Chapter 9
Alice had done many things in her career that required her to put on a brave front to a situation that she didn't feel very brave about. As she leaned back on the couch, she had a feeling that this ranked up with the very best. But as with every other time, her resolve snapped into place and Alice saw it as one more mission to accomplish. Taking a deep breath, she lifted her eyes to meet Claire's, certain that she had the redhead's undivided attention she smiled. A wicked, devious smile that made it clear that Alice would be getting exactly what she wanted tonight.
Claire managed to get over the initial shock when she realised what Alice had planned, she lazily crossed her arms and smirked, daring her to finish what she started, sure that Alice was playing a game she couldn't win, desperately hoping she was wrong. Either way she wasn't going to make it easy on her. Alice smiled at her and ran her hand through her hair, down the side of her face, she sucked two fingers deep into her mouth, trailing them down across her throat and beneath the white shirt and began toying with her nipple out of sight of her audience.
Claire's smirk faltered.
Alice closed her eyes and rolled her head backwards. The first moan out of her mouth was deep, ending with a hiss of breath as she moved her other hand down and grasped both breasts, the shirt now pushed aside leaving Alice naked except for her tiny scarlet thong.
Claire's smirk was no where to be seen. She swallowed, her dry throat resulting in an audible gulp that made Alice chuckle.
Emboldened by Claire's obvious response, Alice threw herself into the show. Sliding her hands down her front, moving them to the side of her hips, she eased the silk down to her ankles, intending to remove it completely, she changed her mind at the last minute and left them hanging off of one ankle. Placing one hand behind her head, grabbing hold of the armrest, she lifted one knee and using her left hand, pushed her legs open. She left her hand splayed across her most intimate area, casually stroking, blocking the view deliberately.
A subtle shifting at the doorway ensured she had Claire's rapt attention.
Moving her hand down, she slid her fingers through the wet folds, stopping on the upstroke to circle herself and drive her pleasure higher. Her glistening fingers trailed back to her breast, above the shirt the had worked its way closed again. Teasing her nipple through the cloth, aware of the warm wet circle she left on the fabric as her nipple hardened underneath.
Alice's wrist watched chimed at the ten minute mark.
She pulled her knees together, raised them up and to the side as she rolled onto her stomach. Claire watched as she picked up the toy from the side of the couch and brought it to her mouth. Sucking it inside, leaving a visible trail of saliva behind, she pushed backwards raising her hips up, supporting herself on her elbows. She moved the hand holding the silicone cock along the front of her body until it was level with the apex of her thighs.
Turning her head to look at Claire over her shoulder she waited until Claire's eyes met hers before making her point. "Shut the door, make a decision which side of it you want to be standing on when it closes."
The door clicked shut, Alice couldn't even pretend to be surprised to see Claire still standing there.
Running the silicone through her wet center to reactivate the dried saliva, she pushed her head down leaving herself fully exposed to her lover when she entered herself from behind.
The first time she slid inside caused her to moan and arch her back downwards. She started her strokes slowly, gradually increasing in speed, sensually moving her hips back and forth. When she felt the building pressure, she rolled onto her back, spreading her legs as wide as they would go, one leg pressed against the back of the couch, her other foot resting on the floor, using it to gain traction on her thrusting.
Claire's arms were still crossed as though holding herself in position, aware that moving her arms would allow her body to surge forward and take what she wanted. The cramping in her stomach that demanded she go out and feed was silenced by the resulting cries and whimpers from the blonde fast approaching ecstasy. Claire's breathing subconsciously mirrored the short staccato breaths of Alice as she willed her lover to finish and bring them both relief.
Alice was moving hard and fast, slamming inside of her self, her neck arched forward, her head pressed backwards, she moved her hand between her legs and started to get herself off. Rubbing frantic circles in time to the thrusting she began to fall apart.
"Oh God, Claire." She breathed the prayer across opened, wet lips.
Claire was physically holding herself together, she stared intensely at the view before her, as though willing Alice to come by thought alone. Her nostrils flared out, breathing in the scent of a beautiful woman teetering on the precipice of the little death.
Claire moaned out loud when Alice finally reached the end, calling out Claire's name in a repetitive benediction.
Alice felt her body slump as the chemicals ran rampant through her system, she pulled her knees together and underneath her to offer a degree of modesty, unaware of how sexy an appearance she gave out. She met Claire's eyes that were clouded with lust and something Alice couldn't place.
She raised an eyebrow in question.
Claire shook her head. "Grab your damn coat, its cold out."
*/*/
Alice shivered, her leather jacket was beautiful and she commended Jill for her taste but not for her functionality. Alice's own leather jacket that she would never see again had been a hell of a lot warmer. Claire it seemed was impervious to the cold. Rembrandt trotted ahead of them, sniffing out rats and lazily chasing them.
"How did you end up with him?" Alice stroked behind his ears as he ambled past her again.
"K-mart."
"He belonged to her?"
"She found him, some idiot had left him tied to a dumpster. It had been raining and the rope tied around his neck was getting tighter, she couldn't find anything to cut the rope so she worked her fingers bloody to get the knot open. Poor thing was hungry, wet, cold and dehydrated. His fur was missing in places, he was about the most pathetic sight you ever saw. I came home and found them both standing in the hallway, wet and bedraggled. K-mart had only been with us about 2 months. I took one look at her and she held her hand up and said 'now before you say anything...' I just shook my head and walked into the kitchen where Jill and Luther were trying not to be obvious in their enjoyment."
Alice laughed. "That's pretty cute."
"Oh yeah, very cute. About a week later, she still hadn't named him, we had some people in to decorate her bedrooms recently and they must have left some paint and tools behind in one of the closets. Damn dog had got in and had a field day with the brushes and trays, he came out and left paw prints all along the hallway. He also left them up the walls, God knows what he was doing up there, Jill, K-mart and I came out to see what the noise was, all I could see was the thousands of dollars it was going to cost to replace the wooden floors when Jill says 'we should call him Rembrandt!' I was all for re-homing him at the time. Remember the last time I lived with an animal the damn thing was always trying to kick me into next week, but K-mart said it would be good to have a guard dog, he could watch my back when I went out. Thankfully he grew out of his artistic stage." She finished sardonically.
Alice held her hands over her mouth to stop from laughing.
Five minutes later, the silence was broken again. "Do you feel the cold at all?" Alice grumbled.
Claire shot her a look.
"Jeez, just asking. What got you so out of sorts." She thought for a second and laughed. "Oops, never mind."
Claire shot her another look. "Alice, it's called hunting for a reason. I'm trying to pay attention."
Alice tilted her head in question. "How do you decide who to... you know. K-mart said you only feed on other predators. Is that true?"
"It is."
"Why?"
Claire sighed, certain that she wasn't going to get any peace just yet. She supposed it was natural to have questions. Was glad in a way that Alice was approaching the subject as well as she was. Part of her was worried that Alice hadn't yet taken everything in, hadn't dealt with everything that was going on in her life now. While she didn't necessarily want the blonde to have a crisis of conscience, she did feel it was somewhat inevitable and wanted to get it out of the way, rather than having it explode at the most inopportune time. Claire was sadly unaware of just how valid that concern was.
"There are some people, quite a few of them actually, that just don't serve any purpose on this planet, apart from their own. Most predators prey on the weak, I prey on the selfish, greedy, corrupt evil. I'm not entirely human, but I was once, part of me never forgot what that means. I don't distance myself from humanity, I know what it means to be human. I don't want to take someone away from this life that would be mourned. Besides, I find these are the kind of people that the law enforcers don't want to put too great an effort in for."
Alice grunted. "Makes sense. How can you tell? I mean, can you sense it?"
Claire nodded, "I can sense something. I don't know if it is scent, perception, a mental ability, but I just know the worth of a person if it is strong. Predators reek of something to me, I can see them coming a mile away."
"Fuck me I'm cold."
Claire rolled her eyes. "You can always go home."
Alice started to talk again when Claire held up her hand using a signal that she was sure Alice would understand from her military background. She pushed herself against a wall, confident that Alice would do the same.
Alice was straining to hear what had alerted Claire, when finally the sounds of a struggle reached her ears. A man came barreling around the corner, dragging something with him, his hand was over its mouth, muffling the sounds it made. Alice squinted into the darkness and realised he had a woman. He took his hand away from her mouth and immediately backhanded her. She cried out as she bounced against the wall and slid down it. Alice instinctively went to move forward to help when she felt Claire's hand on her arm and warm breath at her ear.
"Stay here. Don't move. Don't make a sound." Claire made a noise and Rembrandt ran through the shadows to the other side of the assailant, taking up position to both watch and guard.
Claire rushed forward silently crashing into the man that had at least a hundred pounds and a good foot on Claire. As they fell to the floor, Claire shouted to the terrified woman. "Run!"
She staggered to her feet and ran past the barely concealed Alice. Alice watched her run, noticing that she never looked back. She turned back to see what Claire was doing and was surprised that the fight was no longer going on, Claire had moved faster than the eye could see and stood behind the large attacker, she kicked the back of his knee sending him painfully to the ground, before the sound left his mouth, Claire had sunk her teeth into his throat.
Alice stood mesmerised as Claire held him as though he was a lover, she noticed that Claire's hips were moving slightly, getting closer and closer to him until she tore her mouth away and gasped in a lungful of air.
Alice was both horrified and aroused by the behavior. She watched in fascination as Claire pulled a blade from her boot and ran it roughly across the mans throat. She looked at Claire, surprised to see no real evidence of the blood that Alice knew had come out of the jugular vein at great speeds. Claire ripped a piece of the t-shirt he was wearing to wipe away the little blood that was there. Tossing the rag on to the body, she made her way back to Alice, the clicking of claws followed as Claire grabbed Alice and began walking out the way they had come.
Unsure of how she was feeling, Alice thought it best to remain silent.
Unsure of how her actions were perceived, Claire thought it best to remain silent also.
*/*/*/
Luther flopped back on the bed absolutely exhausted. Flying down and landing in the Texan heat after the frigidity of New York was a shock to the system. Even flying first class didn't allow him enough time to relax before he was thrust into the vipers den. K-marts grandparents had shown up with no less than 8 legal execs. Dealing with New York attorneys that assumed him to be less able as he was a single attorney with a single client. Trading legalese back and forth had been fun to start with as they realised he was not someone to be taken as lightly as they had assumed but as the day wore on and the grating smugness from the grandparents continued, Luther was gradually being worn down. He planned to get some food and call home to update Claire, he had left a message earlier to tell her where he was staying for tonight, now he needed to call her and arrange for her to come down and even up the sides somewhat. He also needed Jill. While Jill hadn't taken to law as much as he had, she still had a lot of experience up her sleeve, not to mention her ability to cut people down to size. He had suspected Wesker of being involved when he saw the letter head yesterday, having spent several hours in that room he was now left without a doubt. That meant that K-mart couldn't be anywhere near this right now in case they did have to make a 50 year lay over as Claire had suggested.
What he couldn't figure out was why Wesker would want to get involved in this, in his experience Wesker never poked at Claire for fun, he had made a few runs at her over the years, prior to his being at her side, but he never provoked her without reason, Luther just couldn't figure out his reason this time and for that he needed Claire.
His stomach rumbled reminding him that he needed to order take out. Normally he would have booked into a decent hotel, but between flight delays and traffic he barely made the meeting in time so for tonight he was stuck at a local motel with no room service. He sat up to order dinner and then call Claire to fill her in and hopefully get her on the red eye flight when there was a knock at the door.
Straightening his shirt out he opened the door and fell back in shock.
"Hey, remember me? Course I was a lot dirtier when we last saw each other. On account of you burying me." Rain sneered at him.
"Oh my God." Luther whispered when he recognised Rain.
"Pretty fucking close." And she knocked him out.
*/*/*/
K-mart had dragged Alice off to watch TV leaving Claire and Jill in the kitchen making coffee.
"You took her with you? Seriously? Wow Claire, what brought that on?" Jill looked at her in amazement.
"She had a very persuasive argument." Claire felt a grin tugging at her lips.
"That's quite the shit eating grin you have there." Jill laughed at her.
"Anyway, moving on! Did you hear from Luther?"
"Just the message from earlier." She checked her watch. "What time is it down there? An hour earlier?"
Claire nodded. "Give him a call, he cant still be in meetings with them can he?"
Jill punched his speed dial and waited for it to answer. When it went to voice mail, she left a message and hung up. "Gimme a sec, I'll call that flea pit he is staying at. Why he didn't just drive into town and get a decent hotel I don't know." She dialed the number to Luther's room, surprised when a woman's voice answered. Smirking that Luther was probably still suffering from being stuck babysitting K-mart the other night. "Hi, can I speak to Luther please."
Claire looked at her quizzically and laughed when Jill started bouncing her eyebrows up and down. She frowned when Jill's face changed.
"Why are you answering his phone, is he OK? Is he in some kind of trouble?" There was a beat while the voice on the other end asked her something. "I'm family and if necessary I'm his legal representation, can you tell me what's going on?" Another pause, this time Jill's face drained of color.
"Thank you, I'll be flying in tonight." She hung up. "The motel desk called the police, they saw a woman attack Luther and drag him out to a van. The police don't know where he is." Jill put her hand to her mouth and bit into the side to stop her self from crying out in pain.
Claire's eyes hardened. "Call the airport, find a pilot that will take us down tonight. Charter a fucking airbus if you need to."
Jill nodded and started dialing while Claire went to explain things to Alice.
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A/n The writing of this chapter was greatly aided by Halestorm - I get off and a rather splendid bottle of Irish whiskey. Not the whole bottle mind, but a couple of glasses.
Goodness me, drooling, brains melting, addicts and someone that fantasizes about magical vaginas. It's like being back in the asylum!
Angelsgir – If you have a drool problem, I always carry tissues with me. Goes back to the asylum days. Failing that, lets see if we cant send that fluid elsewhere ;)
G3n3ralRedfield – There is something about a crisp white shirt isn't there? Hope your brain feels better. Sadly I think this chapter might have broken it again. Sorry bout that.
MiccaAbernathy – Hello again! Glad you are enjoying yourself. Even happier to know I am now your dealer.
Alexis – Alice is living in denial land. You know that place, I'm sure we visited once or twice, though sadly not together. She is lining herself up for a break down of epic proportions though. I think Starrh was paying you a compliment, kinda rude of you to reply with an insinuation that her alley is big enough for you to walk down. Honestly I cant take you anywhere.
