Chapter 6 Vin
CHAPTER 6: VIN
Searing pain in his shoulders pulled Vin back to consciousness. Experience had him holding perfectly still and limp while he tried to remember where the fuck he was and what was going on. He was swaying in a way that shouldn’t have been making him nauseous. Or maybe it was the layered smells of years of torture assaulting his nose that did that.
Discreetly flexing his hands, he discovered they were bound behind his back. Probably for a while, given the complete lack of feeling in them. His feet were similarly numb. He couldn’t hear anyone in the surrounding space, no telltale thrum of pulses waiting to be sipped on, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have cameras on him. Whoever they were.
What the fuck had happened?
He remembered chasing that asshole with his flashbang down the alley, throwing him against a wall, and then… nothing. The ache in his head said someone had hit him. It shouldn’t have taken him down, though. And he sh ouldn’t be suffering from memory loss. The fact he was meant this was one of his own kind with the power to affect his mind—Kyan.
A metal door clanged open nearby and the nature of the echo told him where he was. Concrete floor, a large open metal space—he was in one of the coven’s warehouses at the docks. And if he wasn’t mistaken, the twin pains in his shoulders were from meat hooks impaled through his body to suspend him from something. The cold air on his skin said he was naked. How thoroughly pedestrian. He’d better not die like this. It was so cliché.
“I can tell you’re awake.” The voice came from behind him, where the door had opened, but Vin didn’t need to twist to see who it was.
He’d been right. It was Kyan.
That explained a lot. Kyan loved a good warehouse killing and one of his powers was the ability to drop people into unconsciousness. Vin wouldn’t usually have succumbed, but the head trauma on top of the flashbang when he’d still been healing from his earlier concussion had obviously left him susceptible.
Vin blinked his eyes open and tried to make them focus. As he’d thought, he was hanging from the ceiling, his feet about a foot off the floor. It was just enough height to put him around eye level with Kyan if the bastard ever emerged from behind him. Sometimes it really sucked being short.
“It’s been too long, Sugar. Would you mind scratching my balls? I can’t reach,” Vin said.
Kyan’s response was to whip a vicious cane to his back. Vin jerked against the hooks despite himself and gritted his teeth to avoid making a noise as the move pulled at the wounds in his shoulders and white-hot pain flared everywhere.
“I know what you’re like, Vin. I won’t be letting you lure me in with that sexy voice of yours,” Kyan chided .
Vin breathed deep through his nose and focussed on everything that wasn’t the agony of his body. If he was getting out of this, he needed a plan. He could make out three other slow heartbeats besides Kyan’s, all vampires. If he could get rid of the coven leader, he might have a chance.
“Anyone else want to lend a hand?” Vin asked, letting his power sink into his words.
It was worth a shot. If he could get one of Kyan’s guards to touch him, or even just look in his eyes, he might be able to use his own power to charm them into helping him. Or he could use his unique venom to paralyse them. Most vampires had a few different venoms they could secrete through their fangs—to numb, cause pleasure or cause pain. Age had given his an extra kick when he needed it. But that wouldn’t help if he couldn’t get his teeth locked into their flesh.
Five more brutal hits to his spine followed, and the scent of his own blood filled the air. He could sense the bloodlust building in the gathered vampires, which was actually a strike of luck. If such a small amount of blood was tempting them, they must be relatively young.
“They won’t succumb to you because I won’t let them, Vin. I’ll be the one to silence that wicked tongue and they’ll spread the story. I’d say it’s nothing personal, but you’ve been a pain in my ass for decades. My people think I was curtailing my business because of your silent threats. That is not acceptable. I’m going to make an example of you, so everyone knows no one controls me,” Kyan hissed.
What Vin should do was try to sweet-talk Kyan, convince him it would be more manly to let him down from the hooks and kill him unrestrained. Unfortunately, what came out of his mouth was, “Shit, Sugar. You should’ve said something if your ass was sore. I could’ve used more lube.”
Consciousness faded in and out as Kyan beat at him in response, raining down blows on every part of his body, especially the part he’d suggested Kyan was intimate with. Apparently, the coven leader was a little sensitive to the suggestion he took dick from anyone. Who knew? Whipping someone with a cane was a pretty inefficient way to kill someone, especially a vampire given some of his earlier hits were already healing, but it would probably get ninety percent of the way there, given the strength of their kind. Pain was an old friend of Vin’s, though, so if Kyan thought he was going to be gifted with a single scream, he was sorely mistaken.
Vin’s hearing became a little fucked once Kyan turned that cane to his head, but at some point, the relentless impacts paused, and Vin could swear he’d heard an explosion nearby.
“Lars, report,” Kyan snapped.
Vin could see him talking into a phone with what was left of his peripheral vision. He hadn’t taken any direct hits to his eyes, but that was only by sheer luck. Regardless, the swelling of the rest of his face was making it difficult to see.
“Fucking hell. Do I have to do everything myself?” Kyan growled.
Kyan glanced over at Vin as if to see if he was any threat and he did his best to look defeated and unconscious. It wasn’t hard.
“One of you take over with the cane. Don’t let him heal or he’ll kill you,” Kyan said, shoving the damn stick at a guard before striding out of the room.
Vin let a smile stretch his lips, hidden by his hair hanging lank and bloody over his beaten face. Finally. A mistake. He could hear the three vampires arguing over who was going to take over. Each second of delay let him recover a little more. Hilariously, they were all trying to avoid him. They were smarter than they looked. Except if they were really smart, they’d have run already.
“You do it. Look at that creepy fucking tattoo on his chest. Who pays a witch to magic something like that on their body? It’s like he’s staring at me even with his eyes swollen shut,” one of the vampires muttered.
“Awww, Sugars. You’re making me feel unloved. Tell you what. Why don’t you put that cane down and you can all have at me with those muscular hands of yours? I love a good spanking.”
His power felt slippery and distant, but he was desperate enough to fight his weakness to shove it in their general direction, and they were young enough that it worked better than he had any right to hope.
“Fuck. Don’t do that. The boss will kill you,” one of the guys said, and Vin’s smile widened despite the pain in his face.
He had them.
“You gonna let him touch me while you stand and watch, Sugar? Too scared to join in?”
The next thing he knew, three pairs of rough hands were on him, and he threw his head back and laughed before growling a single word carried on every ounce of pain and anger he’d been enduring. “Obey!”
Usually, his charm wasn’t so effective. But the combination of his blood everywhere and his mental state was enough to gift him control of their three minds.
“Get me down and release me. Keep your hands on me at all times,” he said, so disgusted at their touch that he almost vomited as he grit his teeth against even more pain. There was no way he could maintain control of them if they let go, though.
When his broken body finally pulled free of the hooks that had pierced it, he thudded down to the concrete. Fucking hell . He really should’ve told them to be gentle. A moment later, the pressure on his wrists and ankles was gone and circulation started painfully returning to his extremities.
The hands of his captors continued to grip his body, digging into the bruises and abrasions in retaliation as they tried and failed to fight his compulsion. He couldn’t risk keeping them around any longer.
“You want to know who the kind of person is who would pay a witch to ink a ‘creepy’ eye tattoo on their chest? The kind who worships at the altar of an eye for an eye. I always get my fucking vengeance,” he rasped before dredging up every last drop of his power to imbue his voice with a command they would be helpless to resist. “Now, keep one hand on me and use the other to shoot yourself in the head right through those ugly fucking eyeballs of yours.”
Three loud bangs sounded above him, and he found himself smothered under dead bodies that he was too weak to shift. Their final act of defiance was an attempt to stop him from escaping, even when they couldn’t resist his order.
“What the fuck was that?” a familiar voice hissed.
Stuttering breaths returned to his chest as the corpses were removed and he stared up at the form above him, backlit by the harsh fluorescent light of the warehouse.
“My Angel,” he whispered, as a face came into focus.
No one had ever come for him before. No one had ever saved him.
“I’m Angelo ,” the shifter grumbled as he gently scooped him into his arms.
“You’re mine . ”
His Angel’s scent must be a drug. That was the only reason he could think of that he would have willingly lost consciousness, entrusting his safety to a shifter of all people, while escaping a dangerous situation. The last thing he remembered was burrowing his nose into Angel’s delightfully firm chest and reminding himself that he was not allowed to take a bite. The damage to his body made him desperate for the sustenance to heal, but he was a vampire born, not some young, made vampire. He could control his appetite for blood, at least. Even if he had no intention of controlling his other appetites.
Speaking of which, as he stretched where he lay, he felt soft cotton and the comfort of a mattress beneath his aching naked flesh. A bed. That was good. Maybe he could get his Angel to come find him there because he didn’t have the energy to move. A mental scan of his body assured him it was about as fucked as he’d thought—still littered with fractures and deep bruising and another damn concussion that had him wincing against the morning light filtering in through the thin curtains.
“Good. You’re awake,” Angel’s voice sounded from nearby.
Vin finally opened his eyes and looked over at the shifter leaning in the unfamiliar doorway next to another shifter he recognised as the pack’s doctor. His Angel must’ve been worried if he’d asked Rafe to check on him. That thought had warmth blooming in his too-chilled chest. Only the worst injuries needed the kind of treatment a shifter healer could provide. Usually, supernaturals either healed themselves or died before the Doc could get there. Vin had tried flirting with the sexy shifter healer a few years back, but Rafe only had eyes for one man. A man who defied the bond between them at every turn. Vin used to pity Rafe for it and wonder why he didn’t just move on. Now he understood. Vin would never stop flirting, but his Angel was it for him now he’d found him.
“I told you he’d be fine. He’s older and more powerful than he looks,” the Doc said. “I need to head off. You can take care of him from here. ”
“Adrian making trouble again?” Angel asked.
“That boy will be the death of me,” Rafe muttered, waving a distracted farewell as he headed out the door.
“Where am I?” Vin asked once they were alone.
“My apartment. You were in pretty awful shape. Still are, really. And the safe house had already been compromised once.”
“Mmm… my saviour. Come here and let me thank you properly.”
Angel scowled, and a low growl filled the room. “For fuck’s sake. You can barely move, and you look like you should be dead. Surely even you stop flirting at some point.”
Vin considered it, briefly. His mind wasn’t operating at full speed thanks to the hunger burning in him that was taking up more and more mental real estate the longer he was awake. “I don’t think so,” he said.
Angel strode closer, looking thoroughly frustrated with him, and sat on the bed nearby. His scent was unbearable this close—all but begging Vin to kiss, bite, suck, lick.
“You need to feed,” his Angel said, rolling up the sleeves on his collared shirt and temporarily distracting Vin with the muscled forearms he’d revealed.
That was his excuse for taking so long to process what Angel was saying.
“You’re going to let me feed from you?” he asked, voice strained.
He was so fucked if Angel let him taste the sweet nectar of his blood. He could barely keep his hands off the guy as it was.
“You need it to heal. I’m not an asshole,” Angel said.
“Sure you are. It’s one of your most endearing qualities,” Vin said, using the humour to try and hide just how desperate he was to sink his fangs into Angel’s wrist.
His fangs had extended the second he caught sight of his Angel and were dripping so much of the venom that would give his shifter pleasure while he fed he was pretty sure he was drooling it down his bruised and broken chin. Probably not all that attractive.
“Don’t be a dick,” Angelo said.
Was that fond exasperation in his voice or was Vin’s head trauma making him hear things? Vin opened his mouth to make a smart reply, but Angel pushed a finger to his lips.
“Nope. No dick jokes. Just a little blood donation,” Angel said.
Vin couldn’t help himself. Licking up Angel’s finger, he sucked it into his mouth, his cheeks hollowing as he drew the digit deeper with a groan. Angel’s breath hitched, and he snatched his hand back, his gaze turning wary.
“Angel, if you want it to be clinical, go get me a blood bag. There’s going to be nothing little about me drinking directly from your veins.” Vin’s words were strained.
He was trying to be good. Really. But the moment Angel had come for him in that warehouse, he’d known the shifter was his and now he was offering himself up on a platter. Well, on a bed , which was even harder to resist.
“Shifter blood from the vein will heal you faster. We can’t afford to have you laid out for days,” Angel said.
Vin could hear Angel’s racing heartbeat. He knew the shifter wasn’t as calm about this as he was making out. “If I do this, you can’t use it against me later. This is your choice.”
Angel swallowed hard, and Vin watched the movement of his Adam’s apple with rapt attention. “Just don’t make it sexual.”
Vin gave him an incredulous look. “Have you met me? Or any vampire, for that matter? There are two settings on offer here, sweetheart—exquisite pleasure or tortured agony. Take your pick.”
Angel looked pained at his words. Had he really never been bitten by a vamp before? Or talked to anyone who had? Vin guessed by the adorable conflict on his face that he hadn’t. That was probably what happened when someone’s entire family was murdered by vamps as a child. No one wanted to bring up feeding orgasms with them. Vin was pretending there was a choice, but of course there wasn’t. His pleasure venom had already flooded his mouth. There was zero chance he could make it painful instead, even if he tried, and it was only adding to his struggle for restraint. He wasn’t affected by his own venom like Angel would be, but it still had him needy and desperate. His cock was a steel rod where it rubbed against the sheets, which wasn’t at all comfortable given how injured it was. Looked like Angel had just dropped his naked body into bed without bothering to find him any clothes. He tried to lie to himself and say that being the first to feed on his Angel didn’t make it even hotter, but it totally did. No one would’ve tasted his Angel’s blood except him. No one would’ve given him that kind of pleasure but him. And no one ever would again.
“Just do it, vampire,” Angel said, pressing his wrist to Vin’s mouth.
Vin drew in a deep breath, inhaling the scent from his Angel’s skin and letting the susurration of his pulse just below the surface fill his mind. His control was tenuous at best, and he groaned as he flicked his tongue out to trace the path of the vein he was desperate to sink his fangs into.
“Are you sure?” he asked again, hating his neediness.
The truth was, he’d rather die than have Angel hate him for this. He wasn’t fucking around. The second his shifter had appeared in the warehouse, he’d known Angel was it for him. No one had ever come for him. No one had ever treated him like he was worth saving. He wasn’t letting his Angel go. Ever. If Angel rejected him for feeding on him, the damage would be so much worse than the physical wounds he was trying to heal with his offering.
And that was another thing no one had ever done for him. People had fed him to heal him before, of course. He was centuries old and in the business of killing, so it was only natural it had come up. But it had always been at his request. Always been a negotiation with payment in favours or money. No one had ever just offered without expectation because he was hurting. His Angel might play the gruff, vampire-hating, bodyguard. But he couldn’t hide the concern that drove his actions. He cared.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Angel whispered.
“Like what?”
“Like I really am an angel to you. I’m not.”
Vin looked up into eyes that had turned fully golden as Angel’s wolf side shone through, and he smiled the sweetest smile he could remember. It wasn’t calculated. Wasn’t a flirtation. It was just what this grumpy shifter brought out in him.
Angel’s eyes flashed and he reached out with his other hand to cup behind Vin’s neck and stroke him, rubbing his scent into his skin. The move was possessive. Strong. He used the grip to shove Vin’s face into his wrist, slicing his own skin open on Vin’s descended fangs.
Vin groaned in pleasure as the sweet metallic taste of his Angel’s blood finally passed his lips. Instinctively, he bit deeper, pumping his venom into Angel’s veins. His satisfaction deepened as Angel gasped in shock. As he glanced up through his lashes, he saw his shifter’s pupils blow wide in pleasure and his jaw slacken. The hand on the back of Vin’s neck gripped even tighter, holding him fast to Angel’s wrist.
Vin drew in long mouthfuls of life-giving liquid that tasted better than anything he’d ever had before. He could feel Angel’s fiery blood entering his cool body, burning a path of heat and healing that left him tingling and aroused. His injuries were forgotten beneath a tide of pleasure as his bones knitted back together and bruising faded.
A desperate sound left his Angel’s mouth as he drank. As if Vin was sucking on the enticingly hard cock he could see straining the shifter’s jeans instead of his wrist. Twisting against Angel’s hold, Vin scrambled into his lap, straddling him where he sat on the bed and pressing his naked body against him in as many places as he could manage.
Damn it. He really should’ve suggested Angel lost some of his clothes before they started. Letting the talons on his fingers extend, he ripped through Angel’s shirt, tearing it away from his body in shreds and leaving light scratches across his torso that oozed enticing red for a moment before his shifter healing took hold.
Licking his tongue across the wound on Angel’s wrist, Vin let the puncture wounds heal and pushed his arm aside so he could get closer and lick each of the beads of blood he’d created on his Angel’s chest away as he worked his way up to his throat. Angel’s eyes rolled and his head dropped back as his low growl filled the room.
Vin resisted the urge to latch onto his neck. Barely. He’d taken enough. But he couldn’t resist pressing a series of nibbling kisses up his carotid, teasing them both. His hands were kneading every muscle he could find in his Angel’s strong back as he pulled them closer, their naked chests slick with sweat as they rubbed together. His shifter was like a furnace to his naturally cooler body.
“Yes,” Angel groaned, as Vin let his mouth sink lower again, sucking red marks down his body until he could pull a nipple into his mouth and turn it hard and throbbing against his tongue.
Raising his hips, Vin tugged at the button of Angel’s jeans, hoping the shifter would get the message and the brief pause wouldn’t bring him to his senses. He needn’t have worried. His Angel was past any ability to pull back. This time it was Angel who destroyed his own clothes, his shifter strength making quick work of his pants as seams ripped and the black denim went flying across the room.
Vin gasped as Angel pulled him close once more and finally, finally , his aching shaft pressed hard against Angel’s. His hips canted forward without conscious thought, grinding them together. A moment later, Angel’s large hand wrapped around them both and gifted him with the friction he’d so desperately been searching for. As fast as he was healing, the lingering ache from his injuries only heightened his pleasure.
“Fuck,” Vin moaned, before capturing Angel’s mouth in a kiss as the shifter continued stroking them together.
That kiss just about destroyed him.
His Angel yielded to his demanding tongue without even seeming to realise, letting him lick and explore as they both became breathless with lust. Wolves could be difficult with ceding control in the bedroom, especially alphas, but he could tell immediately his Angel wouldn’t be. Maybe it was because Vin had already established dominance. Maybe it was just Angel’s protective, caring nature. Whatever the reason, it was the nail in Vin’s undead coffin. With his history, he’d never have been able to stay with someone who always and only wanted control.
His Angel was perfect.
He needed to taste that perfection.
Angel moaned in protest and clung to him as he pulled away, but Vin let a little extra of his power shine through and the shifter reluctantly let him rearrange himself. He couldn’t help but let out a low dirty laugh as Angel’s brain finally caught up with the play and realised what he was doing. Strong fingers wrapped tight in his hair and guided him down to where he’d been heading anyway. Directly to that perfect, straining, swollen alpha shifter cock that had been driving him crazy pressed so tight to his own.
He didn’t have the patience for finesse. Far too worked up after the high of his blood and that kiss. He just sucked the angry red head into his mouth and took Angel’s cock down to the root, swallowing around it so his throat massaged the shifter’s length. He was rewarded with a shock of delicious pain where Angel’s fist tightened in his hair and what could only be described as a howl of pleasure from his wolf. If this apartment was in a pack building, there was no chance that every wolf in the vicinity didn’t know what they were up to. Hell, even a human would’ve heard that. The thought filled Vin with satisfaction. They needed to know who his Angel belonged to.
All it took was the softest tug of his hands at Angel’s hips to have him fucking into his mouth like he wanted. Vin groaned around the cock stuffing him full, letting his fangs graze just enough to bring his venom into play, but not enough to harm the shifter. Angel’s surprised growl in response was almost as loud as the howl had been. He knew from experience just how exquisite that sensation of the danger of sharp fangs and pleasure venom seeping into your most sensitive flesh could be.
Reaching down, he used one hand to tug gently on Angel’s full balls that were pulling up high and the other to stroke himself in time to Angel’s desperate thrusts into his mouth.
“Fuck yes, Vin. Just like that, sweetheart. Let me hear you,” Angel gasped.
Vin moaned at the endearment, letting the vibrations travel down Angel’s shaft as he glanced up to find his shifter staring down at him in rapture. Angel’s thumb brushed a tear from his cheek that he hadn’t even realised was there. It was too much emotion. He didn’t know if he could take much more.
Moving his fingers further back, he massaged along Angel’s taint and focussed everything he had on using his tongue and mouth to draw out more of those intoxicating gasps and moans that Angel released whenever he touched him just right. His other hand was flying over his leaking cock hard and fast, his pre-cum leaving him slick and creating an obscene soundtrack to their pleasure.
Angel’s rhythm stuttered just as Vin finally pressed a firm finger to his hole. He hadn’t even breached it when the cock filling his mouth better than anyone ever had throbbed inside him and Angel came with a hoarse shout.
It was his name on Angel’s lips and the taste of his cum filling his throat that sent Vin over the edge, his own vibrating moans around Angel’s cock setting off a round of aftershocks for both of them.
He’d never come so hard. Never felt so much pleasure that the world narrowed to become only as large as Angel’s legs wrapped around him and Angel’s hands gripping him so tight he might never let go.
Vin panted as he leaned his head on Angel’s hard, muscled thigh and closed his eyes. And if a few of his tears weren’t from the very pleasant way he’d almost choked around Angel’s cock, there was no one around to see. No one except for the shifter that lived in his heart now, anyway. The shifter who, understandably, hated all vampires with a passion born of immeasurable heartbreak.
Fuck. This was going to hurt.