“He was fine.”
Thanos chewed on a piece of ice and then wagged his eyebrows. “Yes, I see. He looks very fine kneeling behind you.”
“Get out of my fucking head, Thanos,” Alasdair warned.
“Or else what? Your threat on my life is not the first tonight. So please take a number. There is a line.”
Isadora got to her feet. Thanos could be frustrating at times, so she stood in front of Alasdair and looked him over. When it appeared he was in perfectly good health, she pouted.
“I assume by that expression and your arm that you received the same dress down I did?” Alasdair said.
“Apparently not exactly the same. You are in one piece.”
Thanos scoffed. “As far as we can see. Any bite marks under those clothes we should know about, Alasdair?”
“Ignore him,” Isadora advised when Alasdair’s jaw bunched. “I was told by Diomêdês that I wasn’t to heal myself until you arrived.”
Alasdair winced, and then he did something he very rarely did—he rolled his sleeve up and offered her his vein. “Feed.”
“But—”
He took a step towards her and clasped her left shoulder in his strong hand. Then he raised his arm until it hovered in front of her lips and said softly, “Let us say I am returning the favor.”
She shifted her eyes to his, and her fangs descended. Feeding from Alasdair was as much a privilege as it was pleasure. Because, while each of them was the first sired of an Ancient, Alasdair was sired to Vasilios, the most powerful of them all. It was Vasilios’s blood that made Alasdair’s all the more sweet.
Her top lip pulled taut across her teeth, and then she took his arm with her left hand. Lowering her head, she licked the spot where she could see his vein, and then she slowly sank her teeth into his flesh. When the intoxicating blend of his blood entered her mouth, she closed her eyes, and as it flowed through her veins to her wounded shoulder, she caught glimpses of Alasdair’s mind.
The human, standing with him in a room full of photographs. Then again appearing at his feet in Vasilios’s room. And then the human…watching the two of them as they fucked.
Alasdair’s mind was a mass of confusion, tangled between his reality and his obsession. When Isadora withdrew her teeth from his wrist, she licked the wound so it would heal and whispered, “It’s time to end this.”
Alasdair pulled his arm free of her but said nothing. She knew he understood, just as she knew he would rebel against any voice of reason. Once Alasdair’s mind was set, it took something monumental to dissuade him.
“So, there’s something I don’t quite understand,” Thanos spoke up, reminding her he was still in the room with them. “If you were told what we were, dear cousin, why are you still toting the human around? There are much more important things to focus on now besides your cock.”
“I agree,” Alasdair said as he rolled his shirtsleeve down and walked over to where Thanos had sat back in the chair. “Which is exactly why he is still here. I think he has something to do with it.”
Isadora’s mouth fell open, and then, without warning, she laughed, much like Thanos had earlier. But while his had been mocking and full of sarcasm, hers sounded oddly crazed even to her own ears.
“You think he has something to do with it? Look at him, Alasdair. We could kill him right now and he’d be none the wiser. How could someone as small as he, be involved in the destruction of something as large as us?”
“Think about it,” Alasdair suggested. “That night I tried to feed from him, his blood dropped me to the floor like poison. It paralyzed me to the point that, if he had known how, he could have ended me. He can also remember what happens during a full compulsion.”
As that little tidbit was revealed, Isadora thought Thanos’s eyes would pop out of his head.
“What? And you still have him around? Alive? What the fuck is the matter with you?”
“That’s the whole point, Thanos. I don’t know. I don’t know why I’m drawn to him the way I am—or why he can do what he does. But now, something else has started.” Alasdair paused as if daring either of them to interrupt. When neither of them did, he continued. “Something happens whenever we kiss.”
Thanos’s lips twitched. “Like what? Did the Earth move?”
“You’re such a fucking comedian, Thanos. Aren’t you paying attention? He is a threat. A threat I’ve never come across, and he’s one I haven’t been able to stay away from.”
The two of them looked at Alasdair, their mouths parted in shock. Then Thanos stepped towards their cousin and said, “I assume you have a plan? You always do. A way to test your theory?”
Alasdair grimaced as though he’d swallowed a razor blade, and as the plan entered his mind, they all saw what he thought would work.
Thanos laughed. “Oh, Alasdair, I thought you’d never ask.”
VOICES.
ONE, TWO…no, three voices.
That’s what Leo heard when he cracked his eyes open. A shooting pain splintered inside his skull as he tried to move his arms—he wanted to rub at his temple. But he couldn’t move them. His wrists stung, and as he tugged on one of them, the rough abrasion of rope scratched his skin.
Disoriented, he shifted, trying to sit up so he could get a better look at his surroundings, but from the awkward position he was in—Lying flat on my damn stomach—it was difficult to push himself up.
Squeezing his eyes shut, he took a deep breath. There was a stabbing sensation in his temple coming from a transport that had to have happened—recently.
The last thing he remembered was… Alasdair, the other vampire, and then…oh fuck.
Then he’d woken up in the middle of a flashback. Under that Vasilios guy, who’d been about to bite him. He remembered the way his body had reacted as the powerful male had loomed over him.
As Alasdair, Leo had wanted Vasilios with every fiber of his being. His cock had been harder than it had ever been, his flesh hot to the touch, and when the vampire had told him it was time, Leo had felt the pride and desire swirl through Alasdair’s blood.
He’d wanted to be owned by that male. More than he’d wanted to live.
Shaking his head, hoping to free his mind of memories that weren’t his, Leo rolled to his side and used his shoulder to shove himself up. The voices in the room increased in volume.
“I’m not sure that would be the smartest thing to do in this case, Thanos, are you?”
The question ended abruptly, and it seemed to echo around… My office, Leo realized, as he finally got himself upright and seated. He was back in his office, on the couch.
“Your human,” a low voice noted, “is awake.”
Leo’s eyes skidded to a stop on the three figures across the room. They had their backs to him, and when they turned, he realized he recognized them all.
Alasdair was standing between the male and female from the Walk. The same male who’d wanted… Yeah… best not to think about that while they’re within mind-invading distance.
“Huh,” the male vampire pondered, his eyes roving over Leo. “His thoughts are rather amusing, aren’t they? No wonder you kept him around, Alasdair. But he doesn’t seem to fear us much, does he?”
Leo’s eyes darted to Alasdair for… What? Reassurance? Why did he think he would protect him? If the stony expression on his face was any indication, he could quickly dispel any hope of that happening. Alasdair’s frown made him look homicidal, and just like that, the other male in the room got the reaction he wanted. Suddenly, Leo feared them very much.