Sun's Shadow (Dusk Series - Book 3.5 Standalone - MxM)

Chapter 12 - Talamayas

"I'm sorry," Tala said, but he couldn't pull his hand back or lower his lips back onto his bared fangs.

"Let's go," Shan said to the guards, and they looked to him questioningly. "Leave Tala with him. It's better that way." That way he couldn't snap at anyone.

They shuffled off, and Tala went to Wren's side, kneeling next to the man. It didn't seem that he was all there. Wren's hand slithered toward him but didn't quite make it, his trembling showing he was awake even when he stilled. Tala saw no harm in touching him to see how injured he was, and he lifted him off the floor to lean Wren's back against the inside of one of his knees. Wren let out a groan that sounded relieved, and Tala was sure he'd heard that wrong.

"Wren Song, why did you come back here?" Talamayas asked, needing to know what trouble the mage had dragged back to his people. As much as he craved the man, he needed to know what else he had brought back with him that could harm his people.

Grey eyes snapped up to his, and Tala flinched from the anger in Wren's gaze, but it simmered down quickly. "So you don't know. I guess it was incidental then," Wren said in a hush of breath. "You feel so good. Would you embrace me?"

Had Wren lost it?

"Please," Wren whispered, and it shook Tala. That had been the word Tala had said to him when he'd needed someone to hold and lean on. It wouldn't be fair of him to not repay the favor.

Tala sat on the floor and pulled Wren up into his lap to hold him against his chest. The feeling of the familiar energy against his magic was euphoric, and Tala inhaled Wren's scent with relish. Tucking his face in the man's hair, Tala clutched him and wanted to squeeze him closer, to absorb him into his flesh. The groan from Wren this time wasn't in relief but annoyance, but Tala didn't care. The man could think he was going to rape him for all he cared, as long as they could stay like this.

"You broke me," Wren said into Tala's shoulders, and he stiffened.

That had not been his intent. Broken how?

"I was fine on the outside, by myself, until Vice left. Then I started to break down, hour by hour, minute by minute. My body hungered for something, and I didn't know what until you touched me just now."

"I don't understand?" Tala said, releasing him from his desperate hold. The way Wren's face had fallen against his chest and the touch of the mage's warm hand on his bare chest as he steadied himself had Tala suppressing a low grumble of possessiveness.

"I spent so much time in your dungeons that my body has grown dependent on the presence of your magic," Wren said, stretching his fingers on Tala's cool skin and raking them back together with a brush of nails. "Without its pressure, my body falls apart, as if the weight of your existence is what holds me together. As soon as you embraced me, the sickness began to waver, and I'm feeling stronger every second." Wren was silent for a moment and then his body quaked as he dipped his grey eyes lower into Tala's chest. "I'm never going to be free."

Wren wept, turning from him but unable to escape his arms, and Talamayas clenched his teeth in frustration. Nothing he could do would fix this, and as the man faded off into sleep, likely to heal the damage in his body, Talamayas lifted him. Tala had gotten what he wanted, Wren back under his control, but it didn't feel satisfying.

There was no reason to further his suffering, and Tala wanted to lie him down to sleep, but something about him alone on the upper floor rooms made him uneasy. It wasn't the best decision to take him to his room, as it was a repurposed store room and not comforting in the least, but it was home for Tala. Home felt safe. For both him and Wren. Tala laid him down and sat on the edge of the bed to watch Wren's breathing as it strengthened. As soon as the man was released from his hold, he turned toward him to absorb more of his energy.