Riding the Storm (21 page)

“I can’t say,” Sophia said, almost as an apology.

“No, but I can,” Jonathan said, almost as if he was asking
permission of Sophia.

She breathed out, looked through the window, and said, “I
need to go make a phone call. If you’ll excuse me a moment?”

Eric and Ranger looked to Jonathan, who said, “I was present
when Abbott told them what she’d done. Aaron told Sophia not to tell anyone,
but he didn’t tell me not to. Neither of you are a security risk, and you both
have a right to know, so…” He shrugged and continued. “She ripped the arms and
legs from every vampire she came across on her way to Eric. The vampires
responsible for his worst treatment, Kendra reattached the arms long enough for
the nerves to connect, and then she cut the fingers off and stuck them up the
offender’s ass. She did the same with the legs so she could cut the toes off.
She also removed eyelids, tongue, teeth, ears… all up his or her ass. She
ripped nipples off, cocks, balls, and then went back and cut the aureola.
Instead of shaving them, she removed the entire scalp — that didn’t go up
their ass. Too big. She skinned their torso, pulled the sternum apart with them
still conscious, and reached in to squeeze their heart as she watched the life
go out of their eyes. She removed the heart, turned it to pulp, and then did a
few other things to make sure they’d never regenerate. Make sure they were true
dead. Some, she also cut their stomach open, wrapped their intestines around
their neck.”

Jonathan gave them a few seconds to speak, and when they
didn’t, he continued. “The worst of the werewolves got similar treatment, but
in a way she could keep them alive as long as possible, so their legs and arms
weren’t removed until close to the end. They still ended up with body parts up
their ass, and were killed by her hand reaching into their chest and squeezing
their heart.”

He shook his head, paused as if figuring out how to word it,
and finally said, “For a certain segment of those involved in your torture, she
ripped their cock off, crammed it down their throat, and then ripped their
heads off before doing the things necessary to be sure vampire and shapeshifter
can’t come back to life. The ones involved but who weren’t cruel, she offered a
quick and painless death if they’d answer her questions honestly. I’m told
every person she gave this offer to answered every question she asked.”

Jonathan glanced at Ranger, looked back to Eric. “I can
smell your horror. You don’t think they deserved what she did to them? I’m
telling you that in our world, what she did was perfect. She did more to
protect you last night than…” He shook his head, a pensive look on his face.
“What she did last night was the equivalent of wiping out a branch of the U.S.
Government. There’s an interspecies supernatural council, with enough power to
easily take out Master Vampires, even one as strong as The Abbott. The Media
Council is a branch of them, and Kendra didn’t have a legal leg to stand on for
her actions, and yet she did it anyway, using a method so they’d know which
body parts were cut off first, how long the process took, and how much pain the
people felt in the hours before they died. Abbott gave her permission, which
means he has a strategy to get her out of it, but I have a feeling she’d have
done something similar even without his permission. People are afraid of The
Abbott, in large part because Kendra has been responsible for making an example
of his enemies.”

Ranger sighed. “I was prepared to give her a piece of my
mind for putting him in danger, but hearing what she did? Now I want to shake
her hand.”

Eric wanted to throw up. “Because now you’re afraid of her,
too? God, she’s a fucking
monster
.”

“No, Eric,” Ranger said, his face serious. “Not because I’m
afraid of her, but because I respect her, and I’m grateful she made an example
of the people who hurt and humiliated you.”

“How do you know they humiliated me?” Eric asked, his voice
quiet, his words precise. He hadn’t told anyone what happened, only Kendra had
seen into his head, and he’d trusted her not to talk about it.

“Because it’s pretty much a standard torture and training
technique,” Ranger told him.

“Yeah,” Jonathan agreed. “I’ve had worse done to me, and I’m
sure Kendra and Abbott have, probably many times. I’ve also been trained in how
to do it to others, and have done it more times than I’d like to admit. I don’t
know exactly what they did, but I have a decent idea of why you have puncture
marks and bruising. I’m just glad those present were too afraid of the
consequences if they permanently altered you in any way. This means you’ll heal
physically. Whether you heal mentally? Up to you, but you’re strong willed, so
I have hopes you get past it.”

Eric leaned forward his head in his hands. “Ranger, you were
against me dating a vampire. I get it now — how dangerous your world is.”

“Yeah, it is, but Aaron has now made it known you belong to
him through me, and his involvement in last night’s op speaks volumes to how
far he’ll go to see to your protection. There’s no guarantee someone else won’t
use you as a pawn, but with what Kendra did last night, in spite of the danger
she’s put herself in with the Interspecies Council? I don’t see anyone coming
near you again, Eric.”

“She’s awake and in the shower,” Jonathan told him. “She
can’t come up here until the sun goes down, you’ll need to go to her, if you’re
ready to talk.”

Eric leaned forward again, his face in his hands. Normally,
his fingers would be threaded into his hair in this position, but now he only
felt his scalp. How much of an idiot had he been, asking how they’d known the
bastards humiliated him last night. Fuck, the bastards had cut his hair and his
eyebrows off.

He stood and walked to a window, realized they were on top
of Lookout Mountain, and the view of the city was spectacular from here. He
should get on his yacht and head… somewhere. Maybe downriver to the
Mississippi, out into the Gulf of Mexico, perhaps do some deep sea diving for a
while before putting his yacht in storage and finding a place to live near
Yellowstone.

Or, he could take his yacht up the coast to New England,
store it there, and hike the Appalachian Trail backwards.

“So, it’s safe for me to go back to my yacht, now? She made
me off limits, so I can go on with my life without worrying about anyone else
taking me?”

After a few dozen heartbeats of silence, he turned and saw
Jonathan trying to decide how best to answer. “Based on conversations I’ve
heard, I believe it’s possible Abbott and Kendra are going to jump ahead in
their plans for war, and attack sooner rather than later. Kendra wants to take
Natalia out in a very public fashion, and that’ll mean attacking Mitroff’s
stronghold. While they’re attacking, and probably during the first couple of
weeks, at least, you’ll need to be in a safe place.”

Eric shook his head, walked into the kitchen, and made small
talk with the cook as she finished their meal.

Ranger followed him in five minutes later and put his hand
on Eric’s shoulder as he said, “Sophia’s going to take me back now, but I’ll
stop downstairs and talk to Kendra on the way out. I’ll keep in touch when I
can. I should be in town at least a week or two every couple of months now,
instead of overseas almost constantly, and I talked to Jonathan about maybe
renting a room from him. He just bought a big house not far from here.
Hopefully, you and I can go have some fun, while I’m here.” He gave Eric a
careful sideways hug as he added, “Don’t make any decisions today. You’re
already wrapped up with her, and now in a very public way. At this point,
staying with her is safer than breaking up with her. But, if you can’t… if you
don’t want to be with her anymore, don’t care about her anymore, Aaron and I
will keep you safe. Make your decision from your heart, not from a place of
fear, Eric. I want you to be happy.”

Eric ate dinner with Sophia and Jonathan, and this time they
talked about the furniture Jonathan was looking at to furnish his man-cave. He
pulled some of it up on his tablet to show them, and Sophia had definite
opinions on what she thought would work best. Eric’s contribution was to offer
Jonathan the name of his interior designer.

“No thanks,” Jonathan said with a laugh. “I intend to
furnish my bedroom and den — the rest of the house can stay empty a
while. It’s a great old house with nice bones, is in a good neighborhood, and
is close to Sophia. If another, smaller home, had fit the bill, I’d have bought
it instead.”

When Eric finally went downstairs, Kendra was getting off
the phone, which meant she started saying goodbye as she heard him coming.

“Abbott lives next door,” she said as she put her phone
down. “We can walk over there through the cave if we want. I haven’t gone yet
because I wanted to be here when you were ready to talk to me.”

“I’m not ready for any serious talks, but it was rude to
stay upstairs when you were awake and stuck down here.” He sighed. “I’m glad
you weren’t hurt while rescuing me. I understand you fixed it so they didn’t
injure
me while they were hurting me, so thanks for that. Also, huge thanks for the
rescue, but…
shit
, Kendra. I don’t even know how to process this. I
mean, I’m okay now, but I could’ve easily not been okay, and it was worse than
hell, going through it. I told Ranger I’m used to pain, and I can handle it,
but the pain I feel climbing mountains or crashing while snowboarding… it’s my
decision to be there, to put myself through it. It’s fucking
different
.”

“I can never make it up to you, Eric. They took you because
of your connection to Abbott and me. Natalia knew we were going to war, and
didn’t think things would be any worse for her, personally, if she took you.
She will soon discover how wrong she was. They also didn’t think we could find
out the official location of the Media Council. Everyone is led to believe it’s
at their complex in Greenville, but Aaron happened to know where the actual
fortress is. They didn’t expect us to amass help as quickly as we did.”

Eric remembered Jonathan’s descriptions, tried to imagine
the woman he loved cutting someone fingers off while they were alive, stuffing
them into his ass, then hacking up his face and doing the same. He took a few
steps back, and Kendra sighed and sat on the bed. “I don’t want you to be
afraid of me, Eric. I won’t hurt you.”

“I know what you did to the people who hurt me.” He shook
his head. “Even after I lived through what they did to me, I couldn’t have
done… all of that.”

“A thousand or two years from now, when you’ve seen what
I’ve seen, lived through what I’ve been forced to survive… you could.” Her
voice was soft, light, but Eric could hear the pain in it. He also sensed she
was working hard to not go all ice cold on him.

Taking a few steps away from her wouldn’t save him, if she
suddenly decided to start removing his body parts, so he forced his feet to
take two steps into the room. “I’m not breaking up with you, but I’m also not
telling you everything’s okay. Sophia said I’m welcome to stay as long as
necessary, and I’m going to take her up on another night. Now that I’ve eaten,
I’d like to go back to sleep, I think.”

She nodded and stood, stepping away from the bed. “Will you
let me look you over, make sure nothing is getting infected? I’d like to heal
the puncture wounds, if you’ll let me. If you don’t want me licking you, I can
touch my finger to my tongue, do it that way.”

The bastards had started out with thin needles and worked up
to larger diameter ones. There were some sizeable holes in his forearms,
showing beyond the shirt sleeves, and he knew the puncture wounds over the rest
of his body probably needed something on them, but he didn’t want Kendra
touching him right now.

No, that wasn’t exactly true. He’d hugged her, been happy to
see her when she rescued him. He took a breath and said, “I knew you’d come. I
kept telling myself I only had to hold out until you arrived. I never doubted
you’d show up. When the vampires left, I knew it was daylight, and when they
returned, I told myself only a few hours, at most, and you’d be there to get
me.”

“It was a forty minute ride in Aaron’s high-speed
helicopter, and we got to you just a little over an hour past sunset. Natalia
was on her way, and it’s a shame we didn’t get her, but I wasn’t going to risk
her getting there before us. Your safety came first, revenge and payback can
come later.”

“I need to hug you, kiss you,” he told her. “Not the other
way around. I know you’re stronger than me, this isn’t about that.”

“It’ll never be about that, Eric.”

“Yeah, Kendra, it is. In your world, I’ll never defend you.
You’ll always have to come to my rescue. Even in the human world, if I need to
defend your honor, I’ll do it knowing you could’ve done it better, easier.”

“And yet, it’s your blood in my veins that gives me
strength, purpose, happiness. You are my strength, Eric. Not just your blood,
but your energy, your soul,
you
.”

Eric stepped to her, slid his hand through her long, silky
hair, and grasped her nape. He tilted her head as he brought his lips to hers,
her body soft and supple under his. She opened for him, let him control the
kiss, and he took more. His other hand went to her jaw, and Kendra’s arms went
around his neck, holding on for dear life as Eric plundered her mouth.

His cock hurt as it swelled, the holes and bruises strained
as the skin stretched, and he backed up and ordered, “On your knees, Kendra.
Take my cock in your mouth, lips wrapped around your teeth so I don’t feel
them.”

He leaned sideways and pushed the door closed as she went to
her knees and almost reverently pulled his sweatpants down, as if he were
bestowing a great privilege on her by allowing it.

She took his cock into her mouth, and then licked it all
over before taking it into her mouth and down her throat this time, holding.
She didn’t have to breathe, could stay like this forever, and he loved the way
it felt.