The Sky Rains Red, Part Eleven, Leverage, NC-17
Fandom: Leverage (Vamp!Nate verse)
Title: The Sky Rains Red, Part Eleven ( Index)
Pairings/Characters: Nate/Eliot/Hardison, Ryna (OFC), Sterling, OFC, hints of Eliot/OFC
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 4001
Summary: Katja wants Eliot for the secrets of his blood, but she doesn't count on Nate coming after him, or the pull of a relationship that is deeper than bloodlust.
A/Ns & Summary: Final chapter of this arc. Blood!kink (hello, Vampire!), violence, hints of het, threesome boy sex
”Eliot, I don’t know if you can hear me. We’re coming for you, just sit tight. Don’t do whatever it is she wants you to do. Remember Ryna. She needs you to come home.”
“Ryna.” The name growled into the corners of the room as he came awake, sitting up in a cage barely big enough to contain him. “I’m getting really fucking tired of cages.”
“Sorry, necessary evil.”
Eliot turned, squinting in the harsh light at the man in the lab coat who was working nearby. He gave Eliot a tight smile and slipped off his stool. “My specimens tend toward violence. This seems safer.”
“I’m no specimen, but I’ll show you some violence.” Eliot growled, squatting now and holding the cage.
“No…no. You are the specimen. I was nearly convinced this wouldn’t work. But look at you. None of the others even came close.”
“Others?”
“We tried everything, mixing the breeds all kinds of ways. Then I hit on the idea that if the specimen was only on the verge of turning, not fully vampire, not fully human, and the cat took it’s turn, maybe…just maybe we might find the answer.” He beamed at Eliot. “And there you are.”
“What have I told you about talking to the pets, Harold?”
Eliot froze, the sound of her voice affecting something inside him with something like arousal.
“Sorry, Ms. Katja. I’m very excited.”
“I’m sure you are, but you needn’t bother Eliot with the tricky little details.” She came to the cage and when her hand caressed his face, Eliot closed his eyes, the purr coming from deep within without warning. “How is your work coming, Harold?”
“Very good. Very promising. His blood is…remarkable. I’m still running the tests, of course, but I might finally have found a course of treatment.”
Katja moved from Eliot to the doctor in a flash, growling as she pinned him to the counter first. “I told you, you focus on my needs first. Your daughter comes after I get what I want.”
“Yes, yes, I know. I just mean that in looking for what you want, I have seen what I need to do for her.”
She licked up the side of his face. “Good boy. I wouldn’t want to have to feed you to Carl.”
“No, no ma’am. I should get back to work.”
“You do that.” She came back to Eliot, squatting down and reaching in to grab his hair and pull him to the bars. Her kiss was possessive and he could do nothing to resist, despite a strong desire to reach through the bars with his claws and rip her stomach open.
When she released him, he wiped his mouth. “Nate is going to rip you to pieces, you know that?”
She smiled a feral smile. “No, my dear Eliot…by the time your vampire realizes what I’ve done and comes to find you, you will be mine and when he tries, you will eviscerate him and bring his dead body to me to feast on.”
She stood and turned to Harold again. “Make sure he is sedated and brought to my bedroom before moonrise.”
Eliot didn’t like the sound of that. “What’s at moonrise?”
Harold looked at him with wide eyes. “Full moon. The queen needs to mate.”
And he really didn’t like the sound of that. “And if I refuse?”
“Oh, you won’t. Trust me. No one does.”
“Hardison?” His voice had a hard edge on it and Hardison looked up from his computer.
“I told you, nothing.” His eyes were wide.
Parker jumped off the table and pointed over Hardison’s shoulder at the screen. “Here. I could get in here.”
“No.” Nate growled. “No one is going in there but me.”
“Nate, what do you want from me? There’s nothing. No deliveries, no mail, it gets delivered outside the gate, which is guarded by two big dudes who turn into fucking lions.” Hardison stood and crossed his arms. “No back roads, no networks connected to the outside. Nothing. I can’t get in.”
“Then I guess I just have to go in the front door.” Nate stormed away.
“Are you insane?” Sophie asked, cutting him off halfway to his office.
“Out of my way.” Nate shoved her aside and went to his office, pulling the bottle from the door and not bothering with a glass. He swallowed twice before lowering it, welcoming the harsh burn. His need for blood was growing with his fear for Eliot, reminding him he hadn’t fully recovered from his starvation.
He could smell Sophie, too close. “Back off,” he growled.
“I got this.” He heard Hardison coming into the room, but Nate turned away, drank from the bottle again. “Sophie, just give me a minute with him.”
Nate heard the door close. “Hardison, not now.”
“Yes now.” His voice wavered a little, but sounded determined. “You need what I have.”
Nate turned then. Hardison had two Styrofoam containers of blood in his hands, held out to Nate. “You drink these, and we’ll talk about the rest.”
Nate took one and nodded. “Fair enough.” He had to give the boy credit. He hadn’t asked to be pulled into this, and it was easy to see how much it terrified him. Yet, here he was, offering himself. Nate drained the first container and took the second. “You know this is…not going to be enough.”
“Like I said, finish it and we’ll talk.”
Nate raised an eyebrow, then drank the second one. It blunted the edges of his hunger, but he knew that if Hardison came any closer, that wouldn't necessarily remain true. He put the empty container on the desk and leaned against it, arms crossed watching as Hardison cracked his neck and loosened himself up. "Right now, Eliot is alone with a dangerous woman who can infiltrate his thoughts, mess with his head…someone who can control him because she made him." Nate said as calmly as he could manage.
Hardison held up a hand to stop him. "I've been thinking about that." He paced a little. "She didn't exactly make him. She had one of her boys make him…which makes her his grandma, not his mama. Her hold on him is as the queen of her pride."
Nate raised an eyebrow. "It's what I do." Hardison replied. "I research. He's more yours than hers though, when it comes right down to it. Your blood, right? You just need to get through to him." He stopped pacing and looked at Nate. "Thing is, if I understand what I've read so far, we're up against a time crunch."
Nate gestured for him to continue. "Go on, you're on a roll."
"Tonight is a full moon, the queen of the pride takes a mate. Once she's mated, they're bound…at least until she kills him. I figure the one that bit Eliot was her mate, one she trusted to bring Eliot to her. He killed him, so she'll be needing to replace him."
"And you think she'll chose Eliot?"
"Wouldn't you?" Hardison said. "Forget I said that."
Nate smiled, starting to understand Hardison, and the way he baited Eliot all the time a little better. "So all this time, the bickering was your way of flirting?"
"What? No. No." Hardison shook his head. "I-no. Just no."
Nate pushed off the desk and crossed to Hardison, catching his slender hips and turning him until Nate could push the younger man into the door. He kissed Hardison then, possessive and claiming and after only a slight hesitation, Hardison relaxed into Nate.
He kissed down Hardison's jaw to his neck and Hardison whimpered a little when Nate's hand cupped his cock. "Now, I need to feed." Nate whispered in his ear while his hand eased Hardison's zipper down and pulled his cock out. "I need to be strong when I go in there to get him."
Hardison nodded, his eyes closing as Nate stroked him. "More than that…I need him to smell you on me. I need to cut through whatever she's holding him with, need him to feel me, want me."
"Jealousy?" Hardison asked, swallowing. "That's your plan?"
Nate nodded, unbuttoning his shirt now. "Yes, that's my plan. So you and I are going to get comfy on the couch…and when I bite and feed, you're going to come on me and then you and the others are staying here, while I go get Eliot."
Eliot was vaguely aware that hands were stripping him and that he should be trying to escape, but the fog of whatever drug the doctor had given him was dampening his ability to actually do anything.
There was warm water, hands cleaning him, drying him and then he was taken to a bed draped in gold and bathed in moonlight from the open French doors.
He could smell her all over the bed as he was guided back to lay in its center, the cat within him reacting, craving. He rubbed his face in the pillows, reveling in her scent, his body beginning to transform as his handlers left him alone.
Then there was…something. He wasn’t sure if it was a sound or a voice or something else, but it stopped him. He sat up, looking around him. “Nate?”
His voice sounded harsh in the stillness of the room and seemed to stir the air, lifting the curtains around him. Nate was near. Eliot inhaled the mixed scents and shook his head, trying to clear it. He crawled to the edge of the bed and put his feet on the carpet.
The cat wanted out, wanted blood…no, that was the vampire. Eliot held his head and stood, stumbling out on the balcony. The moon felt like ice on his skin, creeping over him, freezing him to the moment. The craving was intensifying, blood, hot and sticky, life beating out slowly into his hands, his mouth. His hands gripped the railing, hair covering them as the change bubbled up inside him.
“Can you feel it, my love?” Katja asked from behind him. “Your first full moon…it can be overwhelming.”
Eliot turned, the growl starting low in his stomach. She was naked but for a flimsy gold robe, in her human form. She looked vulnerable, but he knew she wasn’t.
“The sedatives help some, just let the change come, Eliot.”
He opened his mouth to speak, his tongue catching on fangs he didn’t remember being there before. The taste of copper flooded his mouth and he swallowed his own blood. It only brought the need roaring up in him.
“Come, feed from me.” She held out her hands and Eliot found himself moving toward her before he could stop himself. He sniffed at her hands, then nuzzled into one, licking at her palm. “That’s it. Come to me, Eliot.”
He surged forward, his mouth closing over hers, teeth nipping at her lips, the taste of her flooding his mouth.
“Eliot.” The voice stopped him. It wasn’t Katja. Nate.
Eliot lifted his head and turned. Nate stood on the balcony.
“He belongs to me, Vampire. Leave now before my pride tears you apart.”
Nate smiled. “Your pride. You mean the cats I put down on my way in here?” He took a step closer. “They should be up to it in about eight hours.”
Eliot looked at Nate, his nostrils flaring. Nate met his eyes and nodded. “You smell him?” Eliot turned from Katja completely, her scent forgotten under Nate and Hardison and sex. He took a step toward Nate, his hands nearly claws. He growled low and deep.
“Hardison.” His teeth clenched and he sniffed the air.
“Yes, Eliot. I was with Hardison.” Nate said, though his eyes flashed at Katja. Eliot could feel her behind him, reaching for him.
“You won’t win this.” Katja growled.
Nate smiled. “Eliot.”
He was stuck between them. He looked at Katja, then Nate. His body stopped transforming and slowly reverted to human. He breathed in deeply. “I’m not a fucking toy for you to fight over.”
The sedative was still working in him, but he was a little more in control. The rage fueled by jealousy burned and he wanted to throw Nate to the floor and rub Hardison’s scent off of him. Then Katja’s voice filled his head and he wanted to grab her and sink into her, taste her and make her his.
”Kill the vampire, Eliot.”
Eliot shook his head.
“She wants to be your queen, Eliot. She wants to rule you.” Nate said quietly.
“And what do you want, Vampire?” Katja spit.
Nate held Eliot’s eyes. Eliot focused on Nate, on the smell of him, on the memory of his touch. Nate wanted him. ”I love you.” Nate’s voice was soft inside him, but it reverberated through him, the words and the emotion attached to them. Eliot took a step toward him.
Katja’s growl rumbled. “You belong to me!”
Eliot turned as she transformed, catching her before she could reach Nate and together they fell to the floor. The change roared through him, his body bending and his claws dug into her. She bit at him and they rolled.
“Hardison?” Nate said, stepping clear.
Eliot could almost hear Hardsion’s voice over Nate’s comm. He wanted Eliot to get away from Katja so he could get a clean shot. Eliot roared and tore at her, getting a mouthful of her shoulder. He bit deep, her claws digging at him. He rolled them again, crushing her into the wall. He loosened his jaw then and turned his head, getting his mouth on her neck.
When he bit, she fell limp. Eliot drank the blood filling his mouth, even as he shifted, pulling her with him. He stood, lifting her bleeding body and already shifting back to human. At the balcony, he held her on the rail.
“Everyone down?” Eliot asked over his shoulder?
“Yeah, tranquilized.” Nate responded.
Eliot nodded and dropped Katja’s lifeless body to the pavement below. He looked up to where he assumed Hardison and his high powered tranq gun were hiding and pointed, then gestured into the room.
“What?” he could hear Hardison squeak.
Eliot stalked to Nate. “It’s gonna get bloody.”
Nate smirked and looked Eliot over. “Already has.”
Eliot yanked Nate closer and kissed him, his body flushing with need. He plucked Nate’s earpiece out of his ear. “Hardison, get the fuck in here.”
He tossed the earpiece and focused on tearing Nate’s clothing from him while pushing him back toward the bad.
“Easy.” Nate murmured, putting his hands on Eliot’s shoulders to get him to slow down a little.
“Wanna fuck.” Eliot growled, his hand getting inside Nate’s pants and around his cock, making him moan.
“Yeah, I see that. Is here…oh…” Eliot pulled on his cock, then pushed him backward so he could drag his pants off.
“Gotta bed.” Eliot threw Nate’s pants and immediately dropped down to take Nate’s cock in his mouth. “You smell like him.” Eliot licked at the taste of Hardison on Nate’s skin. “Where the fuck is he?”
The door opened as if on cue and Eliot looked up. Hardison looked terrified. “Naked.” Eliot snarled, climbing off the bed again. Hardison didn't move, not even to blink.
"Eliot, easy." Nate murmured.
He couldn't go easy, not with the fire bursting to get out of him, not with the taste of her blood on his tongue and the craving for more ripping at his control. He needed to sate the beast. He had Hardison half way out of his shirt when he felt Nate behind him, hands easing up Eliot's back. He's scared.
Eliot blinked and looked at Hardison and realizing Nate was right. "Not gonna hurt you." Eliot growled, trying to calm the raging need enough to calm the kid.
"Right." Hardison swallowed, looking at the nails on Eliot's hands that were more claws again than nails.
Nate kissed across his shoulders. "Deep breath, Eliot." His tongue laved over the place where he first bit Eliot. Nate bit through the skin and Eliot hissed. Focus.
Eliot breathed over Hardison's lips, then licked them open. When his mouth closed over Hardison's, the younger man trembled and whined in the back of his throat. Eliot took a step closer, pressing him into the door, their bodies tight together. Nate followed, pressing Eliot between them. "Fuck." Eliot lifted both hands, focusing on making sure they stayed hands, to hold Hardison's face as they kissed.
It was hard to move slow, to be gentle, especially with Nate's naked cock pressing into the crack of his ass from behind. He could feel Nate's hands working Hardison's pants open, but Eliot kept his focus on their lips, on making Hardison less afraid.
Nate's hand covered his and his mouth moved over Eliot's neck. "Bed."
He broke the kiss, blinking up at Hardison. He was visibly calmer and he moved when Eliot did, letting Eliot guide him back to the mattress and down. Eliot let him move up on his own, until he was comfortable, then he lifted a knee and climbed up, lifting Hardison's foot and licking over the ankle, then up to his knee, opening his legs and making room between them.
Nate moved behind him, touching Hardison's other leg. "Gentle." Nate murmured in Eliot's ear as he cupped Hardison's balls and started moving toward his ass.
"Yeah, what he said." Hardison said, throwing a pillow over his cock.
Eliot swallowed the growl and grabbed the pillow. Hardison lifted his hips to let Eliot shove the pillow under him, tilting him just right. Eliot exhaled and let Nate reach from behind to guide his hand down toward Hardison's ass. They didn't have lube, which only made this harder. Eliot spit onto his fingers and eased them in.
Hardison tightened up at first, then seemed to take himself in hand, literally as well as figuratively. As his long fingers curled around his cock, his ass released and Eliot's fingers slid in easily.
"Too long." Eliot growled.
Nate spit into his own hand and reached around Eliot to coat his dick, then tug him forward. Eliot lifted Hardison's right leg up and out to open him up and growled as he penetrated him. Nate didn't even wait for him to be fully inside Hardison before he was pushing into Eliot.
"Fuck." Eliot panted through his nose, fighting the need to dig his nails into Hardison's sides to hold him in place. "Nate." His voice was laced with need and warning and Nate seemed to understand, biting down hard on Eliot's shoulder.
Eliot flexed his hips and pushed in harder, making Hardison groan. The room was sticky and hot, all the more so for the blood that coated his skin still and it wasn't helping. He needed more.
He grabbed Nate's arm, licking over the wrist before he bit. Nate yelled and thrust forward, shoving Eliot deeper into Hardison, who also yelled. Eliot drank until he needed to breathe more, then pulled back and set a blistering pace fucking down into Hardison and back onto Nate.
His head was buzzing with blood and need and he was aware on some level that Hardison was rambling and begging and Nate was thrusting more and more erratically as he neared his orgasm. Nate's hand was still dripping blood as he grabbed Hardison's leg.
Eliot grabbed Hardison's arm and almost in unison he and Nate bit and drank, sending Hardison hurtling over the wall, his body contracting as he spilled come onto his stomach and then falling loose as he passed out. Eliot's hands were gone to claws again and he reached behind him for Nate, digging nails into the meat of his ass as he thrust into Hardison and came, roaring and collapsing forward as he finished, barely aware that Nate had come too.
He drifted as they lay there amid the blood and the come, spent. Exhausted. Nate was stirring. Even Hardison was starting to come around. Eliot couldn't move. Could not drag himself up.
Nate's hand was warm on his back. "Sleep. We'll clean up. I'll come get you when it's time to go home."
All in all, it had been a little over a week since he was nearly made into a vampire, then was made into a cat. So much had changed.
Everything was still a little raw. Nate and Sterling dealt with the cats and Katja's body. Dr. Highmore had disappeared.
Now, Eliot was waiting for Nate to get home with Ryna because Nate said it was time to get back to normal.
He still wasn't sure that bringing her home into this nightmare was the right thing to do, but he had the beast mostly under control, as long as he fed well, and ran a lot.
The door opened and Ryna came in with the cat in her arms. He'd forgotten about the cat. "Nate says I have to be careful. Are you hurt?"
Eliot looked up at Nate, then back at his daughter. "I was. I'm better, but careful is a good idea." Nate set her bag down and closed the door.
"Where?"
Eliot's hand instinctively went to the shoulder where he'd been bit.
She nodded solemnly and crossed to where he stood. He squatted to her level, eyeing the cat who was sniffing at him. It wasn't afraid exactly, but it seemed to know something was different. Ryna covered the shoulder with her small hand. "Did you get him? The bad guy that hurt you?"
Eliot nodded. "Yes, we got him."
"Good. Merlin!" Suddenly the kitten was clawing at Eliot, meowing and licking at him and trying to climb onto him.
Nate snickered and Eliot grabbed the kitty, pulling him away from his shirt and handing him back to Ryna. "Control your cat."
Nate laughed harder. "It ain't funny." Eliot growled at him.
Nate held up both hands. "No, not at all."
"Go put your stuff away. Dinner's almost ready." Eliot said to Ryna, glaring at Nate.
"Don't forget, you owe me a computer!" Ryna called as she headed down to her room.
"Merlin thinks you're his mommy." Nate snorted when she was out of earshot.
Eliot punched him. He was still laughing when he hit the floor. "Keep it up. You'll sleep on the couch."
Normal. Eliot was pretty sure they left normal behind the day he figured out that Nate was a vampire. Now he had no definition for what they were. A vampire, a were-cat, an almost nine year old girl…and Hardison. Like it or not, he couldn't leave Hardison out of the…family.
"Not what you expected when you considered settling down?"
"Since when do you get to talk in my head?" Eliot asked, not turning to Nate.
"Since I figured out how?"
"It's annoying." Eliot stirred his sauce, but leaned back into Nate when his arms slipped around his waist.
"I meant it, you know." Nate said when the silence had stretched out.
Eliot didn't have to ask. He could feel it. The moment Nate's voice in his head said the words. "I know." He turned in the circle of Nate's arms and leaned his head into Nate's shoulder. "Never expected to settle down, have kids…never thought…." He swallowed and looked up at Nate. "Never expected this."
"And here we are."
"The four of us." Eliot breathed in deep and let it out. "We're going to need a bigger place."
Nate chuckled. "Hell, we're going to need a new bed too. Have you seen the damage?"
Eliot blushed. "Yeah, that too. And nail trimmers." He kissed Nate lightly. "But I ain't nobody's mommy, and you say it again or tell Hardison, and I will lock you back in that vault."
"You have my word." Nate promised, kissing him.
"Good. Set the table."
He could see, almost feel the struggle on Nate's face. He turned away and went to get the plates. Eliot chuckled, finally letting himself relax. So it wasn't normal.
Normal was boring anyway.
Title: The Sky Rains Red, Part Eleven ( Index)
Pairings/Characters: Nate/Eliot/Hardison, Ryna (OFC), Sterling, OFC, hints of Eliot/OFC
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 4001
Summary: Katja wants Eliot for the secrets of his blood, but she doesn't count on Nate coming after him, or the pull of a relationship that is deeper than bloodlust.
A/Ns & Summary: Final chapter of this arc. Blood!kink (hello, Vampire!), violence, hints of het, threesome boy sex
”Eliot, I don’t know if you can hear me. We’re coming for you, just sit tight. Don’t do whatever it is she wants you to do. Remember Ryna. She needs you to come home.”
“Ryna.” The name growled into the corners of the room as he came awake, sitting up in a cage barely big enough to contain him. “I’m getting really fucking tired of cages.”
“Sorry, necessary evil.”
Eliot turned, squinting in the harsh light at the man in the lab coat who was working nearby. He gave Eliot a tight smile and slipped off his stool. “My specimens tend toward violence. This seems safer.”
“I’m no specimen, but I’ll show you some violence.” Eliot growled, squatting now and holding the cage.
“No…no. You are the specimen. I was nearly convinced this wouldn’t work. But look at you. None of the others even came close.”
“Others?”
“We tried everything, mixing the breeds all kinds of ways. Then I hit on the idea that if the specimen was only on the verge of turning, not fully vampire, not fully human, and the cat took it’s turn, maybe…just maybe we might find the answer.” He beamed at Eliot. “And there you are.”
“What have I told you about talking to the pets, Harold?”
Eliot froze, the sound of her voice affecting something inside him with something like arousal.
“Sorry, Ms. Katja. I’m very excited.”
“I’m sure you are, but you needn’t bother Eliot with the tricky little details.” She came to the cage and when her hand caressed his face, Eliot closed his eyes, the purr coming from deep within without warning. “How is your work coming, Harold?”
“Very good. Very promising. His blood is…remarkable. I’m still running the tests, of course, but I might finally have found a course of treatment.”
Katja moved from Eliot to the doctor in a flash, growling as she pinned him to the counter first. “I told you, you focus on my needs first. Your daughter comes after I get what I want.”
“Yes, yes, I know. I just mean that in looking for what you want, I have seen what I need to do for her.”
She licked up the side of his face. “Good boy. I wouldn’t want to have to feed you to Carl.”
“No, no ma’am. I should get back to work.”
“You do that.” She came back to Eliot, squatting down and reaching in to grab his hair and pull him to the bars. Her kiss was possessive and he could do nothing to resist, despite a strong desire to reach through the bars with his claws and rip her stomach open.
When she released him, he wiped his mouth. “Nate is going to rip you to pieces, you know that?”
She smiled a feral smile. “No, my dear Eliot…by the time your vampire realizes what I’ve done and comes to find you, you will be mine and when he tries, you will eviscerate him and bring his dead body to me to feast on.”
She stood and turned to Harold again. “Make sure he is sedated and brought to my bedroom before moonrise.”
Eliot didn’t like the sound of that. “What’s at moonrise?”
Harold looked at him with wide eyes. “Full moon. The queen needs to mate.”
And he really didn’t like the sound of that. “And if I refuse?”
“Oh, you won’t. Trust me. No one does.”
“Hardison?” His voice had a hard edge on it and Hardison looked up from his computer.
“I told you, nothing.” His eyes were wide.
Parker jumped off the table and pointed over Hardison’s shoulder at the screen. “Here. I could get in here.”
“No.” Nate growled. “No one is going in there but me.”
“Nate, what do you want from me? There’s nothing. No deliveries, no mail, it gets delivered outside the gate, which is guarded by two big dudes who turn into fucking lions.” Hardison stood and crossed his arms. “No back roads, no networks connected to the outside. Nothing. I can’t get in.”
“Then I guess I just have to go in the front door.” Nate stormed away.
“Are you insane?” Sophie asked, cutting him off halfway to his office.
“Out of my way.” Nate shoved her aside and went to his office, pulling the bottle from the door and not bothering with a glass. He swallowed twice before lowering it, welcoming the harsh burn. His need for blood was growing with his fear for Eliot, reminding him he hadn’t fully recovered from his starvation.
He could smell Sophie, too close. “Back off,” he growled.
“I got this.” He heard Hardison coming into the room, but Nate turned away, drank from the bottle again. “Sophie, just give me a minute with him.”
Nate heard the door close. “Hardison, not now.”
“Yes now.” His voice wavered a little, but sounded determined. “You need what I have.”
Nate turned then. Hardison had two Styrofoam containers of blood in his hands, held out to Nate. “You drink these, and we’ll talk about the rest.”
Nate took one and nodded. “Fair enough.” He had to give the boy credit. He hadn’t asked to be pulled into this, and it was easy to see how much it terrified him. Yet, here he was, offering himself. Nate drained the first container and took the second. “You know this is…not going to be enough.”
“Like I said, finish it and we’ll talk.”
Nate raised an eyebrow, then drank the second one. It blunted the edges of his hunger, but he knew that if Hardison came any closer, that wouldn't necessarily remain true. He put the empty container on the desk and leaned against it, arms crossed watching as Hardison cracked his neck and loosened himself up. "Right now, Eliot is alone with a dangerous woman who can infiltrate his thoughts, mess with his head…someone who can control him because she made him." Nate said as calmly as he could manage.
Hardison held up a hand to stop him. "I've been thinking about that." He paced a little. "She didn't exactly make him. She had one of her boys make him…which makes her his grandma, not his mama. Her hold on him is as the queen of her pride."
Nate raised an eyebrow. "It's what I do." Hardison replied. "I research. He's more yours than hers though, when it comes right down to it. Your blood, right? You just need to get through to him." He stopped pacing and looked at Nate. "Thing is, if I understand what I've read so far, we're up against a time crunch."
Nate gestured for him to continue. "Go on, you're on a roll."
"Tonight is a full moon, the queen of the pride takes a mate. Once she's mated, they're bound…at least until she kills him. I figure the one that bit Eliot was her mate, one she trusted to bring Eliot to her. He killed him, so she'll be needing to replace him."
"And you think she'll chose Eliot?"
"Wouldn't you?" Hardison said. "Forget I said that."
Nate smiled, starting to understand Hardison, and the way he baited Eliot all the time a little better. "So all this time, the bickering was your way of flirting?"
"What? No. No." Hardison shook his head. "I-no. Just no."
Nate pushed off the desk and crossed to Hardison, catching his slender hips and turning him until Nate could push the younger man into the door. He kissed Hardison then, possessive and claiming and after only a slight hesitation, Hardison relaxed into Nate.
He kissed down Hardison's jaw to his neck and Hardison whimpered a little when Nate's hand cupped his cock. "Now, I need to feed." Nate whispered in his ear while his hand eased Hardison's zipper down and pulled his cock out. "I need to be strong when I go in there to get him."
Hardison nodded, his eyes closing as Nate stroked him. "More than that…I need him to smell you on me. I need to cut through whatever she's holding him with, need him to feel me, want me."
"Jealousy?" Hardison asked, swallowing. "That's your plan?"
Nate nodded, unbuttoning his shirt now. "Yes, that's my plan. So you and I are going to get comfy on the couch…and when I bite and feed, you're going to come on me and then you and the others are staying here, while I go get Eliot."
Eliot was vaguely aware that hands were stripping him and that he should be trying to escape, but the fog of whatever drug the doctor had given him was dampening his ability to actually do anything.
There was warm water, hands cleaning him, drying him and then he was taken to a bed draped in gold and bathed in moonlight from the open French doors.
He could smell her all over the bed as he was guided back to lay in its center, the cat within him reacting, craving. He rubbed his face in the pillows, reveling in her scent, his body beginning to transform as his handlers left him alone.
Then there was…something. He wasn’t sure if it was a sound or a voice or something else, but it stopped him. He sat up, looking around him. “Nate?”
His voice sounded harsh in the stillness of the room and seemed to stir the air, lifting the curtains around him. Nate was near. Eliot inhaled the mixed scents and shook his head, trying to clear it. He crawled to the edge of the bed and put his feet on the carpet.
The cat wanted out, wanted blood…no, that was the vampire. Eliot held his head and stood, stumbling out on the balcony. The moon felt like ice on his skin, creeping over him, freezing him to the moment. The craving was intensifying, blood, hot and sticky, life beating out slowly into his hands, his mouth. His hands gripped the railing, hair covering them as the change bubbled up inside him.
“Can you feel it, my love?” Katja asked from behind him. “Your first full moon…it can be overwhelming.”
Eliot turned, the growl starting low in his stomach. She was naked but for a flimsy gold robe, in her human form. She looked vulnerable, but he knew she wasn’t.
“The sedatives help some, just let the change come, Eliot.”
He opened his mouth to speak, his tongue catching on fangs he didn’t remember being there before. The taste of copper flooded his mouth and he swallowed his own blood. It only brought the need roaring up in him.
“Come, feed from me.” She held out her hands and Eliot found himself moving toward her before he could stop himself. He sniffed at her hands, then nuzzled into one, licking at her palm. “That’s it. Come to me, Eliot.”
He surged forward, his mouth closing over hers, teeth nipping at her lips, the taste of her flooding his mouth.
“Eliot.” The voice stopped him. It wasn’t Katja. Nate.
Eliot lifted his head and turned. Nate stood on the balcony.
“He belongs to me, Vampire. Leave now before my pride tears you apart.”
Nate smiled. “Your pride. You mean the cats I put down on my way in here?” He took a step closer. “They should be up to it in about eight hours.”
Eliot looked at Nate, his nostrils flaring. Nate met his eyes and nodded. “You smell him?” Eliot turned from Katja completely, her scent forgotten under Nate and Hardison and sex. He took a step toward Nate, his hands nearly claws. He growled low and deep.
“Hardison.” His teeth clenched and he sniffed the air.
“Yes, Eliot. I was with Hardison.” Nate said, though his eyes flashed at Katja. Eliot could feel her behind him, reaching for him.
“You won’t win this.” Katja growled.
Nate smiled. “Eliot.”
He was stuck between them. He looked at Katja, then Nate. His body stopped transforming and slowly reverted to human. He breathed in deeply. “I’m not a fucking toy for you to fight over.”
The sedative was still working in him, but he was a little more in control. The rage fueled by jealousy burned and he wanted to throw Nate to the floor and rub Hardison’s scent off of him. Then Katja’s voice filled his head and he wanted to grab her and sink into her, taste her and make her his.
”Kill the vampire, Eliot.”
Eliot shook his head.
“She wants to be your queen, Eliot. She wants to rule you.” Nate said quietly.
“And what do you want, Vampire?” Katja spit.
Nate held Eliot’s eyes. Eliot focused on Nate, on the smell of him, on the memory of his touch. Nate wanted him. ”I love you.” Nate’s voice was soft inside him, but it reverberated through him, the words and the emotion attached to them. Eliot took a step toward him.
Katja’s growl rumbled. “You belong to me!”
Eliot turned as she transformed, catching her before she could reach Nate and together they fell to the floor. The change roared through him, his body bending and his claws dug into her. She bit at him and they rolled.
“Hardison?” Nate said, stepping clear.
Eliot could almost hear Hardsion’s voice over Nate’s comm. He wanted Eliot to get away from Katja so he could get a clean shot. Eliot roared and tore at her, getting a mouthful of her shoulder. He bit deep, her claws digging at him. He rolled them again, crushing her into the wall. He loosened his jaw then and turned his head, getting his mouth on her neck.
When he bit, she fell limp. Eliot drank the blood filling his mouth, even as he shifted, pulling her with him. He stood, lifting her bleeding body and already shifting back to human. At the balcony, he held her on the rail.
“Everyone down?” Eliot asked over his shoulder?
“Yeah, tranquilized.” Nate responded.
Eliot nodded and dropped Katja’s lifeless body to the pavement below. He looked up to where he assumed Hardison and his high powered tranq gun were hiding and pointed, then gestured into the room.
“What?” he could hear Hardison squeak.
Eliot stalked to Nate. “It’s gonna get bloody.”
Nate smirked and looked Eliot over. “Already has.”
Eliot yanked Nate closer and kissed him, his body flushing with need. He plucked Nate’s earpiece out of his ear. “Hardison, get the fuck in here.”
He tossed the earpiece and focused on tearing Nate’s clothing from him while pushing him back toward the bad.
“Easy.” Nate murmured, putting his hands on Eliot’s shoulders to get him to slow down a little.
“Wanna fuck.” Eliot growled, his hand getting inside Nate’s pants and around his cock, making him moan.
“Yeah, I see that. Is here…oh…” Eliot pulled on his cock, then pushed him backward so he could drag his pants off.
“Gotta bed.” Eliot threw Nate’s pants and immediately dropped down to take Nate’s cock in his mouth. “You smell like him.” Eliot licked at the taste of Hardison on Nate’s skin. “Where the fuck is he?”
The door opened as if on cue and Eliot looked up. Hardison looked terrified. “Naked.” Eliot snarled, climbing off the bed again. Hardison didn't move, not even to blink.
"Eliot, easy." Nate murmured.
He couldn't go easy, not with the fire bursting to get out of him, not with the taste of her blood on his tongue and the craving for more ripping at his control. He needed to sate the beast. He had Hardison half way out of his shirt when he felt Nate behind him, hands easing up Eliot's back. He's scared.
Eliot blinked and looked at Hardison and realizing Nate was right. "Not gonna hurt you." Eliot growled, trying to calm the raging need enough to calm the kid.
"Right." Hardison swallowed, looking at the nails on Eliot's hands that were more claws again than nails.
Nate kissed across his shoulders. "Deep breath, Eliot." His tongue laved over the place where he first bit Eliot. Nate bit through the skin and Eliot hissed. Focus.
Eliot breathed over Hardison's lips, then licked them open. When his mouth closed over Hardison's, the younger man trembled and whined in the back of his throat. Eliot took a step closer, pressing him into the door, their bodies tight together. Nate followed, pressing Eliot between them. "Fuck." Eliot lifted both hands, focusing on making sure they stayed hands, to hold Hardison's face as they kissed.
It was hard to move slow, to be gentle, especially with Nate's naked cock pressing into the crack of his ass from behind. He could feel Nate's hands working Hardison's pants open, but Eliot kept his focus on their lips, on making Hardison less afraid.
Nate's hand covered his and his mouth moved over Eliot's neck. "Bed."
He broke the kiss, blinking up at Hardison. He was visibly calmer and he moved when Eliot did, letting Eliot guide him back to the mattress and down. Eliot let him move up on his own, until he was comfortable, then he lifted a knee and climbed up, lifting Hardison's foot and licking over the ankle, then up to his knee, opening his legs and making room between them.
Nate moved behind him, touching Hardison's other leg. "Gentle." Nate murmured in Eliot's ear as he cupped Hardison's balls and started moving toward his ass.
"Yeah, what he said." Hardison said, throwing a pillow over his cock.
Eliot swallowed the growl and grabbed the pillow. Hardison lifted his hips to let Eliot shove the pillow under him, tilting him just right. Eliot exhaled and let Nate reach from behind to guide his hand down toward Hardison's ass. They didn't have lube, which only made this harder. Eliot spit onto his fingers and eased them in.
Hardison tightened up at first, then seemed to take himself in hand, literally as well as figuratively. As his long fingers curled around his cock, his ass released and Eliot's fingers slid in easily.
"Too long." Eliot growled.
Nate spit into his own hand and reached around Eliot to coat his dick, then tug him forward. Eliot lifted Hardison's right leg up and out to open him up and growled as he penetrated him. Nate didn't even wait for him to be fully inside Hardison before he was pushing into Eliot.
"Fuck." Eliot panted through his nose, fighting the need to dig his nails into Hardison's sides to hold him in place. "Nate." His voice was laced with need and warning and Nate seemed to understand, biting down hard on Eliot's shoulder.
Eliot flexed his hips and pushed in harder, making Hardison groan. The room was sticky and hot, all the more so for the blood that coated his skin still and it wasn't helping. He needed more.
He grabbed Nate's arm, licking over the wrist before he bit. Nate yelled and thrust forward, shoving Eliot deeper into Hardison, who also yelled. Eliot drank until he needed to breathe more, then pulled back and set a blistering pace fucking down into Hardison and back onto Nate.
His head was buzzing with blood and need and he was aware on some level that Hardison was rambling and begging and Nate was thrusting more and more erratically as he neared his orgasm. Nate's hand was still dripping blood as he grabbed Hardison's leg.
Eliot grabbed Hardison's arm and almost in unison he and Nate bit and drank, sending Hardison hurtling over the wall, his body contracting as he spilled come onto his stomach and then falling loose as he passed out. Eliot's hands were gone to claws again and he reached behind him for Nate, digging nails into the meat of his ass as he thrust into Hardison and came, roaring and collapsing forward as he finished, barely aware that Nate had come too.
He drifted as they lay there amid the blood and the come, spent. Exhausted. Nate was stirring. Even Hardison was starting to come around. Eliot couldn't move. Could not drag himself up.
Nate's hand was warm on his back. "Sleep. We'll clean up. I'll come get you when it's time to go home."
All in all, it had been a little over a week since he was nearly made into a vampire, then was made into a cat. So much had changed.
Everything was still a little raw. Nate and Sterling dealt with the cats and Katja's body. Dr. Highmore had disappeared.
Now, Eliot was waiting for Nate to get home with Ryna because Nate said it was time to get back to normal.
He still wasn't sure that bringing her home into this nightmare was the right thing to do, but he had the beast mostly under control, as long as he fed well, and ran a lot.
The door opened and Ryna came in with the cat in her arms. He'd forgotten about the cat. "Nate says I have to be careful. Are you hurt?"
Eliot looked up at Nate, then back at his daughter. "I was. I'm better, but careful is a good idea." Nate set her bag down and closed the door.
"Where?"
Eliot's hand instinctively went to the shoulder where he'd been bit.
She nodded solemnly and crossed to where he stood. He squatted to her level, eyeing the cat who was sniffing at him. It wasn't afraid exactly, but it seemed to know something was different. Ryna covered the shoulder with her small hand. "Did you get him? The bad guy that hurt you?"
Eliot nodded. "Yes, we got him."
"Good. Merlin!" Suddenly the kitten was clawing at Eliot, meowing and licking at him and trying to climb onto him.
Nate snickered and Eliot grabbed the kitty, pulling him away from his shirt and handing him back to Ryna. "Control your cat."
Nate laughed harder. "It ain't funny." Eliot growled at him.
Nate held up both hands. "No, not at all."
"Go put your stuff away. Dinner's almost ready." Eliot said to Ryna, glaring at Nate.
"Don't forget, you owe me a computer!" Ryna called as she headed down to her room.
"Merlin thinks you're his mommy." Nate snorted when she was out of earshot.
Eliot punched him. He was still laughing when he hit the floor. "Keep it up. You'll sleep on the couch."
Normal. Eliot was pretty sure they left normal behind the day he figured out that Nate was a vampire. Now he had no definition for what they were. A vampire, a were-cat, an almost nine year old girl…and Hardison. Like it or not, he couldn't leave Hardison out of the…family.
"Not what you expected when you considered settling down?"
"Since when do you get to talk in my head?" Eliot asked, not turning to Nate.
"Since I figured out how?"
"It's annoying." Eliot stirred his sauce, but leaned back into Nate when his arms slipped around his waist.
"I meant it, you know." Nate said when the silence had stretched out.
Eliot didn't have to ask. He could feel it. The moment Nate's voice in his head said the words. "I know." He turned in the circle of Nate's arms and leaned his head into Nate's shoulder. "Never expected to settle down, have kids…never thought…." He swallowed and looked up at Nate. "Never expected this."
"And here we are."
"The four of us." Eliot breathed in deep and let it out. "We're going to need a bigger place."
Nate chuckled. "Hell, we're going to need a new bed too. Have you seen the damage?"
Eliot blushed. "Yeah, that too. And nail trimmers." He kissed Nate lightly. "But I ain't nobody's mommy, and you say it again or tell Hardison, and I will lock you back in that vault."
"You have my word." Nate promised, kissing him.
"Good. Set the table."
He could see, almost feel the struggle on Nate's face. He turned away and went to get the plates. Eliot chuckled, finally letting himself relax. So it wasn't normal.
Normal was boring anyway.