His to Protect (3 page)

It was a very strange reaction, and
certainly out of character for him, but ironically not really something he
wanted to look at too closely at the moment.

"How can I protect him?" Tyler
asked, obviously the close friend to Logan that Adrian had assumed.

"You can both stay with me tonight,"
Adrian said without really thinking it through. He never brought work home with
him. It was one of his unbreakable rules. He gave Tyler a brief smile as he
tried not to freak out over his own uncharacteristic behavior. "We'll
figure out something more permanent tomorrow."

Tyler gave him a curious look, but simply
nodded his agreement.

"I need to make some phone calls. Can
you stay with Logan?"

"Of course," Tyler said quickly.

~*~

Logan stirred slightly as the man stood up,
but it took only a moment for him to snuggle deeper into the quilts surrounding
him and go back into a deep sleep.

It took a little longer for Tyler to realize
the man was still standing in front of them watching him closely. Tyler looked
up to his face, waiting for the big man to say something, but he just smiled
sadly and fished his cell phone from his pocket.

"Damn," he said, shaking the phone
as if that somehow might make the thing work.
"Dead
battery."
He glanced around the room, most likely looking for the
house phone.

"In the kitchen, on the wall,"
Tyler said, indicating the direction with his chin. The man turned to leave,
but Tyler called him back. Embarrassed to have to ask the guy's name even
though he knew for a fact he'd already introduced himself, Tyler felt a blush
creep up his neck. "I'm sorry. I don't remember your name."

The man gave him that sad smile again and
moved to touch Tyler's face softly. "After the night you've had, I'm not
surprised. I'm Adrian Alateeka. Just let me make a few phone calls and we'll
get going home."

Tyler nodded, embarrassment burning through
him once more when he realized how much he'd enjoyed the man's warm touch. He
watched as Adrian moved into the kitchen—his slim hips and muscular back
perfectly showcased in black jeans and a tight T-shirt—and tried not to think
about things he couldn't have.

Tyler knew it was probably a normal reaction
to death, but wanting to reaffirm life with a man he'd only just met seemed
monumentally stupid, especially when his entire focus should have been on
protecting Logan.

"Okay, we just have to wait for my
brothers to arrive and then we can go," Adrian said a few minutes later as
he came back into the room.

Tyler nodded and dropped his gaze back to
Logan's pale face. It seemed so unfair that someone as nice and as kind as
Logan would be subjected to such horrors. Pictures of what he'd seen in that
room replayed in Tyler's mind, the scent of old blood filling his memory even
though he could no longer smell it. He didn't even realize he was shaking until
Adrian sat beside him, placed a strong arm around his shoulders, and promised
in a deep, quiet voice that everything would be all right.

Chapter Three

"Thank you," Tyler whispered as
Adrian handed him a glass of ginger ale. The car trip to Adrian's home had only
taken a few minutes, but after everything he'd been through it had been rough
on Tyler. Adrian should probably make the guy eat some dry crackers or something,
but at the moment he didn't think Tyler could handle food.

"Feeling better?"

He was still terribly pale, but he nodded
slowly and continued his vigil beside Logan's bed. "I'm sorry to be such a
bother," Tyler said, holding onto the glass of cold liquid but making no
move to drink it.

"It's not a problem," Adrian said
touching the young man's shoulder gently as he took a seat beside him on the
sofa. "I'd be more worried if you hadn't reacted the way you did. It's a
very normal response to what you've been through tonight."

Tyler gave him a sad smile and took a sip of
the ginger ale.

"
It's
okay,
Tyler, really. I'm just glad you waited until we got out of the car."

Tyler glanced at him, blushed slightly, and
dipped his head again. "Now that would have been mortifying," he said
with a soft, embarrassed-sounding laugh. "I usually wait at least until
the third date before throwing up in the car."

Adrian touched his face softly, smiling at
the joke Tyler had just made, even as he tried to hide his inappropriate
reaction to the suggestion that this was some sort of date. In his head he knew
that wasn't what Tyler meant, but his stupid cock clearly had a mind of its
own.

"You should get some sleep."

"I don't want to leave Logan alone,"
Tyler said, giving Adrian a pleading look.

Making a decision he hoped he wouldn't
regret, Adrian nodded and slid toward the end of the sofa. Tyler seemed to
realize what he wanted—or perhaps wanted it himself—and moved so that he was
lying on his side with his head resting on Adrian's thigh. He couldn't resist the
need to run his fingers through Tyler's hair. The young man sighed softly as he
slowly relaxed.

"Will he be okay?" Tyler asked a
few minutes later. Adrian was a bit startled to realize he was still awake so
he was a little slow in replying. Tyler cut him off before he could say
something reassuring. "Don't give me the answer I want to hear. Give me
the truth."

Adrian breathed out, wanting to protect
Tyler, but realizing that the man needed to know what might happen. It was
clear that Tyler would be devastated if he lost his friend now, but he should
at least be aware of the possibilities.

Despite Adrian's instinct to protect, he
knew keeping the realities from Tyler was an unfair thing to do. Tyler was an
adult and had a right to know the details.

"The truth is I don't know. Even under
ideal conditions making a vampire is dangerous." Adrian felt Tyler's
reaction but the man stayed calm and waited for Adrian to explain. "Logan's
change was traumatic and rushed and his sire isn't here to help him through it,
so the chances of success are probably lower. We'll know more when he wakes
this evening." Adrian caressed Tyler's face softly as a tear slid from his
closed eye and rolled down the side of his nose. "Sweetheart, I don't
think William would have tried it if he didn't think it would work. His age
made his blood stronger."

Tyler nodded, his eyes still closed as tears
continued to fall.

"Try and get some sleep. Logan will
need to feed several more times before the sun comes up."

Tyler nodded again and Adrian watched as he
exhaled a deep breath, apparently trying to relax enough to follow Adrian's
order. He stayed there, watching Tyler sleep as he tried to go over the details
of the latest vampire homicide to land on his desk without letting his own
emotions overwhelm him.

~*~

"Sorry, sweetheart," Adrian said
as he lifted Tyler into his arms. Tyler snuggled against the big man feeling
safe here, feeling cared for, feeling loved.

That last thought jerked him awake. He wasn't
loved by this man. Good grief, he barely knew the guy. Adrian's reason for
being here quickly followed and Tyler turned his head, frantically searching
for his friend. Thankfully, Logan was on the bed sleeping soundly, his features
still pale and drawn.

"It doesn't look like he's going to wake
up anytime soon, but he needs to feed."

"Of course," Tyler said, expecting
Adrian to put him down. Instead he sat on the edge of the bed and held him on
his lap. "There are sterile wipes and single-use medical lances in the
first aid kit behind you."

Tyler turned his head and reached out for
the tin box.

His fingers shook as he tried to pry the lid
off. Without a word, Adrian took over, unwrapping the lance and wiping over the
tip of Tyler's finger with the sterile wipe as he sat there quietly. He didn't
give Tyler a chance to protest, just squeezed his finger until the build up of
blood at the end made it throb, and then very quickly stabbed the tiny blade
into his skin.

Adrian had Tyler's finger against Logan's
lips before the first drop fell. He seemed concerned when Logan didn't wake up,
so Tyler leaned over and used his other hand to squeeze his finger hard,
letting more blood flow into his friend's mouth. It seemed such a strange thing
to do and, if he hadn't witnessed Logan's rebirth as a vampire, it was probably
the last thing he would ever have considered doing for anyone.

But he had seen it, and thanks to Adrian's
honest answers to his questions Tyler knew that his blood could very well be
the difference between Logan living as a vampire or dying as half a human.

Thankfully, after several tense moments,
Logan swallowed, his mouth opening a little wider as the drops continued to
fall onto his tongue.

"That should be enough for now,"
Adrian said a few moments later, reaching over to wrap a wad of soft gauze
around the end of Tyler's finger.

"That wasn't very much," Tyler
said worriedly as visions of what he'd seen in the movies played through his
mind.

Adrian held him close, refusing to let him
down as he moved them both back onto the sofa. "Vampires don't need the
copious amounts of blood that popular entertainment suggests. A few sips a day
is enough to get them through. As he changes Logan will need a little more than
older vampires, but it still won't be more than about an eighth of a cup."

"Oh," Tyler said feeling a little
silly. Everything Adrian had told him was pretty much the opposite of what he'd
thought he knew, so why he'd chosen to still think otherwise was a mystery. "I
guess I have a lot to learn."

"I'm sorry you're learning it under such
horrible circumstances."

"How long have you been doing this?"
Tyler asked, suddenly wanting to know more about everything—especially this
man.

"Most of my life.
It's kind of the family business."

"Alateeka?"
Tyler asked as the familiarity of the name finally locked into
place.
"As in APS?
Alateeka
Protection Services?"

"Yes," Adrian said holding him
close.

Tyler should probably insist that he be
allowed to sit anywhere else besides on the man's lap, but he truly felt too
comfortable right where he was. "I thought it was a security firm."

"Technically it is," Adrian said
as he started to filter his fingers through Tyler's hair once more. He'd always
enjoyed having his hair played with, so Adrian's gentle touch was proving very
distracting. "We provide protection and security services to both human
and non-human clients, but mostly we try very hard to keep the secret of
paranormals away from humans."

"Paranormals?" he asked. He'd
heard the word used in fiction and mythology but he was trying not to make assumptions.
"As in vampires and…other creatures?"

Adrian laughed softly. "God, I hate
television.
Yes, 'paranormals' as in vampires and other
non-human
people."

"Sorry," Tyler said quickly,
suddenly realizing the insult in his wording. "I didn't mean to be rude."

"It's okay, sweetheart. Most
paranormals are used to humans being frightened of them." Adrian continued
to filter his fingers through Tyler's hair as he spoke. "You're coping
much better than most humans would."

"If you say so," he said quietly.

"I say so," Adrian said. "Now,
get some sleep."

~*~

Adrian woke Tyler and Logan several more
times during the night. Each time Logan grew a little stronger, opened his
mouth a little wider, and seemed more likely to survive. The biggest test would
be if he woke tonight when the sun went down. Adrian felt confident that if
Logan woke after another day
sleep
that his chances of
survival were much higher.

Keeping Tyler close, Adrian watched Logan's
body slowly change from what appeared to be a sleeping human to a vampire in
day sleep. Logan stopped breathing, his metabolism shutting down as his body
quickly fell into a type of extreme hibernation. In a vampire as young as Logan
everything stopped—everything, including the flow of his blood—leaving him in a
state of suspended animation.

As vampires got older the shut down of their
body's systems was less extreme. It was likely why William had been able to
turn Logan during the day, but it was also what had killed him.

As with the other murders, the attacker had
tried to slice open every major artery so that when night fell and the vampire
woke, their metabolism started and they bled out almost immediately. But Logan
had interrupted the killer and William had been older and able to move enough
to help him. Judging by the huge amounts of blood at the scene, when William
had woken his heart had started pumping as well.

It was very likely that the killer had run
from the scene in panic. The other murders would have been similar to an
autopsy—no flowing blood, no victim response, plenty of time to do what they'd
planned without the chance of being interrupted. It was one of the reasons
Adrian and his siblings were having trouble tracking down the killer. With such
control over the murder scene it was far easier to cover one's tracks than what
had happened at William
Danker's
home.

His brothers, Gavin and Derek, had gathered
as much evidence as they could from the crime scene before calling in a
discreet cleaning crew. It wasn't a perfect system, but it was necessary to ensure
the safety of thousands of other paranormals living in this town. If the human
population ever learned who was really living next door, history suggested that
the reaction wouldn't be pretty.

Protecting their secret took priority over
preserving the scene where a paranormal had been murdered. It was very handy
having the sheriff's department aware of their presence, but Sheriff Lansdowne
and his dispatcher were the exceptions to the rule. The more humans who knew,
the less safe the paranormal community became.

Unfortunately Adrian had too many years
behind him to know that was true.

He glanced at the man sleeping in his arms.
Tyler had been truly amazing in the way he'd handled everything in the past ten
hours, but now he was essentially one more link in an ever weakening chain.
With the advent of modern technology it was becoming harder and harder to live
in plain sight. Sooner or later things were going to change. The only question
was: Would paranormals survive it?