Chapter 3 Erik #3
He knew that Sorren wasn’t the only vampire who intervened on behalf of mortals and saw themselves as protectors. Erik was also well aware that Sorren and his like-minded companions were not typical.
“I will make quiet inquiries about the Tiffany dome,” Sorren said. “I assume you think it’s somehow tied in with the smaller window?”
“The dome was part of the Commodore Wilson since it was built,” Erik replied.
“The land is an evil genius loci, and everything about the hotel was snake-bit. All the owners went broke and had horrible misfortune. Such a huge, expensive, one-of-a-kind piece like the dome seems likely to have absorbed some of that bad juju. At best, it’s unlucky, at worst, it’s cursed.
But since we don’t know where it is or who controls it, we don’t know if it’s dangerous. ”
“I’ll see what I can find out,” Sorren replied. “Although trying to reclaim it is inadvisable for a host of reasons, especially if we’re dealing with a vampire Mob witch.”
Erik flinched at the description, since it put his worst fear about the missing dome into words. “Not planning any rescue missions,” he assured them. “Just want to know what we’re dealing with, and who we might be up against.”
“I’ll see what I can find out through our channels as well,” Cassidy said, and Erik could hear Teag and Rowan murmur in agreement. “We’ll let you know what we find out.”
“Thank you.” Erik felt some of his stress subside. “We might be overthinking this, but just in case, it’s good to have options.”
“Absolutely,” Cassidy agreed. “We’ll be back in touch as soon as we’ve got news. In the meantime, be careful.”
They ended the call, and Ben closed his laptop. “We didn’t exactly get answers, but I feel better knowing that they’re going to help look into things.”
“I hope I’m worrying too much, but my intuition says I’m not,” Erik confessed.
Ben reached out to take his hand. “I made a cottage pie this afternoon. We can have a quiet dinner at home and make an early evening of it.” He gave Erik a lascivious grin. “I can think of some ways to get you tired enough to sleep.”
“I like the way you think.” Erik leaned in to kiss him. “I still don’t know how I got lucky enough to get you.”
“We both got lucky,” Ben pointed out, rising to turn on the oven. “And tonight, we can get even luckier.”
They kept conversation light over dinner, and Erik found that despite the tension of the last few days, it hadn’t affected his appetite. Afterward, they watched some feel-good home and garden shows before heading to bed earlier than usual.
“How do you want it?” Ben slipped beneath the covers naked and held him close.
“I don’t care, as long as I feel you,” Erik admitted. “I don’t want to think about anything, just feel.”
“I can make that happen.” Ben leaned in to start with gentle kisses that became more intense as they roamed from Erik’s lips to his neck, down his torso, and then to his thighs and groin.
Erik groaned, and Ben licked the sensitive skin and lightly nipped, getting a shimmy of hips in response. Ben knew exactly how to make Erik’s brain turn off, silencing his thoughts as his body’s pleasure took priority.
Ben swirled his tongue around Erik’s stiff cock, then flicked the tip up and down the shaft before returning to the sensitive head. He slicked the fingers of his other hand and began to roll Erik’s balls and toy with his hole as Ben’s mouth worked his cock.
“So good,” Erik groaned, earning him a dirty chuckle from Ben in response.
Ben took his time, while Erik hungered for release. His hips bucked, and his hands clenched the sheets.
“Please, make me come,” Erik begged.
Ben teased his cock as his fingers opened up Erik’s ass for the next round. When he could slip three fingers inside, he took Erik’s cock as far into his mouth and throat as he could and twisted his fingers to hit that magic spot inside that made Erik see stars.
Erik came with a hoarse shout, shooting down Ben’s throat as his hole clenched around his fingers. When he had completely shot his load, Ben licked his cock clean before pushing Erik’s knees apart and sliding between them.
“I love you.” Ben kissed Erik and let him taste himself on his lips. “Let me in.”
Erik raised his hips, and Ben slid inside, snug but not painful.
“Move,” Erik whispered.
“Bossy bottom,” Ben teased, but he began to fuck Erik slowly, setting up a rhythm. Erik wrapped his legs around Ben’s waist, urging him to go faster. It didn’t take long for Ben to come after the warmup, and Erik was surprised to find himself half-hard by the time Ben finished.
“That was…perfect,” Erik whispered as Ben slipped out and reached for a T-shirt to wipe them up.
Ben leaned in to kiss him. “Told you I could take your mind off things.” He tossed the shirt to the floor.
“Mmm…you totally did,” Erik agreed.
“Let’s get showered and changed, and then we won’t be sweaty when we wake up,” Ben suggested. Much as Erik hated to get out from beneath the warm sheets, he couldn’t fault his partner’s argument.
Before long they had cleaned up and gotten ready for bed. Ben threw a hand towel over the wet spot, since neither of them felt like changing the sheets.
“Better?” he asked as Erik slid in beside him. Ben turned toward him and rested his head on Erik’s shoulder.
“Much better. This is good, too,” Erik told him, long resigned to admitting he enjoyed snuggling.
“Yeah, it’s perfect.” Ben sounded sleepy and sated. Erik set an alarm for the morning and turned off the light, hoping that his dreams were quiet.
“What the hell!” Erik sat bolt upright in bed as the security alarm blared. A glance at the clock said it was a little after three in the morning, still dark.
He threw back the sheets and reached for the Sig he kept in the drawer of his nightstand.
“Don’t go out there.” Ben reached for his own gun. “Let the cops handle it.”
“I will,” Erik assured him, “but I want to see what’s going on.”
A police siren shrieked before they had reached the steps, and Erik wondered if the plainclothes officers kept a vigil through the night. From how quickly the response came after the alarm, he didn’t think anyone had time to drive to their location.
Erik kept the gun low as he looked out the window, not wanting to spook the cop. He saw one man on the ground and another cuffing the would-be thief’s wrists behind his back. The plainclothes officer flashed his badge, and Erik set the gun aside, motioning for Ben to do the same.
He deactivated the alarm and opened the door. The smell of vomit and feces assaulted Erik’s nose, and he realized that the robber lay in his own filth. Erik didn’t recognize the intruder.
“I saw him go for the door, and the alarm went off,” the cop said, getting to his feet. “All of a sudden, the guy starts puking and shitting, and then he curled up in a ball.”
“Well, that kept him from running away.” Erik didn’t offer an explanation. “Sorry for the mess.”
The cop wrinkled his nose. “I’m putting down a tarp in the back before he gets in my car.” He hauled the man to his feet. “Someone will get in touch with you in the morning. Try to get some sleep.”
Erik and Ben watched the cop wrap the thief in a plastic sheet before maneuvering him into the back of the car and driving away.
“Well, that proves the protection spells worked,” Erik said.
Ben slipped on shoes and jumped down to the side of the steps where he could reach a garden hose. After blasting the concrete clean and sluicing away what spread to the sidewalk, Ben turned off the water and came back inside, carefully leaving his shoes on the mat.
“I need another shower,” he mumbled.
“Go ahead,” Erik told him. “I’ll close up here and reset the alarm. We can get Alessia to fully re-establish the wards tomorrow, but I can do enough tonight that anyone who makes another try will be sorry.”
He checked the door for damage, reset the locks and alarm, then trundled up the steps. The warm glow from their earlier lovemaking had dimmed, leaving anxious exhaustion in its place.
“Take a deep breath,” Ben coaxed when he slipped in beside Erik.
“You’re safe. I’m safe. The store wasn’t damaged.
A cop really was looking out for us. Maybe we’ll get some clues about who’s after us.
At the very least, that’s one guy who isn’t likely to make a second attempt. Try to let it go and get some sleep.”
Erik kissed Ben. “I’ll do my best, no guarantees. Stay close.”
“Always,” Ben promised.
They had barely gotten through their morning bathroom routine the next day before Erik’s phone rang.
“Hendricks here,” the chief greeted him gruffly. “I’m downstairs. We need to talk.”
“I’ll be right down,” Erik told him. “Don’t try to open the door before I turn off the system.”
“You gonna tell him?” Ben asked as Erik ran a comb through his still-wet hair.
“I will. Doesn’t mean he’ll believe me. Depends on whether he thinks magic or spontaneous intestinal distress is harder to accept.”
Erik hurried downstairs and disabled the security system. He opened the door and found Hendricks standing on the sidewalk, well off the steps.
“It’s safe to come in.” Erik stood aside to let him enter.
“Officer Calvin said he saw a man approach the door and move to pick the lock. Just as the officer was going to intervene, the man doubled over and started throwing up, followed by him losing control of his bowels,” Hendricks recapped.
“He didn’t recover until this morning. Want to explain the timing on that? ”
“Magic.”
Hendricks gave him a skeptical look, although Erik thought the chief had to have anticipated the response. “Come again?”
“In addition to a top-grade security system, the building is heavily warded, protected with sigils and spells to keep out intruders with ill intent,” Erik said, as if nothing about his answer was unusual.
“You’re saying that was magic?”
“It’s a non-lethal way to incapacitate someone who clearly meant us harm.” Erik shrugged. “It will wear off in a couple more hours. And while I imagine he’ll feel lousy and be dehydrated, there are no lasting effects. Although I suspect he won’t be quick to try again—which is the whole idea.”
Hendricks regarded him for a moment as if trying to make sure Erik wasn’t playing with him.
“Magic,” he repeated, clearly wrestling with the idea.
“You don’t have to include that in your report,” Erik supplied helpfully. “Just chalk it up to severe, spontaneous intestinal distress. Something he ate really didn’t agree with him and picked a bad time to create a reaction.”
Hendricks gave a non-committal humpfh. “You think he was after that damned window?”
“Damned” might be the right word for it, Erik thought.
“We haven’t had any new acquisitions since I bought the window, given how bad the weather’s been, and nothing else we bought recently has been out of the ordinary—definitely not magical,” Erik replied.
Hendricks twitched at the “M-word” but didn’t object. “Any idea who might have sent the thief?”
“Guesses, but nothing solid,” Erik replied. “Do you know who the thief is?”
Hendricks sighed. “Rudy Cosentino. He’s got a rap sheet as long as my arm. Not local talent; usually causes trouble in Wildwood. Bit player, thug-for-hire. Definitely someone who would be considered disposable if they hired him for a job and it went wrong.”
“Like last night, if the magic had played for keeps.” Erik hadn’t considered that the attempt might have been a dry run to see how good their protections were.
“Could be,” Hendricks admitted.
“Shit, no pun intended.” Erik ran a hand back through his hair. “We can increase the protections and still keep it non-lethal, but it would be better for everyone if I had specialists move the window to a much more secure facility.”
“I’d be inclined to agree with you, if that didn’t mean losing track of it forever, which is part of the service if I understood you correctly.” The chief raised an eyebrow.
“That’s usually considered a perk, not a detraction.”
“Come up with anyone likely to want the window badly enough to hire an out-of-town tough to try to steal it?” Hendricks asked. “Because someone who would believe that the window was really haunted might also believe you could—and would—protect the store with magic.”
“Not yet,” Erik replied. “We’ve made some quiet inquiries with people who might know.”
Hendricks looked like he might be getting a headache. His eyes squinted and his forehead creased. “Why is it never simple with you two? We’ve got a big event coming up in town, and we can’t have a Mafia war brewing. Not that there’s ever a good time for that,” he added under his breath.
“We totally understand,” Ben jumped in. “We want this settled and done as quickly and quietly as possible.”
Hendricks looked skeptical, but Erik hoped their candor had won some of the chief’s trust, even if he didn’t like what he heard.
“Let me talk to the lawyers about permitting you to hand off the window to a third party,” Hendricks told them. “Do you think your person could put it in safekeeping for a while before burying it forever, in case we get a lead in the case?”
“I can ask.” Given the dangerous magic entwined with the window, Erik thought the Alliance was unlikely to want to give it back.
“Much obliged.” Hendricks’s comment was sarcastic but not mean-spirited, and Erik thought the other man looked tired. Getting ready for a large event and an influx of people was probably already a scheduling nightmare, without worrying about Mafia complications.
“If we get anything useful out of Cosentino, I’ll let you know,” Hendricks told them as he turned to go. “And if you find a hot lead, I’m counting on reciprocity.”
“We will keep you in the loop,” Erik promised, making a few mental exceptions.
Hendricks looked skeptical, but he wished them a good day, told them to stay out of trouble, and headed back to the station.
“That was fun. Not,” Ben observed.
“At least he isn’t dragging us into the station and making us give statements,” Erik said. “Maybe he’s worried about what we’d say.”