Cake (62 page)

Yeah.

Well, open up the buffet. Are you trying to starve me?

I shuddered as I tore at my wrist and offered it to her hungry mouth. It didn’t matter that Nightshade had come on soft paws and saved my psyche twice…I was just cat food to her.

What a lovely sight we three must have made for Claudius as he came up the stairs and into the room. I was still lying against Marcus with my back pressed close to his chest, his hands hugging around my waist and his knees akimbo and cradling me, while Shade lay in panther form on the bed, licking at the cut I had made for her. We smelled of blood, sex and tears.

Claudius leaned against the door jam and crossed his arms over his chest. “Ah, Chesterton said you were up. Are you ready to go hunting and refill your essence, my sons? I have tickets to another rave tonight.”

“
No!” both Marcus and I said in unison.

“
Back to the Golden Pheasant, then?” Claudius offered. I thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. The gay bar was familiar territory. Marcus raised one eyebrow in acquiescence, and Shade kept on slurping.

“
But I’m not wearing those fuck-me-now clothes,” I stressed.

“
I have got you a nice suit. I do not want anyone else coveting my Little One,” Marcus told me, pressing a kiss to my temple.

“
Good, then I will meet you both downstairs,” Claudius said, turning away and disappearing back down the stairs with a swish of his black hair.

Shade yawned, smacked her lips together, and then plopped herself down lazily over the bedcovers.

I’m done. Have fun storming the castle. EEEewwwww. Wet spot!

She rolled quickly back to her feet, glaring at the both of us before leaping off the bed. Her tail was twitching in the air as she strolled out of the bedroom and headed off in the direction of her own cat bed.

As I suppressed a giggle, Marcus caught my open wrist and brought it up to his mouth. His brown eyes held me as his tongue slipped out of his mouth, and he lovingly lapped the small wound until it healed. I shivered as I felt desire building in me, and when he attempted to suck on my fingers, I had to pull my arm away.

“
Claudius is waiting.”

Marcus pounced on me, and I ended up flat on my back staring into those beautiful eyes of his as he claimed my mouth. He was in no hurry to rush this kiss, and halfway through it, neither was I.

“
Marcus!” Claudius’s voice came loudly through the intercom system.

“
Let us get ready,” Marcus sighed, sitting up.

I smiled at the dejected look on his face, feeling a little sorry myself that we had been interrupted. It felt so damned good to be feeling something again that it didn’t matter which emotion it was. I was feeling, and that was enough…for now.

“
So, you’re a psychopath?” I asked conversationally.

Marcus turned and looked at me, flicking his head so that his hair flipped over his shoulder, the long, brown tresses coming to lay on his wide, broad shoulder that was slick with sweat.

“
No, Xavier. I may be damaged goods, but Claudius is the psychopath,” he told me. “He could be kissing you and sticking a spike through your ear at one and the same time.”

“
What?” I was more than a little alarmed at what he’d just said.

“
There is so much you do not understand about our world, Little One. You are still so young,” Marcus whispered, reaching out and pulling me in close for a chaste kiss. “Thank you for saving my life. Thank you for smiting my enemies. And thank you for allowing me to share with you. I did not want to injure you again, but Nightshade was quite adamant about it. I thought she was just a little pervert…”

“
Oh, trust me, she is,” I interjected with a small laugh.

“
She does not like me, but she will do everything she can to protect you as will I,” Marcus said sincerely, placing a kiss on my forehead. “Now, hurry up and get moving. We do not want Claudius to call us a second time, trust me on that.”

Marcus rolled off the bed and padded toward the shower. I just watched him, drooling over the sexy way he walked, looking at his ass and knowing it belonged to me.

As he closed the bathroom door and broke the spell I was under, I pushed myself up and sat on the edge of the bed, thinking about what Marcus had said of Claudius. Spike through the ear? What was that all about? This man liked to sleep in my arms.

Marcus opened the bathroom door and stuck his head back out. “Move it, Little One.”

I blinked at him, and moved.

T
wenty-Six

Roundup

Awkward. Awkward. Awkward. The situation I was in couldn’t be any more, well…awkward, for there I was, ramrod stiff and sitting in a limo with my vampire lover/brother on one side of me, and my vampire father/psycho/sometimes-lover on the other, with me, some sort of borderline-psycho, sitting uncomfortably in the middle, thinking to myself, keep it together, man. The only one missing from this family of horrors was Shade, Marcus having given her the night off, apparently.

My fingertips were tapping out my agitation on my kneecaps, and after watching for a while, Claudius looked away from me and flicked his eyes over to Marcus, quirking his brow in question.

“
He had questions. I answered them,” Marcus commented. “This is how he processes.”

Hello, I’m sitting right here.

“
I am glad to see you up and about, Xavier. I did not like seeing those dead eyes you had when you first walked back into the house,” Claudius said, reaching out and stroking my cheek.

I tried not to shudder at his touch. He’d offered me comfort once before, and I had taken it, reveled in it in fact, and then found out he was tainted. I am such a fucking hypocrite.

“
I do not know if Chesterton will ever be the same,” he muttered, settling back into his seat.

Oh shit, I was going to have to apologize to Chesterton. Not only had I been going to kill the poor butler, but I’d been all set to mind fuck him first. Considering I knew how badly it felt to be violated that way, and I didn’t seem to have any problems using it on others, what kind of twisted shit was I becoming? Or had I always been this way? I was so fucked up.

“
Wait a minute,” I frowned, as a random thought popped up into my head. “Why was Chesterton calling Monahan? I know you told him to, but…You knew Monahan would be gunning for you?”

“
Quite tenacious, isn’t he?” Claudius observed dryly.

“
He’s almost like a pit bull in some regards, which is why we had such a thrilling first year,” Marcus said candidly.

“
Hey!” I glared at him.

“
You want to know why?” Marcus asked, and as I nodded he pointed out of the car window. “That’s why,” he said.

Glancing up I saw my lust-crazed face go scrolling by, plastered on yet another huge billboard.

“
You made yourself a celebrity. If I had known that your features were going to be spread all over the city, I would have forbidden the photo shoot,” Marcus told me. “Because of those pictures, it was only a matter of time before someone dug into your past. The arrest report on you for prostitution did not help nor did the fact that your fingerprints are on file in the police database.”

I shifted uncomfortably. So all this was my fault?

“
I put a plan into motion before Monahan could start to suspect something,” Marcus continued, turning towards me. “I had Chesterton approach his organization as a disgruntled, long-term employee, looking to feather his own nest egg. We fed them minor things that could be easily verified until, eventually, Monahan himself bit. Everything was going according to plan…”

“
You got shot! I got shot!” I blurted loudly.

“
That was not part of the plan,” Marcus answered, his voice contentious.

“
Yeah, right,” I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest.

Marcus ignored my haughty attitude. “The rave party we went to should have been a recon mission to verify Chesterton’s information. I did not get the Du Bussey Household organized because I wasn’t expecting Monahan to act so soon. I do not know why he stepped up the assassination, especially in such a crowded place.”

“
It was Junior’s birthday, and I was supposed to be the party favor,” I said, trying not to think about my own gift I had given Monahan’s son.

“
That would explain it. By the way, did I ever say thank you for saving my life?” Marcus asked, leaning over and touching me in an inappropriate manner. I flushed bright red and ducked my face under cover of my hair as I smacked his wandering hands away from my crotch.

Claudius sighed as if he was tired of his son’s antics, but there was a sweet indulgent smile playing on his face. “You have a satisfaction about you I have not seen for years, Marcus,” he said. “Have I finally been replaced?”

“
Yes, Father.”

“
I thought you had intended to wait until it was officially announced to the Council?” Claudius queried.

Marcus snaked an arm out around my shoulders and pulled me to his side. “I asked the Hellcat for assistance on my relationship with Xavier, and she advised me on what to do,” he said contentedly.

“
Shade told you to roll over and take it, and you did?” I snapped, shaking myself out of my self-imposed stupor.

“
It was nothing I had not planned on offering to you,” Marcus defended. “The timetable was merely sped up, that is all. You gave me everything I hoped for. You know this. We shared.”

I was still a little mixed about this sharing thing. Yes, I felt the burning desire Marcus had for me, but it was all tempered with screaming me-me as Shade had ripped my emotional heart-shaped box open.

“
Shared? Xavier, you have been given a couple of rare gifts indeed!” Claudius’s voice seemed mildly surprised. “In all the years since I made Marcus, he has never shared with me, at least not willingly. He seemed to take pleasure in being forced to submit everything to me, even when he wanted to offer. To be handed it…that is something to cherish.”

“
I don’t want to talk about this.” My voice was sulky, and I gasped sharply in surprise as Marcus bear-hugged me to his chest, hauling me against him until I ended up being perched on his lap. Well, this was familiar. Oops, that hard lump was way
too
familiar.

I shifted forward off his lap a little. “Will you put that away?” I hissed.

“
Is there anything else you would like know about, my Little One?” Marcus’s tone was light and warm. He was in a playful mood.

“
Yes. Why aren’t there any mirrors in the house? I saw myself in the mirror at…” I let my voice trail off as I felt Marcus go still beneath me. Claudius suddenly found the passing scenery riveting, and kept his face glued to the window. I felt like I had walked into a mine field. “Uh…never mind,” I said nervously.

“
Tell him, Claudius,” Marcus whispered, holding onto me tighter and burying his face in the back of my hair as I made to move off his lap.

I felt like a klutz in an artistic glass gallery. It seemed like every step I took, I shattered something. If I wasn’t tripping over my lack of vampire skills, then I was treading on Marcus’s broken psyche or stomping on whatever made Claudius tick. I never was a social butterfly, but I was starting to think that simply standing still would be the best option for me.

Tearing his gaze from the limo window, Claudius turned and looked at me. “Marcus’s family kept him out of sight of the household, as if he were a dirty secret,” he said, his voice sad and sullen. “The area where all the abuse took place was specially designed. It was a room of mirrors of every shape and size, filling the walls and the ceiling. This was done for the benefit of those who were taking their pleasure…so they could watch the suffering of their kin.”