I checked my own watch and winced. Crap. Gianna was on her way over and the ingredients for the casserole I’d planned on making still sat exactly where I’d left them, in my fridge and pantry. I rubbed a weary hand over my forehead. “Pizza?”
“Sure.” One corner of Gregory’s mouth lifted into what might’ve been a smile. “Meat lovers?”
“I’ll get a variety. Vacuum cleaner here can put away a whole one by himself.”
“Hey.” Jason lifted a limp hand and pointed at me before dropping it into his lap. “I resemble that remark.”
I bit back a laugh and rolled my eyes. God, he was cute when he was high.
Before I could call in the order, another knock sounded on the door. Gianna, had to be, unless Dev and Cassie had decided to stop by. Hell, at this rate, it might even be Elizabet and Marco. Why not? My apartment was becoming Grand Central Station.
I opened the door and dropped a kiss on her cheek as she came in on a cloud of perfume and worry. Her hands twisted the hem of her coat and her eyes blinked owlishly at me. From the living area, the sound of ESPN’s talking heads drifted out.
“You’ve got company?” she said.
“Jason and a friend of his. Gregory? They dropped by unexpectedly.” I took her coat and hung it up, pulled her into a tight hug, and relished the feel of her soft curves and gentle touch. “I meant for this to be just you and me.”
“Me, too,” she said softly. “I need to talk to you.”
“Funny. I need to talk to you, too.” I glanced behind me. Jason was struggling to his feet, resisting Gregory’s efforts to keep him on the couch. I rubbed the nape of my neck. “Maybe another time.”
“This can’t really wait.”
I picked up the thread of her emotions, a strange twist of excitement and nerves wound around a thin core of fear. “What’s wrong?”
“Gianna.” Jason shuffled toward us smiling happily at her, then listed to the side as his legs gave out. Gregory caught him and threw one of Jason’s arms around his broad shoulders, using it as leverage to hold him up.
“What’s wrong with him?” Gianna whispered.
“Long story, but nothing bad.”
“Ah, well.” Her fingers plucked at the bottom edge of her sweater. “I really need to talk to you.”
I looked helplessly between her and Jason. Gregory took the hint and eased Jason around, heading back toward the couch.
“Do you want to…?”
“No, I’m losing my nerve.” She squeezed her eyes shut, blew out a long breath, and blurted out, “I’m pregnant.”
“You’re what?”
Jason stopped so abruptly he nearly toppled, then spun Gregory around with him to stare at Gianna. Her cheeks darkened as she lowered her eyes, and I gaped at her.
“You’re pregnant.” My mind emptied. “With my baby?”
“Of course, with yours,” she hissed.
“No, that’s not…” I rubbed a hand over my face, tried to still the trembling in my knees. “We’re gonna have a baby?”
She nodded and clenched her hands together in front of her. I took them in mine, winced at their iciness, and chafed gently.
A baby. I was gonna be a dad to a baby with Gianna. Laughter tickled my throat and burst from me. I dropped her hands and lifted her into a high hug as a giddy wave of happiness swept over me. She relaxed into my embrace and held on tight, and then we were both folded against Jason’s massive chest.
“We’re gonna have a baby,” he said.
Gianna laughed. “Yes, we are.”
Gregory’s soft voice drifted over us. “Y’all are some odd folks.”
“You have no idea,” I said, and held tight to the woman of my heart and the man who would help me win her back.
Episode 5
Vows
Chapter One
It had been two weeks since Gianna told me she carried my child, two weeks of giddiness, worry, and the occasional bout of fear. A man my age had every reason to fear being a parent. What would I do with a kid? Hell, I was little more than one myself, in spite of being three years past legal age. Hadn’t finished my first degree yet, let alone the ones that would follow, and my only job, albeit a well-paying one, involved exchanging blood and sex with a vampire.
Yeah. Lot to worry about there.
On the other hand, what man in his right mind would turn down the chance to have a woman like Gianna as his wife? That she came with the bonus of my child only sweetened the pot. Maybe it was naïve of me, but I figured we’d work it out, me and her and Jason, the man who would be my favorite when I made the inevitable turn from physics geek to vampire.
Coincidentally, he was also in love with Gianna. Since he and I were the ones having sex together, I tried not to let it bother me. Jason was a good man, strong and solid through and through. Really, you couldn’t ask for a better guy to serve as your right-hand man, to manage your stable of pets and see that your household ran smoothly.
To protect the woman you loved from the monster hiding within you.
Since my punishment two months before, I’d wrestled with the cold man, that part of me that was, well, a vampire, or close to it. He only came out to play when I was at my most vulnerable, usually when my heart was involved, like with Gianna and Devin, or when I drank the blood of a vampire or another pet.
Strangely enough, he hid when two people were near, Elizabet, my almost maker, and Jason’s friend Gregory. I still hadn’t figured out why, though I hoped one of them held the key to unlocking the secret behind permanently keeping the cold man at bay.
Jason did a great job there, I had to admit, but his strength worked best when we were together. Since we both had busy schedules, that was nearly impossible. No, I had to learn to master the cold man on my own before I fully turned or risk the wrath of Marco, Elizabet’s favorite, who would not hesitate to put me down.
Two weeks after the glorious news that I would be a father, two weeks after Gianna had said yes when I’d asked for her hand in marriage, I undressed with Devin, my roster mate. It was my fifth monthly visit to the Red Room, the monstrous space in Elizabet’s mansion where she and Devin and I exchanged blood and enjoyed one another.
Over the past few months, I’d learned a lot about myself because of the things that happened in that room. The limits of my tolerance for pain and pleasure, the fact that I wasn’t as monogamous or heterosexual as I’d always believed. I’d learned of the power Elizabet’s blood provided, and the strength of my own will. Of my love for the people around me and how easy it was to hold so many of them close to my heart.
I pulled off the shirt of one of those loves and trailed kisses along his collarbone, embracing the unusual relationship Devin and I shared. Friends, lovers, master and pet. I didn’t know what we were, only that I loved him and he loved me. My first male lover, the first man to hold my heart in that way.
His fingers trailed down my stomach, teasing me with feather light touches. “You’ve been quiet tonight.”
“Lot to think about.” His fingers slid into the waistband of my slacks and tickled along the top of my erection, strumming the desire already humming within me, for him, from the spells embedded into the walls. “Mmm, God, yes, Dev. Do that again.”
He laughed, a soft brush of air along my throat. “Eager for me to fuck you?”
“Eager to hold you down and take you. Will you let me?”
“Do you really need to ask?” He withdrew his hand and undid my slacks, pushing them down out of the way so that he could pull my erection free. “Oh, yes. Here’s the prize.”
He sank down onto his knees and sucked me into his mouth. Dev had a great mouth and he knew how to use it, when to tease, when to go at it in earnest. I don’t know if he could read body language really well or what, but he was a master at anything having to do with sex, especially if his mouth was involved.
I tangled my hand in his hair and tugged as I watched him blow me. Already, I was hot with need, ready to come in his del
iciously talented mouth. No, I needed to, needed to fill him up with every part of me. Unlike the last time we’d been in this room, I could spill into him, spurting my cum down his throat.
Unlike the last time, the cold man was firmly under control, at least for the moment, and I intended to keep him there. Dev and I only had this one night a month. I wanted to make it good for him.
Elizabet came in, trailed by the hulking bulk of Marco. She pressed a light kiss to my mouth and touched Devin’s hair. “No, don’t get up, dearling. Marco’s joining us, so there’s no need to save yourself for me. And I love to watch the two of you play.”
My heart sank into the cold depths of my gut, dimming my enjoyment of Devin. The last time Marco had joined us, the only time, really, I’d walked away from it with the cold man as a permanent, unpleasant resident in my head. I still hadn’t regained all of my memories from that night, and suspected I never would, but a couple of things were clear. Marco was tied to it somehow, though I had only a niggling instinct telling me that, and I’d gained a whole lot more from that night than a brush with full-on vampirism. Jason, for one, but also the babe-to-be safely ensconced in Gianna’s womb.
Somehow, in spite of being on birth control, Gianna had gotten pregnant that night. The timing was too perfect for it to be otherwise. I’d given it a lot of thought, especially after my manipulations of Zane’s mind and Jason’s inner workings, and come to the conclusion that the cold man had done something funny to Gianna while he was in control. Nothing dangerous and nothing I could be certain of, but something.
And I still had to tell Elizabet about all that, too. Wasn’t really a talk I was looking forward to, much in the same way that I wasn’t looking forward to telling my parents that their only son, a formerly respectable young man with a promising career, had knocked up his girlfriend.
Being Catholic was hell on a man. There would be much weeping and gnashing of teeth, but once they met Gianna, I was pretty sure they wouldn’t give a damn how she’d come into my life, only that she had.
I watched Marco and Elizabet undress one another out of the corner of my eye, and tried to regain the pleasure I’d felt before they’d entered the room. Devin gave my dick a final caress with his tongue before pulling it out of his mouth and kissing his way up my body. He wrapped his arms around me, comforting me with the hard strength of his arms, the press of his bare stomach against mine.
“You went soft,” he said in a low voice near my ear. “What’s wrong?”
I sighed and buried my face in his throat, sniffing at his pulse where the water of life flowed just below the surface. I’d taste that pulse later, drink of his blood and make it a part of me, but for now, I simply enjoyed it being there.
“Come on. ‘Fess up.”
“Marco,” I said gruffly. “I…”
My throat closed on the knot of fear that rose in a rush to lodge itself there. Shit. How sad was it that two months later, the mere presence of Elizabet’s favorite could turn my blood cold? Fear me, little pet, he’d said. It was one of the few things from that night that I’d never, ever forget. Every time I remembered it, which was pretty much every time I saw Marco, the words shivered over me, a sinister warning of the weight of Marco’s power.
Elizabet tugged Devin playfully away from me. “Come, dearling. Now that the two of you have finished your play, ours shall begin.”
“Yes, Mistress.” Devin went willingly, though his gaze held a promise meant just for me. We’ll talk later. The intent filtered through our bond, as clearly as if he’d spoken. Among other things.
I smiled, let that promise fill me and edge out the fear. He joined Elizabet on the bed, his body golden next to her pale, perfect skin. Later, I’d explore that beautiful expanse, after we’d pleased Elizabet and given her our dues in flesh and blood. My dick hardened with heat and need, the pleasurable blend of promise and expectation.
Hard, bare arms circled my waist and I stiffened as Marco pressed a kiss to my neck. He was nude behind me, his massive body firm and warm against mine. Marco was a big man, a couple of inches shorter than Jason and just as wide, big enough to tower over most of Elizabet’s pets, including me and Dev. I’d always thought Elizabet had chosen him for his raw strength, since his personality was as flat and cold as a cast iron skillet, and about as weighty.
His soft laugh sent shivers over my skin where his breath fanned against my ear. “I heard that, little pet.”
Jesus. I’d forgotten to put up barriers, been distracted from protecting myself by the sheer joy of Devin’s touch. I tried to slam the metaphorical steel wall down around my mind and found it blocked by the large presence of Marco, rooted there as if he had no intention of leaving.
“I know what you did to Zane, little one.”
“No idea what you’re talking about.”
He wrapped his index finger and thumb around my dick and slid the connected fingers along its length. My hips shot forward into his touch, couldn’t help it, and I gasped as his grip tightened exactly the way I liked it.
“I found him passed out in an alcove the first night of the queen’s visit. You nearly broke his mind.”
“Yeah, well. He deserved it.”
I gasped again as his fangs scraped my throat. A hard length butted against my lower back. His erection, huge and rigid and far larger than Devin’s. Oh, God. Was he going to push that thing into my ass? A bubble of panic swirled upward, and with it something close to excitement. Devin was the only man I’d allowed to take me that way. Not even Jason had had that pleasure yet, mostly because he was so friggin’ big. Marco was even larger, thicker than my wrist and at least an inch longer than Jason.
Jesus. I was reduced to comparing men’s dicks in my head. What had my life come to?
Marco laughed again and pushed his hips forward, and I cursed. Dammit. I’d forgotten he was still in my head.
“Tell me why you tortured Zane.”
“You’ve got the whole mind meld thing going on,” I snapped. “Figure it out.”
“I want to hear it from your mouth.”
I hissed in a breath as his fingers went to the head of my dick, softening their touch to caress the sensitive skin there. God, he was good at that, likely had to be, what with managing Elizabet’s stable of pets, all men. How many had he had sex with over the long decades he’d shared with Elizabet?
“All of them,” he said. “Tell me about Zane.”
“He threatened Gianna. Not outright, no, but the intent was there. He was following her, I think because of Selena or maybe because he’s jealous of me and Dev. It doesn’t really matter why, does it?”
“You should have come to me.”
I blew out a shaky breath. “Fuck that. He needed a lesson. I gave it to him. End of story.”
“You nearly broke his mind.” Marco released my dick and turned me with cruel, calloused hands. “I should punish you for that alone.”
I flinched away from him. Not that, please, God, not that.
His fingers took my chin and squeezed until I met his flinty gaze. “I would ask something of you instead.”
“Sure.” The word was wobbly and threadbare, but I managed to get it out.
“Take my blood, use it to fortify yourself.”
“What?”
“My end draws near. Elizabet has spoken with you about this.”
I nodded. She had indeed, just last month. Though Marco looked no older than forty, and that on a bad day, I gathered that he was decades older, so old that he was nearing death. And while he wasn’t eager to leave his love, he had chosen not to become a vampire and extend his unnaturally long life.
I don’t know why. Frankly, it was none of my business.
Elizabet had originally intended for me to be his replacement, but I was too far along in the turn. Devin was the next logical candidate. As far as I was concerned, he was a much better candidate, though I hadn’t shared that opinion with anyone. Dev had the tact and grace I lacked when dealing with people. He
was a schmoozer, something I’d never be. Hell, there was a reason I’d chosen physics for a career, and it had a lot to do with not being good around people.
“She has,” I said.
His lips brushed my ear as an echo of an idea touched my mind. He’s not strong enough to protect her.
Neither am I.
You will be. Take from me. Strengthen yourself for what lies ahead.
I yanked away from him and considered his impassive expression, the tense set of his broad shoulders, the fingers he dug into the flesh of my hips. Jesus, he was serious. He wanted me to drink from him and, God above, have sex with him so that I would be stronger, tougher.
My heart hammered in my chest. I passed a shaky hand over my head, rumpling my hair into an untidy mess. “I don’t know, Marco. Don’t think I can.”
His hand shot out and wrapped itself in a steely grip around my nape. “You will do this to protect your mistress.”
“You can’t make me.”
One corner of his mouth curled upward into a smiling sneer. Whoops. Too late, I remembered how unwise it was to challenge someone who held you in his power. His mouth came down on mine, crushing me with the weight of his fury, and then I was air born, lifted into his strong embrace as if I weighed nothing while he stalked toward the bed.
My opinion on the matter? Overridden by a hulking bull of a man who loved his mistress too deeply to let her endure eternity alone.
Chapter Two
Marco dropped me onto the bed and covered me. His thick muscles failed to protect the tender flesh of my inner thighs from the sharp bones of his hips digging into my skin. I didn’t resist. No need to. I had no hopes of overpowering him, even with the added strength of the cold man.
Not that I was stupid enough to let my inner monster out with Devin nearby, fucking Elizabet while she fed from him. His mind brushed mine, a sweet reassurance before he turned back to her.
Marco grasped his dick and guided it into the crease of my ass. “Lift your knees for me.”
“Not until you get some lube.”
The Vampire's Pet (The Vampyr Book 1) Page 21
