The Brethren Of Tavish [Vampire Coven Book 1] (8 page)

A fuzzy white creature hopped closer for
inspection. Mercy shied back while also wanting to grip the creature and study
it at the same time. She heard Tavish chuckle. He went to the fluffy creature,
scooped it up and brought it to her. He dumped it into her arms.

“It’s a bunny,” he informed her. “She’s
harmless.”

Hesitantly at first, Mercy felt it then cuddled
it. It was the first time she had ever touched living fur.
She’s so warm and soft.
The bunny’s heart beat under her hand. She
rubbed her face against the creature and marveled at its feel. Tavish took it
from
her,
his large hands handled the creature so
carefully. He released it. The bunny hoped a short distance then stopped to
nuzzle a twig. A small being of sorts fluttered and landed on a branch. Mercy
went over, intensely studying it through squinted eyes. Curious, she looked at
Tavish.

“There’s not an ounce of decent meat on this
creature,” she declared.

Tavish howled with laughter. “I would hope not.
It’s a bug, a butterfly.”

“Butter fly’s? I’ve had what my mother calls
butter; it never once moved. Seal milk is rich and when she could get some,
which wasn’t easy as much was spoiled with blood, she would make butter.” Mercy
examined the creature. “How do you extract its butter?”

Laughter could be heard from behind them and
Mercy spun around. A group of six children ranging in age from four to ten
stood watching them. Mercy was overwhelmed. She hadn’t seen a child before
except herself when she was tiny, had she been this small? They looked like
pint-sized adults with cherub faces. They were beautiful; almost all of them
were dark-haired. All of the children wore very little. They were tanned and
healthy, smiling. They didn’t look terrified of Tavish.

“Run and find your mothers, children. You can
see our new addition tonight at the dinner table,” he chided.

They broke like a pack to obey immediately.
They left giggling.
All but one.
A tiny little girl
stood sucking her thumb. She had short blond hair and big brown eyes. Mercy
looked up at Tavish, expecting to see the white glow of his eyes, but he was
smiling fondly at those who left. When the others had gone, Tavish scooped up
the tiny little girl.

A woman, dressed much the same as Mercy, came
from a bush and hurried forward. She looked frightened and shifted from foot to
foot when she stood before Tavish. She eyed Tavish holding the child,
nervously. The woman’s light hair was askew, her face was red. Discreetly,
Mercy could see the opening of the teddy indicating this woman was used for
breeding. The front bottom of the garment was damp and Mercy wondered at it.
She had an odd notion the woman had been engaged in sexual activity. Perhaps
she was sweating.

Mercy was surprised when another vampire
appeared. He was large and handsome and dark-haired like Tavish. His look was
more rugged, in a nice kind of way. Tavish put the child into the man’s arms.
The little girl looked up at the man holding her. She didn’t struggle. Her
thumb never left her mouth. The vampire looked the child directly in the eyes.

“I can’t turn my back on you for a second
you’re so fast,” the vampire admonished the child. “Are you sure you’re not
part vampire, Perrin, my little wanderer?”

“So you’ve named the child?” Tavish said. “It
suits her.”

“Yes. Her mother is pleased with the name,” he
replied then cast a glance to the young woman who was hanging back shyly. “It
took me forever to convince Kia she wouldn’t be punished if the child was given
a name.”

“Humans call us cruel. We aren’t the ones who
would pretend a child doesn’t even exist,” Tavish said with disgust. “Ryker,
have you posted the visuals?”

“I did,” he replied. “Then took them down and
posted them again.”

“Why?” Tavish asked.

Ryker looked a bit sheepish. “I had them at my
height. I had to repost them at the child’s height. She had been with me when
she wandered away and her mother was busy. Every so often the visuals will need
to be checked as she grows taller.”

“I found something we can use,” Tavish said.
“Remind me at dinner. I found a string of bells we can tie around her wrists.”

Mercy lifted her eyebrows in shock. They would
bell the child? “Surely someone so young won’t run?” she asked.

“She doesn’t run, she wanders,” Tavish
explained.

“All children wander,” Mercy countered.

“Yes, but not all children are deaf. This one
was used to being left to
her own
devices—‘out of
sight, out of mind’ can be learned early. This little one of Ryker’s and her
mother have been with us a month and still she has yet to learn her boundaries;
she’s only three. We need to know where she is at all times. Once, she wandered
beyond the perimeters and was lucky Lucile found her.”

“Lucile?”

“You’ll meet her soon enough.”

Mercy understood now why the child’s mother
held back looking afraid. A child that young must have been born illegally to
the human race. Not given a name or any kind of acknowledgement. Mercy was
surprised she had been allowed to live. But her mother looked young; perhaps
her father had been as well. It wasn’t the child’s fault she had been
conceived. Perhaps the mother was shunned, the child ostracized. What a lonely
life. To exist in your ice cave but be ignored or treated like a villain just
for being born. Life was cold enough. Then hunted by vampires and brought here
wondering if these men would be even more cruel.

Ryker held the child comfortably. He tickled
her under her chin, but the child didn’t laugh. Instead, she ducked her face
and cuddled closer to him. Ryker ran a hand down her hair and kissed the top of
her head. Perrin’s fingers slid over his chest in a self-sooth gesture. Mercy
could understand the child’s need for contact.

Mercy had been denied close contact for as long
as she could remember. But at least she had been loved and wanted by her family.
What they didn’t show they said. Perhaps it was a blessing the child had never
heard any scornful words aimed in her or her mother’s direction. Yet she would
be twice damned. No words and no action. Mercy’s heart ached for her. Until
Ryker, obviously a persistent
man,
stroked the hair
from Perrin’s forehead and again kissed the child. His fingers tickled her tiny
ribs. A small fleeting smile curled the young one’s lips.

Tavish took Mercy by the arm and led her away
in a new direction. Mercy wasn’t used to the warmth of the sun. She lifted her
face to bathe in its heat. It was heavenly. This new world was heavenly. To
wander almost nude without fear of retribution was so un-confining.
To actually feel the ground under her feet.
Mercy stooped
and grabbed a handful of the earth.

“What is this?” she asked.

“Earth, dirt.”

She squeezed it between her fingers. It
crumbled and filled her nostrils with a delicious foreign scent that she could
have eaten. A cluster full of beautiful red buds caught her attention. Tavish
picked one and rid the green stem of two sharp looking points then handed it to
her. Mercy brought it to her nose and inhaled. She had never smelled anything
so wonderful. Tavish took it and tucked it behind her ear.

“This is a flower, a rose, and if you like you
may pick some every day and bring them to my room.”

“Am I staying with you?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Can I have your baby? Or do you not want
children that will be human? Or would they be born like you?
A
hybrid child?”

“I’m not a hybrid, no matter what your father
said. I’m a vampire, you’re human. I can’t give you a baby. It’s not physically
possible. But I will make certain your body enjoys trying to create one.”

“How?”

Tavish led her to a huge secluded tree. He
cupped her chin and tilted her head. Mercy was ready for this kiss. The wonders
she had seen took her breath away and now so too did Tavish. In the clean air,
under the shade, it felt right to be with a man who had saved her life and
saved her from a lonely life of misery. Her father had been wrong. Any man who
made children giggle and saved little ones wasn’t a monster; he was just
different. Men and women were different. It didn’t make one better than the other.

What was so treasonous in wanting to live? She
wanted to live. All creatures wanted the right. As her father had said, a polar
bear would kill a human and even then the creature wasn’t as despised as the
vampires. In her innocence, Mercy wondered if it were more ego-centered.
Vampires were a race of superior humans, at least power-wise, they hunted man,
and therefore they were to be feared by regular man. Tavish had created
something he thought was beneficial to both kinds. The children looked like
they were thriving. If Kia had been raised the same way Mercy had and she
didn’t appear affronted by sex perhaps it wasn’t so bad.

The idea made Mercy think of something that had
always niggled at the back of her mind. If sex was as bad as her father had
said then why did he and her mother have sex? Her mother loved him; he hadn’t
made her. Her father must have wanted to as well. Mercy couldn’t imagine anyone
forcing her father to do something he didn’t want to. They must have had to
have sex at least once to conceive her. Her father had committed treason and he
was allowed to live, so
was
her mother and Mercy. She
was beginning to wonder if it was a lot of ‘do as I say, not as I do.’ The idea
astounded her that she would think so brazenly. After all, she had only been
apart from her family for a short time. Yet, the thought was there, out in the
open. It stayed there.

Mercy allowed Tavish to lay her back into the
tall grass. She heard chirps and bird songs. How could this astonishing place
be evil? Tavish lifted her teddy over her head and captured a breast in his
mouth. Mercy gasped. She didn’t know what she had expected but this was so
strange.
To have a man suckle where a baby would.
She
didn’t know men did this. When she had touched her breasts and it felt good she
was beaten and told it was wrong. For a second she grew angry. Her father had
said a woman’s breasts were for babies and that’s all. He lied. What else had
he lied about? Had he lied to aid his own venture?

Tavish sucked her leisurely then mumbled. “Your
tits are perfect.”

Mercy was confused until she realized it must
be another name for breasts. Tavish kissed at her flesh going lower. She
thought for certain he would stop once he reached her forbidden area but he
continued and she cried out when his lips found her opening. She shuddered when
his tongue circled a small bud Mercy had seen when she relieved herself. Round
and round his tongue laved until Mercy pulled at him. If her breath was any
more ragged, she would get no air in at all.

“You need to be ready,” he said throatily.

“For what?” she whispered.

Tavish groaned and dragged himself to his feet.
“Have you ever seen a naked man?”

“No. It’s forbidden.”

“Here, it’s common,” he replied.

Tavish tugged his shirt over his head and
kicked off his foot coverings. Next he lowered his pants. Mercy stared at the
long thick growth where his forbidden area was. That was a man’s sex. It was
remarkable. It was so different
from her own
.
And confusing.
That would go inside her to create a baby?
No, he said he can’t give her a baby. Then would he use it the same way? She
didn’t have much time to ponder her deliberations when Tavish dropped back
down. He kissed her until she fought for air.

“Do you want me?” Tavish asked.

She wasn’t exactly certain what he was asking
of her. She could feel his long male part pressed against her. Did he mean did
she want that part to go in her? Her thoughts raced as her heart pounded. Everything
he had done so far felt right. It must be what they both wanted.

“Yes.”

Mercy could feel her legs spread beneath him
with his knee. She had been right; this was what they needed to do. She was
both fearful and excited. The feelings he aroused in her were ten times what
she had done to herself. There was no fear of punishment. This was Tavish’s
coven and this was his law. When the tip of him found her opening she waited to
see what would happen. So far she hadn’t been struck dead, there had been no wrath.

With his first thrust Mercy screamed. It hurt,
he was hurting her again. Was she being punished after all? Mercy pushed at
him. He was so big he filled her. His body was so strong she couldn’t make him
budge. Tavish remained still when she began to sob. His tender words shushed
her and he pulled back. Again he pushed into her. Mercy cried out. Back and
forth he rocked against her. His powerful hands gently caressed the side of her
face. His fingers stroked her hair. She realized he didn’t mean to hurt her. He
wasn’t crushing her with his weight. She heard him say something about her
first time being painful, but the pain would ease. It did.

“Move with me, little cub,” Tavish whispered.

She did, at least she tried. His huge maleness
thrust into her completely. His massive body pinned her yet felt comforting. In
and out he stroked, faster. It was so odd to be joined with another. Finally
she wrapped her arms around his back and buried her face into his neck. She
felt his hand lift her hips and soon he moved more rapidly. Mercy gasped. An
odd sensation swirled around her body from inside. It was pleasurable. Her hips
were lifted higher and her neck was turned. Mercy knew he would feed off her
now. She wasn’t afraid. His eyes remained blue. This was Tavish, not the
monster.