimper and generally make a right bloody fool of myself. By the time he had finished I was aware he had doubled in size beneath me, pressing so hard against me and I was wet.
He didn't let me go, just started licking all the sensitive spots where the tape had been, one slow long lick after another. The saliva from his licks helping to heal the marks, soothing the searing sensation and flooding me with warmth.
“Never say I don't look after my kindred,” he whispered against one wet lick making me shiver uncontrollably above him.
He lifted me up off him by simply raising my arms and then somehow managed to get me to come back down at exactly the right spot and angle for his hard round tip to be at my entrance. His eyes still on me, he pushed up slowly as I came down onto him just as slowly and his mouth opened and a shot of air left his lungs and he moaned. “God! You are mine.” With those words he thrust the last few inches inside me, filling me up and claiming me again.
His hand shifted from my wrists to my breasts and we started a beautiful slow dance together, not rushed, not frantic, but still desperate to be close, just savouring each thrusting motion in and long draw out. His hips working hard, the hard length of him so big, filling me up and making me pant for more.
It was me that tried to speed things up and when I did his hands moved to my hips to slow me, as his head came up off the bed and before his mouth wrapped round one of my nipples he purred, “Not yet.”
I arched my back and let him have better access at my breast. He sucked hard, leaving teeth marks as he bit, making me cry out.
“Do you want more,
ma douce
?”
“Yes.” Now it was me with the lengthened 's'.
He shifted to the other breast and lavished his attention and tongue and teeth there. All the while making me ride him so slowly, when all I wanted was hard and fast.
Finally, I'd had enough, enough to make me beg, which I knew was what he was after. The damn man was still trying to prove a point.
“Michel, please. Faster.”
He smiled sinfully. “I am sorry,
ma douce
. What was that?”
“Arghh! Now dammit, now!”
He had me flipped over in an instant, still inside me, never leaving his hold of my body. He started moving more forcefully against me, kissing my cheek, my jaw and then my neck, just above his mark. I knew what he was thinking and his hesitation said it all, he wanted my blood, but he was trying not to get too carried away. I had the feeling that the claiming was still very much going along nicely and drinking blood while he was inside me sent that little claiming genie on a frenzied high. He was trying to resist, but I wasn't having any of that.
I ran my hand up his back, into his thick head of hair and slowly brought his head down to my throat.
“You are pushing me,
ma douce
.” He was so breathless, it made me ache for him, which only made him growl.
“Drink me. I am yours.”
Oh and if that didn't just do it for him. With an almost anguished cry his fangs slid in, his lips moulded to my flesh and my blood started draining, sucked into him. With each draw of blood he thrust deep into me, the two actions unified, synchronised. Suck of blood, thrust of hips, plunge of his hard length deep within me. In my mind as clear as day, his words
mine, mine, mine
with each thrust and suck.
We both came together suddenly, even before he had finished drinking, too close to the edge not to be tipped over and we continued to come as he continued to drink and thrust and suck. Finally his fangs slid out, followed by a lick of his tongue and a final thrust so hard and deep and then he collapsed beside me, sweaty and breathless, just like me.
“Oh dear God,
ma douce
. What do you do to me?”
It was kind of mutual, so I didn't bother to reply.
We lay tangled together for a good ten minutes, listening to each other's heartbeats and the sound of heavy rain against the windows outside the shutters. It was so peaceful and warm and perfect. I never wanted it to end. After everything we had been through, I never wanted us to be apart again.
“The choice is yours, Lucinda. I am here for eternity and I want no one but you by my side.”
The unspoken part to that statement was still clear;
just give yourself over to me and it is so.
I wanted it, so why couldn't I just do it?
He kissed my cheek and stroked my hair, pulling me closer. Reassuring me, comforting me.
“I will wait for however long it takes, but I may just have to claim you every day to prove my commitment to you,
ma douce
. Would you mind?” The last was said with a smile. He was trying to make light of the situation. I knew how much he wanted me to give all of myself to him and I also knew how much it hurt him that I couldn't seem to bridge that final gap. Yet here he was, trying to make it easy for me, trying not to push.
I loved him more now than I had ever loved him before, but I still couldn't do it.
He sighed softly against me and held me tight, as though he was scared I'd pull away. I had no intention of going anywhere right now, but I understood his need to do it, so I settled in against him and just listened to the rain.
Of course, that left room in my head for thinking, for remembering. And my mind wandered to the events two nights before at Albert Park. Rick. I presumed I'd killed him. That sword blade had gone right through his heart, right up to the beautiful dancing dragon hilt.
He is dead, ma douce. You did well.
I'm not sure Michel wanted to say that aloud, hearing his voice in my head was enough to make me cringe.
I did well
. I killed an old friend, that's what I did. And I know, I didn't have much of a choice. He was going to kill me, he almost killed Michel. He trashed my house, kidnapped my kindred and killed Bruno.
“Who else did we lose?” My voice was flat, but it was still controlled, I hadn't lost it. Yet.
Michel started stroking my back, my head on his chest, an arm wrapped around him, one of his hands holding one of mine.
“We lost six. Terry. Alphonse. Bridget. Marguerite. Simon. And Dillon.”
I knew Terry and Alphonse, a couple of rowdy vampires who resided in Auckland, but I wasn't familiar with Bridget or Marguerite, probably recent arrivals for Bruno's wake. Simon was also local.
“Dillon? Dillon Malone?”
“Yes.” Michel sighed and it was sad enough to make me shift from the comfort of his arms to look at his face. He looked tired and worn and fed up and so sad. “He died trying protect me.”
Well, didn't that just suck? And how wrong had I been about Dillon?
“You did not trust him,
ma douce
?”
Man, I was so going to have to start vetting my thoughts.
His hand came down to my chin and lifted it back up so he could look me in the face, his head was shaking.
“Dear God no, do not do that. I have never felt as close to you as I do right now because I can hear what you really feel. I am not looking forward to going back to not knowing, to waiting for you say it, for fearing I will never hear it out of your lips.” He leaned forward and kissed me lightly on the mouth. “Think whatever you want my love, but let me hear it all. Please.”