Castoffs

By Angela Fiddler

Janus has a pretty good life, for a vampire. In the vast, interlocking system of vampire hierarchies and allegiances, his responsibilities are more like guidelines and his master is nothing if not indulgent. Life can be brutal, but the sex is great. When he finds Lyall, a young, brash vampire who seems to know more about the workings of their world than he ought, Janus thinks it should have been a matter of see, want, get.But it’s never that easy. Asking permission leads to murder and betrayal. Janus’s pretty good life doesn’t so much dissolve as it explodes into a pile of dust.

Passion, power, betrayal, blood. He’s been a faithful lieutenant for over a century, but now Janus’s loyalty may cost him his life, and Lyall is the only one he can trust.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Angela
• Release date: Jan 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310550744

Angela Fiddler

Angela Fiddler is the occasional pen name of Barbara Geiger. Barbara didn’t learn that she had lived in three out of the four Northern Alberta towns that had a known or suspected Wendigo attack until well after she’d moved south to Lethbridge. She grew up loving ghost stories and pony books, and spent most of her summers on the British Columbia coast, where she fell in love with the ocean.As Angela Fiddler, she has written The Master of the Lines series as well as Cy and his sex demon problem books. As Barbara Geiger, she has written The Tempest trilogy, starting with Coral Were his Bones, which exists in the same universe as the Middlehill series, starting with Changeling, as well as various other novellas and short stories.When she’s not following the exploits of selkies, sex demons and vampires, she writes epic fantasy and makes the occasional foray into science fiction and short stories.

Book preview

MASTER OF THE LINES

PROLOGUE: CASTOFFS

by Angela Fiddler

*****

Warning: This e-book contains sexually explicit scenes is meant to be enjoyed by adults. Please store where it cannot be accessed by under-aged readers.

This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright January 2007 by Angela Fiddler

Thank you for downloading this ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to your favorite ebook retailer to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

Editor: Judith David


Cover Artist: Wicked Smart Designs

Dedication

To Devo, who wanted kneeling vampires and to Elisabeth, who put up with getting pounced on.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

About Angela Fiddler

Angela’s other books

Read an excerpt from Master of the Lines Book One: Lineage

Chapter One

Janus leaned back in his chair. The beer he’d drunk over the night filled his veins with empty volume while leaving his hunger still gnawing, but he rode the buzz the beer created and painted the rings of condensation his glasses left on the table into wards.

He closed off the last one he was working on, and it made the wood of the table shiver. Another two lines -- three if he kept the strokes tight -- and he’d be able to put his fist through the wood like water. But he wiped the lines off before the hum became audible to humans and the dark shadows.

Another? the girl asked, removing his glass.

Janus shook his head. He pulled a couple bills from his wallet, waved off the coming change, and stumbled out of the bar. The beer he’d downed cleared the headache that was building. It upped his blood volume enough that his hunger was constant but no longer dizzying. It had been days since he’d fed. He was not without his own responsibilities, and they’d kept him in his own ivory tower for too long.

He found Jackie, clad in jeans and a thin t-shirt, leaning against a tree. Jackie was bobbing his head, looking like a junkie riding out his last high, but it was more than that. Jackie was tied to the hum of the city, and when Janus drank from him, he felt it, too.

Jackie always tasted sweet, like the sugary gummy things he ate instead of real food. You’ve been gone a long time, Jackie said, not opening his eyes.

Yes. The night was still early enough to have human predators circling about. Two of them, dressed in dark blue hoodies and gleaming white running shoes, eyed Jackie up and down, but then veered off when they noticed Janus standing over him. You leave yourself vulnerable. It’s not safe for another couple hours.

Jackie raised his hands up, trailing them along the sides of the tree. His shirt lifted, revealing his belly button. He smiled, a lazy motion, and he rotated his hips. He nodded along to Janus’s words, but obviously didn’t hear a word of it. He lifted his hair off his shoulders, exposing the delicate skin on his neck. He still swayed back and forth, running his other hand down his hip. Dance with me, Janus. Please. Right here.

Janus shook his head, but grabbed onto Jackie’s waist and pulled him closer. Jackie’s pulse was fast, almost that of a bird’s, and his breathing turned shallow. Janus licked the salty city grime off Jackie’s skin. His skin was so white, Janus doubted he saw the sun at all. The deep blue veins glowed beneath the skin, and the elastic skin gave way to Janus’s teeth. He sank his fangs in and felt the blood vessel burst open. Jackie didn’t flinch as Janus began to feed.

There was something wholly arousing about the taste of a human. Jackie groaned, obviously sharing in the feeling. The puncture wounds stopped their bleeding, but it was only enough to make the need in Janus’s belly thrum in his ears. He heard it now, the low beat of the earth, and it mingled with his rumbling hunger and Jackie’s lust and the need inside him.

Janus let the vein seal itself and then dropped to his knees, tugging at Jackie’s jeans. He yanked them down and felt Jackie’s femoral artery right beside his cheek. Janus dug his teeth in again, feeling the healthy skin give way to the puncture. Warm, sweet blood filled his mouth. Jackie’s heartbeat, while he drank, became his own. For as long as he drank, the world spun around them.

The astringent smell of semen mixed with Jackie’s tangy, salty sweat. Janus, now full, was aware he’d ripped the vein more than he should have, and kept tonguing the wound until his saliva acted as a coagulant. Platelets, saltier than blood, came to the surface of the wound, and Janus didn’t move off his knees until the bleeding had stopped. Jackie was still gasping for air, and his fingers were digging into the tree as though he was about to climb it backwards. His face was pale, and the sweat had dried on his face.

You have to drink more tonight, Janus said, straightening up.

Jackie’s hands moved ineffectually to his fly, but didn’t have the muscle coordination to do it up. Janus did it for him, patting him on the head as he would have a small child, and Jackie only smiled at him, still full of bliss. Jackie’s blood diffused into Janus’s veins, bringing with it the music only Jackie heard. It would die off soon enough, but as Jackie pushed away from the tree, Janus heard the music Jackie swayed to.

He never paid Jackie. It would have made the understanding they had into something unclean. Instead, Janus painted a ward onto Jackie’s skin with his own saliva. It was a simple ward, but one that would keep the human sharks from truly seeing him. It wasn’t invisibility, but would serve just as well. The spit glistened under the distant streetlight for a second and then disappeared into Jackie’s skin.

That seemed to pull Jackie from his stupor. Be careful, Jackie mumbled. He looked up at Janus, face serious for the first time that evening. The wolf has lost his bite.

What?

Jackie wasn’t hearing him. Jackie bobbed his head, walking away, and crossed the empty street. He hadn’t even looked for traffic. Janus watched him wander into an alley, and waited until he felt him sleep before leaving him alone.

Despite it still being a few hours before dawn, Janus knew he should return to his lair. Or even his apartment, though it had been months since he’d been back to the other side of his world. He was full and satiated, but the restlessness inside him wasn’t settling. He couldn’t stop his fingers from tapping out the beginnings of wards on his thighs.

A whimpering came from the park, across the street, from beyond the bridle path and from the trees along the path. The dawn was coming on, but no accompanying heartbeat followed the sound. Janus followed it, into the darkness.

It was a brand new vampire. The marks on his neck had bled the most. He’d been turned this very night and then allowed to bleed out. Janus pushed through the deepening gloom, and the shadows stung him like a jellyfish. The vampire had stopped his whimpering, but his eyes were wide open and staring. His lips were torn, and where his fangs should have come down over his incisors, black holes still wept blood.

He was so bloodless his veins had collapsed beneath his transparent skin. There was something else wrong with him, Janus realized, beyond the empty sockets where his eyes used to be. A feeling of rage made Janus take a step back. He’d felt this before, with feral vampires who had been alone far too long, just before the shadows claimed them.

The vamp smelled of his own blood. He’d bled so much there wasn’t anything left inside of him to bleed. Janus grabbed a sturdy branch, intent on putting the poor thing out of its misery. But when he put it up where his heart was, the branch fell into the empty cavity.

A snake, black as the shadows, with iridescent eyes, coiled out from the cavity. It was at least three feet long. Someone had taken the vamp’s heart and put the snake in its place.

The shadows rushed in without a heart to keep them away. The collective of the unthinking hunger enveloped him, and the poor vampire did nothing to stop them from entering his head through the openings in his skull. For a moment, the shadows filled him so much that his back and shoulders came off the ground, and then he sank back into the earth. The shadows released all the light they had absorbed, and it was almost as light as day. Janus had to shade his eyes. He shuddered, not understanding, and hugged his leather jacket to his chest while walking back through the shadows.

They clung to him, fat now from the death they’d just taken, and he swatted them away like flies. His entire body felt electrified, and he jumped when a big black limousine with darkened windows glided to a stop beside him.

The window unrolled. One moment the car was seamless, the next the rich leather interior was exposed. The motor was barely a whisper. It was Strickland’s car; Janus smelled the elder on the leather.

You’ve had your fun, the human inside the car said. He was dressed in black with dark shades on. My master would like to see you.

*****

The heavy left Janus alone in a small, dark room. In another building, perhaps it would have been a supply closet, but Strickland was using it simply as a holding cell. The room didn’t have a window, so he felt trapped but not sun-panicked, but Janus didn’t like the doorknob not yielding to his turning. He could force his way out, he supposed, but Strickland had gone out of his way to be civilized, and he had to respond in kind.

When the door finally did open, he refused to let himself jump. The smell of the vampire was familiar, so he leaned against the wall and exposed his throat. How was Siberia? Did you bring me back any vodka?

Even in the darkness, Vision’s hand on the door tightened until his fingers were as bloodless as the corpse that evening. They were both lieutenants, but while Strickland kept Vision mostly under control, Janus’s Breylorn allowed Janus his freedom.

Vision crossed his arms over his chest. I should kill you.

Janus sighed. Vision’s anger came off him in waves. Janus approached, keeping his body casual, though he wondered if, just perhaps, he’d finally pushed Vision too far. He was in Vision’s domain, in bad with Vision’s master, and locked in a broom closet until someone deigned to deal with him. Still, Vision allowed him to approach and didn’t uncross his arms, even when Janus reached up and pinned Vision’s elbows together. It locked Vision in place, and although the anger didn’t leave, Vision relaxed slightly in his hands.

Janus leaned forward. Vision could force him back without lifting his fingers. Janus’s wards were no match for Vision’s compulsion when they were standing next to each other.

You tried to kill me, Vision said, then dropped to his knees. Janus tried to step back, but Vision dug his fingers into Janus’s ass, and the promise of pain brought him up short. Vision could have compelled him to remain still, but he didn’t. For a second, they both remained where they were. Janus could have pushed Vision off, but Vision wasn’t even looking at him. The silence broke with Janus undoing his zipper.

Vision’s mouth was warm; he must have just fed. His fingers worked under Janus’s jeans, and his tongue flicked over the head of his cock. Janus groaned, wishing at least Vision had had the good sense to back him into a wall or something. Vision moved his left hand to cup Janus’s balls, once it was fairly obvious Janus wasn’t going anywhere. Vision rubbed his face up and down Janus’s shaft. Friction warmed his skin. Janus’s hands tightened in Vision’s hair. Vision tensed, for just a second, and then took Janus deep in his throat.

Janus threw his head back, still holding onto the back of Vision’s head. It was the only thing that kept him upright. Jackie’s blood sang in his veins, Vision’s mouth turned his nerves to taut wires, and when Vision’s finger pushed inside him, finding its way to Janus’s prostate, Janus couldn’t last another second.

He pulled Vision down his cock, fingers knotting into the thick brown hair, and Vision swallowed him until he came. The blood inside him warmed again, like it was alive once more, and the orgasm built from the small of his back. Vision kept sucking him, gently now when he was so sensitive Vision’s nose against his pubic hair was too much sensation. His fingers moved back to Janus’s ass, but were now kneading out the tension in his muscles. Janus stroked Vision’s cheek to let him know he was in control once more, and Vision stood up without wiping his mouth. Strickland is ready for you, he said, and turned around. Janus followed him out of the room. The blood inside him cooled to its usual temperature, and it made him feel lethargic.

He followed Vision out of the broom closet. Once in Strickland’s office, Janus couldn’t look out the windows for long, even though they were darkly tinted.

The river was an oil spill, and the park’s green grass and trees were black. The office was tastefully decorated, the desk a wide plane of old-world wood, and the leather soft enough to melt. It smelled of humans and their small, petty deals. It’s starting to taste like a lawyer’s office in here, he said, turning his attention back to the man behind the desk.

Forgive me if I do not live my life as though I were one of your filthy little rats, Strickland said, tenting his fingers. His well-cut suit didn’t cover the bulk of his body. Strickland had forgotten the hunt, forgotten the sweet taste of fresh blood on his lips. He’d even turned some of his operations into the day-world, working with humans.

Janus dusted imaginary dirt off the sleeve of his jacket and shrugged in one loose motion. The niceties were making his teeth hurt, and Strickland could probably smell his arousal. It made him weak. We all survive in our own way, he said.

Exactly. Survive. I hire my enforcers to enforce. When you protect the common rats scurrying about, all of my men have to work twice as hard. When my men come back, telling me of the resistance they’ve met, I have to kill them. You make me kill them, Janus.

"My rats