Can't Hold Back🌶️🌶️🌶️

‘December 15th, 2017’

‘Forest outside of Lumen’

Eve

I was straddling Raphael, my legs digging into the grass.

Our lips were moving against each other, with each other, and I felt my hunger growing. My body was moving against him, and his was responding.

He growled, and I could feel his hunger panting. Wanting. Just as much as mine was.

A second later and he was pulling me up, carrying me away from the trees.

“Where...” I managed to get out.

“Shhh!” He silenced me, and then he kissed me. I was too full of desire to argue.

Then he was wading through the river, my legs still wrapped tightly around his hips. I could feel his hardness against me.

“Let me down,” I ordered, wanting to feel the cool rush of water on my legs. Wanting to feel everything he was feeling.

He did, dropping me slowly into the water until I was submerged to my waist.

My feet touched the river floor, and I could feel my legs weighed down by the fabric of my jeans.

I needed them off. Now.

I unbuttoned them myself, sliding them off, and when Raphael realized what I was doing, he did the same with his. When I was holding my soaked pants, he took them from me and threw them to the shore.

Then he yanked me closer to him and pulled the bottom hem of my sopping-wet tank top to his hip until there was no space between us, until our chests were touching, nothing but the thin fabric of our now-translucent shirts dividing us.

My nipples were so hard, begging to be sucked, so he lowered his head and obliged.

He took them into his mouth through the fabric of my top, and I felt his tongue swirling around one, then the other, then back to the first.

“Oh!” I moaned, desire overtaking me. I thought I was going to burst.

My eyes opened, and I saw his face, the face that could turn me on with just a glance, pleasuring me.

His eyes were closed, a look of sheer bliss on his face. Like he couldn’t have been more turned on to be doing it.

That was it.

I needed him.

I brought his face up to mine and tasted his lips, bit them. Hard.

My hands were on his hips, grabbing his soaking-wet T-shirt, pulling it up and off.

I pulled back, looking at his chiseled abdomen, the way his muscles contracted when they moved.

~Goddamn.~

Then he was pulling me up against him again, his hands moving faster along my body, down.

My sex cried out for him, needing to feel him, and he listened. Because a moment later, his fingers were there.

They teased me first, touching me slowly, not quite going inside. But then they were moving faster, harder, and diving into me deep.

“~Fuck~,” I cried out, and his mouth came down to bite my neck. Right over my mark, making me explode with the sweet burning of pleasure.

“I need you. I ~need you~,” I moaned, and he took me into his arms, hoisting me up. And then he put himself right against my sex so I could feel him at the entrance.

“Raphael,” I all but screamed with frustration.

I looked at him, seeing the hunger on his face, the arrogant little smirk tugging at his lips, but before I could get another word out, he entered me.

And then he was moving faster than I could explain.

The hunger was spiraling out of control. He met every urge, filled every need, our hips moving in synchronized rhythm as my fingernails dug into his back.

“~Ah!~” I cried, and I heard his deep primal growl in response.

Then he was biting my lip, my earlobe, my mark, and I could feel my fire building.

It was building with every thrust, with every growl, and when he moved his lips down to bite my nipple, I exploded.

Like a strike of lightning, I came with such abandon, such electricity.

And then he finished, the rumble of thunder, a growl so loud, so primitive, I could feel the river floor shake.

I collapsed into him.

He held me tight, walking us out of the water. When we were lying on the ground, naked, still catching our breath, he turned to me.

“Tell me,” he began, gazing right into my eyes. “How is it you’re so powerful?”

And as my eyes looked to the river, watched the soft swells of waves ripple through the water, I couldn’t help but remember…

^February 23rd, 1521^

^South England^

Angeline

Three years had passed since my daughter was taken from me. Since Barron Von Logia had stolen her right from my arms.

After that day, I was different.

I wasn’t the Angeline I’d been my whole life.

The innocent Angeline, the pure Angeline...she was gone.

In her place was Evangeline Knox.

Eve Knox.

And she would stop at nothing to get her daughter back.

Eve

For the past three years, Solomon and I had been preparing for my twentieth birthday.

At first I hadn’t understood what Barron Von Logia meant when he spoke about the ritual, the one that I could go through when I turned twenty. But when I told Solomon about it, he’d explained it to me.

Both Solomon and I had our father’s vampire genes in our DNA. Vampires were born, but our race, unlike the vampyre race, could only be continued through genes being passed down.

All born vampires, when they turned twenty, had the option of going through the ritual.

If they chose not to, they wouldn’t become immortal. Nor would they receive their powers, whatever they might be.

Solomon had no interest in becoming a full vampire. But I had no choice.

In order to get my baby back, I knew I’d have to be as strong as I could be. And becoming a vampire would give me strength. It would give me power.

Solomon had invited two men, a sorcerer and a vampire, to the manor in order to train me for the ritual.

Ganda, the vampire, was in charge of my mental training. He taught me everything he knew about the world and the species within it.

Ermo, the sorcerer, was my physical trainer. He helped me get strong, stronger than I’d ever been before.

On the day of my ritual, Ganda and Ermo came to the table where I was eating breakfast. They told me how the ritual would proceed, what was expected of me.

It didn’t surprise me, of course. I’d known how these things were executed for a while now.

But the last part made my stomach turn over with unease.

“Who?” I asked them.

They looked at each other, and then Ganda spoke. “Jotham. He’s volunteered.”

I blanched, imagining the kind face of the butler in my mind.

“No. No! I won’t do it!” I cried.

Ermo took my hand in his, crouching down so he was at my eye level. “It’s the best way, Evangeline,” he said, nodding.

Then the men left me alone to go prepare the church.

***

I stood in the middle of the church. It was empty, and Ermo had drawn circles in white chalk on the floor.

Inside the circles were strange symbols, which would stop any evil sources from interrupting the ritual.

I stood in the middle of a white circle, and Ganda, Ermo, Solomon, and Jotham had taken their places around me.

My long white dress floated over the floor, and I took a deep breath, trying to prepare myself.

“Are you ready?” Ganda asked.

“Yes.”

“Good,” he said, turning to Ermo and nodding.

Ermo began speaking in a language I didn’t understand, using his sorcerer’s power to bring magic into the building.

When he finished, Ganda turned to me. “Evangeline Knox. You are to look up at Christ,” he instructed.

I did as he said, tilting my head up to the ceiling, up to the sky.

“Pledge your allegiance to the god of your choice,” Ganda ordered.

“My god is myself,” I recited, the words familiar to me. I had practiced them over and over. “I pledge my allegiance to myself, Evangeline Knox, my god of choice.”

When I peered at Ganda, his eyes were wide and his face pale, like he couldn’t believe my answer. But he continued along anyway.

“You must now sign your loyalty with blood,” he commanded.

I looked to Solomon, who held the knife.

He threw it to me, carefully, because no one was allowed to enter the circles but me.

I caught it, bringing the blade to my palm, and inhaling sharply as I dragged it across my skin.

My flesh opened, blood spilling from the wound. I turned my hand over and watched as the red drops fell onto the floor.

When they hit the ground, smoke rose up.

“You’ve sealed your commitment with the holy ground,” Ganda declared. “It is now time for you to rise anew, in front of your three witnesses.”

My heartbeat sped up. I knew what that meant.

“Evangeline Knox, I offer you Jotham Woods.”

I watched with fear as Jotham stepped into the circles.

When he was a step away, standing in my circle, I could hear my pulse hammering in my ears. I tried to suppress my fear, to show no emotion, but I knew the old butler could see through it.

“It’s okay,” he whispered, so only I could hear.

“It’s time now, Evangeline.” Ganda ordered from the side.

I lifted the blade in my hand, still red with my blood, and watched as it shook between my fingers.

Jotham took another step closer, tilting his head and exposing the piece of his neck I would be cutting.

I took a deep breath, and he nodded at me. ~It is time~, he said with his eyes.

Another deep breath. And then I was slashing Jotham’s neck, carefully, shakily, as blood poured out. My eyes went wide, but I couldn’t stop now.

I brought my lips to the wound, clamping them around the incision and sucking.

Spurt after spurt of metallic-tasting liquid filled my mouth, and it was awful at first. Disgusting. But then, the strangest thing happened.

The more I swallowed, the more I felt the blood inside me. The more I felt my muscles grow stronger, my bones grow thicker, my mind grow more stable, more powerful.

And as I felt these internal changes, the taste of his blood changed too.

It was no longer disgusting.

It was intoxicating, and I craved it.

I felt fangs grow in my mouth, and I used them to secure myself to the wound even more, digging into Jotham’s flesh. Needing more blood, swallowing gallon after gallon.

I sucked and sucked until there was no blood left to taste.

I moved my mouth away, looking at the old man in my hands. I realized I’d been holding him up as I drained him. I laid him gently onto the floor.

“Well done, Eve,” I heard Ganda say from behind me. “It’s done now.”

But my eyes remained on Jotham’s pale, lifeless body.

I felt stronger, more powerful than I’d ever felt before, but it’d come at the price of an innocent man’s life.

I burned the image of him, lying dead on the ground, in my mind. Then I turned around and faced Ganda, a new form of armor around my heart.

“It’s far from done,” I declared.