Like a Surge Page 14

  Each thrust into Paul’s twist-and-pull fueled him further, as though Russ’s pleasure accentuated Paul’s needy, desperate moans, which were accompanied by the metal grape leaves that shimmered against each other on the shaking bed like distant wind chimes.

  “Paul, I’m gonna...” Russ erupted, spilling slick heat over Paul’s fist.

  “Russ!” Paul shouted in reaction.

  A deafening, sharp crack of an electric arc broke into the metallic music of the bed, and the shapes of the fanciful Faraday cage assumed an eerie vibe as lightning lit them up from within. Even as he shut his eyes, through his thin eyelids, Russ saw the tendrils of little lightnings trace the fanciful shapes of the vines – and with his other sight, he saw Paul’s charge, bright and deadly, slide through the brick wall and down the lightning rod wire, where it disappeared into the ground.

  Russ opened his eyes. Paul was laying spread-eagle, lazily watching thin lightning dancing on his fingertips. “Look, I can make them small now,” he said in wonder. “I had never been able to do that before.” Then he blinked hard in an effort to focus on Russ. “Are you okay?”

  With a languid smile, Russ took an inventory of his faculties. His back cracked as he stretched. “Yeah, great. I mean, I’m alive and there’s no overload...” He pushed his way up onto his elbow and brushed a kiss onto Paul’s soft and very normal lips. There was no sting of static charge this time. “This was so good. You’re wonderful, and gorgeous, and kind, and smart –”

  “I ain’t smart,” Paul retorted.

  “You are, you just don’t know it yet. And you’re sexy as all get-out, and if you want to explore this electrical sex thing further, I’m definitely up for it.”

  “Already?” Paul grinned. “That’s pretty good, for an old man like you.”

  “I’m not exactly ancient, you young punk,” Russ said with a satisfied smile. He reached his hand out for Paul’s. The electrical discharge that danced at his fingertips fascinated him.

  He touched it, gently passing his palm over the sparks.

  “Are you okay, doing this?” Paul whispered, as though with bated breath. “It doesn’t hurt, does it?”

  “It tingles,” Russ laughed. “Really, it’s just... it’s nice.”

  “Nice?” Paul turned toward him. Hesitantly, he extended his fingers and not-quite-touched Russ’s shoulder.

  “Fuck,” Russ swore. “It’s... wow. Don’t stop.”

  “Okay.” Paul’s words floated on his amazed exhale. “Okay. Just tell me if it’s too much, or if you need me to stop, or...”

  “This feels amazing.” Russ screwed his eyes shut and shivered. “Oh my God. This is like... I don’t even know how to describe it. Sensuous. If you keep it up, I’ll be hard again before you know it.”

  “Then I better not stop,” Paul said with a mischievous smile, and directed a sparkle across Russ’ tender ribs. He stroked him carefully with his charged fingers as the fresh smell of ozone filled the air. Little lightnings lit up the complex structure of the metallic cage, creating a contrast of high-contrast outlines of trellis and metal foliage against the white ceiling and the sparkles that reflected off the gleaming copper and glass.

  “If you’re like this now, with your hands, I can’t imagine what you’ll be like inside me,” Russ gasped as shared electrical current sank into his body and fired up his synapses before he could properly absorb it. A searing pulse of pleasure zinged straight to his balls. He was hard now and aching for more. “Paul, please!”

  “I’d be afraid to, you know.” Paul talked slowly as he teased his nipples, his sensitive flanks, his hips. “I’d be afraid to get inside you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I have no control, especially not when I peak. Think about it.” He withdrew his hands from heated skin, making Russ ache for the loss of their contact. “You don’t even know how your grounding thing works. If I zapped you inside your own body, it could be a fun way to depart this world but then I’d miss you and never forgive myself.”

  Russ turned to him. “You’d miss me?”

  “Terribly.”

  “I’d miss you too.” He thought hard. “But condoms are technically insulators. If I could find a condom thick enough –”

  “Asshole,” Paul said with a lilt of a laugh, right before he pounced on Russ with his sparkling hands and pinned him to the mattress.

  The delicious heat of their contact, combined with the unusual jolts of pleasure Russ received from Paul with every touch, had brought him close to his peak.

  A mosaic of kisses and gentle bites, a lick of skin and a tweak of a nipple, a thrust matched for a thrust. Russ was close, but from the bright pink glare he could see even with his eyes closed, so was Paul.

  When they erupted, together and clenching each other, a bright flash burst forth with its iconic crack of splitting, ionized air. Now, however, Russ felt the current pass through him even as he grounded it. And as it passed, it flooded his synapses with another wave of ecstasy.

  “You zapped me with you dick,” Russ said several minutes later, when their breath was even, and their skin had begun to cool. “And I liked it.”

  “You okay?” Paul had to push Russ away and carry out an inspection before he grabbed a box of tissues and snuggled under his brand-new comforter with Russ. “I didn’t want you to have a lighting scar, like Cooper.”

  “I am not like Cooper, and I loved every bit of what we were doing.” Russ drew him in, silently biting back the L-word. Too soon. Way too soon. “And the cool part? This was totally discrete. Look, the grid is still up, and your little lamp is still on.”

  “We had sex, and nobody knew,” Paul whispered with a wide, conspiratorial smile. “And nobody will ever need to know, now that you built this awesome bed for us!”

  “For you,” Russ corrected. Although he had to admit he liked the sound of ‘for us’ more than he should have.

  CHAPTER 18

  The kitchen was put to rights and the dishwasher was happily humming with its second load of post-Thanksgiving dishes. Turkey leftovers and warm cinnamon still scented the air, but that, too, would dissipate and yield the field back to something fresher and earthier, a scent Cooper associated with Ash and their cute little house.

  He washed his hands with soap, wiped out the sink, and dried off on a kitchen towel when Ash came back inside, shaking off the cold. “The garbage’s taken care of, and so are the recyclables,” Ash said, “But this cold front isn’t something I anticipated. I wouldn’t be surprised if we got snow in a day or two.”

  Cooper shuddered. “I sure hope not. The guys are putting the roof on this week!”

  “Oh.” Ash’s face dropped. “That means we better not, y’know.”

  “No nookie for you,” Cooper nodded with mischief. “No messing up the weather by having uncontrolled elemental magic sex!”

  A bright crack of thunder split the air overhead.

  Cooper froze. Then he slowly raised his eyebrows, giving Ash an accusatory look.

  “That wasn’t me!” It came out like an un-Ash-like indignant squeak. “It’s not like I’ve been losing it. And I haven’t been helping myself on my own, either.” He huffed. “It’s not like I need to, with you around!”

  “I wasn’t suggesting that,” Cooper said. He could feel the heat flood his face, and it wasn’t just from the wine they had drunk before. A few steps took him across the house and to the living room’s window, from where he had a good view of the sky over the river.

  Nothing.

  It all looked so normal. The night had fallen, the street lamps were on, casting a steady glow onto the uneven, antiquated pavement. Slowly, doubting himself, he turned around. “Maybe I was just imagining things.”

  “There’s no way we would be imagining things at the same time,” Ash said. “Can I interest you in some brandy by the fire? The weather’s changing, and there isn’t much we can do about that. I mean, I could, but...”

  “No, no.” Cooper bit his lip, th
inking. “No. Those things tend to backlash. And even if you could steer a storm so it doesn’t hit us and dump rain or snow right here, the construction crew will still be convinced it’s a bad day to climb up high, because they’ll have to drive through it.”

  “The cost of keeping a secret is having to develop an extra level of patience,” Cooper said. Then he ducked into the fireplace, opened the flue, and got busy with making a fire.

  Just when they had settled by the warm, crackling logs with their drinks, another crack of thunder split the air.

  Their eyes met. “There’s no way a lightning will strike twice,” Ash said. “Let me check it out.” He closed his eyes.

  As Cooper watched his breathing even out, he felt the little, immaterial snap as Ash succeeded to ground and center himself. A small furrow began to grow between his eyes. “Ash?”

  “It’s weird,” Ash said in that quiet, ethereal way he had when he was in trance. “It’s something alright, but it’s not a storm over our heads. His eyes snapped open. “Cooper, love, I hate to ask, but I think this is a time to draw Jared.”

  Jared the Sword. His katana.

  Despite the lump forming in the back of his throat, Cooper nodded. “Okay. Let me go get him,” realizing for the first time that the old sword had become a him instead of an it.

  A FEW MINUTES LATER, the domestic vibe around the fireplace was replaced by a focused and somber mood. Ash couldn’t tear his eyes away from Cooper, from his serious bow to the sword in its sheath, and the way Cooper sank to his knees and settled in a seiza by the coffee table.

  The position was almost natural for him now, after so many practice sessions and exploratory meditations.

  Gently, Cooper drew the sword out of its lacquered sheath, and set the sheath onto a towel which covered the stone tabletop.

  He grasped the hilt in his right hand and rested the dull edge of the sword on the fingers of his left, examining it. The way the blade tilted, Ash couldn’t quite see the clear demarcation between the discolored, blued half with the ruined temper, and the original shine of the antique steel toward the hilt.

  It almost looked normal in this light, and from this angle. Like it used to be, like when it used to be his.

  Without realizing it, Ash was now reliving that fraught moment, when the node was so backed up with energy, it melted the layers of shale around it. The bubble of cooling lava had a crust just thin enough for Ash to penetrate with the blade that he used for water-making.

  Water negated fire.

  The elements had balanced out, but at a great cost, and the ruin of his sword was the least of it.

  Somehow, Jared had poured himself into to the group effort with such determination, he fell apart into energy and... and disappeared, defying all known laws of physics.

  Except now, Cooper could feel him inside the blade, and Jared’s talent of seeing energy currents of all kinds was now Cooper’s to use, as long as he held the blade and focused just right.

  In his first experiments, Cooper used to stand and hold the sword in a basic guard position, like during sword practice. Experience results in control, and control lends the gift of nuance, however, and now Cooper was just sitting on his knees, holding the blade in gentle contemplation.

  Ash saw his eyebrows rise, and the corner of his mouth twitch in amusement. “Cooper?” he whispered, desperate for information.

  Their eyes met as Cooper lifted his head, and grinned. “I don’t think we have to worry about the weather. Rather, our new neighbors are trying out the new bed.”

  “Neighbors? Is Russ over?”

  “Apparently so,” Cooper said with a cheerful lilt. “And it seems that my dear cousin is having his own control issues when, um, having sex.” He sighed, powdered the blade to wipe his skin oil off it, sheathed it, and bowed to it in thanks. “I hate doing this to Paul. What they are doing is so clear, energy-wise, I feel like a Peeping Tom.”

  “Are they safe, do you think?”

  Cooper nodded. “Apparently so. The bed works, and the neighborhood power grid is still up. The thunderclap is hardy discrete, though. Good luck controlling that!”

  “Hey,” Ash chided his lover gently. “For some, the Earth moves.”

  “I know, I know. But so much is going on.” He flashed Ash a mischievous grin. “And when it rains, it pours!"

  THE WEEKEND AFTER Thanksgiving turned out cold but dry, and Cooper was relieved to see the outside shell of their house fully enclosed. “It’s looking good,” he said to Ash, who just returned from meeting with several non-profit environmental groups. “The windows are in, too. Wanna go see?”

  “In a sec. Let me get my mud boots.” Ash disappeared into their house only to pop out a minute later. He rubbed his hands against the brisk, cold wind. The promise of snow was still in the air, and for the first time in many years, Cooper found himself hoping for a mild winter, just so they could complete their project on time.

  They strode out through a large opening where the fence used to be. “I’d like to put garages here,” Cooper said. “Parking’s getting to be a pain in this neighborhood, and if we can get each row house a double garage, we’ll all park out of the snow.”

  Ash stomped a bit on the ground scarred by construction equipment and eyed the strip of land. “Maybe. But what about the garden wall we were talking about? And the access to the new house?”

  Cooper lit up with enthusiasm. “This is just it, Ash,” he said. “I have this idea, and you might think it sucks, but hear me out. Imagine a row of garages here, yeah? Nice and boring. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

  Ash nodded.

  “And imagine the garages having a door on each side, so if both doors are open, you can drive all the way through. From the street onto the new property. It can be like a secret entrance!”

  “I like it,” Ash said slowly, after a moment’s thought. “The structure would be a part of the wall and provide both access and privacy.” He paused. “But if we want to rent out two of the houses, then what? That would be a security breach. Even if you build a fake wall to hide the door to our place, the second garage door opener will clue the tenants in, and they’ll get curious.”

  “We don’t have to advertise garaged parking for the tenants who aren’t part of the group,” Cooper said. “I thought about it. We can always say it’s being used for storage. Hell, we can even store stuff in it, like gardening equipment and whatever things our people need. And if they need to move it out, it can all flow through the other door, into their own garage, and out. Those doors never need to open.”

  Ash nodded. “Plausible. Let’s give it a thought.” He knew saying that was almost as good as a go-ahead. The idea had merit. They would, of course, have an official entry off the other street, but he doubted anyone would ever use it. The mail and the UPS, maybe.

  The grounds had been scraped and the weeds and invading samplings had been pulled out, and the ground was now level and covered with straw to keep the mud down. A walkway of repurposed, old plywood led to the structure itself. When Cooper waved him forward, Ash approached a tall, double door gleaming with dark stain and fresh varnish, and opened it using a door handle instead of the all-American door knob.

  He stepped inside and looked around. The house looked a lot larger than he expected. “Wow, Cooper. That’s a lot of space.”

  “A lot of space to grow into. We talked about this house being a common meeting place for the group, and between the oversized dining room and the extra bedrooms, it all adds up. The interior walls are getting framed in, which includes the second floor...” Ash followed Cooper’s tour, amazed how different the house and its dimensions looked in person than on the screen.

  He had always dealt with rehabbing old houses. New construction was different. “It looks so... airy, I guess?”

  “Just empty. More... uh... Japanese. Remember the old houses you loved so much, with their shoji sliding doors? We can define those spaces in a way that will make our space use flexible, even with
hidden storage and secret doors. Wait a few weeks. Now that it’s enclosed, we can keep working through the winter. You’ll see it fill in, and suddenly it won’t look so huge anymore.” Cooper turned to him, and to Ash’s delighted surprise, he pulled him into a kiss. “This is for you, babe.”

  “For us,” Ash corrected. He paused. “So how far is the node from here? Have you been feeling anything out of the ordinary?”

  “The ley lines are there, and I checked it out with Jared in hand. The node is just a node, like before.” He didn’t voice the ‘for now.’ He didn’t have to.

  “Living here will be interesting. This is far from neutral ground.” Ash’s concern was a premonition of trouble ahead. They had means of clearing pollutants out of the soil without having to remove whole dump trucks of it, but their abilities came with a headache of its own.

  “I wonder when the other shoe drops.” Cooper echoed his premonition too perfectly for comfort.

  THE DAY’S MAIL had revealed what might have been the cause of their unease. As they tended to what Ash called his ‘admin day’ after dinner, an envelope with a familiar letterhead brought the bad news they had been, subconsciously, expecting.

  “It’s from the railroad company’s lawyer,” Ash said after he finished reading it. He pushed it toward Cooper. “They want the railroad spur easement unobstructed. As in, don’t build on it and don’t fence it in.”

  A sigh from Cooper echoed his feelings perfectly. “So, our negotiations didn’t pan out.”

  “That doesn’t mean we’re losing river access, though,” Cooper reminded him. “The railroad company is being reasonable, and the only reason they are pursuing this is because that asshole Brian Clegg flagged them on our adverse possession here. You chose not to fight it.”

  “That’s right,” Ash said with a decisive nod. “We still have enough land, we still control what we need to control. And I’m meeting the kind of non-profit influencers we can partner with. You know, the ones that will end up building the trail to begin with.” The corners of his mouth turned up in a slow, sly smile.