Alasdair cocked his head to the side at the thought Leo had but didn’t voice: Like me.
“I’m vampire. We fuck whomever we want. We don’t differentiate sex by gender. More so by species. Vampire, human, and so on,” he told him. Then he slowly drew his fangs over his lower lip, causing Leo’s eyes to fall to them.
“And how long have you been a vampire? I read that you were created by the gods. Apollo, Artemis, and what was the other one…” Leo mused.
Alasdair watched him cautiously, wondering how much the human knew—or thought he knew.
Then Leo snapped his fingers. “Oh and Hades. Scary god of death. Though that would make sense given your penchant for threats of murder and all.”
“You have read wrong,” Alasdair told him. “I was not created by the gods—”
“But by Vasilios?” Leo guessed.
Alasdair neither agreed nor disagreed, deciding that not saying a word was his best course of action. His silence, however, led to Leo’s continued line of questioning.
“Well…every story usually begins with a thread of truth, right?”
“So it does,” Alasdair said before he thought better of it.
“So I am right?” Leo asked again, a grin splitting his lips for the first time since he’d woken up—and Alasdair couldn’t look away from him. Leo was enjoying himself, and when Alasdair intruded on his thoughts, he heard, This is what I love about history. Discovering truths, and hell, I’ve never had a live relic to discuss things with.
Alasdair started to walk again, choosing to ignore that he was not excited to be viewed as a relic by this particular man.
They were nearly at the end of the hall when Leo said, “You never told me how long it’s been, you know, since you were changed.”
“A long time.” Then Alasdair thought about the questions he was being asked, and his suspicions of Leo rose again.
“How long?”
“You ask too many questions. Are you aware of that fact?”
“I don’t care. This is the first time you’ve been talkative since you locked me up.”
“I have no clue who or what you are, Leonidas. And what makes you think I’m telling you the truth?”
Leo didn’t seem to have an answer for that. So Alasdair asked a question of his own. “Why do you want to know, anyway? You’re the all-knowing historian. I would hardly think you need me to answer these questions for you.”
Leo gave a false smile and shrugged. “Well, nothing like being able to ask the real thing. Plus, it’s in my job description to be curious. You’re likely older than anything I’ve ever dug up and dusted.”
As they rounded the end of the hall, a mix of lustful groans and raunchy laughter met their ears, and Leo’s sarcastic diatribe came to an abrupt end. There, lining the sides of the long, elaborate walkway, stood well over a hundred vampires.
Each of them was engaged in the usual activities that took place at this particular congregation. In varying degrees of undress, some were in the throes of a hallway fuck, while others were delighting in the pleasures of eating and being eaten.
As the debauchery took center stage, Alasdair ran his eyes over his brood until he spotted Isadora and Thanos towards the middle of the crowd.
Thanos had a young man pinned to the wall. One hand was down the front of his pants, pumping and pulling at what Alasdair suspected was a painfully engorged shaft. His teeth were deep in the man’s carotid, and if the human was lucky, when Thanos was done he would get on his knees and finish the poor bastard in his mouth.
Isadora, on the other hand, had a redheaded woman kneeling by her side. The woman had her hand resting high on Isadora’s thigh, and she appeared extremely satisfied.
With her dark hair pinned up in an elaborate updo Isadora looked regal as ever while she surveyed their congregation. Her eyes finally came to a stop when they reached him.
As she stood, Alasdair heard her address him, and so did every other vampire in the hall.
They all ceased what they were doing to look upon who had just stepped into the Walk. Silence filled the corridor, and not two seconds after it was confirmed, they bowed their heads.
Alasdair then turned to see that Leo’s eyes had widened and his mouth had fallen open.
“This is where you’re taking me?” he asked. Then, as if it were an afterthought, he muttered, “What is it? Some sort of orgy? And why have they all stopped talking?”
Alasdair looked back to the males and females of his lair and answered the simplest question first. “They have stopped talking because I have arrived.”
LEO FIGURED THAT the arrogance those words had been delivered with was warranted. Especially if the way everyone within eyesight had stopped what they were doing to pay their respects.
He, on the other hand, couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It was like some massive orgy or buffet. Or a mix of the two, because as far as he could see, there was a whole lot of fucking and eating going on.
As he continued to stare, dumbfounded, he sidled up a little closer to the one male who, ironically, felt like the safest option in the room. When Alasdair glanced at him, Leo’s breath caught at the heat in his eyes, and he wondered if he was about to become a meal or a sex performer in the next few minutes.
Alasdair’s voice slipped into his mind. Which would you prefer?
There was no way he was going to answer that, and when Alasdair faced those waiting on him, Leo thought, Who the hell is he to them?
“I don’t generally attend these menial assemblies,” Alasdair told him. “They’re shocked to see me. They’ll get over that soon enough, and then you will become the object of their attention.”
“Me?”
“Yes, Leonidas. You.”
Leo reluctantly pulled his eyes from everyone spread out in front of them and turned. Not having realized how close that would put his face to Alasdair’s, he staggered back.
“Why would they care about me?”
“Because you are here with me.”
“And that’s—”
“Unheard of,” Alasdair finished for him.
Before Leo could ask what he meant, Alasdair’s voice was in his head again.
I don’t parade my conquests about.
Leo glared at him. “Can you please stop doing that? And I’m not your conquest.”
I can always speak aloud if you would prefer. However, our kind have exceptional hearing, and if I say anything here, they will expect you to get down and kneel by my side. Do you want that, Leonidas? To kneel at my feet?
Leo ignored the provocative question and asked one from earlier. “Why do some have collars and some have cuffs?”
He flinched when Alasdair reached for his wrist and brought it up under his nose. Then Alasdair closed his eyes and took a breath, as if inhaling his scent. Leo couldn’t stop himself from looking at the beautiful, thick lashes resting on Alasdair’s skin as his jaw bunched and ticked, and when his eyes flew back open, the hunger in them floored him.
“The collars signify a food source. The cuffs…” Alasdair whispered, and his breath floated across Leo’s lips in a sensual caress, “signify a sexual one.”
Then Alasdair walked away, pulling on the chain that bound them together, leaving him with no other choice but to follow.
KEEP YOUR EYES down and stay three paces behind me, Alasdair instructed. Remember, they are able to read your thoughts, Leonidas.