She woke to movement and through the fog of sleep blurred eyes and the shadowy room saw the dulled light glint off the blade as Cael used it to slice Elior’s wrist, startling the vampire awake.
“I had thought to feed her without waking you,” Cael apologised. “You are tired, Elior, and need to sleep.”
“Oh,” Elior was still half asleep, his response to the wound more instinct than alertness. “Thank you.”
As the scent of blood hit the air, Ashlynn felt her mouth salivate. Her head ached, and her ears were filled with a roar of sound, as if the ocean were trapped within her skull. Elior sagged back onto the pillow, his eyebrows raising as Ashlynn seized hold of his wrist like a famished beast sucking against the wound wetly. Both men stared at her in surprise.
“Her eyes just flared,” Elior said, alert now and fully awake. Ashlynn mewled and pressed against his body as she drank from him, one hunger sparking another, and she felt him harden against her in response with triumph.
“That is good, isn’t it?” Cael replied. “It means she is turning.”
“Yes, it is what is meant to happen, but it is earlier than normal. I wonder,” Elior said thoughtfully, half distracted by Ashlynn’s attempt to seduce him. His pupils were almost back to normal after his sleep, the intoxication wearing off. “If Cecelia turned faster than normal. F-k me, Ashlynn,” he groaned as she released his wrist with one hand to stroke down his body, closing her hand around him with determined purpose.
“It could be the effect of Ashlynn’s blood,” Cael pointed out. “It affects you, makes you stronger and faster, and then you in turn feed her the more powerful blood…”
“That is true,” Elior considered it and then grunted under Ashlynn’s touch. “All of my children were made before I encountered Cecelia, and aside from Lucian and two traitors, we three are all that have drunk from the font.”
“What happened to the traitors?” Cael wondered.
Elior’s grin was feral. “They died slowly.”
As fast as the hunger had seized her, it ended and Ashlynn licked her tongue over his wrist, feeling the wound close. Another sign, she thought with excitement, that she was turning. She released him and closed her eyes.
“I feel hot,” she told them. “Not like sexy hot, but like hot hot. Though I feel sexy hot too.”
“As the body temperature cools, it is not unusual for the child to feel hot,” Elior told Cael. “Immersion in cold water helps.”
“A cold shower?” Cael shuddered. “You can go in with her.”
“It makes no difference to me what the temperature is,” Elior shrugged and rose to his feet. He picked Ashlynn up and carried her into the bathroom, holding her with one arm whilst he started the water.
She held herself upright, just, still weakened from blood-loss, her legs unreliable.
“You are doing so well,” he stroked her cheek.
“You did this now because you told us what you had done,” she observed as he stepped into the water, and sighed with relief as the cold flowed over her, easing the tightness of her skull and chasing the roar of tidal sound away. “You didn’t have to. I would not have betrayed you, Elior.”
He sighed heavily. “I could say that we did discuss this before, over the phone during the battle for Vampire Square, and you asked me to turn you and Cael then, Ashlynn,” he reminded her peeling the wet strands of her hair back from her face with gentle fingers. “And now, as we wait for my military to seize command of this world, we have the peace and quiet for such a thing.
“But I would not be telling the entire truth.” He admitted. “You might be my mate, but your parents are pack, you were raised a wolf, and pack loyalties lie deep. Now you will be vampire and bound to me in more than one way. There will be no confliction of loyalty for you.”
“Which is why you didn’t turn Cael first, because he has no confliction of loyalty, he has no loyalty whatsoever except to us,” she smiled and reached up to lay her hand against his cheek. “I love you, Elior. I kept your secret about the military from my father, though, honestly, he already knew. I would have kept this secret too.”
He pressed his lips to her forehead. “I am quite sure that I don’t deserve you, Ashlyn Cohen-Jovil, but I will spend the rest of my life trying to be a worthy mate.”
“A long life,” she replied. “Filled with lots of sex.”
He laughed and lifted her so that she wrapped her arms and legs around him. She moaned as he adjusted his angle and stroked into her. “Lots of sex,” he agreed, the muscles of his arse bunching beneath her heels as he thrusted. She gripped him as tightly as her exhausted legs could, keeping him close so that his pubic bone ground against her.
“Yes, lots of sex,” she agreed on a moan as she came.
She fell asleep whilst he carried her from the bathroom to return her to the bed.
The most delicious scent woke Ashlynn. For a moment she lay breathing it in, almost tasting it on her tongue, trying to work out what that scent belonged to. Her stomach knew, and she felt it grip with sudden voracious hunger. She opened her eyes, tracking the scent to the man who lay next to her, and dragging her tongue across the glorious sweetness of his skin with a purr that came from deep within.
“Mmm, yum, mine,” she purred against his skin, dragging the points of teeth up the bicep of his arm, her instincts telling her where the blood vessels flowed strongest beneath the skin and flesh, where best to sink her teeth. She remembered Elior doing the same to her once, when she had accused him of using her for her blood, and understood now how he had done so, so expertly. She just knew exactly where to bite, and with how much pressure, to get to the rich liquid that would satisfy her hunger.
She knew exactly how it would feel to sink her teeth into her mate, could imagine the hot spill of liquid that would result, and her mouth salivated as a deep throb set in between her legs. Hungry and horny, she thought. She was definitely both of those things.
“I already have one blood sucker gorging on me, I don’t need two of you.” Cael grumbled his semi-conscious complaint when her teeth pricked him. He lay on his back on the bed, his eyes closed and his skin pale, and grunted as she crawled over him to nuzzle beneath his chin, feeling the rough bite of his stubble on her tongue as she tasted the salt of his flesh.
“F-k me, you smell good,” she traced her way from the curve of his neck to his shoulder and back to where his pulse kept rhythm beneath his ear, stroking her hands down his body to close over him. “I want to taste you whilst I f-k you, long and hard,” she breathed into his ear and felt him twitch in response as the blood flowed downwards. “Good boy.”
She began to slide down his body, licking and sucking as she went, tasting the hard point of nipple, the hollow between stomach muscle, the dip of belly button before she reached her target with a lascivious grin.
“Uh-ah,” Elior plucked her off the devil by the waist, lifting her with ease, and set her onto the seat, pushing a cold bag of blood into her hands as he kneed the mini-bar fridge shut. She looked at the plastic-sealed blood with a confused feeling of having been cheated, the tasty warmth of Cael stolen and the poor substitute offered in his place. “It is not as nice as what you had in mind, but I am in the middle of turning Cael so I cannot have you snacking on him. Therefore, be a good succubus and drink the bottled blood.”
Grumbling, Ashlynn sank her teeth into the bag, viciously ripping it open. “Oh, my f-king lord,” she exclaimed as the smell struck her, and she poured it into her mouth greedily. As the bag emptied and the edge of her hunger sated, she lost enthusiasm. Compared to the delicious scent of Cael, the bagged blood had the appeal of bran-flakes over a bacon and egg feast, and she found herself eyeing off the prone form of the devil contemplatively as she licked her fingers clean of the last drops of spillage. “Does everyone smell that good to you, Elior? Or just Cael? How have you resisted gorging on us?”
“As you get older, you develop self-control,” he was amused watching her. “But Cael does smell particularly edible to me, as do you, still,” he leaned over her and breathed in. “Mmm, yes. Still tasty, even as a vampire.”
“So, does he taste as good as he smells?” She licked her lips. The devil was still half hard, and she thought she could fix that, and satisfy two urges at once.
“He is delicious,” Elior’s lips curled at the corner.
“Can’t I…?”
“No,” the vampire was firm. “Have another bag of blood if you are still hungry. The mini-bar fridge is fully stocked.”
“You remind me of my mother, suddenly,” she complained. “It was always, have another piece of fruit, and not that delicious piece of chocolate cake laying on the bed… Fridge, I meant. Do not eat the chocolate cake in the fridge. Cael’s on the bed, the cake was in the fridge.”
“I am a delicious piece of chocolate cake,” Cael sniggered.
“Vampire Cael cake,” she agreed. “All warm and gooey.”
“What does that make you?”
“Vampire steroids. I pump them up like action heroes,” she held out the empty bag to Elior, who handed her a second. “Does Cael make you stoned?” She asked him as she ran her tongue over her sharper premolar and canines experimentally before using them to pierce the bag pleased when it was neater and did not waste as much.
“Not to the same extent as your blood, but he does taste much better than humans, and his blood has a nice kick to it, like a shot of whiskey,” the vampire stalked his way to Cael, and covered the devil’s body with his own as he sank his teeth into his neck. Cael groaned, but closed his arms around the vampire, holding him against him in an embrace.
“Does it make you horny? Watching you do that makes me incredibly horny,” she commented watching avidly. “All that skin, and hair, and man flesh pressed together. God, it is pretty.”
“Not as he was with you,” Cael replied as Elior’s mouth was full. “My blood does not have the same effect on him. But he does get excited.”
“Yeah, he looks excited.” She commented as Elior’s hips twitched, pressing against Cael as he drank. “I really want some,” she sucked on the bag with dissatisfaction. “This blood tastes like plastic.”
Elior released Cael with a smothered groan. “If you have finished that bag, you can come here,” he ordered, lifting off the devil and stood, pushing his hair back off his face. He was hard, and she had no doubt about his intentions.
“So alpha,” she grinned as she tossed the empty bag into the trash can and went to the vampire as ordered. She pressed herself against Elior, threading her fingers into the tangled dark hair that he had failed to tame and pulled his mouth to hers. “Mmm,” she sucked on his tongue pushing him until he sat on the bed so that she could sit astride him. “I can taste Cael on your tongue. He tastes so good.”
“What have I done? She was insatiable before she was made vampire.” Elior wondered as she dragged her tongue over his skin and lifted in order to take him into her. He moaned, his hands closing on her hips, tugging her tighter to him.
“Shh,” she caught his mouth with hers and rocked against him, pressing up against him. He flexed his hips, thrusting up into her in counter-rhythm. She could smell Cael all over him, the combination of all three of them, and their sex, a heady scent that combined two different desires into a potency that demanded satiation.
“This is not fair,” Cael complained, rolling onto his side so he could watch, his hand closing over himself. “I can’t join in.”
“You can still watch,” Ashlynn flicked him a grin. “And maybe then I can watch Elior suck you off.”
“That sounds better,” the devil conceded. “That sounds good.”
Elior stood, lifting her with him, and set her back to the bed. “I don’t have to be gentle anymore,” his Other flashed red in his eyes in warning before he increased pace and force to an extent that the bed complained beneath them, and Cael had to shift up the mattress to prevent being bounced off the edge.
“Oh, f-k,” she exclaimed lifting her hips into him. “Oh, my f-king lord.” She had not realized the extent to which Elior had been gentle with her until he unleashed his restraint. She pulled him over her so that she could kiss him, changing the pattern of his thrust by wrapping her legs around his waist, so that he pressed against her in the most perfect way to bring her pleasure.
“I would share blood,” he said against her skin. “Except I need to feed off Cael at least once more, and then feed him, so just a taste Ashlynn. Just a taste, my beautiful mate.”
She pinched his skin between her teeth, capturing just a drop before soothing the cut with her tongue although she wanted to skin her teeth deep and feel the hot warmth of it pump into the back of her throat. “Mmm,” the taste of him was divine, and melted off her tongue like pure alcohol, the burn traveling through her until she arched beneath her orgasm. “Oh, god, oh god.”
He groaned, and his teeth grazed her throat, a slight sting before being soothed, and cried out as he followed, sagging heavily over her.
It took a moment to recover, and she stared blankly up at the ceiling feeling the warmth crawl through her limbs, and the low throb where they joined before recalling herself and stroking her hands over his back. “That was… I don’t even have the words for what that was. It was pretty… amazing.”
He chuckled into the curve of her neck. “Blood bond between mates. I have never experienced it before obviously, but I have heard it spoken on. It is every bit as potent as I was told. I am not sure if it will be the same between you and Cael, as you have not shared blood, and I am sorry about that. But I am glad that I will have it with the both of you.” He pressed a lip against her cheek as he rose and made his way up the bed to where Cael dozed, the exhaustion of blood loss interrupting the devil’s attempt to bring himself to orgasm, so that he cupped himself even in sleep. It was, Ashlynn thought with a fond smile, a very erotic pose.
“Mphm,” Cael woke as Elior bit him. “F-k. Wrong type of sucking, Elior.”
Ashlynn could hear the beat of Cael’s heart falter beneath Elior’s thirst as she crawled up to the pillow. “Elior,” she murmured in concern when the vampire continued to drink.
The vampire released him and flopped onto the pillow between them. “Ah,” he closed his eyes, his hands resting over his stomach. “I have never turned two children in such a short amount of time before. It is exhausting.”
Cael’s heart was so slow, and he barely seemed to be breathing.
“Elior, you have taken too much,” she fretted as she stroked the dark hair back from the vampire’s face. Elior’s lips and teeth were stained red with the devil’s blood, and she leaned over to kiss him, dragging her tongue over Elior’s bottom lip to taste the devil upon it, before deepening the kiss to chase the flavour in Elior’s mouth. Elior lifted a hand to cup the back of her head as he returned the kiss, dropping back to his stomach when she eased it, worried about the faint beat of the devil’s heart. “You have taken too much,” she repeated.
“No,” he didn’t open his eyes. “I have taken the perfect amount. I can begin to feed him now. Just a moment whilst I recover.” He lay for so long that she thought he had fallen asleep and was on the verge of nudging him awake again in her concern over Cael, but then he sighed and lifted onto his elbow, using his teeth to pierce his wrist, and holding it over Cael’s mouth.
She slid off the bed and made her way around to Cael’s side, stroking her fingers through his hair and murmuring encouragement. She saw his throat work, swallowing the blood. Elior reclaimed his wrist, licking the wounds closed before rising to retrieve his phone.
Ashlynn edged onto the mattress, tucking her body under Cael’s arm, and placing her hand over his heart so that she could feel it’s beat. She couldn’t resist but to lick at his skin, the salt of him a balm to her desire to bite.
“Tickles,” Cael murmured. “In a nice way. If you wanted to lick lower, I wouldn’t complain. Seeing as it was promised, and no one has delivered on it yet.”
She stroked her hand over him. “Aww, poor baby. I would, but I think if I made your heart race now, it might be a bad thing.”
“All my blood is down there anyway,” the devil cracked open an eye, the blue a slither between the gold of his lashes. “I am pretty sure that is where my heart is located.”
She laughed and re-positioned in order to comply with his request, taking him into her mouth and stroking her tongue against his sensitive underside as he liked it.
He groaned. “Mmm, like that.”
Elior returned to the bed with his phone and reopened his wrist in order to give Cael his next dose of blood whilst he flicked through the screens with his other hand. “The military has seized control. I need to shower and make some announcements in between feeding Cael. The timing isn’t perfect. I should be returning to public life, but making a child is a forgivable excuse to be absent.”
Neither of his mates could respond and he looked up from his phone with a wicked grin. “Well, isn’t this a novel experience?” He observed. “I quite like it. I might need to purchase some gags.” He removed his wrist from Cael just as the devil came, his hips arching off the bed, and his heart skittering laboriously.
As Ashlynn sat up, Elior leaned over Cael with a smile stroking the devil’s hair back from his face. “He is out, came and passed straight out,” he observed on the edge of a laugh. “He will probably sleep until his next feeding,” he rose from the bed and went into the bathroom.
As she retrieved a bag of blood from a fridge filled with them along with one lonely liter of milk, she heard the shower start. She wandered to the windows, pulling back the curtains and blinking in the sharp day-light that pierced the room. The streets within sight were all empty. Not a single car, bus, or truck made their way along the road, not a single pedestrian wandered between the buildings.
She shuddered, the eery sight raising the hair along her arms. “How long has it been?”
“Two days,” Elior replied walking out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and a second drying his hair. “You should really call your father by the way, I have been receiving increasingly insistent messages from him.”
“It is scary looking out there, so empty,” she saw the gargoyle triad fly past, their shadow startling a flock of pigeons that had been sun-baking on a rooftop into flight. There was something reassuring, she thought, about seeing the gargoyles in the sky. Soothed, she turned from the window, letting the curtains fall back over the glass, blocking the disturbing sight out. “The gargoyles are patrolling, at least, which is always a comforting sight.”
“It will only be a little longer, and life will resume as normal,” he assured her as he dressed, neat and tidy in a fresh three-piece suit, pausing to button up the sleeves with precision. She watched him dress with fascination as he enclosed the man in the image piece by piece until he ran a comb through his hair and pulled it back into the tidy ponytail.
He looked at her and smiled. “What?” He asked.
“I like watching you,” she answered honestly. “You are just so pretty, and neat and contained, in your suits. I like watching you put it on, knowing that when you come back in, I can take it off you and make you messy and unrestrained.”
His eyes glowed with his Other as he crossed the room to capture her face between his hands. “I don’t know how I lived before the two of you entered my life,” he said, and kissed her, his lips and body communicating his desire before he released her. “I have to go, before we are both tempted to take off this suit.”
“Go,” she grinned. “Or I will tear it off of you.”
“No drinking from Cael,” he held up a cautioning finger. “Not even a little drop.”
She rolled her eyes. “I won’t touch the chocolate cake.” She waited until he left, and then indulged in a moment leaning over Cael and breathing in the decadent scent of him. “Oh, god,” she groaned. “It is a wonder that vampires haven’t ravaged the world f-king and drinking.”
She strode with determination into the bathroom and took a shower, discovering that Elior had not been exaggerating when he had said that the temperature did not matter to him. Until she turned the water up to the level where it damaged her skin, it’s heat or cold did not impact her enjoyment of the water against her body.
But thinking of Elior, naked and under the water, did.
“Oh, f-k,” she complained. “Shit, that sucks. All revved up, with no one to f-k.”
She decided to see if Cael was up for the job, crawling over the bed to nudge the devil. His snore was her answer, so she lay on her back, closed her eyes, and imagined one of her men doing her service until she came, arcing beneath her own touch.
“Yeah, that is right,” she said to the sleeping devil. “It is neater when women do it. If it were you, there would be a mess on the bed-cover.”
She found her phone and hesitated between her mother and father’s numbers. The likelihood of being answered was greater with her father, but the resulting scolding would be less with her mother.
“Oh, f-k it,” she dialled her father.