Page 6

Frenchman Street

First, we hit the riverfront. A little busking on Luc’s part and I had money again. That was dangerously too easy. I headed back to Clover Grill, and this time, I ordered what Luc wanted. Country fried steak, hashbrowns, and a fried egg on the side. Like before, I let him enjoy it while inside me, but that gave me another idea.

When we finished eating and walked back outside, it had to be nearly four in the morning. And I was tired. Without Jude-the-goon chasing me, I felt more at ease, but we were on a time crunch. Still, I had to rest. And it was actually too late to do what I needed to do. The sun would be coming up very soon. “We’ll put the plan in place tomorrow night. I have to sleep first.”

“Let’s head home.”

“Great idea. In fact, I have a ton of great ideas.” I wiggled my eyebrows. “Just you wait.”

We climbed in my back window, avoiding the landlord, because that was a problem for another day, and I didn’t want to chance it. I took a quick shower and climbed into bed naked while Luc watched the show. “You look like you want something, Luc.”

“Oh, I very much want something. Austin.”

“Then take off your clothes and get into bed.”

“It’s not that easy.” He shook his head, but the want in his eyes was unmistakable.

“We’ve got this. Like the busking and the diner. Come on.” I flipped the blanket open so he could see all of me lying there in my naked glory, with my hard cock weeping with the thought of having him any way I could get him. But he stood there scowling instead of getting sexy with me. “What?”

“I don’t like seeing all those bruises all over you.”

I peered down at my body. The bruises Jude and his goons had given me had changed color to purple, green, and yellow. I shrugged. “Nearly gone now. Don’t worry about it. Come on. Get naked.”

Luc stood there clothed in his finery one second, naked the next. And his body was just as gorgeous out of his clothes. He had rosy nipples and a long, lean torso that curved at his hips. I licked my lips, waiting for him. “Please…join me.”

Luc crawled on the bed over me without falling through. “I’m getting better at this.”

“You are,” I agreed.

Then he leaned in to kiss me. For half a second, I felt pressure, then he passed through me. He pulled up quickly. “Sorry. I want…”

“It’s okay. Me too. Turn around and do the thing.”

With a quick nod, he turned, lying on top of me. His spectral body sank into my solid one, and I felt him in the front like before. But unlike before, I didn’t passively let myself be shoved to the back. I held my ground.

“Is this good?” I asked.

It is. I felt his words rather than hearing them.

“Good. Now, can you feel this?” I rubbed my hand over my chest and flicked one of my nipples.

Luc gasped. Yes!

“Okay. Good.” I stroked up my thigh with my other hand, then cupped my balls, making Luc gasp again.

This is incredible…Aus…

“Yeah.” We could both feel everything. This was going to be a hell of a jerk-off session.

I touched the tip of my cock and swirled around the head. Then I stopped to lick my hand before grabbing my dick for real. I pulled a couple of times, feeling all of it doubled by Luc’s reaction.

I want to try. I want to touch you, Austin .

How could I argue with that? I let go of control of my arms and hands, relaxing as Luc took over. He caressed my body, ribs, hips. Tweaked my nipples. I felt it right in my dick and balls. Then he touched them too.

It took a few more minutes of practice before we both shared control fully, and everything became more intense. That had been foreplay, and though we weren’t fucking, this was as close as we could get without a real body, so it might as well have been.

I leaned over and pulled the lube out of the side table drawer. Luc was amazed at the convenience, but I didn’t even want to know what they used back in his time. Instead, I slicked up my hand, and together, we stroked my cock. Slow at first, getting into the rhythm of it, and then, to both our delight, we set a pace with him pulling up and me pushing down. It was unlike anything I’d ever done.

I feel you, Aus…oh…

“Yes…like that…Luc…”

And we came together. Two souls, one dick, and an explosion like no other. The stars in the night sky had nothing on what I saw behind my eyelids.

And then we crashed. Sleeping soundly together, wrapped in one body through half the day.

When we finally woke, we were both refreshed. Luc stepped out of my body while I dressed. “I haven’t actually slept. I mean, not like that. For real sleeping, since before I died.”

“What do you do then? Do you rest?” I buttoned my jeans and watched him think.

“It’s sort of like sleeping. It’s resting of a sort, but it doesn’t feel the same. It’s like you’re there but in a dormant state. I didn’t do it a lot. I didn’t like how it felt. There but not.”

“Hmm… sounds odd. Did you even dream?”

“No.”

“Well, hopefully, we’ll figure this shit out and get you a body. Then you can sleep and dream all you want.”

“And fuck.”

I couldn’t hold back my grin. He surprised me with that. “Yeah…” I sure hoped he only wanted to fuck me though. He’d seen the goods up for offer in the gay bars on Bourbon, and he was sure good-looking enough to pull any of them.

“Stop whatever you’re thinking, Austin.”

“What? I’m not.”

“You were. But…I’m not like that. When I said fuck, I meant you and me. I like you a lot. And trust me, I never had a lot of that in my life before I died. I have changed a lot since then. So, when I say I’m serious about you, believe it.” No idea how he knew, but it didn’t matter. He answered my questions. “That’s better.”

“We still have time to kill before we find the vampire.”

“Vampire?” Luc put his face in his hands. “Don’t tell me…”

“Sloane is going to help us with Marcello. Yes.” I wanted to laugh at his dramatics, but I didn’t. This was a lot, but he was catching on to my plan.

“I see. Maybe that will work. How did you think of that?”

“Easy. The joker man. Remember what he said? To find what you need, you need to focus on the needs of others. A need is a need, and everything depends on the needing .”

“Okay. You’re filling the needs. But as you said, we have time to kill.”

“We should do something fun.”

“What do you like to do?”

I didn’t have to think about it long. “Let’s go down near Frenchman and see if we can catch some good music.” That was an area that always had something rocking, even in the afternoons on the weekends.

“Music?”

“Yeah.” I didn’t wait for more of a response. I simply crawled back out the window and headed toward Frenchman Street. There wasn’t much I could give him, but this was something, and I wanted to share it with him. We didn’t know what would happen later. Hell, I might not even be able to pull off this vampire thing. Sloane-the-vamp might decide I wasn’t worth anything but his next meal. So I planned on enjoying the time we had.

It took less than ten minutes to walk there. Technically, Frenchman was more a part of the Marigny than the Quarter, and by the time we got close, we could already hear the notes floating in the air. Luc was visibly excited, practically bouncing with every step. “I haven’t heard anyone else play in so long. Not really.”

“Well, this is your chance. Come on.”

A jazz band was taking up the corner at Royal, which is what we had heard as we approached. I made my way around and nearly tripped at the curb because I was watching the joy in Luc’s eyes rather than where I was going.

We didn’t stop there, though. As we continued down the street, we were treated to more jazz but also blues, swing, and even reggae. It was Saturday, so I knew that The Maison would have a drag show with no cover later, but by that time, we needed to be gone, so I figured we’d skip that. Instead, I stopped at the Spotted Cat. There was no cover, but they did have a one-drink minimum. I had enough for a beer left and that might be something else Luc hadn’t had in a long time. And it was only a few feet away before the next block.

The opening band was already on with a trumpet belting out old-fashioned jazz. Luc was practically vibrating beside me. “Want a beer?”

He nodded furiously.

I ordered and leaned against the bar to watch the band. Luc stepped inside me, the experience now as comfortable as putting on a glove.

Ahh… New Orleans was always the heart of Jazz. That cat on the horn is rate. And beer? Prohibition has obviously ended…

Well, Luc was going to experience a lot of new things along with the nod to the old. I made a mental note to bring him to The Maison to see the drag show once he had a body. He’d get a kick out of that.

After finishing his beer, I thought we’d go, but Luc had other ideas. He marched my body up to the stage. “Can I play?” he asked, pointing at the piano.

“You any good?” the trumpet man asked.

Luc simply smiled and saddled up to the keys.

Any good? Luc snarked in my head.

Fuck my life was he ever .

Luc played like the Beethoven of jazz. Surely, I didn’t know much about jazz, but even I knew he was fantastic. They hadn’t given him the nickname Prince of Jazz for nothing, apparently.

Everyone cheered. The band started playing along. They were good, but Luc was so much better, outshining them by miles. After the song, he shook the players’ hands. Some dude in a suit handed him a card. “Call me. If you’re not already represented.”

Luc nodded and shoved the card in our back pocket. He didn’t stop until we were outside. That’s when I noticed his hands shaking. And I felt the collage of sorrow and joy coursing through him. He started to leave my body, but I wasn’t ready for that. “Wait.”

Austin?

I hugged my arms around my middle. Hugged him. We stood there for a minute.

Thank you.

He didn’t have to say any more than that. I got it. This was something he’d had. Taken for granted, maybe. Then it was all stolen away, and we still weren’t sure if we could get it back, even if we did manage to come up with something to pay Geneviève.