But she kept seeing the thick dark pink line of scar tissue across Nial’s body as she worked. And his face covered in blood when he dropped the hood. The images wouldn’t go away.
When the disreputable clothing was doused, she put the can of spray away and headed for the pocket made by the elevator shaft, where Nial kept his office.
Sebastian was working on the computer, a fine line between his brows. His fingers moved quickly and competently over the keys.
Winter hugged herself, a shiver catching her by surprise.
Sebastian glanced up once, but then his frown smoothed out and he looked at her properly. “What is it?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I’m not sure.”
“From the way you’re holding yourself, you look like you need a hug,” Sebastian said.
Winter bit her lip. Until he’d suggested it, the idea hadn’t occurred to her. “Yes, that’s exactly what I want,” she said. “But if you put your arms around me right now, Sebastian, I don’t think I…I mean, I’ll be…shit.” She stopped trying to find the words and just looked at him.
Sebastian reached for her hand and pulled her into his lap. “You don’t know anything about lovers, do you?” He wrapped his arms around her and pressed her head gently against his shoulder. “You’re allowed to cry, Winter. That’s one of our functions—we get to see you cry and be pathetic and scared and all the other things you’d never let the rest of the world see.” His voice reverberated in his chest, strong and deeply reassuring.
Just the mention of crying brought the tears to her eyes, scalding hot and making her eyes ache. Her chest hurt and made her breath jam up in her throat.
Sebastian put her arms around his neck. “We keep it to ourselves because the deal is we get to comfort you and make you feel better. And there’s nothing as good in the world as bringing a smile back to your lover’s lips.”
Winter tightened her arms. “I don’t even know why I’m crying,” she whispered.
Sebastian kissed her temple. “You’re crying because Nial got hurt and you’re not used to seeing it.”
“And you are?” she asked, appalled. “How often does it happen?”
“Not very often at all,” he told her, smoothing her hair back from her face with his thumb in a caress that was meant to soothe and reassure, but made Winter distantly aware once more of Sebastian’s size. It was only when he stood next to Nial that Sebastian looked shorter. Next to most other men, he was the tall one. The stronger one.
And his strength didn’t just come from muscle. To have lived so long and so secretly, Sebastian would have a reinforced industrial strength will to live.
“You’ve seen Nial hurt often enough to be casual about this,” Winter said.
“Not casual,” Sebastian replied. “Never that. But I understand the healing process, the vast outer limitations of vampire recuperation.”
He unwound her arms from his neck and tilted her chin up so that she was forced to look him in the eye, tear-stained cheeks and all. His gaze was steady. “I also know how well Nial can defend himself, Winter. I’ve seen him too many times—” His gaze shifted inward and for a moment she knew he was recalling memories of other times and places. The fine line between his brows came back and she wanted to reach up and erase it with her fingertips. “There’ve been too many of those times,” he said flatly. “Not in the last handful of decades, although there were a few, but further back…” The line deepened for a moment, then he took a breath and it disappeared and he refocused on her face. “I’ve seen Nial cornered, I’ve seen him face overwhelming odds. I’ve seen him fight his way of situations that would make Navy SEALs puke in fear. Nial is a survivor, Winter. He simply doesn’t give up, especially up here.” Sebastian tapped his temple.
Winter nodded. “Okay,” she said, trying to make it sound convincing. All she could see was a mental snapshot of the ragged pink scar across Nial’s body. “But someone got to him,” she added.
Sebastian nodded. “And he’s going to tell us why.” He picked up her hand again, his fingers threading through hers. Winter thought he might kiss her palm again, but Sebastian simply rested his hand on her thigh, her own curled in his big palm. “He’s a strategist, Winter. Never more so than when he’s reduced to having to fight his way out of a situation. I don’t know if he was born that way or learned it over the years, but even while he’s beating down the opposition, Nial will be figuring out odds, better ways to swing the advantage his way, potential schemes, moves that’ll win his hand for him, and he’ll adjust his planning with every move the opposition makes. If they put a single foot wrong, show the tiniest flaw or weakness, they’re screwed. Nial will use that chink to open them up wide and lay their entrails on the ground for carrion to fight over.”
Winter swallowed. “You’re…you are speaking figuratively, right?”
Sebastian grinned. “If we’re only talking about the last eighty years or so. But the slimy bastard absolutely deserved it. He was using children to run his gambling money around Chicago and paying them a pittance, then hitting their families up for rent and taking it right back. If they couldn’t afford rent, he’d take the children in lieu. Slavery, in other words.” Sebastian’s mouth turned down. “The Depression was just that. Depressing.”
Winter licked her lips. She knew without a doubt why Nial had done what he did with the man in Chicago. Slavery of any sort would enrage him.
She reached for a change of subject. “Then you’re saying Nial thinks on his feet?”
Sebastian pursed his lips, assessing. They had done this many times when working together—toted up an opponent’s physical and mental abilities using the criteria peculiar to their odd profession. “I’ve never met anyone better or faster than him. Including you and me, Winter.”
She took a deep breath. Let it out. “But if he’s that good, what does it say about how good the people are who carved up his chest?”
Sebastian shook his head. “Perhaps there were dozens of them, perhaps there were humans around and he couldn’t use all his strength and speed. Until he tells us there’s no point in speculating. You don’t know what happened and wondering is just chewing up juices. You need to stop thinking about it, Winter.”
“Easy for you to say. You’ve had practice.”
Sebastian picked up the end of the tie around her waist. “I could distract you, if you like,” he offered, pulling at the bow and making it start to loosen. There was a hot gleam in his eye.
Winter wrapped her arm around his neck once more, pressing her breast against his chest. Longing washed through her. “You could,” she agreed. Her breasts grew heavy and hard-tipped and she suddenly wanted more than anything to have Sebastian slide his hand through the loosened and gaping opening in Nial’s robe and claim one.
Magically, Sebastian lifted his hand and pushed beneath the silk. She caught her breath as he cupped her breast, his fingers snagging on her puckered, sensitive nipple.
Sebastian drew her head closer. “Just as distracting for me,” he murmured and kissed her.
His lips were a warm drug. Honey to her senses. Winter slowly melted against him, undone by a kiss and a caress.
“There’s a sight,” Nial said.
Winter gasped as Sebastian let the office chair turn a few degrees. Enough for her to see Nial standing where the wall hiding the elevator shaft ended and the bigger room opened up.
He wore track pants and a tank top, both black, and his hair was wet from the shower. He was barefoot still.
Winter scrambled off Sebastian’s lap and threw her arms around Nial. She hadn’t consciously planned it. Her body moved independently of her mind. But she found herself in Nial’s arms, her face against his shoulder and the strongest urge to simply hold onto him. Tightly.
“Hey, you’re trembling,” he murmured. “Sebastian isn’t that good.”
“If I was, I would have been better able to distract her,” Sebastian said dryly.
Nial hesitated. “I
see.” His arms tightened. “I’m fine, as you can see.”
“I know,” she answered, her voice muffled against his chest. She rested her hand against his midriff, where the scar would be beneath the tank top. “I’m being pathetic. Give me a moment and I’ll shrug it off.”
“Oh no, you don’t,” Nial replied. He bent and scooped her up in his arms, moving easily and showing no signs of any pain or unease. He carried her to the desk and sat her on it, careless of the papers beneath her ass. He pushed between her knees and took her face in his hands. “Honesty, remember?” he told her.
“Even if it makes me look like a three year old?” She smiled ruefully. “I have my pride, Nial.”
“And I have my ego,” he replied. “What is the harm in letting me know the degree to which you worried about me?”
Winter was caught by his steady, expectant gaze. She couldn’t think of a single reason, except one: Nial would know how much she cared about him. And why was she hiding that? Why hadn’t she told him yet?
“Because you scare me,” she said, answering his question and her own at the same time.
His hands shifted and dropped away from her face. “I scare you,” he repeated flatly. He considered that. “You don’t trust me,” he concluded. “Even with something as simple as how upset you might have been over the scratch I got, you fear I might exploit it as a weakness in you. That is why you don’t tell me.”
“Nial—” Sebastian said with a chiding tone from behind the desk.
Nial shook his head. “I have finished,” he said, his tone back to flat and lifeless. He looked down at her. “You’re right. Honesty does come with a high price tag.”
“Nial, you’re taking this completely out of context,” Winter said, horrified at the sudden and terrible turn in the conversation.
“You’re extrapolating way too much,” Sebastian added.
“Am I?” Nial asked, his tone bitter. He didn’t look at Sebastian. He was watching her. Demanding an answer of her.
She pushed the bottom of his tank top up to expose the scar. “How else am I to react when I see—”
It was gone. Nial’s stomach and chest looked perfectly normal. Winter ran her fingers over the approximate line where the scar had been. There was nothing there.
“We heal perfectly,” Nial said stiffly. “It isn’t healing as you understand it.”
“It’s restoration,” she breathed. “I heal, you just restore yourself to the same timeless version.”
“You understand,” Nial said.
“No wonder there is no pain when you heal. It’s not the same at all.”
“Winter,” Nial said, his voice low. “You need to leave now.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
WINTER LOOKED UP at Nial, startled, for his voice wasn’t just flat this time. It was strained.
Nial’s eyes had dilated to the point where the irises were almost fully consumed by the pupils. There was no blue left. He rolled his head like he was trying to reduce an ache in his neck, or reduce a strain, and she saw that his canines were showing. “Leave,” he growled, fisting his hands.
Sebastian lurched from his chair behind the desk and leaned over it to grab Winter’s arm. He slid her out from in front of Nial even as he was moving around to the front of the desk where Nial stood. “He’s ravenous, Winter. And you have a pulse. Come. Come here.”
He pulled her to her feet and backed away from Nial, putting Winter behind him. And Nial turned to follow them.
“He’s fighting off the bloodlust,” Sebastian told her. “At least until you’re gone.”
“And then what?” she demanded, hauling the hem of the robe up with her hands to avoid tripping over it. The front of the robe was hanging open, the ties loose. Had she started this, somehow?
“He can feed from me,” Sebastian said. “There’s no time now to find a willing donor, anyway. This obviously caught him by surprise.”
Winter stepped out from behind Sebastian. “You can feed from me,” she told Nial. She dropped the robe from her shoulders and moved to stand in front of him.
He shook his head. “Not if you fear me. Not like this.”
She felt Sebastian at her back. “He won’t have a lot of control this time,” he whispered.
Winter nodded. “I’ll heal.” She laid her hand over Nial’s heart. “This isn’t the part of you I fear, Nial. None of us in this room is human. Who am I to judge or fear what you are?” She pulled her hair back behind her, baring her shoulder. “Go ahead,” she told him.
Nial’s knuckles whitened. Then, with a soft growl in the back of his throat, he grabbed her and spun her around to face Sebastian, who stood bare inches away, a deep furrow between his brows. Nial’s fingers turned her chin, making her head tilt to one side and exposing the line of her shoulder. Extending it.
Sebastian moved even closer, almost pressing up against her. But he was watching Nial and Winter knew he was ready to intervene if this went badly.
Her heart started to race.
“I hear your fear,” Nial snarled in her ear in a voice that wasn’t his own. Then he bit her.
This was no lover’s bite. His teeth sank into her and tore back, opening up her veins. But before Winter could feel any of the pain such wounds should deliver, the aphrodisiac hit her system.
She moaned as intense, overwhelming need raged through her. Her knees weakened and she felt her body slump. But Nial was holding her up, feeding from her. Distantly, she could feel the sensations of blood being pulled from her, but she didn’t care. She just wanted more of the intense pleasure circling through her. She wanted Nial’s hands to move over her, to not just stroke and caress, but to take her the same raw, feral way he was feeding.
She wanted to writhe in sweet agony but Nial held her so firmly in his grip she could barely move. It enhanced her arousal. She could feel her entire body throbbing with desire.
“Tera.” A soft whisper.
She opened her eyes. Sebastian was watching her, concern thinning his wonderful mouth. But a flicker of craving touched his eyes. He was affected by the sight of her locked in Nial’s arms like this. Helpless while Nial fed from her.
“Touch me,” she pleaded.
Sebastian’s tongue touched his lip, signaling how tempted he was. Then he shook his head. “If I move you in any way at all, he’ll tear you open.”
“Please,” she begged.
Sebastian groaned and pressed himself up against her. He wrapped an arms around both her and Nial, anchoring them all. Winter felt the thick rod of his raging cock through his jeans, pressing up against her. It made her clit spasm, sending a brief sparkle of ecstasy through her and she gave a choked cry.
Nial echoed the cry with a growl, his arms tightening against her. The pulling sensation at her neck was slackening. He was reaching satiation.
The tightening of his arms held her more firmly against Nial’s body and now she could feel how wildly aroused he was. His cock wasn’t just erect, it was pulsing with the energy he would be gaining from her blood.
Sebastian stroked her lips with his tongue, before delving inside her mouth. The intimate caress made her sigh. But she needed more. Moisture gushed from between her legs, preparing her for something other than gentle kisses.
Nial lifted his head from her neck with a long drawn out exhalation. A sigh of repletion.
Sebastian lifted his head to kiss him. Winter turned her head in time to see their lips join. Nial’s were coated with blood. Her blood.
Sebastian licked Nial’s lips clean and pulled back. There was an odd light in his eyes, as if he were remembering the taste with longing.
Nial licked her neck. At first she thought he was merely ensuring he took the last of her blood from the surface of her skin. But then she felt the tingling and warmth around the bite marks and knew that he was healing her bite marks.
This was something familiar. Something she had already experienced. “Nial,” she breathed, knowing that he had returned to the fam
iliar man she knew. Her blood had satisfied his lust.
His tongue slid along her neck, toward her ear. “Your blood tastes spicy, like good mulled wine,” he breathed. “Expensive and addictive.”
She shivered.
“You honor me. You have my thanks,” he whispered. His hands were stroking her. Gentle, teasing strokes. Already Nial knew more about bringing forth the best responses from her body and he was working that magic now. She gasped at the sensations he was provoking. Whatever the aphrodisiac was that he injected, clearly its effect lingered after a feeding. Her nerve endings were all on fire.
“I would do anything you ask, to have you not fear me,” he murmured.
“I don’t fear you. Not like this.”
Sebastian stroked her shoulder, close to where Nial’s bites were rapidly healing and she knew that watching Nial feed had provoked memories of doing the same.
Nial was still pressed up hard against her. She was locked tight between the two of them and her body was pounding with the aching need to be taken by either one of them or both of them. And her heart leapt at the idea of them being in her at the same time once more.
She found her voice. “I want you both. Now.” It emerged low and ragged.
Sebastian exchanged looks with Nial, then gave a small smile and stepped away from her.
Winter reached out for him. “Don’t go!”
He shook his head. “I’m not.”
Nial shifted his hold on her body and she found herself sinking to her knees. His hand against her shoulder—the non-wounded one—forced her onto her hands, too.
Winter looked over her shoulder. Nial was behind her, his sweats low on his hips and his cock free and in his hand. Her pussy tightened at the prospect of the next few minutes.
He settled on his knees behind her, one hand curling around her hip. Winter thought that he might savor the moment and ease into her, but Nial slid into her in one dominating, wild stroke, slamming up against her ass with a harsh exhalation. He was taking her in an almost primitive way and her body responded by tightening around him and her climax beginning to gather deep inside her almost at once. She gasped, lifting her head.
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