Branded

by Ana J. Phoenix

  Asher swished the two front runners aside with his claw. Another one used the distraction to poke his weapon into Asher's side, but the tip was too dull to penetrate his scales.

  Still, the enemy side had ways to make him turn back, and even if they didn't, his powers would only last so long. Being an overgrown reptile was extremely draining on the system. He had to act fast.

  One member of the freak brigade was fighting Blind Guy, while the other four or five of them held their weapons out to Asher as if they could achieve anything that way. Asher looked over to where the lizards had been, but they were gone.

  Something cold hit him in the neck and he roared. A shard of ice had hit him from behind. Suckers!

  More ice shards flew his way and he tried to step back. He was making an extremely easy target. With a flap of his wing, he deflected the attack, but the numbing cold still bit his scales.

  A high pitched cry pierced the air, wrenching Asher back to his first day in this world. Asher looked to the stage, and quickly averted his gaze. Stoner’s head had come off. The fat guy wasn’t letting the antics of the crowd bother him at all.

  Asher felt like throwing up as the bloody image burned itself into his retinas, but there was no time for that. Blind Guy had shaken off the one member of the freak brigade and ran toward the stage. A dwarf sprang out of the crowd and tackled him to the ground, ax raised high.

  Asher roared and spread his wings. Before he knew it, he was off the ground and looking down at the crowd. The sucker with the ax was looking up at him. Asher spew a bout of fire down on him. The dwarf jumped to the side. A spear flew at Asher. He swerved to avoid it, and dove down to pick Blind Guy up with his claw.

  He wasn't sure how he was doing it, but he was. Every movement seemed natural, as if he'd done it a thousand times. Which didn’t mean that it wasn’t scary as fuck. Asher didn’t know what made his heart pound harder: the distance to the ground, or the sight of the bloody stage.

  Blind Guy was wriggling in his clutches as if he actually wanted down too. No way Asher was letting him. Reluctantly, he looked at the stage again. Nausea rising, he flew higher. It was too late. He couldn’t save anyone.

  Chapter 9 - Fried Chicken

  Asher raced out of the city, needing to get away from the freaks fast. Angry cries rang through the air. The fuckers were chasing him.

  From the corner of his eyes he saw winged creatures moving in the sky. Weapons gleamed in the sunlight. An arrow whizzed by his ears.

  The tiny thing couldn't hurt him, but he still had live cargo hanging on his claws, and fuck if he was witnessing another death today. Diving a little deeper, he went faster. The transformation was hard on his magic resources, and he didn't have much time before he would run dry.

  Beneath him, the forest thinned out into wide open plains. Useless for cover. He had to press on. The barren land ended in a chain of mountains. That’s where he had to get before transforming back.

  A battle cry rang through the air and more arrows soared into his vision. Asher looked back over his shoulder. The attackers seemed like a cross between giant birds and women. Harpies, or whatever else those were called. Three of them.

  Taking a deep breath he focused back on the mountains.

  The finish line was still a ways away, but his powers were running out.

  You can’t go down here!

  But he had to. Or they would crash. Adrenaline rushed through Asher’s blood, kept him from thinking as he dove, trying to cover a little more distance.

  It was too hard. The transformation drew too much power. Trying to keep it up was like trying to hold up two tons of weight. And ten feet above ground, Asher gave in. The relief was instantaneous as his wings disappeared, he let go of Blind Guy, and his body reverted back, becoming smaller. He was fully human again by the time he met up with the rocky plains.

  Collision hurt, but it couldn’t be as bad as being executed. Couldn’t be as bad as what he’d seen.

  They cut their fucking heads off.

  Asher’s mind reeled with the thought even as he scrambled to stand, blinking against the dizziness. In this state, he was more than powerless.

  Luckily, Blind Guy was up on his feet and looking ready to fry some chicken. The head of an arrow had bored itself into his arm. Blind Guy ripped it out and threw it aside without flinching. Asher had never seen him quite like that. And though this wasn’t the time for it, he couldn’t say that it wasn’t at least a little hot.

  The harpies didn’t land, and Asher didn’t know how Blind Guy located them, but he did. The speed and accuracy of his attacks must have surprised them as he hit the first two with whips of fire before the third swerved to dodge. Asher was just waiting for smoke to come out of Blind Guy’s ears.

  “You want to kill me?” he asked. “You want to fucking kill me? Just come and try.”

  Something smelled burned. Asher looked at the singed feathers of the first two harpies. They rose higher in the air, all three of them circling, talking in high pitched sounds among themselves.

  “Fucking scavengers,” Blind Guy muttered. And here, Asher had always thought he’d be the one to eventually flip Blind Guy’s rage switch.

  Above them, the harpies raised their bows and, like school bullies, targeted the weak one: Asher.

  “Fuck.” Asher jumped back as three arrows nailed themselves into the ground where he’d just stood. Another barrage kept him running. Looking back, he saw Blind Guy raise his hand and shoot blasts of fire at the harpies as they were distracted. Maybe they’d thought they were too high up to be hit, but Blind Guy seemed happy to prove them wrong.

  The harpies cried as one, and took off in the direction of the city. Asher exhaled as they vanished into the distance.

  “That was pretty cool,” he said, commenting on Blind Guy’s battle skills.

  Blind Guy didn’t turn around to face him. The little bitch came out of her hiding place, wherever she’d been, but he seemed to ignore her as well. “We gotta keep going,” Blind Guy said before stomping off in the direction of the mountain range.

  Asher caught up to him. But the man was still pissed, and Asher wasn’t sure what to say. He needed to talk, though, needed to not think about the execution. So he said the first thing that came to mind. “You think you could be like that more often?”

  “Asher…”

  “What?”

  “Shut up.”

  Okay, so he’d said something wrong. Happened often enough. He’d try again. “Sucks about your friends, huh?” That was all Asher could think to say, although he didn’t really want to talk about it. That image would be branded into his mind forever. “Least you didn’t have to see it.”

  Blind Guy stopped, finally. “You don’t think hearing it wasn’t enough? You don’t think I can picture these things?”

  “You don’t want to picture that.”

  “You don’t know what I want.”Blind Guy took a deep breath, like he was trying to calm himself down and failing. “You have no fucking idea what I want.” Well, they agreed there. “I sure didn’t want you to drag me out of there. I could have done something, I could have—”

  “No, you couldn’t,” Asher cut him off. “It was a really stupid idea to—” He stopped himself as Blind Guy came at him. Expecting to be punched, Asher threw his hands up to protect his face. He’d learned a long time ago that bruises did not suit him. The punch never came, though. Instead, Blind Guy chose to yell at him.

  “You know I’ve really had it up to here with you. You were supposed to wait outside the city. Was that too hard for you?”

  Blind Guy was standing too close. Asher took a step back. “You’re starting to sound like my mom.”

  “Yeah, well, I certainly feel sorry for the poor lady who had to raise you.”

  Asher stood still, looking at Blind Guy. It wasn’t the first time someone told him that, not by far, but somehow, he hadn’t expected it from Blind Guy. Why, he wasn’t sure. Everyone took his mom’s side, and Blind
Guy was no different. Of course not. Didn’t matter.

  Asher walked past him without a word. They’d wasted enough time. Searching his pocket for his lighters, he set his eyes on the mountains.

  Chapter 10 - Catching Fire

  Blind Guy didn’t try to speak to him again until they set up camp for the night. The pathways leading into the mountains were narrow, making surprise attacks unlikely. They decided to take cover behind a range of purple bushes that encircled a small plateau. The plants gave off a strong lavender smell that they hoped would hide their own.

  Harvesting some of the vegetation for wood, Blind Guy built a small camp fire and sat down in front of it. Asher chose the opposite side for himself.

  “Do you want to sleep first?” Blind Guy said.

  Asher nodded, not sure why Blind Guy even bothered asking. Blind Guy always took first watch. Maybe he liked to stay up late; Asher didn’t know and didn’t care. By nature, Asher was an early riser, and he liked it that way. It helped with sneaking out from home in the morning—or from wherever else he was at the time.

  Curling up on the ground, he closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep. The earth was cold, and he inched closer to the fire. He yawned, but sleep didn’t come easy. Maybe because he was hungry, maybe because the images of the day kept replaying in his mind. Stoner’s head chopped off. Snakes’s head chopped off. He’d been blamed for a lot of things in his life, but he’d never had another person’s death on his conscience.

  Blinking his eyes open, he looked at the flames dancing in front of him, and through them. “Hey, Blind Guy?” he tried.

  “That’s not my name.”

  “You were probably right about what you said earlier. If I had flown—”

  “You can’t help that you’re scared of heights,” Blind Guy cut him off. Seemed like he had reverted to nice guy mode. “If what happened is anyone’s fault, it’s mine for drawing attention to us in the first place.”

  “I flew today.” Asher rolled onto his back and looked up into the velvet night sky. The memory made him shudder.

  “I’m sorry about what I said earlier,” Blind Guy said. “I don’t know anything about your mother, and I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  Asher sat up, crossing his legs in front of himself. “It doesn’t really matter.”

  “Yeah, it does. You saved my life today, and I didn’t even thank you.”

  “It’s alright. I don’t care if you hate me.” It had to happen sooner or later. Blind Guy had already made it clear that he didn’t like him.

  “I don’t hate you, Asher.” Blind Guy got up and Asher followed him with his eyes as he approached. Blind Guy sat down and patted the spot in front of him. “Come here. I want to show you something.”

  Asher raised an eyebrow at him.

  “You’ll like it, I promise,” Blind Guy added.

  Slowly, Asher scooted over to him.

  “Turn around.”

  Asher did, coming to sit with his back to Blind Guy. He flinched when Blind Guy encircled him from behind, feeling for his arms.

  “Relax, you said it was okay to touch you.”

  “I didn’t say surprise buttrape was okay.” Although…

  Blind Guy snorted and his breath stirred the fine hairs on Asher’s neck. “That’s not what this is.”

  “You disappoint me.” Leaning back a little, Asher found Blind Guy’s chest as firm as he remembered it. Now if he could just get the man to sleep with him. He pressed up closer until he was sure Blind Guy would know exactly what he was saying no to.

  Blind Guy’s fingers slid down Asher’s arms to his hands. “Watch this,” he said, making Asher stretch out his palms in front of himself. Small flames appeared out of thin air above his hands. Asher stared. They moved slowly at first, up in a circle, exchanging places.

  Blind Guy was juggling the flames, only making it look like it was Asher doing it.

  “Awesome.” Asher exhaled, fascinated by the show, and the man behind him. Blind Guy’s scent was stronger than the lavender now, and Asher was drawing it in with every breath. He looked at the fire and felt Blind Guy, and he didn’t know which was more arousing. Through the haze in his mind, he wondered whether Blind Guy had any idea what he was doing.

  Either way, the effect on Asher was undeniable. Torn between wanting the show to go on, and wanting the fire elf, he sat still as long as the flames were floating, burning red and orange in front of his eyes.

  When Blind Guy stopped, though, there was no stopping Asher. He turned around before Blind Guy could withdraw and pressed his lips to Blind Guy’s.

  To Asher’s surprise, Blind Guy didn’t jump back. He didn’t respond at all. Shit. This wasn’t going to work, was it? But then Blind Guy raised one hand into Asher’s hair and opened his mouth. He tasted like smoke, like the fires Asher was addicted to. For a moment, Asher forgot that he didn’t even like kissing that much. He’d always considered it a necessary evil, something he had to do to get what he really wanted, but this… The way Blind Guy’s tongue stroked over the roof of his mouth actually got him hard.

  Damn, but it had been too long since he’d seen any action at all.

  When Blind Guy tried to Asher dug his hands into the long strands of his hair and crushed their lips together again. Fuck. It. He was not letting the man get away now.

  His insistence seemed to work, but now Blind Guy was starting to touch him, and Asher had to keep himself from shuddering as hands ran up his bare chest, exploring, touching, taunting. Normally he kept touching to a necessary minimum. And Blind Guy didn't touch like normal people, seeing people, did. He mapped out Asher’s skin like a work of art that he wanted to remember in every detail. Asher had never felt so naked with his pants still on. He didn’t know whether he liked that or not, but the way those fingers ran over his abs did make him want to lose more of his clothes.

  But then Blind Guy broke away again, got up, and left him cold.

  Wait, what?

  What?

  “What the fuck, man?” Asher stared at Blind Guy, too stunned to do anything else.

  “Sorry.” Blind Guy ran a hand through his hair. “This is not happening.”

  “Why not?” Asher didn’t care if his voice came out like a whine. He was horny. And it was Blind Guy’s damn fault.

  “I really am sorry,” Blind Guy said, instead of answering the question. “Lost my head for a minute there.”

  “You know what? Fuck you.” Asher stood up as well. He’d had enough. First Blind Guy was mean, then he was nice, then they were making out, then they were not… It was too damn confusing and the day had been long enough. Asher turned and started to walk away from their make-shift camp.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I need to jerk off now. Without you.”

  Blind Guy didn’t try to stop him after that. Just as well. Who needed him anyway?

  Chapter 11 - Corpses

  “Wake up,” Asher said over the sound of birds chirping. “I’m hungry.”

  Fantastic. Seemed like someone was still pissed about last night. José had heard Asher come back late, but had pretended to be asleep. Like he could sleep after a day like that.

  “Wait a second,” he said, gathering himself. “The lavalight isn’t back yet.”

  “Where’s she always going off to anyway?”

  José dusted himself off. “I don’t know. I hope she’s finding a fast way for us to get home.” There was no guarantee that Jonas and Maya’s fate wouldn’t be their’s yet.

  “I hope she finds food.”

  José suppressed a sigh. It was a good thing he’d turned Asher down last night after all. He didn’t do one night stands, and there was no chance the two of them would ever be more than that. Before he could think too much about it, though, he felt the lavalight draw closer, a bright red spot to his right.

  “Found anything?” he asked, turning to face her.

  “Well, after this detour you insisted we make…” she drew the words o
ut to underline her annoyance. “I’ve found a small port at the foot of the mountain. It won’t get us exactly where I wanted, but it’s something. You just need to keep your heads down and get going now. We could be there by sundown and cross tomorrow.”

  José related the news to Asher.

  “Did she say anything about breakfast?”

  “God, Asher, you’re single-minded.” José started making his way back through the bushes to the mountain trail. “I’m sure we’ll find some food and water somewhere.”

  “At least I keep to my goals and don’t confuse the hell out of people,” Asher said, following behind.

  José bit his teeth together. He shouldn’t have slipped up yesterday. Okay, he hadn’t gotten any in a while and Asher was hot, no denying that, but... José pinched the bridge of his nose. Do not think about how hot he is. Especially do not think about the contours of his body.

  “I don’t—” José stopped himself to yelp as he stumbled over a rock in the way. Flailing with his arms, he just so managed to keep his balance. He really should not let that idiot distract him so much.

  “Uncool, dude,” Asher said, walking past. Then he stopped still, and José almost ran into him on the narrow pathway.

  “What?”

  “I just remembered, I never told you.”

  “What did you want to tell me?”

  “What happened when I was waiting for you outside that city.”

  José raised an eyebrow at him.

  “First there was this bastard little squirrel and then this huge seasnake sorta monster. And they both threw stuff at me. I shoulda grilled the little beast.” Asher talked so fast it was hard to follow, but José wasn't surprised by any of what he said. Of course Asher got into all sorts of trouble on his own. “You'll never believe what I found after I lost sight of the squirrel!” Asher said then.

  “Was it a bed?”

  “What? Why would I find a bed?”

  “Never mind… go on.”