Chapter Two

NATHEN

 

Cameron had taken off, his mind a cacophony of thoughts and feelings that had left Nathen stunned through their empathic and mental link. Cameron’s mother—alive? But Nathen also had his own concerns to deal with. He retreated to Cameron’s bedroom to curl up under the soft, warm blankets that smelled of vanilla and peaches, safe and comforting. But the environment wasn’t enough to soothe. He had killed someone. Granted that someone was a kidnaping, murdering psychopath, but still, he had taken a conscious being out of this existence and it was another vampire. Is this the norm? Did vampires just end up killing on a whim? He didn’t think so, but it had been almost instinctual.

Also, having drained Mathis of his blood, Nathen felt something else come across with it. Glimpses of the man’s memories sparked across his consciousness.

Almost an hour later, Nathen had calmed down. He had been able to process what had happened, but also Cameron had relaxed. However, he wasn’t in the apartment, he was at the gym three blocks away. Nathen rolled out of the tightly wound ball to lay flat on the bed, now grasping the concept that despite the distance he could feel Cameron—like seeing something out of one’s peripheral sight. The heat of the fire that was Cameron burned just beyond his view, though still warming him. And part of him called to Nathen—his need permeating Nathen to the core. He realized he could probably block it out as he had learned to do so with so much that overstimulated him, or he could embrace it. Go to it. Go to Cameron, his Cameron. The enticingly brilliant fiery-haired man who burst with magical light, but who carried such darkness, fueled by self-loathing, sadness, guilt and shame. Except Nathen saw the kindness, the healer of minds, the funny and sweet man who had pledged his love to him.

Daylight burned beyond the blackout curtains and Nathen dreaded the thought of walking out and potentially being paralyzed and burned by it. The umbrella? His friend Robbie had gifted him a UV protecting umbrella. Picturing himself ambling down a busy street in San Francisco clad in a parka with several layers of clothes including thick sherpa hand mitts made him giggle. His driver, Julian, could pick him up. No, he didn’t want to risk Impetus knowing where they lived, though it was a good possibility they already knew.

Nathen laughed from the absurdity spinning in his mind. Was he a Cybervamp? A Vampernet? He could interface with technology and traverse the wires and fiberoptic links of the internet and mentally reconstruct the internal functions of devices as projections of his mind. Mmm… Cameron probably had his phone close to him. I have to try! If this worked, maybe it could be a solution to his new sun problem. At least with his boyfriend.

Nathen picked up his phone and reached out mentally. The screen unlocked and the default browser opened to a blank page. Focusing, the now familiar sound of the crash of waves cascaded over and through him. A serene white noise washed out all other sounds and enveloped him before he realized he was inside the phone space—or in his mind? He opened the phone application and dialed Cameron’s number. Sending the command to call, he attached his conscious mind to the packets that were about to be sent from his phone to the cell tower.

An instant rush carried him away. His view shifted from the representation of the screen to a glider carrying him through the air on the invisible radio carrier waves used by the phone. Normally this would be almost instantaneous, but his mind slowed the vision enough for him to grasp what was going on.

Absorbed into the target he had called, he admired a still snapshot in time of two Siamese kittens curled up on a couch. The background on Cameron’s phone! He left the connection open and pivoted his consciousness from the phone to the external world. The ambient electromagnetic radiation coalesced and formed a sort of spectral body. A stray golden wave, a thread, connected to Cameron’s phone.

He couldn’t see his body, nor his hands, and though there were other guys walking around in the locker room, they couldn’t see him. He couldn’t move his legs—he had none—but after a few moments, he figured out that through will he could cause his consciousness, in this spectral body, to go in that direction.

Cameron was not in the locker room. The pool? No. The steam room! Nathen sensed when Cameron felt him before he saw him.

Now hovering within arm’s length, Cameron asked with wide-eyed awe, “Nathen?”

Nathen didn’t know how to respond, so he went to an absurd line from a movie. “Yes, it is I, your long dead boyfriend come back from the grave to visit you, to give you a message…”

Cameron laughed lightly, confused. “Where are you? And how are you doing this?”

“I used the phone system and your phone to project myself here. I’m still technically in your phone but using the EM radiation in the area to carry my consciousness. If your phone dies, I’ll probably wake up back in the apartment, though I’m not sure what will actually happen.”

Their link allowed Nathen to sense Cameron’s angst morphing into curiosity and then arousal. With a half smile, he said, “That, sir, is amazing. I-I’m sorry I took off. I just couldn’t really think straight. I—” He took a deep breath and shook his head. “Let me grab a quick shower, and I’ll be right home.”

“Do you mind if I watch?” Nathen shifted through relief, yearning, and into arousal at the sight of his boyfriend standing and wearing nothing but a towel.

Laughing, Cameron shook his head and left the steam room, holding the door open for the shimmering ball of light only he could see. He led the way through the locker room, and Nathen could hear Cameron’s random thoughts, which were focused on how many people had been diagnosed with schizophrenia who might just be mages unaware of their abilities. Unfortunately, he saw the mental musings about mages led to other thoughts of Cameron’s mom, and the revelation that she lived. Nathen wondered at their link.

“It’s the blood bond coupled with his abilities.”

Despite not having a body, prickles cascaded throughout his system as Nathen stopped, flooded with confused panic.

“What’s going on, babe?” Cameron stopped as well, studying Nathen with concern.

“That was really weird. I think I heard someone. I think it was Mathis, answering an internal question I just asked myself. Did you sense anything strange just now?” Nathen asked, turning in a circle to look around.

“I heard you answer your own question. And I think you’re right,” Cameron said.

Nathen protested in confusion. “It…it was me, but it wasn’t.” It was an intrusion of someone else’s thoughts, or memory, into his consciousness—not altogether unpleasant so much as distracting.

Cameron asked, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just need to figure out what’s going on. Unfortunately, this didn’t come with a manual.” He laughed. “Though maybe those books have some answers.” At the statement, somehow Nathen knew he was right and the books of blood magic held so many more answers. Despite his desire to race back and delve into the books, he said, “Thought you were showering?”

Cameron chuckled and grabbed a shower caddy from his locker and a towel from the pile the gym kept near the showers. After choosing a larger stall at the end, he shimmied, and the towel hanging low around his hips slipped to the floor as he stepped in to savor the warm water. Nathen could tell Cameron was torn between giving some sort of sensual show and quickly washing off so he could make his way home. Settling on a combination of the two, he ran the bar of soap slowly over his chest and abs, keeping his eye on Nathen.

From his vantage point, Nathen enjoyed the visual stimulation of Cameron’s hands moving over his rock-hard abs and then lower to cup his heavy sac and semi-aroused member. Though no one else watched, the exhibitionistic and forbidden nature of it increased his own arousal. “You should hurry home.”