Thomas's Choice

by Tina Folsom

  “But while I do this, you’ll do something for me. You’ll tell me about yourself. And with every bit of information you give me, I’ll suck you harder.” Thomas placed his lips around the head of Kasper’s shaft and slid down on him, taking him in to the root.

  Kasper trembled underneath him, before Thomas withdrew. “Start now,” he demanded and cupped his balls, stroking a fingernail against the tight sac, feeling a thrill go through him as Kasper shuddered and a drop of moisture spilled from his cock.

  Kasper panted heavily. “I’m a leader of a group of men who have certain . . . leanings.”

  Thomas sank his mouth back onto the engorged flesh and closed his lips around it, sucking him deep inside.

  Kasper groaned and thrust his hips upwards. “We have our hideouts, safe places where we meet. Where we indulge in our fantasies.”

  Thomas wrapped his hand around the base and sucked again, letting Kasper’s erection slide out of his mouth, only to capture it again a split second later, increasing his tempo. He squeezed his hand around him while his other hand gently played with his balls. He had yet to meet a man who could resist his intimate touch, a touch he knew was more tantalizing than that of a woman.

  Because he knew better than any woman what a man wanted.

  “Nobody can touch us. We’re strong. They’ll never get us.” Kasper panted heavily, his hips working frantically to increase the friction, pumping harder and faster in and out of Thomas’s mouth. “Oh, fuck, you’re good!”

  Thomas’s chest swelled with pride. This was what he lived for: to seek pleasure and to return it.

  “And one day, we won’t have to hide anymore. One day, they’ll accept us.”

  Thomas heard the words and wanted to believe them, but he couldn’t. Nobody would ever accept deviants like him. He would always have to hide. But at least if the hiding place was like this, a private den of iniquity, where sin was always on the menu and wickedness was expected, he could live with it.

  Giving himself over to his task, he licked and sucked until Kasper finally surrendered and shuddered. It took long seconds before he stilled completely, his head falling back against the armchair, his body almost collapsing.

  Thomas raised his head and looked at him. What he saw made him fall backwards onto his ass, trying to scurry away in horror. But he got no chance. As he fell flat onto his back, Kasper jumped onto him, legs spread-eagle, straddling him. Iron-hard hands encircled Thomas’s wrists, pinning them to the floor next to his head.

  Kasper flashed brilliant white fangs at him, snarling like a beast. “Now, my dear, you’ll listen to me. Your little attempt at trying to control me was all good and fine, but make no mistake: I allowed you to control me for my own pleasure. Because sometimes, we all like to be dominated.

  Sometimes we enjoy being controlled and played with. But I decide when and where and how.

  Do you understand that?”

  Numbly, Thomas nodded, unable to speak, because all air had rushed out of his lungs. What was Kasper? What kind of creature was this man? No, he wasn’t a man. He couldn’t be a man.

  He was a beast.

  “I find you interesting.” He rocked his still semi-erect cock against Thomas’s groin. “And utterly sexy. But I don’t let myself be controlled by my baser instincts. I’m the master. I decide what happens, when it happens, and how it happens. And it just happens I’ve decided to make you my companion.” He let a smile quirk around his lips. “And not just because you suck cock so masterfully.”

  Thomas shivered involuntarily. Despite the fear he felt when he looked at the sharp teeth that were protruding from Kasper’s mouth, the thought that this powerful man wanted him thrilled him. He was mature enough to admit it to himself: being controlled by another man excited him.

  It turned him on and made him hard.

  Kasper ground against him again, and Thomas felt his cock swell as a result of it. He closed his eyes, swallowing the shame of it. Because he should be ashamed of what he wanted: to be dominated by this man.

  “You know it, don’t you? How much pleasure can be had from pain, from shame, even from fear. That’s why you’re so perfect. So perfect for what I need.” Kasper released one wrist and stroked his knuckles along Thomas’s neck, sending shivers racing down his skin.

  The vein at his neck began to throb.

  “Oh, yes, you know what I am, don’t you?”

  Thomas shook his head, trying to deny what his mind had already figured out. It wasn’t possible. Creatures like him didn’t exist. Not in real life, not in London, not anywhere in England.

  “Say it, lover, say what I am.” A long finger trailed along Thomas’s pulsating vein.

  “Vampire.”

  When the word was out, Thomas released a breath and felt the pressure on his chest ease.

  Kasper lifted himself off and pulled him up to a sitting position, cupping his nape with one hand.

  “See? It wasn’t that hard, was it?” He pressed a brief kiss on Thomas’s lips. Then he placed his hand over Thomas’s hard-on. “Even though other things are hard again.”

  Startled, Thomas pulled back, but didn’t get far, Kasper’s hand on his nape holding him close. “You’re not going anywhere, don’t you understand that? Everything you’ll ever need is here. With me. I can protect you.” He pointed toward one of the windows which was hung with heavy velvet curtains. “Out there, a man like you will always be in danger. But I can help you.

  And together we’ll wait for the time when there will be no more prosecution of our kind. We have time on our side.”

  Instinctively, Thomas knew what Kasper was proposing.

  “I can give you eternal life. Don’t you want to live in a time when queers like us will be accepted? When nobody will give a care about who we fuck? When kissing a man in public won’t land you in prison?”

  Thomas finally found his voice again. “You don’t know that such a time will ever come!

  They’ll always look at us with disgust!”

  Kasper shook his head, smiling. “How wrong you are, my friend. My sweet Thomas. If only you could believe that the future will be bright.”

  “How can I when all I see is pain? When I have to hide from everybody who I am? When even my sisters would recoil from me if they found out?”

  Kasper caressed Thomas’s neck. The touch soothed him more than he liked to admit. Maybe his lover really could help him. If only to forget his troubles.

  “All I ask for is a little trust. And patience. Our time will come. We will rise together. And in the meantime, we’ll wring every last drop of pleasure from each other.”

  “Why me?” Thomas searched his lover’s eyes for an answer.

  “Because you have potential. You’ll be strong. As strong as I am. And powerful. Together we can rule. But you’ll have to become like me.”

  Thomas stared into Kasper’s eyes, their darkness pulling him in as if he were being hypnotized. “You mean become a vampire?”

  “Yes, I will drain you of your blood and give you mine. You’ll be part of me. Strong, powerful, invincible. All you have to do is say ‘yes.’”

  Unable to tear his gaze away from Kasper’s eyes, Thomas moved his head closer, his lips now hovering only an inch over his lover’s. “Do you truly believe there’ll come a time when we can be free to express our feelings without fear of punishment?”

  “Yes. Soon that time will come.”

  “Yes.” With a breath, he sank his lips onto Kasper’s and kissed him, wrapping his arms around him and dropping back onto the floor with Kasper on top of him. “Do it while you make love to me so I won’t see it coming.”

  “Whatever you wish, my sweet lover.”

  4

  Today

  Thomas pulled his motorcycle into the spot in front of Al’s Motorcycle Parts and killed the engine. The one good thing about having to go shopping at night was that he almost always found a parking spot close by. The area south of Market Street was pretty much deserted
by this time of night, and only clubbers were out now, most of whom didn’t bother driving but instead took taxis or walked to the clubs in the area.

  Al’s was always open late. In fact, the shop only opened its door at sundown, even though Al could have easily opened during daylight hours. After all, the shop was windowless, and he would be safe in there even at daytime. But like many vampires, Al kept to the hours of his own species, shunning daylight.

  He’d been coming to Al’s shop for many years now, just about every time he needed to find a rare part for one of his motorcycles. Only recently, he’d completed the restoration of a WWII BMW, and Al had been a great help in sourcing some of the parts that Thomas had needed to replace. There was no place like Al’s if he wanted to get authentic parts for his antique bikes.

  Where the guy found the genuine parts, Thomas didn’t know, and Al had certainly never divulged his sources. It didn’t matter. Thomas was prepared to pay a premium just so he could continue with his hobby.

  Thomas pushed open the door to the large building and entered, accompanied by the sound of the chime above the door. The interior was well-lit, the endless shelves well-stocked, and the smells familiar: oil, solvents, and paints. He lifted his gaze to the counter, expecting the usual greeting from Al, but was instead hit with a wall of silence.

  The man behind the checkout counter that was covered with faded linoleum wasn’t Al, nor was he one of Al’s employees. He was a vampire, all right, but Thomas had never met him. Had Al hired somebody new? It wasn’t like him. Al didn’t like change and hadn’t taken on a new employee in years. Most of the time he worked by himself.

  The vampire nodded at him. “Help you?” he asked brusquely.

  Thomas crossed the distance between him and the counter, letting nothing in his gait betray the fact that he was curious. “Yeah. Al around?”

  The vampire shook his head. “No.”

  “Will he be back soon?”

  “No.”

  At the second monosyllabic answer, Thomas ground his teeth and had to relax his jaw so he wouldn’t sound hostile. “When then?”

  “Won’t be back.”

  “Why?”

  “Sold the place.”

  The news surprised him. Al had never mentioned that he had any intention of selling the shop. Selling meant changing, and there wasn’t anything Al hated more than change, except for a stake in the heart or the rising sun on his heels.

  Thomas perused the other vampire more closely now. There was nothing extraordinary about him. He neither looked very powerful, nor very bright. In fact, his speech pattern and posture made him look rather like a slow-witted cousin from the backwoods. Vampire trash if anybody asked him. The kind of man who’d never amount to anything.

  “Sold when?”

  He shrugged. “Last week.”

  “To whom?”

  The vampire puffed his chest out. “To me.”

  Thomas kept his tongue in check so the next words didn’t spill over his lips. There was no way in hell Al had sold out to the guy behind the counter. Something was fishy. But he was smart enough to know that any further questioning would only increase the guy’s hostility.

  Maybe once he’d done some business with him, he could find out more.

  “Well, in that case, I’d better deal with you.” He pulled a piece of paper from his leather jacket and unfolded it, spreading the photocopy of an old magazine he’d found in front of the man. He pointed his finger at a spot on the drawing. “I need this part here for the front master cylinder. It’s a 1956 model. Manufactured in Germany.”

  The vampire only glanced at the piece of paper then motioned to the aisles. “If we have it, it’s on one of the shelves. Your guess is as good as mine.” His bored look said it all.

  Thomas shook his head. “It won’t be on the shelves. It’s a 1956 model. Nobody stocks those.”

  “Well, then we don’t have it.”

  Thomas let out an annoyed huff. “I figured that much. What I’m asking is for you to find me one.”

  “How you want me to do that? Suck it out of my fingernails?”

  “It’s called special order. You must have contacts to some suppliers who do special requests.”

  The new owner of Al’s Motorcycle Parts crossed his arms over his chest. “We don’t do special orders. You can’t find it here, go someplace else.”

  Thomas narrowed his eyes and leaned over the counter. “It’s your fucking job!”

  The other vampire moved closer. “I say what my job is. And it’s not fetching shit for guys like you. I’m nobody’s errant boy. You get that?” He flashed his fangs.

  Clenching his teeth, Thomas took his piece of paper and folded it slowly and deliberately, keeping a lid on his anger. It would be so easy to simply crush the guy with one blast of mind control, so simple, yet so satisfying. Inside him, his two sides warred with each other, each fighting for supremacy, both sides almost equally strong. His chest heaved from the effort it cost him to reveal nothing of his internal struggle to the outside. He couldn’t give himself away.

  “My apologies,” he pressed out instead. “I guess I’ll have to take my business elsewhere.”

  Then he turned on his heels, hightailing it out of the shop as fast as if a horde of bigots were chasing him with stakes in their fists. He swung himself onto his motorcycle and engaged the engine. When it howled, he shot into the road and thundered down the one-way-street like a speeding bullet.

  He had to get away from the temptation to teach the guy a lesson in manners—as well as in business. It happened more and more lately: the smallest things set him off and made the dark power surge within him, eager to break to the surface. Ever since he’d killed Kasper, his maker—or Keegan, as he’d called himself later—he’d started feeling the thirst for power well up more often. And every time, the struggle to suppress the evil became more violent.

  5

  The V-lounge at Scanguards’ headquarters was buzzing with activity when Thomas arrived.

  Everybody was getting ready to welcome Haven, Yvette’s mate, into Scanguards. After several months of sorting things out with his old life as a vampire hunter, he’d finally come to a decision and accepted the position Samson had offered him. Tonight would be his official first day, and the guys had decided to throw him a little party at the lounge.

  Thomas glanced around. The large room looked like the lounge of a five-diamond hotel, complete with comfortable seating arrangements, a fireplace, and a bar and bartender. Only, no bottles lined the back wall of the bar, and no mirror decorated it. The drinks served from the stainless steel taps weren’t alcoholic; the barrels underneath contained various types of blood that the sexy female bartender was serving in crystal glasses.

  Just because Thomas was gay didn’t mean he didn’t recognize that the woman working behind the bar was what a straight guy would call sex on legs. Besides, he noticed the way the other vampires looked at her: as if they wanted to drink from her rather than from the glasses she handed them. Like randy dogs, they hovered around the bar, trying their various pick-up lines on her, almost drooling. Did Thomas look like that when he looked at Eddie? He hoped not. It was pathetic enough that he was in love with a straight man.

  The ice princess, as some of the guys had started calling her behind her back, kept her cool and polite exterior despite the suggestive comments and the obvious propositions, not giving away what was going on inside her. With a sigh, Thomas approached, and smiled at her.

  “Roxanne,” he called her attention to him.

  She turned toward him and gave him a genuine smile, her body visibly relaxing. “Thomas, what can I get you, love?”

  Her British accent was still pronounced, and made him think of home and the two sisters he’d left behind. Regret for having left them flowed through him. But he couldn’t turn back time.

  There was no use in thinking of it now.

  “AB positive, please.”

  Roxanne pulled a glass from underneath t
he counter and operated one of the taps. “Dessert before dinner?”

  He grinned. AB positive was considered the sweetest blood type. He winked. “If you don’t tell, I won’t.”

  As she expelled a warm laugh, Thomas heard the whispers of the other vampires beside him.

  “What’s he got that we don’t?” one of them grumbled.

  Roxanne’s head shot toward the man who’d spoken. She nailed him with a glare. “Class.

  That’s what he’s got. So scram.” She shooed them away, and to Thomas’s surprise the men complied.

  “You don’t have to fight my battles for me, Roxanne.”

  She smiled at him softly. “You’re constantly fighting mine. Just returning the favor, love.”

  Thomas jerked his thumb in the direction of the vampires who were now congregating near the fireplace. “If you smiled at them the way you smile at me, your tips would be better.”

  “I only smile when I mean it.” She set the glass of blood in front of him. “On the house.”

  A heavy hand slid over his shoulder, making him turn.

  “Is Roxanne plying you with blood again?” Samson asked, grinning.

  Thomas laughed. “If only it worked!” he joked, knowing that if he were straight, Roxanne would make the moves on him. Yet, she respected what he was, and despite the fact that she was attracted to him, she treated him like a brother. He liked that about her.

  He exchanged a long look with her.

  “At least Thomas doesn’t want to jump my bones. That’s something I can’t say for that bunch over there.” She tossed her head in the direction of the fireplace.

  Samson removed his arm from Thomas’s shoulders and leaned over the bar. “If they’re harassing you, you’ve gotta let me know. I’ll take them to task.”

  She made a dismissive hand movement. “And make it even worse by tattling on them? I can handle them.”

  “As you wish.”

  “I would offer you a drink, but given that you’re blood-bonded, I guess there’s nothing I can do for you.”