Cake (21 page)

“
You are entitled to feel pleasure, Xavier. You should not feel this guilt because you are with me.”

It felt like my heart was going to beat its way out of my chest as I lay under his weight, trying to breathe. I couldn’t believe how easily I had come apart in his arms. “What is happening to me? I’ve never been a sexual creature,” I whispered.

Wrapping me in his arms, Marcus rolled over so I was sprawled across him. “The Vampiric gift does not add characteristics that were not there to begin with, it only enhances them. You always were a sexual creature, Little One; you just never acted on it before. You repressed it. You crushed it. I’ve released it this past year. Now, you have no choice but to accept this side that you hid from yourself.” He hugged me tighter to him, crushing me against him as he kissed the tears from my lashes. “One day, you will fully accept yourself, and I will not get to see your tears any more. I think I will miss that.”

“
That’s fucked up. You’re fucked up,” I blubbered, blinking and wiping at my wet eyes.

“
I see you are feeling better; your language has taken a turn for the worst,” Marcus remarked, sitting up, sending me sliding down on his thighs. He grabbed my arm and pulled me back to his chest, crushing me in his arms, his lips at my temple. “I meant what I said earlier. I never want to see you dance like that for anyone else.”

“
That bad, eh?”

“
That sexy. If Claudius had not reminded me…” Marcus let me go. “Up. Up, up, up. Councilor Armanita is here to see you. We need to shower and get presentable. Ah, I see that you got into the Blood marks.”

“
Oh, yeah, we need to speak about clothes,” I said, following Marcus from the bed, moving a little slower than him. My hips ached, as other places did too.

“
You
have no fashion sense,” Marcus stated.

I frowned at him. “I don’t need to be in fuck-me-now clothes all the time either.”

“
But you look good in them.”

“
I want clothes that fit.”

“
They fit.”

I was getting pissed off. “I can’t wear those jeans. They are too low in the front, and they are way too far below my hips.”

“
They are meant for easy access.” Marcus’s eyes gleamed, and he wriggled his eyebrows at me.

“
I don’t want you having easy access. You’ve had easy access for a year. Work for it.” I moved towards the shower.

Marcus caught me from behind and pulled me back to his chest. “You want to be wooed?”

I struggled against him briefly. “Yeah, I guess I do. I don’t like the fact that you just have to get three feet from me, and I turn into a whore.”

“
You are
my
whore,” he laughed, kissing the top of my head.

“
Missing the point here, Marcus,” I scolded. “I don’t want to be a whore. I don’t want to Flame. I don’t want to go somewhere and have strangers grab my ass or stick their hands down my pants.”

“
They cannot resist you. You are beautiful.”

“
No, I’m not.”

“
I changed you.”

“
But you didn’t, not up here…” I tapped my temple. “And it’s up there where all the problems are right now. My thoughts are going haywire. I’m not gay, but I’m fucking two men at the same time. I’ve become a murderer. I killed someone in an alley! Too much is changing at once, and I haven’t had the time to adjust. I don’t even know what the hell happened a few minutes ago, what came over me. My eyes were burning, but it wasn’t a Flame, like the other two. And yet, I couldn’t get rid of it. Did you do it right?” I felt like crying and curling up into a ball.

“
Did I do what right?”

“
Turning me, making me a vampire. Maybe you didn’t do it right, and I’m still just your sex toy.”

Marcus turned me in his hold so that I faced him, wrapping a hand around the back of my head and pulling me forward until our foreheads were touching once more. “If you ever meet a sex toy, you will know it, Xavier. You are
not
a fuck toy.” The playfulness had faded from his voice.

“
Then why am I like this?”

“
You have denied your body for so long, but now you cannot deny it any longer. It will not allow you to. You have a force of will that fascinates me. Use it. If you can control your Flame, Little One, you can control the world. Now, we need to shower. The councilor is waiting for us.”

I didn’t expect to shower alone, and I wasn’t disappointed. Marcus was such a touchy-touchy person, and by cleaning my backside a little too enthusiastically, he inadvertently gave himself another erection. I finished cleaning up and tried to get out, making sure I didn’t look down at his predicament. I didn’t offer him any relief, even when he scowled at me.

He changed his modus operandi. He stopped looming over me, stepping back a little and giving me some space. His hand reached out, but just skimmed millimetres above my flesh. I shivered, and I felt my breathing change as I began to yearn for his touch.

“
Please…Xavier.” His voice was soft, pleading.

I stepped behind him, and biting my lower lip, I took him in hand and began stroking him. He had helped me with that last…mini-flame, arousal, horniness thing, so I guessed I owed him.

“
You are so beautiful, Xavier,” he sighed, turning his head and whispering the words through my hair as I continued to jack him hard and fast, even letting him lean against me as his breathing changed. “My Little One. My beautiful Xavier.”

He reached around and pulled my waist up tight against his back. It was an awkward position for him to hold for too long, so, resting my chin on his shoulder, I continued to stroke him quickly to climax.

When he came, he stiffened, throwing back his head, and jetting into my fist. I held him until his cock began to soften, and then I moved to wash his offering off my hand. But he caught at my wrist and brought my soiled fingers to his lips, and I watched, morbidly fascinated, as he licked my hand clean.

“
Thank you, Xavier.”

“
Uh, no problem,” I mumbled as I quickly scurried out of the shower. He was confusing me. Everything was confusing me. I wanted to run screaming from this place, but where would I go? I was dead since two days ago. And maybe I was better off dead because now my family was safe, but could I find happiness in that and in being here now?

I grabbed a towel and headed for the playroom. I sure as hell hadn’t had happiness in my old life. I only had pizza, beer, and chicken wings…a lot of pizza, beer, and chicken wings. Now, I have Blood.

Drying myself off, I looked for the clothes Marcus had removed from me. They were still relatively clean, and so I tugged on the leather pants and shrugged into my shirt, flipping my wet hair out of the collar.

Marcus, strolling up naked, picked up my towel and started to rub my hair dry. Crap, he was strong. He dried me roughly, to the point of shaking me like a toy poodle in the teeth of a pit bull. Tossing the towel aside, he stood behind me and began combing out the tangles in my hair, saying nothing but simply humming some kind of happy tune I had never heard of under his breath.

“
Why are you doing this?”

“
I love you, and I want to do things for you.”

Okay, wasn’t expecting that.

“
I like doing this for you, Xavier. I was envious that you fixed Claudius’s hair today. You have never offered that to me.” He lifted my shoulder-length tresses and buried his face in it. “I love the red of your hair. It has copper and gold and blond in it as well. When it grows a little more, we will fix it how you did Claudius’s tail. Very elegant. There you go.”

I stood up as he patted my brushed hair and looked back at him. His own freshly washed hair resembled a rat’s nest. “Do you want me to do yours?” I asked, holding out my hand for the comb.

He paused for a moment and then shook his head negatively. “Councilor Armanita is waiting.”

I felt a blush rush over my face. I had been so hot for sex only minutes ago that I had done my little whore dance for both Marcus and Claudius, and for this Armanita woman.

Geez.

Marcus caught my hand, turned it over, and kissed my palm. “You were in Flame, my little Sex. There is nothing to be ashamed of. Go. I will be along presently.” He flicked his tongue in the center of my hand and smiled as I jerked it back.

It wasn’t the smile I had come to fear from him, that cold you’re-fucked-now-Sex one. It was his new kisses, those Marcus specials, warm and welcoming, making me want to lean into him and ask for more…confusing me. I’m not gay. Am I?

I hightailed it back into the living room and found Claudius sitting on the sofa with one hand stretched out across the back and holding a glass of blood in the other. He was lounging, but his eyes had been locked on the playroom entrance. Those pale blue eyes narrowed now as I walked back into the Great Room. He nodded at me and took a sip of his drink, and I gave him a weak smile in return as I came further into the room, looking for the councilor who had come all the way from this High Council they had spoken of.

She was standing at the bookshelf, looking over Marcus’s titles. I took in her appearance and made the assumption that she was a vampire too, as I doubted non-vampires sat on the High Council of the Vampire Nation. She was beautiful, elegant, having the body of a co-ed with long, golden, Lady-Godiva-style locks. But looking at her green eyes, I noticed an ancient edge to their depths, which revealed her to be very, very old

She felt my gaze on her and turned, facing me fully, returning my once-over, looking right through me. And judging by the sneer she gave, she wasn’t impressed.

Claudius, ever the gentleman, began the introductions. “Xavier, this is Councilor Armanita Rotheschilde. She sits second highest in the High Council. Armanita, this is my grandson, Xavier.”

I didn’t know if I should shake her hand or bow. But she took the decision away from me by injecting just the right amount of loathing in her voice to let me know that I was not worthy of a handshake from her.

“
You were very…vocal…in there.” I was mortified that I had been heard, and I felt my face flush hot. My throat tightened as well, so I said and did nothing, standing there, dumb and mute. “Come here, let me look at you.”

I stumbled over to where she stood, feeling awkward and out of place, just like I used to at the public pool.

“
You are pretty enough, I suppose. Still, Marcus should have taken his request before the High Council instead of presenting it as fait accompli. Turn around.” I did so, looking at Claudius for guidance, but all he did was to raise his eyebrows and take another sip of his glass of warm blood.

I jumped as the woman pressed her hips into my ass and one of her hands came around my waist, cupping my crotch. I grabbed at her hand and jerked it away. What the fuck was the matter with these vampires?

“
Are you shy, Xavier? It did not look it when we came in. You looked like a common street whore. How dare Marcus bring such a lowly creature into our ranks?”

As she finished talking, she suddenly shoved me hard, chest first, into the wall, and before I had a chance to get my bearings, she was on me, forcing one arm up behind my back, kicking my ankles apart. I felt her thigh push heavily on my ass and balls. Holy crap, that hurt.

“
I could believe it of Marcus, spouting tall tales. He is an artist, after all. But when Lord Claudius tells me fairy stories, about a long-lost Blue being made, well, I have to come and see for myself. But I will tell you now, fledgling, that what I am seeing is disappointing. Very disappointing.”

Though I tried, I couldn’t budge her. “Get off me,” I grumbled.

“
I served the Lord Emperor faithfully until the end of his days. I wept tears of blood for him when he finally fell. The only reason I am alive today is because he sent me from him that fateful day. To see charlatans come and parade as Blues is sickening to me. You are not the first to try and claim his vacant throne.”