9. Justin
Justin
J ustin knew something was up.
First off, the look in Sebastian’s eyes was predatory, like a fox that had figured out how to unlatch the door to the henhouse. The effect was only exacerbated by his long, thin nose. The expression was hot as hell, but it was scary.
Secondly, Pavel’s face had turned beet red, and the man was sputtering. Justin had never seen the normally unflappable conductor so completely off-balance, made all the worse by the fact that, except for the shreds of trouser fabric he was holding in front of his crotch, the man was fully nude.
And God, Pavel was sexy. His muscled biceps were dreamy, and the fine brown hair covering his toned chest made Justin shiver with desire.
Add in the fact that, despite the man being plastered to the wall, Justin had a decent view of his lovely, bouncy ass, and the vampire was fighting to think through the fog of desire.
One of these men was enough. Two was torture. All of it made Justin very, very nervous.
“We don’t need to talk about that right now!” Pavel almost shouted, his tone revealing an uncharacteristic desperation.
Sebastian pursed his lips and rolled his shoulders forward like a swimsuit model.
“I don’t know,” Sebastian said in an affected, ditzy voice. “You want us to get out of here, right? Well, this is the most chaotic thing I could think of…big daddy.”
Sebastian blew a kiss, and Pavel buried his face in his free hand.
“Oh, God.”
“What’s going on?” Justin asked. These two knew something he didn’t, and his nervousness was turning into frustration.
Sebastian reached out and draped his arm over Justin’s shoulder. Justin shuddered involuntarily at the warmth of Sebastian’s limb against his neck, but despite his embarrassment, he didn’t want Sebastian to separate from him.
“Answer my question, sweetheart. What do you know of witches and their mates?”
Pavel’s jaw was clenched, and his eyes were still covered with his hand. Evidently, he’d decided he was opting out of this conversation.
“Nothing,” Justin answered. “Vampires don’t usually deal with witches. I haven’t been a vampire long anyway.”
“Oh. Well, vampires typically only have one mate, although it’s not unheard of for them to have more.”
Justin nodded. There were a few throuples in the Grosvenor Coven, even though his old dysfunctional coven had explicitly forbidden them. Which was silly. It was impossible to ignore the mating bonds, so all of them had left.
Sebastian continued. “Witches usually have two or more mates, and we often mate with other supernaturals. Non-witches. Some think it’s because witches are so vulnerable in combat, fate provides stronger protectors for them.”
Where was this going? Justin was confused. Why were they having this conversation, and what did it have to do with chaos spirits?
“How many mates do gargoyles usually have?” Sebastian asked Pavel, who shot him a deadly stare. The maestro didn’t say a word.
Sebastian shrugged. “Gargoyles are rare. I don’t know much about them.”
“Why are you telling me all this?” Maybe it was the events of the day, but Justin was struggling to break through the fog of his confusion.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Sebastian smirked and slid his arm off Justin’s shoulders. He came around and took both of Justin’s hands in his long, slender fingers, staring deep into the vampire’s eyes. Sebastian’s gaze was crystal clear and piercing.
“The three of us are mates.”
“What?!” Justin yelped, snatching his hands away from Sebastian’s.
Pavel let out a low sound, somewhere between a sigh and a groan, and slid down into a crouch.
“Why—how do you know?” Even though Justin was against the wall, he found himself pushing back, trying to get further away. There was nowhere to go .
“I can sense the bonds. Every witch has their specialty, but anyone with even a modicum of magic can feel the important connections tying people together.” A wicked smile spread across Sebastian’s face. He was enjoying this, which was infuriating. “So, what do you think?”
“What do I think? What do I think?!” Justin’s brain was gone now, and his words were powered by pure shock and anxiety. “I don’t know what to think! And the problem isn’t me, anyway. Clearly, he isn’t happy about us being mates!”
Justin gestured to Pavel, who was shrinking his naked body into the corner of the elevator car. Sebastian moved away from Justin and veritably sauntered over to the maestro.
“What’s put you all out of sorts?”
Pavel sighed, squinting against the harsh glow of the emergency lighting.
“You can’t be my mates.”
Sebastian crossed his arms, towering over the squatting gargoyle.
“That’s the thing, dearest. We are. I saw it as clear as day the first time the three of us were together.” Sebastian bent over and touched Pavel’s shoulder. “So you might as well stand up and?—”
“No.”
Justin flinched at the word. This was all brand-new information; he didn’t have any real feelings for either of them beyond obvious sexual attraction, but for some reason, Pavel’s rejection stung.
Sebastian stepped back and wrapped an arm around Justin’s waist, his hand warm as it grasped his hip. It was odd how comforting it was to have him there. Justin was tempted to push the witch off, but he couldn’t get over how perfectly Sebastian fit by his side.
“What’s wrong with us?” Sebastian asked Pavel, pressing Justin against his side. “You should be so lucky.”
“I…I’m not meant to have a mate.” Pavel rose to his feet.
“Everyone should have a mate, if they get the chance.” Sebastian stood tall as he spoke. “Did something happen?”
“No.” Pavel shook his head, his eyes darting between the two men in front of him. “Nothing. I was never intended to have a mate. I wasn’t made for it.”
“Come on!” Sebastian said. “That’s the stupidest?—”
“Stop it,” Justin said quietly. “He doesn’t have to want a mate. I don’t want one either.”
There. He’d said it out loud. Justin supposed it wasn’t exactly correct, but close enough.
Perhaps a sliver of him did still yearn for love, but he’d learned his lesson.
His first vampire boyfriend had been abusive and awful.
Then he’d become infatuated with Oscar, only to find out he had a human mate.
Justin’s foolishness had nearly cost Oscar and Trent their lives.
He wouldn’t invite that on anyone else. It didn’t matter if he had a mate, although he doubted fate would hand him one after all the shit he’d done. Anyone would be better off without him.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Sebastian’s incredulity was written across his shocked face. He stepped away from Justin. “What is wrong with you two?”
Justin didn’t say anything. He didn’t have an easy way to explain it, and besides, he didn’t know Sebastian well.
It was Pavel who spoke, somehow maintaining his dignity despite his near-nakedness .
“I’m old enough to understand my own mind. I know what I am and am not willing to do.”
Justin wasn’t sure he shared Pavel’s certainty, but he appreciated the man’s directness.
Sebastian did not. He was pacing in the elevator now, covering the five feet of floor quickly. “This is ridiculous. I?—”
He froze, his speech dying on his lips. He glanced around for a moment, although Justin couldn’t trace what he was looking at. Sebastian cocked his head, his lips pursed and his eyes focused. After a long moment, he snatched his backpack, speaking as he rummaged through it.
“I don’t have time to unpack whatever self-destructive delusions you two have talked yourselves into, but at least we managed to attract a chaos spirit. We’ll discuss this later.”
Sebastian pulled an item from the bottom of his bag with a satisfied hum. He opened his hand to show a large rose quartz, the stone cut into a clear, unmarred hexagonal shape. It was almost like a short spike.
“We’re lucky I stashed this in here after my last spell. I wouldn’t normally be able to do much with a single quartz, but a blood relation being involved makes the workings more susceptible to my magic.”
Sebastian sat cross-legged on the metal floor, the piece of pink stone sitting in front of him.
His long limbs folded easily, and Justin was struck by his limber grace.
Sebastian was elegant among all the gothic witchery.
He was also a wild card, although Justin guessed it was to be expected.
A life spent communicating with invisible chaos-bent spirits was bound to make a person unpredictable.
“How long will this take?” Justin asked .
“Not sure. Could be a few minutes, could be an hour. Depends on how complicated the spell is. I’ll be knocked out during it, though. Don’t try to get my attention unless it’s an emergency.”
Sebastian winked and followed up with “You two probably have enough time to trade BJs before I’m done, though.”
Justin opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, Sebastian closed his eyes and rested his hands on his legs, palms facing the ceiling.
Justin’s eyes went to Pavel, who was standing stock-still, his eyes pointed straight ahead.
Once again, Justin was struck by how beautiful the man was.
The skin of his chest and torso was smooth and lightly freckled, and Justin desperately wanted to run his hands all over it.
For a moment, he had a vision of Pavel kissing down the front of him, his salt and pepper beard tickling Justin’s stomach, growling in that deep, commanding voice of his.
His cock twitched in his pants. Come on, Justin. Don’t get hard during a fucking emergency.
He took a deep breath and let it out, hoping to relieve the anxiety gathering like static electricity on his chest.
“So…how long have you been a gargoyle?”
Pavel blinked several times. Justin wasn’t sure he’d heard the question. He shook his head and locked his gaze on the vampire.
“What?”
“How long have you been a gargoyle?”
Pavel stared at him for a moment, and then burst out laughing, the low, rich sound pouring out of him like water from a dam.
Justin stepped back in shock. He hadn’t expected this reaction.
After a few seconds, though, Justin couldn’t help but smile.
Something had been released in Pavel, and it was wonderful to see.
“I’ve always been a gargoyle, young one.”
“Oh, I’m sorry…” Warmth rushed to Justin’s cheeks as he apologized. “I thought that…”
“You thought I was some kind of strange stone were-creature.” Pavel’s laughter had stopped now, his face settling back into its perpetual near-scowl, but there was a glimmer of humor in his eyes now. “No. This is how I was born.”
“Are there…are there lots of gargoyles?”
“Not anymore.” Pavel stepped closer to Justin, and his scent reached Justin’s supernaturally enhanced nose. The gargoyle smelled delicious , a mix of musk and dry desert stone, and Justin suddenly needed to get closer, to bury his nose in the man's armpits and take a deep breath.
“There were at one point,” Pavel continued. “When I was young.”
Justin couldn’t help but ask more questions. The two of them had already decided not to pursue the mating, but a part of him desperately wanted to know more about the man.
“When was that?”
“Over three thousand years ago.”
Justin’s mind reeled. Pavel had seen so much of life. No wonder he didn’t want to be saddled with such young mates. They would be like annoying flies to him, buzzing around with inane questions and concerns.
“How old are you?” Pavel asked. “You look all of twenty-two, but a vampire’s age can be misleading.”
“I’m twenty-seven. I was turned five years ago.”
Pavel shifted, starting to cross his arms but stopping as the motion exposed his dick. He shook his head.
“I can’t burden you two with this,” Pavel said under his breath. Without Justin’s vampire hearing, he wouldn’t have been able to make it out. There was a sadness in his words that made Justin’s chest ache. He stepped in closer to the maestro.
“I’m sorry if finding out we’re your mates makes your life harder.”
Pavel was frozen now, and now that they were closer, it was like there were magnets in each of their solar plexuses pulling them together. It took real effort for Justin not to wrap his arms around the man. A struggle shone on Pavel’s face, and Justin assumed he was wrestling with the same thing.
“It’s not your fault.” Pavel’s dry tone communicated he didn’t entirely believe his words. If Sebastian hadn’t revealed the fact they were mates, Pavel could have kept ignoring it.
“I’m still sorry.” Justin was right in front of Pavel now. He couldn’t keep his eyes off the man’s lush lips, barely obscured by his beard.
“I said, there’s nothing to…” As Pavel trailed off, a flicker of lust crossed his face.
Justin couldn’t take it anymore. He closed the gap and pushed their lips together.
He never should have done it, but resisting was so exhausting. This…this was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. The contrast was crazy. The plump softness of Pavel’s lips set against a lightning bolt of electricity running through them as they touched. It was too intense.
And the taste . Pavel was sweet and smoky, like a fig hung over a cedar bonfire.
Justin was instantly hard, his pants tight around his cock, which had gone from limp to firm in less than a second.
He moaned into Pavel’s mouth as the gargoyle wrapped his hand around the nape of Justin’s neck, pulling him in even closer. The man was so fucking strong.
How would he ever give this up?
A deep laugh rang out from elsewhere in the elevator. “That was easier than I thought it would be.”