by Jana Downs
Ally, no! Dageus snapped, knocking the shifter that was coming after him with his fist and turning to intercept Ally. He wouldn’t make it.
Alex got to him first, swinging Ally around and planting his ass on the pavement. He snarled at the Ravyn for almost endangering his Bride and tackled the shifter to the ground. Ally sat there for a few seconds before rolling to his feet.
“Stay. Put,” Alex snapped, dissolving into French as the shifter got a good swing in and clipped his jaw. Ignoring the vampire, Ally grabbed the back of the shifter’s neck that was on top of the Master and hauled him backward. Normally something like that wouldn’t have thrown him off-balance, but in his weakened state, he stumbled, which gave the shifter time enough to manage a partial shift and slice into his sword arm with his claws.
The Ravyn cried out and clutched the gaping wound. Fuuuucckk that hurt. He had to let go of the cut to parry the next blow from the shifter as the half animal’s claws tried to take a chunk out of his throat. Ally could hold him off but only for a few minutes more at most. His strength was waning.
Tony drew a particularly heavy dose of power through their bond as the pavement split wide and literally swallowed two of the shifters before rushing back together to close. Ally gasped as his power fled. The next blow landed, digging into the flesh of his chest muscle above his racing heart. The pain was so sharp it was almost blinding.
Almost instantly the claws were yanked out and the shifter tossed across the parking lot by the Master vampire. Ally collapsed to his knees. His stomach heaved as the pain stole his mind. He emptied the contents of his stomach onto the now-cracked pavement and clutched at his chest. Damn that hurt. That hurt so damn bad. The bond between the Ravyns was cut off from him, and for the first time since joining the brotherhood he was completely alone in his own head.
Dageus was suddenly by his side. “Breathe. Breathe, Ally. It’ll pass. You’ve got to breathe though.” He gripped Ally’s torn arm in a merciless grip to stem the bleeding. “It’s not gone. It’s just faint. It happens.” He turned to Alex who was back to looking like a GQ model. “Call Damian and tell him to meet us at the house. He’s going to need his blood.”
“W–Won’t that start the Bride thing i–if it’s too m–much?” Ally stuttered. He felt like he was choking, drowning in loneliness that was just as acute as the wound in his chest. The vampire and the Ravyn shared a glance.
“Don’t worry about that right now. We just need you to worry about staying calm and collected while we get you back home,” Dageus murmured soothingly. Sounds of battle raged around them, but they seemed to be untouched.
“Is he okay?” Tony called as he pinned the leader of the shifters to the blacktop. He grunted as the shifter’s claws grazed his chest.
“He’s fine. We need to get the Princes and get him home. He’s losing a lot of blood,” Dageus said authoritatively. Alex bent and scooped Ally up.
“I can walk,” Ally slurred, his vision tunneling.
“Don’t worry about anything right now. I’ve got you,” the vampire reassured. He took two careful steps, but it didn’t help. Every movement speared the Ravyn with untold agony. One more step and Allasandro fell into blissful unconsciousness.
Chapter Nineteen
Damian petted Allasandro’s head as he suckled on his neck like a babe at his mother’s breast. He had lost a lot of blood. Damian had been sick with worry waiting on Alex to tell him that they’d left. The Master Vampire had teleported him there after he’d passed out, leaving his own Bride unguarded so that he could bring Allasandro home.
“You have a lot of explaining to do,” Alex said softly. His voice was deadly in its quietness. The thread of accusation did not go unnoticed by his brother.
“I don’t have to explain anything to you,” Damian murmured, completely absorbed in the feeling of Allasandro reclined against him on the couch.
“The hell you don’t,” Alex snapped, his temper flaring. “You’ve bonded him to you. Worse, you’ve started the Bride-claiming without even asking his bloody permission.”
“I was going to. Later,” Damian murmured. “Leave me alone, Alex. It isn’t your business.”
“Anything that affects Dageus is my business, and his best friend being wed to his father is going to affect him big-time.” Alex crossed his arms across his chest and blew a stray strand of pale blond hair out of his face.
“Don’t say anything yet. I need to talk to Allasandro first, and I don’t want to upset Kal.” Damian shuddered as his lover lapped at the wound which was rapidly closing. He whined, and Damian brought the knife back up to widen the wound. His lover settled back immediately.
“The time for keeping secrets has passed, Damian,” Alex said harshly. “You’re not a gypsy prince able to kidnap and claim a person at will anymore. This is not the sixteen hundreds.”
“I’ve never stopped being a Roma, and I really don’t have to answer to you.” Damian growled, careful not to dislodge the still-passed out Allasandro.
“I am Master of this city, this is my home, and Allasandro is my house guest. You sure as fuck have to answer to me.”
“I don’t have to do anything. If you have a problem with what I’m doing, I can take Allasandro to New York and you and your city can get fucked,” Damian threatened.
“He’ll never trust you again if you take him away from his duty, Damian. He’s not a human. The Ravyns are a part of him.”
“I’ll fill the empty spaces inside him. I’ll jess him like a falcon until he learns to love me like I—” Damian’s thoughts ground to a halt.
“Like you love him?” Alex finished for him. “Damn it, Damian. When are you going to learn that the harder you hold on to something, the more it wants to be free? You’ve got to give him some choices.”
“Choices like I gave Kal? Choices that let him leave?” Damian all but shouted at him. Ally groaned in his sleep, and Damian carefully extricated himself from the sleeping man and stood.
“You gave Kal no choice, which was why he left!” Alex snapped back.
“No, I gave him too much freedom, and so he found something else.” Damian crashed his fist into a nearby bookshelf, causing the wood to buckle under his punch.
“He was growing up, Damian. He was an adult when he came into my bed, and damn it all, he’s your son, and you should’ve been happy for him!”
“I was going to relent. I was planning on it. I just had to get used to the idea of you and him. I just needed a little time, but noooo, you insisted that he come to you anyway, and then he got taken away from both of us! I won’t have it. I won’t let anyone take Allasandro away from me, because he’s mine, dammit!” Damian’s eyes were flush with tears, and they trickled in little rivers out of the corners of his eyes and fell to his cheeks. Alex’s eyes filled with sympathy, and he reached out a hand, only to have it slapped away.
“Don’t look at me like that. Don’t look like you want to make it better. You should’ve been thinking like my brother instead of with your cock. You should’ve talked to me. Something. Anything. Instead, you make this declaration like I just have to get over it. Well, guess what, Ally isn’t yours, he’s never been yours, and he’ll never be yours, so whatever claim you seem to think you have, back the fuck off. He’s mine forever now, and I will be responsible for him.”
“You never told me you blamed me.” Alex whispered the words. His eyes stared blankly at the floor.
“Are you listening to me? I’m not giving him up.”
“Of course you blamed me.” Alex seemed to be talking to himself. “You’ve blamed me this whole time. That’s why you stayed gone on business trips and never spoke more than a handful of sentences to me. I thought you were just grieving. Of course you blamed me.”
“Alex,” Damian repeated in irritation. He wiped his cheeks with the back of his hand. “That’s irrelevant. Kal’s home now. We’re talking about Allasandro.”
“I can’t believe you blamed me,” Alex repeated dumbly. Dam
ian felt like shaking him. His gaze flickered to the slumbering Allasandro. “I’ll give you time to talk to him because I took the chance from you before, but I don’t know how long I’ll have. Kal is not going to keep quiet long, and he knows.”
Damian felt acute relief. “Thank you, brother.”
“I’m doing this because I owe you. I’m doing this because I love you. I don’t want something else to keep us apart for another six years. You deal with it your way for now. But so help me, Damian, don’t fuck this up. It’ll be my head on the chopping block with the Ravyns if you do.” Alex disappeared before Damian could formulate a reply. No doubt he had returned to Dageus’s side wherever he was.
Damian knelt beside the couch and kissed Ally’s soft lips. “Don’t worry, my naughty boy. I’ll make everything right. I promise.”
* * * *
Allasandro woke rested even if he was a little sore. He didn’t remember what he’d been dreaming, but it was pleasant if his erection was any indication. He moaned softly as strong hands gripped his length, but he refused to open his eyes. He pushed his ass back against the hard body behind him, his hips coming up to give those seeking hands better access.
“Come on, naughty boy. I know you’re awake,” an oh-so-familiar British accent all but purred.
“Hmmm…not yet. I’m so comfy.” Allasandro inhaled the crisp clean scent that was all Damian from the sheets his cheek rested on. He felt Damian’s need echoing through his mind but felt like teasing. “You hungry, my gypsy man?” Damian’s growl answered him. He tried to roll over but felt Damian’s hand on his back, staying his motions.
“Stay there. Right there. Let me…” The sheets were peeled away from his back and hips. He was nude underneath. Cool liquid dribbled down his crease. Lube.
“Where are we?” Ally murmured as hot hands spread his ass cheeks, exposing the hidden star found there.
“Somewhere safe,” Damian murmured an instant before he sank his hard cock into Ally’s unprepared passage. The Ravyn cried out in pleasure and pain.
“Damian…” He groaned the vampire’s name as his thick length shuttled its way in and out of his body. He was going to be so sore tomorrow, but it was so good. At least the lube was helping.
“Mine,” Damian growled. His voice was a deep rumble of masculine approval. The hair on the back of Allasandro’s head was pulled tight, angling his throat up and bending his back in a deep curve. His cock dragged against the soft cotton sheets, adding another fission of pleasurable sensation to the moment. Allasandro’s mind wrapped around them both like a blanket.
“Bite me,” Ally panted. “Please, bite me. Damian…” Damian’s fangs slid into the flesh of his throat easily, and Ally somehow knew that it was deeper than it had ever been before. His body convulsed in orgasm without any more stimulation than that, contracting around his lover hard.
Need you, Damian groaned mind to mind. Need you so bad, Allasandro. Please, don’t leave me, my naughty boy.
Never, Ally promised. Never. Ever. Ever.
Damian’s hips snapped harder, stroking Ally’s prostate with every lunge. He writhed helplessly on the end of the vampire’s dick as his body tried to recover so quickly after the orgasm he had just experienced.
The vampire pulled away from the bite on Allasandro’s neck so that he could have more room to maneuver his body as it glided in and out of his lover. Damian released his hair but put one arm around his chest to hold it in place while the other gripped his hip to move it in counter motion to his thrusting hips. Ally’s golden eyes stared at his hands which were twisted in the sheets by his side. He’d never experienced pleasure like this before.
“I’ve caught you now, naughty boy.” Damian’s guttural voice growled in his ear, causing him to shiver. He was playing the conqueror gypsy again. It was a game they’d both thoroughly enjoyed since his storytelling the week before.
“Let me go.” Ally played along, even if he wasn’t very good at acting the part. His voice was high and needy with a healthy dose of breathless as to be completely unconvincing.
“You’re going to stay in my caravan ’til you don’t want to leave. You’re going to be my lover.” Damian slowed his thrusts down to a teasing rhythm. The slow push and withdrawal had his toes curling. Ally admired his control because he was going freaking nuts.
“You’ll be sorry,” Ally promised, even as his hips pushed back into Damian, demanding a harder pace.
“Will I, naughty boy? Hasn’t anyone ever told you not to dare a gypsy?” Damian gave one hard thrust that had Ally crying out in pleasure. Yes! He wanted it harder. Just like that.
“I’m sorry!” Ally shouted as Damian slowed down again. His thrusts were shallow and soft. “Please fuck me harder. Please, Damian…” Their minds were now so deeply entwined that Ally really wasn’t sure where he left off and Damian began.
“Promise to be mine forever. Promise to honor and cherish me. Wed me in the Roma way.”
“Yes. Yes. Please. Just go faster,” Ally whined. Damian growled and then began to move.
The sound of flesh smacking flesh filled the room, the force of Damian’s lunges hard enough to take Ally’s breath away.
“Just like that. Just like that. Love it when you do that. Love being fucked by you. Gods, I love you, Damian. Love when you do this. Love you forever.” The words bubbled up out of Ally’s throat before he could process them. They seemed to incite Damian more. The rhythm became erratic. It was no longer measured and sure but needy and desperate.
One last hard thrust sent them both over the edge of the cliff, and they tumbled together, crying out in ecstasy as they fell.
* * * *
Long, long minutes later, after they’d regained their breath, Damian worked up the energy to roll off his lover. Ally sighed in contentment into the pillow he was resting on.
“Wow,” he said, extending his arms over his head and rolling to his back. “That was intense.” Damian nodded his agreement. Ally spent the next few seconds stretching his now-liquid muscles but winced when it tugged on the wound on his chest. Wait…wound? He glanced down at the faint angry red mark that still maintained the shape of claws. Memory flooded back to him and he sat up.
“Oh shit,” he cursed. He turned to Damian. “What the hell was that all about? Gods. Are my brothers okay? Dammit, Damian.” He rolled off the bed to his feet only to sway in dizziness once he got there. Damian was instantly there, steadying him.
“Easy, darling. You’re still a bit weak.” Damian’s voice was uncharacteristically soft. “The other Ravyns are fine. They’re at Alex’s home and are awaiting your arrival as we speak.”
Ally relaxed a fraction of an inch. “So they’re okay?” Damian nodded again indulgently. Ally sighed. “Gods, I can’t believe I did that. What was wrong? Dageus knew something was up, but he wouldn’t tell me. Am I sick or something? Allergic to vampire bites maybe?” He pondered his own question. “Is it possible to be allergic to a vampire bite?”
Damian couldn’t help but chuckle. “I suppose it is possible.” He paused. “But that is not why you felt weak.” He seemed to be searching for the right words. They must’ve eluded him because he remained silent.
“So you know why, too?” Ally asked. He frowned. “It’s a vampire thing, right? Dageus acted weak and couldn’t fight well when Alex claimed him as a…” He trailed off. A possibility chased itself through his mind that he didn’t want to utter. It would change everything. “Damian, tell me you didn’t,” he whispered.
“I’m sorry,” Damian replied. He reached out and took Allasandro’s hands in his own, but the Ravyn pulled back.
“Tell me you didn’t do that without my permission. Tell me you didn’t bind us in a really permanent way.” Ally trembled at the implications.
“It wasn’t intentional…not at first. I thought, well, you said you loved me a minute ago. Doesn’t that mean something?”
“A sentiment of ‘I love you’ in the middle of an orgasm does not constitu
te or excuse you doing what you did,” Ally snapped. He wanted clothes. Naked, he felt too vulnerable to the giant vampire who he’d been calling his boyfriend for the past few weeks now.
“Say it,” the vampire encouraged softly. An edge of bitterness was creeping into his tone. The rejection the Ravyn could offer would make them both miserable. “Say it. Say what I did.”
“You made me your friggin’ Bride!” Ally turned his back to Damian, trying to gather his thoughts. “Dammit, Damian, I trusted you.”
“So trust me now. I can make you happy, Allasandro. I promise. I will do whatever I can within my power to do so. I can’t undo what I’ve done. I’m sorry, but I want to make this work between us. It’s special, and I know that if you give us a chance—”
“Where are my clothes?”
“Allasandro, be reasonable.”
“Where are my fucking clothes?”
Damian sighed in exasperation and motioned to the small wardrobe on the opposite wall from the bed. The Ravyn stalked over and yanked it open.
“I never expected to care as much as I do about you, Allasandro.”
“Ally,” the Ravyn growled. Damian blinked.
“What?”
“My name. I shorten it. Allasandro is a ridiculous name to say because it’s antiqued as shit. It’s Ally or Ally-cat or any variation thereof. Not Allasandro.”
“But I like Allasandro,” Damian murmured. “What is the big deal about using your full name?”
“The only one who calls me Allasandro is my Prince upon occasion, and I indulge him because he could be my daddy seventy times over. To you and everyone else who I’m officially not sleeping with, it’s Ally,” Ally demanded, yanking his orange shirt over his head and grabbing his blue jeans which hung beside the empty hanger that had held his shirt.
“So that’s it? We’re breaking up?” Damian’s heart fell into his stomach. The organ seemed to be doing somersaults in his gut. Ally slammed the wardrobe door shut.