Chapter 20
Ember woke when the sun had only just started to set. She was content, optimistic even, and after she crawled from bed, she stood for a long time staring at the diploma on her dresser. A small smile spread across her lips as she looked at it, but it only lasted until she heard Truman answer a call from the next room, and she grew cold.
“We’re coming back shortly. Why? What’s happened?” Ember froze and listened. “My God. That’s over a quarter of my fucking family. How?” He was silent as he listened to the person on the other line, and Ember’s heart thudded as she listened for any clue. Suddenly, the door was shoved open. He covered the speaker on his phone before speaking. “I can smell your adrenaline, dear, never mind the sound of your racing heart. Don’t hide from me.” His gaze was serious, but he wasn’t upset. He was worried, angry, concerned. He held his hand out to her, and she followed him to the kitchen.
He was wearing nothing but his jeans, and when he entered the kitchen, he sat in one of the table chairs and pulled her down to straddle him with her naked body. “No, Sylvan, listen to me. I want the rest of them moved to the council building. It will only be temporary, but they obviously can’t stay in my family’s building. The council’s building is the safest place for them to be, and I’m not interested in giving Mason a chance to destroy what’s left of my bloodline.” There was silence as Sylvan responded before Truman spoke again. “Don’t be ridiculous. You have no reason to even have me at the council table if my entire family has been obliterated. So, yes, their protection is the council’s problem.” He hung up without another word.
“Will you tell me what happened?” Ember studied him. He was thinking and considering what he wanted to say. “Please. You have no reason to lie to me.”
He shook his head. “It’s not that. I just don’t want to worry you.” A long sigh later, he continued—his words tumbling out in frustration. “Mason just wiped out four of my family members. He and his cronies attacked during the day. Went room to room, dismembering one after the other until the rest of my clan finally had a chance to react and fight back. He’s hell-bent on destroying us, and I’m leaving my family high and dry staying in the council’s building with you. I…” She pulled from his body swiftly at his words. She couldn’t help it. His words hurt, and he didn’t appear to even realize he’d said anything wrong, but as she pulled, he pulled back and held her tight in his arms. Leaning to her ear, he shushed her. “God, Ember, I didn’t mean that. I’m sorry. Please … listen to me.” He pulled back from her, studying her expression, and he leaned to her mouth and kissed her. It was gentle and sweet, and it did the trick. Her anger abated. She didn’t want to be angry with him anymore. She didn’t want to return to the negativity of the last few weeks, but she also didn’t want to be the reason his family suffered, and if there was truth in that statement, she needed to know.
When his mouth parted from hers, he spoke. He controlled his words carefully while he watched her face. “I dethroned their leader, and I left them with no protection, no order whatsoever. I’ve never given much thought to my family, but they’re my responsibility now, and I can’t just let them be knocked off like cattle at slaughter.” His eyes were soft now, and he looked more helpless than anything.
“I didn’t mean to sound like I blame you. I need to be with you. I want to be with you. I just … I just feel so fucking helpless. Sylvan is handling me with kid gloves, and it’s driving me crazy. He’s not letting me do anything to protect my family, and yet he doesn’t want to give my family refuge in the council’s building until we can destroy Mason. So my bloodline has just been abandoned.” He dropped his head to Ember’s shoulder, and it was her turn to soothe him. She massaged the tight stress in his shoulders, and she held her chest close to his, nuzzling her own face into his neck.
As her mouth met his neck, her teeth instantly ached, and she whimpered without intention at the pain. He pulled quickly from her and found her eyes. He reached with a gentle touch to her lips and pulled up with his thumbs to see her protracted teeth. She couldn’t help but be embarrassed when he saw her in this way. Odd, considering he was built just the same way, but she hadn’t yet gotten used to her new physiology, and it left her feeling self-conscious.
“You have to tell me when you’re hungry. You’ll get weak quickly when you don’t feed, and you’ll never be as strong or satiated as long as us because you’re feeding from me.” And then his gaze dropped, and he continued again quietly. “I wouldn’t have wished this on you. Being completely dependent on me may be a complete turn-on to me, but it’s hardly ideal for you.” He was smirking when he said the last part, and as he dropped his head to the side, exposing his neck, she kissed his lips gently. She could feel the smile pulling up the corners of his mouth as her lips met his, and once she was done, she moved her mouth to his neck and bit.
He sighed as she sucked, and he ran his hands from her hips down to her bottom. He pulled her hips toward him, and as he did, she flooded with wetness. She slowed her sucking, concentrating on his hands on her buttocks, and when her mouth slowed, he chuckled. “Taking your time, are you? Would you like to be fucked while you’re feeding on me, is that it?” It was, but saying it out loud wasn’t going to happen. “Say it. Ask me for it.” Or maybe it would…
“Please fuck me.” She was whispering, and he had to have known she was terrified.
“Of course … but only if I can bite you too.” She pulled from his neck where she was doing little more than licking the trickle from his neck. “Don’t worry. I won’t take much. I promise you’ll enjoy it.” She didn’t doubt, and when she nodded, he smirked and his eyebrows shot up. He looked carefree and young, though she knew well he was neither, and he prodded her just a bit more. “Might want to take my pants off if you wanna fuck me, eh?”
She reached for his waist and undid the button, and then pulling her body back from his, she slid the zipper down. His penis thrust up through the parting fabric, and she inhaled sharply at the sight of him and just what effect it had on her body. She was wet, trembling, and ready to beg him if need be. She stood as he raised his hips from the chair and slid them quickly to his knees, and the moment his butt hit the chair again, he grabbed her hips and pulled her back down to her place against his groin; the only difference this time was that his engorged cock was snug against her own wet sex, nestled between her lips.
His lips found hers, and he plunged his tongue into her mouth. She matched his passion with her own insistent lips, and when he trailed his mouth to her neck, he did as he said he would. His teeth sunk in as pain radiated up her neck. He pulled his teeth from her neck and slowly and seductively licked her skin as her blood trickled down. He lifted her hips, and he took a break in laving her skin only long enough to whisper in her ear. “Put my cock in your pussy.” She moved her hand between their bodies, and when her fingers touched the head of his cock, he groaned and kept licking and kissing her blood away.
She guided his engorged head to her entry, and he slowly pulled her hips down over his shaft. She moaned as the invasion took over her body and filled her to her depths. His hands pulled her hips back and forth to his body, and she moved her mouth back to his neck; she had to bite again as he’d started to heal from her previous bite, and as her teeth sunk in for the second time, he gasped and moaned. She pulled, and he kept her hips moving to his. He moved his mouth to her skin once more, and he licked the blood that was trickling. She could feel the wounds already healing, and as the last of her blood was licked clean from her neck, he tilted his mouth up to her ear. “You taste so fucking good. Now you better hurry up and finish, because I wanna pound your pussy, and I’m afraid if I do with your teeth in me, you’ll tear my throat clean out.”