Brewster (Ohio Vampires #1)

Chapter 8

Brew knew that the house would be ready tomorrow, but right now, all he could think about was having his mate. Calla Lily was there for the picking, what she called it when he needed to feed, and he didn’t want to wait a bit longer. It was now, or he might hurt her when he did take her.

Going out onto the deck that had been covered just this morning, he made his way to his mate, letting as much of his monster go as he thought wasn’t dangerous. And he could be to her and didn’t want that. He loved her and everything about her.

“I need to tell you something, something important. I’ve never felt as if you were comfortable with me telling you things about my past, but I must do this. I have a ritual that I want to perform with you. It involves me using a family dagger, an heirloom that has been used for centuries when a male claims his mate. Would you mind if I were to use it tonight? It would bond us in ways that would bring us both more magic. Lots of it, too.”

“Will it hurt? I mean, very much. I want to use it because it would make me feel closer to you, but I want to be with you forever.” He told her that she would be. “Good, then chop away at me. I don’t care so long as it doesn’t hurt too much.”

Brew reached up to her backside again and felt her tense. Instead of hitting her butt again like he had just this morning when she got out of the shower, he grabbed the waist of her pants and ripped them from her. Her silence was deafening. Brew ran his hand up the curve of her ass and then down again. He could smell her response. It was hot and immediate.

“I’m going to enjoy this, taking you. I have looked forward to this all day, and I want you badly to drink from you, make love to you, with you. I want to make you mine, Calla Lily. Over and over again with just the two of us.”

“Don’t do this, Brew. There are just too many people around that can hear us. You know how I love to scream. Oh, Brew…please stop that. I can’t think when you…oh, Brew”

Her body shifted on his lap as he entered the long crack of her ass with just the tip of his finger. Her moan went straight to his cock and made him need to reach down and adjust himself before he caused serious damage to himself. But he didn’t want to stop. He wanted to get her nearly screaming with need before he stopped playing with her.

“You’re getting wet, love. I can smell it. Your heat and need are making your scent strong and irresistible to me.” He deepened his finger into her, gathering her cream and moving up to her tight bud. “Hummmm, this is where I want to be. Deep in you here, my cock moving in and out of your tightness. I’d like nothing more than to feed from your throat while I make love to your beautiful ass. And as for people hearing us, that’s not going to happen. I have magic enough that they’ll not come in here nor hear a single sound from this room.”

Brew decided that now would probably be a good time to move to something they could lie down on, something with a lot of room. He stood next to the lounge but continued his torment of her body. As he gathered more of her juices on his fingers, he pressed his little finger against her bundle of nerves and entered her with just one of his fingers. She nearly tossed them both to the floor with her jerk against him.

“Brew, please. I don’t…I need you there too. Please. Fuck me. Now, please fuck me hard.”

“Make us naked, Calla Lily. I want to feel you against my skin. Take our clothes now, Calla Lily, my love.”

He was naked. Just like that, his cock was hard and straining from his groin. His body was hot and hard for hers. His fangs dropped, and hunger surged throughout his body. Slowly moving his palm along her thigh and up the curve of her, Brew savored the feel of her skin, the warm silkiness of her as he brought her back to his chest.

“Brew, please, I hurt with need. Let me touch you, to feel you.” Calla Lily was practically riding up on his shoulder, she had leaned up so high. It was all he could do to keep her there, to hold her for his exploration. Slowly, he moved her down his chest, bringing her breasts to his mouth before he let her go any further from behind. He cupped them both and nearly came when she licked the tips and then bit down on his finger and suckled. Leaning over her, changing her position to where she was facing him, Brew knew that he wasn’t going to last much longer.

Hungrily, he fed at them, her nipples first, then her whole breast. They tasted ripe and full, her nipples hard pebbled in his mouth. Brew scraped his fangs over them and wanted to bite her, to taste her there feed from her. When she wrapped her legs around his waist, it freed his hands to cup the heavy flesh and bring them both to his mouth to suckle. Her pussy curved around the tip of his cock, wetting them both with her juices. Her small moans and growls were doing things to him he’d never felt before. His blood stirred and heated his body to the point of near pain for her.

With her legs around him, Brew lowered them to the lounge. He wanted more than anything to turn her to her belly and plunder that sweet ass of hers, but the need to be deep inside of her wet hot pussy was driving him to the brink. Her scent, strong with her own need, was making him as close to the edge as he’d ever been in his life.

“Bite me…Christ, I’m so close to spilling my seed inside of you. Feed from me over my heart, Calla Lily. I’ll…I will feed from you when we come. I want to mark you, make you mine, but if we don’t hurry, we’ll—Calla Lily, baby, don’t do that, not yet.”

She was suckling at his nipple, her teeth, her fangs he could feel now were just to the point of breaking skin, almost but painfully not yet. Brew could feel his heart pounding as he reached for the dagger. The dagger of his family, the one that would make them one.

Brew was of Royal blood, as was his entire family, and he, too, had used this same blade to bond him to Calla Lily. With this, there was a ceremony where they used a family heirloom, a jeweled dagger and, cut a vein over their hearts, and drank from there. This exchange was more of a ritual than a need, but it was still practiced today, especially by the pure-blooded vampires as he was.

With the dagger in hand, Brew sat up and looked down at her. Calla Lily was his mate, his life, and he wanted her consent, not this forced way of taking her. He would take her anyway, but he wanted her to say she wanted him as well.

“Calla Lily, I need you to want this as well. I want you to tell me that you will willingly take me as your mate, please. I don’t want this to color our future together.”

She stared at him for a long moment, and then she sat up on her elbows. Her need was still in her eyes and her body, but she was looking less needy and more scared as the seconds ticked by.

“What will happen? I mean, between us when you use it? Where will you use it? Tell me so that I’m not surprised when you do.” He explained it as best he could while still feeling like his body felt like it might explode from need. “Then what? You put it away for our son to use on his mate? I’m not full-blooded, so he might not be full-blooded.”

“Ah, but I am, and he will be because of the blade that I bring onto your flesh. I will drink from your throat, and you will drink from my breast, just there over my heart when I cut me.” She asked him if it would hurt him. “Never. I won’t feel it because you’ll be drinking from me while I make love to you. And that will be what makes us become one for all time. Nothing will kill us, nor will anything be able to destroy our bond. I will love you forever, my darling, Calla Lily Smith.”

“Do it then. Take me and allow me to feed from your heart so that all I have will be yours and you the same for me.” Brew took the knife in his fist and sliced it across his chest, just over his heart. He felt the pain of it, and his blood began to flow from the wound, but he didn’t try and stop it. He leaned down, dropping the knife on the floor beside the bed, and looked her in the eyes.

“I want you to drink from me because you want to. I want you to be my mate because you need me as much as I need you. Love me as much as I love you. If you don’t, if you’d rather leave me now, then do it. I’d rather bleed out than to force you into something that I know we will both would forever regret.”

Brew rolled to his back and threw his arm over his eyes. If she left him now, he would die. He wasn’t being dramatic. He was being honest. Honest with her as much as he was himself. He couldn’t do it, couldn’t make her be his mate, not if it would cost them to trust.

When she licked his wound, he nearly came up off the bed, taking her with him. Then she settled over his cock, riding him while she drank greedily of him. When he pulled her hair from her throat, licking the path from her shoulder to her pounding pulse, he bit down hard on her, and her richness filled his every pour.

Then, the magic poured over them both.

~*~

She woke when the sun was pouring through their window. She didn’t know the time. It could have been evening or morning, but her entire body ached. The sheets were covered in blood, and her pillow from her side of the bed was all over the floor, with feathers floating all over the room. Sitting on the side of the bed, when she realized that Brew was on the floor, she got up and tiptoed her way to the bathroom to see if she could figure out if she was wounded or not. Her body was too covered in blood.

Taking a long shower when she only wanted a short one, she was reaching for a towel when Brew joined her in the stall. He, too, was covered in blood, but he was different than he’d been before. He seemed taller, his body fuller than it had been. He pointed out to her that she was the same thing, not fat, just bigger than she’d been.

“Your breasts are larger, for sure. Your skin, I’ve noticed, is silkier and smooth. But I think it’s your hair that has changed the most. It’s black, shiny black with a single white streak like my mother and sister had in their own hair when they were changed. My mom said it was her badge of honor, marking her as a mate to a strong vampire. And he was, my father, the strongest that there was.”

She looked into the mirror and liked the streak. Calla decided that she was going to make sure that it showed up in every time she changed her hairstyle. It would be something that she’d show off. Calla told him what she was going to do from now on.

“I don’t think you can cut your hair. I don’t know why that’s in my head, but my family never could. Maybe it’s supposed to be a mark as well, something that people would notice about you and not fuck with you. Will you hand me the shampoo?” They’d been taking so many showers that they were going to have to get stock in shampoo and soap. Laughing when she handed him the last bottle they had, he said that it was kept in the linen cabinet in the hall. She went out there after wrapping the towel around her. “Hang on, Sirous is talking to me.”

Since willing their clothing away was so easy, she willed herself into a nice summer dress with daisies on it. Then, rethinking that, she made her have one on that was covered in tiny little frogs.

She had no idea why she liked the little creatures, but she was going to see if she could find some to put in their gardens with their gnomes. Also she was going to see what kind of help they could be in the garden as real creatures. She went downstairs from their bedroom, not remembering how they got there, while Brew spoke to his friend. Calla was just in time to see that Hattie and Landon were going home for the day.

“I’ve left you some sandwiches in the ice box for you. There are also cold salads that you can enjoy. There is cold wine in the same place for his majesty and a pitcher of water should you wish some.” She heard her calling Brew by his majesty but didn’t get a chance to ask her about it. “I also put you some cookies in the cookie bin in the pantry. I have to tell you it’s nice having such a well-stocked kitchen for a change. The workers said they’d come back tomorrow to make sure that you didn’t have anything else you wanted to change. I believe the house is now finished, and they’ll be working on the greenhouse over the next couple of weeks to finish that off as well.”

“Mistress, I have hired you a secretary. She has started today with your calendar. There are things that she wishes to talk over with you soon.” Calla asked why she needed a secretary. “You are Mistress of the Vampires now and will need to coordinate things so that you and the master vampire can work well together.”

“I don’t understand.” She looked at Brew when he entered the room with them. After telling him what was going on, he said that Sirous had told him the same thing. Also that he’d felt the bonding of the two of them. “I still don’t understand. He said that you were the Master Vampire. And that I was the Mistress of them. I thought you said it would just give us magic.”

“It did, my lady. All the magic of vampires, and you are the master and Mistress of them all.” Landon bowed before her and Brew. “It is a great honor to be able to work with the two of you in your new roles of the king and queen of your kind.”

Looking at Brew, she asked him what was going on. He shrugged and told her that he didn’t have any idea but might know someone that did. She asked him who it was, and then he stopped her from speaking when he put his finger up in the air. Calla didn’t know whether to be upset with him or not, but she did wait.

“It’s my mother.” She sat and waited for him to tell her more. Things were going very strangely, and she wasn’t sure what was going on right now. “She said that we’ve been chosen to be the Master and Mistress or, in other words, the king and queen of all vampires. All of them would include her as well.”

“What does that mean?” He just stared at her, but she could tell that he was listening to his mom, too. “Brew, I don’t like this. I don’t even know what this will entail for us in the future. Do we have one?”

“Yes. Christ, honey, we’re going to live forever or until we give up the new titles that we have. Then we just revert back to being just Brewster and his lovely mate Calla Lily Smith.” She looked at Hattie and Landon. They had stayed when Brew had joined her telling her about the call from Sirous. “Now I’m hearing from Kenneth. He said that he felt our bonding as well and is coming home to visit. He said that he has a book for us to read over. He found it in one of the ancient houses that he’s been exploring and then buying up.”

When Brew pulled her into his arms, she let him hold her as tightly as he wished. She needed it, she thought, as badly as he did. When she asked him if things were going to be all right, he told her he didn’t think they were ever going to get any better. He had her, the master position as well as they’d have all they needed in ways of keeping the other vampires in line with what they told them to do.

“I still don’t understand, but if you’re all right with it, I am too.” He kissed her on the forehead and held her again. Once Landon and Hattie left them, they went to the living room to talk about the things that had happened since he’d brought out the blade. Everything had changed in that moment, and she didn’t know what to think about it all.

“Will we get paid?” He laughed at her, asking her if she was greedy. “No, just this is going to take time out of the plans that we had going. Like the garden. I know it’s not magical, but it’s—Brew, what is that?”

The little creatures, about a dozen of them, came in through the open deck door. It landed on her hand when she put it out to point, and she didn’t know what to think about it. The little creature looked as if it had come for war, the way that it was dressed.

“My lady. My name is Warner. I am the faerie that will be at your side from now on should you need help. These others, they are mine to command to keep you able to focus on the tasks at hand. We will be at your beck and call for the rest of your days.” Another creature landed on Brew’s hand as it sat on his knee. It said basically the same thing to him, but she was a female named Winter. “We have served the kings and queens of all creatures since they were born. You, however, are the strongest of all kinds of shifters and vampires alike. We will serve you for all your lives.”

“Do you know if you can answer questions for us?” Warner said that he was there to answer anything they needed, even questions that they might have. “Why us? I mean, the blade has been used by the family for generations, I’m to understand. What made it so that we became the couple who would rule?”

You are the Master and Mistress, as you are the strongest ever born. And there are similar such blades from other families used in the same tradition that you two have used it. But as I said, you two are the strongest ever born for the role in which you have been chosen.” She still didn’t understand and told him so. “You will come to understand as days and centuries go by. What you need to do now is to learn from the beginning of time since there were Master and Mistress.”

He touched his head to the palm of her hand and asked her if he could do anything right now. He had noticed that the gardens in the back needed to be taken care of, and that was one of the many things he could do to help her.

“I would love to have it up and going right now, but isn’t it a little late in the year for us to plant anything more in it?” He said that it would forever grow and produce so long as she wished it. She did notice that Winter was talking to Brew, and she thought this might be more helpful than the little creatures knew. “So anything that I need, such as fruit year-round, will be there for me?”

“Yes, my lady. Your wish is only mine to have finished for you.” The room transformed into a plethora of fruits and vegetables. “However, you are as much vampire as his lordship is. He, too, will be able to enjoy the products from the ground and field. It will not only make you blend in better but also allow you to hide in plain sight should anyone come looking for you. And they will, if only to try and prove to themselves that they can try and kill the two of you. Which, as I have said, will never happen. We will also be able to protect you so that you’ll be forever safe, too.”

“I get that you’re saying that we’re the strongest couple ever born, but he was born generations and generations before I was. Did you have to wait on me to be born before—what happened to the other Master and his Mistress? Did they die? How long has it been since anyone has governed the vampires?” He told her right to the second how long it had been, and then he told them what had happened to the others. “So they decided to give it up because they were bored. I don’t see that happening to me. I see where it will be a long time in working to get things right.”

“You are correct, my lady. There have been too many generations of vampires running amok, and now is the time for someone to bring them to task. It will be up to the two of you to decide what their punishment will be. And ours to execute what you have decreed.”

“Is there a rule book that we can look over?” Warner told her that all the rules were now in their head and the punishment for each of the crimes. “So it’s going to be all or nothing with the rules being broken. I mean, there can’t just be a set of rules that we have to follow that applies to everything going on, is there.”

“Ah, but they aren’t black and white. You will know the rules and the punishment, but you will also be able to change the laws to suit your needs. Yes, they are written as black-and-white rules, but you never know their circumstances until you hear both sides of the story.” She told him that she liked that. “Good.” He looked at his counterpart and smiled back at her.

“He will have more rules than you will because you will be breeding soon, and your children will need more care from you. A child of a vampire pair will not be born a vampire. And until they’re twenty-five human years old, they will act and grow up to learn the ways of the humans, blending in. It is so important for them to blend into anything they might be working with. Then, at the age they were to become fully vampire, they will not just take over more duties for you, but they will have their own faeries so that they might learn from an early age what is required of them as your children.”

“Will they also be able to know how to punish vampires that need it?” Warner told her that they’d not be able to charge them with anything but only to report the part that they’d witnessed. There are, as you’ve heard all your life, two sides to every story and consequence coming to them.”

“I love that. Two sides mean that we’ll be getting the entire story rather than just one side. Thank you for that.” He bowed again, his head touching her palm. “Do you all live forever?”

“Nay, my mistress. There will be times when it will be impossible to save you without the loss of life. We are many. The few that we have here aren’t even the tip of a pinpoint that we have ready to lay down their lives for the two of you?” She asked if any of them had family that would miss them. “Forever do we have a family when we are born. But they will be missed and honored by having given up their lives for the two of you. You need not worry about them, my mistress. They are ready to do what is necessary, even to the point of giving up their lives for the two of you and any children that you will have.”

It was all too much and still not nearly enough for her. Her mind was so full of questions that she couldn’t figure out which one was the one that most needed an answer. As her mind began to settle, the faeries were gone, but for Warner, she closed her eyes and could almost see what she was going to need in the near future. It was just to be calm, and she felt the calmness roll over her. She also needed peace, and it seemed to be right there for her to enjoy.

When she woke up, not even realizing that she was tired or, for that matter, asleep, she looked around the room and realized that she was alone in the large room. Sitting up, she was slightly dizzy but otherwise feeling all right. As she was getting ready to stand up, she noticed the band of tats around her arm. They were words that she could barely make out, they were so small. But she did recognize the date as of yesterday and that she was now the Mistress of Vampires. Whatever did that, the work on her skin, it never hurt her at all.

Finding the lower floor empty, she went to the second floor, calling out to Brew. When she realized that he wasn’t in the house, she reached out to him and found him on the back deck of their home, just sleeping as she had been. When she found him, the sun was resting on his face, and he had a smile on his face. Like her, she thought, he’d found peace with the things going on as she had.

“I was just thinking about you.” She asked him what he meant. “You’re to have a child soon. A male child.” She put her hand on her flat belly and asked him why he seemed so sure. “I am sure. Winter told me that you conceived because of the bonding. It is necessary for us to have children and raise them in the way that we are. It will be good for them too to know that we’ve become what we are because we are good and kind people. Also, my mother is on her way here.”

“Will she hate me?” He asked her why she thought that. “I don’t know, really. It was the first thing that popped into my head. Perhaps that’s a good thing that I’m breeding. I’m to understand what it’s called. She won’t hate me for making her a grandma.”

“She already is a grandma.” Brew motioned for her to sit on his lap. When she lay down with her head on his chest, she closed her eyes again. “I’m exhausted as well. I have a feeling that for the next several days, we’re going to need to rest up so that we have a better outlook on everything that has happened.”

“I want to get up and find out what’s changed in the garden and the trees, but I’m like you; I’m just too tired to get up and get going. I hate feeling like this.” He said that he did, too, but since there was nothing they could do about it, they should just rest up before the others started coming around. “You mean your friends and mom.”

“Yes but they’ll be your friends as well. I believe that Kenneth will be here first. As I have said to you, he’s done the most with his money and his work. I believe he also wants to settle down and have a family of his own. He will with a mate or not, I think.”

“He’ll adopt.” Brew said it was more than that. He’d just bring children into his home to make sure that they’re well cared for. He’s a better vampire than I am.”

“Doubtful, he doesn’t have his demons too. I believe that all of us have some kind of problems that we wish would go away.” Brew asked her if she meant her uncle. “I do. He’s been a pain in my ass since I was a child. I’m sure there are people in your closet the same way.”

“There are. I’ve just not thought about them in longer than I can remember them. But as you said, we have our life together, and we’ll be happy.” He kissed her again, and she loved him for it. “What do you say we go out and look at the gardens and see what we can get up to in the yard. With all this help, we can make this a showcase of a place in no time. All right?”

She agreed with him and thought for sure that they’d have more time now than they did before. All she wanted to do was to spend time with her husband and have plenty of children to be just like him.