Deep Deliverance: The Deep Series, Book 3

Forever is a long time. Even for a vampire.

Deep
, Book 3

When Adin Tredeger discovers his lover Donte’s role in turning him into a vampire, he’s outraged. The opportunity to attend Ned Harwiche’s funeral is perfect for putting some distance between them, but as a newly turned vampire, he mustn’t go alone.

Cristobel Santos—one of Donte’s lifelong enemies—and an attractive Irish vampire named Sean offer to chaperone his trip. They are as determined to help him as he is to reject their aid.

While Adin fights his new reality he’s kidnapped by rogue hunters and used as a lab rat in some skin-searing experiments. Adin’s distress electrifies his connection to Donte, but rescue is only the beginning…

Warning: Hot vampires, spoiled teens, big cat shifters, and two men trying to figure out how to squeeze several lifetimes’ worth of love into every moment of their big, fat eternity. Ouch…

Deep Deliverance

Z.A. Maxfield

Dedication

For Belinda.

Chapter One

Ad
in sat in the window seat of the cabin he and Donte were sharing and gazed out at the crisp fall morning. Recent rain had darkened the earth and naked trees stood in stark silhouette against the glowering sky.

Adin’s thoughts—for once—didn’t mirror the weather.

Life wasn’t all bad. He and Donte were hiding from the world, but after a number of minor changes—things like new double-paned windows with light-blocking shades inside that could be drawn on the days the sun shone, some clever manipulation of the perceptions of the neighbors on Donte’s part, and what Adin had privately begun to think of as his crash-course in the Care and Feeding of Baby Vampires—they’d managed to find a sort of equilibrium.

Donte was crawling behind one of the sofas to plug something in. The sight of his lithe body on all fours sent a thrill to Adin’s heart.

“I feel you watching me, Adin,” Donte said without looking up.

“Your ass is doing marvelous things,” Adin admitted. “I should have you lay carpet, just to see you on your hands and knees for an entire day.”

“Carpet is a filthy thing. You have no idea what goes on unseen by the naked eye in carpet.”

“Thanks for that image.” Adin shuddered. “It’s good we have wood floors.”

“Wood shows age and craftsmanship. It feels nice to walk on wooden floors. I’ve always liked them. And stone.”

“Are you ever going to tell me what you’re doing?”

“It’s a secret.” Donte tapped his Bluetooth headset and said, “Almost there.”

“Who are you talking to?”

“None of your business.” Donte smirked at him as he got up and dusted off his hands. Aside he said, “No, that was for Adin; he’s curious what I’m doing. What can I say? Babies. Always into everything.”

“I can and will strike you if you don’t stop calling me a baby.”

“Someone’s getting fussy.” Donte shot Adin a look guaranteed to start a fight, at the very least. “It’s hard to tell these days if he just needs a nap or—”

“You did
not
just say that.” In the blink of an eye Adin hurled himself into Donte, wrapping both arms around Donte’s neck and pushing him down to the couch with enough force to move it across the floor. It skidded to a final halt against the wall where Donte had been working.

“You’re going to scratch that floor.” Donte grinned, and, okay, on Donte a grin was rather chilling, but that wicked expression heated Adin’s blood.

“Are you still on the phone?”

“No.”

“Good, because I don’t want whoever that was to hear you screaming my name.”

“I do not scream.”

“You will this time,” Adin predicted. He tore Donte’s tailored shirt right off, the sound of buttons hitting the floor loud in the still afternoon air, but not as loud as Donte’s gasp of excitement.

“Adin.” Donte pretended outrage. “Buttons do not sew themselves back onto a shirt when you do that.”

“I thought we planned to keep your tailor and all his progeny in business for generations to come.”

Donte stilled.

Adin glanced down at him. “What?”

“Boaz took care of things like mending.”

“I see.” Adin pulled back a little, bracing himself on his elbow while he traced the bow curve of Donte’s upper lip. He kissed Donte’s dark nipple until it hardened and rubbed his lips over the bud. He guessed, “You miss him.”

Donte shrugged.

“I didn’t realize how deeply he resented me. He never gave me even a hint until the very end.”

“I should have seen that—”

“Stop second-guessing yourself.”

Before Adin could give him a pinch, Donte caught his hand and gave it a gentle nip. “I’d rather he didn’t spoil our afternoon. I’m sorry I mentioned it.”

Adin met his gaze. “All right. Where was I?”

“I believe you were trying to make me scream?” Donte took two of Adin’s fingers in his mouth and sucked. “Wasn’t that what you had planned?”

“Ah.” At the wet pressure of Donte’s superb mouth on his fingers, Adin’s cock tightened. “I remember now. I have this very scary movie called
The Grudge
and—”

“You’ll have to do better than that if you want to make me scream. I’m far scarier than any film.”

“You just keep telling yourself that, lover.”

“I am terrifying.” Donte frowned. “Why do you never quiver with fear? You aren’t the sharpest tool on the shelf, but—”

“Right.” Adin dug his fingers into Donte’s side. “It’s hard to be frightened of someone so ticklish.”

“Hahaha,
stop
. By all the gods, I regret letting you have that piece of information.” Donte squirmed away and pushed Adin back.

“Too late now. After five hundred years, you’d think you’d know better than to play truth or dare.”

“I demand a—what is it in golf? A mulligan on that.”

“Nope. That genie is not going back in the bottle.”

“Pazzo. Djinn do not exist.”

“That’s what they said about vampires.”

“Shh.” When Donte could get his hands between them, he jerked the buttons of Adin’s jeans open one by one. “I have always liked buttons. They’re so much better than zippers.”

“Oh, so it’s all right for you to tear open buttons.”

“These—” Donte gave an experimental tug on one of Adin’s buttons, “—are very sturdy.”

“What about yours?” He reached for the fly of Donte’s trousers. “Alas, a zipper. How unimaginative.”

“And dangerous, unless you’re careful.”

“I promise.” Adin carefully unzipped Donte. They writhed around, freeing each other of the rest of their clothing until they were both naked, skin to skin, cock to cock, and some world-class friction put a stop their silly banter.

Lovemaking was an art and a science. If Adin’s hunger for blood was fierce, his hunger for Donte had grown exponentially beyond that, giving him superhuman vigor and really vivid porn-star fantasies. Adin slid his hands down Donte’s thighs and drew his legs up while Donte reached behind his head for a bottle of lube that Adin had tucked into the space between the cushion and the arm of the sofa.

“Donte.” Adin lowered his head to steal a deep, satisfying kiss. Donte’s mouth was made for him. Full lips that looked chiseled from marble but felt surprisingly soft and pliant smiled against his. He and Donte could kiss and kiss and kiss. They’d wind up lip-swollen and beard-burned and still he would love each and every single press of their lips together.

Lazily, Adin got himself a dollop of lube one-handed. He probed Donte’s entrance, earning a sweet sigh when he found his way past the tight muscles. Once he got started, he couldn’t help adding another finger, pushing them in and out of Donte’s tight heat, stroking them over the sweet spot that made Donte shiver. He pumped his fingers in and out, testing—teasing the little bundle of nerves that could send Donte’s whole world flying apart.

As he clenched around Adin’s fingertips, Donte’s eyes darkened with passion. He let out several small, needy sounds. He strained his body upward, begging for more. Adin breathed in Donte’s arousal. Underneath his lover’s skin, Donte’s blood called to him.

Adin gently rubbed his canines against Donte’s sweat-damp neck.

“Do it.” Donte arched against him. “You once said it meant something to you to nourish me. I never believed I’d have the pleasure of returning the favor, and now I want to give you so much more.”

“Ah, lover.” Adin pressed his cock against Donte’s tight entrance and began a long, agonizingly slow push inside even as he struck deeply, his sharp teeth piercing the skin below Donte’s jaw. “You’re delicious.”

He lapped at the blood that welled there.

Donte let out a shuddering breath. And tightened all over. “Ah. Adin. Più amato. Take everything I have.”

Adin smiled against his lover’s skin. He pulled his cock back and thrust, over and over, again, nipping and sucking until their blood sang together. He closed his eyes, drowning in a cacophony of sweet harmony and intense need. Their bodies surged and fell like waves on the sand, rushing, rising only to recede again and again, meeting and merging and drawing back again, obliterating any remaining restraint between them as they fucked and delivered stinging love bites all over each other’s skin.

“Adin.”
With his shout, Donte made Adin’s prediction come true.

At some point they fell off the couch and continued to roll frantically, with Donte on top for a bit, riding him and clutching his shoulders in a viselike grip.

Adin watched as Donte went over the edge, his head thrown back, sweat dripping from his damp hair. He froze to a shaking stillness and held on to Adin’s hips as if he’d never let go. Adin had no words, no adequate thoughts, even, for a sight like that.

Donte came in convulsive waves, his ass clenching Adin’s cock while Adin rode out his own release, his hips stuttering, out of control. Donte crushed Adin to him and pierced the flesh of his neck to feed.

They came to rest somewhere in the middle of the living room, half under the cocktail table. Donte lapped at the deepest wound in Adin’s neck while it closed.

After holding each other for a long time in the breathless, utter silence of the undead, Donte peeled his body off Adin’s. “No need to order the pizza boy tonight.”

“That’s good, it feels wasteful throwing out the pizza.” Adin crawled on all fours to find his clothes.

“You look like a beautiful cat when you do that, caro.”

Adin found his T-shirt and put it on while Donte went to the bathroom. When Donte returned, he glanced up. “Are you ever going to tell me why you moved all the furniture and spent half an hour hiding behind the couch?”

Donte held a damp cloth out for Adin. “Get dressed and I’ll show you right now.”

Once Adin complied and they were both basically dressed, Donte donned his newly buttonless shirt, then he tapped his Bluetooth earpiece.

“Redial,” he commanded with all the aplomb of an erstwhile Italian count wearing sex-shredded clothes. He waited for a minute and then said, “Donte here, I think I’m done.”

Adin snorted. “Done. I’ll say. You’ve definitely been done.”

Donte shushed him with a hand to his lips and listened. “All right. Let’s try it out.”

He picked up the television remote, and when the set turned on, Adin saw Bran and Edward on the big screen. Both grinned at him in what he assumed was real time. Edward leaned toward the camera. “Hi, Adin.”

Bran waved frantically. “Got it, Donte. It’s brilliant. You’re on the big screen. I can see your… Have you been getting busy? Oh, ew! That’s completely gross.”

Edward’s eyebrow shot up. “You realize you are going to be videoconferencing with an impressionable young man. I hope you have a modicum of—”

“No one buys that, coming from you, Edward,” said Adin. “Give us a break.”

Donte left the room, probably to hunt down another shirt.

“It’s so good to see you, Bran. How are you doing?”

“I started at your old high school, Adin. It’s all right. I miss shopping and hanging out with you.”

“Me too.” Adin had to stop himself from putting his hand on the screen. He really missed Bran. He wished he could spend time with him, take him on errands. He missed the long talks they’d had when Bran could still fumble around inside his memories. “You won’t see inside my head anymore, anyway.”

Bran’s face fell. “I know. And I liked it there too. You’ve done some pretty odd things, but your family was nice.”

Edward glanced up at this. “Have you seen Deana yet?”

“No.” When Edward’s disappointment showed, Adin put up his hands. “Don’t look at me like that. I don’t even know where to start.”

“You’d better start soon. She deserves the truth, and she needs to hear it from you.”

“She’s a scientist. It will melt her brain.”

“Maybe.” Tuan stepped into view from somewhere behind Edward. “But maybe because she’s a scientist, she might know more than you think. Have you ever considered that?”

“No.” Adin frowned. He hadn’t considered that at all, actually.

“Have you heard from Santos?” Tuan asked.

“No, we haven’t,” Adin admitted. Donte had returned to the room carrying a small table, on which he began to set up a chess set. “Donte?”

“No, and good riddance. Santos believed he should mentor Adin. That insufferable—”

“I expect he’ll keep his distance now that Boaz isn’t keeping us in touch anymore.”

“Where is Boaz?” Donte sighed. “Has anyone seen him?”

Tuan answered. “No one is really looking for him. It’s not illegal to do what he did, precisely, although there are ways to address it in court if you should choose to do so. It can be considered a civil crime to turn an unwilling human. The case would be heard by a tribunal of Kind.”

“It’s not a matter for the courts.” Donte gazed at Adin. “I doubt I handled it wisely, but for the sake of Boaz’s parents, I let him live. I hope I don’t come to regret that.”

Adin glanced over at his lover and the thought came to him, unbidden, that Boaz had never done anything—until the moment he’d turned Adin, that is—that Donte hadn’t asked him to do. Adin hated himself for it, but a tiny, painful part of his heart worried that even now, Boaz was simply following orders and staying away until Adin cooled down. He glanced at the screen and found Bran watching him. Was Bran thinking along the same lines? The boy looked back at Donte and his eyes narrowed.

“Donte—”

“Look what we have here, Bran.” Adin spoke before Bran could. “My chess set! What do you say to a game? I warn you, my new vampire instincts are far more competitive than my human ones were. I might not let you win this time.”

“As if,” Bran sneered, derailed for the moment. “That will be the day, when you have to let me win. I kicked your arse in France and I’ll be happy to do it again. Even long distance.”

“Challenge accepted.” Adin sat down at the table.

Bran pumped his fists. “Donte, no fair coaching.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” said Donte.

Adin and Bran argued over how to choose who played white and who black, and then they began their game. They were evenly matched and it took all Adin’s concentration to play. Donte sat beside him, immersed in a book while they trash-talked.

Adin was so deep into the game that he was surprised by a knock on the door. He assumed Donte had ordered the pizza boy after all. They both liked the young man, and the feeling was mutual. The agreement was consensual. Donte fed on him and tipped him well. He always left relaxed and happy, with a grin on his face. Adin would then feed from Donte.