The Calm Before the Storm

One year after the battle between the sun sprites and vampires, Ben Volio finds a vampire on the
brink of death alongside the road. With no other help available to him, and no knowledge of
vampire medicine, Ben takes him to the home of his friends, where he hopes they can heal the
severely injured stranger.
However, this is no ordinary vampire. Seth Sampson was a former guard employed by the
vampire Lord Veturious, and ever since his betrayal of the family, he has been held captive and
tortured as punishment, and now he's being hunted down until he's returned to his prison.

His very presence endangers Ben's friends, who are also in hiding from the vampires and
sun sprites. Should Ben trust that Seth will not give away their secret as a trade-off? Or will

becoming close to him prove to be the worst mistake of both their lives?
Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Paranormal, Vampires/Werewolves Length: 63,325 words

THE CALM

BEFORE THE STORM

Mandy Rosko

EROTIC ROMANCE

MANLOVE

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

ABOUT THE E-BOOK YOU HAVE PURCHASED: Your non-refundable
purchase of this e-book allows you to only ONE LEGAL copy for your own
personal reading on your own personal computer or device. You do not have
resell or distribution rights without the prior written permission of both the
publisher and the copyright owner of this book. This book cannot be copied in
any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through
upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee, or as a prize in
any contest. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law.
Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any
way or any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden. If
you do not want this book anymore, you must delete it from your computer.

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted
work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without
monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in
federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

If you find a Siren-BookStrand e-book being sold or shared illegally, please let us
know at
[e-mail]

A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance ManLove


THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM
Copyright © 2012 by Mandy Rosko
E-book ISBN: 1-61926-181-2

First E-book Publication: January 2012

Cover design by Jinger Heaston
All cover art and logo copyright © 2012 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without
express written permission.

All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead
is strictly coincidental.


PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com

Letter to Readers

Dear Readers,

If you have purchased this copy of The Calm Before the Storm by Mandy Rosko from
BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of
this book.


Regarding E-book Piracy

This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction
rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this
book.

The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading
entertainment.

This is Mandy Rosko’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Rosko’s right to earn a
living from her work.

Amanda Hilton, Publisher

www.SirenPublishing.com

www.BookStrand.com

THE CALM

BEFORE THE STORM

MANDY ROSKO

Copyright © 2012

Chapter One

Motherfucker! That fucking hurt!
The sudden and distinct burning, as though his bare skin had been licked by a whip, brought on by a
hard bullet zipping through the flesh of his outer thigh and taking some of it away with it nearly put
Seth down. As it was, he only stumbled before biting down hard on his teeth and forcing himself to
stop being such a pussy and just run.
More bullets buzzed like angry bees past his ears or caught onto his clothes and tore at them, taking
more strips of skin away.
Keep moving. Keep moving. Keep moving.
But it’s hard, the inner little whiny voice inside his head complained. Seth wasn’t in nearly the shape
he’d been in a year ago, despite being a vampire now. Even vampires could let their bodies go to
waste after so long of inactivity.
After being locked in a box for so long, let out only to become the family feeder, amongst other
things, his vampire strength counted for less than half of what he had back as a human.
This was his second escape attempt, and a damned miracle he’d gotten this extra chance. It would not
go to waste. He’d had to pull a fast one on that fucked-up psychiatrist, Winchester, and steal his suit,
which was way too small, to better blend in amongst the rest of the

staff, but he’d gotten outside, He’d made it past the line of the family property before the lights came
on, however, signaling that his escape had been noticed.
Now he had guards on his ass.
A ripping and tearing sound from behind, followed by the deep growls and savage barking told him
that the werewolves were going into hunting mode. They’d shot at him until their clips were empty,
and now they’d released the hounds and were going to sniff him out.
Panicked adrenaline pumped high within him. Werewolves were excellent hunters, and the pack
faced punishment if Seth got away. That was some killer motivation for them right there.
Fuck! God fucking damnit! No! He was getting out of here. He was not going back into that box! He.
Was. Not!
Everything became sluggish around him, his movements, the wolves chasing behind, and even the
sounds of their barking became faraway echoes that stretched out as though someone had put the
world into slow motion. It allowed his brain to catch up and put thoughts into his head at a rate that
enabled him to plan, to look through the dark trees and find any way that would allow him to lose the
hounds before they clamped their giant jaws around his legs and dragged him back to the manor.
It didn’t help much that werewolves, when in wolf form, were biiiiig sons of bitches. The largest one
stood taller than Seth was, and that was just when on all fours. Oh my, what large teeth you have,
Grandma.
He briefly imagined turning about-face—always do what your attackers least expect you to do,
right?—and just pummeling his fist into the first hairy snout that met it. Big dogs or not, that would
stun the hell out of anyone. Maybe that would buy him a few—
No. His adrenaline was pushing him through the running part, and maybe some kind of a miracle
would allow him to best one of those things behind him if he had to, but that was a pack back there.
There had to be twenty of them just chasing him, the human guards still back at the manor waiting
for him to be caught and brought in now that the werewolves were out taking care of business. These
were all men he’d once worked with and shared lunch breaks with.

Friendship didn’t mean shit compared to the blood loyalty they had for their master, Wiktor
Veturious, and Seth could hardly blame them.
Seth had been totally fucked after his betrayal was discovered last year. Imagine what that vampire
lord prick would do to creatures he thought of as dogs if they didn’t catch Seth tonight.
Sorry, guys, he thought, eyes still scanning the trees.
It was his ears that picked it up, the gentle trickle and later the harsh sloshing of water over rocks not
much farther into the distance.
The stream! It fed into the river. Had he made it so far already?
Didn’t matter. Seth poured every ounce of energy he had into his legs. Divert all power to the
engines, Scotty! He ran like he was Superman, arms pumping and lungs nearly bursting as he sucked
back his air. When his bare feet made the transition from soft, well-groomed grass to sharp and
angular rocks, he kept his pace regardless of the pain until his legs splashed into the cold water.
He made a sharp turn. Now he was running along the bank, just in the water, but it was pointless to
hide his scent as the werewolves were still three hairs behind him. The warm air from their flaring
snouts heated his back, and the snap of teeth followed by the brief tug of his stolen dress shirt before
a long strip of it was ripped away, came next.
Don’t stop. You’re almost there. Please, God, don’t let me stop.
If his body gave out on him now, he was done, and there would be no third chance. Wiktor would
never allow him the opportunity to escape ever again.
But then, yes, there it was! Even through the darkness, it was still as clear as daylight with his
vampire eyes, and the place where the stream thickened, where the water flow became heavy and
dark, was just within sight.

A long howl sounded from behind, and, Fuck!
Another werewolf appeared from between the trees barely ten feet off, crashing through them and
slamming his hairy body into Seth’s, knocking him off his path and onto his knees into the water.
The cold liquid splashed around his body and up his nose in the fall like he was on a frickin’ log ride
or something. He shot his hands out to catch himself but scraped them along the rocks at the bottom.
Another howl sounded, and there was more splashing as the wolves trotted their enormous paws into
the water, surrounding him on all sides but for where it was too deep to stand.
One of them was still in man form as he approached, the water rising to his knees. “Let’s go home,
Sampson. This doesn’t have to be hard.”
Jackson was leading the group. Figured that the pack alpha would be at the head of this particular
chase.
Seth wanted to roll his eyes at the words his friend had spoken. This doesn’t have to be hard, he’d
said. Easy for you to say.
He was surrounded, almost. He’d been knocked into the deeper area of the water, and now on his
knees, it went past his waist. Only one other were apart from Jackson was still in human form as far
as Seth could tell without looking at them, which meant there was only one more gun he had to
worry about, and they wouldn’t be shooting to kill.
He shot up and dove for the deeper part of the water.
A hideous-sounding snarl and a splash followed behind him. For the tiniest second, his heart actually
made a beeline for his throat at the thought of those wolves following him into the deep end,
doggy-paddling after his ass, but then the sharpest pain, worse than any bullet in his thigh, pummeled
into his leg and exploded out the knee while he was still in the air.
Seth screamed as his stomach followed the same trail as his heart as his whole body spun out of
control with the force of the strike, the dark trees above twisting and blurring together until he hit the
black water, which did dick-all to soften his landing.

His entire body felt like it had gotten slapped in the belly flop he did, and the added pain nearly made
him pass out, but he went down hard and deep, his head knocking into the rock at the bottom. White
flashed inside his brain like fireworks coming from the direction of where he’d hit his head.
He had enough time to think about how fucked he was going to be when the boys brought him back
to the manor to face Lord Veturious, right before he lost consciousness in the water.

* * * *

Jackson’s guts twisted as he watched his old friend, floating face up in the water, slowly get dragged
into the stronger current where stream became river.
One of his wolves sloshed closer, ready to swim out and retrieve their prey. Jackson’s fist lurched
out, caught the young wolf by the scruff, and pulled him back with a growl of his own. “Stay.”
He wouldn’t risk any of his wolves being overtaken by the current, especially not the young one.
The wolf, Joey, turned his golden eyes on Jackson. The only thing human about them in this form
was that, currently, they were confused and frightened.
Confused as to why his alpha would have him pull back, and frightened of what their vampire master
would do to him when he discovered the loss.
The same went for the others, all of whom were now either in the water, or on the damp rocks,
watching their captive float away, faster and faster as the current took its hold, until he disappeared
clean around the bend.
A few whines sounded, some visibly struggling with the effort to not rush in the water and take him,
risk of drowning or not. Paws shifted, hackles stood on end, but now, everyone turned their eyes to
their alpha.

He turned his back to the current and walked out of the water. “I want you all to listen to me very
carefully,” he began. “I was the one to let him get away. I was the one who slashed him too hard and
killed him, who lost his body in the water.”
Several growls of disagreement followed his statement. His pack did not require human words in
order to communicate with their alpha just how much they were not pleased with his plan.
It was the only good thing about his position as leading alpha. He didn’t have to give two shits what
they thought. This wasn’t a democracy, and so long as Jackson remained the strongest in the pack,
his wolves would do as he said.
Of course, after Wiktor was through with him, he wouldn’t be leading his pack for much longer.
Joey, the wolf who’d taken out Seth’s leg, was barely more than a pup. This was only his second
hunt, and he wasn’t even an alpha, but an omega they were passing off as one just to keep him out of
the kitchens. Jackson would never allow him to be punished for his mistake in wounding their prey to
such a degree.
Not that it mattered how Seth’s leg had twisted in that fucked-up angle as he’d been struck. He was
unconscious and bleeding in the water. And a vampire. If he wasn’t already dead from getting his
head bashed in, and Jackson’s ears had picked up the sound of that nasty crunch, then he was going
to be dead when the sun came up in an hour, or better yet, the blood loss would take him.
He—Seth—would never feel a thing, being knocked out like that. A good, quick, painless death,
compared to decades or even centuries of torture at Wiktor’s and Winchester’s hands.
He allowed those thoughts to flow through him, allowing his wolves to see into his reasoning, to
understand.
Okay, so maybe he did care about what they thought of the decisions he made. Sometimes.

Now the pack’s concern shifted to him, and whining and pathetic yipping ensued. Joey came forward
and nudged Jackson’s hand with that huge wet nose of his. He might be an omega, but he was still
fairly large for one, which made it easy to trick the vampires into thinking he should be part of the
guards.
Jackson pushed him away, ignoring the way Joey’s tail curled between his legs at the shove. “We’re
doing this, and I am commanding you all, no one is to stray from the story. Got it?”
Every hairy head dipped in silent, if hesitant, agreement. Damon was the last to give in. Likely he
would be taking over the care of the pack when Jackson was no longer able to.
Jackson blew out a hard breath. At least the next leading alpha would be a fair one. “All right, let’s
head back and tell the master that I lost his pet.”
Was Wiktor ever going to be pissed. Not only would Jackson be returning with a story about
accidentally killing the prisoner, without a body to prove it, but the sheer fuckup quality of the
situation would ensure that Jackson would be hurting in the morning as punishment.
Still, he figured the vampires would have no choice but to believe him when he said that Seth had
been killed. The remaining wolves wouldn’t be able to track his scent so long as his body continued
to travel along the water, and there would be no time to send out the humans to search either, as the
alleged dead body would become ashes in the morning light anyway. Seth should be far enough
downstream by then that the vampires wouldn’t bother with the risk.
All the same, Jackson hardly appreciated how his wolves followed behind him, all silent and grim,
even their thoughts, as though Jackson were marching to his death. The fuckers could at least keep
some hope for him.
Even with the risk, Jackson was glad he was able to give Seth a somewhat peaceful death.

Chapter Two

Ben all but put his foot through the brake of his Jeep when he realized that floating log thing in the
water was a body. The tires shrieked across the pavement in loud, ear-splitting indignation before the
vehicle finally came to a jerky halt.
Good thing the road was empty, and rarely used considering the scarceness of houses leading up to
the small body of water that was Mantua Lake.
The road followed the river until branching off onto the highway, and there was a dead someone in
that river. Ben put the gear in park and stepped out of the black Jeep, leaving the door open as he
stepped off the smooth pavement and onto the crunching rocks that sharply sloped down into the
weeds and softly flowing water. Whoever it was was stuck along the larger rocks and branches that
reached out along the bank, like skeletal hands.
Definitely a body. More than that, this guy, or woman, whoever, was murdered.
There could be no mistaking it. Someone set the poor bastard on fire and must’ve thrown him into
the river. He—because Ben was going to assume from this point on that it was a he—must’ve
travelled along the stronger currents until, for whatever reason, his body went down the softer path
and had come here instead of riding right into Raritan Bay.
It was a goddamn miracle no one had noticed him up until this point.
They must’ve doused him in something to keep the fires burning all throughout the river ride and
recent rain showers, but also not strong enough to overpower those elements entirely. The body was
charred. The flesh was black, pruned, and stank of burning meat. Christ, there were even still tiny
wisps of smoke snaking from the ruined clothing and flesh. It was a stunner that the clothes were still
hanging on to the body. They’d probably merged with the flesh itself at this point. Ben couldn’t even
tell what they’d been before the fires, a uniform, white collar suit, Sunday clothes. Who the hell
knew.

He scrunched his nose and looked away. Ugh, that smell was going bring up his lunch.
Ben thumbed the iPhone in his pocket. Should he call the cops? There’d be a lot of press about
something like this. The town of Veturious wasn’t exactly small, but neither was it large, and murder
wasn’t really common here, or in the wooded areas surrounding it, and because the lake this stream
led into was privately owned, cops and reporters would want to be talking to Silus and Cedric.
That was a no-go. The last thing either of them needed was for anyone in their respective families to
turn on the TV and see their dead sons alive and well, hiding from both the sun sprite and vampire
clans. Even if they wanted to remain anonymous, who was to say some reporter out to be the next big
thing in investigative reporting wouldn’t slink around, snapping some pictures they shouldn’t, or
even drop their names in the paper or on TV. It had been known to happen.
It wasn’t a risk Ben would take.
Fuck. He might actually have to take the body away himself and put it somewhere else to be found.
Rains, even the little they had lately, would cause a body to float into odd areas. He could take it,
drive further upstream to a more secluded area and redeposit the body back in the water. The key was
to make sure the spot he picked was inhabited by enough people to find the body as they walked their
dogs, or whatever, and he’d have to make sure the body wouldn’t go anywhere from there.
Keeping any obvious signs of himself, boot prints, tire tracks on the road or gravel, out of the way of
any cops would be the tricky bit. Especially with the hard stop he just pulled. Ben looked over his
shoulder and, fuck, yes, he’d left thick-ass, black skid marks over the faded gray pavement.

Worry about it later.
He took one step down the bank before he stopped then nearly slipped on a wet rock. His heart
lurched as he caught himself before he could fall in with the body. “Goddamnit!” He did not want to
land on whoever it was down there.
Breathing hard, he eyed the corpse and cursed it, as though it were somehow the poor bastard’s fault
that Ben was having a bad day. Meanwhile, this was the guy who was set on fire and dumped into a
river.
Now he kind of felt like a dick.
He pulled the phone out of the pocket of his leather jacket, scrolled through the numbers, and put it to
his ear.
First ring and there was an answer. He didn’t have time to play around.
“You’re never going to frigging believe this. I found a body a couple miles from your house.”
There was silence on Cedric’s end. Ben could visualize the grin melting from his face. “A—? Should
I call the cops?”
Even though Ben was no longer his bodyguard, no longer being paid to see to Cedric’s safety, the
other man still occasionally asked for his opinion on certain things, and this was definitely not going
to be an exception.
“No. You still have those plastic sheets from when you painted your room?”
“What for?”
“I need to move the body. Get it out of here so no one asks you or Silus any questions when it’s
found.
There was a muttered curse on the other end of the line that Ben could barely make out. Cedric
would have the phone away from his ear by now, maybe pacing the length of his room once or twice
before coming back to him.

Ben had always been good at knowing what the other man was doing.
“Yeah, I still got it.”
“It hasn’t been in the trash or anything, right?”
“Not yet. We just rolled it up and threw it into the corner of the garage. You sure this is necessary?”
Was there anything in Silus’s garage that could be traced back to them? Ben rubbed his palm over his
face. He could hardly think with that godforsaken smell in the air. “I don’t want any press or police
poking around your place. Hose down the plastic real quick. I’ll be there to pick it up in a couple of
seconds.”
With Ben’s teleportation trick, he meant that literally.
“Why do I need to hose it down?”
“You don’t want anything on it that can be traced back to you. I’ll be right there.”
Ben hit the end button on the phone and put it away before Cedric could say anything else. He eyed
the body below him and sighed sympathetically.
Such a shitty way to die.
Ben closed his eyes, he needed to get the image of burnt flesh out of his brain, but it followed him
anyway. Coupled that with the rancid smell, and he could hardly concentrate on where he needed to
go.
He put all his efforts into thinking about the house on the lake, his best friend living inside, with
someone else...
He vanished from the side of the road, his entire body splitting into billions of tiny pieces, traveling
along the air, faster than the wind, than even the fastest of cars, and careful to not reform where
something already was, like a tree or a lamppost. Ouch.
When he opened his eyes he was whole again, the house he’d been picturing right in front of his face.
He stood on the vast lawn, and there was Cedric not ten feet away from him.

He had the hose in his hand, and the plastic sheet he’d used to protect the carpet was laid out flat on
the grass. He had his thumb in the nozzle to get the water pressure up, frantically spraying it all over.
Cedric had worked fast to be able to get everything set up before Ben could so much as teleport to
him.
A body was hardly anything to drag one’s feet about, though.
Cedric caught sight of him immediately, all business on his face. “A dead body? What’re the odds of
that?”
“Pretty damn good, apparently. Let me help you.” Ben came to him and lifted the one side of the wet
plastic sheeting so Cedric could spray down every angle, every side.
“What about fingerprints?” he asked.
“I’m not leaving this with the body. I just want to make sure none of your, or Silus’s”—he said the
last bit with a rock in his throat—”hairs or fibers are on it. We don’t want anything that can be traced
back to you.” Even the few blades of grass that were beginning to stick were worrying Ben. Could
the cut grass of a healthy lawn be brought back to this house? Best to not risk it. Ben shook them off.
No telling what cops could do with that CSI shit he saw on TV sometimes.
“Right.” Cedric nodded, resuming his task.
Ben allowed them to keep at it for another two seconds before he decided enough time had been used
up. His Jeep was still in the middle of the road, and just because the chances of someone driving by
were slim, didn’t mean it couldn’t still happen. He had found a dead body, after all.
Cedric helped him to roll the sheet, and Ben tucked it under his arm. The water dripping from it
soaked his armpit and side, but since he was probably going to get a little wet getting the body out of
the stream, he wasn’t too concerned with it.
“I’ll call you when I drop the body,” he said. “Where’s Silus?” He wanted to know why the asshole
wasn’t out here helping with this. He was able to handle some sunlight, thanks to drinking enough of
Cedric’s blood.

His jaw clenched at the thought.
“It’s the middle of the day. He’s sleeping,” Cedric said.
Oh. Right. Vampire, and all that. Ben had wondered why the vampire had been absent during his
earlier visit.
“Go wake him up and tell him what happened. Just in case this shit goes south, we should all get our
stories straight.”
“Right.”
That was the last word Ben caught before he teleported himself off of Cedric’s front lawn, putting the
image of his Jeep in mind, and traveling there, back to the body.
Cedric was a sun sprite, and even though they had similar teleportation abilities as Ben had, without
direct sunlight to travel along the UV rays, Cedric couldn’t go with him. It was still cloudy as hell
from the earlier rains, and it looked like it could start pouring again any minute.
Ben didn’t want Cedric coming along anyway. Too many people equaled too many possibilities to
screw up, forget something, hell, even dropping hair or skin cells or anything with DNA that could
be used to hunt them all down.
It was definitely better if Ben worked alone.
He reappeared beside his Jeep and unrolled the plastic sheet, laying it flat on the pavement. There
was nothing he could do about the tire tracks on the road. He’d just have to hope that no one who
saw them would put anything together.
Ben wrinkled his nose at the smell. Ugh, Jesus, he’d forgotten about it. His stomach did a
backflip-twist, threatening to evacuate the lunch he’d just eaten in Cedric’s kitchen not a half hour
ago.
He took a deep breath and decided to get it over with. Ben removed his boots first, leaving himself in
just his socks as he made his way down the bank. The last thing he needed was his boot prints down
here, and these socks were getting thrown in the trash the second he got home. Then he rolled up the
cuffs of his jeans. The body was still waiting for him, patient as the dead.

It was easier to get to than Ben had realized. He just walked down to it and sloshed his feet in the
water, mud squishing through his socks and between his toes, before he was right next to it. He didn’t
even get his pants wet.
Ben knelt down, but he didn’t touch the man yet, for now he knew it was a man, being so close, he
could better make out the form that was beneath the melted clothes. Narrow waist, no breasts to
speak of, and sharp, angular shoulders and arms.
“I’m sorry this happened to you,” he said. For all his training to handle situations of this nature, to
handle dead bodies, and for his help in the battle against the vampires, this was the first time he’d
ever had to look at a corpse up close, to study it, and now he was expected to pick it up, roll it in a
long sheet of plastic, and carry it away to someplace where it would more convenient to find.
Ben could only pray something that horrible never happened to him.
He reached out to it. He didn’t want to touch the charred flesh, just in case any was to get shredded
away in his grip should he not be gentle enough, so he opted to only handle what remained of the
clothes.
He reached around the neck to the shoulders, gripped the charred shirt—
The head came alive, jerked to the side, and teeth crunched down on his hand, right in the space of
his palm between his thumb and index finger bones. Fangs lengthened and pierced the skin before
locking on.
“Jesus fucking Christ!” Ben tried to yank away, but the fangs in his flesh held on and they held on
tight.
His feet struggled for balance, to push himself off and away from whatever the fuck this thing was,
but he sloshed into the water instead, splashing mud all over his clothes and face and soaking him in
rancid-ass water.

It got into his mouth and he nearly puked, only managing to hold that back by the idea of anyone
finding anything of himself near this thing, whatever the hell it was.
It creeped him the fuck out was what it was. He punched it in the side of the head then pressed his
palm down on the black forehead to try and push it off, but its teeth clung to his hand, even when the
charred skin began to tear, like Christmas paper, under the pressure of Ben’s hand. Total lock-on.
“Get the fuck off me!” he yelled.
The zombie thing didn’t listen, and he felt the distinctive wet lick of a swollen tongue, warmer, much
more different than the cool water, lapping up the blood Ben spilled, and he saw the throat working
in a desperate swallow.
Oh, God. It was drinking his blood!
Ben clenched his fist and, with a roar, delivered another hard knock to the side of its head. The fangs
came loose, freeing Ben, and he scrambled backward, splashing more filthy, brown, and slimy water
all over himself, until the hard bank and the prick of branches halted him.
He stared long and hard at the body, which wasn’t a body, for a good minute. It—he—was breathing
now, the chest rising and falling, the mouth exhaling deathly wheezes, as though struggling to do just
that.
The fucker was alive.
Ben looked at his hand. Judging by the two very distinctive bleeding holes that were alongside the
indents of softer teeth in his palm, he was also a vampire.
Ben cradled his hand to his chest, he didn’t dare wash it out in this gross water, and he used his other
hand to pull his phone out of his jacket pocket. The leather had kept it dry, but now he was fucked
and had to throw away his favorite jacket.

Once again, like the loyal friend he was, Cedric picked up on the first ring.
“We got a bigger problem than I thought,” Ben said.

Chapter Three

The plastic sheeting that was supposed to be used to keep the body intact during the transportation
phase suddenly became the main support for keeping whatever dwindling sunlight that wormed its
way through the gray clouds above from frying the vampire in the water. Even more so than he
already was, that is.
It was a frosted plastic, so when Ben got it around the man and pulled him out of the shade of the
shrubs and the relative safety of the water, his body didn’t smoke like before. After that it was just a
matter of getting the guy into the backseat of Ben’s Jeep and back to Cedric’s cabin. Being gentle
was hardly something he could think about whilst carrying around a half-dead vampire.
It would’ve probably been more comfortable for the guy if Ben had some blankets to be doing this
with instead of this thick plastic carpet protector, but then again, what were the odds this guy was
even in any frame of mind where he could still feel any hardcore pain?
He could have just teleported back to the cabin with him instead of just hauling the crispy vampire
into his Jeep, but Ben didn’t want to drop a dying stranger in his friend’s lap, only to leave to go back
for his Jeep, which he needed to get off the road, pronto.
Besides, apart from the bite on his hand, Ben felt no alarm, and no reason to panic or hurry. This guy
would be lucky to survive the next ten minutes regardless of what Ben did. He might as well already
be dead. Ben’s only concern was making that death…well, not comfortable. They were way past that
stage, but at the very least, he didn’t want the guy’s death to be some alone, anonymous thing that
happened in a river.

At least Silus had finally installed tinted windows, so the second he was indoors and the door shut
behind him, Ben remembered to pull back the heavy plastic from the vamp’s face just in case there
were breathing problems.
Still alive. The guy was a trooper.
It was the least of his worries considering how the blackened flesh was partially pulled away by the
plastic covering that was meant to protect him from the sun. The oozing black skin, which had
become a sticky slop as his vampire genetics raced against the sunlight to heal itself, had acted as an
adhesive to the plastic, and Ben gagged as he unwrapped the strange vampire in a guest bed of Cedric
and Silus’s cottage.
“Jesus Christ,” Cedric muttered, grabbing at his nose. The rotting smell invaded the whole room.
Good thing the door was closed, otherwise it would’ve gotten into the pores of the rest of the house
and probably never come out.
“Wherefore did you bring him hence?” Silus demanded. The emergency being what it was, Cedric
ran to his vampire lover’s shared room and shook him awake before he was ready.
His pissy, bed-headed self had quickly come to full alert when the problem was presented to him.
“It’s not like there’s a vampire hospital I could’ve taken him to,” Ben snapped. “Besides, I figured
you could…” He motioned vaguely with his hand from Silus to the mysterious vampire struggling
for breath in bed.
All the comforters and pillows had been snatched away, leaving only smooth, crisp white sheets for
him to lay on. It was the only way to ensure that the rougher fabrics of the quilts wouldn’t cause any
more damage to what remained of the man’s peeling skin. It left the blackened body highlighted by
white, which somehow only made the smell that much worse.
Silus narrowed his eyes. “You assume that because I am a vampire, that I am also knowledgeable in
vampire medicine?”

“Aren’t you?”
“Of course not. I no more have any knowledge of such things than Cedric does.” Silus scanned his
eyes over the blackened, corpse-like figure on the bed, and just as quickly, looked away. “It’s a
miracle he lives.”
Silus spoke as though a man weren’t dying on his guest bed.
Cedric seemed to the be the only one out of the three of them who was trying to do something about
it. He cut away the rest of the plastic with a pair of scissors to keep from damaging the flesh any
more than what had already happened, and he began to do the same with the mud-caked clothing. He
had a bowl of water and a soft sponge that he was using to clean away the bits of river slime and mud
still clinging to the man. By his actions, Ben would say that Cedric thought the guy might actually
live.
“He bit my hand.” Ben held up the palm that he’d had no time to bandage. The best he could do in all
the confusion and running around was quickly dip it under a cold water tap. It allowed both men to
see the sloppy red punctures that were still filling with drying blood. “Will I turn into a vampire?”
Silus could answer that much, and if the answer was yes, he was going to put a bullet into the injured
vamp’s head and put him out of his misery.
“No,” Silus said. “He would of had to take more, much more, nearly until your heart ceased to beat,
then you would’ve had to drink from him, just enough to pull you back from death. You would not
be standing if a transformation was imminent.”
Ben breathed a sigh. He knew that Silus drank from Cedric on a near regular basis, but that didn’t
mean he trusted some other random vampire wouldn’t accidentally transform him.
“The fact that he has taken blood is good. For him,” Silus said, suddenly moving toward the bed. He
picked up and examined a brown bottle of disinfectant before putting it back down on the stand and
putting his hand on Cedric’s shoulder. “It is good that you clean his wounds, his body is already
doing so, but use no chemicals, you will only inhibit the process.”

Cedric looked up at him. His bowl of water had already been stained a dirty-colored red. “You sure?”
“Yeah, you did just say you don’t know anything about vampire medicine,” Ben snapped.
“And I do not. If you were to inquire of a cure for a disease infestation of my kind, I would have no
answer. The power of blood is common knowledge I have possessed since I was but a small child. I
had once burned my fingers on a stream of sun when I was young, and my mother put my hand in a
bowl of still water,” Silus explained.
“He has taken blood. His body will use that blood to mend itself. The simple fact that he had strength
enough to feed could only mean that his chances for survival are…better than what it appears.”
That took him aback. He stared down at the rancid body and fought the urge to gag. “His skin is
coming off in chunks. How could anyone survive that?”
Cedric looked up, as though he wanted to hear this answer, too. Silus shrugged. “Perhaps ‘tis merely
his body growing new skin. There are few things that can kill a vampire. Sunlight, yes, but only after
the body has been completely overcome and turned into ashes.”
“Jesus Christ,” Cedric said.
No kidding.
“And,” Silus continued, eyes narrowing. “I must agree that this appears to be an attempted murder
rather than suicide. No vampire with any sort of wits about him would ever throw himself into the
sun.”
Wasn’t hard to tell by the look and tone that Silus thought Ben was an idiot for bringing the vampire
here. Ben felt like an idiot now, too. “I don’t know what to do with him,” he said. “I fucked up, I
know. Obviously someone did this, and—”
Christ, if this was an attempted murder, then what would happen if the people responsible discovered
their target was alive? He’d brought this stranger in the hiding place of his best friend. Even then,
who was to say that this guy here didn’t do something to deserve it? For all Ben knew, he’d rescued a
serial killer.

He told his worries to Cedric, who bit his bottom lip in the way he did when he was thinking.
Cedric and Ben went all the way back to childhood. Ben’s family, what little of it there was, worked
as human servants in Cedric’s ancestral home. Eventually, when Ben was old enough, and to keep
close to each other, he took on the duties of being Cedric’s personal bodyguard, replacing another
human who’d retired.
Somehow Ben thought they’d always be together, living under the same roof, even if it was the
largest roof he’d ever lived under, but that never happened.
Ben moved out and got his own place when he realized he was gay, and developing feelings he
shouldn’t be having for his friend, but he still did the work, escorted Cedric around, going to bars,
parties, watching as the other man, oblivious to his feelings, flirted with and picked up men for
random and meaningless nights.
Then Cedric’s engagement to his younger cousin, Dacielle, had been announced.
It was a secret thing that had been in the works since the girl had been born, with no one knowing of
it except for Cedric’s parents and the bride-to-be’s mother herself.
If Cedric’s father, Cyricus, had only known that by doing such a thing, attempting to marry his son
off to get Dacielle’s dowry money for his family, would be the main reason why Cedric met and
would fall for a vampire of all creatures, well, he probably would’ve tried to marry his son off a lot
sooner.
The love match was so frowned upon that a war between the clans erupted, with the sun sprites
taking the coward’s way and ambushing the vampire’s home in the middle of the day. The only thing
that had put an end to it was Cedric and Silus faking their own deaths and then running away to hide
on this private land, living off the money that Silus had squirreled away his entire life.

Ben wasn’t entirely sure how much money that was, but they seemed to be holding up well enough in
such a large house, though Cedric was talking about getting a steady job since nothing else he did
brought in a lot of income.
“I know it’s a risk,” Cedric said, pulling Ben back into the present, “but I just can’t throw this guy,
whoever he is, outside to die in the sun on the chance that someone has it in for him.”
“He could easily be from Silus’s clan. The river joining to this lake isn’t far off their property.”
Silus tensed up at that, and then took another hard look at their guest, whose hard, open-mouthed
breathing wheezed loudly in the cozy little bedroom.
“I do not recognize him,” Silus said, “but that could be my own father and I would not know his
face.”
“What do we do about his skin?” Cedric asked.
“Naught,” Silus said. “He needs fresh blood to feed from, and his skin should eventually regrow. We
will need to dispose of whatever he sheds, however.” He shook his head after that. “I am unaware of
any dosage of pain medication he should be given, if any, or even how to determine if his heart or
brain have been compromised.”
“Maybe we should wash the spots where he’s openly bleeding, just in case,” Cedric offered, though
that appeared to be mostly everywhere.
Silus nodded. “Very well, but use only water.”
Even though Silus had said there was no point, Ben got the feeling the other man was agreeing to it
just to give his antsy lover something to do.
So, I know naught about vampire medicine was able to make a couple of decisions after all.
Ben banished the snide thought from his mind, reminding himself that, just because Silus knew a
couple of little things that were helping them now, he was right to not assume that everything would
be simple.

Ben also wanted to put his focus on another aspect of the conversation.
“You said he’s going to need blood. Who’s going to provide it?” Ben asked, eyeing both men in the
room, a strong suspicion he’d already volunteered by showing off the bite mark on his hand.
“Certainly not Cedric,” Silus said. “I do not wish to see that man in the throes of…ah…” Silus trailed
off, and color came into his face at what he could not say. Cedric bit his lips together in a catty smile.
Right. Sun sprite blood could apparently make a vampire orgasm. Most vampires were under the
impression that sun sprite blood was poison to them, so they didn’t drink it. Only Cedric and Silus
knew otherwise.
Ben had no patience for it. He didn’t much want to think of it either. “Right. We don’t want him to
have a heart attack from a seizure-inducing orgasm. Got it. What about you?”
“If he is from my family house, then I cannot have my life-blood inside of him. He’ll be able to sense
it, and he will know that I live and am in hiding. He has already taken some of your blood, so there’s
nothing that can be done for it.”
Fuckin’ hell.
“If he sees into my head he will definitely know about you.”
“I don’t think all vampires can do that,” Cedric said, still kneeling down by the bed and, with a gentle
hand, was working very slowly to cut away the rest of the tough, ruined clothing, keeping his
movements especially steady when he got down to the leg, which, Ben hadn’t noticed at first, but
was entirely turned at the wrong angle from the knee down.
That would have to be taken care of before it could heal incorrectly, if it already hadn’t. Ben knew
some first aid.
Now that the threat of death was out of the way, the charcoal body, and the fact that the foot was
pointing in the wrong direction, hardly seemed to bother Cedric at all, and it was insane how natural
the blond man looked, tending to the wounded. Maybe he should really be looking into going back to
school, trying out medicine or something.

“It would depend on his age,” Silus affirmed, “and his willingness to study the ability, but ’tis
doubtful he will see inside your mind. I cannot even perform such a task with Cedric, other than
sending him vague commands and requests. Any memories of us this man sees could be passed off as
events that have happened in the past. Cedric and I will simply have to stay out of the way when he
becomes aware of his surroundings again.”
Ben looked down once more to the bed, forced his eyes away from Cedric, and put them onto the
grotesque facial features. With the mouth open, he could see the teeth and pointed fangs, and the
mishmash of pink and black and swollen tongue and bleeding gums, and, ugh, Ben didn’t want to
stick his hand anywhere near that.
If this guy was going to survive the pain of having his leg twisted back into the proper position, and
have the energy his body required to heal, Ben would need to do it.
He sighed, rubbing the stinging open wounds between his thumb and forefinger. The annoying little
burn got worse just thinking about what he was going to do.
He approached the bed. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Chapter Four

Seth slowly came out of a warm haze, floating lazily back into the lowest form of consciousness, and
that in itself was an indicator that something was off, but he couldn’t piece together why that should
be a problem. Usually he woke up to aches and pains, and then there was the stint with his attempted
escape from the werewolves, but that didn’t cause any worry for him either.
Wiktor must be going soft. And then Seth got the image in his head of that miserable, old bloodsucker
sitting in Santa’s chair, surrounded by giant, colorfully wrapped gifts, candies, and children.
It made him laugh.
Then the familiar spicy scent of red life hit him, even in his half-awake state, and his mouth watered
and fangs lengthened as the pulsing vein, beating rhythmically, was put to his mouth.
This was too easy. Seth never got fed this easily. He bit down hard, relishing in the way the blood
exploded through his fangs and into his mouth. He refused to allow the offering to escape should it
be some kind of teasing trick.
He was proven right when the vein attempted to pull from his mouth, but he locked his jaws and
sucked back hard, panicking now. He wasn’t supposed to be here. He had to get out, become strong
so he could escape. Sam…he needed to get back to Sammy.
Loud noises, shouting. The stomping of feet, indicating more people had rushed in to wherever he
was. Somehow he got the feeling this wasn’t the first time this had happened. Pain and bright light
exploded along the side of his head, and then he fell deeper into the blackness once more.

* * * *

Seth’s eyes seemed to open before his body was ready to wake up, and he shot up from his bed,
strung out and panicking like a dog that had woken from a nap, only to discover he was no longer in
his master’s house.
Which, all things considered, was as true as it got.
The first thing that made his heart do a full stop was the light, until he realized the brightness was
coming from one of those energy-saving bulbs on the ceiling, and the breeze from the fan it was
plugged into. He wasn’t outside, and he wasn’t about to burst into flames, but his skin was still
remarkably sensitive to it, and it shouldn’t be.
Every inch of flesh on his body stung, like he’d just scrubbed the first three layers of it off or
something. His leg, ugh, his leg fucking killed. Seth shifted his weight onto the leg that wasn’t
throbbing at the knee, and he forced himself to sit back on the bed, keeping the pained limb from
bending too much. He wasn’t wearing the same clothes as he’d been wearing at Wiktor’s mansion.
These ones fit him better than that tight-ass suit he’d stolen from Winchester.
Actually, this room looked nothing like anything he’d ever seen in Wiktor’s mansion. It was too
small for a start, and the fact that Seth could tell he was in a basement, the plain, gray concrete walls,
tough and thin beige carpet, and tiny, high windows, were too obvious. There was a dehumidifier
humming along in the corner sucking all the moisture out of the air.
Wiktor would never have allowed it. Not the dehumidifier, but the ho-hum appearance in general.
Every room in that place had to look like high-society guests could be entertained there, and almost
every room, even Seth’s for the time he stayed as prisoner—before he’d been put in his cage for bad
behavior—had an adjoining bathroom.

This was simply a tidy-looking basement with a shut door. Probably led to some stairs.
Where in God’s name was he? Judging by how that single little window was tinted to keep out the
sun, he would guess that he was in a vampire home.
Not a good start.
He’d woken up in a stranger’s basement. That had to be the tagline to a horror movie somewhere.
“Hello?” His voice sounded smaller than he would have preferred. He cleared his throat and tried
again, louder this time. “Hello?”
He tried for his feet again, hissing as his knee burned up with the effort, any adrenaline that kept the
pain at bay having long since vanished. Doing his best to keep from putting much weight on it, he
limped his way to the door, nearly crashing into it as his leg buckled. He caught himself on the
door—more like slammed into it—and, standing on his good side, tried the handle.
It turned, but something kept the door from opening. He tried again and heard a rattle of metal
against wood. A padlock. On the outside.
Seth put his burning forehead against the cool wood. The window was definitely out of the question.
He could sense the heat from the sun shining outside. Even if it were nighttime with no moon out, he
doubted it was left unlocked anyway. So much for his escape.
Time to think. Where was he? How did he get here? How would he get out?
Seth could vaguely recall making a jump for the darker, deeper end of the water after running along
the stream, then an explosion in his left leg. Seth looked down at himself. He was wearing long,
beige shorts. He only needed to lift the hem about an inch to see the inflamed, gnarled, red fuckup
that was his knee.
One of the wolves had made a swipe at him, must’ve broken it. Someone had set it, but it was still in
the midst of healing. His skin, while not quite as red as his knee, was almost pink in color, which
would explain the sensitivity to a light bulb. He couldn’t think of what could cause that, however. If
he’d spent any amount of time in the sun, he’d be blacker than, well…he’d be dead. But his body
was basically producing what looked like new skin. Everywhere on him had that bright, pinkish color
that came once a scab was ripped away too soon.

He turned his hands about, getting a look at his arms next. There was no warping or scarring as far as
he could see. He put his fingers to his face next. Itchy and a little hot, but nothing felt wrong.
Whoever’s house he was in, they were taking care of him.
All the better to get him back to his master in good health. Whether this was Veturious’s doing, or
Winchester’s, Seth didn’t care to find out. If he could only see the person—people?—who had him.
Maybe he could convince them to tell him where he was, and maybe to let him go.
If they were working for Wiktor Veturious, however, that last part was as unlikely as they came.
Fuck, he was thirsty. Both for water and for blood. His body felt shriveled and weak. Whoever had
him must have been feeding him for his body to be healing, but he needed more.
A jingling of keys and the sound of the padlock on the other side of the door coming undone pulled
him out of his musings, but not fast enough. The door opened, and Seth had only just enough time to
jump backward before getting his face smacked by it. His foot twisted awkwardly during the sloppy
backward dash, and if he tried to support all his weight on it he would’ve hurt himself, Rather than
risk catching himself with his other injured leg, potentially fucking up his knee all the more, Seth
allowed himself to fall on his ass.
The landing on the thin frickin’ rug was not a soft one.
“Jesus Christ!” The new person in the room said. It was a man. He quickly shut the door behind him
and came to crouch down by Seth, instantly putting his arm around Seth’s waist, hoisting him up.

Too shocked over the feeling of a warm hand helping him off the carpet, Seth went with it. Awfully
trusting thing for a guard to do, Seth mused, allowing himself to be led back to bed.
There was the possibility that this man wasn’t a guard and was just the owner of the house, however,
which, if true, made the guy too trusting no matter how Seth looked at it.
The stranger muttered to himself about what a pain it was to be constantly doing this, as though Seth
weren’t right next to him. A chill settled into his guts at Tall and Dark’s words. How the hell long
had he been here? He’d obviously pulled himself out of bed before and couldn’t remember it.
Maybe that was why this guy was allowing himself to get so close. He’d done this so many times
before, this was nothing different. The thought made Seth’s guts churn.
Once back to sitting on the bed, the stranger with the deep brown hair knelt at his feet and grabbed
him by the ankles. It was in doing that, that Seth noticed the bandage on the palm and wrist. Now he
knew who his feeder was. By the scent of him, he wasn’t a vampire. Didn’t mean he wasn’t someone
else’s guard, though.
The guy was big. Not alpha werewolf big, but well muscled and thick enough in the shoulders to give
off a sense of superiority. His chest was the perfect size, not too huge and far from small, before it
dipped into a flat stomach. This guy did gym time. His body was tall, lean, and hard. Despite this, his
touch was gentle, mindful of Seth’s healing knee as he positioned Seth’s legs onto the bed so that he
was lying down above the rumpled covers.
Then he got up in Seth’s face, allowing him a close view of the seriousness in the other man’s eyes.
“Stay here.”
He said it as though he were commanding a four year old.
Seth didn’t nod or acknowledge that he’d even heard him. The dark-haired stranger shook his head,
curling his lip and half rolling his eyes, and left the room. He locked the door behind him, and Seth
could hear the pounding of his heavy, booted feet as he stomped up the stairs. He listened to the
creak in the floorboards above him as his feeder moved around, doing God only knew what.

There was a murmur of his voice, then another, softer, but still male. More footprints, and another
voice, sharper and familiar.
How many people were in this house?
The heavy boot steps returned, the door unlocked, and the dark-haired man was back. There was a
tray in his hands and one of those tiny folding bedside tables under his arm. A purple plastic cup sat
on the tray, along with a plastic bowl of the same color. Seth could only imagine plastic cutlery
would be used as well for whatever slop he’d be eating.
Fuck that.
“Where am I?”
Tall and Dark halted as he was setting up the little foldable table, and then he stared hard at him.
“You can talk.” It wasn’t a question, and that worried Seth.
“How long have I been here? Where am I?” he asked again, eyes darting to the high, tinted window.
“Is this Wiktor Veturious’s property?”
He wasn’t about to beat around the bush on that last question. If he was in one of Wiktor’s houses, he
wanted to know it now so he could get the fuck out.
Tall and Dark didn’t answer. His eyes flickered slightly at the mention of the name, as though about
to widen before he caught himself, returned to neutral as he put the tray down, turned, and left the
room. The sounds of the padlock being put back in place, followed by boot steps up the stairs, and
then nothing.
Was he whispering to whoever else was up there about Seth’s condition? Didn’t matter. This was
definitely Wiktor’s property. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Seth took one good look at the tray of food on the little wooden folding table. He reached out to pull
it closer as it was still too far away. Water and what looked like a bowl of applesauce.

What the hell had these people been feeding him?
He took the cup and sniffed the water. It was clear as far as he could tell, with the purple plastic not
helping at all. There was no scent or cloudy substance to indicate a drug, and he was so thirsty.
He took the risk and gulped down the water in one go. He wasn’t going to touch the applesauce. He
took the bowl and threw it into the corner where it splattered nicely along the painted concrete walls
and ugly carpet.
Ten minutes later, heavy boot steps returned, and the door opened. Tall and Dark stepped inside the
room, glanced briefly at the mess in the corner, and then approached the bed. With him standing and
Seth lying down like he was on his sick bed, well, it gave the other guy a menacing and imposing
aura, especially when he crossed those muscled arms across his chest.
His black T-shirt was way too tight, and maybe Tall and Dark thought it was just a little cold down
here because Seth could make out the impressions of his nipples peaking under the material.
“Are you an employee of Wiktor Veturious’s house?” Tall and Dark demanded.
Okay. “I was.”
“Was?”
This guy was too professional to be just some random person. The clothes and attitude said as much.
He was definitely a guard. Considering Seth used to be one himself, he should’ve put it together
sooner. Was he guarding the family upstairs? From Seth?
“I used to be. I ran away.”
A single dark brow lifted. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
“Is there a reason for this session?”
“My job is to determine if you’re a threat to my employers or not.”
“I’m not.”
“You were found half dead and fried beyond recognition in the river. Did the Veturious clan do that
to you?”

Seth could only remember diving into the water, the exploding pain in his leg before his body twisted
and head crashed into the rocks. This guy said he’d been found downriver. How far down? There’s
no way Jackson would’ve let him slip out of his grasp if he’d thought Seth was alive.
Better to give this guy some specifics if he wanted to get out of here, and that’s what he did, leaving
out more of the unneeded details about Seth’s time as a feeder and Winchester’s pet.
“What’s your name?” Tall and Dark asked when he finished.
Seth didn’t answer. That was too specific.
“Is there anyone you need us to call?”
“No. When can I leave?”
“You’ve been mentally unstable for these last couple of days, and all but brain-dead before that.
Believe me when I say that my employers aren’t happy with you here, especially now that they know
you’re connected to Wiktor’s house.”
Mentally unstable. Brain-dead. That explained the applesauce. For the first time, Seth was grateful to
his vampire healing. A lifetime, or ten of them, spent as a vegetable would hardly have been better
than his situation at Wiktor’s house. “They’re not in his good books either, I take it?”
The man’s hard lips became a thin line. “We haven’t been drugging your food. I’ll arrange for
something else to be brought down. If you need to use a bathroom, I’ll escort you upstairs.”
Perfect.
“I need to feed.” There was no way this guy could misunderstand just which sort of feeding he was
referring to, not with the way his eyes wandered down to the bandage wrapped around his wrist and
palm.
That same hand clenched up. “Give me a minute.”
Before Seth could even offer up a protest, soldier boy turned tail and left the room again, that
annoying click and metal scrape of the padlock getting put into place acting as the final barrier that
would keep Seth a prisoner.

His body was still so weak, and his knee throbbed and burned like someone was making a fire inside
the joint. He ached to shut his eyes and go back to sleep, but he forced the lids open and kept his
mind alert, which was a small torture in of itself.
Not yet. He couldn’t sleep yet, not until he figured out who those people were upstairs, why they
were hiding from Wiktor, and why his guard’s voice sounded so familiar.

Chapter Five

“You are certain of it?”
Ben nodded, and Silus sighed. That vampire downstairs officially didn’t know whose house he was
in. A good thing since, according to Silus, he’d been a former guard in Wiktor’s house.
If that man took one look at Silus then he’d know what was up, and he could potentially fuck up
everything they had fought for last year. The guy wasn’t a serial killer like Ben had feared last week
when he’d brought the man in. The truth of what he really was, however, was almost worse.
Times like these he wished he hadn’t given up his smoke habit back in college. It was one of the
rules of Cyricus’s house. Cigarette smoke might’ve been sexy and mysterious and all that shit back in
the twenties, but nowadays, according to him, it made the furniture smell, made guests who were
non-smokers uncomfortable, and downright ruined the property value of his home. So he had to quit.
Never mind that the old fucker loved to smoke his cigars in his study, or the billiards room when he
was meeting with other sun sprites or business men of high importance. For that, Ben loved it that
Dacielle had kicked the old man out of the Billiards room and was redecorating the space into a girly
boutique of some kind.
God, Ben was jonesing for a cigarette.
He forced calm into himself by taking a steady breath, and kept his voice low. He didn’t want that
vampire downstairs hearing any of this. “We need to get rid of him. If he figures out who either of
you are, he could get pissed and try something.”

The fact that Ben had only been smart enough to put together just who he’d found in the stream
today, well, he felt like an idiot. Now the guy was awake and aware and would be harder to deal
with, could cause problems just by knowing his rescuers were also involved in the Veturious clan.
For all that man downstairs knew, Silus had purposely left him out in the open for the other vampires
to find, helpless after being transformed into a vampire.
When Silus’s parents had found out their son was in love with a sun sprite, they’d had him confined
to his bed, and doctors were brought in to bleed him. Cleanse the sun sprite blood right out of him, or
something like that. He’d nearly been killed by it, but the guard downstairs had offered to release him
on the condition that Silus transform him into a vampire. Silus had done so and escaped. Apparently,
Wiktor didn’t take too kindly to that betrayal, especially after Silus faked his death in front of
everyone like he did.
Silus had hidden the other man under his bed when he fled. Not the best place, to be sure, but he
hadn’t left him out in the open to be found. Nope. That was Ben and Cedric.
They’d arrived later, right before the sun sprites attacked the manor, searching for Silus. Ben could
remember slapping the guy’s cheeks in an attempt to wake him before they’d noticed the bite marks
on him. In their hurry to get to Silus, they hadn’t thought to put him back in his little hiding place,
and they were the ones to leave him.
Fuckin’ hell.
“He couldn’t go to our parents,” Cedric said. “Look what Wiktor did when he tried to escape.”
“He could go to your father,” Ben said. “Tell him you’re alive, fuck this whole thing up. The sun
sprites weren’t the ones to torture him like the vampires did.”
For the first time, Silus, it seemed, would agree with him. “He would not have risked betraying my
sire by fleeing had he not been placed under physical stress. Wiktor might even have blamed him for
my death, seeing as he was the man who released me that day.”

“And we owe him for that. Ben and I pulled him out from under the bed and left him, right where
someone could see him. If he was being tortured it was our fault.” Cedric crossed his arms, but not
defensively. He seemed the most uncomfortable with all of this. “I think we should let him know
who we are.”
“Cedric!” Silus snapped.
“Ceddy, I get that you feel guilty, but this guy only let Silus go because he promised to turn him into
a vampire. He’s not some noble warrior that did you a favor. He wanted to be immortal.”
It was the main reason for Ben’s distrust of him, despite how that distrust conflicted with his inner
instincts. Ben didn’t see this guy as being the sort who would focus his revenge on the wrong people,
but as Cedric’s former bodyguard, he was trained to protect him, and he wasn’t about to set aside his
feelings of duty over a gut instinct.
Ugh, gut instinct. Yeah, that’s where his instinct was coming from. His gut. More like his cock. He’d
been able to admit to himself that the man downstairs was a little attractive once all the gore had
either fallen or been washed away.
It was strange. Normally Ben went for the blond ones.
He purposely avoided looking at Cedric when that thought flittered through his brain.
Cedric turned his eyes to Silus. “Would it matter that he wanted to be a vampire?”
Silus clenched his jaw and threaded his long fingers through shoulder-length black hair.
All of this had been so much easier when Sampson, as his name apparently was according to Silus,
had been in a coma, and later was slurping down his applesauce through a straw.
Ben wouldn’t wish those kinds of mental imprisonments on anyone, but God damn…if only that
vampire healing hadn’t kicked in until later. Like after Ben figured out who he was and arranged for
someone else to take care of him.

If only Silus wasn’t so weak that he couldn’t have gotten a better look at him that night they met. If
only Ben and Cedric had paid more attention to the details of his face before they’d hurried off
during the attack.
Too late.
Finally, Silus gave his answer, “He is to stay until he is well enough to travel. He has been here so
long already…if my father’s werewolves are searching for him then they will not find him here if
they already haven’t. Any possible scent he could have left behind is no doubt too old to track. Find
out if he has family and escort him there. That will be the end of it.”
“He threw away his food and said he’s thirsty,” said Ben. “I can’t feed him my blood right now, I
need to leave.”
Back to Dacielle, as a matter of fact, and he was low enough on blood as it was, considering the
number of times he’d let Sampson drink from him. He needed his strength to be on the job.
After Cedric and Silus faked their deaths, in a room filled with both sun sprites and vampires, Ben
had thrown down his bulletproof vest, quit his job, and stalked out of there with his head held high.
That hadn’t lasted. He could still remember the wince on Cedric’s face when he told the other man
that he had to go back to work for Cyricus. With no references to give to any other employers, and
his time in school being so long ago, it wasn’t long until his savings were running dangerously low.
He’d had to give up and ask the miserable old bastard for his job back, guarding members of the
family.
Oddly enough, the old man had been gracious about it, and had treated Ben well, and continued to be
civil to him, even offering him a small raise in pay. Ben suspected it was because the man saw him as
the last link he had to Cedric, the son he thought to be dead.
So Ben had been reassigned to Dacielle, whose mother took over the affairs of Cyricus’s house. It
pissed off Cyricus to no end to no longer be the true owner of his ancestral home. The only reason he
still lived there was because his wife and Dacielle’s mother were sisters, and one did not turn away
one’s sister in polite society.

Cedric nodded. “I’ll bring him something to eat. He doesn’t know who I am on sight,” he added
when Silus looked ready to protest.
Ben was hardly comfortable with Cedric going down there now that Sampson was awake, but what
could he do? “I’ll be back as soon as I can. Don’t tell him who you are, at least until I get back, keep
some distance between the both of you, and don’t be afraid to fry him if he tries attacking you.”
Sun sprites could release real UV light from their bodies. A pretty decent weapon when it came to
vampires, though Ben hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
“Got it?” He asked.
“Yes, Father,” Cedric sneered.
Ben flipped him off before vanishing from their sight, teleporting from the large cottage where his
best friend lived—leaving his Jeep behind since it would take too long to drive—to the huge mansion
where his father still mourned him.
Ben would be taking Peter off his shift, and he didn’t look forward to it. Dacielle’s mother was
bringing in new, wealthy suitors for her daughter to meet today, which basically meant that Ben
would be spending the majority of his time standing in a corner. He’d be looking imposing and
lifeless as the girl and her mother put on their makeup and tried on flowery dresses and mega, huge
family jewels, before they talked weather with the boys over tea.
During all this time, Ben wouldn’t so much as be allowed to pull his phone out to check if Silus or
Cedric sent him any messages. It was going to be a long night.

* * * *

“He’s got no strength. We’ll be fine.”

Cedric smiled that eager smile of his when he wanted something, and currently, Silus was being
pulled by the hand toward their upstairs bedchamber.
“Two locked doors can hardly contain a vampire if he truly wished to escape.”
“He’s got no strength yet. He told me that.”
And the thought didn’t enter the idiot’s mind that Sampson could easily be telling an untruth. Silus
would feel less concerned if he had guards posted, but such days when he had men to do his bidding
was behind him.
Hell only knew how his former servant below would react once he discovered he was in his former
master’s house.
Cedric had eventually ventured down to the cellar, food, a freshly killed rabbit to provide some
blood, and several books to offer, whilst Silus had waited as patiently as his body would allow for his
lover to return. He had paced in the kitchen where the final door to the basement was, worried until
Cedric’s clomping feet had come back up.
Cedric returned after twenty minutes, having finished his task of changing bandages and offering the
sustenance Sampson required. He’d apparently deemed it appropriate to converse with their guest as
well, which had caused the delay that made Silus’s heart beat that much faster.
The little shit hardly seemed concerned at all.
According to Cedric, Sampson did not know who Cedric was, and assumed he was another human,
although he had been put out of sorts when he offered his true first name, Seth, and Cedric did not
comply with the same.
Despite this setback, for the moment, their guest, Seth, was content to wait in his new situation until
such a time when he was strong enough to be released.
His sun sprite was a smooth talker indeed to pull that sort of response from a man who had no idea
who cared for him.

“I am looking forward to the moment when that vampire is out of our home,” Silus said. Sampson
was not giving away any more details of the nature to his escape, and the longer he was under Silus’s
roof, the more unease seeped into his skin.
Cedric seemed in good enough spirits, and he insisted on putting Silus in that same happy place.
“I’m looking forward to something else,” he said as he pulled Silus inside their room, closing the
door, and backing Silus against it as he pressed his lips to the sensitive skin of his neck.
Silus released a soft moan. Cedric’s hands came to rest on his hips, keeping them still as he surged
them forward, searching for friction. Silus hissed pleasurably when his lover scraped along the
sensitive flesh with his teeth. He’d become quite skilled at teasing Silus like this.
Silus’s hand found its way into Cedric’s sun-gold hair. The sprite had allowed it to grow longer
recently, giving Silus much to grip onto, and his worry over the vampire downstairs discovering his
identity faded farther into the back of his mind as he was kissed and caressed, but it was still there.
“It’s okay, don’t think about it,” Cedric said, his fingers working the buttons of Silus’s black silk
shirt, slipping beneath the soft fabric, playing along the hard lines of Silus’s chest. He pinched Silus’s
nipples, even though the nerves there weren’t as strong as on any other male. Sun sprite or human.
No, his neck was the most sensitive between the two places, but Cedric never ceased his biting
kisses. It seemed his sun sprite was doing his absolute best to ensure that Silus did not rethink his
decision to allow Sampson to continue his stay.
Skin glowing faintly with pleasure, Cedric pressed downward kisses along Silus’s chest and stomach.
Who would Sampson wish revenge on the most? Himself? For transforming him and leaving him,
damn near unconscious, fending for himself in such a weakened state?

Or would it be Cedric? Just the thought made Silus shudder. Cedric seemed to take that as a pleasing
sign and continued his way slowly downward, a kiss for every inch he came closer to his intended
goal. Cool air met his legs as his belt and fly were opened, trousers and trunks pulled down.
A sharp pinch jolted him from his inner thigh. Silus jumped and looked down, for a moment thinking
Cedric had bitten him.
Of course he had not. Cedric glared up at him from his place on his knees, his happy glow entirely
gone. “Snap out of it. You’re supposed to be here with me.”
“A new war between the clans could break out if he reveals our secret.”
Cedric ran his hands up and down the firm muscles of Silus’s legs in a soothing motion. “I know. But
I owe him. He’s a fugitive, and so are we. It’s not going to be as bad as you think.”
Silus somewhat doubted that, but those doubts vanished as his cock was engulfed in the most
welcoming heat he’d experienced in a near fortnight. His head fell back, banging roughly against the
door. He hardly noticed the jolt of pain as Cedric licked his tongue along the tip of his organ.
“Yeeesss,” he hissed.
His cock pulsed quickly, balls tightening so soon, nearly ready for orgasm after only a few up and
down bobs of Cedric’s head and the squeezing of his mouth. ’Twas to be expected after living so
chastely this last week.
Sex was hardly a commodity that could be enjoyed to the fullest when a vampire may very well be
dying in one’s basement. The thought did tend to make for odd coupling.
But, Cedric did make a surprising nurse. Silus would wait until his lover finished his ministrations
before he made a jest over such a thing, however. Until then, he allowed his eyes to fall shut and his
soft moaning to become stronger as the pleasure washed through him, erasing everything else.

Chapter Six

Seth was pacing the area of his cell, basement, room, whatever, when the lock finally scraped open
and the door opened, revealing, not the blond man who had apparently been seeing to his needs,
medically, whilst he’d been barely more than a vegetable, but the darker, serious-looking guard.
He wore tight-fitting, black clothing, similar from yesterday, and it hugged the guy’s six pack
beautifully. Seth had no time to appreciate the view. “It’s about fucking time. I need to piss.”
He’d been pounding on the door, calling out, for damn near an hour before Tall and Dark had
decided to grace him with an answer.
He stormed toward the door. Whether it was the shock of his sudden movements or his reason for
needing to go upstairs that prevented his guard from outright stopping him, Seth didn’t know.
Nor did he give a rat’s ass so long as he didn’t embarrass the hell out of himself by letting everything
inside him go. Bad enough when that blond guy had explained how his bodily functions had been
cared for when Seth was out of his proper frame of mind.
It really was his own fault for asking such a question, and he was most glad that Tall and Dark hadn’t
been the one to take care of that duty for him.
Seth jogged up the stairs, two at a time, sort of. His one knee was still stiff as hell, and though he
could put his weight on it with no problem, he found himself favoring his other leg on the stairs and
using the handrails to pull himself up them faster.
He had to ignore the pulsing such quick and reckless movements put in his knee as the throb in his
bladder got worse and worse. He still kept a firm grip on the rail. It had only been one night since he
woke up from whatever little coma he’d been in, but his body continued to heal nicely after receiving
more fresh blood.

He was only sorry it hadn’t been from his guard, who was hot on his heels, following him up the
stairs and out the much thinner, weaker door. Despite the daytime sun, the heat from which he could
feel even through the air-conditioning, the kitchen the stairs led to was dark from the tinted windows,
but furnished beautifully, with marble everything and sparkling this and that which Seth really
needed to notice another time.
“Down that hall, first door. Don’t try to go anywhere else,” Tall and Dark warned.
Like he’d try it at this point.
He did as he was told, found the door he wanted, and sighed with relief when he made it on time. At
least he was able to do this himself.
He washed his hands when he finished, taking his sweet time with that act, loving the feel of the
water splashing over his skin, at exactly a temperature he was comfortable with, at exactly the
pressure he was comfortable with.
He made sure to keep the water of the faucet running just a tad longer as he stared himself in the
mirror, not wanting to be disturbed from his own fucked-up shock.
Holy God. That was him? There was hardly any color in his face, he was as pale as a corpse, and this
was after being told his entire body had been deep-fried in sunlight. Nothing on him was pink and
itching anymore at least.
But, wow, he looked good. Better than good. Seth looked like he just woke up from the best beauty
sleep he’d ever had. It must’ve been a product of all the brand new skin and hair he was growing,
coupled with the just-out-of-bed look in his new hair.
Maybe this explained the real reason for Tall and Dark’s hitch in heartbeat whenever Seth saw him.
The guy seemed to think Seth didn’t know about that, but he did.

His proud glee vanished pretty fast as his previous thought came back to him. Was he a corpse? He
was a vampire, an undead, technically, and in the year since he’d become so, he he’d never had the
opportunity to let that part sink in. He’d been too busy being Wiktor’s whipping boy, no better than
one of the werewolf servants. Not the weres who were strong and fast enough to become guards, no,
but the runts and omegas who waited the tables, cooked meals, and cleaned the bedrooms, among
other things.
Seth had been made to participate in those other things until Winchester came along. His hands
shook from where they’d gripped the edges of the white ceramic sink. Just thinking about it made
him sick, what little there was to think about. God only knew how he’d react to the shit he couldn’t
remember. So often he’d been denied blood, or fed from to the point of delirious hunger, that there
were things he wasn’t sure were real and were not.
A year had passed. He knew this from the info he was able to get out of Jackson, who would
occasionally offer his own vein just to keep Seth’s heart ticking, but otherwise, Seth could hardly
recall a third of the time he’d been in captivity.
After drinking Jackson’s blood, Seth immediately understood why vampires never fed from their
wolf servants. Werewolf blood was dry on his tongue. To his constantly parched throat, it had been
the equivalent of being offered a glass of ice water after tracking through a hot desert for several
hours, but with enough sand stirred in it just to ruin what would have otherwise been a refreshing
gift. It had always brought his strength up, not by much, but enough for him to function. Sometimes
the blood made his throat and tongue even dryer than before he’d drank it.
Of course, Seth always took what Jackson offered. Even had his blood tasted of heavy mud, he
would have taken it, gladly, and with a thank-you for the trouble the alpha went through just for
offering.

Seth suspected Wiktor knew of Jackson’s activities, and only allowed it because he viewed a vampire
drinking werewolf blood as just one more punishment to be had.
Despite his many punishments, Seth was always made to suffer more. He could remember that much.
Wiktor hardly hosted any parties, not to the extent he did before his son had killed himself, the
family wished to wait a year, deciding that would constitute a proper mourning period, but there were
still the occasional business ventures that could not be overlooked. Trafficking humans was a
business that would wait for no one.
Seth had not been made to serve during those functions like the omega werewolves who acted as the
Veturious butlers, no, he’d been kept behind closed doors, his blood sold to the highest bidder in
Wiktor’s close-knit circle.
Apparently, for a recently transformed vampire, his blood had its own unique flavoring that some
vampires found irresistible. The things one learned on the fly.
Seth could only make out bits and pieces of those encounters, strapped down, low on blood from
being constantly fed from two, sometimes three times per night, but he did know that not every buyer
took only his blood. Wiktor kept no rules, after all, apart from the obvious, do not suck him dry.
Sometimes the buyers could barely be counted on to do that.
As the months passed and Seth’s blood became more and more vampiric and less human in nature,
the buyers, mostly the females, and occasionally the males, continued to come for him. The worst
was when he woke up in the middle of being fucked against his will, only to get dragged back to his
room. It wasn’t until after his first escape attempt that they put him in a tiny little cage, barely larger
than a dog’s kennel.
Then Winchester, a psychiatrist Wiktor favored, had come along and made a favorite out of him.

As he stared himself in the mirror, Seth’s eyes became bloodred. He had enough blood in him now
that his body was capable of producing that kind of enraged reaction, he supposed.

As that happened,

everything in the bathroom turned a dark red, too, from his mirrored reflection to the painted beige
walls.
No matter how long it took him, he was going to hunt down each and every one of those vampire
motherfuckers who’d fed from him and rip their heads from their shoulders. He was going to castrate
the males who’d fucked him, and for the women who’d done the same, he was going to bury them
alive after he branded his name on their lovely little faces.
He still hadn’t decided how he was going to get that part done. Either by burning or cutting, or
maybe tattooing, but they’d loved him so much, they could wear him on their cheeks for all of their
immortal lives. Could a vampire die from asphyxiation?
Whatever. He’d work out the details of that one later. When he was done with all of them, he was
going to do the exact same thing to Wiktor Veturious for ever thinking he could put Seth in a cage.
Before any of that could get done, he still had to get to Sammy. A year had gone by. His brother was
first priority.
A loud knock at the door jerked him out of his vengeful thoughts. He literally jumped as the sound
invaded his quiet space, and all the red fled from his vision like rodents scurrying out of the light and
back into the darkness. The running water no longer soothed him, and he turned off the taps.
“What?” he asked.
“Hurry up in there, thought you were dying or something.”
Or something. They were worried he was either trying to hurt himself or trying to escape.
Whatever. Seth dried his hands on a towel hanging over the toilet and let himself out.
The first reaction his body took was the shock that froze him then a mild panic as the three figures
stood before him.

What. The. Hell? His mind raced to catch up with him. They had been waiting, as a unit right outside
the bathroom door. Two of them he already knew. Tall and Dark was right there on the far right,
pulse skipping as erratically as ever. The blond man who’d brought him the rabbit and spoken to him
last night stood on the far left, back straight, face calm, and in the center of their group, the other
man, the shortest of the three—barely—who wore a black suit and tie over a red silk shirt like he was
expected at some high society luncheon, kept his arms folded over his chest.
Seth inhaled sharply when it clicked. Then he blinked and tilted his head, as though that would
change the image his retinas were sending to his brain. No fucking way.
It was a look-alike was the first thought in his mind, but no. The tinted windows, hiding out from
Wiktor. Silus Veturious was standing in front of him, as alive and healthy as any vampire could be.
“We’re going to have a calm discussion now,” Tall and Dark said. “There’s not going to be any kind
of—hey!”
His words were cut off as Seth shot forward and body-slammed into him, knocking the guard over
and running for dear life for the front door.
“Wait!” It was the voice of the blond one, Cedric, if Seth remembered the name right, calling for
him. Yeah. Fucking. Right. That guy was a sun sprite and Seth had just finished re-growing his skin,
thank you very much.
Heavy, booted footsteps followed Seth down the hallway. He had no idea where he was going, but
anywhere was better than here.
One door different from all the rest appeared when he turned down another hall. Different because it
was the door leading outside. He flew to it, grabbed the handle, twisted it open—
And screamed as he was blasted in the face with direct sunlight. He brought his arms up as a shield,
but it burned, even through his clothes, and he fell back. Down, down, down, until the hard floor
smacked into him.

Daylight. He’d forgotten.
Shouts rang out. Someone was above him. He couldn’t see, but then the clomp, clomp of steel toes
told him who. The guard.
He shut the door, barring any more sunlight from getting in, and then Seth could feel the other man
next to him, on his knees, way up in Seth’s personal bubble.
“You fucking idiot,” the man seethed.
Seth managed to crack his crispy lids open to get an up-close view of his rage. It almost made Seth
want to laugh.
“We weren’t going to hurt you, idiot.” He said the insult again, unwrapping the bandages from his
wrist and putting the healing bite marks to Seth’s mouth. “We just wanted to talk.”
“Fuck you,” Seth got out, right before he latched his lips onto that spot and sank his teeth into the
punctures, reopening them and bringing a hiss out of his volunteer feeder.
He needed the blood. It would allow him to heal faster, and his knee throbbed and killed again,
although maybe he should be grateful for that part. Had he been going at actual vampire speed, he
wouldn’t have stopped for that split second he was at the door, he would’ve run maybe twenty feet
out into the sunlight before he could’ve stopped himself, and then he really would’ve been dead.
Still, he couldn’t wait to hear the reason why Silus Veturious and his sun sprite lover faked their
deaths and left Seth to pay for it.

Chapter Seven

He was dreaming, and yet, not. He knew it was a dream because he was reliving the scene he had
with Sammy that night he accepted the job as one of the Veturious family guards.
He’d been kneeling at Sammy’s bed, his hands on his brother’s thin arms, and Seth had been
swelling with the most hope he’d felt since…well, ever. “These people can help us. I won’t be gone
long and when I come back you’ll be healthy again.”
Sammy just looked at Seth as though he’d been the one to sell the family cow for miracle beans.
“What do these people have that my doctors don’t? I’m okay right now anyway. I don’t want you to
leave.”
It was true, Sammy had been doing better. His hair had finally had a chance to grow back and he had
some color in his cheeks again, but Seth didn’t want to sit around and wait for it to end.
There was no way in hell he was about to say that he was going to work for a bunch of vampires,
however. If his brother knew that, he’d flip out.
“They’re loaded and they’re going to pay me good money.” Not a lie, but not the whole truth either.
They were definitely paying him more than what he could easily find with only a year’s worth of
college under his belt. “Maria will stay with you and I’m going to call and visit whenever I can.”
Seth caught himself when he realized it had been the same thing their father had said after he
remarried and moved in with his new wife. Seth gripped Sammy’s arms, probably tighter than he
should have, but he couldn’t help it. “I swear to God I will. This will only be for a couple of months
at most anyway.”

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 becoming 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—
Seth’s knees buckled as Tall and Dark released Seth’s cock from his hand and put their hips together.
Seth’s moan was loud, and he was forced to fist the other man’s shirt just to keep from totally losing
his balance. The other man’s clothes completely vanished and it was—

Jeeee—sus, that was too fucking good. The slide of flesh on flesh, the feel of hard muscle beneath his
hands, was damn near his undoing. Seth’s leg wasn’t even troubling him as he thrust his hips against
the other man’s, and Tall and Dark responded in kind.
It had to be part of this vampire dream place. Seth was going to have to figure out just how much
power he had here because he was having a hard time controlling it and didn’t much care either.
No. Wait, this wasn’t right. He did care. Seth put his palms to Tall and Dark’s bare chest and pushed
him away.
“You don’t actually want to do this. It’s part of vampire lore. It’s how they keep power over the
people they’ve fed from. This place seduces you.”
“You’re seducing me,” Tall and Dark said, coming forward again. His hand reached down and
gripped Seth’s cock tightly, and Seth had to clench his teeth to hold back a strangled moan at that
delicious touch. He had to force himself to fall back on the wall behind him and lock his knees to
keep vertical.
He still couldn’t give over. Not yet. There was something about being constantly forced to do these
things that made him want to make sure, without any of the tiniest shadows of a doubt, that his
partner was as ready and willing as he.
He brought his hand up, forcing Tall and Dark to look him in the eye instead of at Seth’s cock as he
stroked it, and Seth put all of his concentration into getting that lusty glimmer out of it, to make the
other man’s head clear and focused again.
“Do you know who I am?” Seth asked.
“Yeah,” Tall and Dark said. “You worked for Wiktor because you wanted to be a vampire.”
Seth winced. The guy made it sound like a bad thing. “You still want to fuck?” He asked it whilst
putting all of his focus into keeping Tall and Dark as aware of himself as possible.
Despite his efforts, that half-hooded look in the man’s green eyes returned. The emerald orbs
darkening with lust, so much so that there was no way Seth could think that this wasn’t a conscious
choice he was making.

“Yes.”
The last half thread of Seth’s control broke. Why the hell not?
Tall and Dark was a little bigger than he, meaning by comparison of their height, not their cocks, and
he crushed Seth against the wall. The force of it made the breath whoosh from Seth’s lungs, but then
Tall and Dark stuck his lips on Seth’s neck, and he tensed up as he was about to get bitten—
“Sto—ugh!” His near cease and desist turned into a strangled moan, and colors he’d never seen
before flashed in front of his eyes.
Holy mother of God in hell that felt awesome. Better than awesome. There were little, glittery stars
dancing around his peripheral vision, his blood boiled, his throbbing cock strained, and Seth began
thrusting his hips in earnest again, searching for any sort of friction.
And all that was just from having his neck played with. Was this a vampire thing? It was nearly as
good as if that mouth were wrapped around his dick, working him until he begged, and he was
tempted to think it might even be better.
Then that warm, suckling mouth pulled away. “I was curious to see if that would work.”
Why was it that every person on Earth seemed to know more about vampires than he did?
Seth couldn’t even think of anything smart-ass to say, because then a pair of roaming hands found his
ass.
A sliver of panic wormed its way into Seth’s warm, happy place as Tall and Dark kneaded the
muscles of his cheeks, gripping hard, his fingers probing…
Seth turned the tides of them, pushing the other man’s hands away and spinning them until he was
pushing Tall and Dark’s back into the wall. The bigger man hardly seemed to notice. The switch
even put a smile on his face.

Better. Much better.
Their bodies were pressed so closely together now Seth doubted he could fit a sheet of paper between
them. He rubbed his aching erection into the other man’s organ, delighting in the sounds he made and
the sizzling hot feel of it.
This time he was the one to reach around, to grab the other man’s ass, probe his fingers around,
and…
He was already prepared. Lubed and everything. Could this place really do that for them?
Motherfucking Winchester never bothered with—
Nope. Not going to think about that here.
Seth doubted he even needed to worry about condoms either if this was the case. No wonder people
loved having sex with vampires, anything went in this dream. It was the first time Seth was in control
of one of these, and he was loving it more and more every second. Yeah, he’d wanted everything to
be as real as possible, but forgoing that part he could live with.
“Turn around,” he commanded.
Seth half expected the other man to scoff at him and tell him where to go, considering Tall and Dark
was a guard, and Seth was still the prisoner of the house. To Seth’s shock, he did as ordered, no
question at all.
Tall and Dark put his palms flat against the wall, spread his legs, and then looked over his shoulder,
that same wicked, come-and-get-it grin on his face. “Like this?”
Like there could be any other way to face a wall.
Christ, Seth was going to spill just at the sight of him. He gripped his cock at the base, forcing
himself to keep from doing just that. He had to take a breather, just for two seconds. He didn’t want
to come so fast that it was over in an instant. This was going to be good, and he was going to savor it
because he needed this so badly. He needed to fuck someone and be in control for once, never mind
that he didn’t even know this guy’s name, or why the man was letting a stranger whom he was
supposed to be guarding fuck him in this vampire dream.

Seth could tell the guy had control, enough of it to resist the lust on his own if he really wanted, so
this was something else entirely.
Enough thinking. He approached, lined up his aching prick to Tall and Dark’s waiting hole, and
thrust inside. There was no resistance of muscle—well, there was some, but for the most part it was
an easy pass right before Tall and Dark’s already tight walls clamped down on him.
Seth’s body didn’t do as his mind commanded. Seth wanted to go slow, but that wasn’t about to
happen. He just couldn’t stop himself from pumping in and out, as fast as his hips would allow. Then
the other man was moaning from deep within his throat along with him, his good hand reaching
down to stroke himself as Seth fucked him.
“Ungh, yeah, baby, you feel so good,” Seth said, wrapping his arms around Tall and Dark, hugging
them together, back to chest. There was a tiny mole growing out of the back of the man’s neck, right
in the middle. Seth didn’t know why he noticed it, but it was cute.
Tall and Dark moaned again, pumping himself and thrusting his hips in time with Seth’s. “Se—”
Seth turned Tall and Dark’s face and angled himself so he could reach around and kiss him, his name
nearly spilling from the other man’s mouth was too much, just too damn much, and his pelvis
pumped fast and hard like a piston.
Then it was on him, his balls tightening and the absolute ecstasy he’d been searching for shooting
directly out of his cock, emptying into Tall and Dark’s body. He didn’t seem to mind. The guy
moaned and writhed as his orgasm over took him, his body shaking and twitching until it was all over
and the only thing they were left with was a whole lot of heavy breathing.
Seth leaned his forehead against the back of Tall and Dark’s neck as his heart came down from its
crazed pumping. A satisfied smile curled at his lips as his muscles relaxed from their exertions, yet
his body still buzzed from the pleasure of it.

That had been just what he needed.
Maybe it had been a little too good, because the next thing Seth knew, his arms were empty, and he
was all alone in the room, which had become foggy on a whole new level. It was so thick he couldn’t
even see the bed, which, in retrospect, probably would have been a better place to get one’s brains
screwed out on.
Too late now.
Then nothing mattered anymore as he lost complete control of the strange dream he was in and sank
into real sleep.
He hoped Tall and Dark wouldn’t bash his lights out when he woke up.

Chapter Eight

Jackson was pulled—literally—from a relatively decent night’s sleep by a strong grip on the back of
his neck.
Being yanked from his plain mattress on the floor was not a common occurrence, even amongst his
pack, who occasionally enjoyed playing games with each other. Immediately he was wide awake,
alert, and aware of his surroundings. His fists clenched in preparation to fight, yet his body had no
chance to attack since the disturbance was being brought forth by his master, Lord Veturious.
Every muscle within him stiffened. “My lord! Why are—”
Lord Veturious forcefully shook him before he could finish his sentence, his eyes bloodred and fangs
long. “You deceiving mongrel! Did you think I would never discover your lies?“
Lady Ariadne Veturious, the master’s wife, stood in the open doorway to the large room he shared
with the rest of his pack, her skeletal thin arms crossed over an unimpressive chest. Her eyes were
red, too, but the crimson did not consume the scleras like it did with her husband.
The rest of Jackson’s wolves were now coming awake at the racket their master made, sitting up
from their own thin mattresses. This den belonged only to the alpha guards, and was not shared
amongst the other servants. He could scent the rising confusion in the air as they tried to reason why
their lord would ever set his noble feet on such common ground.
Three human guards stood behind Lord Veturious, one immediately at his back, and the other two at
the Lady’s side during this confrontation.

“My lord, I don’t know what you are referring to.” His brain scrambled to fill in what possible lie he
could have told, but he came up with nothing. Nothing that his lord would know of. His first thought
was of Joey, whose cot was in the far corner with all the other alphas’. Surely Veturious couldn’t
have found out about that?
Veturious shook him again, emphasizing each word he spoke with another hard shake. “Sampson. Is.
Alive.”
Alive?
Murmurs sounded throughout their small den as every werewolf took in the shocking information.
Jackson would have been lying if he claimed to not have been going about his duties with a cloud
over his head, always curious to know when or if his master would ever discover that he had allowed
Seth’s body to drift away on purpose. His punishment for failing to bring back a body as proof still
stung horribly on his back, despite his healing abilities. To hear that he was alive…
Was it possible that the combination of the recent showers, and drifting along the river had somehow
saved Seth from the sunlight? Jackson’s first instinct was to be happy for his friend, his next was to
deny. “My lord, that’s impossible—”
“Silence! I have just received word of it through my doctor. He summoned Sampson through a dream
vision. He lives.” Veturious pulled his hands away from Jackson’s person, his face twisting as though
it had disgusted him to touch a werewolf. “On your word, you reported his death. What have you to
say of that?”
Jackson could feel the shift in the air, from both his master and the members of his pack. He could
hear Joey’s heart beating faster, and smell the sudden rush of sweat as his fear nearly overtook him.
Jackson opened his mouth to reply, to give some sort of excuse, then closed it. There was no excuse
he could give that Veturious would accept, and he wouldn’t throw Joey under the vampire’s claws to
save himself.

“I have nothing to say of it, my lord. I thought him dead and pulled back the others from giving
chase. The fault is entirely mine.”
Veturious sneered, then slapped him across the face. His long nails raked across Jackson’s cheek,
drawing blood.
There was a collective gasp as the other alphas watched their master strike their leader, and Jackson
accepted the blow with little more than a twitch in his jaw.
The lashes he’d received for allowing Seth’s body to drift away had been done in private. His wolves
had not had the chance to witness their lead alpha being forced to submission. The fact that Wiktor
had done this in front of them, had allowed them to watch as his hand struck out, could only mean
that he intended to pull Jackson off his position
“I hope all of you witnessed that.” Veturious pulled a hankerchief out of his pocket and began to
individually wipe his fingers, cleansing them of Jackson’s touch. Once cleaned and dried, he snapped
his fingers. All three human guards on duty stepped forward and gripped Jackson’s arms, ready to
take him away.
“My lord!”
Another gasp, and everything inside Jackson’s chest and guts squeezed painfully at Joey’s voice.
Veturious halted midstride. He slowly turned toward where Joey had lifted himself to his feet. The
young werewolf stood bare-chested, wearing only a pair of fading boxers that barely clung to his hips
to sleep in.
Jackson caught the wolf’s eyes, sending the silent message for him to say nothing.
It will not save me. Get back to your bed!
Joey wouldn’t hear the words that Jackson inwardly shouted at him, but he would understand the
emotions Jackson was emitting as well as any spoken word.
Veturious’s eyes narrowed. “Have you something to add to this?”

Poor Joey found himself trapped under the searching gaze of his master, and the silent orders of his
soon to be former leader. “I—”
Jackson glared harder, but then spoke before Joey could finish. “My lord, forgive me for not training
your wolves better. He has yet to learn not to address his betters unless first spoken to.”
He just prayed that Veturious only thought Joey was about to make some sort of argument on
Jackson’s behalf, rather than a confession to any involvement in Seth’s escape. The first was bad
enough, but it wouldn’t get the kid tortured like the latter would.
That steely look did not leave Wiktor’s eyes as he looked between Jackson and Joey. “It would seem
you have been failing me in too many ways for too long then.”
Jackson looked back at the young omega. If he discovers you, you will either be put in a cage with
me, or sent to live with the other servants. Return to your bed.
Again, Joey would not understand that in any formal language, but he would know the message
Jackson tried to tell him.
Joey hesitated for one more second, one more second that made Jackson’s skin itch and tremble.
Finally, the omega put his head down and stepped back. “Apologies, my lord.”
Veturious snorted. “Whichever of you mongrels takes charge next had best see to better disciplining
your young ones.”
He snapped his fingers again, and Jackson was led away from his brothers and sisters to God only
knew what sort of discomforts.

* * * *

“If we release you, will you behave?”
Seth growled. He was not about to be patronized, not even by his former employer, who stood above
him, arms folded, and looking anything but impressed.

Seth had woken up tied to a chair after the best sleep and sex of his life. A freaking kitchen table kind
of wooden chair, his arms chained behind his back, ankles chained to the carved wooden legs.
Shame on him for thinking he might get a little better treatment than this from his guard after the sex
dream last night. Guess that extra dose of lust had worn off from the man because now it looked like
business as usual.
The chair itself wasn’t made of any kind of super strong wood, that Seth could tell simply by sitting
down, and thanks to all the blood Tall and Dark had donated, he could probably, hell, definitely, be
able to splinter it without any problems.
But then he’d still be in chains, chains that he could not break quickly enough to escape, and
surrounded by a cluster of broken bits of wood that could be used to stake him.
Seth was healing nicely, thanks to all the blood he’d been consuming lately, and all that remained of
his burns from his earlier escape attempt was a layer of red, like any human who’d spent too much
time in the sun without wearing sunblock. And that was just from one night’s sleep.
The same could be noted for Silus Veturious, only to a much lesser extent. He wasn’t red at all. He
just had a deep tan over his face and hands.
He’d gotten blood from somewhere, a lot of it, most likely the blond sun sprite who lived here with
him, but Seth was sure that sun sprite blood was deadly to vampires, or had he simply been told that
as a prank? It wouldn’t have been the first time he’d been misled about a vampire’s strengths and
weaknesses.
“Why are you alive?” The words came out of his mouth terser than intended. He was no longer in a
good mood from last night’s activities, and he could hardly contain his seriously pissed off now that
his lust was done away with as well.
Silus and the sun sprite, Cedric, looked at each other, as though unsure of themselves, or whether or
not to answer his question.

Tall and Dark, Seth needed to get his name, was sulking in the doorframe, looking as formidable as
ever, his back to their merry little group, arms folded. From the little that Seth could see of the man’s
face, it was slightly red from a blush that Seth could smell a mile away.
From what Seth had seen, the hand that he’d used to beat up Winchester with was a little red around
the knuckles, but Seth couldn’t smell any fresh blood, and they couldn’t be broken if he wouldn’t so
much as put a wrap around them.
It was especially interesting how the man had not once looked Seth in the eye since this interrogation
started.
It was Cedric who grabbed another chair, positioned it backward in front of Seth’s, and sat down,
folding his arms over the back of the chair. He licked his lips, looked at his lover one last time, and
finally addressed Seth. “You’re getting an explanation because we feel we owe you one.”
Seth snorted. “Thank you so much for that.”
Silus revealed his fangs, an angry hiss escaping him.
Cedric shoved his lover, pulling the other vampire out of his angry trance. “Fuck off with that. It’s
not like he’s hurting anyone.”
The words were sharp, though hardly spoken in a belittling manner.
Seth watched, transfixed as Silus did as he was bid, fangs returning to their normal size. “It’s true
then, he did put a spell on you.”
This time Tall and Dark was the one to snort. Silus shook his head, annoyance bleeding from his
pores, whilst the sun sprite rubbed a hand over his face. “Whatever Wiktor told you I did, it isn’t
true.”
“You did not begin a sexual relationship with a vampire and convince him to turn against his family
nest?” It was a good idea, really. Perhaps Seth could convince Tall and Dark to do the same for him
so he could escape.
Yeah, right. Not very likely.

Color blushed across Cedric’s cheeks. Seth scented the blood flooding so close to the surface of his
flesh the same way he’d been able to scent the blush from the guard. Seth had to admit that the sun
sprite blood did not smell bad at all. And that was just what he was scenting from beneath a layer of
flesh.
“Well, yeah, there was that, but sun sprites don’t have the kind of power you’re thinking about. I
can’t make Silus do anything.”
Tall and Dark snorted again.
“Shut up, Ben,” Cedric snapped, not taking his eyes away from Seth.
The name instantly caught Seth’s attention. So Ben was his name. Hardly deserving of the imposing
male standing in the room, but, one couldn’t help what one’s parents named them.
He could hardly think about that right now. “Do you have any idea what happened to me after the
both of you left?” He made sure to look at Silus when he asked his question as well. “I saved your
life, and you fucking left me there to rot.”
“To be quite fair,” Silus said, “in our bargain, there was no clause stating I needed to take you with
me.”
Seth roared, his vision becoming bloodred, and he struggled against his chains in all earnestness now,
wanting nothing better than to claw out the bastard’s eyes. The metal warped under his strength, and
he would have thrown them off, but then Tall and, well, Ben came forward, and he pointed the black
barrel of an official-looking Glock right between Seth’s eyes.
That got his attention really quick. He stopped struggling, and the chains, while not quite as tight
now, were no longer in any danger of being snapped.
“Are you calm now?” Ben asked.
One would think they hadn’t mind-fucked last night with that frosty voice of his.
With his wrist so close, holding that gun, Seth could hear perfectly the man’s quick pulse, beating
erratically. Ben didn’t want to shoot him, Seth realized, but Seth would hold no illusions that, simply
because the man didn’t want to do something, didn’t mean he would allow that to stand in the way of
his duty.

“I asked if you were calm,” Ben snapped.
“I won’t make you shoot me today,” Seth answered. He didn’t have the spirit to be delighted with the
man’s confused expression. Ben didn’t know how obvious his attraction to Seth was.
Silus’s fangs came out again, a low, cat-like hiss rumbling out from his chest. Cedric actually had to
put a hand on his shoulder to bring him under control.
So Silus picked up on that heartbeat, and there was no way he wouldn’t smell the heady scent of lust
pumping blood, so, yeah, he definitely knew about it, and he wasn’t pleased that his guard was in lust
with their prisoner. Whether or not the sun sprite knew yet was another matter.
Maybe Silus’s plan was to caution his guard against such feelings once Seth was out of the room.
Ben pulled the gun away, and Silus directed the attention back to himself. “It was not my intention to
leave you helpless. I hid you under the bed. My father must have found you after I left.”
“He blamed me for your death. Do you have any idea what my life was like this last year?”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Cedric and Silus spoke at the same time then both looked at each other.
Of course the sun sprite didn’t know of what the vampire lord enjoyed for torture. Seth wasn’t about
to elaborate for him. Seth had asked but it had been a rhetorical question. It was none of their fucking
business.
“What happened to you?” Ben asked.
“Fuck off,” Seth said.
The man’s face turned red, and he clenched his jaw.

That’s what happened when you asked stupid-ass questions.
“It wasn’t their fault,” Ben said. “Silus did hide you, but I found you under the bed and pulled you
out, then left you out in the open.”
Seth’s insides clenched. “You…what?”
The familiar voice from his memories, what he’d thought had been only part of what had been a long
hallucination. Rise and shine, sweetheart.
That had been this man?
“That isn’t true,” Cedric said, shooting Ben a displeased look. “I was the one who pulled you out. It’s
my fault. I’m sorry for whatever it was you had to go through because I didn’t think to hide you
again.”
“Cedric!” Silus snapped.
Seth laughed and shook his head. His throat swelled out like there was a balloon in there, painfully
stretching the muscles, and he fought the urge to cry. “I’m surrounded by fucking martyrs.”
“Regardless,” Ben said. “If you want to blame anyone, you can blame me. I was the guard
controlling the situation and I should’ve thought to hide you again.”
Silence followed his statement. It took Seth a couple of seconds to realize they were waiting on him
to make some kind of decision. Did he still want to tear out of his chains and destroy them all? No
way were they going to let that happen, regardless of how sorry they claimed to be. Ben would shoot
him first.
Seth shook his head, not looking at any of the three men in the room, and fast losing hope of ever
being free. “I just want to leave.”
Cedric got up from his backward seat. Seth stiffened when he approached, but there was no
punishment forthcoming, instead the sun sprite pulled a key from his pocket and proceeded to unlock
his chains and pull them away. Seth remained sitting, too stunned to get up, when the other man
moved back, setting the clinking chains down with a clatter on his seat.

The same could be said of the other two men in the room, who were both standing wide-eyed and
alert at the sudden action. That hadn’t been planned.
“We owe you for saving Silus’s life—”
“Which he only did because he wanted to be immortal,” Silus said.
Cedric’s jaw clenched as he glared sharply at his lover, then he turned his attention back to Seth.
“Regardless, you’re hiding from the vampires, too. I’m pretty sure we don’t have any reason to be
afraid that you’ll give us away.”
“The vampires know I’m alive. They’ll track me here,” Seth said. He’d told them that he’d been
pulled into a vampire dream, but hadn’t given any specifics, about Winchester or about Ben. When
Silus and Cedric had asked him if he’d given away their location, he’d spoken truthfully. He hadn’t
told Winchester where he was, but that still didn’t mean they were safe.
“You were floating down the river for a while. I don’t think we need to worry about the werewolves
following your scent,” Cedric said.
Seth rubbed the circulation back into his wrists. “Am I free to leave then?”
“Do you have anywhere to go?” Ben asked.
Seth was still hesitant to tell them about his brother. He kept silent until an answer came to him. “I
don’t even know where I am.”
“Mantua Lake.”
Not far at all. “I’ve got family. I need to get back soon. Now would be good if one of you could give
me a ride into town.”
Ben’s whole body tensed. “You can’t really mean to go back. If any of the vampires or werewolf
servants see—”
“I’m not going to be long.” Seth cut Ben off. “It’s even within the town, but on its Western borders.
There’s something I need to do and then I’ll be leaving town.”
His words were followed by Ben’s abrupt fluctuating of his heart.

“You may wish to delay your journey until nightfall,” Silus said.
Nightfall? “How long was I out?”
“A day,” Ben said. “It’s ten in the morning and the sun is really shining. Can’t you feel it?”
“I guess I just feel naturally hot because of my burning skin,” Seth said, fists clenching up at the
thought of being stuck here another ten hours.
Cedric smirked a little, taking no offence whatsoever to Seth’s tone, and there was virtually no
sympathy out of Silus.
“Ben, you’re not working today, right?”
Seth caught on to that right away. This guard, Ben, did not work for Silus? What was he doing here
then?
“No, not ’till tomorrow. I’ll give him a ride later tonight.”
Seth wanted to shoot down the offer. He’d fucked the man, sort of, and he didn’t want to spend an
hour in a car or truck or whatever, trying to make awkward small talk.
Seth clenched his jaw as his logical mind took over. The fact of the matter was that he had no cash
and no ride, no way to quickly get to Sam without hitching it or running as fast as he could, and that
kind of activity he barely had the energy for and could hardly control, and it would draw the attention
of the neighboring vamps and patrolling weres for sure.
With that in mind, it was probably better to travel as though he were still human, in a car, and keep
his scent off the road as much as possible.
It annoyed him to no end to have to wait. He’d lost enough time already. He’d just have to suck it up.
“I would appreciate that,” he said.
Ben sighed heavily, his folded arms becoming tighter over that huge chest, and then he rubbed his
eyes. They were red from fatigue. His entire face was dark and grim. “The sun won’t be down for
more than ten hours. I need to crash until then. I’ve been up all night.”

Another little tidbit of information Seth’s brain latched on to and gobbled up. He’d been up all night?
Because of what they did? Fuck. There were too many places that could go. Because he regretted it,
or because he’d loved it? They hadn’t been in the vampire dream for more than an hour.
Seth needed to stop thinking about all this.
“You know where the guest room is.” Cedric slapped the man’s shoulder as he walked past, down the
hall to the upstairs where Seth assumed the guest rooms were.
“I guess you don’t need to stay in the basement anymore, all things considered,” Cedric said.
“Do I need a room, if I’m to be out of here in ten hours anyway?” Ten hours and hopefully not longer
than that.
“You really feel comfortable hanging out down here?” Cedric asked, though Seth did not get the vibe
that it was asked simply to manipulate him, but perhaps because, hey, most people weren’t
comfortable lounging around in a stranger’s home.
“I don’t want to get locked into another room,” Seth said. He’d rather deal with the discomfort of
sitting on someone else’s couch, browsing through someone else’s movie collection, and sifting
through someone else’s fridge for drinks than ever allow himself to be locked up again.
“You will not be locked in, but ’tis there if you wish to rest, or have time to yourself, or bathe.” Silus
said that last bit with just a hint of an upturned nose.
Seth’s face went hot. Yeah, he was due. Apparently, when he’d been a vegetable, Cedric had been
seeing to those needs as well.
A long shower, with hot water and privacy, as opposed to being sponge-bathed by someone here, or
being hosed down with high pressure, freezing cold water spouting from a hose whilst he was still
trapped in his little cage… It piqued his interest.
“There’s a bathroom connected to my room?”

“It’s a shared bathroom, but yeah,” Cedric answered. “I’ll be up for a little while if you need
anything. The sun’s good for me, you know?”
No, he didn’t, but it made sense, sun sprites enjoyed their sunbathing. How on earth did a sun sprite
and a vampire function as partners?
He reminded himself that he neither cared, nor did it matter. He nodded to Cedric instead, indicating
he understood.
The vampire and the guard would be resting, and the sun sprite would be keeping his eye on things.
It was hardly like Seth was planning on stealing the silver anyway.
Silus took his lover’s hand and led him into the hall, down where Seth could still be seen by them,
but far enough to offer some measure of privacy. There was a muttered discussion. Seth couldn’t
make it out even with his better vampire hearing, but he hardly needed to hear it to know it was about
him.
Silus took the sprite’s hand, squeezed it, and then left him for the stairs leading to the upper floor.
Cedric returned, the weak smile of the host on his face.
“Let me show you around.”
Though Cedric had been caring for him and had known Seth to be a vampire from the very
beginning, Seth’s inner paranoia began to entertain ideas of being roasted alive now that he was
alone with the other man. Sun sprites could let off a glow of UV light from their bodies, as bright as
they wanted to, whenever they wanted to, like miniature suns. Now that the other vampire, the one
Cedric wouldn’t be wishing any harm to was out of range of any sunlight blasts—
He swallowed his fear and forced himself to walk as normally next to Cedric as he could through the
halls that were not so spacious as was in the Veturious Mansion. He needed to regain his focus and
stop being such a goddamn pussy.

His fears faded for real as Cedric remained polite, showing him where the pantry was kept should he
want a snack, which Seth decided wouldn’t be necessary, and then he was brought to the upper level
and shown his room.
The bed was a wonder that Seth could not wait to slide in, and he decided upon seeing it that he was
going to do just that, despite not being tired at all.
If they were secretly intending to lock him in this room, he wouldn’t care so long as he could lie in
that bed and relax, and he wouldn’t get out of it either until he was damn good and ready. It was wide
and spacious, and thick with quilts he could get lost in.
Then Cedric brought him to the bathroom. He tried showing Seth where the towels and spare
toiletries were kept, but he stopped paying attention once he saw the second door, and heard Ben’s
familiar heartbeat, soft from sleep, thumping on the other side of it.
To Seth’s illogical delight, his room was next to Ben’s, separated only by their shared bathroom, and
a wonderful idea on how to pass the time took hold.

Chapter Nine

Jackson sputtered and coughed the water from his lungs, gulping back huge mouthfuls of air when he
was able to properly breathe again, but he couldn’t get enough of it inside of him. His rest didn’t last
very long before he was dunked under once more, his scream of protest gurgled by the water
invading his mouth then trickling into his nose and ears.
He struggled, his instinct to breath stronger than the instinct to obey, but the shackles attached to his
hellish chair were thick steel plated with silver. It burned his skin even with the cool water, and
sapped his strength. He would drown if they wanted him to.
They kept him under longer this time. He didn’t know how long, it was difficult to keep track as his
mind and body screamed for air. His watery vision became black at the edges, lungs burning until he
nearly became used to the unbearable sensation.
When the blackness nearly overtook him, he was brought up again. Water spilled from his lungs,
mouth, and nose, and Jackson had hardly energy with which to struggle any longer. He’d known
coming into this that begging would be out of the question, since mercy would be as well.
His face was slapped twice, though not as an act of degradation or a punishment. It would hardly be
considered a punishment considering the things he was made to suffer. No. Wiktor simply wanted to
make sure Jackson was still breathing.
The sharp smack had the proper effect. Jackson’s eyes flew wide and he coughed the remaining
water from his throat, his mind suddenly and acutely aware of everything surrounding him now, even
the stinging burn of the silver manacles that kept him sitting on this horrible chair as it was lifted in
and out of Wiktor’s pool.

Old-school torture was a thing with vampires.
“I am losing my patience, werewolf,” Wiktor Veturious snarled, his cold eyes boring into Jackson’s,
as though he expected to see the reason for Jackson’s betrayal if he stared hard enough. “Why did
you speak an untruth about Sampson’s death?”
Jackson swallowed hard, the act painful to his throat that had choked down so much chlorine-filled
water. “It was not an untruth, my lord,” Jackson said. He coughed and hacked up more water before
he could speak again. “Not a deliberate one. There was no way he could have survived his injuries,
and with the sun to come up—”
“He did survive! And the sun, hidden by the rains, did nothing to destroy his vampire body floating
through the water. He lives!”
Wiktor motioned toward his guest, a thin sort of man Jackson had seen many times
before—beginning with the treatment of Lord Silus last year—but had never been introduced to,
because Wiktor would never be so rude as to introduce a servant to a distinguished guest.
Jackson knew who the man was now. An older vampire, nearly of Wiktor’s age by the name of Dr.
Charles Winchester, and his face was on another level of fucked-up courtesy of Seth’s mystery
feeder, someone loyal enough who came to Seth’s aid and defended him from Winchester’s advances
during a vampire lust dream. A huge brute of a man, according to Winchester.
As far as Jackson was concerned, the twisted doctor deserved every bruise, swell, and split in his
flesh.
“You returned to me with excuses,” Wiktor screamed, “hoping to ignore your duty! And look what
has befallen my good friend.”
Lord Veturious spoke as though he thought Jackson had allowed Seth to escape on purpose, and that
he thought, perhaps, that Jackson had even aided Seth in doing just that. He’d voiced the accusation
to Jackson earlier, and he’d foolishly laughed in his master’s face at the ridiculousness of it.

Jackson had nothing to laugh about now. Nothing was amusing anymore. He wanted to die.
“Kill him,” Winchester said, narrowing the one eye he could open with anger and disgust. “He failed
as leader, and this happened. Kill him now.”
Jackson waited for it. He wished he was able to look into Wiktor’s eyes, defiant to the last, but there
was nothing left for him to give. He only hoped the next alpha would be able to better see to the
pack, and protect the servants in what small ways they could.
“No.”
Jackson’s eyes snapped open wide. He wasn’t facing his master, head turned down, so neither
vampire noticed.
“No?” Watching their feet, Jackson saw the injured doctor march up to Lord Veturious, heard the
soft jabbing of a finger into a chest. “That worthless fleabag…he is the reason I have been deformed!
And you! You should have sold Sampson to me when I asked for him, and none of this would have
happened in the first place!”
Maybe Jackson had a little more life in him than he thought he did, because he couldn’t help but
think, and quirk his lips over, the fact that it wasn’t Jackson’s fault Winchester got his ass handed to
him, or even that Seth had escaped in the first place. It was Winchester’s for being an utter pussy.
The vampire didn’t know how to defend himself, even with all of his strengths, and he was a coward.
“Proper werewolf care requires that their packs have an alpha to lead them,” Wiktor said. Jackson
could just picture him sneering at the taller vampire. “I can do nothing permanent until his pack has
accepted that he is not qualified to lead and chooses a new one.”
“For the love of—Force them to choose a new alpha now.”
Now Jackson did take the time to look up. Winchester pointed his hand toward the men stationed at
each angle of the pool, and the door. Werewolves, all in human form, in their professional black suits
and sunglasses, even in a room with dimmed lights and tinted windows.

They were also part of Jackson’s pack. Each werewolf under Wiktor’s employ was. There couldn’t
be two packs under the same roof without both head alphas going at each other’s throats. Made for
hired help that couldn’t be counted on.
The face Jackson found first was Joey’s. The kid stood as tall and imposing as every other guard in
the echoing room, but Jackson could feel the poor guy’s unease as he watched the show. Every
werewolf in the room knew that, had it not been for Jackson’s decision, Joey would’ve easily been
strapped in a chair next to him.
As the head alpha, Jackson would’ve been punished anyway. No point in dragging anyone else down
with him.
“All of you,” Winchester called. “Pick a new alpha, now!”
Wiktor clenched his jaw, a visible sign that the man was fighting to keep from revealing his fangs. “I
can see why you have such trouble with your guard dogs. They will decide, and soon. Their nature
will not allow them to keep Jackson as their leader after witnessing his punishments, but for now ’tis
impossible.”
Winchester seethed.
“You shall have his head, I give you my word on that, friend, but for the moment…” Wiktor snapped
his fingers and Joey and Damon stepped forward. “Unchain him and bring him into the basement.
You are all to have a new leader chosen in forty-eight hours, and until then, I want sentries out on
patrol. I want someone to track Sampson’s scent and I want it done now.”
He and Winchester turned their backs and walked away, like kings standing amongst servants, which
was almost true.
Damon and Joey could barely touch the silver manacles that held Jackson in place, but they were as
gentle as they could be as they worked to release him.
“I’m sorry,” Joey said when Veturious and Winchester were out of the pool room. His chin trembled
slightly, and had it not been for the sunglasses masking his eyes, Jackson knew he would see that
puppy dog look that would get the kid thrown into the servants’ den with all the other waiters and
butlers and sex slaves.

No. Joey was no hunter material by any stretch of the imagination, omega that he was, big omega,
but Jackson wasn’t about to—he would be damned before he let the kid’s body get sold to rich,
heartless humans who thought that fucking a werewolf meant they were walking on the wild side.
He’d seen what it had done to Seth. It wouldn’t happen to the kid.
Jackson glared at him. He had to summon all of his strength just to speak. “Get whatever sorry-ass
thoughts inside your head out…You can’t afford to let them see you weak.”
Joey—Joe, Jackson had to tell himself, call him Joe—cleared his throat and nodded, his neck tight,
and though he was no less gentle, he worked faster to take the silver off of Jackson. He and Damon
hefted Jackson between them, each putting an arm around their shoulders.
“You need to pick a new alpha,” Jackson said. “Start the trial fights. Damon, you can—”
“Shh, sir. We’ll handle it,” Damon said, scarred hands gripping Jackson a little tighter. “Get your
rest.”
Jackson would growl over being told what to do later. Right now he would rest, despite the
unbelievably stupid fact that the only reason he would be resting was to be strong enough for his own
execution.

* * * *

Seth ignored the giant bathtub and ran a hot shower in the separate stall. It was such a girlish thing to
have, a separate tub, but he still couldn’t help eyeing it as he walked out and toweled off.
Whatever, he’d have a bath later, once he got out of the state with Sammy and was able to relax.
Hell, he’d buy a frickin’ hot tub just to celebrate. He spent more than an hour in that shower stall, yet
the water had never run cold. Seth was sorely tempted to get back under the spray.

He pulled out a brand new toothbrush instead and spent the next ten minutes brushing his teeth,
flossing, and gurgling back mouthwash, loving the feel of it. There were no electric razors, or even
the old fashioned kind, but Seth never managed to grow a beard, so it was a non-issue. He found
some cologne and hair gel instead.
He never thought he was a vain guy, but he wanted to go all out. Especially since this all looked like
prime stuff he was using. And this was just for the guest bathroom. When done, completely satisfied
of his work, he went back to his room and sat on the edge of the enormous bed. Seriously, it was
huge considering this was only a guest room.
Only the best for a vampire lord.
Ben had grinned like he’d stolen from the cookie jar when he’d sucked back on Seth’s neck. I was
curious to see if that worked, he’d said.
Seth was curious about something, too.
He leaned back, throwing the towel away, and spreading his legs slightly. He was hard. The vampire
dream hadn’t been enough to quench a year’s worth of pent-up frustration, and he wanted to see if he
could do better while they were both wide awake.
Seth put the mental image of Ben between his knees, sucking his cock. He tried to imagine the look
of his mouth wrapped around his shaft, his dark hair as he bobbed his head, Seth’s fingers gripping
the strands.
He really hoped this was working and he was calling to Ben and not just sitting there with a grin on
his face and his erection pointing up at him.
God. Even just thinking it made him...
He gripped himself, he had to. The fantasy was too good, and he was getting the painful case of blue
balls doing all this imagining, and though it wouldn’t be nearly as fun if this calling thing didn’t
work, it would satisfy for the moment.

The second door inside the bathroom slammed, and Seth jumped, grinning as he heard stomping
footsteps on the tile before the other door leading into Seth’s room burst open. There he was, filling
the entire frame. His shoulders were bare, he’d taken his shirt off, and on his feet he wore no shoes
and no socks. His black pants were undone and rumpled, as though he’d thrown them on in his haste
to get here.
Man must’ve slept naked, because Seth couldn’t make out any hint of boxers or briefs beneath the
jeans.
Ben did not look pleased. “I was sleeping,” he gritted through clenched teeth.
Seth let his eyes fall to the place between Ben’s legs. A smart-ass remark sat on the tip of his tongue
at the bulge there, but he kept it to himself. “I gave you more than an hour.”
Ben stared at him, hard, along his jaw and down to his hips. Seth’s dick was still in his hands, and
now there was no doubt in his mind that Ben had heard his summons, that he had seen the images
that Seth wanted him to see.
“You a Nymph or something?”
Seth stopped stroking himself. “You mean nympho?”
“Almost the same. We only just unchained you, someone wants to kill you, and my friends, but all
you can seem to think about is fucking. Were you a Nymph before you were transformed?”
Ben repeated that last bit slowly, as though Seth were some kind of an idiot, which, maybe he was. A
Nymph? Seriously? He’d thought he’d hit the jackpot when he found out that vampires existed and
immortality could be gained, and then the werewolf thing nearly made him pass out. It took a long
while to convince him there was such thing as sun sprites, and now Nymphs?
It kind of irked him how the other man was able to show so much restraint, even while contemplating
that Seth might be of a species that apparently did little but procreate. “You didn’t mind my behavior
last night. If you try to say it was because of the dream space, I’ll fucking clock you,” he said when
Ben opened his mouth to protest.

The shocked expression on Ben’s face lasted for a hair of a second before a daring smile spread over
his face. “I could take you.”
“Prove it, get over here.”
Ben still did not move at his command. “Seriously, no one can still be that horny.”
At least it was a compliment.
Seth looked again at Ben’s crotch, this time being more obvious about it. The man blushed and
shifted, and holy fuck did that blush ever smell sweet. He doubted a man, even one as big as Ben,
could take being fed from much more, but Seth still ached for a taste of his blood. It was humming
with desire, practically calling Seth’s name even though he wasn’t thirsty for it.
Ben still wasn’t coming toward him.
“Fine,” he said. “If you’re really so curious, I’m not a Nymph and never was. You want to fuck me
and I want to fuck you. And considering I haven’t been laid in a year, we could be lying in a
minefield somewhere and I’d still be trying to make a play for it. Satisfied?”
Ben cocked his head, thinking over what Seth had just said, and then he said, “All right.”
He was over to the bed in two long strides, pushing Seth back into the fluffy quilts. His body was
heavy and hot and holy fuck that mouth was back on his neck.
Seth opened his mouth and released a low moan. Fireworks, honest to God, red, blue, and every other
neon fizzy color exploded behind his eyes. He nearly came.
Not a good way to go. It took all of Seth’s will power to pry Ben off his neck and push him down.
Luckily Ben was the kind of person who went with the flow. He went down easy, sliding back off the
bed and onto his knees, pulling Seth down until his legs hung comfortably over the edge.

He spread himself wider, propping himself onto his elbows to watch as his cock disappeared between
those pretty pink lips. His eyes rolled and he collapsed onto his back.
“Oh, fuck. That’s nice.” It had been way too long.
Ben kept his pace slow and steady, bobbing his head in a fluid motion, his tongue swirling around the
head as he came back up before going down to the base once more. His mouth wasn’t even working
overtime. It was just a nice, slow, and steady torture.
Seth propped his leg over Ben’s shoulder and just continued to enjoy the ride, his hips lifting and
falling to get more of that ball-tightening sizzle. The pulsing building of pleasure that spread from his
cock and balls to his stomach and legs and up his chest before leaving his mouth in breathy sighs.
Ben pulled his mouth away entirely too soon, his voice raspy from the recent throat work. “Oh, baby,
I want to fuck you.”
Seth’s eyes flew open. Ben likely hadn’t meant that in the sense that Seth hoped he did.
But then his mouth was sucking back hard on Seth’s prick like it was a Popsicle, and all thought left
his mind.
Again, it didn’t last. Ben’s hands gripped Seth’s thighs and roamed up and down his skin, then
around to his ass, gripping, massaging. It felt good in that same relaxing way as the blow job for the
split second it took before Ben’s fingers teased around Seth’s hole.
He pulled his leg off of Ben’s shoulder and sat up. The abrupt movement had Ben in turn pulling his
mouth away from Seth’s dick with a sudden pop.
“What are you—” Ben didn’t get the chance to finish as Seth pushed him to the ground, putting his
body on top of Ben’s, pinning him and wiggling his hand between their legs and beneath the open
pair of jeans. He made a grab for Ben’s cock, and the other man bit his lips together to suppress his
pleasured moan, banging his head back into the carpet.

“Don’t move a muscle,” Seth commanded, gripping Ben’s engorged penis tighter as if to emphasize
the order.
“What the fuck?” Ben demanded as Seth got up off him, all but jogging his naked ass back into the
bathroom, searching through drawers and in the medicine cabinet until he found—yes!
“What are you doing?” Ben hadn’t moved, but from his position on the floor, his head was turned up
as far as it could go to see what Seth was up to. He looked pretty amusing.
Seth waved around the bottle in his hand, and Ben grinned.
“Easy to forget about that after last time.”
Seth nodded. “We’ll have to try it again.”
It wasn’t lube, but it was hard to imagine the owners of this house would keep it stocked in rooms
they didn’t use, even for people who put every other luxury in every room. For a vampire, however,
keeping bottles of sunscreen in every bathroom wasn’t uncommon. Seth knew that much about his
new race. They could definitely use this.
“Get those jeans off and get on your hands and knees,” Seth ordered, coming back into the room and
getting on his own knees down next to Ben. He winced as his knee throbbed with the new position.
“Thought you didn’t want me to move.”
Smart-ass. “Whatever. Just try and keep a little quieter this time. There’s another vampire here, and I
don’t want him hearing this.”
Ben looked at him hard for a moment, green eyes intense and searching before he sat up. Seth didn’t
move as one of Ben’s large hands cradled the back of his neck. “We’re going to do this, but next
time, if you want there to be a next time, you’re getting on your knees for me.”
Seth shivered, and not entirely in a good way.
Fuck.

Chapter Ten

Ben wasn’t the kind of man who would make demands on a rape victim. The knowledge of what had
happened to Seth should have made Ben self-conscious about his every action. Would saying
something like that set off an emotional roller coaster? Bring back harsh memories? Cause the lover
in question to blow up on him, and, in this case, become violent?
That last one was especially a concern, considering Ben had made it his business to guard this house
and the people who lived here.
There was too much room for error, which was why Ben tended to stick it out with the confident
ones, or at least, the ones who’d appeared confident. It had been one of the things that had attracted
him to Cedric.
Maybe it was because Seth was still so sure of himself, still walked tall and didn’t cower at Ben’s
touch that made him want the other man despite what must be a truckload of emotional baggage.
Whatever it was, Ben couldn’t keep his distance.
Despite that, if Seth wanted him as much as he said he did, then some ground rules needed to be set.
Ben enjoyed being in control of the situation as much as the next guy, and there were only so many
times he could put his back to Seth and let his guard down to hand his ass over. Seth was a man he
still didn’t know much of except for a terrible recent history that would fuck up the mind of even the
strongest individual.
“All right,” Seth said.
The alarm in Ben’s head went apeshit. Too easy. That was way too easy. Something about that
wasn’t right, but Ben wasn’t about to push it and have a heart-to-heart while his cock throbbed
between them.

He nodded, turned, and got to his hands and knees instead. “If you even think about attacking me
while I’m like this—”
“I get it, I get it. I won’t get far before you chase me down, right?”
Ben smirked. “I was going to say that you wouldn’t get beyond the thinking stage of any plans you
might be coming up with. If I so much as get the vibe that you’re going to plow your fist into my
head, I’ll teleport you into the sunlight outside.”
With Seth’s hands on Ben’s hips, he could feel the way the other man shivered at his threat.
Seth cleared his throat. “Got it.”
Ben sensed Seth’s approach behind him, and he heard the pop of the sunscreen cap coming off. He
could just see Seth in his mind’s eye, lathering that lotion on his fingers, shifting closer, readying his
hand and—
Ben’s body instinctively clenched up at the intrusion, his muscles attempting to push out Seth’s
fingers, which only made it easier for the other man to slide them inside. Ben grunted. It wasn’t like
he was still ready to take in the intruding digits. Technically, what had happened last night didn’t
happen at all, even though Ben had awoken from his daydream, whatever it was, and needed to get
into the bathroom fast before Cedric could see the wet splotch in his pants.
Bad enough he thought Silus had scented it. Guy was already jealous as fuck whenever Ben came to
visit.
Ben sighed as the pain from Seth’s fingers lessened. “I can take another.”
Seth complied, using three this time, and the pain returned. Not quite as strong this time, but still at a
low burn. It had been way too long since he’d let anyone do this to him.
“Can’t wait to fuck you,” Seth said.
“Me, too,” Ben replied, looking over his shoulder at the other man.

Seth frowned then grabbed the bottle of sun lotion and squeezed more into his hand. Ben knew what
was coming, and his skin tingled with excitement.
Seth rubbed the lotion between his hands, warming it, then stroked himself with his oiled palm. His
eyes fell shut as he did it once, twice, and then he looked at Ben, those dark eyes reminding him of a
predator.
“Spread your legs wider for me.”
Ben complied, his cock and balls hanging where Seth could easily see them. The flesh of Seth’s
thighs ghosted over Ben’s ass and legs. His hands gripped Ben’s hips, and Seth thrust himself inside
with a grunt.
Ben exhaled hard and pushed out to make the inward glide that much smoother. Then Seth was there,
inside him and touching him in all the right places, and the pain faded into a burning memory.
The vampire dream had been something to drool over, but nothing compared to the real thing. Seth
hardly gave him any time to adjust as he just started to pound away like it was his first time fucking
anyone.
Fine by Ben. In his quick, jabbing thrusts, Seth quickly found the spot that Ben wanted him to touch
the most, and every nerve in his body stood up straight and sang hallelujah. He moaned as the
pleasure became too much for him. He pushed back against Seth’s thrusting hips, and Seth drilled
him harder.
Their bodies slapped together, and Seth put some of his vampire strength into it because Ben found
himself getting pushed forward along the carpet. It burned his knees and hands, but he didn’t care,
even when his elbows gave out and he fell forward, face down into the blue fibers.
If Ben didn’t get a grip, he was going to get fucked all the way across the floor.
Seth, however, seemed determined to keep him just the way he was. He moaned at the new position
and kept up with the pace, not giving Ben any chance to get back up, but then he stalled, his hips and
body jerking, and he stiffened.

It felt like he was coming, but the telltale warm spurts from his cock weren’t there. Ben looked over
his shoulder to see what the holdup was. Seth lifted one knee and put his foot down, taking some of
the pressure off the joint. He resumed his thrusts, pumping his hips slower this time, sliding his eyes
shut and just enjoying himself.
Ben was getting a crick in his neck from watching, but he couldn’t take his eyes away. The other man
was beautiful like that, perfect, so perfect that Ben didn’t even mind when the pace got to be so slow
that his orgasm became further and further away.
Then a frown marred that perfection, and Seth’s slowing hips began racing again, his eyes squeezing
tighter shut.
Ben groaned and let his face fall back into the carpet. Much better. It felt good, so good, but Ben
sensed there was something wrong, and it ruined his building pleasure.
Then Seth hissed and fell back, his cock pulling free of Ben’s ass in one uncomfortable motion when
he did.
That got his attention pretty quick. “What’s wrong?” Ben asked breathlessly as he sat up then
stiffened as another sudden pain got to him. He forgot to be gentle with himself after that part, but he
got over it real fast.
Seth sat against the base of the bed, gripping his knee in both hands, the one that had been twisted
around backward when Ben had found him.
Oh.
Seth glared at him, as if the pain he felt were somehow on Ben, or maybe he was just glaring because
that made it easier to hide what was no doubt the kind of agony King Kong couldn’t tolerate.
“My fucking leg hurts.” His head fell back, banging against the wooden bedframe. Seth’s eyes
squeezed shut again, his teeth clenching and fangs lengthening as he fought what was probably a
killer throb. Then he pounded his fist into the carpet with a dull thud. “Fuck!”

“Hey.” Ben shifted over to him and sat next to him. He didn’t touch the other man, but he did look at
the knee, which was slightly crooked at the joint, and fire-truck red beneath Seth’s white knuckles.
“Guess we’ll have to watch which position we use until your leg heals. Stop gripping it, you’re
making it worse.”
Ben reached out to take Seth’s hand away, but the vampire jerked away and glared at him for his
trouble. “Leave me alone.”
“You have a grip that can crush iron. You’re not helping your knee by grabbing at it like that.”
“I don’t have that kind of strength.”
Right. He’d been out of commission for a while, but he was gaining some of it back. Images of Seth
stretching his chains flashed in front of Ben’s mind. “All the same.” Ben reached again and pulled
Seth’s hand away, glaring sharply at him when he tried to hiss at him.
“Don’t think for one second those fangs scare me,” he said.
Seth pulled his hand from Ben’s and looked away, but not before Ben caught sight of that disgusted
snarl on his puss. Directed at himself, or at Ben?
He waited a minute when the other man didn’t get up and hobble away. “How’s the knee?”
Seth still glared at the wall. “Throbbing.”
“Better?”
A slight hesitation. “Yeah.”
“Good.” Ben looked down at the red joint and shook his head. “I didn’t position it right.”
“What?”
“We couldn’t get any healers here, so I was the one to pop your leg back in. I didn’t do it right, and
now it’s healed incorrectly.”
“Great.”
Terse words and small sentences. It seemed Seth wasn’t up for being apologized to anymore today.

Seth waited another ten seconds or so before speaking. By now they were both flaccid and had lost
almost all traces of arousal. “You can go back to your nap now. I don’t need you here.”
Ben shrugged. “I figured, but I’m not done with you yet.”
Seth looked at him, curiosity and annoyance on his face. “You’re not fucking me.”
“I get that. We’ll do that next time, I said.”
“Then how do you expect me to do anything with you? I doubt I could even get on my knees to fuck
you on the bed at this point.” Seth’s hand nearly went back to his knee, but one glare from Ben had
him pulling away again.
Ben shifted back onto his knees, facing Seth and leaning down enough so their faces, their mouths,
were directly in front of each other.
Again, Seth got that confused look on face before Ben kissed him. Kissed his jaw, rather, which was
tight as all hell until Seth relaxed. Ben took that as his cue to drag his lips back down to Seth’s neck
and work there, doing everything in his power to get the other man’s cock to rise back to attention.
Seth sighed and put his hands onto Ben’s shoulders. Ben’s body went rigid, preparing to defend
himself from attack before the other man spoke. “Fuck, that feels good.”
Ben reached his hands up to cup Seth’s cheeks, loving the feel of the other man, especially when he
wrapped his arm around Ben’s neck and held them closer together. Then Ben felt the press of the
other man’s mouth on his neck and jaw, working up to his mouth. Ben pulled back before Seth could
kiss him. He was already throbbing again in the place that felt best and didn’t need to make this any
more personal with kissing.
“There are other ways to do this, stupid,” he said.
Seth’s face twisted in fury just as Ben reached down and gripped his still semihard prick. Seth’s
mouth opened and his head fell back instead, bonking against the wood of the bed, hard breaths
escaping him.

Seth bit his lips together and groaned, his still-slick cock easily stroked in Ben’s hand. Then his eyes
snapped open. “Oh shit, wait, we need a condom.”
Ben couldn’t help the barked laugh that escaped him. “Little late for that, isn’t it?”
Seth stared at him as though he were being the idiot of the two.
“You’re a vampire,” Ben clarified. “You can’t give me anything, and even if I had anything I
wouldn’t be able to give it to you.”
Seth’s chest deflated in a large exhale, the knowledge that vampires couldn’t carry diseases seeming
to bring him a great relief.
Seth was obviously a member—or a former member—of the population that knew little to nothing
about its paranormal counterpart. Hell, most humans, aside from the rich who did business with the
other side, still didn’t know, which made the circumstances surrounding Seth’s imprisonment
possible.
It was hard searching for a missing person when the people he worked for supposedly didn’t exist.
Granted, Seth was no longer human, but for all his knowledge of the vampire race, he might as well
have been turned just yesterday.
Sympathy swelled in Ben’s chest for the other man. Wanting to make this as good as possible, Ben
gripped his cock again, delighting in the way Seth’s facial muscles tightened as he did so, the way his
eyes slid to half-mast when he stroked his thumb over the slit of the head, and the way Seth’s mouth
parted juuuust enough for him to catch a glimpse of his pink tongue.
God, that was gorgeous.
It was a form of control in itself, and Ben savored it like a fine wine, only tasting the tiniest little bit,
and not taking it all in too fast.
“I need you to lean back just a little.” Ben put his other hand under Seth’s good knee and helped to
pull him away from the bed only slightly.

A wicked gleam entered the other man’s eyes as it became apparent what Ben intended to do. He
gingerly spread his other leg with the bad knee out and away to make for more room as Ben turned
around and put his back to Seth’s chest.
He grabbed Seth’s cock again, and positioned it so that it slid inside him as Ben got off of his knees
and sat on Seth’s lap. Ben took his time, still not entirely used to this. Seth hardly seemed to notice as
he moaned low in Ben’s ear when he was fully submerged.
Ben had to admit it felt pretty damn good.
He blew out a deep breath and tilted his head to look behind him. “Told you there were other ways.”
Seth grabbed him by the hips, impatience all over his face. “No shit. Move.”
Easier said than done in their current position. With Seth’s bad knee and Ben’s weight, their
movements were more of a shifting of hips than any real hard thrusting, but, they still managed to get
the job done just the way they were.
If anything, forcing themselves to take their time, limiting their movements, only heightened the
pleasure of it. It made Ben more aware of the motions inside him, of Seth’s cock nudging his prostate
on nearly every thrust, and Ben found himself no longer caring that he was in his least favorite
position as he gasped and moaned, grinding his ass down harder into Seth’s laps just to get at more of
that feeling.
He didn’t know why the mental image of Seth getting rug burn on his ass popped into his head, but
he laughed out loud when it did.
“What. Is. So. Funny?” Seth demanded between thrusts, leaning his forehead against the back of
Ben’s neck.
“Nothing.” And nothing it really was as his balls tightened in the point of no return that signaled the
end and he started to come. He grabbed his cock and quickly jerked on it, drawing out his pleasure, a
raw cry escaping his throat as he did.
Seth continued to moan and shift around beneath him, his cock still touching Ben’s prostate and still
making his body hot and his heart thrum even long after Ben caught his breath. If Seth didn’t come
soon, Ben was going to get hard again.

Then, finally, he held Ben close, his fingers latching so tight onto Ben’s stomach and hips that he felt
deep jolts of pain as Seth’s body tightened twitched. He released himself inside of Ben with a shaky
groan.
Ben blew out a contented breath, happy to stay right where he was now that Seth wasn’t digging his
fingers into his skin anymore. Then he looked down at himself.
Ugh, he needed to wash. His cum was all over his belly, and he wasn’t into that.
Seth shifted beneath him, and Ben gingerly lifted himself off of his lap and sat next to him. His
stomach felt gross but he was too mellow to move just yet. “Now I really wish I had a cigarette,” he
said.
Seth frowned. “Can I smoke all I want now that I’m a vampire?”
Weird question. “Don’t know,” he said. “Might be better to not push your luck on every little thing,
though.”
They were both silent, just sitting on the rug where they’d fucked and staring at the door leading into
the bathroom.
Way too awkward for his taste. Since it wasn’t like there was anything left to do, Ben picked himself
up off the floor. “Get some sleep if you can. We’re leaving the second it hits full dark.”
Seth sent him a limp wave as he pulled himself to his feet, still mindful of his one knee and keeping
it straight to avoid the pain of bending it.
Ben caught sight of the tightening in the man’s jaw as he pulled himself up.
It really wasn’t his business. He shouldn’t care. “There’s probably painkillers lying around
somewhere. Silus doesn’t need them, but Cedric still would. Don’t know how much they’d help—”
“I’m fine,” Seth said, finally getting his ass onto the bed with a sigh as the weight was removed from
his knee.

Right. Of course he was. It was his problem now anyway. After Seth left the state like he said he
would, all he needed to do was seek out a vampire healer to get his leg properly aligned, if it was still
an option.
Of course, the guy knew so little about vampires that Ben might just have to help him with that.
“See you in a couple hours then.”
Seth nodded, and Ben grabbed his jeans off the floor and went back to his room through the
bathroom, shutting the door behind him so he could clean up.

Chapter Eleven

Seth waited in the passenger seat of Ben’s Jeep—what the hell did a teleporter even need a vehicle
for, anyway?—while Ben spoke with Silus and Cedric. He was either receiving his instructions, or
saying good-bye or something.
Seth wasn’t much interested in it. He just wished the other man would hurry the hell up so he could
go—
The sight of Ben and Cedric putting their arms around each other’s shoulders in a quick,
back-slapping hug, pulled Seth out of his impatient thoughts.
Nothing wrong with a guy wanting to say “see ya later” to a buddy, but it was the look on Silus’s
face as Ben held on for a fraction of a second too long that made Seth sit up a little straighter.
Even with the windows rolled up, Seth could scent the heating of jealous blood, it hung that thickly
in the air, and he recognized the tightening of Silus’s throat in what was no doubt a possessive hiss.
And Ben. Ben’s blood heated, too, as he held on to his friend, the way Seth had grown used to
whenever the other man was around. He rolled down his window just a crack so he could be sure,
absolutely, positively sure, about the soft scent.
Definitely a low, burning lust. The confirmation went to his gut and sat there like a heavy rock. Holy
shit. How could he not have noticed this?
Ben might have even stayed that way had Cedric not been the one to pull back, a nervous grin on his
face as he pretended that his best friend had no romantic interest in him. That could be the only
explanation for it. Cedric’s blood had certainly not heated like the other two men in lust or jealousy,
but there was no way he couldn’t be sensing what was going on around him. The man wasn’t a
ten-year-old.

Seth’s blood, however, had heated jealously, because he, apparently, was a clueless ten-year-old.
Mine, he wanted to say. He itched to go right over there and throw Ben into the lake for what he was
doing, cool off the man’s lust a little, then stake his claim on him when he dragged himself out of the
water.
And wasn’t that just too fucking pathetic? Seth has a one-nighter with the guy—two if you counted
the lust dream—and he starts having boyfriend moments.
He stamped down on his rising anger and kept it to himself when Ben finally deemed it time to get
his ass into the Jeep and drive away from the house.
“Ready to go?” Ben asked, pulling down his seatbelt like nothing had happened.
“Mm.”
Ben gave him an odd look but then started the ignition.
“I gave you the address. Why don’t you just teleport us there?” He was pretty sure a werewolf
wouldn’t be able to smell that sort of travel.
“I don’t know the area,” Ben said, giving him another look at Seth’s snappy tone. “You okay?”
“Fine.”
It was an hour-long drive back into town, not counting getting to the Western edge where Sammy
and his caregiver would be, and Seth sat quietly for the duration. The only sound between the two
men came from the radio that played some kind of country music shit that Ben had put on.
The longer they drove, the more Seth hated to admit that maybe it was a better idea for a teleporter to
take a car instead of just using his powers. Maybe too much distance between jumps wasn’t good for
him. Either way, it didn’t stop Seth from hating it.

This had been exactly the thing he’d been worried about when Ben had been volunteered to bring
Seth home. There wasn’t a whole lot to talk about with the guy you’d fucked once or twice.
Especially when it turned out that guy had a hard-on for someone else.
Seth clenched his jaw and stared firmly out the window and into the darkness. Stupid. This
possessive mine bullshit was stupid when he knew he wouldn’t be seeing the man again after this,
when they’d only fucked a couple of times.
He barely knew the man. Christ, he didn’t know him. On the list of things that were important to
Ben, Seth ranked lower than zero. That shouldn’t have been something to get him all pissy either. It
was a standard fact known amongst every participant the world over of random hook-ups and one
night stands. Just because Seth had never actually done the quick hookup thing before and had that
information thrown in front of his eyes, was no reason for him to be…well, behaving the way he was.
“I’m just going to see you home, and then I’m gone. You can get yourself back out of town on your
own, right?”
Even Ben knew this was the last time they were going to see each other. “Yup.”
“If they haven’t already sniffed around the property, then there could be wolves still nearby. You
won’t have a lot of time.”
“Yeah.”
“I won’t even get out of the Jeep.”
“You won’t need to.”
Ben clenched his jaw, but said nothing.
That had been the highlight of their conversation ten minutes outside their destination, Ben being
naturally concerned that the werewolves would track Seth back to his or Cedric’s house.

It wasn’t like it was an invalid worry, either. Why wouldn’t the weres do that? Hell, if Seth were still
on their team of guards, the house of the prisoner would’ve been the first place he’d have looked.
Ben turned off the highway and got onto the two-lane road. Almost home. He was having the jitters,
his knee, the good one, twitching up and down as he sat on the edge of his seat.
Sammy…
“Turn down this road,” Seth commanded, pointing his finger. If Ben was curious as to why they were
suddenly driving off the lit, paved road and onto a dark, dirt road with not so much as a street lamp in
sight, he didn’t comment.
The Jeep bumped and rattled as they drove over deep potholes made from years of rains, winters, and
other cars. After about two minutes, Ben seemed to lose his patience with it. “How much farther?”
“Almost there.” Strangely, Seth himself nearly missed the next turn, but that was only because he
was searching for lights where there weren’t any. “Stop.”
Ban slammed on the brakes so hard the Jeep skidded, and they both would’ve flown forward had it
not been for the seatbelts.
“What? What is it?” Ben was searching around himself now, his human eyes attempting to see
through the dark trees to find whatever it was that had Seth shout out the command. As it was, he
could only see straight ahead where his high beams pointed the way.
“Back up a bit,” Seth said, twisting in his seat now to get a look at the road behind them. “We passed
it.”
Ben grumbled but shifted the gears anyway. He put his arm across his seat and twisted so that he
could see behind himself as he drove, slowly this time. It was hard to not notice the tiny, brown,
square house on the second pass. Ben stopped and put the Jeep in park.
“This is where you live?” Seth couldn’t blame him with the are you fucking with me tone of his
voice, not with the lawn, what little of it there was, having overgrown so much with weeds that it
nearly reached the windows, the lack of lights on such an early night, and the wooden beams nailed
over the door and windows. The place looked abandoned or condemned.

“What the fuck?” Seth scrambled out of his seatbelt and all but jumped out of the Jeep, running as
best he could across the rocks of the road to the stone trail that led to the front door. He stuck his eyes
close to the cracks between the beams, attempting to see anything inside through the dusty windows.
There was nothing. The place was deserted.
No way. No goddamn way.
“Well?” Ben called, having rolled down his window.
Seth had entirely forgotten about him. He stepped away from the front door, hardly able to believe...
“Wait one minute for me, I’m going around back,” Seth shouted back over the noise of the running
engine.
Ben glared at him.
“One minute.” Seth lifted his index finger as if to show how little time one minute actually was. He
ran around the side of the house, opened the wooden gate to the backyard, and stepped inside. He
didn’t know what he’d expected to find, obviously Sammy and Maria wouldn’t still be here if the
house was boarded up, but he thought he could find...well, anything.
No. Not really. Nothing had been moved. The lawn chairs and glass table were still there, the back
windows and doors also boarded up. Seth limped his way to the shed. The padlock was still in place,
and he ripped it off with a snap before opening that door and having a look in the tiny space.
It smelled of stale air, dust, and oil. There was the lawn mower he never got around to fixing, cracked
garden gnomes, old tools, that kind of thing inside. Nothing was missing that he could see. Nothing
except for the van. That definitely hadn’t been parked out front.
A hand on his shoulder had him spinning. Ben.

His heart hammered. “What the fuck? I thought you weren’t getting out of the Jeep?”
“Well, it’s getting pretty obvious that I’m not leaving you here, anyway,” he said, taking a look
around the dark lawn. “Where are we?”
“This is where I live.”
Ben looked toward the dark house once more. “You’ve been gone a long time. Looks like the bank
foreclosed, or it was labeled as abandoned after you—”
“No, you don’t get it. There should be other people here. Two more people.” Seth was near to
shouting now. He needed to get a grip. “You got a phone on you?”
Ben waited less than a heartbeat before reaching into the pocket of his leather jacket and producing
his iPhone. Seth could remember telling him and his hosts that there had been no one he needed
calling, but that had been back when he still thought he needed to keep information about himself
secret.
They’d long since gotten past that, especially when Seth’s house had apparently been condemned.
He snatched the phone and stepped around Ben to pace the small length of the yard as he dialed and
waited.
Please, God, let this number still work. Did God answer vampires? Didn’t matter, because there was
no need to panic, maybe Sammy had relapsed and he’d been taken to the hospital for better
treatment, or Maria could’ve taken him into live with her after Seth disappeared.
Right. That was the likely scenario. Of course she would’ve done that, she loved Sammy. That was
why no one was here.
The first number he tried, Sammy’s cell, came up with an automated message.
The number you have dialed, is no longer in—
Seth hung up. That was okay. Sammy could’ve changed his number, gotten a new phone, any
number of things.

He tried the next one he had memorized, doing his best to ignore his hammering heart in his throat
and ears. Fucking answering machine picked up. Least the number still worked.
Seth was aware that Ben, while trying not to look at him or leave him alone while he was losing his
mind, would still be able to hear everything Seth had to say. He couldn’t bring himself to care.
“Maria, if you’re home, I need you to pick up the phone. It’s Seth. I know I’ve been gone a while,
but I’m back home and everything’s—”
The phone picked up. “Sí, hello, Señor Sampson?”
Seth breathed a sigh and sat his ass on one of the lawn chairs before he fell over. A relieved smile
touched his mouth. “Maria.”
“Señor, where have you been? We looked everywhere for you.”
“I know, I’m sorry, but I’m back home now. I can explain everything later, but I came back and the
house is all boarded up. Where’s Sammy? Is he with you or at the hospital?”
There was a long pause that Seth didn’t like. “Maria? Hello?”
“Señor, you’ve been gone a long time. You stopped sending money.”
“Yeah I know, but you had access to my accounts. I made sure of that. There should’ve been enough
to pay your fees.” Working with vampires had made Seth paranoid about his well-being, with good
reason, as it happened. He’d seen to it that, should he be killed, vanish, or be claimed legally dead,
for whatever reason, Maria would be given joint access along with Sammy to everything he had. She
should’ve—no, she’d better have been using it on his brother.
“It was not my fees, Señor,” Maria said quickly. “I cared for Samuel long after the money ran out, I
promise you I did, and then I sold what anyone would take from the house to continue to pay for his
medication.”
Seth’s blood chilled. “Can I speak with Sammy?”
There was a sniffle on the other end, and now Seth’s heart rate really started to spike. “What
happened?”

There was soft crying now, and Seth was on his feet. He spared a quick glance to Ben, who’d taken
the time to walk a little further away without outright leaving Seth alone, observing some overgrown
weeds. “Did he relapse? Which hospital is he at? I can pay for whatever he needs now, so tell me
where he is.” It was a total lie. He had zero cash, but a vampire cure was better than any medical
payment. “Maria, tell me where he is, now.”
Maria took in a shaky breath, bringing herself under control. “Señor, Samuel went with the angels
three months ago. I’m so very sorry I—”
There was more she said, but Seth’s brain wouldn’t turn her words into a language he could
understand over the ringing in his ears. He wasn’t entirely sure what happened after that. He must’ve
hung up the phone because the next thing he knew, Ben was shaking his shoulder, pulling Seth out of
his mindless staring at the overgrown grass on what used to be his backyard.
Seth jumped at the contact, and Ben pulled back.
“Everything all right?”
The man obviously knew it wasn’t, but it was the standard question for most things, wasn’t it?
Seth looked down at the phone still clutched in his fingers. The screen was back to its regular menu,
he wasn’t sure how long ago he’d hung up on Maria. It wasn’t ringing again, so she couldn’t have
been trying to call him back. Maybe she was going to leave him alone to mourn. Maybe she’d call
the police and have him picked up. There were questions a supposedly dead man needed to answer
after suddenly reappearing, after all.
They wouldn’t make it before Wiktor’s werewolves got here.
“Seth, you all right?” Ben asked again.
“Fine.” Seth handed him back the phone. “You can go now. Someone’s coming to pick me up.”
Ben took the phone, all the while staring at Seth with suspicious eyes. “You sure?”

Seth took in a long, painful breath. “Yeah. Like you said, I’ve been gone a while, and I guess
everyone moved out.” He motioned toward the house. “Now that they know I’m back, I’ve got
someone coming here for me.”
Ben didn’t move, but he did look at the house, and then back at Seth. “Is Sammy coming to get you?”
“Yep, that’s my brother. He’s coming here.”
“Will he be here before the wolves get your scent? We’ve been here a while already.”
“Jesus Christ. I’m fine, okay?” Seth parked his ass back in one of the lawn chairs, emphasizing how
safe he was by not moving at all. “Stop hovering around me like you actually care. It’s getting real
fucking old.”
Ben jerked back then his face twisted in a rage Seth hadn’t seen before. “The fuck is your problem?
You think I like driving your ass around to some shack in the middle of nowhere? You think I’d do
that if I didn’t care?”
“Like you care for the sun sprite?”
Seth swore that Ben’s eyes rounded to the size of golf balls.
“I’m a vampire. I’d have to be an idiot to not notice the way your blood heats when you’re near him,
or how pissed Silus gets over it. You’re only bringing me out here as a favor to him. Christ, the first
time we fucked it was nearly his name you said.”
Cedric. Not Seth. Easy for Seth to have heard the first syllable and think Ben would be calling out his
name while Seth’s cock was in his ass. Sort of. He was never going to get used to the idea of two
people screwing in their dreams.
“You brought me, and I’ll be safe until my ride comes. Your duty is done. Fuck off.”
The shock on the other man’s face lasted a hair of a second before Ben sneered at him. “Fuck you.”
Seth didn’t respond. Ben turned and marched away, disappearing around the side of the house. Seth
waited until he heard the angry roar of the Jeep’s engine and the squeal of tires kicking up rocks as it
sped away before he covered his eyes with his hand and crumbled.

Chapter Twelve

Ben was going way over the speed limit, letting the angry hum of his tires and the vibration of the
engine calm him.
It didn’t help. Ten minutes after he’d jumped into his vehicle, he slowed the Jeep to a halt in the
middle of the road then pounded his fist onto the steering wheel until his hand hurt almost as bad as
when he’d punched the floor in that dream. He stopped only when the throb became nearly blinding
and clutched his knuckles.
Prick. Arrogant little shit.
He couldn’t leave him there.
Ben sighed and leaned back in his seat. Something had obviously happened. Ben had heard every
word Seth had spoken, and while he could only guess at what Maria was saying, whoever the hell she
was, by Seth’s panicked voice and the constant mention of a hospital, it wasn’t good.
Something had happened. No one was coming for him, and Seth wanted Ben to leave him for the
werewolves.
“Fuck.” Ben shifted gears and did a U-turn on the empty road. He didn’t drive back at breakneck
speed like a complete maniac, no matter how much he wanted to, because there was always the
chance the wolves would already be closing in, and a speeding Jeep heading for the same destination
as they were would be a giant tip-off to an enemy.
Instead, Ben pulled over and parked the Jeep about a mile away from the dark house behind a bunch
of shrubs next to the road. They weren’t exactly big enough to hide his vehicle, but he couldn’t waste
any more time searching for the perfect parking spot.

He’d already acted like a little bitch by running away when Seth hurt his feelings, and now the other
man was just sitting there, waiting for the weres to come and take him.
He was such an idiot.
The strange thing was how Ben couldn’t tell for sure whether he referred to himself or Seth with that
one. He reached into the glove compartment and unlocked it, pulling out his gun, sliding the clip into
the magazine, and grabbing several spares in case he needed them.
Ben worked for creatures who wanted protection from vampires and their werewolf servants, so all
of Ben’s bullets would be loaded with traces of silver. He jumped out of the Jeep and began strapping
on his holster as he sprinted back to the house through the trees. Teleporting back was not an option
when one wanted to hide in the forest, not unless Ben wanted to find himself stuck with a tree
through his chest. Wouldn’t kill him, but it would be unpleasant and slow him down. A lot.
The werewolves would notice his scent from when he’d been there. There was nothing he could do
about that. He had to hope that they also noted how he’d left the scene in his Jeep, and pray they
wouldn’t expect him to surprise them through the trees like he planned.
He slowed his pace when he realized he was getting close, and then he practically tiptoed at the
sound of voices. There they were. Ben made it. He halted just before the clearing of Seth’s unfenced
yard and made sure to stay hidden behind the shrubs and trees, crouched down and ready.
Seth was still sitting in his lawn chair as three huge, naked bodies appeared out of the shadows and
surrounded him.
Ben gulped hard and used every trick he knew to keep his heart from speeding up, hitting the button
on his panic horn, and giving him away to these creatures who could scent the fear of a squirrel from
across a football field.

They’d just transformed, by the look of things. Werewolves couldn’t keep their clothes between
transformations so they must’ve been tracking Seth in wolf form. Or maybe they’d already been
waiting nearby, and had come when his scent made it into their giant noses.
No one attacked, and there was hardly a movement. The one in the middle, the largest—had to be the
leading alpha—stepped forward.
Seth didn’t even bother looking up at the giant that stood before him, still caught up in feeling sorry
for himself.
Ben swore he was going to punch the idiot’s face in for this when it was all over, regardless of
whether that vampire strength ended up busting his already hurting hand.
“You gonna come quietly?” the alpha asked.
Seth nodded. “Yeah. Is Wiktor pissed?”
A snort. “When’s he not?”
Seth looked up for the first time, his brows furrowed as his eyes scanned the faces of all three
werewolves. “Where’s Jackson?”
Alpha folded his arms, his neck and jaw clenching at the question.
Seth paled, as much as any vampire could, that is. “Oh.”
Seth then stood up, clenching his fists and glaring in a way that actually made the three weres take a
step back.
“When did you all find out about my brother?”
All three winced. Ben didn’t understand this exchange at all. What the hell?
The youngest-looking of the three, not a scrawny guy by any stretch of the imagination, but still
noticeably smaller than his comrades, shifted his feet, avoided looking at Seth, and even scratched
the back of his head in a decidedly un-alpha-like way.
The second one clenched his jaw, but it was the leading alpha who answered. “We haven’t been
keeping tabs on your life since…We just haven’t been. We only know because we were ordered to
pick you up.”

“You got some of your wolves waiting at the cemetery in case I showed up there?”
“Yes. There are even some waiting outside the housekeeper’s place. Don’t worry, they’re just
observing, nothing more. She won’t ever know they’re there.”
“Better not,” Seth muttered.
Despite how much Ben wanted to yell at the man, he couldn’t help but notice how the werewolf and
vampire spoke as though they were on equal footing. Not hunter and hunted, not by a long shot.
Then it slammed into him. Of course. Seth used to be part of Wiktor’s guard. He knew these men,
would have worked with them, and judging by how the other two naked werewolves just stood back,
waiting for something to happen, they didn’t want to bring Seth back any more than Ben wanted
them to.
Suddenly, Ben’s gun became useless. He couldn’t kill these men if they were Seth’s friends. They
were prisoners as much as Seth was, if he understood the whole vampire-werewolf hierarchy thing.
For the first time, Ben felt lucky to be working for sun sprites. They were a humanoid race that,
although looked down on you for having to work to earn a living, at least paid you for your services
and let you go home once in a while.
Ben re-holstered his weapon. He’d have to teleport them out. It was the only way without shedding
any blood or letting the werewolves see his face. He could get himself and Seth onto the road, and
then go from there. That would eliminate the risk of getting gutted with a tree.
Would make it pretty damn easy to track them if they didn’t get back to the Jeep in time, though.
Suddenly, the youngest of the three weres lifted his nose into the air and started sniffing.
That got the attention of the other two pretty fast. “What is it?”
“I’ve got another scent here.”

“What?” the alpha demanded, lifting his nose to take a whiff of the air now too. “Gregory, you
getting this?”
Ben froze. Shit! Goddamnit, shit!
“That’s...no one,” Seth said. “Some guy gave me a lift here. He stuck around when I called my
brother’s nurse. He’s gone now, Joey, you don’t have to worry.”
“No,” said Joey, still looking around. “This is a new scent. He’s still here.”
“What?” Seth snapped, some life finally coming into him.
He couldn’t delay any longer. Ben teleported from his hiding place, allowing his molecules to break
apart and travel at a speed that shouldn’t exist across the clearing and in front of Seth.
He reformed in front of the other man, between him and that huge alpha, and threw his arms around
Seth’s shoulders, teleporting again before the alpha were could release a shout of outrage.
Seth didn’t struggle, not at first, the shock of being moved so quickly having gotten to him. When
Ben reappeared on the road, Seth pushed away from him, his face twisted in fury. “What the fuck are
you doing?”
“No time, the Jeep’s still further down the road.” Ben reached out and snatched Seth’s wrist, pulling
them back into that world of the in-between where Ben flew faster than the speed of sound, light, and
all that other scientific stuff he didn’t understand.
They made it to his Jeep, which was still hidden right where he’d left it behind the shrubs. It
wouldn’t have been such a pain in the ass if Seth hadn’t fought him the entire way.
Seth swiped his hand away from Ben’s grip. “What the fuck are you doing? Are you out of your
mind?”
“Get in the Jeep.”
“They’ve got your scent and you just decide to pop in and do a snatch and run? You should’ve left
me—”
Ben slapped the hood of his ride, something he never would’ve done under normal circumstances. “I
said get in the car!”

Seth’s lips became a thin line, and Ben readied himself to go right over to him and force him into that
Jeep if he had to. Thankfully, Seth saw reason and got in on his own steam.
Ben joined him, taking his place in the driver’s side and starting up the engine. He kicked up rocks
and a dust trail as he got the hell out of Dodge.
Seth was silent for about ten seconds. “Where’re we going?”
“My place. I doubt the wolves will be able to follow our scent from a car, but there’s no way we can
go back to Mantua Lake.
“You really should just drop me off—”
“Fuck. You,” Ben said. He took his eyes away from the dark road for a split second to look at Seth.
The man’s eyebrows were shot up into his hairline. “Seriously. Fuck you.” Ben returned his eyes to
the road, checking his mirrors every two milliseconds to be sure no giant, furry something was
following hot on their asses. Not possible. He’d teleported too far and the wolves weren’t that fast,
but he was still checking.
“Fuck me?” Seth sounded indignant.
“Yes. What exactly do you not understand about fuck you, you stupid coward idiot?” Now that he
was sure they weren’t about to get side-slammed by a pursuing werewolf, Ben let his anger take hold.
“I had no clue who you were when I first found you, but I brought your burned ass to the home of my
best friend, who, by the way, is hiding out from the same people you are, and now you want to go
back to Wiktor? Not going to happen.”
Seth closed his eyes and let his head fall back. “It’s not like that.”
“Then what is it like? What do you think is so bad that you’d want to go back to Veturious Manse to
get tortured and raped again?” Ben ignored the way Seth stiffened and plowed ahead. “He would’ve
questioned you, too, and you would’ve told him about Cedric and Silus eventually.”
“Because Cedric is the only person in this story you really care for,” Seth snapped. “You shouldn’t
worry. I was going to start a fight once presented to Wiktor and have the wolves kill me to protect
him. Nothing would have been revealed about Cedric’s location, who you love so much.”

“Yeah, I do love him!” Ben yelled back. “He’s my best friend and I’m fucking in love with him, and
that is no goddamn business of yours!”
When Seth did not immediately roar back another insult in their rage-filled shouting match, he took
his eyes off the road one more time to see what the problem was.
Seth stared at Ben, all stony eyed, but his face was tight, like he’d just been sucker punched in the
gut.
Ben clenched his jaw, and his fingers clutched at the steering wheel as though he could take all his
anger and frustration out on it. Apparently that had been the wrong thing to say.
“Let’s just go,” he said, and they were both silent for the remainder of the drive.

Chapter Thirteen

Seth couldn’t help the spike in his anger, nor the claiming voice in his head when Ben admitted to
being in love with the sun sprite. That nice guy who’d changed Seth’s bandages and had talked to
him when he was still locked in a basement. Seth nearly wanted to kill him.
Mine. No one else’s. Mine!
He swallowed hard before those thoughts could turn into words he’d end up speaking out loud,
because then the air was sucked from his lungs as the logical side of his brain took over.
Ben was in love with Cedric. It wasn’t just a lust thing, but love.
The strange thing was how his heart did a painful little flop in his chest on that realization. Seth’s
heart had never hurt like this before, and that strange pain just got piled on with all the other shit he
had to deal with tonight.
Sammy was dead, Seth had been too late, and Ben…
Seth pressed his forehead against the cool glass of the window, allowing Ben to do his job by taking
him to wherever they were going.
The apartment building they stopped at wasn’t a sky rise by any stretch of the imagination. Ben
pulled his Jeep up and parked it beside the sweetest yellow Porsche Seth had ever seen in his life.
As they got out of the Jeep he took a step toward it. What would someone who owns a car like this be
doing living in this building?
He nearly reached out to lay his hand along the sleek hood when Ben called to him.
“Don’t touch that.”

Seth snapped his hand away at being caught. He followed Ben to the front doors, glancing behind
him one last time just to get another look at it.
Ben’s top-level apartment was only on the sixth floor, but Seth welcomed getting out of the small
space of the Jeep where he’d been confined so close to the other man, even if he was now going to be
stuck in a living space with him. A small living space, from the look of things.
Ben tossed his keys on the kitchenette counter. “Bathroom’s right there. Towels are under the sink if
you want a shower.
Seth nodded and robotically went. The bathroom was so tiny he practically had to step on the toilette
just to shut the door. Seth began shedding his borrowed clothes. He didn’t have anything clean to
wear, so he was going to be stuck in his underwear for the night.
It was hot out anyway, and from the look of things, Ben didn’t have an AC. He stayed in the shower,
not really washing, he hadn’t exactly done anything that required real scrubbing since this morning,
so he just let the hot water rain over his head and face. He tried to grab a bottle of Axe at one point,
but his hand was shaking so much that he just gave up and let himself soak. The water from the
shower made his vision blurry, and no matter how many times he wiped at his eyes he couldn’t clear
them.
Sammy was gone. Seth had been too late. Everything he’d done had been for nothing.
He got out only when he was able to get himself under control, and even then, after wiping away the
steam residue from the mirror with his hand, his puffy eyes made it pretty damn obvious it hadn’t
been the shower water.
Fuck.
There was no spare toothbrush he could use, so he settled for rinsing his mouth out with Ben’s
mouthwash, and then he stayed hidden in the bathroom for several minutes longer. A knock pulled
him from his peace and quiet.

“You all right in there?”
Seth cleared his throat. “Yeah. I’m done.”

* * * *

If he’d stayed in the bathroom any longer, Ben would’ve had to break the door down for fear of Seth
slitting his wrists or something.
Seth opened the door and stepped out. He looked Ben in the eyes, and Ben had to forcefully swallow
his immediate questions of are you okay? Guy looked like he’d been hit by a bus.
Ben cleared his throat and stepped away from the door. “Go sit down. I’ve got some pizza ready.”
Seth looked to the tiny kitchenette counter, where an open box for a frozen pizza sat. The scent of
cooked cheese and tomato sauce wafted in the air. “I’m not hungry,” he said.
“Tough. Sit down.” Ben nodded toward his tiny black couch in the living room. There was no room
for a table in the tiny apartment, and the kitchenette counter could never double as a bar with how
small and crowded it was with a microwave, toaster, and other various appliances taking up all the
space.
Ben wasn’t in any mood to argue, and Seth must’ve sensed this because went back into robot mode
and sat on the couch. It was a love seat, actually, nothing bigger would fit comfortably in Ben’s small
space. Hopefully that wouldn’t make things too uncomfortable when Ben went to sit down.
Ben opened the oven and pulled out their warm pizza. He cut it into slices, occasionally yanking his
hand away and shaking his fingers as he burned himself, but also darting his eyes up to look at Seth.
The man was just too quiet.
He shouldn’t have said what he said back in the Jeep.
Ben came around the counter and moved to sit with Seth, balancing two plates of pizza in one hand
while his fingers curled around the necks of two bottles of beer. He set the plates down on the coffee
table, sat next to Seth, and handed him a bottle.

Seth took it but only stared at the pizza.
Ben cleared his throat and rested his elbows on his knees. “You wanna tell me what happened?”
“No.”
Ben squashed down his annoyance. He twisted off the cap of his drink, the bottle releasing a tiny hiss
and a pop as he did so. “That wasn’t a request.”
“What happened is none of your business.”
“Yeah, well, as of one hour ago you’re officially on my suicide watch.” Ben hesitated, thumbing the
tip of his bottle.
“I’m not suicidal. I just…” Seth trailed off.
He shouldn’t be interfering. He really shouldn’t.
“Sammy, your brother. He died?”
Seth’s eyes slid shut, his lips becoming a hard, thin line.
“Yeah.” Seth twisted off his bottle cap and took a long swig. He made a face and looked at the brand
label, but then put the bottle back to his lips again anyway.
“I’m sorry.”
Seth shrugged. “Don’t be. We all knew it was coming eventually.”
He said no more. Ben couldn’t just let the silence take over. It left the other man with too much shit
to think about, too much that he was obviously blaming himself for. He needed an outlet to get that
out of him, but Ben was no therapist by any stretch of the imagination. He just had to do his best
here. “I don’t have any siblings, so I have no idea what it’s like to lose a little brother, but you can’t
just—”
“Older brother.”
Ben blinked. “What?”
“Sammy’s my older brother. Was, I guess. Fuck.” He rubbed his face with his palm, as though that
would chase away the coming tears. His eyes were becoming redder with the strain of it.

Ben grabbed his shoulder and squeezed it. He didn’t know what else to do.
Seth clenched up on contact and glared at him. “This shit doesn’t leave this apartment. You don’t tell
no bar buddies or that friend of yours. Got it?”
Ben nodded, catching the way he said that friend of yours. “I got it.”
Seth wet his lips and sank back into Ben’s tiny couch. He didn’t speak right away, casting Ben these
suspicious glances, as though determining whether or not he could be trusted to keep his promise.
Finally, “You wouldn’t have known he was older if you looked at us side-by-side. He was always so
much smaller.”
“What did he have?”
Seth winced. “Made it that obvious, huh? Leukemia. He was in remission when I left. Grown his hair
back and everything. I wasn’t really expecting to come back and find out he’d died.” His throat
seized up, his words coming out hitched, and now his breathing was all over the place.
Ben put his hand on his shoulder again. This time he wasn’t shrugged off. Seth bit his lips together,
breathing through his nose until he was calm again. Good technique.
Then he understood everything. The curtain pulled away, and the worst sort of jackass shame flooded
him.
“Jesus.” Ben looked away, then back at him. “That’s why you worked for Wiktor. You thought if he
would change you into a vampire that you could transform your brother.”
Immortality through vampirism would definitely cure a human disease like cancer. Suddenly, all
those not so great things he’d ever thought or said about the man crashed down on him, and he felt
like an asshole.
Seth took another swig of his beer. It looked like he was having a hard time getting the liquid to go
down with the number of times he swallowed. “Yeah.”

Ben leaned on his knees, his own bottle still held loosely in his hands. “That’s some pretty extreme
measures there. You must’ve really loved him.”
“You’re trying to keep me talking,” Seth said.
“Yeah,” Ben admitted.
Seth looked at him hard once more.
Ben put his hands up. “Nothing leaves here, remember?”
“Right.” Another quick swig. “I was conceived to be a donor match, if he needed blood or kidneys or
anything like that. He had a rare blood type, nothing that couldn’t be found anywhere else, but this
way it was supposed to be…”
“Easier?”
“Yeah.”
Jeeee—sus, that was harsh. “You weren’t a match?”
Seth shook his head. “No. Wasn’t any money to genetically engineer a kid, so they tried the
old-fashioned way. It didn’t pay off.” He laughed a little. “We had so many close calls, just waiting
for blood, the bone marrow was what nearly did us in, and to make matters worse, my mother
couldn’t conceive again.
“She eventually couldn’t take the thought of that anymore. She couldn’t have any more kids to save
the one who was dying, bills were piling up around her and my dad was all over the place, so she
took a whole bottle of Sammy’s pain meds one night and—” Seth waved his hand. “All she wrote.
Just like that.
“Dad, well, he never needed to say anything. Every time a doctor said they were waiting on a this or
that, every time something happened that I should’ve been able to fix, but couldn’t, he’d kind of look
at me.” Seth clenched his jaw, and Ben wasn’t sure if the anger was better than the depression.
“Never glaring or angry or anything like that, but just those little glances and I knew, I knew, what he
was thinking. I should’ve been able to donate.”
“What happened to him?”

Seth drank again. “Remarried and moved away after Sammy turned nineteen. He still sends money,
or at least, he was sending it, last time I checked. Guess it wasn’t enough after I left if Maria had to
move Sammy out of the house.”
When his older brother turned nineteen. He didn’t know much about cancer patients, but for someone
to have lived that long from childhood, older even, couldn’t have been common. And Seth was
younger. Ben fought the urge to snatch the beer out of Seth’s hand. “How old are you?”
Seth gave him an odd look. “Twenty-two.”
He believed him, and relief came over him in a wave. Thank God. Ben would’ve had his first heart
attack if he’d found out he’d been fucking a minor.
Silence. “So, on the topic of parents, are yours around?” Seth asked, leaning back against the couch,
propping his arm along the back, pretending he hadn’t just spilled his guts.
Ben would humor him and take the attention away. “My mom died in childbirth, and my dad’s
retired. He used to work the same job I did.”
Seth frowned, taking that in. “And, you have no brothers and sisters?”
This time Ben was the one to take a calming drink. “Nope.”
Seth paled, putting it together. “Oh.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s okay.” And it was. Ben had a good life. His father was always in a good
mood as far as Ben could remember, and growing up with Cedric had only made things all the more
fun. Unlike Seth, who’d apparently grown up with death and guilt hovering over his head.
Seth shook his head, biting his lower lip and gripping his bottle so tightly it was only a matter of time
before it shattered in his hand. He was going back into depression mode. “I just thought that—that if
I could cure him, if I could change him into a vampire, then I would’ve—everything would be okay.”

“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, punched 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.
“Likewise, sir. I’m sorry to say I can’t stay and talk. I’m late to take my rotation with Dacielle.”
Cyricus waved away the notion, and an annoyed twist curled on his lips as he did so. “That girl
hardly ever leaves the property. Let her mother watch her for another ten minutes. Come. Come with
me.”
Thank God his eyes were hidden by his shades, otherwise Cyricus might have seen the concern in
them. Cyricus was technically no longer head of his household. That title fell to Sheila ever since
Cedric “died” and Cyricus could not pay his debts without Dacielle’s dowry money.
Cyricus was still treated with the air of being head of house simply because that’s how all the
servants knew to treat him, but on more than one occasion so far, he and Sheila had butted heads over
something, and when Sheila gave an order, regardless of whether or not Cyricus approved—putting
that inground pool in where his labyrinth hedges had been for instance—it was Sheila who was
obeyed.

It was this reason that made Cyricus despise his sister-in-law, even though she was the one allowing
him to remain living in this mansion, and why Ben was weary to put off his duty to Dacielle, even for
the sake of an employer who gave him back his job after he quit in front of the entire household.
Cyricus brought him into his study, the one place he had fought and kicked and shrieked for before
Shiela would relent and allow him to keep the space unchanged.
He quietly shut the door behind them. Ben went to stand in the center of the room on the plush
Victorian rug. Cyricus did not go to sit behind his large writing desk. He had no need to keep his
books and ledgers behind it now that he was no longer head of house.
It wasn’t until Cyricus began pulling the curtains to the ceiling-high windows shut that Ben stiffened.
“Sir?”
“What I say to you does not leave this room,” Cyricus said, pulling another heavy velvet curtain shut.
Did he think another sprite was going to flash into the room on them? Why all the darkness?
“I don’t understand, sir.”
“I received a missive this morning, not a quarter hour ago from the Veturious clan.”
And that was when everything beneath Ben’s feet began to sink. His mouth dropped, and Cyricus
finally took the time to look at him to see the shock.
“That was my reaction.”
Ben removed his shades. Other than the fact that it was now too dark to be wearing them, Cyricus
saw him as a sort of confidant.
There was only one thing Wiktor would be sending a message to Cyricus for, but he needed to play
dumb.

“What did the sucker want from you?”
Cyricus moved to his liquor cabinet, a twisted, half-mad smile on his lips. “Apparently, there is a
recently turned vampire on the loose that he wishes me to be aware of.”
“Why would you care about any sort of vampire, sir?”
Cyricus opened the cabinet, grabbed the glass decanter filled with amber liquid, and poured himself a
generous glass. By generous, Ben meant he filled that little glass all the way to the rim.
“Apparently, it is the one that allowed that first vampire,” he said with a curl to his lip, “who killed
himself along with my son, to run free. Had it not been for him, Silus would have been properly bled
to death by his betters, and he would not have escaped and put his fangs—”
He stopped himself, shut his eyes and hissed, as though the memory brought him real physical pain.
It was all very dramatic and good. Ben had no doubt that Cyricus felt a little remorse over what had
happened, but also that, if Cedric were to miraculously show up today and announce he was alive and
well and living with Silus, the war between their two clans would start all over again.
Cyricus could play the heartbroken father, just not the accepting one.
“Regardless, I need someone close to me to discover if there is any truth to this.”
“There’s no one else that can be trusted for this task?” Ben sure as shit didn’t want to do it. “I doubt
very much that Dacielle or Lady Sheila will want to free up any of my time.”
“I do not want them knowing of this. I could care less what that old bitch thinks, but if Dacielle were
to discover that there was another creature involved in the suicide of her fiancé, it would destroy
her.”
Ben seriously doubted that. Cedric had been right about Dacielle. She’d had a crush on him, mourned
his death for about a week, and by day eight, was already accepting new suitors. She was having the
time of her life being single and having her pick of wealthy, young, or sometimes old, men.

Not to say the news wouldn’t shock her, but that girl wasn’t nearly as delicate as everyone seemed to
think. Hell, having her choice in men had gotten her so high on the freedom that she’d once even
made a pass at Ben.
Ben shivered. The memory of him explaining to her just why she was barking up the wrong tree
wasn’t a pleasant one.
Cyricus seemed to take that as some sort of sign that Ben agreed with him. “You see? We must keep
this between you and me. Besides”—here, he cleared his throat and colored a little in the face—“I am
asking this as a favor for my son. I no longer have the funds to pay for such a job, and Sheila would
never give me any more money for such a task.”
Ah, so here was the meat of the issue. Yes, Cyricus hated his sister-in-law for taking over his family
mansion and rubbing her wealth in his face, but Cyricus didn’t want Sheila knowing that he was
hiring one of her guards, or in this case, volunteering one of her guards, to do a side job.
“You have my word, sir, if there is any truth to the sucker’s claim, I will find it, but”—he had to
ask—”what if it turns out to be a cruel hoax?”
The first thing Ben was going to do was pretend to look around, ask questions, and then come back
stating exactly that. He needed to know what Cyricus’s reaction would be to it.
Cyricus sneered. “It’s not a hoax. That vampire, Wiktor Veturious.” He spoke the name with some
trouble, the same way a seven-year-old would struggle around swallowing a mouthful of vegetables.
“He and I have come to an understanding, if you will. This is only his second missive to me since
Cedric’s death, and I see no motive for him to make such a claim.”
“Then why did he make it, sir?”

“He asks for my help. According to him, the vampire escaped twice and he would like some
assistance in tracking him down. He is also receiving the aid of another, a teleporter.”
Cyricus looked pointedly at him. “Would you know anything of this?”
Thank Christ the man was no vampire, otherwise he’d hear the frantic beating of Ben’s heart.
“Humans with powers are rare enough. There aren’t many other teleporters other than myself who
live in the area, that I know of. Even that wouldn’t help much since they can travel long distances in
so little time. I’ll ask around, see if I find anything,” he said, pretending not to notice the way Cyricus
stared at him.
If he suspected him of anything, then Ben’s dismissive attitude must’ve steered him off course. He
nodded. “I will give whatever small resources I have in aiding him. Find this vampire. I care not for
the teleporter, so put all of your efforts onto finding that sucker, but I want him before he is handed
over to Veturious. I want to give him a hell that can only be seen in nightmares, so that when I do
give him to Wiktor, he will welcome that as a blessing.”
Ben nodded. “Understood. I will begin immediately.”
He was about to leave the study to get to it when Cyricus stopped him. “Mr. Volio, I hope you will
forgive me when I say that, in the reply missive I sent to Veturious, I mentioned you as a teleporter.
Forgive my lack of faith, but I have no doubt the werewolf guards will be sniffing around your place
of residence. Standard procedure, I’m sure you understand.”
Ben grinned and slid his shades back on his face. “Of course.”
The grin melted from his face the second he gave Wiktor his back and left the study.
Jesus Christ. Ben needed to get home.

Chapter Fifteen

Seth was not happy about having a babysitter come to watch him, especially this babysitter in
particular. Ben could’ve warned him that he was calling the sun sprite over, the prick. Seth nearly
had a heart attack when the buzzer sounded. Cedric’s voice calling through the intercom had been the
only thing to calm him down enough to answer and let the man into the building.
Wasn’t Cedric’s fault, Seth reasoned with himself. He’d been nearly as shocked as Seth had been
when he’d found out Ben hadn’t told him he was coming over. The guy didn’t even know why Ben
wanted him over. Seth had a good idea, and it made him want to kill the other man that much more.
Suicide watch, he’d called it, and now Seth had to sit here and try to make small talk with the man
Ben was in love with. Seth swore that if Ben told the other man about his serious lapse in judgment
last night, he would murder him.
Seth had said he wasn’t suicidal, and he meant it, previous poor judgment aside. He would suck up
any hurt feelings and get over it. Cedric had a life partner, and, from the little that Seth had seen and
the amount he knew of him, pretending to commit suicide and all that, he was very loyal to that life
partner as well.
Still, it took some kind of strong friendship to keep Ben’s feelings for him from destroying
everything between them.
Don’t be jealous. Don’t be jealous. Don’t be jealous.
“So,” Cedric said, that air of awkwardness when two strangers were put into a room together floating
all around them like smog. “You and Ben, huh?”

“There’s nothing going on.”
“Not what I heard.”
Freshly filled with blood, Seth blushed easily at the comment. Guess his hosts had heard the fun that
last time he and Ben were together in their house.
Cedric stretched his arms out along the back of the tiny couch. He was attempting to be chummy. To
his credit, Seth didn’t sense any jealousy or sarcasm in his demeanor, just a genuine thrill for his best
friend getting laid and, maybe, finding a lover.
Seth couldn’t help but relax a little. At least the guy was easy to get along with. “It’s just a thing
we’re doing.”
“Huh, well, you both sure were doing things.” Then he proceeded to laugh at his own lame innuendo.
Or maybe he was laughing because of how lame it was.
For some reason, that wasn’t annoying coming from him.
“Want to watch TV?” Seth asked
“Sure.”
At least they were getting along. The sun sprite had been here for about a half hour, and up until ten
seconds ago, it had been all silent and weird.
Though Seth had offered it, Cedric was the one who reached for the remote.
Seth couldn’t take sitting down anymore as an insane craving for last night’s pizza came over him.
He got up and went to the fridge. Ben had some sodas cooling in there, to which Seth fully intended
to help himself and consume all of them as Ben’s punishment, but he could still share. “Want
anything to—”
He halted in his tracks.
“Want what?” Cedric asked, flipping channels.
Seth looked back at him. “Did you hear that?”
Cedric immediately took on a concerned look, and he muted the TV.

They were both stock-still, hardly breathing. The only sound was the drip from Ben’s faucet.
Then the door was kicked in, in an inward explosion of splintered wood, and a swarm of giant men in
suits rushed inside.
There was so little space in the apartment that he had no room to react, nor any time, considering
he’d been right beside the door when the weres broke in. Two pairs of hands grabbed hold of him
instantly, and Seth was pushed against the kitchenette counter. The wind was knocked clear out of
him as his gut made impact.
The empty coffee pot and toaster were pushed out of the way, and Seth’s cheek was pushed down
into the crumbs left on the counter.
Then a shout from the deep voice of their leader. “There’s the teleporter!”
Fuck, Cedric. He couldn’t flash away. The heavy curtains kept out all direct sunlight.
The only thing he could do to remotely defend himself was—
Seth snapped his eyes up at Cedric, waiting for him to bring on the light show of blinding UV light.
While he couldn’t flash himself to safety, he could still let loose that bright light from his skin that
would disorient the weres, create a distraction for himself to escape, and turn Seth into a burned hunk
of meat.
His heart pounded as everything suddenly happened in slo-mo, but no painful, deadly lights came.
Cedric stood and slowly lifted his hands in surrender. He allowed Joey to grab his arms and twist
them behind his back with no struggle.
Cedric looked at Seth, and in that brief contact of eyes, Seth understood that the other man was
deliberately holding back on his power just because Seth was in the room.
Idiot was going to get himself hurt or killed for that.
Joey worked, putting the plasticuffs on him, same as what Seth was getting from Gregory and
Damon, only he was getting triple the fun.

“Don’t try and break ’em,” Damon warned as Gregory worked. “I’ll knock you out before you get
them off.”
“Thanks,” Seth said, grunting as Gregory tightened the plastic to the point of cutting off circulation.
“Do you mind?”
“You’re the one who had to change his mind about coming quietly,” Gregory said, taking hold of
Seth’s other arm. “Gotta do it this way now.”
Joey grabbed Cedric by the crook of his arm when he was done, pulling his gun out with his other
hand. “Sorry to do this to you, guy, but I’m not letting go until we get back. So don’t even think of
teleporting us out of here or you’ll regret it.”
Seth’s eyes widened. “Wow, Joey, gotta give you props. You sound like you mean it.”
Joey looked at him and actually grinned like Seth was still a superior or something. “Thanks.” The
kid had been working at making himself seem fierce so he could stay a guard. Whatever he was
doing lately, or whatever motivation he had over his head, it was clearly working.
Seth couldn’t help but feel glad for him despite the fucked-up situation.
Cedric rolled his eyes, his jaw clenching in annoyance. “All right, you caught us. Fair and square.
Can we go now?”
Eager of him, but Seth knew what he was doing. The second the weres brought him outside and into
the sun, he could safely flash away. Sun sprites couldn’t take travelers with them when they flashed,
unlike real teleporters who could. It would be the perfect opportunity for escape, and he could get
help from…
Whoever in the world still gave enough of a shit to save Seth’s sorry ass.
Perfect.
“Hey, guys,” Joey said, his eyes never leaving Cedric’s face. “I don’t think this is Benjamin Volio.”

Seth’s insides turned to ice. The look on Cedric’s face suggested the same.
“What?” Damon demanded.
“Look at him.” Joey pointed a finger under Cedric’s jaw. “This guy doesn’t match the description we
got at all.” Joey sniffed. “He doesn’t even smell the same.”
Description. Of course. The werewolves hadn’t needed to sniff him out this time. They’d known he
was taken by a teleporter last night. Ben was known by both clans to be a teleporter. Of course they’d
come here first.
“No, his scent is different.” Damon narrowed his eyes then looked at Seth. “Do we want to know
who this guy is?”
“My name is Peter,” Cedric said quickly. The eyes of all werewolves snapped to him. “Peter
Laurence. I’m a teleporter from Boston, I heard another was living here, and so I came for his help.”
“Help with what?” Gregory asked.
“In saving my friend from all of you,” Cedric snapped, pulling against Joey’s grip for the first time.
“We’ve known him a while, buddy,” Damon said, jerking his head toward Seth. “He’s never spoken
about you.”
“I never told you guys lots of things,” Seth said. He had no idea where Cedric was going with all this,
but if it kept Ben’s name out of Wiktor’s hit list, then he’d go along.
“Like what?” Damon said.
The asshole was being so cocky, thought he knew so much about Seth just because they’d laughed
together over jokes they’d made on lunch breaks, or had played pool together in the servants’ lounge
after hours.
“Like my brother Sammy, who had leukemia. Never told you about that, did I? You guys didn’t even
know about that until, when? Two nights ago?”
It had the effect he was hoping, cricket-style silence from everyone.

“Why do you think I would purposely go against Wiktor’s orders and get Silus to transform me?
Why the fuck do any of you think I’d bind myself to a vampire like some kind of mindless servant? I
did it so I could cure him.”
Still the awkward nothingness. “And you think telling us something like that will make us release
you?” Damon asked, his voice calm and even instead of cruel.
No, he wouldn’t be cruel about something like this. The man felt guilty because he had to obey his
master.
“No,” Seth said, looking at Cedric. “It’s like he said. We heard another teleporter was living here and
we came for help, but no one was here.”
He waited with bated breath for the three men to eat the lie he fed them.
Joey looked uncertainly between his captive and superiors, Gregory’s face gave the impression that
he’d swallowed something not right, and Damon clenched his jaw.
They knew he was lying.
“All right then,” Damon finally said. “Let’s go.”
“Yes, sir,” Joey said, gripping Cedric’s arm and pulling, leading him toward the door.
“Wait, wait,” Gregory said, leaving Seth in Damon’s hands. “If there’s more of his kind around, he
could teleport you into the middle of an ambush.”
“I can handle anyone who comes at me.”
“But we don’t want to lose either of you, so you gotta do this. Sorry, man,” Gregory said to Cedric as
he lifted his fist.
Gregory was fast, as most werewolves were. Cedric only had time for his eyes to go wide before that
giant fist was hurled into the side of his head.
Seth winced at the sound of Gregory’s knuckles bashing into Cedric’s skull, and the way the other
man’s head flew back. His anger spiked when Gregory raised his fist again.

“Stop that! He’s not going anywhere!” Seth yelled.
“We can’t take that risk,” said Damon. “He still awake, Greg?”
“Kinda,” Gregory said, lifting Cedric’s groggy head with two fingers under the poor guy’s chin.
Cedric couldn’t hold himself up, leaving Joey to do that for him. His glazed eyes blinked drunkenly
at his attacker.
“Want me to hit him again?”
One more of those, and it would be Cedric’s turn to spend some time as a vegetable. Did sun sprites
heal the same way vamps did?
“Greg, stop.” Seth ordered.
Gregory’s lips came together in a firm line, and he half turned to look back at Seth. “You know we
can’t listen to you anymore.”
“Regardless,” Damon said. “He looks done, and Wiktor wants them both in decent condition.”
That wasn’t good.
“Guys, please, I promise I’ll go quiet. Just leave him here,” Seth said as he was forcefully shoved
toward the door. He put his leg up, his bad one, on the door frame to keep them from pushing him
out. The instant hot throbbing pain of his knee caused his whole leg to tremble as soon as he’d done
it.
“Like you said you were going to come quietly last night?”
When Seth was shoved again, he shoved back with everything in his body, knocking Damon away
from him and getting back on both feet. His leg killed, but he went into a defensive stance in front of
the door, not that it would do him much good since he wouldn’t be doing any roundhouse kicks any
time soon.
“That was different. He didn’t know what I was doing. He won’t try and get me when we get to
Wiktor’s, okay? He’s not that stupid.”
Cedric’s head lolled as he was held by Joey, who watched the exchange with sad eyes.
Seth couldn’t let them bring Cedric to the Veturious Manse. These guys might not recognize their
second hostage, but Wiktor would sure as shit know who Cedric was once he saw him, and then he
would know that his son was alive, too.

Or maybe he’d just continue to assume Silus was dead and then torture the fuck out of Cedric for
revenge.
“He’s knocked out, and he’s tied up. Please, he’s my friend. I don’t want him hurt. For old time’s
sake, please.” His words became more and more desperate the more he spoke, but Seth couldn’t help
himself.
He wasn’t begging because Ben was in love with the sun sprite, but because Cedric was one of the
guys to take care of Seth and change his bandages when he needed it. Seth didn’t want to see what
Wiktor would do to him if he got his hands on him.
“Guys,” Joey started, looking toward his superiors, and for a hair of a second, hope filled Seth’s chest
that the wolves might actually disobey, for once.
“No,” Damon said. “He comes with us. Gregory.”
Gregory pulled out a black bag from the inside of his jacket. Seth went apeshit as he pulled it over
Cedric’s head and tied the bottom.
“You motherfuckers! He’s gonna kill him! Don’t you get it? He’s going to kill him!”
Adrenaline carried him as Seth kicked his leg out and caught Damon in the gut, and he doubled over,
clutching at his stomach. He didn’t care if the wolves were forced to obey anymore, five centuries
and a blood oath be damned, he was going to kill them for this.
Damon recovered quickly, performing a neat kick-up, and he grabbed Seth’s bare foot as he
attempted to kick the alpha once more. Seth was easily tackled to the floor as he and Gregory
charged him.
A heavy, callused hand clamped down over Seth’s mouth as he yelled and cursed at them, and it
stayed there even as Seth bit down hard, drawing blood with his fangs and slicing deep into the flesh.
The two men above him called out orders that Seth couldn’t make out because he was so caught up in
his rage. Gregory didn’t tear his hand away until Joey appeared in Seth’s vision, a roll of gray duct
tape in his hands. He hurriedly ripped off a long strip and proceeded to wrap it entirely over his
mouth and around the back of his head.

“Hold his feet down. Hold his feet,” Damon said as Seth continued to kick.
The fucked-up thing was, despite the size of the apartment, the floors and walls didn’t have the feel
of being thin and cheap. They felt thick and solid. Even if there were neighbors home, Seth doubted
anyone would hear the racket going on.
“Want me to tie his feet, too?” Joey asked.
“No, he’s walking out of here. We need something to cover him. The sun’s still out.”
Seth glared at Joey as the younger man went off in search of something to use. Joey pointedly
avoided looking in Seth’s direction.
“Greg, put your radio on and get outside. We’ll need you to keep watch. Don’t want anyone to see us
leaving like this.”
“Got it.” Gregory took off out of the broken door and down the hall to the elevators. With him no
longer holding Seth’s feet, Damon put his knees on Seth’s chest to keep him down.
Not that he needed to. Seth was coming down off his adrenaline high and his knee pulsed fire and
brimstone for the tantrum he’d pulled.
Seconds later Joey came back with a sheet from Ben’s bed. His jaw was clenched as he held it out for
his leading alpha to take, still not looking Seth in the eyes.
Damon grabbed it and began wrapping it around Seth. “We won’t let the sun touch you.”
Seth put all his hatred into glaring at the bastard, but then it didn’t matter anymore as one of those
leather black bags was shoved over his head.

* * * *

Ben teleported home just in time to duck behind a tree to keep from being seen.
He wanted to scream, but he bit down on his anger and clenched his fists instead. Those
motherfucking werewolves were parked right outside his door, their stupid-ass, black van
obnoxiously sitting over the yellow No Parking sign painted on the concrete.
How the hell they’d managed to get the front door open without busting the glass, Ben didn’t know.
Maybe one of them knew how to pick locks, or another tenant had let them in or something. Either
way, the door was being held open with a rock as the smaller werewolf half carried Cedric to the
back of the van.
He had a black bag covering his face. Ben clenched his hands into fists.
They put a bag over his head.
He cricked his neck, relieving some of the building tension. Stay calm, stay focused, assess the
situation.
By the way Cedric swayed, Ben could only assume he’d either been drugged or punched out, but it
was hard to tell with the leather bag. Regardless, he wasn’t flashing away, despite the sun touching
his arms. They must’ve thought he was the teleporter from last night if they’d bothered with putting
him out of commission.
Great.
Ben wanted to go to him, just teleport over, grab him, and take him away before they could disappear
with him, but he had to wait for…
Seth.
The flare in his chest and stomach terrified him as they brought him out. It was easy to tell it was him
because of the way Ben’s white bed sheet covering him steamed in the sun as the alpha led him out.
He was helped into the back of the van without much struggle. Ben wouldn’t struggle while out in
the open either, if it meant lighting himself on fire.

He stayed behind the bushes, watching and waiting as the leading alpha and the younger werewolf
moved to the front of the van and got in.
He was going to teleport inside the back of the van and grab hold of Cedric and Seth, and then get the
fuck out of there before those idiots even knew Ben was around.
His muscles tensed, readying for the teleport. The van started, and he was a hair away from doing the
old Ninja Vanish, when, fuck, the last of the three werewolves jumped into the back with the
hostages. He quietly shut the doors, and then they calmly drove off as though they weren’t about to
deliver the two men they had to the devil himself.
Ben ran out of his hiding spot as the van drove to the lot’s exit. He didn’t need to get the license plate
since he already knew where that fucking van was headed, but his eyes zoned in on it from habit, and
he had the numbers memorized before it disappeared around the corner anyway.
It wasn’t moving that fast, maybe he could still teleport inside it and get them…
No, no, no. Fuck! He could reappear with a spare tire or something inside him, or even end up
reforming with another person attached to him, and that Siamese twin thing scared him enough that
he pussed out and watched the van go.
“Fuck!” he yelled into the empty lot. There was an empty soda can by his foot, and he kicked it
away. “Fuck! Cocksucking, fuck!”
Even if he’d gotten inside the van unharmed, he would’ve had zero point whatever seconds to grab
both Seth and Cedric and get them to safety. There was no way he could’ve done that before the
werewolf guarding them would’ve gotten his hands on Ben. Cedric was out of commission, so Ben’s
chances were better he would’ve only gotten him out, and where the fuck would that have left Seth?
The werewolves would’ve known there was someone else to deal with, too.

Ben couldn’t do nothing. The Porsche was too noticeable. Thank God he’d left his Jeep here earlier
today. He pulled his keys out and jumped inside, making the tires screech as he pulled out of his spot
and drove out of the lot.
They were down the street a ways, but he could still see their vehicle. It was still fairly early, and a
Sunday. The streets weren’t that busy, but Ben couldn’t follow them forever without one of the weres
in that van noticing him.
Ben gripped the steering wheel, allowing the weres’ van to drive farther and farther down the road
without him. He knew where they were going, and he was taking a huge risk following them like
this. They’d eventually notice, and Ben would be officially fucked. So would Cedric and Seth.
He pulled over, his body clenching, the urge to continue on fighting within him, to teleport directly
on top of the van if he had to, just to stay close with the two men inside it.
The black van stopped at a stop sign, made a right turn, and disappeared on Third. Veturious was a
small city, ironically sharing its name with Wiktor Veturious, and that road would lead them directly
to Verona street, and Wiktor’s mansion, within ten minutes.
Ben punched his steering wheel and dash, cursing and swearing, expunging all of his anger until the
red haze of rage left and he could think straight again.
When he opened his eyes and took a calming breath, a woman and her two small children, dressed in
their Sunday best, were on the sidewalk staring at him. The woman and her daughter had open
mouths. The boy’s grin revealed two missing front teeth, and he looked at Ben as though he were a
celebrity.
Ben sent them a limp wave. “Sorry.”
The woman ushered her children away from him quickly, all but dragging her son along.
Ben sighed and leaned back in his seat. He put his hand in his hair and sighed, returning his thoughts
to Cedric and Seth.

It was better that he let them go. At least now Ben still had stealth on his side, and he still had to
cover his bases with Cyricus.
He pulled out his phone and called Cyricus’s private number. It rang three times before he answered.
“Hello, sir? You will never believe this, but the werewolves have caught your teleporter and the
vampire. I’m on my way to intercept them for you now. Yes, sir, I’ll bring them to you immediately.”
He explained as much as he could make up on the fly in ten seconds before he hung up. He’d worry
about getting his facts straight, and what he was going to do about not having any teleporters or
vampires to hand over to the old bastard, after he rescued Seth.
Silus was going to kick the shit out of him when he found out about this.
Ben teleported straight to Mantua Lake, abandoning his Jeep on the side of the road so he could
deliver the news. They had to deal with this before Wiktor got a look at Cedric’s face.

Chapter Sixteen

They left the bag over his head the entire ride back to Wiktor’s evil fucking mansion. It eventually
got to the point where Seth thought he would asphyxiate due to a lack of oxygen as he was forced to
breathe in the increasingly hot air of the leather bag.
Then it was ripped away, and his entire face was left cold due to the sudden rush of fresh air against
the sweat that had built over his skin.
As a vampire, a creature that craved the darkness, his eyes had no trouble adjusting to the dim
lighting of the room he was in. He had half a second to be pissed over the fact that he was in another
basement before someone came around to look at him.
It was Joey’s sympathetic face that Seth saw, and he held the leather bag limply in his hand.
“Hey,” the kid said.
Seth glared at him. He tensed up when Joey pulled out a pair of long, insanely sharp scissors.
“It’s okay,” the omega assured him, but Seth felt anything but okay as he came closer to his face with
those things.
“Just don’t move,” Joey said, and slowly, carefully, began peeling the duct tape enough with his
thumbnail to fit the scissors beneath and cut the stuff away.
Seth sat up immediately when the scissors were a safe distance away from his face, suddenly
thankful he’d cut his hair so much shorter when Joey began unraveling it from the back of his head.
“Where’s—”
He stopped himself before he could utter Cedric’s name.

Joey hardly seemed to notice as he jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Right there.”
Seth looked, and, right, there he was. The bag was no longer covering his head, but he was still out of
it, left to lie against the cold concrete wall of Wiktor’s cellar. His hair was mussed up from sweat,
and a nasty plum-purple swelling was making its appearance under the eye where he’d been
punched, and then spreading over the bridge of his nose to the other eye.
That sun sprite was no warrior, that was for damn sure.
Seth looked around quickly. No television. No plush carpeting, no leather seats and no fireplace. This
was not a part of the basement where Wiktor did his entertaining. They were in his dungeon.
It was clean, and it wasn’t like there were shackles on the walls with skeleton bones hanging from
them, but it was still a dungeon.
“Does Wiktor know we’re here yet?”
“Damon just went up to get him. I’m sorry about all this, Sampson, I really am.”
Seth’s eyes went to Cedric once more, and he bit his bottom lip. The only thing keeping him from
losing it right there was the hope that Ben would teleport the guy out any minute now. There was no
direct sunlight in this room—and why would there be in any vampire home?—so even if Cedric
woke up, they’d still have to wait for the cavalry to arrive.
Still… “How long ago did Damon leave?”
“Couple of minutes.”
As if the vampire was on cue, Wiktor’s snappish voice travelled down the hallway and through the
door. “That little shit had better be conscious! Winchester wants him up and ready immediately.”
Seth’s blood turned to frost. He had no time to fuck around, Wiktor was going to open that door any
nanosecond now. He had to keep him from seeing Cedric’s face!
Seth jumped up and tackled Joey, pushing the other man down with the weight of his body. The poor
kid didn’t even see it coming, didn’t expect Seth to do anything at this point, and he went down hard
with a shocked yell.

Seth slammed his knee into Joey’s gut, putting every iota of his vampire strength into it and knocking
the air right out of him. It cut off his cry for help and would make sure the kid stayed down.
Mistake.
He’d used his bad knee, and Seth inhaled sharply at the needle-like fire horror that took over the
joint. He might as well have knocked it into a brick wall.
Seth bit down on his bottom lip to keep from screaming. He used his shoulder and good leg to get
himself vertical. His hands were still tied behind his back with the plasticuffs, but he had no time to
break them.
“Seth?”
Cedric, he was coming to. The other man was blinking as though adjusting to the dim lighting of the
room, and looking around almost drunkenly. Then his eyes widened, awareness grabbing hold of his
body as he shifted farther into his corner, no doubt realizing where he was and that he couldn’t move
his hands.
“Sit tight. Your friends are coming soon,” Seth said.
He made for the door, leaving Joey coughing and clutching at his stomach on the floor. “Sorry, pal.
Promise I won’t get far,” Seth said.
Twisting, he pushed down on the handle with his elbow and opened the heavy steel door just as
Damon pulled it open for his master.
Wiktor’s shocked face, inches from Seth’s, was priceless.
He took the best possible advantage of the stunned men, guaranteeing the vampire would be seeing
red and not the sun sprite behind Seth. He kissed Wiktor full on the mouth, yanking himself away
just as the vampire pushed him back, rage taking place of his former shock.
“You have to catch me if you want Winchester to have me,” he said, and, throwing the throbbing in
his leg to the back of his mind, he pushed through the shocked men and took off down the hall,
Wiktor’s enraged screaming bouncing off the walls behind him.

* * * *

Ben and Silus hardly needed much stealth to sneak onto Veturious’s property. Never mind the fact
that Ben was a teleporter, but almost to the second they arrived, hidden behind the same shrub Ben
had used to hide the first time he’d come here with Cedric, every single guard on the land abruptly
left their posts and ran to the nearest entrance to the house simultaneously.
It could only mean that someone was stirring up some shit that required serious attention.
Had to be Seth. Pride swelled in Ben’s chest at the thought.
Quietly, he and Silus slunk out from behind their hide-away bush. Ben had his gun in hand, and even
though it was still bright and shiny outside, Silus protected himself only with a long leather duster,
gloves, and a pair of black shades. Sun sprite blood worked wonders for him, but he still had to take
some precautions against the sun.
The guy was visibly pissed at having to be back at his old house.
With no men on the grounds, it was just a matter of avoiding the cameras and staying in the blind
spots.
“Where would he keep them?” Ben asked, keeping his voice low on the off chance there was still a
guard that would hear him.
“South side. Our cellar also acted as a dungeon,” Silus said. “They haven’t been on the property long
enough for him to have brought them anywhere else.”
After Ben helplessly watched as the werewolves drove off in their van with Cedric and Seth, Ben
teleported to Silus’s house. He’d quickly filled the other man in, and had given the vampire about
twenty seconds to grab whatever it was he needed before teleporting them both directly to Wiktor’s
mansion where they’d both waited for the chance to get inside.

Silus was still seething. “If he’s touched him, put even a finger on him—”
“They’ll be fine,” Ben said. They both kept close to the walls of the giant house, avoiding the
cameras, ducking and sprinting where needed, until finally they made it to a heavy set of doors, and
no windows.
They were plain steel, there was a handle bolted into the door but nothing else, not even a latch on
the handle to open the door with, or a lock that could be picked. There was, however, a keypad on the
wall to the right of the doors. This was the part where Silus became useful.
“Here it is. Come on.”
Silus all but shoved him out of the way as he punched in the password, or at least, the only password
he knew since he’d last been under his parents’ roof. It was a mega long shot, especially since Silus
would be using a password that was nearly a year old, but Ben silently pleaded to God that Wiktor
wasn’t paranoid enough to have the codes changed since then.
Someone was not listening to his prayers. The tiny screen flashed red, and blinked PASSWORD NOT
ACCEPTED at them, and then beeped obnoxiously. Silus growled and slammed his palm into the
machine with a metallic crunch, destroying it and cutting off the alarm, but the door remained locked
instead of magically opening like in some movie.
“Fuck,” Ben said.
“Teleport us inside,” Silus said, ignoring Ben’s hollow curse and putting his hand on Ben’s shoulder.
Ben cleared his throat. “No problem.”
He’d been hoping to avoid this. It wasn’t like there were windows for him to see what was waiting
on the other side. If there was so much as an end table in there, or maybe another set of doors, and
Ben teleported and reappeared in the wrong spot, he could find himself, along with Silus, temporarily
stuck, and easy targets.
“Hurry.” Silus seethed at him.

There weren’t many things in the world that would make him risk it during a stealth mission, but
Seth and Cedric were among them.
Ben closed his eyes for focus and took in a long breath. He disappeared, splitting his molecules, and
those of his passenger, into thousands of millions of tiny pieces, so small that they could pass right
through the door barring their paths, so small they could pass through the wings of a fly.
He did his best to slow the process so that he might better see where he would reappear, but seeing
was difficult when one’s eyes weren’t whole, and everything inside was so pale and gray, and it was
hard to distinguish the floors from the walls and ceiling. They were inside, that was all he knew, all
he was able to think about in the nanoseconds he had.
He had to reform himself, and he did. Ben and Silus reappeared on the other side of the door. They
were all right. The space was small, and they were lucky to have not reformed with their arms or legs
in a wall, but they were all right, and the stone stairs leading down to the hall were empty. Ben
released the breath he hadn’t known he was holding.
Thank you, Jesus.
Silus released his shoulder and walked down the stairs, his feet barely making any noise, and as
calmly as though he hadn’t just risked ending up crushed in a wall. He did, however, lift the collar of
his duster as they passed a set of security cameras.
Ben couldn’t help but notice how one of the black lenses was looking right at him.
He glared at it and started to follow the other man down. There was no avoiding those now. He and
Silus would have to deal with them later.
Ben caught up with the vampire as they reached the bottom. Still no people. “Is it around here?” he
whispered. The lack of any personnel guarding the doors or halls was no longer a comfort, and it had
him all twitchy. Where was everyone? They’d all been running into the mansion, not out of it.

“Just around this corner.” Silus grabbed Ben unexpectedly and slammed him into the wall before he
could take another step.
“What the fu—” The vampire clamped his hand over Ben’s mouth, making a sound that demanded
his silence.
Another second and Ben knew what the other man was doing. Voices. Two males speaking to each
other, just around the corner that they’d been ready to pass. His pride took a shot in the chest at not
having detected them.
“What’s going to happen to this one?”
Ben recognized the voice. The younger male werewolf, one of the three Seth had been chummy with
the night before.
“Wiktor’s going to want to deal with him once he catches up with Seth. Boss man’s not happy that he
was helping him,” the voice of one of the bigger weres, not the leading alpha, but the other one,
Gregory, said.
Seth wasn’t in the holding room with them. He got away? No. It was still daylight outside. He’d
made a run for it before Wiktor could get to the cell and see Cedric’s face.
He was so full of admiration for Seth’s quick thinking, that Ben didn’t immediately register how the
hand over his mouth, how Silus’s entire body, was trembling. He looked up at the vampire.
Silus’s brows dark brows were down, and his lips upturned, revealing his fangs in a ferocious snarl.
Ben was really glad he and this guy weren’t enemies. Then Silus’s grip on him became a little too
hard. Ben grunted as the bones in his jaw were beginning to be crushed under the vampire’s grip.
He calmly brought his free hand up and tapped the other man on the side of the neck, the one place
guaranteed to get the vampire’s attention. When Silus looked down at him, as though recalling Ben
was there, he immediately released him, offering no apology and still glaring in the direction of the
voices.

Ben rubbed the circulation back into his jaw. “You know those guys?” he mouthed, not daring to
even whisper this close to a species known for their excellent hearing and tracking capabilities.
Silus nodded.
The werewolves began to laugh, but it was a strained sort of sound. “Never thought I’d see Wiktor so
pissed that he’d chase down Seth himself. Guy’s got balls,” Gregory said.
There was no answer, and Silus stalked forward, turning the corner and heading for the open door
containing the two conversating werewolves. Ben had no choice but to follow, keeping their footfalls
light and breathing even.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?” Gregory asked.
“Doesn’t he look kind of familiar?” Joey asked.
Ben’s heart stopped. Shit! They were talking to Cedric now. Silus was at the door, and he peeked his
eyes through the crack along the side. Ben ghosted his way to the other side of the open doorway,
and did the same to get a look, shot his head back, and then looked again when he realized no one
was watching the entrance.
It was just the two guards in the room with Cedric on the floor in the corner. No one else was with
them. And why would there be? Two werewolves to watch over one bound man would be more than
enough. Both guards were too preoccupied with Cedric to notice there were two people surrounding
them from behind.
“I think I know this guy, Gregory.”
“You saw me last night when I teleported with Seth,” Cedric said.
When he—? Oh shit.
Silus sent Ben an inquisitive look, but there was no way Ben could explain it yet. Cedric was
purposely letting them think he was the teleporter from last night to cover for Ben.
“Obviously that wasn’t you,” Joey said. Ben watched as he got down on his haunches in front of
Cedric, putting them at eye level.
“Joey!” Gregory snapped, a clear disapproval for Joey’s words in his voice.

Ben couldn’t follow this at all. The wolves knew Cedric was lying but were going with it anyway?
“Why would you cover for that other teleporter? If you’re a teleporter at all, why haven’t you tried to
leave yet? Greg and I haven’t touched you since you woke up, you could’ve gotten away from us so
easy.”
Ben had to think quickly. He could do another snatch and run like last night with Seth. Neither
werewolf was touching Cedric, so there was no risk of taking along any unwanted passengers, but
then he’d have to worry about getting Silus out, too, and he still needed to find Seth in this giant
fucking maze of a house. He had to do something fast before one of the hounds stuck his nose in the
air and scented the two men behind them.
Silus made the decision for him when he walked out of his hiding place and into the holding cell, this
time allowing his feet to make noise over the concrete floor.
The two weres immediately spun around.
“What the fuck?”
“Put your hands in the—” Gregory cut himself off as it became obvious who he was addressing.
Ben slid into the room, keeping his back along the doorway and his hand on his gun in case it was
needed.
Neither werewolf seemed to even notice him. Didn’t look like they were capable of fighting against
him if they had, to be truthful. Their mouths were open and hanging. The smaller male dropped to his
knees, Gregory held his gun, but it was pointed to the ground as he stared at the face of his master,
whom everyone had assumed to be dead this last year.
“M–My lord?”
Cedric sat behind them both, a lazy, relieved smile on his lips.
“My lord,” Gregory said again, his voice not quaking this time around.

“I command you both to release him. Now,” Silus said, with as much authority in his voice as though
he hadn’t been gone at all.
Joey and Gregory looked at each other, then at Cedric.
“Holy shit, you’re that sun sprite,” Joey said, figuring it out. “The one from last year who—”
“I said release him this moment. That is an order,” Silus snapped.
Ben pulled his Glock from the holster under his arm, keeping the business end pointed down, much
the same as Gregory was doing. Both pairs of eyes from the two weres in the room went to the piece
in his hand, regardless.
“One way or another, he’s coming with us, guys,” Ben warned.
Joey sniffed the air. “You’re the teleporter from last night.”
“That’s right,” Ben said. “I know you two don’t want to do this, so just give him to us, I’ll find your
friend Seth, take him out of here, and you’ll never have to see us again.”
Gregory’s lips thinned. He raised his weapon and pointed it at Silus. Ben in turn lifted his gun and
aimed it between Gregory’s eyes.
“Silus!” Cedric called, alarmed as a man pointed a gun at his lover.
“What are you doing?” Joey demanded, eyes becoming wild as he looked between his former master
and his friend. “Put the gun down.”
“I’m sorry, my lord, but your father has given us orders.”
Silus grit his teeth. “And what will he do to the both of you, regardless of whether those orders are
carried out? Where is Jackson? Your leading alpha?”
That had been the same name Seth had asked about last night. Ben got the impression that whatever
had happened hadn’t been good. Management got it pretty rough around here, it seemed.
Both pairs of eyes from the werewolves widened briefly, before they took on stoic expressions once
more.
“He’s being punished for allowing Seth to escape in the first place,” Gregory said. “Joey here
would’ve taken the fall had he not come forward and put it all on himself. We owe it to him to make
sure this next job gets done.”

“Has he been put to death yet for his failure?”
Joey’s fists and neck clenched. “Not yet, sir.”
“Put to death?” Ben couldn’t believe it. “Jesus Christ, why do you guys even work for Wiktor?”
“We’re slaves, you prick,” Joey said, his face becoming a hard mask.
“No, no, that part I kind of get, kind of, but what’s to stop the lot of you from just leaving? Find
someone else to be your master if you like the servitude thing so much.”
As one, the two werewolves looked back to Silus, and a flash of genius inspiration came to him.
“You’re all slaves to the Veturious line? Fine, here’s its heir, right here. Let Silus be your master, and
let us all walk out of here. You both liked your other alpha so much? We’ll take him with us, too.”
Silus stepped forward, and Gregory lowered the gun as his former master went toe-to-toe with him.
“I am descended from the bloodline by which you owe your loyalty to. Swear your fealty to me, and
leave this place.”
Ben gritted his teeth as the two weres looked between each other, as though thinking it over. He
really had no more time to waste, and the itch to run off and find Seth himself, regardless of the
consequences, was driving him insane.
Finally, Gregory lowered himself to his knees next to his brother wolf in front of Silus.
“Master,” they said as one, lowering their heads until the flesh of their foreheads touched the dirty
floor. Then, in a move Ben hadn’t been expecting, they began to peel off their suit jackets and
button-down shirts.
No, not exactly. They were loosening the clothing, exposing their necks and chest to Silus.

“What the fuck?” Ben demanded. He got the whole wolf dominance thing, he really did,
but—”Aren’t you guys taking this a little far?”
“Silence,” Silus hissed, and then he smiled down at his new servants.
“My first command will be for you to release my mate. Next, Gregory, you are to quietly inform the
other members of the wolf guard of my arrival and the choice to act under my rule. Give them my
scent as proof of your new allegiance. Do not inform the humans, as their loyalty is not based on
blood. Joseph, you will take me to Jackson’s cell, we are to free him immediately, and then we must
make haste to the video recording chamber.”
“The video record—will you talk normally for once?” Ben snapped.
“Cut it out, Ben,” Cedric said.
Joey was already cutting away the plasticuffs that held Cedric. Cedric lifted himself to his feet,
uneasily walked around Gregory’s looming form, and then threw his arms around Silus’s shoulders.
Ben watched the two of them, strangely, feeling none of that previous emptiness he used to feel
whenever he happened to see them holding each other.
“Are you well?” Silus asked, attempting to pull back enough to get a look at the bruising on Cedric’s
eye.
Cedric responded by grabbing him by the ears and kissing him hard on the mouth. Though Cedric
was taller, he didn’t have that much more height on Silus that the vampire appeared uncomfortable
with the act.
Okay, that was too personal. Ben looked away from their embrace.
“I am so sick of this melodramatic bullshit,” Cedric said when he pulled away.
“We shall be in for more of it in a few moments if we do not make haste.”

“Ceddy, bro, not that I’m not glad to see you’re okay, but I need to get out of here,” Ben said, already
backing up toward the door. He couldn’t wait anymore. The werewolf problem—these werewolves
anyway—was taken care of. He needed to find Seth.
Cedric pulled away from Silus. “Right. He made Wiktor chase him, but I don’t know where they
are.”
“He wouldn’t have gotten far,” Joey said. “Wiktor will take him to Winchester’s guest room.”
“Where’s that?”
“Three floors directly above us,” Silus answered.
That was all Ben needed to hear. He shot out of the holding cell like a bullet from a gun, determined
to find Seth before Wiktor or that fuck could touch him.

Chapter Seventeen

Jackson came awake to the sensation of cold water being poured down his hot, dry throat. He
swallowed once, twice, on instinct, but then he choked as panic took hold of him, strong and wild as
if knives were being held to his throat and balls.
He was drowning! He was strapped in the chair again and in the pool! He struggled, coming up for
air and away from that wretched water. It tasted fresh, different from the chlorine of Wiktor’s pool.
Didn’t matter. He needed air. He couldn’t breathe!
“Sir! Jackson!”
A familiar voice. Hands touching him, gripping his shoulders and chest, but they weren’t hard and
restrictive from when his wolves were forced to restrain him. This felt more like Jackson was being
pulled away from a bad dream.
It was Joey’s voice. Joey was the one who’d spoken. He never would have been given permission to
speak during one of Wiktor’s sessions.
He was still half in his nightmare, but now that he was aware that he was dreaming, it was easy to
escape it. Jackson yanked his eyelids open, forcefully prying them apart as though they had been
glued shut.
Joey sat above him, his hands still on Jackson’s shoulders, concern on his soft features. Jackson
smiled, reached for him, but then his panic took over as he recognized the shadows behind the kid to
be other people, the darker one scented of a vampire.
Jackson gripped Joey by the collar of his suit and attempted to pull him away from the vampire
behind him, an excuse on his lips as to why Joey would be in Jackson’s cell, offering him water, and
apparently, having released him from his manacles.

Then the shadows came closer, the darker one kneeling down, becoming more and more visible
until—no, it couldn’t be. “My lord?” The words were a harsh whisper against Jackson’s throat.
Silus Wiktor Veturious actually smiled at him. “Hello, my good servant. I see you’ve gotten yourself
into a bit of trouble.”
Jackson swallowed hard, not daring to take his eyes away from his lord, the young—for a
vampire—lord who had been kind to Jackson and his pack, the young lord whom everyone assumed
to be dead these last twelve months. It was embarrassing how his eyes started to burn. “Sire.”
“We have no time, Jackson. I am usurping my father, at least of the power he holds over your pack.
Joseph and Gregory have already sworn their fealty to me, but you are still their leading alpha,
correct?”
Jackson licked his dry lips. This was no dream, and he needed to be clear in the mind right now.
“Unless the alphas in my pack have already fought for the position. If they have you should be
seeking Damon. He would have won the trial.”
“They haven’t, Jackson,” Joey said. “Damon is acting as temporary, but you’re still our leading
alpha.”
That knowledge made Jackson’s next move clear. He pulled himself to his knees, pushing Joey away
when the omega attempted to aid him. His joints were killing him from a lack of exercise as of late,
and he was freezing from being held down here in only his boxers, but he never felt better.
“I swear, until my dying breath, to pledge my allegiance to the Veturious bloodline, to pledge my
loyalty to Silus Veturious, and any he takes unto himself. I will lead my pack, and my pack will
follow no other but you. Master.”
There was no need to cut open his palm and share his blood with Silus, not since he was already of
the bloodline Jackson’s pack was sworn to. The spoken promise was more than enough to verify
Jackson’s switch on loyalties, and with his neck and chest exposed, their fate was sealed.

As the words left his lips, a weight lifted from his shoulders and his chest, and a giddy sensation
followed on the heels of it. He and his pack were free of Wiktor with this oath. Silus could do with
them what he willed, and Jackson held no worries that his lord would do any harm unto Jackson’s
wolves, nor would he wish to.
They were free to leave Wiktor’s servitude without disgrace or guilt. The others would feel the
change immediately, but would still need to be guided.
“The others,” Jackson said, attempting to stand. This time he bit his lips and grudgingly accepted
Joey’s helping hands, leaning into the other man for support. “They will be confused and frightened.
I must lead them out.”
Wiktor would never release them from their servitude willingly, with no heir—that he knew of—to
pass them on to.
Silus nodded. “I will aid you in whatever task is required.”
Then Jackson’s peripheral vision cleared, and he noted the blond man standing behind his lord. His
nose was hardly working after being dunked in a swimming pool time and time again, but Jackson’s
memory worked well enough. “Aren’t you that—”
Silus pushed Jackson’s hand down as he lifted it to point at Cedric.
“I have taken a sun sprite as my life mate. If you recall, that decision nearly cost me my life.”
Jackson looked between the two men. The sun sprite seemed to tense up, as though awaiting an
unpleasant reaction from Jackson. As though Jackson would dare to voice his opinion on the matter,
should he have had a negative one. Which he did not. “If he is yours, then by my oath, he is mine,
and my pack’s, to serve as well.”
Silus’s teeth flashed. “A wise answer. For obvious reasons my sire cannot know of us. You must lead
your pack, command them. The guards, the servants, all of them. Bring them to Mantua Lake, and I
will see to their care there.”

Thank God he had Joey to lean onto. Jackson thought he would collapse in happiness. “Yes, my
lord.”

* * * *

Seth didn’t make it far before he was caught, but he’d expected that with the way his leg was fucking
with him.
He expected to get tackled face-first into the hard ground just as he made it out the stairway leading
out of that wretched basement. The shocking thing was how Wiktor had been the one to do it, not
Damon.
The werewolf had stood behind his master, disbelief all over his puss at the sight of his refined lord
doing something as savage as knocking another man to the ground with the force of his body. It even
threw Seth for a loop.
Then he took a hard fist to the side of the head, and Wiktor put all of his vampire strength into that
one because Seth saw a flash of white before his vision cleared.
His knee was throbbing now, fire building and licking at his bones and cartilage as he was carried
fireman style up a set of wide, curved stairs with a red carpet. Damon had to be doing this part. Yeah,
the suit was definitely his, and this bigger body with all the muscle on it in no way came from
Wiktor.
He wiggled his wrists under his three sets of plasticuffs, attempting to stretch them out enough so
that he might be able to snap them quickly and... Right. Still daylight outside. He was going nowhere
regardless of whether he got these things off.
Seth sighed and settled in for the ride. He’d try to live through whatever physical tortures Wiktor put
him through and what mental agonies Winchester would pile on him until he could find his opening
and get away.

At least Ben would have come for Cedric by now. It made Seth feel better that, because of what he’d
done, his and Silus’s secret would stay safe. Two people out of reach of all this fucked-up drama
would have to be worth it, if Seth was going to get out of this with his sanity still intact.
That and he had the memory of himself kissing Wiktor to entertain himself with.
When they turned up another set of stairs, there was no question where they were heading. Seth knew
this route. Wiktor was muttering to himself the entire way. “Disgraceful. Disrespectful cretin. Putting
his mouth on me. I’ll sell you to Winchester and be done with it.”
“Whatever,” Seth muttered back. He wasn’t in the mood for this.
Then his hair was yanked back, and he was staring into the evil eyes of one seriously pissed-off
vampire. “What did you say to me?” Wiktor demanded.
“I said, go fuck yourself.” He then spat in Wiktor’s face, and it was more than worth the following
punches and slaps and hair pulls he got for it.
“Filthy, foul creature!” Wiktor screeched, grabbing him by the ears and yanking his head around.
Now Seth began to squirm to get away. Hanging upside down, and all the blood rushing to his head
and ears, it made the old vampire’s treatment of him painful.
Seth still had the presence of mind to feel a little sorry for Damon, who was forced to stand there
while his master heaped abuse onto the man he carried over his shoulder, like nothing was out of the
ordinary.
“You dare speak to me thus? After you killed my son?”
“If he’s gone it’s because he wanted to get away from you, you psycho piece of shit. Don’t think
everyone in this house forgot that you’re the one who tried to bleed him to death!”
His hair was grabbed again, yanking his face up, and he got another slap for that one before Wiktor
released him with a disgusted sound.

The blow left Seth’s cheek burning even more. Wiktor’s long nails scraped along the side of his face
where the blow had been dealt. Because his face was already so hot from the constant slapping, it
took Seth a couple of seconds to register the tickle of thick liquid dripping down, or, up, as the case
was, his face and into his hair.
Motherfucker had cut him with those long, womanlike nails of his.
“What would you know of it? What would you know of honor?” Wiktor demanded.
Seth kept his mouth shut. He glared and bit his lips to keep everything he wanted to say inside. There
was no point in arguing when his and Wiktor’s idea of honor were polar opposites. Never mind that
Wiktor was somewhat on speaking terms with the father of his supposedly dead son’s lover. Nope. It
didn’t matter because when Wiktor had ordered the bleeding, what Silus had done, coming out to his
parents about his relationship with a sun sprite, had been considered the worst sort of offence.
Probably still was. Nobody got rid of a thousand years’ worth of distrust with two suicides. Faked or
not.
Wiktor seemed to take Seth’s silence as a sort of victory. His lips turned up in a bored smirk, and
then he snapped his fingers and continued on up the stairs. Damon hesitated.
Wiktor must’ve stopped and seen that his servant was not coming when he was called. “Well? Come
along you stupid wolf!”
Seth felt Damon shake himself—what was wrong with him? “Uh, yes my lord.”
Wiktor released an impatient hiss as his servant finally moved obediently in the direction he was
wanted.
“I am finished torturing myself with your presence,” Wiktor said, returning to his previous rant. “My
wife has certainly suffered enough. Winchester wants you. He may take you.”
Seth wiggled his wrists around harder, trying to loosen the plasticuffs before they made it to the guest
rooms. He kept waiting for Damon to say something, punch him or something for doing it since he
was way past trying to hide the fact that he was attempting to escape, but the werewolf said nothing
to either Seth or his master, and just kept right on walking.

Purposely ignoring Seth’s attempts to get away? Whatever. He’d dwell on why the werewolf was
allowing this later.
Seth could hardly see where they were going, but he knew when they stepped off the stairs and were
on a straight floor again. When they stopped and Seth heard a knock on a heavy oak door, he held his
breath and kept stock-still.
Wiktor didn’t announce himself as he knocked. They only needed to wait a few seconds before Seth
heard a soft click and a whisper of air as the door opened.
“Winchester, I have your prize,” Wiktor said.
There was no immediate answer. Seth’s face flared as he got the impression that Winchester was
checking out his ass.
“Indeed you do,” Winchester said, his voice a tiny squeal before he cleared his throat. Seth flinched
at the touch of fingers to the back of his thigh.
“Don’t touch me,” Seth snapped, wiggling and trying to kick Winchester away, but Damon held his
legs down. The werewolf guard couldn’t ignore that one, it seemed.
Wiktor came and punched him in the back of the head for his offence, and the knock brought more
pain and bright flashes to his vision, and a pulsing migraine. If he stayed in this position any longer
he was going to get a nosebleed on top of it.
“Keep silent!”
“There is no need for that,” Winchester said quickly. “Please, just bring him inside and leave us.”
Oh, God. That unbelievable idiot thought he was rescuing Seth.
Wiktor snapped his fingers again, and Damon entered Winchester’s room. Wiktor did not follow.

“I trust you are able to wait until tonight for the transaction?” Winchester asked.
“Indeed. I am looking forward to hanging my new paintings in my study. My wife is especially fond
of The Rose Bush.”
Jesus Christ. Seth wasn’t even being sold for money, but he was being traded for paintings. They’d
better have been done by someone amazing, like Monet or Picasso.
Damon slid Seth from his shoulder and dropped him onto the bed. Seth inhaled a deep breath now
that he didn’t have a shoulder jamming into his gut. He didn’t even feel the sense of panic that he
probably should have considering he was on his rapist’s sheets. Now that all the blood was leaving
his face, all he could feel was relief.
Then Damon left his side and moved back for the door. Seth caught the discomfort on the other
man’s face as he turned tail and moved back to the side of his master. He knew what he was leaving
Seth to.
Seth shifted himself so that he was sitting up. Winchester’s hand was already on the door, eager to
shut out the two men who brought Seth to him. “Very well then. All will be handled after the sun
sets.”
Wiktor nodded, turned his hateful eyes back to Seth, and then turned away.
For the second time, Damon didn’t follow his master. He stood at the door, watching Seth with those
same apologetic eyes until Winchester roughly shut the door in his face. He turned the brass skeleton
key, locking everyone out before turning around, giving Seth a visual of the green and yellow bruises
still healing on his cheeks and under his eyes.
Seth, as calmly as he could, slid off the bed and stood straight, keeping more of his weight on his
good leg. “Your face is looking better than I thought it would.”
Winchester touched the mess under his eye and grimaced. “It should be fully healed by tomorrow
eve.”
Seth nodded.

“Your hair.” Winchester squinted through his spectacles, as though he were having trouble believing
what he was seeing. “’Tis different. Who did that?”
“I cut it.”
“Your beautiful black locks.” Winchester shook his head, bringing a fist to his heart. “No need for
emotion, I suppose. It will grow back in time.”
“I’m keeping it like this,” Seth said. The only reason Winchester liked his hair so much was because
he liked pulling on it.
“Your face,” Winchester said, noticing the scratch marks. When he moved toward him, Seth couldn’t
help but limp back a step, hissing as his knee throbbed.
Winchester’s wide eyes shot down to his leg. “What has happened? You are terribly injured!”
“My leg was broken when I made a run for it. It didn’t heal right.”
Winchester’s face fell. This time Seth forced himself to keep still as the other man strode closer to
him again. It took everything he had to keep himself stony when he put his palms to Seth’s cheeks,
carefully avoiding the long slices.
“I’ll have my best physicians see you. Those horrible animals should never have laid their paws on
you.”
“They didn’t have much of a choice.”
Winchester’s lips thinned, and he shook his head. “You need to stop running. You think I am a
horrible sort of vampire, but I am not. I will be so kind to you if you let me.”
“Won’t your wife mind when you take me home to live with you?” Not that Seth was planning on
letting it get that far.
“You need not be jealous of her. She has her lovers, and I have mine.”
Seth wasn’t sure he believed that last part.
“Ours was a marriage of convenience. I assure you, now that I have you, there will be no others but
yourself.”

Seth clenched his teeth. It was times like this when he felt a little sorry for the crazy bastard. By
vampire standards, Winchester was a nice guy, and forcing himself on the slave of another house was
about as wrong as squashing a spider.
But Seth would never, ever forgive him for doing what he did.
When Winchester tried to lean up to kiss him, Seth could only let it get as far as a touch of their
mouths before he jerked away, sickened to his stomach, like he’d just let a farm animal kiss him.
He paced, limping around Winchester when the man tried to halt him. His mind raced and he
couldn’t think, couldn’t get enough air into his lungs. Winchester was talking to him, but Seth
couldn’t make out what he was saying.
Oh, Jesus, he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t even pretend to make nice with this guy until sundown. If he
wriggled harder to stretch out and break his plasticuffs, he could feel them give in a little more, but
he still couldn’t squeeze his wrists through.
“Please.” Winchester grabbed his shoulder and cupped his face, trying to pull Seth back to face him
again. There were tears in his eyes. “Please, be mine. I want you for mine.”
Seth tensed up all over, an understanding he needed to be wrong popped into his head. “Did you
claim me?”
“Since the first time I had you, I have been your servant.”
Seth cringed and shut his eyes. Terrific. The stupid bastard actually claimed him. No wonder he was
so obsessed.
“Please, speak,” Winchester prompted. “I will give you everything you could desire. There will be no
need for chains and forced feedings, just have me in return.”
Seth opened his eyes. The sight that met him was pathetic. Winchester, a wrinkled old vampire,
looked like a twelve-year-old about to get dumped by the first person who’d ever held his hand.
Would this happen to Seth? Would he become this pitiful, blubbering excuse for a man if he
continued to pine after Ben? His feelings never returned because he’d been stupid enough to tie
himself to someone who didn’t care for him?

Maybe he could use this.
His jaw felt tight as he forced his lips up into a smile. “Could you cut these cuffs off for me? Then
maybe we could…” Seth trailed off, letting his eyes wander to the bed to hint at what he could never
get himself to say.
Winchester put his fingers in Seth’s hair. He understood that the gesture was meant to be a
comforting one, but Seth felt anything but. “I’m afraid I don’t much trust you after the last time.”
Winchester brought out his fangs, they were long and thin coming from his shallow face. “We have
all the time in the world. You will be happy when you submit. You’ll see.”
Seth panicked. Winchester was going to drink from him until he was too weak from a lack of blood
to move, and then he was going to fuck him.
There was no more time. No more stalling, and he acted without thinking. Seth launched his head
forward, catching Winchester in the nose. The man cried out, his boney hand shooting to the broken,
bloody bit of flesh, and Seth snapped all three pairs of plasticuffs and hurled himself at him, the same
as he’d done to Joey in the holding cell.
The man might be a vampire with amazing strength, but he was slower than Seth and had zero
balance. He went down hard, their fall thudding against the plush carpet of the room.
Winchester opened his mouth to scream, and Seth quickly clamped his hand over it, bringing his
other fist down again and again and again. He didn’t stop, not when Winchester used his fangs and
bit down on Seth’s hand, when he scratched and clawed at Seth’s arm and face, and not even when
Winchester stopped fighting back altogether, his blood coating Seth’s knuckles.
He was going to kill him. He wasn’t going to stop until this man’s face was smeared all over the
fucking carpet!

If any servants passed by Winchester’s door and heard the hard smack of flesh hitting flesh, and
Seth’s angry pants, then they must have assumed it to be the sounds of sex and promptly ignored it.
Maybe the door was too thick for any sounds to penetrate. Didn’t matter. Seth was left alone the
entire time, and he ended Winchester’s life with no problem at all.
It was difficult to kill vampires without destroying the heart, exposing them to sunlight, or taking off
the head, but there were still other ways it could be done. Blood loss, for one—vampires lived off the
shit after all—which Winchester most assuredly suffered from at this point, and while his head
wasn’t off exactly, the caved-in face and skull that bled freely into the beige carpet was the next best
thing.
Seth panted heavily, throwing himself off the body and leaning against the carved wooden frame of
the bed. His bad knee throbbed and burned, so he only lifted the good one up to rest his hands on,
and then he put his head down so he wouldn’t have to look at Nearly Headless Nick over there.
Jesus Christ, he actually, finally, killed the man.
Good.
He almost wouldn’t have recognized the other vampire, had he not been the one to kill him. Bits of
brown and gray hairs were mashed in with the bone and flesh, some of it scattered in chunks across
the carpet where they’d flown as Seth’s fists had destroyed the man’s face. Only the bottom jaw was
whole, both fangs still intact and white teeth jutting out awkwardly now that there was no top half of
a head to align everything.
The only reason that part of him still looked normal was because Seth had been holding his mouth
shut.
Ugh, he shot his head up and looked at his hands, relieved to see he hadn’t been resting his forehead
against the bloodied one. But now his other palm had blood and bits of hair sticking to it.
Goddamn. Even in death he couldn’t keep that prick off of him.

He wiped his hands on the rug, smearing it further with a long stripe of blood, some his own, most
belonging to Winchester. He only managed to take some of it off his hands.
He was just considering getting up, dealing with the pain of his knee, to hobble into the bathroom
and clean up when the door handle clicked.
Seth’s heart stopped as he looked up at the door, watching in slow motion as it opened.
A dark head of hair appeared, and a pair of familiar eyes looked at him through the crack in the door
before Ben threw it open and stepped inside. He quickly removed the key—where the hell had he
gotten that from?—and shut and relocked the door.
He practically flew to where Seth sat, stepping over the body and kneeling down, taking Seth’s face
in his hands.
“Are you okay? What happened?”
He grabbed Seth’s hands next, fingering the indents on his wrists from where he’d broken his cuffs
and examining the blood on him.
“It’s not mine.”
Ben looked up at him.
“Some of it is, I guess,” he said. The bite and scratches Winchester gave him began to sting now.
Ben continued to stare at him, and Seth’s logical thinking mind fled him. He could hardly
concentrate on anything but the fact that Ben was here, holding his hands, and apparently worried
about him as he knelt so close. “I killed him. It’s all his.”
Ben half turned and looked at the disfigured body still pooling blood onto the carpet. “That the same
guy from our dream?”
Wow, so he really wasn’t recognizable. “Yeah.”
Ben turned and put his large hand behind Seth’s neck. “Can you walk?”
“What about Cedric?”
“Silus is with him. Are you okay to walk? We’re getting out of here.”

Seth tried to lift himself with both legs, but then failed miserably and fell back on the floor. “I think
I’ll need some help. How did you get up here?”
Ben got up and grabbed the blankets and sheets from Winchester’s bed. Seth figured he was going to
have to wrap himself up in them to keep the sun from crisping him. He really wished they could use
something else.
“Got a spare key from one of the servants. Silus is starting a mutiny amongst the werewolves.
They’re actually going to change loyalties.”
“What? They can’t do that.” Seth still wasn’t a hundred percent on why werewolves were so loyal to
a species that hardly gave a rat’s ass about them, blood oaths or not, but seeing that loyalty up close
for so long, witnessing the things it had forced the people under Wiktor’s care to do, well, it stunned
him that they were finally going to leave.
It shocked him so much that he didn’t notice when Ben wrapped the comforter around Seth’s
shoulders.
“Wait a minute,” he said as Ben put Seth’s arm over his shoulder and hoisted him up. “Does Wiktor
know Silus is alive? Did he see Cedric?”
“No, so we need to get out of here before he does. Jackson and Gregory are gathering all the
werewolves and ordering them to stand down and just walk away. We need to get out of here while
he’s distracted. I’m already on camera so it doesn’t matter at this point.”
A loud crash sounded and feminine screaming erupted from the other side of the door. “I said pick
that up! Wiktor! Do something! The servants are not obeying!”
Lady Ariadne, Wiktor’s wife. Seth recognized the sound of her shrieking on the other side of the
door as she raced past. “I guess the rebellion is going well?” Seth asked.
“Yeah. Keep yourself covered. We didn’t bring the car, so—”

The door handle to Winchester’s room jiggled, and then a fist pounded on the other side. “Charles,
get out here this instant, we need your manpower!”
“Oh fuck,” Ben said.
The pounding resumed. “Charles! Leave your whore be for one goddamn minute and—”
Seth nearly fell over as Ben abruptly released him and vanished from sight, teleporting to somewhere
unseen. Seth had to grab the frame of the bed to catch himself, and just as quickly, Ben reappeared in
the room. Wiktor was in his hands, what was left of him. His clothes were ruined with burn marks
and black scorches, and he was red, honest to God tomato-red, only he looked more like a tomato
that had been squeezed too hard than anything healthy. Bits of his hair had burned away, bright and
shiny blisters were oozing on the face, and snake trails of smoke wafted from his…everywhere.
There was no doubt in his mind that Ben had briefly teleported outside with Wiktor in his hands. The
man looked like his skin had been turned inside out.
Ben held him by the collar in both fists and was getting up close and personal, their noses damn near
touching as Ben bared his teeth as though he were the one with the fangs in the room.
“Now you listen to me, you wretched piece of shit, unless you want another trip out into the sun you
will sit here and stay quiet, understand?”
Wiktor’s mouth opened and closed, tiny blubbering sounds escaping him, but no words. Seth
wondered if he could even talk.
Ben tossed him onto the carpet with a careless thud. “That’s a yes. Come on, Seth.”
Wiktor weakly scrambled to get off his ass, slowly inching away from Ben. His voice came out in a
barely audible rasp. “M-My guards will stop you.”
Ben stopped then half turned. “Your guards are leaving you.”
“They cannot! They are tied by blood oath to me.”

“And your bloodline is finished with the death of your son. You sealed the deal when you cut off ties
to their alpha. Now they have no loyalty and don’t have to stay with you.”
Wiktor’s eyes widened, and then his dark pupils moved down to Winchester’s swollen body, still
slowly trickling blood over his expensive carpet. He glared at Seth as Ben once more took his arm
and put it over his shoulder. “You did this.”
“Fuck you,” Seth sneered. He turned his back on Wiktor and Winchester’s body, allowing Ben to
help him limp out.

Chapter Eighteen

He kept waiting for the scream of rage to follow them out, and the pounding of Wiktor’s footsteps as
he chased them down, but the vampire stayed where he was. Down and defeated. It was always the
more prideful ones who went down the easiest, it seemed.
“I’ll teleport us out of here in a minute. There’s something I need to check on,” Ben said.
Seth could only manage a nod. He was so mellowed out from the weird reality of being rescued by
Ben that the man could be leading him into sunshine itself and he wouldn’t mind.
Out in the hall and around the rest of the manor, everything was in chaos. Werewolf servants, young
and old, male and female, were scurrying about, most of them carrying bags of possessions or
suitcases, some holding the hands of their young, and all with smiles on their faces so wide Seth
would’ve thought they’d all just won the lottery on Christmas day.
Cooks, servers, and maids were all making a break for freedom. There were big, badass-looking
guards in their suits and short buzz cuts carrying around their small children and leading their mates
out the front door where Jackson was being held up by Joey, much the same as Seth was being held
by Ben.
Seth heaved a heavy sigh at the sight of his friend, his breath leaving him in a happy whoosh.
Jackson wasn’t dead. He was alive, and everything was going to be okay.
Gregory and Damon were down there, attempting to direct traffic safely out the door.

Lady Ariadne was also there, and although she stayed out of the direct light streaming in from the
opened doors, her skin still simmered and smoked from the nearness of it.
As far as Seth knew, this was the first time in the history of the household that the servants were
holding open the doors in the middle of the day.
Seth was nowhere near any direct sunlight, but some of the light reflecting off the walls and
chandelier did make things hotter. Ben seemed to notice and pulled the blanket tighter around Seth to
better protect him. Everything in Seth’s chest shifted as he did.
Despite these dangers and the discomfort, Lady Ariadne stayed as close as she could to the
werewolves leading the rebellion in her house.
“You cannot do this! I command you to return to your chambers! I command it! Jackson! Order them
to stop! Make them stop! Please!” Her skeletal, thin arms flailed about angrily as she screeched and
begged for Jackson to make the servants return to their senses.
“Not taking it well, I guess,” Ben muttered.
Jackson barely spared her a glance. “We must make certain that no one gets left behind,” Seth heard
the man say quietly to Joey.
Ariadne must’ve heard that whispered sentence as well, because she went apeshit. “Abandoner!
Traitor! My husband will have your head for this!”
“Your husband no longer concerns me, my lady,” Jackson said.
Ariadne shrieked the sound of the dead and made a flying leap into the sunlight. The claws and fangs
came out as she attacked him with all the finesse of a wild animal.
Seth tensed up and tried run down there to help, but Ben kept a firm grip on him and locked his feet.
Despite that, Seth still made it several feet before Ben seethed in his ear. “You want to burn alive
down there?”
He stopped. Oh. Right.

Seth looked on and breathed as deep sigh when it became immediately apparent that his help wasn’t
needed anyway. Gregory and several other guards, one of whom was human by the smell of him,
took Ariadne by the wrists and brought her down easily, out and away from the sunlight, but the
damage was done. Her skin, all of it that had been exposed through her small dress, was cherry red
and bubbling with fresh shiny blisters that looked ready to burst.
She didn’t seem to realize that the werewolves restraining her were also saving her from herself. It
was only when she began to loudly cry, broken wails leaving her throat as though she were the
wronged party, that they let her go.
Seth thought it incredibly noble how the werewolves didn’t all just take some revenge on her by
maybe stealing those heavy jeweled bracelets off her too tiny, burned wrists, or any other huge-ass
diamond she wore, or hell, maybe even the silver, or a nice painting from one of the walls. There
were the human guards, few as there were, to watch over the property, but they wouldn’t be able to
do anything if the weres all decided to take some souvenirs with them.
As it was, every single one of the humans were all just standing around, looking confused as their
former coworkers just ran out the door. They were probably wondering what the hell they were
supposed to be doing. There was definitely no policy for something like this.
God knew Ariadne was big on dishing out the emotional abuse and the occasionally slap. The
werewolves were behaving like saints around her.
“When you said the werewolves were all leaving because they no longer had any ties to the
Veturious clan,” Seth said, looking down at all the chaos beneath him from the banister, “was that
true?”
“No,” Ben admitted. “I had no idea if that could work.” They made their way slowly and steadily
down the stairs. Goddamn, Wiktor of course wouldn’t have something as convenient as an elevator.

“But Silus is Wiktor’s son, and apparently that’s all it takes to transfer loyalties.” Ben whispered that
last part in Seth’s ear.
Right, now it made sense, sort of. Silus would have taken over as the head of the Veturious clan once
his father had died, and so the loyalties of every member of the pack would have naturally shifted.
Apparently the death wasn’t a required factor in that equation.
“I don’t get werewolves at all,” Seth said.
Ben made a grunting sound of agreement.
They made it down the hundred-mile set of stairs when Seth began to feel the heat even through the
blanket. What were they waiting for? Next year?
“Ben—”
“We’re leaving right now.” Ben caught Joey’s eye, and the omega werewolf just nodded at him
before returning to his duty to his alpha.
“What was that?”
“Something that needed taking care of before we could go.”
Ben covered Seth’s face with the comforter, and he wrapped it securely around him. His care wasn’t
needed as Seth was clutching it tightly around his body as the heat turned up, just as paranoid of
having the sun’s fires touch him as any other vampire in the world.
Ben wrapped his arms around Seth’s shoulders, but the added body heat was nearly too much. Seth
tried to push him off without letting go of his comforter, but then that cool sensation of traveling
really far, really fast, hit him before the heat came on again. Like a lot.
He could instantly tell they were outside and no longer in Wiktor’s mansion with only the annoyance
of having the doors thrown open. No. This was the same as when Damon, Joey, and Greg were
leading him into the van from Ben’s apartment. Seth’s skin didn’t catch on fire, but the worst sort of
lava volcano eruption in the universe was happening inside his veins.
“Jesus Christ,” Seth rasped, his throat already dry and hot. This was hell. He could survive it, for
now, but it sucked. It was as bad as turning the thermostat up all the way during a heat wave while
standing next to a flaming oven and a burning fire pit.

“Fuck!” Ben grabbed him and yanked him forward. Wooden stairs appeared under their feet.
“Where are we?” Seth asked, since he had no X-ray vision.
“Cedric’s and Silus’s place. Watch the steps.”
Despite the warning, Seth nearly tripped because his foot got caught on the comforter, but Ben kept
him steady until they got inside.
He waited until he heard the sound of a door closing before he threw off that god-awful, hot-ass
blanket and ran to the thermostat. He cranked the AC dial as high as it would go. Seth then stood
under the nearest vent and let the cool air wash over him like a much-needed shower, moaning under
the cool relief.
Felt better than a full-body massage.
“I’m so sorry. I was trying to get us inside the house,” Ben said.
Seth didn’t move from his place under the vent. “That’s what you used the blanket for, right? Safety
and all that.”
A pair of heavy arms wrapped around his shoulders. Seth tensed up as Ben rested his forehead
against Seth’s shoulder.
He seemed to take that as a negative. “Still too hot?”
Yes and no. Seth cleared his throat, answering fast before Ben could pull away. “Not at all. Thanks
for getting me out of there.”
Ben pressed his face back into the crook of Seth’s neck, breathing deeply. “Any time.”
What the hell was wrong with him? “Where’s—”
“Silus?” Cedric’s voice called out before the sprite appeared around a corner. Speak of the devil.
Cedric halted at the sight of them. His smile was relieved, but became strained as it was apparent that
the one he really wanted to see wasn’t with them. “Silus with you?”
“He’s still with the wolves,” Ben said, pulling his arms away from Seth’s shoulders. “He should be
here soon.”

And just like that, the other man walked through the door, the collar of his coat pulled up and shades
on his face, but otherwise, safe from the chaos from his old family home, and the sun. Seth hissed as
the heat and sunlight penetrated the room, using Ben as a shield to prevent any further burning to his
already sensitive flesh.
Silus shut the door quickly behind him, even though he was not so badly affected by the sunlight as
Seth was. His skin only took on a slightly tanned hue. Lucky bastard.
Cedric went to him and embraced his lover. “Everything okay?”
“Yes, but our peaceful land is about to be invaded by many, many more.” Seth’s face took on a hint
of uncertainty, his eyes moving toward the door.
Seth’s ears detected other heartbeats outside, his nose picking up on the scent of tires and engine oil.
There were werewolves waiting outside already. Must have driven Silus home.
Cedric was quick to reassure him. “It’s all right, baby. Of course they can come here.”
“Wait,” Seth said. “Jackson and everyone, the whole pack, are going to come and live here?”
“Not all,” Silus said. “There’s not enough room for so many servants. I thought I would build more
housing across the lake, and that would allow the pack to stay close.”
“But, they’re still going to be servants.”
Seth didn’t like how everyone’s expressions melted into the adults who needed to have a hard
conversation with a know-nothing kid look.
“Seth,” Ben said. “Werewolves…I don’t like using the example, but they’re basically like dogs.
Once they’ve served one person or family, they can’t really go back to not doing it. They need
someone to watch out for them.”
“I would never reduce them to the harm my father has caused them,” Silus said. “Though it will be a
challenge keeping them occupied. ’Tis hardly as though Cedric and I will be making the same
demands on them as my father had been, especially during one of my mother’s parties.”

Meaning the werewolves who had been made into sex slaves. Seth sympathized with them the most,
and, though he absolutely hated to admit it—
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
What did Seth really know about how werewolves’ minds worked? Time and again he’d asked
Jackson why he and his pack put up with Wiktor’s bullshit, and every time Jackson explained it, Seth
never understood.
They were servants for so long, and with Silus, servants they would gladly stay.
At least they would be treated better here.
“Wiktor won’t try looking for them?” Seth asked.
“He may,” Silus admitted, “but it will be difficult for him to track them as he no longer has his
wolves to track with. Humans could do the job, surely, but he will have to hire them first as most of
his guards he still has will be occupied with the demands of the property. Then he will go into
damage control to keep the rest of the society he is used to socializing with from hearing of his
inability to keep his servants in line, then—”
“Okay.” Seth cut him off. “He won’t come looking for a while.”
Silus nodded. “And by then he may have simply decided to let it go, if only to keep others from
knowing of this.”
That was a big maybe.
“We’ll still have to be careful,” Cedric said, as though reading his thoughts. “We had a close call
today. I don’t want Wiktor or my father figuring out we’re still alive.”
“I shall command them to keep low profiles in the coming months,” Silus agreed. “Sampson, from
what I understand, you and the alpha are close. Would you be so good as to aid him during his
recovery? The rest of the pack may listen to you, temporarily, until a new alpha is chosen.”

That kind of sounded like Silus Veturious was asking Seth to stay. “Uh, sure.”
“Not for long,” Cedric said, eyes going to Ben. “Then you both can go home.”
Seth’s entire body tensed. Cedric was under the impression that Seth had a place with Ben. Ben
might have saved his sorry ass, but that didn’t mean the other man wanted Seth to move in with him.
Of course, Seth didn’t so much as have two dollars to his name, and if Wiktor ever saw him again he
was as good as dead. Whatever charity he could get from either Silus and Cedric, or Ben, he would
be forced to take until he was well-off enough to go on his own.
A knock sounded at the door, and everyone turned. “It’s us,” said the voice on the other side. Joey.
“We’re all here, sire.”
Seth’s sensitive hearing suddenly picked up more sounds of cars, quite a few of them, their tires
crunching along the gravel drive just outside. Only a couple at first, which made it difficult to even
notice them, until more and more began piling in. Then the barking of running wolves, big and small,
their paws tramping against the rocks and grass toward the house.
Seth suddenly had a mental image of a group of Brady Bunch-like werewolves all living under this
same roof until Silus could get them settled into their own places.
Cedric was already moving toward the door, but he turned back just as his fingers touched the
handle. “You might want to get him out of here, Ben. It’s going to be hard to keep this area of the
house entirely lighttight.”
“Already ahead of you.” Ben started pulling him toward the stairs and the bedrooms that were at the
top.
“I can help,” Seth said, annoyance spiking at being carted off.
“Later,” Ben replied. “I want you to myself.”
Any other time, those words would usually have a more erotic sound to them. Ben’s face remained
perfectly serious as they climbed the stairs and left the dangers of the sunlight that would be filling
up the downstairs hall. There was no deep, lusty tone to his voice, and his eyes didn’t get half-lidded.
Ben wanted to have a talk.

Shit.
He picked the bedroom next to the one Seth had stayed in that first night he was released from his
basement prison. This must’ve been his usual room whenever he made his visits to Cedric. There
wasn’t a whole lot inside it other than the regular furniture one could expect from a guest room, but it
smelled like Ben, and the sheets smelled more so of him when Ben gingerly sat Seth on the bed, as
though he would break.
The act was appreciated, but not required.
“I need a shower,” he said. He wanted to lean back on his hands, or even turn into a pile of boneless
slop on the bed, but there was still blood on his hands that he didn’t want to spread on the sheets. He
sat and observed the nothingness about the room instead of looking up at Ben, who hadn’t moved
from where he stood between Seth’s knees.
The awkward silence stretched. For a full sixty seconds Seth didn’t look at him, and Ben said nothing
until Seth was finally forced to meet his eyes or go insane. “Can you make it fast? I’m filthy.”
Ben clenched his jaw then licked his lips. Suddenly he was the one having trouble looking at Seth. “I
just—”
The silence came again.
Seth couldn’t take it anymore. He got to his feet, his knee back down to a manageable ache, and he
hobbled past Ben toward the bathroom.
He needed to shower every last trace of Winchester off of him. The second he was done bathing he
was going to burn that comforter they’d brought with them, too.
He stopped in the doorway to the bathroom and turned back. There was definitely one good way to
replace the feel of one man, and that was with another.
“You coming?”

Ben perked up and eyed Seth where he stood, leaning in the doorframe. Then his fingers moved to
the straps of his vest, ripping away the Velcro. “Definitely.”
It didn’t matter if Ben couldn’t give him what he wanted. Seth would take whatever the other man
would offer him while he could.
They stepped into the shower, sliding the glass doors shut and turning on the hot water. There was
more than enough room in the stall for the both of them.
He could feel the other man watching him as he turned his face into the spray, allowing the water to
wash over his body, and scrubbing his hands, arms, and cheeks until the water at their feet leading to
the drain stopped running pink with blood.
The puncture marks from when Winchester had bitten him were already scabbing, as were the
scratches and scrapes he received from Wiktor. They’d been healed soon enough.
Ben gave him two minutes to do this before his hands touched his shoulders, the large fingers
gripping the muscles there, his thumbs pressing into every knot and kneading them up and around his
neck until Seth was moaning.
Seth turned and grabbed Ben’s engorged cock in one hand. Using the other, he played along the tip,
teasing it and stroking his thumb over the slit.
Ben’s grip on his shoulders tightened as he grunted, biting down on his bottom lip and just enjoying
the ride, his hips slowly thrusting into Seth’s hands. Their foreheads fell together as Ben had trouble
keeping himself upright, the hot water sloshing over them, steam rising between them.
The scent of Ben’s blood, warm in his cheeks and dick, and the little sounds he made were enough to
get Seth’s blood where it counted the most.
“So fucking glad you’re all right,” Ben said.
“I can see that.”

They were so close. Practically nose to nose. Seth suddenly knew what he wanted more than
anything. “Fuck me.”
Ben’s eyes flew open. They were cloudy with lust, and a slow, easy smile spread over his mouth.
Ben put his hand behind Seth’s neck and brought him forward for a long kiss. Seth’s entire body
buzzed at the scratch against his mouth from Ben’s stubble, his blood humming and hot. He sucked
Ben’s tongue into his mouth, one hand leaving Ben’s prick so he could cup his jaw and hold him
closer.
His heavy cock throbbed between his legs, and a sizzling pleasure shot straight through it and to his
balls when Ben put their hips together. Seth moaned and gripped him tighter, pressing his mouth
harder against Ben’s.
Mine. Mine. Mine, sounded in his head on constant repeat.
Mine for now, anyway.
“Turn around,” Ben said.
Gladly.
Seth did as he was told, spreading his legs as much as his aching knee would allow without throbbing
too hard on him. It protested only a little so that Seth was able to ignore it and better focus on what
was going on behind him.
“Don’t think water is going to be enough lube here.”
Seth nearly laughed. He’d tried having sex once before in a pool with nothing but the water. It was
doable but difficult to get into. “Probably not.”
Ben grabbed a bottle of conditioner from the shelf built into the stall. Seth pressed his burning
forehead into the cold tile and listened as Ben slathered the stuff into his hand.
Was it okay to use hair products for this?
He cared not at all when Ben’s slippery hand touched his ass, his finger probing between his crack
and finding his hole.
Seth reached his arm up and back, finding Ben’s head and gripping his hair, pulling him closer as
Ben entered him with one finger, then two. Seth instinctively clenched up at the intrusion, and he
gripped Ben’s hair tighter.

The other man forced out a small laugh. “Unless you like your guys prematurely balding, you might
want to ease off a little.”
Seth’s fingers immediately went slack, but he didn’t take his hand away from Ben’s head. “Sorry.”
Ben put his lips to Seth’s shoulder, and he went back to trying to relax himself for what was coming.
Ben’s hair was between Seth’s fingers. He looked over his shoulder, and didn’t know why the detail
came to him, but when wet, Ben’s hair was nearly as dark as Seth’s. It was soft to the touch, and not
tough and gray.
The hard expanse of his chest and peaking nipples pressing into Seth’s back was all Ben, and it was
Ben’s fingers that probed and scissored inside of him. Ben. Ben. Ben. No one else.
“Your leg will be okay?”
If it started to hurt, Seth wasn’t going to halt the proceedings to make a complaint. “Yeah, fuck me.
Please.”
Man, oh man, did he ever. Ben’s cock surged forward, and Seth was filled in one hard stroke. He
tensed and gritted his teeth at the first fast and heavy thrust, forcing himself to push out to make this
part easier. Ben wasn’t even all the way inside him yet.
Goddamn, he should’ve let the other man take him long before now.
Ben’s fingers gripped Seth’s hips so tightly there would be marks left behind. It was an impressive
feat considering Ben was only a human. Seth’s body finally released all the tension it had been
holding and relaxed.
Ben took the hint. He didn’t let up on his grip as he pulled back then surged forward again, this time
sinking all the way until Seth could feel the rough hairs from Ben’s balls.

Ben groaned in his ear as he moved in and out, his hips pistoning fast and hard now that he was
finally inside. “Damn, babe, you’re so tight.”
Seth had to put his hands on the blue-tiled shower wall to keep from being crushed against it as Ben
moved. “You’re just as big as a horse.”
Ben’s laugh felt like a raspberry was just blown in his ear. His hips stopped moving, and Seth could
just picture the man’s wide grin in his mind. “How would you know what that feels like?”
Jesus Christ. “Shut up and fuck me.”
“As you wish.” Ben’s fingers left Seth’s hips, and one arm wrapped around Seth’s stomach, holding
him close while the other palm went flat against the tile of the wall, holding them steady as he
resumed his ins and outs.
Seth closed his eyes and let the sensations—soft at first before becoming harder and heavier
again—wash over him. He’d nearly forgotten the fun of just turning over and letting himself get
fucked senseless, and he was pretty sure none of those other times had been this good.
The slick sliding of skin, of Ben’s hard cock touching everything inside him as Ben’s hips surged and
retracted like he had real horsepower working his dick.
Seth’s knees buckled, and he moaned long and loud as Ben found that little spot inside him that
scrambled every part of Seth’s brain.
“OhmyGodrighttherefuckmeyeah.”
He did that again and again until the words didn’t even make sense to his own ears. His knee
throbbed, but that was nothing at all, and he pushed it into the back of his mind until the pain was a
barely-there annoyance compared the ride he was getting.
He was insane to have ever thought he could go without this.
Ben’s breathing was a hard rasp in his ear. Seth thought he heard the other man asking him a
question, but the only sounds he could make in reply were definitely not words.

Seth reached down and fisted his cock. So good. So fucking good.
Ben’s hand cupped his jaw, pulling back and turning his neck and face enough so that a pair of rough
lips could take hold of Seth’s mouth. It consumed him, and the touch of Ben’s slick tongue made his
blood sizzle. Seth gladly opened his mouth and moaned pleasurably again when that tongue slid
inside. Nothing ever felt better, not even the sex.
Only then did Seth notice that his hand was no longer gripping his cock, but Ben’s hand. Ben’s arm
was still wrapped around Seth’s torso, and sometime during their fucking Seth must’ve grabbed his
hand.
He gripped it tight, not willing to part with it because it felt so nice there, and as Ben wasn’t pulling
away from him, Seth didn’t want to give him the impression that he’d made a mistake.
Suddenly Ben’s impossibly fast hips moved even faster, the speed of his breath catching so that they
had to end the kiss.
Ben’s thrusts became jerky, his groaning in Seth’s ear louder, and he gripped hold of Seth tightly as
he came.
“Se—thhhh.”
Ben was still milking out his orgasm, but it was the sound of his name on the other man’s mouth that
pushed Seth over the cliff. He grabbed his cock again and pumped it, unable to help himself as the
pleasure consumed him.
When he came down from his buzz, his still-sensitive cock softening in his hand and his leg
noticeably throbbing, Ben was still inside him. He was obviously done at this point, Seth could feel
it, but he made no effort to pull away. He continued to hold Seth in his arm, gripping his hand just as
tightly now as he panted in Seth’s ear.
Seth felt the touch of Ben’s lips on the back of his neck, and noticed the way the other man nuzzled
his forehead there, his heavy breaths warming Seth’s back.
What the— “Ben?”
“Mmm?”

“We should get out of the shower.”
A long inhale of breath followed. Ben was yawning. “Sure.”
He reached over and shut off the water, but the other man still didn’t move, even when the air of the
stall grew cold.
A tiny flare of…of…something ignited in Seth’s chest. These were not the actions of a man who
wasn’t emotionally interested in the person he’d just fucked.
“Was so fucking scared when Cyricus told me he was having my apartment searched,” Ben said, his
lips playing along the shell of Seth’s ear.
He was freezing now except for where Ben held on to him, but that wasn’t the reason he was
shivering.
Seth swallowed hard. “Ben, I claimed you.”
The mouth abruptly pulled away. Seth waited for him to say something, to apologize because
although he liked Seth, he didn’t want forever with him. Ben just stepped back from Seth, separating
them completely now.
It was really cold without Ben’s body heat.
Seth turned to look at him. No outrage, or even shock, but Ben’s dark brows were lifted halfway to
his hairline. “That’s—that’s when you take a mate, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Huh.”
Not what he was hoping to hear.
Then Ben smiled at him. “I guess this makes my part a little easier.”
“What?”
Ben licked his lips, suddenly becoming short on words again. Then he opened the stall, letting more
cold air in. Seth’s flesh pebbled.
“Maybe we should have this talk when we’re dressed.”

Ben stepped out and grabbed a couple of towels. He tossed one for Seth to catch, but despite how
freezing he was, he couldn’t wait. “What do you want to do?”
Ben was already rubbing the towel through his hair. He stopped and wrapped it around his middle. “I
was wrong. This isn’t easy. I’m not really good with things like this.”
Seth didn’t bother covering himself. He just stood there. “Fine, whatever, but just because I claimed
you doesn’t mean you have to do anything about it. It doesn’t have to go both ways.”
Seth wanted—needed—to get that part out of the way right now. “You don’t need to feel guilty if
you don’t want to have anything with me.”
He might be tied to the man in front of him for the rest of his life, but Seth wasn’t about to lose his
mind over it. He wouldn’t go over the deep end like Winchester had and try to guilt, manipulate, or
force Ben into anything he didn’t want.
Ben was staring at the bathroom counter, his fingers playing with an electric razor. “Why wouldn’t I
want anything with you?”
Ugh, did he have to say it? “Because of Cedric.”
Ben snapped his head to look at him.
Seth faced him and shrugged. “You said you love him.”
Ben hesitated then nodded. “Yeah, I guess that doesn’t change in one night.”
Seth winced. Stab me in the frickin’ heart, why don’t you?
Ben bit his lip and took in a deep breath, his chest expanding as he did so. “I love him, but I’m okay
with only just being able to be his friend. I’m not okay with the same for you.”
Seth blinked as his brain processed that.
Ben smiled at him, color touching on his cheeks like a shy adolescent. “I like you, and I want to get
to know you better. I don’t really know when this happened, but I’d like to see where it goes.”
Seth’s heart was thudding loudly in his chest as those words registered.

The thumping was in tune with Ben’s. “So, I guess I don’t have to be worried that you’re going to
turn me down if you’ve already picked me for your lover.”
Seth hobbled over to where Ben stood and kissed him. His hands reached up to cup his hard jaw then
went back into Ben’s hair, gripping him tight as he all but devoured the other man’s mouth.
Ben slid his arms around Seth’s waist and shoulders, crushing him into Ben’s chest. Their towels fell
away, leaving them gloriously skin to skin.
Ben was the one to pry them apart. “Baby, I love you.”
Seth kissed him hard again. “Claim me then.”
“Will that work?”
Right. He was human. “Don’t know. Do it anyway.”
“You’re mine. I want no one else but you. You—”
Seth cut him off with another long kiss.
Ben was the one to pull away. “I never said his name.”
“What?”
“I can’t stop thinking about this. I need you to know that I never said Cedric’s name that first time we
were together. I don’t make any pretenses about who I’m with, and I’ve never done that with you.”
“You don’t have to explain—”
“Yeah, I do. I just need you to know that I never pretended you were him.”
Even had Ben not told him that, Seth would have understood. It wasn’t right for Seth to expect so
much from someone who, at the time, was only a one-night stand.
Despite this knowledge, an uncontrollable happiness consumed him. He felt so much of it that he
wouldn’t have been surprised if he started glowing like a sun sprite.
They fumbled their damp bodies back into the bedroom, collapsing together on the bed. Seth allowed
himself to be rolled to the side so that Ben could spoon up behind them. It was a position Seth
usually didn’t care for, but he loved it now, and this round they leisurely took their time with each
other, made easy by the fact that they’d both already had an orgasm not ten minutes ago.

Still, the movements of their bodies on top of the sheets was wonderful, and his blood thrummed
with pleasure as he was held tightly and kissed lazily as they made love.
Afterward, Ben offered Seth his vein to drink from, and they both fell into an easy sleep.

Chapter Nineteen

Ben stood tall, chest out and hands behind his back as Cyricus ranted and paced from behind his
desk. The man occasionally pointed toward the video footage Wiktor had sent over of Ben
teleporting into Wiktor’s mansion with a dark stranger—whose details could not be made out as the
video flickered and snowed at the most inopportune moments—and then later leaving with Seth. No
point in trying to get a word in. Might as well wait until the old man had to come up for some air.
That in itself took another fifteen minutes, but when he got it out of his system, the color of his face
returned to normal.
“I apologize for losing the query, sir. His teleporter friend escaped and took him away when I was
driving here. I spent all of last night searching for any trace of them but found nothing. I believe the
teleporter has the ability to travel farther than normal, even myself. With your permission I will track
him down.”
“I have not the resources for that,” Cyricus snarled, flopping himself into his chair and grabbing his
glass of whatever it was he was drinking that day. “Wiktor is of no use to me anymore as that
miserable bastard’s house has fallen apart.”
From what Ben understood, Lord Veturious and his wife were still scrambling to refill their house
with servants and guards to replace the hundreds they’d lost. After living so long with having other
people do their shopping, cook their meals, clean their house, and even provide their blood for them,
they were as helpless as children. Some of the human guards even quit during the riot, unable to take
the demands the pair were pouring onto them, promise of immortality be damned.

“Who exactly was this stranger you entered the house with? The video Veturious sent me is
absolutely worthless.”
And thank God for that. Thanks to Silus’s planning and the interference of the werewolves who
handled security, most of the footage was snowed out, including the scenes of Cedric and Seth in
their holding cells, and any shots of either his or Silus’s faces. The shots of Cedric and Seth being
brought in didn’t need to be tampered with as they both had their heads covered with those black
bags at the time.
“A guard I forced along with me. I had thought he would make a good hostage and tell me the layout
of the house if I should have needed it.”
“However did you manage to get the werewolves to break loyalties?” Cyricus asked, a flitter of a
smile on his mouth.
Ben shrugged. “I suppose they just needed someone to show them that they didn’t need to live like
that. The guard I had captured came with me easily. I don’t think Veturious treated his staff very
well.”
It was a load of total watery bullshit, but Cyricus swallowed it with the glee of a fourteen-year-old
girl listening to the local gossip.
He barked a small laugh. “Who knew it would be so easy? That’s why I only employ real men.”
Cyricus lifted his glass to Ben. “At least then there’s no worries over animal instincts and such
nonsense. But, ah, any clue as to where the pack may have gone?”
Ben thought of the two to three hundred werewolves living at Mantua Lake, all under Silus’s
command and roof until he could get the guest houses built. Silus must be dabbling in stocks again to
be able to do something like that without using up the last of his enormous savings. “No clue, sir. I
didn’t get any clues as they all ran out the front doors. Might I ask why?”
“Oh, Wiktor has asked for my help. I cannot provide it as my funds are dried up, but I thought I’d
ask.”
“Naturally.”
Cyricus swirled his drink and became quiet.

“Everything all right, sir? Would you have me continue to track the vampire on my own time?” Not
that he would, or even needed to, considering Seth was living with him in his tiny apartment, but
Cyricus didn’t need to know that, or that Ben was planning on moving out and away from here
before he could put two and two together.
The old man shook his head. “No. I’ve decided to put this matter to rest. Cedric is gone, regardless of
the actions of some third-party stranger. I only want peace now.”
“Of course, sir.”
“Do you miss him? You were both very close.”
“He’s with me every day, sir,” Ben said.
Cyricus nodded. “Ah, yes. With me as well.”
Ben couldn’t help himself. “How are the extensions coming?”
Cyricus perked up from whatever little depression he’d fallen into. “Wonderful, wonderful. My new
billiards room will be large enough for the theatre by the end of the month.”
Ben’s hands clenched behind his back. When Dacielle and her mother turned Cyricus’s old billiards
room into their own personal woman cave, complete with tanning beds, plush, colorful couches with
frilly pillows, and every cosmetic known to man, Sheila had basically given Cyricus an allowance to
build a new billiards room.
“It was lucky the wall connecting to Cedric’s old room had none of that wiring and what else have
you the carpenters worried over,” Cyricus said. “All that added space should make everything much
more comfortable than my old billiards room.”
The old man was also selling every remaining thing inside Cedric’s room so he could add more
money to his funds for a wall projector and giant stereo speakers. Ben was only able to save some of
what was inside for Cedric, claiming he wanted them for sentimental reasons and whatever, before
Cyricus clamped up and stopped being so generous. Luckily there wasn’t much left in the room that
Cedric was attached to, if anything at all.

The point still remained, however, that barely a year after his only son’s death, and Cyricus was
knocking down walls and turning Ceddy’s old room into a den for his cigar buddies.
Ben forced a smile onto his face. “That’s good, sir. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.”
Cyricus grinned. “I’m certain I will.”
Suddenly, Cyricus waved him off. “You may return to your duties. I understand Dacielle and her
mother wish to redecorate the lobby and most of the rooms in the guest wing for her young friends.
Do try and, very subtly, steer them away from that idea.”
“I will, sir. Thank you.”
Ben left Cyricus to himself and found his lady charges. They were with Cedric’s mother today, and
all three of them stood around a polished mahogany table, picking over colorful new pink wallpaper
prints for their redecorating project.
Ben vaguely, and quietly, suggested that they might wish to keep some of the old look, and was
promptly silenced with a harsh glare from Lady Sheila before they happily returned to their
decorating.
With his job done of attempting to get the women to see reason, Ben stood against the wall and
began to pick at the dirt beneath his thumbnail.
He had to deal with watching them gush over fake flowers and heart pillows for the next several
hours until his shift ended, and by then, Ben had his cool shades forcibly removed and replaced with
star sunglasses with sparkled frames, and had a pink boa thrown around his neck with promises of
serious consequences should he remove them.
He was lucky to get out of there just as Dacielle broke out her glittery nail polish.
Ben wasn’t that kind of gay man.
The second he teleported off the property and was in his home parking lot, he ripped the ugly-ass
things from his face and neck.

He didn’t throw them away. There was a nice pack of matches in a drawer in his room, and he was
going to have himself a fire and dance over the ashes of this shit tonight.
He took the elevator up and let himself into his apartment. Seth was at the stove in the kitchenette,
stirring something that smelled so good in a wok with a plastic spatula. Immediately Ben’s blood
pressure went down a couple of notches.
Seth’s eyes turned up to him as he entered. He smiled, opened his mouth as if to say something, then
looked down at the getup still in Ben’s hands.
“Having a costume party or something?”
“Nope.” Ben tossed the boa and glasses onto the floor and went to him, pulled him away from the
stove, and kissed him long and deep.
Seth allowed himself to melt into it, putting his free hand into Ben’s hair as he returned the kiss.
When they pulled away they still didn’t separate. “Have a rough day?”
“Ugh.” Ben let his forehead fall into the crook of Seth’s shoulder. The feel of his lover’s fingers
stroking through his hair in easy, soothing motions took away a lot of his stress.
“The old man buy it?” Seth asked, pulling him back into their world that still had some problems that
needed tweaking.
“A little too easily,” Ben admitted. His eyes began to wander, attempting to get a look at what they’d
be eating for dinner without removing himself from his comfortable spot.
“So, we’re keeping the apartment?” Seth asked.
It smelled kind of like honey-garlic something or other tossed in rice and smoked peppers. Seth, as it
happened, was not only an amazing cook, but he enjoyed doing it, giving Ben that much more to look
forward to when coming home. It was a good thing because Ben was more of a microwave it and see
what happens kind of guy.
“Uh, yeah, least until the lease runs out so he won’t wonder why I’m moving out of town right after
all this happened.”

“I’m fine with staying put for a little while,” Seth said, his breath warm and enticing against Ben’s
ear.
Ben squeezed him a little.
He’d have to be. It was hard for a vampire to get around in the daytime, and there was still the chance
that someone from Wiktor’s house, a human guard, or even a former guest who had seen Seth before,
would see him again and recognize him. Staying hidden, never leaving this apartment unless Ben was
teleporting them somewhere remote, like Silus and Cedric’s house, or the cemetery to visit his
brother—and Ben knew that last one would be a regular trip Seth would be wanting to take, as the
occasional depressed moments for his lost brother still hit him—was the only way to keep him safe
until they could leave.
Ben would still work for Cyricus and put up with the damn women since he had no trouble
teleporting into the property, but it was still a whole lot to be asking of Seth.
Ben’s apartment was so damned tiny. If he had to stay in here all day every day for the next several
months, he’d go totally insane.
Ben kissed him again. “Thanks for sticking it out with me. ’Till we can go, that is.”
Seth twirled the spatula in his fingers before he tossed it into the wok. He grabbed it by the handle
and put it on a different burner before turning the stove off.
“Supper’s ready, but we have a couple minutes to let it cool.”
Ben’s blood got to pumping as Seth sauntered passed him, purposely sliding his back and ass across
Ben’s chest and crotch in order to pass.
The little shit. The kitchenette wasn’t that small.
“Coming?” Seth asked.
“Yeah.” Ben grinned and followed his lover to their temporary bedroom. He’d get his revenge on
Seth in there. Food, and burning those hideous things he’d brought home with him, could wait.

THE END

RIZZOROSKO.COM

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mandy Rosko lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario, is a romance junkie, a lousy web designer, and is

working hard to improve the craft of creating an actual plot.

You can visit her website for some free reads at rizzorosko.com

You know you want to ;)

Also by Mandy Rosko

Siren Classic: Mate of the Wolf

Siren Classic: Sequel to Mate of the Wolf: The Wolf’s Pack

Siren Classic ManLove: Night and Day

Siren Classic: Eclipse

Available at

BOOKSTRAND.COM

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com