Phoenix Chosen #3 (The Phoenix Guardians #3)

20. Kalistratos

20

KALISTRATOS

O ur old hideaway sits amongst a honeycomb of caves the Aelonoseans call the Nether Wells, because of the boiling steam that growls from some of the bottomless openings in the hillside. Aside from the priests and the occasional townsperson looking to make an offering to the god of the Underworld, hardly anyone comes here. It’s the perfect place for a couple of thieves to keep their loot, and it was the longest home for Alyx and me since we departed Athenos.

Through a shaft at the back of our cave is a series of hot-water pools, separated enough for each of us to have privacy. The new omega shuffles off to the furthest pool, clutching his bag.

“A strange human,” I comment, standing with Tyler and Airos.

“And strangely impressive,” Airos says.

“Oh? Are you staking your claim on him already, you perverted monk?” I ask.

He scoffs. “I think if we had never found him, Jackson would’ve ended up a wealthy trader in the Aelonos dark market. He certainly didn’t seem to need our help. Not only that… he’s unlocked his phoenix powers.”

“I know ,” Tyler grumbles. “What the hell is up with that?”

Airos and I both look at him.

“Ignore me,” he says, waving his hands.

“He seems to be taking this all rather well,” I say about Jackson. “Should we be concerned about the state of his mind? Rather… should we be concerned about getting that magic lightning stone shoved into our necks when we’re asleep?”

“It’s a stun gun, not magic,” Tyler says.

“Whatever it is, the man’s Gaean ways are even stranger than yours, Tyler.”

“Is this a scoundrel’s intuition?” Airos asks me with a grin.

“Call it whatever you want. I’m being cautious. He has yet to prove his trustworthiness to me.”

“He’s Chosen,” Airos reminds me.

“So are you.”

He gasps. “Are you calling me untrustworthy, Kalistratos, thief of Athenos?”

Tyler laughs, and I snort. “Just about, you phony monk. If I may remind you, you tried to kill us when we first met.”

“An honest mistake,” he says.

“You dropped a mountain on us!”

“I am sorry about that… but you didn’t die. Anyway, Tyler, what do you think about our new companion? He’s from your world, and you have keen judgment.”

“I hear what Kalistratos is saying,” Tyler says. “I don’t know. It’s hard to get a read on the guy, but what I will say is, speaking as a former security guard, if Jackson were to show up at my work, I would probably keep my eye on him. We barely know him. But there is something weird that he told me…”

“What is it?” I ask.

“Uh… let me start by asking this. Are all alphas men?”

“There are female alphas,” Airos says.

“Oh. Are there women omegas?”

Airos and I both shake our heads at the same time.

“No,” I say.

“As far as my knowledge extends, no,” Airos concludes. “An omega is a male who can bear the offspring of an alpha. Aside from the Erpetosi, all clans have omega males and alpha males.”

“The frogs don’t?” I say. “This was not known to me.”

“No. The Erpetosi have no such hierarchy. Every member of their clan can spawn, regardless of their sex.” Airos clears his throat. “But for the rest of us, omegas are the only males who can breed.”

“Okay,” Tyler says. “Another question. Was mating a part of the Phoenix Chosen prophecy? Are the Chosen Omegas supposed to be mated to their guardians? Or are Kalistratos and I special?”

“You may know more than I about the Phoenix Chosen prophecy, Tyler,” Airos says. “You and Kalistratos met Lord Aethereos and heard the words straight from his mouth. All I can relay is what I’ve pieced together over the past twenty years.”

“Tyler, why are you asking all of this?” I say. “What did Jackson tell you?”

“He said that he isn’t gay,” Tyler says.

I look to Airos for interpretation, but his face gives nothing away. He doesn’t know either.

“… Geiii ?” I say. “Tyler, please. Speak words we can understand.”

“Gay!” he says again. “Homosexual? Queer? Come on. Are you fucking with me?”

“Not yet,” I say with a smirk, and he punches my arm.

“Seriously, guys. You guys are gay, I’m gay, we’re all gay here.” Then his eyes widen like he’s just hit with an epiphany of epic proportions. “ We’re all gay here. Oh my god. You guys don’t have a word for it.”

“For the sake of the gods, what is a geii ?” I say frustratedly.

“It means, a man who is only into other men,” Tyler says. “Dudes who fuck dudes.”

Airos and I look at each other. I am still confused, but Airos seems to have understood.

“You’re saying that in Gaea, this is… not normal?” Airos asks.

“Depends on who you ask,” Tyler says. “My parents definitely didn’t think so.”

“Hold on,” I say. “He doesn’t want sex? I don’t understand.”

“Not with a dude,” Tyler says. “At least, that’s what he claims.”

“Then… who does he want to fuck?” I ask.

Airos sighs. “A woman , Kalistratos. Only a woman.”

Only a woman?

“What a very strange human,” I say.

“Are you certain he is not one of these geii ?” Airos asks.

“He really wanted me to know he’s not,” Tyler says. “And in my experience, that means there’s a non-zero chance Jackson dreams about sucking cock at night. For some dudes, all it takes is the right man. Or the right situation. Or he’s straight. I dunno.”

“Intriguing.”

“Strange,” I say.

Tyler and I split from Airos to use the largest pool a short climb above the cave entrance. The sun has drifted from the sky, revealing the face of a bright, full moon that makes strange shadows out of the pockmarked and cratered hillside. A cloud of acrid steam drifts over us from a nearby hell tunnel. If only it smelled like Coke. Gods, how I crave that life-giving nectar.

My thoughts return to my lost friend. I had quietly convinced myself we would find Alyx here, or at least something left to tell us where he’s gone. But there’s nothing, not even a sign that he’s been through this way at all. I don’t understand why he would’ve gone west and not stopped at Aelonos to search for us. It’s what I would’ve done.

But what if he was following a new discovery? What if he’d uncovered another clue in the location of the Great Phoenix’s temple?

Or what if he was sent on a false trail?

Since meeting the Great Phoenix, my eyes have been opened to the growing darkness in our realm. I feel Umbrios everywhere and see his influence upon Circeana. He is a god of shadow, and his reach doesn’t end at the Phoenikos clan. It touches the hearts of all who exist here. It diminishes the voices of all the other gods and brings malice, jealousy, doubt, and fear to the world. And he’s been whispering his darkness for centuries.

I hope Alyx is alright. That bastard better be alive, or I’m going to kick his furry ass.

Tyler and I approach the steaming pool. Slipping out of his sandals, he steps gingerly over the rocky ground and unclips his chiton at the shoulder. It falls to the ground, and the sudden reveal of his naked body snaps my focus back to the present.

He crouches at the edge of the pool, tests the water with his hand, and sucks air through his teeth. “Phew, that’s hot.”

He removes the sling cradling our egg from over his head, carefully sets the precious thing onto his chiton, and then, slowly, turns his hips and pushes one foot into the water. The moonlight gleams on its surface and makes Tyler’s skin glow while carving out deep black shadows along the ridges of his muscles. I’m still pent up from the excitement in the wagon. My cock doesn’t waste any time expressing its appreciation for this gorgeous sight before me.

Tyler turns to me. “You gonna just stand there, or are you—oh. Hello.” He grins. “You know, I saw the way your dick was swinging around when we were going up against Jackson.”

“That was all your fault,” I laugh.

He lowers himself into the water, then, taking hold of the bottom hem of my robe, pulls me to him. My cock, lifting the front of the fabric, waves over his upturned face. Though Tyler has become sun-kissed in the time we’ve been together, the flesh concealed by his clothing is still pale like milk. I watch as his body turns a shade of pink in the heat of the spring, and rivulets of sweat streak down his neck to his clavicle. He rests one hand on top of my foot, his fingers lightly gripping my ankle as he takes his other hand and pushes it beneath the heft of my erection.

“I know it was,” he replies. “And I’m not sorry at all.”

I remove the clasp from my shoulder. “Of course you aren’t,” I say before letting the robe drop to my ankles. “You enjoy teasing me.”

Tyler’s eyes seem to gleam in the moonlight as they drink the sight of my cock. He grips it with both hands and pushes his face into the base of my shaft. His soft lips caress my sack, and he draws a deep, hungry breath.

“Yeah, I do.” I feel his voice shimmering against my skin like a tickling tremor. His exhale is cool in the humid air, and it sends a pleasurable shiver through my body and makes my cock swell into his tightening grasp. “Goddamn, I love how hard you get.”

He opens his mouth and rests the head of my cock onto his outstretched tongue, cradling it as he tilts his head back. He strokes down my shaft, guiding the gleaming droplet of my arousal from the tip of my cock onto the pink crease of his waiting tongue.

All thoughts in my mind are clouded, save for the burning need to fuck my mate. There’s comfort in these moments, as the world around us seems to grow closer and smaller until it’s as though he and I are encompassed in a private bubble of time where nothing can disturb us. Tyler smiles up at me as he continues to milk my cock with his fist, his bright eyes locked to me as more of my anticipation drips into his mouth. Then, he quickly seals his lips around my cock head and sucks me clean, like he’s enjoying a piece of hardened honey candy. When he draws back for a moment, his saliva and my dripping arousal cling to his lips like a thread of silk.

Gods, I will never grow tired of that beautiful sight.

Tyler licks it away, then hungrily returns for more, opening his mouth wide to accept my rock-hard girth.

My head lolls back as Tyler’s throat encompasses my cock. There’s nothing for me to do but moan as he takes me deep. I look down and see he’s taken me all the way in. He stares up at me, lips pushed up against my pubic hair, eyes sparkling with effort and cheeks hollowed from stretching to accommodate my thickness.

And then he uses his technique, an incredible wave of pressure that rolls along the length of my cock through his throat. Tyler has named it his “soul-sucking blowjob.” I have no criticisms. It feels as though my very spirit is being drawn from my dick, like he’s tapping into the wellspring of phoenix energy deep inside of me and letting it flow like water escaping from a dam.

It’s making me lose my mind.

“ Tyler, ” I grunt. I try to get him to slow, but it’s too late. I feel my pent-up need bubbling to the surface, like pressure from a hot spring geyser. Even the armored gates of the underworld could not stop my climax now.

I grab hold of Tyler’s hair as the rush of my orgasm pulses through my body, and Tyler throws his arms around my thighs and locks himself onto me as my cock throbs inside of his throat, draining my lust-heavy balls. His eyes flutter and shoot open, and the tears streak down his gleaming cheeks. I try to pull back, to give him some respite, but he refuses to let me go until every final drop of seed has been milked out of me and swallowed down. Tyler is a glutton for my cock, and I love to see it.

Finally, he allows me to withdraw from his mouth. My thick white finish drips like honey down his chin and from the tip of my bobbing, pulsing cock. He wipes it off his chin with his fingers and sucks them clean before doing the same to me with his tongue. Then he relaxes into the pool and invites me to join him with a flash of his eyes.

Power thrums through my body from my climax. The heat of the thermal pool rises to my waist as I meet Tyler and wrap my arm around his back to pull him to me. He squeezes his thighs over the top of my hips and pulls himself into a kiss with his arms around my neck. His erection presses up against my stomach.

As I taste his tongue and savor his breath on my lips, I drop my hands beneath the surface and take hold of his sumptuous ass cheeks, then begin to circle two fingers around his entrance. I can feel him twitching, his cock and his hole.

And when I push my fingers into him, he throws his arms around my neck and whimpers into my ear. “Make me come with your fingers, okay? Right there.”

I pull my fingers out, just for a moment to reposition my arm so that I have access to the pleasure spot hidden deep inside of his hole. His ball sack pushes against my wrist as I curl my hand beneath him and thrust my two center fingers back inside. I feel him tighten around me, and as I rock my fingertips against the swollen spot, Tyler lets out a happy moan into the side of my neck.

He moves his hips slowly with my fingers, fucking them beneath the water as his cock slides across the ripple of my abs.

“Oh shit, ” he breathes. “I’m gonna?—”

I feel him clutch around my fingers, and his cock flexes as his orgasm shudders through his body. I hold him tightly to my body, continuing to rock my fingers within him, coaxing out every bit of his climax. I love the way he trembles when he comes.

Even after the waves subside, he still clings to me with his face pushed against my neck. I withdraw my fingers from his body and embrace him, kissing the side of his face and his ear. He pants softly, catching his breath. He loosens his grip on me and floats to arm length, both hands intertwined with mine.

Tyler looks into my eyes and smiles. I return it.

“We’re supposed to be taking a bath,” he says.

I come to his side and sink into the water up to my chin. “Then you shouldn’t tease me.”

Tyler reaches out from the pool’s edge, lovingly lifts our egg from its sling, and cradles it against his chest.

“Look,” he says, excitedly.

The water around where the egg is submerged begins to shimmer in the moonlight with a sparkling iridescence. And then, something incredible happens. The shell’s color brightens into a glow as light begins to emerge from within the egg, like a candle shining through a papyrus screen, revealing a faint dark outline—an unmistakable silhouette of our baby sleeping within. It only lasts for a moment.

Tyler’s mouth hangs open. “I don’t believe it,” he says. “You saw that, right?”

“Oh, I saw it.” As the surprise passes, a grin spreads across my face. “I saw it!”

“I’m guessing you didn’t know that was going to happen?”

“Not at all.”

With a quiet laugh, Tyler says, “I think they were sucking their thumb. Hey, you think it’s a boy or a girl in there?”

“I’ve been told that if a pregnant omega’s belly sits low and round, they will have a boy. If it’s high and wide, it’ll be a girl.”

“Jesus, I’m pretty sure I was all of the above. At least, that’s how it felt.”

“What do you think?” I ask him. “What does your gut tell you?”

“Oh, god… I don’t know. My dad was the youngest of four sisters. My mom used to tell me she expected I was going to be a girl. That was before I came out of the closet, then she completely denied she’d ever said that. I guess I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re a girl.”

“What is a closet, and why were you inside it?” I ask.

Tyler laughs, then kisses me tenderly on the chin. “Don’t worry about it.”