As Midnight Loves the Moon (10 page)

Wayde felt his mouth fall open in
surprise, but other than mimic a fish, he couldn’t think of something to say.

Daphne turned to Alex. “But you’re
not one.”

“Um, no,” he answered. “But I am
Shade.”

“Shade?
I
don’t know what that is,” she said curiously. “I assume
,
if there are such things as vampires, then there must be other folklore
creatures.”

“That’s one way of putting it,”
Alex replied. “When I asked if you believed in angels it wasn’t because I
thought you were dying. You see, the Shade is the realm that was created when
light and dark formed.”

“Heaven and
hell?”

He nodded. “That’s one name for it.
And right between them was the tiny crack that a mixture of angels and demons
spilled into. Good and bad turned into hybrids and the Shade was where most of
us were born.”

She glanced back at Wayde quickly
before refocusing her attention on Alex. “So what are you?”

“I am
Fae
,”
he announced.

“I thought you were,” Wayde said
smugly. “Right from the first time I smelled you.”

“I always thought they were little,
with wings, and had funny names like
Tinkerbell
,” she
said.

“That’s fairies,” Alex explained
dryly. “
Fae
are different.”

“
Fae
are
warriors, which explains why he’s a cop,” Wayde added, smiling. “Damn. I got
lucky.”

Alex raised an eyebrow.

“I meant,”
he
added, “you’re wise, and fair and have a very long life.”

“How old are you?” Daphne asked,
pointing back and forth.
“Both of you.”

“Age is relative,” Wayde replied. “I
was born in the Shade and came to earth when
Sumer
in
Mesopotamia
was thriving. I was curious about humans.”

She blinked and then looked toward
Alex questioningly.

“About four thousand years ago,” he
said and her mouth dropped open. “I’m not as old as that. I’ve only been around
a couple hundred years.”

“Are you both immortal?”

“No,” Wayde said. “Nothing is
immortal. We vampires age very slowly and have healing properties that help us regenerate
and
Fae
, I believe, live a couple thousand years.
Right?”

“Yes.”

She bit her lip. “Humans must seem
very insignificant compared to living as long as that, seeing what you’ve seen.
I’m only twenty-three, but I probably won’t see my next birthday.”

“Don’t say that,” Wayde admonished.
“And humans are remarkable. The Shade
don’t
have near
the compassion and the love that you feel. Perhaps it’s because you live such a
short amount of time, but everything is more vibrant.
More
alive.
I’ve been searching my whole life to find someone that makes me
feel like you do.”

“Come on,” she scoffed. “Four
thousand years and you’ve never met one person?”

“No, I didn’t say that,” he
corrected. “Of course, I’ve had lovers. I’m a vampire. Sex and bloodlust go
hand in hand. But that’s different from love. The night I found you, Daphne, I
had gotten a whiff of your scent and I followed the trail. I’ve never done that
before. It was the same with Alex, and before I knew what I was doing, I began
leaking mating pheromones like crazy.”

“I don’t know what that means,” she
said.

“It’s like catnip to a cat,” Alex
told her.
“Annoying as shit.”

“But irreversible,” Wayde said,
frowning. “It links our lives and our life spans together.”

“But…I’m dying. What happens to
both of you if I die?”

“You’re not going to die,” Alex
stated and folded his arms.

“He’s right,” Wayde said and took a
deep breath. “We have two options, Daphne. The Shade
have
a hospital in
Los Angeles
called Dove Hollow. It was created for the human companions of the Shade, ones
that grew into old age or ones that were hurt by our kinds and obviously
couldn’t be treated in a regular hospital. I want to take you there.”

“Perhaps there’s a magical solution
for you,” Alex added.

“Magic?
Like
Harry Potter?”

Wayde sighed. “Stories of wands run
amuck. No, not like Harry Potter, I’m sorry to say, although I did enjoy the
books. Magic has a few conditions.
Only for the living and
only in the now.”

“Meaning,” Alex translated. “You
can’t resurrect the dead and you can’t time travel.”

“I don’t know if your heart is
technically in the realm of the first condition since it was a congenital
problem,” Wayde admitted. “If natural human ailments were as easy to fix there
wouldn’t be a need for Dove Hollow.”

Daphne nodded. “Okay. What’s the
second option?”

“I turn you,” Wayde said.

“Oh,” she whispered.
“Into a vampire?”

He nodded. “But I’d want you to
know what it’s like to live like me. It’s…not easy.”

“Coffins?
Garlic?
Crosses?
Sunlight?”

“Out of all those, only the
sunlight affects us, but not because we’re cursed or whatever,” he explained. “The
enzyme in my blood that allows me to digest blood and regenerate if I’m wounded
is very sensitive to the sun. It will burn if exposed long enough. I sleep
through the day to avoid any problems. Humans need about eight hours of sleep
and vampires need about twelve. What else…coffins are ridiculous. That came
about during the Dark Ages when vampires would borrow coffins to avoid the sun.
I get claustrophobic.
Garlic, crosses, sparkling like
diamonds…nonsense.
I can die, although it’s harder to kill me than a
regular supernatural.”

“I couldn’t kill a human for
blood,” she stated firmly.

“I don’t take human blood unless
it’s from a willing donor,” Wayde assured. “And only when it’s for sexual
satisfaction.
Or, now that I have you both, from you two.
I mostly keep the stray population down.”

It took her a moment to comprehend
that.

“You eat dogs?” she asked aghast.

He nodded, unashamed. “And cats and
rats. Sometimes I go into the forest and catch a squirrel or two. Had there
been vampires around
Mongolia
during the 1300’s the bubonic plague wouldn’t have spread like it did. There
weren’t many of us on earth then and by the time we became aware of it, it had
already spread through
Italy
and up into
Europe
.”

Now both she and Alex were staring
at him with her mouths agape. He wasn’t sure if it was his reference to eating
animals or to the Black Death.

“What?” he said gruffly. “That
doesn’t turn me into Edward Cullen.”

Daphne laughed at that. In fact,
she began to laugh so hard she almost fell out of her chair.

“Anyway,” he said, clearing his
throat. “If you knew I was a vampire, why weren’t you scared of me?”

She had to wipe the tears running
down her cheeks from laughing so hard, but secretly he was relieved to see her
so happy.

“You could’ve easily drank me dry
in the weeks I’ve been living here, Wayde,” she said. A slight hiccup escaped. “Instead,
you gave me a home. And I love you. It doesn’t matter to me what you are.”

She turned to Alex and took hold of
his hand.

“And you, Alex. I want…I don’t want
to die. I want to belong to both of you. So let’s go to
Los Angeles
.”

Chapter Thirteen

They sat making plans, with Wayde
on his laptop booking night flights into LAX, when he noticed Daphne’s eyes
drooping. She tired so easily lately and he felt time speeding by quickly. The
faster they saw a Shade doctor the faster they could decide the best course of
action.

He wondered what he’d do if she
turned down being changed. Could he just watch her…die? He’d had companions die
on him throughout the centuries, but even as sad as those times were, he
instinctively knew that if he saw the life leave Daphne it would break him in
ways he couldn’t, and didn’t want to, imagine.

Alex rose and walked over to her. He
pulled back her chair and swung her up in his arms and then he carried her from
the kitchen toward her bedroom with the same grim look upon his face that Wayde
suspected was on his.

****

“You don’t have to carry me,”
Daphne murmured. “I must be too heavy.”

“Are you kidding?” Alex said with
an amused snort. “Once you’re better, Wayde and I will fatten you up. Make you
nice and plump.”

“With love
handles?”

“And a round ass to spank,” he said
with a naughty little grin.

“Oh?” she murmured as she nipped at
his ear lobe. “What other wicked delights do you want to do with my body?”

A shiver rolled through his body
when he felt her teeth on his sensitive skin and he looked at her in surprise. “Is
my woman a little kinky?”

She nuzzled her face into his neck
and then gave a little lick. Alex couldn’t believe the exquisite feeling of
having her mouth on him. His cock thickened and he paused outside her door
wishing he could adjust himself. But Daphne seemed to have her own ideas and
cupped his face. She brought her mouth against his and kissed him.

He let her control the kiss. Daphne
ran her fingers gently through his hair and he loved the feel of her fingers
soothing his scalp. She did a series of teasing kisses, sliding her tongue
inside his mouth to dance with his, only to retreat and then press back inside.
It was erotic and thrilling and all he wanted to do was kiss her forever. But
she pulled back, panting and slightly out of breath and he knew now was not the
time for his libido.

Alex rested his forehead against
hers. “And when you’re better, I’m going to ravish you all night long.”

“I wish you could ravish me now,”
she said, a bit breathless in a non-romantic way.

“Me too, sweetheart,” he replied. He
sighed as he sat her on her feet. “Get some rest because tomorrow night you’re
going to be poked and prodded in ways that aren’t sexy at all.”

“Okay,” she answered and opened her
door. “Good night, Alex.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She closed the door and he made his
way back to the kitchen. Wayde wasn’t there. His laptop had been shut down and
closed. Alex headed into the living room and saw the vampire staring out the
large window, the same window he’d seen him not too long ago.

“She’s gone to bed?”

“Yes,” Alex replied. He ran and
weary hand over his face. “I’m worried about her.”

“She tires very easy these days. When
she first came here she would stay up all night waiting for me to come home. Now…she’s
sleeping more often than she’s awake.”

“Wayde, I’ve got to ask you
something…something that’s been bothering me. How do I know these feelings I
have are real and not something made up by your pheromones?”

“Well, I have to go by what I’ve
been told since I’ve never gone through it, but…our chemistry starts the
process. Like our bodies know they belong together before our minds do. There’s
no coercion going on. These pheromones don’t rewrite your
feelings,
they just…emphasize the attraction. The mating bond won’t actually ignite until
we share blood.”

“Wait. I have to drink your blood, too?”

Wayde nodded and Alex’s nose
scrunched.

Wayde chuckled. “Don’t knock it
till you try it. Will you stay, Alex? Stay with me and Daphne and find out.”

“I don’t think I could leave if I
tried.”

“I want you,” Wayde told him
quietly.
“Right now.
I want to feel my cock slide into
you. I want to run my hands over your body and kiss you. I want Daphne to be
well, so we can take care of her, love her. Alex, I’ve been so alone—”

Alex cut him off by grabbing his
head to put his mouth on his. Wayde seemed shocked at first, but a moment later
he came alive with excitement and grabbed Alex’s hips to pull him close, as
close as possible, their bodies fitting together like a glove.

He moaned deep in his throat as he
felt
Wayde’s
hard cock pressing against his through the
rough, heavy denim, and it made him salivate enough more. He kissed Wayde back
frantically,
hungrily,
his hands worked their way
under
Wayde’s
shirt to get to his skin.

“Come to bed with me?”

Wayde took his hand and together,
they went into his sanctuary.

Alex was lost in the hot mouth
dominating his. He’d always loved being either a top or bottom and he moaned as
Wayde’s
hand slid up his thigh to find and squeeze
his cock though his jeans. Alex gasped as Wayde began to massage the hardness
before moving to the zipper. In a few seconds, his hand was grasping Alex’s cock,
but there wasn’t much room in the jeans so Wayde couldn’t do much. Alex
shifted, trying to get closer to
him,
and groaned in
frustration when the denim didn’t give way. So Wayde withdrew his hand to push
the jeans down Alex’s hips.

Finally free, Alex arched his body
as Wayde bent his head to take the hard cock into his mouth. He lavished the
mushroom head with attention, his lips moving up and down slowly, wringing out
every ounce of pleasure as Alex’s hips started to undulate.

When
Wayde’s
mouth freed him, Alex lay down and took off his pants. He watched as Wayde
stood to strip, revealing inch by inch his heavily muscled body. Defined
pecs
with puckered nipples, hard like marbles, tapered down
to washboard abs and narrow hips. His cock was long, straight and thick,
jutting out between thighs hard enough to crack walnuts.