Hunger Embraced (The Hunger Series) (29 page)

Butterflies swarmed in my stomach when I thought of the coming ceremony. Part of me wanted to ask what to expect, and part didn’t. Lane had sent me the message to let my gift be my guide. She was worse than that fortune-telling machine in
Big.

“Daniel, have you ever done this before? With an Incubi vamp, I mean?” I studied the floor.

“No, but it should not be that different from any other Blooding.” He dried his arms off.

“My father told me it would involve sex. I guess I wouldn’t be concerned if it was just me and you, but with Gregory here—I guess I’m just wondering if you’re OK with it if things get personal.”

“All Bloodings involve sex. It’s an ancient ritual that requires a sacrifice.” He took my towel and scrubbed it over my hair. I grabbed it back to stop him before he reduced my hair to a snarled mess. “Much more enjoyable than killing a goat. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“Yeah, men say stuff like that all the time, and then when the time comes…”

He kissed me and smiled. “I’ll just have to show you then.”

The swell of his growing erection did little to dispel my fears. “Even though we’re, like, married now?”

“We are more than married. We are bound together by our very souls. You are not only an Incubi vampire, but a Vessel.” He gathered me up close to his chest, and I relaxed in increments. “How could I be angry with you for doing what is in your nature to do? When I took you as my mate that meant I took all of you, including your Hunger. I will keep you safe and happy. And that means not trying to stifle the very thing that drew me to you in the first place.”

His words reassured, but nervous energy continued to turn my stomach into a knot.

I stayed still for a few minutes and then decided it was time to put on my big girl panties. I kissed his cheek. “Maybe after my Blooding, I’ll have better control.”

“Perhaps.”

“Don’t want to have sex with me lass? You do give out some confusing signals to a man.” Gregory’s tone held laughter. I bit my lip when I walked into the living room and saw him standing there naked. Guess he was ready, even if I wasn’t.

He’d set all the crystals around the room in a circle and used the herbs to lay out a rough pentacle on the floor. A ring of salt connected the crystals, and candles representing the elements stood beside each to construct a huge protection symbol. Gregory knew about witchcraft.

He was a large man. In every way. His shaft thickened and grew when he noticed my regard, and I thought my eyes might pop out of my head. Daniel was no slouch, he was bigger than anyone I’d ever been with, but somehow Gregory surpassed that by a few inches. The only thing that kept him from scaring the pants off me was how affable and sweet he seemed.

I sucked in a quick breath. Scars crisscrossed his chest, legs, arms, and back. It shouldn’t have been possible for a vampire to be injured that many times and survive. For a vampire to scar, the injury must be grievous. Someone or something had really done horrible things to this man.

“Ah, um, well, not exactly…I just don’t know.” I fell back to staring. He folded his arms over his chest and let me look. His cock continued to grow. It should have been impossible—at least, in my experience it should have been. Guess I was wrong, wrong, wrong. What a time to find out.

A choking sound behind me caught my attention, and I glanced over my shoulder to see Daniel smothering a laugh behind his hand and twitching. I smacked him on the arm and walked into the pentacle, being careful not to step on any of the lines of the outer circle. There was a decent sized area right in the middle where we would all fit without trouble.

“I have a confession to make.” I managed to look at Gregory’s face and not his groin.

“What’s that lass?”

“I’ve never done something like this before. And, ah, I’m nervous. I don’t know what the rules or whatever are…and I’m not even sure I’m going to need you in, ah, that way.” I looked at the wall to the right of Gregory’s shoulder.

“I am here in whatever capacity you need. Whatever we need to do to make sure your Blooding goes off without a hitch.” He brushed his thumb over my cheek before tweaking a strand of my hair so I had to meet his eyes. “You worry too much.”

Warm hands settled on my shoulders and caressed my biceps. My aura hummed in response, and I wondered if it would always be like this between Daniel and me or if it was only because our bond was so new. I hoped for permanent.

“Only what you ask for, nothing more,
cara
.” He wrapped his arms around me from behind in a quick hug.

“Thank you.”

I reached out to trace a particularly nasty ridge of scar tissue down Gregory’s right biceps that ended in the crook of his elbow.

We stared at each other for a few moments without speaking. The sparkle of laughter I’d already grown used to seeing in his eyes shuttered away, hidden behind a curtain that dropped into place in the space of a blink.

“Are they dead?” I took his hand in mine.

He nodded, once. “Most of them.”

“You killed them.” A tiny nod again. “The rest had better hide.”

Gregory smiled at me, his fangs extended, and I saw the predator that lived within, pacing the bars of its cage. “Aye.”

I stepped forward and kissed him with my eyes open. The kiss was an oath of sorts, my promise to help him reap vengeance for what had been done. I would help him rain destruction on those who had tortured him. The promise of bloodshed surprised me, but I felt it within my chest just the same.

Even if it was my new bond with Daniel that caused my instant affection and trust, I didn’t care. Gregory had stuck his neck out by admitting he wouldn’t help punish Daniel for bonding with me, and now he was here to help with my Blooding. A good man, to be sure.

“Daniel, this ceremony is going to call my Hunger with full force. You’ve only gotten a small taste of it to this point. Are you sure you and Gregory will not be harmed?” I stepped back and pivoted to face him.

“Yes. Of course. We will not be in danger. Our link with the Council also affords us a certain amount of protection along with our own personal strength. If you remember, I can shield against you if I wish.”

“Good. OK.” Butterflies tried to tear an escape route out of my body from somewhere near my solar plexus. I wanted to throw up. “And you’re sure you’re OK with Gregory being, uh, involved?”

“Miri, we will be here with you the entire time. Do not fear. The Blooding is meant to be a joyous occasion, the mark of a young vampire assuming adulthood.” He stroked my arms and kissed my forehead. “Gregory and I have been comrades at arms and friends for centuries. We truly do not mind sharing. With the right woman, we enjoy it quite a bit.”

“Right. If you happen to have sex with us, neither of us is going to complain.”

I chuckled and shook my head, using Daniel’s warm, heavy arms as a makeshift blanket. “A little bit sure of our self, are we Master Gregory?”

“Of course. Just look at me.” He held his arms out and spun in a slow circle. “If nothing else, the sight of this ragged hide should assure you that there doesn’t seem to be anything that can kill me. Even a girl with the ability to suck a man dry with sex.”

“Daniel, does the Council know yet? About us?”

The men exchanged a glance, and my mate shrugged. I snorted and crossed my arms.

“There is no way to know for certain. I am magically connected to them, but there has not been a Bloodsworn Guardian in centuries. They may not recognize the change in the energy patterns.”

Awesome. Totally unhelpful and disconcerting at the same time.

Daniel sighed and leaned down close to my ear. “Do not worry about it now,
cara
. One problem at a time.”

“Yeah, right. Sure. I won’t worry.” I crossed my fingers behind my back.

He bit my ear, chastising me, and continued, “Now, once you set the circle, follow your instincts. Gregory and I will bite you, and then you must drink from us. The legends are right on that account. If something happens to me, Gregory is the only other vampire on the planet I’d trust to keep you alive. Besides providing you with food, he will have a blood bond with you and in times of danger will be able to use it to track you. If I am incapacitated in some way, you must trust and listen to him.” I nodded and swallowed all the extra saliva that flooded my mouth.

“Aww, I’m touched.”

Daniel rolled his eyes at his friend and raised my hand to kiss it between my middle and third fingers, flicking the delicate skin with his tongue once. It drew a startled gasp from me, and he smiled with wicked intent in his eyes.

“When you are fully transitioned, I am going to show you just how many things I’ve learned in my long life, things you could not endure as you are now. We will lock ourselves away for months and feast on each other’s bodies.”

The tone of the words practically seared my brain, and I forgot all about being nervous. Gregory stood in front of me now at the head of the pentacle with the knife Lane had given me in his right hand. He smiled at me and then handed it to me handle first. Down to business.

“As the immature child we seek to bring into her full gifts as a vampire, you are charged with wielding this blade and setting the protective circle in which we will perform our rite this night. May the elements come to your call.” Then he winked at me. Typical.

Now this I could handle. By the time I had gotten to the third candle, I had lost my earlier nervousness and swayed to a beat that seemed to be only in my head. It was an ancient music, a driving, pounding beat that I gyrated to, spinning and humming to myself as I lit the candles and invoked the elements. At the top of the pentacle I invited Spirit to the circle and cut the palm of my hand, surprised to see some of my blood vanish into the metal of the blade. The runes lit up with blue light and glowed. I swung my arm in a broad arc above my head, knowing instinctively it would guide my Hunger back to me from the place I had banished it to.

The warm brush of wind lifted my hair, and a sigh reverberated through my head. I smiled. Everything seemed right—there was a click, or a pop, as she settled in. Then all hell broke loose. The warm gust became a gale that swirled through the room and blew everything off the shelves and walls outside the circle. The flames on the candles flared a foot high before being snuffed out. My skin burned from the inside out and sexual desire flooded through every inch of me. Coherent thought left, chased away by a need that clawed its way from my groin to my belly and latched onto the first person I saw.

Gregory and I grabbed each other. I captured the back of his neck and forced his face down to mine with the hand that held the blade, crushing our lips together, and gripping his cock in the other. Pure delight lit through me as I stroked his shaft, and he groaned against my lips. He picked me up off the floor so I could twine my legs around his waist. The hot, heavy weight of his dick became trapped between our bodies, and I tried to position myself higher to take it inside, but he resisted me.

I was ravenous, starved, and if I couldn’t feed on his orgasm, I’d take his blood. I nicked the side of his neck with the blade and drank the liquid in greedy slurps, laughing when he hissed in pain. He tasted rich, deep, sweet, and intoxicating. The flavor of his blood clouded everything else. I wrenched his head to the side to get to more, plunging my tongue into the wound.

A pair of hands reached between our bodies and grasped my breasts, pinching my nipples and rolling them. I knew those hands, and it distracted me enough that I retreated from Gregory’s neck and turned my head to see Daniel’s face right behind me. He leaned in and claimed my mouth, licking the blood from my lips, tongue, and teeth. He tried to pull me away from Gregory but I wrapped my legs around the other man even harder and gave his cock a few determined strokes until he clutched me even closer, away from Daniel.

Daniel increased the pressure of his kiss, biting my tongue, reaching between my legs from behind to find my clit with one finger while his thumb slid inside. The spirals of electric pleasure that stole up through my body from his attentions distracted me. I raised my self up and down on his hand as he teased me. Gregory growled, and I tore away from my mate to lean into him, biting and sucking on his neck and earlobes, lapping at the blood flowing from his wound. It healed as I watched, and I mewled in disappointment. I needed more.

I wanted to cut him again, both of them, and drink them dry while they fucked me. I could drain their blood and their energy, ride the wave of sex and death. I was a maiden goddess cresting new heights of magic, drunk on power and ancient blood. The Hunger demanded dominion over the men in my circle.

Daniel grabbed me by the hair and craned my head back until my neck was exposed in a long line of taut flesh. His gleaming white fangs were longer than I had ever seen them, and the lethally sharp points could tear through my exposed artery with little effort. They were the teeth of a great cat, the fangs of a lion or tiger. He slid them into me with careful precision. When his lips sealed down and he began to drink, he penetrated me with his engorged cock.

The fullness in my channel combined with the roaring of my pulse as he fed from me shoved me into orgasm. I bucked and screamed, frantically stroking Gregory’s length. His eyes flashed pure violet, and I caught a short glimpse of his fangs before he grabbed the arm that held the blade and sank his fangs into my wrist.

“Fuck! Ouch…” The pain from the bite faded, and the sensation of sun-warmed fur brushed up my arm to my breasts. “Oh, damn…ooohhh…yes…more.”

A rushing sound filled my head as they fed from my vessels in unison. Daniel’s scent rose and mixed with mine, taking on a new flavor as Gregory’s arousal filled the air too. The deep animal part of my brain was terrified to submit to them, knowing that if they continued to feed I would die. The Hunger quickly squashed that whiny little bugger flat and reveled in the sexual energy that swirled in the room and through my body. The pain of the bite and the orgasm had cleared my head enough that I knew my magic was mostly in the driver’s seat. I hoped Daniel and Gregory could keep things on track enough so that no one died.