Atlas matched my competitive nature with quickness and skill, and Wes met my intelligence with competence and inquiry. When I reached a blind spot or did something impulsive, they brought me back to earth. When Wes questioned himself or sank into a shame-ridden spiral, we reminded him why we loved him and how cherished he was. And when Atlas needed to vent excess energy, we let him take it out on us again and again and again.
When I was first bound to them, I never thought there would be a time when I would say I was thankful for it. I imagined being pissed at the ancestors for the rest of my life. But now, I understood why it had to happen this way. For me, there were no others.
“I don’t see any signs of vampires,” Atlas said. “No rotting corpses. No amputated body parts.”
“Doesn’t mean they’re not there,” Wes countered. He pulled back the chamber on his pistol and glanced at me. “Should we do this?”
Atlas heaved a deep sigh and opened the car door to step out. I said a quiet prayer to my divine cheerleaders and followed him, cracking my neck and swinging my arms to warm up. My magic pooled in my stomach, coasting out of me and into them, amplifying our strength and reinforcing the protection I’d already placed around them. We silently walked to the front of the building, where Atlas pulled his gun and held it up. Wes walked around him, barrel already aimed, and I went in second, brilliant white light licking off my fingertips.
A loud hiss echoed from our right as a vampire jumped out from the shadows. Gleaming teeth reflected in the moonlight, but Atlas was quicker. He shot the thing in the head, and it fell to the floor, limp and boneless.
“They know we’re here now,” I said as footsteps sounded overhead and fierce, terrifying snarls reverberated around us.
We attacked as a team. Wes fired at one rotting bloodsucker while I fried another with my magic. Atlas nailed a female between the eyes seconds before it tore into Wes’s neck. I scorched a hulking male and flung a knife into another, smiling as the handle stuck out of the bastard’s chest. Wretched blood splattered my face when Wes shot one just as it descended from the second floor to jump on me.
The three of us cleared that building like trained mercenaries, dropping vampires left and right. When we finished the second floor, we thought we were done. We thought we’d gotten them all. But a tiny body shoved out of a corner and tackled me to the ground, managing to get its hands around my neck before I could stop it. For being so small, it was stronger than me, and even when I brought my elbows up to break its hold, it didn’t let go. I tried to blast it with my magic, but I couldn’t breathe, and I struggled to focus.
“Filthy fucking witch,” it roared, its eyes gone red with lust and hunger. “I bet you taste like sugar.”
Wes barreled into the room and shot it three times in the back, but it didn’t move. More disgusting crimson leaked onto my clothes, coating me in the foul-smelling decay. I felt it before it happened. Wes drew on my magic, sucking it deep into himself, and I gave it freely. He held up his hand, and glorious white light poured from his palm, incinerating the vampire on top of me, reducing it to ash and brimstone. It crumpled in my grasp.
I sucked in air as Wes held his hand out to me, yanking me to my feet.
“Thanks,” I croaked.
“Anything for you, sweet girl.” He leaned down to kiss me as Atlas came into the room.
“Fuck,” he said. “We missed one, huh? You okay?”
I nodded, and Atlas wrapped his hand around my neck, tugging me close so he could kiss my temple.
“Let’s torch this place and get out of here,” Wes said, nodding toward the stairs leading to the first floor.
As I followed him, I thought again about where I’d started and how far I’d come. This life wasn’t perfect, but I’d like to think my parents would be proud of me, that they were somewhere in the afterlife, cheering me on.
ATLAS
I’d always hated witches, even while knowing I’d likely be bonded to one. But never in a million years did I think it would be her. We fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. Add in Wes, and the whole picture made sense. She was beautiful and fiery and smart as a whip, and the first time she put a knife to my throat, I thought I’d come in my pants like some prepubescent boy. It was still one of my favorite memories.
As for my brother, I’d always loved him. That love had morphed and changed over the years, but we’d grown to be extensions of each other. There was no me without him. There was no him without me. It probably wasn’t healthy, and anyone with half a brain would say it was fucked up, but screw ’em. Now that we were soul-bound to each other, no one else could ever understand what it was between us.
The other warriors had never said anything to us, and I figured that was because they realized it wasn’t their business. Or maybe they had always suspected we were fucking anyway and didn’t need any confirmation. I didn’t fucking care.
After we set the abandoned building on fire with the dead vampires in it, we drove back to the motel, blasting AC/DC and Led Zeppelin the entire time. Marta sang at the top of her lungs, her carefree smile easing the anxiety in my chest. I’d nearly lost her when Wes left, but that seemed like so long ago, it hardly registered anymore. I was thankful to have her back, have them both back. My brother joined her during the chorus and pumped his hands in the air, adrenaline from a good fight coursing through his veins, making him giddy.
Fuck, I loved seeing them like this. I loved watching them be happy, almost as much as I loved making them happy myself.
I’d once lived to be my father’s perfect soldier. I’d once given everything to this life out of a sense of duty and honor, hardly a care for my own wants and needs. But now, I had the two most precious people in the world next to me, and I understood that nothing was more important.
When we got back to the motel, reeking like a decaying corpse and covered in blood, we stripped off our dirty clothes and huddled together in the tiny shower. There was barely enough room for Marta, let alone the addition of two huge dudes like Wes and myself. But we made it work. I scrubbed the guts out of Wes’s hair while he washed the flaking dried crimson from Marta’s skin, and then the two of them took turns tormenting me with soft kisses and gentle caresses over the areas they knew drove me wild.
Then, we fell into bed. I fucked them both that night before I fucked myself on Wes’s cock. For appearing like such a calm gentleman, the man took his aggression out on us when we were alone. He was all bites and scratches and hard, piercing thrusts. He nutted before I’d even got going.
“Aww,” I teased. “Such a quick trigger. Must be so hard for you. Do you like it when I let you fuck me? Do you like it when I take what I want and leave you panting?”
“Fuck off,” he managed to whimper.
Marta laughed and positioned herself under me with her cunt in my face, which I took advantage of by stuffing my nose between her legs and sucking her clit in my mouth. She reciprocated by coaxing my cock to the back of her throat, milking me from the outside while Wes did the same from the inside.
