Season Content Notes: abduction, blood, sexual content

Nastasia

Marcus’ blood was sweet and rich and hit my system like the Ozanna’s 30-year-old Scotch — but better. It sang through me, and I could feel my body awaken, my cells changing.

Have you ever been dehydrated? Really dehydrated? That moment when you first drink water, and it feels like your whole body opens up? It was like that, but a thousand times better.

I released him and gave him a drop of my blood. Enough to seel the bond, no more.

Marcus was the team leader, and so would be my first. But he came to me reluctantly, and I would take — or give — no more than I must until I knew he wanted as much as I did. I tried not to notice the effect my blood had on him. He had not offered that part of himself.

Karen had been first to offer her blood, and it was her I turned to next. She held up her arm to me, and rather than bend, I knelt down next to her. “Shouldn’t I be the one kneeling, sexy lady?” she asked, and I was still drunk on Marcus, so I giggled and told her, “We can take turns. Do you prefer to lick or suck?”

Benj groaned, and Leyla muttered something under her breath, but Karen grinned and said, “I knew I like you. Please tell me you have K-bar.”

“Only a few, but you can get me the whole catalog.

“Good.”

She said the pledge, and I drank her down, letting her pull me into the deep dark until I could look up and see moonlight dancing high above me.

I surfaced slowly, letting her moonlight wrap around me, and let go to offer her the same drop I had given Marcus, but she said, “Let me show you how I suck.” And I laughed and bit my arm again and let her take what she wanted. Her mouth on me was nothing I’d ever felt, and my core tightened as my other hand gripped her hair, holding her head to me, demanding more. She gave it, pulling me deep into her until she let go with a cry, and shudders swept through her body.

When she finished, I stood up on shaky feet and moved to Benj.

He blushed and wouldn’t look at me but held out his arm and muttered the pledge. I cradled his arm and spoke quietly so no one else would hear, “I’ll go easy. I know it’s your first time.”

That made him laugh, and he relaxed enough to look at me.

“They were right — vampires are wicked,” he said.

“Only to my friends.”

His blood was warm and as salt-sweet as his scent promised. It filled me with heat and made me feel like I could fly away.

Like Marcus, he took only a drop, but he opened his mouth and swirled his tongue around my finger before he leaned back with a groan and gripped the arms of his chair.

I gave him space, moving to Leyla.

Leyla had cut the back of her hand, and she offered it to me like I was a man she expected to kiss it. She said the pledge, and I kissed her hand, then ran my tongue across the already clotting cut. Her fleeting taste teased me, but I didn’t push for more. It was enough.

I released her hand, and she cupped my head, pulling me towards her. I let her guide me, still high, and floaty, and needy, and wanting more from this beautiful woman who teased and tempted me. She pressed her lips to mine, and I returned the kiss, opening my lips when her tongue teased at me, pulling her into me in a different way. Her tongue teased mine, then pulled back, and her teeth sank into my lip. Blood filled my mouth, and her tongue was back, caressing me, tasting my blood on my lips as I tasted my blood on her. My breath came hard and fast as we slowly separated, and I saw her eyes, as wide as my own, still locked on my mouth.

A line of blood trailed down my face as I turned to Victor. The silent watcher in the corner: his own blood trailing down his cheek from the cut he had made there.

That blood drew me like a lodestone now, the only blood in the room I hadn’t tasted. Hadn’t made mine.

I stopped just out of reach and waited. He watched me, eyes blown wide and breathing hard. I don’t know how long we would have stood there, but after a few moments, Benj said, “Victor, you have to use your outside voice this time.”

We both laughed then, and he offered me his hand. I took it, and he pledge himself to me, the words husky and confident. His blood was thick as cream when I licked it from his face, but he wouldn’t lick my face. He waited for me to catch up the blood from my chin with my fingers and offer it to him before he took it with careful swipes of his tongue. Before he had it all, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he leaned back against the wall, hips pumping. I allowed myself one moment to press myself against him, to feel his length and the promise of it.

Then I stepped back, pushing aside my own arousal, my own need. My mother warned me that the taking of sotii could turn into an orgy. But they had not agreed to that. Not yet.

Maybe never.

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Karen

Karen wasn’t completely oblivious to social stuff. People thought she was, and they were mostly right. It came in handy sometimes.

Yes, she was obsessed with sharps — why wasn’t everyone? — and yes, she could be a bull in a china shop. But she also did read romance novels, and she spent a lot of her time watching people, trying to understand them.

All the biting and blood stuff had been ridiculously sexy. Way beyond anything that made sense. She was pretty sure she’d seen Marcus’ O-face. Don’t ask how she knew what Marcus’ O-face looked like. If he hadn’t wanted her picking his lock, he shouldn’t have taken her knives.

And she had seen the lost expression on Nastasia’s face. Like with the sexy blood magic letting them go, she hadn’t been sure what to do.

Karen had to do something to pull Dracu-lady from the sad ‘I’m not getting sex’ thoughts she was pretty sure Nastasia was having. Luckily, she knew exactly what to do — be herself.

“So. Knives?”

Yeah, Marcus glared at her, and Benj groaned (not the sexy kind). But Nastasia had looked at her and smiled. So that was okay. (Karen realized her thoughts were a bit weird. Almost manic? That was okay too. Sexy vampire magic stuff had been happening. Vampire blood tasted like chocolate.)

“Sure, Karen,” Nastasia said. “Let’s get you all cleaned up, and I’ll take you home to see my knives.”

It didn’t take them long to get cleaned up, and the van was in the garage just as Nastasia had promised. Cargo van, but that was okay. They all piled in, and Nastasia took the wheel.

The moon was high in the sky, so it really was late. At least by human standards. Karen started putting together a timeline for the night and smacked herself in the head.

“Hey, vamp-lady? You never did tell us how you managed to drug us.”

Nastasia caught Karen’s eyes in the mirror and grinned. “I never said I drugged you. Sleep, Karen.”

Karen was about to say that there was no way she was falling asleep when the world started going dark.

Vampire mind powers. Awesome.

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