The Calm Before the Storm

by Mandy Rosko

  Sammy bit his bottom lip and shrugged his brother off. “Fine, whatever.”

  “I will come back.”

  He’d meant it, with everything inside him he’d meant it.

  The dream faded out, and for a moment Seth felt himself getting pulled out of his sleep and closer toward consciousness, but when he opened his eyes, he didn’t see his basement cell, or anything resembling what little he’d seen of Silus Veturious’s house.

  His Oh Shit meter spiked, even though there was nothing immediately threatening about this hazy place he was in. Immediately being the key word. Seth knew exactly where he was.

  Well, he did and he didn’t, at any rate. One never knew where one would end up in one of these vampire callings.

  He could just barely make out the shapes of a bed, a dresser, a closet, the usual things that were found in bedrooms, even though it wasn’t his room, and he had no clue where he was. Was this all fake, made up? Or was this the image of a real bedroom somewhere?

  As though someone had decided to turn down the dial on his emotions, Seth suddenly didn’t feel the alarm he should have, that he knew he should be feeling considering where he was. It was like all the self-preservation had been sucked clean out of him.

  That in itself should have brought some of his fears back, especially since he was naked. Naked and totally aroused. His body hummed with it, vibrated, and his blood flowed hot all through his body, but mostly in his cock, which pulsed and ached for him to take hold of it and bring himself off before his desperate need turned into an uncomfortable pain.

  The thing that kept him from doing just that was the other person in the room with him. He couldn’t see this person, had no idea if it was male or female, and yet he sensed the presence.

  He had no doubt in his mind that whoever it was, was also aware that Seth was in the room as well. The fact that he or she hadn’t made his presence known brought a distrustful shiver to Seth’s skin he shouldn’t have been able to feel.

  It wasn’t enough for him to actually do anything about it, though.

  It felt more like he was on the bar scene, and some guy Seth had no interest in was eyeing him from across the tables. Creepy, but nothing to worry over.

  Then he recalled his still-pulsing erection, and what that extra presence in this space meant. No, he had to get out of this comfortable mindset. He couldn’t stay like this!

  Seth clenched his fists and his guts lurched as he forced anger into himself. He did it until the anger was real, until his heartbeat picked up and began banging around under his ribs. With it, the fog around his brain, and around his body, slowly began to drift away.

  It was like he’d been underwater and was finally coming up for air. More clarity outside the water.

  “Who’s there?” he called.

  More of the hazy left his mind, full awareness taking over now, and his brain, powered on and buzzing, produced the most logical answer to his question.

  There was only one person who would regularly call to him in the form of one of these dreams. Seth twisted and turned, searching for a door, a window, any means of escape, but there was only the gray fog that seemed to stretch into forever.

  “Who’s there?” he demanded. “Whoever you are, come out now.”

  No answer. Seth didn’t relax his stance.

  Maybe it wasn’t Winchester, or any of the other vampires Seth had seen before. What if it was the guard?

  Seth’s cock throbbed at the thought, which so didn’t help anything. Having Tall and Dark in his wet dream wouldn’t be such a bad thing, even if the guy was kind of a prick. Seth knew how this worked. He’d drank that man’s blood, a lot of it, and so he was capable of calling to him into his dreams like this, the same way Seth had been called into the dreams of the men and women who’d had him.

  A shadow formed near the bed as whoever else was here stepped forward. Seth’s brief hopes crashed as it became apparent that the tall, thin frame could not possibly belong to Tall and Dark. There was nowhere near enough muscle mass, and there was the scruffy shape of a short, poorly trimmed beard on his face.

  “Sampson?”

  His blood went from hot to frozen in point I’m-totally-fucked seconds. However, the problem with these kinds of sex dreams, and the reason Seth suspected he was called to them so often, was because he was always put in the state the caller wished him to be in. His cock filled again, his blood heating once more, no matter how many dead puppies he thought of, or old ladies in their underwear, or out of their underwear, as he became increasingly desperate.

  Never worked. He didn’t need to be sexually attracted to the old vampire for his cock to stand at attention for him. This place had Viagara in its air ducts.

  Winchester. The man was a favorite of Wiktor’s for two reasons.

  One being that he was a psychiatrist who listened to Wiktor’s and his wife’s bitching since the supposed death of their son, and the second that he could always provide beautiful females to act as feeders for their business parties.

  Whether the girls were drugged to the point where they couldn’t recognize their own faces in a mirror was something no one seemed to care about, so long as the flesh was pliant and willing for the bites.

  Usually they were runaways, or even the occasional willing female who wanted to be in the vampire circles, hoping someone would transform her and keep her beautiful for hundreds of years. The kind of girls the police wouldn’t be looking for. Always they had been manipulated by Winchester somehow.

  Seth could hardly judge those particular females considering he’d been of their party not too long ago. He’d learned the hard way what it was to take that immortality without the permission of the head of the house, that was for sure.

  Winchester took a step forward. He was not naked, Thank you, God, but by the hopeful, twitching smile on his face, that probably wouldn’t last long. He clasped his hands together in front of his chest like a lost little boy. “Is it really you?”

  Ugh. Winchester might be some kind of hard-ass, creepy doctor, but behind closed doors, he was just a guy with a thumb-size dick who happened to hold a soft spot for Seth. Not a good thing.

  Winchester had even tried to buy Seth from Wiktor, a fact Seth only knew because Jackson told him. Seth had half expected the old bastard to do it to, sell Seth to a lonely, psycho pervert just to complete his punishment. He hadn’t sold him, though. Probably because he wanted Winchester to keep coming back, keep supplying Wiktor’s parties with feeders and whores, and keep up with the Dr. Phil sessions for himself and his wife.

  By how the hell did this guy… Fuck! Winchester still had some of Seth’s blood in him. Not enough time had passed for it to have left his body, and he’d been calling to Seth.

  “Sampson? It is you, isn’t it?”

  Seth didn’t answer. He sneered at the other man and turned away.

  Didn’t matter. Winchester seemed to have all the confirmation he needed, because his flickering grin became full-out happy. Seth thought the man might actually run and hug him.

  “They told me you were dead. I have been calling and calling for you. There was never an answer, and I nearly gave up…until just now.”

  “Terrific.” Seth had been brain-dead or the vampire equivalent of it. His mind must’ve been totally blocked off whilst he’d been in that condition. But his brain was healed now, and Winchester just had to give it one last go.

  Goddamn stubborn prick.

  In a wisp of smoke, Winchester became naked as well, his clothing vanishing to reveal his wasted frame, his ribs clearly visible beneath thin flesh.

  “I’ve missed you.”

  Seth shuddered.

  The look on Winchester’s face shifted from a hopeful expression to a saddened one. “Why won’t you say anything? Are you injured?

  Did those filthy werewolves hurt you?”

  Jesus, Winchester actually thought he was in love with Seth.

  Worse still, he’d somehow managed to convince himself that
Seth held some sort of soft feelings for him in return.

  Seth’s leg was still fucked-up, but he wasn’t about to tell that to the bastard just so he could go back to Wiktor’s and punish Jackson and his pack for following orders.

  Seth’s stomach dropped at the realization. Wiktor. Winchester was going to tell Wiktor that Seth was alive, and then the pack would be sent out to hunt him.

  “I’m…well.” He had to pick his words carefully. If Winchester thought he was in love with Seth, maybe he could use it, the same way he’d used it to escape that night.

  Winchester took a step closer, rubbing a hand along his beard. The guy never heard of an electric trimmer. “You struck me quite forcefully last time we were together. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

  “I’m a—I was a guard. Of course I had it in me.” Seth had gotten Winchester to the point where the other vampire actually trusted Seth enough to turn his back to him, and even, on that last night, to drink from his vein. It had been the only reason why Seth had, had the strength to run for it after he’d smashed Winchester’s head in with a heavy-ass vase.

  He’d do it again if he could. Right now. He’d bash the fucker’s skull in until he was dead this time, but Seth wasn’t the one in control of this dream space. The caller held all the control here, hence, why Seth was so damned aroused, even though the sight of the man in front of him made him want to vomit.

  That, and his feet were glued to the floor. Seth couldn’t move.

  Winchester took another step closer. He rubbed the back of his knuckles along the skin of Seth’s muscled shoulder and up his neck.

  “If I’d known you liked those kinds of games, we could’ve have played before. This time, however, you are not going to knock me out.”

  Seth’s insides clenched, but he forced himself to show no visible signs of distress. His mind screamed at his body to react, but he couldn’t move. He tried to manipulate the dream somehow. He was a part of it, so he was supposed to have some kind of control as far as he knew.

  C’mon! Something happen! Make him disappear!

  Winchester’s hands took hold of the back of Seth’s neck in a gentle grip. Guy probably thought he was being comforting. “I understand your need to flee. Wiktor mistreats you, and my kindness confuses you.”

  Jesus Christ, he was doing the manipulating doctor thing on him.

  “I can care for you, Sampson. Tell me where you are.”

  “I don’t know,” Seth said without hesitation.

  Thank God he didn’t know! With Winchester’s control, if Seth had known, he would’ve told him, and there wouldn’t have been anything he could’ve done about it. He had to do something before he was made to say the names of who he was with. Get this guy off me!

  Winchester leaned in, and Seth braced himself for a kiss he did not want, not from this man. No, no.

  Suddenly the other vampire pulled away as quickly as though Seth had spoken his displeasure out loud. Confusion flickered in those cold, green eyes. “What did you do?”

  Seth didn’t understand the question. “What?”

  Winchester actually looked ready to cry. Seriously, his eyes watered and everything, his bottom lip trembling like a little kid who’d just dropped his ice cream cone in the sand and was about to start wailing over it. “Wherefore are you—”

  A roar sounded as a giant figure leapt at Winchester and tackled him to the ground.

  Seth still couldn’t move, but not because of the dream spell that Winchester had on him, nope, that bit was done with the second someone from the outside attacked him. Seth was just too damn shocked to budge.

  Tall and Dark?

  The guy had Winchester down on the ground, pinning him as easily as Rottweiler might with a rabbit. He was pummeling his fist into Winchester’s face like it was his own personal punching bag.

  Whack.

  Whack.

  Whack.

  Winchester couldn’t even get out any pleas for mercy because his teeth were getting crushed into dust. That wasn’t normal. This place was of his making, he was the one who should’ve had power here, not some human, regardless of his size. Even better, because the rules of the whole vampire sharing dreams thing, when Winchester woke up, his face was going to be in the same mashed-up condition as what Tall and Dark was doing to him.

  It was like watching a machine work, the way the other man’s fist never slowed, kept to the same speed and rhythm with his punches, even as Winchester’s blood coated his knuckles.

  Tall and Dark pulled his heavy fist back one more time, the tight muscles bulging as he readied to bring it down. And he did. Into a concrete floor.

  Crack!

  Seth winced, his knuckles clenching in sympathy pain.

  “Motherfucker!” Tall and Dark pulled his fist away from the floor.

  It seemed Winchester had summoned forth enough concentration to wake himself, getting out of harm’s way of what should have been the killing blow, and Seth’s rescuer had totally just fucked up his hand.

  He wouldn’t be surprised if the knuckles were broken with the loud popping sound they’d made on impact.

  Tall and Dark got to his feet, not bothering with questions about where the vampire could’ve gone as his entire focus was on shaking out his bleeding fist, cursing, pacing, cursing, and eventually, demanding to know just where the hell he was.

  “What the flying fuck is going on here?” he shouted. His whole body was flushed from his recent exercise, and his eyes were all suspicious on Seth, even as they went up and down his naked form, stopping and staring for several seconds at Seth’s erection.

  Seth could smell the other man’s blood heat up even more, his heart pumping faster, and Seth reacted to it.

  Seth could hardly blame his arousal on Winchester at this point, not with the show he just got and that enticing aroma tickling his nose. Though Tall and Dark was wearing his usual tight-fitting black shirt with the holster for his gun strapped around his massive shoulders, he was still a sight to behold.

  Tall and Dark shook himself. He was visibly struggling to force his eyes back to Seth’s face, but that didn’t stop Seth from scenting his desire pooling straight into the other man’s cock.

  He totally wanted Seth.

  “Where are your clothes?”

  “I wasn’t given any. It was his dream calling me here.” Seth nodded to the little puddle of blood that made a spattered mess of the floor. “He wanted me naked, so I’m like this.”

  Tall and Dark raised a perfect eyebrow at him. For a second Seth worried the man might start asking for specifics, but thankfully, he didn’t.

  Not those sort of specifics, anyway.

  “I know how vampire dreams work. It involves sharing blood, right?”

  Vampire blood dreams were something he’d only learned about because he was constantly called into them for Winchester’s, and anyone else’s, amusements.

  “Something like that,” Seth answered.

  “So if this was his doing…” Tall and Dark also nodded toward the mess of blood. “How is it I’m here? I wasn’t even—I mean I’m not even sleeping, but you’re out cold. I shouldn’t be here.”

  “You’re not sleeping?”

  “No.”

  Seth thought for a moment, and came up with nothing. “You’ll have to ask Lor…Silus. Ask Silus about that. I still don’t know a lot about what I can do.” He hesitated speaking his former master’s title.

  The name alone was hard to get past his mouth.

  That vampire and his sun sprite still had Seth’s questions to answer to. “The only thing I can think of is that I’m filled with your blood. I must’ve pulled you into this by accident. Maybe you were daydreaming. Didn’t know I could do that.”

  “You were calling for me to save you?”

  Ugh, didn’t that kind of wording just make Seth sound like a mega pussy. “No,” he gritted through closed teeth.

  A slow, seductive smile spread over Tall and Dark’s lips, his eyes b
ecoming half lidded. “I should be worried that that guy could tell Wiktor you’re alive, and then he can send people to hunt you down, and my friends because you’re in their house, but I…” He trailed off, and green eyes that were so much darker, not nearly that creepy shade of pale as Winchester’s, went back down to Seth’s throbbing erection.

  “You can’t bring yourself to care?” Seth finished for him.

  Tall and Dark didn’t bother looking at his face, he just kept on looking down at Seth’s cock, as though his penis were hypnotizing him.

  “That’s what this place does. It seduces you. Snap out of it!” Seth walked right up to the guy and slapped him on the side of his head.

  Tall and Dark’s eyes became clear again, but he doubted that clarity was going to last.

  The strange thing was how in control Seth felt over this situation.

  With Winchester gone, this place became Seth’s dream space, and for the first time he had full clarity, total control. So then why did he not feel in control? He was trying his damndest to keep Tall and Dark in his right frame of mind, but the man kept on looking at him like he was some kind of tasty treat, and Seth’s erection would not go the fuck down. It was starting to pain him.

  Then he had an epiphany, and he knew what the problem was.

  “Your lust is real, mine is too, but I really don’t feel like getting fucked right now.”

  “You’re in lust with me?”

  Caught. “Jesus Christ, what does it matter?”

  So it had been a long time since Seth could take a look at some gorgeous guy without consequences, and it had been an even longer time since he felt confident he wasn’t about to get forced onto his stomach by some hideous rapist. He was at ease around the other man. Sue him.

  Tall and Dark did something better. He took hold of Seth’s cock, his thumb teasing the slit, and stroked him. Seth opened his mouth and released a breathy moan, doing his absolute best to keep his eyes open and on his lover, then down at the hand that stroked him.

  Watching the show didn’t help his erection in the least. His brain screamed fuck it and abandoned him, leaving his body in control to thrust his hips against—