Chapter 36

Rhuyin

Watching Luke, I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride at how well he was doing as he worked to delay Aurelius.

They began talking about art, music, poetry. If I closed my eyes I wouldn't have believed it was my Bonded talking. Luke teased and taunted, reaching his hand out to brush lightly over Aurelius'. I could feel a distant revulsion in him, but I could detect no trace of it in his appearance.

Luke began spinning stories of Poseidon's travels with Master Bacillus. He breezed over his story of Poseidon's life before he joined Master Bacillus and spoke of lords and ladies he had "spent time with" over the last year.

While he never used names, it was apparent that Aurelius recognized some of the personalities Luke described. Aurelius had obviously expected something extremely different with this encounter. I was almost sure he had recognized Luke originally but my Bonded had thrown him off the scent.

"The hour is growing late, my lord, and while I've always been a bit of an exhibitionist…I believe Master Hestus might charge extra for the guards," Luke said, glancing at the two guards before sipping his wine with apparent unconcern. Aurelius grunted.

"They stay."

Luke shrugged as if it didn't matter to him either way.

"What does my Lord prefer?" Luke all but purred as he stood in front of Aurelius. The tattered silks had been removed before he sat down, so his well-muscled chest with its sprinkling of golden hairs was on display.

"I want my mikros prinkipus on his knees," he said.

"As you wish, my Lord," Luke responded. Through our Bond I felt the cold fear that welled in him at the term, but also felt him push that fear back, almost as if he was pushing it behind a wall where it couldn't affect him.

I sent waves of love and affection through our Bond in an attempt to help him counter the fear. I really just wanted to rip Aurelius throat out with my talons, but Elex's brother needed more time to secure Stergiou's release.

Aurelius reached out with his one good hand and buried it in Luke's hair, gently at first, then he yanked sharply, the sting drawing a gasp from my partner. Luke let him slowly drag him forward until his face was just inches from the man's crotch.

"You are my mikros prinkipus, and you will submit to me in all ways," Aurelius hissed. "I own you. No one touches you but me."

I could sense the denial and rage that flooded my Bonded then.

"Tell me you want this," Aurelius commanded as he released his grip on Luke's hair to undo his trousers and pull out the erection that had pressed against his clothing for most of the evening.

I felt a zing of surprise from my Bonded, but I wasn't sure why.

"Tell me you want this!" Aurelius ordered, once again gripping Luke's head and forcing his face toward his cock.

"Yes," he said, his voice betraying a sudden strain. "I want this alright."

I realized with a start that the sense of Luke using his power to change his voice had vanished and that glowing rings of power were appearing around his forearms.

Showtime.

I changed to my half-human form and my claws flashed out, ripping through the throats of the two guards before they had time to react.

Aurelius' eyes went wide as the gold-plated fire iron flew through the air to suddenly impale itself in his abdomen.

"Wha—" he gasped, then seemed to notice the bloodstain that had begun to grow around the implement.

Luke climbed to his feet and stood over his former tormentor, his jaw clenched.

"I've wanted nothing but to see you dead at my hand for years, Aurelius," he said.

He winced for a moment, and I realized the Aurelius was trying to bring his Suppression ability to bear against Luke.

"We'll have none of that," Luke declared. The rings of power suddenly flared and Aurelius fell back as if he'd been slapped.

"P-poseidon?" He began gasped quizzically.

"No, not Poseidon. Though he was certainly useful for this," Luke said, looking down at the seated man.

"Prince Lucien," Aurelius wheezed. "I was right!"

"Wrong again. It's just Luke now," he said. "You got me disinherited, or did you forget?"

"You—you're Mageia. You could never inherit," he panted. "The King—"

"Will do nothing. He doesn't know I'm here and you certainly won't be telling him anything."

I was back in fully human form and noted distantly that my clothes had, indeed, returned. I moved to stand beside Luke, my hand brushing his for just a moment.

"Guards!" Aurelius yelled, panic finally beginning to suffuse his face.

Luke grabbed Aurelius' face, his fingers digging deep grooves into the man's skin.

"The Guard's in the hall are dead. I killed them while you dallied with me," Luke said. I looked at him sharply, sending my senses out into the hallway. Sure enough, there were two bodies only just beginning to cool in the hall. I hadn't even noticed he had done it. Both were even still on their feet somehow. I could sense the holes in their feet where the spikes of stone ran up and through their corpses.

Aurelius paled further.

"P-please…" Aurelius begged.

"How many times did I beg you, Aurelius?" Luke hissed; his eyes were wide as he pulled Aurelius back to his feet. "How many times as a child did I cry and plead with you and Maalik not to hurt me, not to rape me? And how many times did you do it anyway?"

Stone flowed up through the marble floor and twined its way around Aurelius body like scaffolding. I started to panic when it also began to form around Luke, but it just flowed to his hand and formed itself into a marbled stone knife with an edge as sharp as a razor.

"How—" he sputtered, blood beginning to spatter from his mouth.

"Maybe I should thank you, my Lord. You sent me exactly where I needed to be to find my Soma and unlock my powers as a Tesseris Mageia," Luke responded.

"Tesseris? T-that's—that's just a legend! Fairy tales!" Aurelius gasped. "There are no such things!"

"Well, this fairy tale has something he's been wanting to do for years, Aurelius," Luke murmured, his voice low. His hand with the dagger flashed out and I saw Aurelius' mouth open in a cry I couldn't hear as his bloody cock and balls hit the floor, a flood of crimson streaming down his legs.

Aurelius was so thoroughly encased by stone at this point that he couldn't move anything except his mouth, which was moving in a hysterical babble of pain and screams that I was glad I couldn't hear. The stone slowly flowed over his mouth and the blood that bled from beneath him stained the white marble red.

Luke took a deep breath and dropped the knife.

How are those ghosts?I signed.

I think…he began signing, then switched to speech, having hit the extent of his sigh language vocabulary. "I think they've been thoroughly exorcised," he said before pulling me into a deep kiss.

"C'mon. Looks like Elex and Hel need our help," he said.

His face jerked toward the door where Hel stood, eyes wide in surprise. His gaze flitted over Aurelius, who was now thoroughly encased in stone.

"Nice job," he said as wed headed out the door.

I looked closely at the two guards in the hall whose bodies were still up right. I saw a glint of stone and metal peeking out of their skin. I shuddered with the realization that they were pierced through with metal or stone, like marshmallows on a stick.

Note to self: Never make your partner mad.