The new moon cycle only lasted for about three days. Soon the moon would be filling brightly again in the sky, and Tyrian wouldn’t have to help her with her little “problem.” She stared at the hard muscles of his shoulders, back and legs, which she’d felt the strength in as he thrust inside her. The man was a machine. And he wouldn’t touch her once her new moon was gone.
What would happen to her after her moon cycle was over and she reached full sexual
maturity? From then on she’d require sex every day, just like a human does with food, or a vampire with blood. Her eyes widened as a realization hit her. Who would feed the vampire? He finished with some businessy conversation on the phone and closed it.
“Tyrian?” She bit her lip, excitement making her heart race. She loved trying new things, and this particular thing she really wanted to try.
“What?”
She thought for a moment on how best to approach this subject and decided to go
outrageous since that always seemed to work with him. Dropping the towel to the floor, she walked to him.
He heard her coming and turned to her. Chloe smiled when his eyes widened and the
barest of flushes graced his cheeks. He was the biggest ego stroke she’d ever had in her whole life. With one simple look, a look that he was obviously trying not to show, he managed to make her feel like an irresistible goddess. As if he had to steel himself just to deal with her. God did she love it.
She stopped in front of him and pressed her palm against his chest. Encouraged when he didn’t pull away, she pressed the other against his heart. Was she finally making leeway with the vampire commander?
“I want to feed you.” His lip twitched and he looked back out the window.
“No. Come on,” he said. Not bothering to wait for her, he grabbed her by the hand and took her into the bathroom. He paused then said, “Stay in here while I shower.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s not a problem.”
His words were icy cold when he said, “This isn’t for fun. In case something happens, I want you near me.” Chloe sent him a saucy wink and leaned against the sink. His eyes flicked over her hard nipples before he dragged his gaze away and undressed in quick movements.
“Don’t rush, baby. Go slow. Tease me. Mmm, yeah. Just like that.” He kicked off his boots and glared at her, his icy eyes glittering. She smiled and hopped up onto the sink counter for a better view. “You have one delicious body, Ty.” He reached for the tie holding his hair and released it. Black hair spilled out across the breadth of his shoulders.
His body didn’t look baby soft or even smooth, for that matter. He had a variety of scars from his arms all the way down to his calves. Some were small gashes like thin cuts and others were deeper, wider and were probably once very nasty. A light dusting of black hair covered his stomach but did nothing to hide the hard muscles he kept there.
He turned his back to her and in full light, she finally got to see that strange tattoo again.
He got into the shower and closed the glass door with a bang.
“Tell me about the tattoo.”
He started soaping himself and said, “No.”
Undeterred Chloe said, “Either tell me about the tattoo or tell me about your family. I’d prefer to know it all but I’m nice and will let you get away with just one for now.”
“No.”
“If you don’t,” she rushed to think of something, anything that she could use as leverage,
“then I’ll sleep with Draven, Rayn, and Henry. I mean it. I will. Maybe even at the same time.
And you know they will. Don’t push me on this because I know that somewhere deep inside you, you really don’t want that.”
Silence greeted her except for the water sloshing as he created suds and lathered them over his arms and chest. Her stomach tightened at the sight and she really, really wished he’d go slower.
“Papa raised us different than other succubus families. He didn’t believe that the man needed to be head of household or that he had any right to decide whom his daughters should love or be with. My sisters and I respected that, especially as we got older and really understood what it took for him to do that. Some families ostracized us, criticized my father for breaking the time-honored tradition of creating submissive women. Ha, it was a joke,” she said. Tyrian had slowed his motions and she knew he was listening.
“Other daughters and even a few mother’s we’d see on occasion secretly told us how
incredible it was that our father was letting us choose who we’d have at the time of our new moon. You have to understand that knowing one day you could die if you don’t have sex, sounds crazy, even to a young succubus’ ears. You know it’s going to happen but it doesn’t make it any easier.”
“But Francis left you to me anyway,” Tyrian said.
“Yes, and I don’t know why. He never mentioned it to my sisters or me. He spent our whole lives making us independent from men. He told us we could choose whom we wanted to mate with, who we wanted to become our Protectors. Then he died so suddenly,” she stopped speaking, her voice clouding with grief.
Looking away, she blinked away the tears. “I loved him so much, you know. And the one thing I’ll always remember about him, the one thing he stood for, ended up being a lie when he died. He wrote away his daughters to three unfamiliar, strange men as the last thing he did. He left me to you.”
She took a ragged breath and looked back over at him. He had his hands planted on the shower wall, his head bowed as water poured over the long lean muscles of his back and legs.
After what seemed like minutes passing, he spoke. His words were carefully chosen as if it was difficult for him to speak about it. His words were icy in their control.
“I was raised in a vampire clan near what is now Hungary. Only certain men, and
occasionally strong women, were trained to become warriors. Everyone had their place in the clan. Some were workers who made clothes or weapons. Others were frimars respected highly among all.” Chloe’s eyes widened, her jaw dropping in shock that he was actually telling her about his past.
“We warriors trained every day. No matter rain, snow, or storm, day or night, we were constantly tested, always fighting. It hardened us, made us good fighters.” He rolled his neck back so the water streamed in rivulets over his face. When he spoke again, his words were muffled from the water. “The seal of my clan was the crow. Crows are intelligent creatures.
Myths from my clan said the crow was a clever hunter. It would plan before it fought, then attack and kill its prey swiftly. This was what we were taught.”
“So they tattooed the crow on your back?”
His back stiffened and she wondered if he remembered getting it. How painful was it?
“All the warriors have one. It was a great ceremony, a proud celebration to receive the brand. You were not allowed to shed a tear or cry out as it was done or else you would shame your family and the clan. It was the last step to becoming a full warrior.”
Chloe looked at the etched pattern of short and longer lines that formed the pattern of the crow. “It’s not like any tattoo I’ve ever seen,” she admitted. “How was it done?” His fingers reached back as if to touch the marking, but then he pulled away.
“A very sharp knife. You laid on your stomach. One person specialized in creating the brand. He sharpened the blade for hours until it was perfect, then as everyone gathered around, he started cutting.”
Chloe grimaced at the sheer size of the brand. It covered him from each shoulder blade and down nearly to his waist. It must have taken quite some time to do that with such meticulous, straight cuts.