Necessary Passion [Alchemy Mates 3] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (10 page)

Aidan nodded his head. “Thank you, Mahogany. For the hundredth time you may call me Aidan.”

Mahogany looked terrified at the prospect. “T–Thank you, my l–lord. Best hurry. Lord Junis looked quite excited.”

“My alchemy mate is probably missing me like crazy,” Andren bragged, grinning. He pushed himself up off his chair and stood. Aidan looked at their abandoned chess game. It wasn’t like he was winning anyway. He pushed himself up and followed after his brother. He couldn’t imagine what it was that had the vampires so excited, but Sky and Lucian had been working diligently all evening.

Aidan rolled his eyes. “He missed you so much he left us alone for the entire afternoon.” Andren glared at him over his shoulder. Aidan grinned. He liked being able to tease his little brother over something. It had seemed that Andren had the upper hand in their brotherly bantering since he’d arrived in Prussia. A little payback went a long way to soothing Aidan’s bruised ego.

They walked shoulder to shoulder down the hallway that led to the sitting room toward the front of the house, ribbing one another as they went. Some of the tension that had tightened his shoulders from their earlier conversation leeched out. He could almost see himself as Andren did, having weekly visits from the couple and long evening chats with Sky.

He swung around the corner and came into the main sitting room. His eyes widened instantly. “Isn’t it a bit early for Christmas decorations?”

“With only two weeks left? Absolutely not,” Sky said, obviously reading his mind.

Aidan frowned. “Two weeks? I thought it was still November.” If it was that close to Christmas, they only had a handful of weeks to practice before the confrontation with Jessup. Panic swamped him an instant before Aidan clamped down on the emotion. He was so close to freedom. Why did the idea drum up dread as opposed to elation?

“Time does get away from you when you’re in love,” Lucian said, smiling. “I miss those first few months of courtship.”

Andren snorted. “Oh, you mean those months where we didn’t speak and I thought you were hell spawn?”

Lucian sighed wistfully. “Absolutely.”

“The entire world is mad,” Aidan muttered. “Are these two gits going to stay with us the entire two weeks until Christmas?”

“We’ll have to travel back to the estate and take care of some things for a few days, but we’ll be back for the main event,” Lucian chirped.

“Great,” Aidan muttered with a touch of sarcasm. He looked around the sitting room and took in the work that Sky and Lucian had done. It did look very beautiful. There was a tree that someone had brought in from the surrounding forests. Some hand-carved and -painted decorations were hung by bits of twine from the branches, and candles adorned the spare spaces in the rest of the room. He found it very odd that beings that predated Christianity practiced Christmas with such fervor. It struck him as amusing, and he started chuckling softly to himself.

“What’s funny?” Andren asked. Aidan just laughed on and motioned toward the two ancients.

“I think we broke him,” Lucian said.

“Agreed,” Sky said, chuckling. “How do you like the decorations, sweetling?”

Aidan shrugged. “They’re nice.” What else was he supposed to say about them? They were bits of paper, wood, and wax arranged in a display to encapsulate the feeling of Christmas. He understood the thought and appreciated the gesture.

“Forgive my brother,” Andren cut in. “He doesn’t understand when an aristocrat is fishing for compliments. They’re all very lovely, my lords.” He elbowed Aidan’s side. “Aren’t they, Aidan?”

Aidan frowned. “Yes. Quite.” Hadn’t he already said that?

“You’ll get the hang of the aristocracy soon enough,” Sky said, saving him from further confusion. “Andren is attempting to teach you how to take a compliment.” Sky looked at Andren pointedly. “He is not very effective.”

“How about the only schoolmaster I have is Sky, hm? The idea of too many teachers doesn’t seem very pleasant,” Aidan grumped. His gaze swept over the room once more. “It really is nice looking, Sky.”

The vampire smiled softly. “I’m happy you think so. The only thing left to do is to hang the stockings, and I thought we could do it together.”

“Aren’t we all a bit old for that?” Aidan asked. The MacGregor family was very big on Christmas, but it was mostly because of the number of children they had. Papa would always put a ton of sweets and oranges in the stockings for the little ones. Any of the hunters who had already come of age just got to enjoy the veritable feast that Mama cooked the day of the celebration. They didn’t do presents because frankly, it would’ve been a very expensive endeavor. Vampire hunters weren’t the best-paid professionals.

“Not at all. Back when Europe was a pagan land, things weren’t much different. I still enjoyed the harvest and the winter celebrations. These seem infinitely gentler to me. I like them,” Sky said. It was the first time he’d really let his age show. Aidan tried to think of what it would be like to live for literally hundreds of years. It stretched the mind a bit past its limits. How did Sky deal with living on and on and never changing? Did time ever wear on him? He’d have to ask when they were practicing later.

“I thought we’d grab you a bite to eat and then go out to the solar. What do you think of that, Aidan?” Sky asked, moving across the room and taking a peppermint stick from a tin. He turned, peppermint in hand, and walked over to Aidan. “Open.”

Aidan obeyed, and Sky stuck the stick on his tongue. He sucked immediately and was struck by the symbolism only after Sky started chuckling. He rolled his eyes.
Some ancient he is. He still laughs at the most juvenile jokes
. It was a good peppermint, though. His stomach rumbled in protest. He and Andren had been down in the library for quite some time. It was about time for a meal, wasn’t it?

“Let’s grab something leftover from the kitchen and get to work.” He’d been taught from an early age to put duty and work above all other things so he was eager to get to it. His eagerness might have been partially motivated by the fact that today he would start to use more aggressive techniques as opposed to constantly taking Sky’s blows in an effort to get used to the physical abuse the challenge would be if Sky’s defenses got sloppy. He really, really hoped that they wouldn’t.

“Ever devoted to the cause, I see,” Andren quipped, sitting himself in the longer couch and beckoning his lover forward. “It’s nice to see you’re as dedicated to Sky as you were to hunting. I think Lucian and I will take supper in our rooms if it is all the same to you, Engleman.” His eyes were sparkling with poorly concealed intent.

Aidan rolled his eyes. “You’ve fallen into a life of nothing but debauchery, brother.” Idleness had not been a virtue in the MacGregor clan.

Andren grinned. “Not at all. I’m a proper gentleman now. I keep myself busy, but there are only so many times one can tour the estate or tend to the horses. Lucian keeps track of the accounts for the most part. So what am I to do to entertain myself other than pull out every stop in an effort to distract him?”

“He’s quite efficient at it as well,” Lucian added, smiling. There was entirely too much merriment going on. Aidan could very easily slip into a life of nothing but Sky’s touch, and he needed the discipline of a strict schedule to keep him from that. If he was going to leave when this was over, it was going to be a damn bit harder if he was addicted to Sky’s intoxicating touches.

“Let’s leave the happy couple to it, Sky,” Aidan said, turning on his heels and striding toward the door. If he were honest with himself, it wasn’t just annoyance at his younger brother’s lack of responsibilities that was getting on his nerves. He was a bit jealous of the way he seemed to so casually accept his lot in life.

Sky’s hand on the small of his back was a subtle indication that the vampire hadn’t been oblivious to the way Aidan had walked away.
He knows me so well. Damn this connection
. Alchemy, destiny, whatever the vampires wanted to call this bone-deep knowledge of one another, Aidan felt like the ability to deny it was slipping through his fingers with each passing day. The only thing he hadn’t given the vampire yet was his heart. It was the last soldier in his camp who stood opposed to the German’s enthralling admiration. He prayed for strength to resist the man until the contest was over and he could sort out how he felt about being the potential blood servant to Sky for the rest of eternity.

Sky could tell the exact moment that Aidan’s mood switched. An unhappy frown marred his expression, and a decided air of “bugger off” hung about him in a veritable cloud. The vampire sighed. It wasn’t as if he had expected Aidan’s good mood and easy acceptance to last for a very long time, but more than a few hours would’ve been nice. With Aidan it was always one step forward, two steps back. While there was definite progress being made between them, it was slowgoing and painful at times. The MacGregor stubbornness was enough to make Sky want to beat Aidan’s father senseless for instilling in the MacGregor offspring this much-dogged determination to do things their own way.

The kitchen staff had put a basket of cold sandwiches and a bottle of wine together for them, and he’d thought the idea of the ham biscuits would brighten Aidan’s stormy countenance, but there was no such luck. He’d descended once again into the realm of what he should and shouldn’t do and feel.

“Sky, I feel strange,” Aidan said as they made their way down to the solar to dine.

Sky frowned. “Oh?” He didn’t say more than that, didn’t want to unknowingly trip some unwanted triggers in his young hunter.

Sky was shocked when Aidan reached out and took Sky’s free hand and pressed it against his chest. The steady thud of Aidan’s heart beneath his fingertips gave him pause. It was beating much faster than normal. “I feel hostile toward you, and I don’t have a reason to. The old reasons are popping up in my mind, but they don’t feel right, if that makes any sense.”

“Another spell?” Sky asked, placing the basket on the floor before turning his full attention back to Aidan. He was sick of Jessup’s interfering.

Aidan nodded. “I think so.” Sky found their connection in the mental scape of their bond and saw the sick green light wrapped like a snake around the bit of cord closest to Aidan. He had caught it before Sky.
Maybe he’s learning, absorbing, and applying more than I’m giving him credit for.
If this was any indication, Aidan was being very apt at protesting loudly but still learning and accepting their bond in the privacy of his mind. The knowledge thrilled the vampire.

Sky leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Aidan’s lips. “I’ve found it. I’m going to unwind it, but it’ll most likely trigger an immediate response. You’ll want to fight me.”

Aidan gave him a lazy grin. “The urge happens a lot with you, love. I think I can handle it.”

Sky nodded and slowly began to untangle the spell. It was meant to cause discord between the people in the bond. The subtlety of the spell wasn’t like Jessup at all. This was something meant to decay the mind and increase in potency over time. It just wasn’t like the man he’d been a fledgling with. Perhaps his blood servant had her hand in this as well. He mentally shrugged. He could only speculate, but it seemed to him that he and Jessup had a lot to discuss before they fought.

“So being the vampire prince of Prussia is a pretty significant position on the continent?” Aidan asked, obviously trying to distract himself from the spell.

“My duties entail the care of many vampire citizens here, yes. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I am a significant to their everyday affairs like Jason Romanoff is to the British. Because of our landscape and the human conflict around us, we don’t often gather in large numbers. Occasionally we host balls and whatnot in places like Berlin, but for the most part, we are solitary by nature. Thus my monarchy is significantly different from the monarchy found in the British Isles.” He almost had it. The head of the thing was embedded deeply in the cord’s core. Mistrust wafted off the line in waves.
If we hadn’t had alchemy this would’ve destroyed us long ago
. It had to have been in place for some time to grow this large and powerful. How infuriating. Jessup must’ve somehow known that he was traveling to London to speak with Aidan, because it had to have been in place almost a full year. Their alchemy bond had saved them.

“What are you doing? It feels rather unpleasant,” Aidan said through gritted teeth. No doubt digging the thing out would cause a great deal of pain. It wasn’t something that Sky relished doing.

“I can’t get it out without some discomfort,” Sky explained. Discomfort was an understatement, but maybe he could circumvent some of it by taking it into himself.
Can I concentrate through the pain, though
? He wasn’t entirely sure, but he would definitely try.

“I’m a MacGregor,” Aidan snipped, looking thoroughly offended at the thought that the discomfort would somehow deter Sky from making the attempt. The vampire’s lips twitched. His lover was really something else. Truly.

“Here it goes,” Sky warned. He gathered as much of Aidan’s mind into his that he could fit in an effort to buffer the sensation before he grabbed the spell and pulled. Almost immediately, streaks of pain radiated off the wound, making the two of them cry out in unison. It felt like a burn only a thousand times worse. Sky started to sweat. He didn’t know how much longer he could keep this up.