Seducing His Brother's Best Friend

by E. A. Reynolds

  Jase grabbed his phone and switched it off just as an energy ball flew into the room. He bucked his eyes. That was something that he’d only seen on TV. The ball rolled by Ennis and smacked the wall, burning some of the paint before fading away.

  Ennis threw one of his own before batting one back to its sender. Jase saw the blue skin, and the faint flicker of energy that seemed like a protective barrier. The ball tagged the man’s shoulder, and he let out an irritated growl.

  A second man charged into the room as the first lunged for Ennis and headed for Jase. He got to his feet, unsure what he could do against an energy ball, but that thought vanished from his mind as the man shifted shape right before him. He grew an inch and became a tar-skinned creature with black eyes and claws. His hair fell red-orange around his face and he growled, showing razor-sharp teeth.

  “Oh my God!” Jase whispered as he trembled.

  “God? Hardly.” He grabbed Jase around the throat. “Maybe you’ll meet him soon.”

  Jase gasped as fire poured down the demon’s arm and penetrated his skin. His skin heated as a merciless wave energy took his breath away. He tried to move and was paralyzed. Beads of sweat popped on his brow, dampening his forehead. Fear trickled through him.

  “It’s the heat in my touch,” the deep voice said, ringing with glee. “You’ll be dead in matter of minutes now.”

  Jase grimaced as pain rushed him. He couldn’t scream, he couldn’t move. All he could do was hang, feet off the ground, in the demon’s grasp and stare into his triumphant gaze.

  He heard a harsh sound, felt damp drops splat against his shirt and soak in. The clawed hand curled around his throat fell away, and he dropped to his feet. His knees gave way, and he melted to the ground.

  The demon whipped around and Ennis drove his claws through his throat. The demon howled and Ennis’s fingers contracted and his claws clipped the vocal cords. He drove his other hand into the man’s stomach.

  Jase watched in horror as the demon jerked and sparks of electricity danced along Ennis’s skin. Then, the demon partially disintegrated.

  “Up, Jase,” Ennis ordered. He reached down to help him and Jase flinched away from the big blue hand. The blood-red eyes bored into him. “I won’t hurt you, sweetness.”

  Jase swallowed tightly, his hand shaking as he tried to make it reach out.

  “Let’s go, Ennis,” Trinity snapped. “Pick his ass up.”

  “Come on, Jase,” Ennis said gently. “We need to leave. Take my hand.”

  Jase reached out and jerked back as the electricity on Ennis’s fingers touched him.

  “No, it’s not going to hurt, I promise,” Ennis crooned. “I’d never hurt you.”

  Jase took his hand. The blue skin was warm but slightly calloused. Ennis pulled him up.

  “I need to grab a few things,” Ennis said. “Get Jase to the truck, and leave me if more arrive.”

  Trinity took Jase’s arm and rushed him from the house. Jase looked over his shoulder, wondering what Ennis was going to do.

  “He’ll be back in a minute,” Trinity said as they stepped out into the garage. “He held back so he wouldn’t scare you, but he’ll do much worse when he goes hunting these guys down.”

  Ennis joined them a few minutes later, climbing into the backseat with Jase. He reached across and grabbed the seatbelt even as Jase shrank away from him. “Buckle up, sweetness.”

  “We headed to the safe house?” Trinity asked.

  “Yep.”

  Jase turned his head to look out the window. He was cold and wanted to crawl beneath a few blankets and forget this night ever happened.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Once they got to the safe house, Ennis took Jase upstairs to a bedroom where the windows were shielded by shades and heavy drapes. Jase refused to look at him as he sat on the king-size bed situated across from a dresser. Ennis took off Jase’s shoes and leaned down to drop a kiss on his forehead.

  “Jase, are you okay?”

  Jase rolled over and gave him his back. Ennis swallowed back the pain forcing himself not to feel. Jase needed time to think, to process. Being angry or hurt wasn’t exactly what either of them needed right now. So, he stepped back out into the hall where Trinity waited.

  “He’ll be okay, Ennis, once the shock wears off,” Trinity murmured.

  “I’ve got to go out,” Ennis said. “Mercury called before the attack to tell me he thought Simmer was involved in what’s being on.”

  “You’re paying Simmer a visit?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “Mercury said they were meeting at the Brown Building in thirty minutes.”

  “What’s there?”

  “It’s the site of Pan’s new agency. He’s not sure what kind of agency. I’m going to go over there, and let Merc go feed. I’ll bring some food and clothes back.”

  Trinity nodded. “It’d be a good idea for you to work rather than being near him right now.”

  Ennis headed out with a heavy heart. Jase’s rejection cut so deep he wanted to howl, but he had to keep himself together. Control was critical in this moment when the demon would do anything to ensure his mate didn’t pull away, including drug him on his venom. All chance of Jase actually accepting might be gone, but that didn’t mean he had to lose his humanity.

  * * * *

  When Ennis closed the door, Jase climbed from the bed and undressed. He felt numb and just wanted to sleep. However, he wanted his lover’s comfort, not his absence. At the same time, he wanted to be alone. He needed to think about what he’d seen.

  He needed to process it all.

  The roar of the truck told him he’d have the time and the space. So, why wasn’t he happy about it?

  * * * *

  Ennis met up with Mercury outside of Simmer’s estate in Bossier. The other man looked a little pale as he lounged against the seat of his pickup truck.

  “I’ll take over,” Ennis told him. “Did you pick up anything else on his meeting?”

  “Simmer wanted to talk about our investigation from what I could pick up in the bar,” Mercury answered.

  “Well, you go feed and get some rest. I’ll check out the meeting.”

  “Great.” Mercury sighed. “I have a man on the guy I suspect is the stalker we’ve been looking for.”

  “Track him to his nest and leave me a message when he goes in. If it looks like he might run I want you and Bale to detain him until I arrive.”

  “I’ll tell him,” Mercury said.

  “Send someone over to the Brown Building,” Ennis said. “Tell him to park at the curb where I can see him.”

  “Got it. Later.”

  He pulled away and Simmer pulled out onto the road ahead of Ennis five minutes later. He followed Simmer through Bossier to the Brown Building where he drove past him and parked down the street. He climbed out of his truck and walked back to the building. As he did so, he blended in with the shadows cast by street lamps. Shifting into his shadow form, Ennis followed the shadows to the front door of the four-story building. A dim light shone through the glass, signaling someone was there.

  So Ennis pushed the door open a crack, not wanting to risk disturbing the bell if there was one. He drifted inside, and he followed the scent of the death stalkers down the hall to an open door. He knew the death stalkers wouldn’t scent him in this form.

  “I can’t continue taking these risks,” Simmer said coolly.

  “What are you saying?” Pan demanded as he stared the leader of his house down.

  “I’m saying I want more money,” Simmer snapped. “So, I can get out of here before the spade cracks and kills us all.”

  “Coward,” Pan retorted. “We can handle him. All you have to do is do your part. You agreed to do just that when I decided to start the agency.”

  “I know what I agreed to, but I had no idea you were going to be stupid enough to try to pull this thing off in his city!”

  “I couldn’t get her back over here,” Pan said. “I tri
ed, but she didn’t want anything to do with me. So, I did what I had to do.”

  “You fucked up that’s what you did,” Simmer said. “Your hitter attacked his mate?”

  “I didn’t know the photographer was his mate until Donna told me. Anyway, this will be all over by tomorrow morning.”

  Simmer paced away from Pan and came to a halt. He tilted his head back and inhaled deeply.

  “It’s just Donna coming in,” Pan muttered.

  Simmer scanned the room and then turned his gaze back on Pan. “Give me the money. I want to be elsewhere as soon as I can.”

  “Fine. Donna has it with her, but you’re making a mistake,” Pan said. “If you run from the spade now, you’ll always be nothing more than a coward in his eyes.”

  “But I’ll be a live one,” Simmer retorted and swiveled to face the door.

  Donna stepped inside a second later. “Sir.”

  “Hand the briefcase over to him,” Pan said.

  Donna closed the distance between them in the dimly lit room. “Mr. Simmer, sir.”

  He took the case. “No, Pan, it’s you who’s made the mistake, and if that spade doesn’t kill you, I want sixty percent of the profits from the Death Stalker Agency, not forty.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” Pan said coldly.

  “It will or the police will get a tip about your wife’s part in this little plot. Then, I’ll hand you over to the spade.” He took the case. “We’ll finalize details when I get back.”

  Ennis wouldn’t be surprised if Pan planned to kill him when he returned. The death stalkers respected strength in their leaders, and attacked at the first sign of weakness.

  “Donna see him out and then return and report,” Pan said.

  Ennis waited patiently for the assistant to return. When she did she said, “I told you he was weak.”

  “He’ll be taken care of the minute he returns,” Pan told her. “I have enough support to take over.”

  “Yes, you do. Sandy has been found and eliminated as of ten minutes ago. Phil has all the information Rebecca sent her. I’ll be meeting him at nine.”

  “Good. Eliminate him,” Pan said. “He’s a thorn in my side.”

  “Of course,” she agreed. “I’ll make sure he didn’t make any copies first. Then, this mess will be over, and we can all move forward.”

  Pan smiled. “I look forward to a new phase. I always do.”

  She smiled, too. “Yes, you do. Shall we go?”

  “Good idea. Tonya will be concerned if I’m late.”

  “I’m glad she’s responsive to you,” she said. “It’s too bad Rebecca wasn’t.”

  Ennis followed them outside and kept to the shadows as a car pulled to a stop at the curb. He moved into the shadow of a nearby tree with low-hanging branches as Wright and Pan climbed into their cars. Ennis punched in a number.

  “Follow the black car,” he said to the man on the other end of the line when he answered.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Call in a replacement after four hours,” Ennis told him.

  “Will do.”

  Ennis stopped by an all-night grocery store and picked up a few things after he swung by his place to pick up clothes for himself and the other two men.

  Once he got to the safe house, Ennis put away the groceries and went upstairs to climb into bed with Jase.

  Jase snuggled against him in his sleep, resting his head on his chest. Ennis sighed, the demon temporary soothed now that his mate was in his arms.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Ennis woke to Jase stretched over his chest with one leg thrown over both of his and his demon chuffed in contentment, but Ennis knew Jase would jerk away from him the minute he woke. So, he stroked his back and savored the feel of him.

  Jase’s warm hand glided over Ennis’s bare chest and down to his stomach. Jase may be sleep but those were not the caresses of a man who wanted to break up. Those were the comforting caresses of a man who sensed his lover’s stress and unconsciously wanted to soothe him. So, he savored the touch a moment longer as he reached for his phone. He checked his messages and found two from Munro, the man Mercury had following the death stalker Mercury suspected was their killer. The death stalker had taken his date to a motel, but he had gone in at three.

  Ennis shifted to a shadow slowly so as not to wake Jase, and then flowed into the bathroom for a shower. He brushed his teeth and stepped out into the bedroom to retrieve his bag from the closet where he’d stashed it last night. He went to the bed and bent to brush a kiss over Jase’s temple.

  Jase reached for him and Ennis claimed his lips. The demon sighed, stroking his lover’s cheek. Ennis broke the kiss even as Jase pulled him closer.

  “Baby,” Jase protested as he pushed his hand beneath Ennis’s shirt.

  “Jase,” he murmured. “Don’t get the demon hot. I won’t be able to stop him from taking you.”

  Jase’s eyes flew open. He stared at him for a long moment and then withdrew his hand. “Where have you been all night?” he demanded coldly.

  Ennis cocked a brow at the anger in his mate’s eyes. “Right next to you for the last five hours.” He sat down on the bed and Jase sat up and inched away from him.

  “You’re not afraid of me, Jase,” Ennis murmured. No, he wasn’t afraid just confused about wanting what Christian teachings told him was an emissary of the evil. “So why try to play me?”

  “You didn’t give me all the facts about the monster you are,” he said.

  “I never shifted so what the hell are you talking about?”

  “The way you…killed.”

  “Are you bitching because I killed a demon to save your life? He was killing you. Did you expect me to just watch?”

  “I expected you to punch him like a normal man.”

  “I’m not human,” he retorted, an edge of anger in his tone. “My first instinct was to kill to protect what is mine.”

  “Yours?” he asked incredulously. “If you thought I belonged to you, why didn’t you stay when we first got here? I needed you, but you up and left.”

  Ennis sighed. “Jase, sweetness, I had a job to do, remember? I’m protecting you from the bad guys. Besides, you didn’t seem interested in having me around.”

  “Well, the best way to protect me would have been to hold me,” he snapped. “I was scared and confused. I needed to be—forget it. You’re on your way to do your job, so go do it.” He turned to get out of bed and Ennis moved with preternatural speed as he put Jase on his back on the mattress and climbed on top of him. Jase gasped, blinking up at him. “Get off me,” he gritted out.

  Ennis rocked against him and Jase moaned. “I really want to let you go, sweet boy, but I don’t know if I can.”

  Jase stared up at him. “You have to because I don’t know if I can live with you knowing what you are.”

  “You’re hard for me.”

  “I’m always hard around you, but that doesn’t mean I can do this,” he said softly. “So, please don’t force me.”

  Ennis climbed off him. “I have to go to work, but I’ll be back later. If you need me, you can just use telepathy.”

  Jase frowned. “What? What did you do to me? Did you do some vampire mind-lock thing?”

  Ennis gave him an enigmatic stare. “I’ll see you later.”

  “You could just let Trinity to protect me at the studio.”

  “You’re not going in today, but someone will be there with Darik,” Ennis answered. He watched the fading desire morph into anger as Jase’s sea-green eyes turned to flaming green.

  “No. No. No. That is not an option,” he snapped. “You are not taking that away from me.”

  “I’ll do what I have to, to protect you,” Ennis told him coldly.

  Jase leaped to his feet and rounded to Ennis’s side and glared up at him. “Ennis, don’t do this. I’ll call Darik to come get me.”

  “You’d put your friend in danger? You’d risk demons showing up to get you and kill him?
”

  Fear mingled with anger as Jase stared him down for long seconds before lowering his gaze. “Trinity can protect us.”

  Ennis gripped Jase’s chin and tilted his head up. “I need to know you’re safe, and I have no idea how long this guy’s reach is. His breed of demon is easy to put down but if I lose my concentration worrying about what might be going on with you, I might get careless. That can get me killed.”

  Jase sighed. “I just feel helpless,” he admitted. “It’s like I’ve been dumped into the Twilight Zone.”

  “I know, just be patient okay?” Ennis asked softly and stroked Jase’s hair.

  “Okay.”

  “Now, promise me you’ll be a good sub and stay put. You won’t give me any reason to take my belt to you later.”

  “I just need—okay.”

  “I have to go. I need to be there as the sun comes up in order to get my prey.”

  Fury burned in Jase’s eyes. “Your prey? You’re going to feed off someone else?” he demanded.

  “I’ll have to later before I get back,” he said. “I’ll be in early because Trin will need to feed, too.”

  “Are you going to screw him, too?” Jase demanded.

  “Push me and I’ll not only feed from you when I get back, but I’ll spank you and fuck you.” He released Jase’s chin. “You don’t want me, Jase. I have to feed from someone. I’ll call to see what you’d like me to bring back from the grocery store.”

  “Damn you!” he snapped, shaking with fury now.

  “Jase, are you going to give me what I need later? I need it, you know I do.”

  “Do what you have to do,” he said quietly and head down, shoulders slumped, he trekked to the bathroom.

  The demon inside him growled as Jase’s pain tore at him. Ennis drew in a deep breath and stepped into the hall and headed for the kitchen. He didn’t know how to ease Jase’s pain let alone his own.

  “He’s fighting because he wants you, but he’s scared.” Trinity leaned against the granite counter against the backdrop of dark wood cabinets.

  Ennis shook his head. “I know. He just doesn’t understand that he’s not alone in this. I’m hurting just as badly.”