Welcome to the Underworld (Siren Publishing Menage Amour) Read online

  “Trust me,” Leo said. “It’s going to matter.”

  Sera just shook her head. “I didn’t ask for any of this. I shouldn’t be here.”

  Leo apparently took pity on her again if the look on his face was anything to go by. “Let’s just focus on getting out of here and back in the car, then you can freak out.”

  “Right,” Sera said. “Because you have a plan. A bad plan.”

  “Hey, it’s better than no plan at all,” Leo said just as the door opened. “Come on.”

  They walked through the lobby, getting looks from the people they had passed on their way in.

  Leo walked fast and kept his hand on Sera, making sure she didn’t get left behind.

  “Oi, Leo,” Justin, the man who had been upstairs, called out.

  Leo didn’t stop walking but Justin chased after them.

  “What the hell are you doing, man?” Justin said as he caught up with them just outside the hotel. “You’re gonna start something.”

  “I didn’t start anything,” Leo said. “This shit’s been going on longer than any of us.”

  Justin shook his head. “You always stay out of it. You’re not part of a pack because of it.”

  They got to the car and Leo opened the passenger door before practically pushing Sera in.

  “Price wants her,” Justin said. “Bad. He’ll come for you.”

  Leo looked at the man Sera was starting to suspect was a friend, or as close to a friend as Leo was capable of making, and nodded. “I know.”

  Chapter Four

  “So this plan of yours,” Sera began as Leo sped away from the hotel. “This bad plan. On a scale of risky to bound to get both our arses killed, just how bad is it?”

  Leo tightened his grip on the wheel. He couldn’t believe he had just done that. He spent his life keeping his head down and staying the fuck out of other people’s business. There were turf wars between packs, shady dealings between covens. The whole underworld was sketchy as fuck and Leo wanted nothing to do with it. Although Leo had to deal with them for work, he tried his best to stay clear of the drama. He had walked away from his own pack after his father’s death and never looked back. Rather than be allowed to mourn in peace, the entire pack had started scheming over who should be the next alpha. The politics had threatened to choke him so he bailed.

  Now here he was, having pissed off a pack and a coven, all for the sake of someone he had just met.

  “Leo?” Sera said, demanding his attention.

  “This coven that wants you, they’re strong,” Leo explained. “So we need an equally strong one to protect you.”

  He looked over at Sera and saw the horror on her face. “Whoa, wait. Your plan to keep me from being owned by a coven is to give me to a different coven?”

  “Like I said, it’s a bad plan, but it’s the only one I’ve got,” Leo told her. “You’ve got between here and Kent to think of a better one.”

  Sera slumped back in her seat. “Kent? There’s a vampire coven in Kent?”

  Leo smirked. “Kind of.”

  “Okay, enough with the cryptic bullshit,” Sera said, finally reaching her breaking point. “We’re talking about my life here. Will you just tell me what exactly is going on?”

  Leo looked at her and saw just how afraid she was.

  “I know a guy,” Leo finally told her. “A vampire.”

  “Another vampire?” Sera asked, not bothering to mask the horror she clearly felt at the information.

  “He’s different.”

  “Okay?”

  “His name’s Henri Bernard,” Leo told her. “And he’s part of a coven, though they don’t all live close to each other like werewolves do.”

  Sera looked like she was trying to make sense of things. “So, this vampire, why would he help us?”

  Leo wasn’t exactly thrilled about his plan and he certainly didn’t want to talk about it with Sera, but he supposed the girl deserved answers.

  “We have a history,” Leo told her. “He’ll help us.”

  Leo’s answer apparently gave Sera more questions. “But he’s only one vampire. That Bale guy made it sound like a whole coven would be after me.”

  “Look, covens are complicated. Right now the Price coven has no official claim on you,” Leo told her. “If Henri agrees to protect you, to make you his, then they can’t take you without there being a war. Henri might not live with his coven, but they’d all come running if he needed them.”

  He couldn’t believe he was even considering this. It was madness but he couldn’t think of any other way.

  Sera looked at Leo, her mouth open in horror. “Wait. Claim me? You make it sound like I’m a dog in need of an owner.”

  “Well, if the Price coven gets hold of you, that’s pretty much how you’ll be treated,” Leo told her. “Henri’s different. You can’t go back to your old life, so whatever fantasies you might have about that you need to forget them. If you want to stay alive you’re going to have to play by underworld rules. You can live like a dog or you can live like a cat.”

  Sera screwed her face up. “What the fuck does that even mean?”

  “It means that Henri won’t expect you to obey,” Leo said. “If he agrees to claim you, you’ll pretty much live a life of luxury.”

  It had been three months since he had last seen Henri. The two of them spent more time on than off, but Leo had a nasty habit of running away when things got tough. Even though he and Henri had been involved for nearly ten years the lone wolf in him had always been a problem. Their relationship was amazing when things were good, but arguments soon led to screaming matches and the throwing of things and then Leo would just leave. He wasn’t proud of it and he knew that Henri deserved better, but Henri burned bright and Leo was a moth.

  “What about you?” Sera asked.

  Leo looked over at her again. “What about me?”

  “I mean, are you just going to leave me there or are you going to stay, too?” Sera asked. She sounded so unsure and so young. Twenty-two was no age at all to have her entire life thrown into chaos.

  She was probably spiraling over how so much had happened to her in just a few short hours. If it felt like a long night to Leo then he could only imagine how it felt for Sera.

  “I don’t know,” Leo said. “Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.”

  “You said that you and this Henri guy have a history,” Sera pointed out. “Are you friends?”

  Again, Leo really didn’t want to talk about it but he supposed that he owed Sera something. “Actually, we’re a lot more than that.”

  Leo looked at Sera out of the corner of his eye for a reaction and saw something akin to disappointment on her face.

  “Awesome,” Sera said under her breath. “This is going to be even more awkward than I thought.”

  Chapter Five

  The water lapped at the side of the river at the bottom of the garden. Henri Bernard loved the time just before night gave way to day, the time when he could sit out in his garden with a book and a glass of scotch and watch the world change. The rain had stopped and the grass smelt fresh and lush.

  He was someone who enjoyed the peace and quiet but he didn’t really like being alone. He had some friends nearby who were human and who had no idea who or what he was. It was kind of nice, just being treated like anyone else.

  It was good to be part of a coven, to travel back to the city every few weeks to be with his own kind, but he liked living apart from it all. The court, as it was known, wasn’t really for him. Though there were many in his coven who felt it was where he belonged, Henri much preferred to do things his own way. Besides, having a werewolf for a boyfriend didn’t exactly make things easier.

  He looked up from a book he had read ten times before and watched the water. Behind him, his house sat in darkness. The songs of David Bowie floated softly to his ears.

  It would be light soon but he still couldn’t face going to bed alone. More often than not lately he had t
aken to sleeping on the sofa. His house was big and empty. It was crazy how one werewolf could fill up all the empty spaces in his life. When Leo was gone nothing was the same. Everything was a little bit darker and blander.

  He could feel the coming dawn start to pull at him. He had maybe an hour or two before the sunlight became so bright that it hurt his skin to be directly in it. He considered going inside and crashing on the sofa but that idea soon went out the window when he heard the unmistakable sound of car tires on the gravel of his driveway.

  * * * *

  The car ride to Kent was only just over an hour but Leo couldn’t exactly say that he was happy when it was over. His relationship with Henri was a long and complicated one. They’d had fights before but this was the longest they’d gone without speaking to each other. Leo had never been under any illusion that this fight was the end of them. It was inevitable that Leo came home. The two of them were like magnets, or two chemicals which were harmless apart, but when put together caused an explosion.

  As they pulled up on the familiar driveway, Leo tried not to think about that fact he hadn’t been home in months.

  “So, this guy,” Sera said from beside him as Leo killed the engine. “Were you and him…I mean, is he like your ex?”

  Leo killed the engine and turned to face her. “Not really. We had a fight and I haven’t seen him in three months, but he’s not my ex. Henri could never be my ex.”

  “How long have the two of you been together?”

  Leo’s history with Henri was a long and complicated one. Leo had just been eighteen when he first met Henri, he was twenty-seven now.

  “Nine years,” Leo said, not really wanting to talk about it. He didn’t know what had possessed him to take Sera there, or why he was willing to put his own neck on the line for a complete stranger, but there he was. There was no turning back now. What he was about to do, what he was about to ask Henri to do, would change their relationship forever.

  “Wow, that’s…a really long time,” Sera said.

  “I’m sure it is to a twenty-two-year-old,” Leo joked.

  “Hey, I’m twenty-three,” Sera argued. “Well, I will be next month.”

  Leo got out of the car and walked to the front door with Sera close behind him. He knocked, feeling it wouldn’t be right to use his key. While they were waiting he glanced over at Sera. The young nephilim looked frightened as was to be expected. She was worrying her lower lip, which Leo noticed was pink and plump, and her hand was fiddling with the hem of her shirt. It was only then that Leo realised that Sera wasn’t wearing a jacket. She had on a thin T-shirt and she had been out in the rain. As a werewolf, Leo often forgot that humans were more susceptible to the cold. A bout of guilt flared up inside him.

  He quickly shrugged off his own leather jacket and put it around Sera’s shoulders. He noted the look of surprise on her face and the way her cheeks flushed a little at the gesture.

  “Thanks,” Sera mumbled.

  Leo was about to respond but his heightened hearing picked up the unmistakable sound of footsteps getting closer to the door. He couldn’t deny the way his heartbeat sped up. Three months might not seem like a long time, but any time away from Henri felt like an eternity. He was angry at himself for being such an idiot and staying away for so long.

  The door opened and Leo found himself face-to-face with the man who had owned his heart for his entire adult life.

  “Leo,” Henri said, his posh English accent as smooth as ever. Though Leo was pushing thirty, Henri still looked twenty-three and had done for the last forty years.

  The vampire looked even paler than usual and there were dark circles under his eyes. Once again Leo felt guilty.

  “Hi, Henri,” Leo said, his eyes taking in their fill of his mate’s beautiful face. “I need your help.”

  Henri raised an eyebrow and looked over at Sera. Leo could only imagine what was going through Henri’s mind as he took a delicate sniff of the nephilim standing on his doorstep.

  “So it would seem,” Henri said. Leo watched his face carefully. “Well, then, you’d best come in.”

  Chapter Six

  Henri watched the young nephilim walk around his living room. The room had a large stone fireplace, which he lit in the evenings for the atmosphere rather than the warmth. He had an array of artwork on the walls that had been in his family for some time that seemed to interest the stranger.

  To Henri, the nephilim smelled like sex and blood, two of his favourite things. He had long since gotten his appetites in check. He was used to being around humans now and he only drank from blood bags, never straight from the vein as it caused a bond to form between the two of them.

  He tore his gaze away from the stranger and focused on Leo.

  Henri had been alive for nearly sixty years, but it wasn’t until he met Leo that he truly started living. They had both looked young back then. Now Leo had a stubbled jaw and faint laughter lines around his eyes. It had been something of a Romeo and Juliet thing, or Romeo and Tybalt thing more accurately. They had been two people from different walks of life whose clans were against them being together.

  The attraction had been instant but there had been a rivalry between their people for centuries.

  So much had happened since the night they met. It was strange to think there had been a time when Leo’s life had revolved around his pack and now he didn’t even have one.

  “Well, since Leo seems to have forgotten his manners, I suppose I’ll introduce myself,” Henri said to the nephilim. “I’m Henri Bernard.”

  The young woman licked her lower lip nervously and held out her hand to Henri. Henri could see that it was shaking a bit.

  “Sera Lightbourne.”

  Henri took Sera’s hand in his and held it for a second. He was aware of Leo’s eyes on him, watchful and on guard.

  “If you thought I was going to hurt the girl, you wouldn’t have bought her here,” Henri pointed out as he forced himself to look once more at the love of his life.

  Sera’s eyes widened almost comically at that. Leo, on the other hand, rolled his eyes.

  “A pleasure,” Henri said to Sera as he took in the face of the pretty young woman before him. “Now what the hell kind of trouble are you in, and why have you brought it to me?”

  Henri’s gaze darted between the two of them, waiting for one of them to talk.

  “The Price coven wants her,” Leo told Henri as he went over to help himself to the drink caddy.

  Henri had dealt with Price and his lackeys a time or two in the past, but he typically tried to mind his own business.

  “That’s unfortunate,” Henri said, still not sure why it involved him.

  “Bale hired me to track Sera down,” Leo continued as he poured out three tumblers of scotch.

  Henri frowned. “Since when do you kidnap people for money?”

  “It wasn’t like that,” Leo insisted as he handed Henri a glass. “I was just supposed to find her, but then a vampire attacked her and we had to get out of there.”

  “So you took her to Bale,” Henri said, jumping to the obvious conclusion.

  “Bale’s an idiot,” Leo said. He handed the third glass to Sera. The young woman took it but put it down on a coaster on the nearest table. Henri appreciated a woman who used a coaster. He loved Leo like the werewolf was a part of him, but the man had very little care for Henri’s antique furniture. “But I didn’t think he’d get into bed with the Price coven.”

  Henri scoffed. “What the hell did you think Bale of all people would want with a nephilim?”

  He could see the look of shame on Leo’s face. “I didn’t think that far ahead. It was just a job.”

  “A job you’ve brought home with you,” Henri pointed out. “See what happens when you don’t have me around to keep you in check? I can’t trust you to do anything.”

  He had meant it as a joke, a way to lighten the mood, but they both knew there was an edge to Henri’s words.

  “Hey,”
Sera suddenly said, raising her voice. “Do you think we could stop talking about me like I’m a thing, like I’m not even a person?”

  Henri looked at her and saw the frustration and fear on her face. He couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty. The poor girl was probably traumatized.

  “I apologize,” Henri told her, with what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

  Sera softened a bit and nodded once. “I know that we’re putting you out by just showing up here, and I’m sorry for that, but we didn’t have anywhere else to go. Leo said that the Price coven think they can own me, like some kind of pet.”

  Henri looked over at Leo with a sharp glare. “That might be an exaggeration. Besides, you’re a nephilim. I’m sorry but your blood is very special. Vampires will want to feed from you and witches will want to use you for their magic.”

  “Which is why we’re here,” Leo said. He looked uncomfortable and Henri couldn’t tell if it was just because he was back in their home, or because of what he was about to ask Henri.

  “You want me to claim her?” Henri guessed. Claiming was an extremely intimate thing. Taking a human, or in this case, a nephilim, and forming a blood bond between them wasn’t something Henri would do lightly. The only person he would have ever wanted to do it with was Leo, but werewolf blood was piousness to vampires. Back when his coven and Leo’s pack had been trying to separate them a blood bond would have been the easy way out.

  To harm a bonded of a coven member was an instant death sentence.

  “You want me to bind myself to her for the rest of our lives?” Henri asked Leo, certain that the werewolf couldn’t possibly want that.

  “I know I’m asking a lot,” Leo said.

  “You must really care about her,” Henri said, wondering just how much.

  Henri had always been what people now days label as bisexual. He had never felt more for one gender over the other. Leo, on the other hand, was a different case. The werewolf wasn’t interested in men, except for Henri for some reason. They had occasionally brought women to their bed, strangers they knew they would never see again, but never other men.