A Marked Man

by Kira Stone

  Chapter 2 -- The Arrangements

  The familiar farmhouse beckoned to him as they crested the last hill. Sebastian wondered if his feelings of homecoming were due to his fond memories of the place, or from Forest, the living ghost who served as a security force and a servant for his friends.

  Greeting to Sebastian of the Green Mountain Clan.

  The brush of mind-to-mind communication tickled his brain. “Uh, greetings to you, Forest. How’ve ya been?”

  Amusement melded with the words as he replied, When you’re dead, every new day is a good one.

  Sebastian didn’t agree. He’d been dead for the last fifty years. He was just now beginning to feel as though his afterlife was worth living.

  “Hello, Forest,” Teake said softly as he caught up to Sebastian.

  Seb’s heart squeezed with guilt. He knew it wasn’t easy for Teake to be in the presence of his former partner. Their relationship was nothing more than an affectionate memory these days, but their parting had been brutal and swift. It had left lingering wounds that weren’t as easy to heal as the wound he’d cured on Teake’s neck.

  That bite. How stupid of him! He’d been so into Teake he’d totally forgotten about his extra-sharp incisors, and his carelessness had hurt Teake in more ways than one.

  But he was going to make up for it, he vowed. For that and so many other things. Soon.

  “Is everything ready?” Sebastian asked the guardian spirit.

  It is.

  He sensed Teake’s curiosity and hurried on to the next question. “Where are Steven and Rainer?”

  As if conjured by a summoning spell, they appeared from behind the house and greeted Sebastian with hearty hugs. Teake received only polite handshakes, and Seb wondered if his friends would ever fully accept the man as his lover. There was so much mistrust between vampires and witches. He knew he had Teake and Davina to thank for his swift acceptance in Green Mountain, but he suspected his friends might always blame Teake for changing him in ways they couldn’t comprehend.

  “Missed you, mate,” Steven said.

  Rainer wrapped his life partner in his brawny arms, but Sebastian felt included in their love when Rainer looked over at him. “We both did.”

  “Are the witches treating you well?” Steven asked.

  Thinking of just how well Teake had treated him in the snow on the other side of the valley, Sebastian grinned broadly. “I have no complaints.”

  Rainer yawned. “About time for bed. I understand you have plans for us later tonight?”

  The prickly interest emanating from Teake intensified. Sebastian struggled to keep his privacy shield in place. “Yep. As soon as you rise.”

  Steven led the way inside the house. “Your room is waiting. There’s another ready if you need it.”

  “One room is fine,” Teake told them.

  He sounded defensive, as if he thought Sebastian would argue. Could it be the witch was jealous? Seb liked that idea. No one, not even his vampire master, Kassian, had been that possessive of him.

  “Suit yourself. Let Forest know if there’s anything you need.”

  The last time they’d been in the guest bedroom at the back end of the house, Sebastian ended up losing his vampiric life. And gained half of Teake’s humanity in the process. He wished he could say the conversion had been a pleasurable one, but it had been nothing short of a nightmare for either of them. He didn’t want to upset Teake further by reminding him of what he’d suffered through that night. However, any other room in the house would put them closer to their hosts, and Sebastian wanted total privacy for what he had planned. If all went as he hoped, they’d replace sad memories with happy ones.

  “Mind keeping vampire hours?” he asked Teake as they entered their temporary quarters.

  The witch shrugged. “This is your adventure, so it’s your call.”

  “Then I’d like to rest a bit.” He’d need all the energy he could muster for later. Besides, spending a few hours curled up in Teake’s warm embrace sounded like heaven after being out in the frigid winter air.

  They shed their clothes, with Seb sneaking long glances at Teake’s bronzed skin. His Latino origins had been all but swallowed up by the century-long unveiling of his inner witch. Only the hue of his skin and hair, the shape of his face, reflected his Central American heritage. The long, lean curve of muscle sculpting his backside never failed to make Seb’s mouth water with lust. Love was a spice that turned any sexual event into an erotic, sensual feast.

  Kassian claimed the drugs he regularly inhaled, injected and imbibed did that. Teake had proven how much better sex was with nothing but love to enhance it. Yet another reason for him to be glad for the events that had wrested him away from Kassian’s side and thrust him entirely into Teake’s care.

  And yet another lesson in being human he had to thank the witch for.

  Bare naked and more than semi-aroused, Sebastian slid under the thick, soft blankets and sprawled over Teake’s equally naked body. He waited for the shiver that would give him an opportunity to tease his lover about the erotic qualities of a human ice cube, but Teake just clutched him tighter, rubbing his face in Seb’s long blond hair.

  “Now that we’re here, can you tell me why we’ve come?”

  The hurt Teake felt at being excluded from his plans rose to the surface of his thoughts. Seb sensed it around the edges, but wasn’t sure what to do about it. Part of the gift he wanted to give his lover was in the surprise. Doing it on his own, without any help from him. Another reason behind his hesitancy to share all with Teake was because he wasn’t one hundred percent sure how the witch would react. Since they essentially shared the same heart and soul, Seb was convinced it was the right thing to do, but there was always a chance his lover would disagree.

  “To see old friends.” And to say goodbye. By the time this night was over, the Sebastian they knew would no longer exist.

  “There’s more to it than that,” Teake insisted.

  Because he wanted Teake to leave it alone, to stop pushing, Seb snapped back, “Gee, paranoid much?”

  Teake flinched and tried to roll away.

  Cursing, Sebastian clung to him tightly. “I’m sorry. I know you’re confused.”

  Stiff and still hurt, Teake said, “Tell me the reasons, and I won’t be.”

  “I… I…” Sebastian took a deep breath, sliding his leg between Teake’s and rubbing his face in the soft curls splayed over his pecs. “You’ll find out soon, I promise. Just… let me do this my own way, okay?”

  Seb felt more than heard Teake’s capitulation, but it was a long time before either of them fell into the slow, steady breathing of sleep.

  * * *

  Hours later, as dusk began to fall, Seb slipped out of bed. Though he still had a tendency to sleep like the dead, he found he couldn’t close his eyes for long now that the moment he’d worked so hard for was almost upon him. Preferring action to thought, Sebastian decided to get started with the preparations.

  As he rose, he made the mistake of glancing back to see his lover reaching for him in his sleep. Maybe he should just crawl back in bed and give Teake a proper wake up call…

  The household is waking. You have much yet to do, Forest reminded him softly.

  Maybe I should wait until next year, Sebastian mentally replied. Maybe I’m not as ready for this as I think I am.

  Trust in Davina if you don’t trust yourself. She wouldn’t have let you come this far if she thought you were ill prepared to take the final step.

  Sebastian couldn’t argue with that logic. Davina could be love incarnate, but she could also be ball-busting tough when necessary. If she didn’t think Sebastian was prepared, she’d have refused to aid him. Instead, he had her permission and her blessing.

  He tucked the covers around Teake’s shoulders and stroked his face until his lover settled into a deeper sleep. He then dressed and silently left the room, making his way to the living room where he found Steven scooting a large wooden bo
x across the expensive rugs. “Need help?”

  “Yeah, thanks,” Steven said, gesturing for Sebastian to take the loop of dirty, braided rope that formed a handle on one end.

  Straining with the weight that would have been heavy even with full vampire strength, Seb asked, “What’s in this thing?”

  “No clue. Forest asked me to fetch it from the crawl space under the house. I don’t know why.”

  “Couldn’t he just fling it over here himself? He can magic other things around easily enough.”

  It’s the remains of my earthly possessions, Forest explained.

  “Your corpse? Ewww!” Steven set his side down with a heavy thud and backed away from it.

  “This from the man who lives with a dead guy,” Seb joked as he too set down his end, but with far more care.

  Angry fire flashed in Steven’s brown eyes. “Rainer isn’t dead. Not dead-dead, anyway.”

  Seb looked at the box but didn’t touch it. “Well, thanks for sharing, Forest, but is there some reason you felt the need to attend this event in the flesh, so to speak?”

  It is not my coffin, but rather my witch’s armoire.

  “Holy shit!” This time Seb scrambled back from it as Steven looked on with interest.

  “What’s got you spooked, Mr. Corpses-Don’t-Bother-Me?”

  “It contains magical items.” He never should have put his hands on it; it was the worst form of bad manners among witches. Why had Rainer held on to these items instead of returning them to Davina? Or Teake? Why had Forest chosen to have them brought out now? “Forest?”

  Will you accept the use of the contents as my gift to you on your Naming Day?

  Seb’s legs went weak. Stunned, he sank to his knees before the box. Even without touching it he could sense it held potent magic. “Are you sure about this?”

  Forest’s response came with a tinge of bemusement. Yes.

  “Why me?”

  This time the ghostly house warden’s message held a faint note of regret. I shall never have a student of my own. You shall never have a teacher, not in the traditional sense. Consider it a loan from one orphan to another.

  “Seb, you’re acting kinda funny. Want to share with me what’s going on?”

  Sebastian glanced up at his friend. If he looked in just the right way, he could see the outline of the aura all living things had. He knew little about the colorful patterns and what they meant. Another lesson that had been skipped in his haste to master the natural forces flooding his senses. Still, it comforted him to see the colorful halo. One day, he would learn about that too.

  But not today. Today he had one very special goal in mind, and Forest’s gift would make it that much easier to achieve.

  Even as he explained what was happening to Steven, he kept his eyes on the treasure chest. “Each witch amasses their own collection of tools during their training. Since I skipped over noviceship, I have no special tools for the ceremony I’ll perform today. While that’s not an insurmountable problem, Forest has eliminated the complication by granting me the honor of borrowing his.”

  “Okay, so let’s see what you’ve got to work with.”

  “Look, but don’t touch,” Sebastian warned. “Some of this stuff could be dangerous.”

  “Forest wouldn’t hurt me.”

  “Forest the house guardian wouldn’t, no. Forest the witch… he would have protected what was his.”

  This is true. I had forgotten this habit among the living. The lid snicked as the locking mechanism was released by a ghostly touch of Forest’s energy. The white and the green, I think.

  Though the outside of the box was battered as though it had been through a war, the inside was pristine. Impressive since the box was last opened over two hundred and fifty years ago. The box was separated into colored sections. The contents of each were wrapped in a silk of the same color, and a corresponding crystal set on top.

  Sebastian removed what he needed from the white and green segments, and began to build the framework for his spell.

  Chapter 3 -- The Naming

  More than an hour passed before Rainer and Teake joined them. The Vampire Lord glanced around his transformed living room, shrugged, and took a seat next to his lover on the wooden chairs which had been strategically placed for that purpose. Whether Forest warned him to be silent or whether the Blood Oath gave him an innate sense of what to do during this common Naming ritual, Sebastian didn’t know.

  Teake’s arrival was equally quiet yet a hundred times more disruptive. He took in the altar -- white cloth from Forest’s box covered a wooden serving tray -- and the items set out upon it. His aura shifted like a kaleidoscope, his lips parting several times as if he were on the verge of speech. He mastered his tongue and sat down in silence, but it was far from the calm presence Rainer and Steven projected.

  Sebastian mentally reached out to him, but Teake’s barriers were too strong for him to penetrate. They shared a heart and a soul, but right now Teake refused to share his mind.

  Begin.

  Teake’s cold command sent a shiver down Sebastian’s spine. He should have realized, as Forest’s former partner, some of the items he planned to use would be familiar to Teake. Maybe even gifted to Forest by Teake. No wonder Teake’s aura looked like a fireworks finale.

  Shit. He’d done it again. Hurt Teake by doggedly pursuing his own desires without fully considering the implication of his actions on the one person closest to him. Maybe, despite Davina’s faith, he wasn’t the right man for Teake after all…

  But he’d come too far to stop now. He’d see it through, then deal with the aftermath his actions wrought. Hopefully Teake would agree the end justified the means in this case.

  He went through the opening of the ritual, repeating the words Sequoia had taught him. For the benefit of his friends, he explained how this ceremony would remove the shell of the being he’d been so his natural energy could flow freely. He would truly become Gaia’s creature -- as much as a former vampire could -- and to mark the change, he would surrender his old name and take on a new one that better fit this new identity.

  First, he’d make gifts of his old life.

  He crossed the hardwood floor, the timber feeling warm under his bare feet. Standing in front of Rainer, he removed his clothing, folded it, and placed it on the floor beside his chair. “To you I offer all my worldly property and possessions to dispense as you see fit.”

  He felt the soft brush of Forest’s energy, though he wasn’t privy to the message. However, Rainer was then able to give him the formula answer. “I accept.”

  It was a burden more than a gift, Sebastian knew. But someone had to handle his estate, such as it was, and he could think of no better person to do it than Rainer.

  “To you,” he said, moving in front of his best friend, “I offer my last drink of blood.”

  Steven looked to Rainer who gave him a slight smile. He ran his hand nervously down his thighs as he stood up. “I… uh… I accept.”

  Though his thirst for blood had all but vanished, the knowledge of how to drink from a willing victim hadn’t left him. He cupped Steven’s chin with his hand, tilting his head up. A pair of soft, parted lips drew him in, and he kissed Steven with brimming love and friendship. They’d shared their bodies in the past. This time Sebastian shared a small piece of his heart.

  Nibbling his way down Steven’s jaw, he slowly stroked the carotid artery on both sides of Steven’s neck with the pad of his thumbs. Any other vampire would be close to screaming with the need to feed by now, but all Sebastian felt was a slight sexual kick and a bit of thirst.

  He’d been afraid to take this step, afraid it would invite back all the old urges he’d purged from his soul. The fact that it hadn’t triggered blood lust confirmed to him he was doing the right thing by surrendering to Gaia’s will… and his own.

  He tilted Steven’s head sideways and licked the spot that would offer up the sweetest drink. His fangs pierced the skin and Steven jolted. Sebasti
an waited a heartbeat to see if he’d panic, but the man settled his hands on his hips and pulled their bodies closer together.

  Steven was hard. No great surprise, since humans who lived with vampires often ended up feeding both of their lover’s hungers -- food and sex. The bite became almost as erotic for them as for the vamp who fed from it. Steven had apparently achieved this level of acceptance about his life with Rainer, and that was a warm, arousing thought all its own. He truly wanted his friends to be happy.

  Sebastian gave him the entire ride… a bump and grind routine that filled Steven’s blood with a fresh wave of pheromones. The result tasted like iron and ashes to Seb, but he drank long and hard, knowing it would be his last.

  In his arms, Steven shuddered. He could feel a damp spot pressing against his bare skin. Apparently his friend had come in his jeans. Mission accomplished. Sebastian tongued away the last traces of blood from his skin and added a lick of magic to close the small wounds since his vamp saliva couldn’t do it on its own.

  When he let go of Steven, the man started to slump to the ground. Rainer caught him before Sebastian could and hauled his lover into his arms.

  Steven curled into his embrace, his lust-laced eyes drifting down to half mast. He took a few seconds to reassure himself Steven hadn’t suffered any ill effects -- just a bone melting orgasm -- before he said, “Guess I don’t have to ask if it was good for you.” Amusement and a bit of jealousy mingled in his voice.

  “Yeah. Good.” With what seemed like great effort, Steven turned his head and focused on Seb. “How ’bout you?”

  Sebastian stroked Steven’s jaw with the back of his hand. “A memory to cherish, for sure. Thank you.”

  Now, for the final step. The step that scared the hell out of him. Not because he wasn’t ready to take it, but because he wasn’t sure how it would be received.

  Please, please, don’t let me screw this up.

  Teake gave him a questioning look, followed by a slight nod.

  Shit. He’d done it again. Let his private thoughts leak out. It didn’t matter, he told himself. Soon he wouldn’t have anything to hide from Teake.