The Vampire's War, page 27
“You succeeded. You got him to murder you. And so you became the same as the demon.”
Anthony sighed. “Better, actually. In addition to what he could do, I had brought Council magic to camouflage myself from him and then worked on a way to read his mind. You don’t know how much I tried to find a way to stay alive with you. There was no other alternative. The other Council members wanted to trade places with me but, with all due respect, none compared to my capability. Which is why I acted without their knowing and became the bait.”
“I think I get the rest.” A tear trickled down Jaret’s face. “On the other side you learned about his plan, tricked him more, and waited.”
“Waited until he wanted to strike. And—” Anthony laughed, which seemed out of place but caused Jaret to smile. “I should tell you, I did nothing to guide your secret plan but I spied enough to keep track of you for myself and the Council. I hate to admit it, but you were right. We had to have what you and Charon did to win. You figured out to use Notre Dame. Ironically, Styx learned of your plot and saw the potential to defeat the Council instead. He believed he could overpower the Council and you. But Styx had relied on Charon obeying him and didn’t know about me. He also assumed spirits would join him. However, spirits—especially evil ones—are very hard to control, as you know from your experience with Henrik. They arrived as Styx predicted but wanted nothing more than to feed on the magic. Styx and the demon were easier for them to attack because they were weaker than the rest of us working together. The energy I used to trap Styx inside the rafters came from my death, but the Council needed their strength combined with the unique abilities of you and Charon to annihilate him.”
Jaret pointed toward the flaming cathedral. “You burned down fucking Notre Dame.”
“Eh, it was French anyway.”
Despite himself, Jaret laughed at Anthony’s British dig. “That’s not funny. I loved the place.” Another pause made Jaret uncomfortable. “What are you and I supposed to do here?” Jaret asked. “No matter how many ghosts I see in my life, they always confuse the hell out of me. You’re no exception. At least you didn’t give me a raging headache before you appeared. And thanks for the apology. I accept. But you’re still dead, and I’m still alone.”
“Yeah, but you’ve learned about yourself.”
Jaret rolled his eyes. “Do I have to keep losing fucking everything to get a lesson? Next time could I stop short of death consuming my loved ones so I could grow? I don’t know, how about a mild case of anxiety followed by getting better?”
Anthony nudged Jaret with his shoulder. “You sound like yourself. Emotional but smart-ass.”
Jaret glared at Anthony. He wanted to punch him in the face, but before he acted, Anthony reached over and, with surprising vigor for a ghost, pulled Jaret into a hug. Jaret relaxed his muscles and fell into Anthony’s arms. Anthony ran his fingers through Jaret’s hair.
“Do you believe me?” Anthony asked.
“About?”
“My dying.”
Jaret blew out a deep breath. “Part of me wonders if you missed something. Why not keep searching for a different way to fight Styx? Then again, why ponder such questions because nothing will bring you back. Even if I figured out you could have won and remained alive, I’d feel even shittier because you’d be dead but for no reason. I am glad you’ve found peace.” Jaret turned to look at his lover. “Maybe it’s your being a ghost, but you feel more relaxed than I ever remember. Perhaps vampires can’t really live forever, and you needed to go to find peace.”
“Styx, the demon or whatever, had haunted me since the first war. Not anymore. Other than you, I don’t miss being alive.”
Anthony’s honesty jolted Jaret. “Wow.”
“I didn’t mean to startle you. I think I would’ve thrived with you. But I don’t know if that could beat being dead.”
“Well, fuck. Instead of your committing suicide out of despair, can we stick with the narrative you had to die to defeat the demon? Makes things easier on my end.” Jaret smiled. He was kidding and not kidding with his comment.
Anthony grinned. “Yes. Besides, it’s the truth. I concocted a magic to defeat Styx that required my death and the combined magic of everyone else.” Anthony jerked his chin toward Notre Dame. “Including the fire, I suppose.”
Jaret sat up and scooted away from Anthony. “I don’t want to get too attached.”
“I’m not going to haunt you. Our souls can go someplace in death. And I want to.”
“Good.” Jaret tucked his knees up to his chest and clutched his legs to his body. “I want to apologize too. For being an ass about the Council and shit. I was learning about myself and never meant to hurt you.”
“I know.” Anthony whispered. “We’re good.”
“But I’m not sorry about who I am and what I believe.”
Anthony cackled. “Also good. Very good.”
“I’m keeping the dogs.”
Anthony roared a laugh and held up his hands. “I wasn’t going to say a word. Since you brought them up, six more does seem extreme.”
“They needed me.”
“Or you needed them?”
Jaret tilted his head. “Both?”
“Yeah. I think both.” Anthony stood and pulled Jaret to his feet. “You good?”
Jaret pushed out a forced breath. “Yeah. I’m okay.”
Anthony pulled him into a hug and Jaret leaned into the ghost. A couple of minutes later, Anthony evaporated and Jaret stood alone except for his dogs sitting around him.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Thriving
JUNE 2019
Paris, France
Jaret had packed some belongings and souvenirs he wanted to take with him to Chicago, sending them ahead with a shipping service. He and the dogs would accompany Brady on a cruise across the Atlantic later in the evening. Instead of hurrying at vampire speed and using their ability to get home in one night, they decided to play human and return as if on vacation. Besides, unsure about keeping track of seven dogs swimming in the ocean, Brady felt better about being an eccentric rich American with too many hounds in a suite than traveling like vampires. As usual, vampire wealth came in handy when they paid ten times the fare to bribe the company into allowing the pack aboard. He was glad vampires could get around US customs to sneak his dogs in and out of America whenever he wanted without the mandated quarantine.
Jaret had time for one more walk around Paris. He hooked the seven dogs onto leashes, pretending he was a dog walker, and they headed out. The streets bustled with activity. A lot of people smiled at Jaret and his pack when they passed. More than anything, Jaret needed to say farewell to Notre Dame. The authorities had barricaded the cathedral to keep people from getting too close. With Jaret’s vampire vision, he could see from afar the evasive action the French had taken already to secure the building, which continued to threaten to collapse in on itself. Heroic efforts by firefighters had saved the structure but its future remained at risk. For now, the building’s integrity held, for which Jaret was grateful.
He blew a kiss at the church. “Adieu, good friend.”
Standing where the vampires had congregated after defeating Styx, Jaret pondered the last couple of months. For the first time in years, since he found out about the impending vampire war, Jaret felt calm as his memory drifted back to his last encounter with Anthony’s ghost.
He recalled the feeling of peace as he stood in Anthony’s arms, the ghost clutching him and petting his hair. As Jaret’s emotion subsided and Jaret relaxed, Anthony’s ghost had faded away, leaving Jaret alone.
Jaret had glanced at his dogs, thankful to have them fill a void instead of solitude descending him into pity. The thought of the Council members having each other while Charon and his fuck buddies celebrated their reunion left Jaret feeling alone. As he had contemplated what to do with himself, a familiar presence came onto the scene, followed by the sound of one of his favorite laughs.
Brady had jogged over and picked Jaret up into an enormous hug. “Dude, we lived!”
Jaret forgot his loneliness, knowing he and his best friend in the whole world could venture out as single vampires and create whatever new life awaited them. They spent the next two months as tourists in Paris until they decided to head back to the United States. Brady decided to set up his own home for the first time as a vampire. Jaret wanted to begin the laborious process of doing the same except he now owned Anthony’s empire, a network of wealth and property Anthony had assembled over centuries. The thought of figuring out how to manage affairs and the vast wealth and property threatened to overwhelm him, so he pushed the idea from his mind. For an unknown reason, he wanted to panic when he remembered some huge house Anthony once mentioned owning in Hong Kong. Jaret had never been to Hong Kong.
The recollection of Hong Kong snapped Jaret back to the present. He untangled the dogs and went at as casual a pace as possible when shepherding seven dogs. He returned to Anthony’s Paris flat. He and Brady had agreed to meet there before heading to the ship.
“Dog man!” Brady shouted outside his flat. “Ready? Boat leaves soon.”
Jaret nodded. “Do I get to know what kind of cruise you booked?”
Brady giggled. “A Lawrence Welk tribute cruise. I had to pay extra for them to waive the requirement you had to be eighty or older.”
“Will you ever admit you are so not funny?”
Brady pointed to Cher. “She thinks I’m hilarious.”
“She loves all people, as long as they fawn over her. She’s not an accurate gauge about your humor. She’ll give you a dog smile in return for letting her lick your face.”
Brady wrinkled his nose. “Sexy. But we gotta hurry. Come on,” Brady instructed. They started walking toward the outskirts of Paris. Once there, Brady shouted at Jaret as they raced through the French countryside with the dogs following. “Of course, I booked us on a gay cruise! Ever been on one?”
“No.”
“Me, neither. Two singles on a gay cruise. I’m planning on serious coming. As vampires, I bet we can shoot multiple times a night.”
“You bet? Or you know from practice?”
Brady grinned and opened his mouth to talk but they had arrived at their destination, so he gave no answer. Brady assisted Jaret in getting the dogs aboard ship and into the largest suite on the vessel. They followed official channels here so Jaret could have the dogs on their private balcony without worry of someone discovering them.
“I’m gonna get a drink. Want to come?” Brady asked after they settled into their quarters.
Jaret leaned against the balcony railing. “Not yet. You go. I wanna make sure they’re okay.” He motioned with his head toward the dogs.
“Don’t hook up with some man and make our place smell like hot sweaty man sex while I’m gone.”
Jaret laughed. “I thought that was the point?”
“Only when the aroma includes my smells.” Brady slammed the door shut with both of them laughing.
Jaret would have followed his friend except he saw the vampire lurking along the port. A moment after Brady departed, jumping from a distant sidewalk to land next to Jaret on the balcony, Charon grinned.
“Did you think I’d let you leave France without saying goodbye?”
“I haven’t seen you since the night we won. I figured you and the boys were enthralled with a never-ending celebration of parties, drinking, and fucking.”
“We did plenty of all of the above!” Charon laughed. “But I stayed away from you because I’ve been working on something.”
“Do I want to know what?” Jaret frowned. “I don’t trust you.”
Without answering, Charon reached into his pocket to pull out a handful of multicolored glitter. He threw the concoction at Jaret without warning. Jaret closed his eyes. At first, he felt nothing but the glitter landing on his face and in his hair, wondering how he would ever get it out. Jaret laughed and began to scold Charon when a more powerful sensation took over.
Jaret’s skin tingled, his senses went numb, and he blacked out for a second before returning to his normal self. He opened his eyes and glared at Charon. “What the fuck did you do? You did some kind of magic.”
Charon lunged forward and grasped Jaret in a bear hug, picking him off his feet and twirling him around. “The Council has no idea where the fuck you are or what’s going on!” Charon laughed.
Jaret went limp in Charon’s arms, the statement sinking in. “Are you talking about the concealing spell?”
“Yeah!” Charon set Jaret down but kept his arms around him. “It took longer than I thought to isolate the magic so I could share with you. I spent extra time to infuse the potion in glitter to make the celebration more fabulous.” He picked out a few pieces of glitter from Jaret’s hair. “Aren’t you excited?”
Jaret smiled. “I appreciate the gesture. I do. I doubt the Council will share your enthusiasm.”
“Fuck ’em.” Charon shrugged. “Oh, you know what this means?”
“What?”
“We get to fuck!” Charon jumped up and down in excitement.
Jaret shook his head and laughed. “We never made an agreement. I said I’d consider the exchange, but in your impatience you gave up the magic without sealing the deal.”
Charon pouted but could not stop the grin from spreading across his face. He grabbed Jaret by both shoulders and yanked him forward until their lips smacked together. His tongue probed deep inside Jaret’s mouth and their cocks ground together. Jaret allowed Charon to pick him off his feet as they kissed and held tight to each other. Holding Jaret up with one hand, Charon rammed his other hand down Jaret’s pants, bursting his belt and ripping his jeans until he was able to get a finger probing inside Jaret’s ass. Jaret ground back and forth as he tore open Charon’s pants and grabbed his dick, jerking him but making sure Charon never came.
A loud horn blasted and startled Charon, who set Jaret down and stepped away, snapping his underwear back into place but discarding his destroyed pants. Jaret clung to what remained of his own jeans to cover himself.
“Your ass is so tight. How am I supposed to go anywhere with this?” Charon pointed at his boner straining for release from his underwear.
“I got my own problems.” Jaret motioned with his head toward his exposed groin.
“Anyway, I gotta go. Promised the boys we’d visit Amsterdam before returning to the castle. High and drunk vampires should be interesting. Otherwise, I’d stay on the cruise to seduce you.”
Jaret squinted at Charon. “You’re leaving without more protest? And I should add a thank-you. Your giving me the magic means the world to me. But you gave up the spell so easily. I get to go on my way without fighting you off just as you had your finger in my ass?”
“Oh, I won’t forget about you.” Charon winked. “Two can play hard to get.”
Jaret knew he had a big silly grin plastered on his face as he stared toward the shore to watch Charon disappear as the ship sailed out of port toward the ocean. A second later, he saw nothing but a vampire blur and bright pink underwear vanish into the night. He plopped into the chair behind him as the dogs scampered over and settled around him. He leaned over and picked up Charon’s pants, resisting the urge to smell the crotch. The breeze blew through his hair, and he smiled again. Jaret adjusted his erection and used what remained of his own clothes and Charon’s pants to conceal his cock as he rubbed himself to visions of Charon.
About Damian Serbu
Damian Serbu is an author of gay horror/speculative fiction. After over twenty years of teaching history at the collegiate level, he now writes full time. He lives in the Chicagoland area with his husband and two dogs.
DamianSerbu@aol.com
www.facebook.com/Damian-Serbu
@damianserbu
Website
www.damianserbu.com
Other NineStar books by this author
The Realm of the Vampire Council
The Vampire’s Angel
The Vampire’s Quest
The Vampire’s Protégé
The Vampire’s Witch
Santa’s Kinky Elf Simon
Santa is a Vampire
The Bachmann Family Secret
Connect with NineStar Press
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Damian Serbu, The Vampire's War
