Summoning Shadows: A Rosso Lussuria Vampire Novel (38 page)

Uncertainty flowed through me, though I wanted to give her what she asked. I wanted to feel her soft lips mold to mine in a kiss. I wanted to feel her fleshy breasts crush against mine and not the bedamned coat of fur between us. I held that longing in my mind, held tightly to the memories I had of my vampiric body until it felt as though I had convinced myself of the reality of them.

Iliaria drew back and spoke my name in soft amusement.

“What?”

She laughed and reached a hand out to touch me. Her hand sank into the curls at the base of my skull as she guided me up. I startled, surprised as her hand wound gently in my hair and she laughed again. “Not so difficult, you see.”

“I did it?”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t feel anything.”

“Why would you? Come here,” she said.

The gray carpet was lush against my bare feet as she led me from the bed. The air kissed my skin and relief rushed through me as Iliaria guided me to the oval mirror.

She stood beside me, securing an arm about my waist. “You see? Azrael seems not to have taken all of you.”

I looked relatively the same, but different. The gray of my eyes was struck through with branches of the same onyx lightning that decorated Iliaria’s and Morina’s gazes. My hair spilled in the long mass of mahogany curls that it always had. The wings that stretched from my back were ivory and pink, matching the pale shade of my skin. In human form, the wings felt heavier than they had before. I stared at my reflection and traced the small tuft of white fur that shielded my groin.

“How do I change back?” I asked.

“You change back the same way you changed. You will it and make it so.”

I brushed her cheek and locked my arms around her neck. “Kiss me.”

“Gladly.” The word was barely discernible in the purr that tumbled from her. She did and her tongue parted my lips in a kiss that was warm and inviting. She cupped my buttocks and lifted me against her, our sexes brushing briefly before I wrapped my legs around her hips. My sex stiffened against her stomach as I buried my hands in the silky fall of her hair.

I broke the kiss and fell back and only Iliaria’s hands kept me pinned to her body and not sprawled in a heap on the floor.

“Are you ever satiated?” I asked. “I feel as though I’ll never get enough. Is that normal?”

She laughed lowly as she knelt on the bed with me in her arms. “The Draculian appetite is a voracious thing.”

I never realized until then how much self-control she exerted. I had known that in many ways, she held back, but I never reckoned the half of it.

Iliaria sat me down in front of her. She pushed the hair back from my face, her touch and expression gentle. I raised my hands to cup her jaw, sliding my thumbs down the sturdy bones of her face to her neck. Her pulse beat against my thumbs before I smoothed my palms down the jagged slants of her collarbones.

I cupped her breasts in my hands and her nipples hardened at my caress.

I drew her into my mouth, my blood humming pleasantly and encouragingly. I sank my mouth down on her, careful not to draw blood with the points of my fangs. I traced that tiny knot of flesh with my tongue and Iliaria groaned. I slid a hand down her body, massaging her while I tended to her breasts with lips and tongue. When she growled in frustration, I pushed past the knot between her thighs and eased inside her. Iliaria raised high on her knees, her body arching as she flung her head back to expose the wondrous line of her pale neck. I coaxed her with my hand, catching her breast between my teeth and tugging lightly. Her body clenched around my fingers and I curled them, pressing into her deepest corners. I repositioned my arm, just enough that my palm brushed the hard knot of her sex.

Iliaria trembled slightly and said in a husky voice, “You’re going to make me spend myself again.”

I moved my other arm between our bodies while I nipped the sensitive skin at the top of her breast. “That’s the point,” I murmured, brushing my lips over the silken skin stretched over her sternum and to her neck. I stayed inside her, repeatedly stroking the spot that seemed to encourage her thighs to tremble. I traced her sex with my thumb and Iliaria moaned for me.

Her lips parted as I stroked her, her gaze meeting mine briefly before I licked her, flicking the tip of my tongue in a dance against her erect nipple. I sank my mouth down on her, and this time, sucked hard, pricking skin on the cusps of my fangs.

Her hips twitched and bucked, her body tightening under my hands and mouth. I quickened my movements, sliding my free hand down her body, I tugged lightly on the hardened knot between her legs. Iliaria’s back arched again as her hands gripped my shoulders. Her nails cut into my skin and I groaned, my grasp tight around her.

She came in a shuddering dance under my hands. Her lips trembled against my neck in a long growl as she came. When her climax subsided, she kissed my neck, nibbling and sending gooseflesh along my arms.

I withdrew and her hips twitched and her breath caught short at their withdrawal. I brushed aside the silken curtain of her hair. Iliaria gazed at me with a lazy and satisfied smile.

“Well done,” a voice called deviously from the doorway between the rooms. “Exceptionally well done.”

Iliaria’s eyes narrowed into angry slits as she turned to glare at the intruder.

Morina stood in the doorway, her slim yet curvaceous body propped against the frame, her dark coat fanned out around her as she gave a crooked smile. “My, my,” she said theatrically, “perhaps I should have fucked you when I had the chance, after all. If only I had known you’d the skills of a prized courtesan.”

“Watch your tongue, Morina,” Iliaria growled. “Jealousy and regret do not become you.”

Iliaria guided me back on the bed with a hand on my shoulder and one at my lower back. The move forced my spine to bow and my breasts higher than the rest of me. Iliaria smiled again. Only this time, it was not for my benefit. She pressed her mouth against the skin at the base of my sternum and licked a wet line upward between my breasts in obvious show.

Show or not, at the touch of her tongue, I suddenly wasn’t concerned with the fact that Morina stood watching us.

Iliaria sealed her mouth over my breast and sucked until my skin prickled.

A grunt sounded from Morina’s direction. “Flaunting your toy, Iliaria. How diplomatic.”

Iliaria sank lower on my body, her mouth leaving a trail of hot kisses across my stomach and hips. I fell back against the bed and her arm slipped out from beneath me. Her mouth brushed past the snowy fur between my legs. Her warm breath against my sex stirred me to arousal again.

“You wouldn’t,” Morina said.

“Watch me,” Iliaria said as she took me into her mouth.

I cried out and clawed at the blankets. Her mouth was hot, so hot, and I was not sure if I would burst or burn with the pleasure. That brilliant tongue stroked me broadly, fluttering tentatively at my tip in a way that made me writhe and cry out again.

I forced myself to open my eyes and watch her, to watch the up and down motion of her head as she sucked and a thousand nerve endings fired off through my body in an unyielding orchestra of delight.

My breath was shallow and my chest heaved. I shut my eyes, curling my hands into fists and balling them in the coverlet.

Another grunt from Morina’s direction inspired me to look at her. She leaned back against the door, her coat unbuttoned to reveal her attire. Her trousers were tight enough that I could see the slight swell of her Dragoste underneath.

She met my gaze as she slid a hand down her body. An air of defiance surrounded her, but her eye was filled with a hunger so fierce it made the breath hitch in my chest.

Iliaria prolonged the orgasm. When she felt my legs begin to tremble, she drew back and slowed her pace just enough to keep my climax at bay. I glanced away from Morina long enough to find that Iliaria watched her, too. I knew in that moment that though the pleasure might have been for me, the show was for Morina. Iliaria made love to me to possess me, to state her claim, and prove that she could touch me and pleasure me while Morina could do nothing more than watch.

Instead of upsetting me, her dominance thrilled me. Iliaria buried her fingers inside me and I rose off the bed, crying out again.

There was movement from the doorway and I turned again to find Morina still there, still watching. She had unhooked the top clasp of her trousers and her hand disappeared under the waistband. By the slight movement underneath the fabric, I knew she pleasured herself.

I forgot everything she had done or said to me, everything but that moment when I’d been chained to the wall and felt her sex awaken against me, felt the flame of desire leap between us both. I found myself wanting to know what Morina looked like without her clothes on. I wanted to watch her pleasure herself, wanted to see just how her body reacted to the sight of Iliaria pleasuring me.

Morina held my gaze in a stare both passionate and defiant. Her hand did not still as she thrust her hips forward, reclining against the frame of the door as her lips parted, the tips of her fangs glistening in the lamplight.

Will you?
I thought, moaning as Iliaria did something with her tongue that raised me half off the bed again.
Are you that bold, Dracule?
I wondered.

I hid nothing in my expression while I held Morina’s stare. I wanted her to drop her trousers and show me what she was doing to herself. I slid my hands up my body and cupped my breasts, tugging lightly on my nipples. Morina seemed encouraged at the gesture. A grunt fell from her as her hand struggled more vigorously beneath her breeches.

Iliaria’s mouth became a vise around me as she sucked, calling my attention back to her. I placed a hand on her head and the flicks of her tongue against me increased. I cried out, twining my hand in her hair and jerking her head back as the orgasm tore through me.

A long moan sounded from Morina’s direction, but before I could turn my head to see, Iliaria climbed my body and caught my mouth in a hard kiss. When she broke the kiss, Morina was gone.

“I’m sorry,” Iliaria said as a line creased across her forehead. “I shouldn’t have used you to taunt her.”

“Don’t,” I said. “Don’t apologize. You were spectacular. You should never apologize for that.”

“And you, my dragă…” She hoisted me up into her lap and her sex stiffened against my buttocks.
My dragă
, she’d called me. The possessive intonation in her words gave me a sense of excitement and belonging. “You were curious about her,” Iliaria said, her voice soft as she searched my face.

“Yes,” I admitted, seeing no reason to lie. I traced her brow and let her see what I felt in my heart. “But I love you, Iliaria, and she is no threat to what I feel for you.”

“Do you promise?” she asked and a pang went through my heart as I thought of Renata. When I had first taken Iliaria to my bed, Renata had fairly much asked the same thing of me; that I would not revoke my love for her and give it to another. I hadn’t. I still loved Renata. I’d simply come to love Iliaria as well.

“I think our hearts are capable of more love than we give them credit for.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Even if I fell for Morina,” I said and added, “which is unlikely, but even if I fell, do you really think I would love you or Renata any less?”

“I like to think you wouldn’t,” she said, tracing my shoulder.

“I swear to you,” I whispered, “I wouldn’t. I’ve fallen in love with you, Iliaria, and it hasn’t in any way belittled the love that I feel for Renata. I love you both.”

“I want to make love to you until we collapse and sleep with exhaustion,” Iliaria murmured against my mouth.

I cupped her face in my hands. “Then we shall.”

It was not pity, nor was it necessarily the insatiable well of desire within me that inspired me to agree to her request. It was love, and the thought that, at some point I would leave. I would leave her behind not knowing if I would survive to come back to her arms.

Iliaria laid me back across the bed and we made love, again and again, until our muscles were weak, our minds cloudy, and our bodies entirely spent. She wrapped her long body around mine, one of her legs flung over me. She played with my hair, making me relax.

“I miss her too,” she said when I was on the verge of sleep.

“Renata?” I asked, just to be sure.

“Yes.” She tousled my hair rather playfully. “Pesky though she can be, somehow, we fit you, and somehow, in that way, we fit together.” After a few moments, she asked, “Does that make sense?”

“Yes,” I said as I pulled her arm more snugly around me. “I think it makes perfect sense.”

Iliaria pressed a kiss against my temple and tears stung at my eyes. “It’s a good thing the Dracule aren’t monogamous, isn’t it?” she asked with a chuckle. “You’re able to cling to one of us, but you’re not whole without both of us. I know that, Epiphany.”

I laughed, though something in the statement made me sad, too. Her tenderness undid me and she held me while I cried. A heavy melancholy fell over me. She was right. I was not whole without Renata. Without her, it felt as though a piece of me was missing, a large piece that I went about my day trying to ignore.