“Do you?” he challenged after he’d recovered.
“I know it was right, Saint.” She shook her head against the pillow. “Is Teslar a wolf as well?”
“No. Never a wolf. He can transform into any number of creatures, though. All of them foul.”
“Like that huge bird he changed into tonight?”
She sensed his nod more than saw it. “Usually much worse, though—a blood boar, a canid, a stalker. But Teslar never becomes a wolf, while that is the only animal nature I possess.
“A blood boar—is that one of those things the Scourge revenants transformed into?”
“Yes. Javier Ash morphs into a blood boar. Javier was the tall one. He is very powerful, Teslar’s first lieutenant in a rag-tag army. Crowbar is a canid—that huge dog-like creature. They were both on the platform tonight, along with Selena Constantine and Jacob Crane. It was Jacob left on the platform.”
“So the Scourge are limited to one creature transformation while Teslar—”
“Can transform into all.”
A tense silence ensued.
“All those times Scepter slept in this house...all those times you slept here with me. How could you not have taken what’s yours?”
The room lit up briefly. He stared down at her, his nostrils slightly flared. “Do you think I wasn’t tempted?” he growled. “I’ve allowed you a glimpse into my world, Christina, and yet you insist on staying in fantasy land.”
“No, don’t,” Christina cried out when he withdrew his cock from her body. She gasped in slight discomfort.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, wincing. She glanced back between them in fascination. Her eyes widened when she saw the outline of his penis jutting from his body. It looked blood-engorged and enormous.
“Is it…uncomfortable?” she asked awkwardly, referring to his still-swollen cock, when he lay next to her on his side. She pushed herself up and rolled on her side to face him. She scooted closer to him, stilling when her naked hip pressed against his damp erection.
“It’s very sensitive,” he muttered through a clenched jaw. “I shouldn’t have withdrawn so quickly. I’m out of practice at this. Not that I’ve ever really had much practice.”
She looked at his shadowed face incredulously. “Who are you trying to kid? All those women I’ve seen leaving Whitby over the years with a smile on their faces and a glazed look in their eyes? You’ve got a lot of nerve telling me you’re out of practice.”
She couldn’t really see it in the darkness, but she sensed his mouth curving into a smile. “You wouldn’t believe me if I say that it’s very uncommon for me to actually mate with a woman?”
“You mean have intercourse? Why?”
He didn’t answer immediately. He spread a hand on her hip and pushed her into him. Christina couldn’t help but touch his engorged penis. She sensed the tension in his body when it pressed against her belly. She tried not to breathe to save him from more uncomfortable stimulation.
“Breathe, Christina, it’s okay,” he murmured with a chuckle when air began to burn in her lungs. His hand slid along the sensitive sides of her torso and over her shoulder, making her shiver. He delved his long fingers into her hair, his fingertips rubbing against her scalp. “Run your hand up and down on it,” he ordered gruffly, referring to his penis. “It will help to desensitize it a little.”
Her clit pinched in painful re-arousal when she wrapped her hand around his warm, damp cock. There must have been a good inch-long gap between her encircling fingers, he was so thick. He groaned deep in his throat when she began to slide her hand up and down his length.
“I have told you that I don’t feed from a woman more than once. The more…intimate the joining, the more painful it is when I…”
“Refuse to see her again?” Christina finished for him when he faded off.
He nodded. She wondered if his penis was sufficiently de-sensitized. Should she let go, so they could press their bodies close? She didn’t want to stop stroking that hard, dense column of flesh, however, so she kept pumping him with her fist. It was exceptionally exciting, stroking what might have been the phallus of a god. For several long seconds, silence stretched between, both of them motionless with the exception of her moving arm.
“Intercourse is very…intimate. I try to avoid it. If I do choose to mate, I usually use certain equipment that helps me to maintain my control,” he explained gruffly after a moment.
She paused at that, running her thumb over the ridge below the fleshy, arrow-shaped crown of his cock, finding the slit and rubbing the liquid she found there into his skin. He hissed and grabbed her wrist.
“You’re not soothing me, you’re readying me to mate again.”
“I’m sorry,” she murmured as she began to stroke his entire length again with slow, firm strokes, purposefully misunderstanding him. She felt the tension rise in his body and continued in a tone of mild interest. “Will I become a vampire now?”
“Of course not,” he growled. “I didn’t take anywhere near enough of your vitessence for a Final Embrace.”