Disclaimer: The following is a work of fiction, which will include t/t and m/m relationships, and probably some sex too. If it is illegal in your area to read this, or if you are not old enough to read this (you know who you are), stop here. Otherwise, please enjoy.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story is a companion story to "A Light in the Darkness." The story lines are related and the characters occasionally interact, and the frequency of this will be increasing. My sincerest thanks go out to Tarton, who kindly edited this chapter. And thanks to everyone for writing such encouraging emails.
I am now posting my stories to a Yahoo!Group, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jaygordon_1981/ as well. I'm putting them up there a little in advance so I can make final edits before submitting to Nifty, so if you are interested, you can check it out. It's membership requires permission to avoid spam and flames, so just let me know!
Things That Go Bump, Chapter 27
"Battle on the High Seas"
Sebastian was still sitting at his desk in the morning when he heard footsteps outside his office; he sighed deeply when he saw James's face and sat back in his chair, closing his eyes. "I'm glad you're home, baby," Sebastian said softly.
"How's Avery?" James said as he knelt down next to Sebastian's chair, clasping his hand.
"He was ready to go after Sammael last night.... I talked him out of it, but I don't know how long.... Shit, James, I just don't know what we're going to do.... And Musa's team is still missing. At this point, we can only assume...."
"I'm sorry," James said softly. "I know he means a great deal to you...."
"They all do! I'd learned to live without love a long, long time ago, but they were my FRIENDS," Sebastian proclaimed, losing control of his emotions and shedding a few tears streaked pink. "When you've been friends with someone for nearly a millennium.... We've laughed and cried together, we've ... well, you know...." James smiled and nodded, stroking his cheek. He did know. "If he's alive, I'll get him back," Sebastian said with a steely resolve, and James believed he would do whatever it took.
James stood and pulled Sebastian to his feet and led him upstairs. Avery sat on the couch, his head in Sarah's lap as she tried to console him. As James and Sebastian passed, she smiled at them sadly. James led Sebastian upstairs and into their bedroom. "I need a shower," James said as he quickly stripped and hopped into the big shower.
A few moments later, Sebastian slipped in behind him and they washed each other sensually. After they dried each other off, the climbed between the sheets. "I've lived thousands of years," Sebastian whispered as he curled up on James, "and it's amazing how much I've missed you the last couple of days...."
James wrapped an arm around him and held him tight. They kissed and just held each other for a long time, shutting out the world for a little while.
Afternoon came quickly, and an urgent message announced an important phone call on the secure system downstairs. Sebastian pulled on pants are ran downstairs, his chest bare. James followed a few minutes behind, stopping to smile at Horatio and Roman, Chris and Steve, who were just outside the game room, staring open-mouthed at Sebastian's bare back. "Never gets old, does it, boys," James teased with a wink before bounding downstairs.
He found Sebastian on the phone with Larry, the intelligence analyst. The man was apologizing frantically for underestimating the targets. "Larry, I understand! Let's get past that.... What can you tell me about Musa?"
"Alive.... Captured.... Still on board...."
"How do we know this, Larry?" Sebastian asked, breathing a sigh of hopeful relief.
"Some communication on the channel we have access too.... They've been sending reinforcements, sailing it for a port in West Africa.... The idea is a very public execution...."
"Shit," Sebastian exclaimed. "The very public execution of an old vampire.... That would do it.... Larry, keep tracking it and see if our friends in the government can use some satellites to find out where on the boat they're keeping prisoners...."
"Yes sir," Larry began, "and again, I'm sorry!"
"Larry! Get to work!" Sebastian rolled his eyes at James who giggled.
But James did reply, "You're intimidating.... People are afraid of you, or in awe of you...." Sebastian frowned and rolled his eyes again, holding back a little laugh. "Which reminds me, how would you feel about me partnering up with Lt. Spencer? I'd like to have someone I trust watching my back on missions...."
Sebastian raised his eyebrows and said, teasing, "The lieutenant is a handsome young man...."
James smiled and said, "I hadn't noticed...."
Sebastian nodded with a wink. "I like him.... I'd rather you worked closer to home...."
James shook his head, "I'm not asking to join Christen's militia! I'm asking you to draft Spencer here!"
Sebastian grinned and picked up the phone. "Do you think he'll mind?"
"I don't think so," James answered.
Christen and Sebastian had a long phone conversation about Musa, Pedro, and Avery before he asked her about Lt. Spencer. They had a brief interchange and Sebastian put the phone down.
"What?" James asked with a cheeky smile.
"Nothing.... It seems that Spencer already had his bags packed.... Seems he might have gotten the idea into his head that he'd be transferred...."
James held up his hands and laughed. "Don't look at me! It was his idea! But it is a good one...."
Sebastian nodded, "I'm glad...."
"Just be sure he keeps his hands to himself!"
James now rolled his eyes. "He's real straight," he laughed. "Besides, I've got all I need right here...."
Evening came, and Lt. Spencer arrived carrying his bags through the portal, and James showed him to a small room upstairs. "I figured I'd be bunking outside," he said.
"If you're going to be my wingman, you're going to have to live inside," James laughed. "Come down for dinner when you feel like it...."
James went downstairs and found his friends, Chris and Steve, watching television. "Guys, we're having company for dinner.... Actually, he'll be here for a while.... Be nice and don't torture the poor boy! He's not like us!"
This warning, far from lessening the likelihood of an embarrassing encounter, set the two horn-dogs at attention. So when the young soldier, his brown arms bulging beneath his short-sleeved shirt, marched downstairs, they both looked star-struck. "Hi," Spencer said, somewhat shyly. "Lieutenant Spencer.... My friends call me Spencer."
Chris and Steve introduced themselves and Chris asked, "What's your first name?"
Spencer's ears reddened as he blushed. "That's why my friends call me Spencer.... Percival doesn't have the right ring to it...."
"Ouch, dude," Steve laughed, clapping him on the shoulder. "That's rough.... So whatya doing here, Percy?"
Spencer laughed and said, "I'll let you get by with that once, but after that we throw down! I'm ... a sort of special forces wizard.... James and I are going to be working together some...."
"That sounds ... cool," Chris said, trying to hold back his smile. "So do you have a boyfriend back home?"
"What?" Spencer asked, sputtering. "What do you mean?"
"Well, it's just, most of us around here are ... you know," Chris added by way of an explanation. Seeing Spencer relax, he laughed and added, "Don't worry, you don't come off as gay or anything...."
"Guys! I told you to lay off," James laughed as he came out of the kitchen. "Dinner's ready.... Come on...."
They all sat down at the table and Chris and Steve both giggled when Spencer shot up out of his chair like a bolt when Sebastian walked into the room. With a laugh, he said, "Dear Lord! At ease, lieutenant! When we're at home and not about official business, consider yourself part of the family...."
"Yes, sir!" Spencer exclaimed, bringing another round of laughter as he engaged in making a little fun of himself.
Sarah and Avery never joined them, and the colonel popped in only briefly to grab a bite and pass a folder to Sebastian, which he opened only when dinner was finished. It was a set of battle plans for boarding and taking the ship and retrieving the prisoners. That evening he would decide which one seemed most likely to succeed, though the colonel had taken the liberty of prioritizing them.
After they finished eating, Sebastian grabbed the file and excused himself downstairs, leaving the men to their own devices. "Do you like pool?" Chris asked. "There's a pool table and video games upstairs...."
"Sure," he said with a smile and the boys took him upstairs and showed him around the house. James told them he'd be up in a while, and waited until they were gone before he knocked on a door he hadn't seen open in a long time.
He couldn't remember how long it had been since he saw the man, and the Richard who opened the door looked like a shell of a man. While he was a decade older than James when he was turned, Richard now looked a decade older and weak.
"Richard!" James couldn't help but exclaim softly as he stepped inside uninvited.
Richard shrugged and closed the door, walking to sit at his little desk, his robe somewhat haphazardly arranged over him, and he motioned for James to sit on the bed if he liked. Richard didn't look as if he cared all that much one way or the other. James sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "So I see you're dealing with it too," he said with more than a hint of gracious sarcasm. Richard grunted and nodded. "Richard, I need to tell you something.... I saw Peter in Venice with Sekhmet...."
The man's eyes widened and his body tensed. "What happened?" Richard asked, the first time James had heard his voice in a long time.
And James filled him in on everything, including how he'd almost tried to go back for Peter. "If Christen hadn't talked sense into me, I'd have rushed back in...."
"She'd have killed you," Richard said with flat certainty. "Then where would we be?"
"Doesn't make me feel any better ... even after all he's done," James confided, lowering his head.
Richard nodded and sat down beside him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "There's so much we should have done.... Do you think there's any way ... well, that's just stupid...."
James turned to look at him and said, "If there's any way to get him out alive, we will. I promise...."
Richard looked grateful, but added, "Don't take any unnecessary risks...."
Later in the night, while James sat in his office practicing on his violin, Sebastian answered emails, until his phone rang and Larry gave him the news. They had discovered and pinpointed the precise location of the communications post and had determined that it was definitely a fairly soft target. Sebastian made some notes and Larry quickly emailed him his full report while James ran upstairs to fetch Lt. Spencer, since he'd help James guide the little training operation.
Lt. Spencer returned with James and stood awkwardly at attention in a pair of pajama pants and a light t-shirt. Sebastian rolled his eyes and the man relaxed with a smile. "What's up?" he asked.
"That's better," Sebastian said with a smile. "I have a little mission for you and James. Tomorrow afternoon, I want you two to lead a small contingent to take over an enemy communications hub intact. We need the intel and access to their communications channels...."
"Sounds simple enough," Lt. Spencer said, until he noticed the look on James's face.
"It's sort of a training mission to let some key ... personnel get their feet wet," James added, piquing the young man's curiosity.
"There will be two teenage boys, mortals, in your contingent.... Neither of them has ever seen actual wizarding combat...." Lt. Spencer frowned and Sebastian raised his hand. "Are you familiar with the name Alexander Jennings?"
"Of course, sir ... um, Sebastian," the young man responded.
"Jennings and his wife were killed by Sammael's people months ago. One of the boys is his son, and he's been training with Sam Roth and Avery...."
"I see," the lieutenant said with raised eyebrows. "And the other boy?"
"That is ... more complicated," Sebastian began, with a look at James. James nodded -- he trusted the young man. "William's boyfriend, Chase Abernathy, is the other boy.... He's blind...."
"What?" Spencer gasped with a disbelieving laugh. "You can't seriously intend to send a blind boy into a combat zone!"
"This is where it gets complicated," Sebastian said with a sigh. "Chase is perhaps the single most powerful human being I've ever met -- and I do include wizards in the category of human." Spencer's face contorted in disbelief. This coming from the best friend of Avery Salazar, a millennia-old vampire.
James added, "He's not exaggerating...."
Lt. Spencer nodded and accepted the orders, and the three began going over the plans of the little facility, planning their course of attack. "William will protect Chase while he suppresses the electronics in the facility, so they can't get word out about the attack. The rest of you will secure the facility so that out tech staff can come in and study it...."
"He can really do that ... Chase, I mean," Spencer asked.
"So much more," Sebastian responded, his voice steady and calm. "I have no idea what the limits of his power are...." Spencer was utterly freaked out, and utterly fascinated, by that thought. Soon, Sebastian dismissed him to get his rest, before retiring with James to their big suite for some personal "relaxation"....
The following afternoon, Sebastian sent the message he'd been delaying -- his request that William and Chase come to the manor at their earliest convenience. Within a few moments, the message was acknowledged by William, with the assurance that they would arrive soon.
Meanwhile, Sebastian coordinated with Americ and Christen to stage a full assault on the ship holding Musa and some of his people. Larry had provided him overnight with a full threat assessment based on thermal satellite imaging. The decision was made that they would hit the ship just after the boys took the communications center. Sam's team would not be backing Chase and William up after all but would join the all-out assault on the ship. There was every reason to believe that at least one of Sammael's most powerful allies was on board. After all, capturing and holding a vampire with the age and resourcefulness of Musa would be no small task.
William and Chase stepped into the basement through their portal and walked into Sebastian's office. "Thanks for coming, guys," Sebastian said with a smile. Then he explained to the boys the mission that he was sending them on and introduced them to Lt. Spencer, who shook hands with each of them and smiled, and he could not help but be impressed with the boys. Chase especially was possessed of an almost radiant calm, and his smile was always sincere.
James showed William and Chase to a room where they could change into uniforms Sebastian had ordered for them, then they all returned to the basement ready to go. Besides James and Lt. Spencer, eight wizards would be accompanying William and Chase on the little raid. When the group stepped out of Sebastian's basement, they found themselves in deep woods. Lt. Spencer made some silent motions to direct the men and they moved forward to the edge of a clearing. In the middle of a large clearing in the forest, a small blocky building with huge antennas and satellite dishes arrayed around it sat dark. But they knew that they'd find activity inside.
William helped Chase settle to the ground and case a circle around them, while Chase began the spell that would block the building's electronics, disrupting communications and disabling the electrical and security systems. It took about five minutes, but all of the battle wizards felt the powerful wave of magickal energy sweep out of the forest and settle over the building like a haze. Most of them stared at the angelic looking blond with a mixture of surprise and awe.
Spencer made a few hand gestures and the troops moved in. Normally, they would have tripped an alarm and floodlights would have lit the clearing like daylight, announcing their arrival. This evening, no one saw them coming, so when James blew the front door and another wizard the side door, no one had any idea what was coming.
There was a bit of noise inside, but shortly James came outside and crossed the clearing to William and Chase. "It's all clear inside.... Only a few techies and a couple of guards were awake, so we caught most of the fighters in bed!"
"Great," William said. "No one was hurt?"
"No," James answered with a smile.
Chase immediately dropped his spell and the lights came on. The tech guys quickly turned off the alarm and gave an all-clear signal to save their own skins. With a serious face, he said, "Take me inside...."
James looked at William, who shrugged and helped the boy up. As they walked toward the building, Chase began walking faster and faster. As they burst through the door, Chase asked excitedly, "You haven't notified Sebastian?"
"I ... just got off the phone," Spencer said, confused. "They're getting ready to go now...."
Chase winced and asked, "Are the tech guys still in this room?"
"Yes," James said.
"Have you received any strange orders in the last few days? Things that violate security?" Chase asked.
The shorter of the men tensed up, and James grabbed him by his collar and dragged him to standing. "Spit it out!"
The little man shook his head and James looked into his eyes, penetrating his consciousness. "Answer his question," he said in a low, sensual voice -- a voice that might have been used to say, take off your clothes, except for the unconcealed threat in it.
"We were ordered to broadcast communications from our research vessel on all channels," the man answered, sounding dazed and faraway.
"Why would you do that?" James asked, maintaining his hypnotic gaze.
"We weren't sure which one of our channels you had access to...."
James looked at William with panic in his eyes. A trap. Sebastian and the others were rushing into a trap, goaded by emotion. It was too dangerous to keep Musa prisoner, unless there was an ulterior motive. He was bait.
Chase's face bore a grim look and said, "We've got to help them...."
"What can we do?" Lt. Spencer asked. "We don't know where the ship is to get there. And ... what could we add?"
But James narrowed his eyes and growled at the little techie, "Get us an exact location on that SHIP!"
The man sat down and immediately did just that....
Sebastian and Christen boarded the ship from opposite ends, each leading a force of seasoned wizards. They quickly neutralized the few guards on the deck, and closed on each other to join up.
"I expected more guards," Christen said quietly.
"Me too," Sebastian whispered. "Probably inside...." Slowly, they made their way into the interior of the ship and crept toward what they thought was a guard barracks. Quietly, they opened the door and found relatively few sleeping men inside.
Christen raised her hand to place a sleep charm on them, but Sebastian gave her a cold look, raised his hand, and whispered in a very creepy voice, "Vayyamutu ha-anashim haresha'im" (and the wicked men died). The spell was very dark and very powerful, but of limited use. It only worked on sleeping men and few were cold-blooded enough for such a thing. But it was so; take no risks, take no prisoners. For the first time in many years, the look in Sebastian's eyes frightened the witch consul.
The continued to move from room to room, taking down any straggler or wandering guard with extreme prejudice, until they came to what would normally be a cargo hold. Inside, a large number of defenders of various strengths.
Sebastian began a silent count as they prepared to storm in and rescue their friends. Suddenly, a black viscous fog slipped beneath the door and began to curl around them like so many constrictor snakes. "I've been waiting," a man announced from within with an angry laugh. The door opened and Sebastian, Avery, and Christen, with their entire force, were transported inside, not under their own power. "It's time we all had a talk," Sammael announced with a smile.
Sekhmet was torturing Musa slowly as if she were all alone in the world, drawing images on his soft brown skin, while transfusing him with the blood that would continually heal him. Aethon walked up to the bound group and looked over his shoulder at Resheph as he put his clawed hand on Sebastian's cheek. "This is your boy?" Aethon asked Resheph with raised eyebrows. "He IS beautiful...."
Resheph's smile at Sebastian was colder than a dead planet at the edge of the universe. "He was a pleasant diversion for few centuries, master...."
Aethon smiled at him paternally and proudly, but scolded, "Remember your manners in the presence of OUR MASTER...."
Sammael sat in the center of the room in a leather armchair, a modern throne, Peter standing to his right like an assistant. Except, Sammael grasped his hand firmly. "After such a promising resistance, it's almost anticlimactic, isn't it?" Sammael asked with pleasure.
Sebastian's eyes narrowed in anger. Peter looked into the crowd, seeing nothing but suffering, nothing but pain, and all of it because these people would stand against the peace of oblivion. Peter made the mistake of meeting Sebastian's gaze. Peter was expecting anger, venom, disgust, all the things he felt about himself, he was ready for. What he saw pierced his heart almost as thoroughly as the stake he might have welcomed. Sebastian's eyes sharpened momentarily, but softened in a mixture of regret and disappointment, and Peter looked at his feet in shame. The look in Sebastian's eyes was caring, and that shook Peter most of all. Sebastian was snapped out of his thoughts by a grunt from behind him, but even in that short period, he had come to understand Peter better than the boy understood himself.
"We know where the ship is," Spencer objected, "but opening a portal to a moving target isn't an easy task.... I certainly can't do it!"
All of the older wizards agreed. James knew, as well, his skills, however supercharged, were not that finely honed. "I'll do it," Chase said at last.
"Look kid," Spencer said, not in the least demeaningly, "I know you've got powerful mojo, but...."
Chase whispered in William's ear, not listening to the man, and William said, with a long and concerned look at his love, "He can get us there...." Chase had told him that Raziel had taught him how to open a path without using a portal.
"I need a dagger," Chase said, and three wizards reached into their kits for the ceremonial knives. They were all curious to see what the strange, beautiful blond would do.
Chase took the first dagger handle he felt and raised the blade to his lips, but then asked its owner, "This knife has no ... sentimental value?"
"No, it was just very expensive," the man answered.
Chase smiled and said, "Put in a claim, then!" He kissed the blade and whispered an incantation, so that the blade began to glow incandescent blue. Concentrating on the exact location he wished to enter, he slashed a wide gash in the air in front of him and yelled, "GO!" A 'tear' opened in space, its edges glowing like the knife, and the men charged through, William and Chase hot on their heels. Chase closed the tear behind them and stopped. Everything was silent.
William could see what he could not: Sebastian and his comrades held in a dark spell on one side of them, Sammael and Peter on the other, and some very dangerous, ancient vampires close at hand. But everyone stood still, shocked by the way the new wizards had entered.
"What is this magick?" Sammael at last asked with a roar, and William slipped between the ancient evil and Chase.
"Let our people go, and we'll withdraw," William answered with resolve, despite the tremor in his gut.
"And are you James," Sammael asked, his eyes narrowing as his smile spread.
"No, my name is William Jennings!"
Suddenly, Sammael's smile faded and his expression faltered for a moment. And William saw it. Uncertainty. As quietly as he could, he asked Chase to break the spell that held their allies, and the boy squeezed his hand, closing his eyes and reaching out mentally to the ties of power holding them. "You've caused me a lot of trouble boy! But never mind.... Tonight you all die!" At that moment, Sebastian and the Council's troops scattered in all directions and charged. Snarling, Sammael sent all his forces into the fray before targeting people with spells. In the mess, he was mostly "shooting blind," hitting as many of his own men as Sebastian's probably.
William was shielding both he and Chase as best he could and yelled for Chase to keep low. And Chase did. But William couldn't keep track of what he was doing and defend them, so he didn't see the boy sit cross-legged on the floor and begin waving his hands, collecting power in each of his palms. Then in one powerful motion, he pushed his right hand toward the floor and his left hand toward the wall across from him. In the next instant, Sebastian's team fell to the floor, while Sammael's were knocked away. Chase had separated the masses of troops and had moved powerful, ancient vampires with a simple kinetic spell.
Sammael raised his hand and gathered a black cloud of evil energy to destroy the whole group before him, but Chase stood resolutely and stepped forward, giving the demon pause. "What are you?" Sammael asked, eyes narrowed like a snake's.
Chase smiled though he was afraid. "Just a teenage boy.... But I wonder.... A friend of mine told me that when things like you ... make bodies for themselves, it can obscure their sight...." His compatriots began to stir and at least a few were working on opening the portal back to base.
The swirling mass of evil energy between Sammael's hands swirled, its flashes of dark lightning intensifying. "I don't have time for this," Sammael, snarled.
But Chase laughed and goaded him. "Take a peek behind the veil.... What are you afraid of?"
Sebastian winced as he saw the look on the demon's face and prepared to jump into action. But then he saw Sammael's face change, become distant for a moment, and when Sammael's consciousness returned, his face contorted in a swirling torrent of rage and fear, just before he released the energy in a flash at Chase.
No one could reach him in time, but Sebastian's shout gave him the warning he needed. Chase raised his hand and yelled, "Verso!" If James had tried such a thing it might have slowed the spell; perhaps Avery could have slowed it enough to dodge it; but before Chase the huge mass of congealed black magick slowed to a halt and began to move back towards its maker.
Sammael's fury turned to shock as he had to raise his on hand to stop the energy from moving toward him further. Between them it was held in suspension. For a moment everyone was breathless, but then a portal was open and Sebastian's forces began a retreat. As Chase too backed toward the portal, he was able to keep the black mass equidistant between himself and Sammael. He was the last to back through the portal, and just a moment too late, Sammael realize what was about to happen. Chase was going to close the portal, and when he was gone, the energy would be released. But without Chase and Sebastian's little army, it would merely rip a hole in the ship.
Chase smiled quickly and waved his hand, closing the portal, and in the vast expanse of the sea, no one was present to see the little explosion that rocked the former merchant vessel and sent it to the bottom of the great deep.
There was a long tense silence as they all pondered over how close they'd come to death. But they had gotten away with the captives. And Sammael had destroyed his ship at sea with his key players on board. It was too much to hope they died, everyone felt, but perhaps severe injury.
Lt. Spencer cocked his head with a devious smile and, ruffling Chase's hair, asked, "Who knew such a little guy could be such a badass?"
They all laughed and William and Chase spent a while hanging out with the older wizards and consuls, except for Avery, who slipped away to be alone, and Sebastian, who updated the whole Council on the evenings business. Between the video of him quartering Sammael's underling and the setback the demon had just suffered, he doubted people would be flocking to join him. This meant Sammael would change tactics, and if they were going to keep their advantage, they'd have to figure out his next move. But perhaps that could wait, he thought, as he went upstairs and put an arm across Chase's and William's shoulders and joining in the camaraderie.