by Rayna Vause
“Hanging in there?” Kier pressed a kiss to his temple.
“I’m managing.” Danny reached up and threaded his fingers into Kier’s hair. Danny smiled as Kier’s hand slid up his chest to rest over his heart. He breathed in Kier’s earthy scent. So much had changed in the short time since this whole ordeal started. He couldn’t believe all they’d gone through to get to this point, but he’d never regret it. He’d always be grateful for his second chance with Kier.
“I was so damn scared. Scared of what they’d do to you and scared that I wouldn’t get to you in time.”
“I was terrified, but I never doubted for a minute that you’d get to me. A part of me knew you were coming for me. I kept mentally telling you to hurry your ass up. I could have stood for you to get there a little sooner. I think at some point he was going to start cutting things open, and I’m not sure he planned to use any anesthetic.”
“He’s gone. Let’s not think about it anymore.” Kier tightened his embrace and buried his face in Danny’s neck for a long moment. Then he trailed kisses down his neck and along Danny’s shoulder, making him shiver as they sent tiny shock waves of sensation through his body.
Danny turned in his arms and captured his lips in a slow deep kiss that ended with a shaky breath. He rested his forehead against Kier’s and eased his hands over the warm, firm muscle of his chest and down his sides to rest on his hips.
“Scared me when you ran out there to face all those soldiers. I realize that you’re stronger and faster and whatnot, but still you could have been shot or worse, killed. Don’t know what I would have done if I’d lost you.”
Kier ran his fingers over Danny’s lips. “I’m fine. Rapid healing is one of the perks of being a vampire. I barely got scratched, although having a building land on me hurt a little.” Kier smiled and gave Danny a quick kiss.
“I’m glad Alex and Aiden are okay. How is Aiden?”
“Sharon just finished with him before I came in here. He’s going to be fine. He’s going to need time to rest and recharge both physically and mentally. What that woman put him through….” Kier shook his head. “Rogan’s going to need some time to heal as well. Between the head wound and the broken bones, it’s going to be a while before he’s back on his feet. Sharon’s going to go to the hospital and check on him, keep tabs on his care. The man put it all on the line to help us, so I owe him. I’ll help him out how I can.”
“It’s over, right?”
“For now it seems to be.”
Danny leaned back and looked up into Kier’s eyes. “You think they’re still going to come after me?”
“Don’t know. So far we haven’t heard anything about Melissa, but Purity has a long way to go on the cleanup.”
Danny wrapped his arms around Kier, pulled him close until they were pressed body to body. He wanted to immerse himself in Kier, just let the man take him over and surround him like a safe, sexy blanket. He buried his face in the curve of Kier’s neck, pressing his lips to the pulse there, nuzzling in. “I want all the crazy to be over.”
“We’re working on that. I think now we can put all of our focus on fixing you. After we’ve rested. Sharon’s been going through the information Rogan gave us. She wants to talk after we’ve rested.” Kier gave him a slow, sexy smile.
Desire flared to life, sending heat rushing through his body. Danny leaned in and pressed a kiss to Kier’s chest. He ran his tongue up to swirl in the dip at the base of his neck. Kier tilted his head back to give Danny better access.
“I love the taste of you. I love the way you feel pressed against me.”
Kier cupped his hand around Danny’s neck and pulled him up into a breath-stealing kiss. They licked and nipped at each other’s mouths, reveling at being alive and together. The kiss ended when Danny’s need for air became critical, but they didn’t part. Their lips brushed, hands explored, leaving sparks of electricity in their wake.
“I’ve been thinking.”
“That’s never good.” Kier smiled
Danny rolled his eyes. “You’re not funny. Anyway, I’ve been thinking that regardless of what the blood test results or what Lydecker’s notes say, I’d still like you to turn me.”
Kier pulled back, eyes locking with Danny’s. “We can wait a bit longer. Sharon has the drive with all of Lydecker’s notes. She may be able to formulate a treatment, if not a cure, that will allow you to be turned when you’re ready. If you’re ever ready. I don’t want you to ever regret—”
Danny laid a finger over Kier’s lips. “Listen. I’ve been walking the line between vampire and human. I’ve been turned into a madman’s personal lab rat. People may still want to perform tests on me if I’m cured, hell, especially if I’m cured. I’m tired of being stuck in this limbo. I want to live my life.” He looked into Kier’s ice-blue eyes, brushed his fingers along the strong line of Kier’s jaw. “But most important of all, I want to be with you. I want to have a life with you.”
Kier cupped Danny’s cheek. “You don’t have to be like me to have a life with me.”
“Kier, you’re almost one hundred and fifty years old with a lot of years ahead of you. I won’t make you watch me grow old and die. I won’t leave you like that. This is it for me. You’re it. I want to be with you for as long as you’ll have me.”
“Are you sure?” Kier searched Danny’s eyes.
Danny looked at Kier with as much love and desire as he could muster. Then he wrapped his arms around Kier’s neck. “I love you. I loved you then, and I never stopped. I made a mistake when I left you and will be forever sorry about hurting you. If you’ll let me, I want to make it up to you. I want to love you forever.”
Kier closed his eyes, and a breath shuddered out of him. “I love you too, but I need you to be damn sure about this. It will kill me if I turn you and you hate me for it.”
Danny brushed his lips over Kier’s. “Never.”
“When do you want to do this?”
“Anything wrong with now? I want your blood flowing through me.”
Kier barked out a laugh. “How about we let Sharon look you over first.” He linked their fingers. “Then I think you need to call your family. After what your brother went through, I think you need to tell them about your decision. After that, I would love to make you mine forever.”
SHARON LED Kier and Danny into her lab. A much as Kier loved Sharon, he would be happy to never see the inside of this room again. Just like before, they approached a lab table filled with multiple microscopes, test tube racks, and all manner of scientific machinery.
Sharon sat on a tall stool and flipped open her laptop. Then she looked at Kier and Danny with a sympathetic smile. “Well, gentlemen, I have some news for you.”
“I’m guessing it’s not good news.” Danny leaned into Kier, who laid a hand on the small of his back.
“Well, I guess that all depends on your perspective.” She tapped one of the microscopes. “From what I can tell, whatever you were injected with last night, while having a multitude of particularly nasty side effects, did nothing to affect the state of your blood anomaly. If that serum—” She made air quotes with her fingers. “—was supposed to be a cure for vampirism, they were way off the mark.”
“Are you sure?” asked Kier, then looked at Danny, who furrowed his brow. “If it wasn’t a cure, then what is all that research on his computer?”
“I think Lydecker genuinely thought he was on the road to a cure. His notes track the various experiments that he performed on his son, which resulted in a handful of mutations to his son’s cells. These mutations created more aggressive cells, meaning a partial change can occur from ingestion of smaller quantities of blood, but they are also faulty cells. They can’t complete the job, so to speak. In his son’s case, he was a full vampire before the experimentation began, which leads me to believe that once the vampire blood takes over, there’s no changing back.”
“So what does that mean for me?”
“Well, it means th
at if you do nothing, you’re going to have episodes more frequently. But since this process can’t turn you, eventually your body will shut down.”
Kier went cold at her words. She’d told them some of this before, but hearing it now, knowing that the cure didn’t exist, made it even worse. He pulled Danny closer and asked, “Are you saying there’s nothing we can do to stop this?”
“That’s not what I’m saying at all. I’m just not sure Danny is going to like it.”
Danny stiffened in his arms. “Why not? What do I have to do?”
Sharon rose and laid a hand on Danny’s shoulder. “You’re going to have to be turned. Stronger healthy vampire blood cells should help your body complete the process and stop the degenerative process of the flawed cells. You’ll be attack-free, but you’ll be a full vampire.”
“It’s safe for Kier to take my blood?”
Sharon smiled. “Based upon my own experiments and what I’ve gleaned from Lydecker’s notes, it should be safe. When I mixed the blood samples I obtained from you and Kier, Kier’s healthy cells started converting yours into normal vampire cells. That crazy old bastard Lydecker was so obsessed with finding a cure he overlooked one big fact. At the end of the day, normal vampire cells are hearty, dominant cells. If he’d ever bothered to feed his son regular vampire blood, that would have reversed all of the changes that the genetic tinkering caused.”
“So why did I start converting?”
“I just told you, because vampire blood is hearty and dominant. The one thing that Purity’s experiments did was somehow make it easier for a human to become a vampire. It significantly decreased the amount of blood needed to get the process rolling. Okay?” She reached out and squeezed Danny’s shoulder.
“Okay.” That’s all Danny said.
Kier had to clear his throat before he could speak again. “Thanks, Sharon. I appreciate everything you’ve done.”
“No, thank you. That information you brought me, even though it couldn’t help Danny, may prove useful in other ways. Lydecker’s work may have other useful applications. It’s actually given me some ideas for some of my own research. But enough of that. I think you two have a few things you need to discuss, and I’ve got a few patients to attend to upstairs.”
They followed her out of the lab and back into her living room. “Lock up on your way out. I’ll see you later, boys.” Sharon smiled. “By the way, it’s nice to see you two are working it out.”
“Thanks again, Sharon.”
She waved at them, then climbed the spiral staircase to her offices and disappeared through the heavy metal door.
Kier turned to Danny and laid his hands on his shoulders. “You still doing okay with everything? No second thoughts?”
Danny lifted his gaze to Kier’s. He smiled, but Kier also saw notes of anger and sadness. “I haven’t changed my mind at all. I just can’t believe everything we’ve gone through only to find out that the damn cure never existed. That we were put through all of this fear and worry for nothing.”
Kier took Danny’s hands in his. “It wasn’t for nothing. It brought us back together, and for that I’ll never regret anything that happened from the moment you walked back into my bar.”
Danny linked their fingers, curling them down to squeeze Kier’s hands. “I could have done without the sickness and the pain, but otherwise ditto.”
Kier glanced down at the floor. “There’s one last thing I need to tell you. Once we do this—once I turn you—we will be connected forever. If we ever break up—”
Danny stepped closer and stopped Kier’s words by kissing him. “We won’t.” Danny tugged Kier toward the door. “Come on. I have a phone call to make, and then we need to work on our forever.”
Chapter 14
“I’M NERVOUS.” Danny stood in the doorway of Kier’s home office while he got the computer set up to make a Skype call to his family. He rubbed palms gone damp on his jeans as he waited.
“They love you, Dan. They need to know what’s been happening to you. What’s about to happen.” Kier rose from the desk chair and held it out for Danny. “Sit. The computer is all set, and you’ll feel better once you get through this.”
Danny nodded and sat but grabbed Kier’s hand so he couldn’t leave the room.
Kier gave him a reassuring squeeze, then clicked the mouse to initiate the call.
When the call connected, a pretty dark-haired older woman appeared on the screen. “Danny! Where have you been? I haven’t heard from you in days and I was starting to get worried.”
“Hey, Ma. I’m okay, but I’ve gotta tell you it’s been— Well, it’s been a week. Hey, are Dad and Kev there? I’d like to talk to all of you together.”
“Sure, sweetheart, give me a second.” Danny’s mother disappeared off the screen, but they heard her calling for Alan and Kevin to come in. Danny chuckled even as he wiped his palm again. He’d heard the bellowed summons frequently while growing up.
Once Danny’s family all crowded around the computer, he started in on his story. “The first thing I need you to know is that about a week ago I was attacked by a vampire when leaving work.” Danny’s family emitted a collective cry of distress, then all began talking at once. “Guys, please. I’m going to be fine. There are going to be a lot of, well, changes in my life.”
“Oh honey, why didn’t you call us? We could have come taken care of you.”
“I was being taken care of, Mom. Everyone, I’d like you to meet Kieran McCade. He’s the man I love, the man who saved my life, and—” His stomach churned. “—he’s a vampire.”
The room went silent, but that wouldn’t last long. Danny’s words had been the verbal equivalent of lighting a fuse on a stick of dynamite. The explosion would come any second now. Sure enough. Danny’s parents and brother exploded all at once.
Kier pulled up a chair next to him and took his hand again. Danny looked at him, offered a smile of thanks, and dove into the fray.
An hour later, they disconnected the call and Danny sprawled in his seat, the weight of the conversation he’d just had lying heavy on him. He rolled his head and looked up at Kier.
“Well, that could have gone better. It could have gone worse.”
Kier reached out and brushed hair back from Danny’s forehead. “Give them time. You threw a lot at them at once. It’s going to take some time to process it all.”
“I know.” Danny rose. “I’m also not missing the irony of defending a man I once ran away from to my family.”
Kier stood and pulled him close, wrapping him in a hug.
“Thank you for being here. For letting me handle it all.”
“No thanks needed. Caring and support are all part of the deal.”
Danny wound his arms around Kier’s neck, drew his lips along his jaw, and pressed a soft kiss behind his ear.
Kier shivered even as he began kissing the length of Danny’s neck.
A breath huffed out of Danny as electricity danced along his skin and his breathing picked up speed. “If you’re trying to make me forget about that call, it’s working.” Danny smiled and tilted his head. He slid his hands up Kier’s flank and make slow sweeps over Kier’s back.
When Kier found that one spot on his neck that could drive him out of his mind, he exploited the weakness, kissing and sucking until he made Danny moan. Danny needed to touch. He needed Kier’s body under his hand, pressed tight against him. He reached for the hem of Kier’s shirt, but Kier stepped just out of reach. Danny gasped out his denial at the loss of contact.
“Let’s move this elsewhere.” Kier took Danny’s hand and led him into the bedroom. He flipped back the covers on the wide bed and then pulled Danny close.
“Do you know what’s about to happen?”
“Just the basics. It’s blood exchange between the two of us, and then I’ll… change.”
Kier nodded.
“Will it hurt?”
A wide, sexy smiled spread over Kier’s face. “Love, I promise you you
’ll feel nothing but pleasure every step of the way.” Kier leaned until his lips brushed Danny’s. “Are you ready?”
“Yes. I love you and I want this. Anomaly or no anomaly, this is my choice. You are my choice.”
Kier smiled, the look so full of love and longing it took Danny’s breath away. Then Kier leaned in and took Danny’s mouth in a kiss that made every thought and worry float out of his head and lights dance behind his eyes.
This time when Danny reached for the hem of his shirt, Kier didn’t stop him from lifting it up and off. Kier made quick work of Danny’s shirt in turn.
Kier trailed kisses along Danny’s cheek, his jaw, down his throat. Danny’s lips parted. He gasped at the jolt of sensation those soft touches sent through him. He moved on to the pulse in his neck, placing a kiss there before licking downward to kiss the hollow at the base of his throat. Heat unfurled deep inside Danny, wound its way through his system. His skin tingled everywhere Kier touched and tasted him. Danny gasped out Kier’s name when he slid his hands up Danny’s chest and circled a nipple.
“Like that, love? We’re just getting started.”
“I need to lie down. You’re going to kill me.” They made quick work of the rest of their clothes. Then Kier eased him down onto the bed.
Kier leaned over him, a wicked smile on his face, before he lowered himself to lick and suck at Danny’s nipples.
Danny jerked under his skillful mouth. He stroked Kier’s hair, relishing the sensation of the smooth silken strands sliding between his fingers. He clutched the solid muscle of Kier’s shoulders as Kier used his teeth on him. He couldn’t stop a low moan from escaping. Heat spread, and his body pulsed and hardened as Kier continued his downward explorations.
Kier bypassed the part of him that wanted immediate attention. Instead he caressed Danny’s calves and worked his way up to his thighs.
“I need you. Need to touch you.”
“Soon, love. Just enjoy for now.” He slid his hand up Danny’s thigh. Danny splayed his legs, giving Kier access to nip and suck his way up Danny’s inner thighs. Kier licked the crease of his groin and pressed a quick kiss to his cock before moving back up.