Arvyn eyed Ra’s neck. I know how I can help you come, baby. As if he could hear him, Ra flicked his head to one side, clearing his neck of hair. Spreading his knees slightly for balance, Arvyn slid his hand under Ra’s chest, urging him upwards. Ra’s moans got louder as the change in his body angle lit more fires through his body. Arvyn caught Kirill’s eyes, the vampire’s jaw was tight enough to crack. His mate was close.
Faster, faster, need rising. Arvyn focused on their bond. Wait… Wait… Now! Kirill yelled, and mush splashed against Arvyn’s cock. In that exact moment, Arvyn bit down over the mark he’d left on Ra’s neck. Ra cried out and Arvyn’s orgasm hit him like a truck. It was overwhelming. Love bounced along with hormones, flooding the air, their bonds, and Arvyn’s body. His eyes closed, Arvyn quickly pulled his teeth from Ra’s neck, licking across the wound in long strokes as he floated. Nothing had ever been so perfect.
That was an amazing first for me. Kirill’s voice in his mind pierced the fog in Arvyn’s brain.
Me too. Ra’s was more of a whisper, but Arvyn heard him clearly. Unable to help himself, Arvyn chuckled quietly.
Me three and that won’t be the last time, he sent back, letting go so Ra could slump against Kirill’s body, the vampire quick to renew his own mating marks on Ra’s neck. Arvyn was happy enough to support his own weight a while longer. He wasn’t in any hurry to move.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Kirill looked around the land that had been his home for decades. All he could hear was the birds in the trees and the waft of the wind through the leaves. There were no cars in the driveway, or voices coming from the house. He squeezed the hands he was holding, glad of Arvyn and Ra’s support. After three days exploring and learning more about Ra’s realm, Kirill knew it was time to face his own reality – but that didn’t stop him wishing he was anywhere else but at the former coven house.
“Just an in and out, yeah?” Ra was back in his human form, dressed in yet another pair of jeans and his gray Henley. “All you have to do is point out what you want stored, and I’ll zap it all to my quarters on my realm. It will all be safe there until we find a house of our own.”
“No one’s been out here for days.” Arvyn was sniffing. “What are the chances we’ll find the house completely stripped out?”
“High.” Kirill walked up the steps, his mates hugging his sides. “I would like to think no one would dare infringe on my personal living or office spaces, but the rest of it will be fair game I imagine.”
“Did you hear from your council?” Ra asked, looking sideways up at him. “I’m surprised members of your coven didn’t complain about being made to move, especially if they’ve been here for a while.”
Kirill had wondered about that too, although as a Prince, his decisions over the coven were absolute. He owned the land and buildings; if he said the coven was closing down, that was it. “All I got was a reply to the email I’d sent them letting them know about Yakov and Sven’s deaths. They said after discussions with the coven members, they had arrested a further twenty-two vampires for crimes against humans, and the rest had been warned not to congregate beyond immediate family groups for at least the next hundred years or so.”
“Twenty-two more?” Arvyn spun him around and Kirill let him as he really didn’t want to walk through those coven doors. “That’s a huge chunk of your coven members. What about you? Are they going to investigate you too?”
“Apparently not.” Kirill shook his head. “One of the joys of using vampire thrall during investigations is that none of the criminals could lie to our prosecutors. They all said that I knew nothing about what Yakov was doing, and that they’d all worked really hard to make sure I didn’t find out. Makes me out to be a right fucking fool.”
“You don’t get to talk about yourself like that,” Ra said fiercely, wrapping his arms around Kirill’s waist. “I hate to say it about your kind, but the ones I met when I was here with Zeus were as self-absorbed as many gods I know. All they could talk about, behind my back when they thought I couldn’t hear, was how you’d probably have to keep the lights off when you fucked me, but my blood would give you immense power and having a god at their disposal would mean the Dublin coven would become the most powerful in the land. Lazy fuckers couldn’t even be bothered to say that to my face.”
Kirill growled at the thought of his beloved having to hear such insulting words. “I’m so sorry you had to hear all that.” It was difficult getting the words out through clenched teeth. For a split-second Kirill wished he hadn’t disbanded the coven, just so he could tear in there and rip them all to shreds. “It’s all my own fault. I gave them everything. They didn’t have to work, they all got an allowance, or could use the coven fund account for anything they needed. I thought… I thought I was helping them, giving them somewhere safe to stay…”
“And instead they shit on the hand that fed them.” Arvyn gave Kirill’s shoulders a small shake. “This isn’t on you. There’re good and bad among the vampires just the same as there are in any other species. You just happened to have a coven full of the bastards. What we’re going to do is walk through that door, collect your stuff and then you can put the place on the market. I assume you’ve secured your accounts.”
Kirill nodded. It was one of the first things he did after seeing what Yakov had done.
“Then let’s get this done,” Ra said quietly, leaning his head on Kirill’s chest, offering his comfort. “We’ll do a walkthrough, you can let me know if anything needs doing as we go, so that by the time we walk back out that door, the place is ready for market. Yes?”
“Sounds like a plan.” Arvyn draped his arm over Kirill’s shoulder. “And then, did I hear we might be going to Montana? That Paulie had heard of another property not that far from them that was on the market? I’ve never been house hunting before. Do I have to look all disinterested when we meet the agent, or do I pepper him with a dozen questions he can’t answer just so he’ll give us the place at the price we’re prepared to pay?”
Chuckling, Kirill gave his beloveds a hug. He knew what Arvyn was doing and while the man might be over five hundred years younger than he was, he had the knack of saying the right thing to ease the tension Kirill seemed to pick up and carry out of habit. “You just be you,” he said with all the affection he could muster.
The door wasn’t locked. There hadn’t been any need when the gates were always secured, and the fences were high enough to detract opportune thieves. Set back off the road, the way the coven was, it was unlikely anyone even realized the place was empty. Large velvet drapes could still be seen from outside… They didn’t steal the curtains at least.
Inside… Kirill shivered as he closed the door behind them. It was like a morgue – the air cold and lifeless. Everything stood, just as it had done for years. Chairs in the reception hall, Kirill’s picture was still hanging over the staircase. Only the flowers in vases showed signs of decay. Ra darted off to peer in a door off the hall. “The furniture all seems to be here. Just a bit dusty.”