Their Precious Own

by Lia Black

“You’re not going to hurt him…” Derek rumbled below the range of the rent-boy’s hearing.

  “No. Of course not,” Perrine hissed. “Just go.”

  “Okay. Have fun, kids.” Derek offered a smirk to Perrine, one to let him know that he had some dirt on him now, then gave the gigolo a wink and left the hotel room.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Kayle glared at the door for far too long after Derek left. So long that Ramon—likely not his real name— had started making his way to the bed.

  “What happened here, somebody die and they had to strip down the place?” Ramon whistled, looking around.

  “A thousand cockroaches and billions of pathogenic organisms died,” Kayle said through gritted teeth. “And I stripped down the room.”

  “Oh, uh, okay.” Ramon was obviously stumped, but Kayle wasn’t paying him for intelligent conversation.

  “Put your shoes and coat here. Please take a shower. I’ll bring you a towel.” Kayle was still staring at the door, unconvinced that Derek wasn’t going to come knocking at an inopportune moment.

  “So who was the big guy? He was kind of hot,” Ramon said from close behind as he hung up his jacket.

  “No. No he wasn’t. He’s an ass,” Kayle growled.

  “Oh, baby, don’t be jealous. You’re a hell of a lot hotter than him.”

  Kayle fought to keep from tensing up as Ramon crept up behind him and lifted his long hair, laying a kiss upon the back of his neck.

  “Mmm, you smell so good. Making me so hard…” Ramon nudged him from behind, grinding his erection against Kayle’s ass.

  “Shower. Now.” Kayle had to force the words out. It was a struggle keeping his glamour intact while keeping his appetite at bay.

  “Join me?” Ramon suggested, his fingertips caressing Kayle’s spine.

  Kayle arched into the touch, closing his eyes. “No. I have my own preparations.”

  As an incubus, when he dropped his glamour, certain pheromones Kayle gave off made his partners see whatever form was most pleasing to them. Although Ramon was not the brightest match in the book, and might not even notice a change in Kayle’s appearance, because he had already met Kayle wreathed in glamour—something that never would have happened if the fool hadn’t been fifteen minutes early— Kayle was going to have to keep his camouflaging pheromone levels low. His natural appearance was similar to the one he held with the masking…although there were portions of it that made him look anything but human. The horns, wings, and tail were the most difficult parts to wave off. When exuding maximum scent, his partners never noticed them because they only saw him as their most perfect fantasy come to life. He never had any idea what they saw. For all he knew, they saw the same thing he did in the mirror, and got off on it. But he’d never be fortunate enough to meet someone who was attracted to his true appearance.

  Kayle took a deep breath. This would be his first human encounter in a very long time. Previously, some of the younger, lower caste Clan would indulge his carnal appetites in secret, but since he’d joined the Apex Sovereign Guard, that never happened anymore. Being with Clan or another Variant was never an adequate feeding, just like potato chips were not actually a meal. But this feast he would indulge in tonight promised to be worth savoring. He’d have to be certain not to take too much from Ramon.

  Kayle smelled the citrus-scented steam as Ramon exited the bathroom. Without the addition of colognes and all other manner of preparations humans used to cover their skin, Kayle could smell his natural scent and it made his mouth water. He’d had to arrange specifically for someone who did not poison their body with drugs. Toussant’s secretary had seen to it and it had been surprisingly difficult. Like his new partner, humans seemed to deal with their unfortunate lot in life through the use of chemicals.

  “Thought you’d be all naked and waiting for me,” Ramon said as he slid his arms around Kayle from behind.

  Briefly, Kayle’s fingers danced over a half-moon tattoo on Ramon’s shoulder. He thought he should remember to ask about it later, should they have conversation.

  “I wanted you to manage that part.” Now that he was sure Derek had truly left, Kayle would forgive Ramon for being early. He turned in Ramon’s arms, but shied away from Ramon’s attempt to kiss his lips, putting his hand up between them.

  “Oh, okay. You’re one who doesn’t kiss on the mouth. I get it.” Ramon grinned with his imperfect, but well-cared-for white teeth. Of course he understood, that’s why Kayle had resorted to buying a prostitute rather than just snagging a random attractive man off the street. This was a job to Ramon— there was no risk of him becoming attached in any way.

  Ramon was wearing a towel tied loosely around his hips. He had a very nice body, as well he should when his job was to use it. Over the phone he’d said he had a part-time job as a stripper. He was smaller than most human men Kayle encountered, more compact, so it made this slightly less dangerous should Ramon see too much and panic. Although he’d claimed that he’d service Variants, it was always better to be safe than sorry.

  Ramon moved his hands down to rest them on Kayle’s hips, leaning forward to kiss and nuzzle his neck. He moved away only long enough to pull Kayle’s shirt off over his head. Kayle liked the sounds Ramon made when he looked at and touched his body; little breaths and hisses of pleasure. Sounds that made Kayle feel like he was attractive beyond the haze of pheromones. Compared to Clan, he was nothing special, and in his unmasked state he was even considered ugly. It was something he denied taking personally. Although he somewhat resembled his father, he would never be half as stunningly beautiful as him, because his father was pure, and part of the highest caste Clan. But Ramon didn’t know that, so right now, Kayle could let himself feel wanted.

  “Christ, you’re so beautiful. I’d have done this for free,” Ramon breathed against his neck, his hands reaching down to cup Kayle’s ass as he pushed down his shorts. Kayle felt his heart thudding in his chest. All of this anticipation and concentration on holding form was getting difficult. While it was nice feeling treasured, he really just needed a meal, and to get that, Kayle needed Ramon to come—preferably while drilling Kayle into the mattress.

  “Look,” Kayle pressed a hand to Ramon’s chest, “I feel I should tell you something. You know I’m a…Variant.”

  “Yeah, I’m cool with that,” Ramon crouched down to get Kayle’s shorts to the floor. He gently touched the back of Kayle’s knee to have him step out of them. “I have no problems with Variants. You Clan? You look Clan.”

  “No. Not Clan.” Kayle was aware that very few humans had ever actually seen Clan in the flesh. There were pictures of the City Director, but they were reproduced from a painting, as Clan would not appear on film, digitally, or by other artificial means.

  “Doesn’t matter. You’re gorgeous.” Ramon said, his breath teasing across Kayle’s cock. Kayle shivered.

  “Bed,” he said, before he lost his head. “Tell me, when is the last time somebody took care of you?”

  Ramon rose to his feet and backed up to the bed, taking Kayle’s hands to pull him along.

  “What do you mean?”

  Kayle rested his knee on the mattress between Ramon’s legs as Ramon lay back across the bed. “I mean, when is the last time someone made you feel good?”

  Ramon grinned. One of his white teeth was chipped, which made his smile slightly crooked. “You gonna’ make me feel good, Beautiful?” He twirled some of Kayle’s long hair around his fingers as he reached up to grasp the back of his head and coax him down.

  Kayle felt warmed by the compliment, and let Ramon pull him down across his body. “I’m going to make you feel very, very good.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Derek stepped out into the parking lot, chuckling softly as he lit up a smoke. So, Mr. Perfect was gay and had gone and bought himself a boy to pass the time with. He had to trust Perrine when he said he wouldn’t hurt the guy. How stupid would that be, anyway? He wasn’t quite sure how he should feel about sh
aring that one thing in common. Being a gay cop was not the easiest thing in the world to admit to. Other cops could be homophobic— especially when they were stuck together in a stake-out. Marc had been the first one to be okay with it, or at least willing to give Derek the benefit of the doubt. Besides, Marc was married to a beautiful woman… at least, he had been for a little while.

  Derek rubbed his eye as if it would help scrub the thoughts from his brain.

  Damn it, Perrine. All afternoon, the only thing Derek could think about was sex, which was weird because stunning, special snowflakes like Perrine were not his type. Even if Perrine was beautiful, Derek had no idea how much of that was just the masking glamour. He was still a self-entitled Variant asshole. He did feel kind of badly though, about Perrine being asked to leave the bar. When it was just humans around, nobody thought much of the prejudiced jokes at the expense of creatures that lorded over them. But seeing Perrine’s face when he was singled out and asked to leave…well, Derek didn’t like Variants any more than the next guy— he had reasons to like them even less— but for a moment, he felt like he could relate to what Perrine was feeling… assuming he’d really been feeling anything.

  Derek swung by the morgue, flirting lightly with the male attendants as he picked up the reports. He couldn’t help himself. They were both young, hot, twenty-somethings, and they knew him well enough to play along. Cal, he was certain, was gay, and Willim was at least comfortable enough around Derek that he didn’t take his teasing too seriously. They were both too young for him, and to them, Derek figured he looked like the haggard police detective that he was. It made him feel a little like a dirty old man— someone who was fun to tease but who was never really taken seriously. That was just fine with him. He’d pretty much resigned himself to the idea of being alone now. Things were safer that way.

  “Detective Childress. Thought I heard your bad pick-up lines,” Dr. Eidola Ray was standing in the open doorway of her office with her arms folded and a grin on her face.

  If Derek was into women, he’d be completely and hopelessly into Dr. Ray. She was an exotic, dark-skinned beauty who wore her hair short, glistening like a crown of silvery frost. Despite her clients not noticing, Dr. Ray was always dressed to the nines underneath her white lab coat and rubber apron. Today she was wearing a bright pink skirt and blouse, with matching lipstick, and the contrast between her colors and the gray walls was almost blinding. She was his senior by twenty years and his better by a billion, but she put up with his shit, and she’d been the only one who truly understood how he’d felt when Marc died. She’d come to his apartment with flowers, and he’d cried like a baby on the shoulder of her expensive suit.

  “Dr. Ray,” Derek tipped an imaginary hat to her and she rolled her eyes with a smile.

  “You know I always enjoy seeing you, but when are you going to stop filling my morgue with dead women?”

  Derek sighed, becoming serious once more. “Yeah, about that. Can we talk in your office for a minute?” He acknowledged Cal and Willim. “No offense guys.”

  “None taken,” Cal said with his usual, bright smile. It took a special kind of person to do this kind of work. Derek didn’t think he’d ever be as comfortable around the dead. But Cal and Will both had dreams of following in Dr. Ray’s footsteps, maybe even taking over —if she ever decided to retire.

  Derek followed Dr. Ray into her office, closing the door quietly behind him. The building was ancient, but so solidly built that it had survived the war. Ironic that a structure built to deal with the dead should be the one to remain untouched, while the church next door had burned to its foundation. There were cracks along the walls and ceiling, but Dr. Ray’s office always seemed cozy and clean. She kept incense burning to mask the scent of formaldehyde and death that had seeped into the pores of the concrete for centuries now.

  “So what’s on your mind, Derek?” she asked, seating herself of the edge of her desk.

  “God, I love the way you say my name.” Derek blew out a breath and dropped down onto the black vinyl sofa.

  “Pretty sure you didn’t come in here to tell me that.” She smirked.

  “You’re onto me. Mind if I smoke?”

  “Yes. I do, very much.” This was part of their routine, Derek always testing the limits of her charity when it came to his stupid choices. The good doctor never let him get away with anything.

  Derek chuckled softly, raking his fingers through his hair. “I have a new partner.”

  “Oh?” Dr. Ray’s mouth held the shape of the word and she raised a penciled-in eyebrow.

  “Yeah. A Variant.” Derek leaned forward, his elbows resting on his thighs. He looked at her with his head tilted down, gauging her reaction.

  “Oh. I see.”

  He didn’t need to say any more. Dr. Ray had seen what that shifter Variant had done to Marc’s body, and what Marc’s death had done to Derek.

  “So. Learn anything about our most recent Jane Doe?” Derek changed the subject.

  Dr. Ray sighed, “Unfortunately it’s nothing I haven’t already seen with the previous bodies, which is nothing much to go on.”

  “Damn.” The one thing that was keeping Derek from pronouncing that their killer was a vampire was that there were never any visible bite wounds, yet the victims were always completely drained of blood.

  “You mentioned your new partner and made a quick left down a rabbit hole.” Dr. Ray picked some invisible lint off of her pink skirt.

  “Yeah, I guess I did. Not sure what else to tell you.”

  “Male or female?”

  “Good question. Pretty sure he’s male, but they all look like sexless dolls. He’s wearing heavy glamour— kind of bad at it too.” Derek remembered the claws and dark patterning on Perrine’s hand when he held the cell phone.

  “Bad?”

  “He’s from Apex.”

  Dr. Ray took in an audible breath. “Oh. That’s something.”

  “It’s bullshit is what it is.” Derek slumped back against the cushions, the couch making a rude squeak against his jeans. “It’s only because Director Toussant insists we need one of their kind working this case.”

  “Well Derek, forgive me for saying, but you may be inclined to show bias at times.”

  “But if the killer is Clan, do you think my so-called partner is going to make the arrest?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t met him.” Dr. Ray crossed the room and sat on the sofa near Derek.

  “Oh, and he’s gay,” Derek said, pinching the bridge of his nose. he could already feel a headache coming on.

  “Really? He told you?”

  “No. He had what I believe was a male escort coming up to see him when I was leaving. Either that or he’s already found himself an eager boyfriend that’s completely not his type.”

  “I…don’t even know what to say,” Dr. Ray seemed genuinely at a loss, but Derek could tell there was something else she wasn’t saying. It was probably because she could sense his tension that she let him get away with his observations about Perrine’s type.

  “It’s weird,” Derek sighed. “This whole situation. Marc, this case, the bullshit. Makes me wonder if I’m even cut out for this anymore.”

  “Now don’t get all morose on me, Detective,” she said, patting him on the thigh. “At least not before I meet this new partner of yours. You’ve got me curious.”

  “Oh I’m sure you’ll meet him. From now on, looks like where I go, he goes too.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Derek had driven around a while before going home. Until he’d told Dr. Ray about being asked to leave the bar, it hadn’t occurred to him that it might be Perrine who needed to worry about that prostitute hurting him, rather than the other way around. He wasn’t sure why he cared, probably just some leftover morality. Still, if Perrine really was a cop, he could take care of himself, right? Derek couldn’t help but wonder if part of the reason Perrine had bought himself a boy for the evening was because the Apex Gentry was so rigid an
d pent-up. Something about him, and some things he’d said, had given Derek the impression that among the special snowflakes, Perrine wasn’t considered quite so special.

  Back in his apartment, Derek took a quick shower. He frowned at his blurry reflection in the mirror, poking at the too-soft flesh of his middle. He really should try to take better care of himself, but then there were a lot of things he really should do. All of them required a level of devotion that he just didn’t have anymore.

  He made himself something that resembled food, dropping down onto his couch in his boxer shorts, and wished he could still handle a beer to wash down the greasy aftertaste of the pre-fabricated meal. He’d started drinking and smoking when he met Marc. Marc liked to celebrate the end of every workweek at the bar. Derek had been able to handle it then. But when Marc started having issues at home, he wanted a friend to get drunk with, and Derek became that for him. Derek always suspected that Marc was using the alcohol as an excuse for his slowly deteriorating inhibitions. Not that it mattered now. After Marc’s death, Derek continued to drink to numb the pain. Being confined to his apartment with nothing else to think about nearly did him in. If it hadn’t been for Dr. Ray, Derek was pretty sure he’d have been dead by now. She convinced him that there was still a place for him in this world, and people out there who needed him.

  Life after Armageddon was not an easy one for humans. Every day was about getting through it to the next one, and without even having a sunrise to look forward to, despair was always right outside the window. But this was the life he was born into. Thinking about what was, or what could have been, was the quickest way to fuck with your own head.

  When the first dead prostitute had shown up, Derek threw everything he had left into solving the case. Six months and five bodies later, he still felt like he was chasing shadows in the dark. No leads. No motive. Just dead women turning up drained of blood. This most recent one was the first time the killer had gone to such lengths to display the body. It was like he was taunting them, showing them that he had all the time in the world because the police remained none-the-wiser. And now Apex had put a Variant on the case to keep it that way. Derek knew it probably wasn’t fair to blame Perrine, after all, he was just doing his job. But if his job entailed letting a killer go free, then Derek would do everything he could to make it difficult for him. He didn’t have to blame him, but he didn’t have to excuse him either.