Netherworld II: Blood Potion No. 9 (3 page)

Tristan snorted. “In that case, be very
careful.” He motioned to someone behind me, and a lovely brunette
female vampire, perpetually in her mid-twenties until a wayward
flame or the sun found her, stepped up to us. “Wendy, would you
call Jason and tell him I need him to channel Dan within the
hour?”

She gave him a quick nod and had a cell
phone to her ear before a second could click by. Isabella doesn’t
channel male ghosts. Way too intimate.

I’d seen Wendy around before, but she
usually sat at a desk. “Did you give Penny the night off?” I asked
Tristan.

Tristan stared at me long and hard, and
I realized his extra vampireness this evening had not as much to do
with me as I’d initially suspected. “Penny suffered her final death
early this evening.”

My mouth dropped. I hadn’t been close
to Penny, but she’d been Tristan’s aide the entire time … seven
months … I’d known him. A newer vamp, she’d had the bad taste to
wear black, not at all flattering against her bluish-white skin.
She’d been a secretary in life, and her skills as an aide were
second to none.

No one knows what happens to vampires
when they are dead for real and for good. They never return as
ghosts. They just disappear.

“What happened?” I asked, my voice
hushed with respectful shock.

Tristan’s lips narrowed and his fangs
glimmered into view for an instant. He kept most of his calm, but
that little slip told me how furious he was. “She drank tainted
blood. It’s Fulton Falls’ third such death in the last year. That’s
why I need Dan off the Beasts and on this matter.”

Most vampires didn’t get live donors
like someone with Tristan’s clout did. They were forced to drink
the pouched stuff you could pick up at any grocery or convenience
store. Lately the more expensive Blood Potion No. 9, sold in slim
black bottles dressed with fancy gold labels, had been flying off
the shelves because dragons’ blood was somehow getting into the
cheaper stuff. Dragon’s blood is lethal to vampires. A single drop,
hard to detect in an eight-ounce pouch full of human blood, will
eat up a vampire from the inside like acid. The tampering was
claiming vampire lives all over the southeastern United States.
Officials couldn’t track it down, and despite close inspections of
all the packaging plants, bad blood was still getting
out.

I usually don’t like to touch Tristan
when he’s a vampire, but I knew this was messing with his head bad.
I took one of his cold hands in mine. “I’m sorry,
Tristan.”

He nodded. “She was a good assistant.
I’ve ordered a shipment of Blood Potion for all my clutch until the
matter of the tampered pouches gets resolved.”

“That’s good.”

“But for Penny, it’s too little, too
late.” Again his fangs appeared, along with a red rim around his
black eyes. I sat very still, like a hiding rabbit waiting for an
eagle to pass overhead. Tristan would never hurt Isabella’s body.
He had too much control.

But accidents happen around enraged
vampires. There are graveyards full of drained humans to attest to
that.

In the space of a breath, Tristan was
cool and collected as ever. His voice smooth as butter, he said,
“If nothing important happens at the Beasts’ club, I’ll see you at
daybreak?”

I smiled, proud I’d kept Isabella’s
body from trembling. “Sure.”

He turned away, and I gave Gerald a
little wave before exiting Isabella. Free and light as air again, I
ran to Augustus to give him a hug and a peck on top of his
feathered head. As far as I know, I’m the only person the grand
ancient allows to have such liberties, and I take full
advantage.

“My adored child will break hearts; her
own and others,” he intoned, one paw curling about my waist. “But
keep yourself from harm, for your existence ensures
mine.”

That’s Augustus for you. Enigmatic as
can be. I’ve gotten to where I hardly listen to his words; it’s the
warmth in his voice that matters to me.

I took off for the Beasts Motorcycle
Club in high spirits. I felt a little bad that anticipation so
easily replaced my shock at Penny’s second death even though I
hadn’t known her that well. But she was gone, bless her poor heart.
I couldn’t help her, so I looked forward to having something
exciting to do.

* * * *

I materialized in a sea of
black-and-chrome, surrounded by motorcycles parked in front of the
Beasts club. The scent of exhaust mixed uneasily with the rotting
vegetation aroma of the nearby marsh and the rotten-egg funk of
Fulton Falls’ pulp mill. The thick bass heartbeat of heavy metal
music, punctuated by yells and laughter, issued from the building.
A couple of security lights and the orange-yellow gleam of the
streetlight behind me clearly showed the white designs painted over
the black background of the painted windows. On the left one was
the head of a snarling tusked feral hog. No Halloween mask ever
looked more ferocious. The right window’s design was a hand giving
the old single-finger salute. Charming, especially when you
considered the building sat right off Blount Highway, where heavy
traffic ensured plenty of small children would be driven by. The
continuous wash of passing headlights proved my point.

It sure looked like a good place for
poltergeist play, the kind of mischievous spirit activity that
might include lobbing rocks through the glass. Maybe if it happened
often enough, these fools would cease and desist in painting such
rude pictures.

Then again, they might sic their witch
on me. Not a pleasant idea.

A rough voice, grumbly and warm, spoke
up behind me. “You’re a bit overdressed for this party, baby
girl.”

I turned, only now realizing I still
wore my sweet confection of an early 1900’s dress. As Dan slid into
view, I got all warm and tingly. My second boyfriend was as
handsome as Tristan, though they looked nothing alike. For those of
you old enough to remember the Marlboro Man cigarette ads, you’ll
have a pretty good idea of the rugged deliciousness that is Dan
Saling.

Unruly brown hair, chocolate brown
eyes, a strong jaw, and face weathered to robust perfection made me
feel all gooey inside. Despite looking fit as a fiddle, Dan had
died young in his late thirties of a heart attack. He looks good.
He feels even better. And he puts up with a lot of doo-doo from
me.

I grinned, thrilled to see him. His
assignment spying on the Beasts had kept us apart for days at a
time, probably no accident since Tristan wants me all to himself.
Then again, when Dan gets the chance, he keeps me from Tristan too.
It might have been fun being fought over by two hunkalicious men
had I not loved them both so much and hated to see them hurt. But I
have issues with being tied to just one man. Boy, do I have
issues.

“You don’t like my dress?” I pretended
to pout.

“I love it. It’s just a bit much to
hang out with this bunch.”

“Well, let me tone it down then.” With
a thought, the dress and boots disappeared, leaving me in my
birthday suit.

Behind the concealment of his khaki
trousers, I saw Dan salute me in a much better fashion than the
painted hand on the building behind me. “Oh baby, you just found
yourself a whole heapa trouble.”

His clothes disappeared too, and he
marched right up to me, his divine divining rod leading the way.
Dan yanked me close for a bone-melting kiss, rough with furious
passion. I was swept up in the almost animal savagery he displayed
as he plundered my mouth with a ruthlessness that made my knees
buckle.

Dan broke the kiss, and without so much
as a how-do-you-do, seized my upper arm and whirled me around. Then
his hand was on the back of my neck, bending me over a black
leather motorcycle seat. A flood of oil, gasoline and leather
scents washed over me.

Dan’s feet nudged mine apart, opening
me up. I gasped as he shoved two thick-knuckled fingers in my
pussy, thanking my stars that I’d gotten wet the instant I’d laid
eyes on him. My big man was eager and demanding, and it made me
eager too. I moaned as his fingers dove in and out of me. Ladies,
start your engines. He had my motor revving in an
instant.

I responded to his uncompromising
dominance. I’m submissive when it comes to sex, gladly handing over
the reins to Tristan and Dan when hanky-panky gets going. Tristan’s
an old pro at being a Master, but Dan’s polite upbringing left him
not exploring his take-charge tendencies until he met me. He’s
still a little too careful for my tastes sometimes.

This was not one of those
times.

His fingers worked me hard, making me
shudder all over as he brought my ever-simmering libido to a full
boil. Little flashes of ecstasy, so sharp they were almost painful,
had me jerking helplessly against the bike he had me pinned to. I
wanted more. I wanted that big, thick cock of his that filled me so
well.

“Please, Sir,” I gasped.

His voice was as growly as any shifter.
“That’s it. Beg me.” His hand moved faster, the liquid sounds we
made growing louder. I thought I must be pouring like a
rainspout.

My voice had a desperate whine as those
lightning pulses of pleasure nudged me close enough to taste bliss
but not close enough to gorge. “Please put your cock in me, Sir.
Please take me, take me hard.”

“That how you want it, baby girl? You
want it hard?”

“Yes, Sir. Please.” My breath sobbed in
and out. My toes dug into the tire-churned ground. I gripped cool
metal parts in desperation.

“How hard?”

God, he loved to torture me. But that’s
a Dom for you. They’re not happy until you’re pleading at the top
of your lungs, completely mindless with need.

“So hard it hurts. As hard as Sir wants
me to have him. Please, Sir! I need your cock inside me,” I
sobbed.

Without another word, his fingers were
gone. I felt his hand an instant later, fisting against my slit as
he positioned himself for that first thrust. I made myself relax in
anticipation. I’d asked for it to be hard. Dan would give me what I
wanted with no mercy.

He plunged in, burying himself to the
hilt in me with one brutal thrust. I screamed with the excruciating
delight of mixed pain and pleasure. And kept screaming as he
pounded against me until my body adjusted to him and there was only
delight in being ridden violently.

Ecstasy beat through my body, curling
my insides tight with tension. Dan had barely started when I began
pleading with him. “May I come, Sir? Please, may I
come?”

“Not yet,” he snarled, his hips making
harsh gunshot reports against mine as he drove and drove and drove.
“Take that cock, Brandilynn. Take it, baby.”

“Oh please, Sir.” He was hitting that
special place inside, the place that roiled with sensation until I
thought I’d explode. “Please, I gotta come.”

His palm cracked a buttock, making it
sting. The heat of the blow added to the inferno consuming my inner
parts. I cried out, my hips thrusting back in
invitation.

“You like that, baby? You like me
putting you in your place?” Another slap, sending zings of
intensity through my flesh.

“Please, Sir.” It was all I could do to
not climax as his cock worked in and out of me, filling me so
completely, rubbing all the good bits with a burning friction that
made my hair stand on end. But if I came without permission, I’d be
disciplined. And it would be more punishment than funishment.
Tristan was teaching Dan to be a harsh taskmaster, the exact thing
a bratty sub like me needed.

But I wanted to come so
badly.

“Whose pussy is this?” Dan’s hand on
the back of my neck tightened. He gave my bottom another
spank.

“Yours, Sir.”

“Does this pussy come without my
consent?”

“No, Sir.” At least it shouldn’t. I
wasn’t going to hold out much longer, no matter how hard I tried.
His cock was rubbing nonstop on that nest of nerves now, and
goosebumps broke out over my arms. My insides wound in a tight
band, beginning to fray as the tension moved to the breaking
point.

“Good girl. You may come
now.”

His hand moved around front as he
spoke, giving my clit a pinch. I started up screaming again,
jerking hard as climax rumbled through my belly, sending ripples
into my chest, making my fingers and toes tingle and my hair stand
on end. I flailed wildly, Dan’s grip on the back of my neck the
only thing that kept me from rocketing straight up into the black
velvet sky.

“Nice, baby,” he praised me after I’d
settled down a bit. He pulled his cock free of my still trembling
slit and repositioned to enter my house through the back
door.

Very nice indeed.

Dan pressed in, and I warbled a sigh as
my tightest orifice stretched to receive him. He’d given me no
foreplay back there, and there was a bit of an ache, but I’m
something of a pain slut. With the right mindset, a little bit of
discomfort goes a long way for firing up my libido. Right now,
being slung over a motorcycle seat, pinned helpless and made to
take my man the way he loves it was turning pain into a whole lotta
pleasure. It was more intense sensation than hurt.