The command caught his mind off guard, but so total was Caster’s control that his body didn’t need his mind’s input. The moan signaling his surrender reached his ears, but he was too busy granting Caster’s desire. He fell apart in every sense of the word. His breath caught, his muscles clenched and relaxed in rhythm with his shortened breath, flooding every cell with a pleasure he wanted to hold on to for eternity. Caster’s name was a sigh as he floated back to himself to find the familiar smirk on his lips.
“Now, how did you sleep?”
He smiled, the pleasure still coursing through his veins, relaxing him even more than the best sleep he’d had in years. “Perfectly.”
“See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
He reached for Caster’s cock, but the quick movement of Caster’s hand around his wrist stopped him halfway to his goal.He frowned.
“Soon.” Caster placed a single kiss on Mark’s lips and left the bed. “We have a meeting to get to.”
He sat up, every instinct on high alert. “What meeting?”
Caster turned to him. “Damien’s news last night was not good, and your brother needs to know.”
This time, when his heart rate sped up, fear instead of pleasure was to blame. Caster was in bed with him again before he could remember to fortify his mind or still his heart. His hands found Mark’s cheeks, cradling his face with more care than he would attribute to him. “You have nothing to fear.”
“What happened?”
Caster’s touch eased Mark’s fear more than he was comfortable admitting. “I know what Bastian did to you.”
Mark shook his head even as the earnest expression on Caster’s face rebuffed his denial.
“I know you don’t want to talk about it, and I couldn’t possibly have all the information, but will you answer one thing for me?”
Mark nodded, the rush of panic that Caster could see through his façade to the broken part of him, stealing his words.
“How many were they?”
He tried to get the words out, but they remained stuck behind the wall he’d shoveled those memories.
“How many vampires were there that night?”
“Six.”
Caster’s hand in his hair drew him away from that wall. “You would recognize each one?”
“Their faces are seared into my memory. So is their scent.”
Caster nodded. “Good.”
He had little resistance to give when Caster’s lips claimed his. The comfort his tongue offered obscured the overwhelming desire for each other, but he pulled away too soon, leaving Mark with a craving he was certain he wouldn’t get over anytime soon.
“I can have all your things moved into this room?”
“No. I…”
Caster’s hand moved to the back of his head and tightened. “I’m sorry if that sounded like a question.” He released Mark and got off the bed. “What I meant to say is, this is your room now.” He raised an eyebrow when Mark didn’t move. “Come on. You still need to eat, shower, and change before we meet the others.” He walked to the open bathroom door and turned, pinning Mark with a look he could only describe as sinful. “If your clothes were here, we’d shower together.” And he disappeared into the bathroom.
The sound of running water startled Mark into movement. He needed to get to his room before he talked himself into accepting the veiled invitation.
The niggling fear of what would be revealed at the meeting was a constant companion as he showered and dressed, his assigned room seeming even more foreign than before. How much did Caster know about that night?
There was no way he knew everything. Mark had never shared the entirety of it with anyone. Even James, whose arrivalhad scuttled the witch’s plan, had little information about what had transpired before. It was such a painful memory to contend with; Mark was certain he’d suppressed some of it.
Caster all but promised to bring the six vampires involved that night to justice. But could he trust him to do that when one of them was his blood relative?
His door opened, and Dean walked in, stopping all thought of Caster and his promise.