California Zephyr Ch. 03

Marc sank down, embarrassed, wincing slightly at the dull ache which reminded him of the kicking Rayne’s gentle mouth had not been able to ease. He touched his fingertips to the smoothness of his lips and cheek again, a little bewildered.

“I’m not bleeding...”

“Vampires have their uses,” Rayne told him mildly. “Whatever it is in my spit that heals up a bite after feeding is just as good for other kinds of puncture wound.”

Marc looked up at him, still perplexed.

“I kissed you better,” Rayne elaborated bluntly, with a little grin that exposed tiny, perfect fangs. “You wanna look after that pretty face a bit more, sweetheart.”

For a moment, Marc looked away, his expression awkward and unhappy, as if at some darker memory. Then he lifted his dark gaze to Rayne’s impassive features once more.

“You ‘knew’ I was in trouble, didn’t you?” he demanded, more firmly. “You came to find me?”

Rayne’s fingers ruffled his hair affectionately.

“Whatever!” the Vampire said, with infuriating ambiguity.

This time, when he removed Marc’s clothing he did it slowly and with such exquisite tenderness that the young man almost wept again out of sheer joy and yearning. There was a sense of inevitability to this act of lovemaking that set it apart from the frenzied bouts of passion which had already preceded it on this rumpled bed. Both were aware of the passing of time... the inexorable ticking of the clock which carried them ever closer to journey’s end. In Oakland they would both step down from the train, strangers once more, and head off about their respective business in the city as if nothing had ever passed between them. Maybe they would never see each other again. But for now, nothing could part them, nothing could halt the steady magnetism which pulled them together, joining lips onto soft flesh and urgently caressing hands to hungry bodies seeking solace.

Rayne kissed him with intense, deliberate passion, on every inch of his naked body, undressing him as if he were the most fragile and precious thing in the world and staking claim to him with his fingers and his tongue until Marc was gasping helplessly with a desire that almost saw him pass out. His own hands fluttered longingly over Rayne’s dark, silken head and slender back, drawing the other man against him, clinging to him and urging himself upward into the Vampire’s seductive embrace. Soft lips caressed his neck and throat, his earlobes and the hollow of his breastbone. Sharp, white teeth teased his nipples and nipped at the flesh of his wrists and the crook of his elbows, before that gentle mouth buried itself against his palms, kissing his hands and sucking his fingers.

His own hands explored Rayne’s beautiful face wonderingly as he was kissed and seduced from head to toe. Those tender lips whispered tormentingly across the flatness of his belly and down into the dip of his groin, kissing but not sucking until he wanted to cry out, imploring the Vampire to swallow his painfully erect cock. Instead, Rayne turned him very gently onto his belly and kissed his lean thighs and the backs of his knees and his calves and ankles and the smooth inner arches of his feet, lifting each leg in turn to nuzzle his lover’s sole and draw Marc’s toes into his mouth whilst the mortal writhed against the bedclothes and moaned with longing. Down one leg he roamed and back up the other, kissing the softness of his lover’s buttocks then the sensitive hollow at the base of his spine, worming his tongue seductively beneath the tail of Marc’s backbone, toying teasingly with the pucker of his asshole whilst his hand cupped and caressed the other man’s balls, squeezing and fondling him. Under him the mortal cried out with greater urgency, but Rayne was not done with him yet.

Slowly, and lingeringly he kissed a wandering path up the other man’s naked back and rubbed his lover’s slim shoulders with both strong hands as his mouth explored the nape of Marc’s neck through the spill of his dark hair. The Vampire was intensely aroused by this steady circumnavigation of his bedmate’s naked body and he rubbed his erect sex firmly between Marc’s thighs as his mouth worked on the mortal’s neck and shoulders and his hands travelled down again to stroke the young man’s belly and his cock.

“Do you want me?” he whispered huskily into Marc’s ear now, the first words he had spoken since this seduction began.

“‘Yes’...!” There was barely a moment of hesitation. His partner’s voice was virtually inaudible but the assent in every tense line of his body cried out to Rayne, demanding satisfaction. “Please...! Oh ‘please’!”

There were no more words. Rayne lubed him with deliberate care and attentiveness, then entered him slowly feeling the lovely youth push back against him. Marc writhed in his embrace as the Vampire’s hands snaked down between his thighs, touching him and rubbing him fiercely until his cries of encouragement lost their coherence, muffled in the pillows. Sinking down on him, Rayne kissed him, then bit gently on his shoulder, and more firmly on his slender neck as he fucked the young man harder. The blood spilled between his teeth and he groaned with pleasure now, pressing himself deeper into the beautiful mortal’s yielding body as he fed.

Marc exhaled a sharp little breath, then a moan of astonished affirmation and Rayne’s fingers were suddenly slick with his lover’s cum. Under him, his lover murmured his name over and over, the words catching in his throat. Rayne pulsed a little faster and lifted his head, sighing with intense satisfaction at his own release. He shuddered with pleasure, letting himself sink down again onto Marc’s sweat-soaked body, sucking the stickiness of his partner’s semen from his fingers with peculiar delicacy, then after a few moments, he began to kiss the boy once more.

Each time they made love, Marc found himself wondering how it could possibly be better than the time before. Each time, Rayne took him to a more satisfying peak. One time he did so with his god-sent lips wrapped around the shaft of his lover’s cock and his fingers buried deep in Marc’s ass. Another, he spread himself and let the mortal take him, willingly, in return, until his bedmate was burning inside with a cold fire that exploded upward from his crotch, blazing through his gut and searing his brain like a lightning strike. That in itself was a gift; he already knew of the singer’s general unwillingness to play the submissive, but at this stage of their lovemaking, with Rayne having just reached a second climax within him and Marc still hard and needy, it seemed a natural progression. The Vampire offered no resistance when his mortal lover wriggled down between his thighs and pushed his knees back to his chest urgently, nudging his cock rapidly up into Rayne’s asshole.

The singer was perfectly tight and wonderful to ride. He wrapped his legs around Marc whilst they made out and pulled him close so that they could kiss, sloppily, as the young man bucked and thrust between his thighs, his lean body rising and falling like a seal in water, undulating smoothly in the Vampire’s eager embrace. He sank down, crying weakly in Rayne’s arms when the moment of climax came and the other man held him in wordless empathy, swaying him back and forth until he felt he could breathe without sobbing.

The drowsy gold of a late summer’s afternoon lay thick over the small, shadowy compartment, melting into the heavy atmosphere of mingled exhaustion and resignation that pervaded in every fold and corner. The two beings at the heart of this rich, sun-gilt silence observed one another with the detachment and finality of people who are not quite friends and not quite strangers, consumed by the knowledge that soon even this small intimacy will be denied them. Leaning back against the pillows, the Vampire drew his legs up close to his lean, naked body and wrapped pale, slender arms about them. His chin rested on his knees and his brittle, chartreuse gaze was distant beyond the fine, sable fronds of his long, silken mane.

Beside him, his mortal lover sprawled among the sweat-damp, rumpled sheets, head resting in his loosely folded arms, prone and disarrayed, still gasping in the lingering warmth of their recent passion, all too reluctant to let it go. He lay watching Rayne for a long, reverent while, fixing the image of his lover in his head so that he would remember it for all time. The thought occurred that he had never seen the Vampire inactive before; Rayne was always doing something - reading or playing with his laptop, or just stretching out on the bed with a cigarette balanced between his long, dextrous fingers, blowing streamers of blue-grey smoke towards the ceiling. Gently he stroked the backs of his own fingers over the cool, sleek, hairless flesh of his lover’s lean, naked thigh.

The roll and clatter of the train beneath him and all around him, so familiar by now that it barely disturbed his awareness, served to lull him into a half-dream so that, when he spoke, the Vampire’s words seemed to reach out to him from another lifetime. At first Marc did not even hear the question, drunk on pleasure and comfort and the smoky, tenor cadences of his lover’s musical voice.

“It’s getting late,” the singer murmured again, without looking down. His hand brushed softly through Marc’s hair and rested briefly, like butterfly wings, against his moist, flushed cheek before taking flight once more. “You should start getting ready. We’ll be arriving soon.”

Beside him, Marc’s spirits sank a little and he closed his eyes, shutting out the ugly reality for a while longer but, try as he might, he could not keep the spell whole. Beyond the fragile walls of their cocoon the mundane world was waiting for him, talons outstretched. In less than half an hour his life would return to the ordered normalcy he had known for so long. It was ridiculous, he had been looking forward to this visit for ages and adored San Francisco, but a part of him felt sad to acknowledge that the journey was over; that in so short a time he and the Vampire would go their separate ways. Maybe he would never see the other man again. It surprised him just how much that idea brought a lump back to his throat.

“D’you think they’d notice if we just stayed here?”

A mellow chuckle was his only response. Unwillingly he opened his eyes and glanced up to find the other man observing him with a fond smile.

“Have you had fun, sweetheart?” Rayne Wylde asked, with apparent sincerity.

“Oh lord... ‘yes’!” Marc nodded almost at once. “I wish...”

A finger descended, and touched his lips, demanding silence. After a moment the Vampire whispered; “Is anyone meeting you?”

Emerald eyes widened perceptibly. In all the heady passion of the last few days, Marc had forgotten almost why he set out in the first place. Now he nodded, struck dumb by the cold blast of reality.

“Uh-huh...” he forced out at last. “I’m staying with friends. I... I guess someone will come down for me.”

“You’d better get yourself dressed and cleaned up then,” the Vampire suggested wryly. “Time’s running out.”

“What about you?” Marc asked him as he reached down for his jeans, automatically, wriggling into them. It felt outlandish to be clad again after so long in the embrace of tangled sheets and sweat-slick flesh. “What will ‘you’ do next?”

A faint smile twisted the Vampire’s generous mouth and he hugged his knees a little tighter. “Who knows?”

“Are you planning to stay in San Francisco for a while?”

“I might,” Rayne said elusively.

Marc swallowed, conscious that he was shivering, in spite of the heat. “Will... will I see you? You know... Around?”

The black-haired man turned a gaze like melting ice upon him and he half imagined drowning in that unblinking stare, swallowed up by the intense sadness and passion in Rayne Wylde’s beautiful eyes.

“Marc... I don’t think that’s a good idea. Do you?” he said frankly, shattering myriad half-formed hopes and dreams.

The young man looked away. Deep in his chest the lump hardened and turned to ice. He closed his eyes, determined not to shame himself by crying but it seemed criminally unfair to him all the same. He had hoped, after Rayne swept to his rescue like that, to find that the Vampire’s feelings had mellowed. Okay... he could understand that someone like Rayne couldn’t possibly adopt every boy who fell head over heels in love with him, but during the last few hours they had seemed so incredibly, insatiably close....

“Marc?” the other man prompted, more gently, and he realised that the Vampire had expected an answer.

Sitting up slowly, he pushed the hair from his eyes and shook his head, not trusting words. Soft, cold fingers touched his cheek and neck briefly; a gesture of consolation more than desire. It occurred to him that the Vampire was never warm, not even now, after all they had shared. A little shiver coursed through him.

“I’m a nomad, sweetheart,” Rayne said quietly. “I come and go without warning. I’m bad tempered and unpredictable, and chronically unfaithful. You can do much better. You ‘will’ do much better, I promise you!”

When the young man reached for his discarded shirt and vest, pulling them on carelessly, without a word, Rayne said; “So you have friends in Oakland?”

It was small talk; the Vampire made no attempt to disguise it. His partner shrugged, still buttoning the shirt in injured silence. In his imagination, he saw the half-stunned faces of his companions when they recognised the beautiful, black-haired man stepping down from the car on his arm.

“Perhaps we should say goodbye now, then.”

The dream dispersed as quickly as it had arisen. For the first time since Rayne had turned to look down at him, Marc found words. His lips trembled but he forced himself to speak.

“I hate goodbyes... Do we ‘have’ to...?”

The Vampire smiled ruefully.

“Not if you don’t want to,” he conceded, but he leaned forward all the same and touched his lips softly to Marc’s. It was the briefest of kisses, but it melted the ice around his heart and as the young man turned away, pulling on his boots, he felt the tears rise to his eyes and stumbled quickly for the door not wanting to weep like a child in front of the impassively handsome Vampire.

Behind him, Rayne said; “Thank you, sweetheart.”

Hesitating in the doorway, Marc did not dare to look back but, in a voice barely audible to mortal ears, he echoed; “Thank you?”

“Your company made this journey one I won’t forget in a long time.”

He swallowed the tears long enough to lift his head, his dark eyes glittering through the tangle of his mane. From the bed the Vampire smiled back at him warmly and Marc knew that he would see that smile in his dreams for years to come. As an old man he would look back on the memory of that fond and lovely face and his heart would swell with longing. He came back to the bedside, cupping Rayne’s head in his hands and drawing the singer’s mouth onto his own one final time, then murmuring; “Oh lord... nor will I.”

Then he turned and walked away, and this time he kept walking.

In the bathroom he splashed his face and hands repeatedly with cold water before steeling himself to return to the lounge car for his belongings. He made himself wait until the very last moment, until he could be sure that the train had stopped and most of the passengers alighted, not actively seeking another confrontation with Tony and Chet. A ghostly pale face peered back from the mirror at his own, features he barely recognised. He felt as though he had been aged and transformed by the experiences of the last few days; that they had left him drained and empty of substance. It was not a comforting feeling.

The air was cooler and cleaner than he had known for days when he finally stepped down from the train and walked along the platform to the barrier, moving like a spirit among the other travellers and their trolley-loads of baggage. He did not look around him; not wanting to break the peculiar dream-like sense of being an extra in the movie of his own life. He felt almost as if he might run into himself by accident if he dared to look anywhere but directly ahead. If Rayne was watching him, he thought, it would not do to look as if he was actively seeking someone out.

As he neared the barrier and recognised familiar faces; bright, welcoming expressions turned to greet him, the dream shimmered and melted and he experienced a surge of emotion that was almost relief. Warm, real, human arms embraced him and he was caught up in the pleasure of greeting his old friends. Bit by bit he came back to life, remembering who he was and why he was here, but as they drew him away, across the concourse and out towards the waiting car, he caught a glimpse of a lean, black-clad figure gliding unhurriedly out into the day, the warm, west-coast sunlight shimmering off his raven’s wing of sable hair, holdall slung casually over one slim shoulder and laptop case over the other.

A cab moved between them and the Vampire raised a commanding hand to hail the driver. As they paused to climb into the waiting vehicles he lifted his head, breathing in the copper tang of the coastal air. Across the sunlight-shimmering car roofs peridot-pale eyes met darker, emerald ones for a timeless moment, and the world stood still. Then Rayne Wylde flashed a fanged, feral smile and ducked into the cab and the sea winds swept them apart on their respective ways.

:FIN: