Life had beaten the shit out of him, but instead of folding, each strike and blow had forged him harder and stronger and tougher. He was straight steel now, nothing lingering of the boy he’d once been.
But that was growing up for you. Not only your body changed; your head did, too.
Staring at his friend, the loss of innocence seemed a crime.
And on that note, the receptionist behind the counter caught Blay’s attention. She was leaning on the glass display of piercing supplies, her breasts swelling against the black bra and black muscle shirt she was wearing. She had two sleeves, one in black and white and one in black and red, and she had gunmetal gray hoops in her nose, her eyebrows, and both ears. Amid all the tat drawings on the walls, she was a living example of the work you could get if you wanted. A very sexy, hard-core example... who had lips the color of red wine and hair the color of night.
Everything about her matched Qhuinn. She was like a female him.
And what do you know. Qhuinn’s mixed eyes had already locked on her and he was smiling tightly in his trademark gotcha way.
Blay slipped a hand into his leather jacket and felt around for his pack of Dunhill reds. Man, nothing made him jones for a smoke more than Qhuinn’s love life.
And clearly he’d be lighting up another couple coffin nails tonight: Qhuinn sauntered over to the receptionist and drank her in like she was a long, tall beer fresh from the tap and he’d been working in the heat for hours. His eyes locked on her breasts as he traded names with her, and she helped him get a clearer picture of her assets by easing forward onto her forearms.
Good thing vampires didn’t get cancer.
Blay turned his back on the Spice Channel by the cash register and went over to stand next to John Matthew.
“That’s cool.” Blay pointed at a dagger sketch.
You going to get ink ever? John signed.
“I don’t know.”
God knew he liked it on skin...
His stare shifted back over to Qhuinn. The guy’s huge body was arching into the human woman, his broad shoulders and his tight hips and his long, powerful legs guaranteeing her one hell of a ride.
He was amazing at sex.
Not that Blay would know firsthand. He’d seen it and he’d heard it... and he’d imagined what it would be like. But when the opportunity had arisen, he’d been relegated to a small, special class: denied.
Actually, it was more of a category than a class... because he was the only one who Qhuinn would not have sex with.
“Um... is it going to sting like this forever?” a female voice asked.
As a deep male rumble replied, Blay glanced over to the tat chair. The blond who’d just been worked on was gingerly tucking her shirt in over her cellophane bandage and staring at the guy who’d inked her like he was a doctor telling her the odds of surviving rabies.
The pair of girls then went over to the receptionist, where the uninked one who’d changed her mind got a refund and both of them checked out Qhuinn.
It was like that wherever the guy went and it used to be the kind of thing that made Blay worship his best friend. Now, it was a never-ending rejection: every time Qhuinn said yes, it made that one single no louder.
“I’m ready if you guys are,” the tattoo artist called out.
John and Blay headed to the rear of the shop and Qhuinn dropped the receptionist like a bad habit and followed. One good thing about him was the seriousness with which he took his role as John’s ahstrux nohtrum: he was supposed to be around the guy twenty-four/seven, and that was a responsibility he took more seriously even than sex.
As John sat in the padded chair in the center of the workspace, he took out a piece of paper and unfolded it on the artist’s counter.
The man frowned and looked over what John had sketched out. “So it’s these four symbols across your upper shoulders?”
John nodded and signed, You can embellish them any way you want, but they have to be clear.
After Qhuinn translated, the artist nodded. “Cool.” He grabbed a black pen and started making a picture box of elegant swirls around the simple design. “What are these things, by the way?”
“Just symbols,” Qhuinn answered.
The artist nodded again and kept sketching. “How’s this?”
All three of them leaned in.
“Man,” Qhuinn said softly. “That’s vicious.”
It was. It was absolutely perfect, the kind of thing John would wear on his skin with pride—not that anyone would see the Old Language characters or all that spectacular swirl work. What was spelled out was not something he wanted widely known, but that was the thing with tats: they didn’t have to be public, and God knew the guy had plenty of T-shirts to cover up with.
When John nodded, the artist stood up. “Let me get the transfer paper. Copying it onto you won’t take long and then we’ll get to work.”
As John put a crystal jar of ink on the counter and started to take off his jacket, Blay sat on a stool and held out his arms. Given the number of weapons John was packing in his pockets, it wouldn’t do anyone any good for him to just hang his shit up on a hook.
When he was shirtless, John settled into a forward lean position, his heavy arms resting on a padded bar stand. After the tattoo artist got the image on the transfer paper, the guy smoothed the sheet over John’s upper back, then peeled it off.
The design formed a perfect arch across the span of muscles, taking up all of John’s considerable acreage.
The Old Language really was beautiful, Blay thought.
Staring at the symbols, for one brief, ridiculous moment he imagined his own name across Qhuinn’s shoulders, carved into that smooth skin in the manner of the mating ritual.
Never going to happen. They were destined to be best friends... which, compared to strangers, was something huge. Compared to lovers? It was the cold side of a locked door.
He glanced over at Qhuinn. The guy had one eye on John and one eye on the receptionist—who had locked the front door and come to stand by his side.
Behind the fly of his leathers, the bulge he was sporting was obvious.
Blay looked down at the mess of clothes in his lap. One by one, he carefully folded the undershirt, the long-sleeve, and then John’s jacket. When he glanced up, Qhuinn was running his forefinger slowly down the woman’s arm.
They were going to end up ducking behind that curtain over to the left. The front door to the shop was secured, the curtain was fairly thin, and Qhuinn would do the woman with his weapons on. So John would be safe at all times... and that itch would get scratched.
Which meant Blay would only have to suffer hearing them.
Better than the full bifta. Especially because Qhuinn was beautiful to watch when he had sex. Just... beautiful.
Back when Blay had tried to do the hetero thing, the two had tag-teamed a number of human females—not that he could have recalled any of the women’s faces, bodies, or names.
It had always been about Qhuinn for him. Always.
The nibbling pain of the tattoo needle was a pleasure.
As John shut his eyes and breathed deep and slow, he thought about the intersection of metal and skin, how the sharp entered the soft, how the blood flowed... how you knew exactly where the penetration was.
Like right now, the tattoo artist was directly over the top of his spine.
John had a lot of experience with the whole slice-and-dice shit—only on a much larger scale, and more as a giver rather than a receiver. Sure, he’d been cut up out in the field a couple of times, but he’d left more than his fair share of holes behind, and like the tattoo artist, he always took his equipment to work with him: His jacket carried all kinds of daggers and switches, even a length of chain. Also a matched set of just-in-case guns.
Well... all that and a pair of barbed cilices.