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The Helmite Paladin held the sword at the lich’s throat.
“You are Wei Ying.”
“That necromancer was destroyed years ago,” Wei Ying strained to speak and leaned away from the holy light that radiated from Lan Zhan’s sword.
“You ARE Wei Ying!” Lan Zhan insisted and backed him into the wall. “Any other lich would fight in earnest. Remove your mask,” he ordered.
It was true; Wei Ying had been pulling his magical punches for the entire one-on-one battle. He had done everything he could to try to hold off Lan Zhan while doing as little as harm as possible. But Lan Zhan had smashed through all his constructs like they were made from chalk. He shrugged off the spells meant to hold him at bay. Wei Ying had not - would not - throw anything at him that could seriously harm Lan Zhan. He had just tried to buy enough time to escape. It had not worked. And now Wei Ying was pressed to the cold stone wall of his lair, cornered by his old schoolmate turned righteous warrior of Helm.
This is it. This is when I go to rest, Wei Ying thought. The smart and shrewd paladin would surely find his phylactery and destroy it almost as soon as he killed Wei Ying. But at least it’s Lan Zhan. The knowledge that his sometimes-friend-sometimes-rival-and-once-an-enemy would be the one to end him was strangely comforting.
Then Lan Zhan did something entirely unexpected. He dropped the sword - not sheathed it - but dropped it to the floor. And then he wrapped both arms around Wei Ying and pulled him away from the wall into a tight embrace.
Wei Ying felt the hard edges of plate armor bite into his undead skin but pain had been made meaningless for him years ago. What made Wei Ying jerk in Lan Zhan’s arms was the realization that the paladin was crying rivulets of tears on the shoulder of his drab robes.
“Lan Zhan…” Wei Ying said with wonder and surprise. Slowly, shakily, he wrapped his arms around the paladin too and held him. Lab Zhan squeezed him harder. He would have squeezed the breath out of Wei Ying were he still alive.
“Wei Ying… Let me see your face.”
Wei Ying froze for a beat before nodding and pulling away from Lan Zhan’s loosened arms. He removed the intricately carved metallic mask that previously covered him from forehead to chin. Wei Ying was pale, his eyes and cheeks more sunken than they were in life. His skin was not discolored like a corpse, but lacked the glow of life under the surface. Wei Ying’s transformation into lichdom was less scarring than for most, but he didn’t have even the borrowed vitality of a vampire. Wei Ying nervously ran a hand through his long hair, now more slate gray than night black.
“I know I lost my good looks but at least I still have my nose,” Wei Ying joked.
For the first time in over a decade his silver eyes met Lan Zhan’s golden ones.
“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan whispered his name like a swear said in reverence. He cupped his cheek gently with one gauntleted hand.
Wei Ying was profoundly confused. The last time they met Lan Zhan had insisted on taking the newly made lich Wei Ying prisoner. Wei Ying, naturally, had refused and then when Lan Zhan insisted, put up resistance. Violent resistance. That fight had ended in a stalemate where each went their separate ways. The following siege of Wei Ying’s domain by his previous allies had not gone quite so well. Wei Ying would have been permanently killed if not for a false phylactery. Wei Ying pieced himself back together over a year after and resolved to lay low for the rest of his undeath. The plan had been going well until today.
Lan Zhan’s thumb stroked his cheek in what was unmistakable affection. Wei Ying stared at his tear-stained face. Lan Zhan’s handsome visage and bright clear eyes were as mesmerizing now as they were when they were teens and, later, young adults. Lan Zhan’s delicate-looking lips were still full and pink and now parted ever so slightly as he stared into Wei Ying’s eyes. The paladin’s gaze was too intense; Wei Ying had to look away into the darkness of his cramped and ruined laboratory and squirmed awkwardly while Lan Zhan held him around the shoulders.
“Lan Zhan, you cannot have missed fighting the scourge of the realm so much that you would shirk your duties to Helm.”
“Missed Wei Ying. Not fighting.”
Wei Ying barked out a laugh. “The Light-Bearing Lord missed the infamous lich, the Yiling Patriarch?”
“Mn,” was all Lan Zhan answered and backed Wei Ying against the wall once more. Wei Ying hissed in a sharp intake of breath he did not need; it was a reaction of pure emotion. Lan Zhan’s face leaned closer to Wei Ying to the point where he could feel his breath on his lips. He could smell the same sandalwood scent that he remembered wafting around Lan Zhan like his pure white cloak. Wei Ying felt something stir inside him that he could have sworn died even before he did.
“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan said as his lips barely grazed over the lich’s and then touched their foreheads together as he closed his eyes. Wei Ying’s eyes were wide open though - in complete shock. Wei Ying had not cast any charm spell, yet here Lan Zhan was touching him like he was precious, treasured, beloved.
Oh, he thought, Lan Zhan loves me.
With that single revelation a hundred different events were recontextualized in Wei Ying’s mind. Nonsensical interactions with Lan Zhan years prior suddenly made sense.
Oh no, the thought continued on and evolved, And I might love him.
“Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying turned his head and whispered against his cheek, “you cannot love a lich and be a defender of the realm.”
“I can. I do.”
“Lan Zhan, I am already dead, it’s far too late for me.”
“No, Wei Ying is…still here. I will not let you go again.”
“Lan Zhan, I am chilled by death’s touch.”
“I will make Wei Ying warm.”
As Wei Ying opened his mouth to protest once more Lan Zhan covered it with his own. Lan Zhan kissed him and Wei Ying did not know what to do other than submit to it.
Wei Ying was suddenly self-conscious. How did he taste? Wei Ying may not have been actively decaying but there’s no way a corpse could taste good. Wei Ying himself had no sense of taste and very limited smell. He had no idea how Lan Zhan tasted, but he did know that Lan Zhan’s tongue did not shy away from his own. Lan Zhan’s kissing was rough. He bit Wei Ying on the lip hard enough to draw blood, but such a superficial wound on a lich did not bleed. Wei Ying tried to turn his head and protest but Lan Zhan wouldn’t allow him use of his own mouth. One of his hands held Wei Ying by the base of his hair and the other held him at the hip, keeping him pressed up against the wall. Wei Ying held onto plate armored shoulders with trembling hands.
Wei Ying would have been breathless if he had any breath to give. Lan Zhan’s armor plated thigh pressed between his own robed legs and Wei Ying felt his cock show interest in something for the first time since he died. He didn’t know it still knew how to do that.
Lan Zhan broke away from his mouth to start biting at his jawline and neck instead.
“Aiyah, Lan Zhan! You don’t want this! I can’t be the one to make the Light-Bearing Lord into a necrophile!”
Lan Zhan suddenly stopped mouthing at him and pulled back to look Wei Ying in the eyes. “I do not desire the dead; I desire Wei Ying.”
A deep ache blossomed in Wei Ying’s chest in place of a fluttering heartbeat. “Lan Zhan… a corpse cannot make love.”
“Vampires.” Lan Zhan countered.
“Are a far cry from a lich! Vampires steal life essence to create a facsimile of it.”
“Then take life essence,” Lan Zhan said low and husky as he crowded back into Wei Ying’s space and pressed his neck to Wei Ying’s lips. If Wei Ying didn’t know better he would think his undead cock was coming back to life. Even if it wasn’t the genuine article, Wei Ying was being haunted by the ghost of arousal at least.
“I…liches can’t just drink blood to do that.” Wei Ying felt trapped by the situation. On the one hand, he very much wanted to engage in lovemaking with Lan Zhan. On the other hand, he didn’t think his body was capable of such a thing without life siphoning. Unless…
Wei Ying’s face went blank as he did some mental calculations. He briefly considered pulling away from Lan Zhan to go check a book. But he didn’t want to leave Lan Zhan’s arms and he didn’t think Lan Zhan would let him go anyway. Anyway, Wei Ying had been the most brilliant young wizard in his generation - he knew it would work.
“Wei Ying?” Lan Zhan was looking at him with worried eyes and stroking his hair. Wei Ying's eyes had unfocused and his whole frame went unnaturally still while thinking. He snapped back to himself.
“Lan Zhan…” Wei Ying said as he brushed his lips against the paladin’s own and resumed kissing him. Lan Zhan met him and then more with passion. “Lan Zhan, take off your armor?”
Lan Zhan hesitated. He still had to see Wei Ying as a threat, right?
“Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying’s cold hand snaked between them and rested on Lan Zhan’s codpiece. “Take off this armor.”
Lan Zhan’s ears turned pink but he reached for straps at his belt. Wei Ying teased him as his hands worked by whispering in his ear, “Lan Zhan, you’re so handsome and strong. You know I thought that all the time when we were young? I would talk about it all the time and Jiang Cheng would tell me to shut up. Nie Huaisang would roll his eyes at me. But I couldn’t help it; you always fascinated me. Ah! Do you think that’s why I always teased you? I just wanted you to look at me.”
Lan Zhan bashfully raised his golden eyes to meet his gaze. Wei Ying grinned. “But you’ll look at me now, dear boy, won’t you?” Wei Ying was enjoying playfully running his mouth for the first time in a long, long while. “Lan Zhan has defeated the Yiling Patriarch in this battle,” Wei Ying stroked his hands up and down Lan Zhan’s now armorless clothed thighs, “but he will be undone by Wei Ying before the night ends.” Wei Ying’s eyes were half-closed and lustful. He kept eye contact with Lan Zhan as he sank to a kneeling position, keeping hands on Lan Zhan’s legs the whole way down.
“Wei Ying!”
“Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying looked up at him through long dark lashes, “there are advantages to death.” Wei Ying undid the ties on Lan Zhan’s breeches and pulled his half-hard cock out. “Remember…I don’t need to breathe.”
Wei Ying opened his mouth wide with tongue out and took as much of Lan Zhan in at once as he could. Lan Zhan’s hands slammed into the wall above Wei Ying’s head. He heard metal scraping on stone as Lan Zhan’s gauntleted fingers carved interesting new lines into this lair. Perhaps Wei Ying would hang a picture frame around them later.
Lan Zhan’s length was searing hot and velvety in texture. The paladin had gotten fully hard the instant Wei Ying put his hands on him, but Wei Ying swore Lan Zhan got even harder and longer in his mouth. Wei Ying ran his tongue over the seam of the glans and was rewarded with a gush of pre-cum.
Lan Zhan is so big, Wei Ying marveled, if I weren’t already dead surely this would kill me. The thought made Wei Ying chuckle and the vibrations from his throat made Lan Zhan put deeper scratches in the wall.
Wei Ying’s right hand left Lan Zhan’s thigh to reach in his breeches. Wei Ying cupped his balls and used his fingertips to gently stroke over the sensitive skin, making Lan Zhan shudder. Then Wei Ying’s hand moved to circle the base of Lan Zhan’s shaft. Wei Ying’s mouth pulled away enough for his clever tongue to swirl around the tip. Lan Zhan moaned - soft and stifled, but definitely a moan. It made Wei Ying ravenous for more. He tongued the slit and then, driven by impulse, pushed Lan Zhan’s cock in as far as he could. A wet click signified it hitting the back of his throat. With no need to breathe and no gag reflex, Wei Ying simply focused on licking the underside of Lan Zhan’s shaft while hollowing out his cheeks.
“WEI YING!” Lan Zhan breathed his name like a prayer. He bucked into Wei Ying’s mouth and one gauntleted hand tangled in his hair. Wei Ying concentrated on keeping his teeth out of the way while Lan Zhan thrust rapidly. Wei Ying watched Lan Zhan’s flushed panting face through lustful half-lidded eyes. Wei Ying moaned at each thrust deep in his throat to pleasure Lan Zhan further.
“Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying telepathically sent, “channel mana and fuck my face.”
The lewdness of the message proved too much for Lan Zhan. He started to come instantly. Thankfully Wei Ying felt the telltale ethereal sense of magic as Lan Zhan doubled over and spilled down his throat. His seed was full of life energy, and accentuated with mana, Wei Ying felt that life energize him. Wei Ying sucked Lan Zhan’s cock, milking him for all he could until the paladin went soft. Only then did he let go of Lan Zhan’s length with a wet pop. Lan Zhan was holding onto the wall again and his chest heaved with exertion.
Wei Ying stood up. He felt strong. He felt electric. He felt alive. Well, not alive per se, but if this were akin to what vampires felt like from feeding…
There was a tingling sensation all over Wei Ying’s body. He felt some color come back into his cheeks. His stiff clicking joints suddenly felt much more flexible. And, most important to Wei Ying at this moment, he had a raging erection.
Wei Ying caught Lan Zhan’s panting mouth with his own and suddenly realized he could taste the bitter and salty traces of Lan Zhan’s cum. It made him kiss deeper, more aggressive, and Lan Zhan melted into it. Lan Zhan’s sandalwood scent flooded his nose, so much more intense than a minute before, and Wei Ying giggled against Lan Zhan’s lips. Wei Ying’s hands wandered over Lan Zhan’s body and started loosening armor straps anywhere he could and Lan Zhan helped him.
Heavy metal plate pieces dropped to the floor one by one and the two shuffled away from the wall all while connected by the mouth. Lan Zhan’s clothes got left behind too when Wei Ying started tugging on them. Wei Ying wanted to take a step back to admire Lan Zhan’s muscular physique but the paladin kept him in an iron grip even when he tried to pull away.
Wei Ying guided Lan Zhan towards the stone slab that was once an altar and now acted as Wei Ying’s work table. Wei Ying reached to brush the papers, ink bottles, and various oddities off the table. However, Lan Zhan beat him to it with a blast of magical force that knocked everything off the altar in one fell swoop. Then he lifted Wei Ying onto the table while his hands pulled his threadbare robes open.
“Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying was awash in euphoria as Lan Zhan’s hands roved over his bare skin. Lan Zhan freed Wei Ying’s arms from his robes but did not pull them out from under him. Wei Ying would have been fine with the cool stone under his back, but his unbeating heart warmed at Lan Zhan’s consideration for his comfort.
Lan Zhan seemed determined to put his mouth on every inch of Wei Ying’s chest. Distantly, Wei Ying felt embarrassed over his bony frame. Before turning, he had been malnourished for months. The lich-making process seemingly made skin cling directly to bones, and as a result every rib was visible on Wei Ying. His clavicles and hip bones were prominent in a way that they were not on healthy, living humans. But Lan Zhan didn’t seem to mind the angles of Wei Ying’s body or the sallowness of his skin. His hands were on Wei Ying’s legs, spreading them and making room for him as he climbed on top of the table and covered Wei Ying’s body with his own.
Wei Ying tipped back his head and moaned as their cocks finally connected and rutted against one another. Wei Ying couldn’t believe Lan Zhan was hard again so soon, but he was thrilled for it. Wei Ying lifted his hips and grinded his cock against the seam of Lan Zhan’s groin for more friction. The paladin reacted with a sharp intake of breath. Both of them leaked pre-cum between their writhing bodies.
“Lan Zhan, I stole your life essence!” Wei Ying delicately nipped at a very pink ear lobe. “Will you punish this necromancer for his wicked deeds?” Wei Ying lowered his voice to a sultry whisper. “Do you think you can fuck the evil out of me?”
Lan Zhan snatched both of Wei Ying’s thin wrists in one hand and yanked them over his head. Wei Ying gasped and bucked up against him. Until this moment Wei Ying didn’t know that was what he wanted, but now he desperately wanted more of it. “Lan Zhan, will you hold me down and fuck me and fill me with your holy seed? I feel so much better after receiving communion… Do you think coming in both my ends could revive me?” Lan Zhan’s hand tightened on his wrists and Wei Ying’s bones creaked in protest.
“Quiet!” Lan Zhan said through gritted teeth.
Wei Ying shifted the angle of his hips to rub his cock against Lan Zhan’s once again. “You could Silence me, but then how will you hear me screaming your name as you pump-“ Lan Zhan stuck two fingers from his free hand in Wei Ying’s mouth and Wei Ying immediately started sucking happily. He lasciviously ran his tongue over them in an echo of what he did to Lan Zhan’s dick earlier.
Lan Zhan muttered a few words to a spell. Manacles of pure light encircled Wei Ying’s wrists and ankles and pulled him taut against the altar. Wei Ying could easily dispel them, even with Lan Zhan’s fingers in his mouth. Both he and Lan Zhan knew this. Wei Ying did not dispel the bindings.
Lan Zhan seemed to relax with Wei Ying bound to the altar. He pulled his fingers out of Wei Ying’s mouth. Wei Ying playfully snapped his teeth as they left and grinned. Lan Zhan put a hand under the small of Wei Ying’s back and lifted his hips so Lan Zhan’s knees slotted underneath. Wei Ying sighed happily at the sensation of Lan Zhan’s hard cock drooling on his inner thigh.
“Lan Zhan, you’re so BIG! I would be scared if I were still alive, hahaha! Do you know I died a virgin?”
“…”
Lan Zhan had frozen with two fingers that had just come to rest on Wei Ying’s entrance. Lan Zhan’s golden stare was confused at first and then became piercing.
“Wei Ying lies.”
“I don’t!! I remained a pure and unsullied virgin my whole life!”
“But you… When we were younger you said you were ‘experienced.’”
“Aiyah, Lan Zhan, I was lying then! I was just trying to save some face. To flirt so much and get no girls was embarrassing.” Wei Ying wiggled his hips so his hole brushed against Lan Zhan’s fingers. “Maybe it’s because I never wanted the girls after all. Maybe I was waiting for a big strong Paladin of Helm to- ah!!”
Lan Zhan had mercilessly pushed his fingers in Wei Ying all the way to the base. It didn’t hurt him, of course, but the sensation was foreign to Wei Ying. After a few thrusts with one hand, Lan Zhan finally grasped Wei Ying’s cock in the other. Wei Ying’s back arched off the stone table until he was held back by the luminous bonds at his wrists. Lan Zhan continued to scissor him open and brushed his thumb through the clear liquid at Wei Ying’s tip. Wei Ying whimpered as Lan Zhan stroked him in two different ways.
“Lan Zhannnnnnnn…” he whined, “you can’t possibly hurt a lich by screwing…just put it in already…” Wei Ying writhed underneath him and tugged on the manacles. He leaned up as far as he could and nipped at Lan Zhan’s neck, only managing to graze him with his teeth.
“Not about the pain. About pleasure.” Lan Zhan twisted his fingers and touched a spot that had Wei Ying thrusting hard into his hand.
“AH! Lan Zhan, do that again! No, wait, I want you inside. Please, Lan Zhan, I’m begging you, please don’t make your Wei Ying wait any longer!”
Lan Zhan’s hands paused and Wei Ying thought he was going to die if he stopped but Lan Zhan resumed, just slower. It still made Wei Ying whine in protest.
“My Wei Ying?”
“Yes, yes! Lan Zhan, you can take me prisoner, I don’t mind anymore! I’ll dutifully sit in whatever Helmite dungeon you have at the temple. Just please, fuck me!!”
Lan Zhan’s hands sped up again and Wei Ying cried out in relief.
“I will take Wei Ying,” he said fiercely. “But Wei Ying will live in my rooms. Sleep in my bed.” Lan Zhan leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on Wei Ying’s forehead before crashing into his mouth with fervor.
Lan Zhan pulled his fingers out of Wei Ying and pushed in with his cock. Careful preparation made the way easy and Wei Ying groaned at the feeling of finally being filled.
“Deeper,” Wei Ying pleaded against Lan Zhan’s mouth. “More!”
Lan Zhan thrust in to the hilt that made a slapping sound of flesh on flesh.
“Yes, yes, like that! Lan Zhan, I love you so much! Ah! Ah!! If you had just held me down and fucked me like this the first time, I would have gone with you immediately!”
Lan Zhan’s eyes went bloodshot and he mercilessly pounded his cock into Wei Ying. Lan Zhan’s crushing grip on Wei Ying’s hips would have bruised the living but Wei Ying just found the sensation thrilling. Lan Zhan buried himself so deep on every thrust it was like he was trying to merge the two of them together. Wei Ying’s lair, a haven of silence and solitude for years, echoed with Wei Ying’s ecstatic cries and the quick tempo percussion of their lovemaking.
Wei Ying was in a state of pure bliss. The paladin’s mana-charged life essence was like a drug and being fucked accentuated it further. Wei Ying’s body was pliant but responsive in Lan Zhan’s hands. Wei Ying thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of Lan Zhan using him, treating him roughly in a way Wei Ying would not have been able to endure in life. They both knew that Lan Zhan didn’t have to hold back any of his strength.
“Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying’s voice had become hoarse from all his screaming and dirty chatter. “Lan Zhan, I need more essence from you before I can come. If you want-“
Lan Zhan cut him off by pushing his tongue in his mouth. Lan Zhan gripped Wei Ying the jaw to more sure Wei Ying couldn’t break away from the kiss. Lan Zhan took Wei Ying’s cock in his other hand and started a delicious squeezing stroke that had Wei Ying on the edge already. Wei Ying felt the telltale thrum of divine mana circulating around the paladin. Lan Zhan thrust once, twice, and on the third he started coming. Wei Ying felt Lan Zhan’s balls pressed against his ass with jilted little thrusts through his orgasm. And then the wave crashed over Wei Ying too. He arched back and keened as he came all over Lan Zhan’s hand and between their pressed bodies. He blacked out as the pleasure washed over him.
When Wei Ying became aware again, he was still firmly underneath Lan Zhan’s tall muscular body. Lan Zhan lay atop him, breathing heavy, and muttering, “Wei Ying, Wei Ying, Wei Ying…” against the crown of his head. He kissed his hair occasionally between muttering. Lan Zhan sounded choked up again.
“Ah, Lan Zhan, I’m not going anywhere. You can undo these shackles.”
Lan Zhan dispelled them immediately and Wei Ying wrapped his arms around his neck. He kissed his cheek and then whispered against his ear, “I wish we had done this sooner.”
“Mn,” Lan Zhan agreed.
“You want me to live in your rooms? In the temple? Will they accept an evil lich in the bed of The Light-Bearing Lord?”
“…”
“You can’t lie to them.”
“…no, I cannot. They will have to compromise.”
Wei Ying barked out a laugh that made Lan Zhan jerk in surprise. Wei Ying petted his hair in apology.
“Compromise on what?”
“Accept Wei Ying or lose me.”
“Lan Zhan…” Wei Ying’s eyes welled up with tears for the first time in years. And happy tears at that. “I love you so, so much.”
“I love you too, Wei Ying.”