Perfect Timing

by Aimee Brissay

  Valentin glided gracefully toward the cop. The pressure in the air increased and the human’s eyes fogged, becoming fixed.

  This could be very good or very bad. Shawn shifted on his feet, unsure of what to do next.

  “Put the gun back in its holster.” Valentin chanted the words in a soft, mesmerizing tone and Shawn felt them seeping into him, warm, compelling, erasing everything else on his mind but the sound of that voice. Valentin hummed, and Shawn found himself willing to obey his every command. Needing it. Anything just to hear that voice again.

  “Turn off the flashlight, officer…?”

  Shawn snarled. Officer? What about me? He is supposed to be talking to me. ME! Not him.

  “Officer…?” Valentin prompted again in that enchanted voice of his.

  A growl rumbled in Shawn’s chest and Valentin hissed at him.

  “Mladinovici. Peter Mladinovici.” The human sounded dazed, his voice coming from far away, his movements slow but steady. Valentin edged closer in one fluid motion, more graceful than anything Shawn had ever seen before. Power surged through the air once more.

  “Okay, Peter. You will not report this. You will get back to your car and be on your way. You will forget you ever saw us or anything that might have happened here. You will finish your shift like nothing happened and you will stay away from these woods for the rest of the night.”

  Valentin’s voice poured over them, creating an invisible wall around the three of them. Power rippled, the air heavy with it. Shawn was wide awake and yet he could see himself from outside his body. He couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, only feel. The officer seemed to be completely under the spell Valentin was creating, staring blindly at them. Valentin glided closer, his body almost touching the human’s. Shawn’s bile rose to his throat. Valentin was his, damn it! He wanted to scream, to jerk his lover away from the policeman and hold him close. The cop swooned on his feet, leaning into Valentin’s body. Shawn growled again and tensed for the jump, but as if sensing his intention, invisible cords wrapped around him, holding him in place. The pressure wasn’t painful, but soft and warm, like a caress against his skin. Damn, he must pack some serious mojo. Valentin wasn’t even focusing on Shawn, and yet he had him completely under his thrall. Shawn could only imagine the amount of power his mate exerted over the policeman.

  “You may go now.” The policeman put the gun back in its holster with slow, unfocused moves, turned around to the car, climbed in, and shifted into gear, looking utterly dazed.

  As soon as Valentin’s voice drifted away, the electric charge in the air seemed to dissipate. Shawn exhaled loudly, vaguely aware that he had held his breath the entire time.

  “Wow. That was… intense. Do you think it will keep?”

  Valentin turned around to face him and Shawn took a step back, startled. Valentin’s eyes were even darker than before, wider and somehow liquid, like the surface of a black lake on a windy night. But the smile on his lips, though small, was warm.

  “Yeah. It should.” He sounded tired. “If nothing happens to shake him up, it’ll hold. Even if it doesn’t, he’d most likely think it was just a dream. We should clean this mess up. No reason to plant the seed of doubt in his mind.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right.” Shawn looked around, unsure of himself. The car needed to be placed back on the road, but it could wait until they had dealt with the bodies. “I don’t suppose you might have some fireballs up your sleeve, do you?”

  “Nope. Fresh out.” At Shawn’s incredulous look, Valentin chuckled. “I’m way too young to be able to control the elements. I’m lucky enough to do the whole mind thing.”

  Shawn made for the trunk and rummaged for the tarp he knew he had in there.

  “Yeah, what was that anyway? Can you read minds or what?”

  “No. I cannot see what you think. I search for a weak spot, a thread or something to allow me to plant my suggestion. I’m not sure how to explain it better. But mind reading would be really cool.” His smile grew wider until he was grinning.

  Shawn shook his head but couldn’t stop himself from smiling. “This mojo, does it work with everyone?” He found the tarp, hidden as expected in the most inaccessible place it could have been, under the tool box, the spare tire, and the pile of junk that for some reason kept gathering when one worked on a ranch.

  “Like both humans and vampires alike? No, it doesn’t work with vampires. Or at least not with the older ones, and I haven’t tried it on the younger. But it should work with most humans.”

  “You said you are young. Care to be more specific?”

  Valentin stiffened, and Shawn knew he’d hit a nerve.

  “Well?” Shawn kept probing.

  “A little over three hundred,” he mumbled under his breath.

  Shawn pursed his lips, thinking. It wasn’t that old. Not by vampire standards or by therians, but Valentin still had over two and a half centuries over him.

  “How old were you when you were turned? You don’t look older than twenty-two or three.”

  “Twenty-nine.”

  “How do you create a vampire? Bled you dry and then fed you her blood?” he asked as he retrieved the toolbox, the last obstacle that sat between him and his target.

  Valentin shrugged. “I don’t remember much.” Shawn could smell the lie, but he let it slide. Through the preternatural community, the knowledge of how to create vampires was considered a valuable secret. He couldn't expect Valentin to share it with someone he’d just met.

  “What makes you think it was a her?”

  At first Shawn didn’t understand the question. Then the meaning sank in. His jaw dropped as the toolbox slid from his hand and landed on his right big toe. “Oh fuck!” He slammed his fist against the side of the car.

  “Hey, you okay?”

  “I didn’t… huh… I wasn’t… I just… Damn, my toe hurts! I am sorry, I just assumed. I guess I have this idea in my head where you being turned would involve sex.”

  “It did, but I don’t see where the her fits in.” Valentin was grinning even wider this time, obviously enjoying Shawn’s embarrassment.

  Shawn took a deep breath and went for it. “So you’re gay?”

  “Assuming again, Shawn?” Valentin really seemed to enjoy teasing him. Shawn glowered. If anything, Valentin grinned more.

  “Well I’m sorry, but if it wasn’t a woman and you were having sex, you being gay was the obvious choice.”

  “Nope, it isn’t. I could be bisexual. Or it could have been non-consensual.”

  “Oh God, I hadn’t thought of that. I’m such an ass. I’m sorry. Apparently my neurons lost control over my mouth and it flaps at its own volition.” He was embarrassed. He didn’t want to cause the man more pain by bringing up old memories. It was enough he’d lived them. He should have known that it was a sore spot for Valentin.

  “Nothing to be sorry about. It wasn’t the case anyway. I was just pointing out the other possible choices. It was consensual and it was with a man.”

  * * * *

  Valentin smiled fondly at the memories. He had fallen hard for Yuri, and when the man had offered him the gift, Valentin eagerly accepted. Mostly, he didn’t regret it. Up until a few months ago, that is, when everything had gone to hell. His sire had been murdered, the entire coven slaughtered, and Valentin was left running for his life. Yuri had been a good sire, and the sex between them had been hot.

  Speaking of great sex, I wouldn’t mind a repeat performance of what happened earlier with Shawn. And maybe the next time I’ll be conscious enough to fully enjoy it. The corners of his mouth twitched and he fought back a grin.

  “So are you?”

  “Am I what?

  Shawn scowled again. Delightful. He was so cute when he was angry.

  “Gay. Are you?” There was the faintest trace of a brogue in Shawn’s voice, which had Valentin wonder if the man was indeed Irish.

  “Yes, Shawn, I am. The question is, are you?” He purred out the words, knowi
ng full well that he’d get a rise out of the man.

  “What? Nooo!” Shawn almost screamed out. Then he paused, deep in thought. “I’m not gay.” He sounded less sure of himself this time.

  “We should get back to cleaning.”

  “Yeah we should. Any idea what we should do with the bodies? I’d rather not drive around with corpses in the trunk, if you please.”

  “There shouldn’t be a need for that. Not if nature does its job.”

  “What are you talking about? I’m sure that if they were going to crumple in a pile of ash it would have happened by now.”

  “Of course not. This isn’t Hollywood. Dead vampires do no disintegrate. They do, however, show their real age.” Valentin pointed to the closest body. “Go see for yourself.”

  Matheus, the vampire Shawn had killed, lay six feet away from them. Or what was left of him. The jaguar’s claws had done a huge amount of damage. The clothes were shredded and there should have been pieces of flesh scattered around, but there was none of that. Or at least, nothing one would call flesh. There were, however, bits of what appeared to be dried skin.

  Shawn stepped closer to take a better look. Valentin snickered at the sickened expression on Shawn’s face as what he was looking at finally registered. Valentin remembered his own reaction when he was first confronted with a sight like that. The years that passed since then offered him enough opportunities to familiarize himself with the whole process, but he still couldn’t stomach it most of the time. Yet, puking in front of his lover, again, wasn’t an option, so he put on his best poker face and settled for watching Shawn.

  Matheus looked now like a three-thousand-year-old mummy dressed in modern clothes. Parchment-dry, fragile, weighing no more than a few pounds, strands of white hair framing a face no longer recognizable, it was all that was left of him. The head, severed by the jaguar fangs, was held in place by a strip of skin. But worse than that was smell. Oh, Valentin remembered the smell. Old wet books, the sweet, overwhelming stench of death and a hint of resin.

  Shawn’s nose wrinkled in distaste. “That’s something you don’t see every day.”

  “Yeah, I know. The first time I stumbled across one of these, I had nightmares for a month. It still gives me the creeps. Though, I have to admit I prefer this new-and-improved version of these guys over the old one.” Valentin had crossed the distance between them, and by the time he finished speaking he was standing shoulder to shoulder with Shawn.

  “Couldn’t agree with you more. But what do we do with them? Because I have to tell you, it would be just as difficult to explain the presence of two mummified bodies in the back of the car as it would be with two fresh ones.”

  “You have a point. The sun and the elements would finish the job for us, but I’m not sure how fast it will happen. We can’t leave them by the side of the road.”

  “You sure those fireballs are out of the question?”

  “Positive. But fire would be the way to go.” He kneeled next to the corpse to take a closer look and swallowed the bile that rose in his throat. “They are so dry they’d burn in no time.”

  Shawn threw him an incredulous look. “You have got to be kidding me. It’s raining and these guys are soaked. No way we could light them on fire.”

  “I beg to disagree,” he purred. “But unfortunately this is not the place to prove you wrong. You know these parts? Any suggestions?”

  “Any suggestion for what? I have no idea what you want.”

  “A good spot for a bonfire.”

  Shawn glanced around him and sniffed the air.

  “What wrong with this place?”

  “Too public.”

  “You can do that creepy mind thing.”

  “No, I can’t.”

  “Sure you can. I’ve just seen you do it.”

  A shadow passed over Valentin, his face contorting in a grimace.

  “Trust me, I can’t. Do you know how much power you need to play with someone’s mind? Or of several someones?”

  The darkness was gone, and he was working himself up, his voice growing louder.

  “I don’t have the power to do this. I never did. Not even in my good days. And in case you haven’t noticed, this is not one of them.”

  Shawn watched him carefully, as if trying to figure out if Valentin was telling the truth.

  “Then what do we do?”

  “Find a secure place where we can take our time burning them. We set them on fire and we make sure there is nothing left.”

  “There should be a ravine not too far from here. We could take them there. I’m not sure how the path there is, or if there is one. You up for the trip?”

  Valentin looked up at Shawn and wasn’t surprised to see uncertainty on his face. What was I expecting? He must think I’m some sort of wuss. He winced and realized that Shawn was still waiting for an answer.

  “Yeah, I am. In fact I haven’t felt this good in a while.” And that was something he’d have to analyze later. “We should put the car back on the road. It’d look less suspicious than this.”

  Shawn nodded. “What do you prefer? Front or back?”

  “I can go both ways.” The opportunity had been too good to pass on.

  Shawn’s head snapped up and, in spite his dark skin tone, he blushed a furious shade of red.

  “I’ll take the front,” Shawn mumbled under his breath and bounded to the front of the SUV.

  “Works for me.” Valentin smiled seductively and batted his lashes at Shawn. His lover decided to ignore him and reached under the plates for the proper place to put his hands so he could lift it securely.

  Finally the last piece was placed onto the tarp and all that were left were the biggest chunks, the two corpses. The skin was rough and unpleasant, the smell nauseating, and touching them was not something Valentin wanted to do again. Ever. And if the grimace on Shawn’s face was any indication, Shawn wasn’t enjoying the task either.

  “All set. We should get to the ravine you were talking about, we still have a solid two hours of darkness.”

  “So killing a vampire won’t turn him into dust but sunlight will?” Shawn teased.

  Valentin rolled his eyes. “Of course not. It just speeds the process. And you can’t very well leave the bodies by the side of the road to wait for the sun to incinerate them. No saying who might run into them, and God only knows the kind of questions that would raise. Can you imagine the conversation? Ohhh, no, it’s not what it looks like. These aren’t mummies. No, sir, they aren’t. Honestly.”

  Shawn turned to glare at him, and Valentin met his gaze head-on, his face a perfect picture of innocence. Wild-eyed, lips slightly agape, the only thing missing from the picture was a halo above Valentin’s head.

  “You have a point there. Just don’t let it go to your head.” Shawn bent over and reached for the tarp’s closest corner.

  “I’ll have you know I’m always right.”

  “I’m sure you are. That’s probably the reason you’re now running for your life,” Shawn shot back without even looking up. “Less talk and more work.” He grabbed the tarp’s side end and motioned Valentin to do the same.

  Chapter 6

  The stupid thing wasn’t heavy, Valentin had to admit it, but the narrow path through the woods made carrying that tarp difficult. And he’d be damned if he’d utter a single word of complaint. The blood he’d ingested helped, but it wasn’t enough. He still had the occasional head rush, and his eyesight was sometimes fuzzy. But what made everything seem better was the view of Shawn’s bare chest, still wet from sweat and rain, and the play of the muscles under the skin. Just a couple of inches shorter, Shawn’s body wasn’t very broad or bulky, but the muscles were well defined. Dark nipples on a smooth chest, not a hair in sight, perfectly chiseled six-pack over an interesting bulge in front of those battered jeans, and strong thighs. Too bad he didn’t get to taste all that glorious skin. The only thing that would improve his mood was a better view of that tight ass. That particular part
of anatomy required a much closer examination. Repeatedly.

  His dick twitched in approval. Wind whirled and Shawn’s scent punched him in the stomach. He sniffed the air discreetly, hoping his gesture would be translated as an attempt to make sure they were safe, but judging by the smirk on his lover’s face he’d failed miserably.

  He tore his gaze away from the gorgeous man walking in front of him and focused on the task at hand. They were, or Shawn was, carrying the tarp through the trees along what Valentin assumed was the path Shawn had been talking about, though he couldn’t see any trace of it, and tripping and falling on his nose would be a whole new level of embarrassment, something Valentin didn’t want to experience.

  They reached the ravine and lowered the burden to the ground. Valentin looked down, searching for a crevice in the slope, something deep enough to provide the protection needed against any prying eyes. Speaking of which… “What are your senses telling you? Are we alone?”

  Shawn’s lips quirked in a small, knowing smile, but he did as instructed. His nostrils flared, scenting the air, and his ears twitched, straining to pick out anything that didn’t belong in the forest at three o’clock in the morning.

  “Yes, we are. Now we are here, what happens next? Dump them in here and leave? Even if it’s not a well-known area, I’m sure there are some people familiar with it. They are bound to come this way eventually.”

  “I’m sure you’re right. That’s why we are not going to throw them in. We are gonna burn them.”

  “And we’re back at the fireballs.”

  Oh boy, the cat could be annoying. Luckily for him, he was hot. Valentin rolled his eyes at Shawn, wondering how much more he could annoy the man. “You really should get over it, you know? People might get the wrong idea. Like you have a fireball fetish.” He winked at Shawn, throwing him his most wicked smile.

  “Ohh, aren’t you smart.”

  If looks could kill…

  “Why don’t we just dump them and leave?”

  “What if someone finds them?”

  “In the middle of the nowhere?”