Evans, Gabrielle - Hell's Tempest [Fatefully Yours 4] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever ManLove) (14 page)

Echo pointed at the bottle of the lube on the floor but lost his ability to speak when Vapre’s tongue started gliding along the side of his neck. Syn picked up the little tube in a tentative manner, as though it were a deadly snake poised to attack.

Vapre’s arm wrapped around Echo, holding him firmly in place with his back to the warrior’s chest. The demon needn’t have worried. Echo wasn’t going anywhere. He kept his eyes on the pair in front of him, but his body sang from the attention his mate was giving him.

“Are you sure about this?” Syn whispered to Jinx. “I’ll understand.”

He loves him
, Echo thought, and his heart hurt just a little for the man. How awful to have something in front of you that you want so desperately, but not be able to claim it for yourself.

“I want this,” Jinx whispered just as softly. “I’m tired of hiding.”

Yes!
Echo actually bounced a little in Vapre’s lap. His mate, however, seemed completely oblivious to what was going on around him as he humped his hard cock against Echo’s ass.

“You mean…” Syn left the question unasked, but his face looked hopeful.

Jinx held Syn’s face in both hands and looked him right in the eyes. “I love you, Syn. I couldn’t tell you before, but we’re safe here.”

Yes! Yes! Yes!
Maybe not the ideal situation for such a deep confession, but Echo decided to let that slide. He also decided that their current venue was not the appropriate place for the lovers’ first time together either.

Without a hint of disappointment, Echo smiled widely and jerked his head toward the stairs. “Go make love to your man away from perverted eyes.”

“Whose idea was this?” Vapre murmured indignantly against the side of Echo’s throat.

Echo rolled his eyes. “That was before. This is now.” He grinned at the vampires again. “I don’t want to see you again until tomorrow night. You have a lot of time to make up for.”

Though Jinx was only a few inches taller than Syn, he lifted the man easily into his arms, encouraging Syn to wrap his legs around him. Then he claimed his lover’s lips, kissing him with such passion that Echo was amazed that the room didn’t ignite around them. “You heard the man,” Jinx panted. “I have a lot more than time to make up for.” Then he was gone in the blink of an eye, Syn still plastered to him as he raced them up the stairs.

“That was great,” Echo sighed happily.

Vapre chuckled breathily, his hand coming down to wrap around Echo’s pulsing cock. “Oh, it’s about to get even better, baby.”

And it did.

Vapre stroked Echo’s cock, twisting his wrist around the head and dipping his thumb into the slit to smear pre-cum over the spongy crown. It took only minutes to stoke the smoldering embers into a raging wildfire, and Echo gasped as his orgasm raced through him.

“Mine,” Vapre whispered as he nuzzled against Echo’s neck. Then his long canines pushed through the yielding flesh, and he sucked hard, growling and groaning as his body tensed.

Echo felt the warm, slippery wetness of his mate’s release against his backside and moaned loudly when his own climax took him by surprise. Mm, he loved it when his men claimed him. The tiny prick of pain before the intense pleasure took over always left him breathless.

Strings of pearly seed erupted from his cock, coating Vapre’s hand and painting Echo’s lower abs. Sated and unbelievably tired, Echo leaned back against Vapre’s chest and panted.

They’d accomplished nothing. Their problems were still waiting for them, bigger and more perilous than ever. But for just a little while, because of his mate, he’d been able to forget they existed.

“Tomorrow, we get to work,” he whispered.

Vapre extracted his fangs and licked over the claiming bite. “Tomorrow,” he breathed.

Chapter Thirteen

“Perfect!” Echo beamed up at Vapre where the man hovered several feet in the air. The cold wind whipped around them, howling in agitation and freezing Echo down to his bones. “Okay, now come down, and let’s see if we can double that.”

The air began to still, and Vapre floated to the ground with a huge smile on his face. “This is fun.”

“You say that now.” Without waiting for Vapre’s reply, Echo grabbed the warrior’s hands and closed his eyes, dropping all of his guards at once.

Vapre yelped and tried to jerk away, but Echo hung on tight. He’d syphoned a little of Vapre’s gift earlier, and now, he tried to redouble that power and mix in a little of his own as he pushed it toward his mate like a tidal wave.

He really wished he could take more time, work up to it, because he knew from Fiero that the experience was painful and unsettling. They’d been working all week and not getting a hell of a lot accomplished, though. With only three days until the new moon, they were running out of time.

When Echo felt his energy began to wane, he released Vapre’s hands, and the warrior immediately crumpled to the ground, trembling and heaving as he expelled the contents of his stomach. With a heavy sigh, Echo knelt beside him, running his hand up and down Vapre’s spine.

“I’m sorry, love. I know it sucks, but I don’t know what else to do.”

“I’m fine,” Vapre said shakily. He spit a couple of times and wiped a hand over his mouth. “That is some serious shit.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“I don’t remember it being this intense last time.”

“You weren’t getting my full ability then. I was just kind of melding your gift with Fiero’s and vice versa.”

Pushing slowly to his feet, he put a hand on Echo’s shoulder to steady himself then nodded once. “I’m fine,” he repeated. Echo wasn’t sure which of them Vapre was trying to convince. “What do we do now?”

“We’re going to create a tempest.”

Vapre’s head snapped up, and his eyes pinned Echo in place. “What did you say?”

“We’re going to build a storm?” Echo answered hesitantly, though it came out more of a question.

“No, what did you call it?”

“A tempest? Why?”

Vapre shook his head, and his body relaxed. “Just something the Oracle said to me when you were…sick.”

Sick?
That was certainly an interesting way to put it. “What exactly did she say?”

“She told me to be the light in the tempest.”

Echo thought this over for a moment as he scratched at the back of his neck. Knowing the Oracle, which he didn’t really, but he guessed her words held a double entendre, and he said as much to Vapre.

The demon didn’t disagree. “I thought about that. I think I took care of the first meaning. It wasn’t a literal storm, but the emotions raging in that room were comparable to a gale force hurricane.”

“I’m glad you did.” Echo smiled tenderly at his mate. “I love you, yeah?”

Vapre caressed Echo’s cheek with the back of his knuckles, his expression unreadable. “I love you, Echo.”

Echo took just another moment to soak up his warrior’s attention, then took a step back and put on his serious face. “What else does it mean?”

“That we’re going to be facing down Hades’s wrath—a storm of epic proportions.”

“Oh, goody,” Echo quipped sarcastically. “And here I thought this might be hard. We’re just going up against hell’s tempest. That should be a piece of cake.”

“How do you think Gage did during the full moon?” Vapre asked, effectively changing the subject.

“I hope everyone is okay. It’s been over a week, and we haven’t heard a word.” Echo had been taking full advantage of his new mobile phone, calling his lovers at every opportunity. The phone never rang, no one ever answered, and his calls continued to go straight to voice mail.

“Hey, aren’t we supposed to be working here?” Vapre gave his best attempt at a smile, but it fell short in Echo’s estimate. Still, he appreciated the effort.

“Right, let’s get this show on the road,” Echo answered with false bravado. Damn, he missed his men.

“Echo, I play with the wind, but I don’t think I can actually control the weather. How the hell do you expect me to create a storm?”

“We need Eyce.” Saying it out loud only brought home the fact that the man wasn’t there. Echo sighed and closed his eyes for just a second. “He’s not here, though, so we’ll just have to do our best.”

“Do you think it’s wise to do it now? Maybe we should wait.”

“We need to know if this will work. If it doesn’t, we’ll have to come up with a different plan of attack. Have you done any research?”

Vapre hung his head guiltily. “Uh, no, not really. There’s been a lot going on,” he added defensively.

“Fine, you can do that tonight.” Echo wasn’t in the mood for excuses. “Now, give me your hand again. It won’t hurt so much this time,” he said more gently when Vapre flinched. “I need to be touching you if I’m going to help.”

Hesitantly, Vapre placed his hands in Echo’s and squeezed. “What do we do?”

“Close your eyes and picture a massive storm—rolling clouds, huge gusts of wind, torrential downpour—that kind of thing. You know how to use your power to manipulate the wind. Well, just try pushing it further.”

Vapre gave him a skeptical look, but finally closed his eyes and breathed in deeply through his nose. Echo did the same, foregoing the deep inhale in favor of more concentration. He did just as he’d told Vapre, reaching out with his gift to taste the air, touch it, bend it to his will.

It took only minutes for the wind to reach such substantial gusts that Echo actually had to step closer to Vapre to keep from falling over. Vapre’s arms went around him, his big body sheltering Echo from the worst of the wind, and Echo clung to him just as tightly.

He didn’t know how long they stood like that, locked together in the middle of the field behind the house, each concentrating on their own task, but eventually, Echo felt something wet hit his face. Blinking open his eyes, he stayed huddled close to his mate as he peeked up at the darkening sky. He wanted to whoop for joy.

“It’s working,” he yelled to be heard over the roar of the wind. A disturbance in the air caught his attention out of the corner of his eye, and Echo almost choked. “Stop!” he screamed, wrenching himself out of Vapre’s arms so hard he fell on his ass. “Vapre!”

Vapre’s eyes snapped open, and he shook his head as though to clear it. “What?” he shouted.

“Let go! You have to stop!”

Instantly, the wind died down to a gentle breeze, and the clouds began to part, letting through the last lingering rays of daylight.

“Holy shit,” Echo breathed. “You have a
lot
of power, babe.”

Vapre looked around him curiously as he rubbed at his chin. “Why are we stopping? You said it was working.”

“It was working a little too well. You were creating a twister.”

Vapre’s eyes went wide, and he dropped to the ground in front of Echo. “I didn’t mean to do that. I didn’t even know I could.”

“It might come in handy on the new moon, but I’d prefer if our men had a house to come home to right now.”

Chuckling lightly, Vapre reached out and ruffled Echo’s hair. “Yeah, besides, with the vamps in the attic, we really don’t want to rip the roof off.”

“Excellent point.” Climbing to his feet, Echo held out a hand to help his lover up—not that Vapre needed it. “I guess I’m going to cook. You should start doing some kind of research. I realize there’s not a whole lot you can find for something like this, but you never know.” He shrugged and dusted the grass from his backside. “We’ll practice again tomorrow.”

“How did you hair grow back so fast?” Vapre asked at random.

“The Oracle.”

Vapre nodded as though that explained it all. “I didn’t want to say anything before, but I like it a lot better like this.” He grinned sheepishly as though waiting for a scolding.

Echo just took his mate’s hand and led him toward the backdoor with a smile. “I like it better, too.”

* * * *

“We’ve been out here for over a goddamn week!” Syx stomped through the underbrush, kicking at the clumps of snow that were making a heroic effort to stay intact and not melt. “We can’t find the cave. We haven’t seen or heard anything.”

Fiero found his way over to him and draped his arm around Syx’s shoulders. “I miss him, too,” he whispered just for Syx. “That’s why we’re out here, though. Whatever this is, we have to kick its ass and save the day. Do you want a repeat of what happened to Echo?”

Resting his forehead against Fiero’s temple, Syx groaned. “You know I don’t, but we’re not getting anywhere. We’ve been traipsing through these fucking trees for days. I’m willing to bet we’ve covered a good twenty miles, and we haven’t found a damn thing. Pax and Jet can’t remember where the cave is, and I don’t even know where to start.”

“We need Mac, and maybe Echo.”

“I am not bringing Echo here,” Syx snarled.

“We may not have a choice,” Fiero answered calmly. “Speaking of Mac…where’s Gage and Sony?”

“Still sleeping.”

“What do you think we should do?” Eyce asked as he sauntered up to them. “I vote we go home, regroup, and try again when we have more facts. I’m cold. I’m tired. I miss Echo and Vapre.”