Chapter 8
Nothing they’d experienced so far prepared her for the reality of Mordecai’s vampire nest.
Housed in an abandoned commercial chicken coop in the unincorporated part of town, the building overflowed with limp bloodsuckers and victim corpses. The smell—human remains, putrefying vampires, rotted chicken carcasses and ancient feces—mixed with stagnant flood water to create an olfactory nightmare.
There had to be fifty vampires and twice as many ripped-up humans inside. Apparently, Mordecai hadn’t cared how small Boulder was.
Grace followed Ethan near the doorway, but couldn’t breathe without choking. “Oh, my God, Ethan! This is worse than any feedlot I’ve ever smelled. My eyes are watering.” She hadn’t believed the day could get any more miserable, but she’d been wrong. Never again would she feel sorry for herself for the problems her voice caused. Her life had been a walk in the park.
“Holy fuck. I had no idea Mordecai kept his newbies in such a hideous place. And I didn’t realize how right I was about him being much worse than Alexander. Lucky I don’t need to breathe. I’ll go in and find the Master and drag them all out. He deserves to die.”
She grabbed Ethan’s arm as he moved through the broken door. “No. You can’t do this all by yourself. It will take hours. And even if I don’t go inside, I don’t know if I can stand to be here that long. This place has given me the worst headache ever. Isn’t there any other way?”
He stepped outside and surveyed the nearby environment. “Maybe. I planned to torch the place, anyway. Why not set it on fire to begin with?” He walked further away. “There’s nothing but dirt and tumbleweeds here. We’re on a high plateau pretty far from city services. It’s possible the old wood will go up like paper. And once the roof goes, the sun will fry the non-human bodies.”
“That sounds like a good plan, but what if the fire department manages to show up before all the bodies are incinerated? It would be bad if the vampires weren’t totally dead.”
“That’s a chance we’ll have to take if we choose to barbeque the bloodsuckers in a bonfire. It seems we have limited choices.” He turned to her. “Pull them into the sun, or flame them up. Fire will get us out of here quicker. Or, you could leave without me and I’ll meet you at your place later. But I’ll let you make the decision.”
Stink or no stink, she didn’t want to abandon Ethan after everything they’d been through. “I’m not leaving without you. Besides, I’ve never had a chance to set something on fire, so I’d say arson sounds like the best solution.” She’d always been such a good girl, never getting into any trouble in normal-kid ways, this adventure had turned out to be more exciting than she wanted to admit.
He dug the lighter out of his pocket. “Okay, arson it is. I’ll make a quick trip inside to see what I can use for kindling.”
She waited, moving a few feet away, hoping to minimize the stench. When his quick trip took a lot longer than she expected, she inched toward the building. A few seconds later she heard a woof sound and billows of black smoke blew through the door and missing windows. “Ethan! Where are you? Get out of there!” What the hell? Had he caught himself on fire? She couldn’t bear the thought of losing him. “Ethan! Ethan!” she screamed. The roof exploded. Then she saw him sprinting out of the burning building.
“Shit!” Eyebrows singed and hair smoking, he ran past her. “Stop yelling! Your voice fueled the fire. It’s an inferno in there. I barely got out.”
She caught up with him and leaped, wrapping her arms and legs around him. “I’m sorry! I was afraid one of the vampires woke up or something.”
“No worries. They’re all ashes now.” He patted out some embers sizzling in his hair. “I’m just a little scorched around the edges.”
“Obviously you found something to start the blaze.”
“Yeah. They had a ton of porn magazines in there. I had a nice fire going before you helped.” He laughed. “But my fire would have taken a lot longer to get hot than yours did, so thanks. But remind me never to piss you off.”
She kissed him. “I will. Can we go home now?”
They watched the fire consume the rest of the building and then looked up toward the sun. “I’d say our work here is finished,” Ethan said. “Let’s go.”
She linked her arm with his. “You sure know how to show a girl a good time.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet.” He picked her up and draped her over his shoulder.
Epilogue
Six months later...
“See you next week!” Ethan waved at the last circle participants as they left the sound studio, and then placed his guitar in the stand along the wall with the other instruments. He thrust his fist into the air. “Yes! I still can’t believe I can heal with my voice and my music. It’s too much of a miracle for vampy old me.”
Grace hugged him. “A bigger miracle than being half-human again? Eating human food? Going six months without losing control to your blood lust?” She held his face in her hands. “You’re a miracle in every way, Ethan. You saved me.”
“We saved each other.”
“That’s true, we did. Not that I’m any closer to understanding what happened than I ever was.”
He grinned. “We’ve got plenty of time to figure it out. I like your friend Roz’s twin souls theory, myself.”
She slid her fingers across his broad chest. “And being able to have sex without killing you is a pretty big deal for me, too.”
“Speaking of sex.” He gave a wicked grin, and nodded toward the office door. They’d rearranged the office to make room for a bed. “You know I need to connect with you—no pun intended—after every session to maintain my zen vibe.”
“Mmm. I’m getting all wet and squishy just thinking about it.” She tugged him inside the other room, next to the bed. “Seduce me, oh half-undead one.” She looked down at her breasts. “My nipples are so hard they ache. I think they need a little healing...”
He opened her blouse and unsnapped her bra, which hooked in the front. Her breasts sprang free, nipples large and pink. Leaning down, he spent several seconds licking one breast and then the other before sucking a nipple into his mouth. He caressed it with his tongue and moaned. His hand stroked her bare leg all the way up to her hip, before detouring to explore her ass.
Grace grabbed his silky long hair, holding him in place. Not that she had much experience for comparison, but she’d never imagined sex could be like it was with Ethan. Every cell in her body vibrated with need. He’d transformed her libido, and all she could think about was sex with the half-vampire. “My knees are getting weak. I’m going to fall down any minute now.” She let herself drop backward onto the mattress, taking him with her.
He laughed and jumped off the bed. “I promise to strip for you slowly tomorrow, but right now I need to get naked so I can finish your seduction.” He kicked off his shoes, pulled his John Lennon T-shirt over his head and tossed it onto the floor. His jeans came off next. Since neither of them wore underpants anymore to save time, he now stood before her in all his nude glory, his erection hard and ready. He pulled her skirt down by the elastic waist and tossed it.
She drank him in with her gaze, loving his muscular shoulders, smooth chest and lean hips. His mouth was a pleasure vortex. Sex had become not only a transcendent experience, but a necessity to keep each of them steady. She didn’t know how long they could maintain their multiple-orgasms-per-day routine, but she would enjoy it while it lasted. Ethan’s new healing abilities had increased with time, and her skills kept morphing into new directions. She recently helped a couple conceive, long distance, by chanting while they listened via speaker phone. Who knew what she and Ethan could do together in the future?
Giving her another wicked grin, he crawled on the bed. His emerald eyes sparkled.
Shifting her attention back to the gorgeous man licking his way up her body, she sighed as he parted her legs. He hooked his arms under her knees and lifted them, spreading her wider
.
“Do you want me to make you come?” He brought his face near her folds, his breath warm, which happened more regularly since he began healing people.
“Yes.” She arched her hips.
“Patience, woman. Say it.”
“I want you to make me come.”
“Did anyone ever please you like I do?”
He stroked his tongue along her clitoris and she bucked. Holding her legs tighter, he stroked faster, longer.
“Oh. My. God! Nobody. Ever.”
The orgasm slammed through her, leaving her trembling and already yearning for more. That’s how it always was with them. No matter how many times they made love, it wasn’t enough.
He slid up her body to press their lips together, tongues exploring.
She wrapped her legs around him and rubbed herself against his rock-hard cock.
“Should I make you come again?” His voice oozed sensuality. He poked against her opening, sliding an inch of himself inside.
“Oh, yes.” She jerked her hips up and took him all the way in.
He stretched her arms over her head and entwined their fingers, stroking slowly, torturing her. “You just want me for my body.” He slowed his motion.
“No! Don’t stop. I don’t just want you for your body.”
“Tell me what you want.” He began to move faster.
“I want you.”
“You do?”
“Yes.” She felt another orgasm building.
“Why?”
“Because you’re a sex god, you’re funny, you’re gorgeous, you sing like an angel... and because I think I love you.”
“You think? When did that happen?”
She glanced at her watch. “About five minutes ago.” She laughed.
“Well, that works out perfectly because I know I love you.” He thrust harder. “And we’ll be together forever.”
She wasn’t sure what forever meant for them, since his vampirism had been changing her as much as she’d transformed him. Each time he took a little blood from her, she became... more.
They climaxed together.
He kissed her before rolling onto his side.
“I’d be lying if I said I had a clue about anything. How can it keep getting better? The orgasms are astounding, I can walk in the sun, I only need small amounts of blood, I can heal with my voice, and all my vampire abilities are still in place. What the hell am I?”
“I don’t know, Ethan. But whatever you are, you’re mine.”
“Good answer.” He circled her nipple with a finger. “So, what should we do now? Work on a song? Take a walk? Watch TV? Play Scrabble?”
“Well, we could do those things.” She slid her hand down his stomach and gripped his half-hard erection. “Or not.”
He groaned. “Definitely not.”
“Have your way with me, Dracula.”
“My pleasure.”
They laughed.