Blood Talisman (3 page)
Marcus or Joseph. And I can assure you”
—
he paused for a moment to drop a kiss on Andrew’s mouth
—
“that my love for you is every bit as strong as theirs. Maybe even stronger.”
“Mmm…” Andrew teased Tommy’s lower lip with the tip of his tongue. “So all I’m
asking is that you indulge me in this obsession of mine. Let me do some more research, talk to Marcus. If this time, my research leads to a dead end, and if Ardocan truly does not exist, I will never mention it again.”
“Fine.” Tommy tightened his arms around Andrew’s hard body. “But I’m coming with
you when you go talk with Marcus. Uh, uh…” He stilled Andrew’s protest by touching a
BLOOD TALISMAN J.P. Bowie 15
finger to his lips. “I want to know the risks involved in trying to find a lost city. I’ve seen that kind of movie, you know. Seems like there’s always someone or ones out to throw a monkey wrench in the works.”
Andrew chuckled. “Tommy,
édesem
, you live with a vampire. Most of your new friends are vampires. Not long ago your body was taken over by a demon, your best friend Alex was abducted into a demon army—and in addition, you’re a fireman, putting yourself in the possibility of danger almost every day. You think my searching for Ardocan could be any
riskier that all of that?”
“Well…” Tommy gave him a wicked smile. “Now that you mention it, I guess living
with a vampire hikes up the risk factor, all by itself. However…” He kissed the tip of
Andrew’s nose. “I am going to be there when you talk to Marcus. I don’t want to hear some watered-down version from you like it’s no big deal. Okay?”
“As if I would hold anything back from you,” Andrew said with mock affront.
“Right, as if…” Tommy stretched his muscular body against Andrew. “Mmm. I really
need to get some sleep. I have to be up and at ’em early tomorrow, but you feel soooo good.
Wanna go again?”
“If you have the strength.”
“’Course I do.” Tommy grinned, sat up and flexed his biceps for Andrew’s benefit.
“See? How can you resist?”
“I can’t,” Andrew said. He reared up and attacked Tommy’s nipples, teasing them to
hardness again, then threw him onto his back and covered his body with his own.
“Oh, yeah…”
Andrew slipped from Tommy’s arms, making sure he did not awaken his sleeping
lover, and rose silently from the bed. After picking up his neglected glass of wine, he left the bedroom and walked into the living room, then onto the balcony, surveying the flickering lights of Los Angeles through the haze below him.
He frowned and sipped at his wine, deep in thought. Admitting to Tommy what he had
discovered complicated matters. Tommy would want to join him in the journey to find the
Scrolls of Ashelak and the city of Ardocan—even though at that moment Andrew wasn’t
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sure in which direction Ardocan lay. The only clue he had was the mention of Ashelak being a god-like prince of the Hittites—one of a long line of royal princes raised to the position of a deity that the ancient civilisations of the Middle East worshipped. A minor god perhaps, but one important enough to be linked to Ardocan.
Even so, to involve Tommy in what might prove to be a fruitless search would not be a
good idea. Of course, he could use his powers to make him forget all about their
conversation. Vampires could manipulate human thought and memory, but Andrew was
loath to tamper with Tommy’s mind. He’d been through enough when they had battled
Dakar’s deviousness. Who knew what the long-term effects of such deception could be?
A night breeze nudged at his bare skin, sending a tingling sensation through his body.
He shivered and stared up at the dark sky above him.
“I knew you would eventually believe me.”
The words inside his mind startled him.
“You will not know peace until you have satisfied your curiosity.”
Dakar! But how is it possible? “Dakar?” he said aloud, “I saw you die. How have you
survived death?”
A mist-like wraith appeared before him, hovering a few feet away, the handsome
features of the demon becoming clearer as his image solidified.
“You know so little of us, vampire. You should not place so much emphasis on what
Marcus Verano tells you. Yes, you killed me, but my demon soul survives on another plane of existence—and regardless of your treachery towards me I am willing to forgive you and help you find that which you seek.”
Despite the bizarreness of the situation, Andrew chuckled. “Forgive me? Come now,
Dakar, in my dealings with you in the past, I saw no trace of a charitable spirit. What would make me think I could trust you now, even though you are dead and can do me, or Tommy, no harm?”
His chuckle was echoed by Dakar, but the demon’s held a sinister edge. “You think not?
There are those who would still do my bidding if I so desire it.”
Andrew smiled. “You didn’t succeed when you were in corporeal form, and when you
had an army of demons behind you. I hardly think you are in a position now to threaten us.”
Dakar shook his head impatiently. “So you say, but enough of that! Do you or do you
not want to know the secret of Talisman and where to find it?”
BLOOD TALISMAN J.P. Bowie 17
“What I want to know is why you are so eager for me to have it. There must be
something in this for you, Dakar, otherwise you would not be here now.”
The demon’s eyes glinted. “The Talisman can change many things. It can give you back
your mortality—something you and your human lover crave. Don’t deny it. I saw it in your expression when I told you of it before you sold me out.”
“Very well, I won’t deny it, but I repeat, what’s in it for you?”
“The Talisman of Ardocan can turn back time. Something I think you already guessed
at. If you find it and regain your mortality I would ask that you do me one favour.”
“And what is that?”
“The Talisman demands a sacrifice—a blood sacrifice that binds it to the one who gives
his blood willingly. In this case, that would be you.” Dakar sniggered before continuing,
“Once it has granted you your mortality, you must gift it to me so that I may use it to go back in time and live again.”
“To wreak havoc on humanity, as you once planned to do?” Andrew’s laughter was
devoid of mirth. “I don’t think so, Dakar. If that is the price of my mortality, it is far too high a price to pay. Apart from it being against my own conscience, every one of my friends would disown me.”
“Bah! Conscience, friends,” Dakar snarled, “all unnecessary obstacles that stand in the
way of what you really want, vampire. Marcus Verano’s philosophy has weakened you. If
you truly loved your fireman you would renounce these foolish beliefs and follow your
instincts—your vampire instincts. They served you well enough before your involvement
with Marcus Verano and his sycophants.”
“That’s enough, Dakar.” Andrew stepped back. “Return to your
plane of existence
and keep the knowledge of the Talisman to yourself. If it does exist, I will find it without your help, and without any need to grant you favours. The world does not need you in it trying to subjugate others to do your bidding. Go!” He turned away and walked back into the living room closing the sliding glass door. Through the glass he watched as Dakar’s sneering image faded into the darkness.
“Who were you talking to?”
Andrew turned, momentarily startled by Tommy’s voice. He stared at his naked lover
who stood in the middle of the living room gazing back at him, with a questioning
BLOOD TALISMAN J.P. Bowie 18
expression. For a moment all thoughts of Dakar and talismans were driven from Andrew’s
mind by the sight of Tommy’s incredibly beautiful face and body.
Never did he tire of simply looking at him, or when he was alone, bringing the vision of Tommy’s superb physique into his consciousness. From his impossibly wide shoulders, down over that sculpted chest, flat stomach, lean hips, muscular legs to his well-shaped feet, Tommy’s face and figure would have been a feast for Michelangelo’s eyes, would have graced the walls and ceilings of many a chapel in Italy, would have— “Andrew?”
“Yes?”
“Who were you talking to?”
“Oh…” Andrew gave his head a little shake to clear his mind. “Would you believe me if
I told you—Dakar?”
“Dakar?” Tommy gaped, his mouth slightly open in surprise. “But, I thought…”
“You’re right, he’s dead, but he was only too happy to let me know his spirit exists on
another plane.”
“Another plane?”
“Not Heaven, that’s for sure,” Andrew said with a soft chuckle. “Dakar wouldn’t find a
home among the angels.”
“Wait, you’re tellin’ me that Dakar’s ghost was here? I was sure we’d seen the last of
him.”
“We probably have. I turned his offer down.”
“His offer? Damn…” Tommy’s grin was rueful. “I’m beginning to sound like your
echo.” He stepped forwards and took Andrew in his arms, pressing his big warm body
against Andrew’s cooler skin. “What kind of offer?” he asked, his lips touching Andrew’s temple.
“That he would lead me to the Talisman if I turned it over to him after I had regained
my mortality.”
Tommy sighed his exasperation. “Have you asked yourself why the hell he doesn’t just
go get it himself? If he can appear in front of you, why can’t he go wherever the darned thing is? If it actually exists. ”
BLOOD TALISMAN J.P. Bowie 19
Andrew tightened his arms around Tommy, relishing the feel of his lover’s cock
growing hard against his own rising erection. There really was no point in continuing with this discussion. When he was with Tommy, other things seemed more important.
“I have an idea,” he whispered.
Tommy nuzzled Andrew’s earlobe. “What’s that?”
“We go back to bed and talk about this in the morning.”
“You think I could sleep after you telling me all this?”
“Sleep wasn’t what I had in mind.”
“Ah. Now who’s got a one-track mind?”
Andrew grinned. “Guilty as charged.”
This time, Andrew moved them into the bedroom using his vampire powers. A surge of
movement and Tommy yelped as in a flash his backside landed on the bed, Andrew on top
of him. He laughed out loud with delight, crushing Andrew to him, arms and legs wrapped
around Andrew’s hard, lithe torso, their mouths meshed in a long, searing kiss. It could have been yet another bout of powerful, driving, exhilarating sex, but Andrew wanted to slow the pace this time, to take his pleasure in the feel and the sight and the scent of his human lover.
He let his lips linger over Tommy’s, relishing the sensation of the soft, full flesh opening for him, responding eagerly to his kiss. He gently tweaked Tommy’s nipples, and Tommy’s rapid gasping breaths of ecstasy filled Andrew’s mouth and warmed his blood. He traced an erotically hot trail of kisses over Tommy’s throat, his chest, south over his firm, ridged abs before licking and teasing the flared head of Tommy’s cock, savouring the pre-cum that glistened in the slit.
Andrew’s senses reeled at the taste. He had to fight the urge inside him to bring
Tommy to instant orgasm, to take pleasure in swallowing the seed of his climax and relish the full salty tang of his semen. He moaned, and Tommy, as if in response, bucked his hips upwards driving himself deeper into Andrew’s mouth. Andrew took all of it, clenching his throat muscles around the head, massaging it while he listened to Tommy’s ecstatic whimpers. He took a moment to lubricate his fingers with his saliva before slipping two of them into the cleft between Tommy’s muscular ass cheeks. While he continued to suck on his lover’s rigid shaft, he circled the ring of muscle around the hole, teasing slowly until a choking Tommy begged him, “Inside me…let me feel you all the way in there…”
BLOOD TALISMAN J.P. Bowie 20
Andrew pushed in, fingering Tommy’s prostate, and was rewarded by a fresh surge of
pre-cum over his tongue. He went deeper and now Tommy was frantically bearing down on
Andrew’s fingers, his body writhing wildly in total ecstasy.
“Fuck me please,” Tommy groaned, grabbing at Andrew’s shoulders. “Want you, need
you…”
Andrew drew himself up between Tommy’s legs and spread them wide. He paused
long enough to lubricate Tommy again, then he guided the head of his cock into Tommy,
penetrating him to the hilt with one stroke. Andrew plunged in and out of Tommy’s silky—
smooth channel, all thoughts of going slow abandoned. He reached for Tommy’s erection,
pumping the solid length to the rhythm their bodies had created. Tommy gasped, moaning
loud enough to rock the rafters. He arched upwards to meet every one of Andrew’s thrusts.
and wound his arms around Andrew’s neck, pulling him into a kiss that had them both
instantly teetering on the knife edge of orgasm.
Their chests smacked together, Tommy’s sweat-slicked muscles binding them in a
crushing embrace. Words of lust-filled desire tumbled from their mouths, lost in intelligible meaning as their lips and tongues clashed in almost savage kisses.