In the Beat of a Wing {boyxboy}

Chapter Thirty-Four

~Thursday 4th April 2013~

"How's our angel treating you, Mal? He's certainly brightened your mood," Reivon teased, lapping at the blood oozing sullenly from the puncture marks in Slate's wrist. If Malcolm hadn't heard Slate offer his blood to Reivon, he would think the man hadn't even noticed, too enamoured by whatever he was looking at on his phone.

"He's amazing," Malcolm didn't over or under exaggerate his affections for Eden, he adored him and he was well aware that his friends knew that, "he's been really happy lately since his father came back into his life."

"Fixed his daddy issues then?" Reivon smirked wryly, that wicked glint in his dark eyes.

"He never had daddy issues, Rei," Malcolm muttered with a roll of his eyes, thanking his brother when he refilled his coffee mug.

"And how has he been coping with your other side?" Malcolm went quiet, averting his eyes away from his friends around the table, "I know you haven't stopped summoning it," Arian sounded more than disgruntled, he had clearly followed in their mother's footsteps and used the 'quiet disappointment' tactic.

"I haven't summoned him around Eden since that day, not directly anyway. I know Eden still wants to try though, and I'm happy to oblige. You might not trust the other side of me but I do. If I don't trust myself, who else can I trust?" Arian merely shook his head, walking back into the kitchen silently. Malcolm wasn't looking for any sort of approval from his brother, he simply wanted him to be open-minded.

"I'm meeting with Mitchell later on today, we're planning a surprise party for Edee's birthday tomorrow at his house. You're all invited," Malcolm didn't want to dwell on what his younger brother deemed poor decision making, he wanted to keep the mood as light as possible.

"What do we get him?" Leon piped up from the head of the table, having been lost in his thoughts for the previous few minutes.

"Whatever you want," Malcolm said with a shrug, "he hates money being spent on him, so probably something expensive," a sly smile weaved its way onto Malcolm's lips as he imagined that pretty blush staining Eden's face when he opened the pricey gifts. There was something about the way his boy squirmed that was so appealing to Malcolm, he took the opportunity to cause it whenever possible.

"Is that pretty little twink of a brother going to be there?" Malcolm regretted having mentioned Penn to his friends, it seemed to have caught Reivon's attention more than he would have liked.

"Penn isn't out yet, Rei," Malcolm reminded the vampire for probably the three hundredth time, "you can't go groping him in front of his family or anything."

"I'm well aware, Mal, and I can be rather sneaky when I want to be. I'll keep my hands off him, I simply want him to know that I'm quite happy to be used for a little experimenting."

"You gonna screw your way through the entire male side of Eden's family, Rei?" Slate scoffed, chuckling lowly, "if you bed Penn, there'll only be one brother left untouched. He might feel singled out," Malcolm refrained from snapping at Slate, choosing to clench his jaw instead to stop the flow of words that wanted to tumble from his lips. He didn't like to be reminded that Reivon had had his hands all over Eden, whether the vampire had lost his interests with the boy or not, Malcolm was a jealous character. He always would be.

"I don't think Mila would appreciate that," Malcolm remarked dryly, causing the two men to frown subtly, "Nola's wife, they've been married for a few months, I don't think she would be too happy if you screwed him."

"Shame," Reivon feigned hurt but Malcolm was well aware that he didn't care, straight men were of no interest to him, obviously, "I'll have to put all my focus on the elder then, I wonder if he tastes as good as-"