Silent Ground Part 2

by Quil Carter

  Then Nate turned. “What else did he tell you?” he asked desperately. “I need… I really fucking need any information I can get right now. Please,” he looked from Jobe to Lex, “anything?”

  Jobe hesitated, and like a lion lurking in the tall grass trying to spot the sickest wildebeest, Nate’s green eyes focused right on him. Without even speaking, he knew that there was indeed something else.

  But Jobe had promised Sasha; he’d fucking promise him.

  That’s not even Sasha though…

  Internally, a debate began to rage, one that had Jobe being pulled in two. It was only earlier that he’d sat down with Sasha, and had talked to him one-on-one for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime ago. Sasha had opened up to him, and had told Jobe that Kel was better off remaining Kel.

  And that Rob was supposedly, a manipulative bastard.

  The guilt swelled and grew, but even though it was multiplying quickly, it was but a shadow compared to the intense worry that Jobe was feeling towards the state of his best friend’s mind. That man sleeping in his own apartment right now, possibly next to his rapist, wasn’t Sasha. Sasha was…

  Jobe’s eyes became wide.

  If Rob could break free from those mental binds to speak to Sasha, that meant that the old Sasha was still inside, right? There was a way to get Sasha back, like Nate had continued to tell them there was a way to free Rob.

  Jobe had to break his promise. If there was anyone who knew about this shit… it was Nate.

  I hate myself––but I love Sasha.

  “Nate…” Jobe began. He walked to the living room, his heart heavy, and grabbed his glass of whisky and coke; then with both Nate and Lex watching him, he took a long drink. “Sasha told me some things… you better sit down for this.”

  It was difficult, but there was no doubt that it had to be done. For the sake of Sasha, for Rob, it had to be done.

  By the time Jobe was done telling both Nate and Lex the conversation he’d had with Sasha, Nate was near tears.

  “He’s still in there…” Nate said, a tissue crushed in his hand. “I knew he was still in there. My baby wants out; he wants out and he’s doing everything he can to break free. I knew he would, Robby’s such a strong guy. Fuck, I knew it. I just knew it.”

  Lex, however, looked ill. “Is there any way for us to talk to our Sasha?” he asked. “Just so we could see he was… he was okay?”

  “He might not be strong enough yet,” Nate said with a sniff. They were all sitting in Jobe’s living room now, Jobe and Lex on the blue couch and Nate in Jobe’s green recliner. “Or maybe he’ll need help from another nightcrawler, like how Sasha was helping Rob.” Nate’s eyes shifted towards Jobe’s portable phone, resting on the stained wooden coffee table in front of him. “I think it’s time, guys…”

  Lex swore under his breath. “I don’t fucking trust him… and we don’t have Kheva. He doesn’t give a shit about Sasha, all he wants is Kheva and Kheva’s gone and we don’t know where this lake house is.”

  At the same moment, Jobe and Lex’s heads shot up, and their eyes found each other.

  “Do you know how we can do it?” whispered Jobe.

  “There must be something we can buy…”

  “Could you delay them?”

  “Yeah, we can do something to the truck. Find us some time…”

  Nate looked to the both of them, confused. “What are you two talking about?”

  “Since Sasha is taking Kel back to the lake house tomorrow morning,” Jobe began. “If we find some way to track them, put a device in the truck, then we’ll know where Kheva is.”

  “Ian… I think Ian had one in his house for his job,” Nate said. But then his face fell, Jobe knew the reminder of just what Kheva had done to his brother, was digging itself out of its grave.

  And Jobe was right.

  “That bastard… that fucking bastard killed my brother,” Nate choked. Jobe reached a hand over and took Nate’s. “I hope he fucking dies. He’ll pay for what he did, to Robby, to Sasha… to Ian.”

  “He will, baby,” Jobe said softly. “Do you – do you know where this device is now?” Ian’s brothers had cleaned out his house after the funeral, Nate had been beside himself with grief when it was happening.

  Jobe was gone for that, the guilt he himself was feeling for punching Kheva, for instigating Lariat’s death, was too much. The only reason he’d been able to function after that was pushing it down into the darkness, and the support that Lex had been giving him.

  Lex had been invaluable during this time––that man, there was something incredible about him.

  Nate rubbed his nose. “All of his stuff went to Cadence and Mason’s basement, two of my brothers. I’ll call them in the morning and tell them I’m coming over.”

  Lex nodded, a spark of hope, one where there was formerly just darkness, illuminating the black that had been consuming him. “I’ll delay Sasha and Kel from going back there, we’ll get the tracking device found and in place… and Caelum will take care of the rest. That – that just might work.”

  “It’s all we can do,” Jobe said. It was hard for him to feel the same hope that Lex was feeling, it was there but it was weak. However, it was giving him some solace to see that Lex had some life back to him. That man deserved it. “We’ll go back and see if we can tamper with that truck, and Nate, as soon as you have that device… call me on Lex’s cell phone and we’ll get it from you.”

  Nate nodded, as did Lex. The mood, so thick the emotions of their conversation seemed permanently stuck, was beginning to lift off. It was something, no longer were the three standing back and watching their loved ones self-destruct in front of them. There was a plan in place, and a nightcrawler that might be as shifty as he was slippery, but seemed to be powerful in his own right.

  It made Jobe feel almost powerful, instead of a passenger, they were sitting in the driver’s seat, ready to take control of the situation and set things right.

  Nightcrawlers may be powerful and terrifying beings, but love would win.

  In the end… love will win.

  Sasha was in a deep sleep, one that he didn’t want to get out of at all. It was peaceful, without nightmares, and on top of that the bed that he loved, that was comfortable and his own, was warmer and cozier than it had ever been before.

  But then that sleep was disturbed, however not in a rude or shocking way, Sasha’s sleep was disrupted by a kiss to his nose.

  And another, and another, until he couldn’t help but smile.

  “What are you doing?” Sasha mumbled. He forced open his eyes and the smile turned into a snort when he saw Kel only inches away from his face, and none other than Jye to his left, his nostrils flexing as he smelled around Sasha’s face.

  “Waking you up!” said Kel, his voice the sweet, almost child-like tones that the nightcrawler used so often. “You looked so comfortable and your mind was peaceful. I’d let you sleep more, but I’m too excited to go back home, and Jye’s excited too.” He put a hand in between the cat’s radar ears, both twitching back and forth to pick up all the sounds of the room. “Jye’s also out of food. We need more Gavin.”

  Sasha snorted. “Don’t use his name,” he said with a laugh, a hand rising up to rub the sleep from his eyes. “I can’t believe you’ve gotten me used to feeding that damn cat human meat. That’s insane, completely insane.”

  “I don’t remember ever being weirded out by it,” Kel said. He slid back off of the bed to give Sasha room and began picking up and examining the random trinkets on Sasha’s cluttered dresser. “Kheva told me they were bad people and I understood. Jye is expensive to feed and we get all of our meat from a butcher so it’s even expensiver.”

  “Where does Kheva even get all that money?” Sasha asked. He stretched, now standing in front of the dresser, and began finding clothes for him to wear. “That property must be worth like half a million dollars.”

  Kel shrugged a shoulder. “I’m not sure. Probably nightcr
awler stuff, I guess? All of the nightcrawlers I’ve met have had fancy houses and lots of expensive stuff. The first generation too, but they don’t call themselves nightcrawlers, they call themselves something different since they have an ability that we don’t have, but our mental abilities are stronger than theirs. They get sick when they use theirs, but they also don’t have to drink blood and stuff.”

  Sasha began buttoning up the blue shirt he’d decided to wear today. “That’s just insane. Maybe once everything is back to normal, Kheva will teach me a little bit more about where we all come from, and the first generation too.”

  “Maybe!” Kel said; he himself seemed rather excited about the prospect. Sasha always assumed that Kel knew, but perhaps all of this would be new to him too. “We can have nightcrawler school. I miss home, I miss my bed even if yours is comfortable. And I miss being able to walk properly.” Kel looked down at his walking cast and swung it back and forth. “At least my arm one doesn’t really bug me that much, but they both itch a lot.”

  “When we get home, we can go look for some sticks to jam in there so you can itch it.” Sasha buttoned up his jeans and finished putting on his socks. “Have you heard anything on my uncle’s side? I kind of want to sneak out before he wakes up…” The realization that he’d have to do that sat unwelcome in his stomach, but what choice did he have? No doubt Lex and Jobe would try and stop him, but there was nothing to be done about that, Sasha had to go back to Ciel Lake. Not only to check on Kheva, but make sure the property was still functioning, the cat was home, and that Kel’s name was cleared.

  Sasha was planning on dropping off Kel near where he’d picked him up on the road, far enough away that Rob wasn’t a threat to Kheva if he still wasn’t back yet. Actually, Sasha was most likely going to do that anyway, since he didn’t want Kel around Kheva if Kheva was going to hurt him. He’d leave Kel in the truck and walk the rest of the way, so if all went bad, he could run back to the truck and take off.

  There that was a good plan.

  Sasha noticed Kel was frowning.

  “Were you looking inside of my head?” Sasha asked. He put Jye’s leash on and picked up the bags he’d packed the previous day.

  Kel nodded, a pout now on him. “I just don’t want Master Kheva to hate me. It made me so sad when he told me I’d been bad and I’d betrayed him. I hadn’t, I’d never do that. I love Master Kheva.”

  “I know, hun,” Sasha said quietly. He rubbed Kel’s back and they walked to Sasha’s apartment door. There were no heartfelt goodbyes leaving that apartment; Sasha would be back soon, once Kheva was okay and Kel was safe. Kheva would see that Sasha wasn’t going to leave, that Jobe and Lex weren’t a threat, and he’d be okay with Sasha visiting every once in a while––right?

  And maybe somehow, fucking somehow, Sasha would be able to convince those two that he wasn’t fucking brainwashed. Perhaps Kheva could even come with him and…

  No, that idea was absolutely insane, but denial and false hope were better than the conclusion that the two men that Sasha loved the most thought he was a brainwashed zombie of Kheva.

  “You’ll tell him it wasn’t me, like you promised, right?” Kel asked, his eyes squinting as they stepped out into the early morning sun. Even with the windows open now, it always seemed dark in Sasha’s apartment.

  “I – I promise,” Sasha said. Fuck, did the thought of what he had to do ever make him nauseous. This was a suicide mission, what the fuck was he thinking?

  Was he in denial about just how much of a mess this was going to be? Kheva had condemned Kel to death, Sasha had saved him, and now – and now what? Is that the only option? Fess up and try to convince Kheva not to kill him?

  What do I do?

  I have to make things right. All I can do is make things right.

  How else can I go back to what was my new normal?

  I – I…

  Sasha swallowed down the tight throat that seemed to want to cut off his breath. He didn’t want to admit it but… he missed Kheva desperately. I mean, that wasn’t anything new, of course he missed Kheva, but it wasn’t only his leadership he missed, his strength and control…

  Sasha’s… Sasha’s heart missed him too.

  Those brief moments between the two of us, when we were lying in bed naked together and he showed me that warmth. Like after Kel had assaulted me and he held me in his arms, so tightly, like he wanted to make the pain and suffering go away. Oh, fuck, I miss that. I want that again. I want him to take me into his arms and just stay there in silence, in darkness, and enjoy his presence.

  Then, we would have sex, and our minds would join together, our emotions, the physical feelings of pleasure, would combine into one overwhelming sensation that would throw me off my feet. Something happened that night, I swear, something happened that night between us, something changed.

  I never had the chance to figure out just what had changed, because all of this chaos happened so soon after.

  But I want…

  Yeah.

  I want to find out.

  If it is what I think it is, then Kheva is feeling it too, which means he will understand why I did what I did, and he’ll be able to look inside of my head and know that I regret deeply helping Rob, and that my love for my new life, my new family––is genuine.

  Maybe that’s why I’m walking towards that pickup truck, and not hiding in my bedroom with fear in my heart, because I trust the feelings I feel for Kheva, and I trust that he’s feeling the exact same way.

  Or maybe… I’m just a complete fool.

  Sasha opened up the back of the truck and Jye hopped inside, his leash, attached to a matching red harness, being held by Kel. Sasha threw their bags into the back and closed the truck, then walked to the driver’s side and the two of them got in.

  With a deep breath, Sasha put the keys into the ignition, and turned it.

  Click.

  Sasha’s brow furrowed. He tried to turn the key a second time, but again… there was only a click.

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Sasha muttered.

  “What’s wrong?” Kel asked beside him. “The truck’s been running fine… What’s wrong with the truck?”

  “I don’t know…” Sasha said. He opened the door and got out. “Do you know anything about trucks, Kel?”

  Kel shook his head back and forth quickly. “No, Kheva does all of that. He loves working on machines, that was always Kheva’s job. I looked after the garden and the chickens and stuff and Kheva always repaired everything.”

  Sasha swore under his breath. “It was fucking working just fine, the…” His words trailed, and a thought popped into his head that made both hands clench into fists.

  Something was fishy here. Something smelled fishy and Sasha had a hunch that both Uncle Lex and Jobe would reek of it.

  Sasha’s teeth locked. “Stay in the truck, Kel,” Sasha said as he opened up the driver’s side door and stepped out. “I need to go speak with my family.”

  “You – you don’t want me to come?” Kel asked, his voice becoming smaller as Sasha walked towards the entrance to Lex’s half of the house. “What if he yells at you…? I won’t let him yell at you. He’ll listen to me, I have a secret of his.”

  A secret of… his?

  Sasha turned around, now in front of the stairs. “What do you mean?” he said with a quirked eyebrow. “What secret?”

  Kel stared back at him, then his eyes deflected. “I’ll only tell if he yells at you and won’t stop when I tell him I’ll tell, then I’ll tell you.”

  Sasha had to slow down Kel’s words to make sense of them, but in the end, he nodded, refusing the pricks of curiosity that were starting to materialize. “Okay,” he said slowly. A secret? How would Kel even know? Maybe he’d overheard Lex on the phone or something, Sasha had no idea what it could possibly be.

  Well, no matter. Sasha walked up the steps and opened the entrance door. “Uncle Lex?” Sasha called into the quiet living room. It was a lo
t cleaner than it had been when Sasha had newly arrived, less booze bottles at least and no crap on every empty surface. “Uncle Lex?”

  Lex appeared at the top of the stairs, and Sasha’s eyes narrowed immediately at the nonchalant look on his face. “Yeah?” he said, a little too causal for Sasha’s taste.

  He was beginning to learn how to read them, not only outward body language, but when Sasha pulled up his abilities and brought forth that dark beacon, Sasha was realizing he could get a sense of the person from that alone.

  And Lex’s just stank of suspicion.

  “The truck isn’t working,” Sasha said flatly. He threw all of his abilities into that beacon, the dim orb of light that encapsulated all non-nightcrawlers, and tried to light it like a flashlight held under a thick blanket. “Do you know why?”

  There it was, so fucking easy. It was a surge of energy, almost like adrenaline. Sasha might not be able to outwardly tamper with non-nightcrawlers, but he was realizing that if he focused, he could make himself into a human lie detector.

  “Nope,” Lex said, lying through his fucking teeth, “what’s wrong with it?”

  What’s wrong with it… you’ve got to think I’m some sort of fucking retard.

  Sasha’s eyes glared upwards, his body becoming stiff under the lies falling so casually from his uncle’s smirking mouth. “Don’t play with me, Lex,” he said. “What did you do to the truck?”

  And here’s when he adopted a look of shock, and perhaps even a touch of offence over Sasha thinking that it was him who’d caused this delay. He really did believe that Sasha was some sort of idiot for not seeing through this. The old Sasha maybe, but that guy was long gone, and the Sasha who he was now, wasn’t going to take this insult to his intelligence.

  Or the delay either. Sasha had to rip the band aid off and get this shit with Kheva over with already. Not to mention, he had to get the damn cat back and Kel safe.

  There was too much shit on his mind, and the last thing he needed was Lex acting like a fucking idiot.