She woke to Elior leaning over her, stroking her hair back out of her face.
For a moment, she thought she dreamed, reaching up until her palm touched his skin, feeling the faint bite of stubble, and then she cried out, pulling him to her, her fingers tangling in his hair and dragging it out of the band that held it at his nape so that its silk fell down around them both.
“How is that you are here?” She released him, yanking at the tie that held his collar closed, until its knot gave to her, allowing her to tear at the shirt below, buttons popping free and ricocheting across the room. She devoured his skin as one desperate for its taste, dragging her tongue along his collar bones and closing her teeth on his flesh with a growl.
“F-k, Ashlyyn,” he caught her hands by the wrists, laughing. “Cael decided that your mother needed to be here to help your father’s warlock with the shield and opened a portal to transport us. Ease up a little, my mate, before you shred your father’s clothing entirely.”
“Get it off you,” she demanded not at all discouraged from her desire to make him naked. “And get you on me.”
He released her wrists and stood to undress, his loose hair falling over his face, revealing inch by delectable inch of skin and muscle as he removed the remains of his borrowed shirt and draped it over the bedside table, his movements seeming in no hurry, although she could tell from the sideways glance he sent her and the way that he tented the fabric of his trousers that he was not as unaffected as he pretended to be.
“Oh, f-k, you are pretty. Come here.” She stripped off the borrowed sweats, throwing back the covers and pulling him in as soon as he was free of his trousers.
He half fell against her, his laughter ringing out in surprise. “Your strength has increased with your manifestation of your wings.”
“That is not all that has increased,” she pulled his mouth back to hers, and moaned against his tongue as he filled her. “Oh, yes,” her eyes went to half-mast. “Oh, yes, that is exactly where I want you, my vampire,” she purred, gripping him close to her.
He used the sharp points of his teeth to graze her lips, drawing just a taste of her blood and immediately soothing the wound as he began to thrust. She saw his pupils dilate within the silver-grey of his eyes, reacting to the potency of her blood.
“How convenient,” he murmured with a smile. “As it is exactly where I want to be.”
She wrapped her legs around him, pulling his hips flush to hers, forcing him to stay close and stroked his hair back from his face. “So pretty,” she kissed each of his eyes and then his mouth. “And mine.”
“Mine too,” Cael filled the bedroom doorway. “Looks like fun.” He was eating takeaway chicken and leaned his shoulder against the door frame grinning, watching with blatant enjoyment as his mates f-ked on the bed.
“You are welcome to join us,” Elior offered, glancing over his shoulder before nudging his way beneath Ashlynn’s jaw and sinking his teeth into the vein there. He drank and f-ked, groaning wetly, his thrusts setting the bed to groaning in complaint, the mattress beneath Ashlynn giving until she thought he would drive her into its fabric.
“I am happy watching,” Cael replied licking his fingers. “For the time being.”
Ashlynn gripped Elior’s shoulders, entranced by the sensation of his body against hers. “Your bite is very gentle really in comparison to other vampires,” she breathed it out as he drew deeply from her. “It is sort of nice once you get used to it.”
She felt the stroke of his tongue as he sealed the wounds.
“I could be jealous and complain about you sharing with others,” he remarked, moving his hips against her grip with enough force that the air was pushed from her lungs. “But I understand it was extenuating circumstances.”
“Mmph,” she found his mouth, tasting her blood on his lips, and chased the flavor of it on his tongue. She wondered how it tasted to him, to her it was simply salt and metal, nothing remarkable, and certainly not a flavor to inspire the desire he seemed to have for it.
Elior picked up speed, driving his body hard against hers, and she clung, caught by her building orgasm, her head thrown back, as it overtook her. She felt him groan as he followed her, and then the mattress depressed as Cael slid in next to her, his skin coming up against them both. He had stripped off his clothing on his way across the room, leaving it scattered on the floor like fallen leaves.
“My turn,” the devil prodded the vampire who had collapsed over her. “Unless you are volunteering.”
“F-k,” Elior rolled to the side, and lay, his eyes closed.
“Stoned, hey?” She nudged him with her knee.
“Mmm,” his hand found hers, his fingers intertwining.
Cael positioned himself over her, and his lips, meeting hers, tasted of the chicken he had just eaten. Now that, she thought as she returned his kiss and he pushed into her, his entry deliberately slow, his eyes on hers wicked and his grin mischievous.
“Where did you get the food?” She asked.
“I was hungry when I woke, and there was no food in Elior’s kitchen, so I flew out for takeaway. And then it occurred to me, that I should fetch your mother to help your dog-father’s pet warlock as we discussed earlier. I brought our vampire and his slaves back as well, as I thought you would like that,” Cael was smugly pleased with himself. He withdrew. “Roll over.”
She released Elior’s hand in order to comply and moaned as Cael curved over her back, his skin against hers hot whereas Elior’s barely passed for warm. Thinking of the vampire, she turned her head, and found Elior watching, his hand wrapped around himself and his pupils eclipsing the grey in his eyes.
“Stoned and horny,” she commented with a fond grin.
Elior was unrepentant, smirking as he stroked into his hand.
“This is how my people prefer to f-k,” Cael said near her ear, his skin against hers blissful, and his arm curving around her stomach pushing her towards another orgasm. “With wings, this works best.”
“Oh, it works very well,” she agreed breathlessly.
His chuckle was evil, and he leaned back abruptly, seizing her hips and increasing the force of his thrusts into her, until, even with the strength Elior told her she now possessed, her arms wanted to give beneath him. His wings spread, striking the air, working as an extension of his body to aid his motion, tossing the edges of the sheet and causing the strands of her hair to dance over her face.
Elior laughed drunkenly, his hair stirring under the current of air Cael’s wings generated. “Now that is new. And I had thought, after so many centuries, there was nothing that could surprise me in the bedroom anymore.”
“Oh, f-k,” Ashlynn bit the pillow through her orgasm, smothering her cries into the feather filled sack. Cael cried out as he followed, his breathing heavy as he sank over her.
“Move,” Elior told the devil, and laid himself over her prone form, his teeth returning to the curve of her throat as he pressed into her again. She moaned against the pillow, as he rocked against her and drank deeply.
“I am sorry,” he murmured as he stroked the wounds closed with his tongue.
“I am not complaining.” She was aware of Cael leaving the room and returning with more takeaway to watch from the door as the intoxicated vampire had his way with her.
On the fifth round, when Elior drank longer than previously, she realized that the ravishment was not without purpose. She stroked her fingers through the fine silken strands of Elior’s hair, his body heavy over her, and warmed by her blood and his f-king.
“What has happened? Cael didn’t just decide to go out for take-away and picked up you on his way back. Nor is this a happy-to-see-you f-k. You are dosing yourself on my blood in preparation for a fight.”
“You are right. Diplomacy has failed,” Elior said into the curve of her neck. “Nearly every country in the world is now systematically targeting vampires, rounding us up like cattle, forcing us into our strongholds. They mean to end us. I have no choice but to use our military forces before they are successful.”
“Shit.” It was ice in her heart. She turned her head to look at Cael.
The devil shrugged and licked his fingers. “The humans will lose, we will live. I brought more chicken if our vampire is done f-king you.”
“I am starving,” Ashlynn admitted. It seemed like such a trivial concern in light of Elior’s revelation, but after his taking her blood, she knew she needed to eat in order to recover her strength. Cael slid off the bed, walking naked and completely uninhibited in his skin, out of the room.
“I am sorry, Elior,” she said to her vampire lover. “I know you worked very hard to avoid this happening.”
“Thank you, Ashlynn,” he paused, his hand stroking her skin. “I am not disappointed with the outcome. I always knew that there was a likelihood that it would come to this which is why I prepared the military force. I cannot say that I think it is entirely a bad thing that we now have no choice but to use it. The vampires could not stand between humans and the Other world forever more, the situation was going to come to a head sooner or later. Now, hopefully the Other world will step forward to aid us and not leave us to fight alone.”
Elior rolled off to the side as Cael returned to the bed, carrying two boxes of chicken, and she sat against the bed head, shoulder to shoulder with one lover with the other laid out on her other side, and tore into the chicken.
“My wings are gone,” she realized as the edge of her hunger was sated.
“It is not unusual for them to retract during sleep in juveniles,” Cael smirked.
“I am not a juvenile,” she bumped her shoulder against his.
“You have the equivalent experience,” he corrected archly.
“A man with chicken between his teeth shouldn’t be so smugly superior,” she teased him.
“F-k,” Elior laughed. He lay on his back, his eyes closed.
“Intoxicated,” Ashlynn snickered.
“Yes,” Elior agreed. “Which makes this situation even more humorous. If you had told me a week ago that I would be lying in this bed, with two mates eating chicken and discussing their wings, whilst I was stoned from blood from a new font, and the world imploded around us, I would have thought your mind addled.”
Ashlynn regarded him as she licked her fingers. “You should have a sleep, Elior,” she said handing the rest of the chicken to Cael. “You are very tired. Rest a while, and have a shower, and you will feel better. Cael and I will leave you to sleep.” She leaned over and brushed a kiss over the vampire’s eyes. “Please, do this for me, my love.”
She nudged, murmured, and stroked Elior until he settled beneath the blankets and complied. When she was sure he was asleep, she gathered her sweats from the floor and indicated with her head for Cael to follow her.
The devil dumped the chicken on the kitchen bench before pausing to drag on his sweatpants. “We are not just leaving him to sleep, are we?” He asked, reclaiming his sword from where he had left it by the front door.
“No, we are not. Our mate is killing himself trying to lead his people in a war that they shouldn’t be fighting alone.” She led him into the elevator and pressed the button for the floor below. “It is time we tore down the veil of glamour.”
The elevator opened and she strode across the foyer, identical to Elior’s the floor above, and up to the door. She knocked loudly.
There was a long pause and then it opened.
Rebecca raised her eyebrows. “How can I help you mates of my father?”
“You can help,” Ashlynn told her. “By getting us some clothes, and I need you to put together one of those social media announcements that Elior’s always doing.”
Rebecca inhaled. “You stink of come and fried chicken. If you want to wear our clothing, you will need to shower first.”
“Sure thing,” Ashlynn pushed past her, into the room. It was laid out identically to Elior’s, she noted, but the furnishing reflected the women’s tastes – the couch here was a lush midnight blue velvet rather than a masculine leather, the artwork on the walls were of softly focused nudes, and there was a thick, fluffy rug on the floor that invited her to sink her toes into it. “Where is the bathroom?”
“Ugh,” Rebecca complained as Cael followed Ashlynn, looking around with interest and picking at his teeth. “Both of you can shower in the guest bathroom. Jacinta,” she called as she closed the door behind them.
“Yes, my love?” Jacinta stepped out of the bedroom. She was not surprised to see their visitors.
“Our father’s mates need clothing, and a shower.”
“Something backless would be great if you have it, but practical, not like an evening dress. Trousers and a top would be best. And shoes,” Ashlynn looked down at her feet. “If either of you are near my size.”
“Would you like jewels and a crown with that?” Rebecca sneered.
“Not right now, but a couple of towels would be great. And we need to be quick. Elior’s having a little nap, but he won’t sleep long and when he wakes, he will wonder where we are.”
When they stepped out of their quick shower in the guest bathroom, she was not surprised to see two complete and stylish outfits laid out on the guest room bed. Cael sniffed his clothing as he put it on and grumbled under his breath.
“What is wrong?” She asked. She was pleased with the clothing they had brought her – form fitting trousers, a slit-backed top, and a pair of biker-style boots with just enough heel, and not too much. The slit-backed top was perfect, she thought. She would have to find out where it came from, and stock her wardrobe with multiple items, or she would be constantly tearing through tops whenever she wanted to take her wings for a spin. “You look good.”
He did, the clothing the vampires had provided for him was dark in tone, and consisted of trousers and a soft, thin long-sleeved top that to his perfect body in a way that made her want to peel it off of him again. “Stinks of vampire. Not of our vampire,” he corrected. “I am used to his stink now. It is almost pleasant.”
Ashlynn smiled. Her devil was becoming fond of their vampire, she thought, her heart warming.
“I imagine they are Nate’s clothes, then,” she speculated. “Be grateful for the loan, especially as you will trash the top at least, anyway, when you open your wings. You look very pretty, which is what we are after.”
She ran a comb through both their hair. “That will have to do, I guess,” she decided, wishing she had some lipstick at least. She sighed and shrugged it off, she had bigger things to worry about than pasty-lips.
Jacinta and Rebecca were waiting for them in the living area and stood as they entered.
“You have done great,” Ashlynn told them. “Thank you.”
Jacinta stepped forward and tilted Ashlynn’s chin up with a finger. Rebecca held out a make-up compact, and the blonde-haired vampire applied a full face of makeup with a speed that left Ashlynn dazzled, before fluffing her fingers through Ashlynn’s hair and arranging it how she liked.
Jacinta stepped back and her eyes narrowed as she inspected her work. “It will do,” she decided.
Rebecca blurred from sight and re-appeared empty handed – the make-up stashed away back into their bedroom.
“So, I am guessing you have both had my mum’s blood recently,” Ashlynn commented, blinking at the speed of the vampires and the casualness with which they used it.
“The font has been generous,” Rebecca sniffed. “In light of the approaching battle.”
“Elior’s been topped up too, different vintage, hopefully same result,” Ashlynn told her. “That is why he is having a little nap right now. This vintage makes him happy, horny, and then sleepy.” She grinned, wrinkling her nose at her own sense of humor.
“Good,” Jacinta was approving, her demeanor softening. “It is good that you have provided for him and good that he is resting. He has been working very hard.” The blonde vampire was fond of her father, Ashlynn thought, warmed by the evidence of affection by his children towards her mate.
“He is my mate,” Ashlynn felt embarrassed under what, for the vampire couple, was an abundance of praise. “Now, onto the social media post…”
“What is it that you wish?” Rebecca had drawn her phone from her pocket and flicked it to camera, turning as she considered the lighting. “Over there is best,” she pointed.
“It needs to be a long shot,” Ashlynn said. “I need to get the entirety of Cael and I in the frame.”
Rebecca raised both eyebrows. “We can edit before posting.”
“Okay,” Ashlynn shuffled her and the devil into the required spot. “Here?”
Rebecca inclined her head.
“Now?” Ashlynn asked.
“If now is when you wish to start.”
“One moment,” Ashlynn turned to Cael. “Just stand there until my signal, okay? Hold the sword out of sight until the signal, too.”
He shrugged, bored but complicit, the sword gripped casually in one hand. “As you say.”
“Alright,” Ashlynn drew a deep breath as she turned back to face Rebecca. Her heart was racing. “Here’s to starting shit. Now, Rebecca.”
She waited until the vampire woman met her eyes, and then looked at the lens of the phone.
“My name is Ashlynn Grenmeyer. I am the daughter of Raiden and Cecelia Grenmeyer. To some of you, that will mean something, to others nothing at all. It is those that it means something to, that I am addressing today.
“Twenty odd years ago, a vampire named Lucian attempted a coups, attacking the hierarchy of the vampires, and attempting to conquer the humans with whom we share this world. He lost because of the actions of the vampire Elior and his children, but also because of the actions of my parents, and my extended family.
“In the intervening years, we have let the vampires hold the gates between the humans and the rest of us. You know of which I speak. As a result, the vampires have become the target of human fear and violence, and now the human world stands in open warfare against them.
“We say to ourselves that the vampires owe a debt, owe us this service, for the crimes of Lucian. We say so because we are cowards. We would allow the decimation of our vampire allies rather than risk our own exposure.
“Don’t let your fear be your dishonor. There is power in numbers. Step out of the shadows and stand with the vampires. Let us present a unified front to the humans and show them the true might of what they seek to destroy. Let us show them that their fear is unfounded, and that we have been here, amongst them, all along, living harmoniously with them.
“That we are them. Their friends. Their neighbors. Their bosses. Their employees. Their family. I will be first to step forward, it is only right. I am Ashlynn Grenmeyer, mate of Elior and Cael, daughter of Cecelia and Raiden Grenmeyer, and I am a devil hybrid.” She tried to suppress her grimace as her wings pressed through her skin and spread behind her. “We fight with the vampires. Will you?”
“It’s done,” Rebecca murmured, and lowered the phone. “And it was well done. I don’t think we need to over edit it,” she turned her phone to show the playback to Jacinta, and Ashlynn heard her voice, sounding strange to her ears, challenge the Other world to come forth from behind the veil of their glamours.
“We can only hope, it is heard,” Ashlynn said.
“Oh, it will be heard,” Rebecca looked at her. “Whether they come forth or come for your head for the threat to their secrecy, however, mate of our father, that is anyone’s guess. If we post this, it might increase the enemies we fight against.”
“Or it might increase our allies,” Jacinta added.
Rebecca’s lip curled up at the corner, in a snarling, ferocious smirk. “Shall I post it?”
Ashlynn reached behind her and felt Cael take her hand. With the warmth and callouses of his palm against hers, she nodded. “Do it.”