Wolrd of Ascension 01 - Ascension

  She wept for release yet held it at bay, holding back, restraining, wanting the moment to last. She panted over his wrist, her mouth still suckling as though she had always known how to take blood in this way. She longed for the moment she could take Kerrick at his neck, and the thought sent new blistering sensations straight up her core.

  She felt the seizing begin, deep inside, around his thick hard presence. She could no longer restrain what had to be released.

  You’re going to come, he whispered within her mind. I can feel it.

  Deep guttural groans poured from her throat even as she continued to take his blood. She tried to warn him, but the orgasm swamped her, filling her with pleasure that spread like fire from her tender cleft up through her core to rise like a powerful geyser through her body. She screamed against his wrist, but kept drawing his blood into her mouth. At the same time, power rolled from her and struck Kerrick, who groaned heavily in return.

  Oh, God, Alison. I’m so close. His hips thrust harder and deeper as she held him with tightened muscles. He kept taking her blood at her neck, groaning, then grunting. A jumble of words moved through her mind, beautiful, fuck, hard, like-a-fist, touch me, oh, God … Alison.

  Yes.

  Move into my mind. Now. This is it.

  She obeyed the command, still panting over his wrist, his blood like small explosions in her throat. But as he retreated from her mind and she moved into his, as she saw the height of his pleasure, as she saw his love for her, a second orgasm barreled down on her, streaking like lightning over all her sensitive flesh. She screamed. Her power rolled from her and once more beat at him.

  Then everything changed, shifted. The sudden oneness she experienced with Kerrick in the middle of this profound moment stunned her. She felt all her pleasure. She felt his. She felt him taking in her pleasure at the exact same moment.

  As one, each released the vein, the retreat of the fangs sealing the wounds. His gaze locked with hers as pleasure flooded his body, her body, his, hers. Theirs.

  Holy shit, he murmured inside her head.

  No kidding.

  He kept thrusting, hard and fast. She couldn’t look away. She orgasmed, power released, and his mouth opened. I felt your pleasure, he said.

  I know. I can feel what you feel. Unbelievable.

  She felt the tensing of his back.

  I’m going to come, he sent.

  She could feel the intense rush of fluid through his cock, the tremendous pleasure of his orgasm as he pumped into her and filled her. His orgasm continued on igniting hers. Fireworks lit inside her brain. She laughed. She cried.

  He laughed with her, his body still surging. Oh, shit.

  What?

  Again, he cried within her mind. I don’t know how but I’m going to come again. She could feel it as well, that he was readying, which in turn fired her up all over again.

  At the same time she could feel the thrumming and weeping of his wing-locks. She also saw the connection and she knew exactly what she wanted to do.

  No, he protested.

  “Yes,” she whispered. She teased the sensitive apertures, her fingers gliding between the hypersensitive ridges between each engorged lock.

  “Oh, God,” he moaned.

  “Just let it go, Kerrick, because I can feel it, too.” She started writhing as his pleasure rose, which sent her pleasure skyrocketing. His pleasure, her pleasure, theirs. Jesus.

  Within her mind she felt his lower back tense, the tightness of his balls, the pleasure riding the length of his cock, then the pleasure riding once more along the tender flesh of her cleft and streaking up her core.

  “I can feel your orgasm.” Holy shit.

  She felt his wings begin to mount as he continued to plunge into her.

  Can’t help it.

  The pleasure of wings mounting, of his orgasm, hers, theirs.

  Oh. God.

  She screamed. He cried out as he filled her with his seed. Stars exploded in her mind. In his. She levitated as his wings took them off the bed, into the air. She held his neck, his buttocks. He held her back and her buttocks. He grunted with each thrust, her fingers gentler now on the ridges. He managed, still surging, though slower now, a loving rock of his hips while he sustained them in midair, the practiced flight of centuries.

  Slowly, he drew his wings closer to his body until she felt the bed once more beneath her back. He took several deep breaths and since she was still so deeply connected to him, she felt his body calling the feathers back, one by one, absorbing the intricate mesh-like filaments that created the superstructure. Flight hormones, like sex hormones, drifted through his body. She felt it all.

  He looked into her eyes. “How strange is this? I can feel my lips and your lips. I feel my pleasure and yours.”

  “Ours.”

  He shook his head back and forth. “The oneness.” He slid his hands down her arms until he locked their hands together.

  She sighed. He kissed her. She sighed again.

  “I love you,” he said. “I love being this close to you, feeling you from the inside out. I knew the breh-hedden would be wonderful, but I sure as hell didn’t expect this. The moment you moved into my mind, I felt everything you felt while feeling everything I felt.” His lids lowered, and his voice was husky. “And can I just say, your orgasms are amazing.”

  “Ditto.”

  He kissed her hard. Drew back. “I love being inside you.” He rocked into her.

  She moaned. “I love you being there.” She moved her hips to feel him better. He groaned, and why wouldn’t he since she could feel the pressure of her body stroking his cock and just how good it felt to him.

  She kissed him, suckled at his swollen lips, breathed in the fierce cardamom scent that suffused the room. “I love how you smell.” She put her nose to his thick muscled shoulder and breathed in then licked his skin.

  He stroked her cheek and gazed into her eyes. He sighed. “I’m going to remove my mind now. Okay?”

  She nodded. He withdrew slowly until his mind separated from hers, but she didn’t feel bereft as she had before.

  An odd sensation traveled around her head, a strange kind of awareness. Even though he was no longer in her head, she could feel his location, the way his stomach felt pressed into her hips, the way his forearms dipped into the mattress supporting his torso, the way his lips felt as he smiled his crooked smile. She touched his lips with her fingertips. She kissed him and could feel his lips kissing back.

  “This is weird. I can still feel you, even though you’re no longer in my mind.”

  He cocked his head. “You’re right. Huh.” He leaned down and kissed her then drew back. “I can feel you as well, but just the exterior of you, your head against the mattress, your fingers in my hair—you like my hair, don’t you?”

  “I love your hair.”

  He kissed her again. “Yeah, I can feel you.”

  “Right now the toes on your left foot are rubbing the sheet back and forth very slowly.”

  He lifted his brows. “So they are.” He frowned then smiled. “And I can feel what the pads of your thumbs feel as you stroke my biceps.”

  He took her hand and lifted her fingers to his mouth. He kissed each one. “I love your smell. Mm. Lavender.”

  “Cardamom.” She smiled.

  He remained inside her for a long time, his weight pinning her to the mattress, anchoring her to her new life. She slid one arm around his massive shoulders, and with the other buried her hand in his long hair.

  He nuzzled her neck. He stroked her arms gently.

  You’re mine, he whispered softly through the euphoric pathways of her brain. I’ll fight with everything I’ve got to stay alive and to keep you safe. You know that, right?

  With all my heart.

  Later, wrapped up in his arms, in a warm cocoon of love, a great love, a profound love, she fell into a deep sleep.

  The dream came again. She wafted her wings as she flew over White Lake, her lake, the l
ake she now protected as a Guardian of Ascension. She sensed a presence, an evil warning, that plucked on the hairs at the nape of her neck.

  She drew up and in the distance she saw squadrons of death vampires heading toward her. She was about to fold, her thoughts full of her need to reach Kerrick, but before she thought the thought, Kerrick appeared in front of her, in flight gear and in full-mount, a sword in each hand, his white feathers gilded by the early-morning sun. The brilliance of his presence rendered her speechless. She could no longer see the approach of the death vampires; nor did she fear them. Her warrior flew as her vanguard.

  The lake once more called to her, and she lowered her toes into the water and looked up to see the blue swirling brilliance of Third Dimension above her, calling, calling, calling. She felt a tug on her hand and when she looked to her left to see who it was, Havily was there, smiling at her.

  The longing returned in full force. She turned her gaze back up to the blue vortex. She tried to rise, but she couldn’t, even though she felt Havily encouraging her to try.

  Not yet, but soon, the man’s voice spoke within her head.

  When she awoke with Kerrick’s arm surrounding her, she thought of the dream and what it would mean for the future. She didn’t know exactly but trusted that time would reveal what she needed to know. She drew his arm tighter across her chest and hugged him. He shifted slightly in his sleep, his big warrior body a shield around her, now and forever.

  Soft words came to her, a whisper from deep in her soul, so deep she didn’t at first hear them, but they repeated, spoken in that same masculine voice, Tend to Havily’s dreams.

  The future gains peace,

  In the resolution of the past.

  —Collected Proverbs, Beatrice of Fourth

  CHAPTER 25

  The next morning Alison folded to Endelle’s office complex and at first stood stunned outside the massive pyramid-like buildings, each structure embellished with lush hanging gardens on every floor. This truly was a new world, one she hoped she’d be able to explore, one that valued horticulture as an art form.

  She entered the building along with a variety of administrative and executive types. She rode the elevator to the top floor.

  SWWL SUPREME HIGH ADMINISTRATOR OF SECOND EARTH was printed in absurdly tall gold lettering on a long bank of plate-glass windows.

  Tacky, Alison thought.

  But quite typical.

  The doors swished open, and as she crossed the threshold she was aware of tremendous chaos. A sea of desks spread out in front of her, all occupied, all weighed down with paper. There were no plants in sight, no color on the walls, no pictures of family members. She thought of the classic film Nine to Five.

  Toward the back, bundles of papers were stacked everywhere, giving the environment the look of a recycling plant doing a very poor job.

  Even so, she could feel an electric excitement in the air and wondered what was going on.

  Almost as one, the brigade of administrative assistants, male and female, rose in a sudden wave and applauded in her direction. She turned around to see what kind of dignitary had arrived, perhaps even one of the warriors, but no one was there. She turned back around and found all eyes on her. Oh. The applause was meant for her. She could not have been more astonished. Nor could she keep a blush from warming her cheeks.

  She put a hand to her chest and drew in a deep breath. She worked to keep tears from flooding her eyes. She gave a little wave and smiled, not certain what else to do.

  Whistles followed. The applause grew louder. Executives from various offices opened doors and also put their hands together.

  An assistant, a female, with curly brown hair, approached her. The young woman quieted everyone with two raised hands. She turned to face Alison. “We have been anticipating your arrival, ascender Wells. We welcome you to Second Earth and to our offices. We wish you every blessing as you serve Madame Supreme High Administrator. Again, welcome.”

  “Thank you so much.”

  The applause once again thundered through the long crammed space and only stopped when Madame Endelle appeared at the end of the corridor off to the left. The slight bristling of her enormous wings, gold this time, sent everyone back to work.

  Once she had managed her staff, she addressed Alison, “Well, I sure as hell hope you’re ready for this.” She drew her wings abruptly into her wing-locks, a movement that caused a breeze to flow over Alison as well as a slight scent of animal. Oh, she wore a skirt bearing stripes, similar pelts of some sort, all stitched together, made up of … raccoon, maybe?

  “We might as well get started. Take these.”

  She waved her hand and an old-fashioned stenographer’s pad and pen appeared in the air in front of Alison. She grabbed them as they started to fall, then she laughed. Had Her Supremeness not heard of a laptop?

  She led her down a long hall of offices to a massive executive suite at the very end. With zebra hides scattered over the floor, the room reflected an essential part of Endelle’s unique persona. A massive slab of white marble formed the top of her desk and was supported by … elephant tusks?

  “Woolly mammoth,” Endelle said. She dropped into her black chair draped with what looked like an Appaloosa horsehide. She narrowed her eyes at Alison. “Now, let’s get one thing straight. I’m in charge and there will be a lot of paperwork and legal issues to resolve before you are granted guardian status. So don’t even think about taking a high tone with me or making any more fucking demands. You will do as you are told for a good long while.”

  “Yes, Madame Endelle.”

  Alison couldn’t repine. She had what she desired most, a place in a society that accepted her bizarre range of powers, and a real hottie of a vampire for a boyfriend who adored making love to her, taking her blood, and exploring her mind. She still reeled from waking up this morning to his body stroking hers then his tongue doing such things … okay, better to stay focused on the business at hand.

  “No. Go right ahead,” Endelle said, having clearly dipped into her mind. “I think you just made my day.”

  Alison guarded her thoughts, blanking out in order to keep her private life private. She set her mind to a mundane recollection of other things she had done, like putting cups in the dishwasher this morning. Top row. Right side.

  Endelle rolled her eyes. “You are no fun at all.”

  Plates stacked on the bottom. We need more coffee since Kerrick prefers his like mud. Maybe purchase a second coffeemaker for me. I wonder what the grocery stores on Second look like. I think I’II bring flowers home tonight.

  “Enough,” Endelle cried. “You will bore me into the grave if you keep going.”

  Alison smiled. She was grateful, brim-full of thanksgiving for her new life. She was happy to be across from She Who Would Live. No, she could not repine, and right now, if Endelle asked her, she’d drop down and kiss the woman’s feet.

  Endelle’s laughter chimed through the room. “That won’t be necessary,” she said. She trilled her laughter anew. “All right, let’s talk about what I expect of you.”

  Alison sat down opposite her and listened. She Who Would Live spoke long and eloquently about the nature of her duties, which covered everything from fetching Starbucks from Mortal Earth to visiting High Administrators around the globe. “And I want you to teach those idiots at the training camps how to throw a proper hand-blast.

  “All in all, I’m glad you’ve come, Alison. I trust I don’t have to tell you how important it is that nothing I say to you from this moment on leaves either this room or your mind. Do you understand?”

  “Of course,” Alison said.

  Endelle formed a shield around them both then clasped her hands together on the desk. “Now, let’s talk about Leto.”

  * * *

  That night, Kerrick sat at the bar at the Blood and Bite, the music off for the moment, the strobes quiet. Only a few couples moved around on the dance floor pretending the music still played.

  He
wore flight gear ready for the night’s work. He had shared dinner with Alison then shared her body but before he knew it, he was back to his duties as a Warrior of the Blood.

  He’d barely touched his Maker’s. All his brothers had gathered around him but no one had asked the question that burned in the air, all but sending smoke rings to the rafters.

  Words weren’t sufficient anyway, so he extended his right arm and turned it over so that the bruising on his wrist was visible.

  “Holy shit,” Luken murmured.

  “So you did it,” Zacharius cried.

  Santiago slapped Kerrick on the shoulder. “Fuck.”

  “Yeah,” he responded. He nodded. He tried to think what the hell to say to them. Even now, he knew exactly where Alison was … in the kitchen emptying the dishwasher, and … she was singing.

  He sighed.

  A ripple of tension passed through the men. Bodies shifted, glasses got plunked down on the bar. Sam moved bottles back and forth, refilling as needed. Fire went down throats.

  Still, the warriors didn’t move away from him so he knew he needed to say something to relieve the intense curiosity. He opened his mouth to speak, but words failed. He gestured with a palm up and brows raised. He frowned, he grimaced, he shook his head. He felt compelled to tell them something, but what?

  Heaven, however, seemed like too small a word. Rapture fell flat. Extraordinary was … well … just ordinary.

  Finally, he said the only thing that made any kind of sense or could explain how complete the experience had been for him. “For the first time in about two hundred years, I slept … for eight hours straight.”

  Bodies shifted once more, soft curses broke the air, shoulders fell, and breathing recommenced.

  “Sleep,” Thorne murmured. “Well, that would be something.”

  “No shit,” Medichi echoed.

  “Merde,” Jean-Pierre stated succinctly. “I’d kill for so many hours of sleep all at one time.”

  * * *