by R Phoenix
“No guarantees,” Emma replied bluntly.
“We can probably cut you a good deal if what you give us is worthwhile,” Bryce answered, sounding more believable than Emma, but then—
Kolt eyed Bryce, who was perhaps a little too enamored with him. He never should’ve slept with the guy.
“You’ll be a cooperating witness, and it would tie the murders in with Leandro’s other… activities,” Bryce went on, looking at Emma.
Kolt followed his gaze for confirmation.
“Come on,” Emma said, setting her tablet down beside the cup. She cast a pointed look at Bryce then looked back at Kolt. “Let’s take a walk outside, Kolt.”
He didn’t want to, and he drew in a breath and held it, glancing at Bryce.
Bryce shrugged, utterly unhelpful.
“The fresh air kind of outside, or just the fucking hallway so you can scold me about how it’s not a game?” Kolt asked.
“The fresh air kind,” Emma said. “You need to catch your breath.”
That was a tempting offer with how much time he’d been spending in that fucking lab and at Bryce’s. After another moment’s consideration, he shook Bryce’s hand off, sliding off of the examination table.
Emma cast Bryce an oblique look then went to the door, opening it and letting him pass her into the hallway. “Down the hall, last door to the left,” she directed. “Then down to the double doors. There’s an outside sitting area.”
Kolt’s shoulders slumped and he exhaled. Of course. A sitting area. He supposed it had fresh air, but it wasn’t exactly what he’d had in mind. He wanted out of the building, away from all the fucking confinement for once in his fucking life. He’d been so fucking free that night with Nero…
He could’ve done anything then, and he hadn’t appreciated it nearly enough.
He said nothing, simply followed her direction, not even looking to see if she was coming — undoubtedly, she would be right behind him though. She was more cautious than most, keeping an eye on him, as if she was afraid he might explode. He didn’t hold a single door, nor slow his step even for a minute until he passed through the double doors and out onto a terrace. It had walls on two sides and a waist-high railing on the other two. He could jump down and make a run for it, he supposed. It was only three floors down, and Emma wouldn’t be able to fucking stop him.
She closed the last door behind them, and he could feel her studying him. “You could do it,” she remarked. “Take this chance and leave.” Her voice was too neutral for him to be able to tell if she was mocking him or serious.
“Prove everyone right, you mean,” Kolt responded. Because wasn’t that what everyone was so worried about? Why they kept taking more blood, more DNA, more prints, more vitals, more everything? Why she had been so against him staying with Bryce, because he might disappear?
“Does it matter to you, if you’re free?” She crossed to a nearby wooden bench, sitting down. “What people think?”
“Of course. I’m not the fucking monster everyone likes to think I am,” he answered shortly.
“That’s the thing,” Emma replied, looking up at him. “No one here thinks you’re a monster. Leandro, on the other hand…” She shrugged. “There’s a lot the Organization would do to try to make sure he isn’t a threat anymore, including pardoning one incubus.”
Kolt looked up at the sky, drawing in another deep breath of cool air before he leaned his forearms on the railing of the terrace. “But no guarantees, right?” he responded quietly.
Emma shook her head. “No. Good odds, but there’s never a guarantee.”
“I don’t know if I know enough,” Kolt said, after a long moment. “I mean, who are we kidding? We know why he kept me around. It sure as hell wasn’t for my keen business sense. I’ve heard some things, seen some stuff, but—” He shrugged. “He’s not stupid.”
“We both know he’ll get out of it anyway,” Emma said without rancor. “No one expects you to give enough information to see him imprisoned or banished back to the fae realm, not really.”
Kolt glanced at her, feeling particularly stupid, because he’d assumed that was the end goal. “Then what’s the point in all of this?”
“Political games,” Emma said, her lip curling into a sardonic smile. She shook her head, the smile vanishing as she glanced out over the sitting area. “It’s about who can play them better. Sending messages, giving warnings. You may not be able to sink him, but it’s one more thing to use against him.”
“Fine,” he said finally, closing his eyes for a moment. “I’ll say whatever the fuck you want or need. I just want this all to—” Go the hell away, stop, end already. “—to be over.”
“They’re going to want to know what Leandro did to you,” Emma said, looking back at him and searching out his gaze. “Including how you ended up enslaved to begin with and why you never registered.”
“Sure,” he agreed with little inflection in his voice. “I’ll write them a graphic smutty novel about all the filthy things we did.” He looked back down at the car park down below. “I’ve been with Lee a long time though, since before registration was mandatory, so you’ll have to ask him about that,” he said. “Like I said, I don’t know if I’ll have many answers you want.”
“I’m not the one who’ll be asking them,” Emma replied, shrugging. “I’ll just be making sure the paperwork sticks.”
“Great.” Kolt sighed. “I’ll have a whole new group of people to disappoint then,” he concluded, pushing away from the railing and heading back for the double doors. “I’ve gotta get back to let those two fondle me some more,” he said, but didn’t wait for her to agree or accompany him. Frankly, he didn’t want to be near her, or any of them, but it wasn’t like he had much choice.
Emma didn’t follow, and the doors echoed in the hallway as they closed behind him.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Kolt was quiet all the way back home. More so than usual, anyway. He was never one to speak much of his own accord, something that had gotten a little better over the past week, and Bryce appreciated it. They were growing closer together, clearly, and while he knew they shouldn’t, it didn’t feel like a bad thing at all.
Now though, the passive stare out the window, leaning on his hand and watching the other cars, warned that it might not be enough. For the first time since Kolt was away from the casino, Bryce considered that perhaps the incubus needed to be somewhere else altogether. Farther away, no longer involved or trapped in the web Leandro had so masterfully crafted to trap the likes of him and Kolt in.
The absent-minded behavior continued even well into the house, despite Bryce trying to make conversation. Dinner had Kolt stabbing listlessly at his potatoes, eating slowly with barely an appetite.
“Are you sure everything is all right?” Bryce asked once more for good measure, not really expecting another answer than the ones he’d gotten before: a shrug, a nod or affirmative answer, and a calm ‘sure’ that wasn’t convincing.
“Yeah, sure,” Kolt said, and even shrugged again to complete the trifecta.
“You know, from everything I’ve read and learned about your kind, I was led to believe you were good mimics and liars, excellent con-men,” Bryce pointed out, pouring Kolt some more wine — seeing how he was drinking that, even if he wasn’t eating much at all.
Kolt glanced up at him and offered a smirk, which was more emotion than he’d gotten all afternoon. “Most of my kind probably don’t spend as much time with Leandro as I did,” he answered, and it sounded almost wistful.
“Why does that matter?” Bryce asked, stabbing a potato from Kolt’s plate with his fork and stealing it.
Kolt was quiet a moment, giving him a contemplative look. “Fae can tell truth from lies, almost always. No point in lying then, is there…?” the incubus finally answered, still smiling faintly.
“...Oh,” Bryce said with a slow nod. He’d read about that, and it explained a few things, but… “I’m sure there’s a way to
cheat?” he guessed, drawing his eyebrows up.
“Sort of… If it’s close enough to a truth they can’t really read it, or if you believe the lie to be true,” Kolt explained. “But it’s not as easy as it sounds.”
Bryce exhaled sharply and nodded. “I guess, but I’m pretty good at lying to myself,” he said. “Like how I’m not going to get involved with some incubus needing a way out of a bad situation. Or how it’s not a bad thing, if it’s done for a good cause… I think I could beat him, if I needed to. I mean, now that I know.”
Kolt smirked and shrugged. “You’re arrogant enough,” he pointed out.
Bryce snorted out a laugh. “It’s not arrogance. It’s… confidence,” he said, but he wasn’t really arguing. Perhaps it was arrogant to think he could beat a sentient lie-detector, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t had to lie before, even on a lie-detector test. “I’m just saying, all lie-detectors can be beaten,” he amended.
Kolt just continued to smirk at him. “Maybe that’s why Leandro hates you so much,” the incubus suggested thoughtfully. “Because you weren’t lying when you threatened him.”
“I never threatened him,” Bryce protested with a scoff.
“You called me his weak spot,” Kolt pointed out, picking up his wine glass and sitting back. “What is that, if not a threat?” he questioned, taking a sip of the red.
“...An observation,” Bryce said dryly.
“Why?” Kolt asked. “I know he sort of cared about me, in his own way, but—” Another shrug, and the incubus’ eyes lingered on the wine in his glass.
“No buts,” Bryce said. “He’s always been stupid when it comes to you. He makes mistakes when he’s with you. I’ve been in this line of work long enough to know a weak spot when I see one. Gambling, hookers, addiction, family, loyalty, lovers… It’s always something, and in Leandro’s case,” Bryce gestured with his glass at Kolt across from him, “incubus.”
Kolt said nothing, just took another sip from the glass and licked his lips.
“I can’t blame him,” Bryce said, drawing a shoulder up in a casual shrug as he rose from his seat. “You have a certain something about you,” he continued, taking his own plate and the one Kolt barely touched to clear the table. He left the bottle of wine for now, but he grabbed the cutlery in his other hand. “I mean, other than the fact that you’re pretty much gorgeous and exactly my type now apparently, but beyond that, it’s—”
“I think I want to go back,” Kolt cut him off out of the blue, making Bryce stall in his actions.
He put the plates back down on the table before he could drop them in surprise and stared at Kolt. “You’re fucking kidding me, right?” he asked with a stare. “What’s going on, Kolt?”
“Emma said that nothing I said would put him away,” Kolt said sharply. “So then I’m still on the hook for all the dead bodies, and he’ll— he’ll get me back anyway. I know he wants me back, or he wouldn’t have all his lawyers harassing you guys… So it’s just— It’s probably better, if I go back. It’ll happen eventually anyway.”
Fuck Emma. He wanted to say it, but he didn’t, instead he drew in a deep breath and held it.
“Kolt, that’s— you know she doesn’t know everything, right? We can find a solution,” Bryce assured him again.
“Right, sure, and then what? I stay here with you?” Kolt asked pointedly.
“Yeah, I mean… until you find something else, or—”
“Or I kill you,” Kolt said flatly.
“You’re not a monster, Kolt,” Bryce said, sitting back down. This was not a quick conversation between food and ice cream at all!
“I didn’t say that, but you’re just a human. Fuck, why do you think you need so much fucking coffee these days? You can barely get out of bed in the morning,” Kolt said, and there was a waver in his voice.
“I’m fine, Kolt, really,” he assured, leaning forward and taking the incubus’ hand.
Kolt didn’t pull away, but he looked skeptical. “I’m hungry all the time, Bryce. I can’t do this. I thought I could, but I can’t,” the incubus said softly. “I’m not around enough people. I see you and Percy and Tobias, but he’s a fucking psychopath so I can’t feed enough. It’s not enough, and it’s never going to be enough. I’m lonely, and it’s just a matter of time before I fuck up. I don’t want to hurt anyone,” Kolt explained, swallowing hard. “I don’t want to risk you, or anyone.”
Bryce was stunned, and he stared at the incubus, not sure that he could believe what he was hearing. “I can do more?” he said, but it came out as a question.
Kolt let out a rough laugh. “You’re already doing more than you should. Fuck, man, you could lose your job over this.”
“I couldn’t care less,” Bryce said. “I suck in this department anyway. I’m not cut out for all the politics and the bullshit. If it means helping you, I’m okay with losing my job.”
Kolt watched him for a moment before letting out a breath and shaking his head. “You shouldn’t be,” he said.
“Why not?” Bryce insisted, squeezing Kolt’s hand a little tighter. “I care about you, Kolt.”
“No, you really don’t,” Kolt responded, his voice a little sharp that time. “You want to care about me, you want to do right by me, and you like how you feel when you’re around me, but that’s— I’m an incubus, Bryce. Of course you feel good around me. It’s what I do. I’m everything your heart desires, minus a pair of tits.”
“That’s not fair, Kolt,” Bryce said, rolling his eyes.
“You have all the best intentions. I know you do, but it’s not— It’s just not real, Bryce. I’m sorry,” Kolt insisted, getting up from the table and pulling his hand out of Bryce’s grip. He left the dining room and headed for the bedroom.
“Kolt, wait. Can we talk about this?” Bryce asked, calling after him as he got up to follow him — abandoning the dishes on the table for the time being.
“I should go back,” Kolt repeated while grabbing a bag. It sounded more like a fucking nervous twitch he was suffering than real conviction. “Please don’t try to talk me out of it,” the incubus added, and it felt like a fucking trap.
“Of course I’m going to try to talk you out of it,” Bryce scoffed. “You asked me to get you out, specifically.”
“Yeah, I know. I thought I could be anywhere, but I clearly can’t, or there wouldn’t be so many dead bodies in my wake.” Kolt scowled and shook his head, beginning to collect what little stuff he’d gathered over the past few days.
It wasn’t much, and Bryce couldn’t shake the feeling that the incubus was stalling on his own apparent departure, because there really wasn’t even a need to pack. A toothbrush, a hairbrush, some magazines… They were hardly the life essentials he needed to bring with him if he went back to his luxurious life as Leandro’s slave.
“He did that, not you. We all know that he’s the one responsible for it,” Bryce assured Kolt, stepping closer to him and gently taking his arm to turn him around and face him. “Listen to me, Kolt. I said I would protect you, and I will, okay? Will you trust me, please?” he begged quietly.
What little resistance there had been in Kolt seemed to fade away almost immediately. “I trust you, Bryce,” the incubus said, looking up at him. “I don’t trust myself.”
Bryce didn’t want to fucking hear it. He leaned in, pressing his lips against the incubus’. “It’ll be all right,” he promised between one kiss and the next — which Kolt finally returned. “We’ll work this out, okay?” he asked softly after that, sliding his arms around the smaller man.
Kolt said nothing but leaned into him all the same.
“Okay?” he prompted a second time. He wanted to hear him say it.
Kolt looked up at him with a slow sigh.
Bryce drew his eyebrows up and gave him a questioning look.
“Okay,” Kolt agreed at long last, and once again, their lips met.
This time, the kiss was slower, deeper. Bryce’s hands slipped under
the shirt the incubus was wearing, finding warm, bare skin there, and he stroked his thumbs along it.
“You sure it won’t be too much?” Kolt prompted, pulling back abruptly from the kiss, but there was something about the way Kolt’s hand felt on his chest that made Bryce not give a flying fuck.
It didn’t even matter that the hand was bracing against him, keeping him at a distance. The touch was fucking intoxicating. Instead of answering the question aloud, he grabbed the incubus’ wrist carefully, moving the hand from his chest and pulling Kolt closer to him. He didn’t wait for the incubus any longer. He grabbed the waistband of Kolt’s pants — his own old sweat pants — and he pulled them down, while Kolt’s nimble fingers undid his belt and popped open the zipper of his jeans.
“Since you’re wearing my clothes,” Bryce wondered out loud as he tugged the shirt off over Kolt’s head. “Does that mean I’m getting into my own pants?” Before he could quite finish making the terrible joke or start chuckling at it, the incubus’ lips pressed insistently against his, and a very naked Kolt was unbuttoning his shirt. Even his twisted dad jokes couldn’t hold up against that sort of distraction.
He picked the incubus up, squeezing him tightly against his chest for a brief moment then dropping him back down onto the bed. By now — fuck number seven — he was starting to figure out what Kolt liked in bed.
For all that his life had been all about games and flirtation, what Kolt liked was ironically no-nonsense and to the point. Bryce crawled up on the bed, settling in between the incubus’ legs. He leaned down, kissing Kolt again, who kissed him back as hotly as if his life depended on it.
Those clever fingers ran down his abdomen, taking a hold of his cock and stroking it carefully. Kolt had long ago figured out what he liked too, and he was hard in no time. Bryce groaned into the kiss, blindly reaching for the lubricant that was never far from reach these days. It was the good stuff, no more lotion.
He continued to kiss Kolt slowly, deeply, while he made sure to loosen him up and prepare him. Perhaps a bit too well, as Kolt’s hips rocked and jerked with every press of his fingers. It wasn’t until the incubus’ breathing became labored and sounds started to escape him that Bryce felt he was ready. Regardless of how rough Kolt might’ve liked it, he had no intention of hurting the incubus.
