Chapter 655: The exception to every rule **

After escaping another pin by her tongue, Caius slid into Athenodora’s mouth only to let out a groan as she bit down on it. And then he chuckled as he tightened his grip on her ass and felt Athenodora growl deep within her chest.

Athenodora’s fangs bit into Caius’s tongue, and he bled into her mouth. Without the power of the matrix in it, Caius’s blood didn’t have an intense kick to it. Athenodora liked that, as she could revel in its delicious taste much better.

The fang marks in Caius’s tongue healed around the fangs still in them but Athenodora still got a few seconds to suck out a good mouthful of blood while pulling her claws out of his midsection so she could trail her touch lower down his body.

Caius moved his hand from Athenodora’s ass to the small of her back. He felt around until he found a spot that caused Athenodora to tremble in an obvious reaction. Caius pressed the tips of his fingers into that spot, gaining a strong grip.

Athenodora released his tongue and arched her back in a way that caused her midsection to press hard against Caius’s as she let out a deep groan. With their bodies so pressed together, Athenodora’s hand had no room to wander so she placed it against the ground for support while trembling all because Caius had figured out an erogenous spot at the small of her back.

Caius used his grip on the back of Athenodora’s head to lift himself off the ground and press his lips against the crook of her neck. He sucked on her flesh, intensifying the sensations already thrumming through Athenodora’s body. And then he opened his mouth wider so he could press his teeth against her neck and bite down hard.

Without his fangs, Caius could bite as hard as he wished. Now that she was back to her true strength magically and physically, Caius was far too weak to break through her smooth skin without his vampiric fangs and claws. He let the freedom of that inspire him to ravage her neck as extensively as he wished.

From her neck, Caius worked his way to Athenodora’s throat which he bit even harder than her neck but to Athenodora, it felt like nothing more than an enthusiastic love-bite. One that invoked very passionate feelings in her.

Athenodora wrapped an arm around Caius, placing a hand on his back. Her claws dug into his flesh and she dragged down, ripping his already damaged shirt.

As Athenodora’s claws ripped through his flesh, Caius found even greater strength from the pain and bit even harder on her throat, causing Athenodora to groan and even chuckle as she rocked against him; the wetness on the crotch of her panties was already moistening the tent that was being pitched in Caius’s pants.

Caius’s shirt fell apart in two halves as Athenodora’s claws ripped it all the way. And then, Athenodora spread her fingers, retracting her claws so she could best press her fingertips against Caius’s flesh. She felt the cut flesh stitch itself back together, and the sensation mesmerized her.

Athenodora’s hands went all about Caius’s back, feeling the way his muscles moved beneath his skin when he made any move at all. She smiled to herself; Feeling his hardening rod beneath her, having his teeth ravaging her neck with those ’love-bites’, having his fingers digging into the small of her back in a way that really caused her juices to flow, and now steeping herself in the feeling of his back muscles... all simply incredible.

The last time she and Caius had gone as far as this, she had still been cursed. It had been incredible then as well, but at the back of her mind Athenodora could not help wondering how much of that was due to their compatibility and how much was due to how vulnerable she was at the time.

Other than that time back at Venuzze, Athenodora had never been pleasured while feeling like she didn’t have access to a bulk of herself.

Unlike humans and other humanoids, vampires have their power tied to their very identity. Their physical and magical might all reside within their blood and are innately part of them. So to be unable to access it all for some reason—to be greatly lessened—can be likened to losing a part of oneself.

Whenever she slipped into a trance to conserve her strength, there was always a part of Athenodora’s mind that never quite shut off. And it was in that part of her mind that Athenodora had wallowed in the sadness of being cursed. It was where she wallowed in the tragedy of losing a part of herself.

She had felt greater despair than she had ever felt in all her life. Of course, she was never going to let anyone know this. Hell, the only time she allowed herself to have those thoughts was while she was in her trance state because that part of her mind remained active and continued to wallow.

Whenever she was fully conscious, Athenodora wouldn’t allow those thoughts into her head. It was weakness that could be exploited and she had learned over the course of her long life that the best way to hide something from others is to practically not have it in your head at all. And if you must have it in your head, stuff it deep into a lockbox that resides in the deepest recess of your mind where not even you care or can access it at will.

Anyway, as much as she gave herself up to the moment she and Caius had shared in the Venuzze palace, once it was all over, she couldn’t help but wonder if she could trust her body’s delight in that pleasure. If she wasn’t whole and was missing a large part of what made her what she was, how then could she trust anything that happened with her body?

Still, memory is a fascinating thing;

Within her infallible vault of memories, nothing compared to that moment with Caius and while that could be explained as being due to her threshold of pleasure being lessened, the fact remained that as far as memory was concerned, her time with Caius remained the peak of canal pleasure in her centuries-long existence.

In a small part of her mind, now that she had recovered and she was whole once again, Athenodora was prepared to have the ’misconception’ corrected. Now that her threshold of pleasure had been reset to its rightful state, she was prepared for Caius to not be so impactful.

So it was a wonder how his fingers digging into the small of her back and the feeling of his back muscles beneath her fingers were invoking such intense reactions from her.

With his hand still at the back of Athenodora’s head, Caius continued to rise off the ground until he was in a seated position. His ravaging teeth went from her throat and neck to her ear which he bit down on hard, causing Athenodora to jerk against his body.

As she jerked, Athenodora moved her hands from Caius’s back to his shoulders, working her touch all over the lean broadness of them until she was feeling up his neck to the side of his head, basically holding him in place as he grabbed her earlobe into his mouth and sucked.

Athenodora laughed.

"Ticklish?" Caius asked with a smile in his voice, his warm, sweet breath wafting against her sensitive ear.

Athenodora rolled her eyes.

"You wish," she said but she couldn’t help her smile.

She was amused because she was amazed.

It had only been a few minutes since she was cured of her curse but Athenodora was already cataloging how different things felt to her. When the curse first struck her, it had been a drastic shift, and even if she had only been cursed for a few months, the hell of the experience—especially with her mind’s penchant for wallowing in despair whenever she was in a trance—somehow elevated that period of distress almost to the level of her centuries of being uncursed and powerful.

That’s the terrible thing about setbacks. They can often feel more impactful than times of triumph.

Anyway, during the period she was cursed, Athenodora had much too quickly gotten used to the new status quo. Her weakened state became ’normal’. And so, when she just recently returned to her true state, she was aware of how much different things felt between the two states.

She felt herself now much more impervious to the elements around her. Nothing affected her quite as much as it did a few minutes ago. For instance, Limbo had felt so much colder when she was cursed and now, it felt soothing.

Alas, her imperviousness to the elements somehow didn’t seem to hold with Caius’s touches. Yes, her skin was less breakable and he couldn’t damage it with his teeth but the bites sent far more intense thrills through her than they had when they were at Venuzze.

It felt like such a contradiction to everything she had been cataloging since she was cured of the curse. And yet, it felt exactly right.

That was why she laughed because it amused and amazed her that as usual, Caius Von Helsing was an exception to her every rule.