by Holly Day
Malik bent and hefted Ivan up. The pain had him hissing, and he lost more blood as he used his muscles. Not that Ivan weighed much, but there was still a pull, and his knees almost folded.
“Stupid vamp.” Ivan pulled himself up through the hatch. “I’ll make you sleep on the porch for this.”
Malik gritted his teeth as he jumped and grabbed the edge of the hole in the ceiling. For a second, he feared he would fall back down again, but he managed to pull himself through. His wounds were still leaking blood, his body shook from the cold coming with blood loss, and he could hardly breathe.
“We have a porch?”
“We will have a porch once we find the right place to stay, and then I’ll make you sleep on it.”
“At least it’s not in a box or a cell.”
“Aw shit, Malik.” Ivan crawled over to him where he lay on the top of the elevator cab. The shaft went a long way up. Malik looked up at the dark ceiling several stories above and breathed out in one long exhale, then he pulled Ivan close.
“Come. Let me do it right this time.”
* * * *
Ivan shivered at the way Malik’s voice deepened. His hands were gentle as he pulled Ivan close. With a grunt, he turned to his side and adjusted Ivan so they were chest to chest.
Angling his head, Ivan braced for the pain. It wasn’t that he hadn’t believed it would hurt, but he hadn’t believed it would hurt as much as it had.
“Relax.” Malik ran a hand over his hip.
“Do it.”
“I will.” A pained hiss escaped as he bent over Ivan. Squeezing his eyes shut, Ivan struggled to relax his muscles. Hot air touched the skin on his neck as Malik breathed.
“Do it.” He shut his eyes and ground his teeth.
“Easy.” One huge hand ran up and down his hip and the other cradled his head. When Malik’s lips touched the skin right below the ear, he jumped.
“Relax. I won’t hurt you.”
Ivan snorted.
When Malik’s lips slid down his throat, he shivered. A lick followed and Ivan held his breath.
“Ivan.” Kisses followed the word.
“We don’t have all day, Malik. What if someone starts the elevator?”
Malik huffed. The hand on his hip slid down to cup his ass and Ivan shivered. More than once had he fantasized about those large hands running over his body, but while he’d always known Malik was a vampire, biting and blood had never been part of his fantasies.
“You need to relax. I won’t bite you unless you relax.”
“Easy for you to say. You’re bleeding out, we’re in a hurry, and you want me to relax as you tear my throat out.”
Malik’s chuckle was strained. “Angel, I’ll make it good.”
“Angel? I might turn into an angel once you’ve killed me with those teeth of yours.” He blew out a breath. He’d asked for this. He’d been pissed off when Malik had drunk from Zev instead of him. How stupid of him.
Malik’s hand cupped his dick and Ivan jumped. “What are you doing?”
“I want to touch you.”
“We’re on top of a freaking elevator soaked in your blood. It’s not the sexiest situation, darling.”
Malik laughed, low and raspy, and it had his breath ghosting over Ivan’s neck. “I don’t have much experience in sexy situations, but I can make this good for you. Trust me.”
Ivan wanted to protest, to tell him to get it over with so they could focus on getting out of here before anyone opened the elevator or found a way into the shaft, but…“How?”
“First, you need to relax. Second, can I touch you?”
“Yes, you can touch me. You are touching me.”
“Underneath your clothes.”
Ivan shivered. “Yes.”
Malik unbuttoned his jeans, but instead of shoving a hand down his underwear as Ivan had expected, Malik slid it underneath his shirt and caressed his back.
“You’re so beautiful. I want to lick you all over.”
Ivan gave a wobbly chuckle. “Thanks, I guess.”
Malik tsked. Ivan hadn’t known he could tsk—always so stoic. Though, he guessed he’d seen a lot more of Malik on this mission than he had during the years they’d worked together. Before this, he’d never heard Malik laugh.
“So beautiful.” He caressed Ivan’s back. “So graceful.” He leaned in and dragged his lips up Ivan’s throat. “I always want to touch you.” The hand on his back slid down over his ass and pulled him closer. “You smell so good.” He inhaled against the skin below Ivan’s ear, making him shiver. A sharp tooth slid down his throat, and Ivan panted. Clever fingers found their way in under the fabric of his underwear and cupped his buttock. “One day, I want to fuck you.”
Ivan made an incoherent noise and nodded.
Malik trailed his crack, fingers teasing. He slid his tongue over Ivan’s skin, and desire bloomed in his mind. He pushed his hardening cock against Malik’s thigh, then stopped since he was afraid he’d hurt him.
“No, do that. I want to feel you.” Malik urged Ivan to grind against him with a hand on his ass.
“Malik. We should…”
Malik pushed a leg between Ivan’s, making him spread his a little, and as he did, fingers slid over his opening.
“Dry.” Malik had to know his fingers were dry, but Ivan wanted to remind him. He was a big fan of lube.
Malik chuckled. “I’m only caressing you.”
“Ah, yeah, but in case, you know…”
With a shake of his head, Malik captured his lips. His tongue begged for entrance, and Ivan opened. They shouldn’t be kissing; they should get going.
As if Malik could read his mind, he abandoned Ivan’s mouth in favor of his neck. This time when he slid his teeth over the skin, Ivan shivered. Hot and cold danced over him. Malik’s hand slid farther down his pants and caressed his taint, making Ivan moan and push his erection against Malik’s thigh.
With a groan, Malik sealed his lips over Ivan’s throat. There was a sting, but not nearly as painful as the first time Malik had bitten him. Ivan hissed, but Malik’s hand kept playing with him. A few seconds later when Malik rolled his hip, Ivan noted a heavy erection pushing against him.
Heat spread from where Malik had pierced his throat. It didn’t hurt. It made him hot, and need clawed at him. He pushed against Malik and almost objected when Malik’s hand left his ass. He needn’t have worried. With brisk motions, Malik pulled his pants down a few inches, released his cock, and then Malik unbuttoned his own trousers.
Without removing his mouth from Ivan’s neck, he rearranged them so their cocks were aligned and took them both in his hand.
“Oh my God.” Ivan gripped his shoulder, afraid to touch anywhere where it would hurt Malik, but needed to anchor himself. With the pulls at his throat, the heat spreading in his body, and Malik’s large, callused hand working their cocks, Ivan forgot all about being in an elevator shaft. He needed more, wanted Malik without clothes, ached to have all the time in the world to explore.
Malik lifted his mouth off Ivan’s throat, licked the puncture wounds—or so Ivan suspected—and groaned. “Ivan.”
Malik’s lips crushed against his, a metallic taste spreading in his mouth as Malik’s tongue pushed in, but Ivan didn’t care. He clung to Malik, thrust his hips in rhythm with Malik’s hands. Pre-come was making the wet glide against the hot, hard length all the more pleasurable.
“Please.” He didn’t know what he was begging for, but it triggered something in Malik. His motions grew more frantic, his hold tightened, the hand in Ivan’s hair gripping tighter. The slight sting as he pulled the hair only heightened the pleasure, and as he angled Ivan’s head to gain better access to his throat again, Ivan shuddered. Sharp teeth slid up his throat only to turn back down again, a biting nibbling on his collar bone had him clawing at Malik’s shoulder. He never broke the skin, but there was bite in the kisses and the caresses.
Everything in Ivan tightened, heat coursing through him,
and tingles dancing over his skin. He needed. He wanted. He cursed. With a couple of crazed thrusts into Malik’s hand, he came.
Malik silenced his moan with a kiss, thrusting a few more times before new wetness spilled between them.
With only their heavy breathing disturbing the silence, Ivan looked at Malik. There wasn’t much light, only what little spilled out of the opened hatch, but he took in the wide-open eyes.
“Are you okay?”
Malik grinned. “Yeah. You?” Malik looked at him and ran a finger over the spot on his neck where Malik had bitten him.
Ivan shivered. “I’m great.”
“You are.”
He snorted and pushed himself up to a sitting position. “Are you still bleeding?”
“No. That was more blood than Remington ever gives us, injured or not.”
“But was it enough?” Ivan suspected Remi only gave them the bare minimum of what they needed.
“Enough for me to heal the wounds.”
“But not to be fully recovered.” He angled his head. “Take more.”
“Not now.”
Ivan studied him. “Later?”
Chapter 18
Later. Desire threatened to take over again. “If you’re offering.” When they were someplace safe, Malik would feed. He would strip Ivan of his clothes and touch and kiss and lick every inch of him, and then Malik would never let go.
“Will you be my mate?” Nerves formed a knot in his belly.
“I thought I was too dead for you.”
Malik blushed. He was. He was a phantasm, except his blood was alive. He was alive. “Maybe I was wrong.”
“Maybe I told you so.” Ivan curled a hand around Malik’s neck and pulled him down for a kiss. “Now, how do we get out of here? I can travel inside the wall, I think.” He glanced upward. “Are there doors? I don’t see well in the dark.”
Malik nodded, there were doors, but…“You didn’t answer.”
Ivan frowned at him. “You want me to say if we’re gonna be together forever after a near-death experience and a hand job on top of an elevator before we’re even out of here?”
Malik feared he’d be sick at Ivan’s flippant tone. “Yes.”
“Of course, we are, darling. Did I ever give you the impression we were gonna go our separate ways after this?”
Malik stared, happiness and nerves battling in his chest. “It’ll be forever. For several hundred years.”
“I know, hon. Now, can we focus on the problem at hand?”
“But—”
Ivan shook his head and moved so he was straddling Malik. “I will stay with you forever. We’ll fight. We’ll make love. I’ll scream and shout at you. I’ll teach you how to read. You’ll be so annoyed with me you’ll wish you could drown me in a river. You’ll have to listen to Raina talk forever and ever. I fear we’ll have to live with or at least close to a werewolf. I will never let you go. But, our most pressing matter, is to get out of here.”
Malik nodded. A lump formed in his throat. Ivan was keeping him. He wasn’t going to go back to live in a cage in a cold basement. There was no stake threatening to shoot through his heart at any given moment.
“Are there doors?”
“Yes.”
Ivan frowned. “I wonder if you can open them from in here. Are there doors inside the building? There are no buttons in the elevator to get us up to those floors.”
The sound of protesting metal came from the elevator cart. “Ivan!” Raina’s voice rose from below. “If your dead, I’m gonna kill you.”
“It would be a bit counter-intuitive, would it not?” He peeked down through the hatch.
“I might have to as retribution for scaring me. Come on, we need to get going.”
Ivan got off Malik’s lap. “I guess we’re going this way.” He went down, feet first, into the elevator. Malik blew out a breath before following.
“How did you get in?” Ivan was looking at Raina.
“We don’t have much time. Zev is distracting the crazy wizard.”
“He’s still alive?”
“Zev or the wizard? If you meant the wizard, I’m afraid so. He’s barricaded himself in the pantry with his cat and is shooting fireballs at Zev whenever he sees him. He had no problem sacrificing his men, but when Zev went for the cat…” Raina shook her head. “Zev’s peeking out around the corner every tenth second or so to keep him busy while Dante and I tried to get to you.”
Malik turned and stared at Dante, who stood outside the elevator.
“Brother.” He hadn’t meant to whisper, but he’d never expected to see Dante again. No matter what he’d told Ivan, a part of him had believed he’d either get killed by the crazy wizard or that Remington would come back to get him somehow.
Dante clapped his shoulder. “We should leave before Master finds a way to get to us.”
“Does he have the trigger?” Cold spread in Malik’s chest.
“No, Miss Raina has it. Though I suspect he has more than one to each device.”
Raina frowned at him. “The one I took is in the car. We’ll get the stakes removed, worry not. And it’s Raina, not miss.”
They couldn’t know for sure it was the trigger to Dante’s stake, and as Dante said, Remington probably had backup triggers. Once he got in contact with someone in the house, Dante’s stake would most likely be fired. Malik took a deep breath and reminded himself it was made of plastic. No matter how unpleasant it was to get staked, it wouldn’t kill Dante, and Ivan and Raina could remove it. As they would Urien’s.
Ivan grunted. “How many did you steal?”
Raina grinned. “Only three.”
“Awesome. We can come back for more later.”
Raina grinned at him and Malik wondered what the hell they were talking about.
With brisk steps, Raina aimed for the doorway. “Let’s get going.”
“I told absurd Remi I’d pay for them with the necklace. You still have the necklace?”
Ivan patted his pocket. “I do.”
“Great! Now, let’s leave. I fear this place will be swarming with wizard minions and vampires any second.”
Malik stared at them. How could they be so at ease with being on the run? Fear wanted to freeze Malik’s heart when he thought about Remington Redwood and the horrors of the basement.
They exited the coatroom, walking quickly.
“Zev!” Raina stopped by the entrance to the kitchen, and Malik took a second to take in the destruction around them. It had been a nice hotel, the little he’d seen of it.
There was a growl, and then a fireball flew past the entrance. Raina turned to them. “It takes him a few seconds to reload, so I suggest we run after the next one.”
Seconds went by, then there was a new growl from Zev and a new fireball flying past the doorway. Raina sprinted forward as soon as it had passed, as did the rest of them. They dove in behind a counter. “The exit is through there.” She pointed at what looked to be the room where they kept the dishwasher. She tossed the car keys to Ivan. “You go first. Start the car. I’m coming with Zev.”
“What about the third vamp?” Ivan frowned at her, and Malik winced as he pictured Urien paralyzed in the car. He must be terrified. He shuddered as he remembered the stake piercing his heart in Raina’s living room, and he only had to wait a couple of minutes before they got it out. They’d left Urien for a long time.
“He got staked. Plastic, so we need to fix it once we’re somewhere safe.”
Ivan’s eyes widened. “Crap.”
“Yeah, I know, but we didn’t have much time. Now go!”
Zev growled, and Ivan ran toward the door. Malik and Dante followed.
* * * *
It was dark as Ivan stumbled out the kitchen door, but he spotted a car blinking when he pushed the unlock button. He jumped in on the driver’s side and pushed the key into the ignition. “Buckle up, boys.”
In the rearview mirror, he saw Malik reach over the backseat and pat the unc
onscious vampire’s hand while speaking softly.
Raina held the kitchen door open and out sprinted a limping wolf. She threw it shut and ran to the car and opened the door. “Get in.” She pushed at Zev. “Go, Ivan!”
Ivan got the car rolling at the same moment as Raina got in. The kitchen door banged open. Wenior stumbled out behind the car, a fireball glowing in his hand.
“Go, go, go!” Raina smacked her hand against the driver’s seat.
“I am going!” He drove as fast as he dared to. The fireball lit up the alley around them as Wenior threw it. It sailed toward the car and time stopped. In slow motion, Ivan steered close to the wall of the hotel. Sparks rained as the metal of the car slid against the brick.
The fireball landed where the car had been half a second ago, and fire specks rained over the car. The hairs on Ivan’s arms stood as the air heated, but it soon cooled off again, and as he rounded the corner and got out on the main road, he blew out a breath. “Everyone okay?”
“Zev’s not. He’s been shot in the leg.”
A snarl sounded in the car, then Zev melted into human form. “Fuck.”
Ivan watched him in the rearview mirror. “What do you need?”
Wild eyes met his in the reflection. “Food and to get the bullet out.”
Food? Before he could ask what kind of food, Zev changed back into wolf.
“Crap! What kind of food? The bullet will have to wait until we’re somewhere we can stop.”
“Protein.” Malik’s voice reached him from the back.
“A burger?” They could find a drive-through nearby.
“He’d need way more than one.”
“Damn.” Ivan weaved through the traffic. “Anyone else hungry?”
No one answered.
“Raina, do you have any money?”
“No cash. I have a credit card.”
“Are you covered in blood?” Ivan and Malik were, he didn’t know about Dante, but they couldn’t have him do the talking. It would be suspicious if a vampire ordered food.
“Erm…yeah.”
“Me, too.”
“Drive-through, and we’ll pretend to be sleeping back here. Do we have a blanket?”