Page 21 of Vampires Don't Give Hickeys
“No.” Sawyer leaned his elbow on the table, studying me closely like a riddle, his size blocking out everything behind him. “I go where I’m needed, and I picked these two up along the way.”
“Oh.” There was a lot to unpack in that statement, especially in the subtext, and in the uncomfortable silence that fell afterward. “So...why?”
Jacek released my hand, the absence of his cool touch filling me with unease, like everyone might be better off not hearing the answer to my question. Clearing his throat, he sat back and hid the fact that he wasn’t smiling by rubbing his hand over his mouth. Meanwhile, Eddie stood and paced the length of the table, an animal caught in a cage, his fingers squeezing my note in his fist as he frowned down at it.
“I’m almost nine hundred years old,” Sawyer said, the low rumble of his voice drawing my attention back to him.
He looked damn good for his age.
“I was sold into slavery in Brazil, chained up and tortured by my masters, until the Necron Brotherhood found me,” he continued. “They were a different sort of master, a group of vampire warriors trained to destroy our enemies.”
I swallowed hard. “Slayers?”
He fisted his hands on top of the table and glared down at them as if they still held shackles. “One right after the other. The Brotherhood was brutal in their ruthlessness to rule without threat, to slay the slayer time and time again when a new one was chosen. It was horrifying, really, in the ways they accomplished this. I’ll spare you the details.”
“Thanks,” I said feebly.
“And then one day it was my turn. My kill.” He turned to me, his beautiful face agonized. “I couldn’t do it.”
“Why not?” I asked, even though I wasn’t so sure I wanted to know.
A low growl rumbled out of him as he glared down at his wrists, his tattooed shoulders suffering under a weight I couldn’t see. “That’s not who I wanted to be. So I was cast out by the Necron Brotherhood shortly before they disbanded, but I felt the need to atone for all those deaths anyway. They weighed heavily, because even though I didn’t cause them, I didn’t stop them either. So over the years, I went where I was needed.” His gaze skated over to Eddie, still locked inside his head as he paced the length of the table, and Jacek, who stood to cross to the microwave, the scars on his back in full view. “And now I’m here...”
“BecauseIneed you,” I finished for him, and then it hit me. The brutal slashes on Jacek’s back and Eddie’s inability to be touched were what they’d needed Sawyer for, to get them out of whatever nightmarish situations they’d been in. Not so different than the situation I was currently in, except I needed all three of them, each for differing reasons. Did that make me selfish that I needed all of them? A bad slayer? Maybe, but I wasn’t about to turn my back on them, either, and not just because they’d been invaluable to me these last few days. I wanted to believe I could help them, too.
I wormed my hand between Sawyer’s, who crushed the holy shit out of it between his man paws. With a pained smile, I held my other out to Jacek, who strode back to the table with a copper-scented mug that curled steam. He threaded his fingers through mine again and squeezed.
“You all may have noticed that slayers aren’t given any direction when they’re chosen,” I said, gazing at the three of them. “I have nobody to train me, very few books or resources to teach me, and no one who really cares about what I do.”
Jacek eyed me over the rim of his mug. “We actually did notice that, yes.”
Eddie stopped pacing and waved my crumpled note in the air. “Until now. Until us three. We’re helping you no matter what.”
The sincerity in his voice flooded my heart with gratitude. Without them, I only stood a chance at survival. But with their continued support, my chances multiplied considerably. It felt damn good to have someone at my back.
“I just wish we knew more about this Paul.” Sawyer unwound his hands from mine and sat back, settling one of them casually on my thigh instead. Strength and comfort emanated from his fingertips, his palm seeming to dwarf my entire leg. “When the driving force behind the Necron Brotherhood fell apart, slayers still fell, though no one knew exactly how.”
“So how do I defeat him if he’s this unknown thing?” I asked.
Eddie posted his arms on the table across from me, his blond hair tumbling across his forehead in a sexy mess, his eyes bright as if he’d just come to a conclusion. “By making a series of choices.”
I stared at him since he’d just said the magic words. Me? Make my own choices? I could’ve kissed him, threw him down on the table and had my way with him a fourth time.
The corner of his mouth quirked as if he’d read my intent. “Choice one—do you want to marry the devil and be done with all of this?”
“Fuck no,” I said. Despite the mountain in front of me, I’d been tasked to climb it for a reason.
Jacek nodded, dazzling the whole kitchen with a grin. “So you’ll stay and fight. My god, that’s hot.”
His gaze flicked to my lips, and between their slow, heated crawl back up my face and Sawyer’s hand on my thigh now rubbing little circles into my yoga pants, delicious tingles spread over my lap. My blood hummed through my body, heating every inch of my skin and igniting my awareness of the three of them even more.
As if sensing my arousal, Eddie leaned back and licked his lips, showing a hint of fang.
Sawyer’s hand crept infinitesimally higher up my thigh, closer to Eddie’s bite, and traced his circles a little harder, a little faster. “Spoken like a true slayer.”
I fought the urge to squirm in my chair, to crush my lips to Jacek’s, to drag Sawyer’s hand to the pulsing ache mere inches from his fingertips, to make Eddie trust me enough so I could stroke his cock. All at once. I wanted them all at once. And separately. And all the damn time.
Was I really that selfish to want all three of them? All signs pointed to yes. That would sure complicate things, and complicated was a bad, bad thing. No need to make it the Word of the Week.
