AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"My lord? You are well?"
"I am."
"I will enter to see for myself."
Before Uthe could tell him no, Keldwyn slipped in, quickly closing the door behind him so that he felt only a brief flash of heat, the result of the sun engulfing the plane as it winged through the clouds. It put both of them in darkness, except for the small flashlight Uthe had on the side table, pointed toward the wall so the thin beam was dimmed further.
Keldwyn's hand fell on his shoulder. "You are at prayer."
"I was. I am done."
Keldwyn sat down on the cot next to where Uthe knelt on the floor. "Gods, it's horrid in here. Like a cold shoebox."
The air piped into these compartments at double strength counteracted the sun's effect. It was mildly helpful. "A shoebox surrounded by flame."
Keldwyn moved his hand along Uthe's shoulder, discovering he was stripped down to nothing, his skin dewed with perspiration. Though normally Uthe would remain dressed while sleeping, this was an exception, since he had no desire to soil his clothes with excessive sweat. "Your skin is hot as fire," the Fae Lord said. "You need the Queen's touch. She can turn almost anything to ice." Keldwyn nodded toward the flashlight. "That takes the place of your candles?"
"It does. Somewhat."
"But it adds heat."
"Yes. But it is fine. I will lie down now, my lord. You need not trouble yourself further."
"You're no trouble." Keldwyn paused. "The Rule required that a candle always be lit while sleeping, to stave off the temptations that come in the darkness?"
Uthe remembered the earlier fever dream with the bad blood, when the demon had taunted him about that. There was no taunt in Keldwyn's voice, just thoughtful observation.
"Yes. But over time, it becomes a useful focus. A reassurance that the Light of the Lord is with us, even in darkness."
Keldwyn reached over and switched off the light. "You are assured of that more than any male I've met, Lord Uthe." An irritable edge entered his tone. "There are times your faith gives me hives."
"If it was a blind faith, untested, I would understand that, because nothing is more grating than courage in a sunlit meadow. But it is not. Have you never believed in anything immutable, Kel? Never wanted to?'
"I have wanted to. And the depth and breadth of that want is why I have no faith now."
The sudden roughness of his voice kept Uthe silent a moment, but then he closed a hand over the Fae Lord's knee. "Kel. I do not believe that of you."
"There are other things that come out of the dark," Keldwyn said. "Truths too painful to speak in the light. The inexplicable, horrible things of this world make the existence of anything beyond it an illusion. A child's wish."
"The inexplicable, wonderful things in this world make the existence of what lies beyond it a certainty. A comfort for the child's soul in us all." Uthe paused. "I had a fellow Templar who used to say it like a child's nursery rhyme: 'There is so much that doesn't make sense if there is nothing there; there is so much that doesn't make sense if there is.'"
Uthe could see even in full darkness. One short slide forward, and he stood on his knees between Keldwyn's spread legs where the Fae Lord sat on the cot. He framed Kel's face with his hands. When Kel's dropped to Uthe's hips, he muttered something against Uthe's mouth, likely a dubious reverence in the Fae language.
Earlier, the Fae Lord had initiated sex to pursue passion, to help Uthe find his answers, and to steady him after the near miss with the poisoned blood. Though Uthe had wrestled with indulging his desire under those circumstances, when it was Keldwyn who needed such succor, he didn't hesitate to serve Kel's needs.
Uthe kissed him, fingers sliding into his hair, pulling the bindings loose. He liked when the Fae braided or bound his hair, so he could be the one to free it, let it spill over his fingers. Keldwyn's palms slid around to grip his ass, drawing him closer. Uthe shuddered with it, the feel of his body, all muscles rigid, pressed against the Fae's clothed form. Keldwyn moved his touch up and down Uthe's back, over his shoulders, coming back to his ass to knead as Uthe deepened the kiss.
"I don't want to be him," Uthe said in a fierce, low voice.
"I do not want you to be him. I want you to be what you are. Perfect. Mine."
He was stunned by the depth of emotion in Keldwyn's voice. Perhaps he was right about turning out that light. It wasn't the temptations of lust that posed such dangers in the black, but the needs of the heart.
"I want inside you, too," Uthe said. "I want to fall asleep that way." He wanted to hold the male close to him, all that power and lean beauty. He wanted to hold something when he slept, something that would cover his heart, press against its painful beating, tell it that someone was there. That neither of them had to be alone, at least for these few moments.
Would Kel agree to it? He could feel him thinking, so Uthe kept up his exploring, tracing the biceps through the cotton fabric of his shirt. Kel had cleaned up and changed so Uthe tasted the soap-scented heat of him as he pulled the neckline open to lick the hollow of his throat, scrape a fang over his pectoral. He wrapped his hand in Keldwyn's hair, tipped his head back and pressed him against the wall behind the bed as he clambered up onto it, bracing his knees on either side of the Fae's hips and grinding his cock against his abdomen. Keldwyn took a bruising grip on his ass as Uthe sucked on his throat. He didn't bite him, much as he wanted to. Feeling Keldwyn's trust that he wouldn't do that without his express permission had a crazy effect on his cock and everything above and below it.
Uthe ripped the shirt away from the Fae's upper body, not caring if Kel had brought a spare or not. He'd give him one of his. He moved down again, back to the floor so he could tease a nipple with his tongue. The Fae cupped the back of his head, tipping his own to the wall once more, arching into Uthe's seductions. Uthe gripped both his thighs and ran his hands along them, pressing his thumbs in the crease along either side of Keldwyn's groin. His cock was an iron bar, his testicles a perfect, heavy weight in Uthe's palm as he fondled, squeezed. At the same time, he tasted, nipped and flicked his tongue against the male's sensitive nipples.
Blessed Virgin, to take full pleasure in a male's body, and a male like this, with no reservations... Uthe wondered if he might be drunk on the pleasure of it, for he acknowledged no restraint on his behavior, except what Keldwyn himself imposed.
"You want to be inside me," Keldwyn growled, as if reading his mind. "But everything you're doing will get you fucked through this mattress, Varick. So I get my pleasure first."
Good. He wanted to challenge him, bring all that to the forefront to overpower and overwhelm. And not just because the idea of it speared Uthe with lust. He'd felt the Fae Lord's pain and bitterness when he spoke to the darkness, and he wanted to give him this to bring him back to the light.
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."
