Blood Talisman (2 page)
sometimes fashioned to suit a particular purpose. Yet now it was believed that the walls of Troy had been found. Troy, a legendary city that had existed and been destroyed before even
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Marcus Verano’s existence. Was it possible then, that Ardocan could be uncovered, or at least the secrets it had once held—such as the Talisman?
The Scrolls of Ashelak. Would Marcus know of these scrolls? He’d said the Talisman’s
existence was rooted in myth. No doubt he’d point out that the city bore that same clouded history, but the Scrolls of Ashelak somehow had the ring of authenticity.
Something else to search for
…
He concentrated his efforts now on a new search, but after scanning and rescanning the
boxes and crates, he bitterly had to admit defeat. Nowhere here was there any sign of the scrolls.
Where then?
Carefully, he removed the several pages containing the reference to Ardocan, replaced
the file in the box and sealed it again, making sure the metal straps appeared untouched. One day, he would return these pages to their rightful place in the library archives, but right now they just might be the means with which he could change his destiny. His slowly beating heart quickened with anticipation. He would show his discovery to Marcus and ask him
about the scrolls. Yet, he knew, that should the Master Vampire try to dissuade him from any further research on the matter, he would have to ignore his advice. This was too important to both Tommy and himself to disregard, no matter what others might think or say.
Tommy. He glanced at his watch. His lover would be getting off shift at the firehouse
right about now, and he wanted to be there to greet him when he got home. He rolled the
pages gently like a scroll, then slipped them into his coat’s inside pocket.
Moving like a silent shadow he climbed the stairs to the library’s main floor and, again unseen by the dozing security guard, left the building.
Andrew alighted on the balcony of the new apartment he and Tommy had moved into
two months earlier. It had taken Andrew quite an effort to have Tommy okay the idea of
giving up the smaller apartment he’d lived in for the past three years, but eventually Andrew had succeeded without using his ‘other’ powers of persuasion. Only some gentle loving had been necessary along with a deal of whining that Tommy’s apartment wasn’t big enough for two grown men. One of his ‘selling’ points was the fact the new apartment building sported
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a pool and a workout room, both high on Tommy’s wish list. High on Andrew’s list had been a room he could use as an office for his ongoing research. The apartment, being on the top floor, also had vaulted ceilings that gave it an open airy feeling, a welcome contrast to the busy, crowded streets of Los Angeles.
After discarding his leather coat, he retrieved the rolled-up pages he’d purloined from
the library and quickly slid them into the bottom drawer of his desk. He’d tell Tommy about them later, after he’d talked to Marcus. He walked back into the living room just as the door in the entryway to the apartment opened.
“Hey…” Tommy’s smile and husky voice always stirred desire in Andrew, and this
night, though his mind was still filled with unanswered questions, was no different. Andrew strode into the young blond fireman’s open arms, returning the deep, thrilling kiss Tommy placed on his lips. Tommy’s hot breath filled Andrew’s mouth, sending his senses reeling and his blood rushing south to his cock that pressed hard and proud against the erection he could feel behind Tommy’s chinos.
Andrew inhaled his lover’s scent, soap and clean sweat and the essence that was now
uniquely Tommy—a combination of his own musk and the spicy overlay from the vampire
blood Andrew had imbued him with.
Tommy broke off their kiss to say, “I showered at the station. Didn’t want to waste time getting you into bed.”
“I love the fact that your one-track mind is still firmly in place,” Andrew said, teasing him. “But aren’t you hungry?”
“Only for you.” Tommy fisted Andrew’s long, ink-black hair, drawing their mouths
together again in another long, deep kiss. His muscles bulged as he lifted Andrew off his feet and carried him towards the bedroom.
Andrew chuckled. “What’s this?”
“Oh, I know you can carry me with one hand behind your back, or no hands at all come
to think of it.” Tommy grinned as he deposited Andrew on the bed, then straddled his
thighs. “But I’ve been sportin’ this hard-on all day, just thinking about fucking you, so let me take control of this.”
Andrew lay back and smiled up at him as Tommy pulled his T-shirt up over his head
and unbuttoned his chinos. He hadn’t put his briefs back on after his shower at the station and his impressive erection sprang free as he unzipped his fly. He leant down and ripped
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Andrew’s shirt open, devouring first one of the pebbled nibbles on Andrew’s smooth chest, then the other. Andrew groaned and started to ease himself out of his jeans but Tommy’s big hands stopped him.
“Let me,” Tommy whispered, hooking his fingers into the waistband and sliding the
denim over Andrew’s narrow hips. “Oh, yeah…” With one hand he gripped Andrew’s cock
at the base. Squeezing gently, he forced a glistening pearl-like drop from the slit then swiped at it with his tongue to savour the spicy pre-cum. “You taste so damned fine,” he murmured between licks and before taking the rigid flesh into his mouth. He was rewarded not only by the sharp edge to the taste of Andrew’s pre-cum but also by the soft moans of ecstasy that escaped his vampire lover’s lips.
Tommy always got an extra sexual charge from the sound of Andrew’s moans and the
fact he was the one inducing them. Maybe in the years ahead he’d get used to it, maybe. But right now, the low hum that caressed his ears made him even harder than he’d been a moment before—and that had been hard. So hard it ached and Tommy couldn’t wait to push
that hardness inside Andrew, to feel that tight grip on his shaft, to plunge in and out and bring Andrew and himself to that state of near-delirium they experienced every time they made love. Tommy knew he and Andrew shared that ecstasy together because of the way their minds melded at the moment of climax. And Tommy loved that. There was no pretence, no faking in their relationship. After less than two years together, they knew each other’s needs so well.
“Wanna fuck you,” he whispered, raising his head to smile into Andrew’s eyes.
“Want you to,” Andrew said, raising his hips and presenting his ass to Tommy’s eager
mouth. “Want to feel every hard and wicked inch of you deep inside me.”
Tommy tongued his way into the cleft between Andrew’s cheeks, circling the hole with
slow, rhythmic precision that had Andrew’s moaning no longer soft, but harsh and
demanding. Oh, yeah… Tommy added a finger, probing deep into Andrew’s silken channel,
finding the sensitive gland that had his lover clutching at the sheets in a near-frenzy.
Andrew grabbed him by the shoulders, pulling him up until he was kneeling between
Andrew’s muscular thighs. His erection throbbed in his hand as he guided it into Andrew’s opening, filling him with the heat of his pulsing shaft. Andrew groaned, encircling Tommy’s torso with his legs, his fingers teasing Tommy’s nipples causing his breath to hitch in his
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chest. He leant down to take Andrew’s mouth with his, their tongues tussling, caressing, gliding into the innermost reaches of each other’s moist warmth.
The intensity of their lovemaking increased. The long, slow rhythmic thrusts Tommy
had begun quickened as the need to release his pent-up ardour burned hot in his blood. The feel of Andrew’s satin-smooth skin against the palms of his hands, the hard muscle under that smoothness, the silken heat that gripped his cock all combined to take him closer and closer to the brink of orgasm. His eyes rolled back in his head and he shuddered in the throes of his ecstasy.
“Andrew!” His throaty cry was muffled by Andrew’s lips on his. Their arms tightened
around each other as Tommy emptied himself into his vampire lover’s depths. Andrew
sucked on Tommy’s tongue while his body spasmed and bucked beneath Tommy, his
scalding release spraying over both their chests.
A long, shaky sigh escaped Tommy. He broke their kiss only long enough to say,
“You’re sensational, babe. Truly fucking sensational.” Then he pressed his lips to Andrew’s neck, nuzzling and nibbling at the smooth skin.
“You are quite good yourself.” Andrew chuckled and patted Tommy’s butt.
Tommy raised his head and gave him a mock glare. “Quite good? Lucky for you I know
you’re kidding. See, I can get into that mind of yours too at times. ’Specially these times. And right now, I know you’re happier than a kid in a candy store.”
“And because neither one of our erections has yet diminished.” Andrew clenched his
sphincter muscles round the base of Tommy’s cock. “Perhaps I’ll keep you in here forever.”
“Sounds like a plan I could live with, except when I have to go to work, of course.
Might look a bit peculiar.”
They laughed together then fell into a contented silence, Tommy’s head resting on
Andrew’s chest.
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Later, Tommy made himself a quick snack, then returned to the bedroom, with a glass
of wine for Andrew and a beer for himself. Andrew took the glass with a murmur of thanks, but it was obvious to Tommy his vampire lover was mulling something over. Something he had not yet mentioned.
“So, what’s on your mind?” Tommy put his beer aside and rested on one elbow. He
stroked Andrew’s hair gently, running the silken mane through his fingers.
Andrew looked at him with surprise, then quickly averted his eyes. “Nothing.”
Tommy drew in a sharp gasp of mock dismay. “You just lied to me, Andrew Berés.
Something’s rankling around in that busy brain of yours—there’s never nothing on your
mind—but this something has you worried. So spill it.”
Andrew sighed and laid his wineglass on the nightstand. “Have you always been this
clever, or are you now learning vampire tricks of the trade?”
“I’ve always been intuitive,” Tommy replied, chuckling. “And having doses of your
blood doesn’t hurt. So something is worrying you. What is it?” He placed a light kiss on Andrew’s lips. “Come on, tell Daddy…”
Andrew cupped the back of Tommy’s head and held him in place for a longer kiss.
“You’re trying to distract me,” Tommy mumbled.
“Is it working?”
“Mmm, yes. Wait—no.” He lifted his head and gave his lover a hard look. “Come on,
Andrew, tell me so I don’t have to start worrying.”
“I’m afraid that if I do tell you, you will worry unnecessarily, for I haven’t yet decided whether or not to act on the information.”
“Information?”
“From the library—about the Talisman.”
“Oh, fer Saint Peter’s sake…” Tommy let out a loud groan and slumped back on his
pillow. “That again. I told you a hundred times you don’t have to go looking for some old artefact that some dodo demon mentioned in order to get in your pants. Dakar was an asshole, and a liar. All demons are liars, according to Marcus, ’cept maybe Constantine, and
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as I don’t know him, the jury’s still out as far as I’m concerned. So why on earth would you believe anything that dick Dakar told you?”
“But…” Andrew took Tommy’s hand in his and kissed it gently. “I found out that
Ardocan exists—well, at least in legend. It was a city, Tommy. True there is no mention of a Talisman, but I thought if I took the information to Marcus, he might help me, and—”
“Didn’t Marcus make it very clear that trying to change your immortality would be
dangerous? Andrew, I don’t want you doing this. I don’t want you putting your life in
danger for me. Because this is what it’s all about isn’t it? You think I’m upset that I’ll grow old and die long before you.”
Andrew gave him a look of innocence. “So, you’re not?”
Tommy sighed loudly and glared at Andrew. “Yes, all right, yes. But that’s part of
being in love with a vampire. I know that, and I’ve had to accept it, and I know there’s an alternative. Don’t think I haven’t thought about it, talked it over with Roger and Micah and Ron. It’s just not an easy decision, Andrew. My folks, my family back home in Portland. Hell, you and I have talked about this, and if you must know I still wonder why I let you talk me out of it all those months ago. We should have just done it, and damn the consequences.”
“But I want you to be one hundred per cent sure.” Andrew rolled onto his side and took
Tommy in his arms. “
Szeretlek,
Tommy,” he said, nuzzling Tommy’s neck.
“Love you too.”
“And I don’t want anything to change that. Sometimes mortals who are changed, even
willingly, can be resentful of their makers when they realise what they have become. My
existence would be worth nothing if your love turned to hate.”
Tommy snorted. “That’s not gonna happen. Roger and Micah didn’t end up hating
