by Tina Folsom
Yet, he instantly realized that the baby in her belly would never see the light of day, nor would she ever again see the sun shining on her face.
A vampire stood in front of her, a knife in his hands. And next to him Kasper’s eyes were focused on the two.
“You can’t have both! You can only save one of them. Choose! Either your mate or your child!”
Thomas rushed into the room. “What are you doing?”
Kasper’s head whipped toward him. “Stay out of this, Thomas!” he snarled. Then his eyes narrowed and he focused on the vampire in his presence.
Thomas saw how flickers of light discharged from Kasper’s body and shot toward the vampire.
“No!” Thomas cried out, realizing that Kasper was using his mind to control the vampire to execute his dirty deed.
“He needs to be punished!” Kasper cried out, his face distorting into an ugly grimace.
Less than an hour earlier, Kasper had been in an exceedingly good mood, but now, nothing of that good mood was evident. Almost, as if he had a split personality. Thomas had started noticing it more and more often. But this was the first time Thomas saw true ugliness within Kasper and recoiled from him. “What has he done?”
“He defied my orders! Now he’s going to pay!”
Kasper whipped back to the vampire and shot a blinding ray of light toward him. The vampire cried out, but his hand holding the knife rose and his feet took a step toward his human mate whose eyes were wide with fear.
“No,” she cried out. “Please don’t do this, George, don’t let him do this to you! You’re stronger.”
But her vampire mate advanced, his face distorted in pain as he tried to fight Kasper’s control over his body. It was clear that he couldn’t.
The knife sliced low into the woman’s belly, her cries of pain echoing against the stone walls. Thomas’s stomach lurched and he jumped toward the vampire, trying to kick the knife out of his hands. Kasper’s kick to his midsection stopped him dead in his tracks.
“Stay out of it!” he ordered.
Thomas glared up at his lover. “Stop this now!”
But Kasper didn’t listen. Instead he trained his eyes back on the vampire under his control and sent another burst of mental power to him. Again, the vampire cut into the belly of his mate, making a longer incision now. More blood spilled onto the floor and the woman merely hung from the rack now, her legs having collapsed underneath her.
Her cries deafened Thomas’s ears as he tried to make another attempt to help her and her baby. A bolt of power hit him squarely in the chest, and instinctively he fought back, focusing his mind on Kasper.
“Finally!” Kasper grinned at him. “I thought you’d never find the power inside you. Isn’t it wonderful? You feel it, don’t you?”
Yes, Thomas had felt the force slumbering in him ever since Kasper had turned him and told him he’d help him harness it. Harness the dark power Kasper had given him with his blood. He’d suppressed it, because he didn’t want it. But now, at the sight of injustice toward an innocent, it emerged.
Kasper laughed and pushed against him with his mental power, knocking him to the ground.
“Maybe now you’ll let me train you. Watch how it’s done!”
Kasper looked back at the vampire he was still controlling. “So you’ve decided to save your child. Well . . . .” Kasper pointed to the bleeding belly of his mate. “Then take it from her body!”
The vampire followed Kasper’s command and Thomas watched in horror as he stuck his hands into the woman’s womb and pulled out the child. It was covered with blood, the umbilical cord still attached, but it was alive.
“Now kill it!” Keegan ordered as a bolt of white light shot from his fingers and hit the vampire’s head.
Like a marionette, the vampire reached for his knife and aimed it at the child. His struggle was evident in his distorted face, the way he clenched his teeth, and the shaking of his arm as he tried to pull it back while an invisible hand drove it ever closer to the baby’s throat.
The baby’s cry was cut off a split second after it started. Then the tiny head fell onto the floor with a loud thud, the wails of its dying mother accompanying it.
Thomas felt a shiver as cold as ice crawling over his back and spreading over his entire body.
He rose to his feet and stared at Kasper.
“You’re evil, Kasper. Truly evil. I won’t have anything more to do with you!”
Kasper expelled a bitter laugh. “You have no choice! I made you! You’re just like me! You have the same power running in your veins.”
“I don’t want that power! I never asked for it!”
“It doesn’t matter. You have it and you can’t give it back.”
Thomas shook his head. “I won’t use it!” He turned on his heels and ran out of the room, Kasper’s voice chasing him.
“You’ll come back! The power is stronger than you! You won’t be able to resist using it.”
As Thomas rushed up the stairs and into his room to toss a few belongings into a suitcase, the horror of what he’d seen chilled his blood. No, he’d never be like Kasper. He’d rather die.
15
Thomas set the tin with the used oil he’d drained from the Ducati onto the edge of the workbench in his garage and bent down to pick up the screwdriver, when the earth underneath his feet started shaking. Instinctively, his hands searched for support to steady himself and ride out the earthquake. Tools and various containers rattled on the metal shelves along the garage, and the house moaned as the waves of the quake caused it to move.
Tools started falling from the open shelves and Thomas ducked, avoiding a falling wrench, and hitting his back on the leg of the workbench. The tin with oil he’d placed on it only moments earlier tipped over. Thomas dove away, but wasn’t fast enough and the contents spilled over his T-shirt and the front of his jeans.
“Fuck!” he hissed as he felt the oil soak through his T-shirt.
Suddenly, the shaking stopped and all went quiet again. Thomas perused the garage. No major damage thanks to the fact that all the shelves were bolted to the wall and floor. He looked down at himself. No damage, except for his stained clothes. Shit, the stuff stank! He lifted himself up from the floor and instantly pulled the T-shirt over his head, careful that the oil didn’t touch his head.
He tossed the shirt in the laundry sink and turned on the faucet while he popped the button of his pants open, lowered the zipper and rid himself of his jeans. It joined the T-shirt in the sink a moment later. At least the oil hadn’t soaked through to his boxer briefs yet.
Thomas held his hands under the flowing water. The old faucet sputtered, and water splashed over his torso, washing away the drops of oil that had seeped through his T-shirt. A sound from the stairs made him whip his head to the side.
Long jeans-clad legs appeared from the stairs. “Everything all right? Fuck, that was a big one! Have you ever been though a big one like that?”
Eddie came into view just as Thomas felt the water run down his chest and soak his boxer briefs. It was too late to grab a towel: within seconds the soft white fabric was soaked and practically transparent.
Eddie froze at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes running over Thomas’s virtually-naked body, and it was all it took for Thomas to get hard. Eddie’s mouth dropped open, but his gaze was still focused on Thomas’s groin. His Adam’s apple moved. A hitched breath rolled over Eddie’s lips.
Thomas felt more blood pump into his cock, which now stretched the fabric farther away from his body, tenting his boxer briefs. From the corner of his eye, he saw the towel that hung next to the sink, yet he couldn’t bring himself to reach for it and wrap it around his lower body.
As long as Eddie stared at him without uttering a word, he felt frozen, like a statue unable to move. He didn’t want to break the spell, because Eddie’s eyes drinking him in made his heart beat in a frantic rhythm. He wanted to prolong this feeling, even though he wasn’t sure what this
was: was Eddie merely shocked at seeing him half-naked in the garage? Or did the sight excite him?
Only a day ago, he’d threatened Eddie that he would take what he wanted should Eddie ever touch him again. Maybe he should have warned him that if he ever looked at him like this, the same threat applied. Because at this moment, Thomas was ready to pounce on him, drag him to the floor and rip his clothes off him before he buried himself deep in Eddie’s body and rode him until they both climaxed.
It was Eddie who finally broke the silence. “I see there’s no damage.” He turned back to the stairs. “I’ll be going to sleep then.”
Thomas reached for the towel. “There might be aftershocks. Keep a flashlight next to your bed, just in case there’s a bigger one coming.”
Eddie nodded. “Sure.” He disappeared out of sight, and a few seconds later the door to the upper floor was closed, and Thomas was alone again.
His cock ached, wanting to feel Eddie’s body, his hands, his mouth, his ass. Any which way he could get him.
Eddie rushed to his room and closed the door behind him, breathing heavily. Fuck, he should have never gone down to the garage! But when the earthquake had hit, a 5-pointer for sure, concern for Thomas had made him run down there, knowing he was working on one of his motorcycles. What if one of the heavy machines had fallen on him, or God forbid, what if the SUV had somehow shifted and pinned him against a wall?
He’d expected the worst when he’d run into the garage, but he hadn’t expected to see Thomas in his underwear. In his nearly transparent underwear. Gazing at his wet torso had been bad enough: his mentor had a ripped, hairless chest with beautifully-defined muscles, sculpted so perfectly not even Michelangelo’s David could compete with him.
But the package he was carrying between his legs had drawn Eddie to look for longer than he should have. He’d been able to see his erect cock clearly through the soaked fabric. In fact, he’d seen it grow hard in front of his eyes. It had taken only seconds for Thomas’s shaft to fill with blood and curve upwards. He’d always guessed that Thomas was big—even when casually glancing at him when Thomas was dressed, Eddie had noticed it. But to see his thick long cock through the wet fabric had confirmed his guess. Eddie could easily guess what had caused Thomas’s arousal: he’d enjoyed the fact that Eddie had surprised him and stared at him.
For an instant, a flicker of pride sparked inside him. He had made Thomas hard. Damn it, he shouldn’t feel proud about that! He should feel repelled. No straight man should revel in the fact that a gay man was turned on by him!
Angry with himself, Eddie went into his ensuite bathroom and got ready for bed, trying to stamp out every thought about Thomas, and instead concentrate on other things. The earthquake.
He should check whether everybody else was okay. Depending on where the epicenter was, there could have been damage in other parts of town. After all, Thomas’s house stood on bedrock and therefore the shaking would have been less intense here than downtown.
Eddie sat down on his bed, wearing only his pajama bottoms, and reached for the phone, dialing quickly.
It took three rings before a female voice answered. “Eddie, something wrong?”
“Hey, Sis, sorry to disturb, but I wanted to make sure you guys are okay.”
“Huh? Why wouldn’t we be okay?”
“The earthquake. It was a big one. Was there any damage to your place?”
In the background he heard Amaury’s voice. “Earthquake?”
“Oh, that was an earthquake?” Nina chuckled.
A deep rumble came from Amaury, then a giggle from Nina.
Eddie rolled his eyes. Those two hadn’t even felt the earthquake because they’d been doing horizontal acrobatics. “Oh, you guys! Does he never give you a rest?”
“Who says she wants a rest?” Amaury’s voice came through the line loud and clear as if he’d taken the phone from Nina’s hands.
“Forget I called. Obviously, my concerns aren’t welcome.”
“Sleep well, Eddie,” Nina’s voice came from the distance. Then the line was disconnected.
Eddie put the receiver down. That would teach him not to call his sister during daytime hours when Amaury was home. Not that her possessive mate was always gone during the night either.
It appeared that Amaury spent more and more time at home with Nina, and less and less time at Scanguards. Weren’t those two getting sick of each other’s company?
Slipping under the covers, Eddie shook his head. He reached for the bedside lamp and flicked the switch. Darkness surrounded him as he sank back onto the pillow and closed his eyes. He tossed, seemingly forever, visions of Thomas’s half-naked body taunting him. He felt his cock harden and flicked an angry finger against the head to make it deflate. He would not masturbate to images of Thomas. He couldn’t allow this madness to escalate. It was bad enough that the kiss, and now seeing him practically naked, were making him question his sexuality; he wouldn’t top it off by actually giving into his urges. Instead he had to fight against those feelings in him.
They weren’t right. He was probably confused. They would pass if only he ignored them long enough.
Tired from the mental fight going on inside him, he let himself be lulled in by the creaking of the house as it responded to the aftershocks of the earthquake. He snuggled deeper into the pillows, the soft sheets caressing his skin. A scent drifted to him: tantalizing, arousing, tempting.
So familiar, and so forbidden: Thomas’s scent. A shadow moved toward the bed.
Then cool air blew against his body as hands lifted the bed sheet off his body and laid him bare. The mattress depressed and a warm mouth pressed soft kisses on his chest while gentle hands caressed him. With every caress they stroked lower, until they reached the top of his pajama bottoms. Fingers reached for the strings and undid the knot, then pulled on the fabric, pushing it down his hips.
Without thinking, Eddie lifted his butt to help him slide the garment off his body. It made a soft whoosh as it fell to the wooden floor. Thomas’s hands were on his thighs and pushed them apart, so he could slide between them, settling his body there. His naked body.
Silently, Thomas’s head dropped to Eddie’s groin. He knew what his mentor would find there: a cock as hard as it had ever been. He was as eager to feel Thomas’s lips around him as anybody could ever be. Anticipation made his pulse race, and tiny pearls of sweat built on his forehead and neck. His chest heaved as the lust that he’d been trying to hold back finally burst to the surface.
As if Thomas had waited for it, his lips finally wrapped around the tip of Eddie’s cock, and painstakingly slowly, he slid down to the base. Eddie found himself engulfed in wet heat that threatened to consume him. A groan issued from his lips as he thrust upwards and deeper into Thomas’s mouth. He’d never felt anything so good. So intense. So hot.
Hands urged him to bring his legs up over his lover’s shoulders. It opened him up wider, exposing his sensitive balls fully. Warm palms cupped his sac, squeezing it gently, while his lover’s head bobbed up and down, sucking his cock in a steady rhythm.
He couldn’t help but mimic Thomas’s movements and thrust in counteraction to him, fucking his mouth as if his life depended on it. Under cover of darkness, he could allow himself to surrender to his lover’s touch, to his lips and his mouth. To simply give in to the pleasure Thomas was granting him. He shouldn’t feel this pleasure. Yet he did.
Thomas’s tantalizing tongue licked him, and his mouth sucked him with such perfect pressure, that he couldn’t resist the urge to spur him on, to praise him by letting him hear the moans and sighs he could no longer keep contained.
“Yes, fuck, yes!” he cried out.
His cock pushed deeper into Thomas’s warm mouth, harder and faster. Eddie put his hands on the back of his head, holding him there so he couldn’t escape. His hips moved frantically, up and down. All the while a firm hand squeezed his balls in the same rhythm. Then he felt one finger slip along the crack of his ass, pus
hing against the tight ring of muscles that guarded his dark portal.
A bolt of lightning shot through him, sending an intense wave of pleasure through his body.
When it hit his cock, his eyes flew open, his gaze zeroing in on the space between his legs. His own hand was wrapped around his cock, a cock that spurted hot semen in the air. Thomas was gone. No, not gone: he’d never been there!
It had all been a dream. A wet dream. The most erotic dream he’d ever had. And the most disturbing one at the same time.
He’d gotten off by imagining Thomas’s mouth on him, his hand cradling his balls, and a finger rubbing over his anus. And everything had excited him, even the finger that had rubbed over the tight entrance that was buried between his butt cheeks. Particularly that had made him hot. So hot that he’d come without warning.
Distressed, he sat up and wiped his semen-covered hand and stomach on the bed sheet then threw it on the floor. Something was wrong with him. This couldn’t be happening to him: he had gay erotic dreams. Did this mean he was turning gay?
He shoved a trembling hand through his hair. He had to figure out what was wrong with him so he could find a way to fix it.
16
Lights were ablaze in Samson’s house in Nob Hill when Eddie entered the foyer. Delilah closed the door behind him, her baby daughter Isabelle in her arms. The little girl was awake and flashed a nearly toothless grin at him. None of her front teeth had grown yet; however, tiny fangs peaked from her gums. Isabelle was bigger, her gaze more alert than that of a human baby, as if she understood far more than regular children. As a hybrid—half vampire, half human—she had the traits of both species, yet none of their disadvantages. She could be out in the sun, but would one day be as strong as a vampire.
“Hi Delilah, hope I’m not disturbing,” he greeted Samson’s wife.
