CHAPTER SIXTEEN || BRYAN
T he blast knocked me off my feet and I smelled singed hair.
I turned and looked at the house, staring at it stupidly. Somehow, I had expected it to be a smoking pile of rubble, but it looked more or less intact. The glass had just blown out of all the windows in the living room. Not so bad, after all.
But we needed to get the hell away from here, before the authorities showed up and asked us a bunch of questions nobody would be able to answer.
But when I tried to shove myself back to my feet, I belatedly realized that a shard of glass the size of my fist had buried itself into my shoulder.
I yanked it out barehanded, a hiss of pain escaping my lips.
I dropped the glass, then froze.
Tobias.
He was lying on his back, ten feet away. He had been closer to the house when the windows had exploded.
No longer caring if the neighbors or the hunters saw me, I used vamp-speed to move to his side.
One glance told me that something was terribly, terribly wrong. Tobias was entirely the wrong color.
In a matter of seconds, his skin had taken on an ashen hue. There was sweat beaded across his brow. His eyes were wide and blinking rapidly. And then I smelled the blood. Even as I watched, the front of his shirt began to turn shockingly red.
“Bryan,” he whispered, locking eyes with me, looking almost puzzled. “I think something hit me.”
I realized that unless I did something right now, even with the hunters likely to wake up at any moment, Tobias was going to die.
I dropped to my knees beside him and bit my wrist in order to draw blood. It took me two tries, because I was shaking so badly with my raw panic, and I missed the vein the first time. I didn’t care who saw. The world had narrowed itself down to one awful, impossible truth: Tobias was dying.
My teeth finally broke skin and I winced against the sharp sting of my own fangs. Blood welled up in my mouth. I could have cried with relief.
I held my wrist to his lips, dripping the blood into his mouth.
His eyes slid shut. He had lost consciousness.
For a single excruciating moment that seemed to last an eternity, nothing at all happened.
Was his heart still beating? I couldn’t hear it anymore. Was he breathing? I couldn’t tell if his chest was moving. I was too panicked to focus properly.
“Please, please, please,” I begged him. “Please, just swallow the damn blood.”
And finally, he did. He swallowed what was in his mouth. Then he sucked in a breath that had a strange, gasping rattle to it. His skin was the color of chalk.
“More,” I muttered to myself, practically blind with panic. “He needs more blood.”
Unfortunately, when I tried to give him more, my wrist had already started to heal, which slowed the flow of blood. I bit myself again. I would have bitten myself a hundred times, if that’s what it took.
I held my wrist to his mouth again.
Still not really conscious, he swallowed, a reflex.
His breathing stabilized and the gasping rattle faded. Color began to return to his skin.
When I had decided that he’d had enough of my blood that he would heal quickly enough from his wounds that I wasn’t about to kill him by accident—or so I prayed—I rolled him over and saw that there was a foot-long shard of glass buried in his back, near his heart.
Gritting my teeth and praying to any god who would hear me, I started pulling the glass out of his back. He let out a sharp gasp and his body went rigid. I didn’t know how conscious he was. I hoped not very.
Tears stung in my eyes but I forced myself to keep going.
But I couldn’t stand the idea that I was doing anything to cause him suffering. The only thing that gave me the strength to keep trying was the fact that, even with my blood in his system, if the shard of glass wasn’t removed from his body, he would still die.
At last, realizing that going inch by inch was far worse than just removing it all at once, I ground my teeth together, steeling myself against what I was about to do. Then I placed my other hand on his back to his steady him. Then, moving firmly and decisively, I pulled out the shard of glass.
Tobias let out an agonized gasp, a sound that was nearly a scream. It was the single most awful thing I had ever heard in my entire life.
Hot tears spilled down my cheeks.
The moment the glass was out of his body, I threw it a few feet away, where it landed on the grass, glinting in the pale light of the rising moon.
I tore open the back of his shirt, where the shard had pierced him.
I let out a soft cry of relief. His wound was already closing.
On the ground beside us, Michael and Danny began to stir. Or maybe had already been stirring.
In retrospect, I was extremely lucky that they hadn’t woken up while I was giving Tobias my blood. And so were they. Because if they had lifted a finger to stop me from saving Tobias, I wouldn’t have held back. I would have hurt both of them.
But now, with Tobias healing but still covered in blood, and then the equally bloody shard of glass I’d removed from his body on the grass next to us, it wouldn’t have taken a rocket scientist to put two and two together. And if Tobias had gotten up and started walking and talking like nothing had happened, Danny and Michael—who literally hunted creatures like me for a living—were going to know exactly what I was, what I had just done.
Plus, my fangs were still out, I was completely covered in blood, and my lips were no doubt coated ruby red as well. I probably looked like something out of a nightmare. They wouldn’t even ask questions first, no doubt.
Certain that Tobias was on the mend—his wound was now only half the size it had been before—I scooped his still unconscious body up in my arms, wincing at the moan of pain the movement drew from his lips, I ran as far and as fast as I could.
I made it back to the motel and up the flight of concrete stairs, with Tobias in my arms, only minutes later. Anyone watching me would have only seen a blur of speed. Most mortals would have probably chalked it up as being a trick of the light, something that was easily discounted and ignored.
I hesitated at the door to my motel room, realizing that I’d have to put Tobias down in order to fish the room key out of my pocket. I didn’t want him out of my arms for an instant.
I was being ridiculous, of course. I was completely exposed out here, with a full-grown man held in my arms like he weighed nothing at all, both of us covered head to toe in blood. Anyone at all could have seen us.
I glanced down at Tobias.
He was gazing up at me steadily, his strange violet-blue eyes dark and unreadable. “I can stand,” he told me. “You can put me down. Someone could see us.”
Though he’d practically just read my mind, I still felt unwilling to have him leave my arms. I needed his weight, his warmth, his heartbeat, to reassure myself that he was real. That he was okay. That he was still mine to keep.
Tobias smiled faintly, perhaps reading the reluctance on my face. “Don’t worry. It’s just for a moment.”
I nodded. He was right, of course. Reluctantly, I set him down. I steadied him, in case he fell—I had no idea how vampire blood actually worked, since I’d never had to heal anyone with it before—but he remained steady on his feet.
I unlocked the door. I was about to put my arm around him, to usher him inside, but he walked forward, into the room, without my assistance.
I closed the door behind us and flipped on the light switch, casting the room into a soft orange glow. I didn’t need it in order to see, but Tobias did.
He walked a few steps further into the room, then stopped. I saw his gaze dart around the small room, lingering on the bed for a moment.
Then he turned to face me.
He should have looked terrible. His lips, chin, and the front of his shirt were all covered in blood. His hair was mussed. But his eyes smoldered with desire and he was alive and vital. His heart beat in his chest and his pulse throbbed in his throat, but for once it wasn’t my hunger that made me notice it. It was the overwhelming relief that he was alive, that he was still here with me. That I hadn’t lost him forever.
He was easily the most handsome man I had ever seen in my life.
But there was still a knot of anxiety within me. I needed to see with my own eyes that he was okay. I needed to know that his wound was completely gone. That my blood had fully healed him.
As though he had somehow heard my thoughts, Tobias abruptly stripped off his shirt. His chest was covered in rapidly drying blood, but the skin below that was perfectly unblemished. And well-developed. He was lean and thin, but with broad, perfectly sculpted shoulders. His chest was smooth and well-defined, without being too muscular, which was exactly what I had always preferred.
He turned to show me his back. The wound was gone.
“You healed me. You saved my life,” Tobias said, turning back around. Shirtless, he took a step closer to me. His gaze met mine again and held it. “Thank you.”
“I couldn’t let anything happen to you,” I managed, my voice barely more than a whisper. Now, with my terror gone, I felt rubbed raw and exposed. My body craved the reassuring warmth and weight of him against me. “I thought I had lost you.”
“Never,” he whispered.
My gaze dropped down, drinking his body in greedily, and I noticed for the first time that there was a bulge in his pants. My mouth went dry with sudden desire. I could tell through the jeans he was wearing that he was rock hard. That shouldn’t have caught me off guard at all. It was a perfectly normal reaction. An expected one. Vampire blood, even in small amounts, was an aphrodisiac to mortals. And he had consumed a lot of it.
A lot of me.
That shouldn’t have been so hot, but it was. And now he was here, in my room, hard and needing release. And I had him all to myself.
“Bryan…” he whispered, his voice gruff, taking another step closer. He trailed off, standing right in front of me. He swallowed hard, looking torn and miserable. I knew he wanted to kiss me. That he craved my body just as much as I craved his. But, even with my blood coursing through his veins, setting his skin aflame with desire, he still waited for me. If I had asked him to leave, I knew he would have.
I didn’t want him to go.
Filled with a sudden, crystal-clear certainty, I stepped forward, closing the gap between us. I slipped my arms around his waist, pulling him closer to me.
“Kiss me. I want you to.”
Tobias’s eyes went darker still with desire, and he put his hands on me, holding me against him. With the feel of his body against me, the response in my cock was immediate. I was suddenly hard and aching. His eyes danced with amusement mingled with his desire, as if he somehow knew everything that was going on inside my head. Then he lowered his mouth to mine and kissed me.
His lips were surprisingly soft and warm. His kiss was sweet at first, searching and gentle, but it became more urgent and demanding. My lips parted, yielding to him. The world seemed to fall away until there was nothing else left except for him and I.
He pulled back, breathless.
I realized, belatedly, that he still needed to breathe, even if I didn’t. Even overcome with my desire for him, to feel him against me, to feel him inside of me, filling me up, I reminded myself that I still needed to remember that he was mortal.
He grabbed my shirt by the hem and stripped it off of me. He threw it across the room like it was on fire.
I had never been exceptionally proud of my body—my chest was completely smooth and I was just a bit too thin—but with the hungry way Tobias looked at me, like he was desperate to consume me whole, I suddenly felt beautiful. Wanted. Needed. And powerful, that I could make a man like Tobias look at me in such a way.
He pulled me back in for another kiss. This one wasn’t sweet at all. It was dirty and demanding, filled with urgency.
He put his hands on my hips, marching me backwards to the bed.
“Can I make love to you?” he asked, hesitating for an instant. “I need to know you want this too.”
“Yes,” I breathed, unbuttoning the top button of my pants. The idea that he might not take me, that he might not claim me, was unacceptable. “I need to feel you inside of me.”
He let out a sharp exhale, then pulled me in for another rough kiss. His big, strong hands slipped under the waistband of my pants and cupped my bare ass.
At the feeling of his touch—warm and slightly rough against my smooth skin—I let out a strangled gasp, my cock throbbing and straining against my pants.
I fumbled with the top button of his jeans, then managed to undo it.
Tobias removed his hands from me, then pushed me gently down onto the bed, flashing me a wicked grin. From his pants pocket, he pulled out a small bottle of lube and a condom. He set them down onto the nightstand beside the bed.
He’d obviously been prepared for anything, just in case.
He pulled the zipper down and pushed his jeans to his ankles, freeing his straining cock.
Holy crap.
He wasn’t huge or anything, but his cock was absolutely perfect. It was long, without being too long, and thick, without being too thick. It even had a nice curve to it.
I ached to have it inside of me.
I pulled my pants off of me and kicked them away, moving at vampire speed.
Tobias let out a small laugh. “Someone’s eager.”
I grinned back at him and pulled him down onto the bed beside me. “I need you to stop talking and fuck me, Tobias.”
He climbed on top of me and the feel of his hard, masculine body against mine, the weight of it pinning me to the bed, made my breath escape in a small gasp.
He leaned down and kissed me again. Then he pulled back, reaching for the lube and the condom.
“Vampires can’t get diseases or anything,” I told him, gesturing to the condom. If my cheeks could have gone red, they probably would have. “So. Um. We don’t need that, unless you want it.”
“I’m good,” he replied, flashing me another grin. He put the condom back on the nightstand. Then, pushing himself onto his knees with one hand, he popped the top on the lube and coated the tips of his index and middle fingers with it.
I watched him, feeling suddenly nervous. It had been a while since I’d done this. Like, a really long time.
But I didn’t stop him when he put his hand between my legs and found my hole. His fingertips traced my entrance, coating it with the lubricant.
Then he slid his index finger inside of me. I let out a startled sound, tightening instinctively against the sudden intrusion. There was a sharp, momentary pain. Then his fingertip found my prostate and he began to massage it back and forth.
I felt my eyes widen at the sensation. Electrifying tingles of pleasure swept through me. I felt my body open to his touch instinctively. I wanted more of him. All of him.
“You feel really good,” he said, his voice husky.
Then, before I could reply, he bent down and took my cock in his mouth, all the way to the hilt. As he did, he slid a second finger into me. The combined sensation of his fingers inside of me and his hot mouth on my cock was almost enough to send me over the edge right then and there. As it was, I bucked against him, fucking my cock in between his lips, barely managing to control my strength so I didn’t hurt him.
He sucked me like that a moment longer before releasing me. Then he kissed the head of my cock. He moved his fingers in and out of me for a few more moments, teasing desperate whimpers from my lips.
Then he pulled his fingers out, leaving me feeling empty and desperate with need. He didn’t make me wait long. He coated his cock with more of the lubricant, hoisted my ankles over his shoulders, and then guided himself into me, all the way up to the hilt. There was a small amount of pain, which I expected. But his fingers had loosened me up to the point where it was mostly just pleasure, the incredible sensation of fullness and closeness.
He paused, letting out a surprised sound. “Oh, holy shit. Bryan .”
The way he said my name, it was like a spell. And I surrendered to him completely.
“Don’t stop,” I begged.
“I need you to get used to me.”
“Nope. I’m good,” I gasped out.
Experimentally, he began to move himself in and out of me. The sensation of his bare cock rubbing against my prostate was so pleasurable that it was almost painful. My own cock leaked pre-cum against my stomach and I knew I might cum at even the slightest touch.
I pulled him down to kiss me, delighting in the delicious feeling of his weight on my body, claiming me as his own as he moved himself in and out of me. Time seemed to stop around us, and the only thing that mattered, the only thing that was real, was our two bodies joined and moving as one.
“Bryan,” he panted, whispering it right into my ear. “I’m going to cum.”
“Yes,” I breathed. The idea of him releasing inside of me, filling me up, making me his, was so fucking hot. I felt a familiar tightening in my own pelvis and my cock jerked against my stomach. Pleasure surged through me, causing my toes to curl as I clung to him. “Do it. Fill me.”
He thrust into me twice more, then froze, throwing his head back with a long groan.
Warmth filled me, and that was enough to send me completely over the edge. My own cock jerked and ropes of white cum shot across my stomach and chest. I let out a strangled cry as pleasure rocketed through my body.
For a long moment, Tobias just watched me with his dark, hungry gaze, like he was drinking in every bit of me. Then he leaned in and gave me a long, deep kiss.
“I’ve been wanting to do that since I first laid eyes on you,” he said, after he’d pulled back.
“I want you to do that to me again.”
“As many times as you want,” he agreed, flashing me an impish grin. “But first, give me a few minutes to recover.”
With a wink, he got up and walked to the bathroom. I was struck by how beautiful his ass was—round and perfect—and was suddenly struck by an urge that I didn’t usually have with men.
When I’ve fooled around in the past, I’ve usually been more of a bottom, though not always. And, yeah, I wanted Tobias to fuck me senseless again—as soon as possible, in fact—but he’d be fun to top, too. The thought of it had me growing halfway hard, even though I should’ve been completely spent. Even though I was a vampire, I still possessed a man’s body, after all.
Recovery time, even for vampires, was still a thing. Or, at least, it should have been.
He returned with a clean towel and began to use it to wipe the stickiness off my stomach. After he was done, he climbed back into the bed and pulled me against him.
“For the record, I’m usually a top,” he informed me, as though responding to something I had said aloud—even though I hadn’t spoken at all. His eyes were alight with mischief as he watched me. “And I’ve got to be honest, I’m going to make love to you as many times as you’ll let me. You’re incredible and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get enough. But if you wanted to return the favor at some point, I think I’d be more than okay with letting you fuck me, too.”
I felt my eyes widen in shock as I stared at him.
“How?” I whispered, my heart rising up into my throat. Though I had a horrible feeling that I already knew.
“You gave me your blood,” Tobias told me, confirming my very worst fears. “I can hear you now. In my head, I mean. So, the blood bond is already starting to form between us. What I’ve been saying all along is true: I’m your mate, Bryan. Your fated mate. I always have been, and I always will be.”