Tianoman nodded and lowered his forehead to his hands.
A laugh sounded and both men sat up untidily, to find Tristan eyeing them. “You look like two kids. Good to see.” Releasing an extended breath, he flopped down to face them.
“Well, I don’t know about you two, but I am bloody hungry. Elianas doesn’t feed me anymore … what?” Torrullin looked from one to other when both grinned at him. “Oh, stuff off, so I am hungry, so what?”
Tristan and Tianoman burst out laughing.
Grinning, feeling their love for him, he snapped fingers for a few treats. They tucked in.
CABALLA, STANDING IN THE shadows, wiped at her eyes, and then left as silently as she had entered.
Sabian, arms folded, rested in other shadows, watching, recalling moments when he and Michael laughed together, ate together. He missed his brother.
Lowen too watched, from a different vantage. From where she stood, Torrullin’s face and expressions were exposed to her. She watched the animation there, the release of tension, the genuine smiles and laughter. He was so bright, so very bright.
Tears coursed over cheeks.
There was the man she met in an amphitheatre on Valaris, with snow piling upon the rims. He was so bright then. How she loved him then.
How she loved him still.
LATER, THEY WERE SERIOUS.
They became again the men of power and responsibility they were.
After discussing what happened with Rivalen, Tianoman said, “You need to talk to Tarlinn, don’t you?”
Torrullin nodded, but did not say more.
“You also need to hear some Ixion wisdom,” Tristan murmured.
“Hell, right now I do not know which words I want to hear less,” Torrullin muttered. “I need to be back on Avaelyn by morning for Quilla.”
“Where is Quilla?” Tristan frowned. “We barely see him.”
“Like a thief in the night, is our Quilla at the moment,” Torrullin laughed. Serious then, he lifted his gaze to shadows beyond them. “Sabian, keep ears away, will you?”
“As you wish, my Lord,” a soft murmur responded.
“Lowen, please join us.”
They heard mumbling and swearing from other shadows and then she stepped into the light and ambled closer.
Torrullin shrugged at his grandsons. “Elixir is ever aware.”
Lowen came to sit, tucking her legs under her, leaning against Torrullin’s arm. After a moment, she rested her head on his shoulder. “I miss you.”
He briefly closed his eyes and shifted to accept her weight more easily. “Stay there and just listen.”
She nodded and he felt the reverberations throughout his body.
Tristan and Tianoman glanced at each other.
Tianoman spoke first. “You are welcome to speak to Tarlinn at any time. I am aware where the Throne places its loyalty.”
“With you, Tian.”
“Yes, but ever with you. It has been that way since its creation. You imagined the seat; you are first for it … for him. Vallorins past, present and future are the personalities of a specific time and it protects them, but you come first and ever will. I find I am relieved it is so.”
Torrullin’s eyes glittered. “Why?”
Tianoman shrugged. “It means the Valleur are never alone, Torrullin, even when between Vallorins, and know what? It takes some of the pressure off me.”
Tristan bumped his cousin’s shoulder. “Very enlightened of you.”
“Bugger off,” Tianoman said.
Torrullin smiled, loving them more.
“Ears,” Sabian murmured. “Dechend of the Senlu comes.”
“He is welcome,” Tianoman said.
The Elder entered the great space, saw them, and bowed. “May I approach, lords?”
“Of course,” Tianoman said, waving him closer.
Dechend closed in and perched on the edge of the dais. He gave each a swift study, noting the sense of togetherness. He nodded to himself.
“This is why my Emperor is less than he could be. He has not this feeling of family. It comes, for daily he and Alik connect, but you already have a history together. His will take time.” Dechend focused on Torrullin. “My Lord Emperor in fact at this very moment sits on the floor before his throne, shaking his head and muttering to himself. I believe he wages an internal war.”
Torrullin inclined his head. “Teighlar versus Alexander.”
“What do I do, my Lord? War between our peoples cannot be good. The Luvanese host stands on the border between our territories and the Senlu army is gathered on the plain. This is a sight I never expected to see.”
Torrullin leaned forward. “Call for conclave and tell your people the real truth. All of it. Use the Dani father and daughter to add weight to your words. Reveal what happened when we traversed the Time realm, the restitution made to the spaces. Dechend, it will take time to assimilate, but eventually the Senlu will accept.”
“That is long term and, while I agree, what do we do now?”
“We hope Teighlar is stronger than Alexander. That is all we can do.”
Dechend gave a miserable nod. “What happens to your friendship, my Lord?”
“We shall rattle sabres at each other and perhaps even slap each other around a bit, but it will not end our friendship.”
“Truly?”
Torrullin laughed. “We understand each other, Dechend; do not fear.”
The Elder smiled and rose. “I must return.” He paused. “Will you tell your people the whole truth as you have promised and advocated?”
“We already have,” Torrullin murmured. “Today, via the Throne, every Valleur our Vallorin touched in acceptance of homage received the tale of the cycles. Many thousands now have this new truth embedded into race memories and everyone they touch will receive the same, until all know.”
“Pardon?” Tianoman blurted.
Dechend bowed. “I shall inform my Emperor. Perhaps it will ease him.” Bowing again, the Senlu retreated.
“Torrullin?”
“Tian, I do not need to sit on the Throne to speak to it,” Torrullin murmured. “If I want to see Tarlinn, I do, yes, but otherwise I am able to communicate.”
“You should have cleared it with me first!”
“Forgive me, but no. You would have been too tense sitting there imparting such altering knowledge.”
Lowen murmured from his shoulder, “He is right, Tian.”
Tristan eyed Torrullin. “Do race memories now include Elianas?”
Torrullin pinched his nose. “I do not know.” He laughed in disbelief. “I need someone objective to tell me what exactly Tarlinn decided to share, can you believe that? Man, he may allocate his loyalty the way he does, but sometimes he reads his responsibilities somewhat different to how we see it.”
Tianoman’s mouth dropped open.
“Yes, Tian, it makes him unpredictable. Nothing staid about that seat.”
“Nothing predictable about any of you,” Lowen said. “You Valleur are all crazy.”
The three Valleur burst out laughing.
Sanctuary
The Villa
ELIANAS WENT TO THE villa on Sanctuary. When Torrullin stepped into the shower, he chose a different kind of action. He found Teroux pacing in a guest suite. Obviously he felt uncomfortable in the space he had shared with Rose, although Rose was absent.
The Valla’s eyes went directly to his crotch to see there his continued arousal. Yes, he was having difficulty setting aside thoughts of Torrullin under his hands earlier, the man’s intense reaction to his ministrations, and it kept him in a state of stimulation.
He could not help thinking of Teroux as a boy, although he was over thirty, for Teroux lacked the maturity evident in his younger cousin Tianoman. Regarding him as a boy meant he often felt excessively sorry for him.
Gazing upon the boy’s arousal, he finally understood there was nothing immature about his sexual preferences. Teroux needed to choose and end the cyc
le of insanity roiling in his mind.
“I thought you would at least climax,” he taunted, pointing at the Valla’s crotch.
Teroux blinked. “You did not.” He sat on the bed.
Elianas inclined his head, folded hands behind his back and paced. “I knew you would feel it.”
“So you held back? How do you hold back when you all that heat races through you? I felt it. You wanted to …”
Elianas stopped. “I have willpower.” By Aaru, so much heat, yes. He clamped down on those thoughts, aware of the rush to his loins.
“As I have needed to employ for years,” Teroux said.
The dark man nodded, knowing how debilitating it was to deny urges. “My advice? Step from those shadows.”
“As you have?” Teroux snapped. “You still hide. Close family and friends may know, but you have not actually stepped from the dimness.”
Elianas paced again. “My shadows are different, Teroux.”
“How?”
“I have told you. I prefer women.”
“Except Torrullin,” Teroux sneered.
“Yes.”
“You haven’t actually penetrated, have you?”
Elianas closed his eyes to prevent himself hitting that face. “No.”
“Then do not presume to give me advice,” Teroux snarled.
That was, in fact, a mature statement. The blind led the blind here. Elianas nodded. He ceased pacing and took a seat in the armchair in the corner, crossing his legs.
“You are right,” he admitted.
Teroux looked away. “I cannot tell the Valleur. I feel too judged already.”
It resonated. “Yes, I know how that is.”
Tawny eyes squeezed shut. “He promised me I could have you.”
Elianas drew a slow breath. “How would you get me?”
“By separating you from Torrullin.”
“Won’t be easy,” Elianas murmured.
“Lowen.”
Elianas’ gut reaction told him using Lowen to achieve it was the best way to find success. Damn. “Even so, can you imagine Torrullin’s reaction?” He said it quietly, hoping to draw Rivalen’s plan from this young man.
“He said he would deal with Torrullin. Lowen has something to do with that.”
Shadow Wings. If she wrapped Torrullin with her wings, he would vanish as they did when he asked her to hide them for their erotic adventure. He, goddamn it, revealed that nuance to her. Did Rivalen know about her wings?
“Teroux, what happens to you when this is over?”
“What do you mean? What happens? Over? How will it be over? I will be at my father’s side able to do as I please.”
So much to address in there. Start with the Timekeeper, he told himself. “He is not your father.”
“I know. It is just easier right now.”
“Call him Rivalen. That is his name.”
A breath from Teroux. “Does he know?”
Elianas offered a reluctant nod.
“Then he is free.” Teroux smiled in an underhanded manner.
“Thus I will soon be yours to do with as you please?” Elianas murmured.
Teroux’s smile widened.
“You have much to learn about satisfaction, my young friend. Taking something without permission grants only short-lived pleasure. Give and take, by mutual consent, now that extends … everything.”
Elianas sat forward to lower his head, allowing his hair to hide him. Torrullin, damn him, consented to every action he took earlier.
Teroux shrugged. “I can do short-lived. It means I will have to do it to you over and over until I need you no more.”
Swallowing, Elianas looked up. “I swear to you, you will hate yourself.”
“How is that different from how I feel now?”
Elianas nodded. Indeed. “What about Rose?”
Teroux jerked to gaze at the window. “I regret Rose, but cannot now change it.”
The dark man sighed.
“Go away,” Teroux muttered. “Unless you intend more?” There was a hopeful note in there.
Elianas stood and crossed to the Valla on the bed, such a different Valla. When Teroux moved his head to look at him, he leaned in to clasp the man’s balls. “Is this what you refer to?”
Teroux swallowed convulsively, his gaze stark with need.
Elianas leaned in real close. “If I touch you like this, Teroux, skin to skin, I will have to kill you afterward, for your death will be a lesser disgust to me than touching you is.” He released and stepped back.
Teroux stared at him.
“Stay here. Eat. Sleep. Try and deny Rivalen and maybe there is redemption for you.”
Elianas left.
Chapter 25
Bats fly with silence. It is pure magic.
~ Tattle’s scribe ~
Avaelyn
ELIANAS NEEDED HIM.
Torrullin told the gathering on the dais it was necessary for him to leave for a while. He sensed confusion inside their home, but did not reveal that to them. Lowen’s gaze nearly shook him from his foundations, but he left anyway.
The dark man leaned over the blaze in the fireplace in his personal study, standing there naked but for unclasped breeches.
Gods, the sight instantly undid him. Bright amber flame played upon smooth amber skin. The man groaned softly and his forehead lowered to the stone mantelpiece. His embers exploded into flame and Torrullin followed the summons of that siren call.
Elianas lifted his head as he reached him. “Teroux just helped himself to some … pleasure.”
Torrullin’s heart hammered, his blood raced, but if Elianas required distance …
… the dark man reached for him, snarling, “Loosen all holds.”
Bloody hell. Flame erupted into bonfire.
“All holds?” Torrullin whispered. “Is this not fury talking?”
Elianas pupils dilated. “I. Want. All.”
He shoved the dark man away from the fire, pushing him back by degree until he backed him up to his desk. He straddled his legs and delved into dark hair, kissed him, absorbing his blood, his need, his soul, his essence.
Desperate fingers tore at his clothes, but he released to swipe them away, then gripped those wrists and planted them on the desk, holding Elianas like that, pressing in.
“My turn,” he whispered.
Elianas glared at him. “Not fucking enough. I want to feel you, all of you.”
“Not yet.”
Elianas struggled in his grip. “Why not yet?” He arched forward, throwing his head back.
All gods. How much he wanted to. “Your dark spaces are in ascension. You will hate me after.”
“Use my dark spaces.”
Torrullin smacked him onto the wooden desk and clambered up, using his weight to keep the man down. Elbows hit the surface next to Elianas’ head and he exerted pressure. “Do not tempt me, Elianas. Fucking lie still. I am on the very edge of this.”
Elianas lay still.
He lifted to shove the man’s breeches down, then straddled him again, with all his willpower preventing himself from undoing the clasp at his own. “What roils in your head? Send it here.” He closed fingers on hardness, at the same time gripping behind his neck to haul the man up and into his kiss. Devouring that mouth, he arched forward to thrust his arousal into the clasp.
Elianas clawed into him, jerking his hips closer. “More, Torrullin, this is not enough.”
Torrullin stilled completely and then released the dark man. A moment later he vaulted backwards off the desk, away from temptation. He strode to the fire, then back, was about to say something, then paced away once more.
Elianas’ watched him with those dilated eyes, like a predator awaiting his moment.
“You need me,” Lowen said from the doorway.
Torrullin jerked around. “How the fuck did you know where this is?”
She entered. “It cannot matter now. What matters, what requires outlet, is him … and you.”
Elianas gripped the edge of the desk. “He will not give me what I want.”
Lowen pulled at a lace on her bodice, shrugged her shoulders and stepped naked from her gown. “You do not know what you want, Elianas. He will, however, unleash that beast he keeps contained to give both of us a measure of what we desire if I step in.” She sauntered past Torrullin, undoing his clasp as she did so, and approached Elianas.
Upon reaching him, she moved his breeches down until he shoved them off with his feet, and then she leaned against him to claim his lips. He took hold of her and turned her. She shifted until his arousal nestled snugly against her butt, and applied pressure. He arched, groaned, and latched onto Torrullin with his dark eyes.
Blue eyes impaled him also.
Amber hands clutched at pale thighs.
By god.
Slowly Torrullin divested himself of a bothersome tunic and undid his sword belt. Stepping close, he allowed Lowen to unbutton him further, to shift his breeches down, to shove the loincloth below away.
“You are both manipulating me.”
Lowen pulled him in. “You want us to.” She kissed him, pouring her desire into it, stoking another fire into blaze. Elianas’ hands on his hips, fingers digging in, hauling him closer, exploded that already roaring bonfire into conflagration. Her nipples scored trails of lust over his chest. One leg lifted to urge him in, causing Elianas to arch, to tighten his hold.
He entered Lowen’s softness deliberately, watching Elianas react to the sensation, pulsed in response, felt how Elianas jerked against Lowen, felt her arch, clutching now behind her at Elianas’ thighs, hauling him to her, using both her legs to pull Torrullin in.
All gods, this was insanity.
He shoved in.
Both Elianas and Lowen cried out, and every nerve he possessed ignited.
Reaching beyond the dual temptation he had now impaled, he gripped Elianas’ arse and lifted him into the next thrust. The man’s fingers dug into his shoulders to hold on, sensation rippling through him. They were squashing Lowen between them, but she took hold of Torrullin’s head and jerked his mouth to hers.
“Do not stop,” she whispered and claimed him.
Lore of Sanctum Omnibus Page 210
