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"It's not my fault," he cried at last, tears running down his race from the
sheer agony of holding a lie of that magnitude inside. "We gave the little
bastard the silver net and told him to go out make your life miserable, but we
didn't expect him to attack other elves with it, or kill sprites!" He fell to
his knees then, arms wrapped around his middle, where, Green knew, the cramps
would be subsiding enough for Mist to actually breathe. "Fuck it all, Green& I
wanted you to come to me for help& I wanted you to come in and beg, and then
I'd make you& we could have that& what we had at Oberon's& and I didn't give a
fuck whether your piece of dead flesh were walking or prone and I'm glad he's
dead, because now I have you in my city, and you have to deal with me and my
court.
It was the detail about the silver net that added the final flash to Green's
temper. Bending down he wrapped his hand around the silk shirt at Mist's chest
and hauled him up face to face. "I will never deal with your court," he
hissed. "And as Goddess is my witness, I will find a way to avenge my
beloved.
"It didn't take you long to find a new one, Mist said cattily, too arrogant
now that he was only inches away from Green's full fury.
"Do you seek death?" Green asked, incredulous. "You arrange for the death of
my beloved, and my beloved's beloved, and you laugh at me? What do you think
can come from this, Mist? I don't rely on your court for anything. And you
rely on mine for things you don't even think of." He spared a glance around
the room, confirming his first suspicions. "Everything in this room was bought
from one of my merchants. Your food was grown in my orchards." He smiled then,
because Mist didn't know this yet. "Your lower fey they answer to me now." And
he enjoyed watching Mist's surprise. "What do you expect to gain from making
me angry enough to kill?
Mist smiled then, as though he knew something Green didn't. "You can't kill
me, little Green, he said gently. "You still wear my mark on your skin or
don't you remember?
"What's this, Green?" Adrian asked, the second morning they had woken up
together, happy in the cabin of the ship, before Adrian's rape and Sezan's
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death, when they'd believed that happy endings were easy. He was pointing to a
small cloud, the size of a silver dollar, grey, indistinct, moving in an angry
roil in its fixed position, tattooed on Green's hip. Green looked at it in
disgust, and sent a course of will through his body. The little spot didn't
even pain him as it disappeared.
Green laughed then, and laughed and laughed and laughed, dropping Mist to the
ground where he tumbled gracelessly to his hands and knees. With a grim sneer,
he looked around the room, to Mist's court, every sidhe hanging avidly on to
the exchange between the two leaders. Every one in the room was more than a
thousand years old, and Green was quite sure that none of them had seen a
struggle of powers like this in their entire lives. Fuck them. Let them see.
With deft fingers he undid the buttons of his jeans and dropped them to his
knees, then turned his back on Mist, looking at the other man over the long,
elegant line of his shoulder.
"I haven't worn your mark in years, Mist, he said quietly. "Since I woke up
in Adrian's arms." He smiled faintly, thought about what Cory would say at
this moment, improvised. "You can kiss my skinny white ass and fear for your
life, Lord Mist. The only thing keeping me from killing you is the idea that
your own self-denial might hurt worse." With that, he swept his jeans up his
hips and did the fly, and prepared to walk out of Mist's hall with his head
held high. But Mist had one parting shot, Green thought bitterly, later. The
other man had always been so much better at inflicting wounds than Green had
been, probably because he took pride in it when Green took none.
"What kind of leader lets his second grab death with both hands, Lord Green?"
Mist asked, as Green started walking. "I may have pointed Sezan in the right
direction, but you're the one who let Adrian die. Remember that, Lord Green!
You're the one who let him grab that silver net, not me!
Mist's voice followed him out of the waiting area, and out of the house, and
it was still ringing in Green's ears as he tore out of the driveway, ripping
the BMW through the wrought iron gates using metaphysical power and momentum,
and leaving them in a clanging pile behind him.
CORY
Bereft
I woke up surrounded by warm man, and assumed for a moment that it was Green.
I gave a groan, and a snuggle, and my hands found their way under a T-shirt,
and I dug my face into a strong chest and inhaled, just to smell the comfort
of my beloved. But the smell was wrong. The chest felt lovely smooth skinned,
hairless, broad, hard little nipples that pointed under the spread of my
palms, but the smell&
Green smells like sun warmed grass, or the foothills right after it rains, in
the spring before the grasses turn brown, and sometimes, when he was aroused,
or really happy, he smelled like a meadow full of mustard flowers and lupins.
This man smelled like stone in the sun, or like trees growing over a
freshwater pool "Oh, shit, I murmured, and tried to move myself
apologetically backwards. "Apologies, Bracken, I said formally. "My hands
started moving before my brain woke up.
"By all means, stay asleep," Brack rumbled above me. There was amusement in
his voice, but arousal too, and I knew that the familiar feeling that was
nudging me in the stomach was all male, all hard, and all ready for action. I
bolted up and was out of the bed before my next heartbeat.
"Green won't need to put us together again, I said stiffly, scrubbing at my
face and trying to wake up. The gentleness on Bracken's face was enough to
make me stumble and sit down abruptly. He moved around to sit next to me and
cup my chin in his fingers.
"Hey," He murmured, "Don't worry." He smiled then, and used both hands to comb
his fingers through my wild hair before taking my face in his hands and
scenting the air lightly. "Can you smell that? he asked. "That's you and
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Green, making love in this room. I know that smell. It permeates Green's
hill it's around corners, it lingers in front of your empty room, and at the
oddest times, I smell it in the garden, with Adrian's smell mixed in. I love
that smell. The scent of the two of you, intertwined, is home. I don't want
that to go away." He leaned forward then and put his face in the crook of my
neck, so he could smell the warmth rising from it. His nose touched my skin,
just enough to make me shiver. When he spoke again, it was right next to my
ear, and his voice was deep, and his breath moved the fine hairs on my ear,
starting a vibration deep within my eardrum. "But that smell, right there," He
murmured, "That smell is all you. I love that smell too. I want to wear that
smell on my skin and roll around in it. I want to live in that smell alone.
But I don't want the smell of home to go away.
His words stopped my throat, and his hands on my face were so warm and sure.
Goddess, I thought, feeling weak and liquid, I needed to touch him. Not in a
sexual way, not now, but I needed to touch him. With a sigh I lay my head
against his shoulders, and felt my back muscles relax when he wrapped his arms
around me.
"You used the magic word, big brother, I said softly. "You said 'home'.
"I've been gone for three days and I want to go back, he said wryly, stroking
my hair from my face. "How can you stand it?
"It's so stupid, I murmured, a weak tear trickling down my nose. "I'm old [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]