After dinner, Patrick left the hall and Constance approached Robby.
“I think Patrick and I would like to welcome Turning Leaves to the settlement this evening.”
The morose girl said nothing.
Constance hoped she wasn’t in too much shock to enjoy their welcome.
“Of course, Constance, I’ll see her at breakfast, then.”
Robby brushed a barely registering kiss on his Indian’s cheek and left the hall.
Deciding to avoid a scene, the Vampire gave the girl a small push to follow her.
Turning Leaves stood and accompanied her onto the street.
“Patrick and I are so happy you decided to join our little Clan.
We wanted to welcome you the first night, but felt it wouldn’t be fair to Robby.”
They entered a large home at the end of the street and Constance guided her to the back bedroom.
Patrick sat on the bed, already naked.
Turning Leaves trembled but could neither move nor speak.
“I think it’s best if we encourage her to receive our welcome, the first time,” Constance said softly.
Patrick agreed.
“Robby seems to have the girl quite mind fucked already.
I hope her brain doesn’t snap.”
“No, I’ve been studying her.
I think she still hopes to escape.
Her thoughts are panicked but lucid,” Constance replied as she folded her gown over the back of a chair.
She joined her husband on the bed.
Patrick stared at the silent girl and her fingers moved to the laces on her dress.
It fell to the floor and his eyes ringed red at the sight of the harness bruising.
“Magnificent,” he whispered.
After she removed her moccasins, they ordered her to turn around.
Her long black hair swayed across her hips and Constance gripped her mate’s hand with agitated arousal at the sight of the welts.
“Such a shame, I was hoping to introduce her to the pleasures of forbidden sex.
Robby’s been busy,” Patrick murmured.
Turning Leaves fought the compulsion to lie on the bed between them.
With two Vampires controlling her, reluctance to the tryst only showed in her frightened eyes.
Patrick’s soft lips seduced her mouth while Constance lowered to her breast. The woman’s lips sucked and her tongue teased her tip to a hardened bud. “She’s so firm, so young.”
She blew gently causing beads to rise around the dark areola.
Her golden hair spread around her as she lowered her mouth again.
Turning Leaves was confused by the passion mounting in her.
There was a piercing burn on her breast as Constance continued to gently suck.
Patrick smelled the blood.
He left the girl’s mouth and traveled down to her thighs, smelling the young woman’s arousal glistening along her bared mound. He gently spread her thighs and licked her length, enjoying her passionate shudder before sinking his fangs into her artery.
Turning Leaves jumped a little at the unexpected brief pain, dissipating quickly from their venom.
The aroused senses in their fangs secreted the numbing juice as they were stroked with each pull of life giving elixir.
No one suspected the Vampires had turned.
They carefully controlled their emotions and desires and spent most of their time hidden in the safety of the their home.
They made brief visits to the hall and they gorged themselves before they traveled so they could make it through the celebrations.
Robby and Linda knew what they had become and reveled in the same perversions.
The Vampires’ change began when Lonnie had tried to kill Amelia. Constance found him standing over her with the knife still dripping her blood on the ground while the young girl moaned and begged for him to stop.
The young Vampire couldn’t control her urge.
She ripped through the girl’s chest drinking the faint pumps of blood still struggling through her heart.
Patrick walked in on the scene and slammed Lonnie against the wall before he could run to the settlement.
At first, he’d thought Constance had been responsible for all of the mutilation.
He gently tried to pull his mate back and her eyes burned red as she hissed at him.
The Vampire within him realized his mate was free and it triggered the response Patrick could not control.
He tore into the girl’s neck.
Every time Lonnie tried to make it to the door, one of the creatures would turn and compel him to slam into the wall across from the exit.
One time, he hit so hard his shoulder dislocated.
He sat huddled on the floor as the beasts fed.
By the time the girl was drained, there was no place on her body that had not been bitten or torn.
Lonnie stared at the ragged corpse that was once his beautiful, shy Amelia.
The Vampires scanned his emotions and recoiled at the pain and fear of their actions.
They realized Lonnie’s mind was gone.
Patrick took the knife and sliced the body to ribbons, disguising the fang marks as best he could.
Constance sat in the corner crying at what she’d done.
The settlement believed the crazed man was responsible for all of it and hastily agreed to send him to the Indians.
Constance quietly discussed her loss of control with Patrick and nervously vowed not to let it happen again.
Patrick didn’t tell her that once the Vampire took over, the human soul could never completely contain it again.
It’s thirst for pain and blood would overrule what the human surrogate wanted.
They were lucky Robby and Linda had a natural thirst for sadistic pleasures and enabled them to keep what they had become hidden for a decade.
Patrick and Constance were in a sexual frenzy with their new Indian woman. When their initial craving was satisfied, Patrick knelt and plunged deeply into her bruised channel.
Turning leaves uttered a whimper, but didn’t move until she was compelled to constrict the muscles in her core.
Constance rose and straddled her face.
As her arms wrapped around her mate’s thrusting form and their lips met, she felt her cream flow onto the Indian’s lapping tongue.
It was everything they thought it would be.
The Vampires’ tongues stroked each other’s aroused fangs, causing them to plunge in quicker movements.
Constance ordered the girl to lick and suck her clit and she felt spasms in her core.
They exploded together in each other’s arms.
They rolled off the girl and spent the rest of the evening tasting her throat, breasts, groin and wrists.
By dawn, Turning Leaves was so weak and pale, Constance was alarmed and forced her to drink some of the juice she had waiting on the nightstand.
They licked and healed the piercing bites, but left the bruising, knowing Robby would enjoy it.
Patrick carried her back to Robby at dawn, before the rest of the settlers had risen.
“We had a most enjoyable, rejuvenating evening. We will require her to visit once a week.
Her blood is strong.”
“Happy to oblige, Patrick.”
Robby gazed at the naked form on the bed as Patrick handed him her clothes.
She was still enthralled and her frightened eyes stared at the ceiling, but she heard everything being said and she remembered all that had happened.
“I think I’ll let her rest today,” Robby decided out loud.
“Make sure she drinks plenty of juice.
We don’t want her getting run down on us,” Patrick reminded him as he headed back to Constance.
As the first snows fell on the settlement, Turning Leaves’ life had become weary monotony during the day and torturous liaisons between the Vampires and Robby at night.
She’d stopped speaking almost all together and stopped running from her companion.
Her mind drifted in escape to her life as an Indian girl, playing by the stream and daydreaming in the woods.
She saw herself flirting with the young warriors.
She learned to cope with the travesty her journey had become.
CHAPTER 8
THE TURNING
While the Indians celebrated Clear Skies journey to a man, and Turning Leaves began her journey at Patrick’s settlement, Lucien’s Clan knew it was time for their companions’ turning.
The short, cold winter days would make it easier for them to adjust to losing their ability to walk in the sun.
It would take decades to build up resistance to withstand the light of a full summer day.
They decided to wait until they were back for a week from the Harvest Celebration.
That gave Lucien time to work with Mason and build a cage to house a Vampire whose mate didn’t survive the turning.
Ariel was as nervous as her friends about the impending conversion.
The Vampires explained very little about it, leading Paula into a frightened misconception that they quelled.
They decided it must be quite painful and dangerous.
As the time grew near, she realized Lucien’s agitation was fear.
He was afraid she wouldn’t survive it.
Lucien explained the mating between his Vampire nature and her.
He told her that during the turning, he may not even be there.
The Vampire would completely control the event with his desire for pain and blood.
“I’ve been with him before, Lucien.
He and I, we have a sort of understanding.
He won’t hurt me,” She tried to reassure him.
“He will, Ariel.
He has to,” Lucien said sadly.
“I know he likes to feel me in pain.
I don’t like it, but I know.
I know he likes me scared.
The more terrified I am, the more it arouses him.
But, Lucien, he also wants me to desire him.
He won’t let me be destroyed.
He’ll give me back to you to heal when he’s satisfied.” Ariel whispered with conviction.
“Lucien, I’ve always known, I think, that it wouldn’t be you in charge of this.
In a way, it’s a kind of gift he’s giving you for allowing him to share your experiences.
He wants both of you to be happy.
It will be alright, Lucien.”
Ariel led the seduction to release the beast while watching his deep blue eyes disappear behind the Vampire’s red gaze.
She felt the hands on her waist turn to claws as he gripped her and stared into the blood red gaze of undiluted desire.
The Vampire was angry it had been denied even a moment of this night, his night, with her.
In a fluid motion, he threw her beneath him.
He bared his fangs and growled his dissatisfaction.
Ariel knew the Vampire would not want a calm façade, so she didn’t pretend to hide her fear.
She realized Lucien had always been a part of this, until tonight.
I’ll be alright. You’ll come back to me, Lucien,
she thought fearfully, looking at the wild beast now pinning her hands over her head.
Ariel tried to squirm out of his grasp and his claws dug painfully deep into her wrists, drawing blood.
The scent brought a deep rumble of pleasure from inside the Vampire.
He leaned forward and lapped the thick fluid.
When he sat back on his haunches and smiled, she saw a small drop of red trailing from the corner of his mouth.
He wanted more.
He felt the throbbing of the pulse in her throat where her blood flowed quickly through the vein.
He lunged toward the source and his fangs sliced through the skin.
Ariel screamed in terror.
This was no game. She felt him drawing deep long drags.
“Please, you don’t want to kill me,” she whimpered.
The Vampire stopped sucking for a moment.
He resumed with a gentle pull, a slight tugging sensation.
Her body responded.
Dampness seeped from her core in light contractions matching his feeding pulls.
He let go of her wrists, retracted his sharp claws and rested his hand on her shoulder, still pinning her.
The other hand started stimulating her sex, fueling her arousal.
He closed the wounds on her neck and moved toward her breast, tightly capturing her nipple between his teeth.
She felt his fangs pierce her mound and he rested his head on her chest quietly suckling light pulls of her blood, content.
His fingers continued spreading her juices, randomly seeking her channel or stroking her clit.
Her hips began an unintentional answer to his manipulation and he sighed, his warm breath breezing across her breast.
They spent long moments this way until one of her small hands started stroking his hair.
He nuzzled deeper into her mound.
He’s enjoying this.
It confused her.
The Vampire was terror and pain, yet, here he was suckling like a babe.
Reluctantly, he licked the wound on her mound and rose, kneeling between her thighs.
His engorged cock pointed absently at her entrance.
The Vampire studied her sex, spreading her slit with the rings, inhaling deeply.
He ran a finger down her gash and stuck it between his lips, sucking noisily.
He leaned forward and started sliding his wet tongue down her folds.
Her body writhed, convulsing with his strokes.
When it entered her core, her muscles tightened around him.
He thrust with delight, pinning her hips with his hands.
She tried to delay her orgasm but it crested through her with such power, the Vampire momentarily lost his grip on her.
He sat up and stared at her as the spasm subsided, then he plunged to the hilt in one powerful stroke.
Ariel shrieked at the unexpected impaling then thrust her hips forward to match the connection.
The Vampire’s skin on his cock folded back and the sucking extension reached blindly toward her cream.
Ariel was exhausted when the Vampire was finally sated.
He had fed off her and forced her orgasms so many times, she was weak.
When he at last erupted deep inside her, she could hardly squeeze him dry.
Drowsy, she opened her eyes when she felt his passion released.
The Vampire held his arms out to her.
He took hold of her wrists, pulled her slowly up and hugged her close to his chest, protectively.
She saw the claws exude from his hand.
The sharp talon gently lifted her chin.
She stared into the intense red eyes.
“I love you, too,” she whispered.
He gave her a brief kiss.
He put a hand behind her head and using his claw sliced through the vein on his neck, pushing her toward the dark liquid.
Ariel didn’t fight him.
She experienced a momentary gag as she forced herself to swallow the thick liquid.
The first swallows felt like they were burning through her stomach.
Quickly, the feeling passed and she had an intense desire to draw as much of the sticky fluid into her as she could hold.
She latched onto his neck, feeding hungrily on his blood.
Muddied flashbacks strobed through her mind of growing up, college, the campsite, the branding and finally to her time at the settlement.
Her claiming by the Vampire was a slow crawl through time then a spinning sensation as she returned to the present.
The Vampire pulled her protesting mouth away with his strong arms.
He could feel Lucien, the man, fighting to take over and hold her.
The Vampire refused to relent his time with his mate.
He would care for his delicate woman.
She would know it was him that comforted her through her torment.
The first painful spasm hit within minutes.
The Vampire panicked then calmed himself as he pulled her into his embrace, holding her close to his chest while she screamed.
Anyone walking down the streets of the settlement would have heard the screaming from each of the Vampires’ homes.
The settlers didn’t walk the streets that night, nor did they return to their own homes.
They talked quietly in the hall, praying all the mates would survive.
They harbored silent terror at the thought of one of the Vampires’ chosen not living through the conversion.
The pain the Clansman would feel after centuries of waiting to find their mate would be a dangerous situation for everyone.
So, quiet discussions of the Harvest Celebration, things that needed to be done around the settlement and what provisions were still needed for winter occupied their speeches, but not uneasy settlers’ thoughts.
Hannah nervously joked about wishing she had brought some marijuana from her not so secret garden.
Several people seriously agreed.
The wait was feeding their fear, and every scream that passed through the door had people alarmed.
Ariel felt seizing contractions of her insides as they died to the slower pace her new existence would require.
Her intestines felt like cramping, corded ropes and even her womb felt like it had turned to a heavy, weighted stone.
She panicked and trembled at what pain she would feel as her lungs and heart were compromised.
She wailed in agony as the Vampire held her and stroked her long auburn hair.
Instinctively, he knew to hold her as still as he could, even as she thrashed to avoid the pain.
She moaned for him to make it stop and he cooed nonsense gurgles and kissed her forehead.
He felt her stiffen as her lungs seized.
It took all his strength to hold her through the gasping struggle for breath as they turned into hardened muscle.
Finally, they completed their transformation and he stroked her back, guiding her breathing until her panic calmed.
Her tears coated his chest, mixing with the sweat of his exertions to keep her still.
He’d crossed his strong thighs over hers, trapping her lower body and keeping her from curling up like she wanted to do.
When it hit her heart, her scream froze in her throat.
The organ fought to pump its human rhythm while the blood coursing through it hardened and slowed it to a sluggish pulse.
She clawed frantically in throes of death and it took all his concentration to hold her through the agonizing fear and pain.
He was terrified during the several minutes it took for her to adjust.
She was exhausted and reduced to whimpers as the new virus affected her limbs. The last transformation hit her senses and she cringed at the loud breath of the Vampire holding her.
She squinted at the candle light as it became a beacon of bright light even penetrating her closed eyelids.
Her nose smelled the wax drippings and singe of the wick across the room. It also registered the comforting scent of the beast holding her.
She felt the painful thrusting of her new fangs as they distended then disappeared uncontrollably, barely giving the new devices time to work the secreting venom to the surface to heal her.
Blood poured down her chin.
The Vampire dipped his head and licked her clean.
At last, it was over.
A few remnant shudders wracked through her, but she had survived as a wrecked, exhausted vision … his mate.
The Vampire reached to the man and expressed his joy.
The loneliness had ended.
His beautiful Ariel would walk forever by his side.
The Vampire cried with overwhelming emotion, feeling the man fighting to reclaim her.
Angrily, he held her tightly, not wanting his time with her to end. Ariel sensed his struggle.
She ran her weary fingers down his chest.
“It’s okay,” she whispered weakly.
“You can let me go to him. You know I’ll always come back to you.”
She saw the sorrow in his eyes as he retreated and Lucien’s dark eyes looked into her gray-blue gaze.
“I’m so sorry, little one,” his grip softened on her shoulders.
Ariel smiled.
“I knew it was going to probably hurt, but Lucien, that really sucked,” she laughed wearily.
“There’s no way to describe the pain,” he agreed.