by Ella Frank
His choice of words had been deliberate, they had to have been, and Leo refused to acknowledge them as Alasdair backed away.
“Where are we?” he asked again.
“We’re in the east corridor of my lair.”
Leo opened his mouth to ask another question, but before he could speak, he was flattened against the wall, with Alasdair up against him. The finger that had just been tracing his jawline was now pressed to his lips, and Alasdair hissed, “Shh. Someone is coming.”
The eyes pinning him to the wall demanded his obedience, and the finger against his lips started to trace a line back and forth until Leo’s mouth automatically parted and his tongue touched the tip of it. At the simple contact, Alasdair’s eyes seemed to light from within. The green glistened back at him, and when his top lip pulled taut and those wicked fangs of his appeared, Leo’s breath hitched in his throat.
Never had he felt this kind of heat. That fire that scorches skin from another’s touch. Yet as he stood there now, he felt as though his entire body was about to go up in flames.
This man was all the things he shouldn’t want, but as Alasdair continued to stroke his lip, all Leo could think about was him replacing that finger with his mouth.
What would it be like to kiss him? he thought as his eyes moved to the teeth that both fascinated and terrified him. Would he graze them along my skin?
“Be cautious, file mou.”
At the warning, Leo’s eyes flew up to Alasdair’s as he dipped his finger deeper into his mouth. Leo sucked on it, unable to help himself, and his eyes slid shut as a low, moan emerged from his throat. He felt as if he were hypnotized.
“You might get more than you bargain for, with thoughts like that.”
Ahh. That voice made Leo’s dick harder than a goddamned rock, and he jutted his hips out, searching for relief. When Alasdair wedged his leg between his thighs, he couldn’t stop himself from rubbing his aching length over the hard muscle there.
He reached for Alasdair’s arm, something to anchor him to reality, and the rattle of the chain had his eyes dropping to the cuff on his wrist. Fuck, he’d forgotten about that, and though it should’ve snapped him the fuck out of whatever daze he was in, the sight of that shackle had the opposite effect. His head fell back against the bricks and he rolled his hips harder against Alasdair.
“Fuck,” Leo groaned, and when the long length of Alasdair’s cock aligned with his, Leo wanted to feel it naked against his skin. Fuck, he was close to reaching down and undoing his pants to get it.
“Se thelo,” Alasdair rasped.
Leo’s fingers dug into the arm caging him against the wall. He was out of his fucking mind, but God, he wanted the vampire too. And when his eyes opened and caught Alasdair’s, he nodded.
An arrogant as fuck smile stretched across Alasdair’s lips, and he went from sexy to downright fucking dangerous in seconds. Then he swooped in and captured Leo’s lips in a savage kiss.
Leo moaned into his mouth, not caring what would happen next, and when Alasdair’s hands grabbed his ass, a blinding flash of light exploded before Leo’s eyes. Suddenly, he was seeing—he had no idea what.
LEO BLINKED SEVERAL times, the scene playing out like a scripted show, startling in its familiarity. This was where he’d first seen Alasdair, back when he’d chased him down through the bathhouse.
What the…?
There, in front of him but not really there at all, was Alasdair.
Not the Alasdair who was currently kissing him though.
No, there, he had long, shoulder-length hair. In a white toga, he was running through an empty hall with a massive pool and thick, white columns surrounding it. His face was flushed, and as he stopped behind one of the pillars, his eyes slid shut and he tried to catch his breath.
Leo watched, fascinated, thinking it was another trick of the mind. Then Alasdair lowered a hand to stroke himself as he demanded to someone Leo couldn’t see, “Show yourself”—
“LEONIDAS.”
LEO SQUEEZED his eyes shut, and then he heard his name again.
“Leonidas?”
When he opened his eyes, he focused on the Alasdair who’d lifted his head. The one whose eyes were narrow and full of suspicion.
“What just happened? Your eyes—the color, it… What was that?”
Good question, Leo thought. He was about to tell him that he had no idea, but Alasdair shook his head and indicated behind him.
Three figures were walking by. Each was dressed in casual clothes: jeans, shirts, and jackets. They could’ve been anyone on the street—except for the three trailing behind them, one man and two women, each bound by chains like his own.
The man had a collar around his neck instead of a cuff at his wrist, and his gaze was on the ground as if he were studying where and how to put his feet with every step he took. He was dressed in loose, black pants that hung off his hipbones, and if it weren’t for the drawstring tie, Leo was positive they would’ve fallen off. The man was thin—not grotesquely so, but enough that Leo could see his ribs.
The women were a different story altogether.
Voluptuous, plump, and confident in their steps, they glided by him and Alasdair. They were both wearing outfits of the same billowing, black material as the man’s pants. It crisscrossed in narrow strips over their bare breasts, barely concealing them, and then met at the low waist below their navel, where a skirt flowed off their hips to the floor.
Around each of their wrists was a cuff much like his own, and Leo wondered if there was a difference between being collared or cuffed. He almost laughed at the thought. Never had he ever entertained the thought of anything remotely BDSM, so he really had no point of reference.
Is that what these vampires are into?
When the other occupants in the hall disappeared around the corner, Alasdair said quietly, “Come. I want answers, and so, apparently, do you. I’ll show you the difference between a cuff and a collar, and you are going to tell me what the fuck happened back there.”
ALASDAIR WAITED FOR the usual denial. That had been Leo’s standard response. But as they walked in silence, he had a feeling this time might be different, judging by Leo’s confused expression.
This was not good. When several adolescents made their way down the hall, Alasdair decided there was no better time than right then to mark Leo. He needed his scent on the human before they hit the actual Walk. He’d been so close too.
One minute more and Leo would’ve been on his knees with his cock in his mouth and his come down his throat. Except something had happened. The color of Leo’s eyes had spread like ink across a body of water, encompassing the entire surface…
But what was happening beyond the surface?
“Where are we going?” Leo asked, finally breaking the silence.
“I already told you. We need to leave via the Walk.”
Leo made a frustrated sound. “That doesn’t tell me anything. What is the Walk?”
Alasdair stopped so abruptly that Leo almost ran into him. “I am not telling you anything more until you explain what you did back there.”
Leo swallowed.
Alasdair raised an eyebrow. “Nothing?”
“I didn’t do anything. It just happened.”
“What happened?” Alasdair fired back, and instead of waiting for a response, he delved inside Leo’s mind. He hunted around, searching for any kind of clue as to what had happened. But all he got was, Get out of my head.
Frustrated at the anomaly that Leo was, he demanded, “Tell me what you did.”
“I. Don’t. Know,” Leo stressed and shook his head. “This is fucking ridiculous. If you don’t believe me and think I’m some huge threat, why am I still here?”
Alasdair couldn’t agree more. For some irritating reason he didn’t understand, he couldn’t bring himself to get rid of him. He had no idea what was going on with this man, but the deeper he got, the more…intrigued he became.
“The Walk happens each month
,” he said.
Leo’s mouth parted in surprise, as if he’d expected death, not an answer to his original question.
“It’s where we take our new yieldings and show them off amongst our kind.”
“But I heard you tell the suit guy that I wasn’t your—”
“I told you not to speak of him,” Alasdair interrupted, yanking on the chain so Leo practically tripped up to his side.
“Why can’t I speak of him? Because he’s your lover? Big deal.”
Alasdair found the question odd. What did he care who knew that particular fact? “You are not to speak of him because he is of much importance, unlike yourself. And yes, among the many things he is to me, my lover is one of them.”
“So, you’re gay?” Leo asked.
Alasdair cocked his head to the side at the thought Leo had but didn’t voice: Like me.
“I’m vampire. We fuck whomever we want. We don’t differentiate sex by gender. More so by species. Vampire, human, and so on,” he told him. Then he slowly drew his fangs over his lower lip, causing Leo’s eyes to fall to them.
“And how long have you been a vampire? I read that you were created by the gods. Apollo, Artemis, and what was the other one…” Leo mused.
Alasdair watched him cautiously, wondering how much the human knew—or thought he knew.
Then Leo snapped his fingers. “Oh and Hades. Scary god of death. Though that would make sense given your penchant for threats of murder and all.”
“You have read wrong,” Alasdair told him. “I was not created by the gods—”
“But by Vasilios?” Leo guessed.
Alasdair neither agreed nor disagreed, deciding that not saying a word was his best course of action. His silence, however, led to Leo’s continued line of questioning.
“Well…every story usually begins with a thread of truth, right?”
“So it does,” Alasdair said before he thought better of it.
“So I am right?” Leo asked again, a grin splitting his lips for the first time since he’d woken up—and Alasdair couldn’t look away from him. Leo was enjoying himself, and when Alasdair intruded on his thoughts, he heard, This is what I love about history. Discovering truths, and hell, I’ve never had a live relic to discuss things with.
Alasdair started to walk again, choosing to ignore that he was not excited to be viewed as a relic by this particular man.
They were nearly at the end of the hall when Leo said, “You never told me how long it’s been, you know, since you were changed.”
“A long time.” Then Alasdair thought about the questions he was being asked, and his suspicions of Leo rose again.
“How long?”
“You ask too many questions. Are you aware of that fact?”
“I don’t care. This is the first time you’ve been talkative since you locked me up.”
“I have no clue who or what you are, Leonidas. And what makes you think I’m telling you the truth?”
Leo didn’t seem to have an answer for that. So Alasdair asked a question of his own. “Why do you want to know, anyway? You’re the all-knowing historian. I would hardly think you need me to answer these questions for you.”
Leo gave a false smile and shrugged. “Well, nothing like being able to ask the real thing. Plus, it’s in my job description to be curious. You’re likely older than anything I’ve ever dug up and dusted.”
As they rounded the end of the hall, a mix of lustful groans and raunchy laughter met their ears, and Leo’s sarcastic diatribe came to an abrupt end. There, lining the sides of the long, elaborate walkway, stood well over a hundred vampires.
Each of them was engaged in the usual activities that took place at this particular congregation. In varying degrees of undress, some were in the throes of a hallway fuck, while others were delighting in the pleasures of eating and being eaten.
As the debauchery took center stage, Alasdair ran his eyes over his brood until he spotted Isadora and Thanos towards the middle of the crowd.
Thanos had a young man pinned to the wall. One hand was down the front of his pants, pumping and pulling at what Alasdair suspected was a painfully engorged shaft. His teeth were deep in the man’s carotid, and if the human was lucky, when Thanos was done he would get on his knees and finish the poor bastard in his mouth.
Isadora, on the other hand, had a redheaded woman kneeling by her side. The woman had her hand resting high on Isadora’s thigh, and she appeared extremely satisfied.
With her dark hair pinned up in an elaborate updo Isadora looked regal as ever while she surveyed their congregation. Her eyes finally came to a stop when they reached him.
As she stood, Alasdair heard her address him, and so did every other vampire in the hall.
They all ceased what they were doing to look upon who had just stepped into the Walk. Silence filled the corridor, and not two seconds after it was confirmed, they bowed their heads.
Alasdair then turned to see that Leo’s eyes had widened and his mouth had fallen open.
“This is where you’re taking me?” he asked. Then, as if it were an afterthought, he muttered, “What is it? Some sort of orgy? And why have they all stopped talking?”
Alasdair looked back to the males and females of his lair and answered the simplest question first. “They have stopped talking because I have arrived.”
LEO FIGURED THAT the arrogance those words had been delivered with was warranted. Especially if the way everyone within eyesight had stopped what they were doing to pay their respects.
He, on the other hand, couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It was like some massive orgy or buffet. Or a mix of the two, because as far as he could see, there was a whole lot of fucking and eating going on.
As he continued to stare, dumbfounded, he sidled up a little closer to the one male who, ironically, felt like the safest option in the room. When Alasdair glanced at him, Leo’s breath caught at the heat in his eyes, and he wondered if he was about to become a meal or a sex performer in the next few minutes.
Alasdair’s voice slipped into his mind. Which would you prefer?
There was no way he was going to answer that, and when Alasdair faced those waiting on him, Leo thought, Who the hell is he to them?
“I don’t generally attend these menial assemblies,” Alasdair told him. “They’re shocked to see me. They’ll get over that soon enough, and then you will become the object of their attention.”
“Me?”
“Yes, Leonidas. You.”
Leo reluctantly pulled his eyes from everyone spread out in front of them and turned. Not having realized how close that would put his face to Alasdair’s, he staggered back.
“Why would they care about me?”
“Because you are here with me.”
“And that’s—”
“Unheard of,” Alasdair finished for him.
Before Leo could ask what he meant, Alasdair’s voice was in his head again.
I don’t parade my conquests about.
Leo glared at him. “Can you please stop doing that? And I’m not your conquest.”
I can always speak aloud if you would prefer. However, our kind have exceptional hearing, and if I say anything here, they will expect you to get down and kneel by my side. Do you want that, Leonidas? To kneel at my feet?
Leo ignored the provocative question and asked one from earlier. “Why do some have collars and some have cuffs?”
He flinched when Alasdair reached for his wrist and brought it up under his nose. Then Alasdair closed his eyes and took a breath, as if inhaling his scent. Leo couldn’t stop himself from looking at the beautiful, thick lashes resting on Alasdair’s skin as his jaw bunched and ticked, and when his eyes flew back open, the hunger in them floored him.
“The collars signify a food source. The cuffs…” Alasdair whispered, and his breath floated across Leo’s lips in a sensual caress, “signify a sexual one.”
Then Alasdair walked away, pulling on the chain that boun
d them together, leaving him with no other choice but to follow.
KEEP YOUR EYES down and stay three paces behind me, Alasdair instructed. Remember, they are able to read your thoughts, Leonidas.
When Leo said nothing and his mind went blank, an odd sense of…pride rose within him. He then dismissed it as utter ridiculousness, because what did he care if this human could erase his thoughts on command? It really was of no consequence to him. Even if it was most unusual.
His eyes roved over the members of his brood as they slowly began to raise their heads and look upon their afentikó. They didn’t have to utter a word for him to know what they were all thinking. The astonishment plastered on their ashen faces said it all.
Why is Alasdair here tonight?
And who is that with him?
Perhaps the most important question on their minds, however, was: Has he claimed the one he presents?
More questions would no doubt arise over the appearance of both him and the human, but right now Alasdair needed this horde to believe that the man following ever so reluctantly behind him was spending the days and the nights in his bed. Otherwise, things would get messy real fast as others battled for his leftovers.
While they weaved through the crowd of curious onlookers, Alasdair kept his chin held high. The last time several of these vampires had seen him, he’d been on his knees, being tortured in a most atrocious way by Vasilios. It was imperative that they realized he was back in full health and, as always, his position within the brood was at the top.
His age and lineage put him above everyone who stood in the walkway—and they knew it. With Vasilios as his sire, he was one of the most powerful vampires to exist. There weren’t many who matched his power, years, or wisdom, except for—
“Thanos, Isa,” he said as he came to a stop before his cousins. “I had a feeling I’d see you both here this evening.”
Isadora, elegant as ever in a black cocktail dress, slipped a hand through the crook of Thanos’s arm. Around her neck was a black ribbon choker with a gold rose hanging from it.
