Beyond the Veil

When I woke up, I was laying on a very comfortable bed. Everything around me was silent, except for the sound of slow, deep breathing.

My eyes fluttered open and I looked around the dark, heavily shaded room. To my right, both Kaden and Sebastian were sitting on a loveseat couch. Sebastian was upright with his head propped up on a closed fist, his elbow resting on the couch’s armchair. Kaden’s head lay in Sebastian’s lap, his hands clasped together on Sebastian’s thigh with Sebastian’s other arm draped over his stomach.

I smiled, watching them quietly, not wanting to disturb them. Then, I was taken over by a violent coughing fit and had to sit up, my hand clasped over my mouth.

Sebastian woke up first, his eyes flying open as he stood up, knocking Kaden to the floor. Sebastian closed the distance between us, sitting sideways on the bed and grabbed either side of my face with his hands.

“Damien,” he said, “are you okay?”

I held up a finger as my body shook with suppressed coughs.

“I…I think so,” I said.

Kaden had gotten up and held a cup of water from the bedside table out to me. I tried to take a small sip but thirst overtook me, forcing me to chug the entire glass.

“What happened?” I asked. “Where’s the collective?”

“You scared them off,” Kaden said, sitting down next to Sebastian. “Did you know you were a phoenix?”

“How can I be a phoenix?” I asked, motioning to my body with one hand and holding the glass out to Kaden with the other. “I look nothing like a bird.”

“How many times do I have to tell you to forget everything you think you know about the magical world?” asked Kaden, setting the glass down on the table. “Although phoenixes are birds, people can be phoenixes too.”

“This doesn’t make sense, though,” said Sebastian. “How could Damien not know he’s a phoenix?”

“His parents must not have told him. Are you sure they’ve never mentioned anything about the magical world?”

“Kaden,” I said, “my parents don’t know anything about the magical world. They don’t even know it exists.”

“That’s just not possible, unless you were adopted,” said Kaden. “Magical genes are more dominant than mortal ones. So if one of your parents is a phoenix and the other is a mortal, you’ll still be a phoenix. It’s the same way with vampires, werewolves, and so on. One magical parent and one mortal parent always produces a magical child. Two magical parents always produce a magical child. If a warlock and a werewolf reproduce, the child will be both a vampire and a warlock. If a vampire and a werewolf reproduce, there’s an equal chance it will either be a vampire or a werewolf.

“Besides, Damien wouldn’t have any way of knowing he was a phoenix until he died for the first time. That’s when a phoenix’s powers get activated.”

“Is it possible that neither of my parents knows they’re magical?” I asked.

“Well, yes,” said Kaden. “If one of them was adopted or their parents didn’t tell them and they’ve never died, then they would have no idea they were a phoenix.”

“What exactly can phoenixes do?” I asked.

“Well, you’re somewhat invulnerable. Or, at least, you can reconstitute your body on death, or parts of your body if it’s destroyed. Phoenixes eventually do die, though nobody knows why. Phoenixes also live for centuries. The oldest known phoenix goes by the name Destiny Goulda; no idea what her name was when she was born. She’s over 1,200 years old. You can also conjure wings of fire, which you can control, you have super strength, are completely resistant to fire, and you can obviously fly with your wings. I know there are some other abilities, but I don’t actually know what they are. Phoenixes are rare and nobody really knows what all they can do.”

I laughed, mostly because this was absurd. How can I possibly not know I’m a magical being? I laid back on the pillows and stared up at the ceiling.

“How can I be super strong? I’ve never been that strong. And I’m not resistant to fire, either. Peter has burned me several times.”

“I told you: your powers didn’t activate until you died for the first time.”

“I don’t like how you keep saying ‘first time’,” said Sebastian. “Like he’s going to die again.”

“With Peter and Natalia on our tails, it won’t be the last time he dies,” said Kaden. “Especially since he killed Natasha.”

That’s right. I did kill Natasha. Does that make me a murderer, or am I clear because it was in self-defense? I guess that, technically, she did kill me first.

The door to the bedroom flew open and I reacted instinctively. I put my hand on the bed and pushed, intending to get myself into a standing position, but instead launched myself from the bed, barreling into Kaden, knocking him to the ground, and crushing Sebastian between the wall and my body.

“There’s that super strength,” said Kaden, pushing himself up.

“Fuck, Damien,” said Sebastian, also getting to his feet. I nearly screamed at the sight of him, his head turned at an odd angle, one of the bones in his neck causing a huge bump under his skin.

“I got you,” said a voice near the door. Samuel walked forward, wearing nothing but a tight pair of boxer briefs, and grabbed Sebastian’s head. “On three. One, two—” With a jerk of his hands and a pained shout, Samuel set Sebastian’s head back with a loud crack.

“I hate when that happens,” said Sebastian, rubbing and stretching his neck. “Also, Damien, you might want to cover up.”

I looked down at my body and realized I was naked. I moved my hands together and put them in front of my groin, hiding my cock from Samuel, whose eyes were locked on to the spot.

“Oh, there’s no need for that,” said Samuel. His eyes slid up my body and we locked gazes. He began to sing, but Kaden’s hand lashed out and wrapped around his throat, cutting the sound off.

“Back off of him,” said Sebastian, moving forward and pushing Kaden back.

Samuel didn’t seem perturbed by Kaden’s attack. If anything, he was turned on. The bulge in his briefs had certainly grown since Kaden’s hand had wrapped around his throat.

Sebastian pushed past Samuel and opened a dresser drawer from which he grabbed a pair of shorts and tossed them to me.

As I turned my back to Samuel to put on the shorts, I said, “Why am I even naked?”

“You kept bursting into flame,” said Kaden as I turned back. “Sebastian had to carry you here because you kept burning my hands. We put shorts on you at one point, but you burned them off.”

“A phoenix,” said Samuel in adoration. He tried to step toward me, but Sebastian held up an arm, keeping him at bay. Samuel’s eyes never left mine. “I’ve fucked every magical creature that exists—the human ones, anyway—except a phoenix. I’d love to be balls deep in that tight little hole of yours.”

“Back off, Sammie,” said Sebastian. Samuel turned to Sebastian, a sour expression on his face.

“I told you not to call me that, Seb,” he said.

“Then back off my fucking boyfriend, dude.”

“Fine,” said Samuel, turning away from us. “We have breakfast downstairs if you’re hungry. Naked guests in our house get served bigger portions.”

Then he walked out the door, closing it behind him.

“What are we even doing here?” I asked.

“Since Sebastian was the one who had to carry you, he overrode me and we brought you to Samuel’s house until we can meet with the Trifecton. A couple vampires have come by, begging to get a taste of your blood.”

“I did wonder why you tasted so much better than any mortal I’d ever drank from,” said Sebastian.

I turned to him. “You’re not less into me, now that you know I’m not a mortal?”

“Are you kidding me? I just called you my boyfriend, didn’t I?”

I smiled and stepped forward, kissing Sebastian.

“Woah, hang on,” said Kaden. “You’re my boyfriend too, you know.”

I smiled at him and kissed him as well.

“So does this make us an official thruple?” I asked.

“No,” both of them said together. Then Kaden added, “We’re both dating you, but we aren’t dating each other.”

“Shame,” I said. “I think it’d be really hot if you guys kissed.”

Sebastian and Kaden glared at each other. I guess they weren’t going to just yet, but I’ll make them fuck each other one day.

“Come on,” said Kaden, pulling a shirt out of the dresser and throwing it to me before heading toward the door.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“First we’re going to have breakfast with a siren and his sister,” said Sebastian. “Fair warning: sirens are really weird with their siblings. They’ll both be naked, they’ll probably touch each other, and there’s even a good chance they’ll be fucking when we go out there.”

“Samuel isn’t gay?” I said, pulling the shirt on over my head and looking down. It was a plain black T-shirt which went well with the silver shorts I was wearing. I kind of wish I had underwear on, because I could see the bulge in my pants and didn’t want Samuel to be staring at my crotch while I ate breakfast.

“All sirens are pansexual. They don’t care about gender or race. If it has a hole they can stick something in, or something they can stick in one of their holes, they’ll have sex with it,” said Kaden.

He opened the door and we left the bedroom, me following Kaden and Sebastian behind me. My stomach rumbled, almost begging for food.

The house we were in was made of wood, but the wood was worn down and covered in what I assumed was algae. It looked as though the entire house had been built from wood harvested from shipwrecks. I didn’t know whether that was true, or if the design was intentional given the house’s occupants were both sirens.

We headed through a hallway and down a spiral staircase made of wrought iron into a huge foyer. Though the upstairs made this place feel small, it was obviously much larger than I had expected. The tall windows littered around the house were a faded green, casting an eerie light over the house, making me feel like we were deep underwater.

When we entered the kitchen, I’d almost lost my appetite. Samuel was sitting in a chair at the table with his sister sitting on the table. Her legs were spread wide and Samuel was eating her out. She was moaning softly, rubbing her breasts with one hand while the other was tangled in Samuel’s hair.

Sebastian and I ignored them, moving over to the counter where a large bowl of some grey porridge looking stuff was pulsing next to a large pile of seaweed wraps.

“Samuel,” said Sebastian in an admonishing tone, “I told you to get food a human would eat.”

I looked at Samuel and wished I hadn’t. He pulled himself away from his sister with a sound like a plunger leaving a clogged drain. His face was wet, liquid dripping down his chin.

“Sorry, love,” he said, “I’ve been busy.”

“I’m done with your tongue, brother,” said Selena.

Samuel’s eyes lit up. He stood up, gripped his cock, and aimed it at his sister, but I averted my eyes before I could witness anything. Even still, I couldn’t block the sounds so I turned and left the kitchen, Sebastian and Kaden behind me.

“That is so messed up,” I said. “Let’s go out and get some food.”

“No need,” said Sebastian. “We’ll just have to go to the basement.”

“I’m not going to the basement,” said Kaden. “I’d rather eat primlin eggs instead.”

“What are primlin eggs? And what’s in the basement?” I asked.

“Primlins are magical underwater creatures. It’s what was in that bowl of slop on the counter. It tastes like someone harvested toe fungus from a hobo and fermented it in ocean water. As for what’s in the basement, it’s…complicated. Come on.”

“Well I’m not going,” said Kaden. “I’ll stay up here and—”

“No, you won’t,” I said, grabbing the collar of Kaden’s shirt, “you’re coming with us. You’re bisexual. If Selena or Samuel sing to you, you’ll be in a three way with them in no time.”

“Fine, but let go of my shirt.”

I let go and Kaden kept up with us as we descended a set of stairs off the side of the foyer. What awaited me at the bottom, I could have never been prepared for.

The first room at the bottom of the stairs was a small sitting room with a kitchenette off to the side. Kaden said he’d make breakfast while we waited.

“Here, follow me,” said Sebastian. “You need to see this so you’re not surprised when the noise starts.”

“Noise?” I asked as I followed Sebastian through the door on the opposite side of the room.

“This is one of the reasons I didn’t want to come down here!” Kaden called after us.

On the other side of the door was a cavern, which didn’t surprise me considering all of Crimson Alley was a giant cavern. What did surprise me was the group of people in the basement chained to the floor. Six men and five women, all beautiful but disheveled, their hands chained to metal loops in the ground, all naked.

“Is it them?” one of the men asked, squinting at us through the darkness. “Sing us a song! Please, oh please, sing us a song!”

They all started begging us, some of them for a song, some of them for food.

“We should help them,” I said. “Set them free.”

“No!!” the nearest man shouted. “They aren’t them, they’re others. You can’t set us free! We need the songs! We need the songs!”

All of them started moaning, saying some variation of, “We need the music, we need the songs!”

“Come on,” said Sebastian, grabbing me by the elbow and pulling me back into the kitchenette. As we got closer, the smell of frying sausage and eggs wafted toward us.

“Food!” the moans began behind us. Each of them begging for food in ghostly, wailing voices.

We shut the door behind us and though it muffled the sound, their voices were still audible.

“What the fuck was that?” I asked in a quiet voice.

“Don’t feel too bad for them,” said Sebastian. “They chose this life. It’s disgusting, but they don’t want to be set free. Samuel and Selena get off on knowing they’re down here. But they signed their rights away; it’s a kink for them.”

“It’s still disgusting,” I said.

“Not anymore disgusting than a person becoming someone else’s sex slave,” said Sebastian with a half shrug.

I sat at the table, trying to ignore the sounds of moaning, begging, and pleading.

“They should at least feed them,” I said. “Kaden, make some extra for them.”

“Absolutely not,” said Kaden. “If we do that, Samuel and Selena will throw us out.”

“You didn’t want to work with them in the first place,” I reminded him.

“That’s true,” he said, “but we’re here now and I don’t know how to get in touch with the Fairy Alliance out here. Meeting Treya was a freak chance. It’s unlikely we’ll run into them again until we leave Crimson Alley.”

“Isn’t she a dancer at the club? Couldn’t we just go back?”

“The Fairy Alliance is very secretive,” said Sebastian, answering for Kaden, who’d just shoved in a mouthful of eggs, “now that one of their members have been made, even by us, she’ll have to leave. It’s possible every member of the Fairy Alliance has vacated Crimson Alley. It’s one of the reasons I didn’t want to work with them. They’d leave us behind in a heartbeat if they thought one of them were in danger.”

Kaden didn’t respond to this accusation, so I knew it was true. I started in on my breakfast but wished one of them would say something. It was easier to ignore the begging bodies in the basement. Thankfully, Sebastian obliged.

“And it’s one of the reasons I wanted to work with the Trifecton. More dangerous, but more reliable.”

Again, Kaden didn’t offer any kind of rebuttal.

“So what’s our next move?” I asked.

“We go to Dire’s place. He doesn’t live far from here. Samuel had to pull some strings to get me an appointment with him.”

“And what did you give Samuel in return?” I asked, not sure if I wanted to know the answer.

Sebastian looked at me guiltily. “I had to masturbate with him. He wanted to fuck me, but I refused. So we jerked off together, but he didn’t touch me.” After a moment of silence, he asked, “Are you mad?”

“No,” I said, and it was the truth. “You did what you had to, to get us a place to stay.”

“I’m sorry,” said Sebastian, “I still feel like I cheated on you or something. I was just so worried that Samuel was going to kick us out. We weren’t sure how long you were going to be out.”

“Wait, what do you mean?” I asked. “How long was I out for?”

“Almost three days,” said Kaden. “I was about to start using magic to try and wake you up. That’s how I knew this place was already here, because I explored yesterday and found it.”

“And I’m assuming that Peter and Natalia haven’t found us.”

“Not yet,” said Kaden. “Most likely because of this house. Sirens are very resistant to magic. That’s another reason I’m not so upset we’re here.”

As Kaden took a drink of his water, Sebastian said, “And the last is because Selena walks around naked.” Kaden spat the water out over the table. Both Sebastian and I started laughing, then laughed even harder as Kaden’s face turned bright red and he rolled his eyes.

“Peter said he’s been using magic to find us. Any idea how, Kaden?”

“It could be a lot of things. Scrying, locator spells, word of mouth, though the last one isn’t magic.

We kept eating our breakfast and it took me a few minutes to realize the prisoners—or whatever they should be called—had become quiet.

After breakfast, we headed back upstairs, ignoring the sounds still emanating from the kitchen, and went up into our bedroom, which had a private bathroom off to the side.

“Let’s take a shower before we head out,” I said, lifting my arm and smelling. “I smell like I’ve been in a gym for three days.”

“We already took a shower,” said Sebastian. “Why don’t you enjoy the hot water all to yourself? We’ll wait out here for you.”

I nodded and went into the bathroom but was surprised when Kaden closed the door behind me. It’s not like I needed the privacy from them, but whatever. A towel was already waiting for me on the bathroom sink so I set the water and stepped in, using the bar of soap in the shower that smelled like ocean air.

Once I was clean, I dried off with the towel and, unable to find a better place to put it, left the towel on the floor and stepped back into the bedroom.

Kaden and Sebastian were laying on the bed, both completely naked.

“What’s this?” I asked, my smile growing as blood started pumping into my cock.

“I told you,” said Sebastian, “that next time, we were going to fuck you together.”