chapter 1

. I held onto the arms of the chair so tightly the hard plastic cracked under my fingers, the feeling of Aoife running through the streets,she dodged cars as if they stood still, I closed my eyes,and let myself become immersed inside of her. I could feel the air against her body,like a solid wall. She would be incredibly hungry when she got here. She was burning through her reserves and I knew when she came through the door,she would be on me.

My chairs arms were destroyed,and I was shaking like a leaf in the wind, from fear,from lust, from anticipation. I wasn’t a lesbian, but Aoife's bite...it was orgasmic in a way neither of my two tries at sex had been. It was pain so intense it seemed like I was dieing. Pleasure so all consuming it was like being in the heart of a volcano. We amplified each other,feeding on the feelings,and sending them back. She hadn’t told me, but I knew from her thoughts that if I ever allowed her to have sex with me, it would be even more intense, and that was one of the reasons I would never allow it.

The books I read growing up,the romances, the movies...they never told of this melding we had. They never mentioned the losing of ones self, of becoming not two people, but one person with two bodies. Aoife said it only happened to soul mates, and Malcolm confirmed it. He had told me the story of how every soul was broke in half at its creation. That when joined, they created a bond even deeper then what a vampire normally could form. It was a romantic story, but it scared me shitless. I was me, I didn’t want to be part of some vampire borg collective. I had to work to not become an appendage to our joint mind, so I limited what I would allow her to do. It pissed her off, but she knew my fears as well as I did, and she didn’t push much. I heard Cas scream in surprise seconds before the door exploded open and she was on me.

Her teeth found my bared throat even as she pulled me into her arms,holding me,supporting me, clinging to me for support in return. My arms and legs wrapped around her, clinging to her even as her arms held me almost painfully tight, her teeth piercing the flesh of my neck, and our minds lost the walls that I worked so hard to keep in place. I felt my blood flow down my throat, felt my tongue working against the smooth flesh of my neck, felt the constant small bites of my teeth,keeping the wounds opening and bleeding. I felt my hands on my ass,holding me against myself,felt my legs wrapped around my waist, pulling me tighter. We were one,and our cries of pleasure and pain filled the office, and if I had been in my right mind, I would have been horribly embarrassed.

We felt Cas step into the room and watch us. We felt the longing in her, not the longing for either of us, because Cas was even more heterosexual then I had been before Aoife, but the longing to be needed,wanted as much as we needed each other. It had blown my mind when we first sensed this need in Cas,because although we had always been best friends, most people tolerated me, but everyone loved her. She was beautiful,friendly, happy. Everything id always wanted to be, but it was all a facade. She was what she was because inside, she needed to be someones whole world, and in her heart, deep inside, she hated that I had gotten what she wanted most in the world, and didn’t give Aoife everything as she gave her all to me. Cas loved me, I was her best friend, as she was mine, and I didn’t resent her feelings, because I would have felt the same in her place.

It could have been hours or seconds,or anywhere in between when we slid bonelessly to the floor, or clothes torn,and at least in my case, I needed a change of panties and pants. Aoife's bite had that kind of effect on me. “I hate to disturb you two, and ruin the after glow...but I have a change of clothes for you both, waiting in your bathroom, you need to wash up as much as you can,and change and explain to me why you tore into the office like a hurricane, and why I listened to someone threaten to kill you both, if you didn’t help him. Also, im charging you double time for this, nowhere in my job description does it say im supposed to stand here while you to dry hump each other...

I blushed scarlet,untangled myself from Aoife and rushed to the bathroom,pulling my torn shirt as closed as it would get,while Aoife rose with liquid grace,unruffled,and followed me. “Your contract does state that you can't charge extra for watching me feed, but you will get a bonus anyway,despite your catty comments...because we are all in much trouble, much trouble indeed. Now get back to your desk while we clean up, go ahead and lock up for the night, we wont be getting any real work done while we talk anyway.”

I knew Aoife didn’t care about the lost income, we did this because I insisted that I do something to earn money other then be her food source, she was wealthy enough that it was self sustaining at this point, she had people who managed her money, and even my penchant for clothes shopping couldnt spend it fast enough to make a dent in it, and in fairness to my desire to shop for clothes, I wouldn’t shop so much, if she didn’t tear so many of my clothes up as she fed. I held up the denim jeans I had been wearing, and made a face at the holes where she had torn the fabric to reach my flesh underneath. It had taken me only a few weeks to decide thongs were the way to go, I hated them,but she didn’t tear them in her eagerness to touch my ass, and after a few months, they were as comfortable as the boy shorts I preferred, and id always skipped on bras almost always,my A cups weren’t exactly in threat of reaching my navel any time soon. I looked over the clothes Cas had laid out for us,and smiled. She knew us so well. She had laid out black leather pants,and a blue form fitting Asian style shirt for Aoife, no boots since Aoife always wore black leather boots,and they matched every outfit she owned. For me she had a white skirt, so short it barely covered my ass, and a matching silk top that covered everything, but hid nothing. Left to my own devices, I would never wear a skirt, much less one that short, buuuuut Aoife had a fetish for seeing me half naked after she fed, and if she ever tried to get me to wear something like this sober, id laugh at her, but the afterglow of the feeding made me far more compliant, and Cas knew that as well.

“We don’t pay her enough” I spoke softly, as I turned, damp towel in hand. I handed her the towel,and stood still as she slowly wiped my body clean of sweat,blood, and other bodily fluids. “We pay her more then enough, and for all her talk, she wouldn’t be anywhere but here. She loves you, and you are the only family she acknowledges.” I nodded, because she was right, Cas didn’t speak to her family, and we were as close as sisters. “We are in trouble aren’t we?” I pulled my clothes on then walked out ahead of her to the office. I could feel her eyes on me, so I made a show of it,putting an extra sway to my steps. I know it seems mean, but she loved it, so I did it for her,as its all I could offer. Cas was waiting for us at our little 4 person table, Aoife's preferred after feeding food laid out,several snack sized mounds,a can of mountain dew baja blast, which I hated but Aoife loved, and a chicken alfredo bread bowl from dominos. I arched an eye brow at her and she shrugged. “I called in the order when she started eating, it just got here...” I laughed and shook my head,and sat down smoothly, sitting across from me,between me an Cas,so she could see me take every bite.

“Before you to do the food sex thing, can yall clue me in on what the hell is going on?” I blushed,but Aoife just smirked. “I can talk perfectly well while Juliam eats,she needs to replace the nutrients I took from her as quickly as possible.” Cas laughed and shook her head. “If you say so,but spill,I want everything, if im going to be in danger.” I began to eat,making sure I made each bite slow and sensual, eyes closed,savoring every bite of chocolate or pasta, as I listened to Aoife explain who we were dealing with.

“Trevor Douglas is one of the last Witches left alive in the world. They, like vampires,never age once their powers are unlocked. He is bonded to the Queen Mother...and anything he says has the force of her words, for all intents and purpose, to vampires, his words are law.” I watched Aoife, my eyes narrowed as I listened to her words, I clicked my mouth shut and asked the stupid question floating in my head. “I thought witches were a legend, you know like werewolves, ghosts, aliens who abduct farmers and probe them....” I grinned impishly at Cas when she snorted in laughter,then turned back to Aoife, one eyebrow arched challenging her to answer me.

“To my personal knowledge aliens are a myth, witches are very very real, though they are very rare now. Once they were very common, they were the apex predators of the supernatural. For centuries while humans were scattered tribes around the world, witches were the ultimate power of life and death over all creatures that thought. They like many empires that came after them, collapsed under their own weight. Other groups of supernaturals rebelled all at once, humans to began to burn any witch they could find. In the end, the vampires, with the help of the witches that had bonded to us, wiped out every coven we could find. Now, few witches remain in the world, and those that do, are slaughtered when they are found...and the allies that once rode their coattails to power...well they keep as low a profile as possible.”

My mind was spinning as I listened to her tell a story of world history that I never learned in school. The story itself was engrossing, but I was only hearing part of it. The rest of my mind was lost in the memories, memories I couldn’t be seeing, because Aoife was old, but surly not that old, yet I was lost in her memories of a war that hes thatappened 700 years before Jesus was born. I was her, as she swung her sword in terrible arcs, at creatur that were disgusting animal human hybrids. Blood flew from her sword, a massive bastard sword, that had to weigh as much as I did. It sliced through flesh and armor with ease, and her eyes glowed like green fire as she danced between them, blood lust burning through her body with a need that was beyond hunger or sex, her whole body burned with it, and her laughter rang out across the battlefield. She swung and stabbed, moved in ways I didn’t believe were possible, and at her back,moving in lock step, was a woman who was me, or the me before my bond with Aoife. She wielded dual daggers, not dual Wakizashi as i did, but she was me. They moved like dancers, and the creatures around them howled in pain as they died. Screams and challenges,threats assaulted the duo, but nothing came close.

They worked in perfect harmony, guarding each other, without ever speaking. Elanor was perfectly silent,focused and intent, perfectly balancing out the wild abandon and laughter that seemed to be Aoifes trademark in battle. Elanor never attacked, her blades seemed to be everywhere, but they never touched flesh. She was the living shield, to Aoifes sword, and as i realized that, i understood something else. They moved in sync, almost perfect harmony, but they didn't move with one mind, they moved so well from long hours of practice, of living as a unit, they had become a unit, then I noticed her eyes, and I hissed in shock.

“Your bond with her wasn't the same as with me...she didn't change like I did, and your minds weren't bonding like ours....why?what was so different...she looks like I did, before the bond...” My voice trailed off,I was almost whining, and hated myself for it, but I wanted to know how Elanor had kept her hold on herself.

Her words were soft, so gentle it almost hurt, and I could tell, she was fighting not to cry herself, Aoife, the warrior Poet, their were legends about her, she wouldn't admit they were her,but id read them. Malcolm had told me the story of how he had met her. He had watched the battle, where 30 celtic men, and one woman had stood on the shore and watched the raiders come. The ships were small by today's standards, but they each held forty raiders, and there was 13 of them. 31 celtic warriors, dirty, uneducated even by the standards of the time, stood and waited for death to come to them. They knew they had no hope, knew they would die where they stood, but they would stand and and they would die, because their families, their whole village, was fleeing, men, women, and children. They would fight for as long and hard as they could, they would bleed our their lives so that the others might reach a safe haven. Malcolm had watched, as the raiders reached the shore, he had watch 31 celtic warriors stand together against over 500 raiders, and in a battle that put anything from modern movies to shame.

The raiders knew they were facing farmers, and they laughed as they ran forward for the slaughter. Their shouts and screams filled the air but the farmers on the beach didn't flinch, they didn't pull back,or run. They waited, and watched, silent. When it seemed that they would die without raising their swords, they began to sing, and their swords raised in unison, and they met the raiders. Malcolm said that the story of Irish warrior poets came from that battle. They fought like warriors from legend, those farmers, stood against over ten times their numbers and they didn't falter, they didn't fall. Boudicca, village elder, stood in the center of the line and his sword seemed to be everywhere. Raiders fell screaming when they got to close, and bodies piled around him. He stood, and his song filled the air like celtic honey, thick and sweet and sad all at once. He sang of the death waiting for them, and the lives who lived because they died, and his men and woman sang the chorus, their voices mixed perfectly, and the raiders cried out in fear and terror .For three hours, it seemed that they would hold the raiders back, until from one of the ships, a single arrow sped through the air and pierced Boudicca's throat, and the giant farmer fell, and the song faltered. The raiders,seeing them falter pressed forward,and the defenders began to fall.

All hope had seemed lost, until Aoife's voice had raised in the air, her song enlivened the men around her and they surged towards the raiders. Raiders fell like wheat but the farmers fell as quickly. In the end 15 raiders stood around Aoife, who stood between them, her sword tip in the dirt, her body covered in blood,her clothes hanging from her in shreds. Her eyes, glazed with pain and blood loss, watched them move towards her. She raised her voice in song, and it was an ethereal song, something the gods must have sang through her lips, and she raised her sword and rushed at them. Malcolm watched her slay four of the men before they realized the wounded,dying woman, would take them with her, kill them even as they killed her. Malcolm had told me how he had rushed foreword, as fast as he could, but to slow, he knew he would be to slow.

He watched the sword pierce her belly, watched as she hit her knees,even then,she buried her sword into the throat of her killer, and then Malcolm was on them. He tore them apart, the remnants of an army who met a group of farmers on a long forgotten beach, men who came to slaughter farmers, but instead learned that celtic men,and women, would die before they ran, they learned to late, that warrior poets never died alone. Malcolm knelt in the blood of those he had slaughtered and held the dying body of a woman who had made him feel alive for the first time in a hundred years, and he bit into her neck, then bit his own wrist, and let his blood fill her mouth,until her heart stopped at last.

“Aoife....”She raised her hand and I shut up,eyes wide. Her voice was soft, and in it,I heard the song, that had touched Malcolm, caused him to turn her into a vampire, the voice of the gods. “I loved Elanor...for three hundred years she was my heart, my lover, my wife in all but name. Those were different times, women couples are rarely accepted now, in those days...but we made it work. We loved each other,and for us, that was enough. I fought battles to the death, against vampires who were much older then I, in those days, it was legal for us to steal Ana'ladi or Ana'nuy from each other, but only by killing the vampire they are bonded to. I shared everything with her,and her with me...but the bond we had...it was only heart deep..while us...me and you...our bond is soul deep. We are soul mates, when everything was created, and life began, our soul was one, and was fractured...our bond rejoined them together. I know, what I feel for you, makes you uncomfortable....but we are meant to be together, if not as lovers, then as what we are...” She looked at me at last,her eyes full of tears, as we relived her memories, and her feeling together. “I would give you the stars in the sky to wear on your throat, hang the moon from your cute little belly button piercing, I would do anything you wished, give you anything. I know you don't want that from me, so I will give you everything you will allow. If I could stop the joining of our minds, to keep you happy I would...When I saw you at the gathering...I wanted you, as a replacement for Elanor...you were her twin sister, born 300 years after she died...and yes, I hunted you, as carefully as ive ever hunted anyone or anything. I wanted you, not for you...but to replace what I had lost...”

She was on her knees and I went to her, I felt her pain, felt her need, and I went to her,and she buried her face against my belly, and I stroked her hair,singing a soft song whose words I didn't know, but she remembered from her childhood. I didn't know what to say, or how to say it, I couldn't be what she wanted, I loved her, loved how she made me feel. My whole life Id dreamed of being someones whole world...being the most cherished thing in their life, the center of their being. Now I had that, and I was to scared to accept it...maybe I was old fashioned, but I still wanted my happily ever after to be with Prince Charming, not Princess Charming...”Im so sorry Aoife...if I could be what you want...I would..I....”

Her finger on my lips silenced me, and tears ran down my face,and I knew what she was going to say before she said it, she knew I did, and she said it anyway, and my heart broke as her words washed over me. “My little pixy, knowing that you love me, even as a sister, makes me happier then I have been in three centuries. You are happy, and that is all I want...

I held her as tightly as I could, face buried in her hair, and cried,and she held me and cried against me. I don't know how long we were there, but somewhere in the middle of it all, the tears washed something clean inside of us. It didn't make the pain go away, but it purified it, changed it from a crippling disease into something that made us stronger, strengthened our bond. In the end we fell asleep in each others arms, laying on the floor. We slept and shared a dream. In the dream we were a couple, and lived in a small house on a cliff. We sat outside on swing, watching the sun set over the ocean, I snuggled against her, her arms wrapped around me, keeping me safe. We didn't speak in the dream, didnt do anything but hold each other, and enjoy the sunset. I woke up slowly, still resting in her arms, and thought of the dream as I looked at her sleeping face,so close to mine.

“i'm so fucked.” Yup my eloquent words to start the day. It wasn't me waking up in the arms of a woman, that was happening more and more, or even how conflicted I was. It was because now I was scared, not of all the bad guys who were out to get us, but because while we slept, I realized something. We were becoming one person with two bodies. I was losing myself, Aoife was losing herself...I knew because she knew...and she didn't know how to stop it. I knew what would happen...eventually our minds would join, or meld in a weird star trek Q kinda way, and we wouldn't be us anymore...we would be something else, not truly vampire, not human...but something. I had lived the fairly tail...I was bonded, and even more I was bonded to my soul mate. It was going to destroy me.

“Tell me whats bothering you, before I give you the bad news.” I jerked and let out a little scream as Cas spoke,surprising me.

“Just give me the bad news Cas, i don't have time to go over everything going through my head at the moment..”

I laughed softly pulling away from Aoife and sitting cross legged on the floor beside her, Cas lowering herself across from me, almost like we were kids again, and there wasn't a centuries old vampire sleeping behind me.

“Well, we got a package from the Council...its a large folder, with pictures of a man, it lists his habits, favorite shows...shit Juli it even has his favorite color and prefered sex positions. Im not sure I even want to know why they think we need some of this information...but it came with a note that we are to call Trevor Douglas as soon as your Mistress wakes, or your lives will be forfeit. Where are this people from that they call Aoife your Mistress, like your her property or somthing...”She shakes her head, leafing through the folder.

“Legally she is my possession, with no rights outside of those I choose to give her” I didn't jump this time, Cassie did, I had known Aoife was awake for a while now, though it was hours earlier then she had ever woken before.

“Why are you awake so early? You nearly scared the shit out of me, and that slave ownership crap is so 200 years ago.”

“im not sure what has woken me...but someone call Trevor...lets find out who we are looking for...”