Rosko, Mandy - Night and Day (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove)

by Mandy Rosko

  Every sun sprite passed right by his car, as well as every other Hummer and convertible in the garage. All had tinted windows, including Silus’s automobile, so he was safe so long as he dare not breathe until alone.

  In quick succession, they entered the house and were gone. Screams and flashes of light erupted from the open doorway. Then the alarm for the manse itself sounded.

  Whether those screams came from his mother, or any of his other relations still visiting, he did not know. Nor could he leave until he found out.

  He wished no harm on any sun sprite, but he would do whatever it took to ensure his mother and father survived this stupidity. Even though they did not deserve to survive.

  He exited his vehicle, careful to keep out of the sunlight streaming in through the hole in the wall, and went back into the house. Whether he could actually be of any use in a battle was debatable because of the way the cement floor continued to shift and churn beneath him. He reached out to steady himself along the wall before he could fall to his knees. He was still dizzy as hell from all that bleeding, but he had to do something. He would not sit idly by while his family was dishonorably attacked.

  Silus shook himself in an attempt to clear away the dizziness, and ran through the halls, searching for his enemy. His speed seemed to still be working because he managed to sneak up behind one of the sprites standing guard outside the night room and, in quick succession, had one arm around his neck while the other held onto the top of his head. The sprite struggled, and a mild, burning light glowed from his skin as he attempted to defend himself, but Silus had him down and unconscious before it could become any brighter and any damage could be done.

  Silus winced at his hands. It looked like a bad sunburn, but nothing to stay in bed over. However much his father bled Cedric out of him, it was enough that even that little bit of UV light had a negative effect on him.

  This was going to become difficult if he no longer had as much tolerance as Cedric’s blood had given him.

  Silus dragged the unconscious sprite into the night room and locked him inside. It didn’t guarantee the man’s safety should he wake up later without his comrades, but he would be safe, for now.

  He had to find his father.

  With no weapons, he was forced to duck and hide in rooms and behind doors whenever he could not catch a single soldier by himself, something he absolutely despised whenever he happened across a pile of ash. He could not assume any of them were either of his parents, not if he wanted to keep his head in this situation.

  Wherever he could, he brought down single sun sprites and kept moving, keeping low. Eventually he stopped at a corner, listening with glee as Crowley begged for his life in the hands of a sprite.

  Silus already decided he would leave that worm to his death.

  It wasn’t until he heard the voice of the sprite who had him did he straighten up.

  “What did you do to him?” Cedric growled.

  Silus nearly ran out from his hiding place to demand why Cedric had returned when the situation was at its most dangerous, but then, in his childlike voice, Crowley spouted his demented logic. “We tried to save him… from you. He could not be saved.”

  Silus went cold all over.

  Could not be saved. That last time they had left the room… No one had returned for quite some time. He had wondered on that. Now he knew.

  They had left him to die.

  Had his parents truly believed him so lost with their imaginary curses that the death of their son was the better, merciful option?

  His parents. His mother and sire … they had tried to kill him.

  A bright flash and a scream later, Silus stepped out from his hiding place.

  There was an ash mark along the wall where Cedric had been holding Crowley against it. His human friend stood behind him, silent while Cedric gasped for air, inhaling and exhaling as his limbs trembled.

  Then his head came up, and he noticed Silus for the first time.

  Cedric’s eyes flew wide, and then he ran to him. Silus met him halfway, their mouths instantly latching on to each other, melding together and tongues becoming reacquainted, but it was hardly safe for kissing, nor was Silus’s skin up for the rough caressing of their lips.

  “You should not have come back here. ’Tis dangerous,” Silus said, though he relished the feeling of having his lover pressed against him again, regardless of the sting in his hands and face.

  Cedric occupied himself with gently stroking Silus’s face, neck, and hair, as though convincing himself all was well with those little acts. “A lot more dangerous for you, apparently. Did I do this?”

  “Nay… I was bled. Most of your blood that I had taken in is now likely in the sewers.” Or in my bedsheets, he thought. Upon Cedric’s enraged expression, he continued on. “It seems to have had an effect on my new ability to withstand light. Another sprite did this. He still lives,” Silus quickly added. “I… handled him and then hid him away where he could be relatively safe for the time being.”

  Flashes of light continued to brighten the far corners Silus’s family halls, and the screams as both vampire and sun sprite died in battle did not give hope regarding anyone’s safety.

  Silus pulled away from Cedric’s embrace at the thought. “I–I must save my father and mother. Regardless of what they did—”

  “I know, don’t worry. I don’t want those idiots killing each other either.”

  “Ladies, can we take this into another room before you both get caught hugging?”

  The swine! Silus’s fangs lengthened at the insult to his manhood. “How dare you?”

  Cedric grabbed his hand and gently pulled him into the nearest bedroom. “He didn’t mean it like that, trust me, but he’s right. We were able to get around pretty easy before, but with you, it’s going to get tricky.”

  Silus calmed himself, deciding to let the insult slide, though he still tingled unpleasantly all over.

  His lover was correct. Cedric and his human companion would have been able to walk the halls with relative ease now that the sprites had nearly taken total control of the manse. But none of them would ever mistake Silus for a sun sprite should they be seen together.

  The trial before them all dampened his spirits. “We shall die defending our families, and they shall die with us.”

  As though timed for it, when he said the last part, another mild explosion sounded, and more screams from men and women pierced the walls. Even after Ben shut and locked the door, they could still hear it.

  Cedric put his hand on the back of Silus’s neck and pulled him up for another meshing of mouths. He sighed when he moved away. “Yeah, probably.” Then he tilted his neck, and Silus could instantly scent the pulsing heat he’d wanted so badly.

  “Take me back in you.”

  Oh, such words that made all sorts of promises.

  “What if my lack of your blood causes me to—” He thought back to his minor seizure on the floor of his bedchamber their first night together.

  Cedric knew where his thoughts had gone. “Ben’ll stand guard outside. I’ll be right here with you while you recover. You’re going to need your strength for this.”

  Cedric spoke with such confidence. It no longer made everything seem so bleak. Perhaps he’d been born a sun sprite for a reason. “What is our plan?”

  “Best-case scenario, you and I are going to talk everyone down and get them all to leave each other alone. Worst-case, we’re going to have to kill ourselves.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The house was nearly quiet now with the exception of the occasional gunshot from what remained of the werewolf and human guards. The vampires eventually did organize themselves after someone managed to call for backup, so the soldier vampires who were originally meant to fight during the challenge came to the house of their lord to duel instead.

  From what Silus understood, as there had never been a challenge issued during his hundred years, normally, these battles between vampires and sun sprit
es occurred in an open field, much like how wars of centuries passed were fought. The difference was that these challenges were meant to be fought in the minutes before sundown—with the vampires wearing enough sun protection, of course. This prevented either side from having too large of an advantage, and these contests usually ended within moments of their beginning anyway. It ensured a winner was announced quickly without dragging on a battle that could potentially harm civilians.

  However, in such a large house, with so many places to hide and wait for an enemy to approach, it made for an interesting sort of guerrilla warfare that seemed to go on and on. The sun was no longer in the sky, and the stars shone brightly in the black night.

  It left the manse at a crumbling stalemate. The sun sprites would not leave until all the vampires were eradicated, and the vampires refused to retreat from their blooded home.

  Stubborn fools, the lot of them.

  Silus walked into the ballroom, what remained of it, holding Cedric close in front of him, twisting that golden, tanned arm behind his back with a letter opener to his throat. They nearly tripped on each other’s feet once or twice, but they did make it to the center of the spacious area.

  Silus took a moment to look at everything. Bullet holes pockmarked the once gleaming walls, the tinted windows had been shot out and destroyed, and grey ashes dirtied everything. They had once belonged to vampires who had been in the way of a sun sprite’s blinding glow, but they were not in piles as they should have been. The gentle breeze from outside, along with sprites and vampires fighting in them, had scattered them everywhere.

  He felt as though he were standing in a graveyard.

  Silus cleared his throat, needing his voice to be strong, to bounce around the destroyed marble walls and reach the others still in hiding, waiting to spring on their prey. “I am calling out to the head of house, Cyricus! Come out! I have your son.”

  The house remained still. He knew better. “To all the sun sprites in my home, I have your prince. I will kill him unless you leave this property.”

  Cedric winced and spoke low through his teeth. “Not so rough.”

  Silus realized his grip was too firm on Cedric’s forearm, and he slackened his fingers so they no longer pressed into his skin. “You said to make it convincing.”

  “Not enough to bruise me with those pointed claws of yours.”

  Their back and forth banter nearly brought a grin to Silus’s lips, but then he caught sight of the first head peeking out from an open doorway on the second floor.

  A sprite. Not a vampire. Silus heaved a heavy breath. Had a vampire been the first to arrive, Cedric would have been in real danger, and then their plan would be for shit.

  Silus retightened his grip and held the blade more prominently to Cedric’s throat. “Unless you want his blood on your hands, you will come out.”

  He projected a mental apology to Cedric, which was received with a mental snort.

  The sprite’s jaw dropped, and he did as he was bade and came out into full view, not stopping until he reached what remained of the marble banister. The sprite’s golden hair was shaved nearly to his skull, and blood and vampire dust matted into his robes.

  Silus cursed. “If that is my mother you are wearing, I shall never let you die.”

  Cedric shivered in his arms. Silus hated for his lover to hear him say such things, but he would not take it back.

  “It’s not your mother.”

  Silus turned as quickly as possible without slicing Cedric’s neck. Luckily, ever the dutiful hostage, Cedric spun gracefully with him and there was no blood spilled.

  Silus’s father, along with a number of warrior vampires ranked in a neat row behind him, stood in the broken glass of the destroyed windows. Some began removing their helmets, or lifting their tinted visors. The capture of the son of the sprite who arranged the attacked no doubt seen as the victory they’d fought for.

  Wiktor Vaughn Veturious stepped forward, a little smile twitching his lips. “My son, I know not what has brought this miracle before me, but I welcome it.”

  Silus’s insides tightened. This was even worse than if a single vampire had been the first to arrive. He needed to stalemate both players, but he could hardly do that with only a single sun sprite above him for defense.

  “Stop! Stop!” Cyricus yelled, his palms up and pointing out as he appeared from the same doorway as the startled sprite before him. Ben was at his side, and a hundred or so other sun sprites who had survived the attack filed in on both floors.

  Now Silus could breathe. Even Cedric’s energy gave off waves of relief. This was what they had hoped for.

  Wiktor did indeed halt, and his small army of werewolves, humans, and vampires resumed their fighting stances, the werewolves and humans pointing their guns while the vampires hissed and lengthened their claws and fangs.

  The sprites merely stared, as did Cyricus, only his stare contained much more shock, and a gaping mouth as he hung over the rail, staring at his son in Silus’s threatening grip.

  “It’s as I told you, sir,” Ben said, his arms folded over chest, and standing at an angle so everyone below could see the weapon he had strapped to his hip.

  “Y–Yes, I see.”

  When the plan had been explained to Silus, Ben had run off in search of Cedric’s father, spouting a lie about how his son had wished to return home, had been tricked into becoming Silus’s lover, and wanted revenge for being made a fool of… only to be taken captive.

  After heroically slaying many vampire foes, of course.

  Cedric had insisted on the latter part being added to the story. Not because of a grudge against vampires, he’d assured Silus, who had been glaring at him at the time, but because he didn’t want to seem such a damsel.

  And Ben was here now. That made Cedric safe as he could teleport the both of them away should things become ugly.

  They could both begin their statements. Silus’s wrist, the one with the blade at Cedric’s neck, went slack, as did the hand that held Cedric’s arm behind his back.

  The vampires gasped, and the sun sprites watched with fixed intensity as Silus released his bargaining chip. Yet Cedric did not move away to safety. The two remained within touching distance as Cedric addressed what were once his people and the man who, in a few moments’ time, may just disown him a second time.

  “I’m sorry for the lie, Father, but my feelings for Silus are unchanged.”

  The sun sprites on the above and below floors looked amongst themselves curiously at the statement. Silus had no doubt that none of them had been informed of the true reason for this idiot’s game of a challenge. The men behind Cedric’s father all looked like soldiers, not the gentlemen who had collectively cast him aside.

  Cyricus sputtered, his face actually turning red and his body glowing with rage.

  The vampires hissed and put their helmets back into place, all but for Wiktor, who stared at Silus with equal amounts of confusion and pain.

  Silus felt no twinge or pain in his heart. Though he loved his father, he did not forget the man had attempted to kill him for his choice. “’Tis true.” He took Cedric’s hand and squeezed it for added measure.

  There was a collective hiss at the sight from both sides this time.

  “You should all know that this is why you’re here.” Cedric didn’t just address the sun sprites in the room, but the vampires as well. “Because of us. Our parents couldn’t stand the thought of a vampire and sun sprite being lovers. That’s why you’re all fighting to the death, and that’s why some of your friends have already been slaughtered. For this.” Cedric raised their joined hands to emphasize his point.

  Silus spoke to the vampires, all of whom stared, some with their hands at their mouths, as though he’d confessed to having relations with farm animals. “I know this is difficult to understand, but there really is no need for this fighting. None of you need to meet your end for this feud. I have found my life-mate in a sun sprite, and I will not turn away from hi
m. That has been my decision. I have not been tricked, hexed, nor do I wish for any deaths on either side. I implore you all to walk away from this fight and return to your families. We do not have to be enemies.”

  “The same goes for me,” Cedric said, his eyes moving intently along the stunned faces. “I recognize some of you from my home. You all know about how I broke off my engagement.” He took a deep breath. “Now you know why. I don’t want to see any more of you dead.”

  Wiktor hid his face in both hands and, his back slouching, turned away from the both of them.

  Cyricus’s hands clutched at the marble rail so tightly his knuckles turned white while the tips of his fingers shaded to a blood red.

  They both waited. Silus held his breath. If they had any impact at all, both teams would turn their backs, leaving both of their fathers alone with their hatred. No one else would lose their life, and perhaps this cold war between sun sprites and vampires would end.

  A furious roar shook the foundation upon which they stood. “Traitor!”

  One of the sun sprites picked up a chunk of the broken off marble and hurled it down upon them. Silus was forced to relinquish Cedric’s hand as they leapt apart to dodge the rock.

  It broke in two pieces that left another crack in the already destroyed tiling, both bits of stone sliding in opposite directions, and landing at both Cedric’s and Silus’s feet.

  Silus could only look at the fist-sized rock at his shoes. It was the perfect metaphor to his and Cedric’s situation, precisely how the warriors surrounding them wanted this to end.

  With him and Cedric separated.

  Then a racket of voices shouting to be heard over each other began. Some of the affronted screams were pointed in their direction, others amongst each other. It was a chaotic ball of arguing where no one was being heard.

  Silus turned to his father. The vampire lord was rubbing his face with his hands, horrified at the shame Silus had brought upon him with the confession. Their eyes met for the briefest of seconds before he did something that Silus had never seen him do.