by Monica Rossi
“You shouldn’t,” she said, looking down at her now empty plate.
“I shouldn’t what?”
“Find me interesting. I’ve got so much going on right now, my life is a mess. And not to mention Red. I mean we are practically still together and…”
Demon moved lightening fast, taking her plate out of her hands and tossing it to the side, placing his hand behind her neck and pulling her roughly to him.
“Fuck Red,” his lips were inches away from hers as he looked into her eyes, she was sure he could see her deepest secrets there, one of them being that she wanted him to kiss her in that moment more than she would ever admit to herself.
And he did. His lips caressing hers, tongue sliding gently between her lips as he explored and tasted her.
She felt the energy building. Not the fiery flashes that had happened before but a slow simmer that made her whole body feel electric, matching the desire that was also rising within her.
This wasn’t right, her mind screamed inside her as Demon drew her even closer, holding her body in his strong arms. What about Red? Her mind asked. But her body didn’t care about morals, or boundaries, or anything else. Her body wanted this man, and it was more than apparent that he wanted her too.
His hand slipped up the back of her shirt and she felt him undoing the clasp of her bra. She should stop him. They were in public, this was moving too fast, she was Red’s, she didn’t even like Demon, and there were about a hundred other reasons she should stop, but she didn’t. She felt the trail of fire as it moved with his hand, down her back, around her side, and up her belly, until he finally pushed bra aside, cupping her breast, his thumb playing over the nipple.
She moaned against his him, all fears and questions flying out the window, her body was ready and her brain was just going to have to get with the program. Sidney’s hands found him, hard and ready under his jeans and she rubbed the length of him, hoping he felt the same need that was exploding in her. A deep guttural noise came from him as she teased him through his clothes with her fingers, the sound making her even bolder. She pushed him down on the ground and straddled him, enjoying the feel of him between her legs.
His hands came up and under her shirt to hold her breast and tease her nipples as she ground against him, his eyes on her watching her movement with appreciation. She was almost ready to explode and neither of them had shed any clothes.
Thoughts of how far she should take it in such a public place had long since been left behind, all that was left was need. Her hands came down to his waist to unbutton his pants, all her inhibitions pushed away, ready to feel him move inside her, ready to get lost as the strange energy surged through them as they joined.
His eyes watched her hands as they worked at the button and it finally slipped free. She could see that he was as anxious, as needy, as she was. She started pulling down the zipper, sure she was going to burst with anticipations… and the phone rang.
They both froze. She could feel the phone in his pocket, vibrating against her thigh.
“Goddamnit. Ignore it,” Demon swore, sitting up to hold her tighter, trying to capture her lips with his again.
But she pushed him away. The sound had broken her out of whatever spell she’d been under, brought her back to reality.
“No, you should get it, it might be important,” she swung herself off of him and began straightening her clothes, mortified that she’d let things go that far. In a public park.
Dear God there could be children around. She put her forehead in the palm of her hand, unable to believe what had just happened. She could feel Demon’s eyes on her but she didn’t care. His phone stopped ringing.
“Sidney, listen – “
“Stop, Demon we don’t need to ever –“ she was cut off by his phone ringing yet again. “I guess someone really wants to talk to you.”
He pulled the phone out of his pocket and looked at the display, she noticed that he still had a very noticeable hard on underneath his pants and she flushed an even deeper. There was no way she was ever going to be able to explain this to Red, or to herself.
“What the fuck do you want?” His tone told whoever was on the other end of the line exactly how annoyed he was at having gotten their call.
Desperate to do something so she wouldn’t just sit there agonizing on what had almost happened she began to clear away the plates and utensils off the blanket, pouring out unfinished mead, collecting the trash, and packing it away as best she could as Demon silently listened to whoever was on the phone.
“Are you fucking shitting me? I told him what they were up to and he still tried to go alone.”
Sidney was all ears, something was going on with the Dogs.
“Oh, he took two prospects, both who are now also being held prisoner, and a guy who just switched team mid season. Yeah, I see your point. Real smart of him.”
She wanted to interrupt, to ask what was going on, even if it wasn’t any of her business. If it involved Red she needed to know.
“Goddamnit. I’ll be there in a few. Get everyone else together because we’re leaving in an hour.”
Demon hung up and stuck the phone back in his jeans, “I’ve got to go, will you take care of all of this?” He indicated the picnic supplies.
“What’s going on?”
He ran his hand through his hair, “Well, if you must know, your dumbass ex-boyfriend managed to row all the way up shit creek, and not only did he forget a paddle, he forgot the whole damn boat. And as usual, little brother has to go drag his drowning ass up out the water.”
He was dehydrated. He hadn’t been given food, water, or any medical attention and Red was pretty sure the situation was on the verge of being dire. It hurt to be alive.
He’d tried to sleep, sitting in the wheelchair they’d left him in with his head propped against the wall, but the pain was too much. If they’d left him untied because they’d assumed he was too weak and injured to try to escape, they had assumed correctly.
At some point time had ceased to have meaning. There was no clock on the wall, no window to see the sun or moon, no way to tell how long he’d been there when every second felt like he were about to die.
Footsteps tromped down the hall every so often, and each time he hoped it was someone coming in to either kill him or relieve some of the pain. He’d have cried with gratitude if someone had just come in and handed him a glass of water.
Eventually, someone did come in. But they had no medical equipment, nor a gun aimed at his head, nor a glass of water.
It was Frederick again, dressed in a different version of the same suit he’d worn before, looking just as clean-cut and emotionless as before.
“So, I hope you’ve had time to mull over your options.”
Red tried to nod. He’d thought long and hard about the situation.
“Good, good. And what decision have you come to?”
He knew what his answer was, but he wasn’t ready to give it. “Water?” he croaked, the effort of speaking making his throat feel like it was about to crack open.
“Of course, how rude of me,” Frederick pulled out his phone and instructed someone to bring water.
They both waited in silence until a woman in the same kind of blue scrubs the man, John, had worn, brought in a pitcher of water, two glasses, and a small bowl of cut lemons.
“Very nice, thank you.” Frederick looked at Red, “Would you like a twist of lemon in yours?”
Red lifted an eyebrow. He wanted to take the entire icy pitcher and pour it into his mouth, he didn’t give any fucks about a lemon.
Frederick smiled as he handed Red a glass, sans lemon, “I think I like you. I don’t generally have an affinity towards many people, but with just a raised brow you made me understand exactly how you felt about my silly lemon question. I haven’t been so amused in a long time.”
Red ignored him and concentrated on the sweet feeling of the water sliding down his parched throat, filling the empty hole inside him he
hadn’t been aware was there. “More?” He limply held out the empty glass.
“Why, not.” Frederick took the glass and refilled it. “Yes I think we’re going to do splendidly well together. Big Dog was just not bright enough for the task at hand, but I can tell that you’re a cut above. Just think Red, all of the shifters united together, under your leadership. No more squabbling over stupid turf wars, over someone cutting into your market. No, all of you working together with one goal.”
Red drank slower, licking his lips between sips. He could feel how dry and chapped they were.
“And when we’ve gotten the little problem of all the other ‘species’ under control, and our other plans come to fruition, your kind will be our… hmmm, what will we call you? Enforcers? No, that’d be a public relations nightmare. Lesser human task force? Probably not, the masses might balk at being referred to as ‘lesser’, no matter how inferior they actually are. Well we can think of a nice name later. Basically you’ll keep the humans in their place. I’m sure you’ve wanted to do that for a long time now.”
The man seemed downright jovial in his own detached way. He really thought Red was going to agree to all of this. Red didn’t blame him, he could see he was a man used to getting his way.
But Red had spent that time thinking, he’d tried to think of anything to get his mind off the pain, and it had wandered over Three Rivers. Yes, it was a town that had been built for shifters by shifters, but others had settled there too. He’d thought of the old man who liked to sit at the 24 hour breakfast house and drink coffee; silenus. At his death, thousands of years of wisdom and knowledge would die with him. Plus he was on the town council. He’d thought of the little fae girl who worked at the supermarket. She was silly but sweet and she always gave Morgan a lollipop when she went in with him. He’d thought of the vasily family that lived on a huge farm on the outskirts of town, they stayed to themselves but they donated to the food bank and to the First Baptist soup kitchen, a lot of folks ate well because of their generosity.
Then, of course, there were the witches. There was Demon and there was Sidney.
Three Rivers was theirs too, and his job was to protect Three Rivers. There would be no genocide under his command.
He set the empty glass in his lap, he really didn’t have the strength to hold it any more, and he didn’t want to drop it and show his weakness to Frederick, even though he probably already knew how bad Red was injured.
“No,” Red said.
“What?” Frederick seemed to mishear him.
“I said no,” he said louder, more clearly.
“That’s ridiculous. I’ve read your silly book of laws. It’s like the white power manifesto, except for shifters. There’s no reason for you to turn down this opportunity. And that’s what it is, Red, an opportunity. Shifters united, all supernatural creatures except shifters eliminated, your people would be the second most powerful group in the world, and you’d be leading them. Think of what opportunities you could give to your species. The possibilities are endless.”
“I said no,” Red’s eyes met his, the confusion cleared in Fredrick’s face and turned hard.
“You realize you’re not only signing your own death certificate, but one for those two young shifter’s in the other room too?”
Red nodded, he knew the consequences of his actions and he’d still given the only answer he could.
“Very well then,” Frederick turned to go, “You may keep the water. A last meal as it were. Someone will be in to handle you shortly.”
Red watched him walk out, glad at least his suffering would be over shortly.
“There is no way in hell you are coming with us,” he made sure he had everything he needed in his saddlebags and buckled them, he didn’t have time to worry about Sidney. “Call a cab and go home. There’s nothing you can do.” He slung his legs over the seat of his bike, the bike which she was standing in front off, arms folded.
Sidney had insisted on coming back to the clubhouse with him while he waited on all the guys to get there, abandoning his fine dollar store china in the park because she refused to listen to reason. So instead of staying behind and cleaning up their mess and driving home to wait like a sane person, she’d decided that she was just going to tag along with him. He guessed she’d assumed that if she didn’t have a way to get home, he’d let her go with them. She had assumed wrong.
“I’m going with you,” she said, lips pressed in a determined line.
Demon didn’t say anything to her, just looked at all the other guys, and the few chicks scattered here and there, in the parking lot ready to go at his say and shouted, “Y’all ready?”
Yells of agreement and the sound of forty or so hogs cranking gave him his answer. He wasn’t going to argue with her. He didn’t have time. He’d just drive off and leave her standing there, if she wasn’t going to act rational he wasn’t going to try to rationalize.
“I’m a witch! I can help!” she yelled, coming closer to him. Even over the din created by the bikes, he knew that others had heard her. She sure was stupid. This was the second time she’d said it out loud around the other shifters. Even if Red would take her back, which Demon doubted, now he’d have to explain to a lot of other people why he was involved with a witch.
“Yes, by staying here and staying safe. I can’t protect you and save Red at the same time.”
He could see the anger bubbling up in her, he could almost feel it.
“I said, I can help,” she said between gritted teeth.
“Whatever Sidney, I’ll see you when I get back with Red,” he pushed the kickstand with his foot and prepared to leave.
“You’re not going anywhere without me.”
He started to gun the motor and leave the parking lot, but his engine sputtered and died. Then one after the other he heard all the bikes in the parking lot stall and cut off. He looked at Sidney.
Her eyes were closed and she was holding her breath, fist clenched at her side. All around her people were trying to turn their motors over and only getting the frustrating sound of failure.
Demon sighed and rolled his eyes. God, women were a pain in the ass.
“Get on the goddamned back and let’s go.”
Sidney opened her eyes and immediately the sound of engines roaring to life surrounded them.
***
Sidney held on to the back of Demon for dear life. They were traveling at speeds that seemed like they might be defying some sort of physical law. Which was good. The fear helped her keep the buzzing thrum of energy surging between her and Demon down to an annoyance, instead of completely taking over her every feeling and thought.
She was also scared for Red. She had only the barest of ideas of what was going on, Demon hadn’t been very forthcoming, but what she did understand was that he was in serious danger. No matter how they’d left things, or what he’d said, she wasn’t going to stand around while he got hurt, or worse. Not when she could do something about it.
Which was something she couldn’t be sure of. Whatever powers she had didn’t seem to want to cooperate during her lessons but she’d decided that Demon wasn’t going to leave without her and she’d made it happen. Cutting all the engines on the motorcycles hadn’t been her plan, she’d just closed her eyes and willed something to happen, and it had worked. She hoped she could repeat that success to help get Red out of whatever he’d gotten himself into.
The road stretched out in front of them and Sidney lost herself in her thoughts, carefully staying away from anything that related to Demon or their picnic, lest she let herself be taken over by whatever connection it was they had. Instead she thought about the people around her. She hadn’t met even half of them, but she felt powerful with them around her. Some weren’t club member, just people from the community who wanted to help, there were even women there. Sidney didn’t know what they were headed into, but she couldn’t imagine that anything would get the better of this group. Even without knowing that they were shifters,
they looked like a tough bunch. If she’d seen them out in public before she’d known who and what they were, she’d have steered well clear. But she’d met some of them, spent time with them, and knew that they were all a part of a big loving loyal family, one that would ride into danger at a moment’s notice when one of theirs was threatened. It was more than anyone in her life would have done for her.
The sun was about to disappear behind the horizon by the time Demon pulled off the road and told them they’d go the rest of the way by foot. Sidney couldn’t have been happier to get off the bike. It wasn’t only the ride that had been tough, but the constant fight against Demon’s pull had also taken it out of her. She needed some distance from him, however scant, as much as she needed to walk.
They walked silently, more silently than a group of more than forty should have been able to pull off. Demon led them into a forested area where they seemed to meld with the trees and brush effortlessly, even though they were all still in their human forms. Something about being a shifter must give them the ability to walk like a wolf in both forms.
Demon made a signal with his hand for them to stop, Sidney could see through the trees that they were nearing the end of their leafy cover. Beyond the edge of the tree line, there was a clearing with a large square nondescript brick building surrounded by chain link fence topped with razor wire. It reminded Sidney of the DMV, or any other government building for that matter, in the way that it was so perfectly absent of character. A functional building with little use for decoration.
The group made a line, staying well within the cover the low hanging branches provided, and watched, waiting for Demon to give the signal for them to move. Sidney looked over at him, his face was bare of expression, maybe he was planning how to best get in without being seen.
“He’s in that building?” Sidney whispered.
“That’s what I’m waiting to find out,” he answered.
Sidney’s brow furrowed, he hadn’t sent anyone to scout and as far as she could tell, Tinker hadn’t known where they were taking Red. He’d been left at the clubhouse to heal, which she’d see to as soon as she got back, but the brief story she’d gotten was that he’d somehow faked unconsciousness long enough to be left unattended, then had shifted and come running back to the club as fast as he could. Which hadn’t been very fast, so there was no telling how far away they’d taken Red.
