How many times had Cas wondered: Why only Mirceo? Why no other males? "Because you've . . . you've mesmerized me!"
"One more time: I don't have that ability. Fault me for being supernaturally sexy--guilty as charged--but I'm no mind-controller."
Had the vampiric allure Cas resisted actually been his attraction to a mate? No. He refused this. "How would I not know you were mine all that time?"
"When beings are of different species, sometimes the mating instinct won't be triggered until they're both mature." Fuck, that was true. "I wasn't until my heart stopped and I became immortal. But you'd already gone by that time."
Most vampires went eons between the freezing of their hearts and their blooding. Naturally the spoiled prince had been spared that long drought! Everything had always fallen into his lap.
Not me. To give up all his dreams? To become one among Mirceo's conquests? He'd seen the broken hearts Mirceo left in his wake. Would Cas be like them, begging for another night with the prince?
Then you'll always be a beggar, Cas.
Never. "I might be your mate, but you will never be mine."
Squaring his shoulders, Mirceo said, "I won't rest until we're bonded. You're going to take my virginity and give me your demon seal in return." Even with his face beaten, he'd regained his princely arrogance. "I'll give you time to wrap your head around your new existence. But know this, sweetheart: I will make you ejaculate so hard your balls will plead for mercy."
He disappeared, saving Cas the humiliation of his involuntary growl.
NINE
Castle Dacia
The Realm of Blood and Mist
The next gloaming, Mirceo sauntered along the gallery overlooking the training yard and settled into an alcove to watch his sister at her sword practice.
Pride suffused him. She'd inherited her blistering speed--and her pointed ears--from some distant fey ancestress, but she'd earned her skill through constant training. Before long, Mina would be able to challenge even the great Trehan.
The protective diamond at the apex of this vast cavern cast filtered sun and prisms over the rambling kingdom. Rays beamed down over Mina, illuminating her white-blond hair. As she defeated one sparring partner after another--all of them much larger males--her blue eyes blazed with focus.
Whereas Caspion had midnight-blue eyes, Mina's were lighter, a crystalline ice blue.
Mirceo still couldn't believe he'd once thought those two might be a pair. As he watched her graceful moves, he cast his mind back to their meeting.
"Sister, may I present Caspion? He is my best and most treasured friend."
Faced with the demon's uncommon good looks, she blushed and stammered, unable to meet Caspion's gaze for more than a peek.
"Caspion, this is the princess Kosmina."
When she offered her hand, the demon took it and pressed a kiss to the back. "A pleasure, princess."
Had her cheeks ever been so red? "Yes. A p-pleasure." She was as bashful as Mirceo was shameless.
Though Mina was tongue-tied and adorable, the demon's eyes weren't lighting up. Caspion's expression could best be described as . . . fond.
As Mina's practice came to a close, the last clang of steel echoed over the courtyard. She must've sensed Mirceo's gaze on her. She peered up at him, her face glowing. Tossing her sword to a servant, she traced to Mirceo. "Your heart is beating!"
He swung her around in his arms. "It is, my darling Mina! I've been blooded, enjoying all that this milestone entails." His speed now rivaled hers, his senses more acute than ever. Little other than a beheading or unfiltered sunlight could kill him, and he regenerated even faster. His injuries from the night before had healed in mere hours. No doubt helped along by Caspion's crimson ambrosia.
Transforming himself into mist--a talent only Dacians possessed--would be much easier, and he'd be able to transform his mate as well.
"Already!" She suffered no reticence or awkwardness with her big brother. "How fortunate. Are you much stronger?"
"By a hundredfold."
"So it was Caspion! I knew it." Mina's innocent eyes gazed past Mirceo. "Where is he?"
Not with me. Yet. "Take a walk?"
She eagerly nodded, and they exited the castle perimeter to stroll down one of the cobblestone streets.
After a few moments, Mirceo admitted, "Caspion is being a touch resistant to the idea of me as a mate. Might've spurned me a bit."
Her blond brows drew together. "But he wasn't resistant to the idea of me as his mate."
In a dry tone, Mirceo said, "Believe me, I have moments when I wish I were your big sister."
"I meant, that he didn't mind my species. Or my diet."
"No, vampirism is not the obstacle." He should be so lucky. In order to have Caspion, Mirceo would've eaten food and lived like a demon--even though he'd regain pesky bodily functions and miss the hell out of blood and biting. Gods, I would miss biting. "My masculinity, however . . ."
"Please don't take this the wrong way, brother, but I don't think sweet Caspion would spurn you if you were everything perfect except for your . . . maleness."
Mirceo frowned. "Then by that reasoning, are you saying I'm imperfect?"
"I'm just saying other factors might be at work."
He exhaled a gust of breath. "Maybe I am seizing on the one thing I can't change--because I don't have the fortitude to change the things I can."
"That would mean evolving as a person." For such an innocent female, Mina could be surprisingly incisive. "Which would take work."
Perhaps Mirceo could be a touch less arrogant. Maybe a bit less vain. He could take things more seriously.
How boring I'd be! "Damn him, I like myself. All I want to do is be there for him. To get back to our enhanced friendship."
"Much has happened since then." In a lower voice, she added, "With his defeat in the Iron Ring. He must hate Trehan so much."
"After his trials, my mate might have . . . exiled himself. To the Plane of Lost Years."
Mina gasped. "How long was he there?"
"He spent five centuries away from me." Mirceo couldn't hide his hurt. The demon had invaded all of his thoughts and dreams, but Caspion hadn't even looked back.
Mirceo had half a mind to go see that place. If Caspion had stayed there so long, how bad could it truly have been?
"Five hundred years? Is he much changed?"
"I only spent a few moments with him--the blooding made me insane--but I suspect Caspion's boyish charm has disappeared forever. He's edgier and somehow . . . darker." Yet no less attractive. Just the opposite.
"Oh, Mirceo, what will you do?"
"I'll go to him tonight. Try to wear him down." I, Mirceo Daciano, will run panting after another. How the worm had turned!
"Will you be true to him?"
"Utterly."
She raised her brows.
"You doubt my faithfulness, sister? Just because I've never been monogamous before?" Mirceo let others believe that only his selfish need for conquests drove his appetites. Did he enjoy a good conquest? Of course; who didn't? But his situation was more complicated than that.
He'd never woken beside a partner without an inexplicable anxiety overtaking him, the need to escape another's clutches riding him.
Surely he wouldn't feel panic after Caspion claimed him. Their connection would cure Mirceo of that. Fate wanted them together.
"Be good to my new brother." Mina's eyes were filled with sympathy. "He's been through so much."
"That's why he needs me." As the last members of the House of Castellan--the heart of the Dacian kingdom--Mirceo and Mina were tasked with safeguarding the castle and all those within it. Maybe the need to care for others had been ingrained in them.
Mirceo wanted to safeguard his new mate, to soothe the worry from his brow.
As Mirceo and Mina passed one of Dacia's blood fountains, the scent reminded him. . . . "I drank from Caspion." Most Dacians eschewed bloodtaking because they didn't want anyone else
's recollections to interfere with their clear, cold minds. As predicted, Lothaire--their newly installed regent--had denounced the bloodtaking taboo. In fact, the mad king expected his subjects to drink from others. "I took straight from my mate's neck."
Mina looked scandalized. Alas, Lothaire had been king for just a few months, and revolutions took time. "Will you see Caspion's memories?"
They would come in dreams, seeping into his consciousness. "I hope so." Mirceo's mind had never been clear and cold anyway. "I want to learn anything I can about my mate."
"What's your strategy to win him over?" An expert on martial tactics, Mina often viewed life through that lens.
"Play on his jealousy? Remind him how much fun we had together?" Caspion--a hunter--loved to collect bounties; perhaps he and Mirceo could bond over that interest.
"Do you have Uncle Trey's scry crystal?"
Mirceo reached into his coat pocket, knuckles brushing the talisman. "I used it last night." Trehan had regretted his rage against Caspion so much that he'd offered Mirceo the use of the priceless crystal.
Though Mirceo could locate Caspion anywhere in the worlds, he already had a good idea where the demon, a creature of habit, would be tonight.
Mina said, "I still can't believe you confided your mate's identity to Uncle Trey."
For centuries, backbiting conflict had plagued the Dacian royals. Mirceo and Mina's parents had been casualties. Now peace reigned--yet another change brought about by Lothaire. "It's nice not to continually expect a sword in the back," Mirceo said, an understatement. His personality had been shaped by paranoia.
Once that had faded, hedonism had been a welcome alternative.
He and Mina each fell into their own thoughts, strolling along in easy companionship. He raised his face to the diamond-filtered sunlight. Vampire paradise. All it lacked was Caspion.
Out of the corner of his eye, Mirceo saw Mina worry her bottom lip with a fang. His gaze locked on her face. "What's on your mind, sister?"
Her cheeks flushed. "You can always tell when aught is amiss with me."
Because he'd raised her from the time he was fifteen. "Go on."
"Do you know that I've never spoken to a strange male before?" As if this were a bad thing for a princess? "Everyone who comes into contact with me is vetted, then introduced. As Caspion was."
Mirceo slept with strangers every night. Or, rather, he had in the past. "So?"
"Uncle Lothaire spoke again about sending me outside of the kingdom."
The king considered her too innocent. Granted, Mirceo had sheltered her, possibly too much. But to dispatch Mina--who'd never seen a car or a skyscraper--outside the realm was ludicrous.
"I'm half terrified, half thrilled about the prospect," Mina said, her blue eyes alight.
Mirceo shook his head. "It's too dangerous. Do you forget that a deadly plague still spreads in the otherlands? There's a reason no vampiresses exist out there." The plague struck females especially hard.
"But if I remain in my mist, I can't be touched by it," Mina pointed out. "I would go out and secretly investigate, as you and the others always do. Forever to observe, never to engage."
Mirceo had broken that rule more times than he'd followed it. "Absolutely not."
"But Uncle Lothaire says it's time for us to open our borders and interact with other Loreans."
Among other radical changes, the mad king had relaxed all travel restrictions. He even planned to lift the veil of Dacian secrecy, bringing the kingdom out of hiding.
"This is my final word on the subject, sister. I will speak with Lothaire." Mirceo didn't relish the idea. Though the Dacianos had brought the rightful heir into the realm to rule, the three-millennia-old Enemy of Old had proven to be a handful. "Somehow I will make him see reason. Or I'll prevail upon our queen if necessary." Lothaire's vampire mate, Elizabeth, was a former human, a tough-as-nails mountain girl he'd turned immortal.
It hadn't been so long ago when she'd nearly decapitated Lothaire during one of their fights--which, knowing Lothaire, had been a justified response. Once he'd healed, the king had cut out his own heart and mailed it to her as a kiss-off. She'd severed her middle finger and mailed it back in salutations.
With his red eyes merry, the Enemy of Old had once summed up their courtship: "There was drama."
If those two could get past their matehood issues, surely Mirceo and Caspion could. He told Mina, "Elizabeth will back me on this."
Lothaire worshipped his "hellbilly" queen, and her influence over him was substantial. Mirceo had seen them together just this morning in one of the castle's shadowy nooks. Lothaire had stroked Elizabeth's mink-brown hair behind her ear as he'd gazed into her eyes. "You are everything," he'd said simply.
She'd sighed, "I'm sweet on you too, Leo."
Mina stopped in the street. "Brother, please just consider the possibility." Her eyes glinted. "I feel like . . . like I'm slowly dying down here."
"As opposed to quickly dying out there?" At the thought of losing her, his lungs seemed to contract. I couldn't survive it. He just prevented himself from digging his black claws into his chest.
He had adored his mother and father. Though they'd been formidable immortals in their prime, they'd perished easily enough.
Mirceo would lock Mina in the dungeon before he lost another loved one. He pinned her gaze. "Mark my words, Kosmina Daciano, you will not be leaving this kingdom for centuries to come. . . ."
TEN
New Rome Pleasure Palace
"Which female would you like, sir?" the palace purveyor, a vampire/fey halfling, asked Cas. "All of them are available, except for the two on the settee." He gestured toward a pair of busty, redheaded nymphs. Just Mirceo's type.
Stop thinking about him.
Cas had tried to keep busy today, checking on the apprenticeships he'd set up before he'd left for Poly. Now he was able to fund as many as he liked, benefitting even more pups in Abaddon.
For some reason, he'd never told Mirceo about working with those foundlings.
Stop. Thinking. About. Him. Easier said than done; Cas had first met the vampire in this very place, a usual haunt of Cas's when he'd been in his twenties--mere months ago on this plane.
He gazed over the line of remaining females. Demonesses, succubae, nymphs . . . He finally had the finances to pay for his shadow life, yet all he could think about was Mirceo's promise to make him ejaculate till his balls pled for mercy.
And just like that, Cas's shaft stirred. All day, he'd wondered how Mirceo would find him. A blooded vampire would not take separation from his . . . fated one lightly.
Cas still couldn't believe he'd blooded his former friend. Or that the vampire had bitten him! Now the arrogant prince could dream his memories. Every demeaning one.
Last night, Cas had peered in the mirror at the healing bite on his neck, tracing it with a sick captivation. In a way, Mirceo had marked him, which had alternately infuriated and aroused Cas.
He'd stroked off repeatedly, gritting his teeth against the pleasure that prick had forced on him. Focus, Cas.
Demonesses, succubae, nymphs . . . Yet none of those smiling beauties called to him--
A familiar scent hit Cas. Mirceo was here? Chasing me again!
"Fancy meeting you here," the vampire said as he strode into the salon. He wore even tighter leather breeches and a form-fitting white shirt that highlighted his teeth and fangs.
The ones that were shoved inside me last night. Cas grew rock-hard. "Do you think to stop me from enjoying myself here?"
"Stop you?" Mirceo flashed him a confused glance. "I'm here for myself. I've got two females on reserve. I can indulge in my old pastimes now that you've blooded me and awakened my body once more. I mean, look at me, Caspion"--he gestured at himself--"someone should be enjoying all this perfection." So sly, so bloody seductive.
Cas's heart pounded in his ears.
The vampire's gaze dipped to Cas's groin, then back up. "Careful, sweetheart, your ey
es are turning black with rage."
Cas heard the females whispering:
"Mirceo's already been blooded!"
"The demon and the vampire are mates!"
"Would've loved to see their claiming."
"To be the jam in that sandwich!"
There'd been no claiming! Turning to the purveyor, Cas said, "I'll take those." With a careless wave, he indicated a succubus with purple hair and a dark-eyed nymph, then chanced a glance at Mirceo.
He could swear the vampire's expression was . . . hurt, before Mirceo masked it with a smirk. Cas coldly turned from him, allowing the females to lead him down the hallway to a chamber. Inside the luxurious room was an oversize bed and a plush divan. "On the bed, ladies. You two get started for me."
He sat on the divan, needing to get lost in sex. But as he watched the smiling pair begin to kiss, his thoughts drifted, and instead he got lost in memories of that fateful night in Dacia. . . .
One more taste, then he'd end this. One more dip into this unfamiliar well. . . .
Yet soon raw lust overwhelmed curiosity. He slanted his mouth over the vampire's, demanding more. Their tongues twined, their breaths gone ragged. My gods, this feels so fucking good.
Dimly, Cas realized the giggling females were closing the bedroom door behind them.
He roused, his mind struggling to come back online. Mirceo's moan slammed him right back into this kiss.
Just one last taste . . .
Some foreign mix of emotions welled up inside Cas. Lust. Yearning. Tenderness warred with aggression.
So much godsdamned aggression. Need to control this! To control Mirceo. He overpowered his friend, pinning the vampire's wrists above his head.
When Mirceo sucked on his tongue, Cas's mind was sucked free of thought--until all he could do was feel every searing sensation.
His horns ached in a way they never had before. Even his fangs ached. His dark claws sharpened, and he had the impulse to sink them into Mirceo's flesh, holding the vampire steady for his use.
Cas's control faltered, no match for this pleasure. He loosened his grip on Mirceo's wrists, but only to seize the vampire's lean hips. Growling into their kiss, Cas thrust, grinding his rod against Mirceo's.
The prince thrust his hips upward, meeting Cas. Seeming mindless, he dug his claws into Cas's back, spurring that demonic aggression.
Kissing . . . kissing, they bucked and writhed, shoving hips, rocking cocks. Pressure built. Cas's shaft throbbed from it. Pain. Bliss. Pain. Every one of Mirceo's helpless moans ratcheted up the brutal intensity.