Seth
My brave, brave love.
Violet snorted. None of the soldiers fired.
Benny didn’t hesitate. “Sure thing,” he said.
Well, okay. Had that been a hit or a miss?
Mr. Perkins cocked a brow. “By the time your ‘backup’ gets here—”
And then Benny and Helio were right there, in the bunker, smack-dab in the middle of the two factions facing off in the hallway.
Benny couldn’t possibly have looked more out of place, broad-shouldered and golden and noticeably shirtless, wearing the tiniest swim trunks known to man.
Helio didn’t exactly look suited to an underground lab either, haughty and coldly handsome as ever, wearing some white linen ensemble that definitely belonged at some all-inclusive island resort.
It was the middle of winter—where the hell had they come from?
At their appearance, there was the horrible, cacophonous sound of a dozen tranquilizer guns firing, but Helio waved a hand, and the shots froze in midair, then dropped uselessly to the floor.
“Seth!” Benny strode over and lifted Seth into a tight bear hug. Seth could feel Riley stiffen beside him, but he didn’t protest. No doubt somewhere in his tireless eavesdropping attempts, Riley had figured out Seth and Benny were cousins.
“Is that it?” Helio asked coolly, stopping another round of tranquilizer darts as Mr. Perkins yelled orders at his soldiers. “Can we go?”
Benny ignored the question. Still holding Seth in midair, he turned to face Riley, giving him a beaming smile. He either didn’t notice or didn’t care that Riley’s eyes were solid black, fangs poking out between his lips. “Hey. Are you the ass-eating guy?”
“Yeah.” Riley nodded. “I’m the boyfriend.”
“Cool. Nice to meet you.”
Seth wiggled in Benny’s arms, trying to get gracefully to the ground and failing miserably. “Um, Benny, do you think Helio could handle them? The soldiers?”
Benny looked over his shoulder at Helio, and Helio heaved a sigh, waving his hand again. Instantly, the soldiers disappeared from view. Completely. Zero sign of them or their guns.
That…was not what Seth had been expecting. “Where did they go?”
Helio shrugged a careless shoulder. “Scattered throughout the fae realm.”
“You can do that?” the vampire Riley had arrived with asked sharply. He was eyeing Helio like he was the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen. Seth was suddenly a little concerned this guy was going to commandeer one of the cells and lock Helio in there for his own experiments.
“This dreary hellhole is full of broken promises, false hopes, and dirty tricks. There’s quite a bit of power for me to draw from.” Helio gave Mr. Perkins a condescending nod. “My compliments to the chef.”
Mr. Perkins only stood there, wide-eyed and frozen. Without the soldiers holding her hostage, Violet had already run over to their side, standing tall with their faction. Good girl.
Seth knocked gently on Benny’s chest until Benny released him to the ground again, where Riley quickly tugged Seth back to his side. “Will they be okay?” Seth asked. “The soldiers?”
“It depends on which of the fae find them first,” Helio told him, already sounding bored with the topic of conversation. “Now can we go?”
Benny scratched his chest, shrugging at Seth. “We’re having island time. He gets cranky if we’re interrupted. Are you good here?”
Seth was still a little hung up on the approximately dozen humans Helio had just relocated to another fucking realm, but that was kind of Seth’s fault for being vague with his instructions, wasn’t it?
And if this was a sort of tiny, one-hallway version of war, those soldiers had been fighting on the wrong side, right?
They’d lost. Now they were facing the consequences.
They were going to take Riley. They were never going to let him go.
“We’re good,” he told his cousin. “Thank you.”
“Anytime, bud.” Benny nodded to Riley and gave Violet a little one-sided fist bump. “Sick boots.”
He leaned down to press a kiss to Seth’s head, but before it landed, he and Helio were already gone again, almost as if they’d never been there at all.
“I love him,” Violet whispered in their wake.
Seth didn’t know if she was talking about Benny or Helio. Hopefully Benny. Helio was kind of terrifying and definitely not fit for teenage crushes.
Riley’s vampire friend gave Seth a considering look. “You have a fae in your arsenal. I thought they were a myth.”
Seth shrugged, hoping he gave off the impression of having had even a bit of control of that entire, confusing interaction. He turned to Mr. Perkins. “I told you, didn’t I?”
Mr. Perkins bolted.
The other vampire was on him in a second, one arm securing Mr. Perkins around the chest, the other hand tugging his head to the side in a very deliberate manner. “Riley,” he offered in a lazy drawl.
Mr. Perkins let out a horrible, high-pitched laugh. “Do you really think it ends with me? You think this is the only facility of its kind?”
The other vampire tightened his hold until Mr. Perkins groaned. “Sometimes it’s not for closure,” the vampire crooned. “Sometimes it’s just for fun.” He bent Mr. Perkins’s neck at an even harsher angle. “Riley,” he offered again.
Riley stepped forward with a low growl.
Before Seth had even made a conscious decision, he was placing a restraining hand on Riley’s arm. Riley stopped immediately, cocking his head at Seth. Riley was still united, Seth thought. Still whole and present and in charge of his own autonomy.
Seth knew he didn’t have much time. He tried to get his thoughts in order. “I understand you want vengeance,” he said slowly. “I know he planned horrible things for you.”
“He took you,” Riley said fiercely, as if that was all that mattered. Not the trap itself, but the bait that had been used.
“I know. I’m not saying he deserves to live. He’s cruel and dangerous, and I don’t want that decision left up to me. But—” Seth hesitated. The other vampire was watching them closely. Seth lowered his voice. “It doesn’t have to be you.”
Riley’s black eyes gave nothing away. Seth swallowed hard. “You and your moms worked so hard for so long to keep you from doing exactly this. I don’t want to be the one that breaks that.” He tilted his chin to the waiting vampire. “Let him do it. He looks…capable.”
He looked more than capable, Riley’s companion. He looked cold-eyed and curious and wryly amused, like the life he held was nothing to him and the conversation happening in front of him was only mildly interesting.
“You’re trying to tame him,” the vampire said to Seth. “But it would be wiser to encourage him. He’s already failed to protect you once.”
Seth made a low noise of frustration. He stepped forward to face the vampire with the ugly burgundy suit, all Seth’s helplessness and frustration coming to a boiling point.
“I’m not taming anyone. I’m giving him a choice.
Everyone keeps talking about whether he can protect me.
That’s bullshit. How about this? How about I protect him.
I’m older and wiser, and he’s—he’s mine.
He’s mine, okay? He said so, and I believe him. I’ll take care of him.”
The vampire scoffed. “You aren’t strong enough to protect one of our kind.”
“I’ll fix that.” Seth turned to Riley, who hadn’t once taken his eyes off him. “It’s your choice, baby. I’m not—you’re not an experiment. You’re not a problem to be solved. Do what you think is right. But you don’t have to kill him for me. I don’t need it.”
“You’d turn for me?” Riley asked. There were layers to his voice, gruff and soft at the same time. Like both sides were speaking, vampire and lost boy for once sharing the stage. “For us? Is that—is that what you just said?”
Seth adjusted his hold on Riley’s arm. Not because he wanted to restrain him, but because he needed the connection. “I want to stand by you. With you. You’re not alone, Riley. Not in any of this. I love you—all of you. You’re mine, I’m yours. We protect each other. We protect our friends.”
Riley smiled, slow and fanged and beautiful. “We don’t care about the lawyer,” he said, his voice rough and low. “We only care about you.”
He made a gesture to the other vampire, and there was a strangled, gurgling scream. Seth barely registered it. Because Riley was kissing him, a perfect, hard press of bruising lips and fangs and tongue.
Seth wrapped his arms around Riley’s neck and hung on tight.
He’d done it, hadn’t he? Seth had helped end this, in his meager, human way. He’d made the right call, and he’d protected the man he loved. He’d do it again and again if he needed to. He’d call in every favor, every connection he had.
“I love you,” Riley murmured, kissing Seth all over his face. “I love you so much. More than anything.” He captured Seth’s mouth again, lifting him off the ground.
“Ew. Gross.”
Seth broke the kiss. Violet. He’d forgotten about Violet.
Oh fuck. She was watching a man get eaten. “Look away!” Seth yelled, banging at Riley’s chest until he put Seth down.
Everyone kept lifting Seth off the freaking floor today. He wasn’t that dainty.
“I’m talking about the kiss,” Violet said, and Seth finally realized she was facing the wall, away from Mr. Perkins’s untimely end.
He was kind of surprised she wasn’t visually devouring the gore, but maybe writing about bloody retribution and witnessing it in real life were a little different after all.
“My eyes might be closed, but I can still hear your mouth sounds.”
Seth gave Riley a stern look. A look that said, without a doubt, What in the fuck is she doing here?
Riley’s black eyes and fangs receded, leaving only a sheepish young man with kiss-bitten lips in their wake. “It was Wolfe’s idea.”
Seth was going to assume Wolfe was the vampire in the garish suit. The one who had just—from the sound of it—ripped Mr. Perkins’s throat out with his teeth. Seth swallowed back bile. “She could have been hurt. She’s probably traumatized.”
“I’m not,” Violet said, sounding cheerier than Seth had ever heard her. “Not unless you two get really gross and bang it out on the floor right now.”
Seth took a deep breath and gathered the tattered remains of his dignity. “We’re not doing anything on this floor,” he said, grabbing hold of first Violet’s and then Riley’s hands. “We’re getting out of here.”
“And the other staff?” Wolfe asked.
Seth shot him a glance, pointedly ignoring the body now slumped on the tile behind him. “We leave them. The doors stayed unlocked, right? Whoever or whatever was held here on the other floors escaped?”
Wolfe cocked his head like he was listening. “I believe so,” he said after a moment. “We have someone who can verify.”
“Then leave it, I’d say. I’m not interested in a massacre. If they start up again, we’ll deal with it.”
“Very well.”
Seth had no idea why this vampire was listening to him. Maybe it was because Seth had summoned Benny and Helio’s help, or maybe Seth’s stupid little speech had impressed him. Hell, maybe he was only mollifying Seth in the moment and would come back and kill everyone in the dead of night.
It didn’t matter to Seth. This place was gross and evil, and Seth had done what he could to not make it all worse, but it was time to go.
Seth took one step, and his knees buckled.
Before he could hit the ground, Riley had picked him off the floor, tucking Seth to his chest in a bridal carry. Maybe Seth was that dainty, because he didn’t protest this time. He was tired and cold and ready to be coddled now. He’d been brave and strong enough for one day.
Wolfe stalked over and held an arm out to Violet. “Young lady.” He had blood smeared all over his mouth, dripping down to his pocket square.
Violet took his arm without hesitation. “Let’s roll.”