Blood Lust

CHAPTER FOURTEEN


The pack melted from the timberline as Isaac and Seth rode back to the house. Poppy gave a warning kick above the head of a juvenile venturing too close. Then, the group settled in as surprisingly companionable escorts.

Inside the stable, Seth helped give the horse a grooming. With each of them curry comb in hand, Seth observed, “She’s big for a mustang. Lots of bone.”

“Yeah, one of the loudest complainers against the band was a rancher with a prized Oldenburg stallion who liked to slum. He kept hopping fence and donating his precious, two grand a nut-pop sperm to the ladies of the wild.”

“Surprised the stallion allowed that in his harem.”

Isaac worked the metal curry carefully over the mare’s chest. “That was part of the guy’s gripe. His expensive stud horse kept coming home with dings in him.”

They worked well together and it became quite clear to Isaac Seth probably had forgotten more about horses than he knew. As they exchanged curry combs for body brushes, he queried, “What was it like living in a world where horses were everything?”

“Simpler, but, harder if that makes sense. If you ran out of gas, so to speak, you could stop and let them graze. Travel often made for uncomfortable and long experiences, though.” As he drew closer, Seth leaned toward Isaac. “Kiss me, boy.”

Isaac’s heart turned an anticipatory cartwheel. He pressed his lips to his lover’s, expecting an aggressive onslaught. Instead, he experienced a very gentle, sweet exchange of breath and caressing tongues. Drawing back, he gazed into those fascinating burgundy eyes. He wanted to try articulating how he felt. However, his own uncertainty stayed him. Instead of spilling his guts in an awkward and ill-advised confession, he said, “I’m going to D.C. The logistics escape me given your need to rest away from sunlight. All the same, I’d like you to come with.”

Seth touched his forehead to Isaac’s. “Is that your mind or genetics speaking?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Maybe my dick.”

“Let’s finish caring for your girl and go inside.”

His lover insisted on feeding him again, making him hot tea and rubbing his shoulders while he finished. Then, Seth herded him upstairs for a shared shower.

Isaac expected an initiation of sex. His lover cared for him like a nursemaid, cut the water and dried them both. “Why’re you being so solicitous?” He hadn’t meant to speak the question aloud. Nothing to do except brazen it out now.

“Which answer?” Seth stepped closer, staring down at him from his perhaps six or seven inch superior height. “Easy or hard?”

Swallowing hard, he returned with another question. “For me or you?”

Seth hung the bath sheet upon the hook he’d taken it down from and countered, “Pick.”

“Both?” He stood naked with his male lover, swamped by a brand of intimacy he had never known.

“For me, easy answer would be because I want the source of my pleasures willing.” His voice lowered to a seductive hush. “Hard answer, you’re the first individual, vampire or human, to make my heart feel like a living thing in my chest.”

Reckless and rather drunk on adrenaline hearing that, Isaac whispered, “And, for me?”

“Easy, you like it. Hard, you don’t know how you really feel and it makes this less cerebral. Physical comfort equals mental comfort.”

“Is it too late to withdraw the question?” He shivered.

“Yes. Do you need to pack?”

Isaac nodded. “It won’t take long.” He dragged on boxers and a pair of jeans. It didn’t take long to pack a suitcase, hang two suits on the hook on the bedroom door. He set out a pair of his Italian dress shoes and his travel kit of toiletries. “We’ll have to come back here for all this shit, my cell and laptop.”

“I’ll drive.”

“Good,” Isaac replied. “It’s like three and a half, four hours and I hate driving.”

Seth cupped his jaw in his big hands. “I know you must wish your own bed. I need, mine come the dawn. Let me carry you back to my place?”

He nodded. Seth finished dressing him, then swept him into his arms. “Just gonna go naked? God, let’s hope Mr. Easton isn’t out on his snowmobile.”

“I don’t suffer the cold. Or shame.”

“I have to ask him to see to Poppy.” Isaac rubbed his face into his lover’s warm chest. The skin felt so smooth and taut over ready brawn. “Yay.”


In the night, Seth woke Isaac with gentle kisses to his chest. “I have a friend we can stay with. He’s agreed to have us and his home will accommodate me.”

Isaac snuggled closer, savoring the heat of the vampire’s body. “Okay.” Dazed with slumber, he murmured, “Hold me.”

“May I take?”

Already slipping back into slumber, Isaac whispered, “Yes.” Those sleek blood teeth penetrated. Splendor rippled. He groaned. “I need to be there tonight to make morning meetings.”

“I’ll have the pack guard you, load the truck, and then you can sleep during the drive.”

Isaac woke as Seth moved him. But, he settled quickly back into the truck seat.

Sweet boy, we’re close.

He smiled without opening his eyes. “I could get used to this.”

“Wish you would.”

Isaac turned from the window, seeking the comfort of his lover’s body. Drowsy and content, he nestled his head on Seth’s shoulder, and murmured, “You smell so good.”

“Dawn’s coming. I’ll have to deliver you then vanish.”

“To where?” Isaac sat up to pay attention.

Seth shifted gears and steered the big truck through early morning dark and traffic. “A place in the basement.”

Isaac felt bereft. “I think I miss you already.”

“Do you?”

“Maybe you should fuck off, Seth.”

“I think my heart might belong to you, too.”

Isaac gave his clinics on eliminating passive voice and keeping point of view clean and pure. All the while he thought about his lover.

His vampire.