Rising Son (The Juliana Lucio Series) (21 page)

“William.” This time he met my eyes, his had gone completely black with the
potency
of his desire
and
the need he was holding back.

“Take me, Will, I want you to take me however you want.”

His eye
s
just
widened
at my declaration and his fangs lengthened even further if that was possible. Suddenly he was up on his knees
looking down at me
and then
was lowering his mouth to my inner thigh running rough kisses on the tender skin. Seeing his head between my legs was just about enough to set me off, but then he plunged his tongue deep inside me forcing me to lift my hips off the bed. He slipped one hand under me to the small of my back while he put the other on my abdomen holding me in place,
he
took me just as thoroughly with his tongue as he had with his sex.
I tried not to make too much noise. I didn’t know who all was in the house and I bit down on my lip trying to stifle my cries of pleasure
.
I drew my own blood in the process. Every muscle in William’s broad back tightened as my blood trickled down my lip.

His eyes were glued to that one tiny drop
. Instantly
he was up and lunging into me harder and faster than he ever had before. He didn’t take his eyes off my lips as he forced him
self
fu
rther into me and took me harder with each lunge. I couldn’t wait any longer
,
I yelled out my pleasure
not caring who heard me
,
at the same moment feeling William shuddering his own release into me.
As soon as he stopped moving he collapsed down beside me pulling me into a deep kiss, licking my lip clean in the process.

We just laid there looking at each other for a few minutes. William had this adoring look on his face as I brushed the hair out of his eyes.

“Why do you look at me like that?”

“Like what?” He had his hand on the side of my neck massaging my pulse. It was relaxing and comforting and I snuggled in closer to him. I closed my eyes as I laid as close to him as I could get.

“Like you adore me,” I said sleepily.

“I thought it was obvious. I look at you like that because it’s how I feel. Now rest.”

“I need to get to work.”

“Just rest for a few minutes
, Jules
,
let me hold you.”

I mumbled my acquiescence becoming lost in the
hypnotic
feel of the circles he was
now
tracing on my back.

The next thing I knew there was a loud pounding on the door with Ana yelling on the other side.

“What are you doing? Let me in right now!”

“Ana? What’s wrong?”  I yelled out to her sitting up abruptly.

I pulled the sheet off the bed and wrapped it around me going to the d
oor as quickly as I could. The instant
I
had it
unlocked she had opened it and was charging through it.

“What are you doing? Do you think you are on some kind of vacation? In case you have forgotten we are supposed to be fending off Michael and the rest of the Coven,” she said pointedly to William who was sitting unabashedly naked in the middle of my b
e
d.

Just how well did they know each other?

“And you,” she said turning on me, “I thought you had a top secret project you were working on to keep Christian protected. Does that get forgotten just because he drops his
pants?
”
Now that ticked me off.

“We have only been in here for a few minutes, thirty minutes tops. I just closed my eyes for a second.”

Ana just stared back at me looking dumbfounded.

“What?” I asked her a little more than irritated.

“Half the night is gone it is almost 1:00. You two have been in here for six hours.”

“That’s impossible.”

She just pointed to the clock not wanting to argue with me anymore.
There was something else, this was eerie enough that I slept at night, but something else was upsetting her.

“What else
,
Ana?”

“Martin called
he wants us at Michael’s house tonight. He doesn’t know why Sebastian said it could wait until tomorrow.”

“No! I’m not
ready.
I haven’t finished the silver for Christian.” I was almost frantic as I tried to argue with her.

“Then you should have spent your time more wisely.”

She just shot a scathing look at William then turned and left room.

It wasn’t too long after we were abruptly woken up that the five
of
us had crammed into Victoria’s car and headed over to the newest location Michael and his crew were ‘borrowing’. There was an uncomfortable silence in the car as we drove
,
almost to the point of becoming stifling. There was no hiding from Christian
any longer
what was going on between William and me after spending six hours locked in my room together
. He didn’t mention it but I could almost taste his sorrow as it intermingled with his scent of a forest pine. I was sorry for the pain that he was feeling, but I couldn’t be sorry for
being with Will
. I could no longer be with
Christian’s
father, my
former
husband, and I now loved William. I wouldn’t apologize for that.

We were all sort of lost in our own thoughts as to what the night might hold for us. I hoped it was nothing like the last time
we saw the Coven; I really didn’t want Christian to see any limb amputations tonight.

William broke the silence by taking charge.

“Remember
,
Christian’s cover is going to be that he is Juliana’s personal feeder. She likes to keep him close so he is coming along. Christian, you must stay next to one of us at all times. Do not stray away no matter what.”

“Yeah, sure whatever,” Christian said a bit distractedly
as he continued staring at the passing cars and buildings out the
side
window.

“No, not whatever! You will do as you are told,” William yelled at Christian his fangs lengthened completely and his eyes as black as night from the sudden anger. “I understand you are upset, but you can take that out on me later. Tonight you will keep yourself alive by doing what I have trained you to do. Stay next to one of us at all times. If you sense that someone is attempting to compel you, you will act like it is working. Regardless of the command.”

Christian just stared back at William
. H
e was obviously surprised at the sudden outburst, but there was no trace of fear in him. He trusted William wouldn’t hurt him even if he was angry. He didn’t say anything in return just gave him a firm nod of the head acknowledging
the order
. William closed his
eyes and let out a slow exhale
when he opened his eyes they had returned to his deep brown.

“I will not lose you Christian. I will protect you as my own even at the risk of destroying our cover, but you must do everything
in your power
to protect yourself as well.”

“I understand, but you are not my father.” Christian turned back
to
look out the
window ignoring
us all.

After a brief painful silence William started speaking again as if Christian’s rebuff had never happened.

“Our purpose is to gather any information regarding the Coven’s plan to reveal vampire existence. We know they are planning the reveal soon, but we don’t know where or exactly when. Hell they might not even know yet, which is what we need to find out. Other sects of Sub-Rosa have been reporting an increase of blatant vampire attacks, often in full view of the human populace.
This suggests that they are getting closer to revealing our existence.
”

“Why can’t I just compel Michael to find out? He obviously knows their plans, as well as who the mole is.”

“You’re good Juliana
and I saw what you did to Nathaniel, but I don’t think you can compel Michael
,
and manage complete control over him. He is stronger than Nathaniel was and if you lost control of
Michael
for even an instant he would kill you,” Victoria told me meeting my eyes in the rearview mirror.

“If we can discover the plans for their end game the Council and Sub-Rosa can work in unison to take down all the remaining sects of the Coven and stop the reveal. Protecting vampire and humankind in the process. We just can’t kill or compel Michael
to find out what they are planning
.”

“Yet,
” William added darkly.

“If I separate from you guys I’ll be more likely to overhear something. Like Martin said they won’t even care that I am there, they will see me as nothing more than a pet,” Christian spoke up breaking his silence.

“No. You are not going off on your own.”

“Mom, it might be the only way we find out anything useful. Let me help. I’ll make sure to stay within eyesight of one of you at all times alright.”

“D
amn
it I hate this, but you’re right. If you can find anything out then the sooner we can be done with all of this.”

Everyone looked back at me a little shocked that I had agreed to let him do a little reconnaissance of his own.

“What? I want to be done with this as much as all of you. I trust him to use good judgment. Even though there is no predicting any of the monsters we are about to go see.”

Just then Victoria slowly pulled into a long narrow drive of a slightly modern two story townhome. The driveway was lined with a tall privacy hedge making everything feel a little more ominous. Ana, Victoria and Christian practically fell out of the little car we were crammed in so tightly. We really needed to get this car situation figured out. Just as William started to lean forward to disentangle his long body I put my hand on his thigh stopping him.

“William?” My voice cracked betraying th
e nervousness coursing through me
.

“What’s the matter Jules?”
he ask
ed
with obvious
concern etched into the lines on his face.

“Did you . . . did you do something to me tonight to make me fall asleep?”

Oh, God I hoped he said no. Please let it be no and that he didn’t manipulate me.

“No, why would you think that?”

“Because I’ve never fallen asleep at night before, and I know you do
n’t want me to,” my eyes shifting
over to Victoria standing outside the car, “finish what I was working on. I thought maybe what happened was just something you did to keep me from working on it.”

“Jules, love, I have not tricked you or manipulated you. What we d
id was for the exact reason I gave you;
I wanted to ease your hunger. I wanted to make love to you. As for you falling asleep, well, vampire blood
is stronger and more potent than
human blood it can have a euph
oric
e
ffect sometimes. Combine
the euphoria with the comfort you felt laying together, and sleep just happened.
”

William’s focus landed on Christian standing a little off from the car with his back to us arms crossed over his chest. We could both
sense his hurt mingled with
determination
to get the job done.

“Trust me,
Jules, I want him protected more than you know. I wish you had completed what you were working on. I’ve grown very fond of that son of yours and I want him as safe possible given the circumstances.”

“Oka
y, thank you, Will.”

Victoria started rapping on the car window with her knuckles letting us know it was time for us to get a move on.

William
took my hand
,
giving it a reassuring squeeze
,
as we met up with the others mak
ing
our way to the house.
We all walked silently up the drive not really knowing what it was we were walking into. The yard was too perfectly manicured, the night too silent, even the night air around us seemed to mock us with its calming façade; seeming to throw in our faces it
’
s ability to remain steady and motionless, while we were filled with utter dread and turmoil.

Ana
,
turning to face us
,
was about to say something, when she was cut short with the abrupt opening of the front
stained glass
door. Music poured forth reminding me of the first tim
e I was introduced to the Coven, which
instantly caus
ed
a thread of fear and worry to w
eave itself throughout my body. Michael was standing at the door with open arms waiting to greet us like old friends
,
which further turned my stomach sour. How Ana and William managed to do this for the past century I will never be able to comprehend. William was right—I
was
not cut out for this.

“Hello, friends! So glad you could you make it again,” Michael greeted us
as we stepped through the door.

“What’s this? You’ve brought a human with you?” Michael eyes didn’t move from Christian as he asked the question. He eyed him hungrily having no reason to hide his obvious appreciation of him. I fought to reign in my control knowing this was going to happen, that he was going to be an object of much speculation before they left him to be ignored.

“Come, Michael
,
I want to see the new place you
’ve got,” Victoria purred into Michael’s chest as she sidled up next to him. When his brown eyes didn’t move from Christian’s own Victoria surreptitiously placed herself directly in between the two of them forcing the trance to break by lifting herself
up onto her toes, and slightly
running
her tongue along Michael
’s
lips. This, finally, got his attention.
It also got Christian
’s
as
I could feel him stiffen up next
to
me.

“S
orry,” he said shaking his head, “it’s just that most humans don’t come through the front door so willingly
,
at least not unless they are compelled. There is something unique about this one, no?”

“He’s Gloria’s feeder. She likes to bring him along whenever she can
,
and I wouldn’t get any
ideas
,
you know how she is about sharing. I still shake anytime I even think of stiletto heels.” Considering the subject dropped she took Michael by the hand and pulled him
further
inside.

“So, what is your name?” Michael started to ask Christian.

“His name is feeder, of course,” I replied in the most condescending tone I could manage.

“Of course.
Gloria, I couldn’t help but notice that you all came piling out of one car like clowns at
a
circus. What happened to all your others?”

“They’re at the shop; you know getting the brakes done,” I said a little tightly.

Michael started to laugh but realize
d
he was the only one, “you’re kidding.”

“Oh, she never kids about cars. They’re her second love after all,” Christian told him.

“Is that right? Well, don’t be shy tell us what her first love is then?”

Christian looked right at me as he answered. I could have killed him for bringing the attention back to him.

“I do believe it’s m
e;
well, my blood that is.”

“Why don’t you go
mingle
or something, feeder,” I told him through gritted teeth
, and keep your blood to yourself.”

He gave me no expression as he started to walk past
us. Victoria pulled Michael
into the opposite room thankfully keeping his attention off of Christian. Before Christian made it two steps, however, he was stopped by none other than Monica.
She stood directly in front of him blocking his path eyeing him up and down just as thoroughly as Michael had.
I swear he is wearing
a
silver cross
next time!
 

“Gloria, is this an apology gift for what you did to my arm? You really should have.
He’s my favorite flavor,” Monica said
turning Christian’s head side to side as if inspecting him.

Just as I
was
about to tell her to get her hands off him, Ana stepped in between them. I thought she was going to do the threatening for me, but Ana went a different route. An entirely different route.

“Monica, I see your arm appears to be back to normal,” Ana commented in a low husky voice. She began lightly tracing her fingers along
her shoulder
where there should have been a scar from the healing of the
limb
.

“Um, yes, it is fully healed,” Monica told her a bit confused to the way Ana was acting toward her.

Ana let her fingers follow an invisible trail up her arm to then follow the length of Monica’s exposed collar bone, “you must have very strong blood for a healing of that magnitude to
leave
no trace whatsoever.”