by Deja Black
“Not you, Aiden. You don’t see us as a toy,” Dan said with conviction. He didn’t know why Aiden was trying to terrify him, but he knew how he felt. He knew his heart, and yeah, maybe he didn’t trust himself before with Keith, but he knew that what he shared with Aiden was so much more. He knew Aiden was more.
“You’re right, Dan. I don’t. I am a watcher. I have chosen to aid man, to protect man from my brothers, rather than destroy you. I have made my choice, and because of this, I have remained alone.” There was a sadness to his words, a hollowness.
“You said you exist on two levels, can travel dimensions. Why are you alone?”
Aiden sighed. The sun was rising, the sky cast in pinks and oranges. Dan didn’t know how he had missed sleep, but with what Aiden was telling him, he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to go back to sleep again. How many 5-hour Energy Shots or Red Bulls could a body survive on before it totally wiped out? He wasn’t tired now, though. With Aiden he felt rested, at peace, even if what Aiden was saying to him was more than a little scary.
“Every sandman has a period of time in which they may visit the Earth and transition. That transition may allow them to move between worlds for a period, but without their mate, their coimeádaí, they will be forced to choose.”
“Coimeádaí?”
“It is Irish. It means keeper. Coimeádaí is the title of a person that may share souls with a sandman, or an Ole-Luk-Oie to others, enabling him to be tied to the terrestrial Earth and not just the dream world. As for the word? Yes, you have heard it in your dreams, the nightmares you shared with my brother.”
“That’s not the only time I have heard it, Aiden.” The blush felt warm over his skin when he thought about their time in his bedroom.
“Yes. I have said it as well. Let me finish, Daniel. Okay?” A soft kiss was placed against his brow.
“Okay, go on.”
“There is no designated time for a transition. Some sandmen have been known to transition faster, some slower. Not every sandman has had the chance to choose. We exist without time, beyond time, and before we realize it, the transition is upon us. We simply are. The acquiring of a mate will provide us a path between the dream world and the world that you see. The bond shared, coimeádaí, is a link needed if there is a desire to remain connected to the human world. Otherwise we will only be able to pass through dreams, never having a solid composition or body. In a sense we are immortal, but that immortality can be lonely without a mate, without a companion. We are unsure about our mates, drawn to them, but sometimes not quite realizing when we have found them. It is the heat, the fire, and the depth of feeling that allows us to know that we have found our coimeádaí.” Aiden watched him, eyes glowing lightly.
“And Keith?”
“He is a sandman. He is an Ole-Luk-Oie.”
They sat quietly, watching the sunset, Dan breathing in Aiden’s cinnamon scent, Aiden playing across his skin. Dan wasn’t surprised. He had recognized the monster in his dreams, knew without realizing it that the demon was Keith, but if what Aiden said was true, didn’t Keith need him? Why abuse him, debase him? Why imprison him?
As if Aiden could read his thoughts, he said, “You were never his coimeádaí, Daniel. You are mine.”
“Why?”
“Why what, Daniel? Be specific. You’re a teacher, after all. What do you all say, ‘Use your words’?”
Fucker. Dan shot up, his shirt falling from his arms as he stood. He faced Aiden, a sandman. A man? What was under that skin, under those soft clothes? What was behind those ever-changing eyes?
“Why didn’t you stop him? Why didn’t you tell me?” The fire from his rage smoldered within, overwhelmed by his hurt at being cast aside by someone—something—who should have been there to protect him.
“Stop him from taking you? I didn’t want you,” Aiden nearly thundered. Wolves poured into the light, waiting. His words were quieter as he contained himself. “I didn’t want you, coimeádaí.”
Dan moved back against the railing, supporting himself as his knees buckled. “Daniel. My name is Daniel to you. I am no one’s coimeádaí. So, because you didn’t want me”—Dan ground out the words—“you allowed that sick fuck to nearly destroy me. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I am a toy to you!” Tears drenched Dan’s words as he forced them out. All of this could have never happened. He wouldn’t have ended up in the hospital, had to lie about bruises. He wouldn’t have been terrified to leave what should have been home to him if only Aiden had done something, anything. He wouldn’t have lived the nightmare that was his life.
“Please, Daniel. Listen to me. Listen. You came here because you needed to understand. I am not finished. I am not, you stubborn jackass. Listen to me!” Standing, Aiden grasped Dan’s arms, slamming his body tighter against his own. Ignoring their audience, Aiden whispered, “I made a mistake, Daniel. I made a mistake, and I am so sorry. Give me a chance to explain. I wasn’t finished. You promised.”
“I don’t want to. I want to leave you here and never see you again, but there is something hunting me out there, something like you that I don’t know how to fight, so I’ll listen, but when this is over, if this is ever over—”
Aiden’s lips swallowed his words, swallowed his protests as Dan fell into his arms, overwhelmed. He drew Aiden closer as he tore at his mouth, the two of them dueling with their tongues. Aiden devoured him. When Dan was finally allowed up for air, he could only gasp for breath.
“When this is over, Daniel, we’ll decide together.”
Aiden gathered Dan close, kissed him softly, drawing him in as they walked back into his home.
“HOW ABOUT something to eat while we talk? An omelet? I have been complimented on my Santa Fe many times.”
Dan watched as Aiden draped his body deliciously against the counter. “You cook. You eat. You’re nearly human,” Dan grumbled.
“But not.” Aiden’s smile was sad as he turned to search through his mammoth refrigerator.
“Well, why?” Dan asked as he sat on a barstool. He still had so many questions.
Aiden didn’t pretend to not know what Dan was talking about, instead asking one of his own. “Daniel, do you know how long I have walked this earth, visited human dreams, hoped for change?”
“No, Aiden, I do not.” As Aiden bent forward to dig in a drawer, Dan could see the divide between those yummy cheeks. A nibble. That’s all he needed. A taste, a nibble.
“Neither do I. Your Alpha wasn’t even a thought when I became. He is a child to me, but he is a wolf I respect greatly.”
And with that, the thought of giving Aiden’s ass the rimming it so truly deserved vanished. “Oh.”
“Yes, oh.” Aiden turned to face Dan, a smirk on his lips. “Caught you looking.” He picked up a pan and a mixing bowl and gathered vegetables. Dan watched as he searched again.
An array of seasonings was placed on the counter. Satisfied, Aiden continued. “Do you think Conner’s men….” Aiden nodded his agreement when Dan looked at him like he was a crazy man. “Probably not, huh? Oh, well. Their loss.”
Dan had to admit that Aiden’s Santa Fe omelet was indeed very good, and coupled with a mimosa rather than root beer, it went down very well. He didn’t realize how hungry he truly was before he was virtually licking his plate clean.
“I could make you another, you know.”
And there it was, the smirk Dan knew oh so well. Embarrassed, Dan shook his head, negating the need. He was full. Any more would just be greed.
He looked up to find Aiden watching him. His eyes were soft, questioning. Dan wasn’t sure how to respond, didn’t know what Aiden needed.
“Keith and I have been around, known of one another, for many centuries. As a watcher, I have seen him and others of my kind, my brothers, playing in the human world. Like me, some have chosen to aid mankind, soothe the pain and loss. Some are firefighters, others are teachers, still others are multibillionaires doing philanthropic work. We have chosen to live our countless years t
his way, content that someday this endlessness will have an end and we can become ethereal. Some wish for the elusive mate who will grant them completeness.” Aiden rose and cleared away the dishes. He pressed a button, revealing a hidden dishwasher.
“But there is a darker sort out there. They are not satisfied with the years the gods have allowed us, choosing instead to become a god themselves. They know that in order to stay, to remain, they must have a connection, a keeper. Someone like you.” Aiden looked out the window as he talked. “I saw you that night. The night that Keith saw you, attempted to claim you, I saw you. You were beautiful. The way you moved, the way your body was an extension of the music that played for only you. Gods, it stopped my heart, stopped this body, and I couldn’t breathe.
“Daniel, I was so ready, ready to leave, ready to stop making decisions for others. I was ready to leave the hospital, where after so many years, the pain had begun to become insufferable. It wasn’t just accidents, unpredictable births, and depression anymore. The brutality of man against man. I once treated a baby whose own mother tried to kill it, tried to end its existence. I comforted that little life in its dreams, and the only thing she could think of was suckling at her mother’s breast. What could I do for that tiny one as it cried and cried for someone who should love it but didn’t? I was tired, Daniel. I had decided to welcome my end rather than fear it. And there you were, swaying that sexy ass of yours, living the music, being. I knew what you were to me, and I turned away. Too late, I realized that I was not alone in my understanding. Keith was there, seeking, and he saw me see you. He decided to take you, and I let him.”
The omelet Dan had enjoyed so much threatened to make an encore appearance.
“You have to know that I was not aware how malevolent Keith had become.” He walked around the kitchen island, took Dan’s hand, and led him down into a spacious room. The chairs were large, and Aiden brought Dan into one with him, the chill of the butter-soft leather dissipating as it adjusted to the heat of their bodies. Dan was numb and allowed Aiden to move him where he willed, powerful arms surrounding him. “A sandman has an option. Leaving the Earth, he may live, bright as the sun, or become a thing of nightmares, complete with claws. His skin will rot, decay, or become discolored. His fingers are talons. Sometimes he may eat his victim to maintain life here on Earth. The chosen will sleep, unaware, as he uses his sharp teeth to devour them whole. He only needs to feast once per night, but he will sometimes choose to kill for fun. He resembles in nature the demons in the underworld, absent the horns, the mythical creatures described by man. To remain connected, he will latch on to a human.”
Aiden rose and stood before him. Slowly, gracefully, he knelt.
Dan watched, mesmerized, and waited for him to go on. Lights glowed in the background. The sunlight was a nonissue in the room. It was dark as night with the heavy curtains closed, opaque against the sunlight. Aiden simply watched him, doing nothing. He didn’t flicker. He could not remember Aiden flickering once while they were alone. And yet, those eyes, they moved, danced in the light. His skin glowed where he kneeled, an illumination lifting from his skin, surrounding him.
“Latch on to a coimeádaí?”
“Yes.”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“What are you doing?”
Aiden hadn’t moved from his spot in front of Dan. He waited, arms in front of him, watching Dan carefully. The glow became brighter, the drifts of light like questing fingers reaching out to touch him.
“Whatever you will have me do.”
His response gave Dan pause. He took in Aiden’s posture, his calmness, his acceptance. “Earlier you said that for a sandman,” Dan said slowly, and Aiden’s smile encouraged him, “to have a connection to Earth, he must be claimed, owned, mated.”
“Yes, Daniel. I did, and we must. That is what Keith does not understand. He believes that for our time to be extended here that he must simply find a coimeádaí, keep it. A watcher knows that it is the other way around. The coimeádaí must keep the sandman, own him, claim him. Within the skin that houses our being is a body beyond what you could ever imagine. I am a powerful entity, Daniel, greater than whatever children’s tale could describe. I can help or destroy. I can create hope or inspire desolation. I can make a child exist, or I can make a womb barren. I am the blazing light of the sun, and I am the coldest, darkest pit of hell you will ever know. It’s not me who has to own you, Daniel. You must own me. You must decide how the power within me is to be wielded when even I cannot make the right decision, when I am overwhelmed by all I face. You would handle the weapon.” Aiden looked deep into Dan’s eyes. “Be able to use me for good or use me to destroy. That is why I did not want you. I am dangerous, and to not have the right keeper, to not have a man or woman with honor, integrity? That would destroy me.
“Keith seeks to become Morpheus, the god of dreams, greater than any sandman in existence. He thinks to make that happen, he would need you. With you as coimeádaí, he would be able to control every one of us, to place us at your heel and thus at his own hoof. He wants to own you but refuses to understand that you are the keeper. He is too proud to submit to you.”
Dan let Aiden’s words sink in. Aiden nodded toward a nearby lamp, and Dan watched as light immediately settled over the golden man, hair blacker than midnight from the crown of his head to its fall down his back, a body covered in a T-shirt and sweats, a body he hungered to see. From the first moment he met him, Dan had wanted Aiden. Did he want to claim him? He wanted to sink his dick into that delicious ass, spill his seed in his tunnel, and watch it drip out. He craved that. But did he want this connection, to have such power at his fingertips? Did he want to have the say-so in whether a life should be given or taken? Have the ability to control through the subconscious? Hell, was he even capable?
“Stand up,” Dan commanded, his voice firm, and without question, Aiden stood. “Turn around.” Aiden trembled.
“Do you reject me, Daniel?”
“Shut up, Aiden.” He supposed the man could take having him turn around as rejection, but Dan would much rather enjoy all that was offered. Seeing that lush, round bottom was one of them. “Take off your top. Tear it off for me.” He listened as the sound of tearing fabric reached his ears.
The request completed, Aiden began to turn back.
“No. Face away from me. I want to see all of you. Your pants too, remove those. All of it.” He watched that fabulous body intently as clothes were shed, revealing Aiden’s glorious body. Dan went on. “Slower. Take them off slower.”
Aiden slowed for Dan, taking first one leg down, then the other until his firm ass was completely uncovered.
“And would you submit to me, Aiden?”
There was silence. Quiet. Dan waited for his response.
“Submit? Allow myself to be led, controlled? What does your brother say? My arm. Your law. I would give you all,” Aiden said softly.
“I could almost accept that, Aiden, if you wanted me. How do I know this submission is what you want, what you need? How do I know that I am what will make you happy? Face me.”
In his peripheral, he knew Luc and Jack watched while trying to make themselves invisible, but he could feel their interest. Suddenly a possessiveness he didn’t realize he had rose in him.
“Leave,” Dan demanded.
Shocked, Aiden moved to leave.
“No, not you. You stay.” His voice rose. “Luc and Jack, leave. This is a private moment, and I won’t ask Aiden for anything else with you here as an audience.” The wolves consulted one another, but Dan knew it was Conner’s thoughts they sought. In agreement, they went outside the door, leaving Dan and Aiden alone—or as alone as was possible while still remaining as sentries.
“Answer, Aiden.”
“I was afraid that I could not trust you.”
“And do you trust me now?”
Aiden’s hesitation spoke volumes. “I trust that you have good intentions, that you want to ma
ke the right decisions. I have to be honest and say that I am not confident in your ability to keep me.” Aiden had a beautiful body, powerful and muscular. He was a sculptor’s dream. “I’m a lot to take in, Daniel. What would you do with all of this, all of me?” Aiden stretched out his arms, his cockiness returning twofold. He drew his hands along his form as if he were a valuable showpiece, the glow tracing his movements.
“Show me.”
“Show you?”
“Yes, show me all of you.”
Aiden looked back at him, confused. He stood before Dan naked, beautiful. Breathtaking. Completely mouthwatering. But it wasn’t this corporeal flesh Dan wanted to see, although he practically drooled with anticipation. No, he wanted to see the being who had saved him in his nightmares, who came to him in his dreams.
“Come on, beautiful. Stop being a peacock and reveal yourself to me.”
Aiden stepped back, understanding. His shock was apparent, his fear visible for Dan to see. “No.”
“If I am your coimeádaí, then that decision is not yours. Reveal yourself to me. Let me see you for who you really are. You can’t ask me to believe this if you don’t show me. I have to know.” Dan waited for a response. When none came, he continued. “Do you want to be mine, Aiden? Do you want me to claim you?”
“I—” Aiden began, none of his earlier cockiness visible. Instead, he was nervous, unsure.
Maybe forcing Aiden was not the right thing to do. Was there a handbook for this? What were the parameters?
Dan opened his arms. He stretched out his legs on the seat. “How about this instead for now?” Maybe the trust had to go both ways. He needed to trust Aiden, and Aiden needed to trust him.
Aiden watched him suspiciously for a moment. “I’m bigger than you.”
“Yeah, you are. But not too long ago, when you lost it in my father’s home, I held you just like this. You didn’t hurt me then, won’t hurt me now.”
A few minutes passed before Aiden’s fabulously naked body gingerly lay against his own.