CH28

Kate couldn't breathe and everything was dark; when she opened her mouth to complain, all she tasted was dirt. Plus she was in pain, lots of pain. It felt like…like. Kate started digging and digging. The second her fingers felt air she burst up out of the ground and looked around.

Where…where the hell was she? And then she crumpled in pain. Her midsection felt like her muscles were fighting each other. She actually felt like something was trying to find its way up and out of her mouth, but she swallowed it down and that hurt too. Plus she felt weak, almost too-tired-to-even-stand kind of weak.

It was only when another hand reached up out of the ground that almost everything came to her. "CASTLE!" Kate was digging for all she was worth, dirt flying like crazy. She would take his hand in hers only to let it go and continue digging. Suddenly Castle burst up out of the ground sending dirt flying everywhere like she had done earlier.

She wrapped her arms around him and buried her head into his chest. She was so happy that she started crying.

Rick doubled over in pain and cried out, expressing how much pain he was feeling. Kate let go of him and felt her own pain which wasn't getting any better.

She watched as he tried to get his pants off as fast as possible. Soon Rick was standing there with his pants and boxers at his feet while his hands were covering his chastity device. Kate kneeled down which hurt still more and noticed that his penis and balls had gotten bigger and that his penis was straining against the cage.

Scrambling for the key that should be on her necklace, she found no necklace. "SHIT!" She scraped at her neck. Then her fingers found it, she swung the key around from her back to her front, and pulled the whole thing over her head.

"Hold still Castle." She pulled his hands away so she could see what she was doing. Trembling, Kate placed the key in the lock and turned it. She removed the lock and the pin allowing the whole thing to collapse in her hands as she gently pulled the tube out of his penis.

She was still on her knees when Castle's penis grew in size and he had an erection. And not just any erection. Kate thought he was big before - now he was even bigger! She watched him stroke it as he tilted his head back and moaned.

She took his hand away and started running her tongue up and down his erection, followed by circling her tongue around the head. Kate started paying attention to the head while she stroked her hand up and down his shaft. She could just barely get his head in her mouth and still swirl her tongue around it. She tried to poke the tip of her tongue into the slit at the head of his penis.

Kate went back to licking up and down his shaft. Then she switched to licking his balls and took one in her mouth and sucked on it, before going back to licking his shaft.

She could feel Castle's hands in her hair holding her head in place while she kept licking. She was stroking his shaft up and down and was increasing her speed while she circled her tongue around and over his head.

Rick suddenly held her head in place and cried out as he climaxed; Kate did her best to swallow it all. There was so much of it and it tasted different. The more she swallowed the more she found that she liked the taste even more than she used to.

He soon started to become flaccid as Kate continued to suck on his head, trying to suck out every last drop. Rick soon fell to his knees. She kissed him hard and shoved her tongue into his mouth. He tasted different there too, and yet the more she tasted the more she liked it. Rick began kissing her back and soon there was a battle of the tongues.

Kate broke from the kiss and looked at Castle. "Castle?" Kate searched his eyes, as her heart started swelling with joy. He was alive, they both were. "Mistress?" Rick smiled back at her with love in his eyes.

However the look didn't last long as Rick moaned in pain and clutched his stomach. "I don't know what's wrong Castle, hang on." Kate looked at her watch and realized they had been in the ground a very long time. She jumped them to Sirene's living room knowing it was a safe place.

Alexis was sitting on the sofa with Paige's head in her lap as she stroked her hair while watching Paige slowly sucking on her sixth blood bag that evening. "MOM!" Alexis watched as Kate and Castle jumped into the living room right in front of them.

"SIRENE! Mom and dad are back!" Alexis yelled upstairs and watched as a naked Sirene with a wet core and hard nipples suddenly jumped downstairs followed by Irene running down the stairs just as naked just as wet and just as hard.

Sirene fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around Kate. "Kitty, you scared the crap out of us." She buried her head in Kate's neck.

Suddenly Kate doubled over in pain and moaned while clutching her stomach. "You're in pain?" She nodded her head. "Scale of 1 to 10" Sirene asked. "Twelve," Kate groaned. "Castle, too?" Sirene asked and watched as Kate nodded and moaned.

"Irene, more blood bags as fast as you can warm them up." Irene ran for the kitchen and soon the humming sound of the microwave and eventually the ding sound were heard.

"ONE." Irene threw it to Alexis who gave it to Sirene. "Bite and drink Kate." Blood was all Sirene knew. No matter what had happened both of them were probably really low on blood and lucky to be alive.

DING! "TWO!" Irene threw it to Alexis who handed it over to Sirene and gave it to Castle and told him to bite and drink.

Alexis looked at Paige who was just sitting there sucking slowly on her blood bag, still naked.

DING! "Three!"

DING! "Four!"

DING! "Five!"

DING! "Six!"

"You can slow down now Irene," Sirene called as she watched Kate and Castle drinking their third bags much slower.

"Feeling better?" Sirene asked looking at Kate and then at Castle and watched both of them nod. Kate and Castle were soon sucking out the last of the blood from their bags. "Two more Irene and then I think you can stop," Sirene called out.

DING! "Seven."

DING! "Eight."

Irene came back around and sat down in a chair to watch what was going on while grabbing a throw pillow to hold in front of her. Being naked in front of Sirene was one thing and she kind of liked it, but being naked in front of everyone else was another. Irene marveled that these people all seemed so secure and comfortable being naked in front of others, including a man. She just wasn't that comfortable like that yet, if ever.

Kate and Castle were looking better while drinking from their last bags. Sirene had noticed that Castle had fangs now. She wondered if anyone else had noticed, including Kate.

"How do you feel Kitty?" Sirene reached out and stroked Kate's arm. "Better, much better." Kate smiled and looked at Paige. "How is Paige?" Kate asked.

"She has a severe case of blood rage; she hasn't yet fully recovered from it yet. Paige is still in hiding from us. I think once she has enough blood in her and finally sees Alexis or maybe after the two of them are alone for a time she'll show herself. It was ugly in the beginning."

"What you did was stupid Kitty! Do you have any idea what you did? By rights you two should be dead!" Sirene wanted to slap Kate silly. It took Sirene a few minutes to explain to Kate what she did and what the consequences should have been. Why they both should be dead, not sitting on her floor drinking blood.

"I didn't know! Our Lord never brought it up that I remember," Kate defended herself.

"He told me. I still don't understand why you two are not dead," Sirene repeated herself.

"I am a little hungry still," Rick informed them. "I could really go for a Porterhouse or even a New York Strip. Raw to medium preferably," he added.

"No food here or even a way to cook it except to nuke it," Irene suddenly spoke up. She did because she, too, was hungry.

"Steaks, huh?" Sirene said. "I suppose I could jump to Victoria and bring some back along with maybe a full meal."

"I'll get dressed." Irene dropped her throw pillow and ran upstairs. She began the search for her clothes that could be anywhere. Sirene soon jumped in with her and started helping with the search.

Soon they were both back downstairs and dressed. "I've got Irene to tell me what to get. Just need to know how many?" Sirene told them.

"One." Irene held up her hand smiling shyly, as Sirene chuckled at her and leaned over to kiss her head.

"Two." Rick held up his hand. "Love?" Kate looked embarrassed.

"Three?" Sirene questioned looking at Kate. "I don't know what you've done to yourself Kitty but we're going to try and find out. …You really want a steak?" Sirene asked point blank only to watch Kate shrug her shoulders. She knew she wanted something and a steak was as good a place to start as anywhere.

"This will probably take about an hour. Don't anyone leave." Sirene pointed her finger at Kate who held up her hand and crossed her chest with the other. Sirene took hold of Irene, jumped to Victoria, and looked for a restaurant.

Sirene was right; it took about an hour to get three New York Strip steaks. One medium, and two medium rare at Irene's insistence. "Call it a hunch," Irene responded when Sirene questioned her. They also had a baked potato and green beans for each, with a double chocolate cheesecake.

Irene had to go shopping for plates, silverware and steak knives because Sirene had no need for dinnerware. She waited at the restaurant after giving Irene her credit card.

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"Ok, dig in," Sirene encouraged as she placed everything on the table.

Irene and Rick were soon cutting and shoveling their food into their mouths, right up to the point where he tried a bite of his potato. He gagged and spat it back out, only to do the same thing for the green beans.

Irene scraped what Castle hadn't touched onto her plate. They all watched as Kate very carefully and very slowly cut off a tiny piece of steak and hesitated before placing it in her mouth and started chewing. Suddenly her eyes opened wide and they watched as she cut off a much larger piece and placed it her mouth. She chewed it up and swallowed it.

Like Castle, she spat the potato and green beans out. Irene soon had three baked potatoes swimming in butter, sour cream, chives and bacon bits, along with three helpings of green beans and double chocolate cheesecake.

Kate may have started slow but she was the first one finished. They watched her use her finger to wipe her plate clean. "That was delicious." Kate smiled.

"Okay, now we have to really find out what you have done to yourself." Sirene was serious. Vampires didn't eat practically raw meat. Hell, they didn't eat anything at all.

"I need a shower and can I borrow some clothes and maybe some shoes before we talk?" Kate asked. Soon she was upstairs taking a shower with Rick right outside waiting his turn. She came out with a towel drying herself. "We need to talk Castle, right after I get back." She dropped her towel and placed her hands on his bare chest. "I… I couldn't…. We need to talk, Castle." Kate reached up to kiss him softly.

She broke from the kiss and while Castle took a shower, Kate found some clothes that would fit her and not allow her to stand out too much.

Kate walked down the stairs and stopped in front of Sirene. "I'm going to go find out what happened to my home. I promise not to be gone long," she explained.

"I'll go with you mom." Alexis pulled out her weapon and ejected the clip to see how many rounds she had left before slapping it back into place.

"No sweetie, you're staying here. Paige needs you," Kate told Alexis and glanced at Paige who still looked out of it. "It might be best if you take her upstairs to the spare bedroom and try and reach her," she said, stopping Alexis in her tracks.

Sirene wrapped her arms around Kate. "Be careful Kitty, you have no idea what you'll find," she warned her.

"I have to try and find someone. It was my house, my responsibility. Maybe I can save something," Kate insisted.

She stepped back, jumped to a space three blocks down, and saw people milling about along with fire engines and police cars as she looked down the street from her rooftop vantage point.

She jumped closer and closer till she was across the street. "MY GOD!" Kate's eyes were looking everywhere. Her home, where was her home? All that remained was a pile of ashes with just a hint of the stone walls that made up the exterior walls. The roof was gone and even the building next to her home looked damaged.

"DAMN LYCANS!" Kate cursed them, cursed them all. The entire building looked to have collapsed down into the basement. She knew the explosives that she had set the timer for would have collapsed the emergency exit tunnel. She had ordered Solomon to leave through the tunnel before it blew.

Kate jumped to the area where Solomon should have run to. "WHAT THE HELL!?" Kate found another damaged, burnt to a cinder, and collapsed into itself building where police and the fire department were.

"OH, SOLOMON. I'm so sorry." Kate fell to her knees on a rooftop a couple of buildings away.

Her home and everyone she knew was likely gone. Either killed by the Lycans or died when their building collapsed in on them. Kate looked up at the night sky. "Please tell me they died in their sleep," she begged. She couldn't bear the thought of them dying by burning to death or by being crushed under their building.

"Everything is gone." Kate put her face in her hands and wept. Thirty minutes later she jumped to one of their satellite locations and found no one there.

She grabbed a bag and filled it with weapons, clips, cash, a cell phone, and a few silver bars. Next she picked up a laptop, and jumped for the site where they were making silver nitrate rounds; no one was there either.

Kate picked up a bag that was already full of Lycan killer rounds and jumped back to Sirene's living room. "MOM?" Alexis was still downstairs holding onto Paige. Sirene, Irene, and Castle were also in the living room waiting for Kate.

Kate shook her head. "It's all gone, burned to the ground. Even Solomon and one of our safe sites is gone, also burned to the ground." She dropped her bags.

"Solomon," Paige whispered, which got Alexis's attention. "Paige? …Baby?" Alexis stroked her face with her hand and got nothing back. "She'll come around sweetie, she just needs time. Why don't you take her upstairs now and stay with her. There's nothing else to do," Kate said and watched Alexis as she guided Paige up the stairs to disappear into the bedroom.

"What now Kitty?" Sirene asked, only to see Kate shake her head. Suddenly she began searching one of her bags for that cell phone. She dialed the number from memory, saw the questioning look on Sirene's face and held up her hand. "My Lord, the house was overrun by Lycans. Only myself, Castle, Alexis and Paige have managed to escape alive. Call me at this number when you can. Be safe my Lord." she ended the call.

"I called him as we were being overrun. I thought somehow that he might be able to help us. He may not have even gotten my message," Kate said sadly. "Or it was sunlight where he was when you called," Castle suggested, getting Kate to nod her head, agreeing that it was possible.

"That still leaves the question of what now, Kate?" Sirene asked more formally, taking a quick look at Irene to make sure she was okay.

"The house is gone. It took me untold years to convert enough dying humans to populate it. Put furniture in it, collect the necessary silver. Make it a home. Now I've lost yet another Solomon is gone. I found him shot and dying laying in a battle field of dead and dying men during the Civil War. He was a good man." Kate knew where she found each and every one of her people.

"You can stay here for now. It's going to be uncomfortable with only 2 beds and 2 bedrooms," Sirene mentioned knowing that all of the furniture she presently had was all made by her out in the garage.

"We can't stay here long, we've already practically emptied one of your refrigerators." Kate knew they had used up a lot of blood bags today.

"I would have happily emptied both of them if it meant you three would live. We still need to figure out what you've done to yourself Kitty. We are way outside what I know. By rights you two should be dead." Sirene really didn't understand how Kate and Castle were sitting there.

"My apartment is gone but I still have all of my money. We can buy something, furnish it, and live there. Someplace with enough rooms. I doubt I have enough to buy someplace similar to where we were, but we can afford something," Castle offered.

Kate wearily smiled. "Money isn't the problem Castle; I've already got more than we might ever need. I just never think I had enough so I kept adding to it. I added roughly $31.2 million just after I met you the first time." Kate smiled at Castle when she saw the look on his face.

"So where?" Sirene asked.

"Actually I was thinking of going home and seeing what was available. Start again there," she said.

"Really!?" Sirene sat forward. "Are you talking about where we were with Lord Hunt or…" Sirene stopped talking when she saw Kate shaking her head.

"I mean where I was born, when I was human. That home is likely long gone by now, but there must be something available. Maybe buy a big old school or a piece of junk and fix it up. Make it ours," Kate mused.

Sirene got up and kneeled next to Irene since she wouldn't fit in the chair with her. "Kate is talking about moving to Hungary, my love. We could transfer your college credits and Budapest is a big city, I'm sure they have hospitals. It will be hard at first, you will likely need to learn a new language. But I will help you every night. Help you study, help you with a new language."

"Or we can stay here. It is your choice my love." Sirene stroked a finger down her cheek.

Things were moving fast for Irene. A relationship with Sirene who was a woman, who happened to be a vampire and all of her friends are vampires. Even her best friend, Paige, was now a vampire. She was having sex with Sirene and couldn't get enough. Going from nothing to having sex every day.

Irene looked at Kate. "How much money are we talking about?" Irene asked, not sure if that was the tipping point or not. It was only that she had just been scraping by for so long.

"$12 million," Castle answered. "$434 million," Sirene added, which got Irene to turn and look at her with her mouth hanging open. "$3.4…billion," Kate quietly replied, which caused Sirene and Irene to snap their heads in her direction as she heard Castle start coughing.

"I've been busy," she defended herself.

"Do I want to know where or how you got that much money?" Castle asked as he found his voice.

Kate turned her head and smiled at him. "Probably not. It's in a number of banks and accounts all overseas," she added. "The Caymans, Geneva, Hong Kong. I think there is even one in London, just don't quote me."

"Can you still access all of them?" Sirene asked since everything in her house was gone.

"The ones in the Caymans - yes. Geneva, Hong Kong, and London are Alexis's accounts. I don't know how to get into those," Kate admitted.

"So our daughter has her own accounts? Did you include those accounts in your three point whatever?" Rick inquired, still in shock, and was ready to fall on the floor when Kate began shaking her head.

"I'm not certain but I think Alexis has something in the realm of $116 million," she responded.

Rick was still in shock. Suddenly he was feeling more than a little woozy!