by Brandon Witt
I groaned. “How’s Peter? Is he… is he okay?”
“Yeah. He’s got a bite and he’s unconscious, but I think he’ll be fine.” His eyes grew momentarily soft. “Thanks to you.”
“Thank God!” I shut my eyes, his face spinning above me. “What happened? Where’s the vampire?”
Caitlin ignored my question. “He’s gone, Finn. He ran off. I doubt he’ll be back right now, but still, we need to get out of here.”
I started to get up, but nausea rolled over me. “I don’t think I can do it, Finn.”
“I’m not surprised. You’ve lost a lot of blood. I was afraid we were going to be too late.” He glanced over toward Peter and Caitlin. “Hold on, okay? I’ll be right back.”
He was only gone a few seconds. “Okay, Peter’s conscious, and Cate’s gonna carry him back. We sent Saul back to the house when we realized what was happening, so the others should be coming soon. Not that they could have helped hearing.”
“You sent him by himself? What if the vampire doubles back?”
His face darkened. “There wasn’t another choice. We couldn’t have him there with us. What if the vamp got him too?”
“But, Finn….”
“Brett, enough. We did what we had to do, just like you did. Let’s get going.”
“I can’t, I told you. I feel like I was hit by a car.”
“Well, you hit a fairly good-sized tree and snapped it in half, so that’s not too surprising. And, if you’d let me finish, I wasn’t going to try to get you to walk. I can levitate you back.”
“Levitate?”
“Yeah, just like Mom did that first night. Of course, you probably don’t remember that.” He grinned at me playfully. “You get knocked out a lot, don’t you?”
“Ever since I met you.”
He bent down and gave me a firm kiss. “I’m so glad you’re okay. Thank you for saving Peter. I love you.”
“I love you too. Can we go now?”
He laughed. “Sure.” He slipped off his shirt and draped it over my nakedness. Without saying a word, he placed a hand a few inches above the skin of my chest.
I felt myself rise into the air. It was like I had strings threaded all over the top of my body and something was pulling them up, stretching my skin. As I began to move, my nausea increased, and I stifled a gag. “Finn, I think I’m gonna hurl. I don’t suppose there’s anything you could do about that, is there?”
“Oh yeah, sorry.” His other hand rose and stopped right above my forehead. Instantly, the nausea vanished, as well as the sensation that the world was spinning on a tilt-a-whirl. “Better?”
“Much, thanks.”
I watched as the tops of the trees drifted by overhead, the branches shifting from blackened to lush, the sunset casting a rosy hue over the leaves.
BEFORE we had gotten halfway back, the others found us. Saul was chattering away happily, like he’d just had a great adventure. Finn floated me the rest of the way as his family peppered him with questions.
When we reached the house, they wrapped me in a blanket and propped me into a modified seated position on the sofa. Paulette began spooning leftover green chili into me, assuring me that it would initiate my body replacing the lost blood. She hadn’t stopped crying since we arrived back at the house. “I’m so sorry that we can’t do any more than speed up the process. We can’t make something from nothing, you know.” She wiped at her swollen eyes. “I should have listened to Christina.”
Cynthia had attempted to help my bone marrow produce more cells to alleviate my blood loss. It seemed my body was resistant to being manipulated. One more lovely demon attribute.
“It’s okay, Paulette. Between Finn taking away my dizziness and you healing the bite wound, and the green chili, I guess, I am feeling a lot better.” I really was. I assumed part of it was also due to the demon blood and its healing powers. Cooling off in the shower as Finn had rinsed me off and getting in clean clothes had helped as well. I figured at this rate, I would feel back to normal by morning.
The rest of the family was gathered around us in the living room, Finn seated beside me, his hands cupping my right one. Christina had a newly healed Peter sleeping on her lap, and Caitlin had Saul in her arms. He was chattering incessantly, retelling her every detail of his journey back to the house on his own.
In between bites of green chili, I peppered Finn with questions. “How did you and Caitlin get us away from the vampire?”
His hands squeezed mine roughly. “We did a knock back spell simultaneously. I focused on you, and Cate focused on Peter, making sure he landed safely.”
“A knock back spell? Using air, I take it?”
He nodded. “Yeah. It was the only thing we could think of. We were afraid if we used fire, we would either burn the two of you at the same time, not that it would hurt you, or the vamp would just finish the job before trying to put out the flames.”
“I think he would have.” I tilted my head toward Paulette as she fed me the last bite of the green chili and slid the bowl onto the coffee table. “What took you so long? I thought you would have heard all the yelling.”
“Sorry about that. We were there for a long time, still using our invisibility. Unlike demons, apparently, vampires can’t see through it. Or he just didn’t notice.”
“Well, what the hell were you waiting on?” I couldn’t stop the irritation from creeping into my voice. The thought that they had been watching while the vampire sucked the life out of me was inconceivable.
Finn’s face darkened as he blushed. “Babe, we knew it was the only chance we had. The minute we cast another spell, we would become visible. We had to wait until he was biting you, when he closed his eyes. Otherwise, he would see us and kill you or Peter. We didn’t know what else to do.” He glanced at Caitlin. “Actually, I made the call. Cate wanted to charge in and rescue you both immediately, especially after you set everything ablaze. I was afraid. She was probably right. I hate that you had to go through that. Hearing you scream was unbearable.” His bloodshot eyes looked close to tears.
Shame flooded me. “I’m sorry, Finn. I think you’re right. Anything else and he would have reacted.” He turned so his eyes were looking into mine. “Thank you for saving my life. I thought it was over.” Finn started to speak, but another thought hit me. “If you were there, then you heard what he said he wanted, didn’t you?”
Finn nodded.
Caitlin cut in, this time with no animosity in her voice. She looked back and forth between her mother and father as she spoke. “He told Brett that he wasn’t just a demon. That he is something more. He wanted to know what he was.”
“More than just part demon?” Wendell looked at me with a mix of curiosity and wonder, or maybe it was fear. I couldn’t tell.
“Yeah,” Caitlin continued, “he said that after drinking Brett’s blood the other night he could be out in the daytime. He made it sound like he could only be in the shade or something.” She looked over at me questioningly, and I nodded. “He said that he believed if he finished drinking Brett’s blood he could be like the Royal Family, walk out in the daytime.”
Wendell continued to stare at me. “I have never heard of such a thing. I don’t know of any race that supposedly has blood that allows vampires to walk in the sun.” His eyes left me momentarily to look at his grandsons. “One thing is for sure, Brett. There is something special about you. I don’t know what destiny has in store for you, but I am thrilled that my family gets to be a part of it with you.”
Once again, guilt washed over me. “Without me, the vampire would never have come into your lives at all.”
It was Christina who contradicted me. “You didn’t make him show up in Old Town that night. It was pure chance. And without you, I would have lost one or both of my sons tonight. Whatever it is that you are, you are a gift from God, and I am forever in your debt.”
HOURS later, after endless discussion and speculation over what other race could make up my mysterious
heritage, Finn and I went to bed. I was already feeling good enough to walk up the stairs without much effort.
Before I had finished undressing, there was a knock at the door. Finn was in the restroom, so I rebuttoned my jeans and answered it.
Caitlin stood there, taken aback by my shirtless state. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t think that… I should’ve waited.”
“It’s okay.” I chuckled. “It’s not like you haven’t seen me in less clothes lately. Finn’s in the restroom. I bet he’ll be out in a—”
“No. It was you I wanted to talk to.”
“Oh.” It seemed the surprises were not going to stop today.
She wiped a fallen strand of her spiky hair out of her eyes. “Listen. I can’t say that I’m completely okay with you. I think having a demon here is risky, especially now that we know that there’s even more about you that we don’t know.”
I couldn’t believe she was doing this now. Of all times. “Caitlin, I don’t know what I am either. I’m not going to hurt anyone.” Unbidden, a picture of the smoldering kelp forest rose in my mind, of what could have happened to Peter, and I wondered if I were making promises I might not be able to keep.
She raised a hand to cut me off. “What I’m trying to say”—her eyes darted to the ground—“is that…. Well, I just want to say thank you. We saw what you did. You could have walked away, let the vampire have Peter. You didn’t have to give yourself to him. You don’t even really know Peter, and….”
“I would never—”
She raised her hand again, her eyes meeting mine. “You saved Peter’s life, and you didn’t have to. Thank you. I can’t tell you how much I love those boys. Finn could do a lot worse than you.” With that she turned and walked off toward her room.
“Wow.” Finn spoke from behind me. “For Caitlin, that was like she just wrote a sonnet in your honor.”
I closed the door and turned around. “Yeah, I guess so. I’m sure that wasn’t easy for her to do.”
“Well, that’s the least she should say.”
“Still, that was nice of her.”
Finn was draped only in a large white bath towel, and as he stepped toward me, he let it fall to the ground. He glanced beside me, and the candles on the nightstand ignited, filling the room with a warm glow. I felt my breath quicken at the sight of him. I was also aware of my cock beginning to rise with arousal. He was beautiful. Still damp from the shower, his thick muscles glistened in the flickering candlelight. Within a couple more strides he was in front of me, his chest pressing against me.
I looked down at him and gave him a crooked smile. “Are you wanting something, Mr. de Morisco?”
In a husky voice, he whispered, “I love you, Brett. I want you.” His hand curved on my hip. “Now.”
I glanced around, as if his family were suddenly going to appear in the bedroom with us. “Here?”
“Yeah, here.”
“What about your family?”
“I don’t care. I can mute the sounds so they won’t leave the room. Even if I couldn’t, it doesn’t matter. I love you. I want you.” He pulled away to make it easier for him to meet my eyes. “Is that okay?”
For a split second, fear shot through me, telling me to run before it was too late, before I lost whoever it is that Brett was. As I looked at his beautiful face gazing up at me, the fear faded away and was replaced by a feeling of contentment. “Yes, more than okay.”
He pulled my face down to meet his. Our lips met in a long, tender kiss, arms wrapping tightly around each other, relishing the feel of skin touching skin.
The kiss grew in intensity and passion as I felt him grow hard against me. Without taking his lips from mine, he unbuttoned my jeans, slid the zipper down, and released me into his hands.
Finn pulled back from the kiss and looked down at my penis. He caressed up the shaft, then wrapped his fingers around my girth. “I’ve been dying to touch you like this.”
I pushed my pants the rest of the way down and kicked them off as we fell together onto the bed.
He released his hold on me to slide his hands tantalizingly up my stomach, lingering over each rise and divot of the muscles. The movement raised my T-shirt over my chest. I reached up and pulled the material over my head.
He sighed as he watched me above him. “I love you, Brett. I never dreamed I’d have someone as wonderful as you.”
I searched honeyed-brown eyes, unsure what I was looking for. Confinement, maybe. A cage. All I could find was love. Adoration.
“I love you too, Finn.” I brought my thumb down to trace his bottom lip. He was such a strange mix. His face and body were so thoroughly masculine—hard, chiseled, strong. Yet, even though I’d seen his inner strength as well, there was something about him that seemed so fragile. The complete love shining in his eyes was unabashedly genuine. Despite him being the older of us, I felt like I was responsible for taking care of him. Making sure he didn’t get hurt. The combination of his beauty and tenderness was simultaneously terrifying and enticing. “I’ve never known anyone like you, as good as you. As sincere and beautiful.”
He pulled me down, his lips taking mine. I let my body meld into his as he urged my weight to roll beneath him.
Seeing him above me, the candlelight flickering over his golden skin, was more proof than anything else I had seen that convinced me I was no longer in my safe little familiar world. I ran my hand over the wide plane of his chest and then wrapped it around his back, crushing him to me. Already the coolness of the shower had been replaced by a sheen of sweat over his skin, and we slid against each other.
Even though I wanted it to last, my hips were thrusting against him of their own accord. I followed the divot of his spine down, flicking my finger over the slickened skin between the rise of his ass checks.
Finn arched upward toward my touch, causing my finger to slide lower. I brought my left hand from the back of his head and began to squeeze the tight muscles of his ass. He let out a long, low groan as I shifted from massaging to using my fingers to spread him wide.
“I wanted to make this last longer, Finn, but I want to be in you now.”
His triceps flexing, he pushed off from the bed and rose above me once more, the motion forcing the top half of my finger into him. He clenched tightly around my finger, and I keened in expectation.
Precum was already running down the length of me. Seeing it, Finn smeared it over the head of my cock and began using it in long, slow strokes as he began to ride my finger. “Good. I need you in me. We have all night. We can take it slower in a bit.”
Letting out a hiss between clenched teeth, he lifted himself off my finger, his strong thighs going taut as they straddled my waist. Without leaving the bed, he leaned over, fishing for the jeans he’d removed before getting into the shower.
The motion caused the muscles of his back to bunch, and I raised my hand to trace their hard contours. “God, you’re gorgeous.”
The compliment caused him to laugh self-consciously. He started to rise back up, having retrieved the condoms.
“Wait. Don’t move.” I pulled myself from beneath him and rose to my knees. Tracing his body with my hands, I moved behind him, taking my place between his legs, enjoying the view of his kneeling form.
Again I spread him wide, this time using both hands, exposing him to the candlelight.
At my touch, he shuddered and arched his back further.
I traced his entrance with my thumb, then lowered my head and gave a slow swipe with my tongue.
He pushed back against my mouth with an eagerness I hadn’t expected. Finn was so sweet that I’d expected him to be passive in bed. My erection hardened to the point of pain as I realized I’d been so wonderfully wrong.
Finn reached back between his legs and grabbed my cock, not bothering to disperse the precum before he began pumping.
In response, I shoved my tongue inside of him, relishing the immediate clenching of his muscles around me. Flattening my tongue to stretch him ou
t, I was rewarded with another groan and another push against me, driving me deeper into him.
Already he was working me to the point of climax. Before I could warn him that he needed to slow down, he pulled away, pivoting on the bed.
He rose up on his knees, his body aligned with mine. He reached up, grasping the back of my neck and pulling me down to his lips. His tongue sank into my mouth, as always tasting like the spices he wielded at the bakery.
As we kissed, his hands moved over my back with firm, confident strokes. I continued to massage his ass, flicking at his hole, until he shoved onto me once more, pulling my head even lower with the motion. Gingerly, I eased the tip of a second finger into him. A gasp escaped between our lips, and he settled into the rhythm once more.
His hands left my back and I could feel him struggling with something. I didn’t break our kiss until he leaned backward, again forcing my fingers deeper inside of him. Continuing to thrust up and down on my hand, he arched back further, leaving a space between our bodies. With one hand he placed the condom on the head of my cock. With the other, he rolled it down the shaft.
He glanced up at me, concern replacing the passion for a moment. “Does it hurt? I should have gotten larger.”
I shook my head, unable to make my voice work. It did hurt, the tightness of the lip of the condom cutting into the base, pulling at the loose skin of my balls. All it did was intensify the sensations.
“Good.” He lifted himself off me once more and lay back on the bed, guiding me to him, using my cock as a leash. “Then I need you in me.”
I had never had a night that seemed to last so long, a night that I wished would go on forever. Finn had been right. There was plenty of time to take things slower. A couple different times, as it turned out. One second I was burning with lust, and then the next so completely enraptured with Finn that it was all I could do to not simply stare in wonder at him. I’d always assumed that I wouldn’t be able to find love and lust with the same person. It was overwhelmingly heady.