Blood of the Dead, page 20
He pressed his lips against me again. “Tell me its forever, Jack,” he whispered.
I twisted toward him, and caught his chin, looking into his eyes and seeing not just my reflection, but all the rest of our lives, stretched out in front of us.
“It always was,” I told him, right before I kissed him.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Luna
The next day I probably could’ve done with some sort of sitz bath, but I made do with ibuprofen and waited impatiently for the vampires in my life to wake up while moving as little as possible. I was pleased when Zach showed up with beer, though, right before sundown.
“We need to make some life plans.”
He squinted at me. “But I thought you were dying?”
“I am—but—someone has to keep an eye on them while I’m out. And—someone human needs to help Jack hold Dark Ink down during the day. He’s good at soft skills and tattooing, but kind of shit at computers.”
“You do realize we can hear you?” Jack asked, from the darkness of his bedroom.
“Shh,” Paco chastised him. “I want to hear my all flaws.”
“You don’t have any,” I said with petulance, as the two of them emerged.
“Is there a rush?” Jack asked. His hair was askew, and he looked like he could use a shower—in fact he already had a towel around his waist in hope.
I’d only been waiting seven years of my life for this—what was another thirty minutes?
“Sure,” I said, crossing my arms, and then shouted “Hey!” as Paco followed Jack into the bathroom.
“I want to brush my teeth, Luna,” he complained.
“Hanky-panky can wait ’til after I’m dead!” I called after him, and then heard muffled laughing from behind the bathroom door.
But both of them came out of the back relatively quickly, much cleaner then they’d gone in, dressed and handsome, and they sat by Zach on the couch to look at me.
Waiting, I realized, for instruction.
Vampires.
Men!
“Okay—do you still have a job, after gallivanting off with us for five days?” I decided to start with Zach since he was easiest.
Jack leaned forward. “Wait, what the fuck day is it now?”
I ignored him, and Zach winced. “No—my boss fired me after my second no-show.”
“All right. Well, you live just down the hall, so moving your stuff over here will be easy—after I have died,” I said, putting a hand to my chest, and then I looked to Jack. “And I assume you’ll hire him to replace me and sort out Dark Ink again?”
“For the third time, sure,” Jack said, although I watched him blow air through pursed lips, seeming daunted.
Paco gave all of us a mildly irritated look. “You all act like I’m not financially solvent.”
“We’re not used to that,” Jack told him.
“Oh, I am—I’m just not used to vampires sharing,” I said. “But don’t think I didn’t notice your black Amex when I was in your wallet.”
Jack turned to look at him, a little wounded.
“What?” Paco said. “It’s not like I could ever take you out to dinner or a show.”
“Nothing,” Jack said in return. “It just would’ve been nice to know I was dating a rich guy.”
“You came over to where I lived, Jack,” Paco protested—and then realized Jack was having him on, when Jack cracked himself up.
“I came over there more than once,” he said, heavy with innuendo, snickering, as Paco reached over to shove his shoulder, and Zach laughed.
“And back to the business at hand!” I said, with a dramatic clap for their attention. “If no one in this room is going to starve while I’m not here personally providing for them for three days, then I’m ready to become a vampire.”
The rest of them looked to Jack, and he looked at me. “Is there a ceremony?” he asked.
“Usually.” I’d only seen one once, when Rosalie turned Tamo.
It was pretentious as fuck.
Jack made a noise and squinted. “I’ve watched The Exorcist a hundred times. I can fake some Latin,” he teased, and then recovered. “But for real, Luna. Tell us what you want, and we’ll do it.”
I looked between him and Paco, and felt unfamiliar butterflies in my belly. “Honestly? I think I just want to get it over with.” The whole concept felt a little bit like losing my virginity—like it probably wasn’t going to be that fun until I was on the other side.
“And who do you want to go with?” Paco asked.
I gawked at him. “I hadn’t realized I had options.”
“I just watched you manage up a fallen angel for most of a week. It makes me really sad you want to become a vampire—although I get your reasons why—because if you were staying human? I’d hire you in a second,” Paco told me—and the butterflies in my stomach rose up into my heart.
Rosalie had held the knowledge of my imminent demise over me like the pendulum over the proverbial pit, but things didn’t have to be like that, and both of them were living proof.
“I feel emotionally indebted to you,” I told Jack, then I looked at Paco longingly. “But you seem so much more responsible.”
“Can’t you do both of them?” Zach asked.
The vampires looked at each other, and then at me. “Kind of like a vampire baby?” Jack asked.
“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” I said.
Paco shrugged. “I mean, I’m not averse.”
“I’ll be right back,” Zach said, then went for the door.
“If we do this, you do get that I won’t actually be your child though, right? Like—you won’t both be able to boss me around?” I asked them.
“True. But . . . just think of the fact that if anything bad happened to you, you’d have two really angry vampire dads to kick some ass,” Jack said, seeming enamored with the idea.
“Like I would ever need ass-kicking help,” I said, rolling my eyes, but on some level I’d never admit aloud, I was charmed.
Zach returned quickly, with a solo cup, and set it down on the coffee table in front of the other men. “It’s red,” he announced, and when none of the rest of us caught on, he continued. “You know, for blood,” he said, then looked at me. “Don’t worry, I washed it out.”
“Well,” I said, picking it up. “Let’s get this party started, shall we?” I firmly handed the cup over.
It only took a second for Jack and Paco to fearlessly bite into their own wrists and milk a few tablespoons each of blood out for me—Jack first, and then Paco—and I took the cup from him.
“Aren’t you going to ask me?”
He shook his head at me with a smile. “No—you know you’re ready. And it’s none of my business besides.”
“Bottom’s up, Luna,” Jack said.
I took my last human moment to look into the cup. “About time,” I said, and then slugged it back, like it was a shot of tequila. Jack stood and took the cup from me, bringing me in with an arm to kiss the top of my head.
“See you in three days, Moonchild,” he told me.
And “Oh, that name is not going to—” were the last words that left my mortal lips.
Chapter Forty
Jack
A month later, the chaos at Dark Ink was almost sorted, Zach seemed to be picking up the daytime work-flow nicely, and I was staying late to hold down the fort, drawing flash.
The doorbell rang as someone came in though—and when I looked up, I was surprised to see Sam, in a much cleaner suit, with her hair freshly cropped. I stood up instantly to greet her, but before I could say anything, she said, “So I heard you turned that girl.”
“It’s nice to see you too,” I said, lifting up both my hands. “Guilty as charged—but she’s the only other person I’m turning. I swear.”
“Better be,” she lightly threatened. “I’d hate to come over here because I actually had to.” Her eyes roved up and down me. “You look well.”
“I have a job I enjoy and two hot guys who love me to come home to every morning. My life is pretty fucking spectacular.”
Her dark lips flickered with a smile. “And your other progeny is keeping his nose clean?”
“Paco’s adaptable as hell, what can I say?” He was somehow making his job work for him—he’d told everyone he had some rare “allergic to the sun” genetic thing that’d suddenly come on—I think he took a bit of a page from Luna, in that regard, once she’d explained to me what’d really been happening to her. Seeing as Vegas was a 24/7 town, though, it wasn’t hard for him to make arrangements to just work nights, like me. “And how are you?” I asked her.
“Good. Rehydrated. Took a couple of days’ worth of IV fluids.”
“I didn’t realize we were down there for so long, Sam,” I said, sitting back down. “It didn’t feel like that to me.”
“Yeah?” she asked, moving to lean against the counter. “What was it like?”
“Strange. And kind of depressing. It showed me a lot of other peoples’ lives. To make me jealous, I think, and then sad—maybe lonely. Like it wanted to numb me down and make me think I didn’t care.”
“But it couldn’t shake you, eh?” she asked.
“If you want to know if there’s another tentacle-roach thing inside me,” I said, holding a hand over my stomach while I made a disagreeable face, “the answer is I really fucking hope not.”
She lightly laughed. “We hope that too.”
“How’d you make it all that time alone in the dark?”
“Well, I had water, thanks to you. And then, at the end, when I’d about given up, and figured I should just stake you . . . I went over there to find out you’d written ‘Jack loves Paco’ on the ground like some kind of second grader, and I couldn’t bring myself to do it.” She used a sing-songy voice, and made a heart in the air with her hands to make fun of me.
“When you say it like that, it sounds silly,” I said, bowing my head and feeling sheepish.
“It’s not, Jack. It’s really kind of the whole reason we’re here,” she said, pulling at a suit lapel and indicating the rest of her Faithful kind. “We just lose track of it sometimes,” and after a slight pause, she continued. “So I sat over there, with you, for days.” When I blinked, she added, “You were close enough to the water that I could take off my coat and put a sleeve in it to soak and suck.”
I was mystified at that. “How many other vampires have you killed?” I wondered aloud.
She shook her head. “Don’t ask.”
I inhaled and nodded deeply. “All right. What about that weird little knife that Luna had?”
“It’s gone now—in an Ark-of-the-Covenant-at-the-end-of-the-first-Indiana Jones-movie sense. No one’s going to be summoning that creature again for a long, long time.”
“Glad to hear it.”
She pushed herself up and off the counter. “So I guess this is it for now, Jack. As long as you stay out of our hair, we’ll stay out of yours.”
“You don’t really have much hair—” I started in, then she gave me a glare that let me know I should butt out of her sartorial choices. I grinned at her regardless. “That doesn’t mean you have to be a stranger.”
She smiled back, but it was wistful. “It’s probably better if it does.”
“Well, if you ever want a late-night tattoo—”
“I know where to go.” Sam offered her hand out, and I crossed the room to shake it warmly. “Also—when Nilesh stops boning your friend, will you tell her to send him back?”
I laughed. “I’ll text her when I get off.”
“You do that,” she said, and saw herself out the door.
I drove one of Paco’s cars home at the end of my shift, timing it so I’d get home with an hour to spare, like I always did.
“Honey, I’m home!” I announced after I’d let myself in—we’d upgraded our digs to an actual rental house, also thanks to Paco. Having a boyfriend with a high credit score was amazing.
“Which honey?” someone upstairs shouted back.
“The handsome one!” I said, kicking off my shoes.
“Hey!” said a second someone upstairs, pretending to be affronted.
I ran up the stairs two by two, and burst into our bedroom, where we’d created the biggest bed we could—two queens jammed together. The master bedroom space was the reason we’d picked this house out—that and the view. Paco’d had them rig the window up with some wild panic-room-level metal security curtain to keep out the sun during the day—we were definitely not getting our deposit back—but at night we could leave it open, look out, and let the air flow in, which I loved.
Not that either of them were appreciating it right now, they were playing a video game—some sort of football thing, on our new big screen.
I grinned, and clambered on the bed to join them, flopping down between them hard enough to make both of them bounce. “Who’s winning?” I asked.
Paco looked over at me, then did an exaggerated double-take between me and the screen, before making a show of tossing his controller before coming my direction. “You,” he said, purring, and then pouncing on my neck.
He didn’t have to encourage me—I was already clawing his shirt up.
“Wait—no—Jack—he only wants to fuck you because he’s losing,” Zach informed me.
“No one likes a tattletale,” Paco complained, though I could feel him laugh against me.
Zach snickered. “You’re just jealous that you’re immortal, and I’m still better than you at Madden.”
“Shh, Sunshine, we each have our skills,” I said, reaching for him as well.
He gave his controller a dramatic touch before carefully setting it down on the nightstand. “This game isn’t over. It’s just paused,” he told Paco, but then both of his hands were quickly on his shirt.
“I’ll pause you,” Paco threatened with a grin, as Zach grinned back—and he was already hard. I could see his outline through his sweatpants.
“Let’s get those off of you,” I said, grabbing his waistband and hauling them down. “I want to taste you,” I told him, leaning up. He didn’t question me, he just crawled up the bed to stick his dick in my mouth.
“Jack,” he whispered, running a hand through my hair, as Paco worked at my belt to take off my jeans.
I wrapped an arm around Zach’s hips to keep him there and started sucking—because racing the dawn was our new favorite thing. Making Zach come twice before the sun rose was the goal, but if we could make him come three or four times, it was all the better.
His hand in my hair clenched into a fist against my scalp and I could taste the bitter salt of his precum in my mouth. I wriggled a little to help Paco free me, but kept my face buried against Zach’s flat stomach as much as I could, dropping my throat open to suck him down to his hilt, as his ass clenched and his hips started to thrust at me.
There’d been a brief time after we’d all gotten together when Zach had been embarrassed to come so quickly and so hard for us, but Paco and I had gone out of our way to convince him that that was the point. So when Zach’s other hand found its way into my hair I made an encouraging sound, and reached up to stroke his sack, wanting him—dying for him—to empty into me.
He cried out sharply as his hips stuttered and his cum poured down my throat, and his orgasm washed over me. I didn’t know what it was like for Paco, we didn’t compare notes, but every time Zach came around me, I couldn’t imagine anything more perfect or more sweet.
I sucked off of him carefully, swallowed, and looked up at him adoringly.
“I will never get tired of watching that,” Paco said.
“I know, right?” I agreed.
“Sunshine, come here and blow me?” he asked Zach, who gave him a dizzy yet obliging look.
“Only if you admit that I was going to win,” he said, grinning, but falling on all fours to crawl over.
“Fine,” Paco said with mock spite, grabbing his dick to wave in Zach’s direction.
He didn’t have to ask Zach twice, though, as Zach caught the head of him eagerly, and started working his way down Paco’s shaft. Paco swung his hips forward and rocked his head back. “You feel so good,” he crooned to Zach as I rose up to rifle through the nightstand.
“Zach, can I fuck your ass?” I asked him.
He didn’t pull off of Paco to answer me though—he just temptingly wriggled.
That was all the permission I needed. I put him through his paces with my fingers while he kept blowing Paco, the both of them moaning, until I could saddle up. I both watched and felt his ass take me and let out a low groan—and then Zach himself slid back, coming off of Paco, to wring his hands into the sheets, as he bobbed on and off of me.
“This what you want, Sunshine?” I asked, grabbing hold of his hips.
I heard him swallow and watched him nod. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “Use me.”
My eyes met Paco’s over Zach’s back, to give him a knowing look, and then Paco bent down. “You can tell us what you want, and we’ll give it to you—but you have to be louder.”
I watched Zach’s blood soar inside him, flushing all of him a beautiful shade of pink. “Use me,” he said, slightly more bold.
This was the next phase of Zach’s training—not only getting him to ask for what he wanted, but to do it proudly, because when he was with us, he never had anything to be ashamed of.
Paco took Zach’s lovely face between his hands. “You want me to watch Jack fuck you?” he asked.
“Yes—but I want to keep on sucking your dick.”
Paco did not have to be asked twice. He tilted Zach’s chin up with a hand, and guided himself back through Zach’s lips. “You’re so fucking hot, Sunshine—and I can’t believe we both get to fuck you,” he told him.
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” I said, and started stroking.
Zach was always so responsive, and always so tight, sometimes I felt like I was riding a thoroughbred when I was fucking him. I didn’t want to hurt him, but the way I felt when I was in his ass made me want to chase my orgasm down, so I was always tempted. It was far safer to be on the other side of him, where Paco was right now plundering his mouth, and I knew from having been there myself that Zach’s eyes would be rolled back in bliss.
