Chapter 9 Angelo
CHAPTER 9: ANGELO
The forest was a blur. Angelo’s paws fell so softly on the leaf matter covering the ground as he ran that he didn’t make a single noise to interrupt the sounds of the surrounding wildlife that was either settling down for the night or awakening, depending on its nature. He’d snuck out at dusk while Luca entertained his cousins in his apartment, leaving the family to bond even though they’d all assured him he should stay.
It had rained earlier in the afternoon and the smells of damp greenery and prey drifted up to his nose in a way that should’ve been enticing. He couldn’t focus on any of it. All he could focus on was the surge and release of his straining muscles as he tried and failed to outrun the chaos of his thoughts and emotions.
Four days.
That’s how long it had been since he’d watched Vin walk out of his home. It was almost as long as he’d known the vampire before he’d left. It shouldn’t have been long enough for Vin to be taking up any of his mental or emotional real estate, but he had it all. Every square inch .
Mate , his wolf growled at him, as if it was all the explanation that was needed.
His animal side wasn’t interested in angsting about something so simple when they could be hunting to provide for Vin. Except Vin didn’t even eat any prey they could take down like this because he was a fucking vampire. Heat flowed through his veins as he remembered the way he could feed his mate. Which made him think of that hot as fuck selfie he hadn’t replied to because he couldn’t look at it to type anything in reply without taking himself in hand. Dammit . That wasn’t helping. He was supposed to be escaping these thoughts.
Pausing his careening progress through the forest in a clearing, Angelo sat back on his haunches and raised his nose to the sky to release a long, mournful howl. He didn’t mean for it to be mournful, didn’t mean for it to shout his loneliness to the world and his pack. He’d just needed to release the tension in the only way he could. His wolf didn’t care about any of that. It just felt. And it didn’t understand why they weren’t chasing after Vin.
From the pack lands around him that their home backed onto, half a dozen wolves responded to his call. He let his howl drift out again into the cool night air until the darkness filled with the harmony of his pack reaffirming their bonds. It would usually have filled him with reassurance that he wasn’t alone in the world, despite the way he held himself back from them. Now all he could wonder was whether one of those howls was from the traitor in their midst.
Knowing the wolves would come and try to find him, he spun in place and raced back toward their housing complex nestled between the city and the wilds of their forest. He couldn’t deal with the pain of searching their familiar golden eyes for betrayal.
As he drew near the buildings of home, his nose twitched and he skidded inelegantly to a halt. Tilting his head toward the roof of the apartments he usually lived in, he inhaled deeply and was rewarded with the faint trace of mint and fresh blood—his mate was here.
He’d left a pair of sweatpants in the lockers that bordered the forest, and he shifted so fast to retrieve them he just about gave himself whiplash. He barely noticed the crack of muscle and bone as he settled back into his human form, too focussed on the draw of the scent coming from above him.
The sentries gave him searching looks as he jumped up to grab a fire escape ladder when he could’ve just as easily made his way up through the internal stairs. As long as they didn’t follow or raise an alarm, he didn’t give a shit. The complex was built bespoke for shifters and well-maintained, so he didn’t make a sound as he raced up five storeys of ladders to the roof.
When he finally swung himself onto the top of the building, he paused and took in a sight he was struggling to process. He’d been so focussed on Vin’s scent that he’d noticed nothing else. It was a little embarrassing, honestly, because he should at least have noticed the smell of the burning wax from hundreds of softly glowing candles scattered across the roof.
Vin must’ve known where he would come from because there was a clear pathway through the tiny flames from where he stood to where the vampire waited ahead. For some reason, there were no sentries up here tonight, but he didn’t think that would’ve stopped him even if there had been. Angelo stepped forward in a daze, his body aching to touch the man waiting for him. His eyes drank in the stunning silhouette Vin made, his clothes sculpting to his body to reveal it for the work of art it was. The candlelight glinted off his silver eyes in a way that made them appear warmer. Or maybe that was the enraptured look on his face .
A muffled groan from the ground had Angelo looking down and he froze in place at the edge of the wide circle of candles Vin stood within.
“What?” he asked as he took in the bound and bleeding man lying on his back with his feet awkwardly twisted beneath him, laid out like a sacrifice.
Vin didn’t immediately answer the question, stepping around the other vampire to approach Angelo. Vin stopped two paces away, his hand outstretched and inviting Angelo to enter his orbit. He looked down at the hand and then back up into Vin’s eyes. The moment felt heavy with promise. Significant. Everything in him screamed to go to his mate, but he couldn’t make himself take the first step.
Vin tilted his head, understanding in his eyes as if he knew the wariness that was holding Angelo back. Letting anyone close was a recipe for heartbreak, and vampires could not be trusted.
Vin swept his outstretched arm toward the bound man as if that had been his intention all along, and his soft words broke the foundation of Angelo’s world.
“Let me introduce you to our guest, Angel. This is Bane.”
Blood rushed in Angelo’s ears and a growl wrenched from his throat before he could even fully process what Vin had done. What he’d given him.
Bane.
The assassin even his pack’s Alpha had never been able to pin down. The vampire who’d taken his little sister and his parents from him in minutes and left him scarred and broken in more ways than one. The only person he’d ever wanted to kill. And Vin had wrapped him up in a bow and placed him at his feet. Well, not exactly a bow.
“Is that razor wire?” he asked, because it was all he could think of to say when he didn’t know how to express just how much this fucking meant to him .
“Yes, Angel. I think I might’ve blinded him a little in one eye, sorry, but he’s mostly still in one piece.”
“An eye for an eye?” Angelo asked, thinking of the words he’d overheard about Vin’s tattoo in the warehouse.
“Always.”
“He’s a vampire. And you brought him for me.” Apparently, he couldn’t do anything but state the obvious.
“I did.”
“Why? Won’t this alienate you from your own people? From other assassins?” Angelo asked.
“Because I will always give you what you need, Angel. And you needed to know he could never do to another what he did to you. I understand that more than you will ever comprehend. You’re my people now. If anyone ever hurts you, if anyone has ever hurt you, I will end them. Your vengeance is mine now, along with everything else.”
Angelo searched Vin’s face, for what he wasn’t sure. The axis of his existence shifted and resettled in the devotion of that gaze, in the dedication of someone else’s heart. Vin had given him what no one else ever could. The one thing that would mean most to him. And not only that, but he understood Angelo enough to get why it meant so much to him. It wasn’t simply vengeance. It was a fundamental need to save anyone else from the same heartbreak he'd experienced. A need Vin shared with him because he wasn’t the conscienceless, shallow killer he presented to the world. He was Angelo’s mate. He was his person.
“I can’t lose you,” he whispered, because with that knowledge came the realisation that letting someone back into his heart would mean he could get hurt again like he had all those years before. It was far too late to save himself from that pain, though. It had been too late since the moment he’d caught Vin’s scent outside the cabin on that first day .
“You’re mine, Angel. I’m not going to let you go. Ever. Trust me.”
Angelo closed the two steps between them and cupped Vin’s face with his hand, stroking the stubble on his jaw with his thumb as he drowned in the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen. His gaze dropped to Vin’s soft lips as they stood in silence, breathing in each other’s existence. Dipping his head, he pressed the gentlest of kisses to his mate’s mouth.
Vin groaned and leaned forward, deepening the kiss and taking it from zero to dirty as fuck in less than a second as his mouth slipped open and his tongue lured Angelo’s out to play.
They were interrupted by another muffled moan from the man twisted up in razor wire at their feet and Angelo glanced down at him in annoyance. It seemed he’d been straining at his bonds and sliced himself open even more on the blades pressed tight to his body. His clothing was in shreds and the rancid smell of his blood was an irritating distraction from his mate in his arms.
As Angelo looked down into Bane’s eyes, he saw a dim light of recognition and the satisfying death of any hope the killer might’ve had to escape this with his life. Bane couldn’t have avoided his attempts to find and kill him this long if he didn’t know who Angelo was, and with that understanding came the knowledge of his imminent demise. He’d thought he wanted to make it hurt, make Bane suffer a hundred times over for what he’d done to his family. But now he found he didn’t want to let this waste of existence delay him from his happiness for a single second longer. Vin had already filled the vampire with terror on his behalf, and that was enough.
Stepping back from his mate for a moment, Angelo lifted his foot and spun into a brutal kick to Bane’s jaw. His neck snapped with a satisfying crunch. Vin silently passed him a silver stiletto blade and Angelo slid its length through Bane’s now deathly still temple, twisting it with a precise movement designed to ensure his brain wouldn’t function again. Ever.
“Quicker than he deserved,” Vin observed, but there was no judgement in his voice. There was just anger on his mate’s behalf.
“No. It took far too long,” Angelo said, staring down at the man whose death had consumed his dreams until the day thoughts of Vin had forcefully ejected him from his subconscious barely more than a week ago.
Vin tugged at his hand and pulled him back into his arms. The smaller vampire nestled his body into Angelo’s in a way that made him feel whole for the first time in his life, tucking his head under Angelo’s chin and resting his ear against his heart.
“Feeling peckish?” Angelo teased, as Vin listened to his racing pulse. And wasn’t that something? Angelo couldn’t remember ever teasing someone.
“You have no idea,” Vin groaned, turning his head to press a kiss to Angelo’s naked chest before tracing his tongue in teasing circles in a way that left trails of chills across his skin.
Angelo gasped as the vampire’s sharp teeth closed on his nipple, making him wince in pleasure before Vin took pity and released the abused flesh. “Fuck. I wish I could take you here under the moon surrounded by candles, but the dead body is kind of a mood killer.”
Vin was a blur of a motion as he stooped over to grab Bane’s corpse and threw it like a javelin toward the outer edge of the building. Angelo whistled in appreciation as the body sailed right past the edge of the roof and dropped to the ground far below. It was easy to forget how strong his little vampire was.
“Hope no one was coming back from a run,” he said .
“Enough talking,” Vin said, jumping into his arms and wrapping his legs tight around Angelo’s waist as he crushed their mouths together with no finesse whatsoever.
Angelo moaned as sharp fangs cut into his lips and Vin became even more feral as he licked his blood from them while he ground their bodies together with a relentless motion that felt fucking amazing. Claws raked down his back, leaving a trail of fire. He would’ve done the same to Vin, but he was wearing some ridiculously complicated arrangement of leather straps and buckles. He hissed in frustration as he tried to find the buckles without breaking their kiss.
“Don’t you dare rip that. It’s custom made,” Vin murmured against his lips.
“You’ve got three seconds to take it off then,” Angelo snapped.
He used the time to ditch his sweatpants and was standing naked and waiting when Vin finally let the harness drop to the ground. Taking his cock in hand, he stroked it as his mate’s eyes traced down his body, leaving fire in their wake and lingering with appreciation on the movement of his hand up and down his shaft.
“Take the rest off,” Angelo growled.
Vin smirked up at him. “Who do you think’s in charge here, Angel?” he said, voice dropping an octave.
Angelo’s hand paused where he was slowly jerking himself off. Fuck. Why did he like the sound of that so much? He’d always been the dominant one in his hook-ups, and Vin was half his size. His cock throbbed in his fist as pre-cum leaked from his tip in a near-constant stream and his hole clenched in anticipation of a kind of pleasure he’d never experienced with someone else. His fangs had descended sometime while he’d been distracted and were aching just as badly. He needed to sink them into his mate’s neck and claim him. Needed to secure their bond so there would be no doubt who Angelo belonged to.
Dammit . Now the damn vampire had him thinking that way, too.
“This goes both ways, Vin,” he said, voice annoyingly breathless.
Vin stroked a sharp talon over his nipple and smiled. “Mmmm…. So it does. Do you know how vampires form a mating bond, Angel?”
Angelo shook his head, unable to form words as the pressure of Vin’s talon travelled further south, dragging over the ridges of his abs and down the vee of his Adonis belt until Vin was so, so close to where he was desperate to feel him.
Shifters bit their mates to create the mating bond. If they were an alpha, a shifter born, that was usually quickly followed by fucking them with the knot that formed at the base of an alpha’s cock once they mated, although that was more about closeness and belonging than any strict requirement of the bonding process. He’d assumed vampires were much the same minus the knot given they fed by biting anyway, but he was guessing that was wrong or Vin wouldn’t be looking so sneakily and ravenously excited. He was almost bouncing on his toes as his face lit up.
“You’re so much fun, Angel. So much innocence wrapped up in just the right amount of dirty experience.”
“I’m not fucking innocent.”
“And yet you have no idea what to expect from me. Have you ever been fucked before, Angel?”
Angelo’s face flamed. Turning away from the intense connection that was fast becoming overwhelming, he scanned the rooftop until he found one of the daybed sun loungers people came up here to relax on and sunk down onto it. His eyes followed the flickering flames of the candles surrounding them as he avoided looking at the vampire who could bring him to his knees with nothing but a word if he wanted to. He felt vulnerable. And he wished he didn’t like it.
“I’ve used toys,” he finally mumbled.
He still wasn’t looking at Vin, but he could hear the vampire licking his lips. He thought Vin would make some suggestive comment or get that bossy tone in his voice, but he didn’t.
“We can wait. Sex to form a mating bond is a lot if you’ve never…”
Vin had been walking closer as he spoke and Angelo reached out and tugged him onto his lap, resting his forehead on his shoulder.
“I can’t wait,” he whispered. The mating bond was like an itch on the edge of his consciousness that he couldn’t quite reach. He needed it. Needed Vin.
“You’re not a virgin, though, right?”
“No!” Angelo said, aghast. “For fuck’s sake. I’m fifty-five years old. I’ve just never done it with a guy like that. Not for lack of interest. Shifter males are just really fucking annoying in bed, so we didn’t get that far.”
Vin threw his head back and roared with laughter. “Well, at least my boy toy is self-aware.”
Angelo couldn’t help the grin twisting his lips at Vin’s teasing even as he slapped the vampire’s chest lightly. “Hey! I didn’t mean I’m annoying. I’m perfect, of course.”
“Of course,” Vin said, catching his lips in another kiss, one where they both couldn’t stop smiling.
For some reason, it had taken this long for Angelo to realise that his mate was now completely naked. He couldn’t stop the way his hips jerked up as Vin’s cock rubbed against his where he sat straddling him. His hand slid down Vin’s slender muscled back and he gripped his tight ass in both hands, fighting the urge to knead him with his claws like he was some kind of cat shifter .
“So, how do vampires mate, then? I’m assuming it’s not about the bite if we’re having conversations about my not-virginity,” Angelo said, nuzzling against Vin’s face as he spoke.
Vin tilted his head to the side and let Angelo’s exploration extend down his exposed throat. Angelo trembled as he kissed the taught tendon there and imagined where he’d sink his teeth in when he could finally bond with his mate.
“Not a bite, no. Imagine if there was a risk of bonding whenever you fed? If a vampire takes a mate, it’s often a human and they turn them at the same time because it makes them more stable. That’s the only reason their fangs are involved.”
“To drain them dry, you mean,” Angelo said, shuddering in distaste despite himself. At least he didn’t need to be turned like a human would to match their immortal lifespan.
“Don’t worry, Angel. I’ll never drain you dry unless it’s your balls from giving you too many orgasms.”
Angelo shuddered again, for a different reason this time. “Is there such a thing as too many?” he asked.
Vin chuckled. “So innocent where it matters, darling. What have you been doing for all these years?”
Angelo shoved Vin onto his back on the daybed and came down over the top of him, crushing their bodies together and caging Vin’s head between his arms. “You really don’t want to tell me what a mating bond with you involves, do you? Stop deflecting.”
Vin let his fingers trail down Angelo’s side and over the swell of his ass until he was stroking over his hole with the lightest of touches. He’d like to say he growled or roared in response. That wasn’t what happened. He fucking whimpered as he pushed back against the barely there pressure of his mate’s fingers.
“Oh, Angel. So perfect,” Vin whispered .
“Gonna go out on a limb and guess that vampires mate through penetration,” Angelo said between gasps.
Vin pressed a finger to his lips. “Suck,” he ordered. “Get it nice and wet.”
Angelo took the digit into his mouth and did as he was told. He was rewarded moments later when an impatient Vin returned his hand to where it had been and pushed a little harder, finally breaching the muscled ring of Angelo’s hole with his finger. They weren’t even bonded yet, but it was like Vin had a cheat sheet on how to make Angelo’s nerves sing as he stroked into his body over and over again.
“Fuck,” Angelo gasped. “So good. More. Please.”
He whined as the finger disappeared and his mate’s body twisted beneath him so he could reach down next to the bed.
“Hush, Angel. We need lube,” Vin gently chided.
“How the fuck did you fit that in your jeans?” Angelo asked as Vin gave a triumphant cry and held a small bottle up like a trophy.
Vin smirked. “You’d be surprised what I can fit into my outfits.”
Angelo leaned over to look at the collection of clothes Vin had dropped next to them and noticed the small arsenal of weapons that had somehow remained unseen in his scant clothing. The tiny bottle was really the least impressive thing he’d hidden.
Vin took advantage of his distraction to flip their positions so Angelo was on his back.
“Hold your knees apart for me, sweetheart.”
Angelo swallowed hard and did as he was told. “You’re really not going to tell me anything, are you?”
Vin looked up at him from where he’d been sliding down his body. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes.” He didn’t know when or how it happened, but he did. Implicitly. Without reservation .
“I promise I won’t hurt you. But if I explain it, you’re going to tense up and then it might.”
“Not filling me with confidence here, Vin.”
Vin’s smile was wicked. “Better fill you with something else, then, so you’re too distracted to think about it.”