The Vampire's Revenge (9 page)

William was my rock, Connie was my heart, and Melaphia was my soul. A substitute soul for a creature without one. A beacon of goodness to light the darkness. Soon that light would be out and I’d be left in the shadows with all the other monsters, without knowing which way to turn. The pain I felt would surely break me in two.

Where was a vampire slayer when you really, really needed one?

I felt a hand on my shoulder. Olivia whispered, “The door was open. I heard.”

She sank down onto the step above where I sat and took me in her arms. “I’m so sorry, Jackie,” she crooned.

“What will I do without them? All of them.”

“You’ll carry on just like you always have.”

“I don’t know how to do this alone.”

“You can do what I did when I lost Alger. Build a new family of blood drinkers you can trust. William had a whole network of peaceful vampires he kept in touch with. Make yourself part of it.”

“I don’t want strangers. I want my family back.”

“I know. There, there, my sweet. I know just the thing to take your mind off your troubles. At least for a while. You see this?” She produced a scrap of paper covered by what looked like a formula in Melaphia’s handwriting.

“What’s this? Some kind of recipe?”

“You could say that. Melaphia came up with some incantations for you and me to have . . . safe sex.”

“Um. That’s great. But, I’m really not in the mood.”

“Don’t be silly. You’re a man and a vampire. You’re
always
in the mood.”

I thought about our visit with Connie earlier. I’d do most anything to blot out the memory of the hatred in her eyes and her oath to kill me. “Let me think about this,” I said. “I need a drink.”

Olivia let out a musical little laugh. With her help I got to my feet and staggered to the wet bar. I hadn’t fed, and I felt weakened by hunger as well as emotional pain. Squatting down, I opened the mini-refrigerator under the bar. I fumbled for a bag of fresh blood and ripped into one with my teeth, squeezing the liquid directly into my mouth. A stream of blood ran down my neck and onto my chest, but I couldn’t bring myself to care about table manners.

I felt better immediately and rose to a standing position, only to be rocked back on my boot heels by the sight that greeted me across the bar. Olivia stood stark naked, holding out a highball glass. “Why don’t you chase that blood with some of this? It’ll help you relax.”

“Sure, why not?” I said to Olivia and her magnificent breasts. “Here’s to all three of you.”

I swallowed the liquor, or what I thought was liquor, in one gulp and immediately collapsed in a coughing fit. “What’s in here?”

“Something to help you relax, just like I said.” Olivia looked at me and winked. “Call it a pick-me-up.”

It was picking me up all right. In all the good places. “Let me guess. This is Melaphia’s recipe?”

“Uh-huh. I guess you could call it a parting gift from her to you. And to me as well, since this formula will keep you from sapping my power.”

Vampire sex is a complicated transaction. Normally, females draw power from males through the act. In the cosmic balance of things, it has something to do with making up for the fact that females rarely survive being made into vampires in the first place. That’s why female vampires are as rare as hen’s teeth.

Now, by the time I met Olivia I’d had sex with too many human women to count, and I’d never had any complaints if I do say so myself. But I’d never even met a female blood drinker before I met her, much less had sex with one, so I didn’t know what to expect. I mean, are vampire girl standards for sex higher than human girl standards? Were there any special vampire sex moves that I needed to know?

For Olivia’s part, when we firt met she figured she’d seduce me and sap my strength while putting another notch on her bedpost. But for some reason, the opposite happened and I got stronger while leaving poor Olivia as limp as a dishrag. It had taken both time and a lot of blood to recover, so naturally where Jackie-boy was concerned, she’d said “Never again,” and I could hardly blame her.

“Have another.” Olivia poured me a second round from a decanter that I hadn’t noticed sitting on the bar. Several different kinds of herbs floated in it, and a little bit of steam rose off the surface.

“Through the fangs and over the gums. Look out stomach, here it comes. Something tells me this is going to give me one hellacious hangover.”

“If so, I’ll just give you more hair of the dog that bit you.” Olivia lightly bit my nipple through my shirt.

“Ow,” I said, letting her lead me toward the chaise. “Speaking of dogs, where’s Reyha?”

“I banished her. She wasn’t happy about it, believe me. The little bitch slunk upstairs to Renee’s room with Deylaud.”

“Hey.”

“No more dog talk. It’s not romantic. I’m going to make you forget your troubles.”

Olivia took the glass out of my hand and pushed me backward onto the chaise, and I let her. My lady vampire friend was certainly capable of giving me a case of temporary amnesia, but the concoction that Melaphia had brewed up was doing a pretty good job of that all on its own. My upsetting conversation with Mel started to seem like it had happened in another lifetime, and I stared at the ceiling, barely able to remember that the last time I’d made love on this chaise it was with Connie.

Olivia shucked off my clothing and took up the glass again. “You are a very fine specimen of vampire, darling,” she said, her gaze taking the full measure of me.

“Right back at ya,” I said, waiting.

Olivia straddled the chaise over my crotch, her parted legs long, slender, and athletic.

“Hmm. You
are
a natural blonde,” I observed.

Ignoring that remark, she took up the glass again and removed an ice cube. Slowly she ran the cube along her collarbone, its progress leaving a shiny moist trail I wanted to follow with my tongue.

Then she passed the cube in hypnotic circles around her left breast until she got to the nipple. She caught her bottom lip in her teeth as she held it there, letting its coldness harden the blushing bud into pink sapphire.

I watched with fascination as she gave her other nipple the same treatment until they were both standing at lurid attention. I made a little salute and sat up to reach for them. “Come to Jackie,” I mumbled. Olivia put her hand flat against my chest and pushed me hard until I was on my back again.

“Not yet.”

By this time my swollen member was rubbing against that nest of curls I’d been admiring just a second ago. I wriggled my hips and tried to get closer to my goal.

Olivia twisted away but leaned forward enough for those awesome breasts to touch my chest. Gripping my biceps she propped herself over me and licked at the blood I’d spilt on my neck.

“Mmm-mmm, good,” she whispered, letting her silky hair tickle my throat.

I let my fangs graze her neck and felt her shudder in response. Her tongue glided downward toward the center of my chest. “I like this fuzzy little trail,” she remarked, “and the treasure it leads to.”

She nipped at my flesh, tugging lightly at my chest hair now and then until she reached my cock. I moaned as she grasped it tightly at the base with her fist and ran her tongue around the head. She teased and tasted, applying suction and pressure in just the right places with the skill of a courtesan and the eagerness of a sex nymph. I felt as big and hard as Mount Vesuvius and just as ready to explode.

“Enough teasing, woman,” I growled. I sat up and caught her under the arms. She lost her grip on me and tried to squirm away as I lifted her up. “I’m in control now.”

“Of course you are.” She giggled and flailed her legs in an effort to get the upper hand, but when she tried to put one foot on the floor and make a break for it, I took advantage of the part in her thighs and sat her down onto my throbbing cock astride me, entering her only a little at first.

“Gotcha,” I breathed and finally, triumphantly captured one of those distended nipples in my lips like a battle prize.

She arched her back away from me and pushed at my shoulders, but not hard enough to convince me she wanted me to turn her loose. The mewling sounds she made gave her away. I drew more of her into my mouth, working her sweet flesh between my tongue and teeth, demanding that emotional sustenance that only a ripe woman can give.

At the same time, with my arms locked around her waist, I eased her down on me some more. She moaned again, louder this time, her body tensing against mine in an involuntary move to stave off the full invasion.

I switched to the other breast, giving it the same treatment—laving it, sucking it, claiming it for mine. The fists with which she pressed against me opened like flowers and spread eagerly over my back. The push turned to pull as she tried to get me closer.

She raised her legs and all along my shaft I felt her core muscles turn relaxed and welcoming. “Please,” I heard her beg. “Do it.”

With an upward thrust, I buried myself in her body, causing her to cry out. Once I knew I was seated within her as deeply as she could accommodate, I raised us both and flipped us so that she was underneath me.

With her legs wrapped firmly around my waist, I began to move inside her, slowly at first, my strokes long and firm. Her hips found my rhythm and worked in concert. Her body was warm and responsive, and it was easy to pretend we were warm-blooded creatures driven by the same urge to merge as everyone else. But the mating of vampires was special, unique, mysterious, and I wondered, even as I reveled in the awesome sensations of sex, if using a potion to alter the rules would come back to bite us.

When Olivia came she grasped me to her with all four limbs like she was drowning and I was the only thing in the ocean that could float her boat.

My own convulsive release felt like a river surging into the sea. I lost myself in her and never wanted to come up for air. We stayed joined for long minutes, using each other’s bodies to shut out the world and all its dangers.

But not even mind-blowing sex can shut out the world forever. I raised my head and looked into Olivia’s face. “How do you feel? Did the potion work? Are you all right?”

She opened her eyes, then blinked. “More than all right,” she said. “You set a new standard.”

“Yeah, right.”

Olivia punched me lightly on the arm. “I’m serious. I’m positively knackered. But not like I was before. Now I’m knackered in a good way.”

I had no idea what
knackered
was, but it didn’t sound all that good.

Without saying much more, we showered together and then settled naked into the same coffin. Curled against my side, Olivia said, “See there, I told you I could make you forget your troubles.”

I stroked her hair until she settled into the deathlike stillness of all vampires at their rest. Olivia and Mel’s magic potion did make me forget for a while, but the effects of both were wearing off.

Had I betrayed Connie? Did it matter anymore? Plagued by the twin demons of guilt and loss, I finally drifted off to sleep.

Six

When I woke up I was alone. Maybe the previous night’s roll in the hay was bad for Olivia after all, and she’d decided to get the hell out of Dodge. Reyha was waiting for me, though, looking both put out and heartbroken.

“Come here,” I said, and she slunk forward. If she’d been in dog form, her tail would have been between her legs. She put her slender arms around my waist and I hugged her. By now Melaphia would have broken the news to her and Deylaud that she and Renee would be moving overseas.

“They’re leaving,” she moaned.

“I know,” I said, stroking her long pale hair.

“They can’t. Can they?”

“Yes. They can.” I kissed the top of her head and disentangled myself from her so I could get dressed.

“But they belong here! Melaphia’s women have always been here!”

I started to point out that William belonged here and had always been here, too, only now he wasn’t, but that would have been cruel. True, but cruel. I didn’t meet her sad eyes as I pulled on my jeans. “Things change, darlin’. Mel and Renee think they’ll be happier if they go to Ireland and live with Renee’s dad. We’ll miss them, but we’ll have to make the best of it.”

Reyha’s bottom lip trembled as she handed me my shirt. “Will we ever see them again?”

“Of course we will. They can come and visit anytime they want.” I tried to sound upbeat, but I wasn’t sure I believed they ever would come back. They’d seen so much evil when living with demons they might just relegate the twins and me to the past like a bad dream. As Mel had said, there was no more William and therefore nothing for her here anymore. I rubbed my chest, trying to get rid of the pinch I felt there.

To change the subject, I asked, “Do you know where Olivia is?”

Reyha gave me a look like she just bit into a pickle. “She’s upstairs doing research with Deylaud and talking to people on the phone. Melaphia and Dexter are making moving plans.”

I sighed. It was going to be a long few days. At least when Mel and Renee left they’d be out of danger from the crisis
du jour.

Reyha announced she was going for a walk and I went upstairs to the kitchen. Renee was sitting alone, a large book open on the table in front of her. I paused a moment to memorize how she looked there so I could remember it forever. She was just shy of her tenth birthday, at that gangly all-knees-and-elbows stage. She wore a pair of pink sweats and matching sneakers with pink and purple barrettes at the tips of her braids.

“You finished with your homework?” I asked.

“Mom says I don’t have to. We’re leaving tomorrow so I won’t even be going back to my school.”

“So soon.” I almost stumbled as I moved forward to take the chair beside her. “What book do you have there?”

“It’s about Ireland. Dad bought it for me.”

The open page showed a vivid emerald-colored landscape of rolling hills and smiling, freckled children. “Did I ever tell you my father came from there?” I was pretty sure I hadn’t. I didn’t like to talk to her about unpleasant things, and my father wasn’t a pleasant man. I had left home as a teenager before one of us had a chance to kill the other.