by Ginna Moran
“You’re the best, Lady Tori,” a feminine voice says from somewhere in the hallway outside the room.
“You must be quick, Xochitl. The misters might not be with the Royale Coven for much longer. I heard them discuss the new arrival,” another woman responds.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure he won’t take long.” Soft laughter sounds through the air. “He was quite ready to go when I had the chance to tease him at dinner. You should have seen the way he looked at me. I will be pregnant in no time, and Fabiola will finally get knocked a notch down.”
I groan and look at Everett. “This is a weird-ass household.”
“Could be worse.”
I backhand his shoulder. “That’s what Jameson said.”
He chuckles. “We’re guys. Do you know how many have to spend their whole lives mastur—”
I press my finger to his mouth to cut him off. “Don’t you dare even say it.”
“You’re right. We don’t have to. We’d do it anyway,” he says with another laugh.
Groaning, I shake my head. “Okay, enough.”
“But it’s fun to make you blush.”
I stick out my tongue. “I’m sure you can figure out another way. I do not want to think about guys—especially my brothers—jerking off or having sex or passing on the dhampir gene.”
“Oh, shit,” Everett says, his eyes widening.
I furrow my brows in confusion. “What’s wrong?”
“The dhampir gene.” He picks me up off my feet before I have a chance to react. “Your brother can pass it on. Here. Now.”
“Ugh. We have to stop him.”
“I never thought I’d want to cock block anyone besides my brothers.”
I can’t help but laugh. I know he doesn’t intend to be funny, but it helps ease the oncoming anxiety tightening my chest. “He’ll survive. Plus, if you knew everything about my family and my past. You’d totally agree that he deserves it.”
Chapter 15
Rude Interruption
“OHMYGOD, WE’RE TOO LATE,” I whisper into Everett’s ear.
I thought I was occasionally loud, but it’s nothing compared to the noise coming from behind the closed door where Ms. Stephanie said my brother was staying.
“It might be foreplay,” Everett says, meeting my gaze, struggling to keep an even expression.
I bare my bottom teeth in a grimace. I shake Everett’s shoulder. “Fuck. This is the worst. You do it. I’m not going in there.”
He whips his head back and forth. “The woman might be naked.”
“So might my brother,” I argue.
“From experience—with you, I might add—it’s far better to see your family naked than one of the females of another vampire’s staff. Especially if she’s under the care of Lady Tori.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “So not true. I know you’re worried about my jealousy. Not having to see the reason for all those sex noises is worth it to me.”
“Think of the woman, Gwen. Would you have wanted some strange vampire guy walking in on us?” He twists his lips, a dash of cockiness in his expression. And damn him for being right.
“You better have something in your medical bag to wash my eyes out with,” I mutter.
He chuckles.
“Something stronger for my head.”
He nudges me. “Hurry. I hear a headboard banging.”
“Shit.”
Squeezing my eyes shut, I let Everett thrust open the door to the room. I charge in like a freaking lunatic, but nothing happens. No yells or screams. No outrage. But all the moaning. And Everett was right about the headboard banging. Also, a strange-ass smell engulfs me—like sweat and perfume, musk—and I cover my mouth with my hand. My dumb dhampir senses really go crazy. I knew things smelled differently, but ugh. This isn’t the yummy scent of my guys.
“Fuck,” I whisper. “Is this what we’re like?”
Everett laughs into his hand, keeping out of the way of the open door. “I guess that would depend on who you ask.”
Another moan sounds through the air, and begrudgingly, I snap my eyes open.
Big fucking mistake.
The mirrored walls and ceiling of this strange room gives me a complete view of a gorgeous woman with cascading black hair and only wearing stilettos. She nearly bounces as she rocks on my just-as-naked brother, who lies half propped up and tied to the wall, wearing a pink, silky blindfold. I try to avert my gaze and get a side view of the two of them, where I see it’s my brother’s head hitting the wall while he sucks on the woman’s boobs.
“If you’re going to be here, you might as well join us,” the woman, who I remember hearing being called Xochitl, says. She tips her head back and smiles at me. “There are some toys in the chest over there for you to play along.”
“Toys?” my mouth squeaks the word out.
“He shouldn’t be the only one to cum now, should he? If you get me off before him, I’ll return the favor. Because, as you see, his hands are a little tied.”
Fuck. My. Life.
My brother moans again.
“Come on, mi amor. You better hurry,” Xochitl says, curling and uncurling her fingers at me.
Fisting my hands, I stride toward her. Her smile widens, and she waves to a giant wooden chest against the wall. Instead of going to it, I stomp my way across the room, dying a little inside with each of my steps. Because fuck. The scent of their sex grows more potent. The noise louder.
Xochitl cups my brother’s cheeks and kisses him. “I’m going to turn around and ride you like the wild animal inside you.”
“Wait, I’m going to cum.” My brother stretches out the word with a moan.
I’m nearly certain my life flashes before my eyes. “Fuck, Everett! Help me.”
“Throw a blanket over her,” he calls.
Xochitl doesn’t have time to react as I grab the end of the blanket strewn across the floor and throw it over her. Everett knocks her off my brother, and she screeches. What happens next is something I could’ve lived the rest of my life without ever witnessing.
I slap my hands over my eyes and spin around. Xochitl flies at me. Everett scoops me up and out of the way, but she wasn’t charging to attack. She dashes toward the bed again and lands back on top of my brother.
Ripping off his blindfold, she squeezes his cheeks in one hand. “Again. You will watch this time.”
“Oh, no you fucking don’t,” I say, holding my hands over my eyes.
“Gwen? What the—holy shit. Fucking A. Get out of here!” Silas yells.
“Not until she gets off you,” I snap.
Everett strolls with me away from them, keeping his eyes trained on me. “The likelihood of fertilization at this point is slim.”
“But she’s humping the hell out of him again.” I don’t even have to look. I can hear it.
“A male donor his age has a refractory period that averages about ten to thirty minutes. It could be less,” Everett says, using his health keeper voice. “But I highly doubt your brother would be an exception, even if it’s been a while since his last ejac—”
“TMI, Everett,” I say, covering his mouth.
“I’m sorry. You usually have a lot of questions, and I know how little sexual education is taught to humans.” He rubs his lips together. “I can’t help myself.”
I groan. “Still. We need to do something.”
Everett slides his hands to my ass. “We are doing something. We’re waiting for my brothers to return. It shouldn’t be long now.”
“Everett, please.”
Heaving a sigh, he murmurs, “Okay, fine. But you need to hold the female back.”
“If this is what being part of the team is like, we might need to reconsider a few things,” I grumble, fake-glaring at him.
Everett smirks. “I’ll make it up to you, but you better make it up to me.”
“Deal.”
Turning around, Everett darts with vampire speed and grabs Xochitl off my brother. I find
myself standing in front of her a second later. I throw my arms around her, restraining her to me. I try my best not to think about what kinds of nastiness might be getting on my clothes and instead focus on keeping her still.
“Please, you have to let me go,” she says. “I need this.”
I don’t think I’ve ever heard such desperation, not even someone pleading for their life. “But why?”
“It’s my turn. If I don’t get pregnant in the next month, the girls will change my status. I’ll be a staff donor for a year. This is my chance to make something of myself.”
I grimace. “You don’t want to expand the donor population with him.”
“He’s in excellent health. Good looking.”
A carrier of the dhampir mutation. I don’t say the words, but I think them.
While the chances of birthing a female, one who becomes symptomatic, are low, it could still curse another woman like me in the future. Most dhampirs don’t even live past infancy due to the nature of their needs. One would have to know such things, and most humans and vampires don’t. Like Bronx said, my existence was sort of a story to him. His brothers didn’t even have a clue.
“He’s a criminal. A Blood Rebel.” I hate that I say the words, but Xochitl is this immersed in a vampire household, then she would know such people exist.
“I don’t care.” Her voice comes out as a whine, grating on my nerves.
A sudden alarm booms through the air, and I release Xochitl to cover my sensitive ears. The blast of sound erupts shadows in my vision. Swinging her arm back, Xochitl elbows me in the stomach. I bow forward with the movement.
Everett releases the most threatening growl I’ve ever heard from him. Xochitl freezes in place, her human fear instincts kicking in at the threat Everett poses her. He materializes in front of her, flashing his fangs. I can’t even react as he leans in and cups her face.
“Never touch my girl again. When you leave and Lady Tori asks about Silas, tell her he tricked you into freeing him. He ran. Now forget we were here and leave.”
Everett releases her and rushes to my side. He crouches down and motions for me to climb on his back. Going to the bed, he retrieves my brother, who now lies unconscious. I suppress the mixed emotions rising inside me about Everett’s mind manipulation and instead take a few deep breaths against his neck.
The world blurs and a burst of fresh air engulfs us. The sirens wail even louder, and it takes everything in me to hold on. Everett sneaks around the massive structure, keeping close to the walls and running under the trees whenever he can.
We reach a tall concrete wall, and Everett sets my brother on the ground and rips a few bushes of the unkempt foliage on the outskirts of the property to camouflage him with. It helps that the evergreen sheet Everett wrapped Silas in blends in well with the surroundings.
“We will come back for him,” he says, flipping me off his back to carry me in his arms.
I twist my lips. “We can’t just leave him. I can stay. I’ll hide too.”
He shakes his head. “Absolutely not.”
I open my mouth to argue that if he thinks it’s safe enough to leave Silas, then it’s safe enough to leave me, especially because I can and will fight. Everett kisses me and takes off, not giving me a chance to make my point.
Bright light cuts across the sprawling lawn. The security detail of the Hunter Coven scours the area—probably for an intruder that they don’t realize is us. Everett retraces our steps, choosing to scale up a tree near a balcony. He tosses me over the guardrail and soon follows. Motioning me to the wall, he stands facing me, caging me in with one arm while using the space between us to pull out his com device.
He taps a few buttons. “We’re going to be okay. I’m sending Mikkalo the info to all the cameras we passed so he can delete the feeds.”
“But someone still saw us. The alarms—”
“Were activated because I freed your brother. While he looked like he enjoyed being tied up by Lady Tori, it was her way of imprisoning him until she could assure he wouldn’t run,” he says, keeping his voice low.
His com device beeps, and he glances at the screen and releases a breath. “It’s all good. I need you to take a few deep breaths.”
I inhale and exhale with him until my tight nerves relax. The shock of the night wears off, and we meet each other’s gazes. I laugh first and rest my head on his shoulder.
“The things I’m willing to do for you,” he murmurs.
I snuggle my face against the softness of his shirt. “Let’s try not to do this ever again.”
“Hopefully you only mean in regards to the most awkward interruption of my existence,” he says. “Because the other stuff...did you know the refractory period with vampires only takes a few minutes. With some, it could be seconds.”
I raise my eyebrows, a laugh threatening to bubble from my throat. “Are you the latter?”
He presses me harder into the wall. “Would you like to find out?”
This time I do laugh, and he chuckles, running his cool fingers along my warm cheek. Even getting all technical and in health keeper mode, Everett still manages to be sexy.
“Depends. I’m suddenly feeling more curious. What else can you teach me?” I lick my lips and smile.
He bends down, getting close to my ear before grazing his lips to it. “Now what’s the fun in telling you? I’d rather show you.”
“Careful, Everett. If your brothers hear you, they’ll know your secret. That behind your kind, easy-going, sweet persona is a panty ripper that I definitely don’t mind sneaking around with.” I draw my finger along his chest. “And I kind of like that little secret.”
“Only kind of?” he murmurs, kissing my throat.
“I’d have to experience it again just to be sure.”
He releases a throaty hum that sends a burst of tingles through me as he sneaks his hand down my pants just to feel my warmth. I return the favor and tease him through his clothes. While Mikkalo teased that Jameson would try to always keep me in his room, I’m nearly certain it’s going to be Everett. And right now? I totally want to let him.
“Next time don’t wear pants,” he whispers, his breath sending tingles through me. “I don’t care what Bronx says. If it’s my time, I want you my way.”
Oh, shit. I never thought such words could excite me. I’ve never been one to let someone tell me what to do, but something in Everett’s silver flashing eyes makes me nod my head. I lick my lips and kiss him, moaning softly as he continues to touch me. The sound of a door slamming is the only thing that stops us from proceeding. Everett slips his hand from my pants and sucks his finger into his mouth, closing his eyes for a second.
“I hope you let me taste more of you later,” he says, smirking.
I just gape at him, my eyes wide, my face hot as hell.
He takes my hand and pulls me toward the glass doors that lead inside the same guest room Ms. Stephanie brought us to. I hadn’t even realized that’s where we were. If I ever got separated from my guys, I’d be so screwed. I need to figure out how to pay more attention to my surroundings. It’s just hard with someone always holding me close.
Bronx, Mikkalo, and Jameson stand near the door with various expressions on their faces. Amusement on Jameson’s, suspicion on Mikkalo’s, and fury on Bronx’s. I can’t stop the memory of our fight earlier from flitting to my mind. It hasn’t been more than an hour, but the way he looks at me and Everett, like we have somehow fucked up again, pisses me off.
“Brother, what happened to the plan?” Bronx asks, keeping his voice at a whisper.
Everett remains calm. “There was an incident.”
I clear my throat. “Apparently one of the girls wanted to use my brother as a sperm donor, you know, since she isn’t a vampire.”
Jameson cracks first, his amused expression turning into a full-blown smile. “I thought I smelled sex.”
I roll my eyes. “Please don’t remind me. I had no idea it had a weird smell.”
“I wouldn’t call it weird,” Jameson says, giving me a once-over. “Not with you.”
Bronx swings out and clocks Jameson in the stomach, knocking him back. The surprise punch forces him into the wall where he pushes off and launches at Bronx. The two of them blur in a fight that Everett spins me away from. It takes Mikkalo intervening to get them to pull apart.
I clench my fingers into fists, the fragrant scent of blood wafting toward me. “What the hell is wrong with you, Bronx?” I turn to Jameson. “And you, Jamie. You didn’t have to retaliate. You split Bronx’s lip.”
Bronx touches the blood dripping from his mouth. I stroll toward him, but he disappears into the bathroom and returns with a wad of tissue. The action freezes me in my tracks. I gawk at him while Jameson, Mikkalo, and Everett gape at me. A whirlwind of emotions swirls through me. He’s not only on edge about the change in plans, he’s also still mad. I don’t have to ask him to know. He totally wasted his blood on purpose. I hadn’t planned on licking his wound or anything, but the fact that he obviously doesn’t want me close to his blood speaks volumes.
And I’m hurt.
The painful ache inside me nearly makes me cry, but I suck it up, cross my arms, and stride past him toward the door. No one moves, the heavy silence of the room weighing all of us down. I’m not sure how to handle this mess, and Bronx and Jameson don’t even try. I don’t think any of us thought about the possibility of a disagreement or how to handle it. Do I let Bronx and Jameson work it out? Get in the middle? Bronx and I obviously have our own shit to deal with.
“Gwen, where do you think you’re going?” Bronx asks.
I swivel and glare at him. “Where do you think?” Turning toward Everett and Mikkalo, I add, “You’re going to have to lead the way, Everett. Mikkalo, I want you to carry me.”
“What about me, Gigi?” Jameson asks.
Bronx steps in front of the door, blocking my way. “You’re staying here. We’re all staying here. If we leave, it might cause suspicion.”
“Then it causes suspicion. I don’t care.” I stride toward the balcony. “Whoever catches me, carries me.”
