Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 3

thousands of years just to watch you bungle it at the end? At least pretend as if you've got the balls to make this work.
    "Shut up, Thanos," he ground out around clenched teeth.
    Maybe it would be better if you just gave up, I continued. I could feel the paste begin to heat up with the force of the will he was pouring into it. Then you can cry like a child at my feet when I'm gone for good.
    "Shut up !" he yelled, and when he opened his eyes, they were blazing from edge to edge, and there was a sibilance in his voice I had never heard before, like dry scales rubbing together in the darkness.
    No, no, it's better this way. I'm just one more in the long line of loves you couldn't save. I felt sick being so cruel to him, but he would only shrug off positive reinforcement. The paste became hotter, and I could feel it blaze against the stone skin of my shoulders and face. Or maybe I'll still be half-alive when you finally make it work, and then I can die in your arms. How very Greek tragedy of us.
    Eryx was angry, furious at me, I could see that, but he didn't stop. I felt disoriented, as if I were going to fall, even though I knew that was impossible. We were so close…
    I think if you truly loved me, I'd be yours already.
    That broke him. Eryx screamed with rage, the spell flared with wild energy, and the stone cracked and crumbled. In an instant, I was actually falling, moving for the first time in millennia, right onto the hard marble floor. My legs wouldn't hold me up, and it didn't help that one of my arms was taken up with holding a shield that I could finally feel the weight of again. The damn thing was heavy.
    Eryx fell on top of me and jerked me out of the way, just in time to avoid being run over by the horse that had been my constant companion for so long. It was also free now, and it emerged from the frieze with a vicious snort and took off at a dead run down the corridor, trailing the empty chariot tipped over onto its side. The riders, long gone, were still on the wall. So was Diomedes.
    We dumbly watched as the rampaging horse rounded the corner, and then Eryx was looking at me, anxious and outraged and still painfully hopeful. I sucked in my first breath of air, marveled for a moment at the sweetness of it, then croaked out, "Brilliant."
    "Oh, you bastard ," Eryx growled, pulling me against his chest. "Why the hell did you do that to me?"
    "Remembered… your mother… was angry when she cast the original spell," I said. "You needed a… boost. Anger… worked."
    "And made me want to pound your insufferable arse into the ground."
    "You can do that… later," I leered. "Promise I'll… like it."
    Eryx stared at me for a long moment, his white eyes expressionless, and then he began to laugh helplessly. "Bastard," he repeated, but this time it was all affection. "We have to get out of here before they see what we've done."
    "Horse should… clue them in."
    "I'm sure it will, although I've no idea how they'll explain it. Can you feel your legs?"
    I flexed my toes experimentally. Pins and needles were creeping down my limbs, and it was both painful and remarkable-feeling at the same time. "A little."
    "I can help you," Eryx promised me. "I've got spare clothes with me, not that the leather loincloth isn't very fetching on you." He stared a moment longer, considering, and then leaned forward and kissed me.
    Oh, gods! The feel of his lips was sweeter than air, than life, than anything I could remember. He was close and warm and tender and adoring, and he showed me everything he felt in one, simple kiss. I arched under him, desperate for more and drowning in too much all at once, and I knew that if I could actually feel it, my cock would be aching and ready for him. As it was, I was reeling when he pulled away, sucking in air and following him back for more despite that.
    Eryx laughed again, and it was almost as carefree as the sound he had made as a young man, unfettered by time and loss and memory. He looked incredibly smug, blissful in his joy, almost as joyous as I felt. "We have to go now," was what he said next, but I felt all the layers of that simple sentence and smiled back at him.
    "We can do that," I agreed. "We can do everything."
    And lucky me, we did do everything. Or at least, everything we could at the time. It turns out that once you've been pulled out of a stone wall after two thousand years, the first thing to come back is your libido. Fast. We didn't even make it out of the museum before I