“What kind of threats?” Dade demanded. “Shit.” He grimaced as he got his first close up look at the body. “Who is this?”
“Daniel,” Alexa said. “Looks like someone took his head off with a sling blade or something and then took it with them.”
“Excuse me. What?” Dade gave her a startled look.
“The killer took the freaking head,” she said in annoyance. “There’s some blood drops outside. Loki Zieris already working on collecting the evidence. Need me for anything else?”
“Anyone else in the building?” Dade asked.
“Collier and Butters,” she said. “I’m on my way to chat them up now. See if they know anything.”
“Thanks.” Dade gave her a nod. “See you in the morning.”
“Right.” She held up a hand in a wave. “Kel.”
“Later, Lexa.”
Dade sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Go.”
“The lights are back to normal,” Kel murmured and looked up at the fluorescent lights beaming down on them.
“Huh?”
“They were sort of dull when I first got here,” he said with a frown.
“I’ll check that out with Collier and Butters,” Dade said. “Tell me about the threats.” He gave Kel a curious stare.
He told Dade about seeing Daniel at the club. “I came over here hoping to find out who else might be working with him.”
“You should have kept your ass away from him,” he snapped. “Do you even realize the position you put yourself as well as Jaxon in?”
“I didn’t know someone was going to off his ass,” he snarled, bristling up at Dade.
“This is serious shit,” Dade said, getting in Kel’s face.
Kel glared back at him. “You go to hell,” he muttered.
“I’ll find out how he got into the club,” Dade said tiredly.
“He could have caught any number of guys in there going at it,” Kel said. “He could have had more on that phone than me and Jax kissing.”
“I’ll ask, but you keep your goddamned nose out of this, and I’ll get a warrant for his personal computer and home.”
“Let me know if you find any footage of us,” Kel said. “Jaxon would like to be prepared for the shit he’s going to take.”
* * * *
The next morning, Jaxon headed to the office wondering what awaited him. He stepped into the reception area of the small law office and the dark-skinned receptionist looked up. She gave him a smile and went back to her work.
So, nothing had hit the Internet yet?
Jaxon walked past the break room, to the sound of chatter as a few of the associates and a paralegal had morning coffee. They didn’t appear to be talking about him, so he kept going. He had a full day of working on the tenet revisions, and a case in the city later today.
He stepped into his office shaking his head. He pushed the door closed and went to stare out the window into the garden at the back of the building. This had been a bad idea, running for mayor. His life was never going to be his own again.
A brief knock was followed by, “Morning, sweets.”
Jaxon’s heart fluttered at the warm, sexy sound of Kel’s voice. He turned slowly to find his man clad in jeans carrying a white paper bag in one hand and a brown recycled carton in the other.
“I brought pastries.”
He groaned. “You know how I love cherry Danish. You’re going to get me fat feeding me this stuff so often,” he complained, even though he was already reaching for the bag.
Kel held it out of his reach and Jaxon frowned up at him. “You didn’t pay the deliveryman yet,” he teased.
Jaxon hooked an arm around Kel’s waist and kissed him softly. He loved the way he tasted of sweet-tart green apples. He kissed Kel’s bottom lip. “I want to wake up with you.”
“I want the same thing,” Kel said softly as he looked down into Jaxon’s violet eyes. “Damn you have such pretty eyes.”
“Did Daniel tell you anything?” Jaxon stroked his lover’s side, some of the anxiety in him settling.
“No.” He dipped his head and brushed Jaxon’s lips with his. “When you’re this close to me, I want to devour you.”
“The feeling is mutual.” He nipped Kel’s lower lip. “Now, stop stalling. Tell me what he said.”
“He’s dead.”
“What?” Jaxon’s jaw dropped and then he closed it as he tried to catch his breath. Damn pure-blooded Barrian dominants could be deadly when someone they cared about was threatened. “ Baby, I can appreciate how much you want to protect me but that was going too far.”
Kel laughed and went to put the bag and coffee on Jax’s desk. “I didn’t kill him,” he said, humor dancing in his eyes. “Not that I wouldn’t kill for you. I just didn’t have to this time.”
Jaxon sighed. “What happened to him?” He reached for a cup of coffee as Kel perched on the edge of his desk.
“He was beheaded.”
Coffee shot through his nose and Kel immediately handed him a napkin giving him a calm stare. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Someone cut his head off, sweets.” He grabbed a cup of coffee. “His computer had been destroyed, but Dade said he’d see what he could do to uncover any files. I don’t think he had time to send anything to his email about us.”
Jaxon sighed. He couldn’t come out. He wouldn’t win the election and it was important to all of the LGBT community here that he did. Otherwise they’d never have a good working life here.
“If he does find anything, he can’t keep it hidden.” He pushed out a long breath as he paced away from Kel. You won’t stay with me for too much longer if you have to keep hiding.” He wouldn’t stay with him if he found out what kind of freak he was. He was a rarity according to his parents.
“That’s not true, Jax,” he murmured.
Jax faced him. “Last night I wanted to have sex, but you didn’t seem to want me.” The electricity inside him, fused into his blood, his cells, flared hard and heavy as his frustration at the situation rose.
Kel frowned and set his cup down. “Why do you think I didn’t want you? I always want you, Jax. Since you brought this up though, there is something I’ve been wanting to talk to you about.”
“Okay.” He put his cup next to Kel’s and wrapped his arms around his stomach as fear sent the bitter taste of bile down his throat.
“I’ve been thinking about us trying a ménage,” Kel told him. “I’d just like to do it a few times to see if we like it.”
“Kel, I want something serious with you. I don’t want to be the other person in your bed.”
“Jax, I’m not asking you to—”
“Don’t you get it, Kel?” he snapped. The air in the room heated, became slightly charged. “I want just you.” Kel studied him for a long time, and Jaxon wanted to rage. He wanted to fry Bria for having such a tight hold on his man.
“A third could bring so much more to our relationship,” Kel said softly. “Not just sexually either.”
“Okay, fine. Just leave. You and Bria can find someone else to be your third. It’s not me. I need a man who loves me and wants to be with me.” He loved Kel, but he wasn’t going to share him with a woman.
“I do want to be with you,” Kel said raising his voice.
“You telling me a third could bring so much more to our relationship tells me you find me lacking,” Jaxon muttered. “It sounds like you have problems committing and putting your heart on the line.”
“Jax—”
“Get out,” he said quietly. He closed his eyes, briefly feeling the heat of electricity behind them. It crackled and twisted and he knew his eyes would be a show of an electrical storm. “This isn’t going to work for me. Accept that, and don’t call me unless you need legal advice.” He walked over to the window, angry at himself for allowing Kel to steal his heart.
He pushed his hands into his slacks pockets to prevent his lover—ex-lover from seeing the electricity actively crawling along
his fingers now.
The urge to wound was so strong, it almost overtook him, but that wasn’t who he was.
“Damn it!” he cried as he heard the soft click of the door closing behind him. Pain sliced across his heart and tears misted in his eyes. “How fucking dumb could you be?” he asked himself softly and leaned his head against the window pane.
A knock on his door had him quickly wiping at his tears barely a minute later. He wrestled his emotions under control and looked at his hand. No static, no electricity. “Come in.” “Jax.”
He tensed at the sound of Sed Bridger. He was as old as Jax’s grandfather, and he was a pure-bred Barrian masquerading as a half-blood. He forced himself to turn around to give the older man the respect of his years. “Yes, sir?” He didn’t meet the man’s gaze directly.
“The council is curious about your progress on the new tenets,” the older man said in a gravelly voice.
“I should be finished within another day.” He met the man’s gaze. His dark brown hair was showing a touch of gray at the temples while his brown eyes were filled with knowledge. He motioned to the chairs before his desk. “Have a seat.”
The older man held his gaze even as he sat down. “We’re looking to make changes, to do what we always intended here. This was intended to be our home, a replica of Barria.” “My father mentioned that,” he said.
“So you understand the importance of the documents. The constitution and bill of rights.”
“Yes.” He nodded. He hated being the sole crafter of the documents, but the council did have the final say as to what would be put into effect regardless of the people’s will.
“Good.” Brown eyes slid over him. “You have our full support just as my grandson did, but I expect you to adhere to the same standards as mayor. Keep your gay activities in the closet, but you will have to marry. Even on Barria, only dominant men held positions of power, and they always took a wife.”
He was not going to touch a woman in any sexual way let alone marry one. He would be voted out at the end of term, so maybe he should just walk away now. He could just move to the city and live as a human. He could have a great career with one of those big law firms that kept trying to draw him in. He had nothing holding him here anyway other than his family.
“I understand,” he said evenly. “Is there anything else, sir?”
“Start seeing a woman and stay away from that club,” Bridger told him his tone hard. “I received a few pictures of you there in my email this morning. You were with Kelphan Andron. He’s not the kind of man you need to be seen with. He’s dominant. Barrian dominants never take dominant men as lovers. There can only be one head of household and it has to be you.”
“This is what Brad was worried about,” he said carefully. “The council controlling him.”
“As per our Barrian constitution, being mayor will make you leader of this town,” he said. “You’ll have the power to make decisions concerning us as a people. You’ll have more power than a president with the council as your senate.”
Did he really want that much power?
“I know you’re asking yourself why one of us doesn’t run. Why not an elder?”
“It’s a good question,” Jaxon said curiously. “Why not?”
“Your youth is an advantage with the voters.” He shrugged. With you in power, we’ll redesign this town into a true replica of Barria and all who oppose us will die. This town will become a nation unto itself, well. We’re all willing to compromise, but we won’t continue to go on as we have,” Bridger told him. His face was a grim mask and Jaxon saw the threat of the promised blood and death in his eyes.
It’s what some people were afraid of. Alien nation on earth. Conformity or death is what people feared and he saw that as a very possibility that he wanted to avoid.
He chewed at his inner cheek a moment before asking, “What if I lose?”
The older man’s eyes hardened. “This is why only dominant males can hold the office,” he answered. “They know how to take what’s theirs, to protect their own. Can you? Can you protect this town from the bloodshed and loss of life that will follow within days of Jarvis’s victory?”
“There won’t be any,” he said with a frown. “Jarvis merely wants to keep things as they are.”
“He wants to subjugate the pure-breeds. We can’t allow his party to win. We won’t allow them to take over, to keep this town a wasteland of human inferiority.” He got to his feet. “If you’re not man enough to do the job, walk away now.” He gave Jaxon a nod. “Good day to you, Jaxon.”
Jaxon glared at the door. The man had just made his fucking day a little sourer.
Chapter Four
Kel checked the pecan tree, finding no sign of the fungus he’d treated it for last week. The rich brown soil at the base told him there was no danger of the sickness spreading to the other trees on either side. They’d cross-bred seeds from Barria with every fruit and nut in this orchard which made them more resilient yet at the same time susceptible to a disease only found on Barria.
They’d discard all the nuts from this tree by burning them in a mixture of coal and frezite to ensure the temperature got hot enough to kill any lingering disease. The crystal was a Barrian stone that had many uses including elevating heat of pretty much anything.
He felt eyes on him and turned his head to find Zier striding toward him with a determined gait. He watched, taking in the long legs and letting his eyes travel up slowly. Zier was all hard muscle and lean planes beneath the jeans and T-shirt he wore. His smooth russet skin was reminiscent of the eastern boys on Barria. They all had gold and olive to russet skin. The color of all Barrians’ eyes was brilliant, never too pale and the same could be said of Zier’s.
He turned back to his work, making a note on the small tablet he held in his hand. This one had come from Barria. It worked on solar energy and worked perfectly even after all these years.
“Hey.”
“Hey.” He met expectant eyes. His gaze dropped to lush lips he wanted to kiss. There was something about the feel of Zier, the taste of him that Kel couldn’t resist. At times he wanted him with the same insatiable hunger that he craved Jax. Other times, just being with Zier was enough.
It wasn’t common for a Barrian to have two men in his bed because producing heirs was important. He knew the female component was important, but he had the feeling he was going to be an exception.
“Did you talk to him?” Zier asked.
“No.” Zier was as attracted to Jax as he was, and wanted a romantic relationship with him.
“I guess you don’t want me that close to him even though you won’t be faithful to him.”
“You can’t blame me because I got to him first.”
Zier ran a hand through his hair. “Why don’t you stop for one second trying to protect your heart, Kel?” he asked softly. “I love you, and I’d give you anything. Hell, I’m sharing you with Jax and anyone else you want. Doesn’t that tell you how I feel?”
Kel pushed out a harsh breath. “I know how you feel, baby,” he replied and averted his gaze. He knew how Jax felt too. Everything about the way they looked at him and touched him broadcasted their feelings. It scared him to have people’s hopes riding on him. His brothers had let him be the fuck-up, but if he let Jax and Zier all the way in, he’d have to take risks with someone’s heart other than his own.
What if he broke theirs?
“Then act like it.” Zier closed that meager distance between them and caressed Kel’s fingers. “Stop running from what we all feel and accept responsibility for the hearts you hold in your hand.”
He jerked away and stepped back. “So I can ruin what you feel for me now?” he asked incredulously. Zier snorted and rolled his eyes. “ You’re terrified, which makes you refuse to commit.”
Yeah and that was the real reason he hadn’t just told Jax about Zier. “Anyway, Jax broke up with me. We had a fight.”
“Kel,” he said in a soft tone as he
let his hand brush against the back of Kel’s sending a wave of warmth shuttling through Kel. “Why did he break it off?”
“He thinks I wanted to share him with Bria,” Kel said.
Zier nodded. “I see how he can get that impression. “I know he’s interested in me. I can tell by the way he tries not to look at me too long. I guess he’s just a little afraid of his feelings like you. So now that you aren’t with him, maybe I’ll go after him.”
* * * *
Jaxon pulled into the town limits around 6:30 that evening. He was tired, and all he wanted was Kel. He wanted Kel’s hands all over him, and then he wanted him holding him close and soothing him after a hard ride. They hadn’t made love in a few weeks thanks to his schedule. And last night…well that was neither here nor there. It was probably best things were over.
If Kel found out he was something that even the Barrians called a freak, he wouldn’t want him anyway. Barrian psychic power was what humans would call earth energy because it was rooted in a deep connection with the energies of their planet.
He was a gaeafierokinetic. Earth fire kinetic. It was a rare skill and those who possessed it were believed to be channeling fire directly from the planet’s fiery core. The fire manifested as electricity most of the time, static at others. The electricity or static could disrupt the electromagnetic patterns in anything including the planet itself.
Something glinted in the mirror, and he looked up and let out a harsh cry as the light blinded him. The back window shattered, and he hunched his shoulders and ducked his head. Low popping sounds filled the air outside the car, and he heard his tire blow before something hot grazed his shoulder. He winced and jerked the wheel as he lost a second tire but it was a blinding light up in front of him that had Jaxon veering off the road and crashing his car into a tree. He slumped over the steering wheel and the horn blared.
Jaxon felt more than heard the approach of someone. He glanced up and his eyes widened as the man in the mask approached his car slowly. Breath coming in hard pants, heart pounding like a jackhammer, he drew in a shaky breath as the man raised the weapon in his hand. Then, he put a hand to his ear and began to back off.
Passion's Fire [Alien Passions 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour ManLove) Page 3
