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Cora apparently decided it was time to change the subject. “Tell me about Alaric, Bain, and Lazlo.”
Ah, the three vampires involved in Lauren’s abduction. We hadn’t been able to locate them, and that was troubling. “Not here,” I told her. “And it’s best if you don’t say their names, either out loud or through telepathy, unless we’re in a shielded underground room — and not just inside the hillside. Actually below the surface of the primary ground. A sub-basement beneath a house would be best.”
“So, you’re verifying the strongest vampires can put what amounts to a subroutine out, watching for the vibrations of their name being said?” Ryan asked.
“I am not.”
It isn’t about the physical vibrations so much as the intent and focus. Names are powerful. Interesting that he called it a subroutine, though, because that’s about as accurate as one can get — a little program running in the background of our subconscious. I shouldn’t be able to do it, based on age and general strength alone, but I’d figured it out a century or so ago, and it’d saved my life more than once.
“Well, I’m all out of suggestions for safe topics,” Cora glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “I know you don’t fully trust Ryan, but I do. I trust him to find a way to do the right thing, even if he has to break some rules to do so. I trust him to have my back so long as I’m not endangering someone he feels obligated to protect, and I trust him to use his powers wisely and judiciously.”
I sighed. “Ryan is Etta’s, and Etta is mine, which means by vampire law, the slayer is one of mine. I don’t claim to have authority over him in any way, but there’s no way around the fact that Etta trusts him, and I trust Etta, which means I have to give him a certain amount of trust as well, but there are some secrets I’m not comfortable sharing with a slayer — even a trusted one.”
“No argument,” Ryan said, “except from my view, Etta loves you, and I love Etta, and that means you’re one of mine.”
“Here’s a subject I think we can safely talk about,” Cora said. “I expected us to have to field at least a couple of challenges to Marco’s power, but other than someone hacking his car the one time, and the three idiot Master Vampires we had to deal with, we’ve had it mostly peaceful. Is that because of the two of us, or because challenging either of us likely meant fighting Kirsten, or because of Ryan becoming attached to Etta, meaning he’d likely be part of any fight involving more than a direct challenge to Marco?”
“Likely a combination of Kirsten and Ryan, on top of having to deal with us,” I told her, “but it could also be that anyone looking to take over realized it wasn’t just you, me, Kirsten, and Ryan, but also Aaron, Nathan, the bikers, and the other wolf packs — how would someone claim power and rule over the existing power structure without killing everyone? It’s a lot of territory, but you have to successfully rule Chattanooga in order to rule the other states.”
“Another option,” Ryan said. “They’re waiting until they get the skins working before they attack.”
“You’d know more about that than us, since you’ve been investigating it so long. How would having the skins help them defeat us?”
“Are you kidding?” Ryan asked. “True animals in human form, with thumbs and weapons? Mayhem on a scale we can’t imagine.”
“But that’s the Celrau, right?” I asked. “I thought the Strigorii’s experiments are about recreation and not warfare.”
“It’s also possible that’s a red herring, designed to throw us off the other experiments.”
We talked strategy until we dropped Ryan off at his car, and then Cora told me, “If we aren’t needed, I’m kind of hoping for a little alone time.”
I’d moved to the front passenger seat when Ryan got out, and I rested my hand on Cora’s leg. The light touch over her jeans was enough to scent the inside of the Bronco with the sweet, tangy scent of her lust, and I breathed it in and let the scent of my own arousal join it.
“I’m sorry things have been crazy,” I told her. “Let’s stop at the farmhouse and use one of the guest bedrooms, because the odds are, there’ll be something going on at the main house that’ll require your attention.”
She shook her head. “No. We’ll park in the garage, and Kirsten will come to us and flash us to my room, so no one else will scent us as we move through the house. I telepathed her. Lauren’s fine, and Kirsten’s okay. Nothing critical is happening at the moment on my end. So long as you’re available, we should be fine.”
“Unless someone’s life is in danger, I’ll be available to you, my warrior wolf.”
* * * *
Cora
It’d only been two days since we’d had sex, so I didn’t know why I suddenly needed him so badly. The adrenaline of worrying for Lauren, perhaps, or just being so close to him without getting naked all day, maybe. My vampire loves sex, and I love our naked time together, but we don’t see each other every day.
But oh, man — when Marco was focused on me, and only me? My breathing hitched and my heart raced in my chest just thinking about it, and my vampire gave a cocky little chuckle from the passenger seat beside me.
Thankfully, Kirsten was waiting for us in the garage when I pulled in, and as soon as we were out of the Bronco, she grasped each of our hands, and we were suddenly in my room. She levitated up to kiss me on the cheek, and then she flashed back out, rather than using the door to leave. I walked to the door, closed it and locked it, and told Marco, “We have too many clothes on.”
Marco walked to me, stroked my cheek, stared into my eyes a few seconds, and then pulled me into the strength of his embrace. There is safety in his arms. It isn’t as if I feel unsafe when I’m away from him, just incredibly safe when he holds me. I feel certain that the two of us, together, can fight just about anyone.
“I can usually get a good handle on what you need,” he told me with a kiss to my forehead, “but you’re all over the place tonight.”
“The thing with Lauren knocked me for a bigger loop than I want to admit,” I told him. “I held it together during the crisis, but now that it’s over, or at least paused until something else happens, I guess I need to deal with it — but not yet. It isn’t so much that I want to be out of control, as I need to not be in control for a little while? You’re so good at taking me out of my own head, so nothing exists in the moment but us. I need that, I think.”
Seconds later, his teeth were in the side of my neck, piercing, penetrating, and then my veins were on fire. The heat went to my clit, and it throbbed with need. Fuck, but I needed him inside me in the worst kind of way. He lifted me, settled me onto my bed, and I unfastened my jeans while he took my boots off. Seconds after my feet were bare, he yanked my jeans off me, and then he was over me. He shredded my shirt, but unfastened my bra and removed it, though to be honest, I wouldn’t have complained too much if he’d shredded it, too.
Sometimes, he drives me crazy with foreplay, while other times, he gives me what I want right off the bat, and today he entered me and fed my lust all at the same time. The room swam around us until it ceased to exist. We were two bodies sating a need, at first, but after a half-dozen orgasms, it became so much more.
