Flash Fiction Friday! A Nanny Tale: Part 3

Hey all!  Welcome back to Flash Fiction Friday.

This week’s prompt was:

 

I spun this prompt into my story to work with what I have planned.  For me this subject is touchy, and by that I mean religion.  I just want to remind everyone that in no way does this story reflect my own personal views and this is a work of fiction.  I hope you like this week’s installment.  Enjoy!

~Night

 

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Elaina M. Roberts

 

A Nanny Tale: Part 3

Chris is having a hard time leaving for work this morning.  It’s Joey’s first day of school, and while most fourth graders are excited to reunite with their friends and show off their new backpacks and haircuts, Joey is not one of those kids.  He whines and pleads and tries to fake sick.  He tugs on his dad’s arm and begs for mercy.  Chris is nearly in tears when he makes his last attempt to walk to the front door.

Grumpy doesn’t help matters in the least.  He sits in his chair and barks out things he needs from the store to Chris while Joey is mid meltdown.  Chris locks eyes with me. So many unsaid things go between us with a single look.  “I’ve got this, I swear.”  I hold Joey around the shoulders as tight as I can so he doesn’t make a mad dash for the front door.  “He’ll be there on time.  I’ll get the stuff from the store on my way back and take your dad to the doctor at noon.”

“All of the papers for Joey’s school are on the island.  Dad’s insurance card—”

“Chris, we’ll be fine.”  I yank Joey back a few steps.  He continues to fight me. “Have a good day.  I’ll call you later to tell you how it all goes.”

Chris’s brow puckers.  His eyes close for a mere second before he glances back up at me.  It’s not even six thirty in the morning and he looks dead on his feet.  “When he calms down, would you take a picture?  I always…”

“First day of school.  Got it.”

Joey reaches for Chris.  “Dad, don’t go!”

“Joey…”  Chris groans.

I want to tell Chris to sit down, take off his kitchen bandana, and talk his kid down from the ledge, but I know he had two servers and a cook go back to college this week, and the morning shift hostess went on maternity leave as of two days ago.  He has to get everything in order before Grumpy has his surgery in two days, before Chris takes a week off from his restaurant to help his dad adjust.  This has got to be the worst timing ever for all of this to go down, but like with everything in my life I take it in stride and blast Chris with a reassuring smile.

“Go,” I order of Chris.  “Leave while you still can, man,” I tease and use all my strength to hoist Joey up over my shoulder.  “I must tame the beast.”

“Dad!”

“Love you, Joey.  Have a good day at school,” Chris calls as I walk away with his freakishly strong offspring.

“No!” Joey bellows and it’s game on.

The front door shuts.  Grumpy chuckles like a jackass.  I set Joey down on two feet in his room.  We stare at each other, arms crossed, eyes narrowed.  “So,” I begin.  “How do you want to do this?”

“I’m not going and you can’t make me.  You’re not the boss of me.”  He squints and huffs from his nose like a tiny, chicken-legged dragon

Oh yeah?  Want to bet I can’t make you?  This ain’t my first rodeo, kid.  “Why do you not want to go?  We bought your school supplies. You got new shoes.  You got a haircut.  You seemed excited.  Now suddenly you don’t want to go and you’ve yet to give me a good reason.”

He pushes out his bottom lip and tosses his sweatshirt onto the floor.  “I hate that place.”

“But why?  We took a tour of your classroom and met your teacher last week.  I thought you wanted to go to school.”

Joey looks at me over his shoulder.  He picks up his sweatshirt because he realizes he can’t stand to have something out of order in his pristine bedroom.  Once it’s folded on his bed, his shoulders lift and fall with a heavy exhale and he becomes silent.

“Joey?  Come on.  Talk to me here.”

Joey shakes his head.  “Doesn’t matter what I say.  You’re gonna send me there anyway.”

I have an inkling of what’s wrong, but in my experience it’s best to get a child to tell you what the problem is outright and save yourself the energy.  “It’s the first day.  Whatever you didn’t like about last year can be different this year.  This is a whole new start.”  I touch his shoulder.

He yanks away from me.  “That’s what dad said too.  That’s what he always says and it never gets better.  They hate me.”

He says hate like it’s a weapon he’s been stuck with many times.  I feel his pain.  I share those same wounds.  We’re kind of like kindred spirits, Joey and I, but now I’m grown up and no longer stuck in Bumfuck, Illinois.  I have the experience under my belt needed to guide my little protégé through the dark.  It’s the getting him to understand he doesn’t always have to be a target that will give me trouble.  Kids never think you were a child once too.  They think you came out of the womb fully grown with a mouth full of bullshit.  Telling a bullied nine-year-old it will get better in time is like telling them leprechauns live in their sock drawer.  They think you’re fucking nuts.

“Why would anyone hate you, Joey?  You’re such a cool kid.”  I sit on the bed next to him and put an arm around his shoulder.  “I’m sure you have some friends there you’d like to see.”

Again, Joey shakes his head. God, that’s devastating. “They don’t let anyone be my friend.”

“Who are they?”

He glances up with those big blue eyes and my heart lurches.  “Those jerks Sister Grace made hall monitors for this year.  They suck up to her and she treats them special.  They get away with everything.”

First the Great Hell Speech of third grade and now with this?  I was beginning to think this Sister Grace was a maker of nightmares. “Sister Grace seems to be a household name.  I’m sure if you just talked to her about people bullying you then she would make sure it didn’t happen again.  Do you need me to talk to her for you?”

He rockets off the bed and put his hands up like he’s trying to stop a fast approaching train.  “No!  Don’t do that.”

I capture his hands in mine.  “Joey, you can’t let people walk all over you.  Trust me.  It will hurt worse in the long run.  You can go to school and see how things go today, and if someone messes with you, you tell a teacher.  If that doesn’t work, and you’ve made it clear you don’t like their behavior and a teacher isn’t helping you, then you come to me or your dad and we’ll take care of it.”

“You don’t understand,” he huffs.  He pulls his hands from mine.  “Sister Grace hates dad.  That’s why they can be mean to me, because she doesn’t care.  I only acted like I wanted to go back because I didn’t want to make dad mad, but when I woke up this morning, I got scared.”

I hug him closer and squeeze him tight.  “It’s okay, buddy.  Did Sister Grace tell you she hates your dad?”

“She said he lives in sin,” Joey whispers.

“She said what?”  I stood up from the bed like my ass was on fire.  Oh hell to the no, bitch.  “Did she say that to your dad or to you?”

Joey’s eyes snap to me.  He’s as infuriated as I am, as pissed as a nine-year-old can be.  “She told him that during conferences last year.  She said she was worried I would turn out the same way.”

“Why would she say that?”  Tread carefully, Logan Davis.  This kid might not even know his dad likes men.

Joey sighs.  “Because dad likes boys and she says Jesus doesn’t like that and that he’s going to hell.”

I blink a few times.  I can’t wrap my mind around this witch and her opinion.  What shocks me the most is how she would try to turn a young child against their own parent for the sake of religion.  “Joey, get dressed.  You’re dad isn’t going to hell because he likes boys, but Sister Grace might if she says another word about it.”

His eyes widen.  He clutches the hem of his t-shirt.  “Are you going to say something to her?  Please don’t, Logan.”

I stop at the door and turn to him.  “I promise not to say anything if she doesn’t bring it up.  Deal?”

He bites his lip and nods once.

“But … if something happens, you have to promise to tell us.  I don’t care if those little heathens threaten you, you come tell your dad and I if they give you trouble, and by heathens, that includes Sister Grace.  Don’t you ever think that just because someone is an adult that they have the right to treat you like dirt.  That’s not okay, Joey.  Not ever.  You’re a cool kid.  You don’t deserve that.”

I can see it in his eyes—that look; the one where someone other than his father has told him that he’s worthy and he just might believe it now.  I’ll tell him every single day just to see some hope on his face.  My mom was the one who did it for me when I was Joey’s age, and although Chris tries, Joey needs more reassurance than a simple here and there pat on the back.

“Be dressed in five minutes.  We gotta roll out now if you want one of the good donuts.”

He hisses in quiet glee and runs to his closet.  I shut the door and sag against it in the hallway.  Sister Grace and her minions are on my mind all the way to breakfast.  And as I look over at Joey, quietly eating his donut about twenty minutes later, I can tell they’re on his mind too.

***

Joey keeps his head down as he walks away from me to class.  His bony fingers are wrapped around his backpack straps with a white knuckled grip.  He weaves through the packed hallway without saying a word. Not one kid waves at him or calls his name. 

Joey takes a piece of me with him, a little chunk that this time I am willing to give away.  I hope he trusts me.  I hope he knows that I’m only a phone call away.

Breaking away from the tragic scene, I walk the hallways of Our Sacred Heart like an outsider.  It’s not like I haven’t been in a school before, and I wasn’t opposed to expanding my already open mind to the prospect of a religious school, but this place gives me the creeps. 

Most elementary schools had tacky paper borders around stained bulletin boards.  Those schools smelled like lemon floor cleaner and sawdust.  There were supposed to be teachers waiting in the hall to greet their students, teachers who wore happy little sweaters with kittens on them and necklaces made of wooden blocks that were gifted by past students.

Oh no, not this place.  There were nuns in baggy polo shirts tucked into their pressed floor length skirts.  Their eyes were cold and calculating as they marked off names on a clipboard as each child entered their class.  There wasn’t an air of welcoming excitement or a nurturing vibe, just a drafty hallway full of kids in pristine uniforms who composed themselves far beyond their years.

The fact that parents were paying for their kids to go to prison stunned me.  The fact that Chris thought this was where his son would thrive nauseated me.

With that thought, I hit up the door marked Front Office and walked inside.  A plump woman with a crucifix bigger than my palm around her neck looked up from her computer.  “Welcome to Our Sacred Heart.  How can I help you?”

I put on a charming smile and lean on the counter.  I slide the folder containing Joey’s paperwork to her.  “I’m here to turn this in.”

“And your name?”

“Logan Davis.  I’m Joey Wyzak’s nanny.  His father wanted me to update his information to make me a designated ride to and from school, and an emergency contact for Joey.”

“I see.”  She looks over the information and glances up at me from behind her lashes.  I brace myself for a flirty smile or a coy look, but I get a fat sack of nothing.  She doesn’t seem pleased in the least that a man is trying to give her attention.  Then again, she is a nun.  “Will you wait here for a second?  I’ll be right back.”

“Of course.”

She wanders down a hall to her right where I assume more offices are.  She takes forever.  I start to worry.  Maybe even sweat a little.  I’ve never liked school offices.  Every time I’d ever been in one I’d always been there to get a detention or a scolding from the principal.  This kind of felt the same, like they were intentionally holding me up to feel the wrath of the Virgin Mary on a poster behind me.  Every time I glanced over my shoulder, she was staring at me.

“Mr. Davis, I presume?”

I met the eyes of a nun in a suit coat and it was then that I knew I was looking at the female Voldemort. I’d take Flavor Flav with her crucifix over this lady any day of the week.  “Uh, yes, that’s me.”

“Do you have a moment to spare?”  She’s holding the envelope.  Crucifix looks guilty as all get out as she slides back into her rolling chair.  This is not going to be good.

“Of course.” I flash her my beauty pageant smile.  This is for the kid, I remind myself.  You are doing a good thing.  Do not fuck this up, Logan! 

She crooks a finger. I expect it to fall off like some rotting appendage of the Crypt Keeper.  “Follow me.”

Less than a minute later I’m seated across from Sister Grace, Our Sacred Heart’s principal and resident witch.  She glowers at me with eyes the color of ice before she looks down her pointed nose to the paperwork across her desk.  “I hope you don’t mind.  I always take a minute to introduce myself to our students’ caregivers when they come into the picture.”

“Have a few nannies I take it?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”  She smiles.  I anticipate fangs.  I get what look to be dentures.  “Children are not raised the way they used to be.  It saddens me.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Oh don’t apologize.  You’re merely an employee doing your job.  It’s not your fault you don’t have a family to tend to of your own.  Our Father has a role for all of his children.”

My mouth gapes open.  I feel dirty words rolling up my throat like wild stallions on a mission to trample this woman and her blackened soul.  “I—”

“I see you’re working with Joseph Wyzak.  Are you a friend of the Wyzak family?”  She threads her fingers together and stares a hole into my face.

I begin to squirm in my seat.  The back of my neck is hot as I scratch it. “Not until recently.  I just moved here from Illinois.”

Her brows lift.  “Ah, so you aren’t familiar with Christopher’s grandfather and all the wonderful contributions he made to this institution?”

“I’m sorry, no.  It’s been a crazy few weeks and I’m still getting up to speed.”

She points to a matted photo collage on the wall.  “Top row, third from the right, that is Franklin Wyzak, Christopher’s grandfather.  He faithfully served the church for many years before he was taken from us.  He spoke highly of his grandson, and simply adored Joseph when he came along under tragic circumstances.  Without Franklin’s presence in Joseph’s life, I fear he would already be a lost cause.”

Do you know how hot your skin gets when you’re really angry?   How your hands shake.  How your head seems light and your ears are burning and probably red?  You know that feeling?  I do.  The worst part about being angry at this moment is there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it, or say about it, because my anger doesn’t belong here. 

I can’t just voice my opinion, go off on this woman like she deserves because that would create problems for Chris, for Joey, and my job is to keep the balance.  Not tip it in one direction.  And for that reason alone, I have to curb my nasty tongue and come up with a response that will both nip Sister Grace’s opinion in the bud and leave a tactful taste in my mouth.

I have to be the bigger person.  I have to delve deep and hold strong to the little boy down the hall who is counting on me to make things better.  I also have to push away the little boy I used to be, who like Joey, faced demons like Sister Grace for a long time.  I can’t be scared of people like her anymore.  I’ve come too far to let my fears hold me back.

“Excuse me, Sister Grace.”  I stop her from digging her hole any bigger.  “While it’s nice to hear about Christopher’s grandfather, I think I know where this is going and I don’t feel comfortable continuing this conversation.  If you wish to talk about Joey and his education, then by all means, let’s talk.  Anything other than that and you’ll have to speak with Chris.  After all, I’m just an unfortunate caretaker.”

Her scowl is minute, and it slips away with her next breath, replaced with a smug, porcelain smile I want to shatter with a baseball bat.  “It seems you already know of the problems this institution finds with Christopher in regards to raising Joseph with such liberal views.  Our doctrine is very clear, Mr. Davis, homosexuality has no place in the church, and certainly no place within view of impressionable young children. Whatever your opposition to our doctrine might be, our teachings at this school are mandated by the church and they are firm.  As you will be spending a great deal of time with Joseph, I thought I might make things very clear from the start.”

“Because I’m a nanny?  I’m sorry, Sister, but I don’t believe your doctrine has anything to do with me.  I’m here to bring Joey to school, bring him home, and feed him dinner.  Whatever problems you have with Joey’s upbringing can be directed to Chris.”  I stand up and point to the paperwork she’d taken from Crucifix up front.  “As I’m sure you and I will be seeing a lot of each other, I thought I’d make things very clear from the start.”

“I’d say you offended me, but you’ve chosen your words very carefully, which means you’re a smart man.  I hope you don’t do anything foolish to ruin my first impression of you.  That would be rather detrimental to Joey’s future here at Our Sacred Heart.”  She stands and offers me her wrinkled hand.  It’s soft and warm as I fit my palm against hers, but the strength of her grip proves she isn’t some delicate grandmother. “One last warning, Mr. Davis, if I may...”

“And what would that be?”

“I have to say I find it disappointing for one of our parents to be homosexual in nature in the first place, but I find it stranger still he employs a handsome man to watch his son.  As I said, we have a no tolerance policy for homosexual couplings at this school, and that includes parents, as well as caretakers.  Should we gain such a reputation in the Catholic community for upholding what our doctrine states as a disgrace, things will not go well from there.”  She squeezes my hand and releases me, leaving behind a chill in my palm.

“You’ve made yourself perfectly clear, Sister Grace.”  I step away from her desk while keeping my eyes on her hers.  “Have a wonderful first day.”

“You as well, Mr. Davis.”  Her curdled grin is so sour I almost taste it in my mouth.  Before I throw up across her desk, I storm out of her office and shoot Crucifix what I hope is the vilest scowl she’s ever seen.  She has the decency to scoot back into the wall and put a hand over her heart as if her necklace holds magical powers of protection.  I would say she had the grace, but that word has been spoiled for me.  Just like it had been ruined for Joey a long time ago.

I worked out my anger by doing the shopping after leaving Our Sacred Heart.  By that I mean running into other carts, glaring at innocent shoppers, and throwing Grumpy’s Rolaids into the basket like I was pulling a slam dunk.  I worked it out some more by taking Grumpy to the doctor, sitting with him in the waiting room, and not budging when he almost tripped and went down in the lobby.  It was mean.  I know.  Nevertheless I gained some satisfaction from the terror on his face when he had righted himself and looked at me like he knew I could have just let him break a hip and would have.

I wouldn’t have.  I was less than a foot from him, but that wasn’t to say I didn’t think about it.  He deserved it, didn’t he?  For the way he’d shunned his own son, just like Sister Grace, just like countless others.  Maybe he deserved it for breaking Chris down in front of his son, for trying to show Joey how much of a fairy weakling his dad is.

I knew Grumpy didn’t deserve the pain of breaking a hip and Chris would never forgive me, but for that single second I thought about it.  That meant Sister Grace was winning.  She’d somehow attached herself to me and was eating away at my mind.  She was ruining any chance I had at fixing this family because she’d become one of the main problems.  That much was clear to me.

The only way I could give myself peace of mind was to confront Chris head on, and after dropping Grumpy off at the house, I headed over to the restaurant to do just that.  It was between lunch and dinner, and I’d chosen the perfect time to arrive.  Maybe a dozen patrons were seated in the three open dining areas and there were more than enough to staff to handle them.

I found Chris hurrying from one counter to the next.  He pushes out a grin like a dollar from an ATM to some lady browsing the bakery display.  For whatever his smile is worth, this one wasn’t the real thing so it was worthless, yet it said everything.  There are bags under his eyes in this lighting that tell of his restless nights and tossing and turning, of his stress and baggage he can’t let anyone put away.

But he works that counter like a pro, sending the lady off with three white boxes of treats for her bible study class that night. The moment she hits the exit, and the door chimes with her passing, Chris exhales heavily and put his hands on the glass top.  He closes his eyes and takes a few deep breaths.

“Hey,” I greet him.

He glances up and goes straight to attention, no doubt cracking his spine the entire way up.  “H-hey.  What are you doing here?  Something wrong with Joey?”

“Well that remains to be seen.  He’s fine for now.”  I approach the counter with caution, one foot in front of the other because I have to.  It isn’t my line to walk, but if I had another choice and the devil wasn’t feasting on my soul I would have taken a detour to spare him the added grief.

“What does that mean?”  His eyes flick back and forth, searching mine for a clue.  He puts up a hand to me and says, “Hold it.  Let’s talk outside.”

He goes to the young guy at the register and whispers something to him.  The guy nods and waves at me like we are somehow acquainted, but I return the gesture out of respect for Chris.  I’ve been shot down so many times today that maybe I was being a dick for not recognizing kindness when I saw it, instead instantly scrutinizing anything nice because I was paranoid and pissed off.

Chris comes around the counter and shows me out to the porch.  He takes his time walking around the side of the building to find us a perfect set of rocking chairs tucked back into a corner.  This small haven nestled away from the busy road symbolizes a lot of Chris’s life.  He was hiding.  Always.  Everything. Because he had to be someone else in private and what everyone wanted him to be in public.

Which is why I feel terrible being the one who has to draw him out to face the facts.

“I met Sister Grace today.”

He stiffens in his chair.  Moments later he pushes off with his toes and begins to rock back and forth.  “And?”

I turn in my seat and stop his rocking with a hand to his arm.  “Why, Chris?  Why would you subject your family to that?”

“Are we talking as friends or as boss and employee?  Because I’m not really sure what you are to me anymore and I’m certainly confused as to how you think this conversation is any of your business—even as my friend.”  He nudges my hand away and resumes rocking.  He refuses to look at me, keeping his eyes on the back of a minivan in the parking lot instead of facing me head on.

“I guess not as your friend, because I don’t have friends that would knowingly stick their son in that fucking place.”  Boom.  The silence after dropping a bomb that you can’t take back is deafening.

His chair comes to a halt.  The weight of his stare is like a thousand pounds ready to crush me at his command.  “What do you want from me, Logan?  You’re getting paid.  You’ve got a sweet little setup in my basement.  You got a free fucking Rover, your insurance paid for, and you don’t offer a dime for food.  All I asked you to do was watch my kid.  That’s it.”

I sniff at his defenses and point a finger at him.  “You can make me sound like a freeloader.  You can push and push and push me away, Chris.  The fact still remains that although that’s what you asked of me, that is not all you want from me.  You say you want me to watch out for your kid, well, I am.  That place, Sister Grace, they will haunt Joey forever because eventually they will burn him out and he’ll always wonder what kind of person he could have been had he been given a chance to be himself.  A chance to choose, not be told, who his father is.

“And I’ll tell you right now, I’m not gonna hide who I am for that bitch.  No, I’m not going to go and flaunt a rainbow flag up and down the halls, but eventually I might find someone who loves me and I won’t turn that down because I’m Joey’s nanny and his school’s code of ethics states I should be stoned for seeing another man in public because I’m associated with you.”

He runs a hand through his hair.  His chest works overtime as his breathing comes faster. “Logan, you don’t understand.”

I lift my hands and let them fall into my lap with a slap.  “I do understand.  I understand more than you ever will.  When I was younger, I was you.  I was kicked and punched and oppressed because I was different.  I hid it.  I denied it in public to survive.  Eventually I had to get out of there because I couldn’t breathe.  I couldn’t live another damn day hiding who I was for the sake of other people’s opinions.  There will be people like that everywhere you go, I know that, but now that I know who I am, I will never be forced back into that dark place, Chris.  No matter how much I care for Joey, no matter how much I’m starting to care for you, I won’t do it and neither should you.  That’s your kid.  That’s the person who should look up to you for the rest of his life because you are his hero.  Heroes don’t run away.  They stand and they fight.”

“You’re wrong, Logan.”  Chris stands and puts his hands on hips as he looks down at me.  “I am his hero.”

“No.” I stand up and get in his face.  “You do the standing part just fine, but you’ll never fight for him.  You’d take in your bigot of a father, yet you won’t save your own damn son, the one thing in your life that supports you no matter what.  Whatever ties you have to your grandfather and that school, they’re in the past.  Joey doesn’t have to be dragged down with them.”

I hold my breath as he fists the front of my shirt and yanks me forward.  His nose is inches from mine.  His breath hot on my face as he faces his demons.  “You have no idea what I sacrifice for my son.  You have no right to tell me how to parent my child or what’s best for him.”  Tears surface in his eyes, magnified by his glasses.  His grip tightens.  “But you’re right,” he whispers and his fingers loosen from my shirt.  “You’re right.”

Chris turns his face away and heads back into the restaurant.  It starts to sprinkle out of nowhere.  Clouds move in from across the water to blanket the sky a murky gray.  The small drops of water turn fat as they splatter the parking lot, soaking me to the bone as I walk to my car at a languid pace.  I feel every single drop pummel my body.  I feel every single thump of my heart in my chest and I know that somehow this rain is a sign from the powers that be.

Someone knows I’ve broken the ultimate nanny rule.  Someone wants me to feel that pain, because as a nanny, thou shalt not tell a parent how to raise their child.  You will undoubtedly get burned and others will be broken as punishment for your offense.

To be continued…

Whispers in Silence: Part 10

Hey!

Thanks for stopping by.  I’m going to keep this short and sweet tonight because I’m sure you’re anxious to get reading, and because I’m in the middle of doing taxes.  Yay!  Not. ;)

Without further ado, I give you vampire sexy time.  (Forgive me.  I’m kind of cracked out on coffee right now.  True story.)

Hugs,

Night

Part 10 Playlist

Bloodstream – Stateless

Skin – Rihanna

Wonderwall – Oasis (Because Wes is his wonderwall dammit.  *feels* lol)

Artificial Nocturne - Metric

 

Whispers in Silence: Part 10

 

Chapter 25

Beyond tired, Wes trudged up the stairs of Elle Franco’s now quiet townhouse.  After Nina had left, taking Sutton with her to the Manhattan office to have a chat with Camille Sinclair, Wes ordered every Guard outside to watch the entrances.  Fuck, there was even a team on the roof to head off anyone trying to get in that way.  For all the people they had outside, no one was allowed in the house.  Not now.  Not with what was about to happen.

It was almost time.  Wes felt it in his bones.  Felt Adrian in his chest and in his head like a force to be reckoned with.

Wes browsed the mess of weapons in the first floor hall as he ascended the stairs.  They’d all been torn apart for the USB drives that were now in Sutton’s possession.  Having been decrypted by his teammates, the information would be used to interrogate Camille Sinclair, to make her face all the wrongs she’d done and get her to confess if she was smart.

Once they had that notebook in their possession and Camille tied to the house in Surik, and tied to everything on the USBs, Camille could take those smarts and die with them.  Wes would make her screams taste like fire, and when she screamed, he’d pull her fangs out by the root and shove them into her eyes so she’d forever be in the dark.  The place she’d thrown all of her victims for eternity.

He had to bite back his snarl.  Wes needed to be calm when he went to Adrian.  In time, he’d deal with Camille.  Right now, every second of his attention was to be devoted to his mate.  God, he couldn’t say or think that one word enough: mate.

Wes’s body quivered in anticipation, to slide his naked skin against his mate’s.  To enfold Adrian in his arms, cover him with his body and make Adrian feel every bit of him from the inside.  To show him care; to cut through Adrian’s beast and find the man he loved beneath his newfound strength and aggressive needs.

Wes was well aware he reeked of sex and possession when he arrived at the second story landing.  He knew he was sporting one hell of an erection when he stopped in front of the last remaining Guard in the joint. And you know what?  Wes didn’t give a rat’s ass what the guy thought of it.  What’s more, the rookie didn’t even seem to notice.

The Guard at the bedroom door pounded his fist over his chest and stared over Wes’s shoulder.  A good, clean cut boy who Wes could’ve eaten for breakfast had been assigned to watch over Adrian.  This had to be some joke.  Wes had stepped away for all of five minutes to wash his face and take a piss, only to come back to this?  “Detective Durren,” the Guard nearly shouted.  “All is secure on the second floor.”

Wes patted the Guard’s shoulder to put the brownnosing rookie at ease; it wasn’t his fault he’d been made to stand here. Fuck whoever had thought this was funny; probably a parting gift from Feist before he left for Manhattan. “Thanks, newb.  You can go downstairs now.  I’ve got this from here.”

“But I was told to—”

“And I’m telling you that when my mate wakes up soon you’re not gonna wanna be around to hear what I do to him.  If I find you still here when he does wake up, I’m not gonna be happy.  Neither will the newly turned vampire on the other side of that door.  So why don’t you go outside and get yourself a cup of coffee, and some earplugs, sport.  It’s gonna be a long day.”

“Um… Yes, sir,” The Guard said in an uncertain tone.  His mouth opened as if he were ready to say something, he thought better of it, and his lips pressed together.  Then he got with the program and smartly went downstairs to join the others outside.  When the poor rookie got to the bottom step, he halted and turned his face up to Wes.  “What do you mean, you’ll do to him?”

Really?  We’re going there right now?  I don’t think so, kid.

“Apparently your mama didn’t you give a much needed talkin’ to.  Fuck.  Me.”  Wes rolled his eyes and went to Adrian’s door.  A red gift bag hung on the handle with Wes’s last name marked in capital letters.  He snatched it up, opened the door and poked his head back into the hallway. 

“Go away,” Wes boomed and closed the door.  “What did he want?—me to tell him where to put his dick when the time comes?  Shit.  This is where babies come from, or if you like dudes, hopefully they never come from,” Wes mocked to the otherwise quiet room.

In his frustration he practically ripped the bag open to see what was inside.  A drugstore receipt between his fingers, Wes pulled it out and read Feist’s chicken scratch scrawled across the flimsy paper. 

To tame the beast inside. 

Happy Mating, motherfucker.

~Feist

Wes couldn’t help the smile that tugged at his lips when he pulled out a big bottle of lube.  Feist was such a shit, but at the same time, the team wouldn’t be the same without him.  And, okay, maybe the lube wasn’t such a bad idea—even if it was from Feist.

It was awkward enough everyone outside knew what was about to go down, because when Adrian woke up to his mate right beside him, no one was going to be able to stop Wes’s mate from getting some.  It was long overdue.  Adrian would be hopped up on raging vampire hormones, and Wes was going to be right there with his mate when he caught a whiff of Adrian’s pheromones.  Wes was already hard as a rock and every second without Adrian’s touch was driving him mad.

A little lube would go a long way for a long day, because he had every intention of nesting in this room until both he and Adrian were boneless.

Wes dumped the lube on the nightstand and slumped into the chair he’d moved next to Adrian earlier.  He raked his fingers through his short hair.  The wait was making him crazy.  He’d started to talk to himself once everyone he cared to talk to was gone.  Now left to stare at his mate, Wes was about out of his mind. 

Touching Adrian only made things worse.  Wes would get a little weepy, a little hornier.  He’d have to reel himself back in from losing it.

Fact: Adrian was going to wake up.  Still, Wes’s patience was running out.  He craved to see those blue eyes.  Wes yearned to kiss his mate properly, let Adrian know the bathroom incident wasn’t a one-time thing and that he’d never be alone again.  Wes wanted to tell his crazy ass mate all sorts of things he’d never told anyone, like he … like he loved him.

Wes was slowly seeping into madness just looking at Adrian’s chest rise and fall.  He pushed the covers back.  His fingertips brushed over Adrian’s hot skin.  Wes leaned back and ached to run his hands, palms flat over Adrian’s toned chest, over his neck, run his thumb over Adrian’s barely parted lips.  Circle his tongue over Adrian’s nipples and…

“Dammit,” Wes swore under his breath and pinned his hands under his arms so he wouldn’t violate his sleeping mate.  Somehow, although Adrian wouldn’t object had he been conscious, getting all up in his mate’s business when he was passed out felt dirty.  Not the good kind of dirty, either. It was like those bad pornos where some creep was trying to stick it to a sleeping victim who pretended to be passed out.  Wes never got off on that shit.  How the fuck did those actors not make some kind of reaction when a dick was being stuffed in their ass? 

Uh, hello, earth to sleepy twink.  Time to wake up now! Oh my God, what am I doing thinking about terrible porn at a time like this.  Get it together, Durren.

Instead of getting lost in his mind, Wes started to talk to his mate as a distraction.  The words rolled off his tongue without much thought.  There were so many things he couldn’t keep bottled up anymore.

“It’s kind of crazy, huh?  I was okay when you didn’t talk at first.  I loved it, actually.  First partner that hadn’t made me want to punch him for being obnoxious.  Then again, you were annoying in your own way—I like your kind annoying,” he rambled. 

Wes smirked when he caught up with himself, and then he moped when Adrian didn’t stir.  As useless as it was to talk to his mate, Wes didn’t stop.  “I didn’t see it at first, the way you changed around me.  How you started to use your voice because I wanted to hear it.  I noticed how you waited to see what I would do before you made a mistake, how you … how you looked up to me.  Not like those Academy fanboys, either, but like you knew who I really was, that I’m not really an asshole who fights crime with a machete or whatever bullshit they say about me these days.  You saw me for me, and you thought the real me was good enough to imitate.  Don’t you ever tell anyone this, Adrian, but that made me feel… You made me feel special.”

Wes licked his lips and rubbed sleep from his eyes before he started blubbering like a baby.  “I know you had to come here.  I know in your eyes you were forced and you didn’t want to leave your old life behind, but you stayed.  You stayed because … because of me.  That changed me, Adrian.  You don’t deal well with emotional shit?  Well neither do I.  You made me feel, which made me uneasy at first, but it also brought me back to life.  Just like you came back to life.

“You made an impression on me too, Adrian.  I started talking to my team more because you did.  I started to smile more, because you gave me reason to.  And when I dragged you upstairs to my room that night, I felt you everywhere.  I felt how scared you were, yet you were willing to take a chance on me because you trusted me. 

“You trusted me with your life.  You trusted me to not break you.  I’m sorry for not doing right by you and telling you that second how fucking beautiful you are.  I should have turned around.  I should have given you that security, so you knew all along everything was the same for me, that I wanted you back.  How it wasn’t about sex or sleep or more locks on the door; it was about comforting each other, because, Adrian, sometimes assholes like me need to be held too.”

Wes let his breath go in a rush.  He wiped the back of his hand over his eyes.  “Can you just wake up now?  It’s killing me over here. I want to hear your voice, even if you yell at me.  You can even point a gun at my head.  I know you like to do that.”  Wes slid to his knees next to the bed.  He ran his fingers over Adrian’s jaw. 

“Please,” he begged.  “I don’t know what’s happening to us.  I’m seeing shit.  You’re hearing shit.  We’re a fucking mess and I can’t get through it with you unconscious.  Can’t do anything without you now.  Can you hear me, Adrian?  I really need you.”  Wes rested his head next to his mate’s.  “I need you,” he whispered.

Cold air danced over the back of Wes’s neck.  He shivered and whipped his head around to find the source.  The windows were shut tight.  The vent in the ceiling was closed because it’d been hotter than Hades in the room just minutes ago.  Wes held up his hand to the window to search for a crack in the seal.  When that didn’t provide anything, every hair on his body stood on end.  If he couldn’t debunk the strange breeze to some natural cause, then that could only mean one thing.

“Hello?”  Wes asked of the silent room.  “Is someone there? Red, is that you?”

Another gust rushed past Wes.  Adrian’s curls fluttered for a second and then fell back into place.  His eyes moved behind his lids like he was in the middle of a dream. 

“Adrian?”  Wes touched his mate’s shoulder.  “Are you doing this?”

Another breezy warning made Wes sit back on his heels. Definitely not Adrian’s doing. Wes stared at his mate’s face, waiting for something the presence in the room was trying to tell him.  So far nothing the presence had done was all that scary, but the fact of the matter was, a ghost was undeniably trying to focus on Adrian.

A cold spot hunkered down on Wes’s left side like someone had just sat on the floor to watch with him.  This time, Wes was terrified to ask who was there; a part of him confident Red Sinclair wasn’t the invisible intruder.  This spirit felt different, not like Red at all.

Wes kneeled next to Adrian.  He listened to his own heart racing.  A puff of air hit his ear, and Wes nearly jumped out his skin.

“You break my son’s heart and I will haunt you forever.  Not only is that my boy, but we take care of our own.  It is our way,” a man whispered in Wes’s ear.  “Hurt him, and I’ll bring the whole of the afterlife to your doorstep, Detective.”

“Holy shit,” Wes breathed.  He couldn’t move.  He couldn’t think.

An echo of laughter faded away with the cold spot.  Like the room had a spirit vacuum, all of the ghostly energy was gone.

“Your son?”  Wes blurted when it hit him.  “No way...”

Wes looked at Adrian.  Blue eyes with piercing silver swirls narrowed back at him.

***

Adrian surfaced from his comatose state at the sound of Wes’s voice.  Each word tugged him into awareness.  Each low rumble broken up by pained breaths lured Adrian back to his mate.  He had no idea what Wes said, but the words resonated with his body, having more impact than he’d been ready for.

A smell manifested around Adrian, choking him with lust until he had to wake up, had to find out what the fragrance was.  His throat was raw and dry.  His stomach growled.  His mouth stung, pulsed over and over near his gums.  Something sharp was cutting into his bottom lip, producing a sweet, metallic scent that tasted good on his tongue.

Adrian opened his eyes to find the world under his own personal microscope.  Colors pierced his retinas.  Details snapped into focus with every dart of his eyes.  He trembled, fearful and overjoyed in his cocoon of blankets that smelled of … female.  This place reeked of her.

He growled low in his throat, seeking her out only to find the female long gone.  Had she touched what was his?  Had she dirtied his mate?

Rage and jealousy raced to the forefront, making him bunch the covers between his fists.  One look at the man kneeling next to him dulled Adrian’s anger.  Wes with his gray eyes; rings around his pupils the color of a brutal, ocean storm.  Wes, the owner of that smell that engaged Adrian like a person of interest he couldn’t allow to get away.

Wes.  His mate.  Mine.

“Adrian?”

Adrian faltered after he pushed up onto his elbows in one fluid motion, like every muscle in his body was attached by rubber bands.  Although the performance of his newly turned body shocked and amazed him, it was hearing Wes’s voice, his name from Wes’s lips that gave him pause.

One word had never been so important to him. It echoed in his ears, ears that had never heard something so sweet.

Wes reached out to touch Adrian’s face, bringing his wrist too close to ignore. Adrian purred, rubbing his nose against the soft skin of Wes’s wrist.  He nuzzled his cheek in a circle over the beat of Wes’s pulse, warming the scent until it was like a perfume.  Before he knew what he was doing, he attacked, latching both of his hands around Wes’s meaty forearm.  Adrian bit down.

Wes gasped.  He groaned loud enough for Adrian to want to suck the noise right through Wes’s veins and into his mouth.  It took Adrian a second to understand what he was doing, how he now had fangs inside Wes, how his mate’s blood was flowing into his mouth to nourish him.

Blood dribbled down Adrian’s chin as he pulled away.  He licked up what he could, his stomach screaming for more but his shame winning the fight.

“Adrian, come here.”  Wes offered his wrist again.  “It’s okay, baby.  It’s weird at first, I know, but you have to drink.”

“Want it so bad,” Adrian slurred.  “Hurts. Can’t…” 

He covered his mouth and curled into a ball on the bed.  His eyes nearly rolled back into his head when Wes began to take his shirt off.  The scent of his mate exploded onto the scene, no longer a subtle perfume.  Once a silent endeavor to Adrian’s ears, Wes’s garment hit the floor in a louder than possible rustle of fabric.  Adrian’s heart slammed against his ribs.

His nostrils flattened.  He inhaled deeply and arched his back.  The need inside him itched under his skin.  Tortured him.  Burned up his temperature.  His mate was the only cure.

Wes’s belt buckle hit the floor and Adrian stiffened.  “Come here, Adrian.  I want it.  I want you,” Wes growled.

Tears pricked Adrian’s eyes.  That voice.  Not the voice of a spirit, but the sound of his mate talking to him.  It was so beautiful not even Adrian’s beast could deny him this moment.

Wes crawled over the bed in nothing but his underwear; a large, powerful man that prowled over the blankets like an animal.  He pried Adrian’s hands away from his face and Adrian lost all control at the sight of his mate’s body.  Wes looking at him like that, the heat in his eyes and the rumble from his throat that seemed to travel the length of his body—it was all too much.

Adrian bared his aching fangs, flipped Wes onto his back and struck deep into his sweet flesh.  His legs straddling Wes’s hips, Adrian buried his fingers in Wes’s thick, short hair and fed from his mate’s neck.  He moaned.  He swallowed.  Adrian quivered from the flow running down his throat.  He gripped Wes’s head with commanding hands and brought Wes as close as possible to his lips.

Out of his mind with need, Adrian ground against his mate, brushing his erect cock against Wes’s stomach over and over until his dance became rough; more rhythmic; more friction.  The blood should have scared him.  Blood formerly connected to the death he’d dealt to countless unworthy souls in his short lifetime.  Now that he’d tasted Wes’s flavor, blood took on a new meaning for Adrian.

It was everything.  It was delicious in a way that made him want to come with a single drop against his tongue.  More than that, Wes’s blood joined them, bonded them.  It cemented their want for each other beyond some cosmic force.  Bled their souls and twisted them into one.

Wes already fed from Adrian, had seen into his mind, but this time it was Adrian’s turn to bring the bond full circle.  Within Wes’s thoughts, Adrian saw Wes eyeing at him from afar, silently vowing to protect Adrian with everything he was.  He saw Wes scurrying about the kitchen to make sure Adrian had dinner for when he got home.  So he was fed and rested because Wes cared.

He saw Wes brushing curls away from Adrian’s hair in the middle of the night, their one night together, and he placed a tiny kiss on Adrian’s neck before he snuggled closer.  Adrian was consumed by the heat he felt in Wes’s loins every time Adrian was near and the twinkle in his eye when Adrian got frustrated.  The patience he had to control around Adrian, and how worth it Adrian was in the end.

How Wes loved him as a partner and a friend, as more.  How much Wes liked Adrian filling the hole in his life, in his heart, as he became the family Wes craved.  A lonely void he’d never admit to anyone; no one except for Adrian because the wall between them was gone.  Wes showed him all of this because he wanted Adrian to know.  Needed him to feel it.

Adrian growled into Wes’s neck and licked away the blood he’d fetched to the surface.  This man was his.  He intended to drench this bed in their scent and make that fucking female who dared to sully these sheets with her stench sob in jealousy.

“Mine,” Adrian hissed and grabbed Wes’s chin.  His fingertips bit deep.  “You. Are. Mine.”

“That’s what I’m talkin’ about,” Wes husked.  He exposed his fangs on a ragged breath.  “I was startin’ to worry about you.”

Adrian nuzzled Wes’s hand and sucked a finger into his mouth.  His nicked it with his fangs to lap at the blood.  He was gonna fuck Wes stupid.  Yeah, that’s what he wanted.  His beast overtook his body, seeping through his skin until he was sweating profusely and his eyes were burning with power.  The alpha part of him covered Wes with his body, stating his dominance as he locked his knees around Wes’s hips to keep him still.

“Gonna be so much fun,” Wes teased. He played his tongue over a fang. “You have no idea what you’re in for.”

Adrian cocked his head a split second before Wes tossed him onto his stomach and grabbed his hips, pulling back until Adrian’s ass was nestled against Wes’s hard cock.  Adrian snarled.  His beast was not okay with this.  He was supposed to stake his claim, not the other way around.

The moment Wes dug his fingers in, biting into Adrian’s flesh as warning, Adrian found he liked the pain, or rather his beast did.  Still, he refused to submit.  Yet.

He whipped around and smacked his mate in the chest, pushing him off the bed.  Adrian ripped the underwear off his body and roared.  Okay, a bit dramatic because Wes was laughing from the floor, but Adrian wasn’t going down easily.  His beast intended to show his mate who was stronger, that he was the lead in this relationship no matter how much he loved Wes when he wasn’t half crazy with need.  He was burning up.  His straining dick needed a home.  He was going to combust soon.

“You want this?”  Wes pulled his underwear down his legs.  He kicked them off and stroked his thick cock.  He chuckled.  “Come and get it, baby.”

Adrian followed his mate’s hand up and down.  He wet his lips.  “Mine.” He stalked around the bed, aggravated with his Wes’s little game.

Wes had hopped back on the bed.  He sprawled out with his upper body resting against the headboard.  He pumped something in a bottle next to the bed and took a glob of shiny gel in his palm to show Adrian.  “Come play with me.”

Adrian leapt over the footboard and landed in a crouch on the bed.  “Taste.”

“No one’s stopping you.  Taste this right here, baby.”  Wes nodded at his cock and then crooked an available finger at Adrian.

Adrian narrowed his eyes at his mate.  He pursued his target.  Something in the back of his head knew Wes wouldn’t submit to him that easy, so he approached with caution.  Flicking his gaze at Wes, Adrian slowly lowered his head to Wes’s cock.  His tongue darted out, lapping at the head.  Once he was sure the taste was exactly what he’d wanted, Adrian sucked Wes inside his mouth.

His mate groaned.  Wes canted his hips forward to drive deeper into Adrian’s mouth.  Adrian whined when his fangs struck into Wes’s flesh.  Wes slapped Adrian’s shoulder and yelped. “Holy fuck!”

Adrian hummed, retracting his fangs to suck his prize up and down.  Wes tensed as Adrian put a hand to his stomach to push him back.  Then his mate melted into the pillows.  It was only a matter of time before Wes gave in, and Adrian was just waiting for the right moment to gain entry to the warm entrance between Wes’s legs.

His plan of attack was dashed when Wes opened an eye, raised his hand with the lube and smirked at Adrian.  Adrian narrowed his eyes and raised his ass like a challenge.  They were gonna duke this out until one of them came inside the other.  The thrill of the fight was almost as good as the impending sex.

Adrian sucked harder, hollowing his cheeks and taking Wes down to the root.  Wes struggled to keep a straight face.  His eyes widened as did his open mouth.  Adrian would suck until he had Wes right where he wanted him, dumbstruck with pleasure and vulnerable.

Adrian had newly turned strength on his side.  Wes was bigger, and almost as strong.  At this point, they were evenly matched.  Game on.  Adrian smiled wickedly around Wes’s cock.  A scrape of nails on the back of his neck made him lift his head to see his mate.

Wes leaned forward until his lips nearly brushed Adrian’s.  “Loser buys dinner, cause I’m a be fucking starving when I’m through with you.”

“Never through,” Adrian hissed.

Wes nodded.  “Yeah, you’re right, baby.  I’m never gonna be through with you.”

Adrian purred and lifted his head an inch.  Wes twisted and Adrian found himself on his back, staring up at his massive mate.  His breathe caught in his throat.  Wes’s chest filled with air before he yanked Adrian’s legs open and locked his boy’s knees around his thighs.  “Stay.”

Adrian hissed.  “No.”  His eyes widened.  A moan ripped from his lips as cold liquid was spread between his legs, rubbed over his hole and massaged into his balls.  “Evil.”

Wes nudged Adrian’s knees up as he scooted in closer.  Adrian felt how much strength Wes expended just to keep him put.  “Maybe a little,” Wes conceded.  “You want me to stop?”

Adrian thrashed his head.  “Yes.”  No.

“Adrian, I’m talking to you, not to your beast.  You want me to stop?” He demanded by pushing a finger inside Adrian’s ass.

Adrian rolled his body like a wave, ending with his toes curled into the blanket.  “No,” he whimpered.  And he didn’t.  Oh fuck, he really didn’t.

“Then look at me.”

Opening his eyes, Adrian found Wes looking at him differently than before.  His mate’s amusement was gone.  There in the depths of his eyes was passion and love and everything else that should have made Adrian uncomfortable.  Adrian had awoken with a need he didn’t know what to do with.

When he’d been human this kind of interaction had always been about getting off; being the stronger one that controlled the situation.

Always in control.

Playing a part.

Never seeing their face in the dark.

With Wes looming over him, this time was different.  Wes wanted Adrian to be aware of what they were doing.  He wanted him to tell his beast to fuck off and give over a part of himself he’d never shared with anyone.  Wes needed him to experience something he’d never done before because Adrian had never allowed himself to feel it.

This was trust.

This was love.

This was his mate.

Adrian thrust back against Wes’s finger and let his head fall back.  He gave up and gave in.  His otherworldly aggression faded to a manageable throb.  The half of himself he was still discovering trusted the man above him to make it all better.

“That’s it, baby.”  Wes lowered his head and hovered above Adrian’s lips.  “There you are.”

Adrian undulated on Wes’s steadily moving hand.  Slippery and hot, Wes’s finger penetrated him slowly, over and over until Adrian was ready to burst.  He lifted his hands to Wes’s shoulders, making contact with Wes’s bare skin, and stars exploded behind his lids.

Adrian shuddered as he came.  The tingling pressure blindsided him, provoked by a simple touch.  He contracted around Wes’s finger as his cock unloaded between them.  Wes stroked Adrian’s cock with languid pulls.  “Fuck, Adrian.  So good.”

Adrian’s cock was still remarkably stiff in Wes’s grip. Before his turn, Adrian always had a healthy sex drive, but never like this—never raring to go after less than a minute.  Ramped up on hormones flooding his body, together with the overactive libido all vampire males had, Adrian knew he could go all night with Wes.  His mate was thinking the exact same thing; Wes’s dripping dick against Adrian’s thigh evidence enough.

They were no longer fucking, Adrian surmised through his lust-filled haze as he looked up into his mate’s eyes.  They were consummating the feelings between them.  They were both excited and scared as they traveled into unknown territory.

Adrian couldn’t put his pants on and walk out of this after they were done.  He’d walk out of here with his mate and partner at his side.  They were unbreakable now.  That scared him shitless.  It turned him on more.

Adrian dragged Wes down for a kiss. Their fangs clashed with enthusiasm, clacking against each other as their tongues fought for dominance in each other’s mouth.  Sharp points scored their lips.  Their blood mingled in a cocktail of foreplay.  They licked and tasted, sucked and kissed until their mouths were swollen and their eyes were blown wide with shock.

Wes pushed another finger inside of Adrian.  Adrian moaned into Wes’s mouth.  He clung to Wes’s broad shoulders and lifted his ass for more.  The stretch was so good Adrian’s balls lifted for another round, but Wes must have sensed it and eased back onto his heels.

He sat down on the bed and grabbed onto of one of Adrian’s hands.  “Come here.  Slow it down for me.”

Adrian mourned the loss of Wes’s body on top of him, but he was more than eager to return to Wes’s arms.  He sat on top of Wes’s thigh and braced himself by holding on to Wes’s shoulders.  Adrian lowered his head.  He couldn’t stop himself from getting another kiss.  They were becoming an addiction.

Wes put his hands on Adrian’s ass, encouraging him to grind atop his thigh.  The lube made the skin slick and perfect for creating the friction they both wanted.  Wes kissed Adrian back, slow and deep yet hot and heavy until they both had to gasp for air.

Adrian held on to Wes as his mate dipped his head and licked a nipple with the flat of his tongue.  The texture and warmth instantly hardened Adrian’s sensitive nub. Made it hard to breathe.  Made his cock fill and swell to epic proportions.  Made Adrian hiss until his fangs bit into his lip.

He gathered power in his hips, thrusting against Wes until his mate’s thigh was coated in glossy fluid.  Adrian lifted Wes’s face to him and kissed him harder than before, insistent they do something about the pang of need growing in Adrian’s belly.

Wes obliged by smacking Adrian’s ass before he laid him out on the bed and crawled between his legs.  “You trust me?”

“With my life.”

Wes nodded as if the answer was hard to swallow, but also like it gave him a sense of pride.  Adrian smelled his mate’s joy.  Heard it whispered in his head through their bond.

“I care about you.”  Wes stroked Adrian’s cock.  “A lot.  You scared me, Adrian.  I’m still scared about what’s happening, but if you stick around, I’ll be okay.”

“Think I’m gonna leave?”  Adrian lifted his hips and groaned.

“I hope not.  I need you.”  Wes put their cocks together and pumped them in his hand, slicking them up with another dose of lube.

Adrian put his hand behind Wes’s neck and pulled him down.  “If I never have to sleep another night in that fucking closet of a room, I’ll stay with you forever.”  Adrian grinned, despite the growing desperation for Wes’s cock inside him.  It was even harder to maintain the nagging beast in the background.  He needed something to sate it, and soon.

“Fuck that room,” Wes growled.  “You sleep in our bed.”

Adrian liked the sound of that.  He cupped Wes’s ass and hooked his ankles over Wes’s shoulders, drawing his mate snuggly against him.  “This isn’t our bed.”

“Do we look like we’re sleeping?”

Adrian felt the head of Wes’s cock pressing against his ass, not forcing inside, but there all the same.  “No,” he purred.

“Good.”

“That’s my line.”

“Not anymore.” Wes pushed inside of Adrian and it was like a light had been switched on in Adrian’s head.  One moment he was coherent and quipping it up with Wes.  The next, Adrian swore he felt every muscle in his body scream “Fuck yes,” and drown in the Wes-induced flood that tore through his body.

Adrian roared as Wes drove deep, and then he gulped for air, the breath knocked from his lungs with his mate’s powerful thrust.  Adrian’s beast swam to the surface.  Although Wes wanted this to between them, Adrian’s beast was a part of him.  Now that Wes understood the trust they shared, Adrian welcomed his aggressive nature back into the fold.

He raked his nails over Wes’s ass, dug them into his mate’s muscled backside until he was sure he’d left marks.  Wes’s heavy panting was music to Adrian’s ears.  Adrian heard every breath, every grunt and every curse.  He felt without any regret of giving over.  All was right between them.  Even his beast agreed to this turn of events.

Their roles were reversed, the hunter was now the hunted and he had no problem being captured if this was his punishment.  He looked up at his mate’s gray eyes to find the same feeling in them.  Wes didn’t do this to appease Adrian’s need.  He didn’t pity him.  He just wanted him.

“Fuck me,” Adrian growled.  “Hard.”

Wes grabbed onto Adrian’s ankles and thrust home, hitting all the right places inside Adrian.  They both groaned in pleasure, but as with every newly turned vampire, sex wasn’t all that Adrian needed.

On Wes’s next withdraw from his body Adrian pushed his mate to his back, managing to keep Wes inside.  He fell onto Wes’s cock and planted his hands on Wes’s chest.  He gritted his fangs and rode his mate, loving the new angle almost much as Wes’s blood.  Wes held onto Adrian’s thighs as Adrian lowered his upper body onto Wes’s chest.

Wes kissed him, accepting Adrian’s tongue.  He gently yanked on Adrian’s hair to look him in the eye.  “You’re still thirsty.  It’s okay. Take from me.”

“I don’t want to drain you.”

“You won’t.” Wes smiled and thrust up into Adrian.  He slid his hands up Adrian’s spine until he coaxed Adrian down to his neck.  “It’s all yours, baby.”

Adrian rubbed Wes’s cheek with his.  He loved Wes’s whiskery jaw, the scrape along his skin as he licked his way down to Wes’s throat.  The pulse drew him in.  The smell captivated his senses, held him prisoner until he was forced to pierce Wes’s skin with his fangs.  The blood entered his mouth, traveled into his body.  His mate’s magic worked him over.

Adrian felt powerful.  He felt loved.  He could do anything.

Wes’s voice was a constant moan.  His hands were everywhere and his cock drilled Adrian’s ass on repeat.  The sheer strength in Wes rivaled even the newest turned vampire as he rolled his hips and held Adrian against him.  Yes, Adrian allowed himself to be confined in Wes’s arms, but he knew if it came down to escape, Wes would put up one hell of a fight.

The thought made him smile and suck harder at his mate’s throat.  More importantly, Wes’s strength made Adrian feel safe—an idea that under no circumstances he thought he’d need to feel.  The ache in his belly and chest were almost gone, which meant he was nearly full.  Wes had the other end covered, and Adrian wanted to make Wes come without the aid of bloodlust.

He knew all too well how easy it was to be whisked away during Wes’s feedings.  This time, they both needed to be aware.

Adrian withdrew his fangs and lifted his upper body to look down at his mate, to allow Wes to see the power he now had.  He was proud of it and wanted to flaunt it to his mate.  Wes didn’t disappoint.  He fawned over Adrian’s body with his hands, aiding Adrian’s hips as they moved to ride his cock.

A tempo built.  The pressure mounted.  Adrian dug his fingers into Wes’s muscles and rode his mate to the end.  Wes’s eyes swirled.  Adrian knew his mate was close, closer still when Wes grabbed his ass, flipped him onto his back and thrust in deeper than ever. 

Wes bared his fangs to the ceiling and roared his claim as he filled Adrian with his seed.  Adrian would have been scared by this had he been completely human and susceptible to disease, but thankfully his DNA was stronger than a human’s and shielded him from mortal troubles.

He sighed and welcomed his mate’s warm intrusion as Wes continued to bury it farther inside of him.

The next thing Adrian knew Wes was at his throat.  Fangs sank into him, a familiar feeling he had accepted from his partner many times before this.  His body buzzed with Wes’s comfort, his satisfaction, his happiness. Inundated Adrian until he was so high he could have crawled out of his skin had he been able to catch his breath.

The last thing he remembered before he passed out was Wes’s red coated lips and Wes’s hand stroking him to orgasm.  His own cum splattered onto Wes’s chest.  So fucking hot.  It ran down Wes’s well-defined belly, where his fingers caught a thick dribble and brought a taste to his lips.

Wes groaned around his finger.  “You taste like sin, Adrian,” he rasped.

Adrian let out a contented sigh.  Then it was lights out in his thoroughly satisfied head.

***

Adrian awoke to a new day.  At least he was pretty sure it was morning.  He’d been certain the last time Wes had roused him it wasn’t all that dark out anymore.  There wasn’t a clock or a phone near him to tell the time, but there was a giant of a man propped up in bed next to him, reading a tablet and eating what looked to be French fries.

The scent of salty, fried potato sticks woke his stomach up.  He snatched the fry from Wes’s hand before he could eat it.  Adrian had no recollection of how it tasted going down, but he knew he wanted more.

“Christ, hold on, would ya? I got you something right here.”

Adrian huffed.  “Wes, if this is a dick joke, I swear I can’t take anymore.  My ass is numb after the last round and there is no way you have anything left in your balls to give.”

Wes stopped reaching for the bag on the nightstand and stared at Adrian.

“What?”  Adrian sat back and sighed.  “I didn’t mean we couldn’t.  I’m just hungry.  Sorry if it sounded—”

“That’s not it at all.” Adrian looked up to see Wes grinning.  He was surprised when Wes kissed him softly.  “I’m just glad you’re back.”

Adrian raised a brow.  “I’ve been here the whole time.  I think you of all people know that.”

“I know.”  Wes shook his head.  “It’s just … just different this time.  You and me.  I mean, you’re awake, like really awake, and you remember everything, right?”

“Yeah.” Adrian patted down his overgrown bangs to camouflage his blush. “Stop being weird.”

“Adrian, we’ve far surpassed weird.  You can hear me now.  That’s a fucking miracle in itself.”  Wes put the tablet down and scooted over.  “I’m not trying to have some bare it all talk here.  Just been thinking about this for hours, and I don’t have anyone else to talk to about it.”

Adrian stopped concealing his emotions for a second to let Wes’s words sink in.  He could hear.  He heard every word.  Now that they weren’t sexed up and all over each other, that fact hit harder than before.  He cleared his throat and turned away before he cried.

“Adrian,” Wes murmured and pulled him close.  Adrian didn’t put up a fight.  He leaned back into Wes.  “What does it feel like to hear all the sudden?”

Impossible—that’s how it felt.  When Adrian was dying as a human, he thought he’d been able to hear his mate because he was dying and he clung to the memory of Wes’s voice in case he never heard it again.  During sex, he’d been too unfocused to make sense of his new ability.  And now, as he dealt with it head on, Adrian had no real words to offer Wes.

He closed his eyes and crossed his arms, twining his fingers with Wes’s.  “Say my name.”

Wes snorted.  “You sure are hot and cold, aren’t you?”

“That wasn’t an invitation to my ass.”  Adrian took a deep breath.  “I’m serious.  Say my name,” Adrian pleaded on a whisper.  Tears gathered in his lashes.

Wes’s scent changed.  Adrian was overcome with his mate’s compassion.  Wes lowered his lips to Adrian’s ear.  “Adrian,” he rumbled.

Three syllables would never sound as beautiful from any other lips.  “Again?”

“Adrian.”  Wes rubbed his arms.  Goose bumps formed along Adrian’s skin. “Adrian,” he repeated, even softer this time.

Adrian kept his eyes squeezed shut, learning Wes’s voice for every letter, every single breathe and noise, before he woke up and it was all a dream.

“Want to hear something amazing?”

Adrian tried to turn to see Wes’s face, but his mate had already leaned away to grab his phone.  “What are you doing?”

Wes situated himself behind Adrian and settled his mate back against him.  He gave Adrian his phone.  “Pick one.”

Wes munched on a fry.  He put the bag in Adrian’s lap.  On the phone screen was what looked to be a music playlist of some sort.  Adrian had never had a need for an app like that before and he always deleted them when they came preprogrammed in his phone.  Now that he could hear, thanks to Wes’s bond or at least he thought that was the reason, Adrian didn’t know what to choose.  There were so many options, and only one first time.

“You choose.”  Adrian shoved the phone at his mate.

Wes chuckled.  “How about we hit random?  No pressure that way.”

“Okay.”  Adrian shoved a few fries in his mouth and settled in.

The first notes hit the air.  Adrian closed his eyes and tried to breathe.  He’d often wondered what those notes would sound like.  Wondered why people wore headphones everywhere like they couldn’t get enough music in their system.  Now he knew.

It could have been the national anthem and Adrian would have cried.  Could have been someone humming in the background and Adrian would have lost it.  Wes held him while he sobbed.  He didn’t tell him not to cry or make some hushing noise to quiet him.  He let Adrian blubber like a baby because he knew what this meant to Adrian.

Because of a simple song, Adrian foresaw a future he’d never thought he’d have.  He saw his mate, their home, and the happiness they could have.  Not because he could hear, although that was nice too.  Because he had it all and he hadn’t even known he had it to begin with.

This was the start of his life.  This was his whisper in the silence, his invitation to keep going because great things were on the horizon. Through his tears he began to laugh.  He continued as Wes maneuvered around to face him, concern drawing his eyebrows close together.

“I’m okay.”  Adrian looped his arms around Wes’s neck.  “Hi.”

Wes rubbed away Adrian’s tears with his thumbs.  “Hi?” Adrian smiled and leaned in.  Wes’s grin lit him up inside.  “Did you develop multiple personalities during the turn, or is this just … something.”

“Just something.”  Adrian kissed him.  “I’m done now.”

“Done with me?”

“Done being haunted by shit I can’t change.  We move forward from here on out.  I want to learn who I am, and I want to do that with you.  And I don’t want to feel weird about it.  Can we do that?”

Wes took Adrian’s hands in his and kissed his knuckles.  “It’s not gonna be pretty, but I accept your challenge.  We might want to include a weird clause because I can’t promise you anything there.”

“Fucker.”  Adrian tried to pull his hands away, but Wes wasn’t having it.  “We’re having one of those moments. People who … like each other like this get to have those moments.  It was supposed to be normal and you wrecked it.”

Wes put his forehead to Adrian’s.  His grin was full of life.  “Normal is overrated, baby.  No one is perfect.  No one fits the ever changing mold that is unattainable.  You and I work as mates because to each other our flaws are some of our best assets.  I’m the jerk with the good looks and you’re the secret assassin with a closeted sappy streak.  That’s never gonna change, and I don’t want it to change.  I want you to grow, and I won’t to grow with you.  So if that isn’t your idea of a “moment for people who like each other” then I don’t know what is.”  Wes kissed the corner of Adrian’s mouth.  “If you were looking for an “I love you too” then you already know I do or you wouldn’t have put yourself out there like that.  I’m in this, Adrian.  You’re stuck with me, like eternally.”

Adrian chuckled.  Smiling felt better than scowling.  It lifted stress from his body and allowed him to see the good things he’d pushed away all his life.  “I guess I love you too.”  He shrugged.

“You guess?  I made that beautiful speech on the fly and you guess?  Oh no, that won’t do.  I wear the pants here.”

“You don’t have pants on.” Adrian hit Wes with a pillow.  His mate retaliated and shoved him back. The mattress bounced under their combined weight and Adrian laughed. 

Wes covered Adrian and kissed him soundly.  “So we’ve got cold fries to eat, or we could take our mini mob downstairs and go get some real food.  Give you a chance to acclimate to civilian life before we get back to work.  It takes some getting used to—the millions of heartbeats, the smells, and acting human when you’re not.”

“Work…”

“Mm hmm, you remember you have a badge and a gun and you get to chase bad guys? That kind of work.”  Wes trailed kisses down Adrian’s neck.

Adrian sat up straight, shoving Wes out of the way.  “Holy shit, Wes!  Halverson.”

“Well, my boner is officially gone.  Thanks for that.”  Wes rubbed his chest where Adrian had pushed him.

“We have to get dressed.  He’s still out there, isn’t he?  I haven’t been out for a week, right?”  Adrian searched the room for his clothes.  “Get up and help me.”

Wes padded over to Adrian and turned him around.  “Breathe it out, boy scout.  The minute you leave this room it’s going to be nothing but action.  We gotta be professional, partners, and we can’t take moments to ourselves.  Think this through.  Another couple of hours with me and I update you in private, give it time to sink in, or you can go running in blind.  It’s up to you.  Personally, I think there are things you need to know before you jump the gun.”

“Things like what?”

“Things like right before you woke up Red Sinclair paid me a visit, a full body afterlife vision kind of visit.  Things like Quinton performed hypnotherapy on you and made you remember that night in Surik, which provided evidence that Halverson was there that night and he killed your dad and Red Sinclair.  Things like Redding is Red’s mate and he was there to save you.  Things like Camille Sinclair had your mother put down…”

Adrian’s vision went red.  He shook in Wes’s embrace.  He couldn’t voice how he felt he was so mad.

“That’s why I need you to sit down and take some deep breaths before you do something scary you can’t take back.  You’re a vampire now, Adrian.  Everything you feel comes out like a goddamn storm.  Think it through, baby.”  Wes guided Adrian to the bed.  “Give me a sign you understand what I’m saying.”

Adrian nodded.  He refused to let go of Wes.

“That’s good, baby.  Tell me what you’re thinking.  I mean, I can feel it, but I need black and white here.  Tell me what you need from me and I’ll make it happen.”  Wes crouched between Adrian’s legs as he sat on the bed.

“Tell me everything.”  Adrian’s fingers cracked as he let go of Wes.  To his relief, Wes got up and sat on the bed, putting an arm around him.  “Everything.”

***

Four hours and a pizza later, Adrian walked down the steps of Elle Franco’s townhouse a changed man.  With his mate right behind him, Adrian emerged onto the front steps where the Bureau’s Guards were gathered.  Sutton got out of a vehicle parked at the curb and Davis and Fontine followed him.

Everyone looked to Adrian and started clapping.  Passerby traffic shot a few looks their way, but thankfully a small round of applause wasn’t even close to unusual behavior in Brooklyn.

“Congratulations, Adrian.”  Sutton offered his nephew a hand.  “You look well,” he mouthed out of habit.

Adrian shook his uncle’s hand firmly.  He pulled back when he realized just how firm he’d been.  “I can hear you.”

“No shit?”  Davis’s jaw dropped.  His deep voice was exactly what Adrian had pictured in his mind, minus the raspy undertone that gave Davis an edge with the ladies no doubt. 

“No shit,” Wes confirmed.  “We got superpowers.”

The Guards rumbled with laughter.  Their breath rolled out of their mouths with the chilly weather, and for once, foggy breath had nothing to do with spirits. Speaking of spirits, Adrian grew anxious to get out of this place and start finding Halverson, if he hadn’t gone ghost already—no pun intended.

Fontine put his arm around Adrian to lead him to the vehicle.  Wes growled low in his throat and Fontine stopped dead in his tracks.  Adrian looked over his shoulder to see Wes groaning into his hand.

“Sorry,” his mate apologized.  “Just … fuck, I’m sorry.  We’re … me and him … gonna take some getting used to. Could you just not touch him for a bit, at least while we … work some shit out.”

Fontine winked.  “I got you.  Anything you need, man.  Can we get the fuck out of this weather, though?  It’s cold as a witch’s tit out here.”

“You’re a fucking baby, bro. It’s snow, not the end of the world,” Davis said.

“Since you love it so much, you can walk back and get shriveled dick syndrome while you’re at it.  The rest of us will go watch Adrian and Wes interrogate Camille.  Could you and your raisin balls pick us up some popcorn on your way in?  I’m sure it will be one hell of a show.”  Fontine tapped his foot on the sidewalk.  “I take that as a no?”

“Some things never change.”  Wes sighed and got into the car.  “Come on, Adrian, we’ll leave them both here to duke it out.”

Adrian slapped Fontine upside the head.  “Get in the car, both of you.  We don’t have time for this.”

“Sir yes sir.” Davis saluted Adrian.  “Still bossy I see.”

“Still looking for a fucking serial killer I see,” Adrian replied with deadly calm.

“Oh.  Right.”  Davis chuckled nervously and slid in next to Adrian.

Fontine glanced sideways at Sutton.  “You’re really going to let them in to talk with her?  I mean…”

Sutton looked at Adrian.  The hatred in his eyes at the mention of her was shared by Adrian.  The Captain’s lips lifted on one side.  “She should have thought of that before she fucked with my family.”  He looked over his shoulder at the remaining Guards.  “Four on the townhouse, and I don’t have time to decide.  The rest of you report to Yuri for your new posts.”

Fontine lifted his brows at Davis before he rounded the car to get in the front passenger seat.  “Papa bear en route to the honey,” he spoke to dispatch via his Bluetooth.  “All clear.”

The doors shut and locked after Sutton was safely stowed in the back with the others.  “Gun it, Fletcher.”

“Yes, sir.” the driver responded from the front.

The car pulled away from the curb.  Sutton folded his hands in his lap and regarded Adrian.  “Surik.  The house.  Last known owner was named Igor Ryznaki.  Rap sheet a mile long, sexual predator, assault priors, and only did about two years in lockup because he had an excellent attorney.  In his younger days, he was a med school student, wanted to be a surgeon, but then he got locked up and there was no going back for him.”

“He tied to Camille?”  Wes hooked his pinky around Adrian’s.

Sutton nodded.  “The same attorney used to bail out Igor is a prominent member on the board for His Children and Ryznaki was a patron.  The deed for the house was transferred to a private party when Ryznaki went missing a few years back, and guess who the account belongs to now?”

“His attorney,” Adrian growled.

“Bingo.”  Sutton nodded.  “That’s not all.  Ryznaki kept records in the basement walls.  One document in particular peaked our team’s interest.”  Sutton flipped his phone around.  “Birth certificate for a Sasha Robert Ryznaki.  Mother is listed as Roberta Halverson, the attorney.  She signed rights to Igor at birth.  Looks like a cover up on both their parts.  A female with that kind of pull couldn’t have a child with a lowlife like Igor.  Not in Camille’s circle.”

“Fuck her circle.”  Adrian gripped Wes’s pinky like a lifeline.  “Are you saying Sasha is…?”

“Halverson,” Sutton finished for him.

To be continued…