Page 52 of Cursed Lifeline (Eternal Love)
Fifty One
Esme
song: bleed for me | digital daggers
My breath comes out in shaky, puffy clouds as I stand in the cold, dark corner of the abandoned warehouse. Since leaving my date with Felix earlier, I’ve been waiting for him to come find me for close to an hour now. I’ve been training with Felix exclusively for a few weeks now, and as much as it irritates me to bide my time, I know why he’s doing this. I know why he loves keeping me anticipating.
It keeps all my senses alert.
It’s what’s going to distinguish this life from my past.
The brief creek of a door across the vast space has me sucking in a sharp breath. I’m not nervous. Quite the opposite. It’s exhilarating waiting for him to find me. Knowing that he will and it could only be a matter of minutes, seconds, before I’m discovered fills me with a sensation I’ve become addicted to.
Anticipation, after all, is arguably the greatest element of pleasure.
Though this type of training is unconventional, I’m not naive to think that what’s waiting for me around every corner offers the same kind of self-gratifying ending Felix promises. But with his help, he’s bestowing on me the wisdom I need to defeat whatever might come my way. It’s a skill I know Alfred couldn’t teach me, nor Silas or Caelum. Not like Felix can.
Footsteps sound closer and I steady myself against the wall behind me and start to unbuckle my shoes. I’ll be able to move quicker tonight without my heels. Slipping one from my foot, I listen closely for any sound that might give away his nearness then start to unbuckle the clasp on the other heel, and quickly slip it off my foot. Flipping a clasp hidden behind the stiletto, the heel elongates into a sharp spike.
The sound of a match striking nearby garners my attention.
Across the room, a flickering light from the but of a smoke catches my eye. I watch as a figure of a man lifts the cigarette to his mouth and takes a long drag. His eyes raise and meet mine. Through the darkness between us, I sense he’s not human.
“Waiting for someone?” he smirks.
“I should ask you the same,” I taunt.
He takes one last drag of his smoke, then flicks it to the ground bitterly. He stalks purposely toward me. All my training, all the instinct I’ve spent time perfecting, threatens to leave and be replaced by fear.
Forcing back panic, I dodge his attempt for capture as he lunges for me and duck to the right just under his outstretched arms. Quickly, I drop into a roll and propel myself to the opposite corner. Breathing better once I’ve put some space between us, I rise and take a fighting stance. My eyes search frantically about the darkness, but I don’t see him. After a moment, oddly, I hear his breathing coming closer.
“Ember would like a word with you,” the stranger hisses.
Lunging forward through the bleak dark of night, I slash down with the spike of my heel, hopeful it hits its mark. But the man dodges the blow perfectly. My panic spikes. The vampire's low, menacing laugh echoes through the room as I twirl around in a circle desperate to see where he’s disappeared to.
I become very still and wait for his next move.
“She told me to bring you in alive.”
Paralyzed by his words, I realize I’ve stood still a moment too long when the undead reaches out, pulls me into a deathly embrace, and fists my hair in his hand. Yanking me forward, he forces my head to the side, exposing my neck. “But she’s not here. And her pawn once told me how delicious you tasted in a former life.”
I struggle against him and fight to break his hold. The more I wrestle to break free, the stronger his grip becomes as he tries to force me into submission. In the scuffle, my heel slips from my grip and clatters against the cool concrete floor.
“Maybe just a taste,” his slimy voice slithers across my skin as he leans further in.
He starts to sink his teeth in just as my right knee snaps up crashing into his crotch and sending him howling down to his knees. Taking a quick step back, my foot hits my heel, and I breathe a sigh of relief. Kneeling, I grab it just as he shakes off the pain and starts to search for me in the darkness. Twirling around in circles, he looks just as desperate as I felt a few moments ago, and I smile joyfully, watching how the tables have turned. Hunched over, out of sight, I slowly ease back into the shadows and stay low to the floor to keep hidden.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are, slayer,” he taunts. When it doesn’t work, he grows angry and shouts, “Your silly love affair with Felix won’t save you any longer, Esme. Ember has plans for you and the rest of the coven.”
My hands begin to shake as I make out the edges of his ghastly face. His sick grin grows, fuels my impatience, and feeds my eager need to fight.
“Felix had his chance to change you,” he taunts, spinning in a circle and starting to look in the opposite direction for a victim he won’t find. “I must say, I agree with Ember. If I had my choice and the chance to make you mine forever,” he spins back around just as I back up into the wall behind me. Miraculously, his eyes find mine, and I stop breathing. “I wouldn’t waste it.”
He lunges for me, and I don’t hesitate to do the same. I stab the stake of my heel deep into his heart and spit in his face, “Looks like you lost your chance.”
The life slowly drains from his face. Blood coats his lips as I shove him out of my embrace just as a tall, dark figure comes into view. Panting, I wipe the sweat from my brow and start to worry it’s another attacker. Taking one last look at the vampire lying at my feet, I glance up and lock eyes with Felix. Instantly, his gaze drops to the floor before angrily rising to the wound on my neck. Concern fills his eyes as he quickly takes a few steps in my direction, then abruptly stops. He studies my gaze. Reads my mind. As he travels through my thoughts and discovers I’m alright, his demeanor changes.
I’m not as frail as he thinks.
He takes one more look at the mess I’ve made and grins wickedly. When his eyes once again find mine, his savage smile grows and he growls, “Run.”
I don’t hesitate and bolt to the right. Taking a sharp corner, I plow through an exit and out into the Nevada desert. Breathless, my feet hit the sand as I anxiously start our chase. I suck in a deep breath, mentally preparing myself to charge stronger, and faster into the night. Cactus pulls at my dress, rocks hurt my bare feet. At one point, my evening gown snags on a rose bush. I stop and pull at the fabric, harshly ripping it up my right thigh in the process.
Glancing back over my shoulder, I sense he’s gaining on me. Like a true hunter, he’s letting his prey wander far off before he really sets out on a chase.
I’ve explored this part of the desert before, memorizing every turn I could in case I ever found myself here in battle. Tonight, I take a new route I haven’t gone yet. One more hidden, more remote, more dangerous than others. A path that instantly leads me to a creek bed.
The creek opens to a river that rapidly rushes through boulders and violently crashes against jagged rocks. Not hesitating, I plunge in immediately. As I wade out, the water rushes up to my waist and I start to anxiously swim my way to the other side. Sharp gravel pierces my bare feet, and I curse myself for taking off my shoes. My dress starts to slow me down, so I reach behind me and unzip it, then shimmy out until all that’s covering my body is the sheer slip I wore underneath.
Movement in palm trees overhead catches my attention. An eerie shadow casts over the riverbank, and I rush quickly to make my way out of the water once I reach the other side. My body shivers from the ice-cold river, making it almost impossible to force myself to keep moving. With chattering teeth, I push myself to keep the pace I started out with and rush down a path to my right.
The air becomes thick and static. It closes in until I can barely breathe. Fearful, I look over my right shoulder, then my left, which unfortunately causes me to lose focus. A moment later, my right foot comes down awkwardly, and I lose balance and trip over a log. I hit the ground with a thud. Looking down, I wince when I take in my cut knee. My fingertips brush over the maimed skin that’s red, swollen, and oozing blood as the wind wrestles the leaves of the trees overhead.
I stand quickly. Before I can run, a brutal force sucks my next breath away as my back is sharply pressed into the bark of a large tree.
“You took me on a surprising chase this time, baby,” he growls.
Training with Felix these last few weeks has been intense, and I can’t tell if I am shivering from the cold or the look in his eyes as he glances down and sees I’ve tripped and cut my knee when I fell a few feet back on the rough terrain. Not only that, but when I took time to inspect the wound, it gave him an advantage and is inevitably why he was able to gain on me and win tonight's chase. Picking up my hand, he brings my ?ngers to his face, closes his eyes, then groans from the scent of my blood.
He smiles and I know I’m in trouble.
“You need to be punished for this,” he threatens.
Before I can respond, he pulls me off the tree and forces me to the ground. Straddling my hips, forcing my arms inside his legs, he holds me hostage by my neck and makes it impossible to break free. Keeping a tight grip around my throat, he pulls a knife from his pocket. I start to speak, but he tightens his grasp and forces my silence. His eyes ?ll with heated mischief. Backing away, he licks his lips and starts to lower his mouth to my body. As he kisses the cut on my shin, I close my eyes and shiver.
“Training is done for the day,” he growls.
Rising up my frame, he gathers the fabric of my slip in his palm and sharply cuts it in half. As the ripped fabric falls against my chest, he slowly cuts a line down the middle, exposing myself to him. The coolness of the desert air hits my nipples seconds before his mouth quickly covers them. The sensation makes me want to gasp out with pleasure, but I can’t, not with his hand still wrapped securely around my neck. He takes his time swirling his tongue around my right nipple, then pleasures the left.
The tip of the knife he used to cut away my slip rests threateningly against the inside of my thigh. My legs part and he continues to trail the sharp object further up my quivering skin, then brushes the tip across my swollen clit. My hips slowly buck upward with need. Stealthy rotating the weapon in his grasp, he’s careful not to cut me and slowly inserts the but of the knife inside my pussy. He lightly releases the grip on my throat and I purr from the dangerous high he’s milking from my body. Slowly, deliberately, he pleasures me with the butt of the knife. My hips thrust downward, wanting deeper penetration.
“Fuck, you love danger, don’t you, baby,” he growls as my thighs shake.
He fucks me a few more times with the butt of the blade, before he slowly pulls it from my pussy. The hand that holds his knife quickly reaches over my head and sticks it sharply into the ground beside my left ear. I try to scream, but he tightens his palm around my throat and stops me, only allowing me room to breathe when he knows I will behave.
To my surprise, the wetness between my thighs grows.
His lips ?nd my lower stomach and he places soft kisses above my center.
“Baby,” he groans, “the only thing sweeter than the blood running through your veins is the wetness coating your thick, delicious thighs.”
His tongue ?nds the curve of my pelvis and I bite my bottom lip. He begins to trail his mouth lower until he licks up my slit, and parts me with a powerful caress that sends my hips thrashing off the forest ?oor.
Felix tightens his grip around my throat, forcing me to gag on the moan that desperately wishes to break free. Darkness creeps closer as he continues to cut off my oxygen supply. I lower my ass just as he blows against my swollen ?esh. When it’s evident I will behave, he releases his grasp and allows me to suck in a large lungful of air.
Our eyes lock as he licks his lips and growls, “Do you trust me?”
With his mouth positioned between my thighs, I’m inclined to trust anything he’d want to do to me. Especially if it meant he took me to a place only he can. Where darkness meets light, death meets life, and everything else fades away except the two of us.
I nod just before he starts licking, sucking, and fucking me with two ?ngers. I lose myself in the sensation. I’m not sure how much time has passed, but just as my center starts to clench down, so does his hand around my throat, and I startle. My desire fades. My eyes grow wide as I struggle a little to get out of his grasp.
“Calm down, baby,” he grits out, sticking a third ?nger inside me harshly. He rises, leans over my trembling frame, and slowly licks my lips. I taste myself there and instantly start to settle.
He pulls his ?ngers from inside me, brushes them gently across the cut on my knee, places them in between his lips, and releases a deep growl of pleasure. My legs spread wider just as his tongue plunges into my mouth and he kisses me deeply. He parts me slowly, then caresses me in such a gentle way my climax immediately builds to a tempting crest I desperately want to fall over the edge of.
“You're so wet,” he growls, breaking our kiss. “So responsive.”
Lowering himself down my frame, his tongue ?nds my core. Lightly, he releases the hold he has around my neck and allows me the pleasure of moaning into the night.
“Fuck, Felix. Don’t stop, please. I beg you...” but my voice is cut off as he starts to choke me again.
He sucks my clit into his mouth, and I attempt to release a light scream. My throat burns with want, with need, with the desire to tell him how much I love whatever this is. With a pop, he releases my clit and smiles.
“The sounds you make are addictive,” he growls. “But, baby, this time, when your pussy cums, I won’t give you the luxury of screaming my name.”
His grip around my throat painfully tightens as he sucks down harder. The sensation of being robbed of air oddly makes me focus on only one thing, the way he’s making me feel between my thighs. Every time I try to breathe deep, my climax builds. He feels it and releases a deep groan against my clit before sucking, licking, thrusting his ?ngers quicker, faster while adding more pressure to my neck.
Suddenly, the world begins to fade to black. I swear I’m about to faint as the throbbing between my legs becomes so painful, I can’t take anymore. Just before I pass out, he rolls his ?ngers out of my wetness and enters one in my ass, then sucks down hard on my clit. I explode in an instant. His hand releases my neck and I suck in air. Gasping, my climax intensi?es as he enters two ?ngers inside my center and continues to fuck both holes while his hot mouth pays special attention to my clit.
“Felix,” I scream once I catch my breath. “Fuck, I can’t take anymore.”
Struggling to get out of his hold, he pulls his fingers free and forces my hips back to the ground before feasting on my center and drinking down every last drop my body is willing to give him until he is completely satis?ed.
Utterly spent, he licks one last tender, lazy path up my sex as I lay there wondering what the hell just happened. He kisses the inside of my right thigh, then the inside of my left. Just when I think he’s going to climb up my body and put his lips against mine, he ?ips me over and forces my ass up in the air.
Leaning forward, he growls into my ear, “You have no idea how sexy you look right now.”
I glance over my shoulder and watch as his eyes roam over my body and eventually rise and stay locked on my neck.
“Marked by me,” he sucks in an exhilarated breath. “Beautifully bruised by my hand.”
His ?ngertips gently brush across my throat, before his eyes lift and catch the leaves in my hair, then roam lower around my curves. He makes quick work of lowering his zipper. The crown of his cock rests at my opening a moment later and I suck in a shaky breath.Before I can respond, he thrusts inside me and I scream out before falling on my forearms against the desert ?oor. I try to claw away, but he hooks his arm around my waist and holds me back against him.
Fisting my hair in his hand, he yanks my head back towards him.
“I’m not even halfway, baby. Relax and take it like the good girl we both know you are.”
With wide eyes, I turn my neck to meet his stare, but his eyes don’t lock with mine. They’re focused on where we are joined together. Where his body is relentless on tearing mine apart.
When he glances up at me, his eyes ?ll with worry before they softly close. With a pained expression, he wraps my hair tighter around his ?st and grits out, “You’re still so fucking tight. Open up for me, baby. Relax, spread your thighs.”
I try my hardest as he inches in further. My nails dig into the earth and I attempt to claw away with each painful inch he tries to shove inside me. Quickly, he leans forward, gathers me in his arms, and sits back holding me suspended above his throbbing length. His right hand holds tight around my neck as the other holds me close to his body. With my back resting against his chest, he gives me a moment, suspended above him, feeling minimal pain, before he growls in my ear, “Fucking take it,” and then forces me down harshly.
Ripping through my center, he penetrates me deep onto his cock.
My yell echoes through the night as tears fall quickly from my eyes. Before I can clear my mind of the pain, his hips begin to rock, and his hand trails down my stomach and starts to rub my clit. Soon, the pleasure overshadows the pain and we begin to chase our release.
He sucks in a shaky breath. “Atta’ girl. Ride me, baby. Make yourself cum.”
His words send me over the edge and I scream out his name as my climax rips through my body. He follows me seconds later and I moan in sated pleasure as his warmth spreads inside me. When we’ve both come down from our high, he holds me against him in silence for a moment.
Lifting me up, I turn around and he gently lays me down on the desert floor. His body covers mine protectively as his thickening length slips slowly back inside me.
“I’m not done with you yet,” he growls, thrusting his hips forward. I wrap my legs around his waist tightly and urge him to keep going. “Fuck, you keep taking my cock like this, like such a good fucking girl, and I’ll never get enough, baby.”
I gasp out as he buries himself as deep as my body will take him. He sucks in a shaky breath as he rocks us back towards heaven. With each powerful thrust, my wetness grows. Some from pleasure, some from the painful way he’s tearing me apart. Both feelings mix into a beautiful high.
“Fate knew one lifetime with you would have never been enough,” he groans as he strains above me, and our bodies find their perfect rhythm. Gripping his shoulders, I match his thrusts with greedy determination.
His voice fills with emotion as he says, “Losing myself to you gave me the only heaven I’ll ever know.”
Tears fill my eyes as he slows his pace and tenderly starts to make love to me.
“When the end comes this time, Esme, you must do me a favor.”
“Anything,” I promise.
His features harden. Jaw set tight, he whispers, “Believe none of us.”
Before I can respond, Felix gathers me in his arms and presses his lips against mine, silencing any rebuttal. Training forgotten, the heavens open and a momentary euphoria rushes through our veins as we succumb to pleasure. Chests heaving, we ride out our bliss and forget about the troubles that lie ahead.
My head warns that forgetting, even momentarily, will result in our unfortunate demise as we’re inevitably doomed to repeat the past. But then my heart whispers: life and love are so short, and fleeting bliss is so hard to come by, we’d be fools, like Hamlet and Ophelia, not to grab it while we can.