Fine Lines: Burn Outs #2

by Dani Hermit

  But he couldn’t throw them at Mythos. That shit only worked in the movies. He needed to get close enough to stick him and hit the plunger to force the medicine into his veins. Oh, and maybe a prayer that something so mundane would work on Mythos.

  Thomas wasn’t looking so good but he was fighting Mythos’s suggestion. “Would have already done that. Impossible.” His brain said no but his body was agreeing with Colton. “Got to be careful, Colton. Can’t throw that word around so easily.” He was coming to his senses but his heart was physically aching. Breathing was hard. “Think I need some air.”

  “I believe you’ll be fine if you…” Mythos considered his next words. He was feeling his power straining against what Thomas could handle. “Do something for me.”

  He hadn’t meant to kill him, just toy with him. The intention was too vague and Thomas knocked him off as he started gasping for air. “I didn’t say you could die!” Mythos got up from the floor and bellowed at Thomas. “You stupid man, listen to me.”

  This was the only chance Boris was going to get. Diving towards Colton, not worried about what shards might find their way to him, Boris crashed into the back of the screaming man. He plunged the needle into his leg and hopefully pushed enough of the sedative in before he rolled away, losing the needle somewhere in the mess on the floor.

  “How many more of those you got?” Mythos’s voice indicated a slight drowsiness but nothing that was going to keep him down long. He started to move and discovered that his motor skills were affected and he was having trouble getting to his feet. He fought not to let that show as he faced Boris. “Because unless you have back ups, I am going to end you.”

  Thomas rolled off the table, grabbing at nothing.

  “You’re not dying, you neanderthal.” Mythos snapped at him, trying to deal with him while not losing sight of Boris.

  “Come on then,” Boris hissed, pulling out another syringe. “Let’s see if you can.” He launched himself forward, meaning to take advantage of Mythos not being able to get up off the floor. It was going to be tricky, and he was going to end up with more glass embedded in his skin than he would like, but Boris thought he just might be able to do it.

  Mythos tried to get to his feet without suffering from his own attack. The floor was covered in broken glass and he kept searching for places that wouldn’t result in a hand full of shards. Finally just as Boris was practically on him, Mythos brushed away a few bits and went to push himself up. For reasons he could not determine there was suddenly, almost comically, an actual bottle under his foot and he fell back right in the line of Boris’s attack. He shouted, glass biting into his palms as he tried to break his fall.

  Boris was on top of Colton and he jabbed the needle into the side of his neck, praying this was enough. He had a couple more doses, but fighting him was getting exhausting.

  “Thomas, you manage not to die?” Boris asked, gasping.

  Mythos was weak, his Chosen metabolism trying to fight off the much more effective dose of sedative. He pushed his bloody hands with minimal strength to get Boris off of him. His only hope was how distracted Boris might be from Thomas’s silence. He might have time to send just enough power at Cat Fight to get away. Because if he didn’t escape, he wasn’t sure Boris wouldn’t kill him and take off before Matt could murder Boris back.

  “I don’t believe you want to hurt me, do you?”

  “Don’t be a fucking idiot,” Boris snapped. “Of course I don’t want to hurt you. But I don’t want you to hurt anyone else either.”

  Boris considered strangling Mythos until he fell unconscious, but that might take too long. He opted for using the butt end of the nearest knife and smacking him in the temple. Mythos fell silent and by some miracle knocking him unconscious broke his hold on Thomas’s disturbed mind.

  Thomas used the table to push himself up. “That decides that.”

  “You OK? Can you help me with him?” Boris asked, attempting to lift Colton up. But in his Cat Fight form, he wasn’t much bigger than Colton and even though he was strong, it was awkward. “We need to restrain him before he wakes up.”

  “I am about as far from okay as I can be.” Thomas turned around once he’d put himself to rights. No way was he going to talk to Cat Fight with his dick hanging out. “But yeah, I’m guessing there’s a way to tie him down in the chair. There’s cords and stuff.” He lifted the limp body.

  “Colton’s in trouble,” Thomas sighed. “I don’t think we’re getting him back without a clear victory.”

  Thomas was glad for a few minutes where he could focus on something he could help with because every instinct told him he should run away and never see any of them again. He never should have touched Colton the first time while they were at Serpent Mound. He had no excuse for what just happened.

  Gathering up what he could find, Boris helped Thomas wrap Colton in a blanket and then tie him to the chair. Once that was done, he turned to clean up the glass and knives, but they had disappeared. They must have been a manifestation of Mythos’s power so couldn’t stay corporeal once he was unconscious. Turning back to Thomas, Boris took hold of his sagging waistband, and used it to pull him away from Colton.

  “What the fuck happened?” He asked. Boris pressed close to Thomas, craving the physical connection and hoping it would help Thomas as well.

  “Well, uh, based on what happened… Is there a nice way to cut him off from his powers? Or at least keep his mouth shut.” Thomas was a wreck and Boris so close was the last thing he needed. Not the last thing he wanted, however. “He’s off the charts since we fought Dark Mirror. He is able to change the wiring in your brain. Prey on your darkest-- Fuck, Boris. I think he’s as bad as Blue Bolt.”

  Thomas tried not to be distracted by Cat Fight, who he thought he could love just as much as his counterpart, if given a chance. The warmth of his body threatened another attack of loneliness.

  “I wish we could have what they have.” It just was there suddenly, words Thomas never intended to say out loud. He covered it quickly. “But that isn’t going to happen. I’m out of here tonight. How can you not hate me? Did you see what I did to your old friend? After that, the one in a million chance of us being a thing, became about one in a hundred thousand or I mean two million. Fuck, one in a fucking lot.” Thomas felt like a moron as he stood there wanting to lose himself in Cat Fight and, whenever he changed back, Boris too.

  “What do you mean you’re out of here?” Boris took half a step back, though his grip on Thomas’s belt loops tightened. “You’re needed here. Remember what we talked about? The inside man. Once I’ve left to do that, Matt and Colton…” Boris trailed off, his eyes dropping as he realized what he was missing. “Oh. I see.”

  “Don’t fucking need me.” Thomas finished the sentence Boris had started. “You’re the one that keeps this team together. And I’ve learned enough about myself to know I can do what needs to be done. You aren’t a monster but I am. We need to destroy that little prick that can control people. Tear him apart and tear his organization to shreds. I’m going in. I’m going to save my friend from this asshole by making the Necromancer my little bitch. And then I’m going back to the back lots where I can’t hurt anybody ever again.”

  Thomas’s eyes were wet but clear. “We don’t need a inside man. We need a bomb. A weapon. That little brat won’t be leading me around by my dick.”

  “Jesus, Thomas.” Boris reached up to take his face in both hands. “I get it. I know why you need to do this. Just promise me this won’t be a kamikaze mission.” Boris tried to find a way to say what he was feeling. “This fight could destroy any of us. Maybe all of us. But if it doesn’t… Maybe there’s more for us after this. This doesn’t have to be the end.”

  Thomas wished he could get Colton to use his freaky mind powers to make him believe what Boris suggested was even possible. “I can only promise I will do what it takes to guarantee a future for as many of us as possible.” He looked into Boris’s eyes. “And if that ca
n include more than I can see as a possibility right now, I’ll fight for it. But you have to make me a promise.” He grabbed both of Cat Fight’s arms and kissed him hard on the lips.

  Boris leaned into Thomas, purring and kissing him back. Everything was a mess, but this at least felt like something that might be going right. That is, if they managed to get through all this intact.

  Thomas pulled back abruptly. “You kiss him like that at least once. In your other form. I’m not going to come back a grade A home-wrecker. And we both know what’s waiting for him if we let him go. I’m pretty sure the Necromancer left Colton to die back at Serpent Mound. That guy’s best bet is to stay here with you, getting himself sober. Try to understand, what happened with Colton… I can’t be the odd man out again. And you are not over him or you were never with him or I don’t fucking know. But I know you care about him.”

  “He can’t stay here,” Boris said, shaking his head and intentionally ignoring what Thomas was saying about him and Curtis. It was a stupid notion they’d sort out later. “Matt will kill him, no doubt about that. But he could be your way in. If he takes you back as the consolation prize. Do you think that you can sell that? That you’ve turned or seen the light or whatever.”

  Boris didn’t like it, but he wasn’t about to let Thomas go with nothing resembling a plan. “You can slip out of here with him tonight. While I make sure Matt and Colton are distracted. I’ll tell them what’s going on after.”

  “I’m a performer,” Thomas puffed up. “I can sell anything. And once I’m established, I’ll keep an eye on him. But,” He folded his arms. “If you want to clear the way for us, you need to make that promise. Go in, talk to him, kiss him, and think about what it feels like. Say what you want, Boris, but you went back for him and he almost got run down by my SUV in a middle of a battle trying to protect tiny kitten you. I didn’t realize what I was seeing at first since I thought I was gonna die. But that happened. And that’s Matt and Colton type behavior.”

  Thomas was really getting sick of his own tears. “And I hate that. And it sucks. And I almost killed him for it.”

  “That sounds like Matt and Colton stuff to me, too,” Boris said, standing on tiptoe to kiss Thomas again.

  Thomas closed his eyes and returned the kiss. “You’re making this hard.”

  “That’s the point,” Boris purred, rubbing against Thomas.

  Pushing Boris away as gently as he could, Thomas shook his head. “I need to be alone, Boris. I need to get myself ready. And can you trust yourself in this form anyway?”

  Before he lost his nerve, Thomas headed for the back door. “If you ever even thought about loving me, keep the promise. I could love you, Boris. As much as I could love anyone. But this is where I bow out for now.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  “And then I let him walk out,” Boris said to the unconscious Curtis as he finished changing the bandages on his burns. The remnants of the adrenaline shot and the accelerated healing of a Chosen had kept them from being life-threatening, but the marks weren’t going away anytime soon. “I didn’t stop him. I didn’t tell him that I felt the same. Nothing. Just let him walk out and fuck, that’s no way to leave things.”

  Once he had regained his regular form, Boris had come out to check on Curtis. None of the plans he talked to Thomas about were going to work if Curtis died. During the process of working on his wounds, Boris had started talking to Curtis for lack of anyone else to talk to. He told him everything that happened from walking in on Thomas and Colton, to the fight, to everything they’d said to each other after. It was easier to say the things going on in his head to someone who wasn’t able to hear him.

  “Can you believe that he thinks you and I have a thing? Or had a thing. Or I guess, more like, he thinks we could have a thing.” Boris began patting the smaller burns with a cotton ball soaked in antiseptic. “Isn’t that crazy? He said I should talk to you, and kiss you. He thinks that he’s so damned unlovable, but you’ve met him. You know he’s not, right?” Boris threw the used cotton balls into a trash bin. “Well, you probably don’t actually. You probably think that I’m better off without him but he’s not like that usually. What he did to you, it isn’t Thomas.”

  Boris sighed and leaned back. He was exhausted. But there was still work to do. He couldn’t keep the ambulance here for much longer. It was going to be noticed eventually. And then there were the two men who were sleeping off being sedated. And Thomas. What the fuck was he going to do about Thomas?

  “It will be okay, Bori.”

  Curtis’s voice was still wrecked from the ice and the screaming. He’d heard every word. He even tried to stop Boris from talking, but everything was so much work. Opening his eyes. Using his mouth. Consciousness was hard. He really wasn’t up for the ridiculousness or the pain of discussing Boris and him having something. But he loved him anyway, always had. Romance be damned.

  “I’d have given anything to stay your partner, but I knew you wouldn’t be happy. So I fixed it. But I’m not surprised someone loves you. I’m happy to hear that you want to love him back.”

  “Shit,” Boris didn’t open his eyes or sit up. “You heard me?” He sighed again and figured it didn’t matter now. “I don’t know if he loves me. He said he could. Right now it’s more like good sex with someone I don’t hate. And I think it’s the same for him. I think he’s still in love with Matt. Or maybe Colton. Both of them? I don’t know.”

  “He cares for you.” Curtis started coughing and had to wait it out before he could keep talking. “He acted on the jealousy of someone passionate. It didn’t read as his regular energy.”

  Boris adjusted the gurney so that Curtis could sit up. He held a bottled water to Curtis’s lips. “Drink.” After letting the other man get a few sips, Boris took the water away. Part of him felt like he should confide in Curtis what they were planning. But Boris knew that no matter how vulnerable he was being with this man who might have been his friend, he could not endanger Thomas. “I think I’ve lost him, Curtis. Whatever might have been, all this is too much.”

  “If he loves you the way I believe he does, all this won’t matter.” The water was already improving the sounds coming out of Curtis. “Think of how nothing hit you in that battle or how you didn’t get caught up in my crazy or how that car just missed taking us both out. You were born under a lucky star, I swear. The universe won’t be able to keep you apart. It’s just, you know, your story just started right? But,” Curtis blushed, hoping his face was still too red from healing for it to be seen.

  “Don’t start it with a lie. Kiss me like he asked you to. Maybe he just needs to know how silly you think his request is. Maybe he’s peeking. Maybe he’s insecure. And when you can look him in the eye and reassure his heart you only want him, you’ll get back to that fun fucking and move on.” Curtis coughed again. This time there was some blood. He licked it off his lips because he couldn’t wipe it away.

  “I know,” Curtis sighed. “It’s not appealing. I feel like I might look like the Phantom of the Opera. But even at my sexiest, I wouldn’t be appealing to you. Because it’s not really about us. It’s about those other two and his issues. And, yeah, probably the trust between the two of you.”

  “Christ, when did you get so smart?” Boris used one of the cotton pads and water to clean up Curtis’s face. “I don’t want to kiss you, and…” Boris’s mind caught up to something that Curtis said. He churned over what he said about being born under a lucky star. That was something worth remembering for later. “And you’re both idiots, but if it will keep the two of you from harassing me forever, I guess I have to.”

  “Can I put a hand in your hair just so it’s less, uh, uncomfortable. I assume we’re supposed to pretend for the duration we mean it. You can strap me right back down and it can be my left hand.” Curtis waggled his fingers. “The one not quite working right just yet.”

  Boris rolled his eyes. “Fine, but no funny stuff.” He undid the straps on Curtis’s hand,
and sat down on the edge of the gurney. He felt silly doing this. It felt like something middle school kids would try. But it wasn’t like any of them had normal upbringings. They’d missed out on most of the usual dating and growing up stuff. “Ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be.”

  Curtis slid his shaky hand into Boris’s soft hair and he was nineteen again petting his head in the motel room they shared. Back when he desperately wanted Boris to kiss him. Suddenly, this was the worst idea ever. This would hurt more than maybe anything that had happened to him today. He’d just put everything he felt into it. Let his heart finally twist in knots and untwist with time. Let Boris go. Let himself stop asking what if.

  Drugs. God, he needed drugs. Maybe he’d ask Boris for his vial back. No, this was just like the hotel room only more important. This had to be goodbye.

  Leaning in, careful of Curtis’s injuries, Boris kissed him. He tried to do what Thomas asked. To see if this felt like when they kissed. It wasn’t bad. It could be nice, even, if Boris wasn’t trying to compare it to the heat that sprung up between him and Thomas. Boris could easily stretch out next to Curtis and keep kissing him for a while. Was that what he was supposed to figure out? What exactly was it that Thomas thought this was going to achieve?

  Curtis curled his fingers in Boris’s hair and held him closer exploring all of the flavors and textures of his mouth. It was more than he’d imagined and he fought not to cry. His bottom lip trembled. Why did it have to feel like this? Like a preview of a life never lived. He managed to blink away the tears before they started. He let his hand fall away from Boris’s hair, just barely sliding down his back and continuing back to the edge of the gurney. He waited for Boris to pull away, stabbing his fingernails into his own palm to distract himself from his feelings until Boris left and he was alone again.

  Pulling back, Boris stroked Curtis’s face and he felt a stab in his heart. This was the one that he missed out on. He’d known it for years, even when he tried to pretend otherwise. No going back now, though. There was no hope. They were on opposite sides and there was Thomas.