Cantrips: Volume #1: Minor Magics Crafted to Amuse and Entertain

by Joey W. Hill

  Unless he was pale and tired and not into picking Gideon’s brain at the moment, which appeared to be the case. So he needed to take the reprieve and banish this stuff from his head. Act like he was just hanging out with a fellow vampire hunter, as he’d done in years past. That was all this was.

  “You wouldn’t have been so surprised if you’d been there when Lady Lyssa asked me if I thought her incapable of protecting a fledgling,” Daegan said dryly.

  Gideon winced. “Let me guess. The cold-as-death voice, and the I-could-laser-off-your-testicles-with-a-look gaze?”

  Daegan tapped his bottle against the neck of Gideon’s. “Yes. Besides being rather un-manfully intimidated, I was quite reassured about Anwyn’s well-being in her care.”

  Gideon chuckled. “That is one scary bitch. And I mean that in the most respectful way.”

  “I still wouldn’t suggest using the term around her, or Jacob.”

  “I can handle Jacob. Big pussy.”

  Daegan gave him an amused glance. “I notice you didn’t say anything about handling Lyssa.” He sobered then. “In truth, I realized we are both being overprotective and Anwyn needs to have a sense of freedom to continue to gain confidence.”

  “Yeah, but it still sucks. She’s close enough to tune into our heads. She could at least send a mental postcard. ‘Wish you were here so I could torture you with endless hours of shopping and girl talk.’”

  “If she did that, she’d already know about her coffee table and bowl.”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  He missed her, had gotten used to being her shadow. It was pathetic. He was a vampire hunter who was now a vampire’s servant, two vampires’ servant. But truth, he didn’t like being away from either one of them. It never felt right. So he had to admit it felt better, at least having Daegan here.

  Feeling the vampire’s gaze on him, Gideon became interested in the DVD remote, futzing with the buttons.

  “Tell me about this show,” the vampire said at length, “so I can catch up.”

  Relieved to do so, not wanting to think about what Daegan was thinking during that pause, Gideon spent the next few moments explaining the basic premise, and they settled into a companionable silence to watch.

  He’d only left on the kitchen light, so it made the couch area dim. After a time, he noted that vampires apparently were not immune to the narcotic effect of a TV’s glow in semi-darkness. Daegan’s eyes were closed, his hand loose on the beer he’d given him, and he’d only drunk a couple swallows. Leaning over him, knowing that Daegan would go on battle alert at unexpected movement, Gideon murmured, “Just moving this next to you until you’re ready for it.”

  Daegan made an amenable noise and Gideon drew it from his hand, putting it on the side table. He had to curve over Daegan to do it, and his fingers brushed the other male’s as he took the bottle away. Looking down at him, Gideon had a sudden impulse, one he almost followed. What if he brushed those dark strands of hair over his forehead, an easy caress, combing the damp hair aside? He could almost see himself doing it, but hell, what kind of can of worms would that open?

  He sat his ass back down on the other end of the couch. After taking off his boots and propping his socked feet on the table.

  It was the damnedest thing, the way he was about this guy, because no other guy turned his crank like that. Yet other than Anwyn, no woman had ever successfully pulled the Mistress routine on him, either. With her, he craved it. They’d taught him not to agonize over the why so much, just to accept it was what he was with them. But there were times when something unexpected happened, where it came back full force, putting jagged glass in his gut.

  Daegan had propped one bare foot on the table, his other folded under him, pulling off a male warrior’s sensual grace with ease. The two buttons allowed a lot of visual, the smooth terrain of chest and abdomen, the sleeves stretched over the well-defined shoulders. It was unusual not to see him in his tank and cotton drawstring gi pants, his usual pre-dawn attire. It was the outfit he wore to work out, which he did every single day, even if he’d just come back from a hell of a fight, like now. Gideon understood the routine. A soldier always did everything he could to prepare himself for his enemies, never letting himself get slack.

  Daegan was more conscientious about that than most, and these days he was hyperaware of how much Anwyn needed his protection. He had a family now. Gideon was included in that definition, though he’d never asked for that. It stirred things somewhere between Gideon’s heart and gut to think about it, about how Daegan watched over them both.

  Big. Ass. Pansy. For the love of God, just watch the fucking show.

  Gideon sent himself the deprecation at the same time he made the determined resolve not to look toward the other end of the couch again. He succeeded, mostly.

  After a time, Daegan stirred with a grunt. Opening his eyes, he shifted enough to focus his attention anew on the television. He stretched his arm along the back of the sofa, reaching for a pork rind with the other hand. Sniffing it, he took a measured taste, his fangs slicing through the crisp skin. “So what did I miss?”

  “A pretty good gun fight. I’ll take it back.” Gideon rewound a couple scenes, put the remote back down on the sofa arm, and slouched down.

  He’d seen the show before and was watching scenes he’d viewed only moments before. So it made sense that his attention was elsewhere. Already hyper-cognizant of Daegan being only a couple feet away on the couch, now there was the proximity of his arm across the back of it. He was acting like such a girl. Jesus. But still…

  Daegan’s fingers were about even with Gideon’s neck. If Gideon decided to put his head back, he’d have his head right on that hand. So he wouldn’t do that.

  “You know, I was watching that gun builder’s show the other night,” he said casually. “They modified a 1940s machine gun so it could be used as a shoulder weapon. About twenty-five pounds, too, which wouldn’t be that much for you at all. Pretty cool.”

  Daegan’s gaze flickered to him with interest. “Did you record it?”

  “Yeah. That same episode, they put together a door breacher with a precision rifle. It was awesome. Thought we could take a look at it, see if we’d be interested in ordering one.”

  “Anwyn will fuss. She says we have an arsenal now.”

  “What’s her point?”

  Daegan smiled, a quick flash of fang. Gideon felt his fingers brush his nape, a passing caress as he returned to watching the show. But it didn’t stop with that fleeting brush. Daegan started to fondle the back of his neck absently, letting his fingers tug through the short strands of Gideon’s hair.

  Do you really think I would ignore your thoughts, vampire hunter? Particularly when you’re thinking them so loudly, it’s like you’re shouting them at me?”

  Gideon tensed, but Daegan made a calming noise in his throat. He just kept sliding his touch over Gideon’s nape, a trailing sensation that spread through Gideon’s shoulders and arrowed downward. The vampire’s fingers slid with devilish knowledge along the occipital bone, then down the back of his neck again, following the track of those parallel tendons, coming to rest on the top bump of the spine, a circling motion over his collarbone, then back up. It was an idle path that felt anything but idle.

  “When you came back to us, a few months ago, your Mistress set three conditions on your service to her. Do you remember?”

  If you wish to stay with me, you accept three things. You accept me as a vampire, not as a victim of one. You accept yourself as a servant, with me as your vampire Mistress…and you accept Daegan. Feed him, and let him take you to his bed, without me.”

  …You will submit to Daegan taking you to bed, without me there. I’m too greedy right now to let you out of my sight, but I won’t be forever.

  Yeah, Gideon remembered her words all right. Hard to forget since they’d been knocking around his head ever since he learned she was going to spend the weekend with Lyssa, which meant Daegan and he would be here w
ithout her. Yet those words had been niggling at his brain even before then.

  Why it should still be uncomfortable, he didn’t know. Daegan had fucked him, often and hard, with Gideon inside of Anwyn. Or while she was doing other crazy shit to him. Was it really so different to do it, just the two of them?

  Yeah, it was. He didn’t know exactly how to explain it, but it had something to do with looking at Daegan, tired and too pale, but still so capable of kicking anyone’s ass who messed with his family. Anwyn and Gideon.

  He was so not going down this road. “I remember. And I told you, when your day came, you better bring your A-game. You don’t look up to an A-game.”

  “You’d be surprised what I’m up for, vampire hunter. I have enough left to run you to ground…and into the ground.”

  With another slight shift, a sharpening of those dark eyes, Daegan had gone from casual circling to zoning in on his prey. But Daegan wasn’t the only hunter in the room.

  Giving the male a look of solid challenge, Gideon angled his jaw, letting Daegan’s still wandering fingers graze his jugular. Just the contact made him start to get hard—or rather, harder—but slowly, he tilted his head, so those fingers could follow the line of his throat up and down, like the stroke of a feather. Gideon locked gazes with the vampire.

  “Maybe you should go ahead and have some blood first,” he suggested. “I want it to be a fair fight.”

  Part Two

  Round Two

  Daegan’s fingers stilled. In fact, all of him stilled, in that eerie, dangerous way that vampires had, that Gideon suspected had been picked up by horror films somewhere along the way. Camera pans across what’s supposed to be an empty room, and two to three clicks later, you realize something’s not right with the living room décor. Bam, there’s the axe murderer, standing patiently right next to the potted palm.

  Only Daegan’s stillness—at least in this instance—didn’t herald the attack of a psycho serial killer. It meant he was about to make a move, so fast and strong, so irresistible, that anything but surrender was pointless.

  Except Gideon didn’t know the meaning of surrender. His body had automatically shifted gears. It was alert, battle ready, well-trained instinct kicking in.

  Which was why he was surprised when, instead of pouncing on him like a wolf, Daegan resumed his motion, stroking his fingers along the pulsing vein in Gideon’s throat. “Just how strong are you, Gideon? I know you can fight like a lion, but are you strong enough to remain utterly still?” His gaze flickered to the side, down. “Your fingers are curled, tense. Straighten them, relax your palms.”

  Okay, easy enough. Sort of. As Gideon complied, Daegan’s attention wandered up Gideon’s legs, the splayed angle of his thighs, lingering over the groin area so Gideon felt heat build there. Then he was back to Gideon’s face, those dark eyes pinning Gideon’s own midnight blue ones. “Can you stay still until I tell you to move, vampire hunter? Are you that tough? Fighting is easy when you want to fight, when you need to fight. At such a time, finding stillness, embracing it, that’s the most difficult thing any warrior can do.”

  Didn’t matter how many times he told himself he was ready for whatever Daegan brought to the table, the bastard always managed to turn the ground to quicksand. Hell, yeah, he’d prefer to wrestle this out. They’d done that before, with Anwyn there. It’d been fun, rough and dirty. But Gideon didn’t have any doubt this was way different.

  Daegan was challenging him to remain in place. Could he do that? It sounded easy, but Daegan had already called that for the bullshit it was. Gideon wasn’t going to be a pussy about it, though. It was just sitting still. Jesus.

  “Mind if I keep watching the TV, while you do whatever it is you’re about to do? Jax is about to get it on with his old lady in the bathroom. Don’t want to miss that.”

  In answer, Daegan shifted closer. It didn’t seem rushed, yet suddenly he was much closer. His hand turned, thumb passing along Gideon’s jaw, other fingers spreading along his throat to hold him in that position, chin raised. Gideon kept his eyes fixed on the vampire’s face, though it was tough. For some reason, he was having an incredible urge to look away, look down. Forget that. He knew the laws of the jungle. You didn’t avert your eyes from another predator unless you were conceding dominance. And Daegan himself had just said Gideon was a lion. King of the jungle.

  Yeah, him and Tarzan. Right there together. Sans prissy loincloth.

  His heart rate had increased. He wasn’t aware his hands had clenched again until Daegan noted it.

  “Fingers relaxed, vampire hunter.”

  He forced himself to comply once more, though it seemed that tension transferred to his spine. Daegan’s thumb passed over his cheek, once, twice. His face was close to Gideon’s so the dark eyes dominated his vision. Daegan’s clean shower scent washed over him, the damp hair so close, tempting touch.

  “Stillness, Gideon. Utter stillness. You are not permitted to move unless I tell you to do so.” That includes any part of your mouth, inside or out. It is frozen until I indicate otherwise.

  No part of him was frozen, not this close to Daegan’s heat. His core quaked with uncertain anticipation as Daegan closed the gap between them and put his mouth on Gideon’s. It wasn’t a girly, soft kiss. His tongue demanded entry right away, yet once there, explored Gideon’s mouth with lazy devastation. As he took his time about it, Daegan tightened his grip on Gideon’s jaw and throat to remind him to stay still, but Gideon thought it also conveyed the vampire’s own reaction.

  When Daegan made a low growl in the back of his throat that vibrated against Gideon’s lips, his stomach coiled up tighter than a virgin ass. He certainly remembered having one of those, didn’t he? Daegan had fucked him there first. Anwyn had done it since, creating some shamefully pleasurable memories, but Daegan had been the only male, ever. And Gideon didn’t want that to change, as unrealistic as that might be for a vampire’s servant. Two vampires’ servant.

  Your desire to have your ass taken only by me pleases me, Gideon.

  God, how did he do this? As Daegan’s tongue continued to stroke and tease his, Gideon had to employ all his focus to remember he wasn’t supposed to move his tongue or mouth in reaction, tease and tangle back, press against or bite at that sensual mouth. It wasn’t that he was obeying the vampire; he just wasn’t going to give Daegan the satisfaction of saying Gideon wasn’t man enough to do something as simple as stay still beneath an assault like this.

  Always the games with you, Gideon. Do you remember what I told you about games, not too long ago?

  Of course the bastard would bring that up now, while Gideon’s body was spiraling toward hard, throbbing need.

  It had been a few weeks ago. On a rainy, cold night, Anwyn had initiated a game of Truth or Dare in the upstairs suite after she finished her paperwork. Whenever it was Daegan’s turn to demand something of Gideon, both vampires noticed that Gideon always chose Truth versus Dare. Later in the evening, when Anwyn was answering a question from her floor staff, Daegan had fixed Gideon with a steady look and said, with deceptive casualness, “It doesn’t matter whether you choose to accept a dare from me or not, Gideon. As your Master, I can require you to do anything I command, without game or challenge. The day is coming, very soon, where you and I will resolve this between us once and for all. There will be no more games.”

  Coming back to the present, Gideon realized he’d closed his eyes. Daegan seemed okay with that, though. He moved from plundering Gideon’s mouth to cruising across his cheek bone, taking a sharp nip at his jawline, the five o’clock shadow rasping against the vampire’s mouth.

  Two years ago, you broke your hand during a hunt. You had to learn to shave with your other hand.

  Over time, Daegan had picked up many of Gideon’s memories from being a vampire hunter. Now he used that one against Gideon. The vampire was right. Gideon had damn near slit his throat a couple times, because he shaved with a barber’s wicked straight razor to keep his refle
xes sharp. Daegan interjected himself in the vision now…or maybe Gideon was imagining it himself. He couldn’t really tell; their minds were so close.

  In the vision, Daegan was standing before him, bare chested, wearing slacks not yet fastened so they hung low on his hips. He was touching Gideon’s face with firm purpose, like now, angling it so he could scrape that blade over Gideon’s jaw, down near the vulnerable throat… An act of mutual care and trust.

  Gideon met Daegan’s gaze. The dark eyes flickered, then Daegan dipped his head. When his fangs grazed the carotid, Gideon shuddered, forcing his fingers to stay flat with tremendous effort. Daegan’s hand closed on his thigh, inches from his cock, cramped in his jeans.

  Do you know what I was imagining, Gideon, when you thought I was dozing?

  Playing dress-up with Anwyn’s clothes? “I know you’ve been eying those silver latex pants of hers. The ones that lace up the sides.”

  A smart ass answer was so the wrong tactic here. He was going to push this to a place he didn’t want it to go. Or maybe he did. Hell, that was the problem with Daegan. Gideon couldn’t figure himself out when it was like this.

  “Because you are fighting yourself. I can take you down in a heartbeat, vampire hunter, and you know it. That’s all too easy. Forced submission has its place between us. We’re males, and we need that challenge. There are times your resistance makes me harder, all the more determined to take you down and fuck you. But this is not that time or place. Because of your nature, I know you will fight me like this, again and again tonight. Each time, I’m going to bring you back to stillness, shut down your avenues of escape, until you have to accept what lies in that stillness, and surrender fully to it.”

  “You’re talking during all the good parts,” Gideon said, but his throat was constricted. Daegan’s grip increased on his thigh, and the vampire tilted his head, the hair on his forehead brushing Gideon’s cheek. He found the beating pulse of Gideon’s artery where it columned down from behind his ear, nuzzled that sensitive region, his mouth suckling, tongue flicking along that line. As he moved down, his fangs brushed Gideon again, his breath hot on his throat.