by Deanna Chase
Revik didn’t plan to break into Torek’s apartment, of course.
Old habits died hard, and all that.
“Good morning, brother!” Torek said, opening his arms without getting up. He smiled up at Revik from a padded wooden deck chair on the balcony.
The deck set alone looked designer, Revik noted, and expensive, if well-used.
Revik hadn’t moved, but stood by the door to the balcony, his posture bordering on wary. Glancing behind him, he realized the violet-eyed seer had already disappeared. When he looked back, Torek was watching him, that amused look back in his eyes, along with a more intent scrutiny. Revik felt pain on his light, too.
“And how are you, my brother?” Torek said politely, still smiling.
“Jet lagged,” Revik said.
Torek laughed. “Of course you are. Would you like to sit? Or did you plan to keep your current posture…presumably so you can bolt as quickly as possible?”
Revik felt his jaw harden, but when Torek laughed again, he shook his head, clicking softly. Walking to the table with deliberate strides, he pulled out the wooden chair across from Torek and sank his weight onto the blue and white striped padded material. He glanced up when a white-clad waiter appeared, human, holding a silver carafe of coffee. He shook his head to the unspoken question when the man leaned over him, motioning with his fingers towards the coffee cup by Revik’s plate.
“No,” Revik said. “Tea.”
The human nodded, retreating back through the glass doors. Seconds later he returned, holding a bone china tea pot. The human poured silently while Revik watched, then placed milk and sugar by his cup.
“Breakfast, sir? We have wild mushroom and goat cheese crepes, as well as––“
“Sure. Whatever. That’s fine.”
Revik barely glanced up at the human as he said it, only dimly aware he’d interrupted him as he went back to watching Torek warily.
The gold-eyed seer was definitely way too happy to see him.
“Your…employee,” Revik said, picking up the cup after he’d topped it off with milk. “He told me you contacted my employers?”
Torek frowned, glancing at the door to the balcony. “Did he?”
Revik exhaled in irritation. “You’re going to make this about him?” he said. “Why not talk to me, Torek? Who the fuck did you contact? And why?”
“Brother, brother…” Torek waved a hand, a calming gesture. “You worry yourself needlessly. It was routine only.”
“I’d prefer to judge that for myself,” Revik retorted. He took a sip of the tea, unable to help noticing it was really fucking good tea, and probably expensive. “Who did you call?”
“I took care of this behind the scenes, brother,” Torek told him.
Leaning back in his chair, he folded his hands across his sternum, looking up as the sun peered from behind clouds. The rain wouldn’t have touched them under the awning but now that it had stopped, Revik noticed that the breeze was warm up here. He glanced at the heating coils in the awning and frowned, looking back at Torek.
“What does that mean?” he said.
“It means I have connections in the British government,” Torek said mildly, his gaze unwavering. “It means I contacted them to ensure I would not be interfering with your work in any way due to our…arrangement. I was merely making it easier for you, brother. Which I would have clarified myself…as soon as the issue became relevant.”
Revik grunted a little, putting down the tea cup. He was about to say more, when the human in white reappeared and set a plate with an omelet, salad and fried potatoes. Revik looked down at it and felt his stomach growl a little.
Torek smiled when Revik next looked up. He motioned towards Revik’s plate after they’d held eye contact for a few seconds.
“Dig in, brother,” he said. “I’ve already eaten.”
Clicking to himself, Revik did as the other said. He found himself overly conscious of being watched every step of the way, however.
He’d never really liked eating in front of other people. Even other seers. Especially anyone he didn’t know well. He was about a third of the way into the omelet and his second cup of tea when Torek spoke up again, leaning deeper into his chair and nursing a cup of coffee.
“I had a contract drawn up, brother. I hope you don’t mind.”
Revik shook his head, once. “I don’t need a lawyer, do I?”
He said it mostly as a joke, but the other laughed. “You almost sound serious,” Torek said. “No, brother…you shouldn’t need a lawyer. It’s not legally binding, simply something to clarify things between the two of us. I would like you to read it, though…obviously.”
Revik clicked his fingers, swallowing the last of his last bite as he motioned in seer sign language for him to hand it over.
“You don’t have to read it now…” Torek said, sounding bemused once more.
“Now is good.”
Torek sighed then sat up. Touching his headset, he said something through the virtual setting that Revik couldn’t feel in any way. A few seconds later, the door opened once more and a different white-clad human entered the room, this time holding a leather portfolio case. He handed it to Torek, bowed, and left out the same door without speaking a word.
“Do you employ only mute humans, brother?” Revik joked, watching the door close.
Torek smiled. He’d unzipped the portfolio and now he handed over several sheets of paper, legal-sized. Revik wiped his hands on a cloth napkin he’d put in his lap, then took the papers and set them to the right of his omelet plate. He left them there as he continued to eat, reading carefully, turning pages only after he’d wiped his hands again.
He got all the way to the end and nodded, once.
“It’s fine,” he said.
“No further stipulations?” Torek said, his voice cautious.
“One,” Revik said at once, glancing up. “No enclosed spaces.”
“Enclosed spaces?”
Revik frowned. “No boxes. No small, windowless rooms. No coffin fantasies or any bullshit like that. It’s a deal breaker, Torek…as in, non-negotiable.”
Torek gazed at him thoughtfully, then nodded. “Done. Anything else?”
Revik skimmed back through one of the paragraphs, then shook his head, once, seer fashion. “No,” he said. “Well…” he amended. “It doesn’t specify length.”
“Does it need to? I’ve said clearly that I won’t interfere with your work.”
Revik grunted, giving him a harder stare. “That could mean a lot of things, brother. I have no desire to become a permanent possession here.”
Torek grinned at him. “It will be over before you need to return to paid work,” he clarified. “Is that straightforward enough? We could change the wording to be more specific on that point, if you like…but believe me, I have no desire to make an enemy of you, brother.”
Revik frowned slightly. Then shrugged. He had ten days before his first class. If Torek spoke to people at the Academy, he would know that.
Either he could trust him, or he couldn’t. He’d already decided to trust him.
Or perhaps that he didn’t care whether he could or not.
“Sure,” he said. “Whatever.”
“And you’re all right with the rest of it?” Torek pressed.
“Which part concerns you particularly, brother?” Revik said politely.
“The deprivation. House rules.” Torek smiled faintly, but it didn’t touch his eyes. “You don’t seem to be one who would hand over agency so blithely…even for such a short time. I am concerned some part of the implications there are escaping your notice.” He shrugged again. “Whatever my predilections, I am not one who enjoys acting on people without their consent.”
Revik sighed, clicking softly. Leaning back in the chair, he tossed his napkin onto his plate and stretched. Relaxing back into the chair, he met Torek’s gaze, shrugging.
“You will sign then?” Torek said.
“Give me
one that stipulates the lack of enclosed spaces as punishment, and that clarifies the amount of time––“ Revik began.
“Already done,” Torek said.
As he spoke, the glass doors between the apartment and the balcony opened yet again.
A white-clad waiter appeared, holding a thinner folder than the original portfolio he’d handed Torek. He placed the new one on the table directly in front of Revik, along with an expensive-looking fountain pen.
Then, taking Revik’s mostly empty brunch plate, he bowed and retreated once more through the glass doors. He did all of it without speaking a word to either of them.
Revik could also swear it was a different, third human, one he hadn’t yet seen.
“Seriously,” Revik said, glancing at Torek. “What’s up with the humans?”
Torek laughed. “Stop stalling and sign the fucking contract, brother.”
“You expect this to begin now?” Revik said. “I haven’t even been home.”
“Do you need to go there first?” Torek said, polite. “They are not expecting you.”
“You contacted them, too?” Revik said, frowning.
Torek shrugged, that smile again playing at the edges of his lips.
Grunting, Revik shook his head.
Then he decided, fuck it. This Torek was clearly getting off on controlling things. And throwing him off balance. If he thought Revik would be that easy to bend to his will, then fine, let him try. Given the mood Revik had been in for the past few days, he could use the fucking distraction. He was tired of sparring with his own damned ghosts.
This would be something else to spar with, at least. Something real.
So let Torek try and break him.
Game on.
Opening the folder, Revik didn’t even bother to read the corrections.
Using the pen one of the mute waiters gave him, he signed his name in Prexci, doing it the traditional way, with the clan name before his given, and with his middle name, too. He did it before he had time to second-guess any of it.
Closing the folder with a snap, he handed it to Torek, leaning back in his chair and tilting his face to the sun. When he glanced at Torek next, the seer was smiling, that shrewder look back in his eyes. Revik saw the look there, and wondered briefly, if he’d just made a mistake.
He didn’t have much time to think about that, either, though.
“Champagne, brother?” Torek said politely, holding up the bottle from the ice bucket on his side of the table.
Revik hesitated, then nodded. “Sure.”
He watched the other pour. He picked up the glass once Torek had finished and took an experimental sip. He wasn’t usually a champagne drinker, but this had to be a pretty high-end bottle. It was good. Really fucking good, actually.
Revik found himself finishing off the glass in a matter of minutes.
He leaned back again, closing his eyes as he rested his head on the back of the chair.
“So now what?” he said. “How do you intend to start this, brother?”
Torek smiled. Revik didn’t open his eyes, but he heard it.
“It has already started, brother,” he said, quiet.
Revik raised his head. When he did, his vision tilted slightly, bringing a head rush strong enough to catch him off guard. He blinked to clear his vision, but found his eyes were stubbornly remaining slightly out of focus. Remembering he hadn’t slept in almost forty-eight hours again, Revik rubbed his face with one hand, exhaling.
“I could use a nap, brother,” he said. “Can I sleep?”
“Of course,” Torek said, his voice soothing.
Something in his tone sent a ping of warning through Revik’s light.
The eagerness there, maybe. Or maybe it was something else.
Either way, it hit him in the same set of seconds that he shouldn’t be this tired. Even with the lack of sleep. He had enough control over his body that he didn’t usually crash until he’d pulled the plug himself. Not without a lot more time going by.
Revik looked at the champagne glass, frowned. He looked at Torek.
“Did you give me something?” he said.
Torek smiled, shrugging lightly.
Right about then, whatever the seer had put in his glass started to hit him for real.
Revik felt his light shift. He knew the feeling. Hell, he should. He’d been trained back and forth and up and down to avoid, to never take anything from an untrusted source, no matter what he had to do to avoid––
His mind tilted, even as he staggered to his feet.
“I apologize, brother,” Torek said. He held up a hand, as if feeling the reaction in Revik’s light. His voice grew soft as he stared up at him. “You see, I was warned you’d be a difficult case, brother. A very difficult case. I thought I might need some help…so I obtained some advice from those who knew you. On how best to approach this thing with us…”
Revik stared at him from his unsteady posture on his feet.
His mind whirled around the other’s words.
Terian, fuck. Terry…he had to be talking about Terry, or someone else in the Rooks. They’d know how much to give him, in terms of drugs. Terry would know how to get him down, maybe how to keep him there, too.
His disbelief turned to fury, then a colder hatred.
“I’ll kill you,” Revik managed, gripping the table until his knuckles whitened.
Torek smiled again, that more predatory look sharpening in his eyes. “No, brother. You won’t. But you won’t be getting off as easily this week as you seemed to think, either.”
Revik took a step around the table towards him, fighting the drug desperately now, grappling with every ounce of strength left in his light. He fought to work his way around the physical effects of the chemical, to rebuild connections the drug tried to sever between his body and light. Paralyzed by the effort, he stood there struggling, forgetting to go after the seer in the physical as he grappled with the drug, fighting to remain conscious.
“I must say,” Torek said, placing his own napkin on his plate and watching Revik, his eyes bordering on puzzled now. “…I’m glad I took your friends’ advice. I gave you enough Rohypnol to drop a horse, brother. The fact that you are still on your feet right now is impressive, truly…and a little frightening, honestly.”
Revik could only look at him.
The gold-eyed seer was still watching him when he fell to his knees, gasping.
Revik continued to grip the table in one hand, fighting to remain conscious, to not black out.
This…this is your enemy, Nenzi…not guns, this…
A voice, so familiar.
So fucking familiar, but Revik didn’t know it.
A pale hand, showing him tranquilizer darts, tipped with red.
This is what you must fear, nephew…
Fear exploded over Revik’s light, enough to blank out his mind.
It was the last thing he remembered before he collapsed.
15
DEBT
Revik woke up in a cage.
Panic whipped through his light, causing him to gasp.
He thrashed, slamming his arms and body up against the metal bars. They’d left him only about a foot of space on any side of where he lay. Something had him around the throat. He fought with it with his fingers briefly, couldn’t get it off. He gripped the bars in his hands, yelling out. It was dim where he was, only firelight on the other end of the room.
He was underground.
That fact alone nearly unhinged him, particularly in combination with the cage.
He’d always been claustrophobic. Really fucking deathly claustrophobic.
Somewhere in that, a door must have opened.
“Brother!” a voice called out, rising above Revik’s yells. “Brother, calm yourself. Calm! You are not enclosed here! You are safe!”
“Let me out! LET ME OUT GODDAMN IT!”
“Brother, calm…calm…there is a wide room. Do you see?”
“No.” Revik s
hook his head. “NO LET ME OUT RIGHT NOW…”
“You are perfectly safe, brother…”
Let me the fuck out…I’ll kill you…I’ll fucking KILL you…
It didn’t really sink in that he wore a collar until he blasted his thoughts out into the Barrier, fighting to get directly at Torek’s light, to make him understand.
The collar activated.
It shocked him…hard.
Hard enough to paralyze him, to grit his teeth, blank out his mind with pain. He dropped his weight back to the metal bars. He laid there, gasping, waiting for the pain to abate. When it finished, he groaned, fighting his light back under control.
A shadow moved over him.
Revik let out another groan, still gripping the bars. Tears ran down his face, partly from the pain, but he felt the futility there, the loss of control, even as that panic in his light worsened. He heard voices above him, but barely comprehended the words in Prexci. All he could feel was that they’d locked him in a box. He was in a fucking box, underground.
Torek took what he’d told him and used it against him…
“No, brother,” the voice soothed. “No, it’s all right. You’re safe…”
This isn’t going to work, a female said. Gaos, Tor…you’re going to give him a fucking heart attack…we can’t leave him down here, whatever that sick bastard said…
There was a pause. Then a clicking sigh.
You’re right. You are right, my love…as always…
Definitely Torek. Revik didn’t relax. He lay there, panting, still gripping the bars. He felt like a coiled snake, ready to strike.
…You’re right, Torek repeated to her. I had no idea he would be so sensitive to this. We’ll try something else. Use the collar to knock him out, so we can move him…
“No!” Revik shouted. “No, goddamn it! Don’t knock me out again…”
But he didn’t get a chance to speak beyond that.
Everything went dark.
Revik leaned against the wall, wincing as he fought to pull his light back under control. He’d lost track of time again. Not just in terms of hours…in terms of the time of day, days of the week…even days more generally.