Rosko, Mandy - Night and Day (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) (17 page)

“Cedric, what the—”

He got on his knees to peer under, shaking at what he thought he might find.

Not Silus. Some human in a suit instead. Cedric didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed.

He settled for angry as he reached under to grab at the human’s arm and drag him out. The man let out a groggy moan, but Cedric paid him no mind, and he was not in the mood for being gentle.

Ben put his toy away to get down on his haunches. “What do we have here?”

“Don’t know.” He didn’t, but if this guy was involved in whatever went down in this room, he’d be worse than dead.

Benny slapped the man’s cheeks a few times. “Yo, rise and shine, sweetheart.”

The man groaned and batted his hands away in a drunken attempt at self defense. That’s when Cedric saw them.

He reached out and snatched the man’s wrist, noting the blood there and yanking the sleeve of his fancy suit down.

Twin puncture marks, deep, ugly, and dry, stared right back at him.

Someone had drank this guy nearly empty.

He and Ben looked at each other, understanding passing between them, and they said it at the same time.

“He got away.”

Cedric got to his feet. “It’s still daylight. He’s still in this house.”

“Which your family is going to be attacking any second now.”

As if he’d jinxed them or something, a
Star Trek
-sounding alarm went off.

Chapter Thirteen

He’d been sitting in his black Porsche Cayman, a model that wouldn’t come out until next year, his trembling hand on the keys that would start the ignition—he was still low on blood, after all—when it happened. A perfectly round hole big enough for him to drive through was blown out of the cement wall. The vibrations were so violent that his car alarm began to shriek.

Before the bang ceased to echo, and the rocks and dust settled, a flood of men entered, all with long grey coats like out of a twenties style noir film, and none carried any visible weapons on them.
Visible
being the key word.

Still daylight outside, no shades, and bright golden hair on the lot of them.

These were the sun sprites. His father had been quick to issue the challenge, but there was no chance this was what had been agreed upon.

Silus’s family was being ambushed during the day.

He didn’t know whether to be pleased with that, for it meant his father could not go hunting for Cedric, or frightened for his family.

Every sun sprite passed right by his car, as well as every other Hummer and convertible in the garage. All had tinted windows, including Silus’s automobile, so he was safe so long as he dare not breathe until alone.

In quick succession, they entered the house and were gone. Screams and flashes of light erupted from the open doorway. Then the alarm for the manse itself sounded.

Whether those screams came from his mother, or any of his other relations still visiting, he did not know. Nor could he leave until he found out.

He wished no harm on any sun sprite, but he would do whatever it took to ensure his mother and father survived this stupidity. Even though they did not deserve to survive.

He exited his vehicle, careful to keep out of the sunlight streaming in through the hole in the wall, and went back into the house. Whether he could actually be of any use in a battle was debatable because of the way the cement floor continued to shift and churn beneath him. He reached out to steady himself along the wall before he could fall to his knees. He was still dizzy as hell from all that bleeding, but he had to do something. He would not sit idly by while his family was dishonorably attacked.

Silus shook himself in an attempt to clear away the dizziness, and ran through the halls, searching for his enemy. His speed seemed to still be working because he managed to sneak up behind one of the sprites standing guard outside the night room and, in quick succession, had one arm around his neck while the other held onto the top of his head. The sprite struggled, and a mild, burning light glowed from his skin as he attempted to defend himself, but Silus had him down and unconscious before it could become any brighter and any damage could be done.

Silus winced at his hands. It looked like a bad sunburn, but nothing to stay in bed over. However much his father bled Cedric out of him, it was enough that even that little bit of UV light had a negative effect on him.

This was going to become difficult if he no longer had as much tolerance as Cedric’s blood had given him.

Silus dragged the unconscious sprite into the night room and locked him inside. It didn’t guarantee the man’s safety should he wake up later without his comrades, but he would be safe, for now.

He had to find his father.

With no weapons, he was forced to duck and hide in rooms and behind doors whenever he could not catch a single soldier by himself, something he absolutely despised whenever he happened across a pile of ash. He could not assume any of them were either of his parents, not if he wanted to keep his head in this situation.

Wherever he could, he brought down single sun sprites and kept moving, keeping low. Eventually he stopped at a corner, listening with glee as Crowley begged for his life in the hands of a sprite.

Silus already decided he would leave that worm to his death.

It wasn’t until he heard the voice of the sprite who had him did he straighten up.

“What did you do to him?” Cedric growled.

Silus nearly ran out from his hiding place to demand why Cedric had returned when the situation was at its most dangerous, but then, in his childlike voice, Crowley spouted his demented logic. “We tried to save him… from you. He could not be saved.”

Silus went cold all over.

Could not be saved
. That last time they had left the room… No one had returned for quite some time. He had wondered on that. Now he knew.

They had left him to die.

Had his parents truly believed him so lost with their imaginary curses that the death of their son was the better, merciful option?

His parents. His mother and sire … they had tried to kill him.

A bright flash and a scream later, Silus stepped out from his hiding place.

There was an ash mark along the wall where Cedric had been holding Crowley against it. His human friend stood behind him, silent while Cedric gasped for air, inhaling and exhaling as his limbs trembled.

Then his head came up, and he noticed Silus for the first time.

Cedric’s eyes flew wide, and then he ran to him. Silus met him halfway, their mouths instantly latching on to each other, melding together and tongues becoming reacquainted, but it was hardly safe for kissing, nor was Silus’s skin up for the rough caressing of their lips.

“You should not have come back here. ’Tis dangerous,” Silus said, though he relished the feeling of having his lover pressed against him again, regardless of the sting in his hands and face.

Cedric occupied himself with gently stroking Silus’s face, neck, and hair, as though convincing himself all was well with those little acts. “A lot more dangerous for you, apparently. Did I do this?”

“Nay… I was bled. Most of your blood that I had taken in is now likely in the sewers.”
Or in my bedsheets
, he thought. Upon Cedric’s enraged expression, he continued on. “It seems to have had an effect on my new ability to withstand light. Another sprite did this. He still lives,” Silus quickly added. “I… handled him and then hid him away where he could be relatively safe for the time being.”

Flashes of light continued to brighten the far corners Silus’s family halls, and the screams as both vampire and sun sprite died in battle did not give hope regarding anyone’s safety.

Silus pulled away from Cedric’s embrace at the thought. “I–I must save my father and mother. Regardless of what they did—”

“I know, don’t worry. I don’t want those idiots killing each other either.”

“Ladies, can we take this into another room before you both get caught hugging?”

The swine!
Silus’s fangs lengthened at the insult to his manhood. “How dare you?”

Cedric grabbed his hand and gently pulled him into the nearest bedroom. “He didn’t mean it like that, trust me, but he’s right. We were able to get around pretty easy before, but with you, it’s going to get tricky.”

Silus calmed himself, deciding to let the insult slide, though he still tingled unpleasantly all over.

His lover was correct. Cedric and his human companion would have been able to walk the halls with relative ease now that the sprites had nearly taken total control of the manse. But none of them would ever mistake Silus for a sun sprite should they be seen together.

The trial before them all dampened his spirits. “We shall die defending our families, and they shall die with us.”

As though timed for it, when he said the last part, another mild explosion sounded, and more screams from men and women pierced the walls. Even after Ben shut and locked the door, they could still hear it.

Cedric put his hand on the back of Silus’s neck and pulled him up for another meshing of mouths. He sighed when he moved away. “Yeah, probably.” Then he tilted his neck, and Silus could instantly scent the pulsing heat he’d wanted so badly.

“Take me back in you.”

Oh, such words that made all sorts of promises.

“What if my lack of your blood causes me to—” He thought back to his minor seizure on the floor of his bedchamber their first night together.

Cedric knew where his thoughts had gone. “Ben’ll stand guard outside. I’ll be right here with you while you recover. You’re going to need your strength for this.”

Cedric spoke with such confidence. It no longer made everything seem so bleak. Perhaps he’d been born a sun sprite for a reason. “What is our plan?”

“Best-case scenario, you and I are going to talk everyone down and get them all to leave each other alone. Worst-case, we’re going to have to kill ourselves.”

Chapter Fourteen

The house was nearly quiet now with the exception of the occasional gunshot from what remained of the werewolf and human guards. The vampires eventually did organize themselves after someone managed to call for backup, so the soldier vampires who were originally meant to fight during the challenge came to the house of their lord to duel instead.

From what Silus understood, as there had never been a challenge issued during his hundred years, normally, these battles between vampires and sun sprites occurred in an open field, much like how wars of centuries passed were fought. The difference was that these challenges were meant to be fought in the minutes before sundown—with the vampires wearing enough sun protection, of course. This prevented either side from having too large of an advantage, and these contests usually ended within moments of their beginning anyway. It ensured a winner was announced quickly without dragging on a battle that could potentially harm civilians.

However, in such a large house, with so many places to hide and wait for an enemy to approach, it made for an interesting sort of guerrilla warfare that seemed to go on and on. The sun was no longer in the sky, and the stars shone brightly in the black night.

It left the manse at a crumbling stalemate. The sun sprites would not leave until all the vampires were eradicated, and the vampires refused to retreat from their blooded home.

Stubborn fools, the lot of them.

Silus walked into the ballroom, what remained of it, holding Cedric close in front of him, twisting that golden, tanned arm behind his back with a letter opener to his throat. They nearly tripped on each other’s feet once or twice, but they did make it to the center of the spacious area.

Silus took a moment to look at everything. Bullet holes pockmarked the once gleaming walls, the tinted windows had been shot out and destroyed, and grey ashes dirtied everything. They had once belonged to vampires who had been in the way of a sun sprite’s blinding glow, but they were not in piles as they should have been. The gentle breeze from outside, along with sprites and vampires fighting in them, had scattered them everywhere.

He felt as though he were standing in a graveyard.

Silus cleared his throat, needing his voice to be strong, to bounce around the destroyed marble walls and reach the others still in hiding, waiting to spring on their prey. “I am calling out to the head of house, Cyricus! Come out! I have your son.”

The house remained still. He knew better. “To all the sun sprites in my home, I have your prince. I will kill him unless you leave this property.”

Cedric winced and spoke low through his teeth. “Not so rough.”

Silus realized his grip was too firm on Cedric’s forearm, and he slackened his fingers so they no longer pressed into his skin. “You said to make it convincing.”

“Not enough to bruise me with those pointed claws of yours.”

Their back and forth banter nearly brought a grin to Silus’s lips, but then he caught sight of the first head peeking out from an open doorway on the second floor.