by Parker Foye
Benjamin opened his mouth to tell Rez to wait, to stop. The pressure, the burning and stretching dark pleasure, was so overwhelming he thought he might die from it.
Rez didn’t stop. With one brutal, fluid motion, he buried himself to the balls. Benjamin shouted, and he felt Rez’s pubic hair against his ass. It was such a strange sensation.
Rez poured more lube over the place where they joined. It was cold, but nothing compared to the fire inside Benjamin’s guts.
He felt like a failure, but he couldn’t do this. “Rez,” he sobbed. His cock was flagging, and he wanted to cry because the shadows of pleasure and happiness had been right there. Almost within reach. Benjamin thought it was what he wanted.
Rez’s free hand gripped Benjamin’s cock, and his hips retreated a couple of inches. He thrust forward again and this time, he struck a spot inside Benjamin that was like a magical mood-altering device—shifting the fear and pain and burning into burning of a different kind. The fear melted away. The pain metamorphosed into something transcendent. It wasn’t even pleasure. It was beyond. “Oh my god, holy fuck.”
Rez pulled almost all the way out, then bucked against him again. That time he stroked that spot inside Benjamin, and instead of shouting, he buried his teeth into Rez’s arm. Blood flowed and welled into his mouth. Though he should have been disgusted, it felt right. There was quite a bit of blood, enough to feel the heat and taste the coppery tang on his teeth and tongue.
Rez stilled. “Yes, that’s it, Benjamin. One more thing. Suck just a little and swallow the blood. It doesn’t have to be much. Just a little.”
Benjamin wasn’t sure he should do it, but his body took over. He swallowed convulsively, and blood flowed down his throat.
Rez removed his arm from Benjamin’s mouth, braced himself and began to fuck for real. He made a sound, a...trumpeting was the only word Benjamin’s broken mind could conjure. The sound of a stallion conquering, claiming. Which confused him as it completely wrecked him in the best possible way.
There was a burning sensation in his shoulder where the bite mark had been and where the sacrifice mark was, according to Rez. This burn was complete pain and pulled him out of the sex for the moment. Benjamin sweated and shook. Then the pain was gone, and a healing balm seemed to flow outward from that spot, cooling and restoring him.
“Amazing.” Rez paused. “The sacrifice mark is gone, Benjamin. A new one is forming. I’ll have one that will match it, though I’m sad that you’ll never see it.”
Benjamin was sad about not seeing that, or anything else ever again, too. But Rez was still throbbing and hot inside of him, and he couldn’t hold on to the sadness for but a moment.
As if he sensed Benjamin’s change, Rez returned to fucking him, claiming him. Destroying what was left of the person Benjamin thought he was.
* * *
Rez hadn’t set out to claim Benjamin like that. He’d only wanted to show him that he wasn’t alone in the world and how much pleasure there could be between them.
Benjamin had been unsure, but his body spoke for his mind. And he was beneath Rez, begging, with words and sometimes without. It made Rez crazy; his blood simmered, and his release was so close.
Benjamin needed to be there, on that edge, with him. Rez reached for his cock and found Benjamin rubbing against the blankets beneath him. Rez replaced the slight friction of the fabric with a firm grasp.
In response, Benjamin shuddered and tightened the muscles around Rez’s cock. Wow. Never had it been like that. Never.
But all too soon the emotions of sex would crest and ebb. Would Benjamin regret it? Would he be ready to face the challenges ahead in his, nay, their lives—because his troubles belonged to Rez too.
Benjamin’s body sheened in sweat, and he began a chant. “Please, please, Rez.”
Rez continued to drill him, waiting for that moment in the climb. When he and Benjamin would fly off a cliff, and they wouldn’t know if the fall would be five feet or five hundred.
“You can’t see me,” Rez said, driving them toward the edge, the free fall, and pleasure.
“No!”
“But you know who owns you?”
“Ah, God, Rez.”
“Not an answer.” Thrust. “Who owns you?”
“You do.”
“And who am I?”
“God!”
“No, try again.” Rez stopped thrusting.
“Rez,” he cried.
His name shouted in that moment of passion and intimacy was more than he expected. Usually, Rez required pain to push him into orgasm, but he was with Benjamin, and Benjamin was his.
And Rez was there, stepping out into space, where the rush wasn’t a five-hundred-foot drop, but five thousand. Fifty thousand. Fireworks exploded behind his eyes and in his brain. His shout mingled with Benjamin’s as Rez reached his release and came like the world had ended.
Benjamin came right after Rez. The sensation of him releasing over Rez’s hand as he continued to work him made Rez twitch his overworked cock. He pulled out as gently as he could and rolled to his side, bringing Benjamin along.
Benjamin said something, but it was incomprehensible.
“Just stay here with me.” Rez threw a leg over Benjamin’s hip to pin him in place while he shut his eyes and gasped for breath.
Rez’s lungs had gotten a workout, and he knew as soon as the incredible high faded a bit, he would want sleep. He wanted to make sure they’d be okay.
Benjamin couldn’t get out of bed and meet the sea while Rez slept. The mating ceremony took magic as well as sex and blood, though, so it was energy-intensive. The payback had been incredible, but sleep was pulling Rez down.
“Your mark is beautiful, like you,” Rez said.
Benjamin had curled into himself. “What does it look like?”
“It looks a bit like a Celtic knot, intricate and infinite in its looping, swirling lines. It’s a metallic blue color that a tattoo parlor would die to replicate. It will never fade so long as we both live. I have one too. Because it was magic and it worked.” Rez traced the lines on Benjamin’s skin, so he would feel the enchantment—like walking the labyrinth.
“Was this—the sex, the...mating—because of the sacrifice thing? Is that why you did it?”
Rez paused, then let his fingers resume their exploration. “No. I’ve loved you from the moment I met you, though I didn’t realize it was a mating kind of love. I didn’t think I was allowed to feel that for you because of my obligations to the herd, and your sexual identity as a straight man.”
“I guess I’m not very straight now,” Benjamin said, and he sounded wounded.
Like Rez had taken something else from him, like his vision. Rez guessed he had, if what he’d taken was a binary worldview of sexual identity.
“I’m sorry, Benjamin. I wish I’d had time to woo you and let you get used to the idea. It was, for me, the most incredible experience of my entire life, and I’ve been around six hundred and thirty-seven years. Give us a chance, and don’t jump to any conclusions or take any rash action. Please don’t go back to the sea until I can take you to meet the other kelpies.”
“I won’t go to the sea.” Benjamin reached around, and Rez took his hand. “I am still trying to figure it all out, but I do love you. And the sex was indescribable. Everything else seems like it was so superficial and fleeting and forgettable, but I am a bunch of kinds of fucked-up. It may take me a while to reconcile myself with this.”
“I’ll try to give you some time,” Rez said.
Benjamin’s response was heartening and yet terrifying.
“My father is a very conservative man. If he knew his son was in a same-sex relationship, he’d disown me. Then he’d probably forget and have to do it all over again. This mating will kill my relationship with my fathe
r.” Benjamin brought his hand up to wipe away a stray tear, and Rez’s hand, still clasped in his, felt the emotion in that small saline drop.
The kelpies believed there were oceans within them, as well as around them. Sometimes when the water was too turbulent, it spilled out. Weeping was not a weakness in kelpie lore, but necessary to restoring balance.
“Your father has dementia. You don’t need to tell him of our relationship before he dies. What did you think would happen when you committed suicide? What would they have said to him?”
Benjamin’s tears flowed more freely, and Rez hugged him closer.
“I wanted to leave a note in the hospital room instructing them to either not tell him I’d died, or to tell him I’d died in the hospital or battle. Either one. He wouldn’t hold on to the knowledge for long.”
“Then that is what he will know. If you want to visit him, tell him whatever you like. I won’t be upset if you don’t tell him.”
* * *
Benjamin was passed out when Rez woke a bit later. The clock said fucking early, but he decided to call Kjell anyway. Didn’t matter that it was super early, or late, depending on the perspective. It was the solstice, so he only had about twenty-four hours to find a suitable sacrifice.
The kelpies had gone into the world to take on jobs to keep informed and avoid becoming just another legend by extermination. Rez had joined the Navy and had been in the military in its various incarnations for many, many years. Kjell had a talent with technology. He’d studied with some of the greatest scholars and inventors over the years. He was a mad genius with a computer.
A gruff voice answered the phone, and Rez imagined Kjell sleeping with mussed hair and a flock of miniature horses crashed out around the house on the couches, in small beds made for them, and some sleeping standing, knees locked. Kjell had a strange affinity for the little equines and had learned to communicate with them, in a simple fashion, and they were not pets to him, but not exactly family. “What?”
Rez rubbed at his new mating mark, felt a little guilt. He’d turned Kjell down and replaced him permanently with Benjamin. And he was going to ask the kelpie for help. Damn it. “Could you do me a favor?”
“You know I will, my brother. But couldn’t it wait until I was awake?” There was a soft whicker in the background. “I rescued another little one last week, and he cannot see. He has been abused and is terrified. I’ve been working with two others to guide him around. When given a job and a purpose, these little ones can do amazing things, but keeping him alive took several days and magic I really shouldn’t have expended. He was mauled by dogs after his humans beat him and threw him away.”
“I’m sorry, that’s terrible. I’m glad you could save the little one, but you know our deadline. I need all the information you can find from the military’s databases about the incident where Benjamin and I were hurt.”
“No problem.”
“Who went, who was on the ground to back us up. I should be on the KIA list, and Benjamin on the wounded list, but who survived and who disappeared? Who had a motive for the whole thing?”
“What are you thinking, Rez?”
“Benjamin will never agree to name someone else in his place for the sacrifice, and yet we must have one.”
“If he wears the mark, it will be him.”
“He no longer wears the mark. He wears my mark now.”
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone.
“Kjell?”
“And you wear his?”
“Yes, Kjell. I’m sorry. I wasn’t sure if I could mate him just to protect him from the sacrifice, but it turned out that he was the right one.”
“Then no foals from your line,” Kjell said.
“No, that’s the sad part. The mating is meant to be. Our union was blessed with the highest mark. But if we have no sacrifice, the entire herd’s in danger. We cannot revert to just a random killing or break the pact. I need you to help me find the bastard who sold us out—because I’m certain there was an insider—and offer him to the kelpies.”
“Give me a couple of hours and I’ll see what I can find.”
“Thank you, Kjell.”
“You owe me,” he said.
“I have a second favor to ask, so yes, I owe you. You have my pledge.”
A while later, Rez crawled back into bed with Benjamin and wanted to wrap his arms around him, but he was sleeping so soundly Rez didn’t disturb him. He turned away from Benjamin, the only way Rez could avoid touching him.
After a few minutes, Benjamin whispered, “Why are you way over there?”
“I didn’t want to wake you.”
“It’s okay.” He had not yet touched Rez, and that concerned him.
Benjamin’s eyes were closed in the darkness. With the blindness, would he end up keeping them closed more often? Was Benjamin regretting the mating, the intimacy between them, now that he’d had some sleep and time since the sex?
It would wreck Rez if Benjamin was bound to him but didn’t want to be together. If physical contact repelled him. Benjamin had been desperate for touch and intimacy, and now that he’d experienced it, he might change his mind. He was safe from the sacrifice. Whether Benjamin wanted to remain mated or not didn’t matter. He would not be sacrificed. He’d be mated, but that held little magical binding for a human. It only bound the kelpie.
So Rez hoped his decision had not pushed Benjamin so fast that he would recoil from the energy of the bond between them.
The silence spun out, like the darkness. His breathing told Rez he’d not gone back to sleep, so Rez waited—wishing, hoping Benjamin would make some move to let him know where they stood.
Benjamin must be regretting it. They’d gone to sleep after sex, and Rez hadn’t even taken the time to help him clean up. Rez was a bastard.
Rez stared out the dawn-lightening window over Benjamin’s shoulder.
“Rez,” he said, “who were you talking to?”
“What?”
“I thought it was a dream. I was sort of between sleep and waking. I heard you talking to someone, but it must still be night. What’s going on?”
How awful it must be not to know day from night. They had so many things available to assist the visually impaired. Rez would have to help him acclimate, and it might help ease his depression. “I was talking to Kjell.”
“Oh,” Benjamin said. He sounded disappointed.
Chapter Nine
Kjell was efficient. Within a few hours, he’d dug up the confidential official record of the incident. Rez knew all the names. They’d been his men.
Rez had battled mutiny and betrayal in his past, but he wasn’t certain which of the men had engineered the trap. Who’d set them up? Why?
“You’re tapping on the keyboard of your laptop. Want to let me know what’s going on?” Benjamin asked from the bed.
“We have less than twenty-four hours to find another sacrifice. I’m looking for a candidate.” Rez scrolled through the personnel files attached to the email.
“I can’t stand by and allow you to murder someone,” Benjamin said. “And how am I supposed to accept someone else taking my place? Couldn’t you kill an animal or something?”
“No, it’s a magical pact. My whole band is at risk if we do not find a sacrifice.”
“How many is that? You said about twenty?”
“Yes. We don’t share those numbers with anyone outside the band, but you’re my mate.”
“Wow. There aren’t very many kelpies left.”
“You see my problem. They’re my family—all that is left of it. I couldn’t let you die, either. I’m looking for justice this time, if I can manage it.”
“Justice?”
“Kjell sent me the files of the incident in the Gulf, and I’m
trying to determine who betrayed us.”
Rez read the report of the operation, and Benjamin batted questions back and forth with him. They talked for about an hour, and Rez asked Benjamin to retell the story, as much as he remembered, from his perspective.
The most vivid memories were of their dive and the explosion, the part of Benjamin’s recurring nightmares. He had few other memories before he’d lost his sight.
“So you don’t know who exactly did it, either?”
“No, but I have a guess. Jacob.”
“Jacob? Mabry? He’s on the list of wounded. What was his angle?”
Benjamin thought for a moment. “We weren’t friends, so we never discussed it, but he’s in the hospital where I was. Jacob lost a leg and is going through rehab. He was supposed to be discharged, but he keeps finding ways to stay at the hospital. There were rumors in the ward that Jacob was part of a supply racket. I thought it was small, maybe alcohol or forbidden items over there. Nothing too unusual. But if it was bigger, say, drugs or weapons, he might have a motive for what happened. If that is true, once Jacob is released, the people he was working for will finish the job.”
“How would you feel about Jacob becoming the sacrifice?”
Benjamin’s guilt felt like lead in his stomach. “I don’t feel good about anything that involves the death of another person. I’d have to be 100 percent sure. If he did it, he deserves his fate. He betrayed us, good sailors died and you were severely injured.”
“And you,” Rez said. “Are you sure he’s in that hospital, Benjamin?”
“He was. We can have someone confirm he hasn’t been discharged. I never visited him, there was always something I didn’t quite like about him.”
“Okay. I’ll find out if Mabry’s there, but I’ll need you to help with infiltrating the hospital and bringing him out. It would be better if we could get his agreement to be taken out of the hospital.”
Rez looked up the phone number for the hospital and called, pretending to be someone with a delivery. The reception desk confirmed that Jacob Mabry was still in the wing of the hospital where Benjamin had been.
