Dionysian Ritual

by Ursula

Rated: A slash

Pairing: Cory Raines/Lt 'Leigh' Baines/Richie Highlander/XtroII

Disclaimer: Panzer owns Cory Raines. Humph, until Cory finds out they think they do, at least. And sleeping beauty, Richie as well as other Highlander characters mentioned are all Panzer slaves. I can't for the life of me remember which company created Baines, but since they left him the worse for wear, I claim salvage.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

A summer day, slow and golden like molten honey... buzz of bees and smell of ripening flowers, the earth and grapes...

Cory sprawled naked on the cushion strewn porch swing. Grape vines circling his hair, a jug of wine overturned at his feet, remains of his lunch of cheese, fruit, and bread still on the deck. His hand moved slowly over his erect cock, thumb circling the dewing head; fingers stroking the taunt quivering flesh below.

Ah, Richie, Richie...Cory's hard flesh quivered as his mind replayed the first time that Richie had let him enter him. The boy's face so open, his blue eyes wide and his lips ruby colored and wet from kisses. His hands had raised the boy's well-shaped legs to rest on his shoulders. He had played and teased with one finger until Richie was sweating and writhing, cursing him and pleading, "Do something! Do something."

Yielded and opened to him like Earth's fecund loins surrendering to the thrust of spring sun.

That golden body arched as Cory delved and played inside the virgin gate. The feel of Richie's soft and curly hair, pushed against his throat...the wet heat of his breath on his chest...each time like no other...

Cory came as he remembered and his voice echoed grief and loss as he screamed his beloved's name. Panting, he lay still supple. His fingers painted patterns in the ornamentation of his seed upon his stomach.

Ah Richie...Cory thought...you will live again. Cory's foot dislodged the wine bottle. He caught it up, tilted his long graceful neck as he swallowed the last dregs of the robust wine. It was getting late. The sun that caressed his smooth muscled chest was sinking on the horizon.

Cory went to say good-bye. Richie lay in style behind the locked marble doors. Cory had draped golden brown velvet over the marble slab. Richie looked as if he was in an ordinary sleep and he could barely see the line of white on Richie's neck now. Cory knew that someday soon Richie would wake to him, alive and smiling, ready to be loved. Cory brushed at the golden curls, kissed the lips, which smiled in the endless dream.

"Sleep well, my love." Cory said.

Far away, Cory sensed MacLeod battling again. He wished him luck...and God speed. Keep your distance, MacLeod, he thought. Keep far from the boy and me. He's mine now. I brought him here to sleep and heal. And when it's time, Richie will lie in my arms again.

Cory lightly packed his few bags and went out. He was riding Richie's motorcycle, a sleek device, black and red trimmed. He liked the way it shook beneath his legs, the powerful response of the engine...much like a blooded stallion; he thought. Cory had always favored riding stallions. He licked his concupiscent lips and smiled; he liked riding them in both horse and human form.

As Cory started the bike, the earth shook as powerfully as it had that unfortunate time in Pompeii. It took a moment for him to realize that it was an explosion.

Cory growled a curse. He had been ignoring the unwelcome intrusion on the other side of the mountain. But if they were bound to shake his demesnes, he needed to investigate.

Cory was, luckily, a God. A curious, pleasure-loving, trickster God. He adored a challenge; too bad the security measures for the laboratory didn't really pose one.

Arriving at the site of the laboratory, he watched puzzled as equipment was hauled in...bodies were hauled out. A few shaken looking soldiers were ushered away.

Finally the dust settled and the laboratory was left guarded, but relatively deserted. Cory slipped through the perimeter without resorting to any of his godly gifts. He had an appreciation for human cunning. It was one of their admirable traits. So when he could, he practiced their skills as agile and clever as a coyote.

His little fiasco with MacLeod had been one of his few mislaid plans. It was MacLeod! The man was a jinx and hardly worth the elaborate seduction to get him to lift his kilt. If Amanda hadn't bet him that it was nigh impossible, Cory might have skipped that little diversion.

Cory paused in his investigation. By Hades, what the hell was that? Oh no, there was a mule or jenny here! Immortals they called themselves, pathetic creatures like Duncan or the more admirable Connor...

Cory sniffed around and caught the wavering newborn aura dying and rebirthing in pitiful waves. He tracked the sensation to the site of a horrific explosion. Well, of course, Cory shrugged. No one was about to take notice so he simply willed the struggling life force out of the rubble and set him down in a less destroyed section of the lab.

Cory was now quite bemused. This mule looked like one of his, but by the gods, he knew he had not lain with any mortal woman unless he had made a temporary alteration to her fallopian tubes to prevent such unfortunate accident. Before he had learned that mortal woman laid eggs inside themselves, he had kept his favors to beautiful men for centuries.

Cory had good reason for that. His son, Orpheus, had been killed by one of Pluto's bastards...and blast the foul rumors that he had anything to do with that tragedy. Orpheus was the last heartbreak of that sort he ever wanted to experience so he would make no more mules or jennies. Besides the birth of the immortal usually killed the mother as Cory had found out to his horror.

Cory frowned and suddenly remembered the last time he had been in Greece! That had been a mistake. He'd had a sentimental urge to visit his old stomping grounds...see if the boys still had cheeks like ripe peaches (both sets of cheeks) and the girls had nipples as ripe as cherries. Besides, he had a taste for ouzo that just couldn't be satisfied by the imported stuff.

Some very strangely acting men and women had invaded the village, telling everyone that they were there to give inoculations. Cory had been drunken abed with a beautiful boy and a beautiful girl. The boy had taken amiss the invasion of their bedchamber. A hot head like Cory's darling Richie...that long lost lovely had attacked the gray faced invaders. Cory and the spicy lass had joined the fray until a machine gun butt had slammed Cory into a bloody sleep. He woke up still naked, but no longer in his lovely company. And some gray-faced scientist was slicing flesh from him. Cory woke with a roar, dissolved the straps that bound him to the table and lit out of there, giving little thought to the small sample of his body left in the grasp of the terrified old man.

Cory hadn't bothered to worry about the few scrapings of his cells; so far no one had found anything unusual about him with the crude science of the day. It did occur to him when Alex told him about clones. Actually, it occurred to him the second time he saw Alex...because the beautiful mortal was definitely his double. And Cory knew that he had made no children that young.

Cory was no improvident or uncaring deity. Not like Ares who had perpetrated the myth that ruined the lives of the offspring of the gods. Once Ares had screwed things up for the mules and jennies that resulted from gods sleeping with mortals, Cory had scattered no more of his seed. It was easy enough to choose beautiful men and lovely sterile women for his lovers...and the half-breed immortals were perfect in that respect. They were unable to reproduce on their own like many hybrids.

Cory licked his lips as he thought of that lovely vixen Amanda, well worth being elevated to demigoddess... at least until that prick, Duncan, had corrupted her to his doom and gloom philosophy.

Cory turned his attention back to the morsel of humanity at his feet. The barely stirring newborn immortal wore only a few shreds of cloth. His body despite the bloody effluvia of his birth was sleek; he was in better shape than even the delectable Krycek had been. Cory smiled as intense green eyes glared at him. Spirited too...

"Who the hell are you? Why do you look like me?" the man snarled. "And why do I feel so strange?"

Cory bowed, wishing for days of old, when either tunic left legs bare or tights revealed shapely legs. "Cory Raines, at your service. And, I am a tad older than you. You look like me."

Still eyeing Cory with no trust at all, the man said, "I'm Baines, Leigh Cesare Baines."

Ah, Cory noted. Pretty copy. Was he a clone of Alex or a chip off the old deity? Cory watched the lithe body scramble to its feet. Baines' mouth made a lovely moue as he realized that other than a rag of sleeve on his left arm and a tattered piece of waistband, he was nude.

Baines gasped and staggered. He said, "I remember...the alien. I was in the elevator shaft and the only thing left to do was to set off the plastic explosive. I thought I did it. There was a flash and it hurt...I remember pain...waking and pain. It felt like dying over and over."

Cory put out a steadying hand and said, "Don't worry too much. There's a lot to tell you. And so much to teach you."

Cory vowed straight away that this boy would know the truth. He'd have to teach him the sword, of course. He thought dolefully of the damn exercise involved. Cory knew one end of a sword from another, but befuddlement was a better weapon. Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly. His idea of a rousing sword fight was only fought with the fleshy sort of weapon. It was amazing how often a little seduction made the game a distant memory for the challenging mule or jenny. Hardly fair at any rate for Cory to take anything other than a maidenhead from them.

Cory's mortal body was infinitely renewable. He grinned as he recalled a challenge in the early days of New York. There's been no choice except to behead or be beheaded. Cory had been in a quirky mood...he had a lot of those. So his head had rolled. Then Cory had devised a headless body and rode about the countryside in this demented fashion, tormenting the hapless immortal who had decapitated him until he had gone as mad as Cory's Maenads...even laughing gods are dangerous, perhaps the most dangerous of all.

Cory smiled widely and bowed. He said, "Come along, my beauty. I think I smell the cops coming."

Baines staggered and then caught himself. He said, "But my unit? I need to get back to them. I'll be AWOL"

Cory shook his head and said, "Baines, you're dead. The past is dead, but look at it this way. It is a whole new life and I'm in it. Oh brave new world that has such people in it." "

Shit, lucky me." Baines commented. His head drooping, he let Cory lead him out to where his bike was hidden. For a moment, his face brightened then he stood dead in his tracks. "No way. No fucking way. I'm not going to ride on the back."

Cory groaned. He said, "All right. You can drive."

"And have you on my ass with the way you've been looking at me?" Baines said, his lip jutting out petulantly.

Cory said, "One way or the other. Dragged from the back if you insist. It's time to grow up, Leigh, my boy. You're part of the Mystery now."

Baines squinted his eyes; his muscles rippled. He said, "Make me. I can take you, you show off."

Cory said, "All right. Fists or swords?"

"Seeing that I don't have a sword, fists."

Cory nodded and said, "Good choice. Now, whose rules?"

Baines got out, "What rules?"

In a lightening rush, Cory remarked, "Good, no rules." And he administered a solid, debilitating punch that broke Baines jaw and knocked him unconscious.

Baines woke up rushing through space. It was nice. His face was buried against a butter soft leather jacket. Mmm, what was that smell? Like honey and sweet grass and grapes?

He sleepily started to stretch and realized he was tied to the man's waist. Tied to the waist with his hands bound to the front of Cory Raines. He tugged and the motorcycle dipped nearly to the ground.

"Yeeeee haa!" the madman yelled. "This is what I call living!"

Baines couldn't see the speedometer, but he could tell that the bike was going fast. The sucking force of gravity plus acceleration pulled his cheeks back. "Hey, slow down."

"Nah," yelled Cory, "Be one with the bike. Be one with the wind. Enjoy!"

Baines said, "More like we'll be one with road. As in splat."

Cory's laughter rippled back. Baines groaned and hid his face. He had died and gone to hell.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Raines hummed happily as they bumped their way down a road which consisted of ruts, loose gravel, and hillocks. The constant jogging distorted his pleasant voice. The sun beamed warmly on them and the sweet charm of Cory's scent became positively intoxicating. Baines asked, "Hey, what are you wearing? I mean you...uh, smell good."

Raines said, "Not a thing. It's just me. Ah, look there's the house."

It was a two-story house that was surrounded by trees. Orange trees. Peach trees. Lemon trees and lime trees. Rows of grapes trailed and dabbled into the stream, climbed the trellis that framed the door. Baines stared. He could swear the grapes were growing as he looked at them. Cory slid the bike into a carport and set the kick-stand. "Home!" he said, "Home is where the heart is and mine is here."

Cory's hands adroitly untied the bindings that kept Baines' hands in front of him. He hopped off the bike and his long limbs stretched into an elegant bow. "Welcome to Chez Bacchus. Your home until your sweet infant self has learned enough to defend itself."

Cory's head cocked to one side. His eyes danced. His hands were on his hips. He waited for Baines to say anything.

Baines stared at Cory, shook his head and said, "Let's skip the preliminaries and move directly to hate."

Cory snickered and said, "We are going to have such fun together."

Leigh prowled the house a day later. Raines had left to pick up supplies. Leigh waited until the mad man had left and then rushed out to the garage. It was locked, but that would hardly stop him. For the last seven years of his life, Leigh had been trained to survive in any situation, to break into secure installations, and escape from the most excruciating circumstances. Of course, that didn't cover waking up from the dead and tumbling into the gleeful clutches of a merry madman.

The garage held another motorcycle, a powerful Indian beauty in black. Next to it was an antique Packard, shiny and sleek, as if it had just rolled off the manufacturing line. Both vehicles were on empty. Either Cory Raines was incredibly careless or he had a hidden cache of gas. Leigh didn't know how long he had to do it, but would do his damnedest to escape.

A small gym adjoined the garage; it was just big enough for two men to work out. Leigh inspected the equipment and found it adequate. He picked up a sword and snorted. God, what fools these immortals be! Give him a fully automatic gun any time. He'd show them a challenge.

Leigh accepted that something had happened to him. He remembered waking and finding his bones in shards. Bloodied white points of them had poked from his pulped skin like broken boughs showing through snow. His nerves still screamed with the memory of the pain and his mind held new ghosts of terror. However, if he bought Cory's story, and that was a big "if", surely he could find a teacher out there who made better sense than the arrogant asshole that had found him.

Leigh finished looking for hidden pumps in the garage. He looked carefully in the carport and along the road. Nothing but plants, bees, singing birds, and sickening Disney like happiness in the air. So, back to the house; Leigh didn't think the gas was there, but it would be to his advantage to search for any hidden weakness that Cory might have.

The house had a big kitchen, not well stocked with fresh food other than fruit at this point, but the huge pantry held all sorts of canned and dry goods. The wine cellar was jammed full. Leigh didn't even know what all the labels meant. He supposed that the assorted wines and liquors were worth a fortune. He dusted a keg and scrunched his nose at the motes that hit the air. Hmm, this keg had a small brass inscription, "From the cellar of Duncan MacLeod." Leigh wondered if that was an alias for Cory?

Cory had indicated the smaller bedroom was where Leigh would sleep. Raines' bedroom was a little off to the side of the stairs. The main floor had the two bedrooms, a living room, a library, the kitchen, and a sun-room with a dining table and chairs. Upstairs, Cory had said, only held an attic. He hadn't offered to show that to Leigh. Maybe he had some secret up there.

Well, a locked door. Leigh grinned. Not a lock made that could keep him out. He had pocketed some tools in the garage. He selected a thin flexible saw blade and set to work. The old fashioned tumblers yielded to him like a working girl to a soldier on payday. He swung open the door and saw....

A skylight. A marble table, draped with velvet. A gold-fringed pillow. A pale face deep in slumber and hands folded on the chest. Reddish blond curls fell away from a classically handsome youth's face. The pink lips curved in a gentle smile. Faint dimples marked the cheeks. Long lashes swirled from the dusky lids.

Leigh paused and then in shaky voice asked, "Kid? Kid, are you asleep or dead?"

No answer. My God, Leigh thought. Did that Raines guy grab this young man just as he had kidnapped him?

Leigh finally approached. The faintest pulse lazily beat beneath the paper-thin skin of the wrist. The skin was warm and soft. Leigh pinched the rounded arm that lay across the velvet cover. No reaction. He lifted a lid and looked into an eye of the most brilliant and beautiful blue.

"Kid, wake up" Leigh said, shaking the boy.

A voice gone Stygian cold startled him. Cory Raines stood in the doorway and all the happy humor was gone from his face and expression. "You had better not have hurt him, oh errant cell of my being."

"You have a lot of nerve accusing me. What did you do? Drug this kid and drag him here for your sick fantasies." Leigh accused.

"No, Richie is my lover and he sleeps." Cory approached the slumbering Adonis and caressed his cheek. "His teacher slew him in a fit of madness and I made him whole. He currently endures travails in Lethe until Pluto sees fit to release his soul to join his body that I healed."

Cory stroked back the curls and kissed the boy's plump lips. "Let him rest."

Baines believed him. It was like a bone deep chill, a swell of primal fear that no logic could dissolve. He didn't know what Cory Raines was, but he knew damn well that human had no part in the equation.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

SOME TIME LATER...

Two pairs of green eyes locked in mortal combat. Baines sat cross-legged against the wall. He wore only the sleeveless tunic of his fencing outfit, arguing that after all he was immortal. Cory hadn't bothered to force the issue. He wasn't Duncan-by-the-bloody-book MacLeod. Besides he enjoyed the image that his younger "twin" presented, half naked like that.

Cory said, "You have to learn."

Baines sneered and leaned further back against the padded wall. He closed his eyes. Cory knew the boy was not sleeping well. The sleepy attitude was only partially faked. Young fool, it was hard to cross over. That first death was a right killer. If Baines had any sense, he would have taken Cory's offer of a shared bed for his comfort. It wasn't as if Cory couldn't have held back from playing that out for their mutual pleasure, more the pity for Baines.

Cory said, "Come on, Leigh, back to work."

Baines jerked his head sharply and sulkily said, "Make me."

Cory replied, "Don't tempt me. I ought to take your britches down and warm that cold little ass of yours."

Baines leaned back against the practice room wall and looked at Cory through slitted eyes, "It always comes back to that with you, doesn't it? Vain bastard, aren't you? I mean my ass and the rest of me are just a copy of you. It's why you want me. Masturbation. Self-love."

Cory glared. How could the same gene map that produced sexy, seductive Alex and his own good nature have produced this...this...brat.

Baines continued. "Now all I need is an automatic weapon. Tat tat tat. I can shoot any of those bastard's heads off." The young one's hand imitated the range of his imaginary gun.

Cory sat down next to Baines. He said, "Look, Leigh, I'm the last one to tell you that the rules are important." He wondered if this was the right time to tell the boy why he knew "The Game" was a horrible joke on the hapless children of cruel Gods. No, it was hard enough to deal with Baines immortal to immortal. Cory went on. "There's nothing inherently wrong with your idea. It's just that if you do that, it's like waving a red flag at a bunch of bulls. You would not only attract the sharks but the attention of those who think it's their business to enforce their own sickening morality on the game."

"Like your Duncan MacLeod or that Conner guy?" Baines asked.

"Exactly. Although he's hardly my Duncan. If it wasn't for my darling Amanda and Richie's devotion to the blunderbuss, I might call the first challenge of my blessedly long life." Cory said. "Look, if it's too hard for you, that's okay. I'll just have to protect you. Do you think that you could pretend to be feeble minded? It wouldn't be that big of a stretch after all."

Cory snickered as Baines tackled him. He resisted only enough to let Baines build up some heat. He wiggled provocatively until his poor student yelled, "Aggh, what are you doing?"

Cory blinked his long eyes seductively and paraphrased his favorite line from his favorite movie next to Bonnie and Clyde. "Why nothing? Should I be doing something?"

Baines yelled, "Just stop."

Cory snickered as Baines leaped away from him like he had rolled on a hot bed of coals. Cory crossed his arms behind his back and grinned insolently. Oh this was fun. As much fun as seducing Duncan MacLeod or making Fox Mulder jealous. He chuckled as Baines slammed the practice room door.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Leigh woke moaning from the same damn dream he'd been having for days. Cory wouldn't let him leave the house to go to town. He said, "This is Sacred Ground and you are safe here." But Leigh was used to getting laid on a regular basis. They pretty much encouraged it in Special Forces. Get your rocks off and Mata Hari or Mata Harry stood less of a chance of playing with your mind.

Well, he couldn't get out and Cory wouldn't send in. Which really didn't explain why Leigh was having wet dreams about his crazy ass teacher. The first one was easily explained. Leigh had dreamed about one of those arguments in the gym, but instead of letting Cory make him feel ridiculous, Leigh had moved right in on the tease. Yeah, ripped his clothes off him and just fucked him right on the padded floor. Only even in the dream, Cory had somehow gotten the upper hand.

"A smooth follow through is very important." Cory had remarked when Leigh had thrust into him. "Go in deep, but don't let your guard down."

"Not bad for an amateur." Cory had said laughing after Leigh had came.

Leigh hadn't even been able to look at his teacher the entire day after that dream. He felt guilty as hell; sure he was angry with Raines, but that still didn't give him the right to rape him. Not even in his nightmares.

The fantasies had become more and more detailed. They didn't even bother to pretend to be fueled by anger anymore. Leigh spent half the night in his teacher's arms in his dreams. Even when he deliberately recreated the loveliest women with whom he had ever had sex, by the time that he came, Cory was looking at him instead of whatever feminine face he had imagined.

Leigh pounded his pillows in frustration. If he had to suddenly develop a taste for the male sex, why in hell someone who looked so much like him? Why that bastard, Cory Raines?

Leigh's treacherous mind supplied the reasons. Green eyes, ancient, changing as the Aegean Sea. Laughing lips. Rosy glow on his cheeks. Nimble hands and full round firm ass beneath a slim waist and broad chest. It just wasn't fair.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Leigh grimly sat down at the table. He had overslept and woke with his hand on his cock and a dying murmur of "Cory" on his lips. He wasn't hungry just as he hadn't been yesterday or the day before.

Cory eyed him and said, "You bloody well better eat something."

Leigh gave in and took a few grapes and a crust of the bread that smelled so good. He was hungry once the food touched his lips. He started to eat and cleared his plate. He grabbed a larger chunk and said, "My grandmother made bread like this. I remember coming home from school and I could smell it baking. It was like heaven."

Cory was dripping honey directly into his mouth. He licked the amber stuff off his rosy mouth. "It's good that somebody decent found you."

Leigh said, "What do you mean? Found? She was my grandmother. My Mom and dad died in a car accident."

Cory said, "Afraid not. You're a clone. A cell from my body or from a previous copy of me. No parents to die. Either she was paid to raise you or somehow got you from whomever was supposed to care for you."

Leigh flung the table aside to get at the almighty bastard. "Take it back. Take it back. She was my grandmother. My real grandmother and she loved me. The only fucking decent thing in my life and you say it isn't real. Tell me what a liar you are. Tell me"

And Cory just took it. Took his blows, Took his curses and finally took him in his arms when his anger dissolved into tears. Cory rocked him, for once not trying to seduce him or tease him. Baines cried the tears he had been holding back for years. The tears for grandma when she was lowered into a welfare grave. The tears he wouldn't shed when his drunken uncle beat him. He wept until he was exhausted.

Leigh woke up in his own bed. Shit, what did Cory think about him now? Weeping like a baby and letting his teacher comfort him.

Leigh found Cory outside. His eyes widened as he saw little tendrils of grape vine dancing their way out of the warm earth toward the man. They were growing so fast that you could see them lengthen from moment to moment.

Eyes bulging, Leigh pointed at the vines and said, "What the hell is that?"

Cory lazily stroked one of the vines and replied, "Magic, Baines, pure magic. Do you feel better?"

Well, actually Leigh did. He felt better than he had in years. Emotional catharsis he decided remembering the psychology of trauma classes he was forced to endure as part of his training.

Cory patted the earth beside him. He was sprawled on a flower-strewn hillock amid the grape vines. Naked as a Greek God. Baines raised by an old fashioned Italian and Irish grandmother was very modest. It had taken him ages to get over having to shower in a room full of guys and gals. That was supposed to teach a special forces soldier to be immune to nudity and to lessen the chances of being seduced. Well, Leigh learned to mimic indifference, but he never really felt comfortable.

However, Cory hardly wanted to be ignored. He lay sprawled, legs open, cock as always partially erect, his skin was golden from the sun and he was as lazily pleased with himself as a cat. He had a circlet of flowers on his head and was weaving another.

Leigh sat stiffly down next to his teacher. Cory said, "That's better. I only bite on request. Why don't you finish your story? It might make you feel better."

Leigh nodded. Maybe Cory was right. He had shined the army psychiatrist on and even fooled the tests to join the elite force. Now, that life was over. He should say a eulogy for his former self.

Leigh said, "My grandmother died when I was eleven. After that, it was foster homes. When I was too old and no one wanted me, I went to a group home. Every lousy thing that happened. Every time I had to move or got called names, I said it doesn't matter. You're somebody. Leigh for my Irish grandfather and Cesare for Grandma's father. 'Cee...zarr..ay'. She would say it like that and tell me how he won the wine contest three years running and the Pope himself drank his wine. And she would cross herself and say, "May God keep his dear heart". See, that was how I knew they were all wrong. I had a history and even if she was dead, somebody had loved me. When I had a chance to go to military school, I jumped for it like it was my salvation. I was going to make her proud and be the best damn soldier I could be."

Cory nodded and said, "I'm sure she was proud. What happened to you? What was going on in that place? I saw walls that looked as if they were eaten through, signs of explosions, and, of course, that elevator looked as if it was ripped apart by a blast. I don't know how you survived. I mean, how was there enough of you left to regenerate?"

Leigh remembered struggling with the plastic explosives. He had intended to set them off right on his body, but a last wrenching vortex from the falling shaft had torn the packs from his hand. He remembered seeing a wall folding over him before he lost consciousness. He shivered and said, "I don't know. My grandmother would say that I was saved for a purpose, but maybe that's just to be another notch on some creep's sword."

Cory patted his knee and said, "I hope not."

Leigh didn't move the hand aside. He felt sleepy now and somehow...very relaxed as if he had been drinking. The sun was hot, so very warm. He shrugged off his tee shirt and enjoyed the caress of the summer day on his bare skin.

Cory smelled like wine. Not cheap wine...like something that would burst with flavor and taste of a spring days, summer heat and the last luxuriant ripening of autumn. "Come here," Cory said, "let me crown you."

Leigh leaned down and allowed the flowers to be placed upon his dark hair. It was still too hot. He stood up and kicked off his boots, shed his underwear and jeans with delight.

"Move over" he said, nudging Cory as he lay down next to him on the green mound.

A butterfly, no, ten of them, danced in the air. Cory idly held his hand out to allow a beautiful one to land. "Pretty, pretty creature, I'm glad that you don't worry about the winter. You just dance your lovely life away."

Leigh couldn't get comfortable and rather than go in, he lay his head right down on Cory's chest. He sprawled out and felt the grass tickle his balls, the sunshine lick at the sensitive skin of his cock. He couldn't help placing an exploring hand on his throbbing flesh. He hadn't been this horny since he was a kid.

Leigh jerked his hand away as if stung. What was wrong with him? Was he thinking about jerking off with Cory watching every move?

Cory said softly, "I won't push you, Leigh, but I find you beautiful, not just because you look like me, but because I like you. I like your pride, your strength, and your vulnerability."

Leigh swallowed his preconceptions and said, "Maybe, I don't know. I don't know what I want."

Voice gone husky, Leigh asked, "Do you want to touch me?" Lifting his head, Leigh turned around and looked in Cory's eyes. "I guess it isn't really wrong? You and I aren't related exactly."

Cory's smile held mischief. He said, "Not in the sense of being brothers or father and son. We have a relationship that would be unique except that some organization with better taste than judgment has seen fit to repeat this oddity many times over."

Leigh only processed the part about not being related. Both being males didn't worry him right now. He needed to touch someone. He needed to find relief for the tantalizing pleasure building in his groin and surging into his cock.

Lying partially over Cory, Leigh leaned down and looked into his glowing eyes. People always said that his mouth was beautiful. He had never quite understood until now. Until he kissed Cory. Those soft lips parted and let him inside. He tasted of honey, grain, and wine. It was heady stuff and Leigh felt as if he were drunk. Cory opened his legs and allowed Leigh to push against him. Leigh felt his teacher's hand stroke his ass. A thumb delineated the outer edge of his crease.

Leigh didn't stop Cory. He quivered with pleasure. All of him was alive, craving touch, hypersensitive even to the perfume-laden breeze that played across his skin. Cory rolled over and stared down at him. His mouth kissed a trail; tongue teasing a trace from his mouth downward. Leigh offered his neck and felt a gentle nibble. Cory took his time, tasting Leigh as if he was a feast laid out for him. That clever tongue painted his nipples, delved in his navel, and flickered over his belly.

"Suck me." Leigh demanded. "Do it to me please."

Cory laughed and took Leigh in. It was an enchanting, all consuming fire that went through him head to toe. He had never experienced anything quite so intense. He moaned and cried out, begging, babbling for Cory to hurry. Then, as frantically, for him to go slower and never stop. He was a sea of sensation. Cory tormented him, thrilled him, and worked him until he finally erupted in a tsunami of pleasure. Leigh lay back on the grass as dazed as if he had just run head long into a wall. Only he wasn't feeling any pain. No, far from it, he was lazy and relaxed, body singing with aftershocks of his release.

Leigh reached over to stroke Cory's still begging erection. Cory found his lips again. They kissed as Leigh's hand teased and stroked. Cory's cock vibrated in his hand. Leigh felt Cory surge against him and then the sudden heat as Cory came.

"Was that enough?" Leigh asked. Even though he was anxious about taking this farther, he felt he was being unfair. He had a strong sense of honor and it bothered him to feel Cory was at the short end of the stick.

Cory laughed and said, "It was fine. I've been dreaming about you for so long that you could have had me with a come hither look."

Cory flicked his seed on the ground and everywhere the semen touched, up sprang a green-gold vine. As Leigh watched, the tendrils swirled and danced, swayed, lifted leaf hands to worship Cory. He said, "Hey, can I do that?"

Cory chuckled and said, "Alas, I've never been able to teach that trick. Not even to my son, beautiful Orpheus."

Leigh wrinkled his nose and said, "Now, that's a hell of a name to saddle a kid with. Where is the kid?"

Cory said, "Ages gone. Let's go have a shower. Hit the hot tub."

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Idle days as summer died. Yielded to autumn colors, brilliant yellows, oranges like the brightest height of a warming fire. And Leigh Baines yielded as well to Cory's laughter and Cory's love.

Swordplay by day. Ah, the heat of their bodies and the cold of the steel... like the dance of comets dazzling a starless sky.

And by the first frost of the ground, Leigh had bested his teacher. And Cory bowed to him, invisible hat in the sweep of his hand as he saluted his student.

That night, Leigh took Cory inside him. Trusted him entirely. Was conquered and conqueror all in the same utter stream of sensation. They made love until the sun broke in a prism of violet shades though the ice on the window.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

It was that week or the next or another one entirely. Cory's voice was oddly tense. He was tender, concerned, and for Cory, even worried. "Alex, I'll see." He said. "Damn aliens...bad as those Aztec gods. No fun at all."

Cory looked at Leigh's inquisitive face and explained, "Alex, my fierce demigod of war. You'd like him."

Leigh said, "Maybe, I know I don't like aliens."

Cory said, "Alex would agree."

Cory said, "Yes, he and his beautiful Mulder, Mulder's petite Amazon, Scully and the surly badger, Skinner. They are fighting a war against an enemy as dark and cold as the waters of Lethe."

Leigh asked, "Why don't you help them?"

Cory said, "Certain things are not allowed. I cheat when I can, but even I am bound by certain rules."

Leigh heard a voice like Lakota women trilling their men's courage to madness. Like the song of the Valkyrie. Like the fierce skirling of Irish bagpipes and the heartbeat of the bodhran drums.

He said, "Cory, you know I've wondered why me? Why was I born immortal? Why did I survive something that should have even killed an immortal?"

Cory grinned and said, "To make love to me?"

Leigh said, "Not that I don't think that's a pretty good preoccupation, but no, I think I'm supposed to fight these aliens. You said that there's no one you've seen learn quicker with a sword or faster with a knife. And I know that I'm good with a gun."

Cory nodded. He said, "Alex says you kill these aliens with a swift stab to the back of the neck." Cory's eyes swept over Leigh. "I'd hate to lose you both. I'd hate to lose either of you."

Leigh said, "But I can't live like you, old Coyote trickster that you are. Immortal or not, I'm a man. I'm a soldier."

Leigh waited, head bulled forward, shoulder hunched to face a charge. Cory shook his head and said, "You've surpassed me with the sword, young one. And, if something happens to you. Well, don't let it. I'll come after you."

Leigh wasn't sure at all that Cory had not intended this from the beginning. But he didn't resent it if that were true. This was meant to be. Leigh smiled and said, "Call your Alex and let him know that I'll be joining him."

Cory unraveled his long legs from the couch. He stood and came to Leigh. He cupped his face in his hands and asked, "Are you sure? Nothing stops you from just staying here. You died a hero once all ready."

Leigh slid his hands down his teachers hips, rested them on Cory's wondrously round ass-cheeks. "Part of me wants to stay here forever."

Cory's evil green gaze brushed his groin with a sizzle of a look. "Oh, baby, I like that part."

Leigh said, "But I'm going to go. That's my destiny." Leigh leaned forward and bit Cory's neck. "But tomorrow. I'll go tomorrow..."

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

In the morning, waking to a lonely bed, Leigh looked and found Cory with Richie. He touched the golden crown of curls and said, "Does he know how lucky he is? To be loved by a god?"

Cory's look challenged him. Leigh said, "Well, a guy can't make love or practice sword fighting all the time. I read those books in Richie's room."

Cory commented, "He only bought them to annoy me."

Leigh said, "Dionysus. You're Dionysus, god of wine and healing."

Cory said, "Being a god is over rated. I couldn't find enough of Orpheus to bring him back. And Ares spread that evil tale that it was my fault. It was Pluto who put his bastard immortal son up to it. And as for Ares, I wouldn't put it past him to be responsible for bringing those aliens here."

Leigh said, "No, you wouldn't do something like that. You wouldn't kill your son. You're better than you pretend."

Cory said, "Don't make me more that I am. I'm just a glorified immortal and an immortal is just a man who lives until he dies."

Leigh said, "Make me breakfast and then you'll need to drive me to town."

Cory said, "No, take my bike. I can always steal another."

A meal of long silences and longer looks. The honey was no sweeter than the memory of Cory's kisses.

And finally, outside, the earth leaping back to life as Cory walked on it. Leigh asked, "Doesn't that cause problems when you're not at home?"

Cory waved his hand and said, "Oh, I can control it. When I want to."

Leigh laughed. Cory always had a surprise left.

Cory smiled and said, "Say hello to Alex for me. Give him this."

Leigh accepted the kiss. Cory lifted Leigh's chin and then tilted it. The next kiss was deeper and enough to make Leigh's knees melt. "This one is for just you." Cory said.

Leigh asked, "Aren't you going to try to talk me out of it?"

Cory shook his head and said, "You're ready. You know you always have a place with me. Even after Richie wakes up. The boy would like you. You have much in common."

Leigh smiled and said, "I might take you up on that, but I'm sure now. My special reason for surviving must be to help defeat the aliens or die trying. I'll see you again Cory Raines, either in this life or in the Elysian Fields."

Cory said, "None of that. You die and I'll come after you for shirking, my lad."

Leigh grinned and straddled the motorbike that Cory had given him. Damned if he didn't believe Cory could and would do it. Hell, he felt unbeatable.

A god had touched him, changing him from dross to gold. Baines smiled and waved farewell; the world stretched out in front of him like a juicy ripe fruit to be bitten. He couldn't wait for the first taste...

The end has come. No mything links. Just the slow wink of Cory's green eye.

End

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

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