by Flynn Eire
“You’re saying you want your home to house security for the subdivision?” I pushed, wanting to help him and the progress, as I saw it was an issue with him.
He glanced up at me and gave a slow nod. “Yeah, I guess I do. I know Morggyan has been talking about making her house a safe place for families, but I would lose my mind if there were kids around all the time. I think she will too and probably stay at one of our houses, and yeah, I know there need to be kids, but—I couldn’t. I know it’s horrible to say that, but I couldn’t.”
“I don’t think that’s horrible to say at all ,” I chuckled, shaking my head as I finished my breakfast, pushing the tray aside. “I think it’s honest, and people have to be honest for it to work. The idea is to have huge mansions like famous and crazy rich people would have in a private subdivision but inside be more like the dorms, right?”
“Yeah, one main kitchen and eating area, that sort of thing, and food provided, each of us hire kitchen staff, cleaning—whatever. I have no idea for all of that, but yeah, Alastair has a whole huge wing of nice bedroom suites for people to live in. He wants to get out our best and brightest. Nero and Verge want to save all the ones who are trapped in the covens that have more cult mentalities. I think you’re right that I want those who would want security training.
“Let one place be the main security hub. They’re not worried about putting up fences or whatever, but I think that should be first . Humans are nosy. Even if it’s private land, if rumors get out about what we put on the permits or paperwork, assholes will sneak in to try and get dirt or some exclusive about where the hottest actors could have vacation homes.”
“Yeah, I totally agree, and especially with so many acres, it’s a lot of space for bad guys to hide,” I worried.
He shook his head. “Nero’s gift is to sense zakasacs, and he’s so old his range is crazy. I mean like a hundred miles away crazy. We’ve got like an hour warning from even the oldest of them that can run like we do, and I can’t even run at max speed that long. So yeah, that’s covered. But we’re starting with all the bug out tunnels. One human gets on the grounds and sees those, and we’ll have the human authorities here starting trouble we don’t want.”
“Then I think you have several answers to what you wanted,” I said confidently, smiling at him. “I can help with the first orders if you want?”
“Yeah, I’d—thanks,” he sighed, scrubbing his hands over his head. “Even if we could get some printouts of options for basics and take votes at meals of who wants what. That’s better than buying what no one will end up wanting. I mean, we could even leave like toothpaste and body wash at a meal with a sign for everyone to take one. I’m not trying to add annoyances to people, but give them more.”
“No, I think it’s great,” I assured him, promising to talk with some others to help. I’d have to learn who had what job, and that was the sort of role I’d even take on. It wasn’t full time, but yeah, I was good with facilitating stuff. Hell, it was probably therapeutic after such loss of control I’d gone through. “I was also going to say some of those fancy rich homes have guest houses on their property.
“Nothing says you can’t have kids there and not in your hair all the time.” I shrugged when he gave me a funny look. “Build two mansions that are yours if you have the money and stick families there. Dude, you’re bonkers rich. I get the feeling there’s sort of no limit here, and Alastair got several thousand acres, right? That could be hundreds of these houses. Go batshit cray-cray.”
“You’re sort of a genius, you know that, right?” he murmured, studying me closely as my cheeks heated. “Yeah, okay, let’s do that. Will you help me?”
“Yeah, I’d like that.” It sounded like the best plan ever and not just because it gave us an excuse to work together closely, but that we’d both want the same sort of setup to help as many as possible.
We really did have a lot more in common than I’d originally thought.
After breakfast, I met up with William and jumped right into spray painting, excited to hear they’d finished building the final floors and roof. They had pre-trans helping to drag in tons of drywall and supplies to the right rooms without the help of the elevator yet to be installed to keep progress going. Plus, it would give them just as good of a workout as the training courses.
And it helped Dimitri out that they were all occupied, as he had a lot going on with Alexander and the mess with the council guards.
My mouth fell open when I took a break for lunch and found the entire area between the buildings was gone. I mean, dug out completely and dirt taken away. These guys really knew what they were doing and were crazy organized.
“One thing everyone asked for was to get some sort of real area to put in besides the crap gravel that no one can shovel over,” William explained from behind me. “You guys get way too much snow to have to deal with that shit. Nero called it in and got precast slabs like they have on highways so it can take the weight of trucks. They’re making an announcement at lunch not to step on any connectors, as we’ve got to seal the gaps, and that takes a bit to dry.”
“It’s so cool how you guys do this like a complicated dance,” I complimented.
Gaius was busy for lunch, and I wanted to roll my eyes that I proximately looked for him, a bit too sunk in him given we weren’t really anything. And that was dangerous.
But my heart already knew we were something, or he was someone to me. Especially when I immediately took the alone time to start working on his idea for extras. At first, I went through the Sam’s Club site on Gaius’s laptop and listed everything people could need, all the “men’s grooming” stuff, and typed it out into a nice order sheet.
Then I froze when I glanced up and saw Basilia. Crap. We weren’t just guys anymore.
I made a duplicate order form and added all the women’s stuff, pushing my maturity to handle tampons and pads that I didn’t want to learn so much about while going over the options. But it was done and for the good of the camp. And the way I set it up, I didn’t list how many in the package. Everyone could get one, and we got the bulk purchase price.
Except the female stuff. That I might leave to them to handle. I actually asked Marissa when I saw her, asking if I handled the ordering if she would take care of getting what they needed to me and distributing.
“Yes, of course. And, darling, women shave too,” she teased me as she looked over the list. “I have some time right now, so if you’d like me to cover female needs as you did the males, I can handle that.”
“Yes, please,” I murmured, my cheeks heating. “I forgot we have women now and tried to fix it, but I think we might have more.” I shrugged. “I always thought it would be smarter to have non-warriors handle a lot in ops. It’s wasted resources that some of the younger warriors race to handle drones as their first directive instead of non-combat trained vampires.”
“That’s smart,” Proximo agreed from behind me. I swallowed a yelp and saw he was tapping on his phone. “I sent a message on that to Alastair so he can factor that into the list of people we’re trying to gather or are willing to train for the jobs we need. I need you for a bit to go over what you and Gaius were talking about for his houses. We couldn’t get him to lock into one house, but now you’ve got him making two?”
I quickly ran down what we’d discussed, talking about how he wanted to help families but wouldn’t be comfortable with kids running underfoot. “It makes me worry about building a school, though. If we’re bringing families, that means kids and schools.”
“Not so much actually,” Marissa corrected with a smile. “Wyoming has online schools all through high school. We should get a few teachers to track it all, for sure, but we won’t even need a school. I would say a resource center where they could get tutoring help, that sort of thing. We talked about a day care to handle a lot of that, which adds onto a tutor center, and basically one of the big mansions hides everything for kiddies.”
“Smart,” I praised.
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“So is your idea of centralizing all the extra security we’re going to need,” she replied with a grin. “I think that’s smart so everyone’s on the same page and they’re easiest to reach. That seems to be a failing of covens and different groups.” She glanced over the list and cleared her throat. “Are you open to suggestions?”
“Always,” I assured her.
“Yes, you are, aren’t you?” she complimented with a wink. “Have one pre-trans handle this for their group and one post-trans for theirs. It’s something small, but goodies go across barriers or regional loyalties. That also helps you so you can handle just the warriors. I believe room is going to be tight, so I could stash all the female stuff in my room, yours for warriors, that sort of thing.”
“We’re getting a whole new dorm?” I checked, wondering how we were out of room.
“Yes, and they brought in more construction teams,” she explained. “Alastair’s going to get people before too many councils and covens can poison their people against moving here, but housing isn’t built. You’ll all move into the new dorm, and the old dorm will be temp residences for those coming in. The pre-trans will have to suffer like sardines a bit longer.”
“Oh boy,” I sighed. That was rough. It was a shitty barracks to start with, but cramping more in without more showers was mean.
Marissa was impressive and didn’t mess around. I went back to work painting, and when I came in for dinner, she’d not only updated the lists for both men and women, but she had stacks printed out and filled out orders for the three women. Wow. She had mom powers unlike mine or any I’d seen.
I went around to the pre-trans tables and explained what we were doing, naming the one who I knew Dimitri trusted most—and was next to transition, it seemed—into getting everyone’s order in and fast, as we didn’t want to hold up the next supply run. I did the same with the post-trans, and they weren’t as excited, more annoyed they’d have to all talk to each other.
That had to be fun for anyone other than me to handle.
Marissa saw I’d not gotten a chance to even eat, I’d done so much talking to people, and took over for me, hitting warrior tables and giving them until tomorrow to get orders to me. Most filled it out right at dinner, and that might be the best way to handle it. Announce when the next order was going a few days before and let people fill them out at a meal and turn them right back in.
After dinner, I was ready to start tallying the stacks of orders I had, thinking it was nice when people were willing to work with a system. There were only a few who wrote in additions like cotton swabs, which I hadn’t even thought of. So good suggestions there. All of them were. First aid kits for bathrooms were smart. They wanted gloves for cleaning because the ones we had were dead. Bug spray, and even I remembered that barracks attracting all kinds of creepy crawlies.
“You’re really smart to have thought of this,” I praised Gaius as I felt him fall into step with me. “There are only a few extras, and honestly, the pre-trans need like that Orthobug protection shit or they might get eaten alive in winter.” I laughed as I flipped to another order. “And mouse traps. This one says he doesn’t want to live with Mickey, Minnie, and their kids anymore.”
“Funny. Yeah, I’ll get it handled. Thanks for taking this over for me.”
“I like to help.”
“You do and you did. Proximo told me he’d get with Nero on your idea and we can go from there. I think you deserve a night off. You up for it?”
“Sure. Do you want me to hang onto these until I get them all?”
“Yeah, we’re going in a couple of days, so can you get them all tomorrow and tally it? I’ll put in the online order and we can divide them from there.”
“I was thinking about getting tote bags they can pick up at dinner and turn them back in? Do the same with orders so it’s not chasing people down.”
“That’s perfect.” He led me to my room, and I dropped off my stuff, smiling when I saw the vase with flowers someone had put in there before fixing my door.
Or after. I didn’t think it would be much for an ancient to pick a lock.
When we were at his room, I got squirmy as I glanced at the bed, thinking of more fun immediately. It was so distracting that I’d missed he’d gotten a TV, fridge, and microwave. He put in some popcorn and nodded for me to hop onto the bed. He joined me once the popcorn was ready, grabbing a few pops from the fridge, and reached for a remote I didn’t recognize.
“So, I got a FireStick, and did you know that How It’s Made is available to purchase the seasons on Amazon Video?”
“There’s like almost twenty seasons, right?”
He shrugged. “I see it as an investment in my education and lots of time spent with you.”
I felt my cheeks heat. Yeah, lots and lots of dates to watch that many episodes. “Cool.”
“Glad you think so.” His tone seemed relieved. Yeah, he took a jump on that.
Once the popcorn was done, I actually snuggled against him in a way I could still see the screen so it was on an angle from us. “Thanks for doing this. I know you went and got all of this so we could. You’re kinda awesome.”
“I try,” he chuckled, his arm moving around me. “It’s hard to behave when you’re being so adorable.”
“I never said watching the show was the only thing I wanted to do at night,” I murmured, nervous to basically give him a green light. He didn’t jump on it, keeping it cool—like him—and simply moving his hand to my hip as I snuggled closer.
It was after the first episode and the next was loading that he scooted down in the bed so we were lying instead of sitting up. That was it, though. He didn’t push or instigate anything.
“Does it do it for you when I start?” I whispered.
“Yeah, it really does,” he confessed after a moment. “I’m cool with being the pervert and showing you new things, but you being all nervous and wanting me so bad you take the jump just flat does it for me in a way I don’t really understand.” I nodded but didn’t do anything, smiling when he growled. “I thought that was sort of a green light.”
“It was, and you were expecting it then. You need to learn patience.”
He snorted. “That’s your job. Mine is to push.”
It made sense when he said it. The yin to yang every relationship needed. I moved my hand under his shirt, teasing my fingers along his ripped abs. I swallowed a laugh as the shirt suddenly was gone.
Damn, he really was impatient.
“Will you touch me, Falcon?” he murmured in my ear as he nibbled on it, doing delicious things to my neck as well. “Touch me, please?”
I swallowed down my nerves and flipped open the button of his jeans before unzipping them, scared to lay my eyes on what I’d only felt. Sure enough, I felt a bit lightheaded when his dick came out hard and ready. It wasn’t just the length but the girth that made me squirm.
“It will fit,” he assured me gently. “When we’re ready, it will fit. I’ll take the time to get you ready. There’s no rush, okay?”
“You’re pretty smart too when you pay attention,” I complimented, feeling easier now he assured me of that. I took him in my hand, giving slow strokes that I knew would drive him insane.
Pretty much through the whole episode.
“Can I touch you? Let me touch you too?” he begged, sounding a bit frantic. I smiled against his chest and nodded. He was so damn funny. He turned to face me, kissing me stupid as he slid his hand into my running pants. I moaned as his hand touched me, floored how different it was when it wasn’t my own hand. “Shit, moan again. That’s hot.”
“Really? How hot?” I teased, gasping when he squeezed my dick, and did the same to him.
“Really. And I wanted to try endearments with you,” he mumbled against my neck. “I was thinking ‘angel’ because I think you just might save me or my heart from being so cut off, but that sounded a bit much maybe. I like ‘sunshine’ because I—you smile, and it’s better than sunshine.
I mean, you just light up. I thought about some of the Irish ones, but they’re like saying honey or babe. I kinda liked ‘Godiva.’”
“Like the chocolate?” I checked.
He lifted his head and smirked at me. “Yeah because you’re tasty, melt in my hot hands, and go with everything.”
I laughed so hard I thought I was going to pass out. When I calmed down, I saw I was minus my shirt too and he was kissing all over my chest.
“Thought of any for me?” he asked hesitantly.
“I was thinking ‘tri-pod’ because I don’t know how you walk with that fucking thing and not fall over.”
He chuckled against my chest, and it built into a full blown laugh that sounded like it almost hurt it got so big. “You are just too fucking much. Yeah, call me that. Especially in front of people. I could use the ego boost.”
“You don’t need one,” I teased him. “And I like all three. I would say Godiva is more private, like when you want me to unwrap myself for you.”
“Oh, so all the time, got it,” he purred before attacking my lips. He moved over me and then guided my hand to his sac while he took care of jerking us off together. I came first, but he kept going, watching me in a way I thought I’d find disturbing, but instead it was amazing. His eyes never left mine as he brought me again before he came all over me. “I marked you.”
“I marked you,” I countered.
His grin was a bit evil, devilish for sure. “I know. I’m yours now. You have to keep me.”
“You are my hookup for kisses,” I teased, smirking when he paused to think which kind I meant. “Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“Can I play for a bit?” I breathed, staring down the length of his body, thinking about what I wanted to do, what he would want me to do too.
“Yeah, always—please do,” he mumbled, moving so we were flipped. His mouth fell open as I moved down his body, kissing every inch of him before stopping at his dick.
