Starlight(Pact Arcanum 4) (7 page)

He made his way down into the complex, to the administrative levels and Rafael’s office. Sticking his head in, he saw Rafael working through a mound of work similar to what had been on his own desk. “Hey, Raf.”

Rafael looked up sharply, then sat back in his chair as he studied Nick. “Hello, Nicholas. It’s been a long time.”

“Working hard?”

Rafael shrugged. “Always.”

“I know the feeling. Care to knock off early and get a drink?” He raised the bottle in his hand.

Rafael considered the offer. “Sure, why not?” He glanced at the clock. “It’s still another couple of hours to sunset here. Do you have a preference for someplace dark?”

“Rory and Ruarc are in Belfast tonight. Maybe we could hook up with them later. There can’t be much to do there on Christmas Eve.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

The two of them jumped to Belfast and wandered the streets until they came to a park. They dusted the snow off one of the benches and had a seat, taking turns at sipping from the bottle.

The conversation wandered from topic to topic until they came around to Rory and Lorcan. “They don’t seem to get that I have a demanding job,” Nick said. “Just because I always put in long hours doesn’t mean I’m doing anything wrong.” He looked at Rafael who took another swig from the bottle. “You have a job like that. You must understand where I’m coming from.”

Rafael handed the bottle back. “Sadly, I do. But not the way you think.”

Nick paused in the act of drinking. He looked back at Rafael, who stared at the stars. “Meaning what?”

“Meaning I don’t work long hours for the sake of my job. I work that much to forget the pain of losing your brother.”

Nick put the bottle carefully down on the ground. “Raf, I know you and Toby were good friends, but—”

“I loved him.”

Nick looked at the man he had called a friend for almost sixty years, and suddenly saw a stranger. “You and Toby?”

Rafael dropped his gaze from the sky and met Nick’s incredulous stare. “I wanted him so much, but he only wanted her. So I never told him. You remember how that feels.”

Nick swallowed, remembering his best friend and dyad brother, Scott.
His grandson sent me a Christmas card last year.
“Does Layla know?”

“It was the reason she invited me to join her House, so I could watch over their son.”

Nick didn’t want to think about his nephew, Antonio, traveling the stars for the Spacer Guild.
When did I lose touch with everything mortal?

“Raf, why didn’t you ever tell me any of this before?”

“Because it didn’t matter. Toby was gone. Antonio was out of reach. Everything I loved was lost to me. So I worked hard and tried to outrun the memories.” Rafael gave him a grim smile. “Just like you.”

“I’m not running from anything,” Nick said. Even to his own ears, it sounded feeble.

“Sanctuary is all you have left of him, and you bury yourself in it so you don’t have to feel the loss. Believe me, Nicholas, I do understand.”

Nick got to his feet and glared down at his old friend. “He
asked
me to take care of Sanctuary!”

“Did you always do everything he asked?”

“Yes!”

“He asked you to let Rory and Ruarc help you. Did you do that as well? Or did you just tolerate their friendship for appearances sake?”

Nick shivered, though he was immune to the cold. “I can’t be what they want me to be.”

“How do you know what they want?”

“They want me to love them!” shouted Nick. “How can I ever give them that?”

For the first time Rafael looked shocked. “Did they say that?”

Nick rubbed at his eyes. “No, of course not.”

“Then is it what
they
want that you’re running from, or is it what
you
want?”

“I can’t … I can’t want them.” Nick collapsed back onto the bench. He felt like he couldn’t breathe. “I can’t betray Jeremy like that.”

“Nick … forgive me for saying so, but Jeremy handed you over to Rory and Ruarc like a slab of beef. Are you sure it would be a betrayal?”

“Of course, it would. He wanted them to help me thorough my grief, not seduce me!”

“Are you certain?”

Nick turned his head to stare at Rafael. “What do you mean?”

“The Jeremy I knew was a practical man. Are you sure you know what kind of
help
he wanted you to accept?”

Nick stood from the bench. “Keep the bottle.” Then he walked away. For a while he wandered aimlessly, then he took a deep breath and asked his AI for directions to the address that he had read on Rory’s note every Christmas for the last ten years.

* * *

It was a relatively small church to have such an unusual congregation. Nick pushed the door open and stepped inside. Immediately, he felt the tingle of holy ground, but only on the right side of the doors. The left side of the church remained free of spiritual power. He walked to the left side and scanned the pews for Rory and Lorcan, finally finding them seated together near the front, Lorcan’s arm over Rory’s shoulders. He watched them from the back of the church throughout the rest of the service, ignoring the words of the priest and the singing of the choir. Then the deacon dismissed the worshippers and they all stood to leave. Rory and Ruarc remained seated as the others filed slowly out of the church. Finally, when the crowd had thinned out, the two of them stood and walked down the aisle toward the rectory. Rory was talking as they walked, and he turned to face Lorcan a step behind him as he raised his hand to knock at the door.

That’s when Rory saw him.

In that single moment, while Nick watched him with his senses fully open, Rory’s shields slipped in surprise, just for a moment, and Nick saw the emotion that blossomed in his mind before his shields reasserted themselves.

Hope.

Lorcan turned around to see what Rory was staring at, and caught sight of Nick as well. The elated smile that creased his face seemed to burn through Nick, and the church seemed suddenly sweltering. He didn’t move, just broke into a sweat as they walked back to where he was standing.

Lorcan reached him first, and swept him up in a bear hug. “You came!”

Rory smiled as he joined them. “We’ve been trying to get you to dump the desk for ten years! What made you decide to come out with us finally?”

Nick faced Lorcan. “Do you remember what you said to me in the double bridge?”

Lorcan’s expression grew suddenly guarded, and Rory stopped smiling.

Lorcan answered cautiously. “I said a lot of things that day.”

“You made me a promise,” said Nick, his voice barely above audible to human ears. To the three vampires, however, his words were clear.

Lorcan swallowed. “If your heart thaws, I will be waiting.”

Nick met his gaze. “Someday, I might come for you.”

Rory took a deep breath and let it out. “What are you saying, Nicholas?”

Nick turned to him. “If I ask you a question, will you answer honestly? Please?”

Rory glanced once at Lorcan, then nodded. “I will, if that’s what you want.”

“Why did Jeremy give me to you?”

Instead of answering, Rory extended a tendril of thought toward him. Nick linked to it, finding that Rory had already opened a similar link to Lorcan.

Then Rory reached into his memory and drew out Jeremy’s voice.
“Make him remember that he loves you both, just as much he loves me. I can’t love him forever, but you can. Please. Don’t let me die and leave him all alone.”

Nick stood there frozen, not even realizing he was crying until Lorcan wiped his tears away with his thumb. Finally, Nick reached out along the link to both of them.
“I haven’t forgotten.”

 Out loud, he said what was in his heart. “Let’s go home.”

C
HAPTER 11

April 2108, Court of Shadows Council Chamber Complex, Alexandria, Egypt

“This is outrageous!” said Javier Magister Tervilant from the Challenger’s Lectern. “My lord Imperator, how can you even think of perverting a formal mating in this matter?”

Lorcan stood from his place at the high table. “Prince Javier, it’s my mating to pervert, and Prince Sean never declared me his Leshir. He is perfectly within his rights to bestow his favors elsewhere.”

Javier glared at Rory and Nick, standing together at the Champion’s lectern. “The three of you are making a mockery of one of our most cherished institutions. Formal matings are always monogamous. It cannot be otherwise.”

Nick laughed. “Prince Javier, not even the humans buy that argument anymore. And besides, we’re only making official what has been fact for years, now.”

“And yet you expect us to sanction this union!”

Rory reached out and took Nick’s hand. The Daywalker met his gaze and smiled. Rory turned to face Javier’s livid face. “We don’t expect anything. Honestly, we don’t care if you approve or not. But there are protocols to observe in an alliance between Houses at our rank, so we are doing you the honor of bearing witness. No more, and no less.”

“But—”

“Enough,” said Lorcan, with a hard edge to his voice. “Further debate serves no purpose, and we have indulged your prejudices beyond the realm of courtesy. Return to your seat, Prince Javier.”

Javier turned away from the Challenger’s lectern and stormed out of the Council Chamber. Several of the other assembled Magisters followed after him.

Lorcan stepped forward into the center of the combat circle. Nick and Rory joined him.

Lorcan faced Rory. “Sean Magister Jiao-long, will you guard my heart until the sunrise claims me?”

“I accept your heart, to defend against all enemies, until the sunrise claims me.” Rory turned to Nick. “Nicholas Magister Luscian, will you guard my heart until the sunrise claims me?”

“I accept your heart, to defend against all enemies, until the sunrise claims me.” Finally, Nick turned to Lorcan. “Ruarc Magister Diluthical, will you guard my heart until the sunrise claims me?”

“I accept your heart, to defend against all enemies, until the sunrise claims me.” Lorcan wrapped Nick and Rory in his arms. “I will never let you go. Either of you.”

The three of them stood there, arm in arm, lost in each other, completely oblivious to the sound raining down on them from the stands above.

Applause.

P
ART
II
: 
O
BJECTS IN
M
OTION

C
HAPTER 12

August 2139; the Citadel, Lunar Farside; Thirty-one years later

Rory relaxed in the afterglow as Nick fell asleep in his arms. He lived for these brief, blissful moments of absolute contentment. Reaching up and running his fingers through his lover’s blond hair, he watched the tension in the Daywalker’s body ease at the familiar touch.

Rory smiled.
No nightmares tonight.
After so many years, he’d developed a sense about Nick’s sleeping patterns. He inhaled the scent of sweat and sex as he leaned closer, opening his senses wide, and resisted the urge to bite, if only to keep Nick from waking. Then he caught another psychic trace on the periphery of his awareness. Reaching out with his senses, he found what he was looking for, but still it surprised him.

Unwrapping himself from Nick, he slipped out of bed, drawing the covers up over the other vampire. He pulled back his long, red hair and grabbed his robe from the hook in the closet. Tying it closed on his way out of the bedroom, he followed the sensory trace he had detected down the hall into the study. As expected, he found another man typing quietly at the virtual keyboard of the computer terminal. “Ruarc.”

Lorcan jumped at the interruption, then tilted his head in acknowledgement as he leaned back in his chair. “Sean. I hope I didn’t disturb you two.”

Rory sat down in the leather chair next to him. “Of course not. I just didn’t expect to find you here. I thought you were planning to be in Alexandria overnight.” He glanced at the virtual screen, seeing the rune and serpent symbol of the Court of Shadows in the background. “Everything all right?”

“The Assembly didn’t run as late as I expected. The Magisters of a couple of the Greater Houses wanted to duel over a piece of land in Australia that held some significant mineral reserves. I talked them out of it.”

Rory raised an eyebrow. “How did you manage that?”

Lorcan grinned. “I took it away from both of them and declared it House Diluthical territory. Then I said they could both have free access to its resources for up to one year, but only if they kept their mouths shut the entire time. The first one of them that spoke to me would forfeit any opportunity to use the land to his own advantage.”

Rory chuckled. “So you trumped bloodlust with greed. Clever.”

Lorcan shrugged. “I learned from the best.” He smiled. “I wouldn’t have been half as successful as Imperator if Layla hadn’t taken me under her wing. I think it amuses her to believe that she’s got her claws firmly in Court politics as well as Armistice. If you hadn’t left it up to her to run the entire North American sector of the Armistice Zone, I’ll bet she’d already be angling for my job.”

“You’re probably right,” said Rory with a sad smile. “She needed something to distract her after Toby died. It was a small gesture, but it gave her the votes she needed to take over as Archangel after Nick and I retired.”

Lorcan’s expression grew somber. “That was a bad time. He was so young. It was unfair that he should be the first of us to fall.”

“I don’t think Nick ever forgave me for not bringing him back,” whispered Rory, not meeting Lorcan’s eyes.

Lorcan sighed. “Sentinels get only one lifetime. He found immortality in other ways.”

“True enough,” answered Rory. He glanced at the pictures on the wall of the study. “Have you heard from Antonio recently?”

“Yes,” said Lorcan, turning to look as well. “From his letters, I get the impression that life in the Centauri colonies really appeals to him when he’s not in transit between star systems. Still, he’ll be back on Earth in a few years. It will be pleasant to speak to him again in person.”