Chapter 16
16
C ole had spent half the night scouring the internet for information on satyrs, but there was nothing that suggested that a satyr had two cocks. A permanent erection, yes, as well as an insatiable appetite for sex. Frustrated, he’d finally gone to bed around threea.m. only to dream about running around naked with two permanently erect cocks, chasing a woman with long dark hair. When he’d finally caught her, and she’d turned her face to him, he’d realized that it was Vanessa.
Light tickled his eyes and made him blink. He’d neglected to close the blinds fully before going to sleep. He glanced at the bedside clock, and shot up to sit. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and stretched his arms over his head. Surprised that he felt no pain from the cuts on his torso and neck, he looked at his chest wounds and saw that only a faint redness indicated that he’d ever been injured. When he touched his neck, he felt only a slight soreness as if the wound was almost completely healed.
His stomach growled, and he jumped out of bed. Naked, he walked into his ensuite bathroom and headed for the shower. A look into the mirror over the sink confirmed that new skin was already growing over the deep incisions the vampire had left. However, the horror of the attack still sat deep in his bones, but he tried to push it away, and concentrated on that part of the night that had made up for it all: having sex with Vanessa.
At the recollection of how wild she’d been, and how receptive to his cock, Cole felt himself get hard in an instant. While he reached into the shower to turn on the water, he looked down at himself. What he saw sent a shockwave through his body and made him stumble backwards and bump into the wall behind him.
“Fuck!”
Cole blinked once, twice, but the image didn’t change. The grotesque growth he’d been living with for thirty-eight years was gone. In its place, an inch or so above his regular cock, was a perfectly formed second cock, which he assumed was working just like his other one. And the reason he assumed this was, because this new cock was just as hard as his old one. In fact, two erections were currently pointing upward, ready for action.
He touched the new cock, wrapping his hand around it. It felt the same as his regular cock, though its girth was a little less, and, naturally, it wasn’t circumcised like the other one.
Thoughts and questions ping-ponged around his brain, searching for answers and looking for confirmation that he wasn’t hallucinating. Everything Gabriel had said to him last night came back to the forefront of his mind.
Genetic mutation.
A second cock.
Satyr.
The woman you’re meant to be with.
He recalled that Gabriel had mentioned that he needed to have sex with the woman who was meant for him for the growth to transform into a second cock. But he didn’t remember whether he’d stated how long it would take to grow his second cock. Surely, it wouldn’t happen within a few hours. No, no, such a complicated organ couldn’t just be conjured up overnight. He’d been with a prostitute a little over a week ago, just before he’d left Chicago for San Francisco. So, maybe this had taken a week. Because if it had really sprouted overnight after he’d had sex with Vanessa, then wouldn’t that mean that she was the one he was meant to be with? He rubbed his scalp, trying to make his brain work faster. Or was it the prostitute in Chicago who’d caused this change in him?
Did it even matter? Wouldn’t it mean in either case that the woman he was supposed to be with was a prostitute? But it did matter. It mattered to him. Why hadn’t he asked Gabriel more details about how this process worked? And did this mean that only the woman who’d caused this change in him would accept him? Would he be happy with her? Or could he find happiness with someone else?
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”
He pressed his hands to his temples, and exhaled a shaky breath. What now? He needed help to deal with this. But first and foremost, he needed more information. And since the internet wasn’t any help, he had to speak to Gabriel again.
In the bedroom, he found the jacket he’d worn the previous night, and searched its pockets, until he found the card Gabriel had given him. He read it.
Gabriel Giles, Scanguards, Private Security.
Below it was a number. Cole snatched his cell phone from the nightstand, and punched in the number. It rang. Impatiently, he paced in front of his closet. Why the hell wasn’t he picking up? It rang a fourth time, before the call was finally connected.
“Yeah?”
The voice was male and groggy.
“Gabriel? Gabriel Giles?”
“Yes? Who is this?”
“Cole, Cole Whitlock from last night. You told me about…” He dropped his voice as if somebody could overhear him. “…me being a satyr…”
“I know who you are. What’s going on?” He sounded a little more alert now.
For a second, Cole felt a twinge of guilt. Had he woken the man? The previous night, he’d mentioned that he had to get back to work. Perhaps he’d worked all night.
“I’m sorry if I woke you. But this is really important. And urgent.” The words fairly tumbled over his lips.
“Tell me what’s going on.”
“I need to speak to you in person. I can’t… over the phone it’s just too… Please, can we meet? I don’t care where. I’m freaked out.”
He heard a loud breath through the phone, then a second voice, this one female and more distant.
“What’s wrong, babe?” the woman asked.
“Go back to sleep, baby,” Gabriel replied. “Nothing to worry about.”
Then Gabriel’s voice came through a little louder. “I can’t leave the house right now.”
“But it’s really important. I can come to you. Gabriel, please, my head is exploding, and you’re the only one who can help me.”
There was a short pause, then Gabriel said, “Fine, come to my house. I live in Pacific Heights. I’ll text you my address.”
“Thank you so much. I’ll be there in a half hour,” Cole promised.
“All right. I’ll leave the front door unlocked. Just come into the living room. Don’t ring the door bell, and please be quiet. Everybody is sleeping, because we all worked the night shift.”
“I really appreciate it.”
Cole disconnected the call and tossed the phone on the bed, then headed for the shower.
After a thirty-second shower, Cole had dressed in a hurry, gulped down two protein drinks straight from the refrigerator, before getting into his Aston Martin to drive to the address Gabriel had texted him. When he saw the large Edwardian mansion, he double-checked the address, but he hadn’t gotten it wrong. This was indeed Gabriel’s house. It appeared that private security paid well. Unless, of course, his first assumption that Gabriel was working for the Mafia was correct. Not that Cole seriously thought this was the case.
It took him five minutes to find a parking spot a block away. When he walked up the stairs to the stately old building that looked like it was very well maintained, Cole took a moment to collect his thoughts. Following Gabriel’s instructions, he didn’t ring the doorbell. Instead, he turned the doorknob and pushed against the door. It opened easily, and he entered a small foyer with hooks for coats and umbrellas. He shut the door quietly behind him, then took a few steps farther into the house.
The homey atmosphere of the house struck him, because for a man like Gabriel who looked rough, he’d expected a different décor. Yet the interior belonged in one of the fancy home décor magazines many American families kept on their coffee tables. The colors were warm and soothing, the rugs that swallowed the sound of his footsteps expensive.
“Come in.” Gabriel’s voice came from the living area ahead.
Cole walked through the open archway that led into a comfortably furnished living room. Gabriel stood near the fireplace, pivoting now to greet him. He was dressed only in a pair of faded jeans and a white T-shirt.
“Thanks for seeing me, Gabriel.”
His host looked very different today. The casual clothes made him look younger and more approachable, and even the scar on his face looked less pronounced. Looking past the scar, Cole now realized that Gabriel was actually a handsome man and not the scary mafioso type from the night before.
Gabriel motioned to the sofa, and Cole took a seat. “Thank you.”
His host sat down in the armchair opposite. “I’m assuming this is regarding the things we talked about last night.”
Cole nodded, his throat constricting and as dry as sand paper. In the light of day, it was even harder to speak to a stranger about something so intimate.
He swallowed, trying to lubricate his throat. “There’s something that I’m not clear about. When you said that I’d get my second… uhm… cock after sleeping with the woman I’m supposed to be with… could you clarify that? I mean, when you say to be with , what do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. The woman who gets your body to change like that is meant to be your partner, your mate for life.”
Fuck!
“So, you’re saying she’s the only one who will accept me for what I am?”
“No. There might be other women who will accept you, but she’s the one you’ll find most fulfillment with. Like a soulmate.”
“Okay.” Cole felt his hand tap nervously on his thigh, and forced himself to stop. “So, uhm, how long after you sleep with that woman will it take to get your second cock? Are we talking months, a week, a day?”
Curious, he leaned forward, eager for Gabriel’s answer.
“It varies.” Gabriel shrugged. “For my son Ryder, it took about twelve hours. In my case it only took a few, maybe three or four?”
Fuck!
“Is it possible that it takes longer than that, maybe a week or two?”
Gabriel gave a determined shake of his head. “No. It always happens within twenty-four hours.”
Cole tried to swallow the knot that seemed to have lodged in his throat, his mind working overtime. He knew exactly what that meant. He hadn’t had sex with anybody other than Vanessa in the last ten days.
“You look a little shell-shocked,” Gabriel commented.
“You could say that.” He lifted his face to meet Gabriel’s concerned look. “I woke up this morning. With a second cock.”
His host grinned all of a sudden. “Congratulations. I’m very happy for you.”
“Yeah… thanks…” Cole couldn’t get his facial muscles to form a smile.
“You’re not happy about it?”
“Not sure how to feel about it.”
Gabriel tipped his chin up. “Is your mate not happy about it?”
“She doesn’t know yet.”
Gabriel leaned forward. “It sounds like you’re not happy with her . Don’t you like the woman you slept with?”
“That’s not it. I’m drawn to her as if she’s put a spell on me. She’s gorgeous, she’s everything I ever wanted in a woman. The sex was explosive… but…”
“But what?”
Cole sucked in an audible breath. “She’s a prostitute.” The second the words were out, he felt guilty for judging her like that. He slapped himself on the forehead. “I’m such a fucking hypocrite! All my life I’ve relied on prostitutes for sex, and now that it turns out that one of them is my soulmate, I’m judging her for what she does for a living! What does that make me?”
Gabriel studied him with a kind smile. “A conflicted man. Listen, Cole. I did the same: I paid prostitutes for sex because no other woman would sleep with me.” He pointed to his scar. “I had much more of an impediment than you.”
Cole tilted his head toward Gabriel’s scar. “How did you get that?”
“My first wife gave that to me during our wedding night. She cut me when I undressed and she saw me naked for the first time.”
“You mean you didn’t have sex with her before you got married?”
“She had a very strict, religious upbringing.” He made a dismissive hand movement. “It’s water under the bridge. What I’m trying to say is that we do what we have to do. Being a prostitute doesn’t have to mean that she’s not a good person. For some women it’s just a way to make a living. Look at her just for how she makes you feel. If you’re drawn to her, it’s for a reason…” He smiled all of a sudden and looked past him. “When I met my second wife, I knew from the second I saw her that she was it. I just knew. And I also knew that I didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell to win her love. She’s beautiful, and could have had any man she wanted. But she chose me, despite my looks, despite the ugly growth. She slept with me in spite of it—before either of us knew what would happen with the growth.”
“She sounds wonderful.”
“She is. She gave me three beautiful children, a happy home, and a future to live for. The woman you slept with can do the same for you. But you’ll have to accept her for who she is. Love can’t grow without that.”
Surprised at Gabriel’s wise words, Cole let them sink in. Gabriel was right. He had to look past Vanessa’s job and only look at how she made him feel.
“Do you believe in love at first sight?” Cole asked.
“I do. And I believe so do you.”
“I’m beginning to,” Cole admitted.
“Good. Though, of course I’m disappointed that you’ve already found your mate. You would have been a nice match for my daughter.”
“I’m sure I’m way too old for your daughter anyway.” Because there was no way that Gabriel was older than forty, even though he claimed he had adult children.
Cole rose. “Thank you so much, Gabriel. Thanks for everything you’ve done.”
Gabriel stood up and offered his hand. Cole shook it. “Call me to let me know how it’s going. And one other thing.”
Cole listened up. “Yes?”
“In most cases, the mate of a satyr male is also a satyr. That means she’ll go into heat several times a year.”
“Into heat?” He scrunched up his forehead.
“Yes, like a feline. When that happens, she will need sex more than anything in her life. If she doesn’t get it, she will get feverish. It’s very painful. It’s possible that she chose to be a prostitute because of it.”
That was a revelation. Maybe Vanessa didn’t really have a choice. “Does this mean, she knows what she is?”
“I don’t know. My wife didn’t know that she was a satyr before she met me. So this woman might not know either, and simply follows her instinct. Once you’re spending more time with her, you’ll be able to figure out if she’s a satyr. If she is, maybe we should introduce her to my wife and my daughter so they can tell her everything she wants to know.”
Hearing that Gabriel was offering this even though he knew that Vanessa was a prostitute, floored him. He felt embarrassed that he’d judged him the night before, because it turned out that Gabriel wasn’t one to judge. And he now felt even worse for having judged Vanessa. She didn’t deserve him to think of her as being something less, just because of where she worked. She deserved so much more.
“I don’t know how to thank you.”
“Thank me by finding happiness.”
Cole felt a smile steal itself onto his lips. He could do that. He could find happiness. With the right woman. And with the courage to lay himself bare before her. Even if that meant that he was making himself vulnerable and risked disappointment. Love and happiness were worth the risk. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain.