Maverick Danker [Beyond the Marius Brothers 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour ManLove) (9 page)

“Well, that’s a nifty fucking trick.” The man chuckled as he held out his hand. “Darcy Burke and you saw my mate Ayden when you got here.”

“Pleasure,” I said, shaking his hand.

“Everyone is downstairs,” Ayden informed us as he stepped out onto the porch.

“You’re not,” Darcy growled. “Get to safety.”

“Kiss my ass.” He snickered, checking his gun. “You taught me how to shoot just in case something like this happened. I can move faster than you guys and I have a few tricks up my sleeve. Warrior or not, I will
not
leave my mate to defend our home alone.”

“You have a warrior’s heart,” I said approvingly, earning me a nasty glance from Darcy.

“No one has to die here today,” one of the demons snarled as they slowed down. “We just want the Kappa wolves.” His evil red eyes were full of hatred as his gaze darted to each of us before resting on me again.

“Come and get them,” I taunted as I raised my sword. “It will be you that dies here tonight.”

“What is he?” a demon whispered to their leader.

“So they know about the wolves and Kappas but not that the fae are here,” Mav mumbled so only we could hear. “Interesting. I would love to find out how they know anything.”

I nodded my agreement. We needed to take at least one of them prisoner for interrogation. There was a flash of light behind us and I turned just in time to see the Queen step out through a portal.

“Your highness,” I growled as I stepped toward her. “We warn you of danger and you come
here
? I laid down a protection barrier. Get to safety.”

“And miss the first battle I’ve been around in a millennium?” she asked, almost giddy with excitement. “You must be crazy, Asterio. Besides, you know my power is great.”

“Yes, but you are too important to let into battle.”

“Nonsense,” she said with a dismissive wave and headed onto the porch. Well, at least I saw a few dozen fae warriors had come with her through the portal. We took up positions around the porch, mine next to the Queen when I saw Mav was standing in front of Tyler. “You are, as they say here,
outgunned
, demons. Surrender now and I will make sure your deaths are painless. Fight us and you will suffer.”

“Oh, we’re just the first wave,” the demon sneered. “Give us the Kappas and we will leave.”

“Why do you want them? Tell me that and maybe we can make a deal,” she countered. Darcy growled, but I knew full well that she would never hand anyone over.

“We were told to get the wolves who were helping the vampires,” one called out.

“You idiot! She’s lying,” the leader snarled as he punched the other demon. “Give us the Kappas or you all die!”

“Come and get them,” she replied with a smirk.

“I said that before you got here.” I chuckled, shaking my head. Good to know that the woman who’d been like a mother to me had influenced me. “We want one for questioning. Mav says they shouldn’t have the information they do.”

“I’ll see to it.” She gave me a wink and waved her hands. Suddenly the leader was up in the air in some type of protective bubble.

“Attack!” The guy screamed in a panicked voice. The demons charged. This was going to be good.

“Can we shoot through your protection thing?” Mav leaned in and asked.

“Um, no. I hadn’t thought of that,” I admitted with a shrug. “The bullets would disintegrate.”

“Hey, I’ll take a protection shield over being able to shoot any day. You’re very impressive, my mate.” He gave me a wink and I felt like I was the best warrior in the land. I liked that my mate could make me feel that way. Now if I could only fix what I broke with my other mate.

“Yeah, give him another blow job,” Tyler muttered angrily. Yeah, I had a lot of making up to do.

Maverick

I shielded my eyes in reflex as the first demon hit Asterio’s barrier and screamed before turning to ash. Oh, that was cool. I was so on board with having the fae around. Not that I hadn’t been before, but I was a little cranky about the way Asterio’s blood had affected me.

And I’d heard Tyler’s snarky comment. We just had bigger fish to fry right then. I could deal with fixing what I’d broken between us later.

It took a dozen more turning into dust before they realized there was some line there they couldn’t cross. Wow, I wondered if when they decided to give up their souls, they gave up their
brains
, too?

“Still think you can beat us?” Asterio asked with a smirk, leaning against his sword in a relaxed position like it was a cane.

“We’ll be back,” one of the demons snarled.

“Lift the shield,” Queen Magdalena whispered. Asterio nodded and undid his protection barrier with another chant. She walked down a few of the steps and let out a loud whistle. “We evened the playing field. Come and get us.”

“No!” The demon leader shouted as the rest turned back toward us. I watched in awe as the Queen lifted her hands and power flowed from her fingertips. She lit up every demon on the lawn besides the leader that she still held captive.

“I just got hard and I’m not even into women,” Ayden said in awe. Darcy cuffed him playfully upside the head as the Queen burst out laughing.

“I take it that’s your way of giving me a compliment?”

“Yes, your highness. Sorry, sometimes my mouth moves before my brain catches up.”

“My dear, it happens to all of us.” She turned to me and raised a brow. “What would you like me to do with the leader?”

“I’ll leave Darcy to answer that. I have no idea on the protocol for the local warriors. I’m assuming they have some sort of jail that can house demons for questioning.”

“We do,” he said with an evil smile. “Can you knock him out for a couple of hours? We can get him transported then.”

“We should make sure the demons didn’t try to attack anywhere else first,” Ayden suggested. Everyone was a flurry of movements then, some pulling out their cell phones to call and check in.

“Well, that was anticlimactic,” one of the fae warriors grumbled. “I thought we were going to get to fight.”

“You’ll get your chance.” I chuckled, shaking my head. “The demons are organized now and attacking as opposed to their usual ways of hiding and trying to not draw attention.”

“How many are there?” Queen Magdalena asked.

“We just don’t know. There’s no official registry of all vampires, though the covens keep track of their own. But until recently, half our race didn’t live within covens.” I sighed, knowing full well it was a question that plagued every warrior. Just how large were our enemies’ numbers? “We have no clue, but right now we need to know who’s leaking information to them. My understanding is this isn’t the first time they’ve been privy to the inner workings around here.”

“No, it’s not,” Darcy growled, shaking his head. “They attacked Riley at the warrior compound not too long ago and bragged about how they kidnapped one of the cooks and tortured them until they talked. But that was before the wolves even got here so they have to have some new source of information.”

The purple-eyed beauty rubbed his hands up and down Darcy’s chest. “We’ll figure it out, big guy. For now, we’re safe, they’re dead, and no one even got hurt on our side.”

“You’re right. You’re always so smart, babe,” Darcy cooed, hugging his smaller mate.

It made me think of my own wolf mate now that the dust had settled. I turned around and realized Tyler was gone. I grabbed Asterio’s arm to get his attention. “Tyler?”

“I don’t see him,” he answered, panic in his tone. “Tyler!” We raced inside, calling out his name as the wolves came up from the basement. One of them pointed out which room was his and we raced toward it, knocking frantically on the door.

“Oh, for god sakes, go away,” he bellowed. Like any good mate, I didn’t listen, instead breaking the lock on the knob and entering. Yeah, add it to my list of crimes. I almost dropped to my knees in sorrow when I saw he was packing. Asterio made a distressed sound, verbalizing how I was feeling.

“So, you’re packing to come stay at Barnabas’s house, right?” I asked, my voice cracking slightly.

“No,” he whispered, shaking his head, still not turning to face us. “I’m leaving to go start over someplace where people don’t know me and maybe try living among humans. I could get a construction job building houses, have a peaceful life, and never hurt again.”

“Then we’ll come with you,” Asterio offered.

“Right, because you guys aren’t the main reason I’m leaving anyways.”

“But we’re not the only reason.” And just like that, the lightbulb went off over my head. “We won’t ever let the demons take you again, cub.”

His shoulders went stiff and I saw him flinch. “I decided to leave when I got back and Ayden pissed me off. Obviously even the people I thought were my friends think the worst of me as well. I’m tired of my past and being a wolf clouding everyone’s judgment of me.”

“I didn’t understand, Tyler. I’m so sorry,” Asterio pleaded as he stepped forward and took the clothes Tyler was folding out of his hands. “Please just hear us out. If you still want to leave after that, then we won’t stop you.”

“You going to stop me now?” He growled, his teeth becoming exceedingly long as he shook. Was he going to shift?

“Um, well, no?” Asterio stuttered. Yeah, I didn’t have an answer for that either. “Maybe? Not forcibly or anything but yeah, I’m going to do everything including lying down in front of your truck to keep you from leaving me.”

Tyler’s face almost instantly went from an expression of anger to pain. “Why do you care? You have Mav.”

“Cub, don’t do that,” I said gently as I reached out and cupped his cheek. “We fucked up and hurt you. We know that and we’re here to apologize for that and make things right. But don’t act as if we’ve never showed we care. We had days together, Tyler. Please don’t forget them and let a mistake wipe away that memory.”

“I’m not really that upset with you if fae blood fucks with you,” he admitted as he stared at the ground. “I can’t necessarily relate, but the fear is overwhelming me.”

“What fear?”

“Are you fucking shitting me?” He laughed darkly as he pulled away. “Fear that you’ll get tired of your screwed-up cub and push me off the couch again. Fear Asterio won’t ever see me as anything but a common whore and slut. Fear you’ll love each other and only put up with me because we’re mates.

“Fear that I’m so fucking depraved and wanting anyone to show me the slightest affection I won’t be faithful when you screw up. I’m scared the demons will come or my Alpha will find me. I’m scared that I just can’t function around people anymore, and being on my own might be the only way to keep me sane!”

“Let us help you,” I said gently as I tried to hug him.

“Right? So you can pull the happiness rug out from me again? No thank you. I’m not a horse who follows the carrot to walk into shit over and over again.”

“Interesting analogy but not quite the same thing here,” I replied with a growl and tossed him onto the bed. He snarled at me as I followed him down, pinning his arms over his head. “Now let’s address your comments one by one, shall we?”

“Get off me!”

“No.” I kissed him quickly, pulling back when his teeth got scary again. “I’m sorry I was a douche. I can’t even describe to you how bad I feel about it and the panicky manic-ness I felt when I had his blood.”

“Are you okay? It didn’t hurt you or leave any lasting effects, right?” He looked so worried that I think he finally felt something else strong enough to break through the fear. There was my mate!

“I’m okay now.” I gave him a soft smile and another kiss now that his teeth went back to normal. “I woke with one hell of a hangover from whatever the Queen dosed me with. I mean, yeah, I wanted to toss what little food I didn’t have in my stomach, but I’m good now.”

“I felt guilty for not staying with you, but I wasn’t strong enough, Mav. I thought if you woke up all worried about Asterio again I’d break mentally.”

“I know, cub. I wasn’t upset in the least, okay? This wasn’t your fault and it hurt you, and for that I’m sorry.” He nodded and I gave him another kiss, this time with tongue. “Now, about Asterio accepting my blow job instead of paying attention to you.” Tyler’s eyes flared with anger. “Now, just hear me out.”

“Fine.”

“He met both of us today and he probably knew you better, right?” I waited until he nodded. “So he didn’t know how I normally was with you after sex. For all he knew I could have been fucking around or being a jerk or who knows. But I did have my fangs by his dick. Would you have risked pissing me off right then?”

“No, I didn’t think about it like that,” he mumbled.

“I’m just saying he’s been through a lot, too, so maybe cut him a little slack on that. I’m sure he’s more than willing to make up for his blunder as I am.”

“I could have forgiven that, but he thinks I’m a whore. He wants to change my wolf tendencies.”

“No I don’t,” Asterio said firmly as he pushed me off Tyler. “See, now I pushed him to get to you, so there.” I couldn’t help but smile at that one. “I’ve been in your world less than thirty-six hours, Tyler. Hell, I
did
throw up after crossing over and felt like ass all day yesterday. I’m scrambling to learn all I can then I meet you and wow, did that send my mind reeling.