Isadora (Masters Among Monsters Book 2) (7 page)

Present Day - Alasdair’s bedchambers

“LEONIDAS, COME TO me.”

The command echoed through Leo’s head as Vasilios leveled him with a pointed look. When he didn’t immediately move, he heard it again. Then his entire being felt as though it were being pulled to the male like a magnet, and he was over in front of the Ancient in a flash.

“Oh, this
is
fun,” Vasilios said as he trailed a finger down the center of his sternum. He then glanced past his shoulder to where Alasdair was standing. “Not one, but two pretty cocks in the hen house.”

“So, what does that make you? The hen?” Leo asked and then clamped his mouth shut.
What the hell am I doing talking back to this guy?
 

But Vasilios merely smoothed his cool hand over his shoulder and tugged him forward, and Leo didn’t hesitate to go.

“No,
agóri.
That makes me the wolf. Want to see my fangs?”

Leo gazed at Vasilios’s stunning face and tried to understand what his role in this current situation was.

“Your role is exactly what you offered,” Vasilios answered as though it were no intrusion that he was inside his head. “You will take Alasdair and go to where you last saw this
friend
of yours.”

Leo grimaced as he thought of Elias and what he’d seen of the mutilated vampire. If he was capable of that, what if he did something similar to Alasdair? He didn’t even want to think about it.
 

“Maybe I should go alone.”

The vampire he’d heard referred to as Diomêdês was beside them in an instant. With his fangs bared and his eyes trained on Leo, he was scary as hell. His tall, towering frame was menacing, and the perpetual scowl on his features only solidified his terrifying demeanor. Not to mention all of that silvery hair.
 

“You will not go anywhere alone, human. It is because of you that Isadora is in this predicament in the first place.”

The hostile glare directed at him was close to homicidal, and Vasilios wisely stepped between them.
 

“Come now, Diomêdês. Don’t be like that. I rather have a taste for this one.”

“I can tell. His scent lingers all over you.”

Vasilios licked his upper lip and gave a feral grin. Then he turned them and they walked across the room and out the door.
 

Leo looked over at Alasdair, who hadn’t taken his eyes off him, and as their gazes collided, all of the awe, lust, and overwhelming feelings he’d experienced from the first time they’d met came crashing back in.
 

The vampire who’d uprooted his life in the last couple of weeks slowly stalked towards him, and it was all Leo could do to not curl his fingers around the growing cock he was trying to cover. Alasdair was…
Damn
, he was fucking sexy.

When he stopped in front of him, Alasdair lowered his eyes down his frame, taking in every naked inch—which was growing in number with the way his dick was stiffening. And then he brought his gaze back to his.

“You have awoken with some new and rather unexpected talents,
file mou
.”

“So, umm, that’s not normal? What I just did?”

Alasdair examined him as though seeing him for the first time. “The ability to pry an Ancient’s fingers loose? No, Leonidas, that is not normal.”

Leo couldn’t help the small grin that appeared as he asked, “Do you think it’s just a one-off thing? That it’ll go away? I mean, doesn’t that mean I’m stronger than…well, you?”

Naked save for a sheet, Alasdair still managed to appear full of confidence as he raised an eyebrow. “That’s an interesting question now, isn’t it?” he mused, and then his arm came out and his fingers fastened around Leo’s throat. He pinned him up against the wall as he had several times before.
 

When a smug expression began to spread across his lips, Leo curled his fingers around Alasdair’s wrist and yanked it off. He then swung his arm out and around and reversed their positions so that
he
had Alasdair against the solid surface with a hand at his throat.

The two of them stared at one another, stunned. Then, just as Leo was about to speak, one of Alasdair’s hands came up and tugged his away. He brought it up behind Leo’s back, and when their bodies brushed, Leo chewed his lower lip.
 

“Wow.”

“Hmm,” was the only sound that emerged from Alasdair, giving nothing away.
 

When he released him, Leo took a step back and blurted out, “Were you worried?”
 

Alasdair’s eyes zeroed in on him.
 

“About me, I mean? Were you worried that I would die?”
 

He wasn’t sure why he was asking or why he felt the need to know the answer. But once Alasdair had closed the distance between them, he waited with hope fluttering around in his stupid heart.
 

Yeah, sure.
When it came to the hierarchy, Vasilios was definitely the one in charge. But Alasdair was the one who drew him in. He was the one who had made Leo say yes to the asinine idea in the first place. Getting to know
this
vampire had had him offering up his life. Well, that and his survival.

“I—” Alasdair started, but he was interrupted by the devil himself as Vasilios walked back into the bedchambers.

“Can this touching reunion wait until later? Once he brings Isadora home, we will reward him all night long. Until then, you are to take him back to where you last saw her. Track her. It’s highly unlikely that this human, whoever he is, will be expecting you and your—I’m sorry,
our
—yielding. He also won’t be aware that Leonidas is as
enhanced
as he is. And you,” Vasilios said as he walked towards them. Leo stood there and waited for his order.
 

“You will bring this friend of yours back here to us. Do you understand?”

Leo understood, all right. He just hoped that what Vasilios had promised earlier would ring true. Otherwise, he’d just signed Elias’s death warrant.

AFTER VASILIOS HAD vacated his bedchambers and Leo had gone to shower, Alasdair went to his closet to retrieve some clothes for them. He was still trying to decide how he felt about everything that had occurred.
 

How did he feel about sharing Vasilios’s time and attention? And how did he feel about sharing Leo period? He wished he’d had more time to think this precarious situation over, but when he’d seen Vasilios opposite Leo on his bed and the offer had been made, all Alasdair had craved was unity with the two males. Unity and the ability to keep and fuck both of them whenever he pleased.

“Well, that’s a rather self-indulgent thought, isn’t it?”

Alasdair turned and found Leo with one shoulder resting against the frame of the closet door. He’d wrapped a towel around his waist, and his damp hair was slicked back from his face.
 

Alasdair walked over with a pair of khaki pants and a black button-down and said, “His blood has allowed you to hear our thoughts also?”

Leo’s eyes sparkled. “Apparently,” he said, chuckling. “It started a minute ago in the shower when you were being all territorial about me. You know, I was kind of hoping, if I would get anything, it would be this. It’s so…”

“Yes?” Alasdair prompted.

When Leo went to take the clothes from him, he closed the distance between them and held his hands in place. “It’s intimate.”

Alasdair lowered his eyes to Leo’s mouth and let his thoughts run free.
That it is. You will become addicted to the feeling. Every experience will be heightened and everything before it will pale in comparison. Then again, once you experience both Vasilios and me together, you will never be satisfied with anything less. And everyone other than us
is
less.

“Jesus,” Leo sighed.

Alasdair took great delight when his pulse rocketed.
Both of us filling you, top to bottom. Inside and out. Yes, Leonidas, this will always and forever be a
very
intimate thing.

Alasdair smirked as he went to brush by him, but Leo caught hold of his bicep, halting him in place. The sheer strength in those fingers had tripled. Leo had an Ancient’s blood mingling with his, and the result was powerful indeed.

“As amazing as all that sounds, I’m not going to just lie down for you at will. I thought I was going to die last night, so I came to you willingly. Things have changed now. And not just my ability to be able to hold you off.”

Alasdair tensed, curious as to what Leo meant by that
. Is this a threat? And if it is—

“God, you’re paranoid. Relax. Don’t you know by now I don’t want you dead? Hell, I offered myself up to keep you safe. But, if you want me in your bed again, you’re going to have to work for it.”

He couldn’t believe that, in a moment such as now, he felt amused, yet as Alasdair stared Leo down, his lips twitched. Their existence might have been in grave danger, but right then, Leo had his full attention.
 

“And how am I going to do that?”

“You’re going to wine and dine me.”

Alasdair cocked his head to the side, the phrase foreign to him. “Excuse me?”

“That’s right,” Leo said as he walked into the bedroom. He dropped the pants on the bed and then shrugged into the shirt. “You’re going to… What’s the word you used back then? Ahh, that’s it.
Court
me.”

Leo pushed the final button through the hole and reached for the pants, but Alasdair was quicker. He held them in his hand and lowered his eyes over Leo’s body, which was reacting as though he’d stroked him.
 

“I don’t know what you think you are playing at, but you already made the deal,
file mou
. It’s too late to back out now.”

Leo snatched the pants from him and pulled them on. “Oh, I don’t want to back out of it. I want to be in between you and the big guy more than you know. But I won’t be the only one in that bed who doesn’t have the loyalty of the other two.” He zipped his pants and sat on the mattress. “I know I have a long way to go, but you
will
trust me, and so will he. You will also give me a reason to trust you. Up until now, it’s all been threats of death and torture. So it’s time—well, maybe not right now, but soon—for you to put in an effort. Do you remember what that’s like? Putting in an effort?”

 
“No,” he replied stoically.

“It’s about trust, Alasdair. Here. I’ll go first. Earlier, when I blacked out, that voice, the one who told me what I was here for…”

Alasdair waited for him to formulate his words.

“I heard it again.”

When Leo stood and stepped towards him, Alasdair asked, “What did he say?”

Leo’s eyes didn’t waver when he answered, “That you were all meant to die.”

ALASDAIR DEAD?
THE notion seemed utterly implausible as Leo faced the vampire. He seemed invincible.
 

He waited for Alasdair to say something, but he hadn’t moved since Leo had spoken, and the silence was making him uncomfortable. Had he done the wrong thing by telling Alasdair what he’d heard?
 

He was about to step aside when, without warning, his mouth was taken in a blistering kiss. Alasdair’s fingers curled around his shoulders and pulled him forward as his tongue came out to flirt with his lower lip. Leo moved closer and ran his palms over Alasdair’s naked chest. Then he smoothed them up the back of his neck. He threaded his fingers through the dark strands of hair and twisted them, and the muffled grunt that left Alasdair was a total turn-on.
 

This was the first time they’d been alone since Vasilios had interrupted them hours earlier. And after having gone from their explosive first time together to drinking Vasilios’s blood, Leo felt like he was barreling from one high to the next.
 

Leo groaned when Alasdair thrust his erection against the one growing inside his pants, and when their tongues tangled his eyes fluttered shut.
I don’t want you to die,
Leo thought as he ran his hands down Alasdair’s back.
 

When the lips touching his curved and the sharp tip of a fang grazed his skin, Leo opened his eyes and pulled back to see Alasdair’s shining back at him. He then brushed the pad of his thumb across the spot he’d just nipped.