His attraction to the man was immediate and had not diminished. Even the drugging incident did not detract from his regard, although upsetting at the time, it made perfect sense now. Silas was operating like a soldier, no time for heartfelt discussions during a time-sensitive mission. Wolfe had presented himself as a problem to the mission and the quickest way to quell that was to drug him and remove him from the premises.
Wolfe understood but down deep he wished he'd had a choice. He wished that he'd been allowed to walk out of that hell hole under his own power. But his behavior dictated the outcome, and he accepted that. He heard someone at the door and noticed Silas watching him through the window, and when their eyes met, he smiled. Wolfe felt the effects of that smile right down to his core. This man was dangerous.
Silas was so utterly taken by this fierce yet vulnerable guy. He was everything Silas had hoped for in a beloved. He'd been a little shocked at first and then uncertain as to whether he had the ability to provide properly for an emotionally and physically damaged human. But the more he got to know Wolfe, the man, and understood his struggles and his life, the more he admired his steadfast and single-minded approach to life, which was to simply live. He’d been knocked down many times, but he never stopped getting up.
From everything he learned so far, Wolfe was a survivor even faced with all the men attempting to subdue him in that filthy room, Wolfe fought with everything he had. He had to know that he would not win, but that didn't stop him from inflicting some pain of his own and not going easy. Silas was proud to call him his beloved.
He opened the door and stepped in as his beloved watched every move he made. He was a suspicious man, but he was beginning to come around, a little. Silas sensed his interest in the way his eyes dilated and the way his mouth opened on a hesitant breath. Wolfe was not unaffected by him, and Silas could work with that.
“I brought you some clothes and a few toiletries if you’d like to bathe, there is an attached bathroom there.” Silas pointed to a door to his left as he walked up and put the items next to Wolfe on the bed. He then reached up and pushed the hair back from his forehead and trailed his fingertips down the side of his lovely face.
Wolfe's eyes were so dark, yet somehow electric in the way the blue shined through to sparkle as he looked up at Silas. Paired with his dark brown hair, he was a strikingly handsome man.
“Thanks.” He said and then looked over at the things that lay there. “It will feel good to shower.” He moved off the bed and stood beside Silas. It was then that Silas realized that Wolfe was taller than he’d looked on the horizontal. He stood close to six feet because the top of his head was at Silas’s eye level.
Silas raised his hand and gently touched Wolfe's shoulder, causing him to look up. "When you're finished, I'll take you to lunch." Wolfe nodded and headed to the bathroom while Silas walked over and took a seat in a chair near the main door. He pulled out his phone and read the message Ira had just sent.
They rounded up twenty-three of the thirty members of the Perrysburg Coven. Eight of them were killed on the spot when they resisted the DuCane guards, and the other fifteen were turned over to the Council of Coven DuDane for sentencing.
“Was Roya among them?” Silas asked.
"No," Ira responded.
“Any leads on the whereabouts of the other seven?”
“They traveled here with the others but didn’t stay. They headed west according to reports.” Ira told him. “When we get a solid lead on him, I’ll let you know.”
"Thanks." Silas checked his other messages and then looked up when he heard the bathroom door open. Standing there looking fresh and beautiful in a pair of black pants and a thin knit light blue pullover was his dashing beloved. Wolfe had combed his hair back from his face and tucked it behind his ears in a very masculine and attractive manner. Silas was surprised he noticed such details, but he was finding that he was continuously surprising himself when it came to Wolfe.
Silas stood and slipped his phone back into his pocket. “You look good, how do you feel?” Silas noticed the cuts, bruises and bite marks were all gone. His blood had removed the physical evidence of Wolfe’s trauma, but what of the mental and emotional?
"I feel well, and although a little weak, my strength is returning. How is it possible?" Wolfe asked as he looked up at him and waited.
"I fed you my blood." Silas saw nothing to be gained by lying or avoiding the truth. He hadn't expected the wide-eyed shock that stopped Wolfe in his tracks. He stared at him, confused and conflicted. Probably trying to decide if he should shake Silas's hand or punch him in the face.
“You fed me your blood?” Wolfe shook his head and continued to stare up at Silas his eye boring holes into him.
"Yes, but don't worry it won't make you a vampire that's just crazy. You have to be born a vampire; you can't be turned. Now, how about I take you to lunch, and we can discuss all of this?" Silas took him by the upper arm and directed him towards the door. Once they were on their way, Silas placed a gentle palm to Wolfe's lower back to keep him moving and to ease the tension that had arisen in Wolfe.
…
Silas took him to his quarters that were located on the top floor with a view of the back gardens. He wanted to have his beloved in his space and get the man acquainted and comfortable with him.
Lunch was soon delivered, and Silas served up their meals. They sat together at the small dining table an ate in silence for the first few minutes. Wolfe seemed focused on his meal and enjoying every bite, and the sight brought a lightness to Silas's heart. Providing for his beloved was very satisfying. After Wolfe's second helping of the beef tips and mushroom sauce, he paused and looked around the room and then back at Silas.
"What do you want from me?" He asked bluntly, and Silas set his fork down and regarded him seriously from across the table.
"As I said before, Wolfe, I want to get to know you better. I find that you and I have a lot in common, and I admire your resilience and your determination. Of the ten captives in that house, only three made it out alive. Your personal strength fascinates me." Silas said but left out the most important point which was that Wolfe was his beloved.
“I thought there were more than just three who made it out?” Wolfe’s looked was deflated.
"We found five alive, including you, but two died in hospital," Silas explained carefully.
“Did Simon survive?” He asked.
“Yes, he’s on his way back to his brother in Pittsburgh.” Silas noticed the visible relief that Wolfe displayed. “You knew him?” Wolfe nodded. “Were you taken at the same time?”
Wolfe nodded again and then looked away before speaking. "Roya lured him outside, and I was concerned so I followed. Simon is young, and he wasn't paying attention, if he had he would have picked up on the creep factor Roya was pumping out and not followed him outside.” He abruptly turned back to Silas with a scowl. “I should have minded my own business.”
Silas reached over and covered Wolfe’s hand with his own and was pleased when he didn’t pull away. “You’re a good guy, it’s a curse, but it’s who you are.” Silas smiled when Wolfe barked a laugh and then fell somber once again and stared at the hand that was covering his.
"I'm not a good guy, and I doubt very much that you and I have anything in common." The scowl returned to his face and Silas was discovering that he liked it because whenever Wolfe scowled at him, his entire focus was on him and Silas enjoyed being the center of his beloved's attention. His expression so serious with that vertical line pressed between his brows, nothing could be more handsome. It was this expression that made him look older than his twenty-two years.
"I read your background profile," Silas told him considering that it shouldn't surprise him that they checked him out. "I, too, was abandoned as a newborn by my mother, who felt I didn't meet with her aspirations. Her ambitions in life did not include being a mother to the child of a lowly soldier." Silas noticed that Wolfe was listening and nodding.
&
nbsp; "Fortunately, my father discovered her pregnancy and came for me. She had tried to keep the whole affair quiet and hoped to simply discard me, but my father is not someone you trifle with, and she handed me over without incident."
“Is your father a good man?” Wolfe asked softly.
"The best of men. He is Ismael Patronne Second in Command of Coven DuCane. He is everything I needed. I have never met my mother, and I never wish to." Silas felt a fading touch of emotion at the discussion of his early years and what might have been had his father also forsaken him.
“Would you have gone into foster care if your father hadn’t come for you?”
“I’m much older than I look.” Silas squeezed Wolfe’s hand and smiled. “No social programs existed when I was a child. I would have been placed on the side of the road and either taken in by someone or left to die.” Wolfe looked at him in shock and then disbelief.
“How old are you? You don’t look more than thirty at the most.”
“Over four hundred years old give or take a year or two or maybe three.” He laughed at Wolfe’s expression. “My father is over seven hundred, vampires live very long lives.” Wolfe kept staring and blinking as if processing the information. He didn’t comment further but rather began to discuss himself which was exactly what Silas was hoping for.
"I have no idea who my parents were, and I don't care to find out. I'm assuming it was the health issues and the time and inconvenience of caring for a sick infant that drove them to leave me at the hospital. I used to hate them, but now they're just ghosts to me." He reached over and took his water drinking down half the glass before glancing around the room again and then back at Silas before continuing.
He told him about his early years at the various foster homes and the group homes before coming to his time with Mr. Ripley, his mentor. "He volunteered at the home and he liked me, said I had a lot of good things waiting for me in the future." That statement was followed with a harsh laugh. "He set everything up for me to have the internship and to live with him, and he completed all the paperwork for social services, and then he just drops dead." Silas didn't comment but held his gaze as Wolfe took a couple of ragged breaths before getting started again.
"His family kicked me out so they could sell his house, and the internship fell through, and I found myself on the street." He paused as if deciding how much detail he wanted to add if any. "You read my profile, so you know I was arrested for assault. The supervisor on the job said some things about Mr. Ripley and me that were untrue and disgusting, and I jumped him. He beat the snot out of me, but I got in a few good hits. He called the cops but later dropped the charges."
“What about your time on the street, how did you survive?” Silas prompted not wanting him to stop. Silas doubted he shared this information with many.
“It’s just a long sad story. I doubt you’d be interested.” Wolfe tried to deflect and change the subject.
“Tell me.” Silas pressed and squeezed his hand once again.
"Okay, well it was damn scary at first until I figured out that you don't hang out on private property. That got me three loitering citations, and you don't hang out in areas that the prostitutes frequent that got me arrested for solicitation. I wasn't part of the action, but I was scooped up with everyone else. I was homeless, so no one was taking my story seriously. By my fourth month, I had it down pretty well and never got picked up again. Unfortunately, those brushes with the law finished my bank account, which wasn't flush to begin with." He gave a half-smile, clearly another deflection from the actual ordeal. Wolfe was adept at pushing away the pain.
"There was no one from foster care or social services that was willing to help you?" The callousness was breathtaking.
Wolfe shook his head. "My caseworker got knocked up and never came back, and the apprenticeship was my only chance, there was no plan B. They cut me loose, and that was an end to it. After that, I picked up odd jobs as a janitor, day laborer, I got by and then one morning Ed Silky found me sleeping in the alley behind his bar and offered me the dishwasher position. It paid decently, and I was able to get a cheap motel apartment." He looked up at Silas with a brighter expression. "After six months in the kitchen, I auditioned for a dancer position that was open and for the past approximately year and a half I've been a go-go boy at the Silk Street Bar."
“Are you a good dancer?” Silas was impressed with the fact Wolfe had shared so much with him.
"I think so, I get good tips." He winked and then added. "I don't sleep with customers; Ed has a strict no touching policy which I am thankful for, and I adhere to."
"Just like I said, strong and resilient." Silas leaned closer, raised Wolfe's hand, and kissed the knuckles before capturing Wolfe's gaze and holding it. The thought of Wolfe dancing for him filled his thoughts, and his body reacted immediately. Not wanting to give the wrong impression Silas sat back in his chair and poured Wolfe another cup of coffee.
CHAPTER FIVE
Wolfe couldn't believe he'd just dumped all that personal garbage in Silas's lap. No one wants to hear a sob story, so why'd he feel so compelled to tell the guy everything? Shit, now he's pulling away. Wolfe missed the hand that had held his throughout his trip down memory lane.
"Thank you for sharing that with me," Silas said, and he sounded sincere. He then served him dessert, a sort of caramel custard with nuts and cream. Wolfe couldn't remember ever having a meal this good, and he found himself eating slowly not wanting the culinary experience to end too soon. Perhaps it wasn't just the food, he admitted spending time with Silas was enjoyable even if he did make him talk too much.
When they were finished, Silas stood and reached out, and without thinking about it too much, Wolfe took the offered hand and stood beside Silas. The man looked at him with eyes that seemed to consume him taking in every aspect and nuance of who he was. It was unnerving but also exciting. This man, so impressive and compelling, was focused on him and it made Wolfe tremble slightly from the heat of it all.
“Come, Wolfe. Let’s sit in the living room.” Silas continued to hold his hand as he led him into a large nicely decorated room. The furniture was large and ornate and gave off a feeling of pure comfort. They sat together on a large sofa that was positioned across from a floor to ceiling window. The window gave a lovely view of a garden, acres of garden to be precise. This place was grand; old, stately, and grand.
"There's something we need to discuss." Silas began, and Wolfe was pretty sure he knew where the conversation was going so, he jumped in with some assurances that he thought were needed.
"You don't have to worry, I won't breathe a word of what took place, and I won't tell anyone about your species, I promise. I understand your need for anonymity, if word got out that vampires existed the fallout could be catastrophic for everyone." Wolfe explained as best he could. "I've never gone back on a promise in my life. Your secret is safe with me."
"I believe you, and I had no doubt you would keep our secret. What I want to discuss with you is the relationship that exists between you and me." Silas looked really serious again, and it sent a chill through Wolfe. "I was telling you about my father's beloved, Easton Sans, on our way here. He is the man who got me all the information on you." He began. Wolfe nodded, he had no idea what Silas was getting at so just listened.
“Do you know what a beloved is?”
"Husband, boyfriend, partner, something like that I'd assumed," Wolfe spoke up.
"That's correct, but it's not the complete picture." Silas leaned forward and turned to face Wolfe. "A vampire's beloved is predestined by Fate. Not all vampires are blessed to find their beloved, and some wait hundreds of years before meeting the person who is meant to be theirs. Master Louis DuCane is nearing a millennium and he just recently found Ezra. My father met Easton just a few months ago.” Silas went on to describe the importance and sanctity of a beloved and what it meant to a vampire when they found their beloved.
Silas knew he had to tread carefully, but the need t
o get their relationship out in the open overrode his worry that to do so may set back his progress.
"You mentioned that DuCane's beloved is Human," Wolfe stated but the expression he wore asked a question.
“Our beloveds can be any person of either gender. Fate brings us together for the joy and betterment of us both. Two halves of a whole, so to speak.” Silas made a couple inferences in his explanation and wondered if Wolfe heard them.
“This is a bond that once made is never broken.” Wolfe’s statement showed just how thoroughly he’d listened and understood. Silas nodded and saw it as a good sign that Wolfe would grasp the remainder of what he was about to tell him.
"Never broken," Silas emphasized both words as he held Wolfe's hand and his gaze. "A vampire recognizes their beloved by scent and sight. It's a feeling that envelopes every part of their being and compels them to pursue and possess this person in every way. It's a force focused and driven, and every vampire dreams of the day they meet that person meant solely for them." Silas paused for a moment and then continued. His attention was rapt, and it was time to get to the point.
“I recognized that there was something unusual about that house in Perrysburg the moment I entered. I didn't recognize what it was at first, but it pushed me to investigate. I knew I was searching for something, and when we found the victims, I thought that was the answer but then as I was leaving something happened."
“What? What happened?” Wolfe seemed unable to hold back the question as Silas weighed the outcome of his answer.
"The medics and clean-up crew were taking care of things, so Ira and I were about to leave and head back to Toledo. Then I felt it, it was like a bomb going off in my brain, and the urgency of it sent me running back to the house." Another pause and then Silas launched into the heart of what he had to say.
Stone and Steel: Vampires of Blood and Bones Page 4
