Wild Ones (7 page)

Before I had
fully realised the implications of this statement, the bed clothes
had been thrown off and I was on my back again with my legs held
apart. Like I said, the current default position for me. It was
inevitable, really - I should have expected it. What I didn't
expect, however, was that hot tongue licking and probing and
eliciting the all too predictable response from my pathetic body,
which not only lacked self control, but seemed determined to enjoy
itself at my expense. I tried to fight the building waves of
pleasure, and failed miserably, wailing in frustration as the
orgasm exploded through me. Atticus chuckled in satisfaction and
nuzzled my lower belly while I waited for my body to return to my
control. I didn't trust myself to speak.

"We need to get
you vaccinated," he said eventually. He lay next to me with his
head on my belly. I looked down at his tousled blonde hair.
Vampires get bed hair. Who knew.

"Vaccinated?"

"We have venom
in our teeth that stops clotting. Think aspirin on steroids. If I
were to accidentally bite you, you could bleed out and die.
Fortunately there's a vaccine to prevent that. I should have
thought of it before."

"So don't bite
me." I said it as plainly as I could. I had always been something
of an expert at stating the obvious.

"It's not that
easy, lovely Millie. Our fangs come out with hunger or lust. Guess
which one you generate. I almost bit you now, actually. Especially
when I saw my name on your thigh."

"What?" I sat
up suddenly, and pushed his head off my belly. He sat up and
watched me examine the tattoo on my inner left thigh. It had been
all scabbed over yesterday, but today I could read 'Atticus' in
neat flowing script. My left wrist was still a bit scabby, but I
had no doubt that it was similarly decorated.

"What!" I
yelled at him. It was not a question this time." You had me
tattooed
with your
name
?" I paused for a few seconds.
"
There
?"

"I thought you
knew," he said. "Once Andronicus wrote my name on your skin you
became my wife under vampire law. It protects you from other
vampires - they would never dare touch you now."

"Even Dr
Pervert?" I asked, remembering that tongue.

He
grinned. "
Any
vampire. So yes,
Andronicus may not touch you now unless it is to save your life or
if you give your expressed permission for him to do so."

I considered
that for a while. A small tattoo and I was protected from the
entire species of massively over-endowed sex-mad bloodsuckers.
Except for one, of course. Oh well, can't have everything. And I
did have eight month's grace there. I looked at it again. It really
was very tastefully done.

"My parents
have always wanted me to get a tattoo. They're going to be so
pleased." I paused. "Although I won't be showing them the thigh
one."

"Your parents
wanted you to get a tattoo?" he looked amused.

"I am a
source of constant disappointment to them. I don't smoke pot or
have tattoos, and I
like
science
." I emphasised the last two words, trying to
convey their reaction when they discovered my dirty little
secret.

He laughed. "I
met your parents, you know."

"Annie told me.
You were the bogus boyfriend." He nodded.

"I really liked
them."

"Not as a light
snack, I hope," I said dryly. He gave another shout of
laughter.

"No, my sweet
love, not as a light snack. They seem like good people. Eccentric,
but good." What the hell would he know about good people, I thought
bitterly.

"I miss them,"
I said almost to myself.

"We can go and
see them tomorrow, if you want." I stared at him in surprise.

"Really?"

"I don't see
why not. You need to introduce me formally, you know. As your
husband."

"I'm really not
comfortable with that term."

"You'll get
used to it. In the meantime, you need breakfast."

"I need
clothes," I said, suddenly very aware of my nakedness. I had
crawled into bed last night after brushing my teeth and had fallen
asleep almost immediately.

"No, you
don't."

"Seriously? I
need clothes. I can't walk around naked."

"I don't mind,"
he grinned at me. I was about to start arguing with him in a loud
voice using lots of small words with four letters, when the door
opened and Julius strolled in. I dove off the side of the bed
towards the pile of bedclothes on the floor and crawled underneath
them.

"Now
that's
something
you don't see every day," said Julius, laughing. "Enjoying domestic
bliss, brother?"

"You might want
to knock in future," Atticus told him.

"And miss
that?"

"It's law,
Julius."

"Oh shit, I
forgot. Sorry, brother. It's a shame though. She really does have a
lovely body."

"It's
my
lovely body
now."

"True. I can
still smell her though. Smells even better than yesterday."

"Yes, she does.
Tastes better too."

"Ah, you're
killing me, brother," Julius groaned. Atticus chuckled.

"Is there a
reason for this visit of yours?"

"Father's
downstairs. He wants to meet Millie. He's also brought a name and
address for us. A woman with a two year old. From out of town and
staying with her sister for a week or so. Father picked up her
scent two days ago and did some investigating. She's apparently
going back to her husband day after tomorrow, so we'll need to move
fast."

"Excellent
news, Julius. We haven't had one in eight years and now two within
the space of a week. When were you thinking of taking her?"

"As soon as
possible. Father says there are a few vamps sniffing around her as
we speak."

"Today, then.
Millie can stay here. The house and grounds are very secure, so she
won't be disappearing anywhere."

"She can hang
out with Father and get acquainted," chuckled Julius.

Oh what fresh
hell, I thought sourly in my haven under the sheets. And from the
sound of it they were planning to abduct another woman. She has a
small child, I thought bitterly. Poor little thing.

I heard the
door shut and a voice saying, "It's safe to come out now." I stood
up, draping one of the sheets around my body. Atticus stood at the
window, staring outside at the vast greenness that surrounded the
house.

"Where are my
clothes?" I demanded, suddenly furious with them all, and wanting
more than ever to get myself out of this place and away from these
evil bastards.

"In there.
Steph bought you some new ones too," he pointed towards a huge
antique wardrobe that stood against one of the walls of the bedroom
next to its twin. Atticus seemed distracted, which suited me just
fine. I walked across to the wardrobe and opened it, revealing
neatly packed piles of clothing, some of which I recognised and
some of which was most definitely new, and usually way out of my
price range. I grabbed some of my own jeans, underwear and a
t-shirt and waltzed off to the bathroom, pointedly shutting the
door behind me. I dressed, flossed and brushed my teeth, and sat
down on the closed toilet lid, reluctant to go out there and
interact in any way with Atticus, knowing as I did what he and his
brother were going to do to that woman.

The bathroom
door opened after a while and Atticus came in. I glared at him
sullenly from my perch on the toilet.

"I have
something I need to do today," he told me.

"Kidnap a woman
and rape her. I know."

"It's not like
that."

"It
is
exactly
like that," I
said.

He said nothing
for a few long seconds, just looked at me pensively.

"My father is
waiting to meet you."

"I really don't
give a shit."

He frowned at
me. "Nonetheless, you will meet him. And you will have
breakfast."

"Make
me," I said, regretting the words as soon as they were out of my
mouth. Idiot, I scolded myself. Next thing I'll be saying bite me.
To a vampire. That would not go well for me at all. When will
I
learn
, I thought
glumly.

He lifted me up
and draped me over his shoulder, my butt in the air, and carried my
downstairs. I refused to react, and just lay there seething. I was
eventually deposited on my feet in a spacious room containing a
polished mahogany table, several chairs, a matching mahogany
sideboard and a very good-looking middle aged man, who lounged in
one of the chairs, an elbow on the table, and regarded us in
amusement.

"Sit," Atticus
ordered me, pulling out a chair. I looked at him mutinously and was
just about to say something sarcastic when I caught the warning
glint in his eye.

"What
ever
," I said,
sounding for all the world like a grumpy teenager. I
sat.

"You may leave
us, Atticus," the man at the table suggested casually.

"Yes, Father,"
Atticus replied respectfully. He left without another word. I was
awestruck.

"You need to
teach me how to do that," I said to the vampire sitting across the
table from me, who smiled in response.

"My name is
Titus, and you must be Millie," he said in a deep cultured voice.
"The boys were not exaggerating. You really are very lovely."

My eyes
narrowed. I wondered exactly what it was that
the boys
had told him.

"I have been
reliably informed that you are carrying my grandchild," he
continued.

"Ah, Dr
Pervert," I said knowingly.

"Excuse me?" he
seemed taken aback, but his eyes twinkled.

"He
licked
me," I told
him in a disgusted tone. Titus chuckled.

"I see you have
experienced our obsession first hand." I said nothing, but waited
for him to elaborate, wondering how he was going to explain this
so-called obsession.

"I am sure you
are aware by now of our uniqueness."

Gosh,
what to say.
Which
uniqueness?
There were so many, all of them dreadful in their own unique
way.

As if he had
read my thoughts, he explained. "We are the only species in the
world that relies on another species to reproduce. It has been our
curse over the millennia, that we have no females of our own kind."
He looked at me solemnly. "As a result, reproducing and all that
entails has become something of an obsession with us. A woman who
smells right is the most wonderful, marvellous thing in the world.
Irresistible, because you are so rare, and when we find you we just
have to have you. In every sense of the word."

"Now, when one
of those women is pregnant with a vampire foetus inside her," he
continued, "she becomes almost impossible to resist. The smell
alone drives us wild, and the taste is indescribable. Being alone
in a room with you is the greatest test of willpower in the world
for any vampire, myself included." My eyes narrowed at this, and I
regarded him with deep suspicion, ready to jump off the chair and
run for it.

"It is for this
reason that once a woman is pregnant she is marked with the name of
the father of the baby. Once that is done, she may not ever again
be touched by another vampire. Ever. The penalties for this are
severe, and rigidly enforced. If I were to touch you now, I would
suffer greatly as a result, for a long time, and then I would be
executed," he said wryly.

"You must
understand the gravity of this. We live for over five hundred years
on average. We are strong and powerful and
vital
. And there are fewer than a thousand of us
in the world now. To execute one of our own when we as a species
are so rare is an unbelievably serious matter. And for the vampire
concerned, to know you are going to die when you have several
hundred years of life left in you is devastating, horrific even.
But the law is there to protect the future, and to protect the
women who carry that future."

"And this is
why it is so important for us to impregnate a woman as soon as we
can. Vampire law states that these special women cannot belong to a
specific vampire until she carries his child. So, if you were not
pregnant, and you went to visit your parents, for example, and
another vampire smelled you, he would have the prerogative to take
you himself. They would even be able to abduct you from here if
they were able to raise a big enough force. We would have no right
under our law to retain you. And we are forbidden to kill our own
kind. Even if we were able to repulse the attack, the threat would
always be there."

I said nothing,
digesting this new information and its implications.

"Atticus and
Julius are going to bring that woman here today, and they are going
to do what they have to do to get her with child, because if they
don't, she will be taken by another vampire. My sons have tried
long and hard to learn how to do this without damaging the woman
too much. I cannot say the same for the other vampires out there.
If they were to get their hands on her, she would die in agony
within a very short period of time. Here she at least has a chance
of surviving. Her child will naturally be fetched with her, and she
will become part of our family, just as Annie and Stephanie have,
whether her mother survives or not."

"We are
monsters, Millie, and we are very aware of that. But we also want
to survive as a species, and many would say we have that
right."