Safeword: Storm Clouds (6 page)

Eric leaned forward in his seat. "Protection? You mean, going against the.. norm? That could put me in danger? What about Kendra, would it put her in danger as well?"

Abbot and Kendra looked at each other, Abbot answered. "There are many vampires who see humans as a lesser species. Kind of the way humans view pets. Or maybe the way you view some of the smarter monkey species. Kendra and I do not see you that way, so don't get defensive, I'm just trying to explain that there will be some vampires who will take it as a personal insult that a vampire that is over them in the hierarchy is submitting to a human. There will be challenges to her status as third, but she is more than capable of taking on any challenger so there are no worries there. But, if you aren't under the protection of a strong vampire, then it is possible some of them could try to challenge you. Their logic being that if you are holding yourself as stronger than a vampire then you are putting yourself in a position to be challenged."

"You're the Master of the territory, right? Why can't you just put me under your protection? Wouldn't that solve the problem?"

"If I were to do that it would undermine Kendra's position. I would be saying she isn't capable of protecting you. I have done this for weaker vampires who took on a human girlfriend or boyfriend, but politically, I can't do that for Kendra."

Kendra spoke up. “Actually Abbot, if he were working for you then he'd be protected as an employee. Haven't you been looking for someone to teach some of the older vampires who have resisted your efforts to get them to put some of the latest technologies to use? If you can get them to finally be set up to check and send emails and text messages then it will make some things much easier for all of us."

Abbot looked at Eric. "You make computer games for a living, correct?"

When Eric nodded Abbot continued, "Would you be qualified to teach vampires who have lived hundreds or in some cases thousands of years how to use a computer? How to use email, and how to send and receive text messages on a cellphone? I realize money probably isn't an issue for you, but it would pay well and it would include being placed under my personal protection."

"I can do more than that. If you set me up with a classroom with as many computers as I'll have students then I can teach them all at once. I find that group learning works better for people who are resistant as long as at least half the class is interested in learning. If you have all resistant vampires then you'll need to send some in who want to learn but just haven't done so yet. I'll give them the basics of how to move around in whatever operating system you choose, and then I'll get them familiar with email and with some basic internet surfing. If you give me notes on some of the resistant people's interests I can target some of the internet searches I use as examples towards their interests and that will help show them how this can benefit them personally. But the other things I can do for you include looking over your current set-up and finding the security holes and plugging them up. I can also talk to you about the various ways to encrypt the messages going back and forth that you don't want outsiders to read. And as I see emerging technologies that may be of use to you I can bring them to your attention."

Abbot looked thoughtful. "Kendra, this could work. Having him teach classes puts him in the position of being a human who is teaching vampires. It puts him in kind of an authority position to start with." He looked back at Eric. “Eric, once our contract is in place and you are my employee then there is a way you must answer any challenge you get. Should anyone challenge you in any way that would require that you defend yourself you must say, 'Since I have a formal arrangement with Abbot Hamilton any challenges you might have towards me should be directed to him'. Once you are under my protection you will be able to speak to me with your mind, and you'll need to open up so I can hear those words. I will know who you are saying it to, and I will then be able to control them. If you act in any way to defend yourself then my protection will do you no good though, so it is imperative you don't try to go all macho when challenged by any of my people."

"Can Kendra and I speak to each other that way? Through our minds?"

Abbot looked at Kendra, so she explained, "It is possible that we can do that Eric, but I haven't bound you to me. I only bound you to your promise. If I bind us together metaphysically then we can do that, but I won't bind you without talking to you about it first. I don't want you to see it as an invasion of privacy, so I won't do it until you understand it and ask me to do it."

Kendra didn't want to have this particular conversation, but Eric needed the truth. "Eric, he can make you do what he wants you to do now, without binding you. He'll have a better connection to you once he puts you under his protection, but it won't give him more power over you than he has now."

"What do you mean he could make me do something I didn't want to do now?"

"You've heard the vampire myths out there about people compelled to do things by vampires. Stories of people who get up out of bed and walk outside to the hungry vampire. No one believes them, the stories are said to be people who are sleepwalking and who dream of vampires. But the fact is that vampires in history have done this at times. We can compel most humans to do what we want them to. It's not something either of us is in the practice of doing, and Abbot has rules about how vampires can and can't use those powers in his territory, so it won't be happening around here. But, the fact is that being bound to Abbot won't give him that ability, he can do it now if he wants. Though he won't. Not unless you need us to prove it to you somehow, and then one of us can."

"You are telling me that the vampires who live here are all
good
? Because a bad... because one who was bad, wouldn't live under Abbot's rules? So they live somewhere else where the vampire in charge has other rules? But wouldn't that mean that there are places to live where it's dangerous to be a human? How can vampires have kept their secret if there are areas where vampires are killing lots of humans?"

Abbot took this one. "Even a Master Vampire has rules they have to keep their people within. The biggest rule is that there can be no activity that risks exposure."

"Who keeps the Master Vampires in line?"

"We can't tell you all of our secrets Eric. Not yet, anyway."

Eric looked at them a few moments and regrouped. "When I'm at Kendra's house I act like a boyfriend for now, and everything will be fine, right? I only pull my Dom stuff out when we are behind closed doors?"

"No, for now you'll only be able to do your power exchange activities away from the house. Vampire hearing is phenomenal, anything you do in Kendra's room can be heard throughout the house. Even a whisper. You'll probably also want to make sure you don't have the boat too close to the house, we're up on the cliff a good way but we often hear conversations in boats below on the water. We tune them out most of the time, but if someone heard Kendra's voice they would tune in pretty quick."

"How soon before you and I do whatever contract you mentioned and we formalize our arrangement?"

"I will notify my attorney in the morning that I need her to draw something up, unless she is in court all day she will have it to me when I awaken tomorrow evening and you and I can go over it in detail and write our own addendum if there is anything to add or subtract, and then sign it. I will get you a credit card number to use and you can then order the computers and other equipment you will need to teach the classes. You'll have them delivered to the coterie house and I'll set you up in a room that is currently empty."

Abbot looked at Kendra. "Make arrangements so that when they come in they are delivered to the shelter area, please. Eric can tell you how many people he'll be teaching once he and I have put the contract together. Please show him the table and chair options available in the storage areas and then have Josef oversee his people setting them up as Eric needs."

Abbot looked back at Eric. "Joseph is my head of security. You will also be working with him to help him use technology for security purposes. We currently use a system of locks that include a key and in some cases a key and a combination lock. I would like for you to work with Josef on some solutions that do not involve keys that can be lost or number sequences that can be shared."

"A fingerprint scan should work for vampires the same as humans, so we can use something that implements thumb or finger prints. I don't know if iris or retina scans would work since vampire eyes might be different enough to confuse the software. We'd need to do some testing, and it would probably be best not to explain to a factory rep what we're testing for. It might be better to just buy a unit to test with if you want to go that route. You should know that there are times that I'm up against deadlines with my regular work and I won't have time to work for you. I'm in the creative stage with my newest project right now and there are few deadlines during this part of the process so I'll have time to work with you for at least the next two months, but after that I may not be available as much. And there are a few weeks a year that I spend twenty hours a day immersing myself in the world I'm creating, barely taking time to sleep or eat."

"Understood. We'll talk about what I'll pay you tomorrow night as well. We have an office that is soundproof at the coterie house, if you can come there tomorrow night around 8:00 we can do our business in there, without Kendra present, as that will make it clear to the other vampires that you and I have a working relationship that is separate from the personal one you have with her. I will also introduce you to Josef and we can discuss the current security arrangements so you can begin researching what you believe our best options to be. I have a few more things to tell you that I think Kendra is likely to leave out, and then I will go so the two of you can spend some time alone. First, you should know that vampires have excellent healing abilities. We hurt just as much as a human, our nerve endings work the same, but something that might take a human a week to heal from we can heal from in sometimes as little as ten minutes. The second thing you need to know is that you don't have anything on this yacht that you can restrain Kendra to if she doesn't want to be restrained. Human bondage gear will not restrain a vampire. We have a play room at the coterie house with bondage furniture capable of holding a vampire, but it will be a little while before the two of you will want to play there. Meanwhile, I would suggest not restraining her to anything you don't want broken, because if she pulls on something in the heat of the moment she could easily destroy it by accident. If you restrain her to herself with cuffs or rope then the only thing that will break is the cuff or the rope. Also, you don't have to worry about circulation with a vampire, so you can tie things a lot tighter than you would with a human. If you get creative enough you can put her muscles at such an angle that it will at least be a little harder for her to break free."

Eric smile. "Thank you, Abbot. I can see that this is information Kendra may not have felt comfortable sharing with me."

"You are most welcome. Kendra is a good friend, and I like what I've seen of you so far. I will walk myself out, I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening. I'll see you tomorrow evening at 8:00 so we can formalize our arrangement."

Chapter Four

When Abbot was gone, Eric pulled Kendra closer to him and looked her in the eyes. "Kendra, when you bit me, that was.. that was..."

"Orgasmic?"

"Well, yes, but it was more than that. I mean, usually when you orgasm your dick and balls feel it and transmit it to the rest of your body. But this was like every cell in my body was orgasming but only my dick and balls could actually complete the act. I've never felt anything like it before."

"Just imagine how it might be if I do it at the end of sex, just as you begin to orgasm for real?"

"I think that might be enough to just kill me dead, right there."

Kendra laughed. "Oh no, you'll survive it,” but then she paused and said, "assuming you want me to bite you again, that is."

"You didn't orgasm, but when I held you, you seemed all relaxed like you had. What does it do for you?"

She noted that he had not answered her question, but she didn't push it. "Well, first off, you taste amazing. If you had a meal that some world famous chef cooked you'd be really sated right afterwards, reeling from the taste sensations, right? Your blood is that good to me. And second, there was a bit of a metaphysical thing that happened, too, with our auras. They didn't join, but they mixed in with each other a little, so I guess you could say I was basking in the sensation that I got from your aura. When two people are really close their auras can join, and that may eventually happen with us but it will take time. Quite frankly, it's rare for them to mix so quickly after two people have met, so the two of us have connected on a deeper level already. I know I feel like I’m connected to you, but having our auras mix kind of confirms the feeling, because that won’t happen until we’re connected at a soul level."

Eric kissed her on the forehead and said, "It seems odd that we haven't done anything more than kiss and I feel as comfortable with you as if we'd had sex already. I guess in a way we have, with that mindblowing orgasm, but... we've not seen each other without clothes and we haven't, you know, touched each other. Well, not physically, anyway."

"How do you feel, Eric? Do you feel like you've lost blood? When you got up to go clean up were you dizzy or lightheaded or weak?"

"No, I feel fine, how much blood did you take?"