She circles the fat head of my erection and it weeps into her hand. The pre-cum catches in the lifelines of her palm before being washed away by the cool water. Just that small release has me shuddering.
My gaze is half-lidded, but my eyes are open enough to see Zahara grinning. My heart skips a beat at the sight. Domitia grinned whenever she thought of a new heinous way to inflict pain.
Zahara is not Domitia. Zahara smiles because she likes my pleasure. She is the only one to offer any to me.
My arms circle around Zahara’s back. I pull her to me, needing to be surrounded by her. The bright smell of her. The fiery taste of her. The light in her eyes.
She is sunlight to me, exactly as I remember it. Warm rays on my face. Soft heat cradling my back. A glow that halos around me even after I’ve closed my eyes or gone inside.
I now understand what Gaius meant. I’m sure of what this is that I’m feeling. I want to tell her, but there is an urgent need that cuts the line of my declaration.
The tension inside me is at breaking point. I am a dam ready to burst if just one more droplet of water falls on me. I am a balloon ready to pop with just a whisper of air.
Zahara strokes down.
Everything inside of me, everything that I’ve held behind protective walls, breaks free.
Surprisingly, the tension doesn’t loosen from my cockhead first. It starts in my hips. The warm tidal wave rushes inward, to my groin area. The spasms start in my balls as they tighten, releasing hold of my essence.
This has all happened to me thousands of times, but this is the first time I’ve been present for the performance. As my seed rushes up my erection, my arms and legs go numb. My head feels light as even more fluid is pulled from there. My balls throb as my cock begins to pump its release.
Zahara’s grin spreads even wider as she sees the fruits of her labor. Her eyes flash, like a cat’s who just found the cream. Her delight is too bright. She’s a shining star that twinkles down at me. The only reason I am tethered to this plane of existence is because she still has a hold on me. If she moves her hand from my dick, I’m sure I will fall, sink down into the depths of the tub, and drown.
It would be a good death. But I don’t want to leave her. I want to be with her forever.
As I pump my last bit of seed, I feel as though I have died. But I am reborn.
A sweet heat remains as my dick goes flaccid in Zahara’s hand. For the first time in my life, the beast has been tamed. The connection between myself and that piece of flesh remains. We are both content and sated.
For now.
Chapter 16
Zahara
The darkness surrounding me is thick and absolute. But I’m not afraid. It’s the warmest, most safe place to be.
My body feels rested and relaxed. My mind is at ease from a dreamless sleep. My empty stomach is too content to growl and demand it be filled.
I feel… happy.
Such a strange feeling. I’m surprised to realize I haven’t felt it in years. Have I ever truly felt it before?
I’m not sure. I’m starting to think I haven’t.
No, I have never felt this bubbly sensation that makes me want to smile at nothing in particular.
Can’t say that my toes have ever wiggled as though they couldn’t wait to dance to a song that has no particular beat.
And my hands, they want to reach out and grasp at something. The desire to be full of that something is so enormous that it pulls my eyes open.
Having my eyes wide open is no different than being asleep. The darkness surrounding me in my wakefulness is also absolute. But I know where I am. I know whose body lies next to mine. I know whose hand holds mine.
Virius.
He sleeps like the dead beside me. Though his fingers are entwined with mine, he isn’t holding on to me. I can’t hear him breathing, because he isn’t. Vampires have little need for air, only enough to circulate the stolen blood in their systems.
Slowly, bits of his features come into view. First, the bright blond of his golden hair. That, I can see clearly. But the strong chin, the broken nose, the lush lips, those I can place only because they are ingrained in my memory.
I don’t know this man. Not truly. But lying beside him, in the dark room, I feel closer to him than I have any other person in my life.
And just like everything I truly want for myself, I can’t have him. Guilt stabs me in the chest—the thought that fulfilling my destiny will mean the end of his life. But I’ve been taught that the needs of the many outweigh the few.
Virius Serrano is just one person. Not even a person. He’s a vampire. He’s lived for hundreds of years. But by all accounts, not much of his life has been good.
I am a fool to think I’m doing him a courtesy by ending his miserable life. Because the last couple of days have not felt like misery. Not to hear him tell it. Not my experience of it with him.
The feelings of warmth and safety only magnify as I rest my chin on his chest. I still want to dance, only slower now. I want him to sway me back and forth in his arms as we try to outrun the clock of inevitability. I can’t stop what’s coming. Fate will have her due. All I can do is make the best of the time we have.
As I lie against his chest, straining to see more of him in the darkness of
