by Quil Carter
“I’m not arguing about it; I’m tired and I have a migraine,” Sasha said. “Thank you for apologizing, it means a lot to me. I’m sorry I’m not what you expected.” He turned then and walked back into his bedroom. After he closed the door, there was no more yelling outside.
Only another door closing, meaning yet another man that Sasha loved had left him.
But then there was a light knock. “Can I come in?” Kel asked, his voice sad.
Sasha, now sitting on the bed, thought that he might want to be alone, until he heard Kel’s sorrowful voice. He realized then that he didn’t want to be left with his own caustic thoughts. Being by himself wasn’t going to help him, and even though Kel’s presence held no guarantees––it couldn’t hurt.
Usually, it was Jobe who comforted Sasha when he was sad. But no, he was the first to leave, the first door to close because he couldn’t stand seeing who Jobe thought was a stranger in his best friend’s body.
I’m not brainwashed. For fuck sakes, I’m me, I’m not what happened to Rob, to Kel.
“Yeah, you can,” Sasha said.
Kel meekly opened the door and limped in, then closed the door behind him. “I’m sorry, Sashy,” he said. “They’ve been mean to you. That’s not what you expected; that’s not what I expected. I’m sorry that’s happened, I can tell how sad you are and that makes me sad too.” Kel sat on the bed beside Sasha. “You’ve done a lot in the past few days, and they shouldn’t be so selfish by adding onto that stress.”
“Yeah,” Sasha said. He ran his hands down his face and took in a slow breath. “I just feel… tired. I want things to go back to normal, where Kheva did all of the leader stuff and I just tagged along and did what I was told.”
Kel nodded understandably. “I miss that too,” he said. Sasha then felt something hard smack his shoulder. “Oh, right. I wanted to give you a hug… but my arm’s casted. I keep misjudging how big it is now.”
Sasha looked over at him and cracked a smile. “You’re an idiot,” he said with a shake of his head. He then leaned towards Kel when Kel attempted to hug him again, and did find comfort in it. “I’m glad you’re okay, Kel. I really am.”
Kel squeezed Sasha to him and leaned his head against Sasha’s own. “I’m glad too. Thank you, Sasha. You coming to Ciel Lake is the best thing that’s happened to me since Kheva came. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Sasha closed his eyes, enjoying for the first time in a long while, a feeling of relaxation. No matter how brief. If there was one thing that Sasha knew, it was that both were fleeting and not promised. That was the life of a nightcrawler; they were powerful beings, but in exchange, their lives were filled with anguish, turmoil, pain…
“And love,” Kel whispered.
Sasha looked down when he felt a hand slip into his. “That’s why Kheva keeps us so close,” Kel said quietly. “Because our lives can be so bad, but we’ll always have each other. No matter what happens to us, we’ll have our family to help us. Your real family: Kheva and me.”
My real family…
Why do I have to chose? When did it become so bad that I now feel like I have to chose between what life I want to live? Either be a miserable, depressed wreck with Uncle Lex and Jobe, cutting myself to stave off headaches and thinking I was insane, or continue living with Kel and Kheva and break their heart?
“I’m tired, Kel, and it’s late…” Sasha rose and turned off the main light in the bedroom. “Let’s go to sleep. I’m just done with tonight, and tomorrow is going to be a long day.” He took off his shirt, then walked to his dresser. “You can sleep in here tonight. I have some sleep clothes you can wear.”
“Okay,” Kel said. He caught the clothes Sasha tossed him, then began to carefully remove his shirt. “Are we going to get rid of these migraines? My head hurts.”
Right… that. Sasha’s headache had grown with the stress of the past hour. He had enough on his mind and didn’t want to deal with the pain, but he wasn’t in the mood to do anything with Kel.
“It’ll help,” Kel said with a shrug. He was now pulling down his cargo shorts, a pair of black briefs underneath. “Whenever I’m stressed out… I feel better after I cum. You don’t?”
Sasha looked away, his face beginning to burn. “Yeah, I do, but I usually do it alone.”
“Why do it alone if you have someone to help you?”
Sasha sighed. “Kel, I’m really not in the mood…” He pulled up his boxer shorts and got into bed. “The last thing I want…” Another sigh. What choice did he have? This migraine wasn’t going to go away until he did something about it, and the last thing he wanted was another injury on his body to explain away to Lex and Jobe. “Fine, but we’re not having sex. I’m too tired for that.”
Kel hissed with stifled excitement, without wasting any time, he pulled off his briefs and removed Sasha’s boxers. Then, with no warning at all or even a word about what he was planning on doing, Kel got down on his knees, leaned into Sasha’s groin and began sucking on the head of his flaccid cock.
“Oh, jesus,” Sasha gasped. His legs separated immediately and his head fell back onto the pillow. Relaxation began to gently unwind the stressful pressure constricting his body, and soon, with Kel’s mouth and tongue lapping and licking the crown, he found himself limber.
It was nice, not only did it physically feel good, but mentally as well. Sex was an amazing tool, one that Sasha had completely forgotten about.
“There we go,” Kel whispered. “See? Don’t you feel much more relaxed now?” Sasha felt a stiff tongue sweep the rim of the head, then Kel’s soft lips began to kiss and mouth the shaft.
“Mm, fine, yes, good idea,” Sasha said through his light moans. “It’s helping a little.”
Kel laughed lightly. “No need to lie, I can feel what you’re feeling.” His mouth closed around the head then, and as he began to enthusiastically suck it, Sasha felt his hand grasp the shaft and begin to stroke it.
The combination between the two had the moans tumbling quickly from Sasha’s lips. He put a hand on Kel’s head, his fingers weaving through Kel’s hair, careful however to avoid the stitches in his scalp, and Sasha started moving his hips up and down.
The orgasm came quickly and without much warning, the pressure multiplied, before bursting with a loud gasp from Sasha’s lips, and as he grabbed Kel’s shoulder, he came into the eagerly awaiting mouth.
Kel consumed every drop, he lapped and sucked the head with vigor, forcing every spurt from the sensitive head. Sasha had to pull himself out after the orgasm subsided, the pleasure quickly turning into discomfort from the over-stimulation.
And as Sasha pulled himself out, he saw a hand moving rapidly between Kel’s legs, a hard cock with a flushed head enclosed in his clasped hands. Without a word, Kel got on his knees and Sasha did too, and he leaned down and enclosed Kel’s stiff crown with his mouth.
It was obvious this wouldn’t take long. Kel released an excited moan as Sasha began to suck the head, Kel’s hand still rubbing and playing with the shaft, unable to fully let go. The vocalized pleasure grew with every moment, and the head itself began to twitch and pull as Kel climbed towards orgasm.
Then, with a gasp of Sasha’s name, the first warm spurt of cum shot to the back of Sasha’s throat. It was quickly joined with several more, then shots of thick cum coated Sasha’s tongue.
In the beginning, Sasha hadn’t liked the taste, but his mind had long since associated the semen with physical relief. Now, he craved it, as he did the taste of blood, so like Kel had done, Sasha sucked every drop out of the head, until the last weak dribble was lapped up.
Kel let out an exhausted breath, then, to Sasha’s surprise, he put his hand on Sasha’s cheek as he rose and brought their lips together. Sasha let him, and together they kissed, their mouths open and their tongues joined and tasting their own cum in each other’s mouth.
“Let’s lay down, it’ll hit us soon,” Kel said when he broke their lips. �
��I love this part.” Kel laid down then and Sasha joined him, and to further his surprise, Kel moved onto his side and shifted until he was right next to Sasha. He put an arm around Sasha’s chest, and his head in the crook of Sasha’s arm.
Then the relief, like a hit of the most wonderful drug, the fluid washed away the headache that had been holding Sasha’s brain hostage. The feeling was enough to make him close his eyes and sigh.
“So many nights I laid in bed, in this very position, and felt like killing myself because the pain was so great,” Sasha whispered. He adjusted his arm so Kel’s head was over top of it, and held his fellow nightcrawler to him. “And I would still be there if it wasn’t for you and Kheva.”
“Master Kheva saved us both,” Kel whispered. “I’m excited to see him, but scared too.”
Sasha’s mouth opened, wanting to give Kel reassurance, but found himself unable to string together the lie. Instead, he stared up at the ceiling, the ceiling of his old bedroom that he once wished so badly to see at night, and said: “Me too, Kel.”
“It’ll be okay though, right?”
“Yeah, hun… I’ll make sure everything is okay.”
I have no other choice.
It’s time to pay my dues.
CHAPTER 35
A glass of whisky and coke entered Jobe’s vision. Yet another glass of whisky to wash down the sorrow, to try and mask the guttural feeling that had claimed him outright.
But it was doing nothing now, and the last thing Jobe wanted to do was get drunk. If he got drunk tonight, he was just going to make more mistakes––and he’d made enough mistakes.
However, one more wouldn’t hurt. “Thanks, Nate,” Jobe mumbled. He took the glass from the young man, who had a look of concern on his face, and brought it to his lips.
“I’m… not surprised you came back,” Nate said quietly. He sat down beside Jobe and leaned back on Jobe’s blue couch. “I was waiting for something like this to happen, to be honest.”
“Yeah, I bet,” Jobe said bitterly. He hadn’t said much to Nate yet, it was all too raw, but the kid knew that a lot of things were currently going wrong.
It was so… bizarre; it didn’t make sense. Sasha had been raped, fucking raped, and he was defending the men who’d done it? And taking care of them?
Nate had the answer; the only answer that made sense.
That’s not Sasha. He looks like Sasha, he talks like Sasha, but that’s not Sasha. Whatever Kheva had done to make Rob into Kel, had been done to Jobe’s best friend. A man he loved so dearly, his heart ached at the thought that he was gone.
We were terrified that Sasha was dead, his decaying body being rained on in the woods. And now, in all respects, my Sasha is gone. My bug––is gone.
Jobe’s eyes closed tight and he did everything he could to fight back the tears. He didn’t want to cry in front of Nate, it was bad enough that he was seeing Jobe in such a state.
“When I saw Kel for the first time, I had no idea what had been done to him,” Nate said quietly. “He looked like Robby, but everything was different. Kheva––Kheva was the one who explained it to me, what he’d done to him. That maniac had buried his actual personality, and had created himself a slave.” Jobe heard Nate take a drink, then he let out a low breath. “We’ll get Sasha back, Jobe. I promise. We’ll get Rob back and Sasha. We have help now… as soon as Kheva shows up…”
“Yeah,” Jobe said, his tone still despondent, and his gaze a thousand miles away. “I know, and I appreciate all your help. I’m sorry that Sasha has been treating you so badly. That’s––” Jobe paused, realizing what he was saying, but with a sigh, he said it anyway. “––that’s not Sasha at all. He’s terrified of new people, but he’s never that abrasive. It’s just not him.”
“I’ve been treated worse,” Nate said. Jobe felt a hand pat his knee. “I know things seem like shit right now, but the first hurdle has been overcome. We have Rob and Sasha where they belong, with us, and now we just need to… find a way to get them back.”
“We were going to use Sasha to help get Rob back…”
And that obviously wasn’t going to happen now.
“Sasha and Rob aren’t the only nightcrawlers.”
Right.
Him.
The man who gave Jobe such bad vibes, his skin crawled just thinking about him.
How did it get this bad? Every time Jobe thought about the last several days, his mind reeled. If someone had a time machine, and had told Jobe the week Sasha had gone missing, that this was going to happen, he’d think he’d gone insane.
Poor Sasha, my poor bug. There was a lot of guilt over getting up and leaving that living room, but Jobe couldn’t stand to be in the same presence of whoever Sasha had become. Jobe was at the end of his threshold, a threshold that he’d been extending since the moment Sasha had shown up with Keluva Swift in tow.
An hour later there was a knock on Jobe’s door. Jobe rose and looked through his kitchen window, and saw Lex standing on his porch stoop, his shoulders slumped and his face downcast.
Lex’s here? Fuck, what happened…?
Jobe walked to the door and opened it, a curl of nausea inside of him. “What happened?” Jobe asked, his eyes searching Lex’s face.
Lex walked into the house, his face ghostly pale. “I think we’re fucked, Jobe,” he whispered. “I think we’re fucked.”
“W-what?” Jobe stammered; he closed the door and locked it. “What are you talking about?”
Lex glanced over at Nate, and nodded his head in a welcome, then he grabbed Jobe’s arm and pulled him down the hall to Jobe’s bedroom.
When they were both in the room, messy and covered in clothes and junk with a single bed pushed into a corner, Lex shut the door. “We’re fucked. We’re fucked.”
“What do you mean?” Jobe asked forcefully. “Fucking tell me, Lex!”
“Kel… Kel knows; Kel fucking knows Jobe,” Lex said, his fearful eyes staring into the distance. “He fucking knows.”
Jobe just stared at him. “What?” he said lowly, the shock temporarily masking the panic that he knew would soon burst from his body. “How the fuck can he know, Lex?”
“He was inside my mind,” Lex said, a hand clasped his mouth. “I felt him in there, Jobe. It was like nothing I’ve ever fucking experienced. He found the memory, yanked it forward and flaunted it in front of me.”
Jobe felt nauseous. He sunk down to his knees. “No, no, no,” he moaned, his head shaking back and forth rapidly. “They said nightcrawlers can’t read humans, didn’t they? What the fuck? Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck. What do we do? What the fuck do we do, Lex?”
“I don’t fucking know,” Lex whispered. “He didn’t tell Sasha, but he forced me to apologize when I’d upset Sash. I – I came over to his apartment to apologize. All I can think of is… we have to get Rob back. We have to get Rob and Sasha back, before the shit hits the fan.” He groaned. “Sasha is never going to fucking forgive us. This will ruin him, Jobe. Fucking ruin him.”
“I know!” Jobe snapped, quickly rising to his feet. “Which is why I didn’t want to fucking do it a second time!”
“Oh, shut up,” Lex shot back. “This isn’t the time to assign blame. We’re both in this together.”
Jobe’s lips pursed, desperation and anger in his eyes. But even though it looked like the clock on the time bomb had wound down, and Lex was about to get a full explosion, Jobe only nodded. “Yeah, you’re right, I fucking know you’re right. I’m just…”
“Terrified?”
“Yeah.”
“Me too.”
“I wonder if it would even matter if he knows,” Jobe said quietly. “He’s fucking gone, Lex. That’s not Sasha. That’s not fucking Sasha.”
Lex leaned up against the wall and ran a hand over his black hair. “Yeah, I know. I know it’s not him. I just don’t really know how to handle it. I don’t really know how to handle anything anymore.”
“This is a complete fucking mess.”
<
br /> “I know.”
Lex paused.
“So… you wanna?”
Jobe stared at him, but as the pure, white rage built inside of him, Lex smiled, then chuckled sadly, the corners of his eyes glistening. “Sorry, Jo, if I don’t crack a joke… I think I just might burst into tears and walk out in front of the first car I see.”
Jobe’s face crumpled, and as Lex tsked and shook his head, he walked to Jobe and put his arms around him. “We’ll find a way to get him back. We’ll find a way to fix all of this.”
“But how?” Jobe whimpered, his eyes shut tight. “How the fuck do we get Sash back? How the fuck do we protect him from… from everything? From us, from himself, from Kel and fucking Kheva.”
“Guys?”
Jobe’s eyes opened as Nate’s muffled voice sounded through the door. He was still in Lex’s embrace, and even though that very embrace had caused the two of them a lot of problems, he felt protected in it. Safe.
And there was something else slowly building, something that he’d been trying to push down for a while now.
“Sorry, Nate… we’ll be out in a second,” Jobe said. He pulled away from Lex and rubbed his nose. “Pour us – pour us some more whisky.”
Lex, the sad smile still on his face, put a supportive hand on Jobe’s shoulder. “We’ll find a way,” he said. “I think right now…” Lex opened the door, Nate hovering near the entrance to the hallway by Jobe’s kitchen, and walked out. “Right now, first things first… we have to stop Sasha from going back to that lake house. He said he’s going tomorrow and––”
“Sasha’s going back to that house tomorrow?” Nate said, both his eyebrows raising over his glasses. “He said that?”
Jobe and Lex nodded. “That’s the plan,” Jobe said. “I talked to Sasha a bit, just one on one, and he told me that Kheva’s there. He’s sick right now, but he’s there.”
Nate’s eyes grew large at this news. “He’s sick?” he repeated. “Good… that’s perfect news.” He nodded to himself, a distant look to him that told Jobe something else was on his mind.
