Page 14 of Shadows and Desire

Chester was shocked when he told him where he was and started a litany of questions, but Eric shut him down. "Just pick me up, and I'll explain later." He told him, and Chester, eager to get back on the good side of Eric, readily agreed.

As he waited for Chester to arrive, his feelings for Kannan continued to rise and sharpen, and he wondered why he was having such a problem agreeing to move in together. Kannan told him it would be difficult for him to be away from Eric for too long, and it was a vampire thing. Eric found that he was feeling the same way, so it must have been a human thing, too.

Eric was on the edge of calling Kannan and telling him that, yes, he wanted to move in and that it was a good idea, but he resisted. He needed to wait, or he'd look like he didn't know his own mind and was incapable of making decisions. He would wait and call him tomorrow. Damn, just saying that made Eric's gut tighten with anxiety. The wait would be awful.

“Hey Chester, thanks for the ride.” He said as he got into Chester’s red Silverado.

“What the hell is going on with you and what happened to you last night?” Chester began the questions as soon as he was buckled in. Eric turned and glared at him and did not speak for a full two minutes. “Talk to me.” He urged while constantly glancing over at him.

“You know what happened your boyfriend set me up with a couple of monsters and you knew it too.” Eric pushed to see if he had anything to do with it.

"I had nothing to do with it, and I never met those guys until Ron introduced them to the bar. I never met them before, and I was not on board for you taking off with them." He insisted.

"I didn't take off with them. They followed me and attacked me in the alley. Thankfully, someone saw what was going on and stepped in." Eric could see that Chester was feeling bad about what happened, but he couldn't let him off the hook just yet.

“Who, who saved you?”

"The guy I was talking to at the bar before Cal became an utter nuisance, and Ron accosted me."

"That guy works for Nikolas Hadden. There was a table full of Hadden muscle seated just to our left." Chester sounded wary.

"He works security," Eric said and added. "I'm lucky he was there because you certainly weren't."

"I'm sorry; what do you want from me?"

"I don't know. I just need to vent for a while."

“Okay, that’s alright. You can vent to me.” Chester was trying so hard.

"I like him. His name is Kannan Lieth, and he's a great guy."

“You stayed with him?”

“Yes, he lives over the Imperial Club. He has a killer apartment.”

"I bet he does. Hadden pays his people well, and they get some damn good perks too." Chester interjected.

“He wants me to move in with him.”

"After two nights together, that's crazy. You're not considering it, are you?" Chester again became agitated and kept glancing at him as he continued to drive.

“I am.”

"Be careful; those guys that work for Hadden are not your normal run-of-the-mill guys. They're different." Chester was trying to tell him they were supernatural beings, but Eric already knew that.

“I know he’s a vampire he told me.” That had Chester pulling to the side of the road and slamming the brakes.

Kannan met Gage and Mael at the warehouse, but his mind was filled with the image of his beloved as he left him. Eric had every right to ask for time, but damn, it was hard to let him go.

Kannan had plans to either call him or visit him later and attempt to convince him to come over and spend the night. Maybe if he got him to stay often eventually he would stay permanently. All he knew was that he wanted Eric with him, and he would do whatever he had to in order to make that happen.

“How’s it going with Eric?” Gage asked as they walked into the warehouse and over to the room where Rule was being held.

“Slow but sure.” He said with a rueful smile. “Getting Rule and Cal off the streets will go far in securing his trust.”

"We got Rule, and hopefully, we'll have Cal soon."

Once home, Eric started packing up his computer equipment and organizing his things. He had quite a bit of stuff, considering it was a small apartment. When he started organizing, he realized a fair amount was not worth taking with him if he decided to take Kannan up on his offer, so he made separate piles.

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