Lacuna - N.R. Walker Page 0,100

back on his arse. “What in the abyss?”

There on his chest, right over his heart, was his koi birthmark. And above it, with its wings outstretched, was Crow’s raven.

“How is that possible? How is this . . . ?” He stared, wide-eyed at Crow. “What does this mean?”

Crow sat up and touched the bird now marked into Tancho’s skin. “I don’t know.”

Tancho took stock of himself and how he felt. “I don’t feel any different. I mean, I feel amazing after what we did. But that was all your doing.” He shook his head, then slowly touched the bird and the fish on his chest. “I don’t feel any different in regards to this.”

Crow surprised him by laughing. “Maybe he liked your body better than mine. I can’t say I blame him.” He lifted Tancho’s hand and kissed the inside of his arm. “Your skin is perfection.”

He looked up at Tancho, his eyes filled with something Tancho couldn’t quite name. Possession? Love?

“I will admit to you,” Crow said, his voice like velvet. “Seeing my mark on your skin speaks to some primal part of me.” He crawled toward him, pushing Tancho back to the floor, lying atop him again, and kissing him once more. “I could take you again, right here, like this.”

Tancho grinned at him, a new fire igniting low in his belly. “Draw that rune on my chest beside your raven, and you can take me anytime, anywhere, my love.”

Crow laughed and kissed him, then trailed his lips down to Tancho’s chest. He drew his tongue in a cross, the start of the rune for love, but then he stopped, his eyes meeting Tancho’s, now with a different kind of fire.

“What is it?”

“The rune.”

“What about it? And if you say you’re going to take me and then stop? I’ll be disappointed and displeased. You shouldn’t promise—”

Crow laughed and shot to his feet. “Get dressed.”

Now thoroughly confused, Tancho sat up. “What are you—”

Crow pulled on his pants, then picked up his boot. “I have an idea. Something you said.”

“An idea for what?”

“For how to get us out of here.”

Tancho dressed, ignoring how dirty his white clothes now were. They were far from his usual stately self. Not only was he sprayed with green Ascii blood, he was also smeared with dirt and dried sweat and the product of their lovemaking . . . “Crow, I—”

Crow’s second boot seemed forgotten as he turned his gaze to Tancho. “Do you regret what we did?”

“No, I . . . I was just going to say the opposite, actually. I have no regrets. Apart from being exiled to a hole underground, separated from our friends and family when they needed us the most . . . But what we did? No, I most certainly don’t regret that. I will cherish it forever.”

Crow took hold of Tancho’s face and kissed him with so much fervour that Tancho almost dropped his shirt. “I will cherish it also. And every time we share that again, from now until forever.”

Tancho smiled and leaned into Crow’s palm, and Crow thumbed Tancho’s cheek. “This blush on your pale skin . . . it is the most beautiful thing,” Crow whispered. Then his fingers brushed over the two birthmarks now taking up residence on Tancho’s chest. “Only bested by this. You wondered where the birthmarks were moving to when they started to move up our arms. Well, now we know.” He kissed Tancho softly. “Mine wanted to be where it belonged. With you.” Then he made a face. “Though I’m a little disappointed your fish didn’t want to swim onto me.”

Tancho chuckled, taking Crow’s hand and kissing his knuckles, and he was going to jibe him about his possessive streak when something occurred to him. “Wait a second,” Tancho said, pulling his shirt on. “Stay here.”

He slipped his boots on quickly, and facing Crow, he took a step backward, then another, and another until they were several metres apart. When Crow cocked his head, baffled at what Tancho was doing, Tancho’s smile became a grin. “Don’t you see?” he asked.

“See what?”

“How far apart we are,” Tancho said, taking another few steps backward. “And you feel no pain?”

Alarmed, Crow looked to his wrist and arm, then to Tancho. “No, I don’t . . .”

“Because I carry both marks. They are no longer separated. There is no distance between them, no gap, no space between.”

Crow took a few long strides back, putting more distance between them now than they’d had since the