by Joey W. Hill
My surrender will give you back your faith. I want it to do that.
He spoke in his mind as if Keldwyn could hear him, as if they shared a vampire-servant bond, for Reghan had spoken the truth to Keldwyn. There was no closer relationship in the vampire world, and Uthe found himself wishing for the impossible.
In one effortless move, Keldwyn flipped him over onto the bed. Uthe smelled the fragrant oil he’d shown Keldwyn earlier, felt the slippery heat of it injected in his ass only a blink before Keldwyn’s cock shoved so deep into him he curled his hands around the frame of the cot to hold on. Keldwyn wasn’t making an idle threat. He pounded into Uthe as if he would put him through the wall, and spoke Fae words that Uthe didn’t understand. The savage passion of them had his own cock throbbing.
“Don’t you dare come,” Kel hissed against his ear, fingers wrapping around Uthe’s dick and squeezing. “Not unless you want to lose your chance to be inside me.”
He would hold out against any torment for that. Uthe gritted his teeth as the Fae realized his resolve and tortured him with it, working his cock in tune with his own thrusts. “Bastard,” he choked out, and Kel let out a nasty chuckle against his ear.
He released him to grip Uthe’s throat, jerking his face up for another kiss. Uthe felt overpowered in a way he hadn’t ever experienced. By the Cross, the male could fuck. Uthe had watched a thousand vampire dinners where indescribable sexual games were played with servants, pushing them to torturous and tumultuous levels of desire before they were finally permitted to release. Kel needed no trappings, no elaborate games. He was covering Uthe, holding him, directing him, and Uthe was yearning for more, a complete takeover of mind and heart. He also wanted to challenge Kel, bring sword edge to sword edge, so when Uthe fell to his knees, it would be under the blow of a stronger opponent.
It was all a jumbled, disoriented reaction, but not the tricks of his mind he’d come to fear. Pure lust constricted him like rope, impossible to mistake for anything else. This kind of need could never be an illusion. It was stark, painful, blissful reality.
Keldwyn climaxed with a harsh series of grunts, the cot squeaking and in danger of giving way. He had one foot on the floor to give him more leverage for deeper penetration, and Uthe felt every flex of that taut thigh against his buttock. His ass was burning, might be bleeding, and he didn’t really care. His cock was stiff against his belly, wanting only one thing. One destination.
Keldwyn slid slowly from him, making Uthe groan. “There you are, vampire.” When Keldwyn grasped his cock again in a firm hand, Uthe bucked against his grip. “You have held nothing back from me. Almost. I grant your request to be inside me—if you call me Master.”
Uthe stiffened. No matter the direction of his thoughts, validating it with that one significant word was a far-too-precarious road. “I only have one Master, my lord.”
“I believe that is my point, Lord Uthe.” Keldwyn’s tone sent a ripple of heat through him, purring, seductive and implacable. His fingers slipped away and he rose. A rustling of clothing suggested he’d completely stripped off the leggings he’d unlaced to fuck Uthe. In his current state of pounding, throbbing need, just the idea he was standing naked so close to Uthe was enough to send him over. Kel squatted next to the cot, his touch on Uthe’s brow, sliding along his jaw. “On your back, vampire. I would make sure you are well-oiled.”
Another torment. As Uthe complied, Keldwyn applied lubricant to Uthe’s cock with knowledgeable fingers. All the way to the root and back, around the balls. They didn’t need the oil, but that slippery, heated, squeezing feeling made his cock convulse further. His breath clogged in his throat as he stared up at Keldwyn’s silhouette, the hint of glittering eyes.
“If you come now, you will get nothing, won’t you?” Keldwyn mused. “You must bear this as long as I wish. Or until you call me Master and ask me to cease so you can be inside me.”
“You think blackmail will work? It won’t…mean anything. It’s a moment, that’s all.”
“Yes, rationalize it that way if you need to do so. We will both know better, will we not?”
“Islam…means to submit.” Uthe gritted his teeth. “Trusting that something outside yourself will be—”
“—there when you most need it.” Keldwyn rubbed a thumb under the corona, and Uthe let out another guttural sound as Keldwyn dropped to his knees by the cot and put his lips over Uthe’s slit, clever tongue teasing, lips sucking pre-come from it.
“There are songs…Sufi poetry…that refer to that something outside yourself.” Uthe grasped at the words with desperation, trying to hold onto some semblance of sanity. “Yaar…beloved. It can mean God. But also…friend…confidante… Everything you need and want. One to whom you desire to give your devotion and obedience… Ah, holy God…forgive me…”
“It is the same meaning then, is it not? Master and Yaar.” Keldwyn bent over him, his breath on Uthe’s face, hair falling along his brow and cheek. “Come inside me now, Lord Uthe. I will not force an answer to the question. I believe it’s already there, and it will be all the sweeter to see you arrive there on your own. Move over.”
Uthe put his back against the wall and Keldwyn gracefully settled before him. The cot was narrow, but when two were going to be pressed together as one, it worked well enough, especially when both of them had preternatural grace and balance. Uthe closed his eyes, no matter the darkness, wanting to fully savor the male’s back against his chest, the muscular ass his thighs lifted up to cradle. Keldwyn didn’t seem to mind that Uthe was slick with sweat from the effects of daylight. He’d pulled his hair over his shoulder so when Uthe wrapped an arm over his biceps and chest, he could put his mouth against Keldwyn’s exposed nape.
Uthe remembered his fantasy of seeing Keldwyn on all fours, looking back at him over the incomparable view of a narrow, tight ass. He dropped his hand to slide a palm over Keldwyn’s flank now, the upper thigh. He wanted to take his time, but he couldn’t. Keldwyn had made sure need was raging through him like the sun’s fire. Uthe gripped the male’s buttock, using the hold to position himself at the tight opening. As he began to press inward, the slickness of the oil drew him forward. His control snapped.
Uthe pushed into the tight ring of muscles, moaning in agonized ecstasy as Keldwyn gripped him like a glove. He began to thrust immediately, the oil sinking in, wrapping itself around cock, balls and everything attached to them. The pleasure of it spiraled like a wild tornado. He’d have said the oil had some kind of aphrodisiac in it, but he’d had it in his ass, and it was no more than a good lubricant. It was him. He hadn’t taken a male in so long, denying himself because he knew it was like a drug, the desire to bury himself inside, to hold that connection. With someone who mattered, who was already inside him in another kind of way… Insane pleasure surged through him at Keldwyn’s grunt, registering the effort of taking him. He hadn’t thought of such vanity in some time, but he was glad he was sufficiently endowed to impress a lover, to cause some pleasurable discomfort.
Kel reached back and put a hand over Uthe’s hip, pressing him even deeper. Uthe was bucking and rocking against him, thrusting like he would die if he couldn’t keep fucking him forever. The climax boiled in his balls, getting more intense by the second.
“Go now, Varick,” Keldwyn demanded. “Let me hear you.”
He strangled on his cries, they were that powerful, ripping from his throat and chest. Keldwyn had his other hand curled around the frame of the cot and Uthe found a way to snake his hand up under him and cover it, hold onto his fingers and the iron frame at once, the whole thing creaking at the force of their movements. But he wouldn’t leave the Fae Lord without his own pleasure. As he was starting to finish, he lowered his other hand, gripped Keldwyn’s cock. Keldwyn dropped his head back and fuck, his throat was right there, pulsing. Uthe’s fangs brushed it. He tried to draw back, but Keldwyn spoke in a rasp.
“Can you bite me without drinking? Is your control that good?”
I
n answer, Uthe sank his fangs into his shoulder. Blood spurted from beneath his hold. It took an effort beyond description not to pull the blood into his mouth, to let it run wasted down Keldwyn’s chest. But Keldwyn started to come, then. With stunned pleasure, Uthe realized it was his bite that had pushed him over the edge.
Even in climax, Keldwyn’s movements had the primal grace of a sinuous, silk-skinned creature of myth. As he finished, Uthe slipped an arm fully around his chest and the other around his waist. Slowly, he retracted his fangs, wondering at the shudder that went through Kel’s body at the retreat. “I’m not drinking, just making sure the punctures close up,” he said, using the coagulants in his tongue to do just that.
Uthe wanted to push him to his back, lap the blood off his chest, but he didn’t. It was as he’d thought. Keldwyn had fed him in the cave out of necessity, and had handled it respectfully, but that one time didn’t eradicate his cultural revulsion to it. Even though the thought sacrificed some of Uthe’s pleasure with the painful twist it caused inside him, Uthe wouldn’t let it ruin the moment. Denying himself the taste of Keldwyn’s blood was a trade-off for the other pleasures the Fae had just granted him.
He pressed his face into the back of the Fae Lord’s neck. Keldwyn put his hand up over his forearm. They were silent, Keldwyn breathing, Uthe’s heart thudding. In this contented position, the additional exertion and the sun’s progress started to have their effect. All vampires, even the older ones like himself, experienced daylight lethargy, though normally he could stay up at least until noon. But they were far above the ground here. “I may drop off on you,” Uthe said, hearing the telltale slur in his voice. “Apologies, my lord.”
“No apologies necessary. You have more than earned the rest.” Keldwyn’s voice was neutral, which usually meant he was examining variables. He wouldn’t reveal his thoughts until he had a firm grasp of the information he was sorting. Uthe respected and understood that, though he did wonder what the Fae was thinking about. Was he considering the condition he’d imposed on Uthe, what it was becoming? Did it matter? He was a vampire and Kel was a Fae Lord. In the end, this could be no more than what it had started out to be, a temporary alliance.
The strength of the feelings Uthe was having demonstrated how out of practice he was in a relationship like this. He wasn’t going to make a fool of himself and cause embarrassment for either of them. They were both far too old for such misconceptions.
Why was he even debating it? One way or another, Uthe would not survive much beyond the quest, if at all. Either his mind or his body would be gone, or both. For a short time, he’d forgotten that, hadn’t he? No, he hadn’t, because he hadn’t let go of the male. He had both arms wrapped around him, holding him so close. He’d never held someone like this. Someone he didn’t want to relinquish.
“Uthe.” Keldwyn gripped his forearm. The Fae paused as if he were going to say something significant, but in the end he went with the practical. “I assume you do not wish to go back to Council headquarters, but to the Fae portal, once we land outside Savannah?”
“Right,” Uthe said drowsily. “I’ve already said my good-byes there.” There was no sense in going back, in feeling that pain again.
There would be plenty enough of that going forward.
* * *
Uthe slept deeply, but when he woke at twilight and found he was alone, a weight settled on his shoulders. He made himself sit up and used the adjacent water closet to wash up, get dressed. Turning on the overhead light, he studied the cot. There was blood on the sheets, and Keldwyn’s ejaculate was an additional splatter across the floor. He used paper towels to wipe that off the tile. The staff of the jet were second marked, used to cleaning up after vampires, but for reasons he couldn’t explain, he didn’t want them handling the remains of Keldwyn’s release. He passed his fingers over the bloodstains. Lifting his head, he saw a folded pile of clothing on the small chair in the corner. Keldwyn had left a note on top of it.
“So you blend.”
Unless Keldwyn could conjure textiles out of the air, and maybe he could, he assumed the Fae had brought the clothes on the plane. Uthe donned the brown leggings and a linen tunic with a belt and a small pouch. The supple skin boots were like those Keldwyn often wore. Helga had asked the Fae Lord once from what animal they came, because she couldn’t identify the origin. Keldwyn had deflected the question with an enigmatic smile, so it must be a trade secret of the artisans who made them.
It was probably vampire skin.
Uthe snorted at the thought and finished his preparations. Kneeling, he began his twilight prayers. He started with meditation, progressed from there to reciting paternosters, and then submitted himself to God’s will, praying to act in His Name in all ways. He paused then, holding off on the Amen.
“While I know our quest is of the highest importance, I pray that Keldwyn will not become a casualty in it. As your use of me draws to a close, I ask your protection for him, Great Lord, so he may continue to serve your purposes long after my departure from this life. A believer is not defined by his words or religion, but in his deeds. I believe his heart is firmly in Your camp. Amen.”
Rising, he clasped his fingers around the Templar seal pendant containing the sorceress’s magic. He’d considered putting it in the pouch, but he always wore it, finding comfort in passing his fingertips over the worn imprint of the two knights, and had decided it would remain safest on his neck. He also remembered Keldwyn’s fingers sliding beneath the chain, tugging on it, and didn’t wish to relinquish the sensory memory. He could always put it in the pouch later.
Pausing by the bed once more, he ripped a square of the sheet stained with the jeweled drops of Keldwyn’s blood, and tucked it into the pouch. Ignoring the whys of the compulsion, he opened the door and entered the main cabin of the airplane. Keldwyn was in one of the comfortable reclining chairs and reading a newspaper, legs crossed. A mimosa was at his elbow. It was such an unexpected picture, Uthe paused to take it in. The stewardess, a second mark named Reena, dimpled at his appearance. “My lord, I hope you rested well. Can I bring you anything?”
“One of what he’s having looks fine.”
“Certainly.”
Keldwyn creased the paper into a half fold and set it aside, giving Uthe a penetrating look from head to toe. “The clothes suit you.”
“It was good that you had them on hand.” It was ridiculous to feel awkward, wasn’t it? By the Cross, they were both well over a thousand years old. He sat down across from Keldwyn, but when he met Kel’s eyes, he flushed like a maid. As Kel smiled slowly, Uthe sighed. “Shut up,” he said. “Not a word.”
“I think it is charming that you can still be shy.”
“If I throw you out of the plane at this altitude, I’ll discover if your wings are vestigial.”
Keldwyn leaned forward, clasping his hands between his knees. His outfit was similar to Uthe’s, only embellished with embroidery around the loosely laced neckline. It drew the eye to the tanned skin beneath and the fine, silky chest hair. He was wearing his hair loose today, so it spilled forward over his shoulders and shorter wisps of it drifted along his strong jaw and teased his slash of a cheekbone.
“I find it…stimulating, that you’ve not had a male lover in so long.”
“Stimulating? How should I interpret that?” Uthe asked warily.
“I feel an overwhelming need to possess you in ways that are against the laws of nature. And a few ways that are every bit about the laws of nature.” No subtlety in his expression now. Keldwyn’s dark eyes practically glowed like embers, so piercing and intent, Uthe felt pinned in the chair by them.
He wanted to tell Keldwyn he was not a good long term investment. He wanted to reach out and touch his face, trace the absurdly well-defined cheekbones. He wanted to thank him for the journey they’d taken together in the night. But he’d just vowed he wasn’t going to make this embarrassing for either of them. “It is good you are finding pleasure in the arrangement you de
manded.”
In a blink, Keldwyn’s face was devoid of any emotion. Uthe met his stare without flinching, though his own words left a burn inside his chest. He’d said the wrong thing. But damn it all, it couldn’t be sound wisdom to treat this as more than it could be, no matter how much more it felt like it was. Could it?
“It is good we are both finding pleasure in it. I would dislike to think you are merely enduring my attentions.” There was a faint trace of mockery to Keldwyn’s voice, and Uthe flashed back to that moment in the dark when Keldwyn had spoken of losing his faith. Which was just another way of saying his heart had been broken beyond repair.
“Kel…”
“I have changed my mind about our arrangement.” Keldwyn picked up the paper again. “You are released from it. I will not demand anything from you again, Varick.” His eyes locked with Uthe’s. “From here forward, if there is something you need or desire from me, you will have to ask for it.”
Chapter Ten
Be without desires, serve only the Lord’s Will. Those words had always been a comfort to him. Right now, they were anything but. He might be a novice in newfound infatuation, enough to make him blush, but he had a thousand years of experience in understanding people. Keldwyn had opened Uthe to the pleasures of that infatuation, and now held its benefits out of reach, demanding that if he wanted more, he had to ask.
He wanted Uthe to beg for his favor. Such was his power, and the depth of the connection that had lingered from their night together, that Uthe felt the allure of it as soon as the words left his mouth. A sexual Dominant could exert considerable strength of will. Uthe had been surrounded by vampires all his life, watched them explore the deepest realms of the soul that existed between Dominant vampire and submissive servant. But he’d stood apart from that.