12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

W hat had been the ghost of a touch in Zen's dreams was palpably different now. Gaian held Zen's head and bent to kiss him just as the southward trailing fingers slipped inside the parting of his robes. Gaian timed the descent of his lips with the curl of his fingers inside Zen's trousers and around his sex.

Zen had only—literally only —ever dreamed that someone would want him this much, as Gaian seemed to.

Gaian stroked between Zen's legs, held him securely, and deepened the kiss with his tongue. While Zen's hips arched into the intimate touch, his mouth opened wider to taste Gaian. He wasn't Enki, but he was, stunning and devoted to Zen in ways no one outside this place could ever be. Gaian had said that it wasn't only because Zen was his love reborn, that he wanted to know Zen too, as he was now. Maybe he meant that.

There was a simple tie that kept Zen's trousers together, and Gaian's hand paused its stroking to undo it, causing the trousers to drop around Zen's ankles. Zen let his knees fall open, leaning against the tree, as Gaian kissed him, and he felt himself harden and begin to leak into the hand pleasuring him.

His own touch had never felt so thrilling. The dreams over so many lonely years paled in comparison too.

"Relax, my love. I have so much more to offer."

Gaian's hand withdrew, and Zen whimpered for him to return, but then Gaian dropped, right onto his nobly dressed knees, and parted Zen's robes with both hands to descend between Zen's thighs.

Zen bit back a cry, for as cool as Gaian's skin had proven to be, his mouth was warm, achingly so, and he swallowed Zen until his nose pressed to the white tuft of Zen's hair.

It was maddening and so different from the stroke of a hand to feel heat and wetness and suction all at once, and then, the barest tease of teeth. The only place Zen could find purchase was in Gaian's locks, trimmed short but long enough for Zen to twist his fingers. He gasped to feel Gaian bobbing, coiling his tongue, and kneading Zen's hips as he held him in place. Zen was limp and surrendered in every way possible when he finally— finally —finished, and Gaian swallowed down his release with a contented hum.

"Now, my love, will you let me offer more?"

There was more?

"Yes," Zen said without thought.

Gaian rose back to his feet. He took hold of Zen's head again, so tenderly, and bent first to kiss his lips, tinged with the tang of salt, then he kissed Zen's cheek, his jawline, and at long last, Zen's neck.

The prick that followed was an instant pain that just as quickly soothed into the most indescribable bliss.

"Oh…" Zen sighed. How could anything be better than being devoured by a lover's kiss, on his lips and between his legs, and yet somehow— this .

Zen knew it was day with hazy darkness above him, yet he would swear he could see stars and smell the sweetest of aromas, as if he were in that tower they shared in Zen's dreams.

But they weren't dreams. He remembered that room. He remembered that bed. He remembered the feeling of Gaian pressed tight to him just like this.

Those weren't stars above. They were red. They were Enki's lights exploding in the sky like it was his tapestry.

Red light.

Glowing light.

The gem.

The soulstone .

"Why would you dabble in such magicks? You know the cost that dealing in life and death can take upon the wielder?"

"We are at war, my love, and the king and those who think like him will not stop until they have stopped us and wiped your kind, anyone not human, from this plane. I only want a contingency. If something were to ever happen to you, I don't think I could bear it."

"Of course you could, my sweet lord, noble ruler of my heart. You can survive anything. Promise you will wait for me, because I swear, nothing will ever stop me from getting back to you."

Zen could almost see it, as well as hear those faded voices. He could remember the swell of remorse at the thought of leaving Gaian behind, even if only for a short time. He could remember the love he had for Gaian, overwhelmingly so.

He could remember the fear—of losing Gaian, and of what Gaian might do if he was wrong and never returned.

The queerest taste flooded Zen's mouth, tearing him from the swirl of familiar flashes. He swallowed, savoring the sweet richness and how it coated his tongue. He had never tasted anything like it.

Because it was vampire blood , coming from Gaian's wrist as he fed it to him.

Zen turned his head with a lurch and spat, the fugue of what he now realized was a vampire's bite fading with the memories that had been coming back to him.

"What are you doing?" Zen pushed Gaian with all his might, but the figure before him was like granite. Zen spat again, trying to get every bit of blood out of his mouth, but he knew he had already swallowed some. He could feel it burning down his throat. The woods were spinning. "You're trying to make me serve you!"

"No. I am trying to keep you with me for all time," Gaian said softly. "I would never make you serve me."

"I wouldn't be able to help it!" Zen spat again and glared at Gaian's glowing red eyes. "I'd be a spawn, or a bride, entirely under your control. How is that different?"

Gaian licked at the blood on his wrist, and the wound closed faster than any healing spell. His fangs still held a tinge of the blood he'd drank from Zen as he said, "Because I will release you from my thrall to be my equal. Ask your friends. A vampire lord can release any spawn, any bride, if we so choose. That is all I have ever wanted—to have you at my side. We will rule these lands together and over all of Aerie too. You'll see."

Defiantly, Zen wiped the remaining blood from his mouth. "Release me."

Gaian drew back with a cringe, but Zen said it again.

"Release me."

"I have."

"From this nightmare . Let me go home. Your magic can do that much, can't it?"

The sorrow on Gaian's face was distinct and seemed too much like pity. "If you return to the church, they will kill you. You will have failed them and why they brought you back. They only suffered your presence because they thought you a tool.

"If you wish it, I can release you and your friends from these lands right now, but you cannot go back to Daxos. It was never your home. But if you stay, oh, my love, if you stay, what you experienced in that village can be our future. Good people. Welcoming people. And us amongst them. There are wolves there, yes. There are many creatures in Nightfall that you have yet to encounter, but predators do not have to be monsters."

With a last lick of his lips, Gaian's fangs retracted, and his eyes returned to brown.

"Think on all I have said. But first, let me heal your wounds."

"No." Zen pressed back against the tree when Gaian made to swoop forward. "I will heal myself."

After bending to hastily pull up his trousers, Zen touched the spot on his neck where Gaian had been drinking. There was barely any wetness, for the blood had been licked away, but there were two distinct punctures.

It was always harder for Zen to heal himself, because to heal anyone called upon part of one's own energies. Still, cycling his own power through him healed the bite, leaving only the faintest of scars, like on Dante's arm.

Zen did up the collar of his robes to hide them.

"I have to get firewood, or they'll wonder—"

A wave of Gaian's hand at a small tree caused it to vanish, replaced by a pile of kindling. "And aren't you quite good at it. Until next time, my love. You will say yes to me again."

Zen readied a snide remark, fully devoted to his anger now, only for Gaian to step behind a tree and not reemerge.

With tentative steps, Zen moved toward it and peered around its trunk.

Nothing.

A lick at Zen's hand made him jump. He spun around, fumbling for his dagger, but the culprit was Guardian, who sat dutifully again, wagging his tail. Unsure as Zen was of what was to come or how to proceed with his friends, he couldn't help reaching to pet the wolf.

When Zen returned to camp, he didn't dare let the others see how ravenous he was when they had only just eaten. The realization of how hungry he felt terrified him, the thought of what he'd unwittingly allowed and what he might become if he allowed it again, so much so that he was too terrified to ask if a vampire lord could release his thralls.

Zen wasn't sure what answer would worry him more.

He should tell his friends. He should tell them everything. They deserved to know, but every time Zen opened his mouth to begin, he'd think of the good, the sweet, the warm and wonderful parts of what Gaian offered—like any good devil.

Morty whistled as he led them through the wood. He'd asked to be at the head to seek out magic that might be in their path, for what else could explain why they hadn't encountered any monsters.

Khel said that Morty didn't realize when he whistled like that, but it was habitual if he wasn't talking, as if he couldn't bear the silence.

Guardian did seem to truly enjoy Khel's presence, remaining by his side as the pair trailed behind Morty.

Dante was by Zen. He kept scratching his arm, and only when Zen saw how red the skin was becoming did he realize how much the giant had been itching while they walked.

"Don't do that," Zen said, stopping to grab Dante. "Animal bites are more likely to cause infection. Let me heal it again."

An affirmative grunt responded, as Dante allowed the manhandling. Healing was the only time in Zen's past that he hadn't hesitated when touching someone, but it was a rare comfort now to not have the person he was healing flinch.

Dante was tough, but he had also proven to be exceptionally kind. He'd proven to be exceptionally brutal as well, relishing in violence and bloodshed. Surely, he would relish in slaying Gaian.

Would he relish in felling Zen along with him?

"Dante… are you angry that I stopped you from killing the werewolves?" Zen asked, healing his friend slowly, for any potential infection but also for his own benefit, with a fainter glow emanating beneath his palm.

"Angry I didn't get to kill any werewolves," Dante said, "not angry at you for having a soft heart. Couldn't travel with Khel if I minded that, now, could I?"

"I suppose not. Do you… enjoy killing?"

"Why not? As the Lady of Chaos teaches, some things need to die for others to live. Plus, it can be fun. A rush of fire like no other! Is it so wrong to enjoy that?"

Gaian didn't think so.

Maybe Zen didn't either.

"What would we do without you, eh?" Dante said when Zen's healing glow faded. The skin around his scars was no longer red and the scars themselves were fainter.

That was when Zen realized how quiet the woods had become.

Morty's whistling had stopped—because Morty and Khel were gone!

"Hey!" Dante called into the trees. "Where'd you bugger off to?"

When there was no response, Zen and Dante hurried ahead, only to discover Morty, Khel, and Guardian not far away, though halted in a slightly larger clearing than the one where they'd been ambushed by wolves.

"What—?" Zen started, but Dante swinging his axe into a fighting position cut him off.

Guardian's hackles were raised, and eyes glowed through the trees, though not like the wolves from last night. These eyes shimmered like people who could see in low light, and they weren't only in front of Zen and the others or to the sides of the clearing, but when Zen glanced back, they were behind them too.

Tightly drawn bows came into view like a unified, enclosing snare made up of dark elves, a few scant humans, and a darkling woman. She was the only one not aiming a bow and stepped ahead of the enclosing trap.

"Welcome," she said, her white hair braided on one side in intricate rows, her leather armor black like her fellows but more elaborate to mark her as leader, as she gave a confident grin. "I am Xari. And you are outnumbered."