Текст книги "Alasdair"

Автор книги: Ella Frank

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Текущая страница: 9 (всего у книги 15 страниц)

NO HE FUCKING didn’t.

When Alasdair appeared at the foot of Vasilios’s bed and Leo fell at his feet in a heap, he looked down at the human, completely perplexed.

What does he think he’s doing? And how did he know to grab me at that precise moment? With those and at least ten other questions running through his mind, Alasdair nearly forgot where he’d ended up until the male whose bedroom they were in spoke up.

“Well, well. This is a pleasant surprise.”

Alasdair tore his eyes from Leo long enough to look at the male he’d come in search of. Vasilios was lounging in the center of his monstrous bed, and as usual, clothed or naked, as he currently was, he commanded the room like a king on a throne. When Alasdair took in his bronzed torso and the black silk sheet draped across his waist, his cock stiffened, and his feet wanted to move him in his sire’s direction. It was the same reaction he’d been having for centuries.

“I was not expecting to see you today, Alasdair, though we do need to talk. What brings you to my bedchambers?”

It was obvious from the tenting of the sheets that, although Vasilios hadn’t expected him, he certainly wasn’t opposed to his being there. As the familiar surge of lust ran through him, Alasdair was about to answer, but Leo moaned, recapturing his attention.

“I see, you brought your yielding with you.”

Vasilios’s biting tone brought his eyes back to him. He’d removed the covers now, and Alasdair watched him closely as he climbed out of bed.

“I have to admit, this is the first time I have ever felt cheated of your attention. I don’t much enjoy the feeling.”

Alasdair kept his eyes on the male headed his way, but as he got closer, he couldn’t help himself from looking down to the thick cock that proudly jutted out from its owner. The same one that had pleasured him so many times over the years.

“Should I be concerned?”

“Concerned?” Alasdair asked, even though he knew exactly what he meant.

Vasilios trailed his eyes over him, and as he stood there under the other vampire’s inspection, Alasdair was torn between the desire to go to him and another, more complex one—the desire to crouch down over Leo and protect him.

Protect him? From what? Vasilios? 

The idea was preposterous. He would never defy him in such a way. But as the Ancient got closer, the urge intensified.

Vasilios shifted his gaze to where Leo lay and said, “Yes. Concerned that your obsession here will make me have to hurt you. Is that what you want? For me to hurt you?”

Alasdair didn’t know what he wanted. His mind was all over the fucking place. He wanted answers—he knew that much.

Back in Leo’s office, he’d thought the smartest thing to do was to come here to get them. He’d thought to explain all that happened with Leo to his sire and see if he knew anything of it. Perhaps Vasilios had knowledge of what Leo was or why he had the ability to do what he could do.

What he hadn’t counted on was the human latching on to his arm and coming with him.

Now, there they were, in the presence of the oldest and most powerful vampire in this realm, and he could only hope Leo remained unconscious. The mood radiating off Vasilios was ferocious, and the idea of telling him anything other than what he wanted to hear was quickly dissipating.

Stepping around Leo, Alasdair ran a hand through his hair and walked towards his sire. When he stopped opposite him, he wrapped his fingers around Vasilios’s stiff erection and said, “I’m still recovering from the last time you hurt me. I’m not quite sure my body could handle another of your punishments.”

Full of confidence, as always, Vasilios fucked his cock through the tight fist surrounding it. “You look fully recovered to me. Though it is hard to tell through all of your clothing, agóri. Time to lose them, nai?”

Before he could answer, Alasdair’s clothes were gone. One thought and they were a mere memory on the floor. Hunger flared in Vasilios’s eyes as he devoured the sight of his naked body, and the flame that ignited their green depths excited him. It always did.

Hundreds—no, thousands—had wanted to be owned by this male over the years of his existence, and only one ever truly had been—him.

“Flawless as always,” Vasilios praised, bringing a hand up to trace his fingers down the center of his chest. “Do not fret. I left no scars. You are still the most exquisite thing I own.”

Those words normally wouldn’t bother him. Alasdair knew whom he belonged to. This time, however, he thought of the expression on Leo’s face when he’d explained on the night of the Walk that his brood now saw him as his property. 

“Alasdair?”

Alasdair groaned as familiar fingers curled around his shaft. He closed his eyes, letting his head fall back while he ordered his mind clear of the human who, for right now, was passed out cold on the floor.

“Ah, and there your mind goes. Wandering back to him.”

They stood as close as they could possibly get without being inside one another, and when Vasilios stroked his fist up to the head of his length and twisted his wrist, Alasdair grunted and returned the gesture.

“Mhmm. Thinking of your golden-haired boy. The one you have yet to claim with this magnificent cock of yours.”

 Alasdair ran his tongue over his top lip, the words and Vasilios’s touch making his gums tingle. He hadn’t come here for this, but when Vasilios bent his head and grazed his teeth along his collarbone, Alasdair knew he was only minutes away from being fucked.

“You make me hungry, Alasdair. Standing here so hard and aroused. And though I should be offended you’re busy thinking of another while I have you in my hand, I’ll forgo that to feed from you.”

Alasdair’s breath caught and his hand stopped moving when Vasilios cupped the back of his neck with his free hand.

“After all, why should I be jealous of such an inferior being? It seems so petty for someone such as myself when there is no comparison between us two.”

The lips talking could be so cruel at times. Yet, at others, like now, they could deliver the most erotic experience imagined.

“Wake him, omorfo mou agóri. I want him to see whom you belong to before you use this to lay claim to him.”

Alasdair did as he had been told, reaching out to Leo’s mind and waking him. Then he positioned himself on the bed and waited to be of service.

LEO’S MIND WAS a hazy mass of confusion when he finally came to. He wasn’t sure what had possessed him to grab Alasdair back in his office, but a certain look had flashed in the vampire’s eyes, and he’d known he was about to bolt, or vanish.

Now…where the hell am I?

Wherever he was, he’d never been there before. He was sprawled across a hardwood surface, and the sooner he got up and moving, the better. He needed to find Alasdair. He wasn’t ready to be done with their previous conversation, and if he was willing to continue having it after his life had been threatened, then the least the vampire could do was stick around long enough to explain why he’d thought all of this was odd.

As his eyes adjusted to the light of the room, the massive claw foot of a wooden bed frame came into focus, and he froze.

A bedroom, he thought. I’m in a bedroom…but whose? 

He was about to sit up and look around for the mercurial male, when a deep, throaty growl of satisfaction rang through the room. The sound was so erotic that the sensual cadence of it enveloped him and seemed to stroke its way down between his legs. Leo’s cock throbbed in response, and he palmed the erection swelling inside his pants.

Fuck. Where the hell did that come from?

He closed his eyes, squeezing his fingers around himself as he willed his dick to behave. But right when he thought he had control over it, he heard that growl again, followed by a voice.

“Parta. You know how you want it.”

Jesus, that’s hot. Take it? Take what? Leo thought, scrambling up to his knees. And…that voice. He’d know that coaxing, powerful voice anywhere.

He slowly raised his eyes over the elaborately carved footboard, and when he saw long, white fingers curled over the top of it, his mouth fell open in astonishment.

What was happening only a few feet away from him was something he had only ever imagined in his dirtiest, horniest dreams. Alasdair was—Christ…fuck. He was completely naked, and Leo blinked a couple times, trying to decide if he was hallucinating. But when a harsh curse echoed throughout the room, and the fingers on the wood flexed, Leo knew he wasn’t. His eyes flicked up to watch Alasdair toss his head back and snarl.

I definitely did not dream this up, he thought, transfixed by what was going on. He wasn’t sure his brain had the capacity to conceive such an animalistic vision.

A large hand smoothed over the back of Alasdair’s dark hair, and as it gripped the back of his neck and held him in place, Alasdair’s eyes collided with his. The glow in Alasdair’s seemed to ignite a fire inside Leo, and his cock went from under control to a pulsating reminder that, God…he really loved men.

He then looked at the second occupant of the bed, but there was really no need. He already knew who he’d see—and he was right. There, situated on his knees, with his cock balls-deep inside Alasdair, was Vasilios. And the sight of him naked and fucking Alasdair had Leo’s dick weeping in response.

Mhmm. The low hum of gratification vibrated through his mind as Alasdair braced his arms against the wood to hold himself in place.  Come here, file mou. You know you want to.  

Of course he fucking wanted to, and Alasdair knew that. But, as the invitation penetrated his brain, Leo shuffled away. When his back hit a wall, Alasdair’s fangs, those razor-edged fangs of his, slid down into place. Vasilios cursed violently as he gripped Alasdair’s hair and then twisted his head to the side.

Like a beast being brought to heel, Alasdair growled, and Leo winced at the force being used. But Alasdair bucked back against the other vampire, clearly enjoying it. Vasilios aligned his chest with Alasdair’s back, and when he caught Leo watching them, his eyes flashed bright.

Oh, mother of God. If he’d thought Alasdair could hold his attention, this guy must be a fucking hypnotist. 

A conceited smirk crossed Vasilios’s mouth, reminding Leo he could hear his every thought. Then his fangs punched out of his gums, and Leo couldn’t stop himself from cupping his erection through his pants.

He knew what the vampire was about to do. Knew it as if he’d announced his intention out loud. Then he did it.

Vasilios parted his lips and struck, sinking his teeth deep into Alasdair’s neck, and the roar that ripped out of Alasdair was one of sublime ecstasy.

Leo frantically unbuttoned his pants and pulled the zipper down. He needed to get his hand on his dick, and he needed it right fucking now.

As he wrapped his fingers around the painful hard-on, he spread his legs and jerked up through his fist. His own groan of pleasure escaped his mouth as he masturbated to the unrestrained mating taking place on the bed, his heart pounding like a fucking jackhammer.

What does it feel like, he wondered. What does it feel like when they bite one another?

Come here, Alasdair’s voice invited inside his mind, and the command for his body to do what it had been told took over.

After getting to his feet, Leo walked over to the side of the bed where the two were entwined. His eyes roved over the naked tangle of arms and legs, and then a firm hand clamped onto Alasdair’s shoulder to haul him up to his knees.

When both males were kneeling back to front, Leo couldn’t help from looking down to Alasdair’s stiff cock.

Get on the bed, Alasdair commanded, and Leo’s eyes flew to the vampire Vasilios. He wasn’t sure why he bothered, though, because the next thing Leo knew, he was climbing on the mattress and lying flat on his back through no will of his own.

Once he was situated with his legs spread wide, Leo thought his heart might fly out of his chest as Vasilios ran his tongue up the side of Alasdair’s neck, licking the blood trickling down his skin.

Leo’s cock pounded at the visual they made, and he wanted nothing more than to be able to get himself off to them. But he couldn’t. He was trapped in his body, save for the movement of his eyes. So he lay there and waited for whatever would happen next.

God, let them touch me, he thought, staring up at the feral-looking vampire getting ready to… What did Alasdair call it?

Fuck and feed. He’s going to fuck me while he feeds, Leonidas. And you are going to watch.

Leo couldn’t stop the ragged sound that left him then, when Alasdair moved down over him and planted his hands on either side of his head. His face was so close that Leo wanted to crane up and take his lips with his own, but when he tried, he realized he was still under Alasdair’s will.

“He really is poli omorfos, agóri. I see the allure. It won’t be a hardship to watch him come when we do. Until then, keep your yielding still.”

Alasdair grunted in response as Vasilios sank his teeth back into his neck and then delivered a hard thrust to his body. Leo’s eyes widened at the disturbing display but couldn’t stop himself from watching.

He wanted to touch the man whose muscles were shaking as he held himself in place for the one who groaned and sucked from his vein. Or better yet, he wanted to touch himself where his pants were open and his shaft throbbed against his thigh.

This is insane, Leo thought. Totally fucking insane. But when Vasilios raised his head and his teeth left Alasdair’s throat, Alasdair lowered his body a fraction farther and dragged it over his.

When the long, hard length of Alasdair’s cock grazed his own, Leo’s eyes squeezed shut from the eroticism of it.

Mhmm.

Alasdair’s raspy groan of sexual gratification pushed into Leo’s mind right before a hoarse shout left his lips. Leo opened his eyes at the cry, and he didn’t have to be behind him to know that Vasilios had just re-entered Alasdair.

The hands by his head clenched the covers, and Alasdair’s nostrils flared at the brutal force of the thrust. Then his eyes found Leo’s and he licked those lush lips. There was no doubt Alasdair lived for this kind of possession.

Still trapped as he was, Leo could do nothing more than lie there. Every time the vampire shoved his cock in and out of Alasdair, Alasdair would grind his erection hard against Leo’s, causing one hell of a mess as sticky pre-come dripped from its tip.

He might not have voluntarily come to this bed, but now that he was there, watching the hedonistic smorgasbord unfold, all he could hope for was some kind of completion before it ended. Because, if not, he might die from the amount of frustration he was enduring.

VASILIOS’S FINGERS DUG into Alasdair’s neck as his cock tunneled into his body. He could tell by the way his sire’s hips had picked up pace that he was about to strike again, and when Vasilios halted both their movements and his teeth once again fastened to his carotid, Alasdair felt as though his eyes would roll to the back of his head.

The pleasure was sublime. There was none other like it. It was both brutal and beautiful, and the feeling was a fucking rush.

When he’d first invited Leo over, it’d been with the intention of distracting Vasilios from whatever slight he’d been feeling. However, the second Leo had stopped by the bed, his sire’s fingers had grasped his shoulder and Alasdair was certain he’d miscalculated.

But when he’d gotten Leo up on the mattress and under them, Vasilios had sunk his teeth into his throat, along with his conditions—You can have him join, but he doesn’t touch you. Not while I feed—and the vicious fucking he was now receiving was the result.

Underneath him, Leo lay with his legs open and his pants undone. His cock was flushed and engorged, and Alasdair knew exactly what Leo wanted right then: to fuck his fist until he came.

But he couldn’t risk it. Not until Vasilios was ready.

When his shoulder was released, and he was pushed down over Leo, Alasdair started to really grind his cock against the man.

This was Vasilios’s way of allowing him to get off now that his climax was near, so Alasdair took advantage and began to chase his own orgasm. He knew the quickest way to get it would be to release Leo’s body back to him, so he closed his eyes and did just that.

THE MINUTE ALASDAIR’S eyes shut, Leo’s body came back under his control. He reached down and shoved his pants below his hips as Alasdair rolled his over the top of him. Fucking yes…that feels amazing, Leo thought and arched up in response, wanting to feel that beautiful bare cock along his.

He kept his eyes open, determined not to become overwhelmed, but it was difficult because this was the hottest fucking thing he’d ever been a part of—even though, subconsciously, he knew he hadn’t had a choice at all.

Their erections lined up perfectly, and the weight of Alasdair’s body on top of his was deliciously insistent as the third male in this hell of a mindfuck beared down over them both.

Leo bowed up again into the solid body rub he was receiving, and when his eyes moved beyond Alasdair’s face to the striking one of his lover, his mind almost shut down on him. Lust and fever shone in Vasilios’s eyes, and Alasdair’s blood stained his lips as he licked them and his teeth retracted.

“Oh shit,” Leo whispered, awed by what he was seeing. Then Alasdair bent his head and dragged his tongue up along his neck.

The pulse thudding at the base of his throat must’ve been like a red flag to these two, but Leo couldn’t help the erratic beating of his heart. He was too aroused, too caught up in the moment being created by the perverse vampires looming over him, to care.

All he wanted was to come. He wanted Alasdair to bite him, and then he wanted to come all over the both of them. Hell, all over the three of us. Wait a second. What the fuck am I thinking?

Exactly what I am. Alasdair’s thought hit his mind the second his lips crushed down onto his.

As his tongue slid inside, Leo moaned into the kiss and sucked on the sensual intruder. He propelled his hips up, desperately trying to find some relief for his aching balls, and then Alasdair jerked his head back and bared his fangs as hot, sticky fluid hit Leo’s stomach.

The sight was so fucking brutish and carnal that Leo’s own climax raced down his spine wanting release, and just when he was about to explode—it happened.

That fucking bright shard of light that had him squeezing his eyes shut—and suddenly, his vision changed.

NO LONGER LYING underneath Alasdair, Leo froze. He was on his stomach as a breeze drifted across his skin. His erection was still pounding, and he was about to push up and look around when a strong body crowded down behind him, pressing him to the pallet that lay on the hard ground beneath him.

“Uh ah. Do not move. It is time.” 

As that familiar, lyrical tone met his ears, Leo became motionless. The man behind him was…

Oh shit, this can’t be happening. Not now. 

But when he was flipped over onto his back with no effort at all, he knew that it was. There, hovering over him, was Vasilios, and he was gloriously naked and very aroused. 

Leo’s eyes shifted frantically to take in his surroundings, and that’s when he realized they were no longer in the bedroom from earlier. No longer where Alasdair was on the bed with the two of them.

He was back in the bathhouse. 

Back in time. 

Where Alasdair was nowhere in sight.

Leo was about to speak, but the male’s fangs appeared as he reverently brushed aside a piece of his long hair. 

Finally, Leo understood what was going on. He wasn't seeing Alasdair in the vision because, this time, he was—

“Alasdair, son of Lapidos. You do not know how long I have waited for you.” 

Then those sharp points sank into his neck and Leo lost consciousness.

“DO YOU CARE to explain what just happened here, Alasdair?”

Alasdair heard the question linger in the air as he closed his eyes and collapsed onto the mattress. His body was listless after being so well used. He’d been drained of his blood, his energy, and the will to speak at all.

He rolled onto his back and placed his hands behind his head. Vasilios was at the other end, leaning against the solid headboard, his legs stretched out, crossed at the ankles. He was studying him with intense focus.

“Alasdair,” Vasilios said again, nudging his naked hip with his toes.

He looked over at where Leo was passed out beside them. He wanted to explain what had happened in those last few seconds, when Leo’s eyes had snapped wide open and he’d seemed to leave their plane of existence. But the problem was he didn’t have any answers that would satisfy his sire.

I don’t even have any that satisfy me.

He had a strange sensation of unease. It was as if his confidence had somehow disappeared because Leo, a human, had him all twisted up inside. Usually, he’d have no problem discussing anything with Vasilios. But he’d left things too long, and now, he was so caught up in his misplaced pride and arrogance of being defeated that he’d let his fixation with unraveling the hows turn into something more.

At least, that’s what he was telling himself.

There was no other logical explanation as to why he was so consumed by the man.

He stared at Vasilios, who was watching him while stroking a lazy finger up and down Alasdair’s leg. Then he narrowed his eyes on him.

“You missed a very important meeting this past month. I’m surprised you haven’t bothered to ask me about it. Or have you been so preoccupied that you forgot it even took place?”

The meeting. Fuck, it had slipped his mind. After the night he’d been punished and the days he’d spent healing, Alasdair had been hell-bent on getting back to Leo. Any thoughts of meetings or brood business had gone by the wayside, and as the realization of how he’d been acting hit him, Alasdair discovered his behavior really had changed.

Then Vasilios spoke, bringing him back to the present. “Several weeks back, the other Ancients and I received some information—”

“From who?” Alasdair interrupted, and then he caught himself and fell silent.

“Ypomoní̱. It was left in the Chamber, up on the podium, a place no one can enter unless extremely powerful. A scroll with ancient writings on it, a message sent to us. It stated that our time walking the Earth was coming to a close. That the end was near. The threat resembled many we’ve received in the past. One full of false posturing and annihilation. That’s when we knew we were dealing with something unlike anything any of us have seen.”

“What do you mean unlike anything you have seen?” Alasdair asked, keeping his eyes locked with Vasilios’s.

“The message made a direct reference to our true beginnings. Whoever sent that correspondence knows far more than anyone we’ve faced in the past.” Vasilios seemed to think over his next words as he sat up and studied him carefully. “We sent Stratos to seek out a messenger. To learn if they had heard anything or knew anything that we did not. The plan was to get the information from him and then tell you and your cousins what we had learned. But now, thanks to you, we have a problem. I’ve recently been informed that Stratos met with a rather horrid ending last night. So any information he may have had died with him.”

Oh fuck. Fuck, Alasdair thought as he slowly crossed his legs and reached for the sheet. He couldn’t tell what was going on behind Vasilios’s sharp gaze, but he wanted to be covered as much as possible—all things considered.

“I apologize,” he started, not knowing what else to say. How was he to have known that Stratos had been gathering information for them? Why didn’t the damn vampire say so?

“Apologies are a little too late now. I don’t know what to do with you anymore, Alasdair. First, it was your lack of obedience with me, and now, this? Your usual stringent control snapping and leaving a destructive path in its wake?” Vasilios sighed. “We were keeping this quiet until we knew more. Stratos was under strict instructions—”

“Compulsion,” Alasdair muttered, finally understanding the male’s willingness to die. “He was under compulsion.”

“Yes. He’d been compelled to keep his mouth shut about his assignment.”

“Even if it meant his death?”

Vasilios’s eyes flared at his judgmental tone. “Why are you so surprised? He isn’t the first. The males know what they sign up for as one of the guard. His use to us was to extract information. He was happy to do so. Maybe not so happy to die, however. Alasdair, our number-one priority is to keep you and your cousins safe. But it’s also vital that we keep the lair calm. If we were to mention there was a threat to our very existence, you know the reaction that would follow. We aren’t the most…rational of creatures. We didn’t want to alert anyone of danger on a mere hunch. We wanted facts.”

Alasdair stared at Vasilios as he tried to understand what his Ancient was telling him—but he wasn’t close to being finished yet.

“It seems, however, we are no longer going to be afforded those since you tore Stratos’s head off. That temper of yours makes you act impulsively. There was a reason all those years ago that you learned to curb it. I wish you would remember that.” Vasilios paused, his inspection making Alasdair uneasy. “Not only have you disappointed me, but you’ve put your cousin in a most unpleasant situation. Diomêdês is dealing with her as we speak. The two of you made a thoughtless decision last night. And due to it, we have no advantage.”

Alasdair tried to feel bad about what he’d done, but he was finding it difficult when he felt he’d been acting blind. Isadora had taken him to the Adjudication Room and presented a traitor, and he’d dealt with him accordingly. Stratos’s taunting him was his own bad luck.

Along with being compelled, that is. 

The thought had barely entered his mind when Vasilios had him flat on his back beside Leo and his hands restrained by his head.

“You see? This is what I mean. You are preoccupied. This human has you acting defiant and rash,” he bit out by his ear, enunciating each word. “And while I admit to liking that while I’m inside you, out there, you are fucking things up for us, Alasdair.”

The way Vasilios’s eyes darkened to black conveyed his fury. He was enraged, and Alasdair kept quiet—now wasn’t the time to speak. He swallowed, more a reflex than anything else, as he stared into the irate face hovering over his own. This was the second time in only weeks he’d seen anger, disappointment, and confusion on his sire’s face. He wished he could unsee it.

When Vasilios’s lips parted and his fangs extended in a snarl, Alasdair realized his misstep.

“I did not mean that how it sounded,” he rushed out.

“Is that so? Because I have never heard you think it before.”

Alasdair pushed himself up off the bed, wondering if Vasilios would relent. He had his answer when the other vampire rolled to his back, allowing him on top.

“I was merely reflecting on my wrongdoings. You know that. Don’t make this what it is not due to a mood.”

“A mood? What am I, an irritable housewife? Forgive me, agóri, but your actions hardly convince me of what you’re trying to make me believe.”

Alasdair stretched out over the top of him, and then he laid his head on his shoulder. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt guilty—yet another emotion he’d not experienced since becoming immortal. The only thing was, he wasn’t sure if the guilt was towards the one underneath him or the one on the bed beside them.

As he lay there, he realized how imperative it was that things went back to the way they had always been. He had an obligation, a duty to his brood, and his very existence was entwined with the one whose body his was currently molded to. He couldn’t afford any more fuck-ups, and it was time to let his obsession go.

“I never would have done what I did last night had I known,” he admitted quietly. “How can I fix this?”

 Vasilios stroked a hand down his back, and Alasdair was curious whether or not he would tell him. Perhaps he would make him wait if he doubted his loyalty, but then he started to talk.

“Unless you can bring back the dead, Alasdair, nothing will fix what you did.”

“I have yet to master that particular power.”

“Hmm. Nor have I.”

“But surely you could send me or someone else to speak with this messenger—”

“No,” Vasilios said, the word sharp and final. “This threat, it is different. It has us…”

Alasdair lifted his head and waited. He’d never seen Vasilios hesitate for anything.

“It has you what?”

His Ancient’s eyes connected with his, now back to their usual green, and Alasdair was surprised to see an edge of fear in them.

“It has us concerned. You and your cousins are not to go after the messenger. Do I make myself clear?”

“No, you do not.” Alasdair shifted to the side of him and stroked his fingers down his sire’s cheek. “You know that Isa, Thanos, and I can each be trusted, so let us help. Or is there another reason I am missing? What aren’t you telling me?”

Vasilios reached for the finger now tracing his jaw and brought it to his lips. He reverently kissed the end of it and then gave a grim smile. “Diomêdês, Eton, and I—we were all named in the initial message that was sent.”

“That’s not so unusual, is it? The Ancients are always named in threats to our kind.”

“Yes, we are. But this is the first time you have been threatened to achieve our destruction. That means they know how our bloodlines work, Alasdair. They know that, to dispose of you three, they will effectively be cutting the heart from the body.”

Alasdair grimaced. Vasilios was right. It was not safe to go after the messenger himself, and that frustrated the hell out of him. His instinct was to protect Vasilios, but his Ancient’s instinct to protect him was much stronger.

“You will not go after them, Alasdair.”

“I know,” he said. Deciding to focus on something else, he asked, ”They? You keep saying they. Do you know who’s sending these scrolls?”

A frown of consternation formed between Vasilios’s eyebrows. “We have some suspicions. The only ones who would be powerful enough to enter the Chamber would be the gods themselves. But, as of now, we can’t be certain.”