Eternal Kiss of Darkness

Chapter 20

Kira awoke to the sounds of people screaming and the whoosh of a train as it barreled closer. She shot upward in blind survival instinct to avoid the train’s oncoming path, but hard arms seized her.

“Do not fear. You are safe.”

Mencheres. How many times had she heard those words from him? A lot, it seemed.

She came awake enough to notice that they were in a bare room with several pieces of large equipment stacked against the walls. The machines hummed with their own internal racket while somewhere above them, that cadence of screams followed by the sounds of a freight train rose and fell again.

“What the—?” Kira managed.

He glanced at the ceiling. “We are underneath a roller coaster. Big Thunder Mountain, I believe it is called.”

For a second, Kira didn’t know whether to laugh or ask if he was kidding. Disneyland? That was where Mencheres decided it would be safe for them to flee to after leaving in such a hurry? He hadn’t told her where they were going when he flew them away from the house, and falling asleep at dawn had prevented her from seeing where they were headed after several other stops and starts.

“First bubble baths. Now Disney parks. You’re shattering every creepy vampire myth I’ve ever heard.”

Mencheres shrugged. “It is an easy landmark to find, and we’re meeting people here. Plus, you needed a safe place to rest. These theme parks have labyrinths underneath them, with many unused rooms such as these to keep the cleaning and running of the park away from guests’ eyes.”

Kira digested this. She hadn’t known there was anything underneath Disneyland, which probably meant a lot of other people were unaware of that, too. This was safer than sleeping in a car or on a park bench, that was for sure. “Who are we meeting?”

“My co-ruler and his wife,” Mencheres replied.

“Co-ruler.” Her brows rose. “Does that mean he’s a partner in a big vampire corporation you both oversee?”

His mouth quirked. “In essence.”

“And you trust him?”

Kira felt his emotions flicker between sadness and resolve, an odd combination to feel at her question. “I trust that he will do what is best for our people and that he will speak the truth about his intentions, whatever they are,” he replied at last.

“Why does that sound like you’re not giving me a straight answer to my question?” she murmured.

Mencheres’s slight smile deepened. “Because you are perceptive.”

She glanced down to see that she was lying on his coat, several towels, pullover hoodies, and other soft items with various Disney character logos. They were the only buffer between her and the hard concrete floor. She shook her head. Her first trip to Disneyland was as a vampire hiding out under a roller coaster with another vampire. All of a sudden, Alice’s adventures in Wonderland seemed normal by comparison.

Mencheres held out his hand to assist her up. Kira took it, used to the natural energy emanating from his flesh. The first few times she’d felt it might have seemed like mild electrocution, but now, she enjoyed the tingling sensations that touching Mencheres elicited. His pulsating power certainly had its unexpected advantages. After last night, Kira knew that his tongue felt like a vibrator set to the speed of Oh Hell Yeah.

His hand tightened on hers, and his mouth was suddenly brushing her neck as he inhaled next to it. Mencheres’s scent intensified as well, that rich natural cologne of dark spices deepening and increasing. Something clenched inside her.

“You tempt me more than you can imagine.” His voice was low but resonating. “Whatever your thoughts were at that moment, keep thinking them. They sweeten your scent in the most enticing way.”

Kira almost sighed at the sensations running through her. He didn’t even need to kiss her for her to feel aroused. Just being near him was enough to make her want him.

She traced her free hand along Mencheres’s arm. “How long do we have until we’re supposed to meet those people?” So much more than a question about their appointment hung in her words.

His mouth slid along her neck again, making her shiver at the additional tingles. “You deserve better than this,” he said softly.

Kira could feel his lust battling with his sense of honor—and she wanted his honor to lose. “Dingy equipment room it may be, but for once, we’re alone,” she whispered back. “Let’s not waste that.”

His mouth teased her skin while more tingling ripples traveled over her body. She let out a short moan. She knew it was his power caressing her with a thousand invisible strokes, some of the touches shockingly intimate. Her fangs extended of their own volition, and a shudder went through her.

“Is that a yes?” Kira managed.

His lips slanted over hers in reply. Her mouth opened at once, stroking his tongue with hers and matching the urgency in his kiss. She moaned again as those phantom touches increased, the sensations fueled by the feel of his hands beginning to travel over her as well.

She reached for the buttons on his shirt, ripping them because she forgot to tone down her new strength. Mencheres stripped his clothes off without taking his hands from her, all the seams separating and pulling away from themselves until the remaining pieces dropped to the floor. Kira felt her own clothes fall away in the same manner, until the two of them stood naked with their ruined clothing at their feet.

A primal sound escaped her when she felt the hard length of him pressed to her belly. Then an almost painful clench of desire flooded her when she closed her hand over him and felt him grow even bigger. After all the starts and stops, the interruptions, she wanted him inside her now. The need was too great to delay with foreplay.

“Take me. Don’t wait,” she got out in a ragged voice once he freed her lips to trail his devastating mouth down her neck.

His fingers found her depths in the next moment, making her cry out at the sizzle of sensation. He stroked her far more slowly than she did him, her faster rhythm wringing deep, throaty groans out of Mencheres that spiked her lust.

“You are not ready yet. I would hurt you,” he rasped.

She felt his need as if it were a living thing trying to claw its way out of him. The intensity, the overwhelming force of his desire fueled her impatience. Yes, that was how she felt. Like she’d die if he wasn’t inside her right now .

“Wanting you hurts even more,” Kira choked.

A harsh noise came from him right as she felt his careful control snap. The coolness of the wall met her back in the next moment, Mencheres parting her legs and lifting her. His mouth claimed hers in a torrid kiss as his hard, thick flesh pressed against her core.

Her nerve endings electrified at that intimate touch, then a cry wrenched from her when his thrust burned into her like a brand. She was wet, but not enough, not for his size. Still, Kira lashed her arms around him and arched toward him, her need rivaling the initial ache she’d felt.

“More,” she moaned into his mouth.

The muscles in his back bunched beneath her hands, then another searing thrust brought him deeper inside her. She whimpered as the bliss combined with a quicksilver flash of pain, yet still, she didn’t want him to stop. Nothing had felt this incredible as Mencheres raked her mouth with his tongue while his body stretched hers to its limit.

Another thrust made her head fall back as the pleasure drowned out those initial twinges of pain. She felt every rasp of the wall against her back, each stroke of his tongue, hands, and power while that hardness moved deeper inside her. Her hips twisted with a compulsion she couldn’t control, urging him deeper still, until a groan tore through him and he buried himself completely with a hard arch of his hips.

She didn’t need to breathe, but Kira was almost gasping at the bombardment of sensations. Mencheres’s skin crackled with energy, every touch sending more tingles through her, until her body felt like it was vibrating with the same pulsating power his contained. That fullness inside her was overwhelming, making her nerve endings throb even as that hungry urgency demanded more.

He drew his mouth away from hers, staring into her eyes while he slowly pulled out of her. His thumb traced her lip as his other hand held her aloft, keeping their hips together. Deep, bone-melting pleasure surged through Kira’s subconscious as he thrust forward again, almost causing her to shout at the crush of rapture filling her.

“That is what I feel when I’m inside you.” His voice was low, eyes lit up with blinding green. “And you will feel every measure of the same, I promise.”

A curtain fell over his emotions then, until the sensations Kira felt were hers and hers alone. She curled her hands into his hair, about to tell him to drop that wall so there were no barriers between them, but a clench of pleasure gripped her before she could speak. It cleared her mind of thought, wringing a cry from her instead of words. Mencheres slowly began to move, his mouth parting as he stared at her while his body merged into hers. Another clench of pleasure seized her, causing her to gasp out his name while those rapturous bands inside her tightened.

He smiled, so sensual and beautiful, it was another form of bliss just looking at him. Kira’s hands unwound from his hair to caress his back, growing more excited by every flex of his muscles that meant another amazing thrust inside her. His mouth closed over hers again, his kiss somehow darker and richer. Their tongues twined together with the same silkiness as his movements within her, Kira’s heightened passion making her body able to smoothly receive all of him.

His hands traveled over her while he slowly began to increase his pace. Her moans were smothered by his kiss, joining the hoarse, throaty noises Mencheres made as they moved together. Each new thrust built the intensity inside her, spreading it until her whole body throbbed instead of just her loins. Even her skin ached with a beautiful torment for more contact with his, making her grasp him even more feverishly while her legs slid around to encircle his hips.

He caught the back of her thigh in a strong grip, holding her closer as his thrusts intensified. The waves of pleasure cascading from her core had her crying out against his mouth, her fangs cutting into his lip as her head began to toss with growing urgency. His hand tangled in her hair, keeping her steady, while his kiss became scorching, his mouth ravaging hers with a hunger that was too fierce to be contained.

Her nails dug into his hips as he began to move even faster, shattering her reason with that ceaseless rhythm. The sensual pressure built until it felt like she’d explode if he didn’t stop—and she didn’t want him to stop. She wanted him to take her past the edge, into the free fall beyond.

Mencheres tore his mouth free with a shout that echoed inside the small room. His pace suddenly increased to a degree that would have frightened Kira were it not for the ecstasy blasting through her. Her eyes closed while her loins finally convulsed from the overwhelming bliss, flooding a sensation far too great to be called pleasure through her.

Words spilled out of Mencheres’s mouth in a language she didn’t understand. She clutched him as the orgasm continued to throb inside her, shocking her with its intensity. She wanted him to feel the same thing she was feeling. To have him let go of that last bit of control.

“Come inside me,” Kira gasped, her voice almost raw. “I need to feel you come now, Mencheres . . .”

Another slew of words she didn’t recognize hoarsely tumbled from his lips, but then he kissed her with a passion that matched the burning demand of his body. She locked herself around him, moving with him, her mind sliding away from reality into pure sensation.

She felt the tremor deep inside her then, the shudder that passed from his body to hers. It flexed and contracted even as a harsh shout tore from his throat. Mencheres arched, thrusting inside her so forcefully that she gasped. His head fell back, dark hair fanning behind him as another, longer groan came from him. It matched the spasms reverberating within her, his climax thundering through her loins with powerful, rhythmic vibrations.

Her arms curled around his neck as she savored the tremors that still shook him. A profound sense of belonging filled her, as if something long restless inside her had found its home. For several extended moments, she didn’t even want to speak, lest words break the rightness she felt.

Then she looked past Mencheres’s face to see the pile of their clothes directly under them. Several feet under them, in fact.

“What?” she gasped. A glance around confirmed what her eyes first told her. That wasn’t the wall brushing against her back anymore. It was the ceiling .

A low laugh shook him even as their distance to the ground began to dissipate, their bodies floating down slower than a drifting feather.

“Did you think I’d let you fall?” he asked huskily, kissing her throat with a languid thoroughness that took away her flash of anxiety. He settled them on top of the soft pile of clothes without once turning around to see where it was. It left her on top of Mencheres, her knees sunk into the pallet of fabric around them, his hair framing his face like black silk. His hands trailed along her back with firm, smooth strokes, pausing on the rounder part of her hips.

“I’ve heard the expression climbing the walls, but I never thought I’d experience it, let alone like that,” she murmured, her mouth curling into what was probably a dreamy smile.

He smiled back, an unfiltered, wide stretch of his lips that reminded her how even more gorgeous Mencheres was without his usual impassive expression. She stroked his face, tracing her fingers over his high cheekbones, those dark thick brows, that full mouth, and his proudly sloped nose.

“What are you thinking?” she asked, leaning forward to brush her breasts against his chest.

“That I would stay like this with you always, if I could,” he replied, his smile fading a bit.

Was the shadow that passed over his face due to their lack of time because they had to meet his co-ruler soon? Or because of Radje’s frame job implicating Mencheres in murders he hadn’t committed? She didn’t want to ask. She wanted to keep this moment just between them, without other people or things intruding on it yet.

“Why did you close yourself off from me so I couldn’t feel you?” she asked, resting her elbows on his shoulders.

His gaze slid over her breasts, compressed now against the wall of his chest. “It is a poor lover who ensures his lady’s pleasure merely by letting her feed off his own,” he replied with the hint of a grin.

Kira chuckled. “I don’t think you need to worry about that. Ever.”

“Then next time,” he replied, his voice deepening, “we will share it together.”

A rush of anticipation filled her, making her want to turn next time into right now. But another clench inside her, a more dreaded one, made Kira glance around the room in consternation. Aside from the machines, Mencheres’s coat, and the Disney paraphernalia they were lying on, the room was empty. And she was getting very hungry.

Mencheres hadn’t taken the blood cooler with them when they’d rushed to leave the house in the few hours remaining before dawn. She’d been so shocked by her death video and Mencheres’s murder and arson framing not to even remember to ask him to bring that. The only thing she’d insisted on doing before they left was to call Tina, but in their hurry, all Kira managed to relay to her sister was that she was safe and for Tina to tell her brother not to believe anything he saw on TV. It wasn’t nearly enough of an explanation, but it would have to do for now.

“Please tell me you stuffed a couple blood bags into your coat before we left,” she said, shifting uncomfortably as the clench in her stomach increased.

“I told you there would come a time when you wouldn’t be able to cater to your feeding preferences. That time came sooner than expected.”

Kira’s mind revolted at the thought even as her stomach yowled in need once more. She swallowed. If she refused, tried to wait it out until they came across a hospital or blood bank, she might be thrown into the same mindless blackout hunger that had dominated her first couple days as a vampire. And if Mencheres wasn’t right by her side when that happened, she could kill someone.

“How should I go about doing this?” she whispered. No way did she want to try winging it by herself.

He gestured to the pile beneath them. “We’ll change into some of these clothes and go up to the park level. There are hundreds of adults there to choose from.”

So saying, Mencheres gently rolled her over and sat up, pulling a T-shirt out from underneath him and slipping it on. He selected a pair of pants and donned them in the same careless fashion, completing the cover-up of his magnificent naked body, much to Kira’s dismay. Still, she couldn’t complain. If not for her, they could have spent more time making love in what was now her favorite room in the world.

Next he selected a hat from the pile, twining his long dark hair into a knot and placing a Disney ball cap over it. The effect on his appearance was startling. Somehow, in mere seconds, Mencheres went from looking like a striking, elegant man in his later twenties to a much younger tourist who might get carded if he attempted to buy a beer.

“You’re like a chameleon, you know that?” Kira said.

He raised a brow. “Disguises are a necessary skill for vampires. It is not just a matter of changing clothes; it’s affecting a new persona as well. Our faces have been publicized not only on the Chicago news, but also downloaded over the Internet. No need to chance any humans here recognizing us, even though our time will not be lengthy.”

“You didn’t say much about what our plan was when we left before, then, of course, I passed out at dawn. I don’t even know how you managed to get us from Wyoming to Southern California. You couldn’t have flown the whole way.”

He shrugged. “It is easy enough to compel people to transport us where we need to go once I was certain we hadn’t been followed.”

And with Mencheres’s hypnotic powers, none of those drivers would even remember their stint as a taxi driver. The thought made Kira pause. Did she now have that same ability to mesmerize people? Or was that something she’d grow into with time?

Another clench of her stomach reminded her that she didn’t have the luxury of sitting here pondering the extent of her new abilities. She rooted through the pile of clothes until she found a T-shirt and some sweatpants, pausing to discreetly wipe away the remains of their passion with one of the torn pieces of her prior clothing. Then she tucked her hair inside a hat as Mencheres had done. It was unbelievable to realize that soon, she’d learn how to actually bite someone and drink their blood . . . all while wearing a Goofy ball cap and a Minnie Mouse T-shirt.

Her life had been blasted apart by Radje in every way possible, but right now, Kira wasn’t thinking about that. Incredibly, she was happy, even though that happiness made no sense in light of the dire circumstances she and Mencheres were in.

He stroked her cheek when she stood up, staring with more than casual interest at her mouth. Kira licked her lips. If only she’d thought to tell Mencheres to stuff some blood bags in his coat before they left his house. Then she might have been able to spend the next hour or so learning what made him moan the loudest instead of figuring out how to bite someone.

He inhaled, his eyes glinting with green. “I love your scent,” he almost growled. “I love it even more now that it’s all over my body.”

The flat hunger in his tone made things low inside her clench, but unfortunately, her stomach refused to take a backseat to her rising desire. There went her plans for more ceiling explorations.

“Let’s go now,” she said. “Or I won’t want to leave at all, and that will be dangerous for any person who comes into contact with me later.”

Damn her need for so many feedings. That would lessen as time went on, she’d been assured, and she couldn’t wait. It would be a relief when all she needed was a cup of bagged blood a day, and that was it.

“Yes. Now,” Mencheres murmured. His lips brushed across hers for one last, seeking kiss, almost making Kira decide to forget feeding, but then he stopped, and they exited the noisy equipment room together.