Jukie tossed back his glossy brown hair, pushing it out of his sweaty face. He swiped at his brow and continued arguing. “You didn’t really win, you know. You got an early start—”
“No, I didn’t,” Axel snapped, his patience worn thin. Sandboarding in the desert heat was enough to make anyone cranky especially if it entailed listening to hours of complaining too. “Yolanda was clocking us, and she’ll tell you the same thing.”
“Yup,” Yolanda agreed. “Jukie’s a sore loser, nothing new there.”
“Fuck you,” Jukie muttered, flipping Yolanda off as well.
Yolanda threw the clipboard at Jukie in a movement so fast, Jukie didn’t have time to duck.
“Fuck!” he yelped as the impromptu weapon made contact with his chest. “Ow!”
“Learn some manners, asshole,” Yolanda snarked, turning away from them. “I’m done here. We’ve been practicing for hours and I’m ready for a long, cool bath and some good food and booze. See y’all at Concho’s.”
“You cheated,” Jukie muttered, kicking the clipboard.
Axel wanted to tear his hair out. “I did. Not. You’re slower, that’s it. Maybe you need a better board.” Or more patience and practice. “We’ve got three months before the next competition—”
“Fuck that. You’ll cheat there too.” Jukie narrowed his eyes at Axel. “Maybe someone should make sure the judges know what to watch for.”
A chill washed over Axel. “Jukie, what’s going on, man? You know I don’t cheat and I couldn’t in a competition anyway. I’d be DQ’d for jumping the start. You know that. Are you…” Axel hated to bring it up because it was just going to piss Jukie off more but they needed this shit worked out. “Is this about us breaking up?”
Jukie snorted. “Us breaking up? Nah, not at all.”
Axel sagged a little in relief.
Jukie whacked him with the clipboard, catching Axel on the jaw with the flat back of it.
“Hey!” Axel threw his hands up to try to avoid another blow to the face.
“This is about you dumping me, you fucking fuck!” Jukie caught him on the side twice.
Axel wasn’t a violent man. He hated blood and boxing and anything remotely involving violence.
And now he knew he really hated being on the receiving end of it. It was just too bad he didn’t know jack shit about defending himself.
“You don’t get to ditch me, asshole,” Jukie snarled.
There was an insane light to his eyes, and spittle flew as he shouted.
Axel had known Jukie had a temper, but not like this.
“Jukie, stop. Stop—” Axel grunted as the edge of the clipboard was slammed into his belly. “Fu…”
“You were lucky to be with someone as hot as me.” Jukie hit him again then backed away when Axel fell onto his butt. “You’ll never get another guy as attractive as me. You can’t beat this.” He slapped himself on the ass.
Jukie had been a lazy and selfish lover. Axel doubted now was the time to point that out.
“Have fun finding your way back.” Jukie looked at the clipboard, then at Axel, before turning on his heels and leaving.
Axel didn’t even have the breath to plead with Jukie, and even if he had, he wouldn’t have bothered. Hopefully, now that Jukie had thrown his hissy fit, he’d get over it. That was the way the idiot had always acted in the two years that Axel had known him. Tomorrow Jukie would be full of regret and sweet as sugar.
And Axel would let whatever this was go, because that would be easier than arguing. He sighed and watched Jukie ride off on his ATV. Axel was fairly certain he knew his way back. They weren’t too far off the main road. He could also follow the tire tracks Yolanda and Jukie left behind.
That was the theory, anyway, but he yelped when he tried to stand, his ribs aching like a mother. Well, he would call Yolanda. She’d had plenty of experience with Jukie and his fits, since they’d been friends before Axel had come along. Maybe she wouldn’t mind coming back to help him get up.
Axel dug his cell phone out of his pocket and cursed when he saw the shattered screen. Of course he couldn’t have just cracked it. The screen was a mess of fractures and spiderweb-like lines. He also noticed it didn’t light up when he pressed the buttons on the side.
“Oh, come on!” Axel shook the phone. Pieces of the screen went flying. “Crap!”
It took him a while, but he finally got to his feet. “I gotta have better taste in men,” he mumbled as he slowly made his way to his ATV. He always did pick the wrong guys, but Jukie had made so much sense—or a relationship between them had. They were both devoted to the sport of sandboarding, they lived close to each other, had the same goals and—
Axel huffed in irritation. He needed to let that particular dream go. Jukie wasn’t the man for him. Maybe no guy was.
“Great. Now I’m turning into that guy.” The one who depressed everyone around him with his shitty attitude.
There was more to life than finding the partner you wanted to spend your life with. That was what Axel kept telling himself as he whimpered his way through getting on the ATV. The vehicle started and he almost wept in relief. He reached for a bottle of water, intending to soothe his parched mouth and throat.
Pain shot up from his ribs. “Ow! Damn it, mother f—” Axel hissed and shut the vehicle down before he slowly got back off the ATV. He needed water. Overheating in the desert was a real risk. He took a bottle from the small cooler strapped onto the back of his vehicle. Even twisting the lid off the bottle caused his side to ache.
“Fucking Jukie and his fits.” Axel drank half the bottle then tucked the rest back into the cooler. He carefully got back on and started the engine—only to have it sputter and die.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” Axel growled at it. Luckily the engine caught the second time. If it hadn’t, he’d have worried he’d been poxed or something. Axel always took care of his vehicles and his equipment. The ATV was top of the line—in his cash range, at least—and he made sure it was babied like a vehicle should be.
Which explained exactly nothing about why it died on him a few minutes later.
“Argh!” Axel started to throw his hands up in the air but remembered the sore ribs just in time to stop himself. He checked his watch. It was a little after five p.m. He had a couple of hours to get back to the road. The last thing Axel wanted was to be out in the desert at night.
Chapter Four
“Fuck Jukie, fuck this desert—” Axel slapped the seat of the ATV. “And fuck me for being stupid in the first place!” He had maybe ten minutes of light left before the sun set completely. Axel was more than a little scared. He’d never considered himself Mr. Butch and there were things out in the desert that could get him.
“I should have taken shop class,” he muttered, jiggling the battery. “But, noooooo, I had to take art because Cody Williams took it.” Despite his nervousness, Axel grinned. Cody Williams had been a stud and eventually, he and Axel had had a few fun months together before deciding they wanted to do more exploring. “Need to email that bastard and see how he’s liking married life.” Cody had found his Mr. Right and ‘put a ring on it’ in about the same amount of time Cody and Axel had fooled around years ago.
Axel wasn’t jealous. Not of Cody or his husband Morgan.
He was maybe a little envious of their relationship.
And he wasn’t going to get the stupid ATV to start. Axel flipped the switch for the headlights. They came on, dimmed, and went right back off.
“Aw, fuck me.” Jukie was really going to have to beg forgiveness for this fit, and even then, Axel might not forgive him.
The wind picked up as the last of the sunlight vanished. Axel shivered, not from the cold but from nerves, as a howling sound came from some distance away.
He hoped it was some distance away.
Were there wolves out in the desert? He didn’t think so. Wolves needed water and stuff like that, kinda like humans did, so they wouldn’t be living out in the
desert. That was just the wind doing weird shit because of the dunes.
That was all it was.
* * * *
West didn’t like closing his eyes. He kept seeing fangs and hearing things that scared him when he did. Neither did he like thinking about what he was now. Four nights—days—whatever—and he wasn’t adjusted yet.
Maybe it would have been better if Claude had let him die. West hung his head in shame at that self-indulgent thought. Would he really rather have left his siblings all alone in the world?
He looked at Case, curled around their younger brother, Joseph, and their sisters also beside them. His heart seemed to swell with love. Apparently, he wasn’t dead like he’d always thought vampires were. He was just altered, as Claude had so calmly put it.
“Altered,” he whispered. That was what Mom had said Tippy was when he got back from the vet without his balls. West clamped his legs together. All of his junk was still in place, and still unused—that much he did know. To his shame, he’d come even as he’d been full of terror when he’d been bitten in that alley. He’d come again when the other vampire had bit him later too.
But not when Claude had turned him, at least not to the best of his knowledge. That was something, he supposed. One extra humiliation he’d been saved.
He didn’t care if it was normal for a human to orgasm when bitten. He hadn’t willingly given up his release to either of the first two vamps who’d bitten him.
Maybe he was stupid for feeling violated. West shivered and wrapped his arms around his knees. He was being a wuss.
But if it was one of your brothers or sisters, what would you tell them? That they’re wrong to feel as you do? That they’re weak?
His conscience continued nagging him and it sounded a lot like his mother’s voice in his head. West closed his eyes as tears leaked from the corners of them. God, but he missed his mom and dad. They’d been good parents. He wanted them back, wanted them to hold him and tell him everything would be okay.
There was no one who could do that for him now, hadn’t been in years. That weird attraction he felt for Claude was a product of their ‘relationship’, which was such a bizarre thing that West couldn’t even think about it. At least he didn’t hate himself for it, much. Being attracted to a vampire for any reason was nauseating.
West didn’t know if he could really trust Claude, or anyone else in the house besides his family. Everything was so confusing and intimidating and big.
A soft tap at the bedroom door had West snapping upright and wiping at his eyes and cheeks. He didn’t call out, not wanting to wake the kids. The knock had been so light he wasn’t surprised they’d slept through it.
West unlocked the locks after peeking through the peephole and seeing that Claude waited on the other side. Abernathy, Claude’s mate, stood a few feet back.
West might have liked Abernathy in a different situation. As it was, he was afraid of the bigger man, and ashamed of the unwanted attraction he felt for Claude.
Opening the door, West held a finger to his lips for silence. Claude nodded and stepped away.
West exited the room and gently pulled the door closed.
Claude gestured several feet off toward the landing before the stairs.
West walked there with Claude and Abernathy. “I’m not hungry,” he started in with before Claude could offer his wrist again.
Claude frowned. “You are hungry, and lying will not make it any better.”
West scowled as much as he dared to. He was still afraid Claude would turn on him. The vampire was powerful even if he was dressed like a slick, rich man. “I don’t want to do it.”
“This isn’t about what you want to do, but what you must do,” Claude informed him in that dark, commanding way he had. “You can not starve yourself and take care of your siblings, and I assure you, I am not guardian material.” Claude sighed and startled West by cupping his chin. “Hating what you are now will do no one any good, the least of all those children in there. I don’t believe you need a lecture on your responsibility to them, but if you truly have forgotten—”
“I haven’t,” West grumbled, turning his head aside, fearing that Abernathy was going to attack him at any moment. Not that Abernathy had so much as glared at him. It was West’s own guilt and dislike of an attraction that was the problem. West didn’t want the attraction. He didn’t want Claude, not logically. His body just…reacted. Claude had promised him it would fade. Even so, it was the reason that West expected anger from Abernathy.
But all he ever saw when he was brave enough to meet Abernathy’s gaze was compassion and understanding.
Which made him feel even crappier.
Jesus, he was a mess.
“West, are you listening to me?” Claude asked.
West jolted guiltily. “I, uh, I was—”
“I said, Abernathy has offered to sit with the children while they sleep, and Augustin will join him shortly, so I can take you out and teach you a few things you must know to survive,” Claude explained patiently. “I understand you are unwilling to find a human to, hmm, become intimate with so you may sate your appetite, but there are still other things you must know, and we do have resources for those of our kind who are uncomfortable using people for their own survival.”
West wrinkled his nose at that. “Why can’t you just speak plainly?”
Claude arched one finely shaped eyebrow. “I thought I did.”
West looked past Claude to the pretty wallpapered hallway, and the bedroom door he’d just come out of. “I don’t want to need blood.” His bottom lip trembled and West sucked it in between his teeth. He hated being so weak and moody.
“You are mature enough to know that life does not always give us what we want,” Claude said calmly. “Believe it or not, you are not the only vampire with an aversion to drinking blood. There are ways of making it more palatable for you, but you will have to ingest it. Your life depends on it and you know it. I will tolerate your self-pity a little while longer, West. I understand it. You have experienced many hardships in the past few years. You blame yourself and believe yourself to be weak because of something that is entirely someone else’s fault. At some point, however, I will do whatever I must to get you to see beyond your misery. I would hope you are capable of getting your head on right before that point arrives.”
The lecture was so much like the one he’d had going on in his mind before Claude had knocked on the bedroom door that West could just hear his mother saying those same words. It was almost as if she were speaking through Claude.
Claude’s other eyebrow went up. “Is that the beginning of a smile?”
West blinked and touched his mouth, realizing that, yes, he was almost amused.
“What brought that out?” Claude asked him.
West felt the first glimmer of hope that things would, someday, be maybe close to okay. “You sounded just like my mother.”
Claude sputtered and West smiled.
Chapter Five
Axel warbled the last verse about death from a rotten peanut then started in on the first line of the song again. He had a wretched singing voice, and his theory was that it’d scare the hell out of any would-be predators. Like whatever the desert version of Bigfoot was.
He kept looking around nervously. The desert wasn’t a quiet place, even without his godawful singing. He could hear things skittering over the sand, and other things flying overhead. Axel wasn’t too eager to know what any of those things were. Singing helped to muffle the noises but some still slipped through to him. For once, he really hated his overactive imagination. He kept thinking up crazy and scary scenarios—zombie apocalypse being just one of them.
At least it was cooler, though he was actually getting a little chilly. Axel rubbed his arms then took another sip of water. He had plenty to get him through the night, and probably tomorrow. Maybe not, though. Desert survival skills weren’t ones he possessed.
Axel snorted. His throat was kinda achy from al
l the singing. His bladder throbbed and he got off the ATV long enough to unzip and piss a few feet away.
Something slithered in his peripheral vision to the left.
“Fuck!” Axel darted to the right, his pecker flopping. At least he’d finished and had had a second to shake before he’d moved. He glared at the sand but saw nothing other than that. “I know you’re just waiting to get me,” he muttered. “Evil fuckers.”
Something he barely even heard made every hair on his body stand up. “What—” Axel cocked his head, narrowing his eyes as he listened, as if somehow decreasing his ability to see clearly would make his hearing sharper.
He frowned as he tried to make out the shuffling sound. It wasn’t a solitary noise, but rather multiple ones, as if several people were literally dragging their feet through the sand.
Which was crazy, because who the hell would be out there in the desert at night, besides him?
Unless maybe Jukie had come back? That had to be it! Jukie wasn’t a complete asswad, usually.
Axel’s heart fluttered with relief. Remembering Jukie’s furor at their relationship ending, he tucked his dick away before yelling, “Jukie! This way, over here!” He turned his head and saw a shape coming over the dune about ten yards away. “Jukie! You—”
Wait, why are there so many shapes suddenly appearing? And they all had a weird, shuffling gait. There was something very odd about the way they moved their arms. At least it seemed strange to Axel. With the moon backlighting them, he could see that much, though the front of them was pretty much hidden in darkness.
And one of them was… Axel would have pissed himself had he not already gone when he saw the way one figure’s head was lying against its shoulder. There was also the outline of missing limbs, and whatever the fuck was coming over that dune he did not want to get close to.
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