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THE LIGHTHOUSE

EDDIE

Early studies in vampire relationship psychology and sociology suggested that vampires were generally more promiscuous than humans and formed short-term romantic attachments, while their platonic relationships, such as friendships and familial bonds, were deeper and more stable than in humans. Recent sources find fewer significant differences between the species. It seems that in the past fifty years, humans have become more promiscuous, while vampires form increasingly durable monogamous relationships with both humans and individuals of their own species.

The plentitude of legends about blood-drinkers coveting one person suggests that mankind experienced monogamous relationships with vampires even during clandestine times. These bonds were obviously powerful enough to inspire folklore.

The German tale “Der Herr der Nacht” is likely more than six hundred years old and tells a story of a blood-drinking creature who haunts a young man every Sunday night. At first, the young man is terrified of what he perceives as a supernatural presence, but ever so slowly, he falls in love. The “guest” seduces him and feeds from him. Curiously, the gender of the creature is not specified in the oldest written version, and it varies in retellings. It is also unclear whether the tale was meant to be cautionary.

“The guest embraced him and bestowed great pleasure on him, drawing blood from his neck and replacing it with molten desire. When their bodies were joined, lust consumed the young man’s mind, and he begged the guest never to leave him. Thus, the guest spoke. ‘I love you ardently, my sweetest, but alas, tonight is the last time I enter your chamber. Take my hand and leave with me. Your blood and your body will belong to me for the rest of your life, and I’ll fill your soul with passion no human could ever give you.’ The young man saw nothing but the gold in the guest’s eyes. He promised his body and soul, and no one ever saw him again.”

* * *

Sheri: You slept with your boss, didn’t you?

Me: I’m at Russel’s. I’ll come home tomorrow.

Sheri: I knew it. Enjoy! But please, be careful.

Be careful. How? What was the danger, and how could I avoid it?

After we’d spent a solid two hours making out, I was sitting bare-assed on Russel’s sofa, a blanket over my shoulders. My hole still felt loose and sensitive after he’d rimmed me—that had been amazing —but the soreness was gone. He was getting me lunch, and I was supposed to stay for another day of what I hoped would be marathon sex.

The damage was done.

Yes, I was infatuated with my direct supervisor, and I was letting him fuck me and suck my blood because it was the best feeling on earth. I was addicted to his venom—which I knew was medically impossible, but what about psychologically? When he had his cock in me to the root and bit down on my neck, I’d been as close to heaven as a living being could get. Of course, I wanted more.

This could never end well, but what I felt when I imagined never touching Russel again could only be described as grief. I avoided thinking about it. The second worst-case scenario would be Anthony finding out. He’d be disappointed in me, and he’d fire me. What would I do then? Wash dishes at some restaurant downtown and take courses to become a barber or something? Plenty of folks did that, even people with college degrees. Times were rough.

Was I insane? I’d worked my ass off to gain a modicum of stability in my life, and now I was throwing it away.

Russel walked into the room with a large paper cup in his hand and a shy smile that scrambled my brain and sent butterflies aflutter in my belly.

“I hope this is the right stuff,” he said as he handed me the mug.

The smoky scent tickled my nose. “Coffee!” He saved me, bless him. I took a sip and groaned. “Thank you so much.”

Russel’s face lit up as he watched me drink the coffee he must have ordered with the lunch delivery. He was so incredibly thoughtful; it blew my mind. I still hadn’t recovered from the breakfast experience. He showed me more care and respect than either of my exes, and I soaked it up like a sponge.

Something in my brain blinked, a little red light in the back of my head. Maybe this was the real danger. Russel treated me like I was something precious, almost as if we were in love. It would be easy to forget what he wanted from me and let myself be swept up in this fantasy.

As if to confirm my worry, he took my hand in a gentle grip. He squeezed my fingers and played with them, then he lifted my hand to his face and nuzzled my wrist. Humming, he brushed his lips over the frail skin covering the veins.

You can’t fall in love with this guy, silly. You’re his food.

“Thank you for the coffee,” I said.

“Anytime. Are you hungry? Your sushi is on the kitchen table.”

I lifted my coveted paper mug. “I’ll finish this first.”

“Okay. What would you like to do after lunch?”

“I don’t know. We can’t go anywhere.” As soon as I said that, I wanted to take it back. It was stupid of me to remind him of our situation. I was fine with staying in and having copious amounts of irresponsible sex. More than fine.

But Russel pressed another kiss to my wrist, unperturbed. “I have a car. I rarely use it because I walk to the office. Most days, it just sits in the garage. How about we drive out of the city? Somewhere remote and quiet.”

The look he gave me was hopeful. Don’t fall in love with him.

“I’d like that.”

We talked about work during the drive north before Russel put a stop to it as he parked the car.

“This is supposed to be quality free time, and we’re discussing strategies.”

“Sorry.”

“Not your fault. But from now on, work is a prohibited topic.”

“Okay, boss.”

He smirked at me as he put on dark shades. “Cheeky thing.”

Though the sun hid behind fluffy clouds, Russel wore a ball cap and sunglasses. He said daylight could give him headaches when he wasn’t careful.

I followed him out of the vehicle and looked around. I hadn’t visited the coast in years. The scent of saltwater in the air brought a wave of nostalgia; my parents’ beach house, where I’d spent summers as a kid, was long gone. Confiscated and sold.

Closing my eyes, I tilted my face toward the breeze. Seagulls yelled above, and waves hummed in the distance. It was the same scent, the same sounds, and I could almost feel the warm sand under my feet.

Russel’s arm around my shoulders brought me back to the present, and I blinked, pushing the bittersweet memories away. He led me to an outlook at the edge of the tourist parking lot and gestured downward.

“There’s this cute restaurant on the boardwalk. We can have dinner there later.”

The coastal village looked old and picturesque. It must have been a fishing community that was later gentrified; most of the boats in the marina were yachts. Opulent residences dotted the hills above, indicating that the prices in the stores and pubs down by the beach would be steep. Wooden stairs led to the boardwalk from the parking lot where we stood. I glanced to the left and spotted a winding path on the range of a rocky cape. At the end, a white lighthouse perched on a low cliff. The view looked like an ad for a private luxury getaway.

“How do you know this place?” I asked.

“My friend Levi owns property here. I’ve visited a few times. Come on, let’s walk to the lighthouse.”

Halfway down the trail, Russel caught my hand as I hopped over a crack in the stony ground. He only let go when the path got too narrow for us to walk side by side.

The breeze was gentle and warm as we sat by the lighthouse and watched the ocean. Being quiet felt natural with Russel. I liked that he didn’t need to fill every second of our time with words. Sometimes I feared the things we said; maybe the next sentence could break our fragile bubble, and we’d have to face the consequences of our recklessness. But as long as we didn’t say anything about it, the foolish things I imagined felt almost real. His care and attention, the warmth coming from his shoulder and arm, the way he leaned closer and inhaled from my hair… In the silence, those things could mean even more than the years I’d worked to get back on my feet, more than my coveted independence, reputation, and work ethic.

He sounded soft and careful when he broke the quiet, as if he knew what I was thinking.

“I have an idea. How about I check if the hotel down in the village has a room for us? We could stay until tomorrow. Have dinner, take a walk on the beach at night, sleep in.” His eyebrows rose above the edge of his glasses in a playful waggle. “You’ll get your morning coffee.”

The list of things I wanted to do with Russel but shouldn’t was growing by the minute. I hesitated.

“An overnight bag would have been handy.”

“We don’t need clothes. In fact, I demand you sleep naked. And we can stop by a pharmacy for toothbrushes and other stuff.”

Toothbrushes, toothpaste, and lube—we didn’t need anything else. What made me most apprehensive was how much I wanted to say yes. Fuck, this was a bad idea.

“I need to be back early tomorrow.”

“I hope you’re not working on Sundays, Eddie.”

“Sometimes I have to, as you know. But Sheri is driving me to visit my mom.” Way to ruin the mood—remind him of my felon of a mother. It unnerved me that I couldn’t see his eyes behind his sunglasses.

“At what time do you have to be there?” he asked.

“Twelve thirty sharp.”

“Where is it?”

“The Graystone Facility. It’s a forty-minute drive north of the city. Close to Ashland.”

A seagull cried, and I looked up to see it circle above us.

“That’s almost on our way back if we take the inland freeway,” Russel said. “I’ll drive you there tomorrow.”

My reaction was knee-jerk. “No.”

For some mysterious reason, he looked hurt, even with the stupid sunglasses on. I backpedaled.

“Russel, thank you. It’s very kind of you to offer, but you won’t drive me to see my mother in prison.”

“Why not?”

I let out an exasperated laugh. “Does it sound like a fun date to you?”

“You need a ride, and I have a car. It’s just a small detour.”

“You’d have to wait in the car at a prison parking lot for at least half an hour.”

He didn’t wince. In fact, he wore the same infuriatingly kind and understanding smile. “Your roommate Sheri does it.”

“When she doesn’t have to work. She’s a nurse.”

“And when she works?”

“There’s a bus stop. I’ve taken the bus a couple of times.” Not that I particularly enjoyed the experience. “But I won’t have to take the bus tomorrow because Sheri will drive me,” I added emphatically.

Pinching his mouth shut, Russel watched the waves come and go. He finally seemed to accept my no.

“I’ve been wanting to ask you something,” he said after a while.

“What?”

“Your name is Benedict. Why Eddie? It’s not a common short version of Benedict.”

“It was what my dad called me. He passed away when I was ten.”

Russel let out a deep breath. “I’m so sorry.”

Usually, when I was forced to say that, I hurried to change the subject. Curiously, I didn’t feel the need to do it with him.

“My grandfather’s name was Benedict, but people knew him as Ben Perkins. My dad was Benedict Perkins Jr., but my grandparents called him Ned, and it stuck. Then I was born, the third Benedict Perkins, and Dad insisted on calling me little Eddie. The only person who calls me Benedict is my mother.”

“How was he as a father?” Rassel spoke quietly, as if the question could scare me. But I was glad I could, for once, talk about the parent who made me proud to be a Perkins.

“He was great. Caring, loving, interested. He was there for me. Maybe it’s just my child brain idolizing him. Maybe I’d have discovered plenty of his flaws had he lived long enough for me to grow up. But to the ten-year-old Eddie, he was a hero. The only dumb thing he’d ever done was to marry my mom.”

“But you visit your mom every other week?”

“Yes.” Seawater splashed high into the air, and the drops landed only a few feet away. My shoes had gotten dusty on the walk here, and I was still wearing the same slacks and the white shirt I’d had on last night. I wondered if the waves were getting stronger and we’d get drenched. The next couple of showers seemed weaker, though.

“How long has it been?” Russel asked.

“She’s been at Graystone for two years now.”

“Do you miss her?”

How to explain? I picked a broken shell, possibly a trace after a seagull’s snack, and threw it into the waves. “She’s my mother, and a part of me, the little boy in me, will always love her. But she’s got some difficult personality traits.” I could feel Russel’s gaze on me. I was torn between wanting to escape and craving leaning into him so he’d hug me. “I think she’s disappointed in me. What I find important and valuable, she sees as weakness or even stupidity.”

“You’re one of the smartest and strongest people I’ve ever met, Eddie.” Russel’s voice sounded steady, dead serious. It was a powerful compliment, and I struggled to believe it.

“What about your mom?” I asked.

Russel chuckled. “She’s…a lot to take. As you’ve witnessed firsthand.”

“She seems fun.”

“Oh, she is that. She drives me mad, but I adore her.”

“And your father?”

“I’ve never met him.” He said it lightly, unbothered. “My mom didn’t always ask the names of her many lovers, and her relationships with other vampires have been even more fleeting than the arrangements she’s had with human men. There’s a chance she doesn’t know who he was, either. She simply doesn’t care.”

“Wow. Good for her?”

He laughed. “Like you said. She’s fun.”

“I mean, monogamy is rare among your species.” I managed to sound casual. I wasn’t angling for a relationship with Russel—it wasn’t possible anyway. Was it? No. How naive could I be?

“Not as uncommon as my mother likes to claim to justify her lifestyle.”

What did he think of monogamy? Had he ever had a relationship? With a vampire or a human? A spike of irrational jealousy made me shut the train of thought down. I must have been quiet for too long because Russel took my hand again.

“Eddie?”

“Huh?”

“Let me take you tomorrow. It doesn’t make sense for you to hurry back to the city early in the morning only to drive back north.”

It made perfect sense in my head. My humiliating past, those visits, the shame and guilt… That wasn’t the part of my life where Russel belonged.

Except he cupped my cheek. “Eddie, look at me.” He’d put his sunglasses into his hair above his forehead. He squinted in the daylight, his eyes roaming my features.

“I want to take you because I want to get to know you.”

Danger! Danger! The red light in the back of my head glared. I ignored it.

When he leaned in for a kiss, I parted my lips for him. His warm hand stroked down my cheek and settled on the side of my throat. Our tongues tangled, and my cock stirred. Just a fleeting touch from this man aroused me. A full-on deep kiss had me shivering. God, I hoped the hotel in the village had a room for us! We could be fucking within an hour.

Russel made a soft, hungry sound from the back of his throat, and I grabbed his shoulder to pull myself closer.

That was when a spray of saltwater hit our lower legs. We tore apart and jumped up, laughing.

As we walked back, Russel scrolled on his phone, looking for accommodation.

“They don’t have an online booking service,” he said. “I’ll call.”

“What if they’re full?”

“The summer season hasn’t started yet. But I can ask Levi, and we’ll stay at his place.”

“No. Don’t bother your friend. Let’s try the hotel first.”

They did have a room for us, and Russel arranged for us to check in immediately. We drove to the village, made a short detour to a pharmacy, and left the car in the hotel’s fenced-in parking lot. The building boasted a wooden shingle roof with dormers and an intricately carved alcove over the main entrance. A turret completed the princess castle impression. A middle-aged lady at the reception bleeped Russel’s credit card over the machine, and before I could wake up from this dream, we were entering the top-floor honeymoon suite.

“You’re joking.” I gestured to the balcony overlooking the beach. The lighthouse shone yellow in the late afternoon sun.

Russel shrugged. “It was the last available room.” He put his sunglasses and baseball cap onto the coffee table and circled his arms around me. “Now, kiss me again.”

“I will. But shower first.”

His nostrils flared. “Hurry.”

He let go of me, and I closed myself in the bathroom. I still wore my slacks and now dusty dress shoes from yesterday. But I didn’t allow myself to freak out as I showered and prepped for more sex with my vampire boss .

I walked out of the bathroom with just a towel around my hips. Russel was waiting for me only in his underwear, sitting in an armchair, his legs casually crossed.

“You wanted a kiss?” I asked, and he smirked before he was suddenly right there, his palms on my cheeks. Fuck . I forgot how fast he could be.

At the touch of his lips, I pushed it all away. The fear, the guilt, the what-ifs. I sank into the kiss and the blissful oblivion of arousal and the slow, sensual dance of tongues. When Russel dragged his wet lips along my jaw, I tilted my head to the side, blatantly asking for what I wanted.

He bit me, sucked out a mouthful, and licked up the side of my throat. Then he let go of me and sat on the edge of the large king bed.

Panting, my cock throbbing, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I squeezed my erection, staring as Russel drizzled lube over his thick cock and stroked it up and down.

“Come here.”

Shaking with desire, I went to straddle him, but he turned me around. With one hand on my hip, he guided me to sit on his cock with my back to his chest. My hole gave way at the gentlest push, and I sank down on a moan.

“Gorgeous view, huh?” he rasped into my ear.

Behind the large window, the sun was sinking lower over the ocean, and orange beams shone through the clouds like stage lights. Russel cupped my balls and massaged behind them as he fucked up into me. With his venom coursing through my bloodstream, I was already close to coming. When he stroked my cock and ran his thumb over my slit, I fell apart. The spectacular view became blurry as tendrils of pleasure swirled up my chest and down my legs.

“When you come, your hole squeezes my cock just right. I love that.”

The orgasm faded away, and I felt all loose inside. I pushed myself up and sank down again, letting Russel’s cock drag along the front wall of my hole.

The beauty of venom-induced orgasms was that they sensitized me but didn’t make me oversensitive. Sparks of pleasure ignited in my gland on each thrust, and soon, I was riding him shamelessly. The mattress shifted as Russel leaned back. He palmed my ass cheeks.

“You’re beautiful, Eddie. In the sunset, your body looks like you’re on fire.”

He saw colors differently than me; I knew that much. Light looked much brighter to him than to me.

I braced my hands by his sides and put my feet on the bed. The new angle had his cockhead pushing against my gland, and I could fuck myself harder. My cock waved in the air in the most obscene way, but I liked it. I felt free as I rode him with abandon, the colors of the sunset streaming into the room, bathing me in gold.

“Fuck, Eddie, sweetheart. You’re killing me.”

He sounded like he was about to lose it. I pushed down hard, my ass smacking against his hips, and Russel cried out. So I did it again. This time, it was me making him come.

I sped up, my muscles burning, but I wouldn’t stop. Russel bucked.

Groaning, he grabbed my hips to still me. His cock jolted inside me, and I grinned with victory. Abruptly, he rolled me to the side and pressed into me deeper. He sank his fangs into the crook of my neck and shoulder. The cool sensation lasted only a second, then came the fiery lust that made my mind explode with colorful fireworks.

Russel milked my cock with his hand and fucked into me hard. I sobbed through the orgasm.

“Stay in me!” I gasped. My ass twitched uncontrollably, and his cock felt like the only thing keeping me tethered to reality—that and the stinging where he’d bitten me.

But he wasn’t drinking from me now. I felt his breath in my hair, then he rubbed his face against my nape. He sighed and hummed, pressed a kiss into my hair, sighed again… His grip on my erection gentled, and he rocked me slower and slower. The last wave of pleasure came and went, weak and merciful.

“You’re still bleeding,” Russel murmured. “Let me.”

He pushed on my shoulder to expose my throat, but I shifted away. His softening cock slipped out of me.

I blinked around the unfamiliar room. “Is there a mirror?”

“There.” Russel pointed at a round mirror on the wall by the nightstand.

I had to see it. I swayed as I stood, but I didn’t feel dizzy. My muscles were just mellow. Russel reached out to steady me.

“I’m fine. I just want to have a look.”

I ambled toward the mirror and lifted my chin. There. Two red dots sat at the base of my throat. A drop of blood oozed from one of them, slowly inching toward my collarbone. My heart pounded at the sight.

I wanted the wounds to stay there. Russel’s mark on me forever, like a brand.

He came up behind me and put his arms around me. He rubbed one hand over my breastbone and the other just below the twin red spots, smearing the drop. Our eyes met in the mirror, and Russel licked his finger.

The way he gazed at me made my stomach swoop. Yes, he was a predator. A dangerous creature with ten times the strength and much faster reflexes than any human. He could camouflage himself in business attire and hide behind sunglasses, have a day job, and pay taxes. But he would always be a blood drinker, and I would always be his prey. I looked so small and fragile compared to him, and my lizard brain loved that. It was right .

God help me, but I wanted to belong to him in ways that were bordering on delusional. I wanted him to feed from me and nobody else until the end of time, and I wanted the scars to show for it.

Russel gently turned me in his embrace, tearing me away from the image in the mirror. He leaned in and tenderly licked the stinging spot. The pain vanished. A few butterfly kisses up my jaw and a tender one on my nose.

There would be no visible scar anywhere on my body.

“Let me take you out for dinner, hm?”

I didn’t trust myself to speak. I nodded.