Dangerous Illusions

Chapter 6

"Our last guests have arrived," he said. "As I was explaining just now: A sufficient degree of refined decadence makes any setting fashionable."

A half dozen or so people evenly split between men and women were in the midst of dinner already. Audrey and Briony sat next to each other while Adam and Kieran sat across from them. Adam had to help Kieran into his seat and the woman next to him looked concerned and even scooted away an inch. The waiters were pouring wine; Briony still had a mild hangover from the previous day but didn't stop them from filling her glass, and the smell of roasted lamb made her mouth water. She'd eaten nothing all day.

"...did you know that?" Audrey was saying. Briony blinked.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention?"

"I said that on Valentine's Day they used to whip women. The Romans did, I mean. It wasn't called Valentine's Day back then, but anyway, it's when they did the whipping."

"What had they done?"

"Oh, it wasn't a punishment. It was supposed to make them more fertile for the spring. It sounds like fun. Inus told me about it."

"I imagine. Speaking of which," Briony raised her voice a little so that Inus could hear her: "I love what you've done with the place."

Inus swallowed his wine. "Some things are worth doing right. You realize why we're here?"

"The company?" She gestured with her glass to the piles of skulls.

"These are the Catacombs of San Valentino, where the saint's body was first laid to rest after his untimely beheading at the Via Flaminia. Most of him isn't here anymore, but even so, a fine setting for a special occasion."

"Which reminds me," Briony said, slicing through tender lamb meat with a very sharp knife and selecting the choicest bits to pop into her mouth. "You promised us the saint would be in attendance. Everyone else remembers hearing that?"

The guests all murmured assent. Adam tensed; Kieran looked even more ill. Inus only shrugged.

"Well, I didn't promise I'd produce all of him..."

He retrieved a sandalwood box carved with roses and birds and inlaid with glass, and inside, resting on velvet, was a fragment of yellowed bone. He passed it to Briony, who held it with the tips of her fingers. "Is it real?" she said.

"It had better be for what I paid for it. It's supposed to be in a church in Prague, but they switched it for a fake."

"How do you know you don't have the fake?" Briony said.

"Ah, there's the rub," said Inus. "But I trust the people I do business with. And now we can say that Saint Valentine himself attended our orgy, even if there wasn't enough of him left to get in on the action?"

Laughter all around. Audrey peered at it. "Which bit of him is it?"

"Part of the foot, as near as I can tell. I asked if we could have something nearer the crotch but I don't think they took me seriously."

Briony was examining the reliquary. It didn't seem to be locked, so she opened the lid and, over Inus' objections, picked up the bit of bone. It was not as light as she'd expected. The chatter of the diners and the clink of dishes ceased as everyone watched her, wondering what she might do.

She looked at Adam; he nodded. And so Briony brought the relic to her lips and, very gently, kissed the bones of St. Valentine. Then she passed it across the table and Adam did the same, and finally so did Kieran, and Briony noticed that as soon as he did he stopped shaking.

When he was finished Kieran put the bone back in the rosewood box and gave it Inus. Audrey pouted. "I wanted to kiss it too," she said. The man sitting on her left whispered something in her ear and she threw a napkin at him.

Inus watched all of them with an unreadable expression. "I trust there was a reason for that?" he said.

"Yes," was all Briony said.

"I look forward to hearing about it. But now I think I should release everyone to get better acquainted with one another?"

Audrey stood up immediately and grabbed Briony by the wrist, pulling her away even as she was in the midst of a bite of juicy lamb. "Hey—?" Briony said.

"Dinner can wait, let's explore," said Audrey, pulling Briony into an alcove lit by just enough reflected light to make out the macabrely comical audience of bones nearby.

"I'm not sure how much more of this place I really want to see," she said.

"I didn't mean explore the tomb, silly," Audrey said, putting Briony's hand on her breasts. Testing, Briony squeezed and felt the warm flesh through the silky fabric. Audrey groaned a little, so Briony squeezed again, and then she pushed Audrey against the wall and cupped her in both hands, rolling her palms around. Audrey gasped. "Oh!" she said. "Do that again..."

From around the corner Briony heard laughter, voices, and certain amorous noises. She paused. "Wait here a second," she said and stuck her head out. Scanning the crypt, she spotted Adam; he was sitting with Inus, talking and looking relaxed. He even smiled once. She looked left and right for Kieran and finally found him talking to two women in another alcove. He looked animated and his color was normal and he was no longer shaking. Briony chewed her nails, lost in thought.

"Is everything okay?" Audrey said.

"You know...I think it is."

Briony turned back. Audrey had her back pressed to the wall and had pulled down the straps of her dress to reveal the pink corselet underneath. She puckered her lips and said, "Kiss me."

Instead Briony clapped her hand over Audrey' mouth, forced her head back and licked the side of her neck. Audrey squealed. Briony bit her on the collarbone. The taste of succulent lamb was still in her mouth and it created the brief, hallucinogenic impression that she was gnawing the other woman's flesh. She pushed it away.

They pressed against each other in the dark, fabric sliding against fabric and hot skin touching here and there. Briony's lips glided over Audrey' soft, perfumed skin and earth beneath them shifted as they leaned on and against each other's curves. They kissed and it was all moving tongues and hot breath and fluttery feelings in their chests.

Briony pressed Audrey' wrists against the wall, holding her there. "Don't move," she said, slithering down the front of her and kissing the spot where the tops of her stockings rolled around her legs. Audrey squirmed and Briony held her wrists tighter. "I said don't move." She nibbled the girl's plump legs and slipped her tongue into the seam where her thighs met her hips. There were plenty of other noises coming from the next room now, including lots of giggles and moans, but Briony ignored them all and concentrated instead on the pleasing animal scent of Audrey' wriggling form.

"Now I want you to lock those pretty little lips up tight for a few seconds," she said. "Ah, ah: I'm serious. If you be a good girl and don't make any noise you'll get a treat, but you have to be absolutely, positively, completely quiet until I count to...seven.

"Are you ready?" Audrey' head bounced up and down. Briony cupped her hand around the girl's crotch. "Not a peep now," she said, and she began to rub.

"One..."

Through the gauzy barrier of her panties Audrey was warm and dribbling wet. She felt like a hot little animal under the pressure of Briony's palm. Someone around the corner cried out in surprise.

"Two..."

Briony pulled Audrey' undergarments to the side and examined the little pink slit underneath. Pursing her lips, she blew on it and the girl's body jittered, but she didn't say anything. Nearby a woman was laughing under her breath.

"Three..."

She put one finger against Audrey and pressed for a second. The girl seemed to be holding her breath. A drop of wetness shone on the tip of Briony's nail, so she licked it off. It tasted rich and human.

"Four..."

Now she traced the entire length of the girl's tiny, tight opening. Delicate flesh quivered and Briony's pulse raced in her ears but Audrey, though a squirming mess, still hadn't broken. Briony kissed her there, once. Echoing around the inside of the crypt was a voice she didn't know: "Oh, your hands are cold!"

And then another: "Give them a chance to warm up..."

"Five..."

She licked and tickled and tasted and Audrey grabbed the sides of Briony's head, tangling her fingers in Briony's hair, and she seemed to be shaking all over with the effort of keeping her voice pent-up inside her but, to Briony's surprise, she still hadn't let out a peep.

"Six..."

The taste and the smell and the feel of wetness on her tongue and mouth made Briony hungry. The chamber behind them was now filled with a symphony of growls and moans and cries. A breathless voice was repeating: "Oh yes...oh yes...ohhh, yes..."

"Seven," Briony said, with one last lick. "All good girls go to—"

"Where?" The voice was right behind her. Briony looked up and made a face at Inus.

"None of your business," she said. He touched her hair but she pushed his hand away.

"Don't be like that," he said. "I thought we got along so well last night?"

"You'd be surprised how much people can change. And how quickly." Briony stood up, brushing off her dress.

"I'm still your host..." Inus said. Briony chewed her nails for a second and then shrugged again.

"I suppose that's true. And you did help us...where is Adam?"

"Enjoying himself. You have been too, by the look of it. ...is something wrong with her?"

Briony saw that Audrey was still squirming and red-faced with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Oh, I didn't realize—Audrey, you can make noise now."

"Ohhhhhhhhhh yeah!" Audrey said, kicking her feet and pounding her palms on the crypt wall. A few skulls rattled on the stones. "That was SO hot. Oh God, I've got goose bumps!" She grabbed Briony with one hand and Inus with the other. "Come on, let's have more fun!"

"I'm not in the mood to share," said Briony. The sounds in the larger room had changed; the cries sounded wilder and more frenzied.

"Technically I'm the one sharing with you," Inus said. He was unbuttoning his fly. "But I do pride myself on my generosity."

Audrey dropped to her knees, reached in and pulled out Inus' c**k, practically shoving the entire thing into her mouth in one go and making a little "Mmph!" noise. Inus grabbed a handful of her hair and started to work his hips back and forth. Briony was peering around the corner again. The larger room was filled with huge, strange shadows all over the walls, making a mass of tangled limbs. The noise was frightening.

"I guess there's nothing to be done..." she said, and turned back. She settled on the cool stones behind Audrey and slid her arms around, grabbing a double handful of the girl's breasts again and fondling them, feeling the hot flesh sliding against her fingers while Audrey bobbed up and down on Inus' c**k, lips making a wet suction that, however briefly, blocked some of the racket from the rest of the party. Briony kissed across the breadth of Audrey naked back, her teeth grazing the shoulder bones. Craning her head back she looked up at the collection of eyeless voyeurs grinning down at them. She winked.

Hours of hot, sweaty, naked, unseemly secrets passed in the hallowed corners of the tomb. Inus eventually passed out with his head pillowed by a bundle of his own clothes while Briony cradled Audrey' naked body against hers and made soothing sounds. The younger woman had no head for wine and she'd drunk herself into a stupor. The larger tomb was still noisy, but the sound was subdued now, an unidentifiable wet sound, like tearing fabric. Something smelled.

"What's that?" Audrey said.

"Nothing, dear."

"You were going to tell me about kissing the bones..." Audrey murmured.

Briony sat up a little. "Oh that? It was an apology. Part of the family superstition, you see: the curse."

Audrey' head lolled. "What curse?"