by Emma Jaye
Avery let out a slight groan and turned towards the sea. “I’d forgotten the pull of a vascellum.”
“Can I...” Finn paused, searching for the appropriate phrase.
“Not sure Ezra would appreciate that,” Avery replied in a tight voice.
Finn grinned at the older incubus’s discomfort. “I was talking about Ezra. You didn’t think I meant you, did you?”
Avery half-turned back to him. With the dawn light framing his head and the fitted shirt clinging to him, Finn believed the incubus could have anyone on the planet, on their knees, begging for the right to serve him in a second.
The urge to touch him, to taste the very essence of him, had Finn taking a step forward, his gaze focused on Avery’s shorts.
Avery smiled. “As flattering, and as very tempting, as that is, Ezra, remember?”
Finn decided his face probably resembled the sun that peeked over the horizon. Wordlessly, he turned towards the resort buildings and set off across the sand to the path. The rustle of clothing behind him proved that Avery had followed him. Is he looking at my butt?
Finn swallowed, his throat dry. “Sorry about... You’re erm...”
“Right back at you, vascellum.”
Finn’s arousal had faded by the time they got up to the main resort building, which blended in beautifully with the surrounding trees due to the wood shuttering. The shorts didn’t hide a lot and the thought of Pixie, or god forbid that succubus, noticing it swiftly dealt with the problem.
CHAPTER 4
Finn fidgeted in the corridor while Avery put his head around the door of Ezra’s room. He said Ezra would recognise Finn as a vascellum immediately, and without his modern memories, it would cause a problem.
After a brief conversation, Avery waved him over.
“Ezra’s asleep, with the help of a spell. The doctor will explain.”
With butterflies in his belly, Finn entered the room. Ezra’s scent warmed him despite the worry that the discomfort in his chest could mean Ezra had heart or breathing problems. Although as it didn’t hurt anymore, he hoped he’d been wrong.
A white-haired woman in a bright sarong leaned over Ezra’s bare back as he lay on his side facing away from Finn.
“Finn’s fine,” Avery told her.
The woman turned around, revealing Ezra’s smooth, tanned back. Two ugly red weeping wounds marred it, one on his shoulder, one above the waistband of his shorts. Multiple bloody swabs sat in a metal dish beside Ezra’s hip.
Finn’s back tingled in sympathy. “What happened?” he asked. “I didn’t hear anything happening on the beach.”
She gave him a warm smile. “I’m Amtai. I’m a seal shifter and a doctor. Ezra hasn’t been injured, at least not recently. Pixie told you about the brands?”
He nodded, but the messy reality didn’t match his far more sanitised imagination.
“We’re not sure why, but his body is recreating the brands that were put on him while he was with the vampires. I’m going with the theory that it’s a self-defence mechanism; no vampire would feed from him if he could see Fabian’s mark. We’re hoping it’ll fade when he feels confident that he’s safe or when his memory returns.”
Jericho spoke from the corner. “He heard some of the shifters laughing and the brands began bleeding again, at least I think that’s what triggered it. Stupid git didn’t tell me. I was too busy making sure he didn’t try to hurt himself again or make a run for the water. I didn’t realise till I smelt the blood. He just sat there, staring at the waves, bleeding, as if it didn’t matter.” The big shifter shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it.
Finn indicated the pale figure in the bed. “Can I come closer?”
A smile spread across the woman’s face. Her dark skin contrasted strongly with her white hair and teeth. He briefly wondered about her age, but shelved his curiosity. They all treated Ezra as a teenager, and he was nearly a hundred and fifty.
“Of course you can, sweetie. You both need the contact.”
Conscious that Pixie, Jericho, Avery and the doctor all watched him as if he were a laboratory specimen, he approached the bed. Ezra looked paler than he had last night.
Finn reached out a hand to touch Ezra’s face, then, because of his audience, changed his focus to Ezra’s lightly tanned hand. Picking it up, relief at its familiar weight and warmth flooded him.
“I’m just going to set up a drip for him. He won’t feel it and it’ll help while he’s not feeding,” Amtai’s calm voice came to him as she bustled around the room, but he couldn’t take his gaze off his love.
The word ‘feeding’ in reference to Ezra brought up memories of the incubus drawing every last fragment of pleasure out of his willing, writhing, sweat-slicked body. The sweet pain when Ezra drained him of accumulated lust had literally made him pass out from pleasure. The memory had his dick standing to attention.
His face burned, knowing that Avery would see lust lighting him up like a Christmas tree. Finn kept his gaze on Ezra’s hand and spoke up. “I could, you know, give him a top up.”
He cringed inside as silence roared into the room. Then he straightened and held his chin up. As a vascellum, he shouldn’t be embarrassed about stuff like this. He turned to the others still holding Ezra’s hand.
But the doctor and Pixie weren’t looking at him, they were looking at Ezra’s back.
“Is it me, or have they stopped bleeding?” Pixie said.
Amtai leaned forward, her gloved hands manipulating the skin around Ezra’s wound.
“You’re right.” She looked up at Finn. “What did you do?”
“I’m just holding his hand.”
“Sorry if this embarrasses you, Finn, but you’ve got to get over daft human morality,” Avery said, then turned to the fae and selkie. “He’s glowing with lust.”
The ground opening up would have been a wish come true, but neither of the women appeared embarrassed. His erection still fled like a whipped puppy.
Jericho glanced towards the door. “Is this my cue to leave?”
Amtai carried on staring at Ezra’s back as she tapped a finger on the bed.
“Amtai? Doctor?”
She looked up at the huge bear shifter. “Sorry, yes of course you can go, you must be tired.”
Once the shifter had left the room, Amtai raised her eyes to Finn’s.
“Have you been aroused since you woke up yesterday?”
He pulled his hand out of Ezra’s, wondering if the air conditioning had shut off. The temperature seemed to have risen at least ten degrees in the last few seconds.
“What sort of question is that to ask a guy?”
She frowned. “A medical one, young man. I’m trying to establish if there is a connection between your emotions and Ezra’s unexplained bleeding.”
“Amtai,” Pixie indicated Ezra’s back. Blood beaded at the edges of the wound.
“I felt a bit, you know, about ten minutes before we came in here,” Finn admitted.
“Hmm, yes, we thought it was stopping, then it started up again.” Amtai said, then turned to the blond incubus. “Avery, can you see anything now?”
“Not a flicker,” the incubus replied, his eyes boring into Finn.
Finn covered his groin, even though that wouldn’t help with Avery. “Do you mind?”
A grin spread across the incubus’s face. “No, not at all. Watching you squirm is nearly as much fun as watching you cum, and I thoroughly enjoyed that, especially as I was up to my balls inside you at the time.” Avery stood from the stool where he’d been perching and stepped toward him.
Finn backed up against the bed as the taller man moved into his personal space. The incubus bent, hovering his nose a fraction of an inch from Finn’s neck.
“I’d love to experience that again, you begging and clenching around me while I filled up your hungry–”
“Avery, you can stop now,” Pixie’s voice was tight. “The bleeding’s stopped again.”
Avery gave
Finn a wink as he stepped back. Finn hastily shut his mouth. He’d been so close to coming, just from Avery’s presence, his words. The demon hadn’t even touched him.
“So, what are the doctor’s orders?” Avery asked.
A small smile tickled Amtai’s lips. “This has got to be the weirdest prescription I’ve ever given, but keep Finn horny until Ezra is ready to accept the details of his current life. And if he picks up a little energy in the process, that won’t be a bad thing.”
Finn looked from face to face, not believing his ears. “How long is that likely to be?” Finn asked but the others ignored him.
“Orgasm denial for a good cause? I like it.” The evil grin on Avery’s face did not bode well.
“I don’t,” Finn said, but he appeared to be talking to himself.
“So how are you going to manage to–” Pixie said then threw her hands in the air. “Actually, I don’t want to know. Just don’t do anything he doesn’t agree to.” The fae stomped out of the room, leaving the selkie, the human and the conscious incubus looking at the unconscious one.
“She might not want to know, but I’m interested. How are you going to stop him... finishing?”
“I am still here, and I’d still like to know how long you think I’ll have to...” Finn said, although he also wondered what Avery planned to do. Excitement and trepidation warred within him. The ancient incubus could probably keep him on the edge for longer than any other being on the planet, but that wouldn’t soak up energy for Ezra. Sex demons couldn’t feed off each other’s energy. Finn would need to be with others, and not come, for this to work.
Amtai gave him a smile. “Sorry, sweetie, that was rude of me. And as for how long, I don’t know. It depends on how Ezra reacts. The vascellum/sex demon bond has never been closely studied.”
“And that’s our fault,” Avery said. “From the records, vascelli were once fairly common. But we were... are, a secretive bunch. We hoard our assets, keep things to ourselves, including our humans.
“We considered a sex demon who didn’t possess a vascellum an embarrassment, so we kept quiet, each of us hoping we’d come across another. As the number of vascelli declined, so did we. By the time we realised the reason for our lack of numbers, and began keeping proper records as a species, things had gone too far. There were only two vascelli left when I found Frederick and they were old. The fashion back then involved keeping addicted humans. Sex demons only sought new humans when they had a vacancy in their stable.
“Most of us actively avoid addicting humans now, preferring to encounter many humans in the hope of discovering someone like you by chance, but time is running out. We need you Finn, and we need Ezra. Otherwise he will remain the youngest sex demon till the day he dies, and he’ll be the last.”
Avery’s heartfelt speech brought it home, Finn couldn’t take his eyes off Ezra’s gently moving chest, and the wound that had begun bleeding again.
Avery clapping his hands made Finn jump. “Sorry about the history lesson. Amtai, can you stay with them for a while? I need to make some arrangements,” Avery said, and gave Finn a wink.
This cheerful flirting incubus was a very different creature to the stern, all business one he’d seen at the pack house, or the intense one who had set his desire blazing a few minutes ago. But which one is the real Avery?
Ezra had never put on an act. He might lack the polish this sophisticated incubus oozed, but Finn preferred his honesty. With Avery, Finn always wondered what motivated his behaviour. Ezra was far easier to work out, he wanted lust energy, a better life, and now Finn.
His heart rate and arousal rose as Avery stepped over to him again. “Hold that thought, and don’t touch it. I would suggest you sit on your hands, but that might just increase the risk of the game ending before it starts, don’t you think?”
Finn open and closed his mouth, his mind seizing as he processed what Avery meant. Does he really think I’m going to sit here with a lady doctor in the room and finger myself? The wicked thought made his dick twitch.
Avery leaned in close again, his spicy, masculine, with a hint of sexual musk, scent filled up Finn’s senses.
“I know vascelli, how your naughty little minds work. I love it, so does Ezra. The sweet suffering I’m going to put you through will be seared in your mind forever. He’ll spend years trying to recreate what I’m going to make you feel over the next few hours.”
Avery turned back to Amtai. “I’ll be as quick as I can. I suggest you keep him in here.”
“What if he...What if Ezra starts bleeding again? I’m not sure I’ll have the same effect on him as you do.”
It was nice not to be the only person in the room dealing with acute embarrassment for once.
Avery grinned at the shifter. “You could try. Think of it as an experiment.”
“Or not,” Finn blurted out. Both supernaturals turned to him and he wondered just how red a person’s face could get before they started sweating blood as he focused on the far safer option of Ezra’s hand.
“You’re erm, very pretty and I’m sure that a lot of guys find you really...”
A tinkling laugh had him looking up from Ezra’s hand to find Avery had left.
“Oh, don’t worry about it, sweetie, we like what we like, but with you being a vascellum and all, you’ll need to be with succubi at some point, even if it’s with Ezra’s help.”
Through all of this, the thought that he’d have to fuck succubi, ones like Freya, hadn’t sunk in. An image of those lips coming toward him made his belly roll.
“Do you want to sit down? You look a little pale.”
When he didn’t answer, she wheeled over the stool that Avery had been using, pushed him down onto it and handed him a can of coke.
“Drink it. I like this being a room for one, and the sooner its empty, the better.” Finn did what he’d been told and sipped at the syrupy sweet drink. Without thought, he swapped the can to his other hand and slipped his hand into Ezra’s. His belly calmed.
“Do you mind if I ask some questions?”
Finn kept his eyes on her face. He didn’t want to see any more ‘woman’ than he had to. Ezra might not care about the gender of the people he fed from, but Finn did. He’d never been attracted to women.
“Why?”
She shrugged. “Just curious. I’ve never met a vascellum before. The sex demon couple who live here nearly had seizures when we carried you past them. They recognised what you were immediately. You seem to have a profound effect on all sex demons. I’m not being rude, but although you’re a good-looking guy, you’re not a show stopper like they are. So that can’t be it.
“I’d like to take some blood, do a DNA test, that sort of thing. As there are no other vascelli, you’re my only guinea pig.” Finn didn’t like the sound of that.
She snorted. “Oh, don’t look so worried. If we can determine what makes you different, we might be able to track down some more vascelli so you’re not in such demand, which by the look on your face whenever someone mentions succubi, would be a good thing. Plus, if you’re going to be here for any length of time, it’d be useful to have some medical and family details.”
He could see the sense in that. “I’ve got a half-brother, but I don’t know who my dad is. My mum either genuinely doesn’t know or is pretending that she doesn’t.”
“Do they have normal sexual appetites?”
Finn frowned. “Are you asking me if my mum’s the local bike?”
She rolled her eyes. “I know this is all new to you, but human morals don’t apply to your kind. I’m just trying to get a baseline.”
“Well you can take your ‘baseline’ and–” Anger tightened his muscles and clenched his jaw against the urge to stand, but that would mean losing physical contact with Ezra. The fact that she was right, medically speaking, didn’t help the feeling that he and his family were being judged and found wanting.
“I’m as healthy as any other nineteen-year-old human, doctor. No major i
llnesses, conditions or hospital stays. I don’t gamble, smoke, or drink to excess. Before all this happened, I studied for a degree in Social Work and was on the university athletics team. I’m gay, I’ve never fancied women and Ezra took my cherry. Do you want the details?”
To his dismay, she simply made notes as he made his tight-lipped statement.
“No, that’s alright for now. Your family?”
“My mum is a single parent, she married my half-brother’s dad, but they divorced before his first birthday. He’s a couple of years older than me. She dates occasionally, so does my brother. Both like the opposite sex and neither are promiscuous as far as I know. “
“Have you noticed any changes since you became active? Appetite, weight, strength?”
“Actually, you’d better ask Avery about all the vascellum stuff when he gets back. Ezra doesn’t know a lot, and I know even less. It’s only been...” he tailed off having no idea of the date. Being a student felt like a lifetime ago. For a moment, he wondered if Charlie had tried to contact him again, before ruthlessly suppressing the idea.
“The pair of us have been feeling our way. This bond thing, it’s...” he struggled to find the words, “wonderful and scary. We can feel each other’s emotions, their pleasure and pain, and it’s getting stronger all the time. And I have no idea how much I should be telling you, so I’m going to shut up now.”
She gave him a sympathetic smile. “Don’t worry, this comes under doctor/patient confidentiality. Wild horses couldn’t drag it out of me.”
Maybe not wild horses, but I bet a vampire could. Finn kept his thoughts to himself. Ezra, please wake up, I need you. Dealing with all these supernaturals when he didn’t know any of the rules overwhelmed him. They all knew so much more about life than he did. He might be legally adult an the eyes of his fellow humans, but with this lot? He was little more than a toddler.
“Erm, Finn? He’s bleeding again.”
“Shit.” He looked down, even though he knew he’d lost his erection. The thought of giving himself a rub in front of her to resurrect his desire had his balls attempting to crawl back up inside him.
