“They all do.” Ra smiled. “I found it gets very chilly here, especially around this time of year. And there’s plenty of wood. Did you want me to…?” He raised his fingers.
“Can I light the fire?” Arvyn blinked up at him. “I can’t remember the last time I lit a fire. There’s something very primal about doing it – laying out the wood, encouraging the first few flickers of flame, and feeling it, seeing it grow.”
Ra lowered his hand. “I seem to recall Zeus promised you lunch. How about you two explore if you like, while I zap up some food for us?”
“Do you have to be in your godly form to do that?” Kirill asked, a shy grin crossing his face. “I seem to recall the mate we met was…”
“You don’t like how I look as a god?” Ra wasn’t sure if he should laugh or cry.
“You look commanding, virile, extremely handsome.” Arvyn nipped at his chin.
“Strong, powerful, and very sexy,” Kirill added, his hand running up Ra’s back. “But I find my heart longing for the hug we never gave you, at the start, when I so rudely hurt you.”
Confused, because he was the same person regardless of what form he was in, Ra stepped back just enough to morph down to his human size, along with his jeans, boots and a soft wool top. “Like this?” Now he was looking up at his mates.
“Exactly like that.” Kirill actually growled, but Ra had no time to work out why before he was swept off his feet and into his vampire’s arms, the heat on his back letting him know Arvyn was just as keen to get close. Hooking his legs around Kirill’s hips, Ra’s head went back as two sets of lips mouthed over the dips where his neck and shoulders met and nibbled up either side of his neck.
Ra was instantly consumed, fire racing through his blood affecting every part of his body. He hung onto Kirill’s shoulders because if he didn’t, he’d fall. Dreams, desires, all of a sexual nature flooded his brain, and yet…
“You’re not feeling it.” Kirill took his lips away from Ra’s neck long enough to speak. Ra’s eyes were drawn to the tips of fangs poking over the vampire’s bottom lip.
“I am.” Ra turned as Arvyn also pulled his head away. “I want you both – you have no idea how much. It’s been… yeah, that’s not important, but we’ve all, and I mean all of us, had a really harrowing morning. I don’t want our claiming to be hard on the heels of something like that. That doesn’t feel right. Can you understand?”
Arvyn bit his lip and nodded. Turning his head so he could look at Kirill, the man seemed to sag a little under his gaze. “I’m tired,” the vampire sounded gruff. “Today was… I’m not sure I can put it into words. But Arvyn and I had talked… after last time I mean, and we don’t want you thinking we don’t want you, or we’re in awe of you, or don’t know how to act around you simply because of your position.”
“My position isn’t who I am with you,” Ra said gently. “To you, I’m simply Ra, a man who happens to be able to zap things out of thin air, and who can take us places if necessary. There’re a lot of aspects about life on earth I haven’t experienced, and a lot of things I might not understand the context of in modern society like you two do. Watching life isn’t the same as living it. Hell, I’ve only just learned to text.”
Ra was pleased when both Kirill and Arvyn smirked because that was his intention. “I do understand I’m wanted. Being held by you is a dream come true. And I promise you, I’m not usually a drama llama, and while there will be times when we’re with others of my kind when I might not be as casual as I appear now, my appearance doesn’t change what’s in my soul. I’d still be your mate.”
“I get that,” Arvyn said eagerly, his smile widening. “I mean, I’m still the same person when I’m in my fur.”
“Your animal form is gorgeous.” Twisting at the waist, Ra managed to rest one of his arms on Arvyn’s shoulders, stroking up his wolfen mate’s neck.
“Had you been watching us after you left us?” Kirill asked, but there was no animosity in his tone this time.
“I peeked in from time to time, but only quickly, I promise.” Ra inhaled. “Putting it frankly, this morning was a shit fest and as much as I long to be bitten the way you’ve exchanged bites, and spend hours exploring the amazing bodies pressed against me, I really feel we just all need a bit more time to decompress, don’t you? Let me feed you, we’ll get the fire lit and we’ll sit and chat, and yes, touch as well, because that’s something I haven’t had in so long. But can we do that? Do you mind doing that when you know we’ve got the rest of eternity to be together?”
“Eternity just might be long enough with you,” Kirill said, leaning forward just enough to drop the promise of a kiss on Ra’s lips. Arvyn met him halfway, and they shared their own brief kiss as well. As they did, something settled inside Ra, and he knew although it would take time, they would be okay.
Chapter Sixteen
Kirill’s mind was numb. As he sat on the huge and very comfortable couch Ra installed in place of the three piece that had been in the room, watching Arvyn light a fire, and listening to Ra pottering about in the kitchen, he tried to make sense of his new reality.
My coven is gone. Everything I’ve worked for and protected for hundreds of years, dismantled leaving nothing more than real estate.
But it wasn’t gone as such, Kirill knew that, even as his soul ached. Gone implied someone had taken his coven from him, stolen it, challenged him for it and won, when the reverse was true. Kirill had given it up, and as he shucked off his shoes and curled his feet under him, he tried to work out logically why he’d done such an impulsive and for him, destructive act.
It’s not like Kirill hadn’t thought about giving up the coven before. Honestly, the older and more powerful he got the more annoyed he used to feel dealing with the petty situations posed by coven members on a daily basis. Each time those thoughts cropped up, he’d tried to discount those private feelings, believing that the older he got, the more he had a responsibility to protect younger members of his kind - not that they seemed to appreciate it.
I wasn’t running a coven full of children. Sitting in Ireland, Kirill got a clarity he could never achieve when thinking at the place he used to call home. And his thoughts were factually accurate. Every vampire in his previous coven was aged between a hundred and twenty and three hundred years old. Many of his members had been below his threshold of one hundred and twenty years when his U.S. coven was started but living in a small town wasn’t something most vampires wanted to do, especially once Kirill had instigated his bagged blood policy decades before. Most of the vampires who chose to stay with him were younger in terms of their species, and with the exception of his enforcers, weren’t physically capable of protecting themselves against someone like himself. They were drawn to his power and his wealth, but they had also become complacent, accepting their life of ease as a right instead of a privilege.
Sycophants, leeches. Kirill felt the anger burn deep in his belly. No one ever said a harsh word to his face, but oh, how the gossip used to thrive in the hidden corners of his estate. Gossip that Kirill had been arrogant enough to ignore. It was the fate of any powerful vampire to have the younger generation dream of challenging him and taking everything he’d worked for. The odd times someone had the balls to actually challenge him, Kirill had been sure to make an example of the people concerned, which helped keep new challenges to a minimum.