Family Portrait

Alex had never had cause to be jealous. Such a

human

emotion, and Alex hadn't been human in over two hundred years. He never had reason to begrudge Joseph his occasional conquests, so rare to begin with and always fleeting, that he was surprised by the surge of possessiveness that welled up when he first saw Joseph with Anna.

He wasn't even with her, just gazing at her adoringly from across the room. It was a disgusting display and after a few moments, Alex couldn't abide it anymore, sidling up to him and murmuring, "If you want to bed her, then do it. Your simpering is nauseating."

"She's not someone a man just beds, Alex," he said, not taking his eyes off her for a moment.

Alex resolutely didn't grit his teeth, but it was a near thing.

He came across them hours later after trekking through the woods, following the scent of Joseph and woodsmoke. Herbs were burning in the fire, filling the night with an earthy, heady scent, and Joseph was lounging drunkenly against a tree, hands bound in front of him, eyes glued hungrily to Anna's form.

She was skyclad and speaking in Latin, and after catching the grin Joseph threw in his direction, he settled in to watch the show. Somehow, knowing she was a witch had his annoyance edging back a notch.

Joseph had always been intrigued by the unusual.

Unusual and beautiful: exotic, even with her much too thin body. Her hair was long and dark and thick, and her eyes wide and green. Alex smiled suddenly when he realized how similar she and Joseph looked. Acknowledged that if his first reaction hadn't been jealously, it most likely would have been attraction.

Their resemblance was more than physical. She had the same fire veiled in innocence, the same wickedness hidden in her smile.

Her incantation ended and she lowered her eyes to Joseph, strode toward him with sinuous grace and knelt next to him on the dirt. "My sincerest apologies, my Lord," she said in accented English. Alex couldn't see her eyes from this angle, but he doubted that the look in her eyes had anything to do with contrition.

She held up a dagger, making it shine in the firelight. "But I have need of your blood."

He shivered along with Joseph as she delicately cut the stays of his shirt with careful flicks of the blade. Joseph didn't try to speak, just watched her with hungry eyes. Alex couldn't help but lick his lips in anticipation.

"Just one small drop," she continued, talking mostly to herself. "A tiny prick that you will barely feel." She spread Joseph's shirt, baring his chest, solid and sculpted. Ran a hand lightly over his breast.

Alex stepped forward soundlessly, unable to remain back.

"Si beau, si fort, mon amour," she whispered, leaning close. Dragging the blade lightly across his skin. Joseph was panting, eyes dark, and it took only one more step closer to see that he was already hard.

Alex was standing directly over them now, but Joseph's eyes were fastened on the Anna, and hers were equally as captivated by Joseph's chest.

"Give yourself to me," Anna said against Joseph's lips as she pressed the blade into the skin of his throat; Joseph arched up into Anna with a moan as Alex dropped to his knees and grabbed Anna by the throat.

"He is mine," Alex said, voice deep and resonant, as he swept her hair to the side and sank his teeth into unblemished skin in one smooth motion.

It was Anna's turn to gasp; pressed hard between the two of them, her body convulsed, just once, and Alex drew back, looked in her eyes and said, "I could kill you for touching him without permission," he said, drawing a thumb across her unguarded neck, and feeling her shiver.

Joseph moaned and nuzzled the other side of her neck, nipping and worrying with his teeth, but not breaking skin.

"A flick of my wrist," Alex continued, running his other hand down her side, cupping her breast and absently fondling the nipple.

"He came willingly," she said, her voice breathless and quavering. Defiant words, nonetheless.

"Yes," Alex said, grinning with all of his teeth. "And so will you."

He pushed her forward until she was bent over Joseph, mouth hovering above a thick line of blood on his neck, trailing down his chest and stomach to still fastened trousers. Writhing, Joseph let out a mewling, beseeching noise.

"

Abomination

," she whispered fiercely.

Alex licked at the still oozing wound on her throat, tightened his hand on her neck and hissed, "Yes."

"It is either become you or die," she said, eyes blazing up at him. "Not much of a choice, no?"

"You will not die from your wound tonight, my dear," he said in a low voice. "Merely remember this as a dream. A fantasy," he said, reaching between their bodies and unfastening Joseph's pants. "Something to keep you warm on cold nights."

Joseph's erection sprang free as Joseph surged up into Alex's hand, brushing fluid across Anna's naked belly.

"But if you join us," Alex continued in a silky, seductive voice, his hand moving from Joseph's cock to her slick folds, "You will never be cold again."

Her voice rose and broke as Alex's fingers breached her, gasping and trembling as he once again began to feed.

"Alex," Joseph said from beneath them, voice rough and used. "Anna."

"Taste him," Alex commanded. "Take him inside."

Anna jerked once and then leaned forward, lapping at the blood on Joseph's belly and up to his chest. Joseph hissed in pleasure as she reached the open wound on his neck and began to suck. Moaned deep in the back of his throat as Alex easily maneuvered her pliant body until she was straddling Joseph's thighs, until she was pressing down and taking the full length of Joseph's cock.

"He is my gift to you," Alex said, draping himself over her back, hands touching her neck, her sides, her breasts, and the place when she joined with Joseph.

"And she is my gift to you," Joseph said, eyes intent on Alex as Anna fucked herself through death and into rebirth.

She came violently, body trembling and then collapsing on top of Joseph. Eyes still on Alex, Joseph easily snapped his ties and gently rolled Anna off of him until she was resting at his side, weak and defenseless as her body accepted the change.

Flushed with new blood, still hard and slick with Anna's juices, eyes still on Alex he said softly, "My gift to you."

Dizzy with want, Alex tore his clothes from his body, and sank onto Joseph, just as Anna had. Fed on Joseph, just as Anna had.

Surging up into him, Joseph wrapped his arms around Alex's body and pierced his throat, drawing out both new blood and old: Anna and Alex.

Already gaining strength, Anna stirred, sitting up: eyes full of want as she watched their frantic coupling. Laying a delicate hand against his cheek, she said affectionately, "

Abomination

," and then kissed him, licking blood off his lips.

Alex cried out, shuddering and open and vulnerable for the first time since turning.

Anna touched him soothingly and crooned in French as Joseph came inside of him. "You will never be cold, my love," she said, brushing her hand over his brow. "You will never be cold again." *** Two hundred and thirty two years later, in his penthouse high above the city lights, Alex turns back to the reporter. "I would be nothing without my family," he says simply. Honestly.

"Yes," Laine says, "Brother and sister, right?" Her tone says it all, as does the elegantly curved eyebrow inching up her forehead.

"Yes," Alex says, his own lips tugging into a smile. He'd liked Laine immensely, ever since he'd first seen her. Liked her passion and her presence and her willingness to do anything to get the answers she'd wanted.

Neither Anna nor Joseph had shared his opinion, warning him against her.

"She'll ask you questions you don't want to answer," Joseph said, glaring at Laine from across the room.

Anna's arms wound around his neck as she tucked herself into his side. "She smells of the desert," she said, wrinkling her nose. "Of thirst," which was, in Anna's opinion, an unpardonable sin.

"I don't want to drink from her," he said, pressing his lips to Anna's forehead, "But I do want her as an ally."

"And her questions?" Joseph asked, eyes going a hard green.

"What makes you think I have any notion of telling her anything I don't want her to know?"

Joseph didn't smile back, just ran a hand across Alex's shoulders before wrapping an arm around Anna, easing her from Alex's embrace. "Be careful," he said seriously, and it was that—that desire to guard and protect—that had Alex's reaching out, clasping Joseph's hand before he could go.

"She can wait," he said, his thumb running across the back of Joseph's hand before he released it. Joseph's eyes deepened in color, and Anna smiled, and Alex had to wonder at his luck. That even after all these years they still yearned for him, ached for him as much as he for them.

"Penthouse," Joseph said roughly, and Alex grinned—brilliantly, wickedly—before cutting his way through gilded ladies and dashing men, leading them through back hallways and out into the rain swept alley.

"Here," he said, then pushed Joseph roughly against the wall and kissed him, hard and sharp, fucking his tongue into that wide, generous mouth "Stay," he said, a whisper across lips, before he pulled away and turned to Anna, cupping a hand over the back of her neck and hauling her close, the fabric of her dress whispering in the darkness between them.

Her mouth was smaller, sweeter, and just as ravenous. When he pulled back, both panting in a long unneeded instinct, he turned her until she was facing Joseph, and then pushed against her neck, urging her to her knees.

Joseph's head dropped back against the brick, eyes closing in bliss as Anna's quick, graceful hands opened his trousers and pulled out his thick cock. Alex felt Joseph's low moan shiver through him as Anna licked delicately at the head of Joseph's cock. Cold air and hot mouth, like slivers of ice and fire, Alex knelt next to her and whispered, "Make him wet," before unzipping her dress.

It was deep and red, like burgundy wine, and the silk parted easily over the pale skin of her back. Alex closed his eyes and listened to Anna's mouth moving wetly and Joseph's choked off moans as he ran a hand through Anna's thick hair before brushing it aside and licking at her neck. Metallic and salty and perfect, completely unlike human skin with it's layers of powders and chemicals and lotions. Anna had fed earlier, just before the party, and Alex could taste the heated blood beneath her skin without ever having to break through. It was a heady feeling, and he couldn't get enough, mouthing down her spine and over her ribs.

Joseph's moans were getting progressively louder, and Alex moved back up to Anna's ear, whispering, "Slow," before getting to his feet.

Joseph looked wild; thick dark hair, and flushed face. Red, red lips, and black eyes. "Alex," he said, sounding drunk and wrecked, holding out a sex clumsy hand to drag Alex close.

Alex went, mouth to mouth, tongue slicking inside as his hands tangled in Joseph's hair.

"Let me come," Joseph pleaded when Alex released him. "Please."

But Alex only shook his head, raised his hands up to Joseph's ravaged mouth, traced his fingers over their shape, then said, "Suck."

And Joseph did, another deep moan rising from his throat, agile tongue moving wetly over Alex's fingers.

Alex's right hand worked at Joseph's throat, skillfully undoing his tie and starting on his buttons, feeling the wild surging of blood that had nothing to do with a pounding heart. His hand spread across Joseph's chest before he dipped his head and took a pebbled nipple into his mouth, sucking a bruise that would fade in moments, but that Joseph would remember.

"You can come," Alex whispered against his jaw, his hand trailing down Joseph's stomach, "but only if you can stay hard."

Anna pulled off with a wet pop just as Alex's hand circled Joseph's cock and stroked. Lightly. Just once.

Joseph's eyes went wide, then slammed shut as he shuddered and moaned, body trembling with the effort to stay upright.

"Good," Alex crooned, then nodded to Anna, who greedily took Joseph back into her mouth with a breathy moan of her own. Joseph jerked against him, still sensitive, and Alex soothed him with a hand over his chest. "I want you to fuck her," Alex said, nipping at Joseph's jaw. "I want you to lift her up and spread her open," he said silkily. "Can you do that for me?"

Joseph made an unintelligible noise, but his eyes were fervent, and Alex petted his cheek and said, "Good." Then he dropped again beside Anna, ripped her dress down her back and said, "Open."

Anna gasped as Alex pushed two wet fingers into her ass. Pulled off Joseph and breathed harshly against his hip, writhing between them as Alex invaded her from behind.

She didn't need much preparation, and Alex wasn't willing to wait any longer. He stood, lifting her at the waist, turning her and pressing her against Joseph. Joseph hooked his arms under her legs, and she leaned back into him, twining her arms around his neck as, her voice a breathless command of, "Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me."

They were gorgeous as Joseph entered her, dark heads thrown back, as they gasped for breath through full red lips. Joseph's hands were dark and wide against the pale skin of her thighs, rough looking against all that softness, and Alex shuddered, stroking himself through his pants as they rutted against each other with abandonment. Complete lack of care for situation or circumstance, they would be as happy in a bed or on a stage, and their enjoyment wasn't just for the act, but for each other.

And for Alex.

Alex stepped closer, his mouth brushing against the bare skin of Anna's shoulder, down to her breast, her belly. Dropping to his knees again, Alex spread her slick folds and licked up inside, enjoying her breathless shuddering moans as she came, her ass squeezing around Joseph's cock, causing his rhythm to stutter. He grinned to himself, licking his way around the base of Joseph's cock, the taste of his lovers mingling on his tongue.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Joseph said, through gritted teeth, rhythm hitching again.

Dizzy with want, Alex stood, kissing messily at Anna's panting mouth, hands clumsily undoing his trousers, before he slid inside her: heat and pressure and unbearable bliss. Anna clenched in welcome, smiling silkily at his breath catching in his throat, then licked at his jaw and said into his ear, her voice drenched in the accent of her youth, "Fuck me, Alex. Take me."

And he did. They did.

Anna wrapped her thighs tight around Alex's waist, grinding against the both of them, and, now freed, Joseph's hands moved up to caress her breasts, to caress Alex's face.

"Alex," he said, voice rough and used. "Anna."

At the sound, Alex lost his ragged control, his thrusts speeding up until he was pounding into her, Joseph helpless to do anything but follow. Anna's voice rose between them, high into the night as she clenched and came, splintering apart around them. Joseph's harsh cry followed hers, and Alex thrust once, twice, almost whimpering at the maelstrom of sensation, before empting himself inside her.

When he came to, they were petting him and cleaning him and whispering words of love and faith and forever into his skin.

He gets the almost irrepressible urge to tell Laine the whole story as she primly sits across from him with skeptical eyes, but only the thought that she would never—could never—understand forestalls him. "They are my family," he continues as the two people in question enter from the terrace, windblown dark hair and eyes only for Alex. "My first love and my only loyalty."

When Alex reaches out, Joseph grabs his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze, and Anna bends down, kissing him lightly on the lips; a brief contact, nothing more.

"And how do you two feel about Alex and the name he's trying to make for himself?" Laine asks shrewdly. They turn toward her with matching cool eyes. "His ambition is going to change your lives drastically."

"What is life without change," Anna says, but instead of trite, her expression makes the words seem sharp edged.

"And what is ambition without love to temper it," Joseph adds, his fingers still tangled with Alex's

Laine' eyes narrow slightly as she looks at them, her eyes finally landing on Alex's. "Dangerous," she says and watches Alex's sly grin.

"I assure you," Alex says with amusement, "that my family will keep me from doing anything too reckless."

Laine shoots him a look from under her lashes, the air between them filled with disbelief and arousal, caution and intrigue. Alex wants to cultivate them all, stroke them and nurture them and watch them grow. She will be his unwitting ally, telling the stories he wants told, digging deep for answers that she will never find, only increasing her desire to dig.

She will follow his career and pen stories about him that will have the public just as breathless as she is. Just as anxious to know.

By the time Ms. Lane is done with him, the Greys will be legend.

And Alex will lead an empire.

Anna's hand touches him lightly on the back of his neck. Joseph's grip tightens.

Alex smiles.