“Is that why none of the others have changed their mates, made them like them? Because they might flip out like she has if they were to die?”
“Not really, no. Who you are, your nature whether good or bad, doesn’t change if you become vampire. I know nothing of Vladamir, what kind of person he was, but I do know that every existing member of our brethren is a good man. Who knows,” he said with a shrug, “maybe he was just unlucky enough to be saddled with a shrew for a mate, or maybe they both allowed the enhanced pleasures of their vampiric state go to their head, chose to live a life of debauchery instead of doing good with what they were given.”
“Debauchery?” she teased him, looking up at him with an impish grin. “Your age is showing, Jacob.”
Jacob returned the smile he was happy to see on her face. “Show some respect for your elders, imp.”
Chuckling, she snuggled back into his side, once again stroking Tasha when she nudged her idle hand. Of all the brethren, she was most comfortable with Jacob. He had always looked after her as a big brother, whereas Damien had been more of an authority figure, at least until the last few years. “I’m sorry you’re stuck babysitting me. I’m sure you’d rather be out with the guys knocking heads in back alleys, or maybe spending time with a woman who could be more to you than a responsibility or a kid sister.”
Jacob laughed outright, startling her because she rarely heard him laugh. “Make no mistake, sweetheart, if you weren’t Damien’s woman, my hands would be attempting to see if those pretty breasts I saw earlier are as soft as they looked, if those berry red nipples were as hard as they seemed.”
Abby sat up and stared at him incredulously. “Seriously?!” He had never indicated in any way that he saw her as anything but a younger relation. She would have to be blind and dumb not to find him attractive. He wore his thick, wavy hair, a shade lighter than her dark brown, collar length, his Irish green eyes could pin you with a look or sear you with a simple glance and his tall, deceptively lean build would induce fantasies in any red blooded woman. But she had never wanted him the way she did Damien. Her mark was now quiet and she knew if he were to stroke it with his rough finger or tongue, it wouldn’t respond, wouldn’t send her into a tizzy of lust and need that she ached to have assuaged ov
er and over again.
“Relax. I just told you that so you’d know we’re all still human in many ways, and one of those is finding women, lots of women, attractive. Back to your earlier question, longevity can be difficult and lonely, even surrounded by friends as we are. Those that are mated now have chosen not to bring their women over simply for that reason. If, when, they die, their mates will then start to age naturally again and will still be young enough to find another, if they wish, to spend what’s left of their life. Those of us who are still unattached find ways to get through the long nights.”
Jacob had a nostalgic look on his face that pulled at her. They were quite a pair, Jacob and Damien. Damien found her, yet refused to claim her. Jacob, she knew, wouldn’t hesitate to claim his woman when he found her. Micah chose that moment to let out a loud roar, summoning Tasha, who didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave Abby’s side.
“Playing the tease, are you?” Abby patted the cat as a signal she was done petting. After giving her a disgruntled look, she rose and slowly padded across the lawn, taking her time with a twitch of her tail. It had taken Damien a while to assure her she was safe with the large felines, and she had grown very fond of them. But she never forgot they were wild animals, natural predators that were loyal only because of the special bond Damien seemed to have with them.
“Maybe that’s what you should do, Abby. Refuse Damien a few times until he gets desperate and won’t have a choice but to fuck you.”
“That’s the problem, Jacob. I can’t refuse him. Thanks for keeping me company.”
Chapter Six
Jacob filled his hands with Mandy’s soft buttocks as she straddled his face and lowered her pussy down to his mouth while her best friend, Daisy, sank down onto his cock, enveloping him in her wet heat. Shuddering at the feel of all that slick flesh closing around his dick, he stroked his tongue over Mandy’s hardened clit, eliciting a moan and a gush of moisture from her. With his face hidden between her legs, he couldn’t see the two young college girls he had been fucking regularly now for a few months, but he could easily picture what he knew they were doing as they sat on him facing each other. Their soft moans echoed in the room but were slightly muffled from their mouths clinging to each other. He had picked them up at a club one night after he got off patrol and hadn’t wanted to return to the plantation and face another approaching dawn alone. He knew they were testing their boundaries, using him to sow some wild oats now that they were away from home for the first time. That was fine with him as he was using them also.
Releasing her right buttock, Jacob slapped Mandy’s cheek hard before rubbing the warm, reddened area, her shriek and the way she ground down against his marauding mouth and coated his invading tongue with her slick juices told him how much she liked that small erotic pain. Whatever Mandy did just then to Daisy had her pussy creaming his cock, easing her way as she rode him with torturously slow movements. Before his impending release could take all his concentration, he delved deeply into Mandy’s pussy, using his tongue, teeth and lips on her clit until her orgasm gushed into his mouth, her gyrating hips and soft cries increasing when he slipped one finger between her buttocks to finger her anus, that tight, dark channel contracting around his finger like the walls of her vagina were clutching his tongue.
“That was so good, baby,” Mandy crooned when she climbed off him and bent down to lick her juices off his lips and chin.
Jacob grabbed her face and took her mouth in a deep, carnal kiss, his tongue exploring her mouth as thoroughly as he had her pussy. A tug on his nipple rings drew a sharp breath and his cock surged inside Daisy’s pussy with a spurt of pre-come. Those small tugs sent a nip of both pain and pleasure from his nipples straight down to his cock and had his balls drawing up tightly. He watched with heavy lidded eyes as Mandy turned to Daisy and took her mouth much the same way she had Jacob’s, with open mouthed, tongue exploring eroticism. When she reached down to where Daisy’s bare folds were spread around his cock and rooted out her clit, Jacob angled his upward thrusts to rub against that small, engorged piece of flesh with as much friction as possible.
Daisy broke away from Mandy’s mouth, threw her head back and cried out in pleasure as she came all over his cock with hard contractions of her wet, silken walls. Jacob reached up, laid his palm against Daisy’s forehead to shield her mind as he drew Mandy back down to him and sank his fangs into her neck, drawing on her warm, spicy blood as his cock erupted in climax, the dual pleasures swamping his senses. He made sure Mandy knew nothing but pleasure from his bite, remembered nothing but another powerful orgasm.
Ten minutes later, Jacob stepped out of their apartment, leaving both women sleeping entwined in sated exhaustion. He took a deep breath of the humid night air, his body humming with renewed energy and power, yet he was anything but sated. His encounters with women filled a void as well as provided the substance he needed to keep his physical capabilities elevated, but they always left him feeling more alone than ever. He had nothing in common with either Mandy or Daisy, knew nothing about either one, not even their full names, even though he has been fucking them regularly for over eight months. When the need arose, he showed up at their apartment and, if they were home and didn’t have other plans, he stayed for a few hours of what they laughingly dubbed a booty call. They never asked what he did when he wasn’t with them, and he, frankly, didn’t care what, or who they did when he wasn’t around. Maybe it was that lack of intimacy that always left him feeling low when he should have been hyped up on the renewed strength and energy pouring through his system.
Deciding a walk would clear his head; he left his Harley in the apartment complex’s parking lot and headed out on foot toward the French Quarter. Jacob nostalgically recalled walking the streets of New Orleans with his fiancée, Elizabeth. Though he had been born, raised and died in Avoyelles Parish, he had made the trip to the Crescent City before becoming engaged to get supplies for his family’s farm, taking advantage of being away from the prying eyes of his parents to visit the brothels. After falling in love the allure of those decadent establishments had lost their appeal, so much so that even now, a hundred and fifty years later, he was unfazed by the annual transformation during Mardi Gras of the downtown into an adult playground that most visitors can’t resist.
Not that he didn’t enjoy sex, he mused as he recalled the past few hours, but none of his sexual indulgences in all these years had excited him or left him as satisfied as much as those few, stolen trysts with Elizabeth. Twelve years younger than him, she had been so sweet and innocent, lacking all the experience and wiles of the courtesans he had spent his youth fucking, yet her shy responses and fumbling attempts to please him had turned him on more than the practiced mouths and hands of whores.
Jacob could now barely recall Elizabeth’s face, couldn’t remember what her voice sounded like or how her body felt under his. He knew he didn’t still grieve for her, yet he still mourned the loss of what he could have had, what he still wanted now, that special someone he could call his own. That was what pissed him off so much about Damien’s refusal to claim Abrielle. He had what Jacob wanted, would give anything for, yet continually refused to take what was being so freely offered. Abby had been living at the plantation for over a week now and her frustration and despair over her and Damien’s unresolved relationship was plain to see. Whatever Damien was doing with her, it wasn’t enough to satisfy either one of them and by Damien’s drawn, weakened look, he couldn’t hold back much longer without seeking relief elsewhere.
Jacob knew Marie’s death had hit Damien hard and had all of them edgy about the sudden reappearance of rogue vampires. But if they were going to have more battles ahead, they all needed to be at their full potential and he worried Damien’s stubbornness, for whatever reason, would cause more heartache than he was trying to prevent.
He owed Damien a lot, the least of which was his unfailing loyalty. Jacob had taken a fatal bayonet wound at the Battle of Yellow Bayou in May of 1864 and despite being proud to have taken part in a Union victory against the Confederates, he hadn’t been ready, or willing, to die. He didn’t remember Isabelle appearing right before he took his last breath, had no recollection of telling her he didn’t want to die and certainly would never have agreed to cheat death in order to live as one of the walking dead, but apparently that was exactly what he did. He did remember rousing to a voracious hunger, to the metallic, yet sweetly addictive taste of warm blood flowing smoothly down his parched throat, of his mouth suckling at a soft, vulnerable neck, a cascade of midnight silk hair cocooning him from the horrors of the battlefield and the stench of death all around him. When Isabelle had pulled away from him, he found himself drowning in the black, bottomless depths of her eyes and his uncharacteristic, uncontrollable need to fuck her.
He shuddered now, thinking how close he had come to being drawn further into her web of deceit, into believing the pretty lies she was spewing as she tried to coax him into fucking her right there among the fallen dead of his comrades and friends. If Damien hadn’t appeared like an avenging angel when he did, he knew he would be suffering whatever fate had befallen Damien when Isabelle had turned him and there hadn’t been anyone to save him from her. One minute there wasn’t a thought of his beloved Elizabeth in his head as he was staring up and lusting after the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and the next Damien appeared behind her, grabbed her by her long hair and sent her flying several feet as if she weighed no more than an ounce. Damien had reached for him and then everything went black. The next time he came to, he was at Damien’s plantation home, a home Damien had opened up to others he had saved from Isabelle’s clutches and one Jacob had clung to as he struggled with what had become of the life he once knew.
Yes, he thought as he opened his mind to seek out his other brethren, he owed Damien a lot, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel like kicking his ass for turning away from everything Jacob would give his right arm for.
Where are you? Damien demanded as soon as Jacob opened his mind to communicate.
Frowning at the angry frustration in his tone, Jacob answered, Heading downtown. What’s up?
Come to Abby’s.