Cake (48 page)

Tell him.

Shade…

Tell him, because I’m hungry too.

Claudius took hold of my chin and tilted up my face. I couldn’t look at him, averting my eyes from his. “You have gotten good with your shielding,” he said, studying me intently. “I cannot walk in your thoughts any more.”

Xavier.

Don’t push me.

“
Why will you not eat, my son?” His arctic blue irises pinned me, demanding an answer from me. And when I complied my voice was low and tinged with a touch of shame.

“
I keep seeing that vision I had, of you and Marcus. That image of you whipping him is burnt into my head because it is what he needs to feel love. You hate what he craves, and you hate yourself for doing it.”

“
What has happened between Marcus and me has nothing to do with you,” Claudius said abruptly, tightening his fingers as I tried to pull away from him.

“
Really?” I shot back at him. “What about your ‘I will do as you ask, because I love you’ speech? That hurt you, didn’t it?” I softened my voice. “My deviant needs fall beyond your scope of comfort, Claudius.”

My head rocked with the hard slap it received. Holy crap, that hurt.

“
You deliberately starve yourself because you do not want to hurt
me
?” Claudius sneered. “That is the most asinine thing I have ever heard.”

Told you.

Not now, Shade.

“
Never think that I am a martyr, Xavier. I am a very selfish man,” Claudius continued. “I will do what I have to, if that is what you need. Then I get what I require out of it, after you are sated.” He
climbed up on my lap, and pressing me back against the seat he whispered, “Trust me when I say I get my rocks off. I just prefer giving gentle kisses…like this.”

He proceeded to plant his sweet kisses on my neck. There was a hint of fang as he sucked on the tender spot behind my ear, and then he licked it, moving his tongue down to my earlobe. I shivered all the way to my toes.

“
I’m sorry. I thought I was protecting you,” I told him, catching his head in my hands and stroking his long black hair.

“
Who is the fledging here?” Claudius teased as he caught his fingers in my hair and dragged me up to meet his mouth. He was in no hurry whatsoever, and I thought that I could get used to this. I felt…savored. I closed my eyes and opened my mouth fully to him as he coaxed my tongue into a slow dance. His hand moved over the front of my pants, lightly stroking, trying to arouse. He didn’t have to try too hard; I was excited enough, and it showed.

I got the impression that someone was looking at me, and when I opened my eyes, Shade was staring me right in the face.

“
Shit!”

I jumped, and Claudius glanced up from what he was doing.

You are a horny little thing, aren’t you?

Jeez, Nightshade. You almost gave me a heart attack.

Feed me before you go into Flame. I’m hungry.

I reached out and patted her head.

I’m sorry. I didn’t think. You’ve been so good. I didn’t mean to…

Her red tail came up, and I winced, expecting it to whack down on my head. But instead, it came down on my mouth, soft and tickling.

You have a good soul. You are a protector at heart. You will make a good Lord Emperor.

Thanks, Shade.

And if you have sex in front of me, I will hack up a fur ball on you.

I’ve learned that Shade doesn’t pull her tail when she makes a statement, and I gave a deep sigh as I turned towards Claudius. “Shade does not approve,” I told him.

Claudius got off my lap and retook his own seat, but he pulled me towards him and pressed his forehead to mine. “You will have enough to worry about in years to come. Take the care you are being offered while you can,” he said.

“
I’m sorry.”

“
You have said that already. Now, get changed. We will be coming to the billboard soon. It is something to see.”

Grabbing at the clothes Frederick had supplied, I looked at Shade.

Yeah, yeah, I’m averting my eyes.

Claudius had no such intention, and he eased back into the seat to watch me undress. “The time you spent with your parents has done you good,” he noted. “Your eyes used to have a haunted look in them. Now they are so calm and such a beautiful shade of green.”

I stripped off my jeans and struggled into the leather pants. These felt much tighter than the other leather pants I’d had on previously. I squirmed into them and had to work to get the zipper closed. What the hell?

“
Should I help you?” Claudius offered.

“
I think Frederick gave you the wrong size,” I complained.

“
I told him what I wanted. Clothes for hunting.”

You’re going to have to take off your underwear.

Tell me something I don’t know, Shade. What the hell…are you watching me?

Averting my eyes again, oh crabby one.

Stripping down to the buff, I pulled the pants back on, and this time they fit a little better. I struggled into the shirt, trying to pull it down over my stomach before realizing, oh yeah, I had the required three-inch strip between my pants top and shirt hem. I felt like I was wearing plastic wrap.

“
The color suits you,” Claudius complimented. “Leave your hair loose and free. It will hide what you are doing. Do not feed more than ten swallows off of each donor. You have the basic control now, do you not?”

I nodded.

“
Lord Claudius,” the driver called back to us, “we are approaching the billboard, sir.”

“
Slow down, Walker, so that Xavier can take a look.”

Sliding to the far side of the car, I opened the window and hung out of it like a dog. Shade shoved me over as she joined me.

My jaw dropped when I saw the poster, because there I was for the entire world to see, lying on an overstuffed chair with my legs hanging over the side of it. I had one shoe on, while the other was laying discarded on the floor. My chest was exposed, I had a long strand of hair hanging low over my forehead, draping across an eye, and the sultry expression I wore on my face showed I was thinking about something other than spreadsheets. I just oozed “fuck me.” No wonder Claudius had known I was going to Flame.

Ooooh, slutty.

Shut up, Shade.

“
Do I even want to know what the leather coat pictures look like?” I called back over my shoulder to Claudius.

“
Very sexy but not quite as blatant as the last two,” Claudius drawled. “Frederick has already used it for the first two months of his campaign. And as I understand, that picture is also very successful.”

I threw myself back on the seat and ran a hand over my face. “You know what, I never signed any releases,” I told him.

“
You cashed the check,” he reminded me.

“
You’re not helping.”

Sexy. Hot. I think I should go out and find myself a Tom.

I glanced down at Shade, giving her a puzzled look.

You’re not the only one with needs, Xavier. Your parents only kept female cats, and that ratty Tom that hung around was disease-ridden. No good to me.

You want to get pregnant?

Only another Hellcat can get me pregnant. I would say everybody knows that, but then I remember it’s you I’m talking to.

Hey!

Shade’s tail came up and brushed lightly under my nose.

But you’re cute, so I’ll forgive you
.

Claudius pulled me to him and wrapped his arms around me in a hug, setting his head on my shoulder and closing his eyes. I brought one of my arms up and draped it across him, and he let out a little sigh before drifting off to sleep.

You’re a good son…both human and vampire.

I like you too, Nightshade.

I set my head back on the seat and closed my eyes as well. I might not have clipped a tree today while flying, but my tank was running on empty.

It felt like only minutes, and then Claudius was shaking me awake again. I blinked and then blinked again as I gazed at him. Damn, he looked good. His eyes were alight with anticipation and sparkled with excitement. Ah, the hunt.

“
Remember what I have told you,” he was saying. “If you need help, call for me, I will hear you through the loud music. And Xavier, eat some people.”

I will be in the rafters, waiting. I will find you when you have enough blood to share.

Walker stopped the limo and got out to open the car door. Shade morphed down into her tiny kitty-cat size and streaked across the parking lot, while Claudius climbed out more elegantly, looking delicious from his black patent leathers to his long, shiny black hair. I followed after him, trying uselessly to tug down the shirt a bit more as I walked.

I could feel the music pounding through the ground as soon as we walked in through the doors of the club. The kids partying in here were going to be deaf, I thought, as I handed over a twenty, got my hand stamped with some glow-in-the-dark ink, and then got groped by the door girl. I turned and glared at her. The laser light that was shining down from the dance floor flashed off her five eyebrow studs. As well as them, she also had three lip rings and two nose bridge studs. Ewww.

Letting go of my rear end, the girl flicked her tongue out at me. Even that part of her had a stud embedded in it. I had a feeling she wanted to kick my ass, but then she did it again…she flicked her tongue out, only this time, she licked it all around her mouth before smacking her lips. Scratch that, she wanted to
lick
my ass, not kick it. Welcome back to civilization.

I moved away from her and had taken about three steps forward when a hand closed around my throat, and I was pulled back against a tall, strong body. An arm snaked over my waist and a hand lowered downwards until three fingers of that hand rested on my stomach…while the other two fingers burrowed into my pants, touching and caressing my pubic hair.

“
Well, hello, my little Sex.”

T
wenty-Two

Dance

I leaned back into the man behind me with a happy little smile on my face. But I knew, just a moment later, by the way the body behind pressed against me that this wasn’t Marcus. And my smile went away.

The grip on my throat tightened as the hand on my stomach shoved its way further in past my waistband and grabbed at my cock. Enough of this shit, I thought.

Grabbing the man’s thumb off my neck, I wrenched it back as I twisted out of his grip. He gave a cry, and as he yanked his other hand out of my pants, I turned and looked at him.

My groper was about six foot tall, totally bald, and heavily muscled in a way that couldn’t have been achieved in a gym alone. I tightened my grip on his thumb, bending his hand until he dropped to his knees, his face scrunched up in pain. I tightened more until I felt something pop, and as he opened his mouth to scream, I forced a vocal binding on him.