Page 56 of Across the Sapphire Sea
“Thank you, sweet girl,” he crooned, backing away as slowly as he’d approached. He didn’t want this doe to experience a moment’s fear on his account. He intended to hold the compulsion for as long as it took to clear her line of sight.
“Well done!” said Valeri loudly from some distance away, breaking his concentration and sending the deer galloping off, fleeing for her life.
Elias let out a huff. His shoulders sank. Oh well. At least he’d tried. He would have been successful too, he’d felt his skill working, if only Valeri had stayed gone a bit longer.
Shoving his irritation aside, Elias turned to greet his lover. What he saw revealed a pleasant surprise. Valeri looked…happy. Truly glowing in a way that had become rare lately. More often Valeri appeared brooding or distant, frustrated by his obsessive dead-end search, but the wide smile on his face spoke for itself.
Elias forgot about the deer and grinned back. “Thank you. I think I’m finally getting the hang of it.”
“You’re young still to be mastering compulsion over animals. I’m impressed.”
“You look well.” Elias hesitated to ask in case he was wrong, but he had to know. “Have you found what you were hunting for?”
Valeri stepped in and nuzzled his neck, peppering his throat with kisses. “I have indeed, and it’s better than I could have ever imagined.”
Elias angled his head to give Valeri better access. He could barely contain his hope that maybe this quest was coming to its conclusion. “I’m glad for you. After all these years.”
“I know. This will make the trouble worth it.” Valeri’s tongue swiped from shoulder to ear. “May I?”
Leaning into the touch, Elias murmured, “Mmm, please do.”
Valeri slid his palm over Elias’s ass as he slid fangs into his flesh. His other hand held Elias’s lower back. A low growl rumbled in his chest. Valeri’s happiness was contagious. Elias swayed in his embrace, pressed himself tight to Valeri, and dared to dream that maybe their lives could be filled with something other than the pursuit of ancient secrets.
With a satisfied sigh, Valeri pulled his mouth from the wound and licked the punctures closed. He’d only taken a taste. He kissed Elias’s cheeks and the tip of his nose, then met his mouth. Elias returned the kiss, licking at the freckle he loved so much on Valeri’s upper lip, all the while a grin still spread on his own face. Kissing and smiling at once was such a lovely feeling.
“It’s good to see you like this,” said Elias against his jaw.
“It’s good to feel like this,” Valeri confirmed. “We must leave for Rovaniemi at once. That bastard Lajos lied to me, and now I have the proof I need.”
Elias’s mood drooped at the mention of Lajos. “Why go back if he lied to you? Tell me what you’ve found. Do you know how they’ve evaded the aging sickness yet? Or where they are? What’s happened tonight?”
The entire crux of Valeri’s self-appointed mission was to bring this knowledge south to the vampires of The Dozen. Elias had been dreaming of the day they could leave. He’d lived in the lands of ice and snow for the entirety of his twenty-two years, and the draw of hot summer nights and foreign lands beckoned to him.
Valeri laughed, bent down, wrapped arms about Elias’s thighs, and scooped him up like he weighed no more than a house cat. Elias parted his legs and clung to Valeri’s hips.
“So many questions! My goodness, one at a time, please.” Valeri carried him in the direction of their camp.
Clenching Valeri’s shoulders, Elias joined in the laughter. “I hope you plan to bed me because otherwise this is quite a lot of teasing for a conversation about some stuffy old people.”
“Not old people, the court of the ancients, my sweet. Better than the holy grail, and I have finally found them.” Valeri planted a sloppy kiss to Elias’s mouth. “And yes, I plan to bed you.”
“Good. Then start explaining on the way. Why must we see Lajos when neither of us even like him?”
Valeri covered the ground quickly, returning them to one of their makeshift camps. “Lajos works for them. I’ve suspected as much for some time, but tonight I found the evidence to prove it. I think he can secure me an audience, and even if he can’t, their court lies on the east bank of a lake not an hour’s walk due north of Rovaniemi at the Arctic Circle. I’ll find them myself.”
Fear bloomed in Elias’s chest. “But, Valeri, won’t that be dangerous? These vampires don’t want to be found. If you go there alone…”
“I only need to confirm what I’ve learned, then we can sail south with this knowledge and request aid from The Dozen. There are witches and vampires among their ranks who’d rival the ancients in power, I’m sure.”
How can you be sure when you know nothing of their power?Elias thought to ask, but he didn’t want to sour the mood. It was such a treat to have Valeri like this, giddy and spirited. First he’d take advantage of Valeri’s success, then he would question it.
“How shall we celebrate?” asked Elias, pressing his groin against Valeri’s. Already he’d begun to go stiff in his breeches. Apparently being jostled and carried through the forest by his lover turned him on. They couldn’t get to camp quick enough.
“Naked.” Valeri smirked and picked up speed.
Though the temperatures were easily below freezing, the night air felt invigorating on Elias’s cheeks. As a vampire, the cold couldn’t hurt him as it once had when he was human, but that didn’t mean he had to like the frozen north. What would it be like to make love to Valeri on a green patch of spring meadow, warm earth under his skin, rather than the familiar prick of pine needles and crunch of snow?
They’d made a temporary camp amongst the ruins of an old farmstead. Overgrown now, the old rock walls and dug out foundation created a barrier from the wind and was an easy place for a firepit. They slept beneath the earth, but in the wee early morning hours before sunrise, often enjoyed each other’s company there in the open air before a crackling fire. About a night’s ride south, they had a small place not unlike the first cave-house Valeri had brought him to in Kuusamo, but near Kitka, life was as primitive as it got.
