The Calm Before the Storm

by Mandy Rosko

  “He was lucky to have you.”

  “He died thinking I’d abandoned him.”

  “You know that you didn’t,” Ben said.

  Seth didn’t reply.

  “What was he like, your brother?”

  A sad smile tugged on his lips. He took another drink of his beer and replied anyway. “He’d kick your ass at Monopoly.”

  Ben laughed a little at that. So did Seth.

  Ben got up from his seat after a while of silent drinking and began pulling the curtains closed. They were heavy and would do the job of keeping out the morning light. “You’re sleeping here tonight.”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  “Do you have anywhere else to go?” Ben countered.

  “Good point.”

  Ben came back and looked down at the untouched pizza. Probably cold by now. “If you’re not hungry for food, I can give you my vein.”

  Seth paused as he brought the bottle to his mouth to finish off what was left inside it. He didn’t say anything, though. He seemed to close in on himself.

  Probably not in the mood for admitting he needed something after reciting his life story.

  The couch dipped as Ben sat next to him again. Seth didn’t appear to notice until Ben put his bare wrist beneath his nose.

  The scent of his blood, so close, seemed to pull Seth out of his haze. The puncture wounds from Ben’s previous bite were still fresh.

  “It’s okay, take it.”

  Ben never would have said those words the first time Seth had bitten him.

  Seth released a breath through his mouth, his fangs lengthening.

  Abruptly, he grabbed onto Ben’s hand and put his mouth over his wrist, biting down hard and moaning as his fangs punched through the healing flesh.

  He sucked back hard and drank deeply, Ben grunted as the pain of the puncture hit him, but then his body relaxed as Seth’s fangs released a sort of numbing drug. That calming, pleasant feeling, often pleasurable, that always followed on the heels of the bites. It was nothing anyone could become intoxicated off of, but it definitely helped make the biting part, and having blood depleted from the body, a little easier to deal with.

  Ben fisted one of the couch cushions as Seth kept on with the feeding, slowing as he took his fill, then stopping altogether and gently pulling his fangs from holes that, if he kept it up, were going to become permanent scars on Ben’s wrist.

  He wouldn’t mind it if that happened.

  Ben leaned in, softly pressing his lips against the side of Seth’s mouth as he was wiping away the excess blood.

  Seth jerked away in surprise, but that didn’t deter Ben. He put his hand behind Seth’s neck, feeling the fine hairs there, his other hand coming to rest on the couch beside Seth’s thigh, trapping him place.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I want to make you feel good.”

  Ben’s fingers slid along Seth’s jaw until his palm cupped Seth’s cheek.

  The other man jerked away. “I don’t want a pity fuck.”

  “It’s not.” Ben leaned in and pressed his lips to Seth’s mouth again in a gentle kiss. Ben tasted some of his own blood still on the younger man’s lips.

  He listened to the sound of Seth’s deep inhale through his nose, felt as his entire body became tight, and waited for him to push him away. He didn’t. Seth’s body became pliant, and his mouth pressed back, opening for him, his tongue reaching out.

  Every thought was sucked out of Ben’s head. He gently pushed down, and Seth allowed Ben to climb on top of him and settle the weight of his body over him, all the while keeping up with the gentle kissing.

  It was as if Ben’s lips and tongue were being treated to a sensual, full-body massage.

  Although Ben loved the feel of them, pressed body to body, he put just a little distance between them by settling his forearms down on either side of Seth’s head. He knew his weight would never be enough to cause a vampire any discomfort, but this way allowed him to lean up for better access to Seth’s mouth, jaw, and neck.

  Seth released a small moan as Ben thrust his hips, creating friction between their still-clothed cocks. Because Seth had just fed on blood, he was hard even before the kissing and thrusting had started.

  Seth pulled his hands out of Ben’s thick, dark hair, and scrambled down to his belt. Ben lifted himself up just enough for Seth to work, pulling his mouth away and looking down as Seth’s fingers fumbled with the metal buckle and fly.

  There was the briefest of seconds when their eyes made contact, but Ben said nothing and neither did Seth. This wasn’t like the times before when they’d fucked. Maybe it was finally knowing why Seth was so intent on becoming a vampire, that the other man was letting himself be dominated, or the sudden knowledge that this was the first time they’d kissed— real kissing, that dream thing was debatable— but Ben couldn’t pinpoint it.

  Ben kicked away his pants when everything was all set there, and Seth hurriedly pushed down his tight-fitting black trunks. It wasn’t entirely necessary, but Ben then sat up and pulled his shirt over his head, tossing it away before coming back down to settle on his lover.

  Seth’s skin was burning hot, and Ben couldn’t get enough of it.

  He settled his legs around Seth’s, tangling them, careful of his bad knee.

  Seth lifted his good knee to keep the position he desired, and Ben grinned as they thrust slowly against each other, their pelvises rocking together.

  “Oh!” Seth cried out, his arms gripping around Ben’s shoulders, nearly crushing him, but it was so much better.

  Ben took it as a good sign that Seth allowed himself to kiss and be kissed, and to enjoy the mind-numbing slide of their bodies.

  It wasn’t long before Ben lost himself in it as well, and he had to admit that having Seth beneath him, the other man holding on to him, looking at him and wanting him, was pretty nice.

  Ben barely registered the way something inside him shifted, and seemed release that one thing it had been holding on to for so long, just a little, to make wiggle room for someone else.

  * * * *

  Seth had either been in a coma, or knocked unconscious so often in the last week that sleep wouldn’t come to him. Ben had clocked out almost to the second when he came, giving Seth a kind of human blanket to share warmth with.

  The lights were still on, which probably had something to do with Seth’s insomnia. It was hard to sleep with bright lights reflecting off of white walls, regardless of how comfortable he was in his current position. Maybe it was just a vampire thing.

  It left Seth with nothing to do but hold the man on top of him, staring at the ceiling as Ben softly snored in his ear.

  There was no lying to himself anymore about what was going on in his head involving Ben. He knew the equivalent to jack all when it came to vampires, but he did know, kind of, how they mated.

  Last night those thoughts that he didn’t dare voice bounced around his head again. Mine. Mine. Mine. Over and over again, louder and louder as he and Ben made love.

  Jackson had told Seth that werewolf mating and vampire mating weren’t all that dissimilar from each other. Werewolves and vampires were capable of finding their mates, but for werewolves, the two parties involved were always in sync with each other.

  For vampires, it was slightly different. Vampires chose their mates, claimed them as theirs, and were bound to those people for the rest of their lives.

  Seth had claimed Ben, in his head anyway, and he’d done it enough times to know what he’d done. A vamp could try not thinking the word, could never even say it out loud, and it wouldn’t matter.

  The instinct was there. Seth had claimed Ben as his mate.

  The problem was that, unlike how werewolves did it, Ben was not in tune with Seth’s actions. He was in love with someone else, which left Seth holding the wrong end of the stick.

  Seth would be mated to Ben for the rest of his long life, even after Ben grew old and died. Ben could go off and marry
some guy in Canada, adopt a hoard of kids, and never know anything was amiss.

  That was the part about vampire mating that sucked. It didn’t necessarily work both ways. Seth had permanently attached himself to Ben, no going back.

  Seth sighed and closed his eyes. Ben’s hair was tickling his nose, but Seth didn’t move it away.

  Ben was right that Seth had been a coward for trying to get Wiktor to kill him. Seth had dealt with a lot of shit this last year, and now had to handle the fact that his master plan to save Sammy’s life had been for nothing.

  This new problem on his plate would be nothing compared to all of that.

  Chapter Fourteen

  When Ben woke up that morning, neck stiff from having his face smashed into the arm of his small love seat, and back sore because one of his feet had been propped up on the other arm, whilst the other was dangling on the white carpet, it took him a second to get over the pain and jerk up in a panic.

  He’d fallen asleep. Seth was beneath him when he’d done that, so where the hell—

  A clatter of plates on his kitchenette counter had him looking up.

  There he was, dressed—if it could be called that—again in his tight trunks and nothing else that left zero to Ben’s imagination.

  Speaking of which, Ben grabbed his pants from off the floor and slid into them, all the while keeping his eyes on Seth’s back. Did he cut his hair? It wasn’t as all over the place as before. It looked more cropped and professional. Like Seth was planning on putting on his suit and going back to work today or something.

  Ben would have to find the scissors he’d used and hide them. He wasn’t sure he liked the new look, but he definitely didn’t like knowing Seth had, had something sharp while Ben had been out of commission. Ugh, Christ, he hadn’t even locked his gun away last night.

  He sucked at taking care of things. Good thing he kept no pets or plants.

  Seth looked over his shoulder, smiled, and went back to what he was doing, oblivious to Ben’s thoughts.

  Whoa. The new haircut gave Seth the appearance of being more in control, older, and sexier. Ben’s heart muscle did a thumpa-thump in his chest. Maybe he did like it after all.

  “You’re awake,” Seth said. He was arranging something that smelled pretty damn good and buttery on Ben’s IKEA plates, then picked them up, along with forks, knives, and syrup, and, oh yeah, pancakes.

  Ben sat up, winced at the sudden movement and popped his shoulders, but was up and ready when Seth hobbled over and set the plates on the coffee table. Ben’s pancakes were stacked higher than Seth’s. To be expected, considering vampires required so little food to survive.

  “I don’t have any pancake mix here,” Ben said, though he could hardly be angry if Seth left the apartment to buy some as the end result looked so golden and good. It tasted pretty damn fantastic, too.

  Ben couldn’t help how his eyes slid shut as the first syrupy bite entered his mouth.

  He’d worry about where Seth got the money and weres possibly tracking his scent after he’d finished eating. But wait, it was daylight outside. How—

  “You had a bag of all-purpose flour in the back of your cupboard.”

  Ben stopped to look at him as he took another big bite. He chewed and swallowed. “You know how to make pancakes from scratch like that?”

  Ben suddenly liked him a lot more.

  Seth nodded, chewing on his own little bite of pancakes.

  Ben had no clue what he kept in the back of his cupboard, but he knew it should have taken more than that to get pancakes to come out this good. Cooking food that looked like this didn’t seem like the sort of actions someone who had thoughts of self-termination.

  “I was the cook before I hired Maria,” Seth replied. He didn’t go into any more detail than that.

  He wanted to keep things to himself today. Ben couldn’t blame him. Was probably embarrassed for talking so much the night before.

  Ben kept quiet and didn’t mention anything from his former life, or of the issue between the two of them. There’d been enough heart-to-hearts already.

  Then he looked up at the clock as he took another bite and nearly choked. “Ah, fuck,” he said around his mouthful.

  “What is it?” Seth asked.

  “I’m late for work.”

  Even if he teleported his ass directly to Cyricus’s mansion, he wasn’t going to have enough time to even take a shower.

  Well, he at least needed to rinse off what he and Seth had done last night. He’d entirely forgotten, and now it was sticking to his stomach and uncomfortable as hell.

  Yeah, the shower was worth the time. He ran into the bathroom and hopped under the water, not even waiting for it to warm up. He allowed himself only a fifteen-second scrub and rinse, jumped out, and ran into his room to change. He rubbed a hand along his jaw, wishing he had time to shave.

  It wasn’t until he came back out and saw Seth, still sitting on his couch where they’d been together last night, and staring at him with a single brow raised, did Ben realize he there was more here he needed to get done.

  “You”—he pointed at him with a jabbing of his finger—”do not leave this apartment until I get back.”

  Seth glared at him. “It’s daylight outside.”

  Oh, right. Dumbass.

  Ben really wished he’d been a mind reader instead of a teleporter.

  “I’m not going to have a repeat of last night, am I?”

  “No. Go to work.”

  He had no choice. He had to go.

  Ben didn’t like leaving him alone in his apartment where there were knives and all kinds of chemicals that, if used creatively enough, could off a vampire.

  He couldn’t risk it. Seth could hate him all he wanted for it, but there was no way he could leave him alone for so long.

  He teleported from his apartment, completely bypassing his car and Jeep and, using his memory of the layout of Cyricus’s yard, reappeared behind a neatly groomed hedge on the vast, green lawn.

  His abilities were no secret among the sun sprites who lived and worked here, but it was better to not be so open about it in the off chance there were some human guests who would be startled by Ben’s sudden appearance in the house.

  The clock was ticking, but he pulled out his phone and sent a text to Cedric, being careful not to write his or Silus’s name anywhere in said text. The odds weren’t good of it happening, but it was always better to be safe in case Dacielle, for whatever reason, got a hold of his phone and started searching through his messages. She loved to pry. That would be a shit storm.

  Yo check on S 4 me. My place. Couldn’t do drop off.

  He sent the text and waited a beat before his phone vibrated with the reply.

  Y he at ur place? :)

  Ben growled and punched in his reply.

  Jus do it. Do NOT ask him y either.

  He waited again for his phone to go off.

  Will do.

  Ben sighed now that that was taken care of, unsure if he should be relieved or not.

  It was a risk in itself calling Cedric over, the man he’d told Seth he was in love with, less than an hour before they’d…been intimate and shared things about each other. Seth could potentially see Ben’s actions as a slap in the face after everything that had happened between them last night.

  He’d deal with Seth’s anger and any possible emotional repercussions when he got back home. He’d be lucky if the other man would want to stay another night, but the thought of leaving Seth alone in Ben’s tiny-ass apartment, with nothing but his depressing thoughts of his dead brother to keep him company, was too much to bear. This was the lesser evil.

  Ben forced his worries out of his head now that he knew Cedric was on the way over to keep an eye on things. He’d kiss ass after his shift ended. It was time to get to work.

  He got off the perfectly cut, bright green lawn and onto the rock trail leading to the servants’ entrance in the back. He looked up at the cameras and waved, punche
d in his ID, and opened the door after the buzzer announced it to be unlocked.

  “You’re late,” said Peter, not looking up from his paper, his ankles crossed on his desk.

  “I know,” Ben said, signing the sheet Peter nudged across the only space of his desk that wasn’t being taken up by his monitors or his legs. “Did the princess survive without me?”

  Peter smirked and looked up at him from over the edge of his paper. “Smart-ass. Don’t think she even knows you’re supposed to take over for Anthony, but he’s holding up.”

  Peter reached to his shoulder and grabbed at the little radio that was there. He called to Anthony, said the switch-off code, and then clicked off after Anthony replied with a quiet, “Ten-four.”

  “There,” said Peter, licking his thumb and turning the page. “Now that he’s expecting you, will you get moving?”

  Ben mock-saluted him and took off. He grabbed a spare radio set from a charging dock, straightened his suit jacket, and put on his shades just before he left his wing of the house. He had to force himself to walk with a calm that wasn’t entirely in character for a man who was late for work for an employer who expected nothing less than the best.

  Hopefully this would be just another one of those things Cyricus would overlook since he was still up for treating Ben like…not an equal, nowhere near that good, but definitely better than how the other guards were being treated.

  “Mr. Volio.”

  Ben turned at the call to his name. Speak of the devil.

  He put on his business smile as he faced his employer. For a bodyguard, a business smile was something a whole lot different than what, say, a banker would use.

  Cyricus approached him and took his hand and shook it heartily.

  “Good to see you, my boy.”

  He looked like he actually meant it.