Hello... And Farewell Page 3

  He opened his eyes and got a good view of his lover’s aqua gaze, warmed by some inner fire but not close to the brilliance of the Dragon’s burning gaze when he’d last seen it.

  The mouth on his thigh was sucking, tongue laving flesh to soothe the bruise being made, the blood being tasted. The hand on his cock was stroking the rhythm of slow torment and he clutched at both Immortals, moaning his need.

  I foresee one obstacle to this, Gryphon remarked.

  Which is?

  Nothing suitable for lubrication.

  The teeth worrying at the flesh of his inner thigh stopped biting, the tongue going still. Gryphon ended their kiss and Adrian looked from his lover to Bells, the Dragon’s gaze going from one to the other of them. His eyes were brighter than fire, burning with an intensity unnatural even among their kind, and Adrian found he wanted to look away, but couldn’t. Captured in some sort of spell that held him by the soul, and wrapped his heart in lust.

  Power beat at him, thrummed through his veins, danced along every nerve to make him ache, his awareness of the Immortal seeping into his very pores.

  Quick as a blink, the blond vanished, his speed leaving Gryphon blinking, mouth gaping, the sound of the bells in his hair marking his passing as he sped through the ruins.

  “Vampire fast, but...”

  “Yes,” Adrian agreed. “But even I can’t move that fast,” he added in answer to the unspoken part of Gryphon’s question.

  “I know I can’t,” his lover admitted in an awed tone.

  The same music heralded his return, the man appearing to them as if from nowhere. He held out a strange container unlike anything either of the men had seen. A bottle of some sort, that much was apparent, but the substance it was formed of eluded their knowledge. Yet another enigma that was part of the Dragon’s strange origin.

  Gryphon took the bottle, the unknown substance feeling strange in his hands. But how to open it evaded his efforts.

  Bells grinned at him and took the bottle and demonstrated how to open it, pushing one end up with a soft popping sound as if a little cork had come free.

  “Hand,” he murmured in that strangely accented English. Gryphon and Adrian both held out their hands. Something warm and oily dripped from the bottle into the center of Adrian’s palm, the process repeated for Gryphon’s approval.

  Adrian grinned. “I don’t know what it is, but it should work quite well.”

  “Yes, I believe it will suffice for our purposes,” Gryphon agreed, eyeing the other blond.

  Bells nodded, shoved the bottle into Gryphon’s hand and removed the sword strapped to his back.

  “Well, that answers my next question to some degree,” Gryphon stated. They watched the Dragon yank off the shirt he wore to reveal a nicely muscular chest and flat belly rippling with muscle, just as gold as the skin of his face and arms. There were also no traces of the wounds that marred his clothing, the flesh unmarked and smooth.

  “Beautiful, Dragon, simply beautiful.”

  Adrian laughed. “I agree.”

  The younger Immortal smiled and actually blushed, turning his head aside as he unlatched the buckles holding his strange boots in place.

  Adrian felt his lover shift, moving him out of his lap to reach for the blond.

  Bells smiled and shook his head, evading the reaching hands. He stepped away from them undoing the belt around his hips and letting it and the unrecognizable objects it carried drop to the ground. The boots were removed, the pants following.

  Adrian’s mouth started to water at the sight of the lean body exposed so casually to their view.

  “Dear gods...” he breathed. Gryphon’s hands closed on his shoulders, his lover making an equally appreciative sound, a low moan of desire thrumming in the man’s chest.

  Cock hard and leaking precum, Bells joined them on the ground, both of them reaching for him. Adrian capturing the back of the blond’s head, claiming the hot mouth for his own while his lover took possession of the smaller man’s erection.

  Adrian smiled when the man he was kissing moaned, throwing an arm over both their shoulders and leaning into the kiss, hungry for what they were offering if his reaction was any indication. Adrian thought it was a damn good sign of how willing their new lover was for what they were doing.

  That, and the fact he’d gone to find something to help them with their lubrication problem.

  Adrian explored the willing mouth, tasting, teasing as he thrust his tongue deep, then withdrew it.

  Bells tasted different than his Gryphon. Sweeter, with a hint of something darker, like the lingering taste of red wine—or blood. Their tongues sparred, the blond’s sliding over Adrian’s in a gentle wrestling match.

  Adrian moaned when a hand closed around his cock. A slim hand that belonged to their newfound lover.

  Bells retreated from their oral sparring match and Adrian discovered the reason. Gryphon had his hand in the man’s braids and was kissing him passionately. Seeing them that way sent an ache through Adrian and he leaned into Gryphon, kissing his lover’s shoulder before biting down, fangs teasing the skin, breaking it enough for a little sip of his lover’s life force.

  He shuddered, a hand sliding along his back, touching his ass, a fingertip slipping in, touching his anus. His cock jumped, and he shuddered as the hand around it tightened, stroked a little harder.

  “I can’t take this anymore,” Gryphon growled and pushed Bells to the ground, kissing him. Strong legs wrapped around his lover’s waist, pulling Gryphon closer as their tongues battled.

  Bells was groaning, eyes half closed, the fire burning in them visible through the veil of his eyelids.

  Adrian had never seen anything so hot, his entire body on fire as he watched them kissing. His lover and the Dragon, their pelvises grinding against each other, bodies straining for more, minds holding their desire in check.

  Gryphon reached for him, and he moved closer.

  Will you let me fuck him?

  Let you? I want to watch!

  Gryphon just grinned and put his hand out for the bottle, but it was just outside his reach. Adrian picked it up, popped it open and gave it to his lover.

  Bells pulled away from Gryphon, glanced from the Immortal to the vampire, then rolled to his knees and crawled close to Adrian.

  Smiling, the look on his face so predatory it sent a cold chill up Adrian’s spine and hot sparks of lust through his groin, he pushed Adrian’s chest, guiding him, urging him to lay down on his back.

  Adrian complied and gasped when a hot mouth closed over his erection, the blond taking him in to the root and sucking, laving his flesh and wrenching a gasping cry from him.

  The position the Dragon had taken left him exposed for Gryphon, his butt up and waiting.

  Adrian watched as his love slicked his erection with the oil. He’s a small man, Gryphon. Do you think he can take your cock?

  We’ll find out, won’t we?

  If he doesn’t object.”

  The way he just stuck this luscious ass in my face, I don’t think his plan is to do the buggering.

  Good point.

  A finger slick with oil probed his tight hole, and he relaxed for it, letting it glide inward, readying him. Two thrusts and it was joined by a second teasing digit. He groaned, wiggled his ass, wanting more.

  The fingers fucked him, going as deep as they could. It felt good, but an actual cock was far better. A third finger joined the other two, stretching him more, working his ass.

  “Fuck me,” he growled, rocking back to let the man know what he wanted, not sure the man called Gryphon would understand the words, but sure he’d understand what his pushing onto the intruding fingers would demonstrate.

  He got what he wanted. The fingers left, the head of a cock touching the entrance to bliss. He shoved himself backward, took the entirety of the big dick into his body with an appreciative groan that vibrated across his tongue and sent the vampire he was sucking into a fit of thrusting.

  Bells m
oaned around the cock in his mouth, savoring the spice flavor of the vampire’s precum, using this as a way to help him forget the last shadows of bad memories. His hands gripped the hard ridges of muscle and bone that were the vampire’s hips, using the strong body under him to steady himself as the Gryphon thrust into him. The cock inside felt so good, right, perfect, stretching him, but not so much it hurt. Adrian’s knees clamped against his ribs, the powerful body holding him still while he serviced them both.

  Everything about this was right, where those ghost memories of his recent past were all wrong. The agony, the darkness that had claimed him time and again being erased by the Immortals, Gryphon and vampire, who were making love with him.

  The cock inside him pulled cries of pleasure from him, hitting the place inside that turned his brain to water, his body to fire, and returned flashes of hunger from the Dragon at the core of his soul.

  Cock in his mouth, cock up his ass and memories melting away in the bonfire lust the way a candle melted in a blast furnace.

  He couldn’t think. Didn’t want to think. He just wanted to feel, and the pair of undying creatures, this Immortal and his vampire lover, were giving him so much pleasure that letting go and feeling was easy to do.

  Sparks danced behind his closed eyelids every time the cock stroked him, somehow delving deeper as his body relaxed into the act, as his flesh spasmed around the intrusion. He wanted this. Wanted it to drive the past from his mind. Strong hands caressed him, touched his back, hips, thighs, and it was all so good, so wonderful, so right, his body responding powerfully to what they were giving him.

  And they were responding to what he gave, his body and mouth pleasuring them, their cries of passion healing a wound in his heart, a blot in his soul that he hadn’t been aware of until it was gone. Cleansed of a clinging taint, lingering effects of the past they’d also cleansed from his mind.

  Mist filled the darkness around them with phantom lights only they could see. Blue and gold shot through with streamers of red from the vampire, aqua and emerald motes dancing through the unearthly fog.

  He could feel it like a caress over his skin. Cool and gentle, hot and needing, hungry.

  The Gryphon fucking him rose above the form of his Dragon, he could see their legs, feel the motion of their wings as their Beasts manifested, entwined as they were, the Gryphon that was the older Immortal’s true self fucking the Dragon that was his own soul. The Beasts were roaring, crying out, the Dragon writhing in the throes of passion.

  Behind him he heard Gryphon groaning, his pace accelerating, his body responding to the primal energies around them. A shudder passed through Bells as the place inside him was stroked, the motion of the Gryphon’s impressive cock inside him a pleasuring sumptuous feast of ecstasy that was blanking out everything but the incredible feeling and the desire to give pleasure in return.

  He sucked, tongued the vampire’s erection, hungry for the taste of him, taking the hard flesh down his throat, engulfing the spice flavor that was unique to this particular vampire. Tinged with sweetness, free of the bitter notes on his tongue that part of his mind knew should be present. Bells felt Adrian bucking with the pleasure. He raised his eyes, saw the vampire braced on his elbows, ruby-flame gaze focused on him, mouth parted in a low moan, fangs white and gleaming in the mistlight.

  Power flowed through him from the two of them. He felt it coming from Adrian, flowing through him, changing him, transformed and intensified as it flowed through into Gryphon.

  Energies surging, growing with the passion and Bells took it all, passing it through him until he couldn’t feel anything but the pleasure, the wild passion-magic tearing through him, washing away memories of pain, of horror.

  He heard the vampire shriek his pleasure, drank down the honeyed spice of his cum as he rocked to the powerful thrusts of Gryphon.

  The Beasts roared, Gryphon driving his cock into Bells’ body, and he clutched at the vampire, Adrian clasping his face and kissing him, fangs grazing his lower lip as his world dissolved into roaring color and untamed elation, his cock spilling his pleasure into the Gryphon’s hand.

  Gasping, half blind by the raging powerstorm whirling around them Bells collapsed, Adrian pulling him onto his chest, the heavy body of the other Immortal dropping on top of them both.

  He lay there barely aware of his flesh, more keenly aware of the presence of the other two males. Immortal and vampire encasing him in a cocoon of safety, a place free of dreams and memories.

  Older, more sure of themselves.

  But not as powerful.

  He closed his eyes, drifted on the ebb and flow of power that shifted and eddied with the pulse of their heart beats, the slow tick of time that affected none of them outwardly.

  But the power faded, the magic dissipating like the mist it resembled.

  To them time was nothing, but it continued to move, to flow, the Mortal Realms that needed them spinning onward in an Einsteinian dance that stretched into infinity and curved back on itself. Mobius reality, a forever and ever of if-onlys and what-ifs spinning into infinity.

  And it was their job to protect it, to guard it from anything that would destroy those possibilities, those infinite variations.

  Bells pulled himself free of the sleeping forms, gazing on their faces with something close to adoration.

  They’d been what he needed, done what needed to be done so he could move on, cleansed of the taint, healed of his soul and heart wounds.

  He dressed while they dozed, unaware of what must be, the inevitable farewell that followed every hello.

  They awakened as he was putting on his boots, the vampire frowning, the Gryphon’s expression one of resignation.

  “Stay with us,” the vampire said, reaching out for him.

  He shook his head, listened to the chime of his hair, smiled.

  “Please, stay,” Gryphon murmured, his aqua eyes filled with the plea, a longing.

  He felt the pull, the need to be somewhere else.

  Somewhen else.

  His horse trotted up and he regarded it seeing the beast and a machine at the same time. One and the same. Motorcycle and smoky blue horse, neither more or less real than the other.

  “Time to go,” he said.

  The horse snorted, bobbed its head.

  He hopped onto the back of the horse, took hold of the reins.

  “Bells?”

  He turned to them, saw the look of fading hope, of resignation, but Adrian tried one last time. He stepped closer, touched his thigh, reached up to pull his head down for a kiss.

  He permitted it, closed his eyes, enjoyed it, faint traces of power whirling about them in a passion dervish.

  He wanted to be with the pair of undying creatures.

  Wanted to remain there with them for all of time.

  But he pulled away, answering a call more powerful than that of lust.

  A pull as inexorable as that of death to mortals.

  He answered the call of love waiting for him somewhere out there in the infinity of the Mortal Realms.

  “This is your place, your time, your reality. Mine is out there waiting for me,” he told them, smiled.

  “Please,” Adrian begged.

  Bells shook his head. “Love for us is eternal. You’ll find the one you both need, and that’s not me.”

  “And you?”

  “I...lost her.” He closed his eyes, shook his head. “I have to find where her soul has gone so I can be with her...or him.”

  “Farewell,” Gryphon said to him as he put his arms around his vampire lover.

  He offered the other Immortal Beast a smile. “And you, too.” He looked down into the dark brown eyes of Adrian. Almost the right color, but it wasn’t the one he sought.

  But somewhere out there, somewhen, that soul waited.

  It was time to go.

  He caressed the vampire’s cheek, touched Gryphon’s lips with his fingers and tapped his heels to the ribs of his mount. The great grey beast leapt for
ward, body surging beneath him, the black hooves spurning the ground, tearing the sod as it gained speed.

  He turned back one last time to see them with their arms around one another, embracing tightly. Gryphon raised his hand in a final farewell.

  Thick mist rose in their wake, but he caught a glimpse of Adrian turning into his lover’s shoulder.

  “He seemed so sad.”

  “He’s lonely,” Gryphon replied as they watched Bells riding away, the mist rising, thickening around them as the horse gained speed, a trail of blue and green fog roiling in their wake. Soon the Dragon and his odd beast were obscured from sight, the trail fading.

  The mist came to a stop, and Adrian pulled free, took a hopeful step forward.

  Power beat at them and Gryphon felt a Gate open, close.

  As if it had never been, the mist faded, revealing the absence of both horse and rider.

  Adrian turned to his lover, puzzlement in his expression. “I thought Guardians were part of their world.”

  “They are.” Gryphon pulled his lover into his embrace and pressed his face into his dark hair, inhaling the spicy aroma of vampire.

  “Then how—?”

  “I don’t think he’s a Guardian of a world.”

  “Then what is he?”

  “I... don’t know.” He looked at the small silver bell he still had in his hand. “But I don’t think I’ll ever forget him.”

  “Nor will I,” Adrian agreed.

  “Let’s go home.”

  “Yes, let’s go home.”

  Dawn was coloring the horizon as the pair of Immortals, one a Gryphon the other a vampire walked away from the ruins of the castle, their arms around one another.

  They’d said farewell to someone they both could have loved, but they still had one another, thanks to the mysterious blond who called himself Bells. A man with the soul of a Dragon and a heart filled with magic and love.

  end

  The MercyKill Series:

  Book One: Shattered Melody