Lust By Blood: A M/M Historical Romance (Vicious Vampires Book 3)
Page 6
Nicholas shrugged. “Yesterday, I think. I was going to mention it, but…”
“But you fell asleep atop your paperwork.” Ignatius had had to coax him from the desk to the bed, and tidy up after him even as the sunlight filtering below the curtains had made his own eyes ache. “I’m… not certain we can get someone on such a short notice. In fact, I’m quite certain you may have to–” He stopped, again. A new idea. “Ah. A temporary solution, then.”
“What?”
Ignatius reached for his sleeve, and watched Nicholas as he first recognized the intention, and then grinned because of it.
“You’re propositioning me?”
He dropped a cuff link. “No. Merely– it’s a terrible solution, but if only to take the edge off for the soirée tonight–”
The prince laughed, shoulder nudging against his. “Calm down, Iggy, I’m only teasing. Have you been bitten before? Ah, while you’ve been a vampire, I mean.”
Ignatius shook his head, and Nicholas continued.
“It feels… weird. Prompto and I wanted to see what it was like, once. It only helps the thirst a little.” Still, he took Ignatius’s offered wrist, staggering again as he stepped forward. “Gods, I’m tired.”
“This will help enough,” Ignatius said sternly. “But we are on a schedule, Highness. Let this not be another last-minute sprint to the ballroom.” He wiggled his wrist. “I’m afraid the king would have my fangs this time. Yours as well.”
“Mm, no, Gladio’s dad would, though. And Cor.” He heaved a sigh against Ignatius’s wrist. “Time to
face the music, I suppose.”
“Time to face it indeed,” Ignatius said, and failed to flinch when Nick bit into his wrist.
10
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
two years later
“Gods damn it!”
“Nick,” he complained. He had been sleeping so well, and he had the vague impression that the sun was still out nonwithstanding. Nicholas shouldn’t even be awake.
“Shit– Iggy, I didn’t intend to wake you… uh.”
“Why are you awake?” he asked, forcing himself up. It wasn’t until Nick turned around to face him that he noticed the problem– namely, the fact that the prince seemed to have overturned the entire pot of ink to his clothes. “… you were working?”
“Is it that surprising?”
“It’s daylight.”
“I’m behind. You keep reminding me.”
“I didn’t intend it to be declaration of afternoon intent.” Ignatius, already on his feet, stopped next to the prince to reach for the hem of his nightshirt. “Let’s see if we can salvage this–” He pulled it up and over his head, only pausing when Nick caught his wrist to stop him before he could turn away.
“Eh, forget it. I’m done.” He took the shirt, dropping it back onto the desk. “Let’s go back to bed.” Another mournful glance at the mess, and Ignatius allowed Nick to pull him back to the four-poster.
“I apologize if I’ve seemed standoffish about the paperwork,” he said eventually, once he had settled back into bed and tucked Nick back against his side. “Merely, the stress–”
“Specs, you’ve been nagging me for two years now. I’m used to it.” He frowned.
“It’s not a fault, Ignatius.” He nuzzled against Ignatius’s shoulder. “You know I wouldn’t get anything done without you. You’re… efficient. I’m just always tired.”
“I’m not certain I enjoy the term ‘nagging,’ that asides.” Even if he knew there was no other apt term. That was just who he was, he supposed. “Couldn’t you describe it a little more kindly?”
“And you know I wouldn’t have fallen in love with you if you were any other way, right? Friendly, pointed reminders to eat my vegetables notwithstanding.”
“A balanced diet–”
“– is barely necessary for a vampire, anyway! I cannot imagine what you ate when you were human.”
“Consumables that humans find necessary to live a healthy life.”
“Vegetables,” Nick groaned, and Ignatius finally laughed as he pulled him in closer to his side.
“Yes, Nick. I even kiss you with a mouth that enjoys preparing and consuming beans,” he teased, and stifled Nicholas’s groan with his own mouth.
“Leave the beans out of this…”
“Butter beans… some ham… it was much more inviting when I was human, but I still enjoy the taste nowadays.”
“I am going to bite you if you don’t stop.”
“Stop…” He pulled back. “… kissing you? If His Highness insists–”
“Get back here,” Nick complained, and grabbed a fistful of his hair to pull his mouth back to his.
“His Highness is very fickle,” he laughed warmly, and relaxed back into the press of his body.
It was still relatively new, all of this. Just as it had taken longer than he’d anticipated to adjust to life in Insomnia, it had taken… a while for whatever he and Nicholas had been to become what they were now. Master and servant to… equals, Nicholas liked to flaunt, although Ignatius wouldn’t quite allow himself to believe that. Courting, as it were.
He wondered if his own hesitance had been borne more of the fact that it was Nick who had been pursuing him… or the fact that falling in love with him had felt like a slight to Lucian.
The former hadn’t mattered, because Nick was Nick and not only did the prince get what he wanted, it was also… incredibly difficult to not love him. He was kind and caring, human in ways that Ignatius hadn’t even thought he’d been himself. And so he had fallen in love with him, too.
The latter was more difficult. It had been two years since he and Nick had met, and it had been even longer since Ignatius had left Holstein. In those many months, he hadn’t heard from either Allissa or Lucian, and– after a few, hesitant attempts to contact either of them– his communication went unanswered. He had heard that the royal family in Holstein were fine, but asides that, information was lacking.
Somehow, he thought it was more than that. Something to do with his turning. Something he wasn’t meant to be told, something that House Florence wouldn’t admit to anyone to avoid being seen as… weak, perhaps. Ignatius could only guess.
He could only guess where Lucian was, what he was doing, if he was safe. If, perhaps, he still loved him, or even approved of his relationship with Nicholas. Guesswork. So much guesswork. Even Nicholas hadn’t been able to answer his questions, loathe as he had been to ask once.
Still. Lucian had always been accepting of him and his choices. He had always wished for his happiness in such a way that Ignatius had always wished for Lucian’s as well– and still did– and so, just perhaps… Lucian would have been happy to see him happy.
He couldn’t know, of course. It was constant nagging guilt on the best days, even now, and a wave crashing over him on the worst. The days where he would be kept awake by his own thoughts, tongue pressed against the underside of his fangs, where Nick would lead the conversation and tell him in any possible way that this wasn’t his fault.
It helped. A little. He supposed.
He was happy with Nicholas. Complicated pasts aside, that was one thing that would remain to be constant from now on.
He still did intend to find out what had happened after his subsequent departure from Holstein, to find out what had become of his former master and lover. One day, he would. Nick had said he’d help him figure it out, and Ignatius had been more touched than he had been able to express.
His dwelling wasn’t fair to Nick, either. He loved him more than he’d thought himself capable, since turning, and that was irrefutable.
“I am not fickle,” Nicholas complained, and Ignatius gasped as teeth dragged at his lower lip.
“Shall we count the ways?” he murmured.
“No.” Nick drew out the word miserably, and then pulled away. “Like I have time for that. I want to go to sleep.”
Ig
natius laughed, slipping his fingers into Nick’s hair. “Right. For awhile longer, then.” “Mhmmm.”
Nicholas shifted to get comfortable, limbs flailing, sprawling across the bed and Ignatius as he was wont to do during the daylight. His skin was cold. Ignatius settled his palm over his chest, and fished to pull the blankets up with the other, moving to accommodate in every way he could.
Nick hummed and tucked his face into Ignatius’s neck. The faint flicker of anticipation of feedings long past, and then Ignatius dismissed the thought, dropping a kiss into the prince’s hair.
“Good dreams, Nick.”
“Yeah, love you.”
“And I you,” Ignatius said quietly, content, and settled in once again.
Also by Vivienne Cox
Sickened By Blood
‘A man had appeared at the top. A mammoth of a man who had several inches on Johnathan in height as well as through his shoulders. The unknown man was possessed of a wide brow, hazel eyes and brunette hair tied back off a pale face of aristocratic features which contained more than just a touch of cruelty and hardness. A man whose face Johnathan had seen before. But not in person.
But Johnathan had seen it.’
***
Lord Johnathan Fisher is a vicious and depraved vampire from an illustrious line. The idea of a lifemate never entered his mind in his long life of decadence.
His world is upended when he wakes up in the bed of beautiful and imposing Erik, the Duke of Williamson who wakes up a breathless devotion that quickly overcomes him.