Raven Wals

Chapter 7: Sebastian

Raven watched the candlelight dance across Abigail's sleeping face. She hadn't wanted to return to the coven with him, wanting to put as much distance between herself and the horrible creature that attacked her as possible. But as was his nature, Raven did not take no for an answer.

Somehow, she knew she could trust him.

The real question was could she trust herself?

To put her mind at ease he hadn't made another advance on her. Instead he lulled her to sleep with his words and his thoughts. Finally her emerald eyes closed and the tension drained from her face. He wanted to reach out and touch her, but had resisted.

He didn't know why he resisted -- he just knew it would be better if he did.

He sat in the chair beside the door, keeping watch. If her attacker returned to find her, Raven would be prepared.

He rested his head against the wall. Who had attacked Abigail -- that was the real question. There was no mystery as to why -- vampires were predators in the truest sense of the word. They were the top of the food chain. Chasing down a scared human in an alley wasn't unlike a lioness attacking a gazelle. It was just the natural order of things, in any way the vampire life could be natural.

But modern vampires tended to feast upon the blood of the willing. There were covens such as this one where they found shelter, havens for those who wished to be fed upon matched only by those who wanted to feed. It was a time in history Raven was glad to he had survived long enough to see.

He remembered the not so distant past when vampires roamed as serial killers of the worst sort. With ravenous appetites that were never sated, no matter how many lives were extinguished in their wake. There was no sex back then -- the act of feeding was the act of sex. Sharp, lengthened fangs would penetrate soft, virgin skin; bodily fluids exchanged in an orgasmic flurry of blood and death.

Now sex rode shotgun to that appetite, and the need to suck a victim dry had abated over the last century. He liked to think he himself was a big reason for that change. He was the one who resisted the label "murderer", and instead used his heart stopping charisma to satisfy a hunger of a different kind.

But the Creature tonight had been angry, not lustful. His, or her, intent had been to destroy rather than just consume. Such motives seemed foreign to Raven, and quite frankly scared him.

He could only imagine the terror a vulnerable human like Abi would experience, face to face with someone who was determined to do her that much harm. Had Raven not come along...

He shuddered. He didn't want to think about it.

A knock interrupted his reverie. He quickly answered so that Abi would not rouse from her peaceful slumber. The door opened to a tall man whose skin was the shade of mocha and whose eyes were the color of amber. It was Sebastian Crane.

Sebastian looked beyond him to where Abi lay. "How is she?" he asked in a low voice.

Raven inched out of the door and into the hallway. "She is resting." He didn't need to ask how Sebastian would know about the Creature in the alley. Sebastian was the most powerful psychic vampire he knew, something he attributed to the fact Sebastian had wandered this Earth for nearly four hundred years.

Sebastian nodded, but looked as troubled as Raven felt. He placed a hand on Raven's shoulder. "Which is more than I could say for you, my friend."

Raven rubbed his eyes. It was true, between all the events of the last few days Raven felt as though he hadn't slept in about a hundred years. He was weary with worry. "It's been a rough couple of days," he stated unnecessarily as they began to pace the hall together. "Have you heard anything else about Sonja?"

Sebastian shook his head. "The last person who saw her was Constantine."

Raven smirked. "And therein lies the problem."

Again, Sebastian shook his head. "If Constantine turned her, he'd wear it like a badge of honor. He's a greedy son of a bitch, but he's also vain. That's one thing you can count on."

Raven agreed with a reluctant nod. It was just easier to blame Constantine than to contemplate there was someone out there -- someone worse.

Sebastian knew what his friend was feeling. All of what his friend was feeling. "It's just better not to get involved," he finally said, his amber eyes leveled on Raven.

Raven met his gaze. "Meaning?"

"You know what I mean. Humans are not our equal. They're our prey. To grow attached to them while we walk the constant tightrope of lover and killer isn't fair to anybody." Raven looked away. He knew what he was saying was true, he just didn't really want to hear it right now. "Deep down," Sebastian told him in a low voice, "We are all that Creature in the alley."

Raven stepped back. He refused to believe that. "I've got to get back," he told Sebastian as he quickly turned away.

"Remember what I said," the older vampire called to his departing back. "To save her life, you must set her free."

Raven slammed the door behind him as he went into the room where he'd hidden Abigail. She barely stirred. The sleep he put her under was deep. He was thankful for that. Maybe she could awaken and forget everything. Forget the incident in the alley, forget the way he'd taken Tracy Lynn -- maybe even forget him.

It would be better, Raven thought to himself as he came to sit beside her on the bed. This time he didn't resist touching her face. He ran a fingertip along the line of her jaw, the smooth silk of her cheek. Her body responded to his touch. Her mouth parted and a soft sigh escaped.

He traced a finger across her virgin neck and then across the creamy exposed skin of her chest. He watched her breasts pucker up to him as the blush rose up her neck and across her face. This time she moaned, and his body responded to the soft, sensual sound.

His finger continued its journey in between her supple breasts and across the curve of her stomach. Her legs opened slightly. He knew he could have her right then and there if he wanted.

"To save her life, you must set her free."

He growled with frustration as he yanked his hand away. Damn it to hell, why did he care? Why did it matter? She was merely prey, subject to his hunger and his desire.

Then he remembered the fire in her eyes and her righteous indignation as she interrogated him about Tracy Lynn. She was defiant as she challenged him; letting him know that she would be no easy conquest.

He'd felt more alive in those moments than he had in nearly two hundred years of feasting and fucking without restraint or regret.

A small knock at the door preceded Constantine poking his head into the room. "How is she?" he asked, and even seemed genuine in his concern.

But Raven was unimpressed. He glared at the younger vampire. "How do you think she is? Probably regretting the moment she ever walked into this place." He looked down on her again. "I can't blame her."

Constantine approached, the anger of his master irrelevant to him. "I'll take her home. She won't want to wake up here."

Raven stood to face him. "How do I know that you're not the one who wants to murder her?"

Constantine looked him straight in the eye. "Because you know."

Raven studied him for a moment. Finally, "I'll let you take her if you promise one thing."

"I don't make promises," Constantine was quick to point out. But Raven simply waited. With great reluctance, Constantine bit out, "What?"

"Never bring her back her. You take her home, you vanish from her life -- leaving her the same way you found her. Let her free."

Constantine glared at his master for a moment as he contemplated his options. "Why do you care, Raven?"

Raven only wished he knew. He said nothing.

Constantine walked around Raven to perch on the edge of the bed next to Abi. "You know, this reminds me of a time when I left the woman I loved in your care. Entrusted you, even. Remind me again, Raven. How did that work out?"

"I'm not going to apologize again," Raven told him. "It'll never be enough for you."

"You got that right." Constantine looked down at Abigail, and his anger seemed to evaporate somewhat. "She reminds me of Nina in a lot of ways. She's strong, she's stubborn." He looked back at Raven. "Even if I tell her not to return, she will."

Raven thought back to the Creature. "I doubt that."

Constantine turned back to Abi and brushed her copper hair from her face. "You could have taken her, you know."

Raven felt the desire bubble up inside of him as he glanced down at Abigail, still flushed from his hands on her body. Physically he wrenched away. "I'm not like you," the older vampire retorted as he walked to the door. "I have respect for the living."

Constantine watched Raven depart. "I haven't promised you anything yet, you know!"

Raven turned to glare at him from the door. "You wouldn't want to disappoint your master, now, would you?"

The door slammed and Constantine growled with his own frustration. He gathered Abigail into his arms and took off into the night.

In his own quarters, Sebastian drank wine from a pewter goblet. He gazed out of his window at the moon riding high across the dark summer night. A lone tear hovered at the corner of his eye as he thought about the loves he'd lost over the past hundreds of years. The advice he'd given Raven was solid. It was just a shame it was advice he himself had never learned how to heed.

He could still name them off one by one. Alana. Josephine. Elizabeth. Rayn.

And finally...Sonja.

His eyes closed and he recalled that dark winter night she had first snuck into the club, a mere teenager. A child of the streets. She was hungry. She was cold. But she was not afraid. It was that last part that had him hooked the moment he looked into her wide eyes, the same shade of topaz as his own. He had been unable to turn her away, even though he knew that would have been best.

For years he looked over her her like a daughter. He nurtured her and protected her. And he had loved her. God, how he had loved her. Much more than she could have ever known.

Now she was gone. A victim to his lineage. He sat the goblet down with a slam. He should have turned her himself, he thought. It was the only way to protect her, he understood that now. If he couldn't stay away, and only the gods knew how he couldn't, then he could have turned her and trained her to be as powerful as he.

But that chance was long gone now. He grasped the goblet and hurled it across the room, smashing the stained glass window. After a moment of luxuriating in his impulsive action, he gathered his senses and walked over to the window, to pull the heavy drapes closed.

And that's when he saw her, standing under a broken street light.

Like a flash he flew from his window and landed on the ground behind her. Her short dark hair glistened in moonlight. That familiar tribal tattoo crawled across her lower back. She hadn't turned to face him, even though he knew she could feel his presence.

"Sonja," he spoke softly.

He approached cautiously. Something was not right. Her energy was not the same; and he should know because he fed from her many times. Her aura was small and dim. It was like she was in another spiritual realm.

"Sonja," he said again, louder, with more command. He reached out and touched her shoulder and she jumped from the contact. He gently turned her around and then gasped when he saw her pale eyes and her tiny fangs.

She had just awoken, and had yet to feed.

He effortlessly lifted the small woman in his arms and then sprang back to his quarters. He had to protect her now. She was most vulnerable then. He couldn't protect her as a human, but now she was one of his own. He knew exactly what she needed.

The drapes closed behind them, he carried her to his velvet draped bed. She was gasping for air as she trembled, almost like a seizure. He touched the hair that framed her face, it was stuck to her skin in a cold sweat. Her dead eyes looked right through him.

"Don't worry, my love," he whispered. "You'll be better soon."

He tossed aside his cape and unbuttoned his shirt. Gently he laid down beside her. He touched her hair, her face and her neck. As his fingers lit upon the wounds there, they began to sputter and breathe. She coughed before she leaned over and wretched. But her stomach was empty.

Her body was empty.

He pulled her back to him. Her body burned hot beneath him as their disease ran through her veins. Tenderly he lifted away the tiny shirt she wore. He couldn't help his groan as he stared at her naked breasts for the first time. He felt his body harden. Lightly he ran his hands over her hardened nipples, and despite her pain she gasped in pleasure at the contact. He bent down to capture a tiny pink bud in his mouth.

Her hand snuck up his back and into his short, tightly curled hair. He groaned against her. She was returning to him. Encouraged, he sucked from one nipple to the other, feeling her gyrate under him.

His hands grasped either side of the denim short skirt she wore and pulled it down as he kissed his way down her body. Her legs spread easily for him, but he was going to enjoy what he had waited so long to savor. He blew cool air against her painfully engorged clit, making her cry out. Her thighs clamped down on his ears as she shoved her hungry pussy into his face.

Still, he took his time. His tongue danced around over her clit, then along the shiny wet folds of her pussy. The more he teased, the more responsive she became. He wouldn't take her until she finally understood where she was, what she was, and who she was with.

Finally she uttered, "Sebastian..."

With a guttural moan of his own he dove into her hot cunt. He latched his mouth over her clit and sucked while his fingers knit together and entered her pussy and her ass in a double penetration. She bucked her hips against him, lost in a spiral of passion as he claimed her with his mouth and with his hands.

As she sat straight up with a massive orgasm, her eyes glowed and her fangs grew. He crawled up her body, held her head in both hands as he kissed her deeply on the mouth. She could taste herself on his lips, and her tongue thrust into his mouth for more. With both hands she ripped away the shirt he wore and bared his hard chest.

He didn't resist as she flung him onto his back, taking little nips out of his caramel skin. He cried out as she latched onto one of his own nipples and her fangs pierced the skin. The minute his blood hit her mouth, they both shot off like a rocket. His cock was so hard it hurt. He needed to be inside her.

She looked down at him with eyes alive with the life his blood had restored to her. She smiled as she gripped his enormous hard shaft. Just by touching him she could feel him inside of her, spreading her wide, pounding her hard. She straddled him, placed the throbbing head of his dick right at her hungry, wet pussy and then slid all the way down.

Both Sebastian and Sonja cried out as he disappeared inside of her. He was so big and so thick he felt like he might tear her in half. But she didn't care. She rocked against him, bucking her hips, feeling him reach further up inside of her.

She was empty no longer.

He watched his dark meat slide in and out of her pretty pink hole. It was a sight that never failed to make him crazy with desire. He grabbed her hips and he guided her up and down on his hard shaft. He watched those perky tits bounce with each thrust, as she was reduced to animalistic grunts.

Her hand slid between them and began to fondle her clit. He reached up to capture her breast in his mouth again, his tongue running across it like quicksilver. Her groans and moans were growing louder into cries and screams. He knew she was getting closer.

He grabbed her hair with one hand and then bared his neck for her. She barely needed his guidance as she dove in to feed. He jumped as he felt those fangs tear through his thick neck muscle to find the vein, and then as his blood flowed into her mouth he pumped her harder, taking her over the edge.

She broke her hold on him to scream out as he felt her pussy clamp down on him with a powerful orgasm.

But, as a psychic vampire, he did not need to feed from her blood to come. Instead, he wanted her energy. He grabbed her by the waist and flipped her over onto her knees. His hands parted her ass cheeks as he watched himself sink into her still quivering pussy. Able to penetrate her much deeper this time, with each hard stroke he made her scream out loud. He watched her aura rise from her body as she approached another explosive orgasm.

He lifted her up and drank from her intoxicating essence, one hand flat against her small breast, the other tangled into her pussy, toying with her clit. The louder she screamed, the more his aura grew, stealing her life energy rather than her life itself. He was grunting like an animal when he finally thrust inside her one last time, spraying his seed all over her raw pussy.

Both vampires collapsed onto the bed in each other's arms. Her eyes had returned to the same beautiful topaz they had always been. He smiled as he traced the face he worried he'd never see again. "You did beautifully, my love," he whispered, his hand possessively trailing across her body.

"I love you, Sebastian," she whispered back and they shared a tender kiss. "Do you love me?" she asked, her eyes wide.

His eyes teared up as he gazed into her beautiful face. "My Sonja. Do you even have to ask?"

She shook her head and cuddled up against him.

As she toyed with his body and felt his dick grow in her hand, she turned to him and said, "Would you do anything for me, Sebastian?"

He groaned as he ground against her. "Anything, my love. Whatever you desire will be yours. You need only ask."

She leaned on one arm and looked at him. "I want a woman."

His brow knit, but she bent to kiss him before he could inquire further.

Instead they made slow sweet love again and again that night, never knowing that under their window, Raven walks.