Authors: Gabrielle Evans
Stopping in his tracks, Echo jerked his hand out of Fiero’s and gathered his power, working frantically to ignite the flames he could feel dancing inside his body. “Fuck!”
Eyce had one man in his arms, Vapre the other, running them toward the house as Myst stood his ground, facing down the snarling beast. Echo assumed he was trying to freeze the wolf in place, but it wasn’t working. The animal continued toward him, bounding across the grass at full speed.
Instead of being terrified, Echo got pissed. No one, man or beast, threatened his man. Letting the rage consume him, he stoked the flames until fire erupted from his fingertips. Gathering and building, he formed the flames into a large ball, growling deep in his chest as he launched it at the wolf.
The fireball caught the beast in its right flank, eliciting a loud yelp and forcing him to stumble before falling to the ground and disappearing in a cloud of black smoke.
“What the…” Echo trailed off, his eyes widening as his heart galloped inside his chest. That wasn’t supposed to happen. He didn’t know exactly what he’d expected, but the damn thing just poofing out of existence sure as hell wasn’t it!
“Echo, let’s go.” Fiero took his hand and tugged him toward the house.
Echo let the man drag him along, still looking over his shoulder at the empty space where the wolf had been. “What happened?” he asked when they’d climbed the steps to the front porch and stepped inside the living room. “What was that?”
“Ares,” Hex growled, pulling Echo to him and crushing him against his chest. “You were amazing, baby. I’m sorry I doubted you.”
Echo pushed against his lover’s rock-hard chest until he could look up at him. “Did you just say that was Ares?”
“Yes,” several voices answered him at the same time.
He started to ask another question until he noticed that Eyce still held the man he’d rescued cradled in his arms. The little guy curled against Eyce’s chest, clinging to his shirt and looking up at him as though he’d hung the moon and stars.
A purely possessive growl burst from Echo’s mouth, and his upper lip curled over his teeth. “Who the fuck are you?” he snarled.
The man jerked his head around, staring at Echo with shock and a little bit of fear. His lips moved soundlessly for a moment before he curled back against Eyce, burying his face in the warrior’s neck.
Mine!
Echo leapt for the stranger, but Hex’s big arm caught him around the waist, lifting him off his feet as he chuckled.
“Whoa there, hellcat.”
The man in Eyce’s arm pressed closer to him, wrapping his arms around Eyce’s neck and nuzzling and licking at his throat. Echo roared, kicking and flailing as he tried to claw his way out of Hex’s embrace and get to the fucker that was feeling up his man. Then, Eyce would get his next for not putting a stop to it.
Realizing his attempts to free himself were fruitless, Echo threw his hands out in front of him, grinning evilly when flames erupted from his fingertips once more. “Mine,” Echo said icily.
“Fiero!” Hex yelled.
Fiero was in front of Echo immediately, stroking his face and peppering kisses on his brow. “It’s okay, baby. It’s not what you think. Calm down and trust me. Okay? Just trust me. Have I ever lied to you?”
But Echo wasn’t listening. His eyes were locked over Fiero’s shoulder, glaring daggers at the bastard in Eyce’s arms. “I won’t kill him,” he bargained. “I’ll just maim him a lit—” His words cut off abruptly and blinding rage filled him as he watched the man open his mouth and sink his canines into Eyce’s neck.
The son of a bitch dared to claim
his
mate? Heartache seeped into his fury, his chest aching that Eyce would allow such a thing to happen. Why was no one stopping this? They didn’t even look concerned!
Emotions swamped him and before he knew it, his entire body burst into flames. Hex cried out, dropping him to the floor, but Echo barely even noticed. His only thought, his only reason for breathing at that moment was to destroy the man who’d thought to take something from him.
“Echo!” Fiero shouted, grabbing Echo’s upper arms and shaking him. “Baby, stop it! It’s not what you think!”
“Eyce, enough. Put him down,” Hex called tightly.
The brunette lifted his mouth from Eyce’s neck and licked his lips. “Thank you,” he whispered.
Echo screamed, a high pitched scream born of agony and boiling rage. “I lied,” he hissed. “I’m going to kill him.”
Eyce put the man on his feet immediately, and pushed past him without a word as he hurried over to Echo. He looked like he wanted to touch him, but with fire still dancing along his skin, there was no way he could without burning himself.
Echo didn’t want the cheating bastard to touch him anyway. “I hate you,” he whispered. “How could you do that to me?”
Eyce looked confused for a moment, and then his eyes rounded in comprehension. “Echo, baby, he didn’t claim me. I’m not going anywhere.”
This finally gave Echo pause. If the asshole hadn’t claimed Eyce, then why had he been sucking on the demon’s neck? “Tell me,” he demanded.
“Can we put out the bonfire first?”
“No.” Echo shook his head firmly. “Tell me, now.”
Before anyone could speak, Fiero yanked him forward, covering his mouth with his own and thrusting his tongue through Echo’s lips. The kiss was passionate, possessive, earth-shattering, and it rocked Echo right down to his core. When Fiero finally pulled away, Echo panted for breath, glaring at his lover when he realized the flames had extinguished from his body.
He didn’t even have time to catch his breath before he was lifted into Eyce’s arms, and the warrior crushed their mouths together in a kiss that bordered on desperate. When Eyce broke the kiss, he buried his face in Echo’s neck, his large frame shaking as his arms tightened around Echo’s back like steel bands. “I love you. I love you,” he chanted over and over.
Echo still didn’t know what was going on, but most of his anger had drained away, and he suddenly felt ashamed at his behavior. “I love you, too,” he whispered, combing his fingers through Eyce’s hair. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean those hateful things I said.” He kissed the side of Eyce’s head and sighed. “Please tell me what just happened, because I still really want to hurt him.”
The brunette that had been chewing at Eyce’s throat rolled his eyes and snorted. “I just took a little nip. I don’t know what the bloody big deal is. No pun intended.”
“You’re not helping,” Vapre growled from beside him.
“A nip?” Echo’s eyebrows disappeared into his hairline. “Like…I mean…you are…”
The guy nodded at him and smiled, showing off a set of pointy fangs. “A vampire.”
Chapter Seven
“Aren’t you kind of small for a vampire?” Echo asked from Eyce’s arms. So many strange and unbelievable things had happened to him in the past several weeks he didn’t even blink an eye at the fact that the man
was
a vampire. He just always pictured them bigger, more like his demons.
“Aren’t you kind of small for a human?” The vampire shot back.
Echo wrinkled his nose, but nodded. He hated that he found the guy’s English accent cute as hell. “Touché.”
“You’re really an honest to goodness vampire?” Sony asked the other stranger in the room as he stared at him in awe.
A bit taller than his companion, but leaner in the hips, the redhead smiled and nodded. “Sure are, mate.”
“Not to be rude, but who the hell are you?” Echo shrugged when Eyce lifted an eyebrow at him. Okay, so he meant to be a little rude. He was still pissed about the bloodsucker chomping away as his mate’s neck like it was a late-night snack.
“The name is Syn.” The dark-haired vampire gave a regal bow. “And this is Jinx,” he said as he waved a hand toward the other man.
“Wow, your parents really didn’t like you.” Myst snorted and shook his head.
“And that’s putting it mildly,” Jinx mumbled.
“So, you’re brothers?” Sony asked. He looked completely enraptured with the pair.
“No.” Jinx shook his head. “Our mums were best of friends, grew up together and all, but we’re not blood kin.”
“Grew up?” Vapre scoffed. “You look like babies.”
Echo glared at the demon. The vampires didn’t look any younger than he did. Then again, compared to the thousands of years his warriors had lived, he supposed his own twenty-two years would seem fairly insignificant to them.
“We are over two hundred years old,” Syn growled. Then he sighed and shook his head. “So, true, I guess we’re not much more than babes.”
“Can I see your fangs?” Mac blurted, then clamped his lips together and blushed to the tips of his ears.
Jinx chuckled and opened his mouth to show off his pointy canines. “Good?”
Mac nodded dazedly. “You really are a vampire,” he breathed. “Are you allergic to the sun, and garlic, and holy water, and all that other stuff?”
“Holy water is just water,” Syn answered. “I love garlic.” He sighed and pushed a hand through his mousy hair. “The sun stuff is true, though, we don’t burst into flames like the stories say.” He rolled his eyes at this before continuing. “It’s more like roasting a hotdog on a campfire, and it bloody hurts like hell.”
“Okay, so what are you doing here, and why were you chomping on my mate’s neck?” Echo wiggled out of Eyce’s arms and held his hand out, his eyes never leaving Syn’s.
It took Eyce a minute to catch on, but when he figured out what Echo was waiting for, he quickly stripped his shirt off and handed it to him. “There is a lot of fucking nakedness in this house.”
“Well, how else are you supposed to fuck if you’re not naked?” Myst waggled his eyebrows, then grunted when Onyx’s elbow caught him in the ribs. “Right,” he gasped, rubbing at his side. “Not the time.”
Echo ignored them, pulling the cotton T-shirt over his head and remaining focused on Syn. “I’m waiting.”
“Well, I honestly don’t know why we’re here.” He looked over his shoulder at Jinx. “Why are we here?”
“I had a dream about some loony blond lady, surrounded by seven men and a wall of fire,” Jinx answered. “There was a loud thudding noise throughout the dream, like the sound of a beating heart.” He pointed at Echo and cocked his head to the side. “You told us to come.”
“Me? I thought you said there were only seven guys in the dream?”
“No, I said the woman was surrounded by seven men.” He looked around the room, meeting each of the demon’s eyes. “These seven men. You,” his eyes focused back on Echo, “were standing outside the circle, and you called to us for help.”
“So, you just up and left in the middle of the night without even packing a bag because you had a dream?” Echo scoffed, but it sounded damn close to how he’d come to arrive at the warrior’s home.
“Well, there was a bit of urgency considering we woke up to our house engulfed in flames. Didn’t have anywhere else to go, did we? Why not seek you out?”
“But how did you know where to find us? How long have you been traveling?”
Jinx frowned, his brow forming a shallow
V,
and jerked his head toward the other vampire. “He led us.”
“Well, I think it was the witchy woman in the dream that led us. I just followed.” Syn shrugged as though they were making a big deal out of nothing. “We had the same dream at the same time, our house practically blew up, and I got a woman in my head telling me I need to go somewhere. Don’t know about you, mate, but I’m going to listen. Besides,” Syn dipped his head at Echo, “here you are.”
Echo rubbed at the back of his neck and sighed. It made sense—well, as much sense as anything else. “So, snacking on my mate’s neck?”