25 - Caomhnóir

 

“He wouldn’t, would he?” Thom asked, more angry than fearful.

 

“Have you for supper?” Keegan nodded. “He would, but only as a guest, not the main course.”

 

“And that will never happen. If I never see him again it will be too soon. Damn, Keegan.”

 

“I know he comes on a bit strong, but consider who and what he is,” Keegan replied, putting an arm around Thom’s waist as they reached the hall. “He actually admired your standing up to him, although I doubt he’ll ever tell you so.”

 

“If he did I wouldn’t believe him. So, what do we do now?”

 

“Depends what you mean. I for one could use something to eat.”

 

“That’s not quite what I meant and you know it. What are we going to do about Darius, since I doubt that Alasdair’s lecturing him will actually make the slightest difference in the long run.”

 

Keegan chuckled. “Never underestimate the power of one of his lectures. By the time he’s finished with you, you know exactly where you stand and what will happen if you dare to disobey him on whatever laws he’s laid down in the process.” After pressing the elevator button, Keegan added, quite seriously, “It’s more than your life is worth to disobey him.”

 

“All right, I’ll take your word for it. But so help me if I see that bastard again I’m going to coldcock him, and that, Keegan, is a promise.”

 

Keegan smiled, giving him a quick hug as the elevator doors opened for them. “If I’m with you, I’ll back you up to the hilt, and maybe add a blow or two of my own.”

 

* * * *

 

As one set of elevator doors closed on Keegan and Thom, the ones for the next elevator opened and Darius stepped into the hall. He wondered as he strolled down to Alasdair’s office just what assignment the ceannasaí had for him. Hopefully, he thought, something quick. He wanted to be around when the foolish human went after Alasdair, to see how hard and fast Alasdair eliminated him.

 

Half an hour later Darius was storming out of the office. He’d kept his cool while Alasdair lectured him, denying Thom’s accusations all the while. But the minute the door closed behind him his face was suffused with rage. Enough with the games, it was time to get proactive.

 

 

 

 

24 - Caomhnóir

 

“You’re certain I can’t just stay out here and—” Thom looked around the waiting room, his eyes landing on a neatly arranged array of magazines, “and catch up on the latest in the legal journals?”

 

“Quite certain.” Keegan put his hand at the small of Thom’s back, propelling him gently into Alasdair’s office after opening the door.

 

The ceannasaí looked up from what he was doing, arching his eyebrows when he saw Thom as well as Keegan. “To what do I owe this singular honor that you’ve brought him with you, Keegan?”

 

“He had something to tell you that you need to know.” Keegan took a seat in front of Alasdair’s desk, indicating that Thom should do the same.

 

“Might I hazard a guess that it has to do with Darius?”

 

Thom nodded and then, after an encouraging glace from Keegan, told his story. As he did Alasdair looked at first doubtful and then as the story progressed anger limned his face.

 

“Unbelievable,” Alasdair growled when Thom had finished. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I shall have a long talk with him about his behavior.”

 

“Mo ceannasaí, if I may offer an opinion,” Keegan said. He waited for Alasdair to indicate that he could before continuing. “Darius will deny everything, and so skillfully that you’ll believe him when he’s finished. He will undoubtedly do his best to make it seem as if Thom made it all up out of a whole cloth because he’s jealous.”

 

“And did he?” Alasdair asked, well aware of Keegan’s ability to ferret out the thoughts of humans, and that he would not lie to him.

 

“No he did not. What he’s told you is the absolute truth.”

 

“Something that I’ll make quite certain Darius understands if he tries to pull the wool over my eyes. Again, thank you letting me know, and you are dismissed.”

 

“But—” Keegan started to say. The protest died on his lips when the ceannasaí said his name sharply, pointing to the door. “As you wish, sir,” Keegan murmured with a slight bow of his head as he stood up.

 

“Now just a damned minute here,” Thom said angrily, standing as well, but not moving towards the door. “So all that bastard is going to get is a lecture after what I just told you? Don’t you get how close I was to coming after you? I would be dead now if I had, and he set that up to happen.”

 

“That would have been unfortunate. Luckily for you, you came to your senses before you did something so stupid. Now leave.” Alasdair pointed one clawed finger at Thom. “Now, and without another word. If you weren’t so important to Keegan you would be my supper this very moment for talking to me in that way.”

 

Thom opened his mouth in shock, and then snapped it shut as he walked swiftly out of the office. Keegan started after him, throwing an angry look at Alasdair over his should as he did. He stopped dead when he saw him grinning broadly.

 

“Your young man has guts,” the ceannasaí commented. “For the first time since he came into your life I am beginning to believe that you have found your match. Now go, and try not to let him go off half-cocked. I shall deal with Darius as he deserves.”

 

With a soft chuckle, Keegan left, closing the door behind him.

 

23 - Caomhnóir

 

“The second time Darius showed up wasn’t nearly as pleasant as the first, which should tell you something right there.”

 

“Indeed it does.” Keegan was scowling again, but this time not at Thom but because of what he was saying.

 

“He started out by telling me that you were going after a Scriostóir, as if you had tried to hide that bit of information from me. And then, being all consoling and what have you he implied that you were dead without really coming out and saying so.”

 

“The bastard! Just wait until I get my hands on him.”

 

Thom nodded. “I rather thought you’d feel that way. But before you go after him, there’s more.”

 

Consciously relaxing enough to listen, Keegan asked, “How bad?”

 

“If I’m reading things correctly, bad enough that if I hadn’t gotten my emotions under control I’d probably be dead by now. He told me that you’d been betrayed, by Alasdair, because of me.”

 

“Bloody fucking—” Keegan let out a string of swear words in more languages than Thom could comprehend, from ‘Bastardo’ to ‘Pompinara’ and back again. When Keegan finally ran out of words and breath, he wrapped his arms around Thom, holding him tight. “This shouldn’t have happened. And it will never happen again.”

 

Releasing Thom finally, Keegan cupped his chin in on hand, looking gravely at him. “Tell me you weren’t planning on going after Alasdair.”

 

Thom nodded slowly, admitting, “For a while there I was. Until I realized that’s exactly what Darius wanted me to do.”

 

“Thank God you came to your senses.”

 

“That can happen, occasionally,” Thom replied with a self-depreciating chuckle.

 

“I would ask why you believed all his lies, but I know the answer. Darius is a consummate manipulator, and as young and innocent as you are, you were putty in his hands.”

 

“Young, maybe, in comparison to the two of you, but innocent, not even. Not since I met you.”

 

Keegan threw back his head in laughter, cursing when it hit the headboard with a loud smack. “You, mo ghrá, are going to be the death of me yet.”

 

“Not possible.” Thom smiled, and then sobered quickly, “Unless there is some truth in the midst of all Darius’ lies. Would Alasdair like to see the two of us separated?”

 

“Damn, Thom, no! All right, he’s not totally happy with you being in my life because he’s afraid you could jeopardize me. He knows I’d do anything within my power to keep you safe. But come on, what good would it do him to have me killed just to part us?”

 

Thom leaned back against Keegan’s chest as he thought about that. “What if,” he said slowly, “you had lost the fight with the Scriostóir? Could Alasdair, or your supreme ruler, bring you back again or would you be truly dead?”

 

Instead of replying immediately, Keegan shifted Thom so that he could get out of bed. He searched the clothes that lay strewn on the floor until he found what he was looking for. Coming back, he settled next to Thom, handing his a sheathed dagger.

 

“All of us have one of these, Scriostóir and Caomhnóir. Believe it or not, even though we are fierce enemies in the fight to save or destroy this world, there is a certain respect that we hold for each other when it comes to battling one on one. The winner uses their dagger to send to looser to his final rest, freed of the sins that brought them to the orders.”

 

Thom looked gravely at the dagger. “You just—stab your foe with this and that’s the end?”

 

“It’s not quite that simple. There are ritual words that must be spoken as we plunge it into their heart.”

 

“And if you don’t say them, then what?”

 

“Then we return to the vale to suffer for our sins throughout eternity. Or at least that’s the theory. As far as I know it hasn’t been tested.”

 

“Alasdair would know. And that leads me back to what we were just talking about. Suppose that’s not what happens, or that it’s only one of several possibilities. What if you return to the vale and it’s decided that you’re too valuable to waste. So they give you another chance. And just suppose that someone, not saying Alasdair but someone, knows this. You battle, you’re the looser and dying, and your opponent stabs you but doesn’t say the words that save you from—eternal damnation.”

 

Keegan tapped his fingers together as he though about that. “From the mouths of babes,” he finally muttered. “But Alasdair wouldn’t do that to me. We’re more than master and slave, commander and foot-soldier, whatever you want to call it. We’re friends above and beyond all else. If we weren’t you wouldn’t be in my life, he’d have seen to that from the beginning.”

 

“So he does see some good in our relationship?”

 

“Yes, I think he does. But we can ask him in the morning when we go to see him.”

 

“I have to--?” Thom shuddered.

 

“Yes, mo fear daor, you have to,” Keegan replied with a soft laugh. “I promise, I shall protect you from his claws.”

 

 

22 - Caomhnóir

 

“I think,” Keegan started to say, laughing when Thom responded with, ‘therefore you are’.  “Yes I am, but that is not what I was going to say. I think that we need to talk now that we’ve gotten the most important things out of the way.”

 

Thom looked up at his lover, tracing a finger over his lips. “I guess we should, but not like this. I won’t be able to keep my mind on what we’re talking about.”

 

“Then I’ll move.” Keegan kissed him once more, quite thoroughly, before rolling off him and sitting up.

 

Thom grumbled that he wasn’t quite sure that was an improvement as he sat up as well, leaning back into the curve of Keegan’s arm as it circled his shoulders. “Ask away,” he said.

 

“You know what I need to know. Exactly what did Darius say to you?”

 

“I saw him twice, at the club, which you probably already know.” Thom turned his head to shoot Keegan a rather disgusted look. “The first time he went out of his way to make it clear that ‘faithful’ was not your middle name in any way, shape or form.”

 

“He’s right.” Keegan tightened his hold on Thom when he tried to pull away. “Let me finish. He is correct; I’ve never before been faithful to anyone. I never saw the need for it, as I rarely if ever returned once I’d left a place or time. But then, until six years ago, I had never met someone who affected me so deeply.” He smiled when Thom turned to look at him. “Truth time, here. In my nine centuries as a Caomhnóir I’ve been all over the world and have visited more places and times than you could ever imagine. You know that. And during all that time I was hardly a saint when it came to my physical needs.”

 

“I suppose that would have been impossible.”

 

“Unless I was a eunuch, definitely. There is one thing I can say though in my defense, never once have I told someone that I loved them until I met you.”

 

“Truly?” Thom studied Keegan’s face, looking for something in it that said he wasn’t just trying to placate him.  

 

Instead of replying to the affirmative, Keegan frowned. “Do Darius’ words mean more to you than mine?”

 

“No!’ Thom protested. “No, never. I just—Damn it Keegan.”

 

Keegan’s frown deepened. “Tell me exactly what he said.” 

 

“He implied that you had been unfaithful to me whenever you were gone. Any bed in a storm was the way he put it. And of course he caught me on a really bad day when he said that.”

 

“Bad day how?”

 

Thom winced, not certain he should admit what he’d been feeling. He didn’t have to as Keegan instantly picked up on his memory.

 

“Mo ghrá, you will always be beautiful to me. Even when you’re old and gray, to me you will be the man I met and fell in love with oh so many years ago. How many times do I have to tell you that before you believe it?”

 

“Until the day I die? And maybe beyond?”

 

“I can do that. I’ll say it so often you’ll get tired of hearing it.”

 

Thom touched his cheek, smiling. “You don’t have to be quite that insistent, once a week would be fine.”

 

“Done.” Keegan kissed him gently, saying, “Mo fear álainn, is breá liom tú.”

 

“Is breá liom tú,” Thom murmured against his lips.

 

“I know. I can feel it, see it, and read it in that wild and untamed mind of yours.”

 

“Stay out of my mind, Keegan,” Thom growled. And then he laughed. “As if, right?”

 

“Right. Now, tell me about your second run-in with Darius.”

21 - Caomhnóir

 

Thom woke, bleary-eyed and feeling as if he needed another twelve hours sleep, to the sound of his phone ringing. “This had better be a damned emergency, like the world is ending,” he growled as he answered it.

 

“Not yet,” Keegan replied with a laugh.

 

Thom shot up, clutching the receiver, “You survived. Thank God.”

 

“Not certain he had anything to do with it, but I did. You sound—I don’t know, both surprised and relieved.”

 

“And elated I hope, because I am. When do you get home?”

 

“Tomorrow. I’ve missed you, Thom, more than you can imagine.”

 

“I’ve missed you too,” Thom said softly in reply. “Are you—is he dead?”

 

“He is, and I’m all right, or I will be by the time you see me.”  Keegan took a deep breath before saying, “I understand Darius has been hassling you.”

 

Thom bristled as he took in the implications of the question. “Did you have someone watching me? Damn it, Keegan, I can take care of myself.”

 

“I know you can, against anyone human. However that would not be Darius. Just tell me you didn’t believe whatever he’s told you.”

 

Thom paused, and then replied reluctantly, “I tried not to.”

 

“Do you want to tell me, or should we wait until I get home?”

 

“When you get home.” Chewing his lip for a moment, Thom added, “I almost did something very insane because of it, and I’d rather be yelled at in person than over the phone.”

 

“Why do I get the feeling I really will be doing that?”

 

Thom chuckled a bit morosely. “Because you know me?”

 

“I do, extremely well actually. Not that I’m complaining in the least. There is no one in my life who means more to me than you. There never has been, there never will be.”

 

Remembering Darius’ words about that, Thom hesitated briefly before saying, “I know. The same goes for me as well. I do love you, Keegan. Hurry home, please.”

 

“I will. I love you too, mo ghrá, more than life itself. Believe that.”

 

Keegan’s words held a ring of truth that Thom could not deny. “I do,” he said softly before hanging up. “I do,” he reiterated firmly to himself. “I do.”