Bad Seed

by Gareth Vaughn

  “The hell is this?” asked Dane. “Bether ball?”

  “Beth-herbal,” said Sean, pronouncing it so Dane could hear where the syllables should break. “Bethany’s home-based business.”

  “So? I’m busy.”

  “So, look where she lived,” said Sean, pointing.

  “Out by Blue Bell Creek. Shit. I think there’s a…” Dane trailed off, switched to a whisper, “magic source somewhere around there. Haven’t mapped them all yet, and the damned things are moving.”

  “Great, that’s what I would’ve guessed,” said Sean, snapping the laptop shut. “I still have a few hours free today, let’s get going.” By the time he’d packed up his laptop and grabbed his coffee and muffin, he realized Dane was giving him a look of barely-concealed suspicion.

  “What are you doing, professor?”

  “Taking you on a field trip,” said Sean. He didn’t know why he was being so bold, but he figured since Dane was already out of his reach, he didn’t have anything to lose. And he was legitimately curious about magic shit.

  The expression on Dane’s face shifted. Clearly he took this as a challenge. Sean waited for Dane to leave Winter instructions and then led the way out to his car. Dane seemed irritated to have to be passenger, but got in nevertheless. He pulled out his gun and began checking it over; Sean nearly slammed on his breaks.

  “You brought that?”

  “Don’t know what we’ll find. Where there’s magic, there’s monsters, professor. Unless you brought me along for a date and not a bit of detective work. You never mentioned what you thought of that kiss, but I couldn’t help but notice you’ve been coming back regularly since then.”

  Sean glared at the road in front of him, unable to respond. He could feel a flush creeping up his neck and tried to will it away.

  “Not that I’m upset. It’s always nice to know I can drag a man away from his simple, law-abiding life with one little kiss. Not even a good one. Can’t tell if you’re desperate or stupid. You did let a tree kick the shit out of you.”

  “You don’t need to do that, either,” said Sean, slowing to turn onto the road that would take them to Blue Bell Creek. “Obnoxious flirting. Making us both uncomfortable.”

  “I’m not uncomfortable.”

  Sean took a deep breath. He was. He was uncomfortable, uncomfortable and frustrated, and he liked how Dane had dropped everything to follow him out into the Bleu Falls countryside after some lead on a death he didn’t even seem particularly interested in. Sean wanted that to mean something but knew he shouldn’t look at it too closely—it was more likely Dane wanted another opportunity to discharge his weapon.

  Sean bit his lip. Shit, even his mind was phrasing things in ways that turned him on. He swallowed and focused only on finding the correct turn. Luckily, the purple-and-green Betherbal logo had been painted on a sign hanging from a mailbox. He signaled and turned.

  “I was going to let Ned’s little theory drop,” said Dane, now on his phone. “Not like the Order told me to look into it.”

  “You don’t want to catch a murderer?”

  Dane sighed loudly.

  “Do you, professor? It’s dangerous, we’re outside the law, and shit like this isn’t straightforward. You have to find the right guy, make sure he doesn’t know you’re coming, take him out fast. And if there’s magic involved…”

  “Not something you do as a Decrypter?” asked Sean. The driveway was long and lumpy, and he half expected Bethany’s family to be around, but to his relief when they reached the little ranch house surrounded by trees, it looked deserted.

  “I’m not with the detective branch. Why are you so interested in this? Trying to get into my pants?”

  “My simple, law-abiding life got boring. And you’re the one who made a move on me.”

  “You haven’t told me yet you didn’t like it,” said Dane as they got out of the car. He put his phone away and pulled out the gun instead. “You wanna get behind me?”

  “Fuck, yes,” said Sean, eyes trailing to his ass. Dane glared at him.

  “Pervert,” he said, and led the way.

  Chapter 6

  He cleared the house first, a small ranch reeking of magic. Dane tried to hide his disappointment—it would have been nice to use the gun. Out in the middle of nowhere like this, he’d have less to deal with afterward. He’d had to get the Order to interfere the other day about the noise and then the flames when he’d gone after those trees. Fucking ghosts.

  “I can’t tell whether this is creepy or cozy,” said Sean, wandering through the main living space when Dane returned from the bathroom. One thing was consistent about Bethany’s home: it was full of herbs. They hung from lines overhead, drying, and various stages of her products sat on card tables around the room. There wasn’t even a couch here.

  “Weird,” said Dane, reluctantly putting his gun back. “Have a look at your arm.”

  He watched Sean do a double-take as he saw the hairs standing on end. Dane felt his doing likewise, something that tended to happen around highly concentrated magic. It made him nervous.

  “Electricity?” asked Sean.

  Dane grunted.

  “Magic.”

  “Shit. Was she a witch or something? Are there witches?”

  “Yeah, witches exist, but she doesn’t look like one.” Dane glanced around, feeling the weight of all the drying plants pressing down on him. “Maybe just starting out. Witches got a whole bunch of other shit around usually, stones, crystals, fucking odd-ass pieces of wood, shit like that.”

  “So she was just using magical herbs in her soaps? Is that weird?”

  “Yeah,” said Dane, eyes searching for the ceiling. “Yeah, it is.”

  He glanced back at Sean and their eyes met. Shit, he did actually like this damned professor. Sean rolled with things. He wasn’t bad looking. He was around. All things Dane found agreeable, including how he got flustered whenever things got just a bit too seriously sexual. Sean glanced away and then made his way back to the bedrooms. Dane took a final look around before following.

  The room Bethany had slept in was the only place free from herbs or any of her other products. Dane guessed it was the only thing enabling her to get a decent night’s rest—if you weren’t used to magic, it was hard to sleep through that much energy hovering around in the air. The spare bedroom was another matter. While the bed was done up, there were stacks and stacks of plastic boxes filled with finished products. The closet held shipping boxes and flat-rate bags, and a closed laptop sat on a desk.

  “I guess this was her life,” said Sean.

  “Yeah. Pathetic.”

  Sean turned to him. There wasn’t a lot of room to stand what with all the boxes and a whole fucking queen-sized bed squeezed into the room, and they were barely a foot away from each other. Dane considered kissing Sean again, just to see him get worked up.

  “Not everyone’s funded by a secret rich organization. It takes a lot of work to make any money from a small business.” Sean paused. “You going to move so we can get out of here?”

  Dane grinned. When he leaned in, Sean tipped backward. Away from him. Away from his lips.

  “Shy, professor?”

  “Is it the magic? Is that what’s getting to you?”

  “Maybe I like making you uncomfortable.”

  “Trust me, I’m not uncomfortable,” said Sean, then pushed his hand on Dane’s chest as though to force him back. Dane let him. Sean brushed past him, then turned last moment and kissed him. He’d obviously meant it to be like what had happened Friday night, but Dane wanted to see how far he’d go. Maybe the magic was messing with him, just a little. Not unusual—it wound people up, excitement, rage, whatever. And Dane hadn’t had anything to shoot since he got here.

  So Dane kissed back, open-mouthed, Sean going along with it immediately before pulling back. Dane felt excitement crackle through him, his cock swelling. Sean’s pupils had grown in the last thirty seconds and he licked his lips.
/>   “Only seemed fair to embarrass you, too,” he said.

  Dane grinned.

  “I’m not embarrassed.”

  “Not embarrassed, not uncomfortable.” Sean’s eyes flicked down to Dane’s crotch, where even his jeans were struggling to hide what was going on. The professor was wearing slacks, though, and he was very visibly enjoying himself. “Anything else you’re not?”

  “Satisfied,” said Dane.

  Sean made a face.

  “That’s not as smooth as you think.”

  “Shut up,” said Dane, and leaned forward to kiss him again.

  Sean didn’t resist, in fact pulled Dane to him, kissing back hard. When his hands found the waistband of Dane’s jeans, hooked them and tugged, undid the button, Dane pulled back. “Are you sur—”

  “Don’t fucking ask that. Get rid of the gun.”

  Dane pulled it out and set it on a plastic tote, his hunting knife, too, Sean’s mouth on him the entire time, hard, demanding. These were hungry, needy kisses, not sensual but to the point. If he had a guess, he’d suspect the professor hadn’t had a partner in as long as he had, maybe longer. And even if the Order looked on it sourly, Dane wasn’t about to turn down an offer.

  Sean dragged him to the bed, unzipped him, and yanked his jeans down enough to palm his cock through his boxers. Dane pulled their mouths together again, hand on the back of Sean’s head, and thrust up against the pressure. What he really wanted was to bury himself somewhere tight and warm, but he’d take what he could get.

  Sean released his cock, pulled back, and spat on his hand. On the first stroke he pressed his mouth back on Dane’s, forceful. He stroked hard, almost too hard, but Dane liked it, hadn’t had anyone’s hand around his cock but his own in too long to want it to stop. He tried to make it last but he was too tight, too into what Sean was doing. He grabbed Sean’s stubbly jaw with his other hand as he came, riding it out against his mouth. When he let Sean up he gasped.

  “Still not embarrassed?”

  “Still not satisfied, either,” said Dane. He grabbed Sean’s shoulders and shoved him down to the bed, planted his lips on Sean’s again. “Your turn, professor.”

  “Don’t call me that.”

  Dane yanked his pants and underpants down to his shoes, freeing his cock all at once. Sean gasped; Dane stepped on the pants on the floor as he pulled out a condom. He liked to be prepared for anything.

  “You prefer sir, professor?”

  Sean squirmed, sat up a little, but he wasn’t going anywhere with Dane pinning his feet to the floor. Dane grabbed his cock, a nice size, and rolled the condom onto it roughly.

  “Just,” began Sean, then, when Dane leaned down and took him into his mouth, “Fuck!”

  Dane held him down at the hips, not letting Sean fuck him, forcing him to endure Dane’s pacing instead. Sean groaned, swore, but didn’t reach the pleading stage—he came too soon for that, completely encased in Dane’s mouth. Dane was tempted to release him mid-orgasm but decided against being that cruel; instead Dane merely left Sean in place once he’d finished and stalked back into the kitchen.

  He hated the taste of condom. This dead woman had to have something to get the foulness out, and he didn’t mean mouthwash. Dane threw open all the cupboard doors, still searching when Sean staggered in, pulling up his pants.

  “Didn’t she drink?” asked Dane, hearing himself growl the words. He was pissed he hadn’t grabbed his flask.

  “Check the fridge for wine,” said Sean.

  He sounded spent. Dane would feel smug about that later. He yanked open the fridge and found exactly no wine.

  “Fucking total tea drinker,” he muttered. When he turned back Sean was offering him a chocolate bar, organic fair-trade shit with flecks of health in it.

  “You mean teetotaler? At least she has chocolate.”

  “She was a friggin’ health nut,” said Dane around bites of chocolate. He ate the whole bar without offering any to Sean. “What a damn loss.”

  “Don’t be so sarcastic. She’s barely dead.”

  “Yeah, she’s passed on already,” said Dane. He pushed past Sean to collect his gun and knife again. “Not too worried about anything from her.”

  “Dane…”

  “Shut up, we’re not done searching the place.”

  Dane led the way out the back door into the yard and Sean followed. Back here there was a concrete patio covered in pots of plants. Dane saw herbs, mostly, and a few small trees. He moved down to the creek, gun out, then along it.

  “How far does her land go?” he asked.

  Sean trailed behind.

  “I don’t know. But I’d think…” He trailed off as a deer path opened out into a clearing of sorts, dotted with circular impressions in the grass. Dane’s hair, already on end, almost felt like it was vibrating.

  “Here,” he said, gritting his teeth. He hadn’t been this close to one of the wells of magic yet and despite having just gotten off it was doing something pleasantly unpleasant to his body. Sean moved up to stand beside him, then grabbed his arm and yanked him back a few paces, out of the worst of it.

  “That’s the magic source, then. Is it where it’s supposed to be?”

  Dane shook his head. He wanted to put his gun down but the abundance of magic made him wary. There was no telling what it had done to the animals here, and he wasn’t planning on dying today.

  “Thought it was in the creek here,” he said.

  Sean released him.

  “I guess it moved. She was using it to grow her plants magically? I thought she wasn’t a witch. Dane?”

  “I’m thinking,” he said, waving a hand at Sean. He was annoyed. Something like this he’d definitely have to report to the Order, and if Bethany had been using magic without belonging to any sect or association, that was definitely a problem. Your standard person wasn’t supposed to know about any of this—there were too many people for anything good to come of them all knowing about magic.

  “I’m going back to the car,” said Sean after several long minutes. “It’s getting dark. We’ve probably seen everything we’re going to.”

  Dane followed him back, only putting the gun away once they’d reached the car. Much as he didn’t like the situation, he could see he was going to have to look into it. He slid into the passenger seat and closed the door, but Sean didn’t start the car.

  “What happened back there?”

  “Oh, hell,” said Dane, yanking his seatbelt and clicking it into place as hard as he could. “Not this.”

  “We’re not going to talk about it?” asked Sean. Dane knew he was examining him but he refused to look over.

  “What’s there to talk about?” He paused, ran a hand through his hair. “Look, I had fun—you obviously enjoyed yourself—there you have it. Doesn’t mean anything. Just a bit of fucking around.”

  “Right,” said Sean. Dane couldn’t tell whether he was disappointed or not. But if the asshole was going to get all clingy about it, he could always report Sean to the Order and let them handle it. Not that it was decent of Dane, not that he wanted to…The sound of the engine starting interrupted his thoughts.

  “Wanna get a burger?” he asked.

  Sean stopped at the end of the driveway and signaled. The professor looked over at him with one of those expressions saved for annoying students.

  “Going out to eat usually happens before the fucking.”

  “I’m hungry,” said Dane.

  He wasn’t going to talk about this. Sean could get over it. After a moment Sean sighed.

  “Yeah, me, too,” he said, and pulled onto the road.

  Chapter 7

  He hadn’t been able to get Dane to leave the gun in the car, and Sean wasn’t sure how he felt about it. He was allowed to concealed carry here, but Sean hadn’t ever thought much about that sort of thing before. Now he wondered just how many people did. He smiled to himself. Within the span of a few days he’d been attacked by trees possessed by a ghost and discov
ered magical energies were real, and it was everyday people who scared him. Of course.

  “What?” asked Dane, the word coming out as a half-grunt around his food. He was nearly done with his burger and fries, while Sean was barely halfway. “Not still thinking about that blowjob, are you? I know I’m good, but—”

  “For fuck’s sake,” said Sean, hunching away from a passing waitress and then leaning forward to hiss at Dane. “You’re the one who didn’t want to talk about it.”

  Dane grinned, fry hanging out of his mouth. Sean scowled out the window. He’d been trying his damndest not to think about what they’d done and Dane had to go and torment him. He’d enjoyed himself too much, even if it had been rushed, and didn’t want to consider that it had been a one-time thing. It was either that or Dane didn’t want a relationship, which made sense considering where he was in life and what his life was like, disposing of creatures, but it made Sean ache. He wanted more. Still, if it wasn’t a one-time thing, and Dane was into casually getting off together now and then, he wasn’t going to refuse what he could get.

  He shouldn’t be thinking about this.

  “Admit you’re still thinking about it and I’ll admit you had a point about looking into this death.”

  Sean rolled his eyes.

  “I’m not admitting to anything,” he said. “But you think we should be looking into Bethany now why? The magic there?”

  “Mostly,” said Dane, scowling. He finished his food, wiped his hands on a napkin, and threw it on the plate. “Not normal. And if she was into shit and not with an org, we have a problem. Will have to track down anyone she might have told about her new blend of herbs and get their minds set straight.”

  “You mean report them to the Order.”

  “It’s my job.”

  “How much do they pay you?”

  “A whole business, a whole lotta weapons.”

  “Don’t tell me that means I’m paying,” said Sean, holding back a groan.

  “Nah, I get a stipend.”

  “Good. Because whatever you heard about professors being paid grandly, it isn’t true.” He paused. “Does this mean you’re not reporting me, then?” Dane leaned back and smugly crossed his arms. “Asshole.”