Testing Jayla Read online

  Moore took Jayla into a small, white-walled cubical that looked far more clinical than anything else she'd seen in the building. After fastening a cyberband around her head, Moore dimmed the lights and left her alone.

  No sooner had the door closed behind her than the device's computer began flooding Jayla's brain with images so dark and erotic she was soon squirming. Women, bound and gagged in various positions as well-hung men tormented them with wicked, erotic skill. Fangs and cocks sinking into flesh, gasps and moans, pleas for mercy and cries for more. Jayla barely managed to keep her hands out from between her thighs, so powerful was the need to relieve the sexual tension the images created.

  When the test finally ended, she collapsed in her seat, blinking and pressing her thighs together. A few minutes later, Moore walked in and dropped into the opposite chair to study her with raised brows. "Well, well. You're definitely a candidate."

  Fighting not to squirm, Jayla forced herself to meet the vampire's appraising gaze. "And that surprises you?"

  "Oh, I thought you might be - someone like you wouldn't be here otherwise. I just didn't expect the results to be so positive. According to the computer, you've got some of the highest sub ratings I've ever seen." She smiled slightly. "I sure as hell won't have any trouble finding a master for you. I've got several vampdoms on a waiting list for somebody with your stats."

  Jayla swallowed and crossed her legs. "I don't suppose one of them is Captain Gray?"

  The smile became a grin, white teeth flashing against dark skin. "Now that you mention it, he's been on the list for a couple of years. Eric likes his bloodslaves with a deep submissive streak, and you certainly fit that description."

  "So you think he'd be ... interested?"

  The vampire laughed. "He's been 'interested' in you for months."

  Her heart gave a lovesick thump. "Oh?"

  "He hasn't come right out and said anything, but we message back and forth a good bit, and he mentions you somehow or other in every communique. What project you're working on, something you've done to piss him off. Whatever. He wouldn't do that if he wasn't damned interested."

  Jayla hesitated, the hot images she'd just seen wheeling through her mind - this time with herself and Gray in the starring roles. "He's never given me any indication he'd want me that way."

  "He wouldn't. Gray has a ... complicated history. Something happened a century or so back. I'm not sure what, but it scarred him somehow. He keeps his distance, even from the bloodslaves he contracts with. This latest one was a good example." She shook her head. "I told him Farr was too emotionally distant for him, but he said that's what he wanted. I knew it wouldn't end well, and I wasn't surprised when it didn't."

  Jayla studied her. "So why haven't you gone after him yourself? You seem to have a good relationship."

  Moore laughed shortly. "Honey, I tried. He wouldn't let me get close. Besides, he's a little too dominant for me. And since then I've found a bloodslave of my very own." Rolling her eyes, she moaned in mock lust. "Oh, baby. Built like an Arabian stallion and handsome as sin. Possessive, too. I think it'll be a load off his mind when I get Gray settled with some hot little sub girl. And you'll do nicely."

  Which was how Jayla ended up in a medbed that night. The machine injected her body with a modified form of the vampire virus. Over the next few days, the virus altered her cell structure and DNA to give her the enhanced healing ability, senses and strength without quite turning her into a vamp.

  It wasn't an easy change. In pain, desperately sick, Jayla suspected more than once that it was killing her. By the third day of the process, she prayed it would.

  While she cursed the obsession with Gray that had brought her to this, the medbed also sculpted her body, giving her a lusher, more voluptuous shape and packing additional pleasure receptors into her erogeonous zones even as it upped her natural hormone levels to make her more intensely sexual.

  But all that biological tinkering combined with an effect she hadn't anticipated: brutal, mind-stealing lust.

  On the night of the fifth day, Jayla lay on the medbed, her vampire-sharp senses reacting to every sound, every scent. The room was dark, but it seemed bright as day to her eyes. Worse, her body ached and burned with tormenting need.

  Moore had pronounced her ready for an encounter with Gray, and she'd gone to set it up. The thought of the captain's big body made Jayla moan in hunger. God, she hoped he'd agree to this, or it was likely she'd rape him, vampire or not.

  Eric Gray walked into his quarters with a mental sigh of relief. As the door slid closed behind him, hiding him from the eyes of any watching crew, he allowed his shoulders to slump. It had been a rough day. The Langella techs had done their best to screw up the new computer install, and he'd had to ride them hard all day to make sure the job was done right. He was damned if he'd let them put his people at risk with a half-assed job.

  For a moment an image slashed through his mind - turning just in time to see that bastard vamp pirate backhand Jayla, the sight of her small body slamming into the bulkhead to collapse into an unconscious heap. He'd thought she was dead.

  In a blind, fear-fueled rage, he'd gutted her attacker.

  Gray sat down on his bunk and slumped, resting his elbows on his knees as he let his head hang. He wondered when this inconvenient obsession he had for that girl would fade. You'd think since he never touched her, and she thought he didn't give a damn.... But the attraction only got stronger. It didn't help that she wanted him right back. Hell, even when he'd been chewing her out after she'd scared the life out of him, he could still scent the rich, heady musk of her desire.

  He wished Farr hadn't quit. At least he'd be able to relieve the physical part of his craving with a hard, deep fuck. Not that the sex had ever really satisfied either of them.

  Moore, as usual, had been right. They really hadn't been a good match.

  The computer announced an incoming call with a series of liquid notes. "I'll take it," he told the machine, and lifted his weary head just as a three-dimensional projection of Moore's face appeared. He smiled in genuine pleasure. "Hey. I was just thinking about you. Is this call business or pleasure?"

  She grinned. "Both, of course." Her acute gaze searched his face. He forced himself to straighten and smile. She must have found him a new bloodslave. He had no idea why that thought made him feel less anticipation than emptiness.

  "So what have you got?"

  "The girl of your no-doubt highly kinky dreams, boyo. Practically cherry - one of those repressed types who's finally yielded to her darker fantasies. Hollander rating of - get this - 196. And considering your dom rating is damn near a perfect match...."

  He forced a smile. "Sounds like the ideal playmate. I'll be down to check her out in half an hour- I'm done here, so I guess I can take a little leave."

  Moore grinned wickedly. "Want me to put her in the Dungeon so you two can get... acquainted?"

  "Why not?" Maybe he could work off some of his tension. Judging by that Hollander, the bloodslave would probably love anything he did to her.

  What the hell is this?" Jayla asked, staring around at the room Moore had called the Dungeon. Naked and uneasy, she shivered at the sight of the stone walls with their jutting, phallic torches. Two columns stood in the center of the room, a pair of chains dangling from them. By the door stood a wooden table covered in a wide array of sex toys - clamps and crops, ball gags, dildos. The whole place looked as if it had popped right out of one of her darker fantasies.

  "A playroom," Moore told her. "Gray wants to give you what we'd have called a test drive a couple of hundred years ago." She frowned. "I'm not sure I did the right thing in not telling him who you are, but I was afraid he'd refuse to come."

  Jayla stiffened. "I thought you said he wanted me?"

  "He does. Unfortunately, Gray has a tendency to deny himself anything he wants that badly. Particularly if the desire is sexual." She shrugged. "Whatever happened all those years ago really did a number on him. I
hope he's not going to be pissed." Her eyes slid to Jayla's cold-stiffened nipples. She smiled wickedly. "Though I'm sure one look at those will put him in a better mood even if he is. Let's get you ready."

  By the time Gray landed his personal shuttle on Moore's pad, he was in the mood for some very dark games. The thought of Moore's mystery bloodslave and her 196 rating had awakened the Hunger, and it was more than ready to be fed.

  He hadn't played really hard in a couple of years; Farr hadn't been the type. Her Hollander had been 82, barely high enough to qualify for the procedure. As a result, some of the pleasures Gray liked to enjoy with his partners didn't do a damn thing for her, so he'd foregone the roughhouse in order to do whatever would get her off.

  Next time, he'd damn well listen to Moore's advice.

  She met him personally at the door with her usual sisterly kiss, but he thought she seemed oddly nervous. "So where's this new bloodslave you found me?" he asked, partly to put her at ease, partly because the Hunger was snarling.

  If anything, Moore looked more nervous. "In the Dungeon, just as you requested."

  He held up the long, thin pack he'd brought. "I need to change before I go in. I want to set the mood, but I didn't want to scandalize the crew in the process."

  Her grin was fleeting as she eyed the pack. "Something in leather, I imagine."

  "Or a reasonable facsimile thereof, anyway."

  She led him to a dressing room and he changed into the psudeoleathers. He felt just slightly silly in all that gleaming hide, but given the Hollander ranking, he knew the bloodslave would probably love it.

  When he was dressed, he strode down the hall, his bootheels clicking on the marble. Moore trailed after him, coming as close to fluttering as he'd ever seen her. He eyed her warily. "What's with you, anyway?"

  Moore glanced away. "I just want you to like this girl."

  He grunted. "With that Hollander, I'm sure that won't be a problem." The thick wooden door swung open with a theatrical creak at their approach. He stepped through, already hardening with anticipation.

  The bloodslave stood in the middle of the room, her lovely arms chained over her head to the pair of pillars she stood between. Dancing torchlight lit skin the color of cream, glowing on the high, full curves of her breasts and an endless satin length of thigh. Her nipples were tight, rosy buds that made him think of the clamps in his pocket. The scent of her desire filled his nose and mouth with the taste of raw sex. Some nuance in that sweet musk told him her Change had been very recent. His cock jerked in lust; the little bloodslave would be desperate to be ridden. He wondered why Moore hadn't mentioned that delicious detail.

  As Gray started toward her, he finally looked into her face - and stopped dead in shock.

  Jayla swallowed, staring at her captain with a mix of terror and desire. She damn near hadn't recognized him. In place of his usual staid blue uniform, he wore tight gleaming leather pants and thick, knee-high buckled boots. His massive chest was bare, all its magnificent muscle on rippling display. She'd had no idea he was so intensely beautiful. In one big hand, he carried a riding crop he tapped restlessly against his booted ankle. His dark eyes glowed vampire red as they tracked up her body, pausing at her pussy and breasts.

  Then they reached her face. For an instant, they widened with delighted lust....

  Then the delight faded, replaced by rage. He wheeled toward Moore, who took an instinctive step away. "Change her back!"

  The broker blinked in shock at his rough, grating tone. "You're kidding."

  His lips peeled away from his fangs as he gritted each word. "Change. Her. Back."

  "She just Turned, Eric...."

  "And she can Turn back," he spat, almost vibrating with fury. "I'll pay for it, if that's what's worrying you. Hell, I'll pay for both procedures. Just...."

  "No." Jayla blinked, surprised at the low, threatening growl in her own voice.

  The captain spun, his eyes narrowing. "What did you say?"

  Some part of her gibbered in shock at what she was doing, but the new Jayla was in control, the one that had been born from the vampire virus and two years of helpless need. She lifted her chin. "I chose to become a bloodslave. It's what I want to be, and I'm not going back."

  He actually sneered at her. "You want my cock that bad? Tough. You're not getting it." He looked at Moore. "Cure her."

  "If you don't want me, fine. There are other dominants." For a moment, Jayla wondered what devil had seized her vocal cords, but as she listened to the words coming out of her mouth, she realized she meant them. She looked at Moore. "Please com the next male vampdom on the list."

  Gray stiffened. "What list?"

  Moore bit her lip. "The one for the high Hollander subs."

  He recoiled. "Jayla, any vamp on that list would have a Dom rank to match - which would make him damn near a sadist."

  She lifted an eyebrow at him. It felt good. "Aren't you on that list?"

  Gray's eyes narrowed. "As a matter of fact, I am." He studied her, a dark calculation entering his gaze.

  Moore shifted uneasily. "Gray...."

  He ignored her, focused totally on Jayla as a feral masculine hunger grew in his glowing eyes. "Maybe I should give you a little taste of what you could expect if you decide to go through with this." His laugh was just slightly sinister. "I'll have you begging Moore to turn you back in fifteen minutes."

  "Anything you can dish out, I can take," Jayla flung at him, something dark and hungry unfolding deep in her at the thought.

  "I really don't think this is a good idea, Gray." Moore said. "You...."

  "Get out, Charit." He started toward Jayla with predatory grace. "Don't come back until she screams for you."

  Moore stiffened. "Jayla...."

  "Go, Ms. Moore," Jayla said, staring defiantly into her captain's eyes. "You won't be needed."

  When she still hesitated, Gray whirled on her, snarling like a tiger warning a rival away from his meal. She fled. With a nasty little smirk of satisfaction curling his lips, he turned and stalked toward Jayla again, looking her up and down. Her eyes widened, arousal curling and tightening low in her belly.

  He didn't stop until the crisp curling hair of his chest was a whisper away from her nipples. She stared up at him, knowing he was trying to intimidate her by looming over her like that, emphasizing his male width and muscle against her smaller, lighter body. His glowing crimson eyes mocked her, his wide, lush mouth curling in a taunting grin. "So you've got a little crush, and now you think you want to be a bloodslave."

  She lifted a brow, determined to give the mockery right back to him. "I haven't had a crush on a man since I was fourteen."

  "Bullshit, baby." It was the first time she'd ever heard him swear, and despite herself, her lips parted in surprise. "I've known you were hot for me since the minute I let you sign on. You and your collection of vampdom simmies." At her indrawn breath, he laughed nastily. "You think you could smuggle something like that on my ship without me knowing about it? I don't think so."

  While she fought an instinctive rush of shame, he began to circle her like a drill instructor reaming out a particularly stupid cadet. "You're thinking, what? I'm gonna tie you up with silk scarves and recite poetry to your rosy little nipples? You don't need a vampdom, girl, you need a fucking boyfriend." He packed that last word with so much scorn it was all she could do not to squirm.

  Instead she stiffened her spine and forced herself to look him right in those mocking red eyes. "I know exactly what I need, Captain, and it's not a boyfriend. And I am definitely not a 'girl.' I'm a bloodslave, and I've got the Hollander to prove it."

  He shoved his face an inch from hers. "If you had a single brain cell in that pretty little skull, you'd want me to see you as a girl. Because darlin', I'm a predator, and right now you look a hell of a lot like prey."

  Jayla blinked, startled. He took a step back and looked her up and down. This time when he began to circle her, he reminded her of a tiger contemplating a stak
ed gazelle, lazily deciding where to take a bite.

  "Charit did a good job on those tits," he purred, his tone shifting from captain-dealing-with-idiot-subordinate to a menacing masculine rumble. "Round and firm, with nice long nipples. You know why bloodslaves have long nipples?" He smiled slowly, wickedly. "So they can take a clamp better."

  Suddenly he lifted a broad hand and stroked his thumb across one tight, hard pink crest. The sensation was so intense she gasped. She'd forgotten the way her bloodslave nervous system felt pleasure more acutely.

  "Sensitive, too. I wonder what kind of clamps Charit's got over on that table back there?" He caught the peak between thumb and forefinger and pinched gently. Leaning down, he murmured in her ear, "I'd like to put you in a pair of old-fashioned alligator clips and watch you squirm." Moving closer until her naked back was pressed against his broad, hairy chest, he cupped her newly full breast in his left hand and began to squeeze and stroke. Still holding the crop in his right hand, he ran the smooth, hard shaft down over her belly, then between her thighs to press against her clit. "Then, while your pretty breasts are still aching, I'd take my crop to that perfect rump and give it a half-dozen pink stripes. By then I'd be rock hard and ready for my meal." He leaned closer and gently bit her earlobe and licked the straining cord of her throat. "Ever taken it up the ass?"