Perilous Partnership (12 page)

Thierry had come to terms with his reaction to Sebastien‟s bite during his recovery from the Rite d‟équilibrage on Samhain the year before and never looked back. He might not have a brand on his neck to match Alain‟s, but he belonged to his vampire, body and soul.

“Now,” he begged, needing more than fingers inside him. Sebastien complied immediately, the head of his cock pushing past the outer ring. Thierry braced for a long, fast stroke, sure Sebastien was as desperate as he was, but it didn‟t come. Instead, Sebastien took his time, sliding inside Thierry‟s body centimeter by centimeter until the tip of his erection prodded directly against Thierry‟s sweet spot.

“Putain,” the wizard gasped. “Sebastien!”

“None of that,” Sebastien scolded. “Let me love you properly.”

Thierry‟s head fell forward, his forehead hitting the mattress as Sebastien nudged his prostate with every pass, each thrust sending a zing through his body and a spurt of fluid out of his already leaking cock. He enjoyed sex with Sebastien in any form, but he thought this might be his favorite, his lover behind him, driving into him, every bump against his gland its own miniature orgasm. The depth of Sebastien‟s movements never changed, unerringly driving Thierry wild, but the speed increased as desperation grew.

“Now,” Sebastien ordered, his hand sliding beneath Thierry to grip the wizard‟s cock and pull on it masterfully.

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The touch and the husky word probably would have been enough by themselves, but the feeling of Sebastien‟s other hand pushing his shirt up under his arms and the sudden pinch of the vampire‟s fangs next to his spine finished Thierry off. His cock twitched heavily as his orgasm rushed through him, leaving him trembling through the aftermath as Sebastien drove into him deep and hard in search of his own release.

Seconds later, Thierry felt the heat inside him that could only come from his lover, accompanied by a tender lick over the marks on his back. Strong arms came around him, pulling him up so he sat on his knees, leaning back against Sebastien‟s strong, slender chest. “I love you.”

Sebastien pressed a kiss to the smooth skin behind Thierry‟s ear. “Love you too.” His hands wandered possessively over Thierry‟s half-naked body, lingering in all his favorite spots: the curve of Thierry‟s hip, the expanse of his chest, the heavy sac. Even more than that, he loved the way Thierry rested trustingly in his arms, their bodies still joined.

“WHAT are you doing?” Jean asked, coming up to where Raymond stood in the weak winter sunlight in the middle of the cloister.

“Trying to imagine what it will look like in a few months,” Raymond replied, “with flowers starting to bloom and students and researchers walking the halls, bringing it to life again. Trying to envision the steps to get it there.”

“Rome wasn‟t built in a day,” Jean reminded him gently. “We‟ve already made a start. Thierry is doing his part, and we‟ll have bids by the end of the week for the repair work. Then it will be a question of overseeing that and taking care of details. It will all come together before you know it.”

“That‟s what I‟m worried about,” Raymond admitted. “I want to be here, not in the offices of l‟ANS, and I don‟t know how long I‟ll be able to delegate enough responsibilities to give l‟Institut the attention it deserves. I‟m afraid I‟m going to have to choose, and I don‟t know which one is the right choice. I believe in l‟Institut and what we‟ll be doing here, but I also know Marcel chose me as his successor because I understood Serrier‟s appeal while still rejecting his methods. I need to give the rest of our agenda the attention it deserves as well or l‟ANS will lose credibility.”

“Let‟s not borrow trouble,” Jean suggested gently. “For the moment, the immediate needs of l‟ANS are in the capable hands of your staff, so you can give l‟Institut the push it needs to get it started. Once it‟s established, you can still be involved with the research without running everything here. Name a headmaster or a director, whatever title you want to use, to run the daily affairs,

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and stay on the Board of Directors so you‟re involved in the big decisions.

Everyone wins.”

“We—all the partnered vampires and wizards who are willing—will be the subjects of the research as much as the source of the questions. We won‟t be able to be uninvolved.”

“There you go,” Jean said with a smile. “So tell me what you see.”

Raymond turned full circle around the cloister, eyes alighting on each of the buildings. “The main building will be the hub, I think,” he began.

“Classrooms, living quarters for those who choose to stay here, either for classes or for research. The Hostellerie can be more of a hotel, for people who come for a night or two, where the monks‟ cells will be the longer-term lodging. The grange can be converted into a gymnasium and the old church into a lecture hall.”

“Don‟t,” Jean asked, the words out before he could stop them. “I know it was decommissioned when it was first sold off, but even if it means you don‟t restore it, don‟t turn it into something it isn‟t.”

Mentally recalculating, Raymond walked toward the grange. “It would take more work, but we could convert the grange into a lecture hall, especially if we don‟t have the expense of converting the chapel right away. I‟ve never been a devout man. I forget that you are.”

“I think Père Emmanuel would have a few things to say about the state of my devotion,” Jean said with a laugh, “but I am devout in my own way. I appreciate the consideration.”

Raymond bit back the offer that sprang to his lips of permanent consideration. They had gone through this more than once as they debated the issues of their private versus public lives. They would gain nothing by going through it again, nor could they afford to forget the spotlight that shone on both of them and the enemies who would take advantage of any perceived weakness or improprieties. He settled for smiling. “I‟m glad it was something I could do for you. Shall we go see what Thierry has found?”

Going inside, they found all the signs of Thierry‟s passage, his magical markers bright against the pale stone, but no sign of the wizard himself or of his partner.

“We knew it would need work,” Jean reminded Raymond as the wizard‟s face grew more dejected with each marker they found.

“I‟d hoped it wouldn‟t need this much work,” Raymond sighed. “I may need to adjust my vision to summer rather than spring.”

“What other wizards besides Thierry could you call for help? Who else has an affinity to earth?”

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“Magali, if she and Luc will come from Amiens again. Vincent, Eric‟s lover. Hugues Fouquet, Alain‟s lieutenant from the war. Marcel, if he will come out of retirement. Monique, but her prison term will not be up for another few months. Earth is the rarest affinity.” Raymond racked his brain for other options. “I could perhaps send out a call for anyone who might be able to help even if they aren‟t active in l‟ANS. We could compensate them for their time, within reason.”

“Magali, Thierry, and Marcel have partners, which would augment their effectiveness,” Jean reminded Raymond. “If monsieur Lombard will consent to help as well.”

“And Vincent has Eric to help him as he works with earth. Wizards can augment each other as we do in the Rite d‟équilibrage or as we did to help Adèle with the wards. It might not be the same increase a vampire gives his partner, but it is still an increase.”

“We could offer our power to Vincent to channel as well,” Jean said. “As long as he can handle the influx, other wizards could provide the magical power.”

Raymond chuckled. “It sounds like we need an old-fashioned wine harvest.

One long weekend, everyone who can come pitching in. We‟ll provide shelter and food. They‟ll provide the magic, channeled through those with an affinity to earth.”

“It works for the vintners. It will work for us.”

Feeling considerably better, Raymond returned to the entrance of the main building, cataloguing the markers with a purpose now. “Thierry used different signatures in different places. We‟ll have to ask him what the difference is when he turns up again, but at least we‟ll have a sorted list.”

“Speak of the devil,” Jean murmured as Sebastien and Thierry appeared at the other end of the hall. Jean coughed to hide the smile he could not stifle at the glazed look in Thierry‟s eyes and the smug satisfaction on Sebastien‟s face.

As they drew nearer, the unmistakable smell of sex assailed his senses.

“Thierry, Sebastien, I was looking for you,” Raymond exclaimed, apparently oblivious to the signs that were so obvious to Jean. “What do the different marking spells indicate?”

“How dangerous the area is,” Thierry said. “Yellow indicates places that need repair but aren‟t in any danger of collapsing. Orange is for places that need serious repair but can probably be put off for a few months. Red is for the areas that need repair before anyone can safely use that space or go near that area.”

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Looking around, Jean was pleased to see far more yellow and orange marks than red, at least in this section. “Is the rest of the building in pretty much the same shape as this area?”

“For the most part,” Thierry replied. “A lot of the entrance here and some of the living quarters were obviously restored before the building was abandoned. There are a few sections where it doesn‟t look like anything had been done for fifty years, and those sections are more dangerous. That said, they‟re all grouped together in one wing, so you could just close the wing until later.”

“Is it stable enough for us to take a look?” Raymond asked.

Thierry frowned. “Probably, but don‟t touch anything. Some of the walls are held together by a wish and a prayer.”

Jean‟s frown matched Thierry‟s as they walked down the corridor that led to the restricted wing. He could see the large red marker at the juncture of the two corridors, and every instinct he had told him to stop Raymond from walking down that hall, but the others proceeded without hesitation. Jean told himself to stop being irrational, but the presentiment did not fade as they walked farther down the passageway, Thierry giving a running commentary of what rooms were on the other side of the various doors and what state each one was in. When they reached the far end, Jean gave in to his nerves, pulling Raymond with him out the far door and into the open air. “Close that entire wing,” he said urgently. “Don‟t even bother repairing it. Just close it completely.”

“What?” Raymond asked, surprised. “Why?”

“I can‟t explain why,” Jean admitted, “but you shouldn‟t go there. It‟s dangerous.”

“Jean—”

Jean shook his head. “Please. At least do it until we can get stonemasons and enough wizards to shore it up. And some kind of ritual cleansing. I don‟t know what happened in that hallway, but it feels… malevolent.”

“Jean, relax,” Raymond urged, seeing the looks of growing concern on Thierry‟s and Sebastien‟s faces. “We‟ll make sure it‟s repaired properly before we let anyone use that wing. It‟s not like we have students beating down the door to get in.”

“Give it time,” Thierry said with a laugh, trying to lighten the suddenly somber turn of the conversation. “Once wizards, and especially vampires, realize what they can gain from partnerships, they‟ll be lining up outside.”

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“DO you really think people will want to form partnerships now that the war is over?” Raymond asked Thierry later that afternoon when the four men had returned to l‟ANS offices in Paris.

“I thought that was the whole point of l‟Institut,” Thierry said, confusion on his face.

“It is and it isn‟t,” Raymond explained. “It is because people are stumbling into partnerships they aren‟t prepared to manage and then want out when it‟s too late, but I expect at least some people to go through the education portion and then decide not to seek a partner. The research will be important in terms of the magical equilibrium and any other effects on that kind of fundamental level, but even most of that is more to help those of us already living with partnerships understand what‟s happened to us rather than because I actually expect most of the findings to make a difference in the grander scheme of things.”

Thierry mulled that over for a few minutes. “I can‟t speak for anyone else,”

he said finally, “but I know what I feel when I‟m with Sebastien. I know what I feel when he bites me, but even just being with him. There‟s a sense of being complete, not just personally, but magically, for the first time. Can wizards exist and function and even live happy, fulfilled lives without a vampire by their side? Undoubtedly, because we‟ve been doing it for as long as there have been wizards, but a part of me also recognizes that I only would live a happy, fulfilled life without a partner if I didn‟t know what I was missing. I‟d be willing to bet that I‟m a stronger wizard now, even without Sebastien biting me, than I was before the partnerships formed simply because we have our bond.

Certainly I‟d never managed any kind of wandless magic before the war began.

I can only do rudimentary things now, but that‟s still a quantifiable change in my abilities from before our partnership. I can only imagine what Alain feels with the Aveu de Sang.” He kept his voice level and masked the disappointment he still sometimes felt at knowing he would never have that level of relationship with his lover, but Sebastien had already had an Avoué, and the magic only worked once. “I‟ve wondered occasionally if the Aveu de Sang wasn‟t intended to bind vampires and wizards specifically. I mean, a wizard had to have created the spell at some point, even if it is something a