London Loves Ch. 09

They wandered back up to the house and Xav realised that between breakfast, Gabriel and Rayne he hadn't even said good morning to his host yet. He grinned sheepishly as they drew level with Dominic but before he could say anything the older man took his chin between his fingers and tipped his head slightly. Examining the light olive coloured bruise on his cheekbone he remarked on the same thing that Xav had noticed this morning.

"That looks much better."

"I feel much better," Xav said. "I'm healing fast," he added unnecessarily, a hint of bewilderment in his voice.

"Hmmm, so I see," Dominic Warren examined him close enough to almost bring more colour to the younger man's face. His interest was so plainly unsexual however that he recovered more quickly this time.

"It's weird, isn't it? I mean, how could I be healing this quickly?" asked Xavier, the underlying anxiety plain to hear, despite how cool he was trying to sound.

"My own experience with vampire bites was similar." Dominic reassured him. "Without the blood that Cameron shared with me I would not be here today. It extends beyond healing though. Between Gabriel and Jabez Everman I have a health regime that most women would kill for."

It was true. Xavier wasn't sure of Lord Warren's exact age but he was over sixty and he had the smooth unlined skin and firm toned body of a man less than two thirds of his age. There was brightness in his eyes that gave him even more of a youthful spark. If that was down to vampire bites... well!

"Does he need magic then?" Rayne had shrugged into his shirt on the way back up to the house although it was still open and fluttering loosely around his slim frame as they walked slowly up the steps together. "Are my bites enough?"

"If you bite him again this moon he will be as you are," Lord Warren reminded him. "Vampire marks fade, just as ordinary wounds do. It takes a little longer but their power wanes like a phone left uncharged. With magic he can recharge if he is alone, or if you cannot bite him. Call it a fall-back position, if you like."

"I thought this...whatever this thing is we're doing...was just to keep me from picking up on what everyone around me is feeling," said Xavier. He managed to keep his voice even but his tension level was on the rise again. He did not want to be different. It was a little sad that someone so young could be so jaded already but Xavier couldn't help being wary. In his experience everything good had a price, and he had to wonder what being a little better than just human was going to cost him.

"That is mostly what the spell is for," Dominic said. "However, while the rite I have in mind will help you with this problem there is still much more you could learn, before other problems come up."

Xav didn't say anything and Dominic added gently; "There is no reason to be afraid, Xavier."

"I'm not afraid," he denied automatically.

"But you are sceptical, wary even," Lord Warren leaned back in the doorway of the glass-roofed winter garden surveying him with a serious smile. "Xavier, I will not force you to do this. If you don't want it, then I will not make you do it. But I do think that it is a good idea to know how to protect yourself. One day, maybe, you will get homesick and want to go back to Frisco. But wherever you go, you are marked now, and other vampires will know that. It will draw them to you, precious boy. A strong shield is an invaluable weapon. And knowing how to raise the energy to create such a weapon is knowledge that will stand you in good stead."

Xavier opened his mouth to say something but the older man held up a finger for silence.

"Darling, I chose this method purely because you are comfortable with your sexuality. I know for a fact that you raise remarkable levels of energy when you are sexually charged. If I could teach you how to use those energies to protect yourself and I did nothing then I would feel that somehow I had failed you."

He lowered his hands and looked Xavier squarely in the eye. "I do not like to fail."

There was a tense moment of silence and then Xavier chuckled.

"Yeah, and you're not real thrilled when you don't get your way either," he said with a little grin for Dominic. "I guess I'll have to trust you on this, won't I?"

Their host flashed a radiant smile at him. "I'm glad you trust me. I practise a faith based on love and trust. But if at any point you want to stop then you only have to say the word."

"You're the ultimate dirty old man, do you know that?" Rayne laughed at his friend. "That's the tag-line to every underhanded seduction in history."

Dominic looked offended. "Darling, that's a terrible thing to say! When have I ever put you under pressure?"

"All the fucking time!" Rayne teased him. "Every time I come here you devise a new plan to get into my pants and chalk it up to 'protection' you desperate vampire junky!"

"You're not helping, Raymonde," the older man advised him solemnly. "I'm trying to explain a very serious matter here and you're just taking the rip, child. Keep this up and I will have to seriously think about putting you over my knee."

The smile twitched his oh-so solemn face briefly out of line as he said the last part though. Rayne cackled wickedly at him.

"In your fucking dreams! What's the game plan, Professor Dumbledick?"

Dom ignored the nickname and shook his head with a little sigh. "Let's see how much of a smart-arse you are when I really put you under pressure shall we? Do you know how much energy you waste through ejaculation?"

He licked his finger and stroked it down Xavier's bared belly, tonguing the sticky residue off the tip with a little smile.

Xavier watched him with amusement, privately thinking Rayne wasn't really that far off the mark calling Dominic a dirty old man, but not in a predatory way. Dom liked to flirt and he liked to tease but for all the time they'd spent together Xav had not once landed in Dominic's bed. Of course, Xavier's hands had been rather full while they were in Italy.

"That's kinda the point, Dom," Xavier said, trying not to snicker. "If I didn't wanna come I wouldn't be fucking in the bushes!" he said baldly.

"You miss my point entirely, darling. If you don't spill when you come, then the energy doubles back, that's the theory behind the tantra. Have you ever managed to come without ejaculating? I don't mean just holding back until you can't hold back any more." Lord Warren smiled at the look of slowly dawning comprehension on his young guest's face.

"I dunno...maybe once." Xavier said, shifting awkwardly. He wasn't uncomfortable discussing sex exactly but the time he was remembering had involved heavy bondage in a basement dungeon while being fucked front and back over a padded spanking bench. He'd been warned not to come but he'd got too close to stop it and at the last second he'd sort of squeezed down on everything inside and he'd felt the orgasm but didn't shoot.

"Do you think you could do it again?" Dominic's expression was tempered with concern.

He had seen perhaps a little flicker of something dark in Xavier's face when he told the boy what he wanted of him. Rayne felt it more intensely. He moved against Xavier at once, sliding his arms around his mate protectively.

"You don't have to," he whispered with his lips touching Xav's ear.

Xav turned his head and gave Rayne a reassuring look, feeling steadier just from the simple touch of his hand on his back. He brushed a sweet kiss across his lips and then looked at Dominic.

"I think I can do that again, maybe," he said softly and looked once more at Rayne, a hard to read expression on his face, almost shy but with a definite hint of excitement too. "If you tell me not to come... when I'm close, then I won't."

"That's not exactly what I mean," Dominic said in a careful voice. "I want you to come, I just don't want you to shoot. It can feel quite exquisite, once you get used to the technique."

"That's almost impossible," Rayne countered defiantly. "Not without a cock wand, or something in."

This was getting vaguely embarrassing and Xavier could feel the colour staining his cheeks again as his cock stirred.

"No, I get what you meant Dom, and yeah, it's hard but it can be done," he said quietly to Rayne. He had to consciously tell himself not to squirm because this conversation was getting him kind of hot. "When...when I did it that once before, I was with someone that told me not to come, but I was right on edge and I couldn't stop...so I just...I dunno, pulled it inside. It's hard to explain. I came but didn't shoot, like you said. I don't know if I could do it any other way, without someone else, um, you know, being dominant," Xav finished awkwardly.

"There are no rules that say you have to do it on your own," Dominic told him with a knowing wink. "If you need to be topped then... that can be arranged. I always find that it works best for me that way."

He pushed himself up from the doorway and turned gracefully to go back inside. Rayne was staring at his back, eyes quite wide.

"Jesus. H. Christ." He intoned the words very slowly and precisely. "Did he just say what I thought he said? He wants us to fuck but not..." The vampire made a vaguely explosive gesture with both hands, then shook his head warily.

"Uh-huh," Xav answered. He bumped Rayne's hip with his own lightly. "We could go practice," he teased, kissing Rayne's cheek.

"Practice makes perfect!" Dominic's voice sang out from somewhere deep within the covered garden walkway, hidden by the foliage of his tender exotics.

Rayne shrugged graciously. "I guess there's no harm in that." His expression grew more mischievous. "You wanna practise in bed or... umm... out in the open?"

He cast a glance back outside where the late summer sunlight was shimmering on the extensive greenery of the Warren Place estate. There was an awful lot of 'out in the open' to practise in. Xavier followed Rayne's gaze as if actually noticing there was an outside for the first time.

"Let's go for a walk," he suggested.

It was still warm out but it was late in the season, that in between time where summer was really over but fall hadn't yet got a good grip. You never knew when a nice day might turn nasty. After making a short run back upstairs for Xav to get something a little heavier to wear over his tee shirt they headed out.

Beyond the private patio there were walled gardens with pristine lawns and trimmed archways of hedges and scented roses. A greenhouse ran the whole length of one wall, packed with all kinds of flora in various states of growth. Through an arch in the high wall a gravel path ran down into proper woodland, the golden light dappled by high, rustling leaves overhead. The house was invisible from here; they might have been in the midst of the wilderness. Even the traffic noise, what little there was, was inaudible over the creak of branches and the shiver of summer foliage.

To Xavier this much private land was almost inconceivable. He was definitely a city boy, but that didn't mean he wasn't enjoying himself. It was good to stretch his legs a bit, breath fresh air. Yesterday he wouldn't have believed it was possible for him to take a long hike through the woods but he was in virtually no pain now. It was a nice companionable walk, neither of them feeling the need to fill the space with idle chatter and the quiet between them was comfortable.

Rayne's fingers curled through Xavier's as they walked and from time to time he slowed and turned his head, touching his lips to his lover's mouth, seeking a kiss. As little as twelve months ago he would never have dreamt that something as simple as this would bring him so much pleasure. After a while he stepped off the path, leading Xavier deeper into the woodland, where the lush grasses tugged at their legs. A few minutes' walk found them surrounded by tall poplars and shady chestnut trees, on the edge of a shallow valley, cut by a wandering stream.

He turned now, pushing his mate back gently against the broad trunk of a horse chestnut and kissing him more passionately, overwhelmed by the intimacy of such an expansive setting and overcome by the tempting beauty of Xavier's eager face and hot young body.

Xav twined his arms loosely around Rayne's neck as they kissed, both the location and their earlier coupling putting him in a mellow easy mood. Rayne's hand moved under his tee shirt, gliding over his warm skin and Xav swayed lightly with his touch, moving like one of the saplings bending in the breeze.

He smiled at Rayne as they broke off the kiss for a moment, foreheads touching and noses rubbing. He suddenly grinned; "We had to walk out to the middle of nowhere to get to do this without your ex or Dom's pet wolf trying to horn in."

Rayne's eyes were as green as the sunlit leaves as he looked up playfully at his mate. His tongue flickered between Xavier's lips as he whispered; "There must be easier ways to get some peace and quiet, huh? Maybe we should run away? Or just stay out here in the woods. We can hunt and make shelters and fuck all the time to keep warm."

The hand beneath his tee shirt stroked slowly up and down Xavier's torso, caressing the warm, sweat damp skin. Rayne's fingers splayed over his belly and down over the front of his jeans, fondling him steadily as they sank into a deep, hungry kiss once more.

"Mmm...ok...yeah...sounds perfect," Xav breathed between kisses, his sex rising under Rayne's caressing hand. His own hand slid up into Rayne's hair, his fingers sinking into the silky darkness while the other moved down to stroke slowly over his back and the firm curve of his ass while they tongue kissed.

Though he had said it in jest, right now the idea of just slipping quietly under the radar and disappearing with Xavier sounded like total perfection to Rayne. The events of the last year and a half had left him feeling jaded and drained in more than just body. Until this summer he had been seriously considering ways to end his life.

Xavier understood the darkness in his soul. Whether or not he guessed at the seriousness of Rayne's intentions when he vanished in Paris that time, the younger man would, he sensed, have understood why he needed to do such a terrible thing. No one else in his life, not even Dominic, who had seen some dark places in his time, would even try to comprehend his reasons for seeking death at another's hands.

Rayne buried his face in the curve of his lover's neck and drew him so close that he almost felt that he could sink into Xavier and possess him completely. The silk of his hair was scented still with the sweet, herbal shampoo from their bath the night before and the smell of crushed herbs from their earlier, vigorous coupling. By rights Xav should be exhausted; too wrung out to even walk all the way out here, but he seemed as energised as Rayne by the change of scenery. A sudden realisation hit Rayne that from this moment on everything could change.

It was true. Everything could change. He only had to say the right words.

So why couldn't he say them?

Xavier was pliant in Rayne's arms but held him tight just the same, feeling a rush of... something, coming from his lover, despite Rayne trying to shield it. The sensation was sweet and painful and it brought a shimmer to Xavier's eyes and a tightness in his throat as he buried his own face into the hollow of Rayne's shoulder. They stood there like that for a long time, simply clinging to one another like lost children and neither knowing exactly why or where the fierce wave of emotion had come from.

At last, Rayne pulled away with a little sigh, but his fingers laced through Xavier's again, tugging his lover along with him. He stumbled backward through the long, shimmering grasses and sank to the ground, towing Xav towards him with a sparkle of mischief in his eyes.

"You make me feel alive," he said huskily, drawing his mate's hands to his mouth and kissing the backs of them. "I don't quite understand what it is that you do to me, but I feel more alive right now than I've felt for years. It's like you've... you've given me back something that I'd lost. And I never even realised it wasn't there until you gave it back to me. Am I making any sense?"

"No, but that's okay." Xav said, smiling down at Rayne. "If I make you happy, I'm glad." He leaned in to kiss him, slow and sweet, tasting his lips as if savouring him for the first time.

He wasn't sure what had brought on this sudden moment of tenderness in Rayne, but he didn't want to waste it.

As they kissed softly Xavier could feel the tumult of Rayne's emotions, both the sweet heart-swelling tenderness, and the shadow of fearful resistance, and he thought that if Rayne could not admit to those tender feelings out loud, if he could not bring himself to say those three little words, it was all right. Xavier did not need to hear them spoken when he heard it in the way he told him he was the most important person in his life, when he said he made him feel alive. He felt it when Rayne came home immediately because he'd been hurt, and every time they twined passionately around one another.

Rayne's eyes shimmered with that sunlit woodland green as their lips parted and his smile had fangs as he looked up into Xavier's heartbreakingly clear blue gaze. They were earth and sky brought together in that one short, sweet moment.

Then he whispered; "So, you wanna get dirty, yeah?"

Xavier dissolved into a fit of giggles and answered that fanged smile with a lecherous grin of his own.

"Always!"

He sat up astride Rayne's hips and crossed his arms, grabbing the bottom edge of his shirt to peel it slowly off and toss it aside. Shoes and pants were quickly discarded by them both as well and they once again were writhing naked together in the late afternoon sunshine.

Slowly Rayne pulled Xavier down into his arms and snaked butterfly kisses all over his lean, beautiful body. The light here was so perfect, so clear and luminous that Xav's golden skin almost glowed with energy. Even not quite fully healed he shimmered with it as if the power that dwelt within the Warren Place estate was rising up through him. That was the only explanation for it. Every time Rayne came here he felt the Goddess energies that Dominic spoke of resonating beneath his skin. Though he had never been religious, he came as close to conversion here as he had in his whole life. When he was by the sea he felt it call to him too, but had always believed that it was due to growing up on the shore.

It was the same here though; he felt the song of the earth when he was in this place, so far from the noise and grime of civilisation. He could think and feel when he was here. Was that why he was so sensitive to how Xavier made him feel too?

His lover's skin was like warm silk under his hands and lips. Rayne pressed his face to the softness of Xavier's belly, thinking how easy it would be to bite, to rip, to sink into his body and consume him utterly. At the same time he knew that he would not. He was hungry, a reality that had been pushed to the back of his mind by his concern over Xavier's health, but he would not drain his lover. His own needs could wait.

Well, some of them!

Rayne's studded tongue found the blood-swollen head of Xavier's cock, where it nodded against his belly and he licked a slow, wet line down the curve of that delicious muscle, right to the base where his balls throbbed with pleasure.

Whereas Xav had pounced on Rayne earlier with a needy wild desire, now he was lazily relaxed, although no less aroused. He lay back in the tall grass, stretching his arms up over his head and letting his thighs fall loosely apart as he looked down the line of his body with a heated smile for Rayne, watching the way that his tongue laved over his cock. His glittering eyes half-closed and he bit his bottom lip lightly as his lover licked over the smooth skin of his sac, nudging and tugging at the orbs within. He brought one bare foot up to caress softly along Rayne's side, thoroughly enjoying his attention.