Hey, everyone, sorry for the short chapter!
Sam wasn't sure where he was at first. All he was aware of was the headache. It was hell, in every sense of the word. He couldn't even open his eyes. A low, pitiful moan escaped his throat, and he was sure he was in hell. That was it.
He laid there, the morning sun pouring in through the window and beating on his face. He wasn't sure of the time. It took him at least twenty minutes of just laying there before he found the courage to reach for his phone. He looked at the front screen. Ten-thirty in the morning. There was also a message on his phone, under the voice notes, marked "LISTEN ASAP. ALINA."
He frowned, then hit the message to play it.
"Hello, Sam, this is Alina. I had a great time last night. I can't wait for our date." Her voice filled his bedroom, and he felt his groin stir just at the sound of it. "You might have some issues remembering some minor details after you ate me out last night. Long story short, I bit you. Now, it's not like you'll catch therianthropy from me. However, I have marked you."
Sam actually groaned. That. Fucking. Bitch. She had marked him as hers.
"I am not entirely sure how it'll react with an incubus, but from what I know, it'll raise your libido. Oh, that'll be fun. I also recommend not letting a strange woman touch you. The results will be...unpleasant." There was a hint of mirth in her voice, and the bubbling urge to hit something filled Sam. "I'll call you about details for our date on Friday later tonight. I suppose that will be enough time for you to recover. Until then, Incubus."
Sam listened to the message again. She was unbelievable. What kind of person did this?
The answer was plain to him. Regular people didn't think like this. She was a tigress. Weres saw possession and ownership. He shuddered a little, and he shook his head.
He got out of bed, eventually, and made his way to the bathroom. Flipping on the lights had him covering his eyes. Great. He looked at his body. Wait, someone had put him in bed, and stripped off his shirt? He was sure it was Hannigan. He saw the bite mark, a set of red marks on his shoulder. Great. His entire body was flush, and he realized that his body seemed warmer than it usually was. He started the shower, and as he stepped in, shook his head. This was going to be a rough two days.
It didn't get worse. Even after a cold shower, he could feel his demon side start to rise. It was more present than it had ever been, a tangible presence in him.
His cock was raging hard as he toweled off. That was not pleasant. Images of last night, of being buried between Alina's thighs, rushed back to him. Her sweet, spicy scent, filling the air, her deep taste. He wondered why she hadn't had things progress further last night. Was she really wanting to wait? He would have done anything to spend the night with her.
Sam was sure she was going to ruin him.
He couldn't help but feel like an idiot. Alina had played him. He realized that now. She had played him like a naive fool. She had gotten him to open up, hell, she had worked him over like she was a pro. It made him feel even worse that he wanted her still.
He walked back to the bedroom, ignoring his erection as best he could. He grabbed his phone and dialed up Darren. He had met Darren when he first came to New York, and he had quickly accepted the man as one of the best supernatural experts in New York.
Considering he was one of the three Princes of New York's vampires, he had to be. For Sam, Darren had been a help and an ally. Darren had earned Sam's trust, not like Alina had in one quick conversation. He shook his head and waited for Darren to answer.
"Hello there, Sam, mate." The rough Liverpudlian voice of Darren came over the line. "What's my little incubus up to?"
Sam let out a frustrated groan. He set the phone to speakerphone as he pulled at drawers. "I had some drinks last night." He found a pair of boxers and pulled them on.
"Well, that's new. You don't let yourself out much, Sammy boy." The vampire chuckled. "Well, why didn't you invite me?"
"I happened to be drinking with someone. A lady." I answered. "Listen, Darren. I need your help."
"Anything." He said. "I'm in a generous mood today, even if it is daylight."
"Oh, you were up anyway." He knew that vampires didn't need to sleep in the day, and that Vincent crash until noon and only then until dusk. "Listen, I need to ask you about the woman I was with last night. Alina Petrov. Does the name ring any bells?"
There was a dead silence on the other end of the line. Sam waited. Vampires didn't breathe as often as normal humans, so he couldn't tell just what was going on.
"Darren?"
"Sam. You need to get a ride over to my place. Now. What happened?"
"She...we had drinks." He tried to sound clinical, to keep calm. "I was into her. Really into her. I performed oral sex on her in the restroom."
"Wait, wait..." He interrupted. "You ate out a woman who is, not only an alpha tigress, but a fucking gangster."
"What?" Sam answered back.
"Your little gal pal is a mobster." Darren groaned. "Fuck, mate. Did...did she mark you?"
"What makes you think she did that?"
"Because I know alphas, man." He replied. "Did she bite you?"
Sam knew he couldn't lie. Not if he wanted help. "Yeah, she did."
"Cain's bloody bits, Sam." He sighed. "Get down to the Playground. Now."
The silence on the end of the line told him this wasn't up for discussion. Darren was so used to power he forgot that sometimes that he dealt with people who weren't his flunkies. Still, Sam needed a favor.
He grabbed a pair of jeans, an NYU tee, and a hoodie that was somehow oversized on his tall frame. He grabbed his phone, keys, and wallet, and grabbed his emergency credit card from the small shoebox he kept under the bed.
The Playground was tame, compared to the Blue Room. It was just a dance club that Darren ran as a front for his many businesses. Though for all that Darren professed in dislike to Alina's criminal activities, the vampire was hardly a saint himself. More drugs passed through the Playground than a Dead concert.
Sam paid the cabbie, then walked to the back of the building. He walked to the back of the building, and checked his glamour in the camera of his phone. Green eyes. Just what he wanted. He swallowed, then knocked on the door, the employee's entrance. The door swung open. Sam knew it was vampire tricks, that Darren was doing it for his benefit.
"You are such a baby." Sam groaned as he walked in and closed the door. The room he had walked into was the employee's lounge, a place done in comfortable, practical couches. It didn't match with the leather decor in the rest of the place, all blacks and metal and industrial looks. It looked like someone's living room.
Darren was sprawled over one of the couches. He was from England at some point, but his heritage wasn't entirely British, Sam could guess that much. His caramel skin looked fantastic in the soft light of the lounge, and his black locks of hair spilled lazily around his head. He lifted a hand, bringing it to his mouth so he could take a drag from the cigarette. "I could be sleeping."
"And I could be doing anything but being here asking for your help." He sighed, and he sat down in an overstuffed arm chair. "Shit."
The vampire let out a hearty chuckle. "You sound like you just got bit by a were."
Sam glared at the vampire. "You're going to need to tell me what's going on."
Darren slid up off the couch. He moved with the grace that the century and older vampires had, like he was entirely weightless. He wasn't particularly tall, with a thin frame that looked sleek more than skinny. He leaned down and put his cigarette out in an ashtray on the coffee table.
"I'm going to need to smell the mark." He said. "Which means you take off the sweater."
Sam didn't question it. He had to lift himself off the seat to pull it off, and he set the sweater aside. He then pulled off the tee shirt next, exposing the bite mark to Darren.
The vampire moved close, and leaned in to sniff at the base of the neck. He lingered on the mark, now pulsing and red. There was no contact, but the proximity, the simple action of his neck being offered up to a vampire made his skin tingle, and it wasn't entirely unpleasant.
"Why bother with the glamour in here?" Darren asked. "It's just me."
Sam shook his head. "If you haven't figure it out about me, then you never will." He whispered. "Now what can you tell me about the mark?"
"What do you know about bites?" Darren pulled away from his neck, but Sam could see the vampire prince's fangs extended. He knew he would have to taste good to a vamp. He wouldn't want to offer himself up, however, no matter how inviting the vampire was.
"Vampire bites are how they feed. Generally, a powerful vampire can mark a victim, make them...attached. The more powerful the vampire, the greater the attachment."
Darren nodded. "Got the right idea. Weres?"
Sam shrugged. "That it's not how they transmit therianthropy. Werewolves use bites to establish in-pack dominance. A more powerful wolf can force weaker ones under their control."
