B007XKEWAE EBOK (35 page)

Francesca was up behind her again, her arm curling around the small of her naked back. "I'll come up with some way to get you together."

Gabriella was glad that Francesca couldn't see her face.

They returned down the stairs a couple of hours later. Fulton and Persephone were curled up together on the sofa.

"I want you to teach Gabriella some self-defence so that I know she can take care of herself. Xavier may have been dealt with but other of our enemies could resurface."

Fulton looked from Francesca to Gabriella and back again. "I only ever learned a little really. I was never one of the top in my classes."

"You know more of the martial arts than I do. You can teach her some basics for
now, at least until I find somebody better."

Fulton relented and acquiesced with a nod.

"I don't need any lessons," Fulton's bitch, Persephone, put in. "I won't be going anywhere without my Fulton."

Francesca's expression let Gabriella know that she couldn't care less whether Persephone could take care of herself or not. A sentiment Gabriella could more than agree with.

It was time for Gabriella's next training session and Persephone had obviously had her fill of watching. She had been there for the first few sessions watching and offering distracting
comments. On more than one occasion Fulton himself had lost patience with her incessant chatter and when he finally shouted at her to be quiet or to leave them alone she had backed away like a scolded dog. She hadn't left then because to do so would have made her loose face, but she also hadn't chosen to come along this time.

Gabriella put herself through a series of stretches to warm her body up and Fulton watched running through his own routine. He wore shorts and a plain white baggy T-shirt with no shoes or socks. Gabriella wore charcoal jogging-trousers and a wrestling T-shirt, she was similarly barefoot.

They were working out in the dining room which had had all the furniture removed to prepare it for the purpose.
Only the worn carpet remained and that had only stayed to provide a slim layer of padding to protect them when they really got into it.

Fulton finished his routine and put his full concentration on watching her complete hers. She felt suddenly self-conscious knowing he was scrutinising her every movement. She finished her warm-up to see him smiling warmly at her.

"Very good," he said. "Francesca doesn't want you to be taking anybody on, she wants you to be able to quickly knock them down and run away and I have to agree with that. With that in mind you need to be able to break any holds they might put on you or prevent them getting hold of you in the first place. That's where we start today."

They spent the next hour quickly running through the methods she could use to deflect a single attacker who was trying to grab her around the throat from in front of her. When she demonstrated an instinctive reaction to attacks of that nature Fulton moved on to a variety of defences to use against attackers coming from a variety of different angles. Gabriella had to practice each of these defences until they too became instinctive.

When they had been at it for several hours and they were both sweaty and tired Fulton decided she had earned a break.

"You're learning quickly," he congratulated her. "Do you see how the exercises I taught you can be converted into deflecting a variety of attacks?"

Gabriella nodded drinking in air.

Fulton got back to his feet. "Let's see if you can link them together against an attacker who isn't just going to stop at one type of attack."

He let her get into an opposing stance and then began with a straightforward lunge for her throat. Gabriella adjusted her stance like he had shown her and brought her hands up in front of her body between his. She parted her arms in a big waving motion that took his arms with them well away from her body. Fulton immediately changed his stance and modified his attack so that it was now coming at her from her left side. She matched his stance with the corresponding opposing stance he had taught her and deflected the attack with ease. Again Fulton changed his position
and came at her in an attack from behind. He almost had her around the throat when she tried to twist and deflect like he had shown her. This time though he moved to block her defence and tightened his grip. He had her held with one arm around her neck and the other pinning her body so that she couldn't use her arms to free herself.

"You cheated," she accused him. "You knew how I was going to defend against that."

Fulton's body was pressed tightly against her back to keep her held securely in place.

"Your attackers aren't going to be playing fair," he said his mouth close to her ear. "Sometimes you'll need to improvise to get out of a sticky situation."

"You want me to improvise my way out of this, fine." She tried to kick him with her legs but he was standing in such a way that she couldn't connect with any force.

"Not good enough," Fulton said still holding her tightly. "Try harder."

She needed to do something he wouldn't expect. Gabriella struggled to move her arms but she could only manage to brush her hand against him, she couldn't get the leverage she would need to break his hold. Unless she could make him break it without using force.

Her left hand was just free enough for her to touch the outside of his left thigh. She started moving her hand up and down his thigh in a gentle caress. She felt him start to react and started to move her rear end against him the few
centimetres that she could manage with him holding her so tightly. She felt his body reacting more to her efforts and he abruptly released her.

"Something wrong?" Gabriella raised her eyebrows at him.

"You're not above cheating yourself, good. But what if an attacker does this."

He rushed towards her and tackled her to the ground, but he lowered her gently without much of a bump even on the barely padded floor. He wrapped his right arm over her legs just below her knees and locked the arm. With his left arm he attacked her bare feet, tickling them without mercy.

Gabriella screamed out and wriggled trying to break his grip. Her efforts proved in effectual and she forced herself into a sitting position so that she could lash out
at him. She slapped him playfully on the back and head to encourage him to release her. When he did so she wasted no time in jumping up and pushing him down so that he was flat on his back. She straddled him and pinned his arms to the floor.

"You torture me, you get some of the same in return," she said mischievously.

She started to gyrate on top of him and this time when he reacted there was nowhere for him to run to. She had to stop after a few moments though because the lack of proper gratification would torture her as much as it would him. She would need to spend some
quality
time with herself as it was.

It was amazing how difficult it could be to concentrate when you had built up such tension and all you
really wanted was to get off. Did Futon feel the same need for release? She could feel his straining body and guessed so.

They locked eyes again and all the feelings she had tried to subdue since she realised she had them welled up and threatened to gush forth. In the end she could contain them no longer and she leaned forwards resting her body on top of Fulton's and putting her lips against his.

Gabriella released all her emotions through her kiss and felt them returned in Fulton's. That single kiss contained more genuine feelings and more passion than all her very many more intimate moments spent with Francesca. She wanted it to last forever but she was the first to break contact.

"We need to talk," she told Fulton.

"We needed to talk long ago," he agreed.

Voices in the living room reminded them that they were not alone. Gabriella jumped off Fulton guiltily.

"Soon."

"Put these on," Fulton laid a very short skirt and an only slightly larger top on the bed. There were a pair of calf-length boots at the foot of the bed. There was no underwear, Gabriella hadn't been willing to give away any of the few items
she owned. Fulton very much doubted whether Persephone would have been willing to wear it anyway, she was kicking up enough of a fuss about wearing the clothing Gabriella
had
provided.

"These are
hers
," Persephone protested. She was perched naked on the other side of the bed sulking.

"I'm sorry nothing of mine will fit you," Fulton retorted sarcastically. "But you can't go out like that."

Persephone stood and presented herself to Fulton. "Why do we have to go out at all? Just send them to fetch us something to eat and we can have some more fun ourselves."

"They would never agree to it and I wouldn't ask them in the first place," Fulton said pushing her away. "You wanted to be a vampire, you have to take
everything that goes with it and that includes hunting."

"But hunting is so tedious, can't someone else do that and just let me make the kill?"

"No!" Fulton shouted. "Get dressed."

"This isn't how it's supposed to be," Persephone muttered while she did as she was told and started getting dressed.

"You had no idea what it meant to be one of us but you still wanted it, and now you have the gall to complain that this isn't what you expected."

"I
do
know what this is supposed to be like," she protested. "I've read the books and seen the films and it isn't supposed to be like this."

Fulton whirled on her. "What you've seen and read are romanticised fantasies created by people with no experience of
the reality of our existence. Believe me I've read much of the same sort of thing as you will have done. This that you are living now is the reality of life as a vampire. And if this isn't what you wanted then it's tough because you can never go back to how it was before."

"But what about all the myths and legends? They can't all be wrong."

"What do you think the myths and legends are if not works of fiction that have just been around for a few years? Believe me we are not some sort of special race. We aren't dark angels, demons or gods. We're just animals same as humans and dogs. What you see is what you get. We don't even have any religion. There are no vampire gods. Who needs to make up stories about a place where you can live forever when
you are already immortal? So you'd better get used to living like this or give up now and end it quickly because it won't change. It will never be any different. It will never get any better."

Persephone finished getting dressed in silence but acted as though the argument had never happened when they were with Francesca and Gabriella.

The hunt didn't involve any elaborate set-up or seduction. The four vampires had simply made their way to an area away from their home, to keep attention away from where they were living, and started looking for suitable victims. The quartet had divided into pairs early on leaving Fulton to hunt with Persephone. He identified a pair of women getting out of a taxi together and marked them as
prey. He pointed them out to a disinterested Persephone.

"Just follow me and attack when I tell you."

The women were struggling to walk in unfeasibly high heels so Fulton and Persephone quickly caught up to them. Fulton shadowed the woman on the right and motioned for Persephone to do the same with the woman on the left. The other vampire appeared disinclined to follow his instructions but at an angry look from Fulton she filed into place.

The women were walking down a brightly lit main road where they felt safe and Fulton didn't plan on making the kill anywhere so public. He waited until the women were walking across the mouth of a deserted side street. He gave Persephone the signal to grab her target
and moved forwards to deal with his own. He clamped a hand over the woman's mouth and dragged her kicking her heels down the side street.

When he had taken the woman a sufficient distance that they wouldn't be seen from the main road he looked about for Persephone. She wasn't where she was supposed to be which was beside him. Keeping his hand firmly over the woman's mouth he looked around for the young vampire and the other woman. He located the vampire just now entering the side street her face contorted in a fang filled grimace. There was no sign of the woman. Just then a scream pierced the night time quiet.

"She got away," Persephone said approaching him.

The woman he held got a look at Persephone's vampiric face and redoubled her ineffectual efforts to free herself. Fulton was tired of holding her and took a moment to snap her neck.

"You lost her?"

Persephone looked down and shuffled her feet. "She kicked her shoes off and ran and I couldn't be bothered to chase her."

"You
couldn't be bothered
? Well you had better get bothered if you want to eat tonight," Fulton said advancing on her so that she had to step back away from him.