It had been a most uneventful night, Cian noted. He was sitting on the windowsill, his back leaning against the sturdy wall. He was safely hidden somewhere between the curtains waving lazily in the slight breeze and the solitary candle casting confusing, dancing shadows on the walls.
Besides, if Cian didn't want to be seen, he wouldn't be. Not that it mattered.
He cast his eyes down at the couple fucking on the bed by the far wall. His friend Briar, who knew perfectly well that Cian was here. And the girl he had picked up, who would soon be dead.
The girl's hands wormed themselves tightly into Briar's ash blond hair and she pulled him down for a kiss. Briar groaned as he thrust hard inside her, continuing the assault on her cunt that had begun quite a while before. Cian turned up the corners of his mouth; who would have thought Briar was in such a good shape? No wonder Meraja fucked him so much.
Cian felt a small twinge of regret as he thought of his former lover, her angelic face flushed and head thrown back in ecstasy. The way she had looked when he had first caught them in bed together, a few years ago. The way she had so often looked when Cian had bedded her. He wasn't a sore loser by any means, but he still missed fucking her sometimes. Like right now.
The girl's moan brought him back to reality. Briar was still riding her hard; he had brought his hand down to her clit and was stroking it furiously. His other hand was busy pinching her breast and keeping her still. She was actually quite pretty, Cian realized, with creamy white skin and long silky black hair. Her long legs were wrapped around Briar's waist, and the red flush on her skin was turned into a soft glow by the candlelight. One of her nipples was an angry red because Briar had bitten it just moments ago, but now it was merrily bouncing up and down with its partner.
Cian watched it with fascination for a moment, taking in her shapely curves. He liked her breasts, definitely more than a handful there. Her curvy ass was planted firmly on the bedsheet now, but Cian had seen it earlier when she had knelt in front of Briar, incidentally giving Cian a perfect view of the area between her legs. It was a pity, really, that Briar wouldn't let her live to see the morning.
Cian could see that the girl was close now, and by Briar's moans, he could tell that his friend was as well. He leaned forward in anticipation as Briar tried his best to time their orgasms perfectly, a trick Cian had actually taught him a long time ago. The girl finally started to shake frantically, head tossed back and eyes squeezed shut. Her nails clawed into Briar's back, marking the blemish-free skin. She moaned again and Cian could see the orgasm ripple through her like a tidal wave.
Now,
he thought.
Now.
And as if he had said it aloud, Briar groaned and started to pour his release inside her while his hand pushed aside her head to give him access to her neck. She spasmed right when he started to sink his teeth into her and he didn't meet his mark, but it didn't matter, it was close enough. Cian licked his lips unconsciously as he imagined how her blood must taste right now, freshly after her orgasm. He had tasted this sort so many times but it was still different each time, each girl had her own unique flavor of endorphin-enriched blood. But each was delicious and unmatched.
The girl screamed now, not in pleasure but in pain and panic. Her arms flayed to the side and she thrashed wildly, not that it would have bothered Briar. He was too busy sucking in the essence of her life, his hands with years of practice keeping her still enough to continue his drink undisturbed.
There was a flash of silver and orange, and suddenly a sound Cian couldn't identify. It took him a few seconds to figure out what had just happened, and his eyes widened in surprise.
The girl had managed to grasp the steak knife that had fallen from the table earlier and had landed right by the bed. Now, it was lodged firmly in Briar's back, her shaking hand still clasped around the handle as his body convulsed on top of her. Cian tried to estimate the angle and to figure out if it had hit his heart, but he couldn't be sure. Ironically, it had been Briar that had made the knife fall by pushing her against the table earlier, after they had eaten, too busy bending her over and sliding his cock inside her to care about fallen silverware. The irony seemed to be lost on both participants of the act though, since the girl was still shaking with shock, and Briar had a knife sticking in his back and wasn't moving any more. The girl's hand finally came off the handle, and she struggled to lift Briar's head away from her throat, an act made difficult by the fact that his fangs were still firmly lodged inside her. Once she accomplished it though, the girl managed to push the large man off her body, turning him over in the process, and when Cian saw Briar's face, it became obvious to him that his friend was dead. His eyes were wide and his mouth open, grimacing in pain, though frozen in its motion. Blood was splattered all over Briar's face, making him look all the more demonic in death.
The girl weakly pulled herself up, grasping a napkin from the table and pressing it against her bleeding neck. She started to crawl towards the door, dragging the blanket with her and moaning in obvious pain, but halfway there managed to pull herself up on a chair and walked the rest of the way, doubled over, blanket wrapped around her.
Cian simply sat there until she was gone. He was still somewhat stunned by the events that had just passed, surprised that she had even mustered the force to stab him, and even more so that she seemed to have managed to hit his heart quite by luck. He considered mourning for his friend for a moment, but then decided against it with a chuckle. Briar's betrayal had been too recent to waste any thought on him in death. Cian would have to tell the others and collect the
essence
, that was the only thing of importance right now.
Maybe not such an uneventful night after all, he decided, and leaped out the window.
**********
"It's impossible!" Satne screeched, for the eighth time, while she paced up and down in front of the basin and ripped out small bunches of her own filthy brown hair. Cian was sitting next to one of the torches that he had hurriedly lighted, and he rolled his eyes at her. He really disliked the screeching, and he winced every time it assaulted his ear again. Meraja was sitting in a corner huddled up in her cloak, weeping quietly, with just a small patch of red hair sticking out of her hood, and seeing her like this gave him an odd sense of satisfaction. He wondered faintly how long it would take before she came crawling back to him. Not that he wouldn't take her.
K'meer seemed to suffer from no such feelings. He throned atop one of the fallen stone pillars, his long black hair, olive skin, and cloak hiding almost all of him in darkness. He cast disgusted glances at Satne and Meraja from time to time, fed up with their behavior, and Cian recalled at once that K'meer had never been able to stand Briar. No sentiments lost there. Noor were they on Aurai, who was cowering in the corner, observing the room a bit shyly. She was the newest addition to the group, and thus had never gone through the ordeal that happened every time one of them died. She also hadn't known Briar all that well, and so all she did was to show a faint interest at everybody else's reactions and brush her unruly hair back behind her ears from time to time.
Otherwise, they all just waited. Three other group members had yet to show up before Briar's essence could be retrieved, and then there would be nine long months of waiting before their power as a group would be back at a normal level. It was a most unpleasant thing every time one of them died.
A slamming door announced Adrian's arrival, and Cian had cause for one more eye roll. Adrian was older only than Aurai, and his youth was probably the explanation for his over-eagerness and grandstanding. It was not an excuse, however, and Cian added a new point to his mental to-do list -- to teach the little bastard some well-needed humility and wipe that arrogant smile off his face. It wouldn't be hard to accomplish since Adrian was so inexperienced, but it would be a welcome diversion for Cian.
Adrian purposefully strode into the middle of the room and leaned against the basin, looking at all the other group members in turn. His silver hair took on a light sheen in the torchlight, and Cian couldn't resist giving the boy a dirty look when his gray eyes met Cian's piercing green ones. Adrian held the gaze for a moment, then shrunk back a bit.
"So who will be the next breeder?" he asked instead.
There was silence before K'meer finally answered. "That's what we're here to find out, now, isn't it?"
Cian loved the condescending tone his friend was using when talking to Adrian, and he broke into an amused smile. He did find it an interesting question though, and he glanced around the room and considered the different girls. Aurai was still too young, and Satne was definitely unstable. There'd be a good chance of her stabbing her own womb before she gave birth. That left Meraja. Cian was quite hoping that she would be chosen, simply because the thought of forcing Meraja to carry the new host for her departed lover's essence amused him to no end. He quite liked to see her suffer these days, he noticed.
Finally, Coran and Lizanne arrived, worried looks on their faces as they made it down the stairs and arrived at the basin. They were the unofficial patriarch and matriarch, respectively, of the group, the oldest and also the ones with the most power. They had also been lovers as far as Cian could think back, and by the reports of Meraja, who was his senior by quite a few decades, a lot longer than that.
"Something's wrong," Lizanne announced, a strange look on her face, and everyone turned to face her. Meraja's sobbing stopped, and Aurai's mouth dropped open slightly. There was a tense silence.
"What is it?" Cian finally asked, finding all this drama utterly ridiculous. K'meer gave him a thankful look.
"His essence," Lizanne said, shrugging her shoulders. "It's... not coming to us. It's as if it was still with him. Are you sure he's dead?"
Cian didn't answer, but he didn't have to, since Lizanne cast her eyes towards the pool and answered her own question. The crimson color of the water had faded a bit by now, but it was still painfully obvious that one of them had died not too long ago. And everybody else was here now.
"Tell me again," Lizanne asked him.
Cian sighed. "I can't add anything new. He was fucking her. He bit her. She stabbed him. He died. End of story."
"How the hell did she manage to do that anyway?" Adrian asked. "It takes a lot of strength to stab someone in the back. Don't even talk about hitting the heart and avoiding the ribs! That's a ridiculous coincidence."
"Well, why don't you go and ask her to demonstrate how she did it?" Cian sneered. "If we're lucky she'll be able to do it again, and we'll have one less annoying kid to hold us up."
Adrian closed his mouth.
"Maybe... maybe it's with the girl," Aurai offered. Everyone turned to face her, and she shrank back, expecting to be reprimanded. But Lizanne just looked at Cian.
"Were they still joined when she stabbed him?"
"Yes."
