Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction; all the resemblances are just eerie coincidences. Everything in the story is owned by myself beloved, everything is copyrighted. Contains descriptive sexual scenes between males - don't read it if you shouldn't.
Note: This is a 3rd installment in the semi-series. The first story is Specter's Gamble </nifty/gay/sf-fantasy/specters-gamble/> and the second one is The Year of the Salamander </nifty/gay/sf-fantasy/year-of-the-salamander/>
I would recommend reading those first (at least Specter's Gamble) otherwise, some scenes and characters are not going to make much sense, since you wouldn't be familiar with the background and I didn't describe much of the previous events in this story. Other than that, enjoy! Feel free to e-mail me.
- XIV -
It was three months later, and Raven was deliriously happy, unbelievably frustrated, and disgusted with himself all at the same time. Happy was clear -- him and the blond clicked together so much that it seemed unreal. When Raven moved into the house, almost every single staff member's expression read identical, "Oh, God, now there are two of them...!" Raven could care less about that, however. Julian kept his word (as he always did), and he wouldn't go anywhere (where sex would be involved) without Raven, and he would never involve kids into any of his parties.' Seventeen wasn't kids' in Raven's book, so that didn't bother him too much. Soon enough, he started to realize that him and the blond weren't much different indeed; he had that realization before, but now, it hit him with full force, which smoothly led into frustrated part.
He realized that he started to look forward to Friday nights when the `parties' would usually take place. That alone wasn't a problem, however. The problem was that he also realized that he actually *liked *to see the blond in action, which was disturbing to say the least. However, it remained the same. Every time he would see Julian perform something in his usual (brutal) manner, instead of becoming disgusted, terrified, or at least concerned, he would be turned on to the point of exploding. Julian was perfectly aware of that even though Raven tried to hide it from him at first. Whenever it came to pleasure, Julian turned into a Blood Hound -- he simply knew, as if he had some sort of sixth sense. That was why Raven felt incredibly frustrated.
As for disgust with himself, that feeling appeared inside him the very last Friday, two days ago, after yet another party.' The blond did something along his usual lines to some unfortunate dark-eyed young woman, which left her back one bloody mess. Before Raven knew it, he was cleaning that mess with his tongue with Salamander watching him like a very horny hawk. Then, after they got home around five in the morning, they didn't even make it to the bedroom. The farthest they got was the living room, which was quite a challenging task for the cleaning staff later in the morning. That was another thing -- it didn't matter how much fun' they would have on Friday nights; they would inevitably shake with barely controlled lust when they got back home, as if the events during the night were merely foreplay.
Raven wasn't surprised a single bit at that reaction from the blond -- he *was *a sex-crazed maniac; however, he was astonished to find out that he was the exact same way. It wasn't as if Julian influenced or changed him somehow -- Raven knew that. He always had this dark side; he simply would never feed it before. He always got off on drinking blood, and when he got involved with the blond, he realized that he enjoyed hurting him immensely. He didn't think he would feel the same way about hurting someone else, but alas, that appeared to be the very disturbing case. That was why he felt disgusted with himself.
Today was Sunday, and he lay on the bed with his eyes closed; frustration, disgust, and happiness making his head hurt. The thought of separating himself from Julian never even occurred to him -- he was addicted to the blond, to say the least. That and he knew that Salamander would not let him go even if Raven somehow, managed to convince himself to get away from him (which would never happen). Julian wasn't lying three months ago, when he said that it wasn't about sex anymore.
"Goddammit..." Raven muttered and gritted his teeth.
He was somewhat startled to feel a cool touch on his neck, and opened his eyes. Julian finished his shower, it seemed, and was kneeling next to the bed, his lilac eyes solemn.
"Twice a month," the blond said, and Raven blinked at that.
"What `twice a month'?" he asked with a small frown.
"The parties," Julian nodded. "They will be happening twice a month from now on."
Raven's frown deepened and he sat up.
"Why?"
The blond sighed.
"Because I hate watching you execute yourself silently every time after we come back from one," he said patiently, and Raven blinked again.
"Julian..." Raven started slowly, but the blond interrupted him.
"I'll switch to once a month without any problem," he said seriously. "I don't need them now as much as I did before anyway."
"Julian..." Raven said again, feeling puzzled, relieved, and regretful at the same time.
The blond sighed again and pressed his chin into his palm.
"I am a different matter, Raven," he said quietly. "I welcomed this side of me; you will never be able to welcome it... Therefore, twice a month."
"Fine," Raven let out a small smile. "I am going to take a shower now..."
"Go ahead..." Julian purred in his usual manner, and Raven got off the bed, tugging on the belt of his jeans absent-mindedly.
He almost made it all the way to the bathroom when he heard his phone ring. He thought of letting it ring, but then figured that it might be Magda with yet another job -- he didn't have any ever since the mirror, and to be honest, he missed that. Therefore, he sighed, turned around, took a step towards the ringing phone, and...
...he stopped in front of some strange-looking pillar, somewhere that looked like a very fancy basement. He looked around dumbfoundedly with the only thought in his mind:
"Huh?!"
"It's you?" someone's incredulous voice said, and Raven turned towards it. Then he blinked more rapidly.
It was some woman who seemed to be in her mid-twenties, her short hair light auburn, features sharp and small.
"Who the hell are you...?" Raven said slowly and glanced around once again. "And where am I...?"
The woman let out an exasperated sigh.
"How in the world did you do this?" she said with a puzzled frown, ignoring Raven's question. "And even better question, why?"
"Did what?" Raven asked with even more amount of dumbfoundness as before.
The woman briefly closed her eyes as if composing herself.
"Oh, for the love of..." she muttered and opened her eyes. "Do you have any idea how frustrated and upset I was?" she demanded. "God...! I was tearing my hair out... Literally," she nodded energetically. "Hell, when I realized that it was attuned to someone..."
"What was attuned...?" Raven felt like he was having an incredibly vivid dream Then it dawned on him. "I am dreaming, aren't I?" he looked around again. "Holy hell, this is a dream, isn't it...?"
"Yeah, yeah," the woman waved her hand impatiently. "It's a dream! Now, get closer, will you?"
Raven took several steps towards her even though he wasn't planning on it.
"I was going to kill you instantly," the woman nodded energetically. "But if I don't get some answers right now, my curiosity won't let me sleep during the night, therefore..." She narrowed her eyes, studying Raven's expression. "Bloody hell..." she said finally in a lower voice. "You have no idea what I am talking about, do you...?"
"No," Raven answered honestly, thinking that this was one hell of a vivid dream.
The woman took a deep breath.
"The attuning, dipshit," she said in a low voice. "Now, judging by your expression, I am going to say that you have no idea it even happened..." she laughed shortly. "Damn...! A bloody accident...! And I thought that I would go nuts... Damn..." she shook her head. "Anyway, I am going to ask you a single question, and then I am going to kill you, so I can break the bloody attuning once and for all..." she took a quick breath, ignoring Raven's rapid blinking. "Okay, the question is..." she glanced at something behind Raven's shoulder, and frowned with almost ridiculous astonishment. "What the hell is *he *doing here?!" she asked with sharp disbelief, and Raven turned his head.
"Julian?" he asked incredulously, and the blond looked at him with great confusion. "I am dreaming about you...?" he shook his head. "I mean, I diddream about you before, but you would never wear anything... Holy hell..." he shook his head again while the blond got closer.
"Or I am dreaming about you..." Julian said slowly. "I don't think this is a dream, however..."
He looked around, and when his gaze fell onto the young woman who looked defeated right now, one of his eyebrows immediately flew up, reminding Raven of that butler three months ago. "Celeste?!" he said incredulously, and Raven looked at him with even more puzzled frown.
"Hello, Uncle," she said with desperate calmness, and Raven forgot how to blink.
"Uncle...?" he repeated slowly. "She is your niece...?"
The blond looked at him and nodded silently.
"Holy hell..." Raven muttered with disbelief.
"Celeste, what are you doing?" Julian asked with forced calmness. "Why did you drag us here?"
"I didn't drag you," the young woman said with a heavy, desperate sigh.
"I beg to differ..." Julian looked around again, and Celeste closed her eyes.
"I had no idea it would be you..." she muttered. "Or that it would be more than one person for that matter..." she added a minute later. "How did you do that...?"
"Did what?" Julian's voice sounded dangerously-even right now. "Celeste, I am running out of patience..."
The woman sighed and opened her eyes, looking more and more desperate by the minute.
"The attuning..." she muttered.
"Attuning...?" Julian frowned. "Celeste, the last time I attuned anything to myself was twenty years ago..."
"No," she sighed again. "Three months or so ago..."
She took something from the table in front of her and lifted her hand slowly.
"See this?" she said tiredly, and Raven frowned.
"That's the mirror I got from the old hag..." he muttered.
"Yeah," Celeste sighed again and put the mirror down. "See," she looked at Julian. "Olivier and I..."
"Speaking of your brother..." the blond glanced around. "Where is he?"
"He'll be here soon," Celeste nodded. "Anyway, Olivier and I found out about a very nifty although somewhat dangerous old spell... We were willing to take our chances, however... We needed a couple of objects, so..."
"What spell would that be?" Julian asked tightly, nowhere close to his usual purring drawl.
"Oh," Celeste sighed again and leaned onto the table with her palms. "If performed correctly, it will grant you some very serious powers... Since Olivier and I are both Guardians, we figured that if we succeed, then it will get Reagan's points so high up that..."
"Yes," Julian interrupted her darkly. "I remember reading about a spell like that. It has a fifty-fifty chance of success..."
"As I said," Celeste shrugged somewhat smugly. "We were willing to take our chances..."
Julian closed his eyes for a few seconds. By now, Raven knew him well enough to be able to tell that the blond was restraining himself from doing her bodily harm.
"You were willing to take a chance of getting annihilated and leaving Reagan with only two Guardians?" he asked evenly and opened his eyes. "Celeste, are you completely brainless?"
She blinked somewhat rapidly as if the idea that she might fail has never even occurred to her.
"Uncle..."
"Never mind," Julian said sharply. "It is obvious to me that it will not happen; therefore, I don't care right now. Why the hell did you drag us here?"
"Because when I tried attuning the mirror to myself, it wouldn't let me!" she said with exasperation. "Olivier decided to wait for me to attune the mirror before doing the same to the medallion, but the damn mirror kept throwing me off! Finally, I realized that it was already attuned to someone, so I started looking for a spell, which would help me find that dipshit... Took me a while to find the right spell," she glanced at Raven gloomily. "I perform it finally, it succeeds, I am thinking, well, finally, and now..." she looked at the eerily calm blond. "Breaking the attuning is out of the question," she finished bitterly. "You ruined my plan, which I was working on for quite a long time, thanks... That and it cost me a hell of a lot of money," she nodded.
"When you hired him to get the mirror," Julian said so calmly that Celeste took a small step back. "Were you aware of the fact that the owner of the mirror could control black streams?"
"Yes," Celeste said slowly with a puzzled frown. "That's why I hired him and not someone else... I needed the best thief out there, since I wanted to make sure he succeeds..."
"Why didn't you warn him?" the blond asked insinuatingly.
"Because if he knew, there would be a big chance of him declining the job," she shrugged. "I didn't want to take that chance."
"Do you know that you almost got him killed?" blond's purring drawl was back, but it sounded icy-cold right now.
Celeste glanced at content looking by now Raven, and blinked slowly.
"No," she muttered. "I did not know that..."
Julian didn't say anything else; he simply closed his eyes for a second, and then Celeste's entire body got immobile-rigid, her eyes huge and dark. Raven immediately knew that he just hit her with that nasty spell of his. He watched her paralyzed expression with mild curiosity, wondering what level of pain Julian threw at her. Finally, after five or so minutes, the blond closed his eyes again, and then Celeste let out a shaky, moaning breath. She pressed both palms into the tabletop and took quick gulps of air.
"I..." she said after a few minutes. "Uncle, I am sorry... Oh, God..."
"Why in the world did you drag me here?" Julian asked, his expression somewhat bored by now.
Celeste raised her head, her face still pale.
"I..." she coughed. "I didn't... I didn't even know it would be more than one person... If you don't know anything about the attuning, then how is it possible that blood of both of you ended up on the mirror...?"
Julian frowned thoughtfully for a second; then there was a revelation reflecting in his eyes.
"I know how his blood got there..." he said slowly and looked at Raven. "That night," he said. "When the cat attacked you... You were bleeding rather heavily..."
Raven frowned at that.
"I didn't touch the mirror after the cat jumped me," he said in a low voice. "I put it away right before it attacked me."
"Yes," the blond nodded. "You didn't but I did; and I am sure that I had some of your blood on me when I touched it... I never noticed it," he shrugged, and now it was Raven's turn to reflect revelation.
"And since your blood is pretty much mixed with mine by now," he said slowly. "This is why it got attuned to both of us..."
"Huh," the blond said thoughtfully.
"What do you mean?" Celeste asked in more composed voice. "Your blood is mixed with his...?"
Julian threw her a quick glance.
"He drinks it," he said shortly, and Celeste blinked at that.
"Freak," she muttered under her breath, making sure the blond didn't hear her.
"Now that everything is resolved," Julian said calmly. "And that you are aware of the fact that if you as much as look at him the wrong way, you will be sorry, send us back."
"Umm..." Celeste said, and Julian looked like he was about to hurt her again.
"Let me guess," he said dangerously. "You don't know how..."
"I am sorry," she said in a small voice, and the blond closed his eyes for a few seconds. This time, however, it seemed he was simply composing himself. "I will drive you," she said quickly, and Julian opened his eyes.
"Give me the car keys," he said shortly. "I will drive us. You can get your car later."
She pulled a set of car keys out of her pocket and cautiously made her way towards the blond.
"I am sorry, Uncle..." she said again, and he grabbed the keys.
"Let's go," he looked at Raven, who seemed to be rather thoughtful by now.
"Hold on," Raven said slowly and looked at Celeste. "You were about to complete the spell, correct?"
"After I broke the attuning, yes," she nodded stiffly.
"Wouldn't you need all of the... artifacts?" he asked in the same thoughtful voice, and Celeste frowned.
"Yes," she said slowly. "I do have all of the artifacts," she nodded.
"What about the rock?" Raven said, and Julian frowned at that. "He still has it..."
"What rock?" Celeste blinked.
"The dark-green rock," Raven looked at her intently. "The first job you hired me for..."
"The first job I hired you for was the medallion," Celeste said as slowly as before. "I have no idea what rock you are talking about... Why the hell would I need a rock...?"
"Magda said that all three jobs came from the same people," Raven said, clearly puzzled. "She also said that you were asking her whether I reconsidered..."
"I don't know what rock you are talking about," Celeste shook her head. "I only hired you twice -- for the medallion, and then for the mirror... Hold on," she narrowed her eyes. "You said he still has it..." she glanced at Julian. "Someone hired you to steal a rock from him...?"
"That's how we met," the blond nodded. "Romantic story, really..."
"You have a very interesting definition of romance," Raven said solemnly, and now there was that small smile, playing on Julian's mouth.
"Yes," he agreed and looked at Celeste. "So you never hired him for the rock..." he said mostly to himself, ignoring another head shake from her. "Interesting... However, I will figure it out later; the rock is safe for time being, and if I were you, I would use my brain next time another dangerous spell catches my attention..."
She started saying something, but Julian ignored it.
"Let's go," he said to Raven, and Celeste frowned thoughtfully after watching blond's arm drape around Raven's shoulders in possessive fashion while they walked away.
"Well, spank me upside down..." she muttered when they left the room. "I thought it was impossible..."
"Did you find the person?" someone asked, and Celeste slowly nodded without even looking around.
"Yes," she said.
"Where is he? She...?" the owner of the voice came closer; it was a young man who looked strikingly identical to her -- the same light auburn hair, the same features, and even the same body complexion. In fact, if they were wearing the same clothes, it would be rather impossible to tell the difference between them.
Celeste sighed and turned towards her twin.
"We failed," she said bitterly, and young man's eyes widened at that. "We failed," she repeated with a nod. "Guess whom the mirror is attuned to...?"
The young man frowned quizzically.
"Julian," Celeste sighed, and her twin's expression became dumbfounded. "Yeah," she nodded again. "Gets even better... Not just Julian, but his..." she stuttered for a second. "...his mate as well..."
"Mate..." the young man repeated very slowly. "Vivienne...?"
Celeste rolled her eyes.
"No, Olivier," she said impatiently. "Not Vivienne... How in hell do you attune something to someone who's been dead for nine years...?"
"I don't understand..." Olivier said as slowly as before.
"Apparently, Uncle has a new mate," Celeste said, and then nodded at her brother's expression. "Tell me about it...!"
"Did he say it was his mate?" Olivier was clearly trying to make sense out of this.
"No," Celeste sighed. "But he didn't have to... You should have seen him...! It doesn't matter if they didn't announce it yet; it's just a question of time... Believe me, though, they are mates, all right...! Julian hit me with that nasty shit spell of his when he figured that I knew about black streams... Apparently, that guy was almost killed..."
"Hold on..." Olivier looked beyond puzzled. "His mate it that thief?!"
"Yeah," Celeste nodded and went back to the table. She started gathering all the candles she had arranged there. "Apparently, he tried to steal some rock from him, and that's how they met... I don't know," she shrugged at Olivier's unasked question. "That's what he said. Anyway..." she sighed and left the candles alone. "That was very unpleasant twenty minutes... Even with the spell aside, he looked like was going to kill me on the spot; and he would care less about the fact that I am the Air Guardian," she nodded. "Believe me, if someone does anything to that guy, they are going to be beyond sorry... As I said, however, I just had very unpleasant twenty minutes... Make me feel better..."
Olivier blinked several times, still digesting the information about Julian, and then he let out a small smile.
"How much water do you want?" he asked in a low voice and walked closer.
"More than usual," she smiled slowly. "I want a hell of a whirlwind..."
"Say when to stop..." he murmured, and then he was kissing her neck, thinking that this was pretty much the only thing Julian wasn't into. His Uncle would never eye even one of his distant relatives, let alone his twin sister if he had one. Olivier didn't care though, and neither did Celeste. They were perfect together, and the question of right and wrong never bothered either one of them. ****
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