Blood Hunt (41 page)

“OK,” Two gasped. She pulled her lips from Naomi’s, pressed them against the vampire’s neck. She could feel the pulse pounding there, the skin hot. “Yes. OK, Naomi. Just …”

Just what? Go slow? Be gentle? That wasn’t what she wanted at all. Not anymore. In what seemed like seconds, she had gone from cautious attraction to white-hot desire. Were these feelings really her own, or were they simply a product of Naomi’s aura raging out of control? Two didn’t know. At the moment, it didn’t seem to matter.

Naomi hadn’t waited to find out “just” what, either. She was pulling Two’s T-shirt up and off, kissing Two’s abdomen while she did it. Two raised her arms up, then took Naomi’s face in her hands, bringing it back up and kissing her again. Two wasn’t wearing a bra, and Naomi cupped her naked breasts, running her thumbs over Two’s erect nipples, making Two arch her back and draw in air through her teeth. Naomi responded to this by pressing her lips hard against Two’s neck.

She didn’t bite, though Two thought for a moment she would. She only pressed, and then began to kiss her way down Two’s neck and shoulder. Two tilted her head back, eyes closed, enjoying the sensation of Naomi’s lips on her skin, Naomi’s hands on her breasts. The vampire was straddling her now, facing her. She brought her head up again and kissed Two deeply on the mouth. Two responded by bringing her own hands up to unbutton Naomi’s blouse.

Naomi put her lips to Two’s ear again, kissing and tugging at her earlobe. She shrugged off her blouse, and arched her back to help Two remove her bra. Two put her hands up, tentative despite her desire, and touched Naomi’s breasts.

Naomi gasped, murmured Two’s name, resumed kissing Two’s neck and shoulders. Two could feel the vampire’s nipples, hard little nubs pressing into her palms. She could smell Naomi’s hair, her skin. She laid her head back again on the couch, lost in the aura and the waves of pleasure that seemed to spread through her from wherever Naomi kissed, like ripples in a pool of water.

Naomi was undoing her jeans now, and Two let the vampire slide them over her hips and along her legs, taking her panties with them. Naomi took a moment to remove Two’s socks, and now she was naked, just as Naomi had wanted. Two shuddered a little, looking down as the vampire girl began to kiss her way back up Two’s calves and shins.

Two was damp between her legs, throbbing, desperate. The anticipation as Naomi worked her way upward was murderous. Two’s body tingled with it, her nipples standing up so hard that they ached. Had she wanted to wait? To take things slowly? It seemed like now it was all she could do not to beg, and she wondered again for a moment if this sudden need sprung entirely from her. It
felt
like it did, but …

Naomi’s fingers wouldn’t allow her to finish her thought. They caressed the insides of Two’s thighs, teasing their way upward into the soft, light brown curls of hair on her vulva. Two made a choked noise of desire, opened her legs wider, slid her hips forward.

Naomi said, “Oh,” and kissed Two’s thighs. Her thumbs pressed against Two’s labia and parted them, opening Two up. Naomi moved her head slowly forward, looking up, eyes locked with Two’s. She stopped just inches away, and Two could feel her breath, hot against her sensitive skin. The wait was excruciating. Interminable.

“Naomi,” Two gasped. “Naomi …”

She couldn’t seem to move, couldn’t close her eyes, couldn’t do anything but wait and watch. Naomi favored her with a wicked smile that only seemed to make Two’s need even more urgent.

“Please,” Two said.

The vampire lunged forward, tongue teasing, running from bottom to top and then in a rough circle, around and around. Two made a sound that was more like anguish than pleasure and wrapped her hands in Naomi’s hair. She had come very close to orgasm just from this initial contact, and knew she would not last long under Naomi’s expert ministrations.

Naomi didn’t seem to want her to try. After teasing Two with the slow progression up her legs and that last, agonizing wait, she seemed now intent on bringing Two to climax. She increased the pressure of her tongue, toying with Two, kneading at her sensitive flesh, and Two could do no more than lay back and pant. It seemed as if every nerve ending in her entire body was sending streams of pleasure down to the place that Naomi was attending to, and in only moments she cried out again as her body clenched, and clenched, and clenched.

When Naomi kissed her after, Two could taste herself on the vampire’s lips. She was still tingling all over, still felt tremendous desire for the girl next to her, but the urgent, physical need had now passed. After a time, she broke away from Naomi and leaned her head back, eyes closed.

“Was that OK?” Naomi asked.

“Jesus, yes,” Two said, this time with a shuddery laugh, still trying to catch her breath. She opened her eyes and saw that Naomi was grinning at her, watching her eagerly.

“I’ve been waiting to do that for months,” the vampire said.

“Well, I … God, that … I don’t ….” It seemed impossible to form a coherent sentence.

“I wanted to make you feel good.”

“That was way beyond ‘good,’” Two told her. She took a few deep breaths, and then sat forward. “Naomi, lie back.”

“You don’t have to—”

Two laughed. Kissed her. Pressed on her shoulder and made the girl lie down.

“Shut up,” she said.

* * *

“What are we going to tell Stephen?” Two asked.

They had retired to Naomi’s bedroom as the sun rose, carrying their clothes with them, racing up the stairs naked and giggling. Under the covers, Naomi had brought Two to orgasm again, this time with her fingers, and they were now lying in a sweaty jumble.

“Stephen won’t care,” Naomi responded, her voice fuzzy and near sleep.

“That doesn’t mean he won’t have something stupid to say,” Two replied.

Naomi gave a small laugh. “True.”

“He knows that you’re into girls, right?”

Naomi made a
pfffft
noise and said, “I am into
people.
Some of those people are women. He knows that, yes.”

“I’m just going to tell him to fuck off, I guess,” Two said, yawning.

“That seems like a wise policy,” Naomi replied. She turned over onto her belly and nestled her head into the pillow.

Two lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling, content for the moment to let sleep pluck at the edges of her consciousness without yet succumbing to it. She felt comfortably fatigued, exercised without being exhausted, too full of endorphins to worry about the repercussions of what she had just done. Still, one question lingered.

“Naomi?”

“Mmmh?”

“Did you make that happen?”

There was a lengthy period of silence. At last, Naomi propped herself up on one arm and looked at Two. Her hair was tousled, eyeliner smeared in dark smudges, lips still purple from the wine. She looked as if she wasn’t sure whether or not to be offended by the question.

“Would you believe me if I said I didn’t know?” she asked.

“Probably.”

Naomi frowned. “What if I told you that I haven’t slept with anyone, male or female, human or vampire, since I met you? Would you believe that?”

“Yes. Naomi, I’m not trying to start a fight.”

“No. But I want you to understand. I’ve wanted to make love to you since the third night after we met, when we went to the club and talked about Thomas.”

“I remember,” Two said. “We came home and sat on the couch and then you were going to bed, but you stopped, and there was this … this moment.”

“I wanted to invite you, yes. If you’d shown any sign, I probably would have. That’s, what … three months? No, four. That’s a long time to wait if I had magic powers that could make something like tonight happen.”

“That’s true.”

Naomi sighed. “Lisette is the only other vampire I have ever known who did this … this
thing
that I do. I’ve asked every Ashayt vampire that I’ve gotten to know on more than a cursory level, and it doesn’t happen to any of them. Few of them have even
heard
of it. She was supposed to teach me, but …”

“But Abraham happened.”

“Yes. So now here we are. Did I make you do it? I don’t know. Not intentionally, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t. Can you forgive me, if I did? Can we … I mean, is it still happening now? Are you lying naked in my bed because I’m making you do it?”

Two gave Naomi a small smile, shook her head. “No.”

“Good. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t had an orgasm in four months. I’m happy that I waited. I’m happy that I shared it with you. I don’t want you to regret what happened tonight. I would very much like to pursue something more than friendship with you, but if that can’t happen, I still don’t want you to regret tonight.”

Two rolled onto her back again, stared up at the ceiling again. “It’s been more than a year for me. After Theroen … after he died, I wasn’t sure I would ever feel like I felt tonight again. I don’t regret it. I don’t think I’d regret it even if you’d made me do it. I just wanted to know.”

Naomi smiled, nodded, and asked, “Do you … are you interested in more?”

“Am I lying naked in your bed?”

“Yes.”

“Are you making me do it?”

Naomi’s smiled widened. “No.”

Two turned her head and glanced at Naomi. “That’s the best I can do right now. I don’t know where this is going to go. I still don’t know how I feel.”

“Can I do anything to help?”

Two laughed. “Put up with my bullshit?”

Naomi put her head back down on the pillow and closed her eyes, still smiling. “Sleep well, Two,” she said.

“Goodnight, Naomi.”

The vampire girl who lay beside her was soon asleep. After a few more minutes of thought, Two rolled on her side, curled up, and closed her eyes.

* * *

“Am I to pretend that I’m not noticing you?”

Two glanced down from the top of the staircase. Stephen was looking up at her from the third-floor landing, an amused expression on his face.

“I guess not,” she said, rolling her eyes, and walked down the staircase to join him.

Stephen had been home for twelve days, and in that time Two had spent four more nights in Naomi’s bedroom. This was the first time that he had been both in the building and awake as Two had exited the room. Naturally, she had managed to time it exactly as he was leaving his own.

“I was wondering whether this would happen,” Stephen said as she reached him.

“It’s not—”

“Oh, good Lord … You don’t need to lie to me.”

Two said nothing, simply favored Stephen with a look of annoyance.

“It’s been painfully obvious for some time that she desired you. I just wasn’t sure if the feeling was reciprocated.”

“It took me a while to figure it out,” Two said.

Stephen considered this for a time, looking at her, one eyebrow arched and his ever-present smirk as firm as ever on his face. Finally he said, “Treat her well,” and turned to head down the stairs.

“That’s it?” Two asked him. “No jokes? No sarcastic comments? Who are you, and what did you do with Stephen?”

“Oh, I could come up with something for you if you really want me to,” Stephen replied, turning and grinning.

“No, that’s OK. I’m sure you’ll hit me when my back is turned.”

“That’s part of the fun,” Stephen agreed, and began again to make his way down the stairs. Two watched him go, shaking her head. A moment later, she heard a small laugh from above her.

“I’m sorry, Two,” Naomi said, leaning over the balcony. “I know you’d hoped to avoid him.”

Two shrugged. “At least it’s out of the way, right? That’s probably for the best.”

“Yes. I wanted to let you know that I just received an email from one of the council’s representatives. Not a high-ranking one, unfortunately. Nonetheless, contact is good. They have no official date set for the next meeting, but the person who wrote said he’d do his best to communicate our situation to those who need to know.”

“Uh … woohoo?” Two was nonplussed.

Naomi smiled. “It’s a start, Two. This is going to be a long process. The members of the European council are all very old. They value their time, and their privacy, and they are rarely quick to act.”

“OK, Naomi. I’ll try to be patient. Thanks for doing this.”

“
Pas de problème
,” Naomi said. “Perhaps we can work on teaching you French!”

“Yeah, or that vampire language you guys speak. Or do I have to wait for that until I get back into the club?”

Naomi considered this. “We’re not supposed to teach it to humans, but you’re a bit of a special case. It’d be fairly easy for you to learn. It’s a constructed language with very rigid structure and rules.”

“Why do you guys use it, anyway?”

“It was developed in the early twentieth century. The hope was that it’d make communication between vampires in different countries easier. Sometimes it does, but there are many who never learn it for one reason or another. It is still useful though, to be able to say things that one can be sure will be understood by no one other than fellow vampires.”

“I’d like to learn it eventually,” Two said. “That way no one can talk behind my back.”

Naomi smiled at her. “Then we shall teach you. But right now, I’m going to take a shower.”

“OK, see you downstairs.”

Two made her way down to the kitchen, where she took a granola bar from the cupboard and an apple from the basket on the counter. She set about making a pot of coffee, eating the apple while she waited for it to brew. She could hear the television upstairs broadcasting sports scores, and water running through the townhouse’s pipes as Naomi showered.

This is life, for a while,
she thought to herself.
Guess you’d better get used to it.

Two took her coffee and the rest of her breakfast, and went to find the book she had left, half-finished, in Naomi’s bedroom.

Chapter 23
A Simple Request

“I want you to teach me to fight,” Two said.

Stephen glanced over at her, one eyebrow raised, and studied her for a moment. Then he turned, smirking, back to the television.