22. ~Orpheus~

22

~Orpheus~

Xavier and Elliot were taking longer than I’d expected to figure out why Constantine had taken a sliver of the former’s magic and to what end, especially in regards to the monster claiming he could reverse the vampiric change for his sireling.

Elliot Sabre’s magical know-how was second to none. Except, maybe, my father’s. They were pretty much even in that respect. The fact that Elliot hadn’t been able to determine the answers we needed within a few hours, it extending to days instead, didn’t bode well at all.

While that had me anxious, so did the fact that Talon wasn’t doing well with the separation of our foursome.

With my father’s intense training regimen with Alena, we were only able to talk to her briefly at the end of each day. He wanted her focused only on perfecting her special ability, and nothing else at current. It also meant that I hadn’t been able to divulge the details of what Talon and I were working on with regard to the new incarnation of Obsidian.

She would absolutely love it and want to jump right into it. It could mean her trying to rush through her training with my father and dangerous mistakes happening as a result. Or it could have her more antsy to get back to us than she already was through missing us being with her. So, for now, I’d just told her that I had a surprise that I’d reveal to her once her task in the DFR was complete.

The good news was that my father had really taken to her.

He’d even told me that he’d revealed the closely-guarded secret of his magical regeneration ability to her. He trusted her. And it was clear with the updates he’d been giving me on her progress that he’d also come to respect and admire her.

Saryan Hart didn’t usually take to people so easily, especially not outsiders.

But just like had been the case for me, Alena had defied his expectations. It was a testament to how special she was that she’d managed to turn an extremely volatile situation wherein I’d actually stood against my father for the first time ever, to something positive.

I lounged back on the bed, my head propped up against the pillows, sterile white just like the sheets. I was in one of the few bedrooms within the central quarters of the operational center, all modest and just providing the basics. A small desk with a wooden chair sat beside a pine dresser opposite the bed, plain beige curtains hanging down over the adjacent window that looked out over the courtyard, and a small ensuite bathroom.

Training had ended for the night, Obsidian free to relax for a few hours before we woke up at the crack of dawn and did it all over again.

For my part, I was brushing up on some battle strategies and troop formations via a manual that Marlowe had gifted me. All of it I’d already been trained on during my childhood under the tutelage of my father, but it had been a while, so I’d insisted on reviewing it. I couldn’t afford any deficiencies, especially not in myself as their leader, being responsible for so many lives, all of them trusting in me.

I was just finishing up another section when a knock sounded at my door.

“Come on in,” I called out.

A moment later, the door opened and Talon appeared at the threshold, wearing nothing but what passed for sleepwear with him—a pair of tight vibrant-orange trunks. “Hey.”

“Everything okay?”

He shook his head, melancholy all over him. “I need you.”

“I know, baby bird.” I patted the bed. “Come here.”

He walked in and closed the door behind him, then made his way over to me.

As he did, I closed the manual and tossed it down on the nightstand, then shifted my weight on the bed.

His eyes were all over me, taking in my shirtless state and wandering over my Fae markings, his gaze then dipping to my leather pants none too subtly.

He climbed onto the bed and nuzzled against me right away, burying his face in my shoulder as I held him to me.

“Everything will be okay. We’ll all be together again soon,” I soothed, stroking his hair.

“It’s not just that, which is bad enough, it’s… this is essentially war, Ore.” He lifted his head to look at me. “What if things go wrong, what if we… lose each other?”

So that was what had been at the heart of his mournful mood lately. He’d given it all during our training exercises, showing off what he was now capable of with the great grasp on his control that he was now able to achieve these days making all the difference, but whenever there was a break in all the activity, when he had a moment to breathe, he’d become quiet and withdrawn.

I wasn’t surprised that this worry had been behind it. It always came back to his abandonment issues in the end. It was doubtful that it was ever something that would fully go away because of how it had come about—losing his parents in such a brutal and untimely way—but there were ways to at least mitigate it. Like him coming to me now to discuss it, like us talking it out. Sometimes he just needed to hear my words of reassurance. Other times, especially during extreme circumstances like those we were facing currently, no words from me were enough and all I could do was try to soothe him.

With the way he was right now, it would require a bit of both.

“We’re a match for Constantine and his acolytes, Talon. We know what we’re up against and we’re preparing in kind.”

“It’s still no guarantee.”

“You’re right, it’s not. But we’re mitigating the risk by doing what we’re doing here, with Alena training too, with Xavier and Elliot working to figure out Constantine’s other angle. We’ve also all stood against him and lived to tell the tale. In fact, the last few times we’ve gone up against him, he’s failed.” I stroked his cheek. “And let’s face it, the four of us are very difficult to kill also. Even for that psychopath.”

The corner of his mouth turned up. “That’s true. We are hard to kill. Tough motherfuckers, aren’t we?”

I chuckled. “That we are.”

He nuzzled into my touch, his eyes hooding as he looked me up and down again, the tide clearly changing for him. Or so it seemed on the surface. But with Talon, when it came to this issue, the sudden shift went hand-in-hand with the rest. Now he’d put his fears out there, he needed physicality, closeness in that way. “You know, seeing you out there with the Obsidian troops, being their almighty leader, giving orders, running drills, letting your power loose, all of that… it’s been a major turn-on.” He brushed his lips lightly over mine.

“Is that so?” I breathed against his mouth.

“Shit, yeah.”

In the next second, he ramped it up, grasping my shoulders and crushing his mouth to mine.

I teased his lips with my tongue and he opened for me with a sigh of much-needed surrender, and I savored the taste of him, teasing, gliding, then hooking his tongue with mine.

He rose up on me and straddled my lap, grinding roughly, escalating things quickly, showing me how needy he really was.

And with every rough rub of our cocks through our clothes, he was taking me with him.

“Fuck, Tal,” I breathed, as he broke our kiss and slathered his tongue all over my throat, then dipped down to bite at my nipples. “You’re driving me fucking crazy.”

“Just the way I like you, Dark Prince.”

He was calling out that side of me.

And I was here for it.

A growl rumbled from me a moment before I rolled him beneath me, removed his trunks with a flick of my magic, then shoved his knees up to his shoulders, essentially folding him in half and displaying him vulnerably for me.

“Grab your ankles and keep your legs there. Wide open to me.”

He was panting with anticipation, his eyes hooded, and he did it instantly.

I grinned, then spread his ass cheeks wide and slicked my tongue around his hole.

Swirling, sucking, and biting, I had him in a frenzy within moments and he was crying out and digging his fingers into his legs, struggling to keep position while I tormented him so beautifully to my utter satisfaction.

“Ah, shit, Ore,” he gasped, completely overcome.

I lubed two of my fingers with my magic, then drew them around his hole, before dipping inside. I groaned as I felt him clenching down around them, so desperate for it, for me.

“Yes,” he breathed as I drove deeper and began twisting and making him tremble, then sawing in and out. “Magic fucking fingers… shit.”

“Not just fingers,” I said, shifting my weight and leaning down and closing my lips over his crown and sucking hard until he bucked his hips, and lost control, releasing his legs, then sinking his fingers into my hair.

“Ungh… fuck,” he cried, as I took him right to the back of my throat, then swirled my tongue wildly around his pulsing shaft, while pumping my fingers in and out of his ass at a furious pace. He was shuddering around me, crying out, humping back on me, losing his ever-loving shit.

And I wasn’t above it either, watching his reactions, his blissed-out cries rolling through me and doing a hell of a number on my cock.

I flicked my hand at my pants, stripping myself fully naked, then I lifted my mouth from his cock, a little whimper escaping him as I did.

Then I angled my cock, grasped his hips, and sank into his ass.

“Fuck,” I groaned as his tight little hole gripped me fiercely.

“Ore,” he choked on a shudder, as I drove deep and hit his sweet spot.

Our gazes clashed as I pounded into him, the sensation taking me over, but he had me starting as I saw emotion coming through the pleasure haze I had him enveloped in.

He needed me.

He needed me so badly.

I shifted position and wrapped my arms around him, holding him tightly to me as I thrust in and out of him slow and deep, rolling my hips and nuzzling his cheek. “I’m here. I’m here with you.”

“You’ll stay? No matter what?” he eked out, grasping my biceps with shuddering hands, as I felt his tears spill onto my cheek against his.

“I swear I’ll do everything in my power.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“I need the four of us together.”

Fuck, so did I. Things could be no other way now.

I couldn’t imagine it being and I certainly couldn’t accept it.

“It will all be okay.”

His eyes rolled back in his head as he came, spurting all over my abs.

The sensation and all the intensity between us had me losing my rhythm as it took me over too, before I lost control and spurted deep inside him.

I went to ease out, but he tightened his hold on my biceps. “Not yet. Please.”

I reached out and stroked his hair. “Okay, baby bird. Okay.”

I held him to me and he relaxed against me, just lying there breathing me in.

“We’ll be okay?” he murmured.

“We will,” I assured him, and I saw some of the worry in his eyes dissipate at the confidence in my tone, the surety.

It was how I had to be in order to do any of this.

It was what I had to believe.

And it was what I’d bring into being through every ounce of power at my disposal too.

We would survive what was coming.

Just like we’d survived everything else.