by A. Nybo
Leon bent and set his elbows on the dividing counter. “What is this experience you’re supposed to share with me?”
Sergei imagined the view of Leon from the lounge, bent over the counter like that. Apparently his mind wasn’t going to allow him to be sidetracked from the gift the spirits were offering them both. “Feeling.”
Leon eyed him with suspicion. “Feeling what?”
Sergei grinned as he wriggled his eyebrows. “Me.”
He put the earring glass in the fridge. That along with the faeces he had scraped from the drum would be useful when he wanted to draw Evgeni to him, but for now, he wanted their whereabouts to remain unknown, and since he’d already taken care of the plastic bag with the droppings, cementing the earring in earth was the easiest way to do that.
“Now that I am willing to do.”
The slow smile that spread Leon’s lips was one of the most indecent Sergei had ever seen. “You’re going to have to wait.”
The timer on the microwave dinged.
“No hurry, just, you know, eat a little faster. You don’t want it to get cold.”
Sergei shook his head. If he wanted to eat in relative peace, he was going to have to distract Leon—and himself. He took his meal into the lounge.
Although he wanted to share the plan of attack, it would have to wait, as much of it depended on how well Leon accepted the spirits’ gift.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you.” Leon settled into the chair opposite. “When we first met, something odd happened, and it keeps coming back to me.”
“Odd in what way?”
“That first day, when you opened the door, I thought you were shooing a bird away, and even at the time I thought it was a bit odd, but now….”
Sergei wasn’t likely to forget anything about their first meeting. He’d been astonished to discover his partner was an AFP agent, and the spirits underscored the event with their presence. “Spirits had gathered out there. I was telling them to go away.”
“What spirits were out there?”
“A magpie, two lizards, and a snake.”
“A snake?”
Sergei grinned at Leon’s horror. “Da. A king brown.”
“And you didn’t warn us? They’re poisonous.”
“It was not there to bite you, Leon. It was there to ensure I knew who you were.”
Leon screwed his face up. “Who was it the spirits didn’t want you to mistake me for?”
“Anyone other than you.”
“Okay, you need to stop now, Sergei. You’re doing this on purpose.”
Sergei sighed. He hadn’t really wanted to tell Leon, as he might feel pressured by it, but Sergei decided he may as well know. “They wanted to make sure I knew my partner was standing before me.”
Leon’s mouth fell open. “What?”
Trying to minimise the significance and importance of the event, Sergei shrugged.
“But we’d only just met.”
Clearly, Leon wasn’t going to let it go.
“I’d met you many times before. I dreamed of you, and you even entered some of my altered states.” Sergei chuckled. “I tried to get rid of you once, but the spirits wanted you with me.”
“What do you mean you tried to get rid of me?” Leon sounded affronted.
“You had been haunting me, and when I first saw you in a trance, I thought you were chasing me.”
“Was I?”
Sergei smirked. “I don’t know, Leon, were you?”
“It was your trance. How the hell should I know?”
They fell into silence, and it amused Sergei to wait and see how long it would be before Leon’s next question. He’d barely finished another mouthful.
“Are you choosing to be in a relationship with me, or is it just because the spirits want it?”
“It is the same thing.”
Leon seemed displeased with the answer.
“Give me twenty minutes, and I will help you know the answer to your questions.”
LYING IN bed naked as Sergei requested before he’d gone off to shower, Leon didn’t know what to think. He had mixed feelings about all this. Although he wanted to be in Sergei’s bed, the whole preordained relationship idea wasn’t sitting well with him. Sergei had also made it clear that whatever was about to happen was not going to be an ordinary experience.
Despite Sergei’s warnings, Leon had flung himself headlong into the entheogen experience, and he wasn’t sure he was ready for another journey into the unknown so soon—if ever. While it had been eye-opening, it had also been unpleasant, inasmuch as it had challenged his sanity. He wouldn’t deem it traumatising, just mentally and emotionally testing… bordering on traumatising.
Sergei wasn’t warning against this experience, though. On the contrary, he seemed to really want Leon to participate in whatever it was they were about to do. If it meant being naked with Sergei, he was pretty much open to anything. Or was he? What if Sergei was into some kinky stuff?
Leon had never really had occasion to wander off the beaten path, and the thought of spanking or being spanked or restricted in any way wasn’t something he desired, but if a partner wanted it, he would be willing to try. But what if it was something seriously kinky?
Past policing experiences made him aware of how drastically wrong some scenes could go if the participants were trying something they had no experience with, resulting in death or permanent injury.
The door opened, and Sergei came in with a towel wrapped around his hips. He closed the door and reached down to take the towel off. His brows drew together. “You look worried.”
“I am a little.”
“About?” Sergei slid into bed beside him.
“What’s about to happen.”
“Relax, Leon.” Sergei caressed Leon’s chest with the backs of his fingers. “Physically we aren’t going to do anything we haven’t already done, but the spirits are going to help us share ourselves.”
Relief swept through Leon, and he relaxed somewhat, but there was still that element of the unknown that niggled at him. “How are we going to do that?”
Sergei grinned. “I don’t know. We just do what we want to do, and the spirits will guide us.”
“Guide us? Are they here in the room? Watching us?”
“They are everywhere. Here in this room, yes. Watching us, no. The way they are here, they don’t have eyes.”
A shiver went through Leon that was in no way erotic. “You’re giving me the creeps.” The thought of eyeless beings “watching” them was seriously disturbing.
“Spirits are forms of energy.” Sergei smiled as he moved his face next to Leon’s and rubbed his scruffy jaw across Leon’s bristles. Sergei kissed his cheek. “You have different kinds of energy inside you.” His voice had dropped to a sexy whisper, and his hand lay flat on Leon’s chest. He tapped his thumb, indicating an energy form resided there. “They move and change with your moods.” Sergei’s hand lowered to Leon’s stomach. “Your desires.” Sergei’s hand went around Leon’s cock and stroked several times before moving lower.
Already drifting in the depths of Sergei’s lilting tone, Leon opened his legs in invitation. When Sergei gently kneaded his balls, he turned in towards him and rested his top leg over Sergei’s hips while they shared a slow kiss.
When Sergei let go of him and his hand began to wander elsewhere, Leon took the opportunity to start the slow trek down Sergei’s front, kissing, nibbling, and licking the hills, vales, and plateaus of Sergei’s bodyscape. He tasted a bit soapy, and Leon was determined to get him hot and sweaty for the journey back up Sergei’s body. Although he appreciated the cleanliness, Leon wanted to taste the man, not his bathing products.
Using his knee, he nudged between Sergei’s legs. Sergei opened enough for a hand between his legs, but Leon was going further than that. He tipped Sergei on his back and spread him wide enough to fit his body. Leon took him in his mouth, and a sharp inhale came from above him. While he sucked and licked, he ran
his hands up Sergei’s powerful torso and enjoyed the feel of hard muscle rippling beneath his fingers as Sergei undulated in unison with Leon’s rhythm.
Leon tried to object when Sergei withdrew, which drew a snort from Sergei, but he turned around and flipped onto his side so they could enjoy the reciprocity of hot liquid heaven.
It wasn’t long before Leon’s control of his little jabbing thrusts began to slip. With a moan, he let Sergei’s cock pop from his mouth and let the musky scent draw him lower until he licked at Sergei’s balls. He rolled them over so Sergei was on top, and for a moment he lay and enjoyed the sensations Sergei was creating in him, but once they threatened to overwhelm him, he turned his attention to pleasuring Sergei.
He ran his tongue over Sergei’s taint and circled over the creased skin of his pucker. The noise Sergei made around his shaft was caught between a hum and a groan, which pleased Leon’s ears as much as it pleased his cock. The vibrations caused a powerful tremor of delight to run through him, and without thought, his tongue delved into the centre of Sergei and then out to lap at the creases, attempting to smooth them with excitement.
Trying to attain that sound and sensation again, Leon licked circles, lapping and pressing alternately. Sergei pushed back, and his tongue delved again. It sent a riot of sensation through Leon, and when Sergei swallowed him to the root of his cock, Leon couldn’t hold any longer. Sergei took him into his throat again and swallowed the first spurt of semen but then withdrew and turned around.
Sergei put his lips to Leon’s, and as Leon opened to him, he felt a rush of liquid into his mouth. Sergei’s fingers pressed on Leon’s throat, and it was only as he swallowed that he tasted his own release.
“Hang on to me,” whispered Sergei.
Fresh from the whirlwind of orgasm and the shock of being fed his own semen, he couldn’t collect himself to speak.
“Quick, put your arms around me.”
He slid his arms around Sergei’s neck, and as he made to question why, he began to fall. His voice didn’t make words; it wailed. His arms tightened in panic—he was spinning, falling, like he’d just bungee jumped off the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
“Shh, shh, shh,” Sergei crooned. “You’re all right, Leon.” Sergei ran a reassuring hand over his head and back. “I’m with you. Relax and let it happen.”
After resisting Sergei’s initial efforts to pull Leon’s arms from around his neck, he finally let go, and Sergei collected him in a protective cocoon.
Leon tried to speak, but his stomach was in his throat, and disorientation made him dizzy.
Then he was floating on a gentle swell of warmth, but beneath the surface was a powerful undertow that was both fearsome and enticing. As with the swell, it rose and fell, and Leon tried to dive in and touch it. His attempt was met with a series of jolts and a rumbling vibration that was frightening in its power but gave him a sense of joy. When he tried to dive in again, he met with the same reaction, but this time the rumbling held something more. Words.
“That tickles,” said the rumble.
Then it all clicked into place. His head was on Sergei’s chest, drifting on the swell of his breathing, and all the jolting had been Sergei laughing.
Leon drew his head back to look into those hazel eyes.
“Keep contact.” Sergei kissed his forehead, and the sensation echoed down into him to bounce off his emotions like a pinball. It ricocheted off the sense of being cared for and hit his fondness for the man, which forced him into action. He kissed the closest part of Sergei—his scruffy chin.
Sergei drew back to gaze at him, and the profound affection in his expression fell into Leon and hit him so deep, with such beauty, that tears came to his eyes. He tried to blink them back, hide them.
“Let yourself go, Leon. Don’t fight it.”
The words in conjunction with the hand that caressed his back caused such a multitude of different emotions he didn’t know what he was feeling. Confused, he tried to hold each emotion long enough to identify it, but it was a battle he was losing, and he was aware the fight might be making him miss something.
The moment he succumbed and let it wash through him, he was rewarded with a rush of sheer elation and the sensation of something deep inside him being massaged, like hands rubbing and kneading his being. Then it nudged at him playfully, and he knew it was Sergei.
Every time he tried to understand it, the sensations and feelings receded, but when he just let it happen, they rushed back—and it was so blissful that he never wanted them to leave.
Sergei coiled around his being, and Leon joined the dance, like snakes tangling in a mating ritual. There were so many ways of being—one minute they were like clouds merging and drifting through each other, the next they were like folds of silk brushing together, covering, protecting each other.
Sensations and emotions bled into a pool where they swam and played together like otters, testing each other’s reactions, play strategies, strengths and weaknesses. After wearing themselves out, they floated, basking in the being of the other.
“LEON.”
The Russian accent reverberated into the most delectable sleep. He liked the way his name sounded on his lover’s tongue, and he was glad his parents had given the name to him.
“Hmm?” A hand offering tenderness ran across his cheek, and he snuggled deeper in against Sergei. He never wanted this feeling to go away.
“We need to get up.”
“No.”
The thought of opening his eyes and losing this caused a whisper of fear. What if the emotions brought about by the things they’d shared simply disappeared? What if he’d dreamed it all? He tightened his grip on Sergei.
“Please,” Leon whispered. “Don’t go.” Emotionally raw, he was as exposed and open as a child.
With difficulty, Sergei slid an arm beneath him and held him, his face pressed into Leon’s hair. “We’re not parting, Leon, we’re just going to be a different way for a while.” Sergei rubbed his back. “This is another level to waking up.”
Sergei continued to talk to him with softly spoken words that may or may not have made sense. The rubbing of fingers against his skin at first seemed distant but eventually seemed to put him back in contact with his body.
Time should have held importance for him, and intellectually he should care, but allowing himself to return to linear reality was an event that shouldn’t be rushed.
Later, when he was reflecting on it, he would understand Sergei’s reactions to things that hadn’t previously made sense, like when he’d asked Sergei if he’d tested to see if his free soul was still a bear and Sergei had silently accused him of naiveté.
Sergei directed a stream of warm breath across his skin.
Finally able, Leon released him and stretched. He smiled, eyes still closed. “Why are you blowing air on me?”
“Trying to determine if you are back yet.”
“Never left.” Leon opened his eyes.
Sergei watched him with amusement. “Is that how it’s going to be, then?”
“How what’s going to be?”
“You’re going to deny still being away with the winds? I’ve been testing you for the past few minutes, and that was the first time you reacted.”
Leon’s grin was so huge it was starting to hurt, but he couldn’t rein it in. He didn’t want to—like a kid experiencing his first-ever carnival. “Maybe.”
He wrapped his arms around Sergei and held him tight. “Fuck, I love you so much.” The power of his hug was returned. Sergei dipped his head and his mouth rested against Leon’s shoulder. The smile against Leon’s skin lightened his being so much that he felt he might float away.
“I know,” said Sergei. “As you should know how I feel about you.”
Leon was still grinning. “I do. Can we run away from the world and be by ourselves?”
Sergei kissed his neck. “I would like nothing more, but we have business here. And we need to attend to it soon.”
Leon�
�s grin faded, and he drew back to look at Sergei. “When?”
“In two days time it is a full moon. That is when we call Evgeni to us.”
“What do we need to do?” Ready to give his full concentration and being over to ensure their continued life and health, Leon instantly dismissed further musings on the things they’d shared. He could entertain such things afterwards.
“First we need breakfast and to explain things to Lucy.”
“How? I mean, what are you going to tell her?”
“Everything,” said Sergei. “She’s part of this now, so she deserves to know.” When their eyes met, there was an apology in Sergei’s gaze. “I’m sorry, Leon, but even if we don’t say anything to Lucy about us, she’s not going to believe there is nothing going on. Not after last night.”
Leon shrank inwardly. “Was I that loud?”
Sergei chuckled. “Let’s just say neither of us were thinking of Lucy, and that combined with spending the night in the same room, is more than a little suspicious. Especially since Lucy knew we were interested in each other.”
“Do you think it would be best to just come out and tell her and ask her to keep it quiet?”
“I trust Lucy. I wouldn’t tell her about me being noaidi otherwise.” Sergei was silent for a few moments. “I suppose I should stop calling myself that.” His words were so softly spoken Leon thought he might have been talking to himself.
“Noaidi? Why?”
“Mm. A noaidi is a Sámi shaman who serves their community. I am not really any of those things.”
“Sámi is your heritage. You can never not be it. And from what happened last night, I can attest to the fact that you are indeed a shaman. What I experienced was not of this reality.”
Sergei smiled and gave him a quick squeeze. “Listen to you talking different realities.”
“Not something I ever imagined myself doing.”
“Yes. The spirits have worked very hard.” Sergei kissed his cheek. “As have you.”
Leon wouldn’t argue with that.
Sergei disentangled himself and rose. “Come on. Lucy is up, and she is undoubtedly feeling displaced.” Sergei pulled on some trackpants. “I’ll go and talk to her if you want to shower. And while you shower, think of ways to keep Doris at bay for a few days. Tonight I need to visit with the spirits.”
