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“Hand, gently around my throat, keeping me looking up at you.”
He hesitated, but I squeezed a little harder on his body where it lay trapped in his jeans. That was enough; his hand slid around the front of my neck, and he found that point where his thumb and forefinger went just at the hinge of my jaw so he forced my head back so I could see his face. The hand wasn’t tight, I could breathe just fine, but it took some of the strain off my neck and shoulder muscles looking up and behind. I played with him in my hands, squeezing and kneading him as he strained against the front of his jeans.
“Now, kiss me,” I said.
He pressed his mouth to mine and he kissed me. It started almost gentle, then grew until it was like he was trying to come inside my mouth, but I wanted him inside me in so many ways. I opened my mouth wider for him and thought about having other things thrust down my mouth besides his tongue. He was so hard pressed against my hands; the pants that had been foreplay had become frustration. His hand tightened at my throat and at my waist as he held me in place. I made eager noises for him, my tongue finding the cut in the side of his mouth, so that the pain was sharp and fresh for him. He made an eager noise low in his throat. I tasted his blood in my mouth and wanted more, needed more, so much more.
Jean-Claude had woken for the day. His bloodlust was inside me, wanting to bite down on Richard’s lip, to tear at him…
Richard drew back, eyes full of midnight fire, Jean-Claude’s power riding him. I felt both their needs for blood and flesh. It was the moment if you were a new vampire or werewolf when you could accidentally tear your lover’s throat out. We waited in that breathless moment where they fought for control, and I trusted them to find that control.
Then Deimos was in my head. “You cannot have her back, she is mine now!”
Jean-Claude lay there in his silk sheets that I could feel along our skin. I felt his power through Richard’s body like hot and cold intermingled until I cried out from it. Deimos was chased back for a moment as Jean-Claude spoke urgently in my head. “He has given you no vampire marks, only dampened mine. He is powerful enough that his eyes and his bite have damaged our connection more, but he has not marked you. I can fill Richard with my power, and when you come to me again,ma petite, I will chase out his sorrow and fill you with passion once again.”
Deimos screamed through me, “She is mine! I will take all that is Jean-Claude’s and make it mine.” The power left my head ringing, and the kiss was done, all the passion was gone like an instant cold shower. Deimos didn’t have any heat to offer anyone. His fire was only for destruction.
50
Richard got apolice car ride with lights and sirens to get him to the Circus of the Damned. If he and Jean-Claude could see each other in person, it would heal Richard of Deimos’s taint, and help offset what he’d done to me. I sent Goran to guard Richard in case more traitors tried to recapture him. Goran didn’t want to leave me, and Richard didn’t want to take him, but I had Edward, Olaf, and SWAT close enough that if I yelled they’d come running. Richard would have only the cops in the patrol car; for his and their sake I wanted Goran there just in case. They finally agreed with me and left. Ru was hurt enough that he took an ambulance ride to the hospital. Once Edward realized I wasn’t Deimos’s human servant, but it was just one bite, he tried to send me with Richard.
“I can’t risk getting near Jean-Claude while Deimos can control me.”
“We can put you in the back of a police car until we kill the vampire,” Edward said.
I shook my head. I tried to think of a flattering way to talk about Deimos so he wouldn’t stop me from talking. “Deimos’s power is amazing and horrible. He feeds on terror and sorrow. He can find your worst memories and force you to relive them or share his ownmemories where he destroyed entire towns and fed on the despair and pain of the people he was burning alive.”
“Are you saying he’s like a night hag vampire and can cause you to be afraid so he can feed on it?” Edward asked.
“Exactly,” I said.
“Not my favorite type of vampire,” Edward said.
“They have to touch you for it to work,” Olaf said. “Kill them before they can close with you.”
“Not all of them have to touch you to raise fear,” Edward said.
“Deimos doesn’t have to touch,” Rodina said. We’d kept her up with us to pick her brain about Deimos, and then she’d get to sit in the back of a patrol car until we could decide what to do with her. Ru would never testify against her about the torture, so we didn’t have anything to charge her with, and if we couldn’t charge her I wasn’t sure what to do with her.
“I noticed,” I said.
“Can you stop him from using his magic on us?” Olaf asked.
“I’ve never tried to protect anyone that wasn’t metaphysically connected to me, but night hags are rare in America. So, I haven’t had a lot of experience trying,” I said.
“Once the fighting starts, he could control your powers, not just your body,” Rodina said.
It was weird that the only two women were both handcuffed, but I guess some days are weirder than others. “Which is why we need to cleanse my…” I couldn’t finish the sentence; he wouldn’t let me.
“Bite mark before we engage,” Edward said.
I tried to say yes, but all Deimos would let me do was nod. He hadn’t known that cleansing a bite with holy water could negate a vampire’s control over someone. I’d only cleansed myself once of a bite like this. “He rolled me, Edward. Like the bad old days before I got my power up. I woke up in his coffin this morning.”
“But you got out,” Edward said.
I nodded. “He’s fucked with the vampire marks and all my people. Queenie helped him do it, she betrayed us.”
“I heard that Kaazim is under guard in case he knew.”
