Chapter 138

~~Natasha~~

Finally, they were done. Took them forever, and the worst part about it, was Tash couldn’t stop watching! She watched, and watched, and by the time Eric was done with Jessy, she was an utter wreck, a trembling, mewling, worn out mess of limbs. Tash thought her sessions with the boys could get silly long and messy, but this was a whole new level of fantasy.

Eric looked down at the — mostly — naked woman on his lap, before looking at Tash again. So scary, with the huge teeth, the predator eyes, and the utterly massive muscles that his short fur did nothing to hide. He had abs. Abs! Why would a furry creature have abs? Tash stared at them, and him, and then his stomach some more, as the enormous beast lifted the exhausted girl off his length, and set her on the couch beside him.

Werewolf penis. Huge, werewolf penis, covered in—

She shook her head, hard enough to bounce her brain around in her skull, and turned her backs to them.

“Eric! You should ch-change back! And Jessy, g-g-get cleaned up! And dressed.”

Jessy laughed, voice wavering. “He’s just a big, sexy puppy, isn’t he?”

Tash rolled her eyes, but looked back over her shoulder. He was so huge, and his shaft was absolutely massive, and ... werewolfy. She shook her head again and looked away.

“Sorry,” Eric said, voice changing mid word. The couch creaked and squeaked, announcing the man’s change back into human form. Once the squeaking stopped, Tash heard some shuffling. “I’ll just throw us in the shower real quick.”

Tash nodded, and moved into the kitchen. Jessy’s apartment wasn’t too dissimilar to Tash’s, just a little dirtier, but still had the usual Dolareido feel. Streamlined, blacks and silvers, everything sleek and expensive. The stools weren’t comfortable, but they were pretty; Dolareido’s motto for pretty much everything. It was better than being in the living room, where those two had made such a mess, Jessy would have to hire an Invictus cleaning crew to deal with it. They cleaned up blood, they could clean up werewolf semen. Or maybe it changed back into more reasonable amounts, when Eric changed back? Her dragon curiosity demanded she ask, and she promptly shut it up.

She glanced over her shoulder, and smiled as she got a peek of Eric’s naked body from behind, as he carried Jessy in his arms. The Gangrel was still shaking all over, but smiling like a giddy school child, and she grinned at Natasha passed Eric’s arm as the man took her into the bathroom.

They didn’t keep her waiting long. Five minutes, enough to get all the white stuff off them, and get Jessy into something a little more comfortable and decent than a thong and nipple pasties. Jessy came back in baggy, pink pajamas, because yes, she had big pink pajamas, as if it was her personal goal to not be stereotyped. Eric came back wearing some jeans, and nothing but jeans, and Natasha peeked at his body more than a few times as they came into the large kitchen with her. He wasn’t as big as Matt or Art, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t utterly gorgeous.

And, she couldn’t help but picture the werewolf now, the huge beast, with huge ... everything.

“So, Tash,” Jessy said, “apparently you’ve been keeping secrets from me?”

Uh oh.

“Um, I—”

“Jack brought me to see Azamel a month ago. He spilled the beans there, about this whole ‘dark presence’ or whatever.” She finger quoted dark presence, too. “Apparently, a bunch of you guys knew about this thing, and what it may or may not be doing, and have been investigating it without me. Like, Jack thinks that tear Eric and me went through to save him from that scary ghost place was this thing’s doing? Etcetera, etcetera.”

“Oh ... Oh.” She squirmed as she looked down at the countertop. “I—”

“Don’t worry about it.” Jessy hopped onto the stool beside her, and in typical Jessy fashion, rubbed Tash’s shoulders like nothing was wrong. “I mean yeah, I was angry at first. We’re best friends, and you didn’t tell me this big thing? Like, fucking hell, my feelings.” She touched her chest with her free hand, feigning deep offense.

Tash didn’t say anything. But she did sigh and lower her head, hiding her face behind waves of her black hair. Guilt was a shitty feeling.

“But Jack, the asshole, put it in perspective. Big nasty secret like this? Made sense to keep it secret, even from me. I can be a loud person, I know that. Must have been tough on ya.”

“So Jack—”

“Needed me to cover his six until Damien was healed up. And Eric”—she gestured to her boyfriend, who stood in the kitchen—”is slowly learning more about it, too. Cause, ya know, werewolf. Spirits and shit. There’s a connection somewhere there, between Black Blood, who Jack is convinced isn’t a normal spirit, and the Shadow Realm and all that stuff.”

“Y-Yeah.” Apparently, Jack had let Jessy in on everything. Everything everything, if he told her about his concern with Black Blood. That meant Jessy had to be careful around Jacob, and not let him know that they suspected him and his so-called spirit friend.

“This what we were gonna talk about tomorrow?” Eric asked.

Jessy laughed and shrugged. “Kinda, yeah, but with Tash here, figured we should probably talk about it now.”

“I’m sorry I d-d-didn’t tell you, I—”

“Tash. Seriously, come on.” Jessy leaned over her and hugged her. “Important shit is important. You didn’t tell me cause the less people that knew, the better. Much as our friendship is important, the city at large is a little more important, right? Not like I’d be happy if our friendship got everyone killed.”

She groaned. Of course Jessy had to say that, cause now all she could think about was Matt and Art.

Jessy chuckled. “I know that groan.”

“N-No you don’t.”

“Yes I do. Tash, come on, you gotta talk to them.”

“I will! With Jack. Later. W-When things are better.” When Avery and the pack calmed down, healed, and hopefully wouldn’t be looking for any excuse for a fight. And when Tash didn’t get furious just thinking about Art staking her through the heart.

“K, well, my two cents? Jack’s definitely put a more logical spin on this, and I gotta give the kid credit, he thinks with his head on straight. The boys did you wrong, but they had good reason. Give them a chance to make up for it.” Jessy had said those words before, just last week actually, but now that Tash knew she’d known about the secret, and had been keeping that a secret from Tash, the words meant more. Jessy had her own, personal context now. Tash keeping a secret from her wasn’t nearly as bad as what Art and Matt did to Tash, but it was still in the same ballpark.

“The P-Prince, she wants me to ... to um ... ask them to do something.” Something she knew Avery would say no to, but would ultimately be the boys’ choice, not Avery’s.

It hadn’t been Antoinette’s idea. It’d been Natasha’s. But she hadn’t been serious!

Sighing, she looked at Eric again, and the man raised a brow as Natasha managed to meet his gaze. His werewolf form, the big deadly Gauru form, had been terrifying. But he’d been in control, really good control, enough that he’d managed to calm down and do exactly what Jessy wanted: show off how good they looked having sex. He really wasn’t the same as the others.

“If the b-boys agree to the Prince’s demand, it’ll get ... dangerous, for me.”

Jessy hugged her again. “Then it’s a good thing you know a girl with a sexy city wolf to help you out.”

“B-Boys have too much influence on our second lives!” She thudded her fist against the table, squeaked, snapped a hand out, and steadied one of the stranger occult objects before it fell over.

The Prince and Elaine blinked at her, looked at each other, before Elaine shrugged and returned to her typing. Antoinette chuckled, and pulled some of hair over her shoulder to comb it with her fingers, while she continued typing on her laptop with her other hand. The four women sat in the Prince’s primary experiments chamber, the one with the crazy chandelier, and they had a bunch of artifacts on the table in front of them, including Elen’s, and the strange necklace Antoinette had received so long ago that’d summoned a spirit, who’d warned them about Maria.

Samantha was there too, and she laughed as she held one of the strange objects, a shrunken head, and took pictures of it at different angles. Not to squeamish anymore.

“They do?”

“Yes! W-We make too many decisions, based on what the men in our lives are d-doing.” She frowned down at her laptop, closed it, and folded her arms across her chest. “I don’t like that. I’m sick of it.”

The two elders grinned, knowing grins, but Samantha laughed harder, a hearty, warm sound. Samantha was fun. She didn’t have the experience or wisdom of the elders, and she was nice enough to roll with whatever someone said. Natasha could say stupid things, complain about stupid things, and while Antoinette or Elaine would listen, and then offer some very valuable advice, Samantha would just listen. That was preferable, sometimes.

“Guilty,” the young Daeva said, “I mean, about making decisions with men in mind. I dunno. I just ... can’t help but think about romance, when I make life choices. Maybe it’s cause I was still human, not long ago, but the idea of dying alone was pretty terrifying, you know?”

“But you are immortal now,” Antoinette said. “Age is of no concern.”

Samantha nodded. “I know. But the reflex is still there. I keep thinking: oh, what sort of apartment should I move into? Will it be big enough for a man to live there, too?”

The two elders and Tash laughed. Ok, Tash might not have been able to go a night without thinking about her boyfriends, it’d been weeks since she last spoke to them, but she didn’t frame things like that anymore. Where to live? Would she have enough money? Or the classic, what school would their kids go to? Those thoughts had long died.

“It is indeed, all relative,” Antoinette said. “We are Kindred now, and most of those instincts will slowly fade away. But the instincts were there for a reason. It is not the man who must carry a child for nine months, nor deal with nearly as much oxytocin for the child, post birth. The desire for a provider, in human women, is nothing to be ashamed of.”

Elaine nodded. “Evolution is a cruel bitch.”

The Prince grinned at her friend before looking back to Tash. “But, evolution arguments aside, do you not enjoy considering romance, in your life choices?”

Tash sighed and sat back in her seat. It was true. Much as she sometimes told herself otherwise, she liked thinking about romance, a lot. She was one of those girls who liked stupid stuff like romcoms. Watching them could be painful, cause the characters were always beyond idiotic, but still, she liked them.

“Natasha,” the Prince continued, eying her, “I can see where your mind wanders. Do not think less of yourself, for indulging your feminine side.”

“And consider,” Elaine said, “that masculine and feminine mentalities are not absolutes, limited to biological sex, or even opposites on a spectrum. There is overlap, and there is nuance.”

“Indeed. Both sexes are capable of both ways of thinking. Though gender proclivities do exist.” Antoinette tapped her chin, thinking. “I digress. My point is, you should feel no shame over thinking about romance more often than a man might, the same as a man should feel no shame over finding explosions so enthralling.”

Tash snorted on a giggling laugh. “I suppose.”

“When you get to our age,” Elaine said, “those old holdovers from your first life will fade into nothing. Mostly.” The two elders shared a grin. “But you will miss it. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to make any choice in my second life based on a man — or woman — I might have feelings for. I have not made such a decision in centuries.”

Antoinette nodded. “And as much as I love your son, Samantha, my goal with Dolareido is not something I would alter, simply to placate him. The city is a labor of love, mine, and I would ask Jack to consider that, in decisions we might make.”

The young Daeva nodded. “Of course. He understands that. That’s my boy for you.”

They all nodded. That was Jack. As long as what you were doing made logical sense, he’d accept it. Weird as his relationship with the Prince was, the pair really did make a strange sort of sense.

“Quite right,” Antoinette said. “And, when you reach our age, you may very well wish a man was the reason you made certain decisions.”

“Or, you know, men,” Samantha said, gesturing to Tash with a warm smile.

Tash squirmed in her seat. “You’re the one d-dating a whole covenant!”

“What? I’m not...” Samantha buried her face in her hands. “Oh god, who told you?”

Natasha laughed, reached out, and touched the woman’s elbow. “S-Sorry. But, yeah, Kindred know. Antoinette didn’t tell me either. Someone p-probably said something pretty innocent, and then someone asked more, and ... yeah, information spreads.”

Samantha squirmed more, but managed to lower her hand and smile at Tash. “I’m being really dumb, aren’t I? Still being shy about stuff.”

Natasha shook her head. “It was a lot longer for me b-before I was able to, um, be a little more open about stuff. You’re ahead of me.” If it was really a race. Unlike the Prince, Natasha didn’t think sexual openness was necessarily a good thing. Not everyone had to embraces orgies.

Jessy seemed to actually be happier, now that she was having sex with one person, instead of four. Course, that one person could transform into a giant beast, and fill the girl up to the point Natasha had been thoroughly concerned something would rupture inside her. But the Gangrel liked it, and it was obvious she also really liked how blatantly dominant Eric was, when they fucked with him transformed. Girl probably liked switching it up, being in charge when Eric was in human form, and then giving in when he transformed and got those large ... large ... very large hands on her.

It reminded Tash of her boys. Her boys? She had no idea if they were still her boys. She hadn’t spoken to them in six weeks, and it was killing her.

“I should stop being ashamed,” Samantha said, smiling to herself as she took more pictures of her artifact. “It’s been ... a breath of fresh air. The freedom is exhilarating.” She fiddled with her necklace, and after a few seconds, clutched it tight. “Mary is happy for me. She’s, um, a little hard to talk to, being, you know, a ghost ... And because it’s so naughty! Hard to tell my daughter anything about it. But she’s happy I’m enjoying myself, with Jacob and, uh, the witches.” Before she could continue, she caught herself, shaking her head and frowning. “Sorry. I make it sound like the stuff I had to deal with before I was a vampire was hard. It’s nothing compared to what you ladies deal with all the time.”

Natasha was going to interject, and defend Samantha. She lost her daughter, of course she should have trouble with that. But Antoinette raised a hand, just slightly, enough to get everyone’s attention.

“It is all relative, my childe. We adapt to our environments. The trials you faced, losing a husband, and raising two children? A massive hurdle, considering your world. Then to lose your son, and push on? Come now, Samantha. Impactful novels have been written about women who have struggled through such pain. And then, after what Angela did? You have more than earned the right to indulge yourself. Heal your soul.”

“Heal the soul.” Samantha smiled as she held her necklace. “Jacob and the witches are, uh, certainly helping me relax.”

“How’s Triss?” Tash asked. “I haven’t t-talked to her in a while.”

Samantha squirmed, and a hundred emotions ran across her face so fast, Tash couldn’t identify them.

“She’s good. She’s a lot happier now, thanks to Jennifer. I, uh, didn’t expect her to ... um...”

“Beatrice,” Antoinette said, “was once a simple Carthian, a rebel with little in the way of a cause. Now, she is a witch, and every witch I have ever dealt with has had a certain confidence when it came to ... sexual exploration. Julias’s death has scarred her, surely, but witches will embrace sexuality for reasons others would not consider. Healing the soul, as I said, or to make a fellow Kindred feel welcome. Like a hug.” The white-haired woman grinned at Samantha. “I suggest you do not mention Julias to her, if you should ever find yourself in a sexual situation with her. She is healing, in a way that witches heal. Do not feel guilty if you indulge of her as well.”

Tash raised a brow as she looked at her boss, but wiped her eye to hide it. Antoinette was being awfully forthcoming, with her childe and getting close to the witches. Really close.

Not that what she said didn’t make sense. Witches, and all Kindred really, didn’t treat sex like humans did, and it probably paid to remind her very, very young childe that. But Jacob was a scary man. Getting so involved with the witches, no matter the reason, even sexy reasons, was dangerous.

After a few minutes of thinking, Samantha spoke up.

“But you’re right,” she said, gesturing to Natasha. “We’re vampires, not human women anymore. Focusing on romance all the time is dumb.” She didn’t sound too convinced.

“Perhaps,” Elaine said. “But I have been single for a very, very long time. I would be remiss to suggest that romance is not worth the effort.” Nodding, the elder leaned forward over her laptop and looked at Natasha. “Have you thought of a punishment for your two delicious lovers, yet?”

Ugh, not that. She held Elaine’s eyes for a moment, before she outright whined, and let her head land hard on the table. “I ... d-did. I didn’t think it was a good idea, but the Prince says it is. I haven’t t-talked to them in six weeks, though. I d-don’t even know if—”

Elaine shook her head. “Nonsense. Those boys will jump through hoops to win your heart back.” The most evil smile Natasha had ever seen snuck onto the woman’s face. “You are a woman. Dare I say, it is in a woman’s nature, to make men dance through hoops. And it is a woman’s nature to, perhaps, enjoy it a little?”

Tash frowned at the ancient woman, but all that did was make Elaine chuckle, and return to her work. Yeah, a lot of women loved to make men do absurd stuff to win them over. Manipulation. A relationship built on manipulation was a horrible idea! And she wouldn’t do it.

She could, she knew that. Some doe eyes, a trembling lip, and the boys would probably break and do whatever she wanted, assuming they were still interested in her. But the very idea of doing that made her want to puke, and then hurt any woman who did that to her man. Or men, in her case.

“Natasha’s suggestion was a perfectly reasonable one,” Antoinette said. “But she is hesitant.”

“It could cause p ... p-problems, if they say no...”

“Problems have already been created. Avery knew she overstepped herself, attacking Maria, but in that circumstance, it is on the Second Estate to defend their position. The pressure I can put on the werewolf for that blunder is, ultimately, not as strong as what I can place on her for daring to attack one of the dragons of this city. For that, she must pay. And if you do not collect, Natasha, then I will collect myself, and Daniel and I will be considerably less delicate.”

She gulped, and nodded. “Yes, Prince.”

Elaine and Antoinette left. Business, according to them. What sort of business they were up to, Natasha had no idea, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. She was still struggling with knowing that some sort of dark, mysterious force was working in Dolareido, and in all likelihood, up to no good. Jack had updated her and Damien about his suspicions it was Black Blood, and that made Jacob all the scarier.

“So,” Samantha said, stuttering and squirming a little. “Jessy. Um, she really ... has sex with Eric, when transformed?”

Oh god not another one.

“You c-could ask her yourself, any time. She’s completely, t-totally shameless.”

“I could, I could. But she’s, um, a little intimidating.”

Tash giggled. “Jessy’s just very upfront ab-bout what she likes.” Shrugging, Tash pushed Elen’s strange book aside. “Another one for storage.”

Samantha nodded, grabbed the book, and set it beside the pile of other weird artifacts. Her eyes lingered on the book for a second, before she fiddled with her necklace a couple times, and looked back to Tash.

“A lot of vampires seem to be very upfront about the things they like.”

Tash laughed and shook her head. “N-Not all of us.”

Samantha smiled at her. “True. You’re a lot more reserved. Every vampire I’ve seen half your age is, um, willing to do ... well, anything, anywhere.”

“Mekhet d-don’t like to get involved as quickly as other Kindred.” Much as she tried, she couldn’t help but grin a little at the new dragon. “Daeva ... are sort of the opposite.”

Samantha squirmed, but smiled too. “I thought maybe Antoinette, and Elaine, were maybe peer pressuring me a little. Not to sound mean! Just, they’re both very ... sexually aggressive.”

“They are, b-but it’s not because they’re asshole teenagers who want to make you conform. Antoinette in particular, she knows w-what she’s doing. If she asks you t-to do something, there’s a very good chance it’ll be good for you. It might make you happy, or b-better yourself for the future.” Antoinette played the long game better than any of them.

“That’s true. They’re so old, and wise. But sometimes I do think they’re, um, a little disconnected, from the reality for a fledgling like me, you know? Every night, I feel like I’m a little girl, overwhelmed with every new experience.”

“Is Jacob helping? Or ... t-taking advantage?” Gently now. If she made Jacob sound like the villain she was sure he was, Samantha might get defensive.

Samantha sat back and thought about it. She might have been only a fledgling, but she was still a full grown woman in kine years, with plenty of experience under her belt. If Jacob was taking advantage of her, she’d know. Or, maybe not. There were lots of stories of older women being taken advantage of by scheming men, and vice versa.

“He’s helping. He had my permission, the first time things got sexual. And the ... following time. After that, he um, stopped asking, but not because he wanted to take advantage of me. He learned what I liked.”

Natasha returned the woman’s shy smile. It’d been like that with Art and Matt, too. The first few times, she had to give them permission to do things to her. After that, once they were doing sexual things, the boys felt comfortable enough to surprise her, sometimes with some very kinky or rough play. And—

And stop thinking about the boys. You’re a vampire, newly in your ancilla years. You’re powerful. You’re ex-Right Hand, and now you’re a dragon of the Ordo Dracul. Antoinette wants you to investigate extremely dangerous ... things, about the nightlife of Dolareido, because she trusts you. Stop acting like an idiot little girl.

“That’s good,” Tash said. “Jacob has been ... d-difficult to understand, since Minerva died.”

“Ah, right, Minerva.” The young Daeva frowned, and leaned forward toward Tash, elbows on the table. “Jacob talks about her, sometimes.”

“He ... d-does?” Tash blinked at her, several times. “He doesn’t talk about Minerva with ... anyone.”

Samantha sighed, nodding. “I can see why. It hurts him, when he does. And he doesn’t talk about her much.”

“It’s a little strange, f-for your boyfriend to talk about their ... dead girlfriend, isn’t it?”

The Daeva shrugged. “A little. But it’s obvious he hasn’t talked about her with anyone. And, he’s so old, so ancient, that talking with him isn’t like talking with a normal man. I can tell him anything, and he understands. I don’t need to navigate any male ego.”

“That must be nice.”

“Ha. Come on, Art and Matt didn’t sound like they had any ego problems.”

“They are nice ... boys. Dumb, s-stupid boys.”

Samantha nodded apologetically. “With Jacob, there’s none of that. And it’s not like we talk about anything sexual, when we talk about our past. But, I tell him about James sometimes, about how we met, and how we fell in love. He talks about Minerva, and I can tell he’s moved on, same as me. But, there is something there, something lingering around, and ... I don’t know. James dying was horrible, and it scarred me, badly. Then what happened with Jack, and then Mary, so much worse. But he knows exactly what to say to me about it. But with Minerva, it’s like, her death left ... something else, something more than just grief.” She shrugged and sat back. “I don’t know. It’s a very weird relationship. I’m happy to be in it, but yeah, very weird.”

Natasha absorbed, and did her best to not let Samantha realize she was saying very important information. No one knew much about Jacob. Even Antoinette said the man was a mystery, and she knew him better than anyone. Which might have meant that Antoinette let the man date her childe, because she saw it as a way to learn more about the mystery man. Was that the main reason she let the relationship happen, or maybe even nudged Samantha toward Jacob? To learn more about him? Or was it all just a happy accident?

“I d-don’t envy you. I mean, it must be amazing, dating such a wise man, and, um, being so close with his circle, and—”

Samantha giggled, reached out, and pat Natasha’s hand. “You may think it’s dumb to talk about boys, but I haven’t been able to talk about boys in years!”

“Years?”

“After James died, I didn’t date again. That was over ten years ago.”

“That’s ... a long time.”

Samantha smiled, pat Tash’s hand again, and sat back. A sensitive topic, surely, but the look on her face said she’d been through this conversation before.

“I’d been with him for a long time, when he died. We married young, and had Mary young.”

Right, Samantha was in her forties when she was embraced. Late forties, even. She looked beautiful.

“You d-don’t look like you’re in your forties, you know.”

The Daeva beamed. “Well, Mary really helped me get my life together. A couple years of taking care of myself did a lot to turn me around. But, as much as Mary was insistent, I ... never really talked to her about, you know, guy stuff.”

“She—”

“Oh, she told me about her boyfriends, but she was only in a couple relationships. And she didn’t talk to me about sexual stuff. I’m her mother. And, I didn’t talk to her about sexual stuff, cause I’d pretty much just be talking about James, her father, and...”

“Those would be some ... awkward c-conversations.”

“Exactly. And sure, I tell Mary about stuff sometimes now, but ... but talking to her now is hard. And sometimes I tell Antoinette about stuff, but she always has that, um, teacher aura, right? It can be annoying sometimes, talking to someone who knows everything, and has done everything.”

Natasha smiled. “Are you saying I d-don’t know anything?”

“What? No! No, that’s not—”

Tash laughed. “No no, I get it. I ... d-definitely didn’t do much socializing, for a long time. After Daniel sired me, everything was so ... scary. I didn’t handle it well. I ran, and the closest thing I could understand was the Invictus. I met Jessy, and ... Julias.” Natasha couldn’t help but laugh some more, silly memories dancing through her head. “Jessy, she ... has d-definitely been an aggressive person, for a long time.”

“Maybe I’ll talk to her more, in the future. She’s intimating, but nice. She did lend me her ghouls.” Samantha grinned and drew a few lines in the table with her fingers. “Jacob says I should have slept with them when I had the chance.”

“They’re ... they’re very talented.”

Samantha blinked at her, before erupting into giggles. “Jessy?”

“Jessy. She ... she was there, and she s-sorta ... convinced me ... to join her.”

A perfect opportunity for Samantha to start teasing her. But, she didn’t. She smiled like a shy, guilty little girl, and nodded.

“I’ll tell you a little, if you tell me a little?”

Tash laughed. “D-Deal.”

~~Damien~~

Damien smiled at the little redhead beside him. She’d crawled into bed with him again. She had the key to his apartment, but none of the barriers he had up against his bedroom door were moved, boxes of clothes and whatnot. They served no purpose other than to let him know if someone had come into his room while he slept through the day. But he knew Fiona could get into his room without moving the door if she wanted. And she had. Scary.

He rolled under the covers, faced her, and laughed. She was facing away from him, and wearing one of her nighties, green, loose, and partly see-through. Judging from the sound of her breathing, she’d fallen asleep. And judging from the nightie, she’d planned to surprise him for some wake-up sex, but had apparently been impervious to the draw of sleep. Probably fell asleep maybe twenty minutes ago.

So naturally, he did what any man would do when presented with this situation. A human man would likely use the bathroom upon waking and return, but not a vampire. He was free to press his naked body against his lover’s back, slip an arm up her stomach under the nightie, and lean over her to set a kiss on her neck as his hand found her breasts.