Night's Templar: A Vampire Queen Novel (Vampire Queen Series Book 13) (26 page)

Uthe’s dominance wasn’t a façade, which was probably why he intrigued Keldwyn so much. Tangled with that dominance was a complicated sense of service and duty, flavored with a heavily guarded vulnerability that suggested deeper needs, conceivably spawned by the burdens he carried. Those needs had been buried at such a deep level Keldwyn might not have ever detected them, if not for the male’s struggle with Ennui. The only gift from the hated condition, though he’d much rather have figured it out without its influence.

With Uthe’s mouth on Keldwyn’s arm, his tongue sliding along his flesh and his teeth still embedded, holding Kel as he drank, Keldwyn saw that complicated mix of dominance and surrender. He slid his arm further around Uthe’s back, holding him closer. From whatever well Uthe’s tremendous sense of duty and service to the Lord had come, also came the capacity to submit to the right Master. The one deserving of his submission.

Up until this moment, Keldwyn expected only God had received that privilege.

As Uthe gave in to his hunger, Keldwyn felt like they’d slipped off the spinning wheel of time into its fulcrum, where matters of Fate were decided. Where things so precious existed, they had to be experienced in the space of a held breath. Any longer than that and the heart and soul would be immersed in something too overwhelming. They’d shatter into the stuff of the universe. Perhaps the ether into which they all returned in the end, to find bliss at last.

Uthe sealed the puncture wounds with the firm pressure of his tongue and a tingle of sensation Keldwyn expected was some kind of coagulant. When the vampire lifted his head, his face was suffused with want. Keldwyn was more than willing to provide him with what he needed. He captured the vampire’s mouth, tasting his own blood. Clamping a hand behind his neck, he savored his lips fully, before becoming too impatient even for that. Keldwyn shoved Uthe onto his back and yanked at the loose cotton pants. He pushed at the edge of the tunic. “Off,” he said shortly. “I want it all off of you. I want you naked.”

Uthe’s eyes sparked at the challenge, but he didn’t fight him. His erection was already thick and tall, swaying with his movements as he arched his upper torso to pull off the tunic. Keldwyn dipped his head and attacked with teeth and mouth. The protrusion of rib cage, the taut nipple, the ripple of abdomen muscles. Uthe’s fingers slid into his hair. It was bound in the braid, and Uthe tugged at it, freeing it and combing his fingers through the silken strands. Keldwyn let him do as he liked as he tasted every inch of him. Uthe’s cock brushed against Kel’s chest and his abdomen as he moved upward. He rose to stand over Uthe and stripped off his own tunic, but he waited no longer than it took to unlace his leggings before he knelt, hooked a hand under Uthe’s thigh and lifted it. With the other hand, he milked Uthe’s cock, bringing forth viscous pre-come he smeared on his own cock, also using the arousal coming from his own slit.

“I’d advise you to carry lubricant, Lord Uthe. There’s no telling when I might wish to have you honor your oath. Or how often.”

“You’ve complimented me on my ability to stay prepared before, my lord,” Uthe said in a rough voice, staring up at him. “Perhaps you ought to check the pack before you waste your time on unnecessary instruction.”

Keldwyn found the tube of lubricant there. When he turned his stare to Uthe, he was charmed and goaded by the slight flush of color that stained the vampire’s jaw. Had he argued with himself, telling himself such preparedness might be less about his oath to Keldwyn and more about his own desires? Keldwyn suspected he had. He was going to drive such arguments out of the vampire’s head, no matter how often he had to fuck the lesson into him.

“Your desires serve my desires, Varick,” Keldwyn growled. He added the lubricant to his shaft, his lust building when Uthe couldn’t keep his gaze off of the movement of his fingers. When he curved an arm under Uthe’s thigh and lifted it once again, this time to press his cock against Uthe’s tight opening, he realized he hadn’t been so eager to take a male in some time.

He slid his other arm under Uthe’s opposite thigh, lifted both so that he had the male’s ass several inches off the ground. He pushed in an inch or two, making sure he was well seated.

“I am going to fuck you hard, vampire. It’s the price of your meal. Would you like me to make it hurt?”

Uthe’s facial muscles were taut with arousal. “You cannot make it hurt too much, my lord.”

Keldwyn shoved in deep, violent. Uthe groaned, body lifting into the penetration, accepting the rough treatment. When Keldwyn started hammering him, Uthe’s hands clasped over his on his legs, giving him additional momentum. He caught a glimpse of harsh, brutal bliss on Uthe’s face. The vampire had denied his desires for so long, he’d perhaps forgotten how good it could be to embrace them. Keldwyn understood the feeling all too well, taken by surprise by how violent the storm was that rose up and took him, sweeping them both along in its track.

Uthe’s fingers dug into his forearms, and Keldwyn put more weight on his legs, bending them so he was closer to the male, eyes locked together as he fucked him thoroughly and well. “I would call you mine, Varick. All of you.”

Uthe’s expression flickered in shock, but the climax was too close. “Kel…”

Keldwyn’s eyes closed. He’d called him familiar. “Come for me, vampire,” he whispered.

Uthe released, cock spurting ropes of thick semen over his abdomen and chest. Keldwyn inhaled the musk of it, and his own organ convulsed as Uthe’s torso and thigh muscles firmed like steel, his lips parting to show his gleaming fangs. Keldwyn wanted him to feed from his throat one day. He didn’t shy from the knowledge or judge it. Not right now.

Keldwyn came, breath rasping in his throat, buttocks flexing against the inside of Uthe’s thighs. The male pushed against the hold of Kel’s arms to lock his legs over Keldwyn’s ass, drawing him even closer. Keldwyn braced his hands flat on either side of Uthe’s shoulders, his hair falling down to brush his arms and Uthe’s chest.

“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.