by Tina Folsom
“What the fuck was that garbage?” Kasper growled and glared at him.
“As I said, I told him what I think of the crap he fed me. I fed him the same nonsense. He’ll get it!”
Thomas hoped so with all his heart, because what was hidden in his garbled speech was his password to the company’s systems. Since Thomas had disabled everybody else’s login, only his own login now had control over Scanguards. If Eddie could figure out that he’d just been handed the password to Thomas’s login, he would be able to take over control. In the meantime, Thomas had to buy some time.
Keeping one eye on the computer screen, Thomas stood up and put his hand on Kasper’s arm. Then he motioned to Xander, who was standing a few yards away from them.
“Why don’t you ask Xander to help the others guard the doors?” He stroked suggestively over Kasper’s arm.
A spark ignited in Kasper’s eyes. Without looking away from Thomas, he issued his order.
“Xander go join the others.”
Thomas waited until Xander had left the room. The door was still open, but it didn’t matter.
There was an illusion of privacy and it was all Thomas needed now.
“I don’t want there to be any more lies between us,” Thomas started and pulled his hand off Kasper’s arm.
A disappointed glance was Kasper’s answer. “There are no lies between us.”
“There are things you haven’t explained to me. And if this is going to work between us, then I have to know everything.”
“But you know everything,” Kasper protested.
Thomas turned away, clandestinely glancing at the computer screen to see if anything was happening. But the curser blinked evenly.
“You told me that Keegan was the one who committed all those atrocities. And you claimed that your followers were still doing the same, but that you didn’t order the torture of Sergio and his mate.”
He heard a quick intake of breath behind him.
“Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against a little torture when it’s warranted,” Thomas lied. “But I’d expect you to be honest with me about it. How can we be partners when you hide things from me?” He paused for a moment. “And if you want a blood-bond, then you have to be honest with me.”
He turned back to face Kasper, looking at his stunned expression. Yes, he’d guessed right: Kasper not only wanted him back, he wanted a bond, one that was stronger than anything else, one that would make them both stronger by combining their dark powers.
“You do want a blood-bond, don’t you?” He placed his hand back on Kasper’s arm.
“Yes!” Kasper stepped closer as if he wanted to kiss him, but Thomas turned his head to the side.
“Then tell me the truth. Tell me everything. As your future mate, I deserve it.” Thomas almost choked at the words. He couldn’t imagine anything viler than bonding with Kasper. He never again wanted to be in contact with such evil.
As he waited for Kasper’s answer, Thomas perceived a movement on the computer screen.
Lines of code scrolled over it. He suppressed the sigh of relief that wanted to burst from his chest. Soon this would be over.
“Well, if you put it that way,” Kasper hedged, “you’re right, of course. Keegan and I were much more similar than I would like to admit. Apart from our sexual appetites of course. Those were very different. But the dark power in us craves the same tributes. You feel it in yourself too, don’t you?”
Thomas nodded automatically, still avoiding Kasper’s gaze. “I feel the urge to hurt somebody.” And that wasn’t even a lie.
“Yes, it feels good, doesn’t it? Just as it felt good when I forced Sergio to hurt his mate.”
“You were there yourself?” Thomas suppressed the impulse to slice Kasper’s throat open at the knowledge that he’d done the deed himself.
“I never miss an opportunity like that. When I realized that Sergio wasn’t going to play ball, I called a few of my followers so they could watch and learn.” Kasper leaned closer, dropping his voice. “From time to time, you’ll have to do similar things to show them who’s the master. If they don’t fear you, they’ll start to think they’re more powerful than you. You never want that to happen.”
Bile rose in Thomas’s stomach. He forced a few words over his lips to continue buying Eddie and his colleagues more time. “Just like you killed Wu, your attorney.”
“He deserved it. Greedy bastard. And what a sniveling little weasel. He found out that I had a twin brother, and he was going to tell Xander and the others. It would have undermined my authority.”
“I understand. And Keegan, when he came to San Francisco, you followed him.”
The smile was evident in Kasper’s voice when he answered, “As I told you before, that’s how I found you. At first, I wanted to help my brother, but when I realized who he was fighting against, I had to make a choice. I chose not to intervene. I couldn’t very well let you die. Besides, I was growing sick of sharing the throne with him. His antics were getting on my nerves. Brother or not, he had to go. Between you and me, Scanguards did me a favor by getting rid of him. And as an added bonus, they also killed the men who were with him. There were no other witnesses, and when I returned to my followers, they weren’t the wiser. Nobody knew of Keegan’s death, because to them there’d never been a Keegan.”
“So it worked out perfectly for you,” Thomas concluded.
“I couldn’t have planned it any better. Now you and I are reunited.” Kasper’s hand came up to cup Thomas’s chin, and he pulled his face back to him. He lowered his lips and Thomas felt an ice-cold shiver run down his spine.
A rumbling sound came from the outside, and Kasper suddenly pulled back. “What the fuck is that?” he called out to the hallway.
“The elevator!” Xander shouted. “It’s moving!”
“Shit!” Kasper cursed, then looked back at Thomas. “Make it stop!” he commanded.
Thomas used both his hands to catapult Kasper away from him, slamming him against a desk. “No!”
Kasper’s eyes widened, recognition illuminating them. “You betrayed me!”
“And now I’m going to destroy you!” Thomas promised and focused all his mental power on his maker, just as he heard the ping of the elevator announcing that it had reached the basement.
“Go to hell, Kasper, where you belong!”
42
Eddie nodded to Samson, giving him the signal to open the door. As it swung open, Eddie and Amaury rushed into the basement corridor, their semi-automatic guns pointed straight ahead while unleashing a barrage of silver bullets toward the unsuspecting vampires who were shooting into the empty elevator as its doors opened.
Several of their opponents fell instantly, disintegrating slowly as the silver bullets burned them from the inside, until their forms were mere ash. The others sought shelter in the offices lining the hallway.
“Did you leave me any?” Zane shouted as he charged into the hallway.
Eddie motioned to one of the open doors one of the vampires had disappeared into. “Be my guest.”
As Zane approached the room, covered by Samson, Eddie locked eyes with Amaury and pointed to another room. Amaury nodded.
Eddie pressed himself along the wall next to the door, then took a deep breath, steeling himself for the assault. In vampire speed, he whirled around, stepping into the doorframe, his eyes spotting his enemy instantly. His gun was pointed at its target, but before he could pull the trigger, a flash of energy pierced through his head as if somebody had stuck a knife into it.
Instinct told him that the vampire was attacking him with mind control, even though he’d never experienced firsthand what it felt like.
The pain that shot through him was something he’d never felt before. His knees buckled and his hand holding the gun lowered. At the same time, his own mind tried to ward off the attack.
But he wasn’t prepared.
Shit!
The vampire gave him a nasty grin, then he
lifted his gun and aimed at Eddie. Frozen by the mind control the vampire exerted on him, Eddie couldn’t move. Fuck, he would die here without having had a chance to feel Thomas’s arms around him once more.
The sound of a bullet tore past him, and suddenly, the invisible chains that had held him in place loosened, and the pain in his head ceased. Stunned, he stared at his attacker and saw blood running from a wound in his forehead. The vampire’s eyes looked at him with a blank stare and then his face started crumbling from the inside, ash flaking off his skin, before he collapsed in a heap of dust.
“You’re welcome,” Amaury said from behind him.
Eddie turned and nodded gratefully to his brother-in-law. “Let’s get the rest of them.”
Peering out into the corridor, he saw more Scanguards personnel rush in from the door to the stairs, guns at the ready.
Eddie rushed in the other direction, heading for the server room. Amaury remained on his heels. At the next open door, he stopped and peered in, seeing Zane battling with one of the assailants as Samson had fallen to his knees, pressing his hands to his temples, his face distorted in agony.
“Fuck!” Eddie cursed and aimed at the vampire who was fighting with Zane, but Zane was in the way. Eddie didn’t have a clear shot. He hesitated for a moment, but then made a decision.
“Zane, drop!”
Instantly, Zane dove to the floor, giving him a clear line of sight. Eddie pulled the trigger and the silver bullet hit the target. His hours at the shooting range had paid off.
He didn’t wait to see the vampire disintegrate into dust, but instead rushed to the end of the corridor, where the server room was located. Before he even reached the open door, he already knew what was going on inside it. The sparks flying around in the room illuminated the corridor in short bursts.
When he peered into the room, a sense of déjà vu overcame him. He’d seen the exact same scene a few months earlier. Thomas was engaged in a mental fight with his maker, Kasper, or Keegan as he’d called himself then. And the man looked exactly like Keegan. How it was possible, Eddie didn’t know and didn’t care. All he cared about was ending this fight and saving Thomas.
Without hesitation, he aimed. But just like Zane, Thomas whirled around his opponent, not giving him a clear shot.
“Thomas!” he shouted. “Get down!”
But Thomas didn’t react, too engaged in the mental fight. It was questionable whether he heard him at all.
“Fuck!” Eddie cursed and leveled his gun in Kasper’s direction.
His hand shook, and sweat dripped from his forehead. Then a calming hand touched his shoulder.
“Wait for it,” Zane said, his voice soothing. “Aim at where he’s going to be, not where he is now. Then squeeze the trigger. Just like I taught you. What Portia said is true. I did compliment you on being an excellent marksman.”
Zane’s confidence in him lent him strength, and he forced his heartbeat to slow down, taking steadying breaths.
“Just squeeze,” Zane repeated.
Calming his mind, Eddie gave control over to his body and fired the gun. His heart stopped.
The sparks that had rendered the air electrical ceased. The mind control fight was over.
Eddie stared at Thomas and Kasper, searching for the place where his bullet had entered.
Kasper’s head suddenly turned to him, and shock coursed through Eddie’s body. Had he missed?
Then a trickle of blood ran from Kasper’s ear down his neck. As if watching TV in slow motion, Eddie watched Kasper’s body disintegrate into ash from the inside out.
Eddie felt his body shake uncontrollably and reached for the doorframe to support himself.
Then his eyes locked with Thomas’s and strength returned to his limbs. He pushed himself away from the door and dropped his gun onto the nearest desk.
With a determined gait, he walked to Thomas, stopping right in front of him. “I don’t care who sees us; I have to do this.”
Putting his hand to Thomas’s nape, he pulled him close and sank his lips onto him, searing Thomas’s mouth with a passionate kiss. Eddie drove his tongue between his lover’s parted lips, savoring the masculine taste and the powerful strokes with which Thomas responded to his kiss.
Strong arms drew him closer, holding him tightly. Eddie groaned as he felt Thomas’s hard body rub against his. He slipped one hand over Thomas’s ass and squeezed, pressing him closer and making him aware of his need.
When Thomas finally pushed against him, severing the kiss and bringing some distance between them, he let it happen only reluctantly. “We’ve gotta stop,” Thomas whispered against his lips. “We’re not alone.”
Only now did Eddie hear the clearing of throats from behind him. “I’m not ashamed of you.
Of us.”
Thomas smiled at him, his eyes twinkling with affection, acknowledging his admission without a word. Then he stroked his knuckles over Eddie’s cheek.
Eddie turned around to face his colleagues, who all stood just inside the server room, looking in different directions, some of them staring at their shoes, slightly embarrassed. Nina stood among them, smiling brightly at him, the fear she’d experienced in the elevator wiped from her face. He returned her smile.
“You can look again,” Eddie said.
Several pairs of eyes landed on him and Thomas. Then, deliberately, he took Thomas’s hand into his, earning a smile from his lover.
Thomas sighed. “I’m sorry about what happened. I had no control over what I was doing.
Kasper . . .” Thomas pointed to where his maker’s ash covered the floor.
Samson nodded. “You did the right thing in the end by giving Eddie your password.”
“It took me a few minutes to figure it out. First I thought you’d gone completely crazy.
You’ve never called me a computer genius or an IT wannabe before. It made no sense,” Eddie explained.
“That was the point,” Thomas confirmed. “I knew you’d try to figure it out because what I said to you was gibberish. I know how your mind works.”
Eddie nodded, then motioned to the heap of ash on the floor. “What about him? Who was he?”
Thomas sighed. “Kasper, my maker.”
“But Kasper was already dead! Rose shot him months ago!” Eddie protested.
Thomas shook his head. “That’s what we all thought. But the vampire who died that night wasn’t Kasper, he was his twin, Keegan. Nobody knew he had a twin, not even I. He fooled us all.”
Surprised grunts echoed in the room.
“Is it over now?” Samson asked.
Thomas gave his boss a long look. “I don’t know Samson. I honestly don’t know. The dark power is still inside me. It’ll always be there.”
“You were able to defeat it tonight. You defied Kasper by giving Eddie your password. And then you attacked Kasper. There must have been a reason why you were able to fight against it,”
Samson suggested.
Eddie looked intently at Thomas, who turned to him and locked eyes with him. “There was a reason. When you confessed your love for me I felt stronger, and I was able to fight against the influence that Kasper had over me. I was able to fight the dark power inside me because your love filled my heart.”
Eddie pressed his hand over Thomas’s heart. “Then you’ll never again have to worry about the dark power inside you controlling you. Because my love will always be there.” He leaned in.
“Uh, guys, before you kiss again,” Gabriel interrupted, “can you please restore our logins so we can get this place back in shape and cleaned up?”
Thomas smirked. “I think that can be arranged.”
43
Thomas wrapped the towel around his lower half out of habit and stepped out of his ensuite bathroom. His bedroom was bathed in the soft light given off by a single bedside lamp. His eyes roamed over the bed and drank in the sight before him.
“I know now that I’ve always dreamed of this: to wait in your bed for
you,” Eddie said and lifted the thin duvet off his body, pushing it aside. “Naked.” He put his palm around his erection and stroked it suggestively. “And hard.”
Thomas let his eyes wander over Eddie’s nude form, his defined, hairless chest, the hard planes of his abdominal muscles, the thatch of dark blond hair that surrounded his cock, and down to the strong thighs that would soon wrap around his hips when Thomas plunged into him.
Thomas felt the urge to pinch himself to make sure this wasn’t a dream. But he knew it was a dream—a dream that had finally come true. Eddie lay in his bed, naked, and hungry for sex. No, not just sex, he corrected himself, hungry to make love. But before he touched Eddie, he had to do one thing.
His heart beating into his throat, Thomas approached the bed, but instead of joining Eddie on it, he dropped down to one knee and brought his hand in front of his body, revealing the small, velvet-covered box he held in it.
Eddie instantly reared up and moved to the edge of the bed, dropping his feet onto the floor, his eyes wide with the realization of what Thomas intended to do.
“Thomas—”
“Please, let me do this my way,” Thomas urged, locking eyes with him.
Silently, Eddie nodded.
“I loved you from the moment I first saw you. My heart broke in that same instant, because I was convinced that you could never return my feelings. But I’m a sucker for torture, so I took you in nevertheless. I mentored other vampires before, but they never lived with me. But you—I wanted you close. Even though every day was filled with pain, the bittersweet joy I experienced when you were with me made up for that.”
Eddie stroked his fingers over Thomas’s lips. “I’m so sorry. I was so blind. Everybody saw it, everybody but me.”
