Cherishing Destiny (A Dangerous Destiny) (4 page)

He could wait no longer.  He lifted her and lowered her
onto his huge, straining rod, entering her in one long stroke.  She was so
tight around him that he dared not move for a moment.  Then he stood, lifting
her with him, and carried her to the plush rug before the fireplace.  He
lowered her on her back and slowly began a long stroke in and out of her wet,
silky depths. 

Aurora was still riding the wave of her orgasm when he laid
her down.  She ached for him to fill her when he was still playing her body
like a virtuoso.  She was his instrument, and he made beautiful music on her.  Sometimes
it was wild and dangerous, but sometimes it was achingly sweet, like tonight. 

He filled her to bursting, and his strokes were long and rhythmic. 
His eyes were closed as he concentrated on the sensations.  She looked up into
his face and even as she felt the tide rising in her again, wanting him to move
faster, stroke harder, she also felt a tender love for him.

He opened his eyes and saw her gazing at him.  He read so
much in that look.  He saw her love for him, just as he loved her, and he knew
that they would always be together. But he also saw the lust in her Vampire eyes
and knew her greed and hunger. 

His thrusts grew faster and harder, and her breath came hot
and rapid.  He knew she was close when her breaths became audible cries.  When
she called out his name and trembled in her pleasure, he let go, thrusting as deeply
as he could and riding the lightning of his own orgasm as he filled her with
his seed. 

He had a flash of regret as he knew that it was only what
he liked to call dead Vampire seed.  But the thought was fleeting.  He’d had so
many years to come to terms with that fact of life or, more appropriately, afterlife
that he did not dwell on it.  Aurora was everything he ever wanted, and while
older Vampires tended to melancholia at times, he did not often indulge. He was
truly happy. 

They lay together, quietly entwined for a while until he
finally pulled gently away. He knew that Aurora’s bath would be cooling soon,
so he rose and lifted her with him.“It’s time for your bath, young lady,” he
said playfully taking on the tone of a stern father.

 She groaned a small protest, but she was smiling all the
same. “Young lady is it? I’ll have you know I am over 1400 years old,” she
replied and stuck her tongue out at him.

“Well I should have known from your maturity level,” he
said, sticking his own tongue out.

She laughed, and her face lit up.

Maybe I love her so much because she is like
sunshine and I haven’t seen the sun in over one and a half millennia
, he
thought lightly.

He swept her off her feet and held her close in his arms
for a moment.  She wrapped her arms around his neck and nuzzled her face into
his shoulder.  He kissed the top of her head.

Vampires were not shy or self conscious, and he carried her
naked through the house to her bath.  As he climbed up the winding stair with
her in his arms, he didn’t care a bit if any of the staff saw them.

four

Sara knew that he didn’t care who saw them.  She watched
him climb the stairs with Aurora in his arms, not without a measure of
appreciation.  He was gorgeous, and she was only twenty seven after all.  She
also knew that, to them, she was a nameless, faceless servant.  She had lived
in their home for eight years working as a housekeeper, and they might not even
know her name.  They hadn’t even looked at her when she brought them their
drinks.

Yeah right! Drinks, huh?
She
thought.  But that is how she liked to think of the blood they consumed every
day.  Just like drinking a decent scotch or a glass of wine, she told herself. 
It was a little harder to think like that when they brought home a live one. 
That’s what her brother, Ryan used to call the people who let the Vampires
drink from them, the live ones. 

“So what if people want to volunteer to be bitten?” She had
argued with him when he got on one of his judgmental rants.  “Trust me, they
are paid well, and they always leave on their feet.” 

“They use them,” he insisted.  “They drink from them. They hypnotize
them.  They even fuck them.  Is that not exploitation?  Because, you know as
well as I do that they don’t need to feed on live humans to get the blood.”

She shook her head, a little confused by her brother’s
words.  They sounded reasonable, maybe even righteous but sometimes when she
looked at Alex, she was not sure that she wouldn’t want to have him take her,
bite her, and drink from her, anything as long as he saw and touched her.  She
had even pictured Aurora biting her neck with her long, beautiful fingers
running down Sara’s arms and then lacing her fingers in Sara’s with their
bodies touching.  She was not even into women that way, but just the thought of
Aurora made a little sweat pop out on her upper lip and between her breasts.

“I heard that it feels good to be bitten by a Vampire,” she
answered back.

“It feels good to shoot your veins full of heroin too, but
that doesn’t mean you should go out and become a junkie.”  He rolled his eyes
at her and walked away, effectively dropping the subject. 

That was almost the last time she had spoken to Ryan.  It
had been nearly two years since he left.  She had helped him get a job working
in the garage at the estate.  He wasn’t the driver, but he washed cars, took
care of minor maintenance, and drove them to be fully serviced as needed. Ryan
was Sara’s step-brother, and they were close in age.  Her mother had been
married to his father for only a few years when Ryan’s father died in an
accident.  Ryan was only eight and Sara seven.  Ryan’s father had always told
them that Ryan’s mother died and that he had no other family.  So, Ryan stayed
with Sara and her mother, and they were remarkably close growing up. 

But, something changed in Ryan when he was a teenager.   He
grew quiet and kept to himself.  He sometimes lost his temper over the smallest
things, and Sara learned to keep a little distance from him.  When he was fifteen,
he went out one night and didn’t come back.  He didn’t take his phone, and none
of his friends had seen him.  They all said that he hadn’t been around in
months, and they didn’t know what he had been doing.  Sara and her mother
reported him missing, but gave up hope after a while with no word.

Then a few years later Sara’s mother passed away.  It was cancer,
and it had taken her fast.  Sara was finalizing the arrangements at the funeral
home.  She did what needed to be done and was spending a quiet moment gazing at
her mother’s body.  They had tried to make her look not so gaunt with their
make-up.  Sara thought that it was ironic that her mother should look healthier
in death than she had in life during this last couple of weeks. 

The funeral home had done a nice job, but her mother had
never been one to wear much make-up, so while she looked better, she didn’t
really look like herself.  It all made her mother seem even further away, and
she began to cry softly.  A familiar voice called to her from the doorway of
the room.

“Sara?” He spoke very quietly, just above a whisper.  It
seemed that to speak too loudly would be sinful in this place or that a loud
voice would break some sort of spell.  It just seemed wrong here, in the
presence of his dead step-mother and grieving sister.

Sara turned to him. “Ryan? Oh, my God. What—?”  She lost
her words in that moment and started sobbing harder.

He moved to her and put his arms around her, pulling her to
his chest and rocking her gently.  “It’s okay, baby.  Everything is going to be
okay,” he whispered into her hair.

Her tears were soaking through his shirt as he held her damp
face to his muscled chest until her sobs became hitching breaths.  She finally
pushed away from him just enough to look up at him. 

He had grown even taller since he left.  He towered over
her at 6’5”. She couldn’t help but notice the new hardness under his shirt as
she pushed against him. 

To him, she still seemed like a tiny girl. Her tear
streaked face, looking at him in confusion, was enough to break his heart.  He genuinely
loved his little sister even if they didn’t share the same blood. 

He gazed at the casket.  He had also loved the only mother
he had ever known, and now she was gone, and this shell, that didn’t really
look like her, was all that was left. He had finally come back to them, but it
was too late. 

“Where have you been?” Sara asked him.  Tears were still
welling in her eyes, and her voice broke a little when she said, “I thought you
must be dead.”

It pained him to see that hurt look on her face, so he
pulled her to his chest again, avoiding her eyes and holding her tightly.

“I’m so sorry, Sara. Oh, Baby, I’m so very sorry.” His own
voice began to break.  “It was just… I couldn’t…I had to… I had to go, baby.  I
didn’t want to, but I had to go.” 

“I don’t understand.” Her voice was muffled against his
chest, but she didn’t pull away this time. “Why?”

He started swaying with her again. “I can’t explain, little
one.  I missed you so much, and I am here now.  Please, let that be enough.”

“I don’t know what’s going on, but I missed you too, every
day.” She squeezed him tighter when she said it.

“I love you, you know, little one.” He said, brushing her forehead
with his lips.

“I love you too, and, by the way, I am 20 years old and not
so little anymore,” she added indignantly, but she didn’t let go of him and she
stayed like that, feeling safe in the arms of her big brother, for a while.

∞∞∞

Sara took a deep breath and shook her head as if to clear away
the memory.  She hadn’t thought of that time in ages.  It was bittersweet,
losing her mother, but getting her brother back. That had been seven years ago,
and this time he had been gone again for nearly two years, but sometimes she
got a call or text from him out of the blue.  At least she knew he was alive. 
Still, she wished he hadn’t gone away again. 

After that day in the funeral home, he came and went,
sometimes staying away for a month or more at a time. He said that he couldn’t
tell her where he was going but that he would always stay in touch and come
back when he could.  It was all very cryptic but she’d grown used to it.

She went into the den and gathered the scattered clothing
and shoes from the floor.  Alex’s shirt was clearly ruined, but she thought the
spot on the dress could be removed. She didn’t mind picking up after the
Lakes.  They were so beautiful and mysterious.

 Nate, the old groundskeeper on the estate, once told her
that they were over a thousand years old.  He barked out a throaty laugh when
he said that they must know the real secret of a good marriage. 

It was around that time that Sara had decided that her
brother, Ryan, might stay around more if she got him a job on the estate.  It
worked for a while, and he had stayed for almost a year.  He was working in the
garage and helping out on the grounds, but he clearly had some misgivings about
Vampires in general.  He had been hired by the household manager and had never
even met Alex or Aurora Lake.  A fact Sara pointed out to him on the day they
argued about human exploitation.

“He looks at me like a steak dinner.” Ryan told his little
sister. 

“It’s your imagination,” she said. “They never notice any
of us.  I don’t think they even know our names.”

“I didn’t say he knew my name, just that he looks at me
like he might like to have me for dinner, and I don’t mean as a guest if you
get my meaning.”

“That’s just paranoid.  Vampires don’t kill people, and
they don’t take blood from anyone against their will.”  She felt like she was
lecturing him, and that is what had started their little debate.

“Paranoid is it?” he responded.  “You are too old to be
this naive, Sara. I know the party line, Vampires and humans living in harmony,
but you should know that there are groups out there who don’t buy it.”  Now he
was lecturing her.  “I’m not saying I believe in everything they say or do, but
some of it is very interesting, and it makes a person think.” 

“Ryan, those groups are dangerous terrorists.  They preach
hate and commit violence.  Please, tell me, you are not involved with them.” 
Her eyes were wide and scared, and it was clear she was seeking his
reassurance.

“No, baby girl, I am not at all involved with those
people.”  If you only knew why that would never be possible, he thought as he
assured her of his sincerity. I know that’s why Lake stares at me the way he
does, Ryan reasoned to himself. I’m sure he knows what those terrorist creeps
only suspect.

He thought about the night he had been making a circuit of
the grounds after dark in order to find and replace any landscape lights that
were burned out.  As he worked in the private garden just outside the terrace
leading to the Lake’s bedroom suite, he suddenly felt that he was being watched. 
The hair on his arms bristled and his spine tingled with the sense of being
stalked.  His instincts were on full alert, and he felt a low growl rising in
his throat before he could think about where he was and what he was doing.  He
calmed himself enough to take a deep, shaky breath and look around.