Infernal Vices (Resurrectionist #3)

CHAPTER 33

THE BULL AND THE GOAT

The vestry door opened again and the slender, barefoot robed figure of Lawrence Blake stepped out followed by our blond-headed angelic boy. Leopold was clothed in a pure white gossamer robe that left nothing to the imagination, and his face was covered by a pale silvery mask of Pan the Goat God. Blake stood tall and confident in his bull mask. The men reached for one another and held hands then strode to the end of the nave and paused by the torturous bench. Blake turned and nodded to Brother Cavendish.

It was then that we acolytes were to stand, three either side of the table, with Benjamin at the head, and Leo and Blake standing at the bench. With a nod of command, we began reading the Greek incantation from our red books, our murmuring voices low, creating an ethereal, worshipful feeling in this hallowed hall. The incantation was to act as protection, ensuring the space was free from evil and open to the light and power of the Gods. It took several minutes for us to read the page in Greek, as it was quite the tongue twister! When we were done Blake spoke .

“And so finally tonight we perform our ritual. We share wisdom and life from brother to brother. With this concluding act I will harness the power of the underworld with the sacred Staff of Asklepios. We will give ourselves to death, to be reborn, resurrected with the eternal cycle of life.”

Benjamin turned the page in his book and read then, speaking as if he were addressing his fellows in Parliament.

“In an age of Gods and the Underworld, the bless-ed seed, the first begotten love, was created with aether, time, and necessity operating upon inert matter. The just and natural image of the beneficent power of the creator was made manifest as the organ of generation. It endowed man with the power of procreation, sharing his living seed to resurrect his soul essence within the living vessel. The eternal father spread the heavy bonds of love through all things. And through our seed we share our immortal soul, brother to brother. Bless-ed is the seed.”

“Bless-ed is the seed,” we parroted.

“In order to perform the ritual of Asklepios, son of Apollo, God of healing, the vessel must be prepared for the journey to life eternal. Are you ready to release your earthly bonds to gain life eternal?”

We waited for Leopold to play his part and say his lines, but the boy said nothing. An eerie tension filled the space. Benjamin recited the line again. “Are you ready to release your earthly bonds to gain life eternal?”

After another moment of apprehension Leopold’s quiet, unsure, German accented voice said, “I am the vessel through which all things pass. I am the Luminous, the Lord of matter, the center of all things. I offer my earthly form in exchange for life eternal. Bless-ed is the seed.”

“Bless-ed is the seed,” we said on cue.

The ritual proceeded with Blake striding to the table where the silver chalice sat. He picked it up and held it aloft.

“Come, let us make our vessel drink wine, and we shall prepare him to accept the blessing and power of the Staff,” he said, before taking the cup to Leo and giving it to him to drink from. I knew that there must be some kind of drugging substance in the cup with the red wine, and I wondered about the incense too because my thoughts were still fuzzy and there was a strange taste on my tongue. Charles, Sebastian, and I knew to pretend to drink whatever Blake offered. Leopold lifted his mask and appeared to have taken a deep draught. He had not heeded our warning. I shuddered with fear for him. Blake drank from the cup and then passed it to Charles, who inched up his mask and gave the impression he had taken a drink. It was then passed to me. I took the smallest sip and tasted rich red wine with a strange bitter aftertaste. I then passed the cup to Sebastian in Jack Dancer’s robes and mask. He sipped and passed the cup to Spencer, Faulkner, and Morehead. Cavendish was the last of those who drank, and he emptied the cup of all the wine that remained so it was ready for our seed.

Blake then assisted Leo to remove his gossamer garment and submit himself to being prepared to receive the Staff of Asklepios. The phallus was an unwieldy thing with the maw of a snake carved into the head of the shaft. I would not endeavour to use it for penetration in its natural form because, my goodness, it was girthy, unyielding, and cold unless the magic was invoked. Leopold would definitely need to be stretched well to take it. He was led to the first dilator on the bench. They had all been covered in a greasy lubricant to ease the insertion. Leo positioned himself over the first dilator and, holding Blake’s hands he eased himself down onto it. He whimpered and gasped as he was impaled upon the hard rubber intrusion. It was then that the acolytes opened their robes and began to stroke their cocks. I turned and gave a glance to my masked lover and saw him follow the others, opening the red robe and tugging on his slender prick. The sight of him doing so made my stand rise and I too joined in stroking myself. Leo recited his line,

“I am the vessel through which all things pass. I am the Luminous, the Lord of matter, the center of all things.”

He was then helped to rise and move to the next dilator. Impaling himself upon this thicker girth caused his prick to jump and stand fully erect. The sight of it caused one of the masked acolytes to emit a deep throaty groan. Leo said his line, and then he rose on shaky legs, and was helped to ease onto the third dilator. Blake’s prick was a full mast protruding from the folds of his red robe, but he did not touch it. He petted Leo’s fine blond hair in a nearly paternal way as the young man cried out and struggled to endure being stuffed by the third dilator. I heard him whimpering and was sure that beneath his silver goat mask he was crying. This was interminable. Where was our help? Dancer’s men were supposed to come now and stop this madness?

Brother Cavendish was the first to empty his bollocks into the sacred chalice, which was then passed around to be used by all brothers. It was only by keeping an eye on Sebastian’s rapidly moving hand on his beautiful prick, that I found my climax. The cup of our mingled seed was then held by Brother Spencer who said, “Sorry chaps, I’ll need a minute…performance anxiety hits at th e most inopportune moments, aye!” as he jerked away on his prick.

Blake offered his hands to Leo and helped him ease up from the third dilator. But instead of stepping forward to the final scarily wide dilator Leo pleaded, “Please, my love, no more, I cannot take that one, it’s too big. We can proceed without it, yes?”

Reluctantly, Bull masked Blake nodded, stepped aside, and led the Leo to the table, where he helped him lay down with his legs dangling over the edge of the table, his blond head resting on a purple silk cushion.

Lord Arthur Spencer finally let out a wanton groan as he spilled into the chalice.

“Step forward my brothers and lay your hands upon the vessel,” Blake drawled. My thoughts were muddied and my vision clouded as I stepped to place my hand upon Leo’s cool thigh, with Ashe beside me, his hand on Leo’s hip, and Sebastian with his hand on Leo’s chest. The acolytes opposite mirrored us. Blake collected the leather harness, stepped into it, then Benjamin opened the casket containing the Staff and assisted in housing it into the harness through a hole, so that it appeared that Blake now had two erections, one below of flesh and blood, and one above of carved Obsidian. The vision of a man with two penises was grotesque and archaic. Blake greedily ran his hand up and down the glass rod, and then used both hands to encompass his prick and the staff together. I could imagine he wore a wicked grin beneath his bull mask. He moaned, “Yes, yes, finally I have you,” as his sensitive flesh rubbed upon the cold ancient prick. I was on tenterhooks, nervously waiting for something…something to happen to put an end this madness. I’d lost all track of time and wondered if Detective Inspector Dancer had even met his men, or if he was still in transit. Were the American’s close, and what about the French?

Blake stepped between Leo’s thighs, and as it protruded long and hard above Blake’s slighter prick the Staff of Asklepios looked more like a weapon of violence than of ritual or pleasure. Cavendish passed Blake the smaller silver cup.

“And I will establish the everlasting covenant between me and thee and thy seed. With this wine laced with cyanide, I shall pass through the veil.”

Wait a minute! What? Sebastian was right that Blake would choose a drugged concoction to find death. But how could we be sure that the cup even contained cyanide? Could this not be pure theatre? As far as I know from my years of reading, Cyanide poisoning was not as immediate as one would think. It could take ten to twenty minutes for the effects of a cyanide overdose to appear .

Cavendish then picked up the ritual knife and took his place at the head of the table looking down upon the silvered goat mask. So this is how they’d planned to do it, Leopold’s two loves would end his life together, how vile.

Blake tossed the cup of wine back, and then let it drop to the floor. He parted Leo’s thighs and encouraged him to place his feet up to rest over his shoulders. Blake positioned the Greek artefact at Leo’s entrance. Lord Spencer then poured the cup of semen along the length of the Staff of Asklepios as the ritual required. He dribbled the remaining seed over Leo’s stretched fundament for lubrication.

Nothing happened.

The Staff did not glow as it had done with my beloved and I. It did not absorb the semen coating its surface as it had done during our lovemaking. Blake pushed the snake maw head of the phallus forward seeking entrance and Leopold screamed, the sound echoing off the high ceiling in this place of worship. Spencer, Morehead, and Faulkner all held the young man down as Blake recited the Ancient Greek incantation that was written in the scroll .

“Evlogiménon tó spérma. Apalláxon imás eis zoín aiónion.” (Blessed is the seed. Deliver us to life eternal)

He said the words over and over again as he eased into Leo, who, clearly from the pain he seemed to be in, was not drugged, and not enraptured with the influence of chemicals this time. The boy was trembling with fear, writhing to get those holding him down to release him. I felt impotent with rage. Leo was crying now,

“Stop, no, please Benjamin, I don’t want to die,”

“You are the vessel, you must be sacrificed to complete your destiny,” Benjamin bellowed.

“We will return from beyond the veil my love, now relax, and let me push it in further!” Blake insisted.

“STOP!” Sebastian roared, pulling the mask from his face and tossing it to the floor. “Damn you, Nathaniel, still up to the same old tricks after all these years! I said stop this!”

Blake stilled his forward thrust, yet said nothing. He just looked at Sebastian through the eye holes in his bull mask, as if trying to place him. Sebastian had been eighteen years old when he was seduced by the man he knew as Nathaniel Everett and now he was thirty-eight.

“Sebastian?” Blake gasped. “W…what are you doing here? ”

“Birdie?” Charles exclaimed with delighted confusion.

Cavendish gripped the Atheme blade with both hands and brought the blade up, readying to stab down. “Cavendish, put that bloody knife down. End this insanity now! I will not let any harm come to the boy,” I roared. Cavendish grimaced and lowered the blade. I looked up to the men holding Leo down, “Unhand him you fools. Unhand him I say, or it will be the worse for you!” Spencer, Morehead, and Faulkner, let go and stepped back from the table.

“W…w…what’s going on?” Spencer asked his voice trembling with confusion.

I removed the mask from Leopold’s face and saw how terrified the young man was.

“I say! What the devil is going on here?” the rotund Judge Morehead blustered as he ripped the mask from his face. Everyone, even Blake, followed and pulled off their masks and tossed them to the floor. We were well past the need for anonymity now!

“Blake is a charlatan, a mountebank and a fraud,” Charles said furiously. “He’s fooled us all,”

“NO! I am the Bull, the power of creation made manifest. I pray to our heavenly father to release the power of the Staff to heal me of all ills and to give life eternal,” Blake pushed forward seating the Staff of Asklepios inside the crying young man. And still nothing happened, no magical glow, no softening of the glass to be as flesh.

“Now, do it now ,” Blake cried and Cavendish grinned with such malevolence I thought he’d gone mad. Clutching the blade with both hands, his arms were raised and then plunged downward. Sebastian’s agility was a godsend at that moment for he moved swiftly and gripped a hold Cavendish’s wrists to prevent the knife plunging into Leo. The men roared as they wrestled for possession of the knife. Sebastian used a move he’d learned from his daughter and whipped Cavendish’s legs from beneath him. Both men went down onto the Turkish rug, and began rolling, wrestling for control of the silver knife.

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