“How on earth would you know that?”
“I was there. I saw two men burying the body.”
Jon didn’t know whether to laugh or ask Kaspar if he’d taken some kind of blow to his head. Instead, he asked, “And what were you doing out at Stanton Combe in the middle of the night?”
“I’ll get to that in a moment. But first, I need a drink. And so will you when you hear what I have to say.”
Kaspar strode into the kitchen with Jon following behind. He took a couple of heavy-bottomed glasses out of one cupboard then found a bottle of brandy in another. Having poured two measures, he handed one glass to Jon. The other he drained in one gulp before refilling it.
“Okay,” he said, once he’d taken another large swallow of brandy. “I know what I’m about to tell you may be hard for you to comprehend, but I swear that every word of it is true.”
“Don’t worry, Kaspar. I’m a man of the world. I don’t think there’s anything you could say that would shock me.”
Kaspar fixed him with a look that seemed to say ‘I wouldn’t be so sure of that’. “You remember how we talked about your research into the legend of the Foolish Brothers, and the cult who worshiped Leweilun?”
Jon nodded, wondering what all this could possibly be leading to.
“Well, whoever wrote that account wasn’t just making it up to sell books. There are creatures who can transform themselves from man to lion, and I should know. I’m one of them.”
“Oh, that’s ridiculous. What kind of idiot do you take me for, Kaspar?”
“I swear I’m telling you the truth. I’m a shifter, and so is Ellie. And my boss, Marina, for that matter. We have existed alongside humans for centuries, and we have established prides on every continent. Why else do you think all those religions you talked about have gods in the form of lions?”
The idea made a seductive kind of sense, but Jon still found it impossible to believe.
“You want the truth to be more straightforward, don’t you, Jon? You’d prefer me to have been with another man, fucking you over, because that’s how the rules operate in your world. But I was up at Stanton Combe tonight because there’s a full moon and I had to go somewhere I could…change.”
“So that’s what causes it? The cycle of the moon?”
“Not entirely, though it does have an influence. If you haven’t shifted for a while, you’ll find the urge grows stronger as the moon waxes. But emotions play a part, too. You might find yourself threatening to shift when you’re very angry…or very aroused.”
Jon processed the implications of that last comment. “You’re trying to tell me when we’re having sex, you want to become a lion?”
“If you put it like that, yes. But don’t worry. It will never happen when I’m with you. We might have a bestial side to our nature, but we still have control over these things.”
“I like the way you say ‘will never happen’,” Jon said bitterly. “Like you don’t think this is the end between us.” Having heard Kaspar’s strange confession, he didn’t see what kind of future they had together.
The guy’s not human, for God’s sake…
“Why should it be?” Kaspar regarded him, the intensity in his golden eyes almost too much to bear. “Jon, you’re my mate, the partner I’m destined to be with. I knew that from the moment you walked into løve. As soon as I caught your scent, there wasn’t another person in the room as far as I was concerned.”
Jon’s mind flashed back to their first night together. He recalled Kaspar mentioning something about scent when they’d gone back to his house but he’d dismissed the comment. Still, he couldn’t help but be unsettled by Kaspar’s assertion.
“How can you be so sure things will work out between us?”
“I’m not. In fact, until a few weeks ago, I’d never have believed a shifter and a human could find love together. I mean, you’ve never had the healthiest view of us as a species, as far as I can see. You either want to destroy us for being monsters or worship us as gods. And that’s a lot of pressure for us to find ourselves under.”
“So what changed?”
“I saw one of my own family members in a relationship with a human and they looked so happy, so suited. I knew what they had couldn’t be wrong, whatever I’d been brought up to believe.”
He reached out to take hold of Jon’s hand. Jon didn’t pull away. Everything Kaspar said seemed so reasonable, clearly voiced from the heart. And yet…
“So you might have been thinking the worst of me, and what I want to know is what caused that to happen. What’s made you so suspicious, Jon? Why do you find it so hard to trust anyone?”
Kaspar might just have spilled his most profound secret, but it didn’t mean Jon was ready to do the same. Talking about Simon would only stir up difficult emotions and there were already too many of those swirling around. He brought the subject back to the incident that had originally prompted Kaspar’s revelation.
“That doesn’t matter right now. I want to get this clear in my mind. You claim you went up to the Foolish Brothers tonight because you needed to shift into your lion form. It’s a great story, but how can I be sure you’re telling me the truth?”
“I wouldn’t lie to you about something like this. But if you’re so determined to have proof, why don’t I give you a demonstration?”
As Kaspar spoke, he stripped off his top, then his sweatpants. Jon tried not to stare at his lover’s cock, hanging limp but still so enticing between his thighs.
“Kaspar, what are you doing?”
“It’s best I’m naked for this. I like that hoodie and I don’t want to ruin it.” He spoke matter-of-factly.
Kaspar didn’t say anything more, didn’t even appear to move a muscle. But somehow, his body began to alter. His shoulders grew broader, his hair wilder. His bare skin acquired a thick covering of sandy fur. As his handsome, masculine features began to turn into a whiskered snout, Jon cried out.
“No, stop, I’ve seen enough!”
As rapidly as the transformation had begun, it went into reverse. In moments, Kaspar stood before him, a man again.
Jon realized he was shaking and grabbed the back of a chair to steady himself.
“Now do you believe me?” Kaspar asked.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have doubted you. I just…”
“Hey, Jon, it’s okay.” Kaspar moved to take Jon in an embrace, holding him close. “I didn’t mean to scare you.” He guided Jon to sit in the chair then pressed the half-f brandy glass into his hand.
Jon took a sip of the drink as Kaspar began to dress. The alcohol warmed and helped to steady him.
“So,” he said, still trying to get Kaspar’s account of the evening straight in his mind, “you saw this…sacrifice take place?”
“No.” Kaspar paused in the act of pulling his top on. “That had already happened by the time I got there. And I didn’t intend to visit the stones when I left here. It’s more like I was drawn there—as if I didn’t have any choice in the matter. But someone was definitely killed tonight and we need to let the police know about it.”
“Do you think they’re really going to believe you? I mean, are you absolutely sure those two men were carrying a dead body?”
“Well, I didn’t see a hand poking out from the tarpaulin or anything like that, but I could smell it.” Kaspar shuddered. “I can still smell it. And they were talking about the guy they’d sacrificed, saying no one would miss him because he was a rent boy. Jon, we have to do something. We can’t let this go unreported.”
“So how are you going to explain to the police what you were doing up at Stanton Combe in the middle of the night? I can’t imagine you’re going to pull one of your transformation acts for their benefit.” Jon didn’t like the nasty tone that had crept into his voice but he had to make Kaspar see sense. “And if you speak to them now, they’ll get a whiff of the alcohol on your breath and they’ll dismiss everything you have to say.”
“That’s okay. I can go down to the police station tomorrow before I go to work and speak to someone then. I’ll just tell them I was riding my bike home and I got lost.” He grinned. “I am new to the area, after all.”
“Okay, let’s say they do take you seriously enough to investigate this… Could you show them where the body’s buried?”
“I think so…” For the first time, Kaspar looked doubtful. “I mean, I kind of know how close I was to the stones. I’m sure I could find the spot again.” His face brightened. “Anyway, the ground will look like it’s been disturbed recently. That’ll show them where to dig.”
“I still think we should sleep on this, Kaspar. I know you’re sincere about this but I really don’t want to see you up on a charge of wasting the police’s time.” He bit back a yawn. “And I need to get some sleep. So if you don’t mind, I’m going back up to bed.”
“I’ll join you in a moment.”
Pausing on the threshold of the room, Jon recalled what his mother had always said about not letting the sun go down on an argument. “I’m sorry I got so worked up about you leaving the house just now. It was an overreaction on my part. I’ll make it up to you.”
“That’s okay. I shouldn’t have gone without letting you know. I know that now.”
“No, irrational jealousy got the better of me and that was stupid. I’ll do my best not to let it happen again. You’re…very special to me, Kaspar, and I came very close to throwing it all away.”
He’d been on the verge of uttering the words that were in his heart.
I love you, Kaspar
. Even though they’d only known each other for a few weeks he’d fallen hard for the gorgeous Dutchman. But he couldn’t admit that. He didn’t want to sound needy and vulnerable, or to lay his feelings bare only to discover that Kaspar didn’t reciprocate them.
Why does everything have to be complicated?
Jon cast one last backward glance at his lover then climbed the stairs to bed.
Chapter Twenty
Kaspar rested his forearms on the stone balustrade and stared down at the river below. The water churned and hissed as it fell over the stepped, horseshoe-shaped weir. A length of tree branch bobbed in the fast-moving current. He found something almost hypnotic about its progress.
To his left, a group of Italian backpackers chattered and snapped photos of the weir and each other. A bus rumbled slowly across Pulteney Bridge. In the public garden on the opposite bank of the river, a couple of girls sat on a bench eating sandwiches and throwing crumbs to the pigeons that clustered and pecked around their feet. The scene seemed so ordinary, yet to Kaspar it seemed like something from another world.
This morning, he’d set off from home with the express intention of visiting the police station and talking to someone about what he’d seen in the clearing near the Foolish Brothers. That had been four nights ago. Despite his intentions to report the crime straight away, he’d found himself putting it off for reasons he couldn’t define. His friends in Amsterdam had had a low opinion of the police and their ability to solve crimes, and those beliefs had rubbed off on him.
But the images still lingered in his mind. He could give perfect descriptions of the pair he’d seen carrying the heavy bundle, even remember snatches of their conversation. The older, bearded man had been so confident there would be no consequences for him and his colleagues, clearly believing they could get away with murder. Kaspar intended to prove him wrong.
He’d gotten as far as the building’s front steps before doubts had overcome him. The more he played the story over, the more unlikely it seemed. Jon was right. No one would take his account of events seriously. And even if they did, they’d ask why he’d waited so long to contact them. So he’d turned round and walked away, wandering aimlessly until he’d found himself by the weir.
Kaspar offered up a silent apology to the man who’d been wrapped in the tarpaulin. He might not feel able to involve the police but that didn’t mean he would let the matter lie. At the first opportunity, he would go back to the standing stones and try to find the grave. His sense of smell would lead him back to the spot. In the Netherlands, it was possible to report a crime anonymously—not directly to the police, but to an intermediary service that would pass on the information. Maybe England had a similar system. It would save him having to give any personal details, though he still ran the risk of being dismissed as some kind of crank.
Feeling a little more positive, he tore his gaze from the rushing water, straightened up, then began to stroll in the direction he’d come. He was working a late shift tonight, which gave him most of the day to do whatever he fancied. Do some window-shopping, take a tour of the Abbey, sit in a bar nursing a cold beer. All those options appealed.
A bus came down the road toward him, its destination reading ‘University of Bath’. Kaspar took it as a sign. Jon had offered to lend him a book that discussed the pagan belief in lion people. Now was as good an opportunity to collect it as any.
* * * *
The bus dropped him off in Claverton Down outside the university. Kaspar followed the signs leading through the striking modern buildings that made up the campus to the science block. During term time, the piazza around which the buildings were arranged would have been busy with students and staff on their way to lectures, the library or the coffee shop, but now all was quiet apart from one young man who wheeled his bike over the flagstones.
The archaeology department was on the second floor. Kaspar took the stairs then headed down the corridor. He checked each door till he found the one bearing Jon’s name. He paused before knocking. It was lunchtime. What if Jon had gone to get himself a sandwich?
He smiled to himself. He’d never known anyone with less grasp of time than Jon. Half the time he had to be reminded to eat.
When he banged on the door, Jon called out, “Enter!”
Kaspar walked into a small, functional room with bookshelves on three walls. Jon sat at his desk, a number of textbooks spread out before him. He looked up from the notes he’d been making, his expression confused.
“Hey, Kaspar. Had—had we made some kind of arrangement today?”
He shook his head. “No, I thought I’d just stop by to borrow that book you were talking about. You know—the one that talks about some kind of lion god.”