Awakening (7 page)

Adam
tossed the silky panties aside as soon as they were over her feet. Keeping his eyes on her face, he unfastened his pants and quickly yanked them over his hips, freeing his powerful erection. He smiled as her eyes widened in appreciation, and perhaps a little apprehension. Removing his pants, he dropped them onto the floor as well. “I cannot wait much longer.”

“Uh huh,” she murmured, transfixed by his magnificence; good God, men should not be so damn potent; so virile; so
masculine
. Even without any hair covering his chest, his genitals, he exuded virility; she didn’t care that he was going to tear her apart. He was perfection incarnate. As she raised her eyes to meet his, her legs fell open in invitation. “Neither can I.”

B
ending his head again, he brushed his mouth against the smooth skin of her calves, her thighs. He pushed the dress up until the neatly trimmed dark curls of her femininity were revealed. Pressing a gentle kiss just above the opening, he continued the journey over her body, taking the dress with him until she was naked. Tossing the dress, he looked down at her nude body, her lush breasts with rosy tips, her slender rib cage, the slight swell of her lean stomach. She felt a little self-conscious until she saw the desire burning in his blacker than black eyes.

H
e bent his head and took the rosy peak of her nipple into the wet heat of his mouth, gently sucking it, as his fingers ran over her rib cage cupping her other breast in his broad hand. Pleasure purred through Celeste’s body, concentrating in her lower belly, as she twisted her fingers in Adam’s dark blond locks to hold him in place. Of their own volition, her hips started to move, searching for what he offered.

Reverently, he whispered, “You have
the body of a goddess and I have every intention of worshipping you. Later. Right now, I just need to be in you.”

Demanding what he was withholding. “
Adam, please.”

“I… cannot… hold… back,” he choked out
.

“Don’t,” she breathed, needing the completion now
, opening herself to him, inviting him in

With a
n agonizingly triumphant groan, he pushed into her, rending her innocence in the span of a single heartbeat. She cried out in pain as he plunged his fangs into her neck and her world exploded into chaos. Her finger nails dug into his shoulders, her body arched, and he drove into her, drinking her.

Celeste had never experienced anything like this before, the force of his rhythm, the feel of his teeth
piercing her skin, the strong pull as he drank her blood. Opening her eyes, she stared at the tapestry over her head; the colors were so brilliant, moving with reckless abandon. The red swelled, oozing passion and desire; the purple undulated in soft waves, washing over her, soothing; the gold danced between them. Sound receded and there was only Adam.

*****

Running his tongue over his teeth, Adam had been taken aback to discover the sharp points of his incisors; he hadn’t experienced involuntary transformation during sex for over a millennia. She had been writhing beneath him and he had felt the blackness descend over his eyes, his fangs growing to their full lengths. He had to fight the urge to bite her and had called upon all of his reserves of self-control to not take her blood, to not create a
Calix
.

Heedlessly, he
had thrust into her, tearing through her virginity and the seductive purity of her blood had rushed through his senses, blinding him to everything. Without thought, he sank his teeth into the tender flesh of her throat. Her essence filled his body, exhilarating and breath-taking. He felt her legs as they wrapped around his waist, pulling him deeper, making him feel… almost human, full of mortal life with all of its exquisite sensations. It was beyond anything he had ever experienced; beyond joy, beyond intoxifying, it was ecstasy. Unable to stop, he drank of her and drank of her, driving into her until he could feel her body begin to convulse around his. She made the sweetest mewling sounds with each rapid breath that she took until her body tightened and he could taste her release, her bliss.

Thrusting once more, his body shuddered in rapturous completion; it had never been so good. Collapsing onto her, he pulled his teeth from her throat, unable to comprehend the fact that he bit the one person he
had never wanted to destroy. But then she sighed, moving her hips ever-so-slightly, and it was enough to make him believe he never had any control to begin with. Without any thought, rational or otherwise, he sank his teeth into the other side of her neck, needing to drink her dry as he fucked her to death. They found completion for the second time in as many minutes. 

Exhausted, he collapsed once more, completely covering her petite body with his much larger one. Unable to keep his eyes open another moment longer, unable to make sense of the unnerving thoughts racing through his head, he fell asleep, still joined with her above and below. God
s, she felt so good beneath him, so soft; so perfect.

Awakening with a terrible start, Adam lifted his head, pulling his teeth from her bruised flesh. Looking down at her too-pale face, the two sets of bite marks, he knew that it was too late. Not only did he fail to protect her, he failed to rectify the situation by making her a
Calix
. He destroyed her completely; he fed off of her and never fed her in return. He created his first
Thraell
and the knowledge damned him.

Flying from the bed, he threw a robe on, tying
it in a tight knot at his waist. He looked down at her in horror, self-disgust slamming into him as he gazed at the unmoving woman. She looked so beautiful, even with the droplets of blood still trickling from the four puncture wounds. He noticed the pale, chapped lips that had been so succulent just a few hours before. Tenderly, he caressed her cheek, his chest tightening with despair. His eyes roamed over her ashen, motionless body, numbly observing the shallow rising and falling of her chest, the evidence of her virginity on the white sheets below her. He should have asked; he knew better than to have sex with a virgin. Damn it all, he should have asked.

But he
had been too selfish; he had wanted her too much to risk the question of innocence. Adam, the
Apocritum
who prided himself on ironclad self-control, destroyed the only woman to ever make him feel human. He grunted a wry laugh; not only did he lose control, he lost it completely, feeding from her not once, but twice. Running his fingers over the secondary bite marks, he grimaced, agony at his own selfishness filling his body. Bending down, he placed his nose at the crook of her neck, letting the anguish spill out of him as he howled in remorse.

A
Thraell
; he had just condemned the beautiful, innocent, sweet Celeste to the hollow existence of a monster. She would become nothing more than a soulless rabid beast, needing sexual gratification – which would never come – and blood. How in the name of all of the gods did he let this happen? His hand slid over her cool body until it clasped her smaller hand. With his other hand, he pulled the sheet between them, covering her nudity, knowing that in a few hours she would re-awaken and it wouldn’t make any difference. Celeste was gone, only her body remained. “God, Celeste, I am so sorry.”

*****

Auberon felt his brother’s anguish and teleported himself into Adam’s room. He stood frozen in place as he took in the sight before him: his brother hunched over the fragile human, his shoulders wracked with grief. Without saying a word, Auberon moved over to the bed and looked down, gasping when he saw the bite marks on the girl's pale neck. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath: the smell of first blood permeated the air. At once, he understood what had happened; the girl had been a virgin.

Running his tongue over his teeth, he felt the sharp points respond. Sex with a virgin would be more than even the strongest
Apocritum
could bear. Hell, Adam was the strongest
Apocritum
Auberon knew and it was more than
he
could handle. It was worse because his brother had wanted this girl with a desperation Auberon had never seen Adam display.

Cautiously, he reached out and touched his brother’s head as he softly spoke, “
Adam, tell me what happened.”

Adam
lifted his head and Auberon saw the second set of teeth marks, saw the despair in the depths of his brother’s still completely black eyes. Kneeling down on the other side of the body, he ran his fingers through the girl’s chocolate brown hair as he held Adam’s gaze. “I am so sorry, Adam.”

“Do
n't,” Adam rasped, the black slowly fading as he felt Auberon’s healing powers flow through him. “I destroyed her, I don’t deserve compassion.”

“It was an accident,” Auberon murmured soothingly, his mesmerizing voice swirling around his
brother, giving comfort that he wouldn’t otherwise take. “It was not your fault. There will be other girls, other virgins; do not condemn yourself over this one.”

Adam
snorted in disgust, “She is the only one that I have ever truly desired; I wanted to experience her for a lifetime.”

“We are immortal, brother,” Auberon gently
murmured. As Adam answered with a wry smile, he continued, “It is better to destroy the body before it wakes and keep this little mistake to ourselves. If you don't kill it and it wakes and manages to escape the fall out will be far, far worse.”

Adam covered his face with his palm, pressing his thumb and forefinger into his eyes until white spots pierced his brain.
As a
Thraell
, the girl who had enchanted him from the start would cause unbelievable destruction if she got loose. If he managed to contain her she would suffer indescribable torment. Everything that was Celeste had been destroyed and yet the thought of desecrating a single cell of Celeste’s body was agonizing. “I cannot kill her.”

“There is no cure,” Auberon softly reminded
Adam. "And we no longer have the
Helan
to house it in if you allow the creature to live."

Adam
squeezed his eyes closed; how did this happen?  “I will take care of her.”

"Kill it, Adam." Putting a hand on his brother's shoulder,
Auberon softly offered, “I can do it if you need me to.”

“NO!”
Adam thundered, convulsively clutching Celeste’s slender hand to his heart. Closing his eyes in misery, he swallowed thickly, “I’ll do it.”

Auberon exhaled loudly, "Adam."

"I just need a moment." Adam swallowed, kissing the cool fingers, feeling the slight twitch against his lips. He opened his eyes and gazed at the serene face of Celeste, his darling Celeste. “In the morning, I'll do what needs to be done, before she awakens and begins to… to… crave.”

“The sooner you do it the sooner it will be over,” Auberon advised.

“I need… I can't, not just yet,” Adam whispered, his fingers caressing the smooth, cool flesh of her pale cheek. “I’ll do it in the morning.”

“It is for the best,” Auberon assured him, putting a hand on
Adam’s shoulder. Leaning forward, he whispered, “But, and I cannot emphasize this enough, do not tell the Council; you cannot afford to lose their faith in you, not now. They do not need to know you converted a girl without her permission.”

Adam
closed his eyes a moment debating the merits of Auberon’s suggestion, when he remembered her worry about her friends. Damn. “She was staying with a group of girls….”

“I will deal with them tomorrow after… after,”
Auberon promised. It was kind of a rush being the strong one, the steadfast one for a change. Adam had always been the reliable one; until this afternoon, his brother had never wavered from the course. It was Adam’s steadfastness that allowed them to move forward with their plans, that allowed them to get so close to their desired goal: freedom. It was a pity about the girl, though; she had been an attractive little thing.

“I'
ll do that as well,” Adam said resolutely. “It's my mess, my responsibility and I'll clean it up.”