His to Protect (9 page)

"You must be Tyler," the woman
said as she approached them.
"Lilly Alateeka."

"Oh," Tyler said as he glanced at
Logan. In a very broad sense he and his friend were similar in looks—both
rather tall and slender, with dark hair, and comparable facial structure. Many
people they knew had commented on how they could pass as brothers, so it was a
little surprising that someone who hadn't met them would be able to tell the
difference.

His surprise must have been written all over
his face because Lilly leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially. "I
can sense vampires."

"Oh."

"I'm Brody Alateeka," the man said
as he took Tyler's hand in a friendly grip. "Have Gavin or Adrian given
you any word on how Derek is?"

Tyler shook his head. He was still having
trouble processing the fact that a goddess had apparently transported Adrian
and Derek straight into a room Gavin had referred to as the medical room. Tyler
could hear them talking on the other side of the door, but if he hadn't seen
Anaedra's power for himself, he would have just assumed the room had another way
in.

"I'll go check," Lilly said with a
decisive nod. She stepped into the room without hesitation and Brody held his
arm out in a gesture that suggested they should sit back down.

"How are you adjusting to life as a
vampire?" Brody asked Logan.

Logan gave Brody a defensive look that Tyler
had seen on many a teenage school student, and then crossed his arms. "Fine,"
he said in a tone that suggested it was none of Brody's business.

Brody just gave him a friendly smile and
turned his attention to Tyler. He got the impression that Brody already knew he
was involved with Adrian just by the suddenly wide grin on his face. Thankfully
Tyler was rescued from having to answer any questions when Adrian came out of
the medical room.

"Derek's going to be fine," he said
to his brother. "I don't suppose you have room for him at your place while
he recovers?"

"Hell, no," Brody said with a
laugh. "I still remember the gunshot wound he got nearly fifty years ago.
Derek is
so
not a good patient."

"Besides," Lilly added as she also
walked back into the room, "you are far better equipped, big brother. Your
ceilings are at least high enough in case Derek decides to wander around in
shifted form."

"High enough?"
Tyler asked. "How tall can a werewolf be?"

"Derek isn't a wolf," Adrian said
as he moved to wrap his arms around Tyler's shoulders. Tyler leaned back
against him, sensing Adrian's need to hold him close. "Fine, okay, I'll
keep him here, but I expect both of you to help me out. Tyler has agreed to
train as my sub for a few months. We were planning on being very busy."
Tyler's heart leapt at the idea of spending months with this man, instead of
the few weeks he'd been expecting.

"Fine, we'll do what we can,"
Brody said in a tone that suggested he wasn't quite as upset as he was making
out. Both he and Lilly gave Tyler a happy smile. He wasn't certain but he got
the impression he'd gained their approval somehow.

"But for now," Lilly said with a
wide grin, "we're going to get while the getting's good. Lots of sleep to
do, you know." She even pretended to yawn.

"Sure," Adrian said with a laugh,
apparently not convinced that Lilly was going back home. "Call Troy and
Kyle and tell them Derek's going to be okay, so there's no need to rush home."

"Will do," Lilly said with a wide
grin.

"Don't work too hard, sis."

"Me?" she asked with a wide-eyed,
innocent look.
"Never."

"Please be careful."

Lilly apparently took pity on him then.
"Always.
I'm just going to check around the club.
Hopefully I'll see something you might have missed. Brody will be with me the
whole time."

Brody and Lilly left soon after, but Tyler
could feel the tension in Adrian increase. Tyler glanced worriedly at Gavin but
he didn't seem overly concerned.

"They'll be fine," Gavin said
calmly.

"You saw what one of these humans did
to Derek."

"Lilly and Brody are careful and they
have that spooky twin thing going on. They'll be fine. You know they'll shift
if they have to."

"Yeah," Adrian agreed quietly. "I'd
feel a lot more comfortable if we had any idea who was behind it all. I
recognized the attacker's scent so I should probably go with them."

"Relax," Gavin said, giving Tyler
a quick glance. "Brody's sense of smell is almost as strong as yours. They'll
call you if they need your help."

Adrian nodded. If there was anything to find
at the scene, Lilly and Brody would find it. His biggest fear was that none of
them would be able to use the information to track the man. "Flying blind
just isn't my idea of fun."

"Not mine either," Gavin said,
again glancing at Tyler as if he could sense his fear. "Go get some sleep.
Logan and I will keep Derek company if he wakes up."

"Okay," Adrian said, his arms
tightening around Tyler's shoulders for a moment before releasing his hold and
reaching for his hand. "Come on, little sub. Let's go to bed."

Tyler whispered a goodnight to Gavin and
Logan and then followed his Dom into his bedroom. Adrian helped him get
undressed and then made love to him slowly, his gentle caresses and soft
touches at complete odds to their earlier violent coupling. Adrian held him
afterward, curling around him protectively as Tyler closed his eyes and gave in
to his need to sleep.

Chapter Ten

Adrian woke with a startled jolt. He wasn't
quite certain what to make of the fact that he'd fallen sleep with Tyler in his
arms when so many other things were going on. Just remembering what had
happened to Derek made him tense up.

He wanted to wake Tyler and lose himself in
the man's sweetness all over again, but Adrian's phone rang and he reluctantly rolled
over to answer that instead. "Okay, I'll be right there," he whispered
a few moments later before closing the connection and rolling out of bed. Tyler
was right behind him and Adrian knew it was useless to suggest he go back to
bed. The man cared about the people, and he simply wasn't the type to stay in
bed and let everything happen around him.

"
Gav
," Arian
called as he headed down the hallway. "Lilly and Brody may have just
caught a lucky break. They found a young, overweight man snooping around the
backyard of Logan's house. They followed him back to his place of residence and
want me to confirm that he is one of our suspects."

"Okay," Gavin said with a half
smile, half yawn. "Logan is already asleep for the day so it will give me
a chance to get to know Tyler."

Adrian's fingers were curling into fists
before he managed to pull back the unexpected reaction. He and his brothers
were experienced Doms and had always looked out for each other's subs. Gavin
knew Tyler was Adrian's sub and would act accordingly.

Gavin's smart-ass grin was almost enough to
make him change his mind about not hitting him though. Apparently, goading
Logan into a couple of tantrums wasn't enough for Gavin. He clearly courted
Adrian's wrath as well.

His brother apparently read him easily. He
rolled his eyes and grinned. "Go. Tyler and I will have a lazy breakfast
and then watch some TV. I won't even tell him you bark in your sleep."

Adrian shook his head, grateful now that he'd
mentioned his wolf side to Tyler. He knew Gavin wouldn't actually spill his
secrets, but he'd have fun teasing them both with hints.

As stupidly macho as it was, Adrian couldn't
stop himself from lifting Tyler to his feet and kissing him hard. His eyes were
glazed with passion by the time Adrian let him up for air.

"I'll be back as soon as I can."

Tyler nodded, apparently unable to form
words as Adrian helped him back into his chair.

Of course Gavin's laugh followed Adrian all
the way out the front door.

~*~

"He's got it bad," Gavin said with
a final chuckle.

Tyler wasn't quite sure how to respond to
that so he changed the subject instead.

"Is Logan okay?"

Gavin's demeanor suddenly grew serious. He
nodded. "Logan is through the worst of it. It will still take several more
weeks for him to be fully vampire, but he's no longer in danger of dying."

Tyler breathed out heavily, grateful to have
that confirmed. He'd felt that Logan was getting stronger, but he truly had no
way of knowing if his assessment was accurate or not. Of course, along with the
relief came exhaustion. He tried to hide it but Gavin apparently could read him
as easily as Adrian could.

"Why don't you go get some more rest?"
he suggested with a kind smile.

"To be honest I don't think it will
help. My body clock is all messed up."

"Yeah, feeding a new vampire will play
havoc with your sleeping arrangements for a while. The good news is he should
only need to feed once a night now, so that will give you more time to sleep."
He tilted his head, perhaps wondering if he should ask his next question or
not. Tyler almost laughed when Gavin asked it anyway. Apparently he wasn't one
to tiptoe through conversations. "Did Adrian help with your arm? From what
I saw it was a pretty ragged bite."

Tyler blushed but
nodded,
memories of what had followed filling his mind.

Gavin sat back and assessed him as if he'd
somehow given him more information than he'd intended.

"So he told you about his alter ego?"
he asked in a tone that suggested he already knew the answer. "Things must
be pretty serious."

Tyler blushed again and shook his head. "He
only told me because he had to heal my wounds. I'm just a sub in training."

Gavin shook his head and laughed softly.

"No, sweet Tyler, you're much more than
that."

~*~

Adrian met his siblings out the front of a
very luxurious home.

"Are you sure this is the right place?"

Somehow the surroundings didn't fit the
profile he had in his mind. Overweight and unwashed just didn't conjure images
of wealth and prestige.

"It's the right place," Lilly said
as she checked details on her cell phone. "3B Watson Street is owned by
Mr. and Mrs. Jackson and currently occupied by their nineteen-year-old son,
Chester." She tapped a few more buttons and grinned. "It would also
appear that Mom and Dad are currently out of the country."

"Perfect," Brody said. "Let's
go check some scents and then have a little chat to our new friend."

Adrian nodded. "The scent matches the
suspect in the attempted murder. He's not the one who attacked Derek, but he's
human so our recourse is going to be limited."

"He's still a suspect in a murder case,"
Lilly said in annoyance. She knew as well as any of them that life was damned
unfair, but prosecuting humans for attacks against vampires would mean revealing
the existence of paranormals to the wider community. Then they'd have a lot more
than a few murders to deal with.

"Come on, sis," Brody said with a
wide grin. "There's no rule says we can't scare the hell out of him."

Technically there was that rule, too, but if
it helped them figure out why people with no apparent connection could be
committing the exact same crime it was worth bending just a little.

The unimpressed teenager who answered the
door wasn't a shock but the smell of blood was. Adrian pushed his way into the
kid's home, confident that Lilly and Brody would keep their new "friend"
corralled.

He followed his nose straight into a bedroom
that smelled of old blood and stale sweat. The blood he could smell belonged to
a vampire, of that much he was sure, but since vampires technically didn't
bleed during the day he couldn't determine if the smell was new or not.

Adrian turned and grabbed the kid by his
collar, furious enough to not care if he revealed just how much stronger he was
than he looked. "Whose blood is this?" he practically growled as he
pushed the kid's face toward the two scalpels that took pride of place on a
display shelf.

"What the hell?" the kid said in a
shaky voice. "There's no blood on it."

Adrian knew that wasn't true, yet the kid's
reaction surprised him. He seemed frightened enough to spill details, but he seemed
genuinely confused by the accusation.

"What was this scalpel used for?"
he asked aggressively, keeping the kid very much intimidated.

"It's just a game. We…we play online."

"How does that lead to scalpels?"
Brody asked in a far more reasonable voice than Adrian could have mustered.
Hell, William's death was playing havoc with his emotions. Maybe this was one
investigation he should have let his siblings handle. He glanced at Brody,
easily read the anguish on his face, and realized that they were all badly affected
by the loss of their friend.

Adrian let go of the kid's sweater, eased
him onto the seat in front of his computer, and took a step back.

"Look, Chester," Lilly said,
moving a little closer, "we just need to know what's going on. Can you
tell us about the game you've been playing online?"

The kid nodded effusively. "Sure…sure…it's…"
He swung his chair around and started to tap buttons on his computer. His
fingers flew over the keyboard as he worked his way through several passwords,
including one that was verified by a code sent by text to his cell phone.
Finally he rolled his chair away from the screen and pointed to it in a bizarre
"
ta-da
" sort of triumph. Adrian shook his
head and started
reading
some of the in-game messages
that Chester—or should he say bigdick14—had received.

"What's the final quest?" Brody
asked, obviously having used his superior eyesight to read the messages far
faster.

"That's the coolest part of the game,"
Chester said, warming to his subject as if he didn't have three huge, uninvited
intruders crowded into his stinky bedroom. "When we pass this final
wicked-hard level without taking any damage the quest master sends us an
address and a code. It takes the game to a whole new level. Man, the adrenaline
rush is incredible."

"So what do you do at this address the
quest master sends you to?" Adrian managed to ask while grinding his
teeth. He didn't like the sound of this one little bit.

"We jimmy the back door open, find the
safe, use the code, and then destroy the vampire. I got a fail on my first
quest. Apparently I didn't slice the veins on the dummy properly. The quest
master said if it had been a real vampire, I would have been dead."

"So the second
scalpel?"

"I did a better job. Well at least, I
think I did. Man, it's so sick slicing those dummies open. I don't know what
they make '
em
out of, but they look just like the
vampires on the game. It's so wicked cool."

"When?"
Adrian asked, his voice a low growl in his throat.

The kid finally remembered to be scared.
"W–When?"

"When did you go on this quest,
Chester?" Lilly asked quietly.

"Oh, this morning."

"Show us where," Brody said as he
apparently realized the same thing Adrian did. Adrian wanted to shake the kid,
but Lilly stepped in and calmed the situation again. It made Adrian smile just
a little. Lilly's temper was legendary. The fact that she was somehow managing
to hide her anger in what was essentially a good cop, bad cop scenario was
quite impressive.

Too bad the kid was such an idiot. He took
the opportunity to smile at Lilly before dropping his slack-jawed gaze to her
breasts. Lilly raised an eyebrow but the kid was too transfixed for him to
notice.

"Move, sunshine," Brody said, "before
my sister breaks your arms."

"Oh," the kid said as he finally
seemed to realize the direction of his gaze. "Sorry."

Thankfully the trip to the house in question
took only a few minutes by car. It was barely midday, so if a vampire was lying
in their supposedly secure room with all of their veins sliced open they had a
good chance of saving them.

Adrian considered leaving the kid in the
car, but it was obvious that he believed he'd done nothing wrong. As dangerous
as it was to reveal the existence of vampires to a human, it seemed the only
way this kid was going to understand what he'd done.

Lilly was already on the phone as they
followed the kid into the safe. There, lying exactly where he'd left her, was a
female vampire—quite young judging by the deathly pale skin—with every vein
sliced open just like all the other victims.

"See, I told you. It's just a stage
prop."

"That's not a stage prop," Adrian
said as he dragged the kid into the room. "That's a woman who will wake up
in a few hours and bleed out if we don't help her."

The kid actually snickered. He smiled when
he saw the annoyance on Adrian's face. "No offense, man. Your acting's way
cool. I just…I mean like, wow. This quest was hell expensive but way worth the
money."

"You paid to do this?"

"Of course," the kid said frowning
at Adrian. "You pay for each level of the game. Not many reach the level I
reached, but, hey, that's what credit cards are for, right?"

"Daddy's money, no doubt," Lilly
said with a sneer in her voice. "I've watched a lot of generations grow
up, but yours is the most perplexing. Do you even have a life outside your
computer?"

The kid at least had the good grace to
blush. He sure as hell fit the stereotype of a prepubescent computer geek even
if he was nearly twenty years old.

Lilly dismissed the kid with a shake of her
head and turned her attention to Adrian. "I've called in the same medical
team that saved the last one. They should be here is a few moments."

"Medical team?" the kid asked,
looking more confused now than he had since they'd met him. "Look guys, I
really appreciate your attention to detail, but…well, you're kind of freaking
me out now. Just, you know, drop it. I'll tell the quest master you did a
really good job."

"Kid," Brody said with an
exasperated shake of his head, "take a seat. You've got a long wait ahead
of you."

Something about Brody's demeanor must have
registered because the kid sat on the sofa, as far away from the vampire as he
could get, clasped his hands together and shut his mouth. Adrian was about to
leave this situation in his siblings' capable hands when one more question
occurred to him.