Welcome to the Underworld (Siren Publishing Menage Amour)

by Jane Wallace-Knight

  “You know, I think I can get used to this place,” she said as Leo took a seat on the lounger beside her and handed her a cold beer.

  There were solar powered fairy lights in the trees that reflected in the water of the river. It looked so idyllic, like something from a dream.

  There was a very soft blanket covering her legs to stave off any chill she might have felt. She was honestly so comfortable that she could have easily slept right there.

  Henri sat on the end of Leo’s lounger with his legs crossed under him. “Yes, I’m pretty fond of it.”

  While Sera had some salad with her kebabs, Leo had just heaped on extra meat. Henri was sticking to liquids as usual. He had a glass of wine and had brought out the bottle.

  “I’m sorry for this evening,” Henri said as he looked over at her, close enough to reach out and touch if she wanted, and she couldn’t deny that she wanted. “I wish we hadn’t had to put you through that.”

  Sera hadn’t exactly enjoyed it but she didn’t blame Henri for it. “It’s okay, it wasn’t so bad.”

  Leo raised his eyebrows. “Really? That’s what I imagine hell looks like. Just me alone and surrounded by stuck up vampires.”

  Henri looked like he was only just resisting rolling his eyes.

  “Changing the subject, I think now’s a good time to get to know each other a little better,” Henri said with a soft smile. “We can take it in turns to ask questions.”

  Sera and Leo shared an uncomfortable look at that.

  “Um, okay. Why did you guys break up this last time?” Sera found herself asking. It had been on her mind since the moment she found out about them, even before she ended up in bed with them.

  Sera was met with two sets of wide eyes.

  “Wow, you just dove right in there, didn’t you?” Leo said before guzzling down a lot of his beer.

  “I wouldn’t exactly say that we were broken up, but that’s actually a good question,” Henri said. “Leo? Why don’t you field this one?”

  Asking the question might not have been the smartest idea, but her curiosity had always been her downfall. Still, it couldn’t have been that bad. For two people who hadn’t seen each other in months they had certainly fallen back into the role of a couple easily enough.

  Leo shifted uncomfortably in his seat and downed some more of his beer until nearly the entire bottle was empty. “I…we had a fight.”

  Henri stared at Leo, hard. “Good, very informative. I’m sure her curiosity has been well and truly sated.”

  “I didn’t intend to be gone so long,” Leo said, looking deep into Henri’s eyes. “But the longer I was gone the harder it was to come back.”

  Henri shook his head sadly. “What a pair we make.”

  Leo put down his beer and reached for Henri’s hand.

  Sera saw a look of affection pass between them. There were so many years of history between the two of them that the idea of joining them now seemed crazy. Could she ever really fit in there? Could she ever feel like she truly belonged? Feeling like she belonged wasn’t something Sera had ever experienced.

  “Maybe I’ll give you two some time alone,” she said, all ready to stand up and take her food back to the house.

  “No,” Henri said. “As peculiar as this is, you’re a part of us now. I have no idea how this is going to work or even if it can, but I do know that from now on whatever happens we face it together.”

  Sera was glad to hear that. It would be all too easy to feel like an outsider. She wasn’t sure if last night had been a one off or not, if she would be living out the rest of her days in the guest room or sandwiched between the two of them. Of all the things that had happened to her in the last twenty-four hours, finding herself in a threesome was probably the most unbelievable.

  “To answer your question,” Henri said. “Eva was having a business dispute with a werewolf pack in Brighton. When she asked me to accompany her I didn’t feel I could say no. I knew how Leo would feel about it so I didn’t tell him. Things went unexpectedly south and I ended up in a fight…that I won. He was angry that I lied to him.”

  Sera looked between the two of them. She could see that the subject was still a sore one.

  “Can we just enjoy this and not worry about what comes next?” Leo asked them both hopefully. Sera saw him give the vampire’s hand a squeeze. “We’re together and it’s a beautiful night. We have good food, good booze, and good company.”

  Henri smiled and grabbed his glass of wine. “Okay, my turn to ask a question.”

  Sera had forgotten that they were doing that with the semi-awkward detour the conversation had taken.

  “Sure, though there’s not much to know about me,” Sera said.

  “As a nephilim, I’m assuming that you never knew one of your parents, which one was it?” Henri asked.

  Sera followed Leo’s approach to uncomfortable questions and took a swig of her beer before she answered. “I didn’t know either of them actually. I grew up in care.”

  The two men were silent for a time, both of them looking at her sadly.

  “That’s awful,” Henri said. The vampire put his wine glass down on the grass and got up. Sera watched, a little surprised, as Henri came over to her. He motioned for Sera to scootch forward on the lounger before he slipped in behind her and put both his arms around her. Sera tensed, still unused to such displays of affection, and looked over at Leo. Leo simply smirked at her.

  “Just go with it,” the werewolf advised.

  Sera could smell Henri’s shampoo and the lingering traces of whatever cologne he had put on earlier that day. The vampire was taller than Sera by a good five inches. She made herself relax back against his chest and felt a warmth inside her she had never felt before. She felt safe and cherished, like nothing could possibly hurt her while she was in his arms. She had to wonder if it was down to the bond.

  The beer she had drunk and the warmth of Henri’s body made her feel like she was floating. She closed her eyes and smiled when Henri placed a kiss on the side of her head.

  “What was your foster family like?” Leo asked.

  She forced her heavy eyelids open and looked over at him. If the werewolf felt any jealousy toward her over her closeness to Henri, he didn’t show it.

  “I didn’t have just one,” she told him. “There were three, but I mostly lived in a children’s home from the time I was eleven.”

  Leo’s brow furrowed. “Why did you have so many?”

  Sera felt uncomfortable talking about it but she knew she had to be honest with them. “I’ve always been different. Now that I know what I am, it kind of makes sense, I guess.”

  “What do you mean?” Leo asked.

  “I get these feelings about things, and people, like I have another sense I guess,” she tried to explain. “I used to freak my foster parents out because I’d know how they felt and sometimes I’d dream about things that had actually happened to them.”

  “That’s incredible,” Henri said. “I’ve heard that some nephilim are able to do small things, parlor tricks really. I have to say, what you did with the chandelier, and the window at the café, it’s quite astonishing.”

  Sera didn’t know what to say to that. Her freakiness had been a burden, something awful and unwanted hanging over her head. Until last night she hadn’t even known the extent of what she could do.

  “I’ve always seen it as a curse,” she explained. “I was sent to psychologists and behavioral specialists. One of the kids at the home used to tell me that I’d be locked up in a mental hospital. I used to have nightmares about it.”

  Her extra sense picked up a sudden and strong feeling of anger and sadness from both Leo and Henri.

  “Sera,” Leo said. “I’m so sorry you grew up like that.”

  Henri didn’t comment, but he rested his chin on the top of Sera’s head and held her a little tighter.

  “Don’t you know anything about your parents?” Henri asked.

  “No. I was two when
I was put into care,” Sera told them. “Apparently, I was left at a hospital.”

  “Damn,” Leo said with a shake of his head. “That would never happen if you were a werewolf. Family is everything to us.”

  Sera wanted to ask a question about that but she didn’t want to offend Leo. Once again, her curiosity got the better of her. “So why don’t you have a pack?”

  She watched Leo visibly tense and finish off what little was left of his beer. At the rate the werewolf was going, he was going to be hammered.

  “I had a pack, but in my family it was just me and my dad. When he died I just didn’t want to be there anymore so I left. There was a lot of stuff going on. They were against me and Henri being together and used it as a reason why I shouldn’t be the next alpha, not that I wanted that life anyway. I don’t regret leaving.”

  “What about you?” Sera asked Henri, stroking his arm.

  “My mother died when I was fifteen and my father still lives nearby,” Henri said. “He’s ninety-seven now. I haven’t seen him since I was turned, but I pay for his care anonymously.”

  He said it in a nonchalant tone that told Sera he was well practiced in acting like he was over the loss. Sera gently squeezed his arm in a show of support nonetheless.

  “Ninety-seven? Just how old are you?” she asked.

  Henri chuckled and kissed the top of her head again. “I’m fifty-nine.”

  “Bloody hell,” she said. “You look younger than I do.”

  “And I always will,” Henri pointed out.

  That was a depressing thought. She was going to age like a regular person and Henri would always look the way he looked now. She wondered if there were any photos of Henri and Leo together when they first met. It would be interesting to see.

  “How come you never saw your dad again?” Sera asked.

  “When I was first turned I wasn’t myself, not for some time,” Henri told her. “Hell, I’m not sure I’m who I was before now either. It was better to let him think I had died. He remarried eventually.”

  “And he would have noticed that you’d stopped aging,” Sera pointed out.

  “Exactly. If I saw him now I’d probably frighten him to death,” Henri said. “He’d think he’d seen a ghost.”

  “Sorry. Now I wish I hadn’t brought it up,” Sera said.

  Henri gave her another squeeze. “It’s fine.”

  She wanted to ask something else, something that had been at the back of her mind all day. “So, our bond.”

  “What about it?” Henri asked.

  “Well, last night it felt really intense and then this morning it was just like my own weird extra sense, you know?”

  “I told you it would calm down,” Henri told her.

  “But what does it actually mean?”

  “It means that we’re always aware of each other,” Henri explained. “If you or I experience any heightened emotions, the other will feel it.”

  “Is that why the sex was so good last night?” she asked.

  Both Leo and Henri chuckled at that.

  “No, I think that was all us,” Henri said as he placed a kiss behind Sera’s ear. “I think it’s Leo’s turn to ask a question.”

  Leo looked somewhat hesitant. Sera got the impression he wasn’t really one to open up easily. She wondered if he had even fully opened up to Henri. Given that he had taken off for three months, Sera guessed not.

  “I don’t know. I already know about her upbringing and I know she worked two jobs,” Leo said with a shrug. “What else is there?”

  Henri sighed behind her. “I don’t know, you could ask what type of films she likes, or what her favourite foods are.”

  Leo rolled his eyes. “That’s all surface stuff. You can’t rush this. Knowing what films she likes isn’t going to change the fact that we just met yesterday.”

  “You’re right,” Henri said. “But at least it’s something. We’re all trying.”

  The vampire let go of Sera and slid out from behind her. Sera couldn’t help but mourn the sudden lack of warmth.

  She watched as Henri went back to his original seat and rested his hands on the tops of Leo’s thighs.

  “I know,” Leo said with a sigh. “I’m sorry. This whole thing is still pretty weird.”

  Sera knew she shouldn’t take it personally, but she did. She was the outsider, the one that didn’t belong. If it wasn’t for her then they wouldn’t be there now.

  She looked down at her food and suddenly wasn’t very hungry.

  “I know this whole situation is…not ideal,” Sera said. “And I’m sorry for that. I know it’s because of me, because you’re good people who didn’t want to let something bad happen to me.”

  “Sera,” Leo said. “That’s not—”

  “It’s fine,” Sera quickly said. “Just because I have to stay here, doesn’t mean there has to be something between us.”

  Henri looked at her with a frown between his brows. “Are you saying that because you think that’s what we want, or because it’s what you want?”

  Sera’s gaze flitted over to Leo. The werewolf’s ice blue eyes met hers with a hard stare. Because of Sera’s bond with Henri, or perhaps because of the abilities she had always tried to ignore, she could feel that the vampire was okay with their current situation, but she didn’t really know anything about how Leo felt. She just couldn’t get a read on it.

  “I’m saying it because I think it’s what Leo wants,” Sera admitted, unable to look away from the werewolf’s gaze. “I appreciate what you’ve done for me. You saved my life, a couple of times probably, but you shouldn’t have to be stuck with me.”

  Leo continued to stare at Sera until it became so intense that she had to look away.

  “It’s been me and Henri for a long time,” Leo told her. “Never, not once have I wanted anything else, anything more. My pack’s hatred for vampires was the final straw in me leaving them. I gave up my people for him. I’ve loved him for my entire adult life.”

  Sera looked up again, a stubborn lump stuck in her throat. She watched as the werewolf stood up and came over to kneel beside her lounger.

  “The fact that I brought you here to him, knowing that it would create a bond between the two of you, should tell you everything you need to know.”

  Sera met his gaze again and saw the same intensity still there. Leo cupped her face and Sera had to stop herself from leaning into the touch.

  “Leo’s never been good at expressing himself through words,” Henri chimed in. “That might just be the nicest thing he’ll ever say to either of us.”

  Leo rolled his eyes, making Sera smile.

  “I’m trying to say that I want you here,” Leo told her. “I hardly know you and I have no idea how this’ll play out, but I know that right now I want you here…with us.”

  That was enough for Sera, hell, it was more than enough. Feeling emboldened, she leaned forward and pressed her lips chastely to Leo’s. The werewolf made a pleased sound in his chest that was somewhere between a soft growl and a purr. It made Sera melt a little.

  When she pulled back, she could see the truth of Leo’s words in his eyes. Whatever was going to happen between the three of them, Leo really did want her.

  “Now finish your food,” Leo told her. “So we can go to bed.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The room was pretty much how they had left it. At some point Henri had made the bed. There was a primness to Henri that just wasn’t in Leo. Leo would happily sleep on rumpled sheets, but then Henri hadn’t been raised by wolves.

  It felt like it had been a long day and Leo was looking forward to getting into bed and having a good night sleep, that was until Sera asked Henri to unzip her dress.

  Leo stood by the vanity table, the watch he had just taken off in hand, as Henri’s fingers slowly pulled down Sera’s zipper, exposing the soft milky skin of her back.

  “Thanks,” Sera said as she let the dress fall to the floor before she stepped out of it.

>   Henri watched her with a gentle smile gracing his lips. She picked up the dress and turned back to Henri.

  “Where should I…I mean, huh,” she said with a sudden frown. “Do I hang this up in here or in one of the other bedrooms?”

  Henri was about to answer her but she interrupted.

  “I mean, for all the talking we did earlier, we didn’t actually discuss anything important. Like, am I always going to be sleeping in here with you? Will it only be when you want to have sex with me? And how can we each have a side that we sleep on when there are only two sides to a bed?”

  “Sera, luv, I believe this is what they call overthinking things,” Leo said, putting a stop to her rambling. “Take a breath.”

  She did as he suggested and looked over at him sheepishly. “Sorry.”

  “It’s fine. To answer your questions, it doesn’t matter where you hang it up. Henri’s got so many clothes he’s taken over the closets in the spare rooms anyway. You can always sleep in here with us when you want to, and elsewhere when you don’t.”

  “And Leo pretty much rolls around so much in his sleep it’s impossible to give him an assigned side,” Henri added.

  It was a gross over-exaggeration but Leo knew why Henri had said it. Like him, Henri wanted to ease Sera’s worries.

  She tucked a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear and smiled over at him shyly. Right then was when Leo knew he was going to fall for her. He walked over to her and took her face in his hands. He leaned in and brushed his nose against hers. She swayed a little on her feet.

  “Sera,” Henri said as he came up beside her. “I want you to feel comfortable here. If you want to sleep in here with us you’re more than welcome, but I want to be sure you know that nothing is expected of you. If you just want to go to sleep, then that’s—”

  Sera cut him off by turning and wrapping her hand around his neck. She went up onto her tiptoes and kissed him soundly on the lips.

  Henri responded quickly, putting his own arms around Sera and holding her against his chest. Leo watched the muscles in Henri’s forearms move and the arch of Sera’s back. They were both beautiful, but together they were something else.