Age of the Gods: The Complete, twelve novel, fantasy series (The Blood and Brotherhood Saga) (92 page)

Snuggling into the warm body that held her, Anna began to calm herself. Working hard to steady her breathing, she forced herself to inhale through her nose and was immediately overcome by the scents carried by the woman who held her tightly to her chest. Though she could not see her face, Anna knew the woman to be Hilda, one of the tavern’s cooks. She smelled of spices and smoke, but more than that, she smelled of children. The sweet scent of a young babe had somehow managed to extract itself from the many others upon the woman’s clothing and Anna found herself lost in it for an instant, wondering what it would be like to birth a child and love it unconditionally.

Then the reverie was gone, replaced by another thought-inducing scent. This one hinted of salt and iron and was more than a bit familiar to the clumsy adolescent. Anna knew in an instant that the scent belonged to blood, and although it was not out of place upon the clothing of a cook, Anna was overcome by it. By the second the scent grew stronger and stronger, enveloping everything. No longer could Anna find the scent of the newborn babe. No longer could she even sniff the spices that just moments before were prevalent upon the woman. Anna began to panic as the scent grew so strong that she began to taste it. Looking up to ensure herself that the woman who held her to comfort her had not become injured, she found her true calling in life.

Tilting her head back, Anna’s cheek brushed against Hilda’s neck and as their flesh slid, one beneath the other, Anna felt the older woman’s heart beat beneath her flesh. Without thought Anna reacted to the sensation and exploded into motion. Twisting her body within the confines of the woman’s arms, Anna wrapped her legs about Hilda’s waist. Crossing them behind the woman’s back she secured herself to the new mother. Reaching up, as if to hug the woman in thanks for her comfort, Anna slipped one hand around Hilda’s neck grasping the back of her head and a fistful of hair. At the same time, Anna reached under one arm of the woman and then up to grasp her shoulder as well. Wrenching her hands away from one another, Anna caught the woman off guard as she used her newfound strength to cling to her. Like a wild animal, Anna brought fang to flesh as she tore into Hilda’s neck ferociously with her teeth, letting the hot blood spew into her mouth and run down her chin. So overcome was her prey that not a sound escaped her lips. Anna was lost in the joyous sensation the taste of blood brought her, but that was only the beginning.

Biting deeper into the woman’s neck, Anna used her teeth to hold her to the wound and formed a seal around it with her lips. Like the newborn babe the woman was accustomed to, Anna began to suckle. It was not the milk from her breasts that Anna needed, but the blood that sustained Hilda’s life. As she began to suck upon the grievous wound, Anna began to feel new sensations of a heightened nature. As she fed, something within her grew whilst something else was satiated, yet those were insignificant to the third thing Anna began to feel.

Having just started her first cycle the day previous, many a concept was new and alien to Anna, yet Momma had done a great deal of explaining to make the change as comfortable as possible. Even so, nothing could have prepared Anna for what was about to take place.

As her hunger and thirst both subsided, and new strength and vigor flowed into her body, seemingly carried upon the blood she consumed, Anna began to feel a new and wondrous sensation. As she fed her body was overcome with warmth at first and then, for no apparent reason, she began to moisten between her legs. It was not the uncomfortable, wet sensation from the day before when she had begun to bleed, but something pleasurable instead. Beyond that the more overcome she became, the more her body and instincts began to take over. With every moment after the pleasure began it increased, and within moments Anna was rolling her hips, pulling her body tightly to the woman she clung to, pressing herself into Hilda hard as she worked her pelvis, increasing the pleasure further. Suckling still, Anna’s breaths became harder and harder to find as her ecstasy increased. Without another option she released her grasp upon the woman’s throat for an instant in hopes of catching her breath. Instead, as her lips parted from the warm flesh, a quiet moan of pleasure escaped her, followed quickly by another of increasing intensity, and then another. Then it was as if something inside her broke or exploded, and screaming out in pleasure of the likes she could have never before imagined, Anna looked into the lifeless eyes of her very first lover, her open mouth twisting into a smile as her hips ceased rolling.

Everyone in the room stood frozen in shock, looks of disgust, fear and dismay etched upon their faces. No one moved. No one breathed but Anna. A final trickle of blood ran down Hilda’s neck as Anna stood and disentangled herself from the lifeless body. Still no one moved, as if time had stopped. Anna looked around, still reveling in the bliss which had just exhilarated her. She had to experience it again. Now  the others began to realize their danger as eyes darted towards the two doors in the room. Anna knew she couldn’t let any of them escape, and somewhere between conscious thought and instinct, Anna sprang into action, the inkling of a plan taking shape.

Leaping over the two nearest women, Anna landed with hardly a sound and began sprinting towards the back exit of the tavern. It was the full distance across the kitchen, and three other women moved towards it that same instant. With her newfound grace, speed and strength, Anna raced past those who sought to escape her without so much as breaking a sweat. Sliding to a halt between the massive shelves that held the sacks of ingredients for cooking, Anna turned to face the women. With a smile she reached out to either side and grasped the immense oak shelves, heavily laden with supplies. Pulling them towards one another, her small arms bulged as the two shelves leaned closer together. Small objects began to slide from them to clatter loudly upon the floor, and just as the two shelves reached the point of no return, Anna leapt out from between them. Though the shelves could not fall in entirety, each one leaning into the other, they blocked the top of the door from being pulled open from inside. If that were not enough, as the two crashed together heavily, the whole of their contents came to spill out between them. Sacks of grain, flour, rice, sugar and spices filled the void between them. It would take several men with strong backs to right the shelves again.

With the back exit blocked, the seven women in the room with Anna realized their predicament seemingly all at once. As if of one mind, all seven rushed to the door opposite Anna, but despite their being two thirds of the distance ahead of her, none would beat her to the door.

Like a force of nature Anna launched herself across the room, moving at impossible speeds. She spun on her toes as she slid to a stop before the door into the tavern proper. Raising her hands she showed the women whom she had thwarted the two knives she had managed to pick up off a prep table halfway across the room. Fear showed in their eyes. Anna preferred the fear over pity. Turning again she drove the blades of the two knives through the wooden door and deep into its frame, effectively nailing it shut. The women began to scream for help, but all Anna heard was music. Music played to the steadily increasing rhythms of their hearts. A moment later the door behind her began to shake and rattle as someone tried to get in, assuring Anna that it was secure and she could take her time.

Smiling, Anna danced across the cobblestones, her bare toes barely touching the floor with each step. She leapt towards Rachel, the woman her eyes had fallen upon. Rachel was a cook, the prettiest in employ at the tavern. She was a confident woman with blonde hair, blue eyes and a body that every boy and man in Traiven appreciated. Now she would be Anna’s. As Anna landed in front of Rachel, only a few steps between them, her victim tried to retreat. It was unfortunate for the poor girl, for stepping backwards she plowed heavily into one of the large cooking pots suspended above a fire. Such was the blow to the pot that it swung violently into the wall behind it. Hitting the wall the huge pot splashed boiling soup onto the cook who screamed out and clutched at her arm where it had been burned. Worse than that, the front chain of the pot, having become slack for an instant, managed to unhook itself and, as the pot swung forward once again, it spewed its contents onto the floor.

Rachel wore but linen booties upon her feet so as the scalding fluid pooled and splashed onto the floor, it instantly saturated the linen, melting and boiling the woman’s flesh. Screaming in agony, the injured cook tried to flee, but taking a step, her flesh peeled away from her foot exposing meat and bone. The pain was so intense that she collapsed into the pool to endure the torturous pain a thousand fold over much more of her body. None the less, Anna needed to taste her blood, if nothing else to see if a more beautiful woman tasted better.

Screaming as the flesh blistered and cooked on her body in too many places to count, Anna dragged Rachel from the harmful liquid, her own feet seemingly spared. Thinking this an act of kindness, two other women in the room ceased their panicked screams and attempts to escape to watch in wonder as Anna extracted the woman. A second later they resumed their screams as Anna plunged her teeth into Rachel’s neck, sealing her lips to the milky white flesh of the fair skinned woman that so many men lusted after. Anna was again overcome by pleasure, but to a lesser degree. Rachel’s blood was indeed different. It was saltier, warmer, and Anna could literally feel the adrenaline seeping into her as she drank, her own heart beginning to beat faster. Again the longer she drank, the stronger she felt. The other women in the room huddled together, half sobbing between their screams for help. A loud banging sounded at the back exit, and was repeated at the other door. Those in the tavern had realized that something was locked in the kitchen with the women. They were franticly trying to get in. Anna would not have enough time to enjoy each of the women as she would have liked. She began to hurry, sucking harder upon Rachel’s neck wound, but only until the beat of her heart stopped.

Unsure how much time she had, Anna did not discriminate when choosing her next victim. Snatching the newest addition to the kitchen next, a small brunette named Faun, Sara punched the woman in the head with such force that bones crumpled beneath the blow, destroying the woman’s jaw and knocking her unconscious. It took less than two minutes to suck her dry. Her own heart did most of the work, in fact. Better than that, Faun’s blood tasted much like Hilda’s, and brought the same sensations as well, and within the short two minutes Anna spent with her, she had an orgasm again. This time her body shook with pleasure, convulsing occasionally as the bliss became too potent.

Two short minutes later and Anna was forced to bash another woman and drag her away from the others. Feeding upon this one nearly brought her to climax as well, but unfortunately, much to Anna’s disappointment, the other women in the room with her had gathered some courage between them. Just as Anna’s hips began to roll for the third time in the day, a searing pain exploded in her back, a little below her shoulder blade. Turning her head she watched as the cook named Marcy extracted a knife from her, and attempted to stab her yet again. Then more pain burst from her arm on the opposite side, out of her field of vision, forcing her to swing her head around. Anna was under attack by the remaining four women. Each brandished a knife. Anna leapt from Marcy’s body, pushing aside the ecstasy she had experienced a split second before. Lunging in she caught her fellow bar wench, Sandy, by the arm. With a twist and a shove, Anna listened as the bone snapped and Sandy screamed out in agony, the knife dropping from her arm to clatter upon the floor. To make sure the other women got the message, Anna picked Sandy up by her throat and flung her at Trisha, a short woman with dark curly hair. The two women crashed to the floor in a heap, each sobbing and sprawling, struggling to disentangle themselves.

Anna’s third and fourth attackers attempted to flee back across the room from her, but Anna leapt after them. Striking them both with her own body and digging her fingers between the rib cages of both, they landed heavily upon their backs with Anna above them. Sinking her fingers in, tearing through the flesh, Anna closed her hands around a single rib of each woman. Grasping the bones she yanked hard with each hand, tearing a rib from each body in a shower of blood. Now time was really of the essence.

Not wanting to waste their precious blood, Anna pulled the first woman to her feet. Tearing her dress and apron from her in a single swoop, she bit deep into the woman’s soft, fleshy neck. For just over a minute Anna suckled the life away until the woman’s heart stopped. Then Anna repeated the process. Without a single regretful thought, like an animal driven by hunger, Anna fed upon the women. Less than a quarter of an hour after Hilda had lost her life and changed Anna forever, every woman in the kitchen lay dead upon the stone floor like so many ragdolls tossed aside by an angry child. Yet the night was early.

Still the doors at either end of the room banged and shook, and though no one had managed to enter yet, Anna realized it would only be a matter of time. Though she felt amazing, strong, invincible even, she knew not what her limitations were. She was aware only that the two knife wounds she had received had disappeared before she had finished feeding. Uncertain how much assault she could withstand and not wanting to be overwhelmed by those trying to enter, Anna decided upon a slightly different course of action.

Lying upon the floor, covered in the blood of her victims, Anna waited for the rescuers. To make the scene slightly more realistic, she grasped her dress at the collar and pulled, tearing it wide open, exposing her perky young breasts and pink nipples. Smearing blood upon her milky skin, she lay down completely, and closed her eyes to set the scene.