The Bite That Binds

CHAPTER FIVE

(Sam)

I moved quickly, but it wasn’t quick enough to dodge his Pagori speed. Jared crushed me against a wall, mashing his mouth with mine. His kisses were possessive, raw, and punishing, and that familiar feeling of fire shot through me. Pulling back, he abruptly sank his teeth down hard into the crook of my neck, drinking deep. His moans vibrated against my skin, making me release moans of my own. I found myself clawing at the skin of his back, attempting to pull him tighter to me, even though we were as close as two people could be.

Need was in every movement as he yanked on my dress to free my breasts, cupping and squeezing them almost painfully. It wasn’t just ‘need’ that was driving us. Anger and fear was feeding that need, making it become sheer desperation. I could sense that he was still being careful not to really hurt me; always bearing in mind how much stronger he was. It galled me that he could never completely let go with me, which added to the other feelings, making me almost frantic in my need to have him inside me.

Lifting my leg, he curled it over his hip and began rocking his hips against mine. I bucked as he used his thumb to send a sizzling jolt of electricity to each nipple, groaning at that perfect balance of pleasure and pain. Reaching under my dress, he slid my thong aside and did the same thing to my clit. He knew exactly how to make me mindless, and he always set about doing it.

Before Jared, I’d always thought foreplay was kind of overrated. In fact, it had often simply felt like going through the motions. But Jared never did the bare minimum to have me ready to take him, never made it seem like it was all simply a means to an end. I could always sense just how much pleasure he got from what he did to me, from the range of expressions that flashed across my face as my climax neared. Finally, I came, crying out and shaking.

His almost crazed eyes seized mine. “You are so fucking amazing to me.” He speared two fingers inside me, swirling them around. “Nice and wet for me, just how I like it.”

Then his fingers were gone, and he abruptly spun me to face the wall. Instinctively, I braced myself against it for balance. He shoved my dress up to my waist and, without any preamble, slammed into me. I cried out and arched my back as he buried every inch of himself inside me in one smooth stroke. He stretched and filled me in a way that no one ever had before.

When he didn’t move, I squirmed. “Jared.”

His mouth was at my ear. “Feel how perfectly your body fits to mine. You were made to take me, Sam.”

I squirmed again, trying to entice him to move. But still, he didn’t. “Jared,” I growled. “Don’t tease!”

“Tell me you’re mine, and I’ll give you what you want.” When I didn’t, he teasingly flexed his cock inside me.

Well we could both play that game. I squeezed my muscles tight around him, smiling at his warning growl. “Make me come, and I’ll tell you I’m yours.” Instead, the cheeky sod spanked my arse. “Oh you—”

He tsked, spanking me again. “You know I won’t let this go.”

“I could just whip you senseless instead.”

“Yes, baby, yes you could. But then you wouldn’t get to come, would you?” His hands slowly, almost stealthily, skimmed over me. One then cupped my breast as the other wandered down to my clit, gently but expertly toying with it. “You know I love your spirit, and you know I love that you never back down, but you can’t refuse me – the guy you’ll soon be Bound to – the right to be possessive of you. You just can’t. If I did that to you, what would you do?”

I answered without hesitation. “Carve out your liver, dice it up, and feed it to you.” All right, so he had a fair point.

“Hear this, baby: I’ll call you that whenever, and as often, as I want. Because you’re mine and I’m yours. Isn’t that right?” When I didn’t answer, he gave me a particularly hard thrust. “You’re mine and I’m yours. Isn’t that right?”

After a short pause, I replied in a low voice, “Yes.” Suddenly, I was flat on my back on the long table with my legs locked around his waist.

“I’m going to fuck you now. Fuck you hard and deep, so that all you feel is me.”

It hadn’t been a false promise. He began ruthlessly pounding into me, holding my gaze with eyes that blazed with possessiveness. At the same time, he was zapping my clit over and over with his thumb, and I was almost sobbing with the burning pleasure/pain of it. I could feel my orgasm creeping up on me fast, and so could he.

“I love feeling you come around me. Let me feel it, baby. Now.”

A particularly hard zap to my clit knocked me over the edge and sent an explosion of sensation tearing through me, pulling a scream from me that Jared eagerly swallowed. Wanting him right there with me, I tore my mouth from his and bit into his shoulder, drinking him into me.

“Christ, baby.” With a guttural groan, he slammed into me one last time and held himself still as he pulsed deep inside me.

He flopped forward, but landed on his elbows, careful not to crush me. Well I’d certainly never be able to look at this table again without smiling − which would make any future meetings in this room kind of interesting. With reverberations still racking our bodies, he rested his forehead against mine and gently kissed me, sipping from my mouth. “Don’t pull away from me like that again.”

I sighed. “I was just ticked off.”

“I’ll make sure she leaves.”

“She’s not going anywhere. She stays.”

He jerked back to examine my face. “What do you mean, she stays?”

“If she wants to see our Binding ceremony, that’s exactly what she’s going to do.” Because it would severely piss her off.

“You won’t be able to hide your feelings from her, Sam,” he told me gently. “You won’t be able to pretend she’s not feeding your insecurities.”

Smoothing my hands over his shoulders, I joined them behind his neck. “I know that. She’ll sense that she’s getting to me. But she’ll also see that I’m not going anywhere; that we’re going through with that ceremony whether she approves or not. Besides, I wouldn’t want to be robbed of the chance to use my gifts on her.” Magda might have a bad attitude, but so did I, and mine was much worse.

It was a long moment before he spoke. “If she gets too much—”

“I’m not going to challenge her, Jared. I know what it’s like to feel a blood-link die – I’d never been through more pain than what I had when I killed Victor. I don’t want you going through that.”

He looked a mixture of amazed and pissed. “You think I care about a bit of fucking pain?”

“You probably don’t. But I care about putting you through it. See, this is how I feel when you try to protect me and I don’t need it. It’s going to work both ways.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but then snapped it shut. “Come on, let’s get back. People will be wondering where we are.”

As we were both fixing our clothes, something occurred to me. “She probably felt it, didn’t she?”

“What?”

“When we were shagging, she probably sensed it through your blood-link as you’re still in close proximity.”

He tilted his head and frowned thoughtfully. Then he shrugged. “Maybe.”

What could only be described as an evil smile surfaced on my face. “Good.”

He chuckled. “So merciless.” Linking his hand with mine, he gave me a light yet still very possessive kiss before teleporting us back to the parlour. But he didn’t teleport us to the balcony, or to the doorway, or to a quiet corner. No, he teleported us to the centre of the dance floor with a wicked laugh. The sod knew I didn’t like slow dancing.

(Jared)

Before she could pull away from me, I aligned her body to mine, took her arms and curled them around my neck. I then slid both of my arms around her, settling one under the curtain of her dark hair that covered the bare skin of her upper back, and snaking the other down her body. It was with great reluctance that she joined in the dancing. As usual, I found myself enthralled at how snug she felt against me…even if she was stiff as a board. “Relax.”

“I will when you move your hand from my arse.”

“But it’s comfortable there.”

“You know I don’t like slow dancing.”

“Dancing is just like sex – get the rhythm right and you can’t go wrong.”

“We could just go back to the apartment and have some more sex?” she said hopefully.

“We can’t leave our own gathering early.” Could we?

“You know you want to,” she breathed into my ear before nibbling on the lobe.

“None of your little tricks,” I admonished with a smile, tapping her ass lightly but punishingly. Ignoring her scowl, I tightened my arms around her. When that scowl morphed into a grin, I narrowed my eyes. “What?”

Sam tipped her head toward her left. “I think I may have been right. I think Jessica Rabbit might have sensed us shagging.”

Glancing briefly in the direction she had indicated, I almost laughed. If the look on Magda’s face was anything to go by, Sam was right. Hell, steam might as well have been coming out of her ears. I personally didn’t give a shit either way, but I could feel that Sam was smug. If that cheered her up, fine.

Nuzzling Sam’s neck, I breathed her in, took inside me that vanilla scent that was tinted with honeycomb. It was the best smell in the whole damn world. My cock was in total agreement; it rose to attention when even a hint of it was in the air. I let my tongue flick out to taste her pulse. Her skin tasted slightly like her scent; like vanilla and honeycomb, and like energy and mine.

“Stop it, or I’ll get horny again.”

I smiled at the breathlessness in her voice. I loved how sensitive her neck was. “I’m already there.” Subtly, I ground my once-again-hard cock against her.

She laughed and moaned at the same time. The sound of quick, purposeful footsteps had us both swerving to see our personal assistant coming toward us.

“I’ve been looking for you.” Fletcher’s perceptive eyes scanned both of us. “Been for a bonk, I see.”

“What’s your excuse – you being my best friend – for being so late?” she snapped.

“Oh chilax, will you.”

“Chilax?” I chuckled, confused.

“It’s a mix of ‘chill’ and ‘relax’,” Fletcher quickly explained. “Norm and I were busy preparing your gift from us.”

“Gift?” Sam repeated. “Maybe you’re forgiven. What do you mean by ‘preparing’?”

A huge and very self-satisfied grin spread across his face. “Come see.”

Exchanging a smile with Sam, I walked with her hand-in-hand behind Fletcher. The other guests followed as Fletcher led us out of the parlour, down the everlasting pristine hallway, and out of the mansion. I frowned as I immediately scented fire and the unmistakable smell of meat cooking.

As we neared the white sandy beach, Sam gasped loudly. There was Norm flipping burgers, hotdogs, and steaks on a barbeque grill. Not far from the grill was a large bonfire around which some members of the legion stood drinking beer-flavoured NSTs. There was also a reggae band sitting there expectantly, waiting to be given the signal to play. And, in a typical beach set up, Norm and Fletcher had decorated the space with bamboo tiki torches, colourful lights, and lantern garlands.

Fletcher elbowed Sam. “Well, what do you think? I knew you’d be bored and miserable as hell in that parlour – ooh, no offense, your Grandness.” His expression was one of total innocence when he smiled at the Keja vampire not far behind him.

Antonio’s mouth twitched. “It’s quite all right.”

Fletcher mouthed ‘phew’ at Sam before speaking again. “Anyway, I knew you’d be more comfortable having a gathering like this.”

She hugged him tightly. “Thank you.”

Sensing Sam’s spirits instantly lifting, I nodded my thanks at him. In all honesty, I’d have preferred a barbeque on the beach to champagne in a grand mansion any day. It seemed that everybody else did, too, because the atmosphere became much more relaxed and there was a lot of laughing as opposed to formal chatter.

Fletcher had even set up a beach bar and elected Damien to be the cocktail barman, ordering him to wear a brightly coloured shirt that matched the ones being worn by the reggae band. He didn’t look too happy about that. Not only was Norm serving hotdogs, burgers, and steaks, but also baked potatoes, salads, and kebabs. None of it went to waste.

Hell, they’d even arranged for party entertainers to do fire eating and fire juggling. To add to that, they had provided beach balls and water guns for the more immature members of the legion – the ones who weren’t so unbelievably childish that they were burying each other in the sand, anyway. Yes, Fletcher and Norm had pretty much outdone themselves. I knew they’d mostly done it for Sam because they adored her, but I was still grateful.

Relaxing with Sam between my legs on one of the many beach loungers that were gathered around the bonfire, I laughed as Wes told funny stories about Antonio’s first years as a vampire. Apparently, he hadn’t been much different from me back then. I wondered if maybe one of the reasons he had selected me to be part of the legion was that he had seen something of himself in me.

“Evan,” drawled a sultry voice that had the effect of nails on a chalkboard to me. “Aren’t you going to tell us some stories about what Jared was like in the early years…maybe even his childhood?”

Of course Magda had known exactly what she was doing, just as she had known that Sam would instantly tense up. What Magda hadn’t known – I doubted that any of us had been expecting it – was that her hair was suddenly going to catch fire.

Eating her kebab, Sam watched in an almost detached interest as a screaming Magda shot up from the lounger beside ours, patting her hair. Then, still looking bored, Sam raised her hand and sent a gush of water at Magda, calming the flames.

With her soaking wet hair plastered to her head, a quivering extremely-cheesed-off Magda honed in on the amazing female between my legs.

Sam merely shrugged one shoulder delicately. “I did warn you.” How she managed to keep a straight face when the majority of people around her – including me – were shaking with silent laughter, I had no idea.

Somehow, Magda remained dignified as she left with her consort in tow. That was when everyone erupted into laughter again, not bothering to keep their laughs quiet this time.

Sensing Sam’s smugness, I couldn’t help smiling. Cupping her chin, I turned her head and brought her face to meet mine, speaking against her mouth. “You enjoyed that, didn’t you?”

She gasped in mock horror. “You can’t seriously be insinuating that I enjoy inflicting pain on another person?” She jiggled her head. “All right, I did. But she’s not a person, she’s a bitch who hurt you, so I don’t give a fuck.”

Who wouldn’t love a girl who’d set someone on fire for you?

The person who was laughing the loudest was actually Wes. He even nodded approvingly at Sam. I felt that she was surprised by it. I wasn’t. Earlier, I’d noticed that Wes was testing Sam. It might have ticked me off if I hadn’t been one hundred percent positive that nothing he did could faze her.

Sure, a huge part of me had wanted to tell him to back off and leave her alone, but then she’d have whipped my ass for fighting her battles for her. However, if she hadn’t passed his test I would have definitely stepped in, because the guy would have then done everything he could to separate us. I’d never let anyone, or anything, do that. Not even her.

(Sam)

Pain. So much pain. Every single part of me hurt, just as it had when the brothers had done something to me. I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream, I wanted to curse and writhe in sheer agony. But I couldn’t.

I couldn’t move at all, not even to open my eyelids.

I had expected Jared to sense my pain, to wake and help me. But I could hear him breathing evenly beside me, totally relaxed. Whatever was happening wasn’t simply paralysing me, it was interfering with my connection to Jared. And didn’t that just spook the crap out of me, increasing my panic.

The whole thing made me think of ‘intraoperative awareness’ – incidences when people who were anaesthetised could see, hear, and feel but were unable to move or communicate this in any way. Despite feeling like someone’s hands were tearing into me and rummaging around in my abdomen, despite feeling as though those same hands were crushing my insides, I couldn’t give in to that primal urge to scream.

Instead, I screamed in my head at the feeling of invisible, harsh, merciless fingers torturing my body and poking inside my head. Then, suddenly, the pain stopped, and I jack-knifed to a sitting position, panting as utter terror continued to flow through me.

Jared’s hands framed my face, searching my expression. “What is it, baby? Bad dream?”

“No, I woke up to this horrible pain. I was hurting all over, but I couldn’t tell you, I couldn’t move.”

He crushed me to him, kissing my temple. “You sure you weren’t dreaming?”

“It wasn’t a dream.”

His voice was like a blade. “Was it the same pain you felt when the brothers hurt you?”

I nodded. “Do you think Antonio’s researchers will find out anything?”

“If there’s something worth finding out, those guys will find it.” The confidence in his voice made me breathe better. If they were so good that Jared relaxed at the mere thought of them, they had to be extremely capable.

“What do you think the brothers did to me?” My voice was quiet, almost vulnerable.

Jared squeezed me tightly. “I swear I’ll find out what they did, and I’ll get them to fix it.”

“I know.”

It was only an hour or so after breakfast that I, Jared, Denny, Max, Harvey, and Jude were stood outside the block of apartments where Janine Peterson lived – or had lived – with her boyfriend. Ten minutes before, Antonio had informed us that the boyfriend had returned from whatever trip he had been on. Jared had teleported us all there, and now it was time to get some answers.

Jude was obviously raring to get those answers, but Jared and I had instructed her not to interrupt our interrogation. Providing she didn’t interfere, the boyfriend would be all hers once we were done questioning him.

As we ascended the graffiti-covered stairs, we past many drugged humans – some of whom were injecting themselves right there, right then. Although I wasn’t a Keja, I – like all vampires – had an otherworldly lure that made humans take notice. And they did take notice of each and every one of us. I was pretty sure that if Jude and I had been on our own, we would have been attacked − not that our attackers would have gotten very far, of course. The ‘fuck off’ looks that Jared and the squad were wearing hadn’t been ignored. Wise of the humans.

Finally outside the apartment number on Janine’s driver’s license, we didn’t bother knocking. Nor did we force our way inside. The last thing we needed was to have a door we couldn’t lock behind us, as that would allow others to glimpse inside. There would be much worth seeing tonight, and although it was unlikely that any human – particularly a drugged one – would have been believed if they had reported what they witnessed, it was always important to be careful.

One thing that science fiction had got right was that there were indeed human government divisions that fully believed vampires existed, and these divisions were absolutely intent on getting hold of one. Maybe they even had caught a vampire at some point, but if they had, they weren’t content with just the one. They investigated each and every report that even had a hint of vampirism to it, no matter how small or how ridiculous, in the hope that it might lead them somewhere. It was best to not help them out with that.

Seeing that the hallway was totally clear, Denny reduced himself to mush and slipped under the door. When the door opened enough to allow us all to enter, we then locked it behind us. Instantly we found ourselves in a small, cluttered living area that stunk heavily of smoke, sweat, stale food, and the distinctive scent of cannabis. Refraining from balking had been a challenge for every one of us.

At the sound of a toilet flushing, our heads whipped around to our left. One of the three doors further down the hallway opened, and out stepped a tall, gangly guy with dark unkempt hair and skin almost as pale as mine. Upon seeing us, he – Leon, I remembered Janine calling him – froze.

The movement might not have registered to a human before it was too late, but it was like slow motion to a vampire when Leon reached behind him and retrieved a gun from the waistband of his jeans. He had barely had a chance to aim it at us when Harvey used his telekinesis to snatch the weapon and pull it to him.

Leon’s eyes widened to saucers. To his credit, he didn’t freeze with fear like others might have done. But before he could take more than one step backwards – I assumed he wanted to head for his bedroom where there was most likely another gun – Denny had sprayed yellowy-green ooze out of his thumbs and smallest fingers, trapping him. Denny then used the sticky ooze to bounce Leon from the hallway to the ragged sofa. At Jared’s command, Denny didn’t release the human from the grip of the ooze.

Jared and I stood in front of the sofa, looking down at him. My voice was deceptively pleasant. “You must be Leon. Glad you’re finally back.” The poor bugger looked like he might piss himself. I hoped not. The place smelled foul enough as it was. “I’ll bet you’re wishing you’d stayed away a little longer though, eh?”

He swallowed hard. “Whatever it is you’re looking for, I didn’t take it.”

That statement was sort of the equivalent of a child suddenly saying ‘Mummy, I didn’t do anything with your scissors’, and then you turn to find your curtains have been chopped up. “So Janine was telling the truth. You like to take what isn’t yours to take.”

“J-Janine?”

“Yes, we had an interesting conversation with her. She’s a lovely girl. I noticed that she was pregnant. How long does she have left before the birth?”

“A month or so,” he lied easily.

In my experience, most thieves were, in fact, good liars. I supposed they had to be. “How sweet.”

“Look, I haven’t done any jobs for months now. I’ve been trying to get myself clean.”

“Tell me, are you a kleptomaniac, or are you just one of those people who are lazy and greedy and have a sense of entitlement?”

His brow crinkled. “Kleptomaniac?”

“A kleptomaniac is someone who is addicted to thieving. They get the same kind of high from it that a drug addict would get from cocaine.”

His face scrunched up into a defensive expression. “It’s not like the people I steal – stole – from can’t easily replace what I took.”

“And that’s how you justify it to yourself, is it? Tell me, how do you justify helping unborn babies being stolen from their mothers?”

His mouth bobbed open and closed like a landed fish. Eventually, he shrugged, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Jared snickered, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m not sure there’s much point in you playing dumb. We know about the criminal organisation. We know about the Scouts, the Deliverers, and the Medics. But there’s more, isn’t there, Leon? So much more. What we really want are names. Janine was quite informative, but she was unable to give us any names. She seemed to think that you, however, might just be able to.”

Leon’s eyes danced between Jared and me. “Janine wouldn’t have said anything. She’s not stupid.”

“Are you sure about that?” I asked. “Are you sure she’d be so tight-lipped if, say, someone had done this right before her very eyes?” Using the energy I’d absorbed from around me, I manipulated it into my energy whip. Leon blanched.

“Janine had pretty much the same reaction,” Jared told him. “But come on, are you really that shocked when you’re wrapped in ooze and you watched someone take your gun without even touching it?”

Leon swallowed hard again. He was trembling now. “I snorted a lot of shit earlier.”

“Ah, and you’re hoping to convince yourself it’s just the drugs?” I had to smile at that. “I can promise you right now, Leon, you are certainly not hallucinating or dreaming. I could pinch you just so you can be sure? Or maybe I’ll just do this.” I cracked my whip at him, catching his earlobe. Leon jerked, hissing.

“I recommend you get talking,” said Jared, his voice grave. “I’m not a patient person at the best of times, but the last couple of days have tried me in ways you can’t imagine. I’m not in a good frame of mind.” He leaned forward, putting himself at eye level with Leon. “I want the name of the person who’s running this operation.” I knew that Jared doubted he knew a detail such as that, but it was always worth asking.

“What are you people?”

Jared’s smile wasn’t nice. “You don’t want to know. Trust me on that. Now, I believe you were going to tell me his name.”

“I don’t know his name, I don’t know any names.”

Jared rolled his eyes. “It’s like groundhog day. They always say the same shit.” He gave Max a short nod. Understanding, Max opened his fist and closed it – robbing Leon of the ability to speak. When the human realised that not one of his words were at all audible, his eyes almost bugged out of his drawn face.

Jared’s unpleasant smile returned. “We wouldn’t want anyone hearing you scream, would we?” With that, he raised one hand and placed his fingertips against Leon’s forehead. Leon’s mouth opened in a silent scream as currents of electricity zinged through him, making his entire body shake. Ten seconds later, Jared stopped. He signalled for Max to give Leon back his ability to speak. “His name.”

Leon, panting and shaking his head, said, “I swear I don’t know. I can’t tell you what I don’t know.”

Jared sighed. “Max.” Once Leon had again lost his ability to vocalise, Jared again repeated his torturous process. It was fifteen seconds this time before he stopped and allowed Max to undo what he’d done. “I want his name.”

“Please, please, please listen to me. I don’t know his name.” Seeing that Jared was again about to give Max a signal, Leon quickly cried, “But I’ll tell you what I do know, I swear.”

I cocked my head at him. “And what is it, exactly, that you do know? It better be good, Leon.”

“My part in the whole thing is simple. I receive a text message with the name of a shopping mall or something like that. I send Janine there, and I wait for her to contact me with a description of the woman she’s drugged. I relay this info to the Deliverer in a text message. That’s all.”

That’s consistent with what Janine said, I reminded Jared. “You must know the Deliverer’s name, at the very least.”

“I don’t, I’ve never once heard her voice. I only know she’s a woman because Janine saw her from afar a few times. We only communicate using text messages, and I delete them afterwards like I was instructed when I first got the job.”

I arched a brow. “Oh yeah? And what were these instructions?”

“Wait for text messages, don’t act until I receive any, never talk of the operation to anyone, and only ever drug the women with the drug that they leave with the money.”

“So how do you get the drug and your wages if you don’t come face-to-face with anyone?”

“Every month, I’m sent a text message with the address of wherever they’ve hidden the money and the drug. Sometimes it’s in a public bathroom, sometimes it’s in a phone booth, or hidden in a bush near the local park. I never know where the stuff’s going to be, and I never see anyone. These people are very secretive. Paranoid, even.”

Jared sniggered. “You expect us to believe that you’ve never seen even one face, you’ve never heard even one name?”

“I haven’t, I swear—”

Sighing in annoyance, Jared nodded at Max. A stream of words came out of a petrified Leon, but none were audible. “Oh, you’ve remembered something.” Instead of electrocuting him, Jared again nodded at Max, who returned Leon’s ability to speak. “What’s that now?”

Leon was almost sobbing. “When I first met the person who recruited me, she introduced herself as Wendy. Janine’s description of the Deliverer matched the Wendy I spoke to: a middle-aged blonde who wore glasses.”

I knew he was telling the truth about that part at least. It was the same description that Jude and Janine had given us.

“Where’s your cell phone?” Jared asked him.

“The kitchen counter.”

I retrieved the phone. “Is the number saved in your contact list?”

Leon nodded. “Under the name ‘Del’. Short for Deliverer.”

I exhaled heavily and gave him a bright smile. “Well, that’s all. You’ve been quite helpful. More than I thought, considering you lack a conscience.”

He sneered. “You can be moral and law abiding when life’s going good. I’ll bet none of you know what it’s like to have nothing, to be so damn hungry you were rummaging through a garbage can, to just need one hit.”

I knew more about poverty than he thought, but I had no wish to explain myself to him. I shrugged. “Then I guess we’re doing you a favour by letting our friend here end your pitiful existence.” His face became a question mark. “Leon…Meet Jude.”