Hesnapped back guiltily into his skin.Sasha was staring at him, eyeswild and lost.“I'm here, ves'tacha.Right here.”He wrapped afirmer clasp round Sasha's cock, rubbing him fiercely from balls totip.Sasha went rigid in his arms, climax taking him with brutalforce.His seed shot over Laurie's hand and he struggled onto hisfront, thrusting into the gentle vice that stayed strong and warmfor him even when he was wet and soft and finished, tumbling atlast into sleep.
Lauriedidn't move.His hand was trapped under Sasha's hips.He might havebeen able to withdraw it without disturbing him, but he didn't wantto try.He erased Stefan and the Makarov from his mind with hisusual actor's trick, temporary but effective, and focussed all hisattention where it should be.Where it should have been for everysecond of their loving.He was shaken, horrified.He had slippedaway, and Sasha had felt it and known.Laurie brushed his lips overthe sleep-smoothed brow, the fine-skinned faraway profile, itsmouth slightly open as if on a half-finished thought.“Beloved,” hewhispered.Clouds in his mind parted.Of course Sash would haveliked to come with him to find Gunari.Laurie's instinct to severhim from that old life had cut too deep.Not all of Sasha's days onthe streets had been hell.He'd found a community, made goodfriends: people who understood him and his ordeal so much betterthan Laurie ever could, who had lived it all with him while Lauriehad been sighing out his poor little rich kid dreams in the safetyof his father's house.
Heclosed his eyes.It was too late for these thoughts.Laurie haddone all he could to defend his lover, but it had been external,bricks and mortar and rent.Sasha's seed was cooling on his hand.Sasha's interior—that firelit wilderness sometimes burningly opento him, more often veiled in darkness—remained an unknown to him.Perhaps it always would.
Verywell.Laurie was good at externals.He would see what half a worldof them would do, an ocean and a continent's breadth.The decisionmade, he gave way to a sudden tug of sleep.He was meant to bekeeping the watch, but he was so damn tired.Sasha moaned androlled onto his back, and Laurie climbed over him so that they wereboth on their own established sides of the bed.He held him tight.Yes, the externals, even if all he could give was his own flesh andbone, one last barricade.He could lie between Sasha and thedoor.
Chapter Ten
“Mr Fitzroy?Ready for your screen test now, studiotwo.”
Laurieregarded the wall-mounted speaker from which he'd been summoned.Douglas Brett might have been keen to get hold of him, but now hewas here, he was clearly just one of some two dozen hopefuls, andbeing treated as such.
That wasfine.Everything was dreamlike around him.He expected to wake upin bed with Sasha any minute.They'd spent the weekend in Brighton,rather self-consciously enjoying themselves.Laurie had put theMerc's top down and driven them around the coast, up into the sunnyhills, and Sasha had shown him an old Roma trick of filling thescratch in the paintwork with wax crayon.Everything was fine.Earlier that morning Laurie had cancelled his second rehearsal withSir Ralf, and had heard in the admin lady's voice this time thecrackle of his bridges being burned.
So beit.He stood up and gave the other young men awaiting their call asympathetic grin.He wanted to tell them not to give up, that ifthey'd got this far they were obviously good.It was just hard luckfor them today.
Studiotwo was a windowless cube.Laurie had done TV work before,interviews and masterclass videos for RADA, and he knew not toexpect the thrill that touched him whenever he entered theatrespace.So much of that was to do with smell—dust and velvet, theindefinable glimmer left in the air by thousands of enrapturedminds.He didn't spare a glance at the lights, the cabling or theacoustic panels on the walls.A state-of-the-art digital moviecamera was set up on its tripod facing a blank screen.That wasLaurie's target, the person he'd come here to meet.He shrugged outof his jacket, slung it onto a chair and took upposition.
Therewere people in the cube.At first they took as little notice ofLaurie as he had of them.A sound engineer was checking thecamera's mic.In the background, two women were conferring over aclipboard.One of them looked up at him.She was lean and tanned,her fair hair swept back in a ponytail.Laurie stood motionlessbeneath her examination, respectful but indifferent.She wasn't thepoint.“Green screen or blue?”she asked eventually, addressing thequestion to someone unseen behind Laurie's back.Laurie heard inher accent the sound of a far Pacific shore, and suddenly felt thedistance he was about to try and leap.He repressed a shiver andstood still.
“Oh, thank God,” the voice behind him declared, its cadencemuch nearer to home.Laurie guessed that Ivory Gate had flown itsown producers in but were using British studio staff.“Something todo at last.”
“Not my fault if the last three didn't even warrant a matte.Green or blue?”
“Doug said to use blue for the tests.Keep costsdown.”
Theblonde woman snorted in a manner which suggested that costs werethe least of Doug's problems.“Have you seen the colour of thisone's eyes?You can explain to Doug why they've vanished in thecut.And it's not like we have to key out the reds from his skin.Get the green.And hurry up—we're running late already.”
Laurieglanced over his shoulder.A technician was rolling a lurid greenbackcloth down to ground level.“Under his feet, Libby?”
“No, that'll do for a head shot.Okay.”The woman strodeforward, hand outstretched.“I'm Libby Palermo, Douglas Brett'sproduction manager.”
“Laurie Fitzroy.I understood Mr Brett would behere.”
“Hell, no.He can't be in studio for every screen test.You'llget to meet him later on if things go well today.”She gave Lauriea sarcastic onceover.“Is that good enough for you?”
Lauriereturned her look.He sensed that a less blue-eyed, pale-skinnedyoung hopeful would already be out on his ear by now, and nodded inacknowledgement, smiling.“For now.”
“Oh, I'm so very relieved.Here's your script.Location is amountain top in Kathmandu.Your character is Devlin Steele, a youngBritish vampire who—”
“Yes.”Laurie didn't mean to cut her off, but he'd done hishomework for this role.He'd had a few stiff drinks and sat throughthe firstBlood Moontrilogy on DVD while Sasha was out.He'd even read a fewcelebrity gossip columns.“The guy who's going to replace ValentineFrost, right?”
Libbyblanched beneath her tan.“Hush!No-one knows how BM Four will end.Not even the actors.It's a closely guarded secret.”
“The showbiz columnists seem pretty sure.”
“Cheap speculation.You'd do better not to join them in it,especially around here.”
She was serious, though Laurie couldn't for the life of himtell why.He'd wept with laughter throughout most of firsttwoBlood Moonfilms, and a six-year-old could have worked out where the plotwas going.Still, he hadn't yet gained his objective.He didn'twant to tread on any toes.“All right.Sorry.”
“Devlin and Valentine Frost confront each other on themountain.Since you're so well informed, you'll already know thatDevlin is a nightmare prophecy who's haunted the Frost family foryears.In this scene he tells Valentine that he holds the secret tothe Frosts’ immortality.”She handed Laurie the script, whose tenpages Laurie glanced through absently.“So.We're looking for anactor who can play a villain with charm and make ourBlood Moonaudiences lovehim whether they want to or not.I hear from Douglas that you'resomething of an expert in that area.”
Yes, and it almost killed me.Lauriewas startled at the thought: he hadn’t realised.Still, trottingout BM’s kindergarten baddie would be easy, not like wrestling withBertram for possession of his own soul.He handed back the scriptto Libby.“Okay.”
“Decided against it?”She folded her arms and gave Laurie alook of relief and grudging respect.“I thought you might.To behonest, I was shocked to see you here.Doug has a thing about you,but I know you’re a serious stage actor, and...”
“I’m sorry?”
