Envious Of Fire (Kissing With Teeth #2)

19. What the Fuck?

—?—

Elias is on the bed, tied down spread-eagle, wearing nothing but a tight black thong. He’s never felt so horny in his life. Never felt so helpless. Completely at the whim of his sexy captor.

Kyle appears over him, straddling his waist. “You look so dang hot tonight,” he growls, “and your ass sure ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

Elias bites his lip, strains against his binds.

When did Kyle’s voice turn even more Texan?

“You want outta that tight thong?” Kyle asks. “Nah, you look too sexy in it. This ain’t about your enjoyment. It’s about mine. You’re stayin’ in that sexy constricting thing, strapped to this here bed ‘til I’m fuckin’ satisfied.”

The more words that spill out of Kyle, the more Texan he gets. Has he always been this way when they have sex? “When will you be satisfied?” Elias dares to ask, out of breath.

Kyle seems amused by the question. He comes closer. Closer. Even closer. Then he grins, and with the spreading of his lips, fangs the length of fingers emerge.

He hisses: “ Never .”

Elias’s eyes grow double.

Then Kyle dives into Elias’s helpless neck, fangs sinking in.

Two loud booms shake the walls. The demons are trying to break in again. Rattling at the window. More booming. Cracks ripple across the ceiling. The lights flicker and tremble. Elias tries to scream, nothing comes out. He pulls against his binds. No give. How did he let himself get into this predicament again? Why isn’t Kyle listening to him? Why isn’t he stopping?

The booming grows louder, crunching the walls.

Kyle lifts his face from Elias’s neck, fangs still bared. His eyes, bloodshot. Ferocious. His face, unrecognizable in its wild state.

There is nothing behind his eyes. Nothing human.

Not anymore.

The booms crash in Elias’s ears, frantic, urgent, angry. He screams in silence again.

Then he gently opens his eyes with a little gasp—and he’s no longer tied down, Kyle is no longer atop him, the room is silent and calm, morning sunlight glowing in the curtains.

And he’s cuddling a pillow.

It takes him a full ten seconds of wading through confusion to trust he isn’t dreaming anymore. He sits up, picks out a crusty tear from the corner of his eye. Squints at the window, the angle of light through the curtains. Is it already noon?

Boom, boom, boom.

Terror lances Elias’s heart for half a second at the sound—the same banging from his bad dream—only now he recognizes it as someone knocking at the front door with increasing urgency.

“Kyle!” comes a muffled woman’s voice at the door. “I need your help! Please!”

Elias blinks, confused, then glances to his side. Kyle’s not there. He’s only just now noticing this?

Bang, bang, bang. “Kyle!”

Elias slips out of bed in just his boxers, pads down the hall to the front door. Through the peephole, only Cade’s face is visible. She’s sweaty, wide-eyed, and wringing her hands.

Elias peers back into the house before answering the door. He pokes his head into the kitchen, hisses out, “Kyle?” Goes to the bathroom, it’s dark. “Babe?” He’s not home. He’s not here. Elias rushes to his phone on the end table by the couch, calls Kyle. Straight to voicemail. Where the fuck is he?

After quickly pulling on a pair of loose sweats, Elias hurries back to the front door and opens it. “Cade?”

It’s only then that he finds Cade is not alone. Behind her is her daughter Layna in jeans and a peasant blouse, who herself is accompanied by her bleach-haired boyfriend Jeremy in a tight black tank top and shorts. He doesn’t need Kyle’s Reach to pick up the uneasiness among his visitors. None of them look okay. Cade and Jeremy are stiff and anxious. Layna is annoyed and looking as if she wishes she could be anywhere else on earth.

And Elias suddenly regrets not at least donning a shirt. “Is, uh, everything okay …?” he asks.

Cade winces. “Is Kyle asleep? This is really more of a Kyle thing. Well, I think it is.”

Elias parts his lips, unsure how to answer that.

Where the fuck would Kyle be if he isn’t home? Did he go out last night? He had to have, obviously. But where would he go? Surely not back to Las Vegas, not after the talks they had. Would Kyle really be so headstrong as to go there when they agreed to leave those people in the past where they belong?

“Elias?”

He blinks, coming out of his thoughts, faces Cade. “Sorry, but I … I apparently don’t know where Kyle—”

“He’s not here?”

Elias has barely had a minute to think. “No.”

“But the … the sun’s up. Obviously. Isn’t that a bad thing?”

Elias can’t keep up. He’s wrestling between being angry at Kyle for possibly running off in the night or being terrified that something happened. Lazarus could have returned and silently taken him away while they slept. Kyle could have taken a trip out to their special spot in the desert where he buried his brother’s ring and Brock’s hat, his bodiless gravesite, then been abducted by someone else entirely—a minion of Markadian’s, the tall, gaunt, and freaky George, or maybe even Tristan. He’s never trusted Tristan and wouldn’t put it past him to do such a thing, still in love with him, still possessive, still a liar.

“Well, wherever he is, we’ve got a problem,” says Cade.

Elias lifts an eyebrow. “Problem?”

That’s when Jeremy takes a step forward. He parts his lips, presumably to explain—only no sound comes out. Not even air.

Elias watches Jeremy struggle to speak for a disconcerting length of time before realizing he may in fact be demonstrating the problem itself. “So … you can’t, uh, talk …?” Then his gaze drops down to find Jeremy’s hands hovering shakily in front of his shorts, as if to conceal something. “What the f—?”

Cade comes close. “Really, this is better explained inside, in private, and with a very, very open mind.”

Calling himself confused wouldn’t even come close. Elias steps back as the three enter the house.

It’s on the couch that they gather, with Jeremy and Layna next to each other on one end, Cade at the other, and Elias in a dining room chair pulled up to join them. After Cade explains, Elias finds himself squinting and at a loss for words. He’s since donned a shirt. “Hold on, hold on,” he says with a spread of his hands. “You’re telling me your daughter—”

“I don’t have magic powers ,” groans Layna, annoyed.

“Well, I do,” says Cade right back, “which Henry—sorry, Kyle —has more than confirmed, so it only stands to reason that the gift may have passed on to you … just like I feared it could. I have visions,” she explains to a bewildered Elias. “Even had a dream about how Kyle’s family passed, an accurate one. Well, according to him, at least.”

It wasn’t too long ago that Kyle revealed the dark truths of his past to Elias—including the night he took Tristan home in a rush of teenage passion only to wake to a bloodbath.

“Wait,” says Elias, lifting his hands. “What you’re trying to say is … Layna … somehow silenced Jeremy … magically …?”

“While they were making out on her bed, yes, like I said.” Cade sighs. “And also left him with a … a parting gift.”

Jeremy has been holding one of the throw pillows from the couch over his lap to mask the “other” problem.

Elias grimaces at him, leans forward. “Does it hurt, man?”

Jeremy’s silent parted lips is his only response.

“Oh my god , why are we all instantly assuming the worst?” Layna suddenly blurts out, red-faced. “He just needs, like, a pill from the doctor or something to take care of that , and maybe he’s just freaked out from everything going on lately, which is why he can’t talk. It’s, like, psychological or something.”

“ That ,” says Cade with a finger pointed at Jeremy’s startled face, “is not psychological. Lean in closely, you can’t even hear the breath coming out of his mouth, can’t hear him gasping, can’t hear a damned thing. You’ve cast some kind of … of … of silencing hex on him.”

“And a boner hex too, apparently,” mumbles Layna.

Cade takes her daughter’s hands at once. “Baby, this isn’t funny. Jeremy can’t speak or communicate a thing. I gave him a pen and paper and he could barely form a word—just a bunch of squiggles. I gave him my phone, he typed nonsense. There is something extra going on with him. Not to mention—”

“Don’t,” clips Layna at her mother, eyes wide.

Elias looks back and forth between them. “Not to mention what? There’s something else?”

Cade struggles, closes her eyes, then says, “There were … a million birds outside the house.”

“ Mom ,” snaps Layna through her teeth.

“Like, shitloads of birds, birds all over the yard, all over the roof, birds and birds and more birds, fuck-lots of them.”

“It’s totally unrelated,” growls Layna.

“And when Layna called me and I came rushing home from an errand,” Cade goes on, “I could barely see my house under all those damned birds. I’m talking Alfred Hitchcock number of birds, and I swear, they were staring at me …”

“ Oh my god ,” mumbles Layna from behind her hands, now covering her face.

Elias gets up from his chair and starts pacing. “Birds,” he mumbles half to himself. “Birds and boners and silencing hexes. And what is Kyle expected to do about any of that?”

“How am I supposed to know? He’s the one who—” Cade stops herself. “I mean, he’s just … well … he’s …”

Elias stops, gives her a look. “Different?”

“Special,” Cade decides to say instead, smiling tightly.

This is all too much for Elias suddenly. Between Kyle not being home and the nightmares, he isn’t sure he has room for yet another supernatural conundrum. “He won’t know what to do any more than I would.”

Cade doesn’t seem satisfied with that. “Kyle always knows what to do. These past several months since he’s lived here in this town, I may not have known the ‘real’ him all that well, but he was always a great listener. He’s patient. He’s persistent.”

“And he’s gone.” Elias turns away, grips his head. “Fuck, I really need some coffee right now.” He heads for the kitchen.

Layna issues a sigh. “Mom, it’s nothing, like I said. We just need to go to the doctor and—”

“More like a witch doctor,” mumbles Cade, to which her daughter says something else, and then the two are bickering back and forth in a way Elias might otherwise find entertaining, had he even an ounce more patience left in his weary bones.

He stops at the kitchen counter, considers putting on a pot of coffee and offering them a drink to see if he can calm them down, change the mood, anything at all.

That’s when his eyes fall on the scribbled note resting by his favorite mug.

A note in Kyle’s handwriting.

He snatches it up at once, devours the words. There aren’t many. He lowers the note to the counter, stares off, silent. His heart rages in his chest, thumping blood with a terrible cocktail of fear and anger.

He barely notices when Cade’s calm voice comes from the kitchen archway. “Everything okay?”

Elias slowly turns, leans back against the counter, continues staring off at nothing, the words swimming laps in his head. He can even hear Kyle’s voice reading them, as if he’s speaking in his ear right now, saying his message over and over.

Cade comes up. “He left a note?” she asks. Elias just nods, out of it. Cade takes the note from his loose fingers and looks it over herself. “Elias. I need to be able to protect my loved ones,” she reads. “I have to learn more about my kind. My kind ,” she repeats to herself, sounding sympathetic, then resumes. “I hope you understand. I love you. Just one night of my life they asked for. That’s all I’ll give them. I’ll be back soon. Love, Kyle.”

“Fucking lied to me,” breathes Elias, in shock.

Cade looks up. “Who? Kyle?”

“Said he wouldn’t do this. Said he wouldn’t just—just—”

“What’s he talking about here? ‘One night of my life they asked for.’ Who’s ‘they’?”

“Vampires. Fucking godforsaken real-ass vampires.”

Cade steps back. “Real vampires? What’s Kyle, then?”

“Not anything like them.”

“I’m confused.”

“Can’t blame you.” Elias stares at his mug, the one with “R.I.P. SLEEP” written across it, realizing at once that he has neither appetite nor thirst anymore. He swears, if Lazarus had encountered him while he wasn’t strapped down to the bed, this vampire whose face he doesn’t even know, he would pound him six feet into the ground with his bare fists. He wonders if he has ever felt rage like this before.

Of course he has. He grew up with nothing. Then his mom and dad became rich overnight. Las Vegas became his home, including a handful of successful establishments, each bigger than the last, feeding his parents’ ambitions. Then came the Scarlet Sands just a few years ago, and his life changed. His dad vanished from the picture. His mom grew greedier, more controlling. Elias grew reckless. Too many nights, he fell asleep with rage in his heart. It’s amazing, what alcohol can do for such rages, converting Elias into a giddy drunk who couldn’t be bothered by any evil in the world. Come to think of it, he’s drank so little since coming to this dusty town. Instead, he himself has become the drink—Kyle’s drink. He’s known so little rage since being here.

And the moment Kyle’s gone, he feels it again.

Bubbling forth like a poison.

Elias can’t keep sitting on the sidelines of Kyle’s journey to find himself. Why does all the responsibility of protecting this town fall on Kyle’s shoulders? Elias can do something about it, too. He lives here, too. He’s not powerless. He’s not helpless.

The problem is, all his power and connections reside in the very part of his life he just worked so hard to free himself from.

A part he may have to return to.

“I swear I could kill you, Kyle Bentley Amos,” he growls to himself, “if I didn’t love you so fucking much.”

“Kyle probably feels a little guilty,” suggests Cade. “Juan’s been putting a lot of pressure on him—you know Chief Rojas. He still blames Kyle for everything. Then there’s that Patrick guy still sitting in our jail, totally off the books, forcing Juan to break laws I doubt he’s ever broken in his life. None of it is Kyle’s fault.”

“Yeah, that Chief Rojas can be a real prick when he wants to be,” says Elias, “but he’s just doing his job as best as he can, I know. Kyle knows, too. He’s the least of my worries.”

“Is Kyle saying in his note that he went to meet with these so-called ‘real’ vampires? Do you know where that is?”

“Somewhere we’re sure as fuck not following him to. The vampire Kyle met had left directions in the form of a riddle … away from the sun … in some dark mouth with teeth … I don’t know, didn’t make any damned sense.”

“Sounds like a cave,” she murmurs thoughtfully.

“But it doesn’t matter where Kyle is now. He won’t be back until tonight, apparently.” He sighs. “And if he returns without any answers, we’re just back to square one, he’ll act out again, and we’ll never be happy.” Elias takes the note into his hands again. “I think I’m gonna have to do something I’ll hate.”

“You mean you have a plan?”

“A bad one.” Even as he considers it, every cell in his body fights him to change his mind, to drop the idea, to leave well enough alone and just wait for Kyle to come back.

“What’s the plan? Tell me. Are we going after Kyle?”

“No.” He clenches his fist. “We’re going after my mom.”

“Huh? Your mom? Why?”

“Because she … might be able to help us. With both of our problems. I just need to go to Vegas, see her, and … and then convince her to …” At once, his anger spills over. He shakes his head. “No. Never mind. Stupid idea. The worst, actually.”

“Wait, wait, no.” Cade comes closer. “Not a bad idea. You said she could help us, too?”

“Forget I said anything. We’ll just wait for Kyle. He should be back by tonight.”

“Elias. Must I remind you that my daughter just summoned a legion of birds to our house? And sucked out her boyfriend’s voice and gave him a magical erection that won’t go away? Ask Jeremy if he minds waiting until tonight. Or better yet … ask his police chief father.”

“I’m getting coffee.” Elias reaches for his mug.

Cade takes him by the arm, eyes swelling with desperation. “Elias. Please. Please, please, please. If there’s even a glimmer of hope that your mother could help us …”

Elias closes his eyes. “The last time I left Vegas, I swore I’d never go back … but …”

Cade draws even closer. “Please, Elias.”

His jaw tightens in response.

Before either of them can say another word, Layna’s voice is heard from behind. “Vegas?”

Cade and Elias turn. Layna is standing at the archway, and behind her, Jeremy seems fully attentive to their conversation, squeezing the pillow over his lap, eyes wide.

Layna takes a step into the kitchen. “Can we come?”

Cade frowns. “Like hell.”

“Mom, Jeremy’s been wanting to go, and I—”

“What do you think we’re doing here??” blurts Cade with a spread of her hands. “Taking a joyride to the casinos to pull on slot machine levers and stuff ourselves at the buffet?? This is a very serious matter, Layna! Besides, you’re not old enough!”

Elias sighs. “If we’re going … we may need them to come.” Cade spins, shooting him a look of shock. Elias shrugs. “Don’t worry about their age. Where we’d be going, I can get them in. And if there is something waking up inside your daughter, she might get more immediate help if she’s there with us. Not to mention when that ‘help’ is becoming more needed by the hour with him ,” he adds with a nod at Jeremy, who still sits on the couch with his lips hanging open, silent as a vacuum.

Cade glances at her daughter, then back at Jeremy on the couch. Doubts cloud her eyes as she crosses her arms, worried.

Until finally she says: “At least it’s Sunday. No school.”

Layna quirks an eyebrow. “You think Jeremy would still go to school with that in his pants?”

Jeremy makes a face that needs no sound to understand. He rises in indignation—only for the pillow to drop, displaying his unfortunate situation for a second. He quickly turns away.

Elias swipes his mug off the counter. “For this, I’m gonna need coffee first, then we head out. Should be there by noon.”

“It’s already half past,” points out Cade.

“Then three-ish,” he revises, “and that’s yet another reason I need my coffee. Anyone else want a cup?” After he is returned three blank stares from his guests, he sighs, sets down his empty mug, grunts, “Fuck the coffee. Let’s just get this over with.”

A few minutes later, they step out of the house.

Only to find the entire unfinished sun deck—and the whole front yard, and the driveway, and the street—covered in birds. Preening. Peering around curiously with their tiny, beady eyes. Some hopping here and there, fidgeting, wings flicking, a sea of feathers and twitchy little heads.

Elias’s eyes grow double. “The fuck …?”

Layna just stands there with her arms crossed, as if merely annoyed by the sight rather than scared. “So?” she says when her mother gapes at her. “They followed us. Big deal.”

Cade and Elias exchange a look.