“According to you,” Sam said, “I’m putting myself in more danger by being with you. You gave me an out, Eddie, and I chose to stay. I want to stay. Which is a fitting segue, actually.”
“Segue?”
Sam smirked, not trying to steal another kiss just yet, but floating with Ed and running his hands up Ed’s back to keep him close. “Persephone was entranced by the Underworld,” he began, and Ed’s face lit up. “The areas for the condemned and the lost, the Elysian Fields for those who’d lived well, darkness and light crossing over each other just like on Mount Olympus and just like on the earth too.
“She didn’t understand why so many condemned Hades and yet praised her, her mother, and all the other gods who actively caused the deaths of mortals. How could Hades look at her and still have offered to let her take up space in his home?
“‘How long can I stay?’ she asked, after Hades had shown her every expanse and nuance of the Underworld. ‘As long as you want,’ he said. ‘If you want.’ ‘But my mother will look for me. I’ll need to go back eventually and tread the earth when it’s time for winter to end.’ ‘Then stay until then, and when the frost returns, if you wish it, you can return too.’
“Persephone considered the offer, relaxing with Hades in his personal rooms. He maintained a respectable distance, unlike most younger gods, brutish and leering whenever she passed. They each lay across their own sofa, facing one another, with food on a table between them.
“Persephone reached for a beautifully red, ripened fruit, but Hades cautioned her, ‘Eat of the Underworld and you are bound to my bargain—you’ll have to stay, leave in the spring and return every autumn. This place isn’t meant for living mortals or other gods, so I am cursed to be alone or make deals for my company. Take your time and decide.’
“He might not have warned her, she thought. He might have let her eat and kept her all the same, but that was what made Hades different from Demeter or anyone else Persephone had met. He let her choose her own fate.
“She picked up the fruit, split it in two, and took a ravenous bite of the dripping seeds.”
Finally, drawing Ed closer, Sam punctuated the ending by capturing a kiss.
Ed shuddered against him, kissing back heatedly, their bodies flush. Sam lowered his hands over Ed’s ass to prompt him to wrap his legs around his waist, but Ed gasped and moved away with his eyes flickering yellow.
“I-I thought… you were Hades.”
“Can’t we both fit each role?” Sam said fondly.
He moved his hands up again to give Ed a reprieve but ducked in close to plant a sweet kiss below his ear. Then another. Then another, letting his tongue dart out, all while rubbing his hands up and down Ed’s back, seeking a sign that he could push further.
Ed whimpered, and then growled like releasing a pleased purr. He dug his fingers into Sam’s hair to hold him at his neck, encouraging him to keep kissing.
Smiling to himself at the reversal, Sam licked and bit down gently—until he felt Ed’s breath on his neck in turn and the light scratch of fangs. He froze, but the fangs didn’t press down. They dragged along his skin and pulled away, replaced with a tender kiss.
Sam kept licking at the salty remains of chlorine on Ed’s skin, sliding his hands down like before, but this time, he continued beneath the elastic and found the smooth skin of Ed’s ass.
“I-I can’t.” Ed snapped away so fast, Sam saw water treads between them. Ed’s eyes were clearly yellow, glowing in the dark of the backyard at night, the patio lights glinting off his fangs. “I’m sorry. I am. I want all that, but it has to be slower. Much slower.” He closed his eyes, and when he opened them, the inhuman aspects were gone.
Sam closed the space between them, heart pounding, but he wasn’t deterred. His heart was mostly pounding from how good that had felt. “I’m sorry too. You’re just really hard to resist.” He smiled and slowly placed his hands back on Ed’s hips.
“So are you.” Ed leaned into the touch. “Although that is part of what concerns me….”
“You won’t hurt me,” Sam said, cupping Ed’s cheek to reassure him, though yesterday the one who would have needed reassurance was him.
“I want to be certain. Think about our future date more, and… I’ll see you tomorrow?” Ed said, even as he nuzzled into Sam’s palm.
“Are you still going to tail Fitz tonight?”
“I should.”
“Then, if we’re both getting out of the pool, we could rinse off together.”
Ed laughed. “Very hard to resist, but we better not.”
“Okay, but I will be back tomorrow.”
“And the next day?”
“And the next,” Sam said, though it would all stop eventually; it had to.
He wondered if there was a way for it to not stop, but if he could be with Ed longer, what would that mean? What would he be willing to offer or ask for to stay?
Not yet ready to dwell on that, Sam rinsed off in the pool house shower, and only after he’d changed back into his clothes did Ed appear to take his place.
Sam stole another quick kiss before Ed could get past him.
“May I join you?” Ed startled him not long after, just as Sam was about to mount his bike.
“You mean, as a bat flying beside me?” Sam joked.
“That’s a lie too,” Ed assured him with a chuckle. “I mean, with you. When we get close to town, I can simply jump off.”
“Jump off?” Sam repeated. Ed had said he’d grown a finger back once, but that didn’t make it any easier to imagine. “I guess I don’t need to lecture you about not wearing a helmet.”
“I’ll be fine,” Ed said, climbing on behind Sam with his usual bashful smile.
Sam put his helmet on and kicked off onto the road. That chill always clung to Ed, and Sam loved the way it felt pressed against his back, even through Ed’s clothes. He hung on to Sam’s waist, an echo of what they would have shared if they’d had their real first date Friday night. This was different, but in some ways better, with no lies between them.
The city lights were upon them far too soon.
“Whichever one of us is Hades,” Ed said, soft breath on Sam’s neck at the edge of his helmet, “I’m glad we’re weathering this winter together.”
It was spring, but Sam got the meaning. “Now is the winter of our discontent,” he called over the rushing wind.
“Made glorious summer,” Ed said and kissed Sam’s nape.
Then he leaped from the bike with a rush of extra cold striking Sam’s body.
Sam glanced back in surprise—he had to at least look—and when he did, he swore he saw Ed simply standing there like he’d stopped time, before he vanished in a blur.
ED WISHED the night would vanish in a blur, but watching Fitz was more grating than the night before. He knew it was necessary, but it would have been so much easier if he could have torn the man’s throat out.
Thankfully, maybe because it was Sunday, Fitz didn’t stay out late. He stumbled home alone, confirming Ed’s hopes that he would be easy to take out once the time came. They just needed to leave the right trail so their enemies conspired against each other instead of them.
Ed should go home. He could read, take out his telescope, swim again.
Or relieve some of the sexual tension building in his gut.
Sam was just so careful with his kisses. So precise. Ed hadn’t been with a human since he was human, and as much as he feared losing control, it was a wonderful thrill.
Zipping through the streets unseen, he just wanted to see Sam again before he left the city. He made his way to the Hilton and up to the top floor balconies where Sam and his friends were staying. He could just barely peer inside with the curtains drawn, but that’s all he needed, able to hear everything even with the balcony door shut.
The group had just returned from a late dinner.
“No more Lucifer’s Rest, I’m serious,” Sam was saying. “Or at least not so often. You’re going to
see Lara tomorrow on your date. You don’t need to stalk her.”
Ed felt a wave of guilt that he was basically stalking Sam, but he only wanted to ensure his safety.
“Or maybe don’t go out with her at all.”
“Why so against Lara all of a sudden?” Gerry asked, sporting a prominent pout.
“I’m not against her. I just think you should get to know her better.”
“That’s why people go on dates!”
“Will you two drop it,” Mim said, reclining on the sofa with a stack of papers in her hands. “I want to turn in these job applications tomorrow. If I have to sit on my ass one more day listening to Gerry wax poetic about his dream chick, I’m going to strangle him with his laptop cord.”
Gerry scowled, but Sam just smirked. That kind of harmless ribbing was what proved they were friends. Family. Ed had been that way once too.
With her.
“It’s not like I was mooning over Lara the whole time,” Gerry defended. “I finished tracing those account numbers.”
“You did?” Sam moved across the room to crowd Gerry at the desk, looking over his shoulder at the laptop screen.
“They were all easy to find and hack into. If Simons’s plan is to screw over the Cramers and take all his money back, he’ll have no trouble.
“Well, except for one number. See that last one? I found it, it’s the only one that’s its own offshore account, but I can’t get inside. Someone who knows what they’re doing picked one hell of a secure bank. I might be able to get through all the firewalls eventually, but it’s going to take some time.”
“Do it. That’s the account we need,” Sam said. “I’ll tell Eddie tomorrow. Maybe he’ll recognize the bank.”
Ed didn’t; he could see the name and location from where he was spying.
“Anything to please ‘Eddie,’” Gerry droned sarcastically. “How come you get to complain about my dating choices, but everything’s fine and dandy with you dating him?”
“We’re not—” Sam stopped himself short. “You don’t even know him.”
“Exactly. At least you’ve met my girlfriend.”
“She’s not your girlfriend.”
“Yet. So, when do we get to meet your murder boyfriend?”
“Never if you call him that.”
“You know, Gerry’s got a point,” Mim chimed in, sitting up straight and dropping the applications on the coffee table. “When do we get to meet Mr. Simons? Unless you’re just using him and planning to hit and run when we’re finished?”
“That’s not what this is,” Sam said, which made Ed smile—not that he’d doubted anymore.
“Long-distance relationship bros?” Gerry reached up to offer Sam a fist bump.
“No.” He swatted it away. “I don’t know. I’m not ready to think about that yet.”
“Then you don’t get a say about Lara.”
“Gerr—”
“And I’ll keep working on Eddie’s project.”
“Fine.” Sam turned with a huff, arms crossed as he leaned back against the desk beside Gerry’s chair—aimed right at Ed.
Sam couldn’t see him, but Ed still took that as his cue to stop eavesdropping.
He wasn’t ready to think about what came next either, but it warmed his usually cold heart to know that Sam really did care for him.
Leaping from the hotel, Ed crossed the street in a blink. He landed quietly in the alleyway on the other side, pausing to glance up at Sam’s room one last time before he headed home.
He heard a shuffle, sensing that someone was in the alley with him, but when he darted after the noise, the street proved to have too many pedestrians to pinpoint who it might have been.
Damn. He should have listened to Sam.
Chapter 5
THE FIRST morning in too many days that Sam entered the house without feeling distracted or agitated, and Ed was the one wringing his hands.
“What happened?”
Ed dove into a rapid-fire explanation of how he’d checked on Sam last night. “Just to see you and make sure you were okay. I only lingered because your friend mentioned the account numbers, though I don’t know the significance of the one that stood out.
“Then I left, pausing in the alley across the street. Someone was there. They saw me but ran off before I could see who it was.”
“Another vampire?” Sam asked, feeling a cold chill trickle down his spine.
“It couldn’t have been. We can sense each other when we’re close.”
“One of the Cramers, then? Or maybe Alverez or Shaw watching me?”
“No, I know all their scents. This was someone new.”
“You know their scents?” Sam startled at that. “Mine too?”
“Of course.”
“So, even if you weren’t following me, you could find me pretty much anywhere at any moment?”
Ed’s eyes widened, hands fidgeting in front of him. “I’m sorry. That must sound terrible. I promise I’ll never spy again!”
“Eddie.” Sam smiled, stopping him with a gentle hand on his arm. “It’s okay. You were worried, and you didn’t hear anything I didn’t want you to.”
That, finally, made Ed smile too. “I couldn’t find you anywhere at any moment. I’d still need to catch your scent first. It can take time moving through the streets, even at my speed.”
“It’s kind of nice, actually, knowing you could always find me.” Sam moved his grip down Ed’s forearm to take his hand and led him into the living room to sit. “Maybe it was just some random person you freaked out.”
“I hope so, but I don’t know. People don’t tend to lurk in alleyways near the Hilton, and this person was definitely trying to stay out of sight.”
“Like you?” Sam teased.
“I’m so sorry,” Ed said again. “I put everything at risk by not listening to you.”
“It doesn’t matter. If it was Lara or her boss, all they know is that you were looking in on me.”
“I’m usually better at this.” Ed continued to pout. “It’s basic rules. Don’t show your face where it might be suspicious. Don’t retrace your steps or return to the scene of the crime. And never leave behind evidence that someone might use against you.”
Sam paled as he realized he’d broken that rule too.
“What?”
“You were an idiot because you worry about me. I was just an idiot.” He proceeded to remind Ed of his encounter with Lara and the knife he’d thrown away. “With my blood and fingerprints on it.”
“You were distraught. It’s understandable.”
“But we can’t afford to be sloppy.” Taking his phone from his pocket, Sam showed Ed the text he’d woken up to that morning from the Cramers.
First check-in tonight or we’re pulling our investment.
“Someone seeing you doesn’t change anything, Eddie. We just have to make sure that when the bodies start dropping, they suspect each other instead of us. I have an idea….”
SAM HAD a marvelous idea, and it meant using one of Ed’s cameras.
They worked hard all week—and stole several more intimate moments. Kisses. Furtive touches. Sam pressing Ed up against walls throughout the house. Even another swim, but each time, Ed put a stop to things before they could get too heated, afraid his passion would stir to hunger.
Now it was Friday again, and he was only getting hungrier.
The photos he’d taken wouldn’t be useful for blackmail, but following someone with the occasional click and flash of a camera, only for no one to be behind them when they turned, was a great way to build paranoia. It had also given Ed an excuse to take more shots of the city. And steal the occasional shot of Sam.
“I wish Gerry didn’t think Lara was so perfect, but I can’t tell him the truth,” Sam said, watching Ed hang up his most recent photos in his darkroom. “They’ve gone on two dates now and are going on a third tonight. He’s completely smitten. If he and Mim didn’t have those new jobs to keep busy, he’d proba
bly be at Lucifer’s Rest all day.”
“Gerry’s heart may be broken eventually, but we’ll keep him safe,” Ed said.
Sam hummed noncommittally but soon said with a teasing chuckle, “You know, maybe one of these days you can take a picture of me when I’m paying attention.”
Ed had gotten quite a few impressive shots of the city and their quarries, but his favorite was one of Sam leaving the Cramers’ warehouse with no discernible landmarks in the background, just brick and glass and Sam’s profile bearing a smirk.
“Are you offering to pose for me?” Ed said, then blanched when he rethought those words. “N-not that I mean—”
“Eddie, if you asked, I’d happily pose for you.”
Ed swallowed hard, transfixed by Sam’s gaze. He made Ed feel very hungry, which meant he couldn’t possibly entertain any more stolen moments until after he fed. He thought maybe Sam had been avoiding the topic, but they couldn’t ignore the inevitable forever.
The doorbell rang before Ed could say anything, and they shared a smile at the familiar interruption.
Heading swiftly up out of the basement, Ed followed Sam but let him answer the door since it wasn’t yet dark outside.
“Marie. And hey, kiddos. What can I do for you?”
“Hey, Sam. Is Mr. Simons home? I wanted to ask him something about the barbecue.”
“Sure, come in.”
They’d agreed that any more house calls from the Neu-Ryans were to be met with friendly acceptance.
Ed stepped into the foyer as Marie entered with her twins at her coattails. “Mrs. Neu-Ryan, what a pleasure. And these must be your lovely children.” He shook her hand and smiled down at the curious five-year-olds eyeing the inside of his home.
“Wow,” Marie said, but then shook herself to attention. “Sorry, it’s just that my husband described you well. I’m glad we can finally meet. It’s a little embarrassing, though, since I’m here to ask a favor. Do you have an extra table we could borrow for Saturday? No matter how I look at it, I think we’re going to be one short.”
Ed had been trying to forget about the barbecue, but he kept his smile cordial. “You know, I think I do, in the garage.” It was just a basic table, which was why he hadn’t bothered finding a place for it yet.
Their Dark Reflections Page 10
