“Aleksey Mikkelsen died when he was seventeen years old, Ben. I killed him to survive. I told you that you couldn’t resurrect the dead however much life you have running through your veins.”
“And I’m telling you now that you’re wrong, Aleksey. Close your eyes.” He helped by pressing them gently closed with his fingers. “What can you hear?”
“Nothing.”
“Sure you can—listen. Hear the rooks? They’ve been here with us all day. Hear the stream? There—a skylark. Now, open your eyes. What can you see?”
“You.”
“And I’m not a ghost, Lyosha. What can you feel?”
“You. Inside.”
Ben began to move, making sure he hit the now very tender gland with his cock. “Yeah. Me. No ghosts here. I won’t let them come anymore. We took that boat to England with our map and your horse. We stole a car and made it all the way through France and then we just kept going. That’sourreality. You never went to Russia with Sergei. None of that happened. You are Aleksey Mikkelsen if you want to be. Anything else you remember was just a dream, a nightmare. You grew up Aleksey Mikkelsen—magnificent, beautiful, and totallymine. Do you feel it?” Nikolas nodded. Ben kissed him and Nikolas rose to the kiss.
Ben’s body began to tense. He sped up, concentrating on the pleasure for both of them. Between thrusts, he managed to say, “You use Aleksey Primakov and all his skill and knowledge to save your life. You abuse him and fuck him over, because youownhim. But you are now Aleksey Mikkelsen reborn, and you know what all birth needs?” Nikolas began to shake his head, then got it as Ben cried out and filled him, jet after jet of semen deep into his newly risen body. With the exquisite delight of Ben’s orgasm, Nikolas came too, the first time in many days of extreme pain and stress. It was clearly utterly cathartic, and when it was over, Nik lay dazed as if he could hear the rooks and the skylark and the stream just as clearly as Ben.
At that moment, Nikolas Mikkelsen looked like a man who’d have heard anything Ben Rider wanted him to hear.
Ben wanted to lie down on Nikolas and fall asleep, but he pulled out and rolled carefully to one side on his back. He chuckled. Nikolas turned his head questioningly. “I can’t keep it straight in my head. We talk about Nikolas but you’re Nikolas to me. You’re Aleksey—but not in my mind. So…I was thinking, maybe a whole new name then, not Aleksey or Nikolas…”
“I’m not going to like this, am I?”
“Dick.”
“Fuck. Off.Ben.”
“Gaylord.”
Nikolas chuckled but said, “Nikolas is still good. I’ve become used to it over the years. Despite what you say, the name Aleksey carries with it many bad memories for me. I hear…men saying it; not ghosts, just bad memories. Trial, prison—you understand? Nikolas is always ten in my eyes and always beautiful.”
Ben turned and propped himself on one elbow. “Leg okay?”
“Leg okay.”
“You maybe think you could cope with the pool?”
Nikolas nodded, and Ben helped him limp into the cold water. When he was waist-deep, his eyes closed to the pain in his wounds, Ben slid a hand around his hips and slipped a finger into the heat of him. Nikolas’s eyes shot open. Ben grinned and kissed him, fingering him gently. Nikolas eyed the black water extremely warily. “Are there not creatures that can swim up your—?”
“That’s the Amazon, moron. This is Dartmoor. Hello?”
“Hmm.” Suddenly, something brushed hard against Nikolas’s backside. He jumped and swore, high-pitched—it could almost have been described as…a girly scream.
Radulf had finally brought him back a stick.
Ben was still giggling when they were dressed and heating some rations over a small fire on the bank. Nikolas was studiously ignoring him, pretending to examine his stitches. Eventually, Ben brought a tin of hot soup over with a spoon and sat down alongside him. They shared it, watching hypnotised as the pool finally reached maximum capacity and the stream flowed once more, only now over the blocked-up bridge and cascading down the small, two-foot drop to the other side. They both laughed. “Benjamin Falls.”
“Then it’s Lake Aleksey.”
“It’s a very small lake.”
“Nah, I reckon Aleksey was the kinda guy who saw everything big—all possibility.”
“Lake Aleksey. We should name the house. Is there a good word in English for strange, parallel universe house that exists outside real life?”
Ben looked across at him. “You feel it, too?”
“Ben, I always felt it. It drew me here when I needed somewhere safe.Spirit of youdrew me here.”
