The Brotherhood - Tezcatli's Game Part 6

"I beg your pardon!" Liam burst.

Zach ignored him. "-- and he's told me all about Tezcatli over there. He's a good guy, even if he does have his head up his a.s.s half the time."

"Hey!" Tezcatli barked. "Don't you dare talk that way about me."

"I dare. I know I can. What are you gonna do? Kill me?" Zach snorted before turning back to Quentin. His movements had the flavor of finality, of "one last time" about them. "I'm gonna leave you to him. Okay?"

"No, Zach, no --"

"Hush, now. Yes. I am leavin' you to him. He'll take care of you, Q. He's a good man. Watches his peoples' backs. He's got a lot on him, and he needs someone to come home to. You could practice again, out on the ranches, the way you loved to. Or, h.e.l.l, you could specialize."

"Specialize?"

"You'll find out what I mean soon enough."

"You always did like to make me think and wait."

"Yeah, and I always will. That word means something to you and me. So, listen to what I'm saying. You stick with Tezcatli.

He's the one for you right now. He'll keep you safe. All you have to do is say yes."

Quentin stared at his ex-lover. "You really are leaving."

"Said it once, Q. I can't stay. Hey, hey, no, stop that." Zach leaned in toward Quentin. "You stay standing up and be a man.

Act like the guy I fell in love with. Brave. Bold. Fearless. He could face down a ranch full of cowboys without cracking and say, 'h.e.l.l, yes, those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds beat up my lover.'

"I'm gonna go, but you know I'll be keepin' an eye out for you. You might want to keep that in mind, Tez," he raised his voice to add.

Only Liam's hand, suddenly there, warm and slender, on Tezcatli's arm, stopped him from las.h.i.+ng out. He wished he had a tail to whip back and forth -- but he understood what Zach was getting at. Someone under the protection of a ghost was someone to be respected. Quentin and he had big powers looking after them -- a dead man and an incubus, no less. With that kind of backing, even an alpha had to be careful of his beta. After a moment, he nodded carefully.

"Right." Zach dismissed Tezcatli as quickly as he'd drawn him in. "I will never really leave you, babe. You'll have me right in here." He touched his hand over Quentin's heart. "You just won't see my ugly mug around here no more. But you promise me one thing, you hear? Say you'll promise."

Quentin closed his eyes. "I promise," he whispered.

"Good. You're gonna live for me, and for Tez over there. You're not gonna die for any of us. Got that?"

Eyes still shut, Quentin nodded. Zach smiled at his lover, even though he must have known the man couldn't see him, then leaned down as if he'd kiss the man. He brushed his lips ever so lightly over Quentin's, whispering, "Goodbye."

Tezcatli s.h.i.+vered as the night air got cold. A gust of wind blasted through, tearing leaves off the bushes on the smokers'

porch. Liam's cigarette winked out.

And when it was over, Zach was gone.

Chapter Seven

"And so we are alone again," Liam murmured. He squeezed Quentin's shoulder. Then, casually, he began backing up toward the exit from the smoking porch. "I think it is time for me to be on my way as well, and leave you two with one another."

"You do that," Tezcatli said shortly. His hands curled and uncurled into fists. He didn't like any of this, and he wasn't holding back his anger. "Meddler."

"I only did what had to be done. What I set into motion has freed Quentin from his cage." The incubus looked sideways at Tezcatli. "Now, it is up to you to help him walk past the bars. Are you man enough for it?"

Tezcatli bristled. "You're asking me a question like that? He's soaked with my sweat and my come. What do you think?"

"So defensive. I did not ask if you could, or would, f.u.c.k him. I asked if you would help him. Will you? Can you?"

"f.u.c.king isn't helping?"

"It is part of the cure, of course. Quentin needs a warm, live body, not a ghost." Liam fiddled with his crushed pack of cigarettes for another moment, then pocketed them. "However, he also needs someone who will be honest with him."

Hot blood rushed into Tezcatli's face. "I've never lied to him. Not once!"

"A lie by omission is still a lie. You did not tell him who you are. What you are." Again, the slanted look. "I would suggest that you do so."

Tezcatli had had just about enough of the nosy incubus. "What the h.e.l.l do you think you're doing, anyway?" he snarled.

"Quentin is my mate. Not yours. I suggest you stay out of our way from now on, do you hear? Pretty d.a.m.n far away."

"No."

Tezcatli opened his mouth, then blinked. "What did you say?"

Liam rounded on him, human mask slipping. Behind the cracks, Tezcatli could see a creature of unbearable beauty and deeply marked ugliness. A creature from both a wet dream and a nightmare. Not a G.o.d, but not too f.u.c.king far from the mark.

"He was mine first," Liam said in a terrible voice. "If I find out that you have not been taking care of him, that you have not been honest with him ... You will wish you had never come here this night."

"I am a favored child of the Old Ones! I --"

"You are a foolish Cat who was so hungry for cream he would knock anyone else away from the plate." Liam looked suddenly very tired. "Go on along, Tezcatli. Go to 'your' Quentin and seize this moment by the reins. See if you can gentle the colt and win him over." They'd been speaking in low voices, but Liam suddenly raised his. "Quentin! Eh, Quentin!"

Quentin raised his head. His face was blank, no emotion showing in the eyes. He tried twice to form a word before managing it. "What?"

"Listen to Tezcatli," Liam said, clapping the man's shoulder. "Remember what Zach had to say before he left. Give yourself a second chance -- and take it, Quentin, grab it with both hands and hang on. Do you understand me?"

Quentin nodded slowly. "You're leaving, too?"

"I must."

"Thank the G.o.ds," Tezcatli snapped. "Get out."

Liam's air of mockery floated back around him like a pair of sheltering wings. He grinned wickedly at Tezcatli. "If I did not wish to go, you could not budge me. Favored of the Old Ones or not." He leaned up on tiptoe and spoke into the Cat's ear. "I am an Old One," he whispered. "And you are no child of mine. Bear that in mind."

He danced backward toward the door. "Remember what I told you!" he ordered, hand upon the crash bar -- then he was gone. A quick burst of noise from inside Amour Magique floated out to them on the patio. Then, all was silence.

Tezcatli turned to Quentin. He watched him for a long minute, measuring him up. His temper, never far from the surface, was simmering to the boiling point. "This is not how I play my games," he growled. "Bringing in a ghost is cheating."

Quentin looked back at Tezcatli. Directly, no hiding his face or ducking behind a tangle of emotions. "I didn't have a choice.

He came with me."

"You dragged him along behind you."

"I suppose I must have." Quentin's fingers picked at each other. He never lowered his eyes. "He's all I have. Everything that matters. Mattered."

"Wrong. Now you have me. And if you think I'm letting you go, you have another think coming. Several of them."

"I'm not deaf. I heard you the first dozen times." Quentin leaned his head against the cool-looking stucco of the patio wall. "So, you have me. What are you going to do with me?"

"No. No, no, no." Tezcatli's temper flared too hot to be restrained. "What do you think? That I want a puppet? A dog that'll roll over when I say, 'Play dead'? I came in search of a partner."

"Which would be why you f.u.c.ked me like an animal. It all makes perfect sense now."

A thrill shot through Tezcatli. He stopped still for a moment, then began his approach. Slow, languorous, sinuous. "Yes, I did.

And you liked it. I can still feel you --" He ran a hand down the length of his chest. "-- beneath me. The way the muscles in your back bunched and stretched. The weight of your c.o.c.k in my palm. The hot s.p.u.n.k when you came all over my hand." He raised that hand to his mouth and sucked in a finger, savoring the memory of his taste again. He'd been saturated with Quentin. He wanted more.

Pacing closer, he let himself stretch and arch, loosening his muscles. "You didn't just like it. You loved it. The way you gasped my name -- you were begging for more even when I was hammering. And you want me again. There's no ghost in our way now."

"You don't think? I figured he always would be." Quentin smiled tiredly, resignedly. "By the way, yes, that does mean I see us having s.e.x again. Probably often. But he'll still be there."

"No!" Tezcatli came to a stop in front of Quentin but refused to kneel or put himself in the inferior position. "He has said his goodbyes. And Liam has said it's time for you to move on. I'm saying the same thing. Let go of him and go forward. With me."

Quentin half-laughed. "Oh, and you're a real catch, aren't you? What makes you think I'd want to be with you, outside of the s.e.x? What do you possibly have to offer me?"

Tezcatli bent and seized Quentin's head with one hand on the back of his skull. He dragged the man into him for a crus.h.i.+ng kiss. Teeth and lips and, insistently, tongues. He slid between Quentin's lips intending to put his mark of owners.h.i.+p on that smart mouth and make it his own. He wouldn't want him to shut up forever, but they had to get past this.

As he kissed Quentin, Tezcatli slid a hand up underneath his s.h.i.+rt. He tweaked one nipple, just hard enough to sting, then brushed it with his fingertips. Responsive as ever, Quentin gasped and arched into his hand.

"More?" Tezcatli whispered against his new partner's lips. Yes, new partner. Paired with him in all but words. He would trust Quentin with his life, and the lives of his pack. If the man had been so loyal to a ghost, he wouldn't betray a group of people who had never done him any harm. "Tell me. Ask me. Do you want more? Will you be good enough to earn it?"

Quentin moaned, seemingly against his will. He followed Tezcatli's mouth, kissing it just as hard, if not harder. "Good ..." he managed to say before slipping his tongue in turn between Tezcatli's lips. Taking the advantage shamelessly. He glided that tongue along Tezcatli's, stroking it, dancing along his teeth, trailing across the sides of his teeth. He fell into their kiss, sucking Tezcatli's lower lip into his mouth, then nibbling at the top.

Tezcatli heard himself groan as the man pulled him into a sweet surrender. No, not quite -- not a defeat. He never gave up, and he was still in control. d.a.m.ned if he didn't want to just give in, though, and let Quentin have his way. The man kissed as if he'd won contests for it.

He felt a stab of jealousy. Who had taught Quentin to kiss that way? Zach? His shoulders stiffened at the thought. He would gladly have wiped his mate's memory of the man, if it weren't for the ghost's threat. He would have to walk carefully. A spirit protector could be powerful if it were p.i.s.sed off enough. He didn't want to see what Zach could do now that he'd moved on to his full strength, no longer caught between earth and the heavens.

What he did want to see was more of Quentin. Preferably all of him. Naked from head to toe with nothing to get in the way of feasting on him with his eyes. On his knees again? G.o.d, yes. Tezcatli snarled and dipped in deeper.

His fingers started the tedious process of unb.u.t.toning again -- then, he changed his mind. Bunching the fabric in both hands, he used a little of his Cat strength and yanked. b.u.t.tons went flying across the concrete of the patio floor, pinging this way and that.

Quentin didn't protest. As the cool air hit his bare chest, he only moaned more and sank deeper into Tezcatli's grip.

"Beautiful," Tezcatli chanted as he moved away from Quentin's lips and down his arms. "Handsome, gorgeous, obedient ...

mine." His fingers itched to shape themselves into paw and claw. To mark this man and be sure that the infection would take him over and make him one of the Pack.

He hesitated for one moment, then stopped abruptly. Quentin had jerked away and was staring at him with dazed eyes that were quickly growing sharp with suspicion.

"Liam's words, what he said, it just now sank in. You're a G.o.dd.a.m.ned liar!" he exclaimed.

"What the h.e.l.l?" Tezcatli snapped, annoyed.

Quentin planted a hand in the middle of Tezcatli's chest and shoved. "Liam said you'd lied to me. A lie of omission. What did he mean?" Ah. Tezcatli stared intently at Quentin, judging whether or not he was ready to see. Asking whether the man believed in the supernatural would be stupid. Hadn't he had a ghost lover for -- who knew how long? Yet he didn't seem to know the truth about Liam. Tezcatli settled for the easiest road out. "What do you mean, lie?"

Quentin brushed away the question. "You know exactly what I mean, what Liam meant. Stop it -- stop kissing me! I can't think when you do that."

"Good," Tezcatli said, diving in for another taste of his soon-to-be official mate. "I don't want you to think. Just accept. Just be. Be mine." These weren't candy heart statements. He'd infused his words with all the fire and blood he had in him. A tang of the Cat. No one could have mistaken his words for anything but what they were -- out-and-out claiming.

Quentin, though, still wasn't satisfied. "Who are you?" he demanded. "You keep starting explanations, then stopping. I'm not stupid, you know. You think I believe Liam is entirely normal? No way. He saw Zach and talked to him. You did, too." He started.

"Zach! He said it, too. You're hiding something from me. Tell me what they were talking about. Now, Tezcatli."

"d.a.m.ned pushy bottom."

Quentin's eyes flashed. "What makes you think I'm always on the bottom?" Oh, fire, fire. Tezcatli liked that in a man. He wasn't about to have his dominance challenged, though. But Quentin went on defiantly. "What if I want you on your knees, Tezcatli? Taking it from me from behind?"

A hand shot forward to grope Tezcatli, still hard inside his jeans. He'd taken a moment to wash himself clean in a lavatory, and the skin still tingled from the rough paper towels on sensitive flesh. His member sprang to full life under Quentin's touch, swelling up hard and proud.

A glance down told him Quentin was in the same state, his d.i.c.k pressing at the zipper of his khakis. A small, spreading damp spot revealed even more clearly to him what his kisses had already accomplished.

He wanted more. He could still taste the ghost on Quentin's lips, and he wanted it off, gone. Needed to have the specter of his mate's old lover erased from his body. "Have you been with anyone since him?" he whispered. "Anyone but me?"

Quentin shook his head wordlessly. His mouth followed Tezcatli's, demanding more kisses, more tongue, more teeth.

Tezcatli couldn't help but give him what he wanted -- a gift, for being such a h.e.l.lcat. "He's gone," he managed to say. "Gave us his goodbyes. I'm all that's left."

Quentin moaned, his arms coming up to grasp tightly at Tezcatli's neck. "I know," he said through kiss-swollen lips. "He wants me to live. And I want to do what he said, in his memory."

Tezcatli stilled. "Is that all?"

"No." Quentin's tongue flickered out to trail along Tezcatli's cheek. "He said I should go on. That means with you. That means it's all right."

"What's all right?" Tezcatli thought he knew, but had to be sure. Everything rode on what Quentin made up his mind to do.

"Say it, boy. Say it out loud."

"Stop calling me 'boy'!"

Tezcatli refused to look away. "All right. Boy."

Quentin bared his teeth. "You are a pain in the a.s.s. Literally. I don't know what you've done to me, or who you are, beyond your name, but you've caught me. You got me by the short hairs, then you dragged me in. I want you. I've been alone for a long d.a.m.n time. You are the first one to have gotten through. Does that make you happy?"