Black than Blue Read online

  Synopsis

  The beginning of Cleo Jones’s life as a vampire was the end of her relationship with her first love and only submissive, college senior Benny Tarver. Mutual resentment and heartache have kept them apart for the past three years, but their responsibilities to the sisters of Alpha Beta Omega sorority have held them in each other’s sights. With graduation looming, Benny knows it is time for her to move on from the sorority and her lingering feelings for Cleo, but when Cleo realizes she may lose Benny forever to a powerful demon, she must put her fears aside to discover if they can find the strength to let go of their pain and accept that the love between them is true.

  Blacker Than Blue

  Vampire Sorority Sisters Book 2

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  eBooks from Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

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  Blacker Than Blue

  © 2013 By Rebekah Weatherspoon. All Rights Reserved.

  ISBN 13: 978-1-60282-826-1

  This Electronic Book is published by

  Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

  P.O. Box 249

  Valley Falls, New York 12185

  First Edition: January 2013

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

  Credits

  Editor: Cindy Cresap

  Production Design: Stacia Seaman

  Cover Design By Sheri ([email protected])

  By the Author

  The Fling

  Better of Red: Vampire Sorority Sisters Book 1

  Blacker Than Blue: Vampire Sorority Sisters Book 2

  Acknowledgments

  I must thank the following people:

  Summer Youngblood for her all around awesomeness.

  My editor, Cindy, for trying her hardest to make me a better writer.

  And Radclyffe for letting there be a book two.

  To Tecora Arnold, for holding my hand from far away.

  Prologue

  Benny

  Freshman Year, Thanksgiving Break

  I pulled Gus onto my bed with me and switched my phone to my other hand. On the other end of the line, my girlfriend, Cleo, sighed in my ear. “You were able to escape?” I asked.

  “Fuck yeah,” she replied. “I swear my mama invited people just because they have the last name Jones. There were three dudes who I know aren’t my uncles, just kicking it. I’m getting some gas now.” Maryland University only gave us a week off for Thanksgiving, but it was long enough to make me miss being away from my few friends at school, the girls in my sorority. It was too long for me to be away from Cleo. I thought about telling her, but I kept the thought to myself. Still, I was enjoying my time with Mama and Daddy, and soon I’d be back with Cleo again.

  We’d been together for a little over two months now. I never thought I’d fall in love. I wasn’t sure I believed in it anymore, especially since my parents were bound by something greater. Yes, Mama loved Daddy, but he was a vampire, one of the strongest demon-bourne vampires of his kind. They were bound together by blood, and that strengthened the affection between them. I knew Daddy would find me a demon to serve one day, and he had. Camila was wonderful, and I couldn’t wait to see her once I got back to the Alpha Beta Omega house, but what did I have with Cleo? I never thought our love, a love that allowed me to serve her willingly and fully, would come for me.

  It was more than the fact that she was a junior and I was only a freshman. Or that she was so beautiful, so physically perfect, and I was just a notch above dumpy and plain. It was that she wanted to be with me too, even when I explained what I really wanted in a girlfriend, if I ever got one. Cleo understood that I wanted, needed a mistress, someone to mold and control me sexually. She’d more than lived up to the task. She didn’t even mind that I wanted to keep our relationship a secret. She understood why. I held in my sigh and shifted Gus in my lap just as he decided to taste my hand.

  “Ouch. No biting.” I pulled my finger away from Gus’s puppy teeth to inspect the damage. He didn’t break the skin.

  “Playing with your new dog?”

  “Yes. He’s a little menace, but he’s so cute.”

  “I can’t believe she gave you six dogs. Is that what they give for Thanksgiving? Dog meat?”

  “No.” I laughed. “Dalhem and his bound-sisters have these gift-giving cycles. It was Paeno’s turn.” Daddy and his demon family had a number of bizarre traditions. Mama and I had learned not to question them.

  “It’s strange, but whatever. What time you coming back?” Cleo was heading back to the Alpha Beta Omega house early to get a jump on studying for her anthropology final. Aside from the six vampires our sorority fed—the only real reason for the sorority—and our housemother, the house would be empty. A perfectly quiet place for Cleo to get some studying done, away from her large, loud family. I was heading back a little early as well. I wanted to spend some time with Cleo alone.

  “What time am I coming back? You know that’s not up to me,” I said. My heart fluttered as I stroked Gus’s thick silver fur.

  “How about you’re ready for me at nine?”

  That early? I wanted to ask, but I couldn’t deny the sparks the act of obeying set off between my legs.

  “I’ll be ready at nine.”

  “That’s a good bunny.” I did sigh this time. Lightly, but away from the phone. It was one of the things we were working on. I needed to be more up front with my feelings. Keeping things in was something I’d learned to do well in the last eighteen years. It was a hard habit to break.

  Someone knocking at my door stopped my response. “Come in,” I called and smiled instantly as Mama poked her head in the door. She shrank back bashfully, just for a moment, when she saw I was on the phone.

  “How long do you need, angel?” Mama whispered. We had Christmas shopping to do.

  “An hour,” I mouthed.

  “Is that Cleo?” She smiled as she nodded toward my phone. I nodded back, matching her grin. I hadn’t told her much about my girlfriend or my first relationship. Still, she knew how I felt. I didn’t feel comfortable opening up to the girls in the sorority, even my good friend Ginger, who was so easy to talk to, but I could tell Mama anything.

  “Good morning, Cleo,” Mama called across the room before she ducked back out the door. Cleo’s deep laugh sounded in my ear.

  “Tell her I said hi. When am I gonna meet her?”

  “Soon. I need—”

  “I know.”

  Cleo and I had come a long way. She had been very patient with me, but I needed more time. I still needed to keep parts of my personal life separate.

  “After spring break. Come stay with us,” I said, uncomfortable with the suggestion. I tried to lighten my tone and the mood between us. “We’ll take you to the blossom festival. I still can’t believe you haven’t been yet. Richmond isn’t that far from D.C.”

  “It’s far enough.” I heard a few clicking sounds and then the rusty squeak of her car door opening. I’d offered to replace the old Civic for her, but she was so attached to the thing, a gift from her mama. The door slammed and Cleo huffed an exhausted breath through the phone. I was anxious to relieve her stress.

  “Well, let me get off this phone before I wreck or get pulled over,” she said.

  “Okay. Study hard.”
>
  “Yeah, the hardest.” Suddenly Cleo’s voice was soft. “Benita?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I love you.”

  I hesitated for a moment before I replied quietly, “I love you too.”

  “Bye, babe.” Cleo hung up as I said good-bye. I gave myself a moment to think about what Cleo had said and a few minutes longer to consider what Cleo expected of me the following morning. It was true, I never thought I’d find the love we had found together, but it was deep and it was good. Even though parts of it still scared me, I knew every time Cleo gave me an opportunity to submit, that love would last forever.

  Chapter One

  Benny

  Senior Year, Second Semester

  I looked over at the iPod docked on my mahogany nightstand. The final notes to my favorite harmonious tribute to love lost played through the speakers, and the clock on the square display snapped over to 9:55. The music was perfect for moments like this. Sometimes, the girls didn’t feel like talking, but they still had their hour. Marvin would fill the silent moments while Ashley decided whether she wanted to confess to more bingeing or purging that week, or when any number of the freshmen needed a few minutes to come clean about their own issues. Ron Isley would give Maddie something to hum along to while she wasted time rolling around on my comforter. In a professional office, playing music would be unprofessional, but it was perfect for sister counseling.

  The Dixie Chicks strummed in a beat later, and Maddie laughed.

  “You have the weirdest taste in music.” Her hand slid down the mahogany post and she sighed as her fingers sought out a crack in the clear finish that wasn’t there. Mama had found the queen-sized bed frame at an auction in Raleigh. I’d appreciate it if my sorority sister didn’t chip its finely coated surface. I took my attention off the curious hand and gazed over Maddie’s body. Her flat stomach was perfectly toned. Spray-tanned skin dusted with nearly invisible hairs peeked out from under the hem of her racer-back tank top. Her hard nipples poked at the red cotton. She didn’t have a bra on, and from the tightness of her skimpy shorts, I could tell she didn’t have any underwear on either. The black spandex barely covered the junction of her thighs.

  I had shed a few pounds, but dropping from a size twenty to a size sixteen didn’t give someone license to wear hot pants in front of the other girls in the Alpha Beta Omega house.

  “I love this bed,” Maddie muttered, lifting her legs in the air. Her tiny dancer’s feet pointed to the gossamer canopy above. She looked over to me, but I watched as the ruby pendant on her chest slipped to the side and slid between the strands of her heavily highlighted hair. Absently, I adjusted my own necklace.

  “You must hate this. Listening to us complain every week.”

  I didn’t hate the peer counseling sessions that were now mandatory twice a week. I simply didn’t want to hear about all of the ridiculous things my sorority sisters thought were important. I knew these sessions served a purpose. I knew firsthand how secrets kept, big and small, emotions hidden, never led to any good. I knew the same to be true about the truth itself. I still hadn’t perfected the balance, but I knew when to keep quiet about my own business. I’d mastered the poker face and the art of being a steel trap when it came to information, whether it was useful or not.

  Oddly enough, my refusal to gossip or show real emotions made my sisters in Alpha Beta Omega trust in me that much more. You could tell me anything and it would never get around, but not because I wanted to keep the secret. It was because I didn’t care. I had my own classes to study for, my own demon to feed and please. I had my own problems to deal with.

  I didn’t care about the petty things, but I had to listen. Every time I thought of Sam, my friend, sister, and occasional bunk-buddy, and every time I thought of Ginger, my best friend, a loving girl, turned vampire queen at nineteen, I would pause and stop myself from tapping the clock.

  Both Sam and Ginger had been tortured in various ways by the same boy, and if someone had been there for Sam as her boyfriend had taken his hands to her, things would have been different. Greg could have been stopped before he forced himself on her over and over again. An alarm would have been sounded as his sick feelings for Ginger continued to fester. Sam wouldn’t be so ruined and Ginger wouldn’t have faced death only four months into college.

  Madeline and Ruth would make up in an hour, fall right back into each other’s arms, and tear each other’s clothes off. Things for them would go back to normal, but if Maddie or Ruth came to me with a real problem, I had to be ready to listen.

  Every week, twice a week, from nine to ten, Amy, our chapter vice president, and I opened our doors to hear all gripes about school, parents, boyfriends, and girlfriends. Mostly girlfriends. Living with forty-six girls who were perfectly comfortable sleeping with one another brought up some interesting instances of jealousy. And there were other things.

  A few small incidents had been avoided since my term as chapter president had begun. We were getting help for Ashley, but mostly it was bullshit. It was the bullshit that made me resent these sessions. That, and with the exception of Samantha, Ginger, and Camila, I hated having people in my room. I didn’t like people touching my things, and I hated people asking questions. I didn’t have pictures of Mama and Daddy around my room for a reason.

  “I don’t hate it,” I said. “You’d rather talk to me about it, though? Right?”

  “God, yes. Ugh. She’s such a little bitch.”

  I kept my eyes from rolling. Ruth had said the same thing about Maddie a few weeks before. The two of them had behaved like this for a while now. Always in and out of love.

  “And after graduation?” I wanted to get back to the point before our time was up.

  “She wants us to move to Miami and I want to stay here. I can get a tryout with the Ravens, but she’s all, ‘The Heat have a squad too, blah blah.’ But I’m over basketball players.”

  I understood that part. I couldn’t stand the members of the Maryland University men’s basketball team. The “men” part was always up for interpretation. But they weren’t the focus of this conversation.

  “You need to weigh your real happiness, Maddie. What do you want?”

  “I don’t know. I love her. Just—” She broke off, chuckling. I added a tight-lipped scoff. Maddie liked going in circles. “Such. A bitch.”

  “You have four months to think about it. If you want a real fresh start once school’s over, you need to consider if what you two have has run its course or if you really belong together.”

  “I know. What about you? What are you going to do after graduation?”

  “This isn’t about me.” I flashed a tiny smile.

  “I know! It’s never about you. Okay. Whatever.” Maddie swung herself upright and hopped off the bed in a graceful leap—graceful until she reached behind herself and tugged her Spankies out of her ass. “You’re coming to the game, right?”

  “Yes. I will be there.”

  “Good.”

  A knock on my door had us both turning. “Come in,” I called out.

  Amy skipped through the doorway, her notebook tucked under her arm.

  “Hello, ladies.” Amy’s blue eyes sparkled as a smile lit up her whole face. She was already dressed for bed in a thin black camisole and red flannel pajama pants. The red polish on her toes matched mine.

  I liked Amy a lot. She was too enthusiastic, but she was genuine. She reminded me of my mama.

  “Ruth is waiting for you in the hall,” she told Maddie.

  Maddie took a deep breath then marched toward the door. “I’ll see you guys later.”

  Amy wasted no time. She crawled up onto my high mattress into the newly vacant spot, mumbling about her fondness for the four-poster bed. “Anything good?” she asked once she was comfortable leaning against the wall.

  “No. The usual with Ruth and Maddie. Same stuff with A.J. and her little sister. You?”

  Amy bit her lip, holding in a laugh.

  “W
hat?”

  “Jill.”

  I groaned quietly. It was the same thing every week. “What did she say?”

  “Baby B, she’s in love with you. What do you think she said?”

  “I’ve already told her no.”

  “She doesn’t care. She’s got it bad.”

  “She’ll have to deal with it.”

  “Oh, but she can’t, Benny. You’re just so, unf, you’re so irresistible.”

  “What did you tell her?”

  “This time I told her—” Amy giggled. “I told her you’d decided to go into a convent after graduation.”

  “Amy.”

  “I told her that your stepdad got an e-mail from God, and a life married to the church is your calling.” Tears threatened to stream down Amy’s face.

  “Great. Now she’ll ask a million questions about which order I’ll be joining.”

  “I’d tell you to slip her a pity fuck, but she’s too smitten to handle it.”

  Last time Jill had come to Amy, talking of her love for me, Amy had told Jill that I was still a virgin and was saving myself until I met the right man. Three weeks before that, she’d told the gullible girl that my parents were in the process of arranging a marriage for me to be carried out right after graduation. I was supposed to remain celibate until the binding ceremony to this mythical person. Every week, Jill bought the excuse and sulked in her room for a few hours before her will to love made her think she could convince me to pick her over whatever life I had planned otherwise.

  Jill couldn’t be swayed. There was nothing that I could say, and I wasn’t willing to do anything that would actually scare away someone with such an intense infatuation. My single status gave the obnoxious freshman hope. No matter what Jill decided was the truth, a relationship between her and me, sexual or otherwise, was not going to happen. I physically couldn’t bring myself to do it. Though I wasn’t completely against sleeping with others, I’d only given my heart to one person, and that was the same person I still lusted after and longed for. That person was not Jill.