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"Yes. Telling me you're dead as soon as you cross with me. In a hundred terrible ways." The demon had called Keldwyn Uthe's Master, and he hadn't denied it, had he? The thing was too connected to the deeper levels of his mind, to things even Uthe hadn't yet acknowledged.
"Is that all?" Keldwyn looked amused. "In well over a thousand years, how many times have your enemies threatened you with ostentatious declarations about your impending death, my lord? And how hideous and painful they plan to make it?"
At Kel's expectant expression, Uthe grimaced. "I once faced a Saracen who gave a five minute dissertation on how he'd tie me up in my intestines and feed my tongue to my mother before he fucked her to death. It made me glad I'd learned their language, just to hear how much thought he put into it."
Keldwyn chuckled. "Queen Rhoswen has threatened me with death in so many ways I could have them archived. My personal favorite was when she said she would hack my arms and legs from my torso with a dull-edged knife and pin them to each corner of her throne room. She would then cut off my manhood and give it to the household staff to beat rugs. My head would be delivered to the Queen's Guard and dumped in their latrine so they could shit on it until it decomposed. I told her I was honored that she considered my cock capable of maintaining enough size and rigidity after death that it would be of such use to the maids and, if that was the case, they might find other uses for it."
Uthe stared at him, then he let out a rich, full-bodied belly laugh as cleansing as a surge of God's pure light through his veins. Maybe that was what laughter was. "You're lucky she didn't do it."
Keldwyn's gaze had snapped to Uthe's face as he began to laugh, and dwelled there until he subsided and discovered how closely the Fae was looking at him.
"What?"
"'We altogether prohibit idle words and wicked bursts of laughter.' So says your Rule. That might not be a wicked burst of laughter, but it certainly gave me wicked thoughts."
Uthe blinked. "I will say a paternoster for us both, then, since I'm sure you will not." They stood in front of the Shattered World, facing all manner of serious challenges, and Keldwyn was dwelling on laughter and pleasures of the flesh. He wanted to give him an exasperated look, but instead Uthe touched Keldwyn's neck, following the line of it to his jaw, the side of his face, a drifting quest that had the Fae's eyes flickering.
"You had a tattoo here the other day."
"And I can have it again." The design reappeared. Uthe noticed Keldwyn's grimace, though.
"Does it hurt?"
"It has a momentary sting." Keldwyn captured Uthe's hand on his face. "I've never heard you laugh like that. You ease my heart, Varick. And lift it."
Before Uthe's surprised gaze, Kel pressed his lips to Uthe's palm. When the Fae raised his head, he didn't let go.
"You have wondered how much you can trust me, but you have known the answer to that for some time. It is only your mind you doubt, not your heart. But in case you harbor any further worries, I will say this to you. You said that the loss of Reghan destroyed my ability to love or be a Master to another. You were right. But you have resurrected the desire. Which is why I chose to take this journey with you, and why I intend to see it through with you to the end. If our fate is to wander the Shattered World forever afterward, then I shall have no discontent if we do so together. I am sure we can figure out how to have our chess games and argue Fae and vampire politics there as much as we have here."
Uthe had no words to answer such a declaration, no gift big enough to match the Fae's. He was a vampire beset with Ennui, charged with a quest that could cost both their lives. He should figure out a way to knock the Fae unconscious and go without him, but Kel would just follow him after he woke.
"As far as the politics," Uthe said, his voice unsteady, "we'll have just as much luck applying useful answers in the Shattered World as we do with the Vampire Council."
"True enough. Though the term 'shouting into a void' will be quite literal there, I expect."
"Agreed." Uthe paused. "I would ask a favor, my lord. And your trust. Give me back the medallion. If the Shattered World is what you say it is, and the demon is clever as only evil can be, then those two together might ensure we never find one another, since the magic can only be used by me, because of the blood link."
"So you think me having it might guarantee us being kept apart?"
"I do."
"A compelling argument." Keldwyn produced the medallion. He stepped closer, placing it back around Uthe's neck, fusing the link he'd broken. "Very well. But before we make this step, you will drink from me once more. I know you just drank from Alanna, but my blood seemed to energize you last time. In case we are separated for some length of time, I want to know you have that extra resource."
"Kel, there's a way we can make sure we find one another. Except..." In light of the other challenges they faced, it seemed ridiculous to be hesitant about such a thing, but Uthe was unsure of Keldwyn's reaction. He might not have brought up the topic at all, but Keldwyn's unprecedented words, and the freely given offer of blood, summoned it to his lips. "I can mark you. It worked on Lyssa, when Jacob was a vampire and she lost all but the abilities her Fae blood gave her. We could do only the first mark, the geographical locator, the most innocuous of the three. However, if the power in the Shattered World is as strong as you say, a second mark would be best, because then we can speak in one another's minds.
"You wouldn't be a servant," he hastened to say at Keldwyn's sudden blank expression. "It wouldn't be the third mark, which binds your mortality to mine. I could give you the blood mark the Region Masters and overlords give vampires in their territories, or the type given when we sire a vampire, but that may only work on other vampires, and it's not as strong as what we use for servants."
He stopped. He could tell nothing from Keldwyn's expression. "It is simply an idea," he said. "One that might not work. And if it did and we return, Brian could possibly reverse it. His experience with that thus far has been with vampires and human servants, though."
He shouldn't have brought it up. This was a high Fae Lord. It was a miracle he'd given Uthe blood once, let alone offered it twice. But damn it, he didn't want Kel to be where he couldn't aid him if needed. Uthe wasn't going to let pride, fear of rejection or the damn Fae's own ego stand in the way of protecting him however he could.
Keldwyn adjusted his stance so he was facing that gray miasma. "What am I to you, Lord Uthe?"
"An ally. A friend." A friend he'd let deeper inside him than any other. "A warrior I'm honored to fight beside, on any field."
"Word games, Lord Uthe. The two of us excel at playing them." Keldwyn turned to face him fully, coming a step closer, the toes of one booted foot pressed against the side of Uthe's. Keldwyn curled his fingers in the belt of Uthe's tunic and held. "What am I to you, Lord Uthe?"
A miracle that had appeared
when he needed it most, and not merely for the completion of this task. Someone willing to stand beside him as he faced the loss of his faculties, something he feared far worse than death, because of the decisions it would take out of his hands. Someone he could trust to make decisions for him when necessary, because Keldwyn understood his mind and needs as he understood his own.
He wished their minds were linked as a vampire's was to a second mark, so he could have shared that. Some things couldn't be spoken out loud in the same way they could be thought. Then Uthe thought of what the demon had said. He didn't like that the demon had spoken the truth first, but that was what made a demon so dangerous. He knew how to use the truth to drag down the soul. But Uthe had the will to take it back, elevate it by owning it fully.
"You're my lord Keldwyn. My lord." He swallowed, somewhat amused by his sudden nervousness. The thread of tension between them was wound tight as they stood on more than one kind of precipice. "My Master."
The reaction in Keldwyn's face was indescribable, so beautiful it sent a bolt of pain through Uthe. It was as if speaking that one word had staked him through the chest and destroyed him, but only so he could rise from his own ashes to this. Then the Fae's every facial muscle relaxed, Keldwyn's eyes glowing with heat and his sensual lips parted. His body thrummed with energy against Uthe's.
"I will take you here, Lord Uthe, on this threshold, in case the powers beyond it do not give us that pleasure. You will give me your marks to safeguard, so I may hold onto your mind as you hold onto mine. And you will take my blood, now and whenever you have need of it, for as long as I have life to give you."
Keldwyn's hands were already on Uthe's belt, unbuckling it, nudging his hands out of the way as he stripped the tunic from him. It was good that he did so, for it took Uthe a few moments to recover from the import of Keldwyn's words and catch up. But then Uthe divested himself of the leggings and boots, everything except the medallion he wore, the heat of the medal burning into his tingling skin. Keldwyn pressed him down to his knees and made him stay that way as he stripped off his own clothes. He tapped his thigh next to his jutting cock. "Make your marks here, Varick. Take the blood you need, if you can do it at the same time. It would please me to see you nourish yourself off of me on your knees like this."
