Chapter Three
Kaleb was not in his room.
The door leading to the observatory was open. Normally The Priest kept it locked, but he’d left in a rush when Alton had called for his assistance.
There was nothing but shadows inside the chamber. A crisp breeze tumbled down the spiral staircase. One of the French doors was open just enough to drag in a steady flow of cold air.
The Priest paused with his hand on the rail. Dread crept through his senses, and for a moment, he stood at the edge of a cliff. Winding rivers divided grassy plains, animals crowded the banks. In the distance, mountains sprouted from the horizon, painted orange by the rising sun. The view should have stolen The Priest’s breath, but instead, it filled him with sadness.
He blinked, and there was nothing but the room, the staircase, the open door at the top.
The memories The Priest did not want to remember, were gone.
He climbed the steps. When he reached the top, Kaleb was visible through the window. Moonlight colored Kaleb’s pale skin a shade of gray and his hair a shade darker. The Doxie lay curled on the floor of the veranda with the Chimera coiled around the boy’s back. It had grown significantly since it emerged from Leo’s chest.
The moon highlighted its body in silver. As if sensing The Priest, it tightened around Kaleb.
Did it remember Kaleb? Or was it acting on instinct? If The Priest had to guess, it would be the former. Gods liked to forget monsters were, in fact, an equal. They had a culture, rules, laws. Creatures like the Chimera were a people despite not having a humanoid form. Their ways were just different, and gods being a lot like mortal men had a habit of placing themselves on a pedestal.
The Chimera opened its eyes. White orbs flickered with bits of color. It slid its head over Kaleb’s shoulder, pulled with its clawed front feet, and raised a wing. The movement put Kaleb’s back against the creature’s chest.
While keeping eye contact with The Priest, the Chimera dragged a claw down the front of Kaleb’s gown, parting the fabric.
It narrowed its eyes at The Priest. The flickering colors faded to white until there was nothing but blank orbs. The Chimera nuzzled Kaleb’s neck and slithered its long tongue over the boy’s pecs. The forked ends teased one nipple, then the other. Kaleb mumbled in his sleep. His limp cock twitched like it wanted to fill.
The Chimera made no sound as it snaked its head to the juncture between Kaleb’s hips. There it rolled its gums, flashing long white teeth. Teeth meant to shred flesh and fangs to deliver venom.
The Priest didn’t move, and after a moment the Chimera settled. Still watching The Priest, it coiled its tongue around Kaleb’s cock. The boy moaned and arched into the touch. Kaleb opened his eyes. The look of confusion turned to a mask of fear. He tried to sit up.
The Chimera put one foot on the boy’s chest and held him.
“What are you doing?”
The Chimera slipped a forked tip along the edge of Kaleb’s cock. A shudder ran down the boy, and his teeth chattered. The Chimera spread its wings against the flow of cold air, and Kaleb fell still.
“Please, don’t.” Kaleb pushed at the Chimera’s clawed hand, but it didn’t budge. Even at a fraction of its size, it had no problems holding the boy.
The forked end of the Chimera’s tongue teased Kaleb’s slit, then sank into the boy’s urethra without warning.
Kaleb slapped a hand over his mouth, muffling his cry.
The Chimera thrust the slender length of tongue in and out of Kaleb’s cock. Ambrosia so dark it was almost black in the moonlight bubbled out around it. Kaleb kept trembling, shaking, crying, but eventually, he lost whatever battle he fought and gripped the thick mane flowing down the Chimera’s shoulder and pumped his hips.
A series of clicks and purrs echoed from the creature. It released Kaleb’s cock, and the boy went placid against its body. The expression on the Chimera’s face was strangely human even though the shape if not the shadows should have erased it.
Or maybe The Priest imagined it? He might have believed it was in his mind if he hadn’t lost the ability to fantasize eons ago. No. The Chimera made itself clear. This boy belonged to the beast.
The beast flipped Kaleb over before he could protest, and it plunged its tongue into Kaleb’s hole. Kaleb shoved himself to his knees and tried to scurry away. That was the only time the Chimera broke eye contact with The Priest. It pounced on Kaleb’s back and rolled with the boy caught between its front and rear legs.
Kaleb struggled for only a moment, then he went limp again. His shoulders jerked, and the tears on his cheeks made the skin shiny.
“Yes.” Kaleb’s broken voice barely carried. “Yes, I want to. Yes.” Kaleb covered his face with his hands as he spread his legs. The Chimera raised its hips, and the phallus hidden by a sheath of flesh was freed.
Again, it watched The Priest as it teased Kaleb’s opening with a cock that was as prehensile as its tongue. The thick end thinned out and pushed into Kaleb’s opening.
Kaleb cried harder while gasping for air between tiny whimpers begging the Chimera for more.
The monster sank its cock into Kaleb’s ass. The Doxie howled and kicked. The Priest couldn’t tell if he was trying to ride the Chimera or escape him. It didn’t matter. The beast rolled Kaleb over and fucked him with violence. The Chimera’s white glowing eyes flickered with color, and it drew up its lips at The Priest in a macabre grin. Kaleb went quiet and moved his legs. The Chimera loosened its hold, and Kaleb got to his knees. He buried his face in his arms while rocking back to meet the monster’s movements.
As Kaleb’s cries softened to moans, the Chimera pulled Kaleb to kneeling position. The Chimera lowered its head over Kaleb’s shoulder and snaked out its tongue, once more coiling the length around Kaleb’s cock. This time it threaded both forked ends into the boy’s slit. Kaleb jerked, cum flowed down the head of his cock only to be caught by the Chimera’s tongue and carried into its mouth in long strokes.
The beast arched its back, and Kaleb cried out. It quit moving and held Kaleb immobile while remaining connected to him. Kaleb’s eyes rolled up, and his face went slack. An odd kind of musk was carried through the French doors on the back of the wind.
For the longest time, the Chimera lapped the cum steadily leaking from Kaleb. When the flow stopped, it lowered him to the ground. It still didn’t pull out. The muscles along its flank contracted, making its scales shudder.
The Chimera wrapped itself around Kaleb, engulfing the boy in its wings. And it stayed like that, glaring at The Priest until the first bits of sunlight colored the edge of the mountain.
When it finally pulled out, it rubbed its face against Kaleb’s before spreading its wings and flying away.
*****
Ice and fire clashed in Kaleb’s bloodstream. He was distantly aware of being carried, but no matter how he tried, he couldn’t open his eyes. The ache in his prostate had been reignited, throbbing in time with his heartbeat.
The Chimera. Leo.
Kaleb didn’t know what was worse anymore. The loss of his god or letting the Chimera… The creature’s phallus had gone from pleasant to painful, and its cum had all but burned. Kaleb wanted to hate it, he wanted to be angry, but in truth the only one to blame was him.
He’d asked it to. Not out loud, but in his dreams. In his dreams he always begged for the monster to fill him. Now it had, and the shame had Kaleb wishing he could disappear.
Kaleb drifted for hours before he was able to move without every joint screaming in agony. His throat ached, his armpits throbbed, the inside of his thighs were so tender, it hurt to bring his legs together.
“Be still.” The Priest. Water dripped then a cool cloth was swiped over Kaleb’s body.
“What…”
“Be still, Kaleb, you’ve been poisoned.”
The Chimera. In the height of ecstasy where the world had evaporated into billions of stars, there’d been the sharp pinprick inside Kaleb. At first, it was just irritating then the searing crawl of toxin set his insides on fire. The pain happened so fast, crashing into Kaleb with far more force than the whip, the cane, even the E-stim, all he’d been able to do was surrender.
Kaleb cracked his eyelids. The candle burning close by radiated blistering light. He hissed and tried to raise a hand, but his arms wouldn’t move. Kaleb’s heartbeat jumped.
“Kaleb, it’s okay. You’re safe.”
“Move…I can’t…”
“I’ve given you something for pain. You just can’t feel, and it makes it difficult to control your limbs. Quit struggling, or you’ll hurt yourself.” The Priest blocked the light, and his pale face floated within the shadows of his cowl.
His hand was ice against Kaleb’s skin.
Maybe it was the lack of questions from The Priest, or maybe it was how he seemed to know what was wrong, but it was clear to Kaleb the terrifying truth. “You saw.”
“Yes.”
The last thread of hope Kaleb had that it was nothing but a dream, vanished. “I’m sorry.”
“Just rest.”
“What’s wrong with me?”
“I told you—”
“No…” That wasn’t what he meant. Would The Priest make him say it?
“The Chimera is a beast.”
Yes, a beast that Kaleb let… Maybe the poison would just kill him. Because now life was worse than being without Leo, it was now a life where Kaleb wanted to be with the Chimera.
“The Chimera is not an animal, Kaleb. It is a person. A different kind of person. We call them monsters, but they are without a doubt a people.” The Priest picked up a bowl and scooped out a clump of what looked like dried grass that smelled of rosemary. “This will bring down the swelling in your lymph nodes.” He packed it along Kaleb’s neck, his armpits, and between his legs.
“I feel it.” Kaleb couldn’t feel his arms and legs, but he registered the throb of the aching points where The Priest touched him. And the Priest had said he’d dulled the pain.
“Do you need me to apply more liniment?”
For some strange reason, Kaleb didn’t.
The Priest stepped out of Kaleb’s line of sight and returned with a blanket. “I want you to sleep. When you wake up, I’m confident you will feel much better.”
“Why did I…”
The Priest caressed Kaleb’s cheek. “I don’t know. But the Chimera must have its reasons. It stung you once through Leo’s body, and now again when it fucked you.”
Kaleb winced. Just hearing the words made his stomach roll. Because that’s exactly what happened.
“Beasts and monsters have a long history of knowing things beyond the ability of men. I have more reason to believe it knows what it’s doing than it doesn’t.”
“I don’t disgust you?” Kaleb almost wished he did.
“No, Kaleb. You are a Doxie, and the Chimera is a part of Leo. Together they were your god. And thanks to Leo’s brother, I know you will survive.” He stood. “Now, rest.”
The Priest pinched out the flame, and Kaleb was trapped in a deep twilight where the sun made faint lines around heavy curtains. Kaleb closed his eyes. Maybe if he went to sleep, he wouldn’t wake up.
Kaleb.
Leo’s voice was so close to Kaleb’s ear, he could almost feel the god’s exhale. He tried to look, but his body didn’t want to respond. His tendons creaked with the effort to turn his head. There was just enough light to add depth to the darkness. Furniture, a lamp, a bedside table, a closed door, but there was no one else in the room.
“Leo?”
Tonight, Kaleb. Come to me. Tonight.
Kaleb’s heart skittered in his chest.
Leo’s rich scent filled Kaleb’s nose, and the heat of his touch broke through the perpetual numbness. Only it wasn’t flesh sliding over Kaleb’s skin, it was the scaled hands of the Chimera, its thick mane pressing against his back, its tongue sliding down his chest.
To the field. Through the passage in the library.
Leo’s presence started to pull away.
“No, no, stay. Please…please don’t leave me.”
I told you, you are never alone.
*****
Alton wasn’t in his chambers or the Library. The Priest was about to head to the Doxie wing when Alton emerged from the stairwell leading to the underground garage.
“We have a problem.”
Alton stopped.
The Priest inclined his head in the direction Alton had been headed.
Alton walked. “We need to make this quick. I have a meeting with Cerberus.”
“He’s back.” The Priest made it a statement. Not that he ever doubted the god wouldn’t return.
“Yes.” Alton’s mouth thinned out.
“And?” The Priest’s silent steps accompanied the echo of Alton’s expensive shoes.
“He has a Doxie with him.”
“Undocumented?”
A furrow appeared between Alton’s brows. “Apparently.”
“You don’t approve.” Another statement. The Priest just couldn’t be sure of why Alton didn’t approve. Any god could claim a Doxie if he found them. No formal announcement needed, no permission, no nothing. A Doxie found was a Doxie owned.
“You said we have a problem.”
Maybe more so if Alton was going to deflect questions about Cerberus. “The Chimera.”
“What about it?”
“I saw it last night with Kaleb.”
Alton stopped. “Saw?” He turned a little.
The Priest waited until the loyalist walking down the hall disappeared around the corner.
“It milked Kaleb of Ambrosia. Very dark ambrosia.”
Alton kept staring.
“Then it lay with him.”
Alton started walking again.
“I think—”
“Not here.” Alton held up a hand.
The Priest followed Alton upstairs. He shut the door behind them. “Do you want something to drink?”
“No, thank you.” The broken window had been repaired and most of the furniture replaced. No sign of what had happened here just a day and a half ago remained.
“If you don’t mind, I’d appreciate your company when I talk to Cerberus.”
“Kaleb is resting, so I am free.”
“He’s responsive?” Alton took a small leather book from his pocket and put it back on the shelf between two others similar in size but with a different colored cover.
“Apparently enough to sneak out on the terrace and let the Chimera fuck him.” Just in case Alton had somehow missed the gentler of words describing sex.
Alton tugged his bottom lip while not looking at anything in particular.
“You’re taking this far better than I expected.” Enough to almost make The Priest worry.
“Is he, all right?”
“It poisoned him again. This time enough to cause swelling in his lymph nodes. I suspect the poison was of a different variety. It stayed…joined with him for a very long time.”
Alton nodded.
The Priest raised an eyebrow. “I’ll say it again, Alton, you are taking this way better than I expected.” Perhaps that was the problem. The Priest made the wrong assumption. “You knew this would happen. You expected it.”
Alton blinked like he’d realized The Priest was still there and still talking. “There was a trace amount of amniotic fluid, meconium, and stem cells in Leo’s chest cavity.”
Common substances associated with birth. “Could it have been left over from when Leo absorbed his twin?”
“I’m not sure. But I don’t think so. The contents of his chest cavity were completely liquefied, so it’s impossible for me to be sure, but I think my original assessment in regard to Leo’s
transformation might have been…incomplete.” Alton held up a finger. “Are you sure you don’t want a drink?”
“I am. However, I do think I’ll sit down for this.” The Priest gathered his robes and melted into one of the high back chairs. It was a pale gold with fine embroidered flowers, just like the new sofa. The new coffee table was black.
“At the meeting we had with Dan Mitchell and Ronald Garis, I told them Leo dies in order for the Chimera to manifest.”
“He does die.” The remains of Leo’s body left on the hilltop when the Chimera was first observed was proof the god did indeed die. Then the Chimera’s remains in the cave after Leo emerged from its body made The Priest fairly certain it too died in order to free the god.
“He does. But I think their exchange in life is a kind of infinite loop of Death and rebirth.”
“And you mean that in the literal sense.”
Alton sat on the sofa across from The Priest. “I don’t think Leo is dead.”
The Priest sat back.
Alton tapped a finger against the edge of the table. “After examining his remains, I have reason to believe the Chimera lives as an undeveloped fetus inside Leo. We knew it had a consciousness and individual personality. When Leo allowed it to take over, it used his body to jump-start its growth. Zen said it took hours for the creature to become fully functional.”
“Makes sense due to its size. It would take longer for it to generate tissue.”
Alton slapped a hand on the table. “Exactly. And when it released Leo, the tissue was already there, leading to no delay in his development.”
“And now?” Because the creature The Priest saw was nowhere large enough to contain a man.
“Leo is more than likely inside in the same state the Chimera lived in him.” Alton propped his elbows on his knees. He frowned.
“And the less desirable scenario?”
Alton flicked a look up. “It’s nothing.”
“I disagree.”
“There’s a chance…” Alton sat up, then stood. He paced for a moment.
The Priest waited. Eventually the man wouldn’t be able to contain his knowledge. Sometimes it escaped without Alton’s knowing. Sometimes even when he didn’t want it to.
Alton stopped. “Due to the circumstances, involving the emergence of the Chimera, Leo’s consciousness could have been lost. The Chimera might retain his memories but what makes Leo a man could have died with the body.”
A disturbing thought.
“What about Kaleb?” The Priest didn’t think this would be a onetime thing. Going by the look on Alton’s face, neither did he.
“Leave him for now.”
“Even if he leaves Sanctuary?”
“Yes.”
“What about the possibility of Senator Garis sending men into the area?”
Alton smiled a little. “Do you really think the Chimera would let anyone harm Kaleb?”
The Priest knew the creature wouldn’t. He was fairly certain, once it was full grown, it could very well lay waste to every god in Sanctuary if it were angered enough.
All the more reason to stand back and see where this was going.