Song and Key

by Connie Bailey

  The kiss went on and on, becoming deeper, wetter, and hotter. Keller dug his fingers into the resilient curves of Seva’s ass and firmly ground their lower bodies together. Seva took one step back and then another, and Keller followed, not wanting to be separated by even an inch. When they reached the bed, Keller bore him down to the mattress and kicked his feet farther apart, slotting into the space between Seva’s legs. As Keller met Seva’s molten gaze, he moved purposefully, pressing his groin against Seva’s.

  When Seva reached for Keller’s waistband, Keller took hold of his wrists and pinned them to the bed. They kissed again as he dragged his hard cock across Seva’s, and Seva thrust his tongue into Keller’s mouth. Keller rested more of his weight on Seva, churning their hips together. Seva moaned again, giving back what he got as best as he could. Keller had thought he was as turned-on as a guy could get, but the feeling of Seva moving under him ignited the equivalent of a rocket booster at his core. He devoured Seva’s mouth, tasted a hint of blood, and went back for more. Seva responded with matching desperation and licked Keller’s lips when they broke apart for air.

  “I knew you’d be good,” Seva said in a husky whisper, the words broken by quick, heavy breaths as he started to lose control. The sound of his partner’s gasps made Keller’s groin contract in a galvanizing tremor that shook him as few things had. Keller swooped down on Seva’s mouth, and their kiss muffled Seva’s cry of release. Seva clamped his legs around Keller as he bucked and shuddered through a powerful orgasm.

  Keller’s balls tightened and he groaned deep in his chest as his own release unfurled. He entwined his fingers with Seva’s and tried to press even closer as he rode out the waves of pleasure.

  For endless minutes they remained pressed together, listening to each other breathe, lost in the thundering of their hearts, as the afterglow spread through them. Keller mumbled into Seva’s ear.

  “What?”

  “Awesome,” Keller repeated.

  Seva hummed. “I concur.”

  “Well, I don’t think there’s any doubt I can handle this part,” Keller said, still breathless but smug.

  “You don’t seem to have any worries on that score,” Seva said lazily.

  “So… you think the sex is worth trying for something a bit more?” Keller grinned, wiggling his eyebrows.

  “Stop dishing for condiments. You know you’re a good lover. And maybe. We’ll see what happens after we get home. This soul mate stuff is just… weird.”

  Keller shrugged. “Yeah, it is. But it’s strangest to me that it doesn’t scare me, the way I usually get when someone mentions the R-word. But I wasn’t thinking about seduction or fucking. I forgot everything I’ve ever known about sex. There was nothing but you and how much I wanted you.”

  Seva kissed Keller’s forehead. “That was an amazing thing to say. Now I’m going to pass out. I haven’t slept in quite a while, and you just made me come like it was my first time. In our jeans, no less.”

  Several smartass remarks sprang to Keller’s mind, but he kept them to himself. Instead he helped Seva as they undressed, wiped off, and got under the covers. Careful of the wounds on Seva’s back, Keller spooned up against him, and they slept.

  Chapter Eleven

  Wednesday afternoon, still a bit sex-drunk, at the inn

  SEVA woke to find Keller looking down at him. “What the hell?” he asked, blinking.

  “I was just watching you sleep,” Keller said with a teasing smile.

  Seva raised an eyebrow. “That’s creepy.”

  “Want to have sex again?”

  “Yeah, but we don’t have time.” Seva grinned, gave Keller a gentle push away, and swung his legs over the side of the bed.

  “Are you sure?” Keller asked, running his fingertips lightly down Seva’s back. “And you still need to do something about these scratches, you know.”

  “I’m as sorry as you are, but if we’re going to drive to Sinaia, find walkie-talkies to replace our nonfunctional cell phones, and get back here by dark, we have to go now.” Seva stood and went to pick out his clothes. “I don’t want to drive those switchbacks in the dark. Do you?”

  “Not without streetlights. Okay, you win,” Keller agreed with a disappointed sigh—and an apologetic look at Seva’s ass—and started to get dressed.

  “Why don’t I feel like I won?” Seva asked as he watched Keller tuck himself away and zip his trousers. “I liked arguing with you over every little thing. Tell me that’s not going to stop.”

  Keller thrust his arms into the sleeves of his button-down shirt as he came around the bed. He put his hands on Seva’s shoulders and leaned in for a kiss. Seva returned it and slid his hands under the tails of Keller’s shirt.

  Keller let out a whistle when their lips parted. “Yep. Still hot as habaneros. Sorry, but I had to confirm it. You know. Just in case last night was all a dream.”

  Seva grinned as he picked up his jacket off the back of the chair. “Nice to confirm that you’ve dreamed of having sex with me. But this is going to take some getting used to.”

  Keller shrugged and opened the door for his partner. “I feel strangely comfortable with it.”

  “I suppose it’s no weirder than you getting bitten by a vampire and healing overnight.”

  “I suppose not.”

  “I wonder why Mr. Fairmount didn’t think to give us radios,” Seva said as they started down the stairs. “If he’d done his research, he’d have known there was no cell reception here.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. Let’s just go to the city and get some. Looks like a beautiful afternoon for a drive,” Keller said as they reached the foyer. He went to a window and looked up at the sky. “Beautiful.”

  “You’re in a good mood,” Cosmina said from the archway that led to the lounge.

  “I feel amazing,” Keller said, eyes twinkling. “We’re off to Sinaia. Do you need anything?”

  She shook her head at his ridiculous grin. “I couldn’t impose.”

  “We’d be happy to do it,” Keller said.

  “Thank you, but I need nothing.”

  “Okay. See you later.”

  “We’d be happy to do it,” Seva mimicked when they were outside. “Have you forgotten we’re on a mission?”

  Keller shrugged, still smiling too big to care. “Yeah, I guess I did. It kind of feels like a honeymoon, but I can always count on you to burst the bubble.”

  Seva snorted. “Thank you. Let me have the keys—I’ll drive.”

  “I don’t have the keys,” Keller said in a worried tone, patting his pockets. “Where are they?”

  “In my hand.” Seva chuckled. “The look on your face….”

  “I guess the honeymoon’s already over?”

  “Sorry. That was a lame prank. You’re just so gullible.”

  Keller raised his brows. “No one has ever called me that before.”

  “I’m just comparing you to me,” Seva teased as they got into the car.

  “Being your lover isn’t that different from being hated by you,” he noted as Seva pulled onto the road.

  SONG and Key went to a gas station first to ask directions. The clerk didn’t know of any electronics stores closer than Ploiești or possibly Bucharest, but he pointed them toward a camping-goods shop. The owner of the shop couldn’t help them either, but sent them to a store that sold hunting supplies.

  “I am so very sorry, sir,” the salesman said in response to the request for walkie-talkies. “I can order for you, but we have none at the moment.”

  “Thanks anyway,” Keller said. “Come on, Seva. Let’s find something to eat.”

  Seva led the way back outside and down the street to the corner. In a few minutes, they were in an area of small shops and restaurants.

  “What are you hungry for?” Keller asked.

  Seva gave him a wry look. “Too many good answers to that question.”

  “Cabbage rolls it is!” Keller said with a laugh. He bought two pork-stuffed rolls from
a street vendor and handed one to Seva.

  Seva peeled down the waxed wrapper and took a bite. He made a choking noise, and Keller looked at him in concern.

  “What’s the matter?” Keller asked, looking skeptically at his own cabbage roll.

  Seva wheezed, failed to produce words, and pointed. Keller looked in the direction Seva indicated, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Seva pointed more vehemently, but Keller still saw nothing to rouse much interest.

  “What?” Keller said sharply.

  Seva grabbed Keller’s bottle of water and took a big drink. “Vampire,” he gasped.

  Keller spun around and searched the area but didn’t see anyone resembling a creature of the night. “Where?”

  Seva took Keller’s arm and pulled him down the street. “There.” He nodded toward a tall man who was looking in the window of a resort-wear store.

  Keller took a long look at the man in the linen sports jacket. The stranger struck Keller as somehow upper-class British in appearance, with the features of a bored rabbit. His thinning sandy-red was hair brushed back from his forehead in no particular style. The only thing that distinguished him was his height, which Keller guessed at being around six foot four or six. He didn’t have that gangling mantis look some very tall men had, though. He was well proportioned, and his clothing fit as though tailored for him.

  Keller looked away from the man. “What makes you say he’s a vampire?”

  Exasperated, Seva said, “Not literally. That’s the man who pretended to be a vampire to warn us away from the ruins. With the trained wolves.”

  Keller gave the stranger another look. He imagined the long, professorial face as dead-white with glowing red eyes. His own eyes widened. “Damn.”

  By unspoken agreement they tossed their food wrappers into the trash and followed the tall man at a discreet distance. Their quarry was in no hurry at all as he walked up one side of the street and down the other, looking in shop windows. He went into the castle gift shop and came out with a small bag that swung as he walked. The agents resumed tailing him until he entered a small dirt lot where several cars were parked.

  “Oh hell,” Keller said as the man approached a black Dacia Berlina.

  “Our car is just two blocks away,” Seva said.

  “Go.” Keller walked toward the makeshift parking lot as Seva sprinted away. He ducked behind a large garbage bin and searched the ground around him. “Bingo!” he said under his breath as he spotted a plastic bottle half-full of a pale yellow-green liquid. Rising from his crouch, he flipped the bottle end over end. It struck the trunk of the Berlina with a loud thud, bounced off, and rolled under the car next to it.

  The tall man spun with an alarmed look. He walked to the back of the car and looked around suspiciously. By the time he got behind the wheel, Seva was slowly approaching down the road. Seva drove past the lot and turned down a side street. He pulled over, waited for Keller to get in, and circled the block. The Berlina was just pulling out of the lot when they reached the corner. Seva slowed and let the tall man reach the end of the block before he followed. The target didn’t take the road that led to Dragascar but continued north until he turned west on a twisting road numbered 134.

  “No lights,” Keller remarked.

  “What?”

  “No streetlights. If it gets dark while we’re on this road, it’s going to be fun.”

  “No, it isn’t.” Seva slowed down as they rounded a curve in case the tall man had pulled over. They were just in time to see him turn onto a side road that ran southwest. “I don’t think we’ll lose him on this road,” Seva said.

  Keller looked at the trees on either side. “It’s like a tunnel.”

  “Do you want to turn around and come back tomorrow morning?”

  “That would be the smart thing to do.” Keller grinned. “So obviously we should keep going.”

  Seva shook his head and tried not to smile back. “With pleasure.”

  The road went from dirt to paved and widened a bit. The trees here had been thinned, and the agents could see the Berlina stopped in front of an opening blocked by a section of chain-link fence on wheels. The gate trundled aside and the tall man drove through.

  “I guess we go on foot from here,” Keller said as the gate closed.

  “Do you realize where we are?”

  “No. Should I?”

  “See that ridge? And that peak? Dragascar and the ruins are on the other side.”

  “Interesting.”

  Seva smirked. “I have a feeling it’s going to get even more interesting.”

  “See any guards?”

  “No. There could be cameras, but I think we should risk it.”

  “Agreed.” Keller scanned the fence line and pointed. “There.”

  Keller got out, and then Seva drove the car into some brush. He joined Keller, and they walked through the trees to a point where the undergrowth offered some cover. They would have to come out of concealment for a few feet to climb the fence, but only a few.

  “Give me a boost?” Seva asked.

  Keller made a stirrup of his hands and bent over. Seva put a foot in his hands and pushed off as Keller stood and lifted his arms. Seva was catapulted over the fence and landed lightly on the other side. He moved behind a tree as Keller swarmed up the fence and somersaulted over. He joined Seva and they followed the road, keeping to the trees.

  The trees ended abruptly as though sliced by a giant knife, and they looked out over a vast area of leveled ground. Parked on fresh gravel were rows of construction machinery, everything from cement mixers to cranes. At the far end of the cleared square were a couple of rows of pole barns sheltering stacks of crates, bags, and lumber.

  “What are they building way out here?” Keller said.

  “My guess would be that we’re looking at some of the components of a luxury resort hotel,” Seva said.

  “That’s not very sinister. It’s not even a secret.”

  “Don’t be hasty. When real-estate investors are involved, there is always the chance for something dastardly.”

  “Dastardly?” Keller repeated in an incredulous tone.

  “That’s what I said.”

  “You want to look around some more?”

  “We’ve come this far, and after all, the vampire came in here.”

  Keller looked at the sun. “Yep, we’re going to be out after dark again. Hope Mom and Dad don’t ground us.”

  “Look,” Seva said, ignoring him. “Dust.”

  They followed the faint plume of dust to the side of the mountain, using the construction equipment as cover to move diagonally across the yard. They arrived in time to see the Berlina waiting for a gate into the mountain to open.

  “I fucking hate tunnels,” Keller said. “Looks like it started as a cave and has been widened. That explains a lot.”

  “It probably explains the rumbling noises, anyway. Are we going in?”

  “Well, I think we should say hi to the neighbors, don’t you?”

  “I’m with you, big guy.” Seva peered at the entrance to the tunnel. “Do you see any guards?”

  “Negative. I figure the car has a transponder that’s read by a sensor that trips the gate.”

  “Obviously.”

  “Ready?” Keller waited for Seva’s nod. “You break left,” he said. He burst from the trees and zigzagged to the right. They both scrambled up and over the gate and dropped down at the mouth of the tunnel. A series of faint lights down the middle of the road led deeper into the darkness.

  Song and Key exchanged a glance and walked on.

  “HOW long do you think it’s been since we went over the fence?” Keller asked.

  “About an hour maybe?” Seva paused. “Wait. I think I hear something.”

  “Me too. A generator.”

  When they reached the end of the tunnel, they were on a road that continued past an extensive concrete apron and down the slope into the forest. Several prefabricated structures and ve
hicles occupied the rest of the cleared space. Sophisticated camouflage gear hid the small compound from most lost hikers.

  “What the hell?” Keller said as he and Seva stopped to crouch down beside a golf-cart-sized contraption. The small vehicle had a bowsprit mounted on the front. Dangling from the end of the metal tube frame was a harness of black straps.

  “That’s how our vampire flew.” Seva looked more closely at the cart. “It’s weighted in the rear to counterbalance the weight of a man in the harness. And it’s electric, so it’s silent.”

  “I’ll be damned. He looked like he was flying, but he was dangling like a fish on a pole.”

  “Well, now we definitively know it was a hoax, but we still don’t know why.”

  “True. Listen, it looks like we walked all the way through the mountain. Why don’t we see if we can find our way to the village, and come back for the car tomorrow? Radu can probably arrange a car for us,” Keller suggested.

  “I have no objections.” Seva glanced at his watch. “I have a compass on my watch, and we can—”

  “Uh-oh, I think I just spotted the first guard.”

  Seva crouched lower. “Where?”

  “On our twelve. Let’s just ease on back into the shadows and circle around to the trees.”

  “Roger that.” Catfooted, Seva melted into the darkness of the tunnel’s mouth and moved away.

  Keller checked the guard’s position and then followed his partner as they made a circuit around the edge of compound, staying out of sight. Seva glanced back to locate Keller. Keller waved him on, barely visible against the black void of the tunnel. Seva dropped and crawled into the trees on knees and elbows. Keller heard a door open and close behind him and moved a little faster. When he ran out of shadow, he dove for the underbrush. Someone shouted and he moved even faster, figuring they’d tripped some sort of alarm. Seva grabbed his arm and yanked him behind a boulder. Carefully they moved down the slope, keeping the boulder between them and the tunnel.