Necessary Passion [Alchemy Mates 3] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (4 page)

“Everyone keeps telling me how difficult it is, but if we never start, I’ll never conquer it. Let’s get the damn show on the road.” Aidan said it all in the signature MacGregor growl. The men in his family had mastered the art of growling out whole paragraphs for the interpretation of the masses.

“Very well,” Sky said after a long moment of contemplation. “I’m going to deliberately touch your mind with mine. Don’t fight me.”

An electrifying tingle slithered up Aidan’s spine. He hadn’t allowed a vampire touch his mind since Andren had spoken to him over the universal mind link last year. The first tentative touch along the cord within his mind caused Aidan to shiver. It felt deeper, somehow more intimate than anything he’d ever experienced before.

Sky’s voice seeped into his core.
“Easy
.”

“I feel like you’re inside me,”
Aidan said, surprise flickering through him.
“It feels…good.”
It shouldn’t have surprised him, but it did. It felt like Sky’s presence in his mind settled him, comforted the frantic pattern he’d developed in the intervening months since Sky had come to see him in London and bargained for his assistance.

Sky dropped to his knees beside the seated hunter.
“I’m going to deepen the connection further. Ready?”
Not really, he thought, but it seemed like he wasn’t really being given an option. If things got deeper it would get frightening, and Aidan couldn’t handle Sky so intimately.
“Here it goes.”
Sky’s hands reached out and touched Aidan’s bared chest. Aidan felt like pushing against Sky’s stroking hands like a cat. He wanted Sky to touch him. It didn’t even have to be sexual. He just craved the intimacy. The platonic caresses made him feel safe.

“Why does this feel so nice?”
he asked, sliding from the chair and pressing his chest against Sky’s own. The stone was cool under his knees, but he barely felt it as their flesh mingled. The German vampire wrapped his arms round the hunter, and they leaned into one another, balancing each other.

Sky placed a hesitant kiss on the side of Aidan’s throat just below his jawline.
“It feels nice because I will it so.”

“This feels like before when you helped me in London,”
Aidan murmured, tilting his head to give Sky better access. He gave a grateful sigh when Sky indulged him and gave a great openmouthed kiss to his pulse point.
Oh that’s nice.
Aidan ran his hands over Sky’s back, caressing the ridges of muscle beneath his fingertips. He felt so peaceful, like he was floating on a sea of clouds far above the world where no one could hurt him.
“I like feeling like this. I feel…safe.”

Sky sighed and nuzzled the side of Aidan’s neck.
“You’re going to have to let go of that safe feeling, Aidan. I’m shielding you from your fear, cushioning this first touch. I’m going to bring you out of it. It’ll feel a bit like falling. Ready?”

“Please don’t,”
Aidan thought before he could censor himself.
“Let me stay right here, in this place where I like you and you feel so damn good. I want you to touch me more, like before. I’m so tired of being ashamed of wanting you.”

Sky sighed again.
“You’ve said that before.”
Immediately a vision was shared between them. Their one moment of passion. Sky’s hands on his body.
Oh God, his hands
.
“I can’t keep shielding you from yourself, jäger. I’m letting you go. One, two, three.”

“No!”
Aidan protested an instant before he was tumbling back into himself. Immediately he was swamped with self-loathing at his admission
.

“I—why—why did I feel like that?”
he asked, his cheeks burning.

Sky swallowed.
“I took you into my mind. It allows you to feel as I feel. The alchemy I feel for you.”

The fact that Sky felt that way about Aidan, wanted him, and cherished him, really freaked the hunter out. “Let me go,” Aidan said aloud. His breathing started to accelerate. Dimly, he realized he was hyperventilating. “G–Get off. I mean it.” Sky’s admission of attraction and affection felt like a vise tightening around Aidan’s throat.

“Simply loosen your grip, Aidan. I’m not holding on to you,” Sky said. Aidan jerked back, and Sky continued speaking. “I told you this wouldn’t be easy. We’ve got to be in harmony without my will overpowering your own.”

“Sure. Whatever,” Aidan rumbled.

“Shall we begin again?” Sky asked, sitting back on his haunches.

Aidan nodded his head in agreement. He needed to stop being a weakling and get this over with. He deliberately forced his breathing to slow. There was no reason to have a fit because Sky liked him. It was only natural. There was no reason to return the emotion. Really.

Sky lightly touched Aidan’s knees. “First close your eyes. You should be able to see two distinct cords of light in your mind. These are called ‘auras’ by my kind. Mine should be almost blue, yours should be closer to white. Vampires run cooler, metaphysically speaking, because we exert more energy out into the world. A human tends to have a higher energy level because you don’t express psychic energy. This time, try to remain in your own mind instead of rushing into mine, take deep breaths, and focus. Keep a hold on your cord. Do you understand?”

Aidan nodded but was still unsure. “You think this will help?” he asked, letting his eyes slide shut.

“It should. Now focus,” Sky commanded.

This time Aidan felt the tendrils of relaxation begin to overtake him in slow degrees. Feelings that he now realized were his unfettered response to Sky’s own filled him. He recognized the cords for what they were and felt his grip loosening on the cord nearest him. He seemed to slide along the other until he felt the pressure of Sky’s mind on his own.

“Pull back. You’re getting lost in me.”
Sky’s voice tempered his reaction and allowed him to pull back. This was a lot harder than he’d originally imagined.
“Good.”
Sky’s praise slid over him like a physical caress. Aidan shivered in response.

This is what Andren meant. We’re more intimate now than ever
. He was connecting to Sky on a level that made it almost impossible to be anything but 100 percent honest in his reactions. He felt Sky, and Sky felt him, and there was no deception this deep into one another’s minds.

“When I touch you the connection will deepen, but without it we won’t be able to win against Jessup.”
Sky’s voice was so sweet. It made every sentence seem more powerful, more intimate, touching deeper and deeper with each verbal plunge.

Aidan allowed his eyes to open and lock on Sky’s full lips.
God, I feel so warm.
His mouth literally watered looking at his vampire companion.
“I want to kiss you so badly I ache. This is the alchemy you were talking about,”
he said. It made sense why Sky was reluctant to share the definition of alchemy with Aidan previously. His body began to prepare itself to fuck, hardening and lengthening. He continued to speak before he could filter himself.
“This is insanity. How am I supposed to concentrate when all I can think about is your lips wrapped around my cock?”
He blushed as the question planted itself directly into Sky’s psyche.
“Oh shit,”
he murmured.
“Sorry.”

The embarrassment was so thick in his voice, Aidan wasn’t surprised when Sky laughed at him.
“The point of this lesson was to show you exactly what we were getting into.
I think that we’ve had enough today. We’ll start learning to move together tomorrow as well as focusing you more on yourself. We have plenty of time.”
He withdrew himself from Aidan’s mind and stood.

“So that’s it, we’re done?” Aidan asked in surprise. He’d anticipated long hours and hard, sweaty sessions of physical exertion as they trained to battle Sky’s challenger. After Sky’s lecturing, it had only been twenty minutes that they worked on the mind-to-mind nonsense. What game was he playing at?

Sky gave him a sheepish smile. “I want to ease you into the sensation. If I pushed much harder you would’ve jumped me, either to pummel me again or make me ‘wrap my lips around your cock.’” Sky said the last with a grin. “You did very well for someone previously unexposed to vampire connections.”

“Why did we do this half-naked?” Aidan asked, ignoring the echo of his earlier statement altogether. The last thing he wanted to do was remember the flash of image that had Sky’s mouth stretched over his needy prick.

“Skin-on-skin contact increases and tightens the connection. The best vampire-servant combaters are typically lovers or at least sexually involved. However, in our case, I know you don’t want either, so we’ll be touching quite a bit without actually getting intimate,” Sky answered. Aidan’s eyebrows shot up. Great. In a world which deplored physical contact, he and Sky were going to be practically groping one another.

“Are the vampire, Jessup, and his servant lovers?” Aidan inquired, he had an uneasy feeling eating his gut. There had to be a reason the best combatants were linked in such an intimate fashion.

Sky nodded, his expression perfectly aristocratically blank. “Yes. They’ve been together for almost forty years. Her name is Guilanna. She’s a French-African beauty he picked up on his trip to the Ivory Coast. She’s hopelessly in love with him, and Mirah Jessup uses that to his advantage.”

“So we’re already behind the curve so to speak?” Aidan asked darkly. If it was really that big of a deal, then it was like going on a vampire hunt without a pistol. Suicide didn’t suit him.

Sky reached out and grabbed his hand, squeezing it gently before helping him to his feet. “We’ll figure it out, Aidan. Don’t feel pressured to get intimate with me just to give us an edge. I said it’s common, but it isn’t unheard of for partners to be
just
partners.”

“I understand,” Aidan said, fear lacing his words.

Sky squeezed his hand again before releasing it. “How about I cook you breakfast?”

“Can you do that?” Aidan asked, again surprised.

Sky laughed. “You’d be surprised what I can do, jäger.”

* * * *

“So what does ‘jäger’ mean exactly?” Aidan asked, stuffing his mouth with eggs.

“It means ‘hunter’ in my native tongue,” Sky offered, putting a plate of fruit before him as well. “It is a title of distinction, I assure you.”

“What are these things? I mean, I know they’re oranges, but what kind? I’ve never seen such red fruit,” Aidan said, holding up a piece of red fruit to the light.

Sky chuckled, no doubt about his curiosity. “They’re known as blood oranges. I had them imported recently from Italy.” As a hunter he was taught to question everything, and this was no different. He had an insatiable need to know everything.

“Why?” Aidan asked. “You don’t eat.”

Sky smiled. “Yes, that is true. I’m old enough that playing human is hard and I don’t bother to even pretend to eat anymore. However, there is a village down the road that has a small school. I was planning on giving them to the children as a sweet treat, but if you like them I’ll let you eat them.”

“No, no, that’s all right,” Aidan said quickly. He’d savor the few bites he had.

“I’ll leave you five or six and give the rest away,” Sky said, reading his mind. “I was about to pack them up and take them on.”

“You’re leaving?” Aidan asked, almost alarmed at the prospect of being left alone in this large house by himself.

“I was in the mood for a horse ride down to the village. It’s much too late to bring children oranges, but I could use a little stretch before true winter sets in. They say only monsters, fools, and thieves ride after dusk, but since I’m neither a fool nor a thief, I’ll go with the adage of monsters.”

“Mind if I ride with you?” Aidan asked.

Sky looked surprised at his request. “Of course I don’t mind.” Sky smiled suddenly. “So are you fool or thief to travel with me?”

“Neither I suspect. I think I’m a little bit monster since I’m with you,” Aidan replied darkly.

Sky nodded. “I’ll have the stable master ready you a mount. If you like to ride I have extensive stables here. I’ll make them available to you.”

Aidan felt a bolt of pleasure and anticipation spear him at Sky’s offer. “When I was younger, before I was able to join in the hunt, my brothers and I used to race over the moors. They’re some of my happiest memories.”

The vampire bowed. “Then I hope that my stables will prove adequate for more pleasant memories. I’ll instruct the staff to allow you access to the horses whenever you feel the urge.” Aidan stood as Sky gathered his oranges in a sack. “The schoolmaster’s maid should be about. I’ll let her have them for the delivery in the morning.” He paused. “Ready to leave?”

Aidan nodded.

Sky led him from the house and down the steps, veering off to the left to circle round the house to the side. Aidan had never seen this part of the estate before. The stables were infinitely better than Sky’s humble description. “Extensive” was a vast understatement. They had to contain at least forty horses in all, and Sky promised that he had just as many on his four other estates, one of which was just beyond the border of neighboring France. Aidan couldn’t help but be impressed by the clean cobblestones and polished wood surfaces that made up the inside of the stables. He hadn’t seen a stable quite this extravagant before. Sky must’ve been wealthier than even he imagined.