Theo1

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//-->Sin & Virtue: Theo #1Chains That Bind(Gay Paranormal Erotica)By Calista JinxCopyright 2014 Calista JinxCover art photograph copyright CanStockPhoto.Photoshop brush copyright ObsidianDawn.A successful Triad is a well-oiled machine. You have one guy for every job. Andre is ourmuscle. Raised up by a single mom who earned her living in cage fights, he can take a punchthat’d knock a werewolf back into its man-skin and give back twice as good as he got. Reevedoes the books. He knows everyone who’s anyone, keeps track of our projects, and can tell youthe history of Unseelie-vampire relations in the Bronx by order of zipcode.Me, I’m the face. I do all the talking. You put me in a room with twenty demons who wantto string my guts from the walls like tinsel on Christmas and I’ll walk out with twenty newdrinking buddies and five booty calls.With a track record like that, I was pretty shocked to find myself hanging by my wrists inthe center of an abandoned warehouse, and not in the proverbial fun way. My head rang with thatdull throb that comes after a hangover, and I ached in more places than I knew had names. Icouldn’t remember anything past leaving my aunt’s bar and the backroom we use as our office.A face swam up into my vision. At first I let myself get lost in the chiseled jaw, sharp blueeyes, and immaculately parted platinum blond hair, even if it was all fuzzing out around theedges due to my lingering nausea. Then I recognized that particular self-important smirk asbelonging to Luce Blackwood, the most vicious mob boss in all Manhattan, and a chill sweptdown my spine.Luce Blackwood is, let’s say, not my biggest fan.Triads are rare and they come together for only one reason: to help people. Andre calls it“cleaning messes,” and Reeve says it’s “fixing bullshit,” but it all comes down to the same thing.There are more wrong things in this world than there are stars in the sky, and when the amount ofBad outweighs the amount of Good, the powers that be swoop down to earth and arrange a Triad.People like us have been around for centuries, protecting the small and taking down the big. Orjust as often getting stomped on by the big until we’re great mucky puddles all over Evil’s shoes.I have this theory about Triads, you see. I think whoever thought us up figured we wouldn’tnecessarily be so good at fixing things as we would be at distracting the really evil dudes fromharassing everybody else.Case in point, my beautiful young body hung up on display like a pig in the window of aChinatown butcher shop.“Theo,” said Luce. He put a strong, manicured hand on my shoulder. “So good of you tofinally join us.”“Hnngh?” I said. Had I been drugged? Was that why my whole body had gone the mostunfamiliar kind of leaden? That could easily be chalked up to the ugly position I was in. Howlong had I been like this? My feet struggled to keep me standing, but they had to because if Ifaltered, all my weight would go to my wrists and the manacles encircling them.“Let me catch you up to speed,” purred Luce.Let me catch your face with my fist,I didn’t say. I probably should have been grateful,because it was stupid enough as a thought. Instead, I made another idiot sound and shook hishand off my shoulder as well as I could.Not very, as it turned out. Luce drummed his fingers on the clean muscle beneath my tight t-shirt. I’d been stripped of my jacket. It was still only the beginning of fall, so even inside thisdusty old warehouse I was aware of the temperature but not actually cold. Midnight filtered inthrough high windows on the sides of the building, and the only real light shone from somewhereabove. It didn’t extend far, maybe ten feet in every direction before it dissipated into the gloom.The chains that bound me extended up beyond where I could see even if I cricked my neck tryingto look. The taps of Luce’s fingers were pinpricks of icy dread way too close to my neck.“You’re bait,” said Luce. He looked suddenly sympathetic and was as convincing as a soapopera star. “I know, I know, it’s so cliché. But it’s going to work, so I’m not going to look thisgift horse in the mouth. Your friends are going to come for you, and when they do, I am going tohave a lot of fun killing you all very quickly.”I worked my mouth soundlessly until I managed a third, meaningless groan. I wanted to tellLuce that Andre was going to pull his sphincter out through his nostrils, and that Reeve was toosmart to let them get caught by whatever convoluted trap Luce had thought up. I wanted to tellhim that no matter the fact that my Triad would thoughtlessly risk their lives to save my own,they would survive. I wanted to tell him we would kick his ass from here to Hoboken and back –on the off-chance we weren’t already in Hoboken, eegh – and then we’d all sit on him and sharea pizza.None of that came out. Just an ongoing dribble of a moan. I stared at Luce’s smirk, and as Idid his smile became more and more ominous.Not that I had ever brushed Luce off or anything. I knew Luce was a threat. But there was areason Luce was so mad at us, and it wasn’t just because we kept undoing his wrongs, chippingaway at his criminal empire one good deed at a time.You see, when I said I could walk into a room full of twenty murderous demons and talk myway into free drinks and awesome fucks, I meant it. A Triad isn’t just defined by divine will, ordestiny, or whatever you want to call it. All three members of a Triad have a Gift. We’renaturally drawn to wrongdoing, for one, though that’s only a gift if you think it’s fun to spendyour day running into muggings and scam artists. We’re also compelled to do something aboutany nastiness we come across; we’ve got Samaritan in our genes. But what’s really special aboutour Triad is unique to each of its members.Reeve Sees things. Underlying logic to seemingly random events, or answers to questions noone’s even thought to ask, or just plain weird shit. Reeve’s never met a mystery he couldn’tdissect. Meanwhile, Andre Hears, but it’s not about sensing. When Andre Hears something not-right, he goes after it with a vengeance and there’s no stopping him. I guess whatever it is he’sHearing is bad enough that he’d rather it be silent.Do you see the pattern?I Speak. My words can soothe tempers and untangle lies, and I can make the bitterest ofenemies sit down for dinner. They won’t leave the table until they’re blood brothers. Reeve sayshe’s going to have me run for office. It’s a joke, of course. Our compulsion to do good means Ican’t abuse my Gift. Icanuse my Gift to give loan sharks and their goons a sudden change ofheart, or redirect hitmen to more fulfilling careers in selling macaroni art online.This is why Luce hates me.And that was why when he’d kidnapped me, he’d taken away my voice. I could not for thelife of me figure out how.That was until I saw the man standing behind Luce, who had chosen precisely this momentto come into my range of vision. I made an involuntary growl, and that came out just fine.The last time I had seen Damien Creed had been four months ago. I had been hanging offthe edge of a very tall building. He had left me there.Luce puts in time, product, and stylists to come off as slick as he does. Damien rolls out ofbed sleek as the sheer edge of night. I know. I’ve been there when he does it. He glides acrossthe room with his gorgeous black hair and intoxicating green-eyed smile, makes you breakfast,and disappears before you crawl out to get it from him. All my plentiful charm comes from thetousled approach to life. It makes me look approachable, and makes it easy for me to insinuatemyself into other people’s personal bubbles. People like me instantly, and like it even more whenI open my mouth. But theyloveDamien.I do not love Damien. I want to kick Damien’s perfect teeth into his perfect mouth and jumpup and down on his stupid perfect back. How the hell does someone have a perfect back?Damien’s back is perfect.“The seals have been drawn, Mr. Blackwood,” Damien said. He nodded to me like we werein the middle of a business meeting. “Good to see you, Theo.”I didn’t so much growl as wheeze my utter contempt.Luce squeezed my shoulder and smiled. But all the ice I felt at his touch had burned awaynow that I knew Damien was here. I guess Luce realized he’d been demoted to second fiddlebecause he slid his hand to my face, hooked his thumb around my chin, and forced me to lookhim in the eye.“You, I might kill slowly,” he said.My lip curled. I couldn’t help it. Even with Luce’s winter-frost eyes inches from my own, allI could see, hear, think was how much I wanted to grab Damien Creed by the throat and throttlethe bastard out of him.Luce pushed my face away and stepped back, pretending I hadn’t just snubbed him bypretending I didn’t exist. He didn’t have to give a shit about my opinions for long. With Damienon his payroll, he had a real chance of killing all three members of my Triad at whatever speedhe felt like.“Come, Creed,” Luce said, turning to walk out the door and leave me hanging.“Give me half an hour,” said Damien.Now that Luce was out of the way I could see Damien staring straight back at me. Casualand composed, he could’ve been posing for a magazine shoot. He looked me up and down andhis green eyes raked my soul, leaving fire in their wake. I shivered with the need to wrench myarms forward and give him what he was asking for.I barely heard Luce’s reply. It must have been positive, because soon he was gone and it wasjust the two of us. I wasn’t surprised. No one denied Damien whatever he wanted.Not even me.Damien stepped up next to me and slid his hand over my bicep and up to my elbow. Hiswarm touch set off sparks all up and down my arm. I instinctively tried to swear at him. Themoan that came out was too easy to misinterpret. Just to make sure my point was clear, I tried toknee him in the balls.Unfortunately, that made me lose my balance. I lurched left and the manacles bit into mywrists as my weight dragged down on them. I cried out, and struggled to stand. I didn’t strugglefor long because Damien steadied me with one arm around my waist, the other hand stillcrawling up my arm to my chained wrists.“Don’t you want me to show you how it works?” he asked patiently. Like I was a kid thatneeded to be told why I shouldn’t stick my finger in an electrical socket. I bared my teeth butnodded, and didn’t try to speak again. If Damien wanted to gloat about whatever clever thinghe’d done to strip me of my powers, that was fine with me. The more I knew, the more likely Icould escape.Maybe. Even I knew that was wishful thinking. I had a Gift, but Damien Creed was astraight-up mage.I told myself that was the reason Damien’s long fingers on the bare skin of my wrist felt likeliquid lightning. All I know about magic is what it does to people, and Damien’s can make menlose their minds. That had to be why whenever he so much as brushed my skin, I had theoverwhelming urge to lick whatever part of him had touched me. Damien slipped one of hisfingers between my wrist and the metal binding it. The warmth of his touch made me sighinvoluntarily, a long breathy sound that he damn just about drank up.“I inscribed a seal onto the clasps,” he said into my ear, brushing wisps of my sandy blondhair with his breath. “And another around the inside of the cuffs. There are nine more on thelinks. How many seals does that make, Theo?”My ability to do simple math had pretty much fucked itself. I mumbled somethingincoherent that might not have made sense even if I hadn’t been bound by enchantment.“That’s right,” said Damien. “Thirteen.”Now that even I could understand. There are plenty of magic numbers. Actually, I bet anynumber could be magic if you put enough thought into it. But some numbers have strongerinclinations than others, or so Damien had told me back when we were still sleeping together,and the inclination of thirteen is sin.Sin is a tricky enough word on its own. Reeve could spend a day and a half telling me whythe dictionary definition doesn’t cut it. But in simplest magical terms, sin is self-pleasure.Conversely, virtue entails the pleasure of others. If my chains were bound with a number of sealsthat added up to sin, I could weaken them by committing sinful acts and taking their power intomyself. A tall order for a Triad member like me. Like you might have guessed, we’re generallyconsidered virtuous creatures.Damien’s finger slipped out from underneath my manacle and smoothed back down my arm.He might as well have been peeling my will away. I felt unable to resist him and the green fire inhis stare. His hands came to rest on either side of my neck. I could have melted into his palms.He drew my head forward and leaned to touch his forehead to mine. He’s not so much taller thanme. Not any stronger, either. We both keep in shape, considering the line of business we get into,but I could take Damien in a fight. If he were stripped of all his magic like I was, anyway, and ifhis beautiful face were covered with a burlap sack.And if I could just stop finding any way to press more of my skin into his.I was suddenly afraid of what Damien would tell me to do. Clearly he had orchestrated thismoment. He had designed my chains, might even have crafted them himself, all for the expresspurpose of getting me bound up and forced to make a choice. But why?That was the problem with mercenaries like him. In many ways I was less afraid of Luce,because Luce’s empire made him predictable. He acted to protect it. Damien’s interests changedaccording to the highest bidder, but there was always something underlying his actions, someinscrutable personal desire that I had never been able to figure out. The minute I thought I knewwhat Damien wanted, it seemed like he changed his mind just to be contrary.Right now I knew that for whatever reason, he wanted me. I had no idea what for. But at thispoint? I would do anything Damien told me to, and I would beg for more.By then Damien had realized just how yielding I was prepared to be, because he cupped myjaw and tipped my face up so that when he spoke, his lips brushed mine.“I think you misunderstand, Theo.” He pressed a gentle kiss to the corner of my mouth andmy eyes fluttered closed. I gasped and tried to follow his lips as they fell away. “The only way tobreak the chains that bind you is withyourpleasure.”I uttered something raw and hungry, tilting my head to the side and back, inviting him topress his mouth against my jaw.“Would you like me to help you with that?” he asked, obliging my silent request. One of hishands trailed down the front of my shirt, dragging at the thin material until his fingers tugged atthe waist of my jeans.Unthinking, I rolled my hips. My thighs rubbed against one of his legs, which he had inchedforward and now inserted with animal certainty between my own. I whimpered at the suddenfriction.“I’ll take that as a ‘yes.’”It was so totally a ‘yes.’“Twenty-seven minutes and eleven seconds,” Damien said against the dip of my throat. Astring of numbers had never sounded so much like a promise. His tongue lapped deeply at thehollow beneath my Adam’s apple. “What do you think I should do in twenty-seven minutes tomake you come hard enough to break thirteen seals?”I opened my mouth to tell him he could start by getting on his goddamn knees, only torealize I had no way to say it. I stared at him with my mouth hanging open, panting, chest risingand falling with the intensity of anticipation. Damien drew back to look me in the eye, one handcurled at the nape of my neck, fingers tangled in my hair, the other poised just over my jeans. Ineeded him to stick his hand down the front of them and grab my dick. I needed it more than Ineeded air.Damien undid the button at the top of my jeans and slid the zipper down with a slownessthat made me grit my teeth.“Breathe,” he whispered. That was the last thing he said to my face before he dropped downin front of my hips and began to peel away my clothes.He used both his hands to push my jeans away from my cock, already thickening. “Theseare so damn tight,” he swore. “If you ever want to stop suffocating your dick just to show offyour ass, let me know and I’ll take you to a tailor.”I could have kicked him for being a jerk, but then he slid both his hands down my hips andpushed my underwear to my thighs to join my jeans. He clasped his hands at the front of my hips,forefingers hooked in the folds of my clothes as if he had to hold them in place to ensure mynakedness. My breath hitched and I stared down at my half-hard dick just inches from Damien’ssensuous mouth. I wanted to see him do it.Damien met my gaze head on. He parted his lips and dipped his head to catch my dick onhis red tongue. His lashes lowered and I bit my lip as he slid his tongue up the underside of my [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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