The Dessert Cart

Pokerface
By
Kiix

Word Count:
Pairings: or should I say possible pairings, eh eh eh. Nudge nudge wink wink say no more. Cic cic. Sex/Claudius; Arzael/Marcus; Xavier/Armor; Skell/Lanseng and One of the brothers/Haley


Date Completed: March 29, 2008
Word Count:3456

Yes this was done a long long time ago. As a treat to those who bought the pdf I had online on Ebay, I gave them this chapter after the fact. I hadn't planned on showing it to the general public but I'm scatter brained right now. o^0 Too much stuff going on in RL. I've got two plays to write for work. I"m on committees, I've joined a subscription service as a writer and fishsticks are kicking my creative muse around the tank. Argh...I wanted to post something this week of April 3, 2009. Here's to someone old and something new.

Enjoy.

Kiix

(Oh yes, the original title was Blackjack but I love Lady Gaga's song 'Poker Face' so here it is.)

“Gentlemen, place your bets.” Riot smirked over at me as he took his place as dealer.

I was not impressed with the way tonight’s festivities were going. The fact that I was tied, even if it was loosely, to a chair wasn’t going to be forgotten. There was going to be a lot of groveling coming my way after this. A dump truck load of a lot of groveling.

Lanseng tossed a stack of cash into the kitty. There had to be a couple of thousand at least. Armor glanced over at me and pursed his lips in an air kiss. I narrowed my eyes and turned my head away. This was his stupid idea. He laughed and tossed his own lump of cash. Claudius stepped forward and lay what looked like five crisp thousand dollar bills down. The last of this motley little team of gamblers tossed down a roll. Haley. Haley?

What the hell was Haley doing here at the gamblers ball? I pulled at my wrists. Lanseng had tied them with pink ribbon. Ha ha, oh so original. Armor had taped me to the back of the chair with industrial grey duct tape and Claudius had provided the gag. I don’t care that it was a lemon jawbreaker. I was soooo pissed right now at everyone right now, as I sucked on the hard candy. Just to make sure I didn’t phoenix my way out of here, if I did go all fire and brimstone, Father had made it crystal clear that I would burn down all of Von Drachenfeld. All I needed to make this humiliation complete was to have Hades and Liam join in.

Armor’s bright idea.

Once a month the ‘mates’ got together and played for the jackpot – which turned out to be me, or technically this body and the subsequent winning partner. When I heard about this the first time, I was miffed. Sort of touched to…but mostly miffed. When Marcus showed up to claim his prize, Azrael knocked me back to the beach so fast I didn’t know what hit me. That’s when I learned that all the Mates had devised this hair brained plan and Armor had pulled the short end of the stick on who got to tell me about it. At the end of the month, they gambled for the first two weekends of the upcoming month.

I had thought that a four day continuous rotation was fine. Everyone had agreed to it. Next thing I know is that I’m hijacked, taped and tied up and forced to watch this little game. The brothers loved it. Sometimes a brother would get three days in a row. I probably wouldn’t have been so pissy about it, but Armor hadn’t won yet.

If he didn’t have bad luck, he’d have no luck at all.

/Cheat if you have to./

First round of Blackjack from Riot’s hand saw Lanseng get a seven. Armor got a queen. Yes! Claudius got a ten. Haley got a four. Riot took his hole card and went around again. Lanseng got an five. He took another card. A ten. Busted. He turned from the table came over and pressed a kiss to my temple “Tell, Skell, I tried.”

“Hummmp.” Lanseng had consecutively won the past two games. I was beginning to think that our blue haired seer was using his mojo.

Armor got a ten. He stood. Claudius got another ten. He split. He pulled out five more crisp bills. Damn it. That’s cheating. Who the hell carries around ten thousand dollars in his shorts? Now he got two chances. A ten and a seven. He called for another card. Twenty-two. Busted. He got another ten. He split those cards. Fifteen thousand? Sex must have made him sell his, ahem, collection. Another chance. He got a nine for the first ten. He got a king. Twenty and nineteen. He was tied with Armor.

Haley got…an ace. Five or fifteen. He hit again. He got a six. Twenty-one. Damn it. Damnitdamnitmanit. What the hell was the pup doing playing? Now he’s got the brotherhood for 4 whole days.

Claudius let out a sigh. Riot turned over his hand. Eighteen. He nodded to Riot and Armor. Haley bounced up and Claudius reached over and scratched behind his ears then pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “Take good care of Lord Alpha, Prince Haley.”

Father turned towards me. I narrowed my eyes and glared my displeasure at him. He bowed, wrinkled his nose at me and sauntered off. Black hair swaying in the breeze of the air conditioning. “

Humppp, hump…grrrrr” I spit the jawbreaker out.

Riot picked all the cash up off the table. “Thank you again, Lords for this generous donation to the Red Cross. See you next month.” Tommy dropped into reverent pose for all of a fraction of a second then took off as well.

Haley turned and looked at me. The crossed his arms infront of his chest and looked Armor straight in the eye. “You remember our deal?”

Armor came up and spit into his palm and offered it for a shake. What was this? Haley leaned over and spit into Armor’s palm then shook it.

Haley bounced up to me and plopped down hard on my upper thighs. I grunted as he slammed me hard down onto the chair. “Have fun, Lord Alpha. See you Sunday.” He leaned forward and bit my nose. He bit my nose! He licked my forehead and then scampered out the door. This left me tied to a chair with Armor.

/What did you do?/

“I stacked the deck.” Armor leaned back against the blackjack table stretching his long tall and wide body out as if working out kinks. Kinks. Ha, ha, ha. He was trying to seduce me. “I think I like you like this. All helpless and at my mercy.”

/Pretty…/ I had a warning in my voice. Not just for me, but Skell didn’t like confinement even if it was in good fun or for a good cause.

He pushed himself off the table and sauntered up to me swaying his hips a little more than was kosher. He leaned over, his long sable hair fell forward like a shampoo commercial and a light critus scent met my sniffer. He tilted his head so he looked me right in the face. His eyes flared red with lust.

Warms the cockles of your heart to know that you can still do that for your mate with one look. Look, my cockles were warming right now.

“Lock the door, Little One. We do not want to be disturbed.” I tensed my forearms and pulled the apart until I snapped the ribbon that had mockingly held me prisoner. The duct tape really did though. How the heck was I going to lock the door while taped to a chair.

I firmed my lips and was going to make a complaint but then my big hunk of appley goodness lowered himself down in front of the chair and kissed the inside of my right ankle. Oh. My…. He turned his head and licked the left ankle. I concentrated intensely. The door swung shut and I flipped the lock. I looked down as that sable head moved up my legs, kissing, nibbling, sucking and licking until he rested his chin on the seat of the chair between my spread knees. I couldn’t have closed them now if I wanted to. His massive shoulders were holding them open. I felt exposed. I felt desired,

“I had made a deal with Lanseng, Haley, Riot and Marcus. One day of the weekend, we would be at their beck and call. Whatever they want. How ever they want. I did not approach Father…well, you saw how badly he wanted to win.”

/Let me go./

“Is Skell in distress?”

No, Skell was at the beach and not really concerned how brother No, 1 was getting nibbled upon. I debated for all of a second about lying but then remembered the hell Sex had gone through over misunderstandings and heartache. I shook my head negatively.
“I said I like you like this.” Marcus pushed my knees wider still and began to press sucking kisses up the inseam of my pants. “Relax…your Pretty will take good care of you. You do remember what Prince Haley said, Have fun. You are fun, Xavier.” His eyes flared an intensive red flame.

Armor’s idea of fun was overdosing on his foot fetish. If I truly wanted to be free, I could do it. I could break the chair. I could phoenix. Instead, I turned into a mushy duct taped lump of sensation. His hands massaged my arches and rubbed my ankles. He hit a spot that just…..I drooled.

I opened my eyes as a hand came down the side of my face, “I do not want you to drown.”

Ha. Ha. I was in flame. I could feel it. I know my big brown vampire saw it. “Then rescue me.”

“I thought I did.”

Armor took a firm hold of the tape and ripped it open. “You were locked in a tower and I told you let down your hair…since you didn’t listen I made you and we lived happily ever after.”

“Can we?”

“Beautiful?”

“Can we live happily ever after? Are we supposed to?” Armor brought his hand up and cupped the back of my head then pulled me close. My nostrils were filled with his apple essence.

“Why the hell not.” The fact that Armor could man handle me so easily used to be a big point of contention. Of course, I would have driven him around the bend a couple of times before he lost his temper and would basically tear my ass a new one. But that was then, ten years ago, when I was still a human and a dink. Yes, I was a dink. Someone saw beyond that and now I’m taped to a chair…or I was taped to a chair. Now when Armor snatched me off my feet up into his embrace, it was love and protection. Even back then. “Why should we be barred from happiness? Because we are Vampires? Because we are men? Happiness is there to be taken if you are bold enough to take it. If you are strong enough to hold it. If the object of your desire returns your love, there is nothing standing in the way of our happiness.”

Armor chucked my mouth shut with his knuckle under my chin. “You are catching flies, my Little One.”

He gathered me up in bridal pose and I just stared up at him. “What? Just because I do not pour out my heart into the voice of a violin does not mean that I am not a romantic. Just because you are high maintenance…”

“I am NOT high maintenance!”

I began to struggle in his arms. He just tightened his hold and hauled us back to our bedroom. Oh gees, I was sulking. I got a chin to the top of my head. I still was annoyed with him that I ducked my head out of the way and glared up at him and stilled. His arms were tightened around me but the flame was out and his face was rather still. He was angry? What was he angry about?

I never got a chance to ask because as soon as we crossed the threshold, I got tossed up on the king sized bed. Being thrown about twelve feet cannot be described as a gentle toss. I hit the coverlet and bounced on my ass until I went thunk against the headboard. Armor was there with a hand cradling the back of by boo boo before my brains stopped rattling inside my skull.

“Oh, my Little One.” His voice was a whisper in my ear as he took his massive six foot four body and curled it around me. “You have so much power over me. I wish you were high maintenance. Do you not know that I would move heaven and earth to please you. You never ask for anything.”

I blinked myself back into the moment. Owww. Huh? “Pretty…”

“I know you desire this body, Xavier. I trained you to desire this body but do you want me?”

Oh, my monkey. I shifted around until I had his head resting against me like I was his whoobee pillow – a comfort snuggly. I never thought Armor was just as, what? Needy? Unstable? Unsure? Marcus, his number one brother, had been freakin’ scary when he was locked onto me. Armor only showed me his strength and his conviction; and, I had taken that at face value. I fell apart, I ran to Armor and he made everything all better.

Who did he run to? I don’t think he went to anyone. Until recently, he and Marcus didn’t really get along. Father and Armor were at best polite strangers. In our seven year forced absence, he was so disregarded and blamed, by Father’s own admission, that he disappeared from view. My big red sexy monkey stood on his own, because he had no one he could rely on.

Crap, I was high maintenance.

I took and expected him to be there for me and I never though this strong Vampire needed a bolt hole, a port, a hug. I willed out my pale white wings. Gently I cradled my love in my feathery goodness. I dropped an arm around his shoulder so my fingers could stroke his soft sable locks. My other hand trailed down his neck, to his chest until I stopped over his beating heart. The spike Armanita had driven into his chest on my first day as a vampire had healed but I would take it to my grave that there was a dimple in his sternum. I could feel it when I stroked his chest. That spike would have killed me. That dimple was a declaration of his love.

“I want you, Armor. I need you. The only reason I wake up in the morning is because I get to be with you.” I pulled my wing tighter across his shoulders moving his body up tighter against me. “I…I’m sorry for being selfish.”

A warm arm came across my hip. “X, you are the most unselfish vampire I know, well aside from your wife. And Haley…well, Father always puts his family first and…”

“Pretty, don’t belittle this.”

His voice fell silent but his breath warmed my shirt and my skin beneath it. “I can see to the needs of Vampire Nation because I know you are there at my back. You are my pillar of strength and you’re right, I’ve been a bastard to you.”

“I never called you…”

“I love you, Armor Du Bussy Von Drachenfeld. I take you for granted because you let me. You give and give and give more even when you are left so little for yourself. I’m sorry I’ve neglected you. I’m not much of a lover.”

Armor looked up from my chest, “X…”

“You give me the world, Armor. You give me the entire world without me asking for a thing and I’ve come to expect it. Ask for something. Tell me what you want. Let me give you the world once in a while.”

“I only want you happy. I want to see your smile. That is all I want…”

“That’s it?” I was stunned.

“You conqueror with your smile, my Little One. It’s not just your face, it is your whole being…and I’m satisfied because I am the one who put it there.” Armor’s hand spread over my heart. “I, me, your Pretty, put it there.”

“Yeah, you did.” I kissed the top of his head. Appley essence wafted up from my wing cocoon.

“Beautiful?” I angled my head so I could look down at the love of my life. “We’ve got two weekends to ourselves…can we stay like this for tonight. I want to sleep holding your close in my arms.”

“Your wish is my command.” It was nice. No it was better than nice, it was…warm. I cuddled a six foot four, two hundred and forty-ish pound hunk of Vampire against my now lean and monochromatic frame. I signed in contentment and my wings chimed slightly like glass wind chimes of a light spring breeze.

Apple and Cinnamon essence intermingled and filled my senses. It was showed that we were meant to be. I rested the side of my cheek on the top of his head and closed my eyes.

“Sssshhhhhh.”

“Don’t ssssshhh me…”

“I can sssh you if I want to. I’m first born.”

“Arashi you are so…”

“Stop it all of you, Lord Alpha is sleeping.”

Huh? I felt my wing get peeled back. I opened my eyes and noticed there was a drool catching handkerchief propped on top of Armor’s head so I didn’t spit all over his hair. Oh gees. Wait? Haley was lifting up my wing and peeking down at Armor who was sacked out and pinning me heavily against the bed.

/Pup?/

Haley turned his eyes to me and grinned. /I was just checking to make sure you were decent before I let the puppies in?/

/Puppies?/

/I took Azrael’s spot at the table last night because we made a deal. You and Lord Armor would win the weekends and you would puppy sit for one whole day./

/Az?/

/Are you awake, Lord Alpha?/

/Az did what?/

Haley sat on the bed. /Azrael said that he was getting tired of seeing you moping around because Armor couldn’t win at the table. Both Azrael and Marcus agreed that if I won, they would, or you would puppy sit. I love my pups, but we got to get away once in a while./ He gestured to the bedroom door. Five nine year olds and three whelps were crowded at the door just quivering in anticipation to get at their beloved Lord Alpha. Ping pulled Ike back from climbing over one of his sisters then she waved at me.
Haley peered into my wings. “It’s a good thing that Lord Armor is lucky in love, because he sucks at cards.”

I plucked the damp handkerchief from the top of Armor’s head and wiped my mouth. “We both are.” I nudged Armor. He grunted once then blinked.

“Mayhem and chaos are here for payment.” My sexy monkey was slow on the uptake. My wings chimed and it was the signal for the Lycan horde to descend. Our bed was overrun with fat fluffy puppies. Ping walked up to the bed carrying Huey, Dewie and Louis. They were just six weeks old.

/No bouncing on Lord Alpha, he’s got the babies./ Ping barked and set the multicolored fluffly balls against my wing. “Thank you, Lord Alpha.”

The little Imperials were shoving each other all over the covers trying to claim spots that were the softest, warmest, closest to Lord Armor. I laughed as Armor just flopped onto his back and the puppies wiggled all over him.

“No problem. Thanks Haley. How did you win?”

Haley popped up off the bed and wrapped his arms around his Eastern Lycan wife. “I cheated..” He raised his hands to his ears. “Don’t tell Lord Claudius…he likes to pull ears.”

Ping and Haley took off. I glanced at the clock. Midnight. Whoa. They weren’t kidding about a full day. It didn’t take long for everyone to settle down. Armor grunted, reached behind him and pulled an inquisitive little pup up into the air. “Noses need to ask permission before they start sniffing in places they have no place to be.” Wolfgang whined and pulled his tail and hind lefts up into a ball. Armor plopped him down on his chest.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize, Pretty. This is the price of love.” I leaned over and kissed him. Too many eyes looking at us to so anything other than a quick peck, “You can punch my ticket tomorrow.”

Puppy snores soon filled the room. Armor started his raucous log sawing. “Pretty…”
He rolled to his side. About three puppies ended up rolling into the valley between his back and the mattress. My brother, my lover, and my best friend all conspired to get me to this point – in an overcrowded bed; puppies and vampires, oh my. If this was the price of love, I was more than happy to pay it.