measure its area. “All I wanted was a quiet night on my own. Is that so much to ask?”
Jack spread his arms. “Yes. You picked the wrong place and time for luxurious demands. I don’t understand why you expect me to just take your shit because something spoiled your mood.”
Roux sat on the bed and made an impatient whine. Did the blood moon affect chats too? This was beyond ridiculous. “Didn’t you want to go out and party with the vampires anyway?”
Jack exhaled, watching his partner’s hunched shoulders. Perhaps it would be better to remove himself for a bit and let Roux deal with whatever he needed to deal with. “Do you want something?”
Roux huffed and hugged himself. “Butter.”
Maybe he’d gotten a letter about some family stuff and didn’t want to talk about it. Fair enough. Jack could give him some space.
And get some tail!
He wondered if chats could become vampires too, but he decided not to ask, and unpacked his backpack to retrieve a few essentials.
Like lube.
“Okay, see you later then.”
Roux nodded absentmindedly. “Take your time, I don’t mind,” was his polite way of saying: give me the whole room because I’m the prince of chats and need the whole bed to myself. But don’t forget to buy me some butter.
Yet Jack still liked the bastard, so maybe he was a secret masochist. Was this something to try with vampires? After all, they did want to drink people’s blood, and he was an open-minded guy.
It was already getting dark when he left the hotel and ventured through the streets of the cute medieval town, which seemed unusually lively for its size. Locals and non-vampiric guests alike added finishing touches to decorations, but by the time Jack had eaten a meal of goulash, red and orange lanterns lit up the darkness, and the people of the night left their lightproof hideouts to celebrate Covenalia.
Jack had left his jacket with the venator emblem at the inn, because tonight he would be a civilian looking for fun. Roux could sulk on his own, if that was his idea of pleasure. They weren’t scheduled to talk to any coven leaders until the day after tomorrow, anyway.
Despite the chill in the air, Jack had a stomach full of warm food and was ready to search the town for a vampire willing to get frisky. He knew he’d hit the nail on the head when he walked out of the narrow alleyway onto a square filled with… creatures, because not all of them were human.
In the middle, a band played traditional music on pipes and violins, enchanting Jack with a glimpse into a world he knew nothing about. A group of younger men and women danced with their hands stretched to the sky. They wiggled in place like a sea of hypnotized snakes, moving in tune with the melody, while their feet ignored any rhythm played by the band, staying immobile. It was an odd way to dance, but Jack appreciated the exaggerated hip rolling, even though it was mostly the women who performed this strange local dance move.
The festivities continued down the main street, where visitors in dark clothes, cloaks, and beautiful gowns paraded over cobblestones, sampling scented candles, looking at artisanal coffins, and other vampire-oriented products presented in market stalls. The actual coven meeting was a day away, and it seemed that on this first day of the Covenalia even old vampires wanted to let their hair down, as evidenced by a dried-out lady in early-medieval clothes riding a mechanical pony, to the delight of her companions.
Jack was just about to walk on when right there, over the stall filled with moon-shaped necklaces his eyes met a familiar gaze.
Vasyl.
No longer a cute bat, he was back in his alluring form, all long black hair and porcelain skin. They smiled at each other from afar, and Jack could bet their thoughts were heading in the same direction.
He checked his teeth with his tongue, to make sure there wasn’t a piece of salad to spoil his image, and walked confidently toward the beautiful vampire. Vasyl exchanged a few words with a jewellery seller and met Jack halfway, his face somehow even more charming than on the train.
“I’m one lucky bastard,” Jack said, shaking Vasyl’s hand, just to have an excuse to rub his cool, silky skin.
“Quick, let’s go before Magnus comes back,” Vasyl said, and pulled the hood of his cloak over his head. He squeezed Jack’s hand with surprising strength.
Jack grinned and followed him with a silly smile. “I wouldn’t want him to interrupt us again. Do you have a place?”
Vasyl looked back at Jack, and the rising blood moon gave his eyes a reddish glow. “I know of a spot. I wished to see you again, Jack.”
Yes. Perhaps he wouldn’t get tail-tail tonight, but he would get tail.
“Me too. You’re such a beauty,” Jack whispered as they ran farther from the noise and into the labyrinth of narrow cobbled streets.
Vasyl grinned, showing off his canines. “I’ve been initiated, awoken to the night.”
“That’s great,” Jack said, even though he had no idea what that meant.
Vasyl must have thought it was self-explanatory, and Jack didn’t ask, unwilling to spoil the mood as they left the city walls behind and walked up the gentle slope of a hill leading to a small church. In the moonlight, its pale walls had a reddish shade, but Jack was too surprised by being let to the cemetery next door to marvel at the sights.
Okay. He supposed he could do that.
Vasyl quieted Jack’s worries with a kiss of his cool lips. “The blood moon shines brightly here. For us vampires, it’s almost like experiencing sunrise.”
Jack looked up. “Oh, but it happens like… only a few times per century,” he said before realizing his mistake. Here was to hoping Vasyl was too horny to care.
“Yes, apparently drinking blood at a time like this feels like consuming sunshine itself.”
Vasyl led Jack on a stroll between the tombstones. The moment he turned away, Jack decided to seize his chance and put his hands on Vasyl’s hips. “This glow is romantic. Red. Like a heart. Like lust.” Or a brothel, but he’d leave that thought to himself since Vasyl seemed to be the spiritual type.
Vasyl sat on the grass by a tombstone and patted the ground next to him. “Like blood. I promise to be gentle.”
Jack pulled his teeth over his lips, and instead kneeled between Vasyl’s legs. “I’m not sure how blood loss will work on my manly prowess. Maybe let’s start with something else?” he suggested, rubbing Vasyl’s thigh.
The vampire blinked. “Oh, Jack…” He cupped Jack’s face with those incredibly smooth fingers. “Now that I understand vampire ways, those needs are foreign to me.”
What?
What?
Jack pulled back with an awkward smile. “So you just want my blood? I don’t even know if I’d like that...”
Vasyl offered Jack a tempting smile. “Only one way to find out.”
Jack scowled. First Roux, and now Vasyl? Was his dick cursed tonight? “But I’m so horny...”
Vasyl cocked his head, gently massaging Jack’s jaw. “Hm. I mean… I guess we could do some stuff you, like if you promised to offer your blood later.”
Jack’s smile instantly widened. “Yes. You can have some if you give me some,” he whispered, pressing his mouth to the white column of Vasyl’s neck. The vampire was such a graceful, statuesque creature.
Vasyl took his time mulling it over, and his skin turned the prettiest shade of pink in the moonlight. “I guess that does sound like a fair agreement.” He leaned over for a kiss, and when their lips met, he pulled Jack down to the grass.
The sturdiness of the vampire’s body felt good under Jack, and the cold chill of it was such a novelty he forgot there were dead bodies underground all around them. It was best not to ponder any of that anyway. But when, after a lot of necking, he reached between Vasyl’s legs and found little to grab onto, reality called him back.
“You’re really not into it, are you?”
Vasyl sighed, entwining their legs. “I mean… there is enough pleasure in touching so that I enjoy myself.”
/> Chapter 3
Jack couldn’t believe it. Vasyl still was as pretty as when they’d first met, but the idea of having sex with someone who didn’t really want to participate was distasteful, and he pulled away, clearing his throat. The gravestones peppered around in the reddish moonlight were suddenly like a bad omen, and he wanted to leave the cemetery as soon as possible.
“You know, maybe we should both find someone else after all.”
Vasyl stared at Jack’s neck with longing that was becoming uncomfortable. “You don’t even want to try the ecstasy of being bitten?”
Jack tried to smile. “It’s not really my kink.”
Vasyl groaned and laid back in the grass. “Seriously? Why are you at the Covenalia then?”
Jack shrugged. “I’m on venator business. I’m not… into vampires in particular,” he said, already thinking about the slender, furry body he’d left at the hotel. As fascinating as vampires seemed, their cold, hard bodies were not Jack’s type. But a tail sliding between his legs? Yes, please.
If only a certain someone wasn’t so irritable all the time.
After a long, awkward silence, Jack got up. “So… yeah, I’ll be going.”
Vasyl waved him off with a princely gesture and a pout. Maybe Jack had dodged a bullet.
The encounter with Vasyl left Jack dissatisfied and disillusioned about vampires as sexual partners. At least he had a button accidentally torn off Vasyl’s cloak to put into his trophy journal. He remembered that he’d promised Roux butter, and it was only by sheer luck that he’d managed to get some from a market stall right before it closed for the night.
Following a quick shower in the hotel’s communal bathrooms downstairs, Jack was clean for bed and knocked on the door to their room.
“No service needed!” Roux said from the inside.
So at least he was awake, and Jack wouldn’t have to break into his own lodgings.
“It’s me, Roux! I have your butter.”
The prolonged silence made Jack roll his eyes. Had he disturbed Roux’s licking session or something?
“You can bring it in the morning!”
“Are you kidding me? Open the door,” Jack demanded and knocked that bit louder.
“Go away!” Roux actually hissed on top of the vicious words.
Jack took two deep breaths. His first instinct was to try to break the lock, but he decided to play dirty if Roux couldn’t be fair toward him. “I’ve been attacked by a vampire. I don’t feel so well. Come on...”
“What?” came in an instant.
“I’m telling you. I was with this vampire, and I think he drank too much. My head is spinning. Please, open the door!”
The lock clicked, and Roux’s eye appeared in the tiniest gap when the door moved Jack grabbed the handle and pushed his way in, pointedly putting the wrapped butter on the table. “Are you shitting me? You heard it yourself, there are no more rooms available in town. I paid for this room too!”
Roux was wearing… a blanket. A thick blue blanket that covered even his head, so he looked like the Virgin Mary of chats, and he stared at Jack with wide eyes.
“But…”
Jack locked the door and started tossing off his clothes. “I’ve had a shitty evening, and now you’re trying to kick be out of my own bed? What’s wrong with you?”
Roux suddenly shuddered, as if the accusation pulled him out of the stupor. “No! Go away! How could you use my good heart like that?” He pushed at Jack, and a hot water bottle fell to the floor from under the blanket, which he struggled to keep closed around him during the struggle.
At this point, Jack was ready to try kicking Roux out of the room to give him a taste of his own medicine.
He poked Roux’s chest through the blanket. “You were the one to invite me here, and you’ve been acting like a prima donna when I didn’t do anything to you. Or maybe I did, because one can never know with you!”
Roux whined and turned his back on Jack. “I needed alone time.”
So Jack was supposed to sleep in streets full of intoxicated people and vampires because Roux felt like pampering himself?
He massaged his forehead. “Look, I know everyone has bad days. Maybe something happened with your family, but you can tell me you’re in a bad mood instead of pushing me out of my own goddamn hotel room!”
Roux whimpered and pulled the blanket tighter around himself. He was having some sort of meltdown, and despite Jack’s frustration with tonight, he still tried to meet Roux halfway and face him. He put his hands on Roux’s shoulders and looked into his eyes.
“You can tell me, whatever it is.”
Roux stroked his cheek, and his ears flattened. “It’s hard to explain,” he said, as he put his other hand against Jack’s chest. It was an oddly intimate gesture, especially coming from the standoffish chat, but Jack tried to keep cool.
“Do you need help with anything? If there’s some strings I could pull, I will.”
Roux closed his eyes and gave a raspy laugh. “I’m sure you could.” He massaged Jack’s chest with his furry fingers, but then took a step forward and pushed his head under Jack’s jaw.
Jack’s brain might have rolled around in his skull, but before he could have understood what was happening, Roux’s warmth and the tickle of fur against skin pulled at his balls. “Okay, that’s new.”
“I told you not to come in…” Roux groaned, wrapping his arm around Jack’s waist and insistently rubbing his head against Jack’s neck. It was as if his mouth was saying one thing, but his body another.
The blanket slid to the floor, leaving Roux without a thread to cover him. He was naked. He’d actually disrobed for Jack, and it was so shocking Jack didn’t immediately react. Was this it? Did Roux finally get to a point when he could no longer tame his lust for Jack?
He mindlessly caressed the soft hairs on Roux’s cheek, hypnotized by the way his ears perked up. “You are so pretty...”
Roux groaned, pressing into the touch. The soft pillows of his fingers ran up Jack’s back, making him shiver. He wished to be as naked as Roux and press his whole body to the silk-like fur.
“I’m in heat, Jack. It’s embarrassing,” he said, and punctuated it with a desperate meow.
Jack cupped Roux’s face, for the first time touching him the way he’d wanted to for so long. “Oh... but you’re...”
Roux hugged Jack more tightly, already setting Jack’s skin on fire. His pupils were so big they made his eyes black. “Hn?”
Lust and tenderness alike were already intoxicating Jack, but he shook his head. “I thought it was only the girls.”
“Unless you’re a pussycat,” Roux whispered and let out another meow, running his pads up and down Jack’s back. “We’re… anomalies.”
Jack sighed. That again.
“Don’t say that word. Haven’t you told me yourself that it’s a slur?” he asked, pulling Roux to bed and helping him sit. At first he wanted to kneel between the long furry legs, but realized that Roux’s genitals might be too much of a distraction, so he parked his ass next to him instead.
Roux wasn’t making things any easier for Jack and climbed into his lap as if it wasn’t comfort he needed, but something else altogether. He was so light in comparison to a human man. And so fluffy. And naked.
“I don’t know anymore. It’s not like I can get pregnant, but twice a year, I get this unbearable urge to mate, and it hurts all over. It feels like I’m losing my mind, and any male chat around me can smell it.”
Jack knew he shouldn’t voice his immediate thoughts, but this might have been one of the hottest things he’d ever heard. In theory, because it seemed that Roux wasn’t thinking of heat in terms of fantastic orgasm material. He’d never considered Roux a sexual being, since he was always so buttoned-up and prudish, but what if there was more to his chastity?
“So, you’re in pain, and you’ll get better once you have sex?” he asked, overwhelmed by the beauty of the elegant creature already grinding his
cock against Jack’s covered crotch.
Roux wrapped his arms around Jack’s neck. “Yes, but I don’t want to just go and fuck a stranger. That’s not me, you know? And now I’m telling you all these things you don’t want to hear and making them your problem, too.”
Jack’s palms slid down the slender body, feeling the meat under the silky coat. “Roux, I’m sure you know I’m attracted to you. If that’s what you want from me, it’s really not much of a sacrifice.”
Roux watched him with those giant, beautiful eyes. “I just… don’t want it to feel like an oblig—”
Jack kissed Roux’s cheek, overwhelmed by the intensity of Roux’s glorious scent. He was all musk, and cream, and the grassy cologne that clung to him sometimes. “But… like… do you get those needs only during heat?” he asked, needing to know if he was to treat this as a one-time thing. A man needed to put things in order in his brain sometimes, so that said brain wouldn’t get any stupid ideas.
Roux chuckled, his slinky body like putty in Jack’s hands. “I may not express it much, but I have needs. Often. Intensely. I got badly burned a long time ago, so I’d usually rather wait them out than live with regret. But in heat… Gah. It gets unbearable.” He moved his teeth over Jack’s shoulder without biting.
Jack licked his lips and rubbed Roux’s back before gently sliding his face against the puffy lips, which tickled him with fur and whiskers. He wasn’t sure what to think about Roux’s revelation, but the fact that Roux did in fact want sex made it all good in his book. “So... is there something I shouldn’t do?” he asked in the end, because the last thing he wanted was to aggravate Roux again with some dumb misstep.
Roux licked Jack’s skin with that nubbed tongue, sending goosebumps down his arm. “It’s happening, isn’t it? Just don’t make it weird, Jack.”
It was hard to make it much weirder.
Jack groaned and pulled on Roux’s face, bringing their lips together so he could finally taste him. The whiskers were hard where they pressed against his skin, but the pads at the front of the mouth were like velvet, and that strange tongue against his? He was practically feeling its teasing touch on his dick already.
Jack Addison vs. a Whole World of Hot Trouble - The Complete Series Page 22
