Page 33 of Bound in Blood
There’d been no sign of whatever vampire caused the attack near his apartment, not even after hours of searching. Logan was restless and needed something to distract his mind.
He hadn’t ever thought about how much he’d needed a routine until the dust had begun to settle on this whole ‘rogue vampire’ thing. In the past week, he’d died, come back to life as a vampire, became soulmates with not just one but two men, drank blood, moved into the nicest house he’d ever seen in his life, and gotten tangled up in a murder mystery. Making a couple of Long Islands for drunk college kids sounded like heaven.
He’d called the bar to ask if he still even had a job, but Alexei had apparently already taken care of that for him. When Alexei had noticed Logan hadn’t shown up for work, he’d compelled Vik, the owner of the bar and Logan’s boss, into giving Alexei Logan’s home address. Once he’d made sure Logan was okay, he’d made up a story about Logan coming down with some mystery illness. When Logan called the bar, Vik was just glad to hear that Logan was feeling better, and told him to come back in whenever he was ready.
Logan was more than ready.
He was standing in his room (his actual room, not Mateo’s), stripped down to his underwear, rifling through his two suitcases for his work clothes. Marco sat on the bed behind him, jaw set tight, arms crossed, looking like he was bracing himself for a battle he knew he was going to lose. Logan knew Marco wanted to argue until he agreed to stay home, but Logan wasn’t going to budge.
He’d finally found his pants and began the hunt for his work shirt when Mateo entered his room, leaning against the door frame, eyes raking hungrily over Logan’s body like he wasn’t in the middle of staging an intervention. “I still think this is a terrible idea.”
Logan snatched the black tee from the very bottom of his suitcase, doing his best to shake out the wrinkles. “Noted.”
“He’s right, Logan,” Marco said, his voice almost pleading. “You don’t have to do this. We have more than enough money to?—”
Logan paused, halfway through struggling into his shirt. All these new powers and he still couldn’t figure out which hole was for his head. He took a deep breath as he finally got his arm into the correct sleeve, reminding himself that they weren’t trying to control him. They just didn’t understand how bad he needed some sense of normalcy.
“I know. If it were about money, I’d tell you.” Logan pulled his head through the top of his shirt, adjusting the tee until the goldThe Pyrelogo was displayed unwrinkled against his chest. “I like my job. And I figured, I can see if anyone’s talking about the bodies from yesterday.”
Marco’s frown deepened, but Mateo hummed in approval. “Using your job as an excuse to spy? I can respect that.”
Marco shot him a glare, looking like he was one wrong word from setting his brother on fire. “Don’t encourage him. He’sgoing to go out trying to play hero and end up becoming a martyr.”
Logan sighed, rolling his eyes as he stepped into his work pants. “I’m not saying I don’t understand your hesitation, but Ineedthis. I can’t just sit around waiting to be fed like a pet dog.”
“You’re not a dog,tesoro,you’re not yappy enough.” Mateo laughed. “You’re like… Marco, what’s he like?”
“Don’t pull me into this,” Marco groaned, pausing a moment before adding, “Ginger cat.”
Logan stopped forcing his belt through the stupid loops of his jeans for long enough to glare at the both of them. “Should I be offended?”
Marco shrugged, entirely unbothered. “Independent, stubborn, pretends not to want attention but secretly loves it.”
Mateo snorted. “Yeah. That tracks.”
Logan scowled, tightening his belt a little too aggressively. “You two are the actual fucking worst.”
Mateo grinned, stepping closer until he was well within what Logan would consider his ‘personal space,’ readjusting the collar of Logan’s shirt. “You know, you could stay home. Just for tonight…” He walked two fingers up Logan’s chest, brushing over his throat, before tilting Logan’s chin up to meet his eyes. His voice dipped low, intimate, teasing, “Pick up where we were so rudely interrupted yesterday?”
Logan swallowed hard, heat pooling low in his gut. He was so hyper-aware of the way Mateo’s fingers traced the curve of his throat, the heat in his gaze that promised so much more than just teasing. It was easy—too easy—to imagine staying. To picture Mateo pushing him back onto his bed, Marco pressing him down, really taking theirtimewith him. He’d barely gotten a taste of Marco last night, and he was desperate for more. God, he was so sure they’d make it worth his while.
Mateo, the absolute bastard, sensed Logan’s hesitation. His lips curved into something wicked as he leaned in, gripping Logan’s belt loops, pressing Logan’s body up against his own. “We could keep you occupied all night,tesoro,”he purred, breath hot against Logan’s ear,“Make you forget all about that stupid job.”
But Logan wasn’t stupid, and he knew exactly what Mateo was doing.
He huffed, swatting Mateo’s hand away. “Nice try, but I’m still going.” His voice came out much rougher than he intended. He’d be half-hard the entire drive there, but he was still going.
Mateo pouted dramatically, stepping back, hands raised in mock surrender. “Can’t blame me for trying.”
Marco pinched the bridge of his nose like he was getting a migraine, even though Logan was pretty sure that wasn’t physically possible. “If you’re insisting upon going, we need to set some ground rules.”
Logan groaned. “Great. Here we go.”
Marco looked at him with an expression torn between exasperation and concern. “I know. We don’t want to control your whole life, Logan, but you haven’t really been around humans since you turned, and if you expose yourself, you could potentially expose us all.”
“Think of all the freaky science experiments the government would do on you if they found out you can’t die,” Mateo added unhelpfully, “Or if you drained someone and got sent to jail? You get grouchy if we’re more than a room away from you. Could you imagine prison?”
“Fine, fine. Point proven. Though that’s not really my fault so much as the mate-bond,” Logan mumbled.
