However Long the Night

Chapter 1

The unmistakable sound of old-fashioned police sirens came from Jesse’s new iPhone, blaring through the house at an unnecessary volume. Jesse barely heard it; he didn’t even think about stopping to see what Derek wanted. He wasn’t exactly in a position to call for a time-out when the arm of the couch was hard against his stomach, and Gideon was plowing into his ass like he was making up for lost time. Even if he wanted to call a time-out, he couldn’t. The tie Gideon had shoved in his mouth just after bending him over effectively stifled any speech.

The iPhone stopped, and for several seconds, the house was silent except for Gideon’s grunts and Jesse’s short, hard breaths. Gideon held both Jesse’s wrists in one powerful hand, and his shoulders were beginning to ache. Just a little bit. Just enough to remind him how strong Gideon was.

From behind him, Gideon’s cell began to trill. Was that Derek’s set ring? Jesse thought so. There might be something wrong.

Jesse pushed the thought out of his head. If there was something wrong, Derek O’Dell was a detective with the Chicago Police Department. He could find somebody to help him out until Gideon felt like letting Jesse answer the phone. As if Gideon could read his mind, he tightened his hold around his wrists and moved his hips in a punishing rhythm.

The trilling stopped, and Jesse’s full faculties turned back to Gideon. His ass burned, and tremors moved from his lower back, down his thighs. He didn’t want Gideon to stop. He wanted to stay right where he was, shaking and sweating and making muffled begs for more. Always for more.

The phone on the desk shrieked. The business line. The one that Jesse always tried to answer if he was in the house. The ability to teleport made it easier to do just that—though Gideon always went slightly sick when he saw Jesse pop out of the kitchen without warning or any obvious reason. He wanted to answer it. He did. And he could have stopped Gideon if he really, truly thought it was important. But the machine would catch it and his balls were throbbing, sending echoes of pleasure all the way up to his throat.

The machine did, in fact, pick up after seven rings—which was the equivalent of about fourteen thrusts. Jesse wasn’t surprised to hear Derek’s voice over the roaring in his ears.

“Jesus, where the f**k are you guys? Wait. Don’t answer that. Just call me back as soon as you can. Jonah’s in trouble. Well, he better be in trouble, because if I find out he isn’t and he’s just screwing around and making us crazy, I’m going to kill him.” Derek let out a long, exasperated sigh. “Just…please. Call me back.”

Jesse spat out the tie. His tongue felt dry and thick. “Did…did you hear that?”

Gideon’s fingers dug into his wrists. His rhythm never slowed. “No. And you didn’t, either.”

“But he…” Even as the protest formed, a voice in his head screamed at him to be quiet. Or, if he had to speak, beg for Gideon to f**k him harder. “He sounded really worried.”

Abruptly, Gideon leaned over his back. His free hand found the front of Jesse’s throat and squeezed over the bite marks on his neck. “And do I sound like I want to stop?”

Jesse moaned, shivering as new pain flashed through him. Derek’s voice was already faded from his mind. “No, no, Sir.”

The faint prick of Gideon’s fangs made his lungs seize. Gideon hadn’t been vamped out when they’d started. Silently, he urged Gideon to bite, even going so far as to tilt his head out of the way to give him more room.

Gideon chuckled. “That’s my boy. Always want just a little bit—”

Jesse’s iPhone started screaming again.

“Damn it!” Letting go of Jesse’s wrists, Gideon reached across to the coffee table to snatch up the phone. He shoved it into Jesse’s ear. “Tell him exactly what we’re doing and that if he calls and tries to interrupt again, I’m going to chain him up and make him watch the next time I split your ass.”

Jesse took the phone, even though it felt more than a little awkward to talk in his position. “Derek? This isn’t exactly a good time.”

“I know. I’m sorry. If I wasn’t so worried, I wouldn’t keep bugging you. But Jonah’s been missing for three days now, and my sister is freaking out. Like calling me every ten minutes kind of freaking out. She’s convinced something’s happened to him, but nobody in London will give her a straight answer.”

“That…really sucks, but…” Jesse bit back a groan as Gideon slammed into his prostate. A reminder that he was straying from the given script? Probably. “Jonah is an adult. And we’re not in London.”

“But you could just pop over there, couldn’t you? Just check out his apartment, that’s all I’m asking. If he’s home, shove a phone in his hand and tell him to call his mom. Five minutes, tops, Jess.”

“You’re not a babysitting service,” Gideon growled.

“I heard that,” Derek complained. “Do you think I’d bug you if it wasn’t important? We tried talking him out of going in the first place, but he’s been obsessed with this stupid project ever since your housewarming party. I’m just worried he’s in over his head.”

Jesse almost asked what the stupid project was, but decided it would be best to hold off on his questions. Especially since Derek sounded genuinely worried. Perhaps the latest call from his sister had sent him over the edge. “Okay. I’ll check it out.”

Derek let out a long breath. “Thank you. Have a pen ready? I’ve got his address right here. You can just pop over, pop back, and then go back to whatever you were doing.”

With a frustrated hiss, Gideon pulled out of Jesse’s body and abruptly let him go. “When we get back to it,” he warned, flopping down into the chair, “I’m putting a ring on you so you can’t come for hours.”

Jesse put his free hand down to catch himself before he fell flat on his face. His legs shook a little as he straightened, and his spine popped and cracked. “Fair enough.” He crossed over to the desk and reached for the pen, his ass still flexing and relaxing. “Okay, Derek, tell me where I’m going.”

He scribbled down the address, but he cut Derek off before he could launch into another round of gratitude. Disconnecting, he asked, “Are you coming with me?”

Gideon arched a brow. “You’re teleporting to London instead of staying here to let me f**k you. What do you think?”

“I think you probably want to sit right there and devise new and interesting punishments for me.”

“Give the boy a prize.” Fisting his erection, he stroked himself slowly, deliberately, making sure Jesse saw every movement. “Now get out of here so we can get back to what’s really important.”

There was no sense in arguing that Derek’s nephew counted as important—he knew where Gideon’s priorities were, after all. And it was difficult to claim that some kid who probably misplaced his cell phone was more important than what they had been doing. Jesse pulled on the pants and shirt that Gideon had practically torn from his body. The teleportation didn’t take any more preparation than that. One moment, he stood in his familiar library, staring with more than a hint of longing at Gideon’s c**k, and the next he was in the middle of a strange London flat.

“Jonah?” If the young man were there, Jesse knew he would respond. Their paths hadn’t crossed often since they first met at the housewarming party, but when they did see each other, Jonah made it clear that he was still interested in whatever Jesse wanted to give him. “Jonah?”

There was no window, and no light in the room. Wishing he could see in the dark, he felt his way to what he hoped was the door and felt along the wall to the light switch. He found one and flipped it off and on. Nothing happened. Was the light not connected? Power out?

Had the light bulb simply burned out?

Jesse found the thought more than a little unsettling.

It wasn’t difficult to navigate around the flat, even in the dark. He followed the wall until he found what could only be a small kitchen nook. Despite his new abilities, his senses weren’t like Gideon’s. He couldn’t smell anything out of the ordinary. And he couldn’t see in the dark. Even so, something niggled at the back of his mind. Blood. That was the smell of blood. Faint and questionable, but once Jesse got the idea in his head, he couldn’t get it out.

He found another switch, and this time, he flooded the room in low, golden light. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to see the c*****e he had missed before. Books torn apart, a broken television, shredded paper, shattered glass. And that blood that had teased the edge of his senses. Smeared across the walls and staining the carpet. He had seen enough crime scenes to decide two things. First, the attacker had probably been human. And second, whatever Jonah’s ultimate fate, he had suffered a head wound.

Jesse had the sudden image of Jonah’s friendly smile smashed in, his teeth broken.

His stomach rolled. A moment later, he stood in front of Gideon. “I need your help.”

Gideon still had his c**k in his hand, but the look on Jesse’s face must have given him pause. “That was fast.”

“I didn’t need to stay long. He’s not in his flat. The place has been wrecked. There’s blood everywhere.”

Swiftly, Gideon tucked his c**k into his pants, doing up his belt as he rose to his feet. “You want me to call Derek?”

“No. Not until we have some actual news to give. We need to ascertain if he’s still alive. And if he is, maybe there are enough clues around to figure out what attacked him.” He waited until Gideon was fully dressed again before taking his hand. “Ready?”

“For having my stomach sucked out through my nose? Never.” But his grip was firm around Jesse’s, his gaze unwavering as Jess pulled him through space to the hallway outside Jonah’s disrupted flat halfway around the world. Though he looked a little green around the edges, his head snapped toward the door, his nostrils flaring. “There’s blood from at least two humans in there.”

Jesse nodded, not really pleased that he had confirmation of what he suspected. He turned the knob until the lock snapped and the door drifted open. “Let’s see if you can go in and have a look.”

Gideon waited until Jesse was out of the way before stepping forward. The moment his toe hit the threshold, his body jerked to a halt. The brown eyes he turned back to Jess were grim. “There’s your answer. At least he’s still alive.”

“The lock wasn’t broken. Jonah knew them and let them in, or they knocked and pushed their way in. Either way, it’s difficult to tell if there was a struggle or if the ransacking happened after Jonah was knocked out.” Jesse peered into the flat, tempted to throw himself into an investigation. But that’s not what Derek had called them for. And they weren’t exactly in their own backyard. “We should get the local authorities started on this as soon as possible. You call Derek, and I can call 9-9-9 here with an anonymous tip.”

“Did you grab your phone? Mine’s back at the house.”

“Yeah, I put it in my pocket.”

Jesse unlocked his phone, relieved to see that it had several reception bars. He gently shut the door, hoping that the busted lock wouldn’t harm the police investigation too much. Gideon watched silently as Jesse dialed the emergency number and waited for the firm, no-nonsense tone of the operator.

He was vaguely amused to hear his own accent when he spoke—it was always thicker when he was in England. He kept the conversation brief, focusing on the task instead of the earlier image of Jonah’s broken smile.

“Stay there until the police arrive, sir.”

Jesse took that as his cue to end the call. “They’ll be here in a few minutes.”

“We shouldn’t be here for that.” Gideon grimaced. “I can’t believe I’m suggesting this, but why don’t you just teleport us back, and we’ll tell Derek in person? He’s going to want to know what you saw anyway.”

“Yeah.”

Jesse had no problem agreeing with Gideon’s suggestion. He was worried about Jonah—literally worried sick. But this didn’t appear to be an investigation that needed to involve him. Jonah wasn’t the type of person to spend a night alone. Jesse didn’t like to think so, but it seemed perfectly plausible that this time, Jonah invited home the wrong man.

Not that he would say as much to Derek.

* * * *

Derek’s reaction to the phone call was not what Jesse had expected. Three simple words. “I’m coming over.” No demands for more explanation. No questions about what Jesse had seen. Not even a shocked gasp or a tremor in his voice. Just, “I’m coming over.” Jesse might have told him not to bother, but Derek didn’t give him the chance. Three simple words, and then dead air.

Jesse had been friends with Detective Derek O’Dell ever since first hooking up with Gideon. He had seen Derek through good times, through bad. They’d passed favors back and forth so many times, it was impossible to tell who owed who what anymore. So when Jesse opened the door and met Derek’s grim, hazel eyes, he knew something was bad. He might complain about his nephew’s exuberant personality and colorful s*x life, but Jonah was still family. And if there was one trait to describe Derek, it was loyal.

He stepped inside and brushed the snow off his shoulders. His prematurely gray hair was in disarray, like he’d been running his fingers through it, and his normally smiling mouth was a hard, straight line.

“Gideon said it was human blood?” At Jesse’s confirming nod, Derek exhaled. “God, I hope I’m wrong then.”

“Wrong about what?” Jesse asked. “Do you have a theory about what happened to him?”

“Not a theory, just…” He stopped when Gideon appeared from the library, waiting for him to come up and stand next to Jess. “A theory requires knowledge I don’t have,” he continued. “And all I know is, he’s been obsessed with that demon that possessed Gideon and Emma. The one that made Gideon lose his memory? That’s literally all he’s researched for the past two years. He even lost his fellowship because of it.”

“What? Why?” Jesse looked over to Gideon, automatically hoping he would have some sort of answer. But Gideon looked just as perplexed as he did. “Why would he do that?”

“Honestly?” Derek glanced guiltily at Gideon before meeting Jesse’s eyes again. “I think he started out because he hoped to impress you.”

“To impress me? Please tell me he didn’t let himself lose his fellowship on some insane notion of impressing me.”

“I don’t think that’s so insane,” Gideon commented.

“But I’m sure that’s not why he stuck with it,” Derek was quick to say. “I don’t know what he found, but he got sucked into it. Like he’d finally find one detail, only to drive him to want to get the next. And the next after that. Research was his thing, remember. He lived for that kind of stuff.”

Jesse understood. That impulse that made you stay up all night because you just couldn’t put the book down. The need to find that rare volume that may or may not have the single page you needed. The constant, nagging feeling at the base of your skull that the answer was just around the corner, in the next library, in the next handwritten manuscript.

“Is that why he was in London? Chasing another lead?”

Derek nodded. “About a month ago, he came and asked me to keep an eye on his apartment. He’d gotten his passport and everything, said he’d finally figured out which collection some grim-something was in. He wasn’t going to be gone long, but then after he got there, his story changed.”

Gideon frowned. “To what?”

“To, ‘Well, they’re not just going to hand it over to me, Uncle Derek.’ And, ‘Honestly, you don’t want to know.’“

If he had been investigating the paranormal and the occult for two years, there was a very good chance that Jonah was well beyond dusty books and brittle manuscripts. But Jesse didn’t want to jump to any unwarranted conclusions. Especially since Gideon had sensed blood from a second human.

“So he didn’t give you any details beyond that? Where is his apartment?”

Derek held out a single key. “I figured you’d want to take a look through it. But I’ll warn you, the place is a fire hazard. I don’t think he’s thrown away a single thing he started.”

Gideon rolled his eyes. “Oh, great. More books.”

“You can stay here if you want. Unless you want to supervise from the hallway.”

“No, I’ll stay here. Someone’s got to be around when Dominique gets home from school.”

Derek had a visibly hard time suppressing his grin. “I never thought I’d see the day when the great Gideon Keel was relegated to babysitting. If I wasn’t on duty, I’d stick around just to watch.”

Gideon leveled an unamused stare at him. “After what you interrupted earlier? You don’t want to be alone with me, Derek.”

That was probably true. Jesse herded Derek toward the door. Despite the ease of teleportation, Jesse wanted to drive. The extra time would give him a chance to ask more questions about Jonah. Could he have kept Jonah from London, and from danger, if he had known what the younger man was up to? He didn’t even question if keeping Jonah from danger numbered in his list of responsibilities.

“I’ll call you if we find anything interesting,” Jesse promised as they reached the door.

Gideon nodded. “Call me anyway. Interesting is always relative.”

Jesse smiled a little, despite his errand. “I will.” As soon as he closed the door behind them, he turned his attention to Derek. “How long did Jonah plan to stay in London? As long as it took?”

“He had enough money saved up to pay for two months over there, but he kept telling us he hoped it wouldn’t be that long. Part of me actually hoped he’d meet somebody who’d distract him from all this, but as far as I can tell, he hasn’t dated much since this started.”

Of everything Derek had told him, Jesse found that the most surprising. Jonah was just the sort of person to be distracted by a pretty face. And he was just the sort of person who would attract distraction. His vibrant blue eyes could make a person forget his own name, and he flirted like it was second nature. It probably was second nature. Jonah was not the sort of person to dedicate his life to celibacy.

“I wish you had told me about this sooner, honestly,” Jesse said, once he ducked into the car out of the frigid air. “I could have at least kept an eye on him.”

Derek slid into the seat next to him. “You and Gideon have had your hands full. You didn’t need to worry about Jonah, too.” The car roared to life. “Besides, that might’ve actually encouraged his little crush. You didn’t want that.”

“I’d rather deal with his crush than this. In fact, I’d happily let him sniff around the house every day for the rest of his life, if he’s not out getting himself into trouble.” He knew Derek was worried enough about his nephew without detailing all the horrible scenarios Jesse feared. “Did he ever mention anybody or anything that he might have been…afraid of? Like he had gone too far?”

Derek’s bark of laughter was harsh. “This is Jonah you’re talking about. The kid’s not afraid of anything. And no, he didn’t mention anything. For as much as he talked about everything else, this was the one topic he clammed up on. He wouldn’t even talk to me about what happened after he got himself arrested two weeks ago.”

Jesse sat up a little straighter. “He was arrested. For what?”

“B and E. The charges ended up getting dropped.”

He sincerely hoped the charges had been dropped because Jonah had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and not because somebody decided it would be easier to take care of Jonah themselves.

“Did you call your sister yet?”

“Not until I have something more definite. But, Jess…” Derek glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, clearly uncomfortable about something. “There’s something you should probably know. I had to hire a lawyer for Jonah, because I know f**k all about English laws. But I didn’t want to get some kind of quack, so I went with the only name I knew.” He took a deep breath. “David Brighton.”

“He agreed to take Jonah’s case?”

“Didn’t even argue.” With a frown, Derek glanced at him again. “Why? Should he have?”

Jesse shrugged. Just hearing David’s name sent an odd shiver down his spine. Tall and gorgeous with rich, dark skin and a body hard with understated strength. In another dimension, David was his doppelganger’s lover, and so Jesse supposed it wasn’t a great surprise that he recognized his more attractive attributes. He had occasionally wondered—worried—what would have happened if he had stayed in London long enough to meet David instead of running to Chicago to find Gideon.

“There was no guarantee that he’d be a lawyer in this dimension. That’s all.”

“I guess I got lucky then. But it’s not going to be a problem, is it? I still don’t understand how all this dimensional stuff works.”

“It’s not going to be a problem at all. In fact, David is probably the only thing we’ve got going for us. It’ll be helpful to have somebody to touch base with in London. If he saw Jonah as recently as two weeks ago, he might be able to give over some information.”

Derek let out a long, relieved breath. “Good. I’ll e-mail you all the contact information I have for him and let him know he can talk to you and Gideon about Jonah’s case. I don’t know the particulars, though I wish I’d been a little bit nosier about what was going on over there.”

“No, don’t start blaming yourself. Your plate is too full as it is, and Jonah is an adult. You shouldn’t have to worry about babysitting him, on top of doing your actual job.”

“Are you guys too busy right now to see what you can do? Because it would make me feel a hell of a lot better knowing you and Gideon were looking for him.” They turned the corner, and almost immediately turned again into the parking lot of a large apartment building. “I know I give Jonah a hard time, but he’s a good kid. I don’t want anything bad to happen to him.” He grimaced. “Anything else, at least.”

“Derek, we owe you so much that even if we were too busy, we would make the time for Jonah. We don’t want anything bad to happen to him, either.”

Derek pulled up to the unsecured front door of the building and put the car into park. “Just keep me in the loop, okay?”

“You’ll know everything we do,” Jesse promised.

Jonah lived in a three-story walk up. The building itself didn’t raise any alarms, but as soon as they stepped through the front door, Jesse understood why a poor graduate student might find himself there. The wallpaper on the walls was old, yellowed, and peeling, and what remained of it was covered in crayons and markers. Snow boots and heavy, wet coats littered the hallway that led to the flight of stairs, and thumping music bled from the walls.

Jesse followed Derek to the third floor. Each step creaked ominously, but the wood held strong. The room was at the end of the hall, and Jesse thought calling the space an apartment was a bit too generous. Immediately to the left of the door was a sink, a tiny fridge, and a stove with two burners. The living room couldn’t have been more than six feet wide and four feet from the kitchen to the far wall. A doorway led directly to the bedroom—or what Jesse assumed was a bedroom. There didn’t appear to be a bed in the room. Just a desk and books and paper.

In fact, there was paper everywhere.

“Does he ever clean this place?” Jesse asked, only half in jest.

“Believe it or not, this is clean.” Derek stepped around a stack of haphazardly placed books to go to the far end of the tiny futon that served as a couch. “I want to start here. Every time I came over, he always seemed a little too protective of what he had over here. I want to know what he was hiding.”

Jesse followed him, bending to pick up balls of paper as he walked. He absently unrolled a few, pulling the wrinkles out of the sheets. He expected to see notes, perhaps taken in a tight, careful hand. And at first, that’s exactly what he found. The pages were full with notes in a variety of languages. Most of them were translated directly to English. Other lines were completely left alone. Did Jonah know these obscure languages? Had he taught himself the words while researching these rare books?

Eventually, the notes gave way to one line, scribbled across the middle of the page. Sheet after sheet, the same line, over and over. Sometimes it was scratched out. Sometimes it was translated. Sometimes it looked more like a doodle. Jesse didn’t know the importance of the words, but he did recognize it as a puzzle. Something that had stumped Jonah.

Sinking to the edge of the futon, he flipped through the pages, looking for the significance of that single line. Derek had stopped rummaging, his gaze steady on Jesse, his breath inaudible. The only sound to fill the tiny apartment was the occasional scratch of Jesse’s nail across the paper as he sought out fragments of the phrase that had captivated Jonah. It was a Latin derivative, of that he was sure, but Jonah’s handwriting was atrocious, grown worse with his obvious frustration at not solving this last riddle.

Jesse saw the glimmer near the bottom of a sheet with a coffee ring stain in the upper corner. He must have stiffened or reacted some way, because Derek sat down next to him and peered over his shoulder.

“What is it?”

Silently, Jesse pointed at the phrase. Now that he’d seen it, it leapt from the page. He strongly suspected he’d find it repeated in the other languages he hadn’t recognized.

Derek shook his head. “Enlighten the ignorant masses here. What does it say?”

Votaries of Castelain.

“It says that Jonah finally figured out what he was looking for.” He ran his thumb over the phrase, then pointed to the first word. “A votary is a worshipper. Really devout. Maybe even a fanatic. Castelain is a name. Or a keeper of a castle.”

As Jesse watched, Derek’s normally amiable features hardened. “Are you telling me Jonah took off to a different country to try and get some magic book from a bunch of cult wackos?” He shook his head. “When we get him back here, I’m going to kill him. And then I’m going to sic his mother on him.”

“The cult might not be full of wackos,” Jesse said mildly. “There are cults all over the place. Most of them are pretty benign. They just offer some money to whatever vamp or demon wants a couple of followers, and they get something to worship in return. But it’s a place to start looking.”

“Except that demon who possessed Emma and Gideon didn’t exactly turn them into Fred and Ginger.” With a muttered curse, Derek rose from the futon and marched over to the small kitchenette. He dug around beneath the sink until he pulled out a garbage sack. “Let’s bag up everything you think you might need. The sooner you get to London, the happier I’m going to be.”

That would be easier said than done. How was he supposed to divine what pile of junk was actually junk, and what was necessary? He settled for throwing in all the discarded pages—the notes might be helpful—as well as a few books that he didn’t already own. There were two titles he didn’t even recognize, and that made his stomach clench. Would it be enough to merely find Jonah? Or was he in even deeper than Derek understood?

The question almost made Jesse laugh. Almost. When he was Jonah’s age, he was preparing to move to Chicago to seek out a vampire.