Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

A soft rustling drew Jaron's attention, and he turned to see Keegan stirring awake. The vampire blinked slowly, his eyes focusing on Jaron with a hint of surprise.

"You're still here," Keegan murmured, his voice rough with sleep.

Jaron smiled, reaching out to brush a stray lock of hair from Keegan's forehead. "Of course I am. How did you sleep?"

Keegan stretched and slowly sat up. "Better than I have in a long time," he admitted. His gaze drifted to the screen floating in the air. "What are you watching?"

"Videos on vampire customs," Jaron said easily. "Figured I should inform myself if I'm going to be with a vampire. I felt pretty dumb when Mordyn had to tell me how you guys mate."

"Mordyn… what?" Keegan's eyes widened slightly.

Hah. "You didn't see that coming?"

Keegan shook his head. "What did he tell you?"

"Just the basics." Jaron shrugged and turned the video off. "Now I know that you have to drink from me and I have to drink from you to form a blood bond." He paused, eyes focused on Keegan to take in his reaction. "I also know that my blood will boost your powers once we're bonded."

Keegan looked as if he regretted waking up for this conversation. "Everyone assumes that's a good thing," he muttered.

"It's not?" Jaron could only speak for himself, but he had always wanted greater power, pretty much from the moment the other kids had laughed at him for his inability to produce fire. "You could help Apollo," he pointed out.

A shadow fell over Keegan's features. "You don't understand."

"Then explain it to me." He gestured at his phone. "I've been watching videos for hours, but videos can only teach me so much. You've got to help me here. I want to understand, believe me."

Keegan sat up fully, drawing his knees to his chest. His eyes, usually sharp and calculating, held a rare vulnerability. "When I first got my powers, it was like being hit by a freight train. I couldn't control anything. It was like… like there was something alive inside me, pushing and pulling at my thoughts, making me see things I didn't want to see."

Jaron listened intently. "What do you mean?"

Keegan's gaze grew distant, as if he were looking into a memory rather than at Jaron. "It was… difficult. I didn't understand how to handle what I knew, so I tried to warn people of all sorts of things that I knew were going to happen, but I wasn't always right, and sometimes my advice caused the thing to happen in the first place." His lips curled in displeasure. "Have you ever heard of self-fulfilling prophecies? I made a lot of those."

So that was why he was so secretive now…

Still, Jaron had to protest. "But you got better. You learned."

"Yes, but a lot of my initial struggle was because I was overwhelmed. I don't like to talk about this, hell, I don't even like to think about this, but when my powers first awakened I spent a solid month not knowing what was real and what was just in my head and while I was…" He stopped and his eyes darted to Jaron, searching for something—understanding, maybe. His fingers curled in the sheets.

Jaron reached out to him, resting his hand on top of Keegan's in a silent show of support. "What happened?"

Keegan swallowed hard, his throat working visibly. "While I was trapped in my nightmares, something happened to my sister."

Jaron's throat grew tight. He had never heard Keegan speak of his family before.

"Her name was Isabella," Keegan said, glancing aside as if he could not look at anyone while talking about this. "She was everything to me. We grew up together in a rough part of Rubyville. Our parents were gone, and it was just the two of us against the world. I promised her I'd make things better for us. That's why I became a vampire in the first place—to get power, to protect her."

Jaron squeezed Keegan's hand. He knew exactly what it felt like to wish for the power to be able to protect your siblings.

What wouldn't he give to keep his brothers safe?

"But while I was stuck in my head, unable to tell what was real or not," Keegan continued, "another vampire found her. He turned her without her consent."

Jaron's heart clenched at the thought of Keegan's sister being turned against her will. "What happened to her?"

"She couldn't handle it," Keegan said, voice carefully controlled. "The transformation broke her mind, and she… she didn't survive." He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as if trying to steady himself. His eyes narrowed. "I made sure the bastard who did it to her got what he deserved, but it never takes away the pain."

Silence hung heavy between them for a moment as Jaron processed everything Keegan had just shared.

"I don't want to be that useless again," Keegan said. "If I bond with you, it might not help me find Apollo. It might just have the opposite effect."

Jaron's heart hurt for his mate. He couldn't even begin to imagine the pain and guilt Keegan must have carried all these years, the weight of his sister's death bearing down on him.

"I'm so sorry," Jaron murmured, squeezing Keegan's hand harder. "That must have been horrible." He shifted closer, his other hand coming up to cup Keegan's cheek. "But it would be different this time," he said softly. "You wouldn't be alone. I'd be right there with you, every step of the way," he promised. "I'd ground you."

He didn't have any great powers of his own, but this, he could do.

Keegan leaned into Jaron's touch, his eyes fluttering closed for a moment. When he opened them again, there was a hint of longing in their depths, a desire to believe Jaron's words.

Jaron wished he would.

But of course he wouldn't.

If Jaron had to guess… "The real reason you're holding back," he said slowly, "it's because of that vision you saw, isn't it? The one of our bad ending?"

Keegan was silent for a long moment, his gaze fixed on the bed. "It was the very first vision I ever saw."

"What did you see?"

Jaron almost expected Keegan to deny him the details again, but surprisingly, Keegan didn't. He looked right at Jaron and said, "I saw you killing me. I have seen you killing me a thousand times."

Jaron stared at Keegan in stunned silence.

Had he heard that right?

He couldn't have.

"That's bullshit."

"I'd love to think so. Now you know why I didn't want to tell you."

"You can't be right," Jaron insisted, his voice shaking slightly. "How is that possible? I would never hurt you. Never!" There had to be some mistake. Maybe Keegan was misinterpreting his visions. Maybe he saw some twisted form of the future that would never come to pass.

Keegan was his mate. The other half of his soul.

Jaron would never do anything to harm him.

The dragon in him would not allow it.

"I don't accept that future," Jaron said fiercely. "Whatever you saw, it's not going to happen."

"It will," Keegan insisted. "Unless we find a way to change fate."

"That isn't our fate. It's not." Jaron was aware that he was raising his voice, but he couldn't help it. He'd never wanted to reject reality as much as he did now. It couldn't be his fate to kill his mate. What kind of fucked up bullshit was that? "Fate can't make me hurt you. I won't."

"I don't see any other outcome for us."

"Maybe you would see one if we bonded, if you became more powerful!"

Keegan looked at him with a face that said he didn't think so.

"You won't even try?" Jaron demanded.

"What if I try," Keegan said, "and it doesn't work? Then we're mated, and our souls become intertwined, and I'll be the most precious treasure you've ever added to your hoard, and still something is going to happen that'll lead to you killing me and it will destroy you."

Again, Jaron was stunned into silence. Not because Keegan still insisted that this awful future was going to happen, but because of the horror in Keegan's voice when he spoke of how this would affect Jaron.

Keegan wasn't scared for himself.

He was scared for Jaron.

And how the hell was Jaron supposed to respond to that? "Nothing's going to destroy me," he said in a low tone of voice, "because I'm not going to hurt you."

"You don't know?—"

Jaron surged forward and shut him up with a kiss, earning himself a surprised yelp from Keegan. Gods, he loved surprising his seer, and he'd surprise him in this matter too. "I'm not going to hurt you," he repeated.

Keegan opened his mouth as if to protest.

Jaron pressed a finger to his lips. "That future can't exist. I won't allow it."

"But fate?—"

"Fuck fate," Jaron decided. "We'll shape our future ourselves, you and me."

Keegan looked as if he desperately wanted to believe that, or maybe he was just desperate for someone to take him out of his head. Jaron could grant him that second wish, at least.

His lips crashed against Keegan's, his tongue demanding entrance that was readily granted. Keegan moaned into the kiss, and Jaron couldn't help but wonder how difficult things must have been for him.

For almost as long as he'd been a vampire, he'd been tormented by visions of his own death at Jaron's hands, and yet here he was, allowing Jaron to touch him, to kiss him—maybe even to do other things.

The dragon in him wanted that so badly, the urge to claim overriding any rational thought within his mind.

Jaron's hands moved down Keegan's slender body, caressing every inch of smooth skin he could reach. Heat pooled between his legs as he imagined what it would be like to have his vampire beneath him, pliant and moaning his name. The thought alone was enough to make his cock harden further in his pants.

A low sound escaped Keegan as Jaron's hand brushed against the growing bulge in his pants, and any remaining restraint Jaron had snapped. He needed more; he needed his mate.

Keegan's breath came in short, ragged gasps as Jaron's mouth moved lower, his hands deftly stripping away the barrier of clothing that separated them. The sight of Keegan, spread out before him, was enough to make Jaron's head spin.

He took a moment to simply look at his mate, to appreciate the beauty of the trust Keegan had placed in him, to acknowledge the gravity of the gift he was being given.

The dragon within Jaron stirred, an insistent and possessive force that demanded he claim, to own. But beneath that primal urge was a profound tenderness, a need to cherish and protect this fierce, haunted creature whose soul called out to his.

Jaron leaned down, pressing gentle kisses along the column of Keegan's throat, feeling the vampire's breath catch. His hands explored the contours of Keegan's body, mapping out every dip and curve, longing to commit them to memory.

"Jaron," Keegan whispered, his voice a hoarse plea for more, and the sound of his name on Keegan's lips was enough to ignite a fire within Jaron's veins.

Funny how he'd never been able to breathe flames but Keegan made him feel like he was burning on the inside.

With a growl that was half man, half dragon, Jaron gave in to the desire that coursed through him, settling in between Keegan's legs. His dragon roared in approval, clawing at his insides with an intensity that threatened to overwhelm him. But he held back, refusing to let the beast dictate his actions. This was about Keegan, about showing him that he was cherished and safe in Jaron's care.

That Jaron would never do anything to hurt him.

He got the bottle of lube out of the bedside table drawer and coated his fingers. Keegan watched him, wordlessly. He had to know what Jaron meant to do, and yet, he wasn't protesting.

Was that consent?

Not quite good enough.

Not when he'd been so reluctant before.

"Will you let me top tonight?" Jaron asked.

Keegan licked his lips, gaze drawn to Jaron's fingers. Jaron would have given a lot for someone to tell him exactly what was going on in that vampire's head. Probably some needlessly complicated calculation.

Jaron gave him another quick kiss, if only to pull him out of his thoughts. "Please?" he tried, whispering the word into Keegan's ear.

"Fuck," Keegan muttered softly.

Jaron would have loved to take that as confirmation, but 'fuck' wasn't 'yes.'

It could turn into yes, though.

Jaron prodded Keegan's hole with his fingers, much the same way Keegan had done to him the other night. "Let me in?" he asked.

Keegan's eyes fluttered closed. "I know you think you won't hurt me," he said, and Jaron realized he wasn't talking about sex but about their future. "But I can easily picture myself doing something to deserve it."

Jaron stared at Keegan. That was the most ridiculous thing he'd heard all day. "Listen to me," Jaron said. "There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that you could ever do to make me hurt you. I don't care what mistakes you might make or what your visions show. I might yell at you or tell you that you're being a fucking asshole, but I will never lay a hand on you in anger. Never."

Keegan's eyes searched Jaron's, a flicker of hope warring with the shadows of doubt. "You don't know that. I'm not as noble as you. I'm a vampire. What if?—"

"No." Jaron leaned forward again. "No more what-ifs," he whispered against Keegan's mouth. "I choose you, Keegan. I choose us. And I will fight tooth and nail against anything that tries to tear us apart. You may be a vampire, but I am a dragon, and dragons take care of their treasures."

A shudder ran through Keegan's body, and he surged up, capturing Jaron's lips in a kiss. Jaron could taste Keegan's desperation in it, felt the way his mate clung to him as if he were the only solid thing in a world turned upside down.

Jaron was okay with Keegan clinging to him. More than okay.

Whatever the future threw at him, he'd find a way to deal with it.

Anything for his mate.

He smoothed his hands over Keegan's back. "Let me take care of you," he murmured, trailing kisses along Keegan's jaw. "Let me treasure you."

Keegan's fingers tangled in his hair. "Do it," he breathed, and there was no mistaking the consent in his tone.

Jaron's heart soared, and he lowered Keegan back onto the bed, settling between his legs once more.

Sowly Jaron pushed one slick finger inside, enjoying the gasp that fell from Keegan's mouth. He took his time, working Keegan open with gentle, thorough strokes, watching him all the while.

Keegan's half-lidded gaze as Jaron moved his finger in and out of him was a sight he could get addicted to.

Jaron smiled and added a second finger, suppressing the dragon in him that wanted to get on with the main act right away — before Keegan could change his mind again. He wasn't going to risk harming Keegan, though, even if his cock was painfully hard in his pants, wanting inside.

He shoved his fingers deep, watching Keegan's eyes close once more as a breathless noise spilled from his lips.

"Fuck," Keegan cursed as Jaron curled his fingers just a little.

Jaron groaned. Gods, he didn't think he could hold back much longer. He needed to know what it was like to bury himself in Keegan, needed to feel the vampire squeeze around his cock the way he squeezed around his fingers now.

"Jaron, please," Keegan panted, obviously wanting the same thing. "I'm a vampire, I don't need more prep."

In response to those words, the last dregs of Jaron's self-restraint evaporated.

The need to claim, to bond, was an overwhelming force that coursed through his veins like liquid fire.

Quickly, he got rid of his pants and positioned himself at Keegan's entrance, and then, with a deep, steadying breath, he pushed forward, feeling the ring of muscle yield to him, inch by slow inch.

Keegan was tight around him, a snug embrace that seemed to hold the promise of a connection deeper than anything he had ever known.

He'd never thought that he'd find his mate, that he'd get to have this. Now that he did, he was overwhelmed.

Keegan seemed to struggle with a different problem. One of impatience. "Move, Jar." His hands grabbed Jaron's buttocks, urging Jaron deeper. "Don't stop."

Jaron complied. How could he not, with his mate looking at him like that, all desire and lust and need?

Keegan's hips rose to meet each thrust with a breathless moan, his fingers digging into Jaron's back as he pulled Jaron in deeper and held him close.

This was a different experience from the sex Jaron had had so far, and not only because he was with his mate. Quite simply, he'd never fucked a vampire before, and vampire bodies were cold. Not icy, but not hot and sweaty like some other races tended to get.

Honestly it made his cock inside of Keegan feel hotter by contrast and Jaron couldn't decide if that was weird or wonderful, didn't have room to think about it with Keegan clamping down around him with every push and pull. The dragon inside Jaron growled, chasing that deeper connection that he longed for.

Possessive urgency drove Jaron on, and he quickened his pace, his hips driving in harder and faster with every thrust, seeking to bury himself as deep inside Keegan as he could go, as if that could seal their bond.

Something was off, though. Something was missing.

Something kept their souls from merging as they should.

Keegan's eyes sought his, wild and unfocused; his chest heaved as he panted as if he was desperate for their bond to be completed too.

All his reasons to refuse Jaron had been rational, but emotionally, primally, he wanted Jaron too.

"Jar," he said, and Jaron could hear the strain in his voice. The dragon within Jaron roared in response, eager to take possession of Keegan, to give them both that satisfaction.

But how?

Then it clicked into place.

Blood.

They needed to exchange blood to truly bond.

The thought made his heart race, not with fear but with urgency.

"Bite me," he growled, leaning down to whisper in Keegan's ear.

There was a sharp intake of breath, and for a moment, he thought his mate would refuse. But then Keegan's blue eyes darkened, an unmistakable hunger sparking within them. His fangs had already elongated, vampire instincts kicking in.

Jaron shuddered. He'd never wanted to be a vampire's prey so much.

Keegan didn't bite him immediately, though. Instead, the vampire brought his own wrist to his mouth and pierced the skin, causing drops of blood to well up. Then, he offered his wrist to Jaron.

Jaron hesitated. He'd never drunk blood before, and the idea made his stomach turn. But for his mate, he'd do it. For the chance to fully claim Keegan as his, to complete the soul bond that felt so tantalizingly close, he'd do anything.

With a growl, he leaned forward and lapped at the wound, the metallic taste of blood filling his mouth. It wasn't something he'd ever craved, but mixed with the scent and taste of Keegan's skin, it wasn't as bad as he'd feared.

The next moment, all his thoughts fled his mind as Keegan's fangs sank into his neck.

The sting of it sent a jolt of arousal through him, and he moaned, burying himself deeper inside Keegan as his cock twitched. All this time he'd thought about how much he wanted to possess Keegan. He'd been so obsessed with the idea he'd failed to realize how much he wanted Keegan to own him in return.

Until now.

It was a thing of instinct, a primal need to be possessed, to be marked, and the sensation was overwhelming.

Keegan suckled at his neck, pulling his blood into his mouth, and Jaron felt his vision swim as the pleasure of it shot straight to his groin.

Jaron closed his eyes and lost himself in the feeling of Keegan's lips on his skin, the dragon inside him quieted for once, happy to let his vampire take charge of the moment, happy to let his vampire do whatever the fuck he pleased with Jaron.

Jaron was his, wholly and completely.

For a heartbeat or two, Jaron's perception dissolved and all he could feel anymore was Keegan, his thoughts and fears, as clearly as if they were his own. It was strange and yet, at the same time, it felt entirely natural, as if his soul had been crying out for this kind of closeness all along.

"Jaron," Keegan whispered his name as he let go of his neck, closing the wound, and Jaron knew that he felt the same way. Keegan's skin might be cold, but his presence inside Jaron's heart was a warm and comforting weight that seemed to fill the hollow places in his soul.

Pulling back slightly, Jaron gazed down at his mate, the vampire's eyes full of desire and something else, something soft and vulnerable that took Jaron's breath away. It was a look he had never seen on Keegan's face before, and it made his chest ache with a tenderness he had never known he was capable of feeling.

Keegan's lips were stained red with Jaron's blood, and Jaron couldn't resist leaning down to kiss him, gently at first, then deeper, as the reality, the joy, of their bond sank in. They were mates, tied together in a way that transcended time and space, and nothing in this world or any other could ever tear them apart.

Not even fate.

Jaron wouldn't let it.

He moved again, rocking his hips against Keegan's in a slow, steady rhythm. There was no rush now, nothing but the need to savor the moment, to revel in the connection of their minds and bodies.

Every stroke of Jaron's cock inside Keegan seemed to send a jolt of pleasure through them both, and soon Keegan was gasping, clutching at Jaron as his orgasm approached with relentless certainty.

Jaron could feel it building inside him as well, the tightening of his balls, the tension coiling within him. With every thrust he felt the edge approaching, until finally it was upon him and he tumbled over, his orgasm, both their orgasms, sweeping through him with the force of an avalanche.

It was a different kind of climax than any he'd had before, one that seemed to shatter him and remake him anew, leaving him raw and shaken in its wake.

He collapsed atop his mate, his breathing ragged and heavy, his heart racing in his chest as he came down from the high of ecstasy.

Keegan's arms wrapped around him, holding him close and anchoring him, keeping him from drifting too far from reality in the aftermath. Jaron nuzzled Keegan, the dragon within him utterly content to curl around Keegan's soul brushing against his own.

For the first time since meeting his mate, everything was exactly as it should be.

Jaron's mind was silent, his dragon sated.

He had what he wanted.

For the first time in his life, he felt like a proper dragon—and like a proper dragon he would fight to keep what was his.