Blood of the Dead, page 3
I still double-checked all his work. Jack didn’t strike me as the thorough type, at least not where office work was concerned.
But he had offered to change me. Straight up, no strings. I’d worked for Rosalie for seven years and never gotten that close to it before. I put a hand up to my lips that I’d colored in with a purple lipstick so dark it was almost black, and sighed.
What if my new Master had just been a little slower?
What if I were sleeping the true sleep of death, in Jack’s coffin, right now?
I heard the machine outside turn off, and a quiet murmur of conversation as Nilesh finished up his art and got paid.
There was a polite knock on the office door not long after. “Come in,” I said.
Nilesh opened the door up so it framed himself. He was just a little shorter than Jack, and well-built: dark eyed and darker skinned, excellent cheekbones, with just the right dusting of beard-shadow, the kind that made you wonder what it’d feel like between your thighs. “Hey. Just wanted to let you know I was closing up in here.” He looked me up and down. “Are you feeling better now?”
Not particularly. “Yeah.” I pushed myself away from the desk. “Why do you ask?”
“Jack said something about you having the flu.” He moved to lean against one of the doorframe’s sides. “I told him I wanted to bring you some soup, but he said I couldn’t come over. Which begs the question why you’re crashing at his place?” he asked, with a sly grin and a slight shrug.
Why indeed. I gave him a brave smile, hiding my angst. “Shit’s complicated and rent’s high?”
He laughed, his lips revealing a row of even white teeth. “I hear that,” he said, then looked around. “Did you want to be alone?” he asked, raising a concerned eyebrow. “I mean—not like that. I’m just new to Vegas. If I leave, is it safe for you to be here by yourself?”
Considering everything else I’d recently survived, it’d better be. I had the nightblade my Master had given me in my bag, and while its magic was supposed to only work on “good” people, I was pretty sure I could stab some merely “bad” human with it, if I had to. I had a vague recollection of getting a good swipe in on somebody at Vermillion with it, before passing out from blood loss.
I still didn’t feel fully like myself now, though. I couldn’t believe Jack had essentially time-traveled me for a week with vampire-commands, and I didn’t want to think about how he probably sat around pouring broth down my throat or cleaning up the rest of me.
“Luna?” Nilesh asked, distracting me from my thoughts. I glanced up at him. “It is Luna, right?”
“Yeah,” I said, shaking myself lightly. “And you’re right.” Anything I was doing here now I could finish up tomorrow night, after I’d gone out and eaten the world’s biggest cheeseburger. I started closing screens on the computer.
“About which part?” he asked, clearly teasing. I looked up at him again and blinked. He was wearing a dark-red T-shirt and jeans, and I got the feeling that his five-o’clock shadow was the real thing, not a styled affectation, like he’d actually come in for his shift earlier cleanly shaved.
He was, for all intents and purposes, pretty. Pretty as in pretty-much-my-type. And what would serve me even better than catching up on a week’s worth of solid food would be catching up on feeling alive, because I almost hadn’t been.
I let a wicked smile pull the corners of my lips up. “The part where I do want to be alone. With you. In here,” I said.
I watched slow realization light his eyes, then he quickly stepped into the office and closed the door behind himself. “You aren’t dating him, right?”
“Jack?” I asked, my voice high. I dragged my lower lip temptingly through half-closed teeth before I answered him. “Would you actually care if I was?”
He looked momentarily pained. “I would, but I would also regret asking you for the rest of my life.”
I laughed, standing up before sitting down on the desk, making the small room feel crowded on purpose. “No. We’re just,” I started, but truth was I didn’t know what Jack and I were. I just knew I was trapped with him for as long as my Master wanted me to be. “He’s just helping me get back on my feet is all,” I said. I leaned back on my hands against the desk behind me.
“Exes.” Nilesh rocked back, nodding.
I did nothing to confirm or deny his supposition, basking in my power. I wasn’t a vampire—yet—and I wasn’t using magic, though I knew some, but there was still a certain energy in just being a forthright woman. The kind of woman who was used to getting what she wanted, no matter what. “Is that a risk you’re willing to take?” I shrugged innocently, while giving him a knowing grin.
“To be with you?” he said, his voice going lower as he pushed off the door in my direction. “Absolutely.”
He put a hand on either side of my hips as I grabbed the front of his T-shirt to drag him down to my level. Our teeth clashed and I didn’t care. I wrapped my legs around his thighs and dragged my fingernails against his scalp, as he grabbed my ass and pulled me near, making my skirt ride up—and then I stiffened, pushing him back.
He went with it instantly. “Too fast?” His chest was heaving underneath his tight shirt, and the outline of his hard-on against his jeans wanted to make me promises.
I looked at my hands like they belonged to someone else. “It’s just,” I began, trying to place why everything felt so weird all of a sudden . . . and then I realized that this was maybe the first time I would be sleeping with someone in ages because I wanted to.
Not because a vampire had ordered me, or because I had to prove something to one.
“It’s okay,” he apologized, taking a further step back, turning for the door.
“No, don’t,” I told him, putting a hand out to stop him. “I just need a moment is all.” I was so used to just doing this with Rosalie, under her watchful eye, seducing someone because she wanted to know all their secrets—or being taken by my new Master because he needed to feed.
How long had it been since I’d had this kind of freedom?
At least seven years.
Nilesh gave me a gently confused look. “Are you sure you’re feeling well?”
In the fullness-of-time sense, no . . . because I still had a genetic disease that was going to ravage me if I didn’t become a vampire, quickly. But for the purposes of tonight . . .
“Yeah,” I told him. “Come back?” I asked, my voice soft.
He moved to stand in front of me again, this time seeming much more chaste. “You’re, like, double sure?”
“Only if you have two condoms, yeah.” I looked up at him, feeling an unfamiliar true smile spreading across my face. “But if you have three, then I’m triple sure.”
He laughed and then he came for me.
Chapter Six
Jack
I paced inside the purple room, trying to figure out exactly how long I should wait before I went into the next one. I didn’t want Fran to think I was shirking . . . but I did want a moment to sit with what Sam had told me.
Why on earth would Sam want me well fed?
The parts of me that disliked authority and didn’t want to be told what to do wanted to tell her to go fuck herself, only since she was a Faithful, that was probably some kind of magically illegal.
The more rational parts of me knew that I needed to feed, above and beyond her opinions on the matter.
But was she setting me up?
I didn’t know, and I didn’t like that.
And, while I knew Paco had to be feeding somehow, and I was glad to hear he hadn’t murdered anyone to do it, the thought of him feeding alone pained me.
I remembered how awful it was for me right after I’d been turned, like it was yesterday—and I remembered him saving me with total clarity.
Was someone else now saving him?
The thought of it, of losing him, made dark things roil inside me, and the temptation to gather the loose magical cord that bound the two of us rode up and down my bones.
Only the knowledge that if I ever pulled it I would lose him for sure stopped me.
Barely.
I needed to eat—and I needed a distraction.
Now.
Whoever was behind door number eight was going to get the fucking of a lifetime, if only because I needed not to think about anything else for a good thirty to forty-five minutes.
I stalked down the hall, knocked on the right door, and didn’t bother to wait for an answer before barging in. This room looked like a hotel room—on purpose, I realized, all the better to consummate your call-girl fantasies—only I wasn’t a call girl, and there were two young people, barely drinking age if that, sitting on the edge of the bed together, holding hands like that was giving them strength. He had jeans and a T-shirt on but she was wearing some kind of prairie dress.
They both gawked at me in slightly restrained horror, while I gathered myself up again, somewhat taken aback. “Hey,” I said, letting one of my eyebrows arch, as I leaned against the door behind me. Pretty, pale, and blond, they looked like two scoops of vanilla ice cream side by side on the non-descript comforter. I asked the only question I could: “Do you y’all mean to be here?”
The girl looked to the boy who could’ve been her twin, except for the fact that he had some acne, to answer.
“Yes,” he said, definitively. She nodded after he’d said it, suddenly more brave.
“All right, then,” I said, hitching my thumbs into my jean pockets. Even my hunger was confused by this situation, although I knew that wouldn’t last long. “What did you want?”
The boy carefully let go of her hand and stood up, crossing the room to me. “I was worried I might get nervous, so I wrote things down,” he said, handing over a slightly sweaty piece of paper.
“How thoughtful,” I muttered, taking it from him.
On it was a short list of activities. Oral—boy, oral—girl, and good sex, and no touching, no looking.
Good was underlined three times.
He set his shoulders in front of me, doing his best to look like he was in charge of the situation. “We just got married yesterday,” he explained, before giving the girl on the bed a loving look. “And we’re here for just two more days.”
“We want to know what we’re doing,” she said.
“And we want to get good,” the boy said, affirmatively.
I looked between them. “Excuse me for asking, but do your parents know you’re here?”
The girl’s eyes widened in terror. “No. Oh no.”
“They think we’re on honeymoon in Florida,” the boy confessed. “We changed our flights at the airport.”
I blinked, still not really understanding. “Why?”
He swallowed, but did his best to give me a manly stare down. “My brother has six kids, but he’s angry all the time. He says his wife doesn’t love him.”
“And my sister,” the girl chimed in. “She just got married last year—but she says everything still hurts. Plus she’s not pregnant, yet.”
Realization slowly dawned. “Oh,” I breathed.
“So we want to learn to do things the right way. Because I love her,” he said, taking a seat beside her again.
“And I love him,” she said, quickly catching her hand in his.
I raked a hand through my hair. This was not how I thought my evening was going to go—and I really wanted to ask Fran if she thought having a tattoo-covered vampire was the best person to teach these kids to de-virginize each other. But then realized that she’d chosen me for this on purpose, partially because she knew I wouldn’t feed if I couldn’t help them both get off, but also because she knew sometimes I was too damn nice.
“I mean, we’re not stupid. I’ve seen some TV, and I have a phone, that’s how I found this place,” the boy went on, taking my thoughtfulness for hesitation. “But we want to be happily married for forever, mister. So we’re taking this seriously.”
“Together,” the girl agreed. “Plus, this is our only chance to get away. But we came up with this plan together,” she repeated, with emphasis.
I took a very, very long inhale before speaking again. “All right.” I pinched the bridge of my nose with one hand, and held up the piece of paper in the other. “I take it the no touching is for me?”
The boy nodded quickly. “The no looking, too.” He swallowed nervously and looked around. “I kind of assumed this sort of place would have blindfolds.”
“It does, trust me.” I surveyed the two of them. The things I did to feed . . . and I imagined myself telling this story to a highly amused Paco, until I remembered we weren’t on speaking terms right now. “And I don’t really want to look, if you want the truth of things. I’ve got some relationship problems of my own currently.”
Still, though—I had to admit I appreciated the novelty of the challenge.
Plus, if I wanted an “easy” meal tonight, I didn’t really have a choice.
I grabbed a nearby chair, brought it over near the bed, and spun it around toward the wall, still facing them as I took my leather jacket off. “First off—if you love her, you’re already halfway there.” I looked between them meaningfully. “I promise to do whatever you want me to. If you two want to stop, or want me to leave—it’s fine. Everybody in this room always has an out. Take that with you when you go home, all right? Nobody’s putting in one for the team. Either everybody wants it, or no one does.”
The boy looked at the girl, who gave him an adoring smile.
“On my side of things,” I said, standing by the chair as I draped my jacket over it, “if I hear either of you say one disparaging word about your own or each other’s bodies, I’m walking out the door and you can’t stop me. I don’t care what they did or didn’t teach you at school, nothing here is gross or weird. Strange, maybe, given the circumstances,” I said, and snorted. The whole thing was so ridiculous I couldn’t help but grin. “But I respect your studious attitudes and willingness to think outside the box.” I held my hand out, and the boy shook it with a firm grip. “My name’s Jack, and it seems I’m going to be your sex instructor for the evening.”
Chapter Seven
Luna
As it turned out, Nilesh only had two condoms, but he’d eaten me out first—and his beard had felt just as fun as I’d thought it would—so I was an orgasm ahead. Our first fuck had just been about us both getting off, but now we wanted to get good.
“Oh, fuck,” I groaned. He had my legs splayed wide on the desk, and we were both just watching his rubber-covered cock push into me again. It was even darker than the rest of his skin, and I took some time to marvel at it—I hadn’t slept with anyone who was uncircumcised in a long time; it was a shame we couldn’t be skin to skin.
“Yeah,” he agreed, closing his eyes like a cat, feeling the length of him slide inside. I moaned and lay back as far as the desk allowed me, scattering the remaining mail everywhere. He was the kind of width that’d make your jaw hurt if you sucked on it for too long—not that I’d have let that stop me from trying, next time I had the chance.
But for right now, he wanted to be inside me, and I wanted that too, feeling his hips roll, as he rocked back and forth. He pulled himself out, played my clit with his cock’s head, and then replaced it with his thumb as he sank straight back in.
“I can’t believe all this beautiful skin and not a singular tattoo,” he said, leaning over to kiss my breasts again, playing his tongue across the barbells in my nipples. My shirt was somewhere on the floor beside my panties.
“I still have places you haven’t seen,” I said, grinning, eyes rolling back, giving myself over to pleasure.
“What, internal organs?” he teased.
I laughed, and he snickered, then he made an animalistic sound, and started fucking me with intent. “Shit, Nilesh,” I groaned as he shoved his wide cock home. I slick as hell from already having come twice, but it was like those orgasms had made my walls puffy, and I could feel the thick ridge of the head of his cock as he thrust it inside, riding up into me before pulling right back down.
“God . . . damn,” I panted, and then I reached between my legs, shoving his hand away to replace it with my own. I knew what I wanted and needed, and that was to come, again, around him, and if I managed to come twice before his fat rocket between my legs went off, all the better.
“That’s so fucking hot,” he growled and grabbed my thighs, hitching me to the edge of the desk, before bending his knees so he could shove himself both in and up inside me.
“Oh, God,” I moaned, feeling transported and ready to see in technicolor. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I called out as touching just the right spot on my clit brought me closer. “Don’t stop!” I begged him. “I’m so close!”
He made another snarling sound, like he was tormented by holding his orgasm back.
“I—I—I—” I tried to explain, or warn him, but I couldn’t, I just started thrashing on the desk. “Yes!” I shouted, at him, like my master hadn’t allowed me to tell Jack earlier. “Yes, yes, yes!”
Nilesh groaned and rammed himself into me, thrusting wildly, moaning with each fresh jet of cum, and when he was done, he left himself deep, his hips against mine. There was a bead of sweat on his forehead, and I grinned, licking my thumb before reaching up to wipe it off.
“Fuck, Luna,” he whispered, slowly pulling out, holding on to the condom as he did so.
“Yeah,” I said, trailing a slow hand over my own chest. “Fuck.”
Someone beat on the office door from the outside. “You two done in there?”
Nilesh looked guilty, and started hauling his jeans back up. I hopped off the edge of the desk and let my skirt fall, swooping down to grab my shirt. “You didn’t lock the door?” I hissed at Nilesh. He raised innocent hands. “Rookie mistake,” I mouthed, assembling myself quickly.
I pushed him back so that if it was Jack outside, or any other member of Dark Ink’s crew, I’d have a chance to explain that what happened in the office that I was newly in charge of was no one else’s fucking business.
