Anita Blake

"I heard that," Richard murmured with breathless exertion as he puts all his strength and effort to helping keep Damian pinned. There's a note just under the exertion, faint and barely there. Color him not the happiest by the little turn of events.

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When you shielded from Damian's fear, you did it too well, Jean-Claude explains, this time opening the communication to all of them now that he recognizes the others in his head. You have cut him off from your power. You need to drop your shields.

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nathaniel_kitten

Nathaniel makes a shocked sound through gritted teeth.

"Did I just hear Jean-Claude in my head?"

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anita_blake

"Yes," Anita grinds out. "It seems we're all one, big, happy fucking family."

Anita struggles with Damian, and she knows they'll all tire out long before he does.

So what the hell do I do? We're all right here! she sends between the three minds that are still aware.

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Drop your shields, he repeats. They are keeping your power from him.

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anita_blake

It is so simple.

Anita had spent months with Marianne learning how to shield, how to think of metal or water or rock to keep the thoughts she didn't want shared to herself. What Anita hadn't really understood until just this moment was how to not shield, how to remove them. She used to think of doors or walls, which are easy to open or see crumble, but how do you crumble metal or open water?

It isn't about that, she realizes as she holds tightly to Damian. It's about not thinking about metal. As soon as she stops thinking about it, the rage of Damian pours into her.

No, not rage. Rage implies anger, fury, thought. This... Anita had been thinking she was slowly going crazy in this detached manner over the previous months, but staring into what she is now, she knows crazy isn't detached.

Crazy is fucking crazy with no logic to it at all.

One moment she's worried about keeping Damian's mouth off Richard, off Nathaniel, and the next, she's drowning in feeling and impulse.

Trapped, trapped by hands, trapped to the floor, trapped while hunger is a fire in our gut. Feed, we must feed, fresh blood so close, warm and willing and waiting for our teeth. And there is pain, such pain, ripping through our skin, devouring us from the inside out, and we must feed--

Anita screams, but she knows the sound leaving her throat will never be loud enough, never be long enough, to exercise what she's just felt. Nathaniel's scream is right there with hers, just as tortured, and she wonders if they're all going to drown in their own blood as Damian consumes them utterly.

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Richard doesn't scream, his reaction to that feeling of drowning in that hunger comes out a low feral snarl. Both he and his wolf trying to fight that consuming tide in his head. A buck from the vampire pulling his focus to that, to making sure that he doesn't get up from between the three of them.

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Jean-Claude feels the change and is instantly aware of the mistake he had made in underestimating the situation. Damian was much farther gone than he had anticipated. He throws his own shields between them and Damian, not as tight as Anita's had been, but enough to silence the raging hunger flooding the links.

Forgive me, ma petite. I had not realized what dropping your shields would do to you. He has become revenant. You must rebind him as you did before. Give him your blood, and speak the words over him.

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anita_blake

Anita knows Jean-Claude has shared this information with both Nathaniel and Richard. Blood and words.

That's all.

She looks at everyone, at the blood covering herself, Nathaniel, Damian, Richard. All of them, coated in the red liquid. And then Damian bucks, hard enough to dislodge Nathaniel, sending the wereleopard sprawling. Richard's weight isn't enough to keep Damian down, and Anita has a split second to decide.

"Damian!" she shouts, waving her arms. "I'm here!"

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It isn't so much the use of his name that gets Damian's attention, but the movement of Anita's arms. Free from the other two, he falls for the distraction in an instant and barrels into Anita, not even hearing her shout to the others to allow him to get to her.

He crashes into her with otherworldly speed, sending them both to the floor. There is no resistance this time, so he carelessly strikes out, his teeth plunging into the soft flesh between Anita's neck and shoulder.

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anita_blake

It's been a long time since she's been bitten with rolling or sex involved, and so Damian's bite is excruciating. It takes everything Anita has not to scream with the pain of it.

Gregory, half-shifted, stands over her, ready to pull Damian off, and Anita wraps her arms and one leg around him. "No!" she gasps. "You'll do more damage pulling him off me than leaving him."

"He's going to kill you," Gregory warns in the half-human voice.

Damian presses his mouth deeper into her, forcing her to groan with the pain. "When I need help, I'll ask for it!"

Anita focuses herself, focuses on Damian and the feel of their bodies, the feel of his mind. "Damian," she says, her voice so soft, so gentle compared to what he was doing to her throat. His eyes closed, his weight simply resting atop her as he feeds, Damian doesn't immediately react. "Damian," Anita says again.

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Though Anita may not realise it, there is power behind her words despite the soft tone. That power calls Damian back to himself. It isn't instantly freeing as far as the madness is concerned, but more of a tentative sanity.

The slow return of his ability to reason makes the realisation of his position and the blood of his mistress down his throat less jarring than it might have been otherwise. Damian's grip on her softens, and his eyes open as he turns just a little so she can see him looking at her out of the corner of her eye.

He doesn't let the wound go, but he draws on it more gently, his own power sparking to tentative life, trying to take away some of the pain he has caused.

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anita_blake

She's thankful that the pain eases, and she sags against the floor in relief. But just as she's thanking God for small miracles, she realizes they're both naked.

And Damian has fed.

Anita feels the thickness of him against her, hard and insistent.

With Richard but a few feet away.

Fear fills Anita, but it's a different fear from the one she'd felt moments ago. It's fear of moving, of making everything worse... or better, because she can feel her pulse, matched by Damian's, shared. Magic, power coursing through them, bound in the blood Damian drank. The power suffocates her, even as she remembers it vividly the last time she'd bound him to her.

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With the sanity come the emotions, and they well up in Damian the more he becomes aware of himself. His bloodthirst has been sated enough that it doesn't scratch at his mind like a beast clawing to be free, but the skin hunger he has felt for Anita ever since they became metaphysically bound flares to life in a blaze that he can't deny, even though he fears it.

One hand tentatively glides down Anita's side, his fingers spread wide to take in as much of her skin with the single touch as he possibly can. He marvels at finding their bodies pressed together without any barriers. It may not be the first time he has pressed himself to her without clothing in the way, but it feels so very real, so very raw and wonderful.

He has wanted to feel this lack of boundaries with her for so very long. The loneliness of the desire wells up in him like a great echoing abyss waiting to be filled. His mind is open to hers, his spirit close, though still only a heartbeat away from madness.

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Richard had gotten up and on his feet slowly, watching everything between Anita and Damian. Something in him relaxes just a little because the vampire seems to be himself again. He's honestly not sure exactly how to feel, with the two new additions to their bond. He can already feel that spike of jealousy, of unhappiness with the two of them naked on the floor that way, with his hand running down her.

He doesn't actually make a sound though, not inturrputing them because whether he's unhappy with it or not, Jean-Claude's already said she has to rebind Damian.

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anita_blake

Anita moves her hand down Damian's back, and she's no longer holding him. It's more an intimate embrace now.

"Blood of my blood," she murmurs around the tears in her throat as she feels that yawning loneliness inside Damian.

When he brings his mouth close to hers, ready to seal the binding with a kiss, but as he shifts atop her, he also moves the length of his erection against her groin. Anita gasps, writhes, and all she can think of is to seal this pact in a much more personal way, with him thrusting all of that into her and--

Then Nathaniel's hand is on hers, and Anita is pulled back from Damian's thoughts with a gasp.

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nathaniel_kitten

Nathaniel is quick to put himself close to them, his hand on Anita's, his body as close to them as he can press it. Yes, he can feel Damian's need to finally take Anita, but he's pretty sure this isn't how it should be. Anita will feel humiliated and Damian will feel chastised and he'll feel jealous.

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The sudden proximity of Nathaniel makes Damian's eyes bleed back to that emerald shade with only a pinprick of pupil. The way he snarls at Nathaniel is a clear indication that his hold on sanity is very fragile. He would only want Nathaniel closer if he were in his right mind.

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Jean-Claude feels Damian in his head, knows that he is very close to tipping back into that rampaging madness. You must finish binding him, ma petite. Begin again and complete the oath.

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anita_blake

Anita can feel Jean-Claude's fear for her very life should Damian be lost again, and she nods, though the master vampire can't see it.

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Richard had been slowly making his way over to them. Slower than required, as to not pull attention to himself. He kneels next to Anita, though his good arm doesn't reach out for her. "I'm here, Anita," his tone holds that war of being completely unsure of how he feels. But he wants to be close in case something goes wrong.

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anita_blake

Oh, this was just great... great and utterly awkward.

Anita shoves aside any feeling of embarrassment, though, because she can feel that tenuous hold Damian has just as the vampire snarls at Richard. Enough was fucking enough.

"Blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh," she says, determined to regain Damian's attention.

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Emerald eyes snap back to Anita from Richard, and each word pulls him more firmly back to this side of sanity. The need to be close to her, impossibly close, is overwhelming, and he doesn't have the strength to battle against it like he has in the past. His body shifts against hers, his erection sliding close, but not entering. He can feel the warmth of her chest against his own, their heartbeats synchronized.

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anita_blake

Suddenly, Anita is overwhelmed by the need that more than just a kiss is needed. It simply rages over her like hot wind over the desert, and for a moment she thinks they've managed to raise the ardeur.

But then she hears it.

Two heartbeats.

Two needs.

Two needs she's been ignoring for months now, pushing aside, making excuses to never face. Damian's need and...

And Nathaniel's. She turns her head to look at the wereleopard whose lavender eyes are simply filled with that need. His pain at rejection and isolation and judgment are there for her to see in his very soul, just as it is in Damian's, and her love for them makes that pain her own. There will be no more pushing them away, she understands, and she holds Nathaniel's desperate gaze with her own.

"Breath to breath," she says, never looking away from Nathaniel. "My heart to yours."

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