CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO || ELI
The next hour passed with a dreamlike quality, as though it were happening to someone else.
Most likely, that was the shock from everything that had taken place.
Nicolas’s blood had healed my wounds, but it had been a close call.
Another few moments and I would have been gone.
Or a vampire, had I died with Nicolas’s blood in my system.
Harris and Sam both woke from the hypnotic spell Magnus had placed them under.
The moment she could move, Sam immediately went to Sadie’s side.
Magnus had broken the blonde vampire’s neck.
He almost certainly would have done worse, but Harris had opened fire with silver bullets at the same moment Sadie attacked, forcing Magnus to react.
Harris had likely saved her life, even if he hadn’t managed to hit the ancient vampire.
Sam seemed surprisingly put together, especially given everything she’d just witnessed. The only question she asked was, “Is she really dead?”
To which I replied, “No. She’ll wake back up.”
Sam let out a long breath, relief etched across her features. She plopped down next to Sadie to wait, drying her eyes with the hem of her sleeve.
“Good.” Then she paused and frowned at me. “Also, there’s a pretty solid chance you’re buying me an apology dinner sometime soon. And possibly cleaning the house for the next month to make up for this. I haven’t decided yet.”
“Fair,” I said, grinning. She returned it, causing relief to flood through me.
By the time everything was said and done, the top floor of the hotel was trashed.
Three guests had been bitten by Magnus’s vampires.
Two recovered well enough—Godric had healed them both.
But while he was doing that, Simone found another: a man in his early thirties, so close to death that she had been forced to turn him.
“I have walked this earth for three thousand years,” Simone said, staring down at the unconscious man in dismay.
Her voice was deceptively soft, but her eyes were filled with grief.
“I’ve seen civilizations rise and fall. I’ve experienced almost everything the world has to offer.
But I’ve never created another vampire.”
“What happened is that you saved his life,” Poppy said, placing a soothing hand on her back. “He would have died otherwise. He was an innocent. You couldn’t let that happen.”
“Quite,” Thierry agreed. “He will thank you, eventually.”
Simone blinked away the wetness in her eyes but let Poppy draw her into a firm embrace, holding her tightly.
“I love you,” Poppy whispered, resting her chin on Simone’s shoulder. “We’ll figure this out together. And he couldn’t have asked for a better maker.”
“You are love, darling,” Simone whispered, her eyes drifting shut. “My one and only. Fate brought us together.”
“I knew it,” Thierry muttered, mostly to himself. “Fated mates all around, then.”
I surveyed the ruined hotel floor. It was filled with unconscious vampires and stone statues that had once been vampires.
The walls were cracked in several places, the windows at both ends blown out and shimmering with magic—some sort of spell cast by Poppy, no doubt—and the floor was stained crimson, like the final scene of a particularly gruesome horror movie.
“In terms of cleaning this up, arson is an option,” I suggested.
“No, we’ll need to hypnotize everyone in the hotel,” Simone said, pulling away from Poppy. “And arrange for cleaners—”
“The fuck we will,” Poppy said. “We’ll call Nathaniel and have him coordinate with the vampire Queen of Los Angeles.
Or he can send a team himself. That’s literally his job.
” Then she paused and added, “We need to find a safe spot for him.” She nodded to Simone’s unconscious progeny.
“So when he wakes up, he’ll be less likely to freak out. Or snack on a helpless victim.”
Simone hesitated, then nodded. “Very well.”
“And Eli and I will be leaving,” Nicolas said. He still looked shell-shocked. “We cannot remain here.”
I slid an arm around his waist, pulling him close.
“I’m okay,” I murmured. “Everything is going to be okay.”
He swallowed hard, nodding. Through the bond, I still felt his panic, his desperation.
Harris joined us, tucking his phone away. “Well, the LAPD are on their way.” He glanced at Nicolas. “I don’t even think you could mind-control your way through all of them. This place is trashed beyond the reach of hocus-pocus.”
Godric snorted. “Hardly. Leave them to me.”
With that, he set off for the stairs, stepping around bodies and statues frozen mid-motion by Poppy’s magic—presumably to wait for the authorities. Scowling, Harris followed him.
Thierry sighed, caught Jeremy’s eye, and said, “We ought to do some damage control. The guests and staff will need calming. We ought to help him.”
I caught my vampire’s gaze. His expression was hollow, his lower lip trembling.
“Come on,” I said. “They’ve got this. Let’s go home.”
* * *
“Eli,” Nicolas protested. “You needn’t fuss.”
“I do, actually, need to fuss,” I told him, unbuttoning his shirt. With his chest bared, I sucked in a breath, letting my gaze fall over him. He was stunning—heart-wrenchingly gorgeous. More so now that I understood all that he was.
“Eli,” he repeated, catching my gaze. Hunger ignited in his eyes. But through the bond, I knew it was the ordinary hunger of a man desperate for touch.
I helped him out of his shirt, then peeled mine off in one go. I turned to help him out of his pants, but he was already naked and perfect under the harsh lighting.
“I’ll be getting those replaced,” he said, smiling. “Maybe something incandescent.”
I laughed. “That… will take some getting used to. The mind-reading, I mean.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “But the bond doesn’t show me everything. I won’t pry.”
“It came in handy tonight.”
He hummed, but I saw it again—that hollow look that made something twist in my chest.
Taking a steadying breath, I busied myself with the shower, testing the water. Hot, but not too hot. Just right.
When I turned back, I found him watching me. “I’m in an advanced state of nudity. You’re still wearing pants.”
“Easily fixed.” I grinned, then undid my fly. “See?”
“Indeed, I do.” His lips parted, gaze both soft and heated as he drank me in. “Doctor De La Cruz, you are the most beautiful man I have ever seen.”
Shaking my head, smile still on my lips, I took his hand and led him into the shower.
“I—” He hesitated beneath the warm spray, looking suddenly uncomfortable. “I’ve never done this before.”
“You’ve never showered?” I arched a brow. “How do you remove the evidence?”
He snorted, eyes crinkling. But when he met my gaze, I saw—and felt—the vulnerability. “There’s so much I’ve never done with another man,” he admitted. “I’ve spent years with a singular focus. It hasn’t left room for… closeness. What if I don’t know how?”
“It’s not like I’m an expert,” I told him. “My track record isn’t exactly stellar. Maybe we learn how to do this part together.”
“Yes.” He paused. “Eli, I would like to touch you.”
My beautiful, sweet, brave vampire—the man I’d always loved with everything in me—was asking permission.
“Yes,” I said. “I want you to.”
Then his hands were on me, palms flat on my chest, mapping every line and angle of my body. His touch was cooler than the water, but still perfect. My eyes drifted shut with pleasure.
Somehow, through the bond, I could see myself as he saw me: warm, vibrant, pure, and electric with life. Kind, but with a temper. Gentle, but fierce and brave. It was the way he had seen me in my former life as well.
I let my hands explore him as well. The lean muscles of his chest. The smooth, firm curves of his ass, decidedly masculine and inviting. The hardness of his cock.
He took me in his hand at the same moment, stroking me until my hardness ached for release.
“I need you to make love to me,” he breathed, turning around and arching his back. He glanced back at me, over his shoulder. “I need you inside me, warm and alive.”
I gazed down at curves of his perfect ass, interested but not wanting to cause him discomfort. “We don’t have any—”
Behind you, his voice spoke into my mind.
I turned and grabbed a bottle of lube from the shower caddy. “This telepathy thing keeps getting handier and handier.”
Through the bond, I felt his urgency. I adjusted the shower spray so that it wouldn’t wash the lubricant off us, then popped the lid and poured a generous measure of lube into my hand. I opened him quickly, driven by the urges I sensed through the bond.
“Eli,” he whispered. With his hand splayed on the wall to steady himself, he propped one leg on the edge of the tub.
The need choking his voice galvanized me. I lined myself up. He was warm and tight and perfect as I sank into him.
I let out a soft groan at the same time he did.
“Pin me in place,” he whispered, his voice ragged. “Be in control. Please.”
With one hand on his hip and the other on the back of his neck, I held him steady as I thrust into him all the way to the hilt and then back again. I drew filthy noises from his lips one after the other with each of my ministrations.
There was an echo of… it felt as though I was simultaneously inside of him and being entered. The mixture of pleasure was a strange sort of bliss.
I can feel what you feel too, Nicolas whispered the thoughts into my mind, wonder flooding through him. This is incredible.
I let the sensations from the bond—the half-articulated desires I sensed from him—guide me. I went hard and fast at first, drawing needy-sounding cries from my mate. And then, when I sensed that he was getting close, I slowed down.
Eli!
Not yet, darling. I’m in control, remember?
That caused a soft moan to escape his lips.
“You’re being so good for me,” I said aloud, landing a kiss on his shoulder as I drove myself into him again, all the way to the hilt.
I eased off several more times, driving him halfway mad with need. Then, when I sensed that he couldn’t take it anymore, I threaded my arm under his torso, grabbing him by the shoulder and holding him still as I drove into him, taking him apart with one thrust after another.
When I sensed that he was getting close, I picked up my pace, buried deep inside him.
“I’m getting close,” I warned.
“Yes,” he panted, driven halfway incoherent by sheer sensation. “Yes. Eli, please.”
I climaxed, deep inside of him, all the way to the base. Then I reached down and took him in my hand. With only a few long strokes, he shot rope after rope into my hand, his whole body shuddering with his orgasm.
When I pulled out, moving gingerly, he turned to face me. His whole expression was open and vulnerable. “I almost lost you.”
“You didn’t,” I assured him, landing a kiss on his lips. When I pulled back, I saw that his eyes were bright and glassy. “I’m here. And I will be for a very long time.”
“Promise me that you won’t put yourself at risk like that again.”
I hesitated. “I can’t do that. Not where your life is concerned.” I met his gaze dead-on. “After all, I’ve crossed oceans of time to find you.”
His eyes widened with mock outrage. “Did you seriously just quote Bram Stoker’s Dracula to me?”
I grinned back at him. “Guilty.”
“If anything happened to you—”
“You would move on with your life for the next twenty or so years and attempt to be as happy as possible,” I assured him. “And I would suffer through yet another childhood and adolescence, knowing full well the entire time that my vampire is somewhere out there, waiting for me to find him.”
“Eli—”
“Los Angeles,” I said firmly. “If I ever—if I die, then when I’m reborn, I’ll come to this house. I’ll find you here.” I paused. “Most other couples don’t get an insurance policy like that.”
He swallowed hard, but relief flooded through the bond. At last, he nodded. “Then I suppose I’ll never sell it.”
I hesitated, not wanting to upset him. “I’ll age, eventually. You know that.”
“You don’t need to,” he assured me. “If a mortal regularly drinks even a few drops of our blood, it halts the aging process altogether. It also speeds up healing and enhances your senses, among other things. You would never get sick.”
“I would do anything for you. Even become a—” I plucked the word out of his head. “Sanguinato.”
He grinned, wonder transforming his expression. “You’re right. That… will take some getting used to.”
“It’s a good thing we’ve got all the time in the world.”
“Forever?” he asked, sounding uncharacteristically hesitant, his eyes searching mine.
I threaded my fingers through his. “Yes. Forever.”