House of Frost - 10. Chapter 10

We drove to the hospital in silence. Perhaps we were both lost in our own thoughts, drawing conclusions from the evening. I was afraid being bonded to a magus wouldn't be seen as a positive by Ty, and I wondered what that might mean for us tonight, tomorrow and all the days that would come after that. Feeling distressed, I reached down and covered his hand with mine. Moments later he jerked his hand from beneath mine and made a growling/hissing noise that I cannot even begin to reproduce.

“Is it always like this?” he demanded.

“Is what...I don't understand,” I replied, saddened by his reaction.

He raised his hand and then let it slap back down on his thigh. “I told you, when I first saw you I was very interested. In you. I dated dumbass because I needed something to keep my mind off of you, and I thought I was a headcase then! Now...you touch me, and I spring a rager in my pants!” He slapped the steering wheel. “I'm on my way to the hospital where my best friend is in the emergency room! I'm worried for him! But you touch me and I'm throwing wood and thinking about pulling over – and we've only been together for a day!”

I let that hang in the air for a moment. He glanced at me and then back to the road.

“I'm sorry,” I say. “If I touch you I...can't get enough. I don't know if this is how a bond works.” I paused. “What do you think happened to Shawn?”

We came to a stop for a light and he stared at me. “What?”

“Dumbass? The one you dated instead of asking me out? Shawn? Crapped his pants at the dance? Are you feeling all right?” I leaned forward to assess him, and he threw himself back against his door.

“Don't touch me! I am this close to jumping your bones, and we need to get to the hospital.”

I pulled my hand back. “I understand. Jay first, bone jumping later.”

“I will beat you,” he growled, and the car lurched forward. “Why'd you ask about Shawn?”

I thought for a moment. “You just mentioned him, and the last I saw he was being helped away. I just wondered what happened afterward.”

“I...well, I guess they...got him cleaned up and, maybe, gave him clothes from the lost and found. I know if I shit myself I wouldn't have come back to the dance, so I guess he took a ride-share home.”

I grunted.

“What?”

“Do you...think he was embarrassed?”

“That he crapped himself? Yeah. Why?”

“Do you think he was as embarrassed as Al was for what he said about them?”

“I...I don't know. I mean...Al was probably hurt more than embarrassed.”

I grunted.

“Why?” He paused. “Wait. Did you have something to do with that?”

I looked straight ahead. “I have no regrets.”

In my peripheral vision I saw him move his gaze back and forth from the road to me. “You...used magic to make him crap himself?” He laughed, a bit of a wild sound. “What other magic have you been working since you got here? How much of it's been on me?”

I glanced toward him. “You? Only tonight to calm you.”

“What about my suddenly boning up? That fuckin' hurts sometimes, you know.”

I shook my head. “I think that's the bonding – certainly not something I've done.”

“Really?” he asked skeptically.

“Ty,” I said seriously. “Why in the world would you think I'd ever want to harm your penis?”

He closed his mouth with a snap and looked back to the road. He cleared his throat, and I thought I heard a stifled laugh. “So. Um. Other spells since you got to town?”

I sighed. “Not that many. I think the first one was...well, listening to that girl brag about cheating on Brad.”

“That was a spell?”

“Yes. It's useful in noisy environments,” I said, as if it didn't reinforce me as a gossip. “The next was working on Sadie.”

He glanced at me quickly and back to the road. “The dog? What did you do to her?”

“She has arthritis,” I explained patiently. “I rebuilt some of her joints, decreased her inflammation and let her aural bones move a bit more freely. Why did you say it like that? What did you think I'd do to a dog?”

“I don't know!” he said and burst out in giggles. “I mean you go from eavesdropping to veterinarian?”

“I like animals,” I said defensively. “Better than I do most people.”

He chuckled. “If you like animals so much you should cure Bea of her bad attitude.”

“Personalities aren't diseases, no matter how unpleasant she is.”

“What else have you cast?”

I thought for a moment. “Several assessments. I gave Kevin horrible gas when he was about to fight Brad.”

“What is it with you and messing with people's intestines?”

“I was just trying to stop a fight – and Shawn deserved it!” I said. “If I'd known Al was hurt rather than embarrassed, I'd have found a way to make him shit nails!”

Ty burst out laughing and starting hitting his steering wheel. It was kind of funny, and I started to chuckle.

“What's an assessment?” he asked, laughter tailing off.

“I look at a person's health.”

“Did you...ever look at Jay?” he asked, frowning lightly.

“I have, yes.”

“And?”

“He's ill. Something in his blood. I need more information. It's hard, because I need to stay in physical contact longer to get more information, and that's not easy to do without things becoming...odd or uncomfortable.”

He glanced at me a few times as we pulled into the parking lot. Pulling the vehicle into a space he turned the engine off and looked at me. “Can you help him?”

I shrugged. “I hope so. I don't fully understand the problem, yet. I need more information.”

He turned toward me. “Nick...Nicholas Frost.”

“Nicholas Basil Frost,” I said to him. “And you?”

He frowned lightly. “Tyler Easton Flexen.”

I smiled at him.

“Nicholas Basil Frost,” he said, making me think of my grandmother when I'd done something wrong. “What do you need to help Jay?”

“Well, first I need a long period of contact with him – physical contact. Just touching a hand or forearm is enough. I have to gather more information, then I can figure out what the cause is and what his system should look like and go from there.”

“Well, let's go then,” he said and opened his door. I trailed just behind him so that we wouldn't touch – and the longer this went on the harder it was to not touch him. To inhale him. To swallow all that he was whole. To-

“Oh my God! Really, Ty? One day and you have him in your clothes?” Tess said, amusement in her tired voice.

“Things got messy,” I said, and this only caused Tess and Brad to laugh hard. Ty looked at me, face red, and told me to shut up.

“What's going on with Jay?” Ty asked.

“Dad came out about twenty minutes ago. They are admitting Jay,” Tess said and stifled a yawn. “They have to run blood work. We'll probably come see him later today, after we've had some sleep. Jay fell asleep on the gurney, dad said.”

Ty pursed his lips and crossed his arms. “I kept telling him to tell your dad something was wrong!”

“Yeah. I asked him about that while dad was filling out paperwork,” Brad said soberly. “If you can believe it, it's because he thinks dad has too much to worry about with Bea at home. I mean I know she drives everyone crazy and rides dad like a fucking bronco or something, but fuck. I didn't know he was this bad.”

“He was trying to hide it from me, too,” Ty said. “Wait until I see him....”

“You want to pick us up later? Or maybe drop us off now? We can all come back to see him in the afternoon,” Tess said.

“Yeah. Come on.”

I sat in the back seat, letting Tess sit beside Ty. It seemed safest, even though she protested that I should sit by my boyfriend. I wanted to tell her that he was a lot more than that, but I had a sense this wasn't the time. It was hard enough for Ty to accept what I was; for all I know he's still struggling with it somewhat. There is no telling what Brad or Tess may think. Maybe Ty will know what to do. The car ride was fairly quiet as Tess rehashed arriving home from the dance and Jay stumbling in the living room before falling down. At first they thought he'd just tripped, maybe being tired from all the dancing – and he'd danced with Zumibia something fierce.

But he hadn't gotten up, and when he tried he was trembling from the effort. Ty was very concerned, and I found I was as well. I turned over what I knew of the assessments I'd done before, but I felt like the answer was just out of reach. Assessments are short by their nature – little more than a triage or less. Even if I had more information, I didn't know all the diseases there were or what Jay's body looked like without the disease, as he'd been feeling ill by the time I met him.

I thought about it until Tess and Brad said goodnight and I moved to the front seat.

“So...where to?” Ty asked.

“I – oh. You've never been to my home. Right. I don't know the street names. Head to our school, and I can guide you from there.”

The closer we got to my home, the more tension there was in the little car. Tess and Brad had been a decent distraction, muddying up the air enough that I couldn't catch Ty's scent easily, but now I was filling my lungs and feeling as if they betrayed me with every exhale. When we arrived I guided Ty to the front door and inside.

“Good evening, Sir,” Abelard said.

“Gah!” Ty jumped, bleating out the undignified sound.

“Good evening, Abelard. I'd like you to meet my bonded one, Tyler Easton Flexen. Ty, this is Abelard, his job is property caretaker.”

“Pleasure,” Ty said quietly.

“The pleasure is entirely mine, Sir.” Looking to me, Abelard asked, “Will you require a second room to be prepared?”

“No!” I said loudly, paused and glanced at Ty before clearing my throat. “No. That won't be necessary. I think it's past time to retire.”

“Indeed, Sir. In just a few hours it will be sunrise.”

“Good night, then,” I said.

“Good night,” Ty said very quietly.

“I suspect it will be,” Abelard said, quietly enough that I almost didn't hear him. Bold of him, yet I couldn't fault him.

Although weariness had seeped into my core, I'm sure no one would be surprised to know that both our energy levels peaked once behind closed doors. At last it was all right to touch him, to hold him, to feel his thumb slowly caress the side of my neck. To kiss him and to deepen that kiss. To remove barriers between our skin. It was awkward, both of us thrusting at each other. We slid against one another, legs dangerously close to becoming entangled. Arms wrapped about each other as our hands touched with an appetite all their own.

It was sweaty, thrilling, soul-achingly good. My blessing thrummed through my veins as though aided by a turbo, or was that Ty? The feeling of synchronicity swept through me and we became as one, writhing, thrusting against each other and consuming each other with appetites that truly were bottomless. We did come to sticky ends, and though he proclaimed never having been more tired, we showered briefly at his insistence.

At last we slept, our bodies tied together in visible and invisible knots as sleep finally claimed us.

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

There is an unusual warmth to a body that has been covered for an extended period. It's different from skin that has been in the heat of the sun or even warmed by a shower. I was thinking on this and fighting my bladder's urges for at least thirty minutes as I held Ty the next morning. It would take very little for me to resume our actions of just a few hours before, but for the moment I was content to hold him and fill my senses with his scent.

The bonding had been like a river fed by a storm, overflowing its banks and flooding anything that wasn't the river. Now that river was back within its banks, but it was still rushing with a life of its own, eroding the banks that contained it and threatening to flood at a moment's notice. It was...feeling the energy in the air a split second before a lightning strike – a feeling of powerlessness and surrender, but also of the infinite and the unknowable.

Ty stirred, shifted against me and then stretched.

“Good morning,” I whispered to his ear, and he shuddered,

“That tickles,” he mumbled and turned toward me, nestling his head into my shoulder. “Good morning, Babe.”

“Good morning, beloved,” I said softly.

He chuckled. “Beloved, huh? I'm already in your bed; you don't have to work so hard.”

“You'll have to forgive me,” I said, moving my lips against his shoulder. “Thinking of you brings to mind flowery words and-”

“Yeah, I know what else it brings,” he said, chuckling again. “It's poking my hip. Let me go pee.”

I groaned slightly. “All right. I have to as well.”

We climbed from under the covers, and I took my first real look at him – all of him. Even though I cursed the sun for waking me, for nearly blinding me as far as I was concerned, there was no denying its benefits as it caressed his skin.

“Stop,” he said bashfully and leaned into me.

I wrapped my arms around him. “What? You're beautiful.”

“Bathroom,” he said, rather than deal with me. We trekked back and forth without running into Abelard. If he knew anything about bonding, perhaps he was avoiding us? Once back in our room the river crested its banks again. Kisses were had, caresses were made. There was no darkness to hide our urgency, no shadows to mask our intent. We stepped on each other's feet, falling and landing mostly on the bed and continued in tandem to move fully onto the bed without breaking stride or abating our urgency.

We scrabbled for purchase, pushing against each other, a thin sheen of sweat allowing the friction and heat to build until we were left gasping, breathing deeply of our mixed scents and exertions. Ty lay atop me and I was tasting the skin of his shoulder as he mumbled at me not to leave a mark. He kissed my neck and asked what we were going to tackle first that day – Jay? Was there anything to be done about his father? What about understanding the bond?

I ran my fingers lightly through his hair and buried my nose in his neck, inhaling and holding my breath as if I were holding him within me. When my lungs felt as if they couldn't last another beat I let the breath out.

“I...” I pushed my cheek against his. “I realize we have responsibilities and goals. But...give me an hour. Just one to...absorb you, to give me a shield against the world.”

“Babe...you know we'll be right back here tonight, right? I mean...” His fingers traced down my chest. “Everything you've said about...how hard – difficult – it is to resist touching...I feel that, too. It's not that I don't want to.”

I thought for a moment. “How about you call to see how Jay is? If everything is okay for now, we have research to do in order to help him anyway. And if he's stable...then one hour.”

He kissed me then, a flurry that increased in speed and pressure as he went on before he leaned back suddenly. “Okay. Let me call.”

As he did I saw no reason not to touch him – after all he was right there. I brought my fingers down over his pec, tracing each rib with my fingertips, his stomach quivering as I slipped over his flank and danced over his hip bone, slowly sliding toward his inner thigh. Suddenly his hand was over mine and he gave me a stern look as he pressed the phone to his ear. I stayed still, content with the feeling of his muscle under my hand.

Randomly I thought how thigh sounded so much like sigh, and then I thought, Ty's thighs make me sigh. I might be embarrassed by that at some time, but for now my sappiness knew no bounds.

“Okay,” Ty said, setting his phone aside. “Jay is doing all right. They are running tests, but he seems stable, and they may send him home tomorrow.”

“That's good news,” I said, flexing my fingers on his thigh. Sigh. “So...I get my hour?”

He rolled toward me, unpinning my hand. “We get an hour.”

Somewhere a storm poured from the heavens, and once more we overflowed our banks and flooded everything around us. There was a duality – sometimes feeling as if I or we were the river, and sometimes merely a leaf riding the water. There was no real control, just the chaos of moving parts that somehow formed an undefined yet cohesive whole. My world was filled with the sight of him, the scent I tried to hold in my lungs, the feel of him that was inadequate because I was unable to touch all of him at once, and the sound – oh the sound. Not just the skin moving against skin or the subtle susurrus of the sheets as we writhed, though those sounds were delicious. It was also his noises – the throaty groans and winsome sighs, and other noises that sounded as if they didn't originate in his throat but from his heart – or groin.

It was too much, and it could never be enough. We rode the wave, spilling over and over.

We lay close afterward, that odd heat of us both under the covers, both pressed tightly – bound. Bonded.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked as I looked at his face, studying his mouth, not as wide as my own, and a smaller, somewhat pointed nose. His eyes hooded, his cheekbones pleasantly flared and rosy leading to his pointed chin, making his face a pleasing diamond shape. “Are you going to answer me or just stare at me?”

“Is just staring an option?”

He poked me in the chest and I smiled at him. “I was just thinking...I only used up fifteen minutes of the hour. I was thinking about the merits of staring at you for another forty-five or simply pulling you close and working us back to where we were fifteen minutes ago.”

He chuckled and placed his hand on the side of my face, stroking the skin with his thumb for just a moment. “I love you.”

I smiled and opened my mouth to reply, but he placed a finger over my lips.

“I know you do, I didn't say it for you to say it back.” He moved his hand back to the side of my face, his thumb resuming its gentle stroke. “I love you so much, and I can't help but wonder how that happened – if this bonding thing took my choices away, or if this is all magic – because it feels like magic. I've felt for guys before, but they've never respected who I am or what I want as much as they respected themselves. I know...we have different challenges, but I feel so...committed to you.”

I opened my mouth and choked on my words – what could I possibly add to that?

“The tension we've had...wanting to touch each other...it's not the same as other guys, either. There was always the goal of getting off, and I admit I like coming as much as the next guy.” He locked his gaze to mine. “But when we get started, you're all about the us instead of the end.”

I pushed not-so-subtley into him, grinding my erection into his hip. He responded, his hips grinding his erection next to mine.

“I want to ask, though...and I know this seems weird because it's only been a day...but are you ready for more?”

I paused. I stared. “There's more?”

He smiled, a very sly smile. “Oh, Nicholas, Nicholas.” He pushed me back, kissing me like we do. He ground on me, like we do. Then he started to move down my chest, laying kisses as he went.