I wrapped my arms around Lara and kissed her deeply. I've had a lot of lovers over the centuries, and not all of them knew how to kiss. Mortal or immortal, some females just never acquire the knack. But Lara knew how to kiss.
Lara probed my mouth with her tongue and we both made soft moaning sounds as my body seemed to fill with electric sparks of sexual excitement. I've been warned hundreds of times about the dangers of having sex with a White Court vampire, but there's a potent dark sexual thrill that dwarfs all the risks. When Lara's hands were touching me, and her body pressed against mine, I was filled with more bliss than a human experiencing opium dreams.
My heart soared, and my loins throbbed as Lara knelt gracefully and peeled my panties from my hips and exposed the smooth flesh of my vulva. Lara looked up and gave me a seductive, smoldering look before she touched her tongue to the folds of my swollen labia.
At the mere touch of her tongue, a frisson of pleasure shuddered through me. I stood there panting, my eyes half-open, my heart racing and bursts of lust running through my body.
"
Aahhhh,"
I gasped with mindless, wanton delight. You might think that after centuries of carnal experiences an immortal would get blasé about sex, however, that's not always the case. If you're with the right partner, sex can seem new and exciting no matter how many orgasms you've experienced in your lifetime. And Lara was the right partner for me. She transformed sex into something mysterious, forbidden and exciting all over again.
Lara's head remained between my thighs and her tongue did delicious things to the swollen folds of my pubic lips, sending waves of ecstasy pleasure out, permeating my entire body. My hips swayed, and I continued to gasp as pleasure built up inside of me.
Like a wave that builds in strength over a thousand miles of ocean, so build the strength of the orgasm deep within my loins. I made uncontrollable gyrations with my hips and inarticulate sounds deep within my throat as I felt libidinous spasms deep inside of me.
Lara would occasionally look up at me and favor me with an amused smile, possibly she was entertained by my squirming or my gasping explosions of lusty, inarticulate euphoria.
"Oh... oh... Oh, Lara... Oh, Aghhhhhh! Oooooohh!"
When I reached the climax, the throbbing, primal wanton, libidinous joy became so intense, my mind completely shut down. I was no longer a thinking, intelligent creature. I was a collection of happy nerve-endings, all flooded with an overabundance of carnal pleasure. I just closed my eyes, moaned and surrendered to the wealth of pleasurable sensations.
My mind had been swept away by the exquisite things that Lara had down to my body. When I was able to think once again, I was naked, panting and lying on the floor, barely able to move.
"Sweet, adorable, Hannah," Lara said as she smiled beatifically at my sweat-drenched, panting body, "No matter what alliances you make with Rochau, there are things I can do for you that he will never be able to."
I continued to pant and made a gesture to indicate I agreed with her. I'm not even sure why she felt the need to remind me. Lara's kind are superbeings who can cram more erotic bliss into five seconds of foreplay than most humans can manage in five hours of sex. There's simply no way I could ever forget the amazing things Lara can do for me.
_____________
"Kelsey,"
I called out when I got home,
"I have good news!"
Part of me was angry at Kelsey for not sharing important information with me. If Kelsey had told me that she had some sort of supernatural tracking ability, I might not have been so worried about her. I might have hypothesized that people in the paranormal community would be far more interested in recruiting her than killing her.
During my absence, Kelsey had made herself at home. She was wearing one of my t-shirts and a pair of my bootcut jeans. In addition to that, she was cuddling with a huge dog I'd never seen before. I wasn't an expert on dogs, but it looked like an East-European Shepherd to me. Although it was snowy-white from its nose, all the way to the tip of its tail and I'd never seen a pure-white East European Shepherd before.
"Where'd the dog come from?" I asked.
"It's not a dog," Katherine's voice replied from somewhere in the kitchen, "It's a laochra wolf."
"A what?"
Katherine walked out of the kitchen, trailed by an even larger quadruped. This one was built like the one that Kelsey was cuddling, only this one was pure-black.
"A laochra wolf," Katherine repeated, "a wolf that's been magically bonded to a wizard, witch or magic practitioner of some kind. They're stronger and more resilient than a regular wolf. They're also fanatically loyal and they'll defend the human that they're bonded to until either the human or the wolf is dead."
At the word "wolf" I felt my emotions churn. I like dogs. Dogs are companionable creatures who will lick your face, nuzzle up against you, play fetch and beg you for treats. Dogs are wonderful creatures. Wolves, on the other hand, are cunning predators, who will stalk you for miles, surround you, cut off any means of escape and then they'll maul you to death.
I don't like wolves. Just being near them set me on edge.
"And why are they in my house, Katherine?" I asked, "Before I left, did I give you permission to bring wolves into my home? I'm pretty fucking sure that I didn't."
Apparently, the black wolf didn't approve of my tone of voice. As I yelled at Katherine, he bent his ears back, turned his tail up and stared at me intently, with his eyes narrowed. Then a deep, menacing, rumbling growl erupted from the wolf's chest.
The growling wasn't just loud; it had a resonating quality that I could feel in my bones. Katherine looked down at the furry quadruped and her face just about went white.
"Teddy! No,"
Katherine admonished the wolf as she leaned over and touched the wolf between his shoulder blades,
"Friend! Friend!"
The wolf seemed to take a few seconds to consider this.
He stopped growling, his ears relaxed, and he padded across the floor until he was uncomfortably close, For several seconds he sniffed me. Dogs and wolves make a lot of important decisions based on smell, so I decided to just stand there and try to smell as friendly as possible. If he bit me, things were going to get ugly.
In the end, the wolf didn't bite me. When he was finished sniffing me, he ended up licking my hand and padding back to Katherine. Apparently, I had passed some sort of test, and Teddy no longer considered me a threat.
And while Teddy sat companionably at Katherine's feet, Katherine said, "Look, you told me that assassins were out there, hunting down Kelsey. I thought it would be a good idea to have some sort of protection around the house. If assassins burst in here and tried to kill Kelsey, Edith and Teddy would have fought to protect her."
Any assassin dangerous and imposing enough to be recruited into the ordo sicariorum could probably neutralize Katherine's wolves with very little effort, but I didn't bother to mention that. If these wolves gave her peace of mind, I was in no rush to take that away from her.
Instead, I said, "On the subject of assassins, I have some good news."
Okay, I paused dramatically to get maximum effect. I waited until Kelsey, Katherine and both wolves had their eyes focused on me and everyone was eager to hear me elaborate on my cryptic comment.
"Well?" Kelsey demanded impatiently, "What is it?"
"The ordo sicariorum doesn't want to kill you," I said, "they never did. They just want to offer you a job."
"What?"