Incubus (7 page)

She bent and nuzzled that hidden spot she'd found underneath, and he gasped her name. She ran her tongue across his belly, nipping as she went, until she crouched above him and looked him in the eyes. He ground his teeth together. A flood of heat poured out of him, as tangible as the taste of him on her tongue. His hunger wove around her, embraced and welcomed her.

Mindless with need, Caroline held her breath as she climbed up his body and sheathed him inside of her, dying from the pleasure of it. She moved slowly at first.

“Tell me what you want,” he murmured.

“Push.”

He lifted her with his hips.

“Oh, yes,” she moaned.

Caroline caught his arms and held on. He hardened deliciously when she bore down on him, pushing her closer to release. Tears sprang to her eyes when Meical changed his rhythm, undulating between slow, deep thrusts to circling his hips beneath her. Meical locked an arm beneath her good leg and lifted, opening her more so he could stroke her in front.

“Come out of that silent, dark place you've been keeping yourself, Caroline Bengal. Let me hear you.”

As though made to order, a half cry broke from deep
inside Caroline's soul, followed by a litany of moans she couldn't hold back. No more silence inside her now. She couldn't stop crying. The first flutter shot through her core, draining the strength from her arms and legs. Her lungs heaved for air. The enormity of what waited, just beyond the precipice, overwhelmed her. She felt it sweep upward inside her, spilling into his body and back into hers again, his ecstasy feeding her own.

Meical caught her hips and thrust hard, holding her down on him while she sobbed and bucked in the onslaught of their combined hunger. She peaked again and felt him turn to concrete inside her. Seconds later he gasped and moved beneath her like an ocean wave, filling her with the creamy warmth she longed for.

He drew her down to him and held her close, slowing his movements until she lay limp. She was sure she'd never move again. No strength. No muscles or bones. Just flesh, joined to his, warm and wet and safe in his arms. He ran his hand down her wet back, murmuring something sweet about sleeping late.

And sleep she did.

T
alisen approached Ellory from behind just as the moon slipped behind a cloud, and a light rain began to turn the sand underfoot to mush. In the distance, somewhere down shore from the deserted beach on which they waited, the inhabitants of sleepy Camden were going to bed.

And some of Ellory's fledglings were just beginning their night's hunt.

Talisen rose up on tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Don't give up. Maybe he'll show up this time.”

He shook his head. “Three nights in a row and still he hasn't shown. We made our request clear. Everyone knows we're looking for Meical.”

“But we'll wait anyway. We won't give up on finding him.”

Ellory drew her around from behind him and pulled her close. “Assuming there's anything left of him to find.”

The pain Ellory exuded made Talisen wince. His emotions traveled like water drops on a wire, straight to her soul. She shook her head and kissed him again quickly. “If Meical was gone, wouldn't you feel it? And if he was beyond saving, this vampire we've been waiting on wouldn't put the word out that he knows where Meical is. Whoever it is we're waiting on, he—”

A wave of energy filled the night chill with a momentary heat, bathing the damp air with a scent Talisen couldn't place. She gasped in the rush of power.

Ellory tightened his arms around her. “Don't be afraid.”

“That's no hapless wanderer,” she breathed. “He feels—”

“Like an Ancient, yes. And he's just announced himself without a bit of fear for his safety. He's strong, this one.”

Talisen probed with all her senses, as she had learned to do in her first few weeks as a revenant. “I can't find him. Can't get a fix on him.”

“Don't bother trying. He's sizing us up,” Ellory added with a snort. “Typical of his generation.”

She followed his gaze as he eyed the woodland behind them, the boiling clouds above and the rising ocean beyond. The wind fell still, and then everything else did, too.

Suddenly, Ellory flew backward out of her arms and
hit the sand about six feet away. An arm materialized from out of the dark to clasp her around the waist, and a hand caught her under the chin. The Ancient's touch was gentle, but the fever in his skin stung her. It was the fever of severe hunger.

She swallowed her scream and fixed her eyes on Ellory, who'd picked himself up and now stood with his exquisite mouth gaping at whoever had hold of her. He recovered his composure in a heartbeat and gave her a reassuring, if pained, look.

“Don't move, Talisen.”

She drew a ragged breath. “Not planning on it.”

She heard the sharp intake of breath from her assailant. He pressed his nose into her hair, and his chest expanded against her shoulder blades as though he were filling his lungs with her scent. A sigh, ending in a moan, filled her ears, made its way into her mind, into her very veins…

“Talisen,” murmured Ellory. “Stay with me.”

She shook off the lethargy that crowded out her awareness and nodded at him.
Maybe you'd better do that dissolving thing to me you're so good at.

Ellory drew at his lip with his teeth.
But you hate it.

Turning to sand and slipping through his fingers is a lot better than being sucked dry.

He shook his head.
It's too risky. He's volatile. And…well…

What?

He knows you're a revenant.

Great. Everybody hates revenants. At his age, he's bound to hate them more.
Ellory winced.
Actually, at his age, he's more likely to feel exactly the opposite and think you're my plaything.

Talisen frowned at him.
You're not making me feel better.

The Ancient nuzzled her neck with his stubbly chin.

Ellory, do it.

It could backfire on us. I could end up spending the rest of the night sifting bits and pieces of you out of this beach.

I'll take my chances on being Humpty Dumpty. Get me out of this. Now.

Not like that.

All right. What's your plan?

Keep your focus on me. He can mesmerize you, so if he speaks to you, don't answer him.

Ellory?

Yes, love?

I'm scared.

I know.

Ellory sidestepped in a half circle with his hands upturned in a gesture of peace, but Talisen took heart in the raw steel she heard in his voice. “The delicacy you're holding in your arms is mine, blood and body. Release her.”

The husky, youthful voice that answered Ellory shattered Talisen's idea that she was in the grip of an old codger. He sounded like he was barely twenty. “You
did good work on this one. Revenants make such a sweet feast. Human blood and that of our kind, all in one fountain…”

The depth of his appreciation, backed by the raw power he exuded, was enough to make Talisen's head pound.
Ellory…

Ellory stepped closer. The bite in his voice bore a promise of retribution. “She isn't chattel. She's my mate. Let her go.”

The scent on the stranger's skin flowered on the breeze again, clouding Talisen's thoughts. Such an old aroma, so provocative. What was it? Patchouli? It was oddly familiar. Who did it remind her of?

Ellory's voice broke through her musing.
Stop thinking about him. He's trying to draw you in. Your only protection is our unity. Resist him.

He smells really good.

Talisen…please…

But not as good as you do.

She grinned, caught the arm that held her and gave it a good shove—not that it made a difference—but it got her point across. “Look, Wonder Boy, let me make this clear without the flowery language you're used to. I'm spoken for. If you don't let me go in the next six seconds, Ellory's going to do his best to rip your guts out. If he doesn't manage it before you kill him, I will. Between the two of us, you're not going to have a nice evening. So why don't you stop wearing out your welcome and tell us what you know about Meical Grabian's whereabouts?”

She braced herself for the possible ramifications of
her bluff. Ellory seemed frozen. He gaped at her as though she'd just sealed their fate.

The vampire behind her was silent. That could mean he was going to break her neck, or it could mean he was considering making a show of patronizing mercy by letting her go.

What she wasn't prepared for was his laughter. It echoed off the woods and the waves and cliffs. He was laughing at
her.
In spite of her relief that he was capable of genuine amusement, it made her want to pull his arm hair out.

“In all my three thousand years of night,” he said, “never have I been spoken to in this way. Certainly not by a revenant.”

Three thousand years? Talisen felt the first bloom of panic in her chest. This Ancient was as powerful as the Alchemist.

She caught another whiff of his signature scent, a dizzying mix of cool night breezes on thirsty desert sand, green rushes, musk, cypress, frankincense and…blood. He'd feasted very recently, but apparently, it hadn't been nearly enough to satisfy an appetite as old as his.

She fidgeted again.

Ellory edged closer. “Our revenants turn out a bit more modern than what you're used to. She is, however, the sun in my sky. Let her go.”

The vampire ran his hand through Talisen's hair, and her fear turned dull and distant, like her thoughts. Dark velvet softness dragged her down to a place she didn't belong.

Talisen.
Ellory's voice jerked her back to the surface. She felt his love surround her, laden with a vampire's stark possessiveness.

The Ancient behind her laughed again, except this time he was inside her mind. Had she done that to herself by speaking to him? Ellory had warned her.

He gives your leash a cosmic snap,
he taunted,
and you're his again. I say again, he did very good work on you.

Unexpectedly, Talisen was free. She swayed into Ellory's arms. He caught her close, held her until she thought her ribs would mesh and then steadied her on her feet.

Talisen turned to face the stranger. A world-weary soul returned her gaze, a soul as dark as the Alchemist's and as dulcet as Freya's, a soul steeped in the madness of hunger.

He was an inch taller than she was, no more. Lithe and sinewy, with glossy, black curls that fell to his shoulder, he looked like a prince from another time and place. Just as his scent seemed familiar to her, so did his swarthy beauty and the intelligence in his gaze, the square jaw, the exotic mouth, the black-brown eyes that held an eternity of history, wisdom, life and death.

“I am hunting the one you call the Alchemist,” he murmured.

“Whatever business you have with Neshi is your own,” Ellory returned. “Do you or do you not have news of our friend?”

“He has been ill-used by Benemerut, but he's alive.”

Who dared to address the Alchemist by his first name? Not even Freya, the queen.

The Ancient lifted his chin, his eyes full of the kind of rage that revenge makes friends with. “Benemerut has done our kind a disservice we will rue for ages. I am the only one who can stop him.”

“Great,” said Talisen. “We'll help each other.”

“I need no one's help, sweetmeat. I am here because I wish to confirm what I have heard.”

“Which is?”

“I am told, she who calls herself your queen will applaud anyone's efforts to rid you of Benemerut.”

Ellory took another step closer, head-and-shoulders taller than the ancient vampire. His voice was breathy with menace. “You speak of Freya Bloodmoon, midget. She
is
our queen.”

The Ancient fixed his gaze on Ellory, nostrils flaring, eyes glowing red with vehemence. His voice was as smooth as before, but his words came out in clipped, sharply enunciated English that barely masked an older tongue. “Queens I have known.
True
queens. In my time, our kind was not ruled by the children of our race.” He gave Talisen a stern glance. “And though our revenants were beloved by us, they understood their place.”

She stared daggers at him. “Spare us the history lesson. Just tell us where to find Meical.”

He turned his back on them and paced along the shore a few feet. For a moment she thought they were wasting their time. He stretched out his hand and the waves at his feet churned and boiled and rose to form a
swan that licked his palm and flapped its wings before disintegrating with a splash.

“We're born from a crimson sea,” the Ancient said hoarsely, “and long before we perish in the same way, we watch the world we know dip beneath the waves, drift out of sight and go under. We grapple to begin again, to forestall the inevitable, by seeking our salvation in the gaze of someone who is new to this world…someone with soft eyes full of trust and hunger strong enough to forge a new world…”

Ellory cleared his throat. “You do have some idea about where Meical is being kept, don't you? Or else you wouldn't be here.”

The Ancient nodded. “Benemerut is not without talent. He clothes your friend's whereabouts well. I am only certain of the general area. Benemerut himself is invisible to me, as yet.”

Ellory nodded. “That's Neshi. If he doesn't want to be found, he won't be. And if he's hiding Meical, it will be next to impossible to find him.”

“No, sooner or later, I will find them, although I doubt that will improve your friend's chance of survival. And so, I have come to offer you my condolences and inform you of his eventual demise, as a courtesy to you.”

Ellory shook his head. “Meical doesn't deserve to die. Let's pool what we know. If we work together, we can—”

Talisen caught his arm.
Hold on. He has an agenda and we don't know what it is. We shouldn't volunteer any information until we at least know his name.

“My name, sweetmeat,” the Ancient spoke up, having picked up on her thoughts, “is Badru. Millennia ago, you would both be on your knees right now, begging for a sip of my blood.”

Talisen snorted. “Change happens. Get over it.”

“For the duration of your stay,” Ellory warned, “if your needs are extreme, satisfy them in the neutral zone that borders my domain. Keep clear of my inn. And under no circumstances will you approach those in my household.”

“Be at peace. I am no threat to your children.” Badru bowed his head and shuffled from one foot to the other. For a moment he looked as young and vulnerable as one of their fledglings. “You are wise to fear the insanity in me. It will claim me, just as it has claimed Benemerut. Just as it will claim us all. Your friend Grabian will not have to endure that horror. I hope that gives you some comfort.”

“Stop talking about Meical like he's already dead,” snapped Talisen. “If you get to Neshi before we do, you can set Meical free. You can save him. You're powerful enough to do that.”

When Badru met her gaze, there was no malice in his eyes, but neither was there sympathy. He'd show no mercy. The deadly resolve in his gaze made her skin prickle with warning.

“If I find your friend before you do,” he murmured, “you have my word, I
will
free him. But you will not see him again.”

In a heartbeat, he vanished, leaving Ellory and Talisen stunned by the implication of his words.

Ellory's mouth parted and his words came in a rush. “He knows Meical is a victim. He's trying to be fair. That warning is the closest thing to a reprieve Meical is going to get.”

“But it doesn't make sense. Why kill Meical? What's he done to deserve that?”

“It's a sanctioned kill. There will be no survivors.”