Crimson Death (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 25)

Nicky finally collapsed, throwing his chest to one side so that he didn't bury my face against his pecs. I appreciated it, not just because I didn't have to eat my way to freedom through his chest, but because I could still see Jean-Claude at his throat. I was looking at him with my body still thrumming with all those orgasms as the vampire rose up. His mouth was still open wide enough that I saw him lick along his fangs; his face for that instant was as bestial as any wereanimal's and then it was gone, hidden behind that beautiful face. Only the eyes shining with blue-black fire showed what was inside and had gotten to come out for a few minutes.

He helped Nicky roll to one side where he just lay there, eye closed; only the rise and fall of his chest let me know he was alive. A thin line of blood trickled from the neat fang marks in the side of his neck. For them to bleed that much meant Jean-Claude had gotten a little carried away. We'd all enjoyed ourselves.

Jean-Claude was on all fours above me, his body hard and ready, and just the sight of him above me like that made me cry out again. I reached for him, but he caught my hands and said, "Sin, help me move her to the edge of the bed."

"Why?"

"So you can join us. You need a little encouragement to be able to feed the ardeur for Anita."

I didn't know what he meant at first, but Sin pulled-half-carried me to the edge of the bed and I could suddenly see what Jean-Claude meant. Sin wasn't hard, or ready. He was soft, hanging loose against the front of his body. He hadn't enjoyed watching the three of us together. I didn't know what about it had bothered him, but something had--his body told me that.

Jean-Claude moved me to the edge until my head spilled over the side and I was looking at Sin's body upside down. It wasn't one of my favorite positions for giving oral, but with him still soft, it would be good. I'd change positions when he got hard enough, or that was my plan. Sin was almost too tall for the lower bed, all that long leg so that he had to lean in, so he was almost doing a standing push-up just so I could reach him. Jean-Claude's hands cupped my hips, and I cupped the backs of Sin's thighs and sucked him down, so soft and warm. I loved sucking on a man when he was this soft. There was no fight to breathe, no choking, just the sensation of him in my mouth. Jean-Claude's hands caressed my hips and I felt the tip of him brush my opening. It made me pause with my mouth buried as tight to Sin's body as I could get. Jean-Claude entered me and I was so wet, so ready from everything that Nicky and I had done. It was amazing feeling Jean-Claude's body slide inside me. It made me moan with Sin's body in my mouth. He was already growing harder. Jean-Claude found his rhythm quickly and brought me to climax with Sin still inside my mouth, so I screamed my orgasm around him. He shuddered and when I came up shallow on him he was thicker and he started moving himself inside my mouth with me sucking him, so that we started to find a rhythm of him inside my mouth as Jean-Claude found one between my legs.

"Unleash the ardeur, ma petite; unleash it so you will feed on both of us when we go."

I called the ardeur, unleashed it, uncaged it, and let it roar over all three of us so that the two men both cried out. Jean-Claude brought me again with the feel of him inside me, sliding over and over on that sweet spot just inside. It made me scream around Sin's body as he thrust deeper inside my throat. I didn't have to fight my gag reflex now, because with the ardeur I didn't have one; it was great and made oral sex even more amazing than it was. I used my hands on Sin's body to urge him to fuck me harder and faster, shoving all that hard length down my throat deeper than I could ever take it without the ardeur riding me, riding all of us.

"Close," Sin gasped out.

"Hold until I bring her one more time." And he caressed himself over that spot three more times to match those three words. The weight grew and spread and I was nothing but pleasure, shaking and shrieking between the two of them.

"Oh, God, please," Sin yelled.

"Almost!" Jean-Claude answered him and shoved himself faster and faster inside me, not trying to caress that spot near my opening, but places deeper inside me.

Sin had stopped moving; I think he was afraid to keep fucking my throat or he'd go before Jean-Claude, so he stayed almost frozen above me. I started sucking on him again since he wasn't moving for me. He said, "Anita, please, I'll . . ."

Jean-Claude said, "In three."

"God, you're joking," Sin said, but he thrust himself in my mouth and down my throat, once. Jean-Claude shoved between my legs. Twice inside my throat. A second time deep inside me. The third time Sin thrust down my throat, and Jean-Claude said, "Now, now!" Sin buried himself as deep inside my throat as he could; I drove my nails into his thigh and his ass and would have screamed as Jean-Claude thrust himself as deep inside me as he could go and they both poured themselves inside me at the same time. I could feel Sin pulsing, spilling the heat of him down my throat, and Jean-Claude pouring warm between my legs, and I fed on them. I fed on the seed of them spilling inside me. I fed on the feel of their bodies plunged inside me. I fed on my nails digging into Sin's body, on Jean-Claude's hands on me. I fed on them everywhere they touched me, and when I got Sin's blood under my nails, it seemed to absorb up through my fingertips.

He cried out above me, and then he screamed. I always valued when the men screamed for me. It was so damn rare. It all felt so good, so right, and then I felt power rushing over me, through me, and it wasn't coming from Jean-Claude. It was Sin. I couldn't see what was happening, because my face was still buried upside down against his body, but that body was doing some kind of magic that I'd never felt before. I had a moment to start to pull away from him, so I wouldn't be choking on him when the ardeur left me and whatever this power was happened, but I was still blind against his body when the room started to shake and all I could think was Earthquake . . . St. Louis doesn't have earthquakes, and then we were all scrambling to untangle ourselves and try to find cover, but how do you hide from an earthquake when you're in a cave?

31

IT WASN'T AN earthquake, but the lump under the rug that Sin tripped over turned

out to be the floor. It had cracked and buckled as if something had torn through the rock. All the floors in the underground were solid rock, some with flooring over it, but it was basically bedrock, or close to it.

"What the hell did that?" I asked, staring down at the rip in the solid rock. It wasn't deep, just baring more rock underneath, but it was a nearly straight line about five feet long and maybe six inches wide. The rock stuck up on either side of it like a miniature mountain range just brought to life with a valley in between, waiting for grass to fill it.

I hugged myself, but the black silk robe wasn't much for warmth. Jean-Claude was back in his much thicker black robe with the fur collar and cuffs. We'd put on the robes because the guards on the door had come into the room when they heard the noise of the floor cracking. It had sounded like an explosion, and the guards had hit their general alarm button before they came into the room pale and ready to defend us from the danger, except that there hadn't been anything to attack. How can you protect your charges from something that can split the floor open without leaving a trace?

Nicky had gone to get some of the guards with the most experience with magic and metaphysics--the Harlequin. They'd spent centuries dealing with the Mother of All Darkness and the vampire council, who were all heavy hitters for stuff like this.

"If we had not killed him I would wonder if it was the Earthmover warning us," Jean-Claude said.

"He could level a city with a real earthquake, but I didn't know he could do things like this," I said.

"I honestly do not know, but it has the appearance of his sort of power."

I nodded. "Agreed, but I cut his heart out personally, so it's not him."

"Who's the Earthmover?" Sin asked from the chair by the fireplace. He didn't have a robe here, so he'd put his jeans back on and was sort of huddling in the chair. He'd managed to pull those long legs up so that he was hugging his knees. He reminded me more of the teenager I'd first met now than the confidently arrogant lover of earlier. It was almost comforting to see the younger Cynric peeking out of that handsome, muscular body.