18. Hazel
Hazel
I’d had sex before. Many, many times. Most of it was good sex too.
But I’d never, in all my nearly thirty years, had sex like this.
To say it was incredible was the most pathetic of understatements.
Words had not yet been invented for sex like this.
The heat between us was incredible. It was like my entire body had been on fire, every cell in my body attuned to Marilee and the things she was doing with her tongue.
I was pretty sure she’d just ruined me for any other sexual partner.
Not that I wanted to be with anyone else.
As crazy as it sounded, I could feel myself falling for her.
Not because she’d said we were fated to be together.
I wasn’t totally sure I believed it, but even if I did, she hadn’t mentioned it at all since we’d first talked about it.
No, this was something else. There was a physical component to it for sure, but I was feeling this…
completeness the more time I spent with Marilee.
Like I was always meant to be at her side.
Things were complicated. We were very different people with very different lives. I knew very little about what it meant for her to be a vampire or a wolf or whatever you called it when someone was both. Plus she lived here in Seattle, a five and a half hour flight from my place in Ottawa.
It didn’t help that my life was a mess. Someone had tried to kidnap me twice now, and I had no doubt more thugs would come soon, eager to collect the bounty on my head. I was also sure I hadn’t seen the last of my parents. Like a pesky rash, they’d pop back up at the most inconvenient time.
Something else was going on though. If my parents had been that worried about the money I took from them or the fact that I’d left the family business, I was fairly sure they would have managed to find me by now.
I’d tried hard to cover my tracks, but given how easily the mercenaries had found me, I hadn’t done as good of a job as I thought.
No, there was a reason they were contacting me now, and it had to do with more than some angry Italians wanting to hold me hostage.
“What’s the matter?”
Having someone so attuned to changes in my emotions was disconcerting. I looked down to where Marilee was settled between my legs like she belonged there, her chin resting on the soft swell of my lower belly.
“Something’s going on with my parents. There’s a reason they showed up, besides the bounty I mean. They want something, it’s the only reason they would have tracked me down after all this time.”
“Maybe they’ve been looking for you all along.”
“If they were, they weren’t trying too hard,” I said. “That tells me something, I just don’t know what it is. Not yet.”
“They’ll be back,” she said confidently. “I guess we’ll find out then.”
“Oh I know. But it won’t be tonight, so how about we change positions so I can get a taste of you now?”
Marilee took her sweet time moving up my body, sliding skin against skin along the way.
Once our bodies were lined up, she gave me a long, sweet kiss that felt more like a claiming than any other kiss we’d shared.
The thought freaked me out a bit, so I bent my knees, braced my feet on the mattress, and rolled us over.
“That’s more like it,” I said when I was on top.
I lowered my head and licked her neck, which was strange because I’d never licked someone’s neck before in my life. But it felt right, so I did it again. Marilee made a strangled sound that went right to my pussy.
Taking my time, I kissed and licked my way down her body. Marilee was the perfect combination of soft and hard, with her silky skin pulled tight over her compact muscles. When I got to her waist, I noticed that her fingers were gripping the mattress, nails lengthening in front of my eyes.
“What’s happening right now?” I asked, lifting one hand to study her fingers. They’d lengthened into sharp points, and when I glanced upward, I could see Marilee’s fangs peeking from beneath her lips. Was she paler now? She was almost the same color white as the pillowcase beneath her head.
“Sometimes I partially shift when I’m having intense emotions,” she mumbled, and I could swear she was embarrassed.
“That’s kind of hot,” I said. “Let’s see what happens when I fuck you with my tongue.”
Then I shoved my way between her legs and did just that.
Afterwards we took a shower together under the hotel’s waterfall shower, washing each other’s hair and soaping each other’s bodies until we were both quivering messes again.
We got each other off right there in the shower, both of us coming almost in unison, then we dried off and settled into Marilee’s bed, snuggling under the blanket as we both fell into exhausted slumber.
I woke up feeling more rested than I had since… well ever. We slept too long for me to get my swim in, so I settled for gulping down a cup of coffee for energy before we headed down to the final day of the conference.
“I’m supposed to fly home tomorrow morning,” I told Marilee as we waited for the elevator.
I wasn’t sure what I was asking but she knew anyway.
“I think you should stay, at least until this is all over,” she said. “I can go up to Ottawa with you if that’s your preference, but here in Seattle you have the benefit of having the entire Sapphic Security team at your disposal.”
Some traitorous part of me felt sad that she asked me to stay for safety purposes, not because she wanted more time with me. We’d been so busy with the conference and everything else going on, I’d scarcely had time to get to know her.
Well, besides what she liked in bed…
“I’ve got some vacation time coming,” I said slowly as I thought through the logistics. “But I need a place to stay.”
Marilee looked around, subtly making sure we were alone before answering. “We’ll set you up at one of our safe houses. We have a few of them scattered around the region.”
The elevator door opened and we both stepped inside. No one else was in the car, so we continued the conversation.
“Are the safe houses really safe?” I asked, pressing the button for the mezzanine level where the conference was being held.
I knew without asking that Allie and Martha would be down there running subtle security sweeps, like they did every morning.
One thing I hadn’t realized until Lois mentioned it in the car last night was that there were multiple security teams on site protecting attendees.
I didn’t know who was protecting which delegates, but the Sapphic Security team assured me that they were there.
“They’re, uh, mostly safe,” Marilee hedged. “I mean, we’ve had a couple of incidents, but those were unusual situations.”
“Well I guess they’ll have to be safer than a hotel. And it’ll be harder for my parents to find me at a safe house.”
Or not, I added silently. I’d forgotten until last night what excellent trackers they were. All these years, I assumed I’d given them the slip, but now I was wondering if I’d only escaped because they’d allowed me to. That thought was a huge blow to both my ego and my sense of safety.
Not that I thought my parents would hurt me.
Well, not much. Neither of them was above using violence to get their way, even with family.
The difference was that I was no longer a scared kid who’d cower as one of them landed a punch or a slap.
Now I was a self-assured adult who’d had extensive training in self-defense.
I could give them a run for their money, I was certain of it.
I’d gotten away from Greta by myself, hadn’t I?
When we reached the mezzanine we walked over to where Martha and Allie were standing in the corner pretending to have coffee while they watched everyone in the room.
“We’re going to transfer to a safe house tonight,” Marilee told them so quietly I could scarcely hear her.
With their supernatural hearing, her coworkers didn’t seem to have the same problem.
“I’ll send a message to the boss and let you know what’s open,” Allie said.
“How many houses do you have?” I asked.
Allie shrugged. “At least four. Well, three now. One of them blew up.”
I blinked in surprise. “Was someone inside?” I asked.
“Nah, Darla and her mate were in the car on the way to work when it happened.”
“Is this the same Darla who likes Chipotle?” I asked.
One corner of Allie’s mouth turned up. “Yeah, she’s a little nutty.”
Drawing on years of practice, I pushed everything out of my mind so I could focus on what I was here for. I had a job to do, and even if there were multiple people trying to kidnap me, I owed it to my boss to work.
I moved to a group of diplomatic staff from Sweden, Marilee trailing behind me, engaging them in conversation before we all headed into the morning’s first session. There were fewer people here now, travel schedules making some folks miss the last day, and it gave the event a more intimate feel.
There was no sign of Greta or Ulrich, which didn’t surprise me.
Wanda had done some checks after what went down at the bar and determined that they were actually employed by the German government as they’d claimed.
What we didn’t know was if those jobs were just a cover, or if they did some freelance criminal work on the side.
Either way, it didn’t matter. They’d failed, but someone else would come in their place. I had no doubt about that.
I just didn’t expect it to come so soon. Or so publicly.
We were heading into the ballroom for our final lunch when we heard someone scream. All eyes turned in the direction of six hulking men, dressed all in black and marching through the crowd, their attention focused one hundred percent on me.
“Everyone freeze!” one of them yelled in an Italian accent.
“Where did these assholes come from?” Marilee muttered, pushing me behind her.
The men fanned out in a line in front of us, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Boris, Martha, and Allie easing their way towards us.
“Give us the girl,” one of the men ordered Marilee.
“That’s super sexist,” she said, her tone completely calm. “We don’t call grown women girls in this country.”
“You’re gonna be callin’ her dead if you don’t move your ass,” the man shot back, pointing his huge gun directly at my bodyguard’s head.
His words unleashed a panic. People took off running, but the men ignored them. In the space of about a minute the mezzanine cleared, leaving only the Italians and the Sapphic Security crew in a standoff.
“You’ve got two choices,” Marilee told them, her voice conversational as if she was giving them directions to the Space Needle. “Leave and live, or stay and find out how useless those guns are.”
I was still standing behind her, but I could tell by the way their eyes widened that she was shifting.
“What the hell is wrong with her teeth?” one of the men mumbled in Italian.
“Lei è una vampira,” I called out in their language, letting them know they were messing with a vampire.
“Don’t forget to tell them about the bear,” Marilee urged.
“Did she say bear?” one of the goons asked, still in Italian.
“Sì, orso,” I confirmed.
“Bullshit,” the leader scoffed. “We’re done fucking around. Grab the girl and let’s get out of here.”
He took a menacing step towards us, then froze as a loud growl echoed through the space. Every head swung in Boris’s direction, except he was no longer Boris.
“Orso!”