Essence (Nectar 3)

She jolted awake; gasping, sweating, shaking.

A dream.

God, thank God, it wasn’t real. But it was real. It was just that it’d already happened.Tristan had her. He was holding her close, kissing her, rocking her gently, “I’ve got you, baby. I’ve got you. It’s okay. You’re fine. Look at me.”

She looked up into his gorgeous eyes.

“Thank fuck,” he was relieved.

She clung to him desperately and choked on emotion. That felt so real; like she was in it again.

“Shhhh,” he kept rocking, kept holding her.

She felt so lucky to have him to hold onto. She could feel how much he loved her, she felt protected. She rubbed her hands up and down the warm, smooth skin on his muscled back.

“Thank fuck what?” she asked, finally.

“That your eyes aren’t vacant again.”

He rubbed his palm lazily up and down her back, too, “What did you dream?” He kissed her forehead sweetly.

“I think I was re-living what happened in the lab. Claudio in those goggles coming at me, ripping my throat, then you ripping him apart. Then Liam… I’m soaked with sweat. I’m gonna go take a shower.”

“Okay, baby; I’ll come, too.”

He threw the blankets back and reached to hold her hand. As they moved to the bathroom she saw the view and it was gorgeous.

It was blue as far as the eye could see beyond a rocky-looking beach with a long and wide dock. A speed boat and two canoes were parked at a dock that was beside a large boathouse, the size of a four car garage, at least. Sam was sitting on the dock in an Adirondack chair with a fishing rod in his hand, a cigar protruding from his teeth as he reeled something in.

~~~“This shower is supposed to be for getting clean!” Kyla admonished Tristan, but doing it giggling as she’d been trying to get clean and her vampire clearly had intentions of a different nature for the shower. She’d been trying to scrub her skin, thinking that she seriously needed an alone shower with a razor, when she found herself with one leg hooked over Tristan’s shoulder, Tristan on his knees, head buried in her kinda-in-need-of-a-shave girlie parts!

When they were done, Tristan having given her a spectacular orgasm plus having fed from her inner thigh, and back in the bedroom getting dressed, Kyla putting on jeans since she hadn’t gotten time to shave her legs, she took in their surroundings.

The room was large and sort of plain, white walls, no artwork, older-looking utilitarian furniture but comfortable and that view was absolutely spectacular. She could stare at that view every morning for the rest of her days and not grow weary of it.

“Wanna go eat?” He kissed her shoulder and wrapped his arms around her. She nuzzled in.

“I missed you so fucking much, baby,” he told her, “I can’t even…” he trailed off.

She put her palms on his forearms and squeezed.

“I wanna keep you all to myself but we have to talk, find out what’s goin’ on.”

She nodded, “I’m hungry, anyway.”

“Let’s go feed you.”

“Kay.”

Sasha and Sam were at the kitchen table, huddled close. Both of their heads popped up when Tristan and Kyla walked into the room hand in hand.

Sam got up and poured coffees from a coffee pot for them and then motioned toward the cream and sugar sitting on the table.

“Good morning. Feeling good?” Sasha smiled.

Kyla nodded, “Feelin’ fantastic.”

Tristan put her at the empty seat at the foot of the long table, what felt like miles away from Sam and his sister, and then he took her cup and doctored it with sugar, grabbed milk from the fridge and gave it a splash and then stirred, sipped it, and passed it to her.

She smiled at him and took a sip.

“Nectar of the freakin’ gods,” she moaned, noting he was still being a royal taster.

They all laughed at the irony.

“Speaking of nectar of the gods …” Sasha said, “We’ve got to chat.”

Tristan sat beside Kyla and lifted his chin.

“Things were pretty touch and go there for a while. I really was worried that you wouldn’t make it.” She was looking at Kyla.

Kyla winced, not sure how to feel. She knew Tristan had been stressed but it was all hard to relate to because she hadn’t, essentially, seen or felt any of what’d happened.

“Thank you for helping us,” Kyla said.

“My pleasure. Maybe you can help, too.” She offered.

“How’s that?” Kyla inquired.

“I don’t know yet how but Kyle...”

“Careful,” Tristan warned. Kyla wasn’t sure what he meant. She looked at him quizzically.

“Nothing puts Kyla at risk. Don’t ask her to do anything that would.”

Sasha looked at him and then forged on.

“Of course. I need you to know that when I got that call back from my contact, the Ukrainian elder who is coming to see me in a few days, he’d read my message and, Tristan, he knew immediately that I was talking about you.”