Date: Mon, 17 May 2010 16:18:40 -0600
From: Katya_Dee <concertoind@gmail.com>
Subject: The Year of the Salamander, chapter 26

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. All the resemblances are completely
coincidental. All the characters, situations, and everything else in the
story is owned by myself beloved. Contains descriptive sexual scenes between
males. If you are not supposed to read it, do not read it! Feel free to
e-mail me.

   This is a sequel to Specter' Gamble
</nifty/gay/sf-fantasy/specters-gamble/>.  You don't have to read the first
one in order to get this one, but it would make it easier to understand the
characters in this stor



- XXVI -



            "Okay, okay," Blair was growing more and more impatient. "I get
it, watch out for someone who was born on the Winter Equinox. If that's all,
I am going home!"

   "Blair..."

   "Ugh, what?!" he whirled around and stared impatiently at the tall
dark-haired man.

   "Would you like to know the date of the Equinox?" the man asked
patiently.

   "January-something," Blair shrugged. "Felix, I gotta..."

   "It's on February fourteenth," Felix said, and Blair became mute. "What?"
Felix frowned when he saw Blair's expression.

   "February fourteenth?" Blair said numbly.

   "Yes," Felix nodded, his eyes slightly narrowed by now. "The person will
be turning..."

   "Don't say twenty-three," Blair thought feverishly. "Don't say
twenty-three... Don't say twenty-three... Don't say..."

   "...twenty-three," Felix finished, and for a second, Blair could hear
nothing but the sound of his own heartbeat. "Blair..." Felix called
carefully after seeing the Fire Guardian's face turn white. "Blair...! What
is it?" he asked after Blair looked at him blindly.

   "Sam will be turning twenty-three on February fourteenth," he said as
numbly as before.

   For several minutes, there was nothing but stunned silence.

   "Sam..." Felix said finally. "Oh, God, Blair, I am sorry..."

   "Sorry?" Blair frowned. "For what?"

   Felix looked at him as if the Fire Guardian just asked the dumbest
question in the world.

   "You do realize that since we have this information, we have to do
everything we can to prevent this from happening, right?" he asked slowly.

   "I *will *do everything I can," Blair nodded. "Goddammit, I will tie him
down if I have to!"

   "Blair..." Felix closed his eyes for a few seconds. "It might be too far
gone by now... We might not have a choice..."

   Blair blinked rapidly and stared at him for a minute. Then he shifted his
gaze to a brown-haired man who was just staring out of the window, saying
nothing.

   "Hold on," Blair said slowly. "Hold on... If you are saying what I think
you are saying..." He looked at Felix again. "And I think it's the case," he
nodded. "Then listen to me very carefully because I am not going to repeat
myself... Try touching Sam, and I will kill you. I don't care if Claudia
loses another Guardian; I don't care if Reagan ends up being the ruler of
the entire world; I don't give a flying..."

   "If Winter Equinox is not taken care of, Reagan is not the one who will
end up being the ruler of the entire world!" Felix interrupted him in a
quiet but firm voice. "In fact, there will be..."

   "I don't care!" Blair said louder than before. "I don't give a damn, do
you understand me?"

   "Blair..." Now Felix's voice sounded darker and more urgent. "You are
letting your emotions and feelings to interfere with your purpose! The
greater good..."

   "The greater good can fuck itself," Blair interrupted him again. "Felix,
try touching Sam, and all the water in the universe is not going to help
you!"

   "Blair..."

   "Don't `Blair' me!" He felt an insanely massive heat wave rise deep
inside him, and he tried pushing it away. "I will burn to ashes anyone who
as much as goes near him, understood?!" His fingertips started to itch like
crazy, and he squeezed his hands into tight fists, trying to get better
control of himself.

   "Blair, listen to me..."

   "No, Felix, you listen to me... If I even *suspect *that something isn't
right, I..."

   "Enough!" the brown-haired man slammed both of his hands into the
windowsill, and the earth shook. "Enough..." he repeated in a softer voice
and turned away from the window. "Blair, control yourself! I don't have a
slightest desire to knock you out again... Felix, shut up!" he said when he
saw the taller man trying to say something. "Nobody is going to do anything
to Sam...*Anything*," he repeated heavily without taking his eyes off Felix.
"He just happened to be born on this goddamn date; it's not his fault, he
didn't ask for it. We are not going to do anything but try and protect him,
understood?"

   "Daniel, you are making a mistake," Felix said quietly.

   "Maybe so," Daniel nodded. "But I am not changing my mind. Also, we will
have to make sure that nobody from Reagan's side finds out about this. The
minute she finds out, Sam doesn't stand a chance, even with three of us."

   Blair immediately shot a very dark look towards Felix.

  "Do not insult me!" the taller man said sharply. "I would never do
something like this, and you know it!"

   Yes, Blair knew that.

   "Sorry," he muttered, and was relieved when the mad itching in his
fingertips reduced to almost nothing.

   Felix gave him a stiff nod without saying anything.

   "Don't tell Claudia either," Daniel looked at both men steadily. "If she
figures it out on her own, then we will deal with it... If not..." He
shrugged. "Do not tell her!" he said slowly.

   "Not a problem..." Blair muttered, and Felix just gave another stiff nod.

   "Blair..." Daniel tapped a quick mindless rhythm on the windowsill with
his fingers. "Your week ends on February twentieth... I will cover the early
morning of the thirteenth up to the midnight of the fourteenth. I need you
to make sure you are watching him, understood?"

   "Yes," Blair nodded heavily. "What is going to happen?"

   "I don't know," Daniel answered honestly and looked at Felix. "Do you?"

   "No," Felix sighed and shook his head. "I have no idea... All I know is
that there is some sort of a ritual that takes part at least three weeks
before the Equinox... At least," he repeated. "Maybe more than three
weeks... I have no idea what the ritual is, and I have no idea what is going
to happen..." He shrugged. "This subject is not easily researched, you
know..."

   "Right..." Blair muttered.

   "Has anything strange happen lately?" Felix asked tightly. "Anything out
of the ordinary?"

   Blair thought about it for a second.

   "No," he said finally. "It might not even be him for all we know. He is
not the only one who will be turning twenty-three on that particular date,
is he?"

   "He is the only one we know about," Felix said evenly. "There is a chance
that it is not him, but that chance is rather slim."

   "How many gods are there?" Blair narrowed his eyes slightly. "The old
gods, I mean..."

   "Seven," Felix sighed. "Moloch, Turrin, Wedgah, Thurmei, Frilkeh,
Satrienne, and Sunmoah."

   "How do you know all of their names?" Blair blinked. "They are bizarre,
to say the least..."

   Felix shrugged.

   "I like history," he said. "Read a lot about different things, the old
gods included."

   Blair shoved his hands into his pockets. "I see," he muttered, and then
shook his head. "Anyway, if I am no longer needed here, I am going home."

   "Do you want me to keep an eye on him while you are gone next week?"
Daniel asked.

   "No," Blair answered somewhat shortly. "He doesn't need to be babysat."

   "This is not babysitting," Daniel's voice was as calm as before. "This is
precaution."

   "No," Blair said again. "He'll be fine..." He thought of Desmond and
nodded. "Yeah, he will be fine." When you have someone like Specter as a
roommate and a friend, you should be pretty safe, he reasoned.

  "All right," Daniel agreed with a small shrug, and Blair left without
saying anything else.



****



   Maxwell Todd turned out to be a guy in his late twenties with
surprisingly low amount of tattoos. Desmond expected to see someone who
would be covered in ink from head to toe. Instead, Maxwell looked absolutely
normal, with only two visible tattoos – a thin black-and-white bracelet on
his left wrist and a medium size letter M on his right bicep.

   "So, how is Richie?" he asked when he was studying Desmond's doodle on
the piece of paper that Sam handed to him.

   "He is all right," Desmond nodded.

   "Which subject are you teaching again?" Maxwell put the paper aside and
got up.

   "Poisons and hand-to-hand combat," Desmond said, trying to figure out
what it was that he felt right now. All of a sudden, he was itching with the
desire to get a tattoo.

   "Oh," Maxwell threw him a quick glance. "So *you *are the `Lie-Detector,'
huh?"

   Desmond smiled at that.

   "I am," he agreed, watching Maxwell clean Sam's left shoulder blade with
a cotton ball soaked in alcohol.

   "How do you do that?" The artist didn't look up from Sam's shoulder but
his voice sounded genuinely curious.

   "I don't know," Desmond shrugged. "Just happens. I can sense it, you
know?"

   "Handy," Maxwell muttered, carefully drawing the design on Sam's skin
with a very thin brush.

   That brush made Desmond frown thoughtfully. There was something about the
paintbrush, he thought. Something about the brush, paint, and something
else...

   "Ow!" Sam said, and Desmond blinked. Whatever that feeling of vague
recollection was, it disappeared.

   "Oh, suck it up," he grinned, watching Sam bite his lower lip with a
small grimace. "Come on, Sam! Zabrowski has ten of those and they are bigger
than the one you are getting... The ones I could see that is," he nodded.
"Zabrowski can't possibly be tougher than you!"

   "Ow!" Sam said again with a wince.

   Desmond watched Maxwell work, and by the time the artist was done, he
made up his mind.

   "I want the same one," he said. "On my right shoulder."

   Sam looked at him with wide eyes.

   "Seriously?" he said. "I mean... Seriously?"

   "Yeah," Desmond nodded. "I feel like I have to have it. I guess, this is
contagious..." he sighed, and Maxwell nodded.

   "It is," he agreed solemnly. "Once you start, it's hard to stop..."

   "Yeah, well..." Desmond muttered, pulling off his shirt. "Believe me, I
am only getting this one."

   ...When everything was finished, Desmond felt a wave of enormous
satisfaction, as if he just completed something very important.