Their Precious Own

by Lia Black

  “Looks like his jaw is dislocated,” Peterson said. “Did they break his neck? His spine?”

  “I don’t think so. I need to move him.” Kayle started moving, making like he was considering pushing himself up. His eyes were still closed and his body began trembling.

  Derek hesitated for a moment, uncertain where to touch. There was so much blood, that Derek wasn’t sure where it was all coming from. Human or not, Derek recognized the signs that Kayle was going into shock. He touched Kayle’s wrist.

  “No. You just stay still. I’m going to take you someplace and get you patched up. You’re going to be okay.”

  Derek stood up, stripping off his trench coat. He spread it over Kayle’s back.

  Already, Derek was aware of a crowd of curious on-lookers gathering in the hall. Peterson already had his phone out, calling for backup.

  Derek didn’t want to draw any more attention if he could help it. He had to get Kayle out of here, get him someplace safe. Rolling Kayle to his side, Derek folded his wings under the trench coat, eliciting a soft yelp as the broken one was moved.

  “I’m sorry, sorry.” Derek whispered close to Kayle’s ear as he slid his hands underneath. He noticed the knife jammed into Kayle’s back, blood foaming around the wound.

  “Sonovabitch.”

  No telling if it was barbed or hooked and would end up causing more damage coming out than it did going in, so Derek let it alone. He lifted Kayle, curling him in a bundle against his chest.

  “Call the morgue,” he said to Peterson as he rushed by him towards the door. “Let Dr. Ray know we’re on coming in.”

  It had to be pure adrenaline that got him out of that room carrying Kayle in his arms. He had to put him in the passenger seat and lay it back, absently reminding himself he never laid it back before because it would probably never go upright again. If he had to listen to Perrine bitch about it later, he’d be happy if it meant he was going to be alive to do so.

  “Stay with me,” Derek said as he got into the driver’s seat. He fumbled under his seat with one hand, rolling his window down with the other and slapped his police strobe on the roof of his car. He’d probably only used it twice before… the last time… he couldn’t think about that now. Derek fought through the memory and the tears distorting his vision. He got the tangle of wires arranged and plugged the damn thing in, swatting them aside to jam his key into the ignition.

  Don’t die, don’t die, don’t die. Not like him. Not like the last time.

  He didn’t realize he’d reached out and squeezed Kayle’s hand until he felt a small squeeze in return. Derek glanced away from the road for a moment, catching those red and black eyes. Regardless of how strange they looked, Derek could see the trust in them. He swallowed the lump in this throat, getting his eyes back on the road.

  The four-block drive seemed to take hours, even though there was no other traffic to speak of. Derek skidded to a stop near the receiving door of the morgue, where Dr. Ray, Willim and Cal were already outside waiting with a stretcher.

  Derek scrambled out of the car, trying to get to the passenger side as one of the guys pulled open the car door.

  “B-be careful! There’s a knife stuck in his back!” Derek spluttered as Willim crouched, getting his hands underneath Kayle.

  “Noted!” William called over his shoulder.

  “And his wing—it’s broken—”

  “Derek, “ Dr. Ray said. She put herself between Derek and the techs who were trying to load Kayle onto the stretcher. Taking him by the shoulders, she forced his attention onto her. “We’ve got this.”

  “I— yeah...” Derek’s mouth was dry and his muscles were beginning to feel like sandbags. What was left of his adrenaline rush was tapering down, replaced by a creeping exhaustion.

  “You’ve done your job, now let us do ours.”

  Derek followed them in through the double doors but Cal directed him on a detour, leading him into Dr. Ray’s office.

  “Just sit tight,” Cal told him. “Dr. Ray will be in as soon as she’s done.” He left, closing the door behind him.

  Derek stared at the door, his brain cartwheeling Through so many thoughts at once, he felt like he was losing his mind. He was still wound so tight, he felt like he was choking. All he could see out of the corner of his eye as he drove Kayle here was Marc, unconscious or already dead, as Derek tried in vain to get him to the hospital in time.

  He looked down at his blood-smudged hand, remembering the sensation of Kayle’s fingers as he’d squeezed back. With a sigh, Derek dropped, boneless, onto the sofa. Dr. Ray was right. He’d done all he could to help Kayle. Now it was between her care and Kayle’s will to get through this.

  Derek wasn’t certain how much time had passed. He’d switched between sitting, to pacing, several times now, and was back in mid-pace when Dr. Ray came in.

  “Coffee?” She said as though he’d just popped in for a visit.

  “Scotch?” Derek struggled to flash her a wry smile. He dropped back down onto the couch.

  “Coffee it is.” She poured him a cup, bringing it with her as she sat down next to him. Reaching across the open space, she squeezed his shoulder, helping Derek to come back to the present. “He’s stable. Cal and Willim are finishing him up. I’m sorry, Derek, I didn’t want to leave you alone like that...”

  Derek blew out the breath he’d been holding. “It’s okay. Bad memories aren’t going to kill me. You were where you needed to be.”

  “Peterson told me what he thinks happened on the phone. What do you know?”

  “I don’t know a lot more than he does… except that some of the people I thought might be assholes but decent cops turned out to be complete assholes.” He didn’t want to think about why Meyers had his pants undone, or why Kayle was stretched out naked on his bed. Kayle had to have opened the door for them because the purpose of that sigil was to keep people from breaking in. Maybe Kayle had been set up, thinking he was getting another prostitute when the rest of them showed up. Derek hoped not. He didn’t seem that reckless or naive. “I know they would have killed him if I hadn’t come back.”

  “It appears they were trying. I’d say it’s a good thing he’s a Variant, because it saved his life, but it’s also likely what made him a target in the first place.” Dr. Ray sighed, sipping her own cup of coffee.

  “Perrine— what is he? Are your guys going to be okay with him?” Derek liked Cal and Willim. They were able to joke, but never about the dead. They were respectful and took their jobs very seriously. And Eidola liked them. She was the authority on judging character, which made Derek wonder why the hell she put up with him sometimes.

  “Absolutely. They both have studied Variant physiology. Cal has plans to set up a clinic in the Variant slum, and Willim’s considering joining him.”

  “That’s mighty…progressive of them.”

  “I hope they are an example of what the younger generations will become. But I haven’t answered your question, have I.” Dr. Ray said with a little smile. “What is Kayle Perrine. If I had to guess, I’d say incubus.”

  “I’d have to admit that if he was, it would answer a lot of questions.”

  “Like why he hired a prostitute to come to his room.”

  “Yeah. That. So he’s a sex demon then?”

  Dr. Ray laughed lightly. “I’m sure he wouldn’t find that at all insulting.,” she chided. “No, not a demon. Not like the stereotypes make them out to be, anyway. Although I can’t be entirely certain, since you almost never see them.”

  “Is that why he wouldn’t tell me? Because of the stereotype?”

  “Well, what would you have thought of if he had?”

  Derek sighed, raking his fingers through his hair. “Probably that he was a sex demon trying to control my mind with his pheromones.” Derek chuckled, imagining what Perrine would say to that characterization. Likely, something along the lines of “you wish.”

  “Right. But there is another reason. They are consider
ed an embarrassment to the Gentry. They are the result of interspecies breeding, and their existence creates a strain on the pure bloodlines.”

  “How? What kind of interspecies breeding?”

  “Clan and succubae. A relationship that happens, but is frowned upon and denied. And neither race is typically interested in the responsibilities of parenthood, but it would seem in our friend’s case, somebody was.”

  “Why is that kind of relationship wrong?”

  “Why is any kind of loving adult relationship considered wrong? Because there are those in power who deem it such and perpetuate the rhetoric. It goes without saying, but I’m certain you can relate, Detective.”

  “Yeah, when you put it that way…” He sighed, looking at his distorted reflection in the dark well of his coffee mug. Although homosexuality was not illegal, there were those who felt it should be. Especially considering that human beings were on the decline. A hundred years after the war, some zealots still preached that it was their sacred duty to repopulate the earth and take back the power from the Variants in charge. If they’d had their way, Derek would have been forced to marry some poor woman and make as many babies as she could bear, all to help build an army. But the Gentry came in and put the kibosh on those plans, breaking up the zealots and taking leadership away from any in charge. As much as he sometimes resented them, they often seemed to have the common sense that most human beings lacked. Except, apparently, on issues of parenting.

  “So how do you know all of this?”

  “I’ve had some acquaintances in Apex here and there. And you do know that it’s the Sovereign who assigns positions like regional medical examiners, yes?”

  “I guess I didn’t think about that,” Derek admitted.

  “But it is from a list of highly skilled candidates. Anyone who would have been appointed to this position would have been an excellent choice.”

  “So you got in with the help of your acquaintances?”

  “It didn’t hurt. I met those acquaintances by volunteering in places like Nova Seven during my residency.”

  “Wow, Doc. I always knew you were tough, but Nova Seven?” Nova Seven was a smaller mixed settlement of humans and Variants. They had their own justice system: pretty much everything was settled at the firing end of a gun.

  “My guardian was a troll named Kaumei, whose father served as vavasor to a Gentry house in Apex. I was invited to attend an event where I met Count Fourie. We became very well acquainted.” Eidola smiled into her coffee cup. “Does that surprise you?”

  “Dr. Ray, absolutely everything about you captivates me, but nothing about you surprises me anymore,” Derek chuckled, appreciating that she’d taken his mind down a different road than where it had been headed. Realizing that, of course, steered his thoughts back towards that narrow ledge. His shoulders slumped from exhaustion catching up to him and his muscles burned. With the rush of adrenaline through his system, Kayle may have seemed light in his arms, but even carrying a child down three flights of stairs at a full run would have been taxing. He looked down at himself and realized his shirt was stained with blood. “Oh crap, I’m sorry.” Derek apologized, standing up.

  “Don’t worry about it. There is a sink in the lab where you can wash up and probably some scrubs in the lockers that might fit you. Then you need to come back here and lie down for a while. I’m going to go check on our patient.”

  Derek followed her out of her office, veering off to go into one of the smaller labs. He’d always assumed that Dr. Ray was a sort of sympathizer as far as the Variants were concerned, but it seemed like she had spent enough time among them to get to know how they worked. From the human perspective, looking in from the outside, the Gentry seemed to be smaller political machinations that functioned together as a cog in some great conspiratorial machine. Derek wasn’t sure if he was ready to give up that belief, but maybe he could at least try to understand it from a different point of view.

  He washed up, leaving his shirt to soak, and found a pair of faded blue scrubs that fit him all right. His coat being wrapped around Kayle had kept most of the blood off of his pants, so he just put on the shirt and stepped out into the hall. Cal was coming out of the lab where they’d taken Kayle.

  “Can you… was he…” Derek took a deep breath. He’d asked this question hundreds of times before— just never about a living person that he knew. “Was there any evidence of sexual assault?”

  Cal shook his head. “He probably wouldn’t be in such bad shape if he had been, which feels like a terrible thing to say.”

  “It kind of is. Why did you say it?” Derek asked.

  “He’s an incubus. Sex with humans is how they survive, mainly.”

  “He’s from Apex,” Derek said. “Not a lot of humans there.”

  “He probably takes some kind of supplement.” Cal shrugged. “Sorry, most of what I know is academic. You don’t see them that often, and if you do see one, you’d better not be alone and unarmed. I know some people have fantasies of death by orgasm, but I’ve heard it’s not a pleasant way to go when an incubus is involved. Anyway, yours is pretty beat up, but should heal pretty quickly if he gets some rest.”

  “Mine?” Derek questioned aloud after Cal had gotten out of earshot.

  “Derek,” Dr. Ray said, coming out of the lab with Willim behind her. “You should be lying down.”

  “I just… is Kayle all right?”

  Dr. Ray gave him one of her secretive smiles, waiting until William headed down the hallway before she spoke. “You like him more than you’ll allow yourself to admit.”

  “What’s to like?” Derek scoffed and followed her back to her office. “He’s pompous, cold-hearted, and uses bleach like water.”

  “And yet, here you are, pacing outside his room like an expectant father.”

  “Can I … I just want to see him not looking like he’s going to die.”

  “He asked that I not let you see him like that… without his glamour.”

  Derek felt a little like he’d just been smacked in the face. So not even saving his life was enough to foster any kind of trust between them.

  His expression must have given something away because Dr. Ray put her cool hand on his cheek, her smile became reassuring. “It’s not what you think. I think he wants to show you on his terms, when he’s in control.”

  “Even though I’ve already seen him?”

  “Yes. When you’re badly injured, you aren’t thinking about anything but survival. His real appearance is like our nudity.”

  Derek remembered how unconcerned Kayle had been walking around naked the morning after his night with Ramon. He quickly thought of something else as the memory began to simultaneously heat and bitter his blood.

  “Give it time,” Dr. Ray said, thumping him lightly on the chest.

  “Give what time? Once this case is over, he’s gone. I’m not going to take on another partner. I may not even take on another case.”

  “You’re getting morose on me again, detective. It doesn’t suit you. Go lie down. Get some rest. You’ll see Kayle in the morning.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  He shouldn’t have let it go that far; he should have realized earlier that things were getting out of hand. Why had he even answered the door? So what if it had been Derek? Lying on his stomach, Kayle stared across the dark room at the wall. He shifted his jaw back and forth, trying to remain conscious without too much thinking. He was worried that if he passed out, his body would take over to try and seduce someone to heal him.

  The young men who’d been attending to his injuries had a good system in place to block any pheromones. Likely used to dealing with cadavers in various states of decomposition, they’d been wearing gas masks. Kayle vaguely remembered smelling eucalyptus and menthol leaking through the filters. Thank goodness his body was still suffering through shock on the car ride over, or he might have flooded the vehicle with his scent. It was going to be hard enough to look Derek in the eye after he’d seen him withou
t his facade.

  Cal, the smaller of the two attendants, had offered to help Kayle replenish his energy once he was stable, but Kayle politely declined. He could smell desperation on the young man— loneliness that would not be slaked by one act of emotionless sex. And he had a feeling that Derek would be bothered by something like that, though wasn’t certain why it should matter. Regardless, it would be poor form to be tapping into his partner’s acquaintances, especially considering the last person he fed from turned up dead. He needed his supplements, and Dr. Ray said she would try to contact someone in Apex on his behalf. If he’d just settled with the shots rather than desiring the companionship of a human, none of this would have happened. He wasn’t sure to what extent his hotel room had been ransacked, but he’d be willing to bet a container full of hypodermic needles wouldn’t have gone unnoticed by a criminal. Any human foolish enough to inject the contents would achieve the chemical equivalent of the most powerful orgasm they’d ever had, and it would be their last. It would fry the neurons in their brains and cause cardiac arrest as it sent their hearts into an irregular beat. If it didn’t kill them outright, they’d remain in a vegetative state until they died.

  A groan escaped his lips as he tried to roll over on the gurney, then gave up. His body hurt through every length of bone and fiber of muscle. Even if the beating hadn’t been that severe, trying to hold himself in check had taken an extreme effort. He only hoped that his poor judgment would not bring further shame upon his father.

  If the mundanes believed he’d killed that escort— Ramon— they would believe he’d somehow managed to kill all of the earlier victims as well. Humans were masters at denying reason and logic. It was wise of the Sovereign not to trust them with too much technology or power. They would only use it to try and destroy the Earth— again.

  It was late the next morning when Kayle finally felt strong enough to lay on some masking glamour. It would affect his healing by slowing it down, but he only had enough energy now for one or the other. He’d managed to sleep, or probably passed out, for a few hours at least, but it wasn’t nearly enough time to replenish his dwindling energy.