Blood Claim by Laura Mykles (free e books to read .txt) 📕

"Oh.” Cory looked away. There weren't a lot of flowers that were night blooming and could survive the climate so far north, but Luke had systematically hunted them down and brought them in. “For fuck sake, Luke,” Cory said and shook his head. “What the hell are you doing here?"

"What do you mean?” Luke felt like Cory had just rolled up a newspaper and rapped him on the nose with it.

"What do I mean?” Cory asked and motioned all around him, at the flowers, the garden swing, the patio table. “You're trying to re-create life here. You're not ... this isn't ... This isn't why we are here! You're hiding out."

Luke clicked the mental stopwatch in his head. And they were off. “This is what I am,” he said between clenched teeth. “Forgive me if I'm not hiding out in an abandoned garage in an alley somewhere."

"I'm not hiding out,” Cory snapped, then covered his mouth. “I'm sorry. I just—"

Luke stopped already forming his next insult in his head. Cory had never ever, not once, ever apologized or stopped his too-quick tongue from cutting. “I didn't come here to fight."

"I'm not trying to—” Luke didn't finish, either. He was never going to change Cory into a perfect companion, but that didn't change the desire. “You seem to think there is more to this life. But there isn't. We exist. We feed. But greater purpose? There isn't one."

"I don't choose to believe that,” Cory said, and then for the first time in their relationship—such as it was—they actually arrived peacefully at an impasse. Cory shivered and wrapped his arms around himself. His gloves shone in the moonlight. “Can you at least drive me home?"

The change in him touched on some protective spot inside Luke that he'd thought was long dead. “You know I will. But why aren't you going to fly?"

Cory looked up at him and let the exhaustion show on his face. He'd slept well the night before, but Luke saw it was the first time in a long time. “There's a bad wind blowing,” he said simply. “And I don't want to be in it. If it's too much work, I can always take the C-Train."

Luke didn't point out that this comfortable life that disgusted Cory so much almost always included a car of some sort. Nor did he want Cory in the wind. In fact, as he stood there, the wind touched him for the first time. It stole the steam from his coffee, touched his hair, and tried to wrap itself around his neck. It wasn't looking for him, but for Cory. “Stay,” he said, not meaning to say anything.

"What?"

"Stay here, with me. At least for the next little bit. There's something going on here. I promise you there won't be any strings."

The pond's heater kicked in, and they both jumped at the knocking sound. It seemed to wake Cory up. He eyed Luke warily. “Do you have any blood packs?"

"A couple."

Cory nodded and looked back up again. The stars were too bright. The cold night turned the air into a huge crystal, and if they weren't careful, they'd be caught up in it. “Dibs on your O negative."

Luke would have given up a lot more than his O negative stash if it meant them going inside again. “Agreed."

* * * *

Lathe didn't have to search very long to find the city Corbin had ended up in. The moment he reached Calgary's city limits and crossed over the first river, the water had whispered Corbin's location to him. It had woken Brutus, and Brutus never forgot a scent. Years ago Lathe had promised his wolf what remained of Cory after he used the young man to open the vortex and release the energy stored inside it. Cory's escape had cheated them both.

It had taken him longer to find Calgary's source of power. Unlike most major cities, especially cities that had bodies of water and a location so close to the mountains, the land here was empty and dead. There were hardly any vampires; two, in fact, if he counted Cory. It didn't surprise him to find that Cory had got himself turned; he just wondered at the unfortunate bastard who'd turned him, or how long it had taken Cory to convince the other to take him. But if Cory thought that was enough to protect him, he was only delaying the fate Lathe had in mind for him, not circumventing it at all.

He'd used Cory to harness a small vortex in a northern town in British Columbia. It had been a school they'd used as quarantine during a tuberculosis outbreak, and the deaths there created a block in the power lines the river brought into the town. Most of the cities had already been claimed by established vampire clans; Lathe didn't want to share. Cory had been so close, and when he'd left, Lathe had tried to open it himself. But like a tick with its head buried in its victim, lopping off the body only poisoned the lines. He needed Cory, damn it. He needed to be able to transfer the vortex from feeding on the lines to feeding off the host that Cory would become, and then Lathe would kill the vortex and Cory at the same time.

And the fact that Calgary should have been rich with power lines running under the city told him there was another sort of drain on the lines. Another vortex. He'd been expecting something big, but nothing prepared him for how strong it actually was. They were so close to the bedrock here. The ground beneath his feet remembered what it was like to form mountains. And the people ... Lathe took his pleasure from power more than anything, but his cock stirred at the thought of the slaves he would harvest. All that hot blood and willing lust would be welcome after his long search.

The restaurant was in the middle of two rivers converging, and it seemed smaller