Swamp Kings 2 (Bayou Bishops #20)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Bishop looked up, eyeing Seer as he made his way to him and lowered to his ear. “Beth needs you.”

Panic shot him out of his seat and Seer gripped his shoulder. “I’m not supposed to tell you, but you need to know she’s experiencing symptoms she’s too afraid to tell you.” His hand bit harder when Bishop tried to hurry out. “She needs you .”

Bishop knew exactly what he meant and wasn’t sure how to tell Seer that he needed her in the same explosive way. The problem was, they were two missiles heading for one another and when they clashed, he wasn’t sure what would happen.

“You’ll find a way, son,” he assured, seeing his struggle while not needing details.

“Oui,” he muttered, grateful for their unspoken bond more than ever .

Seer squeezed his neck before Bishop hurried out. He was right. She needed him and that was all there was to it. Whatever was fighting to eat through his skin to get to her no longer needed to try.

He entered the main cabin and Beth’s swollen eyes felt like daggers in his chest. He looked at Maggie. “You mind riding up front for a bit?”

She turned a worried look to Beth, getting her smile and nod then shot out like somebody eager for a change of scenery.

He pulled Beth up from the sofa and led her to the back, opening the door to the private room and guiding her inside. He locked it and turned, finding her sitting on the bed, looking down at her fretting hands in her lap.

He slowly sat next to her and decided he should tell her then realized he wasn’t sure how. He lowered his head as his blood pumped in his veins like it fueled a freight train. “I know what you’re feeling and how strong it is,” he started, feeling her gaze raise on him. He met it, their stares holding for several seconds. “I’m… scared of this po wer in me. In us.” He slid his hand over his face with a sigh, lowering his gaze again. “I’m fucking terrified of it,” he corrected. “I don’t… understand it, I don’t know it, but… at the same time…”

“You know it’s right,” she whispered.

He angled his head at her, nodding. “With every fiber of my being.”

She swallowed and looked down. “I think… it’s him,” she whispered.

He turned toward her a little. “Who?”

She moved her gaze a foot toward him. “The baby.”

An odd emotion punched him at what that could mean.

Her eyes rose to his with troubled brows. “I think… he needs it.”

“Needs what?”

She wet her lips, her gaze lowering to his mouth. “Your… whatever he gets when you bite me.”

He stared at her, his thoughts entangled with every emotion he possessed until his being was in knots. What did that mean if she was right? “Why?” was all he could wonder, not even sure that was the right question. He regarded her. “Needs... or wants?”

Her stare meandered over his before getting lost in the air between them. “Both. I think. I had another dream about him.”

He turned more to her, his pulse jacking at that news. “Can you tell me?” he asked, remembering to be careful.

She wiped the tears falling now. “He… he was older this time, like… ten maybe.” She gasped a laugh and aimed a smile at him. “He was so beautiful, he looked just like a young you.” She blinked, wiping the fresh tears. He reached for her hand, his chest tight as fuck as his breath held, waiting. “He was building so earnestly, the same thing as before only now it was as tall as him. And then,” she said, her breaths turning shaky. “He suddenly stops. His gaze is still on his important project, then very slowly, almost deliberately like the pause meant something I needed to know, and he turned his eyes to me.” She stared at him. “And the moment our eyes locked,” she gasped, putting her hands on her chest at the memory. “We connected in such… a profound way. Then he said to me… I’m hungry Mah-Mah.”

Her words ended on a sob and Bishop pulled her into a tight embrace, his breaths shuddering through him. “And you think he meant…”

She nodded. “I do. I just…wish I knew why.” She pushed out of his arms, looking at him. “What if something’s wrong with him, what if he’s in trouble? I-I have these cravings and I know that’s normal for most first time pregnancies, but what if it’s because he’s needing something and I’m not providing it, but I can’t just… go around eating charred wood or sucking on pennies, I need to know what he needs and then it hit me, if he’s wanting what you give, what if it’s because I’m not able to give it!”

He took hold of her arms. “Listen to me,” he said. “I want to try something. I want to try just biting you to see if you notice a difference in any way.” He eyed her face, still gripped in terror. “Okay? We can try this, oui?” She gave a tiny nod, and he tugged her face to his, kissing her softly with soothing coos. “We can try this. If it works, then anytime you feel the need, you just ask me and I will give it.”

She slowly lowered her head, nodding. “Okay.” She wiped her face. “So you just… want to bite me and not… have sex?”

Oh fuck. “No-no-no,” he hurried at the barely bridled devastation in her voice. “Of course we’ll have sex.”

“We’ll have sex,” she repeated on a mumble, nodding. “Guess… we’ll call it that.”

“We’ll call it whatever you want to call it, baby,” he assured, hating where her head was.

“But what do you want to call it?” she wondered, like it was the more important riddle. “Do we have two types now? Sex and… fucking?” She covered her mouth then wiped her face, appearing trapped in herself. While he sat there. Stupid and fucking clueless in this. “Is there even a difference to you?” She covered her face with both hands, growling. “I hate my fucking brain right now, it’s…” She tapped her palm against her forehead. “Everywhere, it won’ t stop, it won’t shut up. And even with all that, I could… literally… fuck you all night long.” She angled her red eyes at him, nodding as her chin quivered. “While the world burns,” she whispered, like she knew it was way off the fucking rails.

“Here’s what we’re doing,” he said softly. “You’re going to get naked. And I’m going to make love to you.” Her short burst of laughter paused him.

“You?” she softly marveled. “Make love?”

He didn’t know what to do with that. He didn’t know why she said it, what it meant to her. “I will find a way to do what’s needed, Beth. To protect you, to protect our baby.”

She shot off the bed, pacing in the small space next to him, her arms tightly crossed. “We fuck to feed, we fuck to protect. Will we ever fuck because we love each other?”

“Beth,” he breathed, his body churning with fucking agony. “You know... how much I love you,” he reminded her.

She sat back down and moved her hair. “Bite me, just… bite me this time.”

“Beth. ”

“Bite me!” she screamed at him. “If he needs it, then we give him what he needs first and then we fuck!” Her brows raised. “Okay?”

He nodded, swallowing down his fear of what was happening to her. To them. “Okay.”

He leaned slowly to her neck and slid her hair further back then carefully set his fingers on her lower jaw for leverage, not really sure how this was supposed to work outside of sex. It didn’t feel right, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. He eyed the vein he wanted, lowering his mouth to the spot, waiting for his fangs to engage. Nothing. His heart beat against his chest as he kissed along the skin, hoping to trigger whatever mechanism happened to bring the otherworldly urge to tear into her flesh and drink from her vein.

He pressed his lips on the silky skin, licking. Tasting. Lightly sucking.

“Do you have to kiss it?” she strained, the tremble in her breath stirring something in him.

He moved his mouth along the length of her neck, his arousal now competing with whatever the fuck he was attempting.

“What are you doing?” she demanded in pained frustration.

“I’m trying to bite you,” he said, tightening his fingers on her jaw. “It doesn’t seem to just work when I tell it to.”

“What?” she whispered, her agitation not helping.

“It has a will, a purpose, and it’s not just biting you, it needs….” He opened his mouth more and sucked the muscle on her neck, moaning at the change in her breaths. “It needs your lust.” He forced her head back more and sucked hard again, her moan picking at the lock. “That’s it,” he whispered, turning her face to his and devouring her mouth. “It exists to feed your body. Your every craving. And mine.”

He stood and removed his jacket, then his thermal shirt, then his t-shirt. He was on his pants, staring at the lust blooming on her face as she waited for the very heart of her craving to appear. The second it did, she flew to her knees and devoured his cock deep into her mouth. Her nails ripped the flesh along his abs before wrapping her fingers around the base, moaning with a hunger that sounded furious.

He set his foot on the bed and opened so fucking wide as his eyes rolled with the unfurling power. Grabbing hold of her head, he fisted the silk way too fucking hard, bringing his drunk gaze down, watching his cock move in and out of her desperate mouth. “Suck it,” he seethed, pressing the head against her throat in answer to the building lust. It rose with every beat of their heart, every strained, desperate moan. Rising and climbing, it filled his lungs and breaths while carving its name on his bones.

Bishop felt the moment when it reached a pinnacle. He pulled his wife to her feet, barely aware he was undressing her. The seconds blurred with moans and blood lust as he covered her body with his and she devoured his mouth in turn.

The pierce of her nails on his body brought the plunge of his cock. As he fucked her, the power grew, like a dragon drawing fuel into its lungs. Without warning, it released it through his blood and bones, then filled his fangs, turning him into a viper. He plunged the burning incisors into her neck with a blind precision then grabbed her hair and began the exchange--his essence for her blood, his power for her weakness, his pleasure for her pain, his food for her hunger.

And his soul for her heart.

****

Mabel broke free of the meaty hand, and the bodies before her parted as she tumbled into the main arena. She took in the astonished faces then locked eyes with the three girls she’d worried about. They sat at the front row, eyes wide and fearful on her. Mabel’s gaze lowered to wooden plaques on chains hanging from their necks. At reading the ugly word scrawled on its surface, anger steamrolled right over her fear and sped her forward. She came to a halt in the center of their wicked circus, pointing at the girls while looking around. “Why are they wearing those?”

Heated murmurs filled the room, accusations that had nothing to do with the wood plaques but all about her. She nodded, looking around. “That’s right, I’m not mute. I can speak.”

The words outsider, worldly influence, and terms that amounted to lying heathen rolled across the room now.

She turned and faced the speaker. “Brother Jakob, I am sorry, but… please hear me out.” She held his sincere dark gaze now filled with doubt and disappointed confusion. “You remember the day you found me on the side of the road, and you thought I was mute because of the trauma. I didn’t correct you because the truth was, I was terrified to speak. I didn’t know who you were or what you might do to me, so I kept quiet till I knew more.”

“Well, that’s hardly a crime,” some woman said behind her, sparking more murmurs that seemed less heated.

Mabel hurried while the tide was in her favor. “I intended to tell but I found being mute put a necessary distance between me and your community. I thought that was a good thing given our differences.” She turned to the girls. “Then I began getting to know all of you. Those darling girls there with the word vanity hanging around their necks. They reminded me of my purpose. Truth is, I’m a nurse by passion more than trade. I love people and I love helping those in need and I do not ever discriminate in my duties. While I may not be of the same religion as you, we share a common ground in things that are humane.” She looked all around, gathering her strength before she cowered before the sea of faces. “I don’t know who spoke out earlier about the teeth but I as a nurse, as a trained health care professional, can assure you that it is against God’s good nature to pull perfectly sound teeth for the sake of saving money. By your own religious laws, I cannot understand how you justify removing a part of the temple of Christ for the sake of saving filthy lucre. Where is the faith in that?”

Voices erupted with the woman from earlier ahead of the rest. “You know she speaks soundly,” she called, looking around while her husband sat next to her with his head hanging like he’d lost control of the ship and was ashamed. Which was ridiculous of itself !

“She can go with the Shunned,” somebody yelled. “We don’t need outsiders.”

“We can’t shun these girls during this dangerous crisis,” another woman yelled.

“They can stay in the Cleansing Hall. Those are the rules, crisis or no crisis,” one of the men at the long table assured.

“Why are you putting them out?” Mabel yelled above the racket. “What is their sin, their crime?”

“Their crime is shaving their legs!” a woman’s shrill voice rose, followed by a sob that made Mabel gasp.

She marched to the table of men and pointed at them. “You protectors of the flock are okay with pulling perfectly good teeth from your daughter’s mouths for the sake of money no less, but then call it a crime to remove hair from their legs? This is hypocrisy!”

Mabel caught the hard look of one of the men who gave a single nod to somebody behind her. She spun around right as men grabbed hold of her arms. “You’re going to drag me out now? Because I’ve spoken the truth? You going to burn me at the stake?” She fought not to trip as they hurried her through the parted crowd. “Well, I don’t bloody care, you can burn me at the stake, I’ll not be quiet about it.” She fought to turn. “And neither should you! All you mothers and fathers! Brothers! Where is your common sense, your humanity, your faith! You’re hurting me,” she barked to those dragging her. “I thought it was against your religion to engage in the harming of another! And yet you beat your own children!? Don’t they count as people? Or do you see them as animals? Do you see them as cattle? Things to own?” she screamed around sobs of rage. “What are you going to do with those girls?” she demanded of the tormented looking one on her left. She regarded the one on her right. “What will happen to them? They’re just children!”

“You knew our laws,” the angry one growled as they marched her down the path to the outer gates. “You should have kept your mute mouth shut.”

“They’ll go to the Cleansing Hall,” the boy-man on her left said. “But in regard to you, Jakob is instructed us to let the lost find their own way.”

“You can go be with The Shunned that curse the woods.”

Fear pinged along every nerve in her numb body. She’d heard them say that name around the community. “Who will protect the girls?” she demanded, turning her mind to what she could do something about. “Please, let me stay with them to help them. I’ll watch over them.”

“God will watch over them,” the mean one muttered, like he hoped they got struck down and taught a lesson.

“When will they put the girls out?” she whispered.

“Midnight,” the mean one said as the massive iron door erupted with a deep groan upon opening.

She peered at the darkness just beyond it. She wanted to ask about her things but remembered she owned nothing. She would not beg. Or cower. She yanked free of the one on her left and marched through the gate. Once through, she turned, finding the nicer one watching her.

“Make your way to the road. Stay as far from the woods as you can.”

Her heart hammered in her chest at the low warning. She spun around to the forest behind her, fighting not to panic. She made out a lone path covered in snow that might be the road, she couldn’t remember. Nothing looked the same in winter.

But dear God, it ran directly next to the forest she was supposed to stay away from.

****

Beth’s eyes popped open, then she shot up in bed at hearing yelling. She scrambled toward the door, her heart beating too hard as she fought to get her clothes back on.

“We’re just passing through, we don’t want trouble,” she heard a deep voice say. Was that a loudspeaker?

She fought her way into her sweater then yanked on the winter cargo pants. Who was passing through?

She raced out the door and literally ran into Maggie. “Back in the room, hurry! ”

“What’s wrong,” Beth gasped, fighting to get back through the door.

“There’s a small army of people blocking the road. With guns. I can’t reach Spook.”

“Where’s Bishop!”

“He’s trying to negotiate passage.” Maggie sat, her tears falling, the sight of it bringing Beth’s as she hurried to her.

“He’s probably hiding if there’s trouble,” she whispered, hugging her.

“We are not coming out of our vehicle,” Beth heard Bishop say. “Now, move or we will move you.”

Oh God.

“Why wouldn’t he call and warn about this?” she whispered. “Unless something happened to him?”

“There could be a lot of reasons,” Beth said, trying to think of one as she hurried to the window in the room.

“Don’t!” Maggie gasped. “If they see you, it could be worse.”

The door opened and Seer entered with a rifle, silencing them with a finger at his mouth, before turning the light off.

“What’s happening?” Beth whispered, shaking.

“Armed militia. Twenty-two strong. Stay quiet, they’re handling it,” he breathed, winded.