by Emma Jaye
Within seconds of Silas’s departure, the uneasiness turned to relief. Silas had fixed whatever had been bothering Finn. Did the vampire really care about his vascellum? It might take a while to find that out, and Ezra decided, with more than a little surprise, that such a challenge interested him. However, letting Silas know he’d done well would only make the vampire’s head swell.
Ezra knew he’d made the right decision when he saw the grin on Silas’s face as he came back through the door and bolted it.
“Not going to ask what happened?”
Ezra shrugged. “Can you just get these cuffs off, so I can get some sleep? Busy day and all that.”
The thin lips quirked. “I know. I heard. And saw. So did everyone else on the island. Jericho asked me if I could compel him to forget it.”
Ezra scowled because Silas expected it. Getting back to banter was so much easier than dealing with these far more difficult emotions.
“Now there’s thanks for you. I enable him to bust his cherry and he complains.”
“Well you’re not exactly a beautiful Atlas bear shifter girl, are you?”
Ezra gave him a bright smile. “Probably better looking than one though. Do you think the girl bears are as hairy as the boys? Because that was like being done by a hearth rug, a heavy one.”
Silas let out a snort, then held up the key to the cuffs. “You know, I’m going to miss having you at my mercy whenever I want.” The half-vampire froze, his face falling as he realised what he’d said. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that.”
“Yes, you did. But don’t worry about it. People like what they like.” To his surprise, Ezra realised he’d meant every word, and they’d felt familiar.
To prevent any further questions, Ezra twisted around so Silas could get to the cuffs. The other demon bent, Ezra felt a cool hand on his wrist then Silas paused. Warm breath touched his neck.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you came in your shorts and Finn didn’t come at all. What’s going on?”
He thought about telling Silas to mind his own business, instead, on a whim, he told him the truth.
“You know, I haven’t got a damn clue, but I–” Ezra drew in a shuddering breath as pleasure rippled through the bond.
“What, what happened, is it Finn again? I knew I shouldn’t have trusted those damn shifters to watch him. I’ll go sort–”
Ezra blew out a breath. “No, no need. I’m not entirely sure, but I think Finn just got the happy ever after that he didn’t get here with me.”
“Who with? Was it that revolting succubus? She was after him earlier, that’s why he got upset. Damn female is like a trap door spider. I can’t say I’ve ever met a female of your species I like.”
Ezra closed his eyes and concentrated on the bond. He felt... relaxation and contentment. “Is he a hundred percent comfortable with anyone here?”
“Apart from Pixie? Not as far as I know.”
A smile tugged at Ezra’s lips. “He’s on his own then.”
“And that makes you happy?” Silas sounded incredulous.
“Actually, yes, yes it does.”
The cuffs clinked as they dropped from his wrists. Ezra rolled his shoulders as he pulled his arms in front of him and rubbed his wrists absently. He’d pulled them quite hard when he’d been frantic to touch Finn.
“Go shower, you stink.”
Ezra gave him a grin. “Who do you think you are, my keeper or something?” Leaving Silas open mouthed in anticipation, Ezra headed for the shower. The modern world was a wonderful thing. Hot water whenever you wanted it. Would wonders never cease?
Silas lay in bed, watching, as Ezra walked out of the shower, naked except for a towel around his waist. The vampire’s slow smile faltered as his gaze landed on the ‘f’ shaped scar on Ezra’s chest.
“Don’t worry, it’ll fade, it did before. There wasn’t a sign of it back in Brighton.”
Ezra dropped the towel, the sight of Silas’s bare chest, with the sheet draped low on his hips, made him hungry.
“What this?” Ezra traced his fingers across his pec, and watched Silas’s eyes redden. “Who says I want my F for Fuck, to disappear?”
Silas’s mouth hung open for a moment, then his lips curved into a smile.
He chuckled, shaking his head. “You are fucking amazing, you know that?”
With a couple of running steps and a bounce, Ezra landed in bed beside Silas. “Yeah I know. But don’t stop telling me.”
Leaning forward, Ezra brushed his lips against those of the far stronger demon. “Now, I could ask you what you want, but guess what, you don’t get a choice.”
With that statement, Ezra pushed Silas to his belly, forced his legs apart with his knees, and concentrating on producing slick he forced himself inside the vampire.
Silas tensed and moaned in pain but didn’t try to throw Ezra off. Once he was fully inside him, covering as much of Silas’s body with his own as he could, Ezra moved his lips to the vampire’s ear.
“I’m going to fuck you, hurt you, for every time your fellow vamps did it to me.” He thrust hard, forcing a gasp of passionate pain out of his partner. “How’s that for justifiable revenge, you blood sucking bastard?”
“Perfect, its fucking perfect, hurt me, please.” With a smile for Silas’s passionate groans, Ezra thrust hard, giving the half vengeance demon what he wanted while taking what he needed for himself.
CHAPTER 18
Ezra woke, alone in his bed, skin crawling. He wasn’t sure how, but he knew someone close by watched him. Keeping his eyes closed, he moved one foot and heaved a mental sigh of relief; no chains. He felt warm, despite only having a light blanket. Still on the island then. He wondered how long it would be before he woke up without being scared.
“I can put them on again if you like. Chains are an odd sort of security blanket, but each to their own,” Jericho rumbled from the other side of the room.
Ezra cracked open an eye. The big, reddish haired bear shifter stood with his back up against the door of the room.
“Well this is awkward,” Ezra said. The last time he’d seen Jericho had been after the huge man had thoroughly fucked him into near unconsciousness.
Jericho continued to stare at him silently. Seconds ticked by until Ezra couldn’t stand it anymore.
He blew out a breath. “I’m sorry, ok? What I did was damn unfair, and I won’t do it again.” He eyed the stoic shifter’s face; not a flicker of emotion showed. “Unless you want me to? Because, you know, you were pretty damn powerful. Had me buzzing for hours.”
Jericho walked purposefully towards the bed. Ezra tried not to tense. Jericho needed the correct pheromones to become aroused, so there wasn’t a flicker of lust hovering around the bear. Although Ezra had proved he could produce them, he decided to stick by his promise not to unless asked. So far, the bear shifter had been nothing but fair in his dealings with him. All Ezra had done was be shitty to him.
Jericho sat on the edge of the bed, his dark eyes intense. “I spent most of the night sitting on the beach. You know, I never really understood the power of sex. It’s like one of those drugs humans take. I wish I’d never experienced it, because I haven’t stopped thinking about how it felt, it was...”
Ezra sat up, both wanting to touch Jericho to provide physical reassurance, and worrying about spooking him.
“I’m probably not the best person to talk to about this. I can’t not have sex and live, to be honest, I envy you.”
Jericho watched him, and as the seconds ticked by, Ezra began regretting his honesty.
“I know. I was in your head the whole time you were with Fabian, but even your memories didn’t really prepare me. I don’t blame you for what you did to me, you’re a demon after all.”
“Soo, do you want to...” Ezra left the question hanging, hoping Jericho wouldn’t say yes. He liked vigorous sex, but he’d needed help to stand after Jericho had finally finished.
“Can all of your sort do that to
me?”
“Not the foggiest idea. I didn’t know I could until someone mentioned I’d already done it. I don’t suppose many of my kind ever have to really work at it. There are a lot of horny humans in the world. I can’t imagine the golden boy ever needed to learn how to fish.”
Jericho’s caterpillar-like eyebrows rose. “Fish?”
Ezra grinned. “Yeah, catch something that doesn’t want to be caught. There were quite a few human men that–” He stopped, remembering the ultimate indignity he’d inflicted on so many poor souls.
“Hey, enough of that. I enjoyed it, that’s part of the problem, knowing you’re probably the only one that’s ever going to make me feel like that. It reminded me that I’m well... the only one of my kind left.”
“Ever tried it with a different kind of bear shifter?”
“Met a female grizzly shifter once. Didn’t do a thing for me.”
“There are other sorts of bears though, aren’t there? Black bears, Polar–”
Jericho clapped him on the shoulder, nearly knocking him off the bed. “And who appointed you Cupid all of a sudden? Come on, time for you to put in an appearance. Its change over day for most of the tourists so it’s not so busy out there. Oh, and Finn gave me this for you.”
Jericho held up a tiny black key on a leather thong.
“He’s on the beach trying to give those daft twins and Silas a swimming lesson. Idiotic pair gave themselves a fright last night when they waded too far out and the waves lifted them off their feet. They had to shift and doggy paddle to shore.
“Last time I looked, Silas was up to his knees, trying to look cool and failing miserably, and the twins won’t go in further than their ankles, even with the seal shifters standing by. You need to come and see it. Funniest thing ever.”
Ezra stared at the key, knowing full well what it unlocked. A pair of shorts landing on his chest made him jerk.
“Come on, I don’t want to miss it if one of them falls in and has to get rescued by Finn.”
“No cuffs?” Ezra asked.
“Do you need them?”
Ezra considered the question. Yesterday, he’d wanted to die, wanted to sink down into oblivion more than he wanted to see the sunrise. Now... now he wanted to see Finn’s face laughing or coming.
But he would have said ‘no’ if Jericho had asked the same question yesterday.
“Are you going to believe my answer, either way?”
“Try me,” the bear rumbled.
Ezra grinned. “Already did, remember?”
Jericho rolled his eyes. “Just get a move on, will you?”
“Maybe just the one? Not sure I trust myself yet.”
“Good answer,” Jericho rumbled and produced a set of silver handcuffs from his pocket.
Once his wrist was safely fastened to the wooden chair in the bar area, Ezra let a breath out. To his relief, the witches weren’t around. He had his fingers crossed they were part of the tourist group who had departed. Even though he wouldn’t admit it to another living soul, the confident, sexual women intimidated him. The ones in the cellar had cried a great deal, not that he blamed them; they’d known they were living on borrowed time.
Finn slid into the seat next to Ezra, his hair damp and tousled from his swim. He was carrying a tray containing another idiotic cocktail, a glass of wine for Ezra and a beer for Jericho. The beer shifter stood up and picked up his pint.
“Excuse me, I need to go make fun of Gethin and Glyn.”
They watched him head toward the group of canine shifters Finn had just left. He caught sight of Milo elbowing one of the twins. The dark-haired shifter’s face was already pink with embarrassment. Silas had a towel draped over his shoulders, his chest bare and beautiful, a smile gracing his lips. Hunger swirled in Ezra’s belly. Ezra wanted to lick him to see if his skin tasted salty. And to make him groan.
A strand of hair tickled Ezra’s ear. He reached to scratch it, remembering Finn’s breath there last night, remembering the shiver of pleasure it gave. Silas and Finn. He didn’t know what he felt for either of them. Silas was a known quantity, a familiar anchor in this confusing new world, but Finn... He still had no idea what to think about the young human. The vascellum. His vascellum.
After Silas had fallen asleep for the night, Ezra had spent hours trying to work out what had happened with Finn, and how he felt about it. He’d tried to brush it off as just odd sex. Ezra knew about sex, fuck, did he know about sex, but the tenderness, the emotion that went along with what Finn had done to him had been a completely new experience.
In a way, it had been similar to being with Silas, there had been emotion, not just physical sensation. But even with the vampire, Ezra had always been confident Silas’s motivation had been his own pleasure. That he enjoyed Ezra’s passion had been the point, rather than Ezra’s actual enjoyment. Silas had always gotten off too, or maybe the vampire had simply been making sure Ezra fed?
Last night, Finn hadn’t fed him, not intentionally. For the whole of his life, sex had been merely food; last night had been something else. And he had no idea how to handle it, or how to talk to him. Ezra flirted. He bantered or played the victim. He didn’t do... this. Whatever this was.
“You ok?” Finn asked.
“Yeah, yeah, fine. You? How’s your day been?”
Finn’s head cocked to the side, revealing both eyes as his hair had drooped over one. Ezra itched to push it back, to touch him again as a smirk that went straight to Ezra’s dick appeared on that cheeky face.
“Frustrating. It’s been damn frustrating.” Finn glanced from side to side, then added, “And painful.”
Ezra choked on a mouthful of wine, knowing he wasn’t talking about the swimming lesson. The image of Finn’s slender pink cock trapped and straining in some sort of device popped into his head. The key felt hot and hard in Ezra’s pocket.
When he stopped coughing, and Finn ceased pounding him on the back, he blinked, rubbing at the tears that had leaked from his eyes during the explosion.
Did I imagine what Finn’s cock looks like, or was that a memory?
To distract himself he reached across and took a sip of Finn’s drink. He frowned, squinting at the colourful concoction. “That’s horrible.”
Finn laughed brightly, and it felt like a hole closed in Ezra’s heart. “Yes, yes, it is. Malcolm says it’s an Ouzini. Tastes like aniseed, right?”
Ezra opened and closed his mouth, trying to remove the odd, bitter taste. “Why, why would you drink that? There are plenty of other ways to self-flagellate if you’re into that sort of thing.”
The smile dropped off Finn’s face as if it had never been. Ezra mourned its loss and his lack of knowledge of the beautiful being sitting opposite him. A joyful Finn was a marvellous thing to behold. He lit up everything around him.
“I see you’ve been busy teaching that lot to swim, but what do you have in mind for the rest of the day?” The words fell from Ezra’s lips, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer. Please say you want to spend it with me, and not because the bond forces you to stay close.
For some reason, Ezra really wanted Finn to find him interesting, and not just because of the bond, or what his body could do for him.
Ezra held his breath as Finn’s hands moved away from the monstrous drink. He looked down and then up at Ezra’s face, his eyes bright.
“I could say I’d like to walk on the beach, talk, get to know you properly, but we have our whole lives to do that. Right now, I want to touch you, and I want you to touch me. I want to feed you, to be your everything, and I want to stop having to say no to them.” He indicated the group of shifters near the bar who had now been joined by Avery and Jericho. The sheer masculinity of the group had Ezra’s mouth watering too. They were like an all you can eat sex demon buffet.
Finn carried on speaking, drawing Ezra’s attention away from the potential feast without hesitation. “I want us to be partners in crime again, with me storing up their energy ti
ll it hurts and then exploding with you.”
Tears shone in Finn’s eyes and Ezra felt his own prickling. “I want you back, Ezra. There’s a whole bright world out there, ready for us to explore. You can be whatever you want.”
What he’d done to this beautiful soul twisted his gut. Finn should be flying free, not bound to damaged goods like himself.
“What about what you want? I took your choices away from you,” Ezra said.
Looking at Finn, feeling him now, Ezra wondered who had captured whom. He might be a sex demon, but Finn appeared to be even more adept at drawing people in. Even if it wasn’t physical, Finn had certainly addicted the shifters who were pretending not to watch them and failing. A wave of regret and inadequacy rolled over him.
At the bar, he caught sight of Silas turning toward him. Avery put his hand on the half vengeance demon’s arm, preventing him from making his way over to them. This was Ezra’s problem, one he’d caused, one he couldn’t blame on his mother or the vampires, and he had to live with it. Just as Finn did.
Finn frowned. “I want what I’ve always wanted, even before I met you. To love and be loved, to be accepted, to be safe and happy, to help people and explore what the world has to offer.” He reached across the table and gripped Ezra’s hand. “And I want all of that with you.”
The touch opened something in Ezra, a crack, a sliver of memory. Waking with his arms around Finn in a bright bedroom. Finn looked up at him, trust, loyalty, happiness and lust radiated from him. Ezra had felt utter, complete contentment as he bent to take the sweet, freely, lovingly offered energy.
His soul ached to have that feeling back. “I’m so very hungry.”
Finn looked down, his shoulders twitched as his breath hitched.
“I’ll get Silas for you.” The quiet, bone deep regret in his voice, pulled at Ezra’s soul.
Finn pushed his chair back to stand up. The thought of Finn being even an inch further away from him ripped his heart from his chest.
“No. You. I want you.”
Finn looked up, his green eyes bright with fear, with hope. “You, you don’t have to.”
