Adrift in the Sea of Souls by David Gerrold

Adrift in the Sea of Souls by David Gerrold

Author:David Gerrold [Gerrold, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amazing Stories
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00


Jacob in Manhattan

Lying naked on the bed, next to Jacob’s porcelain body, the blankets tangled at our feet, I listen to the sound of my own breathing. Sweat tingles on my skin. My heart still pounds.

“That’s it?”

“That’s it,” he confirms.

“I thought I was supposed to drink your blood.”

“Body fluids. It’s all the same. This was a lot more fun, wasn’t it?”

I have to smile. I can still taste him.

Morning growls at the window, the curtains drawn to keep it at bay. There’s a stain on the ceiling shaped like a dog’s head. I feel a strange hollowness within myself. I touch my heart.

“Is this it? Has it started?”

“No. Not yet.” Jacob rolls onto his side, facing me. He puts a cold hand over mine, listening to the frantic beat inside. “You’re scared –?”

“Yes, I am. I don’t know what I’ve done, and it’s too late to change my mind, isn’t it?”

“Way too late. You’re committed.” Jacob laughs gently. “It’s like the first time you get into bed, naked, with another man. It’s scary and delicious, both at once. This is the same thing, only more so.” He leans toward me, I turn halfway to meet his embrace and he kisses me. He pulls me close, wrapping me in his arms. “It’ll be all right. I promise.”

He holds me for a long time, long enough for me to feel his heart beating against mine. We synchronize emotionally and physically, a strange sensation. Finally, when we are both complete in the moment and ready for the next, he releases me back to the rumpled sheets. The dog’s head stain has an open mouth. He’s panting too…? Or is he smiling, laughing? He saw the whole thing, the frantic scrambling of two naked bodies rocking together, the coupling and uncoupling and recoupling. What does the dog head think?

Do I care? It’s just a stain on the ceiling. Water? How did it get there? It looks old. Is it a reminder of some long-passed storm that ripped away part of the roof and pissed its wrath into the structure below? Do I care? No.

I glance back to Jacob. He studies me with shining eyes.

“So…when will it happen?”

“It’s already happening. You’re just not going to feel it for a while.”

“How long?”

“Hard to say. Depends on your metabolism.” He smiles and his eyes gleam with a strange kind of inner light. Desire? Insight? Knowledge? Amusement? How does he do that? I can’t look away. The silence grows with a dark intensity, a sense of something impending.

I have to speak – not to speak, but to break the moment. It’s too intense. Whatever is rushing down on us, I need to postpone it a moment longer. “Um –”

“What?”

“Um – nothing.” Anything. “You were right. The sex was fantastic.”

He laughs softly, a quiet sound, barely audible. He traces his fingers down the center of my chest, down through the few brave strands of masculine identity – as if he’s tasting them with his touch.

“That’s just the beginning. It gets better.



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