Wrenching Fate (17 page)

He chuckled and gave her a smile that made her belly flutter. “Do you want me to be?”

A thrill rushed through her even as she tried to look nonchalant. “Sure. I guess so.”

He pulled her into his arms and crushed her lips with his. She moaned and grabbed his ass, wanting him like a starving woman wanted cake. Someone coughed.

They jumped apart to see Xochitl smirking at them from the doorway.

Akasha looked at her friend, really looked at her this time. How could she have assumed Xochitl was human? Her skin was
as smooth as airbrushed photos of supermodels…only it was real.

Silas straightened his shirt. “I appreciate your discretion, Miss Leonine.”

Xochitl inclined her head regally. Her eyes flickered burgundy and Akasha resisted the urge to step back. “Just know this, Silas. If you hurt her, I’ll kick your ass.” She did a kung-fu kick in the air and grinned. “So you’d better treat her good.”

Silas smiled and gazed down at Akasha. “This is the second time tonight I’ve been threatened with bodily harm.”

Razvan followed came upstairs with the rest of the band. “You four are going to be famous,” he was telling them.

After they
left, Silas looked at Razvan. “Would you leave us for awhile?”

R
azvan raised a brow. “I suppose. I need to feed anyway.”

The moment he departed, Silas swept Akasha up in his arms and carried her up the stairs.

The next weeks were happy but exhausting. Akasha found herself falling asleep in class from staying up late with Silas. They spent their evenings talking like new best friends and making love like newlyweds. He captivated her with his descriptions of life and war in Scotland in the 1500’s and nearly moved her to tears with the tale of King James IV.

Hiding her love from her friends was a pain in the ass. She lost count of the times Sylvis and Aurora almost caught her
sitting on Silas’s lap. And she could swear Beau saw them kissing once. It was a good thing she didn’t often wear lipstick.

Eventually, the truth would come out, but Akasha would prefer it to happen after graduation.

After a while, she fixed her routine better so she could spend time with Silas and keep up with school. And best of all, she finished restoring her Roadrunner.

Akasha smiled as she remembered the almost orgasmic feeling when the 318 engine roared to life— and the hilarity of Silas’s terror when she broke it in. “Drive it like you stole it” was Max’s advice on the process and she had nearly turned the five hundred year-old vampire’s hair white as she sent them careening down the streets at break-neck speeds.

Only one problem remained. Though the revelation of Silas’s lovemaking seemed to abate the nightmares of her past, the horrific dreams of reliving her rape still came, albeit infrequently. Silas took to accompanying her when she went to bed so that when she awoke screaming, he was there to hold her.

“It’s all right, lass,” he’d whisper soothingly as he stroked her hair. “It will heal in time.”

But Akasha didn’t want to wait any longer. It had been nearly four years for fuck’s sake! And her passionate nights with Silas proved she wasn’t screwed up sexually.

Still, no matter how much beer she drank or how many times Silas brought her to climax in one night, the nightmare would catch her unawares. Suddenly, she would be bent over the Cadillac, pants around her ankles, hot metal burning her hands, cold gun metal pressed to the back of her skull, and the reeking rapist’s body tearing her apart.

At a loss for what to do, Akasha decided to confide in Xochitl. Thankfully, her friend didn’t bat an eye at her request to talk privately during lunch. Although
Rage of Angels
was generally inseparable, the others didn’t seem to mind either and gave her encouraging smiles as they piled in Aurora’s van, leaving Xochitl to climb in the Roadrunner’s passenger seat.

“You did an awesome job on this car, ‘Kash,” Xochitl said once they parked in front of a bookstore. “Almost as good as you did on Little Beast.”

Akasha lit a cigarette and raised a brow. “The day your Datsun beats my Roadrunner is the day I quit wrenching.”

“I dunno,” Xochitl grinned impishly. “I’m learning how to airbrush in art class and I’m gonna do some kick-ass flames on her.”

“Flames on a station wagon?” Akasha laughed. “Have you been smoking Beau’s stash?”

“She’s not a station wagon. She’s a hatchback hot rod.” Xochitl lifted her chin regally and lit her own cigarette. “Now what’s going on with you and Silas?” she asked, not missing a beat. “I assume that’s why you wanted to talk.”

Akasha sighed. “Well, kinda. There’s nothing wrong with Silas. It’s just…me.” She frowned as she struggled for the words. This was harder than she imagined.

“What do you mean?” Xochitl asked patiently.

“Well,” Akasha looked down at her lap. “About four years ago…I…,” she swallowed before forcing the rest out. “I was raped.” The ugliness of the word loomed over her, making her choke.

She closed her eyes to prepare for an embarrassing outpouring of sympathy and empty words of condolence.

Instead, Xochitl’s voice was solemn. “I know. We’ve heard you cry out in your sleep a couple times…and the way you cried when you heard that Tori Amos song. We all wanted to say something, but I figured you’d talk about it when you were ready.”

Akasha opened her eyes and cautiously met her friend’s gaze. Xochitl’s eyes suddenly seemed to belong to someone far older and wiser than those of a seventeen year old aspiring rock star. A strange shame filled her. She’d misjudged her friend yet again. After another awkward silence, the whole story poured out.

“I thought making love with Silas would stop the dreams and it did, for awhile,” Akasha said, throat sore from fighting back tears. “But they still come once in awhile. Silas said to give it time, but I don’t want to. I just want them to stop!” Her fists clenched impotently.

They sat for awhile in silence, smoking cigarettes, watching customers emerge from the store, arms laden with books, smiling in the March sunshine.

Finally, Xochitl spoke. “What if you recreate parts of the dream, but in a good way?”

“What do you mean?” Akasha’s eyes narrowed skeptically.

Her friend’s honey brown gaze remained intent. “Well, you love Silas, right?”

“Yeah…?”

“And you love cars too.” At Akasha’s nod, Xochitl continued. “Well, maybe if you have Silas do you on your car, then later when you have the dream, you’ll think of him instead of the asshole rapist.” She paused and frowned. “Then again, maybe that’d backfire and you’d think of the asshole rapist instead of Silas and it could ruin your sex life.”

Akasha imagined bending over the hood of the Roadrunner, feeling Silas’s warm breath on the back of her neck instead of a cold steel gun. She shivered as fear and excitement mixed within her body, turning her belly into a whirlpool of contradictory desires.

“I think I’ll try it,” she said finally, managing a weak smile. “You know, Xoch’, for a virgin, you sure seem to know a lot about this kind of thing.”

“What can I say? I read a lot of smut. Speaking of…” She nodded towards the book store. “Do you think we have time to go in and browse a bit?”

“I killed that asshole rapist,” Akasha said quietly, astonished to finally say it aloud.

Xochitl looked at her for a long time.
There was no condemnation in her eyes, only fierce conviction. “Good.”

***

The COAT agent removed the earpiece and looked at his partner. “We got her.”

He flicked off the switches on the audio surveillance equipment. At last this espio
nage bullshit was over.

Milbury had given them the girl’s name, background information and a vague description: “petite, black hair.”

That was all.

It took a week to narrow the search down to two possible candidates. The problem was that they were both petite and both had black hair. To make matters worse, they were inseparable.

The agent followed them everywhere in his van, using his low budget equipment to listen in on their conversations —and Murphy’s Law seemed to dictate the equipment would fail when the two called each other by name— when he could catch them. Both drove as if they knew they were being tailed.

Finally the curly-haired one told the purple-streaked one about killing a rapist. She must be Akasha. The agent pulled out his phone and sent the news to Milbury. Until his new orders were received, he would follow her.

Hours later, Akasha stood in the garage, wobbling unsteadily on the “fuck me” heels that Xochitl loaned her along with a faux fur coat. Between the space heater and the coat, she was warm enough despite the fact that she wore nothing beneath. For a moment she debated on whether or not to light some candles.
Nah, it wouldn’t fit.

The sound of
footsteps outside the garage door made her jump. Silas was back from his first hunt. A panicked voice in the back of her mind urged her to run into the house and take back the note which would lead him in here.

“No,” she whispered, clenching her fists. “I can do this. I
want
to do this.”

As she waited in tense silence, she closed her eyes and pictured him finding her note on the table. Her pulse quickened.

The door to the garage opened and for a moment she was struck breathless at the vampire’s beauty.

“I received your note, Akasha.” His voice seemed to caress her under the fur. “What is it you wanted to show me?”

His gaze swept down over her ensemble, eyes widening slightly at the high heels. Akasha felt a pulse of wet warmth between her legs as her trembling fingers undid the buttons on the coat. Forcing her eyes to meet Silas’s, she shrugged off the coat and tossed it onto her toolbox. Another tremor pulsed through her core at his harsh indrawn breath.

Naked except for the black stilettos, she slowly walked towards him, reveling in the raw lust in his eyes. Akasha grabbed the lapels of his jacket, pulling him closer.

“I want you to bend me over the car, Silas,” she whispered, voice only shaking slightly as she pulled the jacket from his shoulders, “and then I want to feel you inside of me. I want you to chase away my nightmares.”

The vampire’s mouth opened then snappe
d closed. His eyes took on an unholy light, his fangs gleaming as he took a sharp breath and released it in a hiss. “I’m not certain that’s a good idea, Akasha,” he said finally. “What if—”

His words
cut short as she ran her hand down the length of his body, gripping his shaft through the thin fabric of his pants.

“I know you want to,” she said softly, unbuttoning his pants and pulling down the zipper. He was hot and rock hard in her hand. A sigh of bliss escaped her lips at the feel of him.

“Akasha…” he began warningly then gasped as she stroked his satiny tip.

“Don’t worry, Silas,” she said, reaching up with her other hand to unbutton his shirt. “I trust you.”

As his arms locked around her waist, Akasha gasped at the sheer truth of her words. Never before had she trusted anyone and it felt strangely liberating. The thought broke off as Silas kissed her, a low growl trickling from his throat.

Frustrated with the slow progress, she let out a growl of her own and tore at his shirt. The silk ripped apart with a sharp sound. Silas raised a brow and shrugged off the remnants of the shirt. With a wicked, sensual smile he slowly slipped off his shoes and pants to stand gloriously naked before her.

Seizing her by the waist, he lifted her in the air. Akasha had a moment to marvel at his strength before his tongue flicked over her breasts, making her cry out in pleasure.

His mouth worshipped her body as he carried her to the car, laying her on the hood with reverent gentleness.
However, his savage gaze raking down the line of her body was far from gentle.

When his tongue flicked across her clit, Akasha bit back a scream of ecstasy. The combination of the cool metal against her back and Silas’s hot mouth at her core sent her into a delirium of erotic sensation that soon sent her spiraling into an earth-shattering orgasm.

“Are you ready?” Silas’s voice was harsh with desire.

“Yes,” she managed to gasp before he carefully pulled her down and helped her turn over.

The bumper was cold against her legs but the hood was warm from where she’d reclined. Akasha’s hands splayed on the Roadrunner’s hood scoop for balance as she spread her legs for her lover. The high heels put her at the perfect angle for his entry.

With excruciating slowness, Silas slid into her wet warmth.

Akasha felt a momentary surge of panic as the terrible memory threatened to overtake her… then she realized there was no pain, only pleasure, and the car’s hood was cool, not burning hot. It was
her
Roadrunner, not a Cadillac. Instead of a gun pressed to the back of her head, Silas’s lips were against her neck whispering love words in his sexy Scottish brogue as his cock sensuously moved in and out of her wet heat. Her core throbbed with the pleasure and she bucked her hips against him, urging him to go deeper.

***

It took every ounce of Silas’s control not to explode from the mind-rending pleasure. After all the times he’d been driven to the brink of insanity at the sight of Akasha bending over her cars, his fantasy was finally being fulfilled.

At first he was afraid of frightening her with his passion, but when her tight wetness pulsed and gripped around him, and her velvet voice gasped “harder,” he was lost.

Silas thrust into her like a thing possessed, his hips smacking against her ass in a delicious rhythm. The musky scent of her arousal, coupled with the lingering taste of her womanhood on his tongue awoke his blood thirst, but before he could push it aside, Akasha moaned. “Bite me, now!”

With a low growl, his fangs pierced her delicate throat. As her hot blood flowed across his tongue, his mind melded with hers and he felt her climax tearing through them both. Silas focused the link to greater intensity and when he came, Akasha felt it too. For what seemed an eternity, orgasm after orgasm roiled through them, one feeding the other. Before it ended, Silas sent Akasha a silent command:
No more nightmares.

And then they collapsed onto the Ro
adrunner’s hood in a sated heap, hearts pounding and gasping for breath.

“Did we dent your car?” He slowly regained his feet and helped her to stand.

Akasha surveyed the gleaming steel. “No, but I may have scratched the paint a bit.” She grabbed his arm tightly, wobbling on her heels. “Damn, my legs feel like they’re made of neoprene.”

Silas gathered her up in his arms and bit his lip, drawing blood before he kissed her neck to heal the puncture wounds. “Do you think your plan worked?”

Akasha smiled up at him as he retrieved the fur coat from her toolbox and wrapped it around her naked body. “If it didn’t, we’ll just have to try again.” She licked her lips. “Maybe we could try the ‘Cuda next time?”

His cock stirred at her words, despite the strenuous activity it had been through. Silas nodded and forced his attention to other matters. “Since I took blood from you, it would be good for you to eat something.”

“I could go for some ice cream,” she murmured as he carried her back in the house. “Maybe some pizza too…and a beer or two and a cigarette, and—Eeeep!” Her words cut short with a girlish scream.

Razvan leaned indolently against the laundry room wall.

“I was going to ask if you’d like to accompany me on tonight’s hunt,” he drawled, raking them both with an ironic gaze. “But I see you have fed already.”

Akasha’s face was crimson as Silas adjusted the fur coat to cover them both more fully. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about his exposed backside. He cursed himself for forgetting to put his pants back on.

“You could have informed me of your presence,” Silas told him with a glare.

Razvan blinked in mock innocence. “And interrupt whatever you two were doing in there? I would never be so rude.” His eyes strayed back to Akasha. “Of course I do regret missing the view.”

“You didn’t miss it entirely,” Silas said blandly before he turned and presented Razvan with his bare arse and carried Akasha up the stairs.