“Hm?”
“You’re doing a lot of intense staring.”
Takashi wrapped his arms around Zack and tugged him closer. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you excited and happy like this.”
Just as Takashi was about to kiss him, Zack put a finger on Takashi’s lips and pushed him back an inch. Intelligence sharpened Zack’s ruby-red eyes. “You’re hiding something. You have that whole ‘keeping a secret’ vibe.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Takashi murmured.
Zack’s gaze hardened to a glare. “I thought we agreed not to hide shit from each other.”
The last thing Takashi wanted to do was declare that Nell was not someone they could trust. The revelation would have to be shared, but Seamus might read Zack’s mind. If Seamus learned, he might launch an all-out war on Nell, and that would cause far more death than Takashi wanted.
Of course, not telling Zack was a risk as well. Takashi didn’t doubt that Nell was figuring out how to put assassins in place to destroy Zack.
They won’t reach him tonight.
“I learned something upsetting,” Takashi whispered, “but I don’t want to ruin this mood of yours. I want to cherish it and you. Please?”
“You promise to tell me?”
“Yes. In a while.” Takashi rested his hand on the stack. “What did you find in the library, lover?”
“I’ve been digging into dragons for the most part. No luck on demon deals yet, but I’ve also been reading up on our kind. Everything Seamus put in my room is all ‘vampires are the supreme predators.’ The library has whole shelves on what vampires can be like.” Zack twisted around, remaining in Takashi’s loose hold but facing his books. “Mom would’ve called this propaganda. There’s this one book by Edmund Weldrick that’s a translation of another—do you know Italian?”
“No.” Takashi stepped behind him and slid his arms around Zack from behind into a more complete embrace. “Weldrick, as in the mage who began mage circles?”
“His grandson. He spends most of this book arguing against the theories of Beatrice the Profane Sorcerer,” Zack rattled on. “She’s confident that when the dragons left our world, real magic started to fade.”
Takashi kissed behind Zack’s ear, then his neck, while Zack continued to speak. Hearing him so excited, so thrilled at the prospect of learning, was invigorating. “A theory she’s still teaching.”
“Still?” Zack straightened, which neatly lowered Takashi’s right hand to be over his cock. “She’s still alive?”
“A few practitioners have figured out how to slow their age. She’s one of a dozen, perhaps.” Takashi nibbled on Zack’s ear, careful not to touch his fangs to his tender skin. “She lives in Southern France these days.”
“I wouldloveto talk to her. Do you know her? Like, well enough to call her up?” Zack asked. He gasped when Takashi stroked his thumb down the length of his clothing-covered dick and squirmed as Takashi slid his other hand under his shirt. “And what are you up to?”
“Do you have any idea how incredibly hot you are when you’re a bubbling fount of knowledge?” Takashi murmured in his ear. He pressed a kiss to his jaw and another right beside the first.
“All right,” Zack said slowly, his natural skepticism turning into a slow squirming in Takashi’s arms. He leaned his head farther to the side, and Takashi continued kissing and nipping him. “I read this whole book that theorized that nest vampires aren’t actually related to ancient vampires like Nell or Seamus at all. And I found this other theory that all born shifters are actually descended from dragons, which I don’t think makes a lot of sense, considering there are born shifters who can spread their ability to regular people through infection. And—ah.”
Takashi grinned against Zack’s neck. He’d unbuttoned Zack’s fly and was pulling his zipper down slowly. As he eased Zack’s underwear down enough to release his hardening cock, he nudged his own still-covered member against his backside. Zack gave a longer groan and laid his head back against Takashi’s shoulder.
“What have you found out about dragons?” Takashi asked.
“Hard to think that they’re still real and the family journals never mentioned them,” Zack murmured. He drifted his hand down Takashi’s arms until his hands rested over his. His fingertips brushed against the between places of Takashi’s knuckles and remained there. “But then our records only go back about two hundred years. At least my family’s. Dragons have been gone since the 1300s, though there are some—ah, yes, do that again—sightings and lore later on that get written off as folklore and fiction. I guess—mmm—I guess—hey …”
Takashi took his hand off Zack’s cock and used both hands to undo the buttons of Zack’s shirt. He nibbled on him. “Keep going.”
“Fine,” Zack pouted. He perked up when Takashi turned him around and pressed him up against the desk. Then he swore, twisted enough so he could scoot the books out of proximity of his ass, and braced himself against the desk.
Takashi chuckled against his neck, then kissed his way down as he went to his knees in front of him. As he planted one kiss against Zack’s hip, he murmured, “You were saying? About the dragons being gone?”
“Me rambling is really doing it for you?”
“Yes.” Takashi placed a kiss close to the base of Zack’s shaft. His own cock was hard, pressing against his pants and straining the material, but he was content to leave himself waiting. Slowly, he licked a line up the underside of Zack’s dick. “You’re not talking.”
“Sorry,” Zack breathed out. “Kinda distracted.”
