Riding the Storm (4 page)

“Yes.”

He took a breath and blew it out. “Okay, then. Abbott, go
ahead and do your little illusion of privacy thing. Kendra, how do we do this?”

“When I first bite you, I’ll need you to say, ‘I will tell
no one of the existence of vampires or the supernatural world. I will keep your
secrets.’ Once you’ve said the necessary words, I’ll inject the feel-good
stuff. I’m sorry, but I can’t make it pleasant from the very beginning this
time. I can keep it from hurting more than a few microseconds, but I have to
wait until the ritual completes before I can put the feel-good stuff in. Now,
repeat back to me what you need to say.”

“I will tell no one of the existence of vampires. I won’t
tell anyone your secret.”

“No, the end is ‘I will keep your secrets.’ The wording is
such so that you aren’t just promising not to tell with your mouth, but not to
give away the secret in any way. Not in writing, not by playing twenty
questions until someone guesses, not by leaving hints.”

She repeated it again, he said it correctly this time, and
she nodded and gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile as she said,
“Very good. Abbott will stay in the room until you’ve said the words, and then
he’ll leave. If you don’t say it right, he’ll correct you and you can say it
again, repeating after him.”

Kendra walked to the sofa and sat down. “Come sit with me,
please?” She wasn’t submitting to him just yet, but knew he didn’t like to be
told what to do.

As he got up and walked to her, she realized why he was
doing this. “You’re in this for the experience, aren’t you? A life experience
few get to have?”

He smiled. “Maybe a little. I’m still not completely
convinced, but I’m willing to see where this leads.”

She grinned back at him. “Adrenaline junkie.”

Still smiling, he used the same affectionate tone of voice
she’d just used to retort, “Bloodsucking vampire.”

He was sitting beside her now, and she leaned forward to
kiss him, but changed her mind. She wanted him to kiss her, so she sat back up
and asked, “Kiss me?”

He didn’t make her say please, and his eyes went dark as he
angled his face and lowered his lips to hers, the kiss more demanding than
sensual, though it didn’t lack passion. Dominating her, even for those few
seconds, took away the smell of fear and seemed to lift his mood.

When he released her from the kiss, she zeroed in on his
neck, smelled and felt and heard his pulse, knew exactly where the sweetest spot
would be, and
bit
, suppressing a groan as her teeth sank into his skin
and she got her first taste of him — all sunshine and forest, with a hint
of evergreen, as if his pores had soaked in the forest and made him part of it.

He jerked at the impact, but she quickly numbed her entry,
and then put the binding agent in as he said the words, “I will tell no one of
the existence of vampires or the supernatural. I will keep your secrets.”

Two heartbeats after the final word left his mouth, she
injected the right combination to make it pleasurable, gave it a second to be
carried away from the bite, then added the orgasm cocktail, waited a few
heartbeats, and then,
finally
, she stopped sipping and drank him into
her.

As he climaxed, she took on a little of his life force as
she felt their auras swirl together. They didn’t join, there wasn’t enough of a
connection, yet, but their energies still danced and twirled in a way that
doesn’t happen with a stranger.

When she finally pulled back, she ran her tongue across the
bite marks to heal them, and then reached to hold him to her. However, instead,
he pulled her head to his chest, holding her instead of the way it usually
worked after a feeding. Yes,
indeed
, if they managed to make this work,
it would be different than anything she’d ever had before.

Kendra heard Abbott returning and warned Eric, “Abbott’s on
his way back in.”

“Why is he really here?”

“Two reasons, the first is because the binding had to be
witnessed and will have to be tested, which he’ll do in a little bit. The
second is, well, consider Abbott kind of like a big brother figure in my life,
and you’re the new boyfriend he wants to meet.”

Abbott was back by then, and added, “I also want to explain
a little bit about our society. If you’re going to be in and out of our coterie
house, there are things you need to know. First, let’s test the binding. Kendra
will step outside for a moment for this part.”

Eric stood. “Hang on, I need to, ummm, I’ll be right back.”

* * * *

He’d come in his fucking pants, without anyone touching his
cock. Not even through the damned pants.

He cleaned himself in the bathroom, changed into different
underwear and jeans, and looked at himself in the mirror. He could barely see
where she’d bitten him, and it didn’t hurt at all. Shit, he hadn’t imagined it,
though.

Two vampires were upstairs in his yacht, and he was pretty
sure he wasn’t crazy.
Fuck
.

Kendra lived in a nice house on a golf course, she’d worn
expensive clothes and shoes, and she drove a limited edition luxury vehicle.
Unless this was an elaborate scam, she wasn’t after his money.

He tried to put together what he’d known last night, before
the whole vampire thing. She was attractive, seemed well off financially, had
an adventurous streak, and had an icy exterior that challenged him to see if he
could thaw her out. She’d responded to his dominance, but also seemed to have a
dominant streak of her own.

And he’d thought she was decades more mature than most women
her age.

Damn.

He climbed the steps and stopped in the doorway to look at
them — Kendra in white flowing crop pants with a pink clingy t-shirt and
a matching pink blouse over the top and unbuttoned. Abbott in a high dollar,
probably custom made suit. They looked perfectly normal, and yet… not. Too
perfect, and both with the same icy exterior, though Kendra’s seemed thicker,
harsher.

As he stepped in the room, Kendra gave him a peck on the
cheek before walking outside, and Eric turned to Abbott, who removed a small
notepad and a pen from his inside jacket pocket.

Eric accepted the pad and pen, and read the page opened to
him.

Please turn to the next page and write about what you’ve just
learned. Start the sentence with, “The woman I am dating is a...”

Eric’s hand and fingers worked against him as he wrote the
V
,
but his entire arm went numb and hurt as he set the pen down to write the
A.
He persevered and managed to make the first line of the
M
, but it was a
full minute before he could drag the pen down to make the second line. His arm,
hand, and fingers simply would not do his bidding. As he tried to push the pen
back up the paper, his entire arm jerked away, leaving a shaky scrawl across
the page.

He looked up to Abbott. “I can’t. There’s this vibration
inside me, and it
hurts
when I intend to write it, plus I can’t control
my arm — it won’t do what I tell it.”

Kendra stepped back inside and said, “Yes, and I felt the
same vibration from outside. I’ll know if you try to tell, no matter where in
the world you are.”

Eric was simultaneously freaked out, fascinated, and
disbelieving, though he’d just experienced it. “How? How is this possible? To
make an oath...
real
! No matter how hard I tried, I could
not
write the word. How is this possible?”

“It used to be called magic,” Abbott told him, his voice gentle.
“Nowadays it would probably be called metaphysics. If some of the physicists
out there knew about it, they’d probably use it to try to prove their nice
little string theories.” He sat in a chair, regal and proper as if he were
king. “Now that you’ve seen a taste of our abilities, you need to understand
vampire society is set up on a sort of magical hierarchy, with the more
powerful vampires having rank over the less powerful of our kind.”

Abbott looked to Kendra, back to Eric. “I’m telling you this
because Kendra won’t. She doesn’t like to think of herself as being powerful,
but she’s probably one of the ten or so most powerful vampires in the United
States. She isn’t Master of her own territory only because she has no interest
in it at this time.”

“So, Kendra has some sort of Master Vampire over her? What
kind of hold does he have on her?”

Eric had no idea how vampire society worked, but he didn’t
like the idea of Kendra being at someone else’s mercy. He’d only known her a
short time, but she’d gone out of her way to be truthful with him at the first
chance, and he respected honesty, bravery, and a zest for life — all
three of which Kendra seemed to have in spades.

* * * *

Abbott smiled. Eric had gone straight to worrying about how
this affected Kendra instead of how it might affect Eric. Abbott liked this
man.

“I am Master of this territory, and Kendra is my third in
command,” Abbott told him with a smile. “She’s also my friend, but even if she
weren’t, I’m not in the habit of forcing the vampires in my territory to do
things they do not wish. I have rules I require my people follow, but they’re
rules Kendra lives by anyway. Things like not killing humans, not kidnapping
humans for use as companions, not turning a human into a vampire unless it’s
their decision, and bringing humans to me for extra counseling so we can all be
sure of their decision before they’re turned. There are some vampires who
choose not to live in my territory because they don’t like my rules, which is
fine by me.”

“So, being her Vampire Master doesn’t mean being her...
Master
?”

“Yes, it does, though in our case, not in the sexual manner
you’re implying, and I rarely pull rank on her. If it becomes necessary, I won’
t hesitate, but she and I are in agreement on most everything, and we respect
each other enough we can work around the things we don’t agree on. However,
while we’re on the subject, this is another part of Vampire society you need to
understand.”

Once again, Abbott looked to Kendra before he continued with
his explanation for Eric. She wasn’t using their mind connection to stop him,
but he could sense her trepidation and fear as she worried about Eric’s
reaction.

Abbott chose his words carefully, determined to do his best
to explain it in a way to keep Eric from freaking out. Kendra hadn’t expressed
interest in someone for decades, and Abbott wanted to see her happy. He’d grown
concerned about her as she’d withdrawn from the human world except for what was
needed to help Abbott with his business interests. She seemed to have grown
bored with living, and he’d seen too many old vampires degenerate from
melancholy to depression to malevolence. Kendra had been feral when he’d found
her, and he’d found the spark of humanity in her, showed her how to live in the
light, even if she could never see the sun again. Now, Eric seemed to be doing
the job this time — he’d awakened her, reminded her life could be fun,
and Abbott would do what he could to keep this human in her life.

“When humans go into a power exchange relationship,” he told
Eric, “they do so based on preference, the way they’re wired, so to speak.
Someone who’s aroused by submitting looks for someone who enjoys dominating. It
isn’t about who’s stronger, because big, strong men submit to small women all
the time in human society. However, in vampire society, the power exchange
isn’t decided by preference, but by hierarchy. Just as you felt the magical
pull when you tried to write about our secret, it’s impossible for a stronger
vampire to submit in any way to a weaker vampire. It’s possible for them to
have vanilla sex in any form they choose, but if there is to be a power
exchange, their position in our society makes the choices for them.”

“And Kendra is powerful,” said Eric, thinking aloud, “so
she’s used to being the one in control. But, I’m not powerful, so how is it
that she....” Eric wasn’t sure he should tell the Master Vampire Kendra had
submitted to him, even if it was only for a few kisses. Once again, Abbott was
pleased with Kendra’s choice.

“You aren’t a magical being, so the rules are different. She
can submit to you if she wants, though you need to understand it’ll cause a bit
of an issue amongst the hierarchy if the other vampires find out. This isn’t to
say you can’t go forward, but I want you to understand what it will mean in our
world.”

Eric stood. “I need to use the restroom, if you’ll give me a
moment, please.”

Kendra spoke to Abbott through their mind link, so Eric
wouldn’t overhear.

I wasn’t going to hit him with all of this at once, Abbott.

I know, which is why I’m telling him. I know you can take
care of him, but he needs to understand the political angles if he’s to spend
time in the house, and I can tell from the way the two of you act around each
other, he’s likely to be around a lot. If he’ll be okay with everyone thinking
he’s a human companion a few weeks, I think it’ll be easier to transition from
them considering him human companion, to boyfriend, to Dom.

Kendra walked to the sofa and sat, facing him.
I suppose
you’re right, but I’d still rather not burden him with our politics. It’s my
worry, it shouldn’t be his.

If he’s clueless, he may say something to make things
harder than they have to be. He’s smart enough to grasp the political issues and
act accordingly. It’s clear he has your safety in mind. He’ll be fine.

* * * *

Eric splashed water on his face and looked at himself in the
mirror a few minutes.

Vampires were real.

One wanted to date him. She’d drank from him.

He looked at his neck, but couldn’t see the bite marks at
all, now. He knew he wasn’t going crazy, though. She’d really bitten him, and
made him come in his pants like a fucking schoolboy, without laying a finger on
his cock. And then they’d had him make an enforceable vow. It was embedded in
his brain, somehow, so he couldn’t break it if he wanted to.