Michigan Read online

  Table of Contents

  MICHIGAN

  Blurb

  Copyright Acknowledgement

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Trademarks Acknowledgment

  MLR PRESS AUTHORS

  GLBT RESOURCES

  MICHIGAN

  The Sevion Brotherhood, Book Two

  VICKTOR ALEXANDER

  mlrpress

  www.mlrpress.com

  Michigan Sevion is in hell. As a diagnostician at Gelreen Memorial Hospital he has trained to find solutions and answers to all manner of symptoms and problems, but when it comes to his own life he finds himself hopelessly adrift. His sufletul pereche, his mate, Lucas Jaxson, was attacked by Razvan, the monstrous vampire, though Razvan looked like Michigan at the time, a week into their bonding process. Now, Lucas shakes and screams every time Michigan gets close and “the thirst” is getting worse.

  There’s only one way for Michigan to survive “the thirst” and that is for his bond with Lucas to be severed, completely, and the only way for that to happen is for either him or Lucas to die. Michigan can’t even consider such a thing because he’s already falling in love with his “little chef” but he may not have a choice, because Razvan’s still on the loose and he’s still out for blood.

  Copyright Acknowledgement

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright 2014 by Vicktor Alexander

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  Published by

  MLR Press, LLC

  3052 Gaines Waterport Rd.

  Albion, NY 14411

  Visit ManLoveRomance Press, LLC on the Internet:

  www.mlrpress.com

  Cover Art by Deana Jamroz

  Editing by Kris Jacen

  ebook format

  Issued 2014

  This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of International Copyright Law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines and/or imprisonment. This eBook cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this eBook can be shared or reproduced without the express permission of the publisher.

  DEDICATION

  Forever and always for Justin. You will truly never stop being the voice in my head shouting at me to keep going. Thank you for that and for countless performances of “Summer Lovin’” around NYC.

  To Tara whose conversation got me through the last 20,000 words. You really don’t know how much that meant to me. And quite honestly, I still think that not liking someone because they look like a bug is a valid reason.

  Thanks to SoMo whose song “Ride” was on repeat throughout the entire creation of this book. I can probably never listen to that song ever again without thinking of Michigan and Lucas and the kitchen scene, but at least it will bring a smile to my face.

  And as always for the readers. Whenever I hit my “wall” between words 7k and 15k, you all are the reason I keep pushing through. Thank you for your continued support.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Lucas Jaxson was going to kill his best friend.

  No. He was not overreacting, he was going to kill Nishon “Nimo” Moore the second he got the other man alone and away from his son, Isaiah. Lucas was pretty sure killing his father in front of him would scar Zay for life and that just wasn’t something that Lucas wanted to do.

  Even if he thought Nimo deserved to die. Right then.

  “I’m sorry. You said, what now?” Lucas asked once more, certain that when Nimo told him the story for the twelfth time, the details would have changed somewhat.

  “I said, the gorgeous doctor told me he was a vampire, shifted into some kind of monster in front of me, and told me that he wanted to spend his life with me and help me raise Zay all in the same day.” Nimo walked slowly towards the kitchen, his steps measured as if every breath he took was painful.

  “Okay, I’m ignoring the whole vampire, shifting part because you were exhausted, and he was either joking, or he wasn’t, either way, they make some lovely medication that he can take and he’ll be right as rain and forget that whole vampire nonsense. Let’s focus on the big issue here,” Lucas marched towards Nimo and poked him in the shoulder. “You had a gorgeous doctor wanting to date you and help you raise your kid and you said no? Are you out of your effing mind?”

  Lucas growled, hating that Zay sat in the kitchen watching their entire conversation. That wasn’t as effective as it could have been because he hadn’t been able to curse like he wanted to. Nimo had a strict “no profanity-no porn around the child” policy and while the “no porn” thing wasn’t that hard for Lucas, he worked way too hard as a chef at O8, the restaurant, to even think about hooking up with anyone, much less to do much more than fall asleep with his erection in his hand. The whole not being able to curse thing was downright brutal.

  “Daddy? Why is Unca Lucas so mad at you?” Zay asked.

  Nimo turned to smile wanly at his son. “He’s not mad, Zay. He’s frustrated because I don’t want to date Doctor Dakota.”

  Zay’s eyebrows lowered over his petite nose. “What’s fusstated?”

  “Frustrated is…” Nimo hesitated, his eyes flicking back and forth and Lucas wanted to smirk as Nimo tried to figure out a way to describe the emotion in a way that Zay would understand.

  Lucas turned to his “nephew” and leaned close. “It’s mad, sugar plum,” he said with a wink.

  Zay giggled and finished the plate of linguini and Alfredo sauce Lucas had made for lunch before sliding from the stool and rushing out of the room. Lucas didn’t know where he was going but Zay was special and consistent. He’d come and show them whatever it was in a minute.

  Turning back to his best friend, Lucas glared again. “So do you want to tell me again why you rejected a hot doctor? You, who haven’t been laid in, how long?”

  “Sex isn’t everything, Lucas,” Nimo said as he poured himself a glass of milk then put the half empty jug back into the refrigerator. Lucas narrowed his eyes at his friend before shaking his head, knowing he would come back to the absurdity of Nimo drinking milk in the middle of the damn afternoon, later. Especially since he hated milk.

  “The hell it isn’t.” Lucas sighed. “Look, honey. We aren’t exactly the cream of the crop okay? You know that and I know that. We don’t get laid, not by the hot guys, not unless it’s a pity fuck, so when we get chosen, we take it.”

  Nimo quirked an eyebrow at Lucas and scoffed. “Are you really trying to lump you and I in the same category, Lucas?” he shook his head. “I’m a nerd. I accepted that a long time ago. You. Are not.” He flipped his hand up and down Lucas’s body in a disgusted manner. “I mean, god, I wish I looked like you.”

  Lucas scowled at Nimo. “Are we really going to have this argument again Nimo? Because you know every time we do you lose.”

  Nimo squared his shoulders. “Yes, we are.”

  Lucas lifted his hands and started to tick off Nimo’s attributes. �
��You’ve got the gorgeous brown skin, me? I’m a white boy from Mississippi. You’ve got that great curly, black afro. Me? I’ve got my long, straight, plain, brown ponytail. You’ve got your gorgeous light brown eyes. Me? I’ve got my plain green ones. You’re six foot three. I’m five foot, fucking ten. You’ve got a gorgeous little boy. I’m an orphan, with no siblings and no kids of my own. Need I go on?”

  Nimo sighed. “You really don’t see how gorgeous you are Lucas. You say a white boy from Mississippi, but I say gorgeous pale skin with the slightest tan from riding your moped. You say long, straight, plain, brown ponytail. I say thick, chestnut, brown ponytail that hangs to the middle of your back and that when you get it wet it gets wavy and frames your face. Your green eyes are not plain. They’re expressive. They show all of your feelings and emotions. Like right now I know you don’t believe anything that I’m saying, even though I mean every word that’s coming out of my mouth. You think you’re lacking something even though you’re only five foot ten, but you carry yourself like you’re six foot four. At your height a lot of other men are taller than you, and they see you as being at optimum height. And you know what? No kids means that you don’t have to worry about finding a babysitter whenever you want to go out at night. I don’t have that luxury. You are very blessed and fortunate.”

  Lucas smiled at Nimo’s words and leaned forward staring intently at his friend. “And so were you to have a man interested in you, even though you have a kid. So why the fuck did you turn him away?”

  “Because he was a fucking vampire!”

  Lucas took a step back and looked at his friend, shaking his head. It was obvious that whoever this doctor was, this Dakota Sevion, fellow, he’d done a number on Nimo’s brain, because his friend was jacked up. Lucas snorted mentally at the word “jacked” since it made him think of Captain Jack Harkness from Torchwood, his favorite show in the world.

  “Why are you smiling? Oh god. Are you thinking about Torchwood again?” Nimo groaned.

  “I do not think about the show that much!” Lucas protested.

  Nimo snorted. “Please. It’s either the show or Captain Jack and Ianto, or leather, or cooking, or your restaurant, or sex, or Gwen from the show, or if and when they’re going to bring the show back, or how Ianto died, or fanfiction, or comicons, or…”

  Lucas raised his hands. “Okay, okay. I have a slight… fascination, with the show.”

  Nimo pointed at Lucas’s leather wristband that was fashioned just like the one John Barrowman had worn on the show. “Slight fascination?”

  Lucas rolled his eyes. “It’s not an obsession.”

  Nimo laughed. “Whatever.”

  “Unca Lucas! Look!” Zay exclaimed running back into the room holding up a drawing of ten very large men.

  “Wow! Who is that, dumpling?” Lucas asked as he knelt in front of his nephew.

  “I really wish you’d stop calling my son the names of food,” Nimo muttered.

  Lucas ignored Nimo’s petulant remark and focused on Zay who started pointing at the men on the page.

  “These are the vampire doctors at the hospital I went to. This is Daddy’s boyfwiend. Doctor Dakota. Then this is Michigan, he’s fo’ you.”

  “For me?” Lucas was confused. He looked up at a smirking Nimo.

  “Oh yes. Didn’t I tell you? Apparently my vampire has brothers and one of them smelled like you. Zay says that means that you two are meant for each other. His name is Michigan Sevion. No doubt he’ll be coming for you any time now. You’re welcome.”

  Lucas glared at Nimo then stuck out his tongue. “Well, unlike you, I won’t run from any gorgeous, eligible, employed, interested doctor. Not even if he thinks he’s a vampire. I’ll just get him on some really good antipsychotics and live happily ever after.”

  Nodding at Nimo, Lucas turned his attention back to Zay to be introduced to the rest of the “vampire doctors” even as he tried to ignore the churning in his gut and the memories that tried to resurface in his mind.

  § § §

  Lucas had been eight years old and his parents had still been alive. He’d been a happy child. Well, happy as a child could be living in a trailer in Meridian, Mississippi just outside the military base. It had been late one night and his parents had been inside fighting again. Whenever they fought, Lucas’s mother would send him outside to play. Sometimes one of his neighbors would take him into their homes if they saw him outside and it was really late, but most of the time, Lucas would just play with his toys until the shouting was over. Lucas wasn’t sure what they’d been arguing about. Food, money, his father’s mistress that lived a few trailers over from their own, he wasn’t sure, but they were always fussing about something. They would get mad, shout profanities at each other, throw things around the house then go into their bedroom and make a lot of loud animal noises. Then his mother would come to the door in her nightgown, her long brown hair in a tangled mess around her head, looking exhausted and she would smile and say “Lucky? It’s time to come inside and get ready for bed.”

  It was just another night in the Jaxson home.

  Except this night was different.

  He wasn’t sure how he knew, but he did. He felt it in the air. And as he played outside with his toy G.I. Joe soldiers and the Barbie dolls he’d stolen from the little girl across the street after she’d tried to kiss him, he’d looked back at his house to make sure his parents were still there. They were.

  Breathing a sigh of relief, he’d continued playing when a car had pulled into the yard and a man, dressed in an elegant suit had stepped out of the backseat. Two other men, much bigger had climbed out of the front and they’d barely looked at him as they walked past him before walking straight up the stairs to his house.

  The man in the suit had knocked once before opening the door and stepping inside. Lucas had turned around to look up at the two bigger men who stayed outside, their arms folded across their chests, not looking at him, looking like the bad men on the movies his daddy watched at night all the time.

  “I’m so sorry, Mr. Floyd, but we don’t have all of the money,” Lucas heard his father say.

  “That is truly unfortunate, Kevin. You see, when you and Linda entered into this agreement with me, you made a promise that you would have my money today. All of my money. You also said that if you did not, your lives would be forfeit unto me.” The voice that spoke was foreign, it sounded an awful lot like the man from the bank and Lucas knew it was the man in the suit speaking.

  “What does forfeit mean?” he asked the two men standing outside.

  While the one standing farthest from him didn’t speak, the one closest looked at him and he sighed. Walking over to Lucas, he knelt in front of him and reached out to pat the top of Lucas’s head.

  “Hey there, cutie. Do you have a grandma or a grandpa you can go stay with if something happens to your parents?” he asked, his voice a low rumble.

  Lucas bit his lower lip as he tried to think if he had any grandparents still alive. He’d been to a lot of funerals in his eight years. Shaking his head he looked up at the really big man.

  “No. They’re all dead,” he told the stranger.

  The stranger sighed and looked back at the other man before shaking his head. “I’m sorry cutie. But it looks like you’re going to get some new parents and a new house.”

  “What? Why?” Lucas asked.

  “Danny, leave the kid alone,” the other man growled.

  “Tony, I’m just trying to help him so he’s not scared,” Danny said.

  “That’s not our job or our problem.”

  Lucas opened his mouth to ask another question when he heard his mother scream. It wasn’t a long scream and it was cut off quickly. Lucas jumped to his feet and made a move to go inside but he was prevented from doing so when Danny grabbed him and held him in place. Long moments passed before the man in the suit walked out. Blood stained the front of his once pristine dark suit and long fangs protruded from beneath his top lip, blood
running down his chin. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his mouth and stuck the handkerchief back in his pocket. He walked down the steps and stopped in front of Lucas.

  “Enjoy your life human,” he said. “Do great things and be thankful that your father did not borrow more than what he did, else you would be dead as well.” Then he walked away.

  Danny let Lucas go and apologized before he followed Mr. Floyd and Tony to the car. They sped away and Lucas raced inside his home to see the bodies of his parents bleeding on the floor, their throats sliced open.

  Right where two barely distinguishable puncture wounds lay.

  Lucas screamed and screamed until his neighbors arrived and he didn’t stop until the paramedics arrived to sedate him.

  § § §

  “Lucas? Are you okay?” Nimo’s voice penetrated the haze of his mind and Lucas blinked. He shoved away the memories of his parents’ horrific murder as he nodded.