All Hellos Read online

  She it would take her time to really get a handle on this whole thing, and the realization that her future would be long indeed if what they were saying was true. Unless her mind had totally derailed.

  “So we can’t die?”

  “Only if one of our own kind kills us. I’m a Gryphon, so it would take another Gryphon to kill me,” Gabriel stated.

  “And how many of, umm, your kind are there?”

  “One, Iris.”

  “And does this other Immortal like you?”

  “I don’t know. I hope so.” He brushed a stray lock of hair from her face, smiling tenderly at her, something fragile yet full of hope shining in his aqua gaze. He lowered his hands to touch her arm gently.

  “You don’t know?”

  Adrian’s breath across the nape of her neck made her shiver as he said, “We’re waiting to find out what she thinks.”

  Then she realized they meant her. She was the one like Gabriel.

  Then does that mean they really do want me to be with them? Not just now, but forever?

  She stared at Gabriel’s hand where it rested gently on her arm, then turned to look deep into Adrian’s currently honey-gold gaze. Maybe they were offering her something more than just a weekend. She had to know.

  “Oookaay,” she drew the word out in a long sigh. “So where do we go from here? Who teaches me about all this stuff, and how to be this Gryphon self of mine?”

  “We could, if you like,” Gabriel replied.

  “If you want us to, that is,” Adrian added.

  “Well, wanting either of you has never been a problem for me,” she admitted, and took Adrian’s hand, slipping it beneath her dress.

  From the grin that spread like sunshine over Adrian’s face, he knew Gabriel would understand what he’d found. “Oh, yeah, you want us.”

  Gabriel kissed her, and Adrian smiled at his lover.

  “Consensus?” the blond asked.

  “Until she screams?”

  “I like it,” Gabriel agreed.

  He grinned when Gabriel stripped Iris’ dress off over her head. “She’s all yours,” he stated.

  Grinning, Adrian scooped Iris up in his arms, taking her to the back of the cabin. He didn’t have to wait long for Gabriel to have a pair of mattresses down on the floor, and the few pillows remaining to them quickly followed.

  He placed her on the impromptu bed, noting as he kissed Iris that Gabriel was busily removing his clothing.

  “My turn,” Gabriel said as he lay down and pulled Iris on top of him, his cock already hard and ready for her. He groaned when she straddled his hips, capturing his shaft between them rather than letting it enter her.

  “Let’s not rush this, shall we?” she teased.

  “I like you more and more all the time,” he told Iris. “I think you’re in for a lot of trouble, Gabriel.” He grinned. “A lot of trouble.” Chuckling, Adrian flung his clothing off and lay down beside them, the vampire’s mouth finding Gabriel’s and kissing him with languid passion, one hand tangling tightly in Gabriel’s hair, the other teasing Iris’ breast.

  Pearl and opalescent mist kissed by hints of lavender, rose and azure flowed from her as her inner self awakened. Rising from the mist was a proud hawk’s face. Eyes, a glittering violet, came into being in the creature’s face. Not fully formed, but awakening, the power uncoiling from dormancy. From what he could see already she was going to be stunning, a perfect match for his ancient lover.

  A match for them both.

  If this is your answer, God, thank you, he thought as he caressed a hand down her soft curves, fingertips flowing from her thigh where it met Gabriel’s body and moving onto his lover’s leg, the caress continuing up the man’s harder planes.

  “So beautiful,” Gabriel said, watching her adoringly as he kissed her.

  “Damn right she’s beautiful,” he agreed. “You’ve always been a little slow on the uptake, Gabe.”

  The blond laughed. “Yes, I suppose I have.”

  He kissed Gabriel’s shoulder, nipping playfully, Iris leaning down to capture the blond’s mouth with her own.

  “I could get to like this,” she told them.

  “Me too,” Adrian agreed. They both looked expectantly at Gabriel.

  “Hmm...” He was staring up at Iris, a quirky smile and something odd in his eyes. “Yes, I think I might be able to adjust to this, given oh, say, about a thousand years or so.”

  “A thousand years?” Iris asked, sounding a bit indignant, though Adrian could see the amusement in her gaze.

  “Slow on the uptake, remember?” he told her. “It took him a long time to get used to waking up with me in his room, much less his bed.” He teased down Gabriel’s throat, nipping gently, pleased to hear the moan that resulted.

  “So you had a separate bed at first?” she asked then she took one of Gabriel’s nipples between her teeth and bit lightly.

  His lover moaned again. He smiled. Yeah, I think everything is going to work out just fine.

  They were both touching him, caressing his body, kissing and nipping, teasing him into a frenzy of need, of wanton desire. Out of control, no longer the one directing the action.

  After so many years it was an incredible release, a thrill greater than any he’d known.

  His cock was nestled in the cleft between Iris’ thighs, her wet heat driving him wild with the lust it inspired. Strange lust that didn’t make him want to claim and possess. Lust that demanded his surrender to her. Male drawn to female. Mate led by base primal needs that brought the male to heel, showed him who was really the boss.

  There was no other woman in all the world for him.

  The knowledge sent a frission bordering on fear through him, but it was a delightfully glorious fear, that of a man falling in love. In all the centuries there had only been one other soul who’d touched his, who’d sent this war of emotion through him: Adrian.

  And now he wanted to have them both, forever.

  Iris bit down on his nipple again and he let her hear how much he appreciated what she was doing, his moan a drawn-out sigh of pleasure.

  I love you. The words entered his mind with the golden warmth that was Adrian’s love for him.

  And I love you, always, he replied, turning his head so he could kiss the vampire deeply before Adrian broke the kiss, moving away where he would be able to touch and kiss Iris.

  Watching his lover’s hands as he caressed the woman and kissed her brought a pang to his heart. Not of jealousy, but of love expanding to include the woman in what he felt. The three of them could be together like this if only Iris felt for them the way they were beginning to feel for her.

  He wanted that for himself. He wanted it for Adrian.

  She was smiling at him, sitting with his cock deep inside her body, Adrian kissing her shoulder, and he saw the vampire’s teeth graze her skin lightly, teasing.

  “Let’s do this,” he heard her say right before she changed position slightly.

  It wrenched a cry of joyful pleasure from him when her wet heat closed around his cock, their bodies coming together in a perfect fit, two pieces of a puzzle snapping into place, just as he and Adrian had been.

  They moved together in perfect unison, two halves of the same whole and he reached for Adrian, gripping the man’s cock and stroking, giving his lover pleasure, smiling at the moan of appreciation it earned him from the vampire.

  Okay, so I can get used to this magical stuff. Especially when two gorgeous hunks of immortality go along with the deal, Iris said to herself as Gabriel pulled her down for another kiss. Adrian followed her descent, leaning in to nibble her ear, his breath smelling of honey and ginger, the scent of exotic spices rising around all three of them.

  Crying out as Gabriel thrust his rigid cock upward, Iris looked down into the man’s aqua gaze, watching the gold shimmer dancing around the rims of his irises. Warm hands cupped her breasts from behind and she leaned back into Adrian’s embrace.

  Then she thought of s
omething that might work in the positions she and Gabriel were in that wouldn’t leave Adrian excluded. “Adrian, how’d you like a blowjob?”

  She knew there had to be a completely wicked gleam in her eyes from the reaction she got from Gabriel, who exclaimed, “Splendid!”

  The mellow laugh Adrian gave told her the man approved. He grinned at her and stood, stepping across Gabriel, the woman eagerly taking his erect cock in her mouth.

  “Thank you,” Gabriel said.

  Iris glanced between Adrian’s thighs to look at the Immortal. “For what?”

  He smiled. “I’ve now got the most incredible view, his ass and your tits.”

  She giggled. “I aim to please,” she told him before swallowing Adrian down whole.

  “Love you,” Adrian said, but she couldn’t tell if he was talking to her or his lover. She gripped his thighs to steady herself, rising up slightly on her knees, giving Gabriel more latitude for his thrusts, which were maddeningly slow and teasing.

  “I love you too, from the top of your head to your cute little talons,” Gabriel stated. She tipped her head back to peer up at Adrian, finding that he was gazing down at her, eyes warm, alive and alight with emotion. Emotion directed at her.

  Love undying. Tears filled her eyes.

  Heart filled to bursting, mind alight with laughter and joy, her wings unfurled for the first time, burning bright as crystal in all the colors of the rainbow, her Immortal form breaking free in a song as old as time. A song of love.

  The weekend was all hellos, and the three of them would never have to say goodbye.

  End

  And now for the treat...

  A sneak-peek preview of Michael Barnette’s Yaoi novel MercyKill: Shattered Melody, coming soon to Mojocastle Press!

  Prologue

  Present day

  Tokyo Prison Facility

  Ten in the morning

  The three young men were led into the room by grim faced police. They were in prison grey, their wrists cuffed to chains around their waists even though they had yet to be tried or convicted.

  Handsome, some would say beautiful, they didn’t have the look of hardened criminals as so many of the people brought to speak to the defender did. In fact, the youngest and smallest of the trio was white as a sheet, fear written in his wide, eyes. Eyes the color of melted chocolate. Eyes that started to glitter with tears as he regarded the man directly in front of him.

  Takeshi, his lover. Taller. Stronger, physically and mentally. He walked with his head held high, shoulders squared, unafraid. Unashamed and unrepentant.

  Takeshi was afraid of nothing.

  They’d been happy. The three of them in love with what they did, in love with life. In love with one anther.

  Juro was stopped, forced to kneel on an elevated block of concrete, chains locked to his waist to hold him in place, kneeling on the hard cold surface. A guard roughly shoved his head down, making the violet-dyed hair fall into his eyes.

  “Don’t move!” the guard snapped.

  Takeshi offered no resistance, kneeling when he got to the block that would be his, but there was a sneer on his face, defiance in his obsidian black eyes.

  No, Takeshi wasn’t afraid. And if Juro feared, he hid it well.

  But Akira was scared and trembling, heart filled with terror, mouth dry as ash. He didn’t so much as kneel on the unyielding block of concrete as he wilted onto it. It didn’t matter to their guards. He was treated with the same rough disgust as the other two had been shown.

  The guards left, and a man in a very conservative— and expensive suit— entered the room. Tall, slender, he regarded the trio with cool dispassion.

  He walked to the table, put down a briefcase that shone with golden fixtures, hinges, lock, the metal holding the leather handle to the case, even the latches. Gold. Not brass. Gold. There was no mistaking it.

  “I’ve been appointed to represent the three of you, as you are to be tried for your crimes together.”

  “What chance do we have of being found innocent?” Takeshi asked.

  The man took a seat in the wooden chair and stared at them for a moment before replying, “None.”

  Akira visibly wilted.

  “Is there anything you’d like to tell me. Anything you didn’t say in your statement to the homicide detectives?”

  Takeshi met the man’s eyes. “Yes. As I’ve told the police, it was me. Juro and Akira weren’t involved so they should be released.” Takeshi stated.

  “Unfortunately they were present, and therefore they are considered—at the very least—accomplices to the crime.”

  “AND I’M TELLING YOU I DID IT! ME!”

  The man frowned, reached for his briefcase. “I won’t be shouted at. If you want me to defend you, you can be civil or have other legal council assigned to you.”

  Takeshi, proud and unafraid, glanced at Akira, saw how pale his lover was, and bowed his head as low as his position on the block would permit. “Forgive me, I... this has been difficult for us, for them. They really weren’t responsible.”

  The man let the briefcase go, sat down. “Shout at me again and I will walk out and leave you to whatever fate God has in store for you. Do you understand?”

  Takeshi nodded, head still bowed respectfully, “Yes. I understand... sir.”

  “Much better,” the man replied. “Now I want to hear what happened, in your own words.”

  “But you have our statements,” Juro replied.

  “Yes, but a statement frequently leaves out things. I want to hear about the whole thing from start to finish, in your own words. Can you do that?” he looked at each one of them in turn.

  Takeshi raised his head, “I’ll tell you.”

  “You used to be in a band together, is that right?”

  “Yes sir,” Takeshi agreed. “We are...were called Mercykill.”

  “Interesting name, considering the crime you are charged with.”

  Takeshi just shrugged; the man’s words didn’t require any answer.

  “So, you were all in this band together. Tell me, what led you to commit this terrible crime?”

  “It wasn’t a crime,” Takeshi stated, voice hard, icy.

  “Then what was it?”

  “Justice,” Takeshi replied. “Justice for a crime no one else cared about, for a woman that we loved.”

  “I see. Well that doesn’t really match the report I have. Suppose you tell me why you feel that such a heinous series of crimes could be called justice by anyone?”

  Akira flinched at the coldness in the man’s tone.

  But what else could they expect after what they’d done?

  Guilty in the eyes of the law, even though there had yet to be a trial.

  Just a formality, they’d been caught red handed.

  Murderers.

  Killers.

  That’s all they were to everyone now.

  But it hadn’t always been that way...

  Chapter One:

  Six months earlier

  Nippon Bodukan concert venue

  Nine in the evening

  An electric melody rolled out across the crowd, the sound like liquid silver, bright-toned, sad, the stage still darkened.

  Excitement rippled through the sea of fans, played on the stage of faces, lights flickered across them, revealing painted hair, leather clothes, lace, velvet, wild makeup.

  The guitar’s lonely melody was abruptly joined by the bone-vibrating thrum of a bass, the sharp crack of drums and the lights came up on stage, bright as a lightning flash.

  A roar from the audience drowned out the music for an instant, the sound making the concrete walls of the venue vibrate with the sound.

  A crescendo of glittering notes, rose over the noise of the crowd, the opening melody of the band’s first song rising like sparks from a bonfire.

  Onstage the guitarist stepped forward, bathed in a pool of light, red and black streaked hair, red and white painted face, slim body encased in leather from n
eck to toes, only the dancing white of his fingers against the inky darkness of the guitar were visible.

  Behind him his band mates were playing, the drummer in a floor length dress that was a confection of black taffeta, dove grey lace and pearls, blue hair elegantly styled, the makeup that turned good looks into incredible beauty was perfect.

  To his right their bassist moved to the music in a pair of micro-shorts in black velvet, high heeled patent leather boots and a violet velvet crop top with long pointed sleeves that looked like vintage 1960s era clothing. A torrent of violet hair that reached almost to the bassist’s waist sparkled with motes of silver glitter. A bar of violet broke the perfect geisha-white of the bassist’s pretty face.

  This was their first major appearance since they’d signed with indie label Poisoned Dragon Recording Company.

  They were just the opening act for a well established band, but they didn’t care. They were playing to twenty thousand people, the biggest audience they’d ever had. And, even more thrilling, the whole thing was being recorded for later broadcast on a couple of pay per view stations, including Music Alive in the States.

  It was their dream come true and Takeshi whose stage name was Kei felt his veins filled with the power of such an accomplishment. They played better than they’d ever played before, song after song leaving the listeners wanting more, the crowd’s roar a drug to the man who’d dared to dream of fame.

  Fame. Right here in their grasp.

  And they’d saved their number one hit for last.

  As the roar of the crowd slowly died, anticipation of their next song silencing the fans, the guitarist saw movement at the corner of his vision. Backstage. A man and a woman. He didn’t know the man, and he couldn’t see the woman clearly with the lights in his eyes but if they were there then they must have permission.

  While he couldn’t tell who they were, he could see they were arguing.

  But that wasn’t any of his business at the moment. He had work to do. Work he loved. Wouldn’t have traded for anything in the entire world.