Their Precious Own

by Lia Black

  Fourie smiled. “You are also the most endearing and rewarding.”

  Smiles were rare on Apex. In fact, his father was the only Clan he’d ever seen smile. It never failed to reassure him and make him want to try harder to make his father proud.

  “You are a very patient man, Father,” Kayle said.

  “I am.”

  “That is why you were chosen to groom the Sovereign.”

  “Indeed,” Fourie sighed. “But it is no replacement for seeing my own succeed. Kayle, I want to see you happy.”

  “Happiness has no place on Apex.” Kayle knew he wasn’t wrong about this.

  “Oh, it has a place. But so few who can recognize it for what it is. The Sovereign is very fond of you, Kayle. He is fascinated by my smile when I speak of you. He’s trying to learn how to smile himself.”

  That was…surprising. “He has only met me once…”

  “But he feels he knows you. I daresay, this one is going to be different. I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”

  “It is difficult to imagine the Sovereign smiling.”

  Fourie chuckled softly. “It is tragic to behold, my dear boy. But I do hope he masters it someday.”

  Kayle felt calmer now, and the weight of his father’s request to come here finally settled in. “Father, I…I truly appreciate you coming. No one else would have given me a choice.”

  “Which is why it was imperative that I come. I miss you, Kayle. I worry for you. Please, take care of yourself, and trust that Derek cares for you as well.“

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Kayle and his father had been locked away in Dr. Ray’s office for what felt like hours. Derek had alternately paced, sat, and paced some more in that time, driving Dr. Ray crazy enough that she’d found distraction in organizing some files. Finally, the doors opened and the Count emerged with Kayle behind him.

  Derek stopped himself from rushing forward and peppering Kayle with questions. He had no idea what the verdict had been, but if Kayle wanted to stay, Derek was ready to fight for him if the decision from Apex demanded otherwise.

  Dr. Ray came over to them as Count Fourie was putting on his white leather gloves.

  “Eidola, thank you again, my dear, for your hospitality,” Fourie said, raising Dr. Ray’s hand to his lips and brushing a dry kiss across the knuckles.

  “Detective Childress,” he said then, turning to Derek, who found himself naturally inclined to stand at attention. “Suggesting we meet here was a very good idea. And I want to thank you again, for taking care of my son.” Fourie smiled at Kayle who stood uncomfortably beside him.

  “Kayle? Are you leaving then?” Derek felt something shrivel up inside.

  “No.” Kayle’s eyes fell to the floor.

  The disappointment turned to confusion, and Derek looked to Fourie for clarification.

  “My son has it in his head that he is a burden to everyone. I do hope you will try your best, Derek, to help him learn to accept that it’s not true.”

  “Oh, yes. Of course.” Derek nodded. Fourie seemed like the kind of man that anybody would have a difficult time turning down. He’d never heard that the Clan were charismatic. Quite the opposite, actually.

  “And you don’t mind giving him a place to stay with you for a while longer, do you?”

  “No, sir...eh, Your Grace, I insist. It’ll be safer for him to stay with me.” Derek said, almost feeling like he was trying to convince a father that he would be a good provider for his child. In a way, he supposed he was.

  “Perfect. Then I shall take my leave of you all.” Fourie turned and headed towards the door.

  “Your Grace, uh, a moment, please,” Derek caught up to him.

  “Yes, Derek, is there something else?”

  It had bothered Derek when they’d arrived there, and after meeting his father, Derek believed he was the kind of man who truly wanted what was best for his son. “It was a pleasure meeting you, sir. I can tell how much you care about Kayle, and I’m going to suggest that you consider firing your bodyguards.”

  Fourie’s eyebrows rose up, widening his eyes. “Really? Why?”

  “Because of the way they treat your son.”

  “Derek— don’t.” Kayle hissed from behind him.

  Fourie’s expression became drawn, and his skin even paler, if that was possible. “Kayle?”

  “It’s nothing, Father.” Kayle averted his eyes.

  “Derek?” Fourie turned his attention back to Derek.

  “They called him a whore, and I’m certain a few other things that I wasn’t able to hear.”

  The count was silent for several heartbeats, his gaze dropping to the tiled floor at Derek’s feet. “Thank you for telling me this, Derek,” he finally said, and raised his head once more. Derek could swear the temperature in the room had just dropped ten degrees. “They will be dealt with once we return to Apex.” He stepped forward, closer to Derek, and Derek had to fight to remain rooted to his spot. Count Fourie’s cool, smooth hand cupped his jaw lightly.

  “And thank you once more for taking care of my son.”

  “Y-you’re welcome,” Derek stammered, sure that Fourie could feel his pulse hammering against his palm.

  “I will entrust you with his continued well-being,” Fourie turned, doing a creepy shifting thing—like two frames in an old movie overlapping. Derek blinked his eyes to clear up the blur. When he looked up again, Fourie was heading out the door. He glanced at Dr. Ray.

  “It’s a Clan thing.” She shrugged. “Never understood it, but that’s how they move. Like he’s here and yet not here.” She offered a wry smile and went into her office.

  Great. Something else for Derek to add to his list of creepy Clan things.

  They headed toward the exit and Derek’s car.

  “So that was your dad, huh?” he turned his attention to Kayle.

  “Derek, you shouldn’t have done that.” Kayle was not looking at him.

  Derek felt his temper flare, but kept his voice calm. “Why not? Are Apex punishments so harsh? Is it going to make things worse for you?” He unlocked the car, automatically popping open Kayle’s door before he went to get into the driver’s side.

  “No, no. At least, I don’t think so. It’s not that… it’s just…” Kayle’s shoulders slumped as he settled into the passenger seat. “I don’t understand why it’s so important to you. It doesn’t bother me.”

  Derek started the engine and put the car into drive. “Now see, that’s where human beings will always be superior to you Variants. We have this thing called psychology, which tells us we’re fucked up, even when we don’t realize we are.”

  “I’m not sure I like where this is going…”

  “That’s the thing about psychology— it hurts the most when you’re doing it right.”

  “Yes; sounds quite superior.” Kayle rolled his eyes.

  “See? You don’t feel like you’re less than me, so you aren’t afraid of being a prick. Those guys have nothing on you. They’re trolls ferchrissakes, yet you’re afraid to stand up and defend yourself.”

  “It’s politics. It’s complicated. You wouldn’t understand.” Kayle smoothed a lock of hair behind his ear.

  “Try me.”

  “You don’t— I just—” Kayle sagged. “I told you, I’m an embarrassment. I’m living proof that my father had sex with a prostitute and that she was a different species. Homogeneity is prized. “

  Derek cranked down his window, lighting up a cigarette. He really should quit. “Yeah? Just how many pure vampire babies have been born since the war?”

  “I… That’s not the point.”

  “Then what is, Kayle? Look, I get why Clan feels the need to lord over humankind. We’re fuckups. They gave us fire, the means to evolve and build technology, and after we forgot they existed, we used what they gave us to destroy our world. We fucked them over in the process, because now they’re mostly sterile. You are the product of two Variant races. If that’s not good enough, then you gu
ys are as stupid as we were before the war.”

  “But what I am…my kind kills for pleasure, with pleasure…we tempt humans with the toxins our body releases, makes them do things they wouldn’t normally do…”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Those men who attacked me…I…it was my physiology…I tempted them to try and use me sexually, because I knew it would make me stronger.”

  “Really? Because that’s not what it looked like from where I was standing. And don’t forget, Peterson and I were right there. He didn’t notice and I…” Should he really admit this? Well, what difference did it make, Derek had already offered himself. “I noticed. I was affected. But I have a few moral fibers intact. Drunk, drugged out on incubus pheromones, or whatever; I would never take advantage of someone like that.”

  “You were affected?”

  “Yeah.”

  “But…”

  “I jerked off while you were sleeping, okay?”

  “That’s not where I was going, but thanks for mentioning it... And did you call me a prick?”

  Derek was distracted by the hover-bird rising in his rear-view mirror like a giant insect. Above it was the larger airship, mechanical dragons circling, which would take Count Fourie back to Apex. As a child, he truly thought the crafts were magical, and they may as well have been, because to this day, no human had the skill or materials to make men fly.

  “Is it true,” Derek began, alternating between watching the road and watching the ships in his rearview mirror. “That after the war, the Variants took the top human scientists back to Apex?”

  “It’s true,” Kayle confirmed.

  “They went willingly?”

  “If you were a brilliant scientist, would you rather go someplace where they encourage invention, or stay on a dying planet that was struggling with how to make the light-bulb work again?”

  “What about their families?” The airships finally out of sight, Derek’s eyes returned to the road.

  “Most brilliant scientists don’t have any—too busy working, creating, thinking.”

  “I suppose they’re all dead now.”

  “It has been over a hundred years, so yes. I suppose you’re right.”

  “So what was it you were going to ask me?”

  “Oh,” Kayle said, “I’ve forgotten. No matter, your answer was probably much more interesting anyway.”

  Derek was never really certain when Kayle was joking. He was always so stern and cold—well, nearly always. It was a trait common to the Clans: the lack of passion and emotion. But even Kayle’s father was more expressive. He would have thought that as an incubus, Kayle would be a lot more hedonistic, at least. Maybe to an incubus, sex really was just like eating. Maybe it was no more pleasurable than answering to hunger pangs. Maybe incubi didn’t actually have orgasms. Not that Derek thought it should matter to him. It had just been the one time, and obviously he’d been the one on the receiving end of the stimulation. Derek bit his cheek as his body tried to access the memory of the sensation.

  Too many thoughts began to converge and Derek changed the subject. “Your father; he seems different from what I would expect from the Clan on Apex. He seems to really care about you.”

  “He does,” Kayle said softly. “And yes, he is different. The others— they question his decisions, especially in regards to me, and they are suspect of his sway with the Sovereign. But they don’t understand. My father is a great and honorable man.”

  “You really look up to him.”

  “I owe him everything. I only wish I were not what I am.”

  “Meaning an incubus?”

  “Yes.”

  Kayle went silent after that, staring out the window for the rest of the ride back to Derek’s apartment.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Upon arriving back at his apartment building, Derek did a quick visual sweep of the area as he walked around to open Kayle’s door. Only Peterson and Gilchrist knew where Derek lived, but the fact that Kayle had been attacked by cops was worrisome. They couldn’t have known for certain that Kayle had been the last person to hire Ramon, but it’s the first thing Derek would have checked. There was no indication that Meyers and his gang were part of a larger organization, but news of a Variant and a dead escort had the potential to bring every nut-bag out into the open.

  “You’re concerned about an ambush?” Kayle asked as he got out of the car, straightening his already perfectly centered tie.

  “Just paranoid. It’s what’s made me a good cop.” Derek headed across the parking lot with Kayle close behind him. He punched in his security code for the back door and pulled it open, waiting for Kayle to go inside.

  “Look, if this is going to be a problem, I could find someplace else to stay—”

  “It’s not a problem.”

  “Then why are we going in the back door?”

  Derek frowned. He hadn’t really been thinking about how it might look to Kayle. “It’s the way I usually come in so I can have a smoke.” They had come in near the stairwell that went all the way up to the roof. Usually Derek climbed up slowly, having his cigarette, and, depending on how he felt, he either took the elevator around the third or forth floor or just finished the walk up.

  “Oh. For a moment there, I thought you were concerned for my well-being. It was almost beginning to sound like you liked me.” Kayle followed Derek as he trudged up the stairs, hanging back enough to avoid the smoke.

  “A man does develop some affinity towards somebody who’s had his dick in their mouth.”

  For a concrete stairwell in an over-crowded apartment building, it was surprisingly clean. Derek liked to think that it was his presence here that discouraged any criminal or less than savory activities that might usually go down in an area like this. The landlord and at least some of the residents knew he was a cop. He didn’t need them knowing about Kayle.

  Before he realized it, he’d finished his cigarette and they were at the fourth floor. They took the last flight up and came out into the hall.

  “We’ll have to figure out something better for the sleeping arrangements,” he said, unlocking his door.

  There were four sets of locks on his door—each with its own key. Paranoid? Absolutely. Derek didn’t have to be a criminal to know how a criminal’s mind worked.

  “So what happens if you lose a key?” Kayle asked as he followed Derek inside.

  “I don’t.” Derek dropped his keys into the bowl by the door, yanking off his tie. “How do you wear this stuff every day?”

  “It’s comfortable. Like a uniform.”

  “Those words don’t go together.” Derek had never been comfortable in his uniform when he was a beat cop. It was like a giant target painted on his back. If he hadn’t gotten his promotion to detective, he likely would have been dead or quit by now.

  Kayle went to the couch, half-sitting on the arm as he carefully unknotted his own tie. Derek glanced back at him, then looked away. Did Kayle have any clue how sexy he was? How he moved, how his eyes veiled and slanted when he spoke, the shape of his lips around his words.

  Fuck. Pheromones again. Had to be, right? Derek refused to believe that their single act of sex had him this horny now.

  “I’ve been thinking,” Kayle said.

  “About?”

  “Well, a lot of things, but in particular, about this case we’re working on. All but one had a time of death early in the morning; so it’s possible that our murderer is unemployed…”

  “Or works the graveyard shift,” Derek followed Kayle’s train of thought. “But the one that was killed at night? I have a gut feeling that it’s the same guy, though the M.O.’s don’t quite match up.”

  “It was the first victim. Perhaps she was an accident?” Kayle unbuttoned his shirt slowly, then pushed himself up, walking past Derek. “Maybe he hadn’t meant to kill her, but after he did, he decided to…experiment?”

  Derek already had his shirt open and was tugging his belt free from his trousers. He stop
ped his lap around the room.

  “Experiment? You mean by draining her blood?”

  The first one had been the most difficult to find any kind of marks on that weren’t inflicted by violence before she died. What they found looked like it could have been left by a single fang, on the inside of her left wrist.

  “Yes. The exsanguination had to be mechanical since according to the reports, she was already dead.”

  “Vampires suck. Blood I mean,” Derek said, earning a frown from Kayle.

  “They don’t take from the dead.” Kayle slipped his shirt off over his shoulders, putting it neatly on a hanger and into the front closet. His injuries from his attack were mostly gone; just some yellowish bruising remained. Derek couldn’t help but feel a little spike of manly pride about his super-healing sperm.

  He remembered the patterns he’d seen along Kayle’s skin; almost like tattoos that had been bleached into his flesh. The glamour evened his coloring out to nearly the same porcelain tones as his Clan father. Although he was lovely, in that creepy, too-perfect way, the paleness made him look less exotic. It probably helped him blend in a little more than the darker skin tones with his platinum-blond hair. But those eyes. Night-black surrounded by thick lashes, the same color as his hair. Derek decided it would be best to wear his trousers for a while longer to keep any appreciation of Kayle’s physical attributes from becoming too obvious.

  “Maybe she wasn’t dead when he started. Maybe she died from her injuries some of the way through, while the vampire was sucking out her blood,” Derek reasoned, tossing his shirt into the same chair as his suit coat. Kayle grimaced and picked them up, shaking them out before he went to the hall closet to get a hanger. Derek stood back, arms folded across his chest as he leaned back against the counter, and watched Kayle go through his fastidious routines. He hadn’t decided if it was adorable or obnoxious, or one of those habits that started out cute but drove couples to divorce.

  Divorce? Couples? Where the hell had that all come from?