Текст книги "Tatterdemalion "

Автор книги: Anah Crow

Соавторы: Dianne Fox
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Текущая страница: 13 (всего у книги 19 страниц)

No one was coming for him, but… Lindsay got up and tugged the robe around him. It was his

business too. Dane was his business. Everyone knew that, even Ezqel. Dane wouldn’t have been healed,

Lindsay told himself, if Lindsay hadn’t talked him into it. He hoped it had been the right thing.

“There you are,” Taniel said brightly as Lindsay, steeling himself for admonishment, stepped into the

laboratory. Taniel was coming toward him at his usual hurried scurry. Ezqel and Izia were talking, normal

tones instead of the strange rhythm of incantation. There was another voice with theirs, smoother than

Dane’s, warm and low.

“Is that Dane?” Lindsay asked softly. “Are they finished? Can I come back in?”

Dane was sitting up on the table, arguing with Ezqel while Izia draped his robe over his shoulders—

and it must have been Dane because no one else seemed to argue with the fae. It wasn’t quite Dane, though,

even if Lindsay couldn’t see his face from this angle. The set of his shoulders was different, his hair wasn’t quite the same, and his voice, when it lifted to tell Ezqel in no uncertain terms to get the hell out of his way, was definitely not the same. Ezqel backed off so he could stand. He was still so very tall.

“You can, yes.” Taniel stepped out of the way. “I was just coming to get you.”

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Lindsay padded in, more hesitant now that he’d been given permission. He wanted to see Dane, to

make sure he was all right, but he didn’t want to interrupt, either. Dane looked so different. It made Lindsay realize how much his magic being broken must have hurt him. That idea made Lindsay’s feet move faster,

to get him closer to Dane, close enough to comfort.

“That was a very tightly woven spell. I suspect that I could not have removed it for you before,” Ezqel

was saying. “Not while leaving you alive.” He seemed pleased with himself. The demon heart in his hands

glittered like it was made of stone. The metal extensions from it were blackened and corroded. It certainly hadn’t looked like that after Lindsay, what little Lindsay remembered of it.

“You say that now.” Dane didn’t sound like he believed a word of it. He pulled the robe on with a few

angry moves and shook his hair back. “Where’s…”

Lindsay came closer. So many of Dane’s individual features were the same: the strong nose and high

cheekbones, the soft lips, the same dark eyes and long hair. His skin was still golden, but lighter, and

Lindsay could see that Dane’s chest was no longer furred like it had been. So many of the same features,

but they seemed put together differently. He was gorgeous, with a beauty that rivaled Ezqel’s. Surpassed it, Lindsay thought. Dane was made of so many good things; his appearance was only a small part of it all.

“Not running around, trying out your new toys yet?” Dane teased. There were no more fangs when he

smiled, only beautiful teeth. Slightly pointed, beautiful teeth.

“Not yet.” Lindsay ducked his head, smiling, reassured by Dane’s teasing. “Thought I might wait for

you, first.”

“You’re fine, and I’m…” Dane pulled up a sleeve to show that his skin was covered in sticky black

markings, “…dirty. Go on.”

“Then go get clean. The water feels good. I can wait.” Lindsay shook his head to show that his own

hair was still wet. He didn’t want to “go on”, not unless he had to. He’d stay back here, but he still wanted to see, to get used to the way Dane looked now. Besides, he’d always liked watching Dane.

“I will when I’m ready. You need to eat. I’ll come find you at the house.” Dane didn’t look like he

was going to change his mind. “I’m sure Taniel will take you back.”

As if on cue, Taniel was at Lindsay’s side. “You can practice your magic,” Taniel said brightly.

“Come on.” He put a hand on Lindsay’s arm and Lindsay gave in, letting himself be led.

Maybe Dane was different. Dane had said that he couldn’t remember who that man was, the man he’d

been when he was whole. Maybe he didn’t remember the man he’d been when he was broken, or what had

mattered to him moments before. It wasn’t as though Lindsay hadn’t been warned. Funny how that never

stopped anything from hurting.

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Chapter Twelve

Dane watched Lindsay go, saw the uncertainty written in his slim shoulders. If he didn’t have

confidence yet, Dane running after him wasn’t going to fix it. Dane sure as hell wasn’t going to do anything while the past was stinking on his skin.

When Lindsay’s smell and the sound of his breathing were long gone from Dane’s senses, Dane

followed the path to the pool, without a word to the others. He didn’t owe them anything. Leaving his robe

behind on the rocks, he plunged into the icy water. Magic ran through here, pure magic from the earth, and

Dane could feel it washing him clean beneath his skin. He swam as deep as he could, reveling in his new

body…his old body. As he broke the surface, he could sense that Ezqel was waiting for him, alone.

“If you’re waiting for me to thank you, it’ll be a long time.” Dane pulled himself out of the pool next

to where Ezqel was standing. They were of a height now, more similar than ever. Dane shook off the

familiarity even as he looked Ezqel in the eye.

“No. But there’s work to be done.” Ezqel held out the robe Dane had discarded. It smelled freshly

washed, so Dane pulled it on. “My forest is full of vermin.”

“Blame Cyrus.” Dane pulled the robe closed and belted it as he turned away. He should go talk

Lindsay into trying his magic out. He could let Lindsay use it on him again, maybe that would help.

Couldn’t trust little Taniel to talk anyone into anything.

“I never knew you to turn down the hunt,” Ezqel said softly, speaking to Dane’s animal ears. “Maybe

I got something wrong with those spells.”

Hunting. Hunting in Ezqel’s forest, even by Ezqel’s permission, was never done. Ezqel never gave

permission. Once, though, on a green plain long-since swallowed up by a shifting, hungry desert, they’d

hunted together. The sun had been a white coin on a bleached-bone sky when they’d set out, the moon a

silver sickle harvesting stars when they’d been sated.

“Here?”

“Are we anywhere else?”

Dane wrung his hair out, water spattering on the stones at his feet, while he pretended to think about

the offer. In his bones, he had already accepted. Now he had to consider the consequences. “Is Jonas with

them?”

Tatterdemalion

“Not this time. They have other dogs, though. Unnatural ones.” Ezqel came to stand by the threshold

with him, a flicker of red and white at the corner of Dane’s eye. Behind them, his magical workshop

murmured quietly to itself, just loud enough that Dane could hear it.

“I’ll do it, but only so Cyrus doesn’t owe you,” Dane said at last. A pang of fear spiked in him, fear

that he’d try to change and not know how, that his body wouldn’t answer, that he’d look like a fool in front of Ezqel for being broken enough that all the magic in the world couldn’t fix.

“I don’t care why you do it.” Ezqel passed him and stepped out into the sunlight. “Your reasons are

your own,” he said, his voice small in the outside air. “Didn’t you say you wanted it that way?”

“True enough.” Dane followed, trying to consider how he felt about that. Suddenly, he was blinking

in the sunlight. His human eyes were too slow to react. Letting the beast seep in was like grasping air at first.

“North, first. Then the rest of the compass.” Ezqel stepped up onto a rocky outcropping. The wind

pulled his hair and robes in all directions, buffeting him, and it lifted him as he shimmered into feathers and beak and claws and bright eyes. A gyrfalcon, larger than anything the world had seen in these late days,

took the wind under its great wings and became small in the sky.

Dane watched Ezqel soar, relieved to have the moment to himself. Instinct led his feet to the clearest

path winding north and he loped along it, bare feet cold on the earth. It was strange to have his body so

straight and vulnerable. The wind, growing colder the farther he got from Ezqel’s haven, pulled his robe

open and bit at his bare skin.

It has to happen sometime. The voice was his own, not Ezqel’s, not Cyrus’s. The wind was empty of

Cyrus’s presence and his magic—once in a while, the wind let him be alone. I don’t remember. I don’t… It had been so long.

Dane ran until he could hardly see for the wind in his eyes, though his hair caught on branches and his

feet cut on stones, until the pressure in his chest was a fire that made him feel human. He knew the

mountain, knew this upward slope and the place where it broke. Sometimes, there was only one way to

make things happen.

He knew from the slip of the scree under his feet exactly where he was, and that the gap ahead would

leave him no choice but to change or find out how deep it went. The forest fell away so that, suddenly, he

could see distance and a horizon and the sky arched overhead. The black cross of the bird swung up toward

the sun, waiting for him. He remembered miles disappearing under his paws, the bunch of his muscles, the

way his claws cut into the earth’s skin…

Four paws to the ground, long body like a coiled spring, ears back flat against his skull, he doubled

his speed over the last yards to the rift in the mountainside. The gap yawned under him, but he was already stretching out to the ground on the other side. His momentum and weight rippled up into his body as his

forepaws hit the ground, translating to his hind paws as they gained purchase and threw him forward again.

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The world was different, yet familiar, like coming home after years away. The bird was a speck so

high in the sky that he lost it, but he could feel the eyes on him. He didn’t need the bird to tell him what was ahead.

Three men. No, two men, and one dog. Dane’s muzzle wrinkled and the sneer drew his lips back so

that their taste swirled around his fangs. He bit the air as he circled to pick up their trail, coming up behind them.

“That’s no bird.” The rifle bolt had a sound that never failed to make his blood rise.

The dog smelled him coming and was turning to face him. It stood on two legs, but it was leashed and

enslaved no less, straining against invisible chains. Dane cleared it and came down on the man with the

gun, dipping his head to tear the man’s spine out with a snap of his teeth and shake of his head.

The other one was trying to radio for help—Dane could hear the crackle as the headset came on—but

a shadow passed over and, when it lifted, the man’s head was gone. The bird laughed and dropped the head

as it made for the zenith again. The body crumpled with the jerky hesitation of a thing unsure it was dead.

The dog was afraid, the smell of its sweat and adrenaline stronger than the blood in Dane’s mouth.

With no master to direct it, it backed away and turned to run. Dane swiped through the tendons at the back

of its legs and flipped it over on its back. He pinned it down with a bloody paw and stared, trying to fathom it.

It beat at him with clenched fists and tried to summon magic that never came. It was mad, mad in the

eyes, mad in the stink of it, yelping like a dog with a human mouth. Dane killed it with a bite and a shake of his head, and dropped it, spitting out its poisoned blood. The cry of the bird reminded him to leave curiosity to the minds of men. Shaking his head again to clear it, he turned to follow the bird.

Ezqel’s forest was vast, but his paths through it followed the laws of magic, not matter. Every step of

Dane’s paws, every beat of Ezqel’s wings, covered miles. The forest was infested with men. Taniel hadn’t

been exaggerating. Methodically, with the help of the whispering wind, the lion and the falcon hunted

every last one and brought them to earth.

The sun set on them at the edge of the human world, next to a burning truck and a crumpled

helicopter. The corpses that Ezqel had summoned up out of the forest—once they were dead, he had more

dominion over them and they were easier to command—lay in neat stacks, matched with their various body

parts, awaiting disposal. The forest still felt uneasy, but at least it was clean.

Dane stretched out next to the flames of the smoldering truck and watched Ezqel peck out the eyes of

a man who had, until today, likely considered himself to be firmly in control of many things. The

screaming faded to sobs as the bird stepped off the man’s chest and, with a flick of its feathers, was Ezqel in his fae form again. What there had been to learn from the man had been disappointingly minimal.

Always, they were only following orders.

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“Should I let it live?” Ezqel crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the squirming man trying to

crawl away on fingerless hands and crippled legs.

Dane rumbled and got up, stretching until his back cracked and his twitching tail nearly caught fire on

the burning truck. Sneezing at the offense of smoldering synthetics, he paced over to circle the last of their prey. If they killed it, it was likely that Moore and her kind would be stupid enough to send more, and that would be irritating. He yawned mightily, shaking his mane for emphasis.

“You’re right.” Ezqel bent to pick up the man’s cell phone and, muttering an unlocking spell, pressed

a few buttons gingerly. Dane didn’t recognize the voice on the other end. “This is over,” Ezqel said to it, holding it out in front of him as though he wasn’t quite sure what to do with it and didn’t want it too near his face. When Ezqel threw the phone at the ruined man and it landed in front of him, the man scrabbled for it and began babbling into it hysterically.

What happened? Who’s there? What do you mean, they’re all dead? The phone echoed the distress

back across the miles.

Dane sat and sighed, bending his head to lick some gore from his chest. People didn’t learn. Worse,

they forgot. If they bothered to remember, no one would have been foolish enough to come into the forest.

“Let’s go home.” Ezqel stepped back into the forest that opened up for him with a sigh.

Dane didn’t bother to argue the semantics of “home” with him, but followed at his heels. After a mile,

the path widened so that Dane could pace along beside him. Soon, the path curved around the side of the

mountain and they were walking the same trail that Dane had led Lindsay up that morning. Dane drew a

breath and remembered what it was like to walk on two legs.

“Done playing the beast?” Ezqel didn’t look over at him.

“Who said I was ever playing?” Dane felt small and bare in this body. His skin itched, and his short

teeth were on edge. He tugged his robe tighter around him. It was as clean as it had been when he’d shifted; where things went when he was on four legs was a mystery he’d never questioned. They were here, just not

here. He’d never lost anything. Not yet, at least.

“I know you well enough.” Ezqel’s irritation was a little bit comforting.

“Do you?” Dane wasn’t sure Ezqel did, nor Cyrus, for that matter. They knew what it suited them to

know, and they didn’t care about the rest.

“Well enough to remember you were more than just a mangy circus animal once.” Ezqel did look

over now as he led the way around to the back of the faerie cottage. The dusk softened his features, made

him seem more human, almost caring. “Best to find out if you still have it in you before you need it.”

Dane shrugged. “No sense showing off,” he said dryly. A small door hidden at the side of the house

swung open for them as they came up the path.

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“You’re still a bad liar.” Ezqel headed up the stairs to his study and was almost around the first turn

when he stopped and turned back. Dane stood at the bottom of the stairs, impressed that Ezqel had noticed

he wasn’t following before getting all the way to the top. “Have something you need to do?”

“Yes.” Dane wasn’t going to admit that he was anxious to get back and check on Lindsay.

There was perhaps a flicker of concern mixed into the irritation in Ezqel’s expression. It was hard to

tell with him sometimes. His expressions were not always human and his scents were unique. “Thank you

for your assistance today,” he said, the words heavy and stiff.

“It was nothing.” The flat response wasn’t rudeness, it was necessary so that no hint of obligation

remained between them. The words of old men held too much weight to be allowed to wander outside the

bounds of formality.

Ezqel tilted his head, listening for something, then frowned. “You returned Yzumrud.”

“I did. It was useful.” Dane put emphasis on the past tense. He’d taken more from Ezqel than he’d

ever intended, even if it all had been for his own purposes. The ring sat in the drawer of the desk in the room Dane shared with Lindsay, waiting to be put back in its place. He wasn’t taking it with him again.

An exhalation was the only sound of Ezqel’s surrender, but it was loud in Dane’s ears. “Very well.

Have a good evening. I doubt I will see you before you leave.”

“I’ll give your regards to Vivian and Cyrus.” Dane didn’t have much else to say, not after all this

time.

“If you speak to them before I do.” No favors. Not even the small courtesies. Ezqel turned his back on

Dane and his next steps took him out of sight.

In the kitchen, Dane washed his mouth out with cold tea and looked himself over. Blood didn’t carry

through the changes—not on his skin, anyway. He rummaged around and found some mutton and cheese to

have with the tea. The utensils he needed to cut and eat were awkward in his human hands, briefly, until he remembered how it felt to use them. By the time he was fed, standing at the counter and watching dark fall

over the herb gardens, he thought he had the hang of being human again.

Physically. Washing the dishes, watching his long fingers flicker in and out of the soapy water, he

remembered being human-bodied. His human mind, his human heart, those would be stranger to revisit.

And, if he recalled them correctly, they would be more trouble than his human flesh.

Lindsay put off practicing his magic. Taniel prodded, but Lindsay reasoned that he’d let his magic

settle into his body before he played with it. He didn’t really want to find out the hard way that it wasn’t quite ready for him yet.

He spent the rest of the day with Taniel, eating, resting, and talking. Taniel was full of stories, a book

of endless fairytales that Lindsay now knew were true. By nightfall, Lindsay still hadn’t seen Dane again.

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Dane must’ve been busy with Ezqel or Izia or getting used to his magic again. Lindsay went up to the room

and got ready for bed. He tried to be adult about what he was feeling, but under it, he was just scared.

As he was getting changed, the door swung open. Lindsay turned around, smiling as soon as he saw

Dane stepping into the room. Dane was still wearing the robe he’d had on that morning, but it looked

somewhat the worse for wear—most of him did, actually. His hair was in disarray and his feet were dirty.

He didn’t look quite the same as when Lindsay had left him by the waterfall, but he didn’t look like he used to either. Somewhere in between—human, with only a hint of the feral.

“Taniel put you through your paces?” Dane asked, as though he hadn’t been gone all day.

“Not exactly,” Lindsay admitted, shrugging.

“You have to try it sometime.” Dane took his robe off and threw it over a chair. “Ezqel doesn’t screw

up. Usually.” His skin was flawless, paler, and he had less body hair, but there was still some in the center of his chest fading into a thin line that led to the soft curls at his groin.

“I will,” Lindsay said, though he wasn’t sure he wanted to try it and find out that it didn’t work. “Are

you all right?”

“Fine. Not dead yet or anything.” Dane sprawled on the bed and tucked one arm behind his head.

“Well, I’m glad to hear that.” Lindsay crawled up beside him and sat cross-legged.

“What’re you looking at?” Dane sighed heavily. “Lie down and go to sleep, Lindsay.”

Maybe Dane didn’t want to be seen like this. Lindsay didn’t want to make it worse, whatever the

problem was, so he curled up on his side and closed his eyes. Grown-up relationship. Extenuating

circumstances. He’d already had more than he’d ever dreamed, he reminded himself.

“Under the covers.” Dane grumbled and tugged the covers out from under Lindsay to tuck him in,

getting in beside him. “Unless you got super-heating powers from Ezqel this morning.”

“No. You think he’d let me trade up?” Lindsay wriggled under the covers.

“Not likely. He’s no fun.” Dane tucked Lindsay in and frowned at him. “You’ll need to use it

sometime, you know.”

Lindsay sighed. “I know. I just… I don’t want to try, and find out that even after all that, I’m still

broken.” He shrugged. “I don’t know what to do with it, anyway.”

“Me either.” Dane shrugged, mirroring him.

Lindsay was oddly reassured by Dane’s admission. “I think I could figure out what to do with you,

though,” he murmured, smiling wickedly. “If you’re not all worn out from playing in the dirt all day…” He

wriggled closer, rolling up so he could nudge his nose against Dane’s chin submissively and brush a kiss

over Dane’s lips. Maybe it would still work.

“I don’t get tired.” Dane’s voice dropped to a familiar purr and his hand found Lindsay’s bare hip

under the blankets.

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Lindsay grinned, nudging Dane until he fell over onto his back. “Prove it,” Lindsay challenged,

crawling up over Dane and leaning in for another kiss.

“Prove it?” Dane laughed at him, a real smile and a real laugh. It did work. Lindsay felt a surge of

triumph and joy. “How did you want me to do that?”

Lindsay rubbed his cheek against Dane’s and sat up again. “I’ve been waiting all day for you to come

back, so I could convince you to fuck me.”

“Convince?” Dane grinned and ran a hand over Lindsay’s hair, petting him like always. “You looked

in a mirror lately?” He slid his fingers into Lindsay’s hair, tugging gently. It didn’t hurt, at least not in the way that would make Lindsay want to ask Dane to stop. “So, how were you planning to do this

convincing?”

“You seem to like it when I tell you what I want.”

“You think I’m that easy?” Now Dane was teasing. His voice was smoother than before, but the tones

hadn’t changed.

“I think you are when you want to be,” Lindsay said honestly. He leaned forward, against the pull of

Dane’s hand, and flicked his tongue over Dane’s lips. “But maybe I could kiss you some, if telling you

what I want doesn’t work, because that works sometimes too.”

Dane leaned up for a kiss, his mouth soft on Lindsay’s. “You learn fast,” he murmured after. His other

hand slid up Lindsay’s back, fingers tracing the curve of Lindsay’s spine.

Lindsay arched into the petting, humming with how good it felt. “You teach well.”

Dane kissed him again, more demanding this time, his tongue pushing into Lindsay’s mouth. He

pulled Lindsay against him and Lindsay moaned softly. He licked at Dane’s tongue, sucked at it. He’d used

his words, had told Dane that he wanted him, but now it was time to show him.

The sounds Dane made, low groans of pure want, were almost as affecting as his touches. Dane’s

hand was huge on Lindsay’s back, splayed wide to hold him close. He cupped Lindsay’s ass with the other

hand, stroking between his thighs. Lindsay arched, spreading his legs as far as he could manage, and slid

his own hands over Dane’s chest, exploring the new territory. The fur was gone, but Dane was still broad

and strong. Lindsay could feel the muscles shifting beneath Dane’s skin.

A moment later, Dane was tapping Lindsay on the shoulder with the plain salve that had been tucked

under the pillows. “Trust me,” he murmured. “I’m not tired. Haven’t been this not-tired in years.”

Lindsay sat up a bit, flushed and wide-eyed, and whispered, “Show me.” He took the salve from Dane

and opened it up. “I want you to fuck me. Please.”

“I will.” Dane’s hands found Lindsay’s ass as he leaned up to bite the side of Lindsay’s throat—his

teeth were suddenly sharp. “I could do it all night,” he growled, sounding terribly feral.

Lindsay shivered hard and pressed into it, all of it. “Please,” he whispered again. He wanted exactly

what Dane was offering.

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“Use that, and you can have anything you want,” Dane promised. He licked where he had bitten,

purring contentedly.

Lindsay made himself sit up, pulling away from those oh-so-intense licks and bites so he could dip his

fingers into the little pot. He braced his other hand against Dane’s chest for balance and support as he

pushed Dane’s fingers away and slid his own slick finger into himself. One, and then another, he fucked

himself with them, and he couldn’t keep from moaning.

Dane’s eyes were dark and hot on him. “That’s so good.” He curled a hand around Lindsay’s cock,

stroking enough for some friction. “Pretty,” he murmured, as if to himself as much as Lindsay.

“Please,” Lindsay answered, gasping with the sensations. For all that Dane looked different, it was

definitely him—no one else called Lindsay pretty.

“Whenever you want it,” Dane promised. “You look so good, I could eat you.” He said it like he

meant it, like he’d barely been resisting all this time, and for a moment Lindsay could believe it would be good.

Lindsay pulled his fingers out. “Now.”

“C’mere, then.” Dane cupped Lindsay’s hip in one hand and guided him down. “Let me feel you.”

Lindsay went slowly, letting his body adjust. The palm of Dane’s hand was warm and smooth against

Lindsay’s cock. The pleasure of those touches sated Lindsay enough that he could be a bit patient until his body took Dane in all the way. The calm didn’t last long, though, when Lindsay moved. Shivers rolled

through his body and he gasped, writhing and moving faster. He was suddenly so close, he could feel the

pleasure boiling up inside him.

“Yeah, like that,” Dane purred. “Let it go. I’m not going to stop.”

Lindsay moved faster, fucking himself on Dane’s cock without restraint. Dane hissed his approval,

hips moving under Lindsay to fuck him harder as Lindsay came, slicking the hand stroking his cock and

spilling over the back of it onto Dane’s belly.

“Like that,” Dane murmured. He seemed to love it when there wasn’t any pretense or clinging to self-

control.

Lindsay kept moving, wanting it to last. Every thrust made him shiver all over again, and he moaned.

He wanted to make Dane feel it too, wanted it so much. This wasn’t worth anything if he couldn’t make

Dane feel as good as he did. “Please,” he whispered, as something opened up inside him.

Dane rocked under Lindsay for a long while, then wrapped his arms around Lindsay, tumbling them

over, sliding his belly against Lindsay’s and making both of them sticky. He kissed Lindsay recklessly,

moaning, still moving hard. When he pulled back, he was totally human again, beautiful in a way that

didn’t seem to exist anymore except in paintings. His eyes were black with pleasure, his full lips swollen

from kissing Lindsay, his cheeks like roses under the gold.

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Lindsay tangled his fingers in Dane’s hair and pulled him in for another wet, messy, hungry kiss. All

Dane’s reserve was gone. He gasped against Lindsay’s mouth, whined his name, kissed him hard and hot,

fucking him relentlessly. Without warning, he pulled out and slid down, pushing his fingers in instead.

Shivering and moaning, he licked and bit his way down Lindsay’s chest until he was lapping up the streaks

of Lindsay’s come.

“Oh, God,” Lindsay gasped, trying and failing to catch his breath. “Dane…” He writhed, moving as

much as he could to keep fucking himself on Dane’s fingers. Dane’s mouth felt so good, so intense, and it

felt so good to know, to be able to feel how much Dane wanted him.

Lifting his head a moment, Dane grabbed the salve and got his fingers slick again before pushing

three back into Lindsay. They were long and thick, filling Lindsay up. His mouth came down on Lindsay’s

cock, sucking it in, tongue sliding out to lick at Lindsay’s balls as well. Dane moaned around Lindsay’s

cock, sucking hungrily, shivering.

Lindsay cried out, his hips bucking to push his cock deeper into Dane’s mouth. He tried to settle down

almost immediately, petting apologetically even as he kept writhing, but Dane just moaned and sucked

Lindsay in again. Every move Lindsay made got more noises from him.

“Dane, Dane, oh, fuck…” Lindsay gasped, his hands clenching in Dane’s hair before he could stop

himself. He rocked between Dane’s fingers and his mouth, his back arching like he’d been shot through

with pleasure. “Please.”

Dane kept at him for a long time, hungry like he couldn’t get enough. Finally, he pulled his mouth off,

pulled his fingers out, and pushed his cock back in all at once. His weight came down on Lindsay, barely

caught on his elbows, and he kissed Lindsay hard.

“Yes,” he whispered against Lindsay’s mouth. “Yes, anything.” He fucked Lindsay with long, deep

strokes, rolling his hips as he thrust. His kisses would have been dangerous if he’d still had fangs, and he gasped Lindsay’s name between them, sounding overwhelmed with pleasure. Dane had never been quite

like this before. It had always been intense, but this was so much more open than Dane usually was.

More open. The knowledge of what he’d done hit Lindsay hard enough to make him gag into the

kisses. He struggled to pull away, and to drag his magic back into himself. Oh, God, what had he done? He

hadn’t understood what he was feeling when he’d done it, but now he knew. He knew and, God, he hoped

Dane would forgive him.

“I’m sorry,” Lindsay choked out past the tears of shame and fear. He grabbed at Dane’s shoulders,

trying to shake Dane awake. “Oh, God, I’m sorry. I didn’t know…”

As the magic rolled back, Dane pulled away with a convulsive shudder, his face and body shifting

through several variations on his usual appearance. He shook his head like a dog shedding water, and