Read Vampires' Consort: Magical Menages, Book 2 for Free Online

erection, not just feel it pressed against her. Another shudder of lust passed through her.
    Akila crossed her arms over her chest and began to walk down the beach. “Maybe you should show me the rest of the property. Or the house.” Or maybe she should go to her room and hide, get entirely away from this man to whom she seemed to have an uncontrollable attraction.
    “Yes.” He strode alongside her, but several yards away, and blurted random facts about the island as they walked from the beach to the interior. The vegetation grew thick around the narrow path through the trees.
    “Before Mr. Kaspan purchased the island, it was uninhabited except by wildlife. He’s kept as much untouched as possible, a preserve for local species of reptiles and birds.”
    “Reptiles?” Akila scanned for alligators that might pop out of the underbrush.
    “Various kinds of lizards and frogs, except frogs are amphibians.” Jacob was suddenly babbling, and she realized he was covering his own embarrassment at what had happened between them, trying to pretend his cock hadn’t been pushing insistently into her crotch.
    Clearly having sex with Jacob wouldn’t be a burden for either of them if she were really to follow through on Kaspan’s plan. As if she would. To be impregnated with a child? Crazy! And how in the world would it be Valarian’s anyway?
    “Tell me more about this thrall thing.” She interrupted Jacob. “What does it mean that you share his blood? Why doesn’t that turn you into a…what he is?”
    Jacob stopped walking and stared at the scarlet blooms that dotted a bush beside the path. “To become a vampire, one must be drained nearly to death and then ingest a large amount of blood from a donor. After a long, coma-like sleep, a period of hibernation during which the body alters and the blood changes, the person has become a vampire. But a thrall…is something different.”
    He stopped talking and Akila waited. Even she was able to hold her tongue once in a while. Right now, she could tell it was difficult for Jacob to speak about what had happened to him. She gave him time to formulate the words.
    “I met Mr. Kaspan in Germany toward the end of the war.” He glanced at Akila. “The second World War. I was in a camp, in bad shape. He freed me, fed me and then made me an offer. He needed someone to serve him since his previous thrall had been killed. Valarian showed me his fangs and explained what becoming his servant would mean.”
    Akila could barely breathe as she listened to his voice, as quiet as if he was in a confessional. The birds calling in the trees were louder than Jacob.
    “I had no illusions. I agreed to it. I welcomed the chance to repay him for his kindness.” He paused. “Besides, I had no one left to go home to.”
    “How does it work?” she asked softly.
    “A vow and an exchange of blood, although not enough to turn the chosen one into a vampire. I suppose you would call it a covenant. I will serve him until I die.”
    “But what do you get from this arrangement?”
    “Long life, health, strength, protection and a bond you could not begin to understand. I owed Valarian my life. I was happy to give it back to him. In return, he helped me accomplish something I was determined to do.”
    Jacob began walking again, signaling he was through discussing the topic.
    Akila trailed after him. “May I ask one more thing?”
    “Could I stop you?” he said dryly.
    “What’s Kaspan’s story? How long has he been alive? When was he turned and how?”
    “That is his story to tell. You must ask him,” was the unsatisfactory reply.
    She would indeed. There was a goldmine of a story here that spanned years and continents, life-changing experiences and deep emotions. She was determined to extract the gold if she had to chip away the rock piece by piece.
     
     
    “Would you care for another slice of beef?” Valarian paused with the carving knife held over the roast, which rested in a pool of