18. Catalina
EIGHTEEN
catalina
I hurried after Jax, trying to keep up, but when I turned the corner, he was gone. My aching throat didn’t make my effort any easier.
My bare feet padded across the clean carpet. There wasn’t a single indication of the massacre from earlier. Good, the severed head would haunt me enough as it was.
I descended to the first floor.
Jax had already opened the door for a woman. I slowed to a stop halfway down the stairs.
She smiled sweetly up at him. Like he’d hung the moon, stars, and universe. I bit back my scoff but couldn’t stop from narrowing my eyes.
There was no use in trying to charm the ornery vampire. Their lips moved, but the words were too low for me to hear.
“Don’t worry Pet, she’s from a high-end escort service run by a reputable vampire Coven. She understands the risk and is paid handsomely for it,” Asher said into my ear.
I startled, catching myself on the banister before losing my footing.
Jax guided her down the hall and past where I stood gawking. The girl had to be around my age. Her blonde hair flowed behind her as she swayed past in her short, barely-there dress.
“Bastien can’t bite her.” The words burst from my mouth. I could hardly hear them because of my heart pounding in my ears.
“Jealous again? Over the blood-mad vampire?” Asher blinked at me as if he couldn’t fathom the idea. His eyes took on a faraway look.
I had no idea what could be passing through his mind.
“He won’t fuck her?—”
“There’s nothing to worry about, Cat,” Ren drawled, seemingly appearing out of thin air. “Bastien will drain her.” A slight smirk curled his lips and he pinched my chin. “If that’s distasteful to you, then you’re in for a rude awakening.”
“Like that’s any better,” I muttered.
“Of course it is.” Ren’s response didn’t hold any sort of indication that he joked. He paused at the base of the staircase.
Sometimes I seriously forgot how deadly vampires were. Their human forms were shells to the inhumanity within.
“Whatever,” I mumbled, continuing my descent.
“You should stay up here.”
“No.” I reached Ren’s side.
He curled his hand around the back of my neck and pulled me, walking me alongside him. His thumb rubbed against my scalp, wringing a shiver to life. At this point, I wished I was just a blood-whore. At least that would help me explain away this . . . this attraction. A straight explanation for my utter obsession with their touch.
Asher’s words from yesterday echoed in my ears about getting high off blood. I’d had vampire blood before, but yesterday I drank it to a different level. The sensation their blood gave me frightened me . . . but also made me feel frenzied. Even now, as I thought about their blood, my mouth watered.
Speaking of the slightly unhinged vampire, why was he so touchy all of a sudden?
I had to crane my head to look at his side profile. Cherry blossoms on branches stretched up the side of his neck. I followed one branch until the tip ended just shy of his jaw line. His broad, strong jaw was smooth and his pore less skin, enviable.
A perk to being a vampire aside for the extended life span. Only if I was prepared to no longer feel emotion on a deeper level would I go through with something like?—
“Watch the ledge,” Ren snapped as we crossed the opened threshold of the metal door opposite to the kitchen. It was much too dark . . . I couldn’t see anything. Nerves clenched in my stomach. Darkness . . . uncomfortable, suffocating . . . but with Ren’s touch and Asher’s presence, I didn’t have the urge to bolt.
I side eyed Ren. Incredibly deranged vampire. His moods changed faster than I could keep track of.
My bare foot slipped on the edge of the metal of the second step. I gasped, my leg flying out from under me.
Then I was straightened by the hold on my neck. A muscle in my shoulder pinched from my weight being lifted from one spot.
Ow.
I full on glared at him, but not one peep from him.
Huffing, I said nothing considering he’d saved me from getting my head split open. Especially since I had to rely on his guidance downward.
“Why was Bastien moved down here?”
“After his little escapade, we needed to secure him better,” Asher said from behind me.
“You guys are acting like he’s an animal,” I mumbled.
“He is.”
I glared back at Asher, hoping he could see my face.
Ren tightened his hold on my neck, forcing me forward again. “Watch where you’re going.”
“It’s not like I can even see.”
He grunted.
“His life is a blur of craving. Nothing matters in his endlessly devoid existence?—”
“Here he goes. Asher, wax poetic some other time.”
A scoff escaped me before I could hold it.
“You’re laughing at me, Pet?” The end of Asher’s words titled at the end from surprise. I pursed my lips tight and shook my head. One of my strands of hair stuck under Ren’s grip and pinched at my scalp forcing me to stop.
We reached the landing, and a faint light beamed across the first step, allowing me to see where they brought me. A spacious room with a russet, traditional carpet rolled out in the middle of two half circle couches facing each other. Across from us was a door that was wide open and the origin of the lighting.
A raised female voice echoed.
“You didn’t say I’d be feeding a blood-mad vampire.” Her voice trembled.
I wrenched free and dipped to escape Ren’s grip. I hurried into the room and discovered exactly why she’d shouted.
Bastien stood at the corner, tensed and ready to strike. The bear-like stature, standing snake-still. His unfocused gaze seemed to see through her.
His look screamed that he wouldn’t have mercy. Ren’s words echoed through my thoughts. She’d die at his hands.
“Why’d you bring her?” Jax asked, eyeing me with irritation.
I chose to ignore his bitchiness.
Bastien’s head slowly turned to face me and his nostrils flared. In a millisecond, he burst forward, hands outstretched to grab me.
He stopped a few feet from me, the chains shackled to his wrists forcing him to a stop. Bastien hissed and jerked at his hands causing metal to clang with his harsh moments.
“Reinforced steel, you’re not getting out of those,” Asher called to him. Of course, Bastien didn’t react.
“Do what you were paid to do.” Jax shoved the shaking girl.
She stumbled forward, into Bastien’s reach. I lunged forward to intercept the stumbling woman. Bastien’s eyes screamed death. He swept me behind him and slammed his palm into her chest. She flew backwards and hit the wall with a sickening thud.
I gasped and lunged to hang onto his arm before he went at her. The girl groaned, curling her legs under her as she clasped her temples.
“Fuck,” she hissed, eyes cinched tight.
Bastien didn’t like that. He moved toward her, head lowered like a bull.
“Stop,” I shouted and smacked Bastien’s arm.
He slowly turned his head toward me.
The girl finally opened her eyes and swiped the back of her hands against the blood dripping from her nose.
She staggered to her feet with eyes as wide as a kewpie doll. She scooted against the wall as she moved away.
“I can’t do this,” she said, her voice wobbling. Jax sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
What an asshole.
“I’ll feed anyone but that thing.”
I clenched my teeth and swung my glare toward her. He threw her against the wall so she was well within her right to be hateful, but he didn’t mean to hurt her. “So which of you need some blood?”
The corner of my eyelid twitched, but I forced my attention to Ren. Whatever they did, or whoever they bit, was none of my business.
“Leave, vampire food. No one wants your blood,” Ren drawled from near the door frame. He leaned against the sill, blocking most of the exit with his body.
The sliver was all she needed to squeeze past him and out of the room. Her hurried footsteps echoed.
When I turned back to Bastien, his face hovered an inch away from my face. His red, eerie eyes peered into my face. Unlike how he blankly looked at the girl, he actually seemed to see at me.
I clicked my tongue.
“Why don’t you ever put clothes on him?” A robe split at the top, exposing his smooth tan chest. His skin tone’s hue was nicely bronzed and his white, long hair fell in messy waves down his shoulders, about mid-bicep.
He settled his chin on my shoulder and sniffed my hair. This bedroom wasn’t as cozy as the one upstairs. The cement made the room colder and the bed resting on the floor lacked any sort of bedsheets.
Clutching his arm like I could protect him against the twins and Ren, I whirled. “And why is his bed on the floor?” I didn’t allow Asher a word edgewise. “Not only that but couldn’t you have put blankets or even a sheet on the bed?”
“It’s a new mattress . . .”
“And what is this?” I shook the chain at Bastien’s wrists. They clanged against the bolted metal plate over his bed. “Is there really a need for this?”
“Is . . . the human scolding . . . us?” Ren blinked.
“Did you not explain Bastien’s mental state, Asher?” Tobias’s voice came from behind Ren since he blocked the entrance. “Love, he doesn’t care what he sleeps on. He doesn’t care about anything. It’s difficult enough getting him to feed instead of simply murdering.”
They could go on and on about how he was a mindless vampire who wouldn’t care about comforts, but then why did he create bedding and clothing in his dream world?
I couldn’t be convinced that not a single bit of memory remained in Bastien, even if it was muscle memory.
“I’ll feed him.” I met Tobias’s focused gaze. “But I have a request.” The words spilled forward. They could deny me or ignore me, but I would ask regardless.
I bounced my gaze to Ren, then Jax, and lastly to Asher who looked delighted.
“And what is that?” Asher sounded too excited.
“Get him a proper set of clothes, unchain him . . . and . . . buy me a new computer.” I tossed in at the end.
Ren closed his eyes and tilted his head back. The corner of his lips turned down and caused his dimples to dip.
Was he about to laugh at me?
“A human caring about a feral vampire.” He opened his eyes. “Quite refreshing.”
Oh no, he seemed even more intrigued by me. Hunger glinted in those brown eyes. “We will do that.” Ren nodded.
Jax sighed and turned. “How did the meeting with Calliope go?” Tobias shouldered past Ren, walking into the room.
“She did not do it. She swore on your shared Sire, Ren.”
The relaxation faded from Ren.
“She is not lying, then.” Ren turned to me.
“Aren’t you guys, like, enemies?” I asked. They seemed much too nonchalant about her.
“Some days.”
I was even more confused.
“What he means is they like to play little games in the face of bored immortality,” Asher offered.
Kidnapping each other, sending murderers to each other’s house—they had an interesting way of pranking one another.
“That’s your entertainment?” I scoffed. “So what, do you even believe it’s the vampire hunting me?”
Bastien banded his arms around my waist and his fangs grazed against my neck, eliciting a shiver from my soul.
“We needed to eliminate every possibility, Catalina.”
I hummed.
“What about vampire hunters,” I said jokingly, but their expressions didn’t change.
“We finished eradicating the vampire hunter bloodline a decade ago,” Ren said, deadpan.
Well there went my joke, whittling away like a deflating balloon.
I cleared my throat.
Just as I thought then—it was the male vampire after me. My stomach dropped and I pressed closer to Bastien. In his arms, I felt safer than I’d felt in a while. I should have come to him sooner.
“So will you release him or what?”
Asher’s head fell back with his laugh.
Ren straightened and he seemed suddenly serious. His attention focused on me, but he didn’t say anything. He just studied me.
“Not cautious anymore, Cat? Did you grow up or have you succumbed to madness?”
I shrugged and picked at my chipped nail polish. Option two.
“You could kill me. Whatever vampire is out there can kill me.” I waved my hands in the air. “At least Asher and Tobias will make sure I go gently if one of you off me.”
Nerves bubbled in my stomach from his perusal, so I returned my attention to Asher. He yanked Bastien’s cuffed hands out and gingerly turned Bastien’s wrist to reach a latch on the underside. The circle had a line in the middle that needed to be turned to line up with the outer section.
Asher shook his hands as if the touch of the metal bothered him. I reached to unhook the other cuff from Bastien’s wrist much faster than Asher would have.
“You understand you will be in charge of him?” Ren interjected, eyebrows slightly furrowed.
I scowled at him in answer.
“Imagine, we wouldn’t have this entertainment if Imogen got her way with Bastien and had us kill him.” Asher chortled again.
Kill him? I mouth, horrified.
“She knows the value in keeping him. She was testing us.” Ren snorted.
Tobias raised a haughty eyebrow. The truth was being stretched if his expression meant anything.
“The ease in which you two speak of Imogen—” Jax stopped mid-sentence and looked at me. “All because of the influence of a meaningless human pussy.”
His words sliced through my heart.
My lungs felt like they deflated.
Even though I wouldn’t be fooled into thinking Jax ever cared for me, he’d been close to looking at me with affection.
I turned my attention to the vampire that actually made me feel safe. Clasping Bastien’s hand, I tugged him past Ren. Bastien easily shouldered past him and forced Ren out of his way.
“Where are we going?” Asher asked as he caught my other hand. Sighing, I stopped fighting him, twinning our fingers together.
“Don’t know, but I didn’t want to hang around that prison cell.” At the base of the stairs, I had to let go of their hands so I could make my way up with quick steps. “Can I add some slippers to the things I want?”
“I’ll order them.” Asher’s voice echoed in the tunnel-like hallway leading to the main part of the house.
“You like ordering stuff online don’t you?” I asked, knowing the answer.
“I even have a membership for speedy delivery?—”
“He was chronically online before you came around, Love,” Tobias’s deadpan voice floated up to me.
“I don’t know if you can call his porn addiction?—”
“Now reel the judgment back in.” Asher interrupted Ren.
Asher’s offended tone caused a smile to spread. I quickly stifled it, hurrying to the kitchen island and hoisting myself up on the granite. Bastien wouldn’t need to lean down too much with me up here. Pressing my palms into the cold surface, I leaned back. The long sweater hem caressed my thighs. The cold counter touched a sliver of my skin. I hissed a breath out between my teeth.
“Bastien?” I called and tilted my head to the side to bare my throat for him.
His red eyes traveled over my body, and he inhaled to smell me, releasing a hum with each exhale. I bunched the collar of his robe and tried to force him to me. All I managed to do was loosen the sash and expose his long, tapered body.
Wide, strong, and thick, were only some words used to describe him. He was also ethereal with his white hair, bronzed skin tone and red eyes. His cock hung between his legs, still large even though blood didn’t fill it.
I caught Bastien’s arm and pressed his palm to my neck. My pulse jumped and he groaned, sniffing audibly. His fangs popped free and my body responded.
With a hard swallow, I sank my teeth into my lower lip to keep my libido in control or at least contain a semblance of it. Then Bastien was all up in my face and burying his teeth in the side of my throat. I gasped, twitching against his onslaught of sharp pricks at my throat, then the dash of pain was swept away with him sucking. He tugged at me so hard he tore the fabric of the sweater and the scraps pooled under me.
A moan left my mouth and my eyelids shuttered. I wiggled, until I practically ground down on the granite. My hands fluttered at his biceps, fingertips brushing against the silk robe.
His cock nudged my calf.
Bastien pressed his palm into the middle of my spine forcing me to arch my back and press my breasts toward him. My nipples rubbed against his chest with each of my harsh breaths. Lust blazed across my skin.
I couldn’t close my legs to stop the moisture from trickling onto my thighs because his mass stood between my knees. God, my clit felt sensitive to the max and all I wanted was a bit of pressure.
Bastien slurped another mouthful, licked the wound, then straightened.
My gaze dropped to his straining cock.
I wanted to please him.
I pulled his arm until he followed my tugging onto the granite counter. He hoisted himself on with ease. Shoving his shoulder, he followed my demand, settling back with his elbows on the hard surface.
Curling both my legs under me, I hovered over his member. It pointed up, veiny, thick, and uncircumcised. Clasping my hand around the girth, he jolted up with an audible gasp. Bastien’s wide, red gaze settled on me. I couldn’t help the corner of my lips twitching.
His reactions were always endearing and uncontrolled. He felt without restraint and I loved it. I lowered and the curtain of my hair brushed across his thighs. He must have liked how it felt because his thigh muscles twitched.
I wrapped my mouth around the mushroom tip. Immediate precum spread on my tongue as I lapped it. I lifted my head and watched it surface in fascination. There was a red tint to it.
Peeking up at him, I smiled and then took as much of him as I could fit in my mouth. I had to open so wide my jaw cracked. Flicking my tongue up the side of his shaft, I licked the silky side. His thighs tensed and both of his hands bunched the back of my hair, forcing me down to take more of him. His tip prodded against my throat.
I struggled to swallow with his tip shoving at my tonsils, but he seemed to like it very much because his hips gyrated upward. Bastien would choke me on his cock if he didn’t let me breathe. My vision grew spotty.
Forcing a breath through my nose, it allowed the dizziness to fade. I couldn’t panic. I swirled my tongue again and Bastien gasped.
It didn’t take long. With another drag of my hand up his dick, Bastien exploded into my mouth. Cum spurted into my mouth, tartness mingling with a sweet taste different from how their blood tasted.
His hands slowly slid off my head to the granite, and I lazily licked him clean.
A harsh groan ripped through Bastien’s heavy breathing. I sat up, stretching the kink in my neck.
Ren and Asher watched, lust blazing in their gazes. In a few quick strides, Ren gripped my hips and slid me to the edge of the counter, Bastien sliding off to stand beside me.
“What are you doing?” I asked breathlessly as Ren spread my thighs apart as far as they could go.
“You’re feeding all of us, Cat,” Ren breathed against my wet pussy.