Thick as Thieves (5 page)

“They can’t service you now. Come on,” he said, grabbing Vorgell’s arm. Too bad pulling on it was like pulling on the limb of an oak.

“I really need to fuck something.”

“I told you—”

“We’re partners, you say? Hand over my half of the coin.”

“Why? So we can be two poor men instead of a reasonably prosperous pair?”

“You’re not the one with the star fires of a phoenix burning in his balls.”

Madd scowled. Being the partner of a unicorn horn-crazed barbarian came with a significant drawback: the man really did need to release his pent-up sexual urges. Madd wasn’t about to hand over hard-earned coin, though, when he could take care of the problem himself.

“Fine,” he snarled, gaining Vorgell’s attention by grabbing hold of the man’s tented trouser front and squeezing hard. “But we do this my way.”

Clamping his fingers around Vorgell’s straining cock, Madd pulled the giant toward a narrow side alley, up five crumbling steps, and into a deep doorway. His time spent living on the streets of Gurgh had given him knowledge of the city’s abandoned, rat-infested buildings, and this one would serve well enough. He released his grip.

“Open your trousers and pull it out. Now put your hands against the wall there beside the door,” he ordered.

Vorgell complied, releasing his cock and then bending at the hips to lean forward, palms splayed against the mossy bricks. Large and rosy, his member swung invitingly beneath him. Madd grasped it again, enjoying the feel of hot, naked male in his hand.

“Guess I’ll have to start milking you every morning like a cow,” he griped. He squeezed harder on Vorgell’s cock and felt a rush of satisfaction at the big man’s groan. What interested him more was that Vorgell wasn’t resisting in the least. He pressed his mouth to Vorgell’s ear. “Maybe I should just start mounting you like one too, eh, big guy?”

The barbarian’s cock, already beyond hard, leaped in his hand. Madd blinked. Really? Vorgell’s powerful body practically quivered.

“Is that what you want?” he murmured. There was a chance he could actually control this raging mass of spell-driven lust after all. He curled his fingers around Vorgell’s shaft and began to work his fist slowly up and down that gorgeous length. “Too bad we both could use a bath. I don’t have sex with unwashed men.”

“We’ll go to a bathhouse, Madd.” Vorgell’s breathing had quickened. “Wash in the river.”

“The baron’s looking for us. He’s hired bounty hunters by now. All the baths will be watched. So will the river. He knows I like to stay clean.” Slippery precome wetted his fingers as he cupped Vorgell’s knob and then stroked back down his shaft, repeating the movement to make it nice and slick. His own breathing quickened. Just handling the other man’s cock was making him hard too.

“Gods, Madd, we’ll wash up later—”

He smiled. This was almost too easy. So why did he feel such a thrill? Because he literally had Vorgell by the balls? The big man groaned with sweet need when Madd wrapped a clump of Vorgell’s long hair in his one hand and moved behind him. He used his other hand to yank down Vorgell’s trousers and then reached between the man’s legs to grip him by his furry nuts. “Tell you what, you cock-happy fool. I’ll get you off, if you give me no argument about taking a bath—”

“None. Whatever you want.” Vorgell tilted his pelvis backward, pushing his buttocks against Madd’s belly.

“Shut up and listen.” Madd yanked the barbarian’s hair, causing a yelp of surprise. “I’m doing you a favor, and if you want me to do it again, you’re going to let me clean you up properly. A haircut, for one thing, and you’ll get rid of that disgusting beard. It’s crawling with vermin.”

“Please, Madd, I—”

“You don’t expect me to kiss that, do you?” Madd released Vorgell’s balls and grabbed him by the cock again. He had Vorgell frantic, ready to explode. He could probably trigger him with just a word or a few jerks of his fist. Keeping his tight hold on the man’s tangled hair, he slammed his body hard against Vorgell’s round, begging ass, propelling him off-balance and forward onto those massive arms.

“Madd! Gods!”

“You think I don’t know what you want? I do, you know. But you’re going to have to make yourself pretty.” He rapidly pumped the slick, hot pole straining within his fingers. “Now spill it!”

“Fuck!” Vorgell bellowed, bucking so hard Madd nearly lost grip. “Fuck! Fuck!”

Any soul listening would have thought someone was getting the best screwing of his life. Vorgell’s semen erupted on Madd’s upstroke, flying in plumes against the dank, moss-strewn bricks of the wall, where it clung in milky globs. After spending his substantial load, Vorgell collapsed forward onto his arms as Madd released him and stepped back. His own cock was complaining about not getting any action, but damn if that hadn’t felt good. He’d almost forgotten the thrill of controlling another man’s orgasm.

“Here, clean yourself off.” He handed Vorgell one of the pair of linen kerchiefs he’d bought the night before, but not before wiping off his own hand first. “Feel better?”

“You could at least pretend you give a damn.”

“Why? So you can pretend we’re lovers?”

Vorgell curled a lip at him, but stood and adjusted his pants. He froze in place, hand cloth dangling, and stared at the wall. The moss where his semen had landed now danced with delicate pearl-pink flowers.

“Just great. You’ve created magical moss.” Madd hoped no one would understand the nature of Vorgell’s calling card. “Come on. If we leave the scene, maybe no one will notice.”

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see. And when we get there, let me handle things, all right?”

They exited the dark alley and soon plunged into another where wooden storefronts sprouted like exotic fungi from low stone buildings. Laundry hung out to dry on lines overhead dripped water down upon the streets like rain. With Vorgell at his heels, Madd ducked under a low archway and darted through a maze of walkways until they reached a doorway shaded by an awning of tattered hides. A man the size and shape of a water bull blocked the way.

“You may enter. Not him.” The behemoth folded his arms and bestowed a menacing look.

“Tell him that.” Madd wasn’t afraid of Aregho the Hammer.

“Fine,” Aregho said. “Then you can’t enter, either. Find sanctuary in one of the dung-filled alleys you haunt.”

“Are things so bad now Ibeena’s turning away her own at any excuse?”

Aregho glowered. “You barely qualify as one of us. You’ve been trouble since the day you were born. Now leave before I hit the both of you with an itching spell.”

Damn Aregho—and Ibeena too. It was just like the old witch to arm her doorway guardian with an arsenal of spells. Vorgell, however, simply laughed. With a quickness astonishing for so large a man, Vorgell grasped Aregho and lifted his enormous bulk.

“Vorgell!” Madd hissed in warning, but it was too late. Aregho was already muttering words that crackled with power. Sure enough, a moment later Madd’s skin erupted with prickles begging—demanding—to be scratched. Even his balls itched. He scraped wildly at his arms and clawed to reach his back. “Damn it, Vorgell, I told you to let me handle things!”

“What have you done, foul speaker of spells?” Vorgell shook the fat man like he might a bag of laundry. “Unmake your magic!”

“Why aren’t you itching, you brute?” Aregho grappled with Vorgell’s bulging arms.

“He is! He’s just so damn mad he doesn’t feel it!” Madd snapped. He succeeded in catching Vorgell’s gaze and exaggerated his scratching, hoping the enraged giant would understand.

Vorgell growled at his captive. “Indeed, the only thing I feel is an urge to skin you alive.”

“Look at the lot of you! Fools! Must all men bray and posture?” A woman carrying a bowl of apples stepped out of the shadows. Dark eyes glinted in a face of wrinkled leather. Her lips thinned into a mean smile at seeing Madd. “I should have guessed. What trouble are you in now?”

“Counter spell for the itching first. Then I’ll tell you!” He scratched at his collarbone.

“Ha!” She stepped up and slapped him on the face, hard enough to sting and momentarily detract from the itching. “I already know of your plight! Baron Flemgu sent a bird to the House of Sellswords. He’s paying gold to find the both of you. Put Aregho down and follow me inside. This had better be good.”

Chapter 5

M
AKING
a point to look as though he was scratching at a thousand itches, Vorgell followed Madd and the strange woman into the dwelling. He glared at the smug mountain of flesh guarding the door as he passed, but there was little he could do now to get revenge. Whoever these people were, they were magic users, blighted by dark art. Might alone would not defeat them. He burned to learn why Madd had sought out such wicked creatures.

A rubble-strewn courtyard dominated by an empty fountain gave way to cramped rooms and watchful shapes behind tattered curtains. He smelled the familiar perfume of sex and secrecy that went with being in a house of women.

“I know why the baron is hunting for
you
,” the stooped woman leading them said to Madd. “But what does he want with the oversized one?”

“Counter spell first, Ibeena.” Madd’s fingernails worked at a forearm.

Ibeena smirked. “Perhaps I shall leave it in place while I question you to be sure I get all the answers.”

“Or until the big guy here gets irritated enough to go on another rampage. Trust me, he can knock down walls.”

Vorgell took that as his cue to scratch at his forearm and put on his most threatening snarl. Ibeena’s composure barely slipped, but she apparently reconsidered.

“Very well,” she said, stopping to take a pinch of some kind of powder from a pouch at her belt. She tossed it in their direction at the same time she muttered a few words. Madd ceased scratching and managed an eye roll in Vorgell’s direction. Vorgell heaved a sigh of relief. He’d actually begun to itch simply out of sympathy. “Out with it.”

Madd flashed Ibeena a grin. “Flemgu likes to watch men screw, and Vorgell here sports a dragon atop his balls.”

At hearing the praise, Vorgell’s dragon started to raise its head, but a look from Ibeena made it beat a hasty retreat. For the first time since partaking of unicorn horn, he faced someone around whom he could not become erect.

“Let me see.” She poked her staff at the front of his trousers. “If that’s true, you might be useful.”

“Hey!”

“He’s modest. But he’ll let you see it if you allow us to use the bath.”

“A bath?” Ibeena narrowed her crafty little eyes. “There’s more to this.”

Madd said, “We’re on the run. Now you know why. Usdan, the Grand Wizard, is in Baron Flemgu’s fief, collecting witches for his damn fiends. Having Vorgell screw a few witches was supposed to be part of the entertainment.”

Vorgell wondered if that were true. Baron Flemgu
had
seemed unusually interested in his appetite as well as his size. But why the screwing of witches would appeal to wizards escaped him.

“Entertainment—and necromancy too.” Ibeena settled back into her stooped and usual posture. To judge by her curdled expression, Madd’s explanation satisfied her. “Baron Flemgu removed all protection from our villages. He has been richly rewarded by the Wizards’ Guild for handing so many over to their custody. He feeds Usdan’s lust for death and his own lusts as well.” She eyed them critically. “What is it you came for?”

Madd shrugged. They’d resumed walking again, deeper into the jumble of corridors, courtyards, and rooms. “I told you. We’re hunted, we can’t go to the usual places… and we would like a bath.”

“Ha! You abuse our hospitality.”

“I’m filthy, in case you haven’t noticed. And I’m not about to discuss anything more until I’m clean.”

She cocked her head like a bird, as though by doing so she could peer into Madd’s mind. “Flemgu knows your habits, does he? Well, so do I. From the day you first came to Gurgh to the day you left it to save your life, not a week ever passed but you would return with your tail between your legs, barking for a bath. Good thing we move often.” She stopped walking and frowned at Madd then Vorgell, lingering on him the longest. “Both of you will require too much water. You can have one tub filled to the rim, but you must share it.”

Madd shot a look at Vorgell. “I go first.”

Vorgell little cared. The prospect of seeing Madd unclothed made him quite agreeable. “As you wish. But I get to stay in the room.”

“Right.”

Madd turned to Ibeena again, haggling for soap and the services of someone good with a razor. At length they entered a small room with high windows, well-scrubbed stone walls, and a floor that sloped toward a drain tile in one corner. In the middle of the room squatted a large copper tub. Ibeena summoned a scrawny lad, ordering water to be drawn and heated, and then she left them alone.

Vorgell removed his clothes and leaned against the dry, warm wall, arms crossed companionably over his chest. He watched with growing interest as Madd flung off his cloak and began to strip, folding each item of clothing removed before placing it on the room’s lone stone bench. An itch made Vorgell scratch his chin, and he frowned. Perhaps his beard
did
harbor vermin. It might not be so bad if he bathed, then allowed Madd to trim his hair and beard. Doing so would help his chances. Madd’s bared body, lithe and covered in smooth ivory skin, looked so healthy and tempting he wanted to scoop him up and investigate the rest. His cock plumped with anticipation when he saw Madd’s thumbs hook under the waist of his loin wrap.