“You were about to expire from a femoral bleed. I didn’t have time. Besides, your will to live was palpable; you didn’t need much persuasion.” Dalziel smirked at Gethin. “Don’t do an Edwin and fight me on the drinking part. The silly bugger got quite over emotional.” He flashed Edwin a fangy grin. “Good thing my thrall is strong, or instead of creating a new life, I’d have ended up having to bury you in a snowstorm, which wouldnothave been a joyous occasion.”
“I was avegetarian,”Edwin sniped.
Everyone laughed, and eventually, so did he. Throwing his hands up, he leaned against the fireplace and winked at Gethin. “Enjoy the ride.”
The room fell silent. Gethin licked his lips and Sorley watched him zero in on a tiny fault in the material across his denim-clad thigh. He took a deep breath. He raised his eyes to meet Sorley’s expectant gaze, then flipped his arm over to expose his wrist.
“Bite me, cariad,” he said gently.
Sorley traced a vein with a fingernail. His mouth watered and his fangs descended. He peered up at Gethin and found his dark brown eyes still fixed on him, soulful and full of promise.Eternalpromise. He brought Gethin’s arm up to his mouth.
“I love you so fucking much,” he said, and pounced.
Within half a second he was mentally applauding his good sense in having waited. Gethin tastedamazing.Like limited edition brandy, the scent of the sea after a storm, the tang of honey in the wild heather on the Yorkshire moors, the potent, heady aphrodisiac of Gethin’s clean sweat, his cum; and yet somehow even better than all those combined. The likelihood of Sorley accidentally sucking him dry if he’d bitten him while they fucked was worryingly high, and yet he’d never felt so right, so perfectly aligned in space and time. So possessive. He was already poised to knock Charley across the room for daring to stand in his eyeline.
Gethin gasped as the chemicals in Sorley’s saliva hit his nervous system. “Oh God…” he moaned. His eyes fluttered and his hips punched off the sofa. Sorley felt his own cock swell as he witnessed Gethin’s erection push against his fly. Why in heaven and hell were they doing this with an audience?
“Sorley, check in, if you please.” Oh yes, because Dalziel would be Gethin’s sire, like he was Sorley’s, to give their relationship the balance that wouldn’t be there if Sorley was to turn him.
He swivelled slightly and without removing his lips from Gethin’s wrist, signalled to Dalziel he was fine. Fine? What a ridiculous word. He was several star systems beyond merefine.He was floating, every cell in his undead body buzzing with the sweetest of all sweet nectars.
“Christ, he’s loopy already. Alec, look at his eyes.” Edwin, from somewhere to his right. Sorley tuned him out, curling his free hand around Gethin’s strong jaw, his blissed-out expression a thing of utter beauty. He’d shaved, his beard short and as perfectly neat as Sorley had ever seen it. Lust snaked through his torso and into his limbs, burning him with the heat of his desire for this man. He groaned as a fresh burst of flavour broke over his tastebuds.
Dalziel’s voice again, exhorting Charley to take Gethin’s other hand and to drink. Sorley whipped his head around and snarled so loudly, Charley took a step back. Then the impossible child laughed! “Fuck off, Sorley. You can’t drink ten pints by yourself, you greedy sod.” He lifted Gethin’s wrist as Sorley watched his fangs descend. “Shit, I need Luc. I get horny when I feed.”
A startled chuckle. Alec, the traitorous swine. “You tell him, Charley. I shall summon Lucien for you.” The almost silent brush of vampire fingertips across a phone keyboard.
Dalziel’s loud sigh. “Alexander, I may need your assistance to persuade your friend to put down his lover. Perhaps take him for a long walk through the cellar. Not that it will cool him down.”
Hurried footsteps, a sharp rap on the door and the warm scent of shifter that wasn’thisas Luc fucking Bradshaw —oops, I’m supposed to be nice to him now— sidled in. Luc halted. Dalziel beckoned him to stand next to Edwin. Sorley’s eyes narrowed at his friend: how fucking dare Edwin look at Gethin as if there was something wrong with him? Not that it mattered what Edwin thought. Wasn’t like Sorley was offering to share.
Then the cell-deep magic that was his sire’s thrall cut through everything. “Sorley, you will stop drinking and seal the wound.Now.”
Sorley snarled again, but powerless to disobey Dalziel at such close quarters, did as he was bid. He shot poisoned daggers at Charley who was apparently not subject to the same limits, then turned his back on the hybrid upstart to gaze at Gethin instead.
“What’s wrong with him?”What’s wrong with me? I sound funny.
“Charley, That’s enough now. Seal the wound and back away.”
Alec pushed into Sorley’s space. “He’s having a little nap, mon ami. Come over here and let Dalziel do what he needs to.” The tiny vampire pulled Sorley upright as if he were made of light and held him against the wall, his arms steel bands against Sorley’s attempts to break free. “Hush, you will only hurt yourself, chéri.”
Edwin again, his tall, rangy form between Sorley and his view of Gethin. He roared. Edwin glanced at him, then moved six inches to the side. “You’re pissed,” he stated calmly. “Don’t fucking move, or Alec’ll break your legs.”
“He wouldn’t!”
The dark huff of laughter from behind him wasn’t a comfort. “May I remind you, you knocked me clean out, face down into the mud. When I was sick. Now behave yourself and allow Dalziel to do his job.”
Hearing Dalziel use thrall on Gethin felt every kind of wrong. But as he waited for Gethin to respond, Sorley found himself praying.I didn’t take too much, did I? Oh God, is he dead? No, I can hear his heartbeat. Shit, it’s too slow. Isn’t it? Why the fuck did I trust Dalziel to do this? Gethin ismine.
Gethin blinked a few times, then made a valiant effort to focus on Dalziel, who was almost sitting on him. Dalziel stroked a finger across Gethin’s now-dry mouth and nodded approvingly when Gethin obediently parted his lips.
“You will feed from me, then you will sleep as your body adjusts. Drink from me until I tell you to stop.”
Gethin nodded, and his eyes slid shut again. Sorley whimpered. Edwin came closer and took his hand to squeeze it. “Have faith in our sire,” he breathed. He tucked his arm around Sorley’s shoulder and kissed the side of his head.
Dalziel slit his vein and pushed it roughly against Gethin’s mouth. “Drink,” he urged him. “Drink it all. Sorley needs you to drink for him.”
The scent of Dalziel’s blood made Sorley swoon. He wanted it, and yet he knew he didn’t. He yearned for it but at the same time he recognised it wasn’t for him. His skin prickled with need anyway, and he keened and listed forwards within the confines of Alec’s firm embrace.
