Godric accompanied Niobe to her quarters in the staff wing. The tight, metallic panels of her dress shortened her step, and in the flickering lamplight of the halls, she shimmied slowly beside him like a gold coin. He enjoyed the sultry rhythm of her hips, and he happily followed her, a mischievous spring in his own step.
If Sebek wanted to play mentor with him, he would let him. Godric figured he might learn a thing or two. But if the old crocodile thought he deserved to have his ego stroked, he had another thing coming. Godric did not stroke egos. Not anymore. And never for free.
Sebek ought to be grateful for the restraint he had shown tonight. The ancient did not know - could not know - how tightly he had bound himself to his children and the effect such primal bonds had on him. Eric's incandescent rage and Rosalyn's lust and loathing were cartwheeling through his blood, itching his prey drive and goading him toward all the carnal temptations of Akhet Place. Had he been less distracted by Arun - or more unstable in general - Rosalyn's indiscretions might have easily pushed him over the brink into some deadly bacchanal. Yet he had hardly killed anyone tonight. He had stood down when asked, even gone so far as to -
"This is me," Niobe said. The distraction was instant - and very welcome. Godric focused on the prey before him. She gestured at a double door. A small medicine bundle dangled over the lintel. "I could invite you in," she proposed. She curled around the doorframe like a cat, her body poised in the shape of a question.
"You could," he replied, intrigued. His pupils had blown wide. Just beyond her shoulder was a sitting area with a rather inviting desk that stood waist height. Perfect for pushing a meal against it and hiking up -
"But you wanted to see me tomorrow," Niobe countered.
Godric gripped the sides of the doorframe, caging her into her space - or holding himself back. He wasn't sure. "I do," he confirmed. It would be so easy to just -
"Maybe we should wait," she said, dropping her voice to a whisper. The smoky timbre of her throat conjured a thousand possibilities of what a man might anticipate doing with her.
Godric hummed appreciatively. He eased off of her. "I'm very good at waiting. Are you?"
She blinked slowly and demurred. "Good things come to those who wait, Lord Godric."
He could not help but return her coy smile. "Something like that." He glanced up at the superstitious bundle again. It was nonsense, a leather satchel full of dried herbs, nothing more. He propped an elbow against the doorframe over her head. "Is that charm meant to keep unwanted visitors away?" he teased.
She laughed a light, tinkling laugh. "Oh no, my Lord." She leaned forward to share her secret. He could feel the heat radiating off of her. He wanted to feel that heat inside himself. "If I had such a charm, it would be to keep you here," she told him. "That silly thing is meant to keep the other concubines respectful of me."
"I see," he chuckled. His curiosity was piqued. If she handled vampires even half as well as she did her fellow mortals, she was talented indeed. He tilted his jaw to scent her as she pulled away from him. His mouth watered at the fruity, overripe aroma and the blood rose in his groin. Rosalyn's taste in humans was faultless.
Rosalyn.
Much to his annoyance, he recalled now his reason for making a detour with Niobe in the first place. He steered the conversation toward practical matters. He wanted to interview her the following evening. It would not be a standard interview. She needed to come prepared.
Niobe listened attentively to his request, nodding her head on her sleek stem of a neck. She was unfailingly polite. Meek and bold in perfect measure. Full of suggestions, yet wholly pliant. It made one want to bend her in all manner of ways. Push her to the edge and then push a little more to see what would happen. There was something else to Niobe's allure too, something familiar that Godric couldn't quite identify. It made him want to devour her whole. He searched with his senses, listened to her bones and to her rushing, churning organs. He found nothing out of the ordinary.
"Your training must have been of the highest caliber," he reasoned.
"I was fortunate enough to attend Mont Chasseron, my Lord."
That raised his eyebrows. With a background like that, she might very well refuse any offer he made her. Godric had not actually encountered a human trained at the Swiss finishing school for vampire companions. Their acolytes rarely went on to serve in North America. The courts there were too new and their monarchs unable or uninterested in upholding Old World traditions. Unlike unscrupulous American donor agencies, courtesans and their academies didn't hesitate to turn away unsuitable clients. Not even New York's King Jude had been able to convince one of Mont Chasseron's graduates to join his entourage. There had been, as Godric recalled, some objection to the New York kingdom's social "milieu". Probably all the drug-fuelled orgies Eric had been fond of.
Godric might actually need to make an effort to get what he wanted from Niobe. Depending on the nature of the glamour Sebek had placed on her, she likely still expected to join one of the Egyptian royal households and did not remember that she already had - and at a very high rank. "Sebek sponsored your time at Chasseron?" he guessed.
"He did, my Lord. The Vizier has gone to great lengths to support my career."
"You understand that I am not a king? There will be no palaces with me. I don't even have a home at the moment," he confessed. And his family, save for Rosalyn, were a bunch of foul-mouthed heathens. Best to table that bit of news for later.
She smiled again at him, this time indulgently. "I trust the Vizier's judgment completely. He sees a potential placement within your clan as a very special opportunity."
"It would certainly be…unprecedented." Godric shrugged. "We've been doing a lot of that lately though."
"Mmm, how exciting," she purred, leaning in again. She reached for the fabric of his collar and paused, hand hovering. He nodded, permitting the touch, and she caressed his chest through his sweater. Godric found himself watching her supple, round mouth as she petted him.
"Until tomorrow?" she asked.
He stared. Her lips were moist and inviting, her warm breath sweet. She said something more. He blinked, then swallowed, realizing he'd forgotten himself. His hungers were screaming.
"Tomorrow," Godric quickly promised and bowed over her hand. On a whim, he summoned his courtly charm and turned her palm. He brushed a kiss across the pulse point of her wrist and the kiss traveled upwards and turned a dusky rose on her cheeks. The blush lingered there as she closed the door on him.
"Good gods," he muttered to himself. The promise of her taste still danced on his lips. He leaned against the wall, painfully aroused, and bit back a grin. And as he thought of his successes, his grin widened.
Sonia dead. Calla dead. Thea's court blown to smithereens.
It was enough for now. Plenty. But the night had gifted him with more. Godric did not believe in miracles, yet tonight he had touched one. Arun's scent curled around him. Alive. It was too great to comprehend.
Then to find himself suddenly in possession of a courtesan? Without the trouble of a court? It was quite possibly the funniest thing that had happened to him this millennia.
Godric knelt beside a potted bay tree to hide his shaking laughter. Victory and desire soared through his veins. He had wanted to celebrate this night. By gods, he would. He schooled his features, determined to get his way.
~OOO~
"What the hell?!" Rosalyn greeted him. Godric returned to their guest suite wreathed in a confusion of scents: more human blood, Niobe's skin…and Arun. Specifically, the nape of Arun's neck and his thick oiled hair and the perfume dotted behind his ears. She fixated on these latter offenses and told Godric exactly what she thought of them.
Godric looked between his two progeny in amusement. He offered no explanations about where he had been. No platitudes about what he had been doing. He said nothing at all. They were still in time-out, glued to the carpet by his maker's command. Eric smirked from where he sat, unconcerned. Just out of his reach, Rosalyn was red-eyed with frustration and clearly irritated by Eric's cavalier attitude. Godric could tell simply by reading his posture that Eric hadn't offered Rosalyn a single word of insight or advice about their predicament. "You've not had a talk with Eric while you waited?" he confirmed with her.
Rosalyn glared. "No. Mr. Lecture here suddenly had nothing to say."
Eric's smirk grew. "I thought I'd leave the honors to you, Maker. This being maker's business and all."
Godric looked around blankly, jangled the contents of his pocket, and made a decision.
He kicked off his slide sandals and crossed the room - once to deposit his things on the dresser, again to rid himself of the offending sweater. He peeled out of it slowly, one arm at a time. It dropped to the floor, and he bent to retrieve it, reaching a little more slowly than strictly necessary. A whimper escaped Rosalyn's lips at the sight of his backside. He turned to hide his smile. He went to wash his hands and moved with purpose, letting the light and shadow play over his nude torso and bare feet. He may have even run a hand through his hair. Rosalyn watched him like a hawk, covetous and resentful and predatory all at once. Eric's curious gaze followed him too, probing gently for his intentions.
Rosalyn struggled pointlessly under the command. "Can I get up now?"
"No," Godric replied in a clipped tone. He threaded the cotton hand towel back on its rack and ambled over to her. Once there, he towered over her, his stance wide and his arms crossed. He let the tendrils of his power unfurl and stretch outwards, stilling the air in the room and slowing time to a creep. She swallowed, and he stood there, looming, growing larger, daring her to argue more with him. Rosalyn curled inward like a bug beneath a magnifying lens.
"In our world," he said, his voice dangerously soft, "there is loyalty to your bloodline, which I expect to be absolute, and there is fealty to your superiors, which demands your hasty obedience. Tonight, you showed neither. Impressive, even by this family's standards."
In their psychic bond, he felt his disappointment skip over her skin in pin pricks and shower down into her belly where it burned. She turned ashen. "How was I supposed to - "
"You've done so well, Ros. I assumed you understood how to demonstrate your respect for your kin and for others of our kind. I assumed you had better control over yourself. Allow me to correct my oversight."
"What are you going to do?" she asked in a withering voice.
"Considering that I'm 'just a nasty little boy who calls himself 'Death''...?"
"You did not," Eric breathed in horror. "Not in front of someone." Rosalyn looked over at him sheepishly. "You called him that in front of someone?!" he said, his voice hitching up an octave. She looked away.
"I've half a mind to show you exactly how that 'boy' would handle this situation," Godric threatened. "I don't think you'd like that."
"No, you're right. I'm sorry," Rosalyn said quickly. "I should never have said that."
"No, you shouldn't have. Why did you?"
There was no good excuse for speaking to her husband and maker that way - a man two millennia her senior. She searched the pattern of the rug for an explanation. He clasped his hands behind his back and waited.
"Arun intimidates me. Obviously. Your history with him seems…" She waved stupidly. "I don't know about it...and...I...wonder." She shrugged helplessly. Godric gave his best impression of someone deeply unimpressed.
"Sebek is terrifying," she tried. "But really kind too? Like my grandfather…" The preposterous suggestion elicited snorts from both the men in the room. "Err…" she quickly backpedaled. "What I mean is that it's easy to forget that he's a true ancient. Plus this place, you know, this brothel or harem or whatever it is, it's overwhelming…"
"Shut. Up. Ros," Eric advised under his breath. Godric sucked at his teeth.
"I...I'm bloodlusted," she admitted, deflating into the rug with a slump.
"I'll say," Godric agreed.
"I knew it before, when we first got here, but I didn't have a handle on it."
"You still don't." He tipped up her chin with a finger and she met his gaze with black pooling eyes. The tips of her fangs were visible. He tutted her. "I offered to give you what you needed earlier but you refused my help. My naughty little newborn," he mused. "What ever am I going to do with you?"
Rosalyn sulked. "Punish me however you see fit."
"Are you so eager to be punished?" he asked, curious. Her thoughts were lurid. She imagined he would give her pain.
"I know I messed up. Big time."
"Perhaps you don't know me as well as you think you do." Godric stroked her head. "I rarely punish outright, lover." His fingers wound in her hair and his caress turned firm. He tugged her head back with a jerk, exposing her throat. "I discipline," he hissed. Rosalyn's eyes went round. "And I'll give you your discipline when I think you are ready to receive it." She was eye-level with the bulge in his pants and could not help but notice the interest there. Godric released his hold. "You aren't ready for me."
She let out a shocked gasp, surprised that his rough handling kindled a heat in her. She stared up at him, open-mouthed. He reached down and pressed a thumb into her bottom teeth and tongue. She sucked it and he hummed. "I like you on your knees," he told her hotly. "Do you know why you're in this…" He paused, his eyes raking hungrily over her form,"…compromising position?"
Again she glanced at Godric's zipper. "I, um. I was rude to my elders. I demanded answers about your past and I lost my temper when you didn't give them."
"True." Godric licked his lips. "That doesn't explain why you lost control and marked an ancient vampire of the First Blood with your scent."
"Madwoman," Eric grumbled under his breath.
After a beat, she still had not answered. Her expression had turned glassy. "Rosalyn," Godric chastised. "Are you listening to me or are you thinking about sucking my cock?"
"I -" she half-smiled, embarrassed.
"I am not happy with you," he reminded her.
"I know," she said, shaking the fug of lust from her head. "I'm sorry."
"'Sorry'? I left for a moment and returned to find my wife's scent all over our host. All over the guardian who would happily 'borrow' her for a decade or more if given the opportunity. A vampire that -" Godric stopped himself, real anger welling up. In the back of his mind, Eric was seething at a low boil. He wasn't helping matters. Godric closed his eyes and steadied himself. "Do not speak to me of places like this and elders like that. You have no idea, young one. None."
She reached for him. He stepped back, not quite ready to indulge her need for him. The loss of proximity made her wince. "I'm truly sorry," she offered.
"Do you actually desire the Vizier?" he asked darkly.
"No!" She clenched her eyes and shook her head vigorously. "God no. I forgot to hide my tactile power. Please forgive me."
Eric huffed, disgusted. "You don't need forgiveness. You need common fucking sense."
Godric tipped his head in agreement. He leaned down into Rosalyn's face. "When we went to New Orleans, did you throw Queen Sophie-Anne's gaudy necklace in her face on her doorstep?"
"What?" Rosalyn balked, confused. "No."
"Did you demand that she give you another sparkly necklace for Eric to wear so he could look pretty too?"
Dread bloomed in her cheeks. "No, Maker."
"No? Then trust me, young wife, when I tell you that under no circumstance do you ever, ever make an ancient look like a fool under his own roof, in front of his entire court following, for offering you one of his prized courtesans. Especially after he just finished threatening to steal you away in retribution for anyone else molesting said courtesans."
"You take the goddamned gifts and tribute you're given, Ros," Eric stressed. "With the biggest smile and curtsy you can manage. How many times do you have to be told?"
"That, my little newborn wife, is why you are on your knees. Not your backtalk, or your wandering hands, or your questions about my past. You are going to be disciplined for a bloodlusted offense against an ancient which endangered our family."
Rosalyn had nothing to say for herself. She didn't dare ask how he knew. She bit her lip and stared at the ground, ashamed. She hadn't been thinking clearly.
Godric heard the thought as clearly as if she had spoken it aloud. "Thank the gods you made this error here, in a private court, instead of in public where that wild blood of mine inside you would get us all killed."
"What can I do to make this right?" she asked.
Godric straightened. "Learn."
"Then teach me," she shot back.
"With pleasure." He paced a small circle around her, fully aware that she couldn't tear her eyes from his body. He secreted a glance at Eric, and Eric perked up in interest. "Tell me. How bad is your need right now?"
She squirmed and begged him with a pathetic look. "Terrible," she whispered.
"Then I have just one more question for you, young one. Why, in the name of the First Gods, did you not immediately go to Eric when you realized you were this bloodlusted?"
She appeared flustered, and turned to Eric for help. Godric felt his skin grow hot. That she only sought Eric out now that she was in trouble with him aggravated him greatly.
Eric gave her a cool, questioning look in return. She muttered something inaudible.
"I didn't catch that," Godric said.
She shrugged. "And that isn't an answer. Do better."
She made him wait, and the longer he waited, the more his agitation grew. "You don't know?" he finally asked. "Don't you trust that Eric would help you?" She shrugged again, unwilling or unable to explain. Eric's bond flared like a viper, and Godric felt offended on his behalf.
Grossly offended.
His patience snapped. He marched over, scooped Eric's chin into his palms, and kissed him hard. Eric grunted in surprise and lost his balance. His hands blindly found their way to Godric's thighs. Godric deepened the kiss with a growl, and Eric met it this time with a throaty moan, cupping his maker's shoulders. Godric pulled him to his feet. "What is so objectionable about your bonded?" he demanded to know.
"N…nothing," Rosalyn stuttered.
"You toy with him on the plane all the way here but refuse him when it matters most?"
"Maker -" Eric interjected, trying to explain.
"You take his blood, Rosalyn, but not the comfort of his flesh?" Godric accused. He ran a hand down the long plane of Eric's torso. "This flesh that he has sworn to protect you with? The flesh he put on the line for you this very night?"
"That's not -" Rosalyn replied.
"It is my flesh! My blood!" Godric barked. Unconsciously, his hands curled jealously over Eric. His instincts were howling.
"Maker," Eric tried more firmly.
Godric turned to him. "How she evaded my command to accept your care tonight is beyond me." His grip on his Eric tightened. Why he ever agreed to share him in the first place baffled him more.
"Ow," Eric winced. "Godric, I didn't -"
Godric silenced him with another demanding kiss. He grew lost in the taste of him, in the flavor of hard-driven snow and silent aspens and a thousand winters of adventure beneath the stars. His hands roamed, as hungry as his mouth. They spun together across the floor until they slammed against a wall.
"What is so hard about this?" Godric asked, panting. "Gods, it's obvious." It wasn't clear whom he was lecturing anymore. His hands stopped roving aimlessly and began tearing with determination at the zippers and buttons on Eric's clothes.
Eric submitted automatically. He lost his jacket without hesitation. Godric dragged him toward the bed. Only when his maker let go to unfasten his own pants and quickly kick out of them did Eric realize his intent.
"Are you…" Eric asked, stunned. "Now? Seriously?!"
Godric paused. He looked up, wild-eyed. "Does it get more serious than this?"
Eric sucked in a jagged breath, then narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "What are you not saying?"
Godric cast him a scorching look. "I'm more bloodlusted than the two of you put together." He shoved Eric roughly onto the mattress.
"Hel," Eric swore, bouncing down.
"Get out of that before I destroy it," he warned. Eric quickly shed his tactical undershirt. Pouncing over him, Godric roughly fisted his hair with another growl. Eric started to ask him something else and was silenced with a biting kiss. He swallowed it like a starving bird, hungrily keening upward to his maker for more.
Godric's kisses turned open-mouthed and frantic. He hunted down the valley of Eric's collarbone, over the swell of his dusky nipple, down the arches of his ribs. Eric moaned beneath him and grabbed desperately at the sheets. The sounds drove Godric crazy. He clutched Eric harder still, ravenous for the warrior's body, and swore he heard Eric tell him to tear him apart. He was about to give into the urge when, dimly, he realized he wasn't in control. None of them were. There was blood in the air. Anger. Battle.
And possession.
Gods above, he had completely underestimated his possessiveness over Eric. Rosalyn's resistance toward his firstborn had rattled something loose that he had neglected for far, far too long. His own hungers had come violently roaring back. So violent, in fact, that the realization shocked him. He had been a fool to fight himself. It wasn't helping anyone. The walls he kept around his mind came crashing down and Eric made a pained gasp to feel his maker broadcast his lust so loudly.
"Oh god," Rosalyn moaned behind him. Godric gave a guarded look over his shoulder at her, the Viking pinned jealousy beneath him. "Now you see something you like?"
"Please let me get up," she begged. She squirmed, desperate for friction between her legs.
Part of him wanted to leave her there to watch and suffer as she'd made Eric watch and suffer tonight. But he wasn't cruel. Not anymore. And Sebek was wrong about him, whatever he had meant by knives and stupid feathers.
"You may," Godric agreed. Rosalyn sprang to her feet and he immediately snapped at the bathroom door. "You wash every single inch of yourself twice before you bring another vampire's scent into this bed."
She froze. "I –"
"You reek of your guilt," he said in a dangerously low tone.
Eric pushed to his elbows and craned past Godric to see her. "How dare you play games with Sebek in front of me. I'm well within my rights as your bonded to thrash your backside. I still might. Inexcusable, Ros."
"You...you're jealous?" she stammered in shock.
"Jealous doesn't even begin to cover it. I was right there, woman! You were bloodlusted and you should have come to me right away."
"You're both covered in other people's scents!" she protested.
Eric rolled his eyes at the ceiling in total exasperation. "What if Sebek hadn't taken no for an answer? He would annihilate me if I challenged him for harassing you! You do know that, right?"
Rosalyn fell mute.
"And I would challenge him, Ros. I'd rather go to my grave tonight than show up in two hundred years with my tail tucked having failed to protect my sister. Fucking piece of shit Arun. He didn't even have the decency to die well!" he shouted at no one in particular. He flopped back down and buried his face in Godric's chest.
Rosalyn stared, dumbfounded by Eric's outburst. Godric stroked his child's cheek protectively and studied her confusion. She had misread Eric's anger over Arun's reappearance entirely. Eric wasn't upset about being duped. He was terrified. Terrified that he might make the same mistake with his own bloodsister. And he was devastated all over again that Sibyl was truly dead. There had once been great tenderness between the two. But that was for Eric to share, if and when he so chose.
"I don't survive not keeping you safe," Eric reminded Rosalyn, refusing to meet her gaze. He locked eyes with Godric. "None of us do. You played with our lives tonight."
Godric grunted in agreement. He did not give Rosalyn a chance to respond. "Shower. Now," he said. She spun on her heel at the command.
The bathroom door clicked shut, and Godric returned his focus to Eric. He stared at him for a long moment, then drew a contemplative finger over the veins in his chest. Eric shivered violently. "You haven't looked at me like this in two hundred years," he whispered in disbelief.
"I haven't felt the need to make my claim on you so painfully clear until now. Do you mind?"
"You want to use me to give Ros a taste of her own medicine," Eric supposed.
"Use you? Never," Godric growled forcefully. Eric was not a pawn to be played. He pinned the blond's wrists over his head and pressed his mouth to his throat. "This about you," he whispered roughly, "...and me." He ran a fang up his jugular and Eric groaned. "About what I need. What is mine."
"So I'm not in trouble."
Godric paused. "Did you want to be?"
"Gods yes," Eric exhaled beneath him.
"Mmm," Godric smiled against his skin. "Very well."
Without warning, he plunged a hand beneath Eric's waistband and into the crease of his thighs. Eric startled and scrabbled at the headboard. Godric could feel the throbbing ache of Eric's desire, feel how he wanted to beg for this intimacy with every fiber of his being. His pride and worshipful restraint had kept him from uttering a word. "Ask anything of me," Godric told him.
Eric struggled to put it into words. "Centuries…" he finally managed. A question. An accusation. Perhaps both.
Godric leaned back to see him clearly. "Eiríkr," he chastised. "I never stopped being all things to you." Companion, brother, father, lover, his blood whispered. Eric clenched his jaw. "I am with you, always. Have you forgotten?" Perhaps he had. Godric scraped his fingernails along the secret mark on Eric's inner thigh, and Eric swooned at the touch.
"Ask me," Godric demanded.
"My god, Goðí," he gasped. "Make me feel it. Make me remember." Hunt me. Take me.
Godric's control was on a knife's edge. He caged Eric between his biceps as he had their first night together. "I can still smell the sour mead on your breath. The wet furs you wore. The battlefield burning in the distance." His blood. The smell of Eric's human blood. The thought drove Godric mad, even now.
Eric licked his lips, tasting it. "You said it was glorious."
The savage smile Godric gave him then was one that only Eric knew. "I said you were glorious," he corrected, cupping his face. "You always are, my prince. Let me show you." His teeth found flesh and Eric's eyes rolled into the back of his head with a hungry cry. He drank deeply, recklessly, until they were both woozy with excitement. Thighs clenched against trembling thighs, and Godric joined their bodies in a sigh of relief.
"Ask me," he demanded once again, this time staring down at him imperiously.
Eric strained to form a coherent thought. He was in disbelief that his maker was letting him top - even if from the bottom. "This…this is an apology?"
Godric smirked and rocked his hips. "Yes."
"For?"
He pitched forward. "For all of it," he whispered hoarsely.
"Leaving me."
"Yes."
"Shutting me out for ages."
"That too." Godric built on his rhythm and Eric caught his hard length in his grip. They both gasped.
"How much trouble did you get into while you were gone just now?"
Godric smiled. "I was a very, very bad boy."
Eric groaned in pleasure and his eyes rolled back into his head. "Tell me."
"You tell me first. Is this how you plan on bedding my wife?" Eric's eyes snapped open. "If so, you had better up your game. I'm doing all the work here."
Eric's jaw dropped. "Oh you absolute freak. That's what you're after? A preview?" He half sat up and slipped a hand around Godric's waist. He hesitated, not entirely believing he was about to do what Godric seemed to want.
"You do know what you're doing, don't you?" Godric goaded.
Eric muttered a prayer and responded with a hard thrust. Godric threw his head back and laughed, which only made Eric more determined to impress. They fell into a forceful, rollicking rhythm.
"Say her name," Godric gasped.
"Rosalyn?"
"Say it!"
Eric did - in a long, impassioned moan - and it quickly finished them both.
~OOO~
They lay splayed out in the bedsheets, hair awry, thoroughly debauched. Pleasure hung sharp in the air. Eric's neck and torso were bitten up and smeared in blood. Godric stretched happily in the crook of his arm. Gratitude and peace flooded their bond.
After a long silence, Eric hummed in realization. "Husband," he murmured. He looked over to Godric for confirmation. "That's what set you off. Hearing her call me that."
Godric replied slowly. "More, I think, how you reacted to it." A sly grin broke across his mouth. "I should never have sent a child to do a man's job." It was his responsibility to comfort and care for Eric.
"My god," Eric laughed. "You're disgustingly jealous."
"It's pathetic, isn't it," Godric chuckled.
Eric curled around him. "Tell me," he whispered.
Godric flicked a stormy glance up at him beneath heavy brows. "I'm going to eat you both alive."
Eric shivered and pulled him closer. "Tell me more."
"I love you, Eric. Desperately. In every language I know." The admission caught Eric completely off guard. His eyes filled with crimson. Godric nuzzled him and kissed away the unshed tears. "We needed this. I'm sorry I didn't offer a long time ago." But offer he had. He almost never shared himself that way. Rarer still to allow Eric control. The effect on his progeny was debilitating.
Eric let out a strangled sound and, after a searching moment, nodded in agreement. In the bathroom, the shower faucet thunked off. Godric had given Rosalyn a mental pull to return. "Do you need me for whatever you've got planned for her?" he asked quietly.
Godric let out a sly smile. "I doubt you'd want to miss out."
"Do me a favor, then?" Eric said, playing it casual. "Don't wait for another full-scale blood feud to break out before you remember your conjugal duties to me. I did pledge to you first." He shot him a sharp look.
Godric quirked an eyebrow at his impertinence. "Lucky for you, there's always a blood feud boiling somewhere." He pounced on him and held him down. "I'll be sure to keep very much on top of my responsibilities, husband."
Eric collapsed onto his back, cackling in delight, and Godric attacked him with tickles and blunt-toothed bites.
Rosalyn found them wrestling in bed and breathless. "Join us," Godric told her, rolling aside. She stood awkwardly in her nightgown, unsure whether she was welcome.
"It's okay if -"
Godric was instantly at her side and the nightgown was across the room in tatters. He took her by the arms and crab-walked her toward the bed. She tried to cover her nakedness from Eric. Godric restrained her hands firmly behind her back. "He's seen every inch of you." He pushed her forward, breasts bouncing in the cool air. "He's about to see a lot more."
"What - " she began.
"Kneel," he ordered. Her knees automatically dropped onto the edge of the mattress. "Bloodlust wants only one thing," he warned. "Carnal delight. Of any kind."
"Yes, pleassse," she replied, pressing against him for contact. He yanked her head back by a scruff of hair and adjusted his hold on her until she squeaked.
"Delight from anything, Rosalyn. Anywhere. In the grips of it, you will do absolutely every last depraved thing to sate your senses. And then, you will do much, much more. Your immortal senses have no limits." He looked worriedly over Eric. The viking's skin was still mottled with bruises from his hands. Silently, he prayed he had taken enough of the edge off before handling his fragile newborn.
"Blood alone was not enough to quiet your mind, was it? You need flesh. Go to him," Godric instructed. She stiffened. "You resist fleshly pleasure, my dear girl. I think it is because of me. I've yielded to my needs. Now you must."
"What do you want from me?"
"Not what I want. What you want."
"But…" She resisted. "Eric's…all…sticky."
"Yield, Rosalyn," he commanded, his tone brooking no argument. Pulling her hair sharply, he put his lips to her ear. "What I have given you in Eric, I give as your bloodmaster." The effect the word had on her was a revelation. She slumped against him like a rag doll and writhed in need.
"Say it," Godric rasped.
"My…my Bloodmaster," she shivered, and Eric shuddered too. The promise of the power enshrined in that role and the effect it had on his progeny made Godric's whole body tingle. He was so hard he burned. He despised it. "You will not breathe that word in my presence again," he warned. "But you will know it, Rosalyn Murray. And you will know that I am yours. I rule the blood in this House. You will honor it. You will honor me. You will honor those in my line."
"How do I do that," she asked, trembling. Godric released her hair and gave her a shove. She landed on all fours over Eric.
"Firstly, you do not mark other vampires, young one. It is I who mark you. You are mine. When your hungers are beyond your control, you come to me or your bonded."
"Maker or me," Eric confirmed. "End of story."
"Not Pam?" she asked.
"Does her blood power this line?" Godric retorted. He landed a slap on her behind and Rosalyn arched into it. His dominance had her dripping between her knees. "What does your body tell you? You seek out the roots of your tree, not the leaf." He gave her a firm push and sent her sliding in the mess on Eric's skin until their noses were inches apart.
Eric caught her by the wrists, eyes shining. "Hello, beautiful."
Godric laughed to see his beautiful creations together. He gestured at her ankles. "Give me room to work." Eric locked his powerful ankles over her calves, effectively taking Rosalyn captive, and split her thighs wide open.
"Eric!" she exclaimed, sucking in a breath in shock.
"Do you feel trapped?" Godric asked. His voice had turned hollow and predatory.
"Yes," Rosalyn said.
"Does it feel wrong? Or right?"
She struggled to say. Eric was nosing and licking the sensitive skin behind her ear, making breathy noises.
"You're very excited," Godric observed. "I think you're scared you might like it." He circled his fingers around her ankle to remind her of his touch. "Accept Eric. Fully."
"I do," she protested.
"Then why - "
"He rejected me, Godric! He doesn't want me when I'm bloodlusted!"
"Baby girl," Eric cooed, loosening his grip on her. "I want you all the time." He ground his hardness into her hip to make his point, as if she had not noticed its considerable presence. "I just don't want to consummate our bond in bloodlust. I want you clear headed and all mine when we do; I'm greedy like that. But I'll help you always, silly woman. Just ask. There's a thousand ways I can think of."
"I know your hungers, Ros," Godric added. "They're mine. I gave them to you. Stop ignoring them. Stop resisting your bonded. Do you understand me? If I can do it, so can you." She let out a gasping acknowledgement, half in response to what Eric was doing with his hands. "I didn't hear you," he said testily.
"Yes," she confirmed.
"Yes what?"
"Yes, Pater," she whispered.
"Yes, Bloodmaster," he insisted in his ancient language, and their blood vibrated. He reached down and stroked her most sensitive place with a finger. Rosalyn cried out and curled into Eric. Eric's grip was unyielding, and she writhed helplessly in pleasure on top of him. Godric touched her in light, teasing strokes, drawing out delicious circles of agony along her slit. He touched her nowhere else.
"God, please," she begged, growing desperate.
"What do you need, kitten?" Eric asked.
"Faster. More."
Eric hummed. His steady touch on her limbs and his husky voice became confused with the source of the hot pleasure between her legs. Just as it was about to crest, it stopped. She howled in frustration.
"Did you need something?" Godric taunted from the end of bed.
"Finish!" she cried.
He grinned and did as she asked - all over her in hard spurting ropes stroked from his length. Then, not satisfied, he bit into his wrist and splashed his mark across her back. "I. Mark. You," he said, punctuating each word with a shake of his fist. "Do you understand me?"
"Yes, Maker," she breathed. "Pater," she quickly amended.
Bloodmaster, their magic blood throbbed.
Rosalyn groaned and managed to elbow Eric. "Let me up."
Godric blinked in agreement and Eric released her. No sooner had Rosalyn gotten a knee under herself, Godric jerked her ankle out from under her and made her collapse back on top of Eric. "We aren't done here. Not by half."
"Oh good lord," she muttered, looking down at the wet mess between her chest and Eric's.
"He marks us, baby girl. Taste it," Eric encouraged. She gave into the urge and Eric moaned lustily at the slide of her tongue through their maker's blood and come on his skin. He stole a kiss and ran a tongue over his bottom lip, relishing her depravity.
Godric began to touch her again, this time much more deeply. Her excitement was gushing now, and he stretched her in the most vulgar way with his hand. "I warned you. There isn't a shred of gentleman in me."
Rosalyn was inches from Eric's tempting mouth, and she began to pant unconsciously in anticipation. He leaned forward, as if to kiss her again, and her lips parted to receive him. "That can't be enough," he guessed. She gasped and shook her head. Godric was doing filthy things to her, opening her and leaving her unsatisfied. She wanted more, and ground back on his fist. "Shameless," Eric accused with delight. "Tell me."
"I…I need…." With her nose full of Eric's scent, and her head full of his voice, she was quickly losing track of where one mate ended and the other began.
"Who do you need, lover?"
"All of you," she admitted. Godric was ready, cock throbbing, and finally filled her to the hilt. Rosalyn fell forward and sighed loudly into Eric's collarbone.
"Mmm. You're wondering if that's how I will feel," Eric teased. "Whether I'll fill you like he does." Rosalyn buried her face into the skin beneath her. Eric did not relent. "How we'll both feel together..."
Godric's electrifying rhythm faltered at that thought and he landed another smack on her behind. "Say his name," he ordered. She did and Godric nearly fainted at the way she clenched around him. "Again," he said, more a plea than a demand.
"Eric," she cried out, right on the edge of bliss.
"I am part of you," Eric told her. He licked the curve of her ear. "I'm already inside you." At that, Rosalyn shredded the pillow beneath Eric's head. Feathers cascaded down on them in a dusting of white. She was about to lose control completely.
With a tug and a bounce, Godric hoisted Rosalyn upright in his arms facing Eric. Displaying her while he had her excited him beyond comprehension, and his thrusts and moans grew wild. He took her faster and harder than he'd ever dared. "You're his," he growled. "Tell him. Gods forgive me. Tell him." She did and Godric bit her throat and came so hard he saw stars. Rosalyn peaked hard along with him, filling the room with her scream.
"Look at me." Godric said when she was hardly ready for more. She had fallen boneless against him as he drank the last of the ebbing waves of her pleasure.
"What?" she slurred.
"Tongue or fingers," he repeated. She had not heard him ask the first time. He cupped her chin and forced her to meet his piercing green gaze. He stirred in her. "If I'm still this hard, you're still unacceptably bloodlusted. Now you're going to give me something very special. I want it, Rosalyn. Will you give it to me?"
She blinked innocently. "Anything, lover."
"Good," he hummed. "Let me feel the first real orgasm he gives you. This first one is mine especially. Milk me with it. So decide how you want it. Now."
Rosalyn was momentarily at a loss for words. She shrugged. "It doesn't matter," she finally managed.
He kissed her deeply, savoring her, then rocked his hips beneath her. "Watch me," he insisted. With their eyes locked, a touch from nowhere began circling her and teasing her folds, building her excitement into a fire.
"Do you like that?" Godric asked, his pupils swollen black in desire. She let out a small breathy sound and nodded. He kept her gaze fixed on him with a hand upon her cheek. "Eric is yours. Enjoy him. I do."
"Faster," she guided. The touch where their bodies met intensified and her body clenched down and threatened to crash apart. Godric shuddered, and the pleasure in Rosalyn's body couldn't be contained. It spread from her core through their blood and out of their mouths in a cry. Godric lost all pretense of civility and roared in release, savagely biting and pumping and sobbing all at once, chasing his ecstasy down into the marrow of her bones.
Blind with the pleasure of it, Eric toppled them over and began feeding in a frenzy from Rosalyn's thigh. He climbed over them, maw still dripping, and shoved a wrist into Rosalyn's mouth. She bit hard, eyes flashing pure animal need, and Eric collapsed into her arms. "Do you have any idea how bad we want to fuck inside you?" he gasped into her ear. He started to gather his knees beneath him and Godric quickly grabbed him before he did something stupid, like try to follow through with that particularly tantalizing thought. The fantasy had been banging around their heads pretty much from the outset. Twisting a hank of Eric's hair and flipping him onto his back, Godric forced Eric to submit. "Drink," he told Rosalyn, exposing Eric's throat.
"Don't be gentle, kitten," Eric whispered, eyes clamped shut.
"Go on," Godric encouraged. "He likes it rough."
Rosalyn seemed unsure how to fill the request, so she sunk her teeth into Eric's throat and gave it a snarling, cat-like shake. Eric came apart right then and there. She offered him her own wrist and they tangled together in a moan, drinking and pausing to kiss, and stopping for Godric's demanding kisses too. Rosalyn helped herself to the bounty between Eric's knees and brought him to release twice more, sweetening his blood with pleasure until she'd had her fill. They eventually fell into silence, drunkenly staring at each other.
"You seem to think you are done," Godric commented blandly.
"Oh!" Rosalyn snapped out of her daze. "Are you...not?"
"No."
Godric stretched his shoulders, popped his neck, and laid into both of them with a torrid heat that tested their limits. He only relented pleasuring them once the pull of the rising sun began to pull Rosalyn toward her day sleep. Leaving them spent and exhausted, he slid off the bed to admire his handiwork.
"You wrecked us," Rosalyn laughed sleepily. "I'm sorry I messed up tonight. Thank you for teaching me."
Godric barked in laughter and Eric closed his eyes, unsurprised by what was coming their way. "This? This was just to get your attention, my dear. Have I got it now?"
"What?" She blinked owlishly.
"You think I can't handle a couple of younglings?" Godric gestured at them, then himself. "The 'boy' before you has run orgies spanning empires that lasted months. You two ever try ganging up on me again, I will truly wreck you."
Rosalyn laughed nervously and gave a little salute at her brow. "Consider us warned, Godric."
Eric snorted. Lolling his head back towards her, he shot her a skeptical glance.
"What?" she asked defensively.
"You…are still in very big trouble with me." Certain she was watching, he sucked the full length of his middle fingers - the ones he'd used on her. "Mmm, mmm, mmm," he gloated, licking his lips. "One of these nights…"
"Eric!"
"Mmm, yes baby girl, say my name a little louder."
"Oh, you...Get...out..." She started swatting him. He laughed hilariously and sprang up from the bed.
"Go on," Godric scoffed at him. "Go watch over my grandbaby."
Eric scooped up a wad of rumpled clothes, not bothering to dress. "And Eric?" Godric said, stopping him.
"Maker?"
"Rest up. Tell Pam she needs to dress us to receive Princess Iset tomorrow."
The grin evaporated from Eric's face. "Are you fu- " Godric narrowed his eyes, squashing the retort from his mouth. "Yes, Maker," Eric said quickly, dipping his head in deference. He looked back to Rosalyn. "Sweet dreams. I'll see you there," he winked.
A/N: I'm back. xx, M