
Wild RideWilla Okati
All rights reserved.Copyright ©2007 Willa Okati
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Wild Ride
Willa Okati
Strange dreams tell Nikos that he is more than what he seems. They promise him that he is meant to be more than a Secret Keeper, one who can track the predatory Nightlings. That he is more than an arranged mate to Rand, chief of the Hunters, a cruel and careless man.
When Nikos hunts a persistent and dangerous Nightling named Alexei, he finds the answers to all his questions. Alexei is a time traveler from the past who has come to find Nikos -- and take him back to the year 2007, where he insists Nikos is meant to be.
It's going to be a wild ride...
"Keep up, Nikos. This is the rise you said you saw in your vision. Has to be -- there's the double pine on the top of the hill. The Nightling's so close I can smell him. Damn fool." Rand hooted. "Bet he thinks he's oh, so smart, hiding in plain sight in the sunshine. As if anyone escapes the Hunters." Rand wiped his jaw and grimaced when his fingers met the two-day growth of stubble on his chin. "Let's go ahead and bag the ba-tar. The sooner I get out of this forest the happier I'll be." He snapped his fingers, impatient as ever for the kill. "Nikos! Are you with me?"
Nikos used his walking stick, a sturdy length cut from an oak tree inherited from his father, to plant on the rocky slope and haul himself up. "Shh, Rand," he hissed as he glanced warily from side to side. There was no telling what might come out, curious, to see what a human wanted in the Dark-Lands. These forests didn't belong to the humans and everyone -- everything -- knew that. They'd fight for what belonged to them.
When the Dark-Lands beasts fought, everything died. No man could stand up to the weapons they boasted.
Rand rolled his eyes. He tapped his right foot in its boot, the leather worn shiny with age. He'd taken off the decorations he'd earned -- the bear teeth, the porcupine quills, the agate beads -- so he wouldn't make any noise and alert the Night Creatures.
And then what did he do? Yell. Sometimes Nikos wondered how Rand had made it to adulthood alive, much less the top of the ranks of Hunters. It didn't seem possible for someone so short-tempered and careless... but what did he, Nikos, know? Things didn't always make sense in their world.
Rand grinned at Nikos, drunk with cocky assurance. "What, are you scared? Worried about the big, bad Nightlings? I thought you were a bigger man than this. Are you going to let me down?"
Nikos counted to ten. "I hadn't planned to, no. I just figured that it would help if the Nightling we're after didn't know we were on his trail."
Rand rolled his eyes. "Nikos... still so naive. Of course he knows. Probably got our scent the minute we stepped into the woods. You know how they sense things real men can't, the unnatural freaks." Rand spat to the left and drew a spiral in the air to protect himself. "You've got to do better than this, Nikos. Now that your father's dead, you're set to be the next Secret-Keeper. That means knowing these ba-tar in and out, up and down and sideways. If we come back from this Hunt and I have to tell the Clan you failed..." He held his hands palms up and shrugged. Nikos didn't need to hear anything else. A Secret-Keeper who lost his quarry was no use to anyone.
And only a Secret-Keeper knew how to find the Nightlings in their lairs. Hunters could get lucky and they could track the man-like creatures. Only a Secret-Keeper could reach into their heads, read their dreams, and know exactly where to find them, the strange and shadowy men who drank blood and stole people of the Clan from their beds.
The Clan was counting on Nikos to help them survive.
"Fine." Nikos straightened the hang of his leather vest. Too hot to wear anything else. "How much farther does the forest go on? I think I saw him behind a tree in the vision, but..." He hesitated, catching his lip between his teeth. "I can't be sure," he admitted. "The old Secret-Keeper never said the foretellings could be so vague."
Rand shrugged. "They weren't, for him. It could be that you haven't bloodied your spear yet. Maybe they'll clear up once you've made a kill. How should I know? Hurry up before you lose the trail you did pick up on. We -- shit!" He vaulted backwards in a huge, clumsy leap, knocking Nikos down.
Nikos slammed to the floor of the forest. "Rand, what the hells are you doing?" he demanded -- or started to. The Nightling loomed over Nikos, blocking his view of the sun overhead, and grinned with a mouthful of sharp white teeth. Nikos yelled and kicked at the beast. Too late.
"There you are, dreamer. I've been looking for you for a long, long time. Nice of you to drop by, right on the doorstep of my camp. You're making this job so much easier." The Nightling seized Nikos by the collar of his vest and hauled him out from under Rand, who was still gasping like a fish out of water. "Let's go."
"Not with you." Nikos seized the Nightling's wrist and twisted. Ha! So they were vulnerable. The Nightling snarled with pain as his grip broke and Nikos darted back. "Rand!" he shouted. "Rand, get up." A Secret-Keeper could track. Only a Hunter could kill. "Rand!"
The Nightling recovered fast from Nikos' attack. He grinned as he placed a finger to his lips. "Shh. Rand isn't going anywhere anytime soon."
"What did you do to him?" Since words weren't working, Nikos shoved Rand's shoulder with his moccasin-encased toes. "Rand, if you don't get your ass up off the forest floor right now, I'll --"
"You'll what?" the Nightling mocked. "Try to kill me yourself? Here, if you think you can do it." He backed off, arms open and chest exposed. "You've got a good walking stick there. I'll just bet it's been treated with salt and oil. No chance it won't kill me. So go ahead. Take your best shot." He taunted Nikos with goading twitches of his fingers. "Kill me if you really think you can."
Nikos stopped, shocked, for a single beat.
One too many. The Nightling moved faster than any other Nikos had ever seen. Between one blink and the next, he had crossed the space between them and held Nikos pinned to him, chest to chest. Black, black eyes sparkled and the Nightling grinned.
Nikos couldn't breathe. This close, the Nightling looked and smelled like a man. Handsome as a dream, with his strong jaw and sensual lips. The kind of man another man would see in his sleep, and when he woke up he'd be covered in his own sticky semen, pulse pounding in his groin, still remembering what the Nightling's lips and tongue had felt like on his cock.
Except his heart didn't beat and his lungs didn't expand. He was a monster.
But this close, unable to break the hypnotic hold of the Nightling's eyes, Nikos understood why they were so powerful. The Nightlings made you need them. They lured men and women with their beauty and then... they disappeared. No one ever heard from the Nightlings' prey again.
Nikos knew, now, that all their victims must have wanted to follow their captors. His lips parted and his breathing quickened. He knew he'd been caught in a trap but he burned to feel the Nightling's mouth on his. Claming him.
"You're everything I thought you would be," the Nightling murmured, his voice pitched low and husky. Nikos shuddered as a burst of arousal poured adrenaline through his muscles. His cock hardened fast enough to make his balls hurt. "And so responsive. Just look at you." His hand, encased in fingerless leather gloves, palmed Nikos' erection through his canvas hunting pants. Nikos gasped and rocked into the touch, unable and unwilling to stop himself. "I knew you were the one." The Nightling cupped his cheek, his grip iron hard. "There's no escaping me. Don't fight." He squeezed and rolled Nikos' cock, fast replacing small pain with explosions of fire and lust. "Let go for me. Let me feel you come over my fingers."
"I can't," Nikos found enough breath to protest. "Rand... I'm promised to him as his mate in bed and on the battle fields. Secret-Keeper to the chief of the Hunters. That's the way it's always been."
"But you don't love him."
Nikos stared. "How did you..."
"I know many things about you. His mate? Not anymore." The Nightling traced his lips over Nikos' cheek and slowly made a path to Nikos' mouth. "I know what you are, Nikos. Secret-Keeper, I know the secret you've been hiding from your Clan."
Nikos drew up sharply, unable to hide his instinctive reaction.
The Nightling laughed under his breath. "You're like me, Nikos. You're one of us. Did you think we wouldn't find you?"
"No," Nikos tried to protest. "Those are just dreams. Ordinary dreams."
"But you see yourself with us," the Nightling insisted. "You know you don't belong here in this place or this time. Sometimes dreams come true, Nikos. You were taken from us and now I'm taking you back. More than that, Nikos, you're mine." He rolled his hips, letting Nikos know exactly what he meant. "You'll understand soon."
"Like hells he will, ba-tar."
Nikos groaned, not knowing if the sound was borne of relief or dismay. "Rand."
"Get away from him," Rand warned. "Let him go."
The Nightling laughed. "Since you ask so nicely. But first..." He pushed up on Nikos' prick and closed his fingers. It should have hurt. Nikos did scream, but with unimaginable ecstasy as his hips bucked and the climax shook him to the core. "You can have him for now. I'll be back soon, though, and then he's mine."
The Nightling's warmth faded in an instant. Nikos' legs refused to hold him upright. He collapsed to his back, staring and gasping at where the Nightling had been. Had been. He was gone now, gone as if he'd never been there in the first place.
"Remember, Nikos," Nikos heard him mocking, his voice filling the woods. "Soon."
Time passed. The Clan believed the story Rand had spun for them about a Nightling so powerful he had refused to die when they speared him through the evil black heart. They shuddered and made signs against evil, and soon enough, let the matter pass when they should have raised an uproar and had both Rand and Nikos deposed.
Nikos didn't understand why they'd forgotten, or how they could. All the same, he was grateful they had. If they had cast him out, the Nightling could have taken him, and then...
He dreamed, every time he slept, that the Nightling had captured him. But rather than growing sick with horror, he languished for want of the beast's hands on him again. Rand's touches, awkward fumbles in the middle of the night, rough fucks without enough oil to ease the way and never any attention paid to whether or not Nikos enjoyed the sex... they weren't enough.
Nikos stared at his reflection in the river that ran past the Clan's encampment and saw he'd gone pale and grown thin. He hungered, day and night, for the taste of the Nightling's kiss.
Rand bragged about how he'd rescued Nikos. Only Nikos knew Rand hadn't saved him at all. He belonged to the Nightling now, and the Nightling would come for his prize.
It was only a question of "when"...
\*
It was no time at all, and yet far too long to wait, when the Nightling made good on his promise. In the middle of a cold, dry night when Nikos was the only one awake to guard the Clan, the Nightling came.
He announced himself with the clattering of rocks underfoot. Nikos knew, in his heart, that this was the end. All the same, he raised his voice and called, "Hello?"
"Nikos," a deep voice replied with the crisp accent of the Nightlings. "I've been waiting for you."
Oh, fuck, Nikos thought, hiding his wince.
"Now, that's not very nice, Nikos. You've waited for me too. Aren't you glad I'm here?" Nikos peered past the yellow light of his sentry fire and flinched, startled to see the red gleam of the Nightling's eyes beyond the encampment. "Come join me, Nikos," the Nightling coaxed. "It's time."
"There's nothing I can offer you in trade? No price to pay for your leaving me -- us -- alone?"
"Now why would I be tempted by your offer? Especially when I know you want me as much as I want you. When you know I can help you. When you know they'll find out soon, what you really are. A creature like me, hungry for what you won't let yourself feed on. Enough of this, Nikos. Come."
"I can't -- I'm not --" Nikos clamped his lips shut. "All right. Where are you?"
"Just beyond the fire. I won't hurt you, Nikos. You know I won't. Come to me."
Nikos squeezed his eyes shut and whispered an invocation to protect him against harm, for all the good he thought it would do. "I'm coming."
"You will, if I have anything to say about it, and I know you'll taste oh, so sweet." The Nightling chuckled, patient and amused. "Take my hand, Nikos."
Nikos held his chin high as he stepped past the guarding fire and blinked in the utter darkness beyond. He'd heard stories that, once upon a time, men had known how to capture fires in glass and light up the night as brightly as if it were day. That they'd had horses shaped like metal boxes and been able to cross the Land in less than a week. They found old roads of cracked black rock sometimes, some of them still bearing yellow stripes down their middles.
They said the Nightlings knew how to travel those roads. That they were old enough to remember the metal boxes and understood the secrets of bottled fire. Nikos didn't know whether he believed the stories or not, but as he took the Nightling's warm, dry hand, a jolt of the creature's power shuddered through him and he realized there wasn't much the beast's kind couldn't do.
"What do you want?" Nikos tried to brazen. Up close, the Nightling's dark eyes lost their ferocity and seemed almost... loving. He hadn't expected that. He knew the Nightlings craved humans as lovers, but he didn't understand how any human could lust for a monster.
He got it now. His prick and balls burned with the need to have the Nightling inside him.
"I'm not an animal," the Nightling said as he touched Nikos' lips. "You don't believe me, I know, but I'm a man, and I was sent to find you."
"How? Why?"
"You don't need to know that yet, Nikos. First, you're coming with me. Close your eyes."
"Why should I --"
"Because this is your destiny." The Nightling kissed him. "My name is Alexei, and I've come to take you home."
The world disappeared.
\*
Thud! Nikos landed on what felt like cold, unforgiving stone. He rolled to avoid as many bruises as he could and came up with his fists clenched. "What did you do?"
The Nightling laughed, teasing Nikos. "I brought you halfway to where you belong, and here we are. You can open your eyes now. Did I scare you?"
"Where are you?" Nikos tried to feel for the Nightling -- Alexei. "I can't see you."
"Really? Well, I've heard that happens. Here. Take my hand." Fingers brushed Nikos'. "It'll be all right."
Nikos summoned up his best memory of Alexei's hand. Long fingers, not artistic but efficient, the kind that could hold a spear to a doe without flinching or sign a man's death stone without a drop of regret. Shocking him, he didn't see Alexei's hand doing either of those things in his mind's eye. No, instead, as tangibly as if it were actually happening, Nikos saw Alexei's fingers wrapped around Nikos' thick, dark cock, squeezing hard enough to hurt and milking out sticky pre-cum. He saw Alexei lifting his thumb to his mouth and slipping the digit inside for a taste.
And then, beyond his wildest dreams, Alexei made it real.
"Stand still," Alexei ordered, lowering himself to his knees. He braced them wide apart and leaned forward to nuzzle at Nikos' groin. He mouthed the outline of Nikos' cock and stroked his tongue over the barrier of cloth. Nikos groaned, unable to stop the soft sound somewhere between shock and passion.
He knew what Alexei wanted to do. He'd heard about the act before, and even wanted to try it out with Rand. Rand had staunchly refused to consider anything of the sort with Nikos, and eventually Nikos had let the request drift away.
"Are you..." Nikos got a tentative grasp on Alexei's hair, damp with perspiration and thickly rough, like the mane of a great cat. "Here? Now?"
Alexei didn't answer in words. He deftly opened Nikos' trousers and drew his cock out; the avid admiration in the touch of his fingers stunned Nikos. Unable to see Alexei, he didn't catch what must have been the Nightling's dart forward to swallow his cock.
Nikos shouted and bent as far toward double as he could, curled over Alexei. The Nightling worked his cock with deep suction, a busy tongue and just the smallest hint of teeth scraping the sensitive length. Almost too much sensation; not enough. Nikos swore and tugged Alexei's hair until some came out in his grasp.
Alexei's full lips slid wetly off the head of Nikos' cock. "Come for me," he ordered, the rush of air that came with his words an amazingly carnal torment. He sucked Nikos' cock back into his mouth and pulled at Nikos' hips. Nikos hissed, ground out animal sounds, and came in the Nightling's amazing mouth.
He hung over Alexei, breathing heavily while the Nightling licked him clean and tucked him safely away. This was beyond anything he'd ever known.
What is he doing to me? Nikos steadied himself with his palm flat on Alexei's chest. A head rush flattened his thoughts, filling him with the absence of the way he still felt he should react. No racing heartbeat, no rush of blood in his ears, no gasp for breath. His mind demanded those things, and got severely pissed off when his body refused to cooperate. He's killed me. He's killed me!
"No, I haven't. I'm bringing you back to life. Now walk forward. I'm right here, and I'll catch you if you fall."
"I can't."
"You must. Walk toward me, Nikos. Come to me or die."
Nikos took a step. He nearly lost his balance, which would have sent him toppling into Alexei's strong, lengthy arms. Tall and on the slim side, although it was easy to see at a single glance that he must exercise and run, Alexei suddenly shifted from "monster" to "oh, hells, I need him" in Nikos' thoughts, and he almost fell a second time in surprise.
He opened his eyes, and he saw a world of nothingness wrapped in twilight. Was this the Nightling's home? Alexei caught Nikos by the biceps, holding him up. They were almost the same height. "Are you all right?"
Nikos wasn't the kind of man who could brush off attacks of clumsiness and shock with a quip and a laugh. He mumbled something he hoped sounded like a rejection of Alexei's attempts to coddle him as he glanced away.
He could feel Alexei examining him narrowly. He wasn't sure what he was dreading, but after a moment, Alexei backed up a few steps, then turned away. "Follow me," he said. "This way."
Nikos followed Alexei, wary but hoping he'd get a second chance to prove himself.
"Good man," Alexei approved. Apropos of nothing, he asked, "Would you like something to drink?"
Nikos realized he was so thirsty he could barely speak. When had that happened? All the same... "No. I won't take anything from you, Nightling."
"Oh, really now. Do you think you could bring yourself to use my given name?" Alexei squatted on a patch of earth that looked exactly like all the rest. He thumped the hard stone and grunted, satisfied, as a concealed slab of stone lowered. "After all, we're going to get to know each other very well, aren't we? Here." Alexei had found a bottle in the hidden pit beneath the stones and held it to the light. "This is what you need. Catch."
He tossed the bottle to Nikos, who caught it automatically. It was second nature, just what people did, to turn the sealed container right side up and see what he held. Odd. Looked like the container was an old one, used many times. Nikos gave the bottle a shake, wondering.
He froze.
He threw the bottle without thinking, wanting to get it away from him, realizing too late it would smash open and spray its contents everywhere.
Alexei, who'd been standing nowhere in range, was suddenly there to catch the projectile before it landed. He cradled the bottle of blood as if it were a baby, smiling at Nikos in a way Nikos didn't think anyone could interpret. "If you wanted a different type, all you had to do was ask. I have at least a sample of almost everything. This job does not come without perks."
Nikos' thoughts jumbled and tangled together. "How did you know?" he asked without giving himself permission, knowing he'd put his foot in his mouth as soon as the words left his mouth. The cravings he'd hidden from everyone were evil. They had to be. "I mean --"
"I know what you meant." There was a blur of movement, and then Alexei was standing against an outcrop of rocks that hadn't been there mere moments before. He propped himself comfortably and smiled. The hint of fangs previously hidden behind his lips could not now be missed. "Let's not waste any more time, hmm? I know what you are, you see. And now you know what I am."
Nikos couldn't look away from the wicked, sharp points of Alexei's killing teeth. "How?" he repeated, his mouth dry. "I thought --"
"You thought you were all alone in this vast, cold world?" Alexei snorted. "That would be interesting, wouldn't it? You have no clue what the Nightlings are -- I knew that -- but I'm surprised at the depth of your ignorance. I told you, you're like us. Like me. This isn't how we look and act at home, of course." He gestured to his fangs. "Some changes are necessary when we travel to this place. Survival compels. And before you ask, we do not drain the blood we drink from the people of your Clan. We bring it with us. We don't need it to survive, no, but it's the only thing that fills our stomachs and soothes our thirst. You must have been going mad since the needs of your body asserted themselves."
"I can't drink from that bottle. Don't make me."
"I'd never force you to do anything you didn't really want to do. Scoff if you must, but you know it's the truth." Alexei rolled back the sleeve of his leather jerkin. "You wanted everything I've given you so far. Don't lie to me."
Nikos swallowed down the angry words he wanted to shout. He knew lying would be pointless. "Yes."
"Good. That's a start." Alexei approached Nikos, bared wrist held at chest level. The tracery of thick blue veins under ghostly pale skin fascinated Nikos. He found he couldn't look away, not even to try and figure out Alexei's thoughts based on his expression.
Nikos' lips were parched. His empty stomach grumbled.
"You're hungry, aren't you?" Alexei inquired. "Yes. I can see it for myself. Have you fed even once, just once, since you realized what you are?"
"No," Nikos whispered, riveted by the sight. "I couldn't. I found a dying Nightling once and I thought maybe, since he was a beast, it wouldn't be so bad, but the taste..."
"Interesting that you should have the courage without the comprehension. No wonder it tasted foul to you, though. Nightling blood is quite thin enough at the best of times, when we are at the peak of our strength, but the blood of the dying is no better than weak tea. You must be ravenous." Nikos realized that Alexei sounded genuinely concerned beneath the scolding. "Here." Alexei lifted his bared wrist to Nikos' mouth and rested it against Nikos' lips. "Drink."
Nikos' gums itched. He recoiled as he felt his teeth sharpen. He curled his hands into fists, fighting for control. "No. I can't. I won't. I won't be like you."
"You already are. Stop fighting. I know what's best for you." Alexei pressed the soft skin of his wrist against Nikos' descending fangs. "You'll do no one any good by doing without. Trust me, you don't want to see what happens when one of our kind goes mad from starvation. Drink."
He pushed harder, opening himself, spilling a thin red drop on Nikos' tongue.
Nikos moaned at the taste. He'd tried everything from water to fermented grains and nothing, nothing had ever been this good, not even the fruit juices worth their weight in trade goods. He'd have been unable to stop himself even if he'd wanted to. And he didn't. Instead, he seized Alexei's fingers with one hand, his forearm with another, and sank in his teeth to feed.
"Yes," Alexei whispered, sounding calm. Nikos felt Alexei stroking his head as he drank, coaxing out sluggish mouthfuls of thin blood. He thought the taste should have made him sick, and it nearly did if he stopped to think about what he was doing, but that didn't matter next to the bliss of quenching his thirst. "Good," Alexei crooned as Nikos struggled to catch the flow on his tongue without spilling. "Precious little technique, but there's time for you to learn better manners."
Nikos startled himself by laughing. Here they were, in a forever-twilight monster's lair, a Nightling letting another -- creature -- suck on his wrist, and he cared about technique and manners? What sort of strange beings were these Nightlings? How much had the Clan misunderstood?
Alexei chuckled in return. "I knew you had a sense of humor buried somewhere in there under all the rubbish your Clan teaches its young men."
Nikos growled into Alexei's wrist, biting down to make him shut up. He was hungry.
"Yes, you are. But not only for food, I see. I feel." Nikos came to a screeching stop as agile fingers molded themselves around his swollen cock. They kneaded him roughly, way too hard for a human to like. But for a Nightling, who he was now, the pain shot lightning bolts of fire up his spine and almost made him choke with excitement.
He thrust into Alexei's hand once before stopping himself.
"Don't. Not unless you have a good reason. Have you any idea of how much I've wanted you? No? Well, I suppose you wouldn't. You've never had eyes for anything but your precious duty." Alexei paused. "And Rand, though you don't love him, which I know. Don't lie."
Nikos almost laughed. To hear Rand described this way, as a secondary annoyance rather than the Hunter who all but ruled their Clan...
"Ah, ah, ah," Alexei warned. He gripped Nikos' erection harder still. "He doesn't belong here right now. There's no one in this place but you and I. Do I make myself clear?" He flexed and closed his fingers. "You know what I want. I could take it for myself, but I don't like the taste of sacrificial lambs."
Nikos hesitated. He wanted. He knew what he wanted, but also knew he should stop himself. He couldn't.
"Would Rand object?" Alexei traced a line up Nikos' cock, then hooked the tip of his finger in the waist of Nikos' trousers. "Your Rand, the Hunter who couldn't satisfy a lover even if he cared to try. Rand, hung like a squirrel, from what I see in your thoughts, who never so much as lays a finger on your cock while he's fucking away for his own pleasure," Alexei scoffed. "He has no appreciation for a man like you. I do." He jerked open the fastening of Nikos' pants. "You're taking my blood. Now, I want you to let me relish every inch of your body. I want you to know what it's like to be wanted for once. The way I want you, and always have."
Nikos decided later, the nearly-hidden yearning in Alexei's tone was what broke him. Without thinking, he savaged Alexei's wrist and thrust into Alexei's hand, demanding what was being offered.
Nikos spasmed, shocked by the pressure of cool fingers on his erection, constricting into a tight band before pumping him from root to tip and back again. Nikos leaned forward with all his weight, Alexei holding him up. "Yes." Alexei's hand moved in a regular rhythm. "Keep going. You feel so good."
Alexei would be the death of him. But warding this off would destroy him just as surely. "More," he pleaded, needing something else to finish his rise to orgasm. "Anything, but more."
"Don't tempt me like that. It's not time yet." His breath hitched. He pulled his wrist away from Nikos' hungry mouth and guided his head to his shoulder. "Drink from me here, and now..." He pressed the fingers of his free hand, stained with crimson trickles, to Nikos' lips and prodded them open. "Suck."
Though the order confused Nikos, he drew Alexei's fingertips in and sucked.
Alexei went heavy-lidded, eyelids slack with lust. "Jesus. I know I'd never last when I'm this hot, or I'd have you blow me."
Nikos didn't understand. He sucked harder, applying his tongue to get Alexei's fingers good and wet, ingenuously trying the same sort of flicks and licks Alexei had used earlier on his cock.
Alexei swore under his breath. "Stop. Stop right now." His wet fingers popped from Nikos' mouth. He picked back up the speed and rhythm of his tugs on Nikos' prick. "More, you said. Here's more." The tip of one wet finger slicked between the cheeks of Nikos' ass and circled his hole.
Nikos' mouth flew open, as did his eyes. He struggled for enough breath to speak. Alexei laughed at him, a darkly triumphant sound. "Give it to me, Nikos," he coaxed, ever so slowly sliding his finger in, past the tight sphincter muscle. "Give me all you have to give. Now."
Nikos' stomach twisted in a spasm as he shot, splattering sticky clear fluid over Alexei's palm. He lunged like a beast and sank his teeth deep in Alexei's shoulder. Alexei muffled a cry, swallowing the noise down. He didn't let go until Nikos sagged against his chest.
His brain felt sluggish and thick. Drunk, Nikos realized. It's just like the way my head went after the one time I had too many cups of the grain drink.
"Feeding, for a vampire, is not unlike intoxication, no." Alexei's fingers trailed away. "Stop, now. Stop. I don't have much blood to call my own and you've taken most of it already. Stop!" He thrust a finger into Nikos' mouth and broke the suction.
Without that to hold him there, Nikos staggered back. Not too far. Alexei was there, a cool arm wrapped around his waist, still holding him upright. He was good at that. Lucky for Nikos, as it turned out, when the rush of food combined with orgasm went to his head and he almost fell. It was, he reflected, getting to be a bad habit of his.
"First meal," Alexei said while Nikos dazedly cleaned his mouth with his tongue to get every last drop. "This is an honor. I'll enjoy teaching you what I can."
He rested his forehead against Nikos'; Nikos, for his part, blinked open and stared into Alexei's eyes. They were dark. Almost all pupil, with only a thin ring of iris surrounding them. "And you will let me teach you, hmm?"
Nikos found himself nodding.
"Good lad. You and I are going places, Nikos." Alexei thumbed Nikos' cheek. "I've been waiting for you for years. I came to this time and this place to find you. Are you ready to go home?"
Alexei had mentioned "home" earlier. This time, the words sank in.
"Back to the Clan?" he asked, although he knew the answer would be "no." "Rand will be looking for me. Why would you want to go there?"
"I don't. I know you don't either, for all that you're terrified of where else I might take you. Forgive me. It's a little hard not to eavesdrop on a man's thoughts, particularly when he's what you call a Nightling, and he's bleeding emotions all over the place." Alexei's grin defused the sharp words and their bone-dry inflection. "Now what do you suppose Rand would do to me if he knew where I had taken you and what we've just done together? Try to kill me?"
"He's a man, and his mate has been stolen away from him," Nikos pointed out. "What do you think he'd do? What would you do?"
"Not what you'd think. We are not like these strange and backwards men, Nikos, so afraid of change that they drive it out with spears. The sad result of mistakes made in the past, the errors I and my kind dedicate our lives to fixing. You must accept that as fact before you can move on from the old life to the new."
Alexei circled Nikos, moving at human speed, slow and easy. Nikos appreciated the gesture for more than one reason. He couldn't take his eyes off the muscles working in Alexei's long, lean legs as he approached, much less the place where they met, the man's impressive cock distorting the crotch of his close-fitting trousers.
"You didn't...?"
"I like anticipation," Alexei explained. "Don't worry. The eventual payoff is fully worth any wait I might endure in search of the perfect moment. You will learn, if you haven't already, that I prefer quality over quantity." His devilish smile made a reappearance, changing his expression from old and weary to young and wicked. How old was he, really? Nikos couldn't tell.
The touch of Alexei's palm on the side of Nikos' face was cool in temperature, but Nikos would have sworn Alexei was sizzling fingerprints into the skin. He closed his eyes and swallowed a moan.
"So responsive." Nikos stiffened as Alexei's lips brushed over his without warning, lingered, then tickled when he spoke. "Thank you. You almost make me feel..." The pause lingered for a handful of beats. "Never mind." He pressed his mouth to Nikos' in a quick kiss. "Come with me. This isn't the place. Not that I don't want to fuck you blind, of course, but I'd rather enjoy the safety of my own home and a more comfortable surface than this unforgiving stone."
Nikos' eyes flickered open to see Alexei shrugging into a well-worn jacket. The older vampire picked up a helmet of some strange kind, made from a startlingly shiny material, frowned at it, and tossed it aside. "That is one advantage this place has," he muttered. "No traffic cops."
Nikos laughed, surprising himself. "What in the hells is a cop?"
Alexei chuckled. "I wish you never had to find out."
"There's a lot more to you than meets the eye, isn't there?"
"Yes. Well, I could say the same for you, couldn't I?" Alexei held out a hand. Nikos took it without needing to question what he was doing or why. Alexei seemed to approve. "Follow me, and welcome to my world."
Nikos followed.
"What is this?" Nikos circled the black metal beast, awed and a little alarmed. "You can ride this?" He laid a hesitant finger on the machine's sleek casing and jumped back at feel the strange, glossy metal. He found himself fascinated by the sense of "personality" he got from the machine, a proud, bold claim of almost unbelievable power. The silver decorations gleamed in the twilight. "What do you call this kind of monster?"
"Hungry," Alexei teased. "Don't shake a spear at it, though. It doesn't eat meat. It likes black gold."
"What?"
"Never mind." Alexei checked the needle on some sort of gauge. Nikos couldn't begin to guess what it might measure. "There's enough for the trip I have in mind. I've been careful not to use it too much. Short journeys only. Tonight, though, you and I are taking a wild ride. Are you ready?"
"Are you joking?" Nikos blurted. "It'll kill us."
"You're a Nightling. What do you have to be afraid of?"
The challenge kindled Nikos' temper. "I'm not afraid."
"Then what are you waiting for?" Alexei threw his leg over the seat and twisted back to raise his eyebrow at Nikos.
All right. Fine. Let the ba-tar have his fun. There was no going back anyway. Nikos lifted his chin and went to take his place on the black metal horse.
He laid his hand on the back of the beast as Alexei did something he didn't understand. The horse roared and began to shake. The vibrations surprised Nikos into lifting away for a split-second. Hells. What would riding on the back of that humming leviathan feel like?
"Like nothing you've ever known," Alexei said, raising the collar of his jacket. He didn't ask if Nikos was all right. "What's a handsome man like you doing in a place like this? Let me take you away."
Nikos laughed. "I didn't expect this."
"What?"
"I didn't think you would be funny."
Alexei grinned. "You'll have plenty of time to figure out my sense of humor." He patted the seat. "We're wasting time. And just so you don't keep boggling, this is called a motorcycle. They're common in the time and place I come from and they're not really alive. It's an invented thing."
Nikos slid onto the back of the bike. He hissed when the seating position pressed his groin against the firm curve of Alexei's ass, and figured it wouldn't be long before he got hard again.
"Arms around my waist." Alexei corrected and tightened Nikos' grip. Nikos couldn't see his face, but knew Alexei was smirking when he adjusted Nikos' hands to rest over the stiff outline of his erection. Nikos cupped the vampire's cock, rubbing lightly, then pressing hard, flattening his palm and shoving Alexei's rod against his stomach.
Alexei groaned.
"Did I hurt you?" Nikos asked, alarmed.
"Are you mad? Do that again." Alexei replaced Nikos' hand. He hissed. "My God, you learn quickly."
"I do?" The thought was oddly pleasing. And it was such a good change to feel a man respond when Nikos touched him. Rand had never...
But Rand wasn't there with them, was he?
Nikos held Alexei's cock tight to his body and stroked, rough and deep. "This doesn't hurt?" he asked, fascinated.
"What do you think? In case you couldn't tell from the almighty hard-on I got from letting you bite me, here's something you should know." Alexei thrust into Nikos' palm. "Nightlings like us enjoy pain. Giving and taking. Remember that."
Nikos shivered.
"Trust me," Alexei said. "I won't steer you wrong. Now, no matter what you do, don't let go."
"What?"
Alexei pressed down a silver pedal that Nikos hadn't seen before. The motorcycle roared like a wild cat let free to run across the plains. He lifted his feet from the cold stone beneath them and laughed, the sound so utterly free that Nikos gaped. Then the motorcycle moved. Nikos yelped without meaning to and forgot all about his foray into sexual torment, hanging on to Alexei's waist for dear life.
The howl of the engine drowned out Alexei's laughter, but Nikos felt his ribs shake as they swerved into what could only be either a nightmare or the best dream he'd ever had. They rode faster than the wind -- oh, hells, how fast? -- and picked up speed from there.
"Hold on," Alexei bellowed over the screaming motorcycle. "Almost there... almost... close your eyes! Now!"
Nikos was too stunned to obey. He saw something like a gate opening directly in front of them that they charged through. There came a great flash of light that left him blinded, and then... and then...
Bright colors flashed past, shades Nikos had never even imagined could exist. Bursts of music blared briefly and then were gone. Wind streamed past them in invisible ribbons, curled around Nikos' throat like a lover's arms, and made him feel -- for the first time in too long -- like he was alive.
Where are we? Nikos demanded, terrified. Yet... enthralled. Was this where Nightlings came from?
Alexei loosed a triumphant shout. His chest worked as his mouth opened in a grimace and a howl of ecstasy. "Welcome home, Nikos! Let me hear you shout!"
Why not? This was madness, but it was so much fun. His life in the Clan had been completely barren compared to the speed of the motorcycle and this blazing bright land Alexei had carried them to. Nikos bared his throat to the night and tilted back to loose a long, baying call of his own.
Alexei leaned back, snugging his shoulders tight to Nikos' chest. His hips lifted in a silent invitation. Nikos didn't try to fight. He knew what he wanted, what they both needed, and he thought he'd like to see how good Alexei's self-control really was.
Or that was how he explained himself later.
While he was on the cycle, there was no past, no future, only the present and the animal nature taking over. Nikos lowered the collar of Alexei's jacket and laid his lips on the back of the vampire's neck. He drew the tip of his tongue to the place where spine met skull, then lazily traveled down to suck the side of Alexei's throat.
Alexei rolled his head to a side, giving Nikos better access. He shifted back to press his ass and Nikos' cock together, rolling his hips.
So. Hot.
"Do you like what I do to you?" Nikos said, lips on Alexei's neck, thrilled by the way Alexei writhed in his arms. He knew he'd lost his mind, but being crazy felt way too good to want to discard.
"More than you can imagine," Alexei gasped.
Wickedness inspired Nikos. "Then let's see what you think about this," Nikos said. He let go of his willpower and bit. His fangs sank in easy as a carving knife through the flesh of an apple, pop and crunch.
Alexei's stomach muscles gave a mighty jump under Nikos' palm. He took one hand off the controls, a move even Nikos recognized as far too dangerous. Nikos stopped caring almost immediately as Alexei used that hand to press Nikos' fingers hard into his prick in an unspoken invitation Nikos was more than happy to answer. He savored the salty zing of Alexei's skin, suckling the pinch of skin in his mouth, and took things to the next level, teasing the vampire's trousers open just far enough to put his hand inside and encircle Alexei's rearing cock. Biting down, tugging without any gentleness, he pushed Alexei too far and joined his voice to Alexei's as the vampire shot sticky, cool fluid that ran down Nikos' wrist.
The motorcycle took a sharp left, dodging through what looked like hundreds of other steeds like theirs. So many! They made Nikos' head swim.
But where were they going?
At first, Nikos thought Alexei had lost control; then, he saw they were heading for a tiny patch of trees, startlingly like home. The Nightling coasted his motorcycle down the shoulder of the road, up an incline and between the trees with their dangerous, jutting branches, just as if he did that kind of thing all the time. Maybe he did. Who knew? Who cared?
The only thing that mattered was the moment, and how it never stopped. The world blazed with brilliant colors, the chilly kiss of the wind stirred sensations Nikos hadn't known he'd lost, and although he figured he still couldn't sing, he wanted to. He settled for a whoop and pounded Alexei's back as the motorcycle came purring to a stop.
"I thought a little taste of something close to home might soothe you, if you're upset at all. I don't think you are. And I'm not wasting any more time." Nikos got one look at the predatory gleam in the Nightling's smile before Alexei twisted, tackled, and knocked them both off the motorcycle. Nikos laughed, thrilled, as Alexei kept them rolling until they banked at the foot of a pine tree with Alexei rearing up to straddle him.
The Nightling snatched Nikos' wrists and held them up together. Nikos grinned, not even a little worried, and canted his hips to tease Alexei with the proof of his excitement.
Alexei licked his lips, curled his tongue briefly, and began to rock down in time with Nikos' thrusts. He rode Nikos easily as his bike, cresting each surge and shoving back when he was shoved. "You are a wicked thing," he chided, mock-severe. "What does one do with a creature such as the one beneath me?" Alexei looped Nikos' joined hands around his neck and spread his own palms over Nikos' chest. "I think you need a lesson in manners. Never bring the driver off unless you want to crash."
"I don't know what you mean," Nikos said, reckless, humping Alexei in slow, rolling pushes up. "I don't care. If this is what happens when we crash, I think I want to do it again."
"Insatiable."
"I am," Nikos agreed. "Hells, you feel so..."
"Yesss," Alexei hissed as he rose and fell. "You too. More."
"More. Yes." Nikos drew to a stop. He waited for Alexei to give him an annoyed look before he whispered, "Fuck me. Please."
The annoyed expression changed to shock, questioning, and then settled into something like regret. It was strange. Why would a Nightling care? Couldn't he tell Nikos wanted this?
Nikos tried to speak, but found his lips blocked by the pad of Alexei's forefinger. "Not here," the Nightling said simply. "I don't have anything on me, and I won't hurt you."
"I thought you said Nightlings liked pain. You. Me. People like us. Don't you know what it means to have found someone else who understands because they've been there too? Someone like me? I thought I never would. I hid myself so deep because I thought I was an abomination, and now you're bringing me to a world where I'm not?" Nikos shook a fallen pine needle off his forehead, still amazed at how he didn't sweat, so nothing kept it stuck there but its own stubborn will. "You might be a lunatic, but if you kill me I'll die with the satisfaction of knowing I got the chance to really live for once. Fuck me."
Alexei smiled, tracing the spot where the needle had lain. "I've waited so long to hear..." He cleared his throat. "Yes. We do like pain. Don't believe I don't need this as much as you do, or more." Nikos could tell Alexei meant what he said. "But you're not ready for all that a fuck with me involves."
"I think I'm pretty close." Nikos thrust against Alexei for the sake of emphasis. "Give me what I want, since you've claimed me. I'll burst if you don't take me. Come on."
"No. No. Not here." Alexei wouldn't hear any arguments. "Young Nightlings -- or, as we call them, time travelers -- in lust are so impatient. Don't ask. I'll explain later." He smiled approvingly when Nikos nodded. Lunacy was proved so far as he was concerned. It didn't matter a bit in the face of this driving need to fuck. "If you're that desperate, let me take the edge off."
"What?"
"Patience. You'll see." Alexei shook off Nikos' grip and writhed down the length of Nikos' body, stopping at just the right place to push one questing hand inside Nikos' vest while the other went mining for treasure. He drew the lacing of Nikos' slacks open in between quick, hungry kisses, peeled the fabric back, and after a quick, hungry look, slid his mouth down over the head of Nikos' shaft. Didn't stop until his lips were flush with the wiry black curls surrounding Nikos' cock and balls.
Nikos' hips cleared the bed of pine needles he lay on, pushing himself deeper into Alexei's throat. Alexei made happy noises and used his tongue, doing things that should be criminal and probably were. He kneaded Nikos' flanks as he sucked, hard-soft-hard-soft-hard.
A whisper tickled the edge of his mind, sliding underneath the cacophony of Alexei's noisy sucking and the groans Nikos couldn't have stopped even if he'd wanted to. Give it up for me, he "heard" in the brightly colored blur of his thoughts.
"Alexei?" Nikos tangled his fingers in the short peaks of Alexei's wind-blown hair and jerked. "Are you --?"
Me and none other. Alexei flickered another of his slyly amused glances. Daring him. Challenging him. Knowing Nikos would not back down from this -- more, actually counting on that to get what he wanted. Be a good man and do as I say. Give me everything you've got.
Even as he fought to hang on, Nikos knew he was a goner. Alexei bit, only hard enough to prickle, but the thought of what he could do -- hells. Alexei held him down as he shot, the sadistic beast, overriding all Nikos' attempts to fuck the Nightling's wicked mouth. Nikos barely felt the spearing ache that would have promised bruises later, if he'd still been able to make them. Nothing mattered but freefalling, thinking he might fly before he hit bottom.
Alexei licked Nikos' cock clean, swirling his way loose until he finished off the top. He braced one hand on either side of Nikos' hips and looked up, one eyebrow lifted in a wry question. Everyone in the world knew that expression when they saw it on the face of a lover: I want to know how I did, but I'm not about to actually ask out loud.
Nikos liked giving credit where credit was due, no games and no mind trips. He suspected that would make him less of a man if others found out, others who weren't like Alexei, but he could cope.
"You are an extraordinary man, for a monster," he said, reaching for Alexei's arm to tug him up where Nikos wanted him, curled into his side. "You're still hard." He nudged Alexei's stiff cock. "You didn't finish. Again."
"You've undone me once." Alexei frowned, mock-stern. "I'd rather like to save what I have and shoot so deep inside you you'll never forget I was there."
Nikos chuffed under his breath, tickled. He'd never, never known any man or woman in the Clan who liked to joke and laugh in the afterglow. Alexei hadn't reached the glowing stage yet, but they were getting there and if he liked reining himself in before the main event, Nikos would let the Nightling have his fun.
"Alexei?" he asked abruptly as a thought occurred to him. "Do Nightlings share body space after sex?"
Alexei snorted. "Well, we hardly call it anything as soppy as that, but yes, they do. We do." He hesitated. "I haven't had anyone who wanted... never mind."
Interesting. Nikos put that away to come back to as soon as he understood more. "Then what's stopping you?"
"Nothing, I suppose." Alexei grinned and slithered up, burrowing against Nikos and head-butting him in the ribs. He pointed toward the road. "Listen. So close and yet so far. We've got our own private world inside this stand of trees. Wonderful, isn't it?"
"Oh, yeah." Nikos kissed the top of Alexei's head, feeling oddly as if he'd come back home to a place he hadn't realized he'd left behind. "Will I understand all this when you explain what the Nightlings are, and what this place is?"
"Yes. To begin with, this is what you need to know. This is your home. This is the world where you were born."
"But I --"
"Shh." Alexei closed Nikos' mouth with a kiss. "The stories you've been told about your birth are all lies. Like so many of your age, you were stolen from this world and this city. We call it New York. Taken by creatures we don't understand and carried to a dark time where man has lost all hope of becoming more than an animal clinging to life."
"I don't understand." Nikos frowned. "Why doesn't this frighten me?"
"Because you know you belong here. And perhaps you know you can escape at any time. You know, deep down in here." Alexei laid his hand over Nikos' heart. "Although you won't need blood if you stay. And I'll be with you, so you won't want to leave. I have so much to teach you, Nikos. More than just traveling in time. I barely know where to start, but this seems like a good place to me."
He kissed Nikos and laughed to feel Nikos kissing him back.
Nikos didn't know what he'd been expecting Alexei's home to look like in this world. Maybe something made of damp, moldy stone with small stained-glass windows filthy from age. Cobwebs. A wooden door with an arched top that creaked ominously on its hinges when opened. A few bats hanging from the ceiling. Mist curling over the floors.
As Alexei unlocked the door to what he called his "apartment," a completely normal, rectangle-shaped door painted soft green in a corridor surrounded by a line of doors that were exactly the same, directly in the heart of a man-made warren he called a "complex," Nikos tried not to laugh.
Alexei didn't miss a thing. Nikos suspected, from what he knew of the man, nothing ever escaped him. "Is something funny?" he inquired as he jiggled his key in an attempt to open the stubborn lock.
No point in lying. "Yes." Nikos tucked his hands under his arms and leaned his weight on the cream stucco wall opposite Alexei's door. Soothing pastel paint and, fascinating to Nikos, small rectangles with tiny representations of nature scenes hung at regular intervals. Were they "paintings?" He'd heard stories about artists and thought them to be no more than legends.
Nikos shook his head at them. "No one would believe me if I told them where and how the Nightlings live."
"If you think this is amazing, you should see some of the places I've been. Trust me, everything in my home is all quite tame."
"And Nightlings really like things so..." He tried to find the right word but couldn't. "I thought you'd live in dungeons."
"Come on. The moldering castle look might have come back into vogue in your time, but it's more than somewhat outdated in my day and age." Alexei grunted, satisfied, as the lock reluctantly clunked over. "Who would possibly want to live in the festering damp and try in vain to rest themselves on cold, slimy stones when there's such a thing as centralized heat?"
Nikos snorted with surprised laughter. "You're still funny."
"Good man," Alexei approved. "There, that's got them all." He pocketed his keys, turned the doorknob -- plain tarnished brass -- and swung his door open. Standing to a side, he winked at Nikos and made a half-bow, inviting and commanding him to enter.
Nikos bounced on the soles of his feet. Yes! He darted past Alexei, who smacked him on the ass. When he growled and pivoted, eager to play, he stopped.
Dark wasn't the word one would use to describe Alexei's apartment. Just plain "dark" suggested that there would some kind of light somewhere. This was not at all the case. Alexei's home was shrouded in the kind of darkness one found in caves five hundred miles below the earth. This was the dark of the sealed tomb.
The ideas Nikos had discarded about Nightling lairs rushed back in. He rubbed his forearms, knowing that if he were still human he'd be covered in goose bumps. Plain as mud on the outside, a nightmare on the inside.
Except for the fact that it smelled like malt grains and some odd spicy meat.
Nikos startled when a fire ignited without any warning and flooded the space with soft golden light. He almost tripped over his feet with a jump when Alexei appeared in front of him where he hadn't been barely a second before.
"It's only a lamp. Take it easy."
"It's fire in a bottle!" Nikos pointed. "I thought those were all just stories."
"Not hardly. They're commonplace in the here and now."
Nikos frowned. "I don't understand how that can be. And how did you move so quickly?"
"It's a gift I have. You'll have to get used to the speed. Many of our kind can go even faster." Alexei studied him. Nikos had no idea what the older Nightling was thinking. "Not all of our kind have the ability, mind you, but many do and don't bother to slow down to pacify those who are still learning who they are and what they can do. You're lucky I was the one who set out to find you. Not everyone would be this patient."
"Not everyone would want to get in my trousers either," Nikos joked.
"There is that. Please, have a look around. Take a seat if you like. I recommend the loveseat. It's old, of course, but extremely comfortable."
Nikos smirked as he eyed the long, padded piece of furniture, wide enough for two men to sit hip to hip. "You just want a chance to be next to me so you can get close and cozy."
"You've seen through my cunning plan. Go on, sit. I'll find us something to drink. I assume you are thirsty, aren't you?"
Nikos licked his lips, finding them dry. He tasted the last remaining traces of Alexei's blood, copper-salty-rich. He realized what he must have looked like, hanging on to the Nightling's arm like a flesh-eating shark gone berserk, and wanted to duck his head in shame.
"Don't," Alexei warned. "It's not uncommon for one who needs the blood to lose control when feeding, particularly one as young as you. You didn't make a fool of yourself and you didn't come across as silly, so don't. The whole point here is teaching you what you don't know." The right side of his mouth quirked up, teasing Nikos into a return smile. "So responsive. I think we'll make quite a pair, you and I. Sit."
Nikos sat. Huh. He jiggled the springs on the loveseat, jouncing up and down a few times.
"If you don't mind, try not to destroy my furniture," Alexei said, flicking on another light as he passed through what turned out to be a short hallway leading to a cubbyhole of a kitchen. "I've had that set since the 1940's, thanks, and I'm somewhat attached."
1940's? 1940's of what? "Sorry."
"Not a problem."
Nikos cleared his throat and picked at a tiny scratch in the buttery-soft brown leather, realized what he was doing, and snatched his hand back. "These are steel springs, aren't they? I've seen steel before in the ruins."
Alexei frowned at Nikos through the hatch window of his tiny kitchen. "You know your décor. Careful, or I'll begin to think you're homosexual."
"I don't know what that means, but I think you're attempting to be funny again."
"I try. Indulge me."
Nikos grinned at Alexei. "I like that."
"Like what?"
"Your voice."
"Really?" Alexei looked genuinely intrigued. "More often than not I'm told to stop rattling on and that my accent is too thick to understand."
Nikos shook his head. "No. You can talk all night long if you want."
For some reason, that made Alexei stop and smile at him, a real smile that reached his eyes as well as his lips. "Thank you," he said quietly.
Nikos smiled back.
The moment stretched, held, and then dissolved into the warmth of the room. "This centralized heating of yours works," Nikos remarked without elaboration. He'd never been so toasty.
"I told you so."
"Nightlings actually enjoy these creature comforts?"
"Not all of us. Only those with at least an ounce of common sense. Honestly, the brothers and sisters who den up in crumbling castles and insist on running about in bat or wolf form deserve to have bellowing villagers with pitchforks and torches storming their gates."
Nikos chortled.
"What?"
"You keep surprising me."
"How so?"
"Well, for starters, I didn't think I'd ever meet a Nightling who I actually liked."
"You actually do like me?" Alexei stared for a second. Nikos saw him hastily stuff away the glimpse of vulnerability that had peeked through. "Tell me, is it what I am, or is it who I am?"
Nikos thought carefully. "I'm not sure. There are so many stories about the evil that Nightlings do. You're different, though, and I don't understand."
"Do you understand how much I care for you?"
Nikos blinked. "You do?"
"I love you." Alexei held his gaze for three beats, then looked away. "I always have. And those idiots mated you with Rand," he muttered. "Such an insult to you."
"How was that an insult?"
"You've been unfortunate enough to have to accept the man's desires into your body, and you even have to ask?" Alexei made a "ha!" noise. "Found what I was looking for," he explained. Clatter, clatter, clank. "Dinner, as they say, is served."
He disappeared from the kitchen and reappeared nose to nose with Nikos, brushing their lips together all too quickly. "Here." Nikos grasped the heated bottle Alexei pressed into his hand. "It's not as good as fresh, but it'll do for now, and I don't expect you're in any condition to be picky."
As Alexei withdrew, moving at -- thank you, God -- human speed, Nikos examined the flask of blood the vampire had given him. He turned it over, shaking his head.
"What?" Alexei sat down, casually cupping a bottle of his own. It smelled of tea rather than blood.
"I thought you said I wouldn't need this here."
Alexei shrugged. "Technically, you don't. It'll help you feel better, that's all. Ease the transition."
"I'm doing fine so far."
"You are. All the same, I'd feel better and there's no reason not to keep a watch out. Drink up."
Nikos shook his head in rueful wonder. "Will any of this ever stop surprising me?"
"Hmph." Alexei toyed with his cup. "No. Not this sort of thing. The part of you that's got the taste for blood now demands that you go out into the night to stalk and slaughter your prey, not buy it by the pint on the black market."
"I'm not a killer."
"Wrong. You are." Alexei's lip twisted. "We're Nightlings, Nikos, you and I. Isn't killing all that we're good for?"
"No. That's a lie. And even if it wasn't, hunting for blood couldn't be everything."
"It's what matters. Drink up. You might not be a gourmand, but trust me, no one likes blood gone cold, not even cold-blooded killers."
Nikos tilted up the flask and drank. He'd half thought it was going to be foully nasty, and at first he was right. His taste buds, used to roasted fish and kelp and berries, staged a revolt at the sour taste and the thick, slick texture, far different to what Alexei had given him before. He gagged, but managed to force his first swallow down.
Oh... hells. So thirsty.
Nikos drank the rest in huge gulps, not letting himself taste it, not worrying about anything but filling the ravenous hole in his stomach.
He was licking the mouth of the flask to get the final drops when he realized Alexei had chuckled. "Your table manners are appalling. No, don't apologize. Nightlings aren't in the habit, and I'd hate to see you break with tradition." Alexei plucked the empty flask out of Nikos' slackened fingers. "Still hungry?"
Nikos couldn't decide whether he should be infuriated or grateful. His stomach growled, making the choice for him. "Is there more?"
"There's some, but we'll hold off a minute. I think I'd rather see how you handle what you've already drunk before I let you have a second helping." Alexei flashed to the kitchen, dropped the cup and flask in a metal basin, and flashed back. "How do you feel?"
Nikos traced his lips with the tip of his tongue. "I don't know."
"Give it time." Alexei sat in a wrought-iron chair opposite Nikos, who couldn't help noticing how Alexei winced and had to adjust his cock. The other Nightling was still hard? Hells. There was stamina and self-control, and then there was sheer masochism.
Nikos shifted his weight on the loveseat as his own cock started to rise, tenting his slacks. He swallowed around a knot of lust in his throat and stared because he couldn't look away.
He hadn't even seen it yet, but he could imagine what Alexei's cock would look like. Long. He'd feel it for days when Alexei fucked him, aches and pains burning so good deep inside. Thick enough to make him spasm when he penetrated. Nikos had to stop for a moment, dizzy at the thought.
He wanted Alexei's cock in him.
Wanted Alexei to bite him while they fucked.
Wanted to do the same things to Alexei.
It scared him.
"Are you all right?" Alexei asked.
"What? Oh. No. No problem. I just noticed... yes."
Alexei glanced down at the erection distorting his slacks. "Yes," he echoed, clearly amused. "Be patient."
You must be joking. Nikos tried to act casual, not wanting to sound as desperate for a fuck as he felt. "Want a hand with...?" he suggested, gesturing as carelessly as he could.
A flash memory popped up in Nikos' memories, a picture of the first time Rand had approached his future mate with demands for sex.
Rand had said almost the exact same thing.
"I'm not likely to say 'yes' to anyone with that expression. Who are you thinking of? Your so-called 'mate,' the mighty hunter of our kind?" Alexei started to cross his arms, stopped, and draped them over the arms of his chair instead. He tapped one blunt nail against the ironwork. "You don't really think he'll find us here, do you? Then why think of him?"
"I don't know. But..."
"But?" Alexei prompted.
"I don't know." Nikos wanted to look away but couldn't. "I don't love him. I never did, and didn't know why. Now I wonder. Are our kind... the Nightlings, the travelers... are we even able to love?"
"Yes," Alexei replied, not having to stop and consider the question. "We do. We love, we hate, we laugh, we weep, we fuck and we come. We're not that different from ordinary men and women, minus the need for additional nutrients."
"You don't fool me, you know," Nikos said abruptly. "I see right through you."
"Do you?" Alexei shifted back, resting his shoulders against the latticed frame of his chair. "And what am I?"
"A good man."
Silence fell. Nikos wasn't sorry he'd said what he'd said, but he had a bad feeling he'd crossed some kind of line that shouldn't be crossed.
They both flinched when something shrilled and warbled. "Who on earth --" Alexei puzzled, frowning, as he stood and walked toward a small black object set on the table that held his light in a bottle. "I left orders not to be disturbed." He held the device up and squinted through a glass plate. "This shows me who's come through the time tunnels recently," he explained. "I didn't think anyone but myself was out on a trip right now. I don't recognize -- shit!" He dropped the device. "That's not possible."
Nikos surged from his seat to pick up the device. He peered through, copying what he had seen Alexei do, and focused on the face of a man who appeared inside. No stranger than anything else he'd chosen not to question in this world.
He squinted until the man's face swam into focus. "Shit!" he echoed Alexei, though he didn't drop this strange device. "How?"
He recognized the man. The Hunter.
Rand.
"He's come for me," Nikos muttered, stunned. "He tracked me somehow. He's come to kill you. Me. Us."
"Oh, really?" The chill in Alexei's tone startled Nikos. "Is he really so stupid as to think he can do anything?"
"He's not that much of a fool if he could track you across time, now is he?"
"He's lucky." Alexei scorned Rand with a rude gesture. "He knows nothing. He has no clue as to what makes a real mate. The kind of need that drives a man to search like I did."
"So you keep saying, but I've just realized that you've never told me how or why." Nikos knew his own tone had turned from angry to stony. His hands curled into fists by his sides.
"Oh, but I see how much you've learned already. You feel it, don't you? Rage. Our kind are wrathful by nature. We were shaped this way to be avenging angels. Perhaps we're forever foaming with wrath at the things we're born with no choice about. Something must explain away our quick tempers. You want to take a swing at me. I know. Go ahead, if it'll make you feel better." Alexei stood, looming, invading Nikos' space. "You want to. So much. Give in."
"The hells if I will." Nikos butted his chest against Alexei's. "Talk to me. Tell me the truth, or I -- I --" Dark, ugly inspiration bloomed. "Or I'll go back with Rand."
"You wouldn't." Alexei looked as if Nikos had struck him. "You'd leave me to go and mate with that barbarian?"
"Yes. He's foul, but he's never tried to deceive me."
"Naïve child!" Alexei spat. "You think you can play these games with me? You can't shunt aside what it is in your nature to do. Hit me, and you'll understand."
"No."
"Why not?" Alexei punched Nikos' shoulders, trying to knock him down. "There. I've made the first move. Fight me like a man."
Nikos shook his head.
"God damn you!" Alexei launched forward, tackling Nikos with all his weight. Nikos reacted unconsciously, wrapping his arms around Alexei and tossing them both to the floor. Alexei's kicking legs knocked over a low table, scattering glass boxes and a container of sugar candies underfoot. Nikos ignored the clatter and focused on wrestling the wild tiger Alexei had become into submission. Could he do it? Did he even have the strength to keep fighting an experienced Nightling for longer than a minute before Alexei crushed him?
Nikos didn't think so, but that didn't stop him from trying, and to his shock, the fight was over in moments. He sat on Alexei's legs and pinned the Nightling's fists to either side of his torso and snarled, an animal noise.
Alexei stared at Nikos the way a man would look at an oncoming lion hungry for the kill. "Go on," he challenged. "You've got me. What do you plan to do?"
"Whatever I want." Nikos flattened himself over Alexei's chest, fitted their mouths together as soon as he could reach, and plunged his tongue between the Nightwalker's human-blunt teeth.
Alexei moaned, a desperate, lost sound, and pulled Nikos hard against him. The erection that still hadn't died thrust against Nikos' groin, sending a surge of lust spiking through his balls.
Nikos bit, tasting the Nightling's strange, thin blood, and pushed back, grinding their cocks together. The spear of pain from the friction of his pants' fastenings digging in only excited him more. He shifted position for the sake of nudging Alexei's legs open to fit his thigh between them and dug his fingers into the man's shoulders, never once breaking the kiss. Not so much a kiss as a desperate moving of mouth over mouth, searching for something he didn't know the name of but not planning to stop until he found what he was looking for.
Alexei sobbed as he kissed back with equal force. "Please," he said, jerking beneath Nikos, lifting his hips as if desperate. "Please. Fuck me. Love me. Don't leave me, my love. Do whatever you want with me, and I'll follow you forever."
If there was ever anything guaranteed to stop a man in his tracks... Nikos lifted away from Alexei's tempting mouth. "What?"
Alexei looked small and lost. "I need you, Nikos. Don't you see? When I grew to be a man and there was no one for me to love among our people, I thought I would be alone forever. And then I was told that you'd been stolen by the Dark. I had to find you. You were born for me, as I was for you. If you go back to Rand, I'll die. I need..." He touched Nikos' cheek, his fingers trembling yet surprisingly gentle. "Don't you understand by now?"
Nikos struggled for words, finally shaking his head, mute.
Alexei misinterpreted and turned his pleading gaze away from Nikos. "I understand," he whispered. "Do what you must."
Nikos rolled his eyes to the stars above. "You're a fool, Alexei. Listen to me. Would you stop and listen? I wasn't the kind of man who enjoyed playing head games before and I don't think I'll change now that I'm a Nightling who's traveled so far away. I've trusted everything you've said, and gone against everything I've ever been taught, not feeling as if I needed to question a thing. You ask me if I understand. Now I'll ask you the same thing."
Alexei stilled. "What do you mean?"
"Just this, and nothing more." Nikos dragged Alexei's shoulders off the floor, pulling the Nightling to him to pick up where he'd left off in his starving kiss. "This is all I need." He held Alexei there until the man whimpered and wound his arms around Nikos as he had before until Nikos had no choice but to give in to the demands of his body. He pulled open Alexei's slacks without bothering to be gentle, pushed his hand inside and took what he wanted.
Oh. The feel of the Nightling's cock was better than he'd hoped. And who wouldn't get their head turned by the feel of a swollen, sticky erection in their palm while the sound of frantic whimpers and cries danced over their tongues to tickle their ears? Nikos wanted more. He pumped Alexei slowly, far too slowly, tormenting him to hear the man beg and plead.
"Stop." Alexei dragged himself away from the demands of Nikos' mouth, head lolling back. "Nikos. Please."
Nikos growled, trying to follow Alexei, not close to done with tasting him yet.
"Nikos!" Alexei pushed at his chest. He swallowed, the sound painfully dry. "If you don't let me go, this will all be over."
"Good. Like you said before, by the side of the road." Nikos worked Alexei's cock in an erratic rhythm, not letting him sink into a lull, but keeping him choking and writhing, wanting more. "Give it up for me."
Alexei laughed. He almost sounded breathless. "You have what it takes to be a brilliant Nightling, do you know that? Oh!" Nikos had bitten into Alexei's neck, push-pulling the flesh between his teeth with his tongue. "Oh, God. Oh, fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck -- Nikos -- God!" A gush of slippery come erupted into Nikos' hand. Alexei wailed and Nikos kept on going, milking out more and still more until Alexei was completely soft and hanging limp in his arms.
Nikos lowered Alexei to the floor. He put his fingers to his mouth and tasted. Salty. Sweet. Better than blood, thick or thin. He licked his fingers clean, enjoying the way Alexei stared at him through unfocused eyes and tried to speak but was only able to mumble bits and pieces of gibberish.
They could have stayed like that forever, and Nikos would have spent eternity as a happy man.
Instead, as he reached for Alexei, intending to have the Nightling lick his own seed off until Nikos' fingers were wholly clean, an almighty thumping and pounding startled both into flinching around to stare at the door.
Rand. He stood outside, a mighty force of fury. He grabbed the knob from the outside and rattled hard enough to make the door shake on its hinges. "The game's over, Nikos," a familiar voice warned. "If you come home now, I'll argue for your life. Let me in."
"Rand," Alexei breathed.
"Rand," Nikos agreed, unbeating heart in his throat.
"Nikos!" Rand bellowed.
"What do we do?" Nikos winced at the sound of a roundhouse kick to the door with a Hunter's strength behind the assault.
"Wish I had an idea. What do we do?" Alexei ran his hand through his hair. "Guess I'd better think of something fast, huh?"
The door came loose of its moorings and crashed down, a cloud of dust flying as it landed. Rand stood in the entryway with his hands fisted loosely by his hips, glaring daggers at Nikos and Alexei.
"Guess I should have thought quicker than that," Alexei remarked numbly. "Ohh, the shit's really gonna hit the fan now. Let's see if this works." He thrust his arm out, palm flat toward the door, and shouted.
Rand stopped.
But not for long.
"Nikos, let me in!" Rand hammered against an invisible barrier, his body held up as if against a wall of clear plastic or glass. "You're dead, abomination. Do you hear me? Both of you are dead!"
"Alexei, what did you do?" Nikos tried to struggle out of Alexei's wrestling hold. Alexei used the greater strength Nikos had suspected he kept tucked away. Not a chance he'd escape, not when he was still ignorant of why and how.
"Let me go, you jack-mule," he snarled, bucking up to try and throw Alexei off. Alexei rode the wave and refused to be budged. Nikos thumped his forehead on the floor. "Do you mind?"
"I do." Alexei kept a wary eye on Rand. "He's lost his head."
"What?" After all that had happened, Nikos realized he should never take anything for granted. He twisted around, banging his hips against the immovable Alexei and the hard floor, until he could see for himself. "His head's still attached."
"Not hardly. Spend some time with less congenial of our kind and you'll truly understand the meaning of the phrase. Shh." Alexei somehow balanced himself on one hand and pressed a finger to Nikos' lips. He smelled of sex, the scent flooding Nikos with a sexual buzz that made him want to suck in a surprised breath. Couldn't, of course. Cursed limitations. "Quiet. I need to listen to him."
"What is there to hear?" Nikos protested. "He's swearing murder. I think we understand what he means to do." He scolded his body for wanting nothing more than to drag Alexei's body to his and taste the man's fragrant skin until they were both hard and ready, to fuck Alexei through the floor.
"I told you to be quiet." Alexei swatted Nikos' temple. The blow took him by surprise with its force, dazing him. He wasn't actually damaged, not as such, but it hurt with a blazing pain.
To give him credit, Alexei did look genuinely apologetic when he glanced at Nikos. "Oh, fuck. I'm sorry, I am, I didn't mean to." His touch was much gentler as he turned Nikos' head around by the chin. "Is anything broken?"
Nikos hesitated, torn between payback and honesty. "No," he said at last, reluctant. "Would you please get off? We need to run!"
"He's fine." Alexei was instantly on guard again. "You see? He's trapped on the threshold. He can knock the door down with no problem, but without an invitation he can't come inside."
"You're joking."
"Haven't you ever heard the stories? Are there none of the old legends left? How did you think the Nightlings you've seen escaped death with such ease? Our kind have plenty of good reasons to protect their dens against anyone or anything who cares to enter, especially humans and Hunters. This sort of barrier is the only thing that's saved me -- Nightlings, our lesser kin, all of us -- on more than one occasion. He won't be stunned for long," Alexei went on. "We can be damned hard to kill. Sometimes not even a stake through the heart works."
"But that's how the Hunters operated. Were they wrong?"
"Sometimes. Some, like me, are lucky enough not to explode by the light of the sun. Here, though, we're not at risk of any typical danger if we don't live on blood."
Nikos blinked, momentarily forgetting how he had changed as this new information fascinated him. "What about --"
"Shh," Alexei warned him. "He'll try a second attack soon, when he realizes he can't break through without an invitation. We both need to be on our guard."
"Why? Even if he could get in, it's two against one."
"Are you willing to stake your life on that hypothesis, such as it might be?" Alexei pointed out grimly. He looked up. His face paled in what looked like horror. "It can't be."
"What?" Nikos tried to turn around to see what Alexei had seen.
Alexei pinned him flat. "Don't. It isn't safe." He stared. "I'd heard stories about what happened when someone came backwards instead of forward, but... my God."
Nikos couldn't resist the need to see for himself. He rolled, a move Alexei hadn't been looking for, and searched for a view of the door. He flinched away, instinctively hiding beneath Alexei's arm. "Shit!"
"Up to our eye sockets and still being shoveled, yes."
"Rand?" Nikos' mouth went dry as he stared. The man the Clan had destined to be his mate had moved completely without sound and stood pressed against the invisible wall, fingers curled into claws -- complete with the sudden appearance of nasty, sharp nails and the eruption of fangs in his mouth. The fangs were bared in a snarl, long enough to curve over his lower lip as well as prick his chin in two almost bloodless pin-marks. "What's happening to him?"
"He's become the thing he thinks he's hunting." Alexei hunched closer to Nikos, who suddenly understood that Alexei was using himself as a shield. Just in case. "He believes in the imaginary monsters so strongly that he's changed himself to fight on an even battleground. More than that, he's jealous."
"We haven't done anything that he's seen that --"
"Haven't we? If I had to describe the scene before his eyes, I would say we looked -- and smelled -- exactly like two men who had recently fucked each other silly. How would you react if you found Rand and I in the same position?"
Nikos snarled, snapping at Alexei's throat. He missed due to the speed at which the Nightling dodged.
"You see?" Alexei asked. "I don't mean to hurt you, but you have to know what you're dealing with."
Nikos started to reply, blazing with indignation. Rand's howl of anger, way too close to the roar of a lion, startled him into silence. For a few seconds. "He can't really get in, can he?"
"Now that he's changed, I don't know. We'll wait until he calms down."
"I doubt that'll happen while you're still on top of me."
Alexei hesitated.
"I know what you're trying to do. It's not helping." Nikos pushed gently. "Off."
"This is a mistake," Alexei warned as he crawled down Nikos' legs. "Then again, I suppose mistakes are my specialty."
"You and I both." Nikos rolled onto his knees and sat up on his heels, staring at Rand. He looked less and less like anything close to human by the second, snapping and snarling at them in frothing rage. "What do we do? He's not going to calm himself. Rand's legendary for his temper. You didn't know?"
"No. That would have been a handy piece of information, damn my hide. He's going to try to take this complex to pieces, isn't he?"
Nikos bit his lip, unconsciously careful of the fangs he still sported. He wasn't sure if he wanted to say what was on his mind.
"You might as well."
Oh. Yes. He couldn't exactly keep anything buried around Alexei. He'd forgotten. "Fine." Nikos looked at Rand with sorrow, regret, and more than a dollop of shame. "I think we should let him in."
Alexei reeled back. "We should what, now? I don't even know what he's capable of. It's all impossible, down to the last detail, yet he keeps coming. I don't know if we can keep him at bay much longer."
"If we don't take care of him, he won't stop." Nikos burned with the need to take Alexei in his arms and kiss his worries away. Lonely, he realized. He's so lonely. Why didn't I see it before? The man's desperate for someone to care about.
He needed me so much that he crossed time and space to find me.
"We have to finish this if we're to move forward," Nikos said, quiet as the grave. "If your coming for me is meant to be worth anything at all, we'll do this right. Let him in."
"Are you -- yes. Yes. I'll not go down hiding like a child." Alexei squared his shoulders. "Right. Rand, you may enter, if you like, and do what you think you must. For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
Rand lunged forward the second Alexei's words left his lips, roaring with rage. He didn't have Alexei's speed, but he covered the ground in impressively quick time. Two eye-blinks and he'd crashed into Alexei with his new, needle-sharp fangs ready to savage him.
"Rand!" Nikos shouted as he scrambled out of reach. "Rand, don't!"
Rand was beyond listening to any kind of reason. He'd turned into an animal, nothing left in him but fight, and Nikos understood that if he could, Rand would kill Alexei.
"Rand!" he yelled, terrified and angry. If Rand killed Alexei, Nikos would have to kill the man himself. He couldn't let Rand do this, even if he'd forgotten himself. He couldn't do that and live. No. No way.
"Stop it!" A small wedge opened between them and Nikos seized his chance, trying to get between the two. "Rand, don't do this!"
Rand head-butted Nikos, knocking him away with what should have been a bloody nose. "Stay out of this," he growled, the sound of his voice completely inhuman.
But then, why should it? They weren't human anymore. This was a whole different game, and Nikos knew more than ever that he didn't understand the rules.
And if Rand killed Alexei, then he never would know.
Nikos had to try again. "Rand," he warned, hoping against hope that it would have some effect. Nope. Nothing left, then. Nikos dove into the melee, jamming himself between the two monsters the men had become. He didn't want to do anything but stop them. He was left with no choice but to fight.
On the other hand, he managed to get one thing right. He thrust one elbow back and knocked Alexei out of Rand's range. Rand bayed with wrath and attacked Nikos, teeth clashing millimeters away from Nikos' throat.
Nikos tried to pin Rand's wind-milling arms and got slashed with those wicked-looking fingernails -- claws -- for his trouble. The sight and smell of the faint tinge of blood reduced his lover to a slavering beast, snapping at him in mindless hunger.
He knew what he had to do, then. Not exactly something he'd ever considered, or liked even now, but there was no other way. Nikos went slack, letting Rand complete his grab, and dangled from his former intended mate's arms. Arms that had lost any sort of humanity and gone rigid, sinewy, cold.
Nikos closed his eyes as Rand tore into his throat. It hurt, yes, but the pain wasn't an issue. The betrayal was. He understood how Rand felt, now, more than he could have before.
I'm sorry, Alexei, he thought in silent apology to the man he could have loved, and now would never have a chance to, as his mind grayed out. Forgive me, Alexei. If I don't satiate Rand's anger, he'll destroy you. And with my murder to avenge, you'll have the strength to kill this thing that Rand's become. I see you tearing Rand's head from his shoulders.
Then it all ends, the way I think maybe it should.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Alexei roared as Nikos' vision grayed out and went misty. "The hell if I'm losing you after all we're been through. Rand! Do you want to fight someone? Fight me!"
Nikos heard Rand's infuriated roar. The pressure left his throat. He was only vaguely aware of hitting the floor before he heard Rand's yell of rage change to a wet, gurgling shriek. Something warm and wet sprayed his face.
Oh. Oh, hells. Alexei's killed him. I wish I'd known that was a possibility before I laid myself down for the sacrifice... I might have chosen a different path. He laughed to himself, wondering how long it would take to disappear completely.
"Alexei," he mumbled. "I'm sorry. I hate to go so soon."
"You're not going anywhere." Alexei was suddenly there again, hauling Nikos' head into his lap. His thumbs pressed beneath Nikos' cheekbones. "Don't you dare. Don't you fucking dare. Not when I've just found you."
Don't think you can do anything to stop me, Nikos apologized. Make it up to me in another life.
His eyelids started to slip shut.
"No," Alexei begged, rubbing Nikos' face. "No, no, no, no, no --"
Power Nikos couldn't identify burst from Alexei in a dizzying rush. Flakes of plaster dust rained down, falling right in Nikos' open mouth. He coughed and spat, trying to get rid of the filthy taste.
I'm still alive. How is that possible?
"Ha!" Alexei hooted, the sound mostly disbelieving and largely ecstatic. "It worked. My God, it worked! You're still in there."
"What did you do...?" Nikos asked woozily.
"I borrowed future time for you. I can do that. So can you, when you learn how to travel the way I can." Alexei slapped Nikos' cheeks with a featherlight touch. "Now snap out of this, Nikos. You can't die from a nasty hickey. I won't let you. So shake it off, heal yourself, and let me kiss you."
Nikos opened his eyes. The air was at first gray, then red, and then, all at once, crystal clear. The raw pain in his neck snapped into nothingness. The wound was gone. "Alexei, what's happened here?"
"You're learning what you can do." Alexei beamed with pride. He bent and savaged Nikos' lips with a kiss that left them both gasping. "Time traveler. Nightling. Beloved. If either of us screws up like that again, I'll kill you and me both without letting anyone like Rand have a chance."
The laugh bubbled up in Nikos' chest. He struggled briefly, then let it go. "This is what I am?" he chortled. "Then what the hells am I going to become?"
"Something better than you ever dreamed." Alexei wrapped his arms around Nikos and held him tight. "Ready for the next level? I'd love to take you there."
Nikos grinned. "What did you have in mind?"
"Something like this." Alexei cupped Nikos' ass cheek and squeezed. "More than a tongue and more than a finger. My cock. I want to fuck your ass, Nikos, pop your cherry and let you ride me."
The breath hissed out of Nikos' lungs. He nodded, fast, before Alexei could even think about changing his mind. Alexei laughed and nuzzled his neck with a sharp kiss. "Then let me get you ready."
What clothes they still had on disappeared under Alexei's sure touches, Nikos wriggling eagerly free. When he stood naked before Alexei, he felt as powerful as any Hunter. And why shouldn't he? He'd been the one to catch the Nightling, after all. He laughed in triumph, drawing a flash of approval from Alexei in the midst of the man's lust for him.
"On your hands and knees," Alexei directed, guiding Nikos every step of the way. Nikos knew the position by heart, but the slick glide of Alexei's fingers, anointed with some sort of gloss he didn't recognize, turned him on so much harder and faster than Rand had ever managed. He was panting with need and growling with lust, thrusting back on Alexei's stretching fingers before the beast took pity.
When Alexei slid home, the dark bite and deep burn triggered Nikos' orgasm. It took him by surprise and knocked the air from his chest in a lusty yell. Yet for all that he was almost too dazed with sexual ecstasy to remain in place. He held on and relished every thrust of Alexei's hard cock within him, grunting and pushing into the Nightling while he fucked him.
Alexei sank his teeth into Nikos' bare back and drew blood in as he spurted semen out. His deep pushes grew shallower and the ragged sounds of his breathing grew more unsteady, until he collapsed over Nikos and rolled them both back to the ground.
Nikos knew he had never been happier, not once, and that this was only the beginning. He wrapped his arms around the monster, the Nightling, his mentor and his friend, and clung as hard as he could. "Stay with me, Alexei. For always. That's all I ask."
"As if I'd ever let go, Nikos." Alexei turned Nikos' head so that they met each other's gaze, eye to eye. "This isn't the end of the journey through time and space, you know. It's only the beginning. Lucky us, though. We have the rest of our very, very long lives to figure out how the story goes. I'll stick with you if you stick with me."
"I give you my oath," Nikos swore, and kissed his Alexei.
The future belonged to them, and Alexei would lead him there.
He couldn't wait.
Willa Okati
Willa Okati is made of many things: imagination, passion for manlove, creativity and sheer bloody-minded determination to keep writing, getting out all the stories in her head.
The only problem with that clever plan is that as she writes, more story ideas pop up...
She's getting into ménage these days, and finding that it's really peachy to write female leads -- but these leading ladies have always gotta have their two men (who are into each other as well as her). That makes for extra-special spicy good times!
Willa, by the way, looks nothing like her picture -- but she wishes she did! You can reach her at willaokati@gmail.com, visit her at her website (http://www.willaokati.com) or join her Yahoo Group for updates at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/willa\_okati/
May the force be with ya'll!

