Authors: Tracy St. John
* * * *
Elisha lay on the pine needle
-
blanketed
ground with Naya on top of him.
He’d untied her wrists, and h
er face was snuggled against his chest
. H
e thought she might be dozing in the post-coital glow that embraced them. All around, peepers sang in the woods and a far-off train’s horn cried out in the lonely night.
He was quite still, enjoying her warmth and the sweet scent of her body. Contemplating the impossible. Like keeping her forever to bake himself within her hearth, to feel the softness of her skin against his. He could do it too; sharing his blood with her every night would make her as immortal as he.
But as Mariel had noted, Naya could be too dangerous to live.
If she was possessed again by Heriolf or another like him, the vampires would face ruin. Elisha
had to
acknowledge
the possibility that destroying her might be their only recourse.
No!
His whole being denied the terrible thought. But it was foolishness to sacrifice hundreds for one human with elf blood. Hundreds? Perhaps thousands. How far did Heriolf’s ambitions go? Did he seek to be king over all vampires? Even if he did not, some vampire out there would.
Then megalomania would lead to humans discovering their existence, and a full-on war between the living and undead would commence.
Elisha couldn’t allow that to happen. The math was simple: one human-elf hybrid’s life for everyone else’s.
If only that one life wasn’t Naya’s!
“Get up, Naya. Daylight is less than an hour away, and I must prepare for it.”
Elisha
reluctantly pushed at her.
She slowly rose from his body, a contented smile on her face.
A smile I put there,
Elisha thought with no small amount of pride.
Could he really see her killed?
Could he put an end to her life himself?
They dressed. As if reading his thoughts, Naya spoke startling words. “You could keep me for yourself. I won’t mind, and I know you wouldn’t abuse the power.”
Elisha
froze. She was offering herself to him. Offering what he so desperately wanted to take.
It’s her blood. That’s what truly draws you to her. Nothing else.
If only that w
as
true.
Allowing none of his true feelings to escape, Elisha said, “The risk remains that another would try to have you. If I can find a way for you to live, I’ll take it. But no promises, Naya.”
Her pleased expression disappeared, replaced by a hurt that made his heart heavy. “You feel nothing for me?”
“I feel the corrupting draw of your blood.”
Her lip trembled for an instant before she drew herself up and wiped all expression from her face. Elisha hated himself for wounding her, but with the circumstances they faced it was for the best. He must keep his distance, at least emotionally, and allow none of his attraction for her to distract him.
He stiffened as he sensed the approach of another vampire, the telltale passage of a large body in the air
, the brush of emotions
,
not
belonging to him,
filling his mind
. A dark shadow descended from the sky into the clearing, and Elisha relaxed as he recognized Sebastian’s grim face.
The other man’s thoughts let him know what had his brow creased so heavily, but Elisha believed it would be bad form to tell Sebastian he could
clearly
see what was in his head. Instead he pretended ignorance and asked, “What news?”
“Heriolf discovered your resting place. You must not return.” Sebastian’s fists were clenched, and Elisha saw how hard it had been for him to not defend the coffin in the church. “He has his human slaves waiting with stakes. He started for the swamp but had to turn back because it’s so close to dawn.”
Elisha looked at Naya, who watched them with seeming composure. “He’s tracking her, just as the old elf said.”
“If you don’t kill her, you’ll have to play cat-and-mouse until he’s weak enough to defeat.”
At Sebastian’s words t
here was a flicker of sweet vulnerability in
Naya’s
eyes. It made Elisha want to draw a line in the sand, to dare others to only try to harm her so he could destroy them all. He’d not been so protective of anyone in a very long time. “I’m a fool, but I just can’t take her life like that, Sebastian. She didn’t ask for any of this.”
“It’s not just Heriolf you have to consider. She should be put down for the good of us all.” Sebastian’s scowl grew, and Elisha knew he hated the words he spoke. His friend was no more a cold blooded killer than he was.
He was also the only person Elisha could share his true feelings with. “Vampires are a cancer on this earth. We take and we destroy and we give nothing in return. Why should our existence be guarded so well?”
Sebastian’s sigh was as light as the night breeze. “You know I love these philosophical discussions as much as you. The others however … they only want to continue on. Whether our immortality is right or wrong means nothing to them. They will demand her life, Elisha.”
Elisha felt a hopeless rage at the thought of the others coming after Naya, of them attacking her. With enough of her blood, he could hold them all off. He could destroy them at will even. Make them cower before him as Heriolf had.
Would that make him as much a monster as the one he was so committed to killing?
Aware of his struggle, Sebastian put a comforting hand on Elisha’s shoulder. “Your humanity is your gift and your curse, my friend. You must make your choice carefully, but whatever it is, know I will be at your side.” He lifted his face, sniffing the air. “Day comes soon. I must go to my resting place.”
“I will go to ground here.”
“Then I
’
ll return tomorrow night.” With a courteous nod to Naya, as if he’d not just discussed the necessity of taking her life, Sebastian lifted into the air and left them.
Elisha stared at Naya and she stared back. She
captivated him
and knowing how well her body fit to his made his thoughts all the more complicated.
I should just do it before it becomes impossible. I should
glamour and
drain her right now, let her go to an easy, merciful death. Heriolf’s reign would come to an end. The vampire council would be re-convened, and we will go back to a fair government. It’s the only solution that makes sense.
It was also too evil to truly contemplate. With
Naya’s
soft green eyes on him, her gold hair turned silvery in the moonlight, the memory of how it felt to be inside her body, he simply couldn’t do it.
Elisha
p
icked up
the
rope
from
the ground
, grimacing at the next bit of unpleasant business. “Sit up against that tree, Naya,” he said, gesturing to
the
mature pine
the other end of the cord was knotted around
.
Her eyes narrowed. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to tie you to it to keep you from running away while I sleep.”
She barked disbelieving laughter. “Run away? Where would I go? You can’t believe for an instant I’d return to Heriolf!”
Elisha kept his tone gentle but firm. “Maybe not, but you
may try to hide from me. Then it will be a race to see who can find you first.” He stood over her in seeming threat. “No price is too dear to keep you from Heriolf.”
Naya simply stood there, staring at him. He couldn’t read her mind, but Elisha could sense her utter refusal in the matter.
Hating himself for the threat despite it being empty, Elisha glared at her. “
B
e tied up or die, Naya. I can’t take the chance Heriolf’s slaves will find you.”
Her lips thinned in anger, and her fists clenched. Nevertheless, Naya stomped to the tree and sat with her back against the trunk. She was stiff as Elisha tied her securely to it, making sure the
rope
held her still but didn’t cut into her skin.
“Your hands, my dear.” Elisha held his hand out for her wrists.
Still angry and refusing to speak to him, she complied. He tied them together then bound them to her waist so she couldn’t escape.
Having accomplished that, Elisha smiled at her, as if she wasn’t staring daggers at him. “Now since spending so many hours tied up will no doubt be terribly unpleasant—” He grasped her chin. Before she could jerk her startled gaze away, he glamoured her.
“Sleep, little Naya. Sleep all day until I rise to set you free.”
He knew she’d come out of his spell before nightfall. The elf blood she carried somehow made her able to throw off the shackles of glamour after a little while, but it was the best he could do. Naya’s eyes slipped closed, and her chest rose and fell in a rhythmic pattern as slumber took her.
Elisha kissed her lips before stepping away. He quickly dug a hole in the soft ground, deep enough for him to climb in and l
ay
full length. As the soil tumbled
in
to cover him, he looked at the woman
who had utterly entranced him
until the cascading dirt eclipsed his sight. Her lovely sleeping face followed him into oblivion.
Naya woke to find reddish late afternoon
-
early evening daylight filling the small clearing in the woods. She blinked, still feeling the heaviness of Elisha’s glamour as it tried to lull her back into slumber. With resoluteness, she shook it off.
The hard bark of the tree behind her dug into her back. She felt stiff and achy all over, and strained against the
rope
tying her. It allowed no give. She couldn’t break free.
The sun would set soon, bringing Elisha out of his temporary death. The earth at her feet mounded slightly, and the approximate man shape told her he lay there. Somehow it comforted her to have him close, despite the threat of death at his hands.
Could he really kill her?
Naya’s
heart said no. He’d said over and over he didn’t want to, and she could not discern the least bit of malevolence in him. But she’d been fooled before, hadn’t she? Well and truly deceived by her
so-called
protector Heriolf.
The enormity of her loss and Heriolf’s deception brought fresh grief to the fore.
Naya
wept with a mixture of agony and anger. What she wouldn’t do to see her ‘benefactor’ laid out for the setting sun to burn, his screams sweet music to make her laugh! Naya had never known such a need for vengeance, had never understood the thirst to take another’s life until this moment.
Fury dried her tears. The pain abated, finding no room in the wash of cleansing hatred that swept over her. She would see Heriolf destroyed. She would help Elisha with every ounce of her being, even if it meant her own death. The monster must be wiped from the earth.
“Elisha is not anything like Heriolf,”
Naya
whispered to herself. She knew that to be truth. Fair and just, Elisha would make a fine ruler for his kind, and she knew he would keep her safe as his font. She must find a way to convince him, to make him understand how much better off she and the vampires would be if he was king
.
* * * *
Elisha
never remembered where his essence went when it left his body.
When night fell t
here was only the sensation of flooding into the physical vessel that contained his thoughts, hopes, and fears. Before he’d adjusted to being physical again, he
felt the ground push up beneath him, the soil rejecting a no longer dead body. Dirt ran off
him
in cascades, the cool dryness disappearing to expose him to the star-filled sky hanging over the pine and oak branches twining above him.
And
her
sweet voice rose into the light breeze, as ephemeral as the nightingale’s song. “Elisha, is that you?”
He looked at Naya, feeling hunger and desire rage at the sight of her peering blindly into the darkness. He levitated to his feet, battling to think clearly though her blood and body called to him.
Elisha
stood stock-still, afraid if he even twitched it would be enough to set him upon her like a ravenous beast. “I am awake now,” he growled.
“And hungry. Come and feed.”
The invitation wrenched a groan from his guts. He
staggered
towards her drunkenly, clinging to the bare
st
shreds of humanity that he possessed when first awakened. Trying to think of anything but the warmth of her blood and skin, he muttered, “You just won’t stay glamoured.”
“No. It works for awhile, but it wears off.
I guess the old man in the swamp was right about
the elf blood.”
Elisha
stood before her, barely
a foot
away, feeling the heat of her enveloping him. He had no inhibitions when it came to taking her blood. It was the knowledge he would take her sexually once more, even if she begged him not to, that kept him from touching her.
“I must hunt.”
“Why? I’m right here.”
Elisha shuddered all over. “Why are you offering yourself?”
“Because Heriolf has risen by now too. He’ll be searching for us. You must be strong, and my blood will
give you that strength
.”
Shame overcame Elisha, and he admitted, “I won’t be able to settle for just your blood. How is it Heriolf never touched you?”
“He fed from others before coming to me. His more base drives had already been satisfied, and he was able to take my blood without losing control.”
“I am no rapist. I ha
d
always been able to refrain from forcing my sexual desires on those I take blood from until you.” It was true. No one else had ever driven him to lose control as she had.
He saw her skin turn pink. Naya ducked her head and said quietly, “It’s all right, Elisha. I – I enjoy it. I give myself willingly.”
Her words spiked his need for her even higher. Every fiber of his being kept him there when he should fly away and find what he needed elsewhere. But she wanted him.
She wanted him.
“Naya.” Her very name was a benediction. He
crouched down, leaned close, and
whispered in her ear
. He saw how the whisper of his breath brought
gooseflesh
to
her skin. “You are so beautiful. So warm.”
Her pulse jumped in her throat. He could hear the thunder of her heart beating, the rush of her blood coursing through her veins. Elisha groaned and bit into her neck. The little cry of pain she made was far away, a distant sigh.
Her blood flowed thick into his mouth, and Elisha drank deeply of her. As her strength filled him, his manhood swelled, demanding its share of Naya’s sweetness too. His fists grasped the
rope
binding her to the tree and shredded it, freeing her so he could lower her to the ground. He lifted her skirt, bunching it at the waist so that his hand could cup her mound.
Wet. Warm. Writhing against his touch, inviting him inside. Her scent was everywhere now, the sweet copper of blood, the clean saltiness of her sex. She opened herself to him.
* * * *
Naya’s wrists were still bound together, though no longer tied to her waist. She was able to work the buttons of Elisha’s shirt free, to run her hands over the broad expanse of his chest.
She cried out and arched as two of his fingers filled her, diving deep into the wet channel of her femaleness. The friction as he worked the digits in and out of her brought her to immediate eagerness, and she gushed fresh warmth over his hand.
He moaned against her throat and drew hard on her. The initial pain of his bite had faded and there was only pleasure now, pleasure in being fed from, pleasure in being possessed, pleasure in being his. When his fingers withdrew to be replaced by the thickness of his cock, she thrust her hips upward, driving him into her.
Elisha shouted, his head thrown back to pull his lips from her neck. He plunged in deep, taking her with exquisite force that made her wail. Then all was frantic motion, a frenzied coupling as they strove to meld their desperate bodies into one entity.
Naya’s flesh clamped down on Elisha’s, making his every movement inside her that of a heaving maelstrom of sensation. His groin, covered in crisp-soft curls, rubbed against her clit, making it swollen and sensitive. White-hot darts of elation flickered from the nub, feeding the burgeoning flames that rose deeper within her belly. He curved inside her just so, bringing the engorged head of his cock into continuous contact with the little ball of nerves inside her sheath. Naya sobbed with excruciating bliss as the friction drove her higher and higher, making her guts clench into a tight knot.
Her insides seemed to swell until she was tight as a drum, the tension making her breath sob in and out with a high, whimpering sound. Elisha clutched her close as if he would drive her into his body, absorbing her, making her a part of himself. She could no longer move against him, could only l
ie
beneath his driving, pounding strength as he had her. And still the elation grew, filling her hugely, stretching her until she thought her skin might shred from the pressure.
Naya felt an unraveling, as if something inside frayed, a giving way. The tension
sprang free
under the stress, as she was lifted as if on the crest of a great wave, flying higher and higher. Then the heavens opened within her, a great flashing whiteness that electrified from her womb to her toes, fingers, to the very top of her head, tearing her asunder in a beautiful dissolution that was all ecstasy and joy.
Her insides clutched and pulled at Elisha, milking him for his precious fluids, which he surrendered with a groaning cry. At the feeling of him convulsing within her, Naya came again, the sensations sweeter than before. Their voices rose as one this time, shouting their shared bliss into the black night.
* * * *
After a few minutes, Elisha disengaged from Naya
. She was stunned to miss the feel of him
, leaving her empty and somehow incomplete. In the blinding darkness she could see nothing but the stars overhead. He broke the
rope
that tied her wrists together.
Sounding much less ragged and desperate than when he’d first risen, his voice was gentle in her ears. “Sebastian will join us soon. Make yourself presentable.”
She started to
do so
, pulling her
coat and
bodice up to cover her breasts and brushing pine straw from her clothing. She was stilled by the sudden pressure of Elisha’s hand cupping her cheek.
“Thank you, Naya. With your blood giving me strength, I have more of a chance of defeating Heriolf.”
Before she could respond, she heard the crunch of feet landing on the ground. Elisha’s calm voice quelled the stab of fear. “Sebastian. What is that horrible smell?”
“Food for the girl. I don’t think it’s what she’s used to, but it was the best I could do.” Sebastian’s rich laughter rolled through the darkness. “I’ve never glamoured a human into buying chicken and biscuits before.
Here Naya, I’ve brought you a flashlight as well.
”
A dark shadow drew close and pressed the hardness of a plastic cylinder into her palm.
Naya turned the flashlight on, and the two vampires leapt into view. Sebastian held a grease-stained box towards her, and she took it with a smile. “Thank you, Sebastian. I’m starving and anything would be gourmet right now.”
He nodded acknowledgement to her gratitude with a smile of his own. Naya sat down on the ground next to the tree she’d been tied to all day and began eating. No, it wasn’t the finest fare she’d ever eaten
,
but
in her
hung
er
the salt
y grease
-laden food was a delight.
As she crunched through the crisp-fried skin of the chicken, Elisha asked his friend, “Any news?”
“Heriolf is on the move already, heading into the swamp.”
Elisha looked grim. “The old elf. I hope he made a break for it.”
“I think I should keep tabs on Heriolf. Where can I meet you?”
Elisha considered for a few moments before answering. “Two hours before daybreak, find me on River Street in Savannah. Meanwhile, we’ll stay on the move to confuse Heriolf so he can’t catch up. Sebastian, be careful. If he
discovers
you
spying on him
—”
Sebastian grasped Elisha’s shoulder and squeezed. Naya could see the love the men shared, like that of brothers. “I will be fine, old friend. Two hours before daybreak then.”
With a nod to Naya, Sebastian lifted into the air and was gone.
Naya finished her meal and crumpled the thin cardboard box into as small a ball as she could before tucking it into her coat pocket.
She turned off the flashlight and put it in the other pocket.
“Are you ready to go?” Elisha’s voice spoke almost directly into her ear.
“Yes.” A thought occurred to her. “Elisha, why can’t we just go somewhere else? Leave Heriolf’s territory until he’s weak enough for you to defeat easily?”
The feeling of his fingers stroking her face made her feel warm all over. “No matter where you go, you’re in danger, Naya. Humans among vampires are only slaves, and etiquette demands we share our humans with more powerful vampires. Going into another’s territory means I would have to offer you to the ruling vampire or council members. They would discover the power of your blood, and then it starts all over again.”
Naya’s shoulders sagged under the weight of his argument. Hopelessness fought to overcome her. “You’re going to have to kill me, aren’t you? Unless you accept leadership of this territory.”
“No one vampire can be allowed to lead. It invites too much corruption. The ruling council must be re-instated.”
Elisha
surprised her by taking her in his arms and holding her close. “I will find a way to keep you safe. Somehow.”
She strained to see his face in the darkness. “Really? But you yourself said I was too much danger to the vampires to let live.”
“And you are too innocent to kill.”
Naya couldn’t help but let her arms creep around his neck. “Your co-conspirators don’t feel that way. Even Sebastian, who seems kinder than most, is certain I am a threat.”
Elisha’s lips brushed hers, and Naya trembled at the small touch. “I didn’t say keeping you alive would be easy. Do you trust me, Naya?”
She thought about it, about the goodness she
found
in his eyes when there was light to see by, about the tenderness in his voice when he spoke to her.
He was so different from Heriolf.
“I trust you, Elisha.”
To her amazement, she thought she might feel even more.
“Good. I’m going to do everything in my power to see you survive this.” He kissed her again, this kiss stronger and more passionate, the very thing to make Naya feel that growing warmth in her heart spring with even greater aliveness.
She gave herself completely to his embrace. Even if
Elisha
couldn’t keep her safe, she knew he’d do his best. That alone was enough to place her faith in him.
An hour after dark, Heriolf faced the battered trailer in the swamp. Without looking back at his guards and aide he ordered, “Wait for me here.”
Lyndon answered
for all of them
. “Yes, my lord.”
As he mounted the stacked concrete blocks serving as steps,
Heriolf considered
tear
ing the
traile
r
apart
to demonstrate
to his underlings that
his
vigor
remained
. He
thought better of it. Such a blatant display of strength would only underscore his growing concerns over Naya’s potency leaving his body. Better to pretend nothing was wrong, that his powers weren’t waning.