Authors: AJ Jarrett
“Will you come back?”
Ben stopped in the middle of tying his boots at the sadness in his mate’s voice. “Of course I’ll be coming back. You’re my mate, and nothing will keep me from you, ever.” He stood and gathered Miles close.
“Good. I know there are things we still need to work out, but I don’t want this to end. I know we just met, but I care about you as if I’ve known you all my life.”
He placed a soft kiss to Miles’s lips, and the low moan his mate made was music to his ears. “Miles, there is one thing I need from you.” Miles gave a jerky nod. “Don’t leave the apartment until I get back, okay?”
“I have class tomorrow, and I need to hit the library before then.”
“What time? I’ll make it back to take you.”
“Like my own personal bodyguard. I like it.” Miles giggled. “Eight o’clock. I’ve got this huge test at nine thirty, and I need that extra time in the library to prepare. I might be the mate of a vampire, but it won’t get me a passing grade.”
“We’re not mates yet, my love.” Ben clamped down on his tongue. He hoped Miles didn’t catch the “love” part. To his credit, Miles let it slide and just reached up to pull him down for a final kiss. It was going to be hard walking out the door away from Miles.
Ben walked out of the bedroom accompanied by a now-clothed Miles to the living room. They said a quick good-bye. Before Ben allowed the front door to shut, he gave Miles one more warning.
“Remember, don’t leave the apartment until I get back. Okay?”
“Okay.”
He made sure he heard the front door lock before he descended the stairs to meet up with Quinn. A blast of cold autumn air hit him in the face and caused his eyes to water. He might have been a vampire, but he still felt heat, cold, and pain. All the misconceptions about vampires were quite funny if he sat down and thought about it. Hell, a vampire could be the minister at the local church for all people knew.
“You ready?” Quinn asked as he met Ben halfway on the sidewalk.
“Yeah. Let’s get this over with so I can get back to Miles and Trevor. I wouldn’t put it past Malcolm to use Trevor to get to Miles.”
“I’ll take care of Trevor. You just worry about your boy.”
Ben glanced over at his friend. He showed no signs of enlightening him with any more information regarding his mate’s cousin.
“Quinn, is there anything you want to talk about?”
“Nope.”
“Okay but if you want to talk about anything, I’m here to listen.”
“Ben, just drop it.” Quinn popped the lock on their black Escalade and climbed into the driver’s seat. “Did you happen to discuss the importance of the mating ritual with Miles and the urgency to get it done?”
Ben got into the passenger seat and buckled his seat belt. “No. We got distracted.”
“Fuck, Ben. That should have been your top priority.”
“I know, but I can’t put that fear and worry in him just yet. We have some time to get the kinks worked out. Malcolm didn’t attack tonight and hasn’t shown any signs of doing so. He’s just playing with us and Miles.”
“I hope you’re right, for Miles’s sake.”
He hoped he was right, too. Fear ate away at his insides at the thought of losing Miles or scaring him away by rushing things too fast.
That was all the talking they did on the way back to their rental house just outside of town. Having four large, black SUVs could be thought a little odd in a more populated area, and they didn’t want to raise suspicion among the locals and draw attention to themselves.
Once at the house, Quinn followed him into the main sitting room where Liam and Cason sat around looking at maps and going through police reports. They were trying to pinpoint exactly where Malcolm and his crew where hiding out. That bit of info still eluded them. There wasn’t a trail of dead bodies highlighting to just one area. Vampires didn’t have to kill those they drank from, but the Warriors of the Dark tended to drain their victims, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake.
“Hey, Ben, how did it go with that kid?” Jensen asked as Ben snatched up his laptop and sat it on the coffee table.
“Fabulous,” Ben said but didn’t look at his friend. He was logging onto his Skype account to call his father. He hadn’t informed dear old Dad that the stakes on this case had changed. To find his mate right now wouldn’t be convenient for Benedict, and he would let Ben know that business came first, even if Miles was his mate.
He typed in his password and rang to his father’s computer. His father answered on the first ring.
“About time you called in. What took you so long? I sent Quinn word to have you call me hours ago.”
Quinn grunted and rolled his eyes. Ben had to bite back his chuckle. Quinn and his father never got along, so any chance Benedict got, he blamed Quinn for anything he could.
“He got the message to me right away. Some unexpected complication arose that took some delicate handling.”
His father snorted. “Oh really, like what?”
Ben hesitated for a moment before he spoke. He knew his father would suck all the happiness out of the joyous occasion. “I found my mate. It happens to be the young man Malcolm has been tracking.” He took a deep breath, waiting for what his father would say and how he would belittle the joy of his son finding his one true love after twelve hundred years.
“Well, Son, that’s great, but we still have work to do. Maybe you can use that young man as bait to lure Malcolm out into the open.”
Ben’s head jerked up. Use Miles as bait? Was he fucking mad? “I will not use my mate as a pawn in capturing Malcolm. He’s human, for god’s sake.”
“Son, don’t you think you’re being a little overdramatic? If he’s your mate, turn him. I trust your military training will prove sufficient in keeping your mate safe. Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy for you, but we still have a job to be done, and you will use any means necessary to complete the mission. Now call me when you have Malcolm contained.”
His father disconnected the call. No “good-bye” or “I love you” for his only child. No, his father was a cold bastard who let work control his life and emotions.
After the curse was set forth onto their village, Ben’s parents discovered that they weren’t true mates. With that knowledge, his mother decided to leave his father. A year after her turning, she found her mate. A human man she turned into a vampire. They had lived happily ever since then. Now his father, on the other hand, hadn’t found his mate, and Ben wasn’t even sure he ever would.
“Boy, your dad is such a romantic. I can’t understand why the women aren’t falling over themselves to snatch him up,” Liam joked as he looked at the papers in his hand.
“Maybe he’s into dudes,” Cason called out as he went into the kitchen.
Ben tilted his head to the side in thought. Maybe his dad was gay. That would explain his understanding when Ben broke the news to him that it wasn’t just a passing fancy that he actually preferred men to women. He shook it off, no time to worry about his father’s love life or lack of. Miles was in danger, and he had to figure out how to get to Malcolm before he got to Miles.
“You’re not going to do that are you?” Quinn asked as he took the seat next to him.
“What?”
“Use Miles as bait.”
“Fuck no. I don’t care what my father’s wishes are. Miles is not going to be used like that for any reason. Ever.” Ben’s voice was stern. He wanted to make sure it was clear that in no fashion was Miles to be put at risk for any reason.
“Okay, I just want to make sure we’re on the same page.”
Ben nodded his agreement. They got back to work while they waited for word from the team members still out searching for Malcolm. Time was in short supply now. The clock was ticking on finding Malcolm and keeping Miles safe in the process.
Chapter Four
“So you believe he will keep you safe?”
Miles glanced over his shoulder to look at his cousin. Trevor stood in the open doorway, fidgeting from foot to foot. He didn’t want his cousin to worry, but he couldn’t sugarcoat anything when their very lives could be on the line.
“I do.” He pulled the shirt off the hanger and started to put it on. “You weren’t there last night. This Malcolm guy followed me and stood outside our apartment just waiting and watching. The look on his face was pure evil. And I swear he was staring at me through the window as if he could see through the fucking blinds.” He sat on his bed then looked up to Trevor. “I’ve never been so scared before in my entire life. If it weren’t for Ben, I probably wouldn’t be here right now.”
Trevor crossed over the threshold into his room. He knelt in front of Miles and grabbed his hands. “Don’t say that. If you believe in Ben then so do I. I just want to make sure we’re together on this.”
“Always together…”
“Never apart.” Trevor smiled.
Miles looked at his watch. It was getting close to eight, and he needed to get to the library. Where was Ben? If he failed this test, his grade point average would drop, and he didn’t want that to happen.
“I wish Ben would get here. I’m going to be late.”
“Remember what he said? You are not to leave the apartment without him.” Trevor stood up and headed for the door.
“Where are you going?” Miles asked as his cousin started to walk away.
“I’ve got class, and Wendy and Gavin are on their way to pick me up.”
“But Ben said we both needed to take precautions while this Malcolm guy is on the loose.” Miles didn’t understand why his cousin didn’t get the extreme importance of this issue.
“Well that hot, scary guy, Quinn told me there was safety in numbers, and if I had to leave to call some friends.” Trevor shrugged. “So I did. Gavin and Wendy are working on their sculptures as well, so it will be perfect timing for me to get mine done.” Trevor smiled and left his room. Miles’s cousin was an art major, and his art buddies hung out all the time, so he was always in quick supply of friends.
That gave Miles an idea. If it was okay for Trevor to go out as long as he had a friend around, he could do the same. If Ben wasn’t there in the next fifteen minutes, he would call Zach, a member of his study group, for a ride. Ben never said he couldn’t do that, and Malcolm wouldn’t possibly attack in the middle of a public place.
A half hour later, he sat at a middle table on the second floor of the campus library. Ben never showed, and he couldn’t wait any longer. He had exactly one hour until his class began, and he needed the time in the library to prepare. All the hours he had been working didn’t give him much studying time. And he had the sneaking suspicion that the University of Missouri Journalism Department wouldn’t allow an extension due to a crazy vampire stalking him. They would think him insane if he even suggested the notion.
He was worried about Ben, but knew the man could hold his own. Ben’s body was composed of muscles upon muscles, so he took an educated guess the man could take care of himself in a fight. Miles did wish Ben would have at least called him. They’d just met, but he felt that deep connection with him. It was too soon to say it was love, but damn, it sure felt like the beginnings of love.
The sound of a book falling to the floor with a hard thud caused him to jump in his seat. He was anxious and with good reason to be, but he couldn’t help feeling like he was being watched. He just chalked it up to what had gone down over the past twenty-four hours and blamed his frayed nerves for the uneasy feeling he already had. He could always call Ben, but he didn’t want to come across as a wimp or even worse, needy.
“So he let you out of his sight now, has he?”
Miles’s head snapped at the low drawl coming from the man who had just sat at his table. He had to refrain from jumping up and running away when he realized it was Malcolm. A chill ran down his spine, causing the hair on his arms to stand up. He felt trapped. His eyes darted from side to side, looking for the best escape route.