Cake (67 page)

From the tightness of his jaw, I could tell that Marcus was absolutely furious. But then he stood me up and gave me the bear hug of my life, letting me go and catching my head in his hands to give me a bruising kiss before telling me exactly the worry he had gone through.

As he did so, I tilted my head sideways and fanged him. I didn’t ask his permission, I just drank until the burning sensation stopped.

Marcus’s nose had been buried in my hair. Now, he stilled, and his body stiffened. I could tell that he had discovered the lingering scent of another vampire…a female vampire at that.

I pulled my head back, trying to gently extract my fangs from his throat. But he shoved me away from him and my extended teeth tore at the puncture wounds in his neck.

“
I was worried about you all day long, and you were out fucking?” he snarled as he flung my body hard against the garage wall.

I tried to get to my feet and run away from him, but he moved too fast to avoid. His hand was around my neck, pinning me against the wall, and I grabbed at his forearm frantically with my cuffed wrists, pulling at him until he finally noticed them and loosened his grip. But he still kept me where I was, bringing his nose in close to me and snuffling through my hair, my neck and clothes.

“
I’ll kill them,” he declared.

This wasn’t how I wanted to approach this.

“
No. You’ve done enough killing. Leave them alone.”

“
They took you from a public place. I have to hunt them to ground.”

“
They just wanted to talk,” I told him.

Marcus wiped at my neck with his tongue. “This scent marker is not an indication of just wanting to talk. Did this female try to claim you?”

“
She wanted the model, Sex. Not me.”

“
You are Sex,” Marcus purred.

“
I thought I was more than that for you, Marcus,” I said, my tone injured. “Or am I just a cheap lay?”

He slapped me so hard that I lost consciousness for a moment. I certainly don’t remember falling, but when I was able to focus again, I found myself on my hands and knees, looking up at him. His brown eyes were clear. There weren’t any signs of vampiric anger or Flame in them, which meant he had struck me of his own free will. He’d done it because that was what he wanted to do.

“
What the hell is going on here?” Claudius’s irate voice rang out loudly, as he stood at the entryway door. He had probably been wondering what was taking us so long and had come to see if everything was alright, only to be greeted by the scene in front of him…“Xavier ran through three blocks of sunlight to get to you, Marcus, and this is how you repay his love?”

“
He has another’s scent on him,” Marcus answered sullenly.

“
Yet, here he is in front of you,” Claudius pointed out.

I checked my jaw, and it cracked painfully for a few seconds before it felt right. Moving to stand up, I found that I couldn’t get to my feet. My balance was off, and my ears were ringing. My vision was blurry as well.

Reaching for the wall to help steady myself, my hand missed it, and I batted uselessly at midair for a few moments until Claudius came over and pulled me to my feet, his hands resting on my shoulders until the world stopped spinning around me. I think I had a concussion.

Claudius noticed the key hanging around my neck, and taking it off, he opened the cuffs, gathering my bruised wrists into his hands and gently massaging them for me.

“
I am sorry, Xavier,” Marcus said, running his fingers down over his drawn face, emitting the long sigh he had been holding. “I was concerned about you. There you were, lying in the sun. I thought I was too late.”

He raised his hand out and stepped towards me. I tried not to, but I flinched, taking one step back away from him. Claudius saw this, and letting go of my hands, he positioned himself between us.

Marcus stopped, his hand dropping down at his side. “I am sorry, Xavier. I was just so worried. Please, say something.”

I picked the most hurtful thing that I could.

“
Covenant.”

He blanched, understanding that I knew what he should have done. “Xavier…”

“
Save it, Marcus. I’m not feeling up to anyone’s Mercy today, especially yours,” I said hotly, rubbing at my bruised face. Then, turning from him, I headed into the entryway, where I staggered and bounced my way along the walls.

My cheek was aching. But besides the shock of having Marcus slap me down hard and quick, there was also the sharp stabbing of hurt in my heart. Marcus hadn’t even taken a moment to let me try and explain things. He had judged me wrongly…so brutally.

Something was broken in my face. My ears were still ringing, and my legs were weak. And I needed more blood. I managed to stumble three more steps before my knees gave out.

Thankfully, I was caught before I hit the ground. Black hair, as dark as night, swung over me as Claudius caught me up in his arms. I glanced back over his shoulder as he carried me, to see the big, brown-haired vampire standing there, staring out into the bright light of the day. Did Marcus even care that he had smacked me down hard? He used to pull his punches.

“
I have you now, my son.” Claudius lulled softly as he tightened his arms around me in a hug of support.

What the hell does it mean, when the resident psychopath loves and cares for you more than your own lover?

Fuck, I’m never going to be happy, am I?

To be continued in the upcoming novel,
Cinder
.

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Coming Soon!

Skaia by Ayden Sadari

We hoped you enjoyed Cake and we also wanted to let you know that you can order SL's newest publication, Skaia, on our website on August 31st. Skaia is about a boy whose village was burned and his family killed by Julius Caesar's troops in their attempt to add all of Gaul to the Roman Empire. Sold as a slave in Rome, he adjusts to his life in the Suetonius family, with the help of other slaves and the friendship of his young master, Glaucus.

When Glaucus leaves for his tour of Greece, marking his official entry into manhood, Skaia is left behind, to the doubtful mercies of Glaucus' father, Thaddeus. Again, he adjusts and his life turns out far differently than he ever imagined, as he befriends and loves multiple generations of the family that owns him.

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About the Author

Greetings, gentle readers. My name is Derekica Snake aka Kiix. This is the part where I write about myself. It is harder than it looks. It is so much easier to write about fictional characters…hummm. Wait. I have a light blub moment.

On a dark and quiet evening in the month of April, a little girl child came into the world in St. Joesph General Hospital. Upon seeing the little girl with the little curl in the middle of her forehead, the father was heard to remark…why does she have red hair? At that moment I’ve been known as the milkman’s kid, oops, I meant she’s been known as the milkman’s kid. See, this is why I write in first person. If it works for you, stick with it.

My favorite book was “Green eggs and ham.” Apparently my mother got so annoyed with me reciting it that it accidently on purpose got tossed out the window of a moving car. So I guess I started writing my own stories once I was taught to print. I’ve always loved writing fiction. In elementary and secondary school we were required to keep a journal. I didn’t want to. I love to write but not about myself. I just wrote little ideas down and handed them in. I graduated so I guess it was good.

I thought I was in deep fascination with a boy in grade seven who was very into Star Trek. I had no clue what he was talking about so I started learning about Star Trek and now it was what was his name? Sci-fi segued into Fantasy and from there I never looked back. I was a big Star Wars geek (pre-episode 1) and wrote pastiche Han Solo adventures as a teenager.

My writing began to lean towards my current selection of offerings. I initially was a little distressed. I thought I was off—way off. I was uncomfortable with the content and toned it down or cut it out completely on second draft attempts. However, it kept cropping back up and I thought I was going to have to pull my hair out to make it stop but then…on May 6, 2006 at 9:15 a.m. I discovered “Ai No Kusabi” on youtube.

That was also the same time that I realized that what I had been writing and hiding away for years had a name. Yaoi. If it had a name others were reading and writing it so I wasn’t the lone pervert out in the world. I took my hands out of my hair and put my fingers on the keyboard and embraced the world of Yaoi.