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Blood Kisses
Dark Blood Book 1
Scarlet Blackwell
Copyright © 2023 Scarlet Blackwell
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons living, dead or undead, events, places or names is purely
coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transferred in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publisher.
Uploading and distribution of this book via the internet or via any other means without permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable
by law.
All rights reserved
Cover design by B4Jay

Blood Kisses
“You act like you hate me and I don’t know why. All I did was love you. It wasn’t a
crime.”
Ten years ago, the vampire Severin fell in love with the mortal Nikolaus in Vienna and
abandoned him, rather than take his life.
He and his friend, Istvan, are invited to the vampire king Emil’s castle where he finds out that
Nikolaus now belongs to Emil. Jealousy eats Severin alive. The twin lusts of blood and sex are
intertwined for all vampires, ruling their lives. The only way to possess Nikolaus now seems to be to
accept an invitation to share Emil’s pet for one night. But Emil is a despot, ruling all vampires with
an iron fist. There is long, painful history between Severin and his maker, and a strange kind of
relationship between the placid Istvan and the cruel Emil.
“I kept you safe.”
Storm clouds are gathering on the horizon, threatening all their lives. Severin can run, but if he
takes Nikolaus with him, Emil will hunt them down and kill them. What’s a vampire in love supposed
to do?
A dark, steamy, historical m/m tale of unrequited love and longing, and vampire power games.
The first in the Dark Blood trilogy.
Themes: hurt/comfort, scenes of MMM with MM ending.

Warnings: violence, sexual scenes, spanking, bloodplay, double penetration
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Blood Kisses
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Afterword
About the author
Out Now
Out Now
Out Now
Also by Scarlet Blackwell
Chapter One
Bavaria, Germany, 1895
The place was crawling with humans. Vampires weaved around them, their cold beauty a stark
counterpoint. The Schloss perched high on the rocks, looming sinisterly over the Bavarian forest and
shunned by the locals. They said bad things happened there. They were right. Emil Meissner presided
over it all. When he had one of his gatherings and you were invited, you went, no questions asked.
Severin Murnau pulled at his tight collar as he eyed new arrivals. He and Emil had history—
five hundred years of it to be precise. Emil had history with all the vampires in Europe: he had made
most of them, including Severin’s companion, Istvan.
Istvan caught Severin’s eye and smiled. Uncharacteristically pleasant for a vampire, he knew
Emil better than most. They had been lovers on and off for the past hundred years. Severin didn’t
know why either. Two more polar opposites you couldn’t find. Emil was all about control and
domination. Istvan was laid back and at peace with the world, including humanity. He didn’t like to
kill. Emil scorned him for it.
Istvan took two goblets of ruby-red liquid from the silver tray of a passing waiter and gave the
man a lingering look. Human, his blood hot, rich and tantalising. Severin saw the same hunger in
Istvan’s eyes as in any other vampire’s. He was no less of a beast, try as he might to rise above it.
Nonetheless, Severin admired him. Istvan knew when to stop.
“He always outdoes himself,” Istvan said, indicating his glass, the beautiful guests, and the
perfectly starched livery of the waiters. The somewhat drafty ballroom of Schloss Meissner was
outfitted with silver decorations, strings of gas lights hanging from the walls and enough candles to
burn the place to the ground. A string quartet played in one corner. On an erected dais, as self-
proclaimed king, sat their host. Severin tried not to look.
“If you say so,” he said. Meetings with Emil were to be got through with gritted teeth. Far too
often in the past they had nearly ended in his death. The first time they met, that was exactly what had
happened.
Bremen, Germany, 1350
Emil had found Severin drunk outside a tavern in his home town. Everyone in the place was
dropping like flies from plague and Severin swayed outside, clutching to the wall and wearing a
ridiculous mask he had fashioned himself at home.
“That won’t save you,” said a scornful voice nearby and Severin lifted his head to see a tall,
aristocratic gentleman in fine clothes.
Severin glared at him, drunk enough for a fight. The man stepped closer. His black eyes
burned like obsidian. “However, I can give you guaranteed immunity if you like.” He smiled, showing
two sharp fangs, and Severin started.
“I’m not that way,” he stammered as the man’s intentions became clear, because he’d only lain
with women up until that point. But he had always looked at men and admired them in just the same
way.
“Does it matter?” Emil said as he put an arm around Severin’s back and hunched him in close
to the wall. “I think not.”
Severin stumbled. His head hit the wall and a helpful hand ripped his mask off and forced his
chin up. He felt hardness against his hip a moment, the excited ghost of breath against his skin, before
lips touched his neck. A flash of arousal shot through him, swift and shocking, and he clutched at the
man’s coat, afraid and unsure.
Emil licked his neck. Severin groaned and a moment later the stranger gripped him roughly
through his woollen hose, stroking his cock, squeezing.
Severin gasped and a moment later it was all over. He felt his skin stretch and break. His
essence flowed into the stranger’s mouth and he bucked into Emil’s hand, light-headed and aroused
against his will. Emil drank, swallowing steadily, and Severin held onto him as he grew weaker. Emil
withdrew Severin’s aching cock. He worked Severin’s shaft hard, his palm rough and calloused and
desperately exciting. Severin had never been touched by a man before. Nor had he been bitten by one.
The pain and pleasure mixed as one like nothing he’d ever known before. The ecstasy of being
drunk from overwhelmed the knowledge that he was being murdered. Severin spurted into Emil’s
hand with a cry and slithered to the ground, glassy-eyed, his heart labouring to a halt.
It was Emil’s fault that Severin now forever connected blood lust and human lust. It aroused
him to drink and when he had sex, he longed to bite. The two needs were inseparable. It was Emil
who had made them that way. Severin cast a resentful glance towards the dais.
King Emil sat there presiding over his subjects, on a jewelled throne no less, his suit made of
velvet and his stiff collar pinching his neck. Severin would never deny the man was sexually
magnetic, more so than other vampires. Tall and commanding, he wore his intense sexuality on his
sleeve. He lay with both sexes, but preferred men. He was never short of a companion, vampire or
human, and dominated his partners with an iron fist. Severin could testify to that.
He glanced at his friend who was looking at Emil too. Severin sighed. Istvan was his only
friend. Vampires didn’t and couldn’t afford to have friends, but Istvan was different. He had picked
Severin up when he was at the bottom and continued to hold him up. That was why his friend
deserved better than Emil.
“Put your eyes back in,” he said good-naturedly.
A flush bloomed over Istvan’s pale skin. His amber eyes seemed misty. Nervously, he touched
his chestnut hair.
Severin smiled and shook his head fondly. Perhaps he needed to find Istvan a mate to get him
over this fascination with the dreadful Emil. His gaze took in Emil once more and sharpened with
interest when he saw Emil was holding a length of chain.
Good God, the vampire had a pet attached to it!
A human no less—it was very popular among vampires at that moment, a pet on tap for blood
and sexual services—a man kneeling on a silken cushion a few paces behind Emil, the chain attached
to an iron collar around his neck.
Something prickled along Severin’s spine as he took in the pale, slight figure wearing an outfit
of white silk that clung to his lean curves. The human’s face was downcast, delicate bone structure
and sooty lashes emphasised by his cropped, glossy black hair. His small hands were folded together
on his lap. He was motionless, barely breathing.
Severin reeled back, dropping his goblet.
It was the love of his life.
Chapter Two
Drenched suddenly in cold sweat, Severin stared. He knew this man like he was his own twin. As
dark as Severin was blond, as pure as Severin was defiled.
Nikolaus.
“Severin?” Istvan steadied him by the arm as Severin swayed in shock. He looked down at the
marble floor running crimson with blood as waiters hurried to clean it up, and the blood lust hit him
without warning. His fangs snapped out, eyes turning red, and it was all he could do to stop himself
darting across the room, throwing himself at the man who still held his dead heart and tearing into his
throat the way he’d always longed to do.
Istvan’s fingers tightened on him. He had been in Budapest when Severin met Nikolaus in
Vienna ten years previously and later picked up the pieces from the fallout of Severin’s affair. Hardly
an affair in retrospect. He had barely touched Nikolaus at all. But knowing him over that short period
of a few weeks, it was enough for him to lose his head and his heart in a way he never had in his life
before.
Severin allowed Istvan to lead him out of the ballroom, through the French doors and onto the
balcony that commanded views of the rugged Bavarian countryside for miles. He slumped against the
stone railing, clutching with feverish hands.
“Emil’s pet?” Istvan questioned, tense by his side.
Severin nodded. “Nikolaus.” The name tore from his chest, leaving a jagged wound. Snow
fell from the black sky, blanketing the hills and forests. Severin put his head back, opened his mouth,
and tasted soft flakes on his tongue. “Oh God,” he said. “We must leave.” Even as he said the words,
he knew he couldn’t go without speaking to Nikolaus just once, no matter what it cost him.
Istvan’s voice was gentle. “You know we can’t. It would be the ultimate insult. He’d kill us.”
“He wouldn’t kill you, you’re his favourite.” Severin bit his tongue against the bitterness he
heard on it. Who was he to judge whatever strange relationship Emil and Istvan had? When had he
ever succeeded in being close to anyone in the last five hundred years?
Istvan was silent.
“I’m sorry.”
Istvan gazed at the snowy landscape. “I’m not immune from his wrath, you know that.”
That was true. During lover’s tiffs in the past, Emil had almost killed Istvan. Severin rubbed
his hands over his face roughly and gave a loud sigh. “I never thought to set eyes on him again.”
“I know. We must go back to the party. You must greet Emil as though nothing has happened.
Once he’s seen you he’ll be happy. Maybe we can slip away early tomorrow.”
Severin swallowed. How exactly did he greet Emil with Nikolaus chained by his side without
wanting to rip the vampire’s throat out for daring to touch what Severin had never had? Wanton, erotic
images filled his mind of Emil entwined with Nikolaus, naked limbs writhing, the vampire’s teeth in
the human’s throat, drinking, tasting that sweet nectar that Severin had always denied himself because
of some misguided view of his love for Nikolaus. At this distance, he asked himself why. Why hadn’t
he taken what he wanted? Made Nikolaus into his mate for all time. He didn’t know. It seemed
obvious now, but Severin hadn’t been sure Nikolaus had wanted it. Maybe he had never felt the same
intensity of feelings. Severin’s head hurt to keep raking over the memories. All he knew was that
leaving Nikolaus had ripped him apart from the inside out and left him a shell.
Istvan touched his shoulder. “Come on.”
Severin turned and followed Istvan back inside, to the instrument of his doom.
Chapter Three
Vienna, Austria, 1885
The room was hot that night. A dance in progress at the Vienna townhouse of some socialite Severin
didn’t care for. But he used these events to bring himself close to humans for a while. To remember
what it was like to walk among them as the same, not different. He denied that it was in order to court
victims of the highest class but he wasn’t sure he believed it. There had to be something more to it
than that. After all, the social elite could be just as likely to be found with opium and alcohol in their
blood as the lower order. Often more so. These toxins affected Severin. They made him weak,
intoxicated, out of control. Sometimes he’d woken up in a dirty alleyway with a hangover after
sipping from a tramp on the way home. No fun, unless he was particularly looking to forget
everything.
Scandalously, he was alone that night. He didn’t have a lady companion who he could take to
social events. He sipped carefully at a glass of white wine, taking minimal drinks, using it mainly for
cover while he watched the humans on the dance floor. He would be a liar if he said he wasn’t
attracted to both sexes. The everlasting link Emil had left him between blood and sex guaranteed he
would take men as well as women. And that first man—Emil himself—still resonated within Severin.
He still shivered and stiffened when he thought of the rough tussles he and Emil had engaged in from
time to time since Severin’s death. But he had never bitten Emil or any other vampire. He didn’t know
what vampire blood tasted like and he had never dared to ask Istvan. He was happy enough with the
all-consuming fire that was human blood and he wanted it tonight. He wanted it badly.
A lean man of average height was dancing with a woman in white who was as tall as him.
They made an attractive pair. He was dark, she was red. They were both pale and sun-starved like
Severin himself. He stepped closer, following the curve of the dance floor to catch a glimpse of the
man’s face and stopped short when he saw it. God in heaven, he was beautiful. Raven-haired and so
fine of countenance, his porcelain skin almost translucent over bluish veins. He twirled his partner
around by the hand, smiling as she laughed breathlessly. The pulse in his throat hammered hard.
Severin breathed in deeply, scenting the man. His cock thickened in his breeches. This was the one he
had to drink from tonight.
Severin bided his time. He was loitering at the edge of the floor when the man and his partner
came off and he caught his prospective victim’s eye. The man glanced at him, looked away, then
glanced back over his shoulder as he led the woman away, blushing. Severin smiled. He took his
glass outside into the cool spring air and sat a while in the gardens. He watched couples walking and
eavesdropped on their private conversations with his superior hearing. One woman was with her
lover, telling him she was pregnant and wanted to leave her husband. Another man was telling his
partner what he wanted to do to her when they got home. Neither waited; they disappeared into the
foliage quickly. Severin smiled and debated following. Once upon a time he might have joined in and
killed both of them. Severin had once killed indiscriminately. A stern talking to from Istvan had
stopped that. Severin saw sense in not attracting attention. He could hardly live in his beloved Vienna
for much longer if he was to leave a trail of corpses in his wake. Now he survived on moderate
amounts from a number of victims. He tried not to drain anyone dry but he slipped from time to time
when he was at his most needy sexually.
He sat back on his uncomfortable metal chair and looked up at the stars in the black velvet
sky. The beautiful man inside had seemed happy with his woman. Perhaps Severin should leave him
be and go home now. But he didn’t want to go home hungry. What harm would it do to take a nip and
leave the young man with little more than a headache? He didn’t have to kill him, did he?
He straightened up as he saw a pair of slender legs appear at the top of the terrace steps. The
rest of the man’s body came into view—black suit, white linen. The moonlight shone on luminescent
skin and for just a moment, Severin thought he felt his dead heart jump in his chest. He frowned,
unsettled by the feeling. Victim, he reminded himself. A meal. Nothing else.
The man came down the steps and saw Severin sitting at the bottom instantly. He paused a
moment, clearly torn, but perhaps good manners made him acknowledge Severin.
“It’s hot in there.” He spoke in a local accent. He was Austrian through and through.
Severin inclined his head. “And cool out here.”
The man made steady eye contact. His eyes were an astonishing violet colour, a sharp contrast
with his black hair. He bit his lip a moment and Severin saw it blanch white, then fill with blood
again and he wanted to taste more than he’d ever wanted anything in his life before.
“Nikolaus Mayr,” the man said, holding out his hand.
Severin hesitated. The way the blood stirred in his veins, he was not sure he wanted to touch
this man yet. But he did anyway. “Severin Murnau.” Nikolaus’s hand was small and delicate. Severin
thought he could have crushed its bones in an instant. He felt the human’s energy flow into him. The
man was young, perhaps twenty-one. His clear complexion was fresh and dewy. He had years of life
ahead of him if only Severin left him alone this evening.
Nikolaus slid his hand free. He coughed and looked away, pretending to admire the sculpted
gardens. Severin considered him. A man who liked men and fought his hardest against his desire?
Possibly. Severin was sure he himself would feel more guilt if he was human and not vampire. As it
was, taking men didn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. Both would get him killed in the
end.
“Why don’t you sit for a moment?” Severin suggested, using his kindest, most seductive tone.
Nikolaus looked torn, posture tense as though ready to flee. Did he sense the danger? He sank
into the chair beside Severin. Only the table separated the vampire from having his wicked way. He
glanced around. They were too close to the steps. Anyone descending could see them. Nikolaus was
lucky so far. Severin would have to lure him deeper into the garden, which he had no doubt he could
do.
He glanced at his companion when Nikolaus sighed. “Are you unwell, sir?”
“Forgive me,” Nikolaus said. “I’m tired.” He passed a hand over his face and for a moment
looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.
Severin licked his lips. “The lady you are with tonight, is she your wife?
Nikolaus laughed. “Good God, no. Anna is someone my parents force me to take on social
outings. They expect I will marry her.”
Severin digested the words a moment. Here was a man trapped by social convention. “Do you
want to marry her?”
Nikolaus bowed his head and squeezed his eyes shut. He shook his head tightly.
“I’m sorry,” Severin said. He was dangerously close to feeling human emotions he had not
known in five hundred years.
Nikolaus looked at him in surprise. “Why are you sorry? You don’t know me.”
Severin had upset him. “Forgive me,” he said and marvelled at the conciliatory tone in his
voice. He could take this man by force if he wanted; why was he sitting here soothing Nikolaus’s
ravaged soul like he gave a damn?
Nikolaus exhaled loudly. “No, forgive me. I’m rude.” He glanced up the steps. “I’m thirsty.”
Severin pushed his barely-touched wine towards him. “Please.”
Nikolaus took the glass and drank some of the liquid. Severin watched him swallow, Adam’s
apple undulating, and his spine prickled with heady arousal. His cock filled and his balls started to
ache for satisfaction. He had been intending to merely drink from this man but he wanted so much
more than just a drink.
Nikolaus wiped the back of his hand over his mouth. He glanced at Severin with a shy smile
that showed pearly teeth. That disused heart of Severin’s clenched and seemed to throb. “That’s
good,” Nikolaus said.
“Finish it,” Severin said, thinking alcohol would loosen Nikolaus up, even if it would make
Severin drunk too by proxy.
Nikolaus drained the last mouthful. He put the glass down and looked at it a moment. “I should
go back inside.”
“Why don’t you take a turn around the gardens with me?” Severin suggested smoothly. “You
look flushed.”
Nikolaus touched his own cheek self-consciously. He stood. “Perhaps a few minutes.” He set
off walking and behind him, Severin smiled.
Chapter Four
Severin felt light-headed as they went back into the ballroom. He had had only a few sips of blood
that day and it wasn’t the best idea to face Emil and his new pet on an empty stomach. His guts
churned as he followed Istvan. Oh God, how had Nikolaus become involved with Emil? Was he a
consenting participant in whatever Emil was doing to him?
Emil had come down off his dais. He was walking among his guests, leading his pet behind
him on the chain. As they cut a swathe through interested onlookers, vampires mauled and pawed at
Nikolaus. They touched his cheek and stroked his neck. They cupped his firm buttocks and fondled
him between his legs.
Severin snarled and darted forward. Istvan held him back with every ounce of his strength,
pressing him to the wall out of view. “No,” he said.
“I’ll kill them; I’ll kill them all!”
“No you won’t, because Emil will kill you. I won’t allow you to risk your life for a human
you knew ten years ago.”
Istvan’s words were cruel but what claim did Severin have anyway? What was it to him how
many vampires wanted to touch and possess Nikolaus? He had never belonged to Severin and
certainly didn’t now. Severin guessed Nikolaus didn’t even remember him. He swallowed and lifted
his head, retracting his fangs before indicating it was all right for Istvan to let him go.
Istvan took him by the arm. “We say hello, you drink another cup of that fine blood you wasted
earlier, and then we go to our chambers before dawn comes. All right?”
Severin nodded tightly. He walked forward as Istvan weaved between vampires and Emil’s
human waiting staff. He kept his head down, not wanting to set eyes on Nikolaus until the last
possible moment.
Soon enough they reached Emil.
“If it isn’t my two favourite vampires,” Emil said, crushing Severin’s hand in his. “I was just
thinking you had spurned my invite.”
“We wouldn’t do that,” Istvan said, always in favour of keeping the more powerful vampire
sweet. Severin wondered how their roles went in the bedroom and could guess. Istvan didn’t look
like a man to be dominated—although Severin knew better—and he doubted Emil had ever let anyone
master him.
Emil’s coal black eyes bored into him, head cocked as though he read Severin’s shameful
thoughts. “You seem out of sorts, Severin. You’re even more ghastly pale than usual.”
“I’m thirsty,” Severin said. He chanced a glance over Emil’s shoulder and saw Nikolaus’s
head jerk up, gaze fixed on Severin.
“Then why to God aren’t you drinking? Do you know how many Bavarian virgins had to die to
provide you with that blood?” Emil grinned, fangs out. He’s on his guard, Severin thought, he knows
something’s afoot.
He looked again at Nikolaus. The human looked like he’d seen a ghost, pasty and fragile as
though he might faint. His dark eyebrows were knitted together in a frown, his violet eyes soft and
afraid. He was ten years older now but barely looked it, still so achingly beautiful.
Severin’s gaze slid down beneath his jaw and found what he sought. A set of purplish puncture
wounds on Nikolaus’s neck. Oh God, no. The thing Severin had fought and fought against. He would
have died rather than bitten Nikolaus and in the end he had given him up rather than turn him. And
Nikolaus had merely gone to someone else and let them have him. More to the point, he had let the
wicked vampire king keep him as a pet.
Severin clenched his jaw. “I’ll do that,” he said. “Thank you for the invite.”
“You’re welcome and oh,” Emil leant close to Severin’s ear and whispered, “if you want to
play later, I’ll be expecting you.”
Severin shivered in helpless excitement—damn Emil—and then his blood turned molten when
Emil held his gaze. He meant his pet too, Severin just knew it, and he could barely breathe.
“You too, Istvan,” Emil said, almost as an afterthought, as he yanked at the chain and pulled
Nikolaus away.
Istvan’s face was tight and cold. “No, thanks, I don’t share.”
Severin knew that wasn’t true. Vampires were polyamorous by their very nature, with no
inhibitions. Blood and sex were part of their existence and the two things their world pivoted upon.
Severin had witnessed vampire orgies that would make a human’s hair curl. And Emil was the worst
of all.
His gaze followed Nikolaus’s slight figure across the room. He had lost weight and his
shoulders were slumped. He didn’t look back. Severin looked at Istvan. They had never discussed
what either of them did with Emil and they had never played together with him. Istvan had never
shown any jealousy over Emil’s many sexual partners. Jealousy wasn’t an emotion vampires felt. So
Severin had thought until he’d seen that collar around Nikolaus’s neck and wanted to kill Emil. If
Emil’s offer was a clear invitation to a ménage à trois with Nikolaus, then Severin was interested. It
was probably going to be the only way he would ever get his hands on Nikolaus. But how would he
contain himself when he finally had Nikolaus at his mercy?
“Who don’t you share?” he asked Istvan. “Emil?”
Istvan reddened, the blood flowing into his alabaster skin. He said nothing.
“I’m sorry,” Severin said. “It’s the only way to…”
Istvan held up a hand. “I don’t care about you sleeping with Emil. He does what he wants.”
But he did care, that was the sad thing. Severin wondered if Istvan and Emil had ever invited
other vampires into their bed or if their sessions involved them alone. Certainly he had never heard
any rumours involving other vampires, when usually Emil was very keen to take on more than one
lover. As many as he could, really. Severin had heard tell of Emil playing on one occasion with seven
or eight people at a time, both human and vampire. An orgy that had ended with the walls splashed
red with blood. It had been a while since Emil had got his claws into Severin, but he hadn’t forgotten
the vampire king’s insatiable appetite. It was enough to stiffen his cock when he thought about it.
They wandered to the back of the room and ensconced themselves on a couch with goblets of
blood. Severin drank deeply and felt the life-force stimulate his every cell.
“He’s handsome,” Istvan said. “Your human.”
Severin wiped his hand over his mouth and burped. “He’s not my human. He never was. He’s
Emil’s as you can see.”
“And he looked at you like you had unfinished business.”
Severin closed his eyes. The goblet shook in his hand. “I loved him,” he said in a barely
audible voice.
◆◆◆
Nikolaus knew that Emil had waited until Severin and his friend had left the ballroom. He
turned on Nikolaus viciously in the centre of the floor, surrounded by vampires. He bent his head and
hissed in his ear.
“Tell me why your heart beats so hard and why your cock has been standing to attention since
we spoke to my friend.”
Nikolaus closed his eyes, trembling as Emil cupped his buttocks and squeezed hard.
Emil already knew why. He knew Nikolaus’s history with Severin and positively traded on it. “I’m
sorry,” Nikolaus said.
“We’re leaving. You’re going to put your excitement to good use.”
Emil said goodbye to some of his friends. He dragged Nikolaus down the corridor by his
chain to his chamber and released his collar. He stood looking at the bulge in Nikolaus’s flimsy
breeches. Nikolaus could hardly deny his arousal. Never had he expected to see the beautiful blond
vampire again, the one he had once thought he was in love with. In idle moments of imagining an
impossible reunion, he had never thought to be left reeling this way, mentally and physically. Oh God,
he wanted Severin as though it were only yesterday.
“He excites you,” Emil said.
Nikolaus hung his head and nodded.
“Undress.”
Nikolaus slipped out of his silk suit. Emil didn’t allow him to wear underwear.
“On all fours.”
Nikolaus climbed on the bed and positioned himself. He knew what was coming. Emil took
the wooden paddle from the bedside drawer and brought it down on Nikolaus’s buttocks with a fierce
slap.
Nikolaus jerked and cried out. His cock twitched and pre-cum dripped onto the covers. They
could both pretend this was punishment but it also got Nikolaus off.
“Bad boy,” Emil said and spanked him again.
Nikolaus hissed. “Yes.”
“I’m going to fuck your tight little backside until you scream, do you understand?” Emil
pushed a wet finger into Nikolaus. “After that, you’re going to the dungeon.”
“Yes,” said Nikolaus and memories flashed through his mind. Severin pinning him to a tree,
holding him there while he ripped Nikolaus’s breeches open and thrust his hand inside. Severin
saying he wouldn’t hurt him. Severin leaving.
He cried out as Emil sheathed himself deep and closed his eyes, imagined it was Severin
riding him.
◆◆◆
Severin slid naked between the cool sheets of his four-poster bed. Two goblets of blood stood
on the ornate night stand beside him. His conscience pricked about where they had come from but he
could hardly afford to be choosy. It was drink this or go out and attack some of Emil’s waiting staff,
or worse still, some of the other vampires in the Schloss and Severin wasn’t sure he wanted to visit
that sort of trouble upon himself at the moment.
The west wing of the castle was quiet, all the reverie concentrated on the far side, but it
would soon break up. Behind the closed curtains, dawn streaked the sky in rosy hues. Severin lay
back on the pillow and looked at the ceiling. A mirror hung there, showing no reflection. Severin was
bemused. Unless Emil had placed the glass to reflect any humans that might be brought to this bed. He
imagined watching Nikolaus writhing in the throes of ecstasy and his blood heated. What would
Nikolaus be like when having sex? Would he be noisy? Would he cry out when he was penetrated?
Would he beg for more?
Severin groaned, put a hand below the sheets and touched his stiff shaft. He had always
vowed to himself that he would never know the paradise of making love to and drinking from
Nikolaus. So why was he now thinking about doing it ten years later? Had the self-denial finally done
for him?
His thoughts wandered back once more to that first night in the garden.
Chapter Five
He and Nikolaus walked down the path that meandered through manicured shrubbery and into the
enclosed fruit orchard. Severin trembled with excitement the closer they got and the darker the air
turned around them. He couldn’t remember the last time he had desired a human being so. He wanted
to be balls-deep in Nikolaus when he bit him. Nothing less would do. And if he got carried away and
it ended in the young man’s death, well, it would be unfortunate but a hazard of the job.
Nikolaus admired the stars as he walked. He seemed ill at ease, the tension radiating off him
in waves. Perhaps he sensed the danger the closer they got to the fruit orchard. At the end of the path,
Severin pushed open a narrow, wrought iron gate. He stood back to allow Nikolaus in first and saw
the indecision on the man’s face. Severin could employ some vampire magnetism right about now, but
he only did that when he was too thirsty and down at heart to play games. He preferred letting his
victims come to him of their own accord, especially where sex was involved. He regarded Nikolaus
steadily, drinking in those violet eyes. It was suddenly vastly important to him that Nikolaus wanted
Severin for him and not for his vampire allure. He swallowed, unaccountably nervous as though their
roles were reversed and Nikolaus was the wolf, with Severin being the lamb.
“I hear tell these trees contain the sweetest apples in all of Vienna,” he said half-heartedly. He
knew he could do better. As a master hunter, he could have torn Nikolaus’s throat out by now.
Nikolaus raised an eyebrow. “I doubt that. It’s spring. There won’t be any apples.”
Severin cursed his mistake. “As you can see, I’m not much of a gardener.”
Nikolaus smiled. Still he seemed unsure, and Severin felt his patience waning. He didn’t want
to be the beast. Not tonight. He preferred to seduce and have a pliable, willing human in his arms. He
shivered and his cock throbbed and at that moment Nikolaus stepped through the gate and into the
lion’s den.
They walked through the budding fruit trees, the fragrance of foliage heady. The moon shone
faintly through the bustling branches overhead and illuminated Nikolaus’s milky complexion. Severin
was seconds away from taking him.
Nikolaus stopped and turned to look at him. “I should probably go back,” he said. His voice
was low. His body language was contradictory because he gazed into Severin’s eyes while not
making a move to leave.
“A few more minutes,” Severin cajoled softly. He lifted a hand and brushed the backs of his
fingers down Nikolaus’s perfect cheek. His skin was cool and like silk.
The human flinched. “You shouldn’t do that.” His breathing quickened, his pupils dilated.
“Why not?”
“It’s inappropriate.”
“For who? We’re alone. And I get the feeling you want to be touched.”
Nikolaus bit his lip. “You’re wrong.”
“I don’t think so.”
Nikolaus turned away. Severin grasped his arm and pulled him back. He felt the instant flood
of adrenaline into the human’s blood, something else that was poisonous to vampires but would
usually be present in most victims. Nikolaus lashed out. He slapped Severin hard across the face.
“Get off me!”
Severin’s reaction was automatic to the threat. His fangs snapped out and he snarled, shoving
Nikolaus against the nearest tree, pushing his head back to bare his creamy throat.
Nikolaus cried out. He struggled fiercely, alight with terror as he witnessed the transformation
in Severin. Severin’s lips settled against his neck. He tasted Nikolaus’s skin, breathed in the
intoxicating scent of his blood, and pressed his pelvis to the human’s, grinding his erection against
Nikolaus.
Nikolaus gasped. His hips bucked and in that moment Severin felt it. Nikolaus was hard.
Severin thrust a hand between his legs, gripped Nikolaus’s cock through his velvet breeches.
Nikolaus groaned. He panted hard. “Please don’t,” he said even as Severin opened his mouth
wide and pressed the points of his fangs against his delicious skin. He shuddered under Severin’s
hand. “Please, I beg you.”
Severin’s mouth hovered. He dripped saliva onto Nikolaus’s throat. Something about
Nikolaus’s vulnerability touched him. He wanted Severin, that was clear, but he didn’t want the
wicked side of him, only the man who could please him.
Nikolaus trembled in his arms. His body was limp, surrendered. He clutched at Severin’s
wrist and pulled it away from his crotch. Severin licked at his neck and felt both tides of lust
retreating. He stepped away.
Nikolaus slid to the ground. He pulled his knees up and cradled them with his arms, scrunched
up in a ball as though to protect himself from Severin. Tears streaked his face.
Severin looked at what he had done. If he had been human, he had no doubt Nikolaus would
have dropped his breeches and bent over for him that night. They could have engaged in the sweetest,
hottest copulation in the fruit orchard and gone their separate ways with fond memories. Instead,
Severin had had to bring the beast to the proceedings and now Nikolaus was disgusted, afraid and
appalled. He despised himself. He backed away, out of the gate and hurried down the path as fast as
he could.
Back in the ballroom he saw Nikolaus’s lady, Anna, looking for him and turned his face away.
He caught a hansom cab, alighted at the gates to the Stadtpark, and hurried inside, where he took the
first human who crossed his path. A young man who clutched at Severin’s coat and groaned sweetly
as he died.
Chapter Six
Severin stared up at the empty mirror and chased away his lingering regret. That wasn’t the first time
he had met with Nikolaus, but every time had left him miserable and stewing in his own darkness. He
seethed at Emil once again. This was the curse visited upon him. He barely recognised that man who
had spared Nikolaus’s life that time and subsequent times. Why had he done it? Why not just take
Nikolaus regardless of his protests? Nikolaus had clearly bewitched him, turned him soft, and put him
at risk. Severin wasn’t that man anymore. He was as he should have been—hard, cold, and committed
to staying alive. At least, that was what he told himself. The reality was different. He ached for
Nikolaus in every sinew of his being. What he had lost ten years ago seemed like it had happened
only yesterday. And now he had the chance to taste what he had never had. He had let Nikolaus go
once; he wouldn’t let him go again. He fell into unsettled slumber as the sun rose, making plans in his
sleep.
Severin came back slowly to consciousness as the sun slid into a fiery grave. Memories of
Nikolaus lingered at the forefront of his mind. That second meeting in Vienna.
Severin had gone out of his mind for a full week reliving those stolen moments in the fruit
orchard. He had been insatiable, plundering his way through a whole host of male victims in search of
just one who would move him the way Nikolaus had.
What he couldn’t get out of his mind was that look on Nikolaus’s face. The disgust, the horror
and the fear when he saw Severin’s true colours. Severin could never hope to win a man like
Nikolaus as long as he lived. Never had in five hundred years and never would. All he could hope for
was rough, transient copulations with men taken by force or seduced by his allure. Severin didn’t feel
very seductive. It was all an illusion, the vampire magic that made humans fall at his feet.
He loathed himself when he thought back to Nikolaus’s reaction to him and the more he
castigated himself, the more he became determined to seek Nikolaus out, to speak with him, ask his
forgiveness, and assure him he wasn’t a monster. He refused to see the plan as laughable even though
it was.
He loitered in the most fashionable of places every night for a week, hiding in the shadows
and scrutinising the face of every young man that passed. He despaired of ever seeing Nikolaus again
and knew he would mourn him the rest of his immortal life if he didn’t.
Then a stroke of good luck befell him. Waiting at the Vienna Court Opera one night, he saw
Nikolaus and Anna arrive for a performance of The Marriage of Figaro. He hid in the shadows
watching, then hurried to buy a ticket from an unscrupulous street vendor who sold it at a vastly
inflated price.
He entered the lobby to see Nikolaus, in formal tuxedo, and Anna, in white silk, disappearing
up the steps. He followed, hiding behind a gaggle of society ladies and watched Nikolaus and Anna
go into a private box. Severin waited outside. He could go in if he wanted; Anna would hardly pose a
threat to him, but he preferred no witnesses. If Nikolaus’s lady was to cause a scene, a crowded
building full of potential killers was not Severin’s safest place to be. Reluctantly, he went down to the
dress circle and found his seat. He craned his neck and searched all the private boxes until he located
two familiar figures. He kept his eye on them throughout the performance.
Severin occasionally visited the opera in an attempt to feel less lonely. This was a good
production but it couldn’t hold his attention when he sensed Nikolaus so close by. He was even sure
the human’s scent carried to him all the way from the box despite the presence of so many other
potential prey and it made him gnaw his lip and dig his nails into his palms. He needed to control
himself or the meeting would go badly wrong. He hadn’t come here to hurt Nikolaus. Not at all.
At the intermission, he started to shiver with excitement. He watched the box, saw Anna
leave, and hurried up the aisle to the exit. Anna was heading down the stairs to the powder room.
Severin looked right and left and then let himself into the box.
It was dark but he could see perfectly well. Nikolaus turned from his seat with the words on
his lips: “That was quick.” He stopped, frozen, his face horrified.
Severin felt endless shame. He never wanted to see that look again. He would rather kill
himself first. “Don’t be afraid,” he said quickly, stepping forward.
Nikolaus remained in the chair. His black hair gleamed under the low lights, reflecting gold
and red, and his violet eyes were dark, mysterious pools of emotion. “What do you want? Have you
been following me?”
Severin steadied himself on the box railing because his legs felt weak. He felt as though he
was the prey, rather than the other way around. “I wanted to speak with you. I wanted to apologise for
my behaviour.”
Nikolaus laughed, a low, bitter, scornful laugh that raked Severin’s very soul. “I’m sorry? Are
creatures like you in the habit of going around apologising to victims they failed to take?”
Creatures. Severin swallowed. “You know what I am. You also need to know that the other
night meant something more to me than...” he stopped, wondering why he was trying to explain at all.
Nikolaus’s gaze never left his. A heavy silence shrouded the box. Chemistry crackled between
the two of them. Severin smelled the adrenaline flooding Nikolaus’s blood. He heard the rapid
pounding of his heart.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I won’t hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you.”
Nikolaus moistened his dry lips with his tongue. The hand clutching the arm of his chair shook
visibly. Severin stepped right up to him, gripped him under the elbows, and Nikolaus rose and
pressed himself into Severin’s chest, hooking arms around his neck. Whatever Severin had been
expecting, it wasn’t this instant pliability on Nikolaus’s part.
Severin kissed him and stars exploded behind his closed eyelids. He wasn’t sure he had
kissed anyone at all in five hundred years and if he had, he couldn’t remember now. All that he was
and all that he had done was swept away in a blinding flash of passion. He felt human again, with
human wants and desires and nothing so petty as killing to survive. Nikolaus’s lips were like velvet
and sweet as honey. The relentless pounding of his heart filled Severin’s head as they kissed without
pause, tasting and exploring the other’s mouth as though time had stopped and it could go on forever.
Severin found Nikolaus’s tongue. The human moaned softly and Severin pressed him back
against the railing, holding him tight, oblivious to the hundreds of watching eyes below. Nikolaus was
hard and so was Severin, but the vampire made no move to touch him. This was all he wanted. Just
this kiss. Even the blood lust was subdued, muttering sullenly in the background, and he didn’t know
why. Sharing this scorching kiss should have made Severin insane and yet he exercised the iron
control he hadn’t been able to find on their first meeting. He wouldn’t frighten Nikolaus. He wouldn’t
hurt him.
The soft click of the door behind them alerted Severin first, the sound easily distinguishable to
him over the babble of voices in the theatre. He let go of Nikolaus instantly, stepped back and rubbed
a hand over his mouth as though he could stop his lips from burning.
Anna appeared in the box and Nikolaus looked at her like the guiltiest of men. She in turn
stared at Severin. She was an attractive red-head with pale, freckled skin and watery green eyes.
“Hello, sir,” she said when none of the men seemed forthcoming.
Nikolaus seemed to physically gather himself. He clutched hard at the box railing like it was
the only thing keeping him upright. He was dreadfully ashen, his lips kiss-swollen and infused with
blood. “Anna, this is Severin Murnau. He’s an old friend of mine.”
Anna glanced suspiciously at Severin. She held out her hand and Severin took it, bending low
over it and missing it with a sweep of his lips. Anna drew back her hand. “How cold you are, sir,”
she said, her face cool and mistrustful. Perhaps she saw him instantly for what he was, as some
humans had the talent to do.
Severin inclined his head in agreement. “I feel the cold,” he said.
The three of them stood there a moment longer looking at each other before Severin took the
opportunity to escape, not that he wanted to leave Nikolaus for one second. “It was lovely to see you
again, Nikolaus. I hope we might catch up again in the future.”
He watched the human with his dead heart trapped in his throat and begged Nikolaus silently
to take the avenue open to him.
Nikolaus hesitated a moment before he reached a card from his pocket. “Of course, Severin,
do call on me.”
Severin took the card. He held out his hand and Nikolaus shook it silently. The human’s palm
was clammy. His eyes were large with desire.
Severin bowed once to Anna and left the box. He hurried down the stairs looking neither left
nor right, and emerged on the busy street. He stood staring down at the card in his hand and wondered
why Nikolaus had made it so easy for him.
Chapter Seven
Severin threw back the covers when a knock came at the door and pulled on a silk robe. Outside
stood a servant with a cart containing jugs of boiling water for bathing. Severin bade him enter and
the human hastened to the bathroom with a nervous backward look at the vampire. His throat was
unmarked so this was either his first room or the other vampires were still slumbering satiated from
last night’s banquet.
Severin thanked the man after he had filled the porcelain bath and topped it up with cold
water. He dropped his robe and sank beneath the water, hissing in pleasure. He lay there and
imagined sliding his fangs into Nikolaus’s neck at the same time as sheathing himself in his backside.
These thoughts had tortured him for the past ten years. Somehow, though, he suspected Emil might
have something to say if Severin killed his pet. He was not sure he cared. All of his desire and
desperation had come flooding back. He needed Nikolaus.
Severin slid down the dimly-lit corridor like a black-clad wraith. Other vampires passed him
and he kept his head bowed, not making eye contact. He was thirsty and his head ached, but he was
single-minded in his determination even though he knew he shouldn’t be searching for Nikolaus while
hungry.
He descended a spiral staircase, headed past a bustling kitchen, and located the stone steps
that led deep into the bowels of the castle. Just the place Severin suspected a vampire like Emil loved
to play.
The air was cold and foetid. The steps were slippery with moisture. Noiselessly, Severin took
his time, arriving in a large, dark room that seemed to be a storage area for antiquated furniture. A
torch burned on the wall a hundred yards away. Severin set off down the corridor and passed through
a half-open iron door. He gasped as he stepped inside.
Attached to the stone wall by chains on his wrists and ankles was Nikolaus. He wore only the
white silk breeches from last evening, now dirty and stained. He hung limply, head down, perhaps
asleep.
Severin’s dead heart gave that funny lurch he always identified with Nikolaus. He stepped
forward uncertainly, shoes silent on the stone floor. He perused his love’s nearly-naked body. He’d
never seen Nikolaus undressed. Never had that pleasure. Nikolaus’s lean body was compact, his
chest and abdomen toned. A hint of muscle around the shoulders and biceps added considerably to his
exquisite charms. Severin’s gaze dropped. Nikolaus’s breeches were tight around his narrow hips,
constricting the bulge between his legs.
Severin swallowed. He felt indecent for looking while Nikolaus was not aware. Nonetheless,
he moved closer as his cock thickened. Nikolaus’s black hair was damp. A sheen of sweat graced his
forehead despite the temperature in the basement. Severin frowned. Was he unwell? He put out a hand
to touch just as Nikolaus’s head jerked up.
The human’s mouth opened in shock, his violet eyes wide. He made no sound but his hands
trembled against the chains. The wounds on his neck were freshly reopened, angry looking. Severin
clenched his fists at the evidence of Emil. Nikolaus saw the direction of his gaze and instantly looked
ashamed.
“Hello, Nikolaus,” Severin said.
Nikolaus licked dry lips. “Hello.”
“I didn’t imagine this is how we would meet again.”
Nikolaus said nothing.
“Help me understand what you are doing here,” Severin said. Despite the evidence of
Nikolaus’s chains, he still believed the vampire’s pet had some of his own free will.
“He’s angry with me. He saw me looking at you,” said Nikolaus.
“That’s not what I mean,” said Severin between his teeth. He started to pace the small cell,
anger getting the better of him.
“You mean with Emil,” Nikolaus said. He didn’t wait for a reply. The flickering torchlight
cast shadows over his handsome face. “Emil seduced me in Vienna. I was...lost. He enchanted me. I
found I...enjoyed his bite.” Nikolaus blushed.
Severin stopped pacing. He stared at Nikolaus. “You could have enjoyed my bite.”
Nikolaus’s expression turned cold. “Don’t turn this around. You didn’t want that.”
Severin started forward. “I didn’t want it? Keeping my hands off you almost killed me and
now you dare to blame me for you ending up in Emil’s arms?”
Nikolaus remained silent. Severin was driven into a frenzy. He grabbed Nikolaus by the throat
and squeezed. “You were lost? Lost because I left you? I was lost too! I sacrificed my own happiness
to keep you safe and you show me not the slightest gratitude. Instead you come here and prostitute
yourself for Emil.”
Nikolaus didn’t struggle in his grip. A soft shine spread across his eyes, turning them
sapphire. Abruptly, Severin embraced him. He scooped Nikolaus’s fragile body close and crushed
him in his arms, face against Nikolaus’s throat.
Nikolaus gave a breathy gasp. He shuddered in Severin’s arms. Severin squeezed his eyes
shut. He nosed Nikolaus’s skin and licked, avoiding the wounds. He pressed his pelvis forward and
felt Nikolaus’s hardness crammed against his own, just like that first time in the gardens. Nikolaus
whimpered and snapped his hips forward.
“God,” Severin choked out and gripped Nikolaus between his legs. The human wore no
undergarments, the silk breeches wafer-thin and concealing nothing. Nikolaus strained against his
touch and the silk bloomed wet under Severin’s hand. Severin panted. His fangs snapped out and he
touched them to the wounds on Nikolaus’s neck, sliding easily into the indentations already made by
Emil.
Nikolaus pulled at his chains fiercely. He rocked against Severin’s hand, neck arched back,
positively inviting. Severin rubbed Nikolaus’s cock through his breeches and felt the dam break on
ten years of unrequited love and lust. He opened his mouth wide and knew once he broke the skin, he
wouldn’t stop until he’d taken every last drop.
“Stop,” a voice rang out in the underground room.
Emil.
Severin stepped slowly back from Nikolaus with his senses reeling and his breeches tented.
The human hung gasping against the wall, the silk between his legs translucent with fluid.
Emil stood tall and commanding, wearing his customary black velvet suit. His expression was
like stone. “I offered him to you to be taken with me in attendance,” he said. “And instead you sneak
down here behind my back for private play.”
Severin weighed his options, glancing at Nikolaus who looked terrified. Placating Emil
seemed the best way out of this situation before the older vampire tore them both limb from limb.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I wanted to speak privately with Nikolaus. He and I are old acquaintances.”
Emil looked amused. “I know. He’s the one who broke your heart. Why do you think I took
him for my own?”
Severin stared. A dreadful rage rose within him and somehow, he swallowed it down. Oh,
Emil would pay.
Emil cackled. “Your face is a picture.”
Severin bit his lip, tried to focus his anger. “Why do you keep him down here?”
“To punish him, of course. And because he likes it.”
Severin raised an eyebrow. “He likes to be chained up?”
Emil glanced at Nikolaus almost fondly. “He’s a dirty little submissive. He loves everything I
do to him.”
Severin looked at Nikolaus. The human blushed and hung his head.
“Wouldn’t you like to punish him too for what he’s done to you?” Emil watched Severin
carefully like someone baiting a trap.
Severin didn’t speak.
“Wouldn’t you like to share him with me? Taste his essence finally? I promise you this man
has the sweetest blood I’ve ever known.”
Severin’s fangs snapped out involuntarily. He gnawed his lip and the heady taste of his own
blood flooded his mouth.
Emil laughed. “You still have no self-control even five hundred years later. You’re driven by
sex and blood.”
Severin stared him down. “Is there anything else?”
Emil looked amused. “A fair point. Do you want to be driven by that in my bed tonight?” He
gestured at the human. “With him?”
Severin’s cock was so hard he thought he would explode. The taste of his own blood on his
tongue was like honey, but he craved more. He craved a taste of the only man he had ever loved.
He nodded.
Chapter Eight
Emil’s chamber was opulent. Everything was black and crimson, the huge four-poster bed
dominating the room. A fire burned in the grate and candles stood on the night tables, casting sinister
shadows on the walls. Emil had attached Nikolaus’s collar and linked the chain to it. He had led
Nikolaus through the Schloss and Nikolaus had attracted all sorts of attention from vampires who
wanted to play with him.
Now Emil took off the collar. He pushed Nikolaus roughly onto the bed and wrapped silk
bonds around his wrists before attaching them to the posts of the bed. Nikolaus lay there on his back
looking at the two men. His chest heaved. He was still aroused.
“See how he wants it all the time?” Emil said. “Nothing satisfies him.”
Severin shivered. He noticed the items on the bedside table. A paddle, a carved dildo and a
stoppered bottle, no doubt containing Emil’s oil to aid penetration. His blood heated to boiling point.
He watched as Emil started to strip.
Severin knew the vampire’s body well. Emil was hard with muscle and well-endowed. He
discarded his frock-coat and shirt and slid his breeches down his legs. His rampant cock jutted out,
his balls large and heavy. Severin stared mesmerised as Emil climbed onto the bed. The vampire
pawed at Nikolaus’s crotch roughly and Nikolaus whined, lifting his pelvis. Emil glanced over his
shoulder with a grin. Then he lifted his hand and with one swipe, tore Nikolaus’s breeches apart.
Nikolaus hissed. His erection sprang free and landed against his belly, leaving a smear of pre-
cum. Severin ground his teeth. Emil dragged the ruined clothes away and Nikolaus spread his legs
wantonly, tight sac bouncing.
“See?” Emil said.
Severin stared at Nikolaus’s cock, fixated. The human was blessed, his dick long and of good
girth. Severin’s mouth filled with saliva as he longed to put his mouth around it.
Emil knelt back. “Whore,” he said and slapped Nikolaus’s cock.
Nikolaus jerked and whined but his erection remained towering, even after two subsequent
slaps. Severin stepped closer, desperate to release himself.
“Strip,” Emil ordered and Severin scrambled to obey. Before he had his underwear
discarded, Emil had straddled Nikolaus’s face, forcing his cock down the human’s throat. Nikolaus
groaned and started to suck, pulling at his bonds. With his erection straining, Severin climbed onto the
bed. He looked at the human’s cock and then he looked at Emil’s tight, hard buttocks and thought about
forcing himself between them.
With a desperate moan, he shoved Nikolaus’s thighs further apart and bent his head, sucking
all of his glorious length down his throat.
Nikolaus gave a muffled cry. Severin looked up and saw Emil glancing over his shoulder,
watching the show. He grinned and rocked forward, fucking Nikolaus’s mouth. Severin trailed his lips
down Nikolaus’s rigid shaft and licked at his balls before sucking them one by one into his mouth.
Nikolaus writhed under his touch. He bucked up, nailing his cock to the back of Severin’s
throat as he took him inside again. Severin pushed his hips down firmly. Then he cupped Nikolaus’s
balls and squeezed as he sucked. He heard Emil’s deep grunts and the soft cries Nikolaus emitted
around his cock. Severin reached up and ran his hand over Emil’s firm buttocks. The vampire
shuddered, glancing around. Severin trailed his fingers down Emil’s crack, probing between his
cheeks.
Emil let out a throaty curse. He climbed off Nikolaus’s face and sat for a moment watching
Severin deep-throating Nikolaus. The human now gave full rein to his cries and moans and the sound
sent Severin to fever pitch. Emil looked amused. He reached over and pinched Nikolaus’s nipples
into hard little pebbles, one after the other. Nikolaus bucked. Severin tasted pre-cum on his tongue
and wanted more.
Emil gripped Severin by the hair and pulled him away. “Enough.”
Severin wanted Nikolaus to come down his throat but he did as Emil asked, bearing in mind
this little ménage could end any time the powerful vampire said so. Severin was just grateful to be
invited to the party. He sat up, looking at Nikolaus. The human held steady eye contact, his eyes
nearly black with desire.
“Please,” he said.
“Please, what?” Emil demanded.
“Please make me come.” Nikolaus’s voice was small, desperate.
Emil laughed. “You’ll be lucky if you survive tonight once I let Severin loose on you.”
Nikolaus blanched. Severin said nothing. He wasn’t thinking too clearly. His fangs remained
unsheathed and the blood lust battled with the human lust. He needed both and he needed them now.
He moved between Nikolaus’s hips and leant down over him. He expected Emil to drag him back
with every move he made but the older vampire was silent, watching. Severin caught the scent of
Nikolaus’s blood, the adrenaline and testosterone thickening it, making it heady, and he gripped the
human by the back of the neck and kissed him hard with all the unrequited need he still felt.
Nikolaus gasped into his mouth. Severin thrust in his tongue and the human wrapped his own
around it, duelling and seeking. He lifted his legs, thighs hard around Severin’s hips and as they
kissed fiercely, Severin felt his cock slide between his buttocks. He groaned, pushing, and was met by
Nikolaus’s pelvis, his partner more than willing. He applied more pressure, felt the head of his cock
swallowed before he was dragged back by the neck and thrown onto the floor.
“What are you doing?” Emil stood over him imperiously. “Did I say you could fuck him?”
Severin was dazed, his cock harder than hard. He shook his head although he longed to rip out
Emil’s throat.
“No,” Emil said. “I want to play with him first.”
Severin climbed up. Emil took the ornate phallus from the bedside table. Made of smooth
black obsidian, it was long and slender. He opened the dark glass bottle and tipped some oil into the
palm of his hand before smoothing it down the dildo. He held it up; it glistened in the low light and
Nikolaus’s chest heaved, watching. Emil licked his lips. He reached down to the bond holding
Nikolaus’s right wrist and released it. Then he pushed the phallus into Nikolaus’s hand.
Nikolaus gave a soft little moan. He spread his legs wide and Severin saw the tiny little hole
between his buttocks before Nikolaus put the toy against it. He smoothed the tip of the stone dildo
over his entrance, back and forth, greasing his way. His hole shone wet before Nikolaus eased the toy
into his own behind.
Severin staggered back and sat in the chair behind him, mesmerised by Nikolaus’s self-
pleasure. Nikolaus slid the phallus inside up to the base, groaning loudly as he did. Then he started to
fuck himself.
Severin watched the toy disappear and reappear, gleaming wet, and he ground his teeth, pre-
cum leaking from his cock and running down his shaft. He grabbed his erection, slid it swiftly through
his fist and hissed in pleasure, moments away from coming.
Emil looked amused. He climbed onto the bed and slapped Nikolaus’s hand away from his
toy. Then he gripped the dildo and fucked Nikolaus good and hard with it. Nikolaus cried out and
squirmed. With his free hand, he clutched at Emil’s wrist, bucking against the pressure in his
backside, pushing down on the toy with every thrust.
Emil growled. He let go of the phallus, leaving it sticking obscenely from Nikolaus’s behind
and pushed the human’s knees up, spreading him wide for Severin’s viewing pleasure. Nikolaus
whimpered and whined. He grabbed the toy again and plundered himself with another few strokes
before Emil slapped his hand away once again. Without warning, he withdrew the dildo, leaving
Nikolaus crying out, clenching on nothing.
“Shut up.” Emil slapped one firm, peachy buttock and Nikolaus flinched. Severin leant
forward, squeezing his cock hard as Emil spread Nikolaus’s buttocks open wide to show his wet
hole. The older vampire dipped his head and started to lick Nikolaus.
Severin groaned and cursed. He let go of his cock before he could come and crept closer to
the bed to watch Emil’s wet tongue flicking over Nikolaus’s entrance. The human was loud beyond
belief. He shuddered all over, his chest heaving, grabbing Emil’s hair and pushing his face closer.
Emil darted the tip of his tongue inside, working Nikolaus open while he squeezed the human’s balls.
Severin could bear it no more. He climbed onto the bed and straddled Nikolaus’s face, facing
Emil so he could watch the action. Then he forced his cock down the human’s throat, plugging up his
cries.
Nikolaus’s soft, wet lips clung to Severin’s cock. He sucked frantically, his free hand
grabbing Severin’s buttocks and then his balls. Emil grinned up at Severin. He rose from between
Nikolaus’s legs, oiled up his prick and lifted the human’s knees, thrusting his cock deep inside him.
Nikolaus cried out around Severin’s cock. Teeth raked him but Severin barely noticed because
he was on the cusp of a climax so immense he could barely see straight.
Emil gripped Nikolaus’s hips. He hammered into him, grunting, and Nikolaus writhed so
fiercely, Severin had to hold his head still and keep his cock wedged between Nikolaus’s jaws.
Severin watched Emil’s cock disappearing inside Nikolaus. He watched the human’s rigid
dick twitching and leaking against his belly and then Nikolaus’s lips clamped hard against Severin’s
cock as he came, spurting up his own chest all the way to his throat in a torrent of white. The human
shook hard as though convulsing, holding Severin’s cock in his teeth and biting rhythmically.
Still Severin didn’t notice any pain. He rocked forward, Nikolaus’s chin clamped in his hand
and as he felt his orgasm coming, Emil rose up. He clambered up Nikolaus’s body with his eyes
turned red and his fangs unsheathed, and he gripped Severin by the hair and pulled his head back.
Severin surrendered. As Emil’s teeth broke his skin and Severin’s blood spurted into his
mouth, Severin came, spilling down Nikolaus’s throat in endless waves. He felt the blood desert his
brain and sparks shimmered before his eyes. He swayed and hands held him up. His last thought as
blackness consumed him was that he hadn’t possessed Nikolaus quite how he wanted to.
◆◆◆
Nikolaus lay groggily as Emil eased Severin’s limp body down onto the bed beside him. He
couldn’t deny the thrill of being shared by the two vampires. But it was getting to grips with Severin
that excited him the most. The kiss and Severin pressing his cock against Nikolaus’s anus, so
tantalisingly close to fucking him. Severin watching with those molten silver eyes while Nikolaus
fucked himself with the dildo. And then Severin’s cock down his throat, the flood of cum nearly
choking him.
He shifted on the bed with a soft moan as his dick came back to throbbing life.
Emil noticed. He smiled. “As I said. Nothing satisfies you.”
That was probably true. Nikolaus was insatiable in the bedroom. He liked to be used,
dominated and humiliated. He liked to be spanked and tied up and two men were always better than
one. Or three. Or four. What a great vampire he would make.
Nikolaus glanced at Severin. He’d enjoyed looking up and seeing Emil biting Severin too.
Something about that had been very erotic, particularly as Severin had instantly come down
Nikolaus’s throat. He looked over at Emil and batted his lashes in the way that reduced Emil to putty
in his hands.
“Anything for you,” he said.
Emil licked his lips. “Dirty little boy,” he said. “Why don’t you sit on my face?”
Nikolaus sat up. He shifted across Emil, straining the bond around his left wrist to its limit,
straddling his head and bracing his right hand against the wall. Emil thrust his tongue into Nikolaus’s
wet arsehole and Nikolaus shuddered, cried out and rode Emil’s face while jerking himself off,
wringing every drop of pleasure he could get from the vampire with his gaze firmly fixed on Severin.
Chapter Nine
Severin came around slowly, opening his eyes to find himself stretched out on the bed, shadows
playing over his naked skin. Beside him on his left lay Nikolaus; on the human’s other side was Emil.
Nikolaus was covered with spunk. He appeared to be asleep, breathing softly. Emil lay naked
with his cock still hard against his belly. He regarded Severin with amusement. “You still come when
I bite you.”
Severin flushed. “I came because he sucked my brains out through my cock.”
“Of course.”
Severin looked down at the teeth marks on his cock dispassionately. He felt somewhat guilty
over the three-way sex. But hadn’t Nikolaus been an avid participant? Nikolaus hadn’t been bitten;
Severin had nothing to feel guilty about. But still...
He glanced at Emil. “What will you do with him?”
“What do you mean?”
“When he outlives his usefulness.”
Emil looked at his slumbering pet. He said nothing.
“Do you aim to turn him?”
Emil drew his lips together into a thin line. He shook his head.
“Then you’ll kill him?”
Emil fixed his coal-dark eyes on Severin. “All those things he would never allow you to do to
him, he’s now allowing me. He’s not worth one moment’s consideration from you. He likes pain, sex,
and being bitten. Apart from that, he’s redundant. When I’ve finished, I’ll snap his neck.”
Pain lanced through Severin’s chest. He refused to believe that Emil was as wicked as he
portrayed. After all, Istvan wouldn’t entertain such a man, would he? “Give him to me,” said Severin.
Emil looked amused.
“I mean it. I’ll buy him. Anything you want.”
Emil regarded him. “I haven’t finished with him.”
“When you do.”
Emil climbed off the bed. “I have a party to attend. Go back to your room and wash the smell
of the human off you before my other guests get too excited.” He walked into the bathroom and closed
the door.
Severin shook his head in disgust. He looked at Nikolaus still sleeping peacefully and reached
to unfasten the silk tie from his left wrist. He lifted a hand to run it over the human’s brow. His skin
was warm and dry, not like Severin’s which always verged on the cool side. Nikolaus stirred under
his touch. He lifted his eyelids, turning his head to regard Severin.
Perhaps he had been expecting someone else because a frown creased his brow causing
Severin to take his hand away. Nikolaus sat up. He pulled a pillow over his lap to hide his genitals.
“Where’s Emil?”
“In the bathroom.”
Nikolaus swung his legs over the side. Severin stopped him before he could rise by placing a
hand on his shoulder. “I want to talk with you.”
“I don’t want to talk to you. There’s nothing to say.” Nikolaus pulled away and stood.
“There’s plenty. Like how you’re blaming me for leaving when I only wanted to keep you
safe.”
Nikolaus found the flimsy silk breeches. Severin watched his pert bottom as he slid the
garment up his legs. They were torn and exposed his groin. “Maybe I wanted more than what you
gave me.” He turned to look at Severin and the vampire stared at him in disbelief.
Nikolaus had wanted to be bitten? Maybe even wanted to be turned? And he had never once
said anything and now, this was his retribution, taking up with Emil to torture Severin for not killing
him? It couldn’t possibly be true. Whatever Nikolaus meant, he couldn’t possibly mean that.
Severin felt both repulsion and the age-old arousal associated with Nikolaus. In the past, as
soon as Nikolaus popped into his mind, Severin would be hard and needing satisfaction. Often only a
few passes of his own hand would bring him to climax. He climbed off the bed and pulled on his
breeches. Then, before Nikolaus could leave the room, he dragged him back and tossed him onto the
bed. Nikolaus fought and writhed as Severin secured both wrists back to the bedposts.
“I would be remiss if I let Emil’s pet go,” he said, astride Nikolaus’s hips.
“Bastard,” Nikolaus hissed with violet eyes flashing. To Severin’s vampire vision they were
like sparkling sapphire jewels.
“That’s me. We’ve already established that. Have fun with Emil. You’re welcome to him.”
Severin got off the bed, collected the rest of his clothes and left the chamber.
◆◆◆
Nikolaus lay still on the bed in his silken bonds hating the words he’d said to Severin.
Maybe I wanted more than what you gave me. They had confused and hurt the vampire. It was unfair.
Nikolaus had never explicitly said what he wanted. Had only known himself in the most half-hearted
and fearful of ways. Severin wasn’t like most vampires. Deep down, he still had a heart and had
worn it on his sleeve when Nikolaus had known him ten years ago. He didn’t doubt that all Severin’s
passion had been real. He didn’t deserve Nikolaus’s spite and apathy, but it was the only way he
knew to protect his still-broken heart.
◆◆◆
Once back in his room, Severin washed in his cold bath water and dressed. He opened the
door to see Istvan just leaving his chamber. Perhaps his face was an open book, because Istvan said,
“You accepted Emil’s invitation then.”
Severin blushed. “He brought Nikolaus along. It ended messily.”
Istvan arched a brow as they walked along the corridor. “You killed him?”
“No, no. Nikolaus and I exchanged cross words. I’m not sure what I ever saw in him.”
Istvan gave a soft sigh. “I’m sorry. Past lovers are not always as we remember them.”
He was never my lover, Severin thought, but said nothing. Now he knew what Nikolaus was
like as a lover, he doubted he would have the willpower to say no should the human be offered to him
again, no matter what his current thoughts were about Nikolaus. Addiction would ensue quite easily;
he was sure of it. And he had been serious about buying Nikolaus. Perhaps it was about time he had a
pet of his own and Nikolaus clearly liked being owned.
Severin was weak with blood loss by the time they arrived in the ballroom. He was swift to
procure a goblet from a passing waiter and guzzle down a fine vintage. Damn Emil. The vampire king
was on his dais again, Nikolaus chained and kneeling beside him, this time dressed in black silk, the
wounds on his neck stark against his pale skin.
Severin ground his teeth and smacked his lips. He swooped another glass from a nearby tray
and downed the contents.
Istvan watched him. “He bit you, didn’t he?”
Severin’s face heated. He supposed his thirst made it obvious but Istvan gestured to his neck.
“Your wounds. They haven’t healed.”
Severin pressed a hand to his throat and found the teeth marks, much to his surprise. He had
always healed well in the past; what was this? But he seemed to remember that last time Emil had
bitten him, the wounds had remained sore and inflamed for some days.
Istvan read his mind. “Yes, Emil’s bite is different from other vampires. When he bites me, I
have a mark for weeks.”
Severin said nothing. He felt guilty at the evidence of Emil on him, the man Istvan courted a
strange kind of relationship with. He vowed never to touch Emil again, but knew he would break that
vow if it meant being close to Nikolaus. He didn’t know why his hunger for Nikolaus wasn’t sated.
The man clearly felt nothing for him anymore beyond attraction and was happy to share his favours
with Emil. Why continue to waste his thoughts on him? Severin knew the reason. Nikolaus’s body and
blood had finally come close enough to possess and Severin had missed out. Gone were any finer
feelings concerning hurting or turning Nikolaus; the human had made it clear he blamed Severin for
everything. That was fine by Severin. Now he could take Nikolaus with no remorse.
As he should have done ten years ago.
He stared over at the dais and caught Nikolaus’s eye. The human stared back steadily, clearly
unafraid and Severin clenched his jaw. He would show Nikolaus.
Chapter Ten
Severin’s sleep was tormented by vivid, erotic dreams. He felt his fangs in Nikolaus’s neck, tasted
the first sweet spurt of blood, and came instantly. He woke tangled in the sheets with his belly wet
and sticky.
It was late in the evening. He hurried to bathe in the hot water the attendant brought and then
he negotiated his way past the dungeon to Emil’s chamber. The sounds coming from inside stopped
him in his tracks. He loitered in the corridor, his cock hard. He heard whimpers, deep guttural groans,
and mewls. He pushed the door ajar slowly and wasn’t sure if the scene he saw was from his
fantasies or his nightmares.
Nikolaus was on all fours on the big bed, spread-eagled. He gripped a pillow hard, biting it
as Emil pounded into him from behind, holding the human’s hips, leaving vicious bruises behind.
Severin stared. His prick was so stiff it hurt. His balls ached. He watched Emil’s thick cock
driving into Nikolaus, saw the oil glistening on it and the way he split Nikolaus open and all of a
sudden the sensation hit Severin. An overwhelming feeling of tightness and pain in his chest. A
clawing, burning fury in his brain. He wheeled away from the door and retched, blood splashing his
shoes. He rested panting against the wall, his brow icy and clammy and tried to identify the feeling
with his eyes squeezed shut. Slowly he recognised it from sifting through those human emotions that
had been locked away for five hundred years.
Jealousy.
Emil was taking what Severin had never had. Severin had lived and breathed Nikolaus during
those few short weeks he had known him all those years ago. He had dreamed of being inside him, of
feeling Nikolaus come around him, fantasised about the first taste of his essence and how Nikolaus
would cry out with the twin penetrations.
He had been too blind with blood lust and human lust to care about watching Emil fuck
Nikolaus the previous night. Now he cared to excess. He cared enough to kill. He pushed the door
open, fangs snapping out.
Emil glanced over his shoulder but didn’t pause in his punishing pace. His buttocks clenched
rhythmically as he thrust. His muscular back gleamed with sweat. He smirked at Severin. “You want
what I’ve got, don’t you? If your eyes weren’t so red with blood, they’d be green.”
Severin growled. He stalked forward, pulling his shirt off and wrenching his breeches open.
“I want him.”
“Tough.” Emil grunted on each thrust. “He’s mine. You don’t fuck him. You can play with him,
that’s all.”
Severin clenched his jaw. He climbed onto the bed, withdrew his cock and stroked it while
watching Nikolaus’s writhing body. The action of his own hand almost made him come. He gritted his
teeth before he could beg Emil for access.
Emil, though, was watching him slyly. He knew how much he was torturing Severin, the
younger vampire was in no doubt. Severin crawled to Nikolaus’s head and knelt facing him. Nikolaus
looked up, eyeing Severin’s bobbing cock and then making eye contact. Severin felt that wrench
inside again. That jumping of his dead heart. He cursed low under his breath and gripped Nikolaus by
the hair. Nikolaus never removed his gaze as he opened his mouth and swallowed Severin’s cock.
Severin hissed. He shuddered long and hard and felt himself ready to spurt. He had never
known a human able to bring him instantly to the edge with one touch the way Nikolaus could. He
glanced at Emil, saw the vampire’s eyes were closed, his face contorted in the throes of ecstasy. He
came to a gasping halt and pulled free from Nikolaus.
Nikolaus whimpered around Severin’s cock. He flinched as Emil slapped him hard across the
backside and climbed off the bed, flushed with satisfaction. His fangs were out and Severin watched
him warily, aware he might be on the menu once again. But Emil strolled naked across the room with
his cock still hard and wet and disappeared into the bathroom.
Severin eased his cock from Nikolaus’s mouth. He retracted his fangs. He knelt watching the
closed door for a moment, torn with indecision. Was it a trap? Did Emil really trust Severin alone
with his pet? But then he’d done this the day before too. Left Severin alone as though the threat
hanging in the air was enough to keep him away.
Now though, he wasn’t sure if it was.
Nikolaus looked up at him, his violet eyes large, pupils dilated. He panted a little, his mouth
wet with saliva. Slowly, he licked his lips and parted them again to receive Severin’s cock.
Severin pushed him away angrily. He crawled off the bed and fastened his cock back up with
difficulty. It strained his breeches to bursting point.
Nikolaus rolled onto his back. “What’s the matter?” he asked. “You want it, don’t you?”
Severin regarded him. Nikolaus’s dick was hard and leaking. Severin bit his lip. “You would
get me killed? Is that your intention?”
A chastened look flitted so quickly over Nikolaus’s cool face that Severin wasn’t sure if he’d
imagined it. “He won’t kill you.”
“Of course he will. You don’t know him like I do. You’re his property. I get to do with you
what he says. Nothing extra.”
Nikolaus was silent. Then he lifted his knees, spread them slightly and Severin saw the semen
dribbling from between his buttocks. He cursed, turning his back, digging his nails into his palms as
that hot jealousy streaked through him once more. He asked himself what he had done to deserve
Nikolaus’s cool disdain and teasing when all he had done was keep Nikolaus safe ten years ago.
“You act like you hate me and I don’t know why,” he said so softly he was sure the human
wouldn’t hear. “All I did was love you. It wasn’t a crime.” He stood with head bowed for the longest
time with his desire leaching away to be replaced by misery. He vowed to leave the castle
immediately and then he heard a rustle from the bed and turned around with his heart steeled to any
more of Nikolaus’s seduction.
Nikolaus was sitting up, legs curled under him. He held a velvet blanket over his nakedness
and his violet eyes were luminescent with tears.
Severin’s stomach contracted violently. He stepped forward.
“You left me,” Nikolaus said in a whisper meant for vampire ears only. “That’s what you
did.”
Severin drew in his breath. He shook his head and was momentarily distracted by the sound of
splashing water from the bathroom. “I kept you safe,” he said, aware he had said something similar to
Nikolaus the previous day.
Nikolaus’s lip trembled. “Do you know what I did when you left?” The question was clearly
rhetorical. Severin stood in silence, dreading the answer. “I turned into the worst kind of man. I
drank, I took opium, and I lay with as many men as I could. Sometimes two or three at once.”
Each word lanced Severin’s heart like a poisoned arrow.
“My parents disowned me. I ran out of money and lived on the streets until Emil found me.”
Nikolaus bit his lip. Tears spilled down his cheeks. “Every man I went with, I imagined it was finally
the ecstasy of being with you.”
Severin clenched his fists. He roared, lashed out, and sent a porcelain jug spinning off the
dresser to smash to bits on the floor. As he pounced upon the bed, Nikolaus cowered back. Severin
gripped him by the neck and kissed him.
Nikolaus’s response was fierce. He returned Severin’s kiss with a passion that stunned the
vampire. His mouth was burning hot. They fell back on the bed with limbs entwined, the velvet
blanket separating their skin. Severin tasted Nikolaus’s tears. He heard the bathroom door open but
couldn’t unglue his lips from Nikolaus’s. The blood pounded in his temples and he felt dizzy, sparks
dancing behind his closed eyes.
Although he sensed Emil standing behind them, the other vampire was silent and didn’t
interfere. Severin yanked the blanket away from Nikolaus’s body. He caressed the human’s chest,
plucking at his tiny nipples before zeroing in between his legs, wrapping his hand around Nikolaus’s
shaft.
Nikolaus groaned and bucked against him. He sucked on Severin’s tongue. His cock throbbed
in Severin’s hand and Severin smeared the leaking fluid over the head and listened to Nikolaus’s
choked gasp. The human went for Severin’s breeches. Nimble fingers plucked open the fastenings and
Nikolaus reached inside and withdrew Severin’s cock.
The warm hand around his rigid dick was like paradise. He imagined how tight and hot
Nikolaus’s backside might be and thought he would instantly explode. He ground against Nikolaus,
their cocks sliding together, hands trapped, mouths fixed. Nikolaus writhed and whined. He shoved a
hand down Severin’s breeches to grasp his backside, kneading, pulling the vampire closer.
Severin let go of Nikolaus’s cock. The human encircled both of their pricks in his small hand
and jerked hard. Severin nudged Nikolaus’s legs apart with his knee. He probed between them, found
Nikolaus’s entrance and stroked a moment before his finger sank into hot wetness. It was wrong that
the evidence of Emil on Nikolaus aroused Severin further even as it fanned the flames of his jealousy,
but it was all to Severin’s advantage anyway: Nikolaus would need no preparation.
He pushed his breeches down, gripped his cock and knelt up. His gaze found Nikolaus’s. His
lost love was red in the face, the tears still staining his cheeks. His mouth was open, wet, gasping.
Nikolaus spread his legs, knees up. He guided Severin between them. Severin felt an instant’s
resistance before he sank inside Nikolaus’s heat.
Nikolaus arched beneath him. Severin caught his breath as tight muscle enclosed him. This
was it, this was everything he had dreamed of ten years ago. At least, almost everything. He sheathed
himself to the hilt and started to rock inside Nikolaus, doing his best to hold back although he was
moments away from coming. He needed to savour it. He needed to still be inside Nikolaus when his
lover came. More importantly, he needed not to bite Nikolaus and drink him dry, no matter that he had
promised himself earlier to take the human with no remorse. Not anymore. Nikolaus had showed his
tender heart. He still felt something for Severin and Severin in turn, well, he was once more back in
that protective role. Keeping Nikolaus safe, the altruism that had cost him ten years. The human lust
could be sated here; the blood lust couldn’t. It would have to be enough.
Severin fell forward, propping himself on his hands. He kissed Nikolaus with a soft groan.
Nikolaus wrapped arms and legs around him. Hands on Severin’s buttocks, he pulled him closer,
deeper. He moaned with every thrust into his depths and met Severin’s pelvis with his own.
A hand wrapped around Severin’s neck and made him falter in his rhythm. “Have your fun, but
if you come inside him, you’re a dead man.”
Severin tried to look over his shoulder but Emil’s hand was like steel. He knelt behind
Severin, rigid cock pressed against his backside.
Nikolaus whimpered softly. “Please, Emil,” he said. “I’ll do anything you want. Anything.”
Severin had never realised before what a good actor Nikolaus was, how all his innocence was
channelled into his seduction. Now he knew better about Nikolaus’s innocence. He held himself still,
that fearful hand around his neck that could dispatch him at any moment.
Emil laughed. “You want his seed inside you?”
Nikolaus’s thighs clenched Severin’s hips. “Yes.”
Emil was still a moment. Then his grasp eased on Severin’s neck. He leant towards the
bedside table. “Fair’s fair,” he said. “Don’t leave me out.”
Severin shuddered as he watched Emil pour oil into the palm of his hand. Nikolaus’s eyes
widened. He clutched Severin closer and began to move against his cock. Severin thrust into him. He
gasped as Emil spread his buttocks apart and fingered him, lubricating his entrance. He shivered,
kissed Nikolaus, and kept his eyes closed as Emil penetrated him.
He knew the blissful sting. He always felt shameful and dirty after he’d been with Emil even
though Emil always made him come in a hurricane as soon as he bit him. He rocked into Nikolaus and
Emil joined their rhythm, fucking Severin and building his pace.
Soon the vampire king crushed Severin to Nikolaus. Severin’s skin was slick with their
combined sweat. Nikolaus was noisy in his pleasure. He clawed at Severin’s shoulders. Severin
buried his face in Nikolaus’s neck, choosing the other side to the wounds left by Emil. He couldn’t
deny that the twin pleasures of fucking and being fucked were something out of this world. He felt
full, ready to scream aloud in his ecstasy, his cock swallowed by Nikolaus and his arse spread and
plugged by Emil.
He kissed Nikolaus’s throat and Severin’s lover arched his neck, inviting, the way he had in
Emil’s dungeon. Severin groaned. He licked Nikolaus’s damp skin, tasting the salty sweat. This time
the blood lust had lingered way behind the human lust when normally with Severin’s victims it was
the other way around. He had always reacted to Nikolaus as a man first and foremost and a vampire
second, though. Always.
But now the blood lust stirred, came crashing to the fore to mingle with the human lust and
turn Severin’s blood molten. He could barely focus on the room anymore, hardly aware of Emil
pushing into him. He felt dizzy, discombobulated like he’d drunk bad blood, on the verge of orgasm
and more frighteningly, on the verge of passing out, he was sure of it. He fought at the blackness
tingeing the edges of his vision. He couldn’t allow that to happen. He didn’t know what punishment
Emil might have in store for Nikolaus while Severin was unconscious. He doubted he had a choice
though. His body was in control now, not his mind, and what would happen, would happen.
He opened his mouth, stretched it wide, pressed the points of his canines against his lover’s
skin. At the same moment, he felt Emil’s weight smothering him, the older vampire’s teeth sinking into
the side of his throat.
Severin struggled for an instant. Then Nikolaus bucked hard against him and tightened in
excruciating waves around Severin’s cock. The moment of biting Nikolaus was gone. Nikolaus let
loose a cry as he came and Severin echoed it. He filled Nikolaus full and shimmering waves carried
him away as Emil bit him.
Chapter Eleven
Severin fought against the impending faint. He screamed in fury, rearing up, batting Emil’s head away
and dislodging the vampire from his throat. Emil grunted, gripped Severin by the neck and held him
still, still fucking him, trying to resheath his teeth in the bleeding wounds.
But Severin’s vision was clearing rapidly. The orgasm had left him weak but the loss of blood
had been minimal. He pulled forward, crushing a dazed Nikolaus, freeing Emil from his backside and
then he whirled around and caught Emil with a fist to the jaw, sending him crashing off the bed.
“No, you don’t,” Severin said. “Not this time.”
Emil sprang up. His black eyes glinted dangerously, the red receding from them. “Excuse me?
I let you abuse my pet in whichever way you choose and you dare to deny me a sip of blood?”
Severin climbed off the bed and pulled up his breeches. “Your sips leave me dreadfully weak.
I don’t want to feel like that tonight and leave Nikolaus at your mercy.”
Emil cocked his head, looking amused. “And you think I would do what, exactly?”
“Snap his neck as you suggested.”
“Why would I do that?”
“To fuck with me.”
A sly smile curled around Emil’s lips. “I would do it now you’ve denied me blood, certainly.
Would you rather I drank from you, or my pet?”
Severin stared him down stonily. Emil’s muscles were tense like a big cat ready to spring.
“Neither,” he said. “I’ve given you plenty over the years.”
“It’s my right as your maker to drink from you when I choose.”
Severin shook his head. “You drink from us all to subjugate us. There is no other reason.”
Emil smiled again. A bruise fast bloomed on his jaw, then started to recede. “You’re too
suspicious. I drink from you all because vampire blood is as sweet as honey. And yours is the best,
Severin, like your tight backside.”
Severin blushed. “What about Istvan? Do you feel anything at all for him or do you drink from
him and fuck him for the same reason?”
Emil’s face turned cold. “Leave him out of it.”
“He’s your Achilles’ heel, isn’t he?”
Emil clenched his teeth. His eyes turned red. “I admired you from afar for many a week before
I turned you, you know that, don’t you?”
Severin was wrong-footed. “What?”
“I watched you while all those peasants around you died of plague. I admired your stoicism in
the face of adversity even if you did show a little too much kindness towards your fellow man and
woman.”
Severin stared at him. He had always presumed that Emil had happened upon him in that
alleyway and pounced on him as the nearest meal. But Emil had stalked him, planned his murder.
“I don’t make vampires lightly,” Emil continued, watching him. “But I wanted you. I craved
you. It’s thanks to me you didn’t die of plague and end up in some stinking mass grave.”
Severin curled his hands into fists. “I don’t feel grateful to you. I never have. Just so you
know. You murdered me.”
A look of scorn crossed Emil’s face. “I gave you your life.”
Severin stalked forward, yelling. “What sort of life did you give me? Skulking in the shadows
taking innocent lives! Never feeling the sun on my face again. Having to give up the ones I love before
I make them into a monster like me.” He gestured back at Nikolaus and saw his lover was sitting up
on the bed, wide-eyed with fear.
Emil shoved him backwards, eyes flashing. It inflamed Severin further and he leapt, pinning
Emil against the armoire, grabbing his head in both hands. Snapping Emil’s neck wouldn’t work. It
would only give him a bit of pain and leave him with bad posture. Severin wasn’t really thinking of
killing Emil; things that momentous needed careful planning. He didn’t think beyond wounding Emil,
incapacitating him, revenging himself temporarily and that only happened one way.
As Emil grabbed his forearms and struggled with him, Severin drove his teeth deep into
Emil’s throat.
Emil shouted. The room seemed to shiver and shake with his anger. His nails sunk like claws
into Severin’s arms. The head vampire’s skin stretched taut like piano wire and broke. His blood
exploded into Severin’s mouth in a scorching flood that nearly choked him.
Severin didn’t know what to expect. He had never bitten a vampire before, much less
someone of Emil’s age and standing. He hadn’t expected this.
Emil’s blood was thick, cloying, and bitter. It burned Severin’s oesophagus on the way down
and settled heavily in his stomach. Instantly, Severin felt it leaching into his cells, setting him ablaze,
energising him like no blood ever had before. He started to suck in earnest.
Emil made only one attempt at escape. The bite seemed to subdue him. He held onto Severin’s
arms now as though they were the only thing keeping him upright. He groaned low in his throat and
pressed his pelvis forward, naked erect cock rubbing Severin’s hip.
Severin drank and drank. He didn’t want to stop but some residual sense of decency had
always remained in him, no matter what Emil had made him into. Yes, he wanted to kill Emil, but not
now, not tonight. Not without considering it carefully. Severin tried not to kill at all if he could help it.
With some effort, he withdrew his teeth. He watched the holes in Emil’s neck begin to close
up and when he let go, Emil slithered limply to the ground, head on his chest. Severin stepped back.
His entire body was tingling and pulsing. His cock was hard again.
Slowly, he turned to face Nikolaus.
The human climbed off the bed, blanket pulled around him, his face ghastly pale. “Is he
dead?”
“No.” Severin bent to retrieve his shirt from the floor and pulled it on, fastening it up. “We
must make haste to leave.”
Nikolaus remained rooted to the spot, staring at Emil’s crumpled form.
“Hurry,” Severin snapped. He stalked towards Nikolaus and grabbed him by the arm.
Nikolaus shrugged free. Severin stepped back, regarding him. “When Emil regains consciousness, he
will kill us both. If I’m gone, and leave you here, he’ll kill you to hurt me. You know that. You must
come with me.”
Nikolaus fixed violet eyes on him. Some of that formerly cold expression had come back to
his face. “To be what? Your pet?”
Severin lifted an eyebrow. “Maybe. You seem to like it well enough. Your cock was hard
even hanging there alone in that dungeon.”
A fiery blush consumed Nikolaus’s face, all the way up to his ears. “I don’t need to explain
myself to you.”
“I know you don’t. I say what I observe. You like to be restrained and dominated. If you want
me to do that, I have more than enough anger to take out on you.” Severin reached out. He pulled the
blanket away from Nikolaus’s chest and dropped it on the ground.
Nikolaus bit his kiss-swollen lips. He shivered, candlelight shadows playing across his pale
skin. Semen gleamed wetly on his belly. His cock was turgid with blood. Severin wanted to plunge
back into him again. Tension crackled between them both.
He turned away. “Get dressed. Pack a bag. Make haste for God’s sake.”
Nikolaus finally moved. He wiped himself down with a cloth. Then in silence he hurried to a
chair in the corner and pulled on black breeches, a white shirt, a waistcoat and frock coat. He
buckled a pair of shoes and then he stood over Emil a moment, looking down. He glanced at Severin.
“I need access to the armoire.”
Severin strode over. He nudged Emil aside with his foot and swung the door open. Nikolaus
pulled a travelling bag down from the top shelf. He shoved clothes in quickly. Severin glanced around
the room. He crossed to the bedside table and plucked the bottle of oil from it and something else
from the drawer—the stone dildo and paddle. Nikolaus didn’t say anything when Severin dropped the
items into the bag.
“For you,” the vampire said. “In case you need them.” It amused him to steal Emil’s sex toys
as well as his pet. He opened the chamber door and glanced out into the corridor. “Come on.” He
pulled the key from the lock.
Nikolaus donned a heavy velvet cloak. He pulled the hood up and stepped out, closing the
door. Severin locked the door and pocketed the key. They set off down the corridor. Nikolaus walked
with head bowed and after the first interested look from a passing vampire, Severin placed a
possessive arm around the human’s shoulders, making it clear just who Nikolaus belonged to.
Nikolaus was a few inches shorter than him. His shoulders felt fragile under Severin’s touch.
He dragged his feet on the stone flags as though he went to his doom. Severin spared him no
sympathy. In time the human would thank him for this. He led the way past the dungeon and the kitchen
and ascended the spiral stairs that would take them to his chamber.
He let Nikolaus quickly into his room and grabbed his bag from the corner. It was still half
packed; Severin never got too comfortable wherever he went. He gestured to the room. “Put
everything in. I’ll be back in a moment. Lock the door after me.”
But as he swung open the door, he was confronted by the man he had been about to seek.
Severin dragged his friend inside and glanced anxiously into the corridor before shutting the door.
“What are you doing?” Istvan said before his gaze fell on Nikolaus packing the bag and he
frowned, his mouth tightening into a thin line of displeasure.
“We need to go,” Severin said. “Now. I’ve injured Emil. He will come for me and kill us all.”
Istvan stared at him. “Injured him?”
“I drank from him. Get your bag.”
“Drank from him?”
“Stop repeating my words, Istvan, and hurry!” Severin exploded, shoving his friend to the
door.
Istvan gripped Severin’s shoulders. “My friend,” he said in a low voice. “What have you
done?”
Severin looked into Istvan’s amber eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to put you in
danger. Things got out of control.” They both looked at Nikolaus who hung his head.
“And this man, what is he to you? He’s Emil’s pet. Leave him.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?” Istvan’s tone was laced with scorn. “You said you weren’t sure what you ever
saw in him. What has changed?”
Nikolaus’s head jerked up. His violet eyes bored into Severin’s.
“Keep your voice down,” Severin muttered. “Now is not the time. Emil will tear him limb
from limb, that’s why he can’t remain. We take him and then we decide what to do with him.”
Istvan threw one more cold look at Nikolaus before he shook his head and left the room.
Severin didn’t dare glance at his human lover. He knew Nikolaus had heard every word he said.
Chapter Twelve
The three of them descended the back stairs as calmly as they could, considering they were wearing
cloaks and carrying bags. Severin was sure no one was allowed to leave the gathering early and
questions would be asked at the front door. Perhaps sneaking out the rear would be more favourable.
Severin nudged Nikolaus as they reached the kitchens. “You’ve spent enough time down here.
How do we get out?”
Nikolaus pushed back the hood on his cloak and looked around nervously. “Through the
dungeon.”
Severin glanced at Istvan who remained tight-lipped and angry looking. “Let’s go.”
Nikolaus led the way down the slippery stone steps and they arrived in the familiar storage
room. Nikolaus didn’t pause but led them past the burning torch to the chamber Severin had found him
in the previous day. Severin shuddered as they entered the room and he saw the empty chains attached
to the wall. He remembered Nikolaus hanging there, his cock hard against his flimsy breeches,
leaking when Severin cupped him.
Nikolaus looked at him from under lowered lashes, his cheeks flushed. He led the two
vampires across the chamber to a recessed iron door on its furthest side. Its hinges were stiff and
rusty with disuse and he pulled at it for some time before Istvan helped, yanking open the door with a
creak loud enough to wake the dead.
Nikolaus passed through unimpeded but both vampires needed to stoop to negotiate the
doorway, brushing cobwebs away from their path. They found themselves in a dank, dark corridor
with a low ceiling. At the top of the sloping path was the faintest hint of torchlight.
“This leads to the courtyard,” Nikolaus said.
“Have you been here before?” Istvan sounded suspicious. Perhaps he thought Nikolaus would
lead both of them into a trap.
“Yes,” Nikolaus said. “Some time ago.”
Istvan looked at Severin as Nikolaus carried on walking, bag hefted over one shoulder.
Severin shook his head to indicate he didn’t know, but he had an idea.
The air was foul but grew sweeter and cooler the closer the three of them got to the light. They
ascended stone steps and finally, Severin could make out another iron door at the top of the path. He
stayed Nikolaus with a hand on his shoulder.
“Whereabouts in the courtyard are we?” he asked with his mouth against Nikolaus’s ear.
He felt the human shudder at the touch of his breath. “Opposite the stables. A distance from the
guards at the drawbridge.”
Severin nodded. He took Nikolaus by the shoulders and moved him aside. “Wait here until I
know it’s safe.” He turned the rusty key in the lock and drew back the heavy bolts top and bottom with
a grinding sound that set his teeth on edge. He glanced back at Istvan before he opened the door the
barest crack.
The door was recessed under a deep arch. Beyond, the cobbled courtyard was lit dimly by
torches at intervals on the castle walls. To the right stood two guards in booths on either side of the
drawbridge. To the left were the steps leading up to the magnificent entrance hall. Only the booth on
the right could probably be seen from the steps. Horses were visible in the stable opposite; soft
whinnying and snickers came from that direction.
A couple of guards stood at the top of the steps by the iron front door. They chatted, both
laughing, one holding a steaming cup. Outside the stables stood a hansom cab already attached to two
black horses. The steps were down and a driver sat ready. Severin couldn’t believe his luck.
He sealed the crack in the door, before turning and whispering his observations to Istvan and
Nikolaus. The two vampires formulated a plan before Severin pulled the door open again.
Istvan slipped through carrying his own and Severin’s bag. As the two guards by the main
door stood talking, he scurried crouched across the courtyard and around the other side of the hansom,
between it and the stables. Nikolaus followed, noiseless and fleet of foot. The two men at the top of
the steps were oblivious. Severin strolled out into the open and headed for the drawbridge.
The man in the right booth stepped out instantly. “Who goes there?”
He wore gold and blue livery and fingered the pistol at his belt threateningly. Severin sniffed
his scent. Human. Perhaps he did this job to receive favours from Emil. It seemed everyone enjoyed a
piece of the vampire king.
“Hello,” Severin said with his most beguiling smile. He nodded at the other guard who
remained in the doorway of his booth, staring out suspiciously.
“Why aren’t you inside?” The first guard asked, recognising Severin for what he was and
acting in an appropriately nervous manner.
“I wanted some air,” Severin said. He stepped closer. “Between you and me, this gathering is
tiresome. I’m planning to go down to the village for some entertainment. As you can see, my carriage
is already waiting.” He gestured back and noticed the driver had got down from the hansom and was
engaged in a conversation with Istvan.
The guard glanced at his colleague. “You have permission to leave?”
“Do I need permission?” Severin moved closer. The human was a young man with an enticing
aroma. He had a smooth baby-face that looked untouched by a razor. Severin licked his lips as a
shiver of arousal spread down his spine.
“I-I don’t know,” the guard stammered, looking once more to his colleague for guidance.
“Come here,” Severin said and hooked a friendly arm around the guard’s shoulders, “and I’ll
tell you what we can do.”
He drew the man towards the booth on the left and all three of them crammed into the tiny
space, bodies pressed together. The second guard was as young as the first, eyes out on stalks and
heart pounding in fear at being up close and personal with a vampire.
“Now then,” Severin said, “I presume you’re here because Emil has enchanted you. He does
things to you, makes you feel special. You come when he bites you, am I right?”
Both men blushed and tried to bluster a reply. Severin put an arm around each man and drew
them into a huddle. “I am here to tell you I can give you whatever Emil gives you if you’ll open that
drawbridge for me.”
The two guards looked at each other with bulging eyes.
“No one needs to get hurt,” Severin said softly, exerting a measure of mind-control. Lowering
his arms, he sought both guards’ groins, cupping hard cocks.
The first guard whimpered. He pushed against Severin’s hand. The second man was bolder.
He fumbled at Severin’s breeches and dropped to his knees. Severin gasped and glanced over his
shoulder as hot wetness enveloped his dick, bringing him to towering tumescence. He hadn’t expected
this, but then it was always a bonus.
“So,” he said to the first guard, rubbing him through his breeches while rocking lightly into the
second guard’s sucking mouth. “What’s it to be?”
The first guard lunged at him and tried to kiss Severin, but the vampire turned his face away.
He held the man by the neck and lowered his lips to his throat and the guard gasped and surrendered.
Severin continued to trace the hard outline of the guard’s cock through his breeches while he bit him.
The man groaned and bucked into Severin’s grasp. Blood spurted into Severin’s mouth, sweet
and delicious, and semen dampened the guard’s breeches instantly. The man clutched at Severin’s
arms as the vampire drank. Truth be told, he was kind of full from his meal at Emil’s table but he was
not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Too late he realised the guard was drunk as the alcohol
swarmed into his bloodstream.
Severin moaned and pulled back, dribbling blood down the guard’s neck. The man slid to the
ground and Severin leant against the side of the booth with his head spinning and gripped the hair of
the second guard as he came down his throat.
The man swallowed obediently and drew back, licking his lips with his pupils dilated.
Severin staggered and just about stayed upright as he fastened his breeches. “Open the drawbridge,”
he directed.
The man seemed dazed. He climbed to his feet with his breeches tented and set in motion the
heavy lever operating the drawbridge machinery. As the bridge started to clank down, Severin heard
horses’ hooves on the cobbles.
“Thank you, my man,” he said and pushed the guard aside as the bridge dropped and the
hansom gathered speed. A shout came from the top of the steps at the castle as the two guards there
raised the alarm.
The hansom thundered towards him as the drawbridge completed its final few feet and men
poured out of the Schloss. Shots were fired, bullets whistling past him. Severin ran for the hansom
which showed no sign of slowing down for him. The driver urged the horses forward and Istvan leant
from the interior, exhorting Severin to hurry.
Severin jumped and grasped the top of the hansom, feet scrabbling for the back wheel. The
carriage pounded over the drawbridge and onto the ramshackle road and Severin heard the winning
pistol shot before a bullet embedded itself in his biceps.
He cried out, lost his grip, and strong arms gripped him around the waist. For a moment he
stared at the ground racing by him, his toes catching the dirt, one shoe flung off. Then four arms had
him and he was dragged into the dark carriage. He fell to the floor, gasping, pouring blood, as the
horses pounded the three men away from the castle.
◆◆◆
“Is he going to be all right?” Nikolaus asked anxiously as Istvan tore Severin’s clothes open,
exposing his muscular torso. Even under these circumstances, the sight was enough to make Nikolaus
shiver. He’d watched the castle guard sucking Severin’s cock and it had made him hard despite the
burning jealousy he felt.
“He’s a vampire, isn’t he?” came Istvan’s scornful answer as he removed his cravat and tore
it into strips to use as bandages.
Nikolaus crawled closer. He lifted Severin’s head and sat with it cradled in his lap. Istvan
looked at him, surprise written all over his face and a hint of apology at his brusque manner. Perhaps
he was re-evaluating his opinion of Nikolaus. He didn’t doubt that Istvan only had bad reports from
Severin to go on regarding Nikolaus’s character. He had hardly let on his true feelings since he and
Severin had met again. Until tonight that was. He remembered Severin’s words.
You act like you hate me and I don’t know why. All I did was love you. It wasn’t a crime.
Severin loved him. He loved him. His eyes dewed with tears. He hardly dared believe it was
true. Severin had just risked his life to take Nikolaus away from Emil. That should have been proof
enough. But still, Nikolaus was scared.
Chapter Thirteen
Severin came back to consciousness looking at the roof of the carriage. Soft light lit the interior. He
was lying on the floor with his head cradled in Nikolaus’s lap. His ruined coat and shirt were gone,
exposing his torso while Istvan worked on him.
“Will I live?” he asked dryly, still feeling a little drunk on his stolen blood.
“Oh yes,” Istvan said, winding strips of fabric around his upper arm. “You’ve survived much
worse. As I recall you were almost decapitated once and survived that.”
Severin smiled. “A strange thing to have one’s head almost hanging off.” He looked up at
Nikolaus and found the human positively green.
“Do you mind?” Nikolaus said.
“Not at all,” Istvan said with a cackle. He sat back, admiring his handiwork.
Severin struggled to a sitting position and Istvan and Nikolaus helped him onto the seat. He sat
back with a sigh and looked again at the human. Nikolaus’s eyes were red. Had he been crying? He
glanced at Istvan. “Have you given the driver directions?”
“Not beyond the forest. It would be folly to go back to Vienna. It would be the first place Emil
looked for you.”
Severin was displeased but knew Istvan was right. Nonetheless it was a wrench to realise it
might be some time before he could go back to his beloved Vienna. He had already spent enough time
away from the city during the ten years he had been apart from Nikolaus.
“Then we go to Prague,” he said.
They made haste through the Bohemian Forest and crossed the border, arriving in Nýrsko well
before dawn. The driver stabled the horses and Istvan gave him coin for lodgings. The three
travellers asked for rooms at an inn on the banks of the Úhlava River and congregated in Nikolaus’s
chamber for planning.
A fire crackled in the hearth. Nikolaus slumped tiredly in a chair by it. Severin and Istvan
were wide awake but would need to sleep soon. Severin’s arm ached but the bleeding had stopped.
Emil’s blood had gone some way to limiting the seriousness of the wound, he knew, but he would
nonetheless need to feed before dawn.
Istvan sat on the bed. “We can’t travel by day.”
Severin bit his lip. With Emil’s resources, he doubted the three of them would be safe from
him by day. The vampire king would find a way to travel or send henchmen on his behalf.
Nikolaus lifted his head. “We black out the coach windows. Wrap you both from head to toe.
I’ll be in charge of navigation.”
Istvan glanced at Severin. Severin had already poured over a map of Bohemia downstairs. He
tossed it at Nikolaus. “I’ve marked the way. If you need to stop during the day, then you stop in shade
and don’t expose us to sunlight.”
Nikolaus said nothing. Perhaps he thought Severin was treating him like a simpleton.
Istvan stood. “I’ll find someone to make alterations to the coach.” He pulled his cloak back on
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120. The Boy and his Master. [Note]
Richard Morgan, Santa Cruz Mountains.
Der is Old Witch. One boy larnin’ old witch, too. De man want a book-
clerk. De boy go to him and said, “You want a book-clerk, sir?” An’ say,
“Yes, but you cannot read?” Boy say no, an’ say, “All right, you shall be
my clerk.” He never trouble de boy on de book for a long time. When he
going tek up de book, ’e say, “Oh-h-h-h! you expect to be my master!”
an’ de man say, “Go home!”
Him mudder an’ fader was poor. He said, “Ma, I gwine to turn a fat pig
tomorrow; kyar’ me go sell, don’ lef’ de rope on me.” He ma get two
pound. Nex’ day he say, “Ma, I gwine to turn a pretty mare; kyar’ me
sell me, don’ lef’ de rope.” When de fader get part of de way, he meet a
man. De man say, “Ho-o-o, what a pretty mare! How much you
want?”—“One hundred.” De ol’ man go to tek off de rope. De man said,
“What a damn fool is you! I buy de mare an’ you want de rope!” De Old
Witch [154]tek de mare. At de same time de Old Witch know dat de
mare is de boy an’ de boy know dat is de Old Witch. So he hitch him in
de market an’ gwine in de shop to tek a drink. Some school-children
gwine past. De mare said, “Do, you kyan’ slip off dis rope off me head?”
De chil’ren said, “’top! you ever hear a horse talk?” De mare said,
“Never mind! you slip it off.” As dey slip off de rope, de mare gallop
away. De chil’ren call out, “You’ mare get away!”
De Old Witch come out. He turn a stallion, an’ two race fo’ it. An’ de
mare up again a pigeon-hawk an’ she fly. De Old Witch turn a big fowl-
hawk an’ dey sail in de air. De mare turn a dove an’ sail till she ’py a
house wid glass windeh. De dove sail right t’ru de windeh, drop into a
woman lap; de dove turn a ring, get on de woman finger. De fowl-hawk
fly exactly to de door. When de hawk fly away, de ring come off de
finger an’ turn de boy an’ tell de woman a man will come here in de
mo’ning; he will have her marry fo’ dis ring, but don’ receive it. Nex’ day
de boy turn de ring, get on de finger. De man dribe up an’ said, “You
have a ring here?” De woman said yes. He said, “I give you one
husband,” an’ de woman said yes and slipped off de ring to give to de
man. De ring drop on de floor an’ turn a corn-grain. De man come out
of de buggy, turn a rooster to pick up de corn-grain. De corn-grain jump
up, turn a puss an’ wipe off de cock head. So dat de boy get up and tek
de buggy an’ go to de Old Witch yard and tek all what he get.
So de boy learn one mark more dan de Old Witch.
[Contents]
121. The Language of Beasts. [Note]
One boy was along wid a man. He was a shepherd boy; every
Wednesday he go in de wilderness go look after his master sheep. He
saw one snake. De snake said, “Do, I beg you carry me go to me fader;
but when you go, if me fader give you money, don’ you tek it, but ax him
to give you de knowledge of every animal.” So de boy tek de snake to
his fader. When he go, de snake ax him if he want money. He said, “No,
I wan’ to understan’ de knowledge of every animal.” De snake tol’ him
to lie down, an’ he spit in his mouth an’ tol’ him whatever animal dat he
hear talk he mus’ not tell it to nobody, fo’ de day he venture to talk it he
shall surely die.
De odder Wednesday he went de same place, he saw some [155]pigeon

on one tree. De pigeon was cooing, an’ de pigeon tell him he mus’
come an’ dig under de tree an’ he will fin’ a lot of money. De boy went
an’ dig, an’ he fin’ de money. He tek it home to his master. His master
deliver all dat money to him, he tek it, settle himself an’ married a wife.
One evening him an’ his wife went for a ride. He was before, de lady
was behin’. De horse turn round and whicker to de mare which de lady
was riding. De mare answer him an’ said, “I kyan’ go wid you; for you, it
is two of you, but me, it is four of us. I have to carry meself an’ me colt,
de missis an’ de missis baby in her, so I cannot walk fas’ as you.” De
man turn roun’ an’ laugh. De lady said, “Why de reason let de two
animal whicker an’ you look pon me an’ laugh? Der is somet’ing in dis
matter!” She nag her husband to tell her de meaning why mek him
laugh. De husband said to her, “De day dat I tell you, I will surely die.
Sen’ for a carpenter mek me box an’ den I wi’ tell you!” De carpenter
come mek de box, an’ he went an’ lie down in it.
He got one rooster in his yard. De rooster come near de box an’ begin
to crow. De missis said, “Oh, go away! makin’ such a noise over yo’
master head!” De master said, “Let de bird stay!” De rooster said to his
master, “Master, you fool to gi’ up yo’ life fo’ de count of woman! Look
how much wife I have in de worl’, an’ de least nonsense all of dem
come round me, I begin to peck ’em an’ walk away from dem. So,
Master, you come out of de box an’ tek yo’ supple-jack an’ go in de
house give yo’ wife two good lick, an’ den you fin’ if she would ’noy you
again.” De man do so. He got up, he went in de house, he tek de
supple-jack an’ hit her t’ree lick over de shoulder; an’ from dat day de
woman never ax him a word again.
[Contents]
122. The Three Pieces of Advice. [Note]
Der is a man; he married; he got t’ree chil’ren, he became poor. He said

to his wife, “I goin’ to look somet’ing to do.” She said, “Yes, me dear
husban’.” He went an’ walk one hundred mile. When he got to a pen de
master said, “You little too late; I jus’ got a butcher dis mo’ning.” He
walk anodder one hundred mile an’ when he go he succeed a butcher.
He was doin’ his work one year, never drew no money—one hundred
pound a year. When de year was up, de missis said to him, “Out of you
money an’ t’ree advice, which one you rather?” He said, “I rather [156]de
t’ree advice.” She give him one revolver an’ give him a loaf of bread an’
give him some money to serve him on de way; was not to touch de
bread till him get home. De t’ree advice—“Not to forsake de bridge
which you cross; not to interfere in politics; you mustn’t in haste in
temper.” An’ him tek his journey.
When he was going, he went to tek anodder road; he remember de first

advice, mustn’t forsake de bridge which he cross. He go on a little
furder. He saw some people beatin’ one dead man; he went to call to
dem, but he remember de second advice. He pass. When he go on till
he saw his home, he saw his wife an’ his chil’ren an’ a man walkin’ side
on side. He took de revolver to shoot de man, he remember de t’ird
advice; de missis said, “You mus’ not haste in temper,” an’ he put it by.
When he went on a little furder, it was his wife bredder hear dat de
husband was not at home, so come to look for his sister.
When dey goin’ in de house he began to tell how many mile he went,
an’ he say to his wife, “De missis gave me t’ree advice, out of me
money which of dem I rather; I said I rather de t’ree advice, and she
give me dis loaf of bread; not to cut it till I reach home, but she give me
my pocket-money.” De wife said, “What about de t’ree advice an’ lef’ yo’
money.” De husband said, “I can’t help it.” De chil’ren cry out, “Papa,
cut de bread! papa, cut de bread!” Tek de knife, an’ after him cut de
bread, de one hundred pound scatter out upon de table.
So de t’ree advice, if he turn a different road he never will see home.

De second advice, doze people was beating de dead man, if him was
to call to ’em, dem people would destroy him. An’ de t’ird advice, he
would shoot his own bredder-in-law.
[Contents]
123. Three Brothers and the Life-tree. [Note]
A woman got t’ree son. One day he said, “Mamma, I gwine out to seek
fe’ a little work.” She said, “Yes, me chile, but care me little last son!” De
mudder bake two pone an’ after dey travel, de little bredder said,
“Bredder, I hungry!” He said, “De only way you will get dis pone, let I
pluck out one of yo’ eye.” De little boy said, “Pluck it out now,” an’ he
did so. After dey walk a far way again, de little bredder cry out,
“Bredder, I hungry!” He said, “De only way you will taste de odder
piece, let I pluck out de odder eye.” De little boy said, “What mus’ I do
after I hungry?” An’ him pluck out de odder eye an’ gi’ him de balance
of pone lef’. An’ de two bredder walk, lef’ dat poor one. [157]
When night come, he went feeling. He feel a tree. He went up into de

tree. After midnight, he hear people talkin’ come on an’ stop right under
de tree. So i’ was two duppy. One king from de day de king was born,
he blin’. De duppy said, “If people know dat dis tree was a life tree, dey
would tek it an’ cure de king eye.”
Me’while de poor blin’ boy hearing dem. De boy feel an’ tek de leaf an’
rub his two eye. De two eye were open. De boy came down. Nex’ day
morning tek two of de leaves an’ went to de king yard. After he went de
soldier said, “My man, what you want?” He said, “I want to see de king.”
Dey let him in. When he gwine to de king he said, “O king!” He said,
“What do you want?” De boy said, “I hear dat yo’ eye blind; I come to
open it.” He said, “O my boy, you cannot open my eye again!” De boy
said, “I will open it; but when I rub it you mus’ not mek alarm.” De boy
took de leaf out of his pocket and rubbed de king eye. De king eye
were open, an’ de king let de boy married to his daughter.
An de same week dem two bredder which injure his little bredder eye
hear dat de same young king which married lately have plenty of work.
So de two bredder went in an’ ax fe work. De king said, “O me men, if
you come a little sooner! my son-in-law jus’ go down to de village.” Dey
went down after him. When de men go down, ’ey saw him own bredder
an’ do not know him at all. Dey said, “Good-morning, king!” Dey said,
“Yo’ fader-in-law send we down here to get some work.” De king said,
“Oh, yes!” He said, “Seem like you feel hungry.” Dey said, “Oh, yes,
king!” He let de people den pick some breadfruit an’ dey roast it.
Me’while dey eating dey was talkin’. De king said, “But, my men, where
is de odder bredder that travelled togedder?” He said, “He knock up in
de way, so we have to leave him; so we don’ know whether if he alive
or not.” De king said, “Dis is yo’ lost brother which you pluck out de eye
for that two piece of pone!” An’ dey was ’stonish.
So de bredder said all how him get de eye open, an’ dey never stop to
work again; dey travel on to de said life tree, an’ when dey get dere,
dey go up in de tree. Part of de night dey hear two somebody talkin’;
soon as dey ketch to de tree dey stop dere to res’. One of de duppy
said, “But you know, dis odder night when we was talkin’ here, some
one mus’ hear me when I was talkin’ ’bout dis life tree, for I hear dat de
king eye open.” An’ after he said dat, one said, “I scent fresh blood!” an’
he [158]run right up in de tree an’ ketch de two men an’ break dem neck.
An’ come to a time de king an’ his wife go pay de mudder a visit. An’ ’e
mudder askin’ for de rest. He tell his ma all what de bredder hev done
to him, an’ if don’t two duppy, ’he never would see him no more.
[Contents]
124. The Skilful Brothers. [Note]
One woman got t’ree son. One of de son name Look-up-in-de-sky, de

odder one name Fling-me-stick, de t’ird one name Brer Buck. One day,
Look-up-in-de-sky saw a eagle flyin’ away wid de mudder. He said,
“Fling-me-stick, de eagle tek away me mudder!” Fling-me-stick lick out
of de eagle mout’. Brer Buck stoop down an’ ketch de mudder. An’ de
mudder lef’ t’irty pound fe t’ree of dem. Out of doze t’ree son, which of
dem deserve de money?
Some said, “Look-up-in-de-sky deserve it!” Odder said, “Fling-me-stick!”

De nex’ one said, “Brer Buck!” But if Look-up-in-de-sky didn’t see de
mudder, de eagle would fly away wid her. If Fling-me-stick didn’t fling
an’ lick out de mudder out of de eagle mout’, she would be gone. If Brer
Buck didn’t stoop down an’ ketch de mudder, she would mash up. So,
out of de t’ree of dem, de t’ree deserve de ten pound apiece.
[Contents]
125. The Three Sillies. [Note]
Charles Roe, Maroon Town, Cock-pit country.
There was a young man one day was courting a young lady. So when
he got to the house, it was one of the young ladies and father and
mother in the yard. So the mother said to the daughter, “You mus’ go
look for some orange for the gentleman breakfas’.” So when the young
lady gone, the mother wait till she catches the young lady come with
the orange. So when she (the mother) come, she say, “Hi! what you
doing so long you can’t come with the orange?” So the young lady say
to her, “Mamma, me considering when me have the first pic’niney, what
fe gi’ ’im name. So the mother say, “Yes, missis.” So they sit down and
was considering the name. So the father wait until he can’t see them
come. Him start, an’ when he go to orange tree him say, “Hi! what you
so long you can’t come yet?” The mother say, “Me husband, me an’ me
daughter considering what to give the [159]first pickney name.” So the
father sit down and say, “Yes, missis, we consult now.”
So the man there waiting say, “Let me see what these three people
gone look for orange in the house, can’t come yet!” So when he come
he say, “What you a doing so long? You no come pick this orange fe
me, I hungry killing me at the yard.” Said young lady, “My dear, we
considering the first pickney we have, what mus’ we give him name.”
The young man said, “I goin’ away. So if I meet t’ree fool as unoo (you),
I will come back an’ marry you.”
So he start, an’ when he get to the firs’ cross-road, he see one man he
wet him finger an’ pick it up an’ grab it out of the road. So he say, “What
you doing?” The man say, “I pick up the gravel out of the road, see if I
could pick out all of the gravel out of the road.” The man say, “I saw one
fool!”
Him pass him an’ go on, till he see another one cut two stick an’ hol’ up
his trousers an’ run jump see if he can jump into his trousers. So he
say, “Oh! you fool, hol’ your trousers an’ put you’ two foot in. This make
two fool I have buck up since I leave the other three fool!”
So pass this one an’ go on to the sea-side an’ see another one get a
pan an’ fetch out water, see if he could dry the sea. So him say, “Well
done, O you fool! This make three fool since I lef’ the other three fool
behin’. How mus’ you dry the sea? You may fetch water until you are
dead you never may dry the sea.”
So then he turn back. So when he got back he say, “Well, my dear, I

buck up three fool fooler than you three; so I come back to marry you.”
[Contents]
126. A Misunderstanding. [Note]
Florence Tomlinson, Lacovia.
There was a gentleman engaged to a young lady and he was out riding
one evening. And the young gentleman made the lady believe he was
rich, go along to a logwood property and told her ’all was his’. And go
on an’ go on an’ come to another property covered with stock—cow
and sheep—and told her it was his. That was two property now. And
went to the next property where were horses and mules, and said
(wiping his face), “All these are mine, me dear.” The lady believed he
was rich, and they got married and went home and lived together until
all the house things were going, all the crockery was going, want a
fresh supply. And she [160]said to him, “Me dear, everything is going
now, want a fresh supply. Let me have some money.”
“No, me dear, I havn’t got any.”
“Then why don’t you sell some of the things off some of the property?”
“Oh, I have no property, me dear!”
“Yes! don’t you remember when we used to go out riding you showed
me three properties? One had logwood, one had cows and sheep, and
the next had horses. Why don’t you sell some of those things?”
“Oh, ho! ho! ho! ho! me dear, I wipe with me pocket handkerchief and I
mean me whiskers!”
[Contents]
127. Big-head, Big-belly, and Little-foot. [Note]
a. Arthur Brown, St. Ann’s Bay.
Once there was a man have three sons, one name Big-head, one
name Big-belly, one name Little-foot. Dey went for a walk one evening.
Big-head saw a berry-tree. He went up on it an’ pick one of de berry an’
taste it. Big-belly ask him if it sweet. He bow his head; his head drop
off. Big-belly laugh at him till his belly burst. Little-foot start running
home to tell the news, his foot broke. That was the end of the three.
b. James Smith, Claremont, St. Ann.
Three little brother went out to catch meat. So them hunt till the day
was in and caught nothing. Return home hungry and jokify, coming out
of the forest saw a tar-apple tree have on two fruit on it. Big-Belly
couldn’t climb. Maugre-Foot couldn’t climb. Maugre-Neck climb the
tree, pull the first fruit, eat off that one. Pull the second fruit, bite it and
tempting the others, his little head broke off fell on the ground. Big-belly
laugh till him belly pop. Maugre-Foot set out run fo’ carry home the
news, till him little foot broke off a pass.
Jack man dory, this story done!
[Contents]
128. The Goat in the Lion’s Den. [Note]
Henry Spence, Bog, Westmoreland.
Goat wid two kids were trabbling one day long trabbling, an’ trabble till
almost evening, an’ rain commence to fa’ now. So [161]’eh see a great
rock, an’ mudder an’ two kids went under de rock to shelter, didn’t know
dat was de lion house. So de lion see de t’ree goat coming, he grunt
like a great rolling. De mudder of de goat frighten. ’he said to de lion,
“Good-evening, minister!” an’ de lion tell him “Evening.” An’ he said to
de lion him looking fe a minister to baptize dese two kids, an’ say, want
to give dese two kid a name. De lion said to him, “Dis one name is
‘Dinner’ an’ dis one name is ‘Breakfas’ tomorrow’ an’ you, de mudder,
name is ‘Dinner tomorrow’!”
So after him get dese t’ree name, de goat was well frighten how to
come out back; an’ de two kid hear de name dem got, so de heart
commence to leap bup, bup, bup! De lion ax de mudder what’s de
matter wid de two kid. De mudder said, “As de room is so hot, dey
seem terrify.” An’ de mudder said as dey is in heah, kyan’ go, if he
would jus’ allow de two kid to go outside get a little air. De lion agree,
until when dinner-time come on ’em mus’ go in back. An’ de mudder
whisper to de two kid mus’ mek de way as sharp as ever dey can mek it
befo’ dusk. So when de lion see it coming on evening an’ no see de two
kid come back, commence to roll again, she commence wonder how
dem stay out too long, so ax de lion if de lion allow him to go bring dem
back in befo’ de time too late. De lion agree. An’ when de mudder go
out, neber see one back—eb’rybody gone!
Meaning of dat, a woman have more knowledge dan a man.

[Contents]
129. The Donkey, the Cat and the Lion’s Head.
[Note]
Joseph Macfarlane, Moneague, St. Ann.
One day a donkey an’ a cat was out trab’ling an’ when dey went half
way, dey saw some lion head, an’ de cat pick i’ up, put i’ in de donkey
hamper. An’ when dey went round de corner, dey saw two lions working
on de road, an’ dey lef de hamper roun’ de corner wid de lion head. De
lions said, “We are jus’ having breakfas’!” De Donkey an de Cat said,
“We have plenty!” Donkey said, “Brer Puss, you go tek up de lions’
heads fe see which one we eat to-day.” Puss went, took up de head an’
said, “Dis one?” Donkey said, “De odder one.” An’ said, “Dis one?”
Donkey said, “De odder one,” till dey count about twenty (when it was
only one). De lions whisper to each odder, say, “Dey kill so many lion
one day, what you t’ink of we couple?” An’ dey eat an’ went home. [162]
[Contents]
130. Clever Molly May. [Note]
Emily Alexander, Mandeville.
Once Anansi went out to invite a friend to dinner. Little Molly May was
his servant, so he left her to roast a turkey for dinner. Anansi filled the
wine-jug, laid the table, put on his frock coat and his top hat, took his
walking-stick and went out for his friend. Molly May roasted the turkey.
Seeing that it looked so nice and charming, she thought that she would
take a piece; so she did, and it tasted so nice she took another piece.
That tasted so nice she took a next piece and a sip of the wine, and
she sipped and tasted till at last she had eaten up the whole turkey and
drunk the whole of the wine.
She saw the master coming; so she ran in swift haste, took up the
bones, fixed them nicely in the dish, covered the dish, and carried it
and laid it on the table. When the master came, he sent the visitor into
the house and said to Molly May, “Hullo, deh! everyt’ing all right?” She
said, “Yes, sah! all is right.” So the master took up the carving-knife and
went outside to sharpen it. Molly ran inside and told the visitor that the
master was sharpening the knife to cut off one of his hands; the visitor
in swift haste left the house. Then Molly went outside and told the
master that the visitor had eaten all the turkey and drunk the wine. The
master ran through one door and, seeing all the bones on the table,
went through the other. The visitor was running for his life and Anansi
went running after him, calling “Leave one! leave one!” He meant leave
one (side of) the turkey, but the visitor thought he meant one of his
hands, so he ran for his life.
[Contents]
131. Dancing to Anansi’s Fiddle. [Note]
Sarah Vassel, Bog, Westmoreland.
Assono a run a gang. Assono sen’ one of de men for water. When he
go a take water, him couldn’t take it; Anansi play fiddle into de water-
hole—
“Zing a little ting!”
T’row down de gourd an’ begin to dance. Assono a come to look fe de

man. When he come, (Anansi stop playing). He call to him say, “Massa,
no quarrel!” Him come give de massa de gourd a go fill it. Anansi begin
playing. De Massa t’row down de gourd, begin dance. Assono dance till
him drop. Anansi cut off him head an’ tek de head make a water-cup.
[163]
[Contents]
132. Anansi claims the dinner. [Note]
Edward Daley, Mandeville.
Anansi an’ certain number of men was going to a certain place. Certain
men give dey own names; Anansi start to give his name now, said,
“Mine is ‘Dem-men-came-here-las’-night’.” When deh get where deh go
to, deh bring out dinner. Deh say it is for ‘de-men-came-here-las’-night’.
Anansi claim de dinner, an’ nobody else get any.
[Contents]

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(Download PDF) Blood Kisses An M M Romance Dark Blood Book 1 Scarlet Blackwell Full Chapter PDF

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Blood Kisses: An m/m romance (Dark

Blood Book 1) Scarlet Blackwell

Blood Tears: An m/m romance (Dark Blood Book 2) Scarlet

Heal Me: An m/m romance (Damaged Goods Book 1) Scarlet

Save Me: An m/m romance (Damaged Goods Book 3) Scarlet

Protect Me: An m/m romance (Damaged Goods Book 2)

Out of the Dark: m/m crime romance (Clear Water Creek

Caught: Cold Love Book 2 (enemies-to-lovers m/m

Beautifully Haunted: m/m Halloween romance (The Wildcat

Highland Fling: enemies-to-lovers m/m forced proximity

All rights reserved

Cover design by B4Jay

“I kept you safe.”

Themes: hurt/comfort, scenes of MMM with MM ending.

Bavaria, Germany, 1895

Bremen, Germany, 1350

Bavaria, Germany, 1895

Vienna, Austria, 1885

Bavaria, Germany, 1895

Vienna, Austria, 1885

Bavaria, Germany, 1895

Vienna, Austria, 1885

Bavaria, Germany, 1895

Richard Morgan, Santa Cruz Mountains.

So de boy learn one mark more dan de Old Witch.

Richard Morgan, Santa Cruz Mountains.

De odder Wednesday he went de same place, he saw some [155]pigeon

Richard Morgan, Santa Cruz Mountains.

Der is a man; he married; he got t’ree chil’ren, he became poor. He said

When he was going, he went to tek anodder road; he remember de first

So de t’ree advice, if he turn a different road he never will see home.

Richard Morgan, Santa Cruz Mountains.

When night come, he went feeling. He feel a tree. He went up into de

Richard Morgan, Santa Cruz Mountains.

One woman got t’ree son. One of de son name Look-up-in-de-sky, de

Some said, “Look-up-in-de-sky deserve it!” Odder said, “Fling-me-stick!”

Charles Roe, Maroon Town, Cock-pit country.

So then he turn back. So when he got back he say, “Well, my dear, I

Florence Tomlinson, Lacovia.

“No, me dear, I havn’t got any.”

“Oh, I have no property, me dear!”

a. Arthur Brown, St. Ann’s Bay.

b. James Smith, Claremont, St. Ann.

Jack man dory, this story done!

Henry Spence, Bog, Westmoreland.

Meaning of dat, a woman have more knowledge dan a man.

Joseph Macfarlane, Moneague, St. Ann.

Emily Alexander, Mandeville.

Sarah Vassel, Bog, Westmoreland.

“Zing a little ting!”

T’row down de gourd an’ begin to dance. Assono a come to look fe de

Edward Daley, Mandeville.

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