“And how is that my fault?”
“You have been, shall we say, distracting.”
“Oh, great. So you shut me out because you find me distracting. Well, that is just fucking all right with me. I never asked for this shit in the first place. You wanted me, Gui, not the other way around.”
“Things change.”
“Bullshit, things change. Your dick is still hard. Do you know that? And don’t tell me it’s because of Chachi over there.” He pointed to the young man waiting quietly on the couch. “He hasn’t touched you in a while, and your dick is hard and ready.”
This time, Nathan moved faster than Guillermo. He closed the distance between himself and the master vampire, pressing his mouth over the cool, yielding lips. A surge of electricity pulsed through him. It forced its way down the master vampire’s throat and came out of the tip of the loosed cock, cracking a spark against Nathan’s stomach. Guillermo’s resolve broke as he melted into the kiss. Their tongues caressed in dance-like movements. Nathan abruptly broke from the kiss.
“You know what? You’re right. You’ve got business to attend to.”
Guillermo’s jaw dropped, then closed. His words were forced. “Absolutely correct, Nathaniel. I have work to do.”
“Yeah, well, fuck you,” Nathan added as he left the office and wandered out into the club.
* * * *
Guillermo sat back down on the couch. Chachi instantly went back to work without prompting. After a few moments, Guillermo’s erection began to dwindle. There would be no release. He dismissed the young man with a light tap on the back of his head. “Enough, go away.”
Thoughts of Nathan cluttered Guillermo’s mind. Too many things were happening at once. Nadine upset about Albert, Min coming to town, and the fact that a rogue vampire, or group of vampires, was going around killing their own kind. He could handle Nadine, but if he didn’t figure out who could be slaying the vampires and soon, Min would make a move on him. His use of force had stopped the ancient vampire in the warehouse. Nonetheless, the Egyptian would be ready at their next confrontation. Guillermo feared it would be a bloody battle. And what of Nathan? His desire for Nathan nearly outweighed everything else in his world. Can I give him up? Guillermo sighed and then fastened his pants.
Chapter 11
Nathan, shoulders set, stormed through the club toward the exit. Guillermo had humiliated him, made him feel like a pawn, a plaything, a Chachi! His rage allowed his Beast to surface, riding the edge of his skin like a cobra ready to molt.
“Daddy,” a woman purred from behind him, as a delicate hand touched his shoulder. He whipped around, eyes glowing with rage. Beth grinned. “I never see you anymore. You look great.” She pranced around him, stroking a hand over his chest and back. Nathan felt a twinge of guilt. This depraved creature had been his making.
“Beth,” he said uncomfortably. “What are you doing here?”
She formed a pouty “O” with her mouth. “Didn’t Gui tell you? I take care of all his legal stuff now.” Her blue eyes sparkled with excitement. “I’ve missed you, Daddy.” She rubbed her palms down his abdomen. “Haven’t you missed me? Even a little?”
Nathan hadn’t. In truth, he’d hoped he would never see her again. “I’ve got to go. Nice seeing you, Beth.” He made a beeline for the exit. Beth followed him out onto the sidewalk.
“Wait!” She moved in front of him. “Don’t you want to play?” The door slowly closed behind them and a stillness settled on the street outside the club.
“Not tonight.” He started walking down the street toward his apartment on the Plaza. Beth pushed him into the nearest alley. “What the hell?”
“Daddy’s been a wicked boy. He’s been playing with Guillermo. Naughty, naughty. I think Daddy needs to be punished.” She nipped at his shoulder playfully, holding his arms down.
Nathan’s back pressed into the hard brick. Beth’s eyes went glassy and wild, and not from excitement, Nathan realized, but from insanity. He tried to push her away. She feverishly clung to him. “Beth. I have to go. You have to let me go.” He wondered why lately all the people in his life were nuts.
“Oh, Daddy.” Her voice hummed with anticipation. “I’m going to do more than let you go. I am going to free your body from this hell.”
Two male vamps, one who looked like the steroid king and the other, skinny, short, and could have passed for Mick Jagger’s twin, came at him from both sides. They grabbed his arms. Nathan heard Beth’s malicious laughter while he struggled against their grip. The Beast roared within him. No! it cried out. His eyes slipped painfully to less than human, his forehead ridged and fangs dropped. He broke free of the muscular male vampire on his left, backhanding Beth, then punched out at the wiry vamp who still held his right arm. His fist made contact with the vampire’s jaw. Beth yelled at the muscle-head, “Get him, Bobby Joe!”
Bobby Joe jumped on Nathan’s back pushing him to the ground. As he rolled out from under the bulky mass, Beth kicked him viciously in the head. He swung his arm in blind fury, sweeping her legs. She shrieked, landing face down on the paved alley. Stunned from the brutal kick, Nathan barely noticed as Jagger’s twin managed to get a rope around his legs. He shook his head to clear the confusion, then kicked with both feet, landing a blow to the skinny vampire’s chest.
Nathan curled his body forward to undo the bindings. “Son of a bitch!” he cried out as Bobby Joe landed his whole body across Nathan’s torso, pinning him to the ground.
Beth pulled his hands up and quickly put cuffs on both wrists. Nathan’s Beast snapped jaws toward her pretty neck. “You bitch. You’ll pay for this,” the Beast warned in an untamed growl.
A red raised mark shone on her cheek as she slowly shook her head. “Not this time, Daddy.”
Beth wiped blood from her lip. Both Bobby Joe and Jagger looked disheveled. “Let’s get him to Min, before I kill him myself,” Jagger growled.
Beth slapped him hard across the face. “Nobody kills Daddy but me. His heart is mine!”
Jagger and Bobby Joe gave each other a “this bitch is crazy” look before they dragged his writhing body out of the alley and into a nearby car, dumping him in the trunk. Nathan’s Beast howled in anger as the lid closed firmly over him.
* * * *
Guillermo had just finished signing some documents when his little Gina, flushed and breathless, came running into the office without knocking.
“Is something wrong, Gina?”
Tears streamed down her face. “They’ve… taken… him!” she rasped through heavy inhalations.
“Taken who?” Guillermo asked gently.
“Oh, Gui, I’m so sorry. I couldn’t stop them. I wanted to but I couldn’t,” she sobbed.
Alarmed now, Guillermo crossed the room and grabbed her by the shoulders to steady her body. “Who? Tell me.”
She hesitated for a moment. “Nathan.”
Guillermo’s stomach dropped and his brain went numb with fury. He shook Gina. “Who took him? Tell me now!”
“It was Beth and two guys I didn’t recognize.” She tried to move away from his iron grip. “You’re hurting me, Gui.”
He released her. “I’m sorry.” His voice had calmed to a dangerous whisper. “Tell me what you saw.”
Gina rubbed her arms. “They had Nathan tied and handcuffed. They put him in the trunk of a blue car and took off up Oak Street.”
“What did the men look like? Did they say anything?”
“One of the guys was a really skinny dude, the other really bulked up. I’m sorry, I can’t tell you much more about them. I didn’t get a great look and I don’t have vamp night vision.” She paused, then brightened. “They did say something about not killing him before they got him to men.”
Guillermo’s head snapped up. “Did they say men? Or Min?”
Gina nodded. “It could have been Min.” Her body shuddered as she began to cry again even harder. “I’m sorry, Gui. I should have done something to stop them. I was just
so scared.”
He pulled her into his arms. “Shhh… you did the right thing, niña. You did the right thing.” In truth, Guillermo blamed himself. If he had not been cruel to Nathan, his lover, amante, would be safe now. It did not surprise Gui that Beth would align herself with Min. He understood, now, how Min planned to blame him for the killings. Nathan’s scent on Guillermo had given Beth all the ammunition she needed to choose his lover. She would have guessed the doctor might be important to him, and hurting Guillermo was important to Min.
“Go get Nadine and tell her to close the club and gather my security. We are going on a hunt.” He would save Nathaniel even if it cost him his life.
* * * *
Nathan sat alone, bound to a metal chair, mouth gagged, in an empty room. They had dragged him into the back alley behind a male go-go club down on Walnut Street and taken him to this room through a back entrance. His Beast had receded just below the exterior. It seemed to know that Nathan needed a clear head. He smelled old blood in the room, and guessed the dark spots on the concrete floor were probably from previous vampires who had sat in this chair. Had Beth lured them all here? He never really thought of her as clever. Nathan winced as the ropes rubbed against his wrists as he tried to loosen them. The bindings would not budge.
The door creaked open. He recognized Beth’s long leg, before the rest of her followed through the entrance. She sauntered over to him and straddled his legs. “Hmmm, it smells positively primal in here.” She licked his eyelid. He flinched. “Don’t you agree?”
Nathan turned his head away from her. She pulled his face back around.
“This gag will have to go, but only if you promise not to bite?” She laughed at her little joke.
Nathan nodded his agreement. First chance I get, your ass is mine.
She pulled down the cloth gag. “There.” She kissed his tightlipped mouth. “That’s better.”
“Why are you doing this, Beth?”
Beth stood and pressed a heeled foot into his groin, not enough to do any damage, just enough to get his attention. “Oh, Daddy, you ask the silliest questions.”
“I’m not your daddy.”
“I’m hurt.” Her lower lip jutted into a pout and she pushed against his sensitive balls harder. “You are my sire. You made me.” Her face grew hard and brutal. “Or don’t you remember?” She jumped back onto his lap, grinding her pussy against his clothed cock. “Because I remember every…” She ground herself against him with more vigor. “…aching, delicious, moment of that bright, bright orgasm. And the feeling of sheer terror and excitement as you ripped into my throat.”
Nathan closed his eyes. He remembered. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“Don’t be, Daddy. I love being immortal. I love my power. What I hate is the fact you ignored me afterwards.”
So, Beth wants my attention. I can give her that, if it will help me win my freedom. He moved his face close to hers. “Kiss me.”
Her eyes widened with surprise. She moved to his mouth, greedily sucking his tongue to mingle with her own. Nathan could taste the coppery blood of her last feeding and his Beast called to his hunger.
Not now, Nathan answered. He pulled back from her lips. “I want to touch you,” he told her. “I want to feel the smooth silk of your skin under my fingertips. Untie me and I will give your body the attention it deserves.”
Beth’s eyes shifted from side to side as she considered the possibilities. A well-dressed, very tall man with ebony skin entered the cold room laughing.
“I’m certain you would give a grand performance.” He snapped his fingers at Beth. She leapt to her feet and took her place at his side. “It is not to be your fate, I’m afraid.” The man looked at Beth. “I know I promised you, dear one. However, he has more fight and spirit than the others. I think I will feast on his heart alone. A meal fit for a god.”
Beth nodded, her attention no longer on Nathan. She only had eyes for the statuesque vampire. Nathan could understand why. He could not look away from him, either. Electricity crackled over his skin as his Beast felt the call of this master vampire’s body. “Who… who are you?”
“Min, master of ten cities, ancient and old beyond your wildest dreams,” the man announced. Min took off his jacket. The white shirt he wore underneath clung to every rippled muscle on his long torso. “And I will make you mine for the rest of your short life.”
“No.” He shook his head. Something felt very wrong. This Min appealed to the primordial cravings in his Beast. Nathan’s mind screamed to be released from this magical hold. How could he fight both the power of Min and his Beast?
The word spilled from his mouth. “Yes.”
Min gestured to Beth, satisfied in Nathan’s submission to him. She quickly untied the doctor’s hands and feet.
Min held out his hands. “Come. Kneel before your god.”
Nathan’s legs began walking toward the master vampire before he could even think about what Min had said. Min, he thought. Why do I know that name? Even as the Beast forced him to move forward, his human part remembered. In his pre-med studies, Nathan had taken a class in mythology. Min had been the name of the ancient Egyptian god of fertility. The books said that this particular god could call his people to lust.
Nathan knelt in front of the ancient vampire.
“Very good,” Min said, caressing Nathan’s hair. “I reward obedience.” Min undid his pants and his long, stiff shaft stood erect in front of Nathan’s face.
A tingle rushed through Nathan’s body as his cock swelled against his jeans. Yes, the Beast demanded, take the reward. Nathan tried to think of something, anything other than that ebony staff.
Guillermo, he thought and the Beast withdrew a little in deference. His mind cleared some. I will survive this, he kept telling himself. We will survive this, he acknowledged to the Beast.
Nathan didn’t want to touch Min, even though he knew that it might be his only chance to live. He closed his eyes and pictured Guillermo as he slipped his mouth over the impossibly large, engorged cock. His mouth moved down the shaft, only able to take the long length halfway. The Egyptian moaned with pleasure. Nathan could feel hands on his jeans, unsnapping and unzipping. He pulled his head back up the shaft to see that Beth had crawled between Min’s legs.
She took Nathan’s cock into her mouth, sucking with vigor. A noise escaped his throat. Concentration, he needed concentration, and her skilled mouth made it next to impossible. Focus, Nathan. He attacked the vampire’s cock with urgency, licking his veined shaft, kissing down the length of the black rod. His tongue curled under one of Min’s balls, teasing it until he could feel it tighten. He pressed his lips to the line that divided torso from thigh until his mouth rested over the femoral artery…
Now, he told the Beast. His fangs protracted to full length as he sunk them into the vampire, tearing at the soft flesh covering the artery, drinking the magically tainted blood.
Min’s eyes opened with surprise. An angry scream ripped from his mouth. He shoved Nathan to the ground, the flesh around the Egyptian’s artery shredded, and Beth’s hungry lips came loose from Nathan’s cock. Min landed on top of Nathan as Beth scrambled to get out of the way.
“Disobedience is penalized.” He yanked Nathan’s head back. Surprised, Nathan cried out, before Min tore into his throat. The pain blinded Nathan—blood poured from the gaping wound. Min’s fingers moved to his chest and began pressing against the left side of his upper ribcage. As the clawing hand inched its way to his heart, Nathan passed out.
* * * *
Guillermo made the rounds to all of Min’s strip clubs. Zagazig was the last stop. If Min hadn’t brought Nathan to this place, Guillermo didn’t know where else to look. He’d brought Nadine and ten of his men along. They walked into a scene of stunning men gyrating on a dance floor. Gui made a beeline for a young bartender.
“Is Min here? I need to talk to him.”
The young man didn’t bother to look up from the glass he was
washing in the small bar sink. “He’s busy.”
Guillermo had the information he needed. Min was here. He directed his men to spread out and search the back doors to the club. One of them gestured to a locked room. Placing his ear against the door, Guillermo could hear a painful scream, then nothing. Nathan must be on the other side. Panic raced through his mind. No! He could not lose Nathan. Not now, not ever. Fear and anger pulsed through the master vampire, fortifying his already inhuman strength. He burst the door off its hinges. A sob tore from Guillermo as he stared in horror at Nathan’s limp body, torn throat… and Min pushing his fingers into his lover’s chest.
Enraged, Guillermo tackled the Egyptian, propelling him from his Nathan’s body. Beth jumped on his back, beating her fists against Gui’s head. Nadine grabbed her and threw her roughly against the wall.
Min growled. “You’re like a puppy I should have drowned long ago, Guillermo.”
“Hacete coger,” Guillermo spat out. “Go fuck yourself.”
Three of Gui’s men pushed the door back into place in an attempt to keep Min’s throng from coming to the aid of their leader. The Egyptian, while larger and stronger than Gui, could not match Gui’s wrath. His entourage broke through the barrier, pitting vampires against vampires as Guillermo and Min waged war on each other.
Min’s claws raked over Gui’s cheeks and chest, leaving jagged valleys in his tattered flesh. Guillermo answered by punching his fist into the Egyptian’s side, then kneeing him in his exposed testicles. Min rolled Guillermo and came up on top of him. “Your heart will do.” He plunged his hand into Guillermo’s chest, breaking soft tissue and bone. Guillermo cried out in agony.
All of a sudden, everything and everyone stopped.
Min’s eyes rolled back into his head as he collapsed onto Guillermo, a metal table leg sticking out of his back. Nathan, unable to speak, fell down next to Gui. Somehow, during the fight, he had awakened. Fortified with the blood of the ancient vampire, he managed to break the metal chair, and use the leg to stake the Egyptian through the heart. Min’s men stopped fighting when their master went limp with real death. They gathered in a circle around Guillermo and Nathan. They seemed more lost than angry.
A Reluctant Vampire Page 8