Trueblood 01-The-Consolation-Prize

THE CONSOLATION PRIZE

Barbara Elsborg

www.loose-id.com

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This e-book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language and may be considered offensive to some readers. Loose Id® e-books are for sale to adults ONLY, as defined by the laws of the country in which you made your purchase. Please store your files wisely, where they cannot be accessed by under-aged readers.

The Consolation Prize

Barbara Elsborg

This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Copyright © August 2008 by Barbara Elsborg

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ISBN 978-1-59632-749-8

Available in Adobe PDF, HTML, MobiPocket, and MS Reader

Printed in the United States of America

Editor: Maryam Salim

Cover Artist: Croco Designs

Luka leaned against the wall, his dark gaze cruising the crowded dance floor of his nightclub, Rebellion. Half-naked, drunken bodies gyrated to the loud thumping music, sweat glistening on their torsos. Hands caressed faces, fondled asses, and rubbed groins. Those who weren’t fucking watched the ones who were. Luka felt a pang of jealousy. He was in the wrong business in so many ways.

A slim, blond male sidled up and brushed against him, a provocative touch followed by a light caress of Luka’s balls. “Like to dance?”

“No, thanks.”

Luka wasn’t looking for a partner; he was looking for trouble. In the only club in Yorkshire where vampires danced with werewolves and mortals, trouble was never far away. Luka focused on an old vamp sniffing a little too energetically at the neck of a young werewolf. It was better not to interfere unless necessary. Weres flashed sweet to vitriolic in an instant. Blood would be spilled and the vamps would freak out. When Luka failed to respond to his charms, the blond wandered away. So did the old vamp, and Luka breathed a sigh of relief.

Less than ten minutes passed before he sensed an incident on the upper floor. Luka caught the eye of Dan, his club manager, who came straight over. Taking the steps two at a time, they paused at the top before heading right. Three men were in the washroom. One muscular bruiser, with a shaved head and a heavily tattooed back featuring a tapestry of snarling faces, held the arms and shoulders of a floppy-haired youth, keeping him on his knees while the other guy prepared to push a thick cock into his mouth.

“Stop,” Luka said.

One of the standing men looked as though he was going to argue, then glanced at Dan and back to Luka. The boy turned and retched. He was the one who’d asked Luka to dance.

“Buckle up and leave. Don’t come here again.” Luka’s voice was calm and compelling. It worked on most mortals and some vamps, though not on the weres. He’d always wanted to try a dog whistle but werewolves turned nasty when teased.

Dan escorted the two men out and Luka turned to the youth. He rose from his knees, choking back sobs. Tear tracks glistened like snail trails on his cheeks.

“How old are you?” Luka asked.

“A hundred and twenty-three.”

The boy’s fingers fumbled with the buttons on his chinos, trying to fasten them. He kept his eyes down, face averted. Luka wondered if he’d managed to take a piss before he was jumped. He had to be a young vamp not to have sensed the mortals meant trouble.

“Try again.”

“Eighteen.”

The truth and a relief. Luka’s staff was supposed to check everyone’s ID on entry. The kid looked as though he hadn’t even begun shaving, though now that he was a vamp, he’d never need to. Luka felt a pang of pity. Whoever turned him needed staking. He couldn’t be more than a few months old.

“Your first time at Rebellion?” Luka asked.

“Yes.”

“What’s your name?”

“Simon.”

He kept his eyes away from Luka’s. He might be naive, but he’d already learned deference to an older vamp. Luka spoke with the same compelling tone he’d used on the others. “Don’t come up here again. Stick to the lower floor.”

“I will.”

As Luka went back towards the stairs, the youngster came trotting up behind him.

“Would you like to fuck me?”

Good God
. “No.”

Luka didn’t stop moving and wondered about the kid’s response to what had happened. Instead of scurrying home, he was still looking for action. Luka sighed in annoyance.

“I could give you a blowjob.”

Christ
. “No.”

Luka gave serious consideration to implanting the idea they’d already fucked so the kid would leave him alone. He also thought about taking Simon to his office and giving him a lecture about the seedier aspects of some of the men who used the club, but Luka decided not to do that either.

Something was off-kilter, though he wasn’t sure what.

Back in the main room, Luka leaned against the wall, his pose casual, his senses on high alert.

“You’re really good-looking.” Simon pressed against him. “Want to go for a ride on my bike?”

Luka could see he wasn’t going to give up. The kid was wasting his time. Luka might own and run a gay club, but he had no interest in fucking men. He had no problem with it; he knew all too well what it was like to be different, but he wasn’t gay.

“No, thanks. Enjoy yourself tonight, but be more careful.” Luka walked off.

He made his way to his office. Dan could supervise for a while.

The noise level had fallen, but the pounding bass still throbbed through the building, making the pictures on the walls vibrate in an increasingly aggravating rhythm. Luka slumped at his desk, scratched the persistent itch on his arm, and groaned. Tonight, he found everything annoying. He needed a distraction. Sex would work. Luka might not fuck guys, but his dick purred at the thought of getting some action. When he opened the club five years ago, he’d thought pretending to be gay was a brainwave, but he hadn’t factored in the cost to his sex life.

His gay cover kept the female vamps away and Luka had no complaints about that. Having sex with them raised too many questions. As far as they were concerned, there was no reason for him to use a condom because it was a well-known fact that vampires were sterile. Creatures who were made and not born could neither make another pregnant nor get pregnant. A well-known fact that Luka knew was a lie because he’d been born to vampire parents, although he hadn’t become properly undead until his teens.

In theory, Luka was potent enough to get an infertile vamp pregnant. Not that he ever had.

Without a special license from the VHC, the Vampire High Council, the penalty for doing so was death. An insistence on using protection set alarm bells ringing. Vamps didn’t carry disease, couldn’t get pregnant, so vampire partners wanted to know why Luka needed to wear a rubber.

With no way to explain without endangering his clan, he found it easier not to have sex with vampires.

He’d been happy to stick to fucking mortals, the irony being they expected him to use protection, when with them he didn’t need to. But to Luka’s dismay, over the last twenty-seven years, four months, three weeks and two days, he’d developed a worsening control problem. Sex and feeding had become so bound together that he couldn’t do one without the other. And every time he thought about sex, his bloody arm itched like crazy.

The last time he’d risked touching a mortal was seven months ago. Apart from the fact that he’d wanted to rip off his arm while he was in the middle of fucking her, his fangs had erupted. He’d bitten her neck, began to drink and not stopped. Luka had been so close to draining her, it had scared him into abstinence.

He could have joined Vampires Anonymous, except those who did had a tendency to disappear.

Killing a mortal by draining was an automatic death sentence. Not a quick “stake in the heart”

exit, but the “pin out in the sun” lingering variety. Luka was only two hundred and sixty-seven years old. It was a little too soon to consider not existing, although faced with a future with no sex, life looked less and less attractive. Over the last few months he’d grown increasingly desperate to fuck someone, and to his dismay he’d become best mates with his fist. Basically, his sex life was screwed in entirely the wrong way.

Luka unfastened the button on his chinos, eased down his zipper, and groaned with relief as his cock sprang out of his boxers. At the rate he was going, he’d give himself a permanent pattern on his dick from where it pressed against the metal zipper. His fingers encircled his swollen length and he squeezed, letting the soft outer skin slide over the rigid core. Luka gave a quiet moan and his gaze drifted to the door. He hadn’t locked it and could be disturbed at any time. It was better that way because it made him come faster. Pushing back from his desk, he worked his hand up and down his shaft, trying to picture some voluptuous blonde. Vamp or mortal, it didn’t matter.

“Luka?”

The knock at the door caused Luka’s hand to fly off his dick, fasten his zipper, and button his pants. All in the blink of an eye. Sometimes vampire speed was priceless.

“Yeah?” Luka called, picking up a sheet of paper and trying to look busy.

Dan smiled when he came in and Luka had the uncomfortable feeling that his manager knew exactly what he’d been doing. Luka blanked his mind just in case.
Do not think about sex
. That lasted about two seconds.
Breasts, soft handfuls with rosy tipped
--

“Hey, boss. Am I disturbing you?”

Yes, you bastard
. “No, it’s fine.”

Dan was a gay vamp who thought Luka was gay as well. Luka had spread the rumor that his partner, Rio, wanted his sexual orientation to remain a secret so they were never seen together. It had worked. So far.

Dan strolled over to the desk. Luka edged his chair forwards, though his cock had already dwindled as expectations of a quick wank trickled away.

“That kid Simon is asking for you,” Dan said.

Luka groaned. “For fuck’s sake, why?”

Dan laughed. “Why do you think? For some strange reason, he likes the look of you. Probably your luscious butt.”

Luka glared, but his mind lit up with an image of him sinking his teeth into Simon’s slender neck, filling his mouth with thick, hot, delicious blood. Luka swallowed in discomfort as his fangs shifted. Council rules said vamps were supposed to use bagged blood whenever possible, unless they were in desperate need or had a SRL, a Stable Relationship License. That was one rule that most vamps broke, Luka included. Bagged blood sucked big time.

“I can read your mind,” Dan said.

“Well, don’t.” Dan could only read what Luka wanted him to. As long as Luka wasn’t distracted.

“Think I’ll take a bite if you’re not interested. Jason’s not coming in until seven.”

Luka’s fangs finally dropped and he sighed. Jason was Dan’s mortal lover. The tall, skinny guy with a dazzling smile and huge dark eyes had come to the club five months ago seeking work.

Dan had taken one look, fallen in lust, and begged Luka to give him a job. An extra mortal to deal with daytime deliveries had solved one of Luka’s problems. Watching Jason and Dan pawing at each other at every opportunity gave him a problem elsewhere. Luka shifted in his chair as his cock twitched.

Dan smiled. “You sure you don’t want Simon?”

Luka’s fangs pricked the inside of his mouth. Now that the idea of feeding had entered his head, along with a desire for sex, he was half thinking about it. At least the club was good for something; he could feed off gay vamps and he never wanted to have sex with them.
Ha ha
. He tried to keep his tongue away from the sharp tips of his canines. If he tasted blood, he was in big trouble.

“How are things with Jason?” Luka asked, trying not to lisp.

Dan shrugged. “Good, except he’s pestering me to turn him. He doesn’t want to grow old when I don’t. He has a point. ”

Luka raised his eyebrows. “So will you?”

“I’m thinking about applying for permission, but I don’t know if he’s the one.”

“If you don’t know, then he probably isn’t.”

Dan shuffled his feet and kept his eyes down. “I want him to be. It’s all right for you. You and Rio are already vamps. It isn’t an issue.”

Luka felt a surge of sadness that in all these years he hadn’t found his partner. It was all very well the VHC going on about commitment to lifemates, but with a population of over six billion in the world, even if you took out guys, kids, and old people, there was still an awful lot to go through to find your partner. Did you just trip over them? Did the fickle hand of fate really exist?