by Dani Hermit
“I don’t know if that has to do with him cloning Colton’s powers or something else, but it never happened before.” Boris cut across the highway to get the exit he wanted. “But we never fought anyone for real before either. None of us. We’ve always had the battles planned out, our powers regulated. This shit we’re doing now is insane.”
“You’re right. Can’t believe I’m the one saying this but we need to remember we aren’t trained to be heroes. We are performers. Entertainers. Even in the back lot fights, I’m putting on a show. But here it’s not about being cheered or booed and if we lose,” Thomas shook his head. “Never mind. Let’s just get the little guy back.”
Boris whipped into a parking lot next to an abandoned gas station. He pointed to what looked like it used to be a funeral home. “The bar is in the basement of that building. It’s the first place my contacts suggested for a junkie who isn’t familiar with the area to score. Do you want me to go in first, or are we going to just --” Boris was cut off by Matt jumping out of the back seat. “Okay, never mind. Let’s go before he kills our only lead.”
“I can try to hold him back if you want me to,” Thomas got out of the car. “Matt, we have to use some finesse. We don’t know what we are walking into.” He called after his partner. “Chill out! Colton’s life might depend on it!”
Matt slowed his stalking a little to let the other two catch up. “I know, I know.” He grumbled at Thomas. “But this is my fault. He’d be safe, back at his cozy teaching job if not for me.”
“Seriously?” Boris rolled his eyes. “Fucking emos, the lot of you. The Necromancer wanted Mythos. He was going to get him somehow. And you might never have known he was in danger if you hadn’t crawled out from whatever rock you were hiding under for twenty-five years.”
“He’s right.” Thomas opened the door to the bar. “Without you, there’d be no getting Colton back. I’m guessing the Necromancer was counting on you staying out of it or maybe not even knowing about it. I think the Disk woke you up for just that reason. So maybe it’s enough to be his hero.”
“Philosophize later, kick ass now.”
Boris ducked under Thomas’s arm and strode into the middle of the small bar. It took about half a second to find Curtis. He was curled up in a booth in the corner and was being ignored by the other six or seven people in the room.
“There, let’s go.” Boris made it to the table about half a second ahead of Matt. But the bigger man was able to get to Curtis first.
“Where’s Colton?” Matt demanded, lifting Curtis by his shirt and shaking him a bit.
“Who are you again?” Curtis blinked, barely able to make out a form. “I’ve never seen a talking goldfish before.” Curtis was beyond out of it. He barely knew who he was, let alone who was talking to him or what they wanted. He words were slurry and stunted. “I don’t know any of these guys’ names but I don’t remember a Colton.”
Thomas put a hand on Boris’s shoulder. “Is this the same guy? He doesn’t seem right. Look at his face. He’s been crying. How are we going to get anything from him?”
“It’s him,” Boris sighed. He tried to get Matt to put Curtis down. “He’s high as fuck, aren’t you Curtis?”
“Oh my god! Will you stop harassing me Bori? You’ve been on my case this whole time.” Curtis grumbled at Boris, who he had been hallucinating was there half the night. “I told you I’m not a lightweight. I know how much I can han-” Curtis was cut off as he threw up on Matt’s shoes. “Oh, fuck. Sorry, Mr. Goldfish.”
Matt dropped him, swearing about his new shoes. Boris sighed. He took off his hat and let his ears perk up. He was trying to hear Curtis’s breath and heartbeat, usually an easy task this close to someone but not when his ears were stuffed under a hat. What he heard wasn’t good.
“Curtis, you might have overdone it.” Boris leaned in, trying to ignore the smell of puke and booze. “Do you have your overdose pouch?”
The priests used to make him carry a pouch of injectors carefully labeled for whatever drugs he could potentially overdose on. But that was ages ago. Curtis might be screwed. Not that any one cared. But if Curtis killed himself, they were never going to find Colton.
“I’m perfectly fine, Bori.” Curtis stood up and managed not to fall, but just barely. “Just leave. Or give me one of your knives and I’ll find a bowl of sugar so you can slam the door. You like doing that, don’t you? Why are you even here?” He whined and pushed Boris away. “Whatever. Doesn’t matter. I’m going back to my real friends.” He turned away, stumbling across the bar. “Hey, who’s got a free needle?”
“They did a number on him.” Thomas was horrified. “How does a Chosen get like that?”
“Didn’t you come up in the Villain training camps too?” Boris found himself coming to Curtis’s defense. “I know it didn’t start after you were out. This kind of shit runs deep and long, so you had to have seen it. They used the drugs to control him. And he’s never been clean. I thought he was when we fought him. I thought…” Boris shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.” He handed a motel key on a chain to Matt. “Here, he had this in his pocket.”
“Boris, I didn’t mean anything by it. I guess there’s just stuff you don’t notice or, well, stuff I didn’t notice.” Thomas replied, his eyes still on Curtis, who he could just make out in the other room. The man was tying a tube around his arm and laughing. “So, uh, maybe we should take him for something. A hostage maybe?” His heart was aching. He’d been ignorant, chosen it really. He even put a positive spin on the backlot fights where people often got seriously injured. “It would be the heroic thing to do.”
“We’re not heroes,” Matt reminded Thomas of his own words. “Let him fill his veins with poison and die in the gutter.”
“I hate to agree with Matt,” Boris said after a long moment. “But he did this to himself. He’s had a decade to get clean and this is what he chose.”
Thomas tried to shake off the sadness he felt. “I know.” He spoke out loud the only words that would keep him from trying to help the man. But even they sounded hollow to his ears. Especially with the look of uncertainty he could easily read on Boris’s face. “But Colton didn’t chose any of this. And he sort of left him somewhere where he could be hurt or trapped. So, there’s no reason to look back.”
Curtis was stumbling forward on his way back towards them. “Hey, Bori, don’t be angry. When you come back we can go-” He collapsed to the floor and didn’t seem to have the motor skills to regain his feet. “Well, we’ll talk after I wake up. I don’t mind if you stay until I fall asleep.”
“Let’s go.” Matt turned and stalked out of the bar. “I don’t need to kick his ass. He’s taking care of that for me.”
When they got to the car, Boris handed the keys to Thomas. “Go, get Colton.” He glanced back over his shoulder at the bar. “I have to deal with something. I’ll catch up to you at Syd’s bar.”
Thomas started to say something, anything to stop Boris from going back in to the bar. But he thought it better to let it be for now. There was a history between the two men he didn’t understand and a divide he hadn’t realized between himself and Boris.
“Stay alive.” Thomas said softly and brushed his fingers along Boris’s arm.
“You too,” Boris caught Thomas’s hand and held it for a few seconds. He stuffed his ears back into the hat and turned away.
“Jesus, let’s go.” Matt practically shoved Thomas into the car. “We’re going to see him again in a few hours. Your dick won’t fall off before then.”
“Fuck off, Matt.” Thomas buckled his seat belt and stared out the window. “You aren’t the only one with a heart. And I still wonder if you know how lucky you are,” Thomas muttered, not sure if he wanted Matt to hear him or not.
CHAPTER TEN
The water in the tub had gotten very cold and no amount of twisting and pulling was helping Colton to free himself. He’d tried the ‘I believe’ thing with his power but it didn’t work. May
be it never had. Dark Mirror didn’t seem to need his help to be crazy. Also if he had to speak it aloud, he was screwed because Dark Mirror had made him take the wooden shard between his teeth to keep him from screaming for help. He’d even thought of securing the makeshift gag with some of the duct tape that also held Colton’s hands to the tap.
That was probably why Colton could only maintain control of his body for minutes before whatever power was infused in Leo’s gift sent him spiraling into darkness. Mythos took every advantage when Colton lost his hold on their shared body to find a way to shut him out permanently. Even though he was struggling to fight him, Colton was barely ready for the new attack.
Tell me, host. How afraid are you of the cold?
Colton clawed his way back to some semblance of control. Whatever you’re thinking, a serious attack of the Chills will kill me, and with me you will kill this body. It won’t serve you.
I don’t have to go that far. Mythos sent shivers through Colton as he dropped their body temperature even lower than the tub water. Fear is irrational. It will take you over and make you weak enough to silence you.
Colton bit harder down on the wooden shard, hearing it start to crack. He kicked with his feet. His heart thudded in his chest. As Mythos drove their body temperature as far as he dared, Colton felt the first signs of shock. He didn’t know how to fight a monster hiding inside his own body. Thoughts didn’t work. Memories didn’t warm him. His body began to shake violently. The terror was too real. He fought to breathe in and out of his nose as he started to cry from the perceived pain of an attack of the Chills.
Mythos knew he’d found a way to break him. Hard to believe he got the idea from that idiot Curtis’s attack. Colton’s fight would be over soon enough and the body would be his alone.
“It’s just down here.” Thomas was running down the hallway. “It’s hard to figure out these damn numbers. Even, odd. Fuck! Why not just go in order?”
“Just find it!” Matt was nearly blind with rage.
It was like he could feel Colton nearby but he couldn’t find him. Every minute that they had lost trying to find this shit hole was another minute that Colton was alone and suffering who knew what kind of torment that little druggie had set up for him.
“Here, we haven’t been this way.” Thomas rounded a corner that had about four rooms on either side. “Seriously why is this even here?” He checked the door numbers. “Hall ends at 130, but where the fuck is 117?” He happened to look out into the courtyard. “There! Look! It’s got an outside door. We’ll have to go back around. I think I saw an exit into the courtyard back in the other hall.” He pointed out the window to where there were more rooms in a different section of the motel.
“Fuck that,” Matt snarled, taking a running leap and crashing through the window. He shook off the small cuts from the glass. They’d heal soon enough. He was running across the courtyard, not looking back to see if Thomas was following.
“Or we could do that.” Thomas was hot on Matt’s heels. “Do you even need this key?”
“Ehh, maybe?” Matt replied, not able to stop himself before he hit the wall next to the door. Gasping for breath, he gestured to the lock impatiently. “Let’s go already.”
“Seems kind of anti-climatic to use the key now,” Thomas unlocked the door and a note fell in his face. He looked confused as he read it out loud. “Dear person who might find this, the man in the tub might need a blanket and some warm soup if I don’t return.”
“What in the fuck is that?” Matt pushed into the room ahead of Thomas. “COLTON!” Matt was screaming his name even as he made for the bathroom door in the back of the room.
“Is he okay?” Thomas shut the door and dead-bolted it so no one who came to see what was happening could get in easily. He didn’t want to think about why Colton wasn’t answering. His breath caught in his throat when he saw Matt kneeling by the tub and Colton’s glassy eyes staring at the ceiling. “Oh god, Matt. Is he breathing?”
“Yes! Get the blankets,” Matt ordered, tearing at the thick tape on Colton’s wrists. “Pony, come on. Talk to me.” He was terrified at how cold Colton’s skin was. How still he was laying in the water. Colton might be breathing now, but that could change any second.
Mythos had to take their body to a dangerous level to quiet Colton, but it had been worth it. He’d lucked out as he felt Matt’s arms around him. He could trust Colton’s obsessive lover would be able to undo whatever damage he’d done. He moved his head slightly letting his lolling eyes fall on Matt’s face.
Matt wanted Colton, so he’d get Colton. Mythos could be both himself and Colton. By the time Matt had done what Matt does best, which Mythos was actually looking forward to, they would think they had their precious Colton back but he’d be the one in control. And if Colton dug his way back from the petrified oblivion he’d sent him to, Mythos knew how to send him right back.
“He’s so cold.”
Matt was rubbing Colton dry using the blanket, trying to get some heat in his body. Once that was done, with little effect on his temperature, Matt grabbed the dry blanket Thomas was holding and bundled Colton up tightly. He held him, cradling him close, whispering then yelling at Colton, desperate for some kind of response.
“You really aren’t good at this whole keeping him safe. Keeping him yours. Are you?” Mythos, bored already of pretending to be Colton, didn’t want this too be easy for Matt. Also the madder he got Matt, the more he was prone to sexy violence. “I’m the one keeping both of us alive. I always have been. I couldn’t keep that train wreck from touching and abusing this body though.”
“You fucking monster,” Matt threw Colton down on the bed, furious that it was Mythos talking to him. “Can’t you just fucking leave? That body you keep getting fucked up isn’t yours.”
“It was always mine.” Mythos hissed. “Since the day the Disk gave it to me. Your bedroom games only delayed the inevitable. And without him getting a say, this may not go the way you’re expecting.”
Thomas stood near the bed as it wasn’t a big room. “Do we need an exorcist or something?”
“Hey, Anvil. You want to try to get that fantasy started again? All the players are here.” Mythos ran a hand over his nipple and licked his lips. Then he shivered. “Oh, I shouldn’t tease. Even I am having trouble keeping up this body’s will to live. What Dark Mirror did seemed to shut it down. Amazing what you can wash away with some bath water and a Chosen’s healing ability.”
“Thomas, it’s probably better if you leave. Go get something warm for Colton to eat. Call and check up on Boris. Just be elsewhere for a while.” Matt said, clenching his fists tightly at his sides. He did not need the reminder of what happened at Serpent Mound. He did not need to have his impotent rage directed at Thomas. He needed to focus, take back control, and force Mythos back into submission.
“Right.” Thomas was happy to be dismissed. “Oh yeah, this.” He slung the duffel bag he was carrying down on the floor. Pointing to it awkwardly, he tried to explain. “Boris told me you might need the stuff in here. He didn’t know if you, uh, carried the kind of things you and Colton, uh, you know, used for, uh… Yeah, so… Going.”
Thomas couldn’t get out of the room fast enough. He leaned against the door wishing Boris was here. There were a lot of places they could be fucking right now. Fucking and laughing and forgetting.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The duffel bag was well stocked with restraints and an assortment of sex toys. Matt wondered just how much Boris had planned for and why was it that they hadn’t decided on him as their leader. He was the one with the resources and the foresight to keep them out of trouble. It was probably his shitty personality.
Turning to look at the smirking face waiting for him on the bed, Matt resisted the urge to sigh. Colton’s face looked distorted and wrong with the expression Mythos was twisting it into. Rubbing his face, Matt tried again to regain his focus. He needed to draw Colton back out from whatever corner of his psyche he
was hiding in.
But that meant starting the kinky game with Mythos, who quite frankly wilted Matt’s boner. The whatever it was that inhabited Colton’s body and controlled his powers made Matt uncomfortable. It made him feel like he was some inexperienced kid who didn’t know his dick from his elbow. That wasn’t how he should feel right now. He needed every bit of confidence and bravado he could find. He had to be absolutely in control. Of Colton, of himself, and unfortunately, of Mythos.
“Why do you hesitate? I would think that you have some primitive urge to remind this body who it belongs to.” Mythos sat on the edge of the bed, the blanket covering his bottom half as if he were modest. “I could describe in detail what happened when Dark Mirror and Colton were alone before I decided to intervene.”
Mythos was laying it on thick, just in case Curtis returned. Matt would be preoccupied with trying to kill him and Mythos could slip out and make his own way to Leo. If he wanted to, that is. Right now though, he was fixated on Matt. Maybe a little too much. He was watching how Matt moved. He found himself thinking thoughts so similar to Colton’s that he had to chase away the concern that his host had crawled back to challenge him again.
“No one asked for your opinion,” Matt snapped.
He began digging in the duffel bag, coming up with a pair of wrist restraints and a gag. He grabbed Colton’s arms, pulling him up off the bed. Turning him around and pushing his face down against the mattress, Matt twisted his wrists behind his back and bound them together. Gripping Colton’s hair, he brought him back to standing, ignoring the blanket that fell away completely. Matt’s hands went to work, forcing his mouth open to take the silicon gag shaped much like a bridle bit. Matt secured it behind Colton’s head then he went back to the bag, satisfied that he would have peace.
Mythos hadn’t expected that to be Matt’s first move. Or even a move at all. If there was one thing he thought Matt craved, it was the sound of Colton’s slow fall into submission. If there was one place he’d have any leverage over controlling Matt it was what he said as himself and while pretending to be Colton. How could he pretend to be his host now? How could he signal the change to Matt? The helpless feeling washing over him wasn’t useful.