by Rhys Ford
“Killing the locals again?”
Hugh scowled. “One, he’s not a local. Guys like that don’t prey on women in their own backyard. And two, he’s not dead. He’ll wake up with a hell of a headache, and he’ll never be able to get it up again, but he’s very much alive.”
Rykoff’s lip curled in disgust. “So you’re going to feed off him and then leave him to keep hunting women? Figures one monster would want to help another.”
Anger coursed through Hugh’s veins, and he took a very deliberate breath to calm himself. He’d just fed, and he was still on the adrenaline high. Rykoff, on the other hand, looked to be in about as bad shape as he had been last night. He’d clearly tangled with something and lost.
“What would you do? Kill him? What crime can you prove he committed?”
It ate at Hugh that the criminals he fed on could still roam free. But what could he do? Turn them in to the police with nothing but his word that they were bad people? He had no proof, and what kind of person would he be if he waited until after the man had attacked someone before he’d acted? He’d have proof then, but at what cost?
Rykoff drew a knife from a sheath strapped to his boot. “He deserves to die if he harms people.”
Hugh nudged the man’s unconscious body with his foot. “He won’t be able to harm people anymore. The darkness in him is gone. It’s like being neutered. He won’t have the reserves of rage he used to fuel his violence, and he’ll be impotent as well. For the rest of his life. No rage. No lust. He’s like a toothless dog now.”
Rykoff gave him a calculating look and resheathed his knife. “I underestimated your kind,” he said. “Perhaps there’s more to your race than I realized.”
“I’m so glad to be your vampire tutor. Lesson one, we don’t kill indiscriminately,” Hugh said as he stalked toward the alley that led to the street. “And lesson two, we don’t appreciate it when people sneak up on us while we’re feeding.”
“I’d think you’d be on the alert for that sort of thing.”
“I am, but for some reason I can’t sense or smell you. Or Ruby. Which probably means all fae. Unimportant.” He stopped and caged Rykoff against the cool brick. “Why are you here? Why aren’t you in Cleveland?”
“I fought with Ambrose and then had to portal out.”
Hugh took a long look at him. “He kicked your ass?”
Rykoff’s eyes narrowed. “He did not kick my ass.”
He was definitely the worse for wear. Hugh leaned in, frustrated by the lack of scent. He couldn’t assess how badly Rykoff was injured if he couldn’t smell him or see his aura.
“My car is a few blocks down. They’re kind of short on forests here in Detroit, but I can at least get you to a park so you can heal. Will that work? How many trees do you need? Are city trees as good as your weird sentient country trees?”
Hugh wasn’t prepared for Rykoff to surge forward and kiss him, but he adapted quickly. His blood was already up from his feed, and it didn’t take much to have him rock-hard and raring to go. He braced himself against the brick to keep from crushing Rykoff as he deepened the kiss, relieved when instead of shying away, Rykoff wrapped his arms around Hugh’s shoulders and ground their hips together.
The press of Rykoff’s skin against his was amazing. Hugh had never been so aware of his body. Every point of contact between them was electrified. Nothing could compare to this, not even feeding. Part of him was grateful he couldn’t taste Rykoff’s aura. It would have been too much stimulation.
He groaned when Rykoff’s fingers twined through his hair, a shiver running down his spine hard enough to buckle his knees. Luckily Rykoff caught him, taking his weight easily without breaking the kiss.
Hugh nearly came on the spot when Rykoff’s hands left his hair and moved to his belt, deft fingers unbuckling it and sliding inside to wrap around his aching cock. It was the most intense thing he’d ever felt, and his heart was in his throat as he gasped for breath, his pulse hammering in time to Rykoff’s strokes.
He whined high and desperate as he tried to return the favor, but he couldn’t get Rykoff’s fly open one-handed. Each stroke sent a white-hot bolt of pleasure through him, each more unbearable than the last, and Hugh didn’t know how much longer he’d make it. He buried his face against the hollow of Rykoff’s throat, which vibrated as Rykoff laughed in response.
His orgasm took him by surprise. Not because it happened quickly but because it hadn’t happened sooner. The spasms were so violent he doubled over with the force of them, and Rykoff held him as he lowered them both to their knees.
Hugh didn’t stay come-drunk for long. He clamped his hands over Rykoff’s hip bones, urging him up. He nuzzled his face against Rykoff’s growing bulge, gratified that Rykoff made the same mewling noises he’d made himself a few minutes earlier. Hugh made quick work of Rykoff’s fly, shoving the fabric aside and letting his lips slide against the velvety hot skin of his erection.
Rykoff’s lack of scent was even more troubling now as Hugh swallowed down his length, but Hugh didn’t let it deter him from what was probably the most enthusiastic and least-skilled blow job he’d ever given. Rykoff didn’t seem to have any complaints, and while Hugh didn’t have the scent feedback he was used to, he had Rykoff’s fingers squeezing his shoulders in a death grip to egg him on.
Rykoff bucked his hips up, and Hugh tightened his grip on him, holding him in place while he fucked him with his mouth until he sent him over the edge. Rykoff’s fingers dug into Hugh’s skin painfully, and if Hugh hadn’t been completely spent himself, he might have come again from the intensity of it. It wasn’t unusual for Hugh to get a zing of power from someone’s come, but this was different. His lips and tongue were buzzing with energy, even though, like the rest of him, Rykoff’s come was disappointingly devoid of smell or taste.
Hugh pulled back, panting, and sat on his heels. He wasn’t ready to give up the electric pulse of contact, so he rested his cheek against Rykoff’s bare hip. The white-hot searing pleasure where their skin met from earlier had dulled to a pleasant buzzing sensation that was both comforting and energizing.
Hugh dropped his hands and stumbled back so fast he fell on his ass. Had he been feeding on Rykoff? The buzzing sensation—that’s how he felt when he drained someone. He scrambled to his feet and took Rykoff’s face in his hands, terrified.
“Are you all right? Did I hurt you?”
Rykoff blinked, his sex-drunk expression replaced by concern.
“No, did I hurt you?”
“I—I think I was trying to feed.”
Rykoff laughed. “You can’t. Not unless I lower my barriers, and I have to concentrate very hard to do that. Trust me when I tell you I would not have been able to do so.”
Relief flooded through Hugh. What he’d just shared with Rykoff had been unlike anything he’d ever experienced. It had horrified him when he thought he might have been taking advantage and feeding on him.
He hastily buttoned his fly and straightened his clothes as best he could.
“Yesterday you said fae don’t have sex indiscriminately. What changed?”
Rykoff offered him a small smile. “When we create portals, it’s not an exact science. I called it magic, and it is. But it is not our magic. It is the forest’s. It’s why I need trees to conjure one unless I have a totem, something that draws me to a specific place. But somehow when I called a portal to escape from Ambrose and merely asked it to take me somewhere safe, it took me to you.”
Rykoff’s eyes glowed amber. “I thought it had been a mistake. But then, even though you were angry with me, you offered to take me somewhere I could heal. So then I realized perhaps the mistake was mine, not the portal’s. That is what changed.”
Chapter Seven
“THE MAN you fed from tonight,” Rykoff said as Hugh drove, “this is what you came here to do? Feed?”
“I was at the club tonight to meet a police contact of mine. He gives me information about criminals who for whateve
r reason the law can’t punish.”
“And you punish them.”
Hugh grimaced. “Not exactly. What I do isn’t painful. If their aura has been completely overtaken with evil, I drain them and they die. Like the guy at the truck stop. But life isn’t black and white. Most people are gray. So most of the time I drain out the darkness that leads them to hurt others, and that’s it. They don’t commit more crimes, and my police contact is happy because that’s one less criminal for him to worry about.”
“It sounds lonely.”
“They probably are, but—”
“I meant you. Feeding on despair and darkness, hiding your true nature.”
He hadn’t always lived like this. Before Ruby, he’d hung out with vampires. Like-minded ones who didn’t kill for sport, but honestly that described most vampires these days. And he’d had other supernatural friends. People who understood what it was like to hide parts of themselves away to fit in with the human world.
It hadn’t been worth the risk of exposing Ruby to that world, though. So after he’d adopted her, he’d cut off most contact with his old friends, quit his supernatural job, and become as human as he could. He still got the occasional email or Christmas card, but he wasn’t going to vampire orgies or playing poker with selkies.
His priorities had changed.
“It is. But parenthood can be lonely. It’s not something the supernatural have a stranglehold on. Raising a tiny person is isolating. But Ruby is my family. She’s worth it. And I can take care of my vampire needs while she’s away for the summer. It works out.”
“And the rest of the year? No hunting? No feeding?”
“Of course I don’t hunt,” he said defensively. “I have small meals when I have the opportunity. Depression, anxiety. Stuff like that.”
“But that’s not enough to curb your hunger.”
“No. But it tides me over until I can have my monster hall pass over breaks.”
“Hall pass?”
Hugh winked. “Permission to break the rules without consequence.”
Rykoff’s frown deepened instead of becoming the smile Hugh had intended to draw with the joke.
“I’m sorry. It sounds like a terrible choice to face. Your daughter or your health and happiness.”
Hugh didn’t look at it that way. “She’s always my first choice, but it’s not as bad as you make it out to be. I don’t mind being human most of the year. I have a job I’m good at, and I can help people and feed at the same time. There are things I hate, like the PTA, and the neighborhood association getting on my ass when I don’t mow the lawn fast enough for them, but it’s all worth it.”
The parking-lot gate was chained shut, so he pulled up alongside the park’s sidewalk and stopped. “Do you want me to circle around or find some place to park on the street?”
Rykoff opened the door. “I’ll be fine. You go back to your hall pass.”
“That wasn’t what—”
“I know,” Rykoff said. “But the best way I can help keep Ruby safe right now is to make sure the rogue doesn’t know she exists. That means you can’t exist either.”
His words hit Hugh like a physical blow. Logically he knew it wasn’t a rejection, but it felt like one. He’d never resented the life he’d left behind for Ruby, but he came damn close to it now. He’d just met Rykoff, but they shared a connection that was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. Hugh was terrified about what it might mean, but he was also terrified to lose it. Hugh was damned if he did, damned if he didn’t.
Rykoff leaned across the console and kissed him. For a moment Hugh was awash in the scent of evergreens and the slight tang of ozone that signaled a storm, overlaid with a heady spice that he couldn’t describe. The scent disappeared the moment Rykoff broke off their kiss, leaving Hugh’s head spinning.
“Did you just—”
Rykoff’s eyes flashed. “I did. You’re a special man, Hugh. And your daughter is an incredible gift. Be well. We will meet again, I give you my word.”
He was out of the car before Hugh could react. Rykoff had lowered his barriers to share his aura with Hugh somehow. And it had been incredible. He’d thought their hurried sexcapade in the alley had changed him forever, but that fraction of a moment engulfed in Rykoff’s aura would be the memory that haunted him. He’d experienced nothing that compared.
Hugh wanted to chase after him, but his practical side kept him glued to his seat. Rykoff was right. They needed to protect Ruby, and right now that meant making sure there was no link between her and Rykoff that the rogue could follow. Which meant no link with Hugh either.
He forced himself to drive away, but he couldn’t help but keep his gaze trained on the rearview mirror, hoping for another glimpse of Rykoff. All he saw was darkness.
What the hell was happening? He wasn’t like this. Rykoff had said his life sounded lonely, but it wasn’t.
Or at least it hadn’t been. He missed Ruby like a phantom limb, but he always did when he was away from her. The gnawing unhappiness inside his chest was new, and he had a sinking suspicion it had to do with the man he was trying hard not to think about right now.
The motel was dead when he pulled up. Hugh wanted to curl up in bed and sleep for days to escape his thoughts, but he knew there was no way he’d quiet his mind enough to do more than toss and turn.
He pulled the thumb drive from Jared out of his pocket instead and rooted around in his backpack for his laptop. Hugh normally enjoyed this part of his vacation hunt, but it was more like a chore now.
There were three files on the drive. Each would have information about where the target worked and lived plus any other relevant facts. The first time they’d done this, Jared had given him copies of the police files on the perps, but it wasn’t necessary. Hugh needed nothing more than his ability to read their auras. It might not give him the exact details a police report did, but it told him what he needed to know.
He’d planned to spend two weeks here, but he could probably get this done in three or four days. The thought of being so far away from Ruby right now made him uneasy, but he didn’t want to leave Jared hanging or short himself the feeds he’d need to sustain himself over the coming year. There was no reason to believe Ruby was in danger. It would be ridiculous to head home now because something could happen.
Like it was ridiculous to let Rykoff go after that rogue alone on the off chance his involvement twigged the guy to Ruby’s existence. He knew nothing about the man Rykoff was hunting, aside from the fact he’d managed to rough Rykoff up enough to make him turn tail and flee. That meant he was a pretty fierce fighter. And Rykoff didn’t seem to have any help here in the mortal realm.
Hugh sat in silence for a few minutes, trying to talk himself out of what he was about to do.
It didn’t work.
Hugh grabbed a few days’ worth of clothes and shoved them into his book bag, along with some toiletries and his phone charger. He left the laptop and the rest of his things. If last night was any indication, they would be traveling light anyway.
He texted Jared to let him know he was going to help a friend for a few days and locked up the motel room. He didn’t know if the rogue was in Detroit or if he’d be on the road, but he’d paid in advance for the room, so there was no reason to check out. He’d need to come back here to finish what he started for Jared anyway.
Hugh couldn’t believe he was doing this, but not much of his life had made sense over the last forty-eight hours. Why not risk everything to go help a man he’d just met?
The drive to the park seemed to take forever, but he knew that was his impatience talking. He’d left Rykoff less than an hour ago, but who knew if he’d still be in the park now. The man could open portals to another realm, for Christ’s sake.
Hugh parked on a darkened corner and sent up a silent prayer that his car would be safe there while he searched for Rykoff. He didn’t know how big the park was, but a lot of it was open spaces, which probably wouldn’t work for whateve
r communing with nature mumbo jumbo the fae had to do to heal himself.
The park was deserted, so he didn’t worry about masking his speed as he jogged along the trail that led to a large wooded area. That had to be where Rykoff would have gone. It was maddening, not being able to scent him. The brief glimpse of his true aura he’d given Hugh had been staggering, so maybe it was for the best that he couldn’t smell him all the time. But it sure as hell would help right now.
He strained his hearing, trying to catch any noise that was out of the ordinary. Someone was dealing drugs on the edge of the basketball court, and there was a couple having sex concealed inside a copse of trees nearby. But that was it. He could hear the heartbeats of the people who were sleeping on the benches, but as he drew closer to the woods, he picked up on one slow heartbeat that had to be Rykoff. It wasn’t an animal, but it was too slow for a human.
Hugh ducked into the tree line anyway, hoping against hope that he’d found him. Luckily there was only one heartbeat, so it was unlikely the rogue was there too. He followed the sound until he could see Rykoff up ahead, his skin glowing faintly as he rested his head against the bark of a massive tree.
Hugh slowed his pace and made plenty of noise so his presence wouldn’t startle Rykoff. By the time he drew up to him, Rykoff had leaned away from the tree and was waiting for him, eyes flashing amber.
“We agreed you wouldn’t become involved,” Rykoff said.
He looked healthy. His skin had regained its color, and all his scrapes and bruises were healed. Being in the park had definitely helped him, even though it wasn’t truly a forest. That was good. He needed to be at full strength.
“You decided I wouldn’t be involved, and I let you. But after thinking on it, I decided you definitely need my help. This guy seems like he’s too strong to take on alone. Why didn’t they send anyone to help you?”