Boneyard (The Thaumaturge Series Book 2) (14 page)

“Oh God. Oh fuck,” I moaned. I closed my eyes and gripped his shoulders harder.

“Oh, baby,” he panted back.

“I’m close,” I whispered to him, feeling my balls draw in, the pleasure building in my groin.

He licked my neck. “Can I?” he asked, breathless.

I closed my eyes. Ten years, and I’d never said yes.

Of course, ten years and he’d never said he loved me either.

Things change.

“Please, Ebron?” he moaned. His hands tightened on my ass. His thrusts grew more erratic. His mouth on my throat felt like a promise. Like a decision. Under my hands, his body thrummed with energy. My palms slid on his damp back.

“Ebron,” he moaned again. I could tell from his thick voice that his fangs had dropped.

I came, the orgasm taking me by surprise. I bucked in his arms, loudly gasping. When I drew back, he grinned, boyish and cocky.

“I didn’t even touch you,” he said.

Heat spread up my face. A long, shuddering aftershock rolled through me.

“It’s your fangs,” I gasped, still shaking.

His eyes went dark. “What?”

“I like how they feel on my neck.” I rolled my hips forward in emphasis and he groaned.

“Can I then?” he asked, breathing through his open mouth. His fangs rested against his swollen bottom lip and I extended one finger to touch them.

“You’re sure you can stop?” I whispered. My heart lurched and started pounding. Was I really going to let him do this? It seemed more and more likely that I was.

“Yes, I can, I swear.” He gripped my ass, squeezing. Inside me, I felt his cock twitch. “God, Ebron,
please
.”

I lowered my mouth to his, kissing him hard. His fangs pressed against my lips and shiver went through me.

“Do it,” I said and a long, airy sigh escaped from him.

“I won’t hurt you,” he promised, staring up hard into my eyes.

I nodded. “I trust you,” I said and it wasn’t a lie.

He slid his hands up the length of my body, tickling my ribs and ghosting over my shoulder to rest on my collarbones. His thumbs pressed into the hollow of my throat. I closed my eyes. My heart felt like a bass drum, pounding in my chest. My breath came in short, hard gasps. I felt his mouth, warm on the skin of my throat.

My phone rang.

We jerked apart, the sound startling. Leo’s eyes flew up to mine, wide with surprise and then darkening in annoyance. We stared at each other, breathing in each other’s faces.

“I have to check it,” I said apologetically, already moving off of him. His cock slipped out of me and slapped wetly against his stomach. I grimaced.

“Sorry,” I said.

He stretched out on his back and threw his forearm over his eyes, waving me away.

“It could be... someone might need to be...” I stammered, looking between his jutting erection and the pile of clothes emitting the AC/DC ringtone.

“No resurrections,” he snapped without looking at me. I stared at him a second longer, and then turned to fumble through my clothes, finally unearthing my phone from a pocket of my jeans.

The screen said Cody.  My heart plummeted into my stomach.

“It’s Cody,” I said aloud.

Leo mumbled something from underneath his arm, but I couldn’t make it out and didn’t ask him to repeat it. I sat on the foot of the bed and thumbed my phone.

“Cody?” I asked.

“Oh,” he said through the phone, sounding surprised. “I was jus’ gonna leave you a message.”

“Do you want me to hang up?” I asked carefully. The bed dipped beneath me and Leo settled himself at my side, propping his chin up with the heels of his hands.

“Naw, man,” Cody said. I strained to hear any of the tell-tale bar sounds, seeing as it was past midnight, but I could hear only steady breathing on the line.

“I just wanted to, like, talk to you, man,” Cody said, and yeah, there it was. His voice pitched and wobbled and that was textbook drunk-Cody voice.

“Okay,” I agreed. I glanced down at Leo and he raised one eyebrow.

“I just wanted to know, man,” Cody continued. I heard a long, sharp, inhale and wondered what he was smoking. “Like, are you even human?”

Beside me, Leo scoffed. I tried to keep my mind blank, to ignore the hot stone that had suddenly settled on my chest.

“I’m human,” I answered softly. “Cody, where are you?”

“Fuckin, I dunno.” He inhaled again, and then exhaled wetly into the phone.

“I jus’ wanted to say that I love you, dude. You’re, like, my family,” he added. “Like, I jus’ dunno if you’re even a fuckin’ human being.”

“Cody, I’ll come get you,” I said. “Are you at a bar?”

“Naw, man. Kelsey had a house party.”

“Kelsey Patrick?” I asked. “The bartender from JJ’s?”

“Yeah, man. Like, she’s got a hot tub.”

“That’s great,” I said, standing up. Leo gave an exaggerated sigh and stared down forlornly at his flagging penis. He made a pouty face. I shrugged helplessly.

“I’ll come get you,” I told Cody. “I’ll be right there. Meet me out front.”

“Yeah, man. Cool.”

“I’m serious, Cody, I don’t want to go inside.” I pulled up my jeans, wincing when the denim stuck against my greasy ass, and fumbled with the belt. I pressed my phone too hard against my shoulder and it made a beep.

“Okay, dude. Like, I’m glad we talked.”

“Cody, be outside!” I said, but the line went dead.

“Fucking great,” I muttered.

“This is not how this night was supposed to go,” Leo said, dragging himself to his feet. He located his jeans and began tugging them up his legs.

“Sorry,” I said meekly.

He shrugged. “I’m sure you’ll make it up to me. Later this morning, maybe.”

I watched him dress. “Leo, about that...”

He glanced at me sharply. “Yeah?”

My socks went on the wrong way, and I peeled them off and turned them right side in again. “I don’t want you to force me,” I said finally, not looking at him.

He sighed. “I’m not going to, Ebron. Jesus Christ, I wouldn’t—”

“I want you to talk me into it,” I interrupted and he stopped. He slid the end of his belt through the loops, the buckle jangling, his eyes fixed on me. A little line of worry appeared between his brows and then smoothed away again.

“Okay,” he said slowly. “Yeah. I can do that.”

He gave me a tentative smile that I returned. I reached for my shoes. He stretched into his tee shirt.

“Are you coming with me?” I asked, standing up.

“Why not?” he said and pulled me against him for a kiss.

“I thought you were leaving,” I said.

“I am,” he replied and kissed me again. We lingered, the kiss deepening and I had to break it off before I wouldn’t want to.

Chapter 9

My truck smelled like stale French fries and gasoline. As I slid into the passenger's seat I pinched a stray French fry caught in the seat belt buckle between my fingers. I glanced at Leo, but he was fumbling with his seatbelt. I popped the fry into my mouth and turned my face away to chew.

“Sorry you didn’t get to come,” I said a few minutes later, as we made our way to the main road.

He laughed a little and glanced over at me. “Don’t worry about it. It’ll keep.”

I leaned over to fiddle with the radio, flipping through static, scratchy late-night voices and past dead air. I found something that may have been a song, distant snatches of tune coming through now and then, and looked back out the window. My knee started to bounce and I tongued at the gobbed up matte of French fry that stuck on my back molar.

“Ebron,” Leo said into the silence.

“Hmm?” I didn’t look at him. I made my tongue into a little spear and jabbed at the fry gob.

“I’m serious about the resurrections. You have to lay low right now.”

I didn’t reply at first. The sudden pounding of my heart took all my attention. That and the sickening drop of my stomach. Could we not talk about it for five fucking seconds? Did I constantly need to be reminded about the tightrope I walked?

“I won’t,” I said. We stopped at a red light, and I looked down one empty street and then turned my head to look down another. Yellow streetlights broke the darkness into lonely pools, all lit up for nobody.

“You will,” Leo replied. “If someone calls you, you will. And you just can’t right now.”

“Tell me why. Who is this lawyer? Who does he represent?”

Leo sighed. “Why do you always have to question me? Why is it always a fight with you?”

“Because it’s my fucking life!” I snapped back. “You don’t get to keep these secrets from me and then expect me to blindly obey.”

Leo ground his teeth for a couple of blocks and then said, very carefully, “There’s a lot that you are sheltered from, living here in Heckerson. There’s a lot out there.”

“Other vampires.”

“Yes. And ... other things.”

“Leo,” I said. “You have never told me any of this.”

“For your own protection,” he said. “I’ve told you before, as far as I know, you are the only person who can do what you can do. As in, the only person in the world. That makes you
valuable
.”

I chewed on my bottom lip. “To who? People like this lawyer?”

“He represents people who are in the business of supernatural... acquisition. That’s the best way I can describe it.”

“Christ,” I muttered. My knee bounced with renewed fervor.

“If they know about you,” Leo continued. He drove with one elbow crooked against the closed window, his other hand loose and casual on the steering wheel. Like he didn’t have a care in the world. “You can kiss your shop goodbye. Johnny. Your mom. Me. They will take you and you will never see Heckerson again.”

“How do you know?” I asked again. “He could just be someone Corvin’s mom hired, to close up his estate or whatever.”

“His mom doesn’t know he’s dead, Ebron.”

My mouth snapped shut. Of course she didn’t. His body was twisted in a pile on my bathroom floor. She’d never know what happened to him.

“If this doesn’t work,” I said. “If your friend doesn’t help us, what the fuck am I going to do?”

He reached across the bench seat and touched my leg. “We’ll figure it out, babe.”

“I could just... you know.”

“No,” he said without hesitation. “You’re not bringing him back. Or her back. No. We killed them for a fucking reason, Ebron.”

“Right now, Leo? Not sure if it was worth it.”

He went quiet, both hands white on the wheel as he stared straight out over the dash. I glared at him for a moment longer, in case he had some snappy reply, but when he didn’t engage I slumped down into my seat. We pulled up to a stop sign and stayed there.

“I’m sorry,” Leo said softly. He still didn’t look at me.

I sighed. “I know.”

“No, I mean it. I’m sorry that I killed them. I just want to protect you.”

“I know,” I said again, quieter. I touched his shoulder and he shot me a sidelong glance.

“This person that I called,” he said.

The hesitation was plain in his voice and I peered at him more closely. “Yeah?”

“It might not go well,” he said, and finally turned to look at me. The blinker on the truck went
tock tock, tock tock.

“He won’t help?” I guessed and he shrugged.

“It’s hard to say,” he said. “And I really don’t want him near you. But this might be a desperate times sort of situation.”

“Do you really think this guy is necessary? Between the two of us we should be able to figure out a way to get rid of them. People do it all the time.”

“There can’t be any trace,” Leo said flatly. “There can’t even be the possibility that they will be found.”

I stared at him, the way he wouldn’t look at me. “Why, Leo? I mean, obviously I don’t want them to be found either, but maybe you and I could just wait until it blows over and then, I don’t know, figure out a way to get rid of them ourselves.”

He lifted one shoulder. “That’s a big risk. Every hour that goes by with those bodies in your store, the risk grows. And if someone finds them? Then it’s game over.”

My blood ran cold at the very suggestion of being arrested. “But you’re not talking about the police, are you?” I asked. “You’re afraid someone else will find them. This lawyer?”

“Among others,” Leo said.

“You’re not telling me everything,” I complained. “Again.”

He curled a lip. “No, you’re just not listening. No one can know about you. Especially not this lawyer. That’s why you need to cool it with the resurrections.”

“I kind of depend on the income,” I said. “Really. The store doesn’t make a lot of money.”

“At least take a break,” Leo said. “Until the lawyer goes. Then keep it on the down low.” Abruptly, he hit the gas and we turned onto Northern Street, where I hoped Kelsey still lived. A dozen cars clogged up the shoulder of the road, so it seemed promising.

“So you’re going to call this guy?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“And he’ll help us.”

“I imagine he will,” Leo said. “But not for free.”

“He’ll want money?”

“No,” Leo said. “Not money. I’ll owe him.”

“Oh. That sounds ominous.”

Leo snorted.

“Is he... a vampire?” I braved the question, my eyes fixed on Leo’s face.

He glanced at me, before pulling off the road into a driveway lit up like Christmas. A small cluster of ski-bunnies stood smoking on the patio, all bundled up like they were going north of the Wall. A larger group of locals—I recognized most of them—loitered in the yard. Cody sat just beyond them, alone on the front stoop with his head hanging down and a beer between his feet.

“I’ll better go get him,” I said, reaching for the door handle.

“He’s not a vampire,” Leo answered, just as my fingers curled around the metal. “He’s... something else. Something dangerous.”

“What?” I asked quietly, poised to slide out of the truck. “Or do I want to know?”

“No,” Leo said. “You really don’t.”

“Forget I asked,” I grumbled and slammed the door behind me. I walked up to Cody on trembling knees.

I felt the thumping beat from the music inside the house. The smell of pot smoke wafted through the chilly air. Curious stares followed me all the way up the walk and I couldn’t help my shoulders from hunching up to my ears. From somewhere behind me, I heard my name, said flatly over a flurry of whispers.