Isadora (Masters Among Monsters Book 2) (17 page)

To most, the shadows would have posed an issue. There would be no way for them to see without the aid of light. It wasn’t a problem, however, for their kind.
 

There. There he is.

Over on the opposite side of the room, where the bed was situated, Eton could make out Thanos’s silhouette. He was seated on the far side of the mattress with his back to him. His hands were resting by his sides, and the proud length of his back was visible, left bare of any clothing. He took another step into the room, and that’s when Thanos’s familiar voice met his ears.

“Stay where you are. Do not come any closer.”

“Thanos—”
 

“I said
do not
come any closer.”

Eton stopped where he was. Obeying Thanos’s words as he always did. “Let me talk to you.”

“I do not want to talk,” he spat out. “Especially not with
you
.”

The venom in those words stung.
 

“Thanos—”

“I said no. You will at least grant me the simple courtesy of your absence, since I am already to endure an eternity of torment you have inflicted.”

Determined to get through to the angry male across from him, Eton pushed on. “It won’t ail you forever. You will soon heal—”

“
Heal?
” Thanos thundered as he rounded on him.
 

Eton schooled his earnest features, but he was a millisecond too late.
 

“You cannot even look at me without flinching. Do not talk to me of healing.
This
,” he emphasized by pointing to his scarred face. “This will never heal.”

He was right. Eton knew that, though it really didn’t matter to him. When he looked at Thanos, all he saw was his first-sired.
 

The private lives of the Ancients were very rarely discussed. To Vasilios and Diomêdês, their first-sired represented the ones they’d chosen to take under their wing. Someone to share their eternal existence with and ones who would follow them, be loyal to them, and obey.
 

His and Thanos’s relationship was not that way at all. They kept their bond hidden, and for him, Thanos was the one who owned him—the one who calmed everything that ran riot inside him.
O kýriós tou
. His master.

“Get out.”

“You don’t mean—”

“I said.
Get. Out.
”

Once Thanos had turned and slumped down to the floor behind the bed, all Eton could see was the back of his head. His misery evident. His hate even more so. And, as the knot that usually bound them frayed, Eton drifted untethered into the unknown for the first time since they’d met. He tried to grasp something secure, but the one who’d always been there no longer was, and he had to wonder if he would be able to survive such a loss.

THE ONLY SOUND Alasdair could hear in the otherwise silent room was Leo’s pounding pulse. Leo was excited to level the playing field, excited by the fact that Vasilios was contemplating it.

“You must be tired,
agóri
. All of these demands and orders of yours… But your request, I shall grant it. So, for right now, you best crawl into my bed and get a good night’s sleep. Because, once this is done, I see many sleepless nights ahead of you.”

Vasilios stepped around Leo. But he stopped by Alasdair’s side, and the look in his eye told him they still had much yet to discuss. When Leo faced them, he caught the exchange and narrowed his gaze.
 

“And where are you two going to be while I sleep?”

Vasilios continued walking to the bedroom door as he said, “Alasdair is going to tuck you in, and then he is going to come and find me. That is all you need to know.”

Leo’s eyes flicked from Vasilios back to him, and then he boldly asked, “Will you fuck?”

Vasilios chuckled, “Why? Regretting your decision to abstain?”

“No. I just…”

Vasilios gave a knowing grin and then opened the door. “Alasdair, be sure to tell him what happens to people who lie to me.”

He nodded as Vasilios exited the room and then turned to a waiting Leo.

“Well, what happens?”

He stepped forward until the back of Leo’s legs hit the mattress. “They end up dead.”

“He won’t kill me.”

“Why? Because he wants to fuck you?”
 

Leo’s lips parted.
 

Alasdair couldn’t help but touch the pouty surface of his lower one. “He has killed many we have lain with.”

Before Alasdair could remove his hand, Leo captured his wrist. He scowled at being restrained and muscled Leo onto the bed. He fell across it, and Alasdair came down over him.
 

Placing his hands by Leo’s head, he raised himself up. “You take too many chances with him.”

The side of Leo’s mouth curled, and he wrapped a leg around his waist. “Are you worried about me?”

“No,” he responded.

As Leo wound his arms about his neck and pulled himself up to rest his cheek by his, Alasdair knew he was in a world of fucking trouble.
 

“Now who’s the liar?”

When Leo lowered himself back to the mattress, Alasdair studied the handsome face tilted up towards his and his heart ached. It was such a foreign feeling that its intensity was frightening.

“It’s okay to admit you care about me, Alasdair. It doesn’t make you any less of a badass.”

Vasilios is right. You are arrogant, file mou.

“Tell me I shouldn’t be,” Leo answered. “I bet you can’t. I think you’ve cared about me since the first time you pinned me to my mattress and I opened my eyes.”

“I thought you were an angel come to show me how far I’d fallen,” Alasdair confessed, and then he realized how that might have sounded.
 

Before he could justify such a thought, a smile split Leo’s mouth. It was so pure, so full of joy, that it warmed Alasdair as though he’d stepped into the sun.

“See? There they are.”

Alasdair cocked his head to the side as Leo drew a hand down from his shoulder and placed it over his chest, where his heart lay inside, dull and lifeless.

“The soft emotions…”

He shook his head. “You are mistaken.”

“No, I’m not.”

Alasdair pushed away from him and stood. He then looked at where Leo remained staring up at him with a hand now moving down to the area between his own legs. There, he cupped his erection, which was visible beneath his khakis, and his pupils dilated. Alasdair took several steps away from the one who was bringing out feelings he wasn’t sure what to do with. Emotions that were…unfamiliar.

“Wait for me,” Leo whispered as he arched his hips off Vasilios’s bed, and when he sank his teeth into his bottom lip, Alasdair’s back hit the door.

“Perhaps
I
should be telling
you
to wait.”

Leo shifted up to rest on his elbows, and Alasdair’s need clawed at him, urging him to cross the room, pin Leo to the mattress, and sink inside him.

“Then ask me and I will.”

It would be so easy to issue the order—but instead, he said, “Do what you will. It is of no consequence to me.”

Then he fled the suffocating confines of his Ancient’s room.

LEO WATCHED THE door close behind Alasdair and then shut his eyes, stealing a moment to himself. It felt so empty in the room after having had the two domineering men in there with him.
 

He sat up on the bed and really studied the room he was in. It was preposterous to imagine, but up until now, he hadn’t thought about the world beyond these walls. He’d practically forgotten that there
was
a world outside this one. One he’d been yanked from. However, that’s exactly what had happened.
 

Then it occurred to him—he, Elias, and Paris had no one waiting on them. No one to care if they came home. All parents had passed, each of them was single, and once the authorities decided they were a missing case...they would merely be forgotten.
 

How sad. And how convenient.
 

Coincidence? Unlikely.
 

Upon getting to his feet, Leo walked over to the bathroom and flicked the light on.
Jesus
, the thing was twice the size of Alasdair’s and bigger than his tiny apartment.
 

He faced the mirror hanging on the wall and stared at the reflection. His hair was a damn mess, which was nothing unusual, and the circles under his eyes showed how tired he was. But what he was looking for was more than that, and he laughed a little at the ridiculousness of it. He was determined to check, though, no matter how stupid it seemed.
 

He leaned over the sink and squinted, bringing his fingers up to his lips.
Am I really doing this?
he thought as he used his index fingers to push his top lip up. He stared at his two canines, relieved that they appeared…normal. He snarled into the mirror, and when nothing odd happened, he sighed.
Thank god.
 

Shaking his head, he then turned and leaned back against the sink. He’d been worried that, along with the weird mind reading, the strength, and the speed, that maybe, just maybe, he’d have a set of fangs to match. Luckily for him, he wouldn’t have to have any weird conversations with his dentist any time soon.

He scrubbed a hand over his face and thought about his friends who were locked up somewhere in this place.
Well
,
ex-friends now, no doubt
. He really wished he had a chance to talk to them. He could go out and look, but that would have been a stupid fucking move on his behalf. Not to mention the signature on his death warrant.
 

Just because Alasdair and Vasilios had spared him, they’d still had to protect him against that other scary vampire, which meant his life was not guaranteed by any means.

He made his way back into the room and when he spotted Vasilios’s shirt and tie on the floor, a shiver of anticipation ran up his spine.
 

What am I doing with these two?
Fuck if he knew.
 

He’d had relationships in the past. Sometimes, serious ones. But the way his body and mind came alive when he was around Alasdair, and even the big guy, was so much more.
 

As he unbuttoned his shirt and lay down on the soft mattress, Leo closed his weary eyes. Maybe he could convince Alasdair to let him speak to Elias or Paris in the morning. Or maybe he could appeal to Vasilios. He’d bargained with him earlier, after all. Even though both males continued to try to intimidate him, they wanted him alive.
 

They were drawn to him on a much deeper level than basic curiosity, and he had to believe that that could eventually translate to respect and admiration. Something he’d always craved from the one he would love. But was that even possible in this equation?
Love?
And there wasn’t only one involved. There were
two
of them.
 

He’d impulsively promised himself to these males indefinitely to save his life.
And yes
, his lonely self admitted, because it was exhilarating to be the object of their every want.
 

But how did he love someone, or something, such as them? And wasn’t the bigger question here:
Could
he love them without winding up dead?