Chapter 6
When I woke up the next morning, it took me a moment to mentally catalog the events that had brought me here.
The fact that I was still in a huge bed in some seaside vacation house meant I really hadn’t made any of it up.
The church, the abandoned house in the middle of the woods, and… Auris. All of it had really happened.
I rolled over, craning my neck to see as much of the room as I could without getting out from under the covers. After all, fall was creeping up the coast, and leaving the warmth of the bed wasn’t particularly appealing.
If Auris was still here—and he might not be during the day, I had no idea—I didn’t see him, but I did see something familiar: my luggage from the hotel, piled neatly next to the fireplace, in which the red glow of embers shimmered like the early morning sun.
Naked or not, that did make me get up. I pushed the covers back and swung my feet out of bed.
I took a moment to bury my toes in the thick carpet, then walked over and opened my bag, the one that had all my clothes in it.
I pulled out a T-shirt in an unimpressive gray.
I also found workout sweats, the ones I didn’t wear for working out but for editing.
Prepared, I headed down the hallway to the huge living room and its adjoining kitchen. I smelled coffee, thank heavens. Auris was sitting on a stool at the kitchen counter, typing away on a laptop.
He looked up at me. “Good morning.”
I froze where I stood. He was a beautiful man in the dark, but in daylight, something about him seemed even more real, more solid, and no less gorgeous.
It was as if last night, he’d been a fantasy, but right now, with the sunlight slanting in through the tall windows, he looked like a faerie prince dragged into reality.
No, invited into reality, and glad to be here.
His hair was still lush, photos of his face would sell easily, and the fact that he dressed all in black completed the alluring look: tall, dark-haired, handsome with a side of mysterious and a generous dash of outright enchanting.
If I could get him to take his clothes off and pose for me… well, those photos would really sell.
Just to test my memory, I closed my eyes for a moment and tried imagining him, his face, his clothing.
Unlike last night, I found it much easier. I wouldn’t say he looked like a normal person in my mind’s eye, but certainly more tangible.
However, I knew his eyes were dark, the irises almost completely black obsidian. Now, in daylight, they shimmered a faded gray, silvery.
“Good morning.” With his eyes on me, I was very aware that all I was wearing was a T-shirt and my sweats. Auris had dress pants and a black shirt on. Maybe the same he’d worn last night.
He didn’t move, and he kept his eyes firmly on my face. “I made you coffee. There is toast as well, and if my housekeeper is correct, the fridge contains whatever you might desire. I’m afraid I’m a terrible judge when it comes to food. I see you already found your bags.”
I nodded. “Yes. How did they get here?”
He shrugged, and I walked around the kitchen counter to pour myself some coffee. He had the kind of cozy-looking, dove gray kitchenware that was designed to make you think of lazy Sunday mornings, and I sighed happily when I smelled the fresh brew and watched it fill the mug.
“I got it last night once you were sleeping.”
I looked up from the coffee. “You went to my hotel and got my things just like that?”
He closed the laptop. “Before you judge me, listen. I had no intention of bringing this up last night because everything you had seen and experienced must have been very upsetting. I didn’t want to frighten you any more.
“However, the priests would have seen your car when they came back to the church to dispatch me. There’s a chance one of them passed along your license plate to be checked out, a good chance.
They are unfortunately thorough like that; I can tell you that from personal experience.
By now, they must be aware that I am still very much alive while some of their number are very much not.
Finding you will be their best path toward finding me at the moment.
I didn’t think having armed men of the cloth showing up at the hotel you were staying at would be a pleasant experience, so I checked you out. ”
I sipped the coffee. It was bitter and rich. Excellent. “You checked me out.”
“I did.”
“Following your logic, armed priests might accost me anywhere now. I mean, the car is registered to me, what with it being my car. I’m a photographer.
I have a website. I’m not exactly in hiding.
” I leaned against the counter across from him.
He’d just told me that paramilitary priests were likely out to interrogate me, but something about the mundaneness of the room and the coffee stomped out any trace of panic and kept me calm.
Or almost calm. I may have giggled at him.
“I’m not looking to argue with you, Ethan. You’re right, they might find you wherever you go, but if it is within my power to keep you safe, I will do so. Last night, it was, so I checked you out.”
I sighed. “Well, I wouldn’t have wanted to run into some armed priest. Thank you. I guess.”
“It was a distinct pleasure.” He cracked a smile. He looked even more beautiful when he smiled.
I leaned forward on the kitchen counter from my side to get a better look at his face. “Why do your eyes change color? They look almost silver. I’ve never seen that eye color before.”
“Then you have never seen a vampire during daytime. Many don’t like going out when the sun is up, especially not in this day and age when you can absolutely avoid it. A vampire becomes weaker, easier to kill, during the day. I could still bite you, though.”
I leaned right back, my eyes wide. Auris grinned.
“They—those priests. They caught you during the day?”
He nodded. “Yes. Yesterday, when I was walking along the beach.”
“You were walking along the beach?”
“I’m not one of those vampires who minds the day. I’m not afraid of being weaker, and I enjoy—” He made a vague gesture toward the ocean. “—living. On top of that, it was a beautiful day.”
“Yeah, it was.” But the memory of it soured when I imagined how the priests had taken Auris. I didn’t think he would have come with them willingly. It couldn’t have been a fun experience.
“Ethan, I’m well, thanks to you. There is nothing that you should worry yourself over.”
I blushed, looked down at my mug, and took another swig.
“Sorry. So your plan is to hide out here while the holy men are looking for you back in Cromere?”
“Oh, they will look all over. You’d think they’d find better things to do—baptisms, last rites, confessions—but they consider this some sort of holy war.
I wasn’t asked whether I wanted to participate, naturally, they simply take it as a given.
Since the start of the pandemic, I’m quite sure they’ve enjoyed the fact that travel has been and still is limited to some extent.
It makes it easier for them to follow people. ”
I looked at him, bewildered that he would make light of this when he had been bound and nailed to a cross not twelve hours ago. If that experience haunted him, he didn’t show it. Finally, he got up from his chair and walked around the kitchen counter. He took me in his arms and kissed me.
“This is not the most pleasant thing to talk about, and since you’re making no effort to feed yourself, there are other things I would like to do.”
His hands brushed along my sides before they went down to my butt.
“Other things?” I did my best to make it sound as if I hadn’t been thinking about all the other things we could do as well. I put my mug down and ran my hands up his back. My cock was already filling, and I knew my sweats were about to make it obvious.
“Yes, other things. You should be lying down for some of them, so forgive me, but I’m taking you back to bed.” He picked me up and slung me over his shoulder. No one had ever pulled that move on me before.
“Hey!”
He stroked the back of one thigh. “Steady. Stop wiggling around so much.”
“But—” This felt right. I’d spent the night in a vampire’s house, there were murder priests, and vampires were real. Amid all of that, this—allowing myself to pursue pleasure—was the most normal thing, and I wanted it.
Auris was sexy, just like the fairy-tale prince every queer boy ever wished for. I wanted a fairy-tale prince right about now.