Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 7

sat still for a time. Jacob eventually shifted in his seat, earning a sticky squelch and another stained robe. He raised his head, met Jeremy's eyes and spoke after setting aside his inhibitions, and with a blush rising from his collar to his ear. "Canine. Canine shifter. Both my parents were too, before they died from an attack by a mob, while I escaped. Erm, yeah, fur, but I also have a, erm, bulbous glandis, you know, a penile knot, as a quirk ." A smirk, filled with self-loathing transformed his face, becoming bitter on the last word.
    Jacob's voice silenced and his head bowed once again. Jeremy swiftly moved over behind Jacob, encircling him in a crushing hug around his neck. Jacob began to sob, his body heaving and undulating beneath the embrace, turning into Jeremy's neck for comfort. Hot tears dripped down his neck and began to soak into his matching green clothes.
    Jeremy whispered consolation into Jacob's open ear, "My family died as well. Killed by one of their own, destroying our village – razing it to the ground – only leaving the library and my home. I rose from the ashes, burning as my family did, as they died around me. I may have had a home, but I had to support it, as well as continue all the Duties that now fell solely upon me."
    He moved to face Jacob directly, hands holding his face so that tear stained eyes met his. "You have a home now, forever, with me, if you wish. Never forget that. They may hate what we represent, even if they don't understand the true history of matters, but we don't hate them, only their sin.
    "That is why I go on: not to survive, but to help others and our kind. I will never forgive what they did to me, and no doubt you, but I could never stand back and let them squander their lives as society degenerates. I use the books, my place on the council and the respect as an immortal to do my Duties for them. Mutual respect and dependence provide this ambivalence as their need for me outweighs their distrust. But they can't help that.
    "And now my home is always yours as a kindred immortal," Jacob stiffened, even with Jeremy's sweet whispered words and foreheads placed together, "I feel something more than this, wouldn't you agree, so I want you to stay, irrespective of my self-imposed Duty."
    Jacob's tears dried at Jeremy's confession. Seeing, instead, the light cast a halo around Jeremy, it illuminated Jacob's place with him even more clearly. He took in his surroundings as he wiped away the tears with his arm.
    Yes, the place where he sat was dilapidated, but it still had its beauty, and he realised it reflected them very well. The library, like them, was broken and precariously balanced between function and malfunction, with furniture, bookshelves and balconies all in various states of disrepair. Vegetation made its home in the hearsay that lay between leather covers, embracing the common word. However, the truth existed; Jacob ignored the destroyed vine he sat on and reflected on Jeremy's words. With this truth in mind, he acted.
    For their first time, he kissed Jeremy on the lips; tasted a thirst between them that began and could not be quenched. Yet at the same time, it was soft and promising a future even as they parted, licking moisture away from their lips, savouring the flavour.
    "Come," Jeremy said with a fair, serene expression that took the regained breath from Jacob's lungs, "first, we must complete our Duties, if you can bear with me. Then we have the time for… other things." The allusion was not missed as Jeremy lead Jacob through the maze of corridors and rooms, now companions, together, forever. Their fate already joined.
    He loves me , they both intuitively thought, as they left the ground floor, going down to the floor below. Jacob and Jeremy would not have been able to remove their beaming smiles of pleasure even if they were cut off by a mob or burned in the pits of Hell.
    CHAPTER 12 – The Duty
    …I think I may need to alter my usual routine to get an emergency delivery of supplies – especially for Jacob.
    If I see any more flesh, I fear I might be forced to… stroke his fur, hard. But it would be quite a shame to waste opportunity. What am I thinking? I am immortal, and I am definitely going to enjoy the limitless opportunities that it provides. The pain has gone so, at the risk of sounding like a hedonist, I expect pleasure all the way.
    After I have done my Duty first. Bah.
    ~Jeremy, December 1 st , Journal Number -
     
    Walking with Jacob