Welcome to the Underworld (Siren Publishing Menage Amour)

by Jane Wallace-Knight

  Leo knew that a blood bond would cause a sexual, even an emotional attachment between Henri and Sera. It was not something to be taken lightly. He and Leo might not be together right now, but they had been on again-off again so much in the past that they both knew it was never permanent.

  “You know how it is,” Leo said, clearly downplaying it. “You save a life and then feel responsible for it.”

  Henri looked back at Sera. Judging by the expression on her face she didn’t like being labeled as a responsibility. In fact, she looked pissed off. Henri was starting to think there was a fire in her.

  “You know what?” Sera said, her voice coming out of her like an eruption. “I don’t need this. I’m sorry I’ve been such an inconvenience for you.”

  With that, she turned on her heels and started marching toward the front door. Henri and Leo shared a look before they both went after her.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Leo asked Sera as he grabbed the young woman’s hand and pulled her to a stop.

  “I don’t know!” Sera shouted. “Anywhere that’s not here.”

  Henri raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re upset. I get it, but don’t be stupid.”

  Sera turned her angry gaze on Henri. “What do you care? If I die or get taken, then I’m out of your hair, right?”

  Henri had to stop himself from rolling his eyes at the outburst. Mortals were so dramatic.

  “You’re right, I don’t care!” Leo shouted. “That’s why I’ve put my arse on the line for you. That’s why I’m missing out on my next job for you. That’s why I brought you here to my…to Henri.”

  Henri couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth turning up a little at Leo’s slip of the tongue. The truth was that no matter what happened between them, Henri would always be Leo’s and vice versa.

  He saw the fight slowly seep out of Sera. The young woman was kind of adorable, like a feisty little kitten who melted once someone scratched her under the chin.

  “You’ve had a long day,” Henri pointed out. “And you’ve been through a lot. Let me make you both something to eat, then we can all get some rest and talk about this more in the morning. Then I can tell you exactly what a blood bond entails, before either of us agree to it.”

  Sera’s gaze darted between the two of them. “Okay.”

  Leo visibly relaxed now that he knew Sera was going to stay put.

  “Okay. Good,” Henri said. “Do you like frozen pizza?”

  A small furrow appeared in Sera’s brow. “Yes.”

  “Good,” Henri said. “Because right now the only food I have in the house that isn’t frozen is alcohol and blood bags.”

  “I could eat,” Leo added, not put off one bit by the mention of blood bags.

  “You can always eat,” Henri pointed out. The song Hungry Like the Wolf could have been written for him. He was about to suggest they go through to the kitchen when he saw Leo tense. The werewolf tilted his head, listening to something outside. Although Henri’s hearing wasn’t as sharp as Leo’s, it was still pretty good. It was only a matter of seconds before he heard the sound of another car coming up the road and onto his driveway.

  “What’s going on?” Sera asked as she looked between them.

  “Someone’s here,” Henri told her.

  “Are you expecting anyone?” Leo asked as he went to the window by the door. He pulled back the blind and peered out.

  “No,” Henri answered simply. It was nearly dawn. “I doubt it’s Price. He wouldn’t want to be caught out in the sunlight, it’s painful, I don’t care how much he wants Sera.”

  Although sunlight didn’t kill vampires like in the movies, it wasn’t pleasant for them. On a cloudy day, Henri could go for a walk with an umbrella in his hand just in case the clouds decided to part. The daytime made vampires more tired, too, so most vampires preferred to sleep through it.

  He went to the window the other side of the door and looked out. When a van finally skidded to a halt on Henri’s driveway he knew who it was.

  “It’s Bale’s men,” Leo said with a growl. “Fucking arsehole. Sending his goons here rather than face me alone.”

  With a forlorn sigh, Henri looked at all his nice things that were about to get broken. “Well, if they want Sera, they’re going to have to come inside to get her.”

  “Oh God,” Sera said as she started to pace. “What do we do?”

  Leo turned to look at his charge. “We fight.”

  Chapter Seven

  Sera’s heart was hammering so hard in her chest that she started feeling lightheaded. She felt a hand on her back, but her head was spinning too much to focus on it.

  “Sera,” Leo’s voice said in her ear. “We’re not going to let them take you.”

  This was too much. It was all too much. She hadn’t had a chance to sit down and digest what had happened to her in the space of the last few hours. The entire thing was insane. She didn’t belong here. She didn’t deserve any of this.

  “Sera,” Henri said as he took Sera’s arm and started leading her across the room. “Get in the closet.”

  “What?” Sera asked, wanting to make sure she had heard him right. “Why?”

  “Can you fight?” Henri asked with his eyebrows raised.

  “No.”

  “Then get in the closet,” Henri said. He pointed to the door in the wall and pushed Sera toward it.

  Sera stumbled a couple of feet and looked behind her. With a roar, Leo began to twitch until his fingers morphed into claws. His teeth dropped from his gums, revealing long, sharp points.

  “Holy shit,” Sera cried. Suddenly this was all too real. These two strangers were about to fight for her. They were about to risk their lives for her. She couldn’t understand why they would do that. Nobody had ever been willing to put themselves out for her.

  She also felt like a giant coward. How could she go and hide in the closet at a time like this? She looked down at her hands and remembered what had happened with the glass at the café. She had no control over it, and she didn’t even know for sure that she had done it. The more she thought about it the crazier it seemed, and yet there she was looking at a vampire and a werewolf.

  “Sera!” Leo shouted at her. “Get to safety.”

  Sera shook her head, her hands trembling a little at her side. “You think a wooden door is going to keep me safe? They’re werewolves, I’m pretty sure they’d find me.”

  Henri went over to the fireplace. There was a coat of arms above it with two overlapping swords.

  “She has a point,” Henri said as he pulled free both of the swords. He handed one to Sera, who took it and stared down at it in horror.

  “I can’t use this,” Sera protested.

  “It’s easy,” Henri told her as he went back to the door. “You simply stab them with the pointy end.”

  With that, he pulled open the door, timing it just right. A fully shifted werewolf with snapping teeth lunged through the open doorway and straight into the path of Henri’s sword. The werewolf was impaled and Sera had to look away because in its shifted form the man looked a lot like a big dog.

  The vampire pulled his sword free with a flourish and the wolf went down in a bloody heap.

  “Oh my God,” Sera said. That closet was starting to look more appealing.

  There were five of them, which might not seem like a lot, but considering it was really just Leo and Henri fighting them the odds were definitely in favor of Bale’s werewolves.

  Well, Sera thought as she looked at the dead body in the doorway as it shifted back into that of a human. There’s four now.

  The other four came running at the door, still in their human forms, and Leo lunged at one, his claws and teeth hacking into him. The sight made Sera feel sick.

  Henri wielded his sword with the practice and ease of a man who knew what he was doing. It made Sera even more curious about him. She knew nothing about the vampire, or how old he really was. She watched, her own swor
d clutched awkwardly in her hand, while the two men fought. There was so much going on. A bookshelf was knocked over when Leo threw a man into it.

  “Leo!” Henri shouted at him. “That’s a post-Georgian burr walnut piece of history, must you destroy the place?”

  Leo didn’t respond. He was too busy fighting off another one of Bale’s men.

  It started to look like things might just be okay when Leo threw another guy against the wall, just missing the bookcase for a second time, and he didn’t get back up, that was until one of them advanced on Sera. With an attacker each, Henri and Leo had their hands full. Sera didn’t know what to do so she backed up as far as she could, holding the sword in front of her like it was a shield.

  “Sera!” Leo shouted. He was on the floor wrestling with a guy on top of him.

  Henri turned his head sharply to look at her. He looked torn for a moment before he swiftly kicked his assailant in the chest, knocking him to the floor. He ran to Sera with his sword drawn and quickly skewered the werewolf through the back before he even reached her. Unfortunately, the man Henri had just kicked jumped back up to his feet within seconds and lunged at Henri, slashing his side with his monstrous claws.

  “Henri!” Leo screamed before letting out a roar and throwing his guy off him. He grabbed hold of the werewolf and ripped into his throat with his claws.

  Henri fell to the floor in front of Sera and her heart sank to the bottom of her stomach. She didn’t want the vampire to die because he had been willing the risk his life for Sera, and if he died, then who would protect her from whatever else this Price guy might throw at her?

  She felt a bubble of panic build up in her chest, swelling inside her until it felt too much for her to bear. She dropped to her knees beside Henri with a sob and the light bulbs in the chandelier above them started popping one by one.

  The last attacker was temporarily distracted by the strange display and Leo took advantage of it by digging his long claws into the werewolf’s kidneys. He fell down like a sack of potatoes and Leo stepped over him like he was nothing.

  * * * *

  Leo fell to his knees beside Henri and pulled him onto his lap. “You’re going to be okay.”

  Henri groaned and moved his hand from his side. Even in the dim light Sera could see that there was a hell of a lot of blood. “I’m bleeding on my rug. I love this rug.”

  Leo rolled his eyes. “The rug will live.”

  “Will he?” Sera asked from where she knelt beside them.

  “Do you have blood here?” Leo asked.

  “Of course, but not enough,” Henri told him.

  Leo could go out and try to hunt something down, a deer perhaps, but he had a feeling he wouldn’t make it in time.

  They both looked over at Sera. The plan had been to have Henri claim the nephilim as his, Leo just hadn’t thought it would be happening like this.

  “Can’t you give him some of your blood?” Sera asked.

  “Werewolf bites and blood are lethal to vampires,” Leo told her. “It has to be yours.”

  “What? Me?” Sera asked, her voice tinged with panic.

  “If you had already been claimed when they came tonight, then they might not have attacked,” Leo told the young woman. “This was always the plan, we’re just upping the timeline a bit.”

  Sera stared down at Henri for a moment. She was afraid, and rightly so, but Leo could see her steel herself.

  “Will it hurt?” she asked.

  “Only for a moment,” Henri assured her. Leo could hear the pain in Henri’s voice. His wound was bad. There was no time to gentle Sera into this. Henri needed her blood and fast.

  Leo had heard that nephilim blood had healing properties so Sera’s blood should work even better than that of a regular human.

  “Oh my God,” Sera said as she pulled up her sleeve and thrust her arm in front of Henri’s face. What Henri hadn’t told Sera was how good it was about to feel. In the time they had been together, Henri never drank straight from a person, he always drank out of blood bags or the occasional syringe because of the sexual and intimate nature of drinking from a person.

  Henri took Sera’s arm in his hands and stroked the creamy skin there before bringing it to his lips. Leo watched as Henri placed a gentle kiss just above the wrist. Sera took in a sharp breath and seemed to relax a bit. That soon changed when Henri bared his fangs and bit into Sera’s flesh. The woman tensed, a flash of pain on her face. Leo could see the moment that pain quickly gave way to pleasure.

  Sera’s eyes fluttered closed and her mouth went slack. Henri moaned in bliss as he drank Sera’s blood. It had always been something Leo had been sad about, the fact that he couldn’t share a moment like this with Henri. He knew what it meant, though, for both of them. Sharing blood was an intimate thing that connected them. While Sera’s blood was in Henri’s system, Henri would always be able to feel her, sense her.

  “Holy Christ,” Sera said, her voice much huskier than usual. “Oh my God.”

  Leo watched the pleasure on Sera’s face, the way her chest rose and fell with her heavy breathing, and felt his own body react. Nephilim blood was not only more potent than human blood, it was much more addictive. He trusted Henri, but neither of them truly knew how nephilim blood would affect him. Leo stroked Henri’s hair.

  “Don’t take too much,” he warned softly. He had never known a person with such a strong will as Henri, but this was something new.

  Sera made a heady whimpering sound and swayed forward a little, unconsciously moving her body closer to Henri. Leo sniffed the air, it was thick with arousal from both of them. He tried to ignore it, to not let himself get swept up in it, but it wasn’t easy. His cock began to throb in his jeans and he pressed the heel of his palm against it for a little relief.

  “Henri,” Leo warned again, his tone a little sharper this time.

  The vampire gave a needy moan and practically tore his face away from the wrist. Leo couldn’t understand how it felt for a vampire to drink from a person, but Henri had once described it like forcing himself to stop during sex just before he came.

  Sera seemed to be just as affected as Henri. The young woman, clearly acting on instinct, leaned forward, plastering her body against Henri’s and pressed their lips together.

  “Jesus,” Leo said as he watched Henri’s arms come up around Sera. The two of them ground against each other as Sera pushed her tongue into Henri’s mouth.

  Henri’s hand came up to clutch at Leo’s shirt and Leo stroked the vampire’s light brown hair.

  Henri broke the kiss by gently pushing Sera off him. Both their pupils were blown and their lips kiss-swollen. Sera’s chest was heaving as she continued to gently move against Henri.

  “Wait,” Henri said. “If we’re doing this, then it has to be because you want to, and not just because you’re blood drunk.”

  He looked up at Leo. Leo knew him well enough to know what was going on in his head. He wanted Leo’s permission. It didn’t matter how blood drunk he was, he wouldn’t have sex with Sera if Leo didn’t want him to, even after all these months apart. Leo loved him for it.

  It wasn’t as if they’d never had a threesome before, but in the past it had been one night stands with strangers. Sera was going to be living there with them. Still, if Henri and Sera wanted each other and they were going to be around each other all the time then it was bound to happen eventually, and it would eat Henri up if he did it without Leo’s permission. It wasn’t like Leo didn’t want Sera, too, he did, but it was no small thing to bring a third person into their relationship.

  It was easy to think rationally when his dick wasn’t hard, but right now he couldn’t be rational if he tried.

  “Leo,” Sera whined. She looked up at him, begging him through her wide blue eyes and Leo knew he couldn’t say no. She reached for him, still rubbing herself against Henri like a cat begging for attention. Leo responded by running his hand down Sera’s back. She arched into the touch.

  He
looked deep into Henri’s eyes and slowly lowered his head before pressing his lips to Henri’s. They were soft, like always, with a slightly metallic tang from the blood. Leo didn’t know how he had gone months without kissing that mouth.

  He delved his tongue into the soft warmth and heard Henri groan.

  “Christ, that’s hot,” Sera said from beside them. The scent of her arousal filled the air, it was sweeter than Henri’s but equally as heady.

  When Leo broke the kiss, Henri was smiling up at him. Leo stroked the side of his face.

  “I’m sorry,” Leo said.

  Henri covered Leo’s hand with his own. “I know. Me, too.”

  Beside them, Sera shifted away a little, drawing their attention.

  “Sera,” Leo said. He held out his hand to the young woman. Leo could only imagine what was going through her head. Sera had sat up and Leo couldn’t help that his eyes were drawn to the way her hardened nipples strained against her shirt.

  The nephilim looked at him with uncertainty in her eyes, but slowly placed her hand in his nonetheless. Leo noticed that it was shaking a bit. He didn’t know if it was from how turned on Sera was, or if it was also because she was a little bit afraid.

  Henri sat up and checked his wound. Blood usually sped up his already faster healing ability, but Sera’s blood had healed him completely.

  “I knew it was potent but I didn’t know it could do that,” Leo said.

  “No, neither did I,” Henri said, frowning a little as he no doubt tried to figure something out.

  “This is kind of weird,” Sera confessed. “I mean, I don’t really know either of you and one of you just drank my blood, and I should be totally grossed out by that, but for some reason I’m horny as fuck.”

  Henri smirked at Sera’s run on sentence. The vampire pulled his shirt up over his head and used it to wipe away any remaining blood from his side. Leo noticed the way Sera’s eyes swiped over Henri’s firm body.