Sunken Eyes (Cruel and Beautiful World Book 2)

by L. Stoddard Hancock

  Xander shook his head about, hoping his eyes were playing tricks on him. But when he looked again the same man was standing there, studying a bottle very thoroughly.

  Poking his head into the compartment Deryn was inside, Xander called, "Luka."

  Luka walked out. "What?"

  Xander nodded towards the window.

  Luka looked and gasped. "What's that fucker doing here?"

  "Don't know, but I'm going to find out. Keep an eye on her for me, will you? And don't let her go out there."

  Luka nodded and hurried back inside the compartment Deryn presently occupied.

  Xander took a deep breath and headed outside. He clenched his fists while walking up to the man, who was still holding the bottle which he could now see was filled with capsules.

  "Didn't expect to see you here."

  Soren jumped before looking at Xander. He touched the collar around his throat. "Xander, why are you -"

  "I don't think my being here is the oddity. Why are you here, Sorey?" Xander looked down at the bottle he was holding, just able to make out the small, black lettering on the label. Hydration capsules. "What are those for?"

  "Here you go, sir." A young man who was working in the booth put a well-sized box on the counter in front of Soren. "Half hydration, half starvation. Just make sure you take the starvation ones with real water. All together it's five-hundred coin."

  Xander looked at the box, and then back at Soren. He furrowed his brow. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

  Soren ignored him and handed the shop boy his money. The boy counted and smiled when he confirmed it was all there. "Pleasure doing business with you."

  "I don't know what you expect to do with all that," said Xander. "Is it for when you get your slave back? I highly doubt Veli plans to kill her with malnutrition."

  "Veli and I see her future very differently," said Soren, one hand on his collar while the other slipped the bottle he held into his box. "Do not concern yourself with this."

  A light triggered in Xander's head. "You're planning on pulling a fucking runner with her, aren't you?"

  "I repeat, do not concern yourself with this," said Soren, one hand on his collar and the other reaching into his pocket. "But, whatever I have planned for the future, it's clear that my brother and I no longer see eye-to-eye." He pulled out a small chip. "There are eight others, besides the two I already know you have, and the only time they are not with their owners is when they are with the president." He tossed it in the air and Xander caught it. "I trust that information is worth your silence."

  Soren picked up his box and began to walk away. It was only then that Xander noticed a tent poking out of the bag he carried on his shoulder.

  "She'll never go with you," he said.

  Soren stopped. He glanced over his shoulder at Xander and pressed the button on his collar again. "Which is exactly why I've procured another of those." He motioned towards the chip. "But don't bother telling the president about it. He'll never find it."

  "She doesn't even have a wristband."

  "An easy fix."

  "You're not afraid of living out there?"

  "Of course not."

  Xander stared at Soren's face right then. Really stared. Baffled that such a strict follower of the president would not only consider living outside, but that he would go anywhere in Outer City, a high risk zone, without a gasmask.

  "Why aren't you wearing a mask?"

  Soren chuckled. A very hoarse chuckle which could barely be heard with his damaged throat. "You know why," he mouthed without bothering to press his collar.

  Xander's focus was drawn away from Soren when someone started screaming. He glanced over to see an older man who ran a booth with herbs on the ground, thrashing about while his wife cried beside him. People tried to help, but when someone was affected by the toxic air nothing could be done. It was over.

  Xander looked back at Soren, who smirked at him before turning away and heading for the exit.

  He followed him with his eyes, his heart nearly stopping when Deryn walked out of the tram at precisely that moment. She noticed Soren, but played it off well by turning and heading towards Xander. Soren didn't even give the blonde girl in the gasmask a second glance.

  Bronson followed her out.

  "What was he doing here?" she demanded when she reached Xander.

  "Being the sick bastard we all love to loathe," he said, motioning to the man who was no longer thrashing on the ground, but completely still. "Where the fuck is Luka? He was supposed to keep you inside."

  "Oh! So that's why he was trying to distract us with that damn toy again," said Bronson. "Yeah, we got bored and left, but Quigley will be entertained for hours."

  Xander noticed Deryn was looking at him. When he met her eyes, she frowned. "You could've just told me he was out here and I would've stayed inside. I don't know why you and Luka insist on being so secretive all of the time."

  She walked past him and looked through the bottles at the booth Soren had just vacated, glancing up every now and then at the woman who stayed at her booth of herbs, crying while her husband's body was carried away.

  Bronson came up beside her. "So what are we looking at, cupcake?" he asked, trying to take her mind off of the dead man.

  "That name is definitely a no," she said, picking up a bottle of hydration pills.

  "Oh, come on! It's sentimental."

  Luka ran out of the tram, looking around frantically until he found them all standing there. He sighed in relief.

  Xander narrowed his eyes and marched over to him. When Quigley walked out of the tram, he said, "Keep moving, Quigley."

  Noticing the angry look in Xander's eyes, Quigley was quick to obey.

  Luka frowned. "I only took my eyes off of her for a second."

  "Yes, and that's all it takes. She walked right fucking past him, Luka," he said through clenched teeth.

  "I'm sorry," said Luka. "I made one mistake -"

  "One mistake? All fucking day you've made me look bad by reminding her of what an ass I used to be. I thought we were past this?"

  "Fine! I'll stop making jokes at your expense," said Luka mockingly. "Ever since you started fucking Leon you've become so sensitive." He rolled his eyes and went to join the others.

  Xander noticed that Deryn had moved on to another booth. He walked forward while keeping his eyes on her, not stopping until he hit the booth Soren had been at before. Looking down, his eyes were immediately drawn to a black bottle that held one single capsule. He picked it up and read the label. LAST RESORT.

  A suicide pill.

  "One of our top sellers in recent days," said the shop boy with a disconcertingly bright smile.

  "How much?" asked Xander.

  "Three-hundred coin," he answered. "Dying peacefully and painlessly doesn't come cheap."

  Xander grunted but still handed over the money. He slipped the bottle into his bag before Deryn had a chance to look over at him and notice. When he turned to leave, he ran right into someone.

  "Sorry," said a man while rubbing his head.

  When their eyes met, both sets widened as they were hit with a moment of recognition. Shit.

  "Moffett?" said Xander, still unsure if he was seeing this Outsider's face correctly. Chace Moffett was very active in the Resistance, and there was no possible way he could've been hiding in Utopia since the start of the curfew without the Guardians knowing about it. Unless one of them was helping him, which he highly doubted. That meant only one thing. Chace had sneaked in.

  Without another moment of hesitation, Chace took off running. Xander could have grabbed him. Should have grabbed him. Bound him right there and pulled him into a private compartment in the tram so that he could explain everything and use him to get Deryn out of Utopia. Being a Guardian, he had the jurisdiction to do just that.

  But he didn't.

  Instead Xander just let Chace go, watching him disappear into the crowd while he just stood there. Because he was not ready to enli
st help, not if that meant he would have to let Deryn go. It was too soon.

  And then, once Chace was out of view, the guilt kicked in and Xander felt horrible. He could have gotten her out. Maybe today. But he had chosen not to for his own selfish reasons.

  Just then, he felt a pair of hands grab onto his arm. He turned to see Deryn smiling at him through her gasmask. "Are you ready?" she asked.

  Xander nodded and let her drag him away, watching in disappointment as she, once again, took hold of Bronson's hand.

  Things could never be the way he wanted between them. Not in this world. But at least now he had an escape for the day she left, hopefully taking Soren and several others down with him.

  Chapter Four

  Later that evening Xander lay in bed, using Deryn's breasts as a pillow while enjoying their post-coital bliss. She giggled when he gave her left breast a kiss, then she grabbed his cheeks and pulled him up until his lips were against hers.

  "Thank you again for today," she said. "I know you hated it but I really needed the escape. It felt good to be in the real world again."

  "I don't know if the Black Market really qualifies as the real world, but I'm glad you enjoyed it." He paused. "But never again."

  Deryn rolled her eyes. "Oh, fine." Running her fingers through his dusty-blond locks, she asked, "So are you going to tell me what Soren was doing there?"

  "I'd rather not."

  "Did it have something to do with me?"

  He frowned and nodded.

  "Then I should know."

  Xander sighed. He knew she was right, but that didn't make it any easier. "He was purchasing hydration and starvation pills. A shit load of them. And a tent. I think he plans to try and run away with you if they capture you again."

  Deryn froze. Her hand tensed in his hair while her eyes became wide and fear stricken. "That's ... sick," was all she could manage to say.

  "He's sick," said Xander. "But there is a positive twist to all of this."

  "How can there be a positive twist on anything when there's a man out there who wants to kidnap and run away with me?"

  Xander grazed his fingers across her cheek and smirked. "He gave me his mind control chip for my silence, and then told me some useful information for obtaining the others. Though he admits he has another for you."

  "Oh," said Deryn, her tone suddenly brightening. "That is positive. Aside from the extra one to imprison my mind during my kidnapping, that is."

  "I'm not going to let them capture you, Deryn," Xander reassured her. "Don't let anything that bastard does worry you."

  Before Deryn could respond, there was a knock on the front door.

  "That's probably Bronson," she said. "He had me put his cigarettes in my bag and I forgot to give them back to him when we got home."

  Xander suddenly found himself feeling very light at the sound of her words. She had called his apartment home. He tried not to smile too much.

  "I'll get rid of him," he said, pressing his lips to hers. "Then another round?"

  Deryn rolled her eyes but didn't object.

  Xander winked and kissed her one more time before getting up and locating his pants. He pulled them on, going commando since he didn't plan on wearing them for very long.

  There was another knock as Xander left the bedroom. "I'm fucking coming!" he called as he shut the bedroom door. Bronson might be gay, but that didn't give him free reign to see Deryn naked. Only Xander got to see that.

  Just as he reached the front door, the person knocked again.

  "Did I not say I was fucking coming?" he shouted while yanking it open. His eyes widened when he saw Lona Von looking slightly taken aback on the other side.

  "Sorry, I didn't hear you," she said, scanning him up and down, reminding him that he was shirtless.

  "What the fuck are -" Xander gulped and started again, this time without the cursing. His mother raised him better than that. "What are you doing here?"

  "You haven't returned any of my emails, so I had to draw the conclusion that either you were lying dead and decomposing in your apartment, or you were ignoring me. I'm afraid to say that it appears to be the latter."

  "No offense," he said, crossing his arms.

  "None taken. Would you mind terribly if I came in?"

  Before Xander had a chance to say no, Lona was walking inside and taking off her coat. She handed it to him and, noticing the shoes by the door, she took hers off and put them beside his.

  "Make yourself comfortable," Xander said scornfully as he tossed her coat over the nearest chair. He didn't want to give her the impression that she was going to be here for very long by hanging it in his closet. "You don't take a hint very well, do you?"

  "Well, if your father called you three times a day asking if you'd seen me yet, you might be a little more persistent. All I'm asking for is five minutes, Xander, just to get him off my back."

  Xander groaned but still shut the door.

  Lona smiled. "You know, you're much more polite when my father's around. What happened to that overly charming man I encountered on the street not too long ago?"

  "Overly? I have just the right amount of charm, sweetheart."

  "Believe what you want but, from a woman's perspective, you lay it on a little thick." Lona walked towards the kitchen. "Do you have anything to drink?" She started opening cabinets.

  "I really wish you'd stop making yourself so comfortable."

  She came out with a bottle of wine and smiled triumphantly. Then she grabbed two glasses. "Now, Xander, is that any way to speak to your future wife?"

  Xander tensed.

  "Don't look so shocked. I know you know. That's why you've been ignoring me, isn't it?"

  "Don't flatter yourself. I'd be ignoring you even if I hadn't heard the terrible rumors."

  "You could do worse. In fact, didn't you used to date Finley Scout?" Lona smiled almost wickedly.

  "I'm not fucking marrying anyone." So much for being raised better than that.

  "Why not? Don't believe in it?"

  "No interest," he said. "Especially when it's not even my choice."

  "Hmm ..." Lona opened the wine and poured. She handed a glass to Xander before sipping hers. "I don't know why you care so much. It's all just for show, isn't it? The president likes to keep the higher families unified, as did his father before him. That's why my parents got married. And I can only imagine that yours -"

  "My parents actually loved each other," snapped Xander. He chugged down his wine and slammed it on the counter.

  Lona poured him another glass. "Maybe they did, but that doesn't change the fact that any initial romance between them was because they were both socialites from Inner City."

  "They didn't have an arranged marriage," he said. "They met in guard training, like normal fucking people."

  "You and I met in training."

  That was true, though Lona was brought in at the age of thirteen and Xander was only months shy of turning eighteen at the time. The encounter they had at Eagle Center was brief. They'd met once, introduced by her older sister Odette, who he'd been friends with at the time. That was it.

  "You know what I mean."

  "I do," she said. Then, replaying her words in her head, she smiled. "Oh, look, you already have me saying it."

  "Not funny," said Xander, making sure to sip instead of chug his wine this time.

  "It was a little funny."

  "I don't understand why you're pushing this. You should be as repulsed by our fathers' primitive ways as I am. You're barely eighteen. Have some fun."

  Lona frowned as she finished her glass of wine. While pouring another, she said, "Let me level with you, Xander. My Guardian initiation is in two days. I know this is hardly shocking but, while I may be a lot of things, ruthless is not one of them. I'll make an absolutely horrible Guardian. But my father says if I marry you and have a child then I won't have to perform the usual tasks that come with being one. So, in layman's terms, you're my out." She took a long, har
d sip of her wine.

  "I'm not marrying you."

  "Why not?" she shouted, slamming her glass on the counter.

  "Because I don't want to."

  "And why don't you want to? Do you think I'm unattractive?"

  "No."

  "Do you find me annoying?"

  "In this present moment, yes. But, otherwise, no."

  "Do you think you would be absolutely miserable with me for the rest of your life?"

  Xander gulped and glanced towards his bedroom door. "Yes."

  Lona's eyes glossed over. "Why?"

  "Because."

  "I need more than just because, Xander! Why can't you be at least moderately happy with me?"

  "Because."

  "Because why?"

  "Because I already have someone!" he shouted, his eyes flaming. Then they softened and widened. Shit.

  Lona's jaw dropped. "You do?"

  Xander held his lips shut tight and bit his cheek.

  "But I ... I thought you were a ladies' man?"

  He sighed and weakly said, "I was."

  Suddenly, Lona's eyes drew to something behind him. Xander turned to see Deryn's bag on his coffee table. It wasn't particularly feminine, but didn't exactly look like something he would carry around either.

  "Oh god, she's here, isn't she? That's why you're shirtless. Oh, shit." Lona put down her glass and ran towards the door. She grabbed her coat and swiftly put it on while slipping into her shoes. "I'm so sorry, Xander. I really didn't realize." She reached for the knob.

  "Lona."

  She turned.

  Staring at her very seriously, he said, "Don't tell anyone about this. If the other Guardians find out that I -"

  "I know," she said, looking sadly at him. "Your secret is safe with me. But I don't think this is going away."

  "Don't worry about that," he said, suddenly thinking about the pill that was still in his bag. "And about being a Guardian ... as long as I'm in charge I'll take care of you. There will be no blood on your hands."