“Remember from the reference book that almost all bonds become activated sometime after three attempts, if all other factors are in line? So tonight will be the third time that Oliver and Gael have engaged in some form of intercourse while also exchanging blood.”
“Oh,” Nino says. His face sours as if he has swallowed something distasteful. “I don’t know why, but I assumed they were virgins—like we were watching their first time.”
“You are disappointed by this?” Haruka grins, raising his eyebrow. “You wish to watch from the beginning? Perhaps they are the type to use recordings—” Haruka’s breath catches when Nino playfully bumps into his shoulder as they walk.
His friend smiles. “You think you’re funny?”
Twelve
It’s night. Only the light of the moon pouring in through the large window illuminates the space. It practically glows—soft, blue and ethereal. Nino watches the heavy snowflakes descend from the sky, but he sucks in a breath from Haruka’s warm tongue dragging up the length of his neck.
Nino’s chest tightens. The ache in his groin and belly flashes with heat. Haruka slides his long fingers up and into Nino’s hair, against his scalp. He bites down into his flesh and Nino moans from the pleasure of his incisors piercing his skin.
Haruka pulls, gently sucking against his neck. Nino can feel the warmth and wetness of his tongue as he feeds. Knowing that he’s providing for and nourishing this divine purebred—this elegant, enigmatic creature—makes Nino’s heart swell.
He wraps his arms around Haruka’s waist, tightly securing their embrace. Nino never imagined this. That despite the deep pain and fear he’s felt in the past, he would enjoy this feeling—giving of himself. Offering himself and being willingly vulnerable to another vampire.
When Haruka finishes feeding, he lifts his face and looks into Nino’s eyes. Nino tilts his head and slowly leans into him. Across his entire existence, he’s never wanted to kiss someone so badly…
Nino inhales sharply, his eyes flashing open and burning brightly from the vivid dream.
He can’t catch his breath. Wild confusion grips his mind until he registers his surroundings. He’s inside his private guest room at Hertsmonceux, lying on his back against the cool sheets as his heart beats wildly in his chest. His shaft is fully erect. Painfully.
He slows his breathing and carefully shifts onto his stomach. Once there, he relaxes. His face pressed into the pillow, he groans—the loudness of it effectively muffled in the silent room. Turning his head to the side, he closes his eyes and continues breathing in and out. After a moment, his body unwinds.
While he lies there surrounded by cold stone walls, old portraits of strangers and dusty, intricately woven tapestries, his mind drifts back to everything that happened in this singular day. Calling it eventful feels drastically insufficient. Like calling the Taj Mahal a “nice building.”
He thinks back to the image of Haruka in his classic black suit, standing with perfect posture at the head of the ballroom as he reads the confirmation contract. The chandelier lights are cast low, creating soft shadows all around. The audience is silent, hanging on to his every deep, eloquent word as if he were singing a soothing lullaby. It was mesmerizing, not boring like Nino had genuinely anticipated.
“Old blood,” Nino sighs, shifting his belly against the mattress. Ancient vampire blood does something. It has an impact. The deep, genetic origins of their race call out, demanding reverence and submission. But in Nino’s eyes, that cannot be used as an excuse for acting like a mindless pervert.
When Haruka had completed his reading and sat down beside Nino, his friend had been unexpectedly modest. “Do you think it was sufficient?” Haruka had asked, blinking his chocolate-brown eyes.
Nino had smiled, amazed at his quiet uncertainty. “I think it was perfect.”
But then a barrage of syrupy compliments were poured over Haruka. Remembering it now makes Nino’s skin crawl.
And there was yet another circumstance that had dramatically turned his stomach earlier tonight.
Gael had watched Haruka. During the bonding ritual. While he was supposed to be making love to his intended mate, his focus had been on the dark purebred at Nino’s side. The whole thing was as uncomfortable and invasive as Nino had anticipated, but the added element of Gael’s misplaced eye contact had made Nino want to scream from outrage. He could barely hold it together by the time they left the failed ceremony. Nino didn’t dare ask Haruka if he’d noticed. Of course he had.
The previous three days with Haruka had been insightful, but this fourth day was mind-blowing. And with everything else, for the first time in his life, Nino is sincerely considering offering himself. He’s dreamt about it (in color, for God’s sake). He stretches his body against the mattress as the heated images flash vividly in his mind yet again.
“Should I do this?”
He closes his eyes, his heart throbbing in his ears. He wants to help his friend, but will he seem like everyone else? If he offers himself, maybe that’s how Haruka will view him. Like some desperate horndog eager to please him.
Maybe…I could offer him bags?
Nino flips onto his side and exhales a deep breath. His glowing eyes finally burn out, returning to normal. He stares blankly at the wall in front of him.
It isn’t any of his business.
Haruka said he would figure it out once the weekend ended, so Nino should stay out of it. Haruka is an extremely capable and intelligent vampire. It isn’t Nino’s place to stick his nose in.
Just as he’s drifting off to sleep, a loud noise startles him. He sits up straight, completely still. He listens again. The moment he decides the sound must have been his imagination, he hears another muffled crash.
The noise is coming from the room next door.
Haruka’s room.
Thirteen
Haruka stands from the old, weathered desk and switches off the copper base of the oil lamp. The flame quietly extinguishes, casting the bedroom in shadows and moonlight.
He yawns. The third attempt to bond has failed. No dramatic flashes of light. No report of innate heaviness. No shared emotions or perceptions. No bond. He has updated the certificate stating as much, all the while trying to develop a valid excuse as to why he should leave this place tomorrow morning.
He wants to go home. Desperately. He needs a reprieve from the shallow fawning, the flowery honorifics and blatant stares. Something about England suddenly feels much worse than anywhere else he’s traveled. Dublin and Quebec had been pleasant. Santorini as well, aside from Haruka’s poor judgment regarding a particular vampire. He’d deemed Paris as the most pompous and challenging aristocracy, but England is quickly proving him wrong.
Perhaps their lack of indigenous purebreds fundamentally impacts their natures? British purebred vampires died out toward the end of the nineteenth century—disappeared from the earth as a result of civil wars, clan disputes and the Great Vanishing. The British aristocracy’s hypersensitivity to Haruka’s bloodline is exhausting.
He wonders if he should simply return to his own realm. It has been many, many years now, and the emotional wounds inflicted upon him have mostly scabbed over. Maybe it’s time?
Just as Haruka rests one knee atop the mattress, there’s a sharp knock on his bedroom door. It is late, and having politely circumvented Elsie’s advances earlier in the evening, he is not expecting anyone. He focuses his mind, stretching it toward the other side of the door. He inhales to identify the scent. Damp earth and tea tree. Gael.
Haruka’s body tenses, his instincts flashing bright lights of warning in his mind. The bonding ceremony had been a disaster—practically a charade. Gael was wholly unfocused on his intended mate, but Oliver seemed none the wiser. It was a perfect case of someone only seeing what they want to see, despite the obvious signs right in front of them.
Silently, Haruka moves toward the door. He’d pulled the small sliding lock after he’d entered, but the wood of the framing is warped and ancient. There is absolutely no reason for Gael to be here at this time of night. Anything he needs can wait until morning.
