Apocalyptic Page 6

  Alexa reached between us, finding me hard and ready. How could I not be with her hot sex nestled against my shaft? She rose up to take me inside her. I watched her face intently as she filled herself with me. In so many ways.

  The frown was replaced by serene calm. Her brown eyes closed, and she let out an exhalation of breath. Releasing a demon I couldn’t see. I felt it leave her in the sudden absence of the dark cloud that stormed her.

  The same storm that drove Arys crazier each night. I’d felt it with him tonight too. In the office at Doghead.

  Arys was in worse shape than Alexa, though she wasn’t doing too hot herself. Since she’d made Willow human, I’d watched the two of them unravel faster than ever before. But I also watched them fight through it. Being together was a battleground, as was being apart.

  It scared the hell out of me that they’d had such a close call tonight and I hadn’t been there. It could have all been over. If anything happened to her, I’d be wrecked. Completely annihilated. If they destroyed each other I’d be wrecked and alone.

  Maybe not entirely alone. I had the pack. And Kylarai. But my greatest fear was a life without Alexa. I saw it when Shya forced us to face our fears in his hell house. And these days when I envisioned my future with her, it included Arys.

  I’m not sure exactly when that happened. Back when Alexa had first turned, she’d run off with Kale. That had left Arys and me to find comfort in each other. We’d bonded over her. It was always about her.

  Then one day it wasn’t. It had been only about him and me, like it had been tonight. We didn’t go to each other now because of Alexa. We went to each other because we wanted to.

  I watched Alexa slide along my length with her eyes closed and head thrown back. One hand on her hip, I guided her motions. At random I’d pull her down hard and thrust up, making her cry out. My other hand was on her slender throat, stroking a thumb over her pulse. Down her chest to cup one of her perfect breasts. I leaned in to suck her nipple into my mouth, grinning when she moaned and moved faster on my cock.

  Hedging the subject of Arys and I had been tough. It was something I’d been thinking about for weeks. Since the night he got on his knees in front of me in the parking lot and asked me if I trusted him. That night, that kiss, it had changed something. Maybe everything.

  I’d been forced to realize that on some level, I did trust Arys. And that on another level, I wanted him. Maybe not with the same intensity with which he wanted me, but there was something there. I’d needed Alexa to tell me it was ok to feel what I felt. That it was ok to explore it should I ever feel ready.

  “Shaz.” My name was a gasp on Alexa’s lips. She moved against me, setting a natural rhythm that hit all the right places. Her favorite power position, I knew, even if she thought I didn’t.

  Touching her face, I waited for her eyes to open. Then I grasped her waist and lifted her off me, hating the moment I slid out of her warmth. It would be brief. I got her up on all fours, taking a moment to admire the view as I knelt behind her.

  She cast a glance back at me, her gaze smoldering. We’d spent the morning enjoying the softer side of things. Slow movements. Gentle caresses. Perfectly timed orgasms to make a fluffy romance novel lover swoon. We’d needed it. To be tender and savor every touch.

  But now I needed to purge myself of a need that had flared to life back in the office at Doghead. With Arys’s fangs buried in my vein.

  With clawed fingertips I held tight to Lex’s sweet behind as I entered her. All the way in one thrust. Deep and hard enough to force a growl from her. Because now she knew what this was. The beast had a carnal urge to purge.

  I paused, giving her exactly seven seconds to prepare herself. She quivered with anticipation. Her claws sliced the sheet beneath her into ribbons. Our wolves reigned as our primal nature took over. There was nothing sweet and romantic about what I was going to do to her.

  On my next thrust she braced for it. Rough and deep, buried to my balls inside her. She groaned and tossed her blonde hair. I didn’t have to see her face to know her eyes would be wolf.

  Faster and harder, I took my mate in a frenzy. She was strong enough to hold her own, taking my thrusts with soft cries and moans. Blood marked her skin where my claws dug in. I eyed the tiny slices, lost in the way it felt to finally release the tension I’d held since Arys had walked into Doghead.

  Since he’d pressed me to the door and claimed me in a way just as intimate as I now claimed Alexa. Maybe more so. And here I was thinking about him while I fucked her.

  I didn’t know what I wanted from Arys. Not really. I just knew it was time to find out. When I let myself think about his hands on me, in places he’d never dared touch, I didn’t hate it. Not anymore. I had at one time. Because I’d felt threatened by him. That had changed.

  A hand on Alexa’s ass, I gripped just a little tighter, scratching a little deeper. Mere surface wounds but enough sting to make her whimper. She loved it. The woman who literally survived on dominating others fucking loved to be dominated.

  The wolf in me brought it out more than the man. The need to claim her in a way that left her shaking and spent. To brand myself on her body and in her memory. She couldn’t be this way with anybody else, the submissive wolf allowing her mate to dominate her like the beasts within demanded. Not just allowing me but trusting me.

  My other hand slid up her back to disappear into a mass of blonde locks. I moved faster, roughly slamming against her. Sweeping her hair aside to bare her neck and shoulders, I grasped the back of her neck.

  The urge to mark her was instinctive. She was mine. I pressed against her, my chest against her back, and bit her. The side of her neck where it curved down toward her shoulder. A sharp snap of fangs that left four gashes that immediately welled with blood.

  Her small yelp was followed by, “Damn you, Shaz.” But she was far from ticked off. She shoved her ass back against me, a challenge.

  The scent of her blood was strong and spicy, like nothing I’d smelled on any creature living or otherwise. She smelled like wolf and felt like heaven.

  I took her hard, until she trembled and begged with a ragged, “Please.” Only then did I reach down and stroke a finger over her clit. She came hard with a snarl and a moan, spasming around my cock. Unable to hold back if I’d even wanted to, I released inside her.

  I collapsed onto the bed and pulled her down with me. Lungs heaving, I hugged her to me, burying my face in her hair. I fucking loved her so hard it hurt.

  She squirmed in my embrace, getting comfy against me. Her lips found my jaw, and her arms curved around my neck. For a long time we just lay there in comfortable quiet.

  Later, when I got up to use the washroom, Alexa called after me, “So how much of that was about Arys?”

  I shut the door and from inside the bathroom said, “Sorry, can’t hear you. Door is closed.”

  I heard her mutter, “That’s what I thought.”

  Smirking to myself in the mirror on the way to the john, I paused, my gaze drawn to the vampire bite on my neck. Arys’s bite. So maybe I did want to put my own mark on him. Maybe I even wondered how he’d respond. What it would take to make Arys submit.

  I touched the tiny healing wounds. It brought back a rush, a memory.

  Finding out would have to wait. Before my own personal feelings and urges could be explored or even considered, I had to keep my vampires from destroying one another.

  By the time I returned, Lex was asleep. Fitfully, like usual. The crease between her eyes had returned.

  I grabbed my phone from my jeans on the floor and settled back into bed beside her. Without waking, she curled in close. With one arm around her, I held the phone with the other. I punched out a slow message one damn letter at a time. I didn’t hesitate before sending it. To Arys.

  I marked her. But it should have been you.

  It wasn’t that I didn’t want Lex to bear my mark. Hell yes I did. All the time if that were possible. It was that Arys never h
ad, despite the many times I’d bore his.

  Staring at the screen, I could practically feel him reading it on the other end. He wasn’t asleep. Knowing Arys, he was lounging in his favorite recliner, drawing.

  His reply was so typically Arys. Gladly.

  Dropping the phone back onto the floor, I cuddled in closer to Lex and let the sound of her slumber lull me.

  * * * *

  “Shit, Arys isn’t answering. I can’t believe I slept that long.” Shaking her phone in frustration, Alexa rushed around, searching for her car keys. “He could be anywhere. We have to find him. Fuck, I told Gabriel I’d meet him. Why are you laughing?”

  I couldn’t help it. She was too cute. We hadn’t slept in that late. It was just an hour past sunset.

  “I’m sure he’s fine, Lex. If you’re so worried, reach out to him.” I fetched the keys from the kitchen table where they were partially hidden beneath a stack of mail.

  She considered this and shook her head. A long blonde braid snaked over her shoulder, writhing as her head moved. “I can’t handle being in his head right now.”

  Spying the keys I held out to her, she sighed and plucked them from my hand. Taking advantage of her closeness, I pulled her into a hug. “He’ll turn up. I plan to keep a much closer eye on you two from here on out.”

  “Good.” She gave me a squeeze before pulling away. “Me and Gabriel have a vampire to hunt, and I don’t need to worry about Arys hunting me at the same time.”

  That was exactly what I wanted to keep from happening. Again. If I had to watch every move Arys made, I would.

  We left Alexa’s house at the same time. She headed to The Wicked Kiss. I swung by Arys’s place only to find it empty. He’d probably left the moment the sun set. On the prowl. Arys could be anywhere, but if I knew him, and I did, he’d go where he expected her to go. He couldn’t stay away from her. They would always be pulled back together.

  By the time I reached The Wicked Kiss, Alexa could have only beat me there by about twenty minutes. More than enough time for her to walk in and find Arys feasting on Ebyn, Alexa’s occasional willing victim. And it was certainly more than enough time for the two of them to get in each other’s face about it.

  When I arrived Arys and Alexa stood near the couches where Ebyn sat looking dazed. They faced off, glaring daggers. It was relatively early yet. The club had yet to reach its busiest. Arys had wasted no time getting here and getting frisky with Alexa’s friend.

  For no other reason than to get a rise out of her, he had come here to mess with Ebyn. Arys’s strong jaw was set in satisfaction, his dark-blue eyes alight with mischief. So tightly wound they both were. It’s like he wasn’t even trying to resist anymore. Just giving in to his many dark urges.

  “Starting to dip into the wolf on the regular now, are you? In what scenario do you see that being a good thing for you, Arys? For us?” Alexa’s voice carried as she growled into his face. Hands clenched into fists, she shook from the effort it took not to slug him.

  Smug and unapologetic, Arys eyed her with cool detachment. “It’s keeping me from dipping into you. Is that not a good thing, my love?”

  Studying them both as I approached, I quickly assessed how close they were to blows. A twitch in Arys’s jaw. A flash of wolf in Alexa’s eyes. Getting close.

  “You have no right to come here whenever you feel like it and help yourself to Ebyn like he’s on the menu,” she snapped, easing forward a step.

  This had probably been going for several minutes before I arrived. I glanced around for some backup. If I needed to separate them, a little help would be nice.

  Arys regarded her with ice-cold hostility. As if he wanted to snap her like a twig. “Your problem, Alexa, is that you don’t like to share. Time to take that stick out of your ass and lighten up a little.”

  Stick in the ass comment? Yeah, that shit didn’t fly with Lex.

  I broke into a sprint, crossing the bar in a few strides. I saw it coming seconds before she lunged at him. Arys stood there and took the fist she threw in his face. His grin widened and he flashed fangs. A shiver crept down my spine.

  He stopped her next punch by snatching her wrist before her fist could bounce off his face again. He twisted it slowly, until she snarled and raised her other hand to blast him.

  As I reached them Jenner rounded the corner from the back. He’d likely sensed the commotion. We shared a look and jumped in. I didn’t grab for Alexa though. I knew better. I left her to Jenner and went for Arys.

  Since Jenner had revealed how bad things had gotten in Las Vegas, he and Arys were on shakier ground than usual. That was really saying something. Just like siblings they were, they hated each other most of the time, but when push came to shove, they had each other’s back.

  Still, Arys would respond better to me than to Jenner. Both hands on his shoulders, I backed him up several feet. He tried to stare around me at Alexa, but I kept putting myself in his line of view.

  “Just couldn’t stay away, could you?” I slugged him in the shoulder. Though playing it cool, I readied for him to make a move. “Ebyn? Really, Arys? Could you be any more obvious? Stop trying to set Alexa off. Do I have to shadow your every move?”

  That got his attention. He quit trying to shoot a glare at Lex and met my gaze instead. Something manic glowed in the depths of his sinful blue eyes. “Does that include showers and naked Tuesdays?” he asked, brow raised in thoughtful consideration.

  “Naked Tuesdays? You just made that up.”

  “Yeah, well if you’re going to shadow my every move then I’ll make it happen.” Arys shoved closer, almost bumping his chest against mine.

  His effort to be intimidating was overshadowed by the steady pulse of sex-charged power he couldn’t help but leak with every breath. Lex was running hot tonight too. I expected a lot more of this from both of them as time ran shorter. Not wanting to tempt him, I tried to keep from reacting. The text message I’d sent him made that harder.

  Knowing better than to encourage Arys when he was like this, I put a hand on his shoulder and steered him toward the door. “Let’s go shoot some pool or something. Somewhere that isn’t here.”

  A glance back at Lex, I caught her eye. Her lips moved as she spewed something irate at Jenner. Feeling my stare, she looked over. Relief swept her face. She saw me herding Arys to the exit and mouthed, Thank you, before blowing me a series of kisses.

  I’d do whatever I could to hold them together. But I was only one man. I could do only so much. We needed a solution and we needed it fast.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  I watched Shaz guide Arys out of my bar, feeling both relieved and gutted as they disappeared through the exit. Walking in to find my dark vampire fangs deep in my favorite willing playmate had shattered the simple joy of seeing him after being apart all day. In a heartbeat it had turned missing Arys into loathing him.

  We couldn’t keep doing this. I needed to find Salem or try something without his help, regardless of the risks. I couldn’t wait much longer.

  Quaking with rage and seeping an overflow of energy I couldn’t contain, I let Jenner slip an arm around my shoulders. “Pretty sure I can get a contact high just from touching you. Need a little help taking the edge off?”

  “I’m not screwing you, Jenner. I have a vampire to track. Some of us have work to do instead of lounging around bleeding some pretty thing all night. I don’t expect you to understand.” Though I wouldn’t say so, I found Jenner’s touch both a comfort and a curse. He had a flavor so close to Arys’s.

  I caught myself glancing toward the back hall. Looking for Kale. I still did it sometimes. Every now and then I got a hit of honey-drenched energy that stopped me in my tracks. Then it would be gone, like I’d imagined it. Times like this, when things were at their worst with Arys, I missed Kale the most. I automatically wanted to run to him. But I could never do that again.

  “Maybe if you tried it my way more often you’d be able to relax.” Pressing his face to my
hair, Jenner purred, “You smell like wolf and sex, but you feel like a bomb about to go off. Intoxicating as fuck. Let me help.”

  I wore Shaz’s scent like a perfume. That too brought me comfort. The healing wolf bite on the back of my neck ached slightly, reminding me of the thrill of being taken so forcefully by my wolf.

  Every now and then his dark side slipped out. Lilah had said I was drawn to the darkness in each of my lovers, and she’d been right. Shaz’s dark side showed its face in werewolf death fights, dominating sex, and bite-junkie thrills.

  His sudden need to mark me in every way had manifested right after he brought up the subject of Arys. Specifically, being intimate with Arys. Whatever was brewing between those two, it had gotten under Shaz’s skin.

  “You want to help? Make yourself useful and get Ebyn home to ride out his high.” I gestured to the loopy werewolf slumped on the sofa.

  “Not happening, V.” Ebyn waved a hand to get the waitress’s attention. “The night is young. I’m not going anywhere.” When his hand dropped, he almost tumbled to the floor.

  He wasn’t hurt, not really. Just stupidly high and annoying, the way wacked out people can be. Both Jenner and I ignored him.

  Jenner playfully tugged the end of my fishtail braid. “I meant let me help take the edge off a little. Give you a little pick me up. Why should the werewolf get to have all the fun?”

  Truth be told, I felt like I was bursting at the seams. The encounter with Arys, short lived but potent, had left me feeling manic. Like I needed to make someone bleed.

  I turned to face Jenner, scanning his handsome face. I supposed I could bleed him. It might be good to loosen up a bit before meeting Gabriel to track Lizzy.

  Putting a hand on Jenner’s chest, I backed him up until he bumped against the easy chair next to the couch. “You want to bleed for me, Jenner? Do you want to be my drug tonight?”