All Hell Breaking Loose

by Mandy Rosko

Cedric jerked away from the window, which he had been attempting to open. Silus rushed over and placed his hands against the hot, tinted pane, as though to be sure it was still firmly closed and locked, before he looked at Cedric.

  Silus’s heart had not hammered so since Cedric had died the night before, and Silus hoped to never feel the awful sensation again.

  “I was just—”

  “You are a vampire now.” Silus gripped Cedric’s shoulders, allowing his nails to pierce the muscled flesh and not caring a whit if it caused Cedric any pain. “Do you understand me? You are a vampire now and can never be in the sunlight again. It will kill you.”

  Cedric continued to stare at him as though he’d gone mad. His blue eyes flickered between the window, to Silus, and back again, before he swallowed heavily and nodded. “Okay.”

  Silus sighed, and he pulled Cedric back into his arms. He predicted that he would be, as Cedric would call him, clingy, for the next several days, but he didn’t care, and Cedric could deal with it as well. Cedric’s warm muscles and his heart beating a solid rhythm beneath his chest were godsends that Silus would never cease to be thankful for.

  “You cannot leave me again. Do you understand?”

  Cedric made no reply, but Silus felt him nod against his shoulder as they both gripped each other.

  It was too much for Silus to bear. He had to have him again.

  There was no coercing or seduction involved as Cedric was having much the same thoughts. Kissing and touching, biting and caressing, they both fell into the borrowed bed.

  This time, they managed to remove their clothing without destroying the garments completely, and unlike the night before, it was lovemaking this go-around. Even if that lovemaking was hurried and still held traces of desperation.

  Silus gently teased the both of them by thrusting his hips into Cedric’s awaiting organ. Cedric was still mostly full of blood from the intake he’d had last night and was the first to grow stiff under the attention.

  He mewed in appreciation, thrusting back and creating more friction, his fingers gripping Silus’s hair, and he stroked his stomach and chest, teasing his nipples into hard nubs.

  It was no surprise that Silus’s body was not far behind in response time under such attention.

  “Your neck smells good.” Cedric licked along the bruised area where he’d bitten him and taken his blood. It had not healed as quickly as it should have due to all the blood Cedric had consumed the previous night, and so the wounds were still open enough for Cedric to taste the lingering blood that had clotted there. “You taste good.”

  Silus pulled back before Cedric could get any ideas. “As much as I enjoy feeding you,” he said, briefly planting a kiss on Cedric’s lips, “you must learn some more self-control than that if I am to take my leave of this chamber on my own two feet.”

  Cedric looked as though Silus had told him there would be no ice cream after their evening meal, and so he took some pity on him. “After, I will take you hunting when night falls. You will have more than your fill, and so will I.”

  Just the thought of hunting alongside Cedric, instead of merely leaving him at home whilst Silus searched for rabbits, wild dogs, and the occasional deer, brought more pleasure than what should have been possible, considering their positions.

  The idea seemed to hold some favor with Cedric, as well, as he reached his head up to resume their earlier kiss.

  His mouth was pliant and willing, lips so plump and soft. No kiss was sweeter.

  Soon, however, the need for romance was overcome by the needs of the body, and Silus and Cedric rutted against each other in wanton abandon.

  Cedric’s legs spread, welcoming Silus between them, just as his hands reached down to grip his ass, pulling him closer and increasing the friction against their cocks.

  “Fuck me,” Cedric begged. “God, fuck me hard until I can’t walk right after.”

  Silus did not believe this was merely some dirty talking Cedric was doing. There was a purpose to this. He wanted Silus to punish him for his actions last night.

  “Clearly, my telling you that you were forgiven, that there was naught in which to forgive, will not be enough,” Silus said, somewhat disappointed by the revelation.

  Cedric could barely look him in the eyes. Silus had to grab him by the chin and force his face straight ahead so that their eyes could meet. Not merely some gentle hold he did, either. He gripped Cedric’s jaw until the other man cried out his pain and attempted to pull away, but Silus would not allow it.

  “Now you listen to me, you damned sprite,” Silus said. “I will fuck you. I will fuck you to within an inch of your life if that is what you require to feel as though your slate is clean, but afterward, I will fuck you again, and again and again, until I have taken all the pleasure I am able to out of you, and you have done the same to me.

  “I do so not for revenge, but because you are my lover and my mate, and because I take pride in having you in my bed and my cock in your ass and yours in mine. I will continue to have such pride and take my enjoyment from our bodies because I am not a fragile victim of anyone’s forceful hand, no matter what you think happened last night.”

  Cedric glared at him. Silus glared back as his fingers slipped away from his iron grip on Cedric’s jaw.

  Cedric’s resolve lasted for less than a minute before he reached up to rub the place Silus had grabbed him by, and he nodded his head. He half expected Cedric to make light of Silus’s speech, to tease him about his choice of words, as was his usual custom. He nodded instead. “Okay, but I still need—”

  “I know. I would not forget.”

  Silus accommodated him as best as he could under the circumstances. Cedric was torn between wanting punishment for the actions he could not fully control the night before and wanting comfort and love from his mate. The problem was that he was being too proud to ask for the latter, but Silus knew him and did his best to provide both simultaneously.

  Nothing in this bedchamber would have qualified for lubrication, so Silus was forced to use the old-fashioned method, and as he fingered his lover’s hole, preparing him, Cedric moaned and keened, begging him to go further before Cedric was even fully ready to take him.

  That hardly mattered. A little pain usually went a good ways to making the act more enjoyable, and Silus did as instructed, aligned his cock, and drove home.

  Cedric tensed, his face tightening as his eyes widened, and a tiny grunt escaped from between his clenched teeth. Silus would have liked to stop and give him the chance to adjust, but he continued on, roughly thrusting in and out regardless of whether Cedric was ready, and Cedric did not ask him to stop.

  Cedric’s punishment.

  Silus pressed kisses to Cedric’s neck, face, and mouth, moaning his endearments and praise as the pleasure consumed him.

  Silus’s love.

  Thankfully, Silus did not need to concern himself with the guilt of his actions for too long before Cedric began to return his kisses with as much eagerness as before, and this time, when he commanded Silus to fuck him harder, with his fingers clenching along the flesh of Silus’s back and his face contorted in pleasure, well, Silus didn’t need that body language to tell him Cedric had finally begun to truly enjoy himself.

  Silus slowed down just long enough to adjust his position, putting most of his weight onto his hands before sliding one hand under Cedric’s back, pulling them more firmly together before he resumed his punching thrusts.

  “This. Is. Fucking. Incredible,” Silus said, each word punctuated with a gasp. Cedric could take more of Silus’s strength now. He did not need to worry himself with being far too rough. Cedric would not break.

  He would not break. Cedric was going to live forever with Silus.

  Chapter Thirteen

  They had rutted like animals in mating season and then come together some more simply because they could. Cedric, still filled with new blood and bursting with energy from a recent transformation, was able to go on longer than
Silus.

  Though Silus had nothing against lots and lots of sex, after Silus performed fellatio on him for the third time and Cedric had taken him once more after that, Silus had to laughingly put his hands up and beg for mercy. He was tired.

  They remained in bed, Silus dozing, Cedric simply holding him, and both waiting for the sun to go down so they could hunt. Earlier, Silus had given in to his hunger and attempted to call to one of the weres to bring them a small something to eat while they waited to hunt, but no one answered the intercom.

  Perhaps they were all still much too busy planning the rescue of their friends and kin.

  Perhaps most of the house had overheard Silus’s and Cedric’s actions and were now keeping a safe distance from their borrowed bedchamber.

  Silus didn’t mind in the least.

  But then, some hours later, he awoke from his state of half sleeping to the scent of burning and Cedric hissing.

  He jerked up from the bed, his heart shooting to his throat as he noted the open window and the orange light of the falling sun streaming into their room.

  That explained the heat he felt, but just on the other side of the heavy ray of light stood Cedric, glaring at it hatefully, tears streaming down his face, with his hand, as though being firmly held by another person Silus could not see, in the center of the light.

  That idiot!“Cedric!”

  Silus leaped from their bed and across the hot ray of sunshine to push Cedric out of the way of danger. They collided heavily against the bureau, which rattled and cracked under the strain of both of their combined weights smashing against it.

  A year and a half of drinking Cedric’s blood had left Silus with some protection against the light, but even after only a day since his last feeding, and the amount of blood Cedric had, in turn, fed from him, he felt the stinging lash of the sun’s bite.

  It seemed that sun sprite blood fed into one vampire and then back into another newly changed vampire had not the same protective effects. Otherwise Cedric’s hand would not be cherry red with swollen blisters bubbling along the tender skin. The welting didn’t merely stop there, either. The sunburn went halfway up to Cedric’s elbow, wherever the sunlight had touched him. The splotching of red, of a milder color than on his hand, that spotted his face, told Silus that Cedric had attempted to put his entire body under the light before he moved onto only using his hand.

  Silus took his eyes away from Cedric’s festering wound and gently cupped his palm along his lover’s face, still wet with furious tears.

  “What are you thinking?”

  “I need it,” Cedric seethed, whether in pain or in frustration, Silus could not say. Cedric allowed his head to fall back, banging against the bureau before he said it again. “I need it.”

  Sun sprites required sunlight in order to survive. It was their main source of energy, and though Silus had never heard of any sprite expiring for the lack of sunlight—it was everywhere—perhaps Cedric’s mind was playing tricks on his new body, convincing him that he still required sunbathing in order to remain healthy.

  “No. You used to need it. Not anymore.”

  “I need it!” Cedric insisted again, his eyes becoming desperate.

  “No!” Silus fought the urge to shake some sense into his lover and then failed miserably.“You are a sun sprite no longer! You are a vampire now. The moon will be your sun.”

  He took Cedric by the hand, his good hand, and lifted him to his feet. Silus shut the window, pretending not to notice Cedric’s look of pain as the room became dark once more. They both needed medical treatment, and Silus needed to see to his wolves, as well as put anyone who was not preparing to go searching for the stolen omegas out on the hunt for Varinia.

  * * * * Jackson was vaguely aware of feet shuffling around him, even through the loud noise of his splitting headache, and he came awake instantly.

  A hand pressed him down as he shot up, and he fought off his attackers, panic seizing him as he was held down and restrained. For a second he couldn’t breathe and couldn’t think, as though he’d fallen into a pool of water that clogged his ears and nose, and he didn’t know why. He knew he could breathe. He knew how to make it stop.

  Go lax. Don ’t move, he told himself. It was what he’d always done when dealing with the stronger forces of the vampires. It was the only thing that would save his life, or any of the lives in his pack.

  One had to show his betters the proper respect before they would release him. Otherwise they might not release him.

  Still, it was almost as though he had no control over his body. He couldn’t make himself stop fighting and couldn’t control the frightened beating of his heart. Where was he? Who were these people?

  “Jackson! Jackson, stop! Stop it. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

  This time Jackson recognized the voice, as well as the touch of the man who held him down.

  Damon. He released a sigh of relief. Thank God.

  “What happened?” Jackson put a hand over his face at the pain the sound of his own voice caused. The light from the window was piercing his brain, and that had him back on alert.

  The lord of the house would never allow the windows open in the middle of the day. “What happened?”

  When he finally managed to focus his eyes, he didn’t particularly enjoy the look of pity Damon was giving him. “We were attacked. Several of the windows were shattered, and one of the walls was even torn down, but we’re trying block off all the holes so Silus can come down. Several of the omegas were taken.”

  Jackson’s heart hammered. The omegas were taken. It was like Connor all over again. “Who?” he asked over the rock in his throat. He was torn between two powerful, conflicting emotions. Rage and despair. And his body shook with the internal battle.

  “We’re still trying to figure out exactly who’s missing, but we have a start on the head count so far. Joey was one of the taken.”

  “I’m not asking who was taken. I’m asking who did it!” Jackson snapped.

  Damon pulled back, the shock on his face visible. He replaced it quickly with that stony voice he used whenever he was pissed off or forced to speak to Wiktor Veturious, Silus’s father. “The wild wolves we’ve been hunting. Jackson, did you not just hear what I’ve said?”

  Wild wolves? The omegas hadn’t been bought by another vampire family but had been stolen.

  At least that meant they could be returned. Rescued. Not like when Connor was taken and Jackson could do nothing. “I did.” Jackson threw the blanket off his body and kicked his legs over the bed.

  He stopped to take note of the queer realization that he was even in a bed, and he looked down at the simple wooden frame, as though to make sure his brain wasn’t playing tricks on him.

  Nope. His eyes were telling him the exact same thing. “Jackson? What’s wrong?”

  Damon was staring down at him now, the look all over his puss suggesting that this, a werewolf guard in a vampire home, lying in a real bed instead of an old mattress in the den with the others, was perfectly normal.

  Something had happened, Jackson realized. As he took in his surroundings, the soft wooden scent of the room, the carpeting, soft, yet still rough and scratchy beneath his feet by comparison to the dark, hand-made, and special ordered everything that was inside the Veturious manse, he suddenly knew that, without a doubt, he was not at the Veturious mansion.

  “Where are we?” Jackson asked, nearly frightened to hear the answer.

  Had they been sold to another vampire family? No, Damon had mentioned that Silus was within these walls. Perhaps this was a country resort?

  Damon bent down slow to look him in the eyes, and the strong presence that Jackson became aware of, as well as the all-consuming need to obey and bare his neck, told him that he was no longer the leading alpha.

  Damon was.

  “What exactly do you remember?” Damon asked.

  Jackson thought back, trying to recall where his memories ended. The last thing he could think of
with the most clarity was the day they had all been lined up under the grass in the moonlight. There were no stars. The alphas were on one side, and ten feet away, facing them, stood the omegas, stiff as statues. Wiktor Veturious had been presenting them to another vampire of good breeding and fortune. The vampire was new in town, and Wiktor wanted to make some connections with him by allowing the bloodsucker to purchase some of his wolves for cheap, allowing him to start his own pack of guards.

  Jackson had only been slightly worried. Not for himself, as Wiktor would not wish to sell him because he was too strong. He would no doubt be next in line to become the next leading alpha. Something like that was too valuable to give to someone else.

  No, Wiktor would want to sell his weakest omegas, perhaps some of the children, and one or two alphas of medium skill and ability to keep himself looking good during their bargaining.

  Connor was not weak, but neither was he strong. His plain chestnut hair, and the scar that ran down the side of his right eye, distorting the flesh between his ear and eye, made him too unattractive for a vampire, or even the humans they catered to, to want to take him to his bed.

  Jackson knew that scar well because he’d been the one to give it to him. Connor had asked to be marked when they were children, knowing it would keep him out of the dens belonging to the sex slaves, and so Jackson had shifted into his wolf and bitten him.

  They’d been inseparable ever since.

  Though he’d been worried, he still dared to let his eyes meet Connor’s, and in a show of bravery he barely felt, he winked at him.

  Connor’s lips had twitched, and then Jackson’s heart stopped as Wiktor and his guest stepped in front of Connor, blocking him from Jackson’s view, poking and prodding him to test for health.

  Then Connor had been bought.

  There were other things he recalled after that. Becoming the leading alpha, and working to make sure as few omegas as possible made it into the slave dens. He did not recall coming to this place or Damon taking over as the pack leader. The more he thought about it, the more those memories were blocked to him. Something important was missing. He knew that.