Blurred Memories (28 page)

They didn’t say a word, but
something shifted in their expressions, and in the way they held
themselves. Kate drew a sharp breath when she noticed that those
perpetual worry lines that had crinkled the corners of Blake’s eyes
for so long were gone. She was afraid to hope, but at the same
time, she couldn’t help but wonder: was this it? Was that what
Blake had needed to truly start healing? He certainly seemed more
like the old Blake, impish and carefree, than he had in
months.

“
I missed you,” tumbled out
of Kate’s lips without her permission, but the words couldn’t have
been more true, and she didn’t regret them. When they both looked
at her again, she felt compelled to add, “I missed both of you so,
so much.”

Her hand rose automatically,
and Blake’s was already there to hold it tight. He pulled her
forward, closer to both of them. Kate squeezed his fingers and
turned toward Marc, rising onto the tip of her toes to brush her
lips against his cheek where the bruises weren’t so
glaring.

“
Never again?” she
whispered.

His arm slipped around her
waist and drew her into a hug. “Never again.”

She relished the hug for a
little while, but eventually she shifted, half turning her body
toward Blake as he asked Marc, “How long was it? How long were
you—”

“
It doesn’t matter,” Marc
interrupted him quietly. “I knew you’d come for me.” His gaze
shifted back and forth between Blake and Kate. “I knew you’d both
come. And you did. Thank you.”

Kate huffed. “Of course we
came. You idiot.” She looked at Blake, and her voice softened when
she asked, “How do you feel?”

He laid his hand on her
cheek and stroked lightly. “Better.” His gaze shifted back and
forth between Kate and Marc. “I can’t promise I won’t stumble again
but my head is…quieter, if that makes sense.”

Kate thought back of their
first break-through, mere months earlier. Back then, she had been
hopeful too, but with the passage of time she could see that the
signs had already been there that Blake wasn’t fully healed. She
had just been too relieved at the time to consider how long the
road might still be. They might still have a while to go, but at
least they had found the right path.

“
What now?” she asked, her
eyes going from Blake to Marc and back.

They exchanged a look. Marc
raised an eyebrow but said nothing, leaving Blake to answer. When
he did, there was a flame in his eyes, a twist to his lips, that
were reminiscent of the old Blake, and that curled tendrils of hope
around Kate’s heart.

“
We go home,” he drawled.
“We celebrate properly. And then we go find another
breach.”

Behind him, the air
shimmered with a bright blue light as the breach closed for
good.

Epilogue

The last demon fell, slain,
but energy was still thrumming through Kate’s veins, practically
undistinguishable from joy. She looked around the battlefield, her
gaze pausing briefly on Daniel, Simon, the other mage, and every
other fighter she could see. Some were hurt, but medics were
already helping them, and Daniel was ordering the clean-up. They
had closed one more breach. They were all one step closer to ending
the war against demons.

Turning to where Blake and
Marc were standing a few yards away, Kate slipped her sword into
its scabbard and took several long strides toward them. Her eyes
ran over Blake, checking he was all right, then she looked over
Marc the same way. They were both fine. They had guarded each
other’s backs as closely as they had guarded hers—as closely as she
had guarded them.

They stood close enough to
each other that, when she reached them, she could throw one arm
around Blake and the other around Marc to hug the two of them at
the same time. They drew her closer until she was tight against
them, close enough to feel the strength of their bodies against
hers, along with their arousal. Fighting always made them hard, and
over the months she had started to react the same way. From the
moment it had become clear the battle would be won, she had started
to feel the pull of her lovers’ bodies.

“
You smell good,” Blake
said in a rumbling voice, pressing a kiss against her
temple.

She laughed quietly. “Yeah,
I’m sure sweat and dust smell really nice.”

“
On you it does,” Marc
said. His eyes gleamed with gold flames when he leaned down to kiss
her.

Kate closed her eyes and
pressed against Blake as she let herself fall into Marc’s kiss.
There were some cat calls; there always were. She didn’t let that
trouble her, however. She didn’t care what anyone saw, heard, or
thought. She only cared about the two men in front of
her.

* * * *

It had become a tradition,
but even after more than a year Blake still wasn’t used to what it
required.

“
I feel like I’m going to
suffocate,” he complained, pulling at his tie to loosen it a
little.

Marc raised a questioning
eyebrow at him, although he didn’t actually voice the question, for
which Blake was grateful.

“
Not like that,” he said,
knowing he didn’t need to explain he wasn’t talking about an attack
of claustrophobia. He hadn’t had one of those in months. “I just…”
With a grunt, he tugged the tie completely off. “Who invented these
damn things? I’d like to wring his neck, see how he likes
it.”

Marc rolled his eyes, took
the tie from Blake’s hand, and threw it around his neck
again.

“
Don’t worry, whoever it
was is long dead.” He tied the knot again, although this time it
was loose enough that Blake didn’t feel like he was being
strangled. “And you know it’ll be worth it when she tells you how
handsome you are. Now leave it alone, Childe. Or I’ll tie your
hands next.”

Blake’s cock twitched, and a
smile blossomed on his face. “Is that supposed to be a threat?” he
asked, his hand already rising to the tie.

Marc covered Blake’s hand
with his own. His eyes blazed. “Behave,” he demanded in a heated
voice that spoke more of rumpled sheets than reprobation. “Kate’s
waiting for us. Let’s go.”

Blake patted his hair,
checking that it was in place. At the same time, he scoffed.
“Waiting for us? When has she ever been ready before we
were?”

But he was only teasing.
Kate never took long to get ready, and she was never anything less
than perfect.

These nights were the only
ones when they asked for two rooms. They would all end up in this
one, the biggest of the two, but Kate wanted her own space to get
ready for them.

With a last look at each
other and twin approving nods, Blake and Marc left the room
together. They both wore suits, charcoal gray for Marc and a blue
so dark it seemed black for Blake, each with a matching tie. Blake
had resisted wearing such formal clothes the first time. He had
never worn a suit before that. But once Kate had pointed out that
she was wearing a dress and heels for him, he hadn’t been able to
refuse her anything. Not even the tie.

Kate’s room was just down
the hallway. She opened the door as soon as Marc knocked and smiled
at the two of them. She was simply resplendent.

“
Will one of you do the
clasp please?” she asked, holding out a necklace to
them.

Blake was faster than
Marc—or maybe Marc simply let him have this small privilege. Blake
took the necklace and moved behind her while she faced
Marc.

“
You look lovely,” Marc
said in a low, almost purring voice.

Blake swept her long hair to
the side to slide the necklace around her throat, and he could feel
the heat of her blush radiating down her neck. He couldn’t resist
laying a kiss at the nape of her neck after he had worked the clasp
shut.

“
Of course she does,” he
murmured, pressing another kiss to her warm skin. “She
always
looks lovely.”

“
That doesn’t mean we
should stop telling her.”

“
Point taken.” Blake
offered his arm to Kate, and she rested her hand on it. “Shall we
go, sweetheart?”

The smile that had bloomed
on her lips disappeared, replaced by a pout. She dropped his arm
and took Marc’s instead.

“
Don’t call me that,” she
admonished, but she was already grinning again.

* * * *

Blake and Kate were
beautiful together: art in motion, with each thrust like a
paintbrush stroke, each slide of flesh on flesh like a new line
appearing on a canvas. Marc could have watched them all night.
Sometimes, he wanted to do just that, and enjoy the sight of them
almost as much as he would have enjoyed joining them.

Almost, but not
quite.

They never let him stand to
the side, however, or at least not for very long. They always ended
up reaching out to him and saying—

“
Aren’t you going to join
us?” Kate licked her lips as she finished. Her eyes were as dark as
a moonless sky, flickers of light shining through like stars. She
never stopped moving on top of Blake, her body rising and pushing
down onto his cock with a fluid sensuality.

“
He’s an old man,” Blake
interjected, grinning up at her but throwing a quick glance in
Marc’s direction. “Maybe he’s too tired to join us.”

His right hand was gripping
Kate’s hip, guiding each of her movements, while the left ran over
her sweat-shiny skin, caressing her in long, languorous
strokes.

“
I’ll show you old,” Marc
said, feigning outrage as he joined them onto the bed.

Kate leaned forward when he
ran a hand along her spine, her chest pressed to Blake’s as she
kissed him fiercely. Marc had to shake himself away from that
lovely sight and remind himself they were waiting for him to join
them. The lubricant was waiting on the bedside shelf, and he made
liberal use of it on both himself and Kate. When he lined up his
cock to her puckered ring, her whole body shuddered and she made a
tiny sound, muffled against Blake’s lips. With tiny jerks of his
hips, Marc pressed inside her. Her heat was searing; her tightness,
overwhelming. He could feel Blake’s cock as he pushed deeper inside
her, the thinnest wall of flesh separating them, yet emphasizing
every contact.

With a gasp, Kate pulled her
mouth off Blake and pushed herself up, sitting up again and drawing
Marc’s cock in those final couple of inches.

“
Always…” She sighed.
“Perfect.”

Marc couldn’t have agreed
more. He clutched her hips with both hands, entwining his fingers
with Blake’s, and placed a soft kiss at the back of her neck before
he started to rock inside her. Each of his thrusts lifted her up
and away from Blake, while with each pull back she sank back onto
his cock. They found their rhythm easily; it had become as familiar
to them as the rhythm of Kate’s heartbeat. Sometimes, Marc even had
trouble remembering what things had been like before she had
entered his and Blake’s lives.

As they climbed together
toward pleasure, words rose to the surface of Marc’s mind, three
little words he had never pronounced since becoming a vampire. He
could have offered them to both Kate and Blake, but as she turned
her head toward Marc to ask for a kiss and Blake squeezed his
fingers to encourage him, Marc knew he didn’t have to say it. They
knew he loved them, like he knew they loved him.

Still, just this time, maybe
he would try to say it.

The end

Excerpt from

Fangs & Lullabies

Sunrise was only a couple of
hours away when Andrew pulled up the driveway and parked just
beyond the house’s front steps. After shutting off the engine, he
remained seated for a little while, eyes closed and hands clenched
on the wheel. It had been a long night. He wished he were in bed,
rather than having to move again when every inch of his body ached,
bruises already forming under his clothes.

Heaving a sigh, Andrew
finally got out of the car. With a mildly disgusted look, he shut
his door. He would need to have the interior detailed—again. Maybe
he ought to invest in another car, a cheaper one, a car he could
drive on those nights when the police called and demanded
assistance in killing yet one more of those strange demons that
seemed to pop out of nowhere. A beater he wouldn’t mind seeing
stained by that dark, acrid-smelling blood that he always seemed to
splatter all over himself when he and Craig killed
demons.

Demons were now regularly
appearing all over the planet, and everywhere military and police
forces found that firearms were useless against them, as were all
technologically advanced weapons. Grenades had little effects.
Bombs worked, but demons were attracted to populated areas, and by
the time they were spotted, a bomb strike was impractical, as were
most heavy-equipment attacks. Magic users had been trying to find a
solution as well, but most spells had little effect on demons, and
when perchance one of them did, demons seemed to develop some kind
of immunity to it faster than the spell could be taught to other
mages. The only weapons that continued to be effective were blades
of all sorts, and since the demons carried those, too, close-range
contact was the norm. Everywhere, fighters were learning to carry
swords and axes, but the police in town still relied heavily on
Andrew’s agency.