Necessary Passion [Alchemy Mates 3] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (15 page)

Aidan shifted, suddenly intensely aware of what he was committing to. He’d held on to the possibility of escape so long that is was hard to actually make a decision and stick to it. This was forever. “I am staying with you. I want as much freedom as I get. Andren mentioned something about vampires who hunt down rogues?”

Sky nodded. “It is one of the duties as prince to assign those who would hunt down our kind on missions of sorts. It is dangerous work.”

“I’m a dangerous guy. If you can agree to letting me continue hunting, then I’m all-in.”
Christ. I really just said that. I really just committed to staying with Sky in Prussia and being his alchemy mate.
It didn’t shock him as much as it should’ve. All things considered, there was a part of him that had made the decision a long time ago. “I’m yours, Sky Engleman. I have been since the first moment I met you, and you are just as much mine.”

Relief washed over his lover’s face. “Thank God. I was so sure you’d leave at least for a while. You MacGregors are so stubborn…”

Aidan went to his knees beside his lover and pulled the German vampire into his arms. “I know. But once we commit to something, we throw ourselves fully into it.” The need to come together with his lover, to solidify his pledge, pulsed through his veins. His heart rate picked up.

“People will hear us, jäger. You’re not exactly quiet,” Sky whispered, kissing the side of Aidan’s neck.

“Dash them all. I need you. Feed on me, Sky. Show me how good it can be between us.” Aidan didn’t wait for a response. Instead, he pressed his lips to Sky’s and demanded a response in return. He knew the desperate edge he was dancing along had everything to do with the possibility that things would change between them now that the threat of challenge and separation was removed, but he didn’t care. He needed his vampire the same way his vampire needed him.

“Jäger, mine,” Sky growled, all but ripping the rest of Aidan’s clothes off as he pressed him against the carpet they’d set in front of the fire.

“Yours, Sky. Always.”

* * * *

“You have to be kidding me,” Sky said, astonished at what he was looking at. Aidan, Andren, and Lucian were back at the tent waiting for him to finish his meeting. Since they weren’t technically part of his court, they couldn’t attend. It had taken Sky threatening to tie him up to get Aidan to agree to let him come alone. Jessup had apparently gone back to his side of the camp and traced the magic back to its originator after he’d left Sky’s tent last night. The perpetrator was not someone who Sky would ever suspect. “Why, Mahogany?”

“The challenge was going to destroy us, my lord. Even if you won, you would’ve bound some barbarian to our house. The hunter would’ve murdered you in your sleep! Better to lose and have to leave than to be slaughtered by someone in the MacGregor line,” Mahogany said, shaking uncontrollably. Sky was having a very difficult time reconciling the image of the very timid man at his feet to the spell-casting enemy he’d expected.

“Mahogany, why didn’t you talk to me? I could’ve reassured you that Aidan meant no harm to us. He’s my alchemy mate and will become one of our kind very soon.” He frowned. “Why cast a spell on Jessup? And how did you learn the magick to begin with?”

Mahogany trembled harder if that was possible. “Father has been teaching us simple spells for years. It helps with his pain and some household chores. It was easy enough to find some books on bigger spells in your private collection. I thought if I disqualified Jessup, then the hunter would leave. I heard him discussing his options with the other vampire’s hunter and increased the potency a bit. I am so sorry, my lord. I swear, Sky. I meant no permanent harm.” He looked like he was about to cry. “I just wanted to protect you and our family.”

“He has to be punished, Sky. It’s your duty as prince,” Jessup interrupted, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at the terrified servant. “And I will expect retribution for the damage caused and the potential loss associated with his actions.”

“Done and done, Jessup. Really, I know we disagree on almost everything, but can you stop intimidating the boy? He’s scared enough.” They’d always fought like siblings. It was the way of things. It was how he’d approached the whole challenge to begin with. Jessup was the nearest person in his colony to his age, and they’d been fledglings together. He was frustrating beyond belief because of his impulsive nature and swaggering attitude. However, he wasn’t a bad man. Just not as good of a leader as Sky was.

“Always so soft on your servants,” Jessup rumbled, glaring harder. “I demand he be blood bound to someone so that they can keep a better eye on the boy.”

Sky rolled his eyes. “That’s a bit much.”

“Really? He interfered with an official challenge, cast spells on the prince of the coven and his challenger, and stole spells from texts he was never supposed to get his hands on. Where am I overstepping in the punishment?” Jessup asked. Put that way, he had a point. Sky sighed. The boy had been trying to help, even if the spells he cast were malicious in nature.

“Will you remove the spell you’ve put on mine and Aidan’s auras?” Sky asked, addressing the softly weeping servant.

Mahogany nodded. “Yes, my lord. I promise. Please, don’t send me away. I meant no harm.”

This whole situation had suddenly become a very large headache. “You must be blood bound, Mahogany. That means you will serve the vampire of my choosing for eternity. You will age slower than anyone you know, but that will also mean that you will be kept from normal humans after a while because of that fact. You can either accept that, or you can accept being turned completely. What is your decision?”

Jessup snorted, and Sky could’ve sworn that he heard a faint “too damn soft” under the vampire’s breath.

“I don’t know!” Mahogany wailed. Oh, yes. This situation had definitely become a headache.

“I might have a solution, my lords,” a deep baritone voice called from the assembled courtiers.

Jessup’s face lit up in a grin. “Excellent. Sky, have you met my stepson, Rory? He was turned ten years ago and has already succeeded in mastering most vampire magicks and some Fae spells as well. He may be a fledgling, but he is very skilled.”

A towering man with skin the color of deep caramel stepped to the front of the assembly. Mahogany’s eyes widened. Rory nodded his head in Mahogany’s direction. “I could monitor him at your estate as his maker if you will accept me into your home.”

Sky frowned. On one hand, the man could be a spy for Jessup. On the other, he could also act as a go-between to settle whatever disputes the two had once and for all. He glanced at Mahogany. And he could deal with the punishment and care of Mahogany without Jessup getting his feathers ruffled. “Will you treat Mahogany with care and allow him to continue his regular duties in addition to the ones set forth by you?”

Rory nodded. “Of course. He is a bit misguided, but he can make a fine addition to our coven if he is properly trained.” He winked at Mahogany, and Sky thought the boy was going to have a stroke. “In addition, I have to be honest and say that your servant is my alchemy mate, sir. I would be using the time to woo him as well.”

Shock went through Sky, and he saw the emotion reflected perfectly on Jessup’s face. Sky’s lips twitched. In a way, they would be in-laws. He’d considered Mahogany’s family so much his own for quite some time. “Ah, in that case, it would be cruel to keep them apart. Don’t you agree, Jessup?”

Jessup swallowed. “Indeed. Rory, are you sure?”

“I am. Only if the little one agrees, too,” Rory said, staring at Mahogany expectantly.

“You won’t hurt me?” Mahogany asked, his eyes glued to Rory’s face. The attraction was already present. Sky wanted to sigh in relief. Perhaps this situation would work out neatly after all.

“Of course not. I will train you, watch over you, and keep you from getting into trouble, but I would never harm you,” Rory said, gentling his voice to a low purr.

Mahogany looked a little green. “O–Okay. Papa will be happy to have a vampire in the family anyway. He thinks you lot have the better deal of things.”

“Good. We’ll take care of all this before we leave tomorrow. Jessup, is that satisfactory?” Sky asked.

The other vampire nodded. “It seems reasonable to me.”

Sky opened his mouth to say something only to have a bolt of dread go through him as his blood-servant bond snapped. Pain washed over him along with a healthy dose of fear.
What in the hell…
He turned his head back toward his side of the camp and tried to resist the urge to vomit. Aidan. Something had to have happened to Aidan.
I shouldn’t have left him alone
. “I have to go.” He managed to force the words out of his mouth before he turned and bolted toward his tent.

* * * *

He threw open the flap and dove inside, ready to tear into anyone or anything that was harming his lover. The sight before him confused the hell out of him, though. Andren and Lucian knelt on either side of the pallet that he and Aidan had shared the night previously, and Aidan lay on it, obviously unconscious.

“Shh, you’ll wake him. I want him to sleep through most of it,” Lucian murmured, stroking the hair back out of Aidan’s eyes.

“What have you done?” Sky asked, confusion hitting him in waves. The instinctive part of him wanted the other males to get the hell away from his alchemy mate. Another part was curious as hell as to what they were doing.

“Aidan asked us to turn him while you were off doing the prince thing. He didn’t want to wait until we got home because he didn’t think he’d be able to get his courage up a second time,” Andren explained. “I wasn’t conscious for my turning, so I wasn’t sure exactly what was going to happen. Anyway, it’s done now.”

“When he wakes he’s going to be ravenous. I hope you’ll accommodate him, Sky. Though I turned him, Aidan has been most agitated with my caring for him,” Lucian explained. The other male looked pale, no doubt from giving and taking Aidan’s blood during the turning process.

“Of course. He’s mine.” The barely civil words were all Sky could muster. He wanted the other two men out of there. He needed to be with his mate and reassure himself that everything was fine and Aidan would wake.

“All good, I’ll take Lucian to another tent and give him what he needs,” Andren said, his words chock-full of double entendre.

Lucian sighed. “Hunter, you are incorrigible.”

“That’s why you love me, Luc.”

Sky didn’t trust himself to move until they left the tent. Every instinct inside him was screaming for him to go to Aidan’s side and to wake the other man. With a final wave, the couple left, and Sky wasted no time in making his way over to his beloved.

“Aidan, sweet, wake up,” Sky rumbled, eager to have his hunter’s beautiful eyes open. The new fledgling stirred slowly, the tips of his fangs sticking out to rest on his bottom lip as his hunger awakened as well. The sight made Sky’s body throb. He’d always had a thing for men with a nice set of fangs on them. It figured his lover would fulfill this fantasy for him as well.

“Sky?” Aidan asked, his eyes opening. “Hungry.”

“Shh, jäger, I know. I’ll give you what you need.” He stripped off his shirt and tilted his head to the side. This was the beginning of the next step in their new lives together. Aidan struck, and his venom hit Sky’s mind like a freight train, pleasure unlike anything he’d ever experienced followed in its wake. Whatever the future held, this first moment, this beautiful moment, was theirs. All possibilities of abandonment fled as Sky was washed into Aidan’s mind. The commitment was there, blazing strong, as well as the love that was shining almost impossibly bright. He would live with Sky and be a hunter as well. The man was truly equal to him in every way.

“I love you, Sky,”
Aidan said in his mind.
“I always have.”

Sky cried out as Aidan suckled the wound.
“I love you, too, my jäger
.” Then he could think of nothing else as he was swept up in the storm that was his hunter, the word “forever” beating in time with his heart.

THE END

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Jana Downs lives in the beautiful mountains of western North Carolina with three cats, one dog, several dozen fish, and a very understanding partner-in-crime who hates to read but makes exceptions for her stories.

You can usually find her either watching bad reality TV, buying way too many books on Amazon, or dreaming up another man or two to occupy her time, because life is good, but several drop-dead-gorgeous, nonexistent men is just better.

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