8. Oscar
Chapter 8
Oscar
N ot in the tree, but rather tucked away on the roof of a nearby three-flat, Oscar and Justin peered down into Trent’s second-floor apartment, which was illuminated only by the artificial glow of a red digital clock on his oven.
“What is he doing?” Justin asked.
Oscar shook his head. He didn’t know. Trent had barricaded himself in his home, and he was sitting alone with the lights out, his weapons laid out on the surrounding rug. His eyes were closed and his fists were clenched as they rested on the arms of a ratty chair. A determined protectiveness stirred in Oscar’s chest.
Why was he alone in the dark? It made Oscar’s heart hurt to watch.
He brushed off the sense that he should be the one taking care of Trent. Trent might be his mate, but neither of them wanted each other. That was obvious. Trent was disgusted by the idea of mates, and Oscar would never tie himself to someone again, especially a straight rival who could barely tolerate him.
Still, he couldn’t help his instinct to protect the man.
“Pay attention.” Justin craned his neck, peering down the street, scanning the shadows cast by the lamplight filtering through the evenly spaced trees. “You’re the one that insisted we stake out Trent’s apartment.”
“Freddie agreed it was a good idea.” Oscar throttled the indignant tone that snuck through. He hated how worked up and out-of-control Trent made him feel.
“It didn’t have to be us.”
Oscar didn’t respond. Any reasonable person would have let another vampire take the first watch. Oscar had been attacked earlier in the day, after all. But he was restless, and he couldn’t tamp down his protective instincts when it came to Trent.
He didn’t know why Justin was so worked up, though.
“Why are you so annoyed?” Oscar asked. “If you weren’t here with me, you’d be out patrolling around the covenhouse.”
Oscar couldn’t read the expression that sprang to Justin’s face. Was it guilt? It was quickly gone.
“I hate Brooklyn. It’s so ten years ago,” Justin replied with fake hipster disdain.
“What are you talking about? You love everything. You can’t convince me you’ve suddenly turned into a snob.”
Justin giggled, shrugging impishly. “I was trying something new.”
Oscar brought his attention back to the window and Trent’s seated figure. With his enhanced hearing, the pulse of Trent’s low, even breaths reached his ears like the rumble of an encroaching storm. Oscar found it soothing.
Was Trent meditating?
Justin’s hand gripped his forearm, breaking his focus. As Oscar’s head snapped to Justin, he raised a finger to his lips and gestured further down the street.
Oscar couldn’t see anything. Except, was that a flicker of movement down at the postage stamp-sized city park at the end of the block? It could have been a shadow, or a piece of trash tossed by the breeze, but he wasn’t certain.
“You stay here and keep an eye on him.” Justin swung his legs over the side of the roof. “I’ll check it out.”
He was gone in a blur of movement. Oscar settled in with Trent at the center of his field of vision. The whole neighborhood was quiet. Most of the dog-owners had taken their last walk more than an hour ago. Oscar encouraged his eyes to go into soft focus as he monitored the area.
His sight was drawn to a flicker in Trent’s apartment. The man was still sitting there, but he had yanked his shirt out of his pants and pulled it up past his…fuck, up to his neck. Trent was running one hand over his treasure trail, lightly scratching the sparse blonde hair, and the other was pinching his right nipple.
Trent’s head was relaxed backward and his eyes were at half-mast. His mouth opened just a slit, enough to let out the moan that Oscar imagined he was making.
Damn. Even vampire hearing didn’t detect sound from that far away, through glass and brick. Oscar was left to the noises that his mind conjured. They were sexy as hell.
The blood rushed to his face, and Oscar looked both directions down the empty street. All was still.
This was wrong. He shouldn’t be watching. But he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the now-shirtless Trent, with his floppy blonde hair and beautiful smooth skin, stretched over that linebacker build. So sturdy and strong.
Oscar knew he should look away. This was a private moment. Typical human sight wouldn’t have been able to pierce the darkness. But Oscar couldn’t stop looking.
He wouldn’t just abandon his post, after all. He had to make sure that Trent was protected. That was the important thing.
Trent unzipped his fly now, at first groping himself through his white-and-navy striped boxer briefs, and then ultimately taking out his cock and his balls, resting them over the stretched band of his underpants.
Oscar’s mind ceased to function. His focus went to Trent’s huge hands, one stroking his dick, the other cradling his balls, then pulling them down and away. Trent’s expression was lost in the sensation.
And his cock was beautiful. It was of average length, but it was thick , maybe one of the thickest Oscar had ever seen. It was pale and circumcised, with a large mushroom head that turned an angry red as Trent continued to pleasure himself.
Oscar couldn’t help but imagine himself impaled on that monster, being stretched wide beyond capacity, Trent pushing that big head through the tight muscles of his entrance, slowly but relentlessly filling him. A shiver went up his spine at the thought.
He was only human! Or only vampire, rather. Of course, he’d be turned on by this sexy brick wall of a man pleasuring himself. It would be odd if he wasn’t turned on.
Trent’s movement became less lazy and more determined. Oscar’s heart rate increased at the sight of Trent biting his soft, puffy bottom lip as he chased his pleasure.
Oscar’s own erection strained against his tight pants, painful and throbbing.
He glanced around him. His veins were on fire, the vision in front of him making his skin tingle and his blood rush. He didn’t want Justin to catch him like this, but he also didn’t want it to stop. He wanted to watch Trent forever.
So he watched. Trent was determined now, sliding up and down that thick length faster and faster. His eyes were clenched closed. He’d removed his shirt fully while Oscar wasn’t looking, and he pinched hard at his nipple as he started rocking his pelvis against his descending fist.
Oscar couldn’t help it. As he imagined himself there, kneeling before him, his jaw sore as Trent’s thick cock stretched his throat, Oscar’s hand went to his crotch. He was so close already. All he needed was just a little friction against the front of his denim. He rubbed his palm over the outline of his erection, his skin vibrating with electric sparks.
Then it happened. Trent’s mouth opened with a cry, letting out a strangled sound that Oscar could only imagine. His body went stiff as a board. He leaned back in the chair as he reached his climax. Ropes of cum coated the sun-kissed skin of his stomach. Oscar didn’t think he’d ever witnessed such an incredible sight.
His own orgasm hit him like a freight train, and for a moment his mind was gone, obliterated by the force of his body’s reaction to what he’d seen. He floated in the pleasure.
The fog was pierced by the jarring sound of a breaking window. His eyes snapped open to see Trent fighting off a vampire in his apartment.
Fuck. The man was battling the creature shirtless, with his dick out, and he never looked more at home. Oscar knew, though, that he couldn’t keep the vamp on its heels forever. He had to get in there before Trent lost the upper hand. He leaped from the roof.
Oscar barely registered the pain of the shards ripping along his skin as he burst through the remains of the broken window. He landed on the hardwood floor of Trent’s living room, bringing a rain of glass and debris with him. By now, the vamp had pushed Trent to the far wall, snarling at him with wordless aggression.
Oscar’s vision tinted red, and the demon inside him wouldn’t allow any mercy. He was on the ragged vampire in a second. This time, he didn’t hold back. With the loud crack of bones breaking and a sick squelch of flesh rending, he cleaved the vampire’s head from their body. The gaunt creature collapsed to the floor, the light gone from its eyes.
Oscar looked down at himself. He wasn’t one for over-the-top violence, but he was covered in the guts of the poor vampire. He never acted that way, so ruthless and hungry for destruction.
He regretted nothing.
It was almost as if he’d had the smallest taste of the crimson surge. But that violent, instinctual frenzy was only triggered when a vampire’s mate was in danger, and?—
No. Not the time to think about it. It would never be the time.
Trent was bent over at the waist, panting, the thick muscles of his neck and shoulders flexing as he caught his breath.
“That…was too damn close.” Trent straightened up and stared at Oscar for a moment before realizing that his dick was still sticking out of his pants. He tucked himself away, keeping his face stoic, but Oscar caught a hint of bashfulness in his eyes.
“What are you doing here?”
“I, uh…I was assigned to security detail. Freddie said that the coven would provide protection.”
“He volunteered.” Justin’s light tenor voice drifted in from the open window. His youthful head peeked through, an expression of disapproval on his face.
“I can take care of myself.” Trent grabbed his shirt from the floor, pulling it on.
“Obviously not,” Justin snorted. Trent shot him a look full of daggers.
Oscar turned to Justin, who was gingerly squeezing through the jagged edges of the now-open window. “Where were you? What was going on at the end of the street?”
Justin sighed. “Some kind of distraction. When I got to where I’d seen the movement, there was no one there.”
“I can take care of myself,” Trent reiterated, quieter this time, as if he were trying to convince himself.
“It’s nothing to be ashamed about,” Oscar said, wanting to soothe Trent’s frustration. Trent was stubborn, and that would be exacerbated by the adrenaline crash that accompanied the end of any fight. “You hold your own against vampires better than any human I’ve ever seen. But you can’t compete with supernatural abilities.”
“Sure I can,” Trent grunted. “The bloodlust and the boredom make vampires stupid. I would have figured out a way to get him off me.”
Trent looked at Oscar as if he were trying to project confidence, but Oscar could see the fear underneath.
“If they keep coming, eventually they’ll slip through your defenses,” Oscar said softly. “Especially if they send more than one. You have so many more ways to die than we do.”
Trent’s brow furrowed, but he said nothing.
“This is my fault?—”
“It is,” Trent interrupted.
“—so let me help make it right.” Oscar stepped toward Trent and dared to reach out and touch him on the bare arm. Trent looked down at it, but didn’t pull away or say anything. Oscar continued despite the energy that crackled where their skin met.
“Take Freddie up on his offer. Get out of town for a week or two. I’ll go with you. Now all three of the vampires that attacked me are dead, but this one had a whole day to report to its master. Anthony will smooth over your absence. You’ll be back in plenty of time for the Manhattan Lyric.”
Trent shook Oscar’s hand off his arm.
“You’d love that, wouldn’t you?” he said. “Get rid of your main competition for the audition.”
“I would go with you! I’m not worried about the audition.”
Trent’s face went dark. “And that’s why people like you are so frustrating. You can afford not to worry.”
“People like me?”
“Rich people. Vampires.” Trent waved at him dismissively. “Assholes that don’t have to work. You’ll always have your coven to take care of you. It’s not like you have a real job.”
The flame of righteous indignation sprang up in Oscar’s chest. “It’s called having a community! I work for the coven.”
“Exactly. I need my opera career to be successful. Otherwise, I don’t eat when the student loans come due.” Trent walked to the now-glassless window frame, gesturing downward as he surveyed the mess of shards and wood splinters on the floor. “This will be such a pain in the ass to clean up.”
Oscar fought the urge to snap back at him. Trent knew nothing about his past, nothing about where he came from, but it didn’t matter. Oscar had put him in danger. He needed Trent to agree to go with him.
“You could have died!” He couldn’t stop himself from caring about his mate’s well-being, even if the two of them would never complete the mating bond.
For just a second, Oscar saw real fear flash across Trent’s face. Whatever his past with vampires might be, Trent understood that he was in a precarious position.
“Please.” Oscar wrestled his emotions under control. He kept his tone low and soft. “Just for a couple of weeks. Give Freddie time to locate the bastards.”
Trent stared out through the empty air into the cold night. Oscar and Justin said nothing. The silence was oppressive.
Finally, he turned his face toward them, frustrated resignation in his eyes.
“Fine. Two weeks. Anthony will make sure the absences don’t hurt my grades.”
Oscar nodded slowly.
“And,” Trent continued, “I have to be back for the audition. Even if there’s an army of vampires waiting for me, I’m going.”