Trust Me When the Sun Goes Down (6 page)

Rob’s hands slipped between us to work at the stiff closure of his jeans, and I felt the tip of him nudging me seconds later, thick and hard.  In the next moment he buried himself deep, his mouth never faltering.  His groan of pleasure reverberated through me, and my body clenched around him in welcome. 

Clay’s hands stroked and pinched, his blunt fingers seeking to please me where Rob couldn’t reach and I didn’t care anymore.  Nothing was forbidden.  I split my attention between them, seeking to give as much pleasure as I was getting.  The men’s hands met over my bare flesh, but there was no discomfort or awkwardness before they slid on, we were all one.

We pulsed together, Rob’s thrusts sending me into Clay to slide against him intimately.  Harder, faster, almost with desperation, Rob drove into me, stoking me higher and higher until I burst through to the other side, my cries of satisfaction filling the small room.  Clay groaned beneath me, jerking once, twice, before going slack. 

Rob’s hands gripped my hips with punishing strength, his powerful muscles shaking as he bucked against me in a frenzy.  He held me tighter, closer, so that I couldn’t draw a breath.  We were so tightly pinned together, I knew his release was coming almost before he did.  I felt it along the length of my body when he came, his mouth leaving my neck to call my name before he collapsed against my back. 

We were all still then, intimately pressed together, the deep, even breathing coming from Clayton telling me he was passed out for the moment, but alive and out of danger.  I closed my eyes as the sensations started to ebb, not needing to catch my breath in the literal sense, but figuratively, I sure as heck needed a breather.  Rob’s withdrawal came a few seconds later, and I heard him putting himself to rights as I stood and adjusted my skirt on wobbly legs. 

Without the cloud of passion between us, I felt awkward, and a little ashamed.  How had I let things get so carried away?  Clay was still fully clothed, but the dark stain on his pants told me he’d had almost as much fun as we had, largely do to my efforts.  What would Rob think of that?  I looked up to find him picking up my torn panties and stuffing them in his pocket, as though nothing untoward had happened. 

“Hullo,” he said, catching my eye with a smirk, his cheeks ruddy with color. 

“Hi,” I replied, not quite sure what else to say, but he looked comfortable enough.  Thanks to Clay’s blood I felt energized instead of zapped from Rob drinking from me.  “So that was, um…”

“It was that,” Rob chuckled when I couldn’t come up with a descriptor, leaning over to give me a brief kiss.  “You’d better fix him up before he bleeds out,” he pointed out, and I hurried to seal the wounds on his neck with my own blood.  I spent a few moments listening to Clay’s heart, making sure he wasn’t in rougher shape than I’d thought, but he appeared to be in a heavy sleep, and nothing worse. 

“Did you have this in mind the whole time or did one thing sort of lead to another?” I wondered aloud and Rob gave a half shrug.

“There are all manner of things I’ve seen done by vamps over the years.  Thought this might be a good fit once I saw who you picked out.”  It made sense, he’d been in service to Jakob off and on for over sixty years, Rob was no stranger to blood play, and I wondered if he usually played the part of the guy on the couch.

“Things you’ve been a part of?” 

“Some, and some I’ve been interested to try on my own.” 

“Is that the first time you’ve done that before?”

“Piggybacking?  Yes, like that.  But it definitely lived up to the expectation, yeah?”

“Then, it doesn’t bother you that he was there with us while we were… doing it?”

A pucker appeared on his forehead.  “Why, does it bother you?”

“I feel a little weird about it,” I admitted, and the pucker deepened into a furrow as he pulled me close for a hug.

“Sorry, it’s not something we have to do again.  Seemed like you were keen on the idea at the time.”

“In the moment, sure, I’m betting there’s not much I wouldn’t be down with.  That doesn’t always mean it’s a good idea.  I think maybe next time we should set some ground rules so there are fewer surprises.”

“Fair enough,” he agreed easily, kissing my cheek. 

Something still bugged me though, and while we were getting everything out in the open, I couldn’t help but ask, “And it honestly didn’t make you jealous at all that I was, you know, touching him and stuff?  And that he was touching me?”

“It ain’t my favorite thing to think on, you pointing it out like that,” he frowned.  “But like you said, in the moment, it don’t matter all that much as long as it’s me inside you.  It’s the call of the blood making you touch him like that, ain’t it?  Or do you fancy that bloke?”

“No, it was definitely all about the blood,” I said quickly.  “You’re the one I happen to fancy, in case you couldn’t tell.  I guess I was expecting more jealousy.  You didn’t seem too happy about having to watch me feed before.”

“That was when I couldn’t be a part of it.  Like I said, it don’t matter all that much as long as it’s me inside you.” 

“You’re a better man than I am,” I chuckled.  “I think I’d still be jealous if I had to watch you feeding from a girl like that.  Touching her, or…”  The thought of him having sex with another woman while he drank from her made me nauseous.

“What if we was to feed on a woman together?  Would it bother you if I touched her then?”

“I… don’t know.  I guess we’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.”  It didn’t sound appealing, but as I was finding out, the call of the blood changed everything.

“Right then, I’ll try to stick to men if it means so much to you.  It makes no nevermind to me who I feed from.  Truth be told, I prefer a bit of a hunt.  Fear spices the blood.”

“Like that pimp you first fed on when I came with you?”

“Yeah, like our friend Jimmy the pimp,” Rob smiled.  “Ready to go rejoin Lee and Maggie then?” he asked, hand going to the doorknob.

“Wait, what about Clay?  We can’t leave him here.”  I stood in front of the man, giving him a shake and then a pinch when he didn’t wake at first.  “Go on home, Clayton, forget you ever saw us, or that you’ve been back here in this room.  You had too much to drink and all you want to do is go home and sleep it off.”  The compulsion worked like a charm, and he stumbled out ahead of us into the club.  Rob and I waited a few seconds before we emerged, but no one paid us any mind. 

Rob was much more relaxed now than he’d been before we’d fed.  He even took a few turns out on the dance floor with me, but only for the slow ones where he could hold me close.  That night I expected him to fall asleep early as usual, but he stayed up with me until I was ready to go down to bed myself.  He surprised me with his energy level and stamina, turning on the familiar strains of Nina Simone once we reached the bedroom for a private dance that turned into something far more intimate. 

It was well past dawn when we finally fell asleep together, entwined in each other’s arms.  Every fiber of my being felt infused with such a deep sense of peace, I couldn’t help but think we were finally over the worst of our troubles. 

I was such an idiot.  As any
Firefly
fan knows, life is full of sudden but inevitable betrayal. 

I rose early the next sundown, lingering only to give Rob a kiss on the cheek before I stepped into the shower.  The events of the night before still brought a blush to my cheeks as I thought about them.  Sweet, innocent Anja… a hair’s breadth away from a threesome.  Or did that count as one if the guy kept all his clothes on?  I almost wanted to call Bridget and ask her opinion, but I knew I’d never hear the end of it. 

Still, I resolved to call her later, there was so much I wanted to catch up with her on!  By now Felix must’ve filled her in on the big parts, but I did want to talk to her about Rob and make sure there were no hard feelings about my dating her ex.  Sure, she’d urged me in his direction before, but a meaningless bout of sheet sweat (as she’d recommended) and love were two very different things.   

The sound of an alarm caught my attention, and I turned off the water, ears straining to hear what direction it came from.  But by the time I had the towel in my hands it had shut off.  Figuring it was probably from some other part of the house, I finished drying off and stepped out of the bathroom with the towel wrapped around my hair only to find Rob sitting on the side of the bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. 

I glanced at the clock, wondering if I’d slipped into a time distortion and accidentally showered for two hours, but the clock showed only twenty minutes had elapsed since I’d risen.  Suddenly it clicked, what that sound must have been.  “Did you set an alarm?”

“Yeah,” he said with a jaw cracking yawn, his eyes red rimmed and tired.  “Wanted to get up bright and early.”

I knew it had to do with his macho idea of keeping me safe, and I sat beside him to massage his shoulders.  “You don’t have to, you know.  You must be exhausted.  Why don’t you go back to bed?  You won’t do anybody any good if you’re a zombie.”

“Nah, I’m fine.  I’ll have a shower, a quick bite and a cuppa, and Bob’s your uncle.”

“Okay then, but I don’t have anything interesting on the schedule.  I promise I’m not sneaking out to ditch you.”  I headed for the closet to get dressed.

“You’d better not if you know what’s good for you,” he grinned, giving my behind a playful smack on his way to the bathroom.  Somebody sure was in a cheeky mood that evening.   

Later on I was deep in the middle of a conversation with the magistrate up in Seattle, when I heard a commotion coming from the front of the house.  Focusing my hearing, it took everything I had inside me to suppress a squeal when I heard a certain baritone standing in my foyer.  “I’m going to have to call you back.”  Without waiting for a response, I hung up and dashed out to the hallway as fast as my feet would carry me, nearly crashing into the man in question. 

“Gunnar!” I cried out, wrapping my arms around his shoulders in a happy embrace.  The bodyguard’s eyes widened slightly at the enthusiasm in my greeting, but then a moment later he caught me up in a bear hug that left my feet dangling. 

“It is good to be home, boss,” he said, his face split with a dopey grin.

“It took you long enough,” I pouted, giving his arm a playful punch as he set me down.  It must’ve been harder than I’d intended, because he rubbed it absently.

“I am sorry, I make the arrangements the first night, but then there is a change of plan and the jet is not available.  This was the first commercial flight I can book in the night hours.”

Oh right
, Jakob had commandeered my jet.  “I’m just glad to have you back home where you belong.  Are you thirsty?  Can I get you anything?” 

I got the impression he wouldn’t have minded something to drink but didn’t feel right in asking me to fetch it for him.  Instead we all moved out of the foyer into the parlor, eager to hear about what he’d been up to the whole time he’d been gone on Lodinn’s orders. 

“It is mostly waiting,” he said with a grimace.  “I was sent to New York not long after he command me to join him to wait on a business deal.”

“A business deal?  What kind of a business deal?” I asked, wondering why he’d felt the need to use Gunnar for something like that.  The man wasn’t what I’d call a skilled negotiator. 

“I wish I know,” Gunnar shrugged.  “I had a briefcase full of money to meet with the man, but he never show.”

Interesting.  Had the deal fallen through because of Lodinn’s death, or was it something else?  And what would he be buying with a case full of cash in New York? “Where’s that briefcase now?”

Gunnar’s face colored.  “In a safe place.”  He didn’t say more and the rest of us understood he’d tucked it away for himself.  Guilt stained his cheeks even darker.  “Did I do wrong, boss?”

“No, it’s fine.  I think you earned it,” I replied with a soothing pat.  Apart from Hanna, he’d been the one most physically inconvenienced by Lodinn’s mercurial decisions.  Why not get some kind of reward out of it?  The others didn’t seem to think anything was wrong with keeping the cash either. 

Lee launched into the story of a drug deal gone bad back in the eighties.  Both sides had erupted into gunfire, neatly killing each other off.  Lee had thrown himself over the guy he’d been protecting, ending up shot himself, but not too badly.  When the dust had settled, he’d picked himself up and walked off a few hundred thousand dollars richer, tossing the drugs into the nearest dumpster. 

We sat around speculating about what would happen to Lodinn’s money now that he was dead and gone.  Maggie seemed to think that I had some kind of claim to it, but I didn’t want any part of it.  Rob was fairly sure Jakob would step in to take over his assets, but we weren’t sure it’d occurred to him since he’d left town so quickly to find Carys.  Gunnar revealed that he’d never seen any sign of the golden haired girl, or anyone else who might be attached to a permanent household Lodinn had set up. 

The house phone had been ringing steadily off and on while we visited, but I’d chosen to ignore it while we welcomed Gunnar home.  Eventually though, I had to think about getting back to it.  The demands on my time had risen since I’d let it be known I was keeping public hours again, and I had a lot of petitions to review that needed my personal attention. 

“Well, I’m definitely happy you’re back, Gunnar,” I said, giving him a brief hug.  “Don’t feel like you have to rush right into anything, I’m not planning on going out tonight.  Try to enjoy your first night back.”

“Glad to have you back home, mate,” Rob echoed, clapping him on the shoulder.  “How’s about me and you go out for a celebratory pint long as you’re not needed around here?”  He looked to me for approval.

Rob’s impromptu invitation to Gunnar caught me by surprise, I’d assumed he’d be sticking around the house with me.  But I could understand his wanting to welcome him home and he could kill two birds with one stone by feeding while he was out and about. 

“I think that sounds like a great idea, have fun you guys.” I offered my encouragement.  “You can go too if you like,” I added with a nod to Lee.  “Like I said, all I’m doing is sticking around here tonight.”

“Naw, I’m good,” Lee waved me off.  “I’m fixin’ to watch
Two Mules for Sister Sara
in a bit.  I had enough fun last night to last me for a spell.”

“And I have the correspondence to see to yet tonight,” Maggie said, rising to return to work.  “It’s lovely to have you back, Gunnar,” she smiled, leaning up to kiss his cheek.   

“See you later, yeah?” Rob gave me a much more thorough kiss before catching up his leather jacket and tugging it on. 

“Things are changed here, I see,” Gunnar murmured over the open display of affection between Rob and me.

“You don’t know the half of it, mate,” Rob grinned as he escorted him out. 

I went back to work, finishing my aborted phone call with Seattle’s magistrate before tackling my ever growing to do list.  Before it got too late I slipped in a phone call to Hanna, but it went straight to voicemail.  I was in the process of leaving her a somewhat rambling message when Lee poked his head in, his face somber. 

“You’d best come see this.”

I stumbled my way through the end of the message, following him out to the parlor where the TV blared.  Instead of a Clint Eastwood movie, there was a special report on the nightly news.  The plastic blonde on the screen gave the startling facts with very little expression on her face or in her voice, the words slightly more chilling for that lack of emotion. 

Violent deaths were on the rise in the Bay Area, specifically those with horrific neck trauma.  There was speculation that it was a variation on the Jack the Ripper killings, as mostly women had been killed, only more brutal methods were employed.  Some experts disagreed, stating that the murders were almost certainly carried out by different killers and that San Francisco had become a Mecca for the violently psychotic.   

“Well, that’s disturbing,” I murmured, listening as they switched to a psychologist specializing in aberrant behavior who painted the picture of a killer who likely had a god complex, delighting in the seemingly random nature of his victims, and highlighting how there was no way to predict where he’d strike next.  The entire report was alarming, but that was the function of the news, not to report, but to stir up public distress.  

“I thought this sort of thing would settle down once Lodinn was gone,” I frowned, wondering if he hadn’t been solely responsible for those violent decapitations we’d looked into with Detective Mathis. 

“I think you got a more widespread problem with savage vampers than that one
Ellri
,” Lee pointed out. 

“I don’t get it.  Why the sudden need for violence?  It’s not like we need to kill to feed.”

“There’s some that got different kinds of needs, darlin’.”

I thought about Rob’s words – fear spicing the blood.  I knew it to be true, but it hadn’t ever been a necessary component of feeding before.  Why had things suddenly taken a turn for the worse?  “I don’t remember seeing anything like this before I knew vampires were a real thing.  I mean sure, there’s always been our share of crime in the city, but nothing like this.” 

And then I remembered Jakob not being all that worried about leaving bodies behind.  What if he hadn’t actually left town for New York yet?  Was he part of it?

“Excuse me, Lee, I think I need to make a call.  Thanks for letting me know about this,” I added distractedly, already pulling Jakob’s number up on my cell.  Only he didn’t pick up.  When in the history of ever had Jakob ignored one of my calls?  It wasn’t all that late on the east coast yet.  Was his nose out of joint because I’d asked him to leave town?  He’d seemed fine with it that night, even eager to be on his way. 

Maybe he was too caught up in the hustle and bustle of New York City to take my call?  Hopefully he wasn’t establishing a seat of power in the heart of my biggest rival.  If he and Jennike Vendal should ever decide to join forces…  I tried not to worry overmuch about having an
Ellri
ticked off at me as I went back to work. 

Things were running smoothly in the West.  The Order was still in the process of rebuilding, their new charter being met with relative success among the citizens.  The petitions I received asking for permission to turn humans had settled down after an initial surge once I’d removed the exorbitant fees and corruption that used to be attached to the process.  More vamps had moved to the San Francisco area since I’d taken power, but we were still well within the quotas dictated by the last Gathering. 

Overall the news was very encouraging.  Violence between the vampires and the Order was way down, relationships on the mend.  So why the sudden outbreak of human deaths? 

Maybe there was some kind of law we could pass making it illegal to kill humans?  Yes, we’d all made mistakes from time to time, but those should be the exception, not the norm.  It had to count for something if one of us took a life.  Even if we didn’t have the facilities or the infrastructure to give vamps jail time, we could impose a stiff fine at the very least. 

The more I thought about it, the better I liked the sound of it.  What good was being the Elder if I couldn’t affect change among my own people? 

Felix must’ve been reading my mind as his face lit up the screen on my cell. 

“I hate to bother you, boss,” he started to say, and I was quick to set his mind at ease. 

“No, it’s good.  You saved me the trouble of calling you first.”

“That don’t sound too good.  What’s up?”

I tried to ignore the slight that he associated my calls with bad news, particularly since it happened to be true in this instance.  I quickly filled him in on the gist of the news report I’d seen, gratified to see he took it as seriously as I did. 

“You’re right, that is something to worry about.  You want me to make arrangements to send up another team of cleaners to help keep things under wraps?”

Our own team of cleaners was nothing if not efficient, but they couldn’t be everywhere at once.  More importantly, they shouldn’t have to in the first place.  “No, that would only address the symptom and not the problem.” 

“I ain’t too sure of that.  The biggest problem I see is drawing too much public attention.  I can call Cordelia from the council and have her pull some strings to bury those news stories to start with.”

“No, you’re missing the bigger picture here.  I don’t want to bury this story, I want to address the root of the problem.  The local vamps are getting way too comfortable with killing humans.  I’m thinking maybe I should call everyone together for a local gathering and talk to them about it.”