Page 109

Fox

U nsure of what to do with themselves after that unexpected interlude, Fox, Dane, and Colin stopped at a coffee shop on the way home so Colin could get one of his ridiculously caffeinated iced drinks.

Fox stayed outside, not in the mood for the small, crowded space. But the café boasted large front windows, and he could spy Dane hovering over Colin’s shoulder, making sure he ordered a pastry to go with his liquid mania.

Why was getting food in that boy’s stomach a battle every time? When he was turned, they wouldn’t have to worry about that—Colin wouldn’t need human food anymore, and his inner devil would lust for blood no matter what. No more half-finished meals or skipped dinners.

I killed people in the beginning, untethered and fresh.

Fox shook Serena’s icy voice out of his head. They wouldn’t let that happen to Colin. They’d teach him control. They wouldn’t give him cause for regret.

They’d pull his fangs out of the humans themselves if they needed to.

Speaking of. Fox held a hand to his stomach—it wasn’t growling, but it might as well have been. He and Dane would need to hunt properly soon. They’d been taking too little off Colin to really sate themselves, fearful of overdoing his blood loss—it would become a problem if they didn’t deal with it.

He tried to focus on that, the delicious anticipation of the hunt, the satisfaction he’d get filling his belly with a full, copper-coated meal.

But the conversation in that hotel room had left him unsettled and jittery.

The hatred that woman had for her husband.

Not that it wasn’t well deserved. That guy sounded like a lunatic. But…

Would Colin resent them like that, if they turned him without a bond? Without a mate?

Mate , his devil purred, latching onto the word. The stupid thing had gotten positively chatty since Colin had entered their lives.

You’re already bonded , Fox reminded it in his head.

Mate , it insisted, like a dog with a fucking bone.

It wasn’t the first time Fox had considered it, if he was being honest. He’d tried to resist naming it, tried to keep from getting his hopes up. It was easier to just think of Colin as theirs . But…could Colin possibly belong to them in that way?

Could Fox trust the dumb animal instinct inside him?

But how dumb could it really be? It had bonded him to Dane, the person he loved most in this fucked-up world. The other half of Fox’s soul. Or maybe he should recalculate. Maybe it was the other third…

His phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out to see Jamie’s name flashing on the screen. Or, to be more accurate, the name Fox had given him in his contacts: Green-haired dickhead .

He pressed the phone to his ear, already annoyed. “What?”

“Hello to you too, sunshine.”

Fox didn’t dignify that with a response, waiting the kid out.

Jamie gave in quickly enough. “So, uh, my sister told me something.”

“Let me guess,” Fox drawled. “She has a crush on a boy at school.”

Jamie gave an unamused laugh. “She does, actually. But no, I already knew that. She’s part of this summer buddy program. There’s an elementary schooler she does crafts with—supposed to build self-confidence for both parties or some shit.”

Fox almost wished they were face-to-face so he could show Jamie with a look how incredibly unimpressed he was with this interlude. “Does this story have a fucking point ?”

“I’m getting there, asshole. Her little buddy told her something today. There was a guy watching the pool where he was swimming with his family this morning. Guess he was giving people the creeps big time. Staff called the cops and everything.”

Fox stilled. “And did the cops find him?”

Jamie snorted into the phone. “’Course not. Luc and I went to check it out though. Smelled like vampire on the outskirts. What we could get through the chlorine, anyway.”

Fox glanced in the window of the café. Dane and Colin were lingering at the counter, talking close together as they waited for their drinks. “And it was a man they saw? Not a woman?”

“Um.” Jamie paused on the other end. “Why would it be a woman?”

Fox told him a condensed version of what they’d found at the resort, and Jamie hummed thoughtfully.

“You think we can use her to lure him out? I’m worried we’re running out of time here.

The guy could choose another kid at any moment, and who knows if we’ll be fast enough to catch him before he splits town. ”

Fox considered Serena, that rage she was barely keeping under the surface. “I think she’ll do anything if it means a chance to kill him.”

“Excellent. Hey, how’s my boy?”

Fox blinked at the change of subject. “Your boy?”

“Colin.”

Fox bristled. This little shit. “ Your boy?”

“Oh ho!” Jamie cackled, the delighted sound grating on Fox’s nerves. “Touchy, touchy. How’s he doing? I’m worried seeing Derek might’ve messed with his head. That guy was always a cunt.”

“Then why the fuck didn’t you do anything about it?” Fox had been wondering about it since they’d run into the dick. Jamie seemed protective enough of his friends—he was certainly protective as hell over his psychotic mate. Why wouldn’t he have protected Colin back then?

“What the fuck was I supposed to do?” Jamie asked, for once not sounding like he was on the edge of laughter. “He thought he was in love. And it’s a cardinal rule—you don’t tell someone their boyfriend is an asshole.”

“Your boyfriend is an asshole.”

“I know,” Jamie said with a happy sigh, sounding proud of the fact. “But never to me. And that’s what counts, right?”

Questionable fucking morals, this one.

Fox watched Colin through the window. He was whispering something into Dane’s ear now, and the look on Dane’s face… Fuck, he couldn’t look more smitten if he tried. “Do you regret it?” he asked Jamie, hating himself a little for it. He and the kid weren’t exactly gal pals. “Letting him turn you?”

Jamie scoffed. “Of course not.”

Yeah, second-guessing didn’t really seem to be up the little punk’s alley. Still… “What if he hadn’t been your mate after all?”

“Stupid question,” Jamie answered immediately. “We both knew we were mates. And even if we hadn’t…even if I’d only known what I felt when I looked at him…I’d still have done it.”

Fox bit his lip, his eyes still fixed on the blue-haired human a window away. He wanted to know what he was saying, why he was smiling. He wanted to know what he was thinking. He always wanted to know what he was thinking. “Sappy,” he accused.

“That’s what you’re looking for, isn’t it? A fellow sap to give you permission to give in to your urges.”

“And are you?” Fox asked. “Giving me permission?”

“Not my place, dude. All I know is if you do make the wrong call and hurt our guy, there’re quite a few vampires in the southwestern region who will make sure you regret it.”

Fox’s devil protested wordlessly inside him. It wasn’t any other vampire’s place to protect Colin. It was theirs—his and Dane’s. No one fucking else’s.

He knew better than to voice that out loud. Jamie would tell Colin, and Colin would probably bitch-slap Fox for being presumptuous. “Noted.”

“Anyhoo, let me chat with Luc and get back to you on the plotting murder side of things. Tell Colin I said—” There was the obnoxious sound of kissy noises through the phone.

Fox hung up.

Sometimes he really hated that kid.

“Cut it out .”

Fox grinned. “What? I’m not doing anything.”

Colin’s scowl might have been intimidating, if it didn’t have the unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on how one looked at it) side effect of making Fox horny as fuck.

“You are. You’re…you’re tickling me,” Colin accused, managing to make it sound like the most heinous of offenses.

He tilted his head up to look plaintively at Dane, who was toying with his hair. “He’s tickling me.”

They were sprawled out on the couch together in what was turning into one of their favorite configurations: Colin with his head in Dane’s lap, his legs resting on Fox’s. He and Dane were watching some ridiculous superhero movie while Fox read his book.

And it was maybe true that Fox was occasionally running his fingertips along the arch of Colin’s foot. But who could blame him? It was just so fun to watch him squirm and scowl. And maybe Fox liked the attention—could Colin really claim to be surprised?

Speaking of attention…

“Hey, why don’t we flip?” Fox asked.

Colin, who had already gone back to watching the TV screen, cocked a brow, not even giving Fox the satisfaction of looking over this time. “Excuse me?”

“Dane’s hogging you over there,” Fox complained, tugging at his foot.

Colin kicked at him. “He is not hogging me. I can’t be hogged. I’m a person, not a bag of potato chips.”

Fox leered at him. “Ten times more delicious than a bag of potato chips.”

He was ignored. “And I don’t want to flip,” Colin told him. “I don’t want this”—he pressed his heel against Fox’s burgeoning erection, ignoring his hiss—“anywhere near my face at the moment. Who knows what you’d do with it?”

“Come on it?” Fox suggested hopefully.

He was—against all odds—rewarded with Colin’s laughter, a surprisingly bright, bubbling sound. Fuck, did Fox want to hear more of that. Every day for the rest of eternity, if he could.

“Dane, tell him to stop being a nuisance,” Colin ordered after his laughter had trailed off, pressing his head up into Dane’s fingers while Dane smiled down at him indulgently.

And damn, that did things to Fox, the easy way they had with each other. It was like a missing puzzle piece slotting into place. His brother was happy , full in a way he hadn’t been in…well, possibly ever.

Fox had always known Dane had an endless well of affection to give, with no one to give it to. But seeing it in front of him brought the point home in a way it never had before. Dane needed this. He needed Colin.

They both did.

Fox tickled his fingers along Colin’s arch again. “Fine. Dane can keep hogging you. But my time will come.”

“How vaguely threatening,” Colin murmured, turning back to the movie with a soft smile as Dane continued to pet at his hair.

But Fox was bored of reading, and he wanted to bring up a potentially unpleasant subject while Colin was in a (relatively) nonhostile mood.

Maybe he should have stopped tickling him when he asked.

Ah, well. Fox cleared his throat. “So we need to feed. I mean…we need to hunt .” When Colin glanced at him in surprise, he clarified, “We haven’t been taking enough from you.

” He tried for a playful smile. “We’re growing boys, you know. ”

Colin’s heel pressed on his erection again. “Only one part of you is growing, and it has nothing to do with food.” He lifted his head from Dane’s lap. “Where do you hunt, then?” He didn’t seem upset, only curious.

“Sometimes we go out,” Dane said, finally paying attention to their conversation for the first time. “Sometimes we just grab someone from our porch.”

“Dining in?” Colin quipped. He stretched his neck, with a sigh. “Okay, I’ll go with you,” he told them, settling back into Dane’s lap.

“Pardon?”

“I want to watch. Is that a problem?” he asked, his tone letting them know that if it was, they’d have a truly pissed-off human to answer to.

Fox exchanged a look with Dane. Was it? In theory, no, but wouldn’t it make Colin…jealous? Fox found himself weirdly disgruntled that he wasn’t.

Dane took the lead. “It wouldn’t bother you?” he asked carefully. “Watching us feed on someone else?”

“You have to, don’t you? I’d feel better if I was there.”

It was a surprisingly vulnerable admission from their prickly lamb. And almost like a declaration of ownership, if they decided to take it that way.

Fox was definitely going to take it that way.

Colin cleared his throat. “They’re not going to—like how I—?”

“Are they going to come in their pants?” Fox finished for him, rewarded for his contribution with a middle finger waved in his direction. “Doubtful. You, my little lamb, are especially sensitive to a vampire’s bite.”

The tips of Colin’s ears went red. “Not always. With Jay, I never—I mean, it felt good, obviously, but not like—” He trailed off, clearly embarrassed.

How fucking adorable. The embarrassment, not the admission. The admission—well, Fox’s devil preened inside him, and his chest tingled with satisfaction. It wasn’t like he hadn’t known Colin had a stronger reaction to their bites than he was used to before, but he loved to hear it anyway.

No one could please him like they could, and Colin fucking knew it, didn’t he?

In a flash, Fox was tugging Colin down by his ankle, sliding him off Dane’s lap and onto his back between them.

Colin glared at him, but the effect was softened by his cheeks, which were a lovely pink. “Hey,” he complained in half-hearted protest.

Fox crawled over him, caging him in with his elbows. He leaned in close, breathing in that intoxicating desert scent. “Sorry, slayer. I’m afraid I have to kiss you now.”

Colin held up a hand, blocking Fox’s face. “Tell me I can come with you first.”

“Fine,” Fox groaned, dropping his head into Colin’s hand. As if he hadn’t already decided Colin could go with them wherever he liked. “But we’ll hunt from here.”

Colin bit at his lower lip, his gaze flickering away from Fox. “And what if I do, you know…get a little jealous?”

Fox lifted his head to meet Dane’s eyes, and when he looked back to Colin, his smile was sharp. “Then we’ll get our fangs into you and remind you who’s our favorite snack.”

Colin’s flush deepened. “You’d still bite me?”

“Anytime, anyplace.” Fox grabbed Colin’s hand, tugging it down. “And it’s time for that kiss, little lamb.”

“I’m not little,” Colin protested for the thousandth time.

“Technically, between the two of us, you’re half our size.”

There was that laugh again. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Never said we were geniuses.” Fox grinned down at him, so happy it was fucking stupid. “Now give me that mouth.”