Chapter 11
A mos had no memory of taking her home. The high of hunting for the first time in nearly a century, culminating in prey who surrendered so intensely, who came so beautifully as he drank from her, had him half out of his mind. He was vaguely aware of running through dark streets, Tessa cradled in his arms.
The next thing he knew, he was kicking his door shut and Tessa’s mouth was on his, her thighs wrapped round his hips, her arms clinging to his neck.
“Please,” she gasped between hungry, hot kisses. “Please, Amos. Give me more.”
His cock was desperate to answer that call, but her demand was too vague for him to make that leap. She wanted more pleasure, he knew that much. But he’d drunk more deeply from her than he’d so far dared. He couldn’t drink from her again tonight. But there were other ways of giving pleasure—ways he hadn’t had the chance to entertain in a very, very long time.
Drunk on blood and high on lust, he carried her to the living room and lowered her onto the couch before dropping to his knees in front of her. He tugged her boots down her calves, off her feet, and flung them away, leaving her with the black thigh-high stockings. The sight of those stockings tugged at foggy remembrances of women in decades past who wore them every day as a matter of course. On Tessa, though, they were a revelation. He froze for a split-second, arrested by the way the tops of the stockings bit into her plump thighs, tempting him to bite in as well.
But no. He’d taken enough. Now he wanted to give. He pushed those thighs wide, making her gasp. Her delectable fragrance was stronger here, rich with arousal. The gusset of her tiny little drawers was already soaked through, begging him to taste. He hooked his fingers in the waistband and pulled, intending to drag them beneath her lush bottom and down her legs. In his excitement, though, they tore like tissue paper. He flung them away, a very small part of his mind conscious that he’d have to apologize later.
“Amos…” Tessa breathed, hips rocking up, baring her slick, swollen pussy to him.
He slung her thighs over his shoulders and leaned in, inhaling her fragrance before putting his whole mouth over as much of her as he could cover. His tongue swept out, parting her folds, dragging through her slick softness, savoring the taste of her. The same unique top notes as he tasted in her blood sang across his senses now, mingling with the blatantly erotic flavors of sex and female musk.
“Oh, god, Amos!” One of Tessa’s hands settled on his head, fingers threading through his hair and tugging. He glanced up and was rewarded with the sight of her other hand curled against her mouth, eyes squeezed shut as her teeth closed around her own fingers. Amos growled his pleasure, sending low vibrations through her slick, swollen flesh. She cried out, fingers tightening in his hair.
It’d been a long, long time since he’d pleasured a woman this way, but he was relearning the ropes quickly. His exploring tongue found the stiff peak of her clitoris, circling and teasing and closing his lips around it and sucking. Tessa nearly arched right off the couch on that last one, and nearly ripped his hair from his scalp in the process.
“Too much?” Amos asked breathlessly, lips ghosting over her mound as he spoke.
“No, no, please, don’t stop, please— ohhhhh! ”
With his mouth back on her clit, he slid one hand up her thigh, seeking the molten hot core of her, where he slid two fingers deep inside.
“Ah, Amos! Holy Mother, Jesus Christ, fucking— ah! God!” Tessa twisted and writhed, nearly dislodging him three times, forcing him to press his forearm over her hips, pinning her in place as he ate.
Her thighs trembled, sprawled wantonly over his shoulders, heels digging into his back. He found a spot inside her that made her words turn to gibberish, and he stroked his fingers over it again and again as he sucked on her clit. The points of his fangs pressed into the pillowy softness of her labia, the pressure just shy of breaking her skin. The temptation to do it, to drink from her as he ate her out—the suction of his mouth pleasing them both at the same time—was a dark impulse in the back of his mind that he forcibly ignored.
All of Tessa’s muscles suddenly went taut. She let out a choked cry as her thighs clamped tight around Amos’s head. Her inner muscles clenched down on his fingers, tight enough to pull him in a little deeper. And then her whole body was shaking, her pussy squeezing rhythmically on his fingers as he continued to lick and suck and savor her. Witnessing her climax without the distraction of blood was its own unique pleasure. It felt like a claiming just as much as biting her did.
As Tessa came down from the throes of the orgasm he’d given her, he eased his tongue from her sensitive flesh, pressing soft kisses to the insides of her thighs as they slackened on his shoulders. His own body was hard and tense, aching to be inside her. Ungrateful, considering the effort she’d gone to and the risks she’d taken to satisfy his urge to hunt. Even so, he couldn’t be sorry for wanting her— all of her.
Tessa stirred languidly, one leg sliding off his shoulder as she pushed herself up to sit. “ Jesus ,” she breathed, eyes still glassy with pleasure.
“No, just Amos,” he quipped, a stupid joke that had already been old when he was mortal.
Tessa’s gaze sharpened on him. “And thank God for that,” she purred, drawing her other leg over his shoulder until her heel was braced against his collarbone.
Amos glanced down at her stockinged foot and back up to her face. There was something impish brewing behind her dark eyes.
“Tessa, what are y— oof .” He went over backwards as Tessa suddenly shoved with her foot.
She slid down on top of him, straddling his thighs, her dress still rucked to her hips.
“What are you doing?”
She grinned, biting her lip, and reached for his belt. “I want to make you come, Amos.”
He fought for the willpower to be a gentleman, to tell her she didn’t need to, that he was happy to wait, but the words wouldn’t come. He propped himself up on his elbows, watching with dumbfounded fascination as Tessa pulled his zipper down. He lifted his hips as she tugged his jeans and briefs lower, freeing his cock. It bounced up rudely, thick and hard and desperate. Tessa’s hand closed around the base, and he hissed like he’d been scalded, hips flexing up, instinctively trying to rut into her grasp.
“Oh, Amos,” she soothed, “let me take care of you.” She eased herself down to lay between his legs. Still grasping him in one hand, she dipped her head and dragged her tongue slowly up the underside of his shaft.
“Ah, fuck, ” Amos hissed, hardly even aware that he was speaking. “Tessa. Tessa , sweetheart.”
She reached the head of his cock and her tongue teased over it in circles. Amos groaned, hands halfway to reaching for her before he caught himself and pressed them flat to the floor. His whole body trembled as he fought the urge to flip her onto her back, shove his cock inside her, and fuck her senseless.
All thoughts of taking any kind of action immediately blanked out of his mind as her lips closed over the head of his cock, sucking gently. He fell back weakly, an animalistic sound torn from his throat as her lips slid down his shaft. Her other hand gently cupped his balls, fondling them carefully. When his hips bucked, she took his cock deeper into her mouth.
Had anything ever felt this good? White-hot pleasure streaked down his spine, pooling in his gut. He was going to come.
“Tessa,” he tried to warn her, her name a drunken slur in his slack mouth. “Sweetheart, I’m going to—” His voice died on a wordless groan as Tessa sucked him a little harder, took him a little deeper. The head of his cock nudged the back of her throat as her hand squeezed tighter on his sac, tugging just a little.
It was over. Pleasure flashed through him like a lightning strike, bursting out of him in powerful spasms that wracked his whole body. He felt his come spurting in Tessa’s hot, soft, slick mouth. Her throat flexed around the head of his cock as she swallowed him down, again and again.
When the nearly agonizing pleasure of it finally subsided, Amos collapsed back down, clonking his head on the hardwood floor. He lay languid and stunned as Tessa licked the last dribble of semen from his sensitive slit. His cock lay heavy and thick against his belly, slowly softening, as Tessa crawled up to bring her face to his.
“Amos,” she said, eyes wide. “You taste like— I don’t even know. But you taste good . Like, actually good.”
“Do I?” he asked muzzily, staring at her beautiful face with foggy admiration. Her already lush lips were swollen and rosy from the efforts they’d just expended on his cock. He wanted to lick them, bite them. “I’ve heard that bloodmates often like the taste of their vampires.”
If possible, Tessa’s round eyes got even rounder. “Oh.”
Amos’s brain head not completely returned to full functionality, but he realized he’d said something stupid. He retraced his words, puzzling them over until it finally struck him—he’d as good as called her his bloodmate when he’d never formally asked and she had certainly not accepted.
He should’ve been backpedaling—assuring her that he would never presume that degree of intimacy. Instead, the words that blurted out of his idiot mouth were, “I want you to meet my dam. ”
Tessa blinked. The surprise had faded from her expression, but now she was unreadable. “Really?”
“Yes. If you’re willing.”
Tessa considered him for a moment. Finally, a soft smile caught at her mouth. “Alright. Yeah.” She lowered herself down beside him, wrapping an arm around his middle and resting her head on his shoulder. “I’d invite you to meet my family, but for your sake and theirs, we should probably wait a while.”
“Really?” Amos asked, stunned. “You’d want me to meet your family?”
“Do you not want to?” Tessa asked, sounding wary.
“No, I do. I just… I suppose I didn’t expect you to want the same from me.”
She pushed up onto one elbow to gaze down at him again, frowning. “Why not?”
“Nobody has before,” he answered plainly.
“Oh.” Her expression softened. She leaned down and kissed him softly, sweetly. He tasted himself on her, hyper-aware of the increased blood flow in her swollen lips. The kiss made his fangs throb, and he swallowed away the sudden flood of saliva in his mouth. He’d already had more than his share of her tonight.
Speaking of which… Amos pushed himself up, breaking the kiss. He scooped Tessa into his arms and deposited her on the couch.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead. He tucked himself into his jeans as he went to the kitchen to retrieve snacks for her. He was still rummaging in the pantry when he heard her footsteps in the hallway. A few seconds later, she appeared in the kitchen doorway, looking gorgeous and sex-rumpled .
“I told you I’d be right back,” Amos chided with feigned annoyance.
“I know,” she said, stepping into the kitchen and seating herself at the built-in breakfast nook. Amos liked the look of her there—like it was her home, and it was perfectly usual for her to have a snack in the kitchen.
He brought the array of snacks and drinks to the table, and seated himself across from her, watching as she sorted through the packets until she settled on some sort of elaborate pastry with bright-eyed interest. Amos would never have thought to pick something so lavish. He knew his pragmatism, while objectively a useful trait, was one of the things that made him a bit dull in company. He made a mental note to thank Fran again for her intervention.
“Can I ask you something?” Amos asked after Tessa had bitten into the pastry and made a humming sound of approval.
She chewed and swallowed. “Of course.”
“You said it was in both our interest to delay introducing me to your family.”
“Oh. Yeah. Um.” She rubbed at her temple, looking suddenly tired. “I’ve always been sort of the… I don’t know… the caretaker? In my family?”
Amos didn’t follow the relevance, and his expression must have said as much.
“It’s hard to explain. I’m the oldest sibling, and the oldest of all my cousins on both sides of my very large family. I grew up babysitting and taking care of all of them, and I had to start acting like an adult before most kids my age because I was basically a backup parent a lot of the time. The cousins are mostly all married now, except for the youngest ones, so even though they’re adults, they get to focus all their energy on their own families, because that’s just what’s expected. But I’m still single, and... there’s no, like, official title for the role I’ve fallen into, but I think a lot of families end up with this one eldest daughter who just… takes care of everything. You know?”
Amos nodded, slowly beginning to understand.
“Anyways, I know my family loves me. I know they do. But… I don’t think they’d be thrilled to find out that I’m, maybe, you know, getting my own life. Because if my loyalty goes to someone else, then who’s going to be the family slave anymore?” She immediately pressed her hand over her mouth, eyes wide. “I didn’t mean that. They don’t think I’m their slave.”
“But it feels like you are,” Amos said gently.
She was quiet for a moment, staring at the pastry. “Yeah,” she finally sighed.
Amos didn’t know what to say. He knew what he wanted to say. He wanted to tell her that her ungrateful family could fuck right off if they didn’t want to treat her how she deserved. But that was maybe not the most productive approach. Instead, he said, gently, “Eat. You need to bring your blood sugar up.”
She took another bite, casting him a look he couldn’t quite interpret. It seemed both vulnerable and wolfish at the same time, and he couldn’t figure out why a pastry should inspire two such conflicting emotions.
“I have a question for you ,” Tessa said after a few bites.
Amos raised his brows in question.
“You can obviously move way faster than mortal humans.”
He nodded .
“But it seemed like you could… disappear? Is that a thing?”
Amos settled back against his chair, feeling back on solid ground with the new topic. “Not quite . I can slip into shadows. I don’t become truly invisible. It’s more like I become a part of the darkness. If you knew where to look for me, you’d still see the edges of my form. As time goes on, I get better and better at it—total invisibility might come to me someday.”
“Can all vampires do that?”
“No. Some never develop other abilities. Some develop many. Certain skills are known to show up in certain lines of progeny. My dam doesn’t know who sired her—they may have died somehow before the bond compelled them to find her—but she can also slip into shadows, so her sire was probably from the Zenobian line.”
“How many lines are there?”
“Hundreds. But as far as famous lines? A dozen or so. The Zenobian line is small and fairly well-renowned, but it’s not particularly powerful or revered like some lines are.”
“Hmm.” Tessa went back to her pastry, looking contemplative. When she finished it, Amos slid drinks towards her. She picked a brightly-colored soda and twisted it open. “Can you show me the shadow thing?” she asked.
Amos rose from his chair. “Of course.” He flipped the lights off. The kitchen was plunged into darkness, to which Amos’s eyes adjusted immediately. He waited until the ambient streetlight coming in the windows was enough for Tessa to see by. When her gaze found him and focused, he smiled at her.
“Watch.”
And then he let himself sink into the darkness, like stepping into warm water. He felt the cover of it slip over him, enclose him.
Tessa gasped.
Slowly, so that he didn’t startle her, he extended one hand out. “Join me.”
Without hesitation, she took his hand, and let him pull her into the darkness alongside him.
Much, much later, in the wee hours of the morning, Amos walked with Tessa to her front steps. He’d had every intention of bidding her goodbye with a lingering, but respectful, kiss. Tessa put paid to that notion when she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him like he was going off to war. He groaned and clutched her tightly against him, deepening the kiss. The taste of her was the most intoxicating thing he’d ever known, no matter what part of her the taste came from. Her rich blood. Her hot mouth. Her sweet cunt.
His cock hardened against her. Amos tried to shift his hips back, but Tessa shifted with him, rolling her hips against his erection with a pleased, throaty little moan.
Amos grasped her by the shoulders, setting her back from him, breathing raggedly. “Christ, Tessa, do you want me to fuck you right here in the street?”
Her shocked expression shifted to one of impish delight. “There’s nobody around.”
With impeccable timing, the front door opened on one of the neighboring houses. A burly, middle-aged man wearing steel-toed boots and a florescent yellow visibility vest over his coat emerged.
Amos and Tessa shared conspiratorial grins.
“Tessa? That you?” the man called .
“Yeah, it’s me. Morning, Marcus.”
“Morning. Have a good day.”
“Yep, you too.”
The man trotted down his steps, nodded to Amos, and went on his way.
Amos turned his attention back to Tessa, bringing one hand to her face, gently stroking her kiss-swollen bottom lip. She playfully bit the tip of his thumb.
“I bite harder,” he warned.
She grinned, releasing him. “Lucky me.”
He was already aching with want for her, and she wasn’t making it any easier to be a gentleman about it. The scent of her arousal teased him, and he was suddenly acutely aware of the fact that she had no underwear. It’d be so easy to lift her dress, spread her thighs, and sink into the soft heat of her pussy.
A purr rose to his throat so violently, it bordered on a snarl. He needed to get a hold of himself.
“I can feel sunrise approaching,” he said, allowing himself one more gentle caress against her cheek. “Sleep well, Tessa.”
“You too, Amos.” She rose up onto her tip-toes, pressing a kiss to his mouth, light as a butterfly, quick as a blink. She smiled, and then she was climbing her stairs, reaching into her coat for her keys.
Amos waited until she was inside, until he heard the lock engage, before he turned to leave.
Amos only made it to the corner before a familiar scent stopped him dead. A thrall. Unacceptably close to Tessa’s house. He cut hard to the left, instantly spotting the source of the scent. The thrall tried to run, suddenly aware he’d been spotted. But a sireless thrall was no match for a century-old vampire. Amos closed the distance between them in a single heartbeat, leaping over a low iron fence and tackling his quarry to the ground. He landed on top, with the thrall belly-down on the ground. Amos captured him in a chokehold. The thrall hissed like a scalded cat, thrashing desperately.
“Stop,” Amos growled, tightening his hold. They were sprawled on the small patch of grass in front of a small redbrick workers cottage, whose upstairs lights were on. Somebody could emerge at any moment. “I’m not going to hurt you, but we have to get out of here. The sun will rise soon.”
The thrall only fought harder.
“I know you’ve lost your sire. I can help you, but you have to calm down.” He managed to flip the struggling thrall onto his back, pinning his wrists beside his head. His skin was icy cold, as thralls typically were. The bones in his pale face were all too prominent, his eyes sunken and dull. Still, whoever he was, he’d been a young man when Markov had turned him, whatever time period that had been. The poor creature could be hundreds of years older than Amos, but was still hardly any stronger than a mortal.
The thrall managed to get one hand free. He clutched at Amos’s jacket, trying to shove him away. Amos kept him pinned with his full weight. The thrall bucked, trying to headbutt Amos, but their awkward positioning made it so that he ineffectively thunked his forehead against Amos’s chest.
The thrall froze. Face pressed into the V where Amos’s jacket opened, he inhaled deeply. He inhaled again. A low, broken purr rattled in his throat.
Ah, Christ, Amos thought warily. When they lost their sire or dam, thralls were known to fixate on an unrelated vampire. It was a survival instinct for creatures who could not exist without a protector and caretaker.
“Listen,” Amos said gently, “I’m not going to turn you. But if you’ll come with me, the Council can help you. If you want to be fully turned, they’ll find someone who’ll—”
The front door to the house they were sprawled in front of suddenly swung open. “Who the fuck are you?” a woman’s voice demanded sharply.
Caught off guard, both by the thrall’s apparent docility and the sudden appearance of the mortal woman, Amos suddenly found himself thrown onto his back. The thrall was on his feet, lightning-quick, hurtling the fence and racing down the sidewalk.
The woman silhouetted in the doorway gasped at the thrall’s inhuman speed. She jerked back, slamming the door shut. The deadbolt clicked decisively.
Amos got to his feet, giving chase, but it was no use. The thrall was out of sight, his scent masked by the scents of the city. The impending sunrise itched at Amos’s mind. Honoring his promise to Tessa, he returned home before the sun came up.