Chapter 20
CHAPTER 20
When Zack finally let himself go and unspooled, Takashi maneuvered them so he was sitting against the headboard, and Zack leaned into him. Each sob reverberated through Takashi, and a distant part echoed that pain. He was a few nights shy of his own rebirth anniversary.
A hundred and twenty-six years was not enough to completely smooth away the scars of his death. If he closed his eyes, he could vividly picture the ground beneath him and the way it rushed toward him. He had dared to climb to the trapeze after his death, but once there, he had shaken and remained until Nell scooped him up and brought him safely down. Ever since, he hadn’t stepped on a ladder. Heights weren’t the problem—so long as the surface was solid. Planes were fine. A hotel suite on the forty-second floor? Wonderful view. A ladder? Fuck no .
The twist of thoughts was slipping away from him, threatening to spin him downward into a tumble of his grief. He stroked Zack’s hair and began to compile his schemes. Seamus had been in a good mood during the meeting, which was strange enough. Stranger still was the fact that he’d allowed Zack and Takashi to see so much of the higher operations of the coven. Clearly, he doesn’t plan on letting us go anywhere anytime soon . And that was troubling, too. Would he keep them cooped up in the mansion? Zack’s doors had door handles on them, so in theory, they could leave.
But Zack and Seamus were bound together. Since Zack could detect Seamus’s location, Seamus would have the same capability. So unless Takashi was willing to leave Zack to his fate, he couldn’t escape.
He wouldn’t do that to him. Not now. Not when he was young and needed someone who honestly cared for him.
Besides, escaping would forfeit the small ground Takashi had been making into the coven hierarchy. There was a gap between Anton and Seamus. If Takashi could just figure out a way to pry the two of them apart, then they might stand a chance at killing Seamus and taking the coven. To do what? Put Roger on the throne? That will never work .
It wasn’t the first time he’d had the thought. When Nell had summoned him to Taliville and told him she was supporting Roger’s plan to take the GLC, Takashi had nearly laughed. Roger? A leader? The toughest call Roger had ever made was which vein to bite.
Takashi had smothered those thoughts and buried them in a twelve-foot grave. Out of all the lovers he’d been with in his long life, Roger was the one that had brought out a new life in him. He’d been Takashi’s first lover. While Nell had taught Takashi how to be a vampire, Roger had shown him how to thrive in the night. He’d been tender and thrilling, and Takashi had always yearned for more time with him. Their brief moments had never felt like enough.
When Roger had strode into Nell’s office with Zack behind him, Takashi had thrown himself into the belief that he’d misjudged Roger. After all, Nell was backing Roger’s coup, and she never made such moves willy-nilly. She must have seen the makings of a master in him.
But Roger had never shown real command. Though Zack and Takashi had nudged and pressured, Roger had hemmed and hawed on a decision.
That wasn’t leadership material. Not in a world of vampires and certainly not when the intricacies of inter-coven and inter-species politics came into play. A coven the size of the GLC needed someone who could lay out a plan, who could correlate data, who wasn’t afraid to call out people’s bullshit, who demanded answers, who didn’t hesitate when one of their favorite humans was getting his neck torn open.
A wild, insane, impossible, beautiful solution tickled the edges of Takashi’s mind. He batted the notion away. Such a thing wasn’t done. No one had ever pulled that off. And yet it crept up. It took root and bloomed and begged for water.
Coven Master Zackery Wright, the Blade of the Night .
Oh, it was ludicrous. It had to be! This was only Zack’s second night as a vampire!
But on his first night, he’d proven to be faster and stronger than Takashi. He had the martial training. He had the knowledge. The intelligence. The ruthless drive to shove a stake into a vampire who threatened him. He would have Roger and Takashi, who were capable of charming just about anyone they met.
Nell would support him, especially if Takashi made the case. All she really wanted was someone who was “weaker” to the north of her. Zack would appear weak, possibly too weak for Nell’s liking, but Takashi could talk her into it. She liked Zack and had respected him as a human.
A little support from her would make the other North American covens hesitate. The right phone calls to a few friends overseas would keep the international covens from descending en masse.
The real problem would be holding the coven together. Anton was right; the group of vipers that made up the leadership were petty dilettantes. Getting them to turn on each other wouldn’t be hard, but that might lead the coven into a civil war.
Candide would be key. She had the respect of other supernaturals in the city and ran the largest donor house in the country. That was blood and revenue. If she’s not on board, Roger might be able to convince her. Or at least convince Ezra, and he can bend Candide’s ear. If that doesn’t work …
Zack had quieted from sobbing to gently crying a few minutes before, but Takashi missed the moment he stopped entirely. With tender grace, Zack sat up, still leaning into Takashi. He kept his hand on the center of Takashi’s chest. His brows pinched together, and confusion clouded his red eyes.
They don’t turn gray. They’re always red, like an ancient’s. How much power did Seamus share ? Takashi put his hand on Zack’s shoulder, then touched his cheek instead. “What is it?”
Zack’s scowl deepened. “I’m trying to figure out what that feeling is.”
That was when Takashi felt the pressure of Zack in his psyche. Takashi had put up a firm wall, but somehow, Zack had slipped past his natural defenses. An instinctive, self-preserving fear kicked in, and Takashi used that to push Zack to the outer edges of his desires.
Zack blinked and pulled back. “What the hell?”
“Peeking that far into my mind isn’t polite.”
Zack’s soft scowl hardened into a stern glare. Vampires tended to make the young. In fact, Seamus had likely been thirty at most when he’d been turned. Nell younger than that. Takashi was used to seeing youth gain the sharpness of experience’s edge. But Zack had never seemed so mature before. The bloody tear trails helped. “I was not ‘peeking.’ I was vibing. You let me glimpse whatever that was.”
“You couldn’t tell?” Takashi asked.
“I haven’t had even a crash course in desire-reading.” Zack motioned at his face. “And I thought it was pretty obvious I’m still struggling to understand my own fucking emotions.”
“I don’t know when Seamus will interrupt us, but if you’re feeling up to it, we could practice a few things.” Takashi started to sit up.
Zack put his hand on Takashi’s chest and pushed him back against the headboard with a thud . He shoved away the comforter and straddled Takashi’s legs. “Great. Let’s start with definitions. What was that desire?”
“Why don’t you tell me what you think it was, and I’ll tell you if you’re right or wrong?” Takashi countered.
Zack narrowed his eyes.
A simmering want seeped from Zack’s cool touch into Takashi. He wasn’t pushing it out, but his broadcast was so clear that Takashi couldn’t help tuning in.
Zack wanted answers, and he longed for some measure of control.
The urge to flirt, to be just enough of a pest that Zack might be compelled to lightly punish him, swept upward through Takashi. His cock had the indecency of starting to thicken, which wasn’t helped with the way Zack clenched his jaw.
“This is making you horny? Seriously?” Zack said, his voice dripping with a new note. Something deeper, something that resonated in Takashi and made his cock harder.
Authority . That was what it was. Despite his knowledge, Zack had never displayed such innate command before. He had always balked or lowered his gaze until confronted, and then he was a burst of impatience. Roger had said that the Wrights had done a number on Zack’s confidence. Takashi had thought he’d seen some measure of it before, but now, Zack was in full bloom.
Then, for a moment, he began to wilt.
“I’m not using my powers on you, am I?” Zack asked with a hint of hesitation.
Takashi checked for any sign of external influence in his desires but found no sign of intrusion. Zack’s cooler energy wasn’t diving behind his walls anymore. “You’re not.”
An unpracticed haughtiness overcame Zack as he went up on his knees so he could look down at Takashi. All the while, he slid his hand up between Takashi’s thighs until he cupped his balls. “My face has dried blood all over it. I’m annoyed you’re holding out on me. Somehow, that’s making you hard?”
Zack was radiating lust of his own. He likes being in control like this . Takashi kept his gaze locked on him, watching every little change settle and become this new wondrous side of his lover. He could do it. He could lead a coven. “You’ve never been more handsome.”
“What if I won’t fuck you until you tell me what you were feeling before?”
Takashi grinned slyly. “What if that’s not what I want? What if I’m thinking about risking your fangs and fucking that luscious mouth of yours?”
“I don’t think that’s it.” Zack mirrored Takashi’s smile. “I felt the way your lust jumped when I suggested fucking you.”
“The prospect is enticing,” Takashi replied.
“Well, tell me what I want to know, and we can turn it from prospect to reality.”
The night Zack had killed a vampire at Devil’s Cove, Roger had been forced into killing a hunter. Zack had been upset about the loss of mortal lives but not the vampire’s. For all the adjusting he’d done to their world, that backslide left Takashi questioning whether or not Zack had conquered the prejudices his family had ingrained in him. He’d asked him what sort of future Zack pictured for the three of them.
Instead of answering, Zack had shut down.
His confidence had wavered in this intimate moment between them. He isn’t ready to hear my vision for us . Takashi needed to assure him that he would stand by him, and he needed Zack to be as strong and fierce as when he sent his dagger sailing toward Seamus.
So Takashi leaned up and said sweetly, “Why don’t you see if you can fuck it out of me?”