"Careful," Uthe said, gathering it up in one hand, holding it loosely against Keldwyn's shoulder. "You'll get it in the mess I made."
When he'd first met Uthe, Keldwyn had thought the harsh lines cut into his face peculiar for a born vampire, since those lines usually were marks of sun and aging. They seemed to emphasize Uthe's ascetic lifestyle, the plain, earth-colored clothing he wore, his propensity to spend time reading, doing Council work and praying rather than pursuing more playful or hedonistic pursuits, like others of his kind. But now that Keldwyn understood the stories those lines told, the character they reflected, it made the male vampire irresistibly handsome to him.
Yes, Reghan was laughing his very fine ass off. But he would have understood Keldwyn's fascination, wouldn't he? For Reghan had had an understated but solid Dominant streak like Uthe did, with that same intriguing undercurrent. Kel and Reghan had only started to explore a physical relationship before Reghan met Lyssa's mother, the beautiful Masako. During those couplings, Kel had led Reghan to that place of inner surrender, and Reghan had trusted him enough to submit, lose himself in the pleasure Kel could give him. In those blissful moments, Kel had been suffused with anticipation, wanting to find the bottom of Reghan's soul, cradle, keep and cherish it.
He now knew those interludes had been far less significant for Reghan, merely a beginning exploration between two best friends. Kel had been one of the few Reghan could trust with his deepest needs and desires. As a result, Kel had opened the path for Reghan that helped him actualize and act upon his feelings for Lyssa's mother. Which had just made the heartbreak worse, hadn't it? Not only had Reghan rejected Keldwyn's desire for more than friendship, Kel had helped him along the path that eventually took Reghan from all of them.
Yes, that was bollocks. Kel recognized that for the self-pity it was. Reghan was a decisive and intelligent male. He'd embraced his love with Masako because that was whose heart he was ultimately meant to share. Kel understood that now. Truth didn't make such things any less painful.
Yet it had taught Keldwyn an invaluable lesson. Submission didn't automatically mean a lover handed over his heart and soul. It just felt like he did. A Master learned the truth otherwise when it was too late, when he'd already surrendered his own.
He didn't want to think about any of that right now. This was a different road. He slid back down Uthe's body to run his tongue over a track of Uthe's release. The male drew in a breath, held it. Delighting in the reaction, Keldwyn traced every one of the glistening trails. He tasted Uthe, took his seed inside him. There was the flavor of blood to it, and Uthe's own essence, that indefinable taste unique to him. Uthe's cock twitched on his belly, reminding Kel that vampire recovery time was almost as good as a Fae's. Convenient.
No, not convenient, unfortunately. They both knew they couldn't delay their task here much longer. Keldwyn tilted his head, studied the symbols. He was well aware he'd not yet drawn out of the vampire, but he was pleased with his present whereabouts and would take the time he desired there. He was glad for the strength of the protection spell on the cave opening. An army of Saracens might be gathering outside, but for the moment they were uninterrupted. "So are you closer to figuring it out?"
"I think so." Uthe released Keldwyn's hair, let it slide over his fingertips, then he dropped his hand back above his head, gazing up at Keldwyn under heavy lidded eyes. He was returning to the present moment, retreating into his reserve. While Keldwyn had many ways to thwart that, he wouldn't press them now. Too much had just happened between them and he respected Uthe's need to consider the ramifications. The words Keldwyn had spoken were in the vampire's eyes.
I would call you mine.
Would he think they were words spoken in the heat of lust? It wasn't an inaccurate conclusion. Not that Keldwyn hadn't meant them, but his timing could have been better. More road needed to be traveled before that statement could be tested in a useful way, yet he'd blurted it out like an impetuous youngling. But once, a long time ago, he'd waited. He'd let Reghan believe their intense couplings were a brothers-in-arms type of things, a pleasurable indulgence for best friends. Before he could speak his heart, the one he'd loved had chosen to love another.
Once again he chided himself for false thinking. Time had had naught to do with it. Love wasn't a footrace, and it cared nothing for timing. Kel's heart would have been broken all the more deeply if their relationship had time to become more and then Reghan chose Masako anyway.
He withdrew, sat back on his heels and found Uthe's pants, tossing them to him as he tucked himself back in and laced his own.
"Lord Reghan... He allowed Lyssa's mother to mark him as her servant, didn't he?"
Keldwyn lifted his head, surprised. The vampire male read others well; Keldwyn just hadn't recognized how much progress he was making on that with him specifically.
"It was more complicated than that." Keldwyn paused before Uthe's steady regard. Yes, it sounded like a deflection. His lips twisted wryly. "It was not known to many others. At that time, in that environment, it would have sealed his fate even more quickly than the knowledge of their love did. But yes. He told me it was inevitable, for a vampire can only bind souls with a servant. To his way of thinking, regardless of how it would be viewed, he could not bear to let any barrier stand between them being as close to one another as eternally possible. 'Eternally possible.' That was the term he used."
Keldwyn cleared his throat, turned away and began to re-braid his hair in quick, efficient movements. "Make no mistake, he was a powerful leader, a strong male. I would not have you hold the wrong impression of him."
"Yet you do not assure me that he was the Dominant in their relationship, as I would expect you to do, to defend his honor. He was a leader who craved surrender, in the right circumstances. That is why he caught your attention, because you need that from your lovers. Submission."
Uthe's tone was neutral, giving nothing away. Keldwyn turned to face him. Now dressed in the cotton pants, the vampire rose, pulling on his tunic. He was modest. Not from embarrassment, but because of the dictates of his Order. That was in the Rule, that a man slept in breeches and shirt, never standing about indolently half naked. Keldwyn liked the look of Varick in only the loose cotton pants, though. His color was better, he noted. Fae blood had served him well.
"He caught my attention for many reasons," Keldwyn said evenly. "That being just one of them."
Uthe bent, picked something up off the floor. Coming to Keldwyn, he reached over his shoulder and slid the braid forward to his chest. Keldwyn had only retrieved one tie for the braid, and had used it at the end of the heavy tail. Uthe wrapped the other around the braid at the widest part at the top and caressed Keldwyn's still bare shoulder, since he stood before Uthe in only the partially laced leggings still. Uthe's hand then fell on the loosened waistband, finger tips sliding in to play in the silky hair over the pubis. The casual need to touch sparked heat, not only in Kel's lower region.
"Varick." Kel locked gazes with him. "Take the tunic off. If you have to return to solving your puzzle, I would like to enjoy the view. Even more than I already do."
Uthe smiled faintly, his dark eyes showing a mix of responses to that. Desire, conflict, and then a simple acceptance that touched Keldwyn. He complied after a single heartbeat. It made Keldwyn want to take him all over again, but instead he restrained himself, letting his gaze travel over the tempting proximity of Uthe's impressive upper torso, the striations of muscle. The heat of him.
"I promised to tell you more details about the demon, my lord. I think it is time to do that. Recalling all of it may help me figure out the clues Fatima has left me."
Uthe moved away, back toward the section of wall with the thickest covering of symbols. Keldwyn wasn't sure if it was to study the wall or to establish some distance from the unspoken questions that would implicitly come on the heels of the others they'd just raised. He wasn't sure if he himself was ready for insights about that. In the heat of passion, feeding the
vampire, sinking deep inside him, had felt like the still point of the universe where nothing else would matter, but recalling Reghan's life and tragic death had dispelled that fantasy, perhaps for both of them.
It gave him a sense of loss and regret. He wondered what it would be like to have a vampire's marking so he could be inside Uthe's mind, understand what the other male was thinking right now. Perhaps it was best not to have that intimacy.
"When Hugh of Payns and his brethren were charged by the Pope and the King of Jerusalem to protect pilgrims, they were given lodging in a portion of the Temple of Solomon, or rather the building built on top of the supposed ruins of the Temple of Solomon. The underground stables there could house over a thousand horses, and were a perfect place for a vampire to sleep." Uthe's expression was warm and slightly ironic, an acknowledgement of what was being unsaid. Keldwyn couldn't help but respond to it. He nodded, which eased some of the tension in the vampire's face, as well as that holding his own shoulders in a straight line.
Uthe turned back to the symbols, his voice relaxing into a normal storytelling cadence. "We protected pilgrims, yes, but the pope had another charge for us. He wanted us to explore those ruins deep in the earth and see if the gold the Jews had supposedly hidden after the Roman invasion in 70 A.D. was still there. A large effort would have caught attention, so the small order was the perfect detail to pursue such a charge. From the beginning, there was little hope that we would find what the Romans and Saracens would not have. The rumor of the gold had persisted since the invasion. But no one had a vampire who could search deeper levels, where space and air were far more questionable, and whose senses could see further, detect the hollowness of chambers behind rock."
Keldwyn sat down on a boulder Uthe had been using as a vantage point to study the wall earlier. Uthe was trailing his fingers absently along his chest and abdomen. Keldwyn had used his own lips and tongue to collect Uthe's release, but he expected the vampire could still feel the faint stickiness of the combined fluids of his own body and Keldwyn's mouth. Uthe was fastidiously clean, so Kel wondered if the vampire choosing to discuss more of what Keldwyn wanted to know, rather than first going to the water source to clean up, was an intentional delay, so he didn't yet have to wash away the feel of Keldwyn's mouth upon him. He knew how he felt. He needed to wash up as well, but wasn't yet inclined in that direction.
Catching his fingers in the waist band of the cotton pants, he tugged Uthe back a step. The vampire glanced over his shoulder. "What?"
"Sit." Keldwyn indicated his knee. Uthe looked amused.
"I'm a little big to be bounced on someone's knee."
"Yes, you are." Keldwyn still pulled at him. Uthe placed his ass on Kel's knee with a sigh, but continued to study the wall as Keldwyn ran a hand up and down the faint bumps of his spine, his other hand curving over Uthe's hip. "Tell me the rest."
"We did find gold. Some. The Jews were far too smart to leave it all in one place, but it was enough to make the Pope ecstatic. It earned the Order his endorsement and, through his encouragement, the endorsement of Bernard Clairvaux, who was considered one of the most devout of all those sworn to the Church. At that time, he was the touchstone of the faith. Those endorsements validated our purpose. It launched the Order like a rocket. Donations of money and property came pouring in. Hugh was truly pious, a true believer. It was the validation that fueled him, not the money and power. He envisioned the Templars as a pure army of God, that simple squadron of nine knights protecting the pilgrims symbolizing the Order's enduring meaning, our one inalterable goal. Yet we became an army of men, with their usual failings in power and politics."
Keldwyn wrapped his fingers around Uthe's shoulder and pulled him back further so he was leaning against Keldwyn's chest. He adjusted his upper body against Kel's shoulder so Keldwyn could see what Uthe was seeing. The position allowed Keldwyn to slide the hand that had been around his back down his front. His skin was still faintly sticky, pleasingly so. He enjoyed that and the defined ridges of Uthe's abdomen, descending into the loosely tied cotton pants to find his cock. Uthe was already semi-erect. Under Keldwyn's knowledgeable fingers, he grew stiffer.
"Didn't we just..."
"Yes." Uthe let out a harsh groan as Keldwyn dug his fingers into the rigid shaft, an admonition, and increased the firmness of his strokes. "You started to look sad, unhappy. This will help."
Uthe made a strangled half chuckle. "I think it helps you even more, my lord. You are selfishly insatiable."
"My selfishness will benefit you. Keep going. You found more than gold."
"Yes, we found more than the gold." Uthe got quiet then, and his hand curled over Keldwyn's wrist, a request the Fae honored by stilling his provocative touch, though he kept his hand loosely wrapped over Uthe's genitals, absorbing the heat. He pressed a kiss against Uthe's back. Uthe let out a quiet sigh, a resigned acceptance to its comfort.
"I wouldn't have found it without the dagger. Magic can be mindless, drawn to other magics like magnets. One night I was so far down I doubted any human could get that deep, but a thousand years can change the earth's layers, and rope could have been used to take things even lower than men could reach. It was just a tiny crevice, formed where water or fire might once have cut a path. The dagger at my hip, it...vibrated. I could feel the heat of its energy warming my flesh even through my clothing. I dug through, following its direction. That's when I found the head. The head of the Madman of the Wilderness. John the Baptist."
* * *
Keldwyn came to a full stop. Uthe, his mind obviously now back in those tunnels, leaned forward. He braced his hands on his knees, eyes fixed on the wall. Keldwyn spread his fingers out over his back, absorbing the beat of his heart. "The head that Herodias, wife of Herod, had cut off as a result of her hatred for him."
"The same," Uthe responded. "Many things back then were considered relics, believed to hold magical power because they were the remains of someone sainted or holy. Most were simply bones. But there were advisors in Herod's court who saw an opportunity to use John's fabled power. Thank God, the Jews who hid the head there left a scroll with it, telling us what had been done. Though they'd never intended it to be found, they made sure if it was, the finder would not unleash mayhem unwittingly. The scroll explained black arts had been used to bind a demon in the same skull, to hold John's soul there for all eternity. To do it, they used the soul of an unformed innocent. So there are two innocent souls captured in that one head with the demon."
Uthe paused. "There is no record of what mischief those who did the foul deed were able to wreak with the demon, but our guess is their foolishness got them killed. And the ignorance of evil men left John a test for his soul these ten centuries. The Baptist's soul can be released if the head is destroyed, but if destroyed without the proper preparations, the demon would be released. He belongs to the ranks of the Horseman known as Plague, and he would unleash disease upon the world that could cause immeasurable harm. As long as there was no way to send the demon back from whence he came, John the Baptist's soul was not free to ascend. As far as the other innocent soul, I have always prayed that it--male or female, I do not know--is insensible to all of this."
"The gods be willing," Keldwyn said in grim agreement.
"Long ago, Haris's aunt, Shahnaz, was visited by an angel who said he could destroy the head entirely, but he'd have to obliterate all who inhabited it," Uthe continued. "The sacrifice of the innocent and the Baptist was considered a deeply regrettable but necessary act for ensuring the demon was not freed. Yet Shahnaz showed the angel she'd found a way to increase the strength of the bindings upon the demon and prolong their effectiveness, using other relics we'd discovered during our excavations. Through my contact with Lord Reghan, she'd also secured permission to place the heads and relics in the Shattered World until a means to separate the souls could be found. That changed his course."
He recalled Shahnaz's words once more. "I thought of the angel as our enemy as first, but
he was like us, Lord Uthe. He understood sacrifice and loss, the difficult decisions that often have to be made. He had no more desire to see those innocent souls destroyed than we did. John began to argue, to propose alternatives that would sacrifice him but not the innocent, unnamed one. However, the angel quelled him. He said, 'You can yet serve the Lord's Will inside the gates of Heaven, Madman of the Wilderness. If we can get you there, then that is the ideal solution for us all. Can you accept the Lord's Will and stay trapped until some way is found to free you that will spare your soul and consign the demon back to Hell?'
"John replied, 'I will ever serve the Lord's Will.' And that was that."
"Unfortunately, we have passed the second millennium, and we are once again facing a similar dilemma. The binding Shahnaz imposed has been weakening, which is what allowed the demon to influence and call the Saracens to his aid. But the relics' strength has never diminished, so he is limited to what he can accomplish from his current prison."
"Relics strong enough that time cannot diminish them," Keldwyn mused. "Are you going to enlighten me, my lord, or let me fester in curiosity?" He played his fingers over Uthe's ribs, and the vampire shifted.
"The head is guarded and bound by three objects of power. The Spear of Longinus, the Holy Grail and the True Cross."
Keldwyn blinked. "The Templars had a splinter of the True Cross until Hattin. They lost it there. How did you get it back? And wouldn't Shahnaz's death have predated Hattin?"
"Yes, it did. But I did not say a splinter. There were pieces chipped off of it after the Crucifixion, but the remainder was taken and hidden with other relics."
"So the whole Cross is binding the demon inside the head."
"Minus a few shavings. Yes."
"Uthe, these are objects of power that humans would fight wars to obtain. And you have guarded them since the turn of the first millennium, hiding their existence from...everyone."