SEDUCTIVE SUPERNATURALS: 12 Tales of Shapeshifters, Vampires & Sexy Spirits (41 page)

He bent his head and nuzzled the side of her neck. Inhaled deeply and savored the scent of her, so womanly and alive.

His gut tightened and the climax surged inside him, but also within her. He could feel it through the link they shared. Every beat of her heart, every shift of her body registered through him, driving his pleasure. Pleading with him for that final unity of spirit, body, and blood.

He drove his fangs through the fragile skin on her neck and sucked hard, feasting on her life's blood.

She called out his name, wrapped her arms around him, and raised her knees, drawing his hips close. Spurring him on with her caress and the mewls of pleasure as he fed.

He sucked again and her energy punched into him, filled with human, slayer, and vampire strength. It hurtled through his body, dragging him over the edge.

He pulled away and sucked in a rough breath as her release slammed into her again. Her body shook beneath his and caressed him, pulling his seed deep within. Drawing out his passion as explosion after explosion of pleasure burst through him.

“You feel amazing,” he said and held her near, her body damp and shaking as the aftereffects of their lovemaking slowly fled.

“You're not so bad yourself,” she said with a husky chuckle and twined her legs with his to keep him with her.

Not that he was going anywhere.

He eased onto her, savoring the lingering little aftershocks of their release. Wrapped up in her embrace, arms and legs entangled. Hearts beating against each other, hers a staccato beat against his more tardy rhythm until their breaths were steady and calm.

And until a tiny little gurgle from the bassinet became a slightly louder noise and then an impossible to ignore cry.

Ryder leaped to his feet and finally kicked off his pants and shoes. Sauntering over to the bassinet, he picked up his daughter and cradled her against his naked chest.

She quieted a little and opened her eyes. Stared at him with a green-gold gaze much like her mother's. Bold, brave, and intelligent.

He smiled. “You are beautiful, my tiny darlin’,” he said and walked with her back to his wife.

Diana was sitting up against the side of the couch and as he neared, she held out her hands for the baby.

He passed Charlie to her and then sat cross-legged on the sofa beside them, watching as Diana held the baby close and nursed her. He sat back and took hold of Diana's hand. Twined his fingers with hers as he said, “You make a good mom.”

“This is the easy part. I worry about how good a mom I'll be when there's something hard to handle.”

“You'll handle it. I know you will,” he said, having no doubts in his mind that she could deal with it. She'd handled much more complicated and difficult things in her life.

“I hope you're right,” she said and squeezed his hand.

“I am,” he replied and let the love enveloping them inside his heart, soothing the darkness that had been growing there for weeks, fueled by his fear and his failure.

I just hope I can be as good a dad
, he thought, but held back from saying it.

Diana already had enough concerns about what was happening with him. He wasn't going to add to her worries.

Vampire Reborn
: Chapter Four

Benjamin accessed the Slayer Council's digital library of journals and entries with the laptop he had rebuilt from assorted machines tossed into Central Park West garbage cans. He piggybacked onto someone's unsecured Wi-Fi signal to get on the Internet.

Although the Council had yet to restore his abilities to reach the monies they had seized after his death, they had relented and given him certain network rights back. Hard asses like Evangeline, the current Council leader, and Xander, her former escort, had fought to prevent that, but calmer and more reasonable heads had won the battle.

He hoped that one of those calmer and more reasonable heads would help him make sense of the materials he found in their archives or possibly in one of the original journals that some of the Council members possessed.

He spent hours on the search, saving his notes to a secured account on the Cloud. He tried to untangle the jumble of the contrary indications in the comments of his predecessors as to the source of immortal power and how it had diverged into not only slayer and vampire energies, but into life forces that special humans had been able to tap over the ages.

While he knew of shamans and others who could use such life forces, it had never occurred to him that all of those powers somehow derived from one singular source.

Kind of like the Higgs boson 'God particle'
? he wondered. He had been a scientist at one time before he could no longer deny the calling of his family's slayer obligations.

He sat back in the chair, fingers templed against his lips as he read through all his notes.

Just the tip of the iceberg
, he thought and shoved away from the snazzy new desk in the studio Ryder had been so kind to offer him.

Ben didn't like charity even if his friend . . . .

He pulled up short at the thought. He wasn't quite so sure yet that Ryder was a true friend. As a slayer, he'd learned to guard himself against those who tried to enter his inner circle. Too many had latched onto him when they had seen his rising star in Council politics. Just as many had come to dislike him, maybe even hate him, because of the possibility he’d pass them and assume leadership.

Until his brother had betrayed and killed him, and a vampire had saved him.

Because of that, and because of the trust that Ryder had placed in him by asking him to guard his family, Ben would put Ryder in the friend category for the moment.

But a friend that he would have to watch closely. Ryder was a vampire, after all, and it was too tough to toss aside thirty-something years of slayer training and immediately embrace him.

It would take time to decide whether Ryder and his crew were truly friends or foes.

The sad part is, I can say the same of many of my Slayer Council members
, he thought as he walked over to the windows that overlooked Central Park on one side. The windows ran the length of the building from west to east where he had views of the East River.

The morning sky showed only the faintest traces of the coming dawn, but inside him the vampire warned that the sun would soon rise and that he should seek shelter. Along with that warning came lethargy, inviting him to rest through the day so he would have strength for nighttime pursuits.

It had been a hard adjustment to become a night owl.

On his family's farm they'd always been early risers to work out in the fields and tend to the crops and livestock. But they'd also had their share of nighttime activity, keeping away the vampires brave enough to venture too close to the slayer family. His father, brother, and he had vanquished many undead vermin before the vampires had banded together and killed most of his family.

Only he and his brother had survived, tucked into a special hidey hole in the floor while his father, mother, and sisters died above them. While for days they waited until it was safe and his family's bodies rotted just feet away.

He still remembered the smell. Still recalled the sight of their blood seeping in through the floor boards and dripping down onto him and Bartholomew.

And now he was one of them. One of the undead, but not like them.

Just like Ryder and the others were not like them
, he told himself, trying to justify what he was doing.

Trying to convince himself that it wasn't wrong to share the slayer secrets with a vampire. The enemy.

As the sun rose, his cell phone chirped to warn him of an incoming call.

Ryder
.

He shoved away his disquiet and answered in his most neutral tone.
“Guess you're an early bird.”

“Hard not to be when your month-old wakes up every six hours,” Ryder answered.

His stomach clenched a little at the thought that if things went south with Ryder and he was forced to stake him, there were others who might pay a price as well. A wife and child, things that vampires didn't normally have.

Before he could say anything else, Ryder plowed on. “Were you able to find out anything?”

“Not much. I searched through the journals and there were several mentions of a common font of power for all mortals. Those with more traditional beliefs would call it God. Others, like those who practice the Eastern philosophies, might call it
chi
. The power was stronger in some than others and at one time, the life forces were all one.”

“All one?” Ryder asked, confusion peppering his words.

“Like all those on the Council. In the beginning, everyone was united in only one group and then one let power and envy corrupt him. He wanted more power and thought he should be the one in charge. When he failed to take control, he was banned to the darkness.”

With a heavy sigh, Ryder said, “Sounds a lot like the bible story explaining how Lucifer and his angels were imprisoned in hell.”

He hunched his shoulders nonchalantly. “There are lots of similarities in the origin stories from the slayer journals to those in the Bible. I think it's possible that they're somehow one and the same, but from different viewpoints. Even back then, those on the Council kept themselves apart from regular humans because of their heightened powers. It's possible they might have been seen as angels by the others.”

“And the one who fell from grace? What condemned him to the darkness?”

“He murdered his brother and drank of his blood, thinking that it would make him more powerful,” he said and couldn't avoid the pit of pain that formed in his gut at the thought of his own lost brother and the evil that had overtaken him. That had made him kill and hurt others in his quest for recognition.

“Hello to the first vampire, I guess,” Ryder said harshly.

“That would be a good guess. If you can believe the stories that is,” he replied.

“There's always a grain of truth in those accounts. A lesson to be learned. Adam and Eve. Cain and Abel. Someone or something inspired those morality tales.”

Definitely morality tales, but simplified beyond belief
, Ben thought. “Things aren't quite as black and white as those stories make things seem.”

There was a hesitation on the line before Ryder said, “I'm glad to hear you're embracing something besides the whole vampire bad/slayer good mentality.”

It would be tough for me not to
, he thought and quipped, “Vampire now, remember?”

“Yeah, slayer, I remember. So if we accept that there is some truth to these origin stories, who might know more about those life energies and what they do?”

He dragged a hand through the longish strands of his hair and paced back and forth as he thought out loud. “Xander is the professor of the Council. If Evangeline has lasted as leader for this long, it's because Xander is the brains behind her brawn, but he's also incredibly devoted to her and to her vision for the Council.”

“Even though she dumped him for that young stud muffin?” Ryder said.

He chuckled. “Yeah, even though he was dumped. Richard is next in line if Evangeline should fall. He's almost as knowledgeable as Xander.”

“Why isn't Xander next in line?” Ryder asked.

He stopped short at Ryder's question. By all rights, Xander should be next. He was smarter and had been an elder far longer than Richard.

“He's not strong enough,” he finally answered and considered that at one time, he would have been next in line. “Xander is too malleable and physically weak. There's not one Council member who would vote for him to take Evangeline's place.”

Resuming his pacing, he said, “Richard is the one to approach and he has access to one of the original slayer journals. He's more likely to help us find an answer to what's happening.”

“Can you arrange a meeting?”

He dipped his head uneasily, forgetting that he was on a phone. “I can try, Ryder. Even if Richard agrees to see us, there's no guarantee he'll either help or have the answers.”

“I know, Ben. All I'm asking is that you try.”

* * *

Although his vampire blood called on him to rest during the day, Ryder regularly fought that need in his desire to be more human. To share time with Diana the way normal couples did. He had worked at his desk in the morning, checking on his various investments, and now the two of them were in the gym, working out.

Ryder moved through the steps in the kata, Diana beside him, shifting in unison.

A left turn to face forward followed by a low block with the left hand.

A step ahead with a sharp right-handed punch.

A quick whirl and back to the front for another low block.

They glided, pushed forward and back, almost as if in a ballet.

Pivot, forward, punch, and then retreat.

An upper cut followed by a drop of the hands to the hips with another one hundred eighty degree turn and a double high block.

From the corner of his eye, he measured Diana's movements and strength since he hadn't been the only one who had almost lost his life weeks earlier.

Not that you could tell from her fluid and powerful movements. There wasn't a hint of hesitation or fragility to attest to the fact that his wife had not only been on death's door, but that she'd recently given birth. Well, almost nothing. Her warrior's body wore its lean muscled strength nicely, but the womanly curves were ever more rounded, especially her breasts.

Her command came in his head through their shared connection.
Focus
.

The warning made him stumble through the final punch and slide of the kata, but he recovered to end it gracefully.

They faced each other and bowed to acknowledge the completion of the exercise.

With the kata finished, she grinned and rolled her eyes. “Men. Show a little tit and it totally throws you off.”

Reaching out, he playfully squeezed her breast and said, “Nothing little about those.”

She slapped at him and he recognized the invitation in her gaze. “Think you can boss me around?” he asked.