Blood Brothers (2 page)

Kiyoshi’s lapping tongue discovered the slit at the tip of Liu’s swollen head, sliding back and forth over the opening, trying to work into it despite the impossibility. The sensation both hurt and pleased, and Liu convulsed as the first spurt burst through him.

His back rubbed raw by the coarse weaving beneath him, Liu arched forward and supported himself shakily on one elbow. He spread his legs open and stared in tortured delight as Kiyoshi moved over the hard erection, taking in huge mouthfuls of the pink, pulsing length in a steadily rising rhythm.

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Barbara Sheridan and Anne Cain

Some of the fluid oozed from Kiyoshi’s lips. He couldn’t swallow enough to keep up with the violent release.

Liu gripped the back of Kiyoshi’s head to hold him in place. “Suck,”

he choked out after several failed attempts to make those primal noises vibrating in his throat into clear words. “Suck it all—
please
…”

Kiyoshi didn’t like the odd, salty taste of it and the way it felt on his tongue, but he loved his dear friend. He owed Liu so much for all the times he’d helped him, all the times Liu had done the work of both of them to keep Mother from beating them for being lazy.

And when she did want to beat whoever dirtied her laundry by knocking down the drying pole or whoever spilled the fresh water drug all the way from the stream, it was Liu who took the beatings for Kiyoshi’s own clumsiness. So Kiyoshi willingly did as he was asked. He swallowed Liu’s seed and sucked on his organ until Liu told him to stop.

Liu pulled Kiyoshi on top of him and into a tight embrace. Kiyoshi hugged him back and let himself doze off, content that he’d made his
ge-ge
happy in this lonely life of hardship they shared.

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Blood Brothers

Outside, the steady buzz of cicadas and the low rustling of bamboo stalks as they rasped together in the breeze filled the night. Inside the small farmhouse, Kiyoshi snored softly in his sleep, wrapped in his friend’s arms.

Liu held him close, dozing off and on as the evening progressed. He toyed with Kiyoshi’s hair or indulged himself with a stolen kiss from the boy whenever he woke. If Kiyoshi stirred then Liu quickly pulled him back into his embrace and held him tighter.

The next time Liu opened his eyes, Kiyoshi had rolled out onto the
tatami
from under the light blanket covering both their naked bodies. Liu turned onto his side, curling himself around his companion’s smaller form, his face buried in the silky threads of Kiyoshi’s loose hair. As he closed his eyes, Liu’s contended sigh seemed to echo in the room.

Sometime later, he wasn’t sure when, Liu rose on one elbow, suddenly alert. Everything had gone silent—the drone of the insects, the wind moving through the trees. The silence was overpowering. Unnerved, Liu sat up just as something large and heavy thudded against the front of the house. Shrugging into a
kosode
, he took a lantern and went to the entrance. “Who is it?” he asked cautiously, speaking through the closed door made of hollowed bamboo stalks.

“Let me in,” a man called out weakly from the other side. “I’ve been wounded and ask only for shelter from the night.”

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Barbara Sheridan and Anne Cain

The smell of blood reached Liu through the door as clearly as the stranger’s voice did. The man must be a samurai, he realized with alarm.

Clansmen were warring in nearby villages. Stories of the death and destruction left in their wake had reached this tiny part of the province.

The bamboo door never seemed as fragile as it did now.

“Go away,” Liu said hoarsely. “Leave us alone.” Their village already had enough hardships without war to deal with as well.

“Liu, what is it? Who’s there?” Kiyoshi asked, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

Liu pressed a finger to his lips and listened, hoping the intruder would just vanish.

“Please, kind sir. Help me…I’m injured,” the voice outside called.

Kiyoshi grabbed his robe, slipped it on, then went to his friend’s side.

He clutched the back of Liu’s robe and Liu in turn placed one arm protectively around Kiyoshi’s shoulder.

“One night,” the man outside said. “I only…ask one…night—”

There was a thud, then it grew silent, too silent. Kiyoshi tangled his fingers tighter in Liu’s clothing. “Should we help?” he whispered.

“No. We don’t need trouble here,” Liu told him.

“But we can’t leave him out there to die.”

“Better out there than in here.”

“But…”

Liu looked down at Kiyoshi, then to the door, and to Kiyoshi again.

Muttering a curse in Chinese, he stepped back and unlatched the door to slide it open a bit.

Kiyoshi stood in the doorway, watching as Liu went to examine the fallen man. It was hard to see his features in the darkness especially with mud, blood and the tangled mass of hair obscuring his face.

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Blood Brothers

“He’s still alive,” Liu said. “He’ll probably die anyway. We should drag him to the road.”

“Maybe we should help him?” Kiyoshi asked quietly, biting his lip.

“He may be an important samurai. He may reward us.”

“All right,” Liu said, his voice heavy with reluctance. “We’ll help, but just this one. I’m not taking in every stray that stumbles by.”

“Hello,” a male voice said softly. “I’m glad to see you’re finally waking.

You slept for two days.”

A wet cloth touched his face and Kuro opened his eyes. Thankfully it was near dusk and the light that filtered in the window above the futon mattress was not bright enough to cause him pain.

The boy smiled and Kuro realized how
thirsty
he was. He reached out to touch the young man’s hand, his long fingers sliding around the wrist to feel the throbbing of the vein.

Oh yes.
Yessss
.

Kuro licked his parched lips.

“You’re thirsty? Let me get you water.”

Kuro allowed the boy to pull away and go to the bucket across the room to fetch a dipper of water. The boy returned, knelt beside the futon and slipped one hand behind Kuro’s head to raise it. Kuro grabbed the boy’s other hand and felt the throbbing vein again as he sipped the cool liquid. But water was so inadequate. He needed more. So much more.

After finishing, Kuro pushed the dipper away and reached up to caress the boy’s smooth face. “So kind of you.” He let his fingers trail down to the place at the base of the boy’s neck just visible at the vee of the
yukata
. “So very, very kind you are.”

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Barbara Sheridan and Anne Cain

He peered into the boy’s wide-set eyes and let his mind reach out to wrap itself around that of his innocent benefactor.

Yes, my pet, that’s it lean in closer, closer…

Kuro’s fangs tingled within his gums and began to extend behind his closed lips.

“Kiyoshi! What are you doing?”

Kuro released his hold on the boy and fell back to the futon.

“Um, I… He’s awake, Liu! He’s finally awake.”

“Good,” Liu said flatly. He dropped his short-handled scythe to the earth floor by the entrance. Stepping over to Kiyoshi’s side, he touched the boy’s elbow and pulled him away from Kuro’s bedside. “He can leave then.”

Kuro stared at this one—
Liu
, he was called—who seemed so protective of the younger boy. Those dark eyes flashed with fear and mistrust, along with something else. Kuro noticed the way Liu’s hand lingered a moment too long on Kiyoshi’s elbow, and Kuro could hear Liu’s pulse quicken from the touch alone.

And he was such a lovely young man besides. They both were, this Kiyoshi and Liu. They shared almost the same essence. Kuro could smell the same tangy sweetness in them both.

“But, Liu…” the boy started. He wore his kindness on his sleeve, right beside his heart. Kuro concealed his smile well.

“Kiyoshi-kun, you have already been more than kind to me,” Kuro said. “Let me thank you for your kindness and I won’t darken your home any longer.”

Kuro tried to sit up and collapsed back onto the futon.

In less than a moment, Kiyoshi moved to Kuro’s side, his smooth brow creased with worry as he pressed his hand to Kuro’s forehead.

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Blood Brothers

Liu sucked in his breath through teeth clenched with disapproval.

“Kiyo-kun,” he said sharply. “Leave him be.”

Kiyoshi gave a slight shake of his head in disagreement. “I think he’s coming down with a fever and it’s already nightfall. We can’t turn him away now. Please.”

If only this young creature knew the source of the fever…
Kuro’s mouth watered at the scent of the boy’s blood. Kiyoshi faced away from him, his head turned towards his older brother so the side of his neck was exposed in such a tempting way. Kuro propped himself up on one elbow, his body enticed by the scent of blood—wanting it, craving it.

Kuro forced himself to look away toward Liu lest the thirst take the better of him. He was still too weak from his wounds to fend off two men, and something flickered in the older one’s eyes that warned Kuro to be wary. Had Nobunaga’s bastard archers not used arrows blessed by a priest, he would have been healed enough to take both these boys.

The older one, Liu, met his gaze and flashed him a dark look. Kuro suppressed another smile.
Such fire, such passion…
“At least give me a meal,” Kuro asked with forced meekness.

“Please,
ge-ge
,” Kiyoshi pleaded again. This plea softened the older one’s hard look and Liu conceded with a single nod. Kiyoshi pulled away before Liu could change his mind and padded softly across the mat towards the hearth. He returned with three bowls of steaming rice and offered one to Liu, who took it and sat across from the futon in silence.

Kiyoshi returned to Kuro’s side and handed him the remaining bowl and a pair of simple, sanded chopsticks. The portion of rice was meager, barely filling the bowl halfway, reminding Kuro of how much he longed for something more satisfying to his particular needs.

“Thank you,” he said and started picking at the rice. But all the while Kuro ate, his gaze kept returning to the pleasant curves of the young

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Barbara Sheridan and Anne Cain

one’s face and the pulsing vein along the pale neck. As he placed his empty bowl down, he caught Liu staring at him again.

“You can ask anything you like.” Kuro smiled darkly, amused by this one’s suspicion. “If that would put you at ease.”

“I don’t care to know anything.” Liu returned to his simple meal.

“Just get well enough to make Kiyo-kun happy—then leave.”

“Then can I ask you a question?” Kuro continued anyway, his curiosity piqued. “Your beauty is not entirely Japanese,
Liu
-san, is it?”

“My mother was from the mainland,” Liu mumbled.

“Ah,” Kuro said, switching to the Chinese tongue. “So was mine.”

A mixed expression clouded Liu’s face. “I have a Japanese name,” he said, carefully forming the words like he wasn’t sure if he should say them. “It’s Sakurai.” He opened his mouth to say something more, but gathered his bowl and chopsticks, keeping silent instead. Kuro turned to Kiyoshi and spoke in Japanese once again.

“You are a lovely creature too, Kiyoshi-kun.” He smiled and leaned back against the futon, closing his eyes to rest until he regained enough strength to slay both brothers in their sleep.

He awoke to the feel of cold steel pressing against his throat. It was the blade of a handheld scythe. Liu leaned over him, black eyes glittering in the moonlight that spilled from the window overhead.

“What is this?” Kuro asked with a soft, throaty laugh. Liu narrowed his eyes and pressed the edge of the
kama
closer, just breaking the surface.

“I saw how you were looking at Kiyoshi,” Liu whispered hoarsely, a cold sweat dotting his brow. His hands trembled and his heart hammered within him, vibrating against his ribcage. “If you won’t leave, then I’ll kill you—samurai or not.”

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Blood Brothers

“But you don’t
want
to kill me do you, Liu?” Kuro breathed, allowing his mind to reach out and touch the younger man’s. Oh but he was a strong one. It wouldn’t be easy to breach this one’s internal defenses as it had been with the other. Perhaps killing them wasn’t the best course.

Perhaps they held promise. This one certainly seemed to.

“I’ll do what I have to, to keep Kiyoshi safe.”

“Because he’s like a younger brother to you, but perhaps something a bit…more?”
“Oh I know what he is to you, Liu, I can see the hunger in
your eyes for him. I felt the passion in your blood for him. Even now you
grow hard and ache for him and if I wasn’t here you’d be fucking him into
the futon, wouldn’t you?”

The trembling in Liu’s hands worsened until his entire body quivered.

“I don’t—I—,” the young man gasped. He kept the curved blade to Kuro’s throat, but he sat back on his heels and groaned. His free hand pressed against the front of his
yukata
, stroking at the part in the robe between his legs. Kuro laughed again when the steel scraped against his neck, drawing out blood with the same ease he’d drawn out the hidden desires of Liu’s heart. Kuro reached up and touched the boy’s chin.

“Y—yes,” Liu sighed heavily, his pulse quickening as the blood rushed through his body with lust.

“Give in to those desires…”
Kuro smiled, reaching out with his senses until he could taste Kiyoshi’s essence through Liu’s passionate imaginings.

“Gods!” Liu dropped the
kama
and scrambled backwards away from Kuro. “How did you know that?” he croaked. “Why can I hear your voice in my mind?”

“I am a strong man, Liu. Strong in ways you can’t even begin to imagine,” Kuro said softly. “I can see inside men to read what lies within their hearts.” He sat up, leaning back on one elbow to regard Liu. “A

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Barbara Sheridan and Anne Cain

farmer’s life is not for you. Had you been born to better parents you would be a fine samurai. I sense in you a bloodthirsty warrior to rival the best Nobunaga’s army has ever seen.”