by Ella Frank
“You have a distorted view of our relationship, Eton. I hurt you.”
“You hurt me to free me,” Eton whispered. “You are like the thorns on a rose, Thanos. A painful beauty. One I will always want to hold, no matter the blood it draws from me.”
Thanos raised his fingers to his lips and licked the blood from them, and the instant surge of power from Eton was like a jolt of electricity. It raced through his veins, and as he faced off with the one opposite him, he sensed Eton’s desire as it spiked to match his own.
“We must get you home and secure before the others return,” Thanos said. “Vasilios will not be pleased by tonight’s slaughtering.” He took a step back, out of touching distance, away from the dangerous temptation before him. And watched Eton scrub the back of his hand across his lips.
They really needed to go now before he did something stupid. The violence, the tension, and this unbelievable kick of power were making Thanos want to fuck, and that was the one thing they did not dare do with the other.
It was the unspoken and unfulfilled need that always lingered between the two of them but would forever remain unexplored, because there was no telling what would come of a union such as that—and tonight would be no different.
He would do what he had been tasked to do when his life had been made eternal. He would tie this male up, he would strip him of his clothes, and then he would beat free all of the ugly until Eton was nothing but a shell, casing a danger that none of them truly understood, yet only he seemed able to control.
ETON BRISTLED AT the challenge Elias had just thrown down for him, because he was right. While there was nothing more he would enjoy than ripping out the bastard’s heart, he did want to see Thanos as he had been before all of this had happened. Not to see his handsome face, but to see how bold and brave he’d once been.
This Elias had not only stripped Thanos of his appearance and dignity the night of the attack, he’d managed to emasculate him in the process. And tonight, Eton wanted to see the vampire who’d once viciously dominated him with a mere look, word, or touch.
He could sense Elias’s anxiety as if it oozed from his pores, but he did not dare puncture the male’s flesh in case his blood had a similar effect to the one who had paralyzed Alasdair.
Instead, Eton wrapped his fingers around Elias’s throat, and when he swallowed against the pressure and his Adam’s apple bobbed against the tight skin between Eton’s thumb and index finger, he flexed his grip, slowly crushing the man’s windpipe.
“You and I,” Eton said, and then swiped his lower lip with his tongue. “We are more similar than you will ever know.”
A muscle high on Elias’s left cheek ticked, and his body shifted with every labored breath he took. But not once did he look away. He was as bold as ever, and it was clear why he had been the one to infiltrate them in such a crippling capacity.
“How…how do you figure that?” Elias sputtered.
Eton thought of Thanos, and where he’d left him standing in the hall earlier. He’d missed being at the hand and mercy of that male these past few months, and that only made him stauncher in his resolve to exact retribution for everything Elias had taken from him.
“We both love the one person we are destined to never have.”
At those words, Elias yanked on his restraints, and Eton said, “Did you honestly think there would be no recourse for your actions against him? Against Isadora? It really is a shame that Diomêdês won’t have a round or two with you. He has got quite the temper.”
Elias’s eyes sparked at that, and the satisfaction there, in one who should feel helpless and without options, had Eton’s hackles rising.
“You don’t know…”
Eton cocked his head to the side. “Don’t know what?”
The laugh that emerged from Elias then was triumphant. His head fell back and his entire body shook against Eton’s as he let free a victorious sound of glee.
Eton felt his temper rip through him at Elias’s supremacy in that moment, and he could no longer contain his desire to draw blood. Spotting a pair of scissors in a penholder, he snatched them up and plunged them beneath Elias’s ribs in less than a second.
Elias let out a howl of agony, and Eton moved in close enough that his lips were brushing the male’s cheek, and said again, “Don’t. Know. What?”
Elias’s eyes found his then, and though the earlier triumph had vanished, the arrogance and determination there was impressive.
“You’re pathetic,” he said, gasping. “So consumed in your own hatred and demons you can’t even smell him on me, can you? Thanos really did break your black heart. And the saddest part is that while you’re hissing and snarling here like some rabid animal, they’re all planning to save me—not you.”
As Elias’s words sank in, Eton let the implications behind them hit him one duplicitous action at a time.
“You speak of lies,” he bellowed, the fury consuming him like the floodwater of a broken dam.
“Why would I lie? You’re going to kill me anyway.”
Eton twisted the scissors, and Elias’s hoarse shout was guttural and ended with him gasping. “You…you believe it…you smell it now. Her and him… Don’t you?”
A roar of betrayal thundered out of Eton as Diomêdês’s deception slammed into him, and he yanked the scissors free of Elias’s torso and dropped them to the floor. He gripped Elias’s hair and twisted his head back so far he almost snapped the fucker’s neck clear off his shoulders, and then it happened:
“Eton.”
The commanding voice that boomed around the office space cut through his frenzied state in a way no other had ever been able to do before—Thanos.
The instant effect he had on him, the way Eton’s entire being came to attention, recognizing the one who’d just entered his space and respecting him, had Eton letting go of Elias so he could face the vampire standing just inside the door.
“Thanos…”
He should’ve known that even with the careful measures he had taken not to be followed, Thanos would know how to track him down. He’d always been able to find him—even when he was trapped inside himself.
Thanos’s eyes shifted over his shoulder, and then flicked back to Eton. “I see you are back to your old tricks.”
Eton glanced back to where Elias hung, passed out now, with blood trailing from the wound beneath his ribs. “You knew that was a possibility when you pushed me aside.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel guilty?” Thanos asked, as he slowly prowled across the room. The boots on his feet made no sound, but the dark hood, the skeletal mask, and Thanos’s broad frame still made a hell of an impact.
Eton stayed in place, and tracked Thanos the way he would a most worthy opponent. Oh yes… The monstrous side of him, the side that reveled in what this male could do to him, sent a shot of adrenaline through his already buzzed veins.
“It is not supposed to make you feel anything. We are no longer bonded,” Eton pointed out, manipulating his words just enough to muddy their meaning. “So why are you here?”
“I was sent.”
“Ahh, I see. Vasilios and Diomêdês are displeased with what has happened.”
“Aren’t we all?”
Eton licked along his lower lip as Thanos moved to the left, beginning an all-too-familiar dance. He was circling him, sizing him up.
“Vasilios rarely issues you an order. So you obeyed because…?”
“Does it matter?” Thanos asked. “I am here. There is no need for you to continue this madness anymore. So end it, Eton. Let it go so we can focus on the bigger picture. Let things go back to what they were.”
“They will never be as they were. You made that very clear,” Eton said. His body twitched with agitation as Thanos reached up to the hood and pushed it back from his hair.
As those long strands came into view and flowed down either side of his masked face, Eton had the urge to fall to his knees before the male. Then Thanos said something
he never thought he’d hear.
“I was wrong.”
“Wrong…” Eton said in a voice he barely recognized, and then bellowed, “Wrong?”
Thanos’s eyes blazed in response. “I was angry at you. Angry at everything. But you becoming this thing—that is not the answer. That is not you.”
Eton spun away and stared at the man hanging from the rafter. If they didn’t do something soon, he would likely die. “That is where you are wrong, Thanos. This has always been me. And you know it. You and Vasilios, you fooled yourselves into believing the beautiful lie of it all.”
“Eton—”
“What?”
“It doesn’t have to be like this. Not if you let me back in.”
The force with which Eton’s fangs descended at that offer was painful. It was one that Thanos didn’t give lightly—he knew that. But he was also aware it was one he couldn’t take him up on.
For years he’d been orbiting around Thanos as though he were his sun, needing him to survive. And it was the awareness that Thanos did not return that feeling that had sent him into this current tailspin.
“Why would you offer me that?” he demanded, turning on the one who knew him best.
“Because I want it.”
“Do not lie to me. You offer it because it is what you were tasked to do.”
Thanos shook his head. “No.”
“Then because of your new friend, perhaps? Paris, is it? Are you worried he will share the same fate as this male?”
Thanos’s eyes swept to the one hanging behind him, and a low growl rumbled out of his chest. “Paris has nothing to do with us.”
“Does he not? You were very quick to make him have everything to do with us earlier when you were in your bedchambers. It is too late to regret what consequences came from that action, Thanos.”
“That is not fair.”
“No? Then what?” Eton asked, tilting his head to the side. “Did you come here for forgiveness?”
“I have nothing to ask forgiveness for.”
“Then why did you come?”
“Because I had no choice,” Thanos boomed. “Back then and now. I swore I would be here. Just as you swore that night in London that you’d never take my choices from me again. And yet you did.”
In an instant, Eton was across the space and wrenching off the blasted mask that hid Thanos from him. “You were dying.”
As Thanos’s mangled features stared him down, Eton brought a hand up to trace his fingers over the jagged trenches of his cheeks, and the sorrow in Thanos’s eyes gutted him.
“We promised that even in death we would not take the other’s choice from them,” Thanos whispered. “Even knowing what that would do to the other.”
Eton’s hand shook as he lowered it to his side. “I was weak. You have always been the strength. The calming force between what I thought and what I did. But without you, it is gone.”
“It does not have to be,” Thanos said, but Eton had closed down to him. He was done listening.
“You should leave.”
“Eton—”
“I said leave,” Eton bellowed, and before he knew what had happened, Thanos launched himself at him, and Eton found himself with his back plastered to the wall and the furious male against his front.
“I will not leave you.”
The white-hot rage that boiled at those simple words lit Eton from the inside like a raging inferno as his entire soul cried out, You already have. And as the fire consumed him it destroyed all threads of common sense until all that was left was the intense desire to cause destruction and pain. His wrath set on the one currently boxing him in. “If you do not leave now, I cannot guarantee you ever will.”
“You threatened me with that once before, many years ago. Yet here I am, over two thousand years later.”
Eton fought against the hold Thanos had upon his wrists and muscled forward from the wall, only to be rammed back into it. As the pain of the impact ricocheted up his spine, he glowered at the one who’d caused it, but Thanos merely stared him down.
“I do not know how to let you back inside. But I am willing to try,” Thanos said, lowering his forehead to his. “You may have been weak in keeping me here. But I was weak to let you go.”
Eton shut his eyes at the admission, and the anger that had been roiling through him left in a rush, like air being expelled. “I will not go back on my decision, Thanos. I will not cave,” he said. “Not even for you.”
A shiver racked Eton’s body as Thanos grazed his nose along his temple, inhaling his scent.
“I understand,” Thanos said.
“Do you?”
As Thanos’s lips gently touched his ear, Eton felt the cool moisture of a tear run down the length of his cheek.
“Yes.”
He nodded once, and when Thanos raised his head and looked him in the eye, Eton said, “Then you are here to kill me, and I am going to let you.”
THANOS STARED INTO Eton’s eyes and felt his resolve slip. He could feel the male trembling under his palms as he held him against the wall, but there was no other way now.
Vasilios had known that when he had sent him to track Eton down, and Eton had known it the second he’d entered this room—and that knowledge infuriated him.
Why had Eton done this?
Why would he put him in this position knowing what he would be tasked to do? It seemed cruel, even for the darkest of them all, whom Thanos had stupidly believed had come to respect him.
“It is okay, Thanos.”
“How is any of this okay?”
“Because we always knew this is where we would end up, did we not?”
Thanos’s bicep bunched and his jaw ticked at the resigned light in Eton’s eyes. It was impossible to believe, but right then he would’ve given anything to see the fiery red of the fiend fighting for its right to exist.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “It is not meant to end like this. You will be mine and I will be yours. Remember that? We are one.”
“No,” Eton said, and the word cut like the sharpest of knives. “We have not been one since the moment I betrayed you, my Thanos. And that happened years ago.”
“Eton—”
“This can only end one way. You know that. It is why Vasilios sent you.”
Thanos brought his other hand up to trace it over Eton’s perfect face. “He thought that once before, but we found other ways.”
Eton tilted his head, and just when Thanos thought he’d gotten through to him, Elias groaned. Eton’s eyes darted to the male, and the heat that had been on simmer exploded back to life.
“I am tired of other ways. This is it, Thanos. I am finally giving you what you always wanted and were too afraid to ask for. I am—”
And before Eton could say anything more, Thanos took hold of his stunning face and snapped his neck in a clean break, knowing of no other way to detain him without actually killing him. As Eton fell to the floor with a loud thump, Thanos winced at the sound.
Fuck. His hands shook as he stared down at them. He had not been prepared to hear that. That was one truth he hadn’t been ready to face just yet. But as he ran over Eton’s words, Thanos cursed at the significance of them.
Eton’s disconnect now meant he could grant Thanos what he’d always wanted—his own life. While at the same time Eton would get what he’d always wanted—his own death.
Thanos walked over to the one hanging from the beam of the office and studied him from the bound hands to the limp body.
Elias Fontana. The male who’d started it all.
“They want me dead,” he said, his voice cracking around the final word.
Well, the bastard needed to be more specific than that. The way Thanos figured it, there were several who were of that mindset. He took a fistful of the black and silver hair, and then hauled Elias’s head up to ask, “Who wants you dead?”
Elias’s eyes flicked over Thanos’s face, still devoid of its mask, and when it registere
d whom he was staring at, he jerked back.
“Oh shit…shit.”
Elias lost his footing for a second and twisted by his arms until Thanos steadied him with his hold.
“Answer me,” he said, and thrust his face in so close to Elias his lips almost grazed the male’s cheek. Elias’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, and Thanos took satisfaction in his fear. “Yes…take a good look at what you did and know I am seconds away from ending your worthless life.”
“The gods,” Elias said. “If…if you kill me, you’re doing exactly what they want.”
Thanos glared back at him. “More deceptions, Fontana? More lies?”
Elias shook his head. “No. If you don’t believe me, go and get Isadora…or Diomêdês. They will want to hear this. I have been helping them.”
Thanos balked at the absurdity of that. Diomêdês would never deal with this male after what he’d done to Isadora. And Isadora— Wait, she had seemed overly concerned with what happened to this male. How could she?
“I know you want to kill me,” Elias continued. “But that’s exactly what they want. This…this is all on purpose. They did something to him, to Eton, on purpose. He wasn’t made like that, was he? He was just like you. Just like the others. But then they did something to him.” Elias began coughing then, clearly having overtaxed his weakened body.
Thanos looked back at Eton, who was still in a heap on the floor.
Was what Elias said true? Had Eton somehow been condemned? Infected? Impossible. But when Thanos first met his Ancient, he had said what was inside of him had just begun…
“You lie,” he said, and released his hold on Elias. He needed to get out of there before he did something he would regret. Like rip this male’s heart from his chest.
He went back to where Eton lay, and the picture he made hurt more than Thanos had expected. He bent down to scoop him up in his arms and, with a final glance at Elias, left the room.
It was time to get Eton contained, for his own good as well as theirs, because while he was out cold for the moment, Thanos knew it certainly wouldn’t be for long, and he’d seen firsthand the destruction this vampire could leave in his wake.