Chapter 11 Ezra #3
“You seriously don’t know?” Eugene asks.
“Why am I asking? The prophecy. The vampire that cannot be ruled, who is strong enough to slaughter all other vampires, who will rule our kind for all-time. The Vampire King. It’s a legend vampires from before my time have been afraid of because it means an end to what they know.
Or that’s what has been assumed. It’s pretty vague. ”
“That sounds… Like a lot of responsibility I don’t want,” I admit out loud.
I like my simple life. I enjoy taking care of the shop and spending time with Gracie.
I don’t want anything grand for myself. Just a quiet, small life I can enjoy.
And that ultimately makes up my mind. I look from Eugene to the guys kneeling to the shadow duo. “If I let you go, what will you do?”
“Go home,” one of the shadow vampires says.
His brother nods.
I can sense their longing like it was my own. They just want to get away from this. To be home. Like me, they want a quiet life.
The strawberry blond rises to his feet. “I want the life I never got.”
“What does that mean?”
“I was studying astronomy when I was turned. I’ve watched our grasp of the heavens change irrevocably, all while being stuck in a hole in the ground. I want to learn. I want to discover something.”
He’s a ball of energy in my mind. Building towards something. He might be a bit of a hothead, but he isn’t lying.
“And you?” I ask the vampire still kneeling.
He straightens, glancing from me to the others and back. “I don’t know. I don’t have a home or lofty ideals. I suppose… I want to figure out what I want.”
He’s a hard read. But something like a still pond with deep waters.
I look at Eugene and feel a kinship. A sense of overwhelm.
“Don’t ask me that. I… I don’t know where to start…” He turns to stare at the wall, and I think we all hear his gulp. “I’d like to find my children’s children’s children… However many down the line we are. I… I don’t know.”
“How do I set you free?” I ask.
The strawberry blond gestures at Treznor. “It’s in the blood. And it takes time. Treznor gave each of us some blood, but not much. A thrall gets none. Blood from a vampire is different than that from humans.”
Vyslan’s arm comes around my shoulders. “No one is snacking on my vampire today. Understand?”
“Are you…” Eugene blinks at me. “Are you really doing it?”
I can’t help but chuckle. “I’ve got my own problems. No offense, but I don’t want yours, too.”
“Huh.” He rubs his face. “With your permission, we can be free to a point. Still connected to you, but free to roam.”
“Let’s do that, then.”
“You’re serious?” the shadow vamp asks.
I can’t help but chuckle as a line comes to me. “Life’s strikes and gutters, ups and downs. Treznor was a real low point. Let’s do better, yeah?”
Vyslan whoops and suddenly I’m airborne. He tosses me up before catching me under the arms and slamming my back against the metal grate floor. He straddles my thighs, grinning wide enough I’m wondering if I’m safe.
“Drink from me, Daddy,” he purrs.
Gracie sputters and I think I just heard a room full of asses pucker.
I groan and wipe my hand over my face. “You just made this really fucking weird, Vys.”
“But I really need you to drink from me,” the eight foot flaming demon whines.
“You’re so weird,” Gracie snickers.
I think I can feel Vyslan’s testicles as he dry humps me.
“Will you stop?” I push at him, but I don’t really want him to go anywhere. “I was just traumatized enough, don’t you think?”
He cups the back of my head and presses my face between his pectoral muscles. “And my blood will make it all better. Pretty please?”
I’m not exactly in a good place. Treznor’s blood might have been potent, but the others are right. Vampire blood isn’t the same.
“Fine,” I mutter.
Vyslan shimmies, but gives me no space.
My fangs descend and though we’re both fairly disgusting, I love that he showed up for me. I might not be happy with him for bringing Gracie, but they’re my people. The ones I can count on. The ones I love.
I bite into his pectoral, and it feels a bit like crunching into an apple with how rock hard he is. But the taste of him is familiar and soothing. I draw in deep, my body relaxing and the need to feed taking over.
Fuck. Every time I bite him it’s like I forgot how good it was and it’s new all over again. I dig my fingers into his back, urging him closer. And then he shudders and moans.
I rear back and look up at his grinning, blissed-out face as he bites his lower lip.
“Goddess…” Gracie giggles and groans. “Did you…?”
“Yup,” he says.
I close my eyes and press my face back between his man-tits, because what else am I supposed to do?
“Did he just what?” someone else asks.
“Uh…” Gracie chuckles again. “Remember Vyslan is an incubus, right…?”
“Did he just…?”
“Yup.”
“Goddess…”
“Yeah.”
“Alright.” Puck claps his hands. “Vampires, it’s been a long day already. Will you kindly go anywhere else?”
“Gladly,” Eugene mutters.
The five vampires clear out quickly.
“That leaves you, óengus,” Puck says.
“I’m not leaving,” the scaly basted replies.
“That works,” Puck says. He sounds like such an arrogant bastard.
He is pretty, though. Gracie has excellent taste in men.
“Ezra isn’t exactly the dreary mountain fortress type.
I trust you’ll make this situation fair given what you stand to gain if we leave this place to you?
Oh, and we do expect you to make good on the rest of Treznor’s payment to Luciu here. ”
“Vys?” I mutter.
“Hm?”
“How high are you?”
“So fucking high.”
That would explain why my body feels like it’s made of down feathers.
Feathers.
“Shit!” I yelp and shove the demon back.
He goes rolling to the floor while I glance around. “Farid’s mother. Where is she?”
More smoke trickles from óengus’ nostrils. “What’s she to you?”
I blink at him. Is he bigger?
Vyslan smacks the back of my calf from his sprawled position on the grimy floor. “Don’t look at other men in front of me.”
“It’s not like that.” I shake my leg, finally pulling it from his grasp. “Farid fucked me over, but he did it to save his mother. Who Treznor still has somewhere down there.”
Puck nods slowly. “I was wondering why he’d turn on you like that. I’ll call Farid. It’s best to let him handle his mother. That’s not a relationship we want to get tangled up in.”
“I’ll say,” óengus mutters and looks at me. “You’re really leaving?”
I gesture at the macabre hall around us. “You want this place? Because I don’t. I want to leave.”
óengus grunts and nods. “I’ll make it fair on all fronts.”
“Great.” Whatever that means. “Can we go?”
“Wait.” óengus gestures at Treznor’s mucus covered head. “You’ll, uh, want to take the remains and dispose of them. No disrespect to the others, but I don’t trust any vampire. If you don’t want some sort of challenge, you need to do something with that.”
“Oh, can I help?” the Puck-look-a-like asks gleefully.
“What do you have in mind?” I ask slowly.
“Isa, be a dear, would you?” The silver-haired not-Puck unwinds the ferret-cat-otter looking thing from around his shoulders and sets it on the ground, where it suddenly transforms into a water balloon looking thing.
“What the hell is that?” I mutter.
“That’s Darius’ familiar, Isa.” Gracie hooks her arm through mine. “Isa is so fucking cool.”
I glance at the other newcomer still hanging back from the rest. “Who are the new guys?”
“Darius is Puck’s secret twin and the coven blood bound Luciu to me as my witch husband. It’s been nothing but drama without you. You should know, the new Hearse line of vape liquid is way too strong and we’re all way too high.”
We watch as the water balloon rolls over Treznor’s remains and they just vanish. Like they were never there.
I blink down at the ground. It seems to ripple like water. “You don’t say…”
Did that really just happen? Is this my life?