Page 21 of Unbroken (Rath & Rune #4)

“So,” Irene said, as they stood beside the incinerator behind the museum while Fuller’s body burned, “it seems you and Noct aren’t the only Dark Young in Widdershins, Ves.”

He folded his arms over his chest, tentacles tucked away. He wished Noct was here, wished he could have gone to the club with them and seen…whatever she was.

After Sebastian confirmed she’d fled, they’d been presented with the problem of a dead man who’d last been seen with them.

In the end, Ves picked up the body and climbed over the locked gate, depositing Fuller in the shadows of the alley beyond.

Then the four of them strolled casually back through the club, making certain to say goodnight to both the concierge and the doorman as they exited.

If there was ever an investigation into where Fuller had gone, at least they’d been seen leaving without him.

Once in the car, Irene drove around to the side so Ves could slip back to gather the body. From there they’d gone to the museum, and thence to the little courtyard where the taxidermy department’s incinerator waited.

“Grandfather knows something, which means Mother does as well.” He tipped his head back, staring up at the smoke spiraling across the stars.

“He speculated a Dark Young might be involved. He brought up an old legend about a man with a garden so poisonous, it turned his daughter poisonous as well. Reading between the lines, it seems clear she was a Dark Young to begin with.”

“And now we find ourselves facing a poisonous woman, like in the story,” Sebastian said. He leaned against the courtyard’s wall, since there was nowhere to sit but the ground.

Irene had taken off her enormous hat; escaped strands of black hair clung to her bronze skin. “She spoke as though she thought you answered to Fuller. ‘Your master.’ I wonder why that was the conclusion she immediately jumped to?”

“And when he saw my tentacles, Fuller thought she’d sent me to kill him.” Ves’s head ached; none of this made any sense. “Your spell startled her, but I don’t think it worked, did it, Irene?”

“Since her woody parts didn’t burst into flame, no, it didn’t. Of course, green wood doesn’t catch fire easily, but I think it was more than that.”

“And you’re certain she had the mark of the Books on her, Sebastian?”

“Positive.” His glasses reflected the moonlight as he turned to look at Ves. “I know the magic of the Books doesn’t blend well with your own, but perhaps that isn’t true of all Dark Young?”

Mortimer paced a short path, then back, clearly deep in thought. “Can we assume she’s the one using the Book of Blood to create the leeches and kill the society members? The artist whose work we saw in the abandoned house and the attic? The one who drank Mr. Norris’s blood?”

“And the reason for the WHS’s award-winning flowers,” Sebastian added. “Did they compel her somehow? Is that why she hates them?”

“She’s resistant to sorcery,” Irene countered. “Unless they used old-fashioned methods, like threatening a loved one, I don’t see how they could have forced her to work for them.”

Mortimer folded his arms over his chest. “I have a question. Why did she kill Fuller with her bare hand, if she’s been using magic to murder the others?”

Ves rubbed tiredly at his eyes. “We’re missing a vital piece of the puzzle.”

“You’re right, angel.” Sebastian pushed himself off the wall. “Let’s hope Mrs. Rice has the answers we need. She’s the last WHS member standing—we have to get to her tomorrow and compel her to tell us the full truth. Her life depends on it.”

* * *

It was very late by the time Sebastian and Ves retired to their room in Bonnie’s house.

Once Irene had finally dropped them off, they’d retreated to Noct’s chamber in the attic and told him everything that happened.

He’d been as confused as Ves about the murderous Dark Young who could also use the magic of the Books, without obvious conflict with her own inborn powers.

“If only your wretched grandfather had just told you what he knows,” Sebastian muttered as he pulled off his socks. “Instead he has to be mysterious. Why?”

Ves paused in the act of removing his collar, clearly giving the answer some thought. The lamp cast yellow light over his features, warming his olive skin and gilding his dark hair. God, he was handsome; Sebastian was unbelievably lucky to share his bed.

“With Mother, it’s always about control,” he said at last. “Grandfather…I don’t know. It may simply be he knows I don’t trust him.”

“If he’d told you the Book was in the hands of another Dark Young, you might not have believed it, but at least you might have been prepared when it turned out to actually be true. And would have gained your trust in the process,” Sebastian countered.

Ves went back to removing his collar. “Most of the people who have trusted him ended up in shallow graves in the woods. So no, it wouldn’t have, because I know better than to take the lure.”

Poor Ves. Sebastian couldn’t imagine going through life unable to believe anything his family told him, with the obvious exception of Noct.

True, his own mother had been less than forthcoming, but that had been about what she saw as her duty to keep the secret of the Books.

She’d always been there for him and Bonnie, had said what she meant and kept her promises to them.

And of course Father, dead so long now that Sebastian was no longer sure he recalled his face correctly.

Any pictures had burned along with Mother, but he remembered a tall man with a warm smile and strong arms, plain-spoken and somewhat bemused at Mother’s bookish ways.

Gentle, kind, always there with a helping hand.

“You’re amazing,” Sebastian said aloud.

Ves quirked an eyebrow at him. “What?”

Hard sometimes to put feelings into words. “I just…a lot of people who’ve been through what you have would be bitter. Angry. Noct, too, of course,” he added quickly. “You both had every right to want to tear down the world. But you didn’t.”

A light flush darkened Ves’s cheeks, but he said, “Well, I live in the world, so tearing it down would create some problems for me as well.”

Sebastian laughed. “I suppose it would.” He held out his hand.

Ves, own hands on his buttons, extended a tentacle. Sebastian ran his thumb over its smooth skin, black with hidden iridescence of blue and gold, then bent his head and kissed it.

“What say we put these to good use?” he asked with a wink.

* * *

Ves’s heart beat faster at the naked lust in Sebastian’s voice. The skin along his spine tingled, and an answering ache started in his groin.

“You just want me for my tentacles,” he teased, running one across Sebastian’s hair.

Sebastian grinned. “Well, not just them,” he said, and drew the tip of the one in his hand into his mouth.

The tentacles weren’t inherently erotic, but the sight of Sebastian sucking it like a cock, drawing it in deeper, his mouth warm and tongue clever, was unspeakably arousing.

Ves had spent most of his life hiding what he was. Craving to be human, because he thought that would finally free him from what he thought of as a curse. Let him be normal.

But rather than change himself, he’d just needed to find the right people to be around.

A part of him was still a little hesitant when it came to displaying his tentacles, as though he were doing something wrong. But that part was growing smaller by the day. Certainly it was hard to keep it alive when Sebastian was fellating one of them.

“Undress yourself,” he said. “Then me.”

Sebastian’s eyes lit up—he enjoyed being ordered sometimes, and this was clearly one of those nights. Another thing that didn’t come naturally to Ves, but he was steadily gaining confidence in it as well.

When Sebastian rushed to remove his clothing, Ves said, “Slower.” Sebastian obeyed, revealing his skin inch by inch. Then he turned to Ves, lingering on the buttons, planting kisses as he went, until at last he was on his knees with his hungry mouth on Ves’s cock.

Ves watched for a moment, savoring the sight and feel, before drawing Sebastian to his feet. “I love the way you taste,” Sebastian murmured, and kissed him deep.

They clung to one another, skin against skin, until Ves pushed him back on the bed.

He fell back without resistance, stretching out over the covers, his skin flushed with arousal and his cock hard.

Ves shoved his legs apart and settled on his knees between them, while Sebastian looked up at him with hungry eyes.

“Fuck me.” Sebastian wriggled teasingly on the bed. “Take me every way you can.”

Ves’s mouth went dry. There were some things he’d wondered if his lover might like, though he’d been too shy to suggest them before. He traced a tentacle along Sebastian’s thigh, skimming teasingly past his balls, then dropping lower. “Every way?”

“Oh hell, yes.” Sebastian shifted eagerly to give him more access. “As much as I can take.”

The Vaseline was in easy reach; Ves slicked it on the tentacle while Sebastian watched hungrily. Then he teased his lover, flicking the tip against his ring, making him writhe and whimper, until at last he pressed it in.

Just a little at first, enough to make Sebastian moan for more. Of course the tentacle thickened quickly, so he went slowly, watching intently for Sebastian’s reactions. He whimpered and gasped, hands balling in the sheets as though he needed something to cling to.

“Yes,” Sebastian said, voice hoarse with pleasure. “More.”

He gave it to him, pressing in deeper, backing off, then easing in again.

Sebastian had him pause once or twice while he adjusted, then encouraged him to continue.

There was something unbelievably erotic about watching the tentacle disappear into his body, opening him while he cried and begged for more, and Ves’s cock ached with need.

“Oh God.” Sebastian shut his eyes. “I’m so close. I want something in my mouth—please…”

He offered up another tentacle, sliding the tip over Sebastian’s lips. They opened, devoured it greedily, sucking and moaning, hands clenching, hips twitching with the need to thrust. He looked beautiful, sprawled out, utterly taken, and Ves curled the tentacle in his ass, pressing just so…

Sebastian cried out as he came, body arching. Finally, Ves wrapped his hand around his untended cock; it took only a few strokes before he spent himself on Sebastian’s chest and belly.

He slipped free, both of them breathing like a bellows, covered in a fine layer of sweat from the summer air. “Are you all right?” he managed to say after a few minutes.

“Better than all right.” Sebastian half-raised an arm, let it collapse back languidly. “I may never move off this bed again.”

Ves leaned over and kissed him tenderly. “Once we have our own place to live, we’ll spend the whole weekend in bed.”

“Now that sounds lovely.” Sebastian returned the kiss. “We’re so close. One last Book, and then it will finally all be over.”