Guillermo appeared before him, turned off the shower and gently lifted Nathan in his arms. “God may or may not, but I will, amante. I will.”
Guillermo was only slightly taller than Nathan and much leaner, but he carried him easily as if he were a small child. Gently, he laid Nathan down on the bed.
“Where’s Nadine?” Nathan looked around, feeling much stronger since feeding on her. “I hate the bitch. But I’m not sure she deserved what just happened.”
“She is being attended to and will heal.” Guillermo moved closer to Nathan. “Con su permiso, I’d like to look over your wounds.”
When Nathan had fled to the Corazon de la Muerte the night before, he had not expected the master vampire to treat him as much more than an amusement. He saw now how he’d been wrong. Guillermo cared and was treating him with more respect than Nathan had ever given him.
Nathan reached out and took Guillermo’s hand in his. “You have my permission.”
Guillermo looked over the cuts on Nathan’s face, stomach and arms. The worst wound was the arm where Nadine had taken a chunk of flesh. The rest of the injuries were already beginning to heal. “I think you will live as well.” Guillermo rubbed his hands together. “About Nadine. I am sorry. It is my fault that she…”
“She’s jealous, because she thinks you…” Nathan couldn’t believe what he was about to say. “…you want me, more than you want her.”
Guillermo paused. “What do you think?”
Nathan, his wounds on his stomach and face nearly closed, saw heat and desire rise in Guillermo’s eyes. “I think that you do want me more than you want her.”
“What do you want, Nathaniel?”
Nathan considered what he should say. “Well, I know I don’t want to be out of control. I’m not a killer. I can’t let this thing that I’ve become make me one.” He knew that wasn’t the question Guillermo had asked. But it had been the truth, at least part of it.
The Hispanic vampire closed his eyes. “You have the power within you to control this, Nathaniel. The conflict lies in your inability to recognize you are vampiro. It battles not to control you, but to just merge with you. You treat it as if it is a separate animal, but on the contrary, it is you. Like your hair, your eyes and your mouth—like the legs you walk on. It is a part of you.”
The Beast was separate from him, wasn’t it? “I don’t know if I can accept that.”
“If you cannot, you will become the thing you most despise.”
“How did you learn to control the bloodlust?”
“Don’t you know, amante? The bloodlust only lasts a short while, but unlike you, I learned to exalt in being vampiro. Unlike you, I was made, not changed.”
“What do you mean?”
“I asked for this life. It was not forced upon me.” Guillermo ran his fingers through Nathan’s hair. “I can help you, but only if you are willing to acknowledge that you are a vampire… a creature of the night. That means never being what you were. But if you do this, I can promise that it will be so much more than you ever imagined.”
“Is that it? All I have to do is give up everything that made me who I am and I can be the great and powerful Oz?”
“It does not change who you are deep down, Nathaniel. You are so concerned with what you must give up that you fail to see what you gain.”
“I’m a doctor, damn it, and a good one.”
“You can still be a doctor.”
“How? For whom? The undead? The way we heal, they certainly don’t need my help.”
“No. You have a shift tomorrow night at the Truman Medical Center Emergency Room.”
Nathan shook his head. “After I almost killed Sandra, there is no way I can go back now. Hell, I should be thinking about getting out of the state.”
“I was coming to tell you, before I stopped the fight between Nadine and yourself, that I’d had word from Sandra.”
“What?” Fear crept its way into the pit of Nathan’s stomach. Had Guillermo done something to Sandra to silence her? “What did you do?”
The master vampire smiled indulgently. “It is not what you think, amante. Doctor Jackson knows of our kind. Apparently, she has even had one as a lover.” Guillermo laughed at the shocked look on Nathan’s face. “She told the administrator that you came down with the influenza and that you were taking several days off work to recover.”
Nathan laughed. It came more from relief than mirth. “So, I can go back to work tomorrow?”
“Si.”
“And I can go home if I want to?”
Guillermo lowered his eyes. “Si. Yes.”
Nathan grinned. “Well, maybe not tonight, but eventually.”
“You are my guest for as long as you want.” Guillermo knelt on the floor by the bed, eye-level with Nathan’s naked body. “I ask again. What do you want, amante?”
Nathan wished he could say “nothing” but his cock was already starting to swell, thickening into an erect position. “I think you know.”
“Is telling me so hard?” Guillermo looked down at the floor.
Nathan raised an eyebrow. “Not as hard as my dick.”
Guillermo smiled, but it was a sad smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
That vulnerability made Nathan’s desire for the master vampire even stronger. “I want you, Guillermo.” Nathan placed both his hands on the sides of Guillermo’s face, tilting it up to meet his gaze. “I don’t know what that means, but right now, I do want you.”
Nathan leaned in to give a kiss that was meant to be reassuring, but turned to liquid heat as their tongues mingled in a passionate dance. Guillermo’s arms slipped around Nathan’s neck as he pulled himself onto the bed. Guillermo kissed his way down Nathan’s neck, onto his shoulder and across his wounded arm. The blood had coagulated and flesh was already beginning to fill in. Guillermo licked over the new delicate skin. Nathan moaned as a tingle ran from his arm straight to his erection.
The teasing tongue moved to his chest as Guillermo played his nipples with gentle tugs and light teeth. The licking moved down to his lower regions.
On impulse, Nathan pulled Guillermo up into a fiery kiss. “I want to taste you, Guillermo. The night is young and I want to see to your pleasure first.”
Guillermo’s brown eyes swirled like molten liquid. He swiftly stripped, standing naked, pale and beautiful. His straining erection stood out like a divining rod, seeking Nathan’s moist lips. “As you wish, amante.” He entwined his hands in Nathan’s hair and guided the young vampire’s enthusiastic mouth over the long length of his shaft. “I am yours to command.”
Chapter 7
Nathan woke to warm kisses trailing down his back, sparking an electric tingle along his spine. For nearly two weeks, he’d spent every night with Guillermo. He lay with his eyes closed, pretending to sleep. He enjoyed the sensation of being traced by Gui’s supple lips. If anyone had told him a week ago he’d take a male lover, Nathan would have started the paperwork to commit them to the lock-up ward over at Western Missouri Mental Health. Yet there he lay, taking pleasure from a man all the same.
A lock of Guillermo’s hair tickled his ass, then Gui’s moist tongue slid along the crack. Nathan tensed involuntarily. The vampire chuckled, his voice soothing and affecting. “I knew you did not sleep, amante.” He planted his lips on the dimple on Nathan’s right buttock.
“You did?” Nathan grimaced and rolled over, exposing his already swollen cock. His eyebrow lifted as he took in the full-length view of his lover. Guillermo sat naked on the bed. His lean muscled legs, long and shapely, led up to an uncut erection, taut and ready. Guillermo’s slender waist veed up to a well-formed chest and trim shoulders—beautiful. Nathan still found it hard to believe he could find so much pleasure with another man.
No, he thought. That’s wrong. Not just another man. Only Guillermo. The vampire’s exotic eyes still unnerved him in a sexy, come-fuck-me sort of way. Those dark-brown, nearly black irises spoke of an intensity unequaled.
/> Suddenly uncomfortable, Nathan looked away. “That obvious, huh?”
Guillermo smiled. He kissed up Nathan’s thigh. “More like adorable.”
Nathan narrowed his brow. “Real men are not adorable. They are macho, masculine, manly, and a bunch of other M words, but not adorable.”
“How about… muy caliente?” Guillermo asked, licking his way to Nathan’s rigid shaft. “Muy sabroso?”
“Hot and tasty? Not M words, but…” Nathan moaned as the head of his cock slid into the master vampire’s cool mouth. “I can live with that.”
Guillermo, even with his mouth full of Nathan, somehow managed to say, “Yes.”
Nathan grabbed a handful of Gui’s coarse, black hair, his fingers flexing as his cock reached the master vampire’s pliable velvet throat. Guillermo slid one hand up to play with Nathan’s nipples, teasing them between his thumb and forefinger, while his other hand moved up the crack of Nathan’s muscular ass.
Nathan arched his back and drew one of his legs to the side in a slightly bent position to allow Guillermo’s hand more freedom to engage his anus. His chest rumbled with contentment as a finger, wet with saliva, slowly slid into his tight hole.
“Sometimes, Gui,” he whispered, “I wish you could fuck me and suck me at the same time.”
Guillermo drew his mouth off Nathan’s pulsing erection. “Alas, Nathaniel, I am not, how you say, a contortionist. But,” Gui pursed his lips in thought, “I am willing to try.”
Nathan laughed. “I might not survive.”
He rolled Guillermo onto his back and licked his lower lip. Their mouths met in a delicate kiss, which built to a delicious fury of tongues intertwining with savage passion. Nathan loved every inch of Guillermo’s mouth, from the full lips to the perfect, straight white teeth, and the tongue—always just the right amount of moistness, his saliva holding a tinge of sweetness.
Nathan reached over to the nightstand, knocking over his clock radio. It started to play the classic rock song Into the Mystic. “Mmm, this is one of my favorite songs,” he mumbled, lips still on Gui’s, his hand feeling its way over the nightstand top. He reached his target, a tube of Astroglide. He could feel Guillermo’s smile against his mouth.
“You want to rock my gypsy soul, amante?”
“Something like that.”
Nathan broke from the kiss; his teeth nipped along the vampire’s neck. He stroked Guillermo’s uncut cock. A low growl of pleasure rumbled from Gui’s chest. Nathan nuzzled his lips down the sultry stretch of the master vampire’s hairless, muscled chest and abdomen. With his hand still holding Gui’s hard length, he slid his tongue under the foreskin, licking the bulbous head. He enjoyed sliding the exquisite satin skin down the sleek hard shaft. “How does it feel to be uncircumcised?”
Guillermo paused for a moment. “I don’t know how to answer that, Nathaniel. I’ve never been anything other.”
“I meant, how does it feel to have extra skin slide up and down your dick.”
Guillermo knelt on the bed, gesturing for Nathan to face him and do the same. “Let me show you.” He held the tip of Nathan’s cock to his own, lubricated with a pre-cum pearl, then pulled the foreskin forward to encompass Nathan’s glans and part of his shaft. He moved the skin back and forth over Nathan’s aching flesh. Nathan’s balls drew tight to his body. The feeling of the smooth, silky skin wrapped tightly around his granite flesh and sliding as the heads of their cocks made jutting contact, created a tingling sensation. A spark leapt from his cock, making Guillermo’s body spasm.
“Sorry,” he chuckled, embarrassed.
Guillermo quickened the movement of his hand as he continued to massage the membrane of his thick cock over Nathan’s veined erection. “Don’t be. I’ve come to love your electric nature.”
Nathan’s balls squeezed up tightly once again, close to completion of release. Guillermo’s words and voice had a genuine effect on him that was more than lust. He pulled away, not ready to end the pleasure. The master vampire started to protest, until Nathan moved behind him.
“I want to put my cock in you. I want to drive your body. I want to ride your ass until you beg me to impale you harder.” He opened the tube and smeared it liberally on his cock. His fingers found their way to stretch and widen Guillermo’s anus.
Guillermo’s body trembled with anticipation. He reached around and grabbed Nathan’s hand. “Jódame, mi amante. Just fuck me. Now.”
Nathan quickly slid his cock into Guillermo’s tight and unprepared ass. Both men gasped as Nathan’s slicked shaft went deep with sharp penetration into Guillermo’s taut, tantalizing hole.
“Madre de Dios,” Guillermo begged. “Más rápido y más duro.”
Nathan understood the faster and harder—exactly what he wanted to hear. Wrapping his arm around Guillermo’s waist, he pumped his erection in and out of the smooth channel, burying his cock in quick deep plunges. Intermittent sparks ignited between his chest and his lover’s back.
“Yes,” Guillermo moaned as Nathan’s hand slid down to grasp the master vampire’s straining erection. Guillermo jerked forward. His body convulsed with ecstasy. His mouth fell open in a rapturous roar. With the smooth muscles of his ass constricting, Nathan could no longer hold back as he let loose his creamy seed in a shattering release.
Both men collapsed onto the bed. Lying there with Guillermo in his arms, Nathan experienced an overwhelming sense of love and acceptance. Frankly, it scared the shit out of him.
Pangs of hunger clenched his stomach; otherwise, he would have stayed there, buried in Guillermo until his cock went flaccid. “That was a great wake-up call. Now, I have to get ready for work.”
Nathan regretted the withdrawal of skin on skin, finding contentment in just holding the master vampire against his chest. The next cramp in his gut decided for him. He pulled out of Gui and patted his lover’s firm, well-crafted ass. He rolled out of bed and walked to his kitchen stark naked. From the fully-stocked fridge, he grabbed a pint of O negative. Nathan placed it in the baby bottle warmer he kept on the counter and waited for it to reach ninety-eight degrees.
* * * *
Guillermo watched him from the bedroom, still lying on the bed, waiting for his heart to stop beating. No explanation could be found for why sex with Nathaniel caused his heart to jump to life for seconds at a time after, or why the length of time grew with each explosive orgasm. He found the rush addictive.
Life, the rush felt like life.
He rolled over and picked the radio up from the carpeted floor. As he searched for the off button, the music stopped and a female disc jockey came on.
… and on to other news. A man was found dead in the waterfront district. The victim is an unidentified male. Reports say that this is the third killing in a week where the victim’s heart had been removed and the throat mutilated. The police are urging people to avoid the area after dark. More on this as developments arise. Stay tuned to more news on the hour. Coming up next on KRKC 97.2, your home of rock and roll, Steppenwolf, Born to be…
Alarmed, Guillermo switched the radio off, rapidly threw on his clothes and met Nathan in the kitchen. “I have to go, Nathaniel.” Worry covered his face.
“What’s going on?”
“Someone is killing vampires.” Guillermo kissed Nathan and slipped out of the apartment before he could ask another question.
Chapter 8
Cold white walls, metal drawers and the scent of chemicals and cleaning fluids—Anna Murphy, forensic pathologist, loved the isolation and seclusion of the Jackson County Medical Examiner’s office. Especially this evening. A murder victim had been brought in on her shift, and she couldn’t wait to get started.
Anna, an American born Irish beauty, as her father always called her, leaned over and pulled her long cinnamon-colored hair tightly into a bun. Her oval-shaped face had a spattering of light brown freckles decorating her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. Pushing her glasses up, she strolled over to the body lying on the metal tabl
e, put on latex gloves and pushed the button on the recorder hanging from the ceiling.
“Victim is a white male, approximately twenty-five years old, five foot eight, 155 pounds. Wounds to the neck…” She pulled the white sheet down to expose a gaping hole centered on the left side of his chest where his heart used to be. “…and chest, appear to be at least eight hours old.”
She placed gloved fingers deep into the cavity, then, disappointed, shook her head. Her talent as an intuitive psychic, nearly as good as her abilities as a forensic pathologist, made it possible for her to help the police solve the more difficult cases. Unfortunately, this man had not left any of the normal imprints of death she generally sensed after a violent fatality. She pulled her hand out and continued.
Lifting the man’s fingers to examine his nail beds, she noticed they were black with decay. “This can’t be,” she murmured.
“The body is decaying at an accelerated rate,” she said into the recorder. “The victim appears to have died days, or months, before he was killed and preserved somehow to stop the rate of decomposition until now.”
Anna played back the last part of the recording, then erased the last statement. She might be a bit of a recluse, however, she didn’t want her colleagues to think she was completely crazy. Reaching into her pockets, Anna pulled out a small pair of scissors. Neatly, she clipped two fingernails, took a lock of hair and placed them in a Ziploc baggie, not for evidence, but to carry around—just in case her psychic gift decided to pop something important to the case into her brain.
* * * *
Guillermo entered Corazon de la Muerte. Strobe lights skipped over the congested dance floor, filled to capacity with human bodies that smelled of sweat, blood and sex. He needed to find Nadine. The announcer had said three victims with their throats and hearts ripped out. Guillermo wanted to know why he had not been notified. He feared the deaths were vampire related. What else could they be? And if what he suspected was true, then the killer was also vampiro. He cursed his preoccupation with Nathan Greer—his need for the man was overshadowing his business.
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