Beyond the Veil

I had no idea what to do.

On one hand, I knew that Kaden had been lying to me. How deep that lying went, I wasn’t sure. But he’d definitely been keeping things from me since the moment I met him. On the other hand, Kaden hadn’t ever thrown a fireball at me to try to break my skull against a tree. Even still, what if they’re right? What if Kaden is a criminal and they were trying to stop him and not hurt me?

“We are just trying to help you, Damien,” said Peter. “You’ve just been caught in the crosshairs.”

“Like when Natalia tried to slam me into a tree?” I asked.

“That was an accident,” said Natalia. “I was aiming for Kaden. He let you take the hit.”

Was that the truth?

“How about the fireballs you were shooting at us as we flew away?”

“I was aiming for Kaden,” said Peter. “We would’ve caught you as you fell.”

“And why would you want to protect me anyway?” I asked.

“If Kaden has told you lies about us, we wanted to get ahead of it before you went to the MPs. To make sure you knew the whole truth, not what he told you.”

“Damien…” Kaden said, shaking his hand slightly.

“Tell me the truth, Kaden. Did you really commit the crime they’re saying you did?”

His eyes glisten, almost as if tears are about to start forming.

“We committed it together, the four of us. They aren’t innocent in this. But I swear, from this moment on, I’ll tell you everything.”

I looked back at the twins.

“One more question,” I said. “If you were really trying to protect me, why flood the safehouse with fire?”

Peter closed his eyes as he realized he’d been had.

“Maybe you can’t trust us,” he said, then pointed at Kaden, “but you can’t trust him either.”

“Maybe not, but I trust him a hell of a lot more than I trust you,” I said, grabbing Kaden’s hand. Kaden turned and started running, dragging me along behind him, down the road he’d indicated was the direction of the bank.

I looked over my shoulder to see Peter, Natalia, and Natasha walk in the opposite direction, though I knew it wouldn’t be the last we’d seen of them.

Kaden led me down the road, hand-in-hand, squeezing with enough pressure to ensure I wouldn’t get separated from him, but not enough to make me feel trapped.

We came upon a tall white building made of polished marble with tall gilded black doors which sat open for the world. Upon entering, we came upon a set of two trolls, both female by the look of them.

“Good evening, gentlemen,” said one of the trolls as we walked past them into a grand hall. Sitting at desks along the back wall were creatures about as tall as a six-year-old children with long, pointed, hairy ears, long, pointed, hairy noses, and wide mouths filled with grey teeth. Their skin, a dark mottled green, appeared to have been simply lain over a skeleton, as it was sagging in many places.

“Goblins,” Kaden whispered to me. “Just don’t get on their bad sides and you’ll have nothing to worry about.”

“Bad ‘sides’?”

“Yes, goblins have many bad sides. In fact, I’ve rarely met one with a good side, if I’m being honest.”

We approached an open teller and I smiled at the goblin, saying, “Good morning!”

The goblin sneered at me as though I were dog shit on his shoe.

“What the hell do you want?” he asked in a deep, raspy voice.

“Uhh…”

“’Uhh…’” the goblin mocked. “I haven’t got all day. Tell me what you came for so we can get it done and get ya out of here, will ya?”

“I’m here to get a debit card for my account.”

The goblin stared at me, his eyebrows slowly rising centimeter by centimeter for ten solid seconds.

“And your name is?” the goblin asked, sounding profoundly annoyed.

“I’m Damien Ahring,” I said.

“Thank fuck we got there,” said the goblin, opening the book in front of him. “I have twelve Damien Ahrings here. What is your designation?”

I stared blankly at the goblin before turning to Kaden, who was trying to suppress a smile.

“He’s a newly registered BTV mortal.”

“Fucking mortals,” the goblin grumbled as he rolled his eyes.

He ran his finger down the page, tapping it on something three times, then shut the book and reopened it. A silver card sat against the binding. He removed it and slammed it down on the counter, but didn’t let it go.

“Think of four numbers before picking it up. This will become your PIN. Your current balance is $2,486.01. If you need to move more from the mortal world, you must come here. If you need to move money to the mortal world, you must come here. Do not go to a mortal bank and start spouting off about magical money, it never goes well. If you get locked into an insane asylum, we won’t help you.”

I laughed at that, but neither the goblin nor Kaden did.

“It wasn’t a joke,” said the goblin, moving his hand away from my card.

I thought of four numbers and picked it up. I don’t know if I was expecting it to glow, or be warm, or what, but absolutely nothing happened.

“Thank you,” I said to the goblin, slipping the card into my pocket, “have a nice day.”

“Go fuck yourself, both of ya.”

We turned away from the goblin and started to walk from the bank.

“Are all goblins like that?” I asked.

“Most of them. Nothing gets done about the mean ones, though, because they’re the only creature who can tell when money is made by magic. They have a keen eye. Unless they physically attack a witch or warlock, nothing happens to them.”

With money in my pocket, or card, rather, I started to look around at the shops, wondering what I should buy. Roger must have had them take every penny out of my mortal bank account, because I had about $2,500 in there from saving up from my job. I stopped short when I saw an advertisement in a window.

“Dark magic services,” I read aloud, “enquire within. Can they be advertising about dark magic like that?”

“Yeah, why not?” Kaden said with a shrug.

“I just figured dark magic would be illegal. Isn’t dark magic like, evil, or something?”

Kaden rolled his eyes. “I keep telling you to forget everything you know about magic. Dark magic isn’t strictly evil. It’s just less containable and more addicting than light magic, but each have their purposes. It’s like this: if you needed to handle an ant infestation, you wouldn’t bring a bomb, would you? Light magic could handle it. But if Peter attacks us, I’d prefer a bomb. That’s what dark magic is used for. It’s not what type of magic you use, it’s what you use it for.”

“Like using a gun for hunting versus murdering someone,” I said.

Kaden nodded. “Come on, let’s get you a phone. And keep your card in your pocket. I’m buying it for you.”

A short while later, I had my own vape and a brand new phone in my hand. It had some magical applications already installed on it, including one called Buffr.

“What’s Buffr?” I asked Kaden.

“It’s magical Grindr, mainly used for gay hookups. New magical phones can tell things about you and will preinstall apps to help you.”

“Why does it think I need Buffr?” I asked.

“Oh, probably because you haven’t gotten off in who-knows-how-long and it’s caused you to fall for the first insanely hot man you’ve come across since,” he said with a wink before continuing down the street.

Does he knows I’ve called him insanely handsome or is he just being funny?

After a quick lunch, we headed back to Roger’s house. Kaden insisted on taking a crazy roundabout way so it took just short of forever before we finally got there and sat down on his couch.

“Okay, first things first:” said Kaden, “we need to figure out what we do next.”

“Oh, I know this one!” I said in a falsely cheery voice. “You tell me everything like you should have done from the very beginning. Why are Peter, Natasha, and Natalia really after you? What crime did you commit that’s keeping us from going to the police? What really happened to Emily?”

“Okay, fine. I’ll tell you everything,” Kaden said before taking a puff off his vape. “Look, Peter really did kill Emily. She was the most powerful in our collective. She was an advocate, someone who could produce magic without saying incantations aloud. However, she also refused to believe that the same rules of magic applied to her as it did to the rest of us. She kept using magic over and over and over until…she became a Siphon.

“She had been researching ways to turn Siphons back into regular people, but hadn’t had much luck because, well…you can’t get a Siphon to just cooperate. That’s not how they work. Siphons are among the most dangerous creatures you could ever deal with. They’re just plain evil and vicious. We were able to contain her and were trying to figure out how to turn her back, but she…got out.”

“How? I thought Siphons didn’t have magic of their own.”

“Well, they don’t produce their own magic. They have to steal it. Emily had a younger sister, Zoe. Powerful, like her, but not nearly as much and she couldn’t control her powers. She was only six and she found Emily in the basement where we were keeping her. Emily convinced Zoe to use her powers to set her free, then stole Zoe’s power, killing her. So, Peter killed her.”

“She killed her own sister?” I asked. Kaden nodded.

“But why can’t we go to—”

“I’m getting to that,” said Kaden, taking a hit off his vape. There was something sex about the way he barely opened his lips and let the vapor roll slowly out. “Once Emily was dead, I was grieving and heartbroken. I loved Emily more than anything and I wanted her back. So I convinced the others to help me…” Kaden took a deep breath, “to help me resurrect her. Necromancy is the most illegal magic you can perform. It’s punishable by immediate execution, no chance for trial or jail. Messing with the laws of life and death are forbidden, absolutely.

“Even still, it worked, but Emily wasn’t herself. She was trapped between life and death and went insane. She had her old powers back and access to our collective. So I stole her power, killing her again. When the collective was weakened, I ripped myself from it, taking her power, my power, and a portion of their power as well.”

I was shocked by what he’d told me. Maybe it’s because I didn’t grow up in the magical world, but I didn’t think necromancy was that big of an issue. Moreso, I felt sad for him. For what he’d been through.

“If you have all this power, how could you possibly use too much? I mean, Peter, Natasha, and Natalia used way more power than you did and they weren’t in danger of turning into Siphons. Yet, your eyes were almost completely black last night.”

“Yes, but remember that when I ripped myself from the collective, I took only two-fifths of the total power. They still have three-fifths and share it equally. Plus, I don’t use Emily’s powers. I have it locked away inside me. Once it’s gone, my own power will fill the void, but I like having that piece of her inside me.”

Is that why he can’t have feelings for me? Because he’s still holding on to Emily so tightly?

We sat in silence for several minutes before Kaden broke it.

“Are you afraid of me now? Most people would be, knowing I’ve raised the dead.”

“No, Kaden, I’m not. I don’t care about that. I’m just sorry you had to go through all of this.”

He turned to me, his blue eyes shining in the light cascading from the blinds in Roger’s living room. As I gazed into them, I felt my heartbeat quicken, an urge to lean forward, to press my mouth to his, overtaking me so strongly I could barely hold back.

“I’m glad,” he said softly, shifting himself into a more comfortable position, a position that put his face closer to mine. I leaned in so close, I could have counted the eyelashes running across his lid.

The door slammed open and we broke apart.

“Oh, dear me,” said Roger, walking over the threshold, several bags in hand. “Did I ruin a touching moment?”

“No,” said Kaden. “I was just telling him about the past.”

With nothing else to say or do, I took a hit off my vape, letting the fruity flavor, called “Mystic Berry”, roll from my mouth.

Roger closed the door with his foot and walked his groceries into the kitchen. A moment later, he walked up to us, holding out tall, thin bottle. I tried to read the label, but the golden lettering looked like it was scrawled by a toddler.

“What is that?” I asked.

“Elvish wine!” Kaden said enthusiastically, grabbing the bottle, but Roger held on.

“Uh, uh, uh,” said Roger, wagging a finger. “This was expensive and I require payment for it.”

Kaden rolled his eyes. “Fine, just kiss me and give me the damn bottle.”

“Oh, no, that’s not my payment this time,” he said. “I want a secret.”

“If you’ve kissed him already,” I said, “don’t you have all his secrets already?”

“Look at you, plum drop,” said Roger, with an appreciative gaze at me, “you’re learning. But witches and warlocks have ways of concealing their secrets from the fae.”

“Then couldn’t he just lie to you about a secret?” I asked.

“Secrets from the Kiss of Kohln, not lies,” said Kaden. He stood up, still holding on to the bottle and walked toward the kitchen. He leaned in and whispered something in Roger’s ear. Roger’s eyes snapped to mine, he smiled, and let the bottle go.

What did he say to him? Was it something about me?

A moment later, Kaden sat next to me on the couch, wrapped his index finger and thumb around the neck of the bottle, said, “Ehvom,” then ran his fingers up toward the bottle’s mouth, where the cork popped out, falling into his hand.

Kaden brought the bottle to his lips and took a gulp, then handed it out to me. I could see Kaden’s saliva on the rim of the bottle and wondered, as I took it from him, if he did that on purpose.

Once I sipped the wine, I stopped caring. It was sweet and tangy, a mixture of flavors I knew and some that were foreign to me, but it was the most incredible thing I’d ever tasted. After just a little sip, I felt my head start to spin.

“Be careful,” said Roger, “that’s strong stuff.”

I nodded, but took another sip anyway and the feeling intensified. I felt like I was floating on a cloud as I lay back against the couch. Kaden took two more gulps then set the bottle on the table in front of us and sat back too.

His hand was just sitting there on the couch. I wanted to take it in mine, to interlock my fingers into his and couldn’t think of a reason I shouldn’t. His skin was so soft against mine as our fingers slid together. Kaden looked down at our interlocked fingers and smiled.

“Your hand feels so good,” he said, and I felt a fire of pleasure ignite in my chest.

“Yours too,” I said. Kaden sat up and grabbed the bottle, took another swig, then held it up to my mouth. Without holding the bottle myself, I couldn’t control how much I drank. One, two, three gulps later, and Kaden was pulling the bottle back to his own lips. He smiled at the wet tip of it and ran his tongue along the opening. I gasped in pleasure as his tongue slid along the side, his eyes locked on mine.

Then he was kissing me. The wine tasted differently on his tongue than it tasted coming from the bottle, a taste I recognized. The taste of him.

Kaden pulled his lips from mine and sunk his teeth into my neck. I let out a deep moan as I gripped his back, wondering vaguely how I’d ended up on my back, where my shirt had gone.

Kaden sat up and the light glistened on his bare chest as he gazed at me as though I were the most beautiful thing in the world. His hands ran down my side, stopping at the waistband of my shorts.

“Wait,” I said, but Kaden collapsed on me, shushing me gently, stroking my hair.

“It’s okay,” he said, “it’s okay, I’m right here. I’m going to take good care of you.”

Then his lips were on mine again, and I could faintly hear a strange sound, like someone breathing quickly but softly. I turned my head and saw Roger sitting in a chair near the door, watching us, his hand on a nine inch hard cock, stroking slowly.

Another gasp of pleasure left me as Kaden’s hand slinked under my shorts and gripped my cock, rubbing me up and down to the rhythm of Roger’s breaths.

Something clicked in my brain. This is wrong. This is what I want, but we’re both extremely drunk from the wine. We shouldn’t be doing this. But then Kaden pulled back and pushed his shorts to the ground. His big, beautiful, uncut cock stood there, begging me to swallow it.

I reached out and grip it in my hand, a shudder running along my body at the thrill of finally having something I’d wanted for so long. I stroked him several times, loving the way he moaned softly as his eyelids drooped. Then, he grabbed a fistful of my hair and pulled me forward. My mouth opened and Kaden’s cock slid into my mouth.

“Oh, my fucking god,” Kaden groaned as the head of his dick hit the back of my throat. I opened it for him, as fully as I could, to allow him to slide all the way until my nose was buried in his pubes.

Kaden began to thrust, fucking my throat, my hair still entwined in his fingers. I reached up and cupped his balls, gripping them firmly.

“I want to be inside you,” said Kaden. “Make sure my cock is wet enough for you.”

I pooled as much saliva into my mouth as I could as he fucked my face, until it was dripping down the sides of my mouth.

Kaden let me go and I fell back, laying on the couch. He stuck two of his fingers into his mouth, wetting them, then slid them over my hole. His touch was like electricity on fire, igniting every nerve it touched with the power of a hurricane. He slid two fingers in, whispering something, an incantation I think. I felt my muscles relax, making room for him.

“Fuck me,” I said. “Fuck me right now.”

Kaden grinned, a malicious thing that turned me on, and lined his cock up with my hole, sliding in as easily as a knife through butter.

I groaned in ecstasy as he filled me up, pushing until he was all the way in. His lips met mine and I knew he could taste himself on my tongue as he began to pile drive my asshole into oblivion.

Our breaths mingled as he gazed into my eyes, our bodies slamming together in a symphonic chorus. He fucked me hard and fast, pummeling my prostate with every thrust. The pure bliss of the wine, of sexual pleasure, of finally having Kaden, was too much for me. I had to reach down and start stroking my cock.

Kaden leaned back and grabbed my wrist, guiding my hand up to his mouth where he kissed the palm, then spat a glob of spit into it. When I started stroking again, his spit acted as lube and when he bent down to kiss me again, running his tongue across my lips, I exploded like a bomb of majestic caliber.

My cum rocketed from my cock, spraying both of us, some of it landing on my face. Kaden started fucking me harder and faster as Roger gave a loud moan, announcing his orgasm, as Kaden licked the cum from my face and kissed me. Our tastes danced as our tongues clashed in a duel.

Kaden looked at me, his eyes half shut with lust as he fucked me better than I’d ever been fucked before.

“I’m going to cum,” he warned.

I could only nod. His thrusting became erratic as his breathing quickened. He shoved inside me, deep as he could go. I felt his cock expand inside me as he came, filling my hole with hot cum. He gasped, his whole body shaking with the effect of his orgasm.

He smiled at me and said, very loudly, “You aren’t awake yet?”

 

I opened my eyes to see Kaden standing in the kitchen, spooning eggs onto a plate.

“What happened?” I asked, sitting up.

“It’s my fault,” he said with a smile. “I made you drink too much, too fast. You fell asleep almost immediately.”

“I did warn you it was strong wine,” said Roger, accepting a plate from Kaden, who sat one down in front of me.

“I don’t feel hungover,” I said.

“Well of course not,” said Roger. “Elvish wine won’t make you hungover. What’s the point of magic if you can’t rid the good things of the bad things?”

Roger took a bite of his eggs as I looked down at the plate Kaden set before me.

“Are you okay?” Kaden asked, sitting down next to me and biting into a piece of bacon.

“Yeah. I’m just not sure what happened last night. I think I had a weird dream.”

“What happened in the dream?”

“I grabbed your hand…” I said, then paused, pretending to think, “…then we fell through the couch and were falling through clouds.”

“Oh, well the hand thing was true. You grabbed my hand and I held the bottle up while you drank, then you laid back and passed out.”

“Elvish wine can cause powerful hallucinations if you don’t drink it often, or if you drink too much,” said Roger. “I had a hallucination that this devil—” he pointed his fork at Kaden, “—had me bent over the coffee table and was fucking me so hard, it was like he was trying to rip out my intestines with his fat dick.”

Kaden gave a wry smile as he finished his bacon.

“What about you, you delicate little apricot?” Roger asked Kaden.

Kaden glanced at me for a second, then said, “I got to spend some time with Emily. Before she turned into a Siphon, I mean…”

My heart was crushed. I know I should be happy he got to spend that time with Emily, even if it was fake, but I couldn’t help the jealousy that burned inside me.

I stood up and walked to the bathroom to pee. When I pulled my shorts open and reached to pull out my dick, my hand ran against the sticky inside of my boxers. The hallucination made me literally cum in my pants.

Maybe Kaden was right. Maybe I just needed to do something about this. Maybe if I get laid, I can finally get over him.

I pulled out my phone and opened the Buffr app.