His to Protect (8 page)

Tyler shook his head in denial, but Adrian
pressed a hand to the side of his head and held his face against his heart.

"Don't defy me, Tyler," Adrian
said affectionately. "As your Dom you need to trust that I know what I'm
doing." Tyler nodded against his chest, giving his trust even as he tried
to stop himself from crying. "Sweetheart, it's been a confusing few days,
but ignoring the emotions isn't the same as coping."

Tyler half sobbed, half laughed at that
statement. "Shouldn't you be crying, too, then?" he asked in a thick
voice.

"Perhaps," Adrian said,
acknowledging his own grief over William's death. He'd coped by staying busy
and treating William's case like all the others on his desk—with professional
distance—but just as he'd said to Tyler, ignoring the emotions wasn't actually
coping with them. "Holding you in my arms is helping." As surprising
as that seemed, it was definitely the truth.

"I'm glad," Tyler whispered as he
curled deeper into Adrian's embrace.

They held each other for a long time, not
talking, just taking comfort in the contact. He was on the verge of moving them
off the floor when Tyler patted his chest and then sat up. Adrian let him go,
studying his swollen eyes and puffy face as Tyler blushed in embarrassment.

"I'll be back in a moment," he
said as he pulled out of Adrian's arms. He let him go, not particularly
concerned that he'd forgotten to use the word "Sir." It may have
started out as a Dom/sub style of interaction, but everything that had followed
blurred the lines a little.

Adrian lifted his butt off the cold floor
and moved around the room aimlessly as he listened to Tyler splash water on his
face and get cleaned up. When he finally came back into the room he stepped
straight into Adrian's arms without hesitating.

"Thank you," he said quietly. "I
didn't realize how much I needed that."

"You're welcome, Tyler. Are you ready
to go back to sleep?"

"Actually," he said as his hand
slid over Adrian's stomach and then inched lower toward his cock, "I was
wondering if I could maybe…um…help you with this."

Adrian grinned as Tyler's hand wrapped
around his rapidly returning erection. Just having the man in his arms was
enough to test his previously rock-solid self-control. Having him naked and
willing in his arms was impossible to resist.

When Tyler dropped to his knees, like a
well-behaved submissive, it seemed perfectly natural to wrap his hand around
the back of Tyler's head and feed him his cock. Tyler opened eagerly, caressing
over Adrian's most sensitive flesh with his tongue as Adrian slid deeper into
his mouth. Tyler braced his hands against Adrian's thighs, relaxing his throat
as he let Adrian control his movements, his need to claim this man again
hitting him hard. He moved convulsively, holding Tyler close as he started to
cram his cock deep into his mouth over and over. Tyler moaned around him,
encouraging him as he increased the suction, practically trapping him in his
warm mouth each time.

"Stop," Adrian growled, dragging
Tyler off his cock and practically throwing him onto the bed. Tyler looked a
little bit shocked by the move, but he opened his arms, and his legs, as Adrian
moved to lie over him. "Sorry, Tyler, but this is going to be quick."

He'd barely gotten the words out of his
mouth and lube onto his cock before he was sliding his deep into Tyler's body.
Thankfully Tyler didn't show any signs of discomfort as Adrian lost the battle
to control his need for this man.

Tyler wrapped his arms around Adrian's
shoulders, holding him close as he fucked him, his movements urgent, demanding,
his
need for Tyler uncontrollable. Tyler rolled his
head to the side, somehow instinctively knowing what Adrian needed.

Fuck.

Adrian felt his teeth lengthen, the insane
urge to bite Tyler the way an alpha werewolf would do crashing through his mind
in unending waves. He ground his teeth together even as he grabbed Tyler's
hips, fucking him harder and faster as his need grew and his self-control weakened.

Practically insane with his own arousal,
Adrian pulled out and flipped Tyler onto his hands and
knees,
ramming his cock back in almost before Tyler could get his balance. Desperate
to hold onto his last shred of humanity Adrian wrapped an arm underneath him,
his fingers finding Tyler hard and leaking, his firm touch on the man's cock
sending Tyler into orgasm. He screamed, his ass tightening around Adrian's cock
so hard that he could barely move.

And then he was coming too, his seed
shooting from his cock in sharp, nearly painful spurts, his whole body shaking
as he collapsed forward, flattening Tyler to the mattress for a moment before
sanity kicked in.

He moved back quickly, moaning as Tyler
moved with him, the man's need to hold him inside his body just a little longer
making him feel ten feet tall. Holy fuck, it had never been like this. Not with
anyone. Something drew him to Tyler like a moth to the flame.

But would this obsession leave them both
burned?

Chapter Nine

Tyler panted, trying hard to slow his racing
heart. He'd never experienced anything like what he'd just shared with Adrian.
Their coupling had been violent and rushed and hell, maybe a little painful,
but it had also been completely perfect.

He smiled as Adrian rolled onto his side,
taking Tyler with him. Even as Adrian had collapsed on him, momentarily cutting
off his ability to breathe, Tyler had trusted him to keep him safe. He hadn't
even felt the need to wriggle as Adrian blanketed him with his warmth. It might
have been different if it had lasted more than a moment, but Tyler couldn't
deny the deliciousness of being the reason such a strong and powerful man had
been so exhausted.

Surprisingly he threaded his hand between
them, his fingers cupping over Tyler's anus almost as if he liked the idea of
Tyler holding his seed inside his body. It was kind of strange how much the
idea appealed to Tyler. He held very still, unwilling to risk the inevitable
just yet.

"William was a good man," Adrian
said, surprising Tyler with his choice of topic. He nodded in agreement, having
no doubt that if Adrian called him a friend that it was absolutely true. "He
both loved and hated being a vampire. He considered it his gift and his curse."
Tyler could feel Adrian's smile against the top of his head. "He adored
Logan but hated that he had to rely on a donor to keep him fed."

"That must have been a difficult way to
live."

"It was," Adrian said. "The
instinct to survive is very strong for a vampire. If they let themselves get
too hungry they will approach the nearest human. Ironically, in many instances
that's tantamount to suicide. Humans often kill what they don't understand."

"Can't vampires drink animal blood?"

"No, that's just another falsehood
perpetuated by popular fiction—including the Vampire Council's own website, I
might add—but it has no basis in reality. Even with the best preservation
techniques, stored human blood is not quite adequate. For a new vampire like
Logan the only food that will keep him alive is fresh human blood."

"At least vampires don't need much to
live on."

"That is a small amount of good news,
but finding a human we can trust is often very difficult. That's why William
never wanted any progeny of his own. He wasn't alone in his attitude. Many
vampires refuse to pass on such a precarious life to an offspring."

"So he's considered Logan's father?"

"Technically speaking that's exactly
who he is. I suspect that choosing to save Logan's life was a very difficult
decision for him, especially since he would have known he wouldn't be around to
protect him."

"How did you meet William?"

Again Tyler felt Adrian smile. Clearly he
had happy memories of his and William's friendship. "My siblings and I
were following rumors of a vampire infestation in a small English village
around the turn of the century." That seemed a strange way to describe a
time most people referred to as "the millennium," but Adrian
continued talking so Tyler put his question aside. "What we found was a
very polite English gentleman who adored his human wife and who was essentially
the victim of collective paranoia. Because he'd never been out of the house
during the day, the villagers had decided he was somehow dangerous to the woman
he loved. We got him and Cecily out of the area and helped them to relocate.
When his wife died a few decades later—"

"Wait.
Decades later?"
Tyler asked craning his neck to try and see Adrian's face.

"Yes, his wife lived well into her
seventies. When she died William decided to join us in this town. He is…sorry,
he was actually a very accomplished Dom, although he never really found a woman
to love the way he'd loved his Cecily."

Tyler knew he probably looked ridiculous
staring at Adrian from this strange angle, but the guy didn't look any older
than early thirties. How could he be talking about the turn of the
previous
century?

"How long do werewolves live?"

"Up to six-hundred years, if they stay
out of harm's way."

"So that would mean…" Tyler let
the words trail away, not at all sure how to phrase what he wanted to ask.

Adrian laughed softly. "Sorry, Tyler, I
probably should have explained earlier. I'm not actually a
werewolf
werewolf
."

"Huh?"

"My brothers and sister and I got our
gifts given to us by a paranormal claiming to be a goddess."

"I
am
a goddess," a voice said, the sound seeming to come from all around them.
Tyler couldn't help but jolt in reaction.

"You heard that?" Adrian asked. He
sounded angry but Tyler got the impression that it wasn't aimed at him.

"The woman's voice?"
Tyler asked wondering if he really did hear anything.

"Anaedra you're scaring my sub. Either
make your invisible self solid and explain why you're here, or go the fuck
away."

"That's not a very nice way to talk to
someone who could fry your ass with just a thought."

Tyler thought that if the woman really was a
goddess, then maybe that was a little bit of good advice. Instead Adrian tensed
with even more anger.

"What do you want, Anaedra?"
Adrian asked angrily, pulling the comforter more firmly over Tyler's naked
body. The woman who appeared then seemed more real than corporeal, but since
she seemed to come out of nowhere, Tyler was willing to take things on faith.
Rather ironic considering who they were apparently dealing with. Vampires,
werewolves, and now a goddess, as well… Fuck, what was next?

"I came to tell you that Derek is
having trouble down at the club," she said admiring her own fingernails in
a stereotypical show of disinterest, "but since you don't seem to care
about what happens to your brother then I'll be on my way."

"What sort of trouble?" Adrian
demanded even as he rolled out of bed and started to drag on his clothes.

"Oh, you know…the deadly kind,"
she said flippantly. Perhaps just a little too flippantly for it to be real. As
a high school teacher Tyler has seen enough teenage bravado to pick it a mile
away. It didn't seem quite real that he was getting the same vibes from a woman
claiming to be a goddess.

"Anaedra," Adrian growled.

"Oh, all right," she said in a
tone of exasperation. "Apparently a pimply, overweight human claiming to
be a vampire hunter tried to get into the club. It wasn't anything that Derek
couldn't handle
if
he'd used the
skills I gave him, but the stupid man decided to react as a human. Apparently a
stake to the heart really does quite a bit of damage, even to non-vampires."

"Damn it, Anaedra," Adrian said as
he turned toward the cupboard, grabbed what seemed to be a medical first-aid
kit and then turned back to yell at the goddess. "Transport us now!"

Both Adrian and Anaedra disappeared in the
blink of an eye. Even though he was no longer in the room, Tyler heard the rest
of Adrian's words. "Tyler, stay here. I'll be back as quickly as I can."

Unable to just lie in bed and wait for them
to return, Tyler ran into the bathroom instead, quickly cleaned himself up,
dragged on some clothes, and then went in search of Logan and Gavin.

~*~

"You look like shit," Adrian said
as he knelt beside his brother.

Derek laughed softly, but stopped when he
grimaced in pain. "I've had better nights."

The wooden stake had penetrated his lower
abdomen, not his heart as Anaedra had claimed, and was still embedded so Derek
wasn't really at risk of bleeding out at the moment. It was still a dangerous
wound. Thankfully their heightened healing abilities meant that many wounds
that would be fatal for most other beings would heal given time. Of course, as
Anaedra had lamented if Derek had been in his alternate shape the stake wouldn't
have penetrated his skin at all.

"Why didn't you shift?" Adrian
asked as he inspected the wound.

"The guy was looking for proof of
vampires. I wasn't about to give him something else to rant about. Did I at
least get his scent on me?"

Adrian took a deep breath and nodded
quickly. "It matches the scent for William's killer. I should be able to
tell which direction he went, once we get this stake out of your gut."

"Great," Derek said, perhaps a
touch sarcastically.

"How did you end up here? It's a long
way from the front of the club."

Adrian was pretty sure he already knew the
answer—they tried to keep paranormal discussions away from their customers—but
he wanted to keep Derek talking. In the deep shadows of the building, it was
impossible to tell how much blood his brother had lost and with his own vision
having moved to a wolf's grayscale thanks to his need to see in the dark, it
was even harder to tell. At least if Derek's voice started to slur Adrian would
get a warning that things were getting worse.

As Derek filled in the details of the
altercation, Adrian decided to leave the stake where it was, choosing to bandage
around the weapon for now so that he could remove it under more controlled
conditions.

"Is he going to be okay?" Anaedra
whispered anxiously.

Adrian was shocked to realize the goddess
had stuck around. They'd had serious wounds before, but other than alerting the
siblings to each others' perils, Anaedra had never really helped them in a
medical sense. Yes, thanks to the gifts she'd granted them they healed much
faster, but they still got to experience the agony of recovery. Hell, it was
one thing Adrian truly envied of the Lupinville werewolves and other shifters
like them. Being able to heal instantly by changing forms would have been very
handy.

"Is he?" Anaedra asked again, this
time more aggressively.

"It's under control, Anaedra,"
Adrian said in the usual exasperated tone he used for the goddess, but at the
last moment he pulled his irritation back. "Derek would be more
comfortable if you could transport us to my place."

"Of course," Anaedra answered
scornfully, obviously irritated that he would ask. "I'll just stop
everything to play travel agent." She gave him a very fake, but sweet
looking smile. "Shall I make the first stop your bed? I'm sure your little
submissive morsel wouldn't mind."

"Anaedra," Adrian said, trying to
contain his own emotions, "it would be best if you transported us straight
to the medical room." They hadn't used the room for quite a while, but he
was certain it was stocked with everything they would need. Anaedra thankfully
had them there almost immediately, the painful feeling of being in two places
at once quickly subsiding as Adrian turned his attention to treating his
brother's wounds.

 
"Still
with us?" he asked Derek as he glanced up and realized Gavin was already
in the room. Apparently Adrian's new sub wasn't very good at following
directions. He must have gone looking for Gavin almost as soon as Adrian had
left with Anaedra. Despite Tyler's defiance he was grateful for the man's
intervention.
This time.

"I'm still alive," Derek said,
sounding almost bored. "Anytime you want to hand over some painkillers,
just let me know."

"Asshole," Gavin said
affectionately as he injected his brother with the only painkiller on the
planet that worked for any of them. Judging by the goofy smile to grace Derek's
face a moment later, it seemed to be working.

Gavin's agitation showed his increasing
concern when he finally removed all of the bandages Adrian had used. It was
clear that he was worried what they would find when they pulled the stake free.

"Do me a favor, Derek," Gavin
said, clearly forcing
himself
to be jovial, "don't
bleed too much. I have a brand new vampire in the next room. He probably thinks
you smell as sweet as cotton candy."

"Sweet," Derek said in a slurred
voice with another goofy grin. They waited a few more moments to make certain
he was fast asleep.

"Ready?" Gavin asked Adrian as he
gathered huge handfuls of gauze to pack the wound.

"As I'll ever be," Adrian said
with a nod. Gavin eased the stake out of Derek's flesh, the bleeding thankfully
not nearly as bad as they'd been expecting. They wiped away the blood and
irrigated the wound several times, trying to check for internal damage, but it
seemed that the stake had pushed aside the bowel rather than pierced it.

"Looks like he was lucky," Gavin
said. "We'll pack the wound and monitor for a fever. His natural healing
will do the rest."

Adrian nodded and glanced up at his brother.
It was a complete surprise to realize Anaedra was still in the room. She rolled
her eyes at his raised eyebrow and then she quickly disappeared.

~*~

Tyler and Logan had been waiting nervously
in the living area when a man they didn't know used a key to come in the front
door of the house. He was with a woman who seemed to be in her mid-twenties.