Their Precious Own

by Lia Black

  “Fuck... yesss...” Derek hissed, his hips thrusting upwards, trying to go deeper.

  Above him, Kayle’s sweet-hot breath warmed a few beads of water that dripped down from his hair onto Derek’s face. His breath hitched and he arched his spine, his long tongue licking up the droplets, then plunging between Derek’s lips, his mouth crushing down soon after.

  Derek’s biceps were flexing and his hands clutched Kayle’s as Kayle rolled his hips—teasing before he let him push deeper inside.

  He gasped, his body tensing as Kayle once again sat up, then slammed his hips down hard, sheathing Derek’s cock fully in his tight, gripping heat.

  Their lovemaking was not gentle. It was desperate, and needy, and rough. Their kisses were hard; sharp grazes of teeth on tender lips, nips at the flick of a tongue. Kayle sucked dark bruises into Derek’s flesh, and he dug crescents into Kayle’s hips. Dragging him down, he thrust up inside until he was dizzy and blind with pleasure that bordered the limits of pain.

  When he came, it was explosive. Derek’s vision went white and every muscle locked as his orgasm surged through him. Electricity raced up the length of his spine, crashing into his brain and making his conscious mind shatter into a million pieces. And when it was done, reduced to sharp, delicious aftershocks, Derek laughed until he thought he’d cry.

  He was exhausted, and relieved, but goddamn it, he was alive.

  By now, the underground news feeds were probably buzzing with the story of the enigmatic City Director Toussant, leaving his ivory tower to embrace his troubled, illegitimate son. Derek had to give Toussant credit; he’d played the part well enough to fool the public. As for him, as long as he lived, Derek didn’t think he’d ever forget how Cal looked; face slack, eyes glazed, dropping to the concrete like a broken doll.

  He shuddered, pressing closer to Kayle’s body, relaxing in the comfort he provided.

  Kayle’s talons were combing through his hair, petting him. It felt so good, he never wanted it to end. But as hard as he tried, Derek couldn’t keep the dark thoughts from coming back.

  “I’m tired of this,” he sighed.

  “Tired? I don’t understand.” Kayle’s hand stilled and there was nervousness to his tone.

  “Not this...not us. Never us,” Derek clarified. He brushed a kiss over Kayle’s collarbone. “I’m tired of the anger. Of watching people die and not being able to do anything to stop it. I’m tired of getting to the scene of a crime after it’s already happened. I’m tired of politics.” He sighed, “I don’t think I’m cut out to be a cop anymore.”

  Underneath him, Kayle shifted, moving so that Derek could look him in the eye.

  “What do you mean?” Kayle asked.

  “I mean... I dunno what I mean. I like helping people, but that’s not what I’m doing. I’m sitting around, waiting for things to happen to them. That’s what my job has become. Picking up the pieces of somebody’s ruined life.”

  “My job is much easier on Apex,” Kayle said after a pause. “There, the only enemy is anyone who would threaten the Sovereign. I find them, wherever they hide and gather enough evidence to make sure they never have the opportunity again. Other than that, I run checks on Clan who want to govern settlements.”

  “Oh yeah?” Derek lifted his head. “How did Toussant shake out?”

  “Very diplomatic.”

  “Figures.” Derek dropped his head back down, laying it on the pillow next to Kayle’s.

  “When I left the slums after my mother was killed,” Kayle said, “I was called a traitor to my kind. But feeling guilty about betraying a life of poverty and death never made sense to me. It is terrible that my kind are forgotten citizens, abandoned and left to die as pariahs. But I’m not helping them by remaining one of them.”

  Derek fingered a lock of Kayle’s silky hair. “I don’t want you to go back to Apex. I...” Derek swallowed hard. This was a risk worth taking. “I love you.” There. He’d said it. Regardless of the outcome, at least this time Derek could say he hadn’t waited too long to speak his mind.

  “I... love you too, Derek.” Kayle’s voice was soft, higher than normal, and Derek raised his head to look down into his face.

  Kayle’s eyes were closed, but his brow was pulled upwards, making an inverted vee. Derek saw the bob of his throat as he swallowed and his silver eyelashes glistened with tears.

  “Kayle, are you... crying?”

  “I’m trying not to, but thank you for pointing it out.” Kayle sucked in a stammering breath and opened his eyes, glittering like black diamonds. Set loose, the tears ran down his temples. “You weren’t supposed to happen,” he said. His red irises shifted to look at Derek’s face.

  Derek propped himself up on his elbow, resting his head on his hand. “Don’t you think I feel the same way?” The fingers of his other hand absently toyed with one of the barbells through Kayle’s nipples. He stopped when Kayle shuddered, pressing his palm to Kayle’s chest instead.

  “I have no choice. I have to go back to Apex.”

  “Yeah. I know. I don’t have to like it, though. And I don’t.” Derek’s gaze found Kayle’s face again, but Kayle looked away.

  “If there was a way... would you come with me?” Kayle asked.

  “There’s a way?” A spark of hope ignited in Derek’s chest. “What? Sex-thrall? Can you have one of those?”

  Kayle started laughing, something Derek wasn’t sure he’d ever done before. He liked the sound, bittersweet though it was.

  “I was hoping you would be interested in something more meaningful,” Kayle said, wiping at his eyes with the back of one hand.

  “Of course I’ll come with you. What could be more meaningful than spending every waking moment serving your every whim?”

  Kayle’s eyes slid to Derek’s face again, and he propped himself up on his elbows. “You would seriously come with me if you could? What about your life here? Your friends?”

  “I don’t have a life here. Not anymore. And unless you tell me I’ll never get to see them again, my friends will remain my friends.” Derek was trying not to get ahead of himself. He’d never considered that he could ever live anyplace like Apex, so he’d learned to hate it. He wasn’t certain that if he did live there, he’d like it any better. It was full of Gentry. Director Toussant was lower-caste Gentry, so Derek had to believe that anyone in Apex would be a hundred times harder to get along with. But he would learn tolerance, just as he had with Kayle, and Kayle with him. Assuming, of course, that there was actually a way to make this work.

  Kayle rolled over, pulling Derek down into a hug. “Let me... let me call my father. He may have some ideas.”

  EPILOGUE

  Derek squinted against the bright sunshine streaming through the skylight of the bedroom. He blinked his eyes to clear them, watching the soft, white clouds drifting across blue sky outside.

  Next to him, Kayle muttered a soft curse and reached towards him, tempting him back into the warm cocoon of his wings.

  “C’mon, sleepy-head,” Derek found a wrist—not covered by a wing or bed sheets— and gave it a little kiss. “I’m going to make some coffee.”

  Derek got out of bed, grabbing his boxers off the carpeted floor as he headed to the bathroom.

  Kayle’s house— their house— was beside a rolling blue ocean, built up on stilts in the black and gold-streaked sand.

  When they’d first arrived on Apex, Derek had been worried that it would never feel like home. The city was made of white streets, bordered by pillars and towers veined with gold. It was beautiful, the most beautiful place he could ever imagine, yet lifeless. There was very little movement. Even the troll guards stood like statues along each side of the road. And the tech here... Bird-like shadows moved, cast along the ground, as small flying vehicles carried their passengers from place to place.

  But Derek soon learned that the white city was only one part of Apex. Their house and its location were nothing like he’d ever seen. It was tall and unpretentious, su
rrounded by nothing but beachfront and nature. Enormous windows, beveled at the edges, cast rainbows across floors and walls every day. At night, he could follow the path of moonlight all the way up across the sky.

  Derek drummed his fingers on the counter as his coffee finished brewing. Real coffee, made with only the touch of a button. It was like magic—much like everything here. He filled his mug, pulling one down from the cupboard for Kayle.

  Stepping into his shoes, he carried his steaming cup down a few stairs to the door of the greenhouse. Kayle had built the greenhouse just for him. It never failed to bring a smile to Derek’s face thinking about how excited Kayle had been when he’d surprised him with the gift. He had remembered Derek’s little fire-escape garden and thought he should have a real one.

  Derek decided to let Kayle sleep in a bit; they’d only gotten back to Apex last night after spending a week traveling between settlements. Derek had been appointed as an emissary; his job was to help the humans and Variants work together. Sometimes he settled disputes, sometimes he helped draft laws, and sometimes he was just the human face of Apex. Poster boy for peace and harmony, or at least, that’s what the Gentry hoped. In reality, human and Variant relations had a long way to go. Despite that, Derek was finding that he was pretty good at politics.

  Derek had been prepared for an uphill battle all the way to Apex, but Count Fourie had fostered an interest in him with the Sovereign. Derek got to meet the mysterious ruler, who appeared little more than a teenager, and acted a lot like a child. Grudgingly, the local Gentry had to accept the Sovereign’s fascination, and at least feigned interest to remain in his good graces.

  Derek stood just inside his greenhouse, surveying the symphony of colors and textures he’d never seen while growing up in a settlement. It would be amazing to have the ability to bring all of this back to life on Earth, but Derek understood it was something he’d never see in his lifetime.

  “Ah Derek, good morning.”

  Count Fourie’s voice drifted to him from behind a flowering hibiscus. Derek bent down, squinting through the leaves and pink flowers to pick out the bright purple coat that Kayle’s father wore. “Your Grace, good morning. To what do we owe the honor?”

  “Diplomatic errand.” Fourie’s eyes met Derek’s from between the branches and he looked him over. “Day off I see.”

  Derek looked down at his bare legs, thinking that maybe he should have put some pants on after all.

  “How’d you guess?”

  “I wonder.” Fourie rose up from the bench where he’d been sitting, blooming like an exotic violet in his velvet-trimmed coat. “I don’t suppose my son is awake yet?”

  Derek crossed the floor of inlaid stones to meet him. “Not really, no.”

  Fourie sighed, sounding disappointed. “Just as well. Please tell him I was here?”

  “Absolutely, Your Grace.” Derek nodded. While the relationship between Kayle and his father seemed to be growing closer, Kayle still had his odd quirks. Fourie had learned either to pop in with no warning, or to give them an entire day’s notice so Kayle could make sure everything was perfect.

  “I must tell you Derek, the Director of Goa was skeptical of your suggestion to rebuild housing in the slums rather than install cameras to deter crime, but it has proven to be a much better investment.”

  “Happy to hear that,” Derek said, pinching a few early buds off a flowering plant to encourage more blossoms. “You didn’t come all the way here to tell me that, though, am I right?”

  Fourie smiled. “You are correct, Derek. The Sovereign is requesting more flowers. I wonder if I might trouble you?”

  “No trouble at all.” Derek smiled and set down his cup of coffee on the stone bench where Fourie had been sitting, then located his pruning shears resting on a ledge. He moved along the rows of flowers to take cuttings as the count started speaking.

  “I am glad, Derek, that you seem happy here. You have helped Kayle to relax.”

  “Glad to be of service,” Derek chuckled and brought the handful of blooms to Fourie. He couldn’t imagine what a pent up ball of anxiety Kayle must have been before.

  “Lovely,” Count Fourie said, lifting the blossoms to his face and breathing in their scent. “Perhaps you would like to come with me to deliver them? The Sovereign is asking to hear more stories of your youth.”

  “As tempting as that sounds, I’m afraid I must decline. Please send my apologies.”

  “Ah, yes. Well I’m certain he’ll understand. Enjoy your day off.”

  Derek watched him go, carrying the bouquet with him, before he became aware of Kayle standing in the doorway to the house.

  “I believe you are the only person anywhere brave enough to tell the Sovereign no.”

  Derek shrugged. “What can I say? I’m an ill-mannered human. He can’t compete with an incubus and a day off.”

  “Really?” Kayle lifted an eyebrow.

  Derek watched Kayle’s tail twitching near his bare calf. “Yeah, and it’s a good thing your father left.” Derek felt heat pooling low in his belly as Kayle’s pheromones began to drift towards him on the light breeze.

  “Oh?”

  “Or else he’d have to watch me do something ill-mannered to his son.”

  “Here? In the greenhouse?” Kayle glanced around.

  “The roses won’t notice,” Derek winked.

  Kayle stepped lightly towards him, moving into his arms. “Let’s go back to bed.”

  As he followed his incubus husband inside and back up the stairs, Derek could honestly say that no matter what happened in the future, he’d never hold back or leave things unsaid. He’d harbor no more regrets.

  ~END~