Elliot started apologizing profusely, and Violet laughed it off, but Fox gave him a stern look that meant ‘go away or die’. So Elliot did rush away, like a spider chased off by a broom. Knight tried not to stare and just stole discreet glances at the dark silhouette, but even that was starting to bring a chill to his bones. He missed Elliot’s presence in his bed. Why did Elliot have to go and wreck the good thing they had? Great sex, fun times spent together…
Standing on his own in the corner, Elliot laughed, with an expression of surprise flashing through his features as if someone had told him a joke. Fuck, he was such a strange creature. People ignored him for the most part, but it made Knight slightly uneasy that a few male heads turned to follow Elliot when Elliot went to get himself another drink. He did have a pretty face without all that Halloween paint. And a body that was a treat to play with.
Elliot looked at him again, even if very briefly, before going past Laurent and Beast, who were tucked in a loveseat sharing a bottle of wine and chatting animatedly, whispering into each other’s ears like lovesick teenagers. It was silly, and yet Knight was so happy for them.
Elliot glanced their way as well when he reached the small bar area where one of the hanagarounds served alcohol, but the moment his head turned, he dropped his glass to the floor and it shattered. It didn’t garner all that much attention, since stuff like that happened all the time at parties, but Elliot took one step forward, one back, and his lips moved even though he wasn’t really looking at anyone in particular.
Jake was there in no time, and he said some harsh words to Elliot, but Elliot was already rushing away in a strangely unbalanced manner. Knight sighed and watched Jake clean the mess with a tense face. It wasn’t like him to explode like this either, so Knight wondered what had made him so angry.
He drank some more beer and relaxed, passing time on brief conversations with his friends. The loud shrieks coming from the big party room marked the beginning of the sex show, and so many people gravitated toward the door to join the paying guests that Knight soon became the sole occupant of a couch that five minutes ago had accommodated five. The alcohol put his brain into a pleasant spin, and he sank deeper into the pillows, letting his eyes linger on Elliot’s elongated back.
And it looked like he wasn’t the only one staring. Ronnie, one of the hangarounds Knight knew intimately, approached Elliot from behind and put a hand on the small of his back. Elliot froze at first but looked back and after a few exchanged words, accepted a bottle of beer.
Knight tapped his fingers against the armrest, his head cooking when Elliot’s gaze briefly swept over him. The bastard was trying to make Knight jealous. As if there was any reason Knight would ever be jealous of anyone. He had no more rights to another person’s body than they had to his. That was the rule he lived by, one that had given him a variety of experiences and kept his mind clear of the mess of jealousy in monogamous relationships that society favored.
But he knew the rules of this game, and if Elliot chose to try his chances with Knight, Knight would pick up the glove.
He whistled.
Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Elliot glance his way, just in time to see Jake arrive by Knight’s side, ready to satisfy any craving Knight might have.
“You need anything?” Jake asked with a cocky smile.
Knight raised his arm meaningfully, and Jake slid under it, leaning his weight against him and settling his head on Knight’s shoulder.
“I was actually meaning to talk to you.” Jake’s smile was still there, but the movement of his eyes seemed fidgety. “You wanna go out? It’s kinda busy here.” Which was as good as a blowjob offer when it came from Jake.
The silky blond hair teased Knight’s arm, and he took his time gently scratching the back of Jake’s head to make sure Elliot spotted them touching one another. “Yeah, why not. Pull me up by my belt.”
Jake seemed confused for half a second, but then grinned and did as he was told. They got up together and Jake even dared to kiss Knight’s jaw. There. His eyebrows rose in question as he pointed to the door that would lead them to a corridor frequently used for quickies.
Knight grinned and trailed his hand down Jake’s back until his fingers slid into the back pocket of his pants. The rounded shape of Jake’s buttocks was so familiar Knight could recall the last time they fucked. In the garage, over the hood of the pink car he’d gotten for Jordan but never got around to giving her. Well, it was now stained with spunk. So there.
“What did you want to talk about?” Knight asked in the end, leading Jake toward the door. And past Elliot, who wasn’t anywhere near touching Ronnie in the same way Knight touched Jake.
“I… it’s probably nothing, just one of those spooky things. You know that time when we were looking for Elliot?” Jake slid his arms around Knight’s waist. “I might have gotten a bit overeager, and I went down to have a look in that creepy serial killer basement.”
Knight almost missed a step. As a prospect, Jake had no idea that there were dark forces living on club grounds. Had he encountered Fane? “Yeah?”
“And there’s… the other rooms. You must know of them, since you’ve been there lately. I really wasn’t meaning to stick my nose where I wasn’t asked to, but I was hoping that maybe you’d missed something, so I roamed around a bit. I found a latch in the floor under a carpet in one of the rooms, and… I thought he could be hiding there, so I opened it. I mean… have you seen something weird in that basement?”
Knight spun them so that Jake’s back was against the wall, with Knight standing so close their chests were almost touching. “I think the place’s haunted by that maniac’s victims.” The lie rolled off Knight’s tongue with ease, because if 45% of Americans believed in ghosts, so could he.
Jake’s eyes grew wide, but he was eating it up. “You think?” But his attention was getting scattered as his hands slid up Knight’s chest.
Knight felt his body sag immediately. He didn’t feel like fucking tonight. He just wanted beer and a rest, and maybe a movie once he got back to his apartment. This whole thing with Elliot was too draining for now.
He curled his fingers around Jake’s wrist and gently pulled it away. “There’s always weird noises coming from the walls when I am down there.”
“And have you seen any… strange bats? Like mutated ones?” Jake didn’t force his hand back on Knight, but watched him more intently.
Knight frowned. “Bats? What? No. Have you?”
“No! Maybe it was a rat. It was dark. Never mind.” Jake laughed it off and smiled wider at Knight, awaiting orders that weren’t coming.
“Whatever it was, it clearly freaked you out.”
“No, it’s nothing. I shouldn’t have gone there in the first place.”
Knight rustled Jake’s hair. “Well, don’t go against orders again. You see how that ends.”
Jake nodded quickly and put his hands on Knight’s belt buckle. “Should I…?”
Knight sighed. “Nah, Jake. Maybe some other time. I’m seriously too drunk and too tired.”
Jake couldn’t hide his disappointment, and some of the light died in his eyes when he pulled his hands away. “Sure. You want me to help you to your room?”
Knight groaned and briefly hugged Jake’s head to his shoulder. “I’ll be fine. How about you just relax until it’s your time to keep the peace out there?”
Jake nodded. “My shift’s in an hour. But let me know if you or any of the other guys need anything.”
“I will, Jake. You always do a good job. Keep that up.”
Jake smiled and pulled away from Knight in the end. “Gotta get those patches one day, right?” He playfully pushed at Knight’s shoulder before walking off back to the small party room.
Once he was alone, Knight rolled his head against the wall and bumped his forehead against it a few times. He hoped this low libido thing would soon pass, because he didn’t even feel like himself anymore.
In the end he sat on
a windowsill, looking out at some early fireworks lighting the sky. A tap on his shoulder made his heart skip a beat, but it was just Beast standing next to him. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting anymore.
“You all right, brother? I think it’s the first time you’re not up for seeing a sex show.”
Knight scowled. “Yeah. Not feeling it recently.”
Beast leaned against the wall with a smug smile. “What was it that you used to say…? ‘You need to get laid, Beast. That’s a cure for everything’,” he said in a mocking tone, reminding Knight of the many times Knight had pestered his friend that he should get some action.
“I can get it up,” Knight snapped in agitation. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m overworked... or depressed, or something.”
Beast nodded slowly, drilling into Knight with his inquisitive eyes. “If you’re overworked, I’ll get you some hangarounds to help. You don’t have to do everything yourself.”
Knight rubbed his nose and crossed his arms on his chest. “Elliot’s acting weird. You think the stuff he’d taken before I found him in the cellar could have left some lingering effects?” he asked, only now realizing how much that was constantly stressing him out.
“Had he puked up the pills, or did he just not take enough?”
“I have no fucking idea,” Knight said, increasingly uncomfortable that he had to lie to his best friend in order to keep Elliot safe. “It sometimes looks like he’s talking to himself, you know. He didn’t do that before.”
Beast wrapped his arms on his chest. “I told you from the start that he’s not all there. Maybe you can only see it now, when he’s no longer wrapped around your dick?”
“What did you want me to do? Save him from his maniac ex and then leave him to freeze to death in that trailer? You haven’t seen that shithole, Beast. He didn’t even have a warm jacket!”
“He’s not your problem. He’s a grown man, and he could find work somewhere. You just chose to care about him for some reason I don’t understand. Brecon has other homeless people, but I don’t see you inviting them over.”
Knight shifted, feeling discomfort roll in his stomach. “Yeah, but he’s not just anyone. I know him. And he might be a bit mad, but he can also be so brilliant.”
Beast gave him a half-smile. “How so?”
Knight reached under his jacket and pulled out the small notebook, which he rarely left behind in his apartment. “So I told you and Laurent that Raphael Mercier was originally from Italy. I was stuck on him, without any leads but Elliot dug so deep he found out the truth.”
“But now you hate each other again? I don’t mean to be a dick, I’m just trying to understand what’s going on with you.”
“I don’t hate him,” Knight said, frowning. “But he thought we were an item and won’t talk to me now.”
“So you want him as a friend again? I mean… it can be tough to go back to that once you’ve fucked him, but maybe he’ll come around with time. Find someone else to cling to, and then you guys could do whatever ancestry shit you were doing together?” Beast laughed and patted Knight’s shoulder.
“Yeah. Would be great. He’s a good lay,” Knight muttered, staring at the door. He wondered if Elliot would go as far as to make out with Ronnie to make Knight jealous.
What if he actually liked Ronnie though?
Would that be so bad?
Maybe it wasn’t the sex that bothered Knight so much, but the fact that he missed all the time Elliot used to have for him? All the text messages and late-night discussions. And then the way Elliot looked at him when they fucked. As if Knight was the center of his universe.
A scream alarmed both Beast and Knight, but it wasn’t coming from the party. Their heads turned the other way, where the restrooms were.
Beast was the first to rush forward.
Chapter 21
Elliot couldn’t flirt. Not with William constantly whispering into his ear and making comments about Ronnie’s freckled skin, which he found completely unappealing. In the end, Ronnie left Elliot to his thoughts about whether Knight was already fucking Jake in his bed, back to his slutty ways.
“Could we get back there?? I need to take another look at that young man,” William said, pulling on Elliot’s arm.
“No,” Elliot whispered, all too aware that he was looking like a crazy person talking to himself.
With Beast gone, Laurent busied himself with some kind of catalog, but he was the last person Elliot wanted to talk to about anything. There’s been animosity between them from the start, and it wasn’t about to end just because a new year meant a new beginning.
“But his hair is so pretty. I’d like to pet it,” William said, leaning against Elliot.
Elliot growled and turned to a window, so that people wouldn’t see his lips moving. “Anyone would like to pet his hair, but he hates me, so I doubt he’d let me anywhere near him. Besides, his boyfriend would cut my hand off.” Not to mention that he wasn’t happy about William being so into someone else. Sharing a body hadn’t been as straightforward or pleasant as Elliot had imagined it would be. William could be pushy about the things he wanted to do, to the point of taking over and shoving Elliot or making his limbs move, and losing control always left Elliot feeling overwhelmed.
The air moved behind Elliot, and he followed William’s gaze which clearly settled on Laurent’s backside hugged tightly by a pair of skinny jeans. He didn’t even know when William pulled him by the waist and made him walk alongside the wall.
“Stop staring at his ass,” Elliot hissed. His own attention got scattered when he saw Jake slip back into the room. A quick blowjob then. The anger boiling inside of Elliot only made it easier for William to guide him. “I could grow long hair. It’s not a big deal.”
William gave a soft laugh. “Forgive me, but when’s the last time you looked into the mirror? You’re handsome in your own way but, well, if that boy’s face is as pretty as his arse, he is tough competition.”
Elliot’s mood soured even more, but how was he to fight William’s wishes? Maybe if Elliot indulged him, things would settle down eventually. It was only understandable that after all the years trapped in that cellar, William wanted to explore. Things hadn’t been the way Elliot had expected. He and William only had each other, and William could never leave, so there was that, but sometimes he’d use painful digs to get his way, and that wasn’t the kind of relationship Elliot wanted.
They followed Laurent in silence, and William’s smile grew when Laurent left the room.
“I used to do that,” William finally said. “They didn’t realize I was following them in the marketplace, or through the docks. I watched them eat and speak to people. I watched them doze off under a tree sometimes. None of them knew that they would soon become my property.”
It wasn’t the first time Elliot heard this story, and it was becoming less exciting each time. It was a thorn in Elliot’s side that William wanted to chase after Laurent even though Elliot was right there, longing for William’s attention like no man ever had.
“The guy we’re following shares his name with your killer,” Elliot whispered as they entered the dark corridor through which Laurent was surely heading to the restrooms. His wobbly gait suggested he might have overdone it with liquor.
William exhaled, leading the way. The public restrooms were never in perfect condition, but the party contributed to all kinds of litter scattered over the floor. Elliot avoided stepping on a glass bottle and closed the door behind him. Laurent was leaning against the wall by the farthest urinal and struggled to open his jeans. He groaned, and the long black locks that William found so attractive fell forward to obscure his face.
“Looks very much like him, too. Another one of your cousins?” William said, putting his arms around Elliot and resting his chin on his shoulder. William had no body odor, and his hands were cool like sticks of butter straight out of the fridge. Once the novelty of their presence had passed, Elliot struggled to keep from shivering wheneve
r he felt their touch on his own skin.
“We’re not going anywhere near him anyway,” Elliot said, but he must have been a bit too loud, because Laurent pushed away his hair and looked back with a frown as he started to pee.
“What in all hells, Elliot? Are you following me? What next? Will you bring me apples?”
Elliot sneered at how pretty Laurent was. His only flaw was that he was short, but that hardly mattered when he had skin like porcelain and the hair of a prince. But before he could answer, William’s invisible hand squeezed inside his chest, and it felt as if he were physically holding Elliot’s heart between his cold fingers.
“It’s you!” William’s voice spat through Elliot’s mouth so abruptly he couldn’t fight it. “You should be burning in hell, you murderous cunt!”
Elliot struggled for breath, oblivious to any other activity within his body until his hand, pushed by William’s will, squeezed on the neck of an empty bottle. The glass smashed against the wall, and the impact left a sharp crown in Elliot’s hand. His mind struggled to even force words through his own mouth as panic weaved itself into every fibre in his muscles.
“Don’t!” he yelled, struggling against the hold William had on his body. “Let go!”
Laurent’s eyes went wide and he stumbled back drunkenly, trying to tuck his dick back into his pants. “Put that down!”
William laughed, and the same dark grimace pulled on Elliot’s unwilling face as the man inside Elliot pushed him forward. “You made a pact with him too, haven’t you? You’ve managed to evade justice. But you haven’t run far enough,” William hissed and dashed at Laurent with Elliot’s hand raised to deliver a powerful blow.
Laurent’s scream echoed against the white tiles, and in his effort to run from danger, he tripped over a piece of brick on the floor and dropped to his knees.
Elliot wanted to stop this.
Needed to stop this.
He never imagined he’d have to struggle against William. Wasn’t Elliot the host and William just a guest in his body? Laurent had never been nice to Elliot, and Elliot had imagined many gruesome deaths for him, but now that one of them was just a slash of glass away, he didn’t want it to happen. He didn’t want blood on his hands.
My Dark Knight (gay biker romance) (Kings of Hell MC Book 2) Page 26
