Blood Lure (11 page)

His smile saddened. “I always thought that one day she would come back. She never did, but I held her in my dreams, until I met your mother. And now, you’ve met Jared—and he’s not going to leave you—are you, son?”

“
Dad
.”

Joey let out an embarrassed laugh, but Jared took his hand.

“Your father is right,” he said quietly. “Drinking my blood gave him access to my thoughts, but we will talk of this later. Right now, I think we should join your mother.”

He gave Bob his free hand. “Stand up, Bob, and enjoy the new strength in your mind and body.”

The first thing Joey noticed when his father got up from the wheelchair was that he appeared to be taller, his shoulders wider, his hair darker. The smile that had been strained and vacuous now reached his eyes, filled with humour…and gratitude.

He clasped Jared in a bear hug. “Thank you for this. This second chance. I won’t waste a minute of it.” He turned to Joey who fell into his arms. “Joey, Joey,” Bob murmured, his lips pressed to his son’s forehead. “So proud of you. Always have been, always will be.”

Joey held his father, his mind a jumble of gratitude, elation and wonder. It was still hard for him to grasp the magnitude of what had happened in the last hour or so, but the end result was really all that mattered. His dad was cured, free of the dementia that had plagued him for the last several months, and for that miracle he would be forever grateful—to a vampire.

“Love you Dad,” he whispered.

“Love you too, son…”

They walked out into the living room where Arlene waited. Her hands flew to her face and tears welled in her eyes as she gazed at her husband’s transformation.

“Bob, oh, Bob.” She rushed into his arms, and Joey was witness to something he hadn’t seen in a long time. His mom and dad kissing—
really
kissing.

He turned to Jared. “Maybe we should give them some space?”

Jared nodded. He took Joey’s hand and headed for the door. Neither Bob nor Arlene saw them go. Outside, they strolled down the driveway, and Joey noticed for the first time that apart from his car, there was no other vehicle parked there.

“How did you get here?”

Somehow Joey knew from Jared’s smile what the answer would be.

BLOOD LURE

J.P. Bowie

68

“I flew.”

“And you don’t mean on a plane, do you?”

Joey shook his head as he gazed into Jared’s dark eyes.

“I still can’t quite believe this. Wait…” A thought had suddenly occurred to him.

“When we met in the bar, Marcus or Joseph, I can’t remember which one, said that Carlos was an old friend of theirs. Does that mean that Chris—?”

No, Chris can’t be a vampire too. I’d have noticed surely.
But I didn’t guess about Jared, or
anyone
for that matter
.

“No, he has not been changed, yet.” Jared brushed back the curls from Joey’s forehead with a tender touch. “It is not compulsory for a vampire’s mate to embrace immortality.

Sometimes it is necessary. For instance, Marcus’ mate, Roger, once mortal, is now one of us.”

“It was necessary?”

“Yes, he was attacked by a rogue vampire and drained almost to the point of death.

Marcus saved him, but in doing so, brought about the change.” He drew Joey into his arms.

“Is this all too much for you to comprehend?”

“No…yes…I mean, all those vampire movies I’ve sat through, and none of them prepared me for this. For someone as wonderful as you. Movie vampires are usually not guys you want to get close to—well apart from Robert Pattison, maybe. But you… I mean, you’re… well, just the opposite. I don’t think there’s a closeness close enough for you and me.”

He wound his arms around Jared’s neck and brought their mouths together in a kiss that consumed them, that had them both gasping into one another’s mouths, moaning their ecstasy as they held each other in an embrace Joey never wanted to end.

“I want you so badly,” Joey murmured when at last they broke their kiss.

“Want you too, but…” He nodded towards Joey’s home. “I think your parents need all the privacy they can get right now.”

“You mean…?”

“I told you the blood I gave him, along with the blood of Marcus Verano, was more powerful than any other.”

“Oh, wow.” Joey paused for a moment, his smile full of mischief. “Mom and Dad, doing it even as we speak.”

BLOOD LURE

J.P. Bowie

69

Jared chuckled. “Leave them a note saying you’re driving me back to LA. They won’t mind, believe me.”

“Great idea, and I’ll call them in the morning.” He cast Jared an anxious glance. “This blood you gave him—it, uh, won’t have any, uh, strange side effects, will it?”

“No, Joey, your father will not become vampire. He will live a long and healthy life.”

Joey kissed Jared on the lips. “I don’t think I’ve said thank you, properly.”

“There’s lots of time for that. Now go write that note so we can leave.” He chuckled as Joey scurried indoors, and was back in record time.

“There’s no sign of them.” Joey grinned at Jared. “I guess you were right. Okay, let’s go!”

BLOOD LURE

J.P. Bowie

70

Joey had a thousand questions as he drove south to Los Angeles.

How did you become a vampire?

What did it feel like when you were changed?

Is it true about garlic and crosses and sunlight?

How can you move so fast?

Jared answered with patience and some amusement. Some of the questions he knew came from Joey’s obsession with vampire movies and books. It seemed that Roger, Micah, Chris and Joey were all aficionados of the genre, and all had the same misconceptions. Well, perhaps not Roger and Micah so much…

No, garlic doesn’t weaken us, just doesn’t smell good.

No, crosses don’t stop us in our tracks—there are Jewish and Hindu vampires to whom a cross
would mean nothing.

But yes, we cannot stay in the sunlight for very long, and yes, we have to be invited into a
mortal’s home—and yes, we have to drink blood in order to survive.

“So the blood you gave my father has to be replaced?”

“Yes.”

“Soon?”

“Yes, as soon as it is possible.”

Joey was quiet for a moment or two. “You can drink from me,” he said finally. “Soon as we get back to my place.”

“Joey… Do you know what you’re offering?”

“Yeah, my blood, and after what you did for my father, I think that’s the least I can do.”

“You don’t have to repay me in this way. Just being with you, knowing you are not afraid of me, is payment enough.”

“That’s why I want to.” Joey put his hand on Jared’s thigh. “I know you wouldn’t demand it of me, but I truly want to.”

Jared raised Joey’s hand to his lips and kissed the palm, tracing the warm flesh with the tip of his tongue. “If you’re sure…”

BLOOD LURE

J.P. Bowie

71

“I’m sure. Now let me have my hand back before I come in my pants!”

Once back in his apartment Joey wasted no time, dragging Jared by the hand into the bedroom. “Do that thing you do,” he murmured against Jared’s mouth.

Jared chuckled, the vibration sending a sensual tingling all the way to Joey’s groin.

“What thing?”

“You know, where you make us immediately nekkid. I didn’t realise what was going on at the time, but now…”

“Ah, that.” Jared smiled. “I was thinking, however, that this time, I would like to slowly strip you, and lick every part of your bare skin as I go.”

“Oh,
yeah
…”

Joey shivered and his knees buckled at the thought. “Okay, but I get to do the same to you.” His fingers fumbled at Jared’s shirt buttons. He laughed at himself. “If I can stop shaking long enough.”

Jared sighed. “You are adorable, Joey Ryan.”

He pushed Joey’s T-shirt up to bare his abs and knelt to lick Joey’s navel, his tongue dipping into the sensitive indentation causing yet more tingling sensations to zip through Joey’s body. He opened Joey’s fly and pressed his lips to the outline of the erection behind Joey’s briefs, lingering over the head that leaked pre cum into the white cotton.

He inched down the waistband and Joey’s cock, hard and proud, sprang out, its glistening head tapping Jared on the lips. He lapped at the translucent essence that bubbled up from the slit, his eager lips sliding down the length of the pulsing shaft. He cupped Joey’s butt cheeks—one finger, then two, easing into the tight hole hidden in the cleft.

Jared rose to his feet, carrying Joey with him into his embrace. Joey wound his legs around Jared’s waist while Jared pulled Joey’s T-shirt higher. He licked at each small hard nipple, nipping at them gently, bringing soft moans from Joey. He slipped the T-shirt over Joey’s head and tossed it to one side. While Joey’s arms were still raised above his head Jared kissed his way into Joey’s armpit.

“Mmm…” His murmur of appreciation was followed by a soft growl that made the fine hairs on Joey’s body stand on end. Jared’s mouth moved to Joey’s throat and Joey shivered, BLOOD LURE

J.P. Bowie

72

anticipating what was about to happen. He wrapped his arms around Jared’s neck and pushed his crotch into the hardness behind Jared’s fly. He felt himself falling backwards onto the bed, couched in Jared’s arms.

Impatient now to feel Joey’s nakedness pressed to his own, Jared gave a silent command and their clothes vanished from their bodies. He spat onto his fingers then slipped them between Joey’s butt cheeks to lubricate the tight hole nestled there. His achingly hard cock followed, then sensing Joey’s concern he whispered, “There is no need for protection now that you know what I am. We carry no disease. Trust me, Joey.”

He slid a hand down over Joey’s torso, and grasped the rigid erection that throbbed between the young man’s warm thighs. Jared fang’s extended and he bit down just enough to break the soft skin over the carotid artery. Joey shuddered in his arms and Jared paused to kiss the spot over the pulsing vein.

“There will be some initial pain,” he murmured. “I will try to make it bearable.”

He pulled Joey’s lithe body into a crushing embrace, and bit deep into his neck. At the same time he thrust forward into Joey’s moistened depths, penetrating him with one long, searing and swift stroke. He gasped as the hot, pungent blood gushed over his tongue. His eyes rolled back in his head from the sexual rush of Joey’s blood, and the visceral sensation of being sheathed in Joey’s silken heat. A powerful combination, enough to take his keen vampire senses over the edge, almost out of control, caught in the lure of mortal blood. Yet, even in his ecstasy he managed to quiet Joey’s instinctual resistance by transferring sensual thoughts and words of longing into Joey’s mind.

Joey tightened his arms around Jared, his moans of pain becoming cries of pleasure.

His thirst sated, Jared licked the wounds he’d inflicted on Joey then took his mouth with a kiss that threatened to consume them both in its intensity. The mortal blood he’d drunk sent fire into his body, giving his already heightened libido an even greater drive. He fucked Joey with long, hard strokes that had his lover moaning in ecstasy and writhing under him, his legs tightly wound around Jared’s waist, his ass raised to receive every powerful thrust of Jared’s hard-as-steel shaft, the beating of his heart pounding against Jared’s chest.

BLOOD LURE

J.P. Bowie

73

Joey clung to Jared, his arms and legs anchoring him to the vampire’s body. Every nerve ending in his being hummed with rapturous desire. He opened himself to Jared, giving himself without constraint, mind, body and soul to this man, this
vampire
who now filled him to completion. Never could Joey have believed this to be possible, and yet here he was being held, made love to, being fucked—and enjoying every moment of it—by Jared, who even in Joey’s wildest imaginings, shouldn’t even exist. But exist he did, and Joey wanted every part of him, and right then especially the part that now glided and throbbed inside Joey bringing him nearer and nearer to what he knew would be the greatest, most explosive climax he’d ever experienced.

Every pass of Jared’s naked cock over Joey’s prostate was bliss. He’d never had unprotected sex before. He’d longed for it, wondered a million times what it would be like, but never had he dreamed it would be this incredible, this
exquisite
. The long drawn-out moan that escaped his lips reflected everything he was now feeling—the emotion that Jared kindled within him, the passion that engulfed him with every kiss, every caress from Jared’s lips and hands, and the overwhelming desire to be a part of this man forever.

“Jared…” His lover’s name trembled softly on his lips as his breathing became ragged and every pulse in his body raced. His heart hammered inside his chest, molten heat wrapped around his balls as his orgasm built inside him. Uncontrollable, it surged through him, and wide-eyed with ecstasy, clinging to Jared as though he would never let go, he came in violent, gut-wrenching spasms, his hot cum trapped between their tightly pressed torsos.

Jared’s body stiffened in their mutual embrace. The thrusts from his powerful pelvis quickened as he rammed himself deeper into Joey. He choked out a cry of release and Joey gasped, startled, then thrilled as he felt the first white hot surge of Jared’s semen inside him.

Jared’s climax seemed to go on and on, and Joey claimed the vampire’s lips, forcing his tongue deep inside Jared’s mouth, the kiss matching the feverish passion of Jared’s orgasm.

When at last their bodies calmed, they lay still and quiet in each other’s arms, Jared’s face buried in the sweat-slicked hollow of Joey’s neck.

Joey had never known such rapture.

BLOOD LURE

J.P. Bowie

74

Andrew Berés reached out with his mind for Jared. Years ago, when they had formed the blood bond that Andrew had thought would last for eternity, they had communicated effortlessly, sometimes over hundreds of miles. Now, though, that bond had been weakened by Jared’s indifference, by his long ago unwillingness to accept Andrew as his forever companion. It survived only because Andrew refused to let it go completely. For years he had hoped and prayed that Jared would change his mind, discover that what they had once shared was enough to keep their bond alive, to keep their
love
alive.