Chapter Twenty-Four

NATHEN

 

Nathen twisted with a start. He hadn’t seen Cameron stand, but suddenly he was behind him, laughing. He seemed lighter somehow.

Cameron held out a hand, smiling broadly, “Dance with me?”

“Sure!” Nathen jumped up happily and took his hand before following to the center of the round disc they had floated on earlier. “I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself! Did you have some wine? Everyone here is really fascinating and nice. Well, at least the two I’ve spoken to so far. They were called Anthropos, perfect embodiments of the masculine and feminine. Fully human in one body because each sex is complimentary to the other.”

Nathen became lost in thought, creating new connections to images and ideas, which blazed new pathways, new roads for him to explore. He hugged Cameron as they were dancing and whispered, “Thank you for saying yes. I couldn’t stand to lose you.” He buried his head on Cameron’s shoulder and relaxed into him while they danced to a Norse-themed song being played by skilled musicians on either side of the room that spread out into infinity.

“My place is by your side. I don’t know where the future lies or what our journey will be, but I know we’ll be together.” He placed a soft kiss on Nathen’s temple. “I know you’re having fun talking philosophy with these people, but did you learn anything about the arachnoid or anything that will help us in the upcoming battle?”

Nathen shook his head. “Not much. Only they won’t be able to hurt us directly, and we are to take a leading role. We can get information, help create the army, but we can’t fight them directly, nor they us. Also, they believe they have been wronged and cheated: that humans are their rightful resource to do with as they wish, as is the land and its animals. Though not all of them feel that way. There are some here that don’t want to be a part of the kingdom they’re building. But because they’re kin, they won’t help fight them, nor hinder the fight. It’s up to us to push them back or stop them.”

They continued to dance, embraced for a while longer before Dara interrupted them. “You are free to stay here while we celebrate. Or if you wish to go back, you can touch the corporeal side of the disc.”

Nathen asked, “Okay, how do we contact you?”

Dara smiled softly. “The same way you did when we first met. In your dreams.”

Nathen considered, then said, “I wish we can stay longer, but we do need to go back; otherwise, I’ll get lost here. There’s just so much to learn.”

Dara inclined her head to them and departed back to the table with August.

They slowly danced, and Nathen reveled in the splendor of it all. As they passed over the disc, Nathen nodded to Cameron and the two of them reached out and brushed their hands against the side and fell into blackness again, snapping into the conscious awareness of being hit by streams of hot water. Nathen giggled as he was in the afterglow of orgasmic release.

Nathen pulled out slowly and turned Cameron to face him, gazing into his sapphire eyes. Cameron was trembling and hurriedly ducked out of the shower, working on quickly toweling off.

A sense of wrongness tickled through him—a disconnect that Nathen couldn’t verbalize until now, having experienced it’s opposite only a moment ago. There were fleeting moments when he enjoyed freedom like that with Cameron, but they were only that, ephemeral, the rapture of love, heartbreak, the pleasure of orgasm and pain of penetration. He got lost in his own mind, before realizing Cameron radiated instability, and he quickly followed him out of the room. “Are you okay?”

A quick shake of the head answered Nathen’s question as Cameron pulled on the clothes August had left for them. “I’m not really sure what to think right now.”

Confused, Nathen asked, “What do you mean? We’re to work and help your mother and our friends to fight off the spider fae…”

“Not about that. About…” His eyes darted to the bathroom behind Nathen. “Never mind. It’s fine. I’m fine. We should go find August.”

Nathen hesitated. “No, there’s something wrong. What’s going on? Please tell me?”

Cameron shook his head. “I don’t…” He slowly lowered onto the bed before chancing a glance up at Nathen and then back at his wrist, which he ran a thumb over. “There’s just so much to think about. We were dragged to another realm by a group of beings whose summoning was a way of making me so insane with desire that I begged you to…” Cameron shook his head. “Just trying to figure everything out. What all this means.”

Nathen sat next to him. “Why does it have to mean anything? If life is a drama, we just play our roles. For the fun of it, the game of being alive, the heartache, the love, the pleasure, the pain. We are doing it all to ourselves. And maybe it’s hard to deal with. All the horrors and the beauty of life. When we watch movies that scare us, we secretly enjoy it because we know it’s not real. Could you still enjoy life knowing what you know now, even with all the evil that takes place in it?”

An ironic smile tugged at the corner of Cameron’s mouth. “Apparently, I can and will enjoy life for many years to come. I really enjoyed being with you. It’s just I don’t think I would have ever done that if I hadn’t been under the influence of the fae’s summoning thing. That was the most intense experience of my life.”

Cameron rolled into Nathen, pushing him back on the bed so he could rest his head atop his shoulder and curl next to him, mirroring the position they had taken in the fae realm.

Nathen agreed. “I think we’ll have an interesting time together. It’s been two weeks, and we just came back from… Well, I am not exactly sure where. But I don’t think many people have visited it while they are still live, or undead, as the case may be.” After a while in silence, he asked gently, “Should we go talk with August?”

Reluctantly, Cameron pulled away. “Yeah. Of course.”

They found August in the first-floor apartment. “Oh, hey, guys.” He offered a lopsided grin.

Cameron slid onto the couch and sat with one leg tucked under him, and Nathen joined him. “So, what now?” Cameron asked.

August laughed heartily. “What now, indeed! I guess we could start with telling Paige we were just in faery, or we could not—she probably won’t believe either way—and just, well, start looking for the spiders?”

“Did you learn anything other than we’re now tied to that place forever?” Cameron asked, leaning forward.

Nathen instinctively reached over and caressed Cameron’s back and was rewarded by a weary smile—Cameron’s exhaustion a tangible thing.

“Did I ever!” August chuckled. “I actually learned quite a bit and can’t wait to go back there. Dara said we can go visit anytime. The key is this.” He pulled up his shirt to show off the ring of leaves and wiggled. “Since neither Nathen nor I dream, we have to rely on you to make contact. But she said in time I might learn the meditative lucid dreaming Nathen was telling me about. Said as vampires we’re not really equipped for it right now, but it takes time. I figure it’s kind of like learning how to use the vampiric clairvoyance ability. Never something I was interested in before, but since meeting you, I’m actually down.” August gave Cameron and Nathen a look of adoration. “I gotta say, chancing upon the two of you going at it like bunnies on that balcony was the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“I can already meditate now,” Nathen protested.

August shrugged. “Okay. But that’s not your affinity, right? Technology is? When we’re brought across, we all have an affinity. Mine was physical enhancement, more so than most vampires get. Much to Paige’s chagrin. She had hoped I would have some blood magic affinity. Had prepped me for like five years when I was still alive. But it didn’t take. It was something I had to work on and learn. Still working on it. There are several identified affinities: clairvoyance, magic, physicality, healing ability… One of our coven had an affinity for controlling other people’s emotions, so we called her an empath. I’m sure there are other affinities, but those are the biggies. But we can all learn about each other’s affinities and even use them if we can figure out how to channel the blood correctly. Oh, and apparently technology, though you’re the first I’ve met with that affinity.” August thought for a moment, and his eyes popped open. He said excitedly, leaning forward, “Nathen! Your affinity is clairvoyance! You do your tech thing with your mind, right? So, it would make sense your affinity is with the mind, only you’re more comfortable with technology, right? So, there’s the interface?”

Cameron tilted his head to study Nathen with a thoughtful expression.

Nathen considered the proposition. “Maybe. I interface with the system, but my mind creates the connection using images that correspond with the system. If machines had minds or spirits, it could be what’s happening, yes. That machines are starting to be anthropomorphized and have a kind of pseudo spirit from the techno-fae. Maybe real conscious AI comes out of that? Human minds dreaming of thinking machines that are starting to dream?”

“Gorgeous, should we tell him about SpArk? I mean the three of us are kind of connected now…” Cameron asked mentally.

Nathen lit up. “Sure!” He positioned himself to look at a surprised August. “SpArk stands for Sapient Artificial Knowledgebase. It is a program written, I think, by fae. It indexes any knowledge it has access to and presents it in a digested form that is easily referenceable. Only with the combined magic of fae, mages, and vampires, it seems to now have a form of consciousness. Its aware of…being. I’ve been letting it access a lot of philosophical, magical, artistic, and musical archives I have in hopes of maybe waking it up even more.”

August listened intently. “That’s amazing, though I have to confess I know very little about computers. Paige has been a traditionalist in a lot of ways; probably a product of how she grew up.”

August made a motion with his hand and Cameron obliged by opening a link which allowed August to quickly show memories of disagreements with Paige, her view of the world which had not changed much since she was made. Though she got older, she didn’t evolve or grow much. Maybe the curse of having long life housed in a human body. The world changed, but the brain that laid down its patterns as the person grows up mostly stays the same unless the person undergoes spiritual transformations. He explained, “Most vampires don’t bother because old age and death now seem very far away. I preserved my Christian faith when my wife and child died, to cope with it all. In turn, it preserved my humanity through my journey in unlife. I’ve seen many depraved events, scenes, and been a part of doing things I admit I regret and have yet to atone for. But I’ve come to realize this isn’t the case for really anyone else in my coven. So, honestly, it’s the divide between us and has grown into a chasm. Of course, I still love them, but… I don’t know. I think I’m kind of afraid of them. Of Paige.”

“Wow, I’m sorry,” Cameron said, then bolted upright. “Where’s Syn?”

August shook his head. “There’s no need to worry, but maybe we should get together again. Paige and the rest won’t harm guests or humans that have been vouched for by members of the coven. One of the traditions she hangs onto that I actually appreciate. No, the fear is more low level. I can see the human mask is dropping off and becoming something else. I could say more fae-like, but they don’t have second thoughts about lying to get what they want, so long as they think the ends justify the means.”

“Oh, there she is,” Cameron imparted the scene where Syn was happily lounging with Paige.

Since the channel was open, Nathen grinned, “Oh, that’s cool. They’re having sex. Finally! Syn has gotten some. From a vampire, no less. I wonder if she’s gonna get bitten? We should ask her.”

“Umm,” Cameron’s face had become beet red. “So, yeah, when she’s done… What were we saying?”

August chuckled, also having been exposed to the show. “We were saying, after this, we would talk to Paige and find out if the coven, or what’s left of it, will lend support in this initiative. I’m sure she will. They all will. And likely for the price of a little of your blood. Or, if you’re working with other mages, theirs. It’ll help her build her power and ultimately help with building the coven. When she said she wants you to find recruits, she’s not serious. The fact is she’s incredibly picky. And she’ll just be happy to know the Arachane are no longer a threat.”

“Goodness, well if we’re waiting for them to get done…” Cameron cleared his throat. “Umm…lemme give a little nudge.”