57. A Religious Rendezvous
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
A RELIGIOUS RENDEZVOUS
J oe led the way out of the cemetery, across early morning, still-quiet streets, where he was relieved to see a few people out and starting their day. Normal. Looking at them like they were the strange and abnormal element of the city, no memory of their supernatural slumber.
He paid scant attention to them, pulling at Percy’s hand, racing as fast as he could walk, almost a run, across one street, down an alley, over another wide road.
Percy kept up as best he could, worried for Joe, asking the occasional question that went unanswered before resigning himself to the mystery of the short and silent trip, until finally Joe brought them to a small garden.
The garden was cool and lush, grown high with elms, an oasis in that part of Montmartre. Percy recognised it, having walked past on occasion, but he’d never been beyond the black iron fence. Joe went through as though he knew the place intimately. He walked along a curving stone path, hidden beneath a tunnel of curling branches that met overhead, and directly to a little wooden door, arched, set in a stone wall.
He looked back at Percy, as though confirming he was still there by his side, then he took a long, black key from his pocket. He slid it into the lock, and the door opened at his command.
Taking Percy’s hand tighter now, he led him inside. Percy tripped over a step, and was caught and steadied by Joe, as his gaze drifted upwards to row upon row of soaring stone beams overhead. A rainbow of light filtered through beautiful stained-glass windows, set high, so, so high above. Joe closed and locked the door behind them, then clasped his hand again and brought him to the centre aisle of the ancient church they found themselves inside.
It was probably the last place Percy thought Joe might have taken him that morning. Perhaps a hospital or a patisserie. An all-night bar? But this… Was he having a crisis of faith? Was he turning to God?
The thought unsettled Percy’s stomach, but his aesthetic eye, his heart and soul, responded with the expressive ardour he could never subdue where such beautiful things were concerned.
The church sat silent and reverential, evidence of all the faith humanity had in a greater something there in every stone, every column, every gorgeous curve and line, and, “Do you like it?” Joe asked. His eyes were as keen on Percy as Percy’s were on the walls and windows and carvings and artworks.
“It’s magical,” Percy whispered. It was. Utterly. Beyond spectacular.
“It’s the second oldest church in Paris,” said Joe, suddenly sounding a little nervous. “I, um… I think it’s prettier than the oldest one. And because it’s so old, it’s not… What would you call it? It’s not ‘cloying’.” Percy let out a small laugh as Joe spoke on. “And I knew you lived in Montmartre. And it felt right.”
Percy looked at Joe. Tired. Worn. But Joe. Beautiful, always, to Percy. More than anything. And not because of the way the morning sun lit the edges of his hair like a halo. Not because of the lips and the eyes and the curves of every feature that had first drawn him into the gentle and distant obsession that had marked their earliest days together. He was Joe. And he could have been one hundred years old, and Percy would have thought he was just as beautiful. “You planned to bring me here?”
“I did. Not right now, of course.” He gave a soft, bashful laugh, then turned serious again just as quickly. “I thought you’d love it. And I wanted to, but… after everything that happened last night… Percy…”
Joe raised his gaze to Percy’s. The intensity in his eyes, the something he was holding back—Percy could see it was close to overwhelming him. “What is it?”
“Come.” Joe led him up the aisle, to the front of the church, where he paused by the altar. A square altar, large and flat, made of stone but gilt in shining copper. A thing of history. Like the church. Like the city.
Joe took both of Percy’s hands in his and looked deep into his eyes. “I fell in love with you. Percy, I’m so in love with you, and I don’t know what to do with it. Sometimes it feels like there’s too much. And there are so many things I want to say to you, and…” Joe dropped his gaze to their hands, folded together, Percy clasping his just as tenderly as he held Percy’s, and when he looked up, that smile. Percy’s eyes loving and proud. Like they always were.
“I wanted to bring you here last night,” Joe explained. “I thought, maybe after dinner, I’d take you for a walk, and surprise you. I got the key yesterday because I thought…” Joe looked down the long aisle, drinking in the glorious details that lay before them, just for their eyes. “This place, I thought it represented us in a way. It’s so exquisite. And things like that, they’re like air to you, and I know that. I thought—I knew you’d love that.”
“I do,” Percy said softly, an acknowledgement and an encouragement. He wondered what the meaning of it all was, but Joe seemed to be warming to his task, to Percy’s acceptance of it, moment by moment, so he waited, and let Joe say what he needed to.
“I thought it was like these two worlds. Our worlds. What you believe in, and what I… What I did believe. I think. For a while. I tried to…”
Percy’s smile slipped with the confession, with his sadness for what he imagined Joe must be feeling, but Joe spoke on, faster now, getting it all out. “I used the sheath. The sheath and the spear. When you… When that happened, I got them, and I put them together. And I got nothing. Not a thing.”
No atheistic quip met the admission. No lightly mocking joke. Only the firm, “That’s no proof of anything.”
Joe laughed. The idea of Percy, of all people, trying to help Joe keep his faith, was amusing. He said, “You’d try to protect me from anything, wouldn’t you?”
“Forever.”
“Forever,” Joe whispered. He brightened a little. “I’m not sad about it. I always doubted. I’ve always seen horror, and darkness, and these terrifying things, and I tried to be good. But the life I was living, it was a half life. It was a half understanding. Every day was like that until I met you.”
Joe smiled, a touch of his nervousness morphing into what seemed to Percy to be mounting excitement. “When I met you, you opened up a new world. One I’d been blind to my entire existence. One I’d locked myself away from. You showed me love and passion. And you showed me anger and hate. You showed me the filth and the dirt of this world, and you made it beautiful. You make everything so, so beautiful. You, even in your most ridiculous, most appalling moments, Percy, you bring me a peace and a happiness I didn’t know I could ever feel in this world. And that’s why I wanted to bring you here, and why I wanted to give you this.”
He dipped a hand into his pocket and pulled something out. He held it firmly in his fist for a moment, as though considering whether to go ahead. Finally, he turned over a shaking hand, stretched his fingers open, and there in his palm shone a stunning ring.
The band was gold, newly polished, though the ring was old, which Percy could see at a glance. Gold detail, complicated and exquisite, curled and coiled up the side of the band, rising ornately around a black inlay of pure and polished onyx, that glinted and glittered in the morning light.
Percy’s heart was hammering in his chest. The hand that held that ring… The ring that was for him. He was speechless.
“Percy…” said Joe, turning the jewel over. He looked up into Percy’s eyes, bright and hopeful. “Percy, I want you to marry me.”
Percy’s fingers curled around Joe’s palm. He brought his other hand to his cheek and dropped a gentle kiss on his lips. “Darling, you know I want to marry you. I proposed, and I meant it.”
“No.” Joe shook his head. “No, I don’t mean one day. I don’t mean when courts catch up and change their rules. I don’t mean one distant maybe, and planning, and suits, and… Percy, I want you to be my husband. Forever. I want you to marry me right now. Right here. With me as celebrant.”
Percy’s hand moved to his open lips, covering them briefly, then, “You would do that? Really?”
Joe let out a gasp of laughter. “How can you ask me that? I love you. I love you so much and when I saw…” Joe’s voice broke. The grief was so close to the surface that it didn’t even need the words to uncover it. He turned his face away, tears sliding down his cheeks.
Percy pulled him back, the touch of his hand catching the tears. “It’s been a long night. It doesn’t have to be now. We can think about it?—”
“I’m done thinking. I just want to live. With you. I want this with my whole heart, but I don’t know…” He swallowed, gathering himself. “I don’t know what I did last night. I… I don’t know what it makes me now that I drank that blood. But I don’t feel different.” He took Percy’s hand and placed it on his chest. “Not in my heart. I feel like I love you, and I want you, and if you would share your life with me?—”
“Oh god, of course I would.” Percy took his face in both hands, kissing the trails of tears away.
“I’ve never told you enough,” said Joe, shaking his head softly against Percy’s kisses. “I always think you know already, because I never thought you’d consider me. Because you’re Percy. And I always thought you must know how much I love you, how grateful I am to have you, but if I didn’t tell you, just one day, then you were gone?—”
Percy kissed him and kissed him. “I’m right here. I would never leave you.”
Joe’s hands closed on Percy’s shirt. “I know. And that’s why I have faith. In you. I will always believe in you. And I will always love you. And now I’ve done this thing. And I don’t know what it means, but if it means I watch you grow old and die, and I don’t die, and I go on…”
“Joe, no. No.” Percy moved closer, taking Joe in his arms, holding him to his chest, letting his tears fall on his shoulder. “What did I say? Where you go, I go. There’s no stopping that. I meant every word. I won’t let you go. Not without me. And that’s why…” He took Joe’s chin in his hand, and brought his eyes up to meet his own. “Joe, I thought about this, straight away and on the walk over here and… That’s why you’re going to give me your blood.”
Joe’s lower lip quivered, his brow drew deep, and he whispered, “No… I can’t do that.”
“Eternity. It’s not just a pretty word, it’s a promise.”
“Percy, this isn’t something you do lightly.”
“You did it lightly.”
“You were fucking dead!” Joe shouted.
“And now I’m not fucking dead and I don’t want to be dead! I want to drink wine and smoke cigarettes. I want to drive fast cars and steal things. I want to do it all with you. Forever. If you’re going to marry me, if you're going to join our lives and our souls?—”
“It’s till death do us part,” said Joe.
“Fuck death!” Percy yelled. “Fuck parting. I’m yours and you’re mine and that’s an end to it.” He grasped Joe’s arms as he tried to pull away. “I’m not doing this lightly. I’m not doing this again with someone else ten years from now. You’re it, Joe. You’re my soulmate. You’re my only one. The way we fit together, no one else can fill that space. You’re my world. You’re my heart and my existence, and I’m never letting you go. I told you that. I promised you that. Even death can’t keep us apart. You said you want to get married, then let’s make it official. It’s you and me, Joe, forever. Us against the world, for all eternity. Do you want to marry me or not?”
“Of course I want to marry you. I just asked you to marry me!”
“Then marry me, goddammit. But do it properly!”
“Percy!”
“Joe.” Percy kissed him, a goading smack on the lips that ended in Percy’s hopeful, sly, gorgeous, irresistible smile. “I’ll make a great husband. You’ll see. Five minutes from now.”
As he so often did, Joe tried and failed to repress his own smile.
“Marry me. Do it now. Pronounce us.”
“But—”
“If you don’t do it, I’ll cut you and take your blood in the night, and I don’t care if that’s a consent issue.”
“Percy!”
“Come on.” Percy bundled Joe’s hands up against his heart. “I want your ring. I mean, obviously I want your ring, but specifically, right now, that one, there in your hand. Put it on my finger.”
Joe laughed, blushing that way Percy had always loved to make him blush. Would always love it. Would devote his life to making it happen and loving it again and again.
And that’s when he remembered.
He remembered the weight that had been burning a hole in his pocket some twelve hours earlier, and he slapped a hand down on his thigh to make sure it was still there. The small, round bump remained, despite the fight and the fire, the blood and the bones, the death and the resurrection.
And if ever Percy needed a sign, that was it.
He squeezed Joe’s hands, and he commenced: “I take you, Joe Bruno, to be my unlawfully wedded husband. To have and to hold, from this day forward. In good times and bad. In sickness and in health. In the filth of a graveyard or the private castle of a playboy billionaire.” Joe let out a chuckle. “Until forever. Eternity. Joe…” Percy’s voice wavered, and Joe melted at the tears that came into his eyes. “Joe, I will honour and adore you, for all my days. I promise you that. With this ring…” Percy reached into his pocket and pulled forth the stunning, ancient, irreplaceable, eternal sapphire and gold ring.
Joe’s gasp echoed throughout the church. “You didn’t…”
“Joe, with this ring…” He slipped it onto Joe’s trembling finger, where it slid into place, a perfect fit. “I thee wed.”
Joe turned his hand over, staring open-mouthed at the beautiful blue ring on his finger, staring at Percy, then he launched himself at Percy, kissing him with such force Percy stumbled against the altar to support them both. “Handsome, that’s supposed to come after.”
“Oh, right. But…” He stared again at the ring on his own hand. “How?”
“That’s where I went yesterday. I was going to give it to you last night, too. Or as soon as I could. I wanted you to have it. I thought it would look so beautiful on you. It’s two thousand years old. It’s also Roman, but now I wonder if that was in slightly poor taste?—”
“Percy, I love it. I’m never taking this off. Never.”
Percy used the outstretched, be-ringed hand as leverage to pull himself upright. “Do me.”
“Okay, okay.” Joe moved back to his position in front of the altar, taking Percy with him. “I take you, Percy Ashdown, to be my husband, from this day forward. To have and to hold, in good times and bad, in sickness and in health, no matter what ridiculous bullshit you pull next.” Percy, having the best time of his life, laughed with a hearty slyness that Joe devoured. “I promise to honour and adore you, for… Are you sure about this?”
“Now!” he snapped. “Do it now!”
“For eternity! You and me. Forever. With this ring, I thee wed.” He slipped it onto Percy’s eager finger, and he didn’t think he’d ever seen Percy as happy as he was just then. Percy gave a nod, hands shaking with excitement, and Joe said, “By the power vested in me, I now pronounce us husband and husband.”
Percy let out a cry of pure and unadulterated joy, took Joe’s face in his hands, and kissed him. And kissed him. And kissed him again. Until finally he stepped back and looked at the ring. He snuck Joe a delighted glance. “Sixteenth Century?”
Joe grinned widely. “Yep. Venetian. Not that I probably need to tell you that.”
“It’s marvellous. Look how well it fits. It’s like it was made for me.”
“It is. Look.” Joe reached for Percy’s hand, slipped his finger along the edge of the ring setting, and the top popped open on a delicate, hidden hinge.
“Oh my god,” Percy whispered, caught in his admiration for the exquisite jewel. “It’s a poison ring!”
“Do you love it?” Joe asked desperately, as though he needed the answer.
“I love it so much! I love you so much!” He kissed Joe again, then said, “I can’t believe you’re my husband. I can't believe I’m this lucky.”
“No,” said Joe, a curiously decisive note in his voice. “Not yet. There’s one more thing we have to do. To make it official. In the eyes of God.”
“Oh…” Percy’s face dropped, and he looked around warily. “Is it going to be very religious?”
“Very,” said Joe.