Feral Darlings

The Pale God

A gust of biting wind burst into the bunker as the hatch door flew open. The sudden drop in temperature went practically unnoticed, but the wailing of the gale drew Mal’s focus to the giant stepping over the threshold. Face hidden by his ice-smothered clothing, Ezra kicked the hatch closed with his boot, but it was what he carried that piqued Mal’s attention.

A body.

Or so Mal assumed.

It was difficult to tell, but there was definitely something solid wrapped in the rags in Ezra’s hands.

“You’re late.” Mal hissed the words from the counter, knowing already where the conversation would lead.

Ezra never changed.

Neither of them did.

“Did you miss me?” Stalking toward him, Ezra deposited the item on the unit with a dull thud.

“Another one?” Ignoring his quip, Mal resisted the urge to check what Ezra had brought back. He knew the answer. It was fresh bait—a soul for them to drain.

“We have to eat.” Ezra yanked at the dark scarf covering his face, though Mal didn’t know why he bothered to wear it. They both knew they needed no protection from the snow and ice. Even the polar bears had learned to stay away from them.

“Is that what this is?” Mal prodded at the iced rags skeptically. “Frozen food?”

“It’s alive.” Ezra’s dark eyebrow arched as his tongue ran over his white teeth. “I like my food fresh.”

Mal sighed. “Immortals as old as you and I only need to feast every month. Yet, you bring them back here every other week.”

Not that Mal knew. He had no way to measure time anymore. Its metric was useless in the frozen north where the cold blue sky and endless snowy tundra were much the same every day.

When he decided to venture beyond the bunker…

Hunting was for newborns; those whose eyes were excited by the thrill of the chase. Mal was too ancient for such games. He killed when he needed to, but he far preferred to stay within the sleek confines of the ex-military dugout they called home.

“You old misery!” Ezra smashed his fist down upon the hard surface. “Fine! What will make my master happy? Shall we fuck before we eat?”

“Now you’re talking.” Mal closed the distance between them. After all those years, there were still things about Ezra he didn’t understand, but his intention was to soothe rather than rile. “My libido has always been rather more animated than my appetite.”

“Don’t I know it?” Shrugging out of his overcoat, Ezra stepped forward to meet him, his hand rising into Mal’s long, blond hair seconds before their lips collided.

The caress was unforgiving, neither party yielding as their guttural groans intensified and their hands clasped at one another’s hard flesh. The one constant in the life they’d shared was carnality. Stronger than even the lure of blood, it was the incessant desire that kept them afloat.

“Yes, I missed you.” Mal spat the words at his lover, his hand clawing at the tight orbs of Ezra’s ass. “So what?”

“So just fucking say so,” Ezra growled, nipping at Mal’s lower lip.

“I am saying so.” Wrenching himself away from Ezra’s grasp, Mal shoved him away. A mortal would have struggled to shift such a hulking frame of muscle from his feet, but Mal was able to push Ezra back toward the exit.

“You’re impossible,” Ezra mocked, apparently unperturbed. “My impossible pale god.”

“You’d better get on your knees and worship me, then.” The heat swelling at Mal’s groin amplified, concurring with his statement. “This god needs your mouth.”

“What about her?” Ezra motioned to the bundled body, although his gaze remained rooted on Mal.

“ Her ?”

It had been decades since Ezra had brought a woman home. They’d always feasted on men by choice. Men, in his experience, were simpler creatures.

“I stumbled across her, and, well…” Ezra shrugged. “I couldn’t resist.”

Mal glanced down at the bale of frozen fabric. He’d been partial to women in his day, but ‘his day’ had been a long time ago. “We’d better get some heat going in this place, or your latest acquisition won’t last long.”

Ezra grinned. “I knew you wouldn’t mind.”

“Mind?” Mal blew out a breath. “I could do without the hassle of babysitting a mortal, but you’ve brought her here now.”

“I could chuck her out in the snow.” Ezra’s chocolate-brown gaze darkened. “For the bears.”

“Now, what would be the point in that?” Mal shook his head and stalked to the hatch to seal it properly. Turning the lock, he shut out the violent snowstorm. “You bring her all this way just to dump her?”

“I’ve always liked pretty things.” The dangerous glint Mal had always loved gleamed in Ezra’s eyes. “That’s why I have you,” he goaded.

“You don’t have me .” Mal’s tone was curt as he swept up the cold bundle and carried her along the narrow gray corridor into the next room. They’d spent years making the bunker more their ‘style’, but the claustrophobic hallways were a testament to its previous use. “Get the fire going, will you?”

Ezra’s dark laughter danced around Mal as his brown-haired Casanova followed and ignited the hearth. Tall, golden-red flames leapt to attention, heating the woman he laid before the electric fireplace.

Watching the blaze dance, Mal envied the flickering fire its impermanence. Immortality had many assets, but even predators grew tired of perpetuality.

“All these years of life and yet still you find the fire so enticing?” Ezra sounded wistful.

“It’s the technology.” Mal pulled the frozen blankets from the woman’s body, discarding them in the corner. “I still cannot fathom it.”

“You amuse me.” Ezra folded his arms across his broad chest.

“Never mind amusement.” Mal scowled. “She needs to be stripped before the cold attacks her limbs.”

“You want me to divest her of her clothes?” Ezra’s brow rose.

“ You thought she was pretty!” Mal scoffed as Ezra fell to his knees beside him.

“Let’s do it together.” Ezra winked as he started work on the woman’s protective outerwear.

“Where did you find her?” Mal didn’t know why he asked. It wasn’t as though he cared.

“Just beyond the National Park.” He unzipped the waterproof jumpsuit clinging to her body. “Hold her torso up, will you?”

Mal obliged with a huff, watching as Ezra tugged her arms from the fabric. “This is not how I saw my day going.”

“Quit complaining.” Ezra laughed while guiding the suit from her limp limbs. “We’ll defrost her and see what she’s useful for.”

“You want to play with her?” That was an intriguing prospect.

“Why not?” Ezra disrobed her of her remaining layers. In less than a minute, she was pale and gloriously naked before them. “She’s got everything in the right places.”

Mal’s focus slid to the bared woman. If there had been a beating heart in his cold chest, his might have sped up at the sight. Slim, but athletic, she had alluring, round breasts, shapely hips, and a small clutch of light hair between her thighs. He hadn’t considered giving it to a woman for decades, yet suddenly, there was a temptation lying by his hearth.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” Collecting her clothing, Ezra flung the material with the rags and blankets. “You still remember how to fuck a woman, I assume?”

Mal smirked at his sarcasm. Ezra would pay for that later. “Maybe.”

He remembered.

Thinking on how tight her holes would be, his gaze settled on the woman’s face. Unlike his platinum mane, her hair was honeyed, and her skin was stretched over high cheekbones. While he would never admit it to the brooding brute beside him, he approved of Ezra’s catch.

He would relish having her.

“Throw me that fur.” He signaled to the bearskin strewn across the floor by Ezra’s side. “We’ll need to raise her body temperature if we want to enjoy her.”

“Aye, sire.” Leaning to collect the cream pelt, Ezra flung it in Mal’s direction as he feigned a bow.

Mal stretched the hide over Ezra’s haul, his attention returning to her neck. Tipping back her head, Mal skimmed his fingertips over her skin until he sensed a pulse at her cold nape—slow, but definitely present—the rhythmic throb stirring his visceral impulse for human blood.

The thrill of drinking from another had once been such unchartered territory for Mal, but he recognized its hot thrum as easily as he knew his own arousal.

“She’s alive.” He rose over her, meeting Ezra’s gaze. “But it remains to be seen if she survives your trek.”

“We’ll play until we know more.” He started work on the buttons of his shirt. “After all, my god needs his cock polishing.”

Releasing his zipper, Mal sank onto the nearby chair and beckoned Ezra over. “ Yes, he fucking does.”