His Caress of Shadows (The Kaldr Chronicles Book 4) Read online

  “You think we’ll hear back from Scarlet tomorrow?” Aerick asked as I leaned over and turned the bedside lamp off.

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  All I knew, at that moment, was that we were safe—for now.

  With that thought securely planted in my mind, I closed my eyes and nestled close to Aerick.

  His warmth was utopia in a world that was oh so cold.

  4

  Dappled sunlight filtered in through the row of windows that bordered the walls opposite the couch, giving me a distinct visual of Guy as I opened my eyes and found my boyfriend to be sleeping atop its surface. Nestled, quietly, beneath a single blanket, he breathed contentedly in what I assumed was sleep unhindered by nightmares or the colossal aspect of what may soon be to come.

  “You’re awake?” Aerick asked beneath his breath.

  “Yeah,” I replied. “I am.”

  “Guy ever come back?” the Howler asked.

  “He’s on the couch,” I replied. “Sleeping.”

  “Oh.” Aerick smiled and rolled onto his back just in time to reveal an obvious woody beneath the sheet. “Oh, goody. Morning wood and no one to help with it.”

  Guy’s eyes fluttered beneath their lids, then opened a short moment later, his gaze fixated first on me, then on the tent beneath the bedding. “Someone’s up and alert,” he mumbled.

  “Shut up,” Aerick laughed as he rolled out of bed and began to make his way toward the bathroom.

  Guy caught hold of Aerick’s boner before he could continue any further. “Not so fast, Captain.”

  “Fuck, dude. Don’t grab my boner this early in the morning.”

  “I wanted to make it up to you,” Guy said. “For helping me out last night.”

  “Really, Guy,” Aerick said. “There’s no need to—”

  Guy pressed his lips against the swell in Aerick’s boxer briefs.

  “Holy shit,” he groaned, taking hold of the back of Guy’s head and pressing it against his crotch. “Fuck my ass and call me Sally.”

  “A little early for ass-fucking, don’t you think?” Guy asked, pressing his lips against the swell in Aerick’s underwear and kissing along the length bulging against his boxer briefs.

  Rather than respond, Aerick popped the buttons on his boxers, fished himself out, and presented himself to Guy’s waiting mouth.

  Guy leaned forward and swallowed Aerick without pause.

  “She-it,” Aerick groaned, once again taking hold of the back of Guy’s head. “Fuck yeah. Suck that dick.”

  I, having been witness to everything, could merely watch as the two men engaged in oral sex, my own hard-on swelling within my jeans and threatening to break them in half if I didn’t release it from its prison. I reached under the blankets and palmed myself through my pants as I watched Guy bob up and down Aerick’s length, then unzipped my jeans and freed my cock from its prison.

  “Sounds like someone’s getting in some personal time,” Aerick groaned, thrusting into Guy’s mouth. “Why don’t you come over and help him?”

  “You really need two men on your dick?” I laughed.

  Aerick cocked his head in my direction.

  Beckoned, now, by the sight of one boyfriend sucking the other off, I slid off the couch as slowly as possible and shucked my jeans as I went, fisting my cock as I walked around the bed and toward the dingy couch Guy was feverishly sucking Aerick’s dick upon. I crouched down beside Guy and got a bird’s-eye view of his brief-clad crotch and the wet spot developing from the precome upon it.

  The sight, as tempting as it happened to be, was quickly dismissed as I turned only to have a dick shoved in my mouth.

  “Fuck,” Aerick said, “yeah.”

  Guy joined me on the ground beside Aerick, sliding his lips along Aerick’s ballsack and taking one of his balls into his mouth. Idly stroking the younger man’s leg, he slid his fingers through the hairs on Aerick’s thigh and only withdrew from Aerick’s scrotum when I pulled my lips back to the crown of his cock.

  Guy’s lips met mine.

  We kissed, slathering our tongues across Aerick’s flared cockhead.

  “Oh shit,” Aerick gasped. “Oh fuck. That’s hot. That’s fucking hot.”

  The taste of his precome was electrifying in my mouth, across Guy’s lips, upon the surface of my tongue. We took turns alternating between sucking Aerick off and kissing one another around his hardness as the younger man whimpered in pleasure, desperate to get off but unable to due to the ministrations we performed on him. It was obvious, from the way he kept reaching for his dick only to have his hands knocked away, that he wanted to come, but Guy and I wouldn’t let him. Instead, we continued to tease him, only occasionally bothering to touch ourselves and each other through our underwear.

  “Guys,” Aerick gasped. “I’m gonna. Gonna—”

  Guy took Aerick into his mouth.

  Aerick bucked, groaned, grabbed Guy’s mouth and deposited his load between Guy’s lips.

  I leaned forward and pressed my mouth to Guy’s just in time for his lips to part and Aerick’s come to spill into my mouth.

  We kissed like that for several moments, sharing Aerick’s seed between the two of us as we sucked at his deflating cock.

  By the time I reached for my cock, I was ready to burst.

  “Guy,” I said. “You need—”

  He bowed his head and took me into his mouth without hesitation.

  It took mere minutes for me to come, shooting into his mouth and down his throat, my cock throbbing and my prostate pulsing from the effort of having not jacked myself to completion. Shortly after he pulled off, he rose to kiss Aerick, then pulled his waistband under his balls to present himself to me.

  I repeated what he’d just performed on me without issue.

  He came shortly thereafter, flooding my mouth with enough come to nearly cause me to burst.

  By the time we were finished, all three of us were panting, our chests heaving and our bodies glistening with sweat.

  “Well,” Aerick said, taking a look down at my come-covered chin. “That was a nice wake me up if there ever was one.”

  “I’d say,” I replied.

  “But now I really need to piss,” he laughed, then shot into the bathroom before he could say anything further.

  I smiled as I rose to my feet and nodded as Guy leaned forward to press a long, passionate kiss to my lips.

  “You’re in an awfully good mood this morning,” I said, sighing as he leaned forward and pressed his mouth against my neck. “You ok?”

  “Just relieved to be out of Austin,” he said. “Away from Fredericksburg. Away from everything.”

  “You know it’s not going to last,” I replied.

  “What makes you think that?” he asked.

  I was just about to open my mouth to reply when a knock came at the door.

  “Told you,” I said.

  5

  “It smells like a teenage boy’s bedroom in here,” Scarlet said as she entered the hotel room. “What the fuck were the three of you doing here?”

  “Having a three-way,” Aerick said, nonchalantly, as if tempting the woman to cold-clock him with her fist.

  “Gross,” the Hunter said, turning her eyes first on Aerick, who still hadn’t dressed in more than his boxers, then to Guy and I, who were both wearing jeans and T-shirts. “Anyway,” she continued as she entered the room, waving her hand before her face before stepping forward to open a nearby window, “I wanted to give y’all an update on what was going on.”

  “So,” I said. “What’s going on?”

  “Agency officials have officially declared what occurred in Fredericksburg, Texas a code-black exposure event.”

  “Black?” Guy frowned. “What is code black?”

  “Code black is, or should I say was, the worst—meaning: irrecoverable.”

  “What about the other colors?” I asked. “I heard you mention red before the Sanguine arrived at the ranch.”

 
“Red used to mean the intense probability of an exposure event. Orange meant that there was a chance for there to be one. Green meant that there was an opportunity for there to be, but not enough evidence to substantiate an investigation. Black,” Scarlet continued, “was what the Wipers had worked toward preventing since the dawn of modern human civilization. Now that it’s occurred, well… that means we’re going to have problems on our hands.”

  “What does that mean for us?” Aerick asked. “And by us, I mean the three of us specifically.”

  “It means that you’re to remain in the city where the Agency can have full access to you,” Scarlet replied, crossing her arms over her chest. “It also means that you’re going to be relocated to Agency headquarters until you can be given new assignments in the world.”

  “Assignments? You mean, like, jobs?”

  “Precisely. Jobs, identities, a location. Your prior records of exposure to any supernatural events—including, I might add, Jason and Guy’s supposed participation in the events that occurred as a result of the Lady Bird Lake Killer—are being Wiped as we speak. You’ll, essentially, all be new men, albeit new men without a history.”

  “You mean,” I started.

  Scarlet nodded. “Welcome to the land of the debt free, Jason. Your student loans have been wiped clean.”

  I could barely breathe, to the point where, when I reached up to press a hand against my throat, Guy set a hand on the back of my neck in question. My mind was racing, my thoughts in overdrive, my heart beating like a jackhammer in my chest. I couldn’t believe it. All my student loans? Gone? And the chance to live as normal a life as possible in light of everything that had just occurred?

  “I,” I started, then stopped, gasping for yet another breath.

  “I’m not going to say it’ll be easy,” Scarlet said. “There’s likely going to be a lot of political backlash. Civil war. Zombie uprisings—”

  “Zombies?” Aerick asked.

  “—just to name a few,” Scarlet continued, ignoring the Howler’s question. “We’re in a state of total disrepair at the moment, and can’t do anything but watch and see how it unfolds.”

  “Which is why you’re taking us to the agency,” I said. “Right?”

  “Right,” she said. “So pack your bags, get ready, and let’s get the hell out of here.”

  6

  We were escorted, by both Scarlet and Shadow, to the motorized home which housed the two on their Agency-related missions and then were instructed to sit and wait while the Agency operatives performed their final precursory scans of the area.

  “What do you think they’re doing?” Aerick asked, peering through the gap he’d created in one of the curtains.

  “Probably clearing the area of our presence,” Guy said. “Wiping the computers, the teller, stuff like that.”

  “Didn’t you do that?” I frowned.

  “What? You mean glamour the teller?” Guy asked. He shook his head. “No. I didn’t. And even if I did, that wouldn’t discount the security systems that are in place.”

  “Can’t go anywhere without a damn camera being shoved in your face or up your ass,” Aerick mumbled under his breath.

  “Someone’s sure got ass on the brain today,” I chuckled.

  Aerick snorted. “Fuck,” he said, “you.”

  I had just recovered from my laughing fit when the door to the motor home opened and Scarlet stepped in, pursued shortly by Shadow. “It’s done,” the Hunter said.

  “Your presence has been wiped clean of the area,” Shadow added.

  “Thank you,” I said, reaching out to shake Scarlet’s hand, then thinking better of it and instead shaking Shadow’s hand instead. “I really appreciate everything you guys have done for us the past week.”

  “All in the job description,” Scarlet replied. “Shadow—get us out of here.”

  With a short, resounding nod, the Wiper made his way to the front of the vehicle, buckled himself in, and prepared for what Scarlet said would be the long ride ahead of us.

  As we pulled away from the shitty motel and began to merge onto the highway that would take us into the deeper parts of the Dallas metropolitan, I began to dwell on the matters at hand and what would happen come time we reached the Agency. How, I wondered, would they house us? And what, I then thought to add, would they do with three individuals whom had created the Code-Black event that had changed the world forever? Would we be punished, I wondered, for our callous mistakes, or would we simply be told to lay low for the time being while identities were erased and new origins were established?

  Without the ability to know, and unable to dwell on it for fear that it might drive me insane, I leaned back on the fold-out couch and considered Aerick and Guy as they watched the motel disappear behind us—feeling, at that moment, that I couldn’t have had a better clean slate to work on than with the two of them.

  Guy Winters, Aerick Harper—they were everything to me, and more now that we were inexplicably caught up in the turmoil that would be the new and unforgiving world.

  “Scarlet,” I said after a moment’s hesitation. “Has anything major happened since the events have gone international?”

  “You mean have there been any attacks? Mass hysteria? Outbreaks?” The Hunter shook her head. “No. Nothing of that sort. People are scared, naturally, but none of the Kaldr, Howlers or Sanguine tribes have stepped forward to make their presences known.”

  “It’ll most likely be the Kaldr who will come first,” Guy offered from the dining room table. “If he had it his way, it’d probably be my father.”

  “Have you heard from him?” I asked.

  Guy shook his head. “Not yet. I’ve texted him and Amadeo a few times, but I haven’t received any responses as of yet.”

  “To answer your question,” Scarlet said, “the only people who have come forward have been a coven of witches out in California, and even then, I’m not sure if their magical powers they claim to have are actually real.”

  “Witches aren’t common?” I frowned.

  “Oh. It’s not that they’re not common. It’s that most of them don’t have real magic—you know, the kind that can raise the dead, start fire with their minds, stuff like that.”

  “I see,” I said, grimacing as I thought of what horrors could now be unleashed upon the world now that it appeared to be no-holds-barred.

  The idea that civil war could arise as a result of the Mass Witness that had occurred no more than two days ago was terrifying to comprehend. There was so little I knew about the world, both real and supposed, and though I now knew that Harpys, Banshees and Mermaids existed, there was no telling what else dwelled within the supernatural underbelly of the world.

  Sighing, I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes, thinking that I was just going to rest them as we made our way through downtown Dallas.

  Instead, I ended up falling asleep.

  7

  The next time I woke, it was to Guy’s hands on my ribcage, and his voice gently urging me to wake up.

  “Come on, J,” he whispered, his lips so close I could almost feel them on my ear. “We’re here.”

  We were? Already? But I’d only closed my eyes for a moment. How could I have fallen asleep so quickly?

  As I opened my eyes, taking in Guy’s beautiful yet scruffy face, I took note of the open doorway behind him and saw an imposing black building whose surface appeared to resemble a glistening pyramid.

  “We’re… here?” I asked.

  Guy nodded. “We’re here,” he said.

  With a nod, and after taking a moment to regain my composure, I reached out, took hold of Guy’s hand, and allowed him to help me upright, only grimacing when the flex of my muscles caused my shoulders to flare up.

  “They have better medical equipment here,” Guy said as we descended the stairs to the outside world. “They should be able to heal you instantaneously.”

  “Have you been here before?” I asked.

  “No. I haven’
t.”

  Aerick turned to regard me from his place beneath the building’s impressive glistening green doors and offered a smile that nearly melted me. “You ok, bud?”

  “I’m fine,” I said. “Just a bit sore, that’s all.”

  “I hear you. I’m looking forward to getting a hold of some witch magic healing while we’re here.”

  “Bruises still bothering you?” Guy asked.

  “Yeah. A bit.”

  Guy pressed a kiss to Aerick’s temple and ruffled his hair as we stepped forward. Scarlet—who’d been standing in front of the building awaiting our arrival—turned to regard us as our footsteps echoed along the cobblestone walkway leading up to the building. “Gentlemen,” she said.

  “Miss Jane,” Aerick said, giving the woman a minor salute.

  “I’ll warn you beforehand that you are entering this building in the strictest of confidence. Though on the outside it appears to be a fancy club or casino, it is nothing of the sort.”

  I figured as much, but in staring up at the building’s highest peak, I couldn’t help but wonder why they would make a building such as the Agency so noticeable if they wanted discretion. I briefly considered the idea that maybe Wipers patrolled the area and therefore it was mostly ignored, but in looking around at the mostly-vacant green land around it, it seemed more than an eyesore.

  Where in Dallas were we, I wondered, and where, I contemplated, would they have been able to build such a building without it being captured in the hearts and minds of the masses?

  Rather than question the specifics outright, I stepped forward, nodded as Scarlet considered me with her dark eyes, then stepped forward and began to follow her, along with Aerick and Guy, up to the building’s threshold.

  I felt eyes on us almost immediately as we approached.

  “Trippy,” Aerick said.

  “You felt that too?” I asked.

  “I think we all do,” Guy offered.

  “It’s the Wipers,” Scarlet explained. “They’re gauging your consciences for any threat.”

  “But they recognize you,” Aerick said, “right?”

  The woman nodded, then stopped before what appeared to be a representation of a third eye at the front of the building and lifted a necklace I hadn’t noticed her wearing before—which featured, as its focal point, a single gold bar that appeared to have small grooves and even digits embossed within its surface. She waited a moment, as if allowing whomever was on the other end of said ‘eye’ to examine her for who she truly was, before nodding and stepping forward. “We’re clear,” she said.