B007XKEWAE EBOK (29 page)

             
“Look at this stuff.”

             
Before she could get close to the pile Stefan was back up pressed behind her, holding her to him with his free hand.

             
“Forget about her. She’ll turn up soon. She just wasn’t ready for what we did last night. She’ll show up when she gets over it. I’ve seen her type before. Probably she’s just afraid her parents will be able to tell. Like it will be obvious that their little girl is no innocent virgin anymore.”

             
Raquel leaned back on Stefan. “But why wouldn’t she come and find
me
?”

             
Stefan had an answer for everything. “You are a much more experienced girl than she is. Maybe she’s a bit embarrassed about her performance.”

             
Raquel turned around so now she and Stefan were pressed close together front to front. Raquel was pressing her chest so hard up against Stefan so that with every breath her breasts threatened to spill out of her top.

             
“Was she bad?” Raquel asked.

             
Gabriella bristled. Then she felt a soft touch on her forearm. She flicked her eyes to the side and made contact with Francesca. Looking at those eyes a silent communication passed between them. Gabriella nodded and looked back at the two humans.

             
It didn’t matter what Stefan thought of her.

             
Gabriella had missed Stefan’s response to Raquel’s question. Now her friend was giggling something at him. Gabriella had heard her friend giggle like that before and she had seen that look in Stefan’s eyes last night. She knew what was coming.

             
Gabriella tensed again. How could her friend be so easily distracted? Again she felt Francesca lay a hand on her arm to calm her. Obviously Francesca wanted to watch a while first. Truth to tell, Gabriella was excited by the moment as well. The voyeurism gave her a secret thrill.

             
Oblivious to the two watchers in the loft Stefan and Raquel fell on each other like animals. Their clothes were
quickly discarded, in a pile a safe distance from the filthy remains of Gabriella’s clothing. Gabriella was still amused by the sight of Stefan proudly naked, but she didn’t get long to watch before he was on top of Raquel.

             
Gabriella felt heat coursing through her body watching the erotic act unfolding below her. It didn’t look as though Raquel was going to be happy with Stefan seeing to his own pleasure without taking care of hers as well. She reached up and hooked her arms around the back of his neck drawing his head down to her. And then she rolled them both over. Her hands were pushing down on his chest and she sat astride him. Stefan started grunting as he had with Gabriella the night previous but now his moans were accompanied by Raquel’s
lustful screams. Gabriella found the sound of her friend in such a personal moment to be the most arousing thing so far.

             
Once again Francesca placed a hand on her arm, but this time it was not as a warning it was simply to attract her attention without alerting the humans below.

             
“It is time.”

When she spoke Gabriella glimpsed ivory fangs extending from her companions gums. Instinctively Gabriella knew how to make the same change in herself. At first it was a little painful to feel her gums splitting and her teeth shifting to make room for the larger teeth. Drops of her own blood slid down the gentle curve of those teeth and touched on her tongue. Any pain she might have felt,
anything
else she might have felt was swallowed up in her bloodlust.

Moving as swift and silent as only supernatural creatures could, the pair of vampires took up positions to either side of the couple. They were so engrossed in their animalistic lovemaking that it took a few moments for them to notice that they were no longer alone.

It was Stefan who noticed first. Raquel was still wildly bucking on top of him, her head tilted back and her eyes closed as she approached the moment of ecstasy Stefan had been unable to provide for Gabriella. He called out something inarticulate at the sudden appearance of the two apparently young women. His call alerted Raquel who ceased her movement immediately. She jumped off Stefan and started to cover
herself with her hands. For his part Stefan sat up and placed his hands over his manhood.

It took a few moments for either of them to recognise her, and then Raquel blinked and ceased her struggle to regain some modesty. “Gabriella?” she asked.

Gabriella couldn’t fault her onetime friend for having trouble recognising her. Gabriella felt so different after being with Francesca, and what had happened afterwards, that she felt like a different person.

Stefan started to say something. In a fluid movement Francesca was down beside him and he fell silent.

Gabriella took a single step closer to her friend. “It’s me,” she said.

At ease with her friend Raquel let herself relax. “We were worried about you. You weren’t anywhere around today and your parents said you didn’t go home last night.” She glanced about the barn. “Have you been here all this time?”

Gabriella stood in front of her friend as still as a statue, except for her head which she nodded in response to the other girls query.

“What have you been doing all this time?” Raquel looked beyond her to where Francesca was whispering something to a, literally, enthralled Stefan. “Who’s that?”

Gabriella twisted her upper body to regard Francesca and smiled. Francesca smiled back. After a final hushed comment to Stefan she got to her feet and made her way over to
Gabriella’s side. The youth remained where she had left him, staring at nothing with glazed over eyes.

“This?” Gabriella said turning back to Raquel when Francesca joined her.

Raquel nodded dumbly as Francesca looked her up and down.

Francesca wrapped an arm about Gabriella and placed her head close to hers. Francesca’s eyes never left Raquel. When she spoke her voice was soft but carried enough so that Raquel could hear her.

“She must be your first.”

Raquel’s eyes widened and they flicked furiously over the two women facing her. Francesca was slinking over Gabriella and Gabriella ached to be with her companion again. Almost as much as
she ached for this. With the obvious attraction between them, and the intimacy of their closeness, Raquel could be forgiven for jumping to the wrong conclusion.

             
“Gabriella, I like you, I like you as a friend, I really do. I love you like a sister, but not like
that
. I mean it’s disgusting. I’m not a deviant.” She sounded as though she hated the thought of being with Gabriella in that
special
way as much as she would hate what Gabriella really had planned.

             
“Don’t be silly.” Gabriella admonished her. “Besides I’ve already had my first woman, and it was fantastic. Much better than with him.”

             
She gestured with her chin back at Stefan who was sitting exactly where Francesca had left him.

             
The human girl’s eyes were still darting fearfully between the two vampires’ faces. “Then I’ll be your first what?”

             
Gabriella grinned, her lips were pulled back and her fangs were exposed. Raquel gasped and took an involuntary step backwards. She jumped when she bumped up against the rear wall of the barn.

             
“A vampire’s first blood should always be taken from someone they were close to in their mortal life. It severs the cord which held them to that mortality and frees them to embrace their immortality.”

             
Gabriella watched the blood drain from her friends face as she closed up on her. She could hear her friend’s heart thundering inside her breast. Could
see the twitch of her pulse in her slender neck.

             
“Don’t be afraid.” Gabriella urged in a silken voice.

             
Raquel’s breathing came in rapid gasps, her bare chest heaving up with every inhalation down as she exhaled. By contrast Gabriella’s respiration came steady and even. Raquel trembled in fear as Gabriella moved in closer.

             
Gabriella was dimly aware that Francesca was heading back to Stefan, but most of her focus was centred firmly on her old friend. Her
prey
. Raquel’s eyes were staring so hard at her that it was simplicity itself for Gabriella to lock their eyes in contact. And then she had her.

             
Raquel was no longer shaking. Her breath was settling back down to
what was normal. There was a quite sound of skin being sliced open and then the scent of freshly spilled blood filled Gabriella’s head. Francesca was having her way with Stefan. Gabriella’s bloodlust was up to boiling point but she didn’t allow herself to rush the moment.

             
She gently brushed Raquel’s hair off from her shoulder and down her back. “Tell me you want this.”

             
“I want this.” Raquel said flatly.

             
Gabriella focused her gaze more intently on Raquel’s eyes. “I want you to
really
want this,” she said softly.

             
“I do want this.” And this time Raquel sounded like she did want it. There was genuine desire tinged with just a dash of trepidation in her tone.

             
“Good.”

Gabriella trailed her fingers down the side of Raquel’s face and along her neck. She stopped her hand above her friend’s breast. That really wasn’t what she was after here. Her hand came back up and this time as she dragged her nails along that smooth youthful skin she applied pressure. The skin broke under the force of her talon. Raquel didn’t even wince.

Gabriella used her hand to move her friend’s head to the side. It took only a gentle touch and then Raquel tilted her head to the side, further exposing the cut on her neck. Gabriella eyed her victim one more time and then she could hold back no longer.

With an inarticulate growl she gave voice to the bloodlust and moved in for the kill. She slid her ivory needles into the pliant
flesh of her friend’s neck. As her teeth penetrated the skin hot blood oozed into her mouth. She sucked the living fluid into her mouth and let it slide down her throat. She tore the skin away from the wound to let the blood flow faster. Gabriella had to catch her friend and hold her in an embrace to keep her upright as the extreme loss of blood took its toll.

All too quickly Raquel’s frail mortal heart gave up on the struggle of keeping her alive. Gabriella let the body drop to the floor. There was no blood left to flow out of her wound.

“How was it?” Francesca was back with her. A similarly drained Stefan cast aside behind her.

Gabriella used the back of her hand to gather up the blood which had
spilled around her lips and chin. “It was fantastic.”

She raised her hand to her mouth to lick off the remaining blood. Francesca caught her hand and took it to her own mouth instead. Her sensual tongue lapped at the back of her hand and traced swirling lines around her knuckles. And then they closed up together. Their mouths met and they shared a bloody kiss.

There were lights on in his house that illuminated the garden somewhat, even without the additional light that should have been supplied by the broken street-lamp. Fulton stopped at the gate which marked the entrance to his parents’ garden.

His
garden.

But now that it came down to it he was afraid to enter. It was as if crossing that boundary would be an enormous milestone. If he went past this point he would be committing himself to trying to reclaim his old life. He would need to be fully involved in this undertaking if he was to keep himself under control so that he wouldn't harm his family.

But fear of what he could do to those he loved in a moment of weakness was not the only, or even the main, reason he was finding it difficult to pass this point. It was a fear of rejection that kept him standing there. Gabriella had forced him to consider the possibility that his parents could reject him when they discovered exactly what it was that he had become. The things that he had done. It wasn't the betrayal of such a possibility that would hurt him as much as the fact that his parents would have had to have turned their backs on him.

Now that the time was at hand Fulton had no idea how he could explain to them what he was. How could he ever tell them all the things he had done? How could they ever forgive him if he did? But Fulton knew he wouldn't be able to keep
it hidden from them. Even if he managed to hide his past atrocities from them he would have to feed soon enough and then they would be dragged into it vicariously through him.