Wildflower

Demetri growled, coming instantly awake as the sound of the front door opening roused him from his sleep. Mara stirred at his side, sitting up abruptly as she too heard the intruder downstairs. She turned to look at her husband, but he was already flowing from the bed in one sinuous movement, morphing into his feral state before his feet touched the floor. He was halfway towards the bedroom door before the scent of their nocturnal visitor reached him, and he halted his movement, muttering a loud curse.

"Caleb?" Mara’s head swiveled to her bedside table to glance at the alarm clock. "It’s not even five a.m."

Demetri cursed again as he hunted in the dresser for some boxer shorts. He was irritated at his friend for showing up so early but beneath his irritation was an underlying trace of concern. Caleb must have had a good reason for turning up at this hour. Something had to be wrong. He was vaguely aware of Mara climbing out of bed as he headed out of the room to greet their visitor.

"Do you know what time it is?" Demetri growled out the words, raking talons through his rumpled hair as he glared at his best friend standing in his open doorway. He pushed down his vampiric side, scowling darkly as Mara appeared beside him, a hastily thrown on dressing gown wrapped around her.

She was still blinking sleepily, snuggling against Demetri’s bare chest now that she knew there was no imminent danger. "Do you need me, Caleb?" It seemed prudent to ask; she was part of the vampire council, even though she was still a Youngling. The Ancient vampire staring up at them had appointed her to that position and he may have come on council business.

"Yes, I do, Mara. Sorry for the early hour, but I have to get up to the Praetorian Compound and then over to the Armand-Hanlon pack. If you wouldn’t mind..."

"Come on, lover, let’s get dressed." Mara tugged at her scowling husband, smiling up at his expression. Even petulant, Demetri was gorgeous. If it weren’t for Caleb’s unexpected presence, she would be so tempted to drag all six feet plus of muscled flesh and hard body that she craved right back to bed. Her man had "built for sin" written all over him and boy did he know how to be sinful; beneath the sheets, and over a table, and in the shower, and...

Mara stifled a groan and headed back to the bedroom, fighting down her sexual urges. Being a vampire had its disadvantages at times, like an inappropriately heightened libido when least required. If she couldn’t keep herself under control, Caleb would have to wait a lot longer than his expression indicated he was willing to.

"What could he possibly want at this time of the morning?" Demetri grumbled, pulling on a pair of black jeans and T-shirt as Mara dropped her dressing gown.

"I guess we’ll find out shortly," she sighed, heading to the closet to pull out some clothes. She had taken less than two steps before she shrieked as her husband picked her up and pinned her against the door, sucking her breast into his mouth. The touch of his warm mouth and tongue elicited a deep moan, even as she pushed him away. "Demetri! Caleb’s here."

"Hungry," he growled, sinking his fangs into her soft flesh and suckling hard, her hot blood filling his mouth and making his head swim.

Mara stifled down another moan, threading her hands in his hair to pull him away. However, his strong suckling was igniting her previous erotic thoughts and she couldn’t resist holding his head against her breast for a moment, liquid heat flowing to her core as he pulled roughly. It felt wonderful, but a part of her still focused on why Caleb was there, so with some reluctance she tugged at Demetri’s hair to get his attention.

"Demetri, stop it. You’re not hungry, and even if you were, you wouldn’t get any real sustenance from my blood. You’re just being difficult. Behave yourself!" He couldn’t really argue with her; they’d fed from their private stock of human blood only last week.

Although it was highly erotic to feed from each other, they required human blood to be fully nourished; Mara more so than Demetri, as he was an Ancient and could go months without requiring food. He didn’t though, preferring to join her with her more frequent feedings.

He was ignoring her words and she tugged at his hair again until he released her breast with a deep growl. Demetri watched her for a moment, licking his lips and then kissed her, long and slow, sliding his tongue deep into her mouth. His kiss branded her his, in every way imaginable, and held a hint of promise as well as danger. When he finally raised his head, Mara was struggling for breath and the heat in his gaze had her heart beating a wild tattoo.

"Fine, beautiful, we’ll do things your way for now, but as soon as Caleb’s gone, we’ll discuss this further."

Big brown eyes met his, which were only a heartbeat away from being feral, and Mara’s heart skipped at the promise she read in his expression. She was going to pay for being the sensible one...again, and she couldn’t wait.

Mara laughed, anticipation heating her blood and threatening to undo all the progress she’d just achieved, which was focusing her husband on the situation at hand. "Bring it on, Demetri, I’m not afraid of you. Now let me down. I need to get dressed, or would you prefer if I went to this meeting with Caleb naked?"

Her jibe had the desired effect and he released her with a loud curse. "Try it and see how far you’d get, woman!"

She was still laughing as she hastily dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, feeling his eyes on her back the entire time. Her man had woken up in one of his dangerous moods, the kind of mood that scared the shit out of just about everyone who knew him. It didn’t faze her though; she’d just have to work on keeping him tempered until it passed. It would make the day interesting to say the least.

Caleb glanced up from the book he was leafing through as he waited for Demetri and Mara to come downstairs. A handful of seconds later they walked into their sitting room and one glance at his friend’s face told him Demetri was going to be difficult to handle. He dampened down a sigh and mentally ran through what he could do to help Mara. From her sideways glances at her husband, he could see that she was aware of the situation and watching it.

"This had better be urgent, Caleb," Demetri snapped, making no attempt to hide his irritation.

His friend quirked an eyebrow, a hint of hardness entering his eyes. "Are we going to have a pissing contest before we can get down to business? Because I really don’t have time for this, so either get your bitching out of the way quickly or shut up and sit down." Caleb turned his gaze to Mara and gave her one of his more endearing smiles. "We have time for some coffee, though."

She snorted and gave him a pointed look, before turning to go to the kitchen. "Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I have to make the coffee all of the time. I’m a Councillor, remember." There was no barb in her tone despite her words. She knew Caleb was getting her out of the room so he could have a talk with Demetri to try to centre him a bit. If she were present during it, then her husband would be less receptive, as his ego would feel the need to prove how dominant he was. Males could be so stupid at times.

Caleb waited until Mara was out of the room before focusing on his friend. "You need to hunt. I thought when you went to Europe that would help, but clearly, you’re still on edge."

"What gives you that impression?"

Demetri’s quiet tone was more concerning than his earlier open aggression. When he went quiet... Caleb tensed but kept his expression neutral. "Ratchet it down a notch, Demetri. I need you here."

There was long moment of silence, Caleb tensing more as his gaze pinned his friend, until some of the tension eased from Demetri and he ran a hand through his hair again. "You’re right; I need something to occupy my time. All the shit going on right now is irritating me."

He moved over to sit down on a large sofa, frowning as he did. "How many times do we have to do this, Caleb? Why can’t these idiots get it into their heads that they can’t win, so they may as well just live with it? This feels like Richard Graves all over again, except on a larger scale. Someone has to be driving this European shit. They’re too fragmented, from what I saw when I was over there. The covens remain smallish and independent."