Vampire in Atlantis

Chapter 20

Serai put the cap back on her water bottle and took a deep breath, trying to convince herself, yet again, that she had the strength for this quest. Her legs were as heavy as if sculpted out of marble or orichalcum by a cloddish artist, and each step was harder than the last. The intermittently missing and damaged connection to the Emperor was draining every ounce of her energy, both magical and physical, and she was terrified about what it was doing to the four maidens left in the stasis pods in Atlantis.

Delia was already gone. Helena, Merlina, Brandacea, and Guen remained. Serai’s connection to them was weak, and growing weaker every moment, so she wasn’t entirely certain that they all still lived.

She hoped they did. If their lives could be sustained by the sheer force of her will, then they did still live.

“What is it?” Daniel asked, soundlessly dropping down next to her after a short flight to scout their area.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever see that and not be amazed,” she said. “That you can fly. How wonderful it must be.”

“You can fly as mist, can’t you? Or is that only a warrior thing? I’ve seen Ven and the guys do it. It’s pretty spectacular.”

She tilted her head, considering. “I think I may still be able to do so. It’s simple enough, part of the magic the sea god gifts to his children. I don’t know if I could do it now, though, since I’m so tired. And the problem—” She broke off, not wanting to let him see how pathetically weak and cowardly she was about something so minor as a fear of height. Lives depended on her.

He nodded, as if he could read her mind. “The acrophobia still applies. Perhaps, also, your connection with the Emperor won’t work when you’re in mist form.”

She smiled at him, aware that he was giving her a graceful excuse. She was grateful for his kindness, but not willing to spare herself the truth. “I’ m afraid, and we both know it, but I think it won’t matter. We’re very near the Emperor now. We just need to travel a bit farther and—”

The worst pain yet slammed into her with the force of a tsunami. The witch was using the Emperor, and this time she was mixing the gem’s power with something else—natural magic from the land around them—oh, gods, it hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt . . .

She clenched her jaw shut against the scream, but a horrible moaning sound escaped her throat, and Daniel caught her arm.

“Is it the gem again?”

“Yes, it’s—”

She couldn’t finish the sentence. She couldn’t breathe. Her legs wouldn’t support her. The Emperor’s power drove through her, pulling at her own magic, siphoning off her strength in a flood. She could see the witch’s face, and the woman was terrified of something, or someone, but she was being forced to channel the Emperor. For an instant, Serai believed she’d made a connection with the witch, but then the power surged again, and she screamed and collapsed into Daniel’s arms.

The Emperor ruthlessly took and took, draining everything she had until she knew that it was the end, she would surely die from it, but she didn’t even have the strength to tell Daniel that she loved him, it had always been him, it would always be him, before the world exploded in a shimmering cascade of purple light.

Daniel lifted Serai’s limp form into his arms and listened for the sound of her breathing, but there was only silence. No breath, no heartbeat, nothing but the sound of finality and death and the end of everything. He roared out his anguish in a single, wordless bellow to the sky, incoherent with rage and loss, but then reason returned for long enough for him to realize it wasn’t too late.

He could fix this. She could hate him for the blood bond later, but at least she’d be alive to do so.

He bit viciously into his wrist and then held it over her lips, rubbing his dripping blood into her mouth. At first she was unresponsive, but he gently rubbed her throat to coax a swallowing reflex and after a moment long enough to nearly cost him his sanity, she moved her head a little and then swallowed convulsively. She immediately began coughing and retching, as if the taste of his blood had been so foul she must expel it from her mouth, but he forced her to accept more, enough to ensure she would wake and be restored.

Enough to bond her to him.

Enough to save her life.

If she hated him forever after, it was a small enough price to pay to know that she lived.

She pushed at his arm, and he finally pulled his wrist away from her mouth, now smeared with his blood. He licked his wound to heal it with the anticoagulants in his saliva, and then reached for the water bottle she’d dropped earlier.

“Drink some of this.”

She stared up at him, uncomprehending, and so he uncapped the bottle and held it to her lips. This liquid she drank without hesitation, but she sat up, coughing and sputtering, as she choked a little.

“Went down the wrong way, I think,” she murmured. “What . . . what happened to me?”

He didn’t know how to answer her, so instead he silently tore a strip of fabric from the bottom of his shirt, poured a little water on it, and gently wiped her mouth until no trace of his blood remained.

She caught his wrist again. “Did you . . . did you give me your blood?”

“I did. I won’t apologize for it, because it saved your life,” he said roughly.

“I didn’t ask you to apologize. Thank you.”

He sat back a little, stunned at her reaction. He’d expected her to rail at him for his presumption.

“I gave you my blood,” he said slowly, making sure she understood his transgression, so she would hate him and not thank him. Clearly, he was the stupidest man on the planet.

“It was the first step of a blood bond. I will be able to feel what you feel and know where you are forever now.” He caught her chin in his hand. “Do you get that? I invaded your privacy.”

“You saved my life,” she shot back at him. “Do you expect me to be angry for that?”

He blinked, realizing that yes, he’d expected just that. “Uh, well—”

She touched his face so gently he almost didn’t feel it. “You saved my life. The Emperor was draining me, because the witch discovered a way to use the local magic, some kind of vortex magic, in coordination with channeling the gem. I was dying.”

She kissed him, slowly, gently, and with such tenderness that he thought he might die from it.

“You saved my life, Daniel. I only have one request.”

He looked into her eyes, glowing in the moonlight, and realized he would gladly die for this woman. “Anything. Anything. You only need ask.”

She took a deep breath and put her arms around his neck. “I want you to make love to me. Now.”

Serai was astonished at her own boldness, but she’d nearly died. Nearly died, after eleven thousand years of living a kind of death, imprisoned in a crystal cage. Nearly died after never having lived. Never having joined with the man she loved.

That ended here and now.

She would gladly give her life, such as it was, to the pursuit of the Emperor. She would find it, retrieve it, and return it to Atlantis. She would save the other maidens. But right now, right here, she wanted something for herself.

She tightened her arms around him and leaned in toward that sinfully seductive mouth of his. “Kiss me,” she said against his lips. “Kiss me.”

He sat, still as a statue, unmoving in her arms, for so long she was afraid he was thinking of a polite, gentlemanly way to turn her down, although he’d claimed to be no gentleman at all. She was on the edge of losing her nerve when he wrapped his arms around her waist and sprang up, pulling her to her feet so fast she nearly got dizzy again.

“You have no idea how long I’ve dreamed of hearing you say just that,” he said roughly. “You want me to kiss you? To make love to you? Are you sure?”

She didn’t have the words to convince him; they’d vanished in her dry throat, victim of nerves and shyness. But she knew another way. She raised slightly trembling fingers to her shirt and unbuttoned the first button, and then the second, and then the third, before daring to glance back up at him. His dark eyes were trained on the pale skin she was revealing, and a muscle in his jaw jumped as he watched her clumsy attempts at seduction.

“That would be a yes?” he said, part question, part command. “If so, be very sure. I want you more than I want to take my next breath, and I will not let you go.”

She nodded, then decided that wouldn’t suffice. “Yes,” she whispered. “Please, yes.”

He flashed an almost-feral smile at her and she saw the tips of his fangs, but rather than scaring her, they excited her. He’d healed her with his blood, but he hadn’t tasted hers, and she knew that doing so would be aphrodisiac to a nightwalker during lovemaking. His control was too perfect. He held himself back.

She wanted to shatter his control.

She wanted him crazy for her.

She ran her tongue over her lips, tasting a tiny bit of the blood he’d donated to her, and she shivered. Not from cold, but from the thrill of holding this man, being held by him, preparing to fly into the unknown arena of sensuality with Daniel, the one she’d dreamed of for so very long.

He made a deep growling noise, low in his throat, his eyes fixed on her lips as she licked them again, and then he yanked her against him and leaned forward, bending her back a little over one steel-banded arm.

“Now. Need you now,” he said, and then he took her mouth with his and showed her just how much he’d been holding back before. She gasped, but he swallowed her gasp, swallowed her breath, took all that she was into himself, claiming every bit of her—even the very oxygen she breathed—as his own.

His hands roamed all over her, stroking her arms and back and bottom before he took the edge of her shirt in one hand and ripped it aside, scattering her remaining buttons, and a couple of them hit the stones on the ground. The sound of buttons clattering on stone seemed to shock him, and he raised his head from hers and looked around, eyes wild and hot.

“Not here. Not in the dirt,” he said. “Close your eyes.”

Before she could ask or protest or even think, he lifted her and started running, carrying her. She had the sensation of moving too fast to be possible, but within seconds he stopped. She opened her eyes and discovered that he’d brought them to a patch of springy grass underneath a stand of tall trees. She could hear the steady noise of the water rushing down the riverbed nearby.

“I need you,” he repeated, and then he bent his head to kiss her again.

His hands were all over her, hungry, frantic, and then he was kissing her neck and down her chest to her breasts, and when his lips closed on one of her nipples, she cried out and clung to his shoulders, hoping he’d never let her go.

“It’s so much,” she said, moaning a little. “So much sensation, so much feeling. I don’t know if I can bear it.”

He laughed, and the vibrations of his laughter against her sensitive skin made her shiver. He stopped what he was doing, and she felt a pang of loss.

“Are you cold? I can put out our blankets.” In an instant, he’d done just that, and he carried her down to lie beside him on the blankets, cushioned by the layer of grass.

“Kiss me,” he demanded. “Touch me. I need to feel your hands on me.”

She complied, still a little shy, but eager to touch and stroke every part of him. She unbuttoned his shirt, her fingers still trembling, and pressed a kiss to his chest as she revealed each inch of pale, perfect skin. His skin was pure white, like the finest Atlantean porcelain, after so long away from the sun. His lean, muscled chest narrowed down into a perfect abdomen, and she daringly touched his navel with her tongue. He groaned and his big body shuddered underneath her, and when the bulge of his erection grew even larger, she knew for certain that he wanted her as much as she wanted him.

“I want to see you, Daniel. I want to see all of you,” she whispered, feeling her face flame at her wanton request.

Before she could say another word, he leapt up and stripped out of his clothes so fast that in seconds he was standing before her, proudly nude, and then he dropped to the blankets next to her and took her back into his arms. She wriggled back a little so she could look her fill at his beautiful body—all lean muscle and perfectly shaped, like the body of a fallen angel come to life. Her gaze went to his manhood and she gasped, feeling her heart plummet in her chest.

“Daniel. There is no way . . . We cannot fit together . . . That is too large.”

His eyes widened, and then he started laughing, which embarrassed her even more.

“Do not laugh at me. I’m serious.”

“I know you are,” he said, still laughing a little, but interspersing the most delicious kisses between chuckles. “You are adorable.”

“But—”

He stroked her breasts, still kissing her, and then he stroked her belly, still kissing her, and then he unbuttoned her pants and pushed them down and out of the way, and his clever fingers suddenly were touching her between her thighs.

She caught her breath and then kissed him harder, shivering with a lovely, maddening tingly sensation that spiraled from her lips to her breasts to the exact spot where his fingers were circling around her most sensitive part and . . . oh. Oh.

For the second time that night, her consciousness shattered, but this time it was from pure, blissful, pleasure.

Waves of sensation rocked through and over her, centering on Daniel’s lips and fingers, and she reveled in the feeling, but she wanted more, somehow, more and more and she was sure she knew what that meant, even though she had no idea how the logistics of it all might possibly work out, so she did the bravest thing she could think of doing.

The only thing she could think of doing.

She reached down and took his manhood in her hand.

This time, it was Daniel’s turn to gasp.

Daniel closed his eyes when Serai wrapped her slender fingers around his cock, and he wondered if possibly he really had died and gone to heaven when he walked into the sun. Sure, he’d faced danger and been stabbed in the interim, but if all that was just the windup to the big event, and heaven meant kissing Serai, and touching and pleasuring her while she reciprocated, then he’d happily offer to get stabbed every day for the rest of eternity.

She was so unbearably beautiful he almost couldn’t stand to look at her; it was like looking into the face of the sun, and—like the sun—her beauty had the power to sear him to ash if he stood too close.

He didn’t care. He was already burning, was already on fire; the flames analogy was working really, really well for him, especially if she’d just move her hand a little and, oh, hot damn, she tightened her fingers around his cock and started stroking him, and he thought he just might explode.

“Serai, you can’t—If you do that, I’ll go off in your hand like a boy. Your touch—I’ve wanted you for so long, I just, oh, gods, you’re killing me here,” he said, groaning when she grinned up at him and continued stroking him, even more enthusiastically than before.

She flashed a smile of pure joy, and it stunned him that she could radiate such perfect bliss when they were in so much danger, but then again, if she kept kissing his neck, he’d happily lie here forever.

His fangs dropped down, involuntarily, and a wave of bloodlust slammed into him, reminding him of all that lovely blood rushing through her veins, so close to his mouth, so close to his teeth, and that her skin would be so easily pierced.

He wanted to taste her.

He needed to taste her.

He did the next best thing. In one vampire-quick motion, he pulled her up and whipped her boots and clothes from her, and then he kissed his way down her perfect body, taking especial care with her lovely breasts, until she was moaning and tossing restlessly in his arms. When she was making little purring noises, he raised his head and looked up at her.

“I’m going to taste you now. It may seem shocking to you, but it’s a natural way for lovers to be together, and I have to put my mouth on you or die from wanting you.” His voice sounded rough, even to his own ears, but he couldn’t help it. He was practically shaking from need and hunger, and if he didn’t have her soon he was sure his brain would explode into tiny, vampire-brain pieces.

Her eyes were huge and hot, drowning blue, but she nodded, biting her lip, and he kissed his way down her belly until he reached his goal. He used his fingers to stroke her again, dipping them into her wet heat and then sliding them along her oh-so-sensitive clitoris, grinning fiercely when she cried out.

“Yes. Just like that,” he said, and then he put his mouth on her and licked and sucked, holding her thighs down when her hips bucked up and off the blankets. He tested her with one finger, stroking in and out, and then a second, slowly at first, until she got used to the feel of his invasion of her most private place.

Her movements became more frantic, and she clutched his hair and moaned, and he fastened his lips around her clit and sucked hard, and she shattered around him, crying out his name. He gently stroked her while the aftershocks took her, and then he rose over her and fitted his body between her legs.

“I need to be inside you now,” he said, giving her a chance to say no, which would probably kill him, but even though he held his breath and held his body as still as he could to let her decide, she didn’t say no.

She didn’t say yes.

She just smiled and put her hand on his cock again.

“Now would be good,” she whispered, still smiling, but he could see that she’d tensed up a little bit.

“It will hurt a bit, just at first, but I promise to go as slowly and gently as you want me to,” he warned her.

She tensed up just a little more, but gave him a look of such complete and utter trust that he wanted to slay dragons for her, wanted to protect her and love her for eternity, wanted—more than anything, talk about pressure, her first sex in eleven thousand years—to make the experience perfect for her.

He kissed her again, and slowly, ever so slowly, he entered her until he felt the resistance of her maidenhood. Then he froze, realizing half of him was afraid to hurt her and half of him wanted to thrust into her so far that he became part of her soul.

Talk about performance anxiety.

He was doomed.

Serai opened her eyes when Daniel stopped moving, and when she glanced up at him she realized that he’d closed his eyes. His arm and shoulder muscles were bunched so tightly that his body was shaking, and for a moment she wondered what was wrong.

But then she knew.

Her “I’m no gentleman” gentleman was afraid to hurt her. She took a deep breath and decided to take matters into her own hands, so to speak.

“Daniel, listen to me. If you don’t make love to me right now, I’m going to scream really, really loudly, which will bring all the bad guys from miles around racing to find us, and that will ruin everything, and then—”

She couldn’t think of what would happen after her “and then,” but it didn’t matter because Daniel opened his eyes and smiled and then he took her mouth in a hard, branding kiss, and when her body arched up to his of its own accord, he moved forward, driving into her, claiming her in the most primal way.

She made a little sound of distress—he’d been right, it did hurt a little—but he held perfectly still and gave her a chance to adjust to his invasion. When she relaxed and could feel her inner muscles softening to welcome him, he began to move, thrusting gently into her body and then out again, over and over in rhythmic motions as timeless as the waves of the sea striking the shore.

Her own passion rose to meet his, waves of ecstasy beginning to surface again as the feel of his erection, so large inside her, touched places she’d never known she had—nerves and centers of sensation she’d never known existed. Slowly, and then with growing intensity, she felt her passion for this man, finally in her arms, finally in her body, rise and encircle her with pure, almost magical sensation.

She felt she could face anything and triumph—even if the witch forced power through the Emperor again, she could conquer them both with the power of her love for Daniel and this amazing, miraculous sensation.

“I like affirming life very much,” she said breathlessly, and then he plunged deep inside her, deeper than he’d been before, and her entire consciousness, body and soul, jumped, spinning, off the edge of the world.

Daniel felt the exact moment Serai began to reach her peak, and he increased his pace, building her orgasm as high as he could and then prolonging it, while he captured her cries with his mouth. He kissed her, feeling every tremor and spasm in her body as an exquisite goad to his own pleasure, even while he tried to ensure hers. His cock had never been so sensitive, and he was fighting against release, trying to hold on, but two more thrusts and he was gone, coming and coming inside her, his cock and his brain emptied by sheer, world-shattering pleasure.

He collapsed, but caught himself with his arms, careful not to crush her with his weight but needing to feel all of her body against his own. He pressed kisses against her cheeks, nose, and mouth, murmuring meaningless phrases, until they both stopped shaking.

“You were right,” she said seriously. “That was much better.”

He laughed, delighted with her. Delighted with himself. Delighted with every damn thing in the universe.

“I’m glad, because that’s only the beginning,” he said, kissing her again.

She kissed him back but then suddenly stopped and pushed him away, her eyes dark and unfocused.

“Reisen again?” he growled, thinking of all the ways he’d like to make the damn warrior suffer for interrupting them at such a private time.

“No,” she finally said, narrowing her eyes. “Worse. The high prince of Atlantis is on his way here, with his brother.”

“Here? Now?” He carefully disengaged from her body and started swearing, cursing viciously in at least three different languages.

“They’ll be here in less than half an hour,” she said, calmly enough, but he knew her well enough to read the fire in her eyes. “Luckily I have another shirt, with the buttons intact. Time to make use of that river for the bath I’ve needed all day.”

“I know they’re your royalty, mi amara, but I might have to kick their asses for them,” he growled.

She pulled his head back down to hers and kissed him thoroughly and then stood up and headed for the water. “I may help you do it,” she said. “I’d enjoy that very much, I think.”

Daniel followed her to the river, thinking of the saber-toothed tiger and grinning. “My money’s on you.”