Darkness Embraced Part 20

Your Queen is correct. Ye can kill the Dracule with the blade, but ye'd have to catch her first.

I turned to Renata.

Are you afraid of her?

If she turns against us, oh yes.

Renata could have forced me to do it. She could have ordered me to accept, but she didn't. She left me room to decide what was right and wrong on my own. I turned my face up to the Dracule. "Is it true that you enjoy a good barter?"

"Yesss."

"Then"-I got to my feet-"barter we shal ."

"Lead." She made a sort of sweeping gesture with her body, as someone would when inviting a guest into her home. The gesture was more like a half-bow with her arms tucked behind the shield of her wings.

We had spent a good half hour bartering with the Dracule. I admit, Renata was a great deal better at it than I was. I did not know how the Dracule kiled their victims, nor did I particularly care to find out. The Dracule was not al owed to scar my body, maim my body, or remove any of the flesh from my body.

While Renata bartered and discussed the terms with the Dracule, I wondered just how intimately she knew their kind.

"Do I have your word that when I am mounting your vampire you wil not ssstab me in the back?"

I heard the Dracule's words and began paying close attention to the conversation again.

A dark smile curved over Renata's lips from where she sat in a chair next to the armoire. The Dracule stood at the foot of Renata's great bed. I sat on the edge of it, watching them both.

"If you hurt her in a way she does not enjoy," she said darkly, "then yes, oh yes, I wil cut out your heart myself, Dracule."

"If you can," the Dracule said, empty black eyes slipping from Renata's dark smile and to my stil form on the bed.

The Dracule started moving toward me and my heart leapt into my throat.

"You both need to feed," the Dracule said, continuing in a dry tone, "I am wil ing to feed you both, at a price."

"The blood of a Dracule," Renata said arching her dark brows, "that is no smal offer. What say you the price?"

Not only were we bargaining my body, but we were suddenly also striking a bargain about the Dracule's blood.

Well, I thought to myself, at least the Dracule is willing to open a vein.

Aye, Cuinn said, reminding me of his presence, your Queen is right again. 'T is no small offer.

Why did it seem like Cuinn was starting to agree with Renata more and more?

I can't do this if you're going to be playing around in my head, Cuinn.

He fel silent. I sensed that he was curling up for a little nap, but knew he would not truly sleep. He would, as usual, eavesdrop. Is it real y eavesdropping when the spirit communicating with you mind-to-mind is magical y bound to protect you? In truth, I didn't think he could help it. He could no more block me out than I could him.

"Did you hear her, Epiphany?" Renata touched my shoulder and I startled back to myself.

"Hear what, my Queen?"

"The Dracule has offered her blood on the condition that I make you ready."

"Ready?" I asked, unable to keep the suspicion out of my voice.

"She has offered to feed us so long as I use my hands and my mouth to prepare you for her."

I licked my lips, considering. Renata had never shared me with anyone before. It was never something we'd had cause to discuss, as we'd never put on a show for another woman, let alone one of the Dracule.

I couldn't decide. Would it excite me or make me uncomfortable? Would being touched by Renata in front of the Dracule make me feel a little safer? I honestly had no idea.

"That is up to you, my Queen."

Renata was silent a moment. I think she was al owing me more time to give it some thought.

When she realized that I was leaving the decision up to her, she made it.

"Agreed," she said, "it has been long since I have tasted the blood of the Dracule. It is very heady stuff."

"It isss."

I didn't disagree with her decision, mainly because the pangs of hunger were beginning to tighten my stomach. I was beginning to feel hol ow and empty, easily distracted. I felt tired, and that alone was warning I needed to feed. We did not feel tired, not truly, but we did begin to feel a kind of physical and mental lethargy that had to do with having gone too long without feeding.

Renata went to the wal , pul ing aside a plum colored curtain that hid two double doors. The two doors opened into a decent-sized sitting room that connected to one of the back hal s. When she emerged, she was carrying two crystal wine gla.s.ses. She held the gla.s.ses out to the Dracule. The Dracule's black eyelids blinked.

"You wil not take my blood with your mouth?"

"The Dracule have two shapes," she said, offering a cutting smile. "If you are unwil ing to change your form then I think this way best."

The Dracule took the gla.s.ses and flexed her hand. Those tiny claws shot out and she drove them into the artery at her wrist, holding it steadily above the wine gla.s.s. The smel of blood made my nostrils flare. It smel ed more strongly metal ic, higher and richer in iron than mortal blood.

"Two forms?" I asked, resisting the urge to rise and jerk the Dracule's wrist to my mouth.

"Yes," Renata said. "What she did not tel you is that she has a form that is...less intimidating."

The Dracule handed Renata the first gla.s.s. Renata's long, tapered fingers wrapped daintily around the stem.

"And isss your vampire sssome human I have to pretend to be lesss frightening for?"

Renata took a sip of the blood, her eyes closing. When they opened, her pupils had constricted to tiny specks.

"My Epiphany does not scare easily, Dracule."

The Dracule offered the second gla.s.s to me and I stood in order to retrieve it. Her clawed fingers brushed my hand and I gave pause, but not out of fear.

No, I was strangely calm. If the Dracule had meant me harm, wouldn't a being such as she have already caused it? Her fingers touched mine, light and gentle. Her black eyes held a thread of uncertainty.

She withdrew her hand, claws tickling along my skin.

"Ssso I sssee."

Her fur had been as soft as it seemed. I couldn't help but wonder, no matter how much I tried not to, what that furred body would feel like sliding against mine. I attempted to ignore the shiver that shimmied down my spine and distracted myself by pressing my lips against the rounded edge of the gla.s.s, draining the blood.

The Dracule reached out, brushing a curl out of my face with the back of her fingers. I felt Renata move up behind me. Caught between the two of them, I shut my eyes, as if that would stop desire's heat from building between my legs.

"Isss it your Queen or isss it me that you crave?"

"Both."

The emotions that flowed through the Dracule's being were like tiny streams, veins of emotion. There was eagerness and antic.i.p.ation, but also sorrow and a cavernous wel of longing. I was about to raise my hand to touch the Dracule's cheek when I felt Renata's fingers at my neck. She guided my hair to spil down my back.

"The Dracule must wait her turn," she whispered, her breath warm at my ear. Her tongue traced the curve of my earlobe, making my skin p.r.i.c.kle.

"Disrobe, Epiphany."

I did, taking the hand she offered and al owing her to guide me to the bed. She used her body to encourage me to crawl toward the head of it, raising the black velvet of her skirts and straddling me.

She kissed me and I swayed back against the pil ows, offering my mouth and forgetting al about the presence of the Dracule. Renata's lips burned against mine, her tongue fil ed me. Her hands swept across my waist and spil ed over my b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

She drove her fangs into the sensitive skin of my breast until I made a sound for her.

Renata used her hands and mouth to tease me. The tresses of her waist-length hair slid across my body and I writhed at the sensation of it. She kissed my hips, licked my navel, nipped at the skin in the bend of my elbow. Her fingers stroked the dampened lips between my legs enticingly.

She rose, moving to lay beside me, touching a lock of my hair with a libidinous smile.

The Dracule came to us then, crawling across the bed. She crouched above me and I saw myself reflected in the strange pools of her eyes.

Her wings unfolded and she lowered, pressing her sleek furred body against mine.

"Silk," I breathed the word, rubbing the side of my face against her chest. "You are like drowning in silk."

The Dracule said nothing while she used her knee to part my legs. I yielded, opening to her. Her satiny hands moved at my waist. She looked at me with an expression of tender surprise and yearning. She raised that inhuman face, revealing the rawness of her want.

She put her hand between my legs and it was like being caressed by a woman wearing silk gloves. The creature that had been so frightening was amazingly gentle as she moved her hips and angled the flesh of her groin against mine.

That mound of silken flesh brushed my c.l.i.t and I gasped, raising my hands unthinkingly. I touched the furred softness of her shoulders, the only thing I could reach, and buried my fingers in her fur. That mound of flesh moved again, summoning a wave of pleasure from within me. I lowered my gaze to find that her hips moved ever so slightly, but not enough to cause such a sensation.

"How?"

"I told you, it isss like yoursss, only more."

She pressed her lower body against mine, raising enough that with her height, I could no longer hold her shoulders. Her genitalia pressed more solidly against me and I wrapped my legs around her hips. A moment later, she drew back, and as she drew away, that soft flesh clung to me, clung like it had suctioned to my skin. Her hips moved again, enough to tug lightly, but that light tug was an immensely pleasurable gesture that bowed my spine.

I cried out as her body clung to mine like a mouth, the pleasure almost unbearable. Almost.

She bent, her red tongue flicking out against my breast in a way that caused my hips to buck unwittingly. I turned my head and met Renata's amused expression.

"Mmm," she said silkily, "who'd have thought you'd have a penchant for the Dracule's particular brand of pleasure." She reached out, idly touching my brow.

The Dracule chose that moment to nip my breast, hard enough to bring my attention back to her.

I stroked the tip of her elongated ear. Her pace quickened and the pressure between my legs ignited, sending my head back against the pil ows. The heat built, making my thighs clench tight.

The Dracule spoke with an effort. "Sssoon."

The muscles in my stomach went rigid. "Very soon."

Before the o.r.g.a.s.m took me body and mind, the Dracule's body arched like a bow. She threw her head back, exposing the line of her silky throat. Her wings stretched out behind her, casting a terribly beautiful shadow in the dancing candlelight. A cry like nothing I had ever heard before spil ed from her mouth, a woman's cry of ecstasy mingled with a screech that was too low and raspy to be that of a bird. I saw as much, before I too became the victim of pleasure and echoed her.

The Dracule col apsed on top of me, wings spread out across the bed. Her spaded tail rose, swaying from side to side. The movement shifted her hips, making me very aware that her groin was stil connected to mine. I rubbed against her and she groaned, grabbing a handful of my hair. Her sharp claws threatened to pierce my scalp. For fear of injuring myself, I stil ed.

"Ssstop." The Dracule used her grip to raise me up on my knees. She moved to lay on a bed of those leathery wings. "Ssstraddle me."

I climbed her legs and reached down. I couldn't help it. I wanted to touch it. I wanted to feel her s.e.x in my hands. I wanted to investigate it, to know what it was, what it felt like...to see how it reacted to my touch.

I cupped her in my hand, feeling her slick skin stiffening against my palm.

"This," I asked, ma.s.saging her, "what do you cal it?"

I squeezed, watching her eyes shudder closed.

"Nod Dragoste."

I let her rol out of my hand, dipping my fingers lower in exploration.

I found her opening, easing my fingers inside.

There we were very much alike.

"What does that mean?" I said, fingers curling.

"In Englisssh?" she asked, her body tight around me. "It would transsslate to sssomething like, ah-" She shuddered again, spasming as I pushed deeper. "Love knot."

She caught my wrist and pul ed my hand away from her groin.

"Ssstraddle. Put your sss.e.x againssst mine. I want to feel you sssliding over me. I want to watch you dancing above me."

I held myself above her on hands and knees, rubbing the side of my face against her stomach. I wanted to bite her. I wanted to lick her. But though the fur was as soft as silk, there was no flesh to lick and bite. If the Dracule shed as much as any cat I'd ever known, I was not going to make the mistake of biting her.

"Show me your other shape," I said, brushing my cheek across the curve of her hip. "Show me your other form, Dracule, and I'l grant your request."

I would have never said such a thing to Renata. I would have never spoken such bold words laced with demand to her, my lover and my Queen. But the Dracule was not my Queen, and though we made love, she was neither friend nor lover.

Though Renata had broken my heart, something in me wanted to trust her again. Yes, even at the risk of being broken again. In love, there were always risks. I was not blind. I had no doubts of the risk I took. But if I were honest with myself, I found my longing far outweighed those doubts. Whether that was the deep soul binding of Siren and vampire at play, or the years of engrained servitude, I did not know. Then again, perhaps it was simply my nature.

Love had a strange way of dis...o...b..bulating the self and breaking any preconceived notions. The Dracule was not my Siren. She had not earned my complete and utter surrender, let alone the submission of my body and heart. I was not bound to her through magic, pa.s.sion, and politics in the way that I was with Renata.