storm by Unknown

now."
     
                "Victory?"
     
                “Here I am,” Cal said coldly, opening his arms.  “Come, drink, taste.  Sate yourself.  We are the rulers of all Wraeththu: flawed, magnificent and vain.  We deserve each other.”
     
                Cal was only a few steps away, yet it seemed like a vast distance.  He was in pain.  Caeru could see that so clearly.  He mustered all of his courage and crossed the distance between them.  He took Cal's face in his hands.  “The hatred has to stop,” he said.  “It has to.”
     
                Cal's breath tasted of brandy and incense and burning candles.  His hands were hot on Caeru's skin, sizzling with energy.  He was hungry for contact, drawing the breath Caeru's chest, from the depths of his belly.  Aruna with Pellaz must be terrifying for him.  He needed this.  He needed grounding.
     
                They sank to their knees on the carpet, struggling with clothes, clawing flesh.  There was a sound like the ocean in Caeru's head and it was the seethe of hot blood.  This savage union was a vortex of chaos, of insatiable need, a desire to end all pain.  Frustration, bitterness, fear and resentment: they were all there – site guardians of Phaonica.  Caeru fell back and hit his head sharply against the floor.  Cal was on top of him.  Caeru could feel Cal's heart banging against his ribs.  Then, in the midst of madness, Cal became still.  It was as if time itself had stopped.  Caeru became aware of a gentle but insistent pressure between his legs, where it felt as if his soume-lam was gasping for breath.  Aruna with Cal was going to happen.  It really was.  They had both just realised what they were doing.
     
                “This is what Pell felt, the first time ever,” Caeru murmured.  “He felt you, like this.”
     
                “And this is what he saw,” Cal said, “that night in Ferelithia.  He saw what I'm seeing now.”
     
                “In this way, we are one.”
     
                Cal uttered a cry that was almost grief, and Caeru's body arched in pain.  It was like fighting history.
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Three
     
     
     
    Caeru could barely get through the day.  Now, he wanted to talk to Cal.  They had to establish some kind of order.  Last night had been vicious.  It mustn't happen again.  Caeru planned everything he intended to say.  He would show Cal his tender side and build up his trust.  The time for snarling was over.  Pellaz was due to return to Immanion in a couple of days.
     
                That Cal did not show up at the usual time.  Caeru couldn't eat anything.  He sat on the terrace, wrapped in bewildered numbness, considering that Cal was going to treat him in exactly the same way Pellaz had.  The only positive aspect was that this time there had been no conception.
     
                At nine o'clock, Caeru sent one of his staff to Cal's apartments, but the Tigron was not in residence.  Caeru drink himself into a stupor because it was the only way he could sleep and he could no longer stand to be awake.  His back hurt so much the pain invaded all his dreams, most of which were hideous.
     
                The following morning, Velaxis appeared, brimming with disgusting eagerness to hear more lurid stories.  Caeru told him what had happened, or rather what hadn't happened.
     
                "Go to his apartment today," Velaxis said.  "Go yourself."
     
                "I can't do that.  It's too humiliating."
     
                "I think you should.  Cal's confused.  He's probably frightened."
     
                "I don't think he's ever that."
     
                "Clean yourself up and go.  Pride is pointless now and only an impediment to progress."
     
                Caeru side.  "All right.  But I'll never