Chapter Twenty

One-Night Stands

13 MARCH 2019

Boulder, CO

 

Jaret thought he had figured out a resolution to his problems and overwrought emotions without much trouble until he found himself alone. With Jenn, Thomas, Xavier, and especially Brady, he identified how lost he had become—if he ever even knew for sure who he was in the first place. He realized the need to connect with his feelings. Tuning into his emotion with someone else’s assistance or on a limited basis proved much easier than a daily dose of pondering the million-dollar question: Who was Jaret?

In his head he imagined a game show where people took turns quizzing him about his true self. Contestants could craft a fake event and ask for his response or drum up a past experience and force him to articulate his moods. All sorts of torturous ways came to mind for Jaret to dive deep into his feelings.

Not to mention how what he felt inside was easier to think than to live out, especially if his desires flew in the face of the Council or prompted confrontations. Jaret despised confrontation. And some of the emotions were so painful Jaret thought he should avoid them.

He spent a few days alone then determined to take a break from self-reflection. He needed to get away from the humans or vampires he knew, hang alone with Darth and no one else, and try to get a reprieve from the drama. No psychoanalysis. No vampire war.

He considered a vacation, but the impending war forced him to decide to stay close to home. The bars in Boulder? No serenity there! And he had gone to many of them while in college or even when he and Anthony visited Colorado. Yes! Just what he needed.

No matter the time of year, the Boulder night scene hopped with college kids and other partiers. Jaret liked a couple large nightclubs in particular, where a mixed gay/straight crowd congregated to dance and drink. He journeyed down the mountain from Estes Park and arrived at a bar. People lined up to show their IDs, pay the cover, and enter.

He felt self-conscious standing alone, waiting to get in, when everyone else seemed to be with friends or a partner. He peered around to watch people and almost engaged in chatter with the guy behind him. He was too shy, however, so jammed his hands into his pockets and stared at the ground until he reached the front of the line. A big burly guy sat on a stool and smiled.

“ID?” he asked in a higher pitched voice than Jaret expected from the hottie with a chiseled body. He looked at Jaret’s driver’s license, took his money, and then winked. “Have a good time, sweetie.”

Jaret grinned, the closest he could muster to flirting back. “Thanks.”

Jaret felt no less awkward about being alone inside the club than in line. However, his vampire acute hearing and keen eyesight in the darkened club helped him notice the number of glances and downright stares he received from both women and men. His muscles relaxed a little because of the notice and helped his brain engage, so he ambled to the bar and ordered two drinks.

Jaret took the straight shot of whiskey and downed the whole thing at once, then walked away pretending to sip his Jack Daniels and Coke. He pushed through the crowd to go to the other end of the bar and ordered three shots. Jaret paid and grabbed the alcohol. Heading back into the crowd, he gulped the shots down as he walked toward a staircase to a second level.

The feeling of a buzz hit fast, warming his senses and creating a giddy sensation. He was still too shy to talk. But he began an inner monologue about the people he saw as he made his way to the upstairs bar.

Two additional shots later and holding a drink, Jaret walked to the side of the room overlooking the first level dance floor. The pounding, ear-splitting music, raucous and happy crowd, and his inebriation had him swaying to the songs as he stood alone.

He almost dropped his drink with surprise when a beautiful man stepped up beside him. “Hey.”

Jaret smiled. “Hey.”

“My friend over there wants to buy you a drink. Okay?”

Jaret looked in the direction the guy pointed and saw several people. “Which one? Why didn’t he come over?”

“He’s shy. He has his back to you in the blue shirt. I’ll get the drink.”

What a weird approach. Jaret had nothing else to do so he waited until the man returned with two drinks. He handed Jaret one and clinked the glasses together. “Cheers!” He took a long pull, and Jaret followed.

“This is too weird.” The guy rolled his eyes. “Let me go get him.”

“Cool,” Jaret said. A second later Jaret’s buzz turned into something much more intense. He concentrated hard to remain standing as the room swirled around him.

While he wiggled his fingers and tapped his cheeks to regain consciousness, the blue shirt guy appeared in front of him. Hot body. But Jaret tried to focus on his face and never saw more than a smudge, a muscled dude with a head that looked like the videos when they blurred out the face to protect someone’s identity. Or the creepy porn videos where someone replaced their face with a weird smiley head.

Blue Shirt leaned over and whispered in his ear, “You’re so hot.” Then he rubbed his hand along Jaret’s crotch, bringing him to excitement.

“Um, cool. Yeah.” Jaret knew his words slurred because he had a hard time getting them to come out at all. “Who are you? What’s your name?”

Blue Shirt laughed. “Such formality.”

Jaret giggled, too, though he wasn’t sure why and felt more uncomfortable than excited, his erection notwithstanding.

“Want to go somewhere?” Blue Shirt asked, leaning into Jaret.

“Maybe I better wait a little. I don’t feel so good.”

“I’ll take care of you. You drank too much. Come with me.”

“You didn’t even kiss me.” Another weirdness, Jaret thought as he spoke. The kiss meant a great deal to Jaret, and its absence felt off tonight, as if the groping was forced and the seduction faked. Didn’t people kiss first?

Jaret shook his head. Maybe whatever drugs were in him flooded his mind with dumbass contemplations about kissing. He had to get a grip.

Blue Shirt ran his hand down Jaret’s back. “You’re so gorgeous I want to take care of you. Please. We can even wait until you sober up to have sex. Come with me.” His breath tickled Jaret’s ear even though his lips never touched skin.

Jaret turned his head and leaned in to lock lips. Before their lips could touch, Blue Shirt stepped away.

Feeling disoriented, Jaret grew alarmed that something was wrong with him. Not drunkenness. Something much worse. He tested to see if he could engage vampiric speed to race away but nothing happened. Instead, he fell into Blue Shirt and blacked out, not coming to until he found himself being dragged along by Blue Shirt and the guy who initially approached him with the drink.

Jaret glanced around and saw a bouncer nearby, watching them. “This one had a little too much to drink. We gotta get him home,” Blue Shirt said.

“Are you sure he’s okay?” The bouncer stepped toward them.

A false laugh. “Yeah. Not the first time with him.”

Unable to move or talk, Jaret attempted to plead for help from the bouncer with his eyes but moments later was dragged outside and around the corner of the bar into a dark parking lot. Near the back, Jaret realized Blue Shirt remained alone with him, carrying Jaret in his arms and moving much too fast and lifting him with too little effort for a human. A vampire. Shit.

Jaret panicked but no muscles obeyed his commands, and his attempt to call forth the power of the jewels in his pocket went unanswered. He could think and open his eyes but otherwise could do nothing more than flop along in the guy’s arms. He again tried to see his captor but the face remained a blur. And he doubted his attempts to scream into the ether reached anywhere beyond the rumblings in his own mind. He cursed himself for getting so lost in alcohol at the bar he had ignored the warnings about an approaching vampire.

They had moved outside the city limits into the foothills, away from roads, houses, or other signs of civilization. Jaret decided he wanted to give himself a stroke and die before getting to whatever awful scene awaited him at the other end of the journey.

He figured he had stroked out when a brilliant flash of white blasted before his eyes, Blue Shirt dropped him to the ground, and Jaret saw nothing but dancing orbs of speckled light high in the sky above him.

First his vision cleared and then his eyesight. Like a rag doll, he listened to the chatter above, noticing the arrival of someone else. Unfortunately, he had lived, notwithstanding his desire for a stroke.

“Give him to me. You want an alliance, so remember he’s mine. Or else we end all other agreements.”

Blue Shirt snickered. “You’re in love, aren’t you?”

“He’s my friend. I’m not playing your games. You want to win the war, and you need me on your side. I don’t know what you’re up to with him but you either release him to me or I join the Council.”

The fog lifted a little in Jaret’s mind, enough to figure out Blue Shirt worked for Styx. Shit. No. He was Styx. Which seemed more than obvious. Jaret looked up at Styx, his kidnapper. Jaret could not move his head to see the other person though the voice told Jaret everything.

“So cute,” Styx said. “Saving your little boy toy. Has he even given up his ass to you yet? Anyway, I never intended him harm. I was sending a message to you, Charon, to remind you of my power. I’ll assume you understand and will work with me now.”

Charon never answered, but a moment later, Jaret felt someone else lifting him off the ground as Styx stood motionless without intervention.

“You owe me, then. He’s yours.”

Styx ran away as Charon cupped Jaret’s head in one hand while carrying him with the other arm. Charon leaned over and kissed Jaret on the forehead before starting into the mountains at a swift rate.

“He drugged you,” Charon explained. “I’m taking you to the castle. Can you move?”

Jaret had no way to answer, though in his mind he shook his head.

“Blink once if you can move, twice if no.” Charon chuckled. “I don’t know why asking you to blink seems silly.”

Jaret blinked twice, though found himself laughing inside at Charon.

“Same thing with speech, yeah? Once for you can talk. Twice for no.”

Jaret blinked twice.

“I pretty much knew the answer before all the blinking. Rather obvious. I wanted you to flutter your eyes at me like a damsel in distress.”

They arrived at Charon’s castle, where Charon carried Jaret around the palace and commanded Jordan to prepare Charon’s bed. From previous visits, Jaret recognized Charon’s private quarters as he was laid on the soft mattress. Someone removed all his clothes except his underwear, then Charon stretched out next to him and held him in his arms by spooning him.

“You need to rest.” Charon pressed his face into Jaret’s long hair. “The sun will rise soon enough and help you drift to sleep, I hope. If not, I’ll figure something out tomorrow.”

Jaret’s mind eased from the stress and soon he fell asleep, gripped tight by the vampire who had saved him.

Jaret woke the next evening in a panic as he recalled the previous night of being drugged, unable to move or speak, and then Charon saving him. He jolted his head upright to see his body on top of Charon’s bed, then looked around to realize he lay alone in the room.

He wiggled his fingers, then his toes. He stretched his neck and one by one tested every muscle. Everything worked. “Fuck,” he whispered, the last test to find his voice functioning too.

He felt like a vampire again, capable of moving and sensing with his preternatural ability. From his discarded pants on the floor beside him, he called forth magic. A ruby ring buzzed to life in Jaret’s senses before emerging from hiding to float in front of him.

“Wow, I’m back.” Jaret grabbed the gem from the air.

Charon appeared from a neighboring room with a gigantic grin. “Hey, gorgeous. You look better. I was hoping you needed mouth-to-mouth or an anal probe to heal.” As Charon sauntered across the room, Jaret stared in awe at his friend’s nakedness, his beautiful penis swaying back and forth.

His own dick perked to life, so Jaret shot his hand down to cover himself because he wore nothing but underwear. He moved to the edge of the bed to retrieve his clothes, but Charon raced over and sat between Jaret and his pants before he could grab them.

“I like you in your underwear.” Charon smiled.

“I think I was drugged.” Jaret wanted to figure out what had happened and to dodge the sexual tension with Charon.

“You were drugged. By Styx.”

Jaret relaxed a little and moved to sit with his legs crossed on the bed but both hands covering his junk. “Not cool.”

Charon nodded. “Not cool. But I saved you.”

Jaret smiled. “Very chivalrous. I can’t believe you didn’t take advantage of me.”’

Charon’s face fell, and he leaned over, taking Jaret’s clothes and throwing them at him. “You can hide your boner better in these.”

Jaret grabbed Charon’s forearm as he started to get up. “I was kidding. I appreciate the rescue, more than you can imagine. And I calmed down and fell asleep last night because you held me. I felt safe.”

Charon eased back onto the bed, the gleam in his eye returning. “You felt wonderful next to me. I mean, I had a raging boner when I pressed against your ass. Lucky for you I don’t fuck sleeping men. That hurt, you know.”

“A bad joke.”

“Well, you’re welcome for the save. He captured you to get my attention.”

“How do you know?” Jaret asked.

“This.” Charon waved his hands in front of himself and a magical image of Styx, about one foot tall, appeared before him and spoke. “I don’t trust my agreement with you, Charon. I’m taking something precious from you as a warning. You’ll see my power and agree to join me. If you can figure out what I’m stealing.”

“How’d you figure out he took me? And where to find us?”

“My boys have remained at the castle where I can protect them. There’s nothing out there I care about,” Charon waved a hand in the air to indicate the rest of the world. “Outside these walls and the vampires within them, I really know only you. Styx has seen us together, so I assumed he targeted you.”

Jaret grinned. “So I mean something to you?”

Charon smirked and squinted at Jaret. “I think we can presume a friendship.”

“I like to think so. But this sounds more like you’re enchanted with me.”

Charon barked a laugh. “With your ass.”

Charon’s nude presence intoxicated Jaret. His sparkling eyes. His muscles. And the fact he had saved Jaret the previous night, then held him in bed without making a move. Jaret felt stupid, sitting on the comforter and smiling like a teenaged, star-crossed lover.

Charon reached around Jaret and grabbed the back of his head to smash their lips even tighter together as Jaret latched both his hands around Charon’s huge biceps and scooted closer until his knees pressed against Charon’s enormous thigh.

They kissed, as if sucking the very air out of the room to merge themselves together. Beside himself with passion, Jaret ran one hand down Charon’s rock-hard chest, over his belly button, and then held his throbbing dick in his hand, swirling the precome around the tip with his thumb.

Jaret pinched the precome between his fingers and pulled away from the kiss so he could lick the sweet substance. At the same time, Charon reached over and ripped off Jaret’s underwear, cupped Jaret’s balls in one hand, and pushed his other hand between Jaret’s ass and the mattress, while his finger probed Jaret’s anus.

Jaret was arching his back in pleasure when Darth leapt onto the bed and wagged her tail at him. Jaret laughed and pushed himself toward the headboard and away from Charon. Though he did miss Charon’s finger in his ass. “You saved Darth too!” Jaret exclaimed.

“Are you fucking kidding me!” Charon shouted. “Cockblocked by a dog! I should have left her in Estes instead of having Jordan go get her for you.”

“She saved us from a big mistake.”

“A mistake!” Charon pointed to his cock. “We can’t leave him like this! I had you! You want me. You know it. And I want you. You overcame your shit so we could do the deed and release the tension between us! Please let’s finish.” Charon flopped onto his stomach and squirmed over to Jaret, licking along Jaret’s thigh and fumbling to hold Jaret’s continued erection.

Jaret laughed and pushed Charon’s hands away. “No. Too close for comfort. For the love of God, there’s a war going on. We can’t spend our time fucking.”

Charon sat up. “People fuck during war.”

“Not a good idea.”

“To take our minds off the problem. A little bliss and we’ll be able to concentrate better. How can we plan anything when our mind thinks of nothing but coming?”

Jaret hurried off the bed and started dressing, feeling embarrassed when he leaned over to pull on his jeans. He had no underwear because they lay shredded on the floor. He could feel Charon drooling from behind him as he watched.

“Oh, sweet Jesus, I could come from just one look at your hole.”

Jaret spun around, pulled his shirt over his head, then rushed to a dresser and yanked out shorts and a shirt for Charon. “Put these on and meet me somewhere else.”

“Where?” Charon asked.

“Anywhere but your bedroom,” Jaret answered as he whistled for Darth and exited the room. He wandered the hall for a minute.

Charon emerged from his room, grinning. “I took my time so my hard-on would go down.”

Jaret laughed. “You jacked off.”

“I jacked off!” Charon burst into laughter. “You’re so fucking hot. Please promise to finish what we started sometime. Please. I’m not used to being denied.”

“Denial is good for you. Besides, we have work to do.”

“I agree.” Charon’s face fell. “Styx pushed me over the edge last night. We’ve got to figure out our next move. He’s done playing around. But I have news of my own to add.”

“What?” Jaret asked.

“Follow me.” Charon led them through the castle. Jaret ignored any attempt to remember where they went, how many stairs they climbed or descended, or otherwise to learn the labyrinth of the underground dwelling. He tailed Charon like a good puppy while Darth stayed close to his side.

They entered an elaborate room, one of what felt like hundreds in the castle, again making Jaret feel as if he was transported to another realm altogether. “So you have a wine bar.” Jaret admired the walls of wine refrigerators, every shelf full of bottles, and the tasteful décor of wine barrel stools, tables, and a center bar full of every type of wine glass imaginable.

“Yeah.” Charon grinned. “Brian took charge of this room. He’s my boy from Sonoma. I thought he was mostly a fried-out pothead when I converted him. Sweet as hell. But I didn’t feel like he had much going on up here.” Charon pointed to his head. “Turns out he was studying to become a sommelier and knows a shit ton about wine. I developed an affinity for the high-end stuff myself, so he created this little slice of nirvana.”

Jaret took a seat at the bar. “I’m not very knowledgeable about wine.”

Charon uncorked a bottle, searched around for specific glasses, and poured them each a generous share. “Everyone has to start somewhere. I can teach you.”

“So you can get me shit-faced and take advantage of me?” Jaret tilted his head.

“Are you making another allegation?” Charon handed Jaret a glass and clinked them together in a toast, despite the edge to his question. He also smirked.

“No. But alcohol lowers my inhibitions. Makes me horny.”

Charon narrowed his eyes. “More flirting to give me blue balls. My turn to distract you. I communicated with Styx this evening, before you woke. Told him I’d join him. I made him promise to let me be alone after we won and do my own thing. He agreed, even though I knew he was lying through his fucking teeth. I was working toward getting him to meet with me, hinting we should get together. But first he suggested he wanted to show me something.”

Jaret swallowed a drink of wine. “Nice.”

“The wine or my efforts?”

“Both. Good wine. And I appreciate your joining us against Styx. We have to get him to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. I studied a lot of places, many with potential. Notre Dame will be perfect. Its powerful and haunted, full of good and bad energy. Everything we need in the ancient dwelling. Can you get him there?”

Charon nodded. “He asked me to pick the place.”

“Do you worry this is too easy? You think he’s on to us?”

“Sometimes.” Charon shrugged. “Styx, though, I think he trusts me. Yeah, we need to be ready for shenanigans, for sure. But I can sense when he’s up to something. He believes he and I have a special connection.”

“Great. Then arrange the meeting.”

“What about the Council?”

“What about them?” Jaret asked.

“Don’t we need them involved? I thought we agreed.”

Jaret nodded. “Definitely. But they’re on their own schedule and won’t take orders. Who the fuck knows what they’re doing?”

The two vampires sipped their wine in silence for a couple minutes. Jaret did enjoy good wine and thought maybe he would take Charon up on the offer of lessons. “You’re right. I want you to teach me.”

“Great!” Charon smiled. “Rip off your clothes, hop on the counter, and give me a doggy style pose. First lesson in enjoying sex is to let go.”

Jaret shrieked a laugh. “No! Lessons about wine!”

Charon scrunched his face into a grimace. “I had to try.”

“You always think you have to try. I’d better go before this charade starts again. Let me know when and where to meet Styx.” Jaret got up and started for the door. “Oh, I need you to show me the way out of the castle.”

As they walked through the halls, a magic sphere materialized in front of Charon.

“What is it?” Jaret asked.

“You better get your swim on. We gotta get to Paris to meet Styx outside the Louvre on St. Patrick’s Day.”

“Fast. Three nights away. He’s not fucking around. You think St. Patrick’s Day has significance?”

“He told me I could pick the location, but he was choosing the time. We better go with his day. And with him, nothing is ever as random as he wants you to believe. He’ll at least want to drink green beer.”

“Maybe we should go tomorrow. Run and swim to get there fast.”

Charon nodded. “Okay. Do we need anything?”

Jaret shook his head. “If we go tomorrow, we’ll have time to take what’s on our backs and then buy or steal shit in Paris. Anthony has a flat we can use.”

“Of course he does.” Charon rolled his eyes.

“Well, he did. I don’t know how inheritance works with vampires. Maybe I got everything, maybe it’s gone.” Jaret held back the gulp in his throat at the memory of Anthony.

He took two steps forward when Charon grabbed his arm and spun him around, pulling him into a hug. With Jaret’s face pressed into his chest, Charon kissed the top of his head.

Jaret wiped at the blood tear in the corner of his eye after he pushed away. “Sweet and affectionate Charon confuses me.”

Charon grinned and tapped Jaret on the nose. “Good.”