Naoko heard the sound though.
He leapt lightly to his feet in a crouch, so he wouldn’t bang his head on the cage, which didn’t allow him to stand fully upright. He looked up through the bars, and found Dorian looking at him. The vampire smiled at him warmly as Naoko watched.
An instant later, Dorian turned away, sliding his long coat off his arms and back and hanging it up on the coatrack by the door.
Naoko was still studying the vampire’s face, trying to comprehend what lived behind the blankness of his expression, when the vampire turned back towards the door.
He pulled in a human.
Naoko had already known he had a human with him––he could smell it.
The smell was too strong to be a remnant on the other male’s clothes.
Anyway, Dorian promised. He promised he would feed him.
Dorian didn’t break his promises.
“Will she suffice?” the vampire said.
The older vampire drew the girl out of the shadow of the doorway, closing the panel behind both of them. Her large brown eyes stared down at Naoko, confused enough that she must already be in thrall to a degree, but not enough that she wasn’t still afraid.
Naoko got hard just looking at her.
She was beautiful.
Maybe in her early twenties, or even late teens. Liquid brown eyes, long black hair, high cheekbones, a voluptuous body. She wore skinny jeans, a band T-shirt with white writing scrawled over the front. On her feet were pink Converse sneakers.
She looked like Dorian had grabbed her out of punk club, or maybe off a skateboard as she rode down the street.
“Is she all right, Naoko?” the older vampire said. “Don’t answer too quickly.” His voice grew a touch warning. “Don’t be too eager, Naoko, however hungry you are. You may fuck this one if you wish, so make sure she is to your liking. As I have said, we kill for reasons. We choose those we take for reasons. We do not kill indiscriminately… like animals.”
Naoko’s tongue thickened in his mouth.
Despite his body’s reaction, the more analytical side of his mind didn’t miss other relevant implications in the vampire’s words.
Dorian was going to let him out of the cage.
That, or he was going to put the female in here with him.
Either way, the cage door would open.
“Naoko?”
After a bare pause, the younger vampire nodded.
“She’s perfect,” he said, meaning it. “Absolutely perfect.”
Dorian’s full lips lifted in the faintest of smiles.
Although the expression was barely visible, Naoko knew the other vampire well enough by now to know he’d pleased him greatly with his approval.
“Would you object to my joining you?” Dorian said, his voice polite.
Naoko looked at him.
He was so hungry, he couldn’t help but frown.
He didn’t want to share his kill.
Dorian’s gaze flickered over his face, even as he unhooked his belt, removing it from around his waist and coiling it, sticking it in a drawer. He kicked off his shoes next, still watching Naoko’s face, and placed them in the bottom of his wardrobe.
“Not in eating her,” Dorian clarified after another pause. “I have several others for that. I would not steal this meal from you, Naoko, after making you wait so long. You have behaved well this past week.”
Closing the wardrobe on his shoes, the vampire walked back towards him, folding himself into a heavily cushioned chair, one that faced the iron bars of the cage. A small, ornate table stood next to the chair. Pouring himself a glass of wine from the bottle that stood there, Dorian lifted an eyebrow in Naoko’s direction.
“Besides,” he added. “I’ve eaten twice tonight. The others I brought can all be yours, if you wish. Assuming you behave. I wasn’t sure how hungry you would be.”
Naoko frowned, puzzled.
If Dorian didn’t want to feed with him, what did he want?
The vampire mentioned the two of them talking earlier.
Naoko wasn’t averse to that, not anymore.
Despite the cage, despite all of the bullshit head games, despite the attempts to cultivate Stockholm Syndrome in him, the vampire was surprisingly easy to talk to. He also didn’t lie to him, from what Naoko could tell, or try to gaslight him, or bully him, or play any of the other psychological games he’d despised back when he was human.
Naoko had gotten to the point where he even looked forward to their talks, although he wasn’t blind to what was happening there, either.
He knew the vampire was handling him.
He knew the cage, the kindness, the controlled feeding, the attempts to foster dependence, to gain his trust, to educate him on vampire law, even vampire ethical stances––it was all part of the same head-fuck psychological leash.
They were trying to control him.
Brick probably wanted him controlled, especially after that scene in the night club outside the city center. He’d likely told Dorian to find some way to calm him down.
Naoko’s military mind could understand that.
That same part of his mind could even respect it.
Hell, he’d done the same thing during high-value interrogations. He’d been trained in this exact same bullshit, once upon a time. He knew how the game was played.
He knew they were trying to break him softly this time, instead of the hard way.
He knew that talking to him, establishing trust, was a foundational part of that.
He knew the affection, the presents, the gradual granting of freedoms, the heartfelt conversations, the teaching him about vampire biology, vampire culture, vampire history… all of it was part of that.
He also knew the soft approach was generally more effective.
But he didn’t get the sense talking was what the vampire meant, not this time.
This might still be soft approach, but it was something new.
Studying the vampire’s face, he finally just asked.
“If you don’t want to eat her, then… join me in what?”
The vampire held his gaze, taking a longer drink of the wine. He didn’t speak, but his eyes somehow grew more heated, more predatory.
Naoko felt it, without knowing precisely how he felt it.
He felt it well enough to understand, on a gut level at least.
His mind followed, wrapping around what the vampire was telling him. Or asking him. Or posing as a theoretical question, maybe.
The permissions part of all of it, Naoko still wasn’t overly clear on.
When the silence stretched, Naoko felt his chest clench in a different way. He stared at the vampire in near disbelief, watching the other study his reactions openly as his understanding sank in. Naoko looked at the female, then back at Dorian.
Was he talking about fucking her? Or fucking him?
Or fucking both of them?
He was pretty sure he knew the answer to that, too.
Again, however––he didn’t know precisely how he knew.
However he had discerned it, the information hit at him strangely, confusing him more than disgusting him, or even scaring him.
He knew vampires were basically bisexual.
All of them seemed to be, from what he’d observed… which wasn’t all that different from seers, as far as he knew, and from what Miri told him. She told him, more or less matter-of-factly, that Black had been with men. Apparently, Black had been with a lot of men, although most of that might have occurred back on Old Earth, and may or may not have been consensual.
The information surprised Naoko at the time.
It may have even shocked him, given how he perceived Black––and despite the fact that Naoko wasn’t particularly homophobic as a human. He’d had gay friends most of his life, growing up in San Francisco.
He’d had gay roommates, gay bosses, gay colleagues, gay school friends.
Black surprised him more because…
Well, bec
ause it was Black.
Now, Naoko’s reaction to Black’s bisexuality was a shrug.
As little as Naoko may have told himself those differences mattered to him as a human, they did seem to genuinely matter to him even less now.
Still, he knew nothing about it.
He also didn’t know what it meant for him.
Was he more bisexual now, simply from having transitioned? Would he grow to seek it out, to crave it, as he did with women? Or would it manifest more as indifference? Would he simply cease to care, either way, what sex his sexual partners were?
Would he start to notice males the way he now noticed females?
It was a strange thought.
Was the vampire even propositioning him?
Or just informing him of the new lay of the land?
As thrown as he was by the possibilities raised by Dorian’s silence, by the meaning Naoko read into that silence, and by what all of it might spell for him personally, he couldn’t help but think about it in terms of his captivity, as well.
Mainly, he wondered how he might use it to his advantage.
If Dorian was attracted to him, would that give him any leverage over the vampire?
Dorian laughed, startling him.
When Naoko looked up, he saw the vampire smiling at him knowingly. It was as if he saw the precise instant Naoko’s mind shifted from shock to strategic assessment.
“Do not kid yourself that you might take the opportunity to snap my neck again, Naoko.”
Naoko tensed, gripping the bars of the cage instinctively.
Dorian only smiled at him, shocking him with what looked like a real smile, despite the flash of fang. The vampire continued to look at him fondly, that same smile gradually reaching his eyes.
“…As taken as I may be in the moment, I would not try it if I were you,” he warned humorously. “You surprised me once. Do not expect that to happen again… at least not anytime soon. I know a bit more about you now.”
Naoko grunted at that.
He still found himself staring at the older vampire warily.
He couldn’t make up his mind if he was meant to be intimidated, intrigued, turned on, or simply thrown off balance.
Dorian seemed content to let him make up his own mind on that score.
“Are you ready to come out of the cage, Naoko?” Dorian said.
After barely a hesitation, Naoko nodded.
“I am,” he said.
12
Kicking Open The Door
NAOKO WAS HUNGRY.
More than hungry… he was ravenous.
He was fucking ravenous.
His mouth lowered to the exposed neck below him, but before he could so much as kiss it with the surface of his lips…
The vampire gripped his shoulder, holding him back.
The fingers of his other hand coiled into Naoko’s hair, pulling him back more, preventing him from taking another bite of the woman lying under him. Staring down at that throbbing, prominent vein, right at the thickest part, just above the teeth marks he’d left on her earlier, Naoko let out a low groan, a frustrated, half-pleading rumble in his chest.
Dorian was immovable.
“You can have more in a minute, Naoko. Calm down.”
Naoko let out another involuntary growl.
It wasn’t quite a full-fledged protest, but it bordered on one.
At the very least, it was a mildly-worded complaint.
Fighting his mind off blood, off the screaming need coming from his throat and fangs, he arched his cock and lower body at the woman instead. She gasped as he went roughly deeper, tilting her hips to meet his, clasping her arms around his waist. Her legs wound around him, coiling around his, then gripping him tighter when he slammed into her again.
She let out a low moan, urging him deeper inside her in French.
Her liquid eyes stared up at him, pleading with him.
The expression he saw there made that hunger in his chest and throat worse.
“She likes you, Naoko,” the vampire murmured, massaging his shoulder. “She likes you a lot, little brother.”
Naoko shivered when the vampire kissed his back and spine, using his tongue, nipping him with his teeth, even as Naoko continued to fuck the woman. The combination of sensations made his cock harder, his body buck more forcefully into her.
It also made the hunger worse.
He stared down at the fan of her black hair, those high cheekbones, full mouth. He could smell her blood all around him now, not just from the mark on her neck.
His fangs extended as he growled again, louder that time.
“Don’t come,” Dorian warned him.
Naoko let out another disbelieving growl of protest.
“I want you to wait for me,” Dorian said, gripping his hair, murmuring in his ear. “I’m going to fuck you now, Naoko. Unless you object?”
Naoko froze, mid-thrust.
He hung over the woman, listening to her breathe, listening to her heart pound in her chest and throat, her soft mewls of distress that he’d stopped what he was doing. She dug her fingernails into his back, pulling on him to keep going.
Her want distracted him briefly.
Not for very long, though.
The vampire’s hands remained on him, massaging the muscles of his back, massaging his shoulders, his arms. The long fingers paused to clench in his hair again, tilting back his head.
Naoko grew conscious of how he must look, from the vampire’s perspective.
He was covered in blood and some kind of oil.
He’d known, when the vampire poured the oil on him and the woman, what its purpose probably was. Confusion rose in him as it occurred to him that he’d known, and that he’d brushed it aside, maybe wanting to see what the vampire would actually do.
Thinking about it now, he bucked into the woman, involuntarily that time.
He’d continued to brush it aside as he started undressing her, then forgot it entirely for a while when Dorian first let him feed on her, once he’d gotten her clothes off. Naoko let it leave his mind again once he had his cock in her.
He told himself the vampire just wanted to watch.
He told himself the vampire was getting off watching him feed and fuck.
He’d known, somewhere in the back of his mind, that watching him do those two things wouldn’t be all the vampire wanted. He could feel how some part of him knew that the whole time, how he’d been playing up to it in a way. Not quite performing for the other male, but conscious of what it was doing to him. He’d found himself paying attention to which things Dorian seemed to like more or less in what he did.
He’d been testing him maybe, trying to determine what that initial proposition meant.
He might have even been toying with him, if in a cautious, toe-in-the-water kind of way.
It wasn’t just curiosity that caused him to pull on that string, to see what it might unravel. He’d been turned on by it. He’d been getting off on the knowledge the vampire was watching.
Not just watching––Dorian had more or less been directing things.
“Naoko?”
The vampire was massaging the base of his spine now, practically forcing Naoko to relax. In the process, he was also driving him deeper into the girl.
“Will it hurt?” he said, blurting it involuntarily.
Dorian smiled.
Naoko didn’t see it. He stared down at the woman, focusing unseeingly on her face. But he heard the smile. He practically felt it.
“Right now?” Dorian mused. “I very much doubt it.” Pausing deliberately, Dorian gently tugged Naoko’s hair, gripping it tighter in his hand. “I wasn’t going to ask, Naoko. Not unless you wanted it. But I’m pretty sure you want it. Am I wrong?”
Naoko stared down at the girl.
He swallowed.
Staring at those dark brown eyes, the utter lack of fear in them, her lack of understanding of any of this, he realized some part of him felt it wasn’t enough. F
ucking humans wasn’t enough. He’d known that even while he went hunting with Lucia.
He also realized he’d been toying with a half-open door that had suddenly been kicked wide, wide open.
Now he wasn’t sure he wanted to walk through it.
“What about Lucia?” His voice came out gruff. “If you want me to fuck a vampire, at least with her––”
“Lucia bores you,” Dorian said simply.
Naoko frowned.
Turning over the vampire’s words, he shook his head, but not quite in a no––more in what he wanted to be a no. He felt the truth of the vampire’s words. Closing his eyes, he tried to deny that truth to himself, but only grimaced, feeling it more strongly as he remembered his last few nights out with the female vampire.
How had Dorian known that?
How could he possibly have known that?
Had he been following the two of them, even then?
Or was it just a product of his age, that he would know it before Naoko himself knew?
Apparently, Dorian didn’t find his protests very convincing, either.
He didn’t bother to answer them, in any case.
“Do I bore you, Naoko?”
Naoko fell silent. His chest was heaving, like it had from the memory of Jem in those caves. Again, he didn’t need to breathe, but his chest moved in his fear anyway, a muscle memory from before, or maybe just a psychological tic he hadn’t yet broken.
“No,” he said finally.
“Is that a yes? On the sex?” Dorian clarified.
Naoko frowned, staring down at the woman.
She was caressing his chest now, a faint pout on her full lips as she raked her nails lightly over his skin, tracing his ribs and muscles. His cock throbbed inside her, harder than he could remember it being. He knew that wasn’t all from the woman.
He knew it hadn’t been, not since they started this.
“Naoko? Is it a yes?”
“It’s not a no,” he said, his voice a growl.
Dorian chuckled.
Naoko heard the vampire shift behind him.
He felt it in the movement of the air.
He didn’t turn his head, but closed his eyes instead, listening to Dorian pull the shirt he wore over his head. He heard him unfasten his pants, saw him in his mind’s eye as he stood briefly, removing the rest of his clothes efficiently once he had the fasteners undone and could step out of them easily.
TO BLACK WITH LOVE: Quentin Black Mystery #10 Page 16
