Quenched in Blood

by Ari McKay

  Thomas shot him a startled look. “It’s not your responsibility.”

  If James and Alicia had been around to raise their son, Thomas wouldn’t have missed out on the joys of childhood Micah had denied him. So in a way, Julian did feel responsible. At least that was a justification he could live with, rather than the real reason: he wanted to see Thomas smile. “If I don’t do it, Whimsy and Arden will. I’m protecting you from them stuffing you full of candy until you vomit and making you bob for apples until you drown.”

  Thomas glanced back at the fridge. “They do seem to be… uh. Enthusiastic?”

  Julian rolled his eyes. “You have no idea. You’d better put yourself in my hands.”

  Thomas’s smile turned shy, and he peeked at Julian from beneath his lashes. “Okay. I will.”

  That look did something to Julian’s libido, and he had to turn away, reminding himself that Thomas was young, human, and his student, and therefore off-limits on every level imaginable. “Good. Come on, I’ll get you some clothes and toiletries so you can settle in. We’re close to the same size, if you don’t mind wearing my clothes.”

  “Not at all,” Thomas said. “We can go back to the farm and pick up my things soon. I don’t want to impose on your wardrobe indefinitely.”

  Julian snorted in amusement. “I have centuries’ worth of clothing, some of it I haven’t even worn. You won’t be imposing at all.”

  “Does that mean you’re going to give me your waistcoats, cravats, and breeches to wear?” Thomas asked, his expression deadpan.

  Julian started to reply tartly, then stopped. “Okay, you’re joking with me, aren’t you? I was beginning to wonder if Micah had forbidden you to have a sense of humor.” He grinned. “I do have breeches, cravats, and waistcoats, just so you know. I happen to like them, and men’s fashions have gone downhill in the last two hundred years.”

  “I don’t have any real basis of comparison, so I’ll defer to your expert opinion,” Thomas said. “But I’ve always thought men’s clothing sounded much nicer in classic novels than it is today.”

  “Oh, it was,” Julian said, and it was hard not to imagine Thomas in breeches and an unbuttoned linen shirt. He cleared his throat, thinking maybe it was time to pay a visit to the Rainbow Room, a bar that served as the primary meeting place for gay paranormals. Now that he had lost both lovers to their mates, he’d been frequenting the place to satisfy both types of hunger. “Let’s get you settled in. You should rest, because tomorrow your training is going to start. Don’t expect me to go easy on you.”

  “I don’t want you to go easy on me,” Thomas said with a proud tilt of his chin. “I’m ready to learn.”

  The expression on Thomas’s face reminded Julian of James, and he smiled ruefully. If James were alive to know the kind of thoughts Julian had been having about his son, no doubt he would kick Julian’s ass. It was just another reminder that Thomas was strictly off-limits when it came to Julian’s appetites. And that meant both of his appetites.

  Chapter Four

  “I SHOULD have asked for a map,” Thomas muttered as he walked along a seemingly endless hall on the second floor, which looked just like every other hall, in his quest to find Julian’s shortcut to the library. He’d been at the castle for a couple of days, but he was still learning his way around.

  Every door he opened led to yet another bedroom containing a huge bed with velvet curtains, and now he was so turned around, he had no idea how to get back to the main staircase that would take him to the grand foyer so he could get to the library the long way. He wasn’t even sure how to double back so he could return to his own little suite in the tower, and his heart rate accelerated along with his pace as nervousness set in.

  He thought he had a pretty good sense of direction, but he’d never tried to navigate a building like this before. He was accustomed to his house on the farm, which wouldn’t even fill the ballroom of Castle Schaden. He’d paid attention on the tour, but now that he was on his own, he found it difficult to remember how to get around, especially since the hallway decor didn’t vary much.

  “One more turn,” he said. Having grown up an only child, he’d developed a habit of talking aloud to himself, and the words sounded louder than he expected in the empty corridor. “There’s got to be something around the next corner.”

  And there was. Another hallway lined with doors.

  Groaning, Thomas looked over his shoulder as he debated whether to try to backtrack or if he’d only get himself more lost. He was starting to feel like Eleanor in Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, and he wondered if possessed houses were a real thing along with shape-shifters and vampires.

  As much as he hated looking like a bumbling yokel in front of Julian, Thomas couldn’t keep going on his own. For all he knew, he was going in circles around some inner loop. He’d already spent over twenty minutes trying to find his way somewhere he recognized to no avail. He needed help, and he hoped vampires had extra keen hearing, or else he might end up a moldering skeleton in one of those decadent beds.

  “Julian?” Thomas cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted as loud as he could. “Can you hear me? I’m lost!”

  He didn’t hear anything for a moment; then a voice came from behind him. “Are you all right?”

  Thomas let out a startled yelp and leaped forward a couple of feet, a surge of adrenaline making his heart pound so hard, he could just about hear it. He whirled around—and then froze at the sight of Julian wearing nothing but a towel around his waist.

  Thomas hadn’t realized that Julian was almost as muscular as he was himself. Julian’s shoulders were broad, his arms very well developed, setting off his narrow waist. The smooth, olive-toned skin of his chest and abdomen was covered with a generous sprinkling of crisp black hair, which thickened below his navel before disappearing beneath the thick white towel.

  “Thomas?” Julian’s expression held concern. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you, but you sounded a bit desperate, so I hurried.” Apparently vampires really could move fast.

  “I… uh…” Thomas swallowed against the sudden dryness in his mouth, and he struggled to keep his eyes on Julian’s face instead of his towel. “I was. Desperate, I mean. I was trying to find the short way to the library, but I got turned around.”

  “You aren’t the first.” Julian didn’t seem at all uncomfortable with his state of undress. “Follow me. It’s back this way, near my room.”

  Julian went back in the direction Thomas had come from. He stopped at the corner and pointed up toward the crown molding. “Look there, just below that leering satyr in the plaster.” Looking closely, Thomas could see an ornate B3 rendered in gilt paint that was hard to discern at first, appearing part of the wallpaper pattern. “B means this is the second corridor back from the foyer, and the third corridor numbered from east to west.”

  “I see,” Thomas said.

  Oh, yes, he could see. He could see how the damp towel hugged Julian’s firm ass and hinted at the curve of hard thighs.

  Julian continued down the corridor. “I should have told you about the markings, but I’d actually forgotten about them myself. I guess Whimsy is the last new person I’ve had here, and as a mage, he’s able to navigate arcane pathways pretty well. If I’m remembering correctly, the tower access is at A7. Naturally, there are thirteen corridors in each direction.”

  “Naturally,” Thomas said dryly. His house didn’t even have thirteen rooms, much less thirteen corridors. “I’ll have to make a list of important markings or draw a map so I can find my way around.”

  “You’ll figure it out soon enough. Besides, learning your way around is good practice. Maybe I should hide a cursed object and leave clues for you to find it.” Julian flashed a wicked smile over his shoulder. “I could also arrange some surprises along the way. Scary ones. Just to keep you on your toes.”

  “I’m game if you think it would help.” Thomas gnawed on his bottom lip as he tried not to stare too
blatantly at the muscles working in Julian’s back and shoulders as he walked. A familiar heat pooled in Thomas’s belly, one he’d only felt when reading about handsome men before. He’d never felt it in response to a real person, but then again, how could he, considering how isolated his grandfather had kept him?

  Julian was the first gay man Thomas had met, so developing a crush on him was probably foolish and juvenile, but Thomas couldn’t help it. He was fascinated by Julian and drawn to him. He wanted to know all about Julian’s likes, his dislikes, his past, his favorite books—everything.

  But even more than that, he wanted to touch. Oh how he longed to know what it felt like to fit Julian’s firm bicep in his palm, to feel the tickle of Julian’s chest hair against his bare skin, to savor the comfort and security of Julian’s embrace. He’d harbored all kinds of naughty thoughts about Julian since moving into the castle, and seeing Julian like this was providing ample fantasy fodder.

  They turned at least twice more; then Julian stopped in front of a set of double doors. “This is my suite. Why don’t you come in? I’ll get dressed, and then we can go to the library together? I promise you’d never have found the staircase on your own—it’s one of the castle’s ‘secret passageways.’”

  “Well, now I don’t feel so foolish,” Thomas said as he followed Julian inside, a little illicit thrill shooting through him at the thought of seeing Julian’s private chambers.

  The room was larger than Thomas’s tower bedroom, and decorated in the blues and greens Julian seemed to prefer. The heavy velvet drapes were closed, so Thomas couldn’t tell what kind of view Julian had, and there was a gas fireplace that had a bright flame going even though it was almost July. The furniture was all heavy, dark wood and leather, and the most noticeable piece was the bed. It had to be the biggest bed Thomas had ever seen in his life, a massive four-poster with a green velvet canopy and drapes, covered in a gleaming comforter that looked like satin, with the headboard almost invisible behind a mound of pillows.

  “Have a seat,” Julian said as he crossed the room and opened another door. Thomas had a glimpse of clothing on rails and realized it must be Julian’s closet.

  Thomas averted his gaze from the bed and made a beeline for the black leather seating group consisting of two chairs and two loveseats. He perched on the edge of a chair and clamped his hands on his knees while he waited for Julian to emerge from the closet.

  Julian emerged a few minutes later. He had donned jeans and a plain black T-shirt, and his black hair was brushed back, curling because it was still damp. He looked at Thomas, then gestured around the room. “What do you think?”

  I think I’d like to sleep here. But Thomas couldn’t say that aloud, so he looked around the room again, trying to pay attention to something other than the bed, which was probably redolent with Julian’s scent. His gaze fell on a piece at the foot of the bed that, at first glance, he thought was a trunk, but now he wasn’t so sure.

  “Uh… what is that?”

  Julian’s eyes gleamed. “That’s my coffin.” He hissed at Thomas, showing a flash of fangs, and spoke with a thick, fake-vampire horror movie accent. “Now, mortal, I haff you in my lair…”

  Thomas let out a startled laugh as he stared at Julian and tried not to mentally wander off into a fantasy about being bitten. “Is it necessary or just for show?”

  “Oh, entirely for show,” Julian said with a snort. “Arden found it at some antique show, and he and Whimsy decided a couple of years ago that I simply had to be Dracula for Halloween. Which has been done to death, if you’ll pardon the pun. But they set the coffin up in Whimsy’s yard and made me pop up to terrify the neighborhood children.”

  Thomas’s laughter was more relaxed and natural this time. “Which I’m sure you didn’t enjoy at all.”

  “Well, maybe a little.” Julian shrugged, and his smile faded. “Most people think of me as a curmudgeonly old recluse. A lot of the time, that’s true, and I should warn you there might be times I withdraw and need to be alone. But don’t be afraid to joke with me or tease me. I do have a sense of humor, despite Arden’s protestations to the contrary.”

  “When those times come, tell me,” Thomas said, leaning forward in his seat. “I’ll give you space, and I won’t take it personally. The only thing I ask in return is if you are upset about something because of me, tell me that too. I don’t have much experience with real people. Reading a lot helps, but it doesn’t totally prepare you for interacting with others. I may miss some cues because I don’t know what to look for.”

  Julian raised a brow, but he nodded. “That makes sense.” He gave a sudden grimace. “I suppose you’re used to the cranky recluse thing, given your grandfather was probably the only person in Asheville whose paranoia is stronger than mine.”

  “I wasn’t going to say that, but since you brought it up….” Thomas spread his hands and shrugged, but he offered a playful smile as well. “Let’s just say your personality type is familiar and one I don’t mind dealing with.”

  “Oh, that’s comforting,” Julian said dryly, but then he chuckled. “Well, when I withdraw, I don’t insist on pulling everyone down with me, so you’re safe from that. And now that you’ve seen my den of iniquity, shall we head to the library?”

  Thomas stood up and headed for the door with Julian. “I’m a little disappointed,” he said. “This is a nice den, but I didn’t see much iniquity.”

  Julian stopped in midstride. He turned to look at Thomas, and Thomas thought there was a heated gleam in his blue eyes. A moment passed, one in which Thomas got the odd, breathless feeling that in some way Julian was looking at him much as a predator regards its prey. But then Julian’s brows snapped together and he shook his head. “You are entirely too young to go looking for iniquity,” he said, then started toward the door again.

  “I’m an adult,” Thomas said. “I’m not too young to go looking for anything I want.”

  Julian opened the door to his suite, holding it for Thomas as Thomas stepped out into the hall. “You can go looking, but remember all the things that you don’t know about the normal world, much less this one. You might be shocked and horrified by the things you find. And some of them… well, some of them might even try to kill you.”

  Thomas’s first instinct was to balk because Julian’s words reminded him too much of Micah, but he sternly reminded himself that Julian was issuing a warning, not a command. Besides, Julian was right. Thomas was woefully ignorant of the world outside the farm, and he definitely wasn’t ready to encounter a demon.

  “True,” he said. “But none of that has anything to do with my age, only my lack of experience, which is all due to my grandfather.”

  “Which we are going to remedy as quickly as possible.” Julian stepped across the hall directly opposite the doors of his suite, where a huge painting of a man hung in an ornate frame. Julian touched the right side of the painting about halfway up, and the frame swung away from the wall on hinges, revealing a narrow, dark set of stairs leading downward. With a smile, Julian gestured for Thomas to go first. “All right, my young apprentice. Let your education begin.”

  Chapter Five

  “I WANT you to come in low this time,” Julian explained as he bent his knees, lowering his center of gravity as he crouched on the mat. “Almost all shifters are vulnerable in the abdominal area, but when they’re on four legs, it’s harder to get to. Bears will often come at you on two legs, but their reach is so much longer than yours that you’ve got to get past their claws to attack, and unless you’re really, really fast, you’ll be dead before you get there. Okay, so, ready? Go!”

  Thomas sized up the situation, then feinted to one side before rushing at Julian. It was a good move, and if Julian had been a young shifter, he might have gone for it. Of course, he had three centuries of combat training, and Thomas, while fast, was no match for Julian’s vampiric speed. Julian avoided Thomas’s vicious thrust of his practice knives, jumping over Thomas’s low rush, and tappe
d Thomas on the head with one hand to show that he could have given Thomas a concussion, or worse.

  In the week since Thomas had moved into Julian’s home and begun his training, he’d made an incredible amount of progress. For someone who had been a farmer and never picked up a knife to use against another sentient creature, Thomas was showing not only natural talent but a degree of determined ruthlessness Julian had never seen. It was as though being in his element was bringing out a side of Thomas that even Thomas might not have suspected he possessed.

  “Good! The feint was a nice touch,” Julian said approvingly. “One thing to remember, though, is that it doesn’t matter whether your opponent is small, the same size, or larger than you—you’re always fighting in three dimensions. And when it comes to demons, they can phase through solid objects. The floor you’re standing on could suddenly sprout hands to grab at you or teeth to bite you. The one thing you have in your favor in that case is that your angelic heritage is anathema to the Unholy. No demon could stand to touch you with their bare flesh for long.”

  “Would my touch kill them?” Thomas asked, maintaining a defensive pose.

  “Low-level demons, yes.” Julian smiled with approval at Thomas remaining on guard. Julian had been training him for unexpected attacks, and Thomas learned quickly. “I once saw Micah catch an apepi demon—they’re sort of a snakelike thing—with his bare hands, holding on to it until it disintegrated. But you can’t count on that ability unless you’re certain of the type of demon you’re facing. Just because one is small doesn’t necessarily mean it’s weak. Although I must admit that demons seem to be as much size queens as anyone else.”

  Thomas regarded him with a puzzled frown. “Size queens?”

  Julian snorted. He often forgot how little Thomas had experienced not only of the supernatural, but of the world outside of the Carter farm. Once again he cursed Micah Carter for denying Thomas the life any normal human was entitled to, much less a powerful supernatural like Thomas. He had the feeling he wasn’t alone in that. A part of Thomas’s ferocity probably stemmed from anger at discovering all that Micah had withheld from him.