Chapter Five
Nick stood trembling in the center of his room, his eyes closed, his heartbeat thundering so violently his entire body shook. The copper tang in his mouth… The sticky warmth on his chin… The memory of Logan’s pulse beneath his lips…
He hadn’t actually gone out there and sank sharp teeth into Logan’s neck. Hadn’t felt that first hot rush of blood hit his tongue. Hadn’t nearly torn the man’s throat out when he’d panicked.
“You’re still asleep,” Nick whispered, but the words dissolved into the chaos of his thoughts. “Just a really messed-up dream. Wake up, wake up, wake up.”
His eyes snapped open. The mirror across the room revealed a stranger with crimson smeared across his cheek, blood still clinging to his lips, eyes wild. Nick’s knees buckled. He caught himself on the dresser, his chest heaving, the room spinning.
“This can’t… I can’t… What the fuck is wrong with me?”
Nick slammed his eyes shut again, but the image still burned behind his eyelids.
“Wake up,” he pleaded, voice cracking. “Wake the fuck up.”
But his tongue betrayed him, darting out to taste the metallic sweetness before he could stop himself. The flavor exploded across his taste buds. Copper and salt and something intoxicating that made his cock hard.
“No, no, no,” he snarled, but his tongue swept out again, chasing another hit, while every nerve ending fired at once.
Slowly this time, Nick opened his eyes. The blood remained. Reality crashed down.
His clothes felt too tight, too rough against his hypersensitive skin, his erection straining painfully against his zipper.
That scent. That overwhelming scent that had pulled him toward Logan like a starving man to a feast. The fog that had descended, obliterating thought. Logan’s pulse, visibly throbbing beneath delicate skin, had called to him, drowning out everything else.
Nick pressed his palms against his eyes until stars burst behind his lids, but it didn’t block the memory of that vein pulsing, promising, begging to be pierced.
His breath came in ragged gasps. Too much sensation. Too much need. The walls of his room seemed to press inward, the air too thick to breathe, as that same clawing hunger rose again, demanding more.
A soft knock. "Nick?" Logan's voice, steady through the wood. "We need to talk."
Nick's heart jolted at the smell drifting through the crack beneath the door. His nostrils flared involuntarily, his head turning toward it before he caught himself and jerked back.
Logan's blood still stained his face. Nick lunged for his bed, his fingers closing around a T-shirt. He raised it to his face with trembling hands then froze.
His breathing slowed.
Panic receded like a wave pulling back from shore, replaced by something worse.
A deep, tranquil certainty that he would rather die than wipe away a single drop of that precious crimson nectar.
Nick breathed in deeply, pulling the delicious fragrance farther into his lungs. No more chasing scraps on his lips.
In that moment, nothing else mattered except sinking his sharp teeth into soft, giving flesh and satiating his need for blood.
Letting the shirt fall to the floor, Nick walked toward his door then opened it to the most tempting sight imaginable.
Logan’s pulsing vein. The sound of his heartbeat.
Nick took Logan’s hand and tried to draw him deeper into the room, but Logan snatched his hand away, shaking his head.
Why is he being so difficult!
“I can see it in your eyes.” His gaze swept over Nick’s body. “I can smell it. Can practically taste your hunger.”
A soft, taunting laugh escaped Nick. “Then feed me.”
He thought Logan would stiffen, appear offended. He just stood there with an unshakable confidence that pissed Nick off.
“I made two calls while you took your time to process this.” A tight smile pulled at Logan’s lips. “Glad you used the time wisely.”
“Are you going to feed me or talk me to death?” Nick snapped. This wasn’t him. Nick wasn’t a cruel person. He couldn’t even bring himself to kill spiders. Instead, he scooped them onto whatever sturdy surface he could find and set them free outside.
“One was to my alpha.” Logan stepped forward, crowding Nick, but Nick refused to cower.
“Alpha.” That word should hold maybe some kind of significance, but Nick couldn’t think clearly right now. Didn’t want to. Not when what he craved most stood in front of him, taunting him as if he was daring Nick to attack.
“Careful,” he said, matching Logan’s calm, casual tone. “I’m really not feeling myself right now. I wouldn’t suggest goading me.”
Nick’s nose twitched. Under the intoxicating scent of blood was something untamed and earthy. Predator, his mind whispered, though he had no idea what to do with that information.
“Wondering what that smell is?”
Nick’s gaze lifted to meet Logan’s. The earthy smell grew stronger, like soil after rain, and Nick knew with uncanny certainty it was coming from Logan. Not human. Something wilder, something ancient. “What are you?”
“What are you?” Logan tilted his head.
“I don’t know anymore.” Nick’s words trembled between them. “Please go. Whatever’s inside me, it wants your blood more than I want to keep you safe.”
“It isn’t separate from you, sweetheart.
” Logan’s eyes held the patience of centuries.
“The sickness, the pain, the blackouts. They’ve always been you trying to become yourself.
” He stepped closer, and without thinking, Nick retreated.
“Our bond awakened its voracious appetite. I wasn’t your victim. I was your mirror.”
“Stop!” The word broke from Nick’s throat.
“Say what you already know,” Logan murmured.
Nick’s eyes fell to the pulse in Logan’s neck, the wound already knitting closed. He could hear the blood singing beneath that thin barrier of skin, a lullaby he’d been searching for his entire life.
“No,” he breathed, unsure if he was denying the truth or begging himself not to give in.
Logan’s knuckles brushed his cheek, and Nick leaned into the touch before he could stop himself. For a few heartbeats, the hunger receded, starved more for affection than for blood.
“Tell me what you are, love.”
“A monster.” Nick’s voice cracked.
“No.” Logan traced his jaw with reverent fingers. “You were starving. Not malicious.” His lips brushed Nick’s ear, sending a violent shudder from the base of Nick’s spine straight to his cock. “What are you?”
“Hungry,” Nick softly confessed, eyes closing against tears. “I’m so tired of this feeling.” He drew a breath that felt like his first. “Vampire. I’m a vampire.” He still didn’t know how, but he couldn’t deny the truth.
“Feed.” Logan pulled him close, offering his neck. “One meal won’t erase a lifetime of hunger.”
“I tried to kill you,” Nick said, even as he pressed his face to Logan's neck.
“You were finally being freed,” Logan corrected softly.
Nick sank his fangs deep, a guttural moan escaping as hot blood flooded his mouth. His fingers twisted in Logan's hair, clutching desperately. Logan captured Nick's wrists in one powerful hand, guiding them behind his own back.
“You’re not the one in control.” Logan’s deep growl rumbled through his chest, proving he wasn’t human.
Nick didn’t care what he was. Logan was giving him what his body had been crying out for his entire life.
Nick's cock hardened instantly, throbbing painfully against his zipper. He rutted shamelessly against Logan's thigh, each thrust sending sparks of pleasure up his spine while he sucked greedily at the wound.
“Are you with me?” Logan’s voice was rough velvet against Nick’s ear. “Need to know you want this, Nick. All of it.”
Logan was just as affected by the feeding as Nick was. Nick’s answer was to suck harder, his hips bucking uncontrollably as pleasure and hunger became indistinguishable.
Shoving away from the wall, Logan strode toward the bed. “Feeding’s over, mate. It’s time we do something about this fucking heat gripping my dick.”
Nick didn’t want to stop, but he forced himself to gently remove his fangs.
“Lick the wound closed,” Logan instructed.
As soon as Nick was done, Logan dropped Nick onto the bed, his movements frantic, his hands pulling at Nick’s jeans as Nick desperately tried to kick them off. Oh, Nick saw now that Logan hadn’t come to play.
Good, neither had Nick.
* * * *
Logan traced his fingertips along Nick’s jaw, slow and deliberate, his thumb brushing the soft skin beneath his bottom lip. A shudder rippled through Nick, his lips parting, his breath catching hard enough that Logan felt it against his own mouth.
Then he kissed his mate.
Nick made a sound—somewhere between a gasp and a needy, helpless sigh—and that was it. No more playing.
Logan’s fingers slid into Nick’s hair, tightening just enough to angle his head, deepening the kiss with a firm, consuming pull. His other hand curved around Nick’s waist, gripping, dragging him closer, claiming space that had never belonged to anyone else.
And Nick didn’t just melt into it. He met him with heat, kissing back like he’d been starving for this, his hands clamping around Logan’s biceps as if he needed something solid to hold him to the earth.
A low groan rumbled out of Logan’s chest when their tongues slid together and he tasted Nick, taking him, something primal inside him giving a satisfied snarl.
“So fucking hot,” he murmured against Nick’s mouth before catching the swollen lower lip between his teeth. He soothed the sting with a slow lick then sucked hard enough to make Nick tremble. Nick answered with a whimper then nipped him back—not punishment, not challenge, just raw claiming.
Logan grinned into the kiss, sharp and wicked, and let him. He let Nick take what he wanted, as much as he needed, feeding on him in every way that wasn’t blood.
Pinning his mate one-handed, Logan tore the rest of Nick’s shirt open with the other.
Buttons scattered, hitting the baseboards, plastic ticking with each bounce.
Then he slid down his mate’s body, his hands on Nick’s hips, yanking his underwear down with his teeth, revealing a cock already flushed, already leaking.
Logan buried his face in the crease of hip and thigh, inhaling the perfume of what was his.
Nick bucked, almost throwing him off balance, but Logan clamped his hands around the backs of Nick’s thighs, owning the rhythm.
He licked up the length of Nick’s cock, savoring the taste and the twitch, then he engulfed Nick’s prick, his nose pressed into skin, sucking until his cheeks hollowed.
Nick’s hands landed in Logan’s hair, yanking, guiding, a wordless plea for more.
Logan gave it, bobbing his head, fast and savagely, flattening his tongue, dragging it over every inch of skin. He barely heard Nick’s cry before hot jets of cum shot down his throat, and he swallowed it all, milking the shaft, not letting up until Nick’s whole body writhed.
But he wasn’t finished. Not by a fucking mile.
Hauling Nick up, Logan flipped him right over onto his stomach. Nick bounced on the mattress, his hands splayed out, his ass already pushing up. Nick made grabby fingers for the sheets, but Logan didn’t give him much time to get settled.
Logan kept a hand on his mate’s hip, squeezing, kneading, like he could shape him just the way he wanted.
A low laugh rattled out of him. “Nick, your ass is gorgeous. Bet you’ll take my cock so well.”
Nick huffed, his face mashed into the pillow. “Good. Maybe you’ll work harder for it.”
That made Logan want to eat him alive. He nipped the top of his thigh, not enough to break skin but enough to leave a mark. Nick gasped, the sound rough and desperate.
“Don’t move,” Logan told him, and then he gripped Nick’s cheeks, spreading him open. There was nothing in the world like having his mate laid out for him like this.
Logan buried his face right in the crease of Nick’s ass, breathing in the scent of arousal and something pure, something that was Nick’s alone.
His tongue went to work, licking slow and deep, flattening it against Nick’s hole and then circling, teasing.
Nick’s hips jerked, grinding back, and Logan grinned against his mate’s skin.
“Fuck, Logan,” Nick groaned. “Don’t stop.”
“Oh, I’m not stopping. Not a chance in hell. Not when you got my dick so hard in the living room I thought I’d come in my jeans.”
Logan spread him wider and pushed his tongue inside, fucking him with it.
The taste was addictive but the way Nick writhed under his hands even more so.
While Logan worked him over, Nick slicked his fingers, getting them ready.
Nick didn’t even notice until Logan slid one inside him, stretching his mate open while his tongue kept going.
“Yes, yes, yes!” Nick arched up, grinding his cock on the sheets, moaning into the pillow. Every sound out of his mouth went straight to Logan’s dick. He couldn’t stop touching Nick, couldn’t get enough.
“You’re fucking delicious,” Logan growled, his voice shredded. “Could eat you out all night.”
He added another finger, slick and careful, twisting as he fucked Nick with both tongue and hand. Nick shuddered, his whole body taut, muscles flexing. Logan could feel him wanting, begging for more, even if he didn’t know how to say it yet.
“You like getting your ass eaten, don’t you, baby?”
Nick groaned, the sound muffled, but he nodded hard. “Not making noises for the hell of it. God, keep going.”
Logan did. He tongued his mate, biting down on a cheek every now and then just to hear him gasp, just to make him feel it. Logan’s nose pressed right in, greedy, while his fingers worked open Nick’s hole, stretching his mate until Nick was loose and slick, ready for more.
Nick was trembling now, hips pushing back, desperate for more friction.
“Gonna fuck you so good, baby. Gonna make you feel me for days.”
“That a threat?” Nick sounded breathless, almost giddy.
“It’s a promise, sweetheart.”
Logan pulled back just enough to watch the way his fingers disappeared inside his mate’s ring of muscle. Nick’s hole hugged them, shiny with lube. He was open for Logan, hungry for it, and Logan was two seconds from losing his goddamn mind over his needy little vampire.
“You better not tease,” Nick gritted out. “Just…do it.”
“Remember you said it, baby.” Logan jerked his own jeans and underwear off, tossing them somewhere, and grabbed a fistful of lube.
Slicked himself, he fisted his cock until he was leaking pre-cum then lined up the head against his mate’s entrance.
Nick was still grinding down, greedy for his cock, mouth open and panting into the sheets.
God, he was gorgeous. Flushed, messy, wild. Mine.
Hand curled around his mate’s hips, Logan pressed the head of his cock against Nick’s opening and gave a slow, steady push. Nick gripped the blanket and let out a low, needy moan, bracing for it. Logan held on to him, guiding him back, making sure he took every inch.
“Jesus, Logan. Fuck.” His mate’s toes curled, making Logan grin.
“Take it,” he growled. “Fuck, you feel amazing.”
His hole swallowed Logan’s cock, tight and perfect, and he saw stars. There was nothing better. Logan bottomed out, his hips flush with his mate’s ass, and he just held there for a second, savoring the way Nick squeezed around him.
Nick was shaking. He reached back, grabbed for Logan’s wrist, holding on. “You better start moving or get off the ride.”
“You’re a bossy little bottom.” Logan chuckled.
“Logan…” Nick said in warning.