She took a step forward, not taking her eyes from him. “That’s Devon.”
I stared at her in disbelief. He was not the same man who had seduced me. The man I had fallen for was blond, all-American looking. It couldn’t be him.
“How could it be Devon? There’s no way. The man I slept with was beefier, had blond hair. How could he change into, well, thirty pounds lighter, shorter hair, all in a matter of a week?”
“You know we’re shape shifters. Did it ever occur to you we could change our appearance as a matter of will? Damn him!” Veronica walked past me and headed for Devon.
The temperature rose in the room as her anger seethed into every corner. Tension ignited in the club. I caught a look on the face of the ancient vampiress. She was salivating, waiting for a fight, but I remembered what she’d said. This place was neutral ground. Devon was only here to provoke Veronica. If she made a mistake, it could be fatal. I threw up my hands, not wanting to get between two vampires, but that didn’t matter because I already was. I ran over, trying to block Veronica’s rage from my head, but it came, pounding on me like a man ramming a hammer onto a railroad spike.
“She’ll be mine, Ronnie. Just you wait,” he smirked as I walked into the conversation.
I glanced down and saw Veronica’s hand ready to slash his face. I threw on a smile and joined the discussion. “It’s so nice of you to come by, Devon. If you don’t mind, we were just leaving,” I said while staring at Veronica. “Remember this is neutral ground,” I chided her.
She stopped her hand in mid-swipe, centimeters from his face. She looked at me and then back at him. She fought to gain control. After a moment, she took in a deep breath and regained her composure. “You’re right, Brenna. This place is a little too crowded for my liking. Shall we go?”
I nodded and took her arm. We got a few steps before I heard Devon say something to me. I turned back to him. “What did you say?”
He grinned, exposing his fangs. “I said it’s a great act, but I saw through your guise even back in New Orleans. You tried so hard to be one of us, but all you are is her lackey. She doesn’t love you. She’s incapable of the emotion. Besides, we both know she isn’t a good fuck.”
I launched myself out of Veronica’s grasp and hit Devon hard across the face. My knuckles impacted with his nose. Blood appeared in a trickle on his upper lip. He looked at me with a shocked expression and tried to come after me, but Veronica turned around, confronting him.
“Now remember, Devon. This is neutral territory. No attacking others of your own kind.”
Devon’s pale complexion grew blotchy as he tried to hold in his anger. “She’s not my kind. She’s just meat.”
Veronica looked at him. “There are others here who would tell you different.”
She pointed to the ancient vampire in the back. Her arms were crossed over her chest. Everything about her was calm and collected, except her index finger on her right hand tapped impatiently against her wrist, one long black nail turned into a talon. When Devon noticed the ancient vampire he backed off. I looked and knew she’d helped both of us, but now she wanted us to leave. I nodded my thanks, and Veronica and I both walked out of the club and down the street, waiting for a cab to stop and take us back to Boston.
Once we grabbed a cab, we both sat silent in the back seat. My vampire wasn’t mad. She was lost, brooding, wondering how Devon had found us, what he was going to do next. I tried not to think about it. All I wanted to do was get out of the corset and take care of the seeping wounds Veronica had inflicted. Blood oozed down my back and stuck to my shirt. I didn’t care. I just wanted to wash up.
Finally, we returned to the house. Veronica used her mental powers on the cab driver and got out of paying the bill. I waited as she pulled up a loose brick and got a spare key to unlock the door. Once inside, I went up into the bedroom to change. I found myself staring into the night as cars moved by on Beacon Street and college students talked amongst themselves as they came back from clubs or bars. I realized what kind of a world they lived in and what type of situation I’d stepped into. No matter how long I lived my life, I was never going to be the same. I was always going to be on the outside looking in because I truly knew what the other side of reality was.
My name is Veronica
.
Brenna walked up the rotting wooden stairs and into the bedroom, but all I could do was stand in the doorway, a slight breeze licking at my back, chilling the vinyl outfit I wore. I ignored the chill, letting my body temperature adjust itself. It’d been a shock to see Devon, his looks intact even after I had nearly taken his eye and half his face. Even as I thought of this, the anger creaked in my bones as the beast in me struggled to break free from its resting place, but it was not going to get out this time. When I brought Brenna up here, I had known that it was inevitable Devon would eventually find us.
We could run, each of us going our separate ways, trying to stave off my Master. Devon would find both of us, and he would force the other to watch as we were tortured. No, it was no use to run. The standoff had to be here and now.
Cocking my head, I heard Brenna moving upstairs. I listened to her steady heartbeat as it raced life through her fragile and tiny veins. I yearned to take her into my arms, but I didn’t want to feed on her. I just wanted to hold her so she could warm my frigid heart. The thought of anything happening to her turned my brain cold and drove me into a frenzy. I didn’t know when Devon would strike next, but it would be soon. I sighed, thinking of the ancient vampire at The Black Rose.
She knew Brenna was not a vampire. She knew that from the scent of her. I had to say something to ease Brenna’s fears. I did believe her camouflaging worked, but the ancient vampire was too old. I thought maybe it would work on Devon, but he already knew she was mortal, so he would have made the effort to penetrate her facade. I couldn’t be sure if he was too old as well.
I mounted the stairs, thinking of something to say to Brenna. She’d reaffirmed my heart wasn’t dead. She gave me the hope I could still go on living, finding some type of beauty in a human world, considering I was no longer part of it. I climbed halfway up the stairs and suddenly wondered how long it would be before the old boards would not support my weight. I glanced up at the ceiling, noticing the chipping flakes of paint, and the little sag underneath the light fixture. How long would it be before it all came crashing down? I didn’t care. Edmund had been right, this place wasn’t haunted. The only ghosts it held were in my memory. I was the haunted one who needed to be free of an old memory. I didn’t need this place anymore.
I smiled as I reached the top of the stairs. I’d put it on the market. I didn’t need the money, not really. Maybe then this house could see life back in it once again. Brenna and I would go away, probably back to New Orleans, where I knew she was happiest. I didn’t care where we went. I’d spend the rest of my days with her, even as she grew old and then finally died in my arms.
I walked into my old bedroom, no longer afraid to think of the awful things that had happened so many years ago. Brenna peered out the window down at the street. The streetlights caught her hair. It was dark and luxurious as it fell across her neck. I moved slightly, admiring her beauty when she turned and noticed me.
I smiled at her and waited for her to decide what to do. She was so peaceful, her expression so serene, I didn’t want to break the fragile moment. I wanted it to go on forever until there were no more nights and no more days, just time blending and stopping. Until Devon was just a memory and there was nothing else left between us except the space in the room, and then she would be in my arms.
My name is Brenna
.
Veronica stood in the doorway waiting for something. Brought out of my thoughts, I knew someone was there, but I couldn’t sense who it was at first. My energy had been drained from keeping my shields up at the club and having the ancient vampire rifle though my thoughts. I imagined if I’d been like Veronica my energy would have remained intact, but I was only human.
“Are you all right?” Veronica asked.
My forehead wrinkled as I realized how she kept asking me that question. She seemed to think I was some type of porcelain doll, when only I knew how breakable I was. Combined with my mental exhaustion and the events of the night, I didn’t need her doting on me as if I were a needy child.
“I’m fine,” I muttered. “Can you please leave me alone a while?” My voice contained a coldness I didn’t feel. I wanted it quiet so my mind could have time to recharge. Veronica’s presence vibrated against my brain like an insect in a spider’s web. I knew how I felt and I didn’t expect her to understand. I couldn’t keep her out any more than I could block out my own thoughts. She was everywhere.
I stayed, staring out the window and not knowing what else to do. I couldn’t see her because it was too dark, but I knew she left. The floorboards groaned as she retreated somewhere else in the house. I sighed as my heart sank into my stomach.
Damn it,
I thought and went after Veronica.
I might be in a bad mood, but I shouldn’t be taking it out on her. I checked the other rooms upstairs and then downstairs, but she was still nowhere to be found. The door wasn’t open, and the house was silent. I didn’t have the strength to expand my mind to see if she was in the basement or even some hidden attic. I was not going to go exploring anymore. It was old, and normal houses and old sites didn’t creep me out, but this place did. I didn’t know why. I shivered at the thought of being left alone here. It was so lonely and deserted. One could tell no one had lived here for a long time.
The house had become an entity unto itself, holding sadness I had never seen in an abandoned building, and I had been in plenty. The whole place needed life, and in a bustling city like Boston, I was surprised the homeless hadn’t decided to find their way in here and make a home. But no, there was no one, just the occasional visit from Veronica, and it seemed she rarely came to this part of the country. I assumed the only reason she brought me here was to get away from Devon, and it was the only place she could think of. An instinct to go home. My instincts told me that whenever she came here something in the back of her mind told her there would be a warm fire and a family to greet her. But whenever she opened the door, all she was met with was a looming emptiness. She thought this place to be haunted because it held so many bad memories. From the first moment I woke here, I knew there was nothing in the building save a few termites gnawing away at the wood. Even they were scarce. All that lived here were ghosts of the past.
I sighed and sat down on a sheet-covered couch. A cloud of dust engulfed me as I did.
Poor Veronica
, I thought.
She had no one, didn’t know who to trust in a world that was a lie to her. Now I had told her to take a hike. I really knew how to make things right.
I don’t know how long I sat there, but I finally decided to lie down and the next thing I knew someone tapped me on the shoulder. I opened my eyes and saw Veronica smiling down at me. I smiled back and got up slowly. This time as I moved the sharp pains from the wounds she gave me ran up my back. I cried out, holding my back.
“Are you all right?”
That question again. My gaze hardened. I didn’t need to hear that at the moment, but I didn’t want her going anywhere either. “No, I need to get this damn corset off.”
“I thought you would have had it off by now.”
“Yeah, well, I went looking for you after you left the room, and you were nowhere to be found. Just the empty house. I came down here to wait, but I guess I fell asleep.”
“Here, I’ll help you. Stand up.”
I did as I was told, the mesh material of my skirt scraping against my legs. Veronica’s arms came around me, as she began to unbuckle the front. It was too tight, so she had to move to the back and undo the lacings. She had a hard time undoing the knot. Each time she pulled on it, it drew me closer to her body until I was only inches from her. As each string came looser more oxygen rushed to my brain. Finally she was done, but I lost my balance and fell back into her. She caught me, her arms coming up under mine. Her fingers brushed against the sides of my breasts.
My nipples hardened as she removed her hands from my chest. I caught her hand and held it over my breast, so she could feel the nipple underneath it. Her fingers lingered a moment too long, and then she backed away.
I turned to her, wondering what she was doing. She could read my emotions, just as well as I could read hers. She knew how much I yearned to be with her.
“Don’t tease me,” she said, her voice husky with hunger of some kind.
I took a step forward. She didn’t know if she could trust me. She assumed I was manipulating her just as Devon had. As the space grew between us, some of the walls she had torn down were thrown back up around her mind. She didn’t want to be hurt again. I wasn’t going to hurt her. I wanted to show her how sorry I was, wanted to indulge in the desires which had been rising between us, and for the first time give myself to someone without having to worry about what they thought of me. She knew who I was, what I was.
I crossed the few feet between us. I raised my hand and traced the line of her jaw. I leaned in, touching my lips to hers, feeling the softness of them as if they were silk. I kissed her, but she didn’t respond. She was as a statue next to me, and I couldn’t seem to raise her passion. I separated my lips from hers, cupping her face in my hand, all as she looked at me with a dead stare. The thing on the outside was just an automaton as she assumed I would take my pleasure out on her body while she retreated inside her mind. I didn’t want that.
Trust me, please
, I whispered inside her mind.
I poured my feelings into the plea as I let it reach all throughout her thoughts. I let her see my pain and regret for pushing her away earlier that night. I only wanted to be alone for a little while to sort things out in my head, to recharge. I needed her.
She stirred, blinking, seeing me in front of her instead of being the robot she had been before. Applying pressure to her breast, I massaged it in a circle through the vinyl. I pressed my lips to hers and this time she reacted. Her other hand came around my back, pushing me into her, until my skin stuck to the vinyl. My tongue snaked in between her lips as my hands moved at the back of her dress trying to find the zipper. Heat rose in me as I found myself getting wet, dripping. My tongue traced the outline of her teeth. They were like mine and then my tongue wrapped around her canines as they extended. I pressed my mouth harder against hers as they descended, only to show her I wasn’t afraid. With this I heard the stays in the corset rip and it fell down around me feet. I disengaged myself from Veronica and looked at her. Her hand had become a talon and shredded the laces.
“Oops,” I giggled.
She laughed and caught the underside of my chin with one of her claws, tracing the side of my face as her finger went from bone to flesh in a matter of milliseconds. The sensation of her morphing skin against mine was peculiar, more like a moth’s wing against my cheek. She moved down my chin and then traced the neckline of my shirt, teasing, before slipping her hand underneath the garment and cupping my breast. The nipple firmed immediately, growing harder than it ever had before as she tweaked it between her thumb and index finger. I closed my eyes, moaning, growing wetter with each simple caress.
I pushed against her, finding her slender neck and began nipping at the skin, bringing it between my teeth. Biting and sucking, I traced small circles on Veronica’s skin with my tongue. My heartbeat quickened until it was in tune with hers. I lingered at her throat a moment as my hands found her zipper and unzipped her dress, and then I found her flesh, her bare ass now exposed. My hand moved over her cheeks, feeling the firmness of the tissue. Her fingers were now at the waistband of my skirt, and as one hand worked my nipples, the other found my moist, warm clit. The coolness of her fingers caused me to jump, moving against her. And then she had me, massaging my clit in a circle while all I could do was hold onto her ass, clenching the firm flesh as I waited for release. That did not come, as she worked me to the point of orgasm and let me go. I licked at her neck, working up to her mouth once more, letting my tongue caress her fangs. Her lips were waiting to be used. I wanted them used on me. I yearned to feel her fangs cutting into me, anywhere. I wanted her to go down on me, licking and nipping at me. I desired pain and pleasure all rolled into one. I craved sheer abandon and loss of self, and she could give it to me. All I had to do was give myself over to her.
Her hands moved up and came under my shirt, lifting it off of me. The chill of the room hit me as I stood half naked. She moved behind me, her nails scratching along my flesh as she did, sending shivers racing along my already heated skin. Her hands traced my shoulder blades, lightly pinching the skin as she massaged my muscles and bones, easing the tension out of them, moving down each vertebra until there were no knots left to speak of. Her tongue tickled the back of my neck as she traveled along the ridge of my shoulder blade, working down as her hands pushed down my skirt. Her hands came around me, gripping my breasts. She squeezed them hard enough to leave bruises, enough to elicit a moan out of me as I pressed my ass into her cunt. She was as wet as I was.
Her hands sought entrance as she applied pressure for me to spread my legs. One hand found my hard node. The other grew longer, but retained its fleshiness and moved inside of me. First one finger slid in, and then two until she had three fingers inside of me. She nipped at my shoulders and the base of my neck while all I could do was hold on for the ride as she took me to release, to a point where everything flooded over me and I didn’t know where the world began or ended. Sensations like crashing waves pulled me under and drenched my brain. It was only she and I, her cold hands inside of my warm, wet walls. I lost myself to the pleasure of moaning and writhing within her grasp, but even as this happened I felt incomplete. I needed more of her.
She worked me for a few more moments and then let me go. I turned around, gazing at her breathlessly. My body glistened with sweat, and I only craved to bring her the same kind of pleasure she had brought me.
She released me and I knelt down, parting her with my hands, finding her clit with my tongue, licking and suckling on her like a kitten, tasting her salty juices, using my tongue to work her. She bucked against me as my fingers pressed the walls inside of her. They began to contract around me, as she came, and I kept her there. Waves of ecstasy moved from her into me as my mind was open to her feelings. It doubled the pleasure as well as the fun because I tapped into her emotions. The echoes of her pleasure rode my mind, but still an emptiness remained inside of her. I didn’t know what it was.
“Brenna. Enough. Please,” she groaned.
I didn’t stop. I kept her going. Redoubling my efforts my tongue flicked faster over her hood. Her fingers wrapped in my hair, keeping my head locked to her until finally she pushed me away. I landed hard as my tailbone connected with the floor. I looked up at her. Not a drop of sweat was on her body, but her eyes showed how much she had enjoyed my manipulations. She slumped to the floor, and just stayed there, the coolness of the wood having no effect on her. Her hair hung over her face and hid her expression. I crawled to her, wondering what profound sadness still lived in her as my mind caught the emotion.
I moved the hair out of her eyes and saw thin red tear streaks on her cheeks. I wiped one away and brought her into my arms. She sobbed, wetting my shoulder.
“You’re crying, love. Why are your tears red?” I whispered.
“Because I’m a vampire who sacrificed her soul. My kind is tainted. And you’re so pure.” Veronica touched the side of my cheek and smiled. I saw the pain in her eyes and the hope. This had been the first time she’d given herself to a partner. I was the one who had shown her that love didn’t come from a man ramming a dick into her cunt. I nodded and let her cry until she looked up at me and smiled.
I leaned in, kissing her soft mouth, cupping her face in my hands again. In that moment, I wanted her to know how much she meant to me. The feeling couldn’t be expressed in words, even with me touching her mind. Veronica needed something to warm her from the inside out, the ultimate thing she could get from anyone.
“Take blood from me,” I whispered.
Her eyes grew round at my suggestion. “No.”
Tracing her neck, I felt her almost non-existent heartbeat underneath. “I’m not afraid.”
“You should be. I could rip you apart if I chose to.”
“You won’t. Besides, it’ll show you how much I care for you, making this a more memorable evening.”
“What we just did? Fucking each other to release anxiety! I mean, it was great, but I’m not going bite you because you want to experience the thrill.”