Chapter 22
Hendricks
“Tell me about who you were before you became a vampire,” Lydia asks. We’re laying down in a heap of limbs and dirt. Her fingers are threaded through mine as the moon sits high above us in the sky. It’s almost a full moon, but not quite.
“I don’t remember much,” I say honestly, “But from what I can remember, my life wasn’t very good. Maverick and Talon found me in a bar in Chicago and chose to turn me that night.”
“And when was that?”
I blow out a breath. “Must have been in the twenties.”
“2020?”
“No. 1920.”
“Oh, wow.” She takes a moment to process that information. “So, you would have been around for all that Al Capone, gangsters of Chicago stuff that was happening around then.”
I nod my head and bring the back of her hand to my mouth planting a soft kiss on her skin. “That’s right.”
“What was that like?”
I sigh, “My memories of it are fuzzy, but I think whatever I was doing before was depressing. I remember being sad a lot. Drinking to feel numb. I think I was running from something, and I ran right into a new life. A new form. I do remember seeing Al Capone once though. He was eating at a restaurant I was in before it got peppered with a bunch of bullets in a drive-by.”
“You’re old as fuck,” she says with a laugh.
“Maverick over there is even older. He was the first vampire that Talon ever turned.”
“You’ve mentioned Talon a few times. Who is he?”
“He owns Nightmare Acres. He’s fucking ancient. He wanted to create a place where monsters like us could exist without scrutiny or persecution. Humans don’t tend to react well to finding out paranormal beings are real. They go after us and try to eradicate us from existence.”
“But you do kill people?”
“Only the bad ones.”
“How do you know they’re bad.”
“We can see their souls. Their past. Their intentions. Like that Australian couple that was in your cabin.”
She sits up and turns to look at me. “Holy shit! You killed them?”
I sit up and nod, pulling a few leaves out of her hair.
“Those people? Were human trafficking children. The things that I saw in their minds would have turned the strongest stomachs into jelly. If you ask me, they’re the true monsters.
People who parade about, acting as if they’re good, upstanding citizens.
They put on a good show and most people that surround them are none the wiser that something sinister and evil is lurking just beneath the surface.
They get publicly praised for donating or acting like they’re religious.
All the while, they’re hiding their true selves from the light.
But us vampires thrive in the shadows and dark.
We can see through their carefully crafted lies and find what it is they’re trying to hide from the world.
And then we make them pay for what they’ve done. ”
She nibbles on her bottom lip, mulling over my words.
“I guess, if you have to kill people, those would be the ones that should go. I just… I knew something must have happened to them and then I forgot about them.”
“That’s what happens here. It’s hard to focus on things when you’re too busy being stuck in survival mode.”
We lay back down, and Lydia tucks herself into my side. Her hand resting gently on my chest.
“So, what about Maverick? What’s his backstory?”
Maverick rolls over snoring lightly. I’ve never seen him have to sleep so much, but it’s better that he listens to what his body needs.
“He doesn’t remember much either. Our brains tend to hide our lives when we’re turned into a vampire— unless we want to remember. It seems that whatever life we were leaving behind wasn’t one that we wanted to retain.”
“What about Jack? Is he a vampire like you?”
“No, Jack can transform into a Jack O’Lantern. He has the head of a pumpkin and his limbs turn to vines.” She mulls that over in her mind, trying to picture what he would look like.
“Do I really look like his wife? You know that story they told us all when we first got here, is that all true?”
“That would be a question for Jack. I don’t know much, but the story they tell the campers is what he’s disclosed before in our brief interactions.”
“That’s so sad.”
I pull her tighter into my chest and feel her hair tickle beneath my chin. I could lay like this forever. She fits so well against me.
“So, what else can you tell me? Sunlight. Is that really true?”
“Yeah. We can’t be in sunlight.”
“What happens if you’re in sunlight?”
“It burns us up into a pile of ash.”
“Oh, shit. What about garlic?”
“It burns.”
“Seems like a lot of burning. What else is there?”
“Well, there’s the vampire speed. We can turn into bats, so that’s true. We can coerce people into doing what we want. And we’re immortal, unless you decide to set us on fire or stake us through the heart.”
“I wasn’t planning to, but now that you mention it—”
I grip her about the waist and roll her over onto her back.
“Oh really? You want to stake me in the heart?”
She shrugs her shoulders, “I was thinking about it.”
I descend on her rib cage with my fingers, tickling her sides. She screams out in a fit of laughter, wiggling her entire body. “Ah!!! Stop, stop, stop! Okay, I promise not to stake you if you stop tickling me!”
I stop and look down into her face. Her cheeks are flushed and her hair fans all around her head, spilling out over the leaves like a halo. Her supple lips are pulled up into a smile and her eyes are alight with laughter. She’s so beautiful.
I lean down at kiss her thoroughly, my body covering hers as she wraps her legs around me. She fits so well beneath me. Kissing her fills my senses so completely that I lose all sense of our surroundings. The only thing that exists in this moment is me and her.
“So fucking needy.”
“What can I say, I like the way you make me feel,” she says back.
“Then let me give you exactly what it is that you want,” I say, yanking her shorts and underwear down in one hard, tug. She’s so fucking wet for me, but I know we went hard on her.
I lean down and lick her clit, teasing her slick entrance with my fingers. She wiggles her hips, and I can tell just how sensitive she is still. She’s so responsive to every touch, every lick, every sensation I give her that it drives me mad.
I take my time with her, licking and sucking until she’s riding my face.
“Fuck, Hendricks. Just like that,” she says, gripping my hair in her hands.
I stick my tongue up inside her and she shudders around me, orgasming all over my mouth.
I lap up every last drop as she rides it out.
But before she has a chance to take a breath, I’m straddling her and shoving my cock inside her slowly.
Barbell by barbell, letting her feel every single ridge.
She inhales as she adjusts to my size until I’m fully seated inside of her.
Her legs are spread wide, and I slide myself out, then back in again filling her up with every inch of me.
“Fuck, I love being able to do this with you. To feel you like this,” I tell her.
I fuck her slow, taking in every expression that crosses her face and committing them to memory.
I love seeing what she likes, what she needs, and then giving her exactly what it is she craves.
It’s intoxicating being with her like this and it just works so effortlessly.
My body moves with hers like it meant to.
“You feel so fucking good,” I say. “Like you were made for me.” Gone are my doubts that she’s going to run from us.
Now that she sees exactly who we are. She could have screamed right in our faces and ran.
But she didn’t. She stayed. She stayed, and she’s right here where she’s supposed to be.
Pinned under my cock, moaning my name as I fuck her so good she’ll never want to leave.
We roll together then, so she’s riding me. I can see her every curve like this as I thrust up into her tight, wet pussy.
“Bite me,” she says sounding breathless.
She’s so close. I can feel it. She’s squeezing down on me so tight that I feel like I’m about to burst inside of her right this second.
“Oh fuck, yes,” I say, latching onto her neck with my teeth and puncturing her sweet skin. The metallic taste of her blood floods my senses and I use my vampire speed to vibrate my cock up inside her.
She loses it then and comes all over my cock with a scream on her lips. A hot jolt of pleasure zips down my spine and then I’m coming, filling her with my seed and drinking her blood. I stop myself before I take too much, licking her wounds clean and making sure they close.
She looks at me with such adoration that I know in my heart, that I fucking love her.
I kiss her lips and let her roll back to collect herself.
When I come back to reality, the sound of birds chirping reaches my ears, and I instinctively freeze. Dawn isn’t far off, and we have to get back. Shit. I hurriedly throw my clothes back on and rouse Maverick. He looks groggy as hell, and I make a mental note to get that werewolf wound checked out.
“Mav, we have to go. Sunrise,” I tell him.
“Fuck,” he says, stumbling to follow me.
Lydia dresses quietly but quickly beside us.
We make it to her cabin and then down into the tunnels just in time before the sun’s rays crest over the trees.
We might not have a definitive answer on where all of us will go from here, but knowing that she’s still here, still wanting to even be around us means fucking everything. It means we have a chance. And I let myself feel hope for the first time in a long time.