Part 12 (1/2)

Oh, yeah, interrupt a vampire when he's about to chow down. Not the best way to live a long and happy life. Henry's eyes were dark, and he had the whole Prince of Darkness thing on full blast.

Too bad.

Their history helped him hold Henry's attention but only just. ”Ryne Cyratane is in the building and he doesn't look happy.” In fact, for a guy who supposedly fed off s.e.xual energy-and there was enough floating around that Tony strategically draped a fold of blanket over his boxer-briefs as he sat up-the Demonlord looked decidedly unhappy. Possessive even. Possessive and p.i.s.sed.

Tony recognized the expression even when he could see the wall of his apartment through it. ”Henry! I'm guessing he doesn't like to share with other powers! He's already sending demons after Leah; it won't help her if he starts sending them after you, too.”

Henry's lips drew back off his teeth.

Great. Vampire, prince; they both saw the whole thing as a challenge.

”Leah! Turn it off!”

Yeah. Like that was going to happen. Her head was back, her skin practically glowed, and even he was starting to find her tempting.

Henry was after blood. Leah was after s.e.x. Together, they'd make a bad situation worse. As far as Tony could see, there was only one thing to do. He picked up a pillow and threw it as hard as he could at the vampire's head.

The next instant, he was flat on his back, Henry's hands around his wrists, Henry's body driving his down into the thin mattress.

Tony's hips bucked up as Henry's teeth closed through the skin of his throat and concerns about demonic interference abandoned s.h.i.+p... along with pretty much anything else resembling cognitive thought. ”Oh, please, there's no need to be embarra.s.sed, it's not like I've never seen e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.e before.”

”Make her shut up,” Tony muttered as Henry handed him a gla.s.s of juice.

”How?”

”I don't know, vamp her or something.”

”I don't think we want to go there again.”

Tony wasn't sure he could go there again. At least not for a couple of days. Provided those days included thirty-six hours of sleep and a lot of liquid. He handed the empty gla.s.s back to Henry, wrapped the sheet and the shredded remains of his dignity around him, and stomped off to the bathroom to clean up.

The shower helped. Although he had to brace himself against the tile to keep the water from pounding him down onto his knees.

After, wrapped in his one thinning bath towel, he wiped the mirror clean and studied the mark on his neck. It was... noticeable. In spite of the coagulant in Henry's saliva, the actual bite within the impressive bruising still seeped blood. Fortunately, in the almost empty medicine cabinet, he had one sterile pad remaining from the exploding beer bottle incident. No gauze, but there was a rolled- up tensor bandage with very little tense left that should do, provided he kept it fairly loose.

Tomorrow...

c.r.a.p.

He didn't think he even owned a turtleneck.

”Tony?”

Henry outside the bathroom door. Worrying.

”I'm okay.”

It seemed a little pointless to balk about being seen in a towel, all things considered, so Tony squared his shoulders, stepped out into the hall and across it to his closet. He'd have gone back into the bathroom to dress except Henry needed a few moments in there. Leah was out of sight, so she had to be in the kitchen end of the room where the angle was too tight to see or be seen from the hall. He pulled on jeans-Henry had destroyed his last clean pair of underwear-a T-s.h.i.+rt and a sweats.h.i.+rt over that, then socks and shoes. Dressed, he walked into the living room and quickly stripped the bed, throwing the bedding onto a pile of dirty laundry in the corner and folding the mattress up into the sofa. It was a little stiff; he didn't close it often. The two cus.h.i.+ons went back on as he shoved debris that had been under it out of the way with the side of his foot.

There.

That ought to help bring things back to what pa.s.sed for normal.

He turned to find Leah standing behind him. ”Could you not f.u.c.king do that!”

”Sorry.” She offered him a large gla.s.s of what looked like chocolate milk. ”It's an instant breakfast. I dropped a couple of packages from the craft services table into my purse.”

”That's not...”

”Please, it's a CBC show. Think of it as your tax dollars at work.”

It didn't seem worth it to argue. Tony sat at one end of the sofa and took a cautious swallow. ”It's a little slimy.” ”How old was your milk?”

”Oh, ha.” Another swallow. He frowned as she pulled a chair out from the table and dropped onto it. ”Are you.. um... Tall, dark, and naked is gone, did you... um...”

”Get off?” She crossed her legs and smiled at him. ”Don't worry. I took care of it. Although, if truth be told, you guys almost took care of it for me. Woof!”

His blood pressure was too low to raise a decent blush. ”Could you not talk about it?”

”At all?”

”Ever.”

”You know, you're weirdly prudish for someone with a Nightwalker as a lover.”

”It's not... it's having an audience.” A memory of a night in an alley off Charles Street back in Toronto surfaced. ”No, it's having you as an audience.”

”Hey. You will never find a more appreciative audience than me. Although the audiences for this live s.e.x show I was in back in London in...” Dark brows drew in, and the yellow toe of the sneaker in the air drew circles. ”... 1882 were great.”

”At the Midnight Lily?”

Tony was childishly pleased to see her jump as Henry appeared behind her.

”The what?”

”The Midnight Lily-was that the name of the club?”

”Yes...”

Henry nodded thoughtfully and walked past her to sit on the other end of the couch. ”I thought you looked familiar.”

Rolling his eyes, Tony reached for the remote. ”I'll just watch a little TV while you two trade flashbacks.”

Then the remote was gone. ”I don't think so.” The fingers of Henry's other hand gently touched the rough bandage on his neck.

”You took a chance.”

Shaking his head hurt. ”Not much of one. You never really damage what you consider to be yours.” He was impressed by how nonchalant he sounded about the whole thing.

”A good thing you stopped us, then.” Fingertips lingered a moment longer then withdrew. ”A good thing you saw the danger.”