As Midnight Loves the Moon (5 page)

But, of course, that’s exactly
what he was, under a spell
.

The thought left a bad taste in
Wayde’s
mouth. He wanted to fuck and be fucked by Alex
Malden so badly that it was almost a palpable taste in his mouth. He traced
Alex’s lips with a featherlike touch. Some intangible thread weaved around them
and yearning welled within him, making his heart ache. His stomach clenched,
and before he really knew what he was doing, he was pulling away.

Mine.

The word moved through his mind
like a whisper.

“You’re beautiful,” he whispered
into Alex’s ear just before he turned and disappeared into the night.

Chapter Six

Alex blinked and suddenly the world
rushed back to him. He could hear the traffic, could smell the rotten leftovers
in the dumpster, and could taste the lingering lust of Wayde Wallace on his
tongue.

He put a hand to his lips. They
still tingled. His cock was still hard as steel, twitching with untamed desire.
His body…yearned.
Shit!
What had the vampire done to him? He hadn’t even
touched him. They had been sitting in the booth, talking and then a cloud had
covered his brain and he remembered thinking that going outside, in a dark,
deserted alley with a rogue vampire was a great idea.

Alex hurried down the alley to
emerge onto the street. He looked around for Wayde but didn’t see him. He
sniffed the air. There was a trace of him, so he ran to his bike and started
the engine, slapped on his helmet and took after the faint smell of musk and
rum, an interesting combination for a book seller.

The trail led all the back to the
condo from last night. Alex parked his bike and turned the key. Silence greeted
him in the ordinary neighborhood. He looked up at the top set of windows and
saw him, the vampire, staring down at him. They locked eyes. Anger welled up
inside of him. How dare the fucking rogue touch him! How dare he
seduce
him! He felt violated, shamed. What kind of spell had he used?

And yet his heart lurched as his
eyes clashed with blue ones. Wayde, he had said. His name was Wayde. He had to
shift a bit on the bike, because his rock-hard cock was making it difficult to
sit comfortably on the narrow seat.

He wanted to march into the condo,
break down his door and force Wayde to remove whatever enchantment he had put
on him. Because he wanted him, wanted him with a passion he’d had never felt
before. He wanted to strip the vampire naked, wanted to swallow his cock and
drink him down. He wanted to bury himself into that tight ass. He wanted to
take and be taken, again and again.

And then he saw a shadow flutter to
Wayde’s
right and he saw the woman, Daphne. She
didn’t look down at him. Her gaze seemed locked upon the vampire and Alex
wondered if she was under some kind of enchantment as well. She hadn’t seemed
like she was, but what the hell did he know? He would investigate further,
because he had one advantage over the vampire.

Alex could walk in the daylight.

With a plan forming in his head,
Alex flipped the switch on his bike and knocked down his visor. He forced
himself to break eye contact with Wayde and zoomed off down the street, even
though every fiber in his body craved the handsome rogue.

****

When Alex marched into his house a
few minutes later he was in a horrible mood. He called out Sebastian’s name
again and again, until his friend appeared from the top of the staircase.

“What the hell is going on?”
Seb
demanded. Alex was slightly surprised at how haggard he
looked.

“I need the blade.”

“Which blade?”

“Cut the shit!
The
Blessed Blade.
I need it.”

Seb
marched
down the stairs and grabbed Alex’s arm. “Your chin has stitches. What
happened?”

Alex jerked away and ran a hand
through his hair and started pacing. Josiah and Tommy had come out of their
room to listen.

“Alexander!”
Seb
barked. “What happened?”

Alex blinked and took a deep
breath. “I’ve been tracking a rogue vampire.”

Seb
pulled back sharply.
“A…rogue?
Are you sure?”

“What do you
mean, am I sure?
Of course I’m fucking sure! He…he put a spell on me. I
need the Blessed Blade so I can hunt him down and kill him without getting
caught in another spell.”

“Vampires don’t cast spells, Alex,”
Josiah murmured.
“Only sorcerers.
And
witches.”

He spun to glare at the scholar. “Like
hell, he didn’t! Listen, I know what happened! He…played some kind of mind game.
He managed to ensnare me without touching me. I was gone, Josiah! My mind was
full of lust and need and all I wanted was to be with him. He could have easily
killed me.”

“So why didn’t he?”

That stopped Alex short. His mouth
opened, as if to answer, and then closed when none came forth.

“You say he never touched you?”
Josiah asked. His tone had that slightly distant, faraway pitch when his mind
was working a hundred miles an hour.

“I made sure to keep my distance,”
Alex replied. “Do you think I would be stupid enough to get close enough for a vampire
to touch me?”

“Sounds like you did,”
Seb
smirked.

“This isn’t funny!”

Sebastian sobered. “Sorry,” he
muttered. “I’ve been out of sorts lately.”

That caught Alex’s attention. “What
do you mean?”

But
Seb
shook his head.
“Nothing.
Just something I’ve got to
figure out.”

“You know, I read something like
this,” Josiah said, mindless of other conversations.
“About how
vampires ensnare their victims with pheromones.
I can research if you’d
like and confirm it.”

“How are you going to confirm
vampire pheromones?”

But Josiah was already headed back into
his library, Tommy following him, and Alex knew his friend was lost in the
stories and mythology that he studied extensively.

Alex turned back to
Seb
. “Can I have the Blade? I’m going to need it.”

“It’s in the weapons room.”

“No, it’s not.”

Seb
frowned. “I put it there myself.”

“I’m telling you, it’s not there.”

“Look again,”
Seb
ordered and turned, walking away stiffly. Alex frowned after him. He wasn’t
used to Sebastian having PMS.

An image rose sharply in his mind. The
sea-blue eyes burning fiercely at him, the lingering pressure of his kiss, and
the faint words
you’re beautiful
echoed in his ear.

He practically ran up the stairs to
his room. He slammed the door behind him and leaned against the door, groaning.
He couldn’t help it. All he kept seeing was
him
.

Wayde
.

He flung off his jacket, tore off
his shirt and pants and fell upon his bed, naked. His hand reached for his
cock, which had remained swollen and stiff since the moment he had laid eyes on
Wayde. Already it was leaking fluid, wanting so much to bury itself into
Wayde’s
body, so Alex used the moisture to coat the velvety
skin.

He started rubbing the shaft, up
and down his fist pumped, slowly at first as he brought Wayde to mind. Dark,
almost black hair cut short, with the front long enough to hug his temples, the
locks in a disarrayed sweep around his head.
His eyes a
seafoam
blue and slanted just a bit at the corners.
His
chin was softly rounded, a slight cleft in the center breaking up the overall
perfection of his looks.

Bits of the night came to him, the
kisses. God!
Wayde’s
tongue snaking around his, pulling him deeper as the unshakeable
thirst for him grew.
Alex moaned at the memory of
Wayde’s
body pressed against his, his cock pressing through the denim material, hot and
heavy. He wanted him. It was like a fire coursing through his blood and he
started pumping faster, his fist squeezing his cock as he jerked and tugged. He
could picture Wayde naked, his glorious body stretched out beneath him on his
bed, under him as he thrust into his tight ass.
Over and
over, harder, deeper.
He’d be moaning, groaning, begging for him to
come. Come. Come deep inside.

With a horse cry, Alex erupted, his
warm essence coating his hands, just as his teeth sank into his lower lip. The
pain only sharpened the climax, heightened it in a haze of bone-melting
languor.

The orgasm sang through his system,
satisfying, but far from what he really wanted. What he needed, what he craved,
was to taste
Wayde’s
submission and his hot climax
across his tongue.

Fuck!
He was in trouble.

Chapter Seven

Wayde paced nervously around in his
living room. What the hell had happened? He had held Alex in his hands, had
been all prepared to drink from him, fuck him, and yet…yet tenderness had
welled up inside him. The only other time that had happened was when he’d
caught Daphne as she fainted in his arms.

Mine.

Damn.
Both of
them?

“Are you sure you’re all right?”
Daphne’s soft voice asked.

He shook off his confused feelings
and looked at her. She stood in the entrance of his library with the back light
draping her form in shadows. Her golden hair lay in gentle waves over her slim
shoulders, and though he couldn’t see her pale blue eyes, he felt their impact.

“Yes, love,” he said as he walked
toward her. As he got closer, the lighting evened out and he saw her eyes widen
with awareness. His last lover had been Shade, a sorcerer named Simon that now
worked for the Council. Simon had wanted more, but
Wayde’s
heart hadn’t been engaged. Not like now. Now his old heart beat with renewed
passion and he ran a finger down her soft cheek. Vampires didn’t take gender
into account when they were sexually aroused, but he was surprised to find
himself drawn to both Daphne and Alex at the same time.

He heard her poor heart pound and
felt her blood heat up. It excited him and his fangs pushed heavily against his
lip. It took every ounce of control to slide them back into his gum. Daphne’s
eyes dilated as they landed upon his lips and didn’t move. He knew she was
thinking about kissing him and damned if he didn’t want that, too.

“Daphne?”

She looked up at him, her pale blue
eyes full of latent desire. His cock immediately
hardened,
a sign that not only did he want her blood, but he wanted her body.

“Would you kiss me, Wayde?”

He wanted to. Good God, did he want
to.

“Are you sure, Daphne?”

She nodded and that was enough to
break his resolve. He’d spent the past fifty years alone. He’d fed, of course,
off willing donor’s who’d traded blood for sex. But this…this…want for Daphne
wasn’t like anything he’d ever experienced before. Well, except for Alex. Years
by himself and suddenly there were two people he wanted more than just for
feeding upon.

She wanted him. He could sense it
just as thoroughly as he knew the moon hung high and full in the sky. He slid
his arm around her waist and pulled her into his body. She gave a little gasp
as she settled her hands upon his chest and stared up at him. Then, slowly,
giving her a chance to say no, he lowered his head and his mouth settled on
hers. At first it was a purely chaste kiss, a mere pressure of lips touching
one another. But it wasn’t enough. He pressed harder, opening his mouth and
letting his tongue slide between her lips.

His tongue twined with hers,
jolting a salacious moan from deep within her that had his cock pulsing in his
pants. He explored each hidden corner of her mouth, sweeping aside any doubt
that this was exactly what he wanted. He was on fire from her kiss alone and
could only imagine what it would feel like to sink into her tight little pussy.

He pulled back and stared at her
until she opened her eyes. They were dreamy and full of passion for him and it
made him feel ten feet tall. Odd, considering he was a vampire.

“I’ve never been kissed,” Daphne
whispered as she stared up at him.

“I know.”

“Is it always like that? Always
so…amazing?”

He shook his head, cupped her face,
and smiled bemused down at her. “No. Initial attraction is, of course, very
common. But that wasn’t just initial attraction, Daphne. I’ve had my fair share
of first kisses and I have to admit, that was…divine.”

He watched the blush darken over
her cheeks and his thirst rose once again. Yes, he wanted her, physically as
well as hungrily. But he knew she wasn’t ready for the kind of intense
relationship he craved and needed. Her heart was too fragile for that and he
wanted her around as long as possible.

Forever.

He was going to have to tell her
about her heart soon. She needed medical help to fix what was
broken,
otherwise he was going to have to watch her die at
such a young age.

“Will you…make love with me now?”

“Not when you’re
still sick, Daphne.”

“Oh, but I’m not,” she protested.

He sighed and eased back, although
he still held her hand in his. “But you are, aren’t you?”

She frowned and sadness clouded her
eyes. He felt her mentally pulling back from him and a second later she let go
of his hand. She didn’t say a word to him as she turned and left. When he heard
her bedroom door click shut, he closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh.

So she knew. She knew she was
dying.

Then why the hell hadn’t she done
something?