...“Here. You’re going into shock. This will warm you.” Aron flipped the cloth around Clay’s shoulders, then spread it even wider to wrap himself as well. It seemed to have almost no weight or substance, yet Clay immediately felt warmer. Aron eased the two of them down to lie face to face in a hollow that felt as if it curved around their bodies like a protective cocoon.

Like a child in a parent’s secure embrace, Clay edged closer. Aron felt so warm—radiating heat like a live fire. Aron’s arms folded Clay against him, held the blanket in place and that shelter seemed enough to keep any foe or danger at bay.

Aron’s voice, almost stern, interrupted his dreamy peace. “We’re lying on a power line, ley lines you call them. Feel the energies flowing. Let them enter your body and pass through, leaving a residue behind to build your strength. It’s time you learned Elven things and this is one we all learn as children.”

“All I can feel is you,” Clay said, drifting in a hazy, giddy fog of euphoria. “Close, hot…”

Aron laughed softly. “Yes, there’s that, and we’ll deal with it in time, but right now you have to renew your energy however you can. Is there any food in your pockets or belt pack?”

Clay drew back enough to rummage and finally came up with one granola bar, almost shapeless inside its wrapper. “This. It’s not much.”

“Eat it, and I’ve got water. That will give you a few calories, but you have to learn to feed from the earth-energies as we do. Concentrate. Visualize the way electrons dance along the wires—they don’t run inside but around and along the transmission lines. The earth’s currents do the same and if you align with the flow, they go right along and through you, too, but a trace of their power stays.”

Clay swallowed the last of the crumbling granola and propped up enough to drink from Aron’s offered flask. Then he lay back and shut his eyes, trying to sense the currents Aron spoke of. A tingle or sparkle there, along his skin? In the scalp and out his feet? He wasn’t sure. The main thing he felt was prickly, itchy awareness—a radiant and raw sexual force that came from Aron. It suffused Clay’s body with demanding heat and arousal. I need…I want…

He squirmed, seeking even closer and more intimate contact. He arched his back and shoved his groin against Aron’s hip. His cock throbbed with desire, with insatiable hunger.

Aron chuckled, just a low rumble of sound. “Okay, okay.” He reached down between then and rubbed the ridge inside Clay’s jeans with the heel of his hand, slowly, up and down, gentle pressure that both eased and yet heightened Clay’s need. He felt like his cock was going to burst free of the constraining fabric, yearning with such intense need for closer contact, a more complete caress.

With the other hand, Aron traced the shape of Clay’s face, brow and nose, cheekbones and jaw line, chin and the soft skin below the whisker line on his throat and around his ears. Sparkling sizzles of heat and power danced from his fingertips.

Clay moaned. “Come on. You’re killing me. How much of this do you expect me to take? I need you, all of you. Now.”

“Are you sure you want this? I warn you, it will not be a one-time thing. Once we join and bond, it will be forever. Are you willing and able to do that? I think you’ve always hidden your preference, never wanting to be seen as gay.”

Clay hardly hesitated. “Anything, everything. I have to do this, soon. Now. I don’t care—tell the fucking world.”

He felt Aron shake his head. “You’re half out of your mind. I’m taking advantage. You’ll probably be full of regrets and hate me for it when you’re back to normal, but I’m not sure I have the strength and patience to wait either.”