Bliss (The Custos) Read online

  I hated that when I walked down the stairs to see my boys, they would think I looked great but they wouldn’t appreciate it, not the way they should and that was by knowing my labels, they would only think I wanted the compliment and I was getting damn near desperate for a girlfriend. Sighing I hoped they would learn one day, they were going have to learn how important a good dress was or they were going really hate eternity with me.

  After myself absorbed ritual that dressing in good clothes always did to me, I flipped the light off on my way down the stairs. I had come a long way from a few months back when I would have walked in the room and expected compliments and to be treated like a Goddess just because I deserved something to be about me, anything to be about me. Knowing I was that shallow kind of made me sick, though I don’t know if I was really shallow or just angry and alone? Sure I was still a little conceited but it was more a confidence now when before it had been self centered spoiled brat ranting and raving looking to piss people off. I wondered if Cash and Preacher knew how much they had already saved me, even if it was from me.

  I saw them sitting at the table and like usual they were both beautiful. Cash stole my breath no matter what he wore but tonight he devastated me. He wore his usual, faded distressed blue jeans and a black T shirt, short sleeved and showing off his muscles....and his tat's which I had become very very… very fond of and he knew it. Big black steel toe boots completed his outfit the way shoes were meant to and my Vampire looked deadly and breathtaking and pulled it off without a stitch of effort. His hair the same as always, jet black and his hawk standing strait. The tattoo scroll work on both sides of his skull contrasted perfectly with his dark brows and lashes and the cobalt blue of his eyes made me catch my breath.

  "Nothing says dinner like a piping hot cup of blood." It killed me how these two always drank from coffee mugs. Preacher seemed like the type to drink his 'port' from a cognac snifter, and Cash.... a beer mug or a shot glass. It was just how they rolled in my mind.

  However like usual Preacher had his prized stolen mug from Denny’s and Cash with his 'I'm with stupid' mug, I had to laugh.

  "Actually Princess." Cash said as he stood and walked over to where I sat at the table. Kissing me he set the cup in front of me. "This is for you tonight."

  That had me looking at him despite how badly I wanted to bask in that kiss. "What do you mean?" My heart suddenly hammering in my chest I had to wonder had to ask. "Oh my God are you turning me tonight?"

  "Bloody hell." Preacher said and lifted his mug to his lips.

  Scowling at him I mocked. "Bloody hell."

  "No Princess, it's my blood and you need it tonight."

  "Why? I thought I had enough when Jack and Ripper....got me." I swallowed my stomach just thinking about them.

  "Sure enough to keep you from our effects." Cash said pointing at Preacher and himself. "But your used to us now and don’t need it. However tonight we are going to a bar that is almost one hundred percent Vampire. The effects would be over whelming unless you fed from me regularly and I am not risking you getting infatuated into a meal."

  God sometimes he was so blunt. "Charming Baby."

  Preacher and Cash laughed when I lifted the mug to my lips. I don’t really remember drinking Cash's blood, considering my own blood loss had made me pass out, I couldn’t help be a little grossed out. "Just pound it down Princess; you won’t hate it I promise." Cash said but I couldn’t help but be skeptical.

  I plugged my nose and lifted the mug while Preacher and Cash watched intent on seeing me swallow, Cash looked positively antsy. It was like those parents of three year olds who make their kid open there mouth after every bite to make sure they weren’t hiding the food. Fast and I'm done I told myself and brought the mug to my lips. But I was not prepared.

  It was sensory overload, every nerve in my body shot to life and my eye sight became sharp as an owl, and everything smelled so much stronger, Cash in particular was overwhelming, in the best way possible. Taking the last swallow of what tasted like ambrosia I looked at Cash. "Not what I expected, but...." I paused, my body suddenly desperate to get Cash alone, I needed to be with him, have him deep inside of me. I looked at him, no chance of hiding the erotic glint in my eyes. "Can I talk to you?" My voice was husky and filled with things I couldn’t describe.

  Preacher laughed and stood from the table. "I'll be outside but make it fast."

  I had no intention of waiting, the second Preacher was out the door I turned to sit on the table, spreading my legs I ran my hands on the inside of my thighs, up over my ribcage until I was cupping my breasts. The heat inside of me had me wet, so wet I feared I may have to change. Whatever was in his blood had me dying for his cock.

  Cash smiled and walked towards me, his swagger so proud and sure of what he was about to do to me. "What do you need Princess?" He asked voice as thick with need as my own.

  I leaned back on my elbows, arching my back in shear anticipation of his touch. "You fucking me like...now."

  He stopped and closed his eyes, his jaw locked. “Princess, when you say shit like that I'm bound to lose it."

  "Then get your cock out of those jeans and inside of me." I reached for the belt on my jeans and undid myself, pulling my jeans down enough for him to crawl under my legs. I needed a quickie and taking off my jeans and boots would take way too much time. As if he read my mind he slid under my legs and came up like a snake about to strike, now cradled between my thighs.

  "Touch your clit Princess. Are you wet?" He asked as he worked furiously at his belt to free his cock. Before I could answer he slid his knuckles through my slit and hissed. "Damn, you’re burning alive."

  "Please." I squealed then moaned as I felt his cock press into me.

  "So tight...." He moaned before he started stroking me, inside out. Knuckles on my clit and cock buried deep I lay back on the table and let him fuck me.

  Each slide of his cock had me gasping for air, making him moan and switch from knuckles to thumb so he could work my clit faster. "Harder Cash, please…fuck me." I cried needing so much more than he was giving me.

  He left my clit to press my thighs open further, then pulled me to the edge of the table. "Hold the edge Princess." He said and I did, and … released all his power in one furious stroke.

  He went at me, his hips like steel pistons he fucked me with absolute reckless abandon, never understanding that term before when I had read it in cheesy romance novels. I understood now. "Kiss me Cash...." I breathed. He palmed the back of my neck while his other hand gripped my hip holding me against him as he fucked, and fucked, and fucked. "You taste amazing, my blood and you combined.” He licked his lips, “Makes me want to come now."

  "Me first." I said not caring that I was greedy. He just laughed and fucked me harder. "Always you first Princess."

  We stayed like that, close with his hand against my neck and I gripping his shoulders wishing I could see his chest and the smoking cross tattoo but quickies had to be quickies and if he took his shirt off, I would be forced to make it last for the pleasure of just looking at him between my legs. "Better hurry then Princess because I'm about to blow, with or without you."

  "Thumb my clit again." Almost the instant he touched my turgid clit I came apart crying out and rocking as best I could towards the sensation of what he was doing to me.

  "God yes Princess, the way you grip my cock when you come, makes me want to fuck you and send you reeling again and again." He moved his finger from my clit before using his free hand to pull me closer. "Hang on to me tight I’m losing my mind here."

  I held on to his shoulders while he gripped my hips and slammed into me, the pain of it making me cry out but the pleasure so much more powerful each cry died out as a gasp. He lifted me from the table and held me against him when he came, his fangs fully exposed he clenched his jaw and growled as he filled me with all he could. Finally stilled he lay me back against the table and slid from my dripping pussy. "God I love that I marked you and fed
you before I parade you as mine at an almost strictly Vampire bar." He dropped his head against my collar bone and laughed. "Fucking love that Princess." Tucking himself back in his jeans, I fought to catch my breath while he only laughed at the flush in my cheeks and the gasps I was making.

  "I'll miss that most I think." He said as he took a towel from the kitchen drawer and ran it under the faucet.

  "What?" I asked turning my head to look at him.

  He was back between my thighs and cleaning me. "Watching you flush the deepest pink after I've ravaged you and the way you gulp in air after you come."

  I stood now pulling my pants up and walking into the half bathroom by the back door to make sure I looked fresh and polished rather than freshly fucked. Applying new lips was a must because he had ravaged my mouth. I hated that I was bothered by his comment. "Will you still want me? When I'm not warm and all breathy?" My voice sounded scared, of his answer. The thought of him one day not wanting me made me ache so deeply.

  He came at me so fast; my eyes couldn’t follow his movements. "Nothing could make me not want you Princess; you would be amazed how much more I will demand from you."

  "What do you mean?"

  Grasping me by the neck he ran his thumb over the vein in my neck before pulling me closer. "When I feed from you, it will be just like what you just felt, only I won’t need to hold back in fear of killing you."

  That completely shocked me. "You'll be able to feed off me?"

  He moaned, "Yes. It won’t be for sustenance but absolutely for pleasure." He leaned in and kissed along my vein making my body quiver.

  "I didn’t know you were fucking me with restrained strength."

  "Have to." He said in a matter of fact tone before taking my hand and guiding me towards the kitchen where there were no signs of the assault he gave me on that table. "If you knew my true strength I would have broken every bone in your body that night against the wall."

  I recalled that night with a nervous clarity it was so dirty. He actually cracked a beam in the wall that we had to get fixed, let alone the next day I had bruises on my shoulder blades and lower back but I was so not complaining. "Wow, I kind of can’t wait to see that." I said with a smile.

  "You are such a freak." He said laughing as he locked up the door.

  Preacher, patient as a Saint sat waiting by the car with a joint in hand. "I'll give you an oral play by play while I fuck you when we get home. I may not be able to go crazy physically but I'll bring you down with words alone."

  I could not wait to get back home.

  *

  Chapter Seventeen

  London

  Doubt was not what I expected, in fact I way over estimated my surroundings. The place was what people thought of when referring to heaven. I so got the name now. The walls were stark white in contrast to the blue bulb lights that dangled above each table. Silver bar style tables lined a dominating dance floor that appeared to be glass, white and blue lights trying to beat their way through to the crowed. The ceiling was painted in the Vampires version of the last super, with a woman, naked and spread out on a table before six men stood above her, each looking at her fangs bared waiting to feed. It was haunting to say the least.

  The drinks flowed easy and Cash, Preacher and I sat and listened to Vampires and very few humans got up and sang all songs that depressed the hell out of me. "Why are they singing such depressing music?" I asked Cash quietly while the waitress sat our drinks on the table. After all he was the one who could read their thoughts. Preacher had taken the liberty to order me a glass of my favorite chardonnay.

  "Vampires are very symbolic; the songs they choose usually let you know a lot about them. Men who sing about love are usually looking for it, those who sing about war are looking for it and those who sing about anger are usually the bull’s-eye for a fight."

  "So I won’t be hearing any 'You are my sunshine' tonight. Got it." I said jokingly and Cash and Preacher laughed.

  "Are you going to sing?" I asked Cash.

  "Absolutely not Princess. There are some things best left to the imagination and my singing voice is one of them."

  I looked at Preacher. "What about you?"

  "Of course Cookie, the Irish love to sing." His accent was super thick and I knew he had enjoyed a good high tonight. He was always more candid and dark when he got real high like tonight and I hoped he chose a song that wouldn’t make me cry. I thought about the song he was singing as he danced up the hill of the park. Would he sing about Emigen, or his children? Maybe it was about his need to kill Angelo?

  "Tonight we want to pay attention to anyone singing about drugs. It would be almost subliminal to humans if any Vampires are here pushing Bliss." Cash leaned in and spoke just above a whisper so only Preacher and I heard. Only Preacher heard him and he had to speak into my ear so I could. Vampire hearing would be very helpful in a place like this but I had Preacher and Cash listening intently on a number of conversations tonight, all at once. They were good multi taskers.

  I was on my third glass of chardonnay when an enormous man with long spiky white hair spoke, "It's a special night tonight. We have the infamous Preacher up next."

  The place went completely silent as the blonde Vampire spoke, all eyes falling on our table. I wondered if Preacher was uncomfortable by being directly called out as infamous but he seemed to be just that. A reverence took over the bar, no more talking, no clink clink of glass. The place had gone stone still and I watched as people regarded Preacher the way one would regard the Unabomber, with total fear and shear curiosity on what made him tick and what made him kill. It was a truly righteous moment and I looked to Cash who was the only one not affected the same way.

  He held a look of sadness, he knew something I didn’t and I hated that about him and Preacher. they had secrets between one another that I would never know. "What's going on Cash?"

  "He's respected as strongly as he is feared, and he is infamous. Vampires from all over the world have confessed in Preacher before asking to end their ....un-life." Cash didn’t even know what I was asking, I knew who and what Preacher was. What I didn’t know was why all of the sudden my Vampire looked broken hearted for his best friend.

  "No Cash, I mean what's going on with you. You look worried for him." I said the words gently, chosen as to not make him feel like I demanded he break his silence.

  "Because I know what he will sing, I know what he means by it and I know what it will do to him Princess and I can’t help but feel a little sad about it." He held my hand as he spoke but before I could ask what the faint strumming of an old John Lennon ballad started.

  Cash must have picked up on my emotions the second I realized he was singing the same song as the night in the park and knowing what it meant. He looked at me, his eyes full of all his love for me and I knew at that moment how thankful we both were to have found one another. "Come here Princess." He said and slid back in his chair. "Let your Vampire hold you."

  I moved to his lap as Preacher began singing and in that moment it wasn’t a Vampire I saw. The way the light shined from behind him, his curly blonde hair against the pale white of the walls he looked like an angel. With each verse of the song he bore his soul, this was Preachers release. So many others, including Cash and I had come to him and burdened him with our fears and sadness never once wondering how he released his. Until now, Preacher sang as if his heart were breaking over and over again.

  Cash's arms tightened around me and I leaned back resting against his shoulder. Tears sprang from my eyes when he sang with such great sadness a verse I'll now never forget.

  Poor Preacher.

  The entire bar seemed to give him his dues because the only sound was his fingers strumming the acoustic and his heart singing out for his pain. I would remember everything in this moment for the rest of eternity. The blue light flashing against his Cladag ring, the white of the button down shirt he wore and the deep black of the guitar in his hand.

  "He's so beautiful Cash.
" I said not asking for a response.

  "I know Princess. This is his redemption and that will never change." The song ended but Cash's words rang through my ears.

  "What is your redemption?" I used a drink napkin to dry the tears from my eyes not wanting to make Preacher uncomfortable when he came back to the table. He was stopping every few feet as people paid him respect with 'good job' and 'that was beautiful'. I knew Preacher and he hated every minute of it.

  Cash stayed quiet not answering me immediately, but when I looked at him his stare swallowed me. "You are Princess. Every day that I love you I forgive myself for the pain I caused my wife and son."

  My Vampires were determined to make me cry tonight I knew it. Standing I bent and kissed him, slow and sweet, a thank you for being you kiss. "I'll be right back, I need to freshen up."