by Ella Frank
The two of them stared at one another, stunned. Then, just as Leo was about to speak, one of Alasdair’s hands came up and tugged his away. He brought it up behind Leo’s back, and when their bodies brushed, Leo chewed his lower lip.
“Wow.”
“Hmm,” was the only sound that emerged from Alasdair, giving nothing away.
When he released him, Leo took a step back and blurted out, “Were you worried?”
Alasdair’s eyes zeroed in on him.
“About me, I mean? Were you worried that I would die?”
He wasn’t sure why he was asking or why he felt the need to know the answer. But once Alasdair had closed the distance between them, he waited with hope fluttering around in his stupid heart.
Yeah, sure. When it came to the hierarchy, Vasilios was definitely the one in charge. But Alasdair was the one who drew him in. He was the one who had made Leo say yes to the asinine idea in the first place. Getting to know this vampire had had him offering up his life. Well, that and his survival.
“I—” Alasdair started, but he was interrupted by the devil himself as Vasilios walked back into the bedchambers.
“Can this touching reunion wait until later? Once he brings Isadora home, we will reward him all night long. Until then, you are to take him back to where you last saw her. Track her. It’s highly unlikely that this human, whoever he is, will be expecting you and your—I’m sorry, our—yielding. He also won’t be aware that Leonidas is as enhanced as he is. And you,” Vasilios said as he walked towards them. Leo stood there and waited for his order.
“You will bring this friend of yours back here to us. Do you understand?”
Leo understood, all right. He just hoped that what Vasilios had promised earlier would ring true. Otherwise, he’d just signed Elias’s death warrant.
AFTER VASILIOS HAD vacated his bedchambers and Leo had gone to shower, Alasdair went to his closet to retrieve some clothes for them. He was still trying to decide how he felt about everything that had occurred.
How did he feel about sharing Vasilios’s time and attention? And how did he feel about sharing Leo period? He wished he’d had more time to think this precarious situation over, but when he’d seen Vasilios opposite Leo on his bed and the offer had been made, all Alasdair had craved was unity with the two males. Unity and the ability to keep and fuck both of them whenever he pleased.
“Well, that’s a rather self-indulgent thought, isn’t it?”
Alasdair turned and found Leo with one shoulder resting against the frame of the closet door. He’d wrapped a towel around his waist, and his damp hair was slicked back from his face.
Alasdair walked over with a pair of khaki pants and a black button-down and said, “His blood has allowed you to hear our thoughts also?”
Leo’s eyes sparkled. “Apparently,” he said, chuckling. “It started a minute ago in the shower when you were being all territorial about me. You know, I was kind of hoping, if I would get anything, it would be this. It’s so…”
“Yes?” Alasdair prompted.
When Leo went to take the clothes from him, he closed the distance between them and held his hands in place. “It’s intimate.”
Alasdair lowered his eyes to Leo’s mouth and let his thoughts run free. That it is. You will become addicted to the feeling. Every experience will be heightened and everything before it will pale in comparison. Then again, once you experience both Vasilios and me together, you will never be satisfied with anything less. And everyone other than us is less.
“Jesus,” Leo sighed.
Alasdair took great delight when his pulse rocketed. Both of us filling you, top to bottom. Inside and out. Yes, Leonidas, this will always and forever be a very intimate thing.
Alasdair smirked as he went to brush by him, but Leo caught hold of his bicep, halting him in place. The sheer strength in those fingers had tripled. Leo had an Ancient’s blood mingling with his, and the result was powerful indeed.
“As amazing as all that sounds, I’m not going to just lie down for you at will. I thought I was going to die last night, so I came to you willingly. Things have changed now. And not just my ability to be able to hold you off.”
Alasdair tensed, curious as to what Leo meant by that. Is this a threat? And if it is—
“God, you’re paranoid. Relax. Don’t you know by now I don’t want you dead? Hell, I offered myself up to keep you safe. But, if you want me in your bed again, you’re going to have to work for it.”
He couldn’t believe that, in a moment such as now, he felt amused, yet as Alasdair stared Leo down, his lips twitched. Their existence might have been in grave danger, but right then, Leo had his full attention.
“And how am I going to do that?”
“You’re going to wine and dine me.”
Alasdair cocked his head to the side, the phrase foreign to him. “Excuse me?”
“That’s right,” Leo said as he walked into the bedroom. He dropped the pants on the bed and then shrugged into the shirt. “You’re going to… What’s the word you used back then? Ahh, that’s it. Court me.”
Leo pushed the final button through the hole and reached for the pants, but Alasdair was quicker. He held them in his hand and lowered his eyes over Leo’s body, which was reacting as though he’d stroked him.
“I don’t know what you think you are playing at, but you already made the deal, file mou. It’s too late to back out now.”
Leo snatched the pants from him and pulled them on. “Oh, I don’t want to back out of it. I want to be in between you and the big guy more than you know. But I won’t be the only one in that bed who doesn’t have the loyalty of the other two.” He zipped his pants and sat on the mattress. “I know I have a long way to go, but you will trust me, and so will he. You will also give me a reason to trust you. Up until now, it’s all been threats of death and torture. So it’s time—well, maybe not right now, but soon—for you to put in an effort. Do you remember what that’s like? Putting in an effort?”
“No,” he replied stoically.
“It’s about trust, Alasdair. Here. I’ll go first. Earlier, when I blacked out, that voice, the one who told me what I was here for…”
Alasdair waited for him to formulate his words.
“I heard it again.”
When Leo stood and stepped towards him, Alasdair asked, “What did he say?”
Leo’s eyes didn’t waver when he answered, “That you were all meant to die.”
ALASDAIR DEAD? THE notion seemed utterly implausible as Leo faced the vampire. He seemed invincible.
He waited for Alasdair to say something, but he hadn’t moved since Leo had spoken, and the silence was making him uncomfortable. Had he done the wrong thing by telling Alasdair what he’d heard?
He was about to step aside when, without warning, his mouth was taken in a blistering kiss. Alasdair’s fingers curled around his shoulders and pulled him forward as his tongue came out to flirt with his lower lip. Leo moved closer and ran his palms over Alasdair’s naked chest. Then he smoothed them up the back of his neck. He threaded his fingers through the dark strands of hair and twisted them, and the muffled grunt that left Alasdair was a total turn-on.
This was the first time they’d been alone since Vasilios had interrupted them hours earlier. And after having gone from their explosive first time together to drinking Vasilios’s blood, Leo felt like he was barreling from one high to the next.
Leo groaned when Alasdair thrust his erection against the one growing inside his pants, and when their tongues tangled his eyes fluttered shut. I don’t want you to die, Leo thought as he ran his hands down Alasdair’s back.
When the lips touching his curved and the sharp tip of a fang grazed his skin, Leo opened his eyes and pulled back to see Alasdair’s shining back at him. He then brushed the pad of his thumb across the spot he’d just nipped.
“And why’s that, file mou?”
“Because I…”
As Alasdair dragged his t
humb down, pulling Leo’s lips farther apart, Leo sighed.
“I’m still learning about you. Where you’re from, what you were like as a human. What you’ve seen over the years. It’s fascinating. You’re fascinating. I want to know how you felt when you were turned and what Vasilios means to you. Yes, I want to know that too.”
“You want an awful lot, Leonidas Chapel.”
Leo’s hand came up to tighten around Alasdair’s wrist, halting it there. “I want you. And I know you want me too. You said yes to him to save me. Admit it.”
“So sure, aren’t you? Perhaps I gave you to him as a gift for my disobedience.”
Leo grinned at Alasdair’s blatant lie and then dropped his hand. “Okay.”
As they stood there, Alasdair still wrapped in a sheet and him fully clothed, Leo waited for what would come next.
“Okay?”
“Yes. Okay. If that’s what you want me to believe,” he said with a knowing smirk.
“What’s so funny?”
“I… Nothing.”
“What?” Alasdair growled and shoved his face in close.
“You,” he stressed, poking a finger against Alasdair’s chest. “You’re funny. You’re such a badass, right? But I was on that bed with you. And I was there when you told Vasilios I’d done nothing to deserve dying. You don’t want me dead. But you don’t admit it.”
Alasdair didn’t react at all. Didn’t flinch, didn’t move a damn muscle. He reminded Leo of one of those stone statues. Then, as if a switch had been flipped, he said, “Wait here. We leave in five minutes.”
AS ALASDAIR DRESSED, he tried to decide how to proceed with the infuriating man waiting on him. He hadn’t expected to deal with him at all after having spent the evening inside him. However, now that his and Vasilios’s scent was all over Leo’s body, it was all he could do not to fuck him every time he walked by.
He ground his teeth together as he recalled the way it’d felt to have Leo kneeling between him and his sire. If he’d thought taking him on his own was hazardous to his well-being, then watching Vasilios lust after him was like waiting for a fucking bomb to detonate. He was never sure if Vasilios was about to snap Leo’s neck or suck the man to an orgasm. It was hard to tell with the Ancient.
However, that didn’t stop Alasdair from wanting it all. He wanted that union. That full-on, uninterrupted mating between the three of them. And, with Leo’s enhanced attributes, he was now in a position to give as good as he would take. Alasdair had no trouble imagining taking that man over and over again, either.
But not now.
He’d been given instructions. Vasilios had been clear. No touching until they returned with Isadora.
He walked back out, dressed head to toe in black boots, pants, and a shirt, as Leo was rolling his sleeves up.
“So, what exactly is the plan once we find Elias and your cousin? Hey? Is she really your cousin?”
Alasdair crossed his arms. “We are to bring them back here to the lair. Isadora is weak. You can see it in Diomêdês. She doesn’t have much time. The human male is to be brought back and dealt with accordingly.”
“But not killed.”
Alasdair only stared at Leo, who was watching him with some kind of expectation in his eyes. If he thought he was going to protect this Elias, he needed to give way to that delusion and fast.
“The likelihood that he will live is slim.”
“But you promised—”
“I promised nothing.” Alasdair grabbed the jacket he’d tossed over his recliner. “That human almost killed Thanos, which in turn would’ve—” He stopped short of the major admission.
“Would’ve what?”
“Nothing.” He shrugged into his jacket and shoved his hands into the pockets. “We must leave.”
“I’m not going anywhere until you—”
Alasdair flashed over to where Leo was standing. “You are testing my patience, Leonidas.”
“Too bad,” Leo said. “I almost died tonight, and every night for the past couple of weeks. So the least you can do is fucking tell me what I’m handing my friend over for.”
Alasdair wasn’t about to tell Leo that, if Thanos died, Eton, his Ancient, would also. That would be all that would come from their deaths though. Unlike Vasilios and Diomêdês, there were no other vampires tied to Eton’s lineage. If the other two Ancients were to die, however, every vampire that had their blood running through their veins would perish also.
Then again, maybe that had been part of Vasilios’s plan all along. Tying Leo to them would be genius. He wouldn’t be able to kill them without ending his own life.
Hmm. So what if he did have that knowledge? The human had been self-sacrificing, but would he really take it that far?
“This conversation is over.”
“Then I’m not leaving,” Leo announced.
Alasdair reached for him, and when Leo vanished out of his grip and over to the opposite side of the room, he cursed.
“Not so fun when the shoe’s on the other foot, is it?”
“You are wasting time.”
“No, you are.”
In a flash of movement, Alasdair was against Leo, crushing him to the wall of his bedchambers and kissing his obstinate mouth. When he raised his head, he clasped both sides of Leo’s neck.
Leo said, “Don’t you dare—”
It was too late though—they’d already faded from the room.
WHEN HE AND Alasdair appeared in his office at the museum, Leo blinked several times. He didn’t pass out from the transport, and his head didn’t hurt, but by god was he dizzy.
“I told you not to do that.”
“And I didn’t listen,” Alasdair said as he marched across the room.
“Why doesn’t that surprise me,” he muttered and followed close behind.
“Take me to this…Elias.”
Leo’s feet skidded to a halt. He’d known all along that that was the plan. But was he really willing to risk Elias’s life for his own?
“Not until you tell me you won’t hurt him.”
Without looking his way, Alasdair crouched and touched his fingers to the floor where several photos had fallen from the project board above. “You already know the bargain you struck, Leonidas.”
A war raged inside Leo, a battle between right and wrong. When he saw the photograph of the bathhouses crumpled and lying by Alasdair’s feet, he leaned down to pick it up. He ran his fingers over it and then tilted his head towards Alasdair, whose eyes were creased at the sides, consternation marring his serious expression.
“You’re worried,” he said as he dared to touch unsteady fingers to Alasdair’s cool cheek. “About your family. Isadora and Thanos. Am I right?”
When Alasdair glanced at him, the concern turned to caution as he slowly got to his feet.
“I understand. You’re scared. But you don’t need to—”
“You understand nothing.”
“Don’t I?”
“No, you do not.”
“Then help me. Explain it to me so I do.” Leo waited, tense with anticipation, hoping to somehow break through the steely reserve that surrounded Alasdair.
“What you are referring to, here and back in my chambers, I have not felt those kind of soft emotions in centuries. Centuries, Leonidas. I am not scared, nor am I worried.”
“Then what are you?” he asked as Alasdair’s fangs appeared and his lip drew back in a snarl.
“I am enraged. Now, take me to him.”
Present Day – Elias’s office
HE MUST’VE MISHEARD. That was all Paris could think as he kept his eyes locked with Elias’s.
Did he really just say she’s a vampire? Okay, someone is clearly overworked and slightly delusional.
“Elias, I think we should untie her, don’t you?”
“No. I don’t,” his boss snapped.
Paris reached for his arm and turned them away from the odd woman watching with overly perceptive eyes. “What’s the
matter with you?” he demanded. “You can’t tie a woman to a chair. I mean, unless she’s into that kind of stuff.”
“I’m into a lot of things, handsome, but this is not one of them,” the woman cooed even though she seemed to be forcing it out.
Elias’s head jerked to the left, and he nailed the woman with a dark scowl that had Paris releasing his hold. “I told you to be quiet.”
“Elias,” he admonished.
Then his friend rounded back on him. “Stay out of this, Paris. You don’t know what’s going on.”
“Well,” he started and then thought about what Elias had said a moment ago. “I do know that vampires don’t exist.”
“Is that right?” Elias asked as he shook his head. “Jesus, what a fucking mess. Why the hell was I chosen to deliver this news?” The words were mumbled more to himself than anyone else, and then he rubbed the back of his neck.
“Elias, you’re not making any sense. Maybe we should call someone. We’ve all been under a lot of stress, and after Leo having gone missing and then coming back—”
“He wasn’t missing,” Elias fumed. “He was taken. By them.”
“By vampires?”
“Yes.”
Paris didn’t have anything to say to that, so he tried to process what Elias wanted him to understand. If he had it correct in his head, Elias was saying that…
“Leo was taken by a vampire? And you think she is also a vampire? Are you listening to yourself? You sound like a fucking lunatic.”
A deranged cackle behind them had both of them looking over to the woman. Her head was back as she laughed at the ceiling.
“He is a lunatic. He’s torturing me, for god’s sake. I was just out walking by the museum when he grabbed me and dragged me in here.”
“Don’t listen to her,” Elias ordered.
“Who should he listen to? You? Please. You have a poor, helpless woman bound to a chair. If he doesn’t call for help, I’m going to report you both to the police for kidnapping.”