Vane shook himself. He could control his instincts, and he’d deal with the blood lust. And now that he’d arranged for the bloodkin nobles to be under lock and key, he’d deal with sending Moss away, for his own safety, and for Vane’s sanity.
He knew better than to believe that by weeding out the bloodkin who’d been killing humans, the problem was over. As he had explained to Moss, time and time again, the bloodkin instinct would always return to haunt them. Vane could handle it. He’d been handling it for decades. But if the problem grew worse, Moss would be a weak point, and one easily exploited.
In the end, there was only one way out of this, one path Vane could walk. And he’d do so, because he had no other choice.
* * * *
Vane had been gone three days now, and Moss was slowly going mad. Benson refused to answer his questions, and he’d been prohibited from going outside as well. The servants had even begun to avoid him when Moss tried to push Pena for information. He could not do his job, and he did not know where his master had gone. Instead of deciphering secrets, he seemed to be running into more.
He’d tried to figure out what Vane did and who he worked for. By now, he figured this peculiar absence must have something to do with that. But no one would tell him anything, and he knew so little of the bloodkin.
Frustrated, he continued to scan through the papers all over the desk, hoping to find something he’d missed. Nothing. He couldn’t find anything to give him a clue about Vane’s whereabouts. Some of them looked like lists of names, but most were written in a weird alphabet Moss didn’t understand. The books were no help either since the information provided in the human tongue pretty much spoke of what Moss knew already. In one section, one of the tomes mentioned something along the line of a Covenant, but never expanded or it. The translation seemed to get messy and unclear.
It didn’t help that Moss had been having all sorts of weird dreams as of late. Most were sexual, like the first ones, but several had been dark, bloody. Sometimes, he saw himself, dead in Vane’s grasp. He didn’t know what to make of it. He felt so confused and lost and no one told him anything.
He swept his hands over the desk in fury. The papers flew everywhere, covering the floor of the study like a thin layer of inky snow.
He didn’t know who he was angrier with, himself or Vane. When had he become so addicted to the bloodkin’s presence? For all he knew, Vane had gone on some sort of business trip. But Moss couldn’t help but remember the beautiful Annette, and Vane’s payments to her. When he’d last spoken to Vane, the man had tried to fire him. How could he not be scared? How could he not be jealous?
Moss blinked away the angry tears suddenly clouding his vision. He needed to focus on something else, lest he lose his mind completely. Leaving the desk, he knelt and started gathering the scattered papers. Halfway through, Annette’s name popped up on one of the documents again, and Moss cracked. “Fuck it! Fuck you!” He tore the paper in question, ignoring the way his mind screamed at him he endangered his already tenuous job situation even further through his irrational behavior.
Only one thing could’ve stopped him from his rampage and, strikingly, that thing—or rather, person—appeared. “Who upset you now, Moss?”
Vane’s voice made Moss freeze. He looked up to meet Vane’s dark gaze. Had Vane really come back? Where had he been?
So many questions swirled through his mind, but he didn’t have the courage to ask. If Vane had wanted him to know, Benson would’ve told him. “Uh…Nothing,” he replied. “No one. Just the usual. Annette and the work.”
“You’re lying,” Vane said, just like three nights back. “The truth, now.”
Moss didn’t speak, too afraid his jealousy would get him thrown out of his job. But Vane would not be deterred. He made his way to Moss’s side and picked him up with one hand. In one simple motion, he threw Moss to the couch and pinned him under his weight.
“You are being stubborn again, my beauty,” he growled while immobilizing Moss’s arms. “Don’t make me cross. You wouldn’t like me when I’m cross.”
Moss trembled under Vane, aware the bloodkin could kill him at any time if he so wanted to and strangely aroused by the fact. Was it odd he wanted Vane to lose control like this, to touch him in the intense way only Vane knew how? Perhaps, but Moss couldn’t bring himself to care.
He moaned, arching into Vane’s touch. “My lord, please…I want you.”
Vane cursed under his breath and held him down. “You drive me crazy,” he snarled. But for all Vane’s apparent anger, Moss could feel his lord’s dick throb against him.
“Please,” he tried again. They’d been in this position before. Moss did something that pissed Vane off, and Vane ended up ordering him to be a good little secretary and obey. This naturally aroused a deep instinct inside Moss, and Vane responded in turn with his own passion. But Vane refused to do anything about it, leaving them at a deadlock. And things had only grown worse after their argument.
Now Vane had left his side, with no explanation, driving Moss so jealous he couldn’t think straight. Moss couldn’t accept it anymore, not when they fit so together so well.
“Touch me,” he begged. “Bite me.”
He must have pushed too hard, too fast, as Vane got off him and sat at the other edge of the couch. Feeling abandoned, Moss tried to reach out again, only to be rebuked. “Don’t. Stay there.”
More than powerful, Vane sounded at the edge now, almost animalistic. Instead of being frightened, Moss wanted Vane even more. He had to do something now, or he’d lose his chance again. Vane would leave once more, and perhaps, this time, he wouldn’t return.
“Vane, you can’t hurt me. This isn’t wrong,” Moss dared. “What you said in the carriage would be true here if you forced your needs on someone by using your abilities. But if that someone wants you to touch him, then there’s no problem.”
“You are a fool,” Vane shot back. “You have no idea what I want to do to you.”
“I do know,” Moss said. He clearly remembered what he’d seen that day, when he’d followed his friend to the bloodkin’s lair. But he didn’t care anymore, not when Vane was so close, when his touch felt so good.
“Vane…My lord…Please.” He crawled close to Vane and pressed a kiss to the bloodkin’s neck. It was the first time he’d initiated such contact between them, and he didn’t know how it would be taken.
The air crackled with energy between them, and something seemed to snap inside Vane. “Fine! You want this, you’ll have this. Don’t complain afterward.”
Vane shot to his feet, and with no warning, grabbed Moss and draped him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He moved so fast Moss’s head went dizzy, and for a few seconds, he lost track of his reality. When the world stopped spinning, he found himself in an odd, dark room, standing with Vane holding him upright.
Moss had never been in his master’s dormitory, but he noticed in slight dismay it reminded him a lot of his unpleasant experience back in Elmya. There were chains and all sorts of devices that looked like torture equipment. Even the bed had shackles attached, and a hook hung from the ceiling. “Change your mind yet?” Vane asked.
Moss shook his head. He wanted this. Even if it seemed the same, with Vane here, everything would be all right. He had no doubt of it. If Vane had wanted to hurt him, he’d have done so already, without giving him the choice. “I’m not scared of you.”
“You’re such a naughty human, aren’t you, my beauty? We’ll see what you think in a few minutes.”
Vane dragged him to the center of the room and ripped his clothes off, leaving him naked and exposed. Some invisible power dragged the hook from the ceiling. Shackles encased Moss’s wrists in a tight, almost unbearable hold. It all happened so fast Moss didn’t even realize what was going on until the hook began to climb back up, lifting him off the floor. Moss cried out, the pressure on his arms shocking and painful.
And yet, in spite of the slight pain, Moss didn’t
want this to stop. All his dreams had led to this single moment, the instant when Vane would, at last, concede the battle and accept they fit together. Above all else, Moss yearned to know and fulfill each and every desire of Vane’s.
With his body immobilized by the hook, he couldn’t do much, but Vane didn’t hesitate in taking what he wanted. The bloodkin’s hand went around Moss’s shaft, squeezing it tightly, giving it just the right combination of pleasure and pain.
Vane’s other hand went to tweak at Moss’s nipple, and Moss arched his back, the onslaught of sensation too much for him to withstand. His fangs scratched against the skin of Moss’s chest, a slight scrape, drawing blood, but not causing any real pain.
Moss knew he should keep quiet. He needed to wait for Vane to take his pleasure, to do what he wanted. But the words slipped out of him before he could stop them. “Please…More. I want you.”
In that moment, he saw something change in Vane’s stance. Vane lifted his head, and Moss realized a new emotion burned in Vane’s gaze, a touch of anger mixed with something else, something Moss couldn’t quite define.
“You don’t know what you want,” Vane replied, his voice strikingly cold. The bloodkin moved so fast Moss almost didn’t realize his absence. But when a blindfold went around his eyes, Moss’s arousal began to turn into something else. He couldn’t see Vane anymore, and that made all the difference in the world. “What? What are you doing?”
“Who do you think you are to question me?”
Vane didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he pulled Moss’s hair, and when Moss gasped, forced a hard gag in his mouth.
A swish of leather was his only warning before something hit his thighs, sending raw agony through him. “So disobedient,” Vane said.
The second hit fell, and it hurt even more this time. “So deceitful.”
The third one, and Vane continued to list Moss’s faults. “So arrogant.”
Four. “So foolish.”
Five. “So human.”
It was the last one that broke Moss’s heart. It had all been an illusion. Every kiss and every kind word had been a mere fantasy. Bloodkin could not mix with humans, and taking Moss in had just been a whim of Vane’s. He’d been so wrong. How could he have been so wrong?
Moss prayed to the Sky Lord to help him understand, to give him a way out of this horrible situation. His wish must’ve been heard, as the whip stopped falling. The hook released his arms and Moss found himself lowered on the floor. The gag and blindfold were next to go. Finally, the shackles around his wrists vanished as well. Even released from his bindings, Moss could not move, too shaken by what had just happened.
Seeming as unruffled as always, Vane gave him a cool look. “Do you still think you can want me now?”
Moss would have said “no,” but something in his heart forbade him from doing so. And then, belying the sharpness of his words, Vane knelt next to Moss and wiped away his tears. “It is as it must be,” he whispered.
With that, Vane took off, leaving Moss cold and alone in the dungeon.
* * * *
“What did you do?” Kier screamed at him. “What in the world did you do?”
Vane passed an agitated hand through his hair. “Shut up!” he shouted back at his friend. He didn’t need to be told he’d fucked up. He already knew. “Shut the fuck up.”
He’d intended to make Moss see how incompatible they really were. The human got under his skin, so much so that being away from him had been physically painful. When Moss claimed he wanted Vane no matter what, Vane realized things had gone out of hand, beyond the realm of employer and employee, of friendship, or even casual sex.
He’d wanted to scare Moss, but he’d lost control and ended up hurting him instead. He’d wanted to wipe out those feelings that kept Moss from leaving, just like he’d considered a few days back. But the physical damage he’d done to Moss as a consequence was unforgivable. When had things gone so wrong? Fuck. How would Moss even bear to look at him now?
Vane was bloodkin. As a rule, he didn’t feel remorse or regret. But this time, the bitter taste of self-hatred and shame filled him. He couldn’t even see Kier in front of him. His eyes were filled with the sight of Moss’s tears of pain and loss. He wanted to tear his hands off, just because they had been the tool that had enacted such agony on the beautiful human.
“Stop feeling sorry for yourself and go fix this.” Kier gripped his shoulders and physically shook him.
Vane pushed away from his friend. “How badly is he injured?” he asked, somehow managing to keep his voice from trembling.
“You didn’t break the skin,” Kier replied, “but he’s hurting, inside more than out. He trusted you.”
Everything inside Vane screamed to go to Moss and ask for forgiveness, something he hadn’t done in his entire lifetime, not even from the Imperator. But the thought of that bloody body in the alley still tormented him. Moss would not leave if he thought there could be something more between them, and Moss’s safety was more important than momentary comfort and happiness.
Or so he’d thought. Then again, he’d thought many things. He’d considered himself immune to the impulses and instincts of his kind. He used professionals to exorcise his desires and fuel his abilities and never lost control. But this time, the blood lust, the frustration, and the knowledge of the peril had gotten the best of him. What could he do now?
Before he could figure out the answer to his question, Vane sensed an agitated presence approach. Pena burst into the room. “Your Lordship, a messenger has arrived. He says he needs to see you at once.”
So, he’d been right. The Imperator had agreed to his plea and summoned him to Tachaka. Only now, he’d leave Moss behind in these horrible circumstances. Moss would never forgive him.
But hadn’t that been the very goal of him hurting Moss? Hadn’t he intended to drive Moss away? Why did he now hesitate so much? The timing of the messenger couldn’t have been more perfect. Vane would leave and therefore eliminate the temptation of apologizing and confessing something as horrible as feelings to Moss. He’d have Kier make the rest of the arrangements, and by the time he returned, Moss would be gone, safe and sound beyond the Great Waters.
“Thank you, Pena,” he told the brownie. “I will receive him now.”
As Pena took off to notify the messenger, Kier gave him a knowing look. “You’re going to go to Tachaka, aren’t you?”
Vane didn’t answer since Kier knew him far too well for the question to actually require a reply. “Suit yourself, Vane,” his friend continued, “but for what it’s worth, I think you’re making a huge mistake.”
In Vane’s opinion, the huge mistake had already been made, when Vane had begun to care about a human. It was high time he fixed his mistake. He knew far too well what happened when bloodkin lost control, and so did Kier.
“You were in this situation once, Kier. Surely you remember.”
It was a low blow since Kier hated to be reminded of that particular time of his life. Usually, Vane tried to avoid the topic, but as of late, he’d brought it up more than once. He realized he shouldn’t be using his friend’s pain as an excuse for his own behavior, but he’d never claimed he was a good man.
“It’s not the same,” the elf said, glowering. “Moss is not a dark elf, and you’re not your brother.”
Both statements were true. Even if they looked alike physically, Vane couldn’t have been more different to his brother Cole if he tried. But in the end, both were bloodkin and had the same instincts.
When Vane didn’t reply, Kier stalked out angrily. It seemed that he’d finally lost all patience where Vane was concerned. Vane didn’t have much time to muse over their conversation. A knock at the door announced the messenger had come. Casting aside his personal problems, Vane ushered Thomson in. “What news do you bring for me?”
“Greetings, my lord.” Thomson bowed lowly. “The Imperator has agreed to see you. He requests your presence at Tachaka in two days’ time.�
�
The wraith paused, and Vane could sense there was something else on his mind. “What is it? What is the matter?”
“I overheard something while there. It is nothing official, but should it be true…”
“What is it? Speak, man!”
“The Imperator seems to be dabbling with the legislation. The nobles in question were even saying the law banning the illegal hunts would be repealed.”
Vane cursed under his breath. The previous rulers of their nation had set into place the Blood Covenant specifically to prevent their race from running amok. But any Imperator had absolute authority over the law and could change it as he or she pleased.
It was odd to say the least. Vane knew the current leader, Aran Bloodclaw, well. In fact, their clans were distantly related. Aran always respected the Covenant in the past. The man had begun to rule a little over a hundred years back, and he’d been a good ruler. What could have possibly determined him to change his mind?
If only Vane had known about this before sending the missive. Too late for regrets now. He’d have to go through with the original plan and make a backup one, just in case. “Are you certain?” he asked the wraith.
“I know what I heard. I cannot be sure of the accuracy of the information.”
But gossip always had a source, and no one would talk about something so serious without having some sort of reason. “Thank you, Thomson. I appreciate your help.”
And he did, indeed. The wraith didn’t have to warn him about Aran’s new policies. He’d always helped Vane in the past. “You’re dismissed.”
Thomson nodded and, with another bow, disappeared in the eerie way of his people. Vane had the feeling he wouldn’t see the wraith again. Even Thomson’s kind disliked war and did their best to avoid it. Thomson would probably seek cover in his own realm.
Vane got up and headed for Kier’s room. He heard voices, and his heart fell as he realized Moss must be inside. Even so, he knocked. There was no time to lose. He needed to answer the summons of the Imperator and be prepared if his worst suspicions came true.
Bed and Breakfast [Bloodkin 1] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) Page 12
