They Come by Night Read online

  There was no tie, though. The throat would be open, baring my birthmark.

  I showered, shaved, and dressed, and then went back downstairs. My father stood there, trying to smile.

  “You look good, son.”

  “Thanks, Dad.” I held my arms out from my sides and turned around. “I don’t recognize these.”

  “The clothes are from the vampyr.”

  “How did he know my size?”

  “They have ways of knowing things.”

  I thought of Adam, who’d somehow known I was going to run away that night when Dad had first told me about sabors. I’d often thought of him as the day—night—when I’d be claimed for the first time came closer. He’d hoped to be my first vampyr. Would he? Or would it be a strange vampyr?

  “Ty….” Dad looked so pale I was afraid he was going to pass out. He pulled me into a hug, and I shuddered.

  “It will be fine, Dad.” I fought back tears and let him hold on to me.

  His grip eased, and he kissed my cheek. “He’s… he’s waiting outside.”

  He? I licked my lips. “Are you okay with that, Dad?”

  “Me?” He laughed a little wildly. “Male or female, you’re the one who’ll—”

  “I didn’t hear the doorbell.”

  “He knocked.”

  I gulped and shivered, this time from knowing what was waiting for me on the other side of the door.

  “I’m sorry, son. It’s in the genes, my genes, your mother’s…. We passed it on to you.”

  “I guess it’s a good thing I won’t be passing them on.”

  “What?”

  Didn’t Dad know I had to stay a virgin?

  But then he nodded. “That’s right. Sabors don’t marry.” Okay, if he wanted to put it that way. “Just remember what I told you. If one of them hurts you….”

  “I’ll remember.” I smiled at him, hoping it didn’t look as forced as it felt, and turned to leave. “Oh. My jacket.”

  “It’s a warm night for October. You won’t need it. Tyrell. I love you, son.”

  I lingered in the doorway. “I love you too, Dad.”

  A voice spoke from the darkness. “Are you ready, Tyrell?”

  My dick grew iron-hard, just from the sound of his voice, and my mouth went dry. Was this how it started?

  I swallowed a couple of times before I could get the words out. “I’m ready.”

  Waiting on the front steps was Adam.

  ADAM TOOK me to a little Craftsman-style bungalow way out in the country, about eighty miles from Clewiston.

  Two steps led up to a porch, which was lit up.

  “It’s small, I know, about six hundred square feet, but it’s all yours. This is your home now, Tyrell.”

  “Look, call me Ty, would you please? The only person who calls me Tyrell is my dad, and that’s when he wants to make a point. And… and I know what you’re going to do to me and… and I’m kind of okay with that, but….”

  “But not being reminded of your father will make it easier?”

  I nodded.

  “All right, Ty.”

  “Thanks.”

  He unlocked the door and pushed it open, and for a second I thought he was going to scoop me up in his arms and carry me across the threshold, which would have been embarrassing, us both being guys and all, and him being only a few inches taller.

  Although he didn’t pick me up, he did touch me. His hand was cool on the small of my back as he urged me to enter—I could feel it even through the material of my shirt—and I shivered. For the past eight years I hadn’t wanted anyone laying a hand on me, and now…. A wave of voluptuous pleasure swept through me, just from that simple touch.

  He paused outside the door.

  “Adam?”

  “I can’t enter unless I’m invited in.”

  I sighed. “Enter freely, Adam.” For the time being, I guessed this would be his home as much as it would be mine.

  “Thank you.” He stepped over the threshold and closed the door. He flipped a switch to the side of the jamb, and the light came on.

  “Why are you thanking me?”

  “For accepting me.” He tipped my chin up, and I finally caught a glimpse of his eyes. While his hair was the color of old gold, as trite as that might sound, his eyes—most blonds I knew had blue or green or gray eyes, but Adam’s were cinnamon.

  Right now they looked hungry, more reddish than brown, but before I could start shaking, I realized they were surprisingly tender as well.

  “You didn’t have to, you know.”

  “I didn’t? Geez, why didn’t someone tell me before now?” I groused, although I really didn’t mean anything by it. I was—not getting an erection, because I hadn’t really lost it since I’d heard his voice earlier tonight, but… I shifted. I was so hard I ached. If he looked down and saw, I knew I’d melt in a puddle of mortification.

  His gaze remained on mine, though. “There are any number of vampyrs who are waiting for you. If you’d shown any reluctance, they would have mobbed your father’s house to get to you.”

  “You mean they would have tried to kidnap me?” What did they think I was, a Sabine woman?

  “No. They’d have hoped to be the one you saw, the one you fell in love with and accepted.”

  Okay, it sounded like Adam was telling me I had a choice, and as long as I did, I guessed I could live with my destiny.

  “Ty?”

  I realized I’d been quiet for too long. “Well, I have accepted you, so I guess they’ll just have to wait their turn.”

  His expression became shut off, and I remembered what Uncle Phil had told me about sabors loving the vampyr they were with. At this point, Adam wouldn’t want to hear about the vampyrs who would come after him.

  Any more than I wanted to think about the sabors he would go to after me.

  I didn’t like that idea, and I didn’t like that I didn’t like that idea, but then I realized it had to be the sabor/vampyr dynamic kicking in.

  “Do you want to eat?” he asked. “I had the refrigerator stocked.”

  “No, thanks. I already had dinner.” I didn’t want to come across as a wuss, so I wasn’t going to tell him how little I’d eaten of it. And that reminded me he was going to want dinner soon. Me.

  “Maybe some ice cream or a piece of cake? I know today is your birthday.” His voice was like velvet against my nerve endings. My dick twitched, and my breath hitched in my throat.

  And then I realized what he’d said, about having ice cream. Oddly enough, I was disappointed. I thought he knew so much about me.

  “I can’t have ice cream. I’m lactose intolerant.” He held up an elongated little capsule. “What’s that? A ’lude?” I scowled at him. “I don’t do drugs.”

  “This is the enzyme supplement for lactose intolerance.” His smile was indulgent, and my heart flipped over.

  “Maybe tomorrow?” I thought about what would happen between now and tomorrow, and my mouth went dry—it seemed to be perpetually in that state. I swallowed again, desperate to work up some spit.

  The capsule vanished as quickly as it had appeared. “In that case, let me show you your home.” He put his arm around my shoulders, drawing patterns on my biceps. My skin felt hot, but his fingers were cool, and I found myself leaning into him, wanting him to touch me.

  How had that happened?

  Adam made a pleased sound. “All right, then.” He gestured to the left. “Here we have the great room.”

  I blinked and looked around. Oh. He meant the living room.

  It looked comfortable. At the front of the room was a large bay window. A TV was set in the wall above the wood-burning fireplace, and two more windows flanked it. Opposite the fireplace was a love seat that looked like it would open into a bed.

  “I’m allowed guests?”

  “I imagine you’ll want your father to visit.”

  “Well… yeah.”

  “Then he will.”

  “Yeah? But I thought�
�” No, come to think of it, Dad hadn’t said anything about being unable to visit, just that if a vampyr mistreated me, he wanted me to come home. It would be unkind to insinuate to Adam that I expected to be mistreated by his people. So I cut off what I’d been about to say, and said instead, “Cool.” I resumed looking around.

  The hardwood floor was covered by a cream-colored area rug. At the rear of the room stood a computer desk that held a laptop and printer and an Xbox game system. The desk was framed by a pair of bookshelves filled with paperbacks and hardcovers—all by my favorite authors—games, DVDs, and CDs, as well as a stereo system.

  “The windows will let in lots of natural light during the day.”

  Of course the curtains would have to be drawn during the time he stayed with me. When any of the vampyrs stayed with me.

  I sighed and turned away.

  A hallway ran the length of the great room, and on the other side was the kitchen, which was… well, “compact” was the kindest way of putting it. Only one person could work in it comfortably.

  The entire house was a matchbox, and remembering how small Uncle Phil’s cottage had been, I guessed it made sense. There was only going to be me here, for the most part.

  Adam drew me closer to him and pointed out the dining room, which was really just the space off the kitchen. It was big enough for the table and four chairs, and a small buffet. “Here’s where you’ll eat.”

  Where I would eat. Sure, and only one chair would come into any kind of use. He’d eat in the bedroom. Unless…. I pictured him overwhelmed by passion and—

  No, not passion. It would be hunger.

  Still, hunger of one sort or another would be acceptable, wouldn’t it?

  I gazed at the bay window that looked out onto the side yard. It was too dark to see anything now, but again its curtains would be closed on those days when I had company.

  A pocket door led through a small laundry room and coat closet to the lone bathroom in the house.

  “The only mirror in the house is here in the bathroom.”

  I stared into it, noting I looked a little pale. And then I turned even paler. Although Adam was beside me, my image was the only one reflected back. My throat felt as if a baseball was stuck in it. I swallowed again, but that didn’t do any good. I still couldn’t get a word past the constriction in my throat.

  “It’s so you’ll be able to shave.”

  Like I shaved all that often? But I nodded. He probably wasn’t expecting me to say anything, because he seemed satisfied with that.

  He led me through another pocket door. This one opened into the bedroom, which could also be entered through a door in the dining area. Adam would probably use that door to avoid the bathroom and its mirror.

  Throughout the tour I was silent. Each room was furnished exactly to my taste, and the clothes in the bedroom closet were what I was most comfortable wearing. The organizer held boxer briefs in a rainbow of colors, undershirts, and socks. A shoe rack at the bottom was filled with Nikes, plus a couple of pairs of dress shoes and boots for when it snowed.

  “What do you think of it, Ty?”

  “It’s very nice,” I said politely. “But isn’t the bedroom small? I mean, am I wrong in assuming you’ll be spending the daylight hours in here? It barely fits the double bed, never mind the tiny night table.”

  “Did you want a larger one?”

  “Adam. Where would I put it? On the roof?” He chuckled and pinched my chin, and I grinned reluctantly. “Besides, where are you going to keep your casket?”

  “Casket?” He burst into laughter. “We don’t use caskets, Ty.”

  “Then where do you sleep in the day?”

  “In a normal bed. With you. And this.” He opened the top two buttons of his shirt and fished a chain from around his neck. A cylindrical pendant dangled from it, and he cradled it in his palm. “It contains soil from my—”

  “Yeah, okay, I get it.” I didn’t want to hear about the three-by-six plot where he’d been buried.

  “I don’t think you do, Ty.”

  I flushed, waiting for him to come out with a heavy-handed innuendo.

  Instead, he said, “It’s the soil of my ancestral home, not my grave. As you can see, I’m not exactly dead yet.”

  “No, of course not. Sorry,” I mumbled, my cheeks feeling even hotter. “So you’re… you’re going to sleep in the same bed as me?”

  “Yes.” His smile was the most charming I’d ever seen, and I wanted to lean into him and breathe the scent of his skin.

  I was glad. I wanted him near me—

  Oh, my God, had it happened already? Was I already falling in love with him? I didn’t want to face that, not yet, and so I scrambled for something else to say. “Uh… being so far out in the….” I couldn’t insult him by calling this the boondocks, even though it was. “… so far away from civilization, won’t I lose television or Internet access?”

  The nearest town was about twenty miles away, and as for neighbors, I had no clue how close the nearest one was—there was no moon, and once Adam left the NYS Thruway, it had been too dark to see anything on the drive here.

  I’d always enjoyed spending time with my friends. How was I going to survive the solitude, the boredom of being all alone?

  “No. I’ve seen to it your service won’t be interrupted.”

  I didn’t know how he thought he could guarantee that, but maybe it was a vampyr thing.

  “Do I get transportation?”

  “There’s a garage out back with a compact hybrid in it.”

  A small squeak escaped my mouth, and my eyes widened. I was getting a car? Sure, I had my driver’s license, but it hadn’t made sense for Dad to get me a car, so mostly I rode my bike to school, to the mall, to meet my friends.

  “The ownership papers are in the glove compartment, and they’re made out in your name. So is the deed to this house, which is in a safe in the floor of your closet. You have a running account in all the local stores, and in the wallet on the night table there, you’ll find MasterCard, Visa, and Discover cards with a fairly unlimited line of credit.”

  “Well, that’s done it.”

  “Done what?”

  “You’ve succeeded in making me feel like a whore.” I didn’t know whether to be relieved or depressed. I’d been so close to acknowledging I was in love with him.

  “What? I…. That was never my—our intention! You’re very valuable to me. Us! We want you to be happy here. To be comfortable.”

  “Yeah, sure. And you’re paying me a whole lot of money. Okay, I guess I may as well begin earning it.” It was sheer bravado. I started unbuttoning my shirt. “Just do me a favor and don’t tell me I’ll like it. I’ll decide if I like it or not!”

  “No.” He brushed my hands away and buttoned my shirt again, although not before taking a second to tease a nipple, and my lips parted in a silent, Oh! “Come with me.” He took my hand, tugging me along after him.

  Confused, I demanded, “Where are we going?” It wasn’t to the bed, that was for sure.

  “To the great room.” He smiled at me over his shoulder.

  “Why?”

  “You’ll see.” He lit the wood in the fireplace, then picked up a remote and pressed a button. Soft, dreamy music began to spill from hidden speakers. He pressed another button, and the overhead light dimmed.

  “Adam, what are you doing?”

  He pulled me snug against him, put my arms around his neck, and began to sway; his hands on my hips gave me no choice but to follow his movements.

  I realized I liked it. It had been forever since I’d been comfortable with anyone touching me. I became almost boneless in his arms.

  “Adam?” I could feel his lips nuzzling my temple. I breathed in, inhaling his scent, dark and rich, with a hint of something I couldn’t identify. Whatever it was, I liked that too.

  “Relax and enjoy it.”

  “Enjoy what?” I didn’t know whether to feel impatient or grateful for his act
ions.

  “I’m wooing you, Ty.”

  “Oh. That’s what you’re doing?” I hummed happily under my breath. His hair was like silk as I threaded my fingers through it, and I was reluctant to leave it, but there was more of him to explore. I ran my palms over his shoulders and down his back to the firm curves of his butt, which I kneaded with restless fingers.

  “Is that all right with you?” He was hard, and his erection nudged against mine.

  I smiled against the cool flesh of his throat and did a little nuzzling of my own. “Yes.”

  IMPATIENCE—ON my part—won. We didn’t even make it back to the bedroom. Adam tried to go slow, but I was so on fire I could barely contain myself. “Now, Adam. Please, now!”

  “If that’s the way you want it, Ty.” He smiled, and even though the lighting was subdued, it glinted off his suddenly elongated fangs.

  “Adam,” I croaked and backed up a step. “What—”

  “Shhh.” He kept looking at my neck.

  And then I realized—and I had no clue how I realized it—it wasn’t my neck he was staring at, it was my birthmark.

  He slid his fingers into my hair and flexed them against my scalp, and instead of cringing in repugnance, I found myself melting against him.

  “Nice,” he breathed, and he tipped my head to the side.

  I didn’t squeeze my eyes shut or hold myself stiffly in anticipation of pain. After all, he’d promised me there wouldn’t be any, hadn’t he?

  Instead of sinking his fangs into me, he stroked his tongue over the spot where I knew my birthmark was.

  “Oh!”

  “May I assume you like that?”

  I arched my throat and leaned into him. “Shut up and lick me again!”

  He did.

  I became hotter and hotter, just from the feel of his tongue. I held on and wallowed in the voluptuous sensations he was igniting in me.

  “Oh!” I gasped.

  Somehow he’d undone the button on my trousers and unzipped the fly. He reached in and took out my dick. Somehow he’d slicked his palm.

  “Oh!” I groaned and turned my face into his shoulder. He continued stroking his tongue across my birthmark, all the while caressing my dick with teasing touches. I was harder than I had ever been, and I pushed into his grip. “More, Adam! Please, more!”