A Pack For Christmas (Kansas City Vampires Book 7) (2 page)

“I’ve got to get to work.” Julia said, facing Rafir with her hand on the front door.

Rafir set his coffee on the breakfast bar and made his way across the apartment to Julia. He wrapped his arms around her, staring down into her gray-green eyes. She had a fragile beauty. Her naturally auburn hair, even short, set off her pale skin in such a way it seemed to glow. After they’d returned to the States, he’d moved her to Kansas City. Julia hadn’t wanted to be anywhere near where she’d grown up in Upstate New York. Rafir had already given the army twelve years, and while his commanding officer had been reluctant to let him go, he repaid a favor to Rafir and put him through for an honorable discharge. Rafir had never regretted a moment. Gazing down at her solemn face, he worried she couldn’t say the same.

“A kiss good-bye?” Rafir trailed his hand down her back, cupped her buttocks, then pulled her to him. He brushed her lips with his, trying to convey his feelings through touch.

Julia didn’t hesitate. She never did. She’d never denied him any of herself, and when she met his tenderness with her own, Rafir relaxed.

“Love you,” Julia said.

“Love you more,” Rafir countered.

“Not possible.” She smiled and disengaged from his embrace. She looked around the living room with all its multi-colored blinking lights.

“When I get home, I want them gone.” She put her hands on her hips to squash any protest on Rafir’s lips. “You know how much I hate Christmas.”

He did know, but he’d hoped this year would be different.

After finishing his morning cup of black coffee, Rafir walked around the living room. He couldn’t help but smile with all the little holiday touches Alex had made. There was a green and red throw over the back of the ginger colored couch, holly and candles on the coffee table, and a sprig of mistletoe hanging from the living room ceiling light -- he’d put it all together by himself while Julia and Rafir had slept. Unfortunately, Julia hadn’t appreciated the effort at all. Christmas reminded her of bad things. Very bad things. Her abduction had happened three days before Christmas when she’d been only fifteen. And while it had nothing to do with the holiday itself, this time of year always brought up terrible memories for her. It seemed particularly worse this year. She’d even started to have nightmares again.

Rafir worried it was because of Alex. He was a vampire, and Julia hated vampires. She’d been made a slave, worse, she’d been cheated out of a romantic coming of age where the whole world still offered infinite possibilities. Her youth had been snatched from her, and Rafir would give anything for her to feel innocent wonder once again.

He moved to the open doorway of the bedroom. Alex’s lifeless body lay pale against the hunter green sheets on the bed. The young vampire had developed a habit of meeting the morning sun with his body half-draped over Rafir’s. To be frank, it had initially been disconcerting. It weirded him out, untangling his body from a corpse every morning, but he knew Alex wouldn’t even think of that side of the issue. He was a young vampire, less than a year old. He probably didn’t even wonder what his body did during daytime hours. Alex had also been through so much horror, not for as long as Julia had, but to much the same extent. He’d been used, changed, and discarded against his will. He would not have chosen an immortal life. It was going to break his heart when Rafir told him the decorations would have to go.

Rafir canted his head, remembering how suicidal the vampire had been when they’d first met. The vampire had wanted so badly to end his own life, and failing that, he’d sought out ways to get someone else to do it for him. Rafir had had to make a choice -- kill him or keep him. Alex had instantly felt like pack, like home, and Rafir made the only choice he could have under the circumstances. He loved the feel of Alex in his arms. With both Julia and Alex, he felt completed, like he would never require anything else in this world as long as he had the two of them by his side. It still repulsed Alex to take blood, so Rafir let Alex drink from him every evening, which in turn repulsed Julia. He knew it was why she’d started coming home later and later. Sometimes she wouldn’t get home until after Rafir went to work at
Corazon de la Muerte
-- the nightclub where he worked security. It was his day off, but he had an incident report to finish, so he’d planned on going in anyways. Besides, while it was fun to look at Alex naked, it was much better when the vampire could look back. The paperwork would break up the day until the evening when he could be with both Julia and Alex again.

The club, a converted brick building, used to be an auto glass warehouse. During the day hours, it was literally and figuratively dead. The owner, Guillermo Perez, was a master vampire and he sometimes stayed in his old bedroom in the back of the club if his own paperwork ran late into the morning. Most of the time though, Guillermo lived with his lover Nathan Greer, a doctor and vampire, at their home off Valentine road. Theirs was a strange brew of family, but since Rafir’s own family consisted of a human and a vampire, he had no intention of casting stones. Especially since Nathan and his “living” vampire daughter, Rebekah, had saved Rafir’s life after Julia had accidentally shot him with silver.

Rafir used his set of keys to unlock the blacked-out, glass front door, but before he could get it turned, he found himself surrounded by five very muscular men. He sniffed the air. Not men -- wolves. He turned, his back against the glass, casual, but still defensible. One man wore a suit, another had coveralls with the name Hank embroidered on the front, two were in jeans, and the fifth looked like a middle-aged pharmacist with short, dark hair slicked back and parted on the side. The flare of the nostril, the dominance in the stance, told Rafir what he needed to know. The pharmacist was in charge.

“Can I help you?”

They all simultaneously stepped forward. Rafir clenched his fists ready to take out whoever made the first move. He probably wouldn’t survive the fight, but he’d make sure some of them died right along with him.

The pharmacist held up his hand. “Enough,” he said to his posturing posse. “Rafir Caras?”

“That’s me.” Rafir felt the glass door against his upper arms and wondered how hard it would be to break the glass to get inside if he needed to escape to fight another day. This was why he’d always stayed away from wolf packs. He sucked at politics.

“Word is you’ve got a proper pack now. Is that true?”

He thought about Julia and Alex. Having both of them made him stronger, he couldn’t deny the plain truth, but were they really a proper pack? He hadn’t thought so. This man had to be Bernard Peat, the Kansas City pack master. Rafir had never met him before, and he’d sincerely hoped to keep it that way. Bernard was old and strong, wicked strong to handle the twenty or so men he had in his crew, and as many women if not more. The size of the pack in the city was unusually large. Rafir had worked with a few of the wolves over the years, but they’d never bothered him. Why now? Just because of Alex? It didn’t make sense.

Bernard strolled forward, not cocky, but oozing confidence. He sniffed at Rafir. “It’s true. I can smell the power on you. It’s strong, friend.”

Rafir could smell Bernard as well. He reeked of strength… and hair gel. “I’m not a threat to you.” He held out his hands, palms open. A form of submission without submitting.

“I’m not here to fight with you, son.” Bernard smiled with good ol’ boy charm. “I’m inviting you to join my pack.”

It sounded more like an ultimatum than an invitation. Neither Julia nor Alex could thrive in a pack with real wolves. And even if they could, Rafir didn’t plan on putting them to the test. “Thank you, but no thank you.” He tried to keep his tone respectful. “I don’t think I’m interested right now.”

“I don’t think you understand, Caras.” Bernard woefully shook his head. “You don’t have a choice.”

“I understand what you’re saying, but I have lone wolf status. It was sanctioned by yourself, if I’m not mistaken, through Guillermo Perez. I don’t want to be part of a pack.” At least not Bernard’s pack.

“Too late, wolf. You stopped being a lone wolf when you bonded to the vamp. I could overlook a human, but the vampire has raised some questions, and I can’t have any dissension in the rank and fold. If I let you get away with this in my territory, next thing you know all sorts of small power groups will be wanting to move in. I know I said you didn’t have a choice, but I’ve changed my mind. You can join or you can die. I’m good with either solution as well.”

Rafir noticed the other four werewolves had all moved in closer, trapping him from all sides. He shook his head, more to himself than Bernard. “I… Can I think about it?” he asked, to buy time, not because he was seriously considering Bernard’s offer.

“Sure.” Bernard thumped him on the chest with the back of his hand. “Take the next twenty-four hours. Should be plenty of time. Have an answer for me, Caras, or you won’t like my reaction.”

Bernard stepped back, and his boys followed suit. They turned as one unit and started down the sidewalk. Bernard held up a hand and said loudly. “Twenty-four hours, son. Not a second more.”

Rafir let out a long, slow breath. He hadn’t wanted trouble. He’d enjoyed autonomy for too long to be immersed in pack dynamics. What could he do? Alex might pick up and leave with him, but Julia loved her job. She loved her life here in Kansas City. She wouldn’t give it up without a fight, and he wasn’t sure it was a fight any of them could survive.

Alex stretched, his back stiff and his stomach cramping slightly. It was a nightly ritual. The cramping came from the need to feed. Being a vampire had its disadvantages. He knew from experience if he waited too long, his insides would begin to wither, creating in him a hunger that only draining a victim would fill. He couldn’t let it happen. Never again. The pathetic creature Rafir had found and saved couldn’t be allowed to surface again. He could hear padding through the kitchen. It was Rafir. Julia had a distinctively different shuffle to her feet.

He sat up and regarded his sallow pallor and his limp cock. The skin would pink up, right as rain, once he took blood, and the cock would do what cocks do, but until then, the color and flaccidity reminded him he was a soulless beast. He bit his lower lip, cutting into the plump flesh. Like most dead things, it didn’t bleed.

Alex shook the thought from his mind. He couldn’t afford to think of himself as disposable, for Rafir’s sake if not his own. A knock startled him from musing. He glanced sideways, his eyes meeting Rafir’s.

The werewolf was gorgeous with a capital G. Dark hair, dark eyes, broad aquiline nose, chiseled jawline, and exotic features you could only get by combining ethnicities. His mother had been Middle Eastern and his father Irish. It made for a devastating combination. The chronic five o’clock shadow only added to his appeal.

Alex held out his hand.

Rafir walked over and took it. He sat down on the bed. “Good evening.”

Alex noticed some tension in Rafir’s eyes. The wolf was worried. “Good evening. You okay?”

“Yes.” Rafir smoothed Alex’s hair away from his face. “You could use a haircut, you know.”

The change of subject didn’t escape Alex’s attention. Whatever bothered Rafir, Alex wouldn’t push him. He owed him his trust. “Julia home?” He knew she wasn’t and wished immediately he could withdraw the question. He’d become more than acutely aware over the past several months that in Julia’s mind, Alex was a third wheel. Sure, they shared Rafir, and occasionally they would kiss or caress during sex, but he could tell Julia felt uncomfortable with Alex outside the bedroom activities. He didn’t want her to think he was trying to usurp her position in Rafir’s life. Not that he could. Rafir loved Julia fiercely.

“I don’t know,” Alex responded finally in reference to the haircut. “I’ll think about it.”

Rafir leaned in close. “It’s just your eyes are so beautiful.”

Alex blinked. “Thanks.” Insane happiness raced through him at the compliment. Rafir rarely handed them out. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’ve got you and Julia in my life.” He kissed Alex. “I’ve never been more okay.”

Alex loved when Rafir spoke from his heart, even if the werewolf had never told him he loved him. Jealousy wormed its way into his emotions as he remembered how easy the words “I love you” came to Rafir’s lips when he talked to Julia, but for Alex, he’d never put his feelings down in such concrete language.

Alex’s stomach cramped again, just a twinge. He tried to ignore it as he watched Rafir take off his black T-shirt. The man had muscles to spare. He looked like he worked out all the time, but Alex knew better. Rafir had been blessed with great genetics.

“If I had breath, you’d take it away,” Alex told him.

Rafir smiled. “Such a way with words.”

“You’re one to talk.”

Rafir stood and unbuttoned his pants, slid them over his hips and to the floor. He stepped out of them. His long, thick erection jutted from his groin. This was the moment Alex waited for. This was why he was satisfied to take a backseat when Julia was with them in bed. His time alone with Rafir meant everything.

“Goddamn,” he whispered. His reaction was always the same when he saw Rafir naked. Awestruck.

Kneeling down next to the bed, Rafir reached down and pulled Alex’s legs over the side so he could nestle himself between them. He glided his palms up Alex’s thighs. The cock didn’t stir. It needed fresh blood to work proper, and Rafir was well aware.

The werewolf tilted his chin up and stared into Alex’s eyes. “I know you’re hungry…” He let the sentence hang like a question.

Alex grinned back. “Go ahead.”

“You don’t mind?”

“No.” He ran his fingers through Rafir’s thick wavy hair. “It actually feels really, really good. The nerves all work, even if it doesn’t get hard. I just can’t believe you like it.”

“I more than like it, Alex.” Rafir poked his tongue out as if to taste the air, then followed with a slow lick along Alex’s inner thigh until his tongue slipped across Alex’s sac. “The very taste of you in my mouth, without the hard demand, is so goddamn sexy.” As if to demonstrate, he cupped Alex’s cock and balls with one hand, lifting them as he took the entire softness into his mouth.

Alex stretched. His nerve ends firing with pleasure. The pressure of Rafir’s teeth and tongue against his sensitive organ made Alex want to jump out of his skin. He grasped Rafir’s hair, holding him in place as the indulgent thrill titillated without bringing him the urgency of passion.

His toes curled, digging into the carpet when Rafir sucked in one ball then the other. “Holy shit.”

Rafir stopped and let the soft cock slip from his lips. “You are magnificent.” He kissed and nipped his way up Alex’s waist. He slid his arms around his back and pressed him onto the bed. Rafir wet his lips before melding them with Alex’s. He slipped the tip of his tongue between and licked Alex’s teeth. In a lunge, he was up on top of Alex completely, his mouth wide, his tongue fighting for space in Alex’s mouth. Alex opened for Rafir, giving him what he needed, giving him everything. If he wanted to occupy space inside Alex, then Alex would make room. He sucked Rafir’s tongue, pulling it deeper into his mouth before letting up. He sucked it like he’d sucked Rafir’s cock the night before.

Blood oozed into Alex’s mouth. He hadn’t realized his fangs had dropped, nicking Rafir’s tongue in the process. The rich, sweet blood stirred an even greater hunger in Alex. He yanked Rafir up and flipped him over on to his back. Now Alex straddled the werewolf. Rafir dug his fingers into Alex’s back and buttocks, encouraging him to take what he wanted -- what his passions demanded. Alex slid down Rafir’s very warm chest, his teeth grazing the heated skin. He reached up and pushed Rafir’s head back and to the side.

He knew his eyes had changed. He had felt them slip into vampire. He’d also felt the shift in his forehead as it ridged and thickened. He ignored his poor impulse control and waited for Rafir to say, “Do it.”

As soon as permission was given, he bit down, and the blood rushed into Alex with a blazing surge of power and energy. He’d never gotten that kind of blood rush from anyone else. Ever.

Rafir dug his fingers hard into Alex’s thighs, his breath sharp and rapid.

Alex slowed his sucking and could feel Rafir relax beneath him. He licked the wound until it stopped bleeding. He felt Rafir’s hands move over his thighs and take his now rigid cock in their grasp. He looked down at his lover’s handsome face. How could such a strong man let himself be food for a vampire? Especially a weak vampire.

“Why?”

“Why what?” Rafir asked, his hands now moving up and down Alex’s shaft.

It was hard for Alex to concentrate on what he wanted to ask when all he could focus on was Rafir’s extremely kissable lips. He licked his own. “Why do you let me take blood from you?”

Rafir’s hands stopped moving. His eyes narrowed, and he pursed his lips. He placed a palm on Alex’s cheek. His expression held sincerity with a hint of sadness. “It’s my job to keep you safe, Alex.” A heat lit his dark brown eyes. “You are mine.” They were words of possession.

When Rafir spoke with such conviction, it was easy for Alex to believe him.

“I’m not worth it.” As soon as Alex said it, and before he could blink, Rafir seized him by the arms, flipped him over onto his back, and pinned him to the bed.

Once again the wolf was on top. A ragged breath tore from his chest in a feral growl. His voice sounded rough, not human. “Don’t say that.” He squeezed hard on Alex’s wrists and forced deep breaths into his lungs. The anger faded. This time his voice was gentler, more normal. “Don’t say that.”

If Alex had still been human, the blood would have drained from his face. He’d talked with Rafir before about his insecurities, but he’d never seen the wolf react so strongly. “I’m sorry,” he said for a lack of a better reply. He couldn’t help how he felt. He was not worth Rafir’s time. Julia knew it instinctively. Rafir would have been better off if Julia had managed to kill Alex from the beginning. He could see what hurt and doubt he caused her, and he didn’t want to hurt her or Rafir. He’d complicated their lives in a way he’d never intended. But he owed Rafir his loyalty, and until his lover and pack master asked him to leave, he would stay by his side.

“I’m sorry,” he said again, trying to mean the words. “I just think about how much easier your life would be if it was only you and Julia again. It’s too hard for her to have me here. I don’t blame her. My kind --” He bit off the words as if they left a permanently bad taste in his mouth. “They robbed her of her best years. Did terrible things. I get it. Why would you want me to add to the grief?”

Rafir eased up on his hold, then moved off Alex and the bed. He began to dress -- pants, shirt, then socks. “I know it hurts Julia.” His eyes were naked with pain. “I need her, Alex.” He brushed his hands over his face and turned toward the door. “But I need you, too.”

Alex lay on the bed, stunned by the conviction in Rafir’s words. He didn’t get up until after he heard the front door of the apartment open and close. He’d never felt so wanted and so alone at the same time.

The doorbell rang, followed by a knock. Had Rafir forgot his keys? Alex jumped from the bed eager for a chance to apologize again for being an ass. The hardwood floor felt cool against the bottom of his feet as he gripped his toes to keep from slipping and ran to the door. He flung it open, naked, hard, and ready to beg for forgiveness.

The older couple standing in the hallway outside the door gaped, the woman stifling a small high-pitched gasp. Alex ducked behind the door and half closed it. “Can I help you?” His own voice had raised an octave, and if he hadn’t been immortal, he certainly would have died of embarrassment.

The man, tall, well-dressed in a tailored tan cashmere coat and tapered blue slacks, placed his arm around the woman who was dressed just as nicely, and pulled her in closely as if to protect her.

Alex wanted to crawl into a hole. “Look, if you’re selling, I’m not buying.” He closed the door.

A soft knock sounded.

Alex cracked the door open and peeked through. “I think you have the wrong apartment. Seriously.” He half expected them to ask him if he “knew the Lord.”

Before he could close the door again, the elderly man stuck his toe in. “Does Julia Deihl live here?”

These people were not clients of Julia’s. She dealt with the poor, the despondent, and the desperate. She did not have dealings with Richie Rich and company. “Nope,” he responded. Julia was really private. She wouldn’t want Alex spilling her info to strangers.

He tried to close the door again, but the woman blurted, “We’re her parents!”

The words stopped him cold. He blinked, mouth slightly agape. “Uhm, well… I…” He didn’t know Julia had parents, but truth be told, he didn’t know a lot about Julia outside of the little bit of her life in captivity she’d revealed to him months ago after Raf had been shot. “I suppose I should invite you in.”

The woman clung to her husband as they crossed the threshold. Alex closed the door behind them. Julia’s mom avoided looking directly at Alex, and he remembered he was stark naked. He instantly put his hands over his groin. “I’ll just go put some clothes on.”

“Good idea, young man,” the dad said.

Alex hadn’t made it two steps toward the bedroom when the front door opened. Julia walked in. She dropped her briefcase on the floor, covered her mouth with her hands, then demanded, “What the hell are you both doing here?” Before they could respond, she noticed Alex. “Go put your fucking clothes on!”