Silence: Part Two of Echoes & Silence (41 page)

“What would?”

He reached up for my hand and drew me to stand beside him. “Normally, she would lay between us.”

I tried to picture it in my mind—imagine what he meant by that—but he reached up my dress and hooked his fingers around my woolly stockings. As they slipped down my legs the air touched my nakedness, and I stepped out of them and my boots, turning my toes toward each other self-consciously.

“It’s cold without those.” I hugged myself and pushed my knees together.

“You’ll heat up in a moment.” He gently tugged my hand to make me sit between the girl’s legs, and pressed my chest until I lowered myself, resting the back of my head against her pubic bone. I could smell her—both a mix of the blood leaving the wounds made earlier, and the smell of a woman. I didn’t move away, even though I wanted to, because something about laying here, with David taking off his shirt in front of me, turned me on.

David felt it, too—felt my blood change with desire.

He reached past my head and took the girl’s hand, bringing it down to tangle in my hair. “What’s your name, human?”

“Chastity,” she whispered sweetly.

David and I exchanged humoured glances.

“Right,” he said, holding back the laughter of irony. “Now, Chastity, I want you to keep doing this, okay?”

“Mm-hm,” she said, and I closed my eyes, losing myself in her gentle touch.

David’s full, soft wet lips wrapped mine a second later, his bare chest gently pressing down on mine. The cool fabric of his black cargo pants touched my warmer parts, and the moisture between my legs brushed back against me every time he moved.

I reached down and tucked my thumbs into the waistline, pushing downward. “Take these off.”

He obliged, rolling up off me to remove them. I watched him as they came away—watched his hardness bounce back down where the pants had held it up—and my toes curled, thinking about how he made me feel when that was inside of me.

Chastity moaned under me, pushing herself against the back of my skull. I could feel the heat of her cleft separating against my neck, so I shifted my head onto her thigh and reached back to move her own hand into her underwear. She deserved at least one moment of pleasure before she died, but there was no way I was ready to give it to her—or to let my husband.

David laid himself back down on top of me, pressing his hands into the ground to keep his body just slightly off mine. “Am I crushing Baby?”

“No.” I brought my legs up and wrapped them around his hips, using my hand to guide him inside of me. And as if I were a bird being released from a cage, when he touched the deepest part inside of me, I felt as though a burden had been lifted. I let out a very soft moan, and the vampire surfaced within us both.

“Chastity?” he said in a deep, commanding tone. “Do not scream.”

“Okay,” she cried in an exultant voice, probably already peaking.

David arched his body then and sunk his fangs into her other thigh, his shoulder pressing against my mouth. I could smell the smoky residue on his skin from the fire he’d stoked earlier, but the almost sickly sweet smell of human blood dominated everything else.

I parted my lips, sliding my tongue back, and bit him deeply—my teeth cracking the surface like a sharp blade to the tight flesh of a peach. He tensed, losing his balance for a moment, sinking down on one hand, but he drew his strength from within and held himself up again, his elbow shaking a little.

Chastity’s blood pulsed faster from her femoral than he could drink, and as it ran wasted from her it coloured my cheek and pooled under me, warm and sticky like a hot fudge bath. I felt it rush through David’s veins, barely filtered as it trickled from his wound and into my mouth. And everything I thought it would be, it was: a concentrated version of him—more orange than chocolate, and quite tangy with the taste of her growing fear. He could compel her with the spell of his lust, but no one could deny the body the knowledge of imminent death, and as her body slowly wandered to the other side, her blood knew. It knew, and it changed. And I liked it too much.

My insides twisted, my thighs becoming as tight as my desire to climax, and David went so hard inside me then that I was given no choice. I wrapped my legs all the way around him, bringing him down deeply and heavily on top of me.

He drew such a tight breath as he came that when he released it, I heard Mike and Emily laugh downstairs.

My fingernails dug into his ribs as I let go too, the tip of him reaching a new sensitive spot I didn’t know I had. And as we both finished and the thrill of the climax slipped back a little for the pleasure, I felt Chastity go limp under me—her legs falling flaccidly apart, her hands going heavy against my head.

“David!” I shoved him back. “She’s dying. Do something.”

“Nothing to be done.” He sat down naked on the dusty floorboards, his bloody arms draped loosely over his knees. “Let her go.”

I got up and leaned over her body, turning her face toward mine. “Chastity! Chastity!”

“She’s nearly gone, Ara,” David said, his tone so flat and uncaring I turned to look at him; his eyes were still jet black, the glint in them showing the vampire for what he was.

He wouldn’t help her. He didn’t care. Not right now.

I bent down and swept my hair back as it fell in her face, gently sinking my teeth in where she’d been cut open earlier for a vampire to feed without biting. She responded with a little whimper as my venom stung her flesh, and the soft breath she let out over my shoulder gave me hope. I bit her again in several places, rolling my tongue back from the putrid taste of human blood, praying the whole time that she wouldn’t die. How would I ever have sex with David again if I had to associate it with the death of an innocent?

The very naked David shuffled forward then and wrapped his arms around my ribs, pulling me back off the half-dead body. “She’ll be fine,” he whispered into my shoulder, kissing it softly.

“What makes you so sure?”

“I’m not,” he said simply. “But I’m not finished with you, so I don’t really give a damn about her right now.”

***

Sunlight brought with it a hangover. I parted my eyes like stiff gates and rubbed my head with the heel of my palm, not sure for a moment where we were. The birds outside were in full chorus and I could hear rowdy chatter and bellowing laughter lilting up from downstairs with the smell of bacon. But that homely smell and the warmth of a day that leaned more toward spring than winter could not disguise the smell of a dead body.

I sat bolt upright and shuffled away from David and our corpse pillow. But as my eyes took in her half-naked body and her peaceful face, I noticed that her skin was supple and her ribs lifted with soft, restful breath. Her wounds were still deep and she was covered in blood, but she was alive.

So what, then, was that god-awful smell?

“Don’t mind me,” Jase said, startling me. He slammed the lid shut on a wooden chest at the back of the room, and the smell faded a little. “I was trying not to wake you.”

Realising that the morning air was brushing too freely over my nipples, I covered them, and my pubic hair, with both hands. “What are you doing in here?”

“Just storing the body until I have a chance to bury it,” he said casually.

“So that’s what I could smell.”

David popped one eye open then, sniffing the air. “Who died?”

“Just the redhead,” Jase said.

David sat up then and looked at the girl he’d been sleeping on, exhaling a visible sigh of relief when he saw she was still breathing.

“So I see you two had a fun night.” Jase folded his arms, grinning at our nakedness and the bloody body we’d devoured. “First time?”

“Yes.” David reached across and grabbed his shirt, offering it to me. “You couldn’t have waited to bring that up here until we were dressed?”

“Nothing I haven’t seen before,” he reminded the King with a shrug.

David’s throat grumbled.

Jase just laughed. “I was kidding. In all honesty—” he looked beside him, found a blanket, and tossed it to me, “—I didn’t know you were up here until I nearly stepped on Ara.”

David shook his head, letting it go. “So who’s cooking down there?”

“Mike.” He flicked me a grin, obviously remembering how much I liked Mike’s cooking.

“Are Em and Quaid still here?” I asked, but then I heard Em’s voice.

“Quaid went home. He felt a little awkward after what they did last night.”

“What exactly did they do?” I asked, intrigued.

Jason leaned on the chest of drawers behind him, his arms crossed over his body. “Mike and Em had sex, and when Quaid finished drinking from her and went to climb on top, Mike got defensive and told him to back off.”

I raised my brows at David.

“How do
you
know all this?” David asked.

“Em told me.” He stood up then and moved toward us. “She said Quaid had no hard feelings toward Mike—apparently Em and Quaid have been partners in blood since they left the manor. But Mike didn’t like it.”

“Why? He doesn’t own her,” I snapped.

“Yes, but didn’t you see the way he looked at her all night last night?”

I scrunched my face up, trying to remember if I’d noticed anything. “Not really.”

“Well—” Jase sat down beside Chastity’s head, arms hugging his knees. “I think he still has feelings for her.”

“Oh man.” I rubbed my sore head, shaking it. “So they’re getting back together?”

“Don’t know,” Jase said, cocking his head to take a better look at David’s dinner. “Pretty girl, isn’t she?”

“Pretty dead, if you ask me,” David said, standing up.

Jason looked away as David’s floppy member bounced around in front of us.

“She won’t die,” Jase said to me. “Her blood is turning. I can smell it.”

I laid my hand on her ankle. She felt warm and alive. “Will you take her home?” I asked Jase. “Feed her and tell her what she is?”

“It’s best she stay here,” David muttered, slipping his black cargo pants over his bare butt and buttoning them up. “Jason’s staying here until the battle. It’ll give him something to do.”

“Something to do?”

“Train her.” David turned and looked right at Jason. “She’s your new project.”

“Great,” Jase said sarcastically. “More of my brother’s leftovers.”

“I didn’t have sex with her at least,” David said, winking at his brother. “Although I suppose that removes some of the enticement.”

“Ha-ha.” Jason stood up. “But the answer is no. I’ll take her home and feed her, but she’s your problem, bro. Not mine.”

“Fine.” David offered me his hand then and pulled my body close to his as I stood, wrapping the blanket Jase threw me around my bare bottom. “Get dressed.” He kissed my head. “We’ll see you downstairs in a few minutes.”

“Okay.” I closed my eyes and stood on my toes to press my head into his lips.

After one last kiss, he turned to his brother. “Let’s give my wife some privacy.”

***

When I came down the stairs, David wrapped my hands around a hot cup of coffee, and Lord Eden smiled at me over a plate of Mike’s bacon and eggs. I sat down beside him and took a long sip of the sugary brown liquid in my cup, sending David a smile for this one. He always did make the best coffee.

“Here you go,” Mike said, sliding a plate in front of me. “Just the way you like it.”

The scrambled eggs looked as light and fluffy as a summer cloud, and the strips of bacon had been crisped to just the right amount. I bit into my toast, and the golden butter melted deliciously against my lips. “You really should open your own restaurant, Mike.”

He flopped down on the bed beside Emily and put his arm around her. “I’ve been thinking about it.”

“Seriously?” I stopped chewing.

“Yeah.”

“But what about the teaching?”

“I’ll still do that.” He shrugged. “No reason I can’t do both.”

I raised my brow at him.

“I’m immortal, Ar,” he explained. “I need as much to fill my long days as I can get.”

I nodded in approval, taking all my questions about whether or not that was a good idea to the plate of food in front of me. And the eggs had me convinced. Mike could do it all—he’d always been that kind of guy. And I hoped Em knew just how lucky she was that he had his arm around her right now.

“By the way, I’m firing Blade,” I said with my mouth full.

Everyone stopped eating, talking, and I think even breathing.

“Why?” David asked curiously.

Em toyed with her fingertips in her lap, biting her bottom lip.

“
That’s
why.” I nodded to her, and the heads all moved in unison to look. “He used Emily to keep his position on my council. He’s unworthy of her and he’s unworthy of the position.”

Mike pulled Emily a little bit closer and hugged her tight with one arm. “I agree. What kind of a man does that?”