Flynn, Joyee - Damian [Marius Brothers 5] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) Read online

  Marius Brothers 5

  Damian

  In a world where humans and paranormals coexist in secret and where soulless demons roam, vampires dream to be united with their mates.

  Damian Marius is the youngest of the seven Marius brothers. Although known for bringing happiness to those around him, he has been having trouble handling his own needs…sexually. The frustration and self-loathing have led him on the path of self-destruction.

  Cyrus Diaz is a medic and a warrior who saves Damian in more ways than one. He understands what his mate needs to become healthy again and to feel sexually sated. However, the years Cyrus has spent alone have put him in a place where he cannot seem to understand how to satisfy his mate emotionally.

  Will Cyrus learn to express his love for Damian through an outlet other than sex, or will he end up pushing Damian away?

  Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Paranormal, Vampires/Werewolves

  Length: 35,452 words

  DAMIAN

  Marius Brothers 5

  Joyee Flynn

  EROTIC ROMANCE

  MANLOVE

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  ABOUT THE E-BOOK YOU HAVE PURCHASED: Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you to only ONE LEGAL copy for your own personal reading on your own personal computer or device. You do not have resell or distribution rights without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner of this book. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee, or as a prize in any contest. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden. If you do not want this book anymore, you must delete it from your computer.

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  If you find a Siren-BookStrand e-book being sold or shared illegally, please let us know at

  [email protected]

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Erotic Romance ManLove

  DAMIAN

  Copyright © 2012 by Joyee Flynn

  E-book ISBN: 1-61926-534-6

  First E-book Publication: March 2012

  Cover design by Jinger Heaston

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2012 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of Damian by Joyee Flynn from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Joyee Flynn’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Flynn’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  www.BookStrand.com

  DEDICATION

  For those of us who’ve ever been too afraid to voice our desires, in the bedroom or out. Sometimes it just takes someone you can open up to and really be yourself with.

  *On a side note, when I wrote the first Marius Brothers, I had no clue how big the world would get. Then I had so much fun with the world, that I thought, why not Irish twins? So the O’Hagans were born. Now there are other minor characters who need their stories told...and that’s how one world ended up with three different series. To keep everything straight, I’ve added a few pages to my site, including a brief background on the world so it’s not repeated in every book, the chronological order of the books, character charts, and a list of who’s who. I hope this helps make sense of the madness that is my brain. www.joyeeflynn.com/themariusworld.htm

  DAMIAN

  Marius Brothers 5

  JOYEE FLYNN

  Copyright © 2012

  Chapter 1

  Damian

  “They’re all dead. I killed them. All of them, slaughtered them,” I whispered in horror, glancing around at the carnage in front of me as I crouched in the corner, my head leaning against the cold wall. The broken table sat in the center of the warehouse, and droplets of dried blood from the five dead and broken bodies surrounding me decorated the gray walls in garish splatters. Smaller pools of blood around the bodies glittered on the concrete floor in the half-light.

  Looking at the man closest to me, I could see that his eyes were still open. I remembered how his stare had changed from hate to fear to complete emptiness as the life had drained from him.

  “What did you kill? Some rats piss you off in DC?” My eldest brother chuckled lightheartedly.

  “Humans.” That one word hung in the air for a moment as if both of us were wishing the truth away. I felt my insides twist sickeningly.

  “You killed humans? Dear god, Damian! Why?” Victor hissed into the phone, and I knew he wasn’t alone wherever he was.

  “They took me, and they were going to—”

  “So it was self-defense?” I hoped so, or I was in a lot of trouble. But I didn’t know if being willing to go home with one man and then being drugged and waking with five around me would be explainable to the Council. “Don’t move, okay? I’ll track your phone and drive over.”

  “I’m sorry,” I gasped as the pain I felt in my entire body radiated out and intensified. “I might not be conscious when you get here to help you. I didn’t mean to kill them.”

  “What?” he roared, and some part of my foggy mind realized I should maybe have mentioned I was hurt. “Why didn’t you say you were injured?”

  What was there to say? You didn’t ask sounded like an asshole thing to say since I was calling him for help. And we’ve been on the phone only like a minute wasn’t much better. But I knew what he meant. It should have been the first thing out of my mouth instead of confessing I killed my attackers.

  “How bad?” he asked after barking out some orders at someone in the background.

  “I haven’t had blood in over a week,” I admitted sheepishly. Fuck. There was no way of hiding how I lived my life after this. “Vic, please don’t tell everyone. Please, brother. I–I can’t have them know and see me like this.” I felt a few tears escape my eyes. “I know I have a lot of explaining to do, but I can’t in front of everyone.”

  He was quiet a moment, and I worried that we’d lost the connection. “Okay, baby bro. I’ll just bring Micah and Riley since we’ll need him if you’re hurt.”

  “No, please,” I whimpered, knowing it was a
lost cause. Once Victor made a decision, the moon was easier to move.

  “Final offer or I call Mom.” Yup, figured it would be like that.

  “Micah and Riley,” I whispered.

  “That’s what I thought,” he replied and then softened his tone. “The chopper should be ready in five minutes. They’re already on their way. We’re leaving from the warrior compound, okay? It shouldn’t take long. How bad are you?”

  “I don’t think it’s life threatening but I’m pretty mangled and cut up. They were drawing it out.” I rolled my eyes at how stupid it sounded. And the moment it was out of my mouth, I knew what he was going to ask next.

  “So what information were they torturing you for?” Yep, that was it.

  “Vic,” I sighed, realizing I was going to have to say the words at some point in time. “They drugged me at a club. I woke up naked, strapped down to a table while five men did the most sadistic foreplay ever to me as I tried to get past the drugs. But when one went to—to enter, I freaked. I don’t know if it was adrenaline, but suddenly I could move and feel my head. I broke the table and killed them all.”

  “Good. I’m sorry it was you who did it, but someone in this family would have killed the bastards. We’ll be there shortly.” Vic hung up without another word. I loved my eldest brother. Hell, I loved all my brothers, but Vic and I were really tight. And that man had an evil streak a mile wide when it came to his family.

  I closed my eyes for few seconds before glancing over at the bodies strewn about and realizing I might have done them a favor. I’d done it quick, fighting for survival. With six older brothers and a mother who was probably more vicious than all of them when it came to her kids, these humans would have suffered greatly in any of their hands.

  But how many other lives might I have just destroyed? There were seven of us brothers, and I worried that when people found out what happened here, it would be held against them as well. It was Victor, then Stefan, Gabriel, Micah, Virgil, Remus, and then me. I was seventy-six years old and still they treated me like I was twelve. But at least I wasn’t the shortest, too.

  There were normal vampires who ranged in all shapes and sizes just like humans did. Then there were some of us who were born warriors. When we went through our transitions at puberty to become full vampires who needed blood to survive, some of us grew massive. I’d been about five-three before my transition at fourteen, which was early for most, and six-four after it was over. Our large stature and ability to bulk on major muscle was what determined we would be warriors of our race.

  Why did strong, fast, almost invincible vampires need their own warriors? Demons.

  Demons were actually vampires once—vampires who decided they didn’t want blood to feed like the rest of us. They wanted it for the power, for the kill. Vampires, enforced by our various High Councils, lived by a strict code. Do no harm to humans, which I had just broken, and hide all evidence of our existence from humans. In recent decades with blood banks everywhere, most owned by founding vampire families, we didn’t need to drink from humans to survive anymore.

  Mmm, blood sounds so good right now. I moaned in my head. What kind of stupid idiot vampire denies himself blood for good sex. Oh wait… Me! My mother was going to beat my ass if she ever found out. I groaned in pain again as I felt warm blood start trickling down my side faster.

  My family lived by that code in everything they did. Hell, my parents had seven children who all turned out to be warriors and served their race for centuries upon centuries. It was the right thing to do. We were born to help our people, so it never came into question that we would. And while some demons had once understood that, they chose the path to evil.

  They liked the thrill of the chase and slaughtering of humans, who just weren’t built to stop us if we wanted to hurt them. But even like psycho humans, demons weren’t right in the head and chose this life. Demons were what human legends of vampires were based on. Bloodsucking, vile creatures that lost their souls and would burn from sunlight or holy objects.

  Vampires were different. We could die, of course, just not how most legends said. Garlic was nothing to us, which I was thankful for every day. Pizza just isn’t pizza without garlic on it. Crosses didn’t hurt, silver was no big thing, and we could be in the sunlight. Granted, the sunlight wasn’t our favorite thing because we were quite sensitive to it, but we certainly didn’t burst into flames. There just probably weren’t too many vampires who lived on Mexican beaches drinking mia tias.

  Every vampire had one or two special gifts of their own. Mine was the ability to hold someone mentally hostage. I could do this to four to five people at a time. Micah could scramble minds of people, which was useful in battle as well. Remus could talk to animals. While a neat parlor trick, it wasn’t a great gift for fieldwork unless we needed a distraction sometimes.

  Glancing around, I winced when I saw my clothes, leather pants and a red silk shirt, in ribbons on the floor by the table I’d been on. Obviously they had cut those off me. So what did I do now? Just sit here in the corner and bleed, naked and cold? I really hoped wherever I was that the other buildings around me were deserted. I doubted I’d been that quiet when I went nuts. But then again, given what they were doing to me, I didn’t think they would have picked downtown DC.

  I saw an old black tarp several feet away. Now that the adrenaline had worn off and I felt ready to pass out, I wasn’t sure I could get to it. I rolled to my knees, gasping as red-hot pain shot through my body. I crawled onto it and flipped it over me, deciding I was done moving until help came.

  “Damian!” Victor yelled, and I realized I must have blacked out for a short while. Damn, I was in bad shape.

  “Here,” I called out after a few tries to get my throat working again. I heard footsteps thundering toward me. Suddenly Victor’s, Micah’s, and Riley’s faces filled my vision. “I’m so sorry.”

  “None of that, little bro,” Micah said gently as Riley kneeled next to me. I tried to push him away.

  “No, not you,” I gasped. Hurt crossed Riley’s handsome face. He was like a brother to me now, too. “I don’t want any of my brothers to see this.”

  Understanding replaced the hurt, and he nodded. “We just got a new medic and trauma nurse at the compound. It’s either him or me.”

  It only took me a second to decide. A stranger was better than a member of my family. “Him.”

  “Okay. We’re going to move to the chopper. I’ll ride back with you while Micah and Victor handle all of this and then drive your car back,” he said gently as he helped me sit up. “Where’s your car?”

  Oh, fuck. I named the club I’d been at, and all three of their eyes went wide before they could school their features. Yeah, it was a hard-core Dom club. I’m sure they thought I was going there to be the Dom. I hoped they never learned the truth.

  “We’ll find your keys or hot-wire it,” Victor said, the first to find his voice. I nodded as I glanced away. “Get patched up and then we’ll talk.”

  “Thanks for coming.” I moaned in pain as they picked me up, trying desperately to hold the tarp closed so they didn’t see how destroyed my body was. The agony was almost too much as they moved me, and it took everything I had not to pass out. Riley held me after they laid me down on the seats. I saw Victor’s and Micah’s worried faces before they closed the door and we lifted off.

  “The medic has to keep my secrets, right?” I mumbled, on the edge of consciousness.

  “Yeah, he took the same oath I did. But you’re going to have to tell us all something, Damian. There’s going to be a lot of questions.”

  “I know, but everyone doesn’t have to know every detail,” I replied, hoping that was enough.

  “Okay, brother. Whatever you want. He’s a good guy and excellent at his job. He’ll get you fixed right up.” Riley gently moved my curly, ear-length brown hair off my forehead. “I’m so sorry this happened to you. Micah and Victor will fix this. I don’t want you to worry about anything but ge
tting better.”

  “I killed five humans, Riley,” I whispered, staring up into his blue eyes. “My mangled body is the least of my worries.” His eyes held understanding. Of the several rules vampires, especially warriors, lived by, the most important involved never bringing harm to humans. And when it came to that one, the Council wasn’t ever lenient.

  “You didn’t just randomly kill anyone. They kidnapped you and tortured you. They were going to rape you and probably murder you, Damian. The Council will understand that.”

  “I hope so,” I whispered hoarsely. If not, it would destroy my family. Not just because of whatever punishment they would give me but because both my parents were on the Council. If they didn’t rule in my favor after whatever investigation took place, I couldn’t see my parents still being around those people ever.

  But I could worry about all of that later. I had to. Otherwise it was just too much to think about at the moment and I’d lose my mind. I couldn’t stop seeing their faces as I killed them and what they did to me every time I closed my eyes. That was more than enough for one person to deal with.

  I felt the chopper touch down and opened my eyes. I couldn’t see much, but I guessed we were on the landing pad at the side of the warrior compound. Good. The hospital Riley had was attached to the compound and had its own side entrance. All I could make out in my hazy state was the creamy-white color of the hospital’s exterior and the black doors through which I would be entering. That way I wouldn’t be going in through the main door, everyone watching and seeing the state I was in.

  Riley along with another man lifted me out of the chopper onto a gurney. I whimpered and started struggling the moment his scent hit me.

  “Damian! Damian, it’s okay, brother,” Riley was screaming over the noise of the chopper as it was shutting down. “We’re at the warrior compound. This is Cyrus, the medic I was telling you about.”

  “No, not him,” I cried out and tried desperately to push away from him, but my body had become sluggish and weak.