I sure as hell didn’t consider it rape, and double standard or not I would consider a male witch doing it to a woman as rape, every single time. That was probably wrong, but I knew I didn’t feel abused over it, not in the least. In fact, I kind of wished she’d do it to me again, it’d been wild.

  “Alright, let’s head inside.”

  We got out of the car.

  The neighborhood we were in was all mansions on at least acre plots if not bigger. It wasn’t the richest section, where they had tens of acres and walls around the property, but the mansions were definitely in the million-dollar range, and most of them had three floors.

  There was no need for her to tell me what house either, I could feel them in there. They didn’t feel entirely natural to my water magic connection to life, which was probably another reason the ancient druids had taken exception with their existence. It didn’t bother me though, it just didn’t feel like anything else I was connected to.

  The life inside of them clearly wasn’t their own, and I could sense all of their lives were bound to the master vampire, and in this case that master vampire was female. I could get that much from the water magic. Of course, I was also picking up four humans, maybe the other two were out to the store or something.

  Their mansion was varying shades of gray stone, but I was fairly sure it was just a facing, not really all stones of various shapes cemented into outer walls. The front yard itself was close to an acre as we headed down the walk, and there were wood columns holding up the awning above the stairway and stoop. The yard was meticulously maintained, the landscaping quite beautiful including several bushes and trees, as well as a rock garden.

  It looked like somewhere a VP or board member of a large corporation might live, not a nest of vampires. Or kiss of vampires.

  I knocked, and I felt one of the humans approaching the front door. Which wasn’t a surprise, the sun was still up, so it was doubtful one of the vampires would’ve risked it. Especially if their preternatural senses had identified what we all were.

  A young man opened the door, maybe a couple of years older than me. He looked athletic in a pair of workout clothes, with blond hair and blue eyes. He looked us all over, his eyes lingering on the ladies far longer than they had on me.

  “Can I help you with something, you don’t look like typical salesmen.”

  I chuckled, “We’re not. My name is Brendan Collins, this is Rosaria and Nora. I have business with your master if she’ll consent to see me. You can tell her I’m a druid, Rosaria water Fae, and Nora is a witch.”

  He looked unsure, but a feminine voice called out, “Show them to my study, Brent,” her tones pleasant with a musical quality.

  He nodded, “This way,” and waved us in.

  He closed the door after we’d gone past, and then he led us down the hall to her study on the left side. There were four other vampires in the room with her, but I didn’t take that as a bad sign. She could’ve refused to meet us, or even met us with all of them together in the living room. Four guards for the master of the house just seemed prudent, given what we were.

  I’d been prepared for beauty when I walked in. Vampires were created after all, culled from humanity, and shallow or not ugly or out of shape people just weren’t chosen for immortality. Nora had explained it. They were careful about who they turned, and observed and tested candidates for a time, but to even get on the list as a potential they had to be on the rare end of the beauty scale, much like Rosaria and Nora.

  Even the four men in the room were handsome enough for me to take notice, a straight male who wasn’t usually a good judge of such things.

  Regardless, the vampire master was as stunning as my lovers. She was standing behind her desk with a reserved look on her face. She was around five foot seven, with light reddish brown wavy hair and surprisingly warm hazel eyes. Her face had a severe beauty, with high prominent cheekbones, and a thin face, with light tan perfect skin and naturally red lips that were slightly bowed, the bottom one just approaching plump.

  She was wearing a black dress fine enough that it suggested she was ready to go out that night already, just waiting for the sun to go down. It was elegantly sexy, showing just about a third of her heart shaped C cup cleavage. Her body was perfect, in an average way. Not lush, lithe, nor athletic, but a perfect hourglass of thirty-six C, twenty-four, thirty-six that spoke deeply to my instincts as a man. She had a regal commanding bearing as she looked us over.

  In short, she was really stunning, and I felt a little off balance for a moment, until I pulled it together. I’d been expecting beauty, but she was as superbly exquisite as my lovers, if in a completely different way. Forget the catwalk in Paris, she’d have those ladies crying into their pillows in despair at night.

  The fact she was a vampire helped though, I imagined any man lucky enough to be her lover was also food, which helped my libido to lay back down a bit. A little, anyway. I just really hoped the five vampires in the room couldn’t scent my sudden wrestling with my arousal, like in the pop fiction books. Well, if they could, they were probably used to it.

  She nodded regally, “I am Katerina, it is an unexpected pleasure to make your acquaintance, Brendan. Would you care to take a seat?”

  Her voice had a musical quality that was alluring if not outright seductive, but in the room with her I also detected the slight Russian accent. Very slight.

  She waved her hand at the chairs, “You may sit if you wish,” as she took a seat in her chair behind the desk.

  I didn’t want to be rude, but there were only two chairs in front of her desk.

  Nora said, “I’ll stand,” in a slightly wary voice.

  Katerina smiled knowingly, but she lost that look when I took a few steps forward and plopped down casually in the guest chair. I’d definitely shocked her with that move, as I would guess her guards could snap my neck before I could even think of standing back up.

  “I stopped by hoping to get our relationship off on the right foot. I’ve come to learn our people haven’t always been… kind to each other.”

  Katerina said, “I can assure you of that truth, since I am quite experienced with dealing with threats from your kind.”

  Oh, shit, the hottie was over five hundred years old. All I could think for a second was she must be amazing in the sack with all that experience. A little shallow, but trust me, any guy would be thinking that just being in the same room with her. My cock was trying to convince me being a blood snack would be so worth it to tap that.

  I nodded, “Our bad, as they say in this century. I have to admit it seems pretty clear it was out of fear of what was different, prejudice, and maybe even outright misplaced hatred and racism. I don’t know how vampires feel about us, when we’re not being assholes, but there you have it.”

  She raised an eyebrow, “You are serious?”

  I said, “I was born in this century, just twenty-one years ago. The century of acceptance of differences, live and let live philosophies, and minding your own business. There is some intolerance remaining out there, but not for me. Our business shouldn’t ever conflict, and I think we can both live in this city in harmony, at least when I’m not doing my duty out in the sticks. That whole abomination shtick is bullshit, and none of our aims or needs cross, so I really see no reason we should be at odds.”

  I hated to admit it, but clearly the druids of the past had been in the wrong, when it came to this feud.

  She shook her head, “I truly did not expect a peaceful overture. When I procured the stone, which is really why you’re here, I knew one day a druid would come to claim it. I expected a fight, not… this. I can tell you are honest, and I think that maybe we could get along. But you won’t be the last and only druid line anymore if I give you the stone and you complete the renewal ceremony. I don’t believe all the rest of your kind will be so openminded, so why should I take the risk.”

  I tilted my head, “I can’t guarantee they won’t, there are too many idiots living out there to do that. But I can say I’ll make an effort, at least in our city, to ensure no druids come for you or your kiss.”

  Her concern was clearly for her people, I got the idea if they were safe Katerina would agree to work with me.

  She bit her lip in thought, then asked, “What level of effort?”

  “That’s entirely up to you I think, and what you would be willing to do for me. Without some kind of give and take, I think the most I’d dare do is tell them to cut it out. Tell them to get to work on what was important. Try to persuade them you’re an exception in death, not a mockery of life. That much I could do, for nothing in return except the druid stone.”

  She leaned back, “Are you suggesting you would make an alliance with me and my kiss, and support such an alliance even against other druids if they attack me here? You would choose us over your own kind?”

  I snorted, “That makes it sound bad, I’m not a traitor to my race, I’m a supporter of my ideals, principles, and morals. Humans fight all the time over their differences, why would being a druid be any different? What people are is meaningless to me, I don’t care that you’re a vampire, I care what you believe. Who they are, what they stand for, and their integrity matter far more than having a similar brand of magic. No, I would choose the right thing over the wrong thing. The right thing in this case is siding with the one that isn’t a racist piece of garbage, to our mutual protection and defense. Of course, that means if vampires come knocking on my door, or even a wizard bothers either of us, we’d help each other out.”

  She smiled, “Tempting, and you are correct. I have no quarrel with a druid’s nature, only their assessment of ours and their incessant attacks. I didn’t mean to offend you, I just wanted to clarify your standing. It is tempting, but why should I? I won’t need your alliance, and to risk betrayal, if I just keep a hold of the stone. One druid no matter how strong is no threat to my kiss, even with a witch’s help.”

  I nodded, “I thought you might feel that way. But have you noticed how the world is dying a slow death? The jungles shrinking at an alarming rate, and the deserts expanding. The loss of more and more species to extinction. That’s not because of global warming, like the human’s think, or not just due to higher CO2 levels.

  “The spirits that were hidden to save the druid lines and the nature spirits themselves from the inquisition aren’t just the druid’s power source. They also balance life on the world. The world got on okay for five hundred years without us and the spirits watching over and cleansing the natural world, but their absence is starting to take its toll on the world over this last century.

  “Immortal or not, you can’t survive if you let the world die, and your food source would die with it dooming you all to an eternity in a torpor, until the sun finally turns you all into cinders in about a billion years or two. Sounds like hell, to me. I know you don’t trust the druids, but the world needs us, as well as the spirits banished to sanctuary.”

  One of the male guards growled, but he shut up immediately when Katerina waved a hand in his direction.

  She frowned at me, and not detecting a single lie with her nose, then looked up at Rosaria, as if in hope that I was just wrong about it.

  Rosaria nodded, “He speaks the truth. I find his attitude toward vampires strange given our past, but upon reflection not at all inconsistent with nature and his duties.”

  Katerina sighed, “I had not known that, and it seems I have little choice. But I do have a choice in how we move forward together, and I will take your assistance and offer my own, in self-defense situations only. I won’t be hunting druids who leave me alone, and I don’t believe you’ll be hunting other vampires, but it’s just prudent to lay it all out so there are no misunderstandings later on. Defense assist only.”

  “How does that work exactly.”

  Katerina stood, and held out her hand, “On our word, which will be sufficient. We can both recognize deceit with our abilities, and we both are the leader of our houses.”

  Damn, so no treaty orgy celebration to seal the deal. Yes, she really was just that hot. I was also a little worried all the sex I’d gotten the last two days was giving me a one-track mind. Part of it may have been Nora’s magical seduction, and me claiming both of them possessively like an animal. I was closer to my primitive self as a druid, more in touch with my nature as a man. Not quite uncivilized, but at the same time I had one foot in the wilderness, and the other in the city, if that made sense.

  I stood and shook her hand firmly, her hand both silky smooth and a firm grip, as we shook and I stared into her lovely hazel eyes. Fuck me, I needed to get out of there, before I made a fool of myself by asking her out to dinner to celebrate our union as allies.

  She smiled, “Now, all we need to settle on is the price for the stone. I did buy it fair and square, and that money was likely a part of your inheritance. I can’t just give it back, even if the world does depend on it. It’s a matter of principle.”

  “Do you have anything in mind?” I asked, as I stubbornly did not look down her cleavage. Her scent was alluring too, I was standing really close to her at that moment. I didn’t feel vulnerable or scared, I just felt turned on beyond belief.

  I was going to have to ask the others about this later, I really couldn’t stop thinking about it, which again wasn’t like me. I’d never been that guy, that shallow asshole with a one-track mind that tried to get them all in bed and saw woman as objects to be claimed and owned. But hell if that isn’t exactly what I wanted to do to Katerina. It was wrong, and I felt like I was losing myself to this druid thing, women were to be respected, protected, and cherished. Which I still wanted to do, after I’d taken her as mine, as was my right if I had the strength.

  Which obviously wasn’t going to ever happen, and that last part just wasn’t true. She wasn’t a nature spirit, or a woman offering herself to me with consent, so I had no right, even if I had been stronger, which I wasn’t. I was fairly sure she’d kick my ass, but that wasn’t what stopped me of course, my morals and principles did.

  I was so going to hell. Let’s just say I’d had a litany of fantasies of things I could be doing to her, that didn’t make it onto these pages, and only about half of them also included Nora and Rosaria.

  She tapped her lip thoughtfully, “Perhaps not money, it occurs to me we might come to another arrangement, of trade. How about you cleanse the grounds and the kiss’s human servants, once a year for twenty years.”

  “Five.”

  She said, “Fifteen.”

  “How about ten, that really does seem fair, and I doubt what you paid for a decorative stone as far as the humans were concerned, even comes close to covering the value of ten cleansings.”

  She nodded, “Ten it is.”

  We shook on it, and then she turned and walked to wall, to move a painting to the side and open the safe there. I totally checked her out her ass, which was deliciously rounded. Of course, with my peripheral vision. Mostly so her guards wouldn’t see me perving on their master vampire, because I wasn’t all that sure I wouldn’t have enjoyed her busting me looking.

  When she turned back around, the druid stone was smaller than I was expecting. About six inches square in length and width, and a couple of inches thick. It was also made of Connemara marble, which wasn’t a huge surprise since our ultimate destination was just outside Galway Ireland, where the stuff was common.

  When I reached out for it, she held on to it which made me look up into her eyes with surprise.

  She said warmly, “It is a rare thing for me to be surprised, Mr. Collins. Thank you for not being what I expected and feared. I look forward to our association.”

  Damn, her soft eyes and genuine admiration were giving me really bad ideas. Sure, she was a very dangerous woman, but then so was Nora. That really wouldn’t stop me.

  “Brendan, please.”

  She smiled, “Katerina then,” and then she released the stone and moved back behind her desk.

  “Should we make an appointment for the cleansing, or is now good?”

  Katerina shook her head, “Early AM hours of any day, a couple of hours before sunrise, say next week. It’s the only time all six of my servants are on hand. Just call ahead and let me know, I know you’ll be leaving for Europe so it can wait until you get back.”

  Then she gave me her phone number, which I put into my phone and texted the number with my name only, so she’d have mine. It was just for business reasons, but I still felt like a teen boy that had scored his first hot girl’s number. Ridiculous.

  “Until then,” I said in farewell, and we left.

  Nora waited until we got into the car, then she let me have it, “Damn, you have more balls than brains.”

  I laughed, “It worked, didn’t it?”

  Nora said, “Still, it was a hell of a risk.”

  I shrugged, “I saw a determined woman who was concerned about her people, and who wanted to keep them safe. If I’d sensed any bad or selfish intentions I would not have sat down or offered her an alliance. So, anyone know why I’m suddenly turning into a shallow asshole that objectifies women?”

  Nora giggled in a tinkling voice filled with true amusement, at my honest and baldly plaintive question.

  She explained, “You just had your power released, and the memory of my magic and what it did to you is still sharp, not to mention claiming Rosaria less than twenty-four hours ago. That’s three reasons. You were also cleansed, which means your body is in perfect shape and working in perfect order, and that means your libido is at its peak, more potent than it likely was in your late teens. All four of those things are influencing you, influences you aren’t used to at all yet and haven’t internalized.

  “All boys are pigs in their late teens when they’re first learning to control their libido, you’re just back there for a little bit. You will get a handle on it in a few days, until then you will be a bit of a man slut, in your head at least. It’s normal, and your morals and usual outlook will return, but you’ll always be a little more earthy, you just won’t be thinking about it all the time anymore.”