Page 21

Ruby

I wake up and sit up in a bed, twice the size of mine at home.

I recall something about coming here after being kidnapped by the shifters. Luc saved me, brought me here and gave me something for the pain. I inspect my body, see the stitches on my arms and the bruising. I must have received medical care but I can’t remember it.

Then I remember what the shifters did to me and I close my eyes briefly. Rat Man’s face appears in front of me and I quickly open my eyes.

I’ve never been to a hotel room before, not something I would admit readily. My life has been rather unimpressive so far. No grand trips, no big holidays. But I’ve survived this attack and that feels big.

I sit up, notice the bottle of water and gratefully drink all of it.

I wonder where Luc is, the room is empty.

I try to figure out how long I’ve been here and recall waking up at times, seeing him here, lying on the bed next to me. I try to get out of bed, walking carefully, wincing with pain. As long as I don’t move, I feel okay but every movement brings a range of sensations, all of them unpleasant. The bathroom is lovely, with deep, fluffy towels and soap scented with lavender. I wash my face and flinch when I see myself in the mirror. I look terrible, my face is purple and blue, with some bruises turning yellow.

I step into the shower, open the faucet and let the water wash over me until I feel less dirty, though not clean. Somehow, I doubt I will ever feel clean again.

When I get out into the room, Luc is waiting for me.

“How are you feeling?” he asks me.

“Better. Hungry.”

He smiles, “That’s good, I’ll call down for some food, what do you feel like?”

I shrug. “Eggs? Bread?”

He calls the order to the kitchen and within minutes, a porter brings several plates of food.

“How long have I been sleeping?” I ask Luc.

“Three days now,” he says, and tells me about the doctor’s visit.

“Jesus. Three days,” I can’t believe I’ve slept this long.

I suddenly sit up. “My mother! I have to find her, make sure she’s okay!”

Luc nods. “I’ve had her moved to another facility in the capital.”

Anxious, I ask, “So, she’s okay?”

Luc nods and I relax.

“When do you have to leave?” I ask him.

“Tired of me already?” he asks with a smile.

“No…. but there is a war on and don’t you have things to do?”

His face becomes serious. “Everything seems to be falling apart. There are so many places I need to be, people I should talk to. At the same time, I don’t know, I feel like it shouldn’t all be my responsibility.”

I’m not sure what he is talking about exactly but I can see he is worried, upset.

I get up and walk over to him, sitting down on his lap, carefully.

It’s the closest I have been to him since we slept together at my house. It feels like months ago but it isn’t even that long. But so much has happened and I’m not sure where we stand with each other. He has stuck around this long to make sure I’m okay, but I can’t tell why. Perhaps he is being chivalrous, or something.

Being this close to him feels intoxicating.

I put my hand on his chest and notice a muscle tightening in his face. I immediately pull back.

“No, no,” he catches my hand and pulls me closer.

“It’s not that.” He tells me he was injured by the wolves and is also recovering.

He pulls me closer to him and against his chest.

“This feels good,” he says. “The best medicine.”

I love the sound of his voice, so deep and melodious. I put my hand on his chest again and stroke the skin, gently. I become aware of a hardness underneath me, in his groin area.

“Do you think… we could?” I ask him with a little smile.

“I don’t know!” he grins. “What do you think?”

“What if we are really careful?”

I kiss him softly and feel his mouth eagerly close over mine as he puts both arms around me. I feel the hotel robe fall from my shoulders and try to pull it back, to cover me.

“No, don’t,” he says hoarsely.

“But, look at me,” I say, embarrassed about the scratches and cuts, the discolored skin.

“You are more beautiful to me than ever before,” he says, kissing my shoulder softly where the wound begins.

We kiss slowly, carefully, I adjust my position so that I am facing him, my knees on either side of him. He touches my breasts, holding them tenderly, lifting them towards his face, licking my nipples, sucking on them, sending tingling pleasure down my body. My chest is sensitive around my rib area and even though I want to move, the pain is keeping me immobilized. It is agony being with him this way, but I want him so much, I can’t stop.

“Are you okay?” he whispers to me.

I nod. “Are you?”

He nods and I begin to move on top of him. I open my legs wider and shift my weight so that my pussy is on top of his pants. I start to rock gently, slowly, rubbing my clitoris against him as he squeezes my bum, pushing me on top of him. I lift myself delicately and pull his cock out. It is hard and fully erect. I gasp when I guide it into me, shifting my weight to take all of him into me. The pain in my body subsides, I don’t feel any of the soreness anymore, none of the bruising, I just feel the pleasure building inside of me. I want to control it, to keep it building slowly to ensure we don’t hurt ourselves.

I move my pelvis and my hips and find that this does not hurt, so I move even more, feeling him sliding inside of me, hot and wet. I am moaning now and I can hear myself as I see his eyes becoming unfocused with desire and longing.

Our rocking is picking up speed and intensity as he pushes me up and down on top of him, leaning back to reach deeper and harder. I pull him up and whisper to him, “Bite me.”

I don’t know why but I know I want him to. I know it makes it better for him and it also does something for me. The first time he did it, I felt a sharp pain, but the pain turned into an intense pleasure unlike anything I’d ever felt before.

“I want it,” I said. “I want it.”

He let his fangs come out and it wasn’t scary at all.

I closed my eyes and gave him my neck. I felt him come closer, kissing my neck, his tongue circling and sucking and I didn’t feel his teeth piercing me at all. Rather, it was like the sucking became harder and more pressured and the rhythm coincided with our coupling, he was sucking on my neck while I was sucking him inside of me, squeezing and holding him as he held me by my neck.

I felt no pain, no discomfort, nothing but the most exquisite physical pleasure as our bodies melted together and became one.

Afterwards, he stroked my back. “You okay?” he whispered.

I smiled. “Better than okay.”

I moved onto his lap again and he held me close.

“I wish I never had to get up again,” I said and he laughed.

“I could hold you like this forever,” he said.

His face became serious and I saw him looking at my neck. There was a trickle of blood running down my skin. I touched it and looked at it. His fangs had been retracted now but thinking of them made my skin tingle.

“I liked it,” I said. “When you tasted my blood. It made us closer, somehow, made the sex better.”

He nodded. “It’s dangerous, though.”

“Because you could lose control?”

He nodded. “It’s so intoxicating, you want more and more. If you are not careful you take too much.”

I shivered. “Has that ever happened to you?”

He shook his head.

“We need humans to trust us, to work with us. That can never happen if they fear us. This is why FOH is forbidden.”

“Feeding on Humans,” I say.

Again, he nods.

“I wouldn’t mind you feeding on me, I think. As long as you didn’t take too much,” I say.

“And how much is too much?” he asks lightly and I shrug playfully.

“You should be scared of me,” he says, darkly. “I am a monster after all.”

“Not to me,” I say quickly. Thanks to him, I had been able to get out of Buzzard Creek. He had been good to me, kind to me, but I could see he was in a dark mood.

I got up, put my robe on and turned to walk away.

“Don’t go,” he said in a tired voice. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

He sounded so agonized that I went back to him.

“I wish we could just hang out here for a few days,” I said. “Get better and rest before deciding what to do next. Where to go next.”

He looked at me with those intense blue eyes but I didn’t look away, holding his gaze.

“We could pretend there is no war, no outside world. Just sleep and make love and maybe sometimes, shower.”

He smiled. “It does sound lovely,” he said.

“I think you need to recover too,” I said.

I held out a hand to him. “Let’s recover together.” He took my hand and smiled, the smile I had come to love, but I would never admit that to anyone. I led him to the bed and we got under the covers, pulling the sheets over our heads so that we seemed to be in our own little world.