All Souls' Night - Renee Rose Page 0,80

after the act had cut deep, the way he’d kissed my body and moved inside of me had been magic.

“Well, you’re going to have to rally,” Fay says, rising from the bed. “The queen mother is looking for you.”

I let out a long and weary sigh. It’s time to face the drums.

So, he’s done it. Part of me hadn’t believed he truly would: that he would expose not just my fangs, but my body to the world. He’d put on display what we shared between us like it meant nothing. Likely because it hadn’t meant anything to him.

I dress in a colorful bazin. The vibrant cloth is a trademark of my mother’s people, from the western part of the African continent. I pull on the cowrie shell necklace that was an heirloom from Queen Amina, the warrior regent and my great, great grandmother. If I am going to be chastised or cast out, it will be with my head held high like my fearless ancestor.

When I walk into the room where the queen is, I see that she is feeding. Queen Malika’s braids fall forward, obscuring her face as her fangs sink into the neck of the man on his knees. The man’s face is docile as she takes her meal. His hands are clasped in front of him in his lap, where his member would lie if he still had it attached.

But there is pleasure on his features. I know that a vampire’s bite can be enjoyable to humans. However, I suspect the gratification on this man’s face has more to do with serving his queen than sexual stimulation.

When I bit into Arneis’s jugular, he groaned with pleasure. I knew it was pleasure because I felt his cock pressing into me and spending.

Queen Malika unlatches from the blood servant’s neck, and the man sags. Am I imagining things, or did his eyes flutter? He keeps his eyes closed, his features going docile once more.

The queen dabs at her mouth with a cloth. “Good evening, hartlam. Have you eaten?”

Hartlam? Eaten? Where is the ire, the anger over what I’ve cost the race of vampires the world over?

“You’ll need to hurry,” the queen says. “We’re leaving in a quarter-hour.”

“Leaving?”

So this is it. She’s sending me back across the ocean. Even if I had wanted to search for Arneis, I won’t be able to. I will truly never see him again.

“Yes,” says the queen. “Our meeting with the Serranos is in an hour. There’s an awful belief about the Africans who were stolen from the motherland and brought here. The notion is that they are always late to functions. They call it CP time. I don’t know what it stands for but it’s such an erroneous way to think when my ancestors first broke the day into time periods using obelisks.”

I ignore the history lesson and focus on the earlier words. “You want me to come with you to the Serranos meeting?”

“Yes, hartlam. I think you were right. It’s time you take on more responsibilities.”

My tongue is tied. I’m not busted. I haven’t been exposed.

Here I am, getting what I wanted after doing exactly what I wasn’t supposed to be doing. And I am being rewarded for it. But all I can think is not about how to extend our financial empire. All I can think is: will I see Arneis at the Serranos’?

Chapter 13

“Please.”

The fabric of her colorful gown inches up her lithe thighs. Her caramel against my honeyed skin tones makes my mouth water, but not as much as watching the rope bind her legs.

“Please.”

I pull the rope tight. The twine pinches her skin, holding her tight. My fingers ache to hold her flesh in mine again.

“Hold still,” I hear myself say. “I want to remember every detail of this moment.”

I can’t see the deep pink of her intimate flesh as I move closer. But I remember every detail. Every taste. Every scent. Every quiver.

The sound of Sanai’s cries fills my ears until she cries out. Darkness still colors the screen on my phone as the camera’s eye presses against the massage table. Even though she has orgasmed, I haven’t had my fill. I lap at the nectar that seeps from her core. The sound of my tongue against her flesh is the chorus to the whimpers of her voice.

It’s over all too quickly. I press rewind and listen to the scene again. And then again, making sure to stop before the end, when I became a monster to the