“Yes,” I said quietly. “It is something.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “What’s going on with you, Toven? You’re not yourself lately. Is it still that girl?”
You’re not yourself lately, either, I wanted to retort, but I said nothing. My silence was answer enough, because he gestured at the olive-skinned girl who had just finished hanging up my jacket. “I got this one for you,” he said, grinning. “No native girls here at Pandora’s, sadly, but this one looks close enough. She’ll even let you call her, what was your girl’s name again, Ravenna? She ought to let you call her anything you want, for the price I’m paying.”
I swallowed. “Nathan, I don’t think…I mean, I’m not…”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, since when have you ever turned down beautiful pussy?” He sat up then, pushing the ice naiad aside. Next to him, I saw the sprite’s fingers tremble as she picked up the tray of drinks. He gestured at the girl he’d picked for me again, and I glanced at her. Without a word, she reached behind her, undoing the clasp of her bra and letting it fall to the floor. Her small, perfect breasts shook slightly as she hooked her thumbs into the waist of her panties, pushing them down her hips.
“No, you don’t need to,” I shook my head at her, but Nathan had paid for her, and she was following his orders. She tossed them aside and stood there, nude except for her stockings and black stilettos.
She was entrancingly gorgeous, just like every other woman in that room. But even nude, I couldn’t bring myself to have the reaction I know Nathan expected. I saw his eyes flick to my groin, and then to the girl, and he shrugged.
“What’s this, Toven? Gone eunuch on me? Gods, man, look at her. Take her over there to the bed and give her a good fucking, while I have this lovely little snow fairy take care of me, and then we’ll have a conversation. Just like old times, eh?”
I cringed inwardly. It was true, Nathan and I had had plenty of escapades together. We’d been close for a long time. He was one of the most handsome men I’d ever known—or at least had been, before. To anyone else, he was probably still achingly gorgeous, but I could see the change—the thing in him that seemed to be devouring him from the inside. I didn’t know what it was, and it frightened me.
“Nathan, I’m just not interested.”
My tone was flat but he ignored me, waving a hand at the two other girls on the couch. “You two, do something other than just sit there and look pretty. I’m not paying you for that.”
One, a blonde with her hair piled atop her head and wearing white lingerie, pouted at him. “What do you want us to do, Nathan?”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Your job.”
She shrugged and reached for the other girl, a slim brunette. They’d both had designs painted on their skin in shimmering, holographic dust that was meant to mimic the kind of skin the ice naiad had. To a man who had never seen a fairy or sprite, they could easily pass for the real thing. Next to the actual naiad and the meadow sprite, they looked terribly fake.
The girl Nathan had chosen for me took a step closer, and I held up a hand. “No,” I said firmly. “You’re very beautiful,” I said, “but I can’t. Not tonight.” Maybe not ever, I thought, but I didn’t say that aloud. It was too melodramatic to say in front of Nathan, no matter how true I thought it might be.
She glanced nervously at Nathan, but he ignored her, looking directly at me. On the couch on the far side of the room, I saw that the blonde had removed the brunette’s bra, and the brunette was beginning to take down the blonde’s hair as she leaned forward to kiss her.
“Well, if you’re not going to partake, that doesn’t mean the rest of us have to behave like monks.” He gestured to the naiad, and she stood gracefully, coming to kneel between his legs as she slithered up his body, her back arching so that I was treated to a view of her perfectly shaped, nearly naked ass as the pale blue negligee she was wearing slid up over her hips.
The olive-skinned girl stood motionless as a statue. “You can…go sit somewhere,” I said helplessly. “Or go to the bed, or something. You don’t have to just stand there.”
She glanced at Nathan again, but he ignored her his gaze focused down on the naiad as she ran her tongue down his chest. He shivered, and I saw the colors in her skin pale again. “My” girl walked to the bed slowly, each step calculated and precise, and arranged herself prettily on it, lying as still as if she were a robot waiting for further commands. It was hellishly unnerving.
“Nathan, I need your help,” I said finally, feeling desperate to get this over with, to be able to leave.
“Still?” He trailed his fingers over the naiad’s hair, and I saw his pale skin begin to flush as she slid down his body. It might have been arousal, but I knew it was something else as I watched the colors in her skin begin to flicker and fade again, this time not brightening. “I have heard something about that girl, Toven, with a little asking around. Seems I was right about her being god-touched.”
“I know,” I said impatiently. “I know all about it. I know what she’s running from. It’s not that, Nathan, I need…”
“You want to help her.” His voice was dispassionate. The naiad straightened as her hands smoothed down his thighs, and I heard the sound of his zipper being drawn down. Behind me, I heard soft moans, and guessed the two girls on the couch had reached the next stage of their performance. The naiad’s head bent, and I saw Nathan stiffen a little, a small groan coming from him as she leaned forward.
I should have been shocked, I supposed, but nothing really shocked me anymore. Certainly, we’d done the same and more together in the past, with women I couldn’t even remember now. There was a time when it would have aroused me, when I would have told the girl on the bed to come over to me, kneel on the carpet and give me the same treatment, enjoying the voyeuristic pleasure of it. But now all I could think of was how, with each passing moment, Ravenna came closer and closer to danger, while Nathan lay there getting a blowjob from a snow fairy.
“Yes,” I snapped, my patience wearing thin. “And you’re the only one who can help me help her, Nathan. I need the name of the witch, the one who owes you a favor. She can do what I have in mind to save Ravenna, but I don’t know her name, or where she lives, and without you telling her that I’m coming, she might as soon curse me as speak to me.”
“And why…ohh, yes, fuck that’s good…why should I use my favor on you?” Nathan asked. His hips arched up slightly, and I saw the naiad’s skin pale again as her fingers gripped his thighs, her head bobbing faster now. Even her hair seemed less vibrant, I thought.
“We are friends, Nathan, good friends,” I said, trying to keep the desperation from my voice. “I have helped you when you needed me, in the past. Now I need something, and I am asking…no, I’m pleading with you. Give me the name of the witch. Tell her I’m coming and ask her to help me.”
He chuckled. “A god, the god of good fortune no less, coming to me begging for help. Fuck, I might have come without the blowjob and saved the money.” He smirked. “So, you’re calling in our long years of friendship at last, Toven. For some girl you barely know.”
“She’s more than that,” I shook my head. Behind me, I heard the slick sounds of bodies moving against each other, and the performative moans of one of the girls. It was grating, like nails on a chalkboard. I could smell that same thick sandalwood smell, the cloying scent of the sweet alcoholic drinks the meadow sprite had made, and underneath it all, sweat and sex. I wanted to be out of this room. I wanted fresh air. I wanted Ravenna. “Nathan, please. There’s nothing else I will ask of you. Only this one thing.”
I saw his body stiffen, his bare toes curling against the carpet, and the sharp jerk of the naiad’s head. Nathan closed his eyes, breathing in deeply, and she shivered uncontrollably, her head still moving with the practiced rhythm of a professional who knows to keep going until the very end.
Nathan was still for a moment, then he pushed the girl aside, so abruptly she fell back onto the carpe
t in a heap. He stood, and I caught a glimpse of his deflating cock as he adjusted himself back into his jeans, zipping them up. He approached me, shaking himself like a dog that just got out of the water.
I couldn’t take my eyes off of the naiad, rubbing her hand over her mouth, the colors of her skin paled to a barely visible pastel now.
“You really should take advantage of the one I bought for you. No one sucks cock like the girls here, let me tell you.” He stopped a few inches in front of me, his blue eyes glittering dangerously as he looked down. “I’ll help you, Toven. But only if you give me something in return.”
27
Ravenna
The blinding light of the sun coming through the windshield woke me. I was curled in the driver’s seat of our old green pickup, my green utility jacket serving as a pillow. Next to me, Kavi was still fast asleep, wrapped in an old woven blanket. I felt the truck shift and knew Isa was awake—he’d opted to bed down in the back, where there was more room.
We had left just after dark the night before. There had been an element of nostalgia to it, I had to admit, and I wondered what that said about us—about the lives we had led, that throwing our most important possessions into a couple of bags and slinking away into the dark held a comforting familiarity.
I wondered how long it would be before Toven knew I was gone. We had made no plans to see each other again. I guessed that it would be whenever he tried to contact me again and went without an answer, and my heart ached at the thought. I had made my choice, but still, it felt like an abandonment. He had been vulnerable with me, laid himself bare in every way, and I had made him a promise that was now broken.
But I had made my promises to Kavi and Isa a long time before.
I saw Isa walking towards a far shrub of trees, and I frowned concernedly. I’d looked up the night before as we’d hurried out to the truck and seen the moon, nearly a perfect full orb in the sky. Isa’s change would be coming on him soon, and we couldn’t afford to stop and wait the three days for the effects to pass. Not here, so close to Vegas, but just outside of its protections. If anything, we were at the greatest risk here.
He said as much a little while later as we sat in the bed, eating congealed egg and cheese sandwiches from a drive-through. “I should stay here.” Isa ate his sandwich in two bites and reached for a sausage biscuit. “We’ll pick a town for me to catch up to you in, sufficiently far away. I can hitchhike there, there’s no real danger in that for me.” He frowned. “I am worried about your safety though. If there were somewhere nearby you could hide out, a motel maybe, just for a few days…”
Kavi shook his head. “I’m not completely helpless, Isa. I can keep Ravenna and myself out of trouble for a few days, at least.”
“Maybe I can just stay in the back of the truck, go off for the change, and then come straight back.”
“No,” I said quickly. “You’re vulnerable after the change is over, Isa. You’ll be in even more danger.”
“While I’m in wolf form I’d be more of an asset,” he pointed out.
“And then, if we’re attacked just after you become human again, it might trigger the change again too soon, and kill you. Isa, you know all of this. Your first idea was a good one. We meet up somewhere decently far from here, as soon as you’re able.”
“I don’t like it,” Isa said sharply.
“Neither do we,” I replied. “But it’s the best we’ve got. We’ve made it through worse.”
---
We left Isa at a roadside motel on the edge of town, near enough to a stretch of uninhabited desert that he’d be able to go out to without being noticed. I watched as he pressed a firm kiss to Kavi’s mouth, squeezing the other man’s hand tightly. “Take care of her,” he said. “I’ll catch up to you soon.”
I couldn’t stop the tears as I fell into his arms. In my peripheral vision, I saw Kavi walking towards the truck, giving us some privacy. “Isa, I can’t bear this,” I whispered. “I can’t leave you.”
“You can, and you will,” he said sternly. “Be tough, Ravenna. Kavi needs you, too. I’ll be there before you know it. It’s only a few days, after all. Look at it this way, there’ll be some extra space in the bed.” He tried for a smile, but it was a weak one. He knew as well as I did the danger we faced.
He bent, burying his hands in my hair, still loose and tangled from sleep. I felt the heat of his body as he pulled me against him, his temperature already running high, and I responded as I always did to him, my arms going around my neck as I leaned up to kiss him, my mouth opening under his. He bit my lower lip lightly, a promise of things to come, and I arched against him, returning the same wordless promise. He’d come to my bed directly after regaining his strength from the change more than once, and it was always thrillingly different from the usual gentle, careful sex we had. It was often rough and animalistic, the urge to hunt and capture in him just barely restrained, and I loved it. He was the same way just before the change as well, and I could feel him struggling to hold it back. He rarely gave in, as lust could sometimes trigger it early, but there had been a few times in the century or so we’d been together that he’d trusted himself enough.
“I want to take you in that room right now and take you to bed,” he growled. “Especially not knowing…”
Don’t say it, I thought. Don’t say you might not see me again. “You’ll be able to do that soon enough,” I said. “Don’t take too long, Isa. I love you.”
“Not soon enough,” he murmured against my ear. “It couldn’t possibly be soon enough.” He pulled back then, his golden eyes glowing, and kissed me once more, fierce and hot. “I love you, Takwa’ay-chi.”
“Isa!” I looked around worriedly, but he slipped a finger under my chin, turning me back to face him.
“Let them come,” he said gruffly. “I’ll not say goodbye to you like that. Not if it might be the last time. Not with a name that isn’t yours.”
“Oh, Maiko.” His name slipped from my lips then, and I threw my arms around his neck, burying my face in his shoulder. “Maiko, I will see you again. Four days, five at the most. I’ll be waiting for you.”
“Naked, I hope.” He raised an eyebrow at me as I pulled back, and I laughed through my tears.
“It’s a deal,” I said. “But only if you get back in four days.”
“Four it is.” He kissed me once more, and I heard Kavi calling my name from the truck. “Go, Taki,” he said softly. “I’ll see you soon.” He turned away then, and I thought I saw his shoulders quiver as he walked to the hotel room door.
I was silent as we drove away, watching him disappear into the room, and then the motel itself grow smaller and smaller in the cloud of dust, tears trailing steadily down my face.
Kavi didn’t cry, but I could see from the hard set of his jaw and firm line of his mouth that he was struggling to keep control of his emotions as well. “This is my fault,” he finally said grimly, some miles down the road.
“It’s not,” I protested, but he shook his head. “It is my fault. I should have kept myself in check, never gone to confront Toven. He might have had suspicions, but it was I who confirmed them. It’s my fault.”
There was nothing I could say. In a way, he was right. But there was no way of knowing that Toven wouldn’t eventually have discovered it on his own, or someone else altogether. “We were never going to be entirely safe,” I said finally, heavily. “Maybe this is happening sooner than we expected, but it would probably have happened eventually.”
I saw the muscles working in Kavi’s jaw. “Maybe,” he said finally. “Maybe not.”
“Anyway,” I plunged ahead. “There’s nothing we can do about it now, Kavi. We can’t go back and change it. We can just survive. And we’re good at doing that.” I put my hand gently on his knee, rubbing my thumb back and forth over the faded denim of his jeans. “We’ll make it through, just like we always have.”
He nodded without saying anything, his eyes fixed on the road.
There was silence for a long time. Neither of us could think of anything to say to lighten the mood, and I knew we were both thinking of Isa, sitting alone in a cheap motel room, waiting to change when the moon turned full tonight. I thought of him loping along sand dunes, chasing down his prey, and I suddenly ached to be able to be out there once with him, to see what he saw, to know the pure, blissful freedom he must experience in that moment. I wondered if he could stay that way, if he would want to. If that wild existence might be better.
I was staring into the clouds of dust kicking up around the truck, lost in thought, when I saw the dust clear suddenly, splitting apart so that we could see the road ahead of us plainly. Standing just ahead of us in the center of the road were two figures, one taller than the other, one man and one woman. My heart sank, my throat closing over with fear. I knew who they must be.
So did Kavi. He jerked the wheel to one side, intending to take the truck off of the road. I gripped the door handle, ready to leap out and run at the first sign of imminent damage to the truck. I spared one glance at him, and then I looked back at the two figures in the road, just as the woman lifted her hand.
I didn’t have time to jump out. I didn’t have time to even think. The truck lurched hard to one side, the tires spinning ineffectually, and then the truck lifted into the air, the engine revving as Kavi’s foot pressed down unthinkingly on the gas pedal. I felt his free hand reach for mine, and when I turned to look at him, I met his eyes and saw hopelessness there.
We were caught.
The truck flipped over in the air, sending my stomach lurching into my mouth, and then came crashing down, so hard that I felt all the wind be knocked out of me as the roof connected with the hard asphalt.
Pursued by the Gods Page 16
