Lea of Mirkwood
Author's Note: Enter the mullet.
Max led Fiona in through a stairway etched in the side of the cliff next to the sea. All around her climbed cold stone, which she imagined would be a smooth sandy color in the sun.
"Here we are, Fiona," he said with a half-smile, and walked in through a dark hole in the rock face. Fiona hesitatingly stepped inside after him and after an unsteady walk down jagged stairs. The walkway downwards opened into a grotto deep within. It was lit with a macabre assortment of lights, torches on the walls, candles all over and even a few oil drums filled with kindling. Sitting on a strange throne in the middle of the room was a figure, facing away from her. He was clad all in black and he had platinum blond hair cut short on top and long on the sides and back. Something about the way the black coat he had on was cut around his strong shoulders and the collar pulled up like something out of a movie just breathed danger. He was a strong vampire. She could feel it.
"David!" called Max in a happy, paternal voice. A tingle ran down Fiona's spine as the man on the throne, David, stood up and turned slowly. When his face came into the light from the torches, her breath caught sharply in her throat and she felt a great wave of something knock into her. He had such a presence that she could feel the nearness of him thrumming in her bones like the low chord of a church organ in a minor scale. He raised one pale brow and looked at Max, then her with chilly blue eyes.
"Well?" he asked lightly, his voice smooth. "Who's this, Max?"
Max linked his fingers together and smiled, leaning his head back proudly. "This is Fiona. I went out looking for a mother for you all, and I found you a sister."
David smiled lazily, raising his eyebrows. "A sister, Max?" he asked.
This is supposed to be my brother? thought Fiona dazedly. Him? Fiona stepped forward and held out her hand, fitted snugly in a pair of black leather gloves. David shook his firmly, his hand encased in a similar pair of gloves, but looser and with a slight flare at the wrist. Fiona let go and stepped back, watching her new brother with flashing dark eyes. He kept his attention respectfully on Max, but every so often his eyes would flick over to her appreciatively.
"I hope you and the boys will be nice to her and make her welcome. Tomorrow, David, if you would be so kind as to take her out to buy her new clothing?"
David nodded and tilted his head noncommittally at the same time. Max, after talking about a few scattered fatherly things for a few more minutes, in which Fiona began to notice three other boys slipping in through the cracks, one of them standing in front of a poster of Jim Morrison, decided it was time to leave.
"Well boys! Paul, Dwayne, Marko, and David...I'm sorry I couldn't spend more time with you. Please make your new sister welcome."
Max left, and Fiona was left alone in the cavern with her new brothers, who were closing in on her like a pack of wolves on their prey, and the white wolf of David was nearest.
"Sister?" growled David in a low voice, the sound of it commanding and seductive. Fiona felt a tightening deep in her belly as she watched him stalk over to her with a paced, catlike gait. How was she going to be able to keep her hands off this guy, her brother?
"The old man is deciding who's our sister, now?" he asked, and brushed the back of his hand across the backs of her shoulders. A few muted laughs from the others. Fiona turned her head away from David, her dark hair falling away from her face and revealing the soft curve of her neck. David stopped in his tracks and lifted the rest of her hair away, the strands hanging on his gloved fingers like a curtain of dark silk. He slowly ran one finger down the gentle slope of her neck.
"Our sister has a pretty neck," he purred silkily, and looked at the boys out of the corner of his eye. "So pretty and pale."
He turned the hand on her neck until it lightly lay against the base of her neck, then ducked his head in swiftly and licked the hollow of her neck where her pulse beat. Quicker than the flutter of a bat's wing, Fiona whipped around and fisted a handful of black cotton shirt, snarling at David.
"Touch me again, brother, and I'll cut out your tongue and eat it for lunch."
As if to demonstrate how enjoyable she would find this, she lightly ran her tongue over her dark lips. David's eyes grew wide with surprise. Fiona relished his shock and felt her dead pulse beat faster.
"Sister," he whispered, his breath hot and sweet with the smell of blood. "You are my sister, as Max says. You're part of this Pack. But you're not our blood yet."
"The only blood," growled Fiona, raking a finger across David's lips, "I care about is the blood I'll drink, be it yours or a mortal's."
With a sharp, quick movement she released him with a slight push and stepped backwards.
"Be careful, Fiona," said the vampire Max had called Dwayne. He tossed back his head defiantly, his thick black hair brushing out of his eyes. "Max won't be here tomorrow. He barely ever comes in here."
"Yeah," said Marko, snapping his fingers. "Watch your ass. You're not one of us yet."
"Tough, aren't you all?" asked Fiona, and pulled off her coat. "Where I come from, those like us, the privileged, we protect each other."
David smiled slowly, and put his arm casually around Fiona's shoulders. "Come on, boys," he said, holding out his other hand in supplication. "Let's make Fiona welcome here." He brought back his other hand and laid it flat on her toned belly, making her breath shorten with sudden surprise. She turned a cold glance towards him.
"Where do you sleep?"
For the second time since she had met him, David's eyes widened as he was caught off guard. "Behind those planks. We hang from the beams in that little grotto."
Fiona raised an eyebrow, appearing unimpressed.
"Then you don't sleep in here? And all this in here, for show, and for parties? Who uses that bed?" she asked, pointing to the king-sized bed swathed with white netting like something out of an Indian palace.
"No one," said Paul, speaking up for the first time. He ran his fingers casually through his teased blond mop. "It's just there for show...and if we ever bring a girl down here."
"Which is rare," said Dwayne sadly. Fiona snorted.
"What I'm asking is, do I have to wash the sheets before I use it?"
David opened his eyes wide, but this time in a sort of mocking surprise. "You don't want to sleep in my cave?"
"Thank you," said Fiona, "I do not. I prefer a bed to hanging."
Ducking out from under David's arm, she walked over to where the bed was, putting a little sway in her walk and knowing they were watching her. She was attractive, she knew that. She was tall and leggy, and had enough to show off up top, and slim hips that curved just enough to be sexy. She pulled back the sheets and looked carefully at the white cotton. No stains. They looked as clean as if they...
"Just came out of the wash," said David over her shoulder. Fiona nearly jumped, but suppressed the instinct and her adrenaline rush was satisfied with a tiny intake of breath. She glanced to her left, his head was right at her shoulder, and she nearly bumped noses with him.
"Do you always," she began irritably, sitting down and starting to pull off her boots, "sneak up on people like that?"
He shrugged and sat down on the step leading up to the dais where the bed lay. Without asking her permission, he picked up her other booted foot and started working on the laces. Fiona suppressed the urge to kick him. When the laces were loose and bunched up between the holes David gave a sharp pull and the boot slid off easily in his hands. He took the other from her hands and set them down by the side of her bed, facing opposite directions. At her puzzled expression he smiled wickedly.
"That's supposed to keep the boogie-men away," he explained with a sparkle in his cold blue eyes. "But don't be too careful to keep them away."
Before Fiona could snatch her foot away, David had already caught the toe of her black sock and pulled it off. She snatched the little bit of cloth away from him and bundled her two socks together, then stuffed them down her boots. Then she stood up and clapped twice.
"Hey!" she yelled loudly. "I have an announcement to make!"
Eight eyes turned in her direction.
"This will not begin tonight, but I'd like to let you all know that I sleep naked. This is not a come on, and if any of you take it as a come on, I will cut off your testicles and hang them from that post-" She pointed to a rafter above the fire pit, scorched by years of smoke. "-and leave them there overnight with the fire going. In the morning, I will make you all eat them. Is this clear?"
"Crystal," replied David from at her feet. "Does that start tonight?"
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