Chapter 6

Conn waved one last time to Ana and Chase as they drove away then turned and grabbed Caleb’s hand. “Come with me,” she said excitedly. When he didn’t budge at first tug, she added, “Please? It’s important.”

He let her lead him to the den, where the only light came from the dying flames in the fireplace. She stopped at the sofa and pushed him down then stepped back a couple of feet.

“Ana said that your brother’s wife, Rusty is a…skin-walker. That she can shift from human to animal form. Correct?”

“Yeah.” He wondered where the question was leading.

“So can I.”

“Huh?”

“Tell me an animal.”

Caleb wasn’t really sure he was ready to delve into something like this, but curious if she could really do it, he decided to play along. “Okay, let’s see. A grizzly.”

“Grizzly?”

“Bear.”

“Oh, yes. Ursus arctos horribilis, also known as the silvertip bear, a subspecies of the brown bear that—”

“Yeah, that one.” He interrupted, having learned that unless he did, he’d get an encyclopedic lesson on the animal.

She grinned at him. “Like this?”

Caleb blinked once, then again. Standing before him on hind legs, front legs pawing the air was a bear. A very big grizzly bear. Much as it shamed him, he actually shrank back into the cushions of the couch when the bear landed on all fours and lumbered over, sticking its face in his.

“Uh…I believe you,” he said, pulling his head back as far as possible from the big snout and mouthful of teeth.

“Shit!” His eyes slammed shut on their own as the bear’s face came closer. The feel of something on his face had him jumping, then his eyes flying open. Conn was leaning over him, her warm full lips working over the side of his face.

“Christ on a crutch, Conn!” He pulled her down on his lap. “How’d you do that?”

“I don’t know,” she said and repositioned so that she was straddling his lap. “I wish I did. Maybe I should let Ana try and perform the regression technique she mentioned.”

“Maybe,” he agreed. “But right now, is there anything else you can do besides invisibility, levitation and shapeshifting?”

She gave him a look sexy enough to have him almost bursting the seams of his jeans with the raging erection it inspired. “I can make you orgasm without intercourse.”

“Well hell honey you wiggle on me a couple more times and I’m gonna be damn close.”

“I mean by not touching you at all.”

“Now that I find hard to believe.”

“Want me to show you?”

Caleb wasn’t ready for that kind of sexual experience. He preferred to think of himself as a hands-on guy. “Actually, I’d rather we do it the old-fashioned way.”

Conn’s smile was immediate. “Some world class fuckin,’ ain’t that some fly shit?”

Caleb chuckled at her imitation of the song then sobered. “Conn, what we do—it’s not just fucking. Not for me anyway. I need you to know that.”

Her smile vanished and she jumped up and hurried from the room. Caleb was shocked and for a moment just sat there. What’d he do wrong? He got up and went in search of her, finding her standing out in the back yard, looking up at the sky through the limbs of the ancient Emory Oak.

“Conn?” He walked up behind her but didn’t touch her.

She turned to face him. “I’m sorry, Caleb.”

“Look if I said something wrong—”

“No. No. Caleb my most fervent wish is to be cared for, to know love and to be part of a real family. When you say our sex is more than a simple act of gratification it turns my mind to those things I wish for, and it frightens me because this may not the meaning your words convey.”

Caleb couldn’t stand the tremble in her voice, the raw emotional need that gleamed in her eyes. It opened a wound in his heart. He took hold of her shoulders. “Honey, you don’t have to be afraid. Conn, I know it doesn’t make sense for shinola. I don’t even know who you really are, but that hasn’t stopped me from falling in love with you.”

The astonishment in her eyes shocked him. How could she not have known that he was a goner for her?

“You…love me?”

“I sure do.”

“Oh, Caleb,” she whispered with tears suddenly springing from her eyes. “I love you.”

“Then why the tears?”

“Because I have not been honest with you.”

Caleb felt something equivalent to a lead weigh suddenly appear in his gut. “What do you mean?”

“When we met. I told you that my name is Raenee Thotthoft?”

“Yeah.”

“That is not true. It is only what I was able to spell using the letters assigned to me by Shen.”

“That’s about as clear as mud.”

She sighed and looked down. “Shen never called me an actual name. He always referred to me as “Not of the Earth.”

Caleb was glad she wasn’t looking at him because at the moment he was a little at a loss for words. If the man who’d raised her had called her such a thing, what exactly did it mean? She was an alien?

He had a hard time buying into that. Even being part of a family that included several witches and a shapeshifter.

She looked up at him and he hoped she didn’t see the doubt in his eyes. But Conn saw too much.

“You think I am being dishonest.”

“No, baby, I don’t. I don’t doubt for a second that Shen called you that. But that you might be an alien? I admit, I have some trouble with that.”

“As do I,” she replied. “Caleb, I do not know where I’m from, but it’s clear that the abilities I possess are not typical human capabilities. And the idea that perhaps I am not native to this world might explain why your government is so set upon finding and imprisoning me.”

A sudden sick feeling took hold of Caleb. “They performed tests on you, didn’t they? Blood tests and things like that?”

“Yes.”

“Shit on a stick.”

“You’re upset with me.”

“No.” He took her hand. “Conn, honey, it doesn’t matter to me where you came from. Pittsburgh or Pluto. I love you. But we really need to find out what the government has on you.”

“How?”

“I wish I knew.”

She moved in to wrap her arms around his waist, resting the side of her face on his chest. He hugged her close and for a long time neither of them spoke or moved. When she pulled back and looked up at him, her violet eyes were swimming with light.

“Have a condom handy, cowboy?” She asked in a flawless accent.

Caleb grinned at her. “Well seeing as how we don’t need them anymore, why don’t we take this inside and—”

She didn’t wait for him to finish. He laughed as she headed for the house. He closed in on her and swept her off her feet and into his arms. “I want you so much,” she whispered before her lips locked on his.

The kiss stopped him dead in his tracks. She squirmed and wiggled in his arms, getting herself wound around him so that her arms circled his neck, and her legs were tightened around his waist. And all the while her tongue warred with his for dominance, her exotic taste more of an aphrodisiac than he’d ever tasted.

“Fuck!” He grumbled into her mouth as he stumbled, trying to navigate his way to the back steps.

Conn laughed and released him from the kiss, focusing her attention on his neck and ear.

Caleb hurried up the steps and into the house. To hell with going upstairs to the bedroom. He carried her into the den, stopping in front of the fireplace. She unwound her legs from his waist and slid down his body, her hands moving behind him to grab his ass.

He wound one hand in her long hair and pulled her to him for another searing kiss. She purred in her throat when he unfastened her jeans and peeled them down her thighs, one hand moving between her legs to stroke her slick sex.

The sound of hunger that came from her and the way she moved against his questing fingers had him as randy as a young stud during a first mating. She looked up at him as his lips abandoned hers.

“Tonight, you’re all mine,” he said. He’d waited long enough to have all of her and tonight he fully intended to have his fill.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she agreed in a voice rough with desire.

“Then shuck those clothes, darling’.”

“After you sugah,” she drawled and toed one boot off, kicking it aside.

It didn’t take either of them long. In seconds their clothing was strewn across the floor, and he was reaching for her, winding one hand in her hair to pull her head back. Two hours and multiple orgasms later, Caleb rolled over onto his side, taking her with him. “Darlin, you’re gonna do me in and I’m not ready for it to be over. What say we take advantage of that hot tub on the porch?”

Conn grinned at him. “I love your hot tub.”

“Yeah, I know you do,” he said as he untangled from her and got to his feet, pulling her with him.

Naked and giggling they ran outside. The night air was cool on her damp skin. She lifted her hair, feeling the whisper of air on her neck as Caleb started the jets in the tub.

He’d no sooner stepped into the water than she was on her knees in front of him, taking his erection into her mouth.

“Slow. Down.” He gently pushed her back and sank down into the water. Damn if the woman couldn’t call up a climax in him faster than a snake striking.

“I like the way you taste,” she said and submerged. A moment later he felt her mouth on him. And it felt good. He leaned back and closed his eyes, abandoning himself to the sensations.

A climax began to build. At the exact moment, another thought intruded. She’d been under water an awfully long time. Caleb took hold of her shoulders and lifted her up.

Conn’s hands replaced her mouth. “Damn woman, you part fish?”

“What do you mean?”

“You were under water a good long while.”

“Another hidden talent?” she asked with a sexy smile, stoking him a little faster.

“Well, you’re sure full of ‘em,” he said around a groan as the climax suddenly spiked hot and fast, so strong that he didn’t think he had the will to control it.

But she did. “Not yet,” she whispered. “I want you to resist the need as long as you can. Until the hunger tears so hard at you that you have no strength to resist. Let me show you pleasure beyond anything you’ve known, Caleb.”

“I’m all yours,” he replied. How sexy and unusual it was to have a woman talk to him in such a manner, control the action without really exerting control other than a few huskily spoken words that promised of passion and satisfaction.

“Sit up on the next step,” she urged and added when he raised his eyebrows in question, “I don’t want you to fear I might drown and ruin the experience.”

Caleb slid up a step and leaned back, the motion lifting his groin up enough that his erection stabbed up out of the water. The cool night air whispered on his wet skin, bringing a slight shiver. But when Conn’s mouth closed on the head of his penis, a spike of heat shot through him hot enough to dispel any sensations of cool.

He couldn’t resist fisting her long hair and driving his dick deeper into her warm wet mouth. Her nimble fingers played with his balls, working around and behind them to circle and tease his anus.

Her mouth and hands played him as expertly as any musician upon their instrument of mastery. His hands tightened in her hair. Much more and he wouldn’t be able to hold on. She already had him teetering on the edge.

“Darlin’, please.” His voice came out in a constricted growl as he fought against the rising tide that threatened to send him tumbling into freefall.

She raised her head, slithered up his body and claimed his mouth in a kiss that was almost as powerful as the sensations she’d given when she had her mouth on his penis. He could taste himself on her, that slight tang of pre-cum. Oddly, combined with her exotic taste it was intoxicating.

When she released him from the kiss, she sank back down with a sexy grin and started again. Caleb lost track of the number of times she took him to the brink then pulled him back. His body was taunt, need vibrating through him like the current from an electrical tower.

“Conn, honey,” he moaned. “Darlin, I can’t…“

Her answer to his unfinished plea was to suck harder. And faster. And all the while that unusual purr accompanied the sound of water slapping against the sides of the tub and the bubbles from the jets breaking the surface of the water.

Caleb moved his arms out to his sides, gripping the edge of the tub as his body tightened and arched. Held captive in the wet warmth of her mouth with her fingers fondling and teasing his balls and ass, he was too far gone to hold on.

He plummeted. Sudden and powerful and overwhelming. Reality faded. There was only sensation and in that feeling was Conn. Right there with him. She was part of the orgasm. He could feel her with him. It was amazing. It carried him higher and further than he thought possible and to a place where nothing else existed. And then further.

Lights exploded in his mind, colors dancing and swirling. He couldn’t identify or understand it. He didn’t want to. She was with him. And they were locked in a cosmic dance of pleasure and oneness that he never wanted to leave.

Conn felt him surrender and followed, keeping her mind close to his as he soared through the realm of sensation. Though a novice to this level of sensation, he showed no fear, but embraced the experience, giving himself to it and to her.

Something hot and driving seized her. Something she’d never experienced. Something calling to a primal part of her she’d never known existed. She couldn’t fight it. Didn’t want to. It was elemental to who and what she was.

Slowly she rose on her knees, her hands moving from his still pulsing erection to trace up his body. She pressed against him, running her tongue over the hollow of his throat and up the side of his neck.

His pulse pounded fast and hard beneath the surface. She could feel it as her own, hearing the singing of the blood in his veins. That blood called to her in a voice that was both foreign and familiar.

Wrapping one hand around his erection, she climbed atop him, guiding him to her wet sex.

He groaned and surged to full erection at the touch, and she slid fully onto him, rocking back and forth to create a friction that was as sublime to her as it was to him.

Her mouth opened against the side of his neck, her tongue tracing over the racing pulse point.

“Conn,” he whispered, his arms moving to grip her hips and pulled her more firmly onto him.

The sound of her name on his lips robbed her of all reason. Coherent thought fled. In its place was only need. She tried to push away, suddenly afraid. But the call was too strong. Her sense of self fled, and she was taken by a force she did not know how to battle.

Caleb sensed a change in her a split second before he was taken spiraling into an even higher sphere of sensation. He sensed fear. Then need. Need so strong that it nearly robbed him of breath.

He tried to speak, to call her name, to hold her tighter and drive deeper inside her. He wanted to give her as much as she’d given him. But before he could do more than register the through, something took him.

And there was no more thought.

Conn came back to reality before Caleb opened his eyes. She pushed back from him, breathing hard. And that’s when she saw it. Blood. On his neck.

Fear took hold of her with sickening force. Her throat seized, cutting off her air. Her hands trembled as she cupped them and lifted water to his neck, washing away the smeared blood.

What she saw had her gut twisting. There were puncture wounds on his neck. Well, there were for a moment. But they were already closing. Within moments the wounds had sealed.

Unconsciously her tongue ran over her teeth. The feel of sharp, rather elongated incisors had her eyes widening in shock.

She reached out to run her fingers over his neck. That’s when he opened his eyes. The smile he gave her turned into a look of concern. He straightened, grabbing her by the arms. “Conn? Honey, what happened?”

“What do you mean?” Her heart felt like it was trying to lurch out of her chest at the question.

“There’s…” He reached up and ran two fingers over her chin then raised them in front of his face to look at them. “Honey, this is blood.”

Conn wanted to vanish. To be sucked into a tornado and be carried away. How could the most potent sexual experience in either of their lives be so destroyed? That completeness and love she’d felt inside that sphere of complete pleasure and oneness was not what either of them had imagined. How could she tell him that she might have discovered the answer to not who she was, but what?

How could she tell the man she loved that she feared she was a vampire?

“Caleb…I…” She couldn’t find words. “I…bit you.”

His eyes widened then narrowed. “You bit me?”

She nodded. “On the neck.”

His hand moved to his neck. One side, then the other. “There’s nothing there, Conn. Maybe you bit your lip, honey.”

She shook her head. “I saw it, Caleb. I saw the marks. They were right there on the left side of your neck. And they just…closed up and vanished. I think…” Her eyes filled with tears and a look of anguish came on her face. “…I think I’m a vampire.”

If anyone had told Caleb that he’d be following the most incredible sexual experience of his life with the woman he loved saying she was a vampire, he’d have laughed and asked what they’d been smoking.

Nothing could have prepared him for this.

“Conn, that’s—crazy. There’s no such thing as vampires.”

“Then how do you explain this?” She bared her teeth at him.

“What?”

“These!” She tapped on her incisors and gasped in surprise, running her finger over them. They were normal.

“Caleb, I swear to you that a few moments ago I had elongated incisors. Just like the images of fictitious vampires. And I bit you. I do not remember doing so, but I did see the evidence of it. There were two small puncture wounds. And blood on your neck. “

“Honey, I don’t know what to say to you. Maybe you just imagined it or—”

“Caleb, I am scared.”

Being this kind of afraid was new for Conn. She’d always known there were things outside herself that deserved respect and even fear. But to fear who you are was something she’d never considered. Shen had called her Not of the Earth. She’d often wondered about it, and even considered that perhaps she wasn’t native to Earth. That she could accept. But the idea that she might be some evil creature like was written about in mythology, a creature who lived off the lifeblood of others? That was more horrifying than anything she could imagine.

Caleb sank down into the water and held her trembling against him. “Conn, listen. Let’s say you did bite me. And the bite miraculously healed. That doesn’t mean you’re a vampire. Think about it. In all the myths and legends, vampires exist solely on blood. They sure don’t get green around the gills at the idea of eating meat. And they don’t wolf down a quart of potato salad for a snack.”

“But the marks—”

“Like I said, maybe it happened. I’m not saying it didn’t. It’s a sure bet that something happened because you took me somewhere I’ve never been before and that’s no joke. But still, a vampire? Honey you go out in the sun all the time. Vampires aren’t supposed to be able to do that. Sunlight destroys them. I just don’t think it fits, Conn. Besides, do you remember biting me?”

She thought about it. “No. I just remember being filled with…need. And a little afraid. Then that disappeared and we were together and floating in a sea of sensation and love and nothing else mattered.”

“I felt that, too,” he said. “And I did feel something else for a split second, but I can’t explain it. Something just…took me. And the next thing I knew you were with me, and we were in that place, and I didn’t want to leave.”

“But I know it happened, Caleb.”

“Okay, so let’s see if we can make it happen again.”

“What?”

“Well obviously it was brought on by sexual arousal, so let’s see if we can make it happen again. Only this time if you feel it, try and control it.”

Conn wasn’t certain that was the answer, but she didn’t have a better plan, so she nodded and started to lower her face to his groin. He stopped her.

“Only this time, it’s my turn.

“I’m all yours,” she agreed and wondered if he knew just how true that was. For she was certain. What had happened might be frightening, but it had connected her to him in a way deeper than anything she could have imagined. Whether she wanted it or not, she knew to the core of her soul that she was forever bound to him.