Soul to Keep Read online

  “I’m hoping to get a ‘Mama’ soon, but so far just really expressive noises. Isn’t that right, baby?” Benny said.

  “She’s so cute,” I said as J.J. sat back on her cushy butt and waved a stuffed turtle at me. I really needed to get back to the house.

  “I will step into the office with my Miyoko. My Cleo will join us.”

  “Okay,” Benny said with a smile.

  “Tokyo, don’t be a stranger. You and your sister-queens are welcome here anytime,” Leanne offered.

  “Thank you,” I said, knowing full well there would be no social visits without the rest of my sister-queens. The whole “I used to fuck your daughter’s wife” thing was too much.

  Dalhem gestured for us to lead the way out of the room, on foot. We barely made it out the door before J.J. started screaming bloody murder. Dalhem immediately turned around and scooped her up. That shut her right up.

  But not her mom. “So you’re dating Jill now,” Cleo said. Camila and Ginger really couldn’t mind their own business.

  “I am, but can we not. It just happened and it’s been pretty good. You don’t need to shit on—”

  “Hey, whoa. That’s not what I was going to say at all. I was just asking.”

  “Well, yeah. We’re dating.”

  “That’s cool. And it wasn’t Ginger or Camila who told me. Faeth’s your fink, and she actually told me you and Jill are really good together. But you’re keeping it secret from the girls.”

  “Just thought it would be easier. A lot of opinions in that house.”

  “No, you’re right. Why do you think I left?”

  I looked over at Cleo’s raised eyebrow. I thought Benny had made her leave, but maybe I had gotten that all wrong.

  Cleo opened Dalhem’s office door for us. “I just want you to be happy. I mean that.”

  “Thank you.”

  We took a seat on Dalhem’s gaudy gold and mahogany furniture.

  “This demon, it seeks me out,” he said.

  “Yes, uh, you saw the picture I sent over, and here.” He took my outstretched hand and instantly absorbed all of Rory and Antonia’s memories. Then he passed them to Cleo, probably with his own footnotes.

  “I will send a message to my sister. We all thank you,” he said, bouncing J.J. in his arms.

  “That’s it? You don’t want me to do anything else?”

  “I want you to continue with eyes open, my Miyoko. I want you to return to my nest and take care of my children. Protect them.”

  I glanced at Cleo, but her face was expressionless. She was inner circle now, and I was still a worker bee. Dalhem stood and handed the baby back to Cleo. And then he took me. We vanished into the cool night, into the sky, and he held me there, our particles adrift, but my whole being held safely in his hands.

  “Never doubt me, my darling.”

  “There’s no doubt. I just want to help.”

  “And my wish is for you to protect my girls. My wish is for you to be safe. Do you understand?”

  I did. I had a feeling I was putting myself in danger by chasing this thing down. It was better for everyone if I kept close to home. Pleased with my acceptance of the truth, I felt Dalhem’s arms around me and his lips across my forehead. When I opened my eyes, I was back in my apartment under the ABO house and Dalhem was gone.

  ❖

  After I got back to the house, it only took a couple of hours for Cleo to get the word out about what had happened to Rory and her friends. Ginger wanted to tell the girls and remind them that things might be quiet in our neck of the woods, but whatever this thing was, it had an objective and it wasn’t going to stop using our girls until it achieved that goal.

  We had a lot of meetings, conversations. I think more than a few of us thought that Dalhem needed to meet this demon head on, but from the way he was acting, it was almost as if he was scared. And that didn’t put me at ease, especially when I couldn’t stop replaying the horror show I’d pulled from Rory’s memory. This demon was no playful ghost. This thing was head-hunting. What if it didn’t want Dalhem? What if he just wanted to talk to him because something worse was coming? What if terrorizing our girls and the OBA boys wasn’t even necessary, just some part of the show? What if it slipped by and killed someone else?

  I could still feel that thing, smell it, taste it, days later and it scared the shit out of me. I pulled my girls aside separately and stressed to them how important it was for them to keep an eye out for each other. And while they were sleeping, I implanted the protection spell in their memories. I linked it to triggers from Rory’s encounter, what she saw, what she tasted. If they ran into that piece of shit, they wouldn’t know why, but they would know exactly what to do.

  I felt better knowing they had a bit of an edge. I might have passed the suggestion on to Faeth and Kina. And Ginger. She blew me off ’cause she was stressed and not listening and thinking that I wasn’t giving good advice ’cause she could trust me with one sixth of her kingdom, but she couldn’t take one simple hint based on super fucking reliable information. Maybe Cleo was on to something. Maybe sooner rather than later, it would be time for me to go.

  The girls helped me relax, but Jill quickly became my safe harbor. We were spending more and more time together so I had to be a little more deceptive with the girls about how and where I was spending my time. I wasn’t always out doing demon recon. A lot of the time I was at the library or in bed with Jill.

  I tried not to think too hard on the connections that were starting to form between us. First, the shared orgasms and then the small bits of telepathy that were becoming more and more frequent, and then a few days after the incident with Rory, I started to get a general sense of her moods. None of this should be happening, not unless we were blood bound, and we sure as fuck weren’t. But that didn’t stop the way she made me feel, and my emotions, my love for her, was only compounded by the overwhelming way she felt for me. And she was happy all the time now, so I could feel that too, and it was the perfect distraction from the absolute shit show that was going on around us.

  I decided one night while she was studying in my bed to tell her about the banishment. She was lying over my thighs, her perfect little round ass up in the air. I was doing my best not to distract her, only rubbing her cheeks over her jeans and not fingering her the way she deserved to be for sitting across my lap like that. The movie we were watching ended so I flipped through the guide trying to find more mindless crap to zone out to.

  I turned to The Notebook like an idiot, one movie you don’t watch when you’re on an emotional ledge.

  “I always cry at the end of this movie. So tragic,” Jill muttered absently. She squirmed when I gave her butt a little squeeze.

  “At least they die together.”

  “True.”

  “Hey, if I teach you something will you do your best to memorize it?”

  Jill tapped the side of her head. “Got the whole periodic table up here. What’s a bit more information?”

  “No, baby. I mean it. It’s important.”

  Jill sat up slowly and turned to face me. She reached up and smoothed some hair away from my face. “What’s going on?”

  I brought up the Rory situation and then one of a few parts Ginger had purposefully left out during our chat with the group.

  “Why don’t all the girls know it? I mean shouldn’t we all?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. I’d just—I’d give it to you if I could, but you’re still bound to Ginger, and despite however well she’s handling us being together, you’re still hers and my being inside your head would cross too many lines.”

  “But I’m yours too.” Her thumb drifted down and teased my bottom lip. I slowly licked it then nipped her nail with my fang.

  “I know, baby, but I can only push her so far.”

  “I know.” The disappointment on her face pained me to my core.

  “This thing, I don’t know what tricks it has up its sleeves. I don’t know what it’ll try n
ext, but if you think you’re in danger, just say these words over and over again until you can get away.” I spoke the enchantment and made Jill repeat it at least ten times until she had it.

  “You think it’ll come here?”

  “I don’t know. That’s what scares me. I have no idea. The way it tried to grab Rory out in public like that, maybe it’s getting desperate. I just want you to be safe.”

  “I hate seeing you this upset.”

  “I’m sorry. Just stressed.”

  “Well, I think we’re safe down here. Is there something we could do about that stress?”

  “I think so. But you’re a little overdressed.”

  Jill looked down at herself. “I suppose I am.”

  “You want some help?”

  “That would be helpful, yes.”

  I pounced on her, throwing her down on my bed on her back. The little squeak she made echoed the thumping of her heart as I made quick work of her jeans and underwear. Her shirt was easy enough, and her bra served as a perfect pair of restraints. You’d be surprised what you could do with some bra straps and some knot tying skills. I stood over her, looking at every inch of her perfect body, from her caramel brown skin to her small, delectable breasts, to the slick cleft between her legs. The ruby around her neck glinted in the light above my bed, and for a moment, I felt the most irrational stab of jealousy. That should be my ruby around her neck, her blood sustaining me.

  “Hey. Hey.”

  “Sorry, what?” I blinked, and it took a second, but I was finally able to focus on her face.

  “What’s the matter? You were growling, and your eyes were doing that glowy thing.”

  My fangs were out too, fully extended and ready to tear into the first thing that got into my way. I shook my head and forced my canines back up into my gums.

  Jill reached out to me with her bound hands. “Come here.”

  I pulled off my clothes and joined her on the bed, crawling over her beautiful body. She looped her bound hands over my head and draped her arms around my shoulders, but it wasn’t until I felt her lips on my face, slowly caressing my lips, that I was fully under control, my growling subsiding to a more reasonable purr.

  “Just be here with me,” she whispered.

  “I am,” I said between kisses. And I always would be.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Tokyo

  The week before the girls left for Thanksgiving break, I decided that I had had enough of the silent peace that Ginger and I had established. And what better way to disturb that peace than by asking her the one thing that was sure to set her right the fuck off. Maybe I was just cagey thinking about what had happened to the girls at UNY. Maybe I was just feeling territorial and uncertain, but I had to do something. The girls were off at class, and I knew Camila was going over the sorority’s books. It was the ideal time to ask Ginger to come talk to me. She never came by my place unless I was hosting a sister-queen meeting, so I figured for once she could vanish her ass over to my apartment.

  I invited her to sit down, ignoring the way she was eyeing the pillows and mats that made up the sitting area in my TV room like she was afraid she was accidentally going to sit in a pile of jizz. She had just as much sex, if not more, on her own living room furniture. Finally, she sat down cross-legged, but didn’t make herself comfortable.

  “So what’s up?”

  “I want Jill.”

  “Uh, you have her. I sanctioned this little love affair you have going on. Dalhem said it’s fine. Not exactly sure what else you could want.”

  Ginger knew, but she didn’t think I was insane enough to say it. So I said it. “I want Jill to feed me. I want to claim her as mine, officially.”

  Ginger’s face turned so red I thought one of her freckles was going to pop off. “Have you claimed her unofficially?”

  “You know what I mean. I want Jill to be one of my feeders.”

  “And I’m saying no. Good talk though.” Ginger stood to leave, but I was far from finished.

  “You can’t force her to stay with you.”

  “And you can’t force me to release her just because you want to enjoy the full sex spectrum with her blood in your system. I said no.”

  “At least let her choose. I mean it’s kinda fucked that we have to decide who the girls feed based on who we want, isn’t it? Hell, I wanted you once upon a time.”

  “Yeah, good thing that didn’t work out. My answer is still no.”

  “Just let me ask her. Let her decide instead of you deciding for her.” I pulled out my phone and hit her contact.

  Ginger reached for the phone, trying to knock it out of my hand. “What the fuck are you doing?”

  “I’m settling this.”

  “She’s in between classes and you’re gonna drop this on her?”

  I hated to admit that Ginger was right. Too bad Jill answered her phone. “Hey, what’s up?”

  “She’s going to be thinking about this when she should be focused on class,” Ginger whisper-shouted, and then she gave me the stank eye when I started speaking French.

  “Nothing, I was just calling to hear your voice. I miss you.”

  “I miss you too. Brayley had a whole stack of surveys, and now she can’t find them so that’s great. Those were the last ones we had time to collect before we finalize our presentation. I really hope she finds them.”

  “I’m sure they’ll turn up. You want to come see me tonight?”

  “Sure, what time? I heard Yaz saying it was her night to feed you.”

  “How about ten thirty? She usually comes down right after curfew.”

  “Ten thirty it is.” We said our good-byes and then I hung up.

  “So at ten thirty you’re just gonna ambush her?”

  “I’m not gonna ambush her. We’re gonna talk and then we’ll let you know her decision.”

  “No. The three of us are going to talk, and Jill will give us both her decision. And that’s only if I agree to it. I’m not gonna let you twist and confuse the pros and cons of this situation so you can manipulate her into feeding you.”

  “This isn’t about manipulating anyone. I love her. I want to feed from her. I want her with me.”

  “Fine, whatever. Ten thirty, and don’t call her back and change the time. I’ll sense her when she comes down here.”

  “Will you though?”

  “What?”

  “Your hold on her is slipping isn’t it? I noticed it a few weeks ago. Jill was walking toward your apartment, but you didn’t even pick up on her until she was practically walking through your door.”

  Ginger didn’t say anything, but she didn’t have to. She knew I was right.

  “Have you even noticed how often Jill’s been down here? How many nights she’s spent in my room? No, ’cause you’re telling yourself you’ve been tuning her out more since we started dating. You don’t want to know when we’re together, you don’t want to know how good I make her feel, but it’s because you can barely feel her anymore. It’s because she belongs with me. She’s already chosen me.”

  “I really suggest you stop talking right now.”

  “Or what? Dalhem’s not going to let you fuck me up just because I’m telling you something you don’t want to hear. You can’t control everything, Ginger, and you sure as hell can’t protect Jill like I can.”

  Ginger scoffed at me, actually laughed in my face. “Okay. Whatever you say. And just for the record, I can sense Jill just fine, and if you want me to tease her and embarrass the shit out of her every time you make her come, I mean I suppose I can, but then which one of us is really looking out for Jill? We’ll see you at ten thirty,” she said as she waggled her fingers at me in a bitchy wave.

  “And don’t bring Camila.”

  “Fine. And if Jill does pick you, I’ll let you explain to the rest of the girls how you’re Bridgette, and you and Jill have been dating for half the semester. Byeee.” She vanished with her middle finger in the air.

  I took a d
eep breath and tried to let my anger out with the air in my lungs. Ginger had some balls acting like I was making an unreasonable request, like feeders being released to new vampires was unheard of. She’d be releasing Jill in a little over a year anyway. The day she graduated she’d be off, probably back to Montreal or to whatever med school was lucky enough to have her, and if things went well, she’d be bound to me. What did it matter if she did it a few months early?

  And who cared what the girls in the house thought? I was getting tired of the voice of the group opinions around here. If the other girls didn’t like it, tough shit. If my feeders had a problem, oh well, they’d have to get over it. Not everything needed to be a debate. Not everything needed to be open for discussion.

  Cleo was bound to the love of her life, and Ginger and Omi and Natasha had come to their true loves the same way. What made their situations any different from mine? Me. That’s what. I, Tokyo, the misfit, the outcast, the pain in the ass. I wasn’t worthy of my own true love, not until they said. Or so Ginger thought. Jill and I belonged together, and I was going to prove it to her that night.

  ❖

  Jill

  Sometimes I wished I had the ability to vanish through walls. I finished my homework at the library before curfew, but I still brought my books to the pantry with me, down the elevator, and through the maze of hallways to Tokyo’s apartment, just in case I ran into one of the girls. I’d tell them I was interviewing Tokyo tonight about bondage and sadism since her taste for the two were common enough knowledge around the house, and as far as the girls were concerned, I knew nothing about anything, least of all sex. The type of sex Tokyo liked to have.

  All afternoon I had been thinking of this particular sex act I wanted to try. I’d stumbled across it during my legitimate research, but I think it deserved further analysis. I’d been thinking I could ask her flat out, blunt and vulgar the way she liked. Or maybe I could just hint at it, make her draw the information out of me slowly, the other way she liked.