Blood Brothers (4 page)

A shadow passed over his closed eyelids and he felt Kuro’s breath on his cheek, oddly cold against his flushed skin. Kiyoshi stiffened in Liu’s arms, but his brother comforted him with more urgent kisses on his shoulder. He hadn’t even noticed when Liu had started to pull open his
kosode
front, but the hemp cloth now hung over his shoulders where Liu’s lips feverishly kissed the exposed flesh. He recognized Kuro’s touch from the lack of warmth as the strange samurai’s fingers moved over his bare chest, pinching his hard nipples and arcing down past the tie at his waist.

“Kuro-sama,” Kiyoshi moaned at the fondling caresses of the older man. He used the same honorific Liu had, afraid and drawn to Kuro though he didn’t know why. But he did love his friend, and he did trust him—more than he did anyone else. “Kuro-sama, share your gifts with me…please.”

“Please,”
he let his thoughts carry the word and Kuro’s powerful voice filled his mind.

“The both of you will be my finest sons.”

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Blood Brothers

Liu suddenly pulled away from Kiyoshi’s neck, tugging the young man’s head to one side as he moved. Kiyoshi’s eyes flew open in alarm and he caught a glimpse of Kuro’s leering face before the samurai lunged forward, white fangs flashing in the shadows.

Sharp teeth punctured Kiyoshi’s neck as Kuro bit down.

Kiyoshi started to cry out, but as the sound escaped his throat, Liu’s hand wrapped around his mouth. He screamed into Liu’s palm, tears of pain and fear springing to his eyes.

“Shhh…Kiyo-kun, stop that.” Liu kissed his cheek. “The pain won’t last. I promise.”

Kiyoshi clenched his fists so tightly his hands ached but then…Liu was right. It stopped hurting and became so…
good
.

He moaned against his brother’s hand as sensation shot through him the way it did when he and Liu…

Kiyoshi shuddered as his seed exploded into his
fundoshi
. He was still trying to catch his breath when Kuro pulled away and Liu pressed on his shoulder until he was kneeling before the samurai. The man’s arousal was evident and Liu bent down, whispered in his ear. “You know what to do. You need to. When you do you’ll feel
wonderful!”

Kuro’s hands were already stroking the side of Kiyoshi’s face, encouraging him to look upwards into the samurai’s fierce eyes.

“You are a sweet one, little one.” He laughed, tracing Kiyoshi’s lips with a rough thumb. “Your brother is only half-right…not only will you feel wonderful, you’ll feel completely changed…” He laughed again, a dark and sensual sound that made Kiyoshi shiver.

Liu dropped behind Kiyoshi, his hands working to loosen the tie at Kiyoshi’s waist. Kiyoshi stood mutely as his clothing was torn open and Liu reached down to undo the wet
fundoshi.
Kuro ripped at his own

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Barbara Sheridan and Anne Cain

clothing. He slipped his hand behind Kiyoshi’s head and jerked him close to his abdomen.

“Take me in your sweet mouth,” Kuro purred. “As Liu did.”

Kiyoshi sucked him in eagerly, using his lips and tongue in the same ways that made Liu writhe and moan. He was a little afraid when Kuro tangled his strong fingers in his hair and plunged in and out of his mouth, but then Liu started to touch him and use his own mouth.

Kiyoshi quaked from the building pleasure his
ge-ge
brought him when Kuro came hard and fast in his mouth. He gulped it, shuddering. It burned going down like the first time he had
sake
.

The samurai pulled out of him, breathing hard, and coaxed Liu up.

Kiyoshi watched as they kissed, as Kuro flicked his tongue over Liu’s lips. He smiled and touched Kiyoshi’s head. “My beautiful, passionate boys.”

“
Chichi-ue
,” Liu said, breathless. He was crying. Kiyoshi stared at the tears rolling over his brother’s cheeks, streaking the blood from the slain samurai that had splattered on his face. “Father…we’ll do anything for you.”

Kuro nodded, his eyes flashing. “Very good,” he affirmed. “My heirs should be loyal.”

Liu reached down, holding the side of Kiyoshi’s head to his hip. “We are.” He ran his fingers through Kiyoshi’s hair, smoothing out the tousled strands. “Anything you want from us, you can have.”

“
Ge-ge
…” Kiyoshi grabbed at Liu’s hand, clenching it tightly in his own. The taste of Kuro’s essence still burned his tongue and throat; he could feel the raw power of the man. Already he wanted more—and the thought frightened him.

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Blood Brothers

Liu squeezed his brother’s hand in return, but his eyes—and heart it seemed—stayed focused on Kuro. “Anything,” he repeated and the samurai broke into a grin, his teeth red with Kiyoshi’s blood.

“Come with me tonight.” Kuro licked his fangs. “
Hunt
with me.”

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Barbara Sheridan and Anne Cain

“Liu, I’m afraid.”

“Ssshhh don’t be. It’s all right. It will be all right. He has to do this so he can be stronger so no more soldiers can hurt him.”

“But—”

Liu silenced Kiyoshi with a press of fingers against his lips, then took hold of his hand and pulled him deeper into the shadows of the storehouse on the outskirts of the village.

Kuro leaned against the wooden structure, his arms folded across his chest. The loose ends of his black
yukata
swirled around his ankles, kicked up by the shifting winds blowing over the village since late that afternoon. Most of the people dwelling here had been lured out of their homes to enjoy the break in the heat, a few children allowed up past their bedtimes ran through the dark streets with paper lamps like this was cause for celebration or perhaps there was a festival in town.

“Like fish in a pond.” Kuro smiled. “How do you choose?”

Liu felt Kiyoshi’s hand grow cold in his. “These are our friends,” his younger brother whispered. “Are you sure?”

“Stop it,” Liu snapped, more to silence the doubt edging into his heart than to quiet Kiyoshi. “Be strong,
dai-dai
.”

“Are you strong?” Kuro turned his gaze to Liu.

“Of course.” And he felt it too, the power and strength coursing through his body—the gifts Kuro had given him.

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Blood Brothers

“Show me.” Kuro pushed off the building and dashed down the shadow-filled village street. Liu ran after him, dragging Kiyoshi along behind. He almost lost track of the samurai who moved as one with darkness, but Kuro suddenly stopped in front of a house even more battered and worn than Liu and Kiyoshi’s own.

“Inside.” Kuro lingered in the doorway, his hand brushing the surface of the door. “Bring him to me.”

Liu knew Kuro meant the old man who lived in the house, and he also knew what was expected of him. He heard the samurai—his new father—in his head, repeating the solitary word
“kill”
. So did Kiyoshi.

“Don’t!” Kiyoshi begged softly. Liu let go of his hand, ignoring Kiyoshi’s plea. Panting from the run and anticipation, Liu stepped into the house.

Kiyoshi wrung his thin hands together and refused to look at Kuro who kept talking inside his head, telling him to be strong, to be a fitting son, to relax and do what was necessary to survive. To…
enjoy
it.

Dragging the old man Yoshinori, one hand around his mouth, the other his waist, Liu’s dark eyes gleamed with an almost evil light that chilled Kiyoshi. He cringed when Liu twisted the old man’s neck until the soft crack of bone could be heard.

“Drink,
Chichi-ue
.”

“He’s not our father, ge-ge.”

Liu shot Kiyoshi a startled glance.
“Of course he’s our father
,
dai-dai
.
”

Liu gripped the old man’s limp body even tighter.
“He wants the best for
us…he loves us.”

Kuro must also have heard the silent exchange, because he smiled proudly and caressed Liu’s cheek as he stepped up to them. “Of course I do,” he said with a soft laugh. “And I have so much yet to teach you both.”

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Barbara Sheridan and Anne Cain

He wrenched the old man from Liu’s grip and tore into the flesh on his neck. Thick, gurgling sounds filled the night air as Kuro guzzled the blood. Something crashed behind them, and Liu whipped around.

Yoshinori’s widowed daughter stood in the middle of the street, her face an expression of horror, the packed dinner for her father smashed on the ground by her feet where she’d dropped them.

“Take care of her.”

Liu darted forward at Kuro’s silent command, already drawing his
kama
as he moved.

Kiyoshi stared in horror as the man who was like a brother decapitated the woman before she could even scream. Liu was even more vicious than he’d been with the samurai earlier. He seized the woman by the collar of her kimono and dragged her back toward Kuro, who discarded the drained husk of the old man like so much trash.

“Such a good boy,” Kuro hissed before bending to lap up the blood draining from the stump of the woman’s neck.

A pained whimper escaped Kiyoshi’s throat as he watched Liu crouch beside the monstrous samurai and lick the blood from the man’s fingers.

“Don’t look at me like that, dai-dai! You don’t know what you’re
missing!”

“I don’t want to know…”

And yet, he
did.

Kuro glanced up at him, dark eyes glittering evilly in the faint light of the moon and Kiyoshi found himself walking forward, kneeling beside the samurai and touching the proffered bloody hand. He raised it to his lips, his tongue snaking out to lick the blood from Kuro’s thick fingers much in the same way he’d licked away the man’s spent seed earlier. Tentative at first, he became exhilarated and began to suck the samurai’s fingers

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Blood Brothers

in earnest, his head bobbing up and down the way it did when he pleasured Liu, eager to feel the sticky hot spurt coat his tongue.

“Good, child.” Kuro laughed softly. “Enjoy the taste of what it means to truly live.”

Liu came up beside them, licking his lips as only a man who thirsted greatly would.

“Share with me,
dai-dai
,” he pleaded, rubbing the back of Kiyoshi’s neck. Kiyoshi could feel the blood on his adopted brother’s hands—still warm from the kill—soak into the hem of his kimono. Liu leaned forward, his tongue flicking out along Kuro’s finger to catch whatever Kiyoshi’s urgent suckling had missed.

“
Chichi-ue
, please.” Liu gazed at Kuro. “I’ve tasted this…but there’s more to taste, I can feel it.”

Kuro looked up from Kiyoshi, flashing his teeth as he laughed.

“Greedy are we?”

“No,” Liu said hastily, his eyes widening with worry that perhaps he’d upset his master. Kuro’s gaze locked onto his and Liu could not have stopped the shudder from moving down his spine even if he’d tried to.

The samurai’s eyes touched the core of Liu’s very soul, so he felt naked before him. His inner desires and wishes were exposed to Kuro-sama, trying to hide anything now was futile. Liu swallowed, aware suddenly that his mouth had begun to water.

“Yes…” he admitted in a quiet whisper, correcting his lie. “I am greedy.”

“You should be ravenous.” Kuro’s smile darkened into something at once sinister and captivating. Liu nodded, more than spellbound.

“I am,” he would have screamed the words, but his voice shrank into a whisper of reverence. He felt so much stronger with Kuro-sama, his

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Barbara Sheridan and Anne Cain

body moved like never before—silent, powerful…deadly. Already, his thirst for more felt like it could never be sated.

“Not like our Kiyoshi-kun.” Kuro’s smile faded. He turned back to the younger man as he withdrew his fingers from Kiyoshi’s mouth. He touched the young man’s cheek and frowned, as though examining a flaw in what would otherwise have been a flawless treasure. “You still have much to learn, little one. Much indeed.”

Somewhere down the street, one of the villagers called out. Riders could be seen dotting the horizon, silhouetted by starlight as they cleared the crest near the village’s entrance. Kuro sucked in his breath and gripped Kiyoshi’s shoulder.

“Nobunaga.” Kuro spoke the name with obvious loathing, adding sharply, “We must leave. Forget this pest-hole village—it should mean nothing to either of you now.”

“I’ll find you a horse, Kuro-sama.” Liu darted down the street toward the village head’s stable.

They rode all through the night and partway into the following day, until Kuro-sama slumped with exhaustion and discomfort from the sun.

They found shelter in a small cave nestled deep in the mountains.

Kiyoshi watched as Liu fell into sleep beside the strange samurai who pulled the younger man close.

Cold, exhausted and feeling more alone than ever, Kiyoshi curled up on the improvised bed of dried grass and leaves and let the fog of sleep blanket his senses.

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Blood Brothers

“
Dai-dai
, wake up.”

Kiyoshi’s eyes fluttered open at the sound of his brother’s voice. Liu kneeled beside him, gently nudging his shoulder. “Wake up,” he insisted softly.

“Was everything a dream?” Kiyoshi asked groggily. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with the flat of his palms and sat up slowly. Were they safely back in their father’s house in their poor village? For a moment, he almost believed it. One look at his surroundings and he realized everything had been real after all. Kuro…the killing… Kiyoshi’s stomach twisted.

Nightfall blanketed the cave in almost total darkness. The light from the small lantern Liu held only brightened a small patch of the cave floor, now covered in a thick mist that edged in from the entrance. Here at the foot of the mountains, it seemed the heat of summer had vanished, replaced instead with a chill that worked its way into Kiyoshi’s bones. He shivered and Liu touched his cheek.

“You’ve slept too long, that’s all,” Liu said with a smile. “Come join us and you’ll feel better.” He grabbed Kiyoshi’s hand and started to pull him up from the leaf-strewn floor.