Vampires' Consort: Magical Menages, Book 2 (12 page)

He rose from the bed. “Sometimes it’s good not to think beyond the next meal. Let the bigger picture resolve in its own time.”

She and Jacob both looked up, brown eyes and blue regarding him. They made a handsome couple; Akila’s tan skin complemented Jacob’s fairness. Valarian smiled down at them. “Rest. I’ll bring you something.”

He closed the door on the pretty picture of post-coital bliss they made and padded naked to the kitchen—his domain and the one room in which he’d overseen the design down to the smallest detail. Jacob had an eye for color and shape and Valarian had given him free rein to work with the contractor on the rest of the house, which had turned out beautifully. But he’d wanted to make certain the kitchen was his. Cooking might seem an odd hobby for a man who subsisted primarily on blood, but the culinary arts had become almost an obsession with him over the years.

Valarian knew when it had begun—with Oxanna. She’d taught him to slake his appetite on more than blood. She’d enticed him to enjoy human food again and tutored him in the art of making love rather than merely fucking. His precious jewel had brought him to life for the first time. He’d certainly had no appreciation for the simple yet important pleasures of life when he was human and rampaging his way through remote mountain villages. Nor had he developed a taste as a vampire when he’d bashed his way across Asia and Europe with his sire.

Not until Oxanna had his true life begun. And when she’d been stolen from him and burned alive by superstitious rabble who called her a witch, he could have easily reverted to his vicious ways. The idea of retribution, of tearing out the throats of every man, woman and child who’d been a witness to her death had been seductive. But her sweet voice had sounded in his head like a low gong reverberating, as real as if she stood beside him. She’d counseled love, forgiveness and taking joy from life rather than inflicting horror and destruction.

Valarian had fought hard against his nature at that pivotal moment and in the end had walked away, leaving the villagers intact. From then on, he’d begun his campaign of self-improvement, always striving to be the man Oxanna had believed him to be. At first he did it in her memory, but eventually the generous acts and charitable foundations had come to mean something to him. He’d always desired an empire and so he built a financial one that benefited others more than himself. It was liberating.

He pushed aside the swell of melancholy that always accompanied memories of Oxanna, like the phantom pain of a long-since-severed limb, and concentrated on setting up a lunch tray for Akila and Jacob.

“Can I help?” Jacob’s voice came from the doorway.

Valarian glanced at his thrall’s chiseled body and the snug briefs that sat low on his hips, offering a tempting suggestion of what lay beneath. Even though he’d just come, the sight of that hard body stirred his cock. His attraction for Jacob was a completely different sort than what he felt when looking at Akila’s feminine curves. The push and pull of master and slave was tangled with desire, dependency, companionship and a bond beyond defining.

“You can clean and cut carrots,” he answered. He didn’t trust Jacob with more of a task than that. The man could manage to burn toast when all he had to do was push down a lever.

He noticed Jacob’s gaze traveling swiftly and hungrily over his body too, before Jacob went to the fridge to take vegetables from the drawer. “I still don’t understand why you don’t buy those bags of little carrots. They’re so convenient.”

“Convenient doesn’t taste better.” Valarian spread pâté on crackers and added a sprig of cilantro to garnish each. He studied Jacob’s profile as he set to work preparing the crudités. “Are you all right?”

Jacob looked at him. “Does it matter?”

“You know it does. I want you to be happy.”

“No. You want things your own way. Now you’ve had Akila too. Are
you
happy?”

“Tell me you didn’t enjoy that. I
know
you did, and she and I both did. It was fantastic all around. We could be good together, all three of us. Where’s the problem with that?”

The snap of the knife against the cutting board filled the kitchen for several moments before Jacob finally answered. “The problem is you never discuss anything with me. You make a decision and I follow your orders. You’re the master. I’m your thrall. That’s all we will ever be. I live to serve you.”

Somehow Jacob managed to sound like he both despised the situation and hungered for it. The aching longing in his voice lit a match to an answering longing in Valarian. Suddenly he wanted nothing more than to push Jacob down onto his knees right there in the kitchen and feed him his cock.

A wafer-thin cracker smashed to crumbs between Valarian’s fingers. He turned away from the pâté and went to the refrigerator, wrenching open the door hard enough to make the jars rattle. “That is not
all
we are to each other and you know it. Why do you have to make this so complicated? Why can’t you just be content with things as they are?”

God, he missed the long-ago days when he’d shouted out orders and his men had fallen over themselves to obey them without ever questioning why. Or the heady days when he’d killed anyone who crossed him. Modern times were all about negotiation and keeping the peace. It was tedious and exhausting.

“Because it
is
complicated,” Jacob replied calmly. “And because I’m not content.”

“Why not?” Valarian exploded. “You have everything, and now this woman too. You like her. She will bear your—our child. We’ll save the world and live fucking happily ever after. Be content!”

A smile snuck across Jacob’s mouth, turning the reluctant corners upward. “I’ll try…Master.”

“Good.” He slapped plates and cutlery on the tray, opened a bottle of wine to let it breathe and grabbed a bag of O negative from the fridge to fill his own appetite. He’d rather have sipped straight from Akila’s artery, but that would come soon enough, he hoped.

They finished preparing the food in silence, but before they left the kitchen, he turned to Jacob once more. He put his hands on the other man’s shoulders and stared into his eyes.

“I do want you to be happy. And you’re right, maybe it’s time for a change. You can leave me if that’s what you truly want. I won’t hold you back. But I hope adding Akila to our lives will make things better for both of us. Maybe she’s the element that’s been missing.” He drew a breath before making another concession. “Or, if you want her to be yours alone, I won’t stand in your way.”

The little smile played over Jacob’s mouth again and he shook his head slightly. “I think it’s too late. She’s already tasted us both. The decision is up to the lady now, and I believe whatever she wants is what she will have—one, the other or both of us.”

Chapter Nine

Akila had half expected the prophecy to be on a rolled-up scroll, tattered at the edges and inscribed in ancient cursive. It was a bit of a disappointment when, after they finished eating a delicious picnic lunch in Jacob’s bed, Valarian sat her down on the sofa in the bird room and called up the document on his iPad screen. The original text was in one pane and the translated words in a separate document. At least the scanned copy of the original looked as antique as Akila had imagined.

The manuscript was short, only a paragraph, really, and Valarian had already paraphrased it in clear terms. A threat to mankind. Enslaved by monsters. Which she could only assume meant vampires. And the union of Ra and the Great Khan that would bring forth a child. Then some more vague phrases about ending the strife between humans and blood drinkers.

“Why not nip it in the bud?” she asked, deciding to bring up Jacob’s much better way of solving the problem. “I was thinking if the world knew the truth—that vampires exist and that not all of them are stone-cold killers—maybe we could come to some kind of truce. Overton and his movement could be stopped before they gain any real power.”

She looked up from the tablet, meeting Valarian’s frown.

“And how would you go about proving our existence?” It was clear from his dry tone he knew the answer.

“What could be better than a world-renowned financier and well-respected philanthropist ‘coming out’ as a vampire? I could write an article, or better, tape an interview with you and send it to the media.” If she happened to get her name out there attached to the breaking news of the century, it was an added bonus.

“No. That’s not going to happen.” He shut her down. “The ramifications are enormous and I have no right to decide to share a secret that is not mine alone. You’re suggesting exposing an entire subset of the population and possibly sparking a massive witch-hunt.”

“People might not be as horrified or shocked as you think. We’ve been conditioned through popular media to begin to think of vampires as real. If it’s made clear that your kind doesn’t have to pose a threat—”

Valarian was a blur and then he was right up in her face, gripping her throat and baring his fangs. “Don’t fool yourself. We
are
a threat.”

“Valarian!” Jacob lunged for him, grasping his shoulder.

The vampire shook him off as if he were a fly, then he released Akila and stepped back, retracting his fangs. “Relax, Jacob. I’m making a point. Such a revelation might start an all-out war with vampires preying on humans much more aggressively. This secret has been kept for centuries for a reason. It’s safest for everyone this way.”

Akila’s heart pounded in her aching throat. He hadn’t grabbed hard enough to choke her, but she felt the phantom impressions of his fingers and knew he could have crushed her windpipe with a flex of his hand. The danger inherent in him was well illustrated.

“Point taken,” she gasped.

Jacob sat beside her on the couch, resting a hand on her back. “Are you all right?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Sure.”

“I’m sorry I frightened you.” Valarian didn’t sound very apologetic as he turned away to stare at his birds through the cage bars. “But you must understand the impossibility of what you suggest. The prophecy cannot be circumvented. We must fulfill our destiny.”

Akila had never been much of a believer in destiny. She’d been brought up to think a person shaped fate by his or her choices, but she wasn’t about to argue with the vampire about it right now.

“Okay. So, this union is absolutely necessary. I get it.” She handed the iPad to Jacob and rose to walk over to Valarian. “But I’m still not certain I’m ready to sacrifice my future and have a baby. I need more time.”

He looked down at her. “I don’t know how much time we have. Elections are only a few months away and Overton is in the lead in his race. Once he’s in power, he’ll begin to appoint his people to crucial, influential positions. The infiltration will have begun. After that…I don’t know exactly how this will play out, how vampires gain so much power so quickly considering we’re a small minority. All I know is what the Sisters showed me, a possible future in which humans become drones serving the vampire elite.”

Akila released a shaky breath. Concepts like duty and responsibility—beyond paying her bills on time and checking in with her parents from time to time—had never been a big part of her life. Now suddenly she was expected to turn her life upside down.

“If these ladies guarded the prophecy for hundreds of years, you’d think they would have approached you a little earlier, given us more time to adjust to the idea. What’s with this eleventh hour bullshit?”

Valarian chuckled and warmth bathed her. He had quite a knack for veering from scary to accessible in the blink of an eye. “I have no idea, and I know I promised I’d try to track them down so they could talk to you personally, but to be honest I have no way to contact them again. They appeared from nowhere, delivered their message and left, two wizened women who looked like they’d been alive as long as the scroll itself.”

Akila folded her arms and gazed at the bright plumage of the birds that flitted from branch to branch inside their cage. “You’ve been upfront with me about everything and I appreciate that. So I’ll be equally honest with you. I enjoyed being with you guys.” That was a hell of an understatement and demeaned how powerful the experience had been for her. “I’d like to continue getting to know both of you, spending time here and, to be blunt, having sex with you. But I intend to stay on the Pill until I’ve made my own decision. I won’t be pushed into something I’m not ready to commit to.”

She didn’t need Valarian pushing. Her own conscience was doing enough of that.

“Very well. I won’t say anything more,” he promised. “You’ve got the facts and what proof I can offer. Now it’s up to you.”

A strained silence fell. Akila wished they’d stayed in Jacob’s big bed, where they’d shared an easy camaraderie, making small talk over lunch. If she’d been invited here purely for a sexual romp, things would’ve been so much easier. But there’d been important matters to discuss and after a while they’d dressed, come downstairs and Valarian had showed her the prophecy as promised.

“It’s nearly dusk.” Jacob broke the silence. “We could walk on the beach now if you’d like.”

She smiled at him. “That sounds perfect.” Taking a stroll on a tropical evening was exactly what she needed to ease her mind.

Several minutes later, they descended the path from the bluff to the beach. The tail end of a gorgeous sunset painted the sky orange, red and gold against indigo blue, and the water reflected the paintbox above. A girl couldn’t ask for a more beautiful, balmy evening at the beach with her two best fellas, Akila decided. Valarian strode by her side, the fading light gilding his harsh features gold, and she felt Jacob’s presence behind her on the stairs. She was drawn to them both in different ways, these two very unique men.

By the time they reached the beach, the colors had already faded from the sky, leaving only shades of blue and the white pinpricks of stars. The rising moon was a large, oblong disc hovering on the horizon. The sand was white and as fine as sugar sifting between her bare toes.

Jacob moved up beside her. Akila was escorted between the two men as if they were bodyguards and she their charge. She felt intensely feminine and delicate next to the men’s overwhelming, masculine presence. She’d never thought of herself as a fragile woman, but for the first time she understood that “delicate” didn’t necessarily mean “weak”. She was still self-actuated, strong-willed Akila, but sexually speaking they brought out a different side of her nature, a side she thought might rather enjoy being dominated.