His watch was broken, and he wondered where Alex was. And how much longer he could hold out. This wasn’t a soccer match with a timed ending.
“I saw you drop that button. Thought you were leaving a trail, didn’cha?” said the man called Derek. His voice and his hands were cruel. “Well, I tossed it down a different turn in the road.”
Hanging by a thin thread onto what little awareness he had, Dante laughed at their stupidity. It came out as a whoosh of air.
Pierre laughed. “You might as well play nice and talk to us. Your blond fuck buddy isn’t coming. We stripped his room and know he doesn’t have them, and we will have what we want.”
Nick his fuck buddy? Oh, that was beyond funny. Dante’s groan sounded rough and weak to him.
“Derek here can be cruel.”
Cruel? You don’t know cruel.
Derek was going to kick him again. He wanted to curl up in the fetal position, but that would expose the necklace to the damaging blow. Oh, God, Alex…hurry.
As if summoned, the door flew open and exploded against the wall. Alexandros, dressed all in black, his long hair tied back with a leather strip, leaped in, his knife drawn, eyes blood red now. He crouched in a fighting stance as he took in the scene.
Confronted by this dark avenging vampire, terror spread across Pierre’s face, and Dante felt no remorse for what he knew was to come. It served him right.
Dante managed a crooked smile. He croaked, “You wanted cruel? You got it. That’s my fuck buddy, guys, and he owns the night.”
Malcolm slid in around Alex, just as Derek drew a gun. One kick from Malcolm and the gun flew out of the ruffian’s hand so hard it slammed into and through the wall.
Thrown off balance, Derek scrambled to recover. With one swift stroke, Malcolm used his great strength to slit the netting around Dante.
Nick rushed in to free Dante and help him stand.
“Gotta get out of here,” Dante said to Nick, wanting to protect him from the horror he knew would follow.
In a movement so fast Pierre couldn’t have saved himself, Alex thrust his knife under the masked man’s ribcage and up to pierce his heart. Then he turned the knife around and around like a screwdriver, shredding the beating muscle as blood poured over his knife and hand.
Dante saw Nick’s eyes widen with shock as the man died.
Malcolm slit Derek’s throat and let him drop to the floor like discarded flotsam. He turned away.
“Sorry. I tried to get you out of here,” Dante murmured to Nick.
Alex was licking the blood from his hand and knife when he turned and saw Derek’s bleeding throat. He growled as his fangs shot out, and he knelt, bending over to drink.
“No.” Malcolm, keeping his face angled away from what Dante knew was temptation for him, too, clamped his cold hands on Alex’s shoulders. “No, my friend. This is no longer you.”
A warning growl rumbled from deep in the back of Alex’s throat.
Dante knew he would drink blood, and no one was going to stop him.
Malcolm’s voice remained firm and steady as he continued to grip Alex. “He’s a filthy thing. He could be sick.”
Dante couldn’t remain quiet. “Don’t, my love,” he pleaded through his puffy lips. “My ring. We need to find my ring.”
Alex stood and whirled around to face him, his eyes glazed over with the need to feast on the fresh, ruby-red blood rapidly darkening in the open air.
“Don’t move. Must not move.” Dante swayed as Nick supported him. He felt fine tremors of fear in Nick’s body because they matched his own. “He could attack at any minute and rip us to shreds.”
“Holy Mother of Jesus,” Nick said under his breath. He didn’t run though.
Dante knew his blood sang a siren’s call to this vampire he’d not only fucked but bared his neck to. He saw the bloodlust in his vamp’s face; sensed the rigidity of a being coiled to spring and sink its fangs into them.
Alex stared like a zombie, without seeing. Then he tipped his head to one side with a puzzled look, as if figuring out who this was in front of him.
Dante sucked in a silent breath when he saw the change.
“Come, Alex.” Dante waited, his heart booming as loud as a bass drum in his chest and ears.
Slowly, the red faded from Alex’s eyes. His bloodied fangs retracted. He shook his head and ran a hand over his eyes. When he glanced around, his gaze was that of someone who could see clearly.
“It’s okay,” Dante said to Nick. Malcolm slipped forward to draw Nick away as Dante held out his hand to the bloodied creature before him. “Damn it, Alexandros, I thought you’d never get here.”
A more human Alex reached him and enclosed him in his arms, holding him steady as Dante’s knees buckled. He withdrew Dante’s ring from his pocket. “You knew your blood would draw me.”
Dante nodded, his throat too thick with emotion to speak.
Alex bent his head and brushed a butterfly kiss over Dante’s swollen lips while Malcolm pulled out his cell and dialed.
“This is Malcolm Müeller.” He paused and listened. “Yes, well, Mister Nicolaides is occupied at the present time. We have a cleanup and disposal for you. Perhaps you could arrange this even though your leader isn’t around? He would be very upset if he thought you didn’t authorize this for us.” He gave them the address and slammed the cover of his phone shut.
“Jerk, giving me the runaround,” he said. “Finally admitted they have living dead in the neighborhood. Said the doge wasn’t available, but I bet he just didn’t want to connect me to him. Probably one of the vamps who resented us.”
“We will owe lo Greco now.”
“That we will, but it couldn’t be helped. We need to get out of here. Let’s fly!”
“Not over water, please,” Alex said.
Malcolm laughed, relieving some of the tension in the room. “Definitely not over water.” He planted a noisy kiss on Nick’s mouth and drew him onto his back.
Alex picked Dante up and carried him in his arms all the way.
“What was that about water?”
Alex told him.
“Oh, Lord, I swore at you; berated you for being so late to rescue me. Forgive me?”
“You berated me? I must have been in fighting mode and didn’t hear you.”
§§§§
The homeless man was staring wide-eyed from his blankets when they landed. He scrambled up, but at one look from Alex, the scream he was about to make died in his mouth.
“Not again! What are the odds of that?” Nick said to Dante after Alex had set him down. “I guess we’ll leave him to Malcolm.”
Malcolm took over, and Alex entered the hotel lobby. Nick and Dante went in together. By the time the elevator had reached their floor, Malcolm was there.
“Flew up again,” was all the explanation he gave for being there so fast. He shook his head. “We need to get that man some help.”
Congregating in Alex’s familiar suite, they agreed to make themselves presentable and, at last, deliver their package to the buyer.
Nick spoke up. “Then Dante and I need to eat. Although I think he’ll only be able to manage minestrone and soggy bread dipped in it.”
“It’s a deal.” Malcolm took Nick’s hand. “You’re coming with me to my suite. Bring your carry-on.”
After they’d left, Alex led Dante into the huge bathroom and gently began to undress him. He kissed and licked his cuts and bruises, leaving a trail of his healing saliva on all of them. Dante sat on the commode to let the healing begin its work.
Alex unzipped the belt and gently removed the necklace. Using his loupe, he inspected it for damage.
“I tried to protect it when they were beating me. Wanted to curl into a ball, but it would have been exposed to their kicks.”
Alex’s face softened at the reminder of what he’d endured. “It’s perfect. You did the right thing. It bruised your body, but came through undamaged.”
Dante stood, and Alex
turned on the shower and adjusted the temperature. He cleaned Dante’s ring in the rushing water, then restored it to his right hand and pressed his lips to it.
Dante said, “I was so afraid after I dropped it that someone would see it and steal it. You’d never have found me then.”
Alex wrapped his arms around him, lifted his chin with one finger and inhaled long and slow at Dante’s throat over his carotid artery. “Always, I would find you.”
Dante stepped in, wincing as the water hit some of the areas of broken skin that hadn’t quite healed. Dumping shampoo in his palms, he soaked his hair with it. There was a rustle outside the glass door. The smile spreading across his face was because he knew who it was and what would happen. He waited and felt a presence step in behind him. Cool, strong hands took over, spreading the foam all through his hair and massaging his scalp with a sure, firm touch.
“Hmm. That feels wonderful.”
Dante rinsed his head under the warm water, smoothing his hair back and clearing away the drops on his face with his hands. Alex’s bigger hands, slick with soap now, roamed over his shoulders and down his arms, fingers digging into his palms to loosen his hands, then sliding between each finger. Alex moved closer, his cock a rod as strong as any diamond against Dante’s butt. Dante stood very still and absorbed every movement, every touch of this kind of loving. He’d been terrified and injured, but Alex had come. Alex was here. All was right with his world.
Alex’s hands were no longer soapy as he kneaded Dante’s butt cheeks with the powerful heels and palms of his hands. Dante closed his eyes as they glided over his hips to squeeze his tight love handles and settled in to caress and cup his sac as his thumbs stroked the base of Dante’s ready erection. He kissed Dante’s shoulder and licked, as he murmured against his warm skin, “Here’s something else that’s wonderful.”
“Oh, Alex, you know I want this. Always want it. But the high of seeing you storm through that door as it crashed against the wall is fading. If we do this, I’m not sure I’ll be able to stand up to deliver that necklace.”
Alex’s voice was muffled against his shoulder. “Really? You think we should postpone this until later?”
Dante didn’t answer, and Alex didn’t stop. Didn’t step back. Instead, he cradled Dante’s full and straining cock in his hand and began to tug out and back. When a small groan escaped from Dante’s throat, Alex turned him, grabbed Dante’s hand and wrapped it around his cock.
“How did you think I felt knowing you’d been abducted and I might drown, unable to save you? Maybe you’re too tired, but I need this. Need to reach the only high that will release the tension I feel from the fear, the kill. From finding you alive.”
His kiss was hard and demanding. Dante returned it in kind as they reached for each other, pumping until their cocks jumped, pushed and leaked in each other’s hands.
Afterward, Alex washed the cum from his hand and Dante’s dick, then turned the water off. He laid his hand on Dante’s chest. “I love to feel your heart beating. Love feeling the heat. The life.”
As Dante’s leaping heart slowed and his rapid breathing quieted, Alex asked, “Okay now?”
Dante laughed, and it felt wonderful. “You’re incorrigible, Nicolaides. You knew I would.”
“Good. Let’s go deliver those gems.”
§§§§
Marco threw his phone across the room in a fury; the sound of it as it crashed and its pieces smacked onto the stone floor filled him with satisfaction. Neither Derek nor Pierre was answering, and they should have long before this. He’d sent a man to the apartment where they were to have interrogated their captive, and he returned with the news it was empty. Empty, spotless, and smelling as if it had been scrubbed down in preparation for a new owner.
Marco didn’t know if his men had changed their plans or killed the man and escaped with the necklace themselves. If they’d robbed him, they were already dead men. No one stole from someone as important and powerful as Marco Bugiardini.
Chapter Ten
They entered the buyer’s palazzo in good spirits, no longer worried about the safety of their small parade. Dante chatted easily with Alex, and Nick and Malcolm were close together, enjoying their newfound friendship.
A butler dressed in a dark suit and snowy white shirt opened the door. Dante spoke to him in Italian, and they were waved inside. Dante entered first, with the other three behind him. The servant accepted their jackets and handed them off to a woman dressed in a dark dress with a wide white collar and sensible black shoes.
Nick couldn’t understand the butler’s Italian, but from his gesture, he figured he’d asked them to follow him. Nick marveled at the interior of the huge old mansion. His taste ran to plainer things, but he could admire the silk oriental rugs and velvet chairs, the ornate gold frames and original paintings. Alex, in particular, seemed knowledgeable and interested in his surroundings.
“Antiques buff. You should see his house,” Malcolm said in a soft voice.
They were shown into a room with floor-to-ceiling wooden shelves filled with books. Nick recognized the bronze bust in a niche as Julius Caesar. Other small sculptures were scattered about, some quite erotic. The richly carved round table and chairs in the center of the room were walnut.
Dante was introduced to and shook hands with Luciano Rizzo, the buyer, a man dressed in expensive slacks and a shirt of soft brown silk. In turn, Dante presented those in his party, and the men shook hands.
The handshakes continued as the second man, dressed in a well-cut suit and tie, was introduced as Carlo Moretti.
Malcolm spoke softly in Nick’s ear. “That will be the other gemologist. He’ll inspect the item to be sure it’s as described. Those are auction photos and the catalog description on the table.”
Oh, man, Nick thought. I hope this guy doesn’t reject it and Dante doesn’t have to take it under guard all the way back to New Orleans.
They were invited to sit at the table, and the butler arrived with a cart containing a silver tea and coffee service, a bottle of red wine with cordials, and a plate of small cookies.
Nick was hungry enough to polish off the entire plate of cookies, but restrained himself to two and a cordial of wine. Dante drank coffee with cream and sugar. Out of the corner of his eye, Nick noticed the vamps accepting only the cookies, knowing they would soon be slipped into their pockets uneaten.
Their refreshments finished, the butler cleared away its remnants.
Moretti laid a pure white cloth on the table, then snapped his fingers, and the butler set a small microscope beside it.
Dante drew a maroon velvet box from the small pouch he carried and laid it on the table. For a moment, it was as if all breath was suspended and time stood still with anticipation.
He removed the necklace and laid it out. The beautifully designed piece of delicate chains and ropes of gold set with emeralds and diamonds sparkled and gleamed under the lights. Oohs and aahs filled the room.
Moretti withdrew a loupe from his coat pocket and prepared to view the piece. Alex joined him, his own small magnifying device in hand.
Malcolm explained Alex was there on Christie’s behalf to refute any false complaints the other gem specialist might make.
Rizzo’s eyes danced with what Nick hoped was such eagerness to have this prize that he wouldn’t be quick to refuse the purchase. He thought again of how terrible it would be if they had to be responsible for it all the way back home.
The inspection took less time than Nick had anticipated. Soon Moretti nodded his approval with a wide smile and a nod at Alex. They all shook hands again, then were escorted from the mansion.
Outdoors, Dante rubbed his neck and said, “Thank heavens, that’s over.” Alex massaged his shoulders.
Without speaking, they joined hands and did a little circle dance. Malcolm handed the phone to Dante, and he called their CEO to report the purchase’s delivery was a done deal.
Laughing and talking, they invaded a family r
estaurant near closing time and ordered family style. He and Dante were the ones who wolfed it all down. As they’d entered, he’d glimpsed a figure in the shadows watching them. The only impression he had before the figure moved deeper into the shadows was of a handsome man with a scar on his face. This reminded him of something he’d forgotten to tell Malcolm.
Leaning over to Malcolm, who sat beside him, he said, “He was like you.”
“Who?”
“That Moretti guy.”
“He was gay?”
“No, no. Vampire.”
Malcolm smiled as he squeezed his thigh under the table. “You’re sure it wasn’t someone costumed as Lestat?”
“No—” Then he caught the quip and laughed.
“Let us in on the joke, too,” Dante pleaded.
Before they could, the check arrived, and Alex paid it. Once more they were out in the cool, cloaking night, where the salty scent rose from the sea lapping in the canals, and lights winked in windows, and street lamps’ glow danced on the black water. The vampires risked an arm about the shoulders of their human lovers, and Nick and Dante each slid an arm around the waist of his vampire.
As they crossed onto a deserted, unusually dark street, Nick felt his nerves jostle. He’d forgotten to mention the figure he’d seen outside the restaurant.
“Danger,” Alex said, as he dropped Dante’s hand and moved in front of him.
Malcolm did the same, protecting Nick’s body with his own.
When a figure left the shadows and confronted them with a revolver pointed straight at Malcolm’s chest, Nick almost shit his pants. His mouth was so dry he couldn’t even cry out.
“You bastards. You delivered the gems, but what have you done with my men?”
“Crap. How fucking stupid we are,” Alex said under his breath.
“Too caught up in bloodlust to consider they might have a boss,” Malcolm said through a tight throat.
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