STORY EXCERPT

Go to the mausoleum.

Killa’s words still resounded in his brain two hours later. Mallick had eaten, slowly, pretended to read for the last half an hour and stared at the windows, forlorn. He was pitiful.

“All right. All right. Goddammit!”

He threw the book on the stand, just now noticing that he was holding it upside down. This was getting ridiculous! What was all the big deal, after all? He was going to visit a grave that may or may not produce a zombie. Yeah, no biggie. Either he was crazy or... he was crazy.

Mallick threw the door open so hard that it slammed the wall and almost knocked him on his ass when it bounced in his face. He rubbed his nose and felt the stickiness from his brand-new cut.

“Great. What else?”

Outside the sun was barely still shining. He could see the sky clothed in the various colors, preparing for the night. Yeah, he was dumb. I mean really? Visiting graves at twilight? At least it wasn’t the witching hour, but still! The garden looked glorious. The flowers shone brightly, cheerfully saluting the last glimpses of sunlight. Mallick didn’t notice any of this. His eyes were trained on the dense forest and the shadows that seemed to claim it more and more, second by second.

“Right. No biggie. At all. You’re a paranormal, Mallick. Man up. You’re big, bad, and... Yeah, right.”

He rolled his eyes, exasperated with himself, and entered the forest. A barely there trail took him quite quickly straight in front of a dome. It didn’t resemble a mausoleum. Not that he had seen many, maybe pictures of human ones. The dome was of carved stone with long-forgotten aged symbols staining its surface and gaping holes for high windows sustained by arcs. The doorway loomed ahead, like an open screaming mouth, and Mallick half turned to flee before he forcibly stopped himself. This was a dumb idea. He could do this, though it was still a dumb idea, no matter how he imagined himself as a hulking figure, which he wasn’t in his best dreams.

Come on now. I have faced worse than empty, dark tombs.

“Yeah, when? You wiseass. I better stop talking to myself now, or I’ll get in an argument for real.”

The truth was Mallick was petrified. Not of the dark or danger, if there was one, other than a close encounter with some bats. No, Mallick feared knowing. He felt the tug in his chest stronger than ever, and he knew whatever had been beside him all his life was there. Inside that tomb. Not speaking to him anymore.

“Ughhh! You’re a damn coward, Mallick! Go in already!”

He ran inside before he ran back to his bed or rather under it. The interior was not as dark as he had imagined. There was a round skylight cut in the dome’s ceiling, casting a circle of light on the ground. It also wasn’t huge or very ornate. Some interesting statues that Mallick recognized as being actual stone replicas of paranormals in their other shapes, the same symbols as outside but this time, seemed to be glowing and shone in the shadows cast by the setting sun. In the center he saw slabs of stone with alight writing all around the pool of light in the middle, all arranged in circles upon circles. Not a lot of graves. Paranormals lived long, healthy lives if left alone, immortal in a way. They weren’t left alone often. Either humans hunted them or they made enemies among other paranormals.

Next to the center, a new tomb was covered in flowers. Not with flowers growing on it, but with flowers overflowing from the tomb beside it. The new tomb had been Aeri’s. His name was still on it, though the epitaph had been changed and made to commemorate the losses paranormals had suffered in the war Kale had wagged to overthrown the Council when he had thought his mate dead. Mallick was fascinated by the flowers. Short, white ones, round as a coin and found all around him, following the circle of light. Small, white mushrooms could be seen among them, and Mallick stumbled a step.

“Fairy ring.”

Unnoticed by him, a drop of blood from his abused nose dripped on one of the flowers. He didn’t see that, or see anything else for that matter. He was too busy feeling the ground shake. His legs failed to hold him upright, and a roar deafened him. Mallick’s eyes, wide open, took in the seemingly appearing from the ground shape, and he prayed he wouldn’t pee himself. Exactly in the middle of the fairy ring, in a pool of light cascading from above, the ground parted for the rising form, and Mallick saw the man.

ADULT EXCERPT

He was practically on Adair’s lap, and his mate seemed to more than like him there if the hardness pressing on his stomach was to judge by. They quickly got rid of the rest of their clothes, groping each other, caressing patches of new skin unveiled. He was still nervous but he really wanted this.

“I want you inside. I think I’ll like it if it’s you.”

Mallick suspected he’d more than like it. The last couple of nights, after spending most of the day in a haze of arousal, common when around his mate, he’d retired to his room and done some experimenting. He’d found out that his ass was specifically sensitive, and twisting his nipples for just the right amount of pain got him off faster than a rocket. Some of those thoughts must have traveled through their mind link because Adair started cursing, eyes blown with lust.

“I want to see you do that to yourself. I want to watch you stretch yourself for me on your fingers while I lick and taste every part of you.”

“Now?”

Oh, wow. Was that breathy voice his? Mallick’s body more than liked the idea, though he still felt a bit self-conscious. He was working on that. He wanted to change, be as bold as his instincts urged him to be. He was getting there.

“Okay. Just, yeah, stop touching me for a moment, or I’ll blow before I get to drive you crazy. I want to show you what you do to me.”

Adair seemed not to hear him anymore, as he was nibbling on his ear and Mallick forcefully pushed him at arm’s length.

“Wha? You’re all right, sweet?”

“Terrific.”

He got his hands to listen to him, and after an awkward silence that almost made him change his mind, he quickly positioned himself on the blanket, wishing he’d thought to bring some pillows so he could see better what he was doing. The view was great, even if he could see Adair only from the waist up. His mate’s expression when he saw Mallick uncap the lube and pour some on his own cock was priceless. It got even better when Mallick got his hands down and dirty, to call it so, and started rubbing some of the excess lube around his twitching hole. His breath hitched when he got one of his fingers in and it got sucked right in.

“I need more. Why don’t you come closer so you can give me a hand? Or a finger, heh?”

Adair was on him like a wolf on his prey. Mallick froze for a moment before he relaxed again and smiled reassuringly at his mate. It was difficult to bypass all his hard-learned instincts, but his body and mind had proved willing and able so far. He really wanted this. Hell, he felt as if he’d self-combust if he didn’t do something about the fire Adair had started with his touches and kisses.

“Can I? Touch you there?”

“Adair, you want an engraved invitation?”

“Testy today, aren’t we?”

Mallick let a totally unattractive snort convey his feelings.

“I thought I was the one who’s supposed to be hesitating and second-guessing here. So far, you’ve asked me if I’m all right some hundred times already.”

He pushed a second finger in and couldn’t help the roll of his hips as he bore down on them. Oh yeah, doing this with Adair watching was much, much better.

“I-I may just finish without yo-you.”

Adair’s smirk was positively wicked. He moaned in his mate’s kiss, which more resembled being inhaled by the man’s lips than the gentle caress he’d gotten used to. The tentative finger was not so tentative anymore, as it forcefully pushed inside his ass, stretching him alongside his own two. He stopped pumping for a moment and jolted as the bold intrusion nudged that special spot inside him that he’d discovered only some nights ago.

“Ahh. Again!”

“Your wish. My command.”

“Cheee-zeeey! Oh. My. Gods. This rocks! “

Adair wiggled a bit and then went for broke, and Mallick actually saw stars in broad daylight when his prostate was nudged again. He was marginally aware that a pillow was now raising his hips for a better angle, and he absently thought he wanted to ask Adair where he’d gotten that from, that was before Adair pulled Mallick’s fingers out and replaced them with two thick ones of his own. He moaned and thrashed around, not knowing for a moment if the stretch was too much or not enough. He could feel himself being branded by those oddly cool fingers slowly pumping inside him.

“Good?”

He thought he gurgled something in response. Maybe a swearing or two. Or some prayers.