We won’t be far, just down at the end of the hall. Adrien cupped her face with his palm. This compound is well hidden and fortified for security. We need to plan where to go next, and he needs to sleep after all he’s been through.
Lily shifted her attention to Adrien. The new double-chain intensified what she sensed from him. She felt his love and his appreciation for her as Josh’s mother. She also felt his profound gratitude that she’d donned the second chain.
She smiled at him. I understand that and I will comply. But just a few minutes more?
Of course.
* * *
Adrien’s heart had never been so full, not in his entire life, not in four centuries of hard living—and a woman had done this.
Three days ago he’d been chained to a cavern wall; now he was free, powerful enough to stand up to Daniel and to protect his family, and he had a woman in his life who he loved with all his heart.
In a way the boy had brought her to him, and for that reason alone he would cover Josh with a shield of his protection so that no one would ever get to him again.
Though he’d started a war tonight against Daniel, he might not be the one to finish it. His first priority had to be Lily and Josh and he knew that Daniel would come after all of them with a vengeance. Daniel had been denied a kill and he’d been humiliated in front of an assembly of Ancestrals. Above all things, he’d want Adrien dead.
While waiting for Lily, Adrien made his call to Gabriel. Together, they decided on a hiding place deep in the Amazon, in a cavern system hidden behind multiple layers of Ancestral disguising skills. Gabriel and some of his closest Ancestral allies had unequaled disguising skills and they’d successfully hidden away a number of Daniel’s enemies, keeping them safe until the vampire world could figure out how to unseat the most powerful despot ever to take hold of the Council of Ancestrals.
Lily. He called her name. She turned toward him a little, but her body still faced Josh’s bed. Her fingers were pressed to her lips. Her eyes glistened with tears.
Telepathically, he reassured her that they were together now and would stay that way, which brought a deep sigh flowing out of her and her shoulders finally loosened and lowered.
Only then, when she was sure Josh would be safe, did she move toward him. He opened his arms and she stepped inside the circle of his embrace as he held her fast. “I swear,” he whispered, “that I will protect you and your son, above all things, even above the vengeance I want to bring down on the head of my father. I owe this to you, on behalf of my people, to do this for you.”
The chains vibrated heavily. It was as though a wave crashed through Lily, and she began to sob. He carried her from her son’s room to his bedroom, now their bedroom.
He sat down on the side of the bed and held her in his arms for a long, long time, and let her cry it all out, the years of separation, the years of believing Josh was dead, and the horror of having gone through a near-execution with her son as a witness.
He felt her pain because of the chains and because he knew what suffering was. As she wept, he also felt her begin to heal, and in her healing he was healed as well.
* * *
Lily rested her head against Adrien’s shoulder. She fingered the lapel of his finely tailored tux. She felt emptied of emotion, yet full, so full.
She released a sigh then another, heavy exhalations of all that she felt, the relief that she was safe and that Josh was under Adrien’s roof, hidden in a cave protected by Ancestrals.
Safe. She was safe and so was Josh.
And though Adrien held deep concerns for his brothers, she and Josh were his priority.
“What about Lucian and Marius?” She rubbed the fabric between her thumb and forefinger over and over.
“Daniel won’t kill them. Their deaths right now couldn’t serve him at all. He needs them to form tracking pairs.”
Lily frowned. “So Daniel can’t use Quill and Lev?”
“No, neither of them has that ability.”
She shifted to look up at him, her head cradled in the nook of his elbow, his hand rubbing her bare arm. “But you’re worried about Lucian and Marius.”
“Yes. And no. Before I met you, I’d thought of little else than helping to keep my brothers safe. At the same time I felt powerless. Then you arrived and changed everything. You created this enormous miracle in my life and now I’m trying to think about Lucian and Marius in those terms—that maybe something will come into each of their lives to change their futures as well.”
She shifted to stroke his cheek with her fingers. “Like Claire? Do you think she intends to form a bonding pair with Lucian?”
Adrien nodded. “I believe so. Why else would she have told Josh the things she did. She must have learned about Lucian’s chain and schemed to steal it. I’ll alert Gabriel so that he can keep an eye out for Claire. Hopefully that will give Josh some peace as well.”
“What if Daniel is waiting for her and decides to use her like he used me? Maybe you should try to intervene?”
He leaned down and kissed her. “I can’t answer for what is about to happen to Lucian or Claire, and I wish I could go to him, but you’re my responsibility now, both you and Josh.”
She wanted to protest, her guilt rising, but he kissed her again and a soft smile curved his lips. “No guilt, Lily. I don’t know exactly why events unfolded as they did, why you were brought into my life, but you’re here. Lucian and Marius are men, very powerful vampires, and what I trust in the most right now is that each will figure things out, how to survive.
“But there’s something more. Gabriel is working behind closed doors with other Ancestrals, and intends to create a counterforce against Daniel. He wants to retake the Council, and in time he will. So I will trust in that, in those vampires of Ancestral status, like Gabriel, and those aligned with him, to do what needs to be done.”
“But you should be with them.” More than anything in life she didn’t want to be a hindrance.
He shook his head. “If Daniel knew he could find me, he’d turn his attention toward me. The Ancestrals want his attention fixed on my brothers and on still hunting for the extinction weapon. They can track him better.”
“Did you give Gabriel the location of the weapon at the Black Cavern system?”
He nodded. “They’ve been there and destroyed it.”
“But it’s not over.”
He shook his head. “There were several groups experimenting at the time. Gabriel and many of the Ancestrals believe there was more than one weapon, and some of them in pieces, hidden in different systems.”
“That would explain why, when I thought about the weapon, I’d get so many readings, all over the globe at the same time. But Adrien, shouldn’t you and I be looking for them, perhaps now more than ever?”
He caught her hand and kissed her fingers. “In one sense, yes. But Gabriel and I both believe, as do many of the Ancestrals, that Josh should be our focus. I know that won’t make sense, but Josh, a mere child, didn’t deserve to become embroiled in what is essentially a vampire problem. He didn’t deserve to lose his mother, or his family. If I go with you both now, we can atone to you and Josh to some degree for what was taken from you because of my father. Please, don’t protest. The decision has been made. We’re going to the Rain Forest Caverns.”
Lily felt his determination and knew he wouldn’t be moved, which also gave her a tremendous sense of relief. She rested in what appeared to be a group decision to let her, and her tracking ability, disappear into the jungles of South America.
With her biggest concerns laid to rest, she looked into Adrien’s beautiful flecked teal eyes and finally began to relax. Josh was now safe, the future settled, and she could focus on the miracle that had become the man, the vampire, cradling her in his arms.
She pushed her fingers into his hair, shoving the beautiful strands away from his equally beautiful face. Love flooded her heart, an intense love, surprising and miraculous, because of the chains
that bound her to Adrien. Tears filled her eyes all over again.
“Don’t cry.”
She chuckled softly. “These are just tears of profound joy and gratitude. I didn’t think we were going to make it.”
“But we did, didn’t we?”
“Incredibly, yes. With Josh.”
He nodded. “With your son.” He dipped down and kissed her, this time a lingering kiss. “Oh, Lily,” he murmured. And he lifted her to her feet, took her in his arms, and kissed her again.
The feel of his lips removed the last of her worries.
She was with Adrien, in his South African home, and he was going to make love to her.
He searched the recesses of her mouth and drew her tightly against him, all her velvet and crystals pressed against his fine black Brioni.
The physical strength of him was what she felt, the latent power in his muscled physique, the way his biceps rippled beneath her hands, his thighs flexed against her legs.
He drew back then dipped to kiss her neck, a series of plucks against her vein, a reminder of who and what he was.
She felt his blood-need rise, a tremor that passed through him and sent a strong vibration through her double-chain.
“Yes,” she whispered, “I need that as well. I need you to take from me. Tonight, you’ve given me so much. You’ve given me everything.”
He licked her neck repeatedly so that her breaths grew light and shallow, longing for him.
“I want to do something with you, Lily. Something I’ve never done before, but this new level of power tells me I can.”
Her mind flowed back and forth, loose with desire. Through the chains she could sense his desire as well, like a dull wonderful ache. “Anything, Adrien. My God, anything.”
He kept plucking at her neck. Chills rippled down her chest and arms, even her back. “Mmmm,” she murmured softly. “What do you want to do?”
“I think it’s better if I just showed you.”
He shifted her back to the bed and set her down on the edge. Her fingertips gripped the sides of the silk comforter. She trembled now as he knelt on the carpet. He took her burgundy skirts in hand, pushing them up her bare thighs, higher and higher.
“Lift your hips,” he whispered.
She obeyed and he shoved all that fabric up behind her, then spread her legs. She wore a black lace thong, the barest scrap of fabric.
“Lie back.” His deep voice worked like a hypnotic drug and she eased down on the bed, her dress a lump under her back—but it really didn’t matter because he was kissing her low, and using his finger to play with the lace, which gave her two sensations at once. He rimmed the edge of her thong with his tongue so that the fabric tugged on her while his fingers played and his tongue spread a layer of oh-so-welcome moisture over her skin.
“Unh,” came from between her lips, a soft moan. She shuddered when he gripped the sides of her thong and tore the fabric apart.
“Oh, God,” she said, a whisper against the air.
His tongue covered her in long wet swipes, sideways over her bare mons then moving lower and lower, teasing her labia, all swollen now with tingling desire.
But when he began to work her between her lower lips, her body arched and a deep moan fell from her throat.
Lily.
Telepathy. Beautiful. I love your voice in my head.
I’m going to do that thing now. Be ready.
She might have groaned, she wasn’t sure. I’m ready. She closed her eyes and waited. He never stopped taking care of her very low but after a moment a familiar vibration began, the kind that happened when he battled in two places at once.
The thought of Adrien becoming two entities at the same time forced another long moan from between her lips. He sucked on her low as the vibration intensified.
She felt a strange movement all around, more vibration, and her chain sang against her skin.
Open your eyes.
Though she felt Adrien licking her low, now he was also, at the same time, staring down into her face, stroking her cheek.
She gasped. “You separated.”
I did. Are you enjoying this?
She nodded.
Good.
Are you able to speak?
He shook his head, then leaned close and kissed her.
Lily thought she might have just died and gone to heaven. More of Adrien, that was what she thought as he worked her low and kissed her mouth at the exact same time.
Two Adriens.
The love she felt for him expanded as she slid her arms around his neck and embraced him. He deepened the kiss, searching the recesses of her mouth, but to feel two tongues at once caused a shiver to chase up and down her body in exhilarating waves.
Her hips responded to the flick of his tongue low and she groaned against his mouth at the same time. She slid her fingers into his thick hair, caressing as he kissed her. Using the same hand, she drifted her fingers down his back, then shifted to the second Adrien, stroking his face and feeling where his soft tongue played along her labia.
I like that you’re touching my tongue. Adrien’s voice in her mind, as well as two bodies she could savor and enjoy, strengthened her rising need.
Adrien, I don’t know how much more of this I can take. His lips shifted to suck her finger, then back to her clitoris, flicking his tongue quickly until she rocked against his face. At the same time, he kissed her with swift erotic plunges of his tongue that left her gasping.
Being tended to in both places at once brought pleasure rising sharply, and she cried out against his mouth. Lower, he sped up so that one sensation piled up on another, his tongue in her mouth, flicks down low, the feel of one body beneath her right hand, and a second set of shoulders beneath the other.
She writhed beneath him, hungering, reaching for more, rushing toward ecstasy.
Lily, he whispered within her mind. I love you so much. I love feeling you beneath me like this. One set of hands caressed her breasts, her arms, her shoulders. The other squeezed her hips and stroked her thighs. So much incredible sensation.
A string of cries left her throat. Adrien, I’m coming. Other words might have traveled along the telepathic link but she wasn’t sure since she was so caught up in all that she was experiencing. Pleasure exploded as his tongue pummeled her mouth, as two sets of hands traveled her body, as the other Adrien kept pleasure spiraling through her low. He sucked and flicked until she trembled, ecstasy rolling in waves, one after the other.
At last, panting, her body began to settle down. When she finally lay quiet, he leaned back once more and smiled. Good?
Perfect.
He nodded. I love you so much.
I love you, too.
Down low, the second Adrien kissed her repeatedly just above her clitoris, then the first Adrien kissed her mouth again.
I’m going to re-form now.
She watched as he drifted back to himself, wavy lines in the air like a blur, and at the same time rose from the carpet. He leaned over her, his hands planted on the bed, on either side of her. “How was that?”
“Oh, my God. Adrien, to feel you kiss me while you brought me between my legs. Heaven.” She rubbed his neck.
“More?”
“A lot more. I need you.”
He nodded and began to undress. But he took his time as he held her gaze. She leaned up on her elbows, her legs dangling over the side of the bed, her toes just touching the carpet.
And now he was taking his jacket off, folding it up and laying it across the bench at the foot of the bed. He unhooked a pair of ruby cuff links. He set these on the nightstand. They rocked back and forth, two small spots of red, bloodred.
Her heart beat harder, her gaze drawn to him as he worked at his shirt. He opened the front, eased the soft white fabric down his back, and let it fall to the floor. The vampire had a magnificent body, thick, built pecs, shoulders that went on forever, muscled arms.
And he was hers.
She touched the dou
ble-chain at her neck and her heart swelled, knowing that this man belonged to her now and forever.
He took off his shoes then slipped his pants off, as well as black silk boxers.
And there he was. She felt heated up and dizzy. Her heart raced now and it wasn’t just his body, it was all of him, who he was, his tenderness with her, his concern for Josh, his commitment to keeping them safe from Daniel. He overwhelmed her with his character, his presence, and yes, with that body standing in front of her, his cock firm and ready.
But the earlier tremor rolled through him and she felt his need for her blood. She moved to the edge of the bed, her legs parted wide. She tilted her head, presenting her neck.
He groaned and fell on his knees. She felt his hands on her waist through the velvet. The chains vibrated continuously now so that she felt connected to all that he felt.
He moved swiftly, making a quick strike with his fangs, then sealing his lips over the wound as he started to suck down her blood.
The sensation sent chills down her abdomen all the way to her sex, firing her need for him to plant himself between her legs.
He held her close as he continued to drink her down. She felt his blood-hunger begin to ease, and when it dissipated at last, he released her neck.
He rose up from the floor, extended his hand to her, and drew her to her feet. She thought he would take her gown off. Instead, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her again, plunging his tongue into her mouth.
She whimpered beneath the vast sensations that pummeled her, of his warm skin beneath her fingers, the thickness of his muscles, the pressure of his hard cock against her gown. Her hands grew restless and greedy. She slid them up and down his back, reached in front and stroked his abs.
He gave her just enough room and she drifted her hand low. She cried out as she touched the tip of his cock and found it wet.
“I need to get inside you,” he said.
“I want that, too. You’ve given me so much pleasure. Now it’s your turn.”