Christopher: Blood Brotherhood – Erotic Paranormal Dark Fantasy Romance (5 page)

Hector liked that they noticed that he’d been working out. He and Ruben had taken to using the gym. Not so much his son, but he kept him company as he worked. But there was trouble afoot and he had to pay attention.

“Did you see that thing walking around the neighborhood this morning? The one that they’d been working with? Benton, I think his name was. Damn, but there was some messed up crap going on there.” Buddy agreed with Tony and they started looking around the lab. “I haven’t had a decent meal in about a month that I haven’t had to cook for myself. I was eating flowers I found growing in my yard, I’m so hungry, until I found that stash up the way. And that other woman, the one that takes around them meals? She said that we can only have one a day of the shit that she cooks. There isn’t much to go around she told me, when I know better. I think she’s full of it, and I’m going to go there and steal it all tonight.”

Hector thought that he would have a better look around for others like this woman to bring back to the other world. These men would kill their own mother if they could profit from it. He was sorry that food was not plentiful here. But really, he didn’t understand that either. There was magic about, and they should have been able to get what they needed to prepare their own meals.

Both of the men had worked in this lab when it had been a fully functioning place. One of them had been his assistant for a time. He knew that Buddy could come up with whatever it was that Benton was talking about if he only tried, and that frightened him just a little. If either of these men wanted, they could put the other realm into more trouble with just a little effort. And that just would not do.

“What’s this?” Hector moved closer to see what they were looking at, and he nearly fell back when he saw it. There was another vial there, and this one was full. “Hey, you think this is the shit he’s been looking for? You heard him. Something about a drug? I bet it is. I’m betting he’ll pay plenty to have it back too, don’t you think?”

“Yeah. That’s what he was saying. What do you know about this? You think it’s something that we can turn a profit on maybe?” Tony turned as Buddy did when something fell over, to see that Benton had joined them.

“We were just leaving.” Hector wanted to tell them to run, get out, but Tony was backing up deeper into the building as he continued talking to Benton. “We found this and was going to leave it for you. But we was going out. Okay?”

“I don’t think so. You will stay here, do as you’re told. But where have you been? Hiding? That’s not terribly nice of you, now is it? Do you know if there are others, ones that can serve me while we work?” Neither man moved, nor did Hector as he watched them. Something had been decidedly scary about Benton, even before this whole thing. Now he was fucking scary, as Remy would say. “Come, come. We have work to do. I have something I need for you to do for me.”

Hector left the lab when it was apparent that neither man was going to live through this. Benton had lost control of himself twice when they told him that they wanted to leave, and he’d killed Tony and the other man with a swipe of his large clawed hand. Life for Buddy, Hector thought, was not going to be good, and he might wish that he’d been killed instead of his friends before long.

Gathering what he could of the plants and herbs on his land, Hector had his bag full, as well as the several boxes he’d found along the way in his search. He’d even gone back to his home, the one he’d shared with his family, and was surprised to find it just as he’d left it. The food had been taken, of course, even his blankets, but his home looked well. Going through the house he found most of what he wanted, and all from the list that Ruben had asked him for. Pictures of his mother were also put in the several boxes that he was going to take back with him.

Things, flowers, and herbs were just lying about now, most of it neglected to the point where it was dead or dying. But he thought that if he could make even half of the things grow, he’d be able to help the others of the new realm he was living in. He was glad that Remy had made it so that he could bring things with him this time. It would have been hard to do this otherwise.

~~~

Kate watched the children run and play with the little puppies. Even the parents had come out to enjoy the sight, pulling out lawn chairs to sit on and even a few blankets. It would be cold soon, and she would bet that these were the last few days of warm weather they would have for a while.

Chris came and stood beside her, and she turned to leave. “Please don’t.” She paused and asked him why. “I don’t know. I just wanted to talk to you. You and I, we seem to be...I guess last man out. And I wanted to talk to you about what you said yesterday. That is, if you don’t mind. I’m sort of lost here, and I think you can help me.”

“I said a great many things yesterday, Chris. Not as many as most, but I did speak.” He laughed and told her it was about the accident. “I see. And are you ready to think on what really happened, or are you still mired in grief? I can’t help you if you don’t believe me. But I think you know that.”

“I don’t know that there was much in the way of grief for my wife, if you want to know the truth. For my child, if it was mine, but not for her. I think for a long time before the accident, I figured we were not suited. But how did you know?” She didn’t say anything, because she was pretty sure that he knew the answer to that as well. “I think her father killed her and blamed me because it didn’t end the way he’d hoped. It was me he wanted dead, not her, and he hired those men—the ones that he said weren’t there—to do it for him.”

“You know the answer to that as well as I do, don’t you? Do you remember the accident?” He said that he had always remembered it. “Then you wish for me to look? To see what you couldn’t before? I promise you, there will be no pain for you. I’ll just look at what you saw and felt that day.”

“I think so...I do. I want to know. The grief, as you said, is killing me. Not for the death, but that I might have caused it.” She nodded and asked him when. “I don’t know. Do you have to have some sort of dark room? Maybe I have to lie down?”

“No, you’re fine this way.” The thought of him lying down made her body warm. It had been a very long time since she’d had any desire for a male. More so since her body had seemed to wake for a touch. Reaching out her hand, just to touch his head, she moaned slightly when he put his hand over hers. “Don’t. You can’t touch me like this. I can’t think.”

“Yes you can. Like me, you just don’t want to think.” He pulled her closer. It did work better, her ability to see into his mind, if they were close, but they didn’t need to be body to body as they were now. “I can smell you. You’re warming to me. Your body is responding to mine the way that mine is to you.”

Closing her eyes against the onslaught of feelings he was pulling from her, Kate tried to concentrate on what she could find. As soon as she found the deep memories, her body stiffened when his did.

“You were arguing.” He said that they always were. “You believed then that the child was not yours. You asked her about it that day. It was why you were arguing. She finally told you the truth.”

“She said that it wasn’t. I’d forgotten about that until now. She told me that I’d been taken, that not only wasn’t the kid mine, but she wasn’t planning to keep it either.” Kate wrapped her arm around his shoulders when he lifted her to his body, his cock to her pussy, her breasts to his chest. “Tell me what you see. I need to...I need to know.”

“There was a car. It was fast, coming at you from the opposite direction.” Chris said that he saw it every time he closed his eyes, but he’d been told there was no one else. “Two men were in the front, one in the back. See them? They were on the wrong side of the road, in your lane, as you came around the bend. They knew you were there, you thought. Not only that, but you had a feeling that they were there to kill you all.”

“I don’t think they stopped or slowed when they saw us. I think...I think that Pella knew; she smiled when I told her to brace herself.” Kate told him that they hadn’t slowed down. Then to show him, she paused his memories on the faces of the men in the front. “They knew us. I know them. They worked for her father, Pella’s father. And they were there to kill us.”

“They ran you off the road. But you swerved in the other direction, into the hillside, instead of the other side where the embankment was, taking the impact on your side and not your wife’s.” Chris said that it had put them in a tailspin, tossing them all over the road until they hit the guardrail. “Pella was hit by their car when it came back around; they’d been put in a free for all as well. When your car swung around to them again, they rammed their car into your wife’s side and she took the brunt of the accident rather than you. It was not the way that they had planned it. Both men in the front were hurt, but they managed to drive away.”

“So they hit us hoping to kill me and not her. But why?” Kate pulled her hand away and he stopped her before she could pull her body away too. “Don’t leave me. I want...I don’t know what I want, but I don’t want to be alone. Talk to me. I know you know more than this. What happened to those men? Someone would have been pissed that things didn’t go as planned. Where did they go?”

“They’re all dead. All three of them were killed by your father-in-law as soon as he found out from them that you’d lived but his daughter had not. Had the child lived, he would have been satisfied…bringing up the child in his image would have been fine with him. But his daughter and grandchild both were killed that day.” He nodded. “The child…you know now that it wasn’t yours. That she was trying to have you raise another man’s child. At least until her father came around or killed you. Which she was hoping for from the start.”

“I would have raised him as my own. Gladly. Not for her, but because...because whoever the man was, he wasn’t going to be in his life and I was.” Kate nodded, her body still wrapped up in his. “Will you let me kiss you, Kate?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, do you? I mean, we don’t even like each other.” He leaned closer, his breath warm and sweet against her mouth. “I have to tell you something. You might already know.”

“You’re my mate.” She nodded. “Yeah, I’m a little slow, but I figured it out this morning when I was in the shower and thought about you and connected. I can only do that with my mate, and I was never able to do that with Pella. I thought...well, it matters little what I thought now. But I do want to kiss you.”

“Because of the changes in our bodies you can tell that we’re one.” He asked her what had happened to her. “Sigils are where there were none before…not a great many, but a few of them. I have strength that I didn’t before, as well as...oh, Chris. Will you please kiss me?”

“Gladly. But that’s not what I meant.” He brushed his mouth gently over hers. It was quick, unsatisfying, yet made her know that there was a great deal more. “I meant about your mate. You said that you didn’t suit.”

“He was my mate, but not all of them are fairy book happy. Mine wasn’t. He hated me as much as I did him. Ben was a hateful and mean man who thought the world owed him everything because he was who he thought he was.” He told her his wasn’t either as he kissed her again. This time he took her lower lip into his mouth and nibbled while he lifted her up by her ass and turned with her in his arms. “Are we going somewhere?”

“To my bed.” Nodding, Kate moved her mouth to his throat, tasting his warm skin while he took the stairs two at a time. She wasn’t sure where his rooms were, but they seemed too far away all of a sudden. “You’re going to make it so we don’t get there if you keep that up. Not that I want you to quit, but Christ almighty woman, I need you.” Kate couldn’t help it, she giggled.

As soon as they were in the room, her clothing just disappeared. Kate supposed that she might have taken them off or he had, but there was no time to dwell on such mundane things right now. When he touched her, ran his fingers down her throat to her breast, Kate felt her nipple pucker tightly until it was the most painful pleasure she’d ever felt.

“I want to see all of you. Touch you as well, but I want to see you.” Kate nodded and then moaned, closing her eyes when he leaned to her and took her breast into his mouth. His teeth were sharp, grazing the tip of her nipple until he suckled it into his mouth hard. When he lifted his head and smiled at her, it was all she could do not to beg him to do it again.

“Please, I need you.” She was wet. Kate could feel her juices as they moved slowly down her thigh. Squeezing her legs together, she heard him chuckle slightly and opened her eyes to look at him.

“You cannot hide from me.” When he dropped to his knees in front of her, she nearly came from just seeing him there. “I’m going to enjoy this. More than I think I ever dreamed I would.”

She was too. And when he slid his fingers into her, Kate came. It was the first climax she’d ever had, and she was glad now that this man was the one to bring it to her.

Chapter 5

Chris tasted her, feasted on her like he’d never eaten before, neither meal nor woman. He supposed, in a way, he hadn’t. Now with his mate, he knew the real meaning of sex, of tasting a woman, of his woman. As she curled her fingers into his hair, holding him to her, Chris marveled at her scent, her taste, and wondered why he’d not realized what she was to him sooner. But even as he drank from her, he was sure that there had never been another before they’d come together, and no one would ever come after her.

“Chris. Please, I can’t stand up any more. I need to sit down, lie down. Please?” He knew that her legs were trembling, her body shaking with desire. He drank from her more, teasing her clit with his tongue and teeth as he held her to him. When she begged him again, telling him that she wasn’t able to stand, he stood up and pulled her body to his, lifting her up so that her legs were wrapped round him. He could take her this way if he wanted.

“Mine.” She nodded as she wrapped around him higher, her legs tight around his hips, her arms around his shoulders. “Tell me, Kate. Say that you’re mine.”

“Yours. I belong to no other but you.” He took them to the bed then, crawled up it with her tight against his body, his cock aching to be inside of her. He wanted to make this last, make love to her slowly and with reverence, but she was begging him to finish her, to fill her, and he knew that he would do anything she wanted.

Entering her felt like he’d come home…his body, his mind all in line where it felt like they should have been. His cock not only fit inside of her, but seemed to know, too, that there would be no other woman but this one. His body, his heart, all of him filled her now, not just with sexual contact but with heart and soul. He moved in and out of her slowly as she touched him with her mouth and fingers. Her hands danced along his skin, making him more aware of her than he’d ever been of anyone in his life. Every touch of her fingers had him craving more of her. Not just her touch, but all of her.

“I need to taste you.” He did her as well. Lifting his head from her ample breast, he looked down at her as he continued to take her, his strokes slow and strong as she pulled his throat to her mouth. “When I bite you, you and I will be one. Forever. All right?”

“We are one now, my Kate. We always have been.”

Her words were muffled by her mouth over his pounding pulse. And when she licked him, Chris knew that he was going to come and there would be no holding back. His own teeth shifted in his mouth, his cat making Chris aware that his mate was his as well. As soon as she sank her fangs into his throat, Chris cried out, emptying himself into her even as he bit down on her shoulder to make the connection between them complete.

Nothing could have prepared him for the emotions that came to him. And her memories. He could see them, running through his mind like a fast moving movie. Too fast to make out, but he knew that they were his now, too. When she came again, screaming out his name in his mind, Chris let his own body release, feeling the climax through every cell in his body.

Kate came twice more as they drank from each other. He wanted to come again, his body filling again to do just that, when he felt through their connection that she was close again. Her thoughts were his; her emotions—and there were plenty of them right now—bombarded his. As he lifted his head, he looked at her, watched her face while she came, his body becoming not just hers but a part of them both. Even as he emptied into her again, feeling her tighten around him as she released as well, Chris knew that he was in love with her and would be forever. He knew then that Pella had been nothing at all to him.

Dropping atop her, he felt the pain in his arms. Then his back. He knew what it was…he was being marked again. But when she began to thrash under him, he remembered that she would be marked too, and lifted his body from hers to hold her while the pain took her.

Her screams tore at his heart. Blood covered them both as they were tatted by some unknown force. Wings, he knew, were being formed. Markings would proclaim them as one, and magic that would only be theirs would also be formed. As she continued to be inked, all he could think about was that if he could, he’d take the pain into his own body and bear it for her. Chris held her while she sobbed and told her how sorry he was.

When she fell into a fitful sleep, Chris got up to change the bed linen. As he washed up, keeping an eye on her the whole time, he wondered what had happened to Remy and Skylar. He knew that they too would have gotten some of the markings that he and Kate now had.

As he made his way back into the bedroom, Chris made a sort of observation that the room was different. It was bigger for one thing, and he now had two closets instead of just the one. Even the linens that were forever in plentiful supply in his closet were now doubled, and he thought the towels were a little larger and more plentiful. As he pulled the bloodied sheets off the opposite side of the bed from the one she was on, he thought of other things as well. Like what would happen to his cat now.

Almost as if he’d called for him, his cat stirred along his body. He’d been there his whole life, saving his ass more times than he wanted to admit, so when he stirred, almost becoming a part of his skin, Chris paused in what he was doing and looked around for a mirror. He looked at Kate when she said his name.

“He’s there. I see him.” Chris nodded, too stunned to think what she meant by that. “I mean, it’s like he’s a separate part of you, like another being. Don’t you think?”

“He feels that way as well. I need to shift.” Kate sat up on the bed, pulling the dirty sheet over her when he let his cat take him. Chris knew there was a difference there, too.

“You’re beautiful. I never...you are different, like you said. Were you always this big?” She was sitting up now, leaning against the back of the bed and watching him. “I mean, even your coloring is more intense. Like you.... Never mind. I’m being silly.”

No. I was larger than a regular panther, but I feel...I feel fucking huge.
She laughed and told him he was.
And stronger too.

When she got up, pulling the sheet around her, he was disappointed but watched her walk to the closet. He was ready to tell her that there wasn’t a mirror there, but as soon as she opened the door, he could see one. Moving to it, careful not to knock things over, he looked at the cat staring back at him.

She was right about the colors. His dark coat was a blue black now, shinier than it had been before. He could see small spots of lighter color now where his coat had been simply black before. But it was his face that he took the final steps to see up close.

His eyes were bluer. Not just the blue of what he’d always thought of as a summer sky, but richer. Like the sun was shining on the waters of a large body of water and he was reflecting them back. His muzzle was thicker too, his jawline longer. Opening his mouth, he really wasn’t surprised to find his teeth bigger and sharper looking, and there were more of them, it seemed. Turning to look at Kate when she sat near him on the floor, he could put his head over hers, he was that much larger than he’d been before.

Shift for me. Become a cat.

She stood up then, dropping the sheet, and let the animal take her. He had no idea if she was bigger than she’d been before, but he’d bet on it. And like his coat, hers was black as sin and just as thick. Kate rubbed her head to his neck, and he felt his cat approve. Whatever had happened to them when they came together was making them better. But when she moved along his body and up the other side so that they were facing the mirror, Chris only had a few seconds to marvel at how beautiful they looked before dizziness swamped him.

~~~

Remy felt something roll over him, like something had hit him from behind and did it twice more until he could no longer stand. He fell back in the large truck he’d been helping unload when he felt the incredible pain of being marked again. He knew that was what it was; it had happened to him before. He had no idea where it might be going on…as far as he could tell, his body was fully marked as it was. And when Skylar came to him, her body stiff with pain too, he moved as close to her as he could before he dropped to his knees. This time, whatever markings they were getting were more painful than any he’d had before. He tried to sit up twice, but all he managed to do was hurt himself more. Remy couldn’t even get to Skylar, and that hurt him more than anything.

After about twenty minutes, he was able to move without his body hurting enough to take his breath away. He was glad now that he’d come out here to burn off some energy and was alone in the big truck. To have someone see him taken to his knees would have been embarrassing to say the least. When he was sitting up, still hurting but not nearly as bad, Skylar came to sit with him. Neither of them said anything for several minutes. He wondered aloud if she’d been marked as well.

“Yes. I feel like I’ve been run over by this truck. Several times.” He told her he did as well. “What the fuck was that? I’m assuming that it has something to do with Chris and Kate, right?”

“Yes. I would...it really hurt this time. I will only admit that to you, but I have never been in so much pain before.” The sound of screams had him standing, pulling his sword as he did so when he looked out across the yard to the house. There were children there, none of them in any danger that he could immediately see, but he could tell that something was wrong. Parents were moving toward their offspring at an alarming rate. “Skylar, is there something in the heavens coming after them?”

“No,” she laughed. “But I think we just got a new fighting machine by way of the two of them.” He looked at her, not understanding her humor, when she pointed to his left. The cat coming toward them was as big as he was. Not just wide, though that was enough, but tall too. He’d bet that on its hind legs it would stand taller than he was. “I think that Chris might be able to take on Benton himself.”

“‘Tis not just Chris.” Skylar asked him what he meant, and he got down from the truck, putting his sword away, and stood in front of the cat. “Kate and Chris, they are this cat, if I don’t miss my guess. They have...I would think that they’ve merged to be one.”

The cat, black as the night and as big as a larger car, sat down in front of him. His head now was at Remy’s chest, and he was glad that for once something this large was on his side. And when he opened his mouth, the cat seemingly yawning, Remy thanked whatever powers there were that he did not have to stand and be this beast’s meal. For it would be a painfully slow death, he’d bet.

“What shall we call you? I’m thinking that you’re both there, yes?” Chris answered him that they were, and he had no idea what they were. “You’re big, I’ll tell you that much. Have you seen yourself?”

No. Just...the mirror wasn’t big enough to show us like this. I’m thinking that...if my paws are any indication, we’re twice the size I was alone.
Remy told him he thought so as well.
Remy, this is some fucked up shit.
He didn’t know exactly what that meant, but he thought that Chris had the right of it.

Since I’m an elite shifter, we thought maybe we could see if Chris is as well. We were wondering if we could have you watch us and see if we can change to other animals. As well as merge again.

Remy glanced up when he saw Nate coming toward them. He hadn’t been out much since he’d been staying here, and Remy was glad to see him. All of them turned to watch the man as he shifted to a panther, his shift leaving nothing behind as in clothing as he thought should happen.

Nate stared at the cat, his body stiff with something akin to fear, Remy thought. Before Remy could guess his intent, the big cat lay down before the bigger animal. Remy watched with Skylar as Nate rolled to his back and exposed his belly to them. He had no idea what that meant in the animal world.

“He’s submitting.” He looked over at Rick when he spoke. “The smaller cat, Nate I’m assuming, is submitting to the bigger one. It’s the way they would do things in nature. Cats, especially panthers, are a lonely lot, but when they’re together, they’re called a leap. I’m thinking that whoever this one is, he’s got himself a pack now.”

“It’s Chris and Kate. They’re one cat.”

Rick laughed. Remy supposed in a way it was funny. But he wondered how they thought of this. When Kate asked again if they could come apart and try another animal, he stopped them when Hector came toward them. The man looked very upset.

Making his way toward him, watching for anything that might be after the older man, Remy thought the man had come in contact with Dolin or Ward, and he hoped that he was all right. Chris, as a man, walked beside him as they closed the distance between them and Hector.

“We keep our clothing, I guess. Or at least we have some when we shift to this form. Who knows what else might happen?” Remy nodded and looked back at Kate, who was coming with them as well. “I don’t know what happened. I’ve been marked again. I know that we both have wings and that...Christ, Remy, this is scary.”

“Aye it is, and me too. Along with Skylar.” They were standing in front of Hector now, and Remy asked him if he was all right. “You’ve the look of a man who has seen a ghost. Nothing happened to you there, did it? I didn’t want you to go. I think you should have listened to me, yes?”

“I’m fine. It’s all fine. I think. Ward and Dolin are both dead. I believe that Benton killed them. And they’ve been gone for some time, so I’m not sure. Their bodies have been torn apart, spread out in different areas that...it makes me wonder what has happened there. He’s insane…Benton has lost his mind. Or what little there was of it when this began. Also, he’s looking for people to make a drug for him. I have no idea what it could be, but I mean...I have a drug here that I’m going to have analyzed, but I think it’s the only reason that he’s still alive.”