Waning Moon (5 page)

“Beat him good for me.” The woman sneered as the young man clenched a fist and aimed for Tony’s face.

The man’s fist floated inches from Tony’s nose, arm locked in mid-air. He grunted as he tried to move but he couldn’t, as if a great weight coupled with the earth’s gravity were bearing down on his body, helplessly trapping him in that one single spot.

“His eyes!” screeched the woman. “They-they’re gold! Like a vampire’s!”

Tony’s unwavering stare was now the color of warm honey as he stared at the young man and his friends like a starving wolf in wait. He stood from the bench and traced a finger along the young man’s jaw line with a wry smirk that reminded the hyenas of a snake.

A hungry, poisonous snake about to strike its prey.

*

“What were you going to do to my servant?” Gabriel asked calmly, silkily.

The woman turned to run but he was far superior in speed and appeared before her as she tried to sprint away. “I won’t let any of you go.” He growled as the woman stepped back until she was in a straight line with her friends.

“Why can’t I move? What’s going on?” The one man, the one that hadn’t taken any actions, asked as he trembled in terror. “Is he a vampire or a panther? I can’t tell.”

The vampire circled the were-hyenas, like a predator enjoying the hunt, greatly amused with the shocked expressions crossing their features. He laughed and said, “May I ask what you were planning to do with my servant?”

“He’s been possessed by that vampire! But I thought only a master vampire could do that,” mumbled the woman in wonder.

The young man spoke up. “W-we were just gonna hurt him a little. Not anything bad, just to get back at him for calling in help yesterday, that’s all.”

Gabriel roughly cupped the man’s cheeks, eyes flashing crimson. “And why did you attack him yesterday to begin with?”

The woman raised her voice. “He was an easy target, and we wanted to have some fun. It’s not every day you find a panther as weak as him.”

Gabriel paused. “Ah, I see. So you had no real reason to harm him then. It was all done on a whim?”

“I’m sorry! We’ll never do it again! Okay?” the woman screeched.

Gabriel clapped and hissed. “I will let you go then, as I do not want to attract any unnecessary attention. But know that if I ever see you around this man again I will not hold back my anger.”

“Y-yeah!” The woman squeaked as she and the young men found they could now move. They each shifted quickly into their hyena counterparts and fled into the nearby tree line.

Gabriel watched them leave, waited until they were completely out his sight, and then began the long and arduous walk back to the apartment.

He would need to feed. And soon.

Taking over a servant’s body didn’t come without consequences after all.

* * * *

Tony’s head throbbed like a sledgehammer. He examined his room and flinched when he noticed that Gabriel was in the bed with him, long dark hair settled around him in an ebony waterfall. Tony looked at him closely, inspected the way his eyelashes were so long they reached his eyebrows like little angel wings, his pale mouth slightly agape, arms perfectly positioned by his sides as he slumbered in his death-sleep.

His death sleep? Tony threw the covers off himself and jumped out of bed. Gabriel was as good as dead beside him, a lifeless corpse that would reanimate during the night hours. He made a mental note to wash his sheets and blankets later. He strode into the living room to turn on the TV and watch the morning news.

He felt like he was forgetting something. Something important.

After pouring a bowl of cereal, Tony made some dark blend coffee, added in some milk and sugar, and continued to watch the morning news. He found himself dozing off a few times and then when the clock on the wall hit nine he realized what he’d forgotten.

He had to work today.

Tony rushed into the bedroom and hurriedly wrestled into his beige uniform, tied his apron on, and slipped on his boots.

Gabriel looked so peaceful, an image of languid grace as he lay deathly still on the bed. Tony couldn’t help but go over to him, run his fingers through the thick tresses of the vampire’s mane, and touch his cool cheek.

With a faint smile, he shut the bedroom door and exited the apartment, and hopped on a bus to The Coffee Shop on Cherry Street. As he entered the building, Mia, dressed in the identical clothing, only she wore a knee-length pleated skirt, quickly came over to him and greeted cheerfully, “Good morning, Tony! You’re late.”

He rubbed his head nervously and realized it was still pulsing in pain. “I know, I know. I overslept, sorry.”

“Yeah, well, next time you’re opening without me. Do you know how crazy crowded it was this morning doing everything by myself?”

“I’m sorry,” he murmured sadly. “It won’t happen again.”

Mia slapped him playfully on the shoulder. “You owe me. Now go and make some bagels, there are starving customers waiting for their breakfasts!”

Tony took his station in the kitchen where he immediately began to slice bagels, apply cream cheese and other toppings, brew coffee, and clean the messes that followed. He fell into a comfortable rhythm, went along with the tides of work as he blocked all sounds and nuisances from his ears and enveloped himself in his own little world of quiet labor.

The hours sped by fast and soon it was four in the afternoon and his shift was over.

As he and Mia prepared everything for the evening workers, she stared uneasily at him and asked, “What happened to your neck? It looks like a hickey.”

Tony’s hand flew to his neck and touched a sore, painful area. “Is it bad?”

Mia shook her head. “It’s pretty bad. What kind of girl are you seeing, Tony?” she teased.

Embarrassment burned hot on his cheeks and he asked, “Can I borrow your scarf, Mia? Please?”

“Embarrassed are we?” She chuckled. “Okay, but give it back tomorrow.” She handed him her white cable-knit scarf and he tied it loosely around his neck.

“Thanks.”

“No problem. Now about that girl you’re seeing…”

“Oh, wow, it’s four ten already! I gotta go and pick up some laundry. See you tomorrow, Mia!” He scurried off.

*

Mia pouted. She really wanted to know who this girl was and why she was so hard on Tony, a man that was easily persuadable. A man that would do anything asked if given the chance. She knew only because she had begged him one time to help scare off some men who had been harassing her at the restaurant, and boy, had he been more than willing to help. He’d ended up almost biting one man’s arm off and hurling another thirty feet into a wall. Persuading Tony was as easy as asking a girl scout for cookies.

Too easy.

*

When Tony returned to his apartment, it was like stepping inside a luxury hotel suite. Everything had a shimmering gleam to it that it hadn’t had before and the tile floor was free of dust, dirt, and grime. He kicked his shoes off and checked the kitchen, but Gabriel wasn’t there so he walked into his bedroom and sure enough, the vampire was lying on the bed, onyx hair settled around him like a fan. Tony tiptoed to the other side of the bed and lay down when Gabriel sprang awake and greeted, “Why, hello, my cute servant.”

The were-panther howled in shock. Wasn’t the vampire sleeping? Damn, he wanted him to stay asleep while he got into bed. Better luck next time.

Gabriel’s bright eyes glowed scarlet as he latched onto Tony’s arm and pulled him close to him with a triumphant smirk. He stroked the other man’s collarbone with the barest of feathery touches, fingers gliding lightly along flesh that rippled with goose bumps. Tony’s breath hitched in his throat as the vampire tangled a fist in his copper hair and crushed his lips against him fervently. Their tongues intertwined and waltzed together, Tony sliding his over the peaks of Gabriel’s fangs. Gabriel moaned deeply and dipped a hand inside Tony’s pants, caressing his hardening cock with skillful traces.

They broke the kiss and Gabriel’s eyes were a glossy dark and bloody crimson. Tony touched his smooth ebony mane and stripped his clothes off as Gabriel did the same, only the vampire did it with such grace and finesse whereas Tony felt sloppy and uncoordinated.

“Don’t be so shy,” Gabriel said softly. “It only makes me want to take you all the more. Especially when you look at me with such worried eyes.” He nibbled the were-panther’s ear and set a trail of fiery kisses from his collarbone to his navel. Tony gasped as Gabriel licked at his stony nipples, then suckled and played with the pebbly buds. Gabriel rolled the buds in his mouth like candy as his hands wandered over the rest of Tony’s body, grabbed the bottom of his ass while fondling the length of his rock-hard cock.

Tony cried out as Gabriel’s fangs grazed his nipple and a tiny drop of blood oozed out and the vampire lapped it up. Gabriel’s eyes were such a deep red now that they looked black, and he continued his insistent drawing on Tony, drinking his blood while playing with the sensitive flower with his tongue.

He popped his mouth off Tony’s nipple and slid his mouth down to his rigid cock where he enveloped his lips around the tip and sucked roughly. Tony’s hands clawed into Gabriel’s back as the vampire’s lips danced wonderfully on his solid member, his eyes flitting between wide open and half-closed as he rode the typhoon of pleasure that crashed onto his very being.

Gabriel let go of Tony and licked his lips. “You like how I suck your cock, Tony. That expression is so amazing. I want to see an even better expression from you, though.” He repositioned himself so that his legs were outside Tony’s, hands holding the were-panther’s in place above his head as he moved his twitching cock to Tony’s delicate, supple ass and quickly plunged inside. Tony gripped the blankets as Gabriel pumped fast, rode him like a rodeo bull. Tony tried to resist but ended up wound in a web of pleasure and carnal ecstasy.

Gabriel took Tony until he himself was thoroughly exhausted and could not hold himself up anymore. He slipped out of the other man and tumbled to the mattress with him as he buried his head in the crook of Tony’s neck.

“That’s the expression I wanted. The face of a man totally and completely taken over by pleasure,” he whispered in Tony’s ear as his arms encircled the other man’s chest.

Tony couldn’t believe it. He’d just had sex with another man for the second time. With his savior. With a stranger. A vampire.

And to his surprise, he absolutely loved it.

Goddamnit!

The fourth coffee mug of the day fell from Tony’s hand and crashed onto the floor. Ceramic pieces splintered everywhere and as Tony bent down to pick up the mess, he snagged his index finger on the end of a shard and cursed under his breath as it started to bleed profusely.

“That’s your, what, one hundredth one today?” Mia laughed as she handed him a Band Aid, broom, and dustbin.

“The fourth,” Tony mumbled as he stuck the Band Aid around his finger.

Mia joked, “Same thing.”

All day, Tony had been acting out of sorts. He’d burnt five bagels, applied either too little or way too much cream cheese, and spilled coffee various times while preparing. His apron was soaked and stained, his patience was running dry, and now his frickin’ finger was bleeding.

“Is something on your mind? ‘Cuz you never, ever burn the bagels. They’re like the Holy Grail of your work. Care to tell me what’s on your mind?” Mia split a bagel in two and shoved it into the toaster.

He inhaled sharply and said, “It’s nothing. Just a new neighbor that moved in yesterday.”

“Oh, so are they annoying?”

“Kind of.”

Mia took the dustbin and broom from him and emptied the broken mug into the trash. “Want me to go and give them a piece of my mind for bugging you?”

“N-no, that’s okay. I’m gonna complain to the landlord. They play their music way too loud and I couldn’t sleep.”

“Oh, okay then.” She gave Tony a pat on the shoulder before returning to her job at the counter.

Tony sighed heavily. All he could think about was Gabriel, how he’d saved him, how he’d touched him, how amazing it felt when he…Now was not the time to be thinking about that! He slapped his face and urged himself to wake up.

An image of the onyx-haired vampire flitted through his mind and he found himself longing for the other man’s magic touch, the touch that sent him reeling into a world of absolute pleasure. Damn, was he hard! So fucking hard as he dreamily thought about Gabriel.

Shit! What if Mia saw him? What would she say? He was working and all he could think about was that-that goddamn vampire! It was ten minutes to twelve and almost time for his lunch break, so Tony quickly rushed through the rest of the orders before reminding Mia that he was going out for lunch and would be back soon.

As he strolled along the sidewalk to his favorite pizza place, Tony couldn’t shake the thought of Gabriel from his mind. The man had enchanted him, enticed him, enthralled him utterly and completely. If he concentrated enough, he could still feel Gabriel’s mouth on his cock, feel the man’s gentle fingers executed feathery strokes along his body like the touch of an angel. He ground his teeth together as he sat down with his ham and bacon pizza and Pepsi and rested his chin on the back of a hand. The cut on his finger was bleeding through and he peeled the wet and sticky Band Aid off and replaced it with a fresh one that he found in his wallet.

Tony munched slowly on his food, took a tiny sip of soda, and pressed his face into the palm of his hand. What was he doing, thinking about Gabriel now? He’d only just met the man and already he couldn’t wrench him out of his thoughts. Did he really like him that much? Had he really fallen for him? Or was this all a side effect of the vampire marks? He didn’t know. He was afraid to know.

Because everyone that ever got involved too deep in his life disappeared.

Tony finished up his lunch and returned to the shop where his thoughts wandered off to Gabriel again. As he was relieved of kitchen duty for a few minutes, after the flow of customers had substantially thinned, he went out and swept beneath the tables. He looked up when the bell to the door rang and in walked a man wearing a long leather trench-coat, knee-high boots with skinny jeans, and a deep purple cable-knit scarf wound about his neck.