Victoria must have only just realized what was happening, because she gasped. Aden didn’t need to turn around to know her cheeks were flushed a pretty pink. The heat blasting off her had intensified, wrapping around him like an invisible chain.
He waited until the pair finished and the boy was zipping up his pants, the girl straightening her robe. A robe very much like Victoria’s. Long, dark and easily removable. Don’t go there. The couple was lucky the others hadn’t ceased their debate outside the doors.
Aden cleared his throat as he sat back down.
The boy wheeled around, and the first thing Aden noticed were the perfect punctures in his neck, set in the eyes of the snake tattooed there, both still seeping with bright crimson nectar.
His mouth watered again. Was he drooling?
Seeing him, the girl gasped in horror and dropped to her knees, her head bowed. “Your majesty. I’m so sorry. I should not have entered without your express permission. I will shear my hair, rip my skin to ribbons and throw myself over a cliff. Just say the word. I would never have intentionally offended you.”
“Be quiet.” Blood…taste…
He must have stiffened or made ready to rise, because Victoria settled her hand on his shoulder and held him down. He could have brushed her aside but didn’t. He liked the weight there, slight though it was. Liked knowing he had only to grab her wrist and tug and she would be in his lap. Her neck, close. Her blood, in his mouth.
Deep breath in, deep breath out. Again. Again. The bloodlust faded, but only slightly. Slightly, but enough.
“Yo, Ad,” the boy said.
Aden studied a face he’d seen every day for months. Rough, scarred in a few places. “Seth. What are you doing here?”
Seth flashed an unrepentant smile. “Came looking for you. Dan’s worried. Everyone’s worried.”
Emotions came back in a flood, guilt the front-runner, but each evaporated in the blink of an eye. “How did you find me?”
“Shannon. He followed your friend Riley, who snuck into your room to grab some of your crap.”
Shannon lived at the D and M, had been his roommate, and was one of the good guys. He also had tracking skills Aden hadn’t known about.
“Gotta admit, though, I didn’t expect this.” Seth waved his hand across the gothicly designed room. “I mean vampires? Can you say incredible?”
Aden’s attention returned to the girl, who was still kneeling, her body quaking as she silently cried. “Enough. You had permission to be here. I summoned every one for a meeting. Now rise and take a seat.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much, majesty.” She straightened, her gaze never finding the courage to meet his, and backtracked to obey.
Part of him took great satisfaction in that. The other part of him was distressed. “Have you been claimed as a blood-slave?” he asked Seth.
“No, way! I’m no one’s slave.” Seth flicked an invisible piece of lint off his shoulder. “Did someone try to claim me, though? Yeah. Some dude. Until I mentioned how tight you and I are, and he couldn’t get away from me fast enough. Had the opposite affect on the girls. It’s been open season on my body, baby.”
Tight? Once upon a time, Seth had wanted to hack him to pieces and nail those pieces to the ranch walls.
“No wonder you kept this place a secret. You got all the tail you could want—and more.”
“How long have you been here?” Victoria asked, her voice as sharp as one of the daggers Aden had wanted. “How many times have you been bitten?”
Dark eyes swung to her. And stayed. And fell over her, taking all of her in. Aden stiffened and forced himself to hold on to the armrests before he did something he’d regret. Namely, rip out his friend’s eyeballs.
Hinges creaked as a door was opened. Footsteps sounded. Multiple pairs. No conversation, however. That had ended. Vampires and blood-slaves came into view, each finally taking their places on the tiers, as ordered.
Seth looked back at them, waved with enthusiasm, then returned his attention to Aden. “I haven’t been here long,” he answered. “And I’ve been bitten a lot.”
“No symptoms of losing too much blood?” Aden asked at the same time Victoria said, “Are you craving the bites?”
“What is this? National Interrogate Seth Day? No symptoms. And yes, I’m craving. Who could have guessed how fun those fangs could be?”
Aden heard her swallow a mouthful of crackling air, knew she was concerned and confused. “But your eyes are not glazed.”
“I know,” Seth replied. “They’re straight up awesome.”
“But…” Victoria twirled the ends of her hair around her finger. “How have you not become a blood-slave, addicted to the bite?”
Seth wiggled his brows. “Maybe I haven’t been bitten by the right girl. Hey, so, you want to give me a go?”
Victoria rolled her eyes, and Aden gnashed his teeth. Flirting with the princess was not allowed. Ever. “Does Dan know where you are?”
Seth shifted from one foot to the other, at last uncomfortable. “Not really.”
“So you disappeared, like me? Worried him?”
“Well, it’s not like I can tell him what I found, now, is it?”
More and more vampires were filing into the room. He could feel their eyes on him, their curiosity blistering him. More than that, he could feel the desires of their beasts. Those beasts wanted to be with him, to touch him. They’d missed him.
“What about the other boys?” he asked, continuing his conversation with Seth. He was king. He could do whatever he wished. “How are they?”
“Well, Terry and RJ are moving out as planned. Next week, in fact. Oh, and Dan caught Shannon and Ryder together.”
“What?” He’d known Shannon was gay. Known Shannon had thought—hoped—Ryder was gay. But Ryder had treated Shannon as if he had the plague ever since Shannon had made a pass at him. “And?”
“And, Dan was pretty cool about it. He told them the rest of us aren’t allowed to date while we’re on the ranch, so they aren’t allowed to, either. They can’t be alone together or anything like that.”
Dan was a better guy than Aden had given him credit for—and he’d given the guy a lot of credit. “You have to go back.”
“No. No way. This setup is too sweet. The chicks come on to me like they’re flies and I’m honey.” Seth pursed his lips. “I mean, like they’re bears and I’m honey.”
Aden didn’t want to know how many bears the boy had entertained. “Have there been fights over you?”
Seth’s chest puffed up. “Don’t mean to brag, but…hell, it’s not bragging if it’s true, right? Yeah, there’s been a fight. Just a few hours ago, in fact.”
And the loser was now enslaved. “You’re going back, and that’s final,” he said, something inside him—some kind of heat—wrapping around the words as they left his mouth.
Seth straightened abruptly, and his eyes glazed over. “Yes. Going back.” He spun on his heels and strode down the red carpet without another word.
Shocking.
“Wait,” Victoria called, a bit of panic in her voice.
He kept walking.
“I said wait!” she shouted.
Again, he kept walking.
“Aden, stop him,” she pleaded.
Her desperation reached the core of him, and he found himself reacting, obeying. “Seth, stop,” he called, the heat still pulsing around the words.
Seth halted but didn’t turn around.
“Tell him to forget his time here.” Her hand, which had never left his shoulder, tightened its grip, her fingertips digging into his muscle. “Tell him there’s no such thing as a vampire.”
“And he’ll believe me? Just like that?”
“Yes.”
Doubtful. Still. Aden thought about it, wanting to please her in this, but unsure why he wanted to please her in this. In the end, he said, “Seth, return to Dan. Tell him you found me, that I’m alive and well and living somewhere else, but do not mention the vampires.”
“Return. Dan. Found. Well. No vampires.”