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Jamie

J amie didn’t get much of a glimpse of the new intruders before Luc’s form was once again blocking his view.

But he saw enough to recognize their faces.

Which begged the question, Were all vampires unnaturally handsome?

Was that some rad side effect of being turned?

Or did vampires just naturally only want to turn the best-looking people they could find?

Something nice to look at for all eternity, maybe.

Definitely food for thought. But probably for another time.

A time when Jamie didn’t have two strange bloodsuckers wandering into his home, perhaps.

“I don’t remember inviting you two in,” he called out from behind Luc’s back.

Just because vampires didn’t need invitations to enter someone’s home didn’t mean it wasn’t rude as hell to just barge in without warning.

It was already annoying enough that his vision hadn’t shown them showing up in Jamie’s own fucking house.

What was the point of seeing glimpses of the future if it did absolutely nothing to prepare him for what was going to happen?

It was a question he’d asked himself a million or more times.

The intruders didn’t say anything more at first, and for his part Luc had started one long, extended growl as soon as Jamie had opened his mouth. Jamie had his hands resting on Luc’s broad shoulders, and he could feel Luc’s entire body vibrating.

Someone was feeling awfully protective.

Was Jamie not allowed to talk to the twins? His vampire certainly didn’t seem to be feeling all that verbal himself right now. The tension in his vibrating frame was otherworldly. Was it from fear? Luc had said he’d known the twins in passing—were they old enemies or something?

But it didn’t feel like fear radiating from his vampire. More like…anger. Like all that violence always simmering under the surface of Luc’s skin was about to bubble out at any second.

The thought was more than a little exciting.

“We followed a certain scent,” the first voice finally said in response to Jamie’s accusation.

Jamie tilted his head over Luc’s shoulder in a way that allowed him to see the two redheads.

Yep, they were absolutely fucking identical, except the one on the left—the one who had just spoken—had his hair left loose around his face, hanging into his eyes a bit, while the one on the right had his slicked back.

“A scent we’d been told wouldn’t be in our fucking town after one night,” said Slicked Hair. Dude sounded pretty pissed.

“Seems like we’ve been lied to,” Messy Hair mused.

“Seems like.”

“Get. The fuck. Out .” Oh good, Luc was speaking now. That was reassuring. Jamie’s vampire still knew how to use his words.

Messy Hair tsked at Luc’s outburst. “The thing is, we need to have a chat.”

“Get out of this fucking house!” Luc roared. Actually roared . Like he was part grizzly bear or something. It hurt Jamie’s ears a little bit, but he was still all for it. It was probably important to assert dominance in these types of situations.

Not that Jamie knew what type of situation they were in exactly.

“What did I tell you, Dane?” Slick Hair taunted. “Two steps from feral. Someone needs to be put down.”

Jamie tensed. Oh no. No, no, no. I think the fuck not .

“Hey!” he snapped, tightening his grip on Luc’s shoulders, just in case his vampire decided enough was enough and was tempted to pounce. “Someone needs to tell me what the fuck is going on right the fuck now.”

Slick Hair answered Jamie’s question with an eye roll. “This is our territory, human. When we saw your boyfriend here the other night, he promised he was just passing through.”

“We don’t like strangers here,” Messy Hair—Dane, apparently—added. “They tend to get bitey with the locals.”

“The only one he’s been biting here is me.” Jamie wasn’t sure it was the best idea to admit that, but these two obviously knew Luc needed to eat, and Jamie figured he was a consenting adult and should be allowed to give his permission.

“We don’t really give a shit, actually. He’s still not welcome here.” Well, damn. Slick Hair was awfully rude.

“How does the territory thing work?” Jamie asked. He figured if identical cranky vampires were going to invade his space, he might as well get some answers, especially since Luc had apparently returned to his nonverbal state.

With the vampire in front of him seemingly content to vibrate in place like some sort of off-kilter, fanged washing machine, Jamie also tried to take the opportunity to step out from behind him.

He was quickly shoved back by one broad hand, Luc’s growl rising in volume.

Okay, no moving away from the angry vampire wall. Got it.

“It’s first come, first serve,” Dane explained grudgingly. “We were here first, we’ve settled in, and we get our say in which vampires stay or go.”

“Simple enough,” Jamie mused. “And how long have you two been here?”

“Twenty years.” Slick Hair sounded awfully proud of that fact.

Jamie nodded, his chin brushing against Luc’s shoulder. “Cool, cool. Well, I was born here, meaning I’ve been here twenty- three years. Twenty-three and a half, to be fucking precise. So, you know, sounds like I’ve got you beat.”

Dane rolled his eyes again. Rude. “That doesn’t count. You’re human.”

“So what about if Luc here turns me? Then I’d be part of your vampire club, and I’d still have been here first.”

Not that Jamie was planning for that to happen right this second, but maybe Luc’s intentions toward him would be enough to placate these (admittedly kind of childish sounding) first come, first serve rules.

Luc went very still under Jamie’s fingertips.

Jamie wasn’t quite sure if that was him finally settling down a bit or just the eerie calm before the storm.

Jamie gave his shoulders a little squeeze in reassurance.

“We’re mates,” he explained to the twins.

“Fated husbands or whatever. So if he turns me, this will be our territory. What’s mine is his and all that, like the law says. ”

“What the fuck is happening right now?” Dane muttered to Slick Hair.

Jamie made a shooing motion with his hand. “Sounds like you two have a lot to think about. So maybe you should go now and start the process.”

Slick Hair growled at him. It was less impressive than Luc’s growl, in Jamie’s humble opinion, but it still wasn’t very nice. “He hasn’t turned you yet, human , so maybe what we should actually do is put him down right here and now.”

Oops. There was that vibrating again. If Jamie didn’t get these two out of here in the next two minutes, he had a feeling he was going to have a vampire bloodbath on his hands.

Time for some good old-fashioned threats.

“Are you so sure the two of you can take him without at least one of you going down with him?”

Slick Hair puffed his chest out. “You think we can’t take him two against one?”

But Dane didn’t seem so sure, biting at the inside of his cheek while looking to his brother. “Fox…”

So Slick Hair’s name was Fox. Look at Jamie, learning who was who. Unless they changed their hair next time. Then again, Fox was clearly the dick of the two of them, so maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to figure it out even without the hairdo tell.

“He hasn’t eaten any of your townies,” Jamie argued. “He definitely hasn’t killed anyone. And he won’t. Not unless they deserve it.”

The twins protested immediately.

“That’s not—”

“Fuck that .”

“Fine.” Jamie waved off their objections. “He won’t kill anyone in city limits, even if they definitely 100 percent deserve it. You have my word. If he does, you three can fight it out or whatever.”

That wasn’t going to happen—not on Jamie’s watch—but he wanted them gone. He didn’t know how much longer Luc’s weird, silent patience was going to last, but he had a feeling it was a matter of seconds rather than minutes.

Jamie knew in his gut that Luc in his current state was a ticking time bomb.

“What the fuck do we care for your word, human ?”

Dang, Foxy could really make the word human sound like some kind of hateful slur.

Jamie stood his ground. “It’s all you’re getting. Leave . Unless you want to see for real if you can take him. Or alternatively”—he shot them a salacious wink—“if you want to see us fuck on this table. We were just getting started on something really interesting when you two barged in.”

Fox made a choking noise in his throat. “Disgusting.”

Jamie wasn’t sure if he was grossed out by the thought of humans and vampires doing it, or two men doing it, or just Jamie and Luc in particular doing it, but in any case, he was being super fucking rude again.

Then the twins did a freaky thing where they just stared at each other, not speaking but clearly communicating something twin eyeball to twin eyeball.

Finally, Fox turned from Dane and faced them. “Just so you know, we’re not done here. We’ll be back. And if there’s even a single suspicious death in Tucson—in all of Southern Arizona, for that matter—we won’t be playing nice anymore.”

Jamie scoffed. “I didn’t think you were that nice to begin with.”

Fox gave him the finger, and then Jamie watched from behind Luc’s back as they walked out of the kitchen, slamming the front door on the way.

The lack of manners was really something else.

Jamie turned his focus on the vibrating vampire in front of him. Luc was reminding Jamie of their first meeting. Luc frozen, like he was so afraid of what he might do that complete stillness was the only way to keep himself contained.

He used his hands to gently turn Luc around until they were facing each other.

“Luc?” he asked softly, searching his vampire’s face.

Jamie wasn’t sure exactly how he could tell. Luc looked the same on the surface—black eyes, bared fangs—but Jamie knew, somewhere deep in his gut, he wasn’t dealing with the man right now.

The monster was in charge.

Jamie watched Luc—or Luc’s monster, perhaps—pace the living room.

“Need to kill. Need to hurt. ”