An Ancient Art Ch. 04

"What are you doing boy?"

Stephen's breathing hitched and his lip trembled as he sought an answer.

"Come to me boy. Let me hold you."

Tears fell from Stephen's eyes, "B-bastard," he whimpered.

"What?" Leader's grin fell.

"Bastard. Bastard!" Stephen's voice hurt from his previous screaming, but it was all he could do to stop himself falling apart.

"Now, now boy, don't misbehave or I'll-"

"What? What else could you possibly do to me?" Stephen cried, tears flowing freely down his cheeks.

Leader never answered. A gas canister was propelled into the room, straight through the ancient brick wall. Soon the small room was consumed in the smoke as the canister activated and span, releasing gas.

Stephen looked to Leader hoping he could shed some light on what was happening, but he was met with an equally surprised and fearful look. Leader disappeared into the fog, shouting to his men.

Stephen tried to get up, but the gas was already taking effect.

*

Stephen breathed in deep as he typed quickly into his ID screen, refusing to look back at Lynk and opened a connection. The link was accepted by his sister's contact code.

"Felicia, I need you to send my car to Oroboros City Centre Hospital."

"Stephen?"

It wasn't his sister.

Stephen wanted to disconnect but said, "Father? Why are you answering Felicia's ID screen?"

"Hers was damaged during re-entry so her calls are being redirected to mine or your mother's. But never mind that, why are you at hospital? Are you alright?"

"Everything's fine. Please send the car." Stephen quickly disconnected with a short goodbye to the disapproving face of the Observer staring questioningly back at him.

In less than ten minutes, Stephen's converted pre-war car rode up smoothly on the rails and stopped before him. With a great shuddering sigh, Stephen forced himself inside. Before the doors shut Stephen expanded his ID screen displaying a book from his childhood, the first his grandfather had given him. It was a collection of fantastical fairy tales originally written in 1812: The Grimm's Fairy Tales. This particular copy was a twenty-first century edition, one of the last to be printed before e-printing took over.

Stephen flicked through the digitised pages reliving the calming memories of sitting in his grandfather's library, remembering the safety he felt surrounded by ancient tomes, smelling the crisp paper and printed ink and his grandfather's woody scent.

The colourful illustrations and curling text were a wonderful distraction from the imposing car walls surrounding him. It was larger than most cars and only fitted with a manual lock, but Stephen's reassurance dwindled the longer he stayed inside.

Though calm he disembarked hastily before sending the car back to his parent's storage garage. The queasiness had mostly subsided, but disappeared completely when he was back in his apartment, more specifically back in his office. It smelt the same as his grandfather's library, since Stephen had inherited it and its contents. But a new memory penetrated the old: Lynk standing proud with his wilting morning erection after kicking over a priceless collection of ancient occult volumes from the early nineteenth century.

Stephen remembered the heart bursting fear when he assumed Lynk had been a spy sent for one of his client's competitors. I wouldn't have been the first time, but it was the first time he allowed someone into his office. Lynk's anger and lack of knowledge had been reassuring if not a confirmation of his innocence. Though, Stephen thought as he caressed his bruised and bitten neck, he must trust the man to a certain extent. He shivered, a sharp spike of arousal waking his cock.

At the time he hadn't agreed with Lynk's method of calming him in the taxi, but right now Stephen couldn't help feeling the hot imprint of Lynk's fingers caressing him, soothing his fear and exciting his body.

He opened his security feed and found the point a week ago when Lynk had followed him into the apartment. He was gorgeous. Uncommonly impatient, Stephen forwarded through the footage until Lynk stood naked and powerful over his shaking form in the bed, glad that his face was hidden, pressed into the mattress. He could still feel the warmth and strength of Lynk buried deep inside him, riding him hard and fast and with a passion he hadn't felt since he was a teenager. Stephen focused in on the fine, sweat shimmering muscles covering Lynk's back, the impressive size of his powerful shoulders leading to his equally strong arms. Stephen remembered how easily Lynk had thrown him about atop his desk. The bruises on his back had only just faded. In the bathroom, the pain of his arms tied helplessly behind his back as Lynk drove his hard cock rough and fast into him, becoming the tool of Lynk's anger and passion. Later in the taxi, Lynk's warm breath whispering against his skin and tight fist pumping him hard and fast.

Stephen didn't notice his fingers caressing the desktop or his hand wandering down to rub the growing bulge tenting his trousers until his ID screen flashed for his attention, sending him jumping a foot into the air.

His heart fluttered with guilt and disappointment when he read that it was his sister Felicia's contact code, not Lynk's.

Expecting to hear his father's voice, Stephen was happily surprised, "Felicia." He gave a heavy sigh of relief.

"Don't sound too pleased to see me." She snapped back jokingly.

"Sorry. I was expecting ... someone else."

"It went well then I take it?"

Stephen frowned at his sister's beaming smile. "What?"

"That guy from the other night, the gorgeous blond who was practically eating you alive with his eyes."

"Oh." Stephen said, slightly dumbfounded at the change in which he thought this conversation would go.

"'Oh' that's all I get, 'oh'. I want details, measurements."

"Felicia!"

"Please Steph, I've been off-world for so long I've forgotten what real muscles look like. The lack of gravity does have its downsides. Come on, spill."

"It was good."

Felicia frowned, "That's not much of an improvement on 'oh'."

Stephen sighed again, "It was better than I expected. No, that's not true. It was ... phenomenal." He lapsed into memories of that night and had to stop the shiver threatening to embarrass him in front of his sister.

"Are you seeing him again?"

Stephen took a moment to get back to the present, "I don't think so."

"What? Why? You just said it was great." Felicia fell silent for a moment, looking thoughtful. "You didn't hurt him did you?"

Felicia wasn't asking about her younger brother's penchant for sadomasochism, of which she knew nothing about, but about a certain incident involving Stephen's ex-lover. Stephen had invited Josh to his family's home to celebrate the Winter Solstice and the New Year. Everything had been going surprisingly well until they retired to bed. Hours later Stephen was awoken from a nightmare of being trapped in confining darkness by a cry of pain and a pounding in his fist.

He woke to near darkness and tried to get up, but found himself restrained. Josh's greater weight pinned him to the bed and he felt a sharp spike of fear and arousal, but it wilted as something warm trickled onto his face.

"Shh, baby, you're safe." Josh's words were thick and slightly slurred. He hadn't drunk that much at dinner.

Light flooded in through the suddenly burst open doorway, soon blocked by Stephen's aghast family. Stephen mimicked their expressions when he looked upon his lover's bloodied and bruised broken nose and spilt lip.

Later in the twenty-four hour emergency room and after Josh's face had been put back together, he and Stephen had the inevitable awkward conversation.

"I couldn't stop you. You were trashing so violently I thought you were going to hurt yourself."

"I can't tell you how sorry I am." Stephen reached out to stroke Josh's cheek. Josh flinched away from him and while he spoke Stephen noticed that Josh wouldn't hold his gaze.

Their relationship didn't last their next term of university and Josh moved on quickly with Stephen's assistance when he introduced Josh to Alastair.

"No." Stephen said, breaking the concern on his sister's face. Not intentionally, Stephen thought, remembering the taste of Lynk's blood when he believed the last sights in his darkening world would be the bleached clean interior of a public bathroom.

"So what's the problem?" Felicia asked as though her brother was the perfect man.

Stephen wondered what the best response for that question was. 'It was a one night stand' wasn't truthful and not something he wanted to divulge to his sister. 'Lynk wasn't the relationship type', which was true, but seemed to be a pathway to more awkward questions. Telling Felicia that he'd had a panic attack in a tampered taxi and freaked Lynk out meant a personal visit and a call to the family shrink.

"How is work?" Stephen managed with a painful smile.

"Nice try." Felicia smirked, but when Stephen didn't divulge any more information she looked away and back again, "Father is signalling that he wishes to speak to you."

Stephen kept the disappointment off his face, "Very well." Though begrudgingly, Stephen knew he owed his father an explanation. "I hope to see you again soon."

His sister's face mimicked his, "It had better be soon. My vacation's been cut short."

"You've been called back already? But you have three month's leave. I've barely seen you since you rotated back."

"I know it's a pain but they are having some problems with my new drill design. I knew they should have waited until I was back to run tests. Nothing I can do from here."

With a brisk goodbye to his sister, his father's face appeared. He was silent. Stephen heard the click of a door shutting behind Felicia.

"Stephen, I think it's time you told me exactly what's going on."

"I'm afraid I don't know what you are referring to."

"Don't play with me. I don't hear from you for six months and then you come to me begging for my assistance in your friend's trial and now dragging your old car out of storage to collect you from hospital."

"It's nothing. I regret that I had to resort to using your status as the Observer to save a friend from my mistake." Believe me, you were my last resort, Stephen thought. "The need for my car was out of nostalgia, not necessity. Please don't read anything into it."

The Observer's eyes took time assessing Stephen. He forced himself not to get angry. Stephen had grown up knowing he could never lie successfully to his father and he felt that cold stare like he had in his childhood. He schooled his expression to remain stoic.

His father let out a silent sigh, releasing the pent up tension at his son's unwillingness to divulge the truth. Stephen counted the seconds of empty silence until his father looked away from him. "Have you watched the latest news streams I sent to your IDS?"

Stephen blinked at the sudden change in topic, "I have been rather busy. Is there something important?"

His father typed something into his ID screen and two photographs appeared. They were ID images of two young teenagers, a boy and a girl, both high bred citizens by their dark skin and the impressive, pristine white school uniforms they wore. Stephen had worn one just like it. The gold studs adorning their high collars displayed their rank, age and achievements.

Stephen was about to ask who they were when his father cut in. "The young man is Marbello Maefrin, first son of the Governor Isabelle Maefrin. The girl is Lady Narine Wiuni. As you can see they are children of high ranking citizens and in the space of three weeks they have been kidnapped by the same group."

Stephen frowned. It was nothing new. The high classes may not be an easy target, but they were the biggest pay out. Stephen waited for his father to continue, but when Stephen saw the hesitation behind his father's eyes he said, "What does this have to do with me?" Once asked he feared the answer to that question. Since the creation of his father's vast City wide monitoring system, the Observatory, only one child had been taken from under the constant gaze of the numerous Watchers and the Observer himself: his own son, Stephen.

His father continued as though the old wound of his failure didn't still taunt him, "The girl managed to evade her captors and escaped. When questioned by the authorities the description of her abduction and the way in which she was imprisoned bared similar likenesses to what you suffered."

His father was silent or maybe Stephen just couldn't hear him. White noise filled his ears until he heard a voice, 'Come to me boy, let me hold you.' ... 'Don't misbehave or I'll-'

"Stephen."

Stephen snapped back to his father and the bile in his throat slowed. "I'm fine." He said automatically as he had as a child.

Fatherly concern vanished to be replaced with the calm of the City's almighty Observer. "There is nothing to indicate that the abductor is the same man that took you, however, I thought it wise to warn you to be vigilant and cautious. Of course I and my team can protect you while you remain within the City, but please don't take any unnecessary risks."

Stephen wanted to get angry. Great, extra surveillance. During his therapy sessions after the incident, his parents would not accept the reason Stephen sought out Leader was because of the freedom he desired. They believed that Leader had tricked and manipulated Stephen, playing on his youth and inexperience. For a year after his kidnap his father assigned a body guard to follow Stephen in every aspect of his life. No matter how much he protested the need of having an armed nanny his father only listened after Stephen seduced the poor man. It had been childish and unfair. Stephen and his father's relationship was never the same, but he won a small piece of that longed for freedom, when his father barged into Stephen's room, finding his son riding the cock of his gagged and handcuffed body guard.

He knew that as Observer his father had access to all City CCTV and ID screens. Sometimes he hoped his father watched and was disappointed by what he saw of Stephen's life, what little Stephen allowed him to see that is.

"Do you expect me to go running to the slums in search of my juvenile first love?" Stephen surprised himself that he said the words calmly and without venom.

"Stephen." His father looked away disturbed.

Stephen heard pain but didn't comfort the old man. The old wound was still raw and festering.

Stephen cleared his throat, "Thank you for the warning, but I do not require protection as I did as a child."

"Please just be careful. I will advise you not to go out unless necessary until this matter is dealt with. Be wary of those who approach you. If this is the Leader he may be using others to get to you, seeking revenge for the past."

His father speaking about the incident so bluntly made Stephen uncomfortable. "No doubt I have surpassed the age in which he would seek much else from me." Stephen couldn't stop himself and his father bulked.

"If you are not going to take this seriously I cannot help you." His voice was still calm.

Stephen wanted to make the man angry, for him to show some emotion other than disgust. His mother and father could not fathom why Stephen had run off with Leader all those years ago and still didn't. Why did he expect his father to understand now? Did he want him to? Stephen bit his tongue, losing the desire to bait his father further.

"I shall contact you if the situation develops. I hope you will do likewise."

The connection broke to be replaced by Stephen's security footage. He hadn't noticed he'd left it running at double speed in the background. The fucking had ceased and the two players lay alongside one another. Stephen couldn't remember falling asleep and assumed he had passed out after coming.

He forwarded through the footage, a welcome distraction from his father's disapproval, expecting nothing of interest to occur as they slept. He paused a few hours through the recording, slightly amazed by what he saw. In his sleep, Lynk had sought out Stephen's body and was holding him close. Stephen hadn't railed against him. He continued to watch Lynk slumber soundly until Stephen rolled in his sleep and reciprocated the hold.

Stephen had no idea. They had been apart when he woke with Lynk lying on his front snoring like a trooper as Stephen snuck into his office. He combed his fingers through his hair and stared absently at his screen. His vision returned and he focused on the frozen image of Lynk holding him in bed.

The taxi, Stephen thought. Shit. Was he being targeted already? But it had been Lynk's taxi. Maybe it had nothing to do with Stephen at all. Lynk didn't seem like the kind of guy to make friends easily and no doubt had more than one enemy.

Stephen pressed play and watched Lynk holding him as he slept, listening to the soft snores and grumbles. He thought back to how Lynk had held him in the taxi and felt embarrassed and happy at the same time. Decision made, he pulled up Lynk's contact code and took a breath before opening the link.

The momentary resolve to warn Lynk dissolved when a young man accepted the call.

"Hello, this is Lynk's PA, he's out right now. Can I take a message?" The lad was smiling widely until he saw Stephen staring back at him, "Shit."

Lynk's face appeared looking less than happy. Stephen's previous determination shattered, "Cute boy." This was who Lynk was, he had heard as much in the Halls of Justice men's room. He changed his approach, "I wanted to apologise for my behaviour and wondered if we could re-establish our previous engagement."

Lynk opened his mouth to reply, but the boy's voice cut in, "Do you mind not arranging your sex schedule in front of your baby brother?"

A mild shock and warm hope spread through Stephen's system. Lynk's brother, they didn't look much alike, but the same was said of him and his sister.

Lynk didn't look pleased at the revelation and struck his brother. "Look, can we talk later, I'm kind of busy." His voice was harsh, like the voice he used when he ordered Stephen during their game. Lynk didn't seem to notice his request had turned into a command.

Stephen wanted to ensure he got the details of 'later' organised, but before he could get the words together, a deafening bang vibrated through his ID screen. He watched on in horror as Lynk was thrown backwards by a searing wave of flames and flying debris.

He saw the pavement approaching and with a shattering crack the connection broke filling Stephen's screen with grey static and white noise.

"Lynk. Lynk!"