still feel bad that I didn’t ask if you wanted to become part of this.”
The way his fingers were touching my face, it would have been impossible to shake my head had I wanted to.
“When you saw me the first night, I was just coming out of a ritual I need to complete every night.” He paused. “It has to do with maintaining the balance of the old gods, who were here long before humans.”
His dark eyes seemed bottomless as I gazed into them. I knew he was being cautious about how I would take this. So he made offerings to old gods? Was that what he was saying?
“No, Kyle. I’m not one who worships them.”
I felt my heart begin to pound. What was I about to hear?
He hesitated a moment, as though searching for words. “It’s a bit like how the CEOs of your human corporations go through the ritual of sitting down with fellow executives.”
That lost me for a second. Then the connection hit me. What the hell? Was Jon saying that he was a god?
“Yeah,” he said quietly and gazed into my eyes.
I gazed back and felt a tingling chill sweep my body. As I struggled to understand, a deep part of me wondered if he wanted me to worship him. And a deeper part knew that I already did.
“I need to keep the balance,” he went on. “If I don’t….”
He will be punished? I wondered.
“I will cease to exist,” he said.
My heart almost stopped. I felt my very soul opening, his for the taking if it would give him strength.
“And terrible things will happen to the earth,” he went on. “Hal and I chose to come here to do this long ago. Those who remained behind do their part to keep us alive. The ebb and flow of power benefits us all, and the land. And it hurts us all when things go wrong.”
I swallowed. A god was holding me against him, and we were both very, very hard.
“Do you begin to see?” he asked.
I thought so.
“Of late—well, a long time ago to you—humans have begun to tip the balance away from the old gods to favor themselves. Their violence, their wastefulness, their cruelty all conspire to hasten the end of all they know, and yet they continue to race toward their own destruction. It becomes harder and harder for me to keep their might in check. When I fail come the floods, the storms, the earthquakes—nature striking back.”
I thought of how, in the last few years alone, the planet had turned deadly very often. It was blamed on climate change. But Jon was saying there was far more to it.
He nodded, seeing that I understood.
“Hal calls himself my brother, and that’s not a bad description of our relationship, but he is here to support me. I am the one on whom the burden lies. And I don’t mind. For the most part, what I do brings me great pleasure. This part of the world speaks to me in ways I feel very comfortable with. I don’t regret my decision to come here, as some of my kind do. Yes, there are others like me, spread all across the world.”
My brain felt like it was getting full, but I knew there was more to come.
Jon seemed to follow my thoughts with no trouble. One of his hands drifted down my back. The other stayed in my hair, making me remember how he had stroked his head through it as a loon. The hand on my back urged me even more firmly against him. As an undercurrent to all he was saying, his jeans were pressing hard against the thinner fabric of my trunks, through which I was straining.
“You’ve read Greek mythology, haven’t you?” Both his hands were now working down my back, one to ease under my shirt to find my skin, the other slipping inside my trunks.
I spread my legs a little to give the fullness of his jeans room to press closer into me. He had to clear his throat a little before he went on, the fingers of his right hand moving ever closer to the place that was aching to be filled by him again. “You know how in Greek mythology, the gods often had their way with humans?”
I raised my chin so I could look up at his face. He shook his head
The way his fingers were touching my face, it would have been impossible to shake my head had I wanted to.
“When you saw me the first night, I was just coming out of a ritual I need to complete every night.” He paused. “It has to do with maintaining the balance of the old gods, who were here long before humans.”
His dark eyes seemed bottomless as I gazed into them. I knew he was being cautious about how I would take this. So he made offerings to old gods? Was that what he was saying?
“No, Kyle. I’m not one who worships them.”
I felt my heart begin to pound. What was I about to hear?
He hesitated a moment, as though searching for words. “It’s a bit like how the CEOs of your human corporations go through the ritual of sitting down with fellow executives.”
That lost me for a second. Then the connection hit me. What the hell? Was Jon saying that he was a god?
“Yeah,” he said quietly and gazed into my eyes.
I gazed back and felt a tingling chill sweep my body. As I struggled to understand, a deep part of me wondered if he wanted me to worship him. And a deeper part knew that I already did.
“I need to keep the balance,” he went on. “If I don’t….”
He will be punished? I wondered.
“I will cease to exist,” he said.
My heart almost stopped. I felt my very soul opening, his for the taking if it would give him strength.
“And terrible things will happen to the earth,” he went on. “Hal and I chose to come here to do this long ago. Those who remained behind do their part to keep us alive. The ebb and flow of power benefits us all, and the land. And it hurts us all when things go wrong.”
I swallowed. A god was holding me against him, and we were both very, very hard.
“Do you begin to see?” he asked.
I thought so.
“Of late—well, a long time ago to you—humans have begun to tip the balance away from the old gods to favor themselves. Their violence, their wastefulness, their cruelty all conspire to hasten the end of all they know, and yet they continue to race toward their own destruction. It becomes harder and harder for me to keep their might in check. When I fail come the floods, the storms, the earthquakes—nature striking back.”
I thought of how, in the last few years alone, the planet had turned deadly very often. It was blamed on climate change. But Jon was saying there was far more to it.
He nodded, seeing that I understood.
“Hal calls himself my brother, and that’s not a bad description of our relationship, but he is here to support me. I am the one on whom the burden lies. And I don’t mind. For the most part, what I do brings me great pleasure. This part of the world speaks to me in ways I feel very comfortable with. I don’t regret my decision to come here, as some of my kind do. Yes, there are others like me, spread all across the world.”
My brain felt like it was getting full, but I knew there was more to come.
Jon seemed to follow my thoughts with no trouble. One of his hands drifted down my back. The other stayed in my hair, making me remember how he had stroked his head through it as a loon. The hand on my back urged me even more firmly against him. As an undercurrent to all he was saying, his jeans were pressing hard against the thinner fabric of my trunks, through which I was straining.
“You’ve read Greek mythology, haven’t you?” Both his hands were now working down my back, one to ease under my shirt to find my skin, the other slipping inside my trunks.
I spread my legs a little to give the fullness of his jeans room to press closer into me. He had to clear his throat a little before he went on, the fingers of his right hand moving ever closer to the place that was aching to be filled by him again. “You know how in Greek mythology, the gods often had their way with humans?”
I raised my chin so I could look up at his face. He shook his head
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