STORY EXCERPT

Josh grabbed the man by the back of the neck and pulled him away, ignoring his shocked cry. He half expected the man to start attacking him with the bat, but he didn’t. Josh didn’t want whoever this was to get slashed into ground beef because he was standing too close to a vampire.

“I’m sorry, boss,” Bailey said, and the man was panting for breath, like he couldn’t believe this had even happened.

“Don’t worry about it. Give me your gun,” he said when he heard the links of the cuffs start to stretch and break.

Bailey did as he was told. Josh didn’t waste any time. He pointed and shot, putting the creature down before it could escape and kill them all. There was almost nothing that could be done for a vampire that was so far gone. It was better this way, especially if they were taking prisoners as feeders.

Josh gave Bailey his gun back, and he turned to look at the young man, who was staring at the vampire with wide, fearful eyes. Josh noticed right away that one of his eyes was blue and the other was green. That was…interesting. Josh had never seen that on a person before. It was kind of pretty.

“Can you tell me your name?” Josh asked.

The man didn’t look away from the vampire. He kept right on staring at him, breathing heavily, and Josh was immediately worried that he was going into shock.

“Hey, hey, look at me,” Josh said, and he put his hands on the man’s shoulders, forcing him to turn around and look him in the eyes.

The lack of defenses that Josh saw in them made him gasp. No one could express everything they were feeling with just a look, not the way this young man was right now. There was all kinds of fear and terror in his eyes, but he was also staring at Josh with so much hope and wonder, as if he’d never seen anyone or anything so magnificent.

Okay, that had to be just inside of Josh’s own head, which meant that he needed to get his ego checked out and fast. “Are there any more of them in the house?”

The man didn’t speak. He just shook his head.

Josh needed a little more clarification than that. “No? There are no more vampires?”

Another head shake.

“What about feeders?” Josh asked, and he gestured to the man’s bites, which were everywhere. Josh wouldn’t be surprised if those vampires had been feeding from him at the same time. He tried to be gentle about it, not wanting to cause the man anymore pain and grief, but he hardly reacted at all. “Are there more people in the house that the vampires were feeding from?”

This time there was a nod, and Josh sighed before he turned to Bailey. “Radio this in. We need an ambulance in here right now. There’s at least one survivor of a feral vampire nest with potentially several more.”

“My radio was smashed by the vamp, I need to go out to the cruiser.”

“Go do it then,” Josh said, and he turned back to the young man in front of him, who was still staring at him with that fantastical expression on his face.

“Can you show me where the others are?” Josh asked.

He nodded, and then reached for Josh’s hand, pulling him through the house. Josh was fairly certain that all the vampires were dead, but he still kept his eyes and ears open in case there was another attack.

This was a farmhouse, not some huge gothic mansion that other vampires liked to live in, but it was still a fairly big farmhouse. There were three stories, and Josh wasn’t at all shocked when, instead of taking him upstairs, the young man started leading him into the basement.

It was like there was a whole other house down here, and he needed to pull out his flashlight in order to see. The young man he was with got around just fine.

Of course vampires would sleep in a basement in an abandoned house. At one point, the previous owners had furnished the place down here, so there were multiple rooms.

The young man brought him to one room in particular, and he opened the door and pointed inside.

Josh’s heart sank at the sight. There had to be at least ten people in here, men and women of varying ages, all of whom were lying on mattresses on the floor. They were dirty, some were cuddled together, and others were wrapped up in their own corners with filthy blankets.

The young man entered the room, and he took the hands of one of the people lying on the thin mattress before looking back up at Josh expectantly.

Josh entered the room, and he knelt down and put his hand on the neck of the man whose hand Josh’s rescuer held onto so tightly. The man looked older, but just as skinny and pale as Josh’s rescuer. Unlike Josh’s rescuer, he was dead. Very clearly dead. Josh only had to touch him to know that the stiff body would reveal no pulse.

He looked around at the others, all pale and unmoving, as if in sleep, and all covered with the same bite marks that were on Josh’s rescuer.

“I’m sorry,” Josh said, meaning it and knowing that it wasn’t enough. “There’s nothing I can do for him now.”

The man’s chin trembled, and tears flooded those different-colored eyes as he looked down at his friend.

Josh reached for him, overcome with the urge to hold and comfort, when Bailey’s heavy feet sounded just outside, and then the rookie was in the doorway, looking inside with his flashlight. “Jesus Christ,” he said.

“Call dispatch back,” Josh said. “We only have one survivor.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Josh pressed a comforting kiss to his mouth, and Cecil melted into it.

“Don’t worry about it. Just try not to be too rough with me. I don’t heal like the others in this house do,” he said.

It was strange for Cecil to think of his master, his strong, proud master who walked like a confident alpha, as being fragile, but he supposed it made sense, in a way. Josh was still human, and Cecil had seen enough humans broken by vampires over the years to know that they could look strong, but that didn’t mean they were.

No. Josh was strong. He was strong in body and mind, and Cecil just had to make sure he kept his wolf in check when they were together.

Josh’s eyes flickered from Cecil’s to his lips, which was when he leaned down and pressed another kiss to his mouth. Cecil adored it, he cried out for it, and he wanted it more than anything else in the world.

His wolf yipped and danced around within him, but Cecil heeded Josh’s words and kept the animal under as much control as he possibly could. His claws were back out, but now Cecil knew better than to dig them into Josh’s tender flesh.

Josh started to move his body, the weight of him pushing Cecil down onto the soft mattress as they humped against each other, cocks rubbing together and creating the best sort of pleasure that Cecil had ever had.

Josh wasn’t even inside of him yet.

Cecil reached down and grabbed onto the firm swell of Josh’s ass, pulling him closer, as close as they could get, and he moaned when Josh thrust harder against him just as the man’s tongue licked deep into Cecil’s mouth.

Oh! It was better! It was better than anything Cecil had ever had because Josh cared about him! This proved it! The other masters didn’t care at all for Cecil’s pleasure whenever they’d had him, and even though Septimus had tried his best to make sure that Cecil was always loved and well taken care of, even his touch, which had been pleasant and comforting, didn’t compare to this.

Cecil was never going to accept anything else. This was where he belonged.

He had to pull his mouth away from Josh’s to make sure that his master knew that well enough. “Put…put your cock inside of me. Claim me, please. I want to be yours.”

Josh groaned. “Fuck, I think I’m the one that’s yours.”

Josh? Belonging to Cecil? His new master had a strange way of looking at the world, but if it was his way, then Cecil would gladly accept it.

“Where’s your…? Fuck, this is my room. I don’t have any lube in here,” Josh said, and he stopped what he was doing to put his face on the crook of Cecil’s throat.

His breath tickled, and it was kind of like being hugged, the way his master was lying on top of him. Cecil liked it, but he figured he should tell Josh that he was already set for him.

“I got myself ready before coming in here,” he said.

Josh’s head sprung up, and he stared down at Cecil with those wide blue eyes of his. Now that Cecil was looking at them up close, he was pretty sure he’d never seen that shade of blue before on anyone else in his life.

“Are you serious?” Josh asked.

Cecil was very serious. “I got used to doing that since my other masters wouldn’t always take the time. It was better to make sure I was ready before going to their rooms than hoping they would do it themselves.”

Josh winced at that. “I would’ve taken the time. I wouldn’t have done that to you.”

“I know,” Cecil said, and he let his fingers run through Josh’s hair one more time. He couldn’t get over the softness against his fingertips. “But I wanted to be ready anyway. For you. So there would be no…I can’t think of the word.”

“Hesitating?”

Cecil nodded.

“I’m just going to check,” Josh said, and he got up onto his knees. “Lift your hips and spread your knees apart. I won’t hurt you.”

“I know,” Cecil said. There was no one in the world he trusted more, and when he felt the press of Josh’s fingers against his hole, checking the slick texture of the lubricant that Cecil had stolen from one of the bathrooms, and then pushing his fingers inside to make sure he was stretched enough, Cecil’s heart beat faster in his chest as pleasure came onto him.

It was mild at first, but then stronger still when Josh touched his prostate. He moaned out loud and gripped the sheets beneath him, using his claws and ripping into the material.

He wasn’t worried about a punishment for destroying such nice linens. Josh wouldn’t punish him for it. He was too good, and it allowed Cecil to really enjoy himself as his mate played around with him.

“You do feel like you were very thorough,” Josh said, and there was a note of approval in his tone that Cecil liked.

His master scissored his fingers around some more, though he didn’t need to, but when he did, shots of pleasure rode up Cecil’s spine from that nice little spot that Josh kept right on touching.

Cecil moaned and thrust his ass against the man’s hand, wishing it was his cock instead, but he was too mindless with pleasure to give a voice to his needs.

Then Josh’s hand was curled around the base of Cecil’s cock, squeezing him tight and stopping him from coming. The grip was so strong that there was no point in thrusting his dick into it, since there would be no friction there. The entire point was to keep him from coming to his pleasure.

Cecil let out a keening wail. “No, master, please, I want to come.”