He looked at Bing. “You were in my laptop. You were looking at yesterday’s footage.”
Bing slowly straightened from his crouch. “I was. I was watching you fight.”
Walter grinned. “It looked good, didn’t it? I was good.” He even preened a bit as he straightened up. At Bing’s sour expression, he snapped out in irritation. “Jealous?” he taunted. “Can’t stand to have someone fight better than you?”
“That wasn’t you, Walter. That was the Monkey King.” Then he pointed at the laptop. “Look at it. Really see it. Can any normal being fight like that?”
Walter didn’t have to look to know. He remembered giving himself over to the alien energy. He still pressed the Play arrow on his screen. What he saw dropped his jaw. It looked amazing. Incredible.Supernatural.
“There’s an energy inside me,” he finally admitted. “I let it take control.”
“Kick it out, Walter.”
“I….” His voice trailed away. He watched the footage—all of it—and pride surged inside him. It looked fantastic. Not just the fighting, but the swagger. Confidence oozed off the screen and showed exactly what was needed for the character. “I was good,” he breathed.
“That was Monkey,” Bing said again as he stepped closer.
“That was me!” Walter said, pointing at the footage from before the fight began. “Yeah, maybe I let whatever weird shit Auntie Sand pulled switch on during the fight, but this early stuff was me.” He straightened up to his full height. “I am in control.”
Bing’s raised eyebrows challenged him. “Your alarm went off. Where are you supposed to be right now?”
It what? When?
He ran a hand over his face, trying to sort through everything. Wherewashe supposed to be? Did he have a meeting? He closed his eyes, trying to remember, but all he could think was that the air had a sharp bite on his naked skin. Pleasurable and too cold at the same time. He wanted to rub himself all over Bing, wanted to heat both of their bodies in a very erotic way. And if Bing was stubborn, then sparring would work as well.
He felt his organ throb with hunger, and he grabbed it with one hand and turned to Bing. The drive to be carnal was so strong. “Suck me off,” he ordered. “I’ll be able to think clearly afterwards.”
Bing tensed as he shifted subtly into a warrior’s stance. “Monkey, what do you want with my friend?”
“That was me, you ass. Not some demigod,” Walter said, now starting to rub his own cock.
“Walter, think! You’re jerking yourself off!”
“I used to do it all the time when I was alone in bed, thinking of you.” He arched his brows. “What’s the big deal now that I’m doing it in front of you?”
He felt the heat build, the pleasure ripple through his body, and he saw….
He saw Bing’s horrified expression. Then he thought—just for a moment—about what he was doing.
What. The. Fuck?
He jerked his hand away as if he’d been stung. His entire body crawled with horror. That energy that was inside him…. He couldn’t feel the difference anymore. Where was it? Where was that coiling energy that had been so loud in his brain?
“Say it, Walter. ‘I am a sovereign being—’”
“I am a sovereign being.”
“Get out of my head, Monkey. Get out of my body.”
“Get out of my head, Monkey. Get out of my….”
There it was. He felt it now. It was like electrical power slowly retreating from his extremities. First his fingers and toes, but then his hands and feet. Damn, the ground was freezing. And now his legs trembled as his whole body shuddered in reaction.
“Oh shit,” he murmured, stumbling. His legs felt like noodles.
Bing was beside him in a moment, his heat surrounding Walter as he wrapped strong arms around him. “I’ve got you,” he murmured. “But you have to keep saying it. You’re a sovereign being, Walter.”
“I’m… sovereign.” He managed to get the words out between bouts of panting. But inside, the cold was coming on fast. Worse, he started remembering. Memories of how it felt to fight like a god. And to make love like one too. Had this alien energy been behind it all? It had felt like he was following his own thoughts, his own desires. He’d wanted Bing forever. But maybe it hadn’t really been him?
